Announcements

WisCon 39 Appearances!

wiscon39 Tomorrow, I fly out for my first WisCon experience.

I’m super excited because I’ve heard so many great things about this conference from other writers. It has a heavy concentration on the craft of writing, which is the #1 reason I’m choosing it as my first con in years. I love the speculative fiction genre, but I love writing it more than I love the fannish activities that go along with it. Nothing wrong with going wild, Fandom! It’s just not how I engage with the works that spark my passion.

And I am thrilled that I will get to share some of my passion with you! I am one-third of the superpowered trio in the Triple the Strength! Triple the Power! reading with fellow writers Sally Wiener Grotta and Laura Lis Scott on Sunday at 1:00 pm in Conference Room 2 at the main hotel.

Flyer for our reading small

Thanks to Sally for our flyer! Unfortunately, Laura won’t be with us in the flesh, but I’m delighted to read a selection from her novella, Half the Sky, on her behalf. I’ll also be reading “Thlush-A-Lum”, my most recently published horror short story, and if time allows (it should), the first chapter of my epic fantasy novel, Wings Unseen.

But that’s not all! On Monday morning, in the waning hours of WisCon, I’ll be on the Worldbuilding Through Food panel in Senate B at 10:00 am. Writing about food has been a huge part of my career over the past six years, and food has always been an honored guest in my fiction as well, so this panel’s topic spoke to me on many levels. Ty Blauersouth is our moderator, and my fellow panelists will be Nino Cipri and Amy Thomson. The official description:

The food crops and domestic animals an author uses in a fictional world shape underlying presumptions about where and when a story is set…or “not set,” in the case of not-quite-our-world-but-just-barely worlds. Medievaloid Europeish taverns with potatoes and tomatoes in their stew. Cultures that spice heavily, or lightly, or eat a wide range of animals; even if crops and livestock are all named with new words they often trace back to our-Earth models. How can one thoughtfully use food in your worldbuilding in ways that support themes and characters, without falling into shallow sloppiness? What SFF authors do food description particularly well? What’s good about it?

I’m especially excited to talk about how food choices can reveal character and ways food can be more central to the plot than just a lush description of a feasting table. Turkish delight, anyone?

Of course, I’ll be out and about all over the place during the rest of WisCon 39, but I haven’t had the chance to pick which sessions I’ll attend just yet. I’ll update you all on those plans as I make the decisions! Meanwhile, I always love meeting new people, so if you’d like to join me for coffee or a cocktail or a meal, just drop me a line at becca at thegourmez dot com or through Twitter @thegourmez. I arrive Wednesday evening and leave Monday afternoon.

See you soon, Wisconsin! It’ll be lovely to make your acquaintance.

Site Update and Newsletter Sign-Up!

Treasured Readers,

The site has been quieter than normal as I’m in the midst of re-categorizing posts so the food/drink/travel section is easier to navigate. Thus, you can now access any of those categories under the Food/Drink/Travel heading above or through the master page here:

Click Me!

I am halfway through the process of re-categorizing posts, so everything from 2011 to the present is listed in those pages. I’ll be working on the 2007–2011 set over the next week. I believe I’m well over 2,000 posts at this point. That’s a lot of food writing!

Can I take a break yet?

In other news, I now have a mailing list set up so I can e-mail you, treasured readers, whenever I have exciting publication news to share. That’s roughly 3–4 times a year, so I can promise that I won’t spam your mailboxes. If you’re interested in getting news on that front delivered straight to you, then sign-up through the widget at the right or right below. They won’t bite.

Subscribe to Rebecca Gomez Farrell’s Mailing List!

Coming up: Pink’s of Hollywood! Barcelona’s beautiful architecture and tasty tapas! San Francisco’s Sutro Baths! More wine and absinthe! And the return of my camera from the shop! Yes, yes, that’s another reason things have been a little quiet here. My trusty Rebel T3i is getting thoroughly cleaned up in the shop. It’s as though I’ve lost a limb–well, a third limb that occasionally gives me neck pain from too much time spent together. Regardless, I miss you, pretty little camera!

Me and my bestie at Yosemite in 2012.

Our reunion will come soon.

“Thlush-A-Lum” is Available Now!

I am happy to announce that PULP Literature Issue #5 has officially launched, which means my horror short story, “Thlush-A-Lum”, is now available for purchase as part of the issue!

Thlush a lum pages 1

thlush a lum pages 2

You can buy Issue #5 straight from the PULP Literature website here:

Just click on the image to be taken to the ordering page. A print issue is $15 and an e-issue is $5. Lest that seem like a lot to you, I can confirm that I was impressed by how thick the magazine was when I received my author copy in the mail. I’m looking forward to reading all of these stories from my issue mates as described on the order page:

We dare you to be held captive by Eileen Kernaghan’s ‘The Robber Maiden’s Story’, and then try to escape alongside the intrepid Stella Ryman as she attempts a jailbreak in The Four Digit Puzzle by Mel Anastasiou.
Next, travel by boat and by bus to places you’d rather not go, with the fantastical ‘Polycarp on the Sea’ by Stephen Case and the gritty detective Finley in ‘The Pledge’ by Donald Dewey.
Three pulp poems by Mark J Mitchell will prepare you for the cruel transformations of ‘Thlush-a-lum’ by Rebecca Gomez Farrell and ‘Some Say the World Will End in Fire’ by R Daniel Lester.
These are followed by a few stories of wishing for more, in ‘A Discussion of Keats’s Negative Capability’ by Susan Pieters and Margaret Kingsbury’s ‘The Longing is Green when Branches are Trees’.
A treat lies in store as we publish the winners of the first annual Hummingbird Prize for Flash Fiction, followed by the short, sharp horror cartoon ‘Bait’ by Kris Sayer.
For dessert, we hope you’ve saved room for the next installment of Allaigna’s Song. It’s the perfect way to round out a good family feast.
All this beneath a beautiful new cover entitled “Fondly Remembered Magic” by our first cover artist Melissa Mary Duncan.

For those of you who contributed to PULP Literature’s Kickstarter campaign last month, thank you so much! I believe you should have received your Issue #5 already.

And for those of you who didn’t, here’s a little teaser of “Thlush-A-Lum’s” first few paragraphs:

Markella’s earliest memories are of the sounds outside her window. At hours when no men moved, rustling branches and shuffling grass woke her. A beating pulse like slower, fleshier helicopter blades banished sleep: thlush-a-lum thlush-a-lum. In summers, the heat in her attic bedroom hot enough to incubate, Markella pushed the window open and dozed to the endless static drone of cicadas. In winters, choking radiator warmth wrapped tight around her, she cracked the window and the low, deep hoots of an owl drifted in with the freezing breeze.

The sounds crept in no matter the season.

And a photograph to set the mood…

thlush a lum wine

I hope you enjoy “Thlush-A-Lum”…and you remember to keep an eye on those bedroom windows.

Last Day for the PULP Literature Kickstarter! And an interview with Thlush-A-Lum’s Markella.

The countdown clock is ticking! There are only 22 hours left in PULP Literature’s Year 2 Kickstarter campaign, and the magazine’s at 89% of its goal. That’s so close! Please consider boosting it up over the edge. By doing so, you’ll be supporting fiction writers as PULP Literature pays professional rates. Which means you’ll be supporting me as my “Thlush-A-Lum” will be published in the next few weeks in PULP Literature Issue #5. Just click that little image below, and you can reserve your $5 e-copy or $15 print copy of Issue #5 now. Do it. Do it!

Additionally, “Thlush-A-Lum’s” main character, Markella, gave PULP Literature an interview last week. What did this young woman have to say about her family, the noises that seek her out, and what she thinks of herself? Find out here.

Missed my teaser earlier? Here’s “Thlush-A-Lum”s first few lines:

Markella’s earliest memories are of the sounds outside her window. At hours when no men moved, rustling branches and shuffling grass woke her. A beating pulse like slower, fleshier helicopter blades banished sleep: thlush-a-lum thlush-a-lum. In summers, the heat in her attic bedroom hot enough to incubate, Markella pushed the window open and dozed to the endless static drone of cicadas. In winters, choking radiator warmth wrapped tight around her, she cracked the window and the low, deep hoots of an owl drifted in with the freezing breeze.

The sounds crept in no matter the season.

And look out for PULP Literature Issue #5 coming your way soon!

Nonfiction Bragging–Bloomberg Businessweek Quote!

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a bragging post. This one is courtesy of my being quoted in a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article on the origins and staying power of RumChata. You may recall that I reviewed RumChata back in 2012, and you can read that review by clicking on the picture.

What did I have to say about RumChata for Bloomberg Businessweek? It’s just a quick quote on its versatility:

The drink also simplifies home cocktail making, says Eden Laurin, managing partner of the Violet Hour, a cocktail bar in Chicago’s hip Wicker Park neighborhood. Drinks with more than three ingredients are confusing to make, Laurin says, so having one spirit with several flavors is appealing. “It cuts out a step by already having cream, spice, and rum combined in pleasant ratios,” says Rebecca Gomez Farrell, a food and drink blogger in California.

Swing by the article to learn more about this unique–and fast-selling–cream liquor.

PULP Literature Issue #5 Preview and Kickstarter Campaign

As I announced a few weeks ago, my next short story will be appearing in Issue #5 of PULP Literature Magazine, which is a print and e-book label fully funded through subscriptions and Kickstarter campaigns. Well…Issue #5 has a cover!

And yes, that’s my beautiful little byline on it. Seeing my name on a cover is always such a thrill. So is the reminder of PULP Literature’s tagline: “Good books for the price of a beer.” I love that! You can get the full description of Issue #5 right here.

Showing you the issue cover would be reason enough for this post, but I’m also writing to encourage you to go ahead and claim your copies of the issue now. Why? Because PULP Literature just launched their second -year Kickstarter campaign last week. Issue #5 is slated for publication at the end of 2014, so why not pay for it now and support both me and this great new addition to the genre literary scene? Need the video to sell you? Keep your eyes peeled for my name scrolling by!

Want the ebook of my issue? $5. How about the print one? $15. Maybe you want to go ahead and take a plunge, subscribing to the full year of stories? $25 for ebook and $40 for print. That’s a deal for curated literature delivered right to your fingertips!

Plus, for my fellow writers, the editorial team at PULP Literature also has rewards offering short story and novel critiques and writing workshops–valuable, valuable tools that any writer should take advantage of.

Go ahead. Pledge. I’ll still be here when you get back. I can’t make the same promise for “Thlush-A-Lum’s” protagonist, however…

“Thlush-a-lum” to be published in PULP Literature!

I’ve been sitting on this news all summer! But that’s my own fault, because I insist on signing a contract before I announce any of my fiction publications. Which means the contract is signed, and I have a new short story coming out at the end of the year!

“Thlush-a-lum” will be published in the Winter 2015 issue of PULP Literature, a newish speculative fiction magazine that came to be through a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013.

Issue #5 will be released electronically and in paperback form, and you bet I’ll update you once buy links become available. In addition to four yearly issues of the magazine, PULP Literature runs a number of contests that often feature publication as a prize. Their editors’ blog is also a fount of useful information for writers. Peruse away!

What’s “Thlush-a-lum” about, you wonder? It’s pure horror that would qualify as flash fiction in most markets. The story came about when I challenged myself to write something more focused on the sense of sound than the other four I more commonly use in my writing. Many of those sounds are inspired by what I could hear from my own Southern bedroom window…and a few sounds that I swear I’ve been able to hear no matter where I’ve lived.

The first few lines? Certainly.

Markella’s earliest memories are of the sounds outside her window. At hours when no men moved, rustling branches and shuffling grass woke her. A beating pulse like slower, fleshier helicopter blades banished sleep: thlush-a-lum thlush-a-lum. In summers, the heat in her attic bedroom hot enough to incubate, Markella pushed the window open and dozed to the endless static drone of cicadas. In winters, choking radiator warmth wrapped tight around her, she cracked the window and the low, deep hoots of an owl drifted in with the freezing breeze.

The sounds crept in no matter the season.

And you know I like to include a photo to set the mood when I can…

The General Hospital Fan Club Weekend – 2014, Available now!

Another photography credit for me, another chance for the unabashed soap opera lovers among us to pick up a nifty photobook! Once again, Katrina Rasbold, my fearless leader at All My Writers for the last, oh, almost decade, has released a Yearbook of this year’s General Hospital Fan Club Weekend. She writes the reports; I take the photos.

This 180-page book is jam-packed with full-color photos of General Hospital‘s past and present-day stars from 4 days of events. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes gossip to boot. What’ll you learn about in the Yearbook? As Katrina writes,

New couples, new babies, famous spouses, Hollywood royalty, a bit of a smack-down from Executive Producer, Frank Valentini, a “Blast From the Past” actor with some very unconventional claims and advice to fans, two Rabbis, plenty of selfies, a double-helping of Michael Corinthos, a male heart-throb who broke all of our hearts on screen, a current GH couple who ditched us, graphic novels straight from ComiCon, impossible schedules, careers made and broken, dogs and cats living together… this year had it all!

Our print copies of last year’s yearbook sold out as soon as the doors to the main cast event opened, so you know these are beautiful keepsakes for the GH fans among us. Both full-color and black and white paperback versions are available from Amazon.

Color: Black and White:

I couldn’t leave you without sharing my favorite photos from the event, could I? I was so delighted to see Scott Clifton at the Past Cast Event. Him and Michael Sutton appearing made my weekend.

I hope you enjoy the 2014 Yearbook!

Blog Hopping: Reminder to Read Up!

Just a quick reminder that you can now check out the responses of the three writers I tagged in my post last week on my writing processes. The three lovely authors who agreed to be next in my chain are as follows:

Krysten Lindsay Hager, a new YA romance author with Astraea Press. Read her responses here.
Margaret S. McGraw, a fantasy and science fiction writer with a great YA fantasy novel nearing the end of edits. Margaret’s post is going up late tonight, so check here later on or tomorrow for it.
And Katrina Rasbold, a writer of fantasy, romance, and many nonfiction books on spirituality. You can read her answers here.

Thanks, ladies, for participating, and I’m diving in to read what you’ve said now!

Holiday Blog Break!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Mine’s about to get better–visiting family for a day in Los Angeles and then spending three full days with my hubby in Las Vegas! We are greatly in need of a vacation; turns out that driving across the country with three cats doesn’t actually count as one. So while we’re happily getting used to life in the Bay Area–

Ben and me at Union Square.

–we’re still in need of time away. So I’m taking a break from everyday life and from blogging just until the New Year. To entice you back in January, I offer this teaser of blog posts to come…

Wine tasting on Treasure Island.

Have a very merry Christmas and a fantabulous New Year!

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