Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 167

10 greatest TV characters of all time

Thanks to Alisa, I am looooving Boxcutters, a weekly Australian podcast about TV. It is my new podcrush. I am particularly crushing on Nelly Thomas, but they're all just plain adorable, smart and funny. They passed my own personal pop culture podcast test by recently discussing the Bechdel Test with intelligence and respect, plus they rave about things like Press Gang, Doctor Who and the latest HBO shows. Their unapologetic love of sublime AND ridiculous TV shows, and their sharp...

Galactic Suburbia Episode Eleven Show Notes

You can get the episode now from itunes or play it on the website. The download should be available mid-morning tomorrow.

In which the paradigm keeps shifting, Jasper Fforde writes dystopia, Alisa still hates pirate stories, George Lucus ruined it for the rest of us, and we wonder whether there are still readers who think you shouldn't have SF with kissing in it.

News

Locus Award Winners

Liz Williams selling her own short fiction

I have portals; I know things

Gah, it's been one of those days. The kind that makes you wish you had the kind of life where staying in bed all day was actually possible. Still, I have the recording of Galactic Suburbia tonight to cheer me up!

Over at the Voyager blog, I talk about my favourite fictional cities, and ask what your favourite SF/fantasy city is!

Someone on my LJ (hello anonymous person!) sent me an awesome link to this great "redesign Wonder Woman's costume" art contest.

I also found (via @thirtysix on...

Jodi Picoult Does Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman: Love and Murder, words by Jodi Picoult (DC Comics 2008)

This "graphic novel" (I'm using the term really loosely here, it's a book with comics reprinted in it but calling it any kind of novel is a stretch) collects the five issues that celebrated novelist Jodi Picoult wrote for Wonder Woman. I came into this knowing only that Picoult's run had not gone down well with comics readers – and of course there are a lot of reasons why that might be. There was a lot of hype about...

I'm the Bloody Queen, Basically I Rule

What a difference a weekend can make. Check that – what a difference a weekend in which one's five-year-old is being entertained elsewhere can make!

I ripped through the last thirty chapters of edits on Saturday, and spent Sunday cleaning up the manuscript, checking & creating timelines, compiling & checking the final doc, etc. I emailed the whole thing back to the publishers early this morning, once my brain was together enough to compose an email.

The structural edits were due back this...

Weekend Linkage 03-07-10

Am editing like a maniac, but a successful and productive maniac thanks to shipping one of my children off to play in a creek with her Glammer for the weekend.

When I'm not powering through my chapters, I have been reading:

Annalee Newitz over at io9 on how working women could change the future – a great piece of political & science fictional theory.

Jeff VanderMeer on anthologies from a reader's POV

JJ of Uncreated Conscience talks about the re-jacketing of Cindy Pon's historical Asian fantasy ...

Day in the Life of a Mama Writer

If I was to document the perfect day in the life of myself as a writer, it might very well be today. Not that it was a perfect PERFECT writing day, which would involve writing brilliant words in between sipping mint cocktails and lounging around afterwards doing "research" with piles of books without having to think about my children once, but it's the perfect writing day for where I am right now in my life.

I started work once my honey left with Raeli on the school run, putting Jem down for ...

A Writer's Brain and Clara Bow

I've spent the last few days wrapped up in the emotions of my characters, digging away at them, making them better, and occasionally turning my back only to find them making out with each other. (seriously, it's like having a houseful of teenagers, you can't take your eyes off them for a moment and the hormones take over!)

My honey has gone to bed early. I can't blame him. Just imagine what it must be like to be partnered with a writer, someone who spends so much time not only glued to a...

The Demon's Covenant, by Sarah Rees Brennan

Some of you may remember me squeeing like a schoolgirl last year when The Demon's Lexicon came out. This was a clever, snarky and surprisingly dark YA urban fantasy that was one of the hottest debut releases last year. Told from the intense POV of mysterious, damaged demon-hunting teenager Nick Ryves, it introduced some compelling characters, some gorgeous 'magic hidden in the everyday' worldbuilding and a whole lot of 'quote this aloud to annoy friends and relatives' dialogue.

The entire...

Linkuosity

I've spent the day ripping central chapters out by their roots and replacing a whole bunch of madeyuppy rubbish with saner, cleaner, sexier narrative. It hurts, my brain, it hurts.

So all I can offer in the way of useful bloggage are some good things that other people have been writing:

Tehani interviews Malindo Lo (check out the Fablecroft blog for some other great interviews this week)

Kaaron Warren talks about getting ideas for endings, while Catherynne Valente talks about the importance of...