Sable Aradia's Blog, page 34
August 2, 2018
The Beautiful Scientist Problem
By J.K. Ullrich
Indie authorship seems to have exacerbated my penchant for masochism: I can’t help looking at the bestseller lists, even though it only leaves me sad that my books aren’t on them! Browsing the top titles a few weeks ago, the blurb for Dan Brown’s latest novel Origin caught my eye.
After reconnecting with one of his first students, who is now a billionaire futurist, symbology professor Robert Langdon must go on a perilous quest with a beautiful museum director.
I ground my teeth. As a teenager, I’d gone through a pulp fiction phase where I devoured adventure novels of this sort, where experts unravel ancient mysteries or track crypto-zoological beasts through the jungle. Their book jackets almost invariably chose the word “beautiful” to describe the female lead: “a beautiful scientist/journalist/detective.” Publishers’ obsession with this adjective made it feel like a code word. “A brilliant scientist,” “an ambitious journalist”, or “a wisecracking detective” could be anyone, but since “beautiful” is generally reserved for females, it implied the character’s gender…and that comeliness was her most notable trait. This demeans not only the character in question, but the other characters (and readers) who are presumed to value aesthetics above all else. It bothered me then. Almost twenty years later, it still does.
Read the full article at J.K. Ullrich’s blog.
August 1, 2018
Sports in the Wild West
Matt Braun, one of the most significant names in Western fiction, gives us a rundown of what competitive sports were like in the Wild West!
By Matt Braun
You mention the word “sports” in the same breath with the “Old West,” most people will give you a blank stare.
Yet sports were as much a part of frontier life as the cowboy riding a fence line—even more so, since sports were there long before there was a fence line for the cowboy to ride.
Read the full article at True West Magazine.
Hey friends! If you like Westerns, perhaps you’ll consider supporting my Kickstarter for Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West, a post-apocalyptic fantasy Western with a dash of steampunk! Only 12 days left![image error]
July 30, 2018
Populating a Mars Base Will Be Dangerously Unsexy
By Brandon Specktor
In 1972, citizen scientist Sir Elton John hypothesized that Mars “ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.”
While John’s remarks were never published in a peer-reviewed journal (though they did peak at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart), he’s not wrong about the Red Planet’s inhospitality. With its freezing climate, thin atmosphere and weak gravity, Mars will be a hard place to raise the children necessary to sustain a permanent colony there. And according to a new paper published in the June issue of the journal Futures, conceiving kids on Mars will be even harder.
Read the full article at Space.com.
July 28, 2018
Renee Scattergood’s Author Spotlight: Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West
By Renee Scattergood
Welcome to another Friday Author Spotlight! This week I have Diane Morrison here to tell us about her upcoming fantasy novel, Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West, from her Wyrd West Chronicles. She needs help funding her book release and is giving away some great gifts, including a copy of the book when it’s released on the 1st of September, for those who contribute. She’s also shared a guest post, so keep reading!
Diane Morrison lives with her partners in Vernon, BC, where she was born and raised. She likes pickles and bluegrass and hates talking about herself. An avid National Novel Writing Month participant and gaming geek, she is proudly Canadian and proudly LGBTQ. She is currently managing the official SFWA YouTube channel, where she gets to interview some of her favourite authors and other interesting people in the SFF field. Recently she received an Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future competition. Under her pen name “Sable Aradia” she is a successful Pagan author, a musician, and a professional blogger. After a lifetime of putting the needs of her family first, she is striking out to become what she always wanted to be; a speculative fiction writer.
Read the full article on Renee Scattergood’s blog.
July 26, 2018
Book Review: Binti by Nnedt Okorafor
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge, the Big Fun in a Little Package Novella Challenge, the Women of Genre Fiction Challenge, and the Space Opera Challenge.
Winner of the 2016 Hugo and Nebula awards, nominee for the BSFA, BFA and Locus awards.
I always approach works that have been spoken of with this kind of hype cautiously. I am often disappointed. But I shouldn’t have worried. This was, flatly, excellent.
This is a creatively written story that speaks of alienation and finding commonality. It’s beautiful. Binti is not your usual space opera heroine. She’s not brave or strong in a bravado-based kind of way. Her strength is quiet, and much more simple, and comes from her desire to always do what she believes is right, in the best way she knows how. Pride is not an obstacle to her in this, although she does consider it.
Also, it’s not your usual space opera. I see influences from a variety of other sources. I find myself wondering if Octavia E. Butler‘s Xenogenesis trilogy was among them. Influenced by, but not defined by. This is not a rehash of Butler’s work. Okorafor has a completely different approach and conclusion to the idea of finding a way to communicate with an alien race.
I don’t think I can discuss any plot elements without spoiling the story for you, so I won’t. I will say that I recommend this to anyone who enjoys well-written science fiction, and I look forward to the sequels.
July 25, 2018
10 Reasons Why You *Shouldn’t* Support Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West!
You think originality is dangerous! You should NEVER bring a unique setting to fantasy or science fiction! And God help you if you MIX the two!
You believe that stories about people and their very human motivations are boring, even if you punctuate them with lots of action and dramatic tension.
You like selfish protagonists who become helpless victims of their own flaws, not flawed protagonists who fight constant ethical struggles to be better people.
You don’t like badass women and you never want a book to pass the Bechdel test.
You think it’s a bad idea for authors to reweave old tropes in new and exciting ways that you’ve never seen before.
You don’t like cowboys. Or knights in shining armour, either. And definitely you don’t think anyone should ever put the two together.
You think realism in magic is stupid. Magic should be able to do anything ALL THE TIME – because MAGIC!
You don’t like interconnected storytelling or long books.
You don’t want nuanced villains who have understandable reasons for the horrible, evil things they do.
You should definitely NOT click on this link to pre-order and support Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West! You’ll be supporting a writer — and a queer female Canadian writer at that! — challenging and embracing most of the tropes of genre fiction all at once, and you definitely don’t want to do THAT! Don’t do it! DON’T DO IIIIIITTTTTT …..
July 24, 2018
The Post-Armageddon Times: Wyrd West Chronicles
July 23, 2018
Interviews for the Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West “Telethon!”
To celebrate my Kickstarter for the Wyrd West Chronicles, I’m doing a series of livestreamed interviews with people who are doing similar stuff to what I’m doing in Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West! These interviews will appear on Kickstarter Live and will be simultaneously streamed to my Facebook Author Page, then uploaded to my YouTube channel afterwards. Here’s the schedule so far:
Wednesday, July 25 – Sarah Buhrman, author of the Runespells Series, will come to discuss magical realism, Pagan symbolism in fantasy, and the challenges of being a working class writer.
Friday, July 27 – Joe Compton of GoIndieNow will talk about the challenges of indies getting the word out, what he’s doing to address that, and why you should Go Indie Now!
Sunday, July 29 – Cat Rambo, Nebula-nominated author and President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) will chat with me about Weird Westerns and steampunk fiction! We’ll also talk about how the publishing market, especially in science fiction and fantasy is changing, and what SFWA is doing to address that.
Saturday, August 4 – C.L. Cannon, fantasy author and owner of Fiction Atlas Press, will chat with me about fantasy fiction, indie cooperative publishing, and the challenges of indie marketing.
There will probably be more events added to the schedule, as I’m waiting to hear back from a couple of people I’ve queried. Cheer Stephenson-Papworth of the Band of the Dystopian Authors and Fans has confirmed she will join me, but the date is not set yet.
Pre-order and support Once Upon a Time in the Wyrd West today! Dystopia, high fantasy, western, steampunk, science fiction and post-apocalyptic, but at heart, still a story about family and people … you’ve never seen anything quite like this before!
July 19, 2018
The Silurian Hypothesis
By Lorenzo Tanos
The thought of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures having proper names, working jobs to feed their families, and enjoying the trappings of technology is one that’s fueled many a children’s cartoon or fantasy story through the years. But with the proof of an intelligent civilization bound to get destroyed forever after millions of years, there might be an outside chance that humans were not the first intelligent, industrialized civilization in Earth’s history. That’s the gist of the so-called “Silurian Hypothesis,” which was explored by a pair of researchers in a recent thought experiment.
Read the full article at Inquisitr.com.
July 16, 2018
Book Review: A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Read for the Big Fun in a Little Package Novella Challenge.
This was actually the first book in this series I read. It so absorbed me that I sought out the rest of the series wherever I found it.
Once again, a re-read as an adult was a valuable experience. As a child, I absorbed the idea how a few small changes, and well-chosen acts of compassion at a moment of choice, could have far-reaching effects. As a Pagan it has even influenced my ideas about how my religious view of magic works. As an adult, I also gleaned how unhappy circumstances or poor choices can reverberate through generations to create damaging effects; and how happy circumstances and positive choices can heal some of that damage.
A powerful book that is not only about time travel, but that says a lot about life and the human condition.
Highly recommended to everyone.
