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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Okay, you won’t have seen this coming. I’m going to be a guest speaker at a ‘women in horror’ film festival in February. “Stranger With My Face” is the first of its kind for Hobart, and will be taking place around Salamanca Place & the Peacock Theatre from 17-19 February.

Stranger With My Face is run by Australian filmmakers Briony Kidd and Rebecca Thomson and will take place in Hobart, Tasmania, from 17-19 February 2012.

By contrast, female novelists have been delving into the dark side of their own natures for centuries… from Mary Shelley to the Brontës, to Daphne du Maurier and Shirley Jackson. Stranger With My Face looks to literary as well as cinematic traditions, understanding that one enriches the other.

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Hot evening, nearly-seven-year-old daughter to entertain.

Me: How about we watch that animated Batman movie you got for Christmas?
Him: Okay.
Daughter: Yay, Batman!

*family starts Batman Year One*

–Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham
–Lieutenant Gordon gets beaten up in street
–screen fills up with thugs and (underage) hookers

Me: Starting to think this film is not in fact appropriate for nearly-seven-year-olds
Him: Most definitely

*family examines DVD case*

Me & Him: Oh, crap, M Rated!

*lunge for DVD, turn it off*
*daughter wails with disappointment*
*we explain why M rated means not appropriate for nearly-seven-year-olds*
*we put on other animated Batman episode which is far more appropriate, with icecream to help daughter through the transition*

Me (guiltily): I think I just remembered that Batman: Year One was originally written by Frank Miller
Him: That explains a lot.

And this is why checking the film rating is sometimes not a bad idea, the end.

Pretty sure everyone on the internet has seen the latest feminist post by Jim C Hines, this time with him putting his male body through the bizarre poses displayed by women on various fantasy covers. Needless to say, he hurt himself in the attempt.

Malinda Lo riffs off a Kate Elliott post, talking about being a woman writer and still having to actively check your manuscripts to make sure the female characters are not being screwed over. I do this too! Did I accidentally kill off all the women in my book? Oh, crap. Rewrite!

NK Jemisin talks about why her editor, Devi Pillai of Orbit Books, should be considered for the Hugo race – she had me at ‘Paradol Protectorate’!

A lovely article about cosplaying the TARDIS, bringing steampunk into her design, and just how female the TARDIS is anyway. The cosplay/crossplay phenomenon as a feminist statement is something I never fail to find interesting, and the fannish craft evident in this post is awesome. I say this as someone who is planning to make two birthday cakes next week – a TARDIS and a Time Vortex.

Speaking of which, 3D TARDIS cookies are the best use I can think of for 3D printers…

The Guardian looks at the outpourings of mancrush inspired by the return of Thierry Henry to the Arsenal and questions why football is so institutionally anti-gay when, quite frankly, even the straightest of fannish football blokes are set all aflutter by certain men in certain shorts, scoring certain goals. It’s actually a slightly more serious article than I suggest here, and worth reading.

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I stated my intentions for the Australian Women Writers 2012 Reading Challenge here – and it’s been exciting to see all manner of people on my twitter feed, RSS reader & GoodReads updates linking to their early reviews of books for this challenge. Yay readers of Australian women writers!

By the way, someone other than me should TOTALLY put together a list of SF & Fantasy (or any genre really) books by female authors available on the Kindle in the Aus/NZ region – to encourage all those “I got a Kindle for Christmas” participants in the challenge. Let me know if you do this, and I will link to you!

I have started out this month well, I think, with three prose books under my belt already (two of which are by Australian women writers) and four books REMOVED from my to read shelf. All this reading all of a sudden may be causing excessive eye watering, but I’m willing to take that on the chin.

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I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions as such, though I tend to lay out some kind of general, practical plan for my new year. This year’s looking like a bit of a blank slate so far, though, as I have no idea yet which of my projects I’ll be writing, and I’m fairly happy with my current work-life balance.

The only thing in my life that I really need to change is that shelf. The dread To Read Shelf of Doom, the one that I refer to with such exasperation quite regularly on Galactic Suburbia. It’s not just reaching the point of health and safety risk, but it’s actively stressing me out.

It started out as such a nice, organised space, somewhere for me to put, well quite obviously, the books I hadn’t read yet. I set it up not long after we moved here (nearly seven years ago!) and it made me happy.

But flat surfaces. I have a bad, bad relationship with flat surfaces. I put things on them. And then I put things on the things. And somewhere along the way… well, yes.

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