Crossed Genres -- FUNDED!!

Last night we reached our goal: $16,000.

(Cue fireworks and shrieks of glee!  Also writers, editors, and allies busting moves!)



Work's not done: We've still got more than 30 hours, and we're just a bit over three thousand dollars from our stretch goal of $20,000, which will let us pay writers .07 cents a word.  (Not as much as we would like to pay them, but a start!)

This will draw more submissions to CG, and let us publish even more excellent SF/F by and about women, PoC, LGBTQ people, and other under-represented groups in the SF/F world.

Plus!  Fabulous prizes!

Donate now!

A Poem from My Favorite Poet

Here's a new poem from Dr. Skull.

Hebrew School

New Grounded Parents Post

My latest post is up on Grounded Parents.

Called Default Sexism, it's a different sort of parenting column, being more about the benefits of raising kids right this time.

But also about how much sexism and the patriarchy sucks, yeah. :)

Well, Now. Would You Look At This.

Someone has a story on Daily Science Fiction.

Life on Mars.

Here's a Must-Watch About Right-Wing Terrorism

...and why it gets ignored.



I found this via We Are Respectable Negroes, and you should probably go read the post over there too.

Rachel Maddow, one of our best working journalists, along with Stephen Colbert, runs down the connections between acts of terrorism and sedition among Right Wing groups and individuals, and asks the key question: Why do Far-Right (white) Christian terrorists always get treated as though they are acting alone, as though we don't need to take any further action once we've caught that guy, while every act by a Islamic terrorist or a black man is treated as though his entire culture has committed the act?

And therefore we need to start a War on Terror against that entire culture, or religion, or way of life?

Further, we do know that the Far-Right Christian Extremists are dangerous to the America most of us want to live in*.  So why don't we declare war on them?

(Read this guy and a little about him if you doubt me.)

But How Do I Know I'm A Jew?

Yesterday, as all y'all know, was the first night of Passover.

As we do here as chez delegar, we invited all our non-Jewish friends down to be afflicted with us, though as it developed only Uncle Charger could actually attend this year, and we had a fine Seder*, remembering we had been slaves in Egypt.

The kid has, though, over the past year or two, been getting fidgetty, not to say rebellious, over the whole Jew thing.  "What if I'm not Jewish?" she keeps demanding.  "Maybe I'm not even Jewish!"

"You are Jewish," I tell her.  "That's not something you get to choose."

"You're not Jewish!"

"Right.  Also not something I get to choose."

"But --"

"Your dad is Jewish, so you're Jewish.  That's how it works."

"But it goes by the mother."

"Only among the Orthodox.  We're not Orthodox."

"We're atheists!  And --"

"Most Jews are atheists.  I bet there's more atheists Jews than any other kind."

"But what makes me Jewish then, if I don't even believe in God?" she demanded.

I rolled my eyes.  "This entire argument makes you Jewish.  Two Jews, three opinions."

"I hate that saying," the kid said.  "Why isn't it one Jew, two opinions?"

I laughed.

"You're not funny," she informed me.

"Plus," I said, "every other part of you is Jewish. What do you like to do with your time?  Read.  Study.  Work.  Who do you respect?  People who are smart and educated.  What do you like to do for fun?  What do you like to eat?"

"I like Christian food too," she objected.

"Oh, come on.  Name a Christian food you like."

She pondered.  "Is there any Christian food?"

Which -- you know --- excellent question.

But frankly, only a 15 year old Jewish child would argue about whether she was actually a Jew.




*The menu:  roasted chicken, asparagus, sweet potato tzimmes, gefilte fish, and KFP matzo which we had to have shipped all the way from NYC, since while you can buy matzo in the Fort, you cannot by KFP matzo.  Also, matzo ball soup.  Dr. Skull makes the best matzo ball soup.

New Grounded Parents Post

In which I talk about teaching your kid to talk back.

Raising the Young Skeptic.

Solution

So the problem with the car was exactly what I thought it was: the timing belt blew, and wrecked the engine totally.

The cost to replace the engine would be around $4,500, more than we have (obviously -- we've got about $40.00), and more than the car was worth.

So for now my parents are going to lend us their second car.  We're going to save money until July, when I start getting paid the salary increase (as a full professor).

At that point, let's hope, we'll be able to afford to buy a new-used car.

That's our plan, anyway.

And we're sticking to it.

God, being poor sucks.

Good News, Bad News

So...yesterday was the good news.

And on its heels, we're on our way home from the Harp's yesterday evening, about two miles from home on the interstate, when the car engine makes this utterly horrible noise, and then just quits.

All the lights come on -- the oil light, the battery light, the check engine light.

I managed to get us to the shoulder without getting hit (a miracle itself the way people drive in the Fort), and we called AAA.  It was about 7:30, and the sun was on its way down.  We only have one phone, of course, so we couldn't call the kid and tell her where we were -- she worries, any time we're ten minutes late, that we have been killed on the highway.  We sat discussing what to do, whether I should walk home (very dangerous on the interstate) or just let her fret.

It takes 30 to 45 minutes for AAA to show up, as all y'all who use the service know.  Then you have to call a cab to get home from the auto repair shop.

BUT!

As we're waiting for the tow truck, a Fort Smith Police pulled up behind us.  I was kind of expecting this, since when you're stopped too long on an interstate shoulder, this tends to happen.

Kindly, though, when the police officer heard what was up, she offered to drive me home.  Though she did ask for my license, and (upon finding it had expired almost three weeks ago) gently reproved me and issued me a warning.  Still!

That was the good news.

The bad news, we're now carless, and I expect whatever is wrong with the car is very wrong.  And of course we are (as always) very broke.

It's not like having the washing machine break.  You can do without a washing machine.

You can't do without a car -- not in Fort Smith.

It's kind of grim.

Guess Who Is Now a SFWA Qualifying Member?

Why, that would be...

ME.

My third professional sale, "Life On Mars," comes on with Daily Science Fiction, via email on Monday, and on their site about a week after that.

I joined up this morning.

Hot-diggity, y'all.

Kickstart Crossed Genres

So, this magazine I edit for.  Crossed Genres.  How much have I told you about it?

Maybe I've mentioned it's the Future of Science Fiction.  (Though, to be fair, we have also been accused of trying to destroy the genre).



Maybe I've mentioned we published original fiction every month, much of it by new writers.

Maybe I've mentioned how many great writers we've had in our pages -- Sabrina Vourvoulias, Sandra McDonald, Nisi Shawl, Cat Rambo, Daniel Jose Holder , Alex Dally MacFarlane, and many others.

But what do I love most about our magazine?

Our progressive fiction.  Our commitment to increasing the representation of women, of PoC, of Queer characters and non-binary characters, disabled characters and non-American characters.  (Our future isn't filled with WASPy American males, and we like it that way.)

Plus, we have just become a SFWA qualifying market.

Now you too can be a part of Crossed Genres.

We're running a Kickstarter.  See here for details, but the tl;dr: contribute money, from as little as a buck to as much as you like, and get fabulous prizes!

Chip in now.  Be the future you want to see!

Crossed Genres Issue # 16 Runaway

We've got some lovely stories this month.

"Heart-Beat Escapement" is a steampunkish story about a foundling child whose long-lost father shows up.

"Forge and Fledge" takes to the moons of Saturn, and the troubled life of a corporate orphan.

And our Spotlight Author, Angela Rega, brings us into the world of were-dingoes in Australia.

Oh -- and don't miss this!  A story from our previous issue, David Stevens' "My Life as a Lizard," just got a very nice review at Apex.

ISSUE 16: RUNAWAY (APRIL 2014)

The Heart-Beat Escapement
by Rachael Acks

Forge and Fledge
by Lauren C. Teffeau

Shedding Skin
by Angela Rega

Spotlight interview:
Angela Rega

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- See more at: http://crossedgenres.com/magazine/#sthash.KEDW8cMB.dpuf