Reading outside the lines

/ 29 Comments / Appearances, Conventions and Workshops, Thinkythoughts / By

Just flew in from Reno, and boy are — ::slaps self:: Sorry. Punchy from the jetlag, hangover, sleeping on airplanes, and oxygen deprivation. Just got back from Worldcon, which was in the quite lovely town of Reno, Nevada. Unfortunately it was in an unlovely series of spread-out, smoke-filled, noisy-with-many-blinky-lights casino hotels, which I might’ve enjoyed more if I was a gambler or a smoker. I’m neither, so I spent much of the weekend trying to fend off sensory overload, watering eyes, and potential emphysema. (On a completely different level, I can’t help but admire the social engineering of casinos like […]

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Worldcon Schedule

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Yes, I will be at Worldcon next week, ’cause hey, possible Hugo. But I’ll be doing other things besides! Like this: Fri 13:00 – 15:00, Writers Workshop (with Louise Marley as a co-host!) Fri 16:00 – 17:00, Manga: Which Book Series got You Hooked? (Panel): An introduction to manga. Fri 17:00 – 18:00, Post-Modern Fantasy, Epic and Otherwise (Panel): There’s been considerable discussion of Fantasy, Fantastika, and Post-Modernism. What is this about, and why is it interesting for those who read, review, or critique present day fantasy? Sat 12:00 – 13:00, Autographing Sat 15:00 – 16:00, Exploring Social Justice via

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Snippets 1: The Broken Kingdoms

/ 3 Comments / On Writing, Snippets, Spoilerrific / By

Going to try something new now, as I lead up to the publication of The Kingdom of Gods (remember, kids: October 27th!). I’ll try to post these once a week or so. Like many authors, I make lots of false starts in the process of writing a novel. Some had legs, but just didn’t go far enough toward my goal; some were badly-written crap; some would have been beautiful — in a different novel. I tend to keep most of my significant text cuts, just because I’m a textual packrat and I’m always worried I might change my mind about

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Considering Colonialism

/ 35 Comments / 100K, On Writing, Thinkythoughts / By

A few years back, I read a great anthology: So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Meehan. Having not really started studying historical analysis or the impact of colonialism back then, I wasn’t entirely clear on what “postcolonial” meant. “Colonial” I got, since as a longtime fan of SFF I’d read scenario after scenario of stories about people from one society establishing beachheads in another, whether as invaders or friendlier visitors. But what was the “post” part all about? Reading the definition didn’t really bring it home… but that anthology did. In

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Yeine, Concept Art

/ 11 Comments / Fan Fun / By

Hi, all! I suppose I’ve never gotten around to posting an official policy on fanworks, mostly because a) I’m a n00b author and never had to think about it before, and b) it’s not like there are scads of people out there just waiting on tenterhooks for me to bless their Nahadoth-Hosts-The-Muppet-Show multipart AU crossover, so it didn’t matter. But in general I’m pro-fanstuff so long as it’s created in the spirit of sharing and not profit — though for legal reasons I don’t read fanfiction. I can’t draw a straight line, though, so fanart is less of a problem.

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Attack the Block vs Cowboys & Aliens

/ 11 Comments / SFF on Screen / By

Went to see two movies this past weekend, in my gleefully between-deadlines free time: Attack the Block (redband trailer, note — profanity and violence), and Cowboys and Aliens. Both were movies I’d been anticipating like whoa; both were movies that promised to hit all my usual sweet spots: alien invasions, action, cleverness, stuff blowing up, Daniel Craig’s lovely ass. (What? I’m not saying that’s the only reason I went to see it.) And though I’ve been hearing good things about Attack the Block for months, I went into both movies expecting to like Cowboys and Aliens better. Because, I mean,

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TENFECTA

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To the list of awards nominations I posted awhile back, I now have a new addition: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. That’s ten. Ten awards nominations. Ten. ::feels a little lightheaded::

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The Limitations of Womanhood in Fantasy (and everywhere else, but for now, fantasy)

/ 51 Comments / On Writing, Thinkythoughts / By

One of my favorite manga is a shoujo (girls’) comedy serial called Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge (YNS), sold in the US as The Wallflower. Now, the Japanese title has a more complex meaning than a phrase like “the wallflower” can encompass, in part because it’s referencing a phrase that’s fairly esoteric to Japanese culture — the idea of quintessential Japanese womanhood, or the yamato nadeshiko spirit. But the story itself is fairly simple: four hot guys are offered the chance by an eccentric millionaire to live in a stunning mansion, rent-free — but in exchange, they have to transform her ugly-duckling

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Think Galacticon

/ 4 Comments / Appearances, Conventions and Workshops / By

Just recovering from a whirlwind weekend in Chicago for Think Galacticon 3, a self-described radical leftist science fiction con, for which I was one of this year’s Notable Guests. (The other was community organizer, activist, and all-around cool chica Adrienne Maree Brown. Y’know how you get that instant “friend” vibe from someone? Yeah, that was us.) This was my first time doing the guest of honor thing, and it was a nice way to cut my teeth on it — and fascinating, to get exposed to concepts I haven’t before, like anarchist organizational development. (Yes, anarchists can organize — quite

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