Twisted Folklore StoryBundle

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StoryBundle is a neat idea where you can get hold of a bunch of books within a category — sometimes a strange category — for a very low price (although you are encouraged to add to it if you can). Well, The History of Soul 2065 is part of a StoryBundle called The Twisted Folklore Histories bundle. Until March 7th, you can get four books in .epub format for $5 and another eight books (for a total of 12) for $20.

It’s a neat way to market a group of books and to give many of them a second life, bringing them to readers who might otherwise not have tried them, since if you buy the bundle to get one of the books, and have the others available, why not give them a try as well?

Here’s the link and the list of books and authors in this bundle. The first four are:

  • Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
  • Blood Mountain by Brenda S. Tolian
  • The Twice-Drowned Saint by C. S. E. Cooney
  • The History of Soul 2065 by Barbara Krasnoff

The other eight are:

  • A Feast of Sorrows by Angela Slatter
  • Dance on Saturday by Elwin Cotman
  • Chasing Whispers by Eugen Bacon
  • Black Cranes edited by Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn
  • The Collected Enchantments by Theodora Goss
  • Like Smoke, Like Light by Yukimi Ogawa
  • Dark Breakers by C. S. E. Cooney
  • Shadow Atlas edited by Carina Bissett, Hillary Dodge and Joshua Viola

Enjoy!

Books, Booze & Barbara

Barbara Krasnoff2 Comments

I haven’t attended a lot of readings since the pandemic, but one of the few I have attended — although, admittedly, not often enough — is Randee Dawn’s Brooklyn Books & Booze @ Barrow’s Intense. It takes place once a month, every third Tuesday at an interesting bar in Brooklyn’s Industry City that specializes in ginger liqueurs (although it offers other drinks as well). Randee was nice enough to invite me to read, and I’ll be there on Tuesday, February 20th, along with a bunch of talented writers. It’s a good crowd, and it would be nice to see you there:

Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room
86 34th Street, Brooklyn, NY
Subway: D / R / N train to 36th Avenue, then about a 4 minute walk.

It’s free, but you can reserve a ticket if you want at this link.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in a little chat about the Jewish Futures anthology, I participated in a roundtable discussion at Con-Tinual, an online con run out of Facebook. Several of the writers who are in the anthology talked about their stories and their favorite authors, among other things; if you’d like to, I invite you to watch.

End of the year round-up

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I’ve seen some year-end reminders of some of the great fiction that my writer friends had published this year. So I thought I’d add my own list to theirs.

I actually managed to get two stories published in 2023: one in F&SF, a magazine that I’ve been following for most of my life (yay!), and one in an excellent anthology. Neither story is available online, so I’ve linked the name of the magazine to where you can purchase the publication, while the second link is to the SFWA listings of available short stories from 2023; if you’re a SFWA member, you’ll find a PDF there.

Enjoy!

“Time and Art”
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June 2023 issue
https://www.sfwa.org/…/18162-krasnoff-barbara-time…/…

“Baby Golem”
Jewish Futures: Science Fiction from the World’s Oldest Diaspora, edited by Michael A. Burstein
https://www.sfwa.org/…/18693-krasnoff-barbara-baby…/…

Jewish Futures, Hour of the Wolf, and new eyeglasses

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So I’m on my way to the optometrist to pick up my new eyeglasses — two pair, one for reading and one for movies / tv / driving — and I glance at Facebook and realize that today is the day when the Jewish Futures anthology is officially published — and that this evening, Jim is broadcasting my recent NYRSF conversation with Sheree Renee Thomas on Hour of the Wolf at 9 a.m. on WBAI 99.5.

Jewish Futures is an anthology edited by Michael Burstein and published by Ian Randall Strock, with an introduction by Jack Dann, the editor of the groundbreaking anthology of Jewish fiction, Wandering Stars, which came out in 1974. (Michael talks a bit about the genesis — excuse the expression — of the project in a recent column he wrote for John Scalzi’s blog.)

I am very pleased to be included. To be honest, when I found out that the anthology was opening to submissions, I decided I needed to at least send in something, so I started writing in a frenzy of sarcasm and anger (there was stuff happening out in the world that I didn’t much like). The result is “Baby Golem,” a science fictional short story about a scientist stuck on a colony ship with an evangelical group determined to treat her as their pet Jew, and what happens when they ask her to make them a golem.

And of course, I’m thrilled to be included with a group of authors who I really respect and like.

The book is available here:  Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s|Brookline Booksmith. And if you want to listen to me chat with Sheree, who is an amazingly wise and talented person, you can hear it tonight (or whenever you want to) either on the radio or via the WBAI website.

Upcoming NYRSF conversation with Sheree Renée Thomas

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I’m really excited to announce that I’ll be chatting with Sheree Renée Thomas on the online NYRSF Readings this coming Tuesday, August 1st, at 7 pm. We’ll both be reading short selections: I’ll read the story that was published in the May/June issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Sheree will present a sample of her writing as well. Since she’s both an extraordinary writer and the editor of F&SF, I hope to talk to her about her processes as an editor and a writer, along with any other topics that pop up (and there will be a Q&A). Jim Freund will act as host.

This will be a strictly online reading; you can find it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@JimFreund/streams or at Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NYRSF.Readings. Hope to see you there!

My Midge doll had a woolen coat

Barbara Krasnoff1 Comment

I haven’t seen the new Barbie movie yet (although I have every intention of doing so), but like many women, I have my own memories of Barbie — or, in my case, Midge.

Let me begin by saying that I didn’t like Barbie from the beginning. I felt that she looked “stuck-up” and not at all friendly — perhaps because I grew up in a housing project with kids who were largely Jewish, Italian Catholic, or Black, and neither they nor their teen-age siblings (nor their parents) looked anything like thin, blonde Barbie.

However, most of the other girls I knew had Barbies and I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that if I was going to play with them I had to have one too. But I didn’t like her, and I didn’t want her in my bedroom and among my other toys. I was in a quandary — until I saw ads for Barbie’s Best Friend Midge.

Midge had a rounder face, curly red hair and freckles. She had the same body shape as Barbie (so they could wear the same clothes), but I felt a little less put off by her. She was, well, friendlier. So I asked my parents to get me a Midge instead — which they did. (I understand that the Midge in the movie is the later “pregnant” version; this was not that.) So now I could play with the other girls — although, because it was Midge and not Barbie, she always took second place. But at least I could take part in the make-believe. I was content.

More than content — because she had a wonderful woolen coat.

My father, and some of my relatives, like many Eastern European immigrants and their children, worked in the garment industry. Soon after I got the Midge, we went to visit relatives, and one of my parents’ cousins presented me with clothes for my doll that she had made herself out of scraps from the cutting-room floor. There are two I especially remember: a long black cocktail dress that flared out at the bottom, and, my favorite, a green and black checked woolen coat with a real mink collar and a matching mink hat.

I loved that coat. It was really pretty, and the fur felt fantastic to the touch, and none of my friends had anything like it. And it had been made just for me. It made up for the snubs by the other girls, and I treasured it until I grew to high-school age, when Midge and her clothing was given away to a younger relative.

I have no photos of that Midge doll and her wardrobe. The photo here is one I found of what may have been a similar doll (apparently there were several Midge types over the years). But that coat and hat are strong in my memory. And even though I don’t remember the name of the relative who took the trouble to sew up some doll’s clothing for her cousin’s little girl, the care and love that went into it is something that stays with me today.

WBAI and NYRSF

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I’ve been trying to be better about writing — I’ve been getting up about an hour earlier every morning to try to get something done — and in the meantime, I’m going to be doing two readings this week; one from a couple of years ago, and one brand new one.

First, if you haven’t heard me read the short story “Stoop Ladies” from my book The History of Soul 2065, you can hear it on Jim Freund’s Hour of the Wolf radio show tonight at 9 pm ET on WBAI 99.5 FM (or pick it up later from their web site).

And then, on Wednesday, July 5th at 7 pm ET on the NYRSF Reading series, I’ll be chatting with Sheree Renee Thomas, the distinguished multi-award winning author and the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and the anthology Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction (among others). I’ll read the short story “Time and Art” that was published in a recent issue of F&SF and I’ll talk with Sheree about the magazine, her anthology, her writing, and all sorts of neat stuff. If you’d like to watch, you can do so on Jim’s YouTube channel.

Stop by if you can!

Flights of Foundry is this weekend, and I’ll be there

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Flights of Foundry, a completely online convention for (as they put it) speculative creators, is happening this weekend, and I’ll be taking part, moderating a panel and doing a reading.

The convention is free of charge (although they do ask that you contribute if you can), and offers panels, workshops, readings, and conversation (the panels are via Webex; the conversations are via Discord). Because it’s completely online, they try to have activities for most time zones, not just the U.S. So join if you’d like!

Here’s what I’ll be doing:

Friday, April 14th, at 10 pm Eastern Time

This is when I’ll be reading something I’ve written — I haven’t quite decided what yet. Things have been a little confused in my life recently, so I may shrug and go with “Sabbath Wine” or another of the stories from The History of Soul 2065. Or not.

Sunday, April 16th, at 10 am Eastern Time

I’ll be moderating a panel called Almost Too Convenient: Avoiding Inorganic Plotting, with Jaye Viner, Ann LeBlanc, and Phoebe Low. It’s an interesting topic, especially if you’ve tried to write a story and have hit problems getting from point A to point B. The official description is as follows:


Setting, character, background, and narrative all combine to give opportunities to the writer to craft a natural, believable series of events. The panelists explore how to make the events of your story feel organically grown, rather than forced for the sake of plot. They also discuss how to incorporate escalation, shifts in tone, and various other reversals into this approach.

Sound interesting? Here’s where you can register, and here’s where you can find the rest of the program. Maybe I’ll see you there!

New story (and awards eligibility post): “Where Things May Lead”

Barbara Krasnoff1 Comment
A translucent blue and purple figure floats in space near to Jupiter; you can see the stars through its body.
Illustration by Fran Eisemann using stock from NASA and Omni.

So only days after I finished sniffling about my poor publication showing, my story “Where Things May Lead” has been published in Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, along with a lovely illustration by Fran Eisemann (who is the editor-in-chief of the publication, so obviously wears many hats).

The story is a little different from my others in that it is a fairly straightforward science fiction story about how our actions may lead to increasingly significant consequences — even if we’re not aware of it. I wrote it with just that idea in mind; seeing how a single event or development, thrown out into the world, can eventually offer greater change than we may know.

I’m very glad that it has found a home with such a great publication. Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores offers its fiction for free, but exists on subscriptions, so if you enjoy my tale and others that are on the site, take a look at its subscription page.

Awards Eligibility post

Just an FYI: Since this is probably my only awards-eligible story for 2022 (my other publications are a flash fiction piece and a reprint), I’d appreciate any consideration for nominations you might think appropriate. (Just trying to overcome my usual reluctance to self-promote. Nothing more to see here, move on….)