…rom your vocabulary on mixed-race people. I don’t particularly enjoy being compared to animals, or the long history of prejudice inherent in that term (it’s a bit like thinking “mulatto” or “nigger” are appropriate descriptive words). For God’s sake, think on what it is you are saying before flinging this kind of word around. Disclaimer: this is based on my experience and on those of friends growing up (mostly in Europe, and most Asian-white mixed…

…er, nice with a side of awesome? Speaking of which, if you don’t feel like ordering the hardback of the novella, can I point out that you can get an exclusive ebook copy by donating $100 or more to the World SF Travel Fund? Either way, we’re 60% funded and could use some help meeting our goals, in order to send awesome writers Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and Csilla Kleinheincz to World Fantasy 2013. Go check us out; and spread the word!…

…ven’t gotten your nominations in, now is the time! My awards eligibility/recommendations post is here. I would add to those short stories already listed: Zen Cho’s “First Witch of Damansara”, a really funny and poignant story of culture clashes, wedding dresses and vampire grandmothers (published in E. Sedia’s anthology Bloody Fabulous, contact Zen directly for a copy; it’s well worth a read) Rose Lemberg’s “Seven Losses of Na Re”, about persecuti…

…lised that what mattered to the Nebulas (as confirmed by the Nebula Awards commissioner Tom Doyle) was territory of sale and not location of publisher. And that, since the book was on sale everywhere including the US, it was indeed eligible for the Nebulas. At which point I naturally felt very very silly, and very humbled that in spite of my shooting myself in the foot, people had kindly voted for the novella… So thank you very much to everyone wh…

…e people whom Seraphina strongly identifies with is… disquieting for me? I understand the quest for a racial identity; but again, this is a bit like saying that all Eurasians raised in Europe should form a natural, cohesive whole: to be sure, we all have common points, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that I’m going to have a strong sense of “those are my people” when I see them (the differences between our upbringings are also going to be quite…

…Just thought I’d repost this here if you have anything you can spare: Singaporean SFF writer Joyce Chng (J. Damask) is going through a bit of a sticky pass at the moment due to repeated hospitalisation of the family cat on top of other health issues. If you have a moment and want to buy books and/or swag, please head here. Any signal boosts much, much appreciated….

…relations with neighbors. The volume showcases Vietnam’s remarkable independence in the face of Chinese and other external pressures and respects the complexity of the Vietnamese experience both past and present”. The book’s hefty 600+-page contents promise a wealth of information and insight into Vietnamese society. (warning: family-history bias) Thing is… I guess they do provide that wealth of information, but due to a number of factors it ends…

…ake nước màu (caramel sauce) in my cast-iron enamelled pot (which was a welcome change from the bad saucepan I used the last time). The sauce is cooling as we speak; I’ll be hunting for a jam pot next. Have to say oven mitts are great for protection during the risky endeavour of heating up sugar… Now I’m off to spread the laundry to dry. Ah, heady days… (also bought a copy of Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat, and am currently reading it with fascinatio…

…iters’ Workshop in Brittany, and had a long… reflexion period to basically come to the conclusion I needed to take a baseball bat to my existing scenes and change the existing structure to better reflect the plot arc. This is part of my “Vietnamese in space” series with the Rong people (the same as in “Immersion”). It’s also, er, a somewhat angry story about colonialism, cultural legacies and virtual realities. Should be in the March issue of Clar…

…ugo nominations deadline is on March 10th; I’ve already put up an awards recommendation post (and supplementary recs here). But since the Hugos include non-fiction categories, I thought I’d add a few more recommendations in that direction: Best Fanzine: Both the World SF Blog and Europa SF have done a great job of taking SF past the Western Anglophone bias that still dominates the field: Europa SF is mainly focused on Europe whereas the scope of t…