Terror of the Batsquatch

In my line of work, you run into many odd and unusual things, and that often comes to a head at science fiction conventions. Among the places where I've consistently encountered this is Diversicon which just recently marked its 25th convening in Saint Paul.

The poet Barbara Jane Reyes has been asking at various points throughout the recent months why do we keep blogs in this day and age. In this instance, I admit it's because I have a feeling I will want to return to the story of the Batsquatch, which is not to be confused with Batman, thanks to a random conversation with Steve Fox and the writer SN Arly as we tried to identify possible SFF mascots for the various states who might be good candidates for the various SFPA chapters. Because that's the sort of conversation that comes up.

I'll add a picture to this post later, but for now some of the salient details to know about the Batsquatch are claims reportedly made in 1994, 2009, 2011, and 2014 in the Pacific Northwest of a large, flying hominid that resembles both a bat and presumably a sasquatch. Comparisons have been made to the Orang Bati and the Ahool of the Southeast Asian regions.

Having just passed through the region, I do feel like I missed out. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get a second chance...

Diversicon 26 Guests of Honor Announced: Charlie Jane Anders and Bryan Thao Worra

There were many highlights of this year's Diversicon 25 at the Best Western Hotel-Bandana Square this July, including the reading of the 2017 Rhysling Award Winners and speculative poetry round-robin, but one of the exciting things to announce is that I will be one of the Guests of Honor in July, 2018 along with acclaimed science fiction author and commentator Charlie Jane Anders. 

As we approach the 40th anniversary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association and the 5th anniversary of my award-winning collection DEMONSTRA from Innsmouth Free Press, I'm very excited to be joining her to create a fun and amazing weekend for everyone! #StayTuned #Diversicon26

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All the Birds in the Sky, out now. She’s the organizer of the Writers With Drinks reading series, and she was a founding editor of io9, a website about science fiction, science and futurism. Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Tin House, ZYZZYVA, and several anthologies. Her novelette “Six Months, Three Days” won a Hugo award.

Thanks, G-Fest!

A kaiju-sized thanks goes out to everyone who came to join me during G-Fest 26, the international Godzilla convention in Illinois this month, where I had the opportunity to present on kaiju in speculative poetry as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. It was definitely worth the adventure to get there. I even met Godzilla himself, although he's much shorter in person than we're led to believe!

Everyone had a chance to compose some kaiju haikus to add to the fun of the weekend, and I think we made a great case for the future of poetry inspired by Godzilla, King Kong, and many other entities particular to the genre. I appreciate everyone who took the time to be a part of the conversation, and I look forward to upcoming years ahead where we can share new updates on this aspect of the field.

A special thanks goes to J.D. Lees for bringing us together year after year.

2017 Laodyssey Playlist

So, recently it became necessary to make the transition from California back to the Midwest following a 6-year venture in community building and the arts, among other things. Because it's a bit of a pain searching around for radio stations that play my favorite music, and finding ones who don't repeat the same songs every other hour in horrible rotation, I wound up loading a Samsung tablet with a few to hold me over during the journey, because Manikab's DVD player is currently not working. 

So I have a record, the ones that wound up in the heaviest rotation were the following. Postmodern Jukebox and Puddles Pity Party occupied most of the list during this journey, as did Edith Piaf's "Non Je Ne Regrette Rien," and Tom Waits "I'll Be Gone" and "Hang On St. Cristopher." Jennifer Lawrence singing "The Hanging Tree," and Lana Del Rey's "In the Land of Gods and Monsters" also saw extensive play, along with War's "Gypsy Man," ZZ Top's "La Grange," and the Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis. I should have brought along some more Sade.