Category: Writing

The Internet Taketh Away

By:  TempestMy Fiction

The Fix finally reviewed November’s Strange Horizons, yay!  But the reviewer did not dig my story that much, boo.

K. Tempest Bradford offers an interesting look at the effects of continually reflecting on national tragedy in “Until Forgiveness Comes,” but the story is a little too ambitious for its length. Set in a fictional world with very direct real world analogies (setting it in the real world would have strengthened the gut level emotional response), Bradford questions the reasons people have for needing to remember and the methods in which they remember. Told within the unnecessary framing device of a radio report, the ghosts of the victims of an al-Qaida-esque terrorist attack reappear each year on the anniversary of the attacks when a memorial service, haitai, is held in their memory. The piece looks at the individuals who come to see their loved ones in their final moments. Unfortunately, given its brevity, and the mock radio reportage, Bradford can’t fully explore any of the issues she raises, leaving the piece an interesting one, but not one that fulfills its potential.

Ah well. But! I am glad they reviewed it.  I need to create a reviews section for this story, methinks.

Another “Until Forgiveness Comes” Ping

By:  TempestMy Fiction
Another "Until Forgiveness Comes" Ping

“Perhaps I’m a little weird in that the facts of the story—a terrorist attack and the discourse over how it should be remembered—pale in comparison to my interest in the form of the story. Bradford has an excellent grasp of the rhythm of an NPR segment (down to the reporter, with a name suspiciously and whimsically similar to the “musical” Sylvia Poggioli), to the point where I could easily hear the ever-present, but rarely informitive ambient sound that would accompany the piece. Made me tear up at work, which makes it memorable.”

—Tablesaw

One of these things is not like the other

By:  TempestNon-Fiction Publications
One of these things is not like the other

At Comicon this weekend there was a special “last minute” appearance by Daniel Dae Kim who plays Jin on Lost.  I am assuming it was kept under wraps to avoid prematurely leaking that Jin was returning to the show even though he got all blowed up.  Before his autograph session the press folks got a chance to ask him some questions.  I was one of those press folk :)

Because some of the press people were going to the Dollhouse panel and others were doing short video interviews, it ended up that my small group didn’t get a chance to talk to him until the last 20 minutes (which was plenty of time).  When he sat down with us he jokingly said, “You must have had all of your questions answered by now!”  Honestly, I was surprised people had any more to ask him about Lost.  They badgered the poor guy for 40 minutes and tried to trick him into revealing something OMG!important or whatever.

I asked a non-Lost question and, when I told him I was doing so, he smiled appreciatively.  I mean, yes, he was there to talk about Lost.  But man, people could NOT let up about the same stuff over and over again.  You get a chance to meet one of these actors and you know they cannot tell you secrets, so why not, instead, try to open it up and talk about wider stuff?

Am I being bitchy?

Anyway, this all resulted in the interview I have up on Fantasy today.  It’s pretty cool, if I say so myself.  And my first foray into creating a narrative out of an interview.  I mainly did this because my questions are rambly and thus not worth preserving in the Q&A format.

Oh, and also: that dude is pretty hot as well as being really intelligent and just all-around impressive.  I’m really glad I got a chance to meet him.

Um… Wow

By:  TempestMy Fiction

Federations ToC:

  • Mazer in Prison | Orson Scott Card (reprint)
  • Carthago Delenda Est | Genevieve Valentine
  • Life-Suspension | L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
  • Terra-Exulta | S. L. Gilbow
  • Aftermaths | Lois McMaster Bujold (reprint)
  • Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy | Harry Turtledove (reprint)
  • Prisons | Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason (reprint)
  • Different Day | K. Tempest Bradford
  • Twilight of the Gods | John C. Wright
  • Warship | George R. R. Martin and George Guthridge (reprint)
  • Swanwatch | Yoon Ha Lee
  • Spirey and the Queen | Alastair Reynolds
  • Pardon Our Conquest | Alan Dean Foster
  • Symbiont | Robert Silverberg (reprint)
  • The Ship Who Returned | Anne McCaffrey (reprint)
  • My She | Mary Rosenblum
  • The Shoulders of Giants | Robert J. Sawyer (reprint)
  • The Culture Archivist | Jeremiah Tolbert
  • The Other Side of Jordan | Allen Steele
  • Like They Always Been Free | Georgina Li
  • Eskhara | Trent Hergenrader
  • The One with the Interstellar Group Consciousnesses | James Alan Gardner
  • Golubash or, Wine-War-Blood-Elegy | Catherynne M. Valente

Not only do I get to share a book once more with the fabulous Cat Valente, but this is the first time my bud Genevieve and I get to be in an anthology together.  Also: BUJOLD and SILVERBERG omg.

I may faint.

Ever wonder which Hour the Wolf likes? 3am, I believe.

By:  TempestWriting
Ever wonder which Hour the Wolf likes? 3am, I believe.

Because of several factors, I did not mention that I was going to be on Hour of the Wolf this morning.  For those of you who don’t know, HotW is a local radio talk show dealing with all things SF/F/H hosted by the fabulous Jim Freund.  Thing is, it airs at 5am on Saturdays.  So that means I had to be up at 3am.  This is my 3am face:

I look excited, right?  The show itself was a lot of fun, though.  We talked about Clarion West and writers I like and Carl Brandon Society and Star Trek and stories I have coming out. That’s this first part here:

      Click to Listen
(this will open an inline player)

Then I read Until Forgiveness Comes and then we talked a bit about 9/11 and then I took some calls.  I took calls!  That’s the second part:

      Click to Listen

You can also listen to the show online via WBAI’s streaming.  The MP3s I have don’t include the music he played for copyright reasons.

I should mention that I’ve been on Hour of the Wolf before, but always with my writing group, Altered Fluid.  If you want to listen to our appearances, check out these links:

May 5th 2007

May 12th, 2008

September 20th, 2008

Despite making my 3AM Face, I had a really great time and don’t regret a second of it.  Jim says he’d love to have me on again and I am all for that.  We also had some pre-thoughts about things we could do with Until Forgiveness Comes that are even more radio-y.  Excting!

Farewell, Realms of Fantasy

By:  TempestThe Publishing Biz
Farewell, Realms of Fantasy

I haven’t commented on the news that Realms of Fantasy is closing yet, and I feel as though I should for several reasons. So, I will.

Way back when I was a wee!Tempest I was very much unaware of fandom and the wider SF world. I liked Star Trek. I liked Narnia and other SF/F YA and children’s books I’d read, I liked The Martian Chronicles. I didn’t know that this could all coalesce into an identity.

I don’t know how exactly this happened, but at some point I came across the magazine Science Fiction Age and just fell in love. I still feel like SF Age was one of the best genre magazines ever. I was attracted to it due to the big, glossy covers with awesome images but what held me was the stories inside – I read the thing from cover to cover.

During this time – late high school – it was pretty hard to find SF Age. This was before the explosion of B&Ns everywhere and such. I had to beg and cajole and blackmail my poor mother to drive me to the only newsstand in town where I knew I could reliably find it. And one day I happened to notice another mag sitting on the same shelf. Instead of a cool spaceship on the cover, there was probably some woman in chainmail or whatever, but I remember immediately recognizing that this magazine was related to SF Age. It had a similar cover sensibility – a design that said “This is the fantasy version of that magazine you already like.” So I picked that up, too.

I was not disappointed.

Through reading SF Age and Realms of Fantasy I decided to join the SF Book Club which led to me reading every Dozios year’s best (along with some other stuff, but mostly just that) which led me to read beyond the Star Trek novels I’d been devouring for years which, by many turns, led me to writing science fiction and fantasy.

The first time I ever saw Scott Edelman at a con I stood paralyzed 10 feet away from him for 20 minutes until I worked up the nerve to go and say, “HiMrEdelmanmynameisKimandIamabigfanofyours SFAgewassoawesomeanditchangedmylife andIhavealwayswantedtomeetyouandsaythatbecausereallyitchangedeverything Iwouldn’tbeawriterifnotforyouIthink.” Or something like that. I’m sure Scott was completely scared of me, but he did smile when I mentioned SF Age (which Sovereign totally killed before its time and I will never forgive them for that, omg).

Since SF Age died before I got my writing chops, I always had a notion in the back of my mind that I might be published in Realms someday. For a long time it was my whole short fiction world, except for year’s bests. And I loved every story I read.

Yes, this changed over the years. I stopped sending to Realms long, long ago because, really, I’m not all that in to sending stories off to a black hole from which they’d never return (the price I paid for being passed up to Shawna so many times). I stopped reading it after the story that ended with two people having sex on top of a dead unicorn (and no, I am never going to get over that. I like Carrie Vaughn a lot as a person, but ye gods, dead unicorn sex? Booo!). But I will always, always be grateful that it existed, and that it introduced me to so much wonderful fiction and so many amazing authors.

I read Theodora Goss and Hilary Moon Murphy for the first time in Realms and now I’m happy to call them friends. I saw many friends I knew to be amazing authors get published there for the first time – Tim Pratt, Sarah Prineas, Samantha Henderson, Eugie Foster (these are the names coming to me right this second, there were many more).

I still treasure my old copies from high school and the stories I loved therein. I still treasure my memories. And I hope that there will still be great magazines that high school girls who love Star Trek and Martian Chronicles and Narnia can stumble upon that will change everything for them and open up a new world of awesomeness.

Dear Writers,

By:  TempestWriting
Dear Writers,

A truth that I’ve come across many times over the years and passed on to me by writers much more experienced and intelligent than I and that I feel is apropos in these times:

Just because you wrote a piece of fiction doesn’t mean you own the only true way of reading/interpreting/understanding that piece of fiction.  It is, in fact, one of the most wonderful and frightening things about being a writer that we do not.

We may own the copyright on the words we strung together in that particular way, but we do not own reader reactions to that, be they good or bad.  We may get a real thrill from positive reactions, and we may learn new things from honest criticism, discussion, and dissection of our work.  But we may not privilege those reactions above the ones that hurt us most: the negative, the violently opposed, and the ones that result in OUR hurting someone else.

You cannot distance yourself from the culpability you have in hurting others with your fiction if you are not willing to distance yourself from the good feelings that come with giving joy and understanding.  You can talk about intent all you like — and don’t misunderstand me, intent is important, it is just not primarily important — but in the end your intent is worth nothing if you cannot own all of the results of your efforts.

That doesn’t mean you need to take it all in to yourself, beat yourself up, or label yourself as bad, bigoted, evil, or wrong.  What it does mean is that you need to ask: How did I fuck up?  Is there some way I could have avoided fucking up?  Will you give me a chance to prove I will not fuck up in exactly this way again, and will do my best to not fuck up in other, related ways?  Will you accept that I am a work in progress even if I do?

If you ask these questions in all sincerity, the answer will probably be: Yes.

More love than you probably understand I’m giving you,
Tempest

Another Nice Review and Another Sale

By:  TempestMy Fiction

First, the sale: some time ago Matt Kressel of Sybil’s Garage informed me that he would like to buy my story Elan Vital, which I affectionately refer to as my Dead Mother story.  I wrote the beginning of that story when I was last in England (in Penzance to be exact).  England and Penzance are apparently inspirational — part of the well that Black Feather came from originated in my first visit many years ago.  Perhaps I should look in to living there.

Anyway, Sybil’s Garage rocks and I’m all excited to have a story in it.

Next, the review: Mercurio Rivera is the designated Locus subscriber in our writing group (this is probably not his official function…) and he passed along Rich Horton’s review of Until Forgiveness Comes:

“K. Tempest Bradford’s ‘Until Forgiveness Comes’ was intriguing.  Most simplistically, it’s a 9/11-derived story — well enough done, about a yearly ceremony remembering a terrorist attack.  But as an SF reader I found myself far more intrigued by the tantalizing hints of a cool alternate world in the background — with, perhaps, Ancient Egyptian culture having survived in some form, leading to a radically altered Jesus-figure, and a much more different Western Europe.  The story is only two thousand words long, and that sketched background isn’t at all the point — but I confess it’s what gripped me.”

Thanks, Rich!