Elizabeth Fitzgerald's Blog: Earl Grey Editing, page 38

Contact2016 schedule

Contact2016 is the National Australian Science Fiction Convention this year. It will be held in Brisbane from Friday 25 March until Monday 28 March… which means it starts in just ten days! The Guests of Honour are Ben Aaronovitch, Jill Pantozzi, Keri Arthur, Kirilee Barker and Maria Lewis.

I will be attending this year and am very much looking forward to making some new friends as well as catching up with some old ones.

Where to find me

I’m delighted to be sitting on four panels during Contact. Exact details are subject to change.

 

Networking vs Building Community

When: Saturday, 26 March, 1:30 PM

Where: South Stradbroke Room

Panellists: Helen Stubbs, Jill Pantozzi, Marlee Jane Ward (M), Elizabeth Fitzgerald

Is networking really all about self-interest? Will building community inevitably drain organisers and lead to infighting? Is there really a difference between networking and building community?

A subject close to my heart.

 

Drawing SF: anime and animation tackle spec-fic

When: Sunday, 27 March, 9:00 AM

Where: South Stradbroke Room

Panellists: Shauna O’Meara, Peter M Ball, Queenie Chan, Elizabeth Fitzgerald

Animation has always offered new and relatively inexpensive ways to capture our imaginations. From Phillip K Dick’s A Scanner Darkly to Attack on Titan to Science Ninja Team to Hayate! the Combat Butler, sometimes the limit really is an artist’s imagination. 

I’ve had a blast talking with Shauna about this topic at Conflux in previous years and am super excited that Peter and Queenie will be joining us.

 

Writing the fantastic city

When: Sunday, 27 March, 4:00 PM

Where: South Stradbroke Room

Panellists: Ben Aaronovitch, Rjurik Davidson, Lynette Noni, Elizabeth Fitzgerald (M)

The best stories have a sense of place – whether in our real world, in new universe or a mix of the two. This panel looks at how to create the worlds in which characters walk and live. How do you write a world where zombies stalk the night or aliens live in slums and make it resonate and real?

This is probably the panel I’m most looking forward to, especially after recently reading Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London/Peter Grant series.

 

Dodging Deggan

When: Monday, 28 March, 10:00 AM

Where: South Stradbroke Room

Panellists: Lois Spangler, Jessica Biggs, Elizabeth Fitzgerald

Deggan’s Rule, like the better known Bechdel test, applies a series of questions to assess how race is portrayed on screen.  But we rarely see it applied in reviews or discussions about spec-fic tv or movies. Are we scared of what we will find?

The blog has long been quietly concerned with diversity and equality. This panel is going to be a great opportunity to discuss that in a more in-depth way.

 

Aside from the panels, I’ll also be attending the Aurealis Awards on Friday at 7 PM and the convention banquet on Saturday at 6:30 PM. If you have an interest in speculative fiction and can make it along, please stop by and say hi! I love getting to know new people. However, if Brisbane is a little too far away for you or attending conventions is not your sort of thing, there’s no need for you to miss out entirely. I shall be posting a convention report once the excitement is over (and I’ve had the chance for a few restorative cups of tea).

Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson

Published: August 2015 by Tachyon Publications

Format reviewed: E-book (mobi)

Genres: Speculative fiction, fantasy, magical realism, LBGTQIA

Source: NetGalley

Available: Publisher (print and electronic) ~ Abbey’s ~ Amazon ~ Book Depository ~ Booktopia ~ Dymocks ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring, Skin Folk) has been widely hailed as a highly significant voice in Caribbean and American fiction. She has been dubbed “one of our most important writers,” (Junot Diaz), with “an imagination that most of us would kill for” (Los Angeles Times), and her work has been called “stunning,” (New York Times) “rich in voice, humor, and dazzling imagery” (Kirkus), and “simply triumphant” (Dorothy Allison).

Falling in Love with Hominids presents over a dozen years of Hopkinson’s new, uncollected fiction, much of which has been unavailable in print. Her singular, vivid tales, which mix the modern with Afro-Carribean folklore, are occupied by creatures unpredictable and strange: chickens that breathe fire, adults who eat children, and spirits that haunt shopping malls.

I’ve been meaning to read Nalo Hopkinson’s work ever since she was the Guest of Honour at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention in 2013. This collection of short stories was the perfect starting point. It showcases the breadth of her talent through a wide variety of stories. Genres range from fantasy and magical realism to soft sci-fi and alternate history.

Diversity is a strong feature of this collection; the characters are even more varied than the genres. The protagonist of the very first story is a young disabled black girl and the rest of the stories contain all sorts of characters. Some are people of colour, some are queer, some are both. Occasionally this diversity is the point of a story. For example Shift reworks Shakespeare’s The Tempest into an interesting meditation on perceptions of black masculinity. However, more often diversity is incidental. I was particularly delighted by Emily Breakfast, which throws in casual mentions of queerness and kink into a story of fantastic domesticity.

Hopkinson has a way with language and this was particularly noticeable in her descriptions of bodies. She throws away narrow cultural definitions of beauty in favour of showing how bodies of all shapes and sizes can be desireable.

As is usual in any collection or anthology, not all of the stories appealed to me. In the introduction, Hopkinson mentions the bleak outlook she held on humanity when she was younger. This perspective definitely shows up in some of the stories, particularly the earlier ones, and didn’t especially appeal to me. I prefer optimistic stories and fortunately still found plenty to delight. Along with the two mentioned above, some particular favourites were:

The Smile on the Face: A teenage girl comes to terms with the cruelty of adolescence and her feelings about her body with a little assistance from her mother’s favourite myth.

Old Habits: A shopping centre is haunted by the ghosts of those who have died within and who are forced to relieve their death daily. A moving story about human dignity.

A Young Candy Daughter: The Christmas spirit manifests in a young girl with extraordinary abilities.

Falling in Love with Hominids is a though-provoking collection and one that will linger with the reader for a long time.

Loose-leaf Links: 27 Feb – 11 March 2016

Loose-leaf Links is a feature where I gather together the interesting bits and pieces I’ve come across and share them with you over tea. These posts have been getting longer, so in an attempt to keep these manageable I’m having a go at running them fortnightly.

This month’s tea is Australian Sencha from the Tea Centre. This is currently my go-to tea for first thing in the morning and I look forward to it every time.

Follow Up

Artist Mila May has created a graphic novel snippet of KJ Charles’ Rag and Bone, which I reviewed last week.

If Monday’s review of Jennifer Fallon’s The Lyre Thief hasn’t talked you into picking up the book, perhaps this short story over at Harper Voyager will. Kiam Miar is an assassin and the step-brother to the High Prince of Hythria. He also happens to be one of my favourite characters. This is the story of his first kill.

Awards News

Voting for the Ditmar Awards is open until 18 March for all members of Contact 2016 (including supporting members) and members of Swancon 40 who were eligible to vote in the 2015 Awards.

Speaking of Swancon, nominations for the Tin Duck Awards have apparently been released, but I’m having trouble tracking them down. If you know where I can find them, please get in touch! In the meantime, congratulations to Amanda Bridgeman for being nominated twice over in the category of Best WA Professional Long Written Work for Aurora: Centralis (reviewed here) and Aurora: Eden (reviewed here). Also nominated in that category is Juliet Marillier’s Tower of Thorns (reviewed here).

The shortlist for the Norma K. Hemming Award has been announced. The award is for excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, class, sexuality or disability by an Australian writer.

On Equality

You Will Be Tokenised: Speaking Out About the State of Diversity in Publishing. This very long article includes anecdotes on diversity from fifty people involved in the publishing industry. It convinced me that “equality” is a better term than “diversity” for this segment of Loose-leaf Links.

Ambelin Kwaymullina and Zetta Elliott offer a thoughtful pair of articles on writing as women of colour.

Nisi Shawl has put together a crash course in the history of black science fiction.

Publishing house Simon & Schuster has created an imprint for Muslim-themed children’s books.

For Writers

Ticonderoga Publishing are open for a second round of submissions for their forthcoming anthology Welcome. They are looking for “Stories that explore the potential benefits of allowing refugees to establish a new, safer life. Stories of hope.” Submission close 30 May.

For those who love horror and the paranormal, author Alan Baxter is running a retreat at the Linaker Hotel, which was built in the grounds of an old asylum. The retreat runs for three days, beginning 1 April.

Joanne Harris has withdrawn from an unspecified literature festival, citing unreasonable terms. Authors are urged to pay attention to the terms of festival contracts.

Authors are also urged to be wary of A&M Publishing. Their recent author program charges writers $8000 for their vanity publishing services.

Balancing an editing business with my own writing is a bit of a challenge and I’ve been struggling to keep track of several unfinished stories. Peter Ball was kind enough to write a post on how he keeps track of his unfinished stories. Part Two looks at tracking your story submissions and rights.

Alis Franklin offers an interesting approach to getting those stories finished by writing on the move.

Indie writer M.C.A. Hogarth holds a frank discussion of her business plan as a writer and some recent adjustments she’s had to make.

The Financial Review takes a look at the relationship between authors and editors.

Mary Robinette Kowal gives a pep talk on Imposter Syndrome that was just what I needed.

The Book Smugglers hold a conversation with Haralambi Markov, Sunil Patel and S.L. Huang on transitioning from short stories to novels (or vice versa).

For Readers

Horror, romance and paranormal publisher Samhain Publishing has announced it is winding down. This is a sad loss for the reading and writing community (and for my Mt TBR).

This comes hot on the heels of the news last month that Momentum is also winding down and being folded back into Pan Macmillan Australia. Momentum was midway through releasing Amanda Bridgeman’s Aurora series (reviewed here), leaving Amanda to look for a new home for the last three books. I’ve enjoyed the series so far and wish her the best of luck.

Book Depository is stocking up on Australian books. Emily over at Loony Literate has some suggestions for Australian YA international readers might be interested in now that Book Depository is making them available.

Satalyte Publishing has announced it is releasing a collection of interviews by award-winning writer and critic Damien Broderick.

Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff unveil the cover of Gemina, the follow-up to their YA novel Illuminae.

FableCroft Publishing are bringing back the first two books of Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Mocklore Chronicles in a new omnibus edition.

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

Published: March 2016 by Harper Voyager

Format reviewed: Trade paperback, 445 pages

Series: Hythrun Chronicles #7, War of the Gods #1

Genres: Epic fantasy

Source: Publisher

Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016

Available: Publisher (print and electronic) ~ Abbey’s ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Book Depository ~ Booktopia ~ Dymocks ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Her Serene Highness, Rakaia, Princess of Fardohnya, is off to Hythria, where her eldest sister is now the High Princess, to find herself a husband, and escape the inevitable bloodbath in the harem when her brother takes the throne.

Rakaia is not interested in marrying anyone, least of all some brute of a Hythrun Warlord she’s never met, but she has a plan to save herself from that, too. If she can just convince her baseborn sister, Charisee, to play along, she might actually get away with it.

But there is trouble brewing across the continent. High Prince of Hythria, Damin Wolfblade, must head north to save the peace negotiated a decade ago between the Harshini, Hythria, Fardohnya, Medalon and Karien. He must leave behind an even more dangerous conflict brewing between his wife and his powerful mother, Princess Marla.

…And in far off Medalon, someone has stolen the music.

Their quest for the tiny stolen lyre containing the essence of the God of Music will eventually touch all their lives, threaten everything they hold dear and prove to be far more personal than any of them can imagine.

I have a confession to make: I’ve never read any of Jennifer Fallon’s novels. She’s one of those seminal Australian fantasy writers I’ve always heard amazing things about but never quite managed to get to. I even have one of her books gathering dust on Mt TBR… which I’ll be dusting off soon.

The Lyre Thief is perhaps not the best place to start with Fallon’s work. While it is the beginning of a new series, I didn’t realise it was part of a pre-existing world with an overarching story. It is possible to jump in here, but as a new reader I found it required me to work hard. Being epic fantasy, there’s a complex web of relationships in place–one that spans multiple kingdoms. The events in The Lyre Thief deal with the consequences of previous books and is set about ten years after the last series ends. Fallon does an excellent job of conveying these previous events without seeming to info-dump and it gives an excellent sense of a lived-in world. Nevertheless, it is a lot for a new reader to take in.

I thought it was worth the effort. Being an epic fantasy, the story is told from multiple points of view. Each POV character has their own thread that interweaves with the others to create a bigger picture that spans the nations involved in this world. In some books this can feel choppy, but Fallon manages it with skill. She kept me interested in each of the characters’ stories while simultaneously creating a nice flow to the overall story. In fact, she uses alternating POVs to subtly convey an issue with time that crops up in one of the threads.

Of course, it’s the characters that really make the story. This is not one of those gloomy epic fantasies where the characters are all horrible people being horrible to each other for the sake of being “gritty” or “realistic”. For the most part, I rather liked the characters (with a couple of exceptions) which made it easy to be interested in what was happening to them. This meant that I wasn’t waiting impatiently for it to get back to a certain character, even though I still had a couple of favourites. However, this does not mean the characters were without their flaws. Almost without exception, they are looking out for their own interests and act selfishly. In most cases, it is balanced out by genuine love and affection for at least one other person.

While I wouldn’t classify the story as grimdark, readers should be aware that there is a rape scene and approach with caution where necessary.

As I mentioned, The Lyre Thief is the first in a new series, so there’s plenty yet to be resolved. Each of the threads is left at a point of transition, giving just enough resolution to be satisfying while still leaving the reader eager for more.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Lyre Thief, even though it made me work hard. I’ll be making use of the wait for the next book (which, I’m pleased to see, is tentatively scheduled for later in the year) to go back and read the other books set in this world.

 

Mt TBR report: February 2016

Wow. It seems the increase in my reading pace is sticking around. In fact, I’ve read so much that Mt TBR has actually shrunk a little bit. If this keeps up, I might actually break even for 2016! But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Contact2016 is in March and I anticipate a trip to the dealers room may do some damage.

Despite the good news for Mt TBR, I’m not doing nearly so well with the #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks challenge. My goal for the challenge was to make sure 60% of the books I read this year come from Mt TBR. I’m currently sitting on 47%, thanks to a number of review books and Leife Shallcross’s collection of Ben Aaronovitch. The war is far from lost, though; I’m reasonably confident I can make up some ground in March, even with the convention to attend.

Books with an asterisk on the list below were part of my #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks effort.

Mt TBR Status

Mt TBR @ 1 January 2015: 244

Mt TBR @ 31 January 2015: 246

Mt TBR @ 29 February 2015: 241

Books Read

10. The Duchess War by Courtney Milan *. Romance as it is meant to be. This is a Regency romance about Minnie, a young lady seeking to flee the scandal of her past by being as bookish and mousey as possible. Unfortunately for her, the Duke of Clermont sees straight through her façade and has an agenda of his own that puts her at risk. I especially loved that while both characters came across as smart, there was also a significant difference in their levels of intelligence–a difference that was never used to make one character seem lesser. Highly recommended.

11. Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat *. Reviewed here.

12. Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch. The second in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series, which are crime novels masquerading as fantasy. I’m enjoying these a whole lot and particularly liked seeing the continuing characters develop their relationships. The book also made me laugh out loud many times.

13. Take Me As I Am by Charmaine Ross. A charming contemporary romance set in Australia. It was the characters that really sold it for me. Both are good people trying to do their best for the people they care about. This makes them likeable and provides one of the central conflicts. Kate’s workaholism was deftly done and recognisable. I also loved David’s warm, open nature and the way he manages to hold onto that, even when Kate pushes him away. My one quibble is I think having David be both a talented sculptor and musician seemed overkill to me, and perhaps trying too hard to overcome the tradie stereotype.

14. Chasing Death Metal Dreams by Kaje Harper *. Another contemporary romance, this time m/m between a Latino transgender death metal musician and a Jewish goth artist. I really wish I’d had the space to review this because it was a gorgeous story. It struck me as sensitively done, though being outside my experience I can’t make the claim with authority. I also had a few quibbles about where it verges on White Saviour territory. But overall, a fantastic story.

15. Captive: A Graced Novella by Amanda Pillar. Reviewed here.

16. Rag and Bone by KJ Charles. Reviewed here.

17. Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch. The third in the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series. As with the last, I loved the character development, especially with the active return of a couple of characters. I was also pleased that it didn’t play out quite the way I expected. However, it lacked a little of the suspense of the previous two.

18. Freedom Spiced and Drunk by M.C.A. Hogarth *. A fantasy short story about a race with three genders and two puberties. An interesting premise and the yearning for freedom is captured well, but overall it didn’t do much for me.

19. Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch. The fourth in the  Peter Grant/Rivers of London series. OMG, that ending! Talk about epic! I am really loving this series.

20. Susanna and the Spy by Anna Elliott *. A Regency mystery novel with a romance sub-plot. An unemployed governess investigates the murder of her estranged (and rich) grandfather and uncovers more than she bargained for. I found it rather dull and didn’t really buy Susanna’s attraction to her mystery man. In fact, the emotional elements were lacking across the board.

21. Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan. Review forthcoming.

DNF – The Lord and the Mermaid by Bernadette Rowley *. A fantasy romance whose worldbuilding needed work. I also struggled to connect with the characters.

Books Acquired

Archangel’s Enigma by Nalini Singh

Wicked Embers by Keri Arthur

Marcus: Hell Squad by Anna Hackett

Jonathan Dark or The Evidence of Ghosts by A.K. Benedict

Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat

Clariel by Garth Nix

Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

Rag and Bone by KJ Charles

Captive by Amanda Pillar

Dark Deceit by Lauren Dawes

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

Online Reading

Forest of Memory (Excerpt) by Mary Robinette Kowal. I’ve been meaning to get to her Glamourist books for ages. This is quite different from those, being more of a sci-fi. It’s an intriguing premise but I’m not yet sure it’s for me.

Wingborn Prologue by Becca Lusher. To quote the author: It’s a high fantasy world with giant, talking eagles, Regency-esque manners, a YA protagonist and lots and lots of clouds. Five hundred riders and their eagles disappear from the strongest citadel in Etheria, leaving Lieutenant Lyrai to figure out what happened. I’ve read earlier iterations of this story and Lyrai is one of my favourite of Becca’s characters (though, to be fair, I have many).

What have you read this month?

Read My Valentine wrap-up

During February I ran Read My Valentine, which was basically my excuse to read and review as many romance novels as I could manage. I’m pleased to say that I managed quite a lot:

The Duchess War by Courtney Milan.

Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat. Reviewed here.

Take Me As I Am by Charmaine Ross.

Chasing Death Metal Dreams by Kaje Harper.

Captive: A Graced Novella by Amanda Pillar. Reviewed here.

Rag and Bone by KJ Charles. Reviewed here.

Susanna and the Spy by Anna Elliott.

The Lord and the Mermaid by Bernadette Rowley.

Altogether, that works out to be about two a week. It also put a bit of a dent in Mt TBR–and that’s not even including the non-romance I read this month! I’ll discuss the books in a little more detail for Friday’s Mt TBR report. However, I was fairly pleased with the range of romance I read: some m/f, some m/m, some Regency, some contemporary, some fantasy.

I also ran a couple of posts on the blog in conjunction with the challenge. In the first, I suggested some speculative fiction gateways into romance. In the second, I asked a few friends for their suggestions.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with the challenge and I think it’s something I’d like to do again next year.

How about you? Have you read any romance this month? What romance would you recommend?

Rag and Bone by KJ Charles

Published: March 2016 by Samhain Publishing

Format reviewed: E-book (mobi)

Series: Rag and Bone #1

Genres: Historical fiction, fantasy, romance, LGBTQIA.

Source: NetGalley

Reading Challenges: Read My Valentine

Available: Publisher (electronic only) ~ Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Crispin Tredarloe never meant to become a warlock. Freed from his treacherous master, he’s learning how to use his magical powers the right way. But it’s brutally hard work. Not everyone believes he’s a reformed character, and the strain is putting unbearable pressure on his secret relationship with waste-man Ned Hall.

Ned’s sick of magic. Sick of the trouble it brings, sick of its dangerous grip on Crispin and the miserable look it puts in his eyes, and sick of being afraid that a gentleman magician won’t want a street paper-seller forever—or even for much longer.

But something is stirring among London’s forgotten discards. An ancient evil is waking up and seeking its freedom. And when wild magic hits the rag-and-bottle shop where Ned lives, a panicking Crispin falls back onto bad habits. The embattled lovers must find a way to work together—or London could go up in flames.

This story is set in the world of the Charm of Magpies series.

I was a little apprehensive when I heard Rag and Bone was available on NetGalley. Regular readers here will know I was a huge fan of Charles’ A Charm of Magpies series. Could Rag and Bone possibly live up to that? Or, worse yet, would it be the same characters in different clothing?

I made the right decision in rushing over to request it. Rag and Bone brings a unique approach to its characters and magic, building on the world of A Charm of Magpies. Lucius Crane and Stephen Day may have faced uncertainty in that series, but they were never anything other than confident in their abilities. So Crispin Tredarloe presents quite a contrast. Having been unknowingly trained to be a warlock, the book opens with him struggling to learn to use his magic legally and failing badly. He is a character who is beaten down, tainted by his former master’s betrayal and barely tolerated by magical society. His life has been sorely lacking in affection, and, while he compensates by being pretty self-centred, even he doesn’t have a very high opinion of himself.

Fortunately, waste-man Ned sees the good in Crispin and exerts a steadying force. Ned is not without his flaws, though–something I very much enjoyed about the book. In his case, he is wont to speak a little too plainly at times. This gets him in trouble with Crispin on occasion, particularly when he makes clear his distaste for all things magical (although he has good cause).

Even the sex between them presents a contrast to the Charm of Magpies series and, indeed, most m/m romance I’ve read. I felt this diversity was very welcome, and builds on what’s already present in the world. It’s not often you get a pregnant Jewish woman in a position of authority or a gay mixed-race relationship in a historical novel.

The magic likewise builds on what has gone before. We get to see a few of the different ways the practitioners of Charles’ world sense magic. This variety was implied in previous books, but here we really get to see it in action. Crispin’s form of magic is also quite a contrast from what has previously been shown, though it also links neatly back to earlier events. I also enjoyed the inclusion of witch bottles as a nicely historical addition to the magic.

Although Rag and Bone does a reasonable job of standing on its own, readers should be aware that it is not the first book featuring Crispin and Ned. Their relationship was established in the short story A Queer Trade, which was first published in the Charmed and Dangerous anthology and is now available separately. There are a lot of cameos from characters featured in other books set in this world, so returning readers will get the most out of it.

Loose-leaf Links for February 2016

Loose-leaf Links is a feature where I gather together the interesting bits and pieces I’ve come across in the last month and share them with you over tea. Since the season for iced tea continues, this month’s tea is Apricot and Peach from Adore Tea. It’s one of the few teas I prefer iced over hot.

Whether iced or hot, you are definitely going to need a cup of tea for this month’s post–which is the longest links post I’ve yet written.

Follow Up

At the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild‘s general meeting on Wednesday 17th February, I sat on a panel about blogging for writers. I was joined by Alis Franklin, Ian McHugh and Nalini Haynes. Alis has written a handy recap of the discussion.

Awards News

Can you tell it’s award season?

The Ditmar shortlist has been released. The awards are by popular vote and recognise achievements in Australian speculative fiction and fandom. Members of the 2015 and 2016 Natcons are eligible to vote. In order to help voters make up their minds, FableCroft Publishing are offering their two nominated stories for free, as is author Alan Baxter.

Earlier this month the Aurealis Awards announced that this year’s awards will involve new categories for novellas. The shortlist was released not long afterwards. Like the Ditmars, the Aurealis awards recognise achievements in Australian speculative fiction but are awarded by a panel of judges. Both awards will be presented during Contact2016 in March

If literature is more your style, the Stella Prize has released its longlist. The Stella Prize celebrates the contribution of Australian women to literature.

In international awards news, judges have been announced for both the Philip K. Dick Award and the World Fantasy Awards.

The Science Fiction Writers of America have released the shortlist for the 2015 Nebula Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. The Nebula Awards are the US equivalent of the Ditmar Awards. If you’re an active member of SFWA, don’t forget to vote once the poll opens in March.

The British equivalent of the Ditmars and the Nebulas is the BSFA Award. The British Science Fiction Association have announced the shortlist and voting is currently open to members.

The 2016 Hugo Awards are still open for nominations from members of the 2015 & 2016 WorldCons until the end of March. Jim Hines took advantage of the current lull to take a look at the Sad Puppies 4 movement and whether/how they are different to their predecessors.

On Diversity

SFF cons have been on the radar for all the wrong reasons this month. Jason Sanford discusses how the World Fantasy Convention has penalised members of the community for waiting to buy their membership until WFC has harassment and accessibility policies in place. It seems that WFC finally got their act together and have posted their policies sometime in the last few weeks. Nevertheless, the point still stands.

Mark Oshiro has shared a horrific account of the persistent harassment and discrimination he faced at ConQuest46, despite being a Fan Guest of Honour.

Jim Hines follows up the account with his own collection of interesting and related links.

Stacey Lee shares the things that push her buttons when non-Asian writers write Asian American characters.

Via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books comes this gorgeous interview with Marjorie Liu on Guernica about racism, writing comics and the importance of romance novels.

This isn’t exactly bookish news, but exciting, nonetheless: Australia will soon be getting its first indigenous superhero on TV with the show Cleverman.

Bustle has an article on 8 feminist sci-fi books. I found it pretty disappointing to see nothing more recent than 2001.

If you’re a regular here, you’ll know I’ve been on a romance reading kick with Read My Valentine. So I was very delighted to come across this list of books about plus-sized women in romance.

You may have also noticed I’ve posted a few reviews of m/m romance. But where is all the f/f romance? If, like me, you’ve been struggling to find any, you might want to try these Goodreads lists of 2016 f/f SFF, non-YA lesbian and bisexual lady fiction without explicit sex scenes, and books with asexual spectrum f/f romances.  A special thanks to Lynn O’Connacht and @quartzen for drawing my attention to these.

YA Author Nita Tyndall will be launching her column Girl Talk next Monday and is looking for contributors:

Girl Talk is going to be a weekly segment on the blog, a space for queer women to share their stories and experiences, whether personal or book-related, in interviews or essays or narratives. What I’m aiming for with this series is to create a space where queer girls can read and see themselves validated, a space where they can read stories from queer girls their age or older queer women who’ve been there, a place to discuss queer books or life in general.

For Writers

Via Ian McHugh, the Museum of Science Fiction’s Journal of Science Fiction are accepting submissions until 25 March. According to their website:

MOSFJournal of Science Fiction seeks to uphold the spirit of educated inquiry and speculation through the publication of peer-reviewed, academic articles, essays and book reviews exploring the interdisciplinary nature of science fiction. The journal welcomes unsolicited, original submissions from academics around the world about science fiction in all media (literature, film, television, videogames, art, oral history, etc.). Issues are published three times a year and each issue will feature 8 to 12 academic articles.

Ticonderoga Publications will be seeking submissions for a new anthology called Ecopunk. They’re looking for stories of 2-10K that take an optimistic outlook; be sure to check the guidelines for more details. The submission period won’t open until 15 May, which should give writers a bit of breathing space.

Uncanny Magazine are also open for submissions until 29 February. Writers still have a chance to make it if they work hard over the weekend!

Kat Clay is currently doing some research on establishing an Australian science fiction and fantasy writers association. If you’ve got some thoughts you’d like to share, I encourage you to fill out her survey.

The ACT Writers Centre are currently taking expressions of interest for HARDCOPY, their professional development project for Australian writers. The deadline closes 11 March.

This fascinating article on the differences in British and American attitudes towards the dictionary came to me via Jeff Lilly.

There are many reasons I love KJ Charles. This response to the Huffington Post on why writers should be paid is just one of those reasons.

Elizabeth Bear brings us this month’s reminder to practice self-care. Thanks to Pia Foxhall for the link.

Jay Kristoff, co-author of Illuminae, offers some commonsense advice to new authors.

Peter Ball gives his tips for writing novels by hand. I’ve tried a few of these and found them useful.

Justine Larbalestier demonstrates that writing is hard even for well-known authors.

Thinking about writing romance? Here are some mistakes you might like to avoid.

For Readers

It has been a month for all the genre drama. I mentioned last month the Booksmugglers were running a new column called Trope Anatomy 101. This month’s column on the Alpha Male/Alphahole trope had the romance community up in arms. While I’m not a fan of this particular trope, the framing of it wasn’t very flattering to the romance genre. Urban fantasy author Ilona Andrews offers a much more considered analysis of the trope in response.

The drama was not confined to romance and SFF this month. Reviewer Tim Hehir earned himself the wrath of the YA community with his review of Christopher Currie’s Clancy of the Undertow. Specifically:

Clancy tells her own story and her voice is a breath of fresh air in a genre usually filled with bratty, whining, self-obsessed, parent-hating, nobody-understands-me, no-one-has-ever-suffered-like-me heroines. She tells her own sad, touching and poignant coming-of-age story with such wit and liveliness that it was a pleasure to read.

This is Christopher Currie’s first book for Young Adults so he was probably not told that originality and three-dimensional characters were not required, thank you very much. Anyway, it is written and printed now so it is too late.

As Margo Lanagan so gorgeously put it:

You know, YA authors are a hospitable lot—if you don’t walk into the room flinging excrement at them. https://t.co/uz4cqVR5Ax

— Margo Lanagan (@margolanagan) February 22, 2016

I was very disappointed to hear that PanMacmillan will be scaling down its digital imprint, Momentum, especially when they’ve supplied me with some excellent reading material.

In more positive news, the cover for Sofia Samatar’s forthcoming The Winged Histories has been released. Kathleen Jennings has written a fabulous post on the process of creating the artwork. The post comes complete with gifs.

Horror readers will be excited to hear that Shirley Jackson Award winner Kaaron Warren has signed a contract with IFWG Publishing Australia for a new novel called The Grief Hole.

Twelfth Planet Press have announced the Table of Contents for their forthcoming anthology Defying Doomsday. It is an impressive line-up. The anthology will focus on apocalyptic survival stories featuring characters with disabilities.

Lastly, Ticonderoga Publishing are running a Kickstarter campaign to fund The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror #6. They’ve passed their goal and are now aiming for some of their stretch goals.

Captive by Amanda Pillar

Published: February 2016 by Momentum

Format reviewed: E-book (mobi)

Series: Graced #0.5

Genres: Fantasy, paranormal romance.

Source: NetGalley

Reading Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge 2016, Read My Valentine

Available:  Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Kobo

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Civilization has ended.

Vampires, werewolves, and the Graced are at war with their human creators, and humanity is losing. But one girl might hold the key to salvation. Held captive with her fellow humans by alpha Wolfgang and his pack of weres, Laney secretly inches ever closer to breaking were and vampire blood dependency forever.

But Laney doesn’t have long. Their numbers decimated by plague, humans are being kidnapped and reduced to livestock. And when Laney and her sister are kidnapped by a neighboring vampire clan notorious for its “farming” of humans, their only hope lies in Wolf – who doesn’t know the shocking secret Laney has gone to great lengths to conceal.

With their lives and the future of humanity in the balance, can Laney and Wolf learn to trust each other before their races cease to exist?

Captive is a prequel novella to Amanda Pillar’s Graced. Given the latter was one of the highlights of my 2015 reading year, I had high hopes for Captive. Unfortunately, I found the novella’s ambition exceeded its scope.

The key problem with Captive is that it tried to do too much: it aimed to be a paranormal romance and an exploration of a post-apocalyptic world, as well as show a pivotal point in the world’s history and be an origin story for one of the characters from Graced. All within 100 pages. As a result, it doesn’t successfully manage any of these elements.

I didn’t find there was much chemistry between Laney and Wolf, with their on-stage courtship being limited to Wolf invading Laney’s personal space and kissing her a few times. The secondary relationships were far more entertaining. Laney’s sister Jane lacks a romantic bone in her body, so it was particularly amusing to see attempts to woo her.  I hope we may see something more of her in the future.

As a fantasy story, it didn’t quite work for me either. It’s always difficult to write short speculative fiction because the premise and feel of the world needs to be conveyed in not much space. Captive faces a difficult challenge because it’s set in a world that isn’t our present day or the far future of Graced but something in between. A prologue in the form of a character’s diary entry tries to set the scene but ends up feeling like an awkward infodump that left me without a visceral feel for the world. Since the pertinent information comes up again later–repeatedly, in some cases,–I feel it would have been better to put the prologue’s word count to better use within the story itself.

Despite my criticisms, I enjoyed the story a lot. While the diversity of the characters isn’t as broad as in Graced, it is still casually present. Laney makes a great character. Physically, she’s never going to be a Strong Female Character, which makes her quiet courage all the more admirable. I also enjoyed seeing one of the characters from Graced make an appearance in the final chapters, albeit in a much younger form.

While Captive could conceivably stand on its own, some of the impact of the events it depicts would be lost. New readers are best off picking up Graced first.

Romance for Speculative Fiction Readers: Part 2

Last week, as part of Read My Valentine, I posted some of my speculative fiction gateways into romance. This week I have invited a few of my friends to give their recommendations.

Donna Maree Hanson writes speculative fiction under her own name and speculative romance as Dani Kristoff. She’s not only recommended me some great books but has also loaned them to me from her personal collection.

Keri Arthur is known for her dark urban fantasy, particularly the Riley Jensen series. The City of Light is a new series set in a post-apocalyptic future where science and fantasy are closely integrated. Tiger is a Dechet, a genetically engineered being, part vampire, part shape-shifter and part human. She’s a survivor from a war-torn era where humans battled shape-shifters and with the world in tatters savage vampires and wraiths inhabit the dark spaces, leaving humans and shifters clinging to the light.  Although not a warrior per se, Tiger goes to battle and it’s not pretty or light. There’s gore and death and hate and intrigue. Tiger’s character is thinking and feeling and noble. Next interesting is Jonas, the shifter, who is her enemy but there’s a strong attraction between them. I was thoroughly engaged throughout the reading of this story. I thoroughly recommend this story to spec fic readers.

Amanda Pillar is the author of Graced, a paranormal romance that has just been nominated for a Ditmar and that was one of my favourite books of 2015 (my review). Her latest book is a prequel novella called Captive, which will be reviewed here next week.

I’ve been really enjoying the variety of urban fantasy and paranormal romance that is available at the moment. The Psy-Changeling series, authored by Nalini Singh, is set in an alternate version of Earth, with three races: the psy, changelings and humans. The beginning two books share much of the same plot, but after that, the books become more individual and the over-arching plot begins to ramp up. The series has a slow burn, but it’s well worth the read. I’ve also been liking Larissa Ione’s Demonica series. It’s a bit on the steamy side (featuring incubus demons), but it also has great world-building and a long term plot that is still continuing.

I’ve already mentioned Shaheen this week as being one of my favourite reviewers. She is the force behind Speculating on Spec Fic and #OzYAchat on Twitter.

These Broken Stars is the first in the Starbound series by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. After their luxury spaceliner Icarus drops out of hyperdrive and crashes onto an abandoned planet, Major Tarver Merendsen (middle class, worked his way up the ranks) and Lilac LaRoux, (heir to the greatest empire in the world, doesn’t know what work is), are forced to work together to survive. Their attraction is inevitable but devoid of the usual clichés of YA romance. It’s slow, sweet, hesitant and, above all, realistic. There’s too much stacked against them for either to seriously consider it, but they find their eyes straying, their hearts pounding, their minds playing out hopeless fantasies. It’s riveting, incredibly powerful, and I loved every moment of it.

The Book Gannet is another I’ve mentioned this week as a favourite reviewer who has never steered me wrong and contributed significantly to my Mt TBR.

I would suggest Meljean Brook. Partly because I think her books are wonderful, and also because I think more people should be reading them. Her Guardian series is a Paranormal Romance/UF epic that plays with angels and demons and vampires and nosferatu, with incredible heroines and some pretty amazing heroes. It’s complicated and clever and I love it. However, that’s not my recommendation. Instead I want to talk about her Iron Seas Steampunk series, asking what would have happened if Genghis Khan had conquered Europe instead of turning back at Vienna – with nano-tech, zombies, automata and airships. It’s clever and enjoyable and my personal recommendation would be Riveted. This is actually the third book in the series but stands alone perfectly well since it has all new characters and an all new setting. Much of the action takes place in Iceland, has a female-only community and a couple of protagonists who you don’t meet every day – in the romance genre or spec fic.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Pia Foxhall‘s fantasy erotica Fae Tales. She is also a very discerning reader who has given me some great recommendations.

The Captive Prince trilogy by C.S. Pacat (previously S.U. Pacat, previously ‘freece’) has risen to the ranks as being one of my favourite series of all time. I say that as someone who has voraciously consumed epic fantasy, gay fantasy, gay erotica, gay romance and more. For me, there was a richness and consistency to the worldbuilding that I loved enough to follow it as a serial when it used to be released chapter by chapter on Livejournal. It contained many of the aspects I loved in well-written fanfiction, but executed in an original world with original characters. In the stories I found UST (unresolved sexual tension – also known affectionately as ‘pining’), a slave/owner format that was delightfully subverted over time, a world in which homosexuality (and bisexuality) was normal and integrated, and a political system filled with villains and unexpected heroes, and so many twists and turns that I didn’t try and predict the plot. Now completed, the Captive Prince trilogy showcases the adventures of the self-possessed Prince Laurent of Vere – described in the book as a ‘cast iron bitch,’ and the lion-hearted Prince Damen of Akielos – a warrior brought low by circumstance and betrayal. This series has made me laugh and cry and hold my breath and scream and tweet the author (and back when it was active on Livejournal, send long rambling walls of text to the author that were paeans of appreciation). Pacat has clearly poured a lot of love and soul into this book, and I believe it shows. This goes on the ‘reread for the rest of my life’ shelf for me, and I shall enjoy doing so, every time.

Thank you to all my guests for their recommendations. I know my Mt TBR just grew a little taller. How about yours?