Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 68

Aurealis’d!

It’s always exciting when the Aurealis Awards shortlists come out! Every separate category is judged by a different panel of industry professionals and volunteers – editors, writers, librarians, reviewers, etc. So there’s lots of diversity and often quite a few surprises. This year it’s definitely worth noting the number of small press and self-published works among the novels – usually the bigger publishers dominate the novel category, and it’s only a year or two ago that these shortlists included their first EVER self-published title.

I’m very proud to see Fablecroft and Twelfth Planet so strongly represented, a massive shout out to Jo Anderton for having a year of Many Nominations (they don’t come along every year!), and I can’t say I’m not delighted to have my own Ink Black Magic right there on the Fantasy Novel shortlist.

More info about the awards can be found at www.aurealisawards.com

2013 Aurealis Awards – Finalists

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK OR GRAPHIC NOVEL

Savage Bitch by Steve Carter and Antoinette Rydyr (Scar Studios)

Mr Unpronounceable Adventures by Tim Molloy (Milk Shadow Books)

Burger Force by Jackie Ryan (self published)

Peaceful Tomorrows Volume Two by Shane W Smith (Zetabella Publishing)

The Deep Vol. 2: The Vanishing Island

BEST CHILDREN’S BOOK

Kingdom of the Lost, book 2: Cloud Road by Isobelle Carmody (Penguin Group Australia)

Refuge by Jackie French (Harper Collins)

Song for a scarlet runner by Julie Hunt (Allen & Unwin)

The four seasons of Lucy McKenzie by Kirsty Murray (Allen & Unwin)

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan (Hachette Australia)

Ice Breaker: The Hidden 1 by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)



BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT FICTION

“Mah Song” by Joanne Anderton (The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories, FableCroft

Publishing)

“By Bone light” by Juliet Marillier (Prickle Moon, Ticonderoga Publications)

“Morning Star” by D.K. Mok (One Small Step, an anthology of discoveries, FableCroft

Publishing)

“The Year of Ancient Ghosts” by Kim Wilkins (The Year of Ancient Ghosts, Ticonderoga Publications)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

The Big Dry by Tony Davies (Harper Collins)

Hunting by Andrea Host (self published)

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)

Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near (Random House Australia)

The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn (University of Queensland Press)



BEST HORROR SHORT FICTION

“Fencelines” by Joanne Anderton (The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories, FableCroft

Publishing)

“The Sleepover” by Terry Dowling (Exotic Gothic 5, PS Publishing)

“The Home for Broken Dolls” by Kirstyn McDermott (Caution: Contains Small Parts, Twelfth Planet Press)

“The Human Moth” by Kaaron Warren (The Grimscribe’s Puppets, Miskatonic Press)

“The Year of Ancient Ghosts” by Kim Wilkins (The Year of Ancient Ghosts, Ticonderoga

Publications)

BEST HORROR NOVEL

The Marching Dead by Lee Battersby (Angry Robot Books)

The First Bird by Greig Beck (Momentum)

Path of Night by Dirk Flinthart (FableCroft Publishing)

Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near (Random House Australia)

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BEST FANTASY SHORT FICTION

“The Last Stormdancer” by Jay Kristoff (Thomas Dunne Books)

“The Touch of the Taniwha” by Tracie McBride (Fish, Dagan Books)

“Cold, Cold War” by Ian McHugh (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Scott H Andrews)

“Short Circuit” by Kirstie Olley (Oomph: a little super goes a long way, Crossed Genres)

“The Year of Ancient Ghosts” by Kim Wilkins (The Year of Ancient Ghosts, Ticonderoga Publications)



BEST FANTASY NOVEL

Lexicon by Max Barry (Hachette Australia)

A Crucible of Souls by Mitchell Hogan (self published)

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)

Newt’s Emerald by Garth Nix (Jill Grinberg Literary Management)

Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts (FableCroft Publishing)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT FICTION

“The Last Tiger” by Joanne Anderton (Daily Science Fiction)

“Mah Song” by Joanne Anderton (The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories, FableCroft

Publishing)

“Seven Days in Paris” by Thoraiya Dyer (Asymmetry, Twelfth Planet Press)

“Version 4.3.0.1” by Lucy Stone (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #57)

“Air, Water and the Grove” by Kaaron Warren (The Lowest Heaven, Pandemonium Press)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Lexicon by Max Barry (Hachette)

Trucksong by Andrew Macrae (Twelfth Planet Press)

A Wrong Turn At The Office Of Unmade Lists by Jane Rawson (Transit Lounge)

True Path by Graham Storrs (Momentum)

Rupetta by Nike Sulway (Tartarus Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2012 by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Eds), (Ticonderoga Publications)

One Small Step, An Anthology Of Discoveries by Tehani Wessely (Ed) (FableCroft Publishing)

Dreaming Of Djinn by Liz Grzyb (Ed) (Ticonderoga Publications)

The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Of The Year: Volume Seven by Jonathan Strahan (Ed) (Night Shade Books)

Focus 2012: Highlights Of Australian Short Fiction by Tehani Wessely (Ed) (FableCroft Publishing)

BEST COLLECTION

The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories by Joanne Anderton (FableCroft Publishing)

Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer (Twelfth Planet Press)

Caution: Contains Small Parts by Kirstyn McDermott (Twelfth Planet Press)

The Bride Price by Cat Sparks (Ticonderoga Publications)

The Year of Ancient Ghosts by Kim Wilkins (Ticonderoga Publications)

Friday Links Loves Me, She Loves Me Not

I seem to have forgotten how to blog. Massive things have been happening – it’s been a hectic fortnight full of editing, guest appearances online, writing, reading all the regency romance novels (yes really), plotting crowdfunding projects, internet snark and oh yes, my youngest daughter starting school.

This post by E. Catherine Tobler, The Women We Don’t See, is about SFF reading habits, especially when people forget to read women, and I meant to write a comment on that post citing some of our immensely positive responses from male listeners to Galactic Suburbia who now go out of their way to track and actively change their reading gender balance, but now it’s two weeks later and possibly the moment is gone. Great post, though.

Marianne De Pierres and I turned up on the Skiffy and Fanty podcast, talking about Australian SFF as part of their World SF Tour. We haven’t chatted for ages, so it was lovely! We did our best to cram as much of our knowledge about the current scene as well as the historical context, though Shaun managed to stump us both by citing some pulp fiction facts that were news to us!

I also appeared on the latest episode of Verity! talking about Time Lords as villains, and in the latest SF Signal MindMeld, talking about when side characters take over a story.

This one’s an old post, but relevant to the last episode of Galactic Suburbia, in which I tentatively suggested that the entire religious system in Marie Brennan’s A History of Dragons was based on Judaism. I was right!

Women Destroyed Science Fiction this week, with the all-female special issue of Lightspeed not only funding at Kickstarter, but reaching the stretch goals that allowed women to destroy fantasy and horror at the same time. (I want to submit to these but all the short fiction I’ve been writing lately has been destroying history instead)

A rather lovely feature of the Women Destroy Science Fiction campaign has been a series of short essays by women, highlights including: Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff talks about losing Asimov subscribers for making them feel things, Juliette Wade on soft sciences and hard science fiction, and Cheryl Morgan on being A Science Fictional Woman.

A nice little piece about Frenemies as a romance fiction trope was sparked off by listening to Lynne talking about it on Verity.

Jenny Crusie is one of the best when it comes to analysing pop culture for story structure, and she tapped into something very relevant to my interests with What Do We Do With A Problem Like Laurel Lance? For those not snarking their way through Season 2 of Arrow, what we have here is the Lana Lang effect – when a female character is established as The True Love Interest in an ensemble show without any serious thought of what makes an effective romantic foil, and thus is abandoned by the writers to look sad and pretty for most of the episodes, so they can concentrate on writing characters they (and the audience) like better. (It doesn’t help when a large amount of your audience has quite specific expectations of what a character partly based on Black Canary is going to be like, AKA awesome, and all they’re getting is sad and pretty)

My friend Iz and I have in fact solved the Laurel Lance problem ourselves by Googling a range of obscure DC supervillainesses in order to find the best one she can become. But it’s nice that Jenny Crusie had a go at it too.

The BBC has announced that all their comedy panel shows recorded from now on will have women in them. It’s an interesting piece that also shows why some female performers are reluctant to enter that space, and why the only half dozen women who do get regular invites are pretty much over the whole thing. There are comparisons to be made here with panel parity in SF conventions, I am sure. If we look hard enough.

A major supernatural TV drama is being made by the BBC & Foxtel in Kettering, Tasmania, written by local female scriptwriter Victoria Madden. This is pretty awesome, not only for the creative jobs it will provide and inspire, but because you know, Tasmania looks amazing on film. Check out our scenery!

This adorable comic depicts how hard it is for a girl born with pink hair to avoid becoming part of a wistful anime series.

Katherine Kerr guests at Jim C Hines’ blog, talking about the appeal of ‘boys books’ for girls. Laurel Snyder, meanwhile, talks about why boys should read girl books too.

Ginger Haze made a comic about going into comic stores while being female, and made everyone sad.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve spent a large part of this week reading responses to the SFWA Petition Debacle, so I thought I’d round up some of the more interesting links.

The whole affair has led to some really interesting discussion and debate about, among other things: censorship, the First Amendment, what Free Speech actually means, the many consequences of Free Speech, editorial responsibility, what people want in an industry journal, all the useful stuff SFWA does and how they could improve, sexism, racism, hurtful language, why you shouldn’t sign a petition unless you agree with everything it says, why you shouldn’t include sexist diatribes and comparisons to slavery in anything you write but especially formal petitions, and some uncomfortable prodding around the generational divides in SFF (not just SFWA), and why it’s not okay to dismiss people because of their age. Oh, and if you use Free Speech as an excuse to say hateful things, people are going to hold it against you. It’s a thing that people do.

I think it was also pretty comprehensively raised that just because people whose fiction you like have signed a legal document doesn’t mean they did so in an informed manner, but maybe that’s just what I took away from the scenario… but what do I know, I’m just the current (temporary, acting) editor of the SFWA Bulletin.

The main thrust of the story can be found here at Radish Reviews, with particular interest happening in the comments as Robert Silverberg (among others) turns up.

The Daily Dot provides some fairly neutral coverage and lots of links.

CC Finlay, one of my fellow members of the SFWA Bulletin Task Force, got in early with a very important statement about how editing and censorship are not the same thing.

And of course, the statement from our President, Steven Gould, about the SFWA’s position on censorship and the false premise upon which the petition was based.

Context is important. The reason that this fairly minor dispute blew up so thoroughly is because many of the people involved are still very angry about what happened last year – those who feel there was a great deal of inappropriate content in the SFWA Bulletin as well as those who feel the writers and editor of the Bulletin were treated badly. Rachael Acks writes passionately about why sexism and belittling behaviour is not acceptable in an industry journal for a professional organisation.

Her comparison to online moderation policies is a really important point, I feel. It’s easier than ever before to publish whatever the hell you want to say in a variety of places, and online moderation has had to adapt and become more thorough and restrictive in order to ensure individual and diverse voices are not drowned out by the crap, the insults, the derailments and the threats. For those not totally immersed in today’s online culture, this idea of moderating to aid communication seems weirdly counter-intuitive, and even oppressive. For others, the value of moderation seems so obvious that it’s not even worth debating. This is a much more serious “generational” divide in our culture than anything that has to do with anyone’s date of birth.

SL Huang (who also maintains the surprisingly useful and neutral ‘SFWA timeline’) also wrote a good piece “Can We Please Not Rewrite History, Folks” about why it’s not okay to characterise one side of last year’s Bulletin controversy as “some chaps said one thing about lady editors and the internet punched them in the face.”

Silvia Moreno-Garcia puts a lid on the often-cited example that cheesecake art is acceptable in SF because of beefcake art in romance fiction. Yeah, romance covers are pretty much doing away with that tradition, and do you know where they never put beefcake art? on their industry journal!

John Scalzi, who is not of course making comment on this particular issue because he promised not to comment on SFWA matters for a whole year after stepping down as former president, happened to blog about Ten Things About Petitions and Freedom of Speech. Convenient timing, really.

A lot of the discussion also happened in more ‘informal’ public venues such as across Twitter and Facebook. I’m not going to attempt to link to any of it, except for this charming bit of comic relief: When in Doubt, Honey Badgers

Galactic Suburbia 93

In which 2014 is officially a thing. Who saw that coming?

We’re back! How did you spend your summer? (yes, we know some of you spent it having winter, but honestly, is that our fault?)

Galactic Suburbia returns for a fresh new year of culture consumed, awards commentary, feminist snark and adorable baby gurgles.

Culture Consumed:

Alex: On the Steel Breeze, Alastair Reynolds; Riddick; The Deep: Here be Dragons; Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales (ed Paula Guran)

Alisa: Haven S1 and S2; Star Trek; Kaleidoscope submissions (PhD)

Tansy: Terry Pratchett: The Witches (board game), The Hour Season 1, A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan; When we Wake; Courtney Milan romance novels.

Pet subject: Gearing Up for Hugo Nominations – what we’ve read, what we recommend, and what we still plan to get to before the deadline.

Alisa: Reading – Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar, Coldest Girl in Cold Town by Holly Black

Alex: Saga; Ancillary Justice; Iron Man 3; still to watch Game of Thrones s3

Tansy: Still to read: Hild by Nicola Griffith, The Red by Linda Nagata, some novellas. Liz Bourke’s Sleeping with Monsters (Best Related Work or fan writer? Why doesn’t the Hugo have an Atheling?) Kirstyn McDermott’s Caution: Contains Small Parts. Supurbia (Graphic Story); The World’s End.

Galactic Suburbia Award!!

for activism and/or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction

Send us your suggestions and thoughts on who we should be looking at for the year that was 2013: blog posts, podcasts, GOH speeches and other awesome people talking about feminist stuff in interesting ways.

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!

Friday Links is Not Invisible

A fascinating interview with Joanna Scanlan, actress from The Thick of it & Stella among other successful shows – she talks about how hard she had to fight to get an acting career at all, her history of depression, and how hard it is to live a life without creativity when you feel that is your calling. She’s a great example of a woman who carved her own way in her chosen profession (writing roles for herself when they weren’t offered) and whose acting career actually took off in her late 40′s, early 50′s. She’s now playing the wife of Dickens opposite Ralph Fiennes!

Kameron Hurley has been blogging up a storm around the release of God’s War into the UK, and I particularly liked this piece at Kate Elliott’s blog: In Defense of Unlikeable Women.

Becky Chambers at the Mary Sue didn’t think Assassin’s Creed: Liberation was a brilliant game, but she adored the complex female protagonist and takes apart all the elements of what makes this character so special. More of this please!

Again at the Mary Sue, a great interview with Kari Byron of Mythbusters, with particularly fun anecdotes about how she juggled her pregnancy with a job that requires you to blow stuff up.

Tricia Sullivan talks about self-promotion, and how it is taking over the job of the writer.

Via Felicia Day, a piece at the New Statesman about why the patriarchy hates it when women (especially famous, beautiful women) cut their hair. Felicia also talks about some of the reactions she has had to her own hair cut.



Why Mom’s Time is Different to Dad’s Time: an interesting piece analysing why some hosuehold tasks are more stressful for women than men, and why it’s possible for a couple to have completely different ideas about how much work each other does around the house.

MindMeld: what’s wrong with epic fantasy? I love how so many of these answers are: if you think there’s something wrong with this genre, you’re not reading widely enough in it. Find better books.

Justine Larbalestier on how online conflict isn’t necessarily worse than it was back in the day when people argued via letter column or in person.

Saved By the Bell and Punky Brewster comics are now a thing that exists in the world.

Oods and Hobbitses Taste Delicious

January is a sea of birthday parties for me and mine, and we had an extra one to factor in this year – friends from Sydney came down for a holiday and took an opportunity to hold a Doctor Who party for their three year old daughter on the grounds that she doesn’t have any friends back home who know their sonic screwdrivers from their fish fingers.

Oh, you need a small group of boys and girls who are rabidly interested in Doctor Who? Why yes, we CAN help with that…

We ended up with four families, nine children, all in costume, plus a TARDIS play set and a ridiculous amount of Doctor Who themed food, culminating in a gingerbread TARDIS full of jelly babies.

I was called in to make Ood cupcakes on the grounds that figuring out cheats methods to do ridiculously complicated cake requests is basically my super power.

Some evidence:

To make your Ood cupcakes, simply take a good cupcake (we had dairy & gluten free chocolate mud cake for reasons), cover it in white frosting and cut a small triangle in one side. Stuff the ends of 3 lolly snakes or sour worms in the hole, for tentacles. Tic-tacs make brilliant Ood eyes.

The speaking balls were cake pops, the same cake mixture following basic cake pop instructions (you need a proper mould). We found that rolling them in icing and then sprinkles was really hard unless it was quite runny icing that you then let drip off almost completely. The rope is a sour strap – they’re not actually attached so much as artfully arranged, because I ran out of frosting patience.

You could of course use marshmallows for speaking balls, which would be way less hassle. But I had cake pop trays to experiment with!

I should have made more.

We also had great fun leafing through Dining With the Doctor, a very creative collection of New Who themed recipes, but in the end Iz only made one for the party: the strawberry Cybermen.

they look more like Cybermen without the green bits

There were costumes galore, from discreet Dalek related outfits for the older kids, to monsters, Doctors and a fabulously convincing Amelia Pond. I finally made Raeli the Dalek skirt I had been promising her, though sadly the sequins were a bit of a bust – they all fell off throughout the party. Back to the drawing board, I think…

Some good Dalek acting there from the daughter on the right. Daughter on the left just working her adorableness as is right and proper for any TARDIS.

Amazingly, Jem squeezed into her TARDIS dress for the third summer running (when you make awesome cosplay things for your kids, always go two sizes too big!) which led to the adorable sight of her standing inside the TARDIS play tent saying “I am inside myself” while the more fannish adults around her said “yes dear, that’s called recursion.” This never got old.

“I’m standing inside myself!”

Oscar also updated his Cyberman costume which has lasted for the same amount of time (dating back to Raeli’s Doctor Who birthday party two summers ago). Not long after the party we watched the Tenth Planet together and his Mum and I spent the whole time chatting to Osc about future Cyber related cosplay options. Boy likes Cybermen.

For a proper Tenth Planet version we need to strap a medium-sized air conditioning unit to his chest.

You’d think we would have had enough of dress ups and themed cake after that, but it was only the beginning! Raeli requested a Hobbit cake for her birthday, on about three days notice, having developed a very recent obsession thanks to a) Lego b) my stepmother’s visit to Hobbiton and c) finally watching the first Hobbit movie. She likes Gollum best, promptly read the chapter with the riddles in our nice Folio Society edition and then handed the book back, satisfied.

Pinterest came to my rescue and I knocked up this old thing. It is mostly chocolate frosting, with the flowers, windows & doors made from roll-out white icing I had in the cupboard. The girls made the flowers and Raeli decorated the garden herself with some help from Tehani’s Gwynne who was staying with us. Lovely work.

Then last weekend there was a Bat party. I wasn’t required to cake for that one, but Jem did costume up.

2 Batgirls, 2 water pistols, and the Australian landscape.

Friday Links has redefined the concept of ‘holiday’

Let’s just say I’m not getting in an awful lot of relaxing with the kids…

I have managed to read a few blogs, though. Which is – progress? Of a sort?

Gwenda Bond follows up on the attack-and-defense-of-awards-eligibility-posts conversation with Battle of the Sexists (AKA Let the Self-Promotion Roll, Ladies).

Helena Bell talks about how being self-deprecating about your own work is actually insulting to your editors. So stop it.

DC Women Kicking Ass (still one of my favourite Tumblr accounts) looks at the best and most interesting developments of the year for the women in the DC Universe – characters and creators.

Paul Dini, creator of some of the best screen versions of so many women in the DC Universe, talks about why he wants female readers for his Zatanna/Black Canary graphic novel.

Sarah Rees Brennan has written a delightful parody of the new Hobbit movie. Don’t read it unless you’ve seen the movie, unless you’re me.

Speaking of don’t read it unless you’ve seen the movie, this piece on Frozen about killing a certain fairytale trope is really awesome, but quite a spoiler for what has to be one of the best kids movies of the last decade.

The reviews are in on the PL Travers/Walt Disney biopic, Saving Mr Banks – a couple of great, nuanced pieces from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and The Angriest.

A fantastic, thought-provoking piece from Kameron Hurley – Women and Gentlemen: Unmasking the Sobering Reality of Hyper-Masculine Characters.

An interesting new series of blog posts starting at Tor – Post Binary Gender in SF.

Via Paul Cornell, a new Press Gang blog reviewing the whole series in honour of its 25 year anniversary. (pause to hyperventilate) Only one episode up so far but it’s a great piece which totally makes me want to watch all over again.

Oh, Lynda Day. You were my hero.

The Month of Good Books #1 – When We Wake and Caution: contains small parts

I’m reading books this month, and it shouldn’t feel quite so revolutionary a concept, but there you are. Having spent a year reading classic novels, rereading Doctor Who tie ins and generally slacking off, I now have a very short time to inhale all the books that are CURRENT and RELEVANT and potentially AWARDWORTHY SF and fantasy of 2013, especially those by female authors. In other words, Galactic Suburbia Recommends type books. I feel I’ve let the side down a bit over the last 12 months in that regard.

Luckily, having come to the end of the year, I have a very condensed list of books I’m pretty sure I’m going to love. And this is the month when I end up with heat-exhausted small children collapsed across me, which works out well for reading.

Of the seven books that I am really desperate to have read before nominations for things become urgent (I nominate for Nebulas now! Nebulas are cool!) I have covered 2 in the last week, which is pretty good going for me. I’m sure the list will

Only tiny reviews, to ensure I actually write up the things.

When We Wake by Karen Healey is really wonderful. It was pitched as a science fictional Sleeping Beauty tale, but I found elements of Snow White in there too – only fragments, though. Sixteen-year old Tegan is shot and killed by a sniper bullet at an environmental rally ten years in our future, and thanks to signing a ‘donate my body to science’ form, is awoken from cryogenic freezing a century later as part of a program to revive dead soldiers. I appreciated so many things about this story which uses smart extrapolation from current issues (especially politics and the environment) to build a credible near-future Australia. It reads at times like the novel is in direct response to some of the more public failings of the Abbott government, which makes it all the more clever (and depressing) as it was written published when Gillard was still Prime Minister.

But a diverse cast, a nuanced future (in which some social issues have improved, and others have gone quite down hill) this is a book I would love to see taken up by the Australian curriculum as there are so many elements of this futuristic Australia for teens to discuss – immigration, cultural and race issues, anti-military bias, climate change, faith religion drug legality and more. The protagonist is Christian, which is something you don’t see in YA that often, and the characters closest to her include a Muslim and an atheist – and for those seeking positive-but-casual representation of queer or trans characters, the book provides both.

Most importantly, it’s a ripping good read, full of pace. It’s open for at least one sequel (coming May 2014), so not everything is resolved, but the thriller aspects are entertaining and I’m looking forward to seeing where Karen takes it. This is exactly the kind of book I wanted all those times I complained about the lack of YA SF on Galactic Suburbia.

In other news, Caution: contains small parts by Kirstyn McDermott is also wonderful. I might even venture to say that it’s the best so far of the Twelve Planets boutique collections, and that’s got some pretty stiff competition (not looking at Margo Lanagan’s Cracklescape or Kaaron Warren’s Through Splintered Walls in particular).

The four stories are dark and perfect. “What Amanda Wants” is a chilling weird story about a women’s crisis counsellor in inner city Melbourne who takes far too much interest in one of her clients, a girl with a mystery to her. “Horn” is a sharp and sad story about a bestselling male fantasy author who has lost everything – there’s layers of cynical genre and gender commentary in this one along with the melancholy and the violent unicorns. The collection’s title story, ‘Caution: contains small parts’ is perhaps the slightest piece of the book, and certainly the closest to a conventional horror story with its unlikeable ‘everyman’ male protagonist surrounded by women he has let down, and yet it’s so well crafted and becomes a remarkably kind story rather than following any obvious path. The final piece, “The Home For Broken Dolls,” is the Australian horror/fantasy story that everyone should be talking about, the one that should get Kirstyn noticed by international readers and juries if there is any justice in the world. It’s feminist, clever, dark, grotesque. I’ll be nominating it for all the things.

Verity! Extra! – 2014: The Year in Preview

Happy 2014 everyone! We hope your first week of the new year has treated you well. We also hope you’re ready for a whole new year, a new series if you will, of Verity! Join Deb, Erika, Katrina, and Tansy as we let you in on what we have in store for you this year. You’ll certainly get reviews of new Doctor Who episodes (whenever they finally air), but in addition to that, we’ve got a whole new theme to cover! We hope you’re even half as excited about it as we are.

It strikes me that we’re filled with hope. I suppose that’s right and proper for the beginning of a new year and a new venture. So in that vein, we hope you’ll join us!

^E

Download or listen now (runtime 30:28)

Download: verity2014preview.mp3

Friday Links Are Eligible for Awards

John Scalzi has made a thread available for writers, artists, fans and professionals to declare their various Hugo-eligible work of the year. It’s a great resource for those who want to be reminded of the good stuff they read last year, or (like me) want to read a bit more widely before the nominations close.

Amal El Mohtar has written a great piece “Of Awards, Eligibility Lists and Unbearable Smugness” about why it’s important to declare your eligible works without embarrassment, and how trying to shame people out of doing so makes you part of the (lack of diversity) problem, not the solution.

It’s that time of year - Labyrinth Nostalgia! Because yes, it remains one of the best fantasy movies for girls. Some great analysis here.

The funny and charming team from The Wife in Space now brings you The Wife and Blake, in which Sue finally discovers the true story behind the names of the family’s cats over the years. Great stuff and makes me want to marathon the show again.

Jim C Hines asks ‘are racism, sexism etc. still a problem these days?‘ Only, he’s not actually asking that, he’s pointing out why so many people think it’s a reasonable question to ask (and why they’re wrong).

Kate Elliott looks at what you can tell about the white male default narrative (and nothing else) from movie trailers.

Kelly Sue Deconnick is adapting Barbarella.

Tehani talks about Focus 2012, an ebook of all the short SFF fiction by Australian authors which won awards last year. An easy way to catch up on the awesome!

At Fantasy Faction, publishers are asked to showcase 5 upcoming titles each which includes shout outs for Aussie authors Ben Peek, Marianne De Pierres and Rjurik Davidson.

i09 gives us a preview of 65 SFF movies to look forward to this year. Yes, 65.

The Mary Sue is excited about upcoming comic The Lumberjanes and now I am excited too. Capable girls of all shapes and sizes for the win!

Sleeps With Monsters previews some books to look forward to in 2014.

Verity Episode 32: Doctor Stew is Required

It’s official. 2013 is over, and so is the tenure of Matt Smith as the Doctor. Once again, join ALL the Verities: Deb, Erika, Katrina, Liz, Lynne, and Tansy, as we discuss Matt’s final episode. It should come as no surprise that we disagree on whether this was a good and worthy sendoff for such a fine Doctor. Who loved it? Who didn’t? And why? Listen and see!

This week we have our first pre-release erratum! Tansy’s daughter Raeli wanted her to tell everyone that she got The Abominable Snowmen Target novelisation, & the one Tansy is reading to Jemima is The Ice Warriors. This will make sense to you after you’ve listened to what’s caught Tansy’s attention in Doctor Who this week.

^E

Also covered:

Tansy had a Doctor Who-tastic Christmas!
Lynne enjoyed the Doctor Who: 50th Anniversary Collection, Original Television Soundtrack!
Erika listened to the first season of Big Finish’s Eighth Doctor/Lucie Miller series!
Kat LOLed at the image of the Doctor & Amy in wigs!
Liz jumped on Lynne’s bandwagon and bought the 50th Anniversary Collection soundtrack while we were recording! And discovered Matt Smith’s run is absolutely perfect, thanks to the marathon on Watch!
Deb squeed over the new Christmas episode of Doctor Puppet!
We’re all mighty chuffed Paul Cornell gave us a shout-out in The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who!

Bonus link:

Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman look like owls

Download or listen now (runtime 1:37:04)

Download: verityep32.mp3