345. Looking Back, Moving Forward: The 2018 Edition
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode345LookingBackMovingForward2018/Sandf–Episode345–LookingBackMovingForward2018.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWow. It’s finally here! Our first episode on our new website, using our new feed! Hopefully everything works out and it ends up in your ears, because it’s time for the team to talk about what they loved in 2017 and what they’re looking forward to in 2018! We had reason to be a bit down about 2017. Last year was tough for many of us, but it still brought with it some amazing speculative fiction and some amazing growth on the Skiffy and Fanty Show. Our Patreon supporters allowed us to start 2018 fresh and shiny and new, and that brought with it a renewed sense of hope! For the last couple of weeks, many of our previous guests have been sharing what brings them joy. Hopefully, their joy has inspired some of your own. But sometimes it’s a struggle to find joy, to embrace joy. Our theme this year is “hope,” but hope often starts from a dark place, a place of struggle, fear, and pain. That’s where we leave 2017 and how we’re going to tackle 2018.
Helen Lowe’s Month of Joy: From the Color Blue to “The End”
“These I have loved: White plates and cups, clean-gleaming, Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust; Wet roofs, beneath the lamp-light; the strong crust Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food; Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood…” ~ from The Great Lover, Rupert Brooke, 1887-1915 This excerpt from Rupert Brooke’s poem, The Great Lover, captures how seemingly small things can encompass joy. I recognize many if not all of the items contained in The Great Lover—from “the cool kindliness of sheets” to “blue-massing clouds”—but of course I have a list of my own…
Month of Joy: A Few Candidates by Mike Reeves-McMillan
Thanks, Skiffy and Fanty, for asking what brings me joy — because now I’m thinking about that, and that’s a good thing. Especially in these times. There are a few candidates. Erin, my spouse of nearly 19 years. Marrying her still ranks as the best decision I ever made, and I’m still astonished sometimes that someone so amazing would choose me. Being married to someone with a chronic illness isn’t all joy, certainly; it can be tough. But I knew that was the deal going in, and going through the tough times together makes the joy stand out more against the background.
Month of Joy: La Alegría del Lenguaje by Cassandra Rose Clarke
A year ago, I decided to embark on a not-exactly-new endeavor: teaching myself Spanish. I say not-exactly-new because I had attempted it before with a dubiously-acquired copy of Rosetta Stone, which I used for about a month in 2013 before giving up. My failures with Rosetta Stone hadn’t killed my desire to learn Spanish, though. Spanish is a language I grew up around without ever actually learning—I’m from South Texas and now live in Houston, so it’s been a part of the sonic and cultural landscape my entire life. However, I went a Classics route with my formal language learning in high school and college (Latin and Ancient Greek, respectively) and so Spanish was firmly lodged in a strange space of being both familiar and unknown. This frustrated me. How could I see and hear a language almost every day and not understand it?
Month of Joy: Cooking and a Recipe by Cora Buhlert
A few weeks ago, I chanced to read this article at the Guardian about the history of the premade sandwich. It’s a fascinating article and you should definitely read it. But what struck me was this quote by one Roger Whiteside, head of Marks & Spencer’s sandwich department in the 1980s: “Once you are time-strapped and you have got cash, the first thing you do is get food made for you […] Who is going to cook unless you are a hobbyist?” This quote not just made me bristle, it also baffled me. It baffled me as much as the lawyer from New York City whom I met online in the early days of the Internet and who told me that his family never cooks, whereupon I blurted out, “But what do you eat then?”
Month of Joy: Of Flying and Baking: How Researching Novels Changed My Life by Claudie Arseneault
One of the greatest joys of writing is how it can make you look at something new, push you to research it, and discover new passions. When one of my characters really loves something, I tend to not only read on it, but to experience it myself. So in 2011, while I was still in the process of drafting Viral Airwaves (and learning how to write at all, too), I went on a hot air balloon flight, and it was amazing. It was early in the morning, and as I held the balloon’s envelope while huge fans pushed air into it, I could hardly believe my luck. The sun shone, the pilot was funny and easy to approach (my boyfriend asked him tons of questions about everything because I was too shy), and the flight remains one of the most peaceful moment of my existence. I was up there, a tiny notebook in hand, scribbling observations while a choir of angels sang in my head. And a lot of it made it into Viral Airwaves, too, notably the description of forests as broccoli, and the use of the thick red emergency rope.
