March 2011

Dear Hollywood: How’s That Bigotry Working Out for You?

/ 39 Comments / WTF World? / By

Dear Hollywood: I get it. Those of you who control the purse-strings: You say you’re only interested in the color green, but your behavior doesn’t bear that out. I know you’re really only interested in stories of straight white men doing straight white mannish things, whatever those might be. I get that the voices of women grate upon you like a rasp over nutmeg and you’re not really interested in desegregating racially either. Seriously, there’s no need for you to justify yourself or try to explain that you’re not bigoted, it’s just the audience that you’re concerned about… because frankly, […]

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So What’s Next?

/ 9 Comments / Appearances, Awards, Natter, On Writing / By

This weekend I finished the Dreamblood books. Yes, both of them at once. Yes, it was hard as all get out and this is why I’ve been relatively quiet for the last few months. It’s been worse for my friends and family, if you’re wondering — I’ve been shutting off my phone on the weekends, skipping out on celebratory dinners and other events, and just generally being a hermit. But I got them done. So aside from resuming 8 hours of sleep, a social life, and regular exercise, what else am I doing to celebrate? Why, I’m starting my next

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Shiny! Well, Shiny’s kid. ART STYLIN’

/ 4 Comments / Fan Fun, Natter, Squeeage / By

I think I have a seekrit authar fetish — I love love LOVE seeing readers create art derived from my work. Now, obligatory armchair legalese here — “derived from” by the terms of fair use and substantial alteration of the original work, etc., etc., and if I felt I needed a fanworks policy it would be like this, with the added caveat that I never, ever, want to hear filk of my work, ever, ever. (Ever. I mean it, ya’ll. Open your mouth to sing me your Paean to the Nightlord, and somebody gets hurt.) Anyway. Jewelry! I like shiny

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Missing Voices

/ 10 Comments / Controversies, Shorts, WTF World? / By

What should science fiction sound like? Or fantasy. A short story of mine, “Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters”, was published in the UK anthology Postscripts a few months back. I’ve sold the audio rights to Podcastle, which is going to run the story sometime soon — and I’m glad for this, because it’s one of my favorites. See, this story is set in New Orleans, in the days immediately preceding and following Hurricane Katrina. In some ways, it’s my love letter to the city that I know what it means to miss —

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Is there a Rule of Three in SFF?

/ 37 Comments / Controversies, On Writing, Thinkythoughts, WTF World? / By

Somebody in my Twitter feed linked this today, which I’d never seen before. Some insightful commentary from the late Dwayne McDuffie, a kickass comic book writer and trailblazer within that genre, talking about the Rule of Three. No, not this one; something else: Which got me thinking, of course. I’ve said before that most of the criticism I get as a writer is perfectly thoughtful, interesting stuff, which is doubtless helpful to those who are trying to decide whether to buy my books or read my stories. But I’ve seen a very few reader responses that, IMO, crossed the line

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Whose Wonderland? Which wonderful?

/ 17 Comments / Natter / By

Saw this done by a friend on LJ, and thought it might make a good memelike thing*: if you could live in a fantasy setting of your choosing, which one — based on fantasy novels you’ve read — would it be? Because not just anybody’s wonderland would be wonderful for me, after all. I’m going to just skip the ones where there are no black people, because I can’t see how it would be particularly wonderful to be treated as “exotic” — and abnormal. This does not, note, rule out all wonderlands that resemble medieval Europe; a lot depends on

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Anime recs please?

/ 69 Comments / Natter / By

I’m tired of talking about writing, race, gender, politics, and all that other heavy crap. Let’s talk cartoons! It’s no secret that I’m an anime/manga fan, especially since I mentioned in the afterward to The Broken Kingdoms that the World Tree was at least partly inspired by the giant sakura in the shoujo series Mahou Tsukai Tai!*. But I have to confess that I haven’t been a power user of anime or manga in about ten years, so I’m not up on the latest/hottest/coolest stuff. In fact, to my shame, I now get most of my anime as dubbed stuff

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My job is to break your heart.

/ 13 Comments / Thinkythoughts / By

Was listening to this great interview with Patrick Rothfuss over at The Sword and Laser, which Cy pointed out to me in the comments of another post (thanks, Cy!). Patrick gives me a nice shout-out, but I was more intrigued by something he says starting at about the 27:00 mark in the podcast (apologies for any inaccuracies in the transcription; I’m not a professional at this): It’s very flattering when people get so involved with the work, but it’s terrifying too, because then people come in and they go, “I love your work, I’m sure that you won’t do this

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Brilliance from Hal Duncan

/ 4 Comments / Pimping, Thinkythoughts / By

The status quo is segregation. It’s a state of segregation in which black, queer and members of other abject groups are not deemed to belong as main characters. This is the segregation of not being able to sit at the front of the bus. They may be allowed in as an exception if it “serves the plot” (c.f. your reviewer’s expectation of a *reason* for the character’s gayness.) This is the segregation of being stopped in a white neighbourhod and challenged on your purpose in being there. They may be allowed in as Gay Best Friends or Magic Negros in

Brilliance from Hal Duncan KEEP READING

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