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Yes, I said shipping, not sipping.
It’s a stinker of a hot day, I’m drinking iced tea poured from my shiny new T2 iced tea brewer jug into stylish citrus-coloured glasses, and trying not to spend all the electronic money I don’t have on Doctor Who themed tea. My favourite thing about this site is not just that they know who my beloved Hexy Scofield is (oh, Big Finish companions, why do I love you so?) but they allow you to ship tea blends together and give you discounts for doing so. Hex, for instance, is in a ship with Ace. OH YES HE IS.
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Sure, there are people who design fandom tea based on the actual Doctors too, if that’s your bag (did you know tea fandom was a thing?). But I’m having more fun reading the blends for the companions. (Aww, Turlough isn’t shipped with anyone but OMG his blend is Earl Grey Moonlight, Caramel and Ginger!)
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Speaking of Doctor Who, my favourite written response to the Doctor Who Christmas Special The Snowmen so far is this great Doctor Her article by Nightsky: My bustle’s stuck!: Women vs. Victorian values in “The Snowmen”. Brilliant stuff about Victorian women, Doctor Who, and why talking about clothes is not necessarily frivolous as a woman – sometimes it’s a matter of survival.
A new Galactic Chat is up! Alisa interviewed Ellen Klages about her work and career.
Twelfth Planet Press announces a collaborative art project with the City of Rockingham: taking a shipment of beautiful but unsellable (due to a printing error) copies of Kaaron Warren’s collection Through Shattered Walls and inviting accomplished paper artists to lead workshops in turning those books into art.
As the person who was in charge of the TPP stall at the convention where the printer error was spotted by the author – the books had shipped directly to the con from the printer and the error (a whole line missing from the top of each right page) was not immediately obvious – and guess who had to break the news to Alisa while she was taking her only lunch break of the whole weekend – cough, anyway. I am VERY GLAD they have found something so innovative and exciting to do with what felt at the time as a disaster of epic proportions. Book art where you don’t have to feel guilty about carving up a book!
Shannon Hale on writing ‘strong female characters’ and what those words even mean.
E-readers have been much on my mind lately (have I mentioned, shiny new Kindle Paperwhite?) and I found this post by Sean the Blogonaut about e-readers and enhanced ebooks thought provoking about what we actually WANT from e-books.
Kate Forsyth writes about her experience reading and blogging reviews for the Australian Women Writers Challenge in 2012.
On the Book Smugglers, Kate Elliott talks about sex in fantasy fiction – and consensual sex in particular.
Sarah Rees Brennan reposts a rant by Yaflash on Tumblr about the aggressive hatred displayed towards successful YA fiction phenomena associated with female writers and readers, with additional commentary of her own.
And heroines, of course: I remember seeing one ‘feminist blogger’ go on for yards about the dreadful ladies, and when I coughed and said ‘the gentlemen, though’ she was like ‘I just can’t talk about those, they make me too mad.’ But the ladies, she could talk about. And all the dreadful lady writers of YA, naturally. But the faults of gentlemen… let us preserve a dignified silence on that topic. Unless it’s ‘he’s awful… SO REALLY, LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT LIKING HIM SAYS ABOUT HER. DOUBLE AWFUL.’