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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This one’s for Jonathan, Gary & Mondy, who have been speculating a lot lately about what are the best books published in 2011 so far, that they should be paying attention to.

These are mine. It’s entirely personal, of course, and based what I’ve actually read (as opposed to the towering To Read pile that will one day cause me major injury) but given that I haven’t done nearly enough this year of reviewing the books I love, I think it’s worth doing.

ADULT FICTION

Jo Walton
Among Others

A wonderful, wonderful book about the reading habits of young girls, with subtle magic and a fabulous theme of iconic SF books. At some point I hope I will write that essay I want to, about my lifelong relationship with Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin and how that book trained me to get the most out of this one despite the fact that I’ve never read Delaney, Zelazny or more than two novels by Heinlein.

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One of the two headline stories of our recent Galactic Suburbia Episode 42 was the piece on Publisher’s Weekly about two authors who were upset about an agent asking them to ‘straighten’ a gay protagonist.

Nicola Griffith shared a video of her describing a similar issue to a group of students, when her own agent questioned why the protagonist of her second novel needed to be a lesbian.

Malinda Lo followed up with a very constructive post looking at the hard stats of YA fiction published in the US over the last several decades. In particular I found it interesting that she proves once and for all that the anecdotal experience of there being less lesbians than gay male characters in YA is absolutely true – in fact, it’s a 2-1 balance. So YA authors, time to add the girl on girl kissing!

Finally, it seems that while the Publishers Weekly was carefully not naming and shaming the agent in question, the buzz behind the scenes was not so kind. She speaks out at Colleen Lindsay’s blog the Swivet, with her own description of the phone call in question.

[UPDATE] The authors of the original post have replied at Rachel’s LJ, standing by their original post and urging people to focus on the bigger and more important picture of making YA more gay-friendly, rather than getting distracted in finger pointing or choosing sides.

In other news, Catherynne Valente provides one of the best responses I’ve seen to the idea of an Amazon ‘subscription service’ for e-books. I don’t think I know any writer who is more eloquent when angry.

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The Shattering, by Karen Healey
Thyla, by Kate Gordon
Will Supervillains Be On The Final? Vol. One, by Naomi Novik & Yishan Li

I haven’t been reading nearly as much as I want to lately, but I have made some great YA discoveries.

Guardian of the Dead, by Karen Healey, was one of the most interesting YA debut novels last year, with its mixture of serial killer horror and Maori mythology, featuring contemporary New Zealand teenagers with both snark and substance. I was delighted to receive an early copy of Karen Healey’s follow up novel, The Shattering – so much so that I took it as my in flight entertainment for the Aurealis Awards weekend, at which Guardian of the Dead ended up winning Best Novel!

Set in an idyllic New Zealand tourist town, this book has a very simple premise at the heart of it – teenagers uncovering supernatural wrongdoings – but it becomes something far more crunchy and intriguing thanks to the complex, diverse protagonists and Healey’s sensitive handling of some pretty major issues, including teen suicide, grief response, mental health, bullying and coming out to your parents. The absolute heart of the novel is the friendship between the three main characters, who all bond over the shared grief of losing an elder brother to suicide, and decide to investigate whether there is a more sinister reason behind their loss. I loved each of these characters deeply and enjoyed how flawed they are as well as how strong. I also *adored* the fact that, while there is romance here, the novel took a very pragmatic attitude towards teenage love stories, and that the central triad (two girls and a boy) was about as far from a love triangle as it is possible to get.

Original, fast paced and richly detailed, The Shattering is a powerful second novel from a writer whose narrative choices are never dull.

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New episode up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

EPISODE 33

In which we wax lyrical about awards, short stories and the love of reading. Because it’s that time of year!

News
Aurealis Awards winners as reported by roving reporter Tansy

Nebula Awards winners

Translation Awards

Aqueduct links to 25 commemorations of Joanna Russ

New podcast – How I got my Boyfriend to Read Comics

Last Short Story is on Twitter @lastshortstory

New Galactic Chat: Kirstyn McDermott

What Culture Have we Consumed?
Tansy: The Shattering, Karen Healey
Alex: The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss; How to Suppress Women’s Writing, Joanna Russ; Welcome to Bordertown, Ellen Kushner and Terri Windling; finished Stargate SG1 for the second time.
Alisa: Ken Liu’s Paper Menagerie (F&SF March/April), Joanna Russ’s We Who Are About To

Pet Subject: Last Short Story 2011

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!

I felt like such a jet-setter, getting on a plane yesterday morning for a single night in Sydney for the Aurealis Awards. I arrived in the early afternoon and met up with Tehani, Helen and baby Max at the airport so we could taxi in to the hotel together. It felt so decadent to hang out and chat with friends I normally don’t get to see more than once every few years – twice within a month!

We went down to the hotel restaurant for a (very) early dinner, correctly guessing it would be our last chance to eat for the night. Some familiar faces were already down there, with the same idea, and we added a table on the end of theirs – and as more and more people arrived, kept doing so, until we had at least 20 people there, and the table had turned into a long L-shape!

Then of course we all had to disappear to frock up, as the new arrivals were looking increasingly glamorous.

The Aurealis Awards were held at the Independent Theatre, a lovely venue only a few minute’s stagger (a bit longer in high heels, but I was wearing flats, hehehe) from the hotel. We met and mingled at the cocktail party (sponsored by HarperCollins), many of us marvelling at how utterly weird it was to be together again so soon after Swancon – when we’re used to an 18 month separation! Of course there were people there who hadn’t been at Swancon, too, so it was a general crowd of happy reunions, gossip and hugging. With champagne. I had lots of lovely conversations with lots of adorable people, though the highlight for me was getting to meet IN PERSON the amazing Nicola, who has edited all three of the Creature Court books with me, one way or another. To get to talk to her in person about the choices we made and how much we love each other’s work was very, very cool.

And oh, the fashions! We are a gorgeously dressed bunch. Tehani referred to it as the ‘night of necklaces,’ and there was certainly some spectacular jewellery on display. Kirstyn wins the prize, of course, for her bird skull necklace that made people go ooh, and then, erkhhhh when they looked more closely…

The theatre itself was the perfect size for an event like this – grand but cozy at the same time, if that makes sense? Tehani and I decided to start a trend by sitting in the front row, since we knew I had to go on stage at some point to present (and we knew Helen would be going up too, but more on that later!). Spec Faction deserve a huge amount of kudos for the event – it ran smoothly, with any dramas rendered pretty much invisible to the rest of us. Cat had put together a hilarious and touching montage of Aurealis Awards photographs (the overall theme was people we knew looking overheated, a bit drunk and terribly happy) which broke the ice marvellously, and there was a really good vibe in the theatre, all that community spirit stuff.

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Something of great interest to the Galactic Suburbia crew this year was the launch of what is officially known as the Norma K Hemming award, but which we in our podcastly wisdom prefer to affectionately refer to the NAWWWMA (imagine the occerest accent imaginable) because it makes an award feel more iconic to have a one word name. Like the Hugos, or the Ditmars, or Cher.

Whoa, what would you give a Cher Award for? Big hair?

Also, if you called it a ‘Hemming’ for short it might be a touch more dignified, but also renders invisible the fact that it’s named after a woman, something still very rare in our field. ‘Norma’ is hard to miss.

The Norma is designed to mark excellence in the exploration of themes of race, gender, sexuality, class and disability, in speculative fiction works by Australians, or in Australia – the last one being a new addition for the second year of the award. As a longtime Tiptree fangirl, I am excited for us to have our own award to celebrate themes of diversity. I know that it seems at times as if there are so many awards that it’s hardly worth having any more, but something like the Norma has different criteria to something which is more generically looking for the “best” of a given category, and may work to expand people’s definitions of what good speculative fiction actually is.

“Win a Norma” certainly got added to my longlist of career wishes, along with “get nominated for a Tiptree,” “win a Tiptree” and “get to judge the Tiptree.” Like any award, though, it doesn’t matter what pretty rhetoric goes with it, its true significance can’t be seen until you’re a decade in and can look back and see just how interesting a list of winners it is. I look forward to that.

Norma Hemming herself was a fan and writer in the Australian scene. I love this iconic picture of her – more than any other details about her life, this makes me feel like she’s a person I know. After all, you can’t function in fandom without having a killer bitchface scowl, right? Not sure what she’s thinking when the camera snapped, but I like to think it’s something along the lines of “I am so judging you right now.” Or possibly “Where’s my jetpack?”

The 2010 Norma was given posthumously to Maria Quinn for The Gene Thieves (HarperCollins). Entries are now open for the 2011 award (works published in 2010). Anyone can submit works, though the need to supply 4 copies to the judges is probably going to limit nominators to authors and publishers. I always think it’s a bit of a shame to be so rigid about such matters – while you don’t want judges to feel obliged to purchase a lot of material themselves as used to happen in the olden days of Aurealis judging, at the same time I think it’s good if suggestions are encouraged from a wider range of people, and there’s something to be said for hunting and gathering as being an essential part of a judge’s duties…

So what novels or stories would you recommend to be Norma-worthy? I know that my first thoughts go to two stories by Thoraiya Dyer published by Twelfth Planet Press this year – “Yowie” from Sprawl and “Edward Teach” from the new TPP Double. “Teach” in particular has a lot to say about race and culture, and how alienating it can be for a Jewish or Muslim teen growing up in Australia – and that’s before the story gets to all the crunchy genderswapping. I also think that Glitter Rose, particularly the original story “Mama Ailon” would be worth considering, for what it has to say about pregnancy and motherhood. I had to think about this one – certainly in general fiction, dealing with such themes is hardly an exceptional exploration of gender roles, but because female biology is so often ignored or disregarded in fantasy and science fiction, I think it counts. I’d also point out that Angela Slatter’s Sourdough and Other Stories does a great deal to explore gender roles in fairy tales, and particularly to look at the portrayal of female characters in those stories. In novels, Karen Healey’s Guardian of the Dead has lots of crunchy themes of diversity, including a very rare and sympathetic portrayal of an asexual character – the first time I’ve seen this in a YA novel!

I’m sure I’ve missed lots. What else is there?

As I tweeted earlier in the week, is there anything better than getting a box of books from Aqueduct Press? I can’t think of any other publisher from whom I order books by the case. I haven’t even opened it yet, I am saving that pleasure for when my day needs a bit of a lift. Also in the post I received Zombies vs. Unicorns, the concept anthology of the year, and thanks to the gorgeous, clever cover, have already been sucked into reading two of the stories. As someone resolutely not on Team Zombie or Team Unicorn (though it has been established elsewhere that I am on Team Girls on Spaceships and Team I Hate Jane Eyre AKA Team Emily) I plan to embrace the power of the swinging voter and decide for myself which is best by the end of the book. So far the winningest thing about this anthology is the editorial notes, in which Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier not only argue and mock each other’s literary preferences in the story introductions, but also trash talk the stories! Seriously, best story notes ever.

There have been many clever things on the internet this week.

Random Alex reviews the Secret Feminist Cabal, a book so excellent that it reduces me to happy flappy arm movements and little actual critical response.

Very smart article about a very smart woman who has written about the myth of the perceived gender gap, and how girls and boys don’t actually have different kinds of brains, we just think they do because people keep saying VERY LOUDLY how different boys and girls are.

An interesting round up of the average & generally-desired word lengths for different kinds of novels.

Cat Valente announces a special Arab-Muslim issue of Apex and calls for submissions from writers.

Scalzi gives advice for balancing stay-at-home parenting with writing.

A great post about Aussiecon from the POV of a newbie – I particularly loved his description of the convention centre:

In practice, the majority of meetings seemed to take place between people travelling on opposing escalators. They would laugh, touch hands and issue forlorn promises to catch up later as they were whisked apart by the remorseless grind of technology. I was amazed at the foresight of the organisers, selecting a site that provided such a brilliant metaphor for the science fiction dystopia.

Maureen Johnson responds to the ‘boys need more boy books’ debate with a brilliant, heartfelt post about the long history of girls having to read and appreciate male authors.

I’ve been enjoying Jo Walton’s re-read posts over the last couple of months, and in this case she reads and compares Robin McKinley’s two Beauty and the Beast novels: Beauty, and Rose Daughter. These are two of my favourite books, so it was interesting to read her thoughts on them, and on the strange phenomenon of an author telling the same story twice.

Finally, Karen Healey is doing a reviewathon today to fundraise for a relief fund in Christchurch. At current count she will be reviewing flat out for eight hours, but we can make it longer by donating to the cause! If nothing else it should be a very entertaining day, and I’m one of the guest reviewers she has roped in to help. I reviewed all my favourite Roman things!

This wasn’t going to be a themed link post and then at the last minute I looked at the list of links and – well, yes!

NK Jemesin is interviewed for Locus.
This is only a taste of the full interview which I really enjoyed reading from the paper version of the magazine last week. The last pullquote on this page is particularly good but I liked the expanded version better where she discusses some of the amazing roles women and people of colour have had in history, that are often forgotten about by people reproducing “history” in their fantasy novels. This is a call to arms for better, more diverse fantasy and if you can get hold of the magazine, it’s well worth reading the whole thing. Makes me very excited to read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms which is currently climbing to the top of my To Read pile and waving a bunch of flags at me.

Karen Healey, meanwhile, is guestblogging at The Book Smugglers, a blog with I have to say the best header banner ever! Karen is talking about awesome female characters, and why she prefers that phrase to “strong female characters” and why cheerleaders are particularly excellent. Karen also talks about Teal Sherer, the actress who plays the fabulously evil Venom in The Guild and yes, does use a wheelchair in real life. (but hopefully is less SCARY MEAN than Venom in real life). As if that isn’t enough for a blog post, Karen also recs a whole bunch of cool girl books, some of which I agree with wholeheartedly (The Demon’s Covenant, Moonshine & Princess Ben), some I’ve been meaning to read (Girl Overboard) and many, many, many I have never even heard of but now am piling on to my Buy After Worldcon list.

Also, over on Alas! A Blog which reposted my Joanna Russ review, I was pointed towards this article about women of the Literature genre complaining publicly about the difference in review coverage between male and female authors in the field. I really don’t approve of the title because “all the sad young literary women” sounds awfully weak and disempowering when the article is really about some literary powerhouses such as Jodi Picoult getting vocal on Twitter about some really important issues of gender imbalance. They’re not being sad, they’re being ANGRY.

Over here, Margaret Atwood discusses her latest spec fic novel, “The Year of the Flood” and talks about science fiction, climate change and some other things, generally managing to sound about 10 times smarter than whoever it is interviewing her.

I’ve been following Karen’s blog for the last couple of months, and was particularly caught by her post about the importance of New Zealand as the setting of her debut novel, Guardian of the Dead. The post came out of her frustration that overseas readers were referring to her and her book as Australian.

I read the book with this in mind, and I have to say that my first reaction was one big ‘what are you people, high?’ I can see why Karen was so outraged, as the book is not just rich in detail about its New Zealand setting, but the plot itself turns on the mythology and experience of that country.

The second thing that occurred to me was… wow. I really know almost nothing about New Zealand. And I mean nothing. Guardian of the Dead paints such a detailed picture of New Zealand culture, mythology and how they blend into the lives of modern New Zealanders, and… I’ve never seen this before. My entire pop culture experience of New Zealand consists of Hercules, Xena, Lord of the Rings, a couple of Margaret Mahy novels and that Worzel Gummidge series. I can’t help feeling deeply ashamed that this is a country so very close to my own, with so many overlapping ties, and I’ll bet there aren’t many 32 year old New Zealanders who don’t have a far more comprehensive understanding of Australia, our popular culture, and what it might be like to live here.

I loved the delicious mix of mythologies in this pacy, emotionally resonant YA paranormal novel. While Maori legend forms the largest part of the story’s influences, there was also an acknowledgement of world mythology as a whole, and how it works. I loved the connections made between stories and magic, and the idea that everyone has their own body of myths through which they see the world.

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