My Fridays are so much more jam-packed than they used to be so Friday Links have fallen by the wayside. Whoops! I have so many juicy bits and pieces saved up, though, I had to do one today.
Judith Tarr visited Charlie Stross’s blog to ask the question Where Have All The Women Gone – or, more precisely, to talk about why that question is so damaging.
Also on Charlie’s Diary, Nicola Griffith brought the stats to the party with her post Data, books and bias looking at the gender breakdown of awards versus how seriously those awards are taken. Stirring stuff that will be super useful for Alisa’s thesis.
Some Australian SF Year’s Best Tables of Content! Fablecroft’s Focus 2014 collects an elite selection of work which has received acclaim via national and international Awards recognition. Over at Ticonderoga, Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene have compiled the TOC for The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror. I’m honoured to be in both books, with two different stories – Focus is taking “Cookie Cutter Superhero” and Ticonderoga are taking “The Love Letters of Swans.”
My thoughts are on women’s role in the history of science fiction right now, so I was delighted to read Vonda McIntyre’s post at the Women in Science Fiction website, talking about “Starfarers,” the best long-lost SF TV show of all time. A diverse cast, an original premise (university faculty steal a starship when their travel funding is cut) and unusual aliens… oh and it was totally a hoax she made up in order to get through a dull panel topic at a convention. It has its own fandom. Oh, SF community, this is why we still love you.
While you’re at the Women in Science Fiction site, stop and take a look around if you haven’t already. Kristine Kathryn Rusch is working on a fantastic-sounding anthology on the history of women in the field, and the blog is there for her to muse on her reading as she works through story selection, and features some great guest blogs and thoughtful pieces about particular works which may or may not have been forgotten by the SF world at large. There’s also a Storybundle!
This in-depth report presents what happened when a recent panel on Writing Women Friendly Comics was hijacked by its moderator, Bill Willingham, who felt he had more to say on the topic than the panellists, and indeed women generally. How not to moderate, people!
Kate Elliott’s first ever YA novel, Court of Fives is out and I’m reading it already and it’s wonderful! Natalie Zutter looks at Court of Fives and the Importance of Making Race Explicit in YA Fantasy
Charlie Jane Anders on The Islamic Roots of Science Fiction
Leah Schnelbach on how Diana Wynne Jones Subverted Fantasy Even as She Celebrated It
The Mary Sue asks, Why Can’t We Have Bisexual Male Crime Heroes?
This version of the Fantastic Four is officially my favourite.
Stonewall veteran Miss Major speaks her outrage about the new Stonewall movie. This is an extraordinary interview with a legendary black trans elder who is powerfully furious about how trans-people and people of colour has been dropped from the narrative of LBGT history – at some point she rails against the very white statues which have been built to commemorate the Stonewall riots and suggested they be painted to depict true diversity – a couple of anonymous activists promptly did so, a few days later, in her honour.
Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye Works Because It’s Written Like Great Fanfiction. If Marvel feels the need for a coffee shop AU comic featuring Young Avengers, Misty Knight and Squirrel Girl, they can totally call me!
