Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 126

Winning at November

So I finished Nanowrimo and 'won' in that I completed 50,000 words of novel this month (though I think it doesn't technically count as a win because I wrote them on two different novels, too bad, I'm counting it). I didn't do much ELSE this month, of course, but I also was glad to feel that I didn't completely neglect my house, children, reading obligations, etc. It's almost like I'm getting the hang of this novel thing. Only the first week was teeth-grindingly hard.

Which of course has made me raise the bar of expectations as to how many words I can put on the plate when I am officially writing a novel – the old 1000 words 5 times a week is starting to look somewhat shabby. Still… no use thinking about that now, I have months and months before I can be actively writing new words every day again. Though the collaborative novel I am writing with the magnificent Kate will continue on and off over the next month or two I guess… at least I get whole days when I am not actively supposed to be working on it!

So I wrote 40,000 words of weird Shakespeare necromancy novel, to the point where I think I know the plot and the shape of the series, which is exciting, even if the chances are I won't get to finish it any time soon (at least, if the Nancy series takes off, this one will have to wait, which will be GOOD NEWS).

The holidays are racing fast towards us, and I realised today why it is I try to arrange things so I have hardly any writing work to do in December – school only has a few weeks to go and it's all assemblies and haircuts and homework and Christmas preparation and extra social engagements and general domesticity taking over, and I totally have to let it do so otherwise my head will explode.

Mind you, my 'summer holiday' is also going to consist of critiquing a bunch of manuscripts for ROR, a sekrit editing project, an extra mini-sekrit writing project (just for fun), and you know, I did half think I should be writing some short stories pretty soon. Plus super mighty Tiptree reading. So… there's that.

Also I have to be prepared for the fact that at some point the part of my brain that I like to call the Gingerbread Zone is about to go 'ping' at any moment, and whip me into a frenzy of baking, decorating and menu preparation. Because it does that. One has to allow for these things. If you're going to occasionally go into berzerker mode where pre-soaking dried fruit in brandy or melting icecream in order to refreeze it in interesting shapes makes ALL THE SENSE IN THE WORLD then you've got to plan your schedule around those times when the ginger-nutmeg haze comes down and there are sudden gaps in your memory…

Yep, that's right, it's beginning to look a lot like (NO, DON'T SAY IT, NOT ALLOWED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE COMING SEASON UNTIL IT'S DECEMBER)

Oh, wait.

December is tomoooooorrrrrow!

Australian Award-Winning Women (in SF, Horror and Fantasy)

This is a resource for the Australian Women Writers 2012 National Year of Reading Challenge.

If you spot any awards or writers I am missing that you think might be relevant, let me know! I'm starting with the most obvious SF & Fantasy awards but consider this post a work in progress, mostly because there were only so many awards lists I could read tonight before my eyeballs exploded. Come back later to find out what's been added…

Works marked with a double asterisk have received international awards.

I have included YA work in with the adult and created a separate children's section. Just because.

I know the challenge is about books but while I was trawling through lists for info I thought I might as well note the Australian women winning short story awards too. That will follow in a later post.

To make this really useful I am also thinking of differentiating between those books still in print and those not – if you try hunting for any of these and discover they are impossible to access, please let me know in comments! I started trying to use alphabetical order and decided in the end that starting with the most recent and moving down means the books near the top of the lists are the most current ones.

I may reorganise all this data in different combinations at any time. You have been warned.

Novels:

[Aurealis Best SF Novel 2011]

Marianne De Pierres, Transformation Space,

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 2011]

Karen Healey, Guardian of the Dead,

[Aurealis Best Horror Novel 2011]

Kirstyn McDermott, Madigan Mine

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2011 & Ditmar Best Novel 2011]

Tansy Rayner Roberts, Power and Majesty

[Aurealis Best Horror Novel 2010]

Honey Brown, Red Queen,

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2010]

Trudi Canavan, The Magician's Apprentice,

[Ditmar Best Novel 2010]

Kaaron Warren, Slights

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2009]

Alison Goodman, The Two Pearls of Wisdom (published also as Eon)

**[World Fantasy Best Novel 2009, Ditmar Best Novel 2009]

Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 2009]

Melina Marchetta, Finnikin of the Rock,

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2008]

Lian Hearn, Heaven's Net Is Wide

[Aurealis Best Horror Novel 2008]

Susan Parisi, Blood of Dreams,

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2007]

Juliet Marillier, Wildwood Dancing

[Aurealis Best Horror Novel 2007]

Edwina Grey, Prismatic

[Golden Aurealis Novel & Aurealis Best YA Novel 2006]

Isobelle Carmody, Alyzon Whitestar

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Award 2006]

Juliet Marillier, Blade of Fortriu

**[Andre Norton Award 2005]

Justine Larbalestier, Magic or Madness

[Aurealis Best SF Novel 2004]

Kate Orman & Jonathan Blum, Fallen Gods

[Ditmar Best Novel 2004]

K.J. Bishop, The Etched City

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 2004]

Carole Wilkinson, Dragonkeeper

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 2003]

Sophie Masson, The Hand of Glory

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2002]

Sara Douglass, The Wounded Hawk

[Aurealis Best Horror Novel 2002]

Kim Wilkins, Angel of Ruin

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 2002]

Louise Katz, The Other Face of Janus

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2001]

Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows

[Aurealis Best Horror Novel 2001]

Kim Wilkins, The Resurrectionists

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 2001]

Sonya Hartnett, Thursday's Child

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 2000]

Jane Routley, Aramaya

[Aurealis Best Horror Novel 2000]

Christine Harris, Foreign Devils

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 1999]

Alison Goodman, Singing the Dogstar Blues

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel & Aurealis Best Horror Novel 1998]

Kim Wilkins, The Infernal

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 1998]

Catherine Jinks, Eye to Eye & Isobelle Carmody, Greylands

[Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel 1997]

Sara Douglass, Enchanter and Starman: The Axis Trilogy

[Aurealis Best YA Novel 1997]

Kerry Greenwood, The Broken Wheel

[Ditmar Best Novel 1997]

Lucy Sussex, The Scarlet Rider

[Ditmar Best Novel 1977]

Cherry Wilder, The Luck of Brin's Five

Collections written by and Anthologies edited by women:

[Aurealis Best Collection 2011]

Angela Slatter, The Girl With No Hands,

[Aurealis Best Anthology 2011]

Marianne S. Jablon and Jonathan Strahan, eds, Wings of Fire,

[Ditmar Best Collected Work 2011]

Gillian Polack, ed, Baggage

[Ditmar Best Collected Work 2007]

Michelle Marquardt & Bill Congreve, eds, The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy Volume Two

**[World Fantasy Award 2005 & Ditmar Best Collected Work 2005]

Margo Lanagan, Black Juice

[Ditmar Best Collected Work 2004]

Cat Sparks, ed. Agog! Terrific Tales,

Margaret Winch & Peter McNamara, Forever Shores.

[Ditmar Best Collected Work 2003]

Cat Sparks, Agog! Fantastic Fiction

**[World Fantasy Award 1999 & Ditmar Best Magazine or Anthology 1999] Janeen Webb and Jack Dann, eds, Dreaming Down-Under

Non Fiction:

[William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review 2011]

Tansy Rayner Roberts, for "A Modern Woman's Guide to Classic Who"

[William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review 2010]

Helen Merrick, The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms,

[William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review 2009]

Kim Wilkins, "Popular Genres and the Australian Literary Community: the Case of Fantasy Fiction", (Journal of Australian Studies)

[William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review 2007]

Justine Larbalestier, Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century

[William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review 2000]

Helen Merrick & Tess Williams, Women of Other Worlds

[William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review 1979]

Susan Wood, "Women and SF", (Algol #33)

For Children:

[Aurealis Best Children's Novel 2011]

Lian Tanner, The Keepers

[Aurealis Best Children's Picture Book 2011]

Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), The Boy and His Toy

[Aurealis Best Children's Novel 2010]

Gabrielle Wang, A Ghost in My Suitcase

[Aurealis Best Picture Book 2010]

Pamela Freeman (writer) & Kim Gamble (illustrator), Victor's Challenge

[Aurealis Best Children's Novel 2009]

Emily Rodda, The Wizard of Rondo

[Aurealis Best Children's Long Fiction 2008]

Kate Forsyth, The Chain of Charms Books #2-#6

[Aurealis Best Children's Short Fiction 2008]

Briony Stewart, Kumiko and the Dragon

[Aurealis Best Children's Novel 2007]

Mardi McConnochie, Melissa Queen of Evil

[Aurealis Best Children's Short Fiction 2007]

Jane Godwin, The True Story of Mary Who Wanted to Stand on Her Head

Margaret Wild & Anne Spudvilas, Woolves in the Sitee.

[Aurealis Best Children's Short Fiction 2004]

Natalie Jane Prior, Lily Quench and the Lighthouse of Skellig Mor

[Aurealis Best Children's Long Fiction 2003]

Gabrielle Wang, In the Garden of Empress Cassia

[Aurealis Best Children's Short Fiction 2003]

Anna Fienberg & Kim Gamble, Tashi and the Haunted House

[Aurealis Best Children's Long Fiction 2002]

Sally Odgers, Candle Iron

[Aurealis Best Children's Short Fiction 2002]

Jackie French, Café on Callisto

Others of Interest:

**[World Fantasy Special Award Non-Professional 2011] Alisa Krasnostein (publisher), Twelfth Planet Press

Awards not currently held by/awarded to any Australian women writers: Hugo, Nebula, John W Campbell…

[coming soon: Tiptree, Stoker, WSFSPA, others... I got sleepy.]

Building Castles out of Tumblr

So I'm officially a Tumblr addict. I know this because I now have more than one of them. Yes, it's Twitter and LJ ALL OVER AGAIN. I still love my blog, though. Don't panic, blog, I'm not going anywhere!

The interesting thing about the early days of Tumblr addiction is that you quickly learn what fandoms actually mean something to you. My own Tumblr, for which I should possibly have chosen a shorter and snappier name, is almost completely full of Doctor Who pretties, Batgirl and associated superheroines, and the occasional snippet of Downton Abbey frockage. It's fun and requires almost no effort, so I continue to play in that particular sandpit with glee.

But then I started thinking. About how I hardly ever talk about the Deepings Dolls business I run here, which is odd, because it's not like I don't embrace wild eclecticism here on the blog. Somehow it's not quite felt right to cross those streams between doll merchant and author, and I'm not sure why. It's not like the boss is going to fire me for blogging about the job. I'm half the boss!

from Pemberley Pond on Tumblr

The online presence of Pendlerook Designs and the Deepings Dolls has always been a bit of an oddity for me, I think because I'm not the creative component of the business, which means that it feels a bit strange to be blogging about it. I tried running an LJ on behalf of the business over the last few years but I sucked at keeping it regularly updated, and dead blogs are so very depressing. Remember that thing where social media only succeeds in promoting you and your work if you're actually enjoying yourself? Yep, that thing.

More recently, I've seen many different creative businesses and artists using Tumblr effectively to promote their work, and it seemed like a fun, low-stress way to put your stuff out there, and celebrate the awesomeness of others, without being obnoxious about it. At least, I hope I'm not being obnoxious because I sure as hell now have a Pendlerook Tumblr.

My plan is to put up mini-posts talking about particular dolls, their histories and characters [such as this one about Anne of Cleves, and this one about the Bronte sisters], alongside the general rebloggery that goes with Tumblring, assuming that Tumblring is actually a verb. I'm enough of a newbie that I have no idea!

I like the way that the Tumblr format allows you to create a kind of collage of things that fit together to create an overall feel or mode (I think I have to fight the urge to start a new one for every single book I'm going to write in the next five years, but it's soooo tempting), so for now I'm hunting other accounts and images which I think fit the Pendlerook sensibility. Luckily as it turns out, there's a heap of material about historical costume, Tudors, Victoriana Christmases and wartime nostalgia on Tumblr. Also, steampunk cupcakes.

If only I had done this back in September, when it wasn't dangerously close to being too late to fill Christmas orders (cough, though not ENTIRELY too late, just saying). Heh. Still, it's not like our biggest month for selling nativity sets isn't January. I never did figure that one out.

Creature Court Fashion Challenge Second Wave

Heh well more of a bijou wave (or do we say boutique now?) – a wavelet.

I sent out the first wave of postcards recently and am writing up the last few now, which makes me up to date. So if there are more of you out there who kinda thought you might enter to score a postcard sneak peek of the new books, please do!

Entries are open until 15th December.

Kitty from Perth has a costume idea for Delphine:

Silk-taffeta gown, clinging tightly from the neck then tapering out at the waist. Long train at the back, but comes up short in front. Attached to the dress are chiffon butterflies, overlaying red and blue sheer.

This makes me wish I'd made a butterly dress for Delphine! What a lovely idea. The first fashion book I ever read as a child was my mother's copy of The Art of Zandra Rhodes, who always called her gorgeous frock creations 'butterflies'.

Also Clare from Hobart sketched a gorgeous plan for a waistcoat for Priest which I'm sure would be worthy of his sartorial tastes:

She still plans to actually make it which would be amazing. I especially like the flock of birds in the centre. Rest assured, all kinds of Things happen to Priest in Book 3, and she'll be getting a hint about exactly what they are.

First wave of entries can be seen here.

And tune in next week when I show you what my amazing mother produced, when I told her about this contest…

Friday Links is a Buccaneer on the High Seas

Roseanne Barr talks about how fabulous life is on the other side of menopause. Inspiring and feisty!

There have been many inspiring posts about Anne McCaffrey over the last few days, but I especially liked this one, about why women belong in science fiction, and the impact of McCaffrey's work.



Exciting announcement from Big Finish that they are recording a full cast adaptation of classic Virgin New Adventure novel Love and War by Paul Cornell, featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace and introducing Professor Bernice Summerfield.

Narrelle Harris talks about our changing attention spans, and how a tech-free holiday shows up the electronic addictions in her life.



Kate Elliott devises a hypothetical Star Trek reboot which would have been far more subversive and interesting than what we actually got – and oh I want to watch the hell out of that show!



Cheryl Morgan (yes, really Cheryl, honestly) talks about the wave of SF YA fiction that isn't necessarily being recognised as SF by SF readers.

Tor.com's Muppet week has been hugely enjoyable, especially with the news coming in that the opening weekend of the new Muppet movie in the US (we don't get it until after Christmas!) has been so successful. I particularly liked their post on Labyrinth, but also found myself tempted to hunt down copies of movies we don't have, like the Great Muppet Caper and the Christmas Carol.

I have a soft spot for Doctor Who fans who defend and/or glory in the bits of the show that are not universally loved – and so this SFX piece on 48 things they love about Doctor Who (including literally-named planets, Turlough's eyebrows and the Quarks along with more generally approved of gems such as Romana II's fashion sense, Madame Vashta and Target novelisations) made me happy.

Speaking of making me happy, i09 pointed out this fantastic three-years-in-the-making obscure Beetlejuice joke in Community. Damn, I love that show. We're just one disc into season 2 and now tempted to make it last as long as it possibly can with the worrying mid-season hiatus (though when we got our last disc from Quickflix we all but watched all 5 eps in a single night, and I got at least two asthma attacks from laughing too hard)

And a bonus vid because I am in a Muppety mood and have an unreasonable love for this sappy earworm of a song…

Galactic Suburbia Episode 47

A new Galactic Suburbia episode freshly baked and ready for your consumption! Wow, we're getting close to having 50 of these…

In which we bid farewell to the queen of dragons, squee about 48 years of Doctor Who, dissect the negative associations with "girly" fandoms such as Twilight, and find some new favourites in our reading pile.

News

RIP Anne McCaffrey

i09 obituary

Charles Tan rounds up a bunch of tributes

48th anniversary of Doctor Who!

Tansy says it with pictures

Weirdfictionreview.com – a website devoted to The Weird and created by Luis Rodrigues. The project is the brainchild of editing-writing team Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Critiquing the Bigotry of Twilight-haters, not the same thing as defending Twilight

Original article

Sarah Rees Brennan

Holly Black

Announcing the Galactic Suburbia Award – we don't know what it is yet either but we're figuring it out! Send emails/tweets to make suggestions.



What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: The Steel Remains, Richard Morgan; Alastair Reynolds, Blue Remembered Earth; "The Glass Gear" in Valente's Omikuji Project; also watched Thor.

Tansy: Batman (1989); All Men of Genius, Lev A.C. Rosen; God's War, Kameron Hurley. [Cheryl Morgan's post about God's War - will link when I find it, have suffered Googlefail] Comics: Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman (abandoned); Batgirl the Greatest Stories Ever Told

Alisa: Once Upon a Time; The Courier's New Bicycle by Kim Westwood

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

The Bitter and Sweet of it [Xena Rewatch 3.12-3.15]

3.12 – The Bitter Suite

I have listened to the soundtrack to this episode so many times that I think it's imprinted on my skin somewhere. Fair warning, I really love this one, and it's probably one of the episodes I have most rewatched, though not in recent years.

Xena and Gabrielle are broken apart, forever. Both are lost in grief and despair. What could possibly heal the rift between these two?

A kooky comedy musical!

No, seriously.

In an era of brilliant kooky musical episodes (and other kooky gimmick episodes, remember Farscape's animated episode, or the Angel muppet experiment), The Bitter Suite leaves Buffy's Once More With Feeling in the dust. The music is bizarre and beautiful, the imagery is surreal, and the characters drag themselves through every painful emotion that they have.

We see Joxer come into his own in the opening scenes, trying to protect Gabrielle from a murderous Xena, who actually goes so far as to rope Gabrielle's ankles and drag her in the mud behind her horse. But when they stop on a cliff's edge, it's Gabrielle – in touch with her own previously-suppressed anger thanks to her inner Callisto – who pushes her friend over the edge…

And into the pretty, song-obsessed fantasyland that is Illusia.

Hudson Leick and Ted Raimi are fantastic in the bizarre comedy song and dance numbers that introduce the warring friends to this strange new world, and Kevin Smith is his usual seductive self in a sultry number about how Xena really needs to get on with ruling the world now please.

Damn, I love that man. Ares is beautifully summed up in this episode: the great war god who is whipped as hell when it comes to Xena, and adores every minute in her presence. He would burn the world for a chance to watch her rule it, and she will never ever love him back. Also, he looks astounding in blood red armour, singing about what an awesome warrior she is.

The design and costumes of this episode are extraordinary, with much use of tarot symbolism and a bold colour palette.

"The Elysian fields… only heroes end up here! Dead heroes. Dead naked heroes."

Xena and Gabrielle both have separate journeys through Illusia, but their experiences mirror each other so that almost every song is a split screen duet – Xena gets Callisto as her totem guardian, Gabrielle gets Joxer; Xena is serenaded about war, Gabrielle about peace… but of course the story ultimately about both of them getting a chance to work through their feelings, and have a decent conversation about all the betrayals of this season.

But not before Xena dances a barefoot tango with Ares, HELLYES.

The climactic song number, a true duet between Xena and Gabrielle, is partly awkward due to some blatant dubbing of Gabrielle by someone who can actually sing, but doesn't sound like Renee O'Connor at all. Also, the Dahak & other villains 'hate is the star' song seems to have been plucked straight out of a Disney movie. A sinister, strange Disney movie.

Meanwhile, Lucy Lawless has an extraordinary voice, and it's rather lovely to see it being used in such a powerful way.

And you know I'm REALLY starting to think I should have put 'Xena is crucified' in the Chakram statistics, as it's happening every other episode now.

Our final shot from the episode is the two heroines, lying in the surf (sand in armour, oh noes!) and laughing, holding on to each other. The rift is over.

Phew. Admit it, you were worried!

3.13 – One Against an Army

Never mind the Romans, now we're fighting Persians! This looks at first to be one of those stock standard Xena-is-an-awesome-warlord stories which I normally find admirable but dull. We get Marathon (including the famous marathon runner), Spartans, Athenians and Thermopylae… basically most of Herodotus, in under forty minutes. But the important thing is that Gabrielle's adorable red boots are horribly destroyed by Xena.

Rest in peace, boots.

If any of you were holding out for some hurt/comfort after the gruelling rift saga, Gabrielle not only sprains her ankle trying to learn the Xena flip and has her boot sliced open, but is then shot by a poisoned arrow in trying to protect a deserting soldier.

While this story is about Xena being an awesome strategist, it's also about how brave Gabrielle has become, and the heroic choices she makes, in demanding that Xena prioritise the danger to Athens over her own failing health. It's nice to see the two of them back as a unit again, and that Xena has to acknowledge that Gabrielle isn't a little girl any more – they are both adults, and equals in the face of battle.

We get the closest thing so far to a declaration of love/soulmateship, too:

"You're my source, Gabrielle. When I reach down inside myself and do things I'm not capable of, it's because of you. Don't you know that by now?"

It's easy to take Xena for granted, but this episode culminates in the sight of a powerful woman taking on an army entirely on her own. It's a mighty feminist scene, and when her theme music kicks in, it's impossible not to hum along with the Bulgarian women's choir.

XENA: "Go home, there are thousands more like me."

3.14 – Forgiven

Gabrielle is challenged by a no good punk goth girl who wants to take her place with Xena (and someday will grow up into goody two shoes Liz on Roswell). Gabrielle is understandably bitter when the little thug scratches her up in a bar brawl just to get Xena's attention.

There's a plot about a sacred urn and a gang, but really it's forty minutes of Xena trying to connect to a ratbag kid who reminds her of herself, while Gabrielle is pushed to the limits by Tara's high-school bullying techniques.

The theme of the episode is the question of how to be good when those instincts don't come naturally, and I did find that interesting despite mostly sympathising with Gabrielle's desire to push Tara off a cliff.

I also like that while it's set up as being a story about Gabrielle's (totally reasonable) jealousy, Tara has more to learn from Gabrielle than from Xena.

But it's not my favourite.

3.15 – King Con

This one scores a resounding 'meh' for me, largely for its attempts to provide a romance for Xena despite the fact that those story lines always, always suck. Rafe is a mediocre bad boy trying to convince us all that he's a competent con man. It doesn't wash.

Which is a shame, because Xena vs. The Casino has a lot of potential as a story. I love the scene of her throwing craps (with roman numerals on the dice!) and there are a few funny scenes of her and Gabrielle in full con woman drag, having fun while they fleece a dumb thug or two.

But the romance is cheap and unconvincing, and the whole "betting on getting a woman into bed and then falling for her" plot is so old it makes the Trojan Horse look like the hot new thing. I quite like the twist in the story that plays on so many Xena tropes (it's not remotely unrealistic that Rafe would die tragically or that his less attractive friend would betray them). But I did find it hard to be remotely interested in the story all the way through to the end.

More and more I'm starting to feel that Xena as a series would have benefited hugely from 12 episode seasons. Once again we've had a fabulous mid-season crescendo and climax, followed by a bunch of so-what stories to pad things out. At least I know there's a hell of a season finale cropping up eventually… right?



CHAKRAM STATISTICS:

People who want romance with Xena: 13

People Xena allows to romance her: 7

Xena dead lovers: 3

Gabrielle dead boyfriends: 2/7

"Adorable" children: 36

Babies: 5

Babies tossed humorously in the air during fight scenes: 6

Xena doppelgangers: 4

Xena sings at a funeral: 3

Gabrielle sprained ankles: 2

Xena dies: 3

Gabrielle dies: 3

Characters brought back from the dead (including ghosts and visits to the Underworld): 21

Ares loses his powers and goes all to pieces about it: 2

Xena or Gabrielle earns money: 2

Xena or Gabrielle spends money (or claims to have money to spend): 6

Out of the Pantheon: Morpheus, Ares, Hera, the Titans, Hades, Celesta, Charon, the Fates, Bacchus, Aphrodite, Cupid, Poseidon, the Furies, Discord

The Celebrity Red Carpet of the Ancient World: Pandora, Prometheus, Hercules, Iolaus, Sisyphus, Helen of Troy, Paris, Deiphobus, Menelaus, Euripides, Homer, Autolycus, Meleager, Oracle of Delphi, David, Goliath, Orpheus, Julius Caesar, Brutus, Ulysses, Penelope, Cecrops, Boadicea, Cleopatra

Previous Xena Rewatch Posts:

Warlord is a Lady Tonight

I Don't Work For Money

Amazon Wanna Take A Ride?

Go To Tartarus!

Swashbuckle and Shams

Death In A Chainmail Bikini

Full Moon It Must Be Xena

How Do You Mortals Get From Day to Day?

The Future is Archaeologists

Divide and Conquer

My Sword is Always Ready to Pleasure You

Hide the Hestian Virgins!

Lunatic with Lethal Combat Skills

Coping with Your First Kill

Sweet Hestia, I'm In a Den of Filth

Happy Doctor Who Day! (a story in pictures)

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And for those who, like me, think the companions are just as important as the Doctor, I found a very cool tribute to them on Tumblr.

Friday Links in Black and White

Any chance of catching up with all my blog reading this week was heartily delayed by my discovery of awesome Doctor Who rewatch blog The Wife in Space in which a diehard Doctor Who fan talks his wife into experiencing his favourite show in chronological order. Their conversations are funny and incisive, and I adore Sue's take-no-prisoners attitude. She is tough but fair (scoring stories across the full range of 1-10), and watching her get sucked into a world of Billyfluffs, Base Under Siege and of course the dread reconstructions of lost episodes is horribly fascinating.

Sue (explaining the experiment to her flabbergasted brother-in-law): That was a walk in the park compared to something like The Toymaker or The Zarbi Planet. Some of the episodes don't even exist and we still watch them!

I do especially like the fresh perspective of someone who doesn't care about conventional fan wisdom, and takes every episode as they find it.

Also, I got deeply sucked in to Friends With Boys, a webcomic by Faith Erin Hicks about a teenage girl with three older brothers who starts high school after a whole childhood of being homeschooled. It's sweet and funny with some gorgeous art. And a ghost!

Some other links:

Rowena Cory Daniells interviews Tara Moss



Why dead girls on YA book covers is an understandable but disturbing trend.

And Kristin Nelson's response to the issue.

The Men of Firefly in Art Nouveau.

On Marvel's problem with female characters

Not sure if I agree with the premise of this one (I'm still of the go awayyyyyyy lalala school of thought on a Doctor Who movie) but i09′s take on the topic is the most even handed and sensible I've seen so far.

Apart from this video which is in fact the MOST compelling argument for it.

Friday Links is Not a Troll

We discussed this excellent post by Tobias Buckell: Self Publishing Doesn't Mean you have to be a Raging Fuck Wad on the recent episode of Galactic Suburbia. I also wanted to link to this great post about political correctness, which responds to some of the same people and issues.

The thing I forgot to add to our running sheet for Galactic Suburbia was the surprise sale of Angus and Robertson in Australia – bookshops, coming back!

The important discussion of how trolling online (which can be far more vicious, threatening and fearmaking than many people believe) affects female bloggers has not only gone viral, it's gone mainstream, with open discussion on the topic happening in newspaper columns as well as independently. About damn time.

The Nanowrimo thing continues apace, and some of my favourite recent supportive posts on the topic have been by Jim C Hines (see how defly he ducks and weaves to avoid being one of those professional writers who starts out trying to explain politely why Nano isn't for them and ends up sounding all judgy and patronising about it) and Auntie MJ who is joyful and bouncy as ever.

This take on the recent Steampunky Goodness Three Musketeers movie by Karen Healey is my favourite movie review since Sarah Rees Brennan wrote about Troy. It spoils everything to bits but is so worth it.

Birthday Rage is a webcomic letter by a man who has just reached his 86th birthday, looking back at the history he has experienced, and how the world has changed in his lifetime. It's awkwardly rendered but incredibly powerful.

An interview with Joss Whedon about Much Ado, and other issues to do with feminism and his portrayal of teenage girls.

Meanwhile, as I cower beneath my growing stack of Nanowrimo words and my teetering stack of Must Read Now books, I have of course taken up a new hobby. Those of you out there who are doing the Tumblr thing, I have succumbed! You can find me over there, sharing favourite pics, fannish goodness, vids and so on, at Tabitha Darling's Bedroom Floor.

It's surprisingly fun and easy, though Twitter (and you know, my comfy reliable blog) will I think remain my first internet loves. But oh, Tumblr is soooo pretty…