…Words mean something; they weigh, like contracts between families in the olden times. Cam uses them cheaply, for they’re the weapon by which she makes her way in life. Yup, not terrifically original, but I rather like it….

…ow 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. “You…

…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….

…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…

…w a society in which women were so scarce that men had had to improvise around their lack. This involved quite a bit of handwavium (mostly a background biological weapon developed by neo-Confucians to keep women in their place, and which backfired when used in the field), none of which actually showed up in the story but was necessary to help me design it! The caihes are named after Lan Caihe, the mischievous Immortal who is alternately male and f…

Reposted from my twitter feed because I think it’s worth saying: The physical description of your Asian characters to easily ID them as Asian is not the first thing you should be obsessing about. Basically, this is the most Othering version of describing characters of colour–they’re just like white people, except with different physical features! But it’s not only features that make people “different” , and in fact our differences are often much…

…The Waiting Stars” Ken Liu, “The Shape of Thought” Alex Dally MacFarlane, “Under Falna’s Mask” Martha Wells, “Mimesis” Kelly Jennings, “Velocity’s Ghost” C. W. Johnson, “Exit, Interrupted” Cat Rambo, “Dagger and Mask” Christine Lucas, “Ouroboros” Jack McDevitt, “Cathedral” Very pleased to be part of this awesome lineup! Mine is… er, weird, and involves Xuyan mindships, a Vietnamese rescue squad and homicidal nanobots. You can read samples from all…

Found this on twitter. Kathleen Alcalá on SFF alternate universes vs reality: Last quote on the importance of ethnic sensibilities: Your alt reality is my everyday life. Yes. It’s a brilliant summary of what’s wrong with the “rule of cool” SF (and why you need to be careful about which bits of which cultures you put into your story, as I argued elsewhere) Activity this week is likely to be sparse, as I have to fit in a Vietnamese lesson, a few ap…

…Had food. Went to visit Orléans with the H and spent far too much time in a games shop looking at everything they had. Stared at my story until beads of blood formed on my forehead. Tried to ply my muse with food; it didn’t work. Proofed outcoming novella On a Red Station, Drifting (well, the first two thirds, anyway). Off to watch some Thin Blue Line before bed, methinks….

…– 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 sedu…