Proud Pink Sky cover reveal and release date!

I’m thrilled to have received Proud Pink Sky’s final cover design from my editor! Rendered in cyberpunk neon tones reminiscent of the bi and trans pride flags, I’m truly delighted with the design – especially the intricate and energetic detail of the gay megacity.

And we now have a release date: March 2023. Meanwhile, the novel’s page on Amble’s site has been updated. You’ll see plenty of news on Proud Pink Sky before then, so be sure to check back in!

That’s not even all! My short story ‘More’ was featured in issue 9 of Orca, available both as an ebook and in print. Orca publish some fantastic literary and speculative fiction, and I’m honoured to have been included.

Well, I best re-chain myself to my desk, in case I get any funny ideas about “escaping” or “freedom”. There are always more words to rearrange!

Until next time!

-Redfern

Story in Nature!

So it’s that time of year when Berlin’s sky sinks into a wonderful shade of depression grey for the three hours of daylight before it gets dark. There have been two recent bright spots, however: first, I had a lovely trip to Vienna with my partner Ismar, where we spent our time avoiding antivaxxer demos and reading in beautiful cafes (a dream trip for two bookish introverts). And secondly, my speculative flash story ‘Bringing Back the Stars’ — which follows ageing movie star Jack Stanley as he returns to youth and tries to rekindle past fame — has been published in Nature, for their Futures section.

Obviously I’m thrilled for my story to be featured, and I was also asked to write a short piece detailing its inspiration. Both can be read here.

I’ve also very recently been informed that my speculative short story ‘More’ will be published in Orca, a fantastic magazine which publishes some really excellent fiction. More details to come!

Until next time, fellow cafe-dwellers!

- Redfern

How I would spend 100% of my time if I could.

Shepherd.com, a New Review, and the Leapfrog Prize

It’s rapidly reaching that time of year when the grey descends on Berlin and then lingers until January, so I’ve been taking the rare opportunity to leave my desk and Go Places; which last weekend meant a trip to the Sanssouci palaces at Potsdam. Dressing for my role as an eccentric aristocrat somehow born into the lower classes, I did my best to unnerve poorly-dressed tourists with my sheer opulent beauty.

Or maybe it was the lipstick, who knows.

Anyway, let’s get on to the latest news…

Shepherd Book Recommendations

I was very pleased to have Shepherd.com reach out to me asking for a list of themed recommendations. Shepherd is a new site dedicated to helping people find books, recommended by actual authors, which is refreshing in a world of menacing algorithms and gamed review systems. The theme I chose was ‘The best novels exploring polyamory and non-traditional love’, because of cause it was.

The recommendations were a lot of fun to write, and I wholeheartedly suggest reading these stories if you’re interested in poly lives and loves. You can read the recommendations here.

The Offset Review

Perhaps you’ve noticed my last few book reviews have been somewhat negative. For the past couple years it’s followed the same pattern: there’s a new sci-fi novel being released by an author I really like. I request it for review and then read it only for the familiar sinking feeling to start collapsing its way through my body, because too many well-established authors seem to stop making the effort to produce well-written, insightful work. So I was delighted to finally review a book that I actually really enjoyed, by new writing duo Natasha C. Calder and Emma Szewczak, writing under the name Calder Szewczak.

Check the review out at Strange Horizons.

The Leapfrog Prize

Finally, I’m happy to announce that my short story collection received an honourable mention for the Leapfrog Press Global Fiction Prize. This is especially pleasing as Leapfrog Press was established by the husband of one of my favourite authors, Marge Piercy — who just happens to be among my recommendations with Shepherd.

That’s it for now! I’ll be getting back to the final draft of Proud Pink Sky, which is to be released in the autumn of next year.

Until then, palace wanderers!

- Redfern

ParSec launch and a review of Doctorow's latest novel

While I’ve been locked in my room working on the final edits to my upcoming novel Proud Pink Sky (Amble Press, 2022), PS Publishing have released the inaugural issue of ParSec Magazine. ParSec features works by well-known science fiction writers such as Ken Macleod, Dan Abnett, and Esther Friesner, as well as my short story ‘We Have Forever’. The story follows an old married couple, the East German Petra and West German Felix, who, thanks to a miraculous new cell therapy restoring their friends to 20 years old, must choose whether they wish to rewind their lives and start afresh — wish everlasting consequences for their marriage.

A promotional video for ParSec’s launch, featuring several contributors (including myself), can be watched here:

My review of Cory Doctorow’s latest novel Attack Surface is also up at Strange Horizon’s. I’ve been a big fan of Doctorow’s ever since reading Walkaway, so I started reading his new work with high expectations…

“Doctorow makes no secret that his aim is to educate and inform. The novel opens with a dedication to real-world whistleblowers, including Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, with Attack Surface’s protagonist—Masha—working for a shadowy firm, which helps authoritarian regimes spy on subversive citizens. The novel’s tension comes from the fact that Masha is working both sides, simultaneously assisting the protestors her software is designed to follow. Her conflict lies between cynical compliance and idealistic rebellion…”

The full review can be read here.

That’s all for now, though I’ll be sure to keep posting with news on Proud Pink Sky, as well as my reports on the mysterious ‘outside’ place visible from my bedroom window.

— Redfern

Accouncing PROUD PINK SKY, coming 2022 from Amble Press!

I am beyond delighted to announce that my novel PROUD PINK SKY is being published by Amble Press, a new imprint of Bywater Books, and is scheduled for release in 2022.

Berlin: a megacity of 24 million people, is the world’s first gay state. Its distant radio broadcasts are a lifeline for teenager William, so when his love affair with Gareth is discovered the two flee toward sanctuary. But is there a place for them in a city divided into districts for young twinks, trendy bears, and rich alpha gays? Meanwhile, straight housewife Cissie loves Berlin’s towering highrises and chaotic multiculturalism, yet she’s never left her heterosexual district – not until she and her family are trapped in a queer riot. With her husband Howard plunging into religious paranoia, she discovers a walled-off slum of perpetual twilight, home to the city’s forbidden trans residents.

As they dive deeper into a bustling world of pride parades, polyamorous trysts, and even an official gay language, William and Cissie discover that all is not well in the gay state – each playing their part in a looming civil war...

The novel is the result of years of research into queer communities, history, and Polari – the real-life gay slang which is expanded and updated for PROUD PINK SKY. It is a work of 'ambitopian' fiction, which I’ve described in the io9/Gizmodo article, ‘Why We Need Utopian Fiction Now More Than Ever’.

I’m thrilled that the novel has a home with Amble, which has a number of exciting upcoming books from minority authors. I’ll reveal more information as it’s available!

- Redfern

ParSec Magazine and Berlin's Schwules Museum

So I’ve been informed that my upcoming story for ParSec Magazine, ‘We Have Forever’, is going to feature in its very first issue — alongside some fantastic names in science fiction, including Ken Macleod, Dan Abnett, and Esther Friesner! It’s really an honour to be included, and you can buy a subscription to PS Publishing’s newest venture here.

Not only that, but the Queer Futures and Future Queers panel discussion, organised by Berlin’s Schwules Museum (Gay/Queer Museum), went extremely well. I was fortunate enough to talk about queer themes in Star Trek, and speculative fiction in general, with writer and editor Eleanor Tremeer, professor David Greven, and podcast host Heather Barker – with the Schwules Museum’s Heiner Schulze presiding. The video can be watched here.

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I know this is teasery, but I have some wonderful news to share very soon – later this week, even…

Until then!

- Redfern

Spec fic, Star Trek, and lipstick selfies

This has to be the quietest global crisis so far, because the past couple months have mostly centred around reading old science fiction magazines, watching documentaries about murderers on Netflix, and playing Disco Elysium (genuinely the most well-written game I’ve ever encountered). I’ve also been experimenting with different lipsticks, because changing the colour of my lips on a whim is a superpower I’ve been denied long enough.

Not only that, but the ever-lovely Alex Goldberg and I stumbled to Kreuzberg’s Bethanien amid ice and snow in order to take my new author photo, which can see seen on the main page of my site. Here’s an unused shot which reveals that I’m actually wearing a thin shirt with the sleeves rolled up, in the middle of winter. Like a genius.

There’s also exciting news: this Friday I’ll be part of a panel discussion on queerness and Star Trek organised with the Schwules Museum (Gay Museum) Berlin, along with Eleanor Tremeer, David Greven, and Heather Rae:

“Star Trek has been one of TV’s groundbreaking series, representing a utopian future, breaking down racial barriers, inspiring countless kids and adults. Taking one of the most well-known Sci-fi franchises into focus this panel wants to discuss the role and representation of queer people and subjects in Star Trek, and the role Star Trek can play for transcending 20th century gender and sexual norms. It wants to look critically on queerness in Star Trek and questions if Star Trek’s failure to represent queerness undermines its utopian future.

The panel brings together a group of Star Trek aficionados with their own perspectives on the franchise: Eleanor Tremeer is an editor and journalist and has written extensively on gender and queer issues in Star Trek. Redfern Jon Barrett is a British-German Sci-fi writer and polyamorous role model. David Greven is professor of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina, author of “Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of Desire in the Television Series and Films“. Also joining will be Heather Rae, podcaster and longtime Star Trek fan. Heather is also co-creator of the #WomenMakeTrek project.”

As is probably to be expected, I have a lot of thoughts. The event can be streamed on Facebook (ugh) at this link.

But that’s not all — I’m pleased to announce that my writing will be published in a new magazine from PS Publishing, tentatively titled ParSec. When it comes to speculative fiction, PS Publishing have made a significant name for themselves in the 22 years they’ve been operating, and I’m more than a little excited to be included.

Other than that, I currently have quite a few things sliding along the Conveyor Belt of Overwork, and I’ll be sure to announce them here. Until then I’ll be hiding indoors, glaring at strangers through my window.

Happy spring!

- Redfern

Richard

I don't even know what to write. But you're gone and Samhain is almost here, so I have to write something. You marked so many festivals, but this was special. This is the time for campy, kitschy, clashy trinkets. The time for the dead.

Your postcards still adorn my walls. Your books line the shelves. But most of all, there are those trinkets. Devil masks and candy hearts. Vintage tins and finger puppets. Plastic ghosts.

Your love came in pieces.

Now I dwell on how much those small things weighed. After all, you never liked fuss. And because you didn't like fuss, there are things I never told you.

I never told you I look up to you.

And that's important. Sensitive queers have few role models, and I was lucky to have one as a friend. You meant a lot to me. You still do. You always will.

So that's my fuss. I will never forget you, you grumpy Gen X cynic. In fact, there's a piece of you I'll always carry with me. A Richard-shaped trinket.

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RM Vaughan was an outrageous and insightful writer. I was honoured to write the blurb to his insomnia book Bright Eyed, but I recommend reading any of his works – he was one of those rare minds who could truly see our world from its outside. He deserves to be remembered.

Here's an adorable thing...

I was very pleased to be sent this image of a fridge magnet someone made of my novel The Giddy Death of the Gays & the Strange Demise of Straights. Also I’m extremely impressed that they managed to fit that title onto something so small.

I’m truly flattered that so many people seem to have connected with the story. I’ve been hearing from students who are studying the book at UAB, alongside some of my favourite writers such as Jeanette Winterson and Walt Whitman. It means a lot to me.

- Redfern

Now Everyone Else Is Locked Inside Too

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.

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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