One of my favourite things about the Galactic Suburbia Award is the morning after the podcast has been published, when I get to wake up and see people squeeing on Twitter, especially those who discovered that they were honoured on the short list (or indeed, won) by listening to the podcast ‘as live.’ Also the general bafflement of other nominees as people start congratulating them and they don’t know why. Ah, the simple pleasures in life.

For those who don’t want to listen to an hour long podcast to get the info, though, here is the winner and shortlist of the Galactic Suburbia Award 2012 (aka the pixel-stained suffragette). In the manner of the Tiptree award, we announced the winner first, and then followed up with the shortlist.

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David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she’s rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all. We’re also joined today by guest viewer Lynne M. Thomas, co-editor of the Hugo-winning book Chicks Dig Time Lords and co-creator of the new Doctor Who podcast Verity! Lynne gives Tansy a run for her money when it comes to Doctor Who expertise and we welcome her to our review!

We are working our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, and sometimes a couple of extra episodes we love as our blogging points. Just for fun!

“Partners in Crime” – S04E01
The Doctor – David Tennant
Donna Noble – Catherine Tate

DAVID:
So, obviously the big news with this episode is the return of Donna, and I for one was thrilled. I really enjoyed her character in this episode, more so than in “The Runaway Bride”, to be honest. She seemed to have a bit more depth to her this time around, and I quite liked the idea of her as the enterprising journalist, sneaking around and gathering information.

TEHANI:
I love Donna so much! She’s brash and ditzy but really smart and deeply passionate and grounded, under the ditz and show! I’ve rewatched this episode a bunch of times though, and still keep seeing Donna’s desperate search for aliens as just that – a bit desperate, as if she’s realised what she let go when she chose not to go with the Doctor, and will do anything to get it back. Not from a romantic or lost (potential) love point of view or anything, but it’s just, well, desperate! It’s one of the sour notes of this episode for me, but there’s so much else I loved Particularly – DONNA’S BACK!

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In which we reveal the winner & shortlist of the Galactic Suburbia Award for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012.

NEWS
Hugo Nominations close on Sunday, March 10, 2013

Chronos Awards also open: http://continuum.org.au/c9/chronos-awards/

Stranger with My Face Women in Horror Film Festival – 7-10 March in Hobart, Tasmania

Glitter and Madness Kickstarter – last days to support this anthology project!

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The Glitter & Madness Kickstarter is now past $9,000 and gaining steam! This also means that two vids have been released: the Scary and the Swank. Check them out!

Lynne, Michael & John have asked the authors attached to this project to do a little Q&A to talk about what they have written for the book. Here’s mine:

1. What about the theme drew you to the anthology?

Rollerskates! Glamour! I’ve been a teeny bit wild about roller derby since I read Derby Girl by Shauna Cross (the book that was turned into the awesome Whip It! movie) and this anthology just sounded so exciting to be part of.

2. We’re often told to write what we know. Did you draw your G&M story from your own nightlife experiences?

I was totally at a private party at a club on Saturday night, dressed as Batgirl, and watching Iron Man dance up a storm with Poison Ivy… though for full disclosure I feel I have to admit that most of the people at said party were 30 and 40 somethings telling each other that ‘we don’t get out much these days since the kids.’

It was still pretty awesome, though, and we had superhero cocktails. “The Fury” was a most excellent concoction. Also this is where I discovered that Long Island Iced Tea has no tea in it.

3. What’s your favorite way to make life more glittery?

Killer playlists! Everything is glitter when there’s a solid soundtrack going. I’m just getting back into using music when I write, something I learned back in my early nanowrimo days, and it makes the typing so much more fun!

Also, I have to say, don’t discount the usefulness of actual glitter.

4. If you had to create a cocktail that reflected your story, what would it be?
Is there some way to add vodka to an icecream sundae? Oh, how about the ‘Crash Course’ – you take a pina colada and keep adding lemon sherbert until it explodes. THAT.

5. If you knew you were up for a surreal evening, what and whom do you bring with you, and why?

My iPhone for documentation and communication, a pair of comfortable shoes, and Wonder Woman. Unless the evening is zombie themed in which case I would take a handbag full of carnivorous plants.

The Glitter and Madness Kickstarter closes in a few days – if the anthology sounds like something you want to read, and you haven’t backed it yet, please consider doing so!

The Hand of Fear, Sarah Jane Smith’s farewell story of the classic series, is a favourite of mine, and I’ve never really stopped to think about why. In many ways it feels like a very ordinary story, ticking a lot of the boxes of Pertwee-Baker Earthbound serials, without even a UNIT chappie or two to liven things up.

I think that a big part of the appeal of this one for me is that the story revolves around Sarah as the companion, and has a greater effect on her than most of her later stories had. It might be paced like the old show (and how), but it has a gleam of what we would get in New Who – stories where the companion’s feelings and reactions to things were basically the point of the plot.

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This post by Kameron Hurley on how she dealt with the burnout that comes from writing a series (itself an exhausting thing, especially towards the end) for a publisher who has let her down in many ways.

It’s not a post you see very often. Authors still tend to feel vulnerable about airing their bad experiences in public, worrying that this lack of solidarity will get them a bad reputation in the industry.

But keeping quiet can be more damaging. Not just to the other writers you fail to warn, but also to your own sense of self, and to your writing. If all writers talk about is the good experiences, we are not only letting each other down (by pretending everything is rosy) but ourselves.

We’re not always the hardbitten hacks we pretend to me – even the toughest of us do have at least one layer of self conscious, self-doubting fragile snowflake, and one bad experience can make it incredibly hard to pull up our boots and keep working like nothing has happened. Our business is emotional, and that can take a mighty toll on the work itself. Which SUCKS BEYOND BELIEF.

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Richard III took over my Twitter feed this week – is it just me who resists finding out the actual details of a news story so as to enjoy the surrealism of the tweets that assume you know what they are talking about?

I particularly enjoyed Brian Blessed weighing in about the discovery of his “dear old dad” only to later correct it to “uncle.” (Twitter, of course, is still correcting him several days later. Oh, Twitter, don’t ever change.)

If you haven’t heard about the reason why everyone is talking about Richard III this week, then you can check out this piece on the Huffington Post which explains things. It’s pretty cool, as all rockstar moments of archaeology tend to be.

In your FACE, William Shakespeare!

It’s women in horror recognition month, which means it’s time to sign up to the Stranger With My Face 10×10 challenge – can you write a 10 page horror script in 10 days? Bonus points for non-sucky representation of women!

In other Women in Horror February news, Ann Radcliffe is awesome.

You all need a new podcast, right? Something challenging and crunchy and inspiring? Well, look no further than Cheryl Morgan’s Small Blue Planet, which aims to explore the SF happenings (both fandom and professional) in countries where English is not the dominant language. Cheryl talks about her ideas for the project here. The first episode spotlights Finland, interviewing critic Jukka Halme and translator Marianna Leikomaa (both of whom have run conventions) about all kinds of things, including a Worldcon bid for Helsinki. I found it fascinating, a great way to look at cultural and linguistic differences. The February episode will look at China, and the March episode will look at Brazil.

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When I first met Scott and Barda Free, they were living a life of domestic bliss, occasionally punctuated by explosions and the other side effects of having a superhero in the family. Scott went off to his day job as Mister Miracle, stage escapologist and member of the Justice League International, and Barda stayed home to do the housework.

The twist was, if she wanted to bench press the house, she pretty much could.

This era is often panned by Barda fans, and I can see why – she’s a mighty space warrior, acting out a slightly less sexist (but only slightly) version of Bewitched, with no apparent desires beyond a simple, gender essentialist life as a housewife. She’s often reduced to the role of Her Indoors, hosting a barbecue for Scott and his superhero friends, or nagging him about getting home in time.

When she finally does strap her space armour back on and go into battle, it’s to rescue her husband rather out of a general sense of identity or completion. It could certainly be argued that from a character point of view her, identity revolves entirely around rescuing her husband. Which is… both problematic and awesome? Problamatawesome?

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A new production team, a new TARDIS team, everything old is new again! Tom Baker’s Doctor is still seen as the definitive take on the character, and 1975 was the beginning of a swell of mainstream recognition for the show such as had not been seen since the Dalekmania days a decade earlier. It’s telling that to many casual viewers and non viewers, “the one with the scarf” is the Doctor they remember.

Tom Baker strode into the role like he had been born to play it, bringing a wave of genuine eccentricity which only added to the idea that the Doctor was an alien, favourite uncle and naughty schoolboy all rolled into one.

It’s hardly surprising that many fans remember a story from 1975 as the start of their devotion – not only were some of the best stories of all time screened in this year, but viewers were treated to nearly two whole seasons of Doctor Who.

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In a surprise plot twist, I will be taking over the @WeTasmania tweetstream for a whole week starting tomorrow.

Follow the account for my adventures in The First Week School Is Back. The idea behind the account is for Tasmanians in different parts of the state to share their world with, well, the universe. Here’s a spoilerific hint: my world is going to involve a lot of iced tea and typing. I HOPE.

For the occasion I will also learn how to Twitpic. Yes I’m almost certain that’s a verb. BE WARNED.

In other exciting domestic adventures, the astounding Terri has started back blogging about the awesome book-themed cupcakes she made for the Twelfth Planet Party at Continuum last year and all the other cupcakes can go home now, because she has put up a post about MY LOVE AND ROMANPUNK CUPCAKES.

It’s actually been a week for cupcakes because I invented black forest cupcakes for my honey’s birthday, but let’s move on, shall we?

Over on the Verity! podcast, they made an episode without me (pout!) which involved some fascinating discussion about the Tenth Doctor, and particularly the negative perception of “Tennant Fangirls”, and geek girls in fandom in general.

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