Beth Dean
Writes speculative fiction. Builds tools for writers.
About
I write speculative fiction. Before that I spent twenty years in tech, the last stretch of it leading the ethics organization for a large company. I was so very tired, and left a few years ago to reconnect with my creative self. In a previous life I was a comic artist and illustrator. I'll always be a maker and tinkerer at heart, so I also build things I want as a writer and reader.
The longer version
I've variously been a (bad) engineer, (mediocre) researcher, and (hopefully good) designer. I created a lot of firsts along the way, like the first algorithmic transparency standard on the internet, and I'm also the reason you can pull up your car insurance on your phone. I've spoken all over the world about responsible and emotionally intelligent design and served as a White House LGBTQ Tech Innovation Fellow.
I used to make zines, comics, and prints. I've spoken at San Diego Comic-Con and Stumptown about queer comics, and my work has been featured in SPIN magazine and at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. I've also been a cartoonist in residence at the Cartoon Art Museum.
When I'm not making things, I'm reading, baking, playing video games, and getting slowly pushed off my couch by a small dog-shaped goblin.
Fiction
Short speculative fiction, usually queer, often unsettling.
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In the meantime, cultivating a very lovely pile of personalised rejections.
Making
- Queer Speculative Fiction A monthly newsletter and database of queer speculative fiction, researched by a human, and built with a pile of Python scripts.
- Writing Mode An Obsidian plugin that clears everything away but your prose, for desktop and mobile.
- Standard Manuscript Format Export An Obsidian plugin that turns a note into a submission-ready Shunn manuscript. Support for blind submissions, and saving settings for individual market profiles.
Drawing
I used to make comics, zines, prints and other ephemera.