Deborah J. Ross's Blog, page 119

GUEST POST: Body weight and transgender hormone therapy

Open Minded Health is back up and running with a timely report on a study about how the hormones used in gender transition affect body fat:

Hormone therapy for trans people has long been known to change body shape and body fat percentage. But by how much? And how much can be expected in the first year? A European study of 77 trans women and 73 trans men found out!On average over the first year of hormones…Both trans women and trans men gained weight overall. On average they gained around 4-6 pounds (2-3 kg). Both groups started with a BMI around 24 (just barely between normal weight and overweight). For trans men, this weight gain tipped them into the “overweight” category. Trans women stayed in the “normal” weight category.Trans women gained body fat and lost muscle mass. Their body fat went up from 24% to 28%. They lost a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of muscle mass.Trans men lost body fat and gained muscle mass. Their body fat went down from 34% to 30%. They gained 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of muscle mass.There wasn’t much of a significant different in waist sizes.It may be helpful to remember body fat percentage numbers. For cis women, 21-31% is considered a fit or normal range. For cis men, 14-25% is the fit or normal range. So the trans women in this study started out at an average body fat percentage and stayed there. The trans men in this study started off with too much body fat and stayed there.During the first year of hormones it seems that around a 4% change in body fat can be expected. Trans men can gain quite a bit of muscle. Trans women will lose some muscle.As a final note: this was a European study. The hormones used in Europe are different than the ones used in the United States. The results may not be applicable in the United States.Want to read the study for yourself? The abstract is publicly available!

Thunderlord news

Alas, dear readers, I seem to have exhausted those snippets that do not reveal too much of the plotline, so we have come to the end of that adventure. However...

I have a tentative release date of August 2016.

(smiles, beams, accepts applause)

Now I have to finish the book...

Write It Slow?

Ursula K. Le Guin recently blogged on Book View Café about how the marketing practices of Amazon.com results in disposable, interchangeable world-pablum instead of thoughtful, well-crafted literature. She wrote:

If you want to sell cheap and fast, as Amazon does, you have to sell big. Books written to be best sellers can be written fast, sold cheap, dumped fast: the perfect commodity for growth capitalism.
The readability of many best sellers is much like the edibility of junk food. Agribusiness and the food packagers sell us sweetened fat to live on, so we come to think that’s what food is. Amazon uses the BS Machine to sell us sweetened fat to live on, so we begin to think that’s what literature is.
I believe that reading only packaged microwavable fiction ruins the taste, destabilizes the moral blood pressure, and makes the mind obese. Fortunately, I also know that many human beings have an innate resistance to baloney and a taste for quality rooted deeper than even marketing can reach.

The Guardian responded with an article about her powerful essay, so I expect it’s gotten a lot of exposure now.
Le Guin’s perspective reminds me of an experience I had when I was a fairly new writer. I’d sold a handful of short stories to professional markets and I was perpetually working on one novel or another but I hadn’t sold one yet. Because I was still learning how to write at novel length, I wrote really awful, disorganized first drafts and then revised over and over. It took me a couple of years to get a novel into sufficiently good shape that I felt comfortable in sending it out. That was okay, because each one was better than the one before. They were better written, but also deeper in concept and grander in scope. I was getting personalized rejection letters from editors, which encouraged me greatly. At a convention, I encountered an author who had already sold several novels. In fact, he (nominal pronoun for the sake of the article) was churning out three or four a year. When I asked him how he did that, he told me he never revised. He’d write a draft and that was it.
I was devastated.
The two goals aren’t necessarily incompatible.  I know successful authors who write more than one novel a year (it takes me one to two years at this point to finish a novel to my own satisfaction). They are dedicated craftspeople, and some of their work is very good. It’s not that one way of working is better than another, it’s that I got into trouble by comparing mine to someone else’s.
I know romance writers who support themselves with their writing. They sell on proposal with very detailed outlines. They know exactly how many pages each section of the outline will require and by what date they must finish them to meet deadline. They do this every 3 months. By and large, their readers expect a particular experience and the writers deliver it consistently. It’s a 9-to-5 job, but one they love.
Sometimes when I as a reader pick up a book, that’s what I want. Not challenging literature but a predictable, engaging read. Fast food For The Mind, as it were. It could be escape reading, or comfort, or perfect for a time or situation rife with distractions, when subtle writing would get lost. (Think: on the bus, during your kid’s karate class, in the dentist’s office.)
If all I ever read what Fast food For The Mind, my brain would turn to jelly. Or adipocere, more like. I need my vegetables and whole grains, too: chewy, beautifully crafted work. Sometimes with prose so gorgeous I want to weep. Sometimes so thorny I want to scream at the author. Sometimes so powerful I can never see things the same way again. I won’t say these books can never be written quickly, but it’s important that writers who have these stories in them and who need to write slowly and thoughtfully have the time to do so. And that those difficult, “uncommercial,” non-best-seller, utterly transformative books find their ways to the readers they will nourish.

As a writer, I try to work at the pace that allows me to reflect and dig deep into my stories instead of dashing off the first things that come to mind. (Sometimes these are brilliant, but more often than not, they’re just trite.) As a reader, moreover, I don’t mind waiting another year or two or five for another splendid story from my favorite writers.

The Tajji Diaries: A Story of Her Own

Tajji, our elderly German Shepherd Dog, came to live with us a little over a year ago when she retired from seeing eye guide dog work. She learned new behaviors in the process of “being just a dog.” Her behavior also showed us some of the many things dogs who help the blind must learn. Some of these are responses to commands. Tajji knows “Go Right,” “Go Left,” “Easy (slow down),” and “Back,” for instance. She was also able to enter a mall (a chaotic place for a dog) with her blind person and, never having been in this place before, guide him to an elevator, escalator, or rest room.
We also noticed other behaviors from her training. She would remain lying down in the same place after we had stepped over her, touching her. Not moving would allow a blind person to remember where she is (and not trip over her, at least, not twice.) She uses a gentle nose touch as a greeting (as do most dogs; it’s polite) but also to let us know when she has come to sit beside us. She asks for attention by touching an arm, sometimes neatly inserting her nose underneath a hand. In fact, she initiates physical contact so much we suspect she was not only trained to do so, but bred for the predisposition.
All of this got my writer’s imagination started thinking about different ways dogs can be partners with humans. Years ago, I loved watching movies about Zato-ichi, a blind swordsman in Japan. He had preternatural hearing, and his ears would twitch when he heard an enemy approach, undoubtedly a theatrical device to point out to the audience what was happening internally. Since I was preparing to write a story for Sword & Sorceress 30, the idea came to me of a blind swordswoman – and putting Tajji in the story. How would they interact? What could the dog tell my character and how? 
I used many of Tajji’s behaviors – nose touch, for instance, but also rate of breathing and level of muscular tension, particularly along the spine. I imagined that the dog would often make contact with the swordswoman’s leg, and she would be able to tell which way he (sorry, Tajji, I changed the sex of the dog) was facing and if he shifted orientation. She could hear the click of his nails over stone and tell not only where he was but how fast he was moving and in which direction. Finally, and most importantly, he would give her the freedom to go places not ordinarily accessible to a blind person.
Here’s a snippet from “Four Paws To Light My Way,” in which Jian deals with the skepticism of her sighted comrade:

After a time, Masou approached, halting before her. “You want dinner?”
Jian did, given the smells arising from the direction of the cooking fire. “First I want to show you something,” she said, and whistled for Dog. She heard the pad of paws over beaten earth and felt the fleeting touch of a wet nose on the back of her hand, then the pressure of a furred shoulder against her knee.

“Um,” said Masou.

Jian adjusted her sheathed sword in her sash. “Stand very still. Don’t even breathe. Now move — any direction, any number of steps. When I say Now, attack.”

He was good, she gave him that. But her ears caught the faint rustle of his pants and she felt the direction Dog’s head turned. The air told her when Masou began to move, and where. She dropped, braced herself on her hands, and swept out one foot. Hooked his ankle, jerked hard. Spun around, keeping contact with her foot, then knee and thigh as she slipped her sword from its sheath and laid the curved, razor-sharp blade on his throat. He froze. She waited a moment, then got her feet under her and stood.

 “Uff! You haven’t lost your touch.” He scrambled up in a barely-audible cascade of dirt grains.  “How’d you do that? Being blind and all — I mean —” 

“The word does not insult me.” Jian smiled wryly as she resheathed her sword. She held out her hand and Dog came, nosing underneath her fingers so that she touched the shorter fur between his eyes, then one of the velvet ears.

“Blanket,” she said, and Dog took her there.

Special Price on COLLABORATORS

Collaborators, my Lambda Award Finalist/ Tiptree notable book, is on sale at Amazon.com for only 99cents. I have no idea how this happened -- publisher discount? The whims of Kindle? -- or how long this deal will last. Regardless, if you've been wanting an ebook copy, it doesn't get any better than this. 

Thunderlord snippet - Emergency

Please remember that this is a work in progress and drafts have a habit of changing drastically from inception to finished book.


From Thunderlord Chapter 20

Alayna felt another trickle, and then a cramping low in her belly, so sudden and sharp it took her breath away. She bent over with it. The spasm faded a moment later, but not entirely.  Not trusting to the steadiness of her hands, she set the candlestick on the stone hearth. A small spot of blood marked the front of her nightgown, but when she twisted the back around, she saw that it was drenched.
A knock at the outer door: “My lady?”
“Go away,” Alayna gasped.
What am I going to do?
\The door swung open. Though tears blurred her vision, Alayna made out Dimitra, holding aloft her own candle.
“Vai domna, I am sorry to disobey you, but Sadhi heard a noise and reported it to me – Blessed Cassilda!”
The next moment, Dimitra grasped Alayna’s shoulders, turning her. Another cramp seized Alayna, worse than before. Then everything happened at once -- Dimitra shouted for Sadhi, hands lifted the sodden nightgown, lowered her to a bed spread thickly with towels, washed her with warm water – where had that come from, or had she lost track of time? – tucked layers of padding between her legs, pulled a new gown over her shoulders, eased comforters up to her shoulders --
“…Jerana, come at once…” Dimitra said, her back to Alayna.
Alayna, racked with yet another wave of pain, curled into a ball. I want to die, I want to die. What is happening to me? But she knew. She knew.
She roused a little at the sound of Jerana’s voice, a cool touch on her brow, a few murmured words, too indistinct to understand.

Help me. Help my babe.

Editing Tanith Lee (1947-2015)

Tanith Lee, one of the greatest writers of fantasy, died recently. I "came of age" in my own fantasy career reading her marvelous stories (even though we were born the same year) and had the delight of editing several of her short stories and in the process becoming friends. Many writers and readers have posted tributes to her. Here is a bit of my own story, originally written as part of a "behind the scenes" series for The Feathered Edge: Tales of Magic, Love, and Daring, which contained the third of the Tanith Lee stories I was privileged to edit.

What is there to say about editing a Tanith Lee story? You sit there, holding the typewritten manuscript that she sent you, and something in your brain turns itself into total fangirl jelly. But you already knew that.

To begin with, the first Tanith Lee story I worked on was for Lace and Blade (2008). She'd agreed to submit a story in the very early planning stages of that project, before I came onboard as editor. And it was my first gig as editor. Over the years, I'd worked with a bunch of different editors and had ideas about what worked for me, what didn't, and how I wanted to interact with writers "from the other side of the desk."  After years of participating in writer's workshops and teaching adult education classes in writing, I was all set to instruct and guide.

None of this prepared me for the experience of holding in my hands an original typewritten Tanith Lee manuscript.

The first, and most important thing, I had to do was to take off my fangirl hat and my fellow-writer hat, and affix my editor hat firmly to my head. This involved an excruciating change of gears. I made mistakes. Of course, I made mistakes. (And I learned how to clean them up.) I wasn't born knowing how to edit, let alone how to edit iconic authors in whose shadows I have long stood. Tanith herself encouraged me. She wrote to me, "On editing though - like writing, I feel strongly one must do what one feels is right. In me, of course, you run into an old war-horse, 40 years in the field, covered in armour and neighing like a trumpet." Which was a most gracious way of acknowledging that the relationship between an author and an editor is an organic process that, when at its best, is rooted in clear communication, deep listening, and respect. Not intimidation (in either direction), but a partnership in which both people have the same goal -- to make the story the best representation of the author's vision.By the time I received, "Question A Stone," Tanith and I had evolved out a procedure that worked for both of us. It began with her sending me a typewritten manuscript. In a 1998 interview, she said, "I have to write longhand, and no one can read my writing, I have to type my own manuscripts, because I'm going almost in a zigzag, across and then down. (I don't write backwards, I've never been able to do that!) I used to throw away my holograph manuscripts after I'd typed them, but I'm keeping a lot of them now, because I'm starting to think, if anyone ever is interested in me after I'm dead, they can look and see, 'My god, this woman was a maniac!'"

I'd tried scanning Tanith's pages into a digital file, but all the handwritten corrections and irregularities of type, not to mention the paper being British-sized rather than American-sized, meant the result required an enormous amount of line-by-line clean-up. So I transcribed it (and then printed it out and sent her a copy for review, which amounts to a preview of proof pages.) I've heard this technique suggested for beginning writers -- type out pages from the published works of your favorite authors, to get an inside look at how the story is put together, how the prose works, all the details you miss when you read; the action of typing (or writing out the passages longhand) engages your brain in a different way. Transcribing Tanith's manuscripts taught me an immeasurable amount about how she crafts her prose and weaves together the details of character, setting, dialog, plot, the works.

On the computer print-out, I highlighted anything I had questions about, she caught my typos, I caught hers, and what she sent back was ready to go in the final anthology line-up.

"Question A Stone" involves two superb and very sexy swordsmen who, through a twist of circumstances, find themselves committed to fighting a duel to the death, despite having fallen in love with one another. Their swords, being magical, have other ideas. The whole adventure takes place in an inn called The Chameleon's Arms, a delight suggested by Tanith's husband, John Kaiine.

o0o
"Forgive me that I must interrupt your meal," said Andreis, as he stopped beside the table. "But unfortunately you and I have something to discuss."

Talzen looked up at him in dreary self-annoyance. Which with a flick of expression sometimes bewildering to others, he changed to the lightest arrogance. "Pray sit. Have some wine. It's from Khavalisc. The l8th Year."

Andreis raised an eyebrow. "That won't be necessary. But I will sit." He sat.

Was ever such male grace surpassed?

Damnation, thought Talzen.

"Perhaps an apple then? They're at perfect ripeness."

"Forgive me again," said Andreis, who had too quite a wonderful voice, "but I dislike to share food or drink with anyone I shall presently kill."

Thunderlord snippet - Wedding Night

Please remember that this is a work in progress and drafts have a habit of changing drastically from inception to finished book.


From Thunderlord Chapter 19
The bed was even colder than the air, for the fire’s heat had not reached this far. Alayna slipped between the sheets, curled on her side, shivering. The women continued with their teasing, but she was too cold to care. If she said anything, her teeth would surely chatter, and they would think she was afraid. Perhaps that was the point of being half-naked in a chilly room – she’d be so glad of her husband’s strong body to warm the sheets that she would not care what happened next.
“Do you want aphrosone, my lady?” That was Jerana, speaking low so only the two of them could hear. “It will make tonight more pleasurable, although you will not remember in the morning.”

Alayna shook her head. She might be cold, but she was not afraid. If she should conceive – and she prayed to the Four Gods and any others that might be listening that she did – she wanted, oh yes, she wanted to remember this first night together.

In Which Deborah is Featured in an Author Interview

Yep, first in our local newspaper and now online, a conversation with the delightful Julie Horner, entitled "Painting the Fantastic Landscape." She said a lot of very lovely things about me and my work.

Here's my favorite bit:

Ross writes about things she has loved to read…”take me away to Dune or Middle Earth,” she says. But Ross points out that so much early science fiction was written by men (Heinlein, “who didn’t have a clue about women,” for instance) or by women under a male pen name because it wasn’t fashionable in those days for a woman to write science fiction.

Many of Ross’ characters are women in “kick-ass” roles who drive conflict to non-violent solutions. Sci-Fi author, Tom Easton wrote about Ross’ writing in Jaydium, “There is an emphasis on the quest for peace that is unusual when so many novels focus on the quest for dominance and victory.” And in The Seven-Petaled Shield, females are the heroes. “From the outset, I knew that this story had to be told primarily through the experiences of women and would require a huge canvas…and a different kind of heroine.”

Happy author smile! 

[links] Fishing With Horses and other cool links

Fishing With Horses:  There are only about 11 horse fishermen in the area of Oostduienkerke but the two men I have photographed are the only ones who actually drag for the shrimp for part of their income the rest just do it for tourism of the town. I am not sure how much longer this old tradition will stay alive in this actual form but I am glad to have a chance to photograph these amazing draft horses and the men that work with them. The horses are so relaxed and I realized after going into the sea my self how much the waves have so much force and the sand shifts under you feet as you sink slowly into the wet sand. I think for these horses it is such a unnatural thing for them to do, but you can see that they have total trust that their riders will guide them and that is what true horsemanship really is, working with a trusted partner to get the required job done easily.Before mules were used for the job but because of the weight of the larger nets the Brabant draft horse is now used because of their tremendous strength and easy going attitudes. They could not have picked a better breed.



The Evolution of Snakes : “We infer that the most recent common ancestor of all snakes was a nocturnal, stealth-hunting predator targeting relatively large prey, and most likely would have lived in forested ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere,” said Dr Allison Hsiang of Yale University, lead author on the study.





Science Fiction Fodder: Ether-Based "DNA":In the search for life beyond Earth, scientists have justifiably focused on water because all biology as we know it requires this fluid. A wild card, however, is whether alternative liquids can also suffice as life-enablers. For example, Saturn's frigid moon Titan is awash in inky seas of the hydrocarbon methane. Here on warm, watery Earth, the molecules DNA and RNA serve as the blueprints of life, containing creatures' genetic instruction manuals. An immense family of proteins carries out these instructions. A new study proposes that molecules called ethers, not used in any genetic molecules on Earth, could fulfill the role of DNA and RNA on worlds with hydrocarbon oceans. These worlds must be a good deal toastier though than Titan, the study found, for plausibly life-like chemistry to take place.


Auroras on Mars: In late Dec. 2014, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft detected evidence of widespread auroras in Mars's northern hemisphere. The "Christmas Lights," as researchers called them, circled the globe and descended so close to the Martian equator that, if the lights had occurred on Earth, they would have been over places like Florida and Texas. "It really is amazing," says Nick Schneider who leads MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument team at the University of Colorado. "Auroras on Mars appear to be more wide ranging than we ever imagined."

A White Dwarf Star: In the above shell of gas and dust, the planetary nebula designated NGC 2440, contains one of the hottest white dwarf stars known. The glowing stellar pearl can be seen as the bright dot near the image center. The portion of NGC 2440 shown spans about one light year. The center of our Sun will eventually become a white dwarf, but not for another five billion years.