As 2020 is apparently the year everyone else decides to shut themselves away in their homes, I’d like to take this opportunity to say that I and my workaholism got there first, before being a hermit shut-in became fashionable.
I was also using old-timey telephones and wearing a mask before it became fashionable.
That said, things have been happening in the world outside my desk, and I list them here in no particular order:
First of all, the German government made a terrible, terrible mistake and granted me citizenship! Which means I am now both British and German, or Germish.
In other changing-labels-news, I now identify as non-binary. I’ve been using “they” as a pronoun for a while, mostly because I think it’s weird that we need to constantly reference people by their gender, which I explore in my short story ‘They’. (Of course I respect whatever pronouns people like.) This doesn’t actually feel like very big news, as it’s just updating a label to catch up to how I’ve already felt, but it’s on my blog which means it’s official.
So I’m a non-binary Germish giant (I’m 198cm/6’6” tall). That ought to give the far-right something new to get all outraged over. Never say I’m not a giver.
Reviews! Interviews! Overviews! (That last one might not be a thing.) There’s CloudCuckooCountry’s Youtube review of my novel The Giddy Death, and a full interview with your favourite non-binary giant here.
Last week I spoke with the ever-wonderful SA Collins and Vance Bastion for the WROTE literary podcast, which can be listened to in a whole buncha places, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify, among others.
My flash fiction piece ‘Just Perfect’ got an honourable mention in Queer Sci Fi’s Flash Fiction Contest, and is featured in their latest anthology. It’s speculative horror, which I’ve never written before, and I had a great deal of fun with it.
My short story ‘Shelter’, which explores a Berlin bunker across a century of history, was reprinted in Stadtsprechen magazine, a multi-lingual, Berlin-based publication.
A language-learning calendar I wrote, Speak Like a Native, was published by the German publisher Harenberg.
I’ve also had some shorter nonfiction published, which you can find on my nonfiction page.
I have a couple of major projects and possible announcements coming up, so be sure to sit there endlessly refreshing this page for the latest news.
And with that, I bid you a traditional Germish farewell! Until next time, and remember, DO NOT GO OUTSIDE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. It’s only full of other people anyway.
- Redfern