Kate Elliott's Blog, page 22

The Information Business: Openings (Spiritwalker Monday 15)

One of the difficult elements (are there any easy ones?)  in openings is how to sow information into the seedbed of the story in the right amounts and with the correct distribution so that

1)  the reader will not get bogged down in a rain of information such that they put the book down

BUT

2) the reader has enough information to orient them-self in the story

AND

3) the information sown over the early pages can sprout in a timely manner later down the road so as to enhance the narrative experience.

The flip side of information distribution in openings (and throughout a narrative) is that with too little information the reader becomes lost, or the story starts shallow and keeps wading.  Furthermore, without proper distribution of the correct (most significant) information, the writer may have to explain the impact of certain big plot points or dramatic emotional moments when they happen rather than having the impact hit the reader because of what the reader already knows which the writer has cleverly seeded into the story.

One of the surest ways to bog me down, as a reader, is to pause the narrative flow to back-fill information the author is sure I need in order to understand the context or empathize with the main character(s).  Because I often don’t NEED to know that information yet (or in some cases ever, especially not as an infodump), and I really don’t WANT that information interrupting the flow of the story.

How much and what kind of information the reader needs will vary depending on the narrative.

In genre it may also depend on whether this particular book is one of a sequence or series in which the reader may need, or be expected to have absorbed, context from an earlier book or books.

I’m going to stick with what I know, which is genre.  So these are not hard and fast rules (I’m not one for hard and fast rules anyway), and they are particular to the genre I am most familiar with. But as a general template in terms of how I try to write and how I read, they’ll do.

When deciding how much and what information to seed into your opening, take into account:

what does the reader NEED to know vs. what you think the reader needs to know

what does the reader WANT to know vs what you want the reader to know

Often what the writer thinks the reader needs and/or wants to know is in fact more than the reader needs and/or wants to know at that stage in the game.  Sometimes it is less.

I personally have a lot of trouble with stories in which I’m given too little information to place myself in a landscape, by which I mean a physical and a cultural and a historical landscape. However that statement definitely reflects my own personal tastes and will not be the same for all readers, because I guarantee that one complaint I hear about my own novels is that there is too much information ladled down the reader’s throat too early.  So be aware that, as a writer, I am constantly struggling with this myself.

For it is remarkable, really, how little we need to know as long as we have exactly the right information to hook us into the story one way or another.

If we feel grounded, and are interested in finding out more, curiosity and engagement are part of what pull us on through the story.

The reader usually (not always) needs to know

1) who is the character(s) I’m following

2) why, in the most immediate sense, I am rooting for or against that character (an emotional hook);  rooting for or against does not have to mean “liking” or “sympathy” although that may be the specific effect you are going for

3) where am I?

3a) secondarily to “where am I” – why does it matter that I am HERE rather than in some other place.

I don’t mean that last sentence literally but figuratively, perhaps even culturally.  While there are circumstances in which a character must literally reflect on why it matters to him/her personally that s/he is splayed on the altar about to be sacrificed to the demonic hordes, more often this is an embedded quality inherent to the story.

Why HERE matters in the immediacy of the plot is not because you are explaining it to the reader but because it is accustoming the reader to a landscape which should matter in the larger scheme of things as the story continues.  Because it should matter where you are and why you are there as opposed to someplace else.  If your story could start some other place, then why isn’t it?  Using an unthought-through default will flatten your affect and present both a weaker opening and a weaker story overall.

This ties into the idea that what the reader must know intersects most commonly with points later in the story where the plot must turn, change direction or focus, or alter speed.

An opening generally includes focus on the part of the reader, and an element of turning inward and altering speed to match with the pace of the developing narrative.  That’s why the balance between information, action, and character needs to be so precise.

There are a number of ways to approach the deploying of information

1) set a simple scene, that is, a basic picture in the mind

    Joan stood on a hill overlooking the ocean.

2) reminders of backstory

In the context of a standalone or first novel, I call this backstory.  In the context of a subsequent volume of a series or sequence, I call this backfill. (These are just my personal terms; you don’t have to agree with or use them.)

These can be accomplished

within character interaction:

“Hey, Joan, how’s it going?  You get all that werewolf splatter from last night cleaned off your windshield?”

as reactions:

Joan looked up from trying to wrestle her key into the car door to see a big black dog running across the parking lot toward her.  With a shriek, she bolted over the asphalt, dodging the last few parked cars, and ran back into the store.

(This is backstory because her actions tell us of what happened just before the dog appeared.)

as reflection:

Never again would she look at dogs in the same way.

preferably not as infodump:

Joan stood on a hill overlooking the ocean.  Last night had been the worst one in her life.  She was a clerk at an office store, and when she had left the store at closing she had walked out to her car still irritated with her boss, Joe, who despite being a good looking single guy was so cheap that he hadn’t yet replaced the lights in the burned out fixtures in the parking lot.  Her key had gotten stuck in the lock again when she had heard a low whine and the clicking footsteps of an animal running toward her across the asphalt.

3) set up

Joan stumbled over the crowbar Jake had carelessly left on the grass in the front yard.  Damn it!  She checked her watch. Late already! She tossed the crowbar in the back seat of the car and then drove to work.

For some stories it works to use as many elements as possible.  The more you can combine character, plot, backgrounding, conflict, and impetus, the more punch you will get from the information you do disclose.  In such cases the key is to streamline and highlight the information  in a way that does not confuse or overload.

Other stories take a much simpler approach, relying on some element of familiarity–a familiar setting or motivation or setup–to engage the reader’s understanding of where and what and then letting the hook be the twist or spark that leaps out as unfamiliar or captivating. That is, you build on an existing model that you, the writer, think the reader will be familiar with, say “the new kid’s first day at school” or “arriving at the gates at sundown just as the guards are locking up for the night.”

As always, with information, you the writer have to decide how much to reveal, how much to hint at, and how much to save for later.  Balance is everything.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

What Is Your Consensual Sex & Love Doing In My Epic Fantasy? (Spiritwalker Monday 16)

This post by Foz Meadows on Grittiness and Grimdark covers a lot of ground in discussing the current fashion for grimdark and why it is important to analyze some unexamined assumptions underlying an insistence that it is realistic.

She writes:

when you contend that realistic worldbuilding requires the inclusion of certain specific inequalities in order to count as realistic, you’re simultaneously asserting that such inequalities are inherent to reality

Cheryl Morgan follows up on this in a response post:

the fairly common view that because a book portrays the world the way it is, then it is portraying the world the only way it can be . . .

The problem is that if you try to challenge [this view] then your ideas are dismissed as escapist fantasy. It is a seductive argument. But it is wrong, and we know it is wrong.

Both of those posts are well worth reading and I don’t want to go over ground they have already covered (that discussion is already going on in those posts). In fact, the Spiritwalker Trilogy was in part written to address this very question of things always having to be “that way” when “that way” relies on and perpetuates within the story the racism, sexism, and other historically attested and currently experienced inequalities.

However, I want to follow up on the (seemingly endless) discussion of the depiction and frequency of rape and sexual violence (most commonly against women) in gritty realistic grimdark fantasy.

As it happens I have written about issues of sexual violence in fiction and film/media:

I’ve written about why I write about rape, and I’ve written about the disturbing prevalence of depictions of women in fear and pain in US media and literature.

That brings me to a point Anne Lyle raises in the comments to Meadows’ post:

Anne Lyle remarks that “it really irks me that consensual sex is often seen as “icky” in fantasy when rape gets a free pass.”

To which Meadows replies, “It’s like there’s this unwritten rule that rape can be described because the details are plot relevant, but sex can’t be because it isn’t, and every time, I can’t help thinking: where does this idea come from that the details of sex don’t matter?”

The details and presence of consensual sex and love, even in epic fantasy, can not only be plot relevant but crucial to the development of characters or to the outcome of a story. Writers make choices about how they construct and elaborate on their plots and what they leave out. Any time a writer weaves a plot element into the story that writer is making a decision about what is decorative and what is foundational. If consensual sex and love are developed and presented as part of actual lived experience that matters to the characters, as experience that changes and defines characters, then it will matter to the plot.

For the purposes of this post, my definition of consensual is twofold:

1) Between two (or more) consenting adults. Consent and intent are the crucial elements here; different cultures and eras will have different ages at which any given individual is considered to become an adult.

2) who are on the important levels equal in their ability to consent. For example both free (as in not indentured or enslaved unless they are BOTH so burdened). Paid sex workers and camp followers are another category in which it is easy to stereotypically write them as “in love” when in fact there are a lot of questions about equality of consent in such situations.

Feel free to argue with or augment this definition.

So here is my question:

What role does consensual sex and love play in epic fantasy?

In some cases I am sure there is “too much” for some people’s taste (and it is important to acknowledge that people’s tastes vary and that is how it should be). More often in my own reading I see less examination of the place of these central human emotions and desires. Consensual sex can be love or it can be sex. It can be romantic but it can be other things too. Love can be portrayed as intense hot romantic attraction or as a steady affection that may not be sexual at all.

Many societies both today and in the past have had arrangements by which marriages between families are arranged or brokered for a multitude of reasons (as would, for instance, be the case in most marriages made within the upper classes across medieval Europe for reasons of alliance, wealth, security, and inheritance). There is evidence that some of these marriages resulted in affectionate stable unions, and why not? Human beings on the whole seek connection; affection and trust are forms of creating connection.

It is also reasonable to assume that sexy hot love as a form of lustful attraction happens between people in all human populations, whether forbidden or allowed. Likewise in some societies this species of attraction is viewed as disruptive of the social order (for good reason!).

Out of the past we find time and again people who genuinely loved their partners or a lover (forbidden or otherwise). On Letters of Note you can read this heartbreaking letter from a widow to her dead husband, written in 16th century Korea, or this equally heartbreaking letter from a 17th century Japanese noblewoman before she commits suicide upon the death of her beloved husband. I don’t mean to highlight only tragic examples; love poetry and songs in one form or another are a staple in most societies. For just one example check out this review of Classical Poems by Arab Women (Abdullah al-Udhari).

To my mind, we lessen the story we are telling about human experience if we do not include and see as worthy all of human experience, especially including positive depictions of sex and love. What kind of world do we vision if we only tell the ugly stories about such intimate matters?

So I’ll ask again: How does epic fantasy–and heroic fantasy, and however you wish to define or parse the categories–do in conveying the realities of consensual sex and love?

Do me a favor: If you’re going to mention examples please don’t only mention examples from novels written by male writers (particularly white straight male writers of UK/US extraction). All too often these sorts of discussions devolve into talking about the same people over and over again. Nothing against male writers. Some of my best friends are male writers. Give the awesome dudes their props. But I would really like to see a more diverse set of examples woven into any discussion that may ensue.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

17 Author Book Giveaway (including Cold Magic)

This is an awesome giveaway: Sixteen authors of novels historical, fantastical, and adventurous have combined (the winner gets all 17 novels).

Look at these gorgeous book covers!

Look at these fabulous novels!

THE LANTERN by Deborah Lawrenson
NY Times bestseller modern gothic novel of love, secrets, and murder—set against the lush backdrop of Provence

THE FIREBIRD (ARC) by Susanna Kearsley

A twin-stranded story that blends modern romance with 18th-century Jacobite intrigue, traveling from Scotland to Russia, from the NY Times bestselling author of The Winter Sea

THE TWELFTH ENCHANTMENT by David Liss

In Regency England, at the dawn of the industrial era, magic and technology clash and the fate of the nation rests in the hands of a penniless young woman
COLD MAGIC by Kate Elliott

An epic adventure fantasy with a decidedly steampunk edge where magic – and the power of the Cold Mages – hold sway

THE MAPMAKER’S WAR by Ronlyn Domingue

A mesmerizing, utterly original adventure about love and loss and the redemptive power of the human spirit–releases March 5th!

DRACULA IN LOVE by Karen Essex

“If you read only one more vampire novel, let it be this one!” -C.W. Gortner, author of The Last Queen & The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
RED, WHITE AND BLOOD by Chris Farnsworth
High-octane supernatural thriller, a sequel to The President’s Vampire
THE HOUSE OF VELVET AND GLASS by Katherine Howe
The House of Velvet and Glass weaves together meticulous period detail, intoxicating romance, and a final shocking twist in a breathtaking novel that will thrill readers
from the author of bestseller The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL (ARC) by Carolyn Turgeon
The Fairest of Them All is an inventive, magical fairy-tale mash-up about Rapunzel growing up to be Snow White’s stepmother, out in August 2013 from the author of Godmother and Mermaid
THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES by M.J. Rose
A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra–and lost for 2,000 years by bestselling novelist M.J. Rose

THIEFTAKER by DB Jackson

Combining elements of traditional fantasy, urban fantasy, mystery and historical fiction, Thieftaker will appeal to readers who enjoy intelligent fantasy and history with an attitude
GLAMOUR IN GLASS by Mary Robinette Kowal

Glamour in Glass follows the lives of the main characters from Shades of Milk and Honey, a loving tribute to the works of Jane Austen in a world where magic is an everyday occurrence

DEVIL’S GATE by FJ Lennon

Devil’s Gate is exhilarating urban fantasy, with first class writing and characters that are unforgettable beyond the last page

THE CROOKED BRANCH by Jeanine Cummins

“Wonderfully written, with strong, compelling characters, it is a deeply satisfying combination of sweeping historical saga and modern family drama, a gentle reminder of the ever-reaching influence of family”–Booklist

A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS by Marie Brennan

The story of Isabella, Lady Trent, the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist, and her thrilling expedition to Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever

THE RECKONING by Alma Katsu
In the tradition of early Anne Rice, a gorgeously written sequel to The Taker that takes readers on a harrowing, passion-fueled chase that transcends the boundaries of time.

***

The contest runs from March 1 – 15 and winner(s) will be notified within 48 hours. We’ll give away one set of books per 500 entries.

Enter by using the form below. Please note that this contest is open to residents of the US, Canada and the UK only and by entering, you agree to be added to the authors’ mailing lists (don’t worry; you can always unsubscribe from any mailing list at any time).

The widget is not showing up on LJ so if you want to enter (and really, what a great set of books!):

head over to my WordPress side and enter there:

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Questions Fill In For Answers (Spiritwalker Monday 17) Mostly News

I am hopelessly behind on writing up the Creole Part II post (for those awaiting it), much less other Spiritwalker related posts I have titled or partially sketched out like the one discussing how The Taming of the Shrew influenced the series, or the one about Place Names in Europa and how most of them aren’t made up, or the one about the greetings in Cold Magic (& how they’re not my invention), or the one discussing some of the choices I made in Cold Fire regarding Cat’s behavior as a post titled “Cat Alone.” Also additional posts I have partially written on subjects such as world building and writing and so on.

The main reason I haven’t gotten any of these posts finished is that I’ve been working to complete a first draft of a YA (Young Adult) fantasy which I’m writing for my own reasons, to see how it goes and if I can manage it. Which I have now done: A first draft of  of volume one comes in at 125,000 words (that’s like a novella when you average 175,000 – 200,000 words per volume!) and I am revising it to send to my agent. Then we shall see. It is set in a secondary world and is not really based on anything else but as a pitch line I’m calling it Little Women meets Count of Monte Cristo in a world inspired by Greco-Roman Egypt.

 

Other news:

I have a story in a forthcoming anthology of epic fantasy themed short stories, Fearsome Journeys (edited by Jonathan Strahan) to be published May 2013.

Here’s the table of contents:

“The Effigy Engine: A Tale of the Red Hats” by Scott Lynch
“Amethyst, Shadow, and Light” by Saladin Ahmed
“Camp Follower” by Trudi Canavan
“The Dragonslayer of Merebarton” by K.J. Parker
“Leaf and Branch and Grass and Vine” by Kate Elliott
“Spirits of Salt: A Tale of the Coral Sword” by Jeffrey Ford
“Forever People” by Robert V.S. Redick
“Sponda the Suet Girl and the Secret of the French Pearl” by Ellen Klages
“Shaggy Dog Bridge: A Black Company Story” by Glen Cook
“The Ghost Makers” by Elizabeth Bear
“One Last, Great Adventure” by Ellen Kushner & Ysabeau Wilce
“The High King Dreaming” by Daniel Abraham

 

In the UK, as I have already mentioned, all seven of the Crown of Stars volumes are now available as e-books. The first three are available as e-book editions in the USA (no timetable for volumes 4 – 7 that I have been told). I’m not sure about Australia/NZ (if you have been able to purchase an ebook of one of the Crown of Stars volumes in Australia or NZ, please let me know).

 

I hope to be able to have some good news to report soon regarding e-book versions of the Novels of the Jaran as well as the Highroad Trilogy and The Labyrinth Gate.

 

Cold Steel is still scheduled for June 25, 2013 . . . . slowly getting closer.

 

Since I have not managed much value-added in my post, if you have a question to ask me about any of my books, about writing or any related subject, or about something else, feel free to do so here. And I will answer.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

The Shame of Self Aggrandizement (Spiritwalker Monday 18)

In a post dated January 2012 that consisted of an update and several links to reviews of Cold Magic and Cold Fire (here on WordPress and mirrored on Live Journal):

I wrote:

There’s a part of me that feels it is wrong for me to link to positive mentions of my work like the ones above, as if I am thereby somehow self aggrandizing or bragging or trying to act like I’m better than others or something. This is some of the baggage I carry from growing up as a girl in the 60s and 70s. I’m not quite sure from whence it stems, and I can certainly only speak to my own experience. Partly, it seemed to me that girls were meant to do well but never excel more than boys and certainly if they did excel weren’t ever to say anything of it because it was unseemly and boastful and something one ought to be ashamed of. In fact, there is a little piece of my psyche that feels ashamed (yes: ashamed!) when I read a [really positive and praising] review.

 

In the comments on Live Journal, lostrack621 wrote this in reply:

You nailed it right on the head; but I would go as far as to say that it’s not just related to the time you were growing up. I feel the same way, too, and I’m an ’80s child. I’m a member of the Association for Women in Science and there was an article recently about how one of the big issues and problems with women in science today (and arguably other fields) is that we are taught that bragging and taking ownership and simply being darn proud of our work is somehow “bad” and frowned upon. Part of it probably comes from the ’50s and ’60s, but the big issue is WHY is this belief persisting and what can be done to stop it. Every month there’s a new blurb about how to become more productive, well-known, etc etc because for some reason, we women are STILL behind the men. I mean, JEEZE LOUISE, we do these amazing things and there is no reason to feel bad about tooting our horns about it but for some crazy reason we do. So, I don’t know how we – collectively as amazing women – can break down these barriers other than doing what we’re best at and keep doing what we know is working for us. :: shrug :: I’ve come to the point where I just keep my head down and slog through (speaking of, I should get back to my work….)

 

First of all, I don’t want to suggest that ONLY women get this message because I know of men who get it, or who feel it, also.

“Simply being proud of our own work:” Amazing how contentious that can be. How difficult to own, as if it is shameful to say “I love this project” or “I really nailed this.” That can expand to discussing one’s own work in appropriate contexts, as if one ought to just produce the work and then never mention it again because that would be immodest or self aggrandizing. [I am not talking about situations where people push their project, work, or title into every conversation, but note that I feel obliged to make that caveat, as if I am sure that even by discussing this someone out there will be thinking that I am saying too much or that they once sat on a panel with a person whose every answer/statement was a reference to his/her own book, as if that is equivalent, related, the inevitable end of any mention substantive or brief of one's own work.]

What is this? How many of you feel it? Where does the pressure come from?

I have felt undercut at odd times from unexpected places, and I often wonder if “we” even know we are doing it, if we judge praise or discussion of praise more harshly and if there is a gender–or race or ethnicity–component in how we do so. Is there praise that is never questioned and success that is deemed always “appropriate?” While other success is always suspect?

How about your own personal experience? Do you, like lostrack621, feel that “taking ownership” is frowned on in your field, for you? For others?

 

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

A Valentine’s Day snippet from Cold Steel (Spiritwalker)

This brief scene appears in Cold Steel and is appropriate as a themed snippet for Valentine’s Day.

If you have read Cold Fire the scene contains no spoilers because the event it references takes place in Cold Fire.

To set the stage at its most basic level, our heroine Cat is dreaming:

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Strength (Spiritwalker Monday 19)

There are a lot of ways to write about strength.

As a writer I can get frustrated when a characteristic I mean to be understood as strong is interpreted by a reader as weak, even though I comprehend that every reader will bring a different interpretation to the table. Also, and more importantly, I get frustrated when I see myself as a writer falling into the trap of stereotyping “strength” and “weakness” in ways I don’t like and which I think are negative but which I revert to if I don’t stop and think past received assumptions about people and gender.

What do we mean when we say “a strong male character” or “a strong female character”?

What about “a strong character?” How does that come into play without it being tied to gender or sex?

And what do I mean by “we,” anyway? What about cultural and historical differences in how strength is defined?

What is strength?

There are so many ways to define strength in terms of the human personality and human characteristics and how it relates to what is valued in any given society at a particular moment in that society’s development or decline. What defines strength now may in twenty years or a thousand years be seen as a sign of potential weakness, while something I define as weak may be seen as strong elsewhere.

Actual physical feats of strength range from a simple measure like weight-lifting to a more complex measure like physical endurance. As a woman I have been told more times than I care to count that men will always rule human civilization because they are physically stronger by what I call the weight-lifting measure, an opinion that oddly leaves out humanity’s crucially advantageous traits of dexterity, adaptability, creativity, intelligence, and persistence. And what about endurance? In some ways, endurance is the greatest test of strength.

Is strength a way to tear things down or to build things up? In the Bible, Samson famously does both, although it is important that while his strength is commonly defined as physical in fact, as a Nazirite, it is his spiritual strength that has nurtured his physical strength.

Sometimes it seems like portrayals of strength in the (heavily USA-based) media I see around me are getting choked through narrowing definitions. I say that in part because I think mainstream US media is going through one of its cyclical restricting modes, while meanwhile in the global gestalt a new creative energy and vision is expanding with increasing vigor.

Part of that is because views about strength, like views about anything, go through fashions: the strong silent cowboy becomes the blustering self absorbed Rambo; the man too honest and righteous to break the law becomes the man who breaks the law to make things right; the calm moderate in-control man becomes the angry passionate man while meanwhile in many societies being unable to contain or control anger is seen as a flaw rather than as a sign of strength.

During the writing of Cold Steel I had a series of email exchanges with Michelle Sagara about definitions of and assumptions about masculinity in our culture.

I was concerned that a particular character might not be seen by some readers as a “strong male character” because he does not display several of what are typically (although not exclusively) seen in today’s media/fiction as “strong male” characteristics. This isn’t an exclusive or finite list, but two of the characteristics I identify as seeming to me to be stereotypical today as approved markers of masculinity are the “man as soldier” (or warrior) which is related to but not exactly the same as the man who uses violence (and kills) to righteously solve problems. I still also see elements of a type I call “the masterful man,” the man who won’t take no for an answer, who knows what he wants perhaps better than you do, who pushes until he gets what he wants. This is a form of what is often called “the alpha male” but by no means the only example of the type. All three of these types seem to me important in an imperial context: That is, an empire tells stories about itself to justify the empire, and some of those stories naturally will include valorizing war and soldiering, violence, knowing better than others, and the idea of exceptionalism, that the empire is destined to rule and/or somehow favored by god, chance, Fate, or destiny.

Leave aside for the moment the larger and related question of what exactly we mean when we say male, female, man, woman, and so on ( I’m no gender essentialist regardless). And for the moment I’m speaking about my experience primarily but not exclusively with American English-language media and fiction.

If strength is defined in limited ways, then human character is not only limited but harmed by being forced to adhere to increasingly smaller sets of perceived value. When certain characteristics got locked in as strong and others ignored, or derided as weak, it creates a restrictive view of humanity.

Crucially, for writers, narrow definitions of what constitutes a strong man or a strong woman can affect how people read and view those characters. Some readers will reject a character as strong because that character does not adhere to stereotypes of “strong.”

For instance strength can be expressed through patience, and patience is a characteristic that both men and women have. But if patience is not seen as a masculine characteristic, then a male character in a fictional story characterized as patient may or may not be seen as a strong man. For example, the film Witness contrasts Harrison Ford’s world weary and violent cop with Alexander Gudonov’s non-violent, patient, quiet Amish farmer (it finds both men ultimately positive as role models but I note that the story revolves around Ford’s cop).

If male characters can’t be seen as strong except when martial or angry or violent or masterful in the sense of being forceful, then think how harmful that becomes to our understanding of what it means to be a man and the cultural creation of role models for boys to grow into. Think of how harmful it is for women.

And what about women? What is a strong woman? One who kicks ass and can fight “as well as a man”?

As many have pointed out before me, if women only get to be strong insofar as they look and behave like men, then that does not uplift women.

If characteristics long defined as “feminine” are automatically derided as “weak” or undervalued and dismissed as “girly,” then those attitudes affect all children as they grow into adulthood just as restrictive attitudes about boys affect all children likewise.

I love stories and characters that celebrate diverse ways to be strong.

In Grace Lin’s Where the Mountains Meet the Moon, Minli is stubborn and determined. And she listens.

Oree, in N. K. Jemisin’s The Broken Kingdoms, has a clear and powerful sense of herself that makes her strong.

In Michelle Sagara’s Silence, the main character Emma is caring and loyal to her friends and to others. I tend to find compassion a sign of strength, and it appeals greatly to me in characters.

In Cold Fire, I deliberately had Andevai court Cat not with manly arrogant alpha-ness but with patience and food.

While Nevyn in Katharine Kerr’s Deverry sequence does fit the acceptable mode of the “mysterious and wise old man with magical powers” character, he himself is strong because he uses his mind, is often kind and patient, and because he fulfills a very long burden of service to make up for a wrong he caused. That’s strength.

The sisters in Aliette de Bodard’s story “Immersion” are strong by being smart, observant, thoughtful, and (again) determined. Their radicalism is quiet, necessary, in some ways tentative, and within its small orbit it is effective.

Strong female characters in Danish tv shows like Forbrydelsen, Matador, and The Eagle work well for me because they are portrayed as competent, intelligent, no-nonsense, pragmatic, efficient, compassionate, caring, and steadfast.

Of course every reader brings their own view of strength to the table.

What portrayals of strength (from any fiction) have you liked that did not fit with classically stereotypical kickass or martial or alpha-manly definitions of strength? Do you think that SFF and YA, for example, are pushing the boundaries of what is seen as strong or are more likely to fall back into more standard modes of “strength expression”? Are all characters given equal chance to be seen as strong, or are some given more limited roles than others?

I have no definitive answers. I’m just asking questions here.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Apex Magazine story, Crown of Stars retrospective, & Crown of Stars ebooks

The February 2013 Apex Magazine is out with a Shakespeare theme.

I have a story (“My Voice is in My Sword”) and am interviewed in the issue, which you can find here.

Again, here is the link to a retrospective I wrote, looking back on the Crown of Stars series, which you can find at the Orbit Books web site.

All seven of the Crown of Stars books are now available in ebook form, from Orbit UK in the UK region.

The first three volumes of Crown of Stars are available in ebook form in the USA and other English-language venues. No schedule yet for the ebook publications of #4 – 7, although they are all available in print form.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Reviews, Word of Mouth, Conversation, & Community (Spiritwalker Monday 20)

Where and how do you discover the books you read and media you watch/consume? How much does word of mouth or reviews play a part as compared to research or relying on past experience?

Do you write reviews? And if you do, what audience do you hope to reach?

Do you read reviews? How do you interact with them?

The process of reviewing (as opposed to the critical essay) has had such an explosion because of the internet that both as a reader who reads and as a writer who gets reviewed I’m fascinated by the process of liking what others like, disliking what others dislike, liking what others dislike, disliking what others like, and the worst reviews of all, those of indifference and of the judgment that a work is trivial, unimportant, and ignorable.

There are many platforms where reviewers are clearly reviewing for other readers, for each other, an ongoing conversation about books both in the largest sense of the reading gestalt (what is fashionable, obscure, elided, needed, and trendy or out of fashion at any given time) and of course of individual titles that a person may want to excoriate or praise.

But I also just heard a story about a writer who was emailed directly by a person who wanted to make sure to tell the writer about how much they (the reader) had disliked the work of that writer which they had read. What is up with that? That so puzzles me–not the disliking because people will not all like (or dislike) the same things, but this odd need to inform the writer so as to . . . to what? What does it accomplish? How does it relate back to the larger sense of conversation? How is this part of a productive conversation?

But just as some reviewers are clearly writing to engage primarily or only with other reviewers and readers, others do seem to want to engage — whether positively or negatively — with the writers. There are so many layers and complexities involved.

I don’t review books but I do like to talk about books I enjoyed. I’m more likely to review film/tv, I suspect because I am not part of that community. At the same time, I have no problem whatsoever with writers who do review; more power to them.

Do you feel like you are part of a larger ongoing discussion of books/media that takes place online (and to a lesser degree off line)? Perhaps that is a question already answered by the fact that you are reading this on a writer’s blog. I feel I am often submerged in this ocean of book discussion, as a participant fishing in from several angles, both the reader and the read.

I have to make decisions about how I am going to interact with reviews of my own work (whether to read or not read, and how or whether to internalize the reactions of readers which can be so diverse), how I approach books/media I’m reading and how much I want to say/converse about them, and how much I engage with reviewers and reviews in general even just as a reader. Like anyone, my opinion may be swayed or my interest piqued in all kinds of ways, some positive and some negative.

Everyone makes these decisions from one day or one month or one year to the next. It is difficult, I think, to say that one works or even reads in true isolation, not now.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.

Cold Steel (Spiritwalker Monday 26)

Cold Steel will be published on June 25, 2013.

Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.