7 Comments

  1. I’m happy that Clarion was such a good experience for you! While I don’t live as far from most of the action as you do, I can relate a little on the community aspect of you post. It feels like next to nothing happens in Canada. There are some awesome Canadian SFF authors, to be sure, but honestly, before I forced my way into the online SFF community, the only person I knew who liked genre novels and writing them as much as I did was, well, my roommate. We can’t afford to travel to cons, and any major publishing events still pretty much only happen in the States and the UK (at least when it comes to the English language market), so sometimes, despite an online presence, it can feel pretty isolating. And you have it harder than I do, with, as you say, time zone and location and language barriers. :/

    So yes, definitely happy that things like Clarion are ways of opening up the world a little bit more.

    I can definitely relate when it comes to what you said about sexuality. Being asexual, I have all the fun of constantly being told, even by professionals, that my sexuality is unhealthy or is a symptom of a problem, or just plain isn’t an actual thing because “everybody enjoys sex.” This is why it was so incredible to read R J Anderson’s “Quicksilver.” Holy crap, an asexual protagonist where their sexuality wasn’t due to religious devotion or sexual trauma, but just a legit sexual preference! It’s an incredible feeling when you see signs that the world is ready, even in small ways, to accept you for who you are, enough to write about people like you. I’m tired of not existing. I’m tired of not seeing myself reflected in media, or of having that reflection look like some sort of fun-house distortion.

    “Write without fear.” I like that.

    • 14468785_10155275918788275_4846562397247002011_o
      Haralambi Markov
      8/23/2014
      Reply

      Tell me about it. I have friends who are into genre, but they enjoy the epic fantasy and I parted my ways with that genre a long time ago. Not much to geek over, plus we get the very old backlist translated. Recent years have been better in terms of translations. Hugs, I don’t know much about the Canadian scene, so I take your word for it.

      I don’t understand why people would assume that they would know better about the lives of others better than the actual people living them. I get that all the time, when people try to hijack my sexuality and turn me into a stereotype. Human sexuality is complex and I see no reason why one manifestation of it would be to not want to do it… But I guess people think that to have sexuality means to have sex in the first place. It’s tiring when you don’t exist in fiction and then when you do, you see yourself represented in ways that make you cringe in secondary/tertiary characters at best.

  2. Sounds like an incredible experience if only for these things alone. Some of the most valuable things can’t be taught, just experienced. So happy that you got the opportunity to go!

    • 14468785_10155275918788275_4846562397247002011_o
      Haralambi Markov
      8/23/2014
      Reply

      I have to agree. I went there thinking about the technical skills I will get, but it turned out to be more of a self-journey than I expected.

  3. 9/5/2014
    Reply

    There *are* people you can hook up with about writing in English over here 😉 Few, true, but there are.

    • 14468785_10155275918788275_4846562397247002011_o
      Haralambi Markov
      9/6/2014
      Reply

      Very, very few. I’ve been looking. Hit me up, Trip. 🙂

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