Reward in Daily Science Fiction’s Kickstarter! Also, Newsletters.
Daily Science Fiction is hosting a Kickstarter Campaign to pay authors for their short fiction published for the next six months, September 2013-March 2014. Among rewards including omnibus anthologies, gourmet chocolate, and a crocheted Cthulhu, you can also sign up for a critique from Yours Truly of a short story (they say up to 5,000 words, but I wouldn’t complain about longer, either)! See the details for Daily Science Fiction’s Fall 2013 campaign here. On the topic of...
Read MoreFair Trade Blogger Bragging
As a college sophomore, I first realized I was interested in international advocacy. A great goal but initially hard to accomplish in a small, friendly town smack dab in the middle of the North American continent. Except I was lucky, because I went to school in Waukesha, home of the Plowshare Center–an organization that hosts educational forums on social, economic, and environmental justice issues globally, and also runs Wisconsin’s first Fair Trade store. They welcomed me on...
Read MoreList: Everything That Can Go Wrong (a Mix-n-Match Adventure)
Storytelling is problem solving–to have a plot, you need a problem for your characters to confront. Then the plot needs a reason behind it, and you have to make clear what’s at stake if the problem isn’t solved, while having some idea how your characters are going to solve it. Over the weekend I started brainstorming problems-stakes-causes-and-solutions with a particular series in mind (another one!? Yes, another one). But as I went on I realized this list might serve as a...
Read MorePrint Books that are *Good* for the Planet
Being surrounded by the printed word (and intending to remain so my entire life–much as I enjoy ebooks, I like to keep paper copies for backup), I remain acutely conscious that it’s called “dead tree”s for a reason. Also, ever since my trip to Ghana I’ve had a horror of plastic. It’s bad enough seeing litter at the side of the road in the US, but I saw bags and discarded packaging piling up in places I never would have expected–water canals, forest,...
Read MoreWisCon 37–A Partial Review
I was certain I wouldn’t make it to WisCon this year, coming as it did right before my moving trip to Washington, D.C. But with some last-minute crunch and a willingness to run around disoriented (I’ve learned these will get you far in life, or at least lead me very far afield), I made it for at least the weekend and Friday evening. Friday:After hurriedly packing for DC, I stuffed my backpack with my immediate needs for one weekend and set out to brave the Memorial Day weekend...
Read MoreIndieGoGo Campaign for Self-Publishing a Book on Publishing
Long story short, I’m living off what I earn through my writing right now. This isn’t so bad, except writing income tends to arrive over the course of months, and is less than helpful when you need money right away. So to meet some expenses in the meantime, I’m hiring myself out as a manuscript editor and self-publishing a guidebook for writers who want to get their work into print. The Starter Guide for Professional Writers is a whole-picture handbook that helps you finish your...
Read MoreOn IndieGoGo Campaigns
This week, my student team finished mailing out perks to the sponsors of our IndieGoGo campaign, which raised funds for a community-level organization in rural Ghana to extend microloans and scholarships to local women. We were able to deliver $1,290 to Capacity Rural International during our class visit, over $900 of which came through IndieGoGo. The IndieGoGo campaign actually raised $1,085, but the site takes a fee. Although we knew that going in, there are some other things we discovered...
Read MoreDancing Memorials
Yesterday my blog post was about getting a dose of perspective. It came before events that offered yet another sort of perspective…and pushed me to work on this post, which has sat in my drafts for over a month now. There’s a story I’m not certain I will ever be able to write. The title is “Dancing Memorials”. For a time I thought of it as science fiction, because everything I write is science fiction or fantasy, but then I stopped thinking of it as a story that...
Read MoreFarewell, I’m off to Ghana!
Tomorrow morning I meet with the rest of my class for a last-minute orientation and packing of certain supplies, and then in the afternoon we head to Baltimore Washington International Airport, from there to JFK in New York, and from thence to Accra, where we’ll arrive early Thursday. Making this my last blog post for some time. I hasten to point out that they do have internet access in Ghana. The country as a whole is completely into the 21st century, and they have more cell phones than...
Read MoreLast weekend for Ghanaian Microloans Campaign!
Our IndieGoGo Campaign to raise funding for a project providing microloans to women in 5 rural villages in Ghana, for which I’ve pledge & provided a free short story, is in its final days. It closes to contributions at midnight, March 4th. My student group will continue to accept funds for this project through PayPal, but this is your last chance to give and earn mementos of the trip and the impact of your contribution in exchange! If you can afford to give any amount at this time,...
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.