Fair Trade Friday post at the Amani Blog!
From my posts this month, you might assume I had done nothing but read and review books. You wouldn’t be far wrong. One of my internships has wrapped up, but I’m keeping up with the second–a part-time arrangement with the Fair Trade store Amani DC–for some outside the house occupation during my job search. The status of my job search can best be described as “pending.” To be honest, after the crisis in July and the hard work that came with wrapping up my...
Read MoreWisCon Rapidfire Book Reviews #3: Edge of Oblivion by J.T. Geissinger
Among the delights of WisCon was the cardboard box of free review copies in the lobby. Diving in among them, I read the back cover copy of this ARC and snagged it, always one to enjoy the occasional romance. I was expecting fantasy in a historical setting, only to find paranormal romance instead. Paranormals aren’t usually my thing, but I figured I’d give it a shot. I sat up late reading it and carried it around the next day to browse in between panels. I did set it down once the...
Read MoreWisCon Rapidfire Book Review #2: A Stranger on Olondria by Sofia Samatar
Another one of the books I discovered through WisCon–in fact, I discovered Stranger in Olondria through the little sampler pamphlets Small Beer Press handed out out at WisCon 2012. This was daring promotional tactic–because the first 50 pages of this story don’t have much of the plot, though they gave a flavor for style. The style intrigued me enough that I was willing to wait for the plot, and wait I did: not only for a full year to see the book in...
Read MoreSeptember Publications: Scigentasy and Voluted Tales
Happy Labor Day to those of you celebrating it! I’m at this moment not quite employed enough to, but I do have some exciting writing announcements. First, Silver Chests and Plain Sight has been reprinted at Voluted Tales. Half-detective story, it may have been influenced by Peter Tremayne’s delightful medieval monastic mysteries–although my cleric happens to be female. I also have an original story publication: A Marriage, Pure and Good is at the new Intersectional...
Read MoreWisCon Rapidfire Book Review #1: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Life is busy, what with the move, the job search, and the Starter Guide, but it’s unfair of me to hold off on these reviews any longer. So: a RAPID FIRE ROUND shall commence, where I give you my thoughts on the books I discovered at WisCon this May in a few hundred words each. I wasn’t able to purchase this book at WisCon proper, but I did see it in the dealer’s room and took note of it. I was especially interested in the setting after returning from Ghana. Chinua Achebe had...
Read MoreSay Yes! Women’s Crowdfunding Campaign
I am not done with blogging about crowdfunding, it seems. Today my Fair Trade Friday post up at the Amani DC page is dedicated to an awesome new campaign which combines ecofriendly ‘upcycling’ (recycling in a way that creates a product with greater value than the original) with women’s empowerment by supporting refugees in the Austin, Texas area: Open Arms and Blue Avocado’s “Say YES!” campaign. As you might be able to guess, I am also becoming a big fan of...
Read MoreAnatomy of Successful Crowdfunding (or, How I made 700% of my Kickstarter goal despite a godawful cover image)
What makes a successful crowdfunding project? Any number of things, I’m sure. That’s the good news. A campaign doesn’t need to be 100% successful on all fronts to make its funding goal, it just needs to do enough things well enough. But a lot rides on certain key choices you make for your campaign. In the spirit of inquiry, I’ve conducted this–is it called a “postmortem” is it’s successful beyond my wildest dreams? -No, a friend reminds me...
Read More“The Void Test” at the Cast of Wonders Podcast!
This weekend, I had one of my first stories in audio publication! You can now listen to “The Void Test,” read by Chloë Yates in the YA Podcast Cast of Wonders. It’s a story of confronting fears, most importantly the sort of fears even ultimate power can’t defeat. The text is included on the website, slightly revised from its originally appearance in MindFlights Magazine in...
Read MoreA Quick, Happy Update
I’m in the midst of packing (I have lost track of how much packing I’ve done this year, between actually moving house to D.C. and the frequent flights to home, Vegas, LA, and Ghana) but have time to fire off some quick notes. First off, packing is a wonderful way to clean house. You really make a decision about an item’s true value if admitting its value means carrying it with you and/or finding a corner of suitcase to stuff it in. I’ve managed to clean through my story...
Read MoreI propose Arkenberg’s Law of Blogging
Arkenberg’s Law of Blogging goes thus: The number of blogworthy items occuring in one’s life exists in inverse proportion to the amount of time one has to blog, resulting in less blogging the more there is to blog about. I suppose this could even deserve the name of Arkenberg’s Paradox of Blogging. Unless someone else has observed it first, in which case I am highly embarassed. So, what’s going on in my life that is blogworthy, but I have no time to blog on it? I have...
Read MoreAbout Therese
Therese Arkenberg's first short story was accepted for publication on January 2, 2008, and her second acceptance came a few hours later. Since then they haven't always been in such a rush, yet her work appears in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Analog, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Sword & Sorceress XXIV. Aqua Vitae, her science fiction novella, was released by WolfSinger Publications in December 2011.
She works as a freelance editor and writer in Wisconsin, where she returned after a brief but unforgettable time in Washington, D.C. When she isn't reading, writing, or editing (it's true!) she serves on the board of the Plowshare Center of Waukesha, which works for social, economic, and environmental justice.