I’m very pleased to announce that “The Scent of Things to Come” is now available online in Nature‘s September 5th issue. The artwork is gorgeous, too.
I have to say this absolutely makes my day:)
Posts Tagged ‘genre fiction’
Why Female Characters Should Be More Than “Strong”
Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged arts, entertainment, equality, genre fiction, literature, women, writing on August 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I Hate Strong Female Characters
Over at the New Statesman, Sophia McDougall has written a thoughtful piece on female characters in television, movies, and text. Provocatively titled, it is much more complex than one might think at first glance. This isn’t a tear-down or a diatribe, and it’s well worth a read.
I like “sexy kickassery” as much as the next person, but when it comes to characters…
What do I want instead of a Strong Female Character? I want a male:female character ratio of 1:1 instead of 3:1 on our screens. I want a wealth of complex female protagonists who can be either strong or weak or both or neither, because they are more than strength or weakness. Badass gunslingers and martial artists sure, but also interesting women who are shy and quiet and do, sometimes, put up with others’ shit because in real life there’s often no practical alternative. And besides heroines, I want to see women in as many and varied secondary and character roles as men: female sidekicks, mentors, comic relief, rivals, villains. I want not to be asked, when I try to sell a book about two girls, two boys and a genderless robot, if we couldn’t change one of those girls to a boy.
…
I want her to be free to express herself
I want her to have meaningful, emotional relationships with other women
I want her to be weak sometimes
I want her to be strong in a way that isn’t about physical dominance or power
I want her to cry if she feels like crying
I want her to ask for help
I want her to be who she is
…this list of things is better.
Reporting Harassment at a Convention: A First-Person How To
Posted in Other, tagged arts, books, conventions, genre fiction, how to, inspiration, publishing, sexual harassment on June 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Reblogging this because Elise Matthesen has been brave enough to turn a bad experience into something useful, and it may help someone in the future… although I hope you don’t need it.
My friend Elise Matthesen was creeped upon at a recent convention by someone of some influence in the genre; she decided that she was going to do something about it and reported the person for sexual harassment, both to the convention and to the person’s employer. And now she’s telling you how she did it and what the process is like. Here’s her story.
—-
We’re geeks. We learn things and share, right? Well, this year at WisCon I learned firsthand how to report sexual harassment. In case you ever need or want to know, here’s what I learned and how it went.
Two editors I knew were throwing a book release party on Friday night at the convention. I was there, standing around with a drink talking about Babylon 5, the work of China Mieville, and Marxist theories of labor (like you do) when an editor from a different…
View original post 1,930 more words
This is Good News: Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant Series Optioned
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged awesome, Ben Aaronovitch, books, British TV, entertainment, fun, genre fiction, sff, Tor.com, tv, Writers on June 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant Series Optioned for UK TV Adaptation | Tor.com
Author Ben Aaronovitch’s hugely successful series of urban fantasy/police procedural novels featuring a copper who becomes a trainee wizard with the Met is to become a TV series in the UK.
As someone who likes well-written books and entertaining, thoughtful television, this is good news. We’ll have to see how the final product comes together but in the meantime, if the above description sounds intriguing and you haven’t already found Aaronovitch’s series, I suggest you start with the first book, Rivers of London.
This Tor.com-enabled lunch break is now over; I now return to my regularly scheduled work program!
Joe Hill Writes Like… How About You?
Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged artists, arts, books, cory doctorow, creativity, david foster wallace, fun, funny, genre fiction, j k rowling, joe hill, literature, ray bradbury, sff, work, Writers, writing, yay on June 22, 2013| 2 Comments »
I was feeling a little blue and I was looking for something on the internet to cheer me up and Warren Ellis has a post on his tumblr pointing to a website, I Write Like, so I thought, oh, hey, why not? Warren got David Foster Wallace; I was thinking, huh, maybe it’ll tell me I write like John Steinbeck! Hell, maybe David Mitchell!!!
Thanks to the above post by Joe Hill I’ve discovered an entertaining website called “I Write Like.” Unlike him, however, my stylistic tendencies seem to be more varied. Depending on the story, I apparently write like Cory Doctorow, J.K. Rowling, Ray Bradbury, and David Foster Wallace. I think the minds behind the site put this fun tool together to raise writers’ confidence levels; who wouldn’t want to be told they write like any one of the people on that list?
I don’t write like Stephen King, though. Joe Hill’s got that all wrapped up.
-
Recent Posts
She Said, He Said
-
-
Favorite Posts
Archives
Categories
It’s All So Random
What I’m Reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.