I skipped my Friday links post last week, because… well, you know. It was one of those days. I have so many links building up, though, I thought I’d better get one in now or I’ll end up having to produce a whole magazine by the time Friday comes around again! Also, some of my links are in danger of looking severely dated…

In other news, it is raining. Grim, vengeful rain. How else would you expect rain that holds off all day and then starts while I am EN ROUTE to pick up my daughter for school, with the baby in the back seat, so I don’t even get a head’s up that maybe today was not the day to put the baby in soft slippers? In other news, Jem has grown so much now that her feet entirely stick out of the stroller, and the plastic rain cover for said stroller. All of these facts are related.

Deb Biancotti is interviewed by Alisa at Galactic Chat!

Fabulous roundtable about (global) Women in World SF – every comment is packed with intelligent, thoughtful ideas. I am delighted such a thing exists in the world. Some important questions are asked, like – why is it so easy for urban fantasy to be excluded from any discussion on spec fic? And why is it that crime readers are so much more open to female authors than SF readers?

The roundtable was in response to this original post by Joyce Chng about women outside the English speaking world are doubly marginalised in the science fiction field.

Maureen Johnson takes on the writer of that Wall Street Journal article (podcast), on the topic of whether YA fiction is getting too dark for teenagers to be allowed to read – fabulous radio and it’s cool to see how articulate Maureen is in person. It’s irritating that the final word goes to a caller who is obviously just out to plug his own book and hasn’t actually been listening to much that has been said in the conversation, and I was disappointed Maureen didn’t get to comment on what he said, but for the most part I think her point of view came across clearly and the conversation was absolutely one worth having.

This post by Tricia Sullivan is getting a little long in the tooth now, but I think it’s absolutely worth checking out if you haven’t already. To put it and the conversation it responds to into context, it’s also worth reading these two posts by Cheryl Morgan: Here We Go, and Further Thoughts. There is some intelligent, interesting conversation in the comments of all three of these posts.

I’m still chewing over my thoughts on the upcoming DC reboot, and this is one of the best posts I’ve seen exploring some of the problematic aspects of regressing storylines, particularly when it comes to female and minority characters.

(more…)

For those looking for a World Cup update from me, all I can say is it is no shame at all for the Matildas to have lost to Brazil, because come on, it’s freaking Brazil, they were up against Cristiane and Marta, so I’m really not being an Australian apologist to say that it’s impressive the gap between scores wasn’t much wider. (here’s a summary of the match from the Boston Globe)

Meanwhile, thanks to a combination of the ‘women’s football’ RSS feed from the Guardian and the presence of at least 4 Arsenal players, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to the England team, which is amusing to me because when the England men’s team plays anything I normally spend most of my time muttering at them with very narrowed eyes. I kind of love the video diaries the team have been releasing, if only to listen to their cute accents, though sadly they didn’t win their match either. (1-1)

Moving aside from sport now, here’s an extra plug for Marianne de Pierres’ new project, cowpunk webcomic Peacemaker. Check out the first issue now for a measly 99¢ – much though I disapprove of people pricing whole novels at 99¢, I think it’s exciting for shorter pieces, and as an Australian it’s rather nice to actually get the 99¢ price for once (yes, iTunes with your $1.19, I’m looking at you, you know what the Australian dollar is actually worth, right?). I believe later issues will be priced higher, so now’s your chance to find out if you like Peacemaker!

Speaking of awesome Australian women (and fictional heroes) here’s a great interview with Anna Torv from Fringe.

I have been so impressed with Torv’s performance throughout the third season of Fringe, playing two versions of the same character, and managing to make both utterly compelling rather than falling into the Spock’s beard style of parallel world characterisation. Speaking of Spock’s beard, the episode which required Torv to channel Leonard Nimoy for a whole episode was amazing. Kudos to the show for the subtle and powerful writing, too. Having loved Fringe in spite of itself in season one, and gone through such excitement when season two was so very good from beginning to end, I’m somewhat beside myself that Fringe is now some of the most exciting and interesting SF TV in years, and mark it as a coup that my honey now watches it with me. It’s gone from a show I considered a guilty pleasure to one that so many of my friends respect, like and get excited by. So hooray for the excellent cast, whoa for the spectacular final episode, and woohoo for season 4 on the horizon. I’m glad to hear that Torv’s performance is being heralded (finally!) but I really really hope John Noble gets the Emmy or the GG – his Walter Bishop has always been exceptional to watch, and it feels like every time the rest of the cast rise to his challenge, he just gets better.

Some shorter links now, I promise!

Forbidden Planet asks, Are you a misogynist?

Kate Beaton makes a very good (and hilarious) point about ‘strong female characters‘ through comic art.

Ben Peek writes about the small world view of speculative fiction in the 21st century.

From Meanland, the death of the book and other utopian fantasies (via @vodkanlime)

The Women of Solaris.

Two from Tor.com re-reading Joanna Russ (in order) starting with The Adventures of Alyx and Greg van Eekhout & Carrie Vaughn talk about YA, middle grade fiction and how The Kids Are All Right.

And in closing, Pixar finally have a female protagonist. The film looks awesome and I love the title so very much.

(Thanks to Helen Merrick for knowing this picture was something I needed to see)

It’s Friday! I wrote 5000 words this week! Smug, cheerful and almost caught up with the week’s tasks. To make up for being so disgustingly pleased with myself, I present Friday links!

Via my Mum, who tries regularly to catch me out by knowing something on the internet before I do, and almost always crashes and burns, an interview with a new young Doctor Who writer, Tom McRae, who is not only contributing to the most mysterious episode of the next half of this season, but also is staging an interactive Doctor Who play for little ones. Who believe in Santa.

Jeff VanderMeer presents Women of the Supernatural: A Tartarus Press Sampler, which looks gorgeous, and features a story by Australia’s own Angela Slatter. Kudos to Angela, it’s not every day you share a TOC with Edith Wharton.

I think we were a little dismissive of the Pottermore announcement last night on Galactic Suburbia (and Twitter, and and and). Some other perspectives: Hoyden About Town report on some of what is being offered on the new site, while The Guardian explores some of the marketing genius behind the announcement, and the site itself. I think it’s pretty disingenuous to suggest, as several journalists and bloggers have, that this is something that other writers will in any way be able to replicate, but I also think that anything which takes the wind out of Amazon’s sails (heh, sales) as far as ebooks are concerned is fighting the good fight.

(my main thought on all this is… so, those bestseller lists that everyone’s relying on to promote their ebooks, they’re about to take a bit of a beating, aren’t they? Suddenly that 99c price point can’t be looking too hot…)

Speaking of ebooks, I was inspired by Sarah Rettger to download Babs: A Sub-Deb by Mary Roberts Rinehart from Project Gutenberg. As Rettger suggests, this is great fluffy YA fiction, with a very appealing voice, which happens to have been written in the 1920′s. I’ve inhaled a good chunk of the book already, despite the rather annoying quirk of including all of the protagonists spelling mistakes.

Jo Walton on how different people approach the process of reading for pleasure.

Ben Peek takes down rape apologist Scott Adams for his stupid, offensive Pegs and Holes post, with that elegant balance of outrage and cynicism that Peek does so well.

Three female scientists at the top of their field are interviewed about the challenges in their lives, whether they have the same chances as men to build successful careers, balancing work and family, and the advice they would give to the women who come after them. I think the best thing about this article is the focus on three women in similar positions rather than a single woman to represent her whole field, as they provide a wider perspective and often disagree with each other. Because all women aren’t the same – shock!

Penni Russon writes about the choices (and non-choices) about having or not having (wanting, or not wanting) children, in a beautiful post. I always love to read Penni’s posts about motherhood, because the way she looks at the world has such a gorgeous balance of pragmatism and romanticism.

In closing, Jem and I watched this on Sesame Street this morning, and at the risk of over-exposing you to the adorableness that is Neil Patrick Harris, I had to share The Fairy Shoe Person:

The splendid review of Love and Romanpunk in the last Locus Magazine is now available on their website.

Among other lovely things, Adrienne Martini says:

The obvious comparison for Rayner Roberts’ work here is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They both have vampires, slayers, and meaty relationships. But Love and Romanpunk is its own, self-contained vision, one that turns the wit and heart up as much as any story could sustain. Rayner Roberts’ lean prose draws you in from the first few paragraphs and keeps that pace going straight through.

You can of course buy this manticore-slaying little volume at Twelfth Planet Press.

I am loving the Tumblr “A Doctor World” which remixes the odd, philosophical phrases of the art-tragicomic-musing-on-the-universe comic strip A Softer World with images from Doctor Who. These range from funny and romantic to sad and uncomfortable – wonderful stuff.

Also, this week on the internet…

Jo Walton talks about child-markers in the Robert Heinlein juveniles.

An inspiring interview with Hope Powell, England football coach and all-around awesome woman. I was fascinated by honest descriptions of what it was like to be a West Indian girl who loved football in Britain in the 1970′s, and how she made it to the top of her field despite how marginalised women’s football still is.

Tehani and Random Alex are doing a chronological read-along series of posts about Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga – Tehani, like me, is a diehard Bujold fan, and Alex is reading the books (and loving them) for the very first time. I’m excited to follow along! Two posts up so far, Cordelia’s Honor and The Warrior’s Apprentice. NOBODY SPOIL ALEX.

For those of you just joining us, Cheryl does a bang up job of summing up the current gender discussion on the internet, centering around The Guardian, lists, Nicola Griffith and others.

The SF MindMeld, which hasn’t had a brilliant record at addressing gender parity in the past but I believe has been working to improve, reiterates Griffith’s idea of the Russ Pledge and asks What’s The Importance of the Russ Pledge Today? Sadly, while most of the official respondents have the right idea and some interesting things to say, there are many commenters who seem offended at the very concept of giving women writers a fair go.

“Why I won’t be taking the Joanna Russ pledge” by Athena Andreadis. Powerful, important post – I think she is somewhat unfair in her characterisation of the pledge and its usefulness but hard to argue with “I have been implementing it for the last forty-plus years.”

Speaking of gender politics, Gail Simone has publicly commented on the lack of female creators involved in the DC reboot (even fewer than usual in comics) and tried to discuss it on Twitter with her fellow professionals. A warning: the comments on this one are beyond depressing.

A cool piece about the equal male-female balance on the writing team of TV show Community and how it worked out really well for them, though starting as an experiment imposed upon them. While there’s a little bit of ‘wow, we included women writers and they didn’t suck, and actually it meant we had a team that had a wider range of views!’ and I think there is some belittling of the idea that a good racial mix among writers would be just as important, it still feels like a step in the right direction.

“Thinking too hard” about The Hunger Games, why the concept of the first book worked so well, and the subversive message it gives to teens, which goes beyond “be yourself” all the way to “if you have to pretend not to be yourself to anyone, chances are they are out to kill you.”

image by perpetualpanda on Deviant Art

Timmi Duchamp at Aqueduct Press looks at the Women’s Hour SF discussion with particular concern for what Gwyneth Jones said about feminist SF vs. SF written by women.
EDIT: Gwyneth Jones’ right of reply, also on Aqueduct Press.

My Mum passed me this link to a cheering and inspirational article about the new generation of activist feminists in the UK (though as Kirstyn McDermott pointed out to me, obviously whoever composed the photograph of the group was not thinking with the feminist half of their brain)

Niall at Strange Horizons links to some Wiscon panel summaries. Sniff. One day my Wiscon will come.

A powerful post by Colleen at Chasing Ray about the ‘are books too dark for our teenagers because everyone knows bad things don’t happen unless you read about them’ stupidity.

Diana Peterfreund on why her latest book was so hard to write, how having babies makes books even HARDER to write, and why it’s important to own the hard work as well as the magical moments of the writing life.

Nicola Griffith (she has been on fire lately!) comparing two LAMBDA acceptance speeches and considering the gendered differences between them.

And oh, the piece of news that most excited me this week: the new Chameleon Circuit album has finally finished production and is available for pre-order, shipping in July. Eeeeee!

I wrote a post for the Ripping Ozzie Reads post today, on why I need to Read to Write – come on over to talk about how reading material inspires your writing and vice versa!

There have been some lovely reviews (and sort of not reviews) of my work around this week. I am grateful for all of them! Having books which are talked about is an utterly joyful thing. Feel free to skip if any mention of my books is making you roll your eyes at this point. I promise plenty of Xena, Agatha Christie and gender politics blogging to come!

Over at Salon Futura, Cheryl Morgan says some excellent things about Power and Majesty. I was astonished to hear she was reading and reviewing it at all, since it’s not a book generally available outside Australia and New Zealand. (an email this week made me crazy happy, from a US reader who heard about me from a guest blog I wrote last year, asked his parents who were travelling through NZ to pick up a copy of P&M for me, and they did so after visiting 3 different shops to find it – how awesome is that? Luckily he liked the book, otherwise that would have been embarrassing) Cheryl calls me brave in my writing choices, and has some beautiful explanation of what my books actually do. She also provides some very grabbable quotes:

“Fans of Storm Constantine might find a lot to interest them in this collection of fashionable, sexy, dangerous misfits.”

“As fans of the Galactic Suburbia podcast might expect, it is also a feminist book. “

Publishers are always complaining that they can’t find anything new, fresh and interesting to offer their audiences, and yet this book is not available in the UK or USA. I cannot for the life of me understand why.

I always feel guilty when people overseas want to get hold of my work and can’t, at least not easily. Here’s hoping Creature Court is snapped up by one of those lovely US or UK publishers who agree with Cheryl that it should be more widely available!

A little closer to home, Random Alex has reviewed (or rather, not-reviewed) Love and Romanpunk – I’m glad she did write up her thoughts about this book, given that I dedicated it to her and all, but completely understand her hesitation to claim it as a real review. Still, at least she declares her biases! I think my favourite bit in the post is her response to what I did with Caligula in “Julia Agrippina’s Secret Family Bestiary,” which I will quote here because the other review of this book I’m going to quote from didn’t like that story at all (YES, BEN, LOOKING AT YOU):

“The first story in this collection is “Julia Agrippina’s Secret Bestiary.” It gives a potted history of the Caesar family… with added monsters. I really enjoyed Tansy’s characterisation of the various members of this crazy family. She captures an essence, I think, of the various emperors and their wives/sisters/mothers that actually rings quite true. I particularly liked that although Gaius – Caligula – is shown to be a bit nuts eventually, he’s handled much more sensitively than most other fictional representations bother. Of course. And the monsters made a bizarre sort of sense; they fit in delightfully well with the overall vibe of the story.”

Then there’s Ben Payne’s review – and all teasing aside, Ben is one of those people whom I absolutely rely on to be honest about what he likes and doesn’t like about my work. He’s also been reading me & paying attention to my short fiction for a lot longer than most people – having edited my work before he even knew me, back in the old Andromeda Spaceways days!

Which is why this bit, in particular, bowled me over:

“I have been thinking for a while about how to best sum up Love and Romanpunk. In some ways it delivered what I expected, but in others it surprised me. I expected this book to be smart, to know its history, to have a sense of fun, and some laughs, and some steamy romance. Those things are almost Tansy trademarks. And it does have all those things, but in the end, all of those things felt almost peripheral to the things I liked most about the collection.

What’s not often talked about, with Tansy’s writing, is the fact that there is a real emotional courage to her best works, a sense that she is ready to get into her gumboots and rubber gloves and muck about in the messiest, ugliest, most confusing of human emotions and relationships, and to try to find a path through them. It’s that depth of emotion, sometimes sweet, but just as often brutal and painful, that drives the best of these stories into being something a cut above the majority of works out there. The fact that they are also smart, and fun, is just the icing on the cake.”

With comments like that, I can totally forgive him for not liking my Agrippina story!

There haven’t been many reviews for The Shattered City yet, though it is interesting to note how many people are reading and reviewing P&M now that the second book is out. I have been eyeing the responses on Goodreads, though. Would it be far too self-indulgent to put up a post where people who have read Book #2 could comment about the surprisey bits without worrying about spoiling anyone?

The final posts of my Slapdash Blog Tour of Doom have gone up. Here’s the complete list – and thanks to all the people who volunteered space on their blog for me to chatter away. I was particularly grateful for the various topics I was given to write on – I certainly couldn’t have blogged that much without being so inspired by the topics.

The Shattered City Slapdash Blog Tour of Doom.

Craft, Magic & Women’s Work (Voyager Online)
The Long and Short of It (Intrepid Reader)
Friday Hoyden: Jean Marsh (Hoyden About Town)
There And Back Again, by A Fantasy Author (The Journeyman Writer)
My favourite Creature Court outfits (Egoboo)
Australian Women Writing SF (The Best Audience)
On Getting an Australia Council Grant (K A Bedford)
Why the Creature Court & what Sources Did I Use? (Castle Books)
The Mega Tansypost of Doom (Helen Merrick)
Fandom: The Next Generation (Jo1967)
On Middle Books and Broken Cities (Kate Gordon)
Of Swords and Breakfast (Fablecroft)
Aufleur and Rome (Random Alex)
The Story of Book 2 (Trent Jamieson)
Backstory and the Ties That Bind (Larvatus Prodeo)
My Urban Fantasy is a Little Further Away (Nicole R Murphy)
The Fabric of the Universe (Lauredhel)
Living With a Writer (Bridal Cupcake)
Every Book is a Special Snowflake (Champagne and Socks)
Contemplating Other (People’s) Worlds (Adventures of a Bookonaut)
When is a Vampire Not a Vampire? (AsIF)

I’ve also had some great reviews go up recently of my books, of which two of my favourites are by Jason Nahrung and Stephanie Gunn.

And I’ve been reviewing again over at Last Short Story, with posts on Aussie YA anthology The Wilful Eye and stories from various anthologies & Nightsiders by Sue Isle.

So basically it’s all about me!

Here I am again (still), bloggiting away. The exciting development this week is that books seem to have actually been appearing in bookshops around the country, and going home with people! I have particularly loved receiving pictures tweeted to me from friends & readers showing off their new copies. Love you all!

And of course I actually received a couple of copies of The Shattered City in the post which are just for MEEEEE – I had almost forgotten that I hadn’t seen a real copy myself. It’s very pretty, quite my favourite book yet, but I would say that, wouldn’t I? Also this week I caught sight of the artwork that will appear on Book #3 – anyone care to guess who will be featuring on the cover and what colour the “iconic frock” for Reign of Beasts will be?

Alex asked me to blog about Aufleur and Rome, two of my favourite cities!

Trent asked for The Story of Book Two.

Over at Larvatus Prodeo, I talk about how backstory created the people that my characters are today.

.And at Nicole Murphy’s blog, I talk about the delicious cocktail that comes from blending traditional & urban fantasy