Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 129

National Book Award Debacle – links supporting "Shine"

I woke up this morning to find Twitter a'twitter about the latest awards debacle. I hope this story puts things into perspective for those people for whom an 'awards scandal' means a result they personally wouldn't have voted for.

The National Book Awards (in the US) have covered themselves in the very opposite of glory this week, when a misheard phone conversation (WTF, seriously) led to the wrong book being included in their five book shortlist for young people's literature. This book, Lauren Myracle's SHINE, deals with serious issues to do with gay hate crimes, and is highly regarded by many, but it was Franny Billingsley's CHIME that had been intended for the huge, career-changing honour.

The embarrassing situation was not helped by the vacillations of those behind the award, who began by insisting all six books were worthy, and later backflipped, asking Myracle to withdraw her own book for consideration "to preserve the integrity of the award and the judges' work."

I feel so bad for her! It goes to show how one moment of incompetence can completely ruin someone else's week, and how insensitivity can only compound the hurt and humiliation.

Libba Bray's insider rant has been quite rightly linked to all around the traps, and I think she says it best.

The LA Times talks about the important themes dealt with in Myracle's book as well as the awards debacle.

Nicola Griffith reports the story with an added helping of angry author perspective.

Tobias Buckell talks about why he bought Lauren's book today.

At Myracle's request, the National Book Awards have made a $5000 donation in her name to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Reign of Beasts Cover!

It's a book it's a book it's a book it's a book wheeeee! I've been waiting to share this one with you all for so long now.

Friday Links Rides Clockwork Velociraptors

The voice of 80′s cartoon Jem muses on the show, and how those wacky Misfits might have turned out.

Yes, I'll admit it, I was a huge Jem and the Holograms fan. It may have been the first cartoon I took to my heart – well, that and Battle of the Planets, and Astro Boy and Mysterious Cities of Gold, and, and, and…

I don't know how anyone could possibly read this Big Idea post by Kate Elliott and not want to read her new series! Luckily for me I have Book One, Cold Magic on my to read shelf already! I also love the description of how she worldbuilt with her kids.



"Which is how I ended up with an Afro-Celtic post-Roman icepunk Regency fantasy adventure with airships, Phoenician spies, and the intelligent descendants of troodons."

Seanan Maguire adds a marvellous post to the old 'Mary Sue does not mean what you think it means' discussion. It's articulate, funny and conveys its message (that by its definition, a protagonist can't be a Mary Sue) perfectly. Which is why I was frustrated to see the comments fill up with people who agreed with her heartily but still felt the need to claim that [insert female protagonist here] was a classic Mary Sue. Sigh.

Sarah Rees Brennan talks about being self conscious and how that can affect an author's ability to blog, or indeed do much of anything in a public space without overthinking it.

Ben Payne has some fascinating and thoroughly optimistic ideas about how the generations below us will have very different relationships with the internet, and how having every mistake of your youth available to see could affect other societal attitudes.

Hark, a Vagrant continues with her gorgeous, funny retelling of Wuthering Heights.

A call for more steampunk about suffragettes – yes please!

Calapine writes a sweet and funny fic about what River Song's honeymoon might be like – she gets the voices so right!

The Mary Sue discusses the awesomeness of Fringe's Olivia Dunham – it's so true.

Also, it's 25 years since The Princess Bride! What's your favourite quotable line?

Galactic Suburbia Episode 44

The new episode is up here! Go, listen.

In which we fight crime, rail against derailing and read a million books.

News

Our Sisters in Crime, Still Fighting

Why the Faux Oppressed Whinge

Ada Lovelace Day

Wonder Woman gets a father (yesthisisnews)

Alisa's news:

Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex now available as e-book

Tansy's news: publishing date for Reign of Beasts

and the Creature Court Fashion Challenge Contest

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: The Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons; Yarn, Jon Armstrong; Thief of Lives, Lucy Sussex; Yellow Blue Tibia, Adam Roberts; The Word for World is Forest, Ursula le Guin; Eyes like Stars, Lisa Mantchev

Tansy: The Courier's New Bicycle, Kim Westwood; Thief of Lives, Lucy Sussex; Catwoman: Crooked Little Town, by Ed Brubaker; Fablecroft blog series On Indie Press wraps up; Sofanauts interviews Paul Cornell; Two Minute Timelord round-table about Season 6 Doctor Who

Alisa: Doctor Who. Shorts: The Book of Phoenix (Excerpted from The Great Book) – Nnedi Okorafor (Clarkesworld March); Younger Women – Karen Fowler (Subterranean Summer), Valley of the Girls – Kelly Link (Subterranean Summer)

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!

Creature Court: the Contest

This one is for those of you who are hanging out for the release of Reign of Beasts, the third and final Creature Court novel. I wanted to do something personal to thank my readers who have been so supportive since the releases of Power and Majesty and The Shattered City, and to hopefully make up (a little bit) for the fact that the publishing date shifted, and you're not holding the book in your hands RIGHT NOW.

THE CREATURE COURT

FASHION CHALLENGE CONTEST.

All you have to do to enter is comment at the bottom of this post, or email me at creaturecourt (at) tansyrr.com with your entry. It can be in any medium: a sentence, a paragraph, a sketch, a craft project, whatever fits the challenge, which is:

Design or describe an outfit for one of the characters of the Creature Court novels to wear.

EVERYONE'S A WINNER:

Everyone who enters the contest & provides me with a postal address (to creaturecourt (at) tansyrr.com – please don't post addresses in comments) will receive a Creature Court postcard with a juicy snippet from Book 3 hand-written by me.

I printed the postcards specially for this contest – the images vary, and are based on photographs of the Creature Court themed crazy quilt I have been working on this year.

You can take the challenge as seriously or as flippantly as you choose! I look forward to seeing your entries. Unless you request otherwise, I will post your entries on my blog, either at tansyrr.com or creaturecourt.com. If you wish me to remove them from public display at any time, just ask.

Beasts Will Reign! Will the Creature Court Fall?

Exciting confirmations this week. Reign of Beasts, the long-awaited third book of the Creature Court trilogy, will be released at the end of January. Many of my ROR peeps and other writerly friends just happen to be in Tasmania at the right time, so we'll be having a great big book launch!

Rowena Cory Daniells will be officially launching the book into the world, at the Hobart Bookshop. More details to be posted closer to the time, but we're looking at the 2nd February, so put that in your diaries now!

I know that many of you were hoping the book would be out before the end of this year, and no one is more sorry than me that it's not – publishing schedules are sadly flexible. The good news is that this date is definitely final, and it's already in catalogues for booksellers to order in.

I have a contest in mind, to reward those who are hanging out to find what happens next… which I will announce later today, haha!

PS: Still no cover image to show you, sadly, but I have been promised one shortly!

All the Books!

After not quite prioritising my reading enough all year, I'm suddenly in a frame of mind where I am trying to read ALL THE BOOKS at once. Which, for those of you who have some idea of the size and scale of my To Read Shelf, is a lot of books.

And more besides, because the current graphic novel fetish has taken hold and I have been binge-ordering at my local library, as well as borrowing and buying a bunch of titles. Then there's the fact that this is Get It Read month For Last Short Story, and there's Tiptree reading, and stuff for Galactic Suburbia, and books to review for ASif and you know, other books I want to read!

I walked into a bookshop today to look for someone (who wasn't working that day) and walked out with Marianne de Pierres' Angel Arias, and the new Merridy Eastman. Honestly I want to just download them directly into my head.

I'm halfway through reading Trent Jamieson's Roil, and a Catwoman trade, and Gwyneth Jones' new collection, because one book at a time is just not enough.

Oh, and I recently posted reviews at Last Short Story of Eclipse 4, and Subterranean's Spring and Fall Issues.



And over at Deborah Biancotti's blog, I contribute to a great series of (super short) guest posts about creative burnout, how to avoid it, and how to deal with it when it hits you smack in the face. I recommend checking out the whole series!

Wonder Woman's Daddy Issues

It's disappointing to hear that DC Comics, which released a rebooted Wonder Woman #1 to great acclaim only a few weeks again, have got it so wrong again, and so quickly. According to previews of issue #3, Diana is to discover that she has a long lost father, Zeus.

The reason so many Wonder Woman fans are up in arms about this, is because it directly contradicts her origin story, the one that creators have been working off for the last nearly-70 years or so, in which Diana was formed from clay by her mother, Hippolyta, and brought to life by the Greek goddesses. Taking a character with such a unique beginning, and changing her parentage, is a change akin to deciding Bruce Wayne's parents didn't die after all, or that Superman was actually conceived when Martha Kent cheated on Jonathan with Zor-El.

"When they relaunched their entire line of comics last month, DC Comics figured it was a good time to break the mold.

"In this case, making her a god actually makes her more human, more relatable," DC co-publisher Jim Lee said.

"Everybody's got a father," [writer] Azzarello said. "Even if he's not the nicest guy in the world."

But no, actually. Not everyone has a father. And while there are very interesting stories to be told about superheroes and superheroines and their fathers, there are actually a bunch of those out there already. Batgirl and Batwoman spring to mind. The whole point of Wonder Woman is that she comes from an all-female society, and that she in fact DOES NOT have a father. Her relationship with her mother has been handled differently across the decades, and by different writers, and explored through all manner of permeutations. Hippolyta has been antagonist, rival, replacements, friend, confidante, hero, and of course, Diana's queen and ruler as well as her mother. Their connection is one of the many interesting things about the mythology surrounding Diana, and the collison of ancient myths and traditions with the modern concerns of "man's world" is indeed the point of Wonder Woman as a story.

And don't get me STARTED about the whole issue of how 'relatable' Wonder Woman is. Every time I hear that word come out of a man's mouth, I want to smack him over the head with my Xena: Warrior Princess box set. I'm not saying that everyone who's ever hated a Wonder Woman comic is sexist, because let's face it, there have been some dreadful stories over the years, but that's not the character's fault, it's down to poor writing choices, and poor artistic choices.

But if you, honestly, can not relate to the concept of a woman who is also a powerful superhero, then I would suggest that this is Your Freaking Problem, and that it's not Wonder Woman, in that case, who needs to be changed. I would also suggest that a writer or publisher who thinks Wonder Woman is not relatable should not in fact be allowed anywhere near the character. Here's a fun idea: why not find a writer who thinks Wonder Woman is an awesome concept, and who is going to be revolutionary in writing her a comic which allows her to be awesome, without fundamentally changing who she is and where she comes from?

She's a warrior from another kind of world, stuck in this one, trying to do good. That's the premise. The other trappings are what makes her story unique, as opposed to Superman in a skirt. Her connection to Paradise Island and her mother and Greek mythology are not something to be brushed under the carpet as if you're embarrassed about them – they should be embraced! More problematic are the 1940′s specific military trappings, but why not embrace those too?

What exactly is Zeus as a father going to add that makes Wonder Woman more 'relatable'? Is it that every 40 something male comics reader has a Dad who goes around shagging swans and throwing thunderbolts at people? Or is it just that it will make it a tiny bit easier for everyone to pretend she's actually Hercules, and have done with it?

It's especially disappointing because Wonder Woman #1 was s promising – it looked like it was going to be a story that was unashamed of Diana's mythological past, and appealed to male and female readers alike. At the same time, Batwoman #1 showed you can have a highly acclaimed comic that's almost entirely about women – it was heralded by many as one of the top 3 of the new 52.

So why are DC Comics still so embarrassed by Wonder Woman that they want to turn her into something she isn't?

Rock the Romanpunk and Matrons of Awesome

It occurs to me belatedly that I should do a summary post with links for those who didn't get a chance to catch up on my crazy Rock the Romanpunk week while I was putting out several essay-length posts every day!

Here they are, then.

Matrons of Awesome: 50 Women of Ancient Rome

Introduction

Part I – The Raptae

Part II – Republican Mothers

Part III – Republican Vixens

Part IV – Good and Evil at the End of the Republic

Part V – Romana Princeps

Part VI: Imperial Daughters and Many Small Islands

Part VII: Sex, Scandal and Bloodshed

Part VIII – Agrippina

Part IX – Forgotten Daughters, Brigitte Bardot, and Claudian Goddesses

Part X – Flavian Ladies

Part XI – Trajan's Matrons

Part XII – Good Wives and the Gladiators

Part XIII – Between the Dynasties

Part XIV – A Surfeit of Julias

Part XV – Saint Helena

and while we're at it, some silly ones:

Rocking the Romanpunk, one fanvid at a time.

Kermit Tours the Romanpunk

Mark Antony Strips the Romanpunk

Cleopatra Sings the Romanpunk

Brutus and Cassius Slash the Romanpunk

Bad Emperors Dance the Romanpunk

Supersizers Eat the Romanpunk

and don't forget all this was an excuse for me to talk about my book, Love and Romanpunk…

Love and Romanpunk is an e-book now!

Love and Romanpunk is Kindled

Sneak peeks at the stories in Love and Romanpunk

In closing I'd like to give a shout out to Doctor Who, which managed in its season finale to totally out-romanpunk me, even more than last year. And last year gave me Roman autons, the Last Centurion and River Song as Cleopatra! (Two years before that it was Donna speaking Latin, Vesuvius and Karen Gillan as a soothsayer) Hard to beat Winston Churchill as Caesar on a mammoth, though.

Sigh. If only they could have afforded a mammoth.

Watching New Who: New Earth

"New Earth"

Season two, episode one

The Doctor – David Tennant

Rose Tyler – Billie Piper

TEHANI:

Keeping in mind we're reviewing this episode as the official Season Two opener (rather than because it was a Hugo-nominated ep or any such point of interest!), "New Earth" starts out with Rose and the Doctor leaving Jackie and Mickey behind and heading off on their new journey.

DAVID:

I wasn't really sure what to think about this episode. It's very ambitious in that it tries to tackles some complex moral issues (at what point does something become human, do the ends justify the means, medical ethics), which is something I really enjoy in science fiction, but I think that it was a case of great concept and average execution. It's an odd mix of some very light hearted scenes and some far darker undertones which took a little bit of adjustment.

TANSY:

Yes, whenever I remember this episode I cringe about it and only remember the bad bits, but when I watch it, I mostly enjoy it. Though I hate the opening scene of the ridiculously-happy-honeymooning Doctor and Rose, as it represents the overall smug tone that I think was laid on far too thick this season (rewatching the season, it's not quite as prevalent as I remembered, but comes in irritating fits and starts). I would have far preferred some hint that she is still uneasy about his transition rather than the whole NINE WHO? attitude.

TEHANI:

Rose: Can I just say, travelling with you, I love it.

Ten: Me too.

Rose, I do not think he means what you think he means there. Self-centred much?

DAVID:

I am glad that we have already been introduced to Ten before this episode, because I don't think I would have liked him that much had this been my first experience of him. He certainly has certainly has a streak of arrogance about him, with his claims of being the ultimate authority!

TANSY:

Ha, well, come on. He's the Doctor. Tom Baker did much the same. I do think with Ten we basically get two Doctors – we get the one on the page, who is quite shifty, egotistic and judgemental, and then we get the one that's basically David Tennant being charismatic. Much as I enjoy David Tennant being charismatic, I do think it means we swallow a lot of behaviour which should make us feel more unsettled than it does.

TEHANI:

That's an interesting point Tansy – has this been interrogated in fandom? Ooh, is there an article for the next Chicks Dig Time Lords in that?! It's a little scary when you think about it – we accept bad behaviour because what, the guy is cute and charismatic? Hmm, maybe Alisa is on to something with her concern as she ploughs grumpily through New Who…

TANSY:

Doctor Who is the most over-analysed TV show in history, I think it's probably fair to say there isn't much that hasn't been interrogated! The issue does get clouded of course by the fact that Ten is quite a polarising Doctor – on the one hand the most mainstream popular Doctor since Tom Baker, and on the other hand a Doctor quite despised by several vocal corners of fandom. Then again, let's face it, there's a whole lot of nostalgic childhood memories which lead us to remember Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor as being much less of a bastard than he was, in fact, on many occasions.

Though of course, David Tennant is much prettier than Tom Baker, so bonus get-out-of-jail-free points there!

DAVID:

But, it's no different from Jack, surely? From what I have seen of him so far he gets away with a lot of behaviour that we would normally consider appalling. He is a charming rogue, but still a rogue.

TANSY:

That's absolutely true, and like Ten, Jack is a polarising character. Those who love or like him and John Barrowman's performance, tend to be diehard fans, but those who dislike him REALLY dislike him. The same can be said of course of the companions – Rose and Donna in particular have raised a lot of ire as well as fan squee over the years.

Hmm. Basically, Doctor Who fans love and hate stuff. A lot. Loudly.

DAVID:

I get the impression Billie Piper had a lot of fun with the possession scenes, and there were some absolutely hilarious lines, but the ones with the Doctor were pretty clumsy and I didn't enjoy them half as much. Cassandra was a much more interesting character in this episode, and I thought her death scene was quite moving.

TANSY:

Cassandra is a great villain, and her performance is totally the best thing of this episode, which is amazing considering it's mostly a voice-only performance. Billie Piper also does very well – it's rare for her to get to do outright physical comedy, and she rises to the challenge. It's so WEIRD to think of her being the veteran at this point, and David Tennant the newbie.

TEHANI:

The dialogue has its moments of funny – a lot of almost naughty words cut off by some clever wordplay.

DAVID:

And, Tansy, another kiss that isn't really a kiss!

TANSY:

Believe me, this is a running theme of RTD's Doctor Who, along with snow at Christmas that isn't really snow because they don't really get snow at Christmas in the UK (except for that time they did) Fake-out kisses to keep the fans wondering, and to liven up previews. I choose to find this funny rather than deeply irritating – it reduces stress!

TEHANI:

There's a very hand-wavey solution to the problem here – there's quite a few of those I've noticed! I kind of prefer the episodes when there's a more solid saving of the day. The declaration by the Doctor of the "flesh" as a brand new subspecies is a bit dramatic – although that whole premise is a bit shaky for me – how could they possibly have raised adult humans for so long in that way, especially if they were quite aware and alive? OOOH, TANSY! It just occurred to me that there's "flesh" central to Season Six. Coincidence?

TANSY:

Huh, interesting, I hadn't made that connection (about the flesh). This is probably one of the worst 'wave the sonic screwdriver' solutions to an episode, though you will see many more in the years to come. Sadly. I have more issue with the general ick of the zombies than with the solution to the problem – and when it comes down to it, I really didn't care much about anyone in the story apart from Cassandra, the Doctor and Rose. I'd say it's one of the worst scripts that RTD has personally written – there are others that are more broken, but they have better awesome bits to balance it out.

TEHANI:

I really enjoyed Chip's performance – both as the "flesh" and when he is Cassandra. A really interesting player! I do like it when the bit parts are strong. And I loved the cat nuns – thought they were very well designed!

TANSY:

Chip is one of the best 'proper' aliens that New Who has done as far as his design and personality – too often, they do the quick fix of grabbing a random Earth animal and putting it in an amusing costume, which starts to get wearing after a while. I do like the cat nuns, though. They look extraordinary. The new show shied away from aliens and alien planets in particular far too often, always desperate to get the human angle in somewhere – I don't think New Earth was a substitute for a real alien planet (one not colonised by humans) but it was the best we were to get for some time.

DAVID:

I found Chip's storyline quite moving, really. The love he felt for Cassandra was quite undeserved, yet in the end it was what redeemed her. That's the sort of thing a sentimental sap like me wants to see. Don't get me wrong, I do like the melodramatically evil characters too, but the idea of redemption is a powerful one when it is done properly and believably, and Classic Doctor Who was littered with it. We see the Doctor as a catalyst, no world is ever the same once he has passed through (for better or worse), and I have always loved when we see his presence changing people for the better.

TANSY:

Doctor Who has always had extraordinary villains, and some wonderful actors over the years to play them. It's one of the things the show does best – I guess because the Doctor, for all his flaws, is the embodiment of chaotic good, and such a huge character, that he needs huge villains to balance him out.

DAVID:

The actor who played Chip did a wonderful job, and I thought that actress who played Cassandra did well too, especially when she was more than a voice emanating from a piece of skin, which is entirely understandable!

TANSY:

Zoe Wanamaker! One of a long list of really impressive names they got in to play guest roles in season one (before the show proved how popular it was going to be). Something New Who has done very, very well since 2005 is casting, not only getting in really major actors, but also matching them well to characters. I can think of only a small handful of bum choices, and a whole bunch of exceptional ones.

DAVID:

The cat nuns could have been very bad indeed, but they were handled very well and looked extremely convincing. They actually looked like aliens, rather than intergalactic furries. They were also quite chilling in their approach to medical science, you could believe they honestly thought they were justified doing these terrible things for the sake of the greater good and that they regretted the necessity of it. I thought this made them all the more creepier than if they had been doing it because they were…well, evil.

So far, the special effects have been great in this season

TANSY:

I think it's obvious right from the word go that there is more money going into this season than the last (where there were a few scenes occasionally filmed in cupboards, etc.) and that the production team are actually figuring out how to spend that money effectively. It's a mostly silly episode that looks great.

TEHANI:

So overall, we're a bit "meh" about this episode on its own. I will say this though – it's worth watching because we come back to New Earth, and some of these characters, later

======

Watching New Who – in conversation with David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely

David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she's rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all (plus a six-year-old daughter who is finding her own Doctors for the first time). We're going to work our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, as our blogging points. Just for fun! We have already talked about:



"Rose", S01E01

"Dalek", S01E06

"Father's Day, S01E08

"The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances", S01E09/10

"Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways", S01E12/13

Season One Report Card – David, Tansy, Tehani

"The Christmas Invasion," 2005 Christmas special