In other news, devoured King’s Dragon and Prince of Dogs, the first two volumes of Crown of Stars by Kate Elliot. And wow. It’s amazing. I’ve bitched before about the lack of historical realism in fantasy, but this book gets so many things right I don’t know where to start. It’s got depths, and a real sense of a world with a complex history, and many cultures interlocked. It’s got a very real religion, which is omnipresent in everyday life, and not continually questioned by 90% of the characters (one of my favourite characters, Alain, is a devout man). And the matter-of-fact inversion of genders is fascinating: in Elliot’s world, inheritance can go through the female line–a concept supported at all layers of the society from village to kingdom, and also in religion. You feel it as something organic which naturally derives from the societal structures, and not as an abstract thought experiment that doesn’t fit in with anything else (there is nothing that annoys me more than anachronistic feminists, probably because I’m prone to the fault; and I love the fact that it’s so natural for everyone that it’s not even discussed).

Fortunately, there are more volumes in the series

Huge congrats to fellow AR author Lauren Beukes for winning the Clarke Award for her novel Zoo City.

And, while you’re at it, you can go read her post on Writing the Other over at the World SF blog.

Writing The Other is a sensitive topic. It should be. Not least because it’s so often been done so very, very, badly.

But the truth is that unless you’re writing autobiography, any character you write is going to be The Other.

I am not a serial killer. (Unless my multiple personalities are hiding something from me.) I am also not a 50s housewife, a parking attendant, a car-jacking reality TV star, a Ugandan email scammer, a Tokyo mecha pilot, or a future-world stubborn-as-heck gay anti-corporate activist. And even though my novelist friends Thando Mgqolozana and Zukiswa Wanner like to joke that I’m a black girl trapped in a white girl’s skin, I’m not Zoo City’s hip, fast-talking, ex-journo, ex-junkie black Joburg girl protagonist, Zinzi.

(you can also see Lauren on the Hugo Awards shortlist, where she’s up for a Campbell Award)

Caught sight of this via the interwebs: Desdaemona, by Ben Macallan (aka Chaz Brenchley). Released at the end of May. It’s got a nifty eye-catching cover; and an intriguing premise (Jordan sounds like a cool character, and people who have done Very Bad Things with immortals certainly promise much delightful mayhem). I haven’t read the book, but I’ve read some of Chaz’s stuff, and I have no doubt that this is going to be delightful and scary and full of awesome literary goodness–and very much NOT your average urban fantasy.
Plus, we definitely need more Brits trying out their hands at this sort of thing (I for one am getting tired of all those US settings and mindsets, and very much welcome stuff like Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London/Midnight Riot, and Suzanne MacLeod’s Spellcrackers.com).

So, if you feel like checking it out, now’s the time… I’m off to preorder my own copy.

From Patrick’s blog:

So, I have decided to make it official and start my own freelance web design business. I’ve been designing websites professionally since 2004, mostly for my then employer, but more recently branching out from that to do the odd design job privately.

I’ve put up a portfolio of a selected few of the sites I’ve done at 50 Seconds North.

Some of my other sites aren’t up there, either because they’ve since been supplanted by newer versions or because they were designed confidentially.

Anyway, the point of this post is to highlight that I’m now offering web design services. You can find out more about it at the above website!

I’d particularly like to get into designing writers’ websites, because I think that writers are often poorly served by their websites, and I think I have a fairly good idea of what makes a good author website.

I’d be really grateful if anyone on my friends list felt able to spread the word.

Thanks!

(I have not worked with Patrick; however, he’s a truly awesome guy, and his website for Stephanie Burgis is truly a thing of beauty)

I was reminded by SFWA that members have until Tuesday to finalise their nominations for the Awards. Mostly, I was all but done–I wished I’d had time to read more novels, but, alas, most of what I read last year wasn’t published in 2010.

I had more time this year for short fiction, and thanks to the bebook, managed to read more than last year, by downloading stuff which looked cool from the SFWA forums (and there was plenty of it). Voting for the Nebulas is the biggest honour and privilege I derive from being a member of SFWA (most of the rest being really focused on the US), and I fully intend to make the most of it

Meanwhile, if you’re a member of SFWA and unsure what to vote for, may I suggest:
-”Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life”, by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (Short Story): a great story of immigration, alienation and man vs. machine. Available on the SFWA forums.
-”Flying in the Face of God” by Nina Allan (Novelette): about space explorations, its cost and its impact on those who are left behind. Available here as a PDF from the TTA press website.
-”The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers from Beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Novella): a tale of a woman summoned again and again from beyond death to practise magic–dealing with loss, prejudice and the evolution of cultures and countries, and a great reversal on the “summoning demons” trope. Available here from Subterranean.

(my own stuff is here if you feel like trying it out: “The Jaguar House in Shadow”, an Aztec alt-hist novelette on friendship, betrayal and honour, has already garnered favorable reviews from Locus, and at least one nomination; and of course I’d be pleased as punch if you deemed it worthy)

So…

Apparently, Harbinger of the Storm should be out in the US–and on all good electronic platforms (Kindle, Nook, etc.) as well.

You can read an excerpt here. Basically: murder and mayhem in the imperial palace. Mihmatini and Teomitl get into trouble. Oh, and star-demons, which is always good for sheer terror.

Go forth, buy, read, and so on, and so on. Meanwhile, tonight is Thai restaurant night.

Writer friend T.L. Morganfield has just revamped her website with fabulous illustrations of Aztec characters from her novel–go check them out!

Congrats to fellow T-Party member Gaie Sebold, who sold her fantasy novel Babylon Steel plus two sequels to Solaris (it’s set in a brothel, which should make for a nice change).
And I see Patty Jansen has won WOTF for this quarter, which is awesome.

(on the not-so-great front, I also see ROF is dead. Blech. There goes a good market and a great source of fiction. Darn economic climate).

The awesome Scott H. Andrews has reminded me that tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Beneath Ceaseless Skies‘ launch.
I always have a soft spot for BCS: not only did they publish a fair amount of my fiction, they also fill in the hole between plot-driven fantasy and more serious stuff. The prose is pretty, but it doesn’t get in the way of the story. And I’ve yet to find a bad story in there. Scott publishes a great variety of stuff, from Old West to Eighteenth-Century Paris, from China to Medieval London–and there’s bound to be something you enjoy in there.
If you’re just dipping in, may I suggest checking out “The Isthmus Variation” by Kris Millering (creepy as heck, perfectly paced in its reveals), or Yoon Ha Lee’s “The Territorialist” (awesome world building and beautiful prose), among the more recent offerings?
And, of course, there’s the anniversary double issue, which boasts Richard Parks and Tony Pi in its table of contents.

-The very first Angry Robot podcast: set to be a monthly affair featuring AR and genre-related stuff. The inaugural episode features Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris (who are apparently having loads of fun with this), speaking among others about their new releases and the future of publishing. You can subscribe here (itunes subscriptions forthcoming).
-Many congratulations to Gareth L. Powell, SF writer, occasional co-author and great all-around guy, for signing up with Solaris for his novel The Recollection. Congratulate him here.
-Interesting post over at I09 on “Is avoiding tropes the same thing as telling fresh stories?”
-Janice Hardy has a contest to win an ARC of Blue Fire, second book in her (MG) Healing Wars trilogy. Also, if you’re interested in different approaches, you can see the covers of the US, UK and German editions of books 1 and 2 here.
-Jeff Spock writes about stories for casual games. Fascinating stuff about why cliché and archetypes are good for you.