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updates again

/ RCRuiz

On the Book Blog, we posted our Author Interview with Kari Sperring. If you have time, do drop by and read. 

I’m looking at the final proofs of my story for The End of the Road: an anthology of Original Fiction edited by Jonathan Oliver. It’s interesting how not looking at a story for a long time will change the way you look at it when you read it again. I’m hoping people will enjoy reading all the stories in this anthology. 

The anthology will be coming out in November, but I’ve heard that we’re doing a sneak preview of it at World Fantasy Convention. I may post more about that later. 

I’ll also be on this panel at WFC together with Cheryl Morgan: 

“The Next Generation” We’re All Bloggers Now (Cambridge)
 
Being a columnist or a critic used to be a skill, combining knowledge and the ability to write with insightful observations. These days it seems that everybody has an opinion and evolving technology has given us numerous platforms through which to make our views known. Have we degraded the true art of criticism to a point where it has lost all value?

I’m not sure exactly what the point of the panel is, but I do know what I’m going to be arguing for. It certainly promises to be interesting, and if not, we can always turn it into a drinking game or all stand up and migrate to the bar. Which, I’ve heard, is where you really want to be during a World Fantasy Con. 

This will be my first World Fantasy Convention, so I’m quite excited. I’m looking forward to seeing friends, I wouldn’t otherwise get to see, to catching up with women I’ve admired from a distance, and if any of my Clarion West instructors are there, I may grab up my courage and say hello. 

I’m rushing off again, but I hope everyone is having a good day. 

Process

/ RCRuiz

Over on Chie and Weng Read Books, we’ve introduced a new feature called Process. We still aren’t sure how regular this feature will be, but we do want to publish these kinds of discussions from time to time. Do drop by as today we have Dean Alfar and Joseph Nacino talking about process and the challenges of Filipino SFF. 

Talking about process, I also recognize how working towards increasing visibility and working towards better representations and diversity in SFF is a lot of work. It also isn’t a work that can be done by one person, but it is a collective work. If you’re a reader, expand your horizons and go read something that’s outside of your comfort zone. 

If you are a writer of color or a queer writer, right now it may feel like everything is a struggle. We are struggling to make space for ourselves and for our narratives. Change is slow. We are still in process. But we will get there. Just keep on writing and telling your stories the way you want to tell them. 

To you who encourage us and keep us going. Thank you. Peace, love and courage. 

Update and Monday’s content on the book blog

/ RCRuiz

It’s Monday morning and I’m all packed up and waiting in the hotel lobby. Nine Worlds has been amazing. I’ve been so inspired and I have many things I want to share, but I’ll save that for when I get home. 

In the meantime, I’ve quickly posted my big sister’s review of On a Red Station Drifting by Aliette de Bodard. I have yet to argue with my big sis over a book. But we do have plans to do a book discussion sometime soon. Watch out for that. We may yet come to loggerheads over something. 

Happy Monday all. 

I’m having so much fun with this book blog

/ RCRuiz

We’ve got a new post up on Chie and Weng Read Books. Ekaterina Sedia gave us a fantastic interview and I just loved reading her answers. Do drop by and read when you have time. 

I’m enjoying this book blog a lot and I think it’s because reading books has always been a magical experience for me, and getting to know authors and interview them is a treat. 

Jan asked me why I thought up this idea to have a book blog and I realized that the book blog has its roots in the things I shared with my big sis. 

It was born from a desire to keep the ties that bind my sis and I together and sprung forth from the memory of sharing a room, fighting over the same books, debating the merits of whatever we’d read, and long conversations over the dining table. 

Each time I read something fantastic, I want to share it with my sis. Each time I visit a historical city, I wish my sis were there with me (because she is such a history lover). Growing up, we argued a lot. We were only a year apart. She didn’t like rock music, but she endured the season when I felt it was absolutely necessary to play Queen at full volume over and over again. And then there was the time she walked home all the way from the bank in sweltering heat because I’d hidden her bank book and replaced it with mine. (I was an evil sister).  When I said I was leaving for the Netherlands, she shouted at me: Well then, go already. 

My sister and I love books. We’ve just chosen this book blog as the space where we continue to conduct our conversations about books and the people who write them. And because it doesn’t get said enough, I love you, Sis. 🙂 

Nine Worlds Geekfest 2013

/ RCRuiz

Three more sleeps and it will be Friday. I’ll be leaving for Nine Worlds Geekfest and it promises to be an interesting and exciting weekend. 

Nine Worlds has published a full programme and you can see what’s going on during the entire con on Lanyrd. Of course, you can also follow the con by track on the Nine Worlds website. 

Where I’ll be at: 

Friday, 9 August:

10:15-11:30 pm. New Voices Slam Session: Friday edition

Location: Lobby Room, Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

With Adam Christopher, Emma Newman, Barry Nugent, Danie Ware, Jennifer Williams, Hannah Chutzpah, Liz de Jager, Rochita Ruiz, Lou Morgan andStephanie Saulter

Saturday, 10 August:

11:45am to 1:00pm. Why is the Future so Binary?

Location: Britannia, Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

with Tori Truslow, Alex D MacFarlane, Rochita Ruiz, Jude Roberts and Cel West

5:00-6:15 pm. Women’s Worlds: Feminist Utopias in Literature

Location: Caravelle, Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

with Alison Morton, Tricia Sullivan, Alex D MacFarlane, Rochita Ruiz and Cel West

6:45-8:00 pm. Science Fiction Double Feature: Gender and Sexuality in SFF

Location: George I, Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

with Rochita Ruiz, Roz Kaveney, Tricia Sullivan, Weirwolf (Jon Weir) and David Tallerman

Sunday, 11 August

10:00-11:15 am. Better History=Better Fantasy: Writing outside the Binary

Location: Britannia, Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

 with Alex D MacFarlane, Rochita Ruiz, Koel Mukherjee and Hel Gurney

11:45-1:00 pm. Racefail 101

Location: George I, Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

with Zen Cho, Tade Thompson, Anne C. Perry, Rochita Ruiz and Stephanie Saulter

3:15-4:30 pm. Writing the Other

Location: Britannia, Renaissance London Heathrow Hotel

with Stephanie Saulter

If you’re going to Nine Worlds, please feel free to say hi. 

An excerpt from Return to Metal Town

/ RCRuiz / 2 Comments

Here’s a very first drafty excerpt from Return to Metal Town. This was one of the short stories that came to me during the Clarion West Write-a-thon. If you’d like to sponsor me, my write-a-thon page is here. 

Next week, I’ll post a first drafty excerpt from the novel in progress. 

Excerpt: Return to Metal Town

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Father wears the face of a numbered man. He wears the suit, he carries the briefcase, he drives the car.

 At home, he morphs into someone Mother argues with over their dinner.

 “I don’t see why you feel the need to indulge him,” Mother says.

 “He thinks it will be a good experience, and I agree,” Father replies.

 They are discussing Adventure Boy’s desire to visit Metal Town.

 Mother doesn’t wish them to go, but Father sees no harm in it.

 “I don’t understand why you want to see that place again,” Mother says. “I shudder when I remember how I almost lost you there.”

 “But you didn’t lose me,” Father says. “And we can’t deny him this. If he wants to know it for himself, then he should know it for himself.”

 “I won’t go,” Mother says.

 “If you don’t want to go, you don’t have to go,” Father replies.

 Adventure Boy lies on his back and stares up at the ceiling. He had bought a picture of the Remembrance Monument and Father had hung it from the ceiling. At night, the lines of the monument glowed in the dark.

Mechanic’s words rang in his ear.

“You can still hear the voices of those who have gone before.”  

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.