Tag Archive for rebecca gomez farrell

Literary Speakeasy – Speak Easy with Me on 5/31!

Tomorrow night (5/31) at 7 pm, I’m reading at the Literary Speakeasy, an awesome collection of writers from many genres, curated by James J. Siegel, a San Francisco-based poet and all-around great guy. Here’s the Facebook invitation.

The Literary Speakeasy takes place at Martuni’s, everybody’s favorite bar for karaoke and fruity, high ABV cocktails on the corner of Valencia and Market in San Francisco. Head straight toward the back room to find us. James always makes sure the energy is warm and welcoming, and I’ll make sure to read you some stories that’ll entertain. My fellow readers this evening will be Rohan DaCosta, Bud Gundy, Chad Koch, and Riss Rosado. There will also be a raffle!

Come take in the unexpected journey through five writers’ minds, with a cocktail as your compass. See you tomorrow!

Moshin Vineyards Salon Series Reading!

Live in wine country? Come check out the Reading Between the Vines Salon Series at Moshin Vineyards in Healdsburg! On Monday, March 19, 2018 at 6 pm, I’ll be reading in Moshin’s tasting room as part of this unique literary series (Full info here).

Reading Between the Vines celebrates the writers in residence for the Writing Between the Vines fellowship, for which I was a runner up last year. Writing Between the Vines is an organization that offers yearly retreats for writers, sponsoring their lodging at the host wineries. Can you imagine the freedom to write unfettered with a beautiful winery for your scenery? Talk about a dream…I really need to re-apply this year!

I do hope you’ll join me if you live in the area. I’ll be sharing wine-soaked selections from my fantasy and horror fiction. Also appearing will be Rick Bailey, a winner of the fellowship:

Rick Bailey grew up in Freeland, Michigan, on the banks of the Tittabawassee River. In college he studied English language and literature. He then moved to Detroit and taught writing for 38 years at Henry Ford College. Sometime after finishing his doctorate, he wrote textbooks for McGraw-Hill: The Creative Writer’s Craft (2009), On the Go (2011), and Going Places (2011). A Midwesterner long married to an Italian immigrant, he has learned the language and food of Italy. University of Nebraska Press published his memoir in essays, American English, Italian Chocolate. And he is currently preparing a second collection of essays, tentatively titled When the Wine God Speaks. http://rick-bailey.com/

Sounds like Rick’s work will have us salivating! See you at Moshin next Monday.

FogCon Appearances 2018!

Find me at FogCon this coming weekend! I’ll be moderating, sitting on panels, and giving a reading during this jam-packed three days of speculative fiction lovers and writers coming together in Walnut Creek.

The Borderlands vendor table will have copies of Wings Unseen for sale, should you be looking to pick up a copy. And I’ll have a pen for signing, of course. Don’t be shy, just come up and ask for that signature!

Here’s my schedule during the con:

Friday, 3/9, I’m moderating The Play Within the Play: An Analysis of Going Meta in Speculative Fiction at 3 pm. Description:

Among many other qualities, Shakespeare was a master of using plays within his plays to amplify his themes and plot arcs. This technique of self-reference has been used for dramatic and comedic effect in many works. Orson Scott Card had Ender Wiggin playing through a story game that ultimately tied into and reflected his “real life” story; P.C. Hodgell has traditional stories in her novels that shadow the main action; Stephen King pulled the ultimate coup and wrote himself into his Dark Tower series as a character, incorporating his struggles with substance abuse into the decay of the universe; Michael Ende’s novel The Neverending Story famously loops in on itself. Is this an effective tool for writers to use? What makes it work and when does it fall flat? Let’s analyze the phenomena!

At 8 pm on the same day, I’ll be a panelist during the Speculative Fiction, Science and the Sacred session. Description:

As scientists learn more and more about our astonishing universe, from the macro to the micro, does science begin to awe and inspire, as religion can? Does religion fall away, or evolve? How does science affect our mood, our hope, and our outlook on life? What might religion look like in “the future” (very scientifically advanced societies, such as in Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series)?

And immediately after that, I’ll be participating in the Broad Universe: Rapid Fire Reading at 9:30 pm. This is the second year we’ve done a rapid fire reading at FogCon. They are a fun way to liven up a reading, cycling through the authors two times, reading short selections rather than a longer work. The variety never stops! Broad Universe is an organization that supports the work of female speculative fiction writers.
On Saturday, 3/10, my final panel will be Wilderness in SFF at 10:30 am. Description:

Wilderness is an interstitial space, existing between cities, roads and settlements. People have held many different views of wilderness form a place to be tamed, to a place to be preserved. Yet the idea of “untouched” wildlands remands problematic. Recent scholars such as William Cronon have questioned if wilderness even exists. How have works such as Lord of the Rings, Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor & Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley engaged with these ideas? How will our changing ideas about wilderness effect new and future work?

Interested in attending FogCon? More info here. Let me know if you’re coming! Though I will not be on the agenda after the Wilderness Panel, I will definitely be at FogCon for the rest of Saturday and likely Sunday, too.

Nebula and Hugo Award Eligible Fiction for 2018

It’s award nomination season among science fiction and fantasy writers! As is the custom, I’m offering a list of my short stories and novel publications from 2017 that are eligible for nomination–yes, that includes nearly all my 2017 publications. Qualifying isn’t that difficult. 😉

If you are a member of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America professional guild, then you may nominate works until February 15, 2018 for the Nebula Awards. Here’s how to vote. If you attended WorldCon 75 and/or registered as a supporting or attending member of WorldCons 76 or 77 by January 1, 2018, keep your eyes on this page, as nominations are bound to open soon and will likely run through March. WorldCon awards the Hugos every year.

I’m planning to attend both conferences, and gosh, it’d be awfully sweet to have an extra special reason to go. 😉 But seriously, the Nebula Weekend is a fantastic professional conference for speculative fiction writers, and well worth your time and money–and you do not need to be a member of SFWA or even a writer to attend. I have never been to WorldCon before, but I am hoping to get on paneling or in a reading session for this one, and I think it’ll be great fun.

Thank you for considering my 2017 published works for nomination!

Here they are:

For the Best Novel category for the Nebulas or the Hugos and/or the Andre Norton Award (Best YA Novel, which appears on the Nebula ballot)

Wings Unseen

Wings Unseen is a YA classic epic fantasy told with modern sensibilities. To fight an invisible foe, three young adults must first fight through their own expectations, beliefs, and shattered dreams to save their shared world. For full information and accolades, head to its page at Meerkat Press.

For the Best Short Story Category for the Nebulas and/or the Hugos

“Treasure”

“Treasure” appears in the Dark Luminous Wings anthology from Pole to Pole Publishing, published October 2017. It’s a fantasy fable that features a thief thrust into a culture very different from her own, so different she has a difficult time believing such a culture is real…. and is under threat of a flying sea monster and the lure of a rock pillar that manifests jewels. More info here.

“Garbage”

“Garbage” is a humorous sci-fi tale about crazy old ladies, immature teenagers, and aliens with an unusual appetite. It has a fair bit to say about what it means to be native and how that shifts over time and with new waves of immigration. “Garbage” appeared in Through A Scanner Farkly: The 2017 Fark Fiction Anthology, which was published in July 2017. More info here.

“Holiday Invasion Trilogy”

I’ve barely had to the chance to tell folks this flash fiction series even exists since its publication in the Holiday Hell issue of Black Heart Magazine. Exist it does, and I’m proud of these one-shot explorations of what a holiday invasion might mean in three very different situations: a morning full of death and poinsettia, a Thankgiving dinner of new dishes and newly embodied relations, and the chaos of Christmas day for one very anxious, superpowered mom. More info here.

Finally,

“What Scattered in the Wind”

This piece of horror flash fiction, done in a poetic prose style, tells of a woman struggling with her biggest regret in life and sentenced to forever re-remember it. It appears in the August 2017 chapbook collection, Little Letters on the Skin, from Cleave: Bay Area Writers and the Liminal Center. More info here.

Best of luck to all the authors out there with eligible work for 2017! May the best of our work get on those ballots.

Order Your Autographed Gifts of Wings Unseen by 12/16!

We’re only 20 days out from Christmas, and thus the time for gift giving is upon us! For $15, you can send a signed, personalized copy of my epic fantasy, Wings Unseen, to anyone you love – heck, it’s cool if you send it to someone you only kind of like, too. 😉

My friends, Paul and Ann, whom I kind of like, I guess, getting their signed copies at my book launch.

$15 includes the book, and my signature and a personal message, filled out from your instructions on whom I should address that message too. It also includes shipping costs! What is Wings Unseen? Here’s my full page on it.

This price is only available until 12/16. After that, I won’t be able to ship via media mail in time for Christmas. But I am happy to use a more expensive shipping option to get it to your loved one for opening under the tree!

Loki guaranteed for good cuddling.

How to order? You can contact me via direct message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram or just email me at becca@thegourmez.com. We’ll discuss payment and shipping methods – either Paypal, Square, or Venmo will work, and I am amenable to other shipping options, but the price will reflect those other options.

Or you can just order Wings Unseen off Amazon! It’s only $12 currently, which is a deal! But that doesn’t include author signature…

Happy holidays, dear readers, friends, and family!

I’m Literally Reading 10/24 at Flywheel Press’s Literally Series!

Woosh! That was my schedule zooming by too fast for me to keep up with it. Thus, I haven’t had time to give my next reading much promotion, but there’s still time! Barely.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday 10/24, I’ll be reading at the Literally series at the Shop at Flywheel Press in San Mateo at 7:00 pm along with author Peter Carroll. Flywheel Press is an art and design center in San Mateo that has fostered a unique creative space in many different forms: as a letterpress studio, a co-working space for artists, a First Fridays destination, an art gallery, and a provider of classes for kids and adults.

If you’d like to share your own work, there will be an open mic afterward, too! And of course, I’ll have Wings Unseen available for purchase, should you like a signed copy. 😉

I hope you’ll join me!

Join me Friday, 10/20, for the Speculative Fiction Cantina Livestream and an At the Inkwell Reading!

I’m going to be busy this Friday promoting my fiction, through two different mediums! You, of course, are invited to join in.

First, S. Evan Townsend will interview me at 3 pm PST for the Speculative Fiction Cantina Livestream and Podcast show.

This show takes place weekly and includes a reading, so I’ll be sharing a selection from Wings Unseen. It’ll be a chance for my “radio voice” to come out, which people have told me I have for most of my life. I’ll be appearing along with author Brian James, and based on past shows, it should be a fun, casual time of speculative fiction appreciation. You can tune in here on Friday at 3 pm PST: LINKY LINK

Second, I’ll be reading for the At the Inkwell Flash Fiction Night, which takes place at Alley Cat Books in San Francisco at 7 pm.

This is the second time I’ll have read with At the Inkwell, which is a national organization dedicated to helping writers get more exposure through reviews and reading series. The Alley Cat Books space is one of the best I’ve been to for literary readings, and I’m excited for flash fiction to be the chosen topic – it’ll give me a break from reading book excerpts! I’ll likely be sharing “What Scattered in the Wind,” which is published in Little Letters on the Skin, and some Halloween-themed micro-fiction I’ve been working on. If there’s time, perhaps “Hobgoblin” will also make an appearance at the mic. More info on the event is here: LINKY LINK.

I would love to see you at Alley Cat Books or know you’ve tuned in to the Speculative Fiction Cantina this Friday!

Dark Luminous Wings Pre-sale for $2.99!

My next short story will appear in the forthcoming Dark Luminous Wings anthology – and I mean forthcoming soon! Dark Luminous Wings will be released on 10/21, this next Saturday.

Synopsis:

From Icarus to Da Vinci to tomorrow’s astronauts, humans have dreamt of flight. Feathered wings. Mechanical wings. Leathery wings. Steel wings. Stories of winged creatures set in graveyards and churches, bustling cities, fantastical worlds, alternate histories, and outer spacet reveal the shifting nature of Dark Luminous Wings…Dark Luminous Wings will set your imagination soaring—but watch out for sharp beaks, piercing talons, and gravity.

Folks who pre-order this anthology of 17 speculative fiction short stories will get a discount on the price! The e-book is currently available for $2.99, which will go up to $4.99 on release day. Dark Luminous Wings will also be available in print for $14.99, which is a pretty good deal on its own for that much fiction. Get either one on Amazon by clicking right here:

My short story in the collection, “Treasure,” in one of the first short stories I wrote when I began my career. Don’t worry – I’ve revised it since then. 😆 I do think it’s one of my best now, though it took a while to find a good home (9 personal rejections, 7 form rejections, 1 withdrawal, 1 acceptance). I think you’ll agree once you read it that Dark Luminous Wings is a great fit.

“Treasure” features a female thief thrust into a culture very different from her own, so different she has a difficult time believing such a culture is real. Can someone raised to distrust everyone around her accept grace and love when freely given it? Is it truly given freely? You’ll have to read “Treasure” to find out what Enkid, the story’s protagonist, makes of these questions…under threat of a flying sea monster and the lure of a rock pillar that manifests jewels.

The first few lines:

Wind thundered past the slats of the storage cabin. Hidden within a barrel of fish guts, the stowaway braced herself for lurching. But when the ship pitched sharply sternside, Enkid knew it was no ordinary squall. A storm this bad would force the captain out of his quarters despite his usual drunken stupor, creating an opportunity to filch the beveled, green-glass vial he wore around his neck. It held hemlock tincture, a rare poison that would come in handy for someone in Enkid’s line of work.

May your dreams be free of dark wings, but your mind prepared to tangle with them.I hope you enjoy the fantasy fable of “Treasure”!

Reading at Shades & Shadows in Los Angeles 9/16!

This coming Saturday evening, I am thrilled (or is it chilled?) to participate in Shades & Shadows, Los Angeles’s only dark fiction reading series:

Details:

8:30 pm, doors open at 8
$10 entry fee. Tickets here.
THERE WILL BE CAKE
At the Mystic Museum
3204 Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA

Click here if you’d like to RSVP at the Facebook event!

Dark fiction, you ask? But isn’t your fantasy novel YA? Well, as many of the reviews can tell you, Wings Unseen is quite a bit darker than some readers expect for YA! I did pitch it as having elements of horror, for both the creatures contained within it and the horrific power struggle in Medua. Believe me, there is plenty of darkness to draw from in the worlds of Lansera and Medua. Now will I go dark horror, dark magic, or darkened halls for my selection? You’ll have to come to find out! This is my one and only SoCal stop on my book tour, so I do hope you’ll make it. If not, stay tuned for the podcast release of the evening’s festivities….which may take a while — the Shades & Shadows crew is about a year behind in podcast production. So you’re best bet is to show up! I hope to see you there.

Wings Unseen is Released!

Wings Unseen, my debut epic fantasy novel, is now available at bookstores and libraries and everywhere online! Here’s a perspective you don’t see of the cover often, the full front and back:

If you’d like to see it in paperback near you, request to have Wings Unseen ordered at your favorite store. Such requests are much appreciated! And so are online orders. You can get it from any of these retailers in paperback or ebook forms:

I would absolutely love it if you would rate and/or review the book after reading as well – ratings are life for authors! We all know we are swayed by them. 😉 So a big virtual hug from Mazu for those of you able to do so.

To celebrate the release of Wings Unseen yesterday, I thought I’d do a reading on Facebook Live…but I have a ton of Wings Unseen readings coming up, so I thought it’d be more fun to share some of my earliest short stories instead. And by early, I meant second to fifth grade. You can watch the video by clicking through to Facebook or click the video to play below:

Ah, elementary school storytelling. I was so precocious. You can also follow the Wings Unseen Blog Tour–full of interviews, guest posts, excerpts, and reviews of Wings Unseen from book blogs–over the next three weeks! Find the full schedule of tour stops here at the Xpresso Books tour page .

Upcoming Readings and Appearances
To promote and celebrate the publication of Wings Unseen, I’ll be reading at or participating in several events over the next few months, and hopefully, one of those will be near you! Here’s the list of where you can find me coming up, including 4 Bay Area appearances in the next two weeks:

8/25, 8 pm, Feminist Spec Fic night at the Liminal Center, Oakland, CA
8/26, 4 pm, Wings Unseen Book Launch, the Octopus Literary Salon, Oakland, CA
8/27, 3 pm, A Trilogy of Shivers, Adventures, and Fantasy, Borderlands Books, San Francisco, CA
9/2, 1 pm, A Reading from the East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Meetup Group, Mad Monks Center for Anachronistic Media, Berkeley, CA
9/10, TBD, SF in SF, Location TBD, San Francisco, CA
9/16, TBD, Shades and Shadows Podcast, The Mystic Museum, Burbank, CA
9/19, 7 pm, An Evening of Speculative Fiction and Fantasy, the Regulator, Durham, NC
9/23, 2 pm, Barnes and Noble, Cary, NC
10/20, 3 pm, interview with the Speculative Fiction Cantina
10/20, 7 pm, At the Inkwell Short Fiction Night, Alley Cat Books, CA
10/24, 7 pm, Liminal Series, Flywheel Press, San Mateo, CA
10/26-10/29, SirensCon, Veil, CO

Events with more information available online are linked – I’ll be adding links as I get more details ironed out as well! I would love to see you in the crowd, and of course, to sign your book! I think I’ll also be posting some musings about the process of book publication once I get the chance to breath…which may not be until October. 😅

Thank you for your support, dear readers, and I hope to see you in the world of Lansera soon!

Page 4 of 11

« 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 11 »