In this episode, I chat with author BrightFlame about her story in the Bright Green Futures anthology, why she picked Climate Resilience as a theme, and her very cool giveaway item.
Text Transcript:
Susan Kaye Quinn
Hello friends! Welcome to Bright Green Futures, Episode 33: Climate Resilience with BrightFlame.
I'm your host, Susan Kaye Quinn, and we're here to lift up stories about a more sustainable and just world and talk about the struggle to get there. Today, we're going to have a quick chat with BrightFlame about her story, Ancestors, Descendants, in the new Bright Green Futures anthology, which released on Earth Day.
But first, there are three things listeners should know.
One, the anthology is a collection of hopeful climate fiction stories from guests on the pod and is available in ebook and print on a wide range of retailers. Now that it's released, you can request that your library carry it as well. And that super helps with making it available to people.
Second, BrightFlame's story is published separately as an ebook. And it's free right now. So make sure you go download that after the show or just get the anthology, which has all the stories plus a bonus prose poem.
And third, the giveaway will go until May. Lots of cool stuff handpicked by the authors, each item having a connection to their stories. So make sure to enter that as well.
Susan Kaye Quinn
All right, BrightFlame, thank you for coming back to the pod.
BrightFlame
Thank you for having me and for creating this wonderful anthology that I've already had a peek at.
Susan Kaye Quinn
I am so excited about this being out in the world and all your great stories, but just, you know, it's really fulfilling the mission of the podcast to lift up these hopeful stories. So I'm just super excited about that. And I've asked each of the authors in the anthology to pick a theme word as people will know if they've been listening to this whole series that we were having of these author interviews.
The theme word is something that represents the story. And I think you gave me a couple of options, but we decided on CLIMATE RESILIENCE, which is great because resilience sure feels like something we're all struggling with right now and kind of always. And it definitely fits your story as a theme. So why don't you read for us the one line description of your story and then tell us a little bit about how it speaks to resilience as a theme.
BrightFlame
Well, the description of this story, which by the way is one of the first I wrote, solarpunk stories. So I'm thrilled that it's finding an audience now.
It's a post-crumble town empties out as people seek safer lands. And the one resident who stays behind finds a kinship they don't expect.
BrightFlame
So this is one of my Threads stories. It takes place… because you might guess from the title, Ancestors, Descendants, it takes place in two different times. And we get to see somebody during the really rough climate change years finding a way towards resilience when they're faced with so much. And then seeing later what gets created and what resilience means in a future where all beings can thrive. And resilience is really core to what I do in the world. A lot of my teaching these days and most of my writing is all about resilience.
Susan Kaye Quinn
That's so great. I think the structure of your story really does do a good help for the reader. In some ways, it's hard for us to project forward. We might move forward if a story is set in the future and go, well, this is what it's like in the future, but I don't know how we got there. You kind of… having those two pieces of like, well, this is a near future and this is a further future, then it makes it so they can make those threads of connection. And Threads is—I know this, but the listeners might not—that Threads is sort of like your name for this larger collection of short stories that share a world. So a lot of the world building that people will see in the story is a part of a larger world. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
BrightFlame
Well, fun fact, this is the future that I long to live in and long to create for our future, all the descendants of the lands. And I first went to that future when I was teaching with Starhawk, who some of you might know, who wrote The Fifth Sacred Thing and offers wonderful activists and permaculture workshops these days.
And she led a trance journey, something she's famous for, bringing us to the future that we desire. And this is what I saw. So over the years, I've added to it and I've taken my own journeys there and wrote what I saw, what I imagined, what I wanted to create. So the Threads are set in the far northeast of Turtle Island in a sea ravaged area. And it's all about humans relating with and creating relationships with the wider web of life and really living connected that way. So the Threads are a series or a bunch of interconnected communities that kind of form a big web up in the northeast of the continent.
Susan Kaye Quinn
I love that. I love the idea of, of course, connection because that's, I think that's the key to resilience. Like resilience and connection are not distinct things, right? We can't really have one without the other, even though we instinctively, a lot of times are like, think I have to make myself resilient. And it's like, you really only can do that in the context of this larger web of connection. But I also love that it was part of a visioning process, your trance process that is your own vision that you had of a future that you wanted to live in. And that's something that I've been doing more of with folks and trying to encourage people to engage in a process of various kinds. And I see more other people doing this too. We're like, let's do some active visioning process. And with the hopes that it will spur like in your case to go off and write a whole series of stories around this world that you want to dream into being. And I love that. I love that it was the outcome of that. So that's great.
BrightFlame
And since that happened, I forget what year that was we offered those weekends, Starhawk and I, I've created workshops kind of tangential to that where it's largely about storying the future and bringing people to the future. So I've done this work with mainstream and spiritual communities with K-12 teachers in public schools, with writers. And then we get to share what came up and look at the joint visions because it's futures plural that we're imagining. It's not just one future that fits everybody, right? So it's the confluence of all our futures that we so desire for this world that will help us get there.
Susan Kaye Quinn
Yeah, absolutely. All the futures aren't even… like even if you had your perfect idea of it and you could even live your own perfect reality in the future, it's just not going to be the same for everyone. And we don't want that, right? We want people to have, you know, freedom of expression and individual lives and such. So that's that has to be part of it. Equity has to be part of sustainable futures or else they're not sustainable. As the saying goes, if something is not sustainable, it will not sustain. So, you know, we need to build that in.
So let's talk about your giveaway item because it is super fun and so fun, in fact, I decided I needed to keep some for my own. And the giveaway is a couple sets of three of these Bur Oak Acorns, which is like the actual Bur Oak husk, or I think it's called a cup, and then the interior part that's the acorn that's since been dislodged is now like a felted felt or like a needled felt. And they're just adorable and I love them. And of course the Bur Oak is part of your story.
BrightFlame
A very large part of my story, of the story and all the Threads, which by the way, publishers, I'm looking for somebody to publish my whole collection that forms a mosaic novel because it's the Threads set in all different times from now till far future.
Susan Kaye Quinn
Well, it is a very big concept that you have. So I can totally see having a constellation of stories built around that. And I'm glad that we have it in the anthology. We even have a little Bur acorn and leaf on the cover of the anthology for astute observers might see that. But they're just really cute. So I know you don't want to give too much away about how the Bur oak connects to the story. And I'm going to leave that for you to say what the connection is, or you could just say, it's like a character in the story. However you want to go with that.
BrightFlame
Well, it is a character in story. And actually, in this story, in one of the sections of it, those acorns are used by a human character in really interesting ways. Yeah, and Bur oak, a massive oak tree, is just really prominent in both sections of this story. So I want you all to meet Bur Oak. I hope you'll read my story.
Susan Kaye Quinn
Yes, and you will love these little Bur acorns even more after you read the story, because you'll have that envisioned in your head. And they're not little, actually. They're kind of like good sized. I'm holding one right now and it's like, it fills my whole palm. It's a good sized thing, which I think there's like a section in the story where they plant these. And I'm now thinking like, how does that work? You got to like dig a hole to put this in or something. I'm not sure, but I am intrigued.
So, okay, we're getting to the end. These are our short little snippets where we get to visit with our authors and encourage folks to go download BrightFlame’s story, go enter the giveaway, and of course get the anthology and share it with others. But my last question is, what are you doing in these crazy times to stay grounded and keep working for a better world. And I always feel a little silly asking you this question because grounding practices are such a huge part of your spiritual practice, let's put it that way. But you can tell me more.
BrightFlame
Right. Well, I hope you all listen to the longer podcast that I did with Susan. When was that? September? I forget when it came out.
Susan Kaye Quinn
It was a while ago, yeah.
BrightFlame
Because we talked about my novel, The Working, and there's many practices for grounding, for centering, for finding what calls to you in the novel. Those practices are embedded in the novel. And really, doing those things are a big part of what keeps me, well, grounded and centered as much as possible. And I'm not always grounded in these times. It's just so challenging. But being with other people to do this work, whether it's writers, solarpunks, other witches who do the kind of thing I do, really helps me. Interconnection is so important. Working in community is so important. Feeds me, feeds others. And that is what keeps us resilient. Yeah, that thing, that web of us, you know, and the more, I guess, vibrant and full that we all are as nodes in this living web, the more healthy and thriving the whole web of life will be, despite how some people might want to cut it apart and chop it up or use it up. So that's what keeps me going, really.
Susan Kaye Quinn
That's great. And so true that, you know, there are forces of all different kinds that are tearing people apart and breaking those connections. And one of the most radical things you can do these days is to just not allow that to happen or even to double down on strengthening the connections we have with each other, supporting each other, just reaching out. I was thinking even just this morning about how sometimes we think of resilience and connections in terms of material support, like, you know, with money or housing or food or various, you know, physical things. And those are all super important, but I just… I get so much energy and affirmation and, you know, just things that let me continue to exist from other people, just talking to them, just knowing that there are people that care that I live or die and want to check in on me and I want to check in on them. Like that is the future that I want to live in. That part of it is already here, at least as much as I can lean into it. So I encourage everybody to think about how they can reach out to someone else and make both of your lives more resilient by strengthening your connections to one another.
Thank you so much for coming on the pod again and revisiting with us. And I hope everybody will go out and download your story and buy the anthology and check out all the stories. And thanks again for lending your story to this whole collection.
BrightFlame
Thank you, Susan. My pleasure to be among such wonderful authors in this anthology. I hope you all, buy the whole anthology, not just download my story, they're really wonderful stories that fit together in a lovely way.
Susan Kaye Quinn
They really do. You guys did a great job of making all the pieces fit and, you know that that short story that's out there free right now is, is really just a tease to get you to buy the whole anthology. I'm just going to be really upfront about that. So go ahead and do both. Download the free stuff and get the full anthology. All right. Thanks very much. Have a great day. We'll talk to you soon.
BrightFlame
Bye.
In this series of episodes, we'll have each of the authors of the anthology on to talk about their story, their theme, and their giveaway item. The links for everything are below. As a quick review, the six themes for the six stories are:
CLIMATE ANXIETY
CLIMATE RESTORATION
CLIMATE ROLES
CLIMATE CONNECTIONS
CLIMATE RESILIENCE
CLIMATE HERITAGE
They fit together almost like a meta story, and the themes and the stories showcase what hopeful climate fiction can look like and the breadth of what we need to tackle.
Pre-orders boost the visibility of the anthology, so please do that if you can.
Anthology Giveaway
That giveaway will be ongoing until the end of May.
Check out the Featured Stories and Hopeful Climate Fiction lists.
LINKS Ep. 33: Climate Resilience with BrightFlame
BrightFlame’s story (FREE until 5.20.2025): Ancestors, Descendants
RELEVANT NEWSLETTERS
Ep. 27: Zines, Cultural Change and Storytelling in the Underground
Ep. 30: Earth Day, Joy as a Tactical Weapon, and Release Day for the Bright Green Futures Anthology
PLEASE SHARE
These hopeful climate-fiction stories include clicky space centipedes, sentient trees, a flooded future Rio de Janeiro and characters trying to find their place in a climate-impacted world. Each story imagines a way for us to survive the future, together.
Bright Green Futures: 2024 contains six short stories plus a bonus prose-poem.
The Doglady and the Rainstorm by Renan Bernardo
What Kind of Bat is This? by Sarena Ulibarri
Centipede Station by T. K. Rex
A Merger in Corn Country by Danielle Arostegui
Ancestors, Descendants by BrightFlame
The Park of the Beast by T. K. Rex
Coriander by Ana Sun
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