I also very much enjoyed the latest, 12th episode of The Outer Alliance podcast – these have been going from strength to strength with some wonderful interviews (and I’m not just saying that because they namecheck Galactic Suburbia!) and the latest one has host Julia Rios discussing all manner of gleeful and squeeful things with Lynne M Thomas – Hugo-award winning co-editor of Chicks Dig Time Lords, co-editor also of Whedonistas and the upcoming Chicks Dig Comics, incoming editor of Apex Magazine, podcaster of the SF Squeecast, archivist extraordinaire, etc. Oh yes, and she’s my fellow Tiptree juror this year too! Getting a chance to eavesdrop on the conversation between these two bouncy, enthusiastic and smart women was a great pleasure today, and they cover all kinds of issues, from behind the scenes podcasting gossip to third wave feminism, and how talking about shoes can be a subversive act.

I checked on a new discovery, the Anomaly podcast this week, with mixed results. I had been linked to their special two part Women of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Fandom episode, and found that inspiring and illuminating in some places, and deeply irritating in others. I liked that it was a group of women discussing their interests in SF, fandom, etc. and tackling questions like who writes strong female authors best, and whether ‘slave Leia’ costumes are problematic or empowering.

I was put off initially by the opening to the podcast – why is a podcast with all female hosts and a focus on female issues introduced by male voices? And I also bristled about the definition of Anomaly, and the over-emphasis on just how weird it is that girls like geeky things (in my world, this isn’t a weird thing!). However, I was won over by the earnestness of the presenters, and the quite emotional revelations of how they came to fandom, and some of the sexism or gender assumptions they have had to overcome to embrace their geekitude, which made me a lot more sympathetic to their feeling like being geek women is, you know, unusual.

As with all podcasts, the most interesting parts were the conversations where it was obvious that they were only speaking for themselves and their personal opinions – and it screeched to a halt (as far as this listener was concerned) where I disagreed madly with them. The issue that repeatedly had me gnashing my teeth was the lack of mention of female writers – the very long discussion about who writes great female characters in SF and fantasy came back again and again to Joss Whedon, Robert Jordan, and other male writers, but only touched briefly on women (mentions of Jane Espenson and Suzanne Collins) – and then one of them made the appalling statement that she sort of thought women tended not to write strong female characters. For the most part this was met with agreement, and while she admitted maybe that meant she wasn’t reading the right female authors, none of them could think of many examples to counter her claim.

So the statement stood there, sucking up all the oxygen in the room.

Because, sorry, that really does mean you are reading the wrong stuff! Later on the same statement was brought up by someone else as JUSTIFICATION for the fact that women in the TV and film industry were more vulnerable to being elbowed out, in the troubled economy. As in, since women don’t write great female characters… well she didn’t actually say that maybe it was better then that they got fired first so the menz could get on with writing great roles for women, but it was implied. Ouch. I know none of us are perfect feminists, but that bit did rather produce some steam from my ears.

So… I’m not sure about this one. I liked so much of the mega double episode, as an introduction to this group of female hosts, but was saddened to see so little positive discussion of female authors – it made me want to send them a book list! Except for the fact that my whole life is basically a book list arguing against that particular point. The analysis of women’s position in fan culture, though, and the media focus, was of great interest to me and I absolutely think it produced more good than harm. Though – gnash gnash. Not sure I can recommend it.

On a far, far more positive note, I started listening to the interviews that the Anomaly women had posted as part of their celebration of Women in Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Fandom, and I can recommend this one without hesitation: Sue interviews Carrie, the mother of “Katie the Star Wars girl,” whose story went viral last year after Katie was bullied at school for having a Star Wars drink bottle (Star Wars is for boys, apparently) and her mother wrote a heartfelt blog post about it. Being the mother of a proud Grade 1 geek girl myself, I found myself tearing up as Carrie talked about the internet response to her request to hear from women who love Star Wars, so Katie would know it was nothing to be ashamed of. I do love me a story about the internet doing good – and this particular pile-on was spectacular!

Carrie has written a book about bullying, and has done a huge amount of interview-based research for her work, looking particularly at how to teach very young children to deal with and respond to bullying in the most constructive possible way, and how to head it off as early as possible (also about how to empathise with, and communicate with children who bully others). I found her thoughts on the issue absolutely fascinating, as well as her discussion on raising geek children generally, and other things to do with the way society is intent on gender policing our children.

The advice on how to explain the difference between tattling & necessary reporting/telling was very cool, and something I will draw upon in the future, I suspect. So after my disappointment in the group podcast, I was glad to have my hopes for Anomaly pay off so well – I guess that means I have to give some more of their episodes a go now!

There’s one kind of fantasy novel I haven’t discussed in any depth, and it’s the fantasy format which is most iconic as well as the most vilified. It also, apparently, sells better than any other fantasy format.

I’m talking about the trilogy.

The trilogy gets a bad rap, mostly from people who don’t read fantasy novels. It’s the equivalent of Fabio book covers – the feature of the genre most fixated on by outsiders. In truth, fantasy trilogies are popular for many good reasons. They are long enough that you can tell a really epic story and build up a thoroughly detailed world, but not so long that people start worrying about the author’s life expectancy.

According to publishing legend, the format came about when the hardback of a moderately successful novel by some chap called Tolkien proved too long to publish in a single paperback edition. It was broken up into three paperbacks, and promptly became a zeitgeist-making, record-smashing, hugely popular book of a generation, and then another generation, inspiring publishers to actively hunt “something a bit like it”. While many of the immediate successors to Tolkien did not in fact write trilogies, ultimately the popularity of this format is laid at his door.

There are many people who argue that The Lord of the Rings is not a trilogy at all, but either a single book or six books. Do these people not recognise a zeitgeist when they see one? In recent years, developments in publishing glue have meant that you can in fact print a paperback of the entirety of The Lord of the Rings in a single volume, and many trilogies (not looking at anyone in particular, Ms Larke) are now made up of individual volumes long enough to challenge the limits of said wonderglue.

It’s not about the length of the books, though. Slender or fat, there is something oddly satisfying about a trilogy. A set up adventure, a making things worse book, and a resolving things in epic fashion book. I’m a fan of the format – and it’s interesting to see how these have taken over so substantially as *the* prime fantasy format. I seem to recall a greater percentage of longer ongoing fantasy series in the 80′s and 90′s – yes, Robert Jordan really did ruin it for the rest of us…

For a writer, a trilogy is probably the most saleable fantasy format, especially in Australia right now. But that’s okay, because a trilogy can be anything from three linked novels (Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters trilogy was each about a different character from a different generation of the same family) to one story over three volumes. There’s a lot of variation there, and no rules to say every trilogy should be the same.

There are many potential pitfalls, of course. Each book has to be satisfying in of itself. You may not know when writing it what the ultimate publishing schedule might be, and have to assume at least a year between reading volume 1 & 2. You have to make sure there’s enough happening in Book 1 that people want to come back for more, even though you’re really just setting up for more interesting stuff to happen later (if there isn’t more interesting stuff in books 2 & 3, you’re doing something wrong!). You have to try to avoid the dread ‘saggy bit’ in book 2, the bit that makes reviewers say it should have been a duology. Book 2 has to be The Empire Strikes Back, not Temple of Doom. Only you want Book 3 to be Last Crusade, not Return of the Jedi. (cough, though actually I kind of liked Return of the Jedi, never mind, move on)

Book 3 is the most important one. Book 1 has to be awesome, but Book 2 has to be awesomer and Book 3 has to be awesomest. It has to draw together all the traily bits and promises of Books 1 & 2. It has to fulfil all the promises. It has to resolve all the character arcs. It has to be EPIC. It has to have a few surprises in too, no point in just giving the reader what it says on the box… no pressure at all, then, for the trilogy writer.

Did I mention I’m writing a Book 3 right now? Yep, no pressure at all.

I haven’t done this before. Well, I have technically, but those of you who know the story of my first trilogy know that there are reasons why I might have a few hang ups about Book 3. By the time I managed to write a Book 3 that worked, I didn’t have a publisher any more… but that was a loooong time ago.

I can write this book now. It’s just big, the biggest thing I’ve contemplated in a long time. There’s so much to do! I’m throwing in all this new stuff in the final volume that will turn everything on its head and between you and me? I’m not entirely sure everyone’s getting out of this one alive. Here’s hoping some of them do, or this is going to be one depressing final volume.

Also I haven’t found the iconic frock for this book yet. Can one make a frock out of clockwork? It would look kind of awesome on the cover!

Cough. Okay. Carry on about your business. I have a book to work on…

News:

Alisa’s live report from Swancon!

Tiptree winners & Honours List including Wives Wives Wives

Arthur C Clarke shortlist

Hugos – largest number of votes ever received. Shortlist out Easter Sunday, UK time:

Launch of new Asif website

Stephenie Meyer to release a novella for free to fans online followed by the hard copy version from June 5.

Shaun Tan’s Eric

k9 to screen on Australian tv tomorrow on Channel 10! [heh this is officially old news now]

Garth Nix and Sean Williams, teaming up with Troubletwisters

What have we been reading?

Tansy - Lifelode, by Jo Walton & Chicks Dig Time Lords

Alisa – The Women Men Don’t See/ What I Didn’t see and commentary, Alice Sheldon’s Biography

Alex – Lord of the Rings, also “To Write like a Woman,” collected essays by Joanna Russ.

Pet Subject: Media Tie-Ins

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, talking about Star Wars – initially in Star Wars on Trial, a BenBella collection

See also http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2010/03/guest-blogger-ari-marmell-on-writing.html

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If you have any feedback or comments for us, please email galacticsuburbia@gmail.com

2 April 2010

It’s surprisingly sophisticated, the way she chooses to face her fears like that. I’ve seen her do this with movies, too, being worried or scared by something adult in them, but coming back the next day and asking to see it again. She was terrified by Spirited Away the first time (and I don’ t blame her) but now it’s one of her favourite movies.

So yes, many spare moments & chores over the last several days have been enlivened by me having to recite from memory the plot of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Good thing it wasn’t the Twits or something, at least I remember a lot of this one! At one point I explained to Raeli about how that episode of Futurama she’s seen approximately a gazillion times, when Fry and the others visit the Slurm Factory, is actually a pastiche of the Willy Wonka movie. I pointed out the similarity in the river scene, the Oompa-Loompas, and Wonka’s costume. She nodded in a vaguely patronising “yes I see this is interesting to you, Mummy” way, and I dropped the subject.

But I remember the first time she saw that episode of Futurama, I thought “Oh here we go, seeing the pastiche before the source material…” Because that pretty much sums up my childhood.

I was not in on the zeitgeist, growing up. Possibly because my mother’s influence steered me away from American pop culture, commercial tv stations, seeing movies in the cinema, and any form of early-adoption, apart from the VHS player. We were also a pro-second-hand books family. I’m not sure if it’s just the era I was born in, but it seems like I viewed, read and experienced almost everything in entirely the wrong order.

Before I saw Star Wars, for example, I:

saw a parody in pig-themed comic book Oink! depicting Luke Skyporker and Ham Solo
watched Caravan of Courage
watched Return of the Jedi
read the novelisation of Star Wars
watched Spaceballs

Seeing the parody before the original source became something of a tradition for me. I also saw Spaceballs with its classic alien-bursts-out-of-chest-and-starts-tapdancing scene long before Alien.

Doctor Who, which can definitely be considered my first fandom, was something experienced through endless repeats and recordings. For at least 10 years on Australian TV (possibly 20), the same Jon Pertwee and especially Tom Baker episodes were repeated in a seemingly endless loop, along with the Goodies, Roger Ramjet, Bananaman, Monkey Magic, etc. My honey and I, comparing notes, discovered that we had exactly the same childhood TV memories despite having 10 years separating our ages.

My obsessive brain was reading Doctor Who: the Programme Guide at a horribly early age, learning which episodes went where, and becoming an expert in characters and actors I had never actually seen. Target novelisations allowed me to fill in the gaps, and say with great confidence that my favourite story was The Highlanders, despite it having been destroyed (I think) before I was born.

Oh, and I read about two dozen Star Trek: Next Gen novels before I saw a single episode of the series. I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, thanks to listening to Wil Wheaton’s awesome ‘Memories of the Futurecast’ podcast, and my recent Dragonlancy nostalgias. As a teenager, I found some Next Gen novels being sold for $5 each in a no-longer-there bookshop in Hobart called Greensleeves. I read it in a mad tear, and went back with some pocket money, thinking I could maybe afford 3-4 of them. To my utter delight, they were now marked down to $2 each.

I loved those books like a crazy person. My favourite was “Survivors,” which filled in the backstory (later contradicted in the TV show I think) about Tasha Yar, my favourite character (ha, that worked out well). I eventually got hold of some episodes thanks to our local video rental, but the tv shows never quite had the same level of interest for me as the books. It was just about a year before my obsession moved on to other things… but I managed to collect a LOT of books in that time.

When it comes to books, my favourites were often the series that could be read in any order, like Pratchett’s Discworld or Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga. The same can be said for a lot of historical series, I suppose. I read Jo’s Boys before Good Wives. Read Rainbow Valley & Rilla of Ingleside before Anne’s House of Dreams.

I’m an early adopter, these days. I watch my favourite shows the instant they come out, I order books in bulk from the US rather than wait to see if they even get a release in Australia, and I take part in Last Short Story, a project which means reading as much as possible of the short fiction published this year, instead of waiting for awards shortlists, recommended reading lists and Best-Of anthologies to filter out the best stuff for me.

So much of our pop culture these days is obsessed with avoiding spoilers, with wanting to experience every second of a show or film or book without a single hint about it beforehand, without knowing what the twists and turns are. I love that experience too, and I understand why people get so obsessive about it now that the internet makes it so much easier to be spoiled. I’ve been known to hide from my laptop so I can watch a soccer game on delay without finding out what the result was by random tweets.

But there’s something to be said for the kind of story that is good despite you knowing how it ends. Where the experience is learning how they got to a particular place, rather than wondering where they will end up. I am, as it happens, a sucker for prequels, between-the-stories stories, and the revelation of backstory that makes the front story so much more interesting. One thing I love about the TV show How I Met Your Mother is the way that they play with narrative, using flashbacks and unreliable narration to reveal secrets and new layers about the past, which always fit seamlessly into the present, while dropping hints about the future – all managing to form a cohesive whole. Despite its title, it is most definitely a story about the journey rather than the destination. (I know this especially because I watched season 3 first, then 1&2, then 4…)

We all know how Doctor Who is going to end, this Christmas. Except we don’t. Not really. The joy is in the details. It should be every bit as much of a surprising revelation as was the War Games when I first watched it, long after Spearhead from Space; or the death of Julius Caesar in Rome. Short of actually getting hold of transcripts first and reading all the dialogue beforehand (which, cough, I did for Buffy Season Three) we can’t be spoiled, not really. All we have so far is the shopping list, not the recipe.