Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 175

My First Favourite Female Fantasy Heroes

There's been some talk around the internets in recent days about how rare it is for women to declare and own their awesomeness, without apologising for it, or putting conditions on it, or basically explaining it away until it doesn't exist any more.

This reminded me of a conversation that went around the traps a while back, I believe centering around Sarah Rees Brennan, who often endorses such wicked ideas, about how actually maybe it's time we stopped calling female fictional characters Mary ...

Guardian of the Dead, by Karen Healey

I've been following Karen's blog for the last couple of months, and was particularly caught by her post about the importance of New Zealand as the setting of her debut novel, Guardian of the Dead. The post came out of her frustration that overseas readers were referring to her and her book as Australian.

I read the book with this in mind, and I have to say that my first reaction was one big 'what are you people, high?' I can see why Karen was so outraged, as the book is not just rich in...

The Phantom is a Woman!

Mostly this post is because  godiyeva doesn't check her email enough, and I need her to see this link about how they have finally written a Phantom comic in which the legendary costume is worn by a woman.

I never found the love for the Phantom, I'm afraid – it was all far too patriarchal to make a dent in my cultural stash – but this review makes me tempted to give it a try. I'm particularly excited that it's a 19th century story and that the plot revolves around another female character....

This week in Doctor Whoism

It's been a Doctor Who sort of week for me, which should surprise no one.

I'm still listening my way through the backlist episodes of the prolific Radio Free Skaro podcast. It's been so entertaining going back to the beginning, in that gap between seasons two and three. They're just so young and hopeful and uncynical, and so very in love with David Tennant's Doctor and RTD as a writer. Heh. I think it's kind of downhill from here. My favourite episode this week was #42, their...

Where The Books Live

This not writing on weekends thing is hard to get used to. Having another adult in the house used to drive me straight to the computer, whereas now it makes me excited that I have a chance to do some tidying while not juggling two children…

Mostly I've been juggling children. But I managed to read a bit, to sew a bit, and to do a whole lot of domestic stuff. I also managed to not do anything on the secret list of things I wanted to achieve this weekend. I really have to stop making those s...

Writing in April

70021 / 120000

Weird to think that April was the first time I had touched Book #3 (which may or may not be called "Saturnalia," publishers are hoping for something a little more X of/and X to match the first one… we'll see… ooh how's "Ides of Saturnalia"???) since NaNoWriMo last year (November, of course) in which I whipped out the first 50,000 words of this sucker.

By the time April rolled around, I was keen to get going, though a touch alarmed at my utter lack of an ending. At the end o...

Book! In Pictures!

I wasn't even going to check my post office box today, because what could be in there? Nothing exciting, that's for sure.

Like this:

Or this:

Or, you know, this little old thing:

My very own, hot off the presses, genuine BOOK. Isn't she pretty?

Here she is reclining on what is now being referred to as "the library bed"

Here she is in a stack with some other likeminded books, showing off how sturdy her spine is:

Here she is on a real shelf, proving her bookish credentials:

Here she is slumming it...

Why Writers Sometimes Seem Twitchy And Nervous (as publication day approaches)

I found out yesterday that Power and Majesty could be in the shops as early as 25 May, which threw me into a bit of a tizzy. June still sounded safely and longingly far off, but May arrives on Saturday, and really, I'm already getting an armchair in May, do I deserve a book too?

(the armchair will be my combined mothers day & birthday present and I am ridiculously excited by it, who needs surprises? I want a CHAIR)

There are many tough parts to being a writer. The long period of not getting ...

App'd! (The Guild comic #1)

I was vaguely excited this week to discover that Felicia Day is writing a comic of The Guild! If you haven't seen it, The Guild is a funny, whip-smart web TV series (three seasons and counting) about a group of online roleplayers.

Then I found out that issue #1 of the comic was available as an iPhone/iPad app, and my excitement went from vague to OMG in about 5 seconds flat. It cost about $1.20 Australian, and I downloaded it while waiting for my daughter to get ready for bed.

Anyone who...

Galactic Suburbia Episode 5 – Show Notes

Episode 5 of Galactic Suburbia is up!  You can download it directly from the site, or find us through iTunes.

In this episode, we discuss:

News

Shirley Jackson Award nominees

New Aqueduct Line to be released at Wiscon

Locus Award shortlist

A Decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy
Edited by Rachel Swirsky and Sean Wallace
Introduction by Ann VanderMeer


Twelfth Planet Press Mother's Day Sale – and watch this space for the upcoming TPP fiction podcast, on alternating weeks to Galactic Suburbia

...