21 Futures #4 — The Baked Goods of Bitcoin and Skirophoria — Angelique Fawns

So did you see the call for submissions somewhere and decide, right, this is, this is something I could write about?

Oh, absolutely. And here's something, another one of my hobbies is collecting really interesting corals and I put them on a blog. And so this was something I found and blogged about. I thought, well, wouldn't this be an interesting and different call? Um, and I only really promote things that are no fee and pay. So this was right in the ballpark.

It's absolutely fascinating. I have to say, like being the sort of editor of this anthology, putting the calls out because, you know, trying to marry the worlds of short fiction and Bitcoin. They're quite separate. And in the world of short fiction, you'll know this, as you said, no-fee-paying anthologies and calls are quite rare. You know, there's not many opportunities where writers can earn money for submitting a great story.

Preach. This is true.

Yeah. And there was still some resistance, let's say, from, you know, certain fiction writers who are like, oh, are you gonna pay us with fake money? Or, oh, you should pay your authors more. It's like, you know, I think a paying fiction opportunity in 2023 is pretty good, right? It's not to be sniffed at. I mean, I would love to be part of something like this.

No, absolutely. Well, here's the thing. It's interesting that you're saying It'd be difficult to marry it. The thing with Bitcoin and the thing with fiction is there's often underlying themes, correct? So Bitcoin to me speaks of freedom from tyranny, from governmental control, um, which, uh, as a, I think freedom is one of the most essential rights for human nature. So I was fascinated by the concept of a, um, a money that isn't controlled by our government. And then my whole story is about, um, women finding their freedom. Like, uh, Skourophoria is an ancient, it's an ancient Greek celebration that celebrates the harvest, the harvest. But it was also the time where women did not invite men. They baked cookies in the shapes of male genitalia. They ate them, and then they planned to overthrow The men, like that's what the whole festival of Skuruphoria is about. And I thought that they actually married extraordinarily well because I think Bitcoin is about freedom from the tyranny of governmental control of money. And Skuruphoria is about, um, women's striving for independence in a place where they could get out from under the thumbs of their husbands.

And we all love cookies, right? So, I mean,

And we all love cookies, even those in rude shapes. Take care.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What you said about, it's, it's really, um, this marriage of like big ideas and freedom matching with Bitcoin. It's hard to break through the noise of media because there's so much financial media and, you know, noise saying, oh, don't do this, do that, you know, be afraid of this. You can scream about freedom all you like, but you know, if you write a book like 1984, then that says it better than anything. That's why it's still around today. And there's still this concept of, you know, too much intervention and totalitarian statement and stuff. So.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I

mean,

I'm far from writing something as epic as 1984, but I sure would love to. I mean, there's a lot of good writing out there. Ray Bradbury's done a lot of it, right? Where you sort of look at the constant human struggle, struggle to free ourselves from the inevitable corruption of power, right? So, um, it's interesting. There's a lot more I'd still like to learn about Bitcoin, 'cause I'm gonna be honest with you, I completely do not understand the concept of mining at all, and no amount of research has helped me, like how one acquires it.

I'm sure our listeners can recommend some Some videos and some explainers better than me, but trusted sources of information on YouTube and, you know, going to the major outlets first. I mean, a good starting point's often books too. Bitcoin Standard can answer a few of those questions, I'm sure. And a few of the books that ConsenSys put out. I'm not a very technical person, I have to say. I'm not a nerd on Bitcoin technology, but it's interesting to see it popping up in more and more art and stories. And technology can take us in, you know, by the way of dystopia or utopia. So I think it's interesting to read about both and to think about both.

Absolutely. And I don't think one exists without the other, right? To, I always find it interesting to explore the idea of to achieve a utopia, there has to be dystopian factors, right? Like for us to become, um, environmentally aware, there would have to be some suffering on our part, right? Like to truly fix our environment, people have to give up their beloved cars. They'd have to. give up, uh, consumerism in excess. They'd have to give up so many things to achieve someplace where we're in complete harmony. And then, you know, it's always the balance, like where, where can we continue our human adventure and still be good stewards of the earth? Like, it's a very challenging and interesting conundrum.

Have you ever read the short story by Ursula Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas?

I have not, but looks like I have to put it on my reading list.

It's exactly what you're talking about. It's a presentation of a utopia that really hits the nail on the head. I think it was written in the '70s, but it's something that I go back to. It's an absolutely brilliant story. So yeah, I recommend checking that out. And there's probably some clever person who could tie it to Bitcoin. I don't know. It's possible to link anything that you want.

I think so. That's always half the fun and the challenge, isn't it?

Yeah. So in terms of, um, your own writing, tell us a bit about that. Um, you mentioned to me just before we started that you're launching a Kickstarter.

I am. Uh, once again, it's interesting where finances meet art, right? Uh, which is a theme here, I think, in this podcast. I'm trying to find a way to make writing profitable, and if not profitable, at least break even or, you know, help buy the odd bag of grain for my horses. So, um, I'm trying Kickstarter because I've launched a couple, uh, short story collections in the past, but I married them with journalism, which made them very hard to market. Like I interviewed editors and publishers and then I showed the stories that they purchased and those things launched crickets. So I was trying to find a better way to launch my newest anthologies, which Mark Leslie, who's a sort of Canadian guru for Wide for the Win here in Canada, I was asking him about profitability and he's like, well, you take your reprints and you put them in a collection and then you put them out there according to theme. And he's found some success doing that. So I decided to try, but then I thought, well, after watching Dean Wesley Smith's Kickstarter Uh, free workshop on Teachable, I'm like, okay, I'm going to try this. I'm going to see if I can get more traction and more marketing and just get these books in front of more eyes by using this platform. And, uh, so far it's actually been fairly successful. I've, it's been out a week. Um, my funding goal was $700 Canadian and I'm almost at $1,600 Canadian, so I've more than doubled my ask. Yeah. So I'm happy, but there's Kickstarters out there that get tens of thousands of dollars. I have no idea how they're getting that, but, um, I'm, uh, I'm, it's an exciting thing to try. Like everything, new things are terrifying. So I figured I was very hesitant and frightened to put myself out in the world like that. And, you know, figure out how to offer things that would entice people to buy my product. Um, and, and we'll just see how it goes.

That's fantastic. I mean, congratulations on, on launching a successful book. It might be a little while before it's out, right? But, um, as—

Oh, don't know the books? No, I'm a journalist. These books are going to be out by November.

All right.

I don't do things. There's no grass under my feet. We get things done. This is, this is one of my hallmarks is, you

know, it's, it's, it's Great for me to see like people exploring different publishing opportunities because I think the self-publishing sort of gold rush has come and gone. You know, everybody's saying, oh, just smash books out on Amazon and, you know, make a million.

No, it doesn't happen.

You need to know about marketing. And I think with Kickstarter, it's about building a community and getting people interested in the process. And, um, if you can reach the right people, then for sure it's, it's possible. Um, at Consensus where we are putting this book out, it's another publisher that is innovative and looking to do things a different way by sort of, um, crowdsourcing the, uh, talent required to put books out and also building this community of, uh, an audience where it can go.

So explain to me about the crowdsourcing. How are they crowdsourcing?

Yeah, so Consensus is a starfish organization. So that means that editors and translators and other typesetters and people who work on the books and on the products, which are exclusively Bitcoin related, so it's a niche publisher. The people who work on them work for a share of the profit, basically. So rather than having a set team of, you know, which requires an office and salaries and such, it's a remote operation run by people who are passionate about the cause and want to devote their time and talent to actually putting this work out in exchange for For a cut of the profits. So that's essentially how it works. And, you know, there's been some great successes of Consensus and I see them, I think I'd have to check the numbers on this, but I think a couple of years ago they were putting out sort of 4 books a year and now it's probably 20, 30 books, if not more. So they're really ramping up and like giving more authors the opportunity. So if you are a Bitcoin author, whatever kind of Bitcoin books you write, whether it's fiction, nonfiction, um, get in touch with Consensus 'cause they can sort of help you through the process and, um, get your book out there. So a bit of a plug for Consensus.

So have these anthologies and books been profitable?

You would have to speak to, uh, the publisher Niko about that. I'm not involved in the finances.

You're not involved in that. And then I'm also wondering, so the, the marketing, I'm, I'm curious how the marketing's being done. Like, I'm very curious how many eyes are going to be on these.

I am but a humble editor. I just edit the stories and, uh, speaking to the authors and things like that.

Right.

I'm pretty sure that 21 Futures is going to be, is going to make significant noise because it is a world first and we're all really behind making it, making it a success. And as you and the other authors know, uh, we're also talking about trying to, um, make some of these stories into films and animations and such. So it can really fracture off and go in so many directions. Uh, I think it's a, the start of a universe that we're all pretty excited about.

Oh, I'm, I'm very excited too. I cannot wait to see how this develops.

Let's get back to your story, The Baked Goods of Bitcoin and Scuriphoria.

Okay.

This futuristic society run by women, as you said, is a futuristic mythical society. So it's kind of past, uh, sorry, future and past.

It is, it is. You're correct.

What are your thoughts on the Bitcoin space? Um, it's usually categorized as male-dominated. Um, did you write this story to, to redress the Or what, what do you think about this?

Absolutely. A lot of my writing often has, uh, feminist leanings. Um, so I think it's interesting to look at the future and see how we redress crimes of the past and how we've evolved. So in this story, I was very interested in the ideas of what would a utopia look like But how do we deal with ongoing wounds from the past? So in this story, I was fascinated by the idea of a festival just about the harvest in a female perspective, cuz farming of course was male dominated back, you know, in olden times. That wasn't the woman's role. But now more and more women are going into farming, which I know being part of a farming community up here. And I just thought it was a very interesting way to look at a utopia. But in this whole story, the whole concept came about with the idea— I'll tell you where it started. It started with the idea of people who are freezing themselves, very wealthy people who are cryogenically freezing themselves to be thawed in the future when they have illnesses and they're hoping that they can be cured later on. And I thought, wouldn't it be interesting if these people were, um, unfrozen and then they were in this dramatically different society and then had to pay for their, their sins of excess in the future. So that was the original idea. And the visual in my head, um, was heads bobbing in jars and being addressed by a tribunal. And that was sort of the start of it. It was just this image of Floating heads in jars.

Yeah, I definitely got a like Futurama vibe from, uh, from some of that. But this story jumped out to me as one which was like drastically different cuz it was incorporating another element like, you know, feminism and, and, and gender inequality into the conversation. So yeah, I really appreciated that. And, um, I think hopefully everyone out there will appreciate that the kinds of people who can cryogenically freeze themselves are exactly the kind of people who should be judged immediately upon waking up.

I think so. I think so. So, I'm glad.

If you wanna see the, if you wanna see the judgment, you'll have to read the story.

That's right. There's definitely, I think some, I tried to also underlie some comedy in it cuz there's some pretty heavy, heavy themes within that story. So it's also laced with comedy because I like to make, if I do any moralizing, I like to make it palatable. And I really try not to moralize in my stories, but you know, we all have our, our passion projects, whether it be Bitcoin, environmental justice, feminism. So you try and put it in an entertaining enough package that maybe the readers don't notice the message. That's the ultimate goal, isn't it?

It is. To sublimate— Stories are the ultimate, um, I don't wanna say an effector, but you know, device, the delivery device for, um,

ethics

and morals, right?

Exactly. But we just wanna make sure it's— nobody wants a heavy-handed serving of morality. Nobody. So.

For sure. Well, I can say that your story isn't. I think it's a lot of fun. Uh, let's hear a bit of it now. Could you read us an excerpt from The Baked Goods of Bitcoin and Scaraphoria?

Would you like the beginning? Like, what would be the, what would be the best part, do you think? Maybe I'll start here. Raising a megaphone, Queen Athena addressed the gathering. Every June we celebrate Skirrophoria. Today is a day for women and the harvest. Men are not welcome on this one day. The women cheered, waving bulbs of purple, purple garlic. Caleb's wife used to slice the vegetable into her salads when she was trying to get pregnant, having read it was a fertility aid. Caleb frowned. He'd learned about Skirrophoria in college. The Skira was the day the women of ancient Athens gathered to plot the overthrow of men and chewed on garlic to keep their husbands away. He could see how it would work. He used to hold his breath while making love to his pungent wife after her lunches. His eyes scanned the crowd. Not a man to be seen. This society must have recreated the ancient festival. There you go. Is that good enough?

Great. Yeah. And maybe you can, um, read a little more. Just give us a few more lines, a bit of a taste, more of a taste of the—

Sure.

The world of Skurophoria.

Today we celebrate a new tradition. Our scientists discovered a capsule from the past filled with frozen men. Interestingly, the heads were stored separately from their bodies, Athena said. A teenage girl with buck teeth asked from the edge of the podium, any women in this elite capsule? Just men, Asina said, fury drawing her eyebrows together. 12 privileged men of wealth. A woman squashed her garlic in her fist. Women didn't rate being frozen for the future? The crowd booed and threw phallic-shaped cookies at the pedestals. No, so far we've only found Kyrr— Cryogenically preserved men. Athena caught a cookie and crumbled it. Annually, on the day of Skira, 3 of the capsule's inhabitants will be thawed and judged. One may reclaim his body. The other 2 will be turned to stone and displayed as busts on our feast table. Caleb's ears throbbed along with his head. This did not sound good. One man would be given his body back, but 2 would be turned to stone. He knew he'd had a body when he paid the jaw-dropping fee of 50 Bitcoin to get cryogenically frozen on his 50th birthday. It was easier to evade the taxman with digital currency, and he wanted his daughter to take over his company without having to deal with the dodgier transactions. She'd been refusing to have anything to do with his business since he underwent the procedure. Good?

Great, great. Thanks for the, thanks for the reading. You'll have to, I guess, read the full story in the book if you want to find out who these men are and how they're—

Right. And they get funnier and funnier. The other men. Bobbing in the jars are even funnier and worse. They're, they're appalling.

Well, yeah, I can say it's a lot of fun, the story. And, um, it's been a great pleasure cobbling together, not cobbling together, but putting together stories which have such different genres and voices and tones. We've got some very serious dystopias and then also some fun stories in the, in the anthology.

I wanna say one thing, by the way. Men are not all bad in the story. There's— Caleb has redeeming characteristics. I don't want it to be like hashtag men are bad. No, that's not true at all. There's some redeeming qualities and, you know, I believe in equality of the species. So there you go. I just thought I'd throw that, that out there.

Just, uh, covering, covering yourself.

Covering myself and letting you know that you actually do end up— I think you end up liking the character Caleb by the end. He might start reprehensible, but He has redeeming qualities.

Great. Um, where can people find you online, Anjali?

www.fonds.ca. And if there are writers themselves listening to this, Bitcoin writers or other writers, you can find opportunities. Every month I post a blog, which is actually getting pretty popular, where I list all the upcoming calls for the month. I put a little blurb about exactly what they're looking for, and then I also share my personal insights interviews or whatever I've found that might give you that edge to selling a story to them.

Fantastic. Well, uh, yeah, visit Angelique's website if you want to, uh, find out about more opportunities for publishing and short stories. Um, yeah, thanks very much for coming on the show, Angelique. Really—

Oh, you're welcome.

Seeing your work in print and holding that book.

This has been really nice meeting you in person.

Great. Okay. Thanks for coming, Angelique. See you around.

Thank you.