Author: Jaym Gates

Gen Con Schedule!

Gen Con Schedule!

It’s that time! Gen Con starts in just a couple of days, and the chaos swallows us all whole. If you want to say hello, talk about work, or sit in on a panel, please do! I promise I don’t bite. I might be rushed 

Comfort Food – Enchiladas

Comfort Food – Enchiladas

I’m trying to get myself back on a blogging schedule, and since I’m working through a bunch of writing projects on deadline, I’ve been cooking to relax. So, two birds, one stone? For as white and xenophobic as my family was, growing up, I had 

Convention Schedule – 2019

Convention Schedule – 2019

My schedule as I know it. Things might change.

OrcaCon, Bellevue, January 11-13, (guest) OrcaCon Schedule

ALA Midwinter, Seattle, January 25-29 (with Green Ronin)

Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle, February 28-March 3 (attending professional)

Norwescon, Seattle, April 18-21 (guest)

Jordancon, Atlanta, April 26-28 (guest)

ALA Annual, DC, June 20-25 (with Green Ronin)

Cascade Writers Workshop, Seattle Area, July 19-21 (workshopper)

Gen Con, Indianapolis, July 30-August 5 (with Green Ronin)

 

 

OrcaCon

OrcaCon

It’s hard to believe that convention season has already started, but here we are. I’ll be at OrcaCon this weekend for a bit, moderating two panels and haunting the food trucks. Friday, January 11, 6pm: Imposter! We’ll be talking about how to deal with imposter syndrome from the standpoint 

Norwescon bound

Norwescon bound

I’ll be at Norwescon in SeaTac, WA, this coming weekend, March 29 – April 1, 2018. I’ll be very, very there. Ten panels. Craft! Comics! Anthologies! Horror! And I get to talk about horses. War horses. It’s going to be a great con. Come check 

Gen Con Schedule

Gen Con Schedule

I’ll be an Industry Insider at Gen Con, so I’ve got a few panels! Please do come say hello if you see me. Don’t mind if I look busy or grumpy, it’s just how my face works.

Wednesday
I’ll be helping set up the Green Ronin booth, and then at professional events the rest of the evening. Theoretically I have a presentation on Trade Day, but I’m waiting to hear about that.

Thursday
11am: Small Business Sanity Reclamation (Panel)
3pm: Periodic Content (Panel)
4pm: Lost Citadel (Panel)
Evening: industry events

Friday
2pm: Crowdfunding (Panel)
4pm: Immoral Women (Panel)
Evening: True Dungeon! And possibly something Ennies-related.

Saturday
11am: Gaming as Ritual (Panel)
5pm: Consent at the Table (Panel)
Evening: First Lost Citadel game with the other developers!

Sunday
All Green Ronin booth, all day.

Upcoming Events and Releases

Upcoming Events and Releases

I have been utterly remiss in updating my schedule recently, I realize. I started working a corporate contract, so between that and clients, I’ve been thoroughly distracted. I’ve also had an exciting run of bad luck – black eye from Systema, the ranch flooded, I 

Turn Back the Tide

Turn Back the Tide

So, two things occur to me: we’ve already managed to make Pence’s life entertaining with the #periodsforpence thing, and Trump went on this big thing about reporting terrorism and hate, right?   So hey, report it. Report the fuck out of it. As soon as they 

No, *You* Move

No, *You* Move

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“Compromise where you can. And where you can’t, don’t. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right, even if the whole world is telling you to move. It is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye and say, no. You move.”

This quote from Civil War has been stuck in my head recently, and I think it will soon be getting tattooed somewhere I can see it.

One of the big things that’s been going around recently is “Be kind, be the better person, be forgiving”. Well, I adore Michelle Obama and think she is one of the more amazing people alive, but this is what got us here. We’ve bottled the fear and shame and anger and put nice smiles on our faces and moderated our voices and begged for safety, equality, understanding.

Tonight we proved that doesn’t work. Even if by some miracle Clinton pulls through, we’ve proven that half the voices in the nation are screaming hatred and violence. They want to see us burn, literally, in too many cases. No matter what the outcome, the mask is off. We’re exposed, weak, and divided. We’ve lost.

Maybe that’s a good thing. We’ve been able to claim innocence. Surely people are good. Surely the nation isn’t really *that* bad. We’ll get through this. Well, actually, no. They aren’t good. We aren’t innocent. We are *that* bad, and it’s long past time we all had to look our demons in the eyes. It’s time we stopped being nice to those demons.

Violence isn’t the answer. Silence isn’t the answer. Niceness isn’t the answer. But there’s a whole lot of power in cold, rational anger, in setting your face to the wind, locking arms, and pushing forward no matter what.

Like Bruce Banner, we’ve always been angry. We’ve swallowed hurt, rage, fear, and grief. We’ve taken the leavings, and thanked people for allowing us to live. We shrug weakly and make jokes about the grinding, endless fear we live under because that’s what we’re supposed to do, because any time we talk about it, we get shouted down as whiners, PC apologists, entitled little slackers.

*We’ve always been angry.* It’s time to plant ourselves and make them listen, whether they like it or not. Black, white, Asian, Latinx, LGBTQAI, straight, Christian, pagan, male, female. It is long past time for the quiet, nice voice to roar, to command change. White feminists, white men, this is on us more than anyone, because we’ve been leaving everyone else behind for way too long. Everyone moves forward. No one is left behind.

No, world, *you* move. We’re done asking nicely. #NoYouMove

A Pre-Review of Invisible Planets

A Pre-Review of Invisible Planets

This is the reality of the psychological landscape constructed by the tales: tradition and modernity, stagnation and progress, political powerlessness and thrilling technological potential—all aspects of the same reality, a chiaroscuro of extreme contrasts in hope and terror. –Liu, Invisible Frameworks I was lucky enough