Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 145
March 25, 2011
Tiptree!
Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed an outburst of vague but delirious joy a couple of days ago. I can now reveal why it was so!
I have been invited to join this year's Tiptree Award jury. I think anyone who has been following my blog for any amount of time would realise how much this means to me! Certainly anyone who, ahem, listened to the most recent Galactic Suburbia would be in absolutely no doubt (for those keeping score, I was invited between the recording of that podcast and the uploading, how's that for coincidence?)
So yes. I am delighted to join Karen Meisner, James Davis Nicoll, Nisi Shawl, and Lynne M Thomas for many long and crunchy conversations about gender this year. Hooray!
March 22, 2011
Galactic Suburbia Episode 28 Show Notes
There's a new episode up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.
EPISODE 28
In which we keep celebrating our birthday, take in the Lambdas and the Tiptree, and did we mention there are Galactic Suburbia T-SHIRTS now???
News
Female gamers hollerback against the hate messages they receive
Kristine Kathryn Rusch on the ways publishing is changing
Woman writer wins award; is still ignored
Ian Sales' SF Mistressworks
& the SF Mistressworks meme
Hugo reminder: get your nominations in!
Galactic Chat interviews Marianne de Pierres
T SHIRTS, get your juicy pink t-shirts here!
Tiptree shortlist released
Feedback
Competition open for another fortnight – keep sending in entries! Email us with fave GS moment and what cake you ate.
What Culture Have we Consumed?
Tansy: Burn Bright, by Marianne de Pierres; Laid (ABC TV)
Alisa: Star Trek Enterprise Season 4, Fringe eps 11 -13,
Alex: Genesis, by Bernard Beckett; Redemption Ark, Alastair Reynolds; Version 43, Philip Palmer (abandoned)… Battlestar Galactica
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!
March 21, 2011
2010 Aurealis Awards Nominees
Know what? It said immediate distribution. So that is what I am doing.
LET THE SQUEE COMMENCE
SpecFaction NSW, organisers of the 2010 Aurealis Awards, are delighted to announce the finalists for the 2010 Aurealis Awards.
Judging Coordinator, Keith Stevenson, said that with approximately 600 entries across the thirteen categories, the judges had a big task.
"Overall, the judges agreed that the entries had been of a high standard. In a number of the categories the judges informed us that they had trouble coming down to a shortlist of five with many worthy entries just missing out on being included. I'd like to extend my thanks to all the judges for their time and professionalism in the judging of these awards."
Winners of the 2010 Aurealis Awards and the Peter McNamara Award will be announced at
the Aurealis Awards ceremony, sponsored by Harper Voyager, on the evening of Saturday the 21st of May. Details of the evening and a link to the online booking website are available at www.aurealisawards.com
2010 Aurealis Awards – Finalists
CHILDREN'S FICTION (told primarily through words)
Grimsdon, Deborah Abela, Random House
Ranger's Apprentice #9: Halt's Peril, John Flanagan, Random House
The Vulture of Sommerset, Stephen M Giles, Pan Macmillan
The Keepers, Lian Tanner, Allen & Unwin
Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull, Jen Storer & Gug Gordon, Aussie Nibbles
(Penguin)
CHILDREN'S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)
Night School, Isobelle Carmody (writer) & Anne Spudvilas (illustrator), Penguin Viking
Magpie, Luke Davies (writer) & Inari Kiuru (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)
The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), Penguin Viking
Precious Little, Julie Hunt & Sue Moss (writers) & Gaye Chapman (illustrator), Allen &
Unwin
The Cloudchasers, David Richardson (writer) & Steven Hunt (illustrator), ABC Books
(HarperCollins)
YOUNG ADULT Short Story
Inksucker, Aidan Doyle, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
One Story, No Refunds, Dirk Flinthart, Shiny #6, Twelfth Planet Press
A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan, Zombies Vs Unicorns, Allen & Unwin
Nine Times, Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft
Publishing
An Ordinary Boy, Jen White, The Tangled Bank, Tangled Bank Press
YOUNG ADULT Novel
Merrow, Ananda Braxton-Smith, black dog books
Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey, Allen & Unwin
The Midnight Zoo, Sonya Hartnett, Penguin
The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher, Doug MacLeod, Penguin
Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy Book Two), Scott Westerfeld, Penguin
BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL
Shakespeare's Hamlet, Nicki Greenberg, Allen & Unwin
EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense, Jason Paulos et al, Black House Comics
Changing Ways Book 1, Justin Randall, Gestalt Publishing
Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel, Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett, Allen & Unwin
Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators, Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne,
McFarlane & Co.
BEST COLLECTION
The Library of Forgotten Books, Rjurik Davidson, PS Publishing
Under Stones, Bob Franklin, Affirm Press
Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter, Tartarus Press
The Girl With No Hands, Angela Slatter, Ticonderoga Publications
Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren, Ticonderoga Publications
BEST ANTHOLOGY
Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty
Young, Brimstone Press
Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press
Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall, Morrigan Books
Godlike Machines, edited by Jonathan Strahan, SF Book Club
Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon, Night Shade Books
HORROR Short Story
Take the Free Tour, Bob Franklin, Under Stones, Affirm Press
Her Gallant Needs, Paul Haines, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
The Fear, Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears,
Brimstone Press
Wasting Matilda, Robert Hood, Zombie Apocalypse!, Constable & Robinson Ltd
Lollo, Martin Livings, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, Apex Publishing
HORROR Novel
After the World: Gravesend, Jason Fischer, Black House Comics
Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, Pan Macmillan
FANTASY Short Story
The Duke of Vertumn's Fingerling, Elizabeth Carroll, Strange Horizons
Yowie, Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
The February Dragon, LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications
All the Clowns in Clowntown, Andrew McKiernan, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's
Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
Sister, Sister, Angela Slatter, Strange Tales III, Tartarus Press
FANTASY Novel
The Silence of Medair, Andrea K Höst, self-published
Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)
Heart's Blood, Juliet Marillier, Pan Macmillan
Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)
SCIENCE FICTION Short Story
The Heart of a Mouse, K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)
The Angaelian Apocalypse, Matthew Chrulew, The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The
Angaelian Apocalypse, Twelfth Planet Press
Border Crossing, Penelope Love, Belong, Ticonderoga Publications
Interloper, Ian McHugh, Asimovs (Jan 2011)
Relentless Adaptations, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
SCIENCE FICTION Novel
Song of Scarabaeous, Sara Creasy, EOS Books
Mirror Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)
Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)
Me and The SF Mistressworks Meme
Apparently 2011 is the Year of Women in SF. Is that not a brilliant thing? Having stirred up much discussion on the subject of SF Mistressworks (a phrase so lovely that I want to type it over and over) Ian Sales launched a reading meme of 91 titles.
I have read 8.
Wow, that's actually really depressing. I consider myself pretty well read when it comes to the SF/Fantasy genre and women, and yet, and yet… I actually almost deleted the whole meme because what's the point, right?
But there is a point. A really good one. I don't have to read every book on this list – I don't even want to! But there are several on here I have been meaning to read, in some cases for years now. As someone who is actively interested in educating herself about the history of women writers in the field, there are no excuses!
It's certainly a very pointed sign that I have no right to be remotely smug about how well read I am in the field! I'm going to have to pull my socks up.
I take some comfort in the fact that I have read works by at least 35 writers on this list of Mistressworks, even if not the books specifically picked out for the meme. But I can do better with that, too.
Onwards and upwards!
===
Ian says:
The list is in order of year of publication.
You know how it works: bold those you've read, italicise those you own but have not read. (If you've read the entire named series, you can even emboldenize that as well.)
1 *Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)
2 Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
3 Orlando, Virginia Woolf (1928)
4 Lest Ye Die, Cicely Hamilton (1928)
5 Swastika Night, Katherine Burdekin (1937)
6 Wrong Side of the Moon, Francis Leslie Ashton (1951)
7 The Sword of Rhiannon, Leigh Brackett (1953)
8 Pilgrimage: The Book of the People, Zenna Henderson (1961)
9 Memoirs of a Spacewoman, Naomi Mitchison (1962)
10 Witch World, Andre Norton (1963)
11 Sunburst, Phyllis Gotlieb (1964)
12 Jirel of Joiry, CL Moore (1969)
13 Heroes and Villains, Angela Carter (1969)
14 Ten Thousand Light Years From Home, James Tiptree Jr (1973)
15 *The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin (1974)
16 Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas (1974)
17 *The Female Man, Joana Russ (1975)
18 Missing Man, Katherine MacLean (1975)
19 *Arslan, MJ Engh (1976)
20 *Floating Worlds, Cecelia Holland (1976)
21 *Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm (1976)
22 Islands, Marta Randall (1976)
23 Dreamsnake, Vonda N McIntyre (1978)
24 False Dawn, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1978)
25 Shikasta [Canopus in Argos: Archives], Doris Lessing (1979)
26 Kindred, Octavia Butler (1979)
27 Benefits, Zoe Fairbairns (1979)
28 The Snow Queen, Joan D Vinge (1980)
29 The Silent City, Élisabeth Vonarburg (1981)
30 The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee (1981)
31 The Many-Coloured Land [Saga of the Exiles], Julian May (1981)
32 Darkchild [Daughters of the Sunstone], Sydney J van Scyoc (1982)
33 The Crystal Singer, Anne McCaffrey (1982)
34 Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin (1984)
35 The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)
36 Jerusalem Fire, RM Meluch (1985)
37 Children of Anthi, Jay D Blakeney (1985)
38 The Dream Years, Lisa Goldstein (1985)
39 Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind, Sarah Lefanu & Jen Green (1985)
40 Queen of the States, Josephine Saxton (1986)
41 The Wave and the Flame [Lear's Daughters], Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (1986)
42 The Journal of Nicholas the American, Leigh Kennedy (1986)
43 A Door into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski (1986)
44 Angel at Apogee, SN Lewitt (1987)
45 In Conquest Born, CS Friedman (1987)
46 Pennterra, Judith Moffett (1987)
47 Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)
48 Cyteen , CJ Cherryh (1988)
49 Unquenchable Fire, Rachel Pollack (1988)
50 The City, Not Long After, Pat Murphy (1988)
51 The Steerswoman [Steerswoman series], Rosemary Kirstein (1989)
52 The Third Eagle, RA MacAvoy (1989)
53 Grass, Sheri S Tepper (1989)
54 Heritage of Flight, Susan Shwartz (1989)
55 Falcon, Emma Bull (1989)
56 The Archivist, Gill Alderman (1989)
57 Winterlong [Winterlong trilogy], Elizabeth Hand (1990)
58 A Gift Upon the Shore, MK Wren (1990)
59 Red Spider, White Web, Misha (1990)
60 Polar City Blues, Katharine Kerr (1990)
61 Body of Glass (AKA He, She and It), Marge Piercy (1991)
62 Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler (1991)
63 Beggars in Spain [Sleepless trilogy], Nancy Kress (1991)
64 A Woman of the Iron People, Eleanor Arnason (1991)
65 Hermetech, Storm Constantine (1991)
66 China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F McHugh (1992)
67 Fools, Pat Cadigan (1992)
68 Correspondence, Sue Thomas (1992)
69 Lost Futures, Lisa Tuttle (1992)
70 Doomsday Book, Connie Willis (1992)
71 Ammonite, Nicola Griffith (1993)
72 The Holder of the World, Bharati Mukherjee (1993)
73 Queen City Jazz, Kathleen Ann Goonan (1994)
74 Happy Policeman, Patricia Anthony (1994)
75 Shadow Man, Melissa Scott (1995)
76 Legacies, Alison Sinclair (1995)
77 Primary Inversion [Skolian Saga], Catherine Asaro (1995)
78 Alien Influences, Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1995)
79 The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell (1996)
80 Memory [Vorkosigan series], Lois McMaster Bujold (1996)
81 Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon (1996)
82 Looking for the Mahdi, N Lee Wood (1996)
83 An Exchange of Hostages [Jurisdiction series], Susan R Matthews (1997)
84 Fool's War, Sarah Zettel (1997)
85 Black Wine, Candas Jane Dorsey (1997)
86 Halfway Human, Carolyn Ives Gilman (1998)
87 Vast, Linda Nagata (1998)
88 Hand of Prophecy, Severna Park (1998)
89 Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson (1998)
90 Dreaming in Smoke, Tricia Sullivan (1999)
91 Ash: A Secret History, Mary Gentle (2000)
March 20, 2011
New Links For Old
Way behind on linking to the cool stuff that has come my way over the last week or two.
For a start, we have a new podcast! The Galactic Suburbia crew have launched a sister podcast, Galactic Chat, which will feature author interviews. You can head over there straight away to hear me interviewing powerhouse Australian SF writer Marianne de Pierres about her new gothy YA novel Burn Bright (as advertised on the Dolly Magazine website! Yes really!). I've known Marianne a long time now, and she was a great first interview subject.
A future episode we've already recorded has Alisa interviewing me (it's not ego, honestly, she just wanted to practice on someone who wouldn't be mean to her!) and we're planning to get lots recorded at Swancon.
Speaking of interviewing me, Rowena Cory Daniells did so as part of her 'yes, women in fantasy, we have them, they are right here, THEY OUTNUMBER YOU, DUDES' series of blog posts. It's a great, in depth interview and as good a way as any for me to launch my 'ooh it's time to start promoting my work again what with those books about to hit the shops' season.
In reading the internet news, I recently enjoyed reading John Richards' account of how he quite legitimately visited the now former Channel Nine centre in order to unscrew video machines and take stuff away, it being the end of an era.
Kelley Eskridge is interviewed about her recently rereleased classic SF novel Solitaire, putting that book straight to the top of my To Buy list. What a fascinating writer! I have been reading her partner Nicola Griffith's blog for a while, but knew little about Kelley. Apparently, she's awesome.
I also found this post on the changing face of the publishing industry by Kristine Kathryn Rusch really interesting. Not sure I agree with all of it, but it's certainly worth the time to read it through as you drink your morning cup of coffee. I do think she has a very good point in her description of how powerless writers have been in the old publishing-distribution model. And I say this as someone waiting with bated breath for the royalty statement due this month which should give me a vague idea how my book sold between July and December last year…
March 18, 2011
Time, Space and Short Skirts
One of the best TV memories of my childhood was watching the entire Comic Relief marathon in 1991, when I was living in London. It started about 15 minutes before I got home from school, and went long into the night, hosted by Lenny Henry, Griff Rhys Jones and Jonathan Ross, and featuring among other things, Theophilus P Wildebeeste doing a 'sex off' dancing duel with the real Tom Jones, and a brand new Blackadder era, the Cavaliers and the Roundheads (which later, to my shame, I accidentally taped over with an episode of a random soap opera, something only rectified this Christmas when my honey bought the complete Blackadder on DVD).
I rewatched my dodgy taped recordings of that night for YEARS, including all the charitable bits about drinking water in Africa and homeless youth.
Later in the 90′s, a certain Mr Moffat whom I knew as the creator and writer of one of my favourite all time TV shows, Press Gang (getting to see season three of this was another TV highlight of my year in England) showed that a Doctor Who comedy sketch didn't have to be painful and make all the old stupid jokes, with the wonderful Curse of Fatal Death – featuring an all star cast, the first official Doctor/companion romance, and the first female incarnation of the Doctor.
I couldn't join in with Comic Relief live that year, but I purchased the VHS as soon as possible, in my local ABC Shop, and was surprised and grateful to be able to do so.
Now, thanks to the wonder of the internet, I actually get to watch the best Comic Relief sketches, and so it's not just this thing I got to share in one particular year. (Funnily enough, I can also donate to the cause long distance!) I take great delight in the fact that Doctor Who gets to be part of the shenanigans, not just this year, but pretty much every year, because it's one of the things people like best about the BBC.
So hooray for Comic Relief, and for Doctor Who!
March 13, 2011
Blogging about Podcasting about Blogging (and Podcasting)
Today I spent a very pleasant hour chatting to Helen Merrick (esteemed author of The Secret Feminist Cabal and 50% of the much-missed-and-anticipated-to-return podcast The PanGalactic Interwebs) in an interview-lecture on the topic of author blogging for a creative writing course at Curtin University.
Definitely the most fun lecture of my academic career, and a big wave hello to any Curtin creative writing students who have followed me over here!
I had planned out in my head a discussion about different authors and the choices they make as to content, boundaries, etc. and hadn't realised until just before the interview that in fact Helen wanted a far more direct approach, the subject being ME. So we had a lovely hour pretty much analysing and dissecting my relationship with my blog, the choices that I make, and my views on social media. It was a delicious, crunchy conversation and I am very sorry that I can't share it with all of you! Except those of you who are taking creative writing at Curtin University, of course.
It did have the effect of making me look back on my blogging history – I hadn't really taken in until saying it out loud how much my bloggery is tied to my parenthood. But I remember checking the overview of my LJ history and discovering that I signed up for my journal on the day I brought Raeli home from hospital as a baby. I had spent that last month before she was born on the couch, bonding with my first laptop (it was January and I was very pregnant, it was what I did instead of nesting!) and reading blogs. So I signed up for LJ in my sleep deprived haze, and started actually writing in it a few months later.
In fact, my memory was playing tricks on me, because I now recall that I had a blog BEFORE LJ, but it was an awkward and self-conscious thing, best forgotten.
My transition from LJ to WordPress (and tansyrr.com) came in the months after Jem was born, and the first month of blogging here was perhaps the most high intensity blogging I've ever done. It coincided with NaNoWriMo – as I said to Helen today, I tend to blog most when also writing fiction furiously. Don't ask me how that works!
We talked a lot about personal boundaries and self-censorship and parenthood, and how different bloggers make different choices as to the discussion of their children.
We also talked about shaping your online presence and while you don't *have* to blog or tweet or whatever as a writer (I always wince when I hear writers saying their publishers have pushed them to do so, as it's not always the right choice for them), it's important to keep in mind what does and doesn't turn up at the top of the list when someone Googles your name.
The message that I came back to, over and over again, is that as soon as any social media platform becomes more about promoting the author than about engaging with them as a person, it ceases to be entertaining/attractive to the reader. It may seem counter-intuitive, but bloggers and Twitterers and podcasters and everyone else are more likely to sell books from being awesome than from trying to sell books. I also emphasised the "Jeff VanderMeer's Booklife Principle" which is that it's far better to not use any given social media platform than it is to do it badly. Where, of course, the epitome of 'badly' is screeching "buy my book" in increasingly shrill and panicky tones.
[I also pointed out that being so desperate to sell your book that you come across as stiff, awkward or just boring is not specific to the internet and you can see this in person at conventions and writers festivals too]
Also, the more fun you have with social media, the less work it is. Though of course it also becomes MORE work because you want to do it more. But really it shouldn't count as work. Unless someone is suggesting it's your turn to do the washing up. Then it's totally work.
After spending the latest episode of Galactic Suburbia analysing what podcasting has done for us (aqueducts! roads! wine!) it felt oddly appropriate to hang out with Helen this afternoon, looking back on my last five and a half years of blogging, and actually thinking about the choices I have made, the boundaries, self-censorship and filters I have personally employed, the difference in community between LJ and WordPress, and what I get out of blogging, Twitter and podcasting, which are basically my three social media platforms of choice.
I did, of course, end up talking lots about other authors and what they do, and the different choices they have made, and how everyone chooses their own paths of negotiation between real life, privacy, and the public face that blogging affords them.
(for good measure I also talked about how much I suck at using Facebook, but have attempted to improve since Alisa lectured me on how Facebook is not Twitter, and I entirely failed to talk about how Tumblr and Flickr make no sense to me at all because I am TOO OLD for such things)
But yes, hello to Curtin students – if you have any follow up questions for me that stem from the e-lecture, please drop them into the comments here and I'll try to address them!
March 11, 2011
Going to Swancon, lalala
I've been having trouble joining my friends in their enthusiasm and excitement about Swancon this year. Not because I'm not looking forward to it – it's a CON, and I always have an awesome time. The reason my feelings are so mixed is because I am completely fixated on the fact that I have to say goodbye to my girls for four days. And um. Haven't *entirely* managed to wean my 19 month old yet. So basically whenever I think about Swancon, I think GUILT GUILT GUILT GUILTY GUILT.
We experimented last night with my honey comforting the baby in the night, offering her a drink of water and a cuddle that was not boobie-related. She was unimpressed.
So, you know. GUILT GUILT GUILT GUILT.
Worldcon was wonderful in many ways, but hard, and there was just as much guilt from all the small goodbyes than there will be this time from one big one. I know in my heart that as soon as I'm on the plane and away, I will be able to enjoy the freakish luxury of four days in which the only person I have to look after in myself.
(secretly, I'm looking forward to the 5 hour plane trip – so many hours on my OWN to listen to stories and read books without someone jumping on me or needing a drink of water. Possibly *I* will be the one receiving drinks of water from someone else. UNTOLD LUXURY)
But then I think about the fact that my girls may well be having the annual Easter Egg hunt at Glammer's house without me and I crumple, just a little…
I haven't paid much attention to what is actually happening at Swancon – a bunch of my friends are going to be there and I'll get to talk non-stop about books, science fiction, publishing, and podcasting. Not on panels or anything – I have no idea what my programme will look like – but to a crowd of my favourite people. Really, I just heard 'con' and I was there – plus I get to share a room with Alex, and we'll be working hard to kidnap Alisa from her duties as chair from time to time, just so we get a chance to hang out with her too. Did I mention that I still haven't *met* Amanda or Cranky Nick or Chris in person yet? Virtual will become reality!
But it's probably time I looked at what the convention has to offer.
*swish, fancy hotel with actual room for all the stuff a convention needs
*Guests of Honour Sean Williams, Justina Robson, Ellen Datlow, Sarah Xu and many more invited guests.
*Writerstream – a whole stream of programming on Saturday 23 April, devoted to writers trying to break into the industry, with workshops/presentations as well as panels and discussions.
*Romancing the West – a SECOND stream of programming for writers, this time with a focus on romance, paranormals, etc.
*Edustream – on the Friday, a series of professional development workshops and panels with a focus on the uses of SF in schools for teachers and librarians as well as those with an interest in YA.
*Future Imperfect Art Show, various Awards ceremonies, everything else you expect from a Natcon
Okay. Now I'm getting a teeny bit excited. ROLL ON EASTER.
March 9, 2011
Happy Birthday Galactic Suburbia! (Episode 27 Show Notes)
There's a new episode up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.
Cake Warning: Do Not Listen To This Podcast Without Cake
EPISODE 27
HAPPYBIRTHDAYCAKEFEST
In which there is cake, cake and more cake – we discuss the year that was Galactic Suburbia One, authorial in crowds, gender bias, and announce our exciting new project.
CAKE
Terri made a gorgeous Galactic Suburbia cake and explained it very prettily.
News
The First Rule about the YA Mafia is that you don't talk about the YA Mafia
Holly Black
Justine Larbalestier
Gwenda Bond
Karen Healey
John Scalzi
Ally Carter
The conversation is starting to turn into something else, which is more about the power writers do/do not have to help or hinder each other's careers.
Sarah Rees Brennan
Discussion on gender bias at Midnight Echo.
Tiptree Book Club begins with Maureen McHugh's "Useless Things"
Announcing Galactic Chat.
Competition: tell us your favourite moment of GS from the last year and win a book. Do they get to nominate which one they want to win??
Glitter Rose – signed by Marianne de Pierres, limited print run hard copy
Bold as Love, Gwyneth Jones
Siren Beat/Roadkill by Tansy!!
What Culture Have we Consumed?
Alex: Darkship Thieves, Sarah Hoyt; Betrayer of Worlds, Larry Niven and Edward M Lerner (to be reviewed at Dreams and Speculation)
Tansy: Running Through Corridors, Robert Shearman & Toby Hadoke
Alisa: TED Talks and general update
Pet Subject
What has been a highlight of the year for us?
Has it been what we expected?
Have we achieved what we wanted to achieve? (What did we want to achieve?)
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!
March 7, 2011
Old Age and Treachery
It's International Women's Day! That makes it the perfect timing for a post I've been meaning to write for a month as part of an occasional series on things that inspire me: in this case, older female fictional characters.
I have no stats to support this, but I'm pretty sure the average age of a female protagonist in a novel is somewhere between sixteen and thirty four. Which is a shame, because old women are fascinating! So many of our narrative conventions about women are all about them in the roles of maiden and mother, with very little attention paid to the crones. But being a crone can sometimes free women from narrative convention, purely because they are not expected to follow the same kinds of rules as the younger, prettier, more sexually available members of the species. So many stories rely on a woman's beauty or the beginnings of romance as the main focus of her character. What do you get when you strip all that away? You get character.
Here are some of my favourites – but I'd love to hear your examples in the comments. Who's your favourite feisty old fictional lady?
Miss Marple, by Agatha Christie.
An absolute classic. As a child I was drawn to these books by Agatha Christie even as I rolled my eyes and was bored by Poirot. There's something utterly delicious about the sweet old lady with the knitting who seems harmless, but is actually sharp as a tack and the scourge of murderers everywhere. Of course, you do have to worry a bit about how many of her acquaintances end up murdered… One of the things I most enjoyed was how often Miss Marple would be paired with a younger woman, and the way that she found out so much simply by chatting amiably and having a cup of tea. That woman could work a cup of tea like no one else! My absolute favourite Miss Marple is Sleeping Murder, because of the way that she takes a young woman whom everyone else thinks is going a bit bananas, and quietly questions all her assumptions, allowing the truth to unpeel like a piece of aged cornflowers-and-poppies wallpaper.
Mrs Bradley (Diana Rigg)
While I have read and enjoyed the original books of this particular heroine, it's Diana Rigg's version of the character in the Mrs Bradley Mysteries whom I fell in love with. The 1920′s atmosphere, and the elegant elderly flapper who dispenses witticisms and copies of Marie Stopes where-ever she goes, while keeping up a sizzling but restrained flirtation with her adoring younger chauffeur, made for perfect TV chemistry. I was very excited to get this on DVD for Christmas! The books are good, but don't come with that postmodern "I was totally Mrs Peel in my youth" vibe that made me love the TV show.
Calypso Grant (Jennifer Ehle/Rosemary Harris, by Mary Wesley)
I fell in love with Mary Wesley's novels because of the TV adaptation of The Camomile Lawn, and because I was stunned to find that the clever, witty, sexy TV series was such a stunningly accurate version of the book, which is about a family living through wartime Britain, and time shifts to the early 1980′s. Calypso, during the Blitz (played in the TV miniseries by Jennifer Ehle 3 years before Pride and Prejudice), is blonde and vivacious, intensely sexual, emotionally closed off and mercenary, determined to marry for money and to live life otherwise on her own terms. Once she lands her rich husband and bears him an heir, she revels in behaving badly in all other ways, including adultery on a scale that can only be described as epic. She is exactly the kind of character, in other words, who always comes to a bad end. Instead, Calypso as an old woman (played on TV by Ehle's real mother Rosemary Harris) is a remarkably happy and content person, who is at peace with herself and her choices, and has a better sense of humour than any of her contemporaries. She relishes in particular the colossal joke that she ended up falling in love with, of all people, her husband.
What I love most about Calypso is that her author has cleverly seeded her into just about every other novel she wrote. Mary Wesley published her first novel for adults when she was in her seventies, and put out a short but intense run of marvellous books before deciding to stop, several years before she died, declaring that "if you haven't got anything to say, don't say it." Her age gave her a great perspective on story, and The Camomile Lawn isn't the only of her books that shows the way that people change and grow over very long periods of time. I love the fact that several of her books, whether they be set in the War, the 50′s, 80′s or 90′s, have reference to or appearances by Calypso, Hector and their army of nephews. We get further hints of this odd, marvellous life that she led, and the way that she was seen differently by so many people in her family and life.
The best old ladies are the ones with a past, after all!
Evelyn Smythe (Maggie Stables, various authors)
This character was created as a new companion for the Sixth Doctor in the Doctor Who audio play range published by Big Finish, and she is a big reason for the renaissance of Colin Baker as an actor (in the minds of Doctor Who fans) as well as the character of his Doctor. Evelyn, an elderly history professor, is a far better foil for this brusque, erratic Doctor than any of the young women who were paired with him. Having already lived a long time and spent much of that time telling people they were wrong, she doesn't let him get away with anything and it's so very, very good for him. Their partnership is one of equals, and his respect for Evelyn speaks volumes as for his character.
Having been diagnosed with a weak heart shortly before joining the Doctor on his travels, Evelyn never lets her illness get in the way of adventure, and her awareness of her own impending mortality (and the fact that she conceals this from the Doctor) adds an extra frisson to her choices, and the way that she interacts with this man who looks like he could be her son (though of course the actors are similarly aged, we have to pretend it's the Colin Baker from the 1980′s).
There are many marvellous Evelyn stories and moments – I haven't even listened to her early appearances yet! But I can absolutely recommend a series of linked stories (Project Twilight, Project Lazarus, Arrangements for War, Thicker Than Water, Project Destiny**, A Death in the Family**) which show her at her best. Great questions about the Doctor's essential character and relationship with humanity are raised here, and those who enjoy the theory that the Doctor subconsciously chooses each incarnation to redress the flaws/failings of the previous one will really enjoy what these stories have to say about the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.
Mostly, though, I love Evelyn herself – compassionate, kind, sympathetic, sharp, sarcastic, vulnerable, angry and determined to make the world (whichever world she happens to be on) a better place. We see her fall in love in one of the best and most realistic companion romances, we see her mourn friends, and we see her challenge the Doctor very credibly. Doctor Who fans had been asking for an older female companion since the brilliant performance of Beatrix Lehmann as Professor Rumford in the Stones of Blood since 1978, and it was Big Finish and Maggie Stables who showed how effectively you could do that.
I cannot state enough how impressed I have been with the portrayal of women in the Big Finish Doctor Who range – especially, I have to say, as the majority of writers, directors and producers on that team are men. Long before New Who made the reinvention of Doctor Who look easy, Big Finish had already expanded the role and importance of the companion, and peopled a universe with strong, capable, varied female characters who not only hold their own with the male characters (and indeed, the Doctor, who is a force unto himself) but are often allowed to eclipse them, without retribution. Possibly there's another blog post in the offing, entirely on that subject…
** Evelyn is not actually in Project Destiny but it's an essential piece of the puzzle. Also, while this sequence of stories follow directly on from each other and make a lovely self-contained arc, I would be remiss in my duties as a Big Finish fangirl without noting that Project Destiny and A Death in the Family represent the culmination of another arc of stories, those of the companion Hex, whom I adore above all reason, and those two will mean a lot more to you if you have also got to know some of his adventures with Ace and the Doctor. Some of the best ones to get to know this particular TARDIS team and their relationships with each other are probably The Harvest, Nocturne, Forty-Five and Enemy of the Daleks though you're missing some brilliant stories if you only stick to those.
