OWW buddy Cécile Cristofari is looking to sell an attending membership to Eastercon, following circumstances who make it impossible for her to attend. It would go for 60 euros–about 50 pounds, slightly cheaper than the current rate over at the Eastercon website.

If you are interested–or know anyone who is interested–ping me, and I’ll pass it on.
(any reposts/RTs much appreciated. Thanks!)

Have been sitting on this since yesterday evening: the tireless Donna Scott let me know my Interzone short story “The Shipmaker” has made the shortlist in the Best Short Fiction category. Where it’s, er, up against some very stiff competition by Nina Allan, Peter Watts, and Neil Williamson.

Wow?

While I go for a liedown, you can go congratulate Lauren Beukes, whose Zoo City is on the shortlist for Best Novel. And indeed, everyone else on the list (it’s quite an impressive rollcall).

The Award Ceremony will take place at this year’s Eastercon in Birmingham–any members of the BSFA/Eastercon can vote. I’ll see about getting the story up online.

As usual–many many thanks to everyone who nominated it, to Andy Cox and Andy Hedgecock for publishing it in the first place, and to the BSFA Awards administrator, Donna Scott, for so quickly tallying up the votes.

ETA: an online version is now available here. Thanks for Andy Cox for the sheer reaction speed.

My Dad, discussing his PR-505 e-reader (which he used to love): “You know, I hardly use it anymore, because either it’s impossible to buy the books I want (in English), or because they’re so stupidly expensive. I wanted to buy a Marc Lévy book online, but they sold it for the same price as the hardback–when the paperback was available for about a third of that price.”

Yeah. You and me both. I continue to have hopes that the system is going to sort itself out, but the current trend is geared towards worse rather than better (georestrictions locking us French out of the English booksellers, high prices due to so-called “delivery costs” from the US–seriously, delivery costs of e-things?)

*sigh*

So…

We made cucumber maki yesterday. Clearly, we still need some work (the H got the best-shaped ones out, but they were still enormous things, nothing like the finger-sized bites you get in most Japanese sushi bars in France). Also, I could be wrong, but I get the feeling we overdid the sugar in the rice–it felt way too sweet to me. I’ll have to look up the recipe on the Internet: I used a book we had at home, but judging by the (horrendous) way it advises you to cook rice, there might be some problems with the doses…

But still–surprisingly easy to make, and fun. Definitely worth trying again.

Been a while since I’ve done that, but since Christmas I’ve read Let The Right One In (the book of the movie), which was awesome, a very neat take on a vampire in modern days.

Currently deep in K.J. Parker’s Scavenger trilogy (just started book 2), which is… intriguing, to say the least. The main character is Poldarn, an amnesiac who wakes up on a battlefield, and who may or may not be a god, may or may not be the most evil man on the continent–and may or may not bring the Apocalypse with him. The books so far feel like an extended puzzle box: there are bits and pieces with vivid images, and as the story progresses they get slotted into places. We learn more about Poldarn and his past, about the history of the world (which is some kind of pseudo-Roman Empire)–and through it all, there’s this definite sense of something very bad about to happen. Quite curious to see how it all ends.

Small reminder that today is the last day to vote for the British Science Fiction Association awards if you’re a member. Over at Torque Control, Niall Harrison is posting the list of works which have received at least one nomination in the categories of Best Artwork, Best Non Fiction, and Best Short Fiction (Best Novel forthcoming). Among other things:

-Best Non-Fiction is really sparse this year: there’s about 10 works nominated all in all, so any extra ideas would presumably be very much welcome.

-Best Novel not up yet, but from what I saw on the BSFA forums, the Best Novel category, more so than the Short Fiction, is still skewed towards men: a quick headcount reveals that out of 45 nominations, only 6 are for works by women (vs. 25/72, insofar as I can tell, in the short fiction category). If you’d like to recommend more works by women or to vote for something already on the list, now is the time. Just be careful that unlike the Short Fiction category (where anything published in English worldwide is eligible), the novels have to have been published in the UK in 2010 to be eligible.

So if you’ve got any recommendations and are a BSFA member, there’s still time to squeeze your votes in before the deadline. Send to awards@bsfa.co.uk.

(and yeah, if you’ve got any love for my Interzone short story “The Shipmaker” and feel like expressing it today, I’d of course be overjoyed. But again, the most important thing at this stage is getting in as many votes as possible to ensure the awards represent the BSFA membership as well as possible. So, as we say in France–“to the ballot boxes, everyone” 🙂 )

ETA: Best Novel is up, too.

PS: and to whoever already nominated either “The Shipmaker” and Servant of the Underworld: wow, thanks!

So, not up to much that I can safely admit (sekrit projects, plus speaking about the novel in progress on this blog seems to curse me to a halt in the writing of the manuscript). To tide you over until the weekend, a few links:

-I’m guessing by now most people will have seen the Amy Chua piece on the Washington Post, about why Chinese mothers are superior. I don’t have much to say about it other than “batshit crazy Asian mother”–and yes, I have an Asian mother, so I can speak from my (admittedly limited) experience. I can see some of the points, and some things Amy Chua mentions are certainly familiar from my own childhood, though not pushed quite this far. My TV time was limited; so was my video game time; neither of my parents were particularly happy when I brought home bad grades, and yes, both of them always pushed me to go further because they believed I could do better. And I’m glad they did it; I’m glad they placed a higher value on education than on sparing my feelings, and nurtured my ambition and drive–to the point where I thought of doing something as crazy as writing in a second language and getting away with it.
But, seriously, not allowing your children to be in school plays, forcing them to play a musical instrument and tormenting your daughter until she gets the piano piece right? Wow. That’s some serious going south here.
Allow me to dig up quintessential Chinese wisdom here, in the person of Confucius: “To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.” Ie, balance and perspective. Something that seems to be missing from all the horror stories about Asian moms (there were quite a few flying around on the internet in the wake of that article).

-And, in a lighter vein: Mature people truths (via Cat Rambo). Some of these are oh-so-painfully true.

-Finally, I’ve posted (with permission) on the SFWA forums “Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life”, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz’s awesome story about expatriation, identity and what it means to be an immigrant in a strange land. Recommended by Richard Horton in his year-end summary of Interzone, and generally quite made of awesome. (and I’m not only saying that because Rochita is my friend). Well worth a read if you have forum access.

EDIT: apparently, the Amy Chua thing is only an excerpt from a larger book, which is intended to deal with the problems of her education system as well. Mea culpa.
EDIT #2: and, apparently, the WJS just quoted the most controversial part of Chua’s book without bothering to add a corrective, because controversy makes for more readers. Great. As I said on LJ, I feel like hitting something, preferably a WJS editor.

For those who might be interested: my novelette “The Jaguar House, in Shadow”, first published in Asimov’s, July 2010, is now available for free on my website for your reading pleasure. (and, of course, if you happen to be in the right fraction of the population, it’s eligible for the Hugos/Nebulas/Locus Awards/Asimov’s Awards etc.).

Jason Sanford listed it as one of the three best novelettes in Asimov’s for 2010; so did Richard Horton; and it’s already received at least one Nebula nomination.

Go here to read it, and don’t hesitate to pop back here and tell me what you thought!

The current xkcd comic is made of awesome:

If you’re going to design armour for characters, can I point out that the primary use of armour is to protect your vitals–and by vitals, we’re including things like “organs within the torso”, but also more sneaky things like arteries? Aka, the brachial artery, which is pretty close to the skin in both upper arms, and the femoral artery, which is also pretty close to the skin in the upper part of the thigh?

Which why armour like this, which fails to protect either upper arms or thighs, is, er, pretty much useless? (it’s a bit blurry, but if you want to check it into all its glory, go to the full trailer here and flash forward to around 3:00)

(I’m not a big fan of sexy armours for female characters, for obvious reasons, but if they absolutely have to be sexy, can they pretend to be useful as well?)
(and yes, I’m aware lightsabers cauterise wounds almost instantly, making it unlikely the Sith is going to burst her artery. Please don’t get me started on the (lack of) worth of lightsabers as weapons)