Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 67

Crowdfunding: Fun For All the Family

We’ve had an amazing couple of days – not even halfway through Day 3 of our 31 Day crowdfunding project for Cranky Women of History, and we’re already 38% funded! I’ve been madly refreshing the emails and the Pozible site because it’s ridiculously compulsive – and I know for a fact Tehani and I aren’t the only ones treating this as a spectator sport! You know who you are.

I have been teaching Raeli about percentages, crowdfunding, and other mathematical wonders, thanks to this project. She has learned to ask ‘how many supporters NOW?’ when she walks past my computer. (54 – and I love you all!)

Yesterday was amazing in other ways too – thanks to Briony Kidd, local filmaker who hosted a fantastic Write-In for a bunch of her friends. We took over her house from 10am to 6pm, with regularly scheduled breaks (but not too many of them) and wrote up a storm. I was a bit sad I couldn’t quite justify taking the whole weekend away from family stuff, but actually I think if I’d done both days of the Write-In I might have killed myself – because I managed to write a colossal 8,300 words on the project I haven’t quite got up the nerve to tell the Internet about yet because I’m too excited about it.

It might be a web serial. Cough. I WILL SAY NO MORE.

Anyway, four chapters – 8.3K. I’m still in shock. I also refuse to feel guilty about not writing a word today, though I did a bunch of walking (still trying to unkink my neck muscles from yesterday, plus car was in shop) and managed to make a major breakthrough on my Great Victorian Fairy Novel without typing a word.

Also I read my first Stephanie Laurens novel, of which more later. I just found out that she not only writes family epic kickass Regency romances, though, she’s also Australian. HELLO AUSTRALIAN WOMEN WRITERS CHALLENGE, I THINK I WILL ACHIEVE YOU THIS YEAR.

And look at me, I blogged. Hello, blog.

Check out Lee Battersby, blogging about Charlotte Corday for the Cranky Ladies Women’s History Month blog tour.

Cranky Ladies of History are GO

And we’re off! Lovely to see some enthusiastic early pledges at the Pozible site – especially some love for the exclusive Cranky Ladies calendar option – I”m actually really excited about putting that together, it’s going to be a combination of historical art, genuine historical snark, and some really important dates to remember!

Like, did you know Wonder Woman’s anniversary is October 25? NOW YOU KNOW. But wouldn’t it be handy to have some sort of calendar to keep track of these things?

I’m also completely gobsmacked that someone already snapped up our top tier reward, the hardback copy annotated by me. Definitely going to have to make that one special for our lovely supporter.

HUGS TO EVERYONE, TODAY IS LOVELY!

The Cranky Ladies of History Blog Tour has kicked off over at Fablecroft with Tehani’s post on The Night Witches.

And don’t forget to check out the piece that started it all – Liz Barr on Tsaritsa Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, the Patron Saint of Cranky Ladies.

Friday Links Returns!

And so does the SFWA Bulletin. The official announcement went up this week, as the issue is currently being printed and while this process takes more time than we would like, the e-book should be available by next week. Yes, non members are perfectly allowed to purchase it, though if you want to order a print copy I suggest you get on to that ASAP – the email for the SFWA office is in that article.

I really need to get back to doing these posts every week. So many links, so little time!

Anil Dash writes about The Year I Didn’t Retweet Men, a social experiment that reaped many rewards, and quite a bit of hate mail.

Spec Fic 13 have announced their lineup of authors – this is a reprint of the best SFF blogging of the year, curated this year by the Book Smugglers. And I’m in it!

Already linked to this one via Galactic Suburbia, but it’s VERY important so I’ll put it here too – Juliet McKenna talking about women’s SF books in bookshops and how many of us lose the game before we’re even out of the changing rooms. Liz Bourke also has some thoughts on some bookshops and their lack of representation of female SFF authors.

Following up on this is an equally important piece by the legendary Janny Wurts on The Unrecognized Trajectory of Slow Burn Success (something that is much harder to achieve in the current publishing climate). She particularly notes that while many of us believe that social media is a great leveller in allowing obscure works to find their readers – it doesn’t always work that way. She also provides a whole new perspective (for me) on Tolkien’s success which is fascinating.

Another great essay from the Women Destroy Science Fiction Kickstarter Campaign: We are the 50% by Rachel Swirsky.

Let’s talk about toast. This fascinating article tracking the latest ‘artisanal food craze’ becomes a deeply personal story of mental illness, creativity, and building your own survival plan. It is the most inspiring story involving toast that I have ever read.

Alisa Krasnostein at TPP talks about the role of the publisher and why 70% royalties isn’t necessarily the awesome deal you think it is.

Sarah Rees Brennan talks openly about how her books are not fanfic, despite her background as a teen fanfic writer before she sold her first novel, and how often this accusation has not only dogged her career, but is used to humiliate or dismiss female authors generally.

Very out of date now, but Catherynne Valente writes passionately about Valentine’s Day and why it upsets her to have it mercilessly stomped on as a holiday. (my favourite bit is where she points out that all the holidays are made up, not just this one)

Sharon Lee talks about re-reading her own book, Agent of Change, first published thirty years ago – and why writing science fiction with strong, capable women (in books aimed at mythical 14 year old boys) was so important then & continues to be important now.

A great Kate or Die comic about the stresses involved in speaking up about sexual harassment or gender issues in a male dominated industry.

Blue Milk continues to chronicle the problem with feminism and women’s issues in the media – in this case, the damaging idea that there is something irretrievably wrong with stay at home mothers – especially the ones who (gasp) might actually WANT to stay home with their kids. Feminism is about having choices, people, not judging other people for theirs. It’s not hard.

A couple of interesting observations on Courtney Milan’s Brothers Sinister series, concerning alt history (it never occurred to me that The Countess Conspiracy is science fiction, that’s awesome!) and the portrayal of Indian characters.

Prelude to a Crowdfunding

All those people who asked what I was going to do with all this time once Jemima started Kinder? Well, yes. They can stop asking silly questions in future, can’t they?

Today was the first week I had the full three days (it alternates, two and then three) and it didn’t feel like nearly enough to get anything done – though at the same time I did get quite a lot done, AND had time to have a cold (seriously, my child starting school is the closest I ever get to sick leave) and had time to read and breathe and keep up with the washing up.

It’s like I don’t know myself any more.

My main problem, as I see it, is that I hit my month’s wordcount goal a few days ago, and while I promptly set myself a ‘stretch goal,’ I obviously didn’t believe in it because I haven’t written a word since.

I have edited a short story that’s appearing in a pro anthology later this year, and I did my BAS two days early instead of my usual one day late, so there’s that.

Also, finally, FINALLY, I finally ticked off the final stages of the SFWA Bulletin that has been filling my world since I committed to it back before Christmas. It is in the hands of printers and e-book designers now, and off my desk which means I can be fond of it again. I’m proud of what we did with it, but it’s going to be a while before I volunteer again to take on an editing job…

OH WAIT.

There’s this other project that has been waiting in the wings, ready to fly. Tehani and I have been plotting the Cranky Ladies of History anthology, featuring a bunch of exciting authors and even more exciting historical women of note. Tehani blogs about the project here.

We’re launching a Pozible crowdfunding campaign to pay pro rates for our authors, starting on Saturday and running for the whole of March. To celebrate the book AND Women’s History Month, we’re also setting up a massive cranky ladies of history blog tour to take over the internet with cranky, angry, downright furious queens, bluestockings, poets, scientists, artists, wives, warriors, politicians, mistresses, vixens, viragos, gunslingers, pirates and many, many more.

It’s going to be fun, and hopefully by the end of the month we’ll have our book funded! We’re especially excited that we succeeded in our application to partner with Arts Tasmania – and they’ll be giving us an extra $2000 if we fund successfully.

I’d apologise for the fact that I’m going to be blogging, Tweeting and generally declaiming about historical ladies who want to punch you in the face all month but I REGRET NOTHING.

Hobart Book Launch: Ink Black Magic & Path of Night

Galactica Suburbia 94

Download the new episode now!

In which we get excited about awards, and sexism in SF. In other words, it’s Galactic Suburbia!

Aurealis Award Shortlist

Tiptree Award Winner & Shortlist – first Australian Tiptree winner! Congrats to N.A. Sulway!

Culture Consumed:

Alex: All Harry Potter movies; Project Bond; Supurbia

Tansy: Regency romance novels, Minister of Chance

Alisa: Supurbia

Pet Subject: the not-SFWA “debate”, the pervasive dismissal of women in SF

Note: this episode was recorded several days before broadcast, before Sean Fodera made his apology to Mary Robinette Kowal, who accepted it gracefully. Please look at her post about why she accepted, and the role of apologies in general.

Some other relevant articles we discuss or allude to, or which Alisa found after recording and wanted us to include – keep following the Galactic Suburbia Facebook Page as she’s been updating it with interesting links daily:

GENERAL BACKGROUND

The Radish hosted early discussion on the Bulletin anti-censorship petition.

The Daily Dot coverage of the petition & responses in the community.

Steven Gould on why the petition was based on a false premise.

SL Huang writes Can We Please Not Rewrite History, Folks?, and worth checking in on SL’s original Timeline of 2013 SFWA Controversies, now updated. [my apologies for stumbling over pronouns on the podcast]

THE LATEST WAVE OF TURMOIL, DISSENT AND SEXISM

Silvia Moreno-Garcia outlines the invective against Mary Robinette Kowal on SFF.net and the politics of “plunging necklines,” “diaphanous white outfits” and ankles.

Mary Robinette Kowal’s post on Being a Representational Example

Scalzi presents the Insect Army t-shirt design courtesty of Ursula Vernon’s awesome artwork.

N.K. Jemisin makes her own comments on the current shenanigans. Some really important words here. Alex also mentions Nora’s important tweet from 5 days ago:

N. K. Jemisin @nkjemisin

The loss of privilege is not oppression. The loss of privilege is not oppression. THE LOSS OF PRIVILEGE IS. NOT. OPPRESSION.

The post we possibly discuss in most detail on the podcast today: Juliet McKenna’s Why The SFWA Shoutback Matters

A really important message from James Patrick Kelly on age, and generations, and making a difference.

and don’t forget the…

Galactic Suburbia Award!! for activism and/or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction. There’s still time to send us your suggestions – only work from 2013, please, but start saving the 2014 links to send us next year.

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!

Authors of Influence

It’s a while since I’ve got my feminist rant on. I rather missed it.

So on Wednesday I put up a post about wanting to see more discussion about the female authors who formed an early influence on the writers around me. It struck a chord, apparently. My Twitter and Facebook feeds (not to mention comments on the blog itself) filled up with list after list after list of female authors, stacks of them, mostly connected to the SFF genres. It was particularly fun when conversation struck up – one name mentioned reminded someone else of another, and so on.

It was pretty cool.

My favourite tweet of the day was from Sunil Patel (@ghostwritingcow): “I love seeing the names of all these female authors in one place. It reminds me THEY EXIST. I’m so used to seeing male names.”

I also had a request to assemble the full list of responses to my public question. Here they are – the number next to them shows how often they were mentioned by different people.

It’s a very unscientific survey, not least because I forgot to specify ‘SFF’ in the tweet etc. and thus got a more diverse range of names than even I expected. I’m not sorry. This list makes me happy.

If anyone wants to write a guest post for my blog about *why* one of these authors (or any female author missed off this list) was so important to you early on, please get in touch! I’m particularly interested in the question of influence over later or current writers/editors.

Authors/Editors of Influence

Anne McCaffrey (24)

Ursula Le Guin (21)

Marion Zimmer Bradley (12)

Susan Cooper (11)

Robin McKinley (9)

Andre Norton (8)

Mercedes Lackey (7)

James Tiptree Jr/Alice Sheldon/Raccoona Sheldon (7)

Diana Wynne Jones (6)

Tamora Pierce (6)

Isobelle Carmody (5)

Joanna Russ (5)

Louise Cooper (4)

Katherine Kerr (4)

Robin Hobb (4)

Patricia A McKillip (4)

Emma Bull (4)

Janny Wurts (4)

Julian May (4)

Enid Blyton (4)

Kate Elliott (4)

Elyne Mitchell (4)

Margaret Weis (3)

E. Nesbit (3)

Katherine Kurtz (3)

Madeleine L’Engle (3)

Patricia Wrightson (3)

Mary Stewart (3)

C.J. Cherryh (3)

Jane Yolen (3)

Octavia E Butler (2)

Terri Windling (2)

Ellen Datlow (2)

Helen Garner (2)

Catherine Jinks (2)

Juliet Marillier (2)

Barbara Hambly (2)

Melanie Rawn (2)

Patricia C Wrede (2)

Sheri S Tepper (2)

Rosemary Sutcliffe (2)

Shirley Jackson (2)

Agatha Christie (2)

Doris Lessing (2)

Sara Douglass (2)

Tanya Huff (2)

Tanith Lee (2)

Anne Bishop (2)

Kate Forsyth (2)

Susanna Clarke (2)

Anne Rice (2)

Lois McMaster Bujold (2)

Connie Willis (2)

Mary Doria Russell

Nerine Dorman

Kaaron Warren

Angela Slatter

Karen Runge

Joanne Burns

Lisa Bellear

Dorothy Porter

Erma Bombeck

Zilpha Keatley Snyder

AS Byatt

Patricia Highsmith

Mickey Zucker Reichert

Judith Wright

Alice Walker

Jackie Collins

Marguerite Henry

Isak Dinesen

Flannery O’Connor

Annie Dillard

Diane Duane

Claire Bell

Janet Kagan

PC Hodgell

KA Applegate

Jackie French

Lucy Sussex

Sharon Shinn

Patricia Briggs

Rob Thurman

Han May

Mary Jo Putney

Dorothy Parker

Leigh Brackett

Sonya Dorman

Robin Klein

Meg Cabot

Ursula Dubosarsky

Holly Lisle

Ann M Martin

Margaret Atwood

Ellen Raskin

Kathy Acker

Elizabeth Bear

Lynn Abbey

Elizabeth Moon

Eve Langley

Katherine Mansfield

Angela Thirkell

Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Susan Squires

Susan Sizemore

Lorrie Moore

Glenda Larke

Virginia Andrews

Sharon Penman

Gwyneth Jones

Astrid Lindgren

Posy Simmonds

Beatrix Potter

Angela Carter

J.V. Jones

Freda Warrington

C.L Moore

Sharon Lee

Elinor Brent-Dyer

Ruth Rendell

Val McDiarmid

Margaret Mahy

Vonda McIntyre

M.K. Wren

Mary Brown

Judy Blume

Jessica Amanda Salmonson

Lisa Tuttle

Joan Slonczewski

Leigh Eddings

Pamela Dean

Midori Snyder

Nancy Kress

Ellen Kushner

Storm Constantine

Jo Clayton

Pat O’Shea

Gillian Rubenstein

Jane Gaskell

Megan Whalen Turner

Catherynne Valente

Elizabeth Peters

Jane Austen

Charlotte Bronte

Georgette Heyer

Clare Darcy

Zenna Henderson

Marge Piercy

Mary Shelley

Special mention to:

Sword and Sorceress anthologies (2)

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine

Trixie Belden books

On Influence

Which writers are important to you? Those of you who write, which authors most influenced you?

And before you answer that question, stop and think about the gender thing.

Juliet McKenna has written a brilliant piece about one of the key reasons that female SF authors often struggle to build their careers: how easily their works disappear because they’re not being pre-ordered, promoted or pushed nearly as much as those of their male counterparts.

The meme that the female author in SFF is somehow a rare, precious, unlikely object, persists to this day. But you know what? There were women writing SFF in the 70′s, and not just a token handful. There were women writing in the 80′s and the 90′s and the 00′s and oh look they’re writing RIGHT NOW.

And yet when booksellers (and it’s not just booksellers) put out lists or displays of what to read after George RR Martin, how often are those lists all male?

Of the books I read in my teens, it’s extremely noticeable to me that many of the titles by male authors are still in print, still turning up in bookshops around the world (hello Stockholm!) and yet the titles by female authors… well, let’s just say it’s a good thing I hung on to those yellowing paperbacks, isn’t it?

On Twitter today, there were some responses to Juliet’s article.

Foz Meadows (@fozmeadows) said: What bugs me is that these are meant as *beginner’s* guides – like there’s nowhere else to start but with dudes.

Kameron Hurley (@KameronHurley) said: beginner’s guide! If I was young woman interested in SF& presented that I’d feel so welcome!

and: it’s endless.Why don’t more women write/read SF?Shocker is we still do even tho we’re erased

I (@tansyrr) said: Frustating how many female authors I read in the 90′s you don’t see on shelves now.

Kate Elliott (@KateElliottSFF) said: For me most frustrating those women never spoken of as influential/important.

This is something that’s been burning a hole in my brain for a while now. It’s so rare to hear about the female writers who have influenced those working today. I know that I read a bunch of stuff that changed the way I thought about the genre, and a lot of it was by male writers, but that’s not what I want to talk about today.

Because while the male writers of ‘yore’ often get critiqued by today’s standards, somehow they don’t get swept under the carpet quite as efficiently as the female writers, whose flaws and failings are often held up as the reason WHY they’re no longer read today. The male authors get forgiven for their quirks and ‘of their time’ silliness and behind the scenes scandals, while the female authors do not.

So today I want to talk about a bunch of female writers (and editors) who were early influences on me and my writing.

While David (and as it turns out, Leigh) Eddings introduced me to epic fantasy as a genre, it was Jennifer Roberson’s Cheysuli series that shaped in my head what a fantasy series should look like. Her books were the ones most alive in my head when I sat down at age thirteen to outline my first fantasy series.

Mine wasn’t a *good* fantasy series, nor did I finish even the first volume of it. That’s not the point.

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s the Mists of Avalon exploded my brain in its revision of a wellknown default history with women as the protagonists. Rereading it for the first time last year, I was shocked how familiar it was to me, as if I had reread it every year since I first discovered it in the early 90′s, when I’m pretty sure I never did.

Bradley’s The Firebrand cemented a way of looking at history and at fantasy structures from a gender point of view that I never entirely lost – and unlike Mists of Avalon, I really *did* re-read this one over and over, year after year, for at least a decade. Her Troy and her Amazons will always be in my head.

Speaking of Bradley, the Sword and Sorceress anthologies likewise taught me that the tropes of epic fantasy didn’t have to be as male-centred as they were in so many other books and anthologies, and that there are plenty of female stories to be told. Also, they introduced me to dozens of writers I went on to read and love elsewhere.

Elizabeth Scarborough’s Song of Sorcery taught me about the importance and value of lovely small-scale fantasy stories. It doesn’t always have to be about saving the world.

Anne McCaffrey’s The Rowan is still one of the science fiction novels I think of first when it comes to space opera within Earth’s solar system, and the practicality of inter-planetary transportation.

Mercedes Lackey’s Diana Tregarde series introduced me to the tropes of what would become today’s urban fantasy genre, long before I found Laurell K Hamilton.

I fell in love with comic fantasy in my teens, and that interest led to my first published novel. While Terry Pratchett’s Discworld was a big part of this, it was the books by authors like Esther Friesner and Carolyn Cushman that made me think there was room in this subgenre for girls like me. (Witch and Wombat especially! It was the first time I ever read the ‘fantasy gamers/fans travel through a genuine fantasy world’ trope.)

Gillian Rubenstein wrote the closest thing to cyberpunk I read before university with her children’s novels set in computer games starting with Space Demons.

Tamora Pierce gave me women’s issues and sword fighting and a heroine who worked against her standard medieval-ish society and made it BETTER. It still bemuses me that contraceptive jewellery is not as standard a trope in fantasy fiction that I assumed it would be.

Robin McKinley made the fairy tales real.

The first piece of feminist science fiction I read that lodged itself inside my head was Lucy Sussex’ short story “My Lady Tongue.”

The academic/non fiction works Women of Other Worlds (edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams) taught me about Tiptree and Joanna Russ and so much of what I’d missed in my reading thus far. I was in my very early 20′s and SO READY FOR THIS.

Discovering the Pamela Sargent Women of Wonder reprint anthologies in an English language bookshop in Rome when I was 24 has forever skewed the way I look at the history of science fiction and I’m NOT SORRY.

I could keep going, but I’m trying to train myself to write shorter blog posts.

WHO ARE YOURS?

Agathon #14 The Sittaford Mystery (1931)

Kathryn and I started out with a challenge to read every book written by Agatha Christie, in order of publication – we’re blogging as we go along. We spoil all the things!

Yes, it’s been a while, but we’re still going! The Sittaford Mystery is also sometimes called Murder at Hazelmoor.



KATHRYN:

First I need to say that I didn’t actually note the giant spoiler on the front cover, until I was photographing it for the blog…

This feels like a fairly ‘typical’ Christie murder mystery, although it has the distinction of including neither Miss Marple nor Poirot. Instead the detective in charge of the case is an Inspector Narracott, who is described as competent and intelligent, but doesn’t have much in the way of defining features otherwise. Indeed for the first ten chapters of the book I was wondering if Christie had written a mystery in which the detective had no personality at all. Come chapter eleven, however, it becomes apparent that Inspector Narracott is not the star of the book at all. Enter Emily Trefusis, determined to clear her fiance, Jim Pearson, who has been wrongly accused of the murder…

Normally I would be thrilled with a plucky young lady intent on solving a mystery (think Tuppence or Bundle) but I did not warm to Emily. Yes she is a capable young lady, but one of her primary methods is to fool men into thinking that she is less capable than she is, so they help her. Maybe if I was reading this in 1931, this would appeal, but here in 2013 the idea makes me weary. Can’t she just be capable and awesome without hiding it? Emily also seems to be very brittle, which I guess might be the case if your fiance has been accused of murder. She doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humor and it is really not clear why she wants to marry Jim Pearson in the first place, as he seems to be completely incompetent and not even in an adorable way. (It is explained away by Emily declaring she needs someone to giude and look after. Again, this doesn’t appeal to me as a 21st century woman. Too much work!!)

I’m not sure any of the characters in this book rang true, nor were any that likeable. Instead we get a series of cardboard cutouts – old retired army men, grumpy invalids, flighty young women, and anonymous policemen. And while there are clues scattered through the book, and tied up neatly in the end, it felt a bit like an anticlimax. There didn’t seem to be much at stake, and I didn’t really care who had done it.

Even the ‘red herring’ sub plot, which involves an escapee from nearby prison on Dartmoor, is fairly abruptly resolved – to the extent that once the escapee is (spoiler alert) recaptured, his daughter’s response can be pretty much boiled down to ‘Oh well, he’s got pneumonia now. It’s probably just as well if he dies…’

I noted in ‘A Murder at the Vicarage’ that Christie used a first person narrator to good effect to mask the identity of the murderer until Miss Marple chose to reveal him. So just for the record, ‘Sittaford’ used 3rd person/omniscient narration, and the reader follows more than one character. Once Emily works out who did it, we get a few vague descriptions of what she has found, including a declaration of ‘I know who did it now, but not why’, and then that scene fades to black until the final reveal. This kind of felt like cheating…



TANSY:

My apologies for the long delay on this one, I read it back when I had pneumonia last year, really enjoyed it and then never got around to writing it up!

I liked Emily a bit more than you did, K. I found her quite likeable in that Bundle-Tuppence sort of way. I also very much enjoyed the way that her detective work revolved around the exchange of confidences – she feels a lot like a junior Miss Marple. I also liked the journalist she dragged around with her, Charles, and enjoyed their banter.

It was a bit odd that the murder mystery seemed to be less central than the ongoing theme that everyone could see there was something romantic going on between Emily and Charles, and that despite working to save Jim from prison, she was *obviously* going to ditch him for our hapless young reporter. The idea of course is that Emily is herself in denial about this – and the rather odd sort of punchline is in fact that she was right all along about her feelings for Jim and not actually fancying Charles, thank you very much, and she planned to marry the man she was actually engaged with.

While I agree with you that Jim was totally uninteresting, I did find it amusing that Christie was playing with (and debunking) the trope and that Emily did not in fact change her mind purely because Charles was in love with her. Almost like she (Christie) thinks that unrequited love isn’t remotely romantic and doesn’t deserve to be rewarded…

(I have an unfortunate glitch in my programming that responds far too sympathetically to unrequited love stories, and have been trying to debug myself for years to no avail, so I must admit at this point that I was shipping Emily and Charles like mad, damn it).

I think this book might be the point where Christie has realised she’s a bit too sharp and cynical for the genre she’s writing in – it’s set up almost as a parody of her own previous works, with all the details about the murder and the trick to it and so on. But maybe that’s just because she is using so many elements that are used in more iconic books or indeed dozens and dozens of her imitators? This is the first Christie set in a snowbound manor, yes?

It was all terribly clever with the trick to it, but there was something that felt a bit off about it – like a short story worth of plot held together with banter and flirting. Still, I did find it very readable even with a lung that didn’t work, so there’s that.

PREVIOUSLY:

Partners in Crime (1929)

The Mysterious Mr Quin (1930)

Murder at the Vicarage (1930)

NEXT:

Peril at End House (1932)

The Thirteen Problems (1932)

The Feminist Rake and Other Bedtime Stories

So, here’s a thing. I’ve always considered myself a reformed ally of romance writers (having been thoroughly educated by friends that my teenage scorn of the genre was unwarranted and based on many false premises). I’ve read Beyond Heaving Bosoms. I’ve listened to almost every episode of the Will Write For Wine podcast. I know the correct and socially appropriate ways to use phrases like ‘Glittery Hoo-Ha’ and ‘Magical Wang.’

But until very recently, I would never have considered myself a romance reader. Yes, I’ve read most of Jane Austen, some of Georgette Heyer (I prefer her murder mysteries) and all of Jennifer Crusie, and maybe a couple of dozen random contemporary romance titles in my life. Normally my romance reading happens from the outside looking in, though. The occasional genre-crossover title, or books like those of Mary Robinette Kowal and Gail Carriger which starts out using the trappings of romance fiction but moves on further.

Ahem. All of which is a long round about way of saying, I started reading Courtney Milan novels two weeks ago, and now I’ve fallen into Regency Romance and I can’t get out. I don’t want to get out. This shit is PURE CORSETED CRACK and I can’t get enough of it.

I have read sixteen titles in the last fortnight. Seriously. Only about 3 of them were novellas. I have burned my Kindle Paperwhite red-hot. I have started ordering titles from the State Library without worrying if I’m going to read them within the prescribed three weeks because I can’t consume these things fast enough.

I am reading books instead of messing around on the internet. Nearly every day. I don’t recognise myself.

The last time I was this obsessively wild about reading… well, the time before last was that obsessive Harry Potter fanfic reading phase. And the most RECENT occasion was when I got hooked on George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

In fact, I thought about A Game of Thrones (Book 1 of ASOIAF, not the TV series) quite a bit while I tore through the first Courtney Milan series (The Brothers Sinister). The experience of reading both was so very similar.

I’ve isolated two factors which worked so well for me in both instances: intensity of characterisation, and technical brilliance.

In the SF world in particular, and life in general (for people who don’t generally read a lot of romance or fanfic) I see a lot of disparaging of emotional intensity or melodrama (or soapiness) in fiction. I’ve probably contributed to a lot of that myself over the years, because of general book snobbery. But when it’s done really, really well, that heightened emotion and intensity of character can make a reading experience very immersive. A Game of Thrones is unapologetically immersive, plunging you directly into the minds of characters, putting them through the emotional wringer, and then moving on to the next one. The really good historical romances I have been reading do the same thing.

The technical brilliance – well I should say from the outset that I’m not talking about prose skill. Books can have ordinary prose but great technical brilliance, others have wonderful, beautiful prose and struggle with the technical side. The best books (to my mind) usually have both.

Technical stuff is structure and pace, page-turnability, clever worldbuilding, all that stuff that as writers we want to get really good at and kind of don’t want anyone to see us doing deliberately. It’s the stuff that can be hidden behind layers of story and subtext, but it’s the stuff that makes a novel work the way it’s supposed to.

A Game of Thrones is a well written book, and it is technically brilliant. It’s particularly brilliant in its ability to sell a difficult-for-newbies genre to general readers. Martin achieves this with short, punchy chapters full of character intensity, in which something always happens to move the story forward significantly, and the reader is left wanting more. Reading it on my Kindle, I noted that I was never more than 6, usually 2-4 minutes away from the end of a chapter. Book 2 didn’t worry about that stuff so much – the chapters were almost twice as long. It didn’t matter by then – the reader was hooked or not and if they weren’t they probably weren’t reading Book 2.

There’s something about reading on the Kindle that makes me more aware of author technique, I think partly because of the meta information provided. Even with books I am loving but taking my time over (Nicola Griffith’s Hild, for instance) I tend to note things like how far I am through the book, how many minutes to the end of the chapter, that stuff. Which is probably how I came to notice how well structured Courtney Milan’s novels are.

I will now never ever read a romance novel on my Kindle without my brain coming alert at the 50% mark. Because without fail, that’s the turning point, the moment where the story changes substantially and moves into a second, different act. Sometimes it’s the point at which the characters have sex for the first time, or *good* sex for the first time, or realise their love for the person at their side, or start to *trust* the person at their side, or reveal their biggest secret. Sometimes, quite often, it’s the point at which the hero and heroine become a team.

The interesting thing about historical romance (I’m editing quite a few of these ‘regency’ references into ‘historical’ largely because Milan’s novels are mostly Victorian – but the Regency remains the most dominant period in the historical romance genre) as opposed to contemporaries or whatever is that marriage is not necessarily an Austenish completion to the novel. Sometimes it happens at the beginning of the book, sometimes around the middle, sometimes three quarters of the way through. This allows for many narrative options – including the use of unscandalous, within-wedlock sex as one option for our heroes. It also explores some of the social elements of the historical period – such as the fact that marrying for reasons other than a solid loving relationship were pretty common.

The other interesting thing about Regencies is the factor that is constant through all true romance fiction – you know the ending. You know that the story is going to resolve with Heroine A and Hero A in love. It’s how they get there, and what happens along the way, that causes the narrative tension. It also provides anticipation. I have to say, living in today’s spoiler-obsessed pop culture world, what a RELIEF to read books where I know the ending, but the author knows I know the ending, so they’re working really hard to make sure the book is as interesting as possible.

The Regencies where the hero and heroine marry early, often for the ‘wrong’ reasons, are interesting because of the power fantasy this provides for women – the idea that an arranged marriage is actually going to turn into a love story. A ‘realistic’ arranged marriage story, especially one in historical times, is actually something of a horror scenario (hence, Gothic novels). Your heroine is put into the complete control of a man she may not know. That’s TERRIFYING. But in the modern historical romance, it’s all going to be okay.

Romantic movies often frustrate me because they end at the point where, for me, the story should be beginning. It might be because I’m an old married lady, but seeing how the relationship works is far more interesting to me than seeing how it starts. I think that’s one of the reasons I am loving the Regency so much – many of them are not about catching a husband, or resisting the world of the spinsters, or the tensions around whether a couple will marry. Instead, many of them take the marriage as a starting point and devote huge amounts of their narrative to making the marriage *work*.

What I didn’t expect, and perhaps Courtney Milan has spoiled me a bit for this feature, though having gone on to inhale works by Tessa Dare, Sarah McLean and Eloisa James, I have reason to be hopeful she hasn’t, is how FEMINIST so many of these books are. Also, funny.

Bring me a witty novel about two crazy people trying to make their relationship work in a historical era with a feminist twist, and I’m all over it. I don’t care, I should say at this point about ‘realism.’ Realism has no place here, my last novel had a flying sheep in it. I want to read books that make my heart sing.

Which is why the fact that Courtney Milan is such a bestselling superhero of the romance genre makes me love the genre more than I ever thought I would. Because these books are sexy corseted feminist crack on a caboose.

Dukes are a thing in historical fiction. Dukes and Rakes. Some Rogues, Earls, Lords and the occasional saucy Marquess get looks in as well. There’s a lot of hot real estate trading back and forth in these novels. But what Courtney Milan gets so right is that it’s not quite enough of a fantasy these days to have Mr Darcy or Mr Wickham-without-commitment-issues sweep you off your feet. We also want these saucy aristocratic love heroes to think of the women in their lives (not just the ones they’re marrying) as being intelligent equals.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present The Duchess War, in which our agraphobic heroine is hiding from the world so they don’t remember the great Gender Scandal of her past, and our hero is an attention-seeking Duke who is printing Workers’ Rights handbills as part of his campaign to bring down a great industrial injustice created by his late father.

It’s not a spoiler to say that they get together despite the genuine problems they have to overcome. But the passage I want to share, to explain the moment I fell in love with this author, this genre, and what they both had to teach me, is about what happens (at around the 66% mark) when Duke Robert explains to his two closest friends (evolution-theory scientist Sebastian, and Robert’s financial manager Oliver who is also his illegitimate brother) that he is getting married to a lady that the world is going to consider a most scandalous and irregular choice for a Duchess:

“Of course,” Sebastian said, turning away from Robert, “you know what this means, Oliver. The two of us must now organize a wild, debauched party for Robert on the eve of his leg-shackling.” He rubbed his hands together in glee.

Oliver met his gaze calmly. “Wild,” he repeated. “Debauched. I am in complete agreement.”

Robert felt a hint of apprehension. “You know,” he said, “this is kind, but not necessary.”

They ignored him, facing one another.

“Well, you know. Fit the punishment to the criminal, and all that sort of thing. It is Robert, after all.” Sebastian ran his hand through his hair, mussing it. “Now what will we do for women?”

“Really,” Robert said a little more forcefully. “I know I’ve not yet said my wedding vows, but I must insist that…”

But they weren’t paying him any attention. “I know just the thing,” Oliver said, brightening. “Mary Wollstonecraft. I have a copy of a Vindication of the Rights of Women in my room – I’ll be sure to bring that.”

“Excellent,” Sebastian said, rubbing his hands together. “And there’s this letter I received by this curious woman from the United States – one Antoinette Brown. She wrote the most extraordinary things about evolution and women’s rights. I’ll bring that.”

“I have a pamphlet by Emily Davies.”

Robert’s lips twisted upward despite himself.

“I was thinking I could bring a copy of Thomas Payne,” Oliver said, “but that would make our numbers uneven.”

“Violet,” Sebastian said, with a wave of his hand. “She can be surprisingly handy in an argument.”

“Ah, I suppose she’ll do in a pinch.” Oliver stood, and set his hand on Robert’s shoulder. “Let nobody say that the Brothers Sinister have no idea how to be depraved.”

“There shall be brandy!” Sebastian stood. “And we shall drink it, although Robert will stop after two glasses because he always does.”

“There will be food!” Oliver declaimed, mirroring Sebastian’s stance. “And we shan’t drink that, because then we would choke.”

Sebastian grinned. “On the eve of your wedding, Roberts, we shall offer you the sorts of female delights that you have always lusted after. Philosophical tracts upon philosophical tracts, all of them advocating political change that would result in an upheaval of the current social order. We shall set forth their essays, and then…” He paused, as if for dramatic emphasis. “Then, my friends, we shall argue about them!”

And yes, that was the moment that I knew I had to keep reading the series, to find out what kind of wacky and wonderful women would end up with Oliver and Sebastian. Not all the Regency/Victorian historical romances I’ve read have had ridiculously wonderful feminist heroes like these, or raised issues like abortion, mixed-race relationships, deliberate childlessness and the social limits of women the way Milan does across her many books, but I am loving the fresh modern take on this traditional genre that allows for powerful female friendships, powerful male friendships, and challenging the conservative views of historical “accuracy” by flinging caution to the wind and just telling great stories. Plus most if not all of them have seriously witty banter. Gateway drug acquired!

I have many more thoughts about romance fiction, and writing, and why reading Regency is making me think so much about writing technique, but I think that’s enough for now.

Recommended starting points for funny, self aware historical romance:

The Governess Affair, by Courtney Milan (free novella on the Kindle introducing the set up of The Duchess War etc. about the parents of Robert & Oliver)

One Dance With a Duke, by Tessa Dare

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, by Sarah McLean

More authors and books have been recommended in the comments. Add your favourites!