kateelliott | Entries tagged with linkage

I've posted at the Orbit Books blog on Maps, Fantasy, Culture, & Boundaries, about a mapmaking seminar conducted by writer and geographer Russell Kirkpatrick at Aussiecon in Melbourne (Worldcon 2010)

The writer is in a constant process of determining what is important enough to be visible.

Think about visibility. If a place isn’t on the map, then you can’t go there on the map. If a place isn’t on YOUR map, the map in your mind of what matters about the world you want to write about, then you the writer can certainly not go to places you’ve never thought about, places you think don’t matter enough to warrant notice. Matters that aren’t visible to you.

I believe that it is crucial to pause and reflect on what may be invisible in your own personal map as well as the map you are creating. What do you want readers to see? What do you want to see? What are you seeing? What could you be seeing that isn’t visible to you right now?

At Tor.com, Peter Orullian interviews me (at some length).

I absolutely censor myself, and I don’t say that because I’m proud of it. I say that because it bothers me that I do. But I don’t do it because I believe things written down can insinuate themselves into the world as a form of contagion. I propose that the opposite is more often true: Our silence about some of the most provoking and terrible things allows injustice to fester and even grow.

Clarkesworld Magazine has published Part Two of its Epic Fantasy Roundtable. This is an impressively massive undertaking by Jeremy L.C. Jones, and I want to again give special attention to the fact that the roundtable includes one agent, one editor, and 26 writers of whom half are female and half male (2 that I know of are PoC).

In the July Part One to be found here, Jones asked all the writers why they wrote epic fantasy. My answer wasn't included in that part because, as it turned out, it was used in Part Two.

I want to highlight part of my answer here, and talk a little more about what I said and what it means for how I write, in light of an email conversation I have been having recently with writer Michelle Sagara West

msagara.

I said:

I was an outdoor, athletic child: I preferred to play physically active imagination games outdoors. But, against that, the cultural norms of the day reminded me constantly that the things I loved to do were appropriate for boys, not for girls. People forget this. So in the beginning, as it were, fantasy novels were a way for me to escape the rigid constraints put on girls. More importantly, I could write my own stories and build my own worlds. If you've not grown up being told you shouldn't be who you are, I'm not sure you can quite understand why world-building and writing epic fantasy is so attractive and in its way a form of chain-breaking. But it was, and it is.

Long ago I made a kind of intrinsic promise to my 16 year old self that I would never betray her by leaving her out of the stories I was then beginning to write and that she loved. By which I hasten to add that I do not mean that I write stories with myself as a thinly disguised version of a main character. What I meant then and mean now is that I would never neglect or diminish or elide the female perspective in my books. That I would not bow to the idea, prevalent far more then than now, that there were proper and "natural" stories for girls and women to enjoy, but that male focused stories and perspectives were more naturally Worthy and Important. And that girls and women didn't belong there (except possibly as props or as rewards for the men).

I have to be honest. I think epic fantasy is still by and large written with a male gaze. With a few notable exceptions, unexpected amounts of it still don't do a particularly good job passing the Bechdel Test despite the historical evidence that women lived during the past.

I'm thrilled by the explosion of popularity of genres like urban fantasy, paranormal, Young Adult, and romantic fantasy (and the huge numbers of readers who crossover from the unfairly maligned romance genre to read widely throughout other genres), because they are all great genres for the female perspective--and the male as well.

But epic fantasy is the genre of my heart.

I write epic fantasy the way I do because I remember being that 16 year old girl who almost never saw people like her in the stories she wanted to read and thereby experience.

A ton of linkage, which some of you will have already seen. I append a final comment at the end.

A number of posts have popped up in the last few days that feel to me related, not in direct subject matter but in exploring elements of fiction and or our response to fiction and the larger experience of deciding who and what to read as well as how we write and decision we make while writing.

Kari Sperring writes an excellent post about stepping on Other people's toes: A rant. With a lot of good comments, besides.

And while I'm talking about this, let's have a look at another phrase I'm seeing a lot lately, 'Eurocentric fantasy'. This, as far as I can tell, means fantasies set in backgrounds drawn from a sort of default idea of mediaeval Europe (usually Western Europe at that). I understand what people mean by this, and what they are thinking about. The thing is, as a European myself, these fantasies don't feel 'Eurocentric' to me. They don't feel like Europe at all, they feel like a mix of 50s Hollywood historicals and Las Vegas, they are theme park fantasies.

Cora Buhlert riffs in part on Sperring's post in Sometimes it just hits a bit too close to home , talking a bit about World War II as an historical setting for fiction and film. She goes on to say:

What’s the way out of this dilemma? Just write what you know? Never use anybody else’s history or culture for fear of offending? That would make for much more boring literature and we don’t need that. The key is to do your research and take particular care with living cultures and with historical periods that are still within living memory. Nonetheless, we’ll all probably mess up somewhere.

Chris Moriarty moves into the women writing sf discussion with an interesting post called Birds, Dinosaurs, and the Secret Life of Labels.

So how can we be stuck, after all this time and all those brilliant flights of imagination, in a stupid fight about whether the genre is even broad enough to include women?

And, more to the point, how do we get out of it?

Finally, Linda Nagata posts a rumination of writing sf as a woman under a woman's name, What's in a Name? that she wrote some months ago (I read it then, in fact) but only posted now, with some trepidation.

I haven’t done a lot of interviews in my career, but the question I least like to answer goes something like this: Do you feel it’s hurt your career being a woman writing hard science fiction?

I’m sure I get this deer-in-the-headlights expression before breaking eye contact and muttering something self-contradictory. Because really, how does one answer a question like that?

To say, “Yes, I think it has hurt my career” sounds like whining and finger pointing without any evidence to back it up, and risks offending the men who are the core readers of the genre.

To say, “No, I’m sure that’s not it” would be untruthful and would imply that my books didn’t sell because they were bad. My hard SF books may not be for everyone, but I don’t believe they’re bad.

So in my own mind I mostly ignored the question. Some writers succeed, others don’t. That’s just the way it is.

But of course the only true answer is that I can’t know. I can’t go back and change my name to Greg or David or Alastair and re-publish the books and see how things go.

That's just it. We can't know. Questions of how readers may unconsciously approach a book in a way that may alter their perception of it without them necessarily realizing it are frightfully difficult to answer and possibly impossible to quantify in any meaningful way.

If I had to do it all over again knowing what I know now, I would probably write my seven volume epic fantasy series under a male or gender neutral name.

I've just started revisions for Cold Fire so will be intermittent here (although I have a few posts written and ready to post that I'll slot in).

Meanwhile, I port you over to a really interesting discussion (on which I've weighed in late) over on N.K. Jemisin's fabulous blog. The subject? Feminization in epic fantasy?

Linda Nagata is an award winning sff writer living the fine state of Hawaii, as do I, although on a different island.

Here's a chance to preview her forthcoming fantasy novel THE WILD.

I have read a version of this novel.

First of all, I'm already a fan of Linda's writing, having read a number of her sf novels before I ever met her due to our being lonely sff writers in the uttermost West (Hawaii being near the international date line past which it is the next day).

But nevertheless, THE WILD is a beautifully written fantasy novel of a type I can't really describe because it is utterly her own. It is, perhaps, elegaic; it is about a fallen world, in a way; in an odd way without being at all alike it reminds me of Cherryh's Morgaine books although I emphasize the stories have nothing in common -- but there is something of the end and beginning of times, that atmosphere and the deep emotional throb in the heart in which hopelessness and hope war and yet what always survives is honor and determination. The world and the culture informs every decision the characters make, and yet the world building is done with the lightest of hands while the human dilemmas are real and poignant. It's just lovely.

I'm trying to make sure I'm up to date in so far as that is possible or approaching possible or at least approaching "more now than I was then."

So, if you are a writer, tell me what you had published in 2010 and/or what is forthcoming in 2011 (and the publisher).

It can be either shorts or novels, but I have to say honestly that I rarely read short fiction. Otoh, these days I just am having little luck reading novels as I have been so busy working.

So: let me know, people.
(ETA: and if you're on lj under a handle, list your publication name as well, please! so I can find your book/story more easily)

I want to know what you all are doing.

My friend science writer Nancy Marie Brown is at it again. Two years ago I mentioned here her non fiction book Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman.

Last week marked the publication of her new non-fiction book The ABACUS AND THE CROSS: The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages.

I haven't read this yet, but Nancy is not just a fine writer but also a fine researcher and synthesizer of material, so much so that I am willing to recommend this sight unseen (as of yet--I'll be purchasing this).

The publisher's description:

The medieval Catholic Church, widely considered a source of intolerance and inquisitorial fervor, was not anti-science during the Dark Ages—in fact, the pope in the year 1000 was the leading mathematician and astronomer of his day. Called “The Scientist Pope,” Gerbert of Aurillac rose from peasant beginnings to lead the church. By turns a teacher, traitor, kingmaker, and visionary, Gerbert is the first Christian known to teach math using the nine Arabic numerals and zero.

In The Abacus and the Cross, Nancy Marie Brown skillfully explores the new learning Gerbert brought to Europe. A fascinating narrative of one remarkable math teacher, The Abacus and the Cross will captivate readers of history, science, and religion alike.

On the amazon page can also be found the many glowing reviews for the book.

Gerbert (later Pope Sylvester II) is also the main character in Judith Tarr's excellent novel Ars Magica. You can read the first chapter and buy the e-book at Book View Cafe.

Because I hit a roadblock about 2/3rds or 3/4rds of the way through COLD FIRE (not sure of length yet), I was forced to go back and do a revision from the beginning forward to make sure my ducks were all in a row.

Interestingly, I have done nothing major structurally, just detail and set up work. So this either means I am totally on the right track, or else I am headed for a hugely major rewrite. Who knows? Me, at this stage, I know nothing. And the only person who has read the first draft (partial, since it is not finished yet) is Twin A, who points out that he is biased in favor of enjoying it no matter what, so he can't guarantee it's actually good. (I trained my children to be critical--not negatively so, but constructively so. They're actually pretty good, if I must say so myself.)

So I have nothing new and interesting to say, nor have I a single interesting question to ask at the moment nor discussion to open.

Therefore, behind the cut, you will find links to a number of reviews, if you find such things of interest. If not, then feel free to just move along, nothing to see here . . .

( Reviews behind the cut. )

Go here for a contest to win an Advance Reading Copy of Cold Magic, open to anyone. Last day to enter is 24 July.

Two more days. Winner to be announced on July 25 or 26.

Writing Links:

Tobias Buckell with a smart post about the sparsity of posts with Mid-Career Advice.

Karen Miller with an excellent post for aspiring writers on finishing your first draft and what comes next.

Katharine Kerr talks about how characters come to her. Weird! (actually, not weird at all, but rather familiar to the way my process works)

I'm sorry I didn't flag this earlier but I've been busy.

If you live in or are traveling to the Bay Area, I highly recommend a visit to
The Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco
where the current exhibition focuses on the textile tradition in Mali.

I highly recommend it, and not just because I know the curator of the exhibit and got an introduction to contemporary Malian fabric aesthetic from her in Mali, or because I tagged along in the market in Djenne while she looked for Barack Obama cloth.

Rhythm and Hues: Cloth and Culture of Mali gives long overdue recognition to contemporary Malian fabric artisans and highlights the enduring significance of textiles as a major form of aesthetic in Mali. Featuring works beyond the mudcloth tradition, this exhibition seeks to showcase contemporary styles and techniques which have yet to be shown in the US.

With superb examples of dress, and accompanying photographs, Rhythm and Hues: Cloth and Culture of Mali will document hand-dyed as well as factory-printed cloth. Social issues such as empowerment of women, the status of dress, women’s identity, and current trends in fabric design will be explored.

Due to the expository role of cloth in daily life, both hand-dyed and factory printed kinds of popular fabrics reveal current and constantly evolving cultural trends. The pictorial nature of the prints allows the wearer to express unique and equally critical messages, such as political attitudes, educational institutions and affiliations, or social views, and public health concerns. Although the shapes of the garments remain fairly constant, the colors, patterns, designs and messages of the cloth are constantly transforming.

In addition to the cloth and clothing, Rhythm and Hues: Cloth and Culture of Mali showcases other forms of traditional art and craft from Mali, such as wooden puppets, and the life-sized masked and costumed figures called “marionettes” which act out village legends. Unusual calabashes and baskets are also included to show the wide variety of Malian craft and folk art.

The exhibit runs from Feb. 5 - May 2, 2010. There are associated activities mentioned on the web page.

I'm still back, and still processing our fabulous trip to Mali, Burkina Faso, and Paris. But as it happens I unexpectedly have to make another quick trip, so my brave attempts to start posting regularly again will fade into the necessity of Family Obligations. For the time being.

March 2 marks the publication of the Tor Books paperback version of Traitors' Gate. I just got copies today in the mail, and the physical book looks very nice. I particularly like the way the typeface pops, especially on the spine for some reason. (The Orbit UK paperback of TG comes out in August.)

But that's not why I'm posting.

I'm posting because Twin A reminded me about TV Tropes, the excellent site (which never takes itself too seriously, and yet does take itself seriously, if you see what I mean) about . . .

well, here's what they say about what they're about:

Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations. On the whole, tropes are not clichés. The word clichéd means "stereotyped and trite." In other words, dull and uninteresting. We are not looking for dull and uninteresting entries. We are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not to make fun of them.

I knew that the Jaran books have been mentioned with reference to tropes "Benevolent Alien Invasion" and "The Moorcock Effect."

But what Twin A pointed out to me was much better than that.

Crown of Stars (the series) has its very own page..

And it is so funny, and so wonderful in the choices highlighted, that it has the salutary effect of reminding me why I loved writing that series and that I had so much fun with it, besides the serious parts, and even with the serious parts. Although I'm sorry about the Depraved Bisexual. It just worked out that way, given the character involved, but it did make me cringe as I was writing it.

Anyway, if you've read Crown of Stars and enjoy the whole TV Tropes thing, check it out. I particularly enjoy the Bulkezu love going on.

Back Home!

Yes, we are back home after being gone almost a month, much of which was spent in Mali (with a lightning detour to Burkina Faso) and four days of which introduced us to bitterly cold but positively lovely Paris. Also, adding to the B theme, we met the publishers and staff of my new French publishers, Bragelonne, about whom I cannot say enough good things, although I'm actually being published within their imprint Milady. But more on that (and on meeting Jasper Kent, esteemed author of Twelve) later.

Birthdays!

sfmarty and

al_zorra, that I know of. And, more belatedly, my niece Kaley and my niece Celia.

Book launches!

Jade Man's Skin by Daniel Fox

The Dark-Eyes' War by David B. Coe

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

Spellwright by Blake Charlton

I gave a quote for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and for Spellwright, and I gave quotes for the first volumes of the respective series by Fox and Coe. Therefore, all these fantasies come recommended.

I know there are new releases I know about and want to mention that I've forgotten here, but I really did just get back and am a bit disorganized still.

Also, and finally, I have seen the cover rough of Cold Magic and really really like it (which in reserved Scandinavian-American terms means I'm SUPER EXCITED), but I can't show it to you until I get the final.

With permission from the relevant parties (niece and father), I present my niece's blog, her project for the year. She is 11 1/2.

I am working hard. Thus, posting has fallen by the wayside.

Herewith a few links.

David B. Coe posts about
The Ideal Writer.

1. The Ideal Writer hits his deadlines.

Ulp. Anyway, very good post.

via

rwglaub: Back from combat, women struggle for acceptance. (I note that this article is in the Marine Corps Times, so this is coming from within.)

“We just want to know that when we come home, America has our back,” Chase said. “That’s the biggest thing. Women are over there. You want to feel like you’re coming home to open arms, rather than to a public that doesn’t acknowledge you for what you’ve just done and what you just sacrificed.”

On a more triumphant note, the Honolulu Marathon was run yesterday, with 20,609 starting and 20,321 finishing (pretty good, eh?). A long article on the male race, but also a long article on the female race, won by Svetlana Zakharova, which I was pleased to see. The top female finisher came in 10th overall (amazing, yeah?). But even better, the level of camaraderie among marathoners, the particulars and details of how one runs a race, and how people help each other out--and, in this case, the respect being shown by elite male athletes to the elite female athletes, really struck me:

While most marathon drama happens late in the race, this one developed early in the dark. Yuko Manabe, the Japanese pacesetter, winced and grabbed her sides, and dropped out three miles into the race that started at 5 a.m. Manabe, who led the pack of five female runners, was to set the pace for Shimahara. Her premature departure forced Shimahara to temporarily lead the pack, but a group of male runners took turns running with the group and set the pace for them. Ironically, the pace increased after Manabe dropped out, and Shimahara said she was able to key off the men.

"She fell off so quickly at 5k, (I) had to then switch over and just run (my) own pace rather than that of a pacemaker," Shimahara said.
. . . . Shimahara said she knew Zakharova's move at 30k was coming, but couldn't go with her. Coming into the race, the biggest question surrounding Shimahara was her condition. Yesterday was her fourth marathon of the year and third since August. She said she was not fatigued from all the racing, but just wasn't strong enough to move with Zakharova.

"I just had a marathon one month ago and this felt more like it was going to be a challenge," Shimahara said. "I did come here aiming to win the race, but I consider it more of a challenge. It's the shortest gap I've ever had between two marathons."

Zakharova continued to push alongside Yasukazu Miyazato of Japan, one of the male runners who had been running with the women's group earlier. By the time she was running through Kahala in mile 22, her lead over Shimahara increased to about 200 meters.

Zakharova had 5:40 splits for the next few miles, running alongside Miyazato. He even offered her a sponge at the 24th-mile water station.

Miyazato also finished in 2:28:34.

First, thanks for all the recs.

Second, I've been really really busy, thus the general radio silence. Busy continues apace (revisions under hard deadline and of course December which is always busy for other reasons).

Third, for those of you looking for a unique, inexpensive, but TOTALLY AWESOME present for that child in your life, here's a great little coloring book, Onoraptor Makes a Friend, now available on Etsy.

EAT: link edited to new stock (old link became "sold out")

Onoraptor makes a friend, a sixteen page pdf coloring book.

On Babel Clash, Ken Scholes and I discuss some of our likes and dislikes with sff film and tv.

And, here with over on Babel Clash, the second part in which Ken Scholes and I trade comments On Writing the Novel, Part Two, including:

When I look back at how I wrote my early novels, mostly I don’t remember much about the drafting process. The main thing I do know is that I am much better at revising now than I was then. As a newer writer, I preferred writing the first draft and found revising an onerous and difficult chore because I often didn’t really know how to fix things. Now, I find writing first draft much more exhausting than I did then, but I love to revise because I get such pleasure from seeing the pieces smooth out and fit together to make the story I want to tell come alive.

Ken Scholes and I, again, over at Babel Clash. Part One of On Learning to Write the Novel (or some such title).

I hope someday to figure it out.

Over at Babel Clash, Ken Scholes and I talk about what sff viewing and reading influenced us in our early days.

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But Enough About Me!

How do you like my dress?

Entries tagged with linkage

An Interview and a Post

"If you've not grown up being told you shouldn't be who you are"

A Question of Toes and Names

Revising & "Feminization" in Epic Fantasy

An Invitation to Preview Linda Nagata's THE WILD

Tell me about your upcoming or just published book

The Light of Science in the so-called Dark Ages

A Brief Comment on Revisions & Review Linkage

Cold Magic ARC: Contest PLUS Links about writing

San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art: Exhibition Alert

TV Tropes: Crown of Stars

Three Bs: Back Home; Birthdays; Book Launches

A Blog

(no subject)

Three Things Make A Drive-By Post

Check it out

SFF Film and TV: Ken Scholes & I on Babel Clash

On Writing the Novel, Babel Clash, Ken Scholes & moi, onward

On learning to write novels, Babel Clash

On Influences