The concerning attitude of Google+ to the use of pseudonymous online identities (not to mention legal names which don’t conform to a narrow western standard of normality) has been raging across the internet all week. A couple of great posts summing up the problems and fears associated with this, from Tiger Beatdown and Feminist SF – the Blog!

I’ve been following with great interest the ‘Batgirl asks DC where the women are‘ story that emerged from Comicon, and it’s very cool to see issues like this making mainstream news. It’s absolutely worth reading the substantial Interview With Batgirl which discusses the conversations that happened across several panels at the convention, with many personal observations from the caped crusader in question.

Meanwhile, Jim C Hines discusses the arrival of a black/Hispanic Spiderman in the Marvel Ultimates series, and some of the awful racist comments which sprang up in response to the announcement. (I particularly like the comment thread to this post where someone referred to this as a publicity stunt comparable to DC’s lesbian Batwoman, and someone else points out how awesome that character turned out to be, proving that an active push towards diversity in comics can in fact have fabulous results that are enjoyed by a wide range of readers… not ALL the comments are that enlightening, though, of course)

Sarah Rees Brennan follows up on some insightful Twitter discussions about how worrying it is that it’s not seen as appropriate or acceptable for female fictional characters (especially in YA) to have confidence in themselves (and of course that this reflects social attitudes in real life). Ladies, Don’t Let Anyone Tell You You’re Not Awesome.

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I have been gathering a pile of interesting links for blog posts all week, many of them linking to each other and building upon each other in a fascinating conversation about writing, reviewing and gender.

Reviewing and Writing as Women’s Work

Nicola Griffiths on how the gendered gaze affects our perceptions of how “hard” or “soft” science fiction actually is (and how sexual it is).

Madeleine Robins on the insidious, internalised cultural pressures of “nice girls don’t brag or draw attention to themselves” and how that works against promoting your own books as an author.

Sherwood Smith on the gender imbalance in SF reviewing and how Important Books tend to be those on Manly Subjects of Manliness and yet books about/by women mysteriously turn out to be Not Important, and isn’t that an odd coincidence? Also, how important it is to realise that if your literary tastes differ from the accepted standards of what is Good, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something wrong with you. In closing, in response to Madeleine Robins’ post, she also points out that the mythical women who don’t push themselves forward enough (and are therefore responsible for people not realising women can write good books) tend to be highly criticised by society when they actually do push themselves forward. Yes, still.

Owlectomy on how a gendered perspective of a novel’s subject can absolutely mess with your instincts about whether it is worthy of an award, and it can screw with you even if you are a woman and a feminist. Her description of the Joanna Russ Fairy is epic and must become a staple of critical language:

And the Joanna Russ fairy said, “If you think that family and love and grief are not inherently important topics, you might as well put some zombies in your Pride and Prejudice and be done with it.”

Juliet McKenna on how insidious Default/Lazy Sexism can be, and how easily people slip into the idea that fantasy is a genre for and about men.

Timmi Duchamp at Aqueduct on reviewing as a woman, reviewing marginal and mainstream work, and why we need more diverse critical voices.

Miscellaneous but Still Awesome

A powerful essay by Farah Mendlesohn about the work of Diana Wynne Jones, her literary influence, and why she was so terribly important as a writer. (not all that unrelated to the previous section, now I come to think of it)

Nisi Shawl on Race, Still - essential reading for anyone in the genre. And yep, this one’s not all that unrelated either.

Diana Peterfreund announces that Errant, the medieval-awesome-women-with-unicorns novelette that was one of my favourite pieces of short fiction last year, is available as an e-book. If you didn’t get hold of the antho it was originally in (Kiss Me Deadly) then I can recommend this one very highly.

Image found thanks to Ragnell – I have seen this fantastic cosplay group around the web all over the place but this is the first time I saw so many of them in one image. It may well be the awesomest thing I have seen in many months.

There have been some lovely tributes to Nicholas Courtney over the last few days. My favourite is the selection of Brigly Pictures by Calapine, though I also enjoyed the obituary that Toby Hadoke wrote for the Guardian, and Tom Baker‘s personal farewell. I09′s post is worth checking out if only for the great YouTube vids of, well, the Brig being Brigly.

Elsewhere on the internet, a fascinating discussion took place on Kate Elliott’s blog about whether women write epic fantasy differently to men. Back here in Australia, Rowena Cory Daniells is bemused at the perception in the US and UK that women writing fantasy is an unusual thing, and is doing a blog series featuring female fantasy writers. There are some very interesting comments in both posts from some very prominent writers which range from the illuminating and inspiring to the kind of depressing.

Hyperbole and a Half, the cartoon blog that taught me to eye my daughters with suspicion and dread, tells a tale of childhood fear, and one little girl’s quest to destroy her sister’s innocence. It’s funny as hell and I do mean hell.

In closing, if there is a better wedding gift than the Angry Birds Honeymoon Game that Jenny Crusie crocheted for roommate and fellow author Lucy March, I have never heard of it.

So this loosely was my plan for 2010, presented with comments:

1. Finish Cabaret of Monsters (book 2) and Saturnalia (book 3) and submit them on deadline.
They’re now called Shattered City and Reign of Beasts, and the deadlines ended up being extended a time or two, but done and done.
2. Complete a first draft of one other novel
This I didn’t manage, thanks to more editing and a lot less writing time than I was hoping for.
3. Decide on what project I want to work on after Creature Court and put a proposal together.
I haven’t finished the proposal for my publishers yet, but I wrote early chapters and a synopsis for Fury when I applied for my grants, WHICH I GOT.
4. Get Raeli through her first year of full time school. To this end, institute earlier tea & earlier bedtime for Raeli (starting the bedtime process at 8pm results in a good night going to sleep at 9pm, it’s not good enough)
This worked out really well. While part of me thinks it’s a bad idea to dumb down Raeli’s food and getting into the habit of a kids meal and an adult meal… yeah. I can’t have a family meal on the table by 6pm, but I can manage a nursery tea. Also it’s nice to not be fighting with Raeli about food. She eats vegetables, even if only under certain circumstances, and she even went through a few adventurous phases with her food this year. It’s summer so we’ve let the bedtime blow out again but come school time, I’ll be going back to this habit.
5. Get Jem into her own room and reorganise study at other end of house.
Done marvellously. What I wasn’t expecting was that instead of a study I would build myself a library! Complete with queen sized bed… I love that I got the best of both worlds, a spare room for guests and a room that is MINE where my books live. Sure, I don’t have a desk, but this is me, let’s face it, a desk would just be somewhere to pile up papers and all kinds of crap. Not having a desk forces me to file things occasionally. I’ve finally got my armchair, and I continue to work from my laptop on the dining table. I may need a small desk in the library eventually but for right now, I’m happy, and get an extra thrill of happiness whenever I refer to my Library Bed. Which currently is covered with page proofs for Shattered City…
6. Complete two quilts (you know who you are)
I really have to be more specific! The first must have been the Felix Rupert Bear quilt, which I was being discreet about because I was keeping it secret from Isabel. I had to check back for the second which was of course Kaia’s Comfort Fruit quilt, for her 30th birthday.
7. Launch Power and Majesty in June, and do my best to contribute to & support the publicity for the book.
Done! With publicity you always feel like you should have done more, but I think I managed my time effectively. Time to start gearing up for Book 2…
8. Aussiecon in September!
Done! It wasn’t easy taking the family to the convention, but my honey worked hard to free up as much time as possible for me to do my convention thing, and I loved getting to hang out with friends and sharing both my worlds. Also, live Boxcutters!
9. Launch Cabaret of Monsters in December (subject to publishing dates staying the same) and do my best to contribute to & support the publicity for the book.
Heh well the publishing dates didn’t stay the same, so this one can be rolled over to 2011.
10. Read 120 books throughout 2010.
Hooray, I scraped under the wire with this one! Separate reading overview to follow.

EDIT: A couple of projects/challenges I forgot about: to podcast Siren Beat, and to read all of Joanna Russ’s published books.
Heh well I completely didn’t podcast Siren Beat, but I did start the CreatureCourtCast to read some sample chapters of Power and Majesty, and should do something similar with Book 2. And I didn’t get to all of the Russ, but I read quite a few of them and consider myself a hell of a lot more educated in the ways of Joanna Russ than at this time last year. So I’ll count that as a win.

Of course the most interesting thing about looking back is what I didn’t expect or prepare for: like winning the WSFA small press award for Siren Beat, and getting to vicariously enjoy Alisa’s voyage to Washington and beyond. Also, when the year turned, I had no idea that we were going to start Galactic Suburbia this year, a podcast that has given me great pleasure and joy. I didn’t know that Raeli being at school would lead to a whole new social group for me, or that my biggest regret of the year was not the lack of working time, but not volunteering enough at Raeli’s school. It’s also been lovely seeing so many of my friends succeeding with their work, getting new books out into the world, more rungs on the publishing journey. In particular, seeing Trent finally get his debut novel out there after so many years of hard work towards that goal, and seeing Rowena get another series out there after a hiatus almost as long as my own, filled me with pride and gladness.

It’s been a year of hard work, rewarding feedback, loving friends and family. I really have very little to complain about. Here’s hoping 2011 is a good one, for all of us!

Summary: It’s the Fourth Doctor with his hat and scarf and big toothy grin that most often represents Classic Who in people’s minds – even those who have never watched the show. Tom Baker, barely even a working actor when he got the part, was 40 when he got the role, making him the youngest ever man to play the Doctor. He quickly made the part his own – like Jon Pertwee, he was equally at home with comedy and drama, and frequently used his voice to convey just how much doom everyone was in.

Not since Dalekmania in the early sixties had Doctor Who been such a successful show – it enjoyed a level of mainstream popularity at this time that would not be eclipsed until David Tennant won the hearts of the British public. Rather famously, Baker played the Doctor pretty close to method, embracing his position as a role model to children, and even now when he speaks of the role you can see that the “I” that is Baker and the “I” that is the Doctor get deeply tangled together – unless that’s all part of a colossal joke he is still playing on his audience.

Baker played the part for seven years, still the longest any Doctor has ever kept the role. His era can be divided into three rough periods based on their producers: the Hinchcliffe era (1975-7) which combined hard-ish SF before developing a dark, gothic horror sensibility; the brighter and shinier spaceships-and-funny-hats Graham Williams era (1977-80), and the entropy-and-dark-Tom, John Nathan Turner (JNT) season at the very end. While the latter half of Tom Baker’s run had some real gems, especially with legendary comedy writer Douglas Adams script editing and even writing some episodes, it’s the Hinchcliffe era that is most critically acclaimed and romanticised by fans for its high quality of scripts, performances and atmosphere.

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Summary: The concept of regeneration, now one of the most iconic features of Doctor Who, allowed for a new lead actor to create a very different interpretation of the role.  Troughton’s Doctor left aside the grumpy anti-heroics of William Hartnell to be a far more emotional, vulnerable Doctor, capable of high dramatics and physical comedy as well as something of a cunning streak.  With only one early exception, the Second Doctor stories moved away from historicals, sticking with science fiction adventure for the most part.  When it did utilise historical elements or settings, they were combined with alien or other science fictional concepts, a tradition which has continued into New Who. This is an era of monsters and mad science, with occasional moments of batty genius.

More so even than the Hartnell Years, the Troughton Years suffered from the BBC film destruction, so very few whole stories are archived.  For this reason perhaps even more so than the First Doctor, the Second Doctor is often remembered more by fans for his later appearances in the show (The Three Doctors in the 1970’s, The Five Doctors & The Two Doctors in the 1980’s).

Things You Need To Know: The sonic screwdriver and jelly babies both made their first appearances in Second Doctor serials.  And he still can’t steer the TARDIS.  Colonel (later Brigadier) Lethbridge Stewart and Benton both make their first appearance in this era, as do the Ice Warriors and the Yeti. Yes, Yeti!

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AKA “Over My Dead Body I’m Going To Waste These Nice Leftovers Making Bubble N Squeak, Jamie Oliver!”

Ingredients:
500g or so of turkey mince
Leftover roast vegetables
Leftover stuffing
Leftover fresh herbs from Christmas cooking
Two thick slices each of cold turkey & ham, diced roughly
1 small carton chicken stock
Half a handful of plain flour.
2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Brown mince in frying pan with a dollop of olive oil. Chop leftover vegies roughly and mix into the mince along with leftover stuffing, fresh herbs, and meat. Pour stock over the top and let it all bubble away nicely for some time, sprinkling the flour over the top and stirring through to thicken the sauce. Pour all contents into a baking dish and make a lattice on top of pastry strips.

Bake in oven at about 170º (fan forced) or 180º (normal) for half an hourish or until pastry is brown and crackly.  Serve with steamed greens & yesterday’s gravy.

Summary: originally designed as a children’s show, the Classic Doctor Who format at this time was half hour episodes making up whole stories of 2, 4, 6 (and occasionally, gulp, 12) episodes, though the stories themselves only got individual names towards the end of the First Doctor’s run – most story titles were decided on later by fans, TV historians, DVD releasers etc.

The Doctor and his companions generally alternated between historical and SF stories, with very few set in contemporary times.  Unlike these days, the historicals were usually “pure” in that the stories involved no alien or science fictional element, other than the fact that the main characters are time travellers and have perspectives from other times.

Many episodes and whole stories from these years were destroyed by the BBC (well technically all of them were, but many were saved or recovered) which means sadly that some of the best stories are no longer available to view.  Hardcore fans can revisit them through audio recordings, or the good old Target Book novelisations, which are no longer in print but have a thriving existence in the second hand book market (and, more recently, have been made available from the BBC as audio books).

At this stage in Classic Who history, the TARDIS cannot be controlled by the Doctor, which means that any time he leaves a particular place and time, they are in the hands of fate. This gives extra tension to the companion journey, as in many cases they have no way of knowing if and when they can ever return home.  Several companion leaving stories thus comprise either of accidentally landing within a year or two of their point of origin and jumping off the bus while they have the chance, or picking the first random planet that seems to have something to offer.

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2.16 For Him the Bell Tolls

This is the episode that really shows what Ted Raimi can do – a homage to Danny Kaye’s classic performance in The Court Jester, it sets up a situation where Joxer is charmed to become a Hero with a capital H every time a bell rings – and then returns to his own bumbling self when it rings again.

Ted Raimi carries the story off with aplomb, making it that bit more special than its Hercules-lite plot really deserves, and his ‘swashbuckling hero’ persona is both hilarious and weirdly convincing.

Also, damn that man can fence.

This episode also marks the first appearance in Xena of the goddess Aphrodite played by Alexandra Tydings, whose bubbly, bitchy surfer babe persona was one of the highlights of the Hercules series from quite early on, along with her cranky, who-oiled-those-chest-muscles, bleached blond son Cupid, played by… um, Karl Urban.

One of my favourite things about the Herc-and-Xenaverse is the way that the same actors appear over and over, often playing several different characters. It lends a certain theatre rep feel to the whole production, and there is great fun to be had in spotting the reappearance of a favourite performer. Sometimes an actor used in a minor role is cast later in a major or more iconic one (Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor, for example, both played less significant roles in the Hercverse before being cast as Xena and Gabrielle) and often it ends up that the same actor plays a different major roles in each “verse”. The actress who plays Gabrielle’s sister, for instance, has a recurring role as the daughter of one of Hercules’ Argonaut friends, and Gina Torres appears as Cleopatra in the Xenaverse, and pirate/Sumerian queen Nebula in the Hercverse.

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Baen Books, who have always been ahead of the game when it comes to ebooks, have made the entire Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold available for free downloads in a variety of formats: up to and including the recent release Cryoburn, and the excellent The Vorkosigan Companion, a collection of essays, interviews and speeches both by and about Lois McMaster Bujold.

This is an extraordinary gift to Bujold’s fans as well as to new readers. Baen have long had a tradition of supporting current releases with free backlist, but it’s still rare for a bestselling author of Bujold’s name recognition to go the “Doctorow” method of releasing a current release as a free ebook.

Why are we being so generous? Simple: we think the more people who read Ms. Bujold’s works the more people will buy them. Say, one set of hardcovers for yourself, a set of paperbacks to lend out, possibly even the next ebook when it comes out.

Yep. I don’t know that it would work for everyone, but I can see it working in this case. Bujold is just that good. I recommend her to people a lot – when I think “space opera” she’s the first name that leaps into my head. I’ve recently had a few friends suggest they are ready to make the Bujold plunge, and I happen to know that Alisa started in exactly the wrong place even though I was previously convinced that there was no wrong place to start in the Vorkosiverse, so here is a quick rundown on How to Read (Vorkosiverse) Lois McMaster Bujold:

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