And then there was Friday
It was great running on Good Friday morning: almost no traffic, and almost no people! I ran down to and along the Esplanade – they have a huge bloody river in Perth! And fountains… I don’t remember when there were working fountains in Melbourne. Oh – and that was after waking up at 5.30am Perth time, which my body was insisting was 7.30 for us, despite having gone to sleep at about 2am for us (midnight in Perth). Very confusing… fortunately my ability to doze off again seems to be reappearing.
Hung around with Alisa, Ben and Tehani for a bit of the morning – they were setting up their table to flog their wares (primarily 2012 and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine – Australia’s pulpiest magazine! (I adore it).
The first panels I went to were about the history of Dr Who – the pre-production stuff, like how Dr Who basically started because the BBC had an opening in their scheduling, and the fact that its producer was the first female producer and the youngest producer to boot, at the BBC. That’s cool. Interesting to hear that it seems like lots of people wanted Dr Who to fail, for a whole range of reasons! It also seems that TV people stuffing around with their programming has been going on for as long as TV has existed (and probably happened/happens in radio, too) – changing series lengths, etc. The soundstage they had to deal with makes it seem remarkable they managed to make anything, frankly, and seems a testament to the actors and the crew. And then – to top it all off, and to drive home what they’d been talking about – the panel did an overview of the first season of Dr Who, which was very cool. Those guys clearly know their Who trivia, which was fun…. It was fascinating to hear about the growth in viewers (up to 10 million for the episodes with the Daleks!), and about the interaction of the actors – and development of the characters, too.
Zara’s talk on “why we love children’s SF” was fantastic – a survey of 900 respondents, asking when they started reading scifi, what they liked as a kid, what they didn’t like, etc. I really must take the time to read The Inter-Galactic Playground. It sounds like a very cool project Zara has got herself involved in! – and gave me a list of books I really ought to chase up, too…
Anyway… then went and had a drink with a few people, then it was the launch of 2012 and Workers’ Paradise, both of which I can highly recommend. After that, another book launch! – Magic Dirt, a collection of Sean Williams’ stuff. Rob nearly choked on the little packets of magic dirt (actually gravel or something similar), and blamed me for it…. Eventually had a bit to eat at the Indian restaurant around the corner at about 9pm, then back to the hotel bar, then nearly went to a room party… but it was too loud and hot, so I bailed and went to bed. It was, after all, midnight.
So that was Swancon…
I am still a bit dazed at the fact that I flew across the entire darned continent for a long weekend, to go to a nerdfest, where I knew two people (at the start) and had met maybe two others. That seems weird. Doesn’t it seem weird? Whenever people asked my husband where I was for the weekend, and he explained, their immediate reaction (apparently) was to ask: do people wear capes??
Anyway, it was bloody brilliant. I enjoyed myself immensely… especially once I realised that I could do whatever the heck I liked, that there was very little expected of me and that I didn’t have to wait for permission to go to panels or whatever. That’s a fairly obvious thing, but sometimes I still get caught up in trying to please others when that’s not necessary, or being scared to do something a bit different. Hello!! It’s a nerdfest!!
Anyway#2 – I took copious notes, as is my wont; partly for my own sake, partly for my husband, and partly so as not to fall asleep during panels after too many late nights. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on putting it all online…
Thursday
I actually quite enjoyed my flight. The shuttle ride not to much – I was the last to be dropped off, and was getting quite impatient towards the end (why, I dunno; no one was expecting me!). The hotel had my name wrong, which led to a near-heart attack thinking I didn’t have a room (how would I host room parties?? was my first thought). It was very, very funny seeing the TARDIS in the foyer.
Went for a walk around Northbridge – scoped out potential places to run – it’s a lot like Richmond, I decided, with its proximity to the city (closer than Richmond, actually), and preponderance of Asian stores and restaurants.
Girliecon was in my room that night – Alisa’s scheme for getting all the best people in the one room at the same time. Of course, my room was tiny, but we still managed to fit about 30 people in there that night. With pink drinks and everything! A magnificent time was had – by me, anyway – got to meet Kathryn (finally!), and Dirk and Tehani; catch up with Ben and of course the inimitable Alisa… and a whole bunch of other people, too (sorry, all the parties are blurring together in my brain…). I think I even kicked out the Special Esteemed International Guest of Honour, Rob, when I made everyone leave at about 11pm because my body said it was 1am and wasn’t that time for sleep?
Back from the insanity…
and sleep-deprived place that is Swancon. Wahey! What fun. So much to say… but not right now. Because right now, much to the amusement of my friends at said con, I am about to spend a day at another conference! This one is on Feasting in the (ancient) Aegean. And I doubt there will be room-parties – not like mine, anyway. (And I won’t know, because even if there were, I think my body would break if I asked it to do another late night.)
However, if you’re interested, I am doing an online forum thingy tomorrow night, on my experiences at the con, for a dear friend of mine: it will be happening on RedBubble. I have no idea who will bother tuning in to ask questions, but if you want to come and be provocative you’ll have to sign up to RedBubble first (which doesn’t cost, and doesn’t spam, if you’re interested).
So much more to come… just not right now.
City of Darkness, City of Light
Because I am teaching the French Rev this year, it was recommended that I read City of Darkness, City of Light by Marge Pearcy (I think). It takes six real figures of the rev and gives their perspectives on the events from mid 1780s until late 1790s. It’s a novel, though, so there is a bit of license with regard to motives etc, and dialogue of course – it reminded me of McCollough’s Rome series for that reason.
Anyway: it was good. I enjoyed it. It gives you a good sense of what France was like as a country at the time, as well as of some of the personalities (exaggerated as they may be). It was exciting to see the events unfold from different perspectives, and the characters are well-chosen for that: Pauline is a worker in Paris; Claire is an actress from the country who comes to Paris; Manon is rich and moves between the country and Paris (so it was great to have three women’s perspectives); Georges is an ambitious lawyer; Max is also a lawyer, idealistic and from the country but moves to Paris; and Nicholas is a noble, something of a philosopher and about my favourite character.
For anyone familiar with the revolution, you might spot the one thing that was distressing about this book: the men are Danton, Robespierre, and Condorcet – who, of course, all get killed by their beloved Revolution, as does Manon – surname Roland, responsible for a very influential salon. So four out of six, dead. And knowing that this is going to happen really didn’t help! It was like re-watching a Grand Prix (very loud in the background, here), and knowing that there’s a huge smash coming up just around that bend…
The Jane Austen Book Club
I am not, generally, a fluffy movie kind of gal. However, I agreed to go see this movie with two of my very good friends (I realised the other day that I’ve known them for 10 and 11 years! Amazing!) at the Moonlight Cinema. Sadly, Al had to pull out at the last minute, so it was just K and me: right up the front, with blanket and very tasty food, and a bottle of moscato.
Overall, I must admit to enjoying the movie: five women get together to read the six Austens, through various means and for various purposes. A bloke joins them as well, for the obvious reason – getting into the pants of one of them, although it was more refined than that.
A couple of things occurred to me, which I thought I’d share here – mild spoilage:
1. The bloke is a sci-fi buff, and has never read any ‘classics’: in fact, the bloke first meets up with the woman for whom he joins he bookclub, he’s at a scifi con (SwanCon! woohoo!). One of the funnier moments of the movie comes when he first turns up with all six books in one: in case they’re sequels. This is such a classic scifi idea; it makes perfect sense to me. It’s also very interesting to see that this scifi buff is perfectly capable of reading, understanding, and communicating ideas about ‘great literature.’ There’s also an interesting sideline in him convincing the woman to read scifi, at first Ursula le Guin. She refuses for a long time, before he shames her into reading them and she, of course, loves it.
2. Singleness is a huge issue. One of the women is middle-aged-ish, and another is going through a divorce; one is in a troubled marriage, one is a lesbian with fairly tempestuous relationships, and the other has been married six times (currently divorced). So how to deal with being single, and what this means for a woman, is explored a bit (although not great depth). This is not my issue, and as far as I was concerned this was simply part of the movie. The interesting part, I realised, was that there was no mention of Grigg’s singleness. He was in his mid-thirties, at least, and single, but this was never an issue. Not once. Because it’s ok for men to be bachelors, but women are spinsters – bachelorettes just don’t cut it.
3. The last thing to mention is the conclusion. I quite liked the end – I am totally fine with happy endings, even sappy endings, sometimes. The thing that bugged me here was the scripting! It was appalling! There were so many other possible ways of communicating the same idea – even I could have written something better! Anyway… grrr. Nearly spoiled a good movie.
Wicked
I finished reading Wicked: the Life and Times of Wicked Witch of the West a couple of days ago. I probably shouldn’t have admitted that, because now Girlie and Ben will now gang up on me insisting that I write the review for ASif!, but that’s not going to be too hard (when I make the time) because it is brilliant. Brilliant as in, I think I have to pass it on to the second reviewer so I might buy myself a copy.
Anyway, watch out for the review… but since that might take a week or so, just go and buy the darn book. That’s what the review will say anyway, just in more words.
The Golden Compass
I took my sister to see this the other day (although I guess she could have taken herself, given she’s 21 years old; guess there are some things it’s up to a big sister to do, though…). We’d both been looking forward to it a lot. It has such a great cast! It should be an amazing movie.
Can you tell where this is going?
The chick who sold us the tix asked if we’d read the book, and when I said I hadn’t, she informed me that it might be hard to understand. I realised as I walked away that actually, I have read the trilogy – just a few years ago, and the details are quite fuzzy. My sister has indeed not read it.
Anyway, there are lots of people who have reviewed the movie, so I won’t bother to go into details of the plot and characters. Suffice to say that I was a bit disappointed. I enjoyed it and all, but I wasn’t utterly overwhelmed, which is what I’d rather hoped. One telling instance might have been that I asked my sister half way through: wasn’t Robert Deniro meant to be in this? She pointed out to me that I was thinking of Stardust, which I haven’t seen. Oops.
The effects were very cool – very cool; I thought Nicole Kidman was good, as was Daniel Craig (what you saw of him); Eva Green seemed stilted, and the girl playing Lyra was a bit odd in places. The story didn’t feel like it went anywhere.
Whenever the sequel/s come out, I imagine I will go see them, for completeness’ sake… but I won’t be gagging for them, like I was LOTR (but that’s a different instance anyway, for me…).
Stories I have known, ’07
Following on from the overall list of Great Stories We Enjoyed in 2007, here then is my personal list:
Absolute Favourites:
David D Levine, “Titanium Mike Saves the Day,” F and SF April
Martin Livings, “There was Darkness,” Fantastic Wonder Stories
Eric James Stone, “Tabloid Reporter to the Stars,” Intergalactic Medicine Show February
Honorable Mentions:
Manek Mistry, “Stories of the Alien Invasion,” Abyss and Apex 21
Karen Swanberg, “The Memory of Touch,” Abyss and Apex 21
Ben Burgis, “Three Perspectives on the Role of the Anarchists in the Zombie Apocalypse,” Afterburn SF July
Amy Betchel, “A Time for Lawsuits,” Analog July/August
Kevin Veale, “A Day in Her Lives,” ASIM 29
Charles Stross, “Trunk and Disorderly,” Asimovs January
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, “Recovering Apollo 8,” Asimovs February
Karen Joy Fowler, “Always,” Asimovs April/May
Lucius Shephard, “Dead Money,” Asimovs April/May
Allen M Steele, “The River Horses,” Asimovs April/May
Nancy Kress, “Fountain of Age,” Asimovs July
Darja Malcolm-Clarke, “The Beacon,” Clarkesworld 11
Bud Sparhawk, “Frost,” Darker Matter 1
Cherie Priest, “Our Lady of the Wasteland and the Hallelujah Chorus,” Dreadful Skin
M Rickert, “Memoir of a Deer Woman,” F and SF March
Carrie Vaughn, “Swing Time,” Baen’s Universe June
Grace Dugan, “Knowledge,” Interzone 211
Walter Jon Williams, “Send Them Flowers,” The New Space Opera
Nancy Kress, “The Art of War,” The New Space Opera
Joanne Merriam, “The Harvest,” Strange Horizons March
John Rosenmann, “Going Away,” Space and Time 100
Lee Thomas, “Sweet Fields,” Space and Time 100
PD Cacek, “The Way to a Man’s Heart,” Space and Time 100
Stephen Baxter, “Last Contact,” Solaris Book of New Science Fiction
Rachel Swirsky, “Dispersed by the Sun, Melting in the Wind,” Subterranean Online Summer
Ben Payne, “Inside,” Ticonderoga Online 11
Tansy Roberts, “Bluebell Vengeance,” ASIM 28
Kieran Morgan, “Finding Each Other Again,” ASIM 30
Sue Isle, “The Sun People,” Shiny 1
Things I think influence my thoughts on this:
I’m not an author
Until last year, I had read very few short stories
I’m the youngest
I’m a softie, unlike the other three who are hard-asses…Â =D
On women being published and such
So a friend of mine started a ginormous interwebs feud the other day, discussing the lack of women being published in speculative fiction. A lot of people responded; some very well, others (mostly men) extremely poorly. There was mud-flinging and name-calling and misrepresentations… all very interesting.
In response, and to get her own thoughts on the subject very clear and mused-through, the wonderful Tansy has linked to the debates and offered a coherent, sustained, and fascinating take on the whole topic. Sans mud-slinging!
The LSS Recommended Reading List
LSS = the Not if you were the Last Short Story on Earth project.
So here we go. After much deliberating, the four of us have come up with a list of our Recommended Reading, from out of the thousands of stories we’ve read this year. This list represents those stories that a majority, if not all of us, felt were stand-outs and something special. We’ll follow this list with our own personal lists during the week, where we’ll share some of our more personal tastes and our thoughts. For now, though, here is our list of recommendations for 2007:
(note: for reasons of potential bias, I’ve separated those works written or published by a member of LSS from the others. These are listed at the end of the other list. Feel free to take those with a grain of salt.)
Stories we loved:
Maelstrom… Kage Baker (The New Space Opera)
Last Contact… Stephen Baxter (Solaris Books of New Science Fiction)
Paper Cut Scissors… Holly Black (Realms of Fantasy October)
The Coat of Stars… Holly Black (So Fey)
A Reversal of Fortune… Holly Black (The Coyote Road)
Times Winged Chariot… Nicola Caines (Albedo One #32)
The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate… Ted Chiang (Fantasy & Science Fiction Sept)
Domine… Rjurik Davidson (Aurealis #37)
Knowledge… Grace Dugan (Interzone #211)
Chiaroscurist… Hal Duncan (Logorrhea)
Glory… Greg Egan (The New Space Opera)
Family Values… Sara Genge (Cosmos 16)
End Game… Nancy Kress (Asimovs April/May)
Fountain of Age… Nancy Kress (Asimovs June)
Bambi Steaks… Richard A. Lovett (Analog May)
A Complete Refabrication… Bren Macdibble (Orb #7)
Harvest… Joanne Merriam (Strange Horizons)
Stories of the Alien Invasion… Manek Mistry (Abyss & Apex #21)
John Wayne… Ben Peek (Aurealis #37)
Second Law… Alexandra Penn (Zahir #12)
Distant Replay… Mike Resnick (Asimovs)
The Sledge-Maker’s Daughter… Alistair Reynolds (Interzone #209)
Memoir of a Deer Woman… M. Rickert (Fantasy & Science Fiction March)
When We Were Twelve… Heather Shaw (When We Were Six)
Muse of Fire… Dan Simmons (The New Space Opera)
Right to Work… Cat Sparks (The Workers’ Paradise)
The River Horses… Allen M. Steele (Asimovs April/May)
Post Hoc… Leslie What (Interfictions)
Stories we loved with bias!:
The Goats Are Going Places… Tina Connolly (Shiny #2)
The Sun People… Sue Isle (Shiny #1)
Small Change… Trent Jamieson (Shiny #1)
Cracks… Trent Jamieson (Shiny #2)
Inside… Ben Payne (Ticonderoga Online #11)
The Bluebell Vengeance… Tansy Rayner Roberts (ASIM #28)
The Bride Price… Cat Sparks (New Ceres #2)
Randomly Yours, Alex 