The GS Team: Alex, Alisa, Tansy and our Producer (AKA Gentlemen's Auxilary)

Yesterday Galactic Suburbia put up a Very Special podcast, announcing the honours list and winner of the inaugural Galactic Suburbia Award.

After much discussion, and wanting in particular to create something that wasn’t already out there in the multitudinous world of spec fic awards, we came up with this definition:

The Galactic Suburbia Award: for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2011

We didn’t put links to the honours list and winner as show notes to the podcast, because we wanted our regular listeners to have at least SOME sense of anticipation as they listened, but now it’s well and truly out there, so here is the list:

Honours List

Carrie Goldman and her daughter Katie, for sharing their story about how Katie was bullied at school for liking Star Wars, and opening up a massive worldwide conversation about gender binaries and gender-related bullying among very young children.

Cheryl Morgan for Female Invisibility Bingo, associated blogging and podcasting, and basically fighting the good fight

Helen Merrick, for the Feminism article on the SF Encyclopedia

Jim C Hines for “Jane C Hines” and associated blogging, raising awareness of feminist issues in the SF/Fantasy publishing field.

Julia Rios, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond for Episode 11 of the Outer Alliance podcast (The Writer and the Critic special episode)

L. Timmel Duchamp – for continuing to raise issues of importance on the Ambling Down the Aqueduct blog and various Aqueduct Press projects

Michelle Lee for the blog post “A 7-year-old girl responds to DC Comics’ sexed-up reboot of Starfire”

Winner

Nicola Griffith – for the Russ Pledge, and associated blogging

The winner will receive a Deepings Doll hand-painted figurine of a suffragette with a Galactic Suburbia placard, hand-painted by Jilli Roberts of Pendlerook Designs. (Tansy’s very talented mother!) Each Deepings Doll is individual, so the one each winner will receive (we do plan to make this an annual tradition) will be unique.

If you have ideas for our Honours list for 2012, please email us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com or tweet @galacticsuburbs

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It’s been lovely to see such a positive response from our honourees and winner. Already, Nicola Griffith, Cheryl Morgan and Timmi Duchamp have posted the award details on their blogs with gracious commentary. We at Galactic Suburbia had a great time chewing over what our award should be, and what we wanted to celebrate in the SF community.

The Science Fiction Translation Awards are running a fundraiser, accepting donations now towards the running of their awards, which aim to promote and celebrate great science fiction translated into English, and to provide a substantial cash prize to the original author as well as translator.

It’s a great cause, and there are a bunch of great book prizes up for grabs for a few lucky donors. I’ve contributed a complete Creature Court trilogy (feels so GOOD to be able to offer that!) and it’s in some very good company.

Speaking of the Creature Court trilogy, Sean the Blogonaut wrote a lovely review of Book 2: The Shattered City: “Action, blood and lust and a little bit of dressmaking. If you enjoy well written action, political intrigue, anime like transformation of characters into monstrous beasts and well written sex scenes give the whole series a go.”

I’ve been enjoying Tor.com’s current theme of military SF – I don’t think of myself of a fan of that particular subgenre, and yet I am familiar with so many of the works they discuss! I guess that means something. I liked this post about Starbuck and gender in Battlestar Galactica. Ahh, Battlestar Galactica. You got it so right, before you got it so wrong…

Speaking of military SF, over at i09 Jen Heddle makes a compelling argument that they should have brought Robotech back already. Hell, yes they should! Want me to write it?

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I write so few shorts these days that a sale becomes a very big deal to me, and this one’s exciting because it’s even rarer: “Prosperine When It Sizzles,” the second of my La Duchess and M. Pepin genderbendy mystery stories from the New Ceres shared universe (first published in TPP antho New Ceres Nights) has been picked up by “Beyond Binary,” an anthology of genderqueer SF edited by Brit Mandelo and published by Lethe Press.

AND ISN’T IT PRETTY?

I can’t quite believe I’m sharing a table of contents with Nalo Hopkinson, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. Wheeee!

Exciting news!

The Hobart Bookshop are pleased to spread the news that Margo Lanagan will now be joining us on February 2nd for a launch of her new book, Sea Hearts.

Margo and Tansy Rayner Roberts will share the evening, making it a very exciting double launch — don’t miss it!

Thursday February 2nd
5:30pm
The Hobart Bookshop

Rowena Cory Daniells will launch Reign of Beasts by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

This is the final book in The Creature Court trilogy, a fantasy series featuring flappers, shapechangers and bloodthirsty court politics.

Richard Harland will launch Margo Lanagan’s Sea Hearts — an an extraordinary tale of desire and revenge, of loyalty, heartache and human weakness, and of the unforeseen consequences of all-consuming love.

If you’re in the southern Tasmania region next week, please come along to the Hobart Bookshop for much book-related merriment!

OUTLAND
Premieres Wednesday, 8 February 2012, 9:30pm | ABC1

Starring Christine Anu, Ben Gerrard, Paul Ireland, Adam Richard and Toby Truslove and created by John Richards and Adam Richard.

I’ve been keen on seeing Outland for some time, mostly because I love listening to John Richards on Boxcutters, and his occasional tales of the behind the scenes stories from making a sitcom for the ABC have been hilarious and fascinating.

Also, it’s a comedy series about a group of gay science fiction fans, and those don’t come along every day!

But the more I hear about it, mostly while John flits from podcast to podcast promoting the show, the more it sounds a bit good. On the recent episode of Shooting the Poo, a podcast I have only recently brought myself to listen to, because I hate the title that much, John talks in depth about the show, particularly about the role of the director, art department, etc. in making it more clever and more geeky than the original script even called for. It’s wall to wall anecdotes about Dalek costumes, sex toys and Kylie Minogue outfits.

Most interesting to me is that the guys on the podcast have seen some or all of the show’s episodes, and so are able to discuss it on all kinds of levels, though they avoid spoilers to the best of their ability.

I find it really intriguing that despite the fact that (or in some ways, because) all five protagonists of the show are gay, the focus of it is not in fact about being gay at all, because it doesn’t have to be – it’s about five people who are out about their sexuality, but in the closet (to varying degrees) about being science fiction fans.

Anyone who has concerns that either gayness or science fiction fannitude might be treated lightly or offensively in the show could definitely benefit from checking out that podcast, which discusses all kinds of fan reaction to the publicity stills/trailer as well as the deeper responses to the actual show itself, and how hard they have all worked to make this a good-spirited show that doesn’t mock from the outside.

I for one am looking forward to it – and it’s been a long time since I could say that about an Australian comedy series!

“Army of Ghosts / Doomsday”
Season Two
Episodes 12 & 13

The Doctor – David Tennant
Rose Tyler – Billie Piper
Mickey Smith – Noel Clarke
Camille Coduri – Jackie Tyler
Shaun Dingwall – Pete Tyler

TEHANI:
There’s a cluster of Hugo nominees at the beginning of this season (plus we wanted to talk about the Cybermen two-parter), then none until the season finale two-parter (which we’d review anyway), so let’s quickly recap the intervening episodes before we chat about “Army of Ghosts / Doomsday”…

“The Idiot’s Lantern” – another monster of the week episode with not a lot to distinguish it, I didn’t think. I liked the strength of the mother at the end though.

TANSY:
I liked “The Idiot’s Lantern” far more on the recent rewatch than I remembered. The Rose/Doctor vibe was bugging me by this point (oh, the smug, the glee) but I think the story about the family is an important one – and it feels like Gatiss is saying something (or rather, not quite saying something) about growing up different, with indications either that the son might be gay and/or that his father might suspect he is. I liked Ten’s interactions with the boy, which made me wistful for a solo male companion, something he never got! (well, apart from [SPOILER REDACTED])

TEHANI:
“The Impossible Planet” (concluded in “The Satan Pit”) – a lot creepier than we’ve really seen so far I reckon. We meet the Ood (remember them, David). I really liked the first of this two-parter, it’s nicely scary and science fictional, but the second part went to dumb places, I thought.

TANSY:
A solid piece of space opera science fiction, and it’s always a relief when they finally get the TARDIS away from Earth for a change, but I agree the second part was problematic. Once you bring the Devil into your science fiction, the shark has well and truly been jumped. I liked the crew a lot, though.

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As a parent, you get called on at times in your life to be creative and artistic in a domestic setting. There’s no actual obligation, but we’ve all had those notices about bringing cakes to the school (or as my friend received this Christmas, a summons to provide a plate of “something healthy” arranged in a suitably festive shape, such as a Christmas tree or snowman). There are school plays, fancy dress parties, never mind basic arts and crafts activities.

I’m a sucker for domestic art. I don’t do it very often – and I am entirely comfortable with time saving alternatives – but I love an opportunity to do something creative for my kids, given a comfortable timeframe, a practical plan, and a little breathing space.

The most common demonstrations of my domestic art skills in this house are costuming, and the provision of birthday cakes. Nothing fancy – sure, I once produced a hand-sewn Cleopatra costume for an Asterix party which was worn for all of 3 minutes, but I’m just as likely to run out to the shop to find a lion mask at a moment’s notice (give me a month and ebay, and I can dress you as ANYTHING, my darling, but a week’s notice? Aargh!). I’ve even been known to dress my kids up for occasions other than costume parties – like, for instance, my book launches.

This year, we knew with at least six months notice that Raeli wanted a Doctor Who party, and that she wanted to go as a lady Silurian, and my Mum was totally okay with making that costume, as long as it was confirmed as wanted 2 months before the party. 2 months before the party, Raeli changed her mind, and wanted to be River Song instead. We called the party ‘aliens and earthlings’ so as not to alienate the non Doctor Who watchers who were invited, and sort of forgot about the costume.

Meanwhile, I had a plan for Jem’s costume for the same party, which would be a TARDIS dress. Having seen all the gorgeous ones out there, I plotted to remix a plain denim dress, got the makings, and got very excited when I learned about the advances that have been made in T-Shirt Transfer technology.

Somehow, with less than a fortnight to go, we had not organised Raeli’s costume. Her more recent plans to be young Melody Pond ran aground when we checked that episode, and the kid was basically wearing a dress and a cardigan, which can not be made to look like a proper costume. Alarm bells rang. She was sent off with a stack of Doctor Who magazines to figure out what she wanted to look like.

She came back with bright, starry eyes, and the request for an astronaut costume.

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Here, for those who requested it, proof that I made a TARDIS cake for Raeli’s birthday party tomorrow. It’s not finished yet, as I plan to have a cupcake light on top, and some decorations around the border, but those will be added tomorrow, so more pics then! (as well as pics of my two lovely girls, dressed as an astronaut and the TARDIS)

This is basically cake (two packet mixes swirled together so some is vanilla & some choc), cut to size & liberally spread with chocolate frosting. The windows and panel are made from roll-out white icing, the details from slices of a metre-long liquorice strap, and the fancy white writing parts from one of those squeezy writing icing things. All bought from the supermarket.

I had a near-disaster when I put gladwrap over the whole thing (having refrigerated the cake for some time I assumed all the icing was set – the frosting WAS but the writing sadly got smeared all over the place) so I recovered by putting a whole piece of liquorice strap over the mess, tidying up with a bit of spare chocolate frosting (always save the last spoonful just in case!!!) and re-writing the text.

It looks like a TARDIS, anyway! Imperfect, but delicious.

[and if anyone, not looking at anyone in particular, hon, thinks I was overreaching myself, I show further evidence that my goals in cakeitude are sensible, rational and achievable, unlike some people who take TARDIS-related cake art to EXTREMES - thanks to @greenspyders for the link]

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by Aviv Or

(it’s a Salon article by some bloke about how Jennifer Weiner is too rich and successful to be allowed to complain about ingrained sexism in the literary world, and poor male authors struggle more despite having a whole bunch of admittedly sweet gender-based privileges)

Luckily, before I had to turn my squishy pre-breakfast brain into some kind of ‘well your face is stupid’ riposte, John Scalzi did it for me. Cheers, John! Some of the comments (on both posts) are, well, you know, but overall I feel now like I have the renewed strength to go on with my Friday without spending the whole morning typing furiously at you all. Hooray!

In other Scalzi news, he also wrote a post about the general awesomeness of Starship Troopers the movie, which I stand behind entirely.

That post is part of Tor’s theme week on military SF, which also includes this post by the incredibly well read Jo Walton, about women in the world of Miles Vorkosigan (and Lois McMaster Bujold).

the new Galactic Suburbia is up, and we’re on to Episode 51 before I come to terms with us hitting the big 50. There’s a bunch of links there, which I won’t repeat. Check in particularly to hear me squee about the upcoming World’s Finest comic, featuring the Helena Wayne Huntress and her Earth 2 best friend Power Girl. Hooray, my favourite versions of both characters! Also nice to see Nicola Scott with another DC gig, doing the art for new title Earth 2.

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The new episode is up! Go fetch it and consume it with digital gusto!

In which women aren’t funny, don’t write important books, but come in handy as assassins and thieves.

News

Connie Willis named SFWA Grand Master

Liz Bourke on Strange Horizons & the art of the mean review

Survey shows that men (as well as women) often play characters of the other gender while gaming – in many cases, men are bored with or alienated by the big musclebound male characters, which game designers think they want. Sound familiar?

Hoyden about Town are asking for guest bloggers to crosspost their Australian Women Writers Challenge reviews on Hoyden (ASIF also keen to do so)

More on feminine tosh: a good solid article in the Australian media (shock!) about the women in literature issues of recent months (and, you know, decades).

Have we been following the “Women aren’t funny” stoush that played out in NYT? This interesting development.

DC Comics – cancellations & new titles – Tansy is especially excited by World’s Finest (featuring the Earth 2 Huntress & Power Girl)

Stranger with My Face – Women in Horror film festival in Hobart, Tasmania – 17-19 February

Tansy’s book launch for Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three) on 2 February at Hobart Bookshop, 5:30pm.
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