11. People my age who now have kids forgot just how scary the movie is, and brought their young kids, and some of those scenes had the whole theater screaming and crying.

10. People my age forgot just how scary the movie is, and THEY THEMSELVES might have screamed at a couple moments. And by “people my age” I of course mean “me.”

9. Dozens of teenagers whistling the theme music throughout the massive crowded 42nd Street multiplex.

8. Just like when I saw it at age 14, I got to the theater late and it was opening weekend and and I had to sit in the second row. AND IT WAS AWESOME.

7. When Lex said “I happen to be a vegetarian,” at least two people yelled “DIKE.”

6. B.D. Wong is so adorable.

5. As a grown-up, I’m much more able to tune out Jeff Goldblum’s obnoxiousness.

4. #MotherFuckingImax

3. Velociraptor/Tyrannosaurus rivalry. One is the reigning queen, the other is the fresh young ingenue upstart who thinks she’s bad, with her giant razor toe claw and ABILITY TO OPEN DOORS, tryna upstage a bitch, being all “I’M THE SCARIEST!”

2. The velociraptor/tyrannosaurus rivalry gettin settled in the most spectacular dinosaur-ex-machina OH-SHIT-NO-THEY-DI’INT climax EVER.

1. I sometimes forget, but it’s a truth universally acknowledged: TYRANNOSAURUSES ARE THE BEST MONSTERS EVER AND THEY’RE REAL.

I read this story over the summer and fell utterly hopelessly in love, and I’ve been meaning to do a blog post rant about its awesomeness ever since.

The full text of the story is available online, here. Go. The story will convince you of its perfection far better than I could. I’ll wait.

This is a time travel story. It’s a story about the Japanese occupation of China in the 1930’s-40’s, and about the medical testing lab in Pingfang District, which many call the Asian Auschwitz, where thousands of Chinese were murdered in the course of unspeakably horrible “experiments.” And as the story says, “at the end of the War, General MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied forces, granted all members of Unit 731 immunity from war crimes prosecution in order to get the data from their experiments and to keep the data away from the Soviet Union.” If for nothing more than its comprehensive capsule history of this ugly era, “The Man Who Ended History” is worth reading (… really, I gotta say, the authorities at Pingfang were light years ahead of the Nazis when it comes to dreaming up truly horrific things to do to the human body).

Of course no matter how awesome its speculative conceit is, or how important and weighty its subject matter, no story can truly live and breathe without great characters with complex relationships, and “The Man Who Ended History” has those. I loved the time I got to spend with Evan Wei and Akemi Kirino; I found Wei’s dilemma and its ultimate “resolution” very moving.

There’s also a ton of really detailed stuff exploring problems of continuity and consistency between the current governments of China and Japan, and their counterparts of the era of the Pingfang atrocities. I adore that shit, and this story does it so well.

But here’s the heart of why this story rises above “great” and becomes “brilliant,” in my book.

It’s my firm belief that science fiction/fantasy is the only language in which we can discuss human suffering at the staggering scope of genocide. Genocide is the stuff of nightmare; it’s a suspension of all the rules that human beings live by, and we can’t actually attempt to understand it by exploring a fictional world where those rules still apply.  Godzilla is the only way to get our heads around Hiroshima. Octavia Butler’s Kindred is the window through which we can watch American slavery.

This week, I did it: I took the Tumbl.

I often feel the need to justify decisions like this, even if it’s only to myself - YOU HAVE WRITING TO DO! WHY ARE YOU FRAKKING AROUND WITH GIFS OF PUPPIES IN SWINGS AND HORROR MOVIE SCENES REPLAYING INTO INFINITY???!?

So here’s why.

Last week, I had coffee with my agent for the first time. Which was amazing. Because she is amazing. I mentioned that I found it hard to find time to blog, since what little writing time I can claim for myself is typically taken up with the actual prose, the writing and the editing of short stories or my novel.

She suggested that I get on Tumblr.

Now, I’ve been told at least a dozen times before that Tumblr is awesome and I need to drop everything and GET WITH THE PROGRAM RIGHT AWAY. Here’s why it made a difference this time:

Last night, I had the honor of curating and co-MC’ing an incredible lineup of LGBT science fiction & fantasy writers. Carmen Maria Machado (who wrote this excellent writeup on the event), Val Howlett, myself, Richard Bowes, Ellen Kushner,  and Delia Sherman read a fascinating and diverse range of work; I had been worried about having such an ambitious list of readers, but everyone presented tight, terse, strong work and we kept it moving and the whole shebang of six readers was done in just about an hour!!

[CLICK PICTURE TO SEE US FULL-SIZE]

But the real star of the evening was the crowd. SO MANY PEOPLE CAME!!! So humbling to see so many people I know and love - including people who came from California and the UK for this - as well as so many awesome new friends who are fans of queerness or SFFness or both.

Do you know that episode of I Love Lucy where Ricky is tired of hearing Lucy complain about how much work it is to be a homemaker, and says he can do better, and he tries to cook dinner, and he’s making rice, and he puts in four pounds of rice, so of course it overflows and fills the whole kitchen? That’s kind of how last night was. The community organizer in me has been so anxious about there being any empty seats in the house that I did maybe a little bit TOO MUCH turnout work… and the crowd was incredible. Every seat packed; so many people standing up that no one else could even come in the door…people were standing on the January sidewalk with their noses pressed to the glass because they couldn’t get in!

Here’s a glimpse. This was taken at 6:55PM, FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE EVENT WAS EVEN SCHEDULED TO START; by 7:30 forgetaboutit.

This event was a great reminder of what a privilege it is to be part of two incredibly warm, tight-knit, supportive communities - the queer community, and the speculative fiction community. And when they overlap, like they did last night, it’s a beautiful thing. I had originally hoped to shout out all the incredible people who I know, but there were so many folks there who I adore and it all became such a blur that I am paralyzed by the fear of snubbing someone. I’ll just say that the audience had writers I adore, editors of magazines and of books that I love, and millions of my devoted readers like me.

Also, it was a terrific advertisement for the Clarion Writer’s Workshop. None of this would have happened without Clarion. That’s where I met Carmen, my classmate, and Delia, my teacher - the nucleus of the reading. That’s where my SFF writing chops got sharpened to the point where I could write a pretty solid story like the one I read last night. And that’s where I realized how easy and meaningful it is to be a part of this incredible community.

So. If you’re thinking about applying to Clarion 2013, which has an INCREDIBLE roster of writer-instructors, you should consider this a strong nudge from me. And if the time and the money just aren’t there (as they weren’t, for me, for years), you should join me in making a donation to the Clarion Foundation. Because, karma. And because wonderful things like this don’t turn a profit - the tuition students pay doesn’t begin to cover the actual cash value of the food and lodging and UCSD facilities access, let ALONE the priceless counsel and guidance of your teachers and classmates.

DO IT.

A reminder that on Monday, January 7th, 2013, at 7PM, I’ll be reading as part of an LGBTQ Science Fiction & Fantasy Night at Bluestockings Books in New York City.

Time Out NY and Next Magazine BOTH SAY YOU MUST COME TO THIS READING. Or at least that you should consider it. The Facebook event is here.

Speculative fiction is a fundamentally queer enterprise - an exercise in imagining radically different ways of being. Some of New York City’s leading queer writers of science fiction and fantasy - and a few out-of-town guests - will gather for six short pieces exploring science fiction and fantasy in all its wild imaginative weirdness. Featuring: Richard Bowes, Val Howlett, Ellen Kushner, Carmen Maria Machado, Sam J. Miller, and Delia Sherman.

LGBTQ Science Fiction & Fantasy Night

Monday, January 7th, 2013, at 7PM

Bluestockings Books - 172 Allen Street, New York NY 10002

Richard Bowes’ new novel Dust Devil on a Quiet Street will appear on Mayday 2013 from Lethe Press. Minions of the Moon his 1999 Lambda-winning novel will soon be available in e-book and POD formats

Val Howlett is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults program. Her story”The Arf Thing” was the winner of VCFA’s In a Nutshell Short Story Award in the summer of 2011. She is currently working on a YA novel, Underdog. from Tor. Recent and forthcoming appearances include: F&SF, Icarus, Apex, Lightspeed and The anthologies Million Writers Award, After, Wilde Stories 2012, Bloody Fabulous, Ghost’s: Recent Hauntings, Handsome Devil, Hauntings, Once Upon a Time and Where Thy Dark Eye Glances

Ellen Kushner’s first novel, Swordspoint, quickly became a cult book that some say initiated the queer end of the “fantasy of manners” spectrum.  She returned to the same setting in The Privilege of the Sword and its sequel, The Fall of the Kings (written with her partner, Delia Sherman), as well as a growing number of short

stories. Her second novel, Thomas the Rhymer, won the Mythopoeic Award and the World Fantasy Award. She and her partner, author and educator Delia Sherman, live in New York City, with a lot of books, airplane ticket stubs, and no cats whatsoever. www.EllenKushner.com

Carmen Maria Machado is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Unstuck, Indiana Review, Five Chapters, Opium Magazine, and Best Women’s Erotica 2012 (from Cleis Press). She has contributed nonfiction to The Paris Review Daily, The Hairpin, and The Rumpus. She lives in Iowa City.

Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His fiction and essays have appeared in Strange Horizons, The Minnesota Review, Fiction International, Washington Square, and The Rumpus. He is a graduate of the 2012 Clarion Writer’s Workshop, and the co-editor of Horror After 9/11, an anthology

published by the University of Texas Press. Visit him at www.samjmiller.com

Delia Sherman has been exploring history, fairy tale, and gay themes in her fiction ever since her first novel, Through A Brazen Mirror came out in 1989. In collaboration with her partner Ellen Kushner, she wrote the World Fantasy Award nominated novella “The Fall of the Kings,” which they later expanded considerably into The Fall of the Kings.  Delia enjoys teaching, knitting, living in New York City and traveling.

1. “Down, girl!” [to her lady parts] “A bitch is hungry!”
2. “Oh my God, I need to suck a dick.”
3. “Oh shit, I missed the whole song. I thought we were doing the long version!” [during THIS epic amazing performance of my absolute favorite song of hers, La Vie en Rose]
4. “Hello, Mr. Union Man working the lights - can I get the spotlight just on me? [gestures to empty space next to her] There’s no one over here.”
5. “What is his problem? He must be up there getting a blowjob.”
6. “Oh, now he hears me. Are you finished up there? Did you cum? Did they swallow?”
7. “Yes, you sexy mama.” [to the lady who brings her a glass of red wine] “My lesbian moments coming out.”
8. “Some hurricane is supposed to hit New York City. That bitch is following me!”
9. “I’m a church girl. [indicates extremely revealing and vaguely Satanic outfit] This is what I wear to church.”
10. “I KEEP IT TIGHT!”

Grace Jones whipped us into a frenzy USING AN ACTUAL WHIP.

I’m ridiculously excited to report that on Monday, January 7th, 2013, at 7PM, I’ll be reading as part of an LGBTQ Science Fiction & Fantasy Night at Bluestockings Books in New York City.

And I’ll be joined by artists I adore - or am excited to learn more about: Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner and Carmen Maria Machado and Richard Bowes and Val Howlett.

I’ll be posting lots more announcements and updates over the next few months, but for right now… save the date, book your tickets, get excited.

Speculative fiction is a fundamentally queer enterprise - an exercise in imagining radically different ways of being. Aliens and robots and clones and witches and empaths have all been used by LGBTQ writers and readers to gain new perspectives on issues of sexual difference, gender identity, marginalization, and oppression. Some of New York City’s leading queer writers of science fiction and fantasy - and a few out-of-town guests - will gather for six short pieces exploring science fiction and fantasy in all its wild imaginative weirdness. Featuring: Richard Bowes, Val Howlett, Ellen Kushner, Carmen Maria Machado, Sam J. Miller, and Delia Sherman.

LGBTQ Science Fiction & Fantasy Night

Monday, January 7th, 2013, at 7PM

Bluestockings Books - 172 Allen Street, New York NY 10002

Richard Bowes’ new novel Dust Devil on a Quiet Street will appear on Mayday 2013 from Lethe Press. Minions of the Moon his 1999 Lambda-winning novel will soon be available in e-book and POD formats from Tor. Recent and forthcoming appearances include: F&SF, Icarus, Apex, Lightspeed and The anthologies Million Writers Award, After, Wilde Stories 2012, Bloody Fabulous, Ghost’s: Recent Hauntings, Handsome Devil, Hauntings, Once Upon a Time and Where Thy Dark Eye Glances

Val Howlett is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults program. Her story”The Arf Thing” was the winner of VCFA’s In a Nutshell Short Story Award in the summer of 2011. She is currently working on a YA novel, Underdog.

Ellen Kushner’s first novel, Swordspoint, quickly became a cult book that some say initiated the queer end of the “fantasy of manners” spectrum.  She returned to the same setting in The Privilege of the Sword and its sequel, The Fall of the Kings (written with her partner, Delia Sherman), as well as a growing number of short stories. Her second novel, Thomas the Rhymer, won the Mythopoeic Award and the World Fantasy Award. She and her partner, author and educator Delia Sherman, live in New York City, with a lot of books, airplane ticket stubs, and no cats whatsoever. www.EllenKushner.com

Carmen Maria Machado is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Strange Horizons, Unstuck, Indiana Review, Five Chapters, Opium Magazine, and Best Women’s Erotica 2012 (from Cleis Press). She has contributed nonfiction to The Paris Review Daily, The Hairpin, and The Rumpus. She lives in Iowa City.

Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His fiction and essays have appeared in Strange Horizons, The Minnesota Review, Fiction International, Washington Square, and The Rumpus. He is a graduate of the 2012 Clarion Writer’s Workshop, and the co-editor of Horror After 9/11, an anthology published by the University of Texas Press. Visit him at www.samjmiller.com

Delia Sherman has been exploring history, fairy tale, and gay themes in her fiction ever since her first novel, Through A Brazen Mirror came out in 1989. In collaboration with her partner Ellen Kushner, she wrote the World Fantasy Award nominated novella “The Fall of the Kings,” which they later expanded considerably into The Fall of the Kings.  Delia enjoys teaching, knitting, living in New York City and traveling.

I adore Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula series, and I’m so excited that the third installment is coming out. And this interview rocks.

http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/10/scare-a-thon-interview-kim-newman-author-of-dracula-cha-cha-cha.html

Yeah, this shit just never gets old. Looking south/west from Astor Place, Friday, October 12th, 2012.

I know, I know, I’m totally late to the Wind-Up Girl party, but I just finished reading it, and of course I adored it, and even though these links are a few years old at this point I wanted to share them: io9’s great reader-written Q&A with Paolo Bacigalupi, the Guardian’s review of it, and Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing’s interview with Paolo, in which he says, among other brilliant things, “the world would be better if people didn’t exist.”

SF Signal has a great round-up of the Hugo nominees for Best Novel.

Oh, and speaking of SF Signal and Hugos, SF SIGNAL WON A HUGO. Which made me really happy, cuz I think they’re amazing.

AND they do a great weekly roundup of free SFFH, which has some exciting stuff in it this week, like every week.

Some gorgeous Chinese graphic design from the 1920’s and 1930’s, excitingly influenced by the Russians and the Germans, and very sci-fi.

Oh, and speaking of Soviets and science fiction, here’s a rival roundup of Soviet 70’s space magazine covers (World SF blog).

Science fiction from actual scientists!! (io9)

William Gibson talks about his next novel, and the Neuromancer movie, and other stuff. (io9)

Singularity & Co. has a list of September recommendations, current and retro.

A date has been set for the American Godzilla movie, and it’s SO! FAR! AWAY!!! [May 16, 2014!!]

Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross read from their new book, The Rapture of the Nerds, at MakerBot in Brooklyn. My dumb ass got there so late I had to stand on the sidewalk and could barely hear anything, but you, gentle reader, can just watch this great video.

Not SFF at all, but the New Yorker’s excellent blog Photo Booth has a great piece up called “Total War: A New Look at Combat Photography” which perfectly captures the fascinating mix of erotics, horror, machismo, heroism, and fear that make the genre so compelling… and so fruitful, for me, for thinking about fiction.

Trying something new here… as I read great YA books, I’m going to post short breakdowns explaining “Why I” - why I picked it up, why I took it home, why I finished it, and why I loved it.

I’ll start with “Never Fall Down,” by Patricia McCormick, which is a first-person account of a young boy caught up in the unspeakable horror of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia.

WHY I PICKED IT UP

Simple: a great cover. Greg van Eekhout was one of our guest lecturers at Clarion 2012, and he spoke about the challenges (and importance!) of getting publishers to put people of color on book covers. He talked a lot about how vital that is for readers of color, especially young people, to see themselves in the books they read. He’s 100% right, of course, and I know as a young gay reader that it REALLY MESSED WITH MY MIND and my sense of self-esteem and pride when I never read about people like me. But there’s another, more cynical reason that book publishers should have more diversity in cover design: because an unfamiliar face on a book jacket lets all readers know that this is something fresh and new. That’s why I picked up Never Fall Down: I knew it wouldn’t be one more YA story of a WASP coming of age or saving the world.

WHY I TOOK IT HOME The flap sold me: a YA novel about the Khmer genocide???! SOLD. I have a soft spot for genocides. Wait, no, that sounds bad. I hate genocides! But they fascinate me. Because they have so much to tell us about human nature and human history. So the idea of a teenager’s experience in Pol Pot’s Cambodia was really exciting to me.

WHY I FINISHED IT. The voice. The story. The main character. These all work, and they’re inextricably linked. The story is rough and raw and every bit as ugly as any honest depiction of a genocide must be.The voice is fresh and quirky, full of improper English and peculiar cadences that bring Arn to life - a tough scared street kid, trying his best to stay alive to the end of one more day, transformed and deformed by the atrocity all around him and by the ugly things he has to do, but never losing the spark of himself that makes him such a compelling character - and is what allows him to survive.  To be honest the voice was initially tough for me, not because it wasn’t great prose - it was - but because it felt a little too close to the stereotypical English-as-a-second-language assigned to countless Asian characters in less-than-flattering Hollywood films. But by the end I had been convinced, and when I read the afterward, where the author explains how she interviewed the real Arn countless times and found that there was no way to tell his story without his “beautiful, improvised English,” I knew she was right.

WHY I LOVED IT. This book was full of ugliness, but the ugliness never overwhelmed the beauty of the writing and the strength of Arn as a character, the rebellious kid-spirit that could never be broken by the Khmer Rouge, even though they so cavalierly handed out death left and right. Arn is no angel, and he makes the point again and again that he only survived because he did some very bad things, but he also found ways to do good, and these moments of kindness and love and humanity are what carry us through the unspeakable horror. The Afterward, in which Patricia McCormick breaks down how she came to create this book, is the perfect degree of authorial intrusion - not breaking the illusion, but making clear how much was art and how much was artifice.

Took this photo of somebody’s rock sculpture on the shore of Lake Champlain, today - 9/11/2012.

Graffiti, Lower East Side, Manhattan. Photographed August 29, 2012.

Here are some things that are happening in the world of SFF that made me really happy.

Always exciting news: Ken Liu has a new story coming out, in the next issue of FSF - and he published story notes about it on his blog!

Electric Velocipede has a Kickstarter project to fund the next year of its vital awesome, work, and you should go throw em some dough. Because awesome stuff doesn’t just fall out of the sky, it takes work, which takes money.

From St. Petersburg’s SF Assembly, a board game on how to be the best science fiction writer in Russia! And I’m happy to say my vestigial college Russian actually let me read much of it.

Thoughts on Godzilla: the Heisei Era, from Christopher L. Bennett, is exciting because I love getting my Godzilla nerddom bested.

SFWA breaks down SFF podcasting.

Catherynne M. Valente has a new story out in Clarkesworld.

SF Signal discusses best speculative fiction endings.

David Cronenberg has a new movie out, and it’s allegedly closer to the Spider/Crash mode (which I like but don’t love) than the History of Violence/non-SF stuff (which I got no patience for) or the Brood/Scanners/Fly gross awesome body horror/SF stuff (which I adore)… so… that, and the fact that Robert Pattinson is in it, makes me not know how I feel.

Charlie Jane Anders has a list of This Fall’s Must-Read SFF Books, and I’m most excited about Ekaterina Sedia’s “Moscow But Dreaming,” since I adore (and often write) science fiction set in or involving the Soviet Union.

The Apex Book of World SF 2, is out, and looks smashing. Here’s a great intro, from Charles Tan.

Evidently “The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy for Teens” is a thing. AND I MUST OWN IT.

Not technically science fiction, but just as awesome: human organ manufacturing inches closer to reality!!

The Asian American Literary Review has a great interview up with Ken Liu, who I adore. It’s the first in a series that will include my teacher and hero Ted Chiang! (thanks, SPECULASIANS!)

Salon looks at what science fiction writers in 1987 thought 2012 would look like. SFSignal has a great weekly directory of free SF/F/H fiction.

A convention for gay video gamers!!

Philip K. Dick experiences a robotic resurrection.

Nick Mamatas mused on the most ticklish subject in SFF.

Michael Swanwick is doing a great series of free short stories set in the same universe - “The Fire Gown,” the second installment, just came out.

Tor.com did a roundup of summer scifi films. (and incidentally, Ryan precisely nails my feelings about Prometheus: “I was tired of giving my opinion on this movie to friends within one day of it being out. I loved it. I hated it. I thought it was crap. I thought it was beautiful.”)

Bryan Konietzko ran this awesome rough sketch of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Season Three DVD cover…

World Weavers Press has a weekly round-up of SFF that is WAY BETTER THAN THIS ONE, so you should go there now and forget all about this puny insignificant  linklist.

… please don’t forget this puny insignificant linklist