…much idea of what I’m up to, other than this engagement, having lunch on Sunday, and presumably wandering into Forbidden Planet at some point 🙂 ETA: I have the con schedule, thanks to Shana Worthen and Simon Bradshaw 10:00 am Welcome (SFF) 10:05 am BSFA Event 11 am Aliette de Bodard interview with Edward James 12 pm – 12:45 SFF AGM 12:45 pm – 1: 45 pm Lunch 1:45 pm – 2:30 pm BSFA AGM 2:30 pm – Marek Kukula talk 3:30 pm – SF & Colonialism panel wi…

…be out by Loncon 3, and hopefully there’ll be some sort of launch event around then. “The Frost on Jade Buds” is set in the Xuya universe, in an asteroid belt on the edge of the Dai Viet Empire; and it deals with the aftermath of a terrible war, and the fallout from the powerful weapons employed then. Very loosely inspired by the use of Agent Orange and land mines in the Vietnamese/American war, which are still a problem today. As usual, many than…

…f I succeeded or fell flat on my face; if you have a minute to read it and comment, I would love feedback on how it strikes you. In the morning, you’re no longer quite sure who you are. You stand in front of the mirror—it shifts and trembles, reflecting only what you want to see—eyes that feel too wide, skin that feels too pale, an odd, distant smell wafting from the compartment’s ambient system that is neither incense nor garlic, but something el…

…ch were in French anyway); but I have not forgotten the stories. They were threatening and witty and cruel all at once, and though there was little science to them, they nevertheless encompassed profound truths about the human condition and the savage irony of our lives. Rest in peace, Ray Bradbury. Your words are in my heart….

…is is a pernicious, omnipresent state of things that leads to the same unfounded things being said, over and over, to people from developing countries and/or on developing countries. It’s time for this to stop. Time for the hoary, horrid misrepresentation clichés to be pointed out and examined; and for genuine, non-dismissive conversations to start. Accordingly, here’s a handy bingo card for Western Cultural Imperialism–and we wish we could say we…

…om de Bodard, the story is thought-provoking and challenging, and built around a nice SFnal idea. The story is set on a space station inhabited by apparently Asian-descended people. Quy’s family runs a restaurant often catering to “Galactic” tourists. The central SFnal maguffin is “immerser” technology, which helps people take on different appearances, and speak different languages, to deal with people of other cultures. Quy uses it, begrudgingly,…

…Sister”, “Younger Sister”, “Child”…), but this is very complicated and beyond the scope of this list! (picture credits: Timitrius on flickr, shared under a creative commons attribution share alike generic license)    …

…etail, which makes the pages of this just fly by (loved that Jade snarkily comments on the quality of Chinese vases in London townhouses, and just loved her relationship with Ravi). Zen is posting one chapter a day on her website, or you can buy the book from amazon or smashwords if you want to support her (well recommended!) –Night, Again, by Linh Dinh: all right, I’ll confess. One of my pet peeves about fiction set in Vietnam is the freaking hig…

…nd turning it over at the halfway mark (when the upper surface has gone golden) is a pretty good and painless substitute for deep-frying [1]. [1] Deep frying has two drawbacks: the first is that it’s fairly messy with high risks of burns (yes, clumsy cook here), and the second is that I can only do it in batches of 4-5 objects in order not to crowd my wok. By contrast, I can stick 20 fried rolls into the oven at a time (more if you count the fact…

…rarians. Doesn’t get much cooler than this! -You can find me over at the Founding Fields blogging on writing non-Western fantasy, cultural appropriation and the Obsidian and Blood books–many thanks to Abhinav Jain for the invitation (and for the rather awesome review). -Also, I’m at Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog for “My Favourite Bit”, in which I talk about the monsters in Obsidian and Blood -Reviews of “Immersion” at too many places to mention (and…