Author: Amy Bauer

My short story “Gold Mountain” is appearing in the charity anthology –  Chasing the Light: A Benefit Anthology of Speculative Fiction. Dedicated to the memory of Melanie Otto/Melanie Griffin, who passed away after a brain hemorrhage in late 2016, all profits from the book will go to Melanie’s lifelong partner to help defray medical and legal expenses.

Some years ago a group of writers who met at ConCarolinas decided to start a yearly writer’s retreat. They called themselves the Roaring Writers, and they are passionate and talented writers. I am proud to be a member.

Melanie was one of the founders. She was a lovely person who always saw the good in life. Her smile was infectious and lit up rooms. She loved writing photography, anime, cats, and above all her lifelong party of many years. I only knew Melanie for a few years, and I will always regret that I didn’t have more time to get to know her.

Chasing the Light: A Benefit Anthology of Speculative Fiction is available for pre-order on Amazon.

We all say Not in My Town, but it happened in My Town early Sunday morning. A murder happened. Seventeen year-old Nabra Hassannen was walking back to her mosque after eating at the local IHOP Sunday morning with a small group of her friends when a motorist confronted them for some reason. The teens ran back to the mosque, but Nabra was left behind.

Her mother said she wasn’t used to wearing the abaya. She only wore it for religious holidays, and she may have tripped over the long dress. Whatever the reason, she didn’t make it. Facts are a little sketchy still, but twenty two-year-old Darwin Martinez Torres was arrested yesterday and charged with her death. Her mother told the news that he beat Nabra with a metal bat and dumped her body in a pond. I drive by that pond virtually every time I go anywhere.

It’s Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims and one where they fast from sunrise to sundown. The teens had been to midnight prayer at the ADAMS Center, home to the largest Muslim congregation in Northern Virginia, located  here in Sterling. They walked to the local IHOP to eat after prayers so they could face another day of fasting.

For some reason when I read about Nabra’s murder last night, I fell apart. I didn’t know the girl. I didn’t know the family. I’ve never been to the ADAMS Center although I have been invited. My husband asked me if it was because it was so close to us and I was home alone when it happened. Maybe, but I’ve heard of murders and assaults close to me before. Somehow though, when I read the news last night, I cried and cried hard. A 17-year-old girl who had just finished praying and indulging in some innocent fun with her friends was brutally murdered on Father’s Day.

I haven’t written much on this blog since the election. I’ve struggled with how to talk to people I know are supporting the Trump administration. If we are to get anywhere we must not stop talking to one another, but it’s been hard to talk civilly to people that are supporting the hate-mongering coming from the right-wing often in the name of some Christianity that Christ wouldn’t recognize if he walked among us today.

When we rant about Sharia law or refuse to allow mosques to be built in our neighborhoods or support bans targeted at keeping a particular religion out of this country, we are supporting oppression and hatred and taking a stance fundamentally opposite to the freedom of religion this country was founded on. Good people can make poor choices and support hatred for seemingly rational reasons, but it is still a support of  hatred, no matter the spin. It doesn’t necessarily follow that this murder is a result of the climate of fear and hatred that is ongoing, but we will certainly never know that it’s not connected and it’s really hard not to believe that we as a nation failed this family.

I’m not naive enough to believe that we will ever live in a society that is all pollyanna and non-violent sunshine, but I hope that we can pull back from the white supremacy and minority bashing that is roiling us and vote out anyone in power who is actively engaged in appealing to our lesser angels not our better ones.

Rest in Peace, Nabra.

I’m home from my annual writer’s retreat and so energized to get writing. I let this blog go quiet in favor of other projects and lack of time so I’m renewing my commitment to posting on Story Currents in a timely fashion.

If you are interested in Cons, ConCarolinas is a wonderful convention in Charlotte. If you are a writer, I will post more later on founding a writing group. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

I am a guest this week on Lillian Archer’s blog. “Down the Rabbit Hole” delves into historical accuracy in speculative fiction, detailing a few of the bumps in the road I’ve run into, over, or been derailed by.

Janet Walden-West obviously has the Holidays on her mind and is apparently a bit grumpy about pie in her most recent post Pie Isn’t Worth It.

In “A Journey of a Million Words,” Ken Schrader plays with asterisks and makes his introductory post at The Million Words.

Finally, a reminder to check out the posts on mental health of the Hold Onto The Light Campaign. The Holidays are here and depression runs rampant across the land.

A few years ago, a group of multidisciplinary marine conservationists, including myself, met together and hashed out what we thought were the most important problems facing the field of marine conservation that were not being addressed. Our conclusions were published in “Seventy-One Important Questions for the Conservation of Marine Biodiversity”  in Conservation Biology. The questions comprise a broad array of disciplines, including fisheries, climate change, ecosystems, policy, marine citizenship, societal and cultural considerations, scientific enterprise, and other anthropogenic effects and will take years to address. Check out our methodology and conclusions at Parsons, E.C.M., Favaro, B., Aguirre, A.  et al. 2014. Seventy-one important questions for the conservation of marine biodiversity. Conservation Biology 28: 5, 1206–1214.

My first post on the collective blog my writing group has started is now available. Check out “Enjoying the Ride” where I discuss learning to write speculative fiction and assessing word count. Introductory posts by Alexander Gideon and Janet Walden-West are also available at The Million Words.

I am a member of a writer’s group with some amazing people. We are all at different points in our careers, with a few having published books and short stories, and others still striving for that first acceptance.

The publishing industry is in a state of complete flux, with authors scrambling to publish and make a living in a crowded industry, with overworked agents and editors, low pay, and vanishing brick and mortar bookstores.

My colleagues and I have been lucky. The science fiction/fantasy convention circuit has a number of authors willing to act as mentors to aspiring authors, and we have been privileged to learn from them. Many of those established authors have spent significant portions of their time helping other writers.

In that spirit of sharing knowledge, we decided to start a group blog to share our experiences with other authors and anyone else interested in the vagaries of the current publishing world. Our blog will discuss our personal journeys as we strive to get published and share some of the advice that we have received.

Check out The Million Words and the first post, “The Promise,” by my colleague, Alexander Gideon.