New Issue: 2012:25 (Outlaw Bodies)

"The repossession by women of our bodies will bring far more essential change to human society than the seizing of the means of production by workers."
--Adrienne Rich

Issue 2012.25

• ‘Winds: NW 20 km/hr’, Stacy Sinclair (artwork by Rachel H. White)
• ‘The Remaker’, Fabio Fernandes (artwork by Robin E. Kaplan)
• ‘Elmer Bank’, Emily Capettini (artwork by Laura-Anca Adascalitei)
• ‘Her Bones, Those of the Dead’, Tracie Welser (artwork by Miranda Jean)
• ‘Millie’, Anna Caro (artwork by Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein)
• ‘Good Form’, Jo Thomas (artwork by Miguel Santos)

Outlaw Bodies is an anthology published by our parent imprint Futurefire.net Publishing and guest co-edited by Lori Selke.
Outlaw Bodies is available from the usual sellers, including:

• Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
• Wizard's Tower Books (e-book)
• Lulu.com

Review copies available on request.

Guest post: The Clothes Our Bodies Wear

by Anna Caro

In anticipation of a new job, I went on a shopping expedition the other week. The results included three pairs of black trousers, officially women’s but as unisex looking as these things get really, which I needed to have taken up, two shirts and a knitted vest (men’s) and a dress, striped at the top with a dark skirt. A successful, if expensive, haul.

It’s always been this way for me, wearing clothing commonly identified with almost the full range of the gender spectrum. As a small child I fluctuated with apparent ease between the smocked, floral dresses my grandmother made, and my favourite brown corduroy dungarees. Even as a teenager, when I wouldn’t have dared shop for men’s clothes, I still scored some items from a batch donated to my brother by a member of his archery club.

Guest Post: Bodies in Utopia, Bodies in Space

This blog deals primarily in speculations about the future of sex, gender, and society. So does the new publication by The Future Fire, the Outlaw Bodies anthology co-edited by Lori Selke.

The book focuses on characters who are yearning for something more, some way out of the binary that is gender, the divide between the flesh and the digital, the disparities and inequalities that result from those dichotomies, and dares the reader to dream of different spaces, of Other spaces.

This collection points to the body in a very specific way: to ask about its limitations and push beyond them.

Guest post: Outlaw Bodies: Furries

by Kyell Gold

If you’ve been on the Internet in the last five years, you probably know about furries—or think you do. (Hint: It’s not just people who wear costumes.) Furries have been around for twenty years, and the community they’ve built in that time has become one of the more open and welcoming to all kinds of people who often can’t find a home in mainstream society. Early on, for reasons that are still debated in the community, the LGBT presence in the fandom was very strong. That openness has persisted to the present day and grown even wider. Before civil unions were even legal, gay couples held hands and openly expressed their commitment at furry conventions. Transgendered and transsexual people move in the community with confidence.

People often ask why these and other diverse communities have found a home in furry. It’s a complicated question that I’m not going to answer in one post. But I think it has a lot to do with one of the core aspects of the furry fandom.

Guest post: Hush!

by Kay T. Holt

I have a secret. A gift. It sets me apart in ways that are both dangerous and rewarding; it’s like being a superhero. I can’t fly or walk through walls, but I do have a special sense: I’m hard of hearing. I think of it as the opposite of ESP. Anything others can hear, I can hear... Differently. If at all.

In the ordinary world, my hearing loss is disadvantageous. I rarely pass a day without blundering into social pitfalls as a result of missing or mis-hearing something subtle or important. And I can’t just listen-up for threats like most people. Cars, bicyclists, creepers on my tail? Even if someone helpful shouts a warning, I may not hear it. And if I do, I may not understand what I’ve heard in time for it to make a difference. After a lifetime of injuries and insults, I’ve developed survival habits: I glance over my shoulder a lot, always double-check before crossing the street, keep my back to the wall, stay as far to one side of paths and sidewalks as I can, and look up often from whatever I’m reading or fiddling with in my hands. Whenever I’m out with someone and they ask why I’m distracted, I tell them, “I’m just paying attention.” To everything, all the time. It’s exhausting.

Guest post: Pygmalion and Galatea

by Jo Thomas

You might be familiar with the names Pygmalion and Galatea. In the classical myth, Pygmalion is the sculptor who scorned the women of his city as being imperfect of feature and character, and who created a beautiful sculpture, called Galatea in many versions. Pygmalion finally found a woman he could love and, after the sculpture was brought to life, they apparently lived happily ever after. That’s the short, short version.

What does this have to do with Outlaw Bodies? Well, several things can be taken from the idea of having a relationship with a perfectly formed statue that’s recently been brought to life but let’s go with image and perception. As the William James quote goes:

“Whenever two people meet there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him and each man as he really is.”

However the story is put together, Pygmalion and Galatea’s relationship revolves around one main point: Pygmalion is the creator who has made his choice, Galatea is his creation and honours that choice (or not, depending on the version). When it works, it is because their perceptions of each other match up.

Outlaw Bodies Blog Carnival

For the next few weeks, up until and possibly beyond the release of the Outlaw Bodies anthology (Amzn (US) | Amzn (UK) | Lulu | e-book), we're holding a blog carnival: every couple of days we'll either post here or guest-post elsewhere something related to the anthology, its authors and contributors, or outlaw bodies/feminist/queer/trans*/disability/race/cyberpunk/posthuman issues generally. If you post or spot anything in this theme that we've missed here, please let me know (or leave a comment) and we'll add it to the list.

Posts so far:

• Contributors' round-robin interview
• Lori interviews Djibril for Catherine Lundoff's livejournal
• Guest Post: Jo Thomas on Pygmalion and Galatea
• Outlaw Bodies: Breaking the Rules (Djibril writes at Kyell Gold's blog) 
• Guest Post: Kay T. Holt, "Hush!"
• "Coming out post" at the Outer Alliance 
• Guest post: Kyell Gold, "Furries"
• "Good Form: story background", Jo Thomas talks about her Outlaw Bodies story
• Kathryn Allan interviews Fabio Fernandes
• Guest Post: Tracie Welser on Bodies in Utopia, Bodies in Space
• M. Svairini interviews Kathryn Allan

Reviews of Outlaw Bodies:

• The first review of Outlaw Bodies (to my knowledge), by Hawkwing_lb
• Thanks to Anna, Outlaw Bodies has a Goodreads page (reviews and ratings welcome)
• New York Journal of Books review (by Graham Storrs)
• Strange Horizons review (by Tori Truslow) 

Outlaw Bodies contributors' joint interview

The Outlaw Bodies anthology, conceived by Lori Selke and co-edited with The Future Fire, will be released in early November in print and e-book; a few of the stories will also be published online in a special issue of TFF magazine. The book collects speculative fiction stories that deal with the control, repression or regulation of the human—or post-human—body. To set the scene, we’d like to introduce you to the contributors and editors as they ask each other questions in this serial interview.

Djibril asks Jo: Is there a story behind your choice of subject-matter for “Good Form”? Did you have an actor or celebrity in mind for the Form we meet in the story? (If you didn’t, who do you think would be the first person to license their image like this?)

Jo Thomas: There isn’t any particular story behind it—just the usual underlying fascination with the train-wreck that is celebrity public life. I have difficulty reading people and I always wonder what the gap is between what I see and what is presented. Likewise, with celebrity, I wonder what the gap is between what is presented and the person behind the presentation. In terms of “Good Form”, I was thinking of a number of male actors who get something of a reputation for being, well, let’s go with “charming”. A characteristic that would sell well and the original might be happy to licence off, particularly if he were unlikely to run into any copies and end up charming the same people!

Outlaw Bodies review copies

The Outlaw Bodies speculative fiction anthology is now complete, and will be available to purchase in paperback and e-book in November. In the meantime, if you are a reviewer, a book blogger, or someone else with an audience you'd like to share this news with, we can provide e-book review copies in all common formats.

Details: Lori Selke & Djibril al-Ayad (eds.), Outlaw Bodies. Futurefire.net Publishing, 2012. Pp. 167. ISBN 978-0-9573975-0-7. £8.00/$13.00.

Cover blurb: "In this anthology, you will find artists, mothers, and academics; bodies constructed of flesh and of bone, of paper and metal and plastic. Bodies formed of bouncing, buzzing electrons, waves and particles of light. Bodies grown and bodies sewn, glued, folded and sutured. And all of them standing in defiance of the rules and regulations designed to bind them." (from Lori's introduction)

If you might be interested in taking a look at this book—and hopefully writing a review of it—we can provide Kindle (mobi), EPUB or PDF copies. (Print won't be available for a few weeks, and we'll have a limited budget for review copies.) If there's any other information we can provide you with, or if you're interested in an interview or feature of some kind, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Interview: Jungle Jim magazine

1. What was the inspiration for setting up Jungle Jim and what is the ethos/agenda of the magazine?
   I think both of us (Hannes and Jenna) were at a stage when we were working on things that were dependent on outside factors – people, money, circumstance etc. It was becoming frustrating and we dreamt of having a creative project which we could run on our own terms – something we felt was important, but also not too serious (Little did we know…). One day it just reached a crisis point – we were sharing an office at the time – and we decided to start a magazine. Hannes has a background in independent publishing, but I had absolutely none – so we were guided by very little other than what we thought we could achieve, and for which we felt there was a need. Looking around, there were very few print magazines offering the magical combination of storytelling and images I remembered from childhood. We wanted the adult version – something different, shocking, ‘out there’ – and where I could sometimes get away with publishing my own writing! At the same time, I was becoming more and more interested in pulp writing, the ethos of that time – where writing was accessible, imaginative, visual, dramatic, narrative-driven and relatively ego-less (for better or worse). Of course, it’s easy to idealise that time, but we felt there was also a lot to learn – especially in a country where reading is not the entertainment of choice. We became fascinated with the idea of western pop-genre ‘clashing’ with Africa, of the new truths and exciting ideas this could reveal – and potentially the sacred cows we might upset. So we launched the magazine with this ethos: “Jungle Jim is a bi-monthly illustrated print publication, aiming to showcase narrative- and concept-driven African stories. Taking from the pulp tradition, we publish short and serialised fiction that entertains and engrosses in all dramatic genres, accessible to all, but with a high quality of writing. We seek to publish stories that explore the collision between the visceral daring of pulp and the reality of living in Africa.” And our motto is: “African tales of the uncanny and the unexpected.”

New Issue 2012.24

“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
--Anaïs Nin

Issue 2012.24

• ‘Je me souviens’, Su J. Sokol (illustrated by Soussherpa)
• ‘Secrets of the Sea’, Jennifer Marie Brissett (illustrated by Creative Commons photographs)
• ‘The Harpy’, Laura Heron (illustrated by Rebecca Whitaker)
• ‘Safecracker, Safe’, J.C. Hsyu (illustrated by Christina Cartwright)
• ‘Arrow’, Barry King (illustrated by Cécile Matthey)
• ‘Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods’, Benjanun Sriduangkaew (illustrated by Tais Teng)

Download e-book version: PDF | EPUB | Mobi

We See a Different Frontier CFS: extended deadline

As announced three months ago, we are seeking submissions for a colonialism-themed anthology of new stories told from the perspective of those with experience of colonization or postcolonial cultures, titled We See a Different Frontier, to be guest edited by Fabio Fernandes and published by The Future Fire. (See the original Call for Submissions for all rules and pay scale.)

The call for submissions was due to close one week from today. We have received many excellent submissions in this time, but we would like to give more authors who have not yet had a chance to write a story on this theme, particularly authors with underrepresented perspectives (including those whose first language may not be English) the opportunity to do so. Rather than offer this extension of the submissions deadline only to a few authors who have already asked for it, we are keeping the reading period for this anthology open for a few weeks longer, until October 31st 2012.

All stories that are currently held for further consideration will remain in our shortlist until this new closing date, at which point we will make our final decision about the contents of the anthology.