Celebrating Diverse Gender Identities and Orientations for Pride Month

June is Pride month! Julia Rios (who is also part of the QUILTBAG speculative fiction group, the Outer Alliance) hosts, and talks gender and sexuality with three differently creative women.

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Brit Mandelo is a writer and editor. Her non-fiction work has appeared at Tor.com, in Stone Telling Magazine, and in We Wuz Pushed, a volume about the work of Joanna Russ. As an editor, she's curated Beyond Binary, an anthology of genderqueer and sexually fluid science fiction stories, and she works with Julia as a fiction editor at Strange Horizons. Brit also writes fiction of her own, including "Winter Scheming" in Apex Magazine (which is the dark story she and Julia talked about in the interview).

Moondancer Drake is a Native American author of lesbian paranormal romance. Her books include Ancestral Magic, Natural Order, and Worlds Collide. Community is very important to her, and she tries to include diverse characters and relationship types in her work. Moondancer identifies as Two Spirit, a Native American term which encompasses a variety of gender identities and sexual orientations. She particularly values the fluidity of the term. Moondancer is currently holding a fundraiser to help a close friend move to Wisconsin. To donate and support Moondancer's community, visit the FundRazr page.

Rhea Ewing is an artist who does fine are, illustrations, book covers, and comics. Her current giant project is a comic about gender called Fine. If you're interested in reading the preview, participating in the interview process, or giving financial support, you can find out more at finecomic.com. Rhea got her artistic start with Urban Fey, a joint venture with Kimberley Long-Ewing (also a Broad Universe member!). Urban Fey is an urban fantasy comic with several queer and genderqueer characters.

 

Send in the Clones (and the AI) for May's Not Quite Human Edition

Welcome to the May edition of Broadly Speaking. This month Host Tracy S. Morris discusses Clones and AI with guests Phoebe Wray and Catherine Asaro. 

Phoebe Wray is the author of Jemma7729 and the forthcoming sequel, J2.  In addition, she is a past president of Broad Universe.

J2 is the story of a clone of Jemma from the first novel. Phoebe and Tracy talk about the science behind cloning, current issues that surround cloning and the future of cloning. 

You can find phoebe on her facebook page http://www.facebook.com/phoebe.wray

The International Cloning Society maintains a website at http://www.angelfire.com/la/jfled/ics.html

Catherine Asaro is the author of over 20 novels in Science Fiction and Fantasy, has won a hugo and has been nominated for both the hugo and the nebula. She has a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Harvard and has worked as a futurist with the science fiction writer's think tank Sigma predicting the future of Artificial Intelegence for both Homeland Security and the private sector. 

Catherine and Tracy talk about the definition of AI, the Turing Test, where AI stands now, where it is going in the near future and how human beings will adapt and change because of AI. 

You can find Catherine on the web at http://www.catherineasaro.net/

Sigma maintains a website at http://sigmaforum.org/

You can find out more about the Turing Test at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/

We hope you enjoy this podcast, be you android, clone, AI or just a regular old human. 

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May: Not Quite Human - Automatons, AI, and Clones

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Greetings, and welcome to the May 2012 edition of the BroadPod.  Our theme this month is Not Quite Human.  Automatons, AI, clones.  They can look human, talk and perhaps even feel human.  But are they?  Can an Artificial Intelligence truly have sentience, or is it just clever programming that mimics conscious thought?  A clone may be a match for human DNA, but does a clone have a soul?  Is an android merely a possession, no more entitled to rights than a toaster?

Host Justine Graykin introduces this month's readers and their visions of these not-quite-human beings: first Jennifer Pelland, who shares another excerpt from her recently published book, “Machine”, the story of a woman who was recently downloaded into a mechanical replica of her own body so she can continue her life while waiting for her flesh to be cured of early-onset Alzheimer's.  In this excerpt, what happens when such a transfer goes wrong, but not wrong enough?

Kathryn Mankiller’s story, "Saving Alan Idle" is told from the point of view of a very resourceful AI who becomes aware of the peril faced by “his” programmer, and provides a lesson in what it means to be sentient (this story will be appearing in an upcoming edition of “Escape Pod”)

From Pauline Baird Jones, we have the old boy-meets-girl.  In this case, the boy—Robert Clementyne—meets the girl—Emily Babcock. Mix some time travel into some space travel, send them across a dimension or two, give them some microscopic, sentient nanites to fight against some mega-size automatons, add in liberal dose of Pauline Baird Jones' imagination (and sense of humor) and you get “Steamrolled.”

Bonnie Lee reads from chapter one of her book Akuma’s Spirit, in which a women receives a late night visit from her husband’s unsettlingly youthful replicant, and a little girl with a tragic mystery.

Finally, we have an excerpt from Phoebe Wray's  novel J2, coming out very soon from Dark Quest Books. It’s the sequel to Jemma7729—an action-adventure tale about a notorious rebel fighting a corrupt future government. J2 is actually Jemma’s clone: a brilliant lab rat who has escaped from the domes of Chicago, and joined the rebel army. 

The BroadPod is sponsored by Broad Universe, the voice for women writing speculative fiction.  Check out our companion podcast, Broadly Speaking, with interviews and discussions on the art of writing.  You can link to them both from the Broad Universe website.  This broadcast is copyright Broad Universe, 2012.  All readings are copyright their respective authors.  Music by Caligari’s Keyboard is used by permission, under Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, Share Alike license.  Kindly respect everyone’s  intellectual property.  Thank you.

Posted via email from The Broad Pod

April Brings Growth and Transformation

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Welcome to the April edition of Broadly Speaking! Spring is a time of transition and growth, so this month is all about changelings and transformation. Your host, Julia Rios has three conversations with guests who visit these themes in their work.

First, Andrea Hairston, one of this year's WisCon guests of honor, talks about her Tiptree Award winning novel, Redwood and Wildfire. The story is set at the turn of the twentieth century, when entertainment is undergoing a major transformation from primarily live theatre to motion pictures. Andrea's characters also transform themselves in several ways with the help of stories, music, and conjure magic.

Next, Shira Lipkin talks about her Rhysling nominated poem, "The Changeling's Lament", which uses the changeling theme as a metaphor for genderqueerness. Shira also speaks about her own experience with that, and the thrill of discovering that she wasn't alone in feeling the way she does.

Finally, Cat Rambo talks about a few of her short stories, particularly focusing on "Clockwork Fairies". This story, like Shira's poem and Andrea's novel, visits the concept of Otherness, as the heroine is a black woman who is more inclined to be mechanical than ladylike in Steampunk Victorian England.

Andrea's characters say that we have to make the world we want to inhabit, and all of this month's podcast contributors agree! The conversations are full of hope for the future and signs of growth and positive change.

April: Changelings and Transformations

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Welcome to the April edition of BroadPod with host Jody Lynn Nye. This month’s stories deal with changelings and transformation. We have a fascination with metamorphosis. There’s a deep mystery in the physical way in which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, but what does the change do to the perception of the butterfly itself? And what if it was able to change back and forth between its two stages? Our authors are Carol Berg, EF Watkins, Kelly Harmon and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, with a bonus reading by Ann Wilkes.  Each delve into the subject in fascinating ways.

First up, from Carol Berg, an excerpt from her story, "Transformation".
Seyonne has been a slave for sixteen years, almost half his life, and has lost everything of meaning to him: his dignity, the people and homeland he loves, and the Warden's power he used to defend an unsuspecting world from demon ravaging.  With strict self-discipline he forces himself to exist only in the present moment. But from the hour he is sold to the arrogant heir to the Derzhi Empire, Seyonne's uneasy peace begins to crumble, and when he discovers a demon lurking in the Derzhi court, he must rediscover his past.

Next, from E. F. Watkins, in an excerpt from Danu's Children, a man discovers a new and startling aspect to a woman with whom he is infatuated. On a moonlit night, in a deserted spot, she seems to change into another form that expresses her true powers...or is it just a clever trick to make him into a believer?

Another story of transformation, from Kelly Harmon, “Selk Skin Deep,” a tale inspired by the true-life tragedy of the U.S.S. Forrestal, an aircraft carrier which exploded off the coast of Vietnam in 1967.  The story is about Cade Owen, who joined the U.S. Navy trying to alleviate the boredom from his nearly immortal life.  Cade is a selkie – a shape shifter who is both man and seal.

Our last reader, is Danielle Ackley-McPhail. In "The Runes", Camirel, adopted daughter of the last dragon, uses her transformation to seek out emberlings, the eggs of dragons removed from the earth before their time, confused by Man as no more than common gems. She encounters more than she expects on finding her first emberling.

And our special bonus track is Ann Wilkes, reading her flash fiction story, "Jolaneering", in which a man finds himself at the mercy of a precocious alien toddler, who just happens to be a changeling. This  first appeared in the last issue of Nanobison, an online speculative fiction magazine.  And if you ever thought you had a tough babysitting job, you’ll thank your lucky stars it wasn’t like this!

Posted via email from The Broad Pod

Trisha's Adventures in Time Travel

Three weeks ago:

"So, Katie, I'm leaving Taiwan on Monday, April 2nd, so pick me up at Logan on Tuesday, at 6PM.  Ok?"

"Ok!  See you on Tuesday!"


This week:

Text to Katie in Detroit: "I'm back in the USA. Plane leaving Detroit on time - c u at 6. Still on 4 Hunger Games?" [Ok, so I can't italicize in texts, really. Not the point…]

Text to Katie in Boston at about 5:35 PM :  "Plane just landed! C U soon!"

6:10 PM:  "Got luggage. Am outside @ end of the Active Pickup lane."

6:45 PM, call to Katie - goes right to voicemail: "Um, did you forget me? I'm at Logan, waiting for you."

Haven't actually gotten any text responses, and right to voicemail?  Uh-oh!  After several more texts and more straight-to-voicemail messages, I call her mom, my old chiropractor.  After some conversation, Dr. Patty says:

"Doesn't Katie work on Mondays? She said she was picking you up on Tuesday at 6:00 PM."

I reply: "Yeah, Tuesday 6PM.  I know she works on Mondays.  I'm here."

Dr. Patty:  "Trish… today is Monday."

Me: "What do you mean?  I left Taiwan on Monday; it's Tuesday."

Dr. Patty, very patiently: "No, Trish, it's Monday…"

So, Trish learns you actually GAIN a day when you fly back to the U.S. from Asia over the International Date Line.  Who'd a thunk?  Ok… maybe everyone but me.

And clearly, my jet lag… because Katie and I managed to finish a project she'd planned on having done for my return on Tuesday… on Tuesday.  And go see the Hunger Games (Yes, it was awesome!)  Then, I crashed and managed to sleep until after 3PM on Wednesday… where I missed one of my weight meetings because it moved, and I received no notice.  And then proceeded to do some grocery shopping and finish another project that Needed To Be Done for me to function in the house… and then I managed to get online and go through my HUGE PILE OF EMAIL from midnight to about 1:30AM. 

All y'all will start getting your responses from me in the next few days.

And I need to finish editing Touch of Death and my editing read of Triangles.  Oh - and there's my tutoring work, and some short stories that are due…

Vacation?  Yeah, it was fabulous… and I'll talk about it in dribbles and spurts between all the deadlines that got pushed back three weeks. ;)

March 2012: Humor

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Welcome to a very special Broadly Speaking!  This time we’re talking about how to host Broadly Speaking, and the humor theme comes in as your host, Justine Graykin, gropes her way though her very first Broadly Speaking podcast, patiently assisted by Tracy Morris, Trisha Wooldridge, Julia Rios, Rae Lori, Larissa Niec and Terri Bruce.

How do you make a Skype conference call?  Justine makes all the mistakes so you don’t have to.  What do you do if a guest doesn’t show up?  If you’re Julia, you get one of your other guests to channel the missing person through her left hand.  What happens when an act of God interrupts your show?  Larissa gave us the opportunity to find out, live.

In between the tales and travails, our aspiring hosts ask the questions and veteran hosts answer, discussing the details of how to arrange interviews, record Skype sessions and round table discussions, what software to use and how to use it, with tips and tricks based on hard and often hilarious experience.

So if you’ve ever wanted to break into podcasting, here’s a great place to start.  Give a listen, and then give us a shout, and the Broads will show you the ropes.  Broad Universe, helping to Broaden your horizons!

Here's some handy links including to sites and downloads mentioned in the Podcast:

MadeOfFail

Working with Tracks in Audacity

Recording in Audacity

Skype Conference Calling

Levelator for PC

Levelator for MAC

Freecorder