Martha Wells's Blog, page 70
November 8, 2017
WFC Trip Report Wednesday-Friday Morning
I got to World Fantasy in San Antonio on Wednesday night, and right after checking in we bolted down to the Riverwalk to head down to Iron Cactus and have drinks and snacks. (The tamale pops were delicious.) This part of the Riverwalk is outside the normal tourist loop which is closer to the convention center, and we'd never really spent any time up here, so it was interesting to see. It's basically lined with restaurants and shops and hotels, some with entrances at river level, others with balconies overhanging the river, and it's really nice.
Tumblr Photo post: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/167268291377/these-are-photos-i-took-this-past-week-of-the
The con had a guest dinner that night, so we met up with everyone in the lobby and walked to Acenar, which was a really nice restaurant up on street level with a broad balcony overlooking the Riverwalk. Me and one of the friends who came with me got to meet and sit next to Tananarive Due, and it was really fun getting to talk to her and hang out a little.
Thursday the con started, and I moderated the guests of honor panel with Tananarive Due, Karen Joy Fowler, David Mitchell, and Gregory Manchess, where we talked about the con's theme of Secret Histories. Big room, lots of people, and it seemed to go really well. Then we wandered around a bit and checked out the dealers room, and then met up with Sharon Shinn to go down the Riverwalk again for dinner. After that Sharon and I were on a panel with Elizabeth Moon and Nancy Kress, on badass older women protagonists in fantasy. Again, lots of people were there, even though it was an 8:00 panel.
Friday I had my guest of honor interview (From Angry Fairy Queens to Flying Lizard People: An Interview with Toastmaster Martha Wells), and Rachel Neumeier and I met up early at 9:00 to make sure we knew what we were going to do. I had made a powerpoint presentation of art from and based on the Raksura books, so we had to make sure that worked. (Shout-out to Tom Becker and Chuck Siros for working for 30 minutes to make sure it looped throughout the interview like we intended it to.) So that was a lot of fun and seemed to go really well.
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Tumblr Photo post: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/167268291377/these-are-photos-i-took-this-past-week-of-the
The con had a guest dinner that night, so we met up with everyone in the lobby and walked to Acenar, which was a really nice restaurant up on street level with a broad balcony overlooking the Riverwalk. Me and one of the friends who came with me got to meet and sit next to Tananarive Due, and it was really fun getting to talk to her and hang out a little.
Thursday the con started, and I moderated the guests of honor panel with Tananarive Due, Karen Joy Fowler, David Mitchell, and Gregory Manchess, where we talked about the con's theme of Secret Histories. Big room, lots of people, and it seemed to go really well. Then we wandered around a bit and checked out the dealers room, and then met up with Sharon Shinn to go down the Riverwalk again for dinner. After that Sharon and I were on a panel with Elizabeth Moon and Nancy Kress, on badass older women protagonists in fantasy. Again, lots of people were there, even though it was an 8:00 panel.
Friday I had my guest of honor interview (From Angry Fairy Queens to Flying Lizard People: An Interview with Toastmaster Martha Wells), and Rachel Neumeier and I met up early at 9:00 to make sure we knew what we were going to do. I had made a powerpoint presentation of art from and based on the Raksura books, so we had to make sure that worked. (Shout-out to Tom Becker and Chuck Siros for working for 30 minutes to make sure it looped throughout the interview like we intended it to.) So that was a lot of fun and seemed to go really well.
comments
November 7, 2017
World Fantasy Award Speech
https://www.tor.com/2017/11/07/unbury-the-future-martha-wells-full-speech-from-the-2017-world-fantasy-awards/
Tor.com has the full text of my speech at the World Fantasy Awards banquet. Below is an excerpt:
Weird Tales had women poets, a woman editor named Dorothy McIlwraith, women readers who had their letters printed in the magazine. There were women writing for other pulps, for the earlier Dime Novels, lots of them. Including African American Pauline Hopkins, whose fantasy adventure novel appeared in a magazine in 1903.
These women were there, they existed. Everybody knew that, up until somehow they didn’t. We know there were LGBT and non-binary pulp writers, too, but their identities are hidden by time and the protective anonymity of pseudonyms.
Secrets are about suppression, and history is often suppressed by violence, obscured by cultural appropriation, or deliberately destroyed or altered by colonization, in a lingering kind of cultural gaslighting. Wikipedia defines “secret history” as a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars.
That’s what I think of when I hear the words “secret histories.” Histories kept intentionally secret and histories that were quietly allowed to fade away.
https://www.tor.com/2017/11/07/unbury-the-future-martha-wells-full-speech-from-the-2017-world-fantasy-awards/
comments
Tor.com has the full text of my speech at the World Fantasy Awards banquet. Below is an excerpt:
Weird Tales had women poets, a woman editor named Dorothy McIlwraith, women readers who had their letters printed in the magazine. There were women writing for other pulps, for the earlier Dime Novels, lots of them. Including African American Pauline Hopkins, whose fantasy adventure novel appeared in a magazine in 1903.
These women were there, they existed. Everybody knew that, up until somehow they didn’t. We know there were LGBT and non-binary pulp writers, too, but their identities are hidden by time and the protective anonymity of pseudonyms.
Secrets are about suppression, and history is often suppressed by violence, obscured by cultural appropriation, or deliberately destroyed or altered by colonization, in a lingering kind of cultural gaslighting. Wikipedia defines “secret history” as a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or ignored by established scholars.
That’s what I think of when I hear the words “secret histories.” Histories kept intentionally secret and histories that were quietly allowed to fade away.
https://www.tor.com/2017/11/07/unbury-the-future-martha-wells-full-speech-from-the-2017-world-fantasy-awards/
comments
November 1, 2017
GoodReads Choice Awards
Another nice surprise: The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red is in the first round of the Best Science Fiction of 2017 GoodReads Choice Awards!
https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-science-fiction-books-2017
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https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-science-fiction-books-2017
comments
October 31, 2017
All Systems Red Audiobook
Well, this happened quicker than I thought!
The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red is now available in audiobook on Recorded Books, Audible, iTunes, etc!
http://www.marthawells.com/murderbot1.htm
narrated by Kevin R. Free https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/narrators/kevin-r-free/ http://nightvale.wikia.com/wiki/Kevin
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October 27, 2017
State of Me
I feel like I'm swamped with work, but I think what I'm actually swamped with is anxiety. I'm working on a couple of different things, but this is what's coming up.
Upcoming cons:
* November 2-5, 2017 Toastmaster at World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
* November 11, 2017 Instructor at Writespace Houston's Writers Family Reunion in Houston, Texas.
*February 16-18, 2018 Panelist at ConDFW in Fort Worth, Texas.
Upcoming Publishing
* December 1, 2017 The audiobook of The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red narrated by Kevin R. Free
* May 8, 2018 The second Murderbot novella The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition
* August 7, 2018 The third Murderbot novella The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol
* 2018 The fourth Murderbot novella The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy
And if you missed it, the last book in the Books of the Raksura series, The Harbors of the Sun is out in ebook, hardcover, and paperback.
If you've already read it, please consider posting a review on Amazon or GoodReads or wherever you like to review. It really does help and I appreciate it a lot.
comments
Upcoming cons:
* November 2-5, 2017 Toastmaster at World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
* November 11, 2017 Instructor at Writespace Houston's Writers Family Reunion in Houston, Texas.
*February 16-18, 2018 Panelist at ConDFW in Fort Worth, Texas.
Upcoming Publishing
* December 1, 2017 The audiobook of The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red narrated by Kevin R. Free
* May 8, 2018 The second Murderbot novella The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition
* August 7, 2018 The third Murderbot novella The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol
* 2018 The fourth Murderbot novella The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy
And if you missed it, the last book in the Books of the Raksura series, The Harbors of the Sun is out in ebook, hardcover, and paperback.
If you've already read it, please consider posting a review on Amazon or GoodReads or wherever you like to review. It really does help and I appreciate it a lot.
comments
October 25, 2017
A couple more tumblr posts
A Rogue Protocol quote for Book Quote Wednesday on Twitter: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/166779465752/for-book-quote-wednesday-on-twitter-the
Close-up of the Murderbot tattoos: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/166779795792/someone-asked-for-a-close-up-of-the-murderbot
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Close-up of the Murderbot tattoos: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/166779795792/someone-asked-for-a-close-up-of-the-murderbot
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October 20, 2017
World Fantasy 2017
Registration for World Fantasy 2017 in San Antonio ends Oct 21, banquet seats still available until Oct 27, and the final program schedule is now online:
http://wfc2017.org/wfc2017/programming/program-schedule/
Panels include:
Paging Doctor Tavener and Carnaki: Occult Detectives Old and Newly Reinvented
Beards and Intrigue: Queering the Historical Fantastic
Exceptional Characters in Horrible Times
Metaphors & Metadata: Libraries in Fantasy Literature
Molly Weasley Was a Bad Ass: Aged Protagonists in Fantasy
From Angry Fairy Queens to Flying Lizard People: An Interview with Toastmaster Martha Wells [Spotlight]
Exploration of Gender in Fantasy
Calamity Jane Defeats Conan—the Persistence of American Folklore in Fantasy Literature
Kitsune & Dragon: Thoughtful Approaches to Alternate Eastern Asias
Greg Manchess: Short Take on a Long Career in Illustration [GoH Spotlight]
Hild and Hilt: the Female Monk, the Lone Woman Protagonist
Hidden Secrets [GoH Spotlight] ( Tananarive Due will discuss the role of history, especially hidden history, in her work and in black horror in general, which is emerging as a sub-genre in the wake of Jordan Peele's Get Out. How horror serves as trauma narratives, or even healing narratives, to help artists and readers come to grips with the past.)
Borrowing from History: Intention and Appropriation
The Role of the City in Fantasy Settings
Religions of the African Diaspora: Beyond Zombies, Ancestors, and Giant Apes.
Urban Legends in the Age of Fake News (Engaging Our Theme IV)
Everybody Was There: Diversity in Fantasy Then and Now
Remembering Zenna Henderson: A Centennial Discussion and Appreciation
Women Authors That Men Don't Read --- Or Do They?
Reinventing the Fantastic Other
Pulp Era Influences: the Expiration Date
New Graphic Novels You Should be Reading
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October 19, 2017
Me and Star Wars
Forgot to post this here yesterday:
Star Wars and me, when I was a lonely 13 year old: http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/10/a-long-time-ago-martha-wells-how-star-wars-inspired-writing/
I was an isolated kid in a lot of ways, and didn’t know anybody else who really liked SF as much as I did. And I’d been told over and over again that liking SF/F, or liking anything involving books and media so intensely, was weird and strange and probably bad, or if not bad, something that made me a figure of ridicule. It was especially bad for a girl to like those things, but I was sure to get over it when I grew up and stopping being silly. I knew I wasn’t the only one, I knew there were other people like me out there; all these books and comics had been written by people, for people. But before Star Wars, it was hard to believe those people really existed.
Then I read this movie novelization, and read it again, and made the two whole friends I had read it, and we read it aloud to each other, and acted it out. And finally, a month or so after the movie came out, I got to see it. It was a shock at first, so different from how I’d imagined it from the book. But it wrote itself into my DNA and it’s still there, so many years later.
comments
Star Wars and me, when I was a lonely 13 year old: http://www.unboundworlds.com/2017/10/a-long-time-ago-martha-wells-how-star-wars-inspired-writing/
I was an isolated kid in a lot of ways, and didn’t know anybody else who really liked SF as much as I did. And I’d been told over and over again that liking SF/F, or liking anything involving books and media so intensely, was weird and strange and probably bad, or if not bad, something that made me a figure of ridicule. It was especially bad for a girl to like those things, but I was sure to get over it when I grew up and stopping being silly. I knew I wasn’t the only one, I knew there were other people like me out there; all these books and comics had been written by people, for people. But before Star Wars, it was hard to believe those people really existed.
Then I read this movie novelization, and read it again, and made the two whole friends I had read it, and we read it aloud to each other, and acted it out. And finally, a month or so after the movie came out, I got to see it. It was a shock at first, so different from how I’d imagined it from the book. But it wrote itself into my DNA and it’s still there, so many years later.
comments
October 18, 2017
A couple of tumblr posts
* My publisher made Murderbot tattoos and sent them to me: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/166534388472/i-have-murderbot-tattoos-and-arcs-of-the
* Another quote from The Murderbot Diaries: Artifcial Condition for Book Quote Wednesday on Twitter: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/166536276597/for-book-quote-wednesday-on-twitter-the-murderbot
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* Another quote from The Murderbot Diaries: Artifcial Condition for Book Quote Wednesday on Twitter: https://marthawells.tumblr.com/post/166536276597/for-book-quote-wednesday-on-twitter-the-murderbot
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October 12, 2017
World Fantasy Schedule
I'm toastmaster for the World Fantasy Convention which is in San Antonio, TX, this year. The headliner guests are: Tananarive Due, Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Manchess, David Mitchell, and Gordon Van Gelder.
And the full programming schedule has now been posted: http://wfc2017.org/wfc2017/programming/program-schedule/
and here's my schedule:
Thursday
* 2:00 I've Got a Secret: Introducing our Guests
Part interview, part get-to-know-you chat, our Toastmaster will ask our honored guests to share their thoughts on "secret history" -- their own, or the importance of "secret history" in their work.
Martha Wells (m), Tananarive Due, Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Manchess, David Mitchell
* 8:00 Molly Weasley Was a Bad Ass: Aged Protagonists in Fantasy
With the aging of our readership why do we have so few mature female characters in fantasy literature? Can the pernicious Youth Culture be subverted, or are we doomed to keep reading about fresh-faced young sorcerers eager to become saviors? Our panelists discuss representation, power and common tropes in fantasy works that include an older woman (middle aged and upward, such as in Tananarive Due's The Black Rose and Nancy Kress' The Prince of Morning Bells) as a protagonist, including examples of what they want to see more of, and why it matters.
Sharon Shinn, Martha Wells, Elizabeth Moon, Tracy Caulfield
Friday
* 10:00 Spotlight - From Angry Fairy Queens to Flying Lizard People: An Interview with Toastmaster Martha Wells
Rachel Neumeier interviews Martha Wells about her work and career, including her Ile-Rien series and the Books of the Raksura, her other fantasy novels including Wheel of the Infinite and City of Bones, her media tie-in and young adult work, and her new SF novella series The Murderbot Diaries.
* 8:00 Our Signature Event
Sometimes called the Autograph Reception, sometimes the Mass Autographing, there is only one autograph session at a World Fantasy Convention. Every convention member is invited to come to the Fiesta Pavilion, pick up their name plate and choose a seat at the autographing tables. This is a reception; hors d'oeuvres will be served.
Saturday
* 1:00 Reading - Martha Wells (1 hour)
(I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading yet. Maybe some Raksura and some new Murderbot.)
* 8:00 Art Ahow Reception
Sunday
* 1:00 Banquet and World Fantasy Awards Ceremony
comments
And the full programming schedule has now been posted: http://wfc2017.org/wfc2017/programming/program-schedule/
and here's my schedule:
Thursday
* 2:00 I've Got a Secret: Introducing our Guests
Part interview, part get-to-know-you chat, our Toastmaster will ask our honored guests to share their thoughts on "secret history" -- their own, or the importance of "secret history" in their work.
Martha Wells (m), Tananarive Due, Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Manchess, David Mitchell
* 8:00 Molly Weasley Was a Bad Ass: Aged Protagonists in Fantasy
With the aging of our readership why do we have so few mature female characters in fantasy literature? Can the pernicious Youth Culture be subverted, or are we doomed to keep reading about fresh-faced young sorcerers eager to become saviors? Our panelists discuss representation, power and common tropes in fantasy works that include an older woman (middle aged and upward, such as in Tananarive Due's The Black Rose and Nancy Kress' The Prince of Morning Bells) as a protagonist, including examples of what they want to see more of, and why it matters.
Sharon Shinn, Martha Wells, Elizabeth Moon, Tracy Caulfield
Friday
* 10:00 Spotlight - From Angry Fairy Queens to Flying Lizard People: An Interview with Toastmaster Martha Wells
Rachel Neumeier interviews Martha Wells about her work and career, including her Ile-Rien series and the Books of the Raksura, her other fantasy novels including Wheel of the Infinite and City of Bones, her media tie-in and young adult work, and her new SF novella series The Murderbot Diaries.
* 8:00 Our Signature Event
Sometimes called the Autograph Reception, sometimes the Mass Autographing, there is only one autograph session at a World Fantasy Convention. Every convention member is invited to come to the Fiesta Pavilion, pick up their name plate and choose a seat at the autographing tables. This is a reception; hors d'oeuvres will be served.
Saturday
* 1:00 Reading - Martha Wells (1 hour)
(I'm not sure what I'm going to be reading yet. Maybe some Raksura and some new Murderbot.)
* 8:00 Art Ahow Reception
Sunday
* 1:00 Banquet and World Fantasy Awards Ceremony
comments
