Issue 12 of Crossed Genres went live tonight. And I’m in it! Woohoo!
So is a lot of other really good LGBTQ science fiction & fantasy. My story “Cold” is one of 10 fiction stories, 2 nonfiction articles, and some really good artwork, including the cover art from with the cover art above comes. There’s also an interview with gender outlaw Kate Bornstein.
It’s pretty cool to be in such company. So please read! Here’s the complete table of contents.
Fiction
- “Crawl” by Kate Bachus
- “Cold” by Melissa S. Green
- “Finished” by C.A. Young
- “The Tale of the Innocent Little Mermaid Statue” by Megan Rose Gedris (with accompanying art)
- “Mismatch” by Shay Darrach
- “Heart of Venus” by Michael G. Farquhar
- “Stay” by Angela Kroeger
- “Woodwork” by Aditya Bidikar
- “DEMM Wizard” by Deirdre M. Murphy
- “Me And Susannah” by Tuulia Saaritsa
Nonfiction
- “Heinlein’s Friday: A Trans Novel?” by Cheryl Morgan
- “Why Gay Sci Fi And Fantasy Is Important” by Lee Wind
- An interview with author and outlaw Kate Bornstein
Artwork
- “Untitled” by Julie Dillon (Cover)
- “Don’t tell Galvatron, but Shock Fleet’s lookin’ at him funny” by David Willis
- Story art by Megan Rose Gedris (accompanying her story)
- “Entwined” by Katoo Deziel
- “Beauty And the Blob” by Michelle Gruben
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6 Comments
I read cold. Really liked it. The article said that it was a first chapter in a larger book to which I was overjoyed to read. I’m looking forward to the rest of the story.
I posted a brief comment on the Crossed site so traffic is noted, but I will write a bit more honestly here.
I read “Cold” out of some hard-to-describe loyalty- the kind arrived courtesy of that Palin woman. I don’t usually read science fiction since I have enough trouble understanding this world as it is. That being said, I found I truly got sucked into your story. I really did start questioning the larger idea of experiencing Cold and being frozen out of a larger group.
As I did my usual morning chores, I kept thinking of the idea of words being lost and then re-found through experience, and how difficult it would be to share our feelings with others who have neither the experience nor the words to understand something that profoundly changes us. Such isolation is both physical and mental, and we are truly blessed if we have someone in our lives willing to try to understand.
I really did like this story. Truly. I hope the full novel gets published because I will certainly read it. Kudos!
Thanks Alison & HistoryGoddess for reading & commenting. It means a lot to get such great feedback.
HistoryGoddess: all hail to the kind of loyalty that Palin inspires… so long as we can leave Palin out of it.
One of the really fascinating things about getting comments from readers is when I find things in my own story that readers find, that I hadn’t really thought about. In this case, that the in-group/out-group behavior in this story fits the metaphor of “Cold” & being frozen out.
The full novel is an “in progress” thing, so unfortunately I’ve got to finish writing it first. Life stuff has tended to get in the way — but other than the necessity to hold a full-time job, it’s full steam ahead nowadays. I’m hard at it. Thanks again for reading.
Boleyn truly knew what it was like to be literally frozen out, allowing her to find herself. If I got this part of the story straight, she had done nothing wrong- she was sent because of her parents (born that way.) She had to learn words for that experience- words long forgotten. The others early in the story claimed to know Cold, but only through artificial experiences. Perhaps a bit like waterboarding not being true torture if you know it is staged, doctors are nearby, and you can call it off. Scary a bit, uncomfortable sure, but really torture? It is the psychological part that is the worst.
I don’t want to analyze the hell out of this, but it really is an intriguing story. It has been on my mind all day. I will most likely be pondering this for a few more days.
Thanks again for writing this.
Congratulations, Mel! I appreciate you letting me read your story, and I’m so glad that it’s been published! Please let me know if you ever end up turning that one into a longer story. I’m definitely interested in reading more about that world.
Have you thought about posting it a chapter at a time kind of deal? Like some of the online novelythingy’s?