Saturday Storytime: The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye

This is an excellent time to dive back into story blogging, not to mention reading. The Nebula Award nominees were very recently announced, and I have some catching up to do. The only one I’ve read so far is Ursula Vernon’s “Jackalope Wives”, which I shared at the time.

This story is by Matthew Kressel, who is having a good stretch writing-wise, having also recently sold a trilogy.

The next Beth began with the same questions, but the Eye avoided telling her too much. And when the Beth asked about the stars, the Eye replied with a question for her.

“My planet?” the Beth said. “It’s called Dirt. You’ve never heard of it? Where did you find me?” The Beth gazed into the impenetrable black.

The Meeker was envious. He had been born on an airless moon that orbited the Great Corpus every thousand years and spent the rest of his life in this Bulb. Continue reading “Saturday Storytime: The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye”

Saturday Storytime: The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye
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"Nature's God", Matthew Stewart on Atheists Talk

A couple of centuries of national pride and the gentle glow that history casts on winners have given today’s U.S. citizens a rather staid view of the radicals and revolutionaries who built a country from former colonies. Not only did they wage treasonous war against their king, but many of the crafters of our constitution were religious radicals. There were Quakers and Methodists and Christians who rejected the authority of the Bible.

There were also deists among the people who shaped our government. In his recent book, Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic, philosopher Matthew Stewart tells their story. He traces the strains of deism in Enlightenment thinking and shows how it shaped our country.

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"Nature's God", Matthew Stewart on Atheists Talk

Signs You Might Be Constitutionally Unsuited to Running a Kickstarter

Friends of mine run Uncanny Magazine, which raised its first year of operational costs via Kickstarter. Having sold them an essay for the issue that comes out this upcoming Tuesday, I had a chance to preview the whole issue. It’s glorious. You’ll want to read it. It’s full of stories, poems, and essays with what I’ll call, with no cynicism or irony, “heart”.

For all that, the sentiment that resonated with me the most strongly came from the editors themselves. Halfway through their fully funded first year, they used their editorial to talk about funding a second. They offer subscriptions, and they’re looking into other funding methods as well. (Use them if you want to help good people fund good speculative writing and theory.) What they don’t want to do is run a second Kickstarter.

“We would prefer not to run another Kickstarter. Although Caitlin loves dressing up and everybody loves Space Unicorn swag, Kickstarters are exhausting”, they say. Having just finished a Kickstarter last week, I agree with them.

Don’t get me wrong. I’ll probably do another Kickstarter. Continue reading “Signs You Might Be Constitutionally Unsuited to Running a Kickstarter”

Signs You Might Be Constitutionally Unsuited to Running a Kickstarter

The Secular Women Work Kickstarter by the Numbers

We funded this afternoon at 4 p.m. CST. Now we just have to put on this conference we convinced people to invest in. Here’s how we did it:

  • Number of backers: 172
  • Total raised: $13,743
  • Lowest pledge: $1
  • Highest pledge: $1,000
  • Average pledge: $79.90
  • Biggest day: $3,339
  • Number of tickets sold: 66
  • Number of advertisers: 7
  • Number of t-shirts sold: ~45
  • Number of Surly-Ramics sold: ~40
  • Numbers of hours of sleep lost by the organizers: We lost track somewhere around week three.

But we did it. We’re going to have a conference.

The Secular Women Work Kickstarter by the Numbers

Have You Signed Up for Secular Women Work?

The Secular Women Work logo with three inter-meshed gears.
You’re nearly out of chances. The Kickstarter ends this Thursday. Right now, it’s only 51% funded, and if we don’t fund the Kickstarter, we won’t have a conference. If we do fund, but you haven’t bought your ticket through the Kickstarter, the price will go up.

Haven’t quite made up your mind to attend the conference? Then it’s time to catch up on the reasons you should.

  • Don’t just listen to us organizers. There are plenty of people out there who want to tell you why you should come to Secular Women Work.
  • Our speakers have done amazing things, and they demonstrate that you can come to activist work through many paths and interests. Check out our interviews with them. Mandisa Thomas wants to provide community and other support for the people much secular activism leaves behind. Lauren Lane has spent the last several years demonstrating that she’s not only capable of riding the tiger, but she can steer the beast as well. Desiree Schell figured out at an early age that she wasn’t okay with the world being fundamentally unfair, and she can tell you what she’s done to fix that.
  • We’re not rushing to fill our slate of workshops, because we want your input on what we should offer, but we’ve set up a few we think are important. The Ada Initiative will help you stop impostor syndrome from getting in your way when you want to get things done. Jessica Kirsner of the Secular Student Alliance will help you develop a fundraising plan for your project. A local professional photographer will provide you with a headshot for free as part of our media training.

We have a lot happening already, and we’re excited to bring you more. We just have to know that you’re excited to come. So get your ticket before the Kickstarter ends this Thurdsay, February 19.

Have You Signed Up for Secular Women Work?

Mock the Movie: Deadly Duplicate Edition

Once upon a time, someone, or several someones, told us we had to do a Jeff Speakman movie. They suggested The Perfect Weapon as peak Speakman. The only problem was that we’d already done Miami Connection. I won’t say we won’t repeat bad, because zombie movies, but even we have our limits.

So we found one better (worse): Deadly Outbreak. No, not Outbreak, but the film made the next year to cash in on the popularity of the still-not-very-good epidemic movie by adding terrorists and martial arts. Really, there are endless variations on bad.

This one is available on YouTube. Continue reading “Mock the Movie: Deadly Duplicate Edition”

Mock the Movie: Deadly Duplicate Edition