The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette (Patreon)

Howdy, patrons!

I've been back from Europe for a week now and I'm still feeling unsettled. That's most likely because I started a brand new day job just a few days ago, and this week has been a crush of new information and uncertainty as I figure out the best way to adapt a new routine. Life is change, of course, and part of being resilient is learning how to bounce back from these kinds of interruptions. Still, it's been surprisingly hard to get back to the "real world"; I'm just going to go ahead and blame jetlag.

I wasn't able to finish the next two serials for the Company Audition before leaving for Confuzzled 2018, and (of course) I didn't get ANY writing done while I was overseas. There was way too much to do, way too many people to talk to, way too much recovery that needed to happen at the end of the day! My apologies on that, but I'll be working hard to make sure they're up next week. Once the last snippet has been posted, the poll will immediately follow -- the week after that, I'll post the snippets to SoFurry and open up the poll to any new patrons who want to contribute! 

One of the big highlights during my time in Europe was getting to meet author Geoff Ryman, who was one of my husband's teachers during his Clarion Workshop. Geoff lives in London and has kept in touch with Ryan, so they thought it would be a good idea to meet up, have lunch, and spend the day together. Over lunch I learned that Geoff -- in addition to being an award-winning sci-fi/fantasy writer -- is a passionate advocate for speculative fiction coming out of the African continent. He introduced me to a treasure trove of writers, publications, and even an awards organization that he helped found! It was...overwhelming to see, honestly. Here was this successful white male author who dedicated so much of his life and energy towards spotlighting marginalized voices. And here was this entire world of African fiction that I had no idea existed!

I'm still reading up on all the resources Geoff sent to me, but if you're interested in learning more about the best genre fiction Africa has to offer, this is a really great start: 

• The African Speculative Fiction Society: http://www.africansfs.com/
• Afro Cyberpunk Interactive: http://www.afrocyberpunk.com

Hopefully I'll be able to finish off "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse pretty soon, so I can dig in to all of these delicious short stories and the Black Panther comic from Ta-Nehisi Coates. I am woefully behind!

That's all for now, friends. See you next week with a few more serials!

-Jakebe