Jewish Speculative Fiction Writers Yahoo Group and LJ Community

For anyone and everyone who is interested in the intersection of Jewish themes and speculative fiction:

At Readercon on Sunday (which happened to be the 17th of Tammuz, a Jewish fast day), writer Leah Cypess gathered a small group of Jewish speculative fiction writers together. We sat in the Con Suite, not eating, and discussed the issues involved in writing science fiction and fantasy stories that have a Jewish element or theme to them.

Although there already exist groups devoted to the discussion of Jewish science fiction (the group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jewishSF/ comes to mind), as far as we could tell there was no group specifically devoted to Jewish science fiction from the perspective of the writer. Therefore, Leah decided that we should form such a group, and setting up an email discussion group on yahoo is the start.

So, if you're a writer who is interested in writing Jewish speculative fiction, feel free to join. Our grandiose plans include a possible small convention devoted to Jewish speculative fiction, and the question of how to get more markets to publish such fiction.

The group can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jewishSpecFic/ . Our one-line description: Jewish Speculative Fiction Writers is for writers who are interested in working on fiction at the intersection of speculative fiction and Jewish themes. A LiveJournal Community for the same purpose is at jewishspecfic.

The Great Drive, Day 8

As I expected, Readercon interrupted my ability to blog the rest of Josh and Rachel's cross-country trip on a daily basis. However, even though their journey is now ended, I can still give a daily report of what happened after we left them sleeping in Casper, Wyoming. And if all goes well, they'll be back on the Internet tonight and can send me corrections to these reports.

Lots of pictures coming up...

( Read more... )

Rachel told me that crossing into Idaho they drove up a narrow, windy mountain path and down again, which terrified Josh. But beyond that was pretty farmland, and then they made it to their stop for the night, Idaho Falls. And, most importantly of all, they found a Starbucks at the Fred Meyer in Idaho Falls.

By the way, Josh recommended a book to me: Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture by Taylor Clark. I'm barely into the book, and already I've learned that Boston Harbor holds enough caffeine to give the fish a slight buzz, because, um, a lot of Bostonians drink coffee and that caffeine has to end up somewhere eventually.

As soon as I can, I'll post about Day 9 of The Great Drive, which includes a visit to the Craters of the Moon.

(New basic message: Rachel is now going to a midnight showing of the new X-Files movie tonight at the Eugene Valley River Center movie theater, and now has an extra ticket for the 10 pm showing on Friday night. If anyone wants it, let me know.)