Possibly I’m also going to share it with my daughters. But only if they’re good.

Tehani at the Book Nut talks about the new TV series Outland, some of the more curmudgeonly criticisms of the show coming from some corners of Australian fandom, and how it has made her reassess her own fannish identity. You can be a fan without the seal of approval from fandom! People express their fannishness differently! These should not be revolutionary ideas, and yet…

The new TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries starts tonight on The ABC! I’m excited because I’ve been reading the Phryne Fisher books for years, and it looks like a great production. Author Kerry Greenwood talks about her relationship with the production crew, and her experience playing an extra on screen.

Tiger Beatdown on Even Housemaids Get the Blues: Compulsory Heterosexuality in Downton Abbey. (spoilers for season 2) I’ve found the Daisy/William storyline in that show surprisingly subtle and complex considering that it’s REALLY not a subtle show, and that it sums up beautifully the historical attitude to marriage, and poor Daisy’s conveyor belt route through guilt and obligation to marry someone she doesn’t love, simply because he asked, everyone else thinks it’s romantic, and she has no personal power to fight them all, being the lowest rung in the house. The exploration of this in the article and the way her experience can be coded queer is fascinating!

Remember Pottermore? The website that was going to revolutionise the marketing of ebooks and the relationship between readers and the books they love? Yeah, it’s still not ready. But apparently it’s pretty.

We mentioned this on Galactic Suburbia but it’s still awesome – Kaaron Warren nominated for a Stoker award!

Meanwhile, Deborah Biancotti writes 80K in a month (GO DEB) and tells us how to do it too. It’s at least partly tongue in cheek, guys, no one quit their job because of this post, please! (unless you really hate your job)

Famous male novelist Jonathan Franzen looks at historically famous female novelist Edith Wharton and finds her hard to relate to and also, not pretty enough. Oh, Franzen.

Even even more cranky-making news, the story of a female game producer who is still receiving appalling abuse for a (quite sensible) suggestion she made years ago, about making games more appealing to those who are more interested in the narrative than the fight sequences. Oh, gaming community.

The Doctor Her blog is well underway. Some fabulous essays so far:
My Dad, John Barrowman and Me: How Doctor Who Helped Me To Come Out, by Amy
Amy Pond and Steven Moffat’s Babies, by Ritch Ludlow
Women Who Waited (portrayal of older women on Doctor Who), by Cathannabel
If The Doctor Were a Woman: A Queerer Doctor Who, by Ritch Ludlow
(and when I asked which actress you would cast as a female Doctor, the comments absolutely delighted me – so many awesome women who could play the part!)

To close, one of the best recent explorations & explanations of the Bechdel Test, how it works, where it falls down, and how to make it better when assessing films:

In which we keep it short (truly) through restraint and perseverance, despite setting Tansy off on a tangent about Lego and lots of crunchy gender bias stuff to chew through.

News

Nebula shortlist

Stoker shortlist

Paul Cornell on Panel Parity

Elizabeth L Huede on National Year of (Gender Biased) Reading

Tansy’s thing: new feminist Doctor Who blog Doctor Her

Can princesses play with Lego? (Lego friends petition at Change.org)

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Vorkosigan – Shards of Honor, Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Alex: The Islanders, Christopher Priest
Tansy: After the Apocalypse, by Maureen McHugh (collection)

Feedback episode coming soon!

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

The article is about why Australian spec fic writers seem to skew so hard towards writing about icky sinister things instead of, you know, sunshine and beer and prawns. I talked to a bunch of writers (Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti, Kaaron Warren, Peter M Ball, Trent Jamieson, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung, Cat Sparks, Rob Hood and Richard Harland) who are well known for their dark, weird short fiction, and they came up all sorts of brilliant answers to my sometimes-silly questions.

You can purchase individual copies or subscriptions of Apex here, and the content of the issue is also available (temporarily) for free on their home page.

N.K. Jemisin wrote a very cool post about women’s roles in fantasy and the problematic nature of judging the strength and value of female characters by masculine standards – the conversation in the comments is interesting, as so many people jump in to talk about domestic skills and values in fantasy, and why giving a woman a sword isn’t the only way to make her a “strong” character.

Also, I’m on the fence about Google+ and expect to continue so until too many friends of mine are in there for me to ignore it any longer (was I not right about Google Buzz? Thankyew and goodnight) but this post by Mary Robinette Kowal about constructing writing dates & writer gatherings in Google+ makes me think I’m going to have to get my arse in there before this year’s Nanowrimo.

Meanwhile, over at Twelfth Planet Press, Alisa has revealed the gorgeous cover of the new Twelve Planets collection by Lucy Sussex, and info to tantalise you about this book from one of Australia’s veteran science fiction & fantasy writers. Alisa also revealed the titles this week of the next season of TPs, by Deborah Biancotti, Narrelle Harris and Kaaron Warren… and what titles they are!

But you know, when it comes down to it, the most awesome thing about this week was Noni Hazlehurst reading modern classic picture book, Go The Fuck to Sleep. Text Publishing hit on a genius method of publicising the fact that they are the Australian publishers of this instant classic for exhausted parents everywhere. Noni is a goddess as well as a national icon, and her performance of the book, including traditional Play School commentary & asides to the viewer, and a deeply authentic ‘going downhill rapidly’ emotional journey, is note-perfect.

The glee on Twitter as Noni’s reading was announced (you can keep your Samuel L Jackson, Americans!), the outrage as YouTube canned the video for offensive conduct (you know where you can go, YouTube…) and the joy as the video was re-released on other platforms… honestly, this is the most patriotic joy I think most Aussies have felt in years.

Go the Fuck to Sleep – read by Noni Hazlehurst from sswam on Vimeo.

Who Are the Twelve Planets?

Margo Lanagan, Lucy Sussex, Rosaleen Love, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Deborah Biancotti, Kaaron Warren, Cat Sparks, Sue Isle, Kirstyn McDermott, Narrelle M Harris, Thoraiya Dyer, Stephanie Campisi.

The Twelve Planets are twelve boutique collections by some of Australia’s finest short story writers. Varied across genre and style, each collection will offer four short stories and a unique glimpse into worlds fashioned by some of our favourite storytellers. Each author has taken the brief of 4 stories and up to 40 000 words in their own direction. Some are quartet suites of linked stories. Others are tasters of the range and style of the writer. Each release will bring something unexpected to our subscriber’s mailboxes.

The Twelve Planets will spread over 2011 and 2012, with six books released between February and November each year.
The first three titles will be Nightsiders by Sue Isle (March), Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts (May) and the third collection will be by Lucy Sussex (July).

The Twelve Planets will be available for purchase in several ways:

Single collections will be priced at $20/$23 International each including postage.
A season’s pass will offer the three collections of the season for $50/$65 International including postage and each sent out on release.
Full subscriptions to the series are $180/$215 International including postage and each sent out on release.

More information relating to upgrades, ebooks and distribution will be made available in due course.

===

Tansy’s Note: I’ve discussed my collection on Galactic Suburbia before, but not on this blog. I didn’t like to say anything until it was formally announced! But I’m supremely excited to be among such marvellous company in my fellow authors, as well as being very proud of Love and Romanpunk itself – the book that thumbs its nose at my PhD in Classics. It’s a linked suite of four stories set in what I like to call the Agrippinaverse – and to know why I call it that, you’re just going to have to read the book!

2010 was a great year for short fiction – a lot more fantasy and slipstream than SF, especially on Australian shores. Plenty of Aussie authors were getting published, both locally and overseas, and there were a few excellent single author collections from Kaaron Warren, Marianne De Pierres and two from Angela Slatter – though with the exception of Sourdough, they were mostly reprints. It’s certainly nice to see more Australian women having their work collected, something that has been a shameful omission in previous years.

My Absolute Favourite Spec Fic stories by Australian Authors in 2010 were:

Margo Lanagan, “The Miracle Aquilina,” Wings of Fire
Thoraiya Dyer, “Yowie,” Sprawl
Elizabeth Carroll, “The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling,” Strange Horizons

Also Highly Recommended:

Peter M Ball, Bleed, Twelfth Planet Press
Peter M Ball, “One Saturday Night, With Angel,” Sprawl
Thoraiya Dyer, “The Company Articles of Edward Teach,” The Company Articles of Edward Teach/The Angalien Apocalypse
Dirk Flinthart, “The Best Dog in the World,” Worlds Next Door
Margo Lanagan, “A Thousand Flowers,” Zombies vs. Unicorns
Garth Nix, “To Hold the Bridge,” Legends of Australian Fantasy
Angela Slatter, “Lost Things,” Sourdough and Other Stories
Angela Slatter, “Lavender & Lychgates,” Sourdough and Other Stories
Angela Slatter, “Under the Mountain,” Sourdough and Other Stories
Angela Slatter & LL Hannett, “The February Dragon,” Scary Kisses
Cat Sparks, “All the Love in the World,” Sprawl
Kim Wilkins, “Crown of Rowan,” Legends of Australian Fantasy

Honourable Mentions:

Peter M Ball, “L’esprit de L’escalier,” Apex
Peter M Ball, “The Clockwork Goat and the Smokestack Magi,” Shimmer
Deborah Biancotti, “Never Going Home,” Sprawl
Simon Brown, “Sweep,” Sprawl
Stephanie Burgis,** “Speaking English,” Belong
Stephanie Campisi, “How to Select a Durian at Footscray Market,” Sprawl
Marianne De Pierres, “Mama Ailon,” Glitter Rose
Paul Haines, “Her Gallant Needs,” Sprawl
Jennifer Moore,** “United,” Belong
Angela Slatter, “The Dead Ones Don’t Hurt You,” The Girl With No Hands
Angela Slatter, “Brisneyland By Night,” Sprawl
Angela Slatter, “The Shadow Tree,” Sourdough & Other Stories
Angela Slatter, “Dibblespin,” Sourdough & Other Stories
Angela Slatter, “The Story of Ink,” Sourdough & Other Stories
Angela Slatter, “The Bones Remember Everything,” Sourdough & Other Stories
Anna Tambour, “Dreadnought Neptune,” Asimov’s
Kaaron Warren, “Hive of Glass,” Baggage
Kaaron Warren, “Sins of the Ancestors,” Dead Sea Fruit
Scott Westerfeld, “Innoculata,” Zombies vs. Unicorns

** not actually Australian authors but published in an Australian anthology.

But that’s the whole point of a short story collection. It doesn’t matter if you’ve read the stories before. They are being presented anew, forming part of something else, and you haven’t actually read it as a collection unless you have sat down and read it, in order, turning all the pages.

I promised myself that one day I would lounge on a couch, with a box of chocolates or a tall jug of iced tea, and spend a whole afternoon taking in this particular book properly, instead of just waving my hands and telling other people to read it. Of course, my life doesn’t work that way. I consumed it in three parts – one part lying on the bed in my library, glaring at the various members of my family attempting to visit me in there and loudly announcing THIS IS MUMMY’S QUIET TIME, one part perched on my couch while the baby ran ever so slightly amok at my feet, and one part in an armchair today, while eyeing the workmen busily digging holes and swapping power poles outside my window.

Each time, despite my surroundings, I dipped into a source of calm while reading these stories. It’s hard to explain, if you haven’t read Deb’s work. She does creepy and weird and murderous and horrific (and someone *really* has to do a study one day on how many excellent Australian writers also do creepy, weird, murderous tales so very well, a Biancotti-Warren-Lanagan triptych anyone?) and very few of her stories make a complete amount of sense if you stare at them too hard (sometimes it’s better to sneak up on them from the side) but the language is so fluid and lovely, the characters regularly grab you by the throat and make you feel their pain/angst/confusion, and the overall reading experience is simply… well. Calming.

There isn’t a genre label you can hang on Deborah Biancotti. Not quite horror, not quite speculative fiction even, she hovers between the borders of genre. I suppose something like ‘urban weird’ would sum her up, with a heavy emphasis on ‘dark Australiana’. Her stories are grungy and powerful and often meander in directions other than those you might have expected. There’s a modernity to her work which makes her stand out as noticeably different to, for instance, Margo Lanagan, whose stories have more of a rural and fantastic tinge. Even when Biancotti writes fantasy, hers is unlike any other, and her stories seem more at home among broken suburban landscapes. While the speculative fiction community claims her with good reason as one of their own, there is a very mainstream literary sensibility about these stories, and it would be an excellent gateway drug to lure ‘mundane’ readers into the world of spec fic.

The book is simply beautiful. Not just the cover by Nick Stathopolis which looks fantastic – I can see it over on my maroon couch right now and it catches my eye every time – but the overall production values. I think it’s the prettiest of the Twelfth Planet productions. But mostly when I say the book is beautiful, it’s because of the way it has been put together. The stories – and Deb herself acknowledges in her afterword that people find her endings problematic and inconclusive at times – merge into each other in a remarkably smooth way. I found myself going from one to the other without wanting to stop, which is so rare in a collection of short work.

I enjoyed the way that the A Book of Endings is divided into three sections, emphasising thematic links, and as I said above, I read it in three parts, which worked out very well for me despite the lack of mint tea and a soothing jazz quartet in the corner.

It was fascinating, actually, to see how well the new stories blended with the old, and while I was aware of particular stories that I had read many years ago, particularly those which have been recognised by awards committes and the like, there was no obvious jarring between the older and more recent work. That’s pretty damn impressive for a collection which spans at least 9 years. Revisiting so many old – well, I’m not going to say friends, more like creepy strangers you don’t want in your house – was a really inspiring reading experience.

If you have even the slightest interest in short fiction, and you haven’t read Deborah Biancotti, then you should. If you like Deb’s work and haven’t yet picked up this book, what are you waiting for? You might think you’re well versed with her fiction, but believe me, if you haven’t read A Book of Endings properly, you have no idea what she is capable of.

Disclaimer: I am friends with both the author and the publisher of this book, and Twelfth Planet Press have also published a great deal of my work. You may wish to take this into account when considering my opinion. But please be assured that if I was less than enamoured with a book written by a friend I would be changing the subject and humming innocently to myself, not blogging a review of it.

Double disclaimer: if you are an author I am friends with, and I have not reviewed your work, please do not assume that this is because I am less than enamoured with it. My silence is far more likely to be embarrassment at not having read it yet.

Grants Pass edited by Jennifer Brozek & Amanda Pillar (Morrigan Books) took the third Shadows Award for Best Edited Publication which means 100% female recipients this year.

The words “no women in horror my arse” come to mind, somehow.

Congratulations to all the winners. I’d add my hope that the winner statues this year are less offensively sexist than in previous years, but I suspect this won’t be the case. I suppose someone could always knit a few sensible jumpers for the poor lasses, though trenchcoats might be more appropriate, somehow.

This is sadly the final issue of Shiny, a labour of love for those of us involved. I was very pleased with the issues I had editorial input in (1-3), enjoyed reading issue 4 as a civilian, and was very proud to be published in issue 5 with “Like Us,” one of the two Shiny stories that scored an Aurealis Award nomination last year.

Back issues of the ezine are available here.

Elsewhere on the internet, Connie Willis talks about Blackout and All Clear.

The always smart and eloquent Kate Harding talks about the problematic aspects of Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign.

Jim C Hines, who impresses me more and more each time I read his blog, has some valuable thoughts on the representation of masculinity and men in our society.

Charles Tan did a great post about some of the misconceptions about the Amazon v. Macmillan situation.

Deb Biancotti’s A Book of Endings received an awesome review at Strange Horizons.

Ticonderoga will be publishing collections by two great Australian writers in time for Aussiecon 4: Kaaron Warren and Angela Slatter.

Oh, and that reminds me that we are hosting the Australian Speculative Carnival at Ripping Ozzie Reads on the 15th – drop me a line or a comment if you have any blog posts to rec!

Wives isn’t just a great piece of fiction, it’s an important piece of fiction.

Here is what I said about it in Last Short Story last year:

For me, the brilliance of Paul Haines is that he writes stories I hate, about people I hate (and I don’t mean mild revulsion, I mean actual HATE), and yet I can’t pull my eyes away. “Wives” is his best work to date, an utterly hideous vision of the near future, exploring issues that are already very relevant to many people – the lack of women sticking around in country Australia, the sociological effect of preferring male children to female and, oh yes, the ingrained misogyny that hovers just out of sight in our culture. Haines exposes the ugliest sides of human nature in this epic story of “Bridal Services,” rape and slavery, told through the eyes of a narrator so utterly screwed up by his circumstances that it’s hard to blame him for the despicable, thoughtless way that he speaks, lives and acts. This is post-apocalyptic fiction at its best and worse, because there is no apocalypse. There’s just us.

(in discussion with my fellow LSSers about “Wives,” I said “I don’t know whether I want to nominate it for the Tiptree or BURN IT TO THE GROUND.” Yeah, that. Just that.)

I’d love to see Australian representation in all the categories of the Hugos – Peter M Ball’s Horn alongside “Wives” in the novella category, Kaaron Warren’s Slights as novel, Jonathan Strahan and Alisa Krasnostein as Best Editor (short form), Robert Hood as best fan writer for Undead Backbrain… Peter M Ball for the John W Campbell (Robert Hoge suggested Lezli Robyn for this category too, great idea)… My favourite Margo Lanagan story of the year was “Ferryman” in Firebirds Soaring, though her novella “Sea-Hearts” (in X6, the same antho as the Haines novella) was also excellent. I also loved “Seventeen,” by Cat Sparks, which won the Aurealis for YA short story.

If you’re Australian and want to see some Aussie works on the ballot, or if you’re from overseas and are coming out here for Aussiecon or otherwise eligible to vote for the Hugos (or just you know, interested in what the best Australian spec fic is right now), it would definitely be worth your while to check out some of the above people/works. But, you know. Start with Wives.

I haven’t decided all the novels, short stories and novelettes I want to nominate myself, but there will certainly be some Australian names alongside some internationally brilliant pieces like Kij Johnson’s “Spar,” Holly Black’s “The Coldest Girl in Coldtown,” (available free online), Karen Joy Fowler’s “The Pelican Bar” and Sara Genge’s “As Women Fight.”

For ‘best related book’ I will be nominating: On Joanna Russ by Farah Mendelsohn, The Secret Feminist Cabal by Helen Merrick and The Wiscon Chronicles 3 by Liz Henry.

(meanwhile my honey has recommended both Logicomix and Pluto in the graphic novel section, and I plan to catch up with both of these before the time comes to nominate)

About Aussiecon 4 and nominating: www.aussiecon4.org.au
About the Hugo Awards: www.thehugoawards.org