Giftmas 2019

It’s that time of year again… GIFTMAS! This yearly fundraiser put together by Rhonda Parrish (Editor extraordinaire and generally awesome lady) is a blog tour that raises money for the Edmonton Food Bank in Edmonton, Alberta. There is also a raffle, but more on that in a sec.
Thanks to the wonders of buying in bulk, every dollar raised in this fundraiser will provide three meals to hungry people. And since the money they are raising is in Canadian dollars, we Americans get more bang for our buck, to quote Rhonda.
This year, there is also a snowman drawing contest! More details on that here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/snowman-drawing-31876321

Now, onto business. Here is the main link to the fundraiser. We are trying to raise $1000 this year, I know we can do it with your help. http://bit.ly/Giftmas2019

Want to enter the raffle and win fabulous prizes? My contribution this year is 100 tiny glow in the dark alien figurines. http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/bc98f9ba16/


I have no personal stake in this. I have never gone hungry, I have never been to Edmonton. I volunteered to help a few years ago because Rhonda was one of the first editors I worked with and I wanted to help her out. But it is really important to me because I know I am helping feed people even if I have never met them, even if I never will meet them, I am helping them. So I’m going to ask you to donate if you can, and if you can’t, please share these links with others. We are doing good and having fun doing it.

So now that the important stuff is out of the way, I guess it is time for my blog post.

 I’ll be honest, I was not sure what to write for this blog post. I’ve been part of Giftmas for… What, three years now? And I always struggle to write a good blog post for things like this. I always think I should be funnier, more heartfelt, less serious, more serious…

So I’ve decided to just talk about Christmas.

This Christmas is going to be different than any Christmas I’ve ever experienced. In February of this year, I moved out of my mom‘s apartment. Our relationship was not good, even though it was really good sometimes, And even though I still really miss the good times, because she was abusive. It is still hard for me to write those words, because I know there are people reading this who wish I would not put family business on the Internet. But this is my life.

When I was young, Christmas was magical. Trees and decorations and presents and chocolates. Believing in Santa and going to my friend‘s to celebrate with her big family, watching Rankin Bass specials.

That slowly stopped. There was no one year where we stopped doing that, we just… Tapered off. And this year, I was told that when I was young, my parents didn’t think I was going to live to be an adult. Every few years, they were told I might live a little bit longer than they expected.

Those years roughly corresponds to when we started tapering off. It might be a coincidence, but I don’t think so. I think they were trying to fit in as much Christmas as they could while I was still alive. It’s sad. It almost ruins the memories of those piles of presents. Almost.

Around the time I became a teenager, Around the time they were told I might Have a normal life expectancy, and around the time my parents got divorced, Christmas just stopped.

I still wanted Christmas. Maybe I didn’t believe in Santa anymore, but I believed that we could still have Christmas. I kept trying. Except… We weren’t friends with my friend and her big family anymore, we didn’t buy presents, putting up the tree became such a hassle that my mom didn’t do it anymore.

For over half my life, I didn’t celebrate Christmas. We didn’t listen to Christmas music. Even if it came on the radio, it would be turned off immediately. It felt like a holiday version of that town in footloose that banned dancing.

My last Christmas at home, I don’t think we did anything. I don’t think we even acknowledge the day. I don’t think I even bought a present for my cat. We just did not do Christmas.

Then I moved out. It was planned and unplanned, a long time coming and spontaneous, something I had prepared for and total chaos.

I live in a group home. I am slowly, at the age of 29, figuring out how to be an adult. I decided I should buy presents for all of my family who was so awesome while I was moving out, but I wasn’t really doing Christmas.

And then I thought about buying presents for my housemates. Maybe a card for one or two people, if I found a really awesome card for them. But still. I wasn’t doing Christmas.

Then suddenly, I’m humming along to Christmas music. Not necessarily because I wanted to, or because I felt like I finally could, it just. It just happened, and it felt good, And no one thought I was weird or wrong for doing it, So I sat in the main room of my group home with housemates and staff and we belted out Christmas songs.

I’ve been watching Christmas specials, I helped decorate the house, I’m buying a Christmas shirt. Sooner or later, I’m going to have to accept The fact that I am doing Christmas this year.

I don’t know what it’s going to look like, I don’t know what it’s going to feel like. I don’t have any cherished traditions anymore, but I think I want to make some.

Not sure what happened to the font there. Anyway.

If you want to follow the rest of the blog Tour, Here Is a helpful Little schedule

Dragon bikes Kickstarter!

Hey, real quick post.

I have a story in a book about dragons and bicycles and feminism… In… SPAAAACE! We are currently kickstarting it, and have a week to go. If you want to help out an amazing publisher, Pay some authors, and get a super cool book in return, please consider contributing to our Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ellyblue/dragon-bike-fantastical-feminist-bicycle-stories?ref=dw01dv&token=3e277b14

Seven sisters

 Light pollution. That’s the name for  what happens when man-made lights outshine the stars.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1082094439/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_3905707922?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&ie=UTF8&pldnSite=1

 Seven Sisters  is… I’m not really sure how to explain it. Is it a story about the Pleiades star cluster? Yes and no. Is it about the power of mythology?… Kind of.  Is it a metaphor that tells the story of a teenage girl coming to terms with her father‘s death? I honestly don’t know if it’s a metaphor or not.  I just sort of…  decided to write a story about stars  going dark,  and this is what I ended up with.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a beautiful story and I love it. I’m just not sure what my intention was with it, and I’m not sure just how much of the story was real and how much was imaginary. I think every reader will get something different from the story, but here is what I personally get from:

It sucks to lose a parent. Both of my parents are still alive, but I’ve still lost them  because they aren’t in my life anymore. Not in any real, concrete way  like they used to be.  So what do you do when the people you have relied on your entire life to protect you…  are just gone one day? What do you do? How do you deal with these emotions?

 The relationship between a father and daughter in my story is very much based on my own father and I. We were best friends, he loved science and making up stories, and then he just wasn’t part of my life anymore.  It was for the best, at the time, but I still went through long periods of missing him and wishing I could ask him for advice when life got complicated.

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters cover reveal

I’m excited to get a chance to show off the cover of  Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters, edited by the amazing Sarena Ulibarri!

 My story, Oil and Ivory,  is one of 17 stories in this ecologically-minded anthology of science fiction. It features hey hi tech Inuit community trying to save migrating narwhals while also battling an oil spill. My original title while I was writing the first draft was “Ferngully, but with narwhals.“

The book is  going to be published on January 7, but  pre-order now and save!

https://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p169/Glass_and_Gardens%3A_Solarpunk_Winters.html

Names

 It’s hard being autistic, especially in the old west. Sensory issues, uninformed attitudes, the fact that you can’t defeat a skin walker without looking in the eyes…

Beck Benally is peculiar.  She does not like to make eye contact, she hates to be touched, and she refuses to say anyone’s real name, choosing instead to give them nicknames whether they like it or not.  Most of the town wants her to change, but she doesn’t really care… That is, until a mysterious creature kills someone she knows. You see, Beck might just be the only person in town who knows how to defeat a skin-walker...

Unfortunately, the trick is that you have to look them in the eye. And say their real name.

 Names is a story about being different and still being awesome, about accepting yourself, and about finding the people who aren’t annoyed by your peculiarities.

Beck is basically me when I was thirteen.  Write down to my weird fear of saying names. I loved fantasy fiction and mythology, but the way you defeat most monsters wouldn’t work for me. I thought you had to be physically strong, which I am not because I’m disabled, or you have to look someone in the eye or say their name or any other thousand other things my disability and autism wouldn’t let me do.  Were people like me not allowed to save the day?

On the rare occasion that a character would share my peculiarities, they always defeated the monster by overcoming them. But autism isn’t a thing to overcome.  Sure, there are a lot of annoying things about autism that get in my way every day, but I can’t have a magical cure and I wouldn’t want one anyway because… It isn’t something to cure. It’s me. So I decided I needed to write about a character who finds a way to work with her autism, not overcome it, to defeat the monster.

 I wrote the story before I moved into the group home where I live, so the uncomfortable friendship between Beck and Blue wasn’t based on anyone in particular.  In fact, when I wrote it, it felt like pure fiction to me. I did not think anyone could really be OK with all the weird parts of me that everyone else hates. And then I met the people who work at my group home. A few in particular. They don’t always “understand“ why I am the way I am or why I’m acting a certain way, but they accept it and love me anyway.

So I am deciding that Blue is retroactively based on my favorite people here. :)

 Names is available in Nothing Without Us, an anthology edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson which features  disabled characters, neurodivergent characters, spoonie characters, and characters who live with mental illnesses, written by authors who also fall into those categories.

(Cait is also one of our Space Opera Libretti authors!  Expect an update about that project soon!)

 Read more about the book and find out where you can purchase it here: https://nothingwithoutusanthology.wordpress.com/2019/09/30/nothing-without-us-is-now-available

Breadcrumbs and Sugar Houses--a new, free story

 Good morning!

Grimm, Grit, and Gasoline is a new anthology of  fairytales with a 1910s-1940s  Science fiction twist. And I… Well, I am not in it.  But the editor still loved my story so much  that she is publishing it  as a standalone short story to promote her book.

And I  can’t wait to read the book, because my friends Lizz and Jen are in it!  But  i’m sure I will have plenty of good things to say about their stories after September 3, when the book comes out. Let’s get back to my story for a moment.

Breadcrumbs and Sugar Houses  is loosely based on Hansel and Gretel,  but from the witch’s point of view.  You see, witches  aren’t actually evil. That’s just what the people in charge want you to believe. It’s all a conspiracy.  And it’s not the only conspiracy in town.

Mama Dulce runs a speaksweetly,  One of the only places in Boston where you can sate  your sugar fix now that the sugar prohibition  is during its second year.  See, witches  are usually beautiful fat women who use sugar to do magic,  so a bunch of bigoted politicians decided sugar is unhealthy. Immoral even.  And now a couple Bureau folks are on her tail, looking for any reason to paint Dulce as the villain they want her to be.

 Well this witch ain’t going down without a fight,  and she is determined to become the author of her own story.

Breadcrumbs and Sugar Houses features magic, robots, and a hell of a lot of molasses.

 Download your free copy here:   

https://click.mlsend.com/link/c/YT0xMjI4ODg4Njg5MzI5ODM4MDA3JmM9aTJsMyZlPTE5MjgmYj0yNzE5Nzk0ODYmZD1sMXE0cTZw.mlLJcy6Hy6GME_SJGeyzuWeQRREMLyXT2larRuAfbGI

 And if you like this kind of story, consider pre-ordering the anthology. 

https://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p165/Grimm%2C_Grit%2C_and_Gasoline.html

Pocketful of Souls author interview

 Hey look, I did an interview with Luna Station Quarterly about my smol demon child story “Pocketful of Souls”!

http://lunastationquarterly.com/issue-038-author-interview-jennifer-lee-rossman-and-pocketful-of-souls/