Worldcon Recap on the Luna Station Quarterly Blog

One thing I don't talk about enough is my volunteer gig as an editor for Luna Station Quarterly, an online speculative fiction magazine dedicated to women's writing. I help read and select submissions and proofread stories that make it into the magazine. LSQ is a labor of love small publication which pays authors a token amount, but it gets some fine stories and offers writers some encouragement on their path to publication.

Currently, the LSQ story “The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change,” by Virginia M. Mohlere, is a finalist for a WSFA Small Press Award.

Read submissions — that's great writing advice. Reading for LSQ has definitely helped me get a better feel for what works and doesn't in the story craft and what makes a story stand out. It can be difficult to be objective about one's own story ideas and writing. Seeing them from an editor's point of view helps.

LSQ, started by founding editor Jennifer Lyn Parsons, recently celebrated 10 years of publication. They did a nice editor interview with me as part of their 10-year special.

This year, I was able to attend Dublin 2019, An Irish Worldcon. It was a fantastic experience. Attending the 2019 Hugo Awards was also something of a do-over for my disappointing experience at my first Hugo Awards during Sasquan, held in Spokane, Wash., in 2015.

I wrote about this for Luna Station Quarterly's blog here.

I loved watching the awards with some friends and cheering for some of my favorite stories.

I also had a great time attending the "Can fiction convince people when facts can't?" panel and meeting solarpunk editor Phoebe Wagner. It's always fun to meet Twitter-friends in person.

A fantastic experience all around!

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Thoughts on "Depression Hates a Moving Target": What I Mean by Relatable

Relatable — I used this word in my reviews of Depression Hates a Moving Target by Nita Sweeney on Goodreads and Amazon . It's a nice word, but overused of late. So, it feels lazy. What do I mean? I connected with this book. It made me reflect more on my own first marathon experience. It made me want to put on my running shoes and head out the door again. In fact, I did. Now, typically, my mental health doesn't hinder my ability to do the stuff I want to do and my body flies under the radar. Still, I also felt goofy stepping out in my running gear a lot of the time. I didn't see myself as a "runner" or an athlete. And, I had no idea if I could run 13 miles let alone 26.2 when I started. More to the point, could I stay moving for the 4+ hours straight it would take to complete the marathon? To do the training mileage, I knew I'd have to run through streets and trails on my own and that made me nervous, too. Waves of grief wash us to strange shores. Whe...

What is Solarpunk? Good question, great answers from our community

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Springy story review: "State Change" by Ken Liu

Why it springs to mind: You'll never look at an ice cube the same way again. Where read: In the 2014 Hugo award-winning Lightspeed Magazine , August. Length: 5,194 words Summary: A woman has an ice cube for a soul. Memorable: How the story invites us to think about the shape of our soul, how it (or our perception of it) influences us and how it changes. What ordinary every day object would your soul be? A silver spoon, a beech stick? A great party conversation starter, this. Quote: “All life is an experiment." Notable: The protagonist Rina is an avid reader (always a good choice). Pairs well with: T.S. Elliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay Origin: The story was written in 24 hours based on a writing prompt. (See Author Spotlight: Ken Liu ) About the author: Ken Liu’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings , the first in a fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, is due out from Saga Press ( a new Simon & Schuster imprint ) in 2015.

Shel Graves' Sensorium

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