…Interview with Rochita Loenen-Ruiz at the Push Blog Excerpts and bonuses: Commented excerpt at Reader Dad Commented excerpt at Civilian Reader Commented excerpt at Geek Syndicate “Writing Of Books, and Earth, and Courtship” at the Gollancz Blog   Where to Buy Hardback (US) Penguin Random House Amazon US Barnes and Noble US Indie Stores The Book Depository Trade Ppb (UK) Amazon UK Foyle’s Waterstones Blackwell’s WH Smith The Book Depository Ebook/…

…still woozy with sleep; and then felt it. (the actual ebook wouldn’t have come into fruition without Tade Thompson and Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein, who provided cover art and lettering for said cover art in record speed–I know everyone is very busy and am very thankful. Any issues with actual formatting, I’m afraid, are solely at my door…). So… how do you get this? It depends. In the UK/Commonwealth, Gollancz is very kindly running this: see b…

…ination: we pay attention because we want to know what the characters will come up with next, and because it feels like they’re speaking truth and/or seeing things more clearly than the other characters (they may not actually be seeing things more clearly, but that’s another issue!). Think of Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: part of his appeal is that he always seems to puncture holes in the main characters’ earnest plans. Power dynamics–how ter…

…which elude racism. I don’t have much in this category; and would quite welcome recommendations this year. Bonus points for POCs and/or people beyond the usual Western Anglophone World. -Campbell Award: it’s Zen Cho‘s second year of eligibility, and I think she deserves wider recognition–she writes awesome fiction that is at once funny, heartbreaking and creepy (see “The House of Aunts” on Giganotosaurus for an exemple of what I mean, or “The Pers…

…Count of Monte Cristo inspired the novel –Interview with Michelle Hebert –Commented excerpt at Reader Dad –Commented excerpt at Civilian Reader –Commented excerpt at Geek Syndicate Where to Buy Hardback (US) Penguin Random House Amazon US Barnes and Noble US Indie Stores The Book Depository Trade Ppb (UK) Amazon UK Foyle’s Waterstones Blackwell’s WH Smith The Book Depository Ebook/Audio Amazon US (Kindle) Amazon UK (Kindle) Kobo Blackstone Audio…

…nk Lovecraft should be forever cast beyond the pale of acceptable. I mean, come on, genre has had plenty of people who were, er, not shining examples of mankind, and I personally feel like the binary of “this person was a genius and can do no wrong/this person is a racist and can therefore do nothing of worth” doesn’t really make for constructive discussion. (but see above for the “we should give everything a fair chance” fallacy. I’m personally n…

…’ve heard but not seen elsewhere, so I think it’s fair to call it the most complete compilation I’ve seen yet. On the other hand… the commentary sometimes grates. There’s the odd swipe at passive Vietnamese, incapable of banding together or of understanding progress, unlike Western nations (which is just wtf); and a lot of sallies against the Northerners (and I know there was a war; I know unforgivable things were done and I’m not minimising the p…

…ypse would involve fighting for survival but also extraordinary kindness. Featuring: hawks, explosions, queer families, Vietnamese dragons and murderbirds(*).Focusing on House Harrier in Grenelle (15e arrondissement of Paris), though most of the cast of the prior two books will be making a comeback. (*)not the hawks, but the deadly combination of a deadpan do-gooder bi dragon prince and his husband, best described as lawful evil with ground rules…

…Campbell nominees David D. Levine and Karin Lowachee. I’d done a couple of test runs, read Mary Robinette Kowal’s awesome advice on the matter, and come to the conclusion that, making allowances for an enforced slow reading speed, 25 minutes should run to about 5000-5500 words. I had no story within that range, and it did seem a little premature to read from the novel at this stage, so I just went for “Blighted Heart”, my Aztec-y zombie story publ…

…d the Bang game. We apparently decided we needed more party games out of a common agreement). Blog service is still minimum–will resume after Monday, when everything starts up again. I’m beefing up on the novel writing/WII playing (got the new Super Mario Bros and am slowly getting addicted to Harvest Moon, in spite of the %% loading times). And looking forward to some novel reading (including one I have to crit, and one for the Norton Award Jury)…