Category: blog

Twenty years

Twenty years ago today, I met Nicola Griffith. Since then, we have drunk a hundred thousand beers, a million cups of tea, never run out of conversation, made excellent friends, had excellent adventures. Twenty years of helping each other do her best work, live her best life, be her best self. Today we celebrate.

Nicola & Kelley 2007

Honey, this one’s for you: Crystal – Fleetwood Mac

Do you always trust your first initial feeling?
Special knowledge holds true, bears believing.
 
I turned around
And the water was closing all around like a glove.
Like the love that had finally finally found me.
Then I knew.
And the crystalline knowledge of you
Drove me through the mountain.
Through the crystal-like clear water fountain.
Drove me like a magnet
To the sea.
 
How the faces of love have changed,
Turning the pages.
And I have changed
Oh, but you, you remain ageless.
 
I turned around
And the water was closing all around like a glove.
Like the love that had finally finally found me.
Then I knew
In the crystalline knowledge of you.
Drove me through the mountain.
Through the crystal-like clear water fountain.
Drove me like a magnet
To the sea.
 
“Crystal” – written by Stevie Nicks, performed by Fleetwood Mac

What Stephen King says…

…goes double for me.
 

I look for stories that care about my feelings as well as my intellect, and when I find one that is all-out emotionally assaultive… I grab that baby and hold on tight. Do I want something that appeals to my critical nose? Maybe later (and, I admit it, maybe never). What I want to start with is something that comes at me full-bore, like a big hot meteor screaming down from the Kansas sky. I want the ancient pleasure that probably goes back to the cave: to be blown clean out of myself for a while, as violently as a fighter pilot who pushes the EJECT button in his F-111. I certainly don’t want some fraidy-cat’s writing school imitation of Faulkner, or some stream-of-consciousness bullshit about what Bob Dylan once called “the true meaning of a peach.”
 
— Stephen King, from the Introduction to The Best American Short Stories 2007

Sad week

Although I have a number of cheerful little posts lined up and almost ready to go, it seems wrong not to acknowledge that there is something going on underneath it all, and that’s why I’ve been away from the blog for so long. We did a hard thing, and now we are doing the hard time afterwards. I can’t talk about it right now, but Nicola has.

I’ll talk about it later.

But if posts are a little scrambled for a while, or something feels off, well, there you go. That’s how grief works.

Where are the plumbers in SF?

Kelley,

I just wanted to say I enjoyed Solitaire. It was gripping reading. It annoyed me that I had to put it down to deal with the plumber 😉

Astrid

 

I’m glad you enjoyed it. Heck, maybe the plumber would like it too. Except she wouldn’t find herself very well represented…

Have you ever wondered why there aren’t more skilled tradespeople in science fiction? You can find a fair number of blacksmiths, etc. in fantasy if you poke around the spaces between the royal folks and the peasants, but there just aren’t that many plumbers and electricians in science fiction.

Okay, I’m being a bit disingenuous, I know — but really, science fiction is all about the übercompetent spacefaring folk, or the übercompetent computer folk, or the übercompetent military folk…. either the on-the-outside individual or someone who is part of a large system. There’s not much middle class on any level of SF these days. I suppose the Fringe or the Sprawl or the Hegemony are much more science fiction’s natural turf, at last in novels — all that irresistible world-building. Short fiction is much more of a playground for other kinds of jobs/competencies/categories…

Solitaire isn’t much of an exception, although at the time it was published there wasn’t a lot of SF out there that posited corporate expertise as the core competency of the hero. Still, Jackal is one of the übercompetent, and she goes from high to low with nary a pause in the middle. So there I am, smack in the mainstream of SF in one way, at least (grin).

Nicola’s reading on video

In May, Nicola appeared at Hugo House in Seattle, reading two excerpts from her memoir And Now We Are Going to Have a Party (which, in case I haven’t said it loud or often enough, just won the Lambda Literary Award).

Thanks to the generosity of Nicola’s publisher Payseur and Schmidt, and the excellent skills of the filmmaker David (whose last name I hope to learn someday so I can credit him properly) Wulzen, both readings are on video. Watch below, or follow this link to Payseur and Schmidt.

See for yourself why an evening with Nicola is one of the best ways on the planet to spend some time. Enjoy!

Part One: No Pants Griffith

Part Two: Father Lucy

Nicola won the Lammy!

Last night, Nicola won the Lambda Literary Foundation Award for women’s memoir. It was a lovely event at the Silver Screen Theatre in the Pacific Design Center in LA, attended by many of the best queer writers in the world.

Nicola was awesome. She gave a heartfelt, moving speech that clearly touched the audience. And it was absolutely terrific to see so many people approach her with such genuine admiration and good wishes. A grand evening.

Or, as I love to say, my sweetie rocks!

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees. Thank you to the organizers who worked so hard to put the event together. And thanks especially to all the people with whom we had great conversations and from whom we felt such goodwill.

LA la la

So here we are in LA. Today (apart from a screenplay notes phone call) has felt closer to a vacation than anything I’ve done in years. Not just because of the vacation-like activities (breakfast in the room in a corner between two windows open to an absolutely gorgeous day, shaded by flowering trees, followed by lunch by the pool and a very satisfying hour in the shade of an umbrella reading The Lost Colony and thank you again Scalzi for a really excellent trilogy, I have enjoyed an SF series this much in dogs’ years) — but also because I feel, I dunno… I feel good. That’s not unusual, but it doesn’t always happen when I am away. There are times when the stress of managing the new can overwhelm the benefits of being away from the old. This, so far, is not one of those times.

You can tell I’m really relaxing because I’m not even going to fix that enormous run-on sentence up there. It can just putter on to itself.

We’ve already been made to feel wonderfully welcome by Jennifer (who left us a perfect welcoming gift of fruit, chocolate, water and armagnac) and Lisa (who just published her first book so go check it out, and gave us a lovely dinner and conversation last night, just the sort of thing I enjoy).

In a couple of hours we are off to the the Lambda Literary Awards. Win or lose, it’ll be a massive party of the queer nation, and I’m looking forward to it.

But really I hope she wins!

AfterEllen interview

A new interview on AfterEllen.com with Lillian Faderman, Nancy Garden, Sarah Waters, Sammin Sarif, Val McDermid, Charlotte Mendelson, Ariel Shrag, Amy Bloom, Joan Larkin, Rebecca Walker, Karin Kallmaker, and me.

I love this format — a roundup of writers answering similar questions in so many different ways — and I’m honored to be in the company of all these writers. Sarah Waters is brilliant, Val McDermid is a funny, gracious woman in whose company I’ve spent some really good time, Nancy Garden is one of my YA writing heroes, and so on… It’s very cool to read the thoughts of so many smart, intense women who are so diverse as writers.

The link at the top of the post is the direct link to my part. But please don’t stop with me — here’s a link to Part 1 of the article, and the entirety of Part 2.

Because we should all be able to marry as we choose

Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court ruled that the “fundamental right to marry” extends to same-sex couples.

Nicola and I would marry in a hot second if it were a federally-recognized legal relationship, and this ruling in California is an important step towards that higher goal.

The Office of the Governor of California has set up a hotline for a public opinion vote on this decision. Please call in and support the ruling.

ANYONE can vote in the poll. You don’t have to live in California. You don’t have to speak to a human being — it’s a fully automated system. All you have to do is:

1. call 916-445-2841
2. press options 1 (english); 5 (to vote on a hot topic); 1 (LGBT issue); 1 (vote yes).

If you are lesbian or gay or bisexual; if you have family or friends who are; if you want to be an ally; if you think that we all have the right to marry the person of our choice — then please call in with your vote.

Thank you very much for any support you choose to give. I appreciate it.

Reading May 30 – Los Angeles

Just a reminder that Nicola and I will read at A Different Light bookstore in West Hollywood on Friday, May 30 at 7:30 pm.

If you’re in LA, please join us — and feel free to bring a dozen or so friends. Here’s a nifty flyer (thanks so much, Nancy and Jennifer!) to forward to anyone in the world you think might be interested.

Come hear some stories. Have some conversation. Find out if Nicola won the Lammy. We’ll have fun.