Help support the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship Fund! Buy a copy of Bloodchildren - the new ebook anthology of stories written by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars.

As a member of the Board of Directors of the Carl Brandon Society, what I can tell you is this: the annual cost to send a writer of color to Clarion and to Clarion West is about $8000. Therefore, we are looking for 1000 people to buy one copy each of our new anthology - or 500 to buy two, or - well, you get the idea.

Production and publication of the anthology has been supported by generous donations by SF3, the parent organization of WisCon, and individual donors.

last october was deadbro's 10th birthday.

time sure does fly.

Some may have seen this on John Scalzi open fundraising thread, but I think it would be of interest to this community. I hope they get the funds they need!
http://peerbackers.com/projects/we-see-a-different-frontier/

dwdeadbro

priority for members will be given to people who were members at the lj deadbro; we will be adding other folks as we go along.

They Made A Video Game About Slavery, And It’s Actually Good
1:00PM February 15, 2012 | Kirk Hamilton


"I’m running tonight." Video games take us places; this is known. They allow us to try on identities other than our own, and to see what it’s like to live life as another person. They can also teach us things. maths and science teachers have spent a good amount of time figuring out how to leverage games to better instruct their students, but role-playing and adventure games have always seemed particularly well-suited to teaching history.

For the last couple of days, I’ve been playing Mission U.S., an educational video game that allows players to assume the role of a young slave named Lucy who escapes from a Kentucky plantation in 1848. It’s not only an engaging video game, it’s a harrowing, illuminating look at the realities of life as an American slave.

Mission U.S. is actually two different games; the game I played is the second in the series (the first one teaches about the Revolutionary War.) The games are produced by New York Public Media’s WNET Thirteen. Mission U.S. is a free game that you can play through your browser, and was funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with additional funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities. While it is indeed an educational game, it’s also an engaging, well-designed and fascinating one.

( The precarious nature of my existence was readily apparent.Collapse )

Source (with more screenshots and a video)
The game itself; there are also a lot of educational resources on the site.
(xposted to blackhistory)

I haven't had a chance to play this yet; if you have, what did you think?

Jaym Gates collects and writes about a set of incidents involving a very physically inappropriate person at WFC, a professional writer's convention.

Some thoughts about the matter and the discussion around it:

• A number of folks have pointed out that this is a convention for professionals, not fans, and as such there is a specific ban on costuming. Others have taken exception to the potential implication that the "creeper's" behavior would not have been as unacceptable if it had been directed to scantily clad women. I don't think that's where anyone was going with the observation. Quite the contrary, I take those observations to be direct refutation of the idea that there is some manner of dress that makes women safe from assault such that failing to dress that way can be construed as failing to take "proper care" -- whatever that is.
  
• Every single convention, and this is by no means specific to Fandom or Fantasy writing, needs to have and enforce a sexual harassment policy that clearly states the stuff is unacceptable and grounds for immediate expulsion from convention and hotel. (I don't include sanctions such as arrest here because I believe that should be up to the person harassed or assaulted.) Every single convention that fails to do so needs to take heat for not doing so.
  
• I'm fondly remembering working security at Duckon. Granted, a seuxal harrassment policy was implied by broader "Don't be an asshole" types of policies, and I think we were made aware of far less than went on, but when we did get complaints they were acted on with a quickness and in accordance with the wishes of the woman bringing the complaint. (I don't recall an instance of a man bringing such a complaint at Duckon.)
  

Steam-Powered II Roundtable

there's a bunch of interviews at silver goggles with other authors in Steam Powered II: More Lesbian Steampunk , which is coming out next week.

'Inside the Favelas' takes a critical look at life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the wake of massive police actions to sweep out drug cartels.

In preparation for hosting the World Soccer Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, Rio launched heavy-handed police raids in 2010 to begin clearing out the slums--or favelas--where the most impoverished citizens live. But how successful is this clean-up, and how does it affect the average resident? This is the first in a two-part comic. The second installment will be published in two weeks and will find Paim and MauMau delving even deeper into the favelas.

http://www.cartoonmovement.com/comic/18

I'm not at all familiar enough with the situation in Brasil to evaluate how alternative/accurate this is?, but passing along.

(via i_dread)