Wiscon, The Nebulas, and the Ballad of Bloody Brigid!

So, I can yell about my short story sales now! In August, The Dark will be publishing another of my short horror fantasy stories, "Bobbie and Her Father."

Some time next year, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet will publish their second piece with me (and my first short story with them), "King Moon's Tithe to Hell."

May was some kind of month, let me tell you. 

***

This past weekend, I attended my first Wiscon in a way I didn't imagine doing so a year ago: virtually. It was deeply fun.

The chaos of the discord server that served as the main socialization page had the same taste as a convention: tons of strangers, united by specific, common interests, all competing to talk to each other. Once I figured out how to mute and mark channels as read, it was much easier, though the overwhelming energy was absolutely still in the air.

There were less panels than I expected, but what was there felt very tight and well done. My favorite pieces of programming included Benjamin Rosenbaum's lecture, "Doctor Who as the Wandering Jew," THE NOT HUGO AWARD-WINNING BUT VERY IMPORTANT NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL, and Renaming the Otherwise Award. The last addressed some questions I had regarding the name change of what was formerly called the Tiptree Award in a thoughtful, nuanced way.

I had so much fun, I went ahead and registered for the virtual Nebula Conference. It was much more business-oriented and intimidating than Wiscon, but still enormously social (through Zoom breakout rooms, mostly) and full of amazing programming. My favorites included Finances for Traditionally Published Novelists, Publish SFF Romance: Pick a Seat, Not a Side, the rescue cat livestream, and The 55th Nebula Awards.

Wiscon also gave me the chance to meet fellow writer, Judith Huang, whose debut novel, Sofia and The Utopia Machine, has been added to my to-read list. We chatted a little and she was kind enough to read my story in The Dark, Brigid Was Hung By Her Hair from the Second Story Window. Then, to my shock and joy, she wrote me a ballad based on it! 

With her permission, it's my absolute pleasure to share it with you.

The Ballad of Bloody Brigid

Quarantine Reading & Dealing

Sarah Smith, a fellow Boston Area writer in CSFW, started a series of weekday teatime readings over Zoom. She has taken some of the readings and put them up on her YouTube channel. Please check her channel for more readings!

I showed up there on Thursday and read two poems. The first is "Persephone Kidnaps Him," published in Liminality Magazine in 2017, and the second is "The Blue Fairy Wakes Her," which is unpublished.

In the coming weeks, I'm sure there will be more readings and projects over digital platforms. The precautions taken to slow the spread of the corona virus have proved both anxiety inducing and fascinating. I mourn the loss of seeing more people in person, but I'm in a time right now where I'm financially secure, can easily work from home, and can give a little extra to The Greater Boston Food Bank as well as The Greater Cleveland Food Bank (hometown, represent). I hope you'll consider giving to similar places.

I intend to keep my anxiety over the quarantine to a minimum.

I'm engaging in guided meditations, journaling, reading, jogging (almost) every day, and, being that I'm a white hipster lady from the U.S., of COURSE I'm doing Yoga with Adriene, the best cult ever.

Perhaps most helpful of all have been the friends I've been able to text, stream, and chat with over the past few days.

Also, the fact I have a lot of free time and accessories for dress-up certainly helps, too. Here, I dress for the job I want, which is being an eccentric recluse whose husband died under mysterious circumstances.

In all seriousness, keeping physical interaction to a minimum and not going out in public sick is absolutely necessary. I hope, wherever you are, you're able to do similarly.

Take care of yourselves and stay safe, all.

2019 Writing Recap

StraAinsel
A short story in The Dawnline: Feral States, additional material for the post-apocalyptic vampire nomad game that was fully fully funded through Kickstarter in October 2018 with Voidspiral Entertainment! After I sold my short story, Older Sister, to them as bonus content for their succesful campaign, I sent in a follow-up that appeared this year in Feral States.
Brigid Was Hung By Her Hair from the Second Story Window
A short story about immigration, goddesses, and songs published in The Dark Magazine, September 2019. It earned me some kind reviews!

Eat the Children and Other Poems of Monsters
An illustrated collection of my previously published fantasy and horror poetry!
How to Repair Creation: Despair and Activism
Diary comics around the idea of performing "tikkun olam," acts that better or repair the world.

Undertow: Grief for a Changing World
Diary comics about anxiety and climate change.

Enjoy, y'all!

Buhler Fritz Zuber "Distant Thoughts"

Straight from my Patreon, here's a list of what I've published this year that is available for your consumption:

"Ainsel" - A short story in The Dawnline: Feral States, additional material for the post-apocalyptic vampire nomad game that was fully fully funded through Kickstarter in October 2018 with Voidspiral Entertainment! After I sold my short story, Older Sister, to them as bonus content for their succesful campaign, I sent in a follow-up that appeared this year in Feral States.

"Brigid Was Hung By Her Hair from the Second Story Window" - A short story about immigration, goddesses, and songs published in The Dark Magazine, September 2019. It earned me some very kind reviews!

Eat the Children and Other Poems of Monsters - An illustrated collection of my previously published fantasy and horror poetry!

How to Repair Creation: Despair and Activism - Diary comics around the idea of performing "tikkun olam," acts that better or repair the world.

Undertow: Grief for a Changing World - Diary comics about anxiety and climate change.

Outside of publications, I've been doing a good chunk of writing. I did some daily writing challenges for Lent, Camp NaNoWriMo, and regular NaNoWriMo with mixed success, but words did, indeed, happen.

I did two revisions of my decopunk robot thriller novel, A Girl Named Doe, and am currently working on the third revision (draft 4). It's at about 82K at the moment!

You can also see the short plays I wrote with the Catalyze Playwrighting Group this year, The Widows Parkman and Webster and Real-Ass Space Explorers.

Overall, I sent out 45 poetry, short story, and novel query submissions, which translated to 34 rejections, 2 acceptances, and 9 pending responses! For contrast, I sent out 73 submissions in 2018 and got 1 acceptance. So...improvement! Hurray!

Boston Hassle's Green Market Flea

I've started doing the thing I've been wanting to do for about a decade: making zines. A couple of them are already available online, including a collection of comics called Undertow.

I'll be selling paper copies of the zines I've created on Sunday, September 8th, 12-6pm at Boston Hassle's Greek Market Flea. This includes comics, poetry, and fiction, mostly having to do with the theme of the show, the environment and climate change.

Come on down to Cambridge to support local artists, including The Atomic Garden and many other talented individuals.

I'll see you there.

Eat the Children and Other Poems of Monsters

During Readercon 2019, I sold printed copies of the chapbook, Eat the Children and Other Poems of Monsters. It's a collection of all the creepy, funny, weird, and political poems I published between 2013 and 2018.

You can buy a PDF of my poems here: https://gilldaniels.itch.io/eat-the-children

Table of Contents

Eat the Children
The Tiger is Herself
Cloth Leaves and Wire Vines
Sleep Lives Inside the Bed
The Liar's Charm
To the Creature
The Virgin Regiment
The Pacific is Wine Pink
Athena and Yeshua
Tourists of the Undead
Persephone Kidnaps Him
You Sing Your Murder Ballad
Superheroes
The Hero John Wayne
Anyway, Here's a Poem About the Internet
The Boston Holocaust Memorial Vigil, 8-15-17 30

Dreams & Nightmares Catalyze

Dreams & Nightmares sent me a review copy of the issue that has published my poem, "Superheroes." Many thanks to editor David C. Kopaska-Merkel for grabbing up this one.

In Boston, I recently joined a playwriting group focused on writing science-based plays. The first challenge I've participated in is to write a play based on a variable of the Drake Equation, which estimates the likelihood of encountering and communicating with extraterrestrial life.

We're now hosting public readings for the Drake Equation plays over at Central Square Theater. The first play reading will be on April 21st and the second on April 28th. 

If you can make it, I hope to see you there. If not, I'm hoping to be a part of similar projects in the not-so-distant future.

Much like last year, I'm participating in a write-a-poem-a-day-for-Lent challenge. I'm hoping to generate new material from it and have already been able to generate more ideas for my prose work.

Happy Spring!

Singing Ballads

My poem, "You Sing Your Murder Ballad," is available in Star*Line's Fall 2017 issue! 

The cover art for this one by Anita Endrezze is just lovely and I'm excited to share the pages with some truly talented poets. Thank you Vince Gotera for taking a chance on my poem.

Hope everyone out there is taking care of themselves this winter season. 

Persephone: Kidnapper

"Persephone and Hades"
by Janaina Medeiros (2015)

The thirteenth issue of Liminality has published! In it is my poem, "Persephone Kidnaps Him." I'm excited to share it with you!

Special thanks to Shira Lipkin and Mattie Joiner for putting together this poetry publication. You do some wonderful work.

Persephone Kidnaps a Superhero

"Mariana in the South" 
by John William Waterhouse (1897)

Thanks so much, Heath Miller, for hopping on the Patreon train! If you, too, want to get on board, I'd appreciate it. 

Recently, I've managed to sell a couple poems! "Persephone Kidnaps Him" will appear in Liminality: A Magazine of Speculative Poetry later this year. It's my second sale to this fine magazine after last year's "The Pacific is Wine Pink."  

Then my poem, "Superheroes," will be out in Dreams and Nightmares next year. My first sale to this market! Many thanks to the editor, David.

In other news, I plan on participating in this year's Clarion Write-a-Thon. Clarion is a creative writing program that means a lot to me. It's a special program with a long history. Everyone accepted should be able to afford to go.

40 Days of Poetry

Though I'm not Catholic, for Lent, I'm writing a poem a day with a group of friends, mostly from college. Here are some samples of what I've been doing:

Laverna

[With thanks to Scott Fitzgerald & Yvonne Keeley - If I Had Words and the ever-so similar Saint-Saëns - Symphony No. 3: "Organ Symphony"]

Roman goddess of thieves,
may each dark shadow protect your face,
falling cool like water
to cloak your grace.

I don't call for wisdom,
art, or inspiration
but sleight of hand
and imitation.

I could pray to gods below
and muses high
but I come to you
as a writer magpie

who steals scraps of detail
whether new or archaic
reassembling pieces
into mosaic.

Laverna, let me take sunlight,
recreate a day for you.
Guide me to the right fragments
golden and new.


Grandma

"You will recognize the comforter on grandma's bed," Mom writes.
My old comforter from high school is floral light and dark blue with some green.
"A spare for years," she adds.
She and my father got a call that my grandmother was very cold
and my dad ran it over to her in the home.

She had been sleeping a lot, Mom says.
My uncle calls it "twilight sleep."

I will see her on Thursday though I am already with her, I tell myself.
In every way that matters, she's always been with me.


Grandma II

Grandma is stretched out on the couch,
eyes slightly open as she dozes.
She goes in and out of dreams.

Her legs are so thin, I think.
The aide tells me she still drinks cranberry juice,
eats soup with thick broth,
and goes to the weekly news segments in the home.
She wants to know what's happening in the world.
She continues to insist on getting her hair done.

Grandma tells me about my cousin who will be visiting soon
and bringing her daughter,
my grandma's seventh great-grand-daughter,
Louise.

Grandma sings Dean Martin:
"Every little breeze seems to whisper Louise

Birds in the trees twitter Louise."

I give her a Valentine's card
and a poem I wrote for her.
She doesn't let either go
even as she slips back asleep.

Boskone 54 Schedule

I'm going to be a part of Boksone 54! I'm really looking forward to it and I hope you can join me.

Also, THEY GAVE ME A READING THIS YEAR. WOW.

Here's my panel schedule:

How Buffy the Vampire Slayer Changed Television

Friday 19:00 - 20:00, Harbor II (Westin)

Buffy was just a teen TV drama about a bunch of vampire-hunting kids ... or was it? Let's consider the friendships, the dialogue, the rule-breaking, and the characters. How did these aspects of this 1997-2003 show, individually and combined, help to change viewer expectations — and the very ways we think about episodic storytelling today?


Reading by Gillian Daniels

Saturday 09:30 - 10:00, Independence (Westin)


The Magic of Magical Realism in Literature

Saturday 12:00 - 13:00, Harbor III (Westin)

The genre of magical realism is often defined by contradiction: bringing an acceptance of magic into the rational world — into our world. Does this really make it different than fantasy? What is it about the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Alice Hoffman that makes their stories stand out? Our panelists share the stories they love, why they love them, and what else we should be reading.

Great Ghost Stories

Saturday 17:00 - 18:00, Harbor III (Westin)

We'll look for and at the best stories that take place on the fringe: stories in which the living and the dead intersect, bringing out the drama, tension, and atmosphere that are the hallmarks of a well-told ghost story. (One darkly shining exemplar: Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.) Join us for an unsettling discussion of what makes a good ghost story great, and why some tales become enduring classics while others ... don't.


Science Fiction on the Stage

Sunday 12:00 - 13:00, Marina 3 (Westin)

You can't do that on the stage! ... Can you? How do you create a space ship going Warp 5 on the stage? Can you really produce a true SF feel without the flashy special effects that people have come to expect? What kind of opportunities are possible when it comes to writing and producing speculative fiction on the stage rather then in film or in print? Moreover, how do you get started writing for the stage?


The Sense8 Sensation

Sunday 13:00 - 14:00, Marina 4 (Westin)

It's shot on locations worldwide and produced by the creators of The Matrix and Babylon 5, yet this Netflix TV original has largely flown under the radar. (Still, season 2 starts in March.) Panelists examine the intricate storytelling and dizzyingly diverse connections of this sens8tionally groundbreaking SF show. From gender, race, and religion to the struggle of coming to terms with one’s identity, Sense8 treats its subjects in ways network television would never touch. SPOILERS ABOUND for nonviewers, but why not sneak a peek anyway?

***

Yesterday, I participated in something huge, potentially generation-defining. 

Well, "generation-defining" if we keep up the momentum.

As I write this, participation at the Women's March across continents has been estimated as high as 2.5 million. People are angry, disheartened, and unsure of the future.

But the outpouring on Saturday was so warm and hopeful. People really want to make a difference. It was a moment of solidarity and warm fuzzies.

It was great to hear Elizabeth Warren speak, even though there were too many people to properly see her. Ed Markey was enthusiastic and Maura Healey 

There's work to do. 

Despite having speakers and organizers of racially diverse and indigenous backgrounds, this march and others seemed to center on white women. As a white lady, yeah, I admit we're the majority, but we also have to make sure we're not dominating the narrative of who stands to lose the most the next few years.

My hope is renewed and so is my commitment to change and a better, safer future.

Autumn Days

Over on Strange Horizons, which currently has its annual fundraising campaign underway FYI, my poem, "Athena and Yeshua" was posted on September 19th.

Not a week later, Liminality dropped its autumn issue with my poem, "The Pacific is Wine Pink."

Please read both and enjoy while I enjoy this nice, warm feeling.

***

I started my October by watching Lost Boys (1987) for the first time all the way through with a writing group friend. I continued it by watching my first two Hammer Horror Films, Dracula (1958) and The Brides of Dracula (1960) with my roommates. So all the Peter Cushing.

The latter was my favorite because it seemed like a prime example of gender politics in vampire fiction. Watching the ingenue become interested in a man chained up in his mother's house, and then subsequently de-powered due to her mistake of freeing a man from harm, made me all the more grateful for the advent of vampire romance and less surprised that it's developed the traction it has. 

Also, I'm going to a haunted house tonight.

So what I'm trying to say is I'm in Halloween mode.

***

Have a photo of my very own Halloween pumpkin. (That purrs.) (When he wants to be fed.)

New Year Fortunes and Arisia Schedule 2016

For New Years Eve, I watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens and enjoyed reading Tarot cards with friends. I'm hoping to start things off right.

Also, the Arisia schedule is up for 2016! Hurray!

Here are the panels I'm on. Hope to see you there!

Supergods: Superheroes as Modern Pantheon Alcott (Comics) Fri 8:30 PM
Description Superheroes come from the sky, with impossible powers and indelible promises. They show us the light in our darkest moments, and remind us of how we would prefer to be treated. Is it so wrong to imagine them as Gods? In this panel, we'll explore the idea of the Superhero as a modern interpretation of deities.
Mehitbel Glenhaber, Ed Fuqua, Joey Peters, Alex Jarvis (m)

Steven Universe: We'll Always Find a Way Burroughs (Media) Sun 11:30 AM
Description Rebecca Sugar's STEVEN UNIVERSE has been a breakout hit for Cartoon Network. The first series on the network created by a woman, it tells powerful, funny, and moving stories in tiny doses, and has dealt uncompromisingly with issues around gender, childhood, and family in ways both unexpected and delightful. It's also telling a great long-form adventure story. We'll talk about all elements of this show in a panel that, like the show itself, will appeal to fans of all ages.
Max Gladstone, Cody Mattes, Juliet Kahn, Cassandra Lease (m)

Marvel Cinematic and TV Universe, 2016 Edition Marina 3 (Media) Sun 1:00 PM
Description The last year has seen two movies (AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and ANT-MAN), and seasons of four TV series (AGENTS OF SHIELD, AGENT CARTER, DAREDEVIL, and JESSICA JONES). What's the current state of the MCU? How is progressing creatively? Is it still cohesive? Do all of the shows and movies still work well together, or are there cracks starting to show where things are being forced? We'll have our annual review of all that's good and in need of improvement, as well as looking ahead to 2016's movies.
Sarah Weintraub, Gordon Linzner, Ed Fuqua, Bob Chipman (m)

Speculative Poetry is Awesome Marina 2 (Literature) Mon 11:30 AM
Description Over the past decade, speculative poetry has increasingly turned toward the mythic, personal, and powerful in subject matter, with venues such as Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, Stone Telling, and Liminality showcasing a new generation of poets who’ve redefined what this type of writing can do. Come discuss what's new and wonderful in the world of speculative poetry!
Shira Lipkin, A.J. Odasso, Julia Rios (m), MJ Cunniff

Gravity Falls Marina 4 (Media) Mon 1:00 PM
Description Over the last two years, *Gravity Falls* has moved beyond its initial goof setup and developed an incredibly layered mythology, all while still providing some emotional character development and a pair of genuinely loving siblings whose differences help the plot. Now that the mysteries and threats have increased, how is the show holding up? We'll discuss our favorite fan theories, the end-of-episode codes, and more.
James Hailer (m), David G. Shaw, A.J. Odasso, Trisha Wooldridge

Poetry Reading at Sloane Merrill Gallery

This Friday at 7pm, I'm doing a reading at the Sloane Merrill Gallery with April Grant, AJ Odasso, and Sonya Taaffe. If you can be there, please stop by! I will be sweating, likely, and excited but nervous. Many thanks to the gallery for hosting.

I'm really happy to be reading with these three. They're extremely talented writers and fun people.