L.R. Lam's Blog, page 37
October 26, 2013
Intersex Awareness Day
October 26th is Intersex Awareness Day.
Intersex children are more common than you would think. Children often face surgeries before they are old enough to consent or before they are aware of their own gender identity. These surgeries can leave intersex children barren or essentially castrated, and may have to face further surgeries due to complications. Please take a minute to learn more about what it means to be intersex. Knowledge and acceptance are important to celebrate genital diversity.
After researching intersex issues for the main character of Pantomime, it’s become a cause near and dear to me and I consider myself an ally, and I hope that we continue to make strides to help raise awareness against stigma and unwanted and unnecessary surgery on children.
Intersex Awareness Day Wikipedia article.
An excellent interview with intersex activist Mani Mitchell on Micro Rainbow.
Consider donating to Advocates for Informed Choice, the Interface Project, or the many other wonderful QUILTBAG causes out there that do such useful and vital work.
Any other links you are aware of? Please put them in the comments. I also have a list of organisations and some other resources on my Works Consulted/Resources page.
October 25, 2013
Links & News
Pantomime has been nominated for the American Library Association YALSA 2014 Popular Paperbacks list in the Books with Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer-questioning, Intersex, Asexual individuals, and their Allies Category! Very cool and honoured to be included.
I’m interviewed by Malinda Lo on her blog for her awesome YA Pride event.
There’s a short interview and a giveaway for a copy of Pantomime at Books for YA.
I’ve been updating my website and have added some discussion questions and sample assignment prompts for teachers, librarians, book groups, or what have you. Spoilers, of course! I’ve also added a Works Consulted/Resources list to round up some of my research for Pantomime & Shadowplay.
Around the web:
If you are a comics writer, there’s a queer sci fi/fantasy comics anthology now taking submissions.
Here’s some 1910 postcards that predicted the future of year 2000.
Did you know Marmosets have conversations that sound strikingly human? Or that they have discovered a purring primate in the Amazon?
Michael J. Sullivan on When it Comes to Publishing it Pays to Think Outside of the Box.
October 19, 2013
Random Research: Soul Cakes
This week I was doing some research on Scottish Hallowe’en, or Samhain as it was before. I’ve written a short short story which will go on the blog closer to Halloween and ties into one of my WIPs. Wikipedia sez:”The cakes, often simply referred to as souls, were given out to soulers (mainly consisting of children and the poor) who would go from door to door on Halloween singing and saying prayers for the dead. Each cake eaten would represent a soul being freed from Purgatory. The practice of giving and eating soul cakes is often seen as the origin of modern trick-or-treating.”
They even have their own song:
A soul! a soul! a soul-cake!
Please good Missis, a soul-cake!
An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry,
Any good thing to make us all merry.
One for Peter, two for Paul
Three for Him who made us all.
So this morning I decided to make my own. I used this recipe, which was dead easy (har, har) to make. I did make some substitutions so mine aren’t totally traditional. I used 1/4 white flour and 3/4 spelt flour, used dried blueberries as well as a dried fruit mix which had candied peels in it, and I subbed some of the sugar for Splenda.
Here they are fresh out of the oven. I tried to make the crosses on top with some currants and sultanas, with a bit of dried peel in the centre. They turned out really nicely, if I do say so myself. Spicy and a texture sort of like a flatter scone. They’d probably keep quite well and be nice with clotted cream or jam, but I just ate them plain, while drinking tea and hanging out on Twitter.
October 14, 2013
This, Right Here, Is The Problem
Reblogged from shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows:
This, right here, is what the male gaze looks like; and this, right here, is also why it's a fucking problem.
Orange is the New Black is a Netflix original show about women in prison. Though not without problematic elements, as pretty much everything spawned by our culture is, it nonetheless stands head and shoulders above so much else on offer in its portrayal of a wide variety of complex, interesting women - women of colour, transwomen, poor women, criminal women, disabled women, mentally ill women, queer women, immigrant women, religious women, atheist women - with a depth, compassion and, above all, narrative primacy that exists almost nowhere else on television.
Foz Meadows speaking sense as usual. Orange is the New Black is such a good show, but "hurr boobs" *mouth breathing* is the punchline of the joke. Yet again.
October 13, 2013
Recent Links
A few links from the past week or so.
Pantomime links:
Nina at Death, Books & Tea had a few posts in her Rainbow Reads blog event for Pantomime: An Author Interview with Me and two wonderful open letters to Pantomime from Leo Cristea and Lisa of Over the Effing Rainbow. Check out the other features in the event, which looks at bisexuality and asexuality, two orientations that are often glossed over in QUILTBAG YA.
Malinda Lo did an amazing post on 2013 LGBT YA by the numbers. It was really interesting to see this because I remember reading her blog post in 2011 and being quite disheartened that there were so few young adult books with GLBT characters. In 2013 Pantomime is listed and it’s the only one in the intersex section. Pantomime is also mentioned in Malinda’s post about GLBT YA in SFF. Malinda Lo & Cindy Pon also mentioned Pantomime as a recommended read on Zooey Deschanel’s site, HelloGiggles in a great interview about Diversity in YA.
The Book Club Forum has a YA Month and me and other YA authors will be active answering questions throughout October.
Lastly, Pantomime’s entry for the NE Teen Book Award shortlist is up on their website, yay!
Other interesting things I stumbled upon this week:
James Dawson has a great beginner’s guide to author visits on his blog.
Here’s a great essay on Margaret Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy on io9.
Kameron Hurley on The Blog Post That Lost me Half my Audience.
Scott Lynch on The Right Way to Buy my Books is Your Way (my way was buying Republic of Thieves on Kindle! Can’t wait to read it)
Did you know Robin Hobb is officially writing more Fitz & Fool books? A whole new trilogy? First of which will be out in August of next year? YAY!
October 2, 2013
Pantomime Shortlisted for the North East Teenage Book Award!
Yay!
I’m delighted to announce that Pantomime has been shortlisted for the North East Teenage Book Award!
About the award: “The NE Teen Book Award has been running for 15 years and around 30 schools take part, with students aged between 13 and 16. The readers themselves are responsible for choosing the winner.”
This is incredibly exciting! I’m looking forward to perhaps taking my first trip down to Newcastle for the ceremony in January/February, and I hope the students who read Pantomime enjoy it!
Congratulations to the other authors on the shortlist as well:
Emma Pass, Acid
Paula Rawsthorne, Blood Tracks
Kerry Drewery, A Dream of Lights
Alison Rattle, The Quietness
Matt Whyman, The Savages
October 1, 2013
Books Read in September & Recent Links
Books read:
1. Last Days – Adam Nevill. A suspenseful mystery/thriller featuring a documentary filmmaker being hired to look into a mysterious cult called the Last Days. It was very well-written and incredible atmospheric, but I found the ending too ambiguous. Definitely worth a read, though, and I’ll probably pick up more of Nevill’s books, especially as we get closer to Halloween!
2. Clockwork Prince – Cassandra Clare. When I was editing Shadowplay I needed something light and fun in the evenings, and this fit the bill.
3. Clockwork Princess – Cassandra Clare. More distraction from edits. I enjoyed this series more than the modern one, as I liked the blend of Victorian London and Shadowhunters. I also liked Tessa Gray as a character more than Clary. Don’t understand why everyone was so angry about the ending – I thought it fit well.
4. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon. Sort of book research, but mostly fun. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. Excellently-researched and well-written, and I found the relationship between Jamie and Claire organic and interesting. Will continue the series.
I’m also halfway through the audiobook of The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood, but that’ll have to wait until next month’s roundup.
Recent Links:
For Banned Books Week, I wrote a blog post on E. Kristin Anderson’s website about how Pantomime hasn’t been banned, but it’s been unintentionally censored.
For the launch of Elizabeth May’s book the Falconer, I interviewed her on the Author Allsorts blog! She also came up to visit me last weekend so we celebrated with muffins and cocktails. Yay for The Falconer! You should go buy it.
There’s been a few nice reviews of Pantomime floating around I’ve seen.
Anna Scott says it’s “as with any book that I adore, it’s the writing and the characters that are pretty much perfect here. The stories and journeys of Micah and Gene are moving, intriguing, passionate, teaming with sexual tension and heartbreaking in the best and worst possible ways. . . So put aside your life for a bit and get taken over.”
YAstands says: “Pantomime isn’t trying to be the next big thing. It’s not trying to be anything. Laura Lam thought of a strange, fantastical story and wrote it down with little regard for the genre’s go-to tropes. That’s what makes Pantomime a unique creation.”
Bisexual books: “The word bisexual is never used but it’s still a positive non-monosexual portrayal nonetheless. I hope the author will follow up on that in further books, as that the ambiguous ending leaves me aching for the sequel,Shadowplay which comes out in January.”
Lastly, Pantomime’s still on sale for ebook!
September 26, 2013
Shadowplay Cover Reveal!
Shadowplay’s cover reveal is now out in the world!
The circus lies behind Micah Grey in dust and ashes.
He and the white clown, Drystan, take refuge with the once-great magician, Jasper Maske. When Maske agrees to teach them his trade, his embittered rival challenges them to a duel which could decide all of their fates. People also hunt both Micah and the person he was before the circus–the runaway daughter of a noble family. And Micah discovers there is magic and power in the world, far beyond the card tricks and illusions he’s perfecting…
A tale of phantom wings, a clockwork hand, and the delicate unfurling of new love, Shadowplay continues Micah Grey’s extraordinary journey.
I’m absolutely over the moon with it. The art is by the same artist for Pantomime – Tom Bagshaw. The girl on the cover is a character new to Shadowplay – and I hope you enjoy reading her as much as I did writing her. I’ll give you her name but nothing more: Cyan.
Check out the cover reveals on:
Tor.com
Leo @ Jet Black Ink
Tammy @ Books Bones & Buffy
Tammy @ The Book Fairy’s Haven
Kazhy @ My Library in the Making
Lisa @ Over the Effing Rainbow
Feel free to add on: Goodreads / Booklikes / Shelfari
If you fancy pre-ordering:
UK: Amazon – The Book Depository
US: Amazon – Barnes and Noble – Indiebound – Powell’s
Canada: Amazon – Indigo
Australia: BookAdda
NZ: Fishpond
Praise for Pantomime:
“Pantomime by Laura Lam took me into a detailed and exotic world, peopled by characters that I’d love to be friends with . . . and some I’d never want to cross paths with.”
– Robin Hobb, author of the Farseer trilogy
“Set in a vividly imagined world with wonderful steampunk touches, Pantomime is a fable-like story as beautifully unique as its main character.”
– Malinda Lo, author of Ash, Huntress, and Adaption
“A lyrical, stunningly written debut novel, which set my heart racing with every lift of the trapeze. In Micah we have one of the most original – and likeable – protagonists I’ve read in a long time. An author to watch, without a doubt.”
- Amy McCulloch, author of The Oathbreaker’s Shadow
September 24, 2013
Delayed Reactions: Why Sucker Punch Sucks
I’m about two years late to this party.
I watched Sucker Punch recently as part of a film club. I was a little hesitant – I didn’t enjoy Watchmen and…I’ve just realised that’s the only film of his I’ve seen. None of the others grabbed my attention or had pretty terrible reviews so didn’t seem worth the price of the cinema ticket.
Source: wingwingwingwing on Deviantart
Back in 2011 I remember reading a few articles about how Sucker Punch was sexist, and so I stayed away. But watching it, Sucker Punch was a whole other level of misogynist bullshit than I expected. I clenched my teeth at certain points, and was made so uncomfortable by various aspects. Combined with the fact that Snyder obviously patted himself on the back, thinking this was an empowering film because girls are fighting, and it left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Zack Snyder states that Sucker Punch mirrors The Wizard of Oz (he wishes) in that “the fantasy world serves as a metaphor for what’s going on in the real world” He goes into further detail on why he thinks it’s “more than just the girls looking sexy and kicking ass” (source for all quotes from this io9 article):
Everything in the movie is about a show within a show within a show. Someone asked me, “Why did you dress the girls like that, in those provocative costumes?” And I said, “Well, think about it for a second. I didn’t dress those girls in the costume. The audience dressed those girls.” And when I say the audience, I mean the audience that comes to the movies. Just like the men who visit a brothel, [they] dress the girls when they go to see these shows as however they want to see them.
But my hope was that they would take those things back, just like my girls hopefully get confidence, they get strength through each other, that those become power icons. They start out as cliches of feminine sexuality as made physical by what culture creates. I think that part of it was really specific, whether it’s French maid or nurse or Joan Arc to a lesser extent [laughs], or schoolgirl. Our hope is we were able to modify them and turn them into these power icons, where they can fight back at the actual cliches that they represent. So hopefully by the end the girls are empowered by their sexuality and not exploited. But certainly that’s where they come from, the journey is asking, “What do you want to see? Well, be careful what you want to see.
Let’s rip that to shreds, shall we?
So, Zack, pushing the responsibility away is bullshit. You put them in those costumes and wrote it in. Yeah, people filled the cinema tickets, but it was still yours and the costume designer’s choice. It is rare for a girl character in Sucker Punch to be fully clothed. In the first scene, the protagonist Baby Doll is wearing pyjamas, and then her clothes get smaller depending on how far down the rabbit hole we go.
Practical armour
They’re deliberately provocative costume choices: Baby Doll’s schoolgirl outfit is reminiscent of Sailor Moon and the standard “naughty schoolgirl” fantasy. They make sure to state that Baby Doll is 20 (she’s of age, people!) but she’s wearing blonde pigtails and a headband and looks much younger. In the brothel world, the girls are wearing lingerie, and then in the steampunk Nazi fantasy world they’re all wearing cutesy soldier outfits that are impractical for fighting. But their hats are jaunty!
Nice jumpsuit
Now, I’m not a prude by any means. Women can wear whatever they want, and objectively, a lot of those outfits are rather cute. I would wear some of them. What I have a problem with is that 100% of the men are sensibly clothed 100% of the time. Even zombie steampunk men may have limbs rotting away, but none are topless! The constant lingering camera angles on the girls’ asses and crotches is also wearying. Yes, it’s a fantasy and so theoretically they could wear whatever they want when killing dragons and mecha-Samurai and robots and what have you, but by the same token you can still have them wearing more practical clothing for fighting and still looking sexy, if that’s the aim. Kill Bill did a better job at that (even though that film was very much not my cup of tea, either).
Snyder states that “Our hope is we were able to modify them and turn them into these power icons, where they can fight back at the actual cliches that they represent. So hopefully by the end the girls are empowered by their sexuality and not exploited.” But the issue is, they’re not power icons. Over and over, the women are exposed to pervasive, sexualised violence: it begins with an implied, threatened rape against Baby Doll and her sister. It’s suggested that because what happens in the fantasy world happens in another way in the level before it, that a lot of the girls in the mental asylum might be sexually preyed upon. All of the girls in the brothel are sex workers against their will, plus Rocket is nearly raped by the chef. There’s not as much threatened sexual violence in the third fantasy world, but Baby Doll even straddles a baby dragon in a weirdly sexual way when she cuts open its throat. It’s as relentless as the rather boring action scenes (which are all filmed like video games, but since you’re not invested in the avatars fighting, it quickly becomes so much mediocre CGI).
I watched the extended version, which has the scene with Jon Hamm as the high roller who has purchased Baby Doll’s virginity but was cut from the cinematic release (so that it could remain 12A/PG-13). Emily Browning, who plays Baby Doll, was upset by it, stating: “I think that it’s great for this young girl to actually take control of her own sexuality. Well, the MPAA doesn’t like that. They don’t think a girl should ever be in control of her own sexuality because they’re from the Stone Age” (source). But the thing is, that whole scene has a long speech from the High Roller saying how he doesn’t just want her body, he wants to possess her mind too and wants a “true moment.” So he asks her to have consentual sex with him and then he’ll offer her freedom (though he never states how this will happen or what he means by freedom). She makes the best of a bad situation and goes with him willingly. But that is not complete free consent, in my opinion. She’s not free to say “no” and walk away – he won’t let her because he paid a small fortune for her virginity and he’s going to collect. Also, after that, she’s knocked back to the real world to be lobotomised.
Happiness is a warm gun.
For though Snyder might think it’s about female empowerment, the power only comes in dreams and nightmares, and that power is systematically taken away. The women in the film are imprisoned in a mental asylum and abused, locked in a brothel and abused, one by one Baby Doll’s comrades Blondie, Amber and Rocket are murdered for daring to fight back. Baby Doll is left comatose, and a very traumatised Sweet Pea is allowed to survive, but only if she’s wearing a sedate white, non-revealing dress and is at the last moment saved by a man again (the bus driver, who was also the mentor in the Nazi-dragon-robot world and gave the girls their orders). Sweet Pea survived because she transitioned from Whore to Madonna.
No more lingerie for you!
As a final point, while Sucker Punch is unfair to women, it’s also pretty unfair to men. All the men (except for maybe Wise Man Scott Glen) are despicable rapists, would-be rapists, murderers, and a fair amount also have poor hygiene. They can’t control themselves when Baby Doll does her sexy dance and stare vacantly. So, basically, Sucker Punch had no characters I liked or rooted for, with the possible exception of the poor baby dragon who had its throat slit and its mother, who was stabbed in the head.
This movie failed for me on every possible level.
The end.
September 18, 2013
Shadowplay Edits Finished & New Blurb!
So…Shadowplay is back in my editor’s inbox! Hooray! It’s now more or less in the form it’ll be for ARCs, which is so very strange. It’s about to all start again.
Then the day became even better…in the evening I had a new blurb from Pantomime from none other than my favourite author for the past ten years. Slightly surreal to say the least!
“Pantomime by Laura Lam took me into a detailed and exotic world, peopled by characters that I’d love to be friends with . . . and some I’d never want to cross paths with.” – Robin Hobb
Robin Hobb is the author of many fantasy novels, including the Farseer trilogy, Tawny Man trilogy, Live Ships trilogy, and the Rain Wild Chronicles. If you haven’t read them, you should change that as soon as you can.
Little teenage me would never have guessed my favourite author would ever read my book and like it enough to give it an endorsement. So yesterday was a very nice day 
