Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 177
April 17, 2010
Ripping Ozzie Reads
Ripping Ozzie Reads, the ROR writing blog, has moved to Wordpress. I'm pretty happy about this, as Wordpress is way more fun to play with than Blogger 
If you use an RSS feed, please update it!
I posted over there today with some thoughts about my shiny new cover art for Power and Majesty. Which is as good a time as any to show you the cover again… and again… and again…
Cities, and Cities
Reading the interview with Felix Gilman in a recent Locus, I was gratified to hear someone else talking about cities in fantasy, and how awesome it is to have them (they are, after all, far superior to bogs, marshes, steppes and castles).
I promptly decided to write a blog post about awesome cities in fantasy, but it's been a long week and all I could come up with was the Emerald City, Ankh Morpork & Lankhmar, in that order.
Oh okay and maybe Gotham City. Which I'm pretty sure counts.
So help ...
Further Shelvage
Putting books on shelves is one of the most fun EVER things to do. Even if it has to be negotiated around the schedule of a cranky baby, who currently sleeps in the room full of bookcases & books to be moved. Which means that all clearing of shelves, moving of shelves, and filling carry bags/boxes with books to haul out, has to be done while she is awake.
You may already have spotted the flaw in this plan, which is that awake baby is awake, and does not particularly like s...
April 15, 2010
Galactic Suburbia Episode Four (show notes)
Episode 4 of Galactic Suburbia is up on the site. Subscriptions should be updated shortly.
Here are the show notes for easy reading:
News Discussed
Tin Duck results
Australian Shadows Award 2009
Hugo Shortlist
Yonmei's post on feminist response to Hugo list
Alisa debriefs from Swancon 2010 and the launch of 2011 (Natcon 50, earlybird price lasts until April 18) and provides a homework reading list for 2011, as discussed on a recent Swancon panel:
Sean Williams:
The Resurrected Man & Metal...
The April Slog
April has been a mixed month for me, writingwise. The Easter holidays and a whole lot of personal stuff smashed into me, to the point where I stopped, reassessed, and changed my plan. Instead of getting stressed of my week of no writing, I counted out how many weekdays I had left of April, and bumped up my daily goal to 1200 words. Sorted!
As predicted, though (and not properly prepared for) I've been finding it hard to get back into the swing of my book. What I really n...
April 14, 2010
Dead Gorgeous
Raeli and I have had pretty good luck with the 5:20 timeslot on ABC Kids lately. I'll admit I wasn't that into the Sleepover Club, which had her fascinated, except for the fun I had from spotting unrealistically young actors who went on to be slightly more famous and/or in Neighbours. We then fell in love with the Roman Mysteries. And our latest unmissable is "Dead Gorgeous," which apart from the dreadful chicklit title (I much prefer the original title Dead Normal) is an earnest and...
April 12, 2010
Ardeur, (edited) by Laurell K Hamilton
Another of the Benbella Smart Pop books, Ardeur is a collection of essays about the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels by Laurell K Hamilton. The coup for this particular book is that they have scored the author herself as "editor" of the essays, a role she shares with the more discreetly credited Leah Wilson. Hamilton contributes an 'introduction' to each of the essays, though they are really more personal reactions and in some cases justifications for the themes raised by the essayists. ...
April 11, 2010
Because Trilogies Are Awesome
In recentish times I've talked about my top 10 standalone fantasy novels, why series novels should not pretend to be standalone fantasy novels, and the kind of standalone fantasy novel that's really a stealthy series.
There's one kind of fantasy novel I haven't discussed in any depth, and it's the fantasy format which is most iconic as well as the most vilified. It also, apparently, sells better than any other fantasy format.
I'm talking about the trilogy.
The trilogy gets a bad rap, mostly...
Review Index 09-10
Since I started this blog nearly six months ago, I have reviewed over 25 books! This index post is mostly for my own reference…
April 2010
Heist Society, by Ally Carter
Evernight, by Claudia Gray
The Changeover, by Margaret Mahy
Chicks Dig Time Lords
March 2010
Lifelode, by Jo Walton
Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest
Neptune Noir
Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen
February 2010
Scarlett Fever, by Maureen Johnson
Dear Swoosie, by Penni Russon & Kate Constable
Blackout, by Connie Willis
