R. Jean Mathieu's Innerspace

SF/F, sociology, some recipes. Updates every other Friday.

Category: appeals

2023 Year in Review…and Eligibility for 2024

31 December, 2023 /

Been a Hell of a year, hasn’t it? Then again, so was the entire Trump administration.

My year opened with a double-embolism and ended with a gout attack. In between came the slow-motion loss of my day job and the resulting chaos bringing my rhythm of writing, editing, mailing, remailing, updating, hustling crashing down around my ears.

But still, we goddamn got things done. My story, “The Voluntolds of America,” hit the shelves in November in the pages of Reclaiming Joy, from WriteHive. I qualified for the SFWA. Lyra turned one. I sat down with Ann LeBlanc and with Ai Jiang. I hosted a panel at the Nebulas. And I published. Not just reprints, either.

Some of them are fresh and eligible for the most prestigious awards in speculative fiction.

Here’s what’s eligible for prizes and awards in 2024 – note them down and write them in. Who knows? We just might win.

I got two Quaker articles published, “A Quaker Rosary” in Western Friend and “A Friend with Taoist Notions” in Friends’ Journal. Western Friend called me back for an interview on their podcast even. One reader reached out about my thoughts on martial arts in the meeting-house, and that article will be coming out in 2024. And that wasn’t the only one – no less than Matt Selznick interviewed me for Sonitotum.

Speaking of podcasts – I launched Solidarity Forever: The History of American Labor, with notes right here on R. Jean’s Mathieu’s Innerspace. This is the soup-to-nuts labor history in this country, the bloodiest labor history in the developed world, from 1619 to 2024 and beyond. And if you don’t like that labor history, go out and make some of your own!

I have Doña Ana Lucía Serrano …to the Future! out under review by agents, I have stories in the mail, and I have a new novel, The Thirty-Sixth Name, a YA Jewish fantasy swashbuckler, open in Word. I have stories to tell, and a voice to be heard.

And, oddly enough, I feel like 2024 will be a pretty good year.

Eligibility: The Voluntolds of America

“Voluntolds of America”

Eligible for: Hugo Award, Nebula Award
Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: Solarpunk as fuck
Publication: Reclaiming Joy
Publisher: Inked in Gray LLC
Link: Amazon.com, Goodreads
Category: Short Story
Voted “Most Uncomfortably Relevant” by the people I read it to!

Eligibility: Cambermann’s Painter

“Cambermann’s Painter”

Eligibility: Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Locus Award
Genre: Steampunk
Subgenre: Satire
Publisher: FedoraArts Press
Link: Amazon.com, Goodreads
Category: Flash
Voted “Most Too-Clever-By-Half” by a small collection of randos!

Eligibility: The Man Who Shot Lü Dongbin

“The Man Who Shot Lü Dongbin”

Eligibility: World Fantasy Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award, Hugo Award
Genre: Fantasy
Subgenre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: FedoraArts Press
Link: Amazon.com, Goodreads
Category: Short Story
Voted “Most Mathieuvian” by my wife!

Eligibility: Fire Marengo

Fire Marengo

Eligibility: Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award
Genre: Science Fiction
Subgenre: Sea Story/Solarpulp
Publisher: FedoraArts Press
Link: the Innerspace Newsletter (free with signup)
Category: Novelette
Voted “Most Entertaining to Listen To” by several local writers!

Eligibility: Lost Signal

“Lost Signal”

Lost Signal, by R. Jean Mathieu. Cover art by Melissa Weiss Mathieu.

Eligible For: Shirley Jackson Award, Bram Stoker Award
Genre: Horror
Subgenre: Psychological Horror
Publisher: FedoraArts Press
Link: Amazon.com, Goodreads
Category: Short Story
Voted “Most Likely to Make People Listen for Darkness” by one beta-reader!

Solidarity Forever - Annie Willcox
The History of American Labor

Solidarity Forever: The History of American Labor

3 November, 2023 /
Solidarity Forever - Annie Willcox
The History of American Labor

I’m proud to announce the first episode of my new podcast, Solidarity Forever: The History of American Labor, has dropped at Acast and your local podcast app.

Solidarity Forever is, as it says on the tin, the history of American labor – from 1619 to the 21st century. Informed by my reading on labor history and organization, and my own lived union experience, I aim to provide the big picture of American labor history – who the mill girls were, what happened at Homestead, the first Red Scare, what a sit-down strike is – and the tools you need to go out and make some labor history of your own.

This first episode, “The History of the History of American Labor” discusses what labor unions are, what the podcast is about, who I am, and why you should care. It’s fifteen minutes long – go have a listen.

I have seen the future - Nebula winners 2023

I Have Seen the Future – The Nebula Award Winners No One Else Will Talk About

8 May, 2023 /

I have seen the future, baby, it is murder...

Nebula awards (big)

They predict the winning novels, and everyone’s got their favorite, but no one predicts the short stories, novelettes, and novellas.

Except for me.

Unlike last time, though, this year’s predictions are exclusive – specifically, a Patreon exclusive.

You can play Lorenzo di Medici to my Leonardo. Support a working-class writer, get exclusive preorders on every story I publish (like “The Man Who Shot Lü Dongbin” and “Cambermann’s Painter“), get all the Murdered Darlings I left on the cutting room floor…and get the skinny on who’s going to win and lose at the 2023 Nebula Awards. Sign up for my Patreon, join my little community, and place your bets, the Nebula airship is about to take off!

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