Samantha Henderson's Journal
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Samantha Henderson's LiveJournal:
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| Monday, May 12th, 2008 | | 5:36 pm |
Squeeeee!! Chimera Fancies had a contest wherein this loverly pendant served as the prompt for a poem or short story, and I won (and the prize is the pendant)! Winning entries are here: my poem "When They Woke," along with a cool and melancholy flash and a neat Pantoum. | | 12:51 pm |
Can't Buy Me Faded Love Josh Rountree's wonderful collection of Weird Americana and Rock 'n' Roll is now available at Wheatland Press! Go buy it and enjoy! | | Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 | | 6:16 pm |
Bliss
The door-to-door produce man has brought us strawberries from Watsonville.
And I happen to have a bowl of creme fraiche in the fridge.
OM NOM NOM NOM | | 9:48 am |
A fascinating and heartbreaking and horrific story. | | Friday, April 25th, 2008 | | 7:38 pm |
LA Times Festival of Books The Science Fiction Poetry Association will be at the Los Angeles Festival of Books this weekend. The Falling Star Magazine booth - Booth 154 in Zone A, near the food court, will have copies of the Rhysling Anthology, Alchemy of Stars, and Star*Line for sale. So, if you've never seen a copy of Alchemy of Stars or The Rhysling Anthology, please stop by and take a look! And, while you're at it, please buy a copy of Falling Star Magazine! I will be at the Falling Star booth from 2-3pm on Saturday, April 26, and Debbie Kolodji (SFPA President) will be there from 3-4pm on Sunday, April 27. If you're there, drop by! | | 10:59 am |
Heaven's Bones: An Excerpt Many on my f-list offered wonderful things for International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Wretch (which I keep reading as "Wench") Day, but I got distracted by kerfluffle. So for belated IPSTWD, I offer the prologue to my novel Heaven's Bones, coming in September from Wizards of the Coast.
| | Thursday, April 24th, 2008 | | 11:08 am |
Not Really About the Boobs, or Lesbian Bodyguards R Us The Open Source Boobs Project has been all over the place, and from the time I read the original post I’ve been slightly nauseous. It’s not the fault of the OP, and I’m not going to condemn the project; I think there was no malicious intent in it and it’s certainly provoked a lot of discussion, much of which is illuminating and eye-opening on both sides of the question. Many people have discussed in greater depth and more eloquently than I could or care to. Some people have brought up the point of peer pressure in connection with the OSBP, of the mandate women generally have imposed on them of being nice, of being compliant at all costs (and different women will have different experiences of this, of course). ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pixelfishhas some good comments about that here . My queasiness is due to an incident some years ago, and frankly I’m surprised I still have such a strong reaction to it. After much thought I’ve decided to offer it up as an anecdote illustrating how powerful, and potentially dangerous, this “don’t make a fuss, don’t make a man feel bad, be gracious above all things” training can be. This was about a hundred years ago – I was a sales manager in a public relations/media tracking company and with two other managers (both female) and one of my sales reps (male) I was on a business trip to Las Vegas. In the early evening the four of us were passing through the slot machine area of the MGM Grand on the way to dinner. The sales rep – an ex-cop, BTW – stopped to visit the restroom and the three of us waited for him in the middle of a *crowded* casino floor. Two men, who obviously had been drinking, approached us, focusing on the other two women. They were carrying, of all thing, super shooters – the big plastic water guns. These had large reservoirs attached, filled with liquid. They were engaged in a marketing study, they said drunkenly. The super shooters were filled with daiquiris, or margaritas, or some such, and they wanted to shoot them in the mouths of the women. It was a crude request, and they were politely turned down. But that wasn’t good enough. They persisted, the cajoled, they started to bully, they invaded personal space, they loomed. I got quite a clear view of it, since I was not the target being loomed over (part of the problem of being loomed over is that you just can’t bloody see very well). The women – these professional business women -- continued being nice, and non-confrontational, smiling in that I’m-a-nice-girl-don’t-hurt-me way, just as we are encouraged and trained to be, not making eye contact, desperately looking around for someone on that crowded floor, the dozens of people walking by, security, anyone to interfere. I prayed that the ex-cop would get back from the damn bathroom. I KNEW, because I’ve seen the plans of the MGM, that there were surveillance cameras everywhere and that we were on somebody’s monitor. But we were very clearly on out own. Are you here on business, they asked. Yes, replied the nice women, nervously, because if you don’t answer a direct question you are a snotty bitch and you know what snotty bitches deserve. Do you have a boyfriend, they asked. Oh yes, a very big one, and the men smiled because they knew it was a lie and you know what lying cunts deserve. And still no one even looked at us, and still no ex-cop, and still no security, and we might as well have been in an alley in the middle of the night and deserve what we’re getting, because you know what snobby twats who end up in an alley at midnight – or a crowded casino on a Thursday night – are really for. Then one of the men grabbed the wrist of the woman closest me, and I snapped, as I am sometimes wont to do, and removed his hand from her person and did a thing to his pinkie. “The lady said no,” I said. “So fuck off.” Any pretense of civility was gone and if we’d been alone he would have hit me. Since he was drunk, I probably would have been able to crush his Adam’s apple first; I was certainly gearing up to do so. “What are you, her lesbian bodyguard?”* “Absolutely,” I said. At this point the other man, probably sober enough to realize they were on camera (not that it seemed to do us much good), said sorry for the misunderstanding** and they took off. I don’t relish the prospect of violence (despite appearances sometimes)***, so I felt pretty shaky afterwards. But ever since I’ve noticed the things women tend to do in a situation that might escalate: they smile, they nod, they avoid eye contact, they look down and away. I think, and it might be hopeful thinking, that this has lessened in recent years. And this brings me, in a roundabout way, to this. I have never felt threatened or in danger at a Convention (I haven’t really been to that many, however); I have always felt that I am in a very safe place. But I’ve heard of incidents that make me wonder – what the heck was everyone else doing? Why did no one interfere? There might be a lot of reasons, invisibility-shield to Kitty Genovese-syndrome , fear-triggers to simply not seeing it. But if I see you in a situation where it seems as if you are threatened, or thing you’re threatened, or under undo pressure or distress, I will come over, I will ask if you’re ok, I will be your lesbian bodyguard. *Oddly, whenever I do this kind of thing I get called a lesbian bodyguard, or thug, or something. I don’t care who thinks I’m a lesbian, or why, but what do they expect when they say this? That my response will be “Oh, gosh, you mustn’t think I’m a lesbian! Here, rape my friend, right here on the floor, and I’ll hold down a leg for you to rid myself of that horrid taint of lesbianism!” **Because, I guess, saying no, nope, really no, I don’t want to, no evidently is ambiguous. ***It is helpful, in some situations, when you’re quite short, to give the impression that you are going to go off into a berserker rage at any moment. | | Saturday, April 19th, 2008 | | 8:16 am |
Lone Star Stories-a-palooza! I'm very happy to see that ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ericmarin is going forward with his foolhardy admirable plan to publish an anthology from Lone Star Stories material. I was REALLY happy to hear a story of mine would be included. I'm ECSTATIC to see this TOC: An introduction by Sherwood Smith “Wolf Night” by Martha Wells “Seasonal Work” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman “‘Janet, Meet Bob’” by Gavin J. Grant “The Great Conviction of Tia Inez” by M. Thomas “Angels of a Desert Heaven” by Marguerite Reed “The Disemboweler” by Ekaterina Sedia “A Night in Electric Squidland” by Sarah Monette “Thread: A Triptych” by Catherynne M. Valente “The Frozen One” by Tim Pratt “Dragon Hunt” by Sarah Prineas “Manuscript Found Written in the Paw Prints of a Stoat” by Samantha Henderson "Giant” by Stephanie Burgis “When the Rain Comes” by Josh Rountree “The Hangman Isn’t Hanging” by Jay Lake "The Oracle Opens One Eye” by Patricia Russo Speaking of Lone Star Stories, my story published therein, "The Black Hole in Auntie Sutra's Handbag," is now available at Anthology Builder. And speaking of ericmarin, he kindly pointed out to me Jennifer Mercer's examination of several poems that use the theme of hunger, including "Hungry: Some Ghost Stories" from the current issue of Lone Star Stories. | | Thursday, April 17th, 2008 | | 6:02 pm |
Oh Great Hivemind!
A friend of mine has a daughter graduating from college, and she wants to get a a special piece of jewelry for her (she noticed a pendant I was wearing that's very tree-of-life/Lord of the Rings looking). Graduation is in two weeks and she doesn't have much time to go shopping. She wants to find her something special, hand-made, not too bulky, and, well special.
I know many on my FL have or know of websites that have loverly things like this, and I'd like to send her a list of links, so please to list such in the comments if you're so inclined!
Thank'ee kindly. | | Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 | | 9:25 am |
Send a kid to camp shadesong is holding a raffle with all sorts of goodies in order to send her daughter to a summer science camp, and one of the prizes is a custom poem by moi. Me, I'm going for the jewlery! | | 7:09 am |
Interview There is an interview with my dyslexic, corgi-lovin' self up at The Fix. I've been enjoying Marshall Payne's interviews and was thrilled when he asked if I was willing. Go read and find out my deepest, darkest secrets! Speaking of The Fix, congratulations to fellow poet Marcie Lynn Tentchoff on the wonderful review of her recent "strange and wonderful things" chapbook of poetry, Sometimes When Dreaming. | | Sunday, March 30th, 2008 | | 2:05 pm |
| | Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 | | 1:31 pm |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH ROUNTREE!!!!! To celebrate Josh's birthday, get out your calendars and circle May 1 in big black marker so you remember to order his brilliant debut collection, Can't Buy Me Faded Love, from Wheatland Press! | | Friday, February 29th, 2008 | | 11:13 pm |
LaunchPad Workshop now open The Launch Pad Workshop for 2008 is now open for applications. Whether you are a new writer or a dirty old pro, I strongly encourage you to apply. I was privileged to be able to attend the inaugural Launch Pad in 2007 and it was amazing -- I'm still in information overload (in a good way) months later. If you possibly, possibly are able to attend, please apply. You won't regret it. | | Thursday, February 21st, 2008 | | 12:10 pm |
Why join SFWA? Stolen from ktempest: If you qualify for SFWA but haven't joined/quit because of the awfulness of the past year, I suggest you get in there before the election is over. Why? Because, if you're at all interested in SFWA being the kind of organization that it should be and wresting it away from evil forces, then you need to be part of the solution. You should check and see who is running for the various offices, see if their platforms are to your taste, then pay the dues and vote for them.
| | Thursday, February 14th, 2008 | | 7:57 am |
Although this story of a school refusing to allow a female to referee a game is disgusting, I am encouraged by the fact that the male refs supported her by walking off the game. Man, even the Missouri Synod allows women to have authority over boys. | | Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 | | 7:39 am |
Ash Wednesday
Am I a bad person because all I want to do today is compose a madrigal titled "The Merry Season of Lent?" | | Thursday, January 24th, 2008 | | 7:26 am |
Moar Anthobuildz "Cinderella Suicide," from Strange Horizons, "Bottles," from Realms of Fantasy, "How I Got Fired from the Best Damn Job in the Whole Wide World," from Sybil's Garage, and "Such a Lovely Shade of Green," from Fantasy, are now available at AnthologyBuilder. It's really a clever idea and I hope it takes off. They also have gift certificates, with $20 covering both the cost of the book and shipping within the US. | | Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 | | 8:13 pm |
48%The problem with this quiz is that it doesn't specify whether my friends are dead or not. I'm not likely to kill you and eat you, but if you're already gone to the great beyond and the only way I can survive is to chow down, well, pass the steak sauce. | | Thursday, January 17th, 2008 | | 10:05 am |
Just sold a prose poem to Lone Star Stories: Yay! Also, two of my stories are now available at Anthology Builder: "Five Ways Jane Austen Never Died" (first pub'd in The Fortean Bureau) and "Honey Mouth" (first pub'd in Heliotrope). |
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