So, I’m attending Bristolcon next Saturday (where I’ll be catching up with lots of friends): here’s my schedule in case you’re interested. In between panels, I’ll be where the drinks are…

• 10:00-10:45: Colonising the Solar system: Many recent science fiction books, including Blue Remembered Earth by Al Reynolds, andThe Quiet War by Paul McAuley, are set in a solar system colonized by mankind. What would it take to make this happen? Could we really adapt to live on the Moon or Mars? Will space exploration ever be economic? With Guy Haley (mod), Michael Dollin, Aliette de Bodard, Ben Jeapes, Dev Agarwal
• 10:50-10:55: Reading. Not entirely sure what I’ll be reading with: either the forthcoming Immersion Press novella On a Red Station, Drifting, or the urban fantasy novel. Either way, something no one but very few people have seen before… 
• 12:00-12:45: Kaffeklatsch. You can sign up in advance for it here. 
• 13:00-13:45: The stress of space travel on family relationships: Returning to Earth to find yourself younger than your own grand-children isn’t just a headache for the greetings-card industry. The panel looks at depictions of the family and wonders, are all families in SF fiction dysfunctional? With Dev Agarwal (mod), Emma Newman, Aliette de Bodard, Gareth L Powell, Leigh Kennedy
• 14:00-14:45: Book launch of Stephanie Burgis’s A Reckless Magic, followed by general signing (I’ll have copies of Obsidian and Blood on hand!)

Temp title is “The Angel at the Heart of the Rain” (might just keep it, it’s not that bad). Very much shorter than expected at 1.5k words, will have to ask the market that asked for this if they’re OK with this.

At first, you believe it is only a matter of time until your aunt joins you. You huddle in a small flat with your younger sister Huong and two other refugees, washing rice that smells only faintly of jasmine, cutting ginger that has grown hard and tasteless in the cupboards where it was hoarded like treasures–and you think of a home so far out of your reach it might be on another planet.

On the phone, your aunt’s voice is breezy, telling you not to worry–that she’ll find a visa and a plane ticket, that she knows someone who knows someone who can give her a hand with the formalities of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Behind her, you hear the dull thud of bombs falling like rain in the streets–the same sound that swells and roars within your dreams until you wake up in a room that feels deathly silent.

Which just leaves me with another story to write before the end of October (a month that includes Bristolcon and World Fantasy Con). Also, planning a novel with Mindships in my spare time.

Onwards, I guess…

Current mood: determined 😀 😀

–“Courtship in the Country of Machine Gods” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew: a lovely story of language and war in a future society. I particularly liked the depiction of the invaders as seen by Kanrisa, very apt.
–“Simon’s Replica” by Dean Francis Alfar: a sweet and heart-braking story of death and memorials and the passage of time. I love the language.
-J. Damask/Joyce Chng has a series of microfictions on her blog on Lady White Snake, accompanied by really cute illustrations.

So… tentatively have new story, “Memorials” (temp title, as it’s suitable but not very striking), clocking in at 9k words or so. I was convinced it was completely broken, now I’m not so sure–let’s see what happens… (whatever happens with it, many thanks are owed to Tricia Sullivan for bombarding me with reasons to complete the story and push through my, er, not-so-pleasant thoughts about my worth as a writer etc.).

Cam finds Pham Thi Thanh Ha in her house, as she expected. By now, she doesn’t question the aunts’ knowledge or how they came by it. She does what she’s told to, an obedient daughter beholden to her elders, never raising a fuss or complaining–the shining example of filial piety extolled in the tales Thuy so painstakingly reconstitutes in her spare hours.

Thanh Ha is a big woman, who must tower over her extended family–though right now, her cheeks are hollowed with grief, and the black band of mourning on her sleeve seems to have sucked all joy from her. “Younger aunt… Cam.” She hesitates over the name, a subtle way to make it clear that Cam had better get to the purpose of her visit quickly. “Be welcome here.”

I’m slowly starting to clear my backlog of stuff, and am quite embarrassed to discover I completely dropped the ball on some stuff I owed. One of those days. Arg arg arg.

For a break, I think I’ll go write a silly little story (the operative word being “little”), and work on reviews of some fiction I’ve read (Tran-Nhut’s The Banquet of the Unicorn and Rattawut Lapcharoensap’s Sightseeing).

(on the plus side, I now know all the suitable pronouns in Vietnamese to address strangers, at least for the next 5 years or so–I now have no excuse to go practise when ordering food in restaurants…)

Not much, sorry–mainly have the impression I’ve been repeatedly hit with a hammer between the eyes–again. Got feedback on a short story I’ve been struggling with, and I think I have a better idea of where it’s going (also got very stern injunctions from the H to stop mopping and getting depressed). Also think I can reduce it from its 10k words to something more manageable, just have to think on it for a while.

Also realised Bristolcon is in 3 weeks, and WFC is about 4-5? *panic mode on*

Vietnamese tip of the day: do not attempt to address a teenager as anh (“elder brother”) lest you provoke hilarity. Yup, you’d think I know by now…

Reminder of the day: you can get my sampler Scattered Among Strange Worlds among other wonderful books from the Codex Writers’ Group. See here for details (also would be quite grateful if you happen to download it and read it and post amazon reviews…)

So, doing the busy thing again, but just thought I’d point out that I’m part of an ebook giveaway over at amazon–on September 26-27 (tomorrow and the day after tomorrow) you can get my sampler “Scattered Among Strange Worlds” for free, along with other books by Codex writers.

Here is the list of all titles on amazon, and here are descriptions and covers. I haven’t had time to test out-of-US availability, but I know Ruth Nestvold’s books work fine across all amazon platforms–and so does my own little sampler, of course.

Check those out!

(thus endeth the self-promotion moment. Apologies for it being a bit blatant. Actual content forthcoming, I swear. Trying for a recipe this week if my fridge collaborates…)

 

Yseult: A Tale of Love in the Age of King Arthur

For the price of a truce, Yseult is sent to a world where magic is dying – to marry the father of the man she loves. Marcus’s son Drystan would have saved her from a loveless marriage, but with her relatives being held hostage, Yseult cannot endanger them and must go through with the wedding. The tragic love story of Yseult and Drystan plays out against the backdrop of a violent world threatening to descend into the Dark Ages – only Arthur’s battles to push back the Saxon hordes can save what is left of civilization.

A historical fantasy novel by Ruth Nestvold, Book I of The Pendragon Chronicles.

Tiger Lily

Lily isn’t supposed to hunt in the Daimyo’s woods. She’s not supposed to talk to nobility or sing forbidden Jindo songs. But Lily was born in the year of the Tiger, and isn’t like other village girls. One day she stumbles on the Daimyo’s son, Ashikaga, wounded in the woods. When the Pretender Emperor’s soldiers arrive to threaten Ashikaga, Lily sings a forbidden song. The song wakes a powerful spirit – as well as Ashikaga’s interest. The prickly lord has hidden secrets of his own. He will stop at nothing to defeat the Pretender. Lily just wants to take care of her sisters. But as the Pretender’s forces near, Lily may have to defy the spirits themselves in order to keep safe all that she loves.

A historical fantasy novel by K. Bird Lincoln.

 

Dragon Time and Other Stories

A collection of four previously published fantasy tales by Ruth Nestvold: “Dragon Time,” “Wooing Ai Kyarem,” “To Act the Witch,” and “Princes and Priscilla.” Dragon Time: In Unterdrachenberg, time has stopped. After the death of his queen, the dragon king is mad with grief. Only a human woman can enter the dragon’s lair to fix time — a magic that is forbidden to women. Katja is the grand-daughter of a clockmaker, and she has watched her grandfather work with time for many years. But can she fix it on her own? More importantly, is she brave enough to try?

A fantasy short story collection by Ruth Nestvold.

 

Watcher’s Web

With “webs” of power that she can use to control animals, Jessica has never been normal but when stray power causes a plane in which she’s travelling to crash in an alien world is it an accident? The more she discovers about the world, the more she doubts it. She is a survivor from an ancient race that once travelled the stars. Her ancestors were powerful and dangerous, and it seems at least two people want her: the man who invades her mind, and the man who’s desperate to help her get back home. Now all she has to do is decide which of them is right.

A social science fiction novel by Patty Jansen.

 

 

The Future, Imperfect: Six Dystopian Short Stories

Environmental changes — slow in some regions, catastrophic in others — have had a major effect on our world, not for the better. While water wars and pandemics have devastated the Mediterranean region, and a major earthquake and the resulting destruction of nuclear power plants and sensitive research facilities have made much of California a wasteland, corporate-sponsored enclaves defend themselves from the have-nots. What can any one individual do to make a difference is such a world? These are the stories both of those who tried and those who failed.

A collection of near future, dystopian short stories by Ruth Nestvold.

 

The Far Horizon

Of all the things ten-year-old Cory Wilson expects to do when he moves to Midway Space Station, saving aliens from humans isn’t one. An important conference between humans and aliens is about to start at the station and Cory overhears some men planning to plant a bomb at the conference. Because the terrorists hide their messages in computer games, no one believes Cory, not even his father, the station director. Kids at school think he’s crazy, some even think aliens should be bombed. The conference starts, the aliens have brought a very important person, and Cory’s teacher, one of the terrorists, locks Cory in the classroom. Can he get out in time? If he does, will anyone listen?

An adventure science fiction novel for 10-13yo readers and their parents by Patty Jansen.

 

The Godless Land

“The land of Molkoro once had a god, a mighty panther god,” the sailor said. “At the time the ettins arrived from beyond the sea in their black-sailed ships, the people of the jungle worshiped the great Jhub-El. He was a mighty god, but he had one weakness: Trust.” Pietro, a young man, has never killed: something rare for the corrupt city of Peregoth and totally alien to the tropics of Molkoro, where circumstances will soon take him. In the sweltering jungle, his purity has become a commodity to the ettin invaders and their lord, the dark Vexor. But how long can his innocence last in a godless land? A short story by AJ Cooper

 

Looking For Daddy

Three weeks ago, Daddy left town with the other volunteer firefighters to fight the fires in the city and Tom and Mother have looked after the farm. Radios, phones and TV have fallen silent, trains have stopped coming and the main road has remained empty. Whatever has silenced the rest of the world is creeping into town. Roads start talking and zombies want to tell everyone how they died. To find Daddy, Tom needs to follow a map he has found in a vagrant camp site. Problem is, it leads him straight to the place where all the trouble started.

A bizarro horror novella by Patty Jansen.

 

 

 

Scattered Among Strange Worlds

A collection of two thought-provoking science fiction short stories from the pen of British Science Fiction Association award-winner and Nebula and Hugo Award finalist Aliette de Bodard. Scattered Among Strange Worlds tackles issues of emigration, diaspora and loss of cultural values; and the threads of family that bind us strongly, even across the void of space…

A science fiction collection by Aliette de Bodard.

 

 

 

Children of the Fallen.

Seven haunted and talented half-breeds, not knowing who they are or what they can do, grow up in a city full of fallen angels. Only Old Abe knows them all, helping them and hiding them from their glorious and terrifying parents who call them abominations.

A homeless musician, a blind painter, a boy who can photograph angels, a fiery cellist, a tarot card reader–all lovers, children, or grandchildren of fallen angels, and just a few of Abe’s charges. Fallen angels with wings of fire, wings of stone, wings of night, of dawn, of mirrors, of music–they walk invisibly through the city, just a few of Abe’s enemies.

At first the half-breeds are unaware of each other, seven unique people muddling through their troubled, intertwined lives alone. Until a young man, raised by angels, finds them all and they begin to spill their secrets. Because only by coming together will the half-breeds be able to save Abe from those of the fallen who wish to kill him for his audacity.

An urban fantasy novel by Maya Lassiter.

Gravity’s Pull

Camilla is excited to be beginning her first tour of duty as a crew leader even though she is expecting a routine three months on the GT Donald Ademu, a gravity tractor ship assigned to change the trajectory of an asteroid. An unexpected development — the discovery of an improvised bomb on their ship — jeopardizes the lives of Camilla and her crew as well as the many other people their mission is intended to protect. With no outside help available in the time they have to work, Camilla and the two other crew members on-board race to find a solution which will protect both them and their mission in “Gravity’s Pull.”

A science fiction short story by Michael Haynes.

 

 

Obligations of a Cobalt Hue

Teldine is an isolated mountain kingdom that has been magically protected from ancient enemies for one thousand years by an impenetrable fog wall. Inside the wall, Champions of the Cobaltine Flower keep the peace. But as the fog wall thins, a Champion is killed and the king is murdered. The remaining Champions work together as intrigue, betrayal, and foreign influences threaten the tiny realm.

An epic fantasy novel by Amber D. Sistla and Book One of the Cobaltine Chronicles.

I wrote this a while ago, but was looking to add another book to the end of it (my new read in the Mandarin Tân series. Unfortunately, I got a bit bogged down with reading and so it looks like this will post as it is, I’ll post the Mandarin Tân review later…)

-Ursula Le Guin, “Four Ways to Forgiveness”. A series of linked novellas set on the worlds of Werel and Yeowe: Werel, the older world, featured a slave-owner society, and set out to colonise Yeowe by sending colons and slaves–but the society that develops on Yeowe is deeply inequalitarian, leaving slave-women at the bottom of the heap even though they engineered the revolution that set Yeowean slaves free from their owners…
This is a fascinating look at revolution–at the inherent mess of it, at what it overturns, and at what it doesn’t. The plight of the women on both Werel and Yeowe is quite vividly rendered (and Le Guin doesn’t shy away from the sexual abuse such a rigidly gender-separated society would feature). There’s much much to like her, from her usual deft touch with characters, to her portrayal of oppression and how societies change both rapidly and slowly (and the afterword is fascinating because it reveals the depth of worldbuilding that went into the stories).
That said… I remain troubled by the cumulative portrayal of the Hain: they’re more technologically advanced, their embassies are the ultimate place of safety, and the Hain themselves either bring salvation by bypassing the rules of a rigid society (like Old Music) or by totally and whole-heartedly integrating into the society they’re sent to observe… It’s hard to read all this without seeing the analogue of Western countries in the Hain, just as the struggle of both Werel and Yeowe for a better régime is an analogue of decolonisation or other broadly similar processes countries in the developing world have gone through or are going through (see: Egypt and the Arab Spring, notably). And given all this, I’m a little bothered by this aspect of the novellas, which mostly fail to get to grips with the inherent neo-colonialism that motivates most of the Western intervention in developing countries–where is the greed, the agenda of spreading their own products/culture or of getting the resources they want? It feels a little… naive I guess, to imagine the Hain going to other planets and establising embassies out of the goodness of their hearts, a little like a beautiful picture that doesn’t really hold up to either scrutiny or real-world comparisons? It’s not a deal-breaker, and I do recommend this book, but still… it’s a bit of a blot on it.

Also arguable, of course, is that the system presented here seems derived from a uniquely American model of slavery (the parallels to the plight of African-Americans are pretty clear), rather than tackling other forms of decolonisation with more complex models of oppression (a conversation with Berit Ellingsen online also reminded me that it’s a very specific subset of American history, and that the First Nations oppression, for instance, isn’t broached either…). I don’t have a problem with this specific instance, per se, just that it’s struck me this is very often the only model used for colonisation. Indeed, it strikes me that Le Guin took a similar approach in The Word for World is Forest: the portrayal of colonisation as indentured slavery for the natives is one of the (many many) reasons I never felt that book’s stated parallels with Vietnam and the Vietnamese/American War to be really convincing.

-Charles Stross, The Apocalypse Codex: further adventures of Bob Howard and the Laundry, the occult British Secret Service organisation which is our last-ditch defense against horrors from the Dawn of Time. Bob is sent to investigate a US Church that seems to develop a little bit too fast and too deftly for comfort–with the help of Persephone, an external contractor and a witch, which might just be more than Bob can handle… Fun and fast paced and a nice read.

Via starlady38, a very kitchen-y meme:

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, italicize the ones you have and don’t use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of.

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese knives, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic presses, margarita glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers, pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, food processors, ice cream makers, takoyaki makers, and fondue sets languish dustily at the back of the nation’s cupboards.

I use my garlic press all the time, mainly because I love to put garlic in everything. Also, if the vampire apocalypse ever comes to pass, I’ll be well prepared. I also had to google most of these, because I didn’t know they existed (cookie presses? sandwich makers? Wow), and wasn’t altogether sure of some things: for instance, our pressure cooker doubles as a steam cooker thanks to a handy basket, and we have a raclette set but no fondue set (I’m assuming a lot of these are typically American British equipment)

It goes without saying that our rice cooker sees heavy use :p

Haven’t been posting here because it’s been a rather hectic week, but basically have been plugging away in the trenches. Had an awesome writing weekend in Brittany with Tricia Sullivan and Rochita Loenen-Ruiz during which much world domination was plotted (and much sun enjoyed).

Other than that, the novella has backcover copy!

On a Red Station, Drifting

For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station’s artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives.

But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper’s brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station’s resources. As deprivations cause the station’s ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe. What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance…

It’s forthcoming from Immersion Press sometime before the end of the year, as a limited edition hardback. It’s a bit of a bridge work between the Xuya works (“Ship’s Brother”, “Shipbirth”, “The Shipmaker” etc.) and the space station continuity featured in the two Clarkesworld stories “Scattered Along the River of Heaven” and “Immersion”–aka the three space stations, Prosper(ity), Felicity and Longevity. Yes, the Three Blessings, why do you ask?). Basically, it’s set on a station which has a ruling Mind, and was heavily inspired by too many readings of Dreams of Red Mansions (hence the title) even though I’m sure the resultant story doesn’t actually have much in common with the Chinese classic… Expect, er, space station design, virtual environments, poetry and lots and lots of strong women. And possibly some food porn and some fish sauce porn…

Two great articles, courtesy of automathic:
-Juliana Qian writes about being of Chinese descent in Australia. A lot of it is either uncomfortably familiar experience and/or strikes home quite accurately:

Our cultures are exotic, fashionable, fascinating and valuable when contained within or filtered through a white Western lens – then our cultures are glittering mines. But drawing from your own background is backward and predictable if you’re a person of colour. Sometimes white people try to sell me back my culture and I have to buy it. My China is as much the BBC version as it is the PRC one. There are things I want to eat but cannot cook.

-Rahel Aima on vernacular English:

Embedded within non-western English lies a parallel tension. The vernacular promises all the seductive freshness of exoticised difference, as well as the inherited anger of the Postcolonial Clever—the comfortably removed expat with a knowing gaze. There’s a certain expectation of kitsch, discernible authenticity and legitimacy, or at the very least, something to appropriate, please yaar? Or—something to awkwardly skirt out of respect to cultural relativism and because we are ostensibly beyond the myth of native English. Except then there’s also the orientalised yet unacknowledged elephant in the room: that the diasporic writer just might be the new bedfellow of cultural imperialism.