…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….

…d 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. “Younger aunt… Cam.” She hesitates over the nam…

…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…

…er change can be reversed so they can be “normal” people). Another thing I realised only afterwards was that I hadn’t implied anything about the outsider society Fourth Spouse’s true love comes from–in my mind they were Chinese, of course, but with people’s tendency to assume a default whiteness for the not-described, I fear that people will simply read the story as “Chinese people are horrible among themselves, but the West is OK, and liberal bec…

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…

Athena Andreadis has announced the TOC of her feminist space opera anthology The Other Half of the Sky: Athena Andreadis, Introduction Melissa Scott, “Finders” Alexander Jablokov, “Bad Day on Boscobel” Nisi Shawl, “In Colors Everywhere” Sue Lange, “Mission of Greed” Vandana Singh, “Sailing the Antarsa” Joan Slonczewski, “Landfall” Terry Boren, “This Alakie and the Death of Dima” Aliette de Bodard, “The Waiting Stars” Ken Liu, “The Shape of Though…

…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 appointments left over from before the summer, and a workshop in Brit…

…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….

…rites about being of Chinese descent in Australia. A lot of it is either uncomfortably familiar experience and/or strikes home quite accurately: Our cultures are exotic, fashionable, fascinating and valuable when contained within or filtered through a white Western lens – 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…