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The stories we write. . .

/ RCRuiz

This year’s write-a-thon seems to be really good for me. In the past two weeks, I’ve written close to 10,000 words including words from two new short stories.

One of the stories takes place during a period of Ifugao history that is surprisingly well-documented. I’m talking of the period when American colonizers took a large number of Ifugao to the US where they were put on display as living exhibits. I remember visiting the Folk Museum in Seattle and seeing newspaper clippings about this period there. I wish I’d taken the time to ask for copies of these clippings but I was feeling quite upset at the time. I thought of growing up with men and women who were very proud of the culture and to see it being written about in a condescending manner– I had no words for what I felt. I still don’t.

This is one of the most intense stories I’ve written and I find that the more I delve into history, the more it becomes impossible to be unmoved by it. I find myself wondering what it must have been like.The years when we lived away from the mountains were like years in exile. Now I live in the Netherlands, but for all that I am surrounded by green things, I have moments when I feel very much like an exile. My personal narrative contains that longing for home and the desire to return. I suppose it’s inevitable that this finds its way into story.

The second story I wrote, which is still in full first draft glory, intersects with Alternate Girl’s life story. For quite sometime now, this character named Adventure Boy has been lingering in the back of my mind. I kept trying to write his story, but kept coming up with the wrong words for it. Then, last week, I sat down and in two days, the first draft for Return to Metal City was written. I need to do a bit of tweaking and probably need to do a major overhaul on one section, but aside from that, it’s the story I’ve had in my head for quite a long time.

Right now, I’m back to working on the Body Cartographer novel. I’m hoping to write at least 5,000 more words to it by weekend. I’m terrible at updating but I will post excerpts sometime soon.

I should be able to title posts more creatively…

/ RCRuiz

I’ve started reading stories from the Paul Harland Competition. For the non-Dutch SFF crowd, the Paul Harland Competition is a Dutch-languaged Short story competition in the SFF/H genre. I read for this competition last year and agreed to read again this year, mainly because I find myself quite impressed by organizer Martijn Lindeboom’s vision for Dutch SFF scene. I’ve divided the stories into batches of ten and am reading them on alternate days. That’s all I’m saying at this point. 

Thanks to everyone who supported What Fates Impose. We reached full-funding on Friday. It’s been quite an experience and I enjoyed being part of this kickstarter.

Another anthology that I hope reaches full funding is “Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond”. I remember seeing the call for subs sometime ago and thinking: I don’t care if they pay or not, I want to be in that. Looking at the toc, I feel very very lucky. So many people I’ve admired are on that ToC. I can’t believe I’m sharing it with them. Bill Campbell has put up an indiegogo campaign to pay for Mothership. I hope the campaign meets with success. Please feel free to signal-boost.

Finally, my elder sister has resigned from her job and is taking a sabbatical year. I’ve asked her if she’s up for reading and reviewing books. I have a load of books that I’ve been meaning to review, but never get around to doing and my sister is quite the bookworm and an excellent critic to boot, so I thought I’d ask her if she’d be willing to do that. Happily, she said yes. 

I’m working on the design for a book blog called Chie and Weng Read Books where we basically talk about books and why we like them or why we don’t like them. Since my sister has got this strong personality, I anticipate some clashing in the future. When we were younger, we always fought over who got to read what book first. It should be interesting.

Finally, I continue to write words for the Clarion West Write-a-thon. I can’t believe it. I’m in a three-way duel with Dutch SFF writers Floris Kleijne and Bo Balder and I am lagging behind. Oh well…you know what they say: slow and steady. Feel free to cheer us on and sponsor one or all of us. 

Thanks to my sponsors. I’ve been very inspired and your names are immortalized in the fictions that were born during this battle. 

News on the Writing and Publishing front

/ RCRuiz

I’ve signed up for this year’s Clarion West Write-a-thon. This year, we want to have 300 writers signing up to participate in the write-a-thon as CW has received pledges of support for when we reach that number. The write-a-thon is a great motivation to add wordage to that work you’ve got in progress, or simply to get the words on the page. Last year, I had lots of fun writing pieces for individual sponsors. I don’t know if I can do individual stories this year, but I really loved writing my fun stories and I am thinking of doing something like that incorporating as many creatures/characters in a couple of shorts for those who choose to sponsor me. 

One of the stories I wrote in Clarion West has been selected for inclusion in Mothership:Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond. Waking the God of the Mountain is strongly influenced by the struggle of the tribal people in Surigao against mining corporations. It also involves some of the armed conflict between government and anti-government forces. The failure of government to protect the rights of tribal people is something I feel strongly about. I’m pleased this story has found the right home.

In a previous post, I wrote about Body of Truth being accepted for Nayad Monroe’s What Fates Impose anthology. Do drop by and visit the kickstarter page. Check out the toc and the incentives on offer. 

Publisher’s Weekly has published a great review of We See a Different Frontier edited by Djibril Al-Ayad and Fabio Fernandes. The anthology is coming out this August, so keep an eye out for it. 

Updates and where I’ll be at

/ RCRuiz / 3 Comments

I’ve committed to attend Nine Worlds Convention which will be on the 9th to the 11th of August in the UK. I’ll be attending as a guest and will be on panels and involved in discussions. I feel privileged that I can attend this con as a guest. I confess I’m a bit nervous but I do look forward to meeting and making friends, catching up, chatting and making new connections.

UK Author, Nina Allan made this list of 101 #women to read. It’s an honor and an encouragement to be on the list. I find myself quite amazed by the legs on some stories. I loved writing Song of the Body Cartographer it makes me happy to see how it’s resonated with different readers.

With regards to upcoming publications, if you’ve been waiting for news on the We See a Different Frontier anthology, I’ve been told it’ll be out soon. I’ve seen the proofs and am quite in awe of my toc-mates. 

To punctuate this post, I’m posting a link to my Movements column which came out last week. “So what do you think of my story where I made use of another person’s Culture?” 

Writing and Publishing news

/ RCRuiz / 2 Comments

Speculative Fiction 2012: the best online reviews, essays and commentary volume I is now available from Amazon.com. My essay, Decolonizing as an SF writer (first published on The Future Fire editor’s blog) is also in this volume. It makes me happy to know that this piece resonated with the editors and I hope that it resonates with readers of the anthology. The proceeds from the sale of this anthology go to Room to Read.

Amazon now has a listing for The End of the Road anthology. It’s available for pre-orders and the Book description makes me hungry to read the entire anthology. 

In yet more writing news, my short story, Body of Truth, has been accepted for inclusion in the upcoming What Fates Impose anthology edited by Nayad Monroe. When Nayad sent me the guidelines for this anthology, I was immediately intrigued by it. I’ll write more about the background of this story in another post.

In the meantime, here are some links to where Nayad talks about the process of editing an anthology. It makes for very interesting and thought-provoking reading.

What Fates Impose: Inside the Anthology

How Choosing Stories is, and is not, like making a Mix Tape

Five Important Reasons to Worry about Divination

Why “Maybe” is harder than “Yes” or “No”

I’m happy about the stories that have been accepted for publication, and I hope they resonate with readers as well. 

Dagiti Timayap Garda

/ RCRuiz / 7 Comments

My short story, Dagiti Timayap Garda, will be appearing in an anthology edited by Jonathan Oliver and published by Solaris Publishing. I’m pretty chuffed about this story because it’s inspired by the Tikbalang. It’s not exactly the Tikbalang as the Timayap Garda goes beyond shapeshifting. My thanks go out to Victor Ocampo who read this story and sent me critical feedback on a section that I was in doubt about. Thanks, Victor.

The timayap garda made its first appearance in a short story I wrote during Clarion West. Someday, I will publish that story, but for now, the creatures in that world are making their way into print and that makes me happy..

Here’s a preview of the stunning cover art for End of the Road. I’ll be doing tons of squeeing when it comes out.

Image

A very quick update

/ RCRuiz

Bloodchildren: stories by the Octavia Butler Scholars has been reviewed by Victor R. Ocampo. The review has been published over at The Future Fire’s review site.

There’s a summary of the Octavia E. Butler Celebration of the Fantastic Arts over at the SL Art Hud Blog including films from the day. It’s very inspiring. 

On goodreads, Bloodchildren seems to be getting quite a positive response. It’s early days yet, but the Bloodchildren anthology is a limited edition that’s only available until June. So, if you want a copy, now may be a good time to get one. 

quick post : signal-boosting

/ RCRuiz

It doesn’t rain but it pours, so the saying goes. Not only am I in the midst of writing wordage for the wip, but I’m taking a quick break to do some editing and translating for a good friend. Add to that reading a lot and doing some mental prep for Eastercon. It’s funny how the universe converges all at the same time. 

Some things I’d like to give a boost: 

Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History has five more days to go before the Kickstarter ends. The stretch goal is to provide artwork for every story in the anthology. 

Another crowdfunder that really grabbed my attention was one for The Abandon. There are four days left to their Indiegogo campaign and they still have to reach the goal of raising 5000 dollars. There’s a pilot available and if you like it and would like to see more, please support this project.

Afronauts is the third crowdfunded project that I want to signal-boost. Go have a look at the site. The premise just calls to me and I would really love to see this film made. There are still 25 days before the Kickstarter ends, time enough to think about it and lend a helping hand. 

It may seem like this entry is all about crowdfunding, but I keep thinking of a tweet I read from Nnedi Okorafor sometime ago. In it she said, why don’t you just let us tell our own stories. 

This is what these projects are all about. Us telling our stories. Us making our films. Us bringing our stories, our art, our histories, our films and our SFF to our people. 

Eightsquaredcon Schedule

/ RCRuiz

Next weekend, I will be at Eightsquaredcon in Bradford. It’s going to be an exciting trip for me as this will be the first time I travel by train in the UK. I’ve given myself enough wiggle room so I’ll be certain to catch the train going to and from Bradford. 

Here’s what my schedule looks like.

Saturday     12 noon     Non-Western SF and Fantasy in the Main room. I will be moderating this panel. 

Saturday       5 pm        Motherhood in SF and Fantasy

Saturday       7 pm        Genre Get-Together: Science Fiction

Sunday        10 am       Maiden, Mother, Who? Older Women in Genre Fiction 

Sunday          7 pm       BSFA Awards

Sunday          8 pm      Sex in YA Lit. 

It looks pretty busy, I know. To make it simpler: I’m on four panels, one of which I’ll be moderating and since I don’t have books to sign, I’ll basically just be hanging out and handing out fliers for the Bloodchildren anthology. 

I would love to chat and catch up with people who are going. Hope to see you there. 

(also posted to http://rcloenen-ruiz.livejournal.com)

Honoring Chinua Achebe

/ RCRuiz

It’s been a pretty emotional day. A great man has passed from our midst and spending time to think and to remember and to listen in on others remembering and honoring him is part of the ritual of grief. I am one of those who has been touched and inspired by the work of Chinua Achebe. He is one of my writing heroes.

I remember reading Chinua Achebe for the first time when I was in college. The local national bookstore had had a fresh delivery of books and they had four of his books on stock. I remember reading the opening chapter of Things Fall Apart and being unable to put the book back on the shelf. I had to take it with me. It took quite a while to save enough pocket money so I could buy the rest of his books. Amazingly, no one else seemed interested in those four books except me.

Small as this offering is, I wished to honor a great man. Your works were instrumental in helping me on the road towards decolonization. Thank you, Chinua Achebe.

Rest in peace. You live on in our hearts.