Where’s Cheryl?

Llandeilo Lit Fest

~ Cheryl

This post is probably only of interest to those of you in South Wales. Getting to Llandeilo is a bit of a trek from Bristol, but it is much more accessible from Cardiff and very easy from Swansea and Carmarthen. It is not too bad from Aberystwyth either, but it is Pride weekend there so I don’t expect any of you folks to turn up.

Anyway, the Llandeilo Lit Fest is a long-running literary festival based in the lovely little town of Llandeilo, which was once the capital of most of Wales back in the days of Hywel Dda. The town boasts a fabulous chocolate shop, a lovely little donut shop, and an independent bookshop. There is also a big National Trust property that boasts a Roman fort (sadly all underground archaeology these days), Hywel Dda’s castle, a stately home, and its own herd of deer whose meat you can buy from this excellent butcher.

Obviously the easiest way to get there is to drive, but there are buses from Swansea, or you can take the lovely Heart of Wales railway line (though beware, only 4 trains a day). From Carmarthen there is the newly opened Tywi Valley Cycle Path. The Festival website has some useful visitor info.

This year the Festival runs over the weekend April 24-26. There’s lots to look forward to. Half of the programme is in Welsh, but translation services are priovided.

So why should you come? To see me, of course. Together with Roz, Jo and Lou Morgan I will be talking about the Fight Like A Girl books. That’s on the Sunday afternoon at 13:30. Tickets available here.

There is lots of good queer content, including the brilliant Anthony Shapland, H from Steps, Daf James of Lost Boys & Fairies fame, the erudite Norena Shopland, and even a book in Welsh.

Nor are we the only event with specfic connections. There’s Efa Lois talking about her new book on Welsh witches. And there is a talk about UFO sightings in Wales (sadly conflicting with my event). And there is Peredur Glyn, who writes Lovecraftian cosmic horror stories, in Welsh. If you have ever wanted to know what “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” would be in Welsh, he’s your guy.

Hopefully some of you can make it.

My Eastercon Schedule

~ Cheryl

Updated – new panel added

Easter is not far away now, and the programme for this year’s Eastercon has been released. Here’s what I’m doing.

Mostly importantly, Wizard’s Tower will be having a book launch. We have seven new books for you. They are:

It has been quite a journey getting the book launch sorted, most of which seems to have caused by the hotel being awkward. We are still not entirely there, but here’s what I know.

The launch will be in the Sussex Room at 4:30pm on the Friday. Peadar, Jacey, Jo, Joel and Roz will be there. John Jarrold will be on hand to represent Chaz. Helen Brady may be able to be there, but she’s not at the con all weekend and she has other Easter logistics to manage. Juliet McKenna will be there because she has a story in Fight Like A Girl #1.

We’ll try to keep the chat to a minimum so you have time to buy books and get them signed.

I have no idea what catering we will have. Probably no alcohol because the hotel is being difficult. I was hoping we could do afternoon tea, but the hotel is not interested in letting us do that.

In addition I am doing four panels.

Friday 15:00–16:00, Pavilion

SFF and Trans History – SFF has a long history of challenging contemporay ideas of gender both through the lived experience of creators and through SFF works. Our panel discusses the history of trans people and SFF. With Sandra Bond, Nick Hubble, Joel Cornah & duckbunny

Saturday 09:00–10:00, Pavilion

Fanzines in the 21st century – Our panel talk about creating, sharing and discussing fanzines. In an age of microblogging and BookTok, what is the enduring appeal of a fanzine? How is it done, and what are the pitfalls in the modern age? With Alison Scott, Roseanna Pendlebury, Sandra Bond & Tommy Ferguson

Saturday 18:00–19:00, Pavilion

We Will Rise Again – Inspired by the publication of ‘We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope’ edited by GOH Karen Lord and others, the panel discuss how writers and editors are trying to create different and radical futures, whose futures are included, and about being and/or working with activists to inspire creation. With Karen Lord, Emma Newman and Catherine Sharp.

Monday 13:30–14:30, Sandringham

Folklore, Cultures, and the Modern Fantastic: adapting myth – Folklores and myths are deeply rooted cultural properties. The panel look at how writers and artists have used and misused folklores and myths, and discuss good and bad practice. With Kat Kourbeti, M E Moirin, Johannes T Evans & Charles Stross.

And the rest of the time you will be able to find me in the Dealers’ Room. Please come and buy some books.

My BristolCon Schedule

~ Cheryl

The programme for BristolCon has been released. I am doing panels. So is Kayla. And of course there will be a Wizard’s Tower dealer table. When we are not in the Dealers’ Room, this is where to find us. Cheryl first:

Saturday 25th October, 13:00 – Panel Room 1

SF As Activism – How can genre influence our attempts to bring change in the real world? What can we learn from SFF and how do we put it into practice? With David Cartwright (mod), Matthew (T.O.) Munro, Rosie Oliver and Stephen Oram.

Sunday 26th October, 14:00 – Panel Room 1

Two Genders? That’s All? – In many fantasy and sci-fi settings, the sky is the limit in terms of magic and creation – people can have wings, tails, pointy teeth, vampire fangs, fur, hooves; houses roam the fields and sailships soar through the skies; there are dragons, unicorns, monsters… And yet of all these things, everyone’s only male or female? What, no one could imagine anything more interesting than that? A panel exploring trans and nonbinary erasure and the limits of sex and gender binary imagination in SFF, With Pete Ellis, Zoe, Johannes T. Evans and Dr Bob.

And for Kayla:

Saturday 25th October, 18:00 – Panel Room 1

Location Location Location – What SFF sites would make great tourist destinations? And which might be better off redeveloped into industrial megasites? With Piotr Swietlik (mod), Gareth L. Powell, Joanne Hall and Kevlin Henney.

Sunday 26th October, 14:00 – Panel Room 2

Copyright And AI – Copyright is important to SFF creatives. The UK government have recently been considering giving access to original work to train AIs in addition to the existing large scale theft of works already undertaken by the tech giants. The panel will discuss the impact of this and any proposed legislation on SFF creatives and what it means for the genres. With Pete Sutton (mod), Ben Jeapes, Rosie Oliver and Matt Gibbs.

There is no launch event this year, but you will be able to get three new books in advance of the official publication data. They are:

  • The Green Man’s Holiday – Juliet E McKenna
  • Of the Emperor’s Kindness – Chaz Brenchley
  • Wiz Duos Book 3 – Ruthanna Emrys & Andrew Knighton

Sadly most of the authors won’t be there, but Juliet will be around on Sunday if you want books signed. In addition Ben Jeapes, Anna Smith Spark, Joel Cornah, Ben Mears and of course Roz & Jo will all be around. If you are thinking that the only Ben Jeapes books we well are electronic, well, we are going to have a few copies of paper editions of Ben’s books at the dealer table.

And finally, Jo is arranging a special memorial event for our dear friend, David Gullen. It is at 14:00 in panel room 1 on the Saturday. There will be cake.

See you there, I hope.

Queer Lit Quarterly

~ Cheryl

The lovely Pete from Gayberystwyth Books runs a quarterly literary event for queer writers at Aberystwyth University. This quarter I am one of the guest authors. (Yes, I know, I will mostly be talking about the queer people I publish, but I might read something too.)

The chances are that most of you will not be able to be in Aberystwyth next week, but I do know a couple of people who teach at the university, so a blog post is in order.

Full details of the event are available here.

And yes, that is the 10th, which is the day before Octocon. This month is a bit crazy.

My Octocon Schedule

~ Cheryl

October is very convention-heavy, and the programme assignments are starting to come in. On Sunday 12th I will be attending Octocon (virtually). Here’s what I will be up to:

11:30 – Historical Myths and How to (Not) Use Them

When writing a story based on a myth or legend or on ‘true’ history, how do you resist the temptation to pull it forward to the current day in the hope of making it new and fresh? And when you do want to set your story in its original time period, how do you make it your own while keeping it relevant and interesting for a modern audience, at the same time as staying true to the source?

With Jean Bürlesk (moderator), Finn McLellan and Gillian Polack

16:00 – Small Press, Big Books!

Often the most beloved and most surprising works come from small press publishers. These are the folks who bring forth unique books in some of the hardest to find subgenres. Join us as we celebrate the tiny mighty publishers of the world.

With Francesca T Barbini, Catherine Sharp (moderator), Khan Wong and Jo Zebedee

Online memberships for Octocon are still available at a mere €20. Full details here.

Gender Stories in Bristol

~ Cheryl

Bristol Museum is currently running an exhibition called Gender Stories. The blurb says:

Challenging rigid definitions and binary narratives, Gender Stories dives deep into the intricate connections between sex, gender, sexuality, and identity. Discover how these fluid, and multifaceted ideas have been mythologised, stereotyped, expressed – and sometimes concealed – through art, history, politics, and daily life over time.

The exhibition includes work by David Hockney, Rene Matic, Zanele Muholi, Catherine Opie, Grayson Perry, and Del LaGrace Volcano.

In addition the fabulous Jack Shoulder is hosting LGBTQIAP+ tours of the museum. Jack and Mark Small are the team behind the wonderful Museum Bums book, so you can be guaranteed an entertaining tour. Dates are listed here.

And why am I telling you all this? Because on September 24th I will be appearing on a panel associated with the exhibition. The panel is titled ‘Gender, Identity, Culture, and Future – a frank panel discussion’. Appearing with me will be Sid Boyner (artist), Sacha Acheson (former England women rugby player), Ben Akers (CEO of a men’s mental health charity) and Dr Sarah Jones (historian of sexuality and gender, University of Bristol). Tickets are a mere £5, and you can buy them here.

The Doctor Thing

~ Cheryl

Yesterday Kevin and I spent the day at the University of Exeter where I was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws. Obviously I have known about this for some time, but the university asked me to keep it very much under wraps until the award had actually been made. I’m sure you can understand why.

The staff at the university took incredibly good care of us, including first class rail travel from London to Exeter, and then Exeter to Swansea. This made Kevin very happy. We had the Sunday in Exeter to relax, and then a day of being fêted. The graduation ceremony itself is a little mediaeval, in that everyone gets dressed up in academic robes, but other than that isn’t much different from an award ceremony. I did have to make a speech. It seemed to go down well.

I must admit that, when I first got notification of the award, I assumed that they had got the wrong person. But they insisted that they did mean me. I do have a few friends who are professors at Exeter whom I have worked with, and this may have had some influence on the decision.

I do know that there are many people in the trans community who deserve such recognition far more than I do. However, much of my trans activism has been done in an academic environment, which I guess is how I got noticed. Hopefully other folks will get recognised too in due course.

Somewhat to my disappointment, you do not get your own sonic screwdriver, or a second heart, just for becoming a Doctor. You do get a fancy certificate, and some letters after your name. I won’t be using my title much, except at academic conferences and when harranguing government over trans rights issues.

Anyway, my huge thanks to everyone at Exeter for what was an amazing day. I’m not sure if it has entirely sunk in yet, but I guess I will get used to it.

If you want to see what they said about me, I have a mention in this year’s Graduation Brochure (alongside Caroline Lucas, whom I got to meet again yesterday). And if you really want to see the ceremony itself you can find it here. My bit starts at about 79 minutes in.

My Archipelacon 2 Programme

~ Cheryl

The programme for Archipelacon 2 is now online. Here’s what I am doing.

Thursday 26, 17:00 – Main Auditorium
On Writing – I am chairing a discussion on the craft of writing with Guests of Honour Emmi Itäranta, Jeff VanderMeer & Mats Strandberg

Friday 27, 10:00 – Ramso
Strange Women Lying in Ponds – my contribution to the Fafnir Anniversary Symposium, an expanded version of my talk on lake ladies from the AWWE conference earlier this year.

Friday 27, 13:00 – Rysso
Worldbuilding with Queer Animals – a new and revised version of my talk on queerness in nature, and how it can be used to inform our worldbuilding.

Friday 27, 14:00 – Kapten
Indie Publishers Unite – a discussion on publishing translated works through small presses, with J.S. Meresmaa & Saara Henriksson

Saturday 28, 15:00 – Small Auditorium
Myths & Marvels: Scandinavian Influences in Fantasy and Sci-Fi – a panel with Saga Bolund, Rimma Erkko, Ada Palmer and special guest star, Fenris Puppy

Sunday 29, 10:00 – Small Auditorium
Ann VanderMeer Publishing Q&A – Ann and I talk about being a small press publisher and how to get published.

An Online Event

~ Cheryl


The lovely people from the Chalk Scribblers writing group have invited me to an online event this coming Wednesday evening (UK time). You don’t have to be a member of the group, and it is free to attend. So, if you would like to hear me burble on about Wizard’s Tower, you can get a ticket here.

My Eastercon Schedule

~ Cheryl

The programme for this year’s Eastercon has been announced. Here’s what I will be doing.

Friday, 18 April 2025

Looking Back: Harmful Legacies in SFF – Hilton – Boardroom – not streamed – 18:30

SFF has a history of engaging with its own past, but that past isn’t always good. How do we engage with the legacy of John W. Campbell’s editing, and the shape it forced science fiction into? Lovecraft’s racism shaped his cosmic horror, which has gone on to influence writers to this day; how do we tackle that? The Hobbit is so male that Peter Jackson felt compelled to create a female character for his film trilogy. How do we tackle the legacies of science fiction and fantasy of the past in the present day? With: Liz Bourke (moderator), Helen Gould, C.L. McCartney & Jeannette Ng.

Sunday, 20 April 2025

The Ties That Bind: Found Family in SFF – Hilton – Lagan B – 9:30

Fandom is a family, and speculative fiction is full of found families, from quest groups to spaceship crews. We will talk about the attraction of found families, the pitfalls of writing them, and the best examples of found families in fiction… as well as those we’d love to be adopted into. With David Green, Juliet Kemp, Everina Maxwell & Caroline Mersey (moderator).

Monday, 21 April 2025

Who Runs The World? Feminism in SFF – ICC – Hall 1 A – 11:00

Women have been part of the SFF field since it was invented, whether by Mary Shelley or Margaret Cavendish; but often they have been sidelined, especially retrospectively. Now we are seeing another range of rediscoveries of female writers who have been pushed into obscurity, but what could this continual process of obscurity and rediscovery tell us about feminism’s progress in SFF? With Juliet E McKenna, Caroline Mersey, Jeannette Ng & Virginia Preston (moderator).

Queerly Triumphant – Hilton – Lagan A – 12:30

For years, queer narratives were written in the shadow of tragedy, from the formal legal discrimination to the devastation of the AIDS epidemic. Throughout that time, though, there have been narratives of queer triumph and queer joy, and in the face of a resurgent anti-queer backlash, we’re seeing a renewed need for such stories today. Our panel discuss the history of queer narratives, the way the spectre of queer tragedy has historically erased the reality of queer joy, and the best queer triumphant writing today. With Sandra Bond, Trip Galey, SJ Groenewegen & Mairi White (moderator).

And not forgetting the BSFA Awards ceremony, which starts at 18:30 on the Sunday night. Come and see if Fight Like A Girl 2 wins an award, and if so whether I can remember how to make an acceptance speech.

You can still buy a virtual membership for just £20. Click here.

That Time of Year

~ Cheryl

You might not think it, but it is LGBTQ+ History Month, at least in the UK. It certainly isn’t in the USA, where the Fascist Coup is busily trying to erase queer people from history, but here we can at least do some events.

Last weekend I headed down to Llanelli for their first ever such gig. My friend Norena Shopland did a great presentation of the Carmarthen Timeline. What is that, you ask? Well, a while back Norena was charged by the Welsh government to do some training for museums, libraries etc. to encourage them to make queer history more visible. The trainees responded that this was absolutely great, but they had no time, and no money, and were likely to have even less of both in the future. So Norena and some friends set about producing a queer history timeline for each county in Wales that could be used by local authorities with minimum effort by their staff. We believe that Wales is the only country in the world to have such a thing. Cool.

This weekend sees the annual OutStories Bristol event at M-Shed. I’m not speaking at that one, and I suspect I won’t have time to get to it either, but it looks like being a great day.

At the end of the month I am off to Abertystwyth to do an actual talk. The poster for the event is shown above. My talk is the one on Trans Celts (freshly updated with a bunch of new stuff). I am really looking forward to the one on The Mabiniogion. I know that for many of you Aberystwyth is at the arse end of nowhere, but if you can make it booking details are here. It is a great venue. The town museum is housed in a restored Edwardian theatre. Sadly I won’t be on stage, but I can guarantee an excellent audience.

I hope to take advantage of being in town to visit the National Library and do some research.

Just prior to that I will be spending a couple of days in That London, partly for things I can’t talk about yet, and partly to take advantage of being there. The lovely people at Strawberry Hill House are doing a candlelit open evening on the Wednesday (26th), and before going home I plan to take in the Mediaeval Women exhibition at the British Library. They have material by Christine de Pizan and Julian of Norwich, and most amazingly a letter signed by Jean d’Arc herself. Wow.

All of this travel means that Salon Futura may be a day or two late, but I’m not worrying about that.

My Fantastika Schedule

~ Cheryl

Another weekend, another convention. I’ll be off to Stockholm shortly. Here’s my programme schedule.

Friday November 1st, 20:00 – Strong Female Characters
How have gender roles changed over time in SF and fantasy? Female characters take on ever-greater roles in fantastic fiction. Have strong female characters displaced male ones? Is it because women play an ever-larger role in society generally? Do female characters play a more significant role in science fiction and fantasy because more women are writing and creating fantastic worlds? How do changing gender dynamics affect how one reads, or how viewers appreciate what they watch?
With TL Huchu, Elin Holmerin, Jukka Halme and Åsa Lundström (m)

Saturday November 2nd, 16:00 – 50 years of The Dispossessed
2024 marks the 50 year anniversary of Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic science fiction novel The Dispossessed. One of the few books to win the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards, it is widely considered a defining work of SFF literature. What made the book so beloved and what keeps people reading it to this day? Does it read as a political manifesto, a character study, a speculative thought experiment – or all of the above? What themes resonated with contemporary audiences, and what can we take from the novel when rereading it 50 years on?
With Joachim Björk, Saga Bolund, Jerry Määttä and Markku Soikkeli

Sunday November 3rd, 13:00 – “Herding cats” – how to moderate a panel
The success of a panel naturally depends on the subject and the participants, but the moderators impact could be crucial as well. But how do you prepare to moderate a panel? How do you handle a discussion that has steered away from the subject or if one panelist is about to take over the conversation? When should you let the audience in and how do you interrupt an audience question that just goes on forever? This and much more will be discussed in this panel of experienced moderators.
With Johan Anglemark, Jukka Halme, Timothy Johansson (m) and Britt-Louise Viklund

Sunday November 3rd, 15:00 – The State of Publishing: A Conversation
Juliet McKenna and Cheryl Morgan discuss the state of publishing today. This wide-ranging exploration will be between an author and her publisher, between a defender of authors against unjust legislation and a champion of translation and intercultural dialogue. It is likely to cover anything from copyright protections to e-books, publishing corporations to self-publishing, editing to translation.

Book and Convention Schedule

~ Cheryl

This weekend will be BristolCon, which is a two-day event for the first time. The programme is still being worked on, but as far as I know this is what I will be doing:

Saturday, 12:00: Creating A Culture – Building A Working Fantasy / Sf Society

Sunday, 11:00: Book Launch

Sunday, 13:00: Cli-fi – subgenre or necessity?

Of those the most important thing is the book launch. I’d hope that we would have at least 2 books for that, maybe as many as four. As it turns out, the only new book we have since WorldCon is Resurrection Code, and Lyda won’t be at the convention. Both The Green Man’s War and Fight Like A Girl 2 have been hit by life happening. Juliet has written a little more about this on her blog.

So there will be no paper copies of either book at the convention. But I will be taking pre-orders, and I will be selling ebooks because those are ready. If you pre-order paper, you get a free ebook. Those advance ebooks sales will only be at BristolCon. Well, maybe, except.

When I get home I have a couple of days to get turned around and then I am off to Stockholm for Fantastika where Juliet is a Guest of Honour. There’s no way I can get boxes of books to Sweden, but a local bookstore has promised to have some Juliet books available. They may also take pre-orders for the two new ones. I would like to have the ebooks available there as well, but that is complicated as there is VAT on ebooks in Sweden and I don’t want to have to register to sell them. But, remember all that good work that Juliet & Co did back before Brexit in getting the EU to have sensible tax thresholds? That might just allow me to sell stuff. Funny how these things come back around.

The programme for Fantastika is not public yet, but I have some interesting panels, and because I don’t have a dealer table I can do more of them.

As for books, The Feast of the King’s Shadow, the fourth Outremer book from Chaz Brenchley, is waiting on Ben Baldwin to have time to do the cover. That will probably be out in December, followed by the second Helen Brady book, The Elfstone, in January. After that, exciting things are in store, but I can’t tell you about them yet.

My FantasyCon Schedule

~ Cheryl

FantasyCon is only a couple of days away. Here’s where you can find me.

Friday, October 11th 9pm (Baba Yaga Room)
Fantasy In The City – Urban or second world, the city is fertile stomping ground for fantasy. Why? And how do we treat the city like a character? Panellists: Cheryl Morgan, Ella Summers, Liz Cain, David Green, Sandra Unerman (m).

Saturday, October 12th 7pm (Kraken Room)
Queer Role Models in Fandom – There’s nothing quite like the thrill of discovering someone like you in your favourite book, TV show, or movie. What characters are queer role models done well in genre? Panellists: Cheryl Morgan (m), Susan J Morris, Tej Turner +1.

Sunday, October 13th 1pm (Kraken Room)
Demystifying the Editing Process – Every editor is different. Here, they share their methods of working, from developmental editing to line edits, and what writers can expect. Panellists: George Sandison, Claire Cronshaw, Jonathan Oliver, David Thomas Moore, Cheryl Morgan (m).

I will not have a dealer table. If you want to buy a Wizard’s Tower book, let me know tomorrow and I’ll put it in the car before leaving.

My Octocon Schedule

~ Cheryl

This weekend I will mostly be at a writing retreat in Llandybie along with Roz, Jo and various friends. However, I have to rush home on the Saturday evening because I need functioning internet. I am doing one virtual panel at Octocon, as follows:

Saturday, 5 October 2024; 20:30
Stop Passing the Buck: Consent in Historical Fantasy: So often in historical fantasy, we are bombarded with violence we didn’t ask for, particularly sexual violence against women. When this concern is raised, the authors frequently hide behind “I want to stay true to the time period” and “we can’t judge the past by today’s standards”. But why are authors bound to a period that didn’t exist when they’re creating a new society? Why do they hold to this, instead of creating their own? And why does the adherence to the past only seem to show up in violence against women and not to the beauty standards of the time? Why is assault more palatable to an audience than unshaved armpits? How do we go about demanding that this change, or do we have to abandon a genre we otherwise love? – with Faranae, Kat Dodd, Nick Hubble and MaryBrigid Turner (m).

Juliet McKenna is also attending the convention, and she has a panel at 13:30 on Sunday about exploring lesser-known fairy tales. That sounds like something where she might talk about the research she does for the Green Man books.

Full details of this year’s Octocon (and you can still buy a virtual membership) are available here.

Worldcon Ho!

~ Cheryl

In a few days time I will be packing the car with books and heading up to Glasgow. Most of the time I will be in the Dealers’ Room, so I should be easy to find. I have precisely one panel. Here it is:

Sunday, 11 August 2024 – 11:30 – Gods and Faith in Fantasy – Forth, Duration: 60 mins

Faith and the divine have played a huge role in fantasy, from Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods to N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow. This panel will discuss the presentations and representations of the divine in fantasy, the ways writers put faith on the page, and the role of gods in story.

With: Ehud Maimon (moderator), Meg MacDonald & Wole Talabi

LuxCon, For Real This Year

~ Cheryl

Last year I was invited to be a Guest of Honour at LuxCon. It was the weekend after Eastercon which, if you remember, was a massive superspreader event for COVID. So I ended up being sick and unable to go to Luxembourg. The con committee were very understanding, and have kindly invited me back this year.

I think I will be able to make it. When I was first invited the date I was given was the weekend after Easter again. Since then it has been moved two weeks later. So I am now going there direct from an Assyriology conference in Malta. However, I’m confident that my Assyriologist friends will be rather more careful than Eastercon attendees. My main worry is having to go through Heathrow.

Assuming I do get there, it looks like being a fabulous event. I’ve been offered some fun panels. It looks like they have an excellent cosplay culture. And there is talk of a live role-playing game featuring the guests.

I’m particularly impressed with the number of guests from around Europe they have (full list here). Given that everyone in Luxembourg seems to speak at least 3 languages, I guess I should not be surprised.

I will report back in the April issue of Salon Futura.

February Looms

~ Cheryl

And that means that LGBT+ History Month is on the horizon. Interest in this sort of thing seems to have waned a bit over the past few years. That’s partly because the sorts of institutions that put on events are increasingly demanding something recorded that they can use for years to come. The problem with that is that you have to ensure that your presentation is free of copyrightable images, and that takes a lot of effort. Also, of course, there’s a good chance doing such things, especially if they involve trans issues, is likely to become illegal soon, regardless of who wins the next general election.

However, the lovely folks at M-Shed in Bristol are still doing good work. They have a fine program of talks scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 24th, and only one of them is by me. Excitingly there will also be a talk by Mark and Jack, the Museum Bums boys. I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be talking about the search for trans people in Celtic Britain. OutStories Bristol has a long post about the various talks.

I will be doing a couple more talks, including one at Oxford University, and one online for a university in Canada, but I don’t yet know of anything else that will be open to the public. If something turns up, I will let you know.

Introducing Speculative Insight

~ Cheryl

On the assumption that a lot of people won’t be paying much attention to the internet over the holidays, I’ve been queueing up a bunch of posts, so apologies for the unusual flurry this week.

To begin with I’d like to draw your attention to a new online critical magazine for SF&F literature. It is called Speculative Insight, and it is edited by Alex Pierce whom you may know from Galactic Suburbia, Letters to Tiptree, Luminescent Threads, or even Locus. Alex kindly asked me to write something for her and, much to my surprise, it ended up launching the magazine.

“What is Fantasy Anyway?” is an essay-length version of the talk I did at Bristol Central Library in support of their contribution to the British Library Fantasy exhibition. It is basically me having a go at the people who are heavily invested in policing genre boundaries. Hopefully some of you will find it interesting.

Speculative Insight will continue with a mix of paid and free articles over the coming months. I’m looking forward to seeing what it produces. And remember when you look at the prices that an Australian dollar is only worth a little over 50p.