The website of author Craig Laurance Gidney
The Google Doodle today features the late Octavia E. Butler. She is one of my muses. Her bleak, imaginative speculative fiction thematically explored the trauma of oppression. She’s known as a Science Fiction writer, but she also wrote horror (Fledgling, and Clay’s Ark qualify).
I heard OEB speak twice. She didn’t read from her fiction. But her speech was as powerful as her fiction. You read my blog post about her speech here (The Parable of Octavia E. Butler).
She was taken from us too soon.
I’ll be reading with Melissa Scott (author of Shadow Man, the City of Astreiant Series); Brit Mandelo (author of We Wuz Pushed: On Joanna Russ and Radical Truth-Telling and numerous short stories); A.M. Dellamonica (author of The Hidden Sea and Indigo Springs series). It will be moderated by Lara Elena Donnelly, author of the deco punk novels Amberlough and Armistice. Hope to see you there!
I just came from Balticon, where I had a great time both as a panelist and an audience member. It was great to be among a group of people who were enthusiastic about the various genre fandoms. The con did a good job of making a welcome atmosphere for LGBTQ and POC folks, and had a robust harassment policy posted prominently. My panels were evenly spread and not back-to-back, and I had plenty of time to chill out. In fact, my Saturday schedule was basically empty! But I noticed something: I was exhausted by 10pm each day, even during the light schedule days. And by exhausted, I mean fatigued. Bone-deep tiredness, the type where your eyelids feel like they have weights on them. When I got in bed, I immediately fell asleep as if I had done strenuous exercise. It was beyond just the normal con fatigue.
And that’s when it dawned on me—I was experiencing the physical toll of social anxiety. I have a mild form of anxiety, one that I am finally addressing in treatment. I never feel like I belong. I am awkward in crowded social situations (such as room parties!) and find that I need some time alone after being social. I will often go up to a con’s Green Room just to be alone.
I am writing this for a couple reasons. One, to apologize for any aloofness/unapproachability vibe I radiated. Secondly, I want to kind of raise awareness about this issue. Much of the reason I go to cons is for networking. And networking is one of those things you must do as an author. Face-time with editors and authors are as important as submission in this business. And I know that I have missed connecting with other people because of this condition of mine. Finally, I think this is an important signal-boost the issue. I tweeted that “Networking for the Socially Anxious” should be a panel topic.
The recording of the Outer Dark Symposium panel I was on, The House on the Borderlands/La Frontera, is now available to listen to on the This Is Horror website.
A description of the panel:
In this podcast The Outer Dark presents the first installment of The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird 2018 including “The House on the Borderlands/La Frontera” Panel, moderated by David Bowles and featuring Rios de la Luz, Craig Laurance Gidney, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Scott Nicolay, and Tiffany Scandal, plus Readings by David Bowles and John Claude Smith. These segments were recorded live on Saturday March 24 at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. The podcast also includes all-new exclusive News from The Weird with Max Booth III and Lori Michelle from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing.
Also, I will be at Balticon this weekend. My schedule is posted below.
I will be attending Balticon Memorial Day Weekend (May 25 – 28). My schedule is below.
A friend of mine found a copy of my YA novel BEREFT in a Little Library. Here’s hoping that it finds a new reader soon!
The 2017 Shirley Jackson Award Finalists have been announced. Congratulations to all of my colleagues!
I’m am beyond pleased that the Looming Low anthology (ed. Justin Steele and Sam Cowan, Dim Shores) has been nominated.
The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird, held last month in the Bay Area, was covered by Locus, the trade magazine for the speculative fiction genre. You can read up about the event, and even see a couple of pictures of yours truly in the latest issue (May 2018).
