Story sale + Bristolcon timetable

My story “Thin Slats of Metal, Painted” has sold to the Boundaries issue of Crossed Genres Magazine! This will be the first issue of the relaunched magazine, due out in January 2013. I’m very happy that this story will be a part of it.

This Saturday, 20 October, I’ll be at Bristolcon (a local UK SFF con in Bristol), where I’ll be on the following panels:

12:00 – 12:45: Toilets in Space – Day to day practicalities in a fantastic universe (Programme Room 2)
Everything we do on 21st century Earth, SF writers might have to do in zero-gravity. That might include eating, pooping, and the horizontal space-tango. If you’re going to include a level of reality in your fantastic fiction, these might be issues you have to address. So how would you go about using a space toilet?
With Jaine Fenn (mod), Mark Clapham, Nick Walters, Michael Dollin, Alex Dally MacFarlane

18:00 – 18:45: The evolution and future of steampunk (Programme Room 2)
A lot of steampunk fans don’t read in the genre, preferring the costuming aspect of it, and the community has come under accusations of celebrating Colonialism and excluding ethnic minorities. Where did this love of cogs and brass come from, and where can it go in the future? Can it throw off the shackles of Victoriana, or is the genre destined to rust and stagnate, nothing more than a flash in the shiny brass pan?
With Philip Reeve (mod), Patrick Samphire, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Nimue Brown, Anne Lyle

I’ll also be going to the launch for Stephanie Burgis’ new book and lurking around the hotel. I’ve booked a late train back to London so hopefully I’ll be able to find dinner companions. See a few of you there!

Originally published at Alex Dally MacFarlane. You can comment here or there.

Comments

asakiyume

Is it too much of a spoiler to ask what you think about the Can it throw off the shackles of Victoriana question? Even just a yes-maybe-no, or a I'm-optimistic or I'm-pessimistic?

I bet the discussion will be great!

Posted on Oct. 15th, 2012 12:04 pm (UTC) | Link | Thread | Reply

alankria

I obviously think it should. Whether it will be able to anytime soon, I am more doubtful about: there are just too many privileged people who don't see the problems with glamourising colonialism (or, even if they deny that they would ever glamourise colonialism, they continue to hold up objects and ideas that effectively do just that - pith helmets, for example). I think the best thing for steampunk fans/community to do is to support and amplify the voices of POC, women, LGBT people and other minorities who are trying to, as Amal put it, tear steampunk apart and put it back together again in more interesting, powerful ways. JoSelle's anthologies are a good example of promoting more diverse voices - queer and not always white. And there should also be ongoing criticism of the colonialism-promoting aspects of the genre/movement. There needs to be more responsibility, especially by white people from countries like the UK and USA, because this shit is loaded and hurtful; it is not and can never be just squee goggles~

Posted on Oct. 15th, 2012 12:11 pm (UTC) | Link | Parent | Thread | Reply

Thanks! The attempts to take apart steampunk and put it back together again in a fuller, less cartoonish way, have led to some great stories, but I have no sense of the proportions of those to the ones they're reacting against. The journals I look at on LJ skew my perceptions, I think.

I appreciate your writing this--vicarious participation in the panel for the win :-)

Posted on Oct. 15th, 2012 12:18 pm (UTC) | Link | Parent | Thread | Reply

I suspect that there's an awful lot of shittiness that we just don't see, because we've chosen to be friends with the kind of people who speak out against it and promote/create positive things.

Well, seeing as you can't hop across the Atlantic to Bristol, it seems unfair to hide my thoughts from you! Also it's useful for me to do some of my thinking beforehand.

Posted on Oct. 15th, 2012 12:25 pm (UTC) | Link | Parent | Thread | Reply