Or if you don’t, you know me. I write reviews for them sometimes. I’ve even been on the cover once. Now Locus needs our help.
Locus is incredibly important to the science fiction and fantasy community. They are the place we go to know what’s happening in our community and they help those who care about the field know what is happening. They are our journal. Our chroniclers. The place the most successful authors and the up and coming stars or tomorrow have a level playing field, an equal chance at being recognized, written about, taken seriously. They report the up and downs. And when members of our community pass away, they help us remember.
Locus is the only venue that reviews short fiction. This means it is often the first place where emerging writers have a chance to be seen. This levels the playing field so that we don’t just get reviews of NYT best sellers and no one else. They have helped give visibility to so many great authors and stories including in the Locus recommended reading list to help readers find amazing new writers, reaching beyond the well known names to help emerging writers be seen. I think its where a lot of people first heard about me or my work. But, they need our help.
As part of their fundraising campaign, they are offering a ton of excellent perks, SWAG and donor goodies, signed books, chats with authors, and more… including some by me:
Personalized signed copies of my book Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon
A coffee zoom chat with me
A Tuckerization (you get to have your name or any name of your choosing used in one of my forthcoming books or stories)
There are also a lot of perks from may authors far more famous and well known than me that you’d probably enjoy. So go check them out and support them. Or you can even just donate even if you don’t want anything. If you do it now, SFWA has offered to match up to 10k in donations, so every penny donated now is effectively doubled.
So lets all lift up Locus and keep it going. For us.
Its been a hectic 2023 so far. Very hectic. But good hectic. The kind that means there are a million things all happening at once and they are all important so my mind is constantly moving at a million miles a minute. Like I said, hectic. But I like to take a moment to look back and take stock (at least as it concerns my writing and not ye olde personal life where a lot is happening too). So, here are some updates:
An Update On The Electric Mothers: Another award nomination for my story “A Dream Of Electric Mothers” as it was just announced that the story is also a Locus awards finalist! A spectacular thing.
Thank you to everyone who voted. Truly, you guys are the best. As I mentioned in a previous post, “A Dream Of Electric Mothers” was previously also nominated for the Nebula award which was the first spectacular thing. The award ceremonies have now come and gone and you know what? I did NOT win the Nebula for best novelette! Instead I had a great time losing to the excellent John Chu (check out his story, its great), attending the Nebulas conference virtually and meeting some awesome people too many to list out here. Hopefully I get a chance to attend in person one day and say hi to everyone in realspace. But you know that they say about not winning. Try, try, try again. LOL. So to that end…
New Novelette!: I do have a new story out – a novelette in Lightspeed magazine, just published a few weeks ago. Its called “Saturday’s Song”, now available to read for free online here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/saturdays-song/ 3 1
It features the protagonist from my novel SHIGIDI AND THE BRASS HEAD OF OBALUFON. It is a sequel to the Caine Prize nominated Wednesday’s Story and this one is truly a story that’s dear to me so I hope people enjoy it. (is it too much to hope for another Nebula award nomination? Or any other nomination for that matter? Perhaps. But I don’t think its too much to hope that readers connect with this story of Mothers and daughters and Bori spirituality and the chains that bind family together.) Reviews so far have called the story “Beautiful, tragic, and uplifting all at the same time“, “imaginative and original“, and “an interesting tale told in an interesting way“. All of which are things I was going for. I really hope you connect with and keep this story in mind.
I’ll also be doing media rounds soon – in July and August – so expect to see me talking about gods and heists and the nature of belief and mythology at a screen or venue near you. I already did a few that will pop up soon including one with The Halfling And Spaceman Podcast and another with fellow author J Dianne Dotson which are both available for your watching and listening pleasure.
Ignytion!: The SFWA article I wrote examining data about SFF publishing in Africa, called “Preliminary Observations From An Incomplete History of African SFF“, was nominated for an Ignyte Award along with some other truly amazing work by BIPOC creators. I am honored to share this nomination with the African Speculative Fiction Society which hosted the database on which it is based.
Its been truly amazing to have my non-fiction recognized by my own community. And its my first Ignyte award nomination so this is truly special. Can I say I have been Ignyted? (Sorry). Anyway, voting for that award is open now so go check it out and vote for your favorites in each category. There is much stellar stuff on that list you might mistake it for a galactic center.
Pretty damn awesome, right? I have had a lot of joy helping craft this world and editing this anthology so I hope you enjoy what we have created. The book will be out in November and we will be funding its creation through your preorders. Please sign up to support the campaign and you will get awesome perks and goodies including your copy of the book, Sauutiverse art, signed copies from the contributors, tuckerizations and so much more.
And Now For My Next Trick: Like I said, things are hectic. But I am still writing and enjoying it. I have a short story coming out in Analog magazine next month (the July/August issue) called “Blowout” which was a finalist for the Jim Baen memorial prize. Its a hard SF tale set on Mars and I’m really proud of it. I also have a new novelette I just completed the first draft for (another one!) which might end up being a novella once I revise it and flesh out a few things. I have one idea for another novella I’d like to explore and then I’ll head back to my second novel which I have been itching to get back to. There are also a few other stories in the pipeline and some projects I cant talk about just yet but I will. I definitely will. Exciting times indeed.
Wole Talabi 