I have not posted updates in a while, having been inundated with holidays, sick children (all three children were in school for a grand total of eight days in March), and travel. But I am still working away! The sequel to Pledging Season is still under construction. I took a break from it during much of the chaos to work on an unrelated graphic novel script that is yummy and fun and involves fancy dresses, an homage to Song of the Lioness, nonviolent revolution, and shredding heteronormativity into little-bitty sticky bits. As one does. It has been a blast, and it was exactly what my brain could handle for much of the spring. Production timelines for illustrating graphic novels are very, very long, so don’t expect to see that any time soon, but I am still cranking away over here! I’m hoping to have Pledging Season’s sequel out in 2025, but that is more of a wish than a prediction.
Category: Blog
Now Available on Bookshop.org!
You can now find print copies of Pledging Season on Bookshop.org. Support your local indies! https://bookshop.org/books/pledging-season/9781087912585
Nonviolence in SFF Panel
Great discussion on Nonviolence in SFF from Wiscon! Thanks to the Starship Fonzie podcast for making it available (with permission from all involved). Listen at Starship Fonzie #17
Interview with Spun Yarn
Spun Yarn is the service I used to get beta readers. They have an interview of me up on their blog!
https://thespunyarn.com/blog/2022/4/20/author-profile-erika-erickson-malinoski
Launch day!!!
Yaaaaaayyyy! The print copy of Pledging Season is live today, and the ebook will go live tomorrow. Go buy your copy now!
Twitter and Its consequences
It’s no surprise to anyone that Twitter facilitates bad conduct, but this is an absolutely fascinating article on how its structural forces steer fraught interactions into absolute train wrecks. What do to about it is always a challenge, but being aware of the dynamics at play is a start.
https://www.wired.com/story/social-media-harassment-platforms/
Pre-Orders are live!
It’s been a long five years, but my first novel Pledging Season is now available for pre-order! It will be available on April 26, 2022. Print copies will eventually be up on Amazon (Amazon doesn’t permit print pre-orders) and are currently available on Barnes and Noble (which does). The ebook can additionally be found on Kobo and will be available through libraries on OverDrive after release. If you like iBooks, it can be found through the app as well.
Pre-order at the links below!
COVER REVEAL
New Title
As I wend my way through edits, my first book has acquired a new title, Pledging Season, and will be getting a professional cover in January. I am super excited!
Being Nice and Being Real
“Ms. M you hella fake!” Madai, one of my students, keeps informing me. I frown in confusion and ask what she means. “You know,” she tells me, “you gotta be real with us.”
I don’t know. I have no idea what she’s talking about. I forget about it, actually, until I hear the same word from one of my colleagues. “We’re being fake,” he says. “We need to be real.” Be real? I still have no idea what that means.
It’s not until I’m driving Sammy, another student, up to Berkeley to meet Geoffrey Canada that someone explains it to me in a way I understand. We’re talking about the different ways we talk to people as we pass a beat up old car. It’s rusting out and has broken headlights, and were it not for duct tape, it would dissolve into pieces on the road.
Continue reading “Being Nice and Being Real”