Quarantine Community Support
[UNLOCKED] bonus 032 - 1st April, 2020
I didn’t have too many replies to my community call-out last issue, but on twitter I’ve seen some friends of the newsletter struggling with lost work, and wanted to add them to the list, along with some former guests, and generally great people who could also do with some support. So below you’ll find 10 people doing great things, who could do with your support now, or just all the time.
If after seeing this you feel like you missed out, and want to get in touch - it’s never too late. I can always do another list, and hopefully keep expanding the network of community and support that this newsletter is tapped into.
Anyway, on with the list!
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Ahmet is a Turkish journalist and internet activist, who’s available to write, and to offer online talks and/or workshops on journalism in the modern day, internet activism, censorship, and related topics. Not only does he have some great experience on offer, he’s also working within a censorious system and as such could offer important insights that journalists in the US, UK, etc might not be privy to.
If you want to get in touch with Ahmet, you can do so here, or if you simply want to help support his work, he also has a Patreon.
Alasdair is a Hugo and BFS finalist pop culture writer. It can be easy to write snarky about something you hated, and that kind of snark can earn you views, but that’s not Alasdair’s bag. He focuses only on the things he is excited about. If you’re interested in commissioning Alasdair to write for your SFFH/fandom-related site, conduct an interview, or similar, please get in touch.
And if you want to keep up with everything Alasdair does, his fantastic newsletter is The Full Lid, he is one of the co-publishers behind the Escape Pod network of SFFH short-fiction podcasts, containing Escape Pod (sci-fi), Pod Castle (fantasy), PseudoPod (horror), and Cast of Wonders (young adult) Also, if you want to support the (frankly astounding amount of) work that Alasdair does, he has a Ko-Fi.
Alison Evans is a fantastic writer of queer, Aussie YA, and is also the co-editor of the Concrete Queers zine, and the fiction editor at the Enby Life journal. If you’re looking for great queer fiction for your teen (or yourself), Alison’s work is full of warmth and heart.
They are also available to run (online) workshop or give (online) talks on writing fiction, zine creation, character, creativity, motivation, and more. Contact deets here.
And lastly, Alison also runs a patreon, focussed on writing advice, submissions round-ups, and the like.
Andrew Macrae is a brilliantly sharp writer and editor, who “has more than 12 years experience producing content for print and web for a diverse range of clients from the community, private and government sectors.” Basically, if you run any sort of organisation, and you need a highly skilled and highly professional writer and/or editor to look over your internal and/or external comms, Andrew is more than up to the job.
For information on his professional services, just click here.
Not only that, but Andrew has also written one of my favourite Australian sci-fi novels: TruckSong. It’s a weird ride through a post-apocalyptic Australia, filled with drugs, danger, and semi-sentient self-driving trucks that roam the highways like wild horses. Here’s the publisher’s link if you need more information in order to track it down.
And lastly, Andrew has a great newsletter, slow worries, which is too eclectic to easily describe, but always interesting.
You know who Damien Williams is, right? He’s only one of the most interesting and thought-provoking philosophers working today, looking specifically at issues including race, disability, LGBTIQA issues, justice, surveillance, machine learning, and the intersections between these (and more).
If you’re looking for someone to talk about any of these issues (in an online capacity, for now), you’ll find his full (impressive) CV and a contact email address here.
You can sign up for his newsletter here, or sign up for his Patreon for early access to the newsletter as well as other works/essays/ideas as he develops them.
(I don’t actually know if Damien is struggling at the moment thanks to COVID-19, but I’m not likely to miss an opportunity to point more people to his work.)
John is the brilliant photographer and designer who was with us on this newsletter when it first launched. He is a hugely talented photographer and photo retoucher, I mean, just look at some of his work here. A picture is worth a thousand words, etc etc, and in an instant you’ll recognise John’s sharp aesthetic, skill, and attention to detail.
He’s also just a really good dude.
I know a lot of musicians are struggling at the moment with cancelled gigs/tours, and no idea of when they might be able to get back on the road. The sad truth is that touring has been the best (or only good) way for musicians to make money for quite some time no, so a lot of people are hurting. So if you’ve got some money to spare, you could trawl bandcamp for some great new music, get digital downloads with no DRM, and know that most of the money is going straight to the artists involved (unlike music streaming services who pay artists next to nothing).
Lucy Swope is a former newsletter guest, and one half of the band Ghost Cop. If you want some gorgeous, dark synthwave, please go check them out. And if you need more links for the band: bandcamp | iTunes | Spotify | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | newsletter
If you need more sci-fi goodness to help you through quarantine, former newsletter guest Maddison Stoff has a collection of experimental cyberpunk stories published in the collection For We Are Young and Free.
Marlee Jane Ward is part of our newsletter family, and also one of the most vibrant voices in Australian sci-fi today. She’s currently out of work thanks to COVID-19, so if you want to check out her amazing and award-winning novella trilogy, now would be a great time. Titles and cover art at that link to help you track them down.
If you’d like to support Marlee while she works on her next book, she has a Patreon. Or if you’re looking for someone to give a talk or workshop about writing, sci-fi, dystopia, memoir, mental health issues, etc, you can contact Marlee here.
Ryan K. Lindsay is a comics writer and all-around great guy. He’s currently running a Kickstarter for his newest project, a sci-fi graphic novella SHE: At The Tower of All That Is Known. The campaign has already kicked arse, so now we’re in stretch goal territory.
Ryan also has a patreon that will no doubt prove invaluable for anyone looking for insights into comics writing, and he has a great newsletter that covers everything from his comics writing, family life, D&D explorations, and plenty more besides.
Alright, that’s it for now. Expect your usual nothing here dispatch at the same nothing time, on the same nothing channel.