Pickled Think

Baby's First Live Reading! "Flights of Fancy", March 18

2012-02-10T22:14:00.001+13:00

Come to: "Flights of Fancy", a New Zealand Book Month Event, in association with SpecFicNZ.
When: Sunday, March 18, 2012. 1pm - 3pm
Where: Air Force Museum, Harvard Ave, Wigram, Christchurch, New Zealand
Who: Local based speculative fiction authors including yours truly will be doing readings, and introducing you to the local specfic scene.
What: I intend to be reading my story "Cartography, and the Death of Shoes", from "Fat Girl in a Strange Land" (Crossed Genres Publications), and I hope to have copies available for sale! That is, of course, if you haven't already purchased your copy as it goes on sale next Saturday, February 18th (New Zealand time).

Anthologies Relevant To My Interests

2012-02-08T16:17:00.001+13:00

I got into a discussion with a Twitter friend today about short story anthologies relevant to SF&F and our interests (feminism, activism, queer issues etc), and I thought I would expand on those here.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my copy of "Heiresses of Russ 2011: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction", published by Lethe Press, and edited by Joselle Vanderhooft and Steve Berman. It contains stories by NK Jemisin (squee!) and Rachel Swirsky (yay!), and I loved Swirsky's "The Women Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window", so I'll be glad to have a hard copy of this story.

The 2012 edition of this anthology is already being planned, with recommendations now open until March 15.

"Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction", published by Lethe Press and edited by Brit Mandelo will be released on May 5, 2012.

Mandelo, the author of the 'Queering SFF' at Tor.com, recently wrote about the background of the anthology, and why genderqueer voices are important to be heard in SFF:

There’s such a big world out there when it comes to expressions of gender, sexuality, and identity — race, class, culture, time-period, age; all of these things come into play with performance and the ways in which we label ourselves (or don’t). “Genderqueer” can be a label, but it’s also an umbrella term that contains a multiplicity of other identities which slip, subvert, or explode restrictive, binary ideas about selves and bodies. The potential for experimentation, change, fluidity and non-normative construction of self is huge — whether it’s today, or in the Renaissance, or in the future, or on a whole other world.

One more from Lethe Press, "Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic", edited by Joselle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff. This anthology has been out since May, 2011, but it has only just come on to my radar. I'm still trying to track down a closer to home edition (damn you international shipping costs! *fistshake*), but I'm very keen to get my hands on it.

#FeministSF Chat

2012-02-04T12:36:00.001+13:00

Every week Djibril Alayad, editor of The Future Fire ezine, runs #FeministSF chat on Twitter.

This week I am humbled and delighted that Djibril has put up for a topic of discussion my lesbian fantasy short "Trois" (Khimairal Ink, June 2011).

#FeministSF chat takes place each Sunday at 2pm Eastern Standard Time, which is 8am Monday New Zealand time.

Feel free to join us in the chat through the #FeministSF hashtag. The chat will also be archived for future reading.

VA: "Memorial at Copernicus" by Gray Rinehart at Redstone Science Fiction

2012-02-02T12:49:00.000+13:00

My latest narration for Redstone Science Fiction is "Memorial at Copernicus" by Gray Rinehart.

Click here for Redstone's audio page, which includes this latest story and archived narrations I've done for them previously.

Click here for a direct link to the download.

Small Community Feel In The Big City: The Gap Filler Book Fridge

2012-01-28T14:35:00.003+13:00

One of the (many many) things lost in my city after the February 22nd, 2011 earthquake are second hand book stores.

As a book collecting freak, I keenly feel the loss of many second hand book stores, especially the big three on Manchester Street and Book Mart on Papanui Road (my favourite haunt for SF&F). The earthquake also hit at a time when the book industry was (and is still) having a major effect on new book stores, with Borders on the verge of closing down. Thankfully local institution Scorpio Books have made a huge effort to remain in operation, moving to Riccarton Road and opening a second store in the Re:Start Container Mall back in the CBD.

The earthquake has had a major effect on my book buying habits, as I've taken to almost exclusively buying new and used online, with the odd trip to Scorpios.

And let's not forget about the huge hit our city library system took. The original central library will be closed for years, and has only recently relocated to Peterborough Street. The satellite libraries have been doing their darnedest in the face of building losses, sharing space with council staff, ongoing aftershocks, technological glitches and even arson attempts (yeah, some yoik decided if it wasn't bad enough we'd lost so many libraries, they'd help another along the way!). Just what has been lost from our libraries the region over, I hate to contemplate.

The Gap Filler Think Differently Book Exchange,
corner of Barbadoes and Kilmore Streets,
Christchurch, New Zealand

So it makes the Christchurch book and literature scene seem a little grim. That's where the Little Book Exchange That Could comes into the picture.

Gap Filler is an art collective started post-quake that takes lots emptied by demolition and turns them into creative and community spaces. There is a popular petanque pitch in Lyttleton that now hosts weekly entertainment, the popular Cathedral Square chess set relocated to Sydenham, and the now world famous Think Differently Book Exchange.

Located on the corner of Barbadoes and Kilmore (where the Herb Centre and a picture framers used to be), the book fridge certainly filled a gap in the early weeks post-quake when people were desperate for entertainment and out reach. The concept is simple - take a book to read and bring it back, or replace it with one of your own.

I pass the book fridge every day on the way to work and it makes me smile when I see people choosing books, trying to figure it out or taking photos. I have a fond memory of the fridge surrounded by snow and people in the middle of one of the massive (and unusual) snow storms the city endured.

I regularly do book clean outs, and as I've had no place to exchange them, this past year I've taken to leaving them at the book fridge. I don't often find anything worth exchanging, but that doesn't matter to me. There are probably some wags who nick off with the best books and never bring them back, and it's often left in disarray so each time I stop by I give it a bit of a tidy up.

The book fridge was originally intended to run only for a few months, but its popularity grew and word spread. I've seen photos and discussion of the book fridge turn up repeatedly on Twitter and Tumblr, and recently a photo of it Amanda Palmer tweeted to husband Neil Gaiman went viral. The book fridge has also received a write up in the revised Christchurch chapter of the soon to be released New Zealand 2012 Lonely Planet, virtually guaranteeing it will remain in place for a lot longer than expected.

Even though the book fridge was supposed to be a temporary installation, in hindsight its mash up of art, entertainment value, and effectiveness at drawing together a broken community is pure serendipity and speaks to the power of the written word.

Boffing Like Rabbits: Sex and Consent in Science Fiction Romance

2012-01-27T15:49:00.005+13:00

In an effort to expand my science fiction horizons, I've been reading books and stories outside my comfort zone. I've never had an affinity with romance as a genre, so I thought I'd try out some SF Romance. Yes, it's a thing. Not as big as the Paranormal Romance genre, but it exists as a niche within a niche, and often as a subplot within a larger Space Opera epic.

The stories I have been beetling around with lately have been specifically focused on the romantic plot line, and the science fiction is merely a background. The stories have been a bit hit and miss, because for me I expect the science fiction (sociologically and technologically) to be forefront and informing the behaviour of the characters. Love, romance, sex and sexuality are partly socially culturally informed, and one would expect that as culture evolves alongside science and technology, these would evolve too. What does sex in free fall look like? How does one negotiate relationships in a cozy environment like a space station or ship? How would people deal with contraception? What will female sexual empowerment look like in 50 years, 100 years, 1000 years? How will people reproduce in the future? What will the cultural environment look like for queer people in the future?

While these are questions which are important to me, there is a market for mindless, fun, easy to read SF romance. Two people meet, things sizzle, bing bang boom, wocka wocka wow, and we're done. Smokin'.

Unfortunately, one of these bing bang boom SF romance stories I read recently reiterated some very harmful stereotypes about female sexual agency, bodily autonomy, sexual consent, normalized heterosexuality, and standards of western beauty and desire.

It goes like this: (supposedly strong) chick in a pickle (on a starship) is saved by handsome brooding bloke; to avoid suspicion from Le Authoritah they party like its 2999 and get excessively drunk; they boff like rabbits; brooding bloke comes clean about his past and recalcitrance, offers chick a way out of her pickle; they ride off into the nebula.

On the surface it looks like standard female-forward romance fare, and that's my first gripe - stripped of it's science fiction trappings, it's a story that could be dumped in any setting, any time frame. The technology had a minuscule part to play and could easily be McGuffined into any setting.

Next comes our white, heteronormative, Western idealized characters. The female is written in standard romance formula so the supposed female reader can insert themself into the character's place - we get to know her name, but she is not physically described beyond hints at her muscularity (this is important because of her physical job) and nice breasts. We're shown only a little of her clothes (again, important to her lower class role and job).

Conversely, the male hero is described in loving detail multiple times. He is tall, broad shouldered, has great abs and arse, smells fantastic, and his scars give him a dangerous, rakish air. And - wait for it - he's blond haired and blue eyed. One gets the sense that he physically towers over and dominates the female. This is important to the context of his manipulation as the story goes on.

When our hero rescues the woman from impending doom, he sweet talks their way out of trouble with the local authorities and forces her to pretend they're a couple to maintain a public cover. I use the word force, because he withholds information about his identity, will not physically break contact with the woman, holding her close to him in often painful and awkward positions, and despite her protestations makes her mimic his drinking habits to maintain the illusion that they are a couple.

It was at the drinking scene that alarm bells started to ring for me. The woman repeatedly said no to alcohol, explaining that she did not drink at all, feeling that it took away her control. The cultural idea that a woman's drinking must be policed is another whopping great stereotype. Good girls don't lose control like that or it gets them in trouble and HELLO VICTIM BLAMING. However, she felt impelled to give in to maintain the ruse because her life was in danger. Let me repeat that: the woman gave up her autonomy to do something against her beliefs because she felt threatened. These are classic manipulation factors employed by abusers.

During the drinking scene, the woman steadily lost her inhibitions and had been thinking up until that point she felt physically attracted to the man but wouldn't act on it because of her suspicions about him. However, by the end of the evening the two were blind drunk and stumbled back to his lavishly appointed room to tear each other's clothes off and boff. The quality of the man's room is important, because it shows that the man is richer than the woman and can save her from a poor/lower class existence, another achingly ridiculous trope, that women need saving not only physically but also from (culturally, patriarchal imposed) financial doom.

The sex is where it gets really scary. As per typical "good girl" romance, it fades to black before anything can be shown. And I'm not talking about the stereotypical "use your imagination/insert your sex fantasy here" fade to black. The woman ACTUALLY BLACKS OUT. She wakes the next morning, bruised, battered, sticky (yes, the adjective 'sticky' is employed), and completely unable to remember the sex she just had.

For all intents and purpose, this woman was raped.

This may be standard feminist 101 to some of us, but let's be clear about sexual consent. She may be attracted to him; she may be flirting; she may be playing hard to get for her own titillation; she may be drunk; she may be dance grinding against him (which happened during the drinking scene); she may be sticking her hands down his pants (again, this happened); he may have fondled her in public and she let him (happened); they may have stumbled kissing and fondling to the room; they may have ripped each other's clothes off; she may have leaped on to the bed, opened her legs wide and said 'come get some!'. This may all look like consent, and she may be giving consent up to this point. But the moment a person is unconscious CONSENT IS WITHDRAWN.

Let me be clear - I am not protesting about a depiction of rough sex. Whatever floats your boat so long as it's consensual. But from what I can tell from the story, there was no discussion about contraception (not even some hand wavey SF magic towards what women did for contraception in the Year Whatever), nor whether the woman actually liked the rough sex in hindsight. She kept thinking she was attracted to him and liked the idea of having sex with him, just not what sort of sex, and especially not the sex she had just been through. In fact, when she woke up she attempted to shower, to get away from him and straighten out her thoughts, she even asked for privacy AND HE REFUSED HER, physically blocking her from leaving the room.

Here is where the story is so incredibly problematic I'm actually scared that women will read this and think it's ok. When the woman wakes up and discovers herself covered in bruises and walking like a cowboy, the man never actually overtly informs her that she was an enthusiastic participant in the sexual act. She just assumes that she must have and it doesn't bother her she has lost time and memory.

Now here's a thing about lost time and memory loss. IT'S TERRIFYING because you have completely lost control of your body. I've blacked out and lost time twice in my life, both from accidents. Both times I lost about 10-15 minutes. Both times I apparently spoke and physically moved about. Both times I was injured and I do not know how I sustained the injuries (I can only guess or piece together what people told me witnessing the accidents). It's a terrifying thing to ask your brain for information about an experience that you participated in and it can't or won't give it to you.

I was lucky, because both times I blacked out I had people I knew looking after my welfare. Now can you imagine what it must be like for a woman if she is in an unfamiliar situation, with an unfamiliar person (or people), when she's had her usual objections and autonomy stripped away, in terror of her safety, drunk or drugged beyond her control? This is standard rapist and abuser behaviour that is posited as normal. She put herself in that position, she had a choice to get out. Ehh, wrong. Her choices were either to go to jail, or hang out with a manipulative dude who held all the cards. He might have been worth boffing, but attraction can wane.

The man in this story physically dominated and emotionally manipulated this woman into sex, and in the cold light of day when they FINALLY talked (he didn't tell her his name or why he was there until this point!), he offered to "rescue" her from her lifestyle and "teach" her new skills for a better job. And he was offering to do this for her because -WAIT FOR IT - she was making him look bad in his job! Tan tarah, it's our White Knight supreme!

Our heroine was ostensibly set up as empowered, strong woman - she was in a dangerous business (hence, the trouble she was in), and she screwed the hero happily (albeit in a parody of consent and autonomy). However, she called herself a little bit stupid. She demurred to the man's superior knowledge of her job, and she made flustered gestures towards her inferior physicality and scientific knowledge. She was so blinded by lust and fear she couldn't think of an alternative - that sounds disempowered to me and particularly infantalizing. While she hand waved towards her empowerment, she admitted she wanted better knowledge for her job. But instead of being able to search out this knowledge herself, she took the first offer that came along because she felt after this episode she wouldn't get any more opportunity to help herself. This is more classic abuser behaviour - the man now has her indebted to him for saving her life and elevating her in class and education.

At the end they agree to work together in their dangerous business, which means if she ever tried to leave or cross him he has the means to hurt or hunt her down. Or he might not, we don't know that, because he has the possibility of being a Nice Guy (cue: flashback scene about his mother. Seriously. It happened. Because Brooding Dudes can only civilized by a woman).

Another person might look over this story and think it's romantic, sexy and there's nothing wrong with it. Obviously they did otherwise it wouldn't have been printed in the book I read. But because our culture has taught us that White Knighting is normal and to be fetishized, a woman's objections are to be set aside (focus on disdaining the 'wrong' emotions), her sexual autonomy is less important, even set aside, if some desire can be accounted for (how do we know her desire isn't a social and cultural construct on it's own, informed by her life experiences within a patriarchy?), and she is put into extenuating circumstances.

Authors: please PLEASE stop doing this. Bring us the queer romance. Bring us the genderqueer romance. Bring us non-western idealized romance. Hell, bring us group sex. Bring on the boff with enthusiastic consent and no black outs. Bring us the women who can get out of a sticky (pun intended) situation with an alternative other than a White (literally) Knight. Bring us a woman who isn't a cardboard cut out, whose needs a real, whose concerns are real which are not just shoved aside for the sake of a good sex scene.

And here's the final kicker: this story was written by a woman. This shit is so deeply embedded, y'all, I sometimes despair that we'll ever be able to dig our way out of it.

Return of the Girl Cooties

2012-01-25T11:15:00.000+13:00

So, there's a SF&F critic and reviewer named Liz Bourke. She's sharp, she's witty, she's cutting, she's a little bit Russ, and she does it all with charm and smooth grace.

She's also a she.

Combine that with critique of male writers and sexist tropes in SF&F and whoops whaddya know...the mansplainers are out in force.

In just one week Bourke has managed to lovingly stir the pot in two articles. The first was a review of Michael J. Sullivan's 'Theft of Swords' at Strange Horizons. The second was an essay about women in military science fiction at Tor.com.

Get out your bingo cards people, the comments on both articles are chock full of the usual eye rolling obfuscation and justification. Tone argument! How dare Bourke point out sexism in SF&F! The author/s can't be sexist, they're nice guys! The author/commenters can't be sexist here is a mansplanation of their privilege and extensive life experience! What does she know, what are HER qualifications anyway! Reverse sexism! Etcetera etcetera and would someone please throw "How to suppress women's writing" at these people?

Psst, small note. Just because an author employs gender tropes doesn't mean they're sexist. It means they playing by culture rules they may never have had to challenge. However, if said author comes out swinging in justification of using said harmful tropes, then it's open season.

Sexists don't like being called on their bullshit, as Shaun Duke and Jen Zink at the Skiffy and Fanty Show podcast have discovered (yay, I'm so glad to discover a new podcast talking about cool SF&F stuffz!). Duke and Zink got stuck right in, taking author Tom Kratman to task for his epic derailing and take over of Bourke's Tor piece. Kratman was eventually banned from commenting by Tor moderators because no one else could get a word in edgewise with his passive aggressive, essay length comments, and he became abusive (abusive comments deleted, so the content of which is unknown). Thwarted, Kratman is now taking his aggression out on Duke and Zink at their place, because heaven knows after someone has been told to "please, very kindly, you're being an ass, shut up" the thing you HAVE to do is abuse MORE people.

Here we have a perfect example of How Not To Do Social Media Promotion For Writers 101: don't comment in reviews or essays you are cited and critiqued in. If you must, use your publicist to correct a misquote or fact. No, it doesn't matter how slighted or wrongheaded you think the author is being, Do Not Engage. JUST DON'T GO THERE. You'll end up flapping your ass in the wind just like Kratman, and other authors before. Throwing a tantrum in public is just not cool.

Sullivan refrained from commenting in the Strange Horizons review, whether because he didn't know about it or he's a smarter cookie, I don't know. However, his fans leaped to his defence with the usual bingo spots and mansplaining until the moderators had to step in. Come on nerdbois, stop proving the stereotype of sexist genre fans more.

My take away from the Tor essay episode is that I will certainly not buy or read any of Kratman's work, because I'm not interested in supporting people who feel it is their duty to scold authors, critics or academics in public who call them on their overwrought gender tropes, especially if said author, critic or academic is a woman.

If a woman says "that's not the way our gender works, we're tired of being misrepresented, here's how it can be better", it is a male author/fan's duty to listen to our superior experience at being female. We don't need yet another toy chucking episode and being told they know BETTER about the female experience because they're married to one, have a daughter, have a mother, perhaps are some ally, think their cultural experiences justified and upheld by the patriarchy are the "truth", or (cough) know about the female experience through fiction because ALL female characters are like that so they're a representation...or something... (Ahem, yeah, seriously? As in those tropes we're trying to deconstruct because they're harmful?).

Look, I know it hurts to have privilege challenged. You don't think you're sexist because you've done good things according to the arbitrary rules of a kyriachal society. Heaven knows being called a sexist is far worse than being target of a sexist system, and we must wipe that stain clean! I don't want to see another rant about some minute detail, we've seen it all before, and it's tiring, we want to move beyond that. But if someone is asking you to check your representation of women in SF&F and confer with women about said representation, you don't spend all your time questioning the critic's pedigree with passive aggressive epic rants. You stop and think "Holy shit, maybe I've hurt someone. Perhaps my thinking could be better!" Then you listen, or better yet, educate yourself (because we're not always going to have the teaspoons to do this).

Women authors, fans, and critics aren't just pointing fingers, but after historic and systemic exclusion and erasure from the genre, is it any wonder they're angry and have a right to do so? Come on, it's 2012, we shouldn't have to start from scratch with every damn discussion about gender in the genre. We want our genre to be BETTER, and that requires listening to the people who have better experience at Being Women. And that's Women.

Ohhhhhh!

2012-01-17T12:16:00.000+13:00

Here's something that gave me a little squeefest:

A personalized rejection from Asimovs!

The right people are getting to know my name, and I'm filtering up the slush pile. With personalized rejections from four pro SFWA qualifying venues in the last six months, I'm on the cusp of tipping over into something majorly exciting.

It's gotta be this year, it's gotta be!

Onward!!!

My Big Fat Book Promotion: Win a "Fat Girl" ARC

2012-01-11T10:02:00.001+13:00

It's a great week for promotion of fat diversity in specfic.

Crossed Genres Publications has three Advanced Reading Copies of "Fat Girl In A Strange Land", which includes my story "Cartography, and the Death of Shoes", to give away through Good Reads. Be in to win a copy of this cool (if I say so myself) anthology before it's released in February.

Direct link to the competition on Good Reads right here. Oggity!

ETA: The competition is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!

Fat People Are Not Your Literary Go-To For Evil

2012-01-10T13:10:00.001+13:00

There I was, reading a recommended epic fantasy novel. All was going well: an interesting magic system; criticisms of religion and racism within the context of the world the civilization could have been born from; unabashed discussions of abortion and population control. All the sort of juicy subtexts I love to get my teeth into.

Then...boom. Here comes the evil Fat Character (TM).

Described in loving, and loathing, detail, this Fat Character (TM) was a cliche upon cliche. While I recognized that the biggest drawback of the book was the characterization and was dealing with that, I threw up my hands in despair when we reached Fat Character. They sweat, often described as pasty with high colour in their cheeks. They smelled bad. The Heroes often called them "ugly".Their belly and rolls of fat were often described as "disgusting". They wheezed and ran out of breath when using stairs. When they were killed (huzzah! Down with evil fat person! /sarcasm) their slit belly revealed layers of "disgusting yellow fat".

To compound our disgusting Fat Character, they were the epitome of evil. They were a sexual predator. They were a spy for the Super Duper Evil Guy. They dobbed in our Heroes without remorse. His mental faculties were questioned (hey, a double down on disableism!)

Even the other badly drawn characters had histories and motivations. But no, our Fat Character had no background, no history, no motivation, no reason to behave like he did. His only reason for being evil, it seemed, was Being Fat.

That's terribly lazy writing, it's sizeism, and it doesn't fly. In a society that erroneously uses size as a gauge for health, and health as a gauge for moral superiority, its no wonder some fat people are disenfranchised, angry, anti-social. Cliche fat characters in popular media and literature do not help. Fat people are not one monolithic personality or body type. They are not a stereotype. They are not your punchline or Go-To for evil.

Fat people have loves, hates, needs, dreams, sexuality, health, fitness, physicality and physical needs, and histories as diverse as everybody else. They are not ill or have mental health needs because they are fat (often in real life it's the other way round, and I don't want to hear a squit about "ZOMG Obesity Epidemic!!1!" because that is a myth in itself). If you don't think about these things when writing fat characters, you are dehumanizing them, even if they are aliens or fantasy creatures, because these are anthropomorphized literary extensions of ourselves and our myths.

It is certainly possible to write a morally ambiguous fat character, but they need more motivation. Were they/are they abused or bullied for their size? Are they denied food, health care, their sexuality, gender diversity, education, and families because of their size? Were they brought up in a culture of dispicability borne from misunderstanding of their needs? These things happen to fat people in real life, why wouldn't they happen to fat characters in literature? And no, none of these things make an inherently evil person either. Why yes, you have to think carefully about the characterization of a fat person. As you would with any person.

Here's one I ponder all the time: why are there no fat people in Star Trek? Because humans have eradicated all the health "problems" from their society, ergo being fat is seen as a "problem". Yes, there is the odd fat alien (Neelix, Morn, some Ferengis, for example), but they are always the cliche jolly, punchline or evil character. Star Trek is especially unkind to their female characters, having them wear tight fitting and revealing clothes, a performance for the male gaze. Those Federation uniforms look incredibly uncomfortable. I bet they pinch, and ride up the butt crack.

There are many amazing fat athletes, artists, scientists, scholars or politicians who don't see being fat as a problem or hindrance to their contributing to the world. The only problem seems to be the bullies and the sizeists who make someone else's bodily autonomy their business.

Where are these amazing fat characters in literature? I didn't start this post with any intention of using it as promotion for the anthology "Fat Girl In A Strange Land" (Crossed Genres) I'm appearing in next month, it was just curious serendipity that a fat character marred a book I was enjoying at a time when fat characters are at the forefront of my literary thinking. If you know of any other stories or books with positive depictions of fat characters, leave a note in comments, I'd love to hear about them.

Evil: its a complex negotiation of personal history, personality, upbringing, and societal and cultural expectations, not a physical attribute.

Award Season Is Such An Odd Beasty

2012-01-08T12:38:00.002+13:00

I've been doing this writerly lark for coming up two years now, but this is the first award season that I will truly be paying attention to what's going on.

The Hugos, the Nebulas, even New Zealand's own Sir Julius Vogel Awards; everyone's started talking about nominations and everyone's started that delicate dance of self promotion. How much is too much? Do you even mention your eligibility at all? Heaven forfend you might actually be proud of your work! Do you say nothing and hope that someone thinks kindly of you? While it's easier for the known names to get a nomination, us plebes and antipodeans have to work for everything we can.

I mean, sure, I was excited last year to have "My Dad, The Tuatara" nominated but not make the short list for the SJVs, but in a way I was glad it didn't go too far. I'd only just begun.

Last year I got a little preoccupied by February to think coherently about who out of my New Zealand colleagues I would consider nominating for an SJV. This year is a bit different as I have lots of great stories and books dancing around in my head. Like some of the short stories from fellow authors in the "Tales For Canterbury" anthology (not mine though, because it was a reprint). Two good friends of mine, and fellow TfC authors, Lynne Jamneck ("Renaissance" in October's White Cat Magazine) and Anna Caro ("Shape of My Wife" in February's M-Brane SF) have also published stories elsewhere in the 2011 calender year which are well worth checking out. Grant Stone's "Young love on the run from the Federal Alien Administration New Mexico Division (1984)" appeared in Strange Horizons in May.

On the book front, K.D. Berry's "Dragon's Away" and Jane Higgin's "The Bridge" spring to mind, and in the collected works category Paul Mannering's "The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs and Other Stories" is eligible.

If I've missed anyone or you think I should check out somebody's book or story, drop me a line in comments.

Ahh, the dreaded self promotion. Ok, here goes. From the stories I had published in the 2011 calender year which are eligible for an SJV, I am most proud of "Twixt" (M-Brane SF, July) and "The Ten Thousand Steps" (Expanded Horizons, November). There, said it, it's done.

Hey, wouldn't we all want a piece of hardware useful as a jewellery rack? I certainly need something to hang my hipster wristbands on...

Addendum: This is my second attempt at posting about awards season, because I'm absolutely rubbish at self promotion.

Welcome to 2012, Writer. Your Challenge Has Been Accepted.

2012-01-03T19:11:00.000+13:00

I'm very pleased and excited to announce that my story "The City of Sand and Knives" has been accepted and will be appearing in an upcoming issue of The Future Fire.

The Future Fire's manifesto is as such: "Social-political and Progressive Speculative Fiction. Feminist SF. Queer SF. Eco SF. Multicultural SF. Cyberpunk. An experiment in and celebration of new writing."

TFF's editor also runs a very interesting blog, and towards the end of last year as they began gearing up to relaunch the e-zine published a series of blog posts outlining their manifesto in greater detail.

I'm absolutely stoked that my story will be published at this venue, I'm thrilled to be able to tick off one of my To Dos For 2012 so early in the year, and I would love to see TFF step up to semi-pro status.

Obligatory Year In Review Post aka I DID THIS 2011

2011-12-27T17:05:00.001+13:00

There's still a few days before the end of the year, so maybe there's still time to get that acceptance from Asimovs yet.

Ok, in my dreams, sunshine.

How to quantify my writing success this year? Guardedly. Six stories accepted and published, and one accepted and still awaiting publication is not to be sneezed at. It's five more acceptances than I had by this time last year.

All the venues I appeared in were token pay or exposure-only, but they all had their special meanings. I was very proud to contribute to Tales For Canterbury and see my first physical printed story - it feels nice to hold a hard copy of ones work in ones hands. I was very proud to appear in Expanded Horizons, Khimairal Ink, and M-Brane SF, all queer friendly and social justice oriented e-zines.

While I didn't crack any semi-pro or pro venues, I made some great contacts at a few of them. I really appreciate the feedback and encouragement from these places, and I hope in 2012 I can follow through on my promise and see my byline at places I hold in high esteem.

As far as my work ethic goes, I don't think I've lived up to my potential and I need a stricter schedule. One of my resolves for 2012 is to create a proper writing plan and be better prepared for writing. What I've done in the last two years has been pretty much 'fly by the seat of my pants' writing, hoping I can get follow through when inspiration strikes. I know I need to work harder on outlining my stories and have an end in sight.

It's also hard to deny the impact the Christchurch earthquakes (plural now, because we've had some really major aftershocks which have retriggered problems and stress) have had on my writing year. I've struggled with motivation, stress and imposter syndrome, and I'm still not comfortable with 'writing out' my experience in some sort of existential story. However, despite this problematic year, probably the worst of my life, I haven't given up and my writing is still as important as ever. I still want this.

A few statistics:
Number of Submissions: 123
Acceptances: 7
Most Frequented Venues: Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Fantasy Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Digital Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Abyss and Apex, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Quickest Rejections: The Coloured Lens, 9 hours; Fantasy Magazine, 14 hours.
Slowest Rejection: Another Realm, six months and counting.
Number of Submissions made by snail mail: 6

Onwards and upwards for 2012! Gonna crack it, I know I will. It's slowly and steadily building towards something great.

Time to shake off this abnormally strange year LIKE A BOSS

Giving

2011-12-22T12:14:00.001+13:00

Happy Holidays, however you celebrate it!

In the spirit of giving this season, you can give back to fledgling authors like myself by supporting the venues that have supported and encouraged me this year.

Probably the most important project I was involved in this year was "Tales For Canterbury", which includes my story "My Dad, The Tuatara". There's still a little time left to order an ebook or paperback copy of this anthology of short SFF about Survival, Hope and The Future, where proceeds go to the New Zealand Red Cross efforts in earthquake damaged Canterbury. This one is a big one for me, as a writer and close to home.
Khimairal Ink published my story "Trois" in their final issue before going on hiatus, but their parent publishing company Bedazzled Ink is home to much wonderful lesbian fiction.
M-Brane SF published "Twixt" back in July. This magazine also went on hiatus, but I understand editor Chris Fletcher has big plans for 2012. Another fantastic venue that encourages queer SF.
Luna Station Quarterly is an all female venue which printed my story "The Women With Flowers In Her Hair". While not a paying venue, it's a place where female SFF authors can get exposure. Support them by having a read of some of their stories and you never know, you might find a new author you like!
Expanded Horizons published "The Ten Thousand Steps" in November, and I would really love to see them get the funding they need to continue their great work in 2012. They feature many fantastic authors and an astounding range of diversity in their stories. Even if you can flick them $5 via their Paypal link, that would be most awesome.
The WiFiles is another small venue where you can discover lots of different and new authors. They took my story "Talk To Your Universe". Go check it out!
Redstone Science Fiction is a pro-zine that has gone from strength to strength in the last couple of years. Mike and Paul have been awesome with their editorial encouragement and making me one of their regular narrators on their podcast. Show them some love, and they'll be able to continue paying pro rates.
Strange Horizons is another pro-zine that have been wonderful patient and encouraging in their feedback to me. While I have yet to crack this market, I have high hopes that one day I'll see my byline up there. Strange Horizons are also about to publish their 500th story, proving that e-zines have the ability to stay strong and hold fast in a fluctuating publishing industry. They publish so many wonderful authors (I've discovered a few through here!), they're well worth your time and contribution.
I have an ongoing relationship with PodCastle. At one time I was an audio editor and I have done a few narrations for them over the years. I'd count their editor Dave amoung my network of "online friends". I think it's fantastic that PodCastle and their sister 'casts EscapePod and PseudoPod have continued forging new ground in being a pro-rate audio magazine.
The Future Fire is a pay venue I would dearly love to see lifted to semi-pro status, because like M-Brane SF and others they are a great venue for "social, political and speculative cyberfiction" (as they put it). Have a read of their blog series from earlier this year which outlines what sort of stories are important to them, and will hopefully fuel their 'zine in 2012, and if you think that sort of SFF deserves respect and air time (like I do) hit their Donate button. They've also been super duper nice to me with their feedback!

Authorly things aside, since the holidays are not always the greatest for everyone, I'd like to encourage a little generosity towards charities that are important to me:

Women's Refuge - apparently the Auckland houses are already full for Christmas. Also, a reminder that the Christchurch houses took a big hit in the February 22nd earthquake, and are still on a long road to recovery. All this on top of cut funding from our government.
SPCA (Canterbury) - where would I be without my furry schmoo muse taking up desk space when I'm trying to write? Yes, I know...my laptop is the most expensive cat butt warmer in the world...
The New Zealand Red Cross

A few words from Jay Smooth "In Defense of Humbug" (coz Christmas can be a shitty time of year, ya know it):

And of course, Christmas isn't Christmas without some Darren:

On The Rejection Front 20/12/2011

2011-12-20T20:58:00.000+13:00

It's been a while since I talked about rejections in detail. Don't worry, they're still coming in droves.

On the Personalized Rejection front, I've received them from: Fantasy and Science Fiction (gasp! PROGRESS!); Strange Horizons (huzzah! another!); Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (they always do constructive criticism); Mutation Nation; Shimmer (they're always nice); and Redstone Science Fiction (my homies). The personalized response from Gordon Van Gelder at F&SF was a real surprise - means the story filtered up through the slush pile. I'm very happy with that.

The Form Rejections keep on piling in: Asimovs (try and try and try again...); Dark Tales of Lost Civilizations; Daily Science Fiction (two different stories); Shock Totem (first time I'd tried submitting there); Analog (I mean really, who am I kidding?); and Lightspeed (dang, are they super fast on those rejections. Whiplash!).

I stay positive about a lot of these rejections, because editors are starting to get to know my name and style, and I really appreciate the time they take to give a personal response or feedback. I think of it as a kind of networking.

After rejecting the humans as a viable source of knowledge,
the aliens decided to opt for a much more intelligent life form...

What I've Been Reading 16/12/2011

2011-12-16T10:07:00.001+13:00

An update on what I've been reading lately. Chewy book list after the jump.

"Ammonite" by Nicola Griffith is a fine successor to the single gender world genre, populated by Le Guin and Russ. Her women of Jeep are incredibly diverse, as one would expect from good science fiction, but somehow female-only worlds have historically been written with a lack of diversity or as some hive mind...pretty typical of male writers who don't know how to write the other, or see women as some singular culture un-human. Griffith's elegance of writing comes in her descriptions of the different social systems with some real chewy hard science thrown in, enough to keep the action ticking over but not too much to bog the story down. Highly recommended.

Catherynne M. Valente's "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making" is GORGEOUS. It's an absolute treat from start to finish, and I highly recommend it whether as a gift for a child in your life or to read yourself! Her prose, as usual, is divine - I love an author unafraid of their word choices, even in a book meant for children. A variety of beautiful fairy tale characters and fun nonsense are expertly woven with pointed observations about the real world. For it's perfect prose, this is not a "nice" story - while the heroine September is undergoing "the heroine's journey", she undergoes a variety of harrowing experiences and the villain of the story is a nasty piece of work. Themes and symbols abound in this book, making it a layered experience,one I can imagine children will get a lot out of upon revisiting as they grow older.

I ended up buying two copies of this book. The original copy I purchased for a child in my life arrived as an autographed copy - so I kept that one for myself!

Sandra McDonald is the Australian author of "The Stars Down Under" and "The Stars Blue Yonder" (waiting in my To Read pile!). "Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories" is a collection of short stories brought together with a rainbow theme, all loosely set in a world very similar to our own, but moving through history and genres from steampunk and western to modern times with a sprinkle of fairy dust. There's our transgender heroine Diana Comet, a stack of gay pirates, lovelorn gay cowboys...it's so much fun!

Squee! I am a total Jemisin fan girl! "The Kingdom of Gods" is the third book in her trilogy that began with "The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" and followed with "The Broken Kingdoms". "The Kingdom of Gods" is told from the point of view of the child godling Sieh, who featured in the previous two books. What I found intriguing about this book is how the narrator's voice was translated into a child-like writing style, which matured and changed as Sieh changed throughout the story. I at first thought it was odd to have such a clipped and basic writing style compared to Jemisin's previous lush prose, until I realized the story was being told by a child, therefore would have a child's nuances and speaking style! Inspiring!

Ninja Sale: "Talk To Your Universe" WiFiles.com

2011-12-13T20:33:00.001+13:00

Rather odd to go to the website of an Ezine one has a submission pending at...only to find it published on the front page!

My odd little 'god or not' piece "Talk To Your Universe" is now available at The WiFiles.com.

I guess it's the sale I wanted before the end of the year. *knock knock* Hi, Wi Files! Can you get back to me, plzkthnx!

ETA: They did, we're all sorted and good to go for Official Squee! *does the sale dance*

VA: "Elevator Episodes in Seven Genres" by Ahmed A. Khan at Redstone Science Fiction

2011-12-11T14:55:00.000+13:00

Available now at Redstone Science Fiction, my reading of Ahmed A. Khan's "Elevator Episodes in Seven Genres".

Direct download the audio here.

Genre Accessibility For Young Women

2011-12-07T15:59:00.002+13:00

I'm not a fan of Justin Beiber. His style of cotton candy music isn't my thing, and he's had a few things to say about rape and abortion that I don't agree with, along with working with the creeptastic photographer Terry Richardson (not a person I'd like to see role modeled towards young women). Perhaps if I was younger I might like him. I was a teenager through the days of New Kids on the Block and Bros, I remember what it was like needing an outlet for suppressed energies.

So what does Justin Bieber have to do with speculative fiction? Currently the industry, fans and contributors alike, are going a little potty over Bieber appropriating steampunk for his latest video, a cover of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". The master of culturally sanctioned nice white boy pop (read: white washed), Bieber dances with a clockwork doll, interacts with backup dances sporting cyborg-style limbs, and romps through a Victoriana toy factory, all the while wearing a vest covered in clockwork jewellery.

Apparently Bieber appropriating steampunk motifs means steampunk is now far too mainstream for genre aficionados, that its Cool Quotient has disappeared and we can now expect the imminent death of the genre. Why? Because it's fallen into the hands of the kids, who don't appreciate or understand its unique history and foibles, and it takes money away from the real creators of the genre. Damn kids, get off my velocipede!

To take it further, Bieber is a pop culture icon to young women, and anything girls, young women and the genderqueer like immediately comes in for derision, immediately considered less worthy, because they're emotional, silly, hysterical. And as emotions are bad, they must be invalidated at all costs in a rational world, and in the supposed liberated world of speculative fiction.

Sound familiar? I'm not a fan of Twilight, but I would far prefer young women read the books or saw the movies, then engaged in a dialogue about its problematic aspects and further reading within the genre. As it is, the overwhelming derision has relegated constructive criticism of the series to feminist literature and pop culture communities, which are not always accessible to young women since feminist can be such a dirty word. Double trouble, it seems.

Even in speculative fiction there's still the ridiculous notion of a gender divide: fantasy, with its elves and princesses and pretty clothes and made up worlds and romance, is for girls; science fiction, with its maths and adventure and heroes and rockets, is for boys. What a load of gender essentialist bollocks. Where does social justice/sociological science fiction fit in? Ah, then we're getting into the divide again: sociological SF has been dubbed "soft" SF, that is by and for women; adventure, far future and space based science fiction has been dubbed "hard" SF, that's the mens club.

By invalidating a young woman's experience with speculative fiction - like ridiculing Bieber's video, the Twilight series, and fan fiction culture; women are only allowed "sexy" cosplay; gendering gaming and comics - society is telling young women that certain sectors of popular culture, like speculative fiction, are not allowed to be available to them. If they are, they are silly, meaningless, not real, not contributing to culture or literature in any meaningful way. Hello Joanna Russ, by gum we still need you to talk to another generation of women!

Never mind that if youth and young women like what they see in Bieber or Meyer or Paranormal Romance or Insert Previously Ridiculed Girl Genre Things they'll seek out other forms and writers of the genre. Genre and popularity are not static. There's a flow on and learning effect here. It's called a Personal Media History (wow, I'm actually using theory I learned at university! Hold me back!), and each media choice influences the next as you get older.

If we are denying young women and others (the queer too) an introduction or access to speculative fiction at a most basic mainstream level we are denying their first engagement with a culture they may find a connection with. Not all kids have the money, bravado, or social connections to access indie or subversive movements (why, hello my youth). Consumers and readers are the future creators. It's tough enough for women to make headway in speculative fiction as it is, we don't need to be putting such basic barriers in their way by gendering and devaluing their media choices.

Friends With Book Releases: Paul Mannering, K.D. Berry, Jane Higgins

2011-12-03T18:59:00.002+13:00

I know people. Who are authors. And friends. And SpecFicNZ members. And Christchurch peeps (well, one is only recently ex-ChCh). And they've released books recently!

Like a tasty zombie apocalypse? Try "Tankbread" by Paul Mannering (previously interviewed on my blog here). Available for Kindle on Amazon.

Ten years ago humanity lost the war for survival against a spreading plague that brought the dead back to life as flesh eating monsters.Now intelligent zombies rule the world.

Feeding the undead a steady diet of cloned people called Tankbread, the survivors live in a dangerous world on the brink of final extinction.

One outlaw courier must go on a journey through the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Australia. Fighting his way into the very heart of the apocalypse in the desperate search for a way to save the last humans and destroy the undead threat.

His only companion is a girl with an extraordinary secret. Her name is Else and she's Tankbread.
Also available is Paul's recently released anthology of short fiction "The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs And Other Stores", in Kindle and Paperback editions.

Who can resist dragons? I can't! "Dragon's Away" by K.D. Berry [Amazon] [Fishpond]
It seemed like such a good idea at the time ... a wager with the devious, dangerous and probably quite deranged King Davkosh of the Southern Realms. Half the kingdom staked in a race between mystery contenders. Ten leagues, point to point as the -er- crow flies. Drewdop the Illusionist is quick to point out the flaws in this plan and is tasked with a secret spy mission - to find out just what kind of invincible champion Davkosh has training at home. Travelling in magical disguise causes unforeseen complications for Drewdop, while his half-ogre bodyguard, in the guise of a beautiful woman, certainly turns a few heads. But Drewdop soon discovers that the great race is the least of their worries. Davkosh's glamorous, fiery and ruthless queen, Gunora, is massing an army ready for attack whatever the outcome. Meanwhile, deep in the dark forest, one of Davkosh's elite royal messengers is facing his own perilous destiny - how to become the world's first and only surviving dragon rider...
For Young Adult Sci Fi, "The Bridge" by Jane Higgins [Amazon] [Fishpond] [The Nile]
The City is divided. The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation, waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside. Nik is still in high school but destined for a great career with the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when ISIS comes recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn't chosen. There must be an explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now ISIS is hunting for Nik. But Nik is on the run, with Sol's sister Fyffe and ISIS hot on their trail. They cross the bridge in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he'd never dared to ask.

It's so fantastic to see so much great sci fic, fantasy and horror coming right out of my hometown. Christchurch specfic represent!

Bad Rejections Happen

2011-12-01T11:37:00.000+13:00

I've been contemplating how to phrase this post without coming across as bitchy, finger pointy or starting some small call out war. I don't want any of that.

But here it is as honestly as I can put it: bad rejections happen, and they have to be contextualized for a writer to move on.

I'm not talking about the sort of rejection of a submission you had really high hopes for - a favourite market perhaps, or a story you really believe in. I mean a rejection that comes back with not very complimentary feedback. There's constructive criticism on how to improve, and then there's "this is an utter piece of crap and you should seriously contemplate your worth as a writer".

I got the latter last week.

It took me a while to process what to do with it, considering that in the days previous I'd received two very encouraging rejections, and the flow of feedback over the last few months has been steadily positive. I had to read the letter three times to make sure I wasn't missing some sort of 'wink nudge', and once I figured out yes, this is some passive aggressive nastiness going on here, then I couldn't help but laugh. I wanted to share the letter with so many people, but then I recalled how many internet bun fights have happened and reputations burned by call outs like that. I made a promise to myself that I would remain as positive and circumspect as possible when blogging about my rejections.

I have nothing personally against the market or the people, I don't know them. The rejection made me realize I'd misjudged the market, and they'd missed some fundamental concepts in my story. We were at cross purposes. We probably wouldn't be a satisfactory fit, perhaps that style of specfic is not for me. I recognize my style and grammatical failings. That's fairy snuff; not all my ideas and stories play out well on first go around, and not all markets or editors are interested in my style of specfic.

I am very happy writing my style, and I'm super proud that I've found a niche I like. However, I expect a modicum of common courtesy. It's not easy to put yourself out there. Even numerous form rejections are easier to take than one verbose rejection on all your perceived writerly failings.

While I'm not a writer with any sort of influence in this industry, I'd like to stand up for the little people, the people like me just getting started, and say hey, constructive criticism is great but personal attacks and refusal to understand certain themes are not. I'm not asking for my precious fee-fees to be protected. I need to know how to get better. But a mean-spirited rejection can be construed as a shut down tactic by marginalized groups who have historically been silenced or shut out of the industry. We're supposed to be in this together. Naive? Well hey, that's me, the eternal optimist.

Writer's Block Explained: There Seems To Be A Cat Blocking Your Writing

Anne McCaffrey

2011-11-24T11:08:00.002+13:00

When I heard that Anne McCaffrey had died yesterday, a great sorrow overtook me unlike any sorrow I have felt for the passing of an esteemed writer. Even now this is difficult for me to write. I have lost a mentor.

My story is probably very similar to many, across generations, and that is a wonderful legacy to leave. Anne McCaffrey set me on my path.

In 1989, twenty years after the book came out, I was introduced to 'Dragonflight' via my fifth form English curriculum. I often wonder in hindsight at how radical and equally how safe this choice was for a fifteen year old girl. Why was I never introduced to Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin or Octavia E. Butler? Why had I never been given science fiction of any kind to read as part of a curriculum before?

That term in English was an absolute revelation. I have to admit I struggled with the first half of the book. I had been given no introduction on what to expect, and as previous curriculum mandated books had been very dry affairs I was not at all prepared for a fantasy novel. I read it absolutely straight, wondering what the hell all this was, until Ramoth and Mnementh's mating flight. Dragons? Dragons. DRAGONS! WITH TELEPATHY! DRAGONS (and people) HAVING SEX.

Heady stuff for a hormonal adolescent in a conservative small town.

It took me a few more years to understand what a barrier busting character Lessa was, and an even further few more years to deconstruct the women of Pern in a third-wave feminist perspective. I distinctly remember focusing on F'lar in my character study because...isn't the male's perspective most important? Ahh, silly fifteen year old me. Sorry Trev, I understand what you were trying to get us to see...NOW.

From then on I read every Anne McCaffrey book I could get my hands on, as well as participating in Pern Mushes and Moos. As per my book collection fetish, I carefully collected every Pern (then Crystal Singer, then Ship, then Talents, then Freedom) book and read them in order. I was not so much a fan of the Petaybee and Acorna series, as at the time those books were coming out I had moved on to other writers and genres, furthering my specfic education.

While my relationship with McCaffrey's writing has changed over the years - I am critical of the ableism and virginity fetishizing in the Ship books, and the regressive patriarchal, feudal society Pern had become; I stopped reading her newer writings - her influence on my writing never waned. While I was never privileged enough to meet or correspond with McCaffrey, a memory I hold dear to my heart is the knowledge that she judged my story one year in the 'Writers of the Future' contest. She saw my story, and along with other great names that year judged that I had potential, and encouraged me accordingly (a 'Highly Commended' certificate).

Anne McCaffrey's influence on my life is huge. My love for science fiction and fantasy and collecting dragons began with her. Her books introduced me to the art of Michael Whelan. She showed me that women can write fun and fantastic science fiction. She whispered a little earworm into me: "you can do this too".

While I am yet to fulfill the potential Anne McCaffrey promised me, I will always be grateful to her for the dreams she kindled in me. Thank you Anne. I will pass on your legacy to the next generation, keep writing and keep dreaming.

The dragons are keening tonight.

Bye, Annie. I owe you everything.

2011-11-23T12:01:00.000+13:00

The Bad Writer's Advice On Writer's Advice

2011-11-22T12:03:00.001+13:00

So you want to be a writer. That's great! Here, take this advice. No, not that advice. THIS advice. Do what we tell you and become the next superstar! We have the ear of the publishing industry, so how could we put you wrong?

Advice for writers. There's a lot of it out there. From the humble article (written for x cents per word) written by someone who has Made It (and whose experience may bear absolutely no relevance to another individuals needs), to entire blogs, books and careers dedicated to fitting budding wordsmiths into saleable moulds, there is a veritable torrent of advice.

One can barely move on the internet without being inundated with offers of 'advice' and services. You blog about writing, you'll get spam in your in box or comments. You Twitter about writing, your numbers will suddenly jump with innocuous seeming Followers, but a quick check of their tweets or websites show up something they have to sell you (Hi to all of you whom I have Blocked! *wave*). Your Facebook, favourite websites and blogs can creep with adverts and 'advice' for self publishing, books and workshops. Thank goodness for SFWA's Writer Alert!

Scams aside, there's a lot of advice out there available for free. A lot of publishers, agents and writers blog, and often they will answer questions about Making It. Some of these blogs are even dedicated full time to advice for potential and/or mid-range authors. Most of the time what they have to say can be helpful: the nuts and bolts of putting together a manuscript, querying publishers and agents, or submitting; industry trends and changes; market watches (like Ralan's and Duotrope, the two I use); grammatical advice; How To write outside your comfort zone (getting to know the Other); How To negotiate with agents and publishers, and your legal rights; and advice on the best conventions and workshops relevant to your style.

Then we start getting into murkier territory: inspirational pushes (which, as I've said in the past, don't always have relevance to an individuals needs or experiences); How To Market Yourself ie: how to 'behave' on your social media and in public at industry events; How To Write What The Industry Wants (and remove any contentious differences that might not make you so marketable, like, say, gay characters). Basically, remove all the interesting bits of your life and work in an effort to normalize into the mainstream, to make those elusive big bucks.

I have discovered that part of becoming a writer is deciding what kind of writer you want to be. If you want to make the big money off easy reading summer pulp, go hard out, become the next Dan Brown or Nora Roberts. Hooray for money!

I have decided on a different path, probably something more difficult and less financially rewarding, but I know I will be able to sleep at night. It's obvious by now I write about social justice issues and strong female characters feature predominantly. I am not timid on my opinions.

This doesn't always mean I'm strong or sure of what I'm doing. There are some advice articles I read that make me pause and realize I'm doing things the hard way, that I may run up against brick walls along the way. Recently I read an article from an agent (no names, I'm not like that) that advised against everything that I do in my social blogging and media - don't have a contentious opinion, don't get into political bun fights on twitter, write and blog about 'safe' subjects, be 'nice'.

I was stunned for a moment, thinking 'I'm screwed', and then a moment later it set my teeth on edge. The exhortation to 'be nice' is highly gendered advice. Women are socialized to be nice, not rock the boat, sit quietly, your opinion is only important if called upon (and even then...). While the article did not specifically point out gender, I can imagine that as more and more women find their feet in publishing and they are seen as an ever expanding market to be tapped, old socialized prejudices come in to play. Want to be seen as an approachable female writer? Play nice.

Screw it. Joanna Russ didn't play nice, and she's one of my heroes. It's really a no win situation - you can be Joanne Rowling with amazing contributions back to literature and philanthropy, but you'll still be judged on your looks, whether you're married, how many kids you have, your sexuality, and even if you have slight political opinions.

I'm not saying become some cantankerous, nasty piece of work oblivious to the diversity and humanity of the world (like some I could name). Just be true to yourself. I know this is difficult for some, whether by personality or from their diversity, or both, and I understand that. We all have to navigate our own road blocks. But I look at some of my favourite modern female writers and I like them more for the interesting and diverse subjects and opinions they talk and write about outside of their fiction. They are engaging, human.

To take the advice, or not. It's a question all writers have to ask themselves. There's a lot to filter, to sift through, and figure out what works best for you. Not all advice will be appropriate, not all advice is given with honest intent. Be prepared that the decision you make on the advice chosen may end up being wrong. Mistakes happen. But at least stay true to yourself.

...And like all writing advice, you don't have to take this one either.

VA: "Raising Tom Chambers" by Daniel Powell at Redstone Science Fiction

2011-11-20T13:45:00.000+13:00

My second narration for Redstone Science Fiction of Daniel Powell's "Raising Tom Chambers" is now available.

Direct download of the audio is available here.

I've been experimenting with finding the best tone and accent for Redstone listeners, and this narration is done with an american accent.

Thanks again to Mike and Paul at Redstone who are, as always, incredibly supportive and a pleasure to work with.

So Close I Can Almost Taste It

2011-11-16T14:16:00.001+13:00

I've had another of those rejections.

The ones where you're so close, it's within your grasp. Someone has seen you, acknowledged you, shown that you're on the right track.

The rejection is from a venue I highly respect, would be thoroughly honoured to be in, and the feedback contained words like "brilliant" and "fascinating".

Most heartening of all was that someone finally got the story. I'm not someone who is going to pander to a reader. I'm not going to make a story an easy read or insult their intelligence. I want my reader to chew on my words, find their own interpretation in them, but ultimately dig to find what I have to say.

One day I may write that fun fantasy romp or space opera - it may even be happening now, I'm not sure where the Katewin stories may take me. But at this point I'm exploring form and art and technique, saying weird and mighty and wonderful things to find what sticks, what sounds like me.

Right now the art is calling me, like a siren. Somebody recently told me Don't Give Up. And I promise, I won't. Because "I've seen a hint of it, this happiness this bliss, just knowing it exists, I know I must try, I've caught a glimpse of it, one moment just one kiss, from the corner of my eye..."

"Fat Girl" Cover Art and Release Date

2011-11-11T09:10:00.000+13:00

Crossed Genres Publications have released a sneak peek at the cover art for "Fat Girl In A Strange Land", of which my story "Cartography, and the Death of Shoes" is a part of.

The anthology will be released February 17, 2012.

VA: "Freefall" by Peter Roberts, Redstone Science Fiction, November 2011

2011-11-08T11:19:00.000+13:00

Available now at Redstone Science Fiction is my reading of Peter Roberts "Freefall".

Direct link to the mp3 audio is available here.

It's been great working with Redstone to get their podcast stories up and running, and I will be narrating more for them in the future. I'm very grateful for the opportunity.

Chocolate For The Soul

2011-11-07T16:58:00.003+13:00

I've been on Holiday this past week.

That's a holiday with a capital haitch because it was truly fabulous and utterly needed. Maybe you saw me tweeting incessently about it (this post isn't for you then!), because everything I did and saw was a wonder. I don't get out often enough. I need to travel more.

The past eight months have been utter arse, and I needed the glitter of something fabulous and the bright lights of an unbroken city to restore my soul.

A writing soul that has been sorely lacking.

I could feel myself falling into the second guessing rut that I had to fight my way out of to begin this journey. For nearly a month now I've barely written anything new, and I needed a fresh start, a fresh perspective.

So a few months back the opportunity came up to go to a concert. Not just any old concert. THE concert. Something to tick off my Bucket List. Something I had been waiting on for a quarter of my life.

Sydney was more than kind to me. With a world full of wonders, experiences and incredible people, one can wax lyrical about how great this or that was, how happy something makes you, or the greatest moments of your life, and it can all sound a little cliche or over-extemporized. I don't want to be a cliche, and this is where sometimes words fail me. In my joy I feel so inadequate when I lose the ability to use what serves me best in my life.

I hadn't lost the ideas though I was struggling to form them into coherent, interesting stories. The sheer gloriousness of what I saw and heard in Sydney will stay with me forever and guide my words. A soaring voice, a purple heart telling me don't give up. A five second look and smile was enough to turn my life around after the sheer bludgeoning this year has given my soul. The only regret I have from this time is that I missed the opportunity to meet my muse by a few minutes, though I think he knows how important he is.

I've come home with renewed purpose. As much as writing is a job, I've been thinking too much of it as a job. Brute forcing the words out has it's place, but I was missing the beauty of divine inspiration. I need to explore the ephemera and imagery and symbols of my art. I need to see it more as art. I need beauty, support, and change. I need to restore the belief in myself. Because the road is still long, and there are still many detours. But my muse is in place, and still shining resplendently.

I will succeed at this. Reminders, big and small, never hurt.

Darren Hayes "Don't Give Up" (from the album 'Secret Codes and Battleships'), live at the Enmore Theatre, Sydney, November 3, 2011. At 0:55 he sings while miming, pointing and doing the thumbs up at someone in the audience. That person was me. Thank you my muse.

"The Ten Thousand Steps" Expanded Horizons November 2011

2011-11-02T20:45:00.000+13:00

Fat girls rule!

I'm pleased to announce that my story "The Ten Thousand Steps" is now live in the November 2011 issue of Expanded Horizons.

This is the second story published which features Katewin and the Phoenix, who made their first appearance in "Mid-life Crisis".

This is also the second story I've sold this year that features a fat female protagonist. Huzzah for Fat Acceptance and the diversity at Expanded Horizons.

Rainbow Unicorn Shiny!

Shh, Rejections! 26/10/2011

2011-10-26T13:37:00.001+13:00

"Through The Open Door" rejected via form letter by Lore. If you're keeping count, that is its 19th rejection.

"Where the Wild Blackberries Grow" rejected via form letter from Clarkesworld.

"Where the Wild Blackberries Grow" rejected with feedback from Ideomancer. Nice!

"Shambling Towards Nirvana" rejected by Crossed Genres Publications...but we're not worried about that one, are we!

"Black Out The Sun" rejected via form letter by Apex.

This has been a very quiet month on the acceptance/rejection front. At least it's been a month of Win when it comes to an acceptance, but very much a Fail when it comes to Writing New Stuff.

HELP ME!!!!

Voice Work Update

2011-10-20T11:35:00.000+13:00

I've been very remiss in posting updates about my voice acting work, mainly because there haven't been any.

And there haven't been any because I haven't been trying.

I'm not overly upset about this. The last six months has taught me a lot of about prioritizing my energy. The last eighteen months I've been loving (and hating) the writing journey. So I guess I've been a little preoccupied.

I haven't kept up my formal voice training since I finished my degree over ten years ago, and I know that's a really lazy thing to do. I haven't been practising or auditioning hard enough to make a really good go of it, and I don't take very good care of my voice. I do stuff for fun when it comes along, and maybe that'll be the way of it for this branch of my career.

I struggle with accents, I admit, and I struggle with my kiwi accent not being accepted on a world stage. I feel far more comfortable working with my real voice. If I put an accent on it suddenly becomes not me - I sound like I'm trying too hard, and the harder I try the more I stumble and mangle things, and I get into this spiral of frustration.

I've recently (last six months or so) done a bunch of auditions that I've never heard back about. I'm OK with that. I know when I've screwed up. It would be better if I'd got feedback, but hey, I know they're probably trying not to hurt my feelings. The kiwi accent is a rough sucker to deal with. I also know I don't have a typically feminine voice - I can be loud, often deep and a bit gruff, and I actually like it that way.

So I know my voice doesn't always present as approachable. But I am unique.

See no evil, speak no evil, unnerstand no ebil

Fat Women Rule!

2011-10-14T20:54:00.002+13:00

I'm super duper pleased to announce that my story "Cartography, and the Death of Shoes" has been picked up by Crossed Genres Publications to appear in their anthology "Fat Girl In A Strange Land". Publication is pending February 2012.

"Fat Girl In A Strange Land" is a themed anthology of science fiction and fantasy short stories, where the protagonist is a fat female. As the guidelines attest:

Fat can’t just be a passing detail of the main character’s physical description. It should have an impact on the plot and character development. Just like in real life, fat should be an asset or a liability, or even more realistically, both over time.

I'm thrilled that my story has been chosen to be part of this anthology, because it means I'm on the right course with the stories I like to write about social justice. What's doubly exciting is that publishers are examining what the Fat Acceptance movement means, and how this translates in our stories. "Cartography" will be my second story published with a female character who positively identifies as fat.

Picard Sez: Rock the F*** on!

Pulp!: Phallicy, Gynecology, Rubber Spines, Damsels and Vixens

2011-10-13T16:06:00.002+13:00

Ahh pulp science fiction covers of yore. So male gaze oriented, so white washed, so many boobs defying the laws of gravity.

After the (quantum) leap, a selection of covers with NSFW commentary. Image heavy.

IS THAT A ROCKET IN YOUR PANTS BABY?

SHWING! TENT POLE!

Looks painful. There's a cream for that.

Let's have some fun, this beat is sick, I wanna take a ride on your disco stick!

Needs no explanation, really...

Smokin'. Was it good for you as it was for me?

And just where do you think you're going with THAT?

STICK SOME BOOBS ON IT AND CALL IT ART

The art of well placed hair and a lizard...*cough*

Gratuitous appropriation of native stereotype? Whatever do you mean? (plus: no nipples)

A new dildo? Awww you shouldn't have! (no, really. I'm a mermaid. Plus, where are my nipples? WTF dude?)

Oh come on, now we're not even aiming for subtlety here. Ride that lipstick bullet baby! Who needs undies! Or nipples! (or proper proportions for that matter...)

SPINES DON'T BEND LIKE THAT (TRY IT. SERIOUSLY. I'LL WAIT)

Heck yeah! Gonna play her like a guitar LIKE A BOSS! BUAHAHAHAHA

Planet of the knob heads indeed.

Hurry! Take me away from the pulsing red phallic pustules, you beast you...gak!

Pulp Fantasy Number One: Rescue The Non-Consensual Fainting Damsel

Smurf. Navi. Whatevs. Blue makes me tingle. And cricks my neck at a ridic angle.

Teh Hoomun Laydeez. They "fall" for my charms, every time. Bzzt, click, hurrrr.

I hold your neck, you hold my boob. All is fine in Demure Swoony Damsel Land (coz I have nipples)

Pulp Fantasy Number Two: Bondage

I'm on a boat! La la la...wait, what? I'm in a bubble? WTF?!

You think you have it rough in YOUR bubble honey? Try becoming an outerspace mime!

Is it my hair? My skin? My horns? My boobies? My ability to breathe an atmosphere you can't? Because I'm on the rag? Jesus, a cage?! Just because I wouldn't put out for you?!

Pulp Fantasy Number Three: Dirty Dirty Amazonian Vixens

My Red Suit Brings All The Boys To The Yard...

No, MY red dress brings all the boys to the yard!

Wut u bitchez smokin'? MY red suit brings all the boys to the yard!

We don't have red outfits, but we have sticks! That...err...will poke you. (aka reverse Phallicy)

Sticks? STICKS?! FIRE! Coz I'm on the rag, bitchez! Burn! BURRRRRRRN! Muahahahaha!

Pulp Fantasy Number Four: Chicken Soup for the Male Gaze

An Eleven on the Subtlety Scale

Mmm, girl on girl action!

...

Slow Times

2011-10-11T14:46:00.000+13:00

I've hit a trough in productivity this month. For two weeks now I've missed Writer Monday because of illness and my old procrastination/impostor syndrome problems rearing their ugly head.

Things have also been really quiet on the reply front. Barely even any rejections the last month or so, but that also means no acceptances either. I don't know if it's just this time of year for publishers, but my anecdata from having been in slush pile hell the last two years tells me September/October is the slowest time. Who knows, I could be just imagining it.

But my lack of new words...well, all I can say is 'ugh'. I has a disappoint in myself. I'm struggling even to hit a few hundred words at night. Oh gawd, griiiiiiizzzzzzzllllllllleeee. More cheese with my whiiiine. Yeah, there's a few personal things going on (which I won't talk about because, well, yeah, they're personal), and the usual claustrophobia from being stuck in Going Nowhere Fast City (aka Christchurch).

I need something good to pick me up. I'm off to Sydney for a week at the start of November, and as much as that is going to be OMG DISCO-GLITTER-TASTIC, I can't help being amused at the little voice in my head saying "yeah, but that's MORE time you're going to miss writing". I suppose I could take my lappy with me, but I don't go overseas to sit around and ponder my navel!

Anywho, one thing that does show up from this productivity wane is how very lonely writing can be. I've lost four people from my writer group this year, three because they moved away after the earthquake. There's not many, if any, people I trust to critique my writing. I just need a good boot along.

And that's the rambling thoughts from Aspiring Writer Manor for today. Here, have a kitten.

I was going to start procrastinating today,
but I figured I would wait until tomorrow to start

"The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs and Other Stories" - A Yarn With Paul Mannering

2011-10-07T13:36:00.002+13:00

Winner of the Sir Julius Vogel Best Fan Production award for Brokensea Audio Productions Doctor Who series, New Zealand author and SpecFicNZ member Paul Mannering is a man with a deliciously twisted mind who has a penchant for the dark and bizarre.

This week Paul has self published an e-book collection of short horror, dark fantasy and bizarro fiction entitled "The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs and Other Stories", available at Amazon for Kindle.

As I have been friends with Paul for over ten years now--I credit him partly, among others, with kicking my butt back on to the writing road--I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his writing influences, career and the book.

You've been a freaky tyke as long as I've known you, and you've often told me – gleefully – that your experiences growing up on a Kaikoura farm had some influence on your ebil ovahlord thinking. What was your introduction to all things dark?

When I was 7 years old our old black and white TV blew up during the opening credits of Space 1999. We didn't get another set until I was 11. So I had four years on a farm without television. Growing up on a farm you see life in the raw. Nothing is censored. So I had a clear understanding of the facility of life and the inherent brutality of it from a very young age.

My father is a zoologist and marine biologist and my mother is a physiotherapist. We had thousands of books in our house but my favourite was the 'Encyclopaedia of Forensic Medicine'. It had the most fascinating black and white plates of dead bodies. Hundreds of case studies of things like a baby in India that had its skull chewed open by rats as it lay sleeping in its crib. People who had been burned, strangled, shot, eaten, sliced, raped, skewered, flayed, disembowel and otherwise suffered horrific and fatal injuries. It never bothered me.

What really did bother me was a "kids" book called 'The House of Evil and Other Stories.' It presented 'true' stories of horror and it gave me nightmares. Everything from the Mothman to the Vampire of Groglin Grange were told in exquisite detail. Because these stories were presented as factual, scientific reports, and yet they were about monsters and the supernatural - it terrified me. It wasn't until many years later that I read the Groglin Grange story again and found out that it is an old English folktale and not a true story in any sense of the word.

When did you think 'hey, I could give that a crack'?

I started writing about the same time our TV died. I got in trouble at school for filling an exercise book with the first chapters of a novel - and then being punished because it went unfinished. I've never had a lot of time for formal learning and have a real lack of respect for authority. So writing about people and events that are outside the normal constraints of authority is a good outlet for that.

In my late teens I wrote a novel, it was the mandatory awful, and got rejected a lot. One editor had the decency to tell me just how bad it was. So I stopped writing for about 10 years after that. It wasn't until about 10 years ago that I seriously started honing my writing. First with short stories, getting some published and getting lots of feedback on what skills I needed to learn to write well enough to be published.

You're a big fan of tabletop, collectible card, and video gaming. How have these influenced your writing?

I'm a big fan of any interactive media, be it card or video games, role-playing sessions or even a good book. Anything that lets you shape the story to your own ends is hugely entertaining. Film and television stories are great, but they are passive media. The story happens in front of you. Games allow you to inject your own creativity into the outcome.

Playing in a group gives you the shared experience of story telling and I find it an excellent opportunity to work on my creative skills. In a table-top RPG for example the action takes place entirely in the player's heads. If you can't create a sense of wonder and excitement and challenge in that shared environment - you can't expect to be able to do the same with a written story.

You've been published at PseudoPod and various horror venues. Tell me about your first publishing success and other publications you're proud of.

My first publishing success was in a school magazine when I was 13. I went to boarding school and it was a lot like Lord Of The Flies. The first story of my collection, 'After Lights Out' draws on those experiences. Except in those days we were whipped with a cane for any breach of the rules. I should write more about boarding school life but the truth may be too offensive.

Since I started writing again my first success was 'The Birth', also included in my short story collection. It was for a magazine called 'The Willows' that published fiction in the vein of Poe, Lovecraft and Blackwood, hence the name.

Pseudopod was my first paid short story publication. The audio version of 'Why I Hate Cake' (ed: I was treated to the recounting of this happening long before it became a story. Bleurgh) did very well in their download stats and came at a time when I was submitting a lot of stories to a range of different magazines and anthologies. They went on to publish 'The Ashen Thing' for me as well.

I'm proud of all my publishing successes. I still get rejections, but I keep submitting to a range of markets with a range of stories. Appearing in two separate anthologies: 'Leaves of Blood' by Altair Australia which included 'In The Weeds', and 'Satirica' [Amazon] edited by Dudgeon which had some fantastic stories in it and I was very pleased to see 'The Ambassador Of Hate' standing up there with some of my favourite speculative fiction authors.

You have had your novel Tankbread on the slush pile with a major publishing house. I know 'don't count your chickens' and all that, but tell me about the process of getting the novel to where it is today and where it stands with the publisher. Also, who, or what, is tankbread?

Tankbread started one day when I was walking home from work and the opening line, 'The Asian across from me is tearing long spaghetti like chunks out of his girlfriend's neck with his teeth. He chews her like gum.' That and the mental image of a hairless and roasted Chihuahua covered in some kind of orange glaze snarling.

It was originally intended as a short story. I wrote what became the first couple of chapters and then realised that this was a novel. There was a 2000 AD comic story about a man who worked in a clone factory. He tended these the cloned humans who had no consciousness. He treated them like the meat they were, until one day, one of them squeezed his hand. That was the final piece of inspiration for the post-apocalyptic zombie story. An outlaw courier escapes from intelligent zombie overlords with a Tankbread girl who holds the secret to saving humanity from extinction at the hands of the zombie hordes.

Tankbread is the name they give to the people who are artificially grown in tanks and fed to the zombies. Of course everyone knows they aren't sentient or even really human... right? It's set in Australia and was submitted to Angry Robot as part of their open slush pile experiment. The first draft of the manuscript made it through the initial round, they requested the full book, and it was rejected after months of consideration.

More recently it was considered by Steam Press, a New Zealand based spec-fic publisher, who were very excited by it. They gave some very constructive feedback and requested changes and clarifications of certain aspects of the story. So currently Tankbread is being professional edited, following that I'll do re-writes, incorporate as many of the requested changes as I think the story needs and then re-submit it to Steam Press for further consideration. Hopefully that will lead to it being published sometime in 2012. Otherwise, there is always self-publishing again.

What was the genesis of your short story collection "The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs and Other Stories" and what influenced you to have a crack at self publishing?

Writers know that the question is not where do we get our ideas from, but where do we put them all? Hundreds of them, like gaping mawed chicks, all ugly and pin-feathered and begging for attention.

This particular collection grew from the realisation that I had a library of stories to share. Only five of the 21 stories in the collection have been previously published. About 10 of the remaining stories have been rejected by various editors over the years and the rest are completely new.

I decided to self-publish because it is possible now to do that in an effective way. No regular publisher wants to invest in a short story collection by a relatively unknown writer. Stephen King gets his short story collections published because he could get a $6 million advance on a shopping list if he was going to write it.

The e-book revolution and channels like Amazon's Createspace and Kindle Direct Publishing make it easy to publish. So it was a no brainer to go that route for this collection. Also I had made a deal with myself that I would have a book published by my 40th birthday, and that is at the end of November this year. So time was running out. I have about half a second collection waiting to be edited as well as some new stories that are doing the rounds for editors. Depending on those outcomes, they will either be included in my second collection, or published in other markets.

The title story started out as a story for a themed collection I was going to write called 'Tales From The Bell Club'. That is now going to be published by Knight Watch Press, with myself and Shawn Riddle as editors. 'Tales From The Bell Club' is open for submissions of stories of 'personal horror' now.

Finally: Romero, Zombie, or Raimi, and why?

Romero zombies!

Running zombies are not real zombies. The true horror of a zombie is that they will not stop. They will keep coming at you no matter what you do. You can run, but you will tire. A zombie will never stop. A zombie doesn't need to do anything except follow you until you run out of places to run to. Then they are going to slowly eat your face off. The 'Dawn of The Dead' remake was really disappointing in that they introduced running zombies to Romero's vision. Fortunately Romero has never succumbed to this canon shift. The Infected in 28 days later are not zombies, they can run because they are infected humans. As such they are also completely freakin' terrifying.

Yes, the zombies in Tankbread are the slow moving type. Even the intelligent ones.

"The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs and Other Stories" by Paul Mannering is available at Amazon for Kindle now.

What I've Been Reading Lately 6/10/2011

2011-10-06T15:05:00.001+13:00

Here's a quick run through of books on my bedside table of late.

Nnedi Okarofor "Who Fears Death"
Okarofor writes in a spare prose style which is effective with her powerful story, setting and characters. "Who Fears Death" is a post-apocalyptic story of an Africa that has rejected most technology, where myth and magic are gaining power but are interwoven beautifully with every day life. There are some very difficult themes in the book (rape, genocide, female circumcision), so be prepared. I found it a tough but rewarding read.

C.J. Cherryh "Downbelow Station"
I've had a run of hard science fiction books this year where I've struggled to immerse myself in the story. Cherryh's "Downbelow Station" is one of them, and I think the infodump at the start and introduction of unsympathetic characters so early on is what tripped me up. I'm not adverse to scoundrel characters, and I love crunchy world building and galaxy stretching politics, but I think I'm a little blown out on these in the last few years (Peter F. Hamilton destroyed me on that side I think). I'll maybe take another look at this book later.

Chris Moriarty "Spin State"
I loved loved LOVED the science in this book - super crunchy hard sci fi. Unfortunately, with some books I feel really dumb, and while I can usually let any science I don't always understand wash over me, the science was integral to the plot and I struggled. Enjoyed a super female protagonist and the action, but I got lost in the politics and plot about halfway in. Another one I'll try to come back to later. But if you're a fan of super hard SF, this is for you.

Joan D. Vinge "The Snow Queen"
I blogged about the cover of this book and I wanted to admit I'm having a patchy relationship with the story. I've picked it up and put it down three times this year. The prose is lovely, and the characters are interesting, but the major flaw in the book is the relationship between Arenrhod and her clone Moon which is supposed to be the main driver of the story. I've read over half of the book now and the two have only interacted once, briefly. I get no animosity towards each other from them, and their motivations seem to be more to do with their relationship with their planet than with each other. A lot of good world and politics building, but too little story. I know it's supposed to be a SF feminist classic, but it hasn't aged well to me. Will plow on through when I have some time.

Jim C. Hines "The Stepsister Scheme"
I sometimes get so wrapped up in reading as research and good brain explosions that I forget to read for fun...and Hines is FUN! I can't wait to share this book (and probably the rest of the series if they're all just as good) with my nieces when they're old enough to read YA fantasy. Hines takes fairytale tropes and turns them on their head in superb feminist style, with female characters of all types with their strengths and flaws. Fairly standard YA stuff, but with a major improvement - it shows women learning and teaching other about team work and valuing that teamwork. Fairly heady stuff in a society that teaches girls to treat other women as the enemy and competition for men. Sleeping Beauty is a desert born assassin, Snow White is a witch who killed her mother, and together they teach Cinderella witchy assassiny arts WHILE RESCUING THE PRINCE. I can't stop giggling while reading this. Totally recommended.

Octavia E. Butler "Lillith's Brood"
Butler is another who is spare in prose, but great with characters and story. Her aliens are especially interesting because they are so very different, in look, social structure and gendering. Here I read the first book "Dawn" and will return to the other two in the trilogy later. While Butler spent a lot of time on the characterization of her aliens, the humans lacked, almost falling into stereotypes. I was also disappointed with her handling of rape scenes (there were no emotional consequences, and Lilith had little sympathy for any other woman it happened to, though she physically defended them within her parameters as group leader), how one track mind macho the men were, and how hetero the pairings of the group were. There would be no room for queer people at the birth of a new human civilization?

It's Writers Block, But Not As We Know It

2011-10-02T17:42:00.000+13:00

From time to time writers that I respect pop out a blog post, article or quote about the arch enemy of us all - Writer's Block. Often these thoughts on the Big Bad WB come in the form of advice or anecdotes on how they dealt with it.

All well and good...except when said writer gets cranky and dismissive. Many times I've seen respected authors dismiss writer's block as a thing, calling it something like 'the crutch of the lazy wannabes' or 'excuses from people who want to live the dream but not the reality'. Some people DO need a kick in the pants to get started. Some people have never been taught the daily business of writing. And most writers of note will at some time or another get fed up with the question asked over and over again: "How do I become a writer".

We all know the answer is "You sit down and you apply fingers", but sometimes a cranky, dismissive answer is indicative of a writer's privilege. Our society is built in some ways on meritocratic, individualistic achievement. Writing is posited as a solo experience, and some people like to do it that way, but there are other people who need different support.

One phrase that pops up about writer's block is 'it's all in your head'. That's also a rather familiar bingo spot for people with mental illness. Now imagine said person with a mental illness also wants to be a writer. They might not want to tell the person they're asking for advice they have this illness, so when they employ the short hand descriptor 'I have trouble writing, I have writer's block', they're rewarded with a rolling of the eyes and a lecture on the merits of hard work.

I came across one person's account of living with undiagnosed ADD for twenty years and their attempts to become a writer. For twenty years their inability to concentrate, to make the creative connections in their brain's wiring, was dismissed as laziness - if this person really wanted it, they would make the effort. The person made the effort alright, over and over and over again, and was made to feel like a failure when they couldn't explain why they had such hideous writer's block. Diagnosis and medication opened up a new world to them. Imagine how much sooner this person could have become a writer if people giving them writing advice had thought outside the neuro-typical norm.

'Just sit down and write!' is also dismissive of certain lived experiences, like those with chronic pain, disability or illness. What's easier than sitting at a keyboard and typing, right? No. Perhaps sitting down for any length of time requires an amount of spoons they do not have. Perhaps they have arthritis in their hands. Perhaps they can't afford the right equipment or software to help them out. Perhaps this pain and lack of resources leads to frustration. Sometimes they're asking for help, and it's taken them a lot to work up the courage to do so, and for someone to be dismissive of their needs buys into the ableist narrative of our culture.

Writer's block is also an economy of time issue. 'If you want to do it, you'll find the time, no matter how busy you are', the advice says. Imagine you work long hours, maybe more than one job, then add in partner, kids and housework, family and/or community duties, cooking, commuting. Then add in stress, exhaustion, maybe illness, mental health. Somewhere in there you have to find the time to write, even if it's five minutes or your lunch break or after the kids have gone to bed. If you're a woman it can be doubly impossible. When do you get time to relax? Do you sleep or eat, or write?

It's that old individualistic, bootstraps mentality again. If your lifestyle is so crammed with the day to day business of simply functioning, asking for some time to yourself, asking someone to do something for you so you have that time, may seem selfish. These are the pressures of the poor, the working class. Do they not deserve to make art too? And so, an exhortation of 'you'll find the time, or you don't really want it!' just seems like another dog pile on top of endless frustrations.

Of course, there are always examples of people who overcame the odds to become a writer. Often it's the success story, held up as a unicorn - 'hey look, if they can do it, so can you!'. Well, no. Each life experience is different, even if circumstances are similar.

Instead of dismissing someone with 'suck it up, writer's block doesn't really exist', stop and ask the questions if you have the time, or expand that article ('I don't have experience in this but here's a link to someone who does...'). Ask what does that person need to be a writer. Once those answers are satisfied, THEN you can question their commitment to the cause. And even then, who is to judge what makes another writer? Whether they're 250 words a day, part time, a dilettante, or if it's their full time life calling, the only measure of success is their own.

"Tales For Canterbury" Reviews and Media

2011-09-27T10:55:00.000+13:00

"Tales For Canterbury", the earthquake relief fundraising anthology I contributed "My Dad, The Tuatara" to, has now been out in paperback and e-book for about four months.

Reviews and media for the anthology have slowly been coming in as the book makes its way into the wider world. Here are some collected links:

The GoodReads listing for TfC has garnered a few good reviews.

"And I have to mention My Dad, the Tuatura by A.J Fitzwater for making me smile."

TfC can also be found on LibraryThing.

"All the tales have some twist in the ending or leave on a reflective note, so it is worth while spending a bit of time pondering over the last one before rushing on to see what joys the next will bring."

Kate Krake at Vivid Scribe did an interview with editor Cassie Hart in a feature on the anthology.

"Despite the strong emotional connection to the Canterbury disaster, the anthology retains a broad, international appeal with many of the tales able to be set anywhere. Some, such as ‘Sign of the Tui’ by Tim Jones, and ‘My Dad, The Tuatara’ by A.J Fitzwater, are firmly rooted in New Zealand."

Back in June Matt Cowens and I appeared on the Radio New Zealand National "Arts on Sunday" program to talk about the book. Here is the archived link to the interview.

Contributer Helen Lowe, and author of "The Heir of Night", has been doing a blog series entitled "A Peek Inside Tales For Canterbury". If you'd like a 'try before you buy' taster of some of the stories from the anthology, you can read excerpts at Helen's blog.

Contributer Tim Jones has been a great cheerleader for the book, and for me personally. I'd like to thank Tim for all the positive things he's said about my story. I appreciate the huge signal boost. Over at Tim's blog he has written a review for TfC, excluding his contribution.

I have never quite decided what my favourite story is in Tales for Canterbury, but "My Dad, The Tuatara" by Amanda Fitzwater is right up there. This is a lovely piece of magic realism, happily at home right on the border of literary fiction and speculative fiction.

Tim also recently tweeted me this wee review from a friend:

A friend reading TFC just told me "My Dad the Tuatara is definitely a subtly funny & neat piece of writing, odd & endearing."

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, review and comment on the book and my story. Keep spreading the word. You can purchase your copy through the "Tales For Canterbury" site or directly from publishers Random Static. All proceeds from the book are going to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal. You'll be helping my city.

NZSpecFic Blogging Week: Friend in a Familiar Land - SpecFic set in Noo Zullind

2011-09-23T11:51:00.001+12:00

Guilty. I don't read nearly enough New Zealand literature.

Only in the last eighteen months since I started writing again and needing to know what the heck I'm talking about (no, I don't have a lavish liberal arts degree, I'm doing everything hard way) have I made the effort to actively seek out New Zealand authored science fiction and fantasy. And even then my New Zealand based reading selection is not as diverse as it should be.

Since my focus is SF&F, I was thinking recently not just of NZ authored stories but also stories set in New Zealand. While my reading selection is limited, in my reading experience stories set in Aotearoa are even more limited. Which took me to the inevitable question: why? New Zealand is a country rich with scenery, Maori mythology, and culture. It's not that these stories don't exist, they just don't get the exposure on a world stage they deserve.

What is so challenging about a story set in New Zealand? For our history of literature and unique approach, there is still much that is universal about our stories. One would think our uniqueness would be a fantastic selling point.

Of course, this is a complete turn around from when I was a child. I thought Maurice Gee was a unicorn because of one TV show. My education woefully lacked an introduction to NZ literature, and American and British popular culture was posited as the norm. I didn't learn to think for myself until much later.

So, in the last few days I've been giving myself a crash course in NZ SF&F, making a list of books set in New Zealand I should investigate along side the ones I know.

Common theme in NZ SF&F are dystopian, post-apocalyptic. I've recently read Bernard Beckett's Genesis, a short but dense story that evokes the wind-swept southeast coast of the North Island. I very much liked the movie adaption of Craig Harrison's "The Quiet Earth", and had forgotten until recently that I attempted to read it when I was 11 or 12. I think the Empty Earth scenario was a little too much for me to take post-cold war nuclear threats (with French nuclear testing taking place in the Pacific and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior really hitting home around this time), but I'm keen now to give it another go.

Another post-apocalyptic story is Chris Baker's "Kokopu Dreams". Someone explained to me last year (at Au Contraire, I believe) that dystopian and post-apocalyptic stories work well in New Zealand, and written by New Zealanders, because by virtue of our geography we are cut off from the rest of the world. Australia may be close by, but the rest of the world is a very long flight or boat ride away. Take away these transport abilities and contact with the outside world and you're suddenly stuck in a very small country with no outside help. Resilience is a must-have. Heck, it's a challenge to even contemplate crossing between the islands, something I toss around a lot when I think of a SF&F story set here! The Cook and Foveaux Straits may seem small, but unless you have the experience, swimming or boating across them are not always an option on limited resources.

The two books that I've read that most successfully evoke familiar places are Maurice Gee's "Halfmen of O" (which I blogged about in last year's Blogging Week) and Elizabeth Knox's "Dreamhunter" (I have yet to read the sequel "Dreamquake", it's on my list). Both books capture the sun, heat, bush and farmlands of the Nelson Bays and surrounding areas, a region I'm intimate with having grown up in Marlborough and vacationed often around Nelson as a child, especially in the Abel Tasman National Park. While Knox's "Dreamhunter" posited an alternative New Zealand history rife with magic, her alternative dimension (a grey, lifeless dream area) still echoed the familiar grey stone and empty beaches of the nearby West Coast, combined with a Nelson Bays I felt very comfortable with - it was a beautiful cultural short hand.

Gee's "Under The Mountain" was one of my favourite childhood books, and I used it somewhat as a guide book when I visited Auckland the first time when I was ten. I thought being able to name all the volcanoes in the book (and visiting McDonalds for the first time) was pretty awesome.

On the theme of New Zealand's West Coast, North Island this time, Karen Healey's YA novel "The Shattering" is set there. Her other YA novel "Guardian of the Dead" is set in New Zealand with a liberal sprinkling of Maori mythology.

If we're talking about Maori mythology, New Zealand specfic seems to entwine this beautifully with magical realism. For example, there's Witi Ihimaera's "Sky Dancer" and of course "Whale Rider".

While adult specfic set in New Zealand is rarer, the children and YA genres are packed with excellent authors and stories. For example there's Lyn McConchie, Margaret Mahy, Gaelyn Gordon, Lisa Vasil ("Apprentice Devil"), Isabel Waiti-Mulholland ("Inna Furey"), Tulia Thompson ("Josefa and the Vu"), and of course Maurice Gee.

I know there are probably many other SF&F books set in New Zealand, and as I'm still in the process of discovery I'd love it if you could recommend them in comments.

Thanks also to my Twitter friends Zeborah and Marie for chipping in with suggestions!

This post is part of New Zealand SpecFic Blogging Week, September 19th to 25th 2011. For more posts and a Readers and Posters prize draw, please visit the Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand website.

NZSpecFic Blogging Week: Write About Christchurch

2011-09-19T14:28:00.003+12:00

It's taken me a while to become comfortable with the idea of putting my country into my writing. That's what you get when you're brought up on a diet of American and British influenced culture without any critical analysis.

Good old cultural cringe, eh? It confounded and astounded me when during the Lord of the Rings phenomenon so many people were "OMG YOUR COUNTRY IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!11!" Well, yeah? Those mountains are what I went tramping in, and those rivers I went canoeing on, and that bush I went camping in, and I can just pop down to the beach, and I can drive through it whenever I want. I mean, it's just pretty scenery, and really our cities aren't all that and we're just four and a bit million and obfuscate hand wave humble humble.

I might complain a lot about being cut off from the rest of the world until I remember how cut off the rest of the world is from us. To someone who lives in a concrete jungle or may never see the ocean, New Zealand must look like Madagascar or another planet. But hey, I can assure you, we're all human beings down here with rich and intertwining cultures.

For someone who grew up in a small town and moved to what could be a considered a laid back city, it seems weird to think these might be magical places. Blenheim might seem a pretty boring place to grow up, until you consider the magic of it's safety and the OMG WINE! and SUNSHINE! and THE SEA!

And Christchurch. Well, it's...ummm flat? It's not called the Garden City for nothing. And it's easy, has lots of lovely old buildings, and all that culture again. And it's safe...ish.

Well, it was. Now it has lots of cracks and holes and falling things and a huge place in history for all the wrong reasons. How many cities get the chance to rebuild almost from scratch? That takes a lot of imagination in itself.

After September 4th 2010 (the Greendale Fault 7.1 magnitude quake that did most of the damage to Kaiapoi and the Darfield area), I still felt comfortable writing about Christchurch. My first published story was set in Christchurch, I was rolling around the idea of a urban fantasy novel set in Christchurch (set in the funky alleyways that included all the bars and boutique shops of the central city), and I started writing a science fiction short story set in a Christchurch that was a city of bicycles post-oil.

I set both the novel and story ideas aside after February because my landscape changed so dramatically I would have to rethink both and I wasn't comfortable writing about the city. I'm not yet comfortable with my place in this drastically and dramatically changing city. I used up all my Christchurch writing karma on my Memorial Day blog back in March. I found it too difficult, too raw, too WRONG to write about something that belonged to a select group of people in this world. I'm sure other local artists, poets and writers feel different. Others may feel the need to work out their pain, trauma and stress through their art.

Not long after the February 22nd 2011 quake (the Port Hills fault 6.3 magnitude quake which leveled the CBD and did most of the damage to Lyttleton and the eastern/river suburbs) someone said to me I should use my experience from the earthquake and put it into a story. They probably didn't mean I should write a science fiction or fantasy story ABOUT the physicality of the quake (though it will probably be woven into my novel idea whenever I get round to it) but the trauma and emotion could be used in some way.

I remember saying to myself 'No, I can't do that, it's too close', then proceeded to do so in some fashion anyway. The science fiction story I ended up writing that included earthquakes and a destroyed city was far enough removed from my experience that it didn't feel like a betrayal. I liked what the story became, and I could intellectualize it through the grander themes of falling civilizations and evolution of a people.

I've also had people tell me that I have something to talk or write about for the rest of my life. I don't like the idea that my experience in the earthquake is something I can 'use' or make hay from. I know I'll be stronger because of it, but I'd rather I never went through it at all. I don't like having my life defined by something so terrible.

I am sure though that it's going to take a long time for me to feel comfortable about setting a story in Christchurch again. I may have to shelve the 'cycle city' story for a long time because I can't even imagine what this city will look like in a year's time, let alone ten, twenty or fifty - I'm disappointed in my failure of imagination, but I know it's a symptom of the stress. I'm actually at a point in my 'grieving' for the city where I just cannot LOOK at it any more (and well hey, just as I typed that sentence we had an aftershock, doing nothing for my nerves and love for this place). Those parts of the city I said 6 months ago that I haven't seen? Still haven't seen them. This is not a city that I know or love right now.

I only have so many teaspoons left. A lot of my energy is focused on writing, and I've had to cut out a lot of the peripherals and multi-tasking I used to be able to do. I ran out of oomph to absorb the proposed city plan. I keep telling myself I'm not allowed to complain about how the city turns out because I didn't make a submission. I can only hope that someone read my mind about what I wanted for arts spaces and rebuilding the hospitality alleys (Poplar Lane, Litchfield Lane/Sol Square).

So, write about Christchurch, put it into my SF&F? No, sorry, I can't. Not right now. It's too personal, it's too early. I need to dream about something far away and romantic for now.

This now famous photo taken only moments after the February 22nd 2011 6.3 earthquake shows
the dust rising from fallen buildings in the CBD

This post is part of New Zealand SpecFic Blogging Week, September 19th to 25th 2011. For more posts and a Readers and Posters prize draw, please visit the Speculative Fiction Writers of New Zealand website.

The Obligatory Rejection Post 14/09/2011

2011-09-14T10:29:00.000+12:00

"Where the Wild Blackberries Grow" rejected via form letter by Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine.

"Where The Wild Blackberries Grow" then rejected via form letter by Interzone.

"Wish List" rejected with feedback from PodCastle. Thanks Dave! (PodCastle are my homies)

"A Pound of Flesh, Hold the Boobs" rejected with feedback and the usual awesome correspondence from Redstone. (Redstone are also my homies)

"Cherry Popping Unicorns" rejected with feedback from Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

I'm more often than not getting feedback now, which is fantastic. Some really helpful comments coming though, and I'm starting to build some great networks.

I'm unsure of the direction to take "Pound of Flesh" and "Unicorns". "Pound of Flesh" was the piece I really struggled with a couple months ago, and I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with it to resubmit elsewhere. "Unicorns" and another flash I'm sitting on called "Team Work" are part of the Katewin universe, and I'm wondering whether I should chuck them and fold them into the next longer Katewin story I have planned ("Tipping The Scales").

Happy Cat is waiting for to strike

I Write Queer Characters. Deal.

2011-09-13T12:15:00.001+12:00

There's lots of chatter of late surrounding queer characters in science fiction and fantasy.

Orson Scott Card has been called on his homophobia once more. A review of a recent novella release went viral and spawned a number of reactions, including commentary from the Outer Alliance, the 'buyabiggaynovelforscottcardday' twitter hash tag (I chose Nicola Griffith's 'Ammonite'), and various responses including this from Jim C Hines which makes it clear Card's bigotry is not a one off thing. Anyone who takes an interest in queer SFF or involved in the SFF publishing industry in general probably know of Card's stance.

Also, in the last day or so an article has gone viral about two YA authors being requested to straighten a gay character if they wanted representation by a particular agent. Again, the authors pushed back and said “Making a gay character straight is a line in the sand which I will not cross. That is a moral issue. I work with teenagers, and some of them are gay. They never get to read fantasy novels where people like them are the heroes, and that’s not right.”

I'm here drawing a line in the sand too. I have written, am writing, and will write lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, intersex, androgynous, and genderqueer characters. Three of my already six published stories have overtly queer characters, and I have something in store for the development of Katewin ("Mid-life Crisis", "The Ten Thousand Steps").

I write queer characters. Deal with it.

I don't care if this blacklists me from certain publications. I don't care if this makes me harder to market. I don't care if people think this isn't good for my writing career. I stay true to who I am, what I see, what I feel, what I want in this world.

I'm not someone who usually takes a soft approach. Outright bigotry and subconscious manipulation of our stories to retain the white heteronormativity of our society angers me. I want All The Stories.

If you don't want to read my queer leaning stories because that's not your thing, that's fine, that's your choice.

If you do, hey you, welcome.

Down with hate. Up with love and full representation.

/rantysoapbox

Fun now, sparkly poopz later...it's a win-win

A Day In the Life of The Writer

2011-09-08T11:48:00.001+12:00

Leading on from my last post about "Write Anywhere, Anyhow", I thought I might diary a day in my writing life. Since I'm not a full time writer, my process really isn't "a day in the life", more "hours in the life". Then I got to thinking how transient my process is, but strangely enough it works for me. I know I could tighten and tidy up my schedule, create some better habits, but as I always say "this writing thing is a learning process".

So here goes, a few days/hours/moments in the life of A. Writer.

Monday: It's Writer Monday! You're going to be at your desk by 9am sharp, aren't you? Look at the clock, it's 7.42am. That's ok, snooze a bit longerrr....a BOLLOCKS IT'S 8.59am. Get up, shower, make tea and toast, FOCUS DAMMIT FOCUS. Sit at desk. Ooh, Twitter. Ooh, email. 9.29am. DAMMIT FOCUS. Open WiP. Ok this is good this is good...where's my thesaurus. Check the word count. Yup yup. Cat says o hai, pat pat. Stare out the window. Type furiously again. Another cup of tea. HEY, 2000 words by lunch, you're awesome! Eat sandwich. Walk around the house. Pet the cat. Type furiously. Stare out window. 1000 words by 3pm and you're a star. Another cup of tea. Check the word count. Check the word count. YEahhhhh, and we're done. Floop.

Tuesday: Get home from work. Wobble up to desk. 6pm. Oh hey, some peace and quiet. I'll do some writing. Email first, ooh Twitter. 6.47pm. D'oh! Dinner. Then words words words. O hai cat. 8pm. That's good. Ohh, inspiration for that line. More words. Ok, words are blurring on the screen. Zzzzzz.

Wednesday: Get home from work. Dinner. Xena/ West Wing/Star Trek rewatch. I should be writing. Another episode? Ok. I should be writing. 8pm. Ok, 250 words before bed or...something. 500 words later. Not bad. Where's mah book. Cat. Floomph.

Thursday: Get home with hastily scribbled notes in notebook. Try to decipher own writing. Dinner. NO, THIS MUST BE DONE. Hey, 1000 words. Rock on. Book. Flop.

Friday: R U Srs? It's Friday night. Make notes in head at 11.30pm. Get up, track down notebook. Write notes on toilet. Cat follows you in. Go back to bed. 2am. More notes.

Saturday: R U Srs? It's Saturday! Ok ok, I won't be a writer unless I do something every day. Peck out a couple hundred bad words. Better'n nothing.

Sunday: R U Srs? This is gaming day! Play MMORPG until arms fall off. Laptop mocks you from it's bag. Tomorrow is Mooondaayyyy. You haven't planned what you're going to doooooo. ALRIGHT FOR DOG'S SAKE IF I PICK YOU UP AND TYPE SOMETHING WILL YOU SHUT UP. Fire up lappy, sit in favourite comfy chair for a couple hours pecking over something. Cat attempts to use laptop as expensive bum warmer.

Monday: Writer Monday! I'm gonna go laptop today. Turn off desktop PC, sit in bed or favourite chair. Stop only for lunch and cups of tea. HELL YEAH I JUST WROTE 5000 WORDS TODAY. Take that Twitter, you massive time suck.

Tuesday: Do nothing.

Wednesday: Feel guilty. Still do nothing anyway.

Thursday: Your guilt is KILLING YOU. Open laptop. Stare at it. Re-read what you wrote. Scrap all of it. Shut laptop. Go to bed and bury head under pillow muttering "I am not a writer. Who am I kidding?!"

Friday: Write screeds of notes throughout day. Read book that night instead.

Saturday: Ignore your notes. Do anything else but open your WiP.

Sunday: Play games until your shoulders beat you about the head with your own bloodied limbs. Suddenly find it's 11.30pm and you've written 2000 words. Fall asleep with shit eating grin on face.

Monday: Wheeeeee merry go round!

Procrastinators UNITE...tomorrow...

Khimairal Ink Vol7 No3 "Trois"

2011-09-06T10:30:00.000+12:00

"Khimairal Ink" is an e-zine produced by the Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company, and focuses on lesbian protagonists in science fiction and fantasy stories.

Their current issue Volume 7 Number 3 is available now and includes my story "Trois", about wishes, their truth, and how dangerous and seductive they can be.

The e-zine is available in PDF, Mobi and EPub editions.

I'm absolutely stoked that this is my second story to be released this month.

Luna Station Quarterly Issue 007: "The Woman With Flowers In Her Hair"

2011-09-02T09:24:00.000+12:00

Issue 007 of Luna Station Quarterly, a web zine that features female authors, is now available and includes my story "The Woman With Flowers In Her Hair".

My profile is up at the site, and can be found here.

Shoot the moon over to Luna Station Quarterly and support many fantastic woman authors.

Write Anywhere, Anyhow: Limbering up for mental gymnastics

2011-09-01T14:51:00.001+12:00

When I first started approaching the idea of Becoming A Writer (capitalized, because I apparently thought it required certain arbitrary steps), I thought I needed a particular physical space to do it in so that would adequately inform my mental space.

Somehow I got hooked on this idea and it ended up being one of the big reasons why I never got started. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea that to be a writer I simply had to put fingers to keyboard and write. I thought that keyboard had to be in a particular place, away from particular people, with the right temperature, outlook, chair, computer, walls, inspirational posters and a cat gently purring it's consent to write in it's own basket in the corner.

Unfortunately, cats aren't always conducive to sleeping where you want them to. That's why mine sleeps on my office desk or tries to vie for attention with the laptop if I'm in a comfy space. Most expensuv kitteh butt warmah evah.

I started out thinking 'I need a computer of my own' because I hated writing long hand or deplored typewriters when I was younger (fool!). I got a computer of my own, and I didn't write. Then I thought 'I need my own office because I don't like people looking over my shoulder'. I got my own office space (shared, but separated by dividers), and I didn't write.

I didn't need physical space. I needed PERMISSION. Not from anyone else. More importantly, giving myself permission to try and fail and try and try again.

Since I've been serious about the gig, I've read How To's and books about the writing experience, followed author blogs and Twitter streams to get a feel for their daily experience and how that works for them. I've tried some of their exercises and space makers. Some of them have worked, some of them haven't.

This probably sounds like ridiculous common sense but here goes: find what works for you, and don't be afraid to experiment.

I was silly in saying 'I need XYZ to write' because I hadn't actually tried them out. Now that I'm underway, I'm still playing around with what works, and there's some fun in the trying because it means I actually do get something done in ways and places I didn't think I could previously!

I started out by making a firm commitment to my desk and time, which are my Writer Mondays. Then I began to absorb the concept that if I want to be more productive and mentally limber for my writing, I had to write more often, and I added a commitment to write 250 words or an hour for the other 6 days of the week. I've not always successfully stuck to this, but more often than not I can make up the word count on other days when I'm feeling particularly inspired.

Then I got a laptop and things started changing again. I could unshackle myself from a desk. I've found great pleasure in writing in bed over the winter (comfortable, warm, with pillows and cat), and I've discovered I like my easy chair in the lounge for a change in scenery. I've found opportunity to write in quiet times at other people's houses (eg: when on holiday), mostly sitting in a sunny spot. I've even managed to write as a passenger in a car (I had a huge creativity kick just as a journey was beginning). I can now write more often in short bursts with a laptop, and I find these more frequent short bursts are better for my word count, productivity and creativity.

I have yet to try out writing on a plane, in a cafe or amongst a group write-in. One thing that still holds true is that I need a certain volume level to concentrate and not that many people around me. I've got better with the people around me thing - I can deal with my partner nearby (in the house/room/car), but I haven't yet taught myself to set the rules for other people in my sphere.

This is important - to give yourself permission means you are your boss, you are working for yourself, and you have give other people clear limits. Whether that's a 'Do Not Disturb' sign, 'If the keyboard is rocking, don't come a-knocking' closed door attitude, or a firm 'don't call/talk/ask for anything between these times, I'll make it up to you later' to the people around you is completely up to you and your comfort levels. Even if it is just five minutes out of your day.

Music is also another head space to experiment with. It doesn't always work for me. If not silence, my best choice for concentration is wallpaper electronica. Sometimes if I have an image from a story playing in my head, I get a song or album that is a soundtrack to that, and I listen to that to keep the image revolving and evolving. Everyone is different - I have a friend who regularly writes to death metal, but then they are a horror writer.

Some examples of how people write are:

Early in Stephen King's career, he wrote at a tiny desk in his laundry. When he was recovering from his accident he sat at a makeshift desk in his hallway, which was easier to park his wheelchair up to.
Everyone knows the myth of Joanne Rowling writing in a cafe. I see some writers talking about using cafes for such nuances like the white noise of chatter in the background, free wifi, getting out of the house for a fresh perspective, and not going being allowed back to their usual distractions until a certain goal is hit.
Pro-wrestler, activist and author Mick Foley wrote his first books long hand while on the many flights he used to have to take working in the pro-wrestling industry.
Clearing a room or space of all distractions, including phone, internet and reading material.
I have a writer friend who writes during her kids naps.
During your lunch break, whether at your desk, in the lunch room, in your car, in a cafe, in the park, or on a bench.
If you're too office bound, even having a notebook handy to jot sentences or ideas down helps. I do the notebook thing a lot.
Write on the train, bus or subway. Again, if juggling an electronic device is difficult in a crowded commute, a notebook for bits and pieces is great.
If you're an early riser, set aside some time to write before your day starts. Conversely, if you're a night owl, make some time when the house is quiet and the day is done.

Of course, there are many intersections of life that conflict with these suggestions and more, and this is okay, you have to portion out your energy, teaspoons and pain management as you see fit. Maybe you work long hours, maybe you have kids, maybe you have extended or elderly family to look after, maybe you're studying, maybe you live in a dangerous situation, maybe you have a chronic illness, maybe the physicality of writing is a barrier (I know visually impaired, carpal tunnel sufferers and disabled people who use voice to text and text reading software).

Don't let anyone tell you you're a failure at being a writer because your focus is on simply surviving. Perhaps the best you can do is carry a notebook to jot notes or to keep things in your head for a time when you can write, whether that's tomorrow, next week or next decade. If you want it bad enough, you'll figure out how to make it work for you. Just don't let anyone tell you no, not even yourself.

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Feminist Science Fiction: Linkbot 2.0 31/08/2011

2011-08-31T10:52:00.000+12:00

The first part of the BBC4 programme "Cat Women Of the Moon" is now available on line for your aural edification. It is a documentary in two parts exploring the subversion of gender and sex within science fiction. Includes interviews with Nicola Griffith and Farah Mendlesohn among others. The second part will play next week.
NK Jemisin talks about "The Limitations of Womanhood in Fantasy". "But I’m beginning to wonder if, along with rejecting the stereotypes imposed on women by society, we haven’t also rejected all characteristics commonly ascribed to womanhood — including those that women might choose for themselves."
The Future Fire describes themselves as "Social-political and Progressive Speculative Fiction. Cyberpunk. Feminist SF. Queer SF. Eco SF. Multicultural SF. An experiment in and celebration of new writing." TFF has been on hiatus for over a year, but in the run up to their relaunch and reopening for submissions they are running a month of blog posts "addressing one subgenre, theme or topic that we'd like to see in the TFF slushpile in the future". More information is available here.
Over at the WorldSF Blog, there's a fantastic round table "(Global) Women in Science Fiction". It's long and very in depth, but well worth your time.
Two recent Galactic Suburbia 'casts I've enjoyed have been Episode 36 "The Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ", in which they dissect 'The Female Man', 'When It Changed' and other Russ subtexts, and Episode 39, where the Mary Sue trope is dissected with the snarky abandon it deserves.
Sady Doyle (she of TigerBeatdown) wrote "In praise of Joanne Rowling's Hermione Granger series", a snarky take down of how the market and readers still treat female authors and characters.

Pr0nTastic Book Covers: Joan D. Vinge's "The Snow Queen"

2011-08-24T12:47:00.005+12:00

Check this puppy out!

Image: Scan of the 1981 UK Orbit edition of Joan D. Vinge's "The Snow Queen". A silver masked queen watches over a man in silver jocks and phallic helmet, who stands over a blond woman on her knees, buttocks thrust out, her face at crotch height. Yeah.

I picked up this copy of Snow Queen in a second hand bookstore earlier this year. It's a book I've been meaning to read for quite some time, and meta meaning to feminist and female authored science fiction aside, isn't this just a killer of a cover?

Killer in the sense of 'don't judge a book by it's cover', because it's really a derailing piece of crap. It bears very little resemblance to any scene in the actual story. It's an attempt to sexify the book for men, which at the same time alienates the female market SF was struggling to reach, when "The Snow Queen" was a story that could be enjoyed by all. Oh noes! Space opera written by a women, with a female driven story! Whatever shall we do?!

Why, make it Pr0nTastic of course!

Let's start with the characters. The best I can ascertain is that the woman in the silver mask and floaty contraption is Arienrhod, the Winter Queen of the book. So far, so good, even if she does look disjointed. Space Cadet in the silver Calvin-Klein's I imagine is Starbuck, the Winter Queen's right hand (cough) man.

Then we come to our obeisant blondey. I'm guessing this is supposed to be Jerusha PalaThion, a policewoman, because this looks like a minor scene in the book where PalaThion visits the Queen's sanctuary and is forced to pay respect on her knees before the monarch.

There are three major things wrong with depicting this scene and these characters. One, the entire story is driven by the conflict between Arienrhod and her clone Moon, destined to be the Summer Queen. A huge erasure, Moon is equally a major character and is not depicted on the cover. Blondey can't be Moon, because Moon looks exactly like Arienrhod, she of the white hair and skin. Two, Starbuck is shown wearing very little, when in the story he wears black robes that completely cover his body, with a face plate on his helmet to disguise his identity. He only disrobes when he fights, hunts or has sex. Three, the scene is outrageously sexual in nature, and bears no resemblance to the actual relationships in the story.

On a minor bugbear note, PalaThion is shown holding a weapon, as if at any time she could shoot Starbuck right in the nuts if he decides to take advantage of that sweet, round shiny ass (seriously, check out the shine on the left butt cheek! That's not an age defect of the cardboard). If it is the scene I'm thinking of, PalaThion had her weapon removed when she entered in the throne room. It's a bad ploy to make a subservient woman look like she has some sort of power over the man towering over her/sexually threatening her...when there was no sexual threat implied in the scene.

It's almost as if the artist simply opened the book at random and cherry picked a couple of descriptions. And since one of these descriptions was about a female character on her knees, then it must be all about Teh Sex!

Look at that phallic helmet! Yes, Starbuck wore a spiked helmet, but he didn't run around in his cyborg undies all the time. It's a story set on a cold, winter-bound planet for crying out loud.

Look at that thrusting ass, tight pants, heels and Mickey ears-like cap PalaThion is wearing. Her helmet at that point in the story is decribed as covering her full head, gold, and NOT ON HER HEAD. PalaThion, in classic badly drawn, anatomically incorrect sex-kitten style, has closed eyes so you can't read her humanity (sex toys don't see, think or breath obvs), no waist, massive buttocks, and stick-like lower legs. It's like someone put a valve in her butt cheeks and blew them up. Welcome to the MiXXXey Mouse Club.

It's no accident that her mouth is at crotch height to Starbuck. This is infantalizing and sexualizing at the same time, discrediting what is a powerful female secondary character. Another point: PalaThion is not physically described very much in the story. It's very telling that the artist envisioned her within the default framework of western beauty standards.

Look at that disjointed depiction of Arienrhod. It disturbs me that she doesn't seem to have legs attached or bent in any anatomically correct way, you can't see her lower arms or hands, and her face is mostly covered by a mask. While masks play a big part in the story, Arienrhod's mask on the cover is a badly simplified version and serves to veil her eyes, dehumanizing her.

Arienrhod is shown in a floating carriage or throne. While the scene in the story describes a throne of metal and glass, it in no way floats. This may be a way to incorporate the technology of the planet that is so important to the story, but it serves to disable Arienrhod. She is depicted on the cover as only half a woman, her eyes soulless, when she is a fully fleshed villain, the major antagonist. It's trotting out those tired old tropes that a woman couldn't possibly be whole or fully human if she is evil, and that disabled and technology enabled people can only be bad.

This cover is a throw back to sexualized pulp space opera covers, and does the book a huge disservice. It shows the trouble publishers and artists had in marketing female written and female driven sci-fi, even entering the 80s.

My favourite artist Michael Whelan created a superior version of the cover in 1988 for a re-release of the book:

Image: Michael Whelan's Depiction of "Snow Queen", a white woman wearing a feather cape and intricate mask.

Whelan did far better depicting Vinge's Snow Queen with his intricate style of encoding symbols into an image, showing that he read and absorbed the story. One can see the sibyl trefoil, Sparks pendant and flute, the Tiamat mer-people, the feathers and jewels used in Festival masks, and depictions of places, ships, technology and plants. While Arienrhod's eyes are closed, you receive some idea of her age and pain from her face, and she is shown as a full and whole woman. He managed to capture the humanity, fullness, beauty and cool villainy of Arienrhod in one spectacular sweep, something which the '81 Orbit cover failed to do in Pr0ntacular fashion.

ETA: Yes, I deliberately chose that edition of the book because of it's horrendous cover!

A Boring Rejection Post, Talk Amongst Yourselves 22/08/11

2011-08-22T16:47:00.000+12:00

"Through The Open Door" rejected by Unstuck via form letter.

"Through The Open Door" rejected by Penumbra with nice vibes. Thanks Penumbra!

"Halfway Between Asleep and Dead" rejected by Digital Science Fiction via form letter.

"Situation Vacant, Apply Within" rejected by Comets and Criminals via form letter.

Please buy a paper shredder. I'll even pay for it.
This used to be a fun hobby but I can't keep up with all your mistakes and rewrites!

This and That.

2011-08-18T16:36:00.003+12:00

The writer life is a little quiet at the moment. I'm struggling with procrastination, and it's been nothing but rejections for a while.

I'm not sure if I wholly believe in writer's block, but I certainly can understand what stress, the fear of failure, constant rejection, and troughs of activity does to a head. It can be a lonely existence as a writer, and sometimes you can really get stuck inside your head.

But I keep reminding myself that I'm way better than I was before eighteen months ago, and the last five months have been pretty rough and I've managed to keep going.

So here's the hard truth, though I hate to admit it: I haven't written any new words in two weeks. For some stupid reason the rejections are getting to me, and trunking some stories has effected my mood way more than I thought it would.

I'm at the bottom of a motivation trough, hoping for something good to pull me back up, whether it's creative inspiration or a sale. And what's two weeks out of all this time I've been writing? I've talked myself past the problem before, I'll get back on that horse very soon. I'm my own cheerleader and professional butt-kicker, and I kick my own butt hard.

Luckily, to keep me looking forward I have a few things I'm anticipating:

A story going live at Expanded Horizons in the near future.
A story going live at Khimairal Ink. This has been delayed, but I have every faith the e-zine are doing their best to get their next issue out.
A story going live at Luna Station Quarterly very soon. My profile is already available at the site.
Stories sitting in the slush piles of venues I hold in great esteem, and am looking forward to their reply.

And in other news, here's something to wrap your head around - 'Tales For Canterbury' is now available at the Christchurch Public Library, the Auckland Public Library, and the Dunedin Public Library. If you find it at your local library, let me know. For truth. I'm not on a boat...I'm in a library!

How I deal with Rejection, and other epic stories 11/08/2011

2011-08-11T10:50:00.001+12:00

"Situation Vacant, Apply Within" rejected by form letter from OG's Speculative Fiction. Then from Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, strangely enough without the feedback I usually get from them (they must be over slushed).

"The Words Women Say That Men Don't Hear" rejected by by form letter from Clarkesworld.

"Anthropology, Redacted" rejected by form letter (and one of the cutest form letters I've had) from Brain Harvest.

"Through The Open Door" rejected by form letter from Pedestal Magazine.

"Where The Wild Blackberries Grow" rejected by form letter from Fantasy Magazine. Longest wait on that slushpile yet - five days! (yeah yeah, I know, doesn't mean squat)

Someone asked me the other day how I deal with all the rejection that I get. "There must be a story in that!" I'm sure there is, but that story isn't anywhere near complete. I'm probably going to be getting rejections even when I make a name for myself.

As for dealing with it all, it depends on my mood. I have a mindset called Bartlet's "What's Next?" (if you're a fan of The West Wing TV series like me, you'll know what that means). I keep putting the story out there over and over until there is nowhere else to send it. Or, in the case where I've trunked some stories lately, I've learned from my writing mistakes that I'm not happy with the story and have put it in the recycle bin (not thrown out completely, just put somewhere for rethinking).

I'm sure I've said this before, but I make a game out of anticipating and counting my rejections. It's a nice wee thrill waiting on an email or letter to come back. I know 93% if the time it will be rejection, but it's nice to hope. And if I don't have hope (sprinkled with a bit of belief in my ability), then what the hell am I doing here?

Why 93%? Well, I made a mental note to blog about my 100th rejection, but that milestone slipped by recently without me noticing. I'm now at 110 rejections (overall) and counting. Out of 100 rejections I've had 7 acceptances. Hence, 93% rejection rate. I doubt that number will hold steady - may get better as my writing improves, may get worse depending on industry or unknown forces.

Not every rejection I get can be a wry grin, shrug, and an "oh well, what's next?" Some days I look at my submission file with REJECTION REJECTION REJECTION repeated down the pages and wonder what the heck I'm doing. The horrible R word looms out at me, mocking me for my temerity. "You think you can hang with the Big Girls? Buahahahahahaha!"

But I get over it, usually by writing something I really like or getting some awesome feedback. Sometimes it's a matter of holding on really tight to something really small even if it doesn't mean jack to anyone else, like personal feedback from a respected editor, or spending a longer time than usual on the Fantasy Magazine slushpile (all the while reminding myself that doesn't mean anything).

I'm doing my best to hang in there, considering the last five months. I'm not going to give up on trying to be published, because the only reason I won't be able to write will be that I'm dead.

Rules of Failure: If at first you don't succeed,
destroy all evidence that you tried.

Western-Centrism In World Building: Up North, Down South

2011-08-08T14:47:00.007+12:00

As I've been planning and thinking about the continuation of my "Katewin and The Phoenix" stories, I've been coming back to one of my first tenets from when I started out writing. I want to subvert tropes and challenge mainstream ideas.

Recently I've been thinking about world building (creating countries, landmarks, cities, maps etc), and one of the things that struck me about epic fantasy is how western-centric the settings are. More to the point, how northern hemisphere oriented the landscape is. There's always mountains and/or snow to the north, desert/hot/dry places to the south, "exotic" land to the east or across the sea, and the main story takes place in a reasonably temperate zone and the hero/heroine must travel through these exotic/unusual zones as part of the drama and their character building.

Sounds very familiar, yeah? How many epic fantasies can you count that has a "great northern wall" with evil or supernatural marauders who bear passing resemblances to Viking/Celtic fighters or spiritual Inuit people intent on "corrupting" the culture of their slightly southern-ish (and more cultured/educated) cousins, or exotic desert-bred magical people who seem vaguely middle-eastern? Yeah, I bet you could look at your bookshelf right now and go "Huh", just like I did.

This is because historically western genre writing by northern hemisphere (English speaking European and North American) writers has been privileged in big-market publishing over the stories of their non-English speaking, non-white dominant cultures, or Southern Hemisphere counterparts. I'm sure someone may even come up with an example or two of a great southern hemisphere based epic fantasy writer (let me help you out there: Juliet Marillier), but they are an exception, not the rule.

Indeed, the orientation (orient, meaning east, from the latin oriens) of map-making with North privileged at the top of the world and South, the unknown regions, looked down upon (the north-south bias) was normalized around the time of Ptolemy, a northern hemisphere geographer. With the major landmasses and population in the northern hemisphere (ie: the cultures privileged by a western told history), it makes sense that European and Northern American fantasy writers would "write what they know" - cold upstairs, hot downstairs, the natives can be found "down there", the evil in the unknown frozen frontier beyond the northern wall.

Yikes, you can see where I'm going, right?

Despite the population of the southern hemisphere being estimated at about 10% to 12% of world population, that's still a heck of a lot of people. That estimate is taken from Wikipedia by the way, and here's another interesting concept - even the page on the Southern Hemisphere is very northern hemisphere-centric (the male/western privileged editing community of Wikipedia which can influence western- and male-centric thinking is an entirely different discussion which the women at Galactic Suburbia had a crack at recently). For example: it has "lower levels of industrialisation". Read: has lots more "third world" countries. I don't know, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and good ol' New Zealand seem pretty industrialized to me. And hey, why is being hugely industrialized such a great thing? Destruction of biospheres, pollution, forced population movement and their trickle down effects don't seem so great to me.

Yeah, I still labour under the old problem of some people not able to point out where Aotearoa is on a map. Maybe it's a size thing - "my landmass is bigger than yours". Cough.

So what does this mean to modern epic fantasy and science fiction world building? Quite simply: break out of the northern hemisphere-centric mold. Build your world on a southern continent or in a southern hemisphere. My experience is that the majority of the cold and mountains are to the south, it gets warmer the further north I go; cold winds come from the south off Antarctica, warm winds come from the north; winter is the middle of the year, summer is the end/rebirth of the year.

Map of Pern from "The Renegades of Pern"

When I was thinking about the use of southern continents and hemispheres in epic fantasy, only one world leaped into my mind, and mainly because it has a dominant place on my bookshelf: Pern. I'm such a Pern geek I could pull out my copy of "The Dragonlovers guide to Pern" and check the landmass composition! While the Pernese story started out in a very European style northern continent, the story progressed to exploration of a much larger southern continent. Look at that map: mountains in the south, a large Pacific-like ocean, and a chain of volcanic islands indicating busy tectonic plates. Heck, if Anne McCaffrey, a white euro-centric writer, can create a southern continent dominated landmass world in 1969, why can't we do it today? The science and the story might not hold up so well today, but it's certainly something different from the usual northern-dominant ideal.

I'm sure McCaffrey can't be the only one, but she's one privileged by western publishing. I would love to know if there are some more fantasies that use a southern continent/hemisphere, so if you do know of them please put them in comments, thanks.

So I want to use my experience, "what I know", in my fantasy writing. It seems so ridiculously simple, but so logical. Surely not every world in the universes has all their major landmasses "up there". Imagine what it will mean to the etymology and psychology of a world that privileges south, east, middle or water areas as "up there". How will this change the culture, the people, their religion (if they have one), the dominant biology? Would it even be called north, south, east or west? This is the stuff the great "What Ifs" are made of.

Warning, boring blog 'State of the Union' ahead

2011-08-07T14:11:00.000+12:00

If you've popped over to PT looking for a bit of my witty feminist snark, you might be wondering what's happened lately.

After some navel gazing, I've come to the conclusion that I've lost sight of the original objectives of PT. When I first started out, I was so keen to make the blog look active that I started blogging about any ol' thing to keep my hand in and the post counting ticking over. Ok, not maybe 'any old thing' - 'There, I Fixed It For You', FA, activism etc are important to me, and at the time I wrote the posts I was sincere in getting a point across.

However, those points in many ways have nothing to do with why I started PT: My writing. I'm also feeling the ol' 'Feminist Blogger Burn Out' on top of post February stress, so to look after myself I'm paring it back. PT is going back to being mostly about writing.

I say mostly, because there's always the intersections of feminist and activism within my writing and the SFF publishing industry, so if there are going to be any future posts along those lines it will be writing/career inclusive.

Feel free to remove me from your links, I won't be offended. I've also removed posts irrelevant to the writing cause, so you might need to fix broken links too.

I'm sorry if this has disappointed anyone, but I hope you'll understand that blogs and people evolve. I started this blog to chart a change in my life after all! There'll still be cute cats, plenty of Picard, and snarky analysis, just more of the SFF, book and writerly kind.

Yes, my butt is better reading

A Quick Update

2011-08-05T11:47:00.000+12:00

Writing News and/or Topics-of-Interest have been thin on the ground in the last week or so because I've been head down, bum up finishing two stories.

The first was one I'd been angsting over for a couple of months. I'd actually binned the original first four drafts (yes, four!) and given up on the deadline I was working towards. I figured the story just wasn't meant to be. I think I was being way too earnest in what I was trying to depict.

Then last weekend I went on a long drive, which I always find exceedingly conducive to creative thought - it gives me a chance to sit still and do absolutely nothing for a few hours (as opposed to chilling at home where I have distractions), and usually my brain wanders in great directions. And wander my brain did. I came out of the drive with a draft fully written in my head, had it down on paper (well, screen) within 24 hours, and fully edited within another 2 days. It might or might not come up to standards because I produced it so quickly. It's funny how this can happen - I can spend forever labouring over something, and have it be good, or something literally falls out of my head, and it's good too.

The other story I was working on was a revision of the piece rejected with massive vibes from Strange Horizons. I did some juggling and cutting, and I came up with another draft I'm even more happier with than the first. I love it when I get a good feeling about a story! Here's hoping.

I have lots of story ideas, especially with my novella-in-progress, and another tale set in Katewin and The Phoenix's world. Magpie brain ensues!

Black cats aren't evil
They're just misunderstood ninjas

How I Learned To Stop Worrying, and Love My Rejections 29/07/2011

2011-07-29T09:04:00.001+12:00

Can a rejection be an indicator of growth, change and success?

Yes!

Today I received a rejection. It wasn't any old rejection. It was from Strange Horizons, one of my favourite pro markets. And check this:

I got personalized feedback from editor Jed Hartman.

To put this in context, Strange Horizons has a huge slush pile, which their response times are indicative of (currently sitting at the 70 day plus range). They're a popular market. You want to make a name for yourself, having Strange Horizons on your publication credits is something.

Because the SH team has such a huge slush pile to wade through, form responses are not to be sniffed at. Therefore, me getting a personalized response with really informative feedback is FRAKKING AWESOME! It means I'm getting better, it means they know my name, it means they see I'm really trying.

This feedback has opened my eyes to the failings and the good parts of the story, and has given me a clear idea of how to fix it.

Jed and Strange Horizons, THANK YOU!

Ur negativities cannot penetrate mai Rainbow Wall of Happiness

Writing: Truncated.

2011-07-28T11:10:00.001+12:00

I've taken another step on my writer's journey: I've sucked it up and trunked some stories.

I've avoided doing this for quite some time because I thought abandoning these stories would be admitting defeat. I didn't want these pieces to defeat me, and I thought if I just kept hacking away at them, re-writing, re-thinking, I could pressure and mold them into something I'm happy with.

I'm not happy, and I came to a point this week where I realized I'm ok with that. These failures have once more taught me a lesson, and shown me some of my creative limits.

Plus, it's not like these stories are abandoned for being total arse. There may be an idea, a character, a setting or turn of phrase that I really like and I can recycle later down the track.

My trunk may be digital, but it's a folder that's warm and snug for my wordlet babies. Sleep well, knowing you were crafted with enthusiasm.

ETA: In my internet rambling linkages today, I serendipitously discovered this great article by Deborah J Ross at the Book View Cafe, which pretty much sums it all up: "Letting Go, Moving On"

Part of a writer’s maturation process is accepting that sometimes you hit the mark and sometimes you don’t. You do the best you can with each story, reaching to make each one better. With each flop (and also with each success, when it comes), you take what you’ve learned and use it to tackle the next story.

Keep Calm
And Make It So

(Picture via Fuck Yeah, Captain Picard)

Hey Now Hey Now, Rejection Rejection ay yay 27/07/2011

2011-07-27T18:19:00.000+12:00

"Through The Open Door" rejected via form letter from Lightspeed. (Number 15!)

"Tasty Maidens" rejected with personal feedback from Silver Blade. Thank you!

"Polly Ticks" rejected via form letter from Port Iris. I somehow broke their submissions system, hehe.

"Halfway Between Asleep and Dead" rejected with big positive vibes from New Myths - I came SO CLOSE with this one, top contender apparantly. Ahh well, good to know I'm on to something with it.

"Halfway Between Asleep and Dead" rejected via form letter from Electric Spec.

"The Words Women Say That Men Don't Hear" rejected via form letter from Ticon4, and then Comets and Criminals.

"Team Work" rejected via form letter from Cast of Wonders.

The worlds tragedies weigh heavily on my head.
Wait. Other way around.

This is my day, how's yours?

2011-07-25T08:40:00.000+12:00

We don't get snow in Christchurch, so this is a novelty...if a little nerve wracking considering the already stressed and broken rooves in the city. I haven't seen snow like this in the South Island since the "Big Dump" of 92.

Snowwwwwwwwwww

Writing: My current WiP is expanding at a rate of knots

2011-07-21T11:35:00.001+12:00

I'm a magpie when it comes to my writing projects. It's a symptom of my short attention span. If something is not pleasing me, I tend to set it aside with an "I'll come back to it later". More often than not I don't.

I've worried that this may effect my transition from short story to novel writing. I want to attempt the novel at some stage, but I've never got past the Thinking About It stage. I have a few notes, but I haven't plotted. I'm notorious for winging it on a lot of my projects, and I know that this contributes to my inability to stick with the WiP if the going gets tough and I stall on a scene. I know this, I recognize this, and I have to work on this.

About three weeks ago I got an Ooh Shiny story idea. I started it, liked the characters and the setting, and had a shopping list of ideas and scenes. I thought it would make a longish short story.

Then I hit 4000 words, and I'd barely introduced the characters. This may have to do that I was writing them from birth (because their origins are important to the story). "Ok," I thought. "This may wander into novelette territory."

Then I hit the 7000 word mark, and I'd only cleared the first major scene. "Ok," I thought. "Novella?"

It's a strange feeling where I'm at with this WiP. There's a little 'proper' writer in me screeching about planning and plotting and how it's gonna fall apart at any moment. Then there's the artist in me liking the impetus and the flow and shushing the Writer - "it's gonna be ok, subconscious. Hang in there. Chill out. It's looking good."

I have a very clear vision of the end. I think in my best stories they came out good because I have a firm ending in mind from the beginning, even if I haven't planned them that well. It gives me a goal to tie everything into.

This is an odd place for me to be right now. I didn't plan on writing a longer piece, but now that I'm here it feels right. I am missing the quick satisfaction of writing short stories, and I do feel like I need more of them circulating on the slush piles. But I don't want to walk away from this WiP for too long, or I may lose the good feeling and momentum.

Messy Mind writer strikes again.

Please buy a paper shredder. I'll even pay for it. This used to be a fun hobby
but I can't keep up with all your mistakes and rewrites!

An All Female Venue: I'll be going on-station at Luna Station Quarterly

2011-07-18T11:15:00.000+12:00

Some more good news! Luna Station Quarterly, a venue for female and female identified SFF writers, will be publishing my story "The Woman With Flowers In Her Hair" in September.

Luna Station Quarterly is a pay-by-exposure e-zine, where I'll be able to post up a bio and links.

A lot happening all at once! Alrighty semi-pro and pro-venues...I"m waiting on you. Hit me with it!

YAY IT'S CATURDAY!

Living a small town existence in a big city

2011-07-17T16:35:00.001+12:00

Last night I spent yet another Saturday night doing a whole lot of nothing. That's because there isn't much to do around Christchurch at the moment, and what can be done is very busy or difficult to get to.

Four major movie theatres are closed, two of them probably never to open again. Two art house theatres are closed, possibly to never reopen. All the main live theatres - the Town Hall, the Theatre Royal, the Mill, and the Court Theatre - are all closed: the Court Theatre are working quickly to get a new venue up and running, but the Mill will be torn down, and the Royal and Town Hall are years away from reopening. If any live theatre is happening, it's in marquees, school halls, or whatever community venue can be scraped up. Small and inconvenient venues, but the spirit of arts communities does live on.

There are no major concerts. The pub scene is slowly crawling it's way back, but again it's suffering from a lack of venues. Salmonella Dub are going to do a show in a CARPARK soon because of the lack of venues, of all things. Partying outside in the depths of winter - yeah, you gotta be pretty hardy to put up with that. There's no Oxford Terrace Strip, no Sol Square, no Poplar Lane, no Manchester Street bars and niteclubs. There are no wine bars like Le Plonk (torn down) or 205.

The restaurant scene is slowly coming back. Recently I've discovered St Germain, the Bohdi Tree, and The Flying Burrito Brothers have reopened in new venues. I still have no word on Pedros or Simos.

Even IF you can get to any of the open venues you're struggling against traffic and a lack of peripheral entertainment venues. For example, if you go to a restaurant, you'd expect to move on to a niteclub, bar, wine bar or coffee house afterwards, and because venues are so scattered, it's difficult to string together a decent night out. These days I go out for one thing, and one thing only, and I'm usually home well before pumpkin time.

And even IF you decide to make the effort, you're dealing with increased population flow into these reduced in numbers venues. And with bigger numbers at less venues comes the stress - people are struggling to find relief for their tension and trauma, and it's finding it's way out in alcohol, fights, or the simple stress of having to be in a big crowd. I go out for a good time, and though I like the good vibe of crowd that's got it going on (that's what Sol Square used to be like some nights), I feel a certain tension in Christchurch crowds at the moment - I don't want to be shoulder to shoulder with people who haven't released their post-February stress in a healthy way. Are we all looking at each other wondering if an aftershock is going to hit?

People think about these things, and it will hurt the hospitality industry for a long time to come.

And it's not just one's free time that has been truncated into a waiting game. Most days are get up, go to work, come home again. If you need to do any of the basics, like grocery shopping, you have to PLAN it. Popping down to the supermarket is not a viable option any more when it's packed like Christmas time after 10am most Saturday mornings. BF (Before February), I used to be able to pop down to some handy shops or service centres for any errands, or shopping. Now I have to plan days in advance, find routes and work out what and where the shop is.

If I want something from the library I have to reserve it: no wandering into the huge central library with it's fantastic SFF section. Dog forbid if the central library's resources, historical documents and stack can't be rescued.

And travel. Travel. *sigh*. Some days you don't even know if certain roads are going to be open. I can watch streets worsen in quality as time goes by and they take a heavier traffic load. These too will have to be closed to be fixed. I've taken to biking a lot more, and I wish people on Christchurch roads would too. It would sure ease the load - cars, and road rage wise.

I have visited Sydenham twice since February, Ferrymead once. I've been over Aranui way a couple of times to visit my "car guy", but have tried to limit those trips because the roads are the worst in town. I haven't been to Sumner or Redcliffs, and only go to Hornby if I'm leaving town to go south - and even then I've learned to take the back roads.

Travelling, in a city that used to take 20 minutes to cross, is a nightmare.

I don't even know what parts of my city look like any more.

And it makes me stop and think. This is what my life used to be like when I lived in a small town - compact, parochial, boring, and stressful living within that boredom. Bored people do stupid things, or bored people become very small people. Oh, I didn't have the broken roads or inaccessible areas. But right now I'm certainly living a small town existence in what was once a big, thriving, interesting, cultural centre of a city.

Hmm. I'm sure I'm supposed to be saying things to reassure visitors to the city, tourists, that we want you back, things are slowly coming back online. Ok, sure. If you're the adventurous type, come on down. But I won't lie. It's a very boring and broken city to live in right now. If you can find fun here, you're doing better than me.

Christchurch isn't dead, but it's certainly on life support right now.

Step Up: "The Ten Thousand Steps" Sold!

2011-07-16T23:00:00.000+12:00

I'm so very pleased and proud to announce that my story "The Ten Thousand Steps" will be appearing in a forthcoming edition of Expanded Horizons.

I'm very excited about this for two reasons: Expanded Horizons is a fantastic venue for feminist and intersectional speculative fiction that I will be very proud to to be published in; and TTTS is the second story set in Katewin and The Phoenix's world of "Mid-life Crisis" which was published in Flash Me Magazine December last year - this means I'm on to something good!

Yipee, what a week!

[Image: Patrick Stewart wearing the famous "This is what a feminist looks like" t-shirt]

"Twixt" M-Brane SF June 2011

2011-07-13T16:13:00.001+12:00

The June 2011 edition of M-Brane SF e-zine is available for purchase now, and contains my story "Twixt".

This story contains language, and discussion of sex, sexuality, rape and genderqueer issues.

I am stoked that editor Chris Fletcher has taken a punt on this story, and that he's willing to push boundaries with his science fiction. Thank you, Chris.

Check out this awesome cover:

'Tis very strange seeing my name at the top of the cover.

And yes, I know I use the phrase "born this way" in the story, but I wrote it long before I knew the title of Mother Monster's song/album.

VA: PodCastle - "5 Rules For Commuting to the Underworld" by Merrie Haskell

2011-07-11T18:28:00.000+12:00

"5 Rules for Commuting to the Underworld" by Merrie Haskell is this week's "PodCastle Miniature", narrated by MOI!

PodCastle can be subscribed to via iTunes, or you can listen to the show at their website. Here's the direct link through to the episode here where you can listen on site or download.

I likes PodCastle coz they let me read in my normal accent, and I totally got my sarcasm on with this one!

Well, that's torn it...

2011-07-08T20:58:00.002+12:00

In the ongoing gender balance in SF debate, Cheryl Morgan has posted another great blog entitled "Anthologies: Some Data", in which she breaks down some gender divisions.

In the comments she had this to say:

I’m getting a strong message from other people that anything that smacks of “women’s press” will automatically be labeled “feminist” and, as Gwyneth said on the BBC, being labeled “feminist” is career suicide if you want to write SF. It’s not just people in the UK telling me that.

Well, I'm screwed then ain't I *wry grin*. Maybe I haven't had my naivety and optimism mashed out of me yet. Ah well, carry on battering against the castle's defences.

"Feminazi!" - A Play in One Act

2011-07-08T12:27:00.004+12:00

W1, W2: "Feminazis give women a bad name!"
W1: "We don't need feminists or feminism!"
W2: "Yes, banish them from our clean, green planet so they don't make us look bad to men ever again!"
F-Godmother: "Umm, OK. Your wish is granted. No more feminists. No more feminism."
W1, W2: "Hooray!"
W1: "Now we can go back to work in peace."
F-Godmother: "Not exaaactly. Without feminism, your jobs have been...dis-established."
W1: "Whu-? Well, surely it was mostly men who gave women a leg up into the workforce, since, ya know, they were the workforce and all that..."
F-Godmother: "Nice piece of cognitive dissonance and invisibilization going on there. But whatevs. Doesn't matter now. No jobs for you!"
W1: "Well, we'll see about that! We'll take it all the way to the top of government with this, rally votes..."
F-Godmother: "Nyuh uh. No feminism, no female politicians, no allies. No vote."
W1: "But we've always..."
F-Godmother: *shrug* "Little more than a century. Guess that's not so bad. You won't miss it that much."
W1: "Surely there will be men who are our allies?"
F-Godmother: "Maybe. But hey, what can they do when they think half the world's population isn't interested?"
W2: "But...how will we earn our own money?"
F-Godmother: "You won't. You'll have to ask your husband."
W2: "What if I don't have a husband?"
F-Godmother: "You'll just have to rely on your family. But what's the matter with you? Why can't you get a husband? You'll be doomed to spinsterhood, insanity and poverty if you don't!"
W2: "I could use all this free time to make money from cooking, or sewing, or teaching, or maybe writing..."
F-Godmother: "Sorry chump, any money you make has to go to your husband or the men in your family. That is of course if you have time to do any of those things for yourself once you've finished taking care of your family. If you're not, ahem, willing to get married, then you have to look after your elders."
W2: "I could go back to school..."
F-Godmother: "What for? Oh, by the way...any qualifications you have, I'll take them back thanks."
W2: "...I'm not stupid..."
F-Godmother: "How would you know? You don't have an education. QED."
W2: "..."
W1: "That's ok, I have savings in the bank."
F-Godmother: "Ehhh. Wrong again. You're not allowed to have a bank account."
W1: "Why not?!"
F-Godmother: "Because only men can handle money."
W1: "But...but...that's stupid!"
F-Godmother: "Hey, you wanted this."
W1: "Well, I guess it can't be that bad. I can deal with this. I can ask my husband for money."
F-Godmother: "But only for household costs."
W1: "Whu-?"
F-Godmother: "You have to earn it. You know...cooking, cleaning, raising the kids, dressing nicely, keeping your hair and makeup tidy, keep slim, having sex."
W1: "That's not so bad. I love my kids and my husband."
F-Godmother: "If you don't behave, he's allowed to withhold money for frivolous things like clothes and make up and hair. But woe betide you if you don't look nice for him!"
W1: "But how..."
F-Godmother *puts up hand* "Talk to the hand. By the way, don't turn 40."
W2: "This is such bollocks. That has nothing to do with feminism. Men are just stupid."
F-Godmother: "Sacrilege! Thou shalt speak better of your betters, or beware poverty and insanity!"
W2: "..."
F-Godmother: "Next, don't forget you're responsible for the health, feeding and behaviour of your kids. If there's not enough food to go around, you have to go without first."
W1 *mutters* "Guess that's one way to stay slim..."
F-Godmother: "Don't interrupt your betters girl! Now where was I? Ah yes, children. They should be seen and not heard. Woe betide you if your son is seen in anything but blue and playing with trucks. Dolls only for girls."
W2: "That's so silly. They can play with what they want..."
F-Godmother: "Are you challenging evolutionary biology, young lady?! Those are the facts. Period."
W2: "Speaking of periods, how do I afford tampons?"
F-Godmother: "What are these...TAMP ONS you speak of? And menstruation. Oh no no no....we don't talk about that."
W2: "But gynaecology...things to make our periods and baby-makin' easier..."
F-Godmother: "You seem to be thinking about your uterus far too much, young lady. What are you? HYSTERICAL?"
W2: "Oh for fucks sake..."
F-Godmother: "Also, you have to have sex whenever your husband wants, whether you feel like it or not."
W1: "But...we've always been pretty understanding about that sorta stuff..."
F-Godmother: "Not any more. Law says spousal rape is legal again."
W1: "If he tries to rape me, I'll beat him off! He knows better!"
F-Godmother: "Sorry hun, law's on his side with that too. Provocation is back on the cards."
W2: *smug* "It's a good thing I don't have a husband or kids then."
F-Godmother: "What's wrong with you? Do you hate men? Do you hate kids? Are you insane?"
W2: "N...no?"
F-Godmother: "Don't worry, there are plenty of other ways you can provoke being raped. You know, out walking unchaperoned at night, drinking, wearing slutty clothing-"
W2: "But what classifies as slutty?"
F-Godmother: "Whatever I say it is. Don't interrupt. Rape, yes...don't get lippy with a man, don't drive, don't be friends with other men, don't quibble, and expect to be collateral damage of war."
W2: "If that's the case, maybe I don't need men..."
F-Godmother: "Are you...a lezzbean?"
W2: "What if I was?"
F-Godmother: "You'll be ostracized. Probably killed."
W2: "Killed?!"
F-Godmother: "Killed. You're not offering any useful service to the world by denying it your uterus, so you're just taking up useful space, oxygen and food. Are you friends with any...lezzbeans?"
W2: "Errr....yes?"
F-Godmother: "No you aren't. Are you friends with any women of colour?"
W1, W2: "Yes!"
F-Godmother: "No you're not. Do you know any disabled women?"
W1, W2: "Yes!"
F-Godmother: "Be prepared to visit them in asylums then...that is unless you want to go insane or crippled too. It's catching you know."
W1, W2: "..."
W1: "Well, at least we have our female elders at church to back us up..."
F-Godmother: "Not any more. Plus, Mary was a whore."
W1: "But that's a ridiculous myth that's been debunked!"
F-Godmother: "Tough. It's back on the table."
W2: "This is just stupid..."
F-Godmother: "Know anyone who might have had or need an abortion?"
W1: *looks shifty* "Maybe..."
F-Godmother: "Then they are a criminal, and you're a party to that crime."
W2: "Who are you? Margaret Atwood?!"
F-Godmother: "Don't get lippy with me girl, or I'll slap the taste out of your mouth."
W2: "You can't do that!"
F-Godmother: "Hey sister, I'm the one with the magic here. And Man Rules say that I can keep you in line with 'judiciously applied' punishment."
W1: "Well, these Man Rules sound like bullshit..."
F-Godmother: "That sounds like sedition young lady. And that potty mouth is too angry. What are you? A FEMINAZI?"
W2: "The fuck...?"
F-Godmother: "You wanted this."
W2: "But this is just ridiculous broad strokes. It was never like this. I want my human rights back."
F-Godmother: "You think you're human? Pfft. You willingly abdicated your rights to the control of men, and you're upset about that? FEMINAZI!"
W2: "Stop doing that. I am not!"
F-Godmother: "Y U SO MAD, FEMINAZI?"
W2: "I'm allowed to be angry!"
F-Godmother: "No you're not. Anger is irrational, FEMINAZI."
W1: *to W2* "Well, at least we have each other."
F-Godmother: "Don't be too sure. There's not enough men to go around. She could be looking to steal your husbaaaannnnd...."
W1: "..."
W2: "Back off, bitch."
W1: "Feminazi!

Feminist Science Fiction: Girl Cootie Zeitgeist - All In.

2011-07-05T16:32:00.002+12:00

The invisibility of women in science fiction meta conversation got another boost recently, as yet another ToC failed to make the grade.

Cue the screeching halt, mansplaining and return to 101. AGAIN.

Seriously people, this is getting tiring.

There's a lot of fingers and pointing and excuses and protestations of how it all looks Just Too Hard to fix the problem of sexism in publishing (if you even want to acknowledge that it exists) because of how wide ranging and systemic the problem is, so why even bother.

You should bother because we are human beings who are artists who are half the population who have meaningful insight to offer to literature. Because Science Fiction can be anything we want it to be.

Sticking your head in the sand and creating defenses is Not Helping. Some people are actively working to better gender representation in SF, whether that's an editor or 'zine consciously slushing/looking for women writers (or unconsciously if women feel it's a safe environment and they submit there often) but not tokenizing them, or Nicola Griffith's Russ Pledge, or Ian Sale's Mistressworks review site, or having an active non-101 discussion.

This is good, but not good enough. We need to do more. It's time to take work on the solutions, one chip in the ice with the pick axe at a time. Without derailing. Without dogpiling. Without telling women and allies their anger and emotions are not a justifiable response, because we're tired of being told to modify our responses and our names to be taken more seriously.

There are recurring themes cropping up in these discussions, and Cheryl Morgan outlines some of them in a recent post in response to the most recent ToCFail:

Looking at a single anthology, you have no idea where the real problem lies. It could be the editor, it could be the publisher, it could be the submissions, you can’t tell. Also, just as an individual’s reading and voting habits are more likely to be a product of cultural conditioning than of conscious sexism, so an individual editor is more likely to choose stories based on cultural conditioning than a deliberate intention to exclude a particular group of writers. The objective of pointing out gender imbalances (or any other sort of imbalance) should be to encourage people to examine their cultural conditioning, not to decide who we are going to burn at the stake.

Theme: Editor/'Zine/Publisher can't be sexist, he/she/ze/they are Nice People (TM)!

Everyone is socialized in a patriarchal society, and it's difficult to break such coding when you've been dressed in pink or blue, passivity or aggression, since birth. That's part of understanding privilege - even nice people can muck up, be ingrained in an industry or company mindset, move within the framework to simply get things done.

Solution: If you're really an ally of gender parity in publishing you a) don't expect cookies for effort - if it's good, the zeitgeist will make the rumble it deserves b) set a target, and consciously slush for gender until you don't have to consciously do it no more.

Theme: I don't see gender in SF writing, only good stories.

Unfortunately, the world is not gender blind, and this sort of comment refuses to take into account, again, inherent gender socialization. Do you buy into the silly trope that men are better at science and math than women? Then you see gender in SF. Do you think women are only into that mushy stuff? The you see gender in SF.

Also, if you "don't see gender" then you'd also be reading SF by genderqueer writers. Do you? Because their voices are relevant too.

Solution: Read SF written by a woman. If you don't like it, read another woman. If you don't like that one either, read ANOTHER woman. Keep reading until you DO find a female SF writer you like. Female SF fans had to, and have to, do this all the time with male writers but it is never seen as a "challenge" - it's status quo. You can only change a bias by constantly challenging them. Reading one woman writer, and holding them up as your as some unicorn example is not enough - that's tokenism.

Theme: I don't see/know that many female SF authors!

Pfft.

Solution: Use Google. Read outside your comfort zone. Get to know the history of the invisibility of women in SF.

Theme: Women only write a certain type of SF.

And that makes it science fiction any less how?

Solution: Get to know broader themes and dynamics within SF. AND read the women who write your "type" of SF too, because they exist.

Theme: I don't have that many women submitting.

Did you ever stop to ask why? Perhaps women view the market as hostile - they don't see many, if any, women being published in your market, or perhaps the word around is it's difficult to break as a female writer.

Solution: Work on building your reputation as a female friendly market. Cut the excuses and work on what you can. Every little bit helps.

Theme: I invited women to submit, but I didn't get enough responses.

How many women did you invite? Was it a token number, or a comparable figure to the men? Were you only inviting known female writers, and did you stop to consider that they may already be incredibly busy? Actually, the busy theme would go for many women writers, considering the socialized expectations of women, work, and family leaving them less time to write.

And when you got no or a negative response, did you go looking for more women to replace them?

Solution: Pick a number of female writers you want (that's more than token), and don't go under it. It may seem like more work, but if you are seen as making more of an effort to include women, it will get easier over time, and women writers will give you their time.

Theme: I take an interest in gender parity, but why is XYZ so mad?

Do you mean WoC? Queer writers? Writers with disabilities? It's called intersections, darling.

Solution: Don't ask me, or some other PoP (person of privilege), or their friends. ASK THEM.

Theme: It's the publisher/editors/readers/reviewers fault!

It's all their faults. And none.

Solution: Stop being part of the problem and pointing fingers.

When it comes to equality in SF publishing, and if you're intent on making a difference, there are many things to consider. Don't let it daunt you - choose something within your sphere of influence to change/help out on, and a cascade effect may occur. If you don't want to make a difference, make it clear and don't get in our way, and we'll let you quietly die out like the dinosaur you are.

But if you do care, make an effort - be All In. Only your best will do.

Moar Rejection: Rejection Boogaloo 4/7/2011

2011-07-04T16:19:00.001+12:00

"Anthropology, Redacted" rejected by the ever fantastic Redstone SF. Srsly, they give the best rejections. So encouraging to noobie wee me.

"Polly Ticks" rejected by Night Blade. Somehow I've managed to delete the email (wut?) but I believe it was a nice rejection.

"The City of Sand and Knives" rejected by Ideomancer with (Zomg! Ideomancer!) personalized feedback. Next to the encouragement from Redstone, this was some of the best feedback I've received yet from an editor (Zomg! Ideomancer!).

"The City of Sand and Knives" rejected by Comets and Criminals with personalized feedback. Go submit to Samuel Mae's new zine, yo, and help out the NZ specfic scene. It's GREAT to see another zine being run out of New Zealand.

"Situation Vacant, Apply Within" rejected by Warrior Wisewoman 4 anthology via form letter. (I will tell the story about this story at a MUCH later date, when I've got over myself being a prat)

"Spa day," you said. "Fun and relaxing," you said. (relaxo-kitteh sez you suck)

I'm on the Write track baby, Twixt was Born This Way.

2011-06-30T19:32:00.001+12:00

"Twixt" has been picked up by the fantastic M-Brane SF, to appear in their July issue. I am so stoked and excited and so very proud of this story.

I can think of no more appropriate celebration for this story and moment than Mother Monster:

The book stack never diminishes

2011-06-30T10:41:00.002+12:00

An update on what I'm reading and what I've picked up of late. My book stack is teetering! Nom nom book lists!

I was reading a recommended reading list by NK Jemisin, where she gushed about this book, and I thought I'd give it a go. I'm not usually a fan of urban fantasy, but Griffin's intricate details about finding magic in the smallest and grimiest of city living was fascinating.

Wilhelm is an author I've had on my "must read women SFF writers" list for a while now. One of the books I picked up on my recent trip to Wellington.

Ditto on Lisa Tuttle.

I find Gwyneth Jones dense and quite the mind screw, but I'm persisting.

I used to own the complete omnibus of Cherryh's Chanur saga but it seems to have taken a wander. In all my scouring of "must read women SFF" lists, this one keeps coming up recommended.

I liked "The Parable of the Sower" so much, that I wanted to read more of Butler.

'Coz there's still a little bit of a Jericho-holic left in me, baby!

Because I wanted a sampling of Mieville's short fiction. I didn't finish them all, but got a great taster for his beautiful, dark prose. I've found his novels harder to get into, but I'll keep persisting until I find one that completely sucks me in.

Another one from my venture into Arty Bees.

Writing: Green Heads and Spam

2011-06-27T15:18:00.000+12:00

When thunking thoughts about writing today,
I thought thoughts about writing in the nicest of ways.
I looked at the sunshine, and got it into my head,
That the best place to write would be snuggled up in bed.

So I broke out the laptop and snuggly I got,
And with warm toes and bum I wrote really a lot.
I had a cup of tea and petted the cat,
And wrote more words about science fiction this and that.

It got me thinking more thoughts about this writing malarky,
And working for yourself can be really quite sparkly.
No no, not sparkly of the vampire kind,
I'd quite happily dropkick them vamps in their shiny behinds.

I could write while on holiday, while cruising on a boat,
I could write in a car, or riding on a goat.
Well maybe not a goat, because they're bumpy and small,
And lappy's are expensive to replace if they happen to fall.

The point is, that I've found I do care,
That I can write just about here there and everywhere!
I'll sit on a mountain, and tappity tap tap,
Or I'll sit by the sea with words and wine in my lap.

This isn't to say the writers life is carefree,
It's hard to make a buck as a bard, you'll agree.
But if I come out of the day feeling happy and keen,
I'll know a waste of a day it really hasn't been.

Today is a good day...even the sunshine smells good.

Writing: The funny things stress do to your head

2011-06-25T21:06:00.000+12:00

I've spoken before about how different writers handle stress. I recall Jay Lake talking about writing during a bout of cancer, and a friend of mine post February 22 finished and submitted a novel to a publisher.

Unfortunately, what the last four months has proved to me that when it comes to the crunch I find it very difficult to write, especially fiction, during times of stress. My blogging has dropped off too. My fiction writing has taken another hit in productivity in the last couple of weeks. I hate myself for it, and I hate myself for facing up to it and blogging about it because it sounds like just another massive whine.

But it's not. I have to remind myself that this time in my personal and Christchurch history is the toughest thing I've ever had to go through in my life. I know I'm being hard on myself, but I can't help it. I've always had high expectations. I promised myself to be accountable for my word count, and I'm failing at it.

Two weeks ago I thought things were starting to get a little better. While some big changes were happening personally and around the city, I was beginning to feel more optimistic and really happy that my writing was getting back on track. I'd finally got that holiday I'd been promising myself for almost six months, and I was starting to feel refreshed. I'd even written something that excited and invigorated me.

Then June 13 happened. Two large aftershocks in one day, within 90 minutes of each other, that worsened the damage around the city and set back recovery efforts (one of them was a 6.3, the equivalent magnitude of February 22). The only thing I can be grateful for on that day is that I wasn't at work. I believe if I had been at work in town I would have been triggered with flashbacks and sent right back to square one (apparently equipment fell down in my office this time which people agree would have set me off). I don't talk about the Day Job here, but I am making vague references here just to illustrate where my writing head is at.

And it's not great. I have a 'deadline': a competition I want to enter closes mid August and I'm really struggling with the story I want to write for it. I don't want to give up on it because I love the venue that it's going to. But at what point do I admit defeat? I have the Big Idea of the story, but every time I sit down to get it out, it's coming out all wrong. If I don't believe in the story, I'll half arse it, and it will show. I believe in only submitting my best.

Amongst all this writerly angst I can see the lessons. I am learning that I don't do deadlines well, and that's a first step towards figuring out how to deal with them. I imagine I will have more of them if I ever get serious about writing The Novel. I am learning how far I can push myself into the writing habit depending on the state of my headspace, and I believe I'm getting better at partitioning the stress. I can write when I really BELIEVE in what I'm writing - the story that excited my so much in the last couple of weeks I completed on June 14, when I was feeling pretty weird from the day before. Perhaps the distraction is good - sometimes getting into my worlds is helpful for taking my mind off things.

The one thing that is sustaining me is the amount of stories I have out there on slushpiles. There are many. I'm not caring if I'm getting rejections. Oddly enough, not much communication of any sort from anywhere, but that's OK - having them out there is the thing.

Keep ~~Calm~~...Keep struggling your way through, and carry on writing.

Admit it: you are jealous (of relaxo-cat)

Girl Cootie Science Fiction Zeitgeist Links 16/06/2011

2011-06-16T18:03:00.001+12:00

The discussion about the invisibility of women science fiction writers continues, and there's been some great contributions and discussions around the blocks.

Cheryl Morgan once more has erudite things to say in "Checking the Gender Balance" at the SFWA Blog.

Why have we forgotten these women? Partly feminism is to blame. The eager young feminists of the 1970s were keen to throw off the perceived shackles of their mothers, and rejected many of their predecessors as too “domestic” in their subject matter. But also we would have remembered these women more had their work been discussed more at the time, and had they won awards.

Ian Sales has begun the SF Mistressworks blog, where SF by women writers is reviewed. The blog only began in the last few weeks and it already has an impressive list of books reviewed!
At Ambling Along the Aqueduct (the blog of Aqueduct Press), the discussion has been kept moving with a variety of posts. L. Timmel Duchamp wrote about "Differences conceptualizing feminist SF":

For a US feminist, at least, this formulation of feminism might apply to 1970s cultural and liberal feminisms, but it never applied to, say, socialist feminism. Granted, for all of the 1970s socialist feminists struggled mightily in their efforts to fit two dualistic systems of political thought together (in what was commonly called "the marriage of feminism and socialism"), so that they would not have to choose between socialism and feminism, but by the late 1970s and early 1980s, when black feminists' theorizations of intersectionality began to gain traction with white feminists like me, the "battle of the sexes" orientation of feminism pretty much went the way of the dodo.
Gwynyth Jones (of whom I am reading 'White Queen' at the moment) responded with her own "Conceptualizing Feminist SF":
Mary Gentle, long ago, coined the idea (maybe other people have expressed the same position, I don’t know) that she was a feminist writing science fiction, rather than a writer of feminist science fiction. This is what I think about everything I’ve written since Life. Which was and is, as I have always maintained, my farewell to the investigative, active work of feminist science fiction. I haven’t stopped being a feminist, I haven’t stopped writing like a feminist, but the Battle of the Sexes is no longer my exclusive topic.

And it’s a shame if all sf books that feature a few female characters, having female lifes, are labelled feminist, & therefore marked as unreadable by large swathes of the general sf reading public. I have been worried about being part of that effect.
Juliet E. McKenna had her say in "Women being published in SF - an issue for all genre readers":
And, you know what, echoing Pat Cadigan, I don’t want to be congratulated/rewarded for being a good writer, for a woman. I want to be considered a good writer who happens to be a woman.
Over at SFSignal, this week's Mind Meld is "What's the importance of the Russ Pledge for Science Fiction today?" Watch out for the usual derailing and mansplaining in the comments! Farah Mendlesohn puts it pretty succinctly:
I am more interested in hearing why male writers think the Russ Pledge is important for science fiction, and then watching them act it out, than I am in writing yet one more exhausted rant stating the obvious.

There, I Fixed It For You: Christchurch Earthquake Bingo Edition

2011-06-15T11:01:00.005+12:00

Want to be a condescending jerk? Thinking that you lack the opportunity to tell Christchurch people how they really should feel? Or do you simply want to drum up page views with a little controversy? Just rock (see my pun there?) on into any open commentary thread about Christchurch and let the unempathetic, uninformed bullshit fly!

To help you wade through the tidal wave of bile, I've created for you a commenting Bingo Card. Fill it up and you win a free trip* to the shaky city where you can hang out with all us lucky whingers and bathe in the liquefaction and sewerage, enjoy driving on broken roads, and try to salvage your home/job/life/humanity here!

BINGO!

Clicky through for bigger version. A Bingo Card you can use while parsing commentary about Christchurch and the earthquakes. Happy playing!

*Not an actual prize. Srsly. Sheesh.

Things you are after a day of two major aftershocks

2011-06-13T20:10:00.001+12:00

Tired. Getting stuck into a bottle of wine. Glad the cat came back (without a hat). Wondering what the hell you're doing. On a downer when you were so damn happy earlier in the day. Back on the coping treadmill. Thinking 5.5 plus 6 equals turning it way past 11. Sad. Wondering when it will ever end.

The Rejection 2: The Rejectioner 12/06/2011

2011-06-12T20:55:00.000+12:00

To keep my ego in check after the RNZ National interview, the rejections have been coming thick and fast this week. Some of these gave me whiplash!

"Through The Open Door" rejected by Apex Magazine via form letter.

"Polly Ticks" rejected by Mind Flights with feedback. Hat tip and bow Mind Flights, much appreciated.

"Talk To Your Universe" rejected by The Absent Willow Review via form letter, and then from Neon via form letter (in now what stands as my quickest rejection evah! Woo! Eight hours!).

"The City of Sand and Knives" rejected by Fantasy Magazine via form letter, and then Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine with feedback. If I'd thought harder about it, I should have sent this to Lightspeed, not Fantasy - so I call that a rejection of my own dumbness.

I'm not playin wit you guys no mores!

A Writerly First: Baby's First Promotional Interview!

2011-06-09T11:55:00.001+12:00

I am being interviewed for Radio New Zealand National's "Arts On Sunday" program tomorrow along with Matt Cowen (I believe) about "Tales For Canterbury". I'll post up the date and time the interview will air once I find out. Could possibly be this coming Sunday. This is pretty awesome, because it's not very often that specfic gets promotion on New Zealand radio.

I will be doing the interview in person at RNZ House in Wellington, since this weekend is WELLINGTONPALOOZA 2011 baby!

How exciting!

ETA: The interview will air this Sunday June 11 at approximately 2.30pm. If you miss it, it will be available for download after airing from the Arts on Sunday subsite as linked above.

An audience with His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

2011-06-08T16:43:00.001+12:00

Today I heard the Dalai Lama speak, and it was beautiful.

So what was a nice atheist like me doing in a place like this? His Holiness said it himself: "it doesn't matter whether you are religious or not, we all deserve care and compassion."

The Dalai Lama made a special effort to come visit Christchurch - making room in his schedule before visiting Australia - because he wanted to extend his care and compassion to our people after the February 22nd earthquake. I've never really made a point of following the Dalai Lama, but I can appreciate his struggles and hard work for world peace and education, and I've had him down on my mental list of "People I'd Like To Hear Speak During My Lifetime". I'm very glad I got the opportunity. He was warm, kind, funny, cheeky, open, compassionate, humble and brutally honest.

While his words of peace and spirituality - I say spirituality because he didn't really speak to one religion or of needing a god, more of finding inner peace during a time of turmoil - were nothing unusual coming from him, sometimes these words need to be reiterated, and said to us with the weight of belief. I've seen politicians, leaders and celebrities give lip service to our grief, but the Dalai Lama, out of all the people who have turned their gaze on Christchurch in the last three and a half months, made me really believe he hurt and cared for us. I'm not the sort of person who needs (or wants) to be prayed for, but if he has us within his thoughts that makes me feel pretty good.

The crowd at the CBS Arena was the quietest, most well behaved crowd I have ever been in. The pin drop cliche really rang true here. Perhaps the attentiveness and respect was due to the Dalai Lama's quiet speaking voice - perhaps he's from the school of thought that if you speak quietly, everyone has to shut up and work to listen. I'd guesstimate up to four thousand people were there, and even the kids in attendance seemed chilled out. Why should anyone be afraid of the power of peace like that?

Afraid they are. Very telling was the fact that no national or local government official in attendance, at least not that I could see or in an unofficial capacity. He was greeted and attended by people from the local Tibetan community, local iwi and, I believe, Victoria Matthews, the Anglican Bishop of Christchurch. That's right, an official of another religious order stood in solidarity with the Dalai Lama.

But why? Because he speaks the truth about democracy and freedom for all people - freedom in and from religion, freedom to be educated, freedom to live our lives in a healthy and safe way, freedom to be happy. Shocking, isn't it?

The Dalai Lama was very direct in voicing his opinion about the way some countries treat and suppress their native peoples. And when responding to a question along the lines of 'how do we move on from this tragedy?' he raised a laugh with "If your government doesn't do enough to help you, then you know what to do at the next election!"

The Dalai Lama's main message was of coming together as a community, caring for each other, and finding ways to let go of fear, worry and anger. While his simple words are very sweet and kind, I diverge here a little in my personal philosophy because I believe there is a place and time for anger. Sometimes anger and loud voices can get things done, and some of the marginalized need to shout louder to be heard.

However, today was not a time for anger. Even though I am not religious, probably not even that spiritual, it was wonderful to see and hear someone with such a warm, kind-hearted message coming to give spiritual aid for no other reason than "we are all fundamentally the same". I didn't come away with any revelation or "seeing of the light" from hearing the Dalai Lama speak, but it was nice to have a few hours of peace and quiet and hear one very chill dude say "it's going to be ok" and "the world is a dangerous place and when it comes down to it there's nothing you can do to change that, so why worry". I came away with a lighter mood than I've had in quite a long time, and I made the most of some winter sunshine by doing some gardening when I got home.

I'm going to add His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to my dream dinner table, along with Freddy Mercury, Mick Foley and Lady Gaga.

Things I want to do as a writer

2011-06-06T21:06:00.001+12:00

Be published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. I would die happy then.
Go to WisCon.
Go to Clarion South.

It's not much. But it's a lot.

Sweet Dreamz, I haz dem

Out, damn Rejections! OUT! 03/06/2011

2011-06-03T15:10:00.000+12:00

"Me Myself I" rejected by Digital Science Fiction via form letter (though an incredibly cute one).

"Polly Ticks" rejected by Mind Flights with informative feedback. Thanks Mind Flights!

"The Woman With Flowers In Her Hair" rejected by Fantastique Unfettered via form letter; then from Linger Fiction with feedback.

"Team Work" rejected by Daily Science Fiction via form letter.

And you think your job sucks

Lookit! The paperback edition of "Tales For Canterbury" is available!

2011-06-02T19:16:00.000+12:00

Squee!

Double Squee!

Squee ice cream, eaten with a squee spoon, with squee sauce and a squee cherry on top!

If you'd like your own copy of "Tales for Canterbury" (paperback or e-book) and to help out fundraising for Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal, order your copy now through Random Static.

Feminist Science Fiction: It's Too Soon For Joanna Russ To Be Spinning In Her Grave Already

2011-06-02T15:35:00.002+12:00

I'm beginning to think my expectations for human beings to evolve their thinking may be a little too high. But that's me, the eternal optimist. I'd like to think that one day, eventually, within my own lifetime would be nice, people would get it...

That women writers aren't as invisible as people have been lead to believe.

It's been 28 years since Joanna Russ published "How To Suppress Women's Writing", and yet they still are invisibalized by ToCs and "Best Ofs", such as this discussion that took place at The Guardian: "The incredible shrinking presence of women SF writers" by David Barnett. This piece (and it's rotten commentary) was sparked by a Guardian poll asking readers to list their favourite SF novel.

Some interested parties with more eloquent (and less hulk smashy) tendencies than I took the time to disseminate the information. Author Nicola Griffith discovered that out of about 500 SF books mentioned only about four percent of them were written by women.

In "A Shocking UK Favourites Score: men 500, women 18" she says:

Clearly, women's sf is being suppressed in the UK. Oh, not intentionally. But that's how bias works: it's unconscious. And of course sometimes it's beyond a reader's power to change: you can't buy a book that's not on the shelf. You can't shelve something the publisher hasn't printed. You can't publish something an agent doesn't send you. You can't represent something a writer doesn't submit. Etc.

You can imagine what happened. Danger Will Robinson! Women being feminist on the internet!

The commentary to the Guardian article ("don't read the commentary!" is a mantra like "don't cross the streams!") and discussion around the Twittersphere threw up the usual headesk inducing bingo that would have Joanna Russ spitting tacks. One author in particular I encountered, who I won't name because I'm not that rude - well, not as rude as calling feminist science fiction fans/writers/editors/publishers "whiny" - busted out a perfect set of bingo against her fellow writers including the perfectly eye-roll inducing "I'll fight sexism but those (imagine the emphasis) feminists (can you almost hear the spit?) like to wield the sexist club against everything (yes, because feminists are so violent)". Typical attempt at shut down. I shall point out said writer benefits from certain privileges including a career in an industry which women before her fought long and hard to make sure she had the access and right to! But I get it...I get having to protect what little patch you've been afforded by the Big Boys (and Girls Who Buy In) and be seen as not "whining" and "ungrateful" and *insert violent rhetoric* against the system because that's just *Tone Argument*.

Cheryl Morgan tackled it with her usual grace in a blog post entitled "Female Invisibility Bingo".

Is this just women being whiny? Are we finding sexism where none exists? Personally I disagree, because the point here is that sexism is a cultural phenomenon, not just a few random acts by bad people. If you define sexism and only occurring when a man does something prejudiced to a woman then you are likely to find Nicola’s post irrelevant, but unless you get at the root of the issue — what Fay Weldon succinctly described on the BBC Book Review Show as the idea that men are more important than women — then sexist actions will continue to happen. Which is why, every time we see something that suggests men are much more important than women, us uppity feminists make a bit of noise.

She and Nicola Griffith have actually been a lot more circumspect than I, and are offering up solutions (while I flail helplessly). They have encouraged commentary free of anti-feminist bingo so that the discussion can move forward without devolving into tiring, teaspoon bending 101. Nicola has offered up a simple solution in "Taking the Russ pledge" - it's time to simply start thinking more about gender when you're reading SF. Take notice of whether you're picking up a male or a female writer, take a good look at your bookshelves/favourites to analyze internal bias, make an effort to read more female writers.

It's time to stop the reinvention of the wheel with every new generation of writers, fans and publishers. It's exhausting and time wasting, when we should spending that time and energy on being great artists. This acknowledgement of women's history in science fiction should be genetic knowledge, it should be taught, not relegated to (incredibly good) special interest textbooks, blogs and conventions. We shouldn't be whispering out the corners of our mouths.

We shouldn't be burying our progress with Joanna Russ. Can you not hear her spirit screaming at you from across the void, from the pages of her book?

"She didn't write it..."
"She wrote it, but she shouldn't have..."
"She wrote it, but look what she wrote about..."
"She wrote it, but she only wrote one of it..."
"She wrote it, but she really isn't an artist, and it really isn't art..."
"She wrote it, but she had help..."
"She wrote it, but she's an anomaly..."
"She wrote it, BUT...."

And perhaps now "She wrote it, but because internalized bias left it out of history you can't put it BACK into historical context..."

Bullshit. This is not about history being written by the victors - it's not a battle of the sexes. It's about history being written by ALL of those who took part.

There are things you gotta do to keep functioning

2011-05-30T10:47:00.002+12:00

Winter. The frost is beginning to crunch and bite, and life seems to be moving a lot slower.

In a city where things have almost ground to a halt, where it's hard to appreciate the minute changes on a daily basis, it's difficult to see the progress. I know it's there, but it's mostly in holes.

There are a lot of holes in my life right now: Gaps in memory; falling down deep wells of expired energy; a garden untouched; having to completely rearrange your movements because you just "can't go there" anymore.

Most days it's a lot of 'get up, go to work, come home again'. I don't go over to other parts of town because I'm still wary of being a disaster tourist. Even if there may be a good reason to go there - changing shopping habits, going to a new restaurant, finding a favourite business that's moved - there's also a very good reason NOT to go, and that's the damnable traffic and crowds. While everything has changed for me, it's changed for everyone else too. They're all moving in the same directions to get things done, and that's North and West.

Some days it's safer just to hide at home.

Along with the gaps in energy come the gaps of being capable to write. Bloody frustrating. I know it sounds like excuses, that writer's block is just a myth, that if X writer can carry on working through the tough times then so can I, that if I just TRIED etc. I am trying, but to you that's just words.

I've been having to partition my energy lately, I've been getting very tired very easily. All those cliches about ageing ten years in a few weeks? Yeah, starting to feel a bit like that. I just hope it's not permanent. I really don't want to start feeling my age. This could also be the mandatory birthday maudlin kicking in - happens around this time every year, and I guess it's exacerbated by the events of the last three months.

You may have noticed that PT has slacked off - specifically, I'm not doing my rants (TIFIFY) and focusing on writing related things more. This is because I'm having to compartmentalize my energy, and while anger can be an energizing thing it can burn me up pretty quickly at the moment. I'm recognizing energy and soul sucking triggers easier. I have to put the emotional blinkers on to get to get around town (if I agonized over every hole in the landscape, I'd have nothing left), and for my sanity I'm avoiding a lot of media and associated commentary (that black hole/wastelands of talk back). I'm still paying attention, but it's through the filter of Twitter. I'll only engage where I want to engage, decide if my energy and teaspoons are adequate to the task.

I hear it a lot: "It's been three months already, move on, get over it". And I'll say the same thing that I did back in the first few weeks, and on memorial day: come live here. Come drive what we have to drive, come shop where we have to shop, come work and move and think and find and breathe and smell and see what we have to every single day. Because it's never ending. Things only change in tiny increments.

And when you're in the best years of your life, when you're supposed to have the energy to Be Amazing, having that all taken from you is like moving through treacle.

I don't have time to wait for the frost to thaw, but I have no choice but to wait on my energy to.

All my reality checks have bounced

"Tales For Canterbury" E-book Release

2011-05-24T21:35:00.002+12:00

I've had the link up on my sidebar for quite some time, but there's nothing like a little reminder about helping out raising money for the Canterbury Earthquake relief and my first meat space publishing adventure, so...

The "Tales For Canterbury" e-book is available now! If you've pre-ordered an e-book, go go oggity go! You can now read me alongside many fantastic New Zealand and international authors. There are my good friends Lynne Jamneck, Ripley Patton and Anna Caro in there, wonderful kiwi writers like Tina Makereti, Helen Lowe, and Philippa Ballantine, as well as Neil (himself) Gaimen, Sean Williams and Gwyneth Jones. And that's just a few of the names included - check out this awesome list of contributors!

I am so very very VERY lucky to be included amongst this sterling list of authors, a feminist SFF heroine and my favourite game writer, friends and people I am fans of (sometimes both now, it's so trippy!).

The paperback version of the book is at the printers now. If you haven't ordered/bought your copy now, why not consider doing so for such a good cause. All proceeds (and I mean all, the authors do not get any payment for this) are going to the Red Cross Canterbury Earthquake fund, and believe me as a Cantabrian I KNOW it's still very much needed. Plus I will add you to my list of favourite people in all the universe, and isn't that a list worth being on when I'm all JK Rowling it up?

I'm all over the place

2011-05-24T11:49:00.005+12:00

Just like the title suggests, my ability to concentrate on any one thing at the moment is a bit stuffed.

My Writer Mondays are taking a hit for about a month. I'm filling in at The Day Job for two Mondays, then after that I'm FINALLY getting the holiday I was supposed to take at the end of February. There better not be any major quakes pulling me back in this time, because my flights are booked and I'm partying/shopping like it's 1999! Hmm, not sure gallows humour works just yet.

I'm still having trouble concentrating, but part of that is my self-taught procrastination, laziness and fear of failure. I recently got my first ever laptop. Wow, yeah, I know I'm well behind the times. Hey, this is the person who eats books and STILL hasn't been able to afford an e-reader (leaning very heavily towards a Pocketbook 360+). The laptop, right...for all it's wireless tasty goodness, it allows me to disconnect from all distractions. It's a clean slate (badoom shh, coz it's an oldish tablet): no games, no Twitter, no net if I haven't got the wireless modem turned on.

I have quite a few Works In Progress which is a good and bad thing at the same time. Good because I have ideas coming out my ears (brain cells?), and there's a fantastic antho I want to submit to - "Fat Girl In a Strange Land". I have two pieces underway already for that, both of which are a little more unusual than my usual style (I have a style?) and I'm really enjoying the experience of being able to write fat (using the descriptor in a non-pejorative way) characters in a positive way without thinking of negative repercussions from editors. Bad because I can't stick with any one idea for a while!

I've got a little messy in my writing plan (I have a plan?), and I keep skipping from one story to another. I've got that "Wanna Write Them All!" thing going on, but none of them are really getting finished. Some of them are a bit difficult - like I get to a particular point and I struggle to transition into the last scene/take it home. I'll keep persevering because I eventually get over the hump and remember the glow of success of a finished first draft. Then I come down again when I realize I have to fix the bugger.

I've also been dabbling with the idea of a themed set of Flash stories which build on "Mid-Life Crisis" (which I sold to Flash Me Magazine last December) and "Tasty Maidens" (which I'm still trying to sell). These stories won't be set in the same world or with the same characters, but will be along the same theme, of which I'm going to use to practise my comedy writing. I don't want to reveal the theme just yet in case I don't go anywhere with it, and I'm sure it's something that's already been done before, but I want to see how far I can go with it, and how many flash pieces I can write. I've already written one more Flash under the banner of the theme.

On the plus side, while it's not writing based, I've suddenly got a lap-load of VA work. Strange - nothing for months, and then within the course of two weeks lots of VA love! I'll post them up in the near future when they go live.

And of course the rejections keep rolling on in. I hope they're rejections on the merits (or lack of) of the story, not from my gender or politics (coz I can talk some shit, ya know). I won't really know, will I? Which makes me REALLY appreciate personal feedback.

Born This Way!

Rejections, Rejections everywhere, and not a drop to drink 23/5/2011

2011-05-23T12:11:00.000+12:00

"The Words Women Say That Men Don't Hear" rejected via form letter from Analog Science Fiction. I'm so pleased that Analog now accepts e-subs, it makes an international writer's job so much easier. Now I only need F&SF Mag and TTA Press to start doing e-subs and life will be super sweet on the sub front.

"Talk To Your Universe" rejected via form letter from Bourbon Penn.

"Through The Open Door" rejected via form letter from Birkensnake. It's dozenth rejection!

Ders nuttin lyke fallin asleep wit a gud book

IDAHO: International Day Against...Hate Of (all types)

2011-05-17T14:18:00.001+12:00

Today is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Here is the international website for IDAHO. For a little more reading that's related locally, there is a website for IDAHONZ, The Hand Mirror has a Round Up available and Julie has posted about "IDAHO: Trying To Do". I may add in more linky bits throughout the day when I find them.

This year's theme for IDAHO is "As I Am". As I have been attempting to turn my posting here at PT more towards being in relation to my writing, I would like to talk about IDAHO in relation to that:. I am a writer of science fiction and fantasy; I am a writer of feminist science fiction and fantasy; and as a natural extension of that, I am a writer of queer science fiction and fantasy. Take me, and my writing, As I Am.

To me, IDAHO is more than just speaking out against hate for gay, lesbian and trans people. It also includes intersex, bisexual, asexual, agender, pansexual, pangender, androgyne, genderqueer and other non-binary people. A little difficult to put into a neat and snappy acronym. Whoda hoti? IDAHOTI!

Exploring queer themes in my writing seems to have come about quite naturally. I never made a conscious choice to write queer themes and characters. Everyone deserves a voice. I'm not waving my little flag of "Hey Look At Me! I'm a Good Little Ally Over Here!". I certainly don't do it for the attention or grand publishing opportunities - queer themes are not universally accepted in SFF, and that's where great friends and support groups like The Outer Alliance are very helpful.

This is not to say I don't, and won't, screw up. Look mah, I can't be wrong, I have queer friends! Uh huh. The first rule of queer club is Check Your Privilege At The Door. There are some topics I am more conversed on, and I am always willing to stop, listen and learn. And yes, I know queer folk are not my "teaching moment". I make no demands of their time or comfort, I know what Google is, and I can read.

I must be on the right track because two of my three published stories involve lesbian characters, and I am proud to have a piece coming out (pun intended) in Khimairal Ink, a magazine devoted to lesbian SFF. I have also written stories with intersex, genderqueer, and agender characters, and I am eager to see how well they will be accepted.

I know that getting published with queer themes is a challenge, but if NK Jemisin and Catherynne M. Valente - two writers that I admire, respect and enjoy - can do it, so can I. There are editors, publishers and magazines out there brave enough to take a stand.

Some of these SFF magazines include:
Expanded Horizons - devoted to diversity in theme and author. This includes women, PoC, diverse ethnicities, queer people, and people with disabilities.
Icarus - The Magazine of Gay Speculative Fiction
Fantastique Unfettered - the fantasy magazine of M-Brane Press
M-BraneSF - the science fiction magazine of M-Brane Press
Crossed Genres - slushing and publishing for diverse themes monthly.
Semaphore - Of course! The place I got my start, and with a lesbian protagonist. (though the editor is going on hiatus for their OE very soon!)

These are magazines I have either submitted to, or am considering submitting to. There are many more who are open to queer themes, and a more comprehensive list can be found on The Outer Alliance's Market List Wiki. If you know of any other SFF magazines that welcome diversity, I'd love to hear about them.

My discussion about who I am would not be complete without the person who taught me how FABULOUS and great it is to be queer, and how it's OK -WONDERFUL DAHLING - to be "As I Am":

What I'm Reading 14/05/2011

2011-05-14T21:24:00.003+12:00

Because Book Lists are so chewy!

I finally tracked down Penguin paperback editions of the "Women of Wonder" anthologies edited by Pamela Sargent (1978, 1979). And because I'm a collector, I couldn't resist the updated versions, "Women of Wonder: The Classic Years" and "Women of Wonder: The Contemporary Years". How could I resist those covers!

I've had "Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through science fiction and feminism", edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams, for a few months, but I've only started dipping into it now. Great to unravel a bit of the history of FSF and WisCon (oh, all that I've MISSED!).

Still with Helen Merrick, I'm awaiting "The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction and Feminism" to arrive.

Coming in that same package with the Merrick...Joanna Russ "To Write Like a Woman: Essays in feminism and science fiction". YAY!

More Russ - "On Strike Against God". Thanks to Arty Bees for tracking this one down for me!

Marianne De Pierres "Dark Space", Volume One of The Sentients of Orion. All the main characters were set up as unlikeable for a reason, but I couldn't connect with any of them, even though I could see their redemptions coming. Even then Mira (the main female character) seems sluggish to me, and Trinder's actions at the end of the book completely lost me (no, just NO. I'm calling a certain scene badly done. There's no justifying THAT even though it's a patriarchal society). The story meanders to take advantage of being set up for the next three books, but there is a lovely amount of detail and world building. Space Opera for those who like to invest in multiple books.

Isaac Asimov's "A Space of Her Own", edited by Shawna McCarthy. Would you believe I found this in my bookshelf and I'd forgotten I had it?! I think it got left behind many years ago by an old flatmate who dumped a box of books on me.

Links, because I haven't done any in a while 14/05/2011

2011-05-14T20:24:00.001+12:00

I will be attending Queer The Night on June 9 in Wellington, protesting homophobia and transphobia on Wellington Streets. Info here too on The Hand Mirror. If you're a Wellingtonian, or in Wellington on the evening, and want to see the streets safe for queer and trans people, please consider coming along to lend your support.
Following in the footsteps of similar walks the world over protesting sexual assault and the good ol' trope that women should not dress "like sluts", SlutWalk Aotearoa will be taking place on June 25 in Auckland and Wellington. Website now live!
I recently discovered the Feminist Science Fiction Wiki. Links to authors, groups, presses, academia, contests, and reading lists.
I have joined The Outer Alliance, a group of science fiction writers dedicated to advocating for LGBT themes and issues. (thanks Anna!)
Strange Horizons put together a fantastic link-around on their blog in memory of Joanna Russ "Joanna Russ - a requiem in links".

To remove writer's block...fill bowl in kitchen with tuna

Paying attention to your submissions: time to break out the ol' Picard Facepalm

2011-05-11T19:41:00.000+12:00

Wow, I must have been more tired than I thought over the weekend.

I managed to simultaneously submit the same story to two different places.

I do keep track of my submissions to the best of my abilities, but it looks like I forgot to list that one properly.

Guess this is a good time to look into proper submission tracker software.

Stupid mistake number...what is it now? Ah well, if I'm not making mistakes, I'm not doing submissions, which means I'm not writing. So...life, and writing, is a learning experience.

Take it away Jean-Luc...

Yes, I know I'm talking about Rejection a lot, funny that 10/05/2011

2011-05-10T18:27:00.000+12:00

"The Woman With Flowers In Her Hair" rejected with very helpful feedback from Roar and Thunder. What a neat little feedback system!

"Tasty Maidens" rejected with really nice feedback from Bards and Sages Quarterly. Thanks for being so positive!

"Me Myself I" rejected via form letter from Interzone.

I know my Rejection posts will seem pretty boring to readers who come here maybe expecting insightful critique or witty banter, but I can't be On all the time as a writer. Sometime my Writer Juice is low, and I need to reserve what I have for the important stuff. Which I'm doing now, because I'm on a bit of a dip in energy. I gotta take care of the biggest priority which makes this blog what it is - my fiction writing.

Besides, I like to think of all my rejection posts as a catalogue of just What It Takes to get published.

Nom Nom Nom Ding Ziiiip

I Love Mick Foley

2011-05-04T14:02:00.000+12:00

This is Mick Foley:

He's a nice guy, and I don't put the sarcastic "TM" tag on that either. He's a genuine, lovable, teddy-bear of a man who lives a very public life.

This is also Mick Foley:

Let me run this by you: this pro-wrestler, "The Hardcore Legend", a product of a misogynistic, body-policing, hypermasculinity-enforcing industry is a feminist. And he's proud to call himself one.

As a former pro-wrestling fan of some twenty years, I left it behind with a huge sense of disillusionment. I saw people dying drug-related deaths, going well before their time from suicide, murder and accident, and suffering career ending injuries (damn, that was depressing reminding myself of all that and more). The final straw for me was seeing a "nice guy" murder his wife and child, then commit suicide.

I had watched fantastic female performers never truly realize their fullest potential in a male dominated industry. Joshi puro and TNA's female division (check out Awesome Kong/Kharma) went some way to putting over women in a stronger light, but when you're the company with the megabucks, coverage and the ear of western pop culture, if you treat women with disdain, as freaks, and sexual props then you are informing that culture's opinion of women.

I also spent a long time with a lust-on for Shawn Michaels. Talented, handsome, cocky, and funny, he was always my "favourite" wrestler. Schwing:

Sure, I don't regret getting the chance to see him wrestle (At WM 19 in 2003, and Taboo Tuesday in 2005 (shut up Kirsty) where I TOUCHED HIS SCHWEATY SHOULDER). But then something happened. We both grew up. He found god, got married, had kids, and kept on being awesome in the ring until the last. I found feminism and atheism and went in the complete opposite direction. Recently he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (as I always knew he would) and I surprised myself with an overwhelming fit of The Mehs. It was like looking at an old ex-boyfriend and thinking "Well, I dodged a bullet with that one!"

But here's Mick Foley. I barely watch wrestling any more (I check in a handful of times a year), and yet more and more I find myself interested in Foley's post-wrestling career. Recently I started reading his third memoir "The Hardcore Diaries" (and I'm waiting on "Countdown to Lockdown" to arrive) and found myself sucked in once more by his humour, engaging style and flow - dude knows how to tell a story, and he has plenty of them. Not only is he an author, having written four autobiographies about his time in wrestling, fiction works and is a consistent blogger, but he's also an anti-rape and sexual abuse activist. He identifies his privilege, identifies as feminist, celebrates women and calls out hate speech.

Even if you're not interested in pro-wrestling, Foley's writing is a great insight into a media machine, pop culture, its props of hypermasculinity and hypersexuality. He talks often about how much he loves his wife and kids, how he wants better for his daughter, how he recognizes his body type, looks, hair and dress style could be censured in our image obsessed culture, and the many physically and emotionally painful moments in his life. He conducts his self-promotion through Twitter, blogs, interviews and appearances with an endearing humbleness.

It's sad that we have to celebrate when a man is great in these ways, but one can only hope that his unusual legacy will carry some emotional weight over into the next generation. He has shown that masculinity and expressing yourself physically (through his wrestling) and expressing yourself emotionally (through his writing and activism) do not have to be mutually exclusive. This is not redefining masculinity - it is taking it to it's fullest potential.

While all my other wrestling merchandise and t-shirts have been quietly tucked away at the back of a cupboard (perhaps I should think about putting it all up on Trade Me?), I'm happy to continue wearing my Mick Foley "Wanted Dead" t-shirt to show how proud I am of the teddy-bear who bucked the system and leads by example. He speaks with honesty and emotion, and I love him for it. It goes to show that intellect, emotion, and worldly care are WAY more sexy. I'd have "Mrs Foley's baby boy" round for tea and crumpets any day, give him a great big hug for being so awesome, and we wouldn't talk about THAT match.