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If I have done this correctly, this blog post will go live on Monday, December 9th. It’s my birthday and the Husband has whisked me away for a day trip to Leavenworth!

Event: It’s my birthday! I like to celebrate all week. Buy yourself or a friend one of my books and leave me a review. If you’ve got all of them and would rather get me something else, I have a ko-fi account, an amazon wishlist, and a kindle wishlist.

Event: I will be reading at A Midwinter Haunting! 8pm at the Kirkland Arts Center. Readings from HWA Seattle Chapter members. Free event. I will be reading a spooky holiday story. On a mid-winter’s night, everyone is hungry.

Interview: With Epic Realms. I enjoyed the heck out of this interview. YouTube link.

Release: My 25th edited anthology is live! Shadowrun: Through the Decades celebrates 35 years of Shadowrun through 7 novelettes and novellas from new authors and old favorites!

Release: Valdemar short story, co-written with the fabulous Marie Bilodeau in the Feuds: All-New Tales of Valdemar anthology. “Dueling Minstrels” – a story of two small town minstrels and their battle of wits exploding beyond verbal showmanship…

Writing Contest: Worldcon Seattle Writing Contest 2025 – Submissions open Jan 5-20 (do not send anything in before this time).

Support: As always… if you appreciate my work and would like to support me, I love coffee. I am made of caffeine. This is the quickest way to brighten my day.

Tuesday, Dec 3rd, was the equivalent of emotionally speedrunning my life. I do not approve nor do I recommend. It was one of those days that even my editor would look at and say, “Isn’t that a bit much? Maybe spread those events out over the novel instead of a day.”

Bad: Mena stopped eating and drinking on Monday. She was still hiding on Tuesday morning. The Husband and I had already decided she needed to go to the vet. Mena loves her treats.

Good: My cat lover advent calendar and the Husband got me froofy coffee. (Little things count.)

Good: Our 2x a month housekeeper arrived!

Bad: Our housekeeper noticed our refrigerator suddenly wasn’t working. Through investigation, 8 outlets in the kitchen and family room weren’t working. This is something that happened years ago. Got fixed. Broke again.

Good: Plugged the refrigerator into a different plug and it worked. No spoiled food.

Bad: Had to find an electrician.

Good: Not only found an electrician, they were able to come out on the same day, AND were able to fix the issue.

Bad: That was $$$ money we didn’t expect to spend (but that’s what emergency funds are for).

Good: Started a new D&D game at the house. Session 0. Figuring everything out.

Bad: Vet called. Mena has feline pancreatitis. No cure, some mitigation. Caught it early. Mena was kept overnight for more observation. We will see what we need to do when we pick her up today. (Good things: It had nothing to do with the anxiety drugs Mena got put on because of the kittens nor was it due to the arrival of the kittens. This would’ve happened no matter what.)

Good: I sold a little short story I love to a new pro-paying market. This is a short story that has been rejected 20+ times. I’m so glad it found a home.

Other things happened that weren’t big enough to make the list. Also, several of my friends are going through rough times. I know I’m not the only one having a hell of a week (and it’s only Wednesday). Sometimes life is like that. I just wish it wouldn’t involve my cats. Mena is only 12. She’s sweet and silly and doesn’t deserve the pain she’s in now.

My life is all kittens and work right now. Freya and Mimir arrived on the 8th of November, one day after we got home from our Canadian trip that was such a blast! The twins (siblings technically) were less than 2.4 lbs each. They are so small and so cute!

The girl is Freya and the boy is Mimir. We wanted siblings because we knew they would be good for each other. Especially while we integrated them into our household with two senior cats. (More on them shortly.)

Fierce Freya is fearless and, frequently, brainless. She has no survival instinct. She will base jump from any height, chase a hissing Mena, and generally not be aware that anything could be harmful. Especially giant lumbering people who want to step where she wants to run under.

Mighty Mimir switches between Meek and Mighty. He is always hesitant of new things and people at first. Then he becomes as fearless and brainless as Freya. He usually is the first to escape the quarantine zone. Most of the time, he listens when another cat hisses.

As for the senior cats, Leeloo is interested in the kittens. She will go sniff them then back off when she realizes they are not her Maus. (She still misses Isis and Pharaoh.) She hisses at them when they get up in her grill, and that is usually enough for both kittens to back off. If not, she’s bapped Freya and both kittens submitted.

Mena, on the other hand, lives in the House of Hisses and Growls. She wants nothing to do with the little interlopers who have stolen her place as the baby of the family. She frequently hisses at the barrier or the door to the kitten room so hard that she gives herself a coughing fit. Feliway doesn’t seem to be helping. I may have to get some kitty Prozac for her. She seems to be afraid of the kittens. Especially Freya, who doesn’t seem to understand what hissing means.

Still, I have hope and patience for the clowder to integrate. It will take time and understanding. Maybe drugs. Right now, the kittens are too small to have the run of the house, and they haven’t finished having their vaccines. This week they get access to my bathroom, the kitten room, and my office. Maybe next week, the whole top floor of the house so that the senior kitties can get some peace and quiet downstairs.

But, as of right now, my entire world is finishing up the first issue of Augment magazine, and dealing with kittens who have no survival instinct.

Today’s Tell Me comes from the incomparable Marie Bilodeau. She tells me why she thought it was time for a StoryBundle of books with middle-aged protagonists in science-fiction and fantasy, called Never Too Old to Save the World, and how much she loves them.

Age Need Not Stop You

In my twenties, I desperately wanted more stories of women kicking ass, and not needing a man to do so. I wanted female friendships, and arguments, and insecurities…all in an epic fantasy context. Twenty years ago, there were a lot less books with these core themes applied to women, especially ones that weren’t romance-focused.

To scratch my own reading itch, I wrote Heirs of a Broken Land with three central female characters who would fight each other and evil, and would lean into their powers instead of shying away from them, or giving them up for family/romance/etc…

When I reached my forties, I craved reading about older heroines saving the world while juggling family, responsibilities, and any incurred trauma (life is traumatic, you know?). So I jumped back into the world of my first series and created a second series, Keepers of a Broken Land. I’m twenty years older, so are my characters…and evil takes more than one trilogy to defeat.

Again, they’d lean into their powers, and not just pass them down to their children like so many fantasy stories do. They’d try to make right the stuff they screwed up, no matter how haunted they were, and they’d still support each other and keep fighting.

Now hungry for stories of middle-aged protagonists in science-fiction and fantasy, I leapt from book to book, devouring stories of people still standing up despite scars and creaky knees. (I discovered crones, too. Inspiration for Future Marie!)

There’s this thing about loving books where you just want to scream about them to everyone. And that’s what I wanted to do with the stories I discovered, so I decided to put together a Story Bundle that focused on characters 40+.

It was a crazy, joyful experience, and I’m very proud of the ten books gathered in this bundle. From heroes looking for redemption to crones tasked with saving the world (despite not being able to find her reading glasses), from grandmothers trying to save their community to old friends trying to save each other, this bundle will cure you of any conception that older folk can’t save the world.

YA fever has been sweeping the fantasy genre for decades, and generation after generation is told that “they’ll be the ones to clean up the planet/save the world/stop the evil.” … Time to stop putting all the onus on youth and time to step up, no matter your age! Because, if we’re lucky, we’ll all grow up to be middle-aged, and then crones (and other gender equivalents), and we need to help light the night for those following. No passing the buck to younger generations—let’s work with each other, instead.

Because you can be 40+ and still kicking butt.

I hope these ten amazing books will inspire and entertain you as much as they did me! The Story Bundle is available until November 21, so make sure to grab it now!

—

Marie Bilodeau is an Ottawa-based author, TTRPG game writer, and storyteller. Her speculative fiction has won several awards and has been translated into French (Les Éditions Alire) and Chinese (SF World). Her short stories have also appeared in various anthologies and magazines like Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Amazing Stories. Marie is also a performing storyteller and has told stories across Canada in theatres, tea shops, at festivals and under disco balls. She’s won story slams with personal stories, has participated in epic tellings at the National Arts Centre, and has adapted classical material. In her spare time, she’s also the chair of Ottawa’s speculative fiction literary con, Can*Con.

While I was in Canada, I discovered there were two very interesting book bundles being sold. One that has my books in it. One that does not.

Ending on 30 November 2024, the first is the Shadowrun Fiction Mega Bundle, run by Humble Bundle. It supports the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, which is pretty cool. (Note: Donation proceeds will be provided to the Binc Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing financial assistance to booksellers and comic sellers, their employees, and their families, in times of crisis.)

More importantly to me, this book bundle contains every novel and novella I’ve written for Shadowrun! So, if you’re missing any of my Shadowrun fiction, this is a very good time to get it. Plus it’s got so much more Shadowrun goodness from old authors and new!

***

Next up we have: The Never Too Old to Save the World Bundle.

Curated on StoryBundle by Marie Bilodeau (who will have a Tell Me on the blog shortly.)

Ending on 21 November 2024, Marie has put together 10 books of middle-aged heroines and heroes who claim and keep their power. Saving the world isn’t just a young orphan’s game anymore. This bundle looks fantastic. I’ve just recently been introduced to the term “Crone Lit” and I love it. Not only that, I’m already reading Becoming Crone.

There you go. Two bundles of books for a fabulous price. If you need some fiction to help keep you sane for the holiday season, I’ve got you covered.

I’m now home from an 8-day trip to Ottawa, Canada as one of the Editor Guests of Honor at Can-Con and to spend time visiting Marie and her partner and their clowder. This was my first trip to Ottawa. I hope it will not be my last. I had such a good time. I will miss them and Canada, but I am happy to be home. (Because: Kittens!)

As has become tradition after a convention, I tell you 10 things that may or may not have happened. 8 are true. 2 are lies.

1. I may or may not have done shots with Arley Sorg at Can-Con.
2. I may or may not have revealed some personal secrets to people new to me.
3. I may or may not have discussed being in a feud with Sarah Gailey. What’s the feud about? We don’t know—yet.
4. I may or may not have convinced the Husband to do something extremely silly.
5. I may or may not have taken my GoH costume judging duty quite seriously and argued my case with fellow judge Arley Sorg.
6. I may or may not have absconded with Greg Wilson (and others) for a private conversation to plan shenanigans for Worldcon Seattle 2025.
7. I may or may not have received an insightful tarot reading from a stranger.
8. I may or may not have helped Ed Greenwood and Marie Bilodeau learn a new game called Gudnak for reasons.
9. I may or may not have accidentally gone into a secret sex shop in a mall that looked like a toy store—blades, bongs, and butt plugs, oh my! (Marie takes me to the best places!)
10. I may or may not have visited an underground bunker and discovered that US history from the outside looking in is…telling.

Did I mention kittens?

Today, the talented Raven Oak tells me about how footnotes in fiction enhance the story, and why she loves them so much.

I have a love affair with footnotes.

Maybe it’s because of all the academic papers I had to write throughout my career as a teacher, but I think I fell in love with them before high school and college, back when teenage me was devouring speculative fiction books at a rate of one or two per day.

Books like Robert Asprin’s MythAdventures series were a mad mix of fantasy and humor, where footnotes were used as a way for the author, the characters, or both to leave commentary on what was happening aside the plot line. Asprin used footnotes as a comedic schtick, one that worked well for his various series.

As a young writer, I took his example to heart. This was something real writers did. Imagine my surprise when adult writer me found very few footnotes used in fiction at all. (Though this is changing thanks to the LitRPG genre.)

Many people hate footnotes because of their association with MLA citations and research papers, two topics often considered tedious, but who says they have to be? Why can’t authors use them in their fiction? Why can’t a story about dragons have footnotes, too?

While I haven’t gone so far as to use footnotes in my fictional work as of yet, they came in handy during the writing of my first memoir. Because the book covers everything from gender identity, sexual orientation, and transphobia to medical gaslighting and abuse, I found myself needing to clarify most of what I was talking about, if for no other reason than to insure I was educating folks rather than confusing them.

For example, it’s challenging to discuss demisexuality if the reader has no idea what that is or why it’s important. More than that, the footnotes served as a way for me to insert humor and my own wry sarcasm in between the sentences of some very serious topics. As I wrote, I found myself escaping into the footnotes like they were their own substory within the story I was framing.

More importantly, they reminded me of what it was like back when I was twelve. Nothing in the life of an adolescent is simple. Between hormones and peer pressure, the life of a teenager is complicated and messy. Toss in figuring out whether or not your queer, child abuse, and poverty and well… let’s just say there’s a reason child-me escaped so frequently into the worlds of speculative fiction.

Tapping into those feelings and the joy I found in so many tales helped me remember the good inside of the bad that has often been my life. It’s easy to get lost in the trauma, or to believe the depression and anxiety when its roars are sometimes deafening, but the footnotes were a reminder that humor has always pulled me out of the darkness.

Just like speculative fiction, humor has always been a means of escape.

Voices Carry may be a non-fiction memoir, but in the writing of it, I rediscovered the importance of humor…and footnotes!

—

Multi-international award-winning speculative fiction author Raven Oak (she/they) is best known for Amaskan’s Blood (2016 Ozma Fantasy Award Winner, Epic Awards Finalist, & Reader’s Choice Award Winner), Amaskan’s War (2018 UK Wishing Award YA Finalist), and Class-M Exile. She also has many published short stories in anthologies and magazines. She’s even published on the moon! Raven spent most of her K-12 education doodling and writing 500 page monstrosities that are forever locked away in a filing cabinet.

Besides being a writer and artist, she’s a geeky, disabled ENBY who enjoys getting her game on with tabletop games, indulging in cartography and art, or staring at the ocean. She lives in the Seattle area with her wife, and their three kitties who enjoy lounging across the keyboard when writing deadlines approach. Her hair color changes as often as her bio does, and you can find her at www.ravenoak.net.

So much is going on. Travel. Fun secrets. Work, work, and more work. Here’s a Bubble & Squeek for you.

Bookfair: November 23rd. I’m one the spotlight authors for the new Written in the Northwest Bookfair, along with Seanan McGuire, Sno-Isle Libraries, and Krampus!

Interview Series: I am Book 101 podcast’s October Author of the month.
– Interview #1: This one is more about me and how I work. YouTube and LinkedIn.
– Interview #2. We talk about Last Days of Salton Academy. YouTube and Babyboomer.org. (I learn about new places with every interview.)
– Interview #3. We talked about the Melissa Allen trilogy omnibus Never Let Me. YouTube.
– Interview #4: We talked about Shadowrun: The Mosaic Run in this one. YouTube.

Support: As always… if you appreciate my work and would like to support me, I love coffee. I am made of caffeine. This is the quickest way to brighten my day.

Writing Contest: Worldcon Seattle 2025 is having a writing contest with some fabulous prizes! One for teen authors and one for adult authors. I’d love to see your work!

YouTube: I don’t know why I hadn’t done this before…but I searched for myself on YouTube. There were a lot more videos out there than expected. So, I created a playlist of me videos—interviews, fiction, live plays. That sort of thing. The oldest one is from 17 years ago taken by Cherie Priest at an Abney Park concert.

Some gentle, general reminders about me.

If you’re here, on my website, and not signed up for my MailerLite newsletter, please sign up for it. It averages once-a-month because my PA (the GlitterMinion) makes me do it. You get to hear about what I’m doing, where I will be, and what open calls I have. Plus you get free fiction. Who doesn’t love a bit of free fiction? (Also, if you are on my Googlegroup newsletter, that group will be deleted 1 Feb 2025.)

If you would like to send me an email, I have a contact form for that. If you would like to send me something in the post, I have a P.O. Box for that. Email is checked more regularly than the P.O. Box. Please don’t send time sensitive stuff in the post without giving me an email ping.

For social media, I am most active on BlueSky and Facebook. I do have an Instagram account and it mostly has stuff about cats and books. Occasionally, there may be other stuff, too.

I am a full-time working author and editor. This means: I am very busy—I never have less than three projects going at any one time. That I appreciate it when you buy my books, review my books (even something as simple as “I really liked this book!” helps), and/or support me on ko-fi. That said, I am always happy to answer questions or lend a helping hand—if time, funds, and schedule permits.

I adore my cats beyond all reason. They rule the roost. I love the Husband even more than writing and I’m so grateful he supports me. He rules my heart. I appreciate my house, my books, my stuff, and my home office that much more since the pandemic started. I have a lot to be grateful for, and I will always try to keep things on the lighter side of life.

I am a Democrat who believes Love is Love. I am a gamer who is happy you are my neighbor no matter where you are from. I am a woman who believes trans rights are human rights, trans women are women, trans men are men, and all women should have the right to choose what happens with their body. I’m a former latchkey, semi-feral Gen X, 50+ year old woman with occasionally colored hair not normally found in nature. Sometimes I am fed up. Sometimes I am tired. Sometimes I’m trouble. Just so you know what you’re in for.

How is it almost October? So much is happening in the background. I’m not overwhelmed by what’s on my plate, but I am a bit whelmed. Travel, novel writing, anthology editing, magazine managing, SFWA President running, and more…. It’s a lot. So, here’s a Bubble and Squeek to entertain you.

Bookfair Spotlight: I’ve been announced as one of the spotlight authors for the new Written in the Northwest Bookfair along with Seanan McGuire and Krampus!

Cover Reveal and buy links: Shadowrun: Magic, Machines, and Mayhem.

My 24th anthology, co-edited with John Helfers. I am so pleased with this anthology.

eBay: We are decluttering again! The Husband is selling stuff on eBay. Here’s his sell page. There’s some good stuff there, but we just don’t need any of it.

Interview: This one is with Gerald Ford from The Corner of Story and Game podcast. YouTube Link and Spotify link.

Interview: Cat Rambo and I were interviewed by D.M. Needom on The Better To Podcast. Buzzsprout link and YouTube link. I had so much fun here and the Instagram snippets are hilarious.

Recommendation: Shadowrun: Dark Synergy by Russell Zimmerman. I was the editor on this one and it was very, very satisfying.

Support: As always… if you appreciate my work and would like to support me, I love coffee. I am made of caffeine. This is the quickest way to brighten my day.