My annual appearance at Tor.com. I write about how diversity of characters in YA can improve the genre – which frankly I thought was a bit of a cheat, preaching-to-the-converted sort of topic. Heh. Guess how far down the comments someone uses the term ‘politically correct’ as a perjorative. There are also some lovely in-depth comments that support the argument for diversity being a step towards rather than away from equality, and talk about the ethics of book publishing.
I also appear at Aqueduct Press, summing up my favourite things viewed, read and listened to in 2013 (another, only partly overlapping round up can be found in the latest Galactic Suburbia episode), and I appear at The Book Smugglers talking about my favourite Christmas books.
A great article in Lynne M Thomas’s last issue of Apex Magazine: Another World Waits – Towards an Anti-Oppressive SF
This post looks at feminist fantasy (YA and otherwise) read by the author as a teenager with happy brownie points to the parents who made such purchases possible.
A fascinating lecture delivered by Charlotte Church, about the sexual objectification of very young women in the music industry, and the knock on effects of such objectification throughout those women’s careers.
Tsana wrote a lovely review of my new release, Ink Black Magic.
A few slightly older but still interesting links I’ve been gathering during my ‘friday links on hiatus’ period:
Nicola Griffith on whether her novel Hild is fantasy or history.
Fablecroft has put a call out for pitches for an anthology on the theme ‘Cranky Ladies of History’ – and I’m co-editing!
Liz Bourke of Sleeps With Monsters follows up her post about Reading and Radicalisation.