I concluded my writer-in-residency at the Liminal Center in June, but I am still fully in support of this awesome, communal, feminist space for women in the creative arts to come together to learn and grow our talents together.

Fall Workshops Offered #

One of Liminal's primary purposes is to provide hands-on writing workshops for writers who identify as female. These six-week sessions provide valuable instruction from experienced writers and instructors in small groups, and they are starting soon! The full list is here, but sign up before these classes begin on 9/18.

May I recommend Origin & LIMINALITY: Experimental Writing with Gina Goldblatt? It's one of two workshops Gina is leading, and as the founder of Liminal, you'll get a great view into the heart of this organization. Learn to write subversively while exposing truth through fiction.

Liminal stalwarts Terrilynn Cantlon and Brenda Usher-Carpino are both at the helms of workshops as well. Terrilynn will be Silencing the Critic Within, an essential dragon to tame for anyone seriously venturing into the creative arts. Brenda will delve into the Art of Dramatic Dialogue for character development in the dramatic arts.

The Liminal Fall Workshops are offered on a sliding scale of $200-$320 -- Pay what you can afford to support this awesome literary organization! Liminal also reserves two spots in its workshops for participants who can't pay at all. Contact Gina at gina@theliminalcenter.com if that's your situation.

One Day Intensive Workshops #

For the first time, Liminal is offering one-day writing seminars, which I personally think is a great idea as that's the commitment level I can handle. The first one is happening tomorrow, September 10th, and it's not too late if you'd like to Get Into the Writing Groove with Jenee Darden. Just head here to sign up and get the full list of one-day sessions offered this fall.

There is a great set of one-day classes on the agenda throughout the fall, including how to Write Characters of Social Action with Jasmine Wade, creating the heroes we need to see in fiction these days. Jasmine is also teaching the Wonderland of Myth: Writing into the Past and Present, which I would love to take if I were in town that day. *cry* Sessions on grief writing, healing from trauma through writing, and writing about negative experiences are also on the agenda.

Pricing for the one-day intensive sessions depends on the length of the course, whether a couple of hours or a full day. Again, head here for the full list!

Whatever course or workshop you choose, Liminal will greet you with welcoming, supportive arms. Or at least that was my experience co-working at Liminal with these lovely women this last spring.

Coworking at Liminal with Aqueila and Terrilyn!

"Mixed Signals," or, "Learning How to Speak" Published! #

"Mixed Signals, or Learning How to Speak," a short story I wrote last summer, is now available in PDF or print as part of Typehouse Literary Magazine's Issue 9. You can head to their webpage to download the PDF for FREE - ABSOLUTELY FREE - and it's chockful of what's sure to be an amazing mix of literary and genre fiction, poetry, and photography. Just click on the cover image below.

There should be a link to the PDF on that page, or you can download it directly right here. The print version of the magazine is not free, but at only $8 for 150 pages of brand-new fiction and poetry, it's a pretty good deal. Order it directly from CreateSpace here or from Amazon here. I'll be picking up a couple copies myself!

Mini-Synopsis #

"Mixed Signals" is a humorous sci-fi tale about someone down on their luck, romantically and economically. He soon discovers he has a whole lot more he should be concerned about when a crosswalk signal sends him on a convoluted scavenger hunt through the city. Yes, a crosswalk signal.

I borrowed that photo from Miami University -- surprisingly, even though I'm writing stories about them, I do not have a photo of a crosswalk signal on hand! The short story hinges on a speech from which I took inspiration from that television masterpiece, Mork and Mindy. I, indeed, was revising that particular scene around the time of Robin Williams' death, and that encouraged me to go all in, embracing the potentially cheesy, but ideally moving, moment. Here's the first paragraph:

Ka-kink. Ka-kink. Ka-kink.

Some guy’s hand flew to the crosswalk button as though a magnetic force drew him, a few feet from where I sat at a sidewalk café table. Dressed like a hippie and smelling like it too, he spit out the words, “Callin’ in, Cap’n. Callin’ in.” The syncopated rapidity interfered with the vibe of melancholic freedom I’d been cultivating. That morning, Alvarado Construction had pink-slipped me. Three weeks earlier, my girlfriend, Jolanda, had broken up with me, screamed me out of her place with complaints I didn’t understand her love language, and no, she didn’t mean Spanish.

But I was over it. Completely.

Go read! And please share with me your thoughts on the story. Or better yet, review Typehouse Literary Magazine Issue #9 on Goodreads or Amazon!

And the Next One is... #

"Mixed Signals," while I hope it entertains all you lovely readers, is not all I have coming up the pipeline for you. Stay tuned for more announcements throughout September! In the meantime, have another picture of an important piece of the "Mixed Signals" narrative.

Image from the World Scout Shop

This Friday night, you can catch me reading as part of the final reading session for the Spring group of Liminal Writers in Residence!

What: FINAL Reading - Spring Writers in Residence and Workshop Attendees Where: Liminal, 3037 38th Avenue, Oakland When: Friday, 7/8, at 7:00 pm

I will be reading from "Garbage," a humorous sci-fi tale that I've been chipping away at for quite a few years, including during the last two months at Liminal. It never fails to draw laughs from readers, so I'm pretty sure an audience will react the same! I'll be going on right at 7:30 pm, when the actual readings start, but I'll be sticking around throughout the night's program, as listening to this diverse and talented group of writers is always a worthwhile evening.

Here's the Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1761472000741686/

I will not be continuing with the Liminal Writers in Residence co-working program after this, as I am shifting my focus to the speculative fiction community in the Bay Area, but I will make sure to come out and support Liminal's events whenever possible. There's always something happening at that great space for female writers of every stripe and background.

Hope to see you Friday!

I am thrilled to announce that my next science fiction short story will be published my Typehouse Literary Magazine! Typehouse is put out by the People's Ink, a writers' community based in Portland, Oregon, and it's been published three times a year since 2014.

The short story that Typehouse accepted is "Mixed Signals, or, Learning How to Speak," which is a humorous but poignant tale that first dawned in my imagination from years of observing all the different ways in which people approach crosswalk signals. Yep, you read that right. Crosswalk signals.

Here are the first few lines:

Ka-kink. Ka-kink. Ka-kink.

Some guy’s hand flew to the crosswalk button as though a magnetic force drew him, a few feet from where I sat at a sidewalk café table. Dressed like a hippie and smelling like it too, he spit out the words, “Callin’ in, Cap’n. Callin’ in.” The syncopated rapidity interfered with the vibe of melancholic freedom I’d been cultivating...

I will, of course, update this post when publication information is available, which won't be until close to September. In the meantime, let me leave you with a photo to stimulate your own imagination as to what this short story may contain:

Tonight at Liminal, a feminist and womanist space for writers in East Oakland, I'll be reading the Salvation of Soup, a personal essay I'm working on. Since mid-April, I have been a Writer-in-Residence during Liminal's new co-working hours, and you can continue to find me there through June from 1 pm to 5 pm on Wednesdays! If you identify as a woman and you're interested in checking out a supportive co-working space, Liminal is a great option. First time drop-ins are free, and monthly memberships are available at very reasonable rates.

As for tonight's reading, which yes, I should have posted about earlier, it's an evening of Liminal's Writers In Residence sharing works that we've been pecking at for the past few weeks. I wrote the first draft of the Salvation of Soup last spring, and I've been slowly gleaning out the filler -- I originally wrote it for a submission call that asked for 1,000 words more than I really thought this essay should be. So I think I'm getting closer to my original intention!

In addition to hearing our WIPs, tonight is also the closing for Sheri Park's art exhibition Wear & Tear: Living Woman. Art response pieces to her work and an art journaling station will be ongoing. Doors at 7, readings begin at 8! Come out and buy some art and lend me your ear!

Full details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1707493082822085/

I am excited to announce that I’ll be participating in a literary reading in one week with At the Inkwell! Giving readings is one of my favorite parts of being a writer, though I also get just a little bit of stage fright before it’s my turn at the mike, so familiar faces in the crowd are always helpful. I am one of five authors reading on 2/29 at Alley Cat Books (3036 24th Street, San Francisco) from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

I’ll be sharing “No Crossing,” the prologue to what will eventually become my third book. The theme of the reading, appropriately, is Leap Year. I considered writing a personal essay for it, seeing where inspiration led. But then I remembered "No Crossing" patiently waiting in my virtual manuscript shelf for me to write the rest of the book. It'll have to keep waiting for that narrative, but the prologue ties in wonderfully to the Leap Year theme, with a giant canyon to surmount and the shattered and re-building faith of a young girl learning that adults don't always tell the full story. Regina takes a leap at the end into what will someday be her own story ... when I write that part. ;)

Full information on the reading, along with my bio and those of the other authors, can be found here.  Let me know if you plan to come!

As those of you who've read my short story, "The Cold, Hard Facts of Life," already know, the One Word Story Project didn't quite come together this year. But that doesn't mean that its participants didn't write great fiction! So here are links to two more of the short stories written for the project, hosted on their authors' websites for free. Like I did, they wanted to release these one-word-inspired stories out into the world!

First, Anya Davis's "the Kindness of Kingfishers" uses halcyon as the inspiration for a love story, one perhaps doomed from the start but blessed with a beautiful use of language to tell it.

Second, Darci Cole gives us "Boys, Baseball, and Biology," all subjects that often appear obfuscated to me. There's plenty of adolescent miscommunication in this one...and plenty of cute, adolescent hormones as well. Yes, I just called hormones cute.

Finally, you can read four stories published on Team Hellions for the project, all in one place! Of them, Eve Jacob's "Akasha" stood out for her entertaining duo of space-faring sisters on the hunt for a book on an ancient Earth religion. Rob Kristoffersen's "Home is Where the Haunting Is" also painted a haunting portrait of the lingering effects of divorce.

Enjoy!

In November, I stumbled across Rob Kristoffersen's (@kristoffrable) One Word Story Project while browsing my Twitter feed. A group of authors writing stories each inspired by one word? Sounded like a lot of fun!

I'd been looking for ways to share my fiction more often, as I had limited myself to publishing stories only with professionally rated Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America outlets, and I wasn't feeling satisfied by the awesome, yet limited, opportunities they provide. So Rob's project seemed perfect! As he's a contributor at Team Hellions, a geek website covering a wide range of fandoms (even wrestling!), the stories will be hosted there.

And the first one is up today! Fittingly, the series begins with Rob's story, "The Home is Where the Haunting Is," which is inspired by the word epicedium: a funeral dirge. Click on over to read this tale, which, like my own, is a haunting story with marriage at its forefront. Rob's tale is an affecting look into the aftermath of divorce, and it ends especially strong.

There will be a new One Word Story up at Team Hellions every weekday for a month, through 2/11/2016. My own is inspired by misogamy: a hatred of marriage, and I'll tell you when it's up, of course!  But I'll also point you over to the site whenever I especially enjoy the other writers' stories.

Hey, it's not a holiday season without an obligatory "Buy My Work!" post from an author. I swear it's in the contracts we sign in blood with our publishers...somewhere...I seem to have misplaced them.

Oh, I think I remember where...

In 2015, I added two new opportunities to purchase my work, which is one way of saying some very lovely people agreed to include me in their collections -- some even paid me for it! One is a short story in a magazine and one is a contribution to a cookbook...a cookbook with quite illustrious co-contributors from the Speculative Fiction galaxy. Being a member of a professional organization comes with some perks, just sayin'.

Consider this my purchasable compendium, reverse chronological order! Collect all five! And come this time next year, there will be a novel to add to this list, one way or another...

1. Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook

Fran Wilde and Cat Rambo edited this collection of 150+ recipes from speculative fiction authors of the past, present, and maybe even future. In it, you can find my Seared Peaches with Prosciutto and Basil; it comes with high acclaim from the NC Research Triangle area spec fic community. Purchase the cookbook from the SFWA website here or from Amazon.

2. "Thlush-A-Lum" in PULP Literature Issue #5

"Thlush-A-Lum" is pure horror that would qualify as flash fiction in most markets. The story came about when I challenged myself to write something more focused on the sense of sound than the other four I more commonly use in my writing. Many of those sounds are inspired by what I could hear from my own Southern bedroom window…and a few sounds that I swear I’ve been able to hear no matter where I’ve lived.

Purchase Issue #5 from the PULP Literature website or from Amazon.

3. "Blow 'Em Down" from Beneath Ceaseless Skies Double Anniversary Issue #131

"Blow 'Em Down" is the story I describe as a steampunk retelling of the Battle of Jericho with a jazzy feel circa Harlem Renaissance. It's been taught in a college class and brought me some of my highest compliments, so I certainly think it's worth the read. Beneath Ceaseless Skies is not available in print, but the e-magazine can be purchased through Weightless Books or on Amazon.

4. "Bother" in Bull Spec #5

"Bother" was the cover story for Bull Spec #5, and I'm honored to this day that the highly regarded Richard Case chose to illustrate it. It's urban fantasy about how a couple survives, or doesn't, when a dragon comes to roost on their city block. Luckily, there appears to still be back issues of Bull Spec available, although the magazine has shifted to a web-only presence. Order Issue #5 here or an e-version from Weightless Books here.

5. Maya's Vacation

The contemporary romance novella I never expected write, Maya's Vacation came to be in a dream about frying chicken, and I fleshed that dream out into the story of a woman in her fifties rediscovering herself after a divorce and relearning what she used to love through food, paint, and an old flame returned. Maya's Vacation, published by Clean Reads, is available on Amazon. Warning: No sex scenes in this romance! Just unrequited longing. Or is it requited? I'll never tell.

I may also mention that anything you buy that features my work is a gift to me as well -- word of tongue can only spread after eyes on the page have done their business. Of course, I also have plenty of fiction free to read online as well -- just click over to the Creative section to find it. Thank you for your support, and I hope to keep entertaining you in the future. I'm pretty sure I'll have some snippets to share by the end of next week as well...

Happy holidays, from me and Ben!

About two weeks ago, my first guest blog for Localwise went up! Localwise, you say? What's that?

Well, my friends, it's a Berkeley-based start-up that's essentially a classifieds board for local jobs. They began with listings in Berkeley and Oakland only, but after six months of operation, they've expanded to Alameda, Emeryville, and San Francisco with more Bay Area locations in the works.  The site is easy to navigate and a much preferred alternative for local businesses and applicants over that other free classifieds site. You know the one.

That's great, Becca! But what does that have to do with you? You write about food, drink, and travel, not job hunting!

So true. But one of the most appealing aspects of Localwise is their commitment to building community in the Bay Area, because knowing your neighbor and neighborhood business owner generally tends to improve everyone's quality of life. As part of that goal, Localwise runs a blog that highlights local businesses, job profiles, and the food & drink scene. Why that last item? Because food industry positions make up around 2/3 of Localwise's job listings at any given time. That's right--2/3! We like to eat here, folks. We like to eat a lot.

[caption id="attachment_24878" align="aligncenter" width="500"] And drink. Definitely drink too.[/caption]

Perhaps you can see where I come in now? Along with a few other Bay Area food & drink bloggers, I'll be contributing short articles to the blog on at least a monthly basis. My first one touched on three of the newest food joints in Oakland's Temescal neighborhood.

[caption id="attachment_24877" align="aligncenter" width="500"] The chicken-cherry sausage at Rosamunde Sausage Grill.[/caption]

It started like this....

Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood has no shortage of restaurant options, and in the last six months, it’s added three more to its roster. Two of them are brand-new locations, and one is reimagined, but all three are worthy of your gastral attention. Ranked from fastest out the door to least likely to kick you there, here are Temescal’s newest eateries:

And you can read the rest of that article over at Localwise. I'll let you know at the Gourmez when the next one goes up!