Quick Sips 04/29/2022

Well everything is speeding right along this year, isn't it? At least it seems like there's a bit of a relentless tide of things to do and deadlines to hit these days. I did turn in my latest Locus column (what's that, my fifth already?), and I'm working on finalizing my We're Here intro/editorial. I've got some award jury things to start poking at (for the Eugie Foster) and there's convention programming surveys galore! I'm definitely on programming at this year's WisCon (I'll try to share my schedule sometime soon) and hopefully will be on programming at ChiCon 8 (I have filled out the long questionnaire thing). Meanwhile I booked the hotel for WisCon and need to get on that for ChiCon.

Quick Sips 04/22/2022

Well the good news keeps on coming this awards season—it went public on Monday that I am an Ignyte Award finalist! This is technically my third time being up for an Ignyte, which are probably my favorite awards around at the moment, organized as they are by the incredible Fiyah Literary Magazine. Though it’s the third time, it’s also a first for me—the first time that I’m up for an award as a fiction editor. Because rather than the Critic Award, I’m a finalist as part of the editorial team (with the fantastic C. L. Clark) of We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2020 in the Best Anthology/Collection category. This is a huge honor, and I am humbled to be in some very very great company. Not only to be up with C. L., who is amazing (and also up in the novel category for The Unbroken), but amongst some wonderful other short SFF projects.

Quick Sips 04/15/2022

So I’m a 2022 Hugo Award Finalist!!! More specifically, Quick Sip Reviews is a finalist in the Best Fanzine category, but as I am the editor and sole contributor, that means for the seventh time (and fifth year in a row) I am up for the rocket. I am incredibly honored to be recognized like this and grateful to everyone who nominated me. Thank you!!! That does mean I’ll have to figure out what to do about a Hugo Voter Packet, which will probably be even more difficult than usual, because the structural changes made last year mean that most of my posts were quite similar. I’ll just have to pick some good ones!

Quick Sips 04/08/2022

Somehow we’re already fairly deep into April. How dare! Seriously it’s hard to wrap my head around the year already being a quarter over, but I guess here we are. I don’t necessarily feel all that much closer to my goals of “try to do less other things and write more creatively” but…uh…that’s largely my own damn fault, likely. I mean, it’s probably most to do with general burnout and just not being able to dig myself out of the hole that I created over the last few years. Especially with everything being a fucking crisis, from local elections to world events. But I’m trying. That’s…something.

REVIEW: The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg

I have been fortunate enough to be reading short SFF during a lot of the development and release of R.B. Lemberg's Birdverse stories. And doubly fortunate to get the chance to read the first Birdverse novel, The Unbalancing, which is dropping in September but is very much available for preorders now. Though releasing after the last Birdverse novella, The Four Profound Weaves, The Unbalancing reaches back into the history of the setting to look at the fate of the Star of the Tides, an event that has echoed through the Birdverse. Before I give too much away, though, let's dive right into the review!

Quick Sips 04/01/2022

Where I live spring is trying to make an appearance. The snow is melted, which is nice, but the temperatures are still rather cold. I do wish it would turn over fully to warmer weather because, while I don’t hate the cold of winter, it gets old around March and, well… here we are. The changing seasons has brought some expected and unexpected headaches with it. Car issues that have left us with one car for a bit over a week. Cat issues that have been…not great, though M’Ress does seem to be recovering from here…whatever it was. And I have been getting to some more reading, which is nice. Mostly not-for-review stuff, and there have been some strong issues out from Apex, Uncanny, Nightmare, and more. Good times.