Nicole Field's Blog, page 24
March 8, 2016
claudiablacks:
how come the slayer’s always a girl? i don’t...
how come the slayer’s always a girl? i don’t know, cause girls are cooler
Ladies of the Buffyverse in honour of International Women’s Day, 8 March 2016
Yesssss.
March 7, 2016
skillzyo:
I’m going to establish myself as a writer who never writes straight relationships. Then,...
I’m going to establish myself as a writer who never writes straight relationships. Then, one fateful day, I’m going to introduce a straight couple. I will make them the healthiest straight relationship ever without ever saying they are a couple. I’ll keep it subtext most of the time. Still, they will be as well developed as my plethora of gay-ass characters. Then, just after subtext becomes maintext and they’ve finally admitted their feelings for one another and given in to those feelings
I’m going to kill one of them off for drama
A week or so ago, I received the best gift in the mail a book...
A week or so ago, I received the best gift in the mail a book blogger can want: personalised book swag! This combined with the eARC I’ve been reading through since then was pretty stellar.
Jerkbait is told through the first person point of view of a younger twin who plays hockey largely because of pressure from their parents. What he would really rather be doing is taking part in the school musical and acting in theatre.
Sadly, when his brother attempts to commit suicide not multiple times, Tristan’s plans get put on hold. Rather than potentially endangering Robbie’s college career, the twins get put under a kind of increasing house arrest that sees Tristan looking out for Robbie and trying to make sure he doesn’t try anything again.
This book had everything. Gay main characters, bullying, heart wrenching moments, amazing misleads, character growth… Every time I thought a plot point might be disappointing or boring, I was completely shown otherwise. Jerkbait plays with tropes regarding musical theatre, sports and high school boys, it also shows multiple different kinds of antagonists, and ultimately shows that friendship and family are more important when everything else gets stripped away.
This book deals with a lot of heavy content and could have run the risk of getting bogged down, becoming dogmatic or ending up too good to be true. I don’t think it ended up doing any of these things.
The only things I wasn’t sure of were the overuse of the word ‘jerkbait’ (although this could be my own lack of acquaintance with it before now) and the slightly supernatural content that kind of hovered around this story and only really came out to the fore at the end. But, really, those are such small nags and don’t at all take away from enjoyment of the whole.
I looked at the bandages over their ears and pictured the chips...
I looked at the bandages over their ears and pictured the chips inside, their dual function of recording memories and ensuring maximum receptiveness to the music. Back then, I was still naive enough to believe those were both good things.
I can’t remember how I got recommended to this novel, but however that was I’m glad it happened. I’m also glad for my usual insistence in not reading the back cover until I’ve decided whether I like where the story’s going already.
Cyberpunk is not usually a genre that I deal with. Cyberpunk with a bisexual male lead is probably not all that surprising to people who know the genre. I don’t know. All I know is that this book is futuristic, uses mind control through music and makes no issue of same sex relationships.
I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.
Anthem and his friends live in a world where everyone is barcoded and addicted to music. Government employed guards enforce how often people ‘track’, which is to say, go out to clubs or listen to music in their own home. Because within the music is everything that keeps the population docile.
Unknown by the government, Anthem and a small group of his friends put together a garage band that produces uncoded music. When their friend, Johnny, listens to a track that kills him, Anthem knows that it’s time to try to overthrow the establishment.
There simply just wasn’t a word of this novel that wasn’t fantastic. It was fanciful where it needed to be, devastating at all the right points to get just the right note of emotion and angst out of the reader. Nobody came out of this story unscathed, and yet it felt like there was an epic win somehow in the ending.
March 4, 2016
"The longer you know someone, the easier it is to think that you know what they think all the time,..."
-
“So how do you call it out?”
“Carefully. And not at the moment when I’m annoyed. It’s like, set an alarm for 6 hours and then talk about it then.”
Hank Green to Lindsey Doe on Sexplanations episode “Monogamy”
(via mighty-tiny)
March 1, 2016
March is off to a fantastic start! I have my final cover art for...
March is off to a fantastic start!
I have my final cover art for Prima Facie, a novella I wrote last year and contracted in October, set in a bourgeoning law firm and starring a trans male. Con has been one of my favourite characters in my sandbox for years, and I am beyond happy to finally be able to give him such a striking face and cover. Pre-order and release date details are still to come. I will definitely be writing more on this later.
Then, last night, I was advised that my submission to the above collection call has also been picked up for publication. This is VERY exciting to me because it will be my first polyamorous publication!!! Set immediately after the final battle against The Oppressor, Benedict, Ophelia and Dylan face the rest of the magical community in triumph. This triumph soon turns into something else as they find it impossible to fall back into the lives they had before the war.
At the same time as Dylan has trouble letting go of taking orders, Ophelia and Benedict find comfort from their shell shock and loss of identity in a human biker bar. Ophelia tries to recapture the romance she once had with her roommate Alixx, but also still very much has feelings she wants to pursue for Benedict who’s gone through the same hell with her. This is the untold story of The Chosen Ones coming back to the world after the fighting is done.
Finally, I have in my hot little hand, all the way from England, my own contributor copy of I Hope You Like Feminist Rants. It me!!
February 25, 2016
Cautionary Poly submission
@polyrolemodels are currently doing a line of blog posts
Cautionary Poly: Teachable Moments in Polyamorous Relationships is a special feature of Poly Role Models. The goal of this feature is to highlight the fact that successful polyamory isn’t always free of mistakes…and those mistakes can definitely be gained from. Now accepting submissions. Just send me a message to get the ball rolling.
and so I’ve been thinking for a while about which one I’d like to tell, how to frame it, etc. Then, earlier this week, the perfect opening happened. So here’s kind of an early draft of what I’d like to share–
He says, “So that led to T and I having this amazing conversation about boundaries, what we were and weren’t okay with each other doing.”
I goggle at him. “What? You haven’t had that conversation yet? How haven’t you had this conversation yet?”
He looks at me with this bemused expression. He’d had longer to think about this than me., but I realise my mistake only a moment later. “Shit. We haven’t had that conversation yet.”
“No,” he says. “We haven’t.”
So we do. We go through boundaries, what makes us comfortable, what makes us uncomfortable, people who are off limits, how we’d like to be told about potential new love interests.
I say, “Me and my boy have a veto rule, but we can only use it before love has been said.”
He says, “I’m not sure I like the word veto. Maybe for us we word it as more of something that we keep in mind out of consideration for each other.” Then he paused. “That’s just what you said in a slightly different way.”
“It is,” I agree. “With an added grey area.”
He harrumphs. “I don’t like grey areas.”
I say, “There is a reason for each answer that I have given you in this conversation. You can ask the reason for any of them, if you want to.”
So he says, “Okay. What’s the reason for that one?”
And I say, “I told my ex no regarding this particular person. Months later, I had to sit in a kitchen while he told me that he’d just found out his feelings for that person were reciprocated. I didn’t know how to say no to him again. So I just didn’t say yes, and hoped. I mean, he knew my concerns…” I shake my head, not knowing how to finish. “Consent is such a tricky area anyway…”
He looks at me a long while, then takes my hand with a crooked smile. “You’re right,” he says. “Veto is a good word. Let’s use that.”
February 24, 2016
NEW RELEASE DAY.This has been a super exciting week for me. My...
NEW RELEASE DAY.
This has been a super exciting week for me. My monthly delivery of the subscription box by @the-yachronicles arrived in the mail yesterday, this morning I opened my email to find a very special first version of the cover for my upcoming release from @lessthanthreepress!!
But by far the most exciting news of this week is my new release. This may have been the release I have been alluding so far this year. Due to some printing issues, it’s out just a little bit later than expected, but it is out and fully purchaseable!!
In November last year, I was speaking to Abigail Tarttelin who was putting together a feminist zine for a retreat happening in January just past. She made a call out on Twitter asking for contributions and I was one of the, I believe, 25 writers picked to feature an article.
There are so many different pieces of writing and art in this zine that, at 60 pages long, this zine basically promises something for everyone.
Probably not surprisingly, the piece I wrote is on bisexuality and polyamory. I know, it’s shocking, everyone’s well and truly surprised. It’s a piece I absolutely adored writing, has so many recommendations of favourite authors and books I have come across as well as a little bit of my own personal experience as a young person looking for a certain kind of fiction that would let me feel represented.
February 23, 2016
rainnecassidy:
thehumon:
The past is rarely as we imagine...
The past is rarely as we imagine it.
As a medieval scholar I can confirm this us 100% accurate and 1000% adorable
February 22, 2016
abandoned-marionette-reads:
“Long before she was the terror of...
“Long before she was the terror of Wonderland–the infamous Queen of Hearts–she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love.”
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
Noooo. Wait what?? You’re kidding! :D :D
