The deadline for submitting nominees for the Lambda Literary Award is rapidly approaching (it's Tuesday).  So this is your last chance to nudge authors and publishers to submit books for consideration.

The better the nominees, the better the reputation of the award, and so the better the reputation of quiltbag literature as a whole.  So, you see, it's your duty to make these nominations happen.

What was your favourite f/sf book with LGBT characters this year?  What memoir made you thoughtful?  What queer poetry made your heart thump?  Any YA fiction grab you?

As you know, I really liked Ash, by Malinda Lo--though, hmmn, should it go under YA, or bisexual, or f/sf?  Tricky...

So, tell me, what would you nominate if you could?  Let's see if we can make it happen for some lucky writer.

This is my last post until Monday.  I might do comments/tweets etc but no actual posts--unless something fabulous or terrible or excessively intriguing happens.  Meanwhile I'll be being thankful (big 'T' for US citizens and ex-pats, little 't' for the rest of us).

I am thankful for my life.  I am thankful for Kelley.  I am thankful for the swarming flock of hot needle birds (I think they're a kind of tit, but their calls are high and sharp and hot) that flicked into the vine maples and hung upside down, chattering, while I exercised this morning.  I am thankful for the colour of the leaves outside my window which are like claret and mango and redcurrant sorbet.  I am thankful for Hild, who led such a very damn interesting life.  I am thankful for my family, ditto.  I am thankful for my friends.  I am thankful for my readers (some of whom have become my friends).  I am thankful for my tastebuds, which are getting a fabulous warmup right now with the scent of roasting root vegetables (oh, *drool*).  I am thankful for all the writers who have been brave enough to let Sterling Editing help: for every single one who didn't flinch when we explained exactly how hard but how joyous, how exciting, their rewrite was going to be.  I am thankful for the world that has all these people and things in it.  May it never stop turning.

And may you, too, have many things and people to be thankful for.

Zadie Smith talks about the essay in the Guardian:

For Samuel Johnson in 1755 it is: "A loose sally of the mind; an irregular undigested piece; not a regularly and orderly composition." And if this looks to us like one of Johnson's lexical eccentricities, we're chastened to find Joseph Addison, of all people, in agreement ("The wildness of these compositions that go by the name of essays") and behind them both three centuries of vaguely negative connotation. Beginning in the 1500s an essay is: the action or process of trying or testing; a sample, an example; a rehearsal; an attempt or endeavour; a trying to do something; a rough copy; a first draft. Not until the mid 19th century does it take on its familiar, neutral ring: "a composition more or less elaborate in style, though limited in range." Which is it, though, that attracts novelists – the comforts of limit or the freedom of irregularity?

I love reading really good ones--but there are so many mediocre essays in the world it's hard to find the gems.  Does anyone have any recommendations?  I like pieces that are willing to range across disciplines, particularly things like history, language, anthropology, economics and neuroscience.  But I'll read almost anything if it's good enough.

I love writing essays, too.  I write them less often since I began blogging.  But I have a lot--and they're all over the map, but they always try to connect the dots of a variety of disciplines and/or genres.  It's been interesting to work with Kelley on the last two, figuring out how to make our (very) different processes mesh.  It's not just that our 'writing' process is different, it's that our personal non-fiction and fiction processes are different, too, and what I know about novel writing doesn't apply to an essay on, say, gendered language.  (I need to rewrite that essay; some of it is wrong.  I know more now than I did then...)

Anyway, as I say, I have a lot of essays now, a book's worth, and was wondering what the market might be like for a collection.  Any thoughts on the matter will be happily received...

From: Cebii

Nicola, have you seen this?  CCSVI= Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency, the condition Dr. Zamboni is researching.

The CTV W5 report: "The Liberation Treatment: A whole new approach to MS" can be seen here: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091120/W5_liberation_091121/20091121?s_name=W5

Multiple Sclerosis Society statement on CCSVI: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/news/news-detail/index.aspx?nid=2206

List of Dr. Zamboni's research: http://www.fondazionehilarescere.org/eng/pubblicazioni.html

CCSVI in Multiple Sclerosis on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/CCSVI-in-Multiple-Sclerosis/110796282297#

If you search CCSVI Zamboni in YouTube you'll get 7 pertinent results: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Zamboni+CCSVI&search_type=&aq=f (procedures included)

Thank you, yes.  I read about the theory some time ago, and saw some initial video at the end of last week.

It makes sense.  It makes a lot of sense.  It ties in with everything I know of how my own MS has responded to various treatments.  It ties in with recent research on Crohn's which has obvious implications for other autoimmune disease.  It ties in (oh, it ties in brilliantly) with my notions about vitamin D.  It offers--for the first time--a possible causative agent, a trigger for MS.

In the past, possible triggers offered by the medical community didn't ring true to me, especially the numbers.  Take for example the Epstein-Barr virus trigger hypothesis.  Most people with MS have antibodies for EBV, researchers said, talking fast, their eyes sliding away.  Not a 100%? I asked.  Well, no, but most.  I said, Okay, then, tell me why a significant percentage of the general population is also EBV antibody positive, yet they're healthy.  No answer.  The theory is bullshit.

So now we have someone who comes along and shows that 100% of the people with MS he has tested suffer CCSVI.  One hundred percent.  Every single one.

CCSVI involves the stenosis (narrowing) of veins, such as the jugular and azygos, that drain the central nervous system.  When the CNS is insufficiently drained, iron deposits build up.  The iron deposits do two things: kill axons (nerve cells) and trigger an autoimmune response.  That is, the person with CCSVI gets MS.

If you fix the CCSVI, that is, reopen the veins and keep them open (remember that part; I'll get back to it), the blood flow is restored.  The CNS is properly drained.  The iron build up goes away.

With the iron deposits gone, the autoimmune component of MS will eventually go away: no more sickness.  The damage already done, both by the iron and the autoimmune response, will not.  So if you're blind, you'll stay blind.  If you're crippled, you'll stay crippled.  But here's the thing: the body is brilliant at recruiting alternate pathways for various tasks, so who knows what function could be regained in unorthodox ways?  Especially without the on-going iron toxicity and the autoimmune disease.

So how does this tie-in with my notions that vitamin D, specifically, vitamin D deficiency, lies at the roots of MS?  Well, vitamin D not only influences the immune system but it plays a role in the formation and maintenance of a healthy venous system.  Double whammy.

I could go on, detailing at length why this makes sense to me (the new Crohn's info ties in, oh it ties in so hard, with my experience of immunomodulation and -suppression and the tuning-up-the-immune-system effects of using LDN, and this info doesn't contradict anything in the CCSVI hypothesis) but that's not really the point of this post.

The point, for me, is that I don't want anyone else to tell me about this: I know.  And I'm having a hard time.  Just because this hypothesis makes sense of every single thing I know about MS doesn't make it true.  And a little hope is a terrible thing.

Do I want it to be true?  Yes, maybe.  Because if it is true, then, oof, I not only have a lot of work ahead, but it might not make all that much difference to me.

If it's true, I have to figure out how to get treated.  It will be years and years before the medical profession accepts this.  Even longer before the health insurance industry will.  So I will have to find a skilled vascular person to map my veins (jugular is easy: it's just non-invasive Doppler sonography; some of the other veins, eh, it can get complicated).  Then find someone to fix the veins.  Then maintain the veins.  The fixing is done with balloon angioplasty.  Balloon angioplasty tends to fails after two or three years; you have to have it done again.  It's not cheap.  (And, remember, right now I wouldn't be able to persuade insurance to pay for it.  Frankly, I'm not sure I could persuade anyone to both mapping my veins, or to operate, either, even if I came up with the money.)

Add to that the fact that the study numbers so far are very, very small.

Add to that, the fact that veins freak me out.  Seriously.  It's not the needles--I've injected myself subcutaneously so many times I've lost count, four figures at least; intramuscular isn't a problem.  It's not the blood--hey, I'm a woman.  It's the veins.  I have to lie down to get blood drawn because I pass out, whap.  If I even see vein stuff on TV my stomach lurches and I have to look away (I have to mute it, too, because just the sound of someone slapping a vein makes me want to throw up).  I am phobic.

The one thing--one thing (spiders, snakes, bats, whatever, not a problem)--that bothers me and it might be the key to my salvation.

Or, y'know, it might not.  This might all be bullshit.  I might get my hopes up, exhaust myself bullying doctors, beggar myself paying for it, end up with a psychiatric bill because it freaks me out so much, and it might not really work.  It might stop working after two years and I'll have to through it all again.  It might halt the disease but make not difference to my current function.  Or all of the above.

So how do I feel about this?  Pretty fucking mixed.

It's official.  Kelley and I now live by the Salish Sea.   We still live by Puget Sound, of course--it's just now acknowledged to be part of an ecologically coherent system that ignores the Canadian border.  So, hey, all you British Columbia folks: we live by the same sea.  I like that.  I like thinking of us sharing our wee ecosystem.  I won't throw rubbish in it if you don't; I won't wash the car at home if you don't; I won't spray the roses with anything evil if you don't.  (Actually, last year we finally found an organic oil spray that kills the black blight stuff that destroys our roses, so this was the best rose summer ever at our house, and No Salmon Were Harmed during their production.)

Speaking of salmon, they're back at Carkeek Park's Pipers Creek.  I haven't had time to go look recently but will most definitely make time to go next week.  I'm feeling a bit cabin-feverish: it's been all work work work this month.  But Thanksgiving Week will be a time to play.

Just three things today because I've been too busy to futz about in the creaking bowels of the interwebs.  But they are good things, very good things.

Very, very fine idea here from @mdash: social PayPal to support artists.  I can't wait to see where this goes.

In the Los Angeles Times, notice of legal blow to DOMA.  "A federal judge today ordered compensation for a Los Angeles couple denied spousal benefits by the federal government because they are gay men./ U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt deemed the denial of healthcare and other benefits to the spouse of federal public defender Brad Levenson to be a violation of the Constitution's guarantee of due process and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which is prohibited by California state law."  I think this is going to turn out to be very important.

Review of Eclipse 3 at io9.com by Charlie Jane Anders.  "The best story in the book, though, is Nicola Griffith's 'It Takes Two,' the jaw-dropping story of freakish biochemistry experiments, venture capital, and a lesbian lapdance that goes much further than anyone expects. It's reminiscent of the thrilling leap-in-the-dark feeling of her novel Slow River, but feels even more intense and weird, maybe because nothing could be weirder than a strip club in Marietta, Georgia."  Woo hoo!  So, hey, go buy the book and experience the leap-in-the-dark thrill (ooh, I like that) for yourself.

The day is...well, it's here.  I've got nothing.  At some point I'll have, y'know, something, but right now not so much.  If you have anything--anything you want to share, links you want to point to, pictures or videos you think will brighten the day, go ahead: link, post, share.  I'm happy to chat, I'm just not feeling like originating anything but Hild today.

Oh, wow, so this is why teens like surreal fiction: it helps them learn.

According to research by psychologists at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and the University of British Columbia, exposure to the surrealism in, say, a book by Franz Kafka or a film by director David Lynch enhances the cognitive mechanisms that oversee implicit learning functions [Psychological Science, 20(9): 1125-1131].

It all makes sense now--why I bothered to read Naked Lunch and Kafka when I was 15, loved Anna Kavan's Ice at 19, was stunned by 'experimental' sf at 20 but suddenly dug my heels in at 26 and said, Enough of that weird shit!  Interesting.  (Many thanks to Karina for the link.)

Clearly, I don't need assistance to learn anymore, because I'm so, y'know, awesome.  Which reminds me, the "It Takes Two" awesome quotient gets better and better.  Here are some review snippets from Locus:

Rich Horton says:

“It Takes Two”, by Nicola Griffith,  is more explicitly based on SFnal extrapolation. Richard and Cody  are friends, their friendship unencumbered by the burden of  sexual expectations, as they are each gay. They each work in tech  industries, until Richard takes a more academic job – and convinces Cody to  act as a guinea pig for a new product. A bit later we meet her trying to  land a major contract that will make her career, and part of that  involves being “one of the guys” at a strip club. Which all unexpected leads  to a great night with one of the strippers … Wonderful, right?  Until Richard springs his secret. Solid near future  biological/neurological extrapolation, with a thoughtful and moving  meditation on the nature of love to ground it.

Adrienne Martini says:

When  set between diamonds like Maureen McHugh’s “Useless Things” and Nicola  Griffith’s “ It Takes Two,” even the best stories read like cubic  zirconia.

And Gary K.  Wolfe

...And the  stories that are as close as we get to hard SF also come from  unexpected
quarters:  Nicola Griffith’s powerfully erotic “It Takes  Two”—another of the strongest tales here—resolves into an SF scenario in  a thoroughly unexpected yet credible way [...] it’s a delight to discover  a comparatively rare new story by Molly Gloss or Nicola Griffith

Get used to me crowing about the most minute praise for this story.  I don't publish short fiction often and have to get my jollies when I can.

The Lambda Literary Foundation
The Lambda Literary Foundation rewards and promotes excellence in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender literature.  Our programs include the Lambda Literary Awards, the Lambda Book Report, and the Emerging LGBT Writers' Retreat.  We are building a new website to celebrate, support, and connect the varied constituencies of the LGBT literary community.
              

The job
We are looking for a tech-savvy lit-lover who wants to be at the the nexus of the burgeoning online LGBT litscape.  The web producer/editor will help put the finishing touches on the new website, then take responsibility for 1) commissioning and posting immaculately edited content which is refreshed on a reliable schedule, 2) promoting the site through social media, 3) ensuring smooth and uninterrupted operation of the site.  Essentially, the web producer/editor will be monitoring the weather in the LGBT literary landscape and providing the community with the content they need before they even know they need it: reviews, opinion, interviews, community interaction--in written, audio, and video formats.

In addition to recruiting and assigning freelancers and volunteers, the producer/editor will solicit advertisers and oversee forum moderators.  S/he will report to the Executive Director, with whom s/he will consult.
              

The ideal candidate

• has a solid grasp of the LGBT literary landscape, preferably with connections to publishers, agents, booksellers, writers, editors, readers, artists, etc.
                     
• is at home with social media--FB, Twitter, blogosphere--and associated technologies such as podcasting and video streaming
                     
• is proficient in Adobe Photoshop, basic HTML and Javascript, selected CMS (WordPress), and working knowledge of CSS, and CMS plug-in installation
                     
• has experience with recruiting & managing volunteer and freelance content providers
                     
• posseses great writing and editing skills, design flair, an instinct for and delight in community-building, and the demonstrated ability to innovate, plan and execute
                     
• loves to solve problems, make things work, and get things done
                   

The rewards
You will meet and work with the giants of the LGBT literary world.  You will help grow the careers of emerging writers.  You will be loved and admired the world over.  You can work from anywhere with an internet connection (though as LLF is based in Los Angeles, the West Coast would be an advantage).

This is currently a half-time salaried position which we anticipate will grow to be full-time.  Pay dependent on experience.  Please send CV and cover letter to jobs@lambdaliterary.org.  Review of applications will begin Nov 30 2009.

Download the PDF.  Pass it along.

FoAN Jennifer Durham pointed out to me that the Science Fiction Studies Symposium on Sexuality in Science  Fiction, edited by Rob Latham, is available online.  So you can go read my wee rantlet for yourself.  We had a word limit of 'under 400 words' but I was one of a minority to colour between the lines.  Academics.  Whatcha gonna do?

The essay I mention, "Writing from the Body," is available here.

Enjoy.

My novelette "It Take Two" has just been selected for a Year's Best anthology (more on that another time) and here's the most recent mention of it, from Abigail Nussbaum:

The best story in the anthology is Nicola Griffith's "It Takes Two," in which a female executive for a high tech company struggling to overcome the boys' club atmosphere in her profession ends up hacking her brain to get ahead in business.  Despite a shaky premise, "It Takes Two" is a meaty story that comments intelligently on several thorny issues.

Also, I'm feeling very pleased because the cheque for that story arrived yesterday.  If you want to add to my royalties, go buy Eclipse 3, the book it's in.  I'll be grateful (but probably not as grateful as you...)

Also just out (I think--haven't actually seen it yet, but I'm guessing that's because I haven't been to the PO Box for a week) is my wee squibbish rant about sexuality in science fiction, "Hard Takes Soft, Again," in Science Fiction Studies.  I'll talk more about that when I see it.

Why am I so full of myself today?  Well, being awesome agrees with me, but what agrees with me even more is sleep, and I spent half of Thursday and most of yesterday just nodding out.  Plus I slept hard both nights, so now my batteries are topped off and the air around my head is crackling.

I'm going to need that energy: Hild is heating up and Lambda Literary Foundation will have a big announcement on Monday.  Watch this space.

It's a sleepy day for me here in Seattle, so I'm just going to point you to two Sterling Editing posts:

NaNoWriMo Second Draft Special: we're offering up to 40% off our usual rates for anyone accepting the National Novel Writing Month challenge.

Links for emerging writers: including a list of agents open to new writers, and a Devil's Dictionary-type look at publishing terms.

Most of you already know I'm writing a novel set in seventh-century Britain.  This, of course, makes it an historical novel, though I tend to think of it as A Novel.  (I thought of Slow River as a novel, and The Blue Place; publishing doesn't always agree with me.)

There are many ways, apparently, to approach writing historical fiction.  There's the hey, anything goes, just use the period as window dressing around a fab story camp, and there's the never, ever, don't evereverever, contravene what is known to be known people.  (There's an article in MACLEANS.CA that lays this out by illustrating the difference between the attitudes of Hilary Mantel and Kate Pullinger.)

Here's an even more interesting piece from Magistra et Mater: an historian explains why she no longer reads historical fiction.

Me?  Well, I love getting things right.  I've done a lot of research on Hild and her time (some casual, some deep and complex).  But I'm a novelist; I also occasionally can't resist just fucking with things.  Sometimes, though, it seems I fuck with things in just the right way--and those are fabulous moments when I know I'm really beginning to get a feel for the period.  (At least in some senses.)

Right now I'm deep in contemplation of a letter from Pope Boniface to King Edwin (as recorded by Bede).  Figuring out that the 'cloak from Ancyra' is probably a mohair cloak, and therefore sleek and lustrous (and therefore a very fine present to an Anglisc king--they loved shiny things, like jackdaws), created a whole scene in my head: an infuriated king, cursing the Pope for trying to play him--but accepting the cloak anyway because, well, it's shiny.

In other words, I'm having enormous fun.  Just wanted to share.

Mostly book stuff, with a poke-fun-at-those-wacky-Catholics moment at the end.  (Which I'm allowed to do because I'm a Catholic born and bred.)

NaNoWriMo Revision Special, from Sterling Editing: a reward for writers who are working hard.  The more you write, the bigger you save!

Charles Tan guest posts at Ecstatic Days and names "It Takes Two" on his Best Of 2009 short list, woo hoo!

Three Reasons Why You Should Read Debut Novels.  "I've been reading debut novels for years. In fact, I've made a specialty of it. I have read so many debut novels over the years that I decided to make discovering debuts the focus of my blog."  Go on.  Take a chance.

Carina Press, Harlequin's new venture, aims to publish "a broad range of fiction with an emphasis on romance and its subgenres. We will also acquire voices in mystery, suspense and thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, erotica, gay/lesbian, and more!"  I'll be watching this--I think it could be a fabulous opportunity for some novelists.

Kindle in Color - As Long As You Read on Your PC.  From Richard Curtis, a review of the non-Kindle Kindle experience: meh.  Plus, "Just remember you don't have to wet your finger to swipe to the next page, as yours truly unconsciously did on a friend's iPhone. I left a nice wet souvenir on the screen. Twentieth century habits die hard."

E.T. Phone Rome.  From the Seattle P-I: "Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church."

Twenty years ago I was watching the Berlin Wall coming down, beginning a five-week process of selling my stuff, saying my goodbyes to family and friends, and preparing to leave England forever.  I felt lonely and forlorn: going to a country where, if they knew I was a dyke, they wouldn't even let me enter the country, where the only person I knew was Kelley.

Last night I shared a lovely little bottle of Barbaresco with Kelley in front of our fire to celebrate being Everything But Married in the fine state of Washington.  Now, instead of worrying that the government won't let us be together, I know that if Kelley and I want to split up, we'll have to petition the court.  (It's Federal vs. State laws we're talking about, of course: apples and oranges--but still.)  The wine was a gift from our friends and neighbours, Vicki and Ron, who went out and beat the bushes for votes, who talked to their friends and colleagues--who, in other words, are partly responsible for helping get this law on the books.

Who knew, twenty years ago, that pinko commie queers would be taking over the world by...blending in, by being welcomed.  Germany in stronger for reunification.  I think this country will be stronger once it stops limiting its citizens.  Our neighbourhood is stronger for its inclusiveness.

How about yours?