F is for Friends and Followers

Continuiung from A to Z, we've fortuitously found fair F's for Follower Friday. Now seems a good time to step away from ink and pixels, from tomes and technlogy, from allegories and alliteration. Here are a small sampling of blogs I follow; I'll not include dreadfully obvious ones like BoingBoing or The Atlantic (both on my list). If you're interested in those you've quite likely found them already. We'll start with friends and acquantances before moving on, because a personal connection to the writer makes things more interesting.

Steampunk Emma Goldman is the slightly less mild-mannered alter-ego of a friend from a writing group to which I once belonged. I remember sitting on author Talia Carner's couch with her while all of the other literary-types subtly rolled their eyes at the two of us and our love for "imaginary stories" (ie, fantasy and sf). Steampunk Emma is an activist, steampunk writer, tall-ship sailor, nanny, occupy wall-street field medic, and an all around righteous babe. She stated the Emma persona for a pro-labor rally at a Steampunk event (in response to events in Wisconsin) and has been returning to it since. She writes mainly about historical activists.

Brad Parks is the host of the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction meetup, which I sporadically attend (almost as sporadically as he blogs. He's a very talented writer, a sharp critiquer, and has a knack for making everyone feel welcome and special. A great guy overall.

Becca Patterson is a fellow writer I met on the Google+ social network. She's the opposite of Brad (and me!) in that she writes quickly. Her description of how a geologist does worldbuilding (from the rocks up) hooked me.

Rachel Desilets is another writer working on the A to Z blog thing, showing off some excerpts from her works in progress.

And, ourside of writers, some blogs that I follow online.

Amazin Avenue  - If you cut me, I bleed orange and blue, so it's little surprise that I read this smart, fan-friendly Mets blog.

The Outlet - Literary magazine Electric Literature's blog, to keep up with the literary scene.

Lambda Literary - To keep up with the gay literary scene. Some interesting stuff there in a direction I don't often look.