An excellent crop of Nebula winners:
Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon
Novella: "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress
Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate" by Ted Chiang
Short Story: "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler
Script: Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro
Andre Norton Award: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
Via Locus.
AND the election results are likewise promising.
The thing that really strikes me about Open Source Boob Gate* is its echoes with the previous discussions about the SF community’s groping problem. What a tin-eared approach to any kind of empowerment, given the history (and ignoring the fact that the whole thing was fraught with idiocy from the get go).
The LAST thing we need in science fiction is more groping. PERIOD.
(Sorry to have been MIA, but there’s a lot going on and I didn’t even realize this was happening until a day or so ago. And I think that’s pretty much all I have to say.)
*Good list of links at the end of this post.
In all the crazy of last week, I missed publication day for John Kessel‘s new collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories.
John is one of my very favorite writers–his novel Corrupting Dr. Nice
(first chapter here) is on my all-time top five. He’s also one of my very favorite people in the world; he was part of the small coterie that attended my and C’s nuptials, and I keep a polaroid of me, Karen, Kelly, and Barb posing next to a toga-clad John* at Wiscon 2004 on the filing cabinet next to my desk. In fact, something that still makes me insanely happy is this little snippet of "It’s All True," which you can read in the collection:
The wall of my apartment faded into a vision of Gwenda, my PDA. I had Gwenda programmed to look like Louise Brooks. "You’ve got a call from Vannicom, Ltd.," she said. "Rosethrush Vannice wants to speak with you."
My Mac is named Lulu.
Anyway, all this by way of saying that you need a copy of John’s book. Stat. And Small Beer is even offering it for free download. I guarantee you’ll end up wanting to own your own copy**.
*It’s not every writer who would wear a toga to promote someone else’s book launch!
**Some of the content has even been the center of a bona fide censorship controversy!
Needless to say, I am VERY happy with the work we jurors did this year. Go us!
PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION – 2008.04.14
JAMES TIPTREE JR. AWARD WINNER ANNOUNCED
A gender-exploring science fiction award is presented to Sarah Hall for The Carhullan Army (Daughters of the North)
The James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2007 Tiptree Award is The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall (published in the United States as Daughters of the North). The British edition was published in 2007 by Faber & Faber; the American edition in 2008 by HarperCollins.
The Tiptree Award will be celebrated on May 25, 2008 at WisCon (www.wiscon.info) in Madison, Wisconsin. The winner of the Tiptree Award receives $1000 in prize money, an original artwork created specifically for the winning novel or story, and (as always) chocolate.
Each year, a panel of five jurors selects the Tiptree Award winners and compiles an Honor List of other works that they find interesting, relevant to the award, and worthy of note. The 2007 jurors were Charlie Anders, Gwenda Bond (chair), Meghan McCarron, Geoff Ryman, and Sheree Renee Thomas.
The Carhullan Army elicited strong praise from the jurors. Gwenda Bond said, “Hall does so many things well in this book – writing female aggression in a believable way, dealing with real bodies in a way that makes sense, and getting right to the heart of the contradictions that violence brings out in people, but particularly in women in ways we still don’t see explored that often. I found the writing entrancing and exactly what it needed to be for the story; lean, but well-turned.” Geoff Ryman said, “It faces up to our current grim future (something too few SF novels have done) and seems to go harder and darker into war, violence, and revolution.” Meghan McCarron said, “I found the book to be subtle and ambiguous in terms of its portrayal of the Army, and its utopia….The book became, ultimately, an examination of what it means to attain physical, violent power as defined by a male-dominated world. And it asserted that it could be claimed by anyone, regardless of physical sex, provided they were willing to pay the price.”
The book, which is Hall’s third novel, also won the 2007 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) from Britain or the Commonwealth written by an author of 35 or under.
The Tiptree Award Honor List is a strong part of the award’s identity and is used by many readers as a recommended reading list for the rest of the year. The 2007 Honor List is:
The James Tiptree Jr. Award is presented annually to a work or works that explore and expand gender roles in science fiction and fantasy. The award seeks out work that is thought-provoking, imaginative, and perhaps even infuriating. The Tiptree Award is intended to reward those women and men who are bold enough to contemplate shifts and changes in gender roles, a fundamental aspect of any society.
The James Tiptree Jr. Award was created in 1991 to honor Alice Sheldon, who wrote under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr. By her choice of a masculine pen name, Sheldon helped break down the imaginary barrier between “women’s writing” and “men’s writing.” Her insightful short stories were notable for their thoughtful examination of the roles of men and women in our society.
Since its inception, the Tiptree Award has been an award with an attitude. As a political statement, as a means of involving people at the grassroots level, as an excuse to eat cookies, and as an attempt to strike the proper ironic note, the award has been financed through bake sales held at science fiction conventions across the United States, as well as in England and Australia. Fundraising efforts have included auctions conducted by stand-up comic and award-winning writer Ellen Klages, the sale of t-shirts and aprons created by collage artist and silk screener Freddie Baer, and the publication of four anthologies of award winners and honor-listed stories. Three of the anthologies are in print and available from Tachyon Publications (www.tachyonpublications.com). The award has also published two cookbooks featuring recipes and anecdotes by science fiction writers and fans, available through www.tiptree.org.
In addition to presenting the Tiptree Award annually, the James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council occasionally presents the Fairy Godmother Award, a special award in honor of Angela Carter. Described as a “mini, mini, mini, mini MacArthur award,” the Fairy Godmother Award strikes without warning, providing a financial boost to a deserving writer in need of assistance to continue creating material that matches the goals of the Tiptree Award.
Reading for the 2008 Tiptree Award will soon begin, with jurors K. Tempest Bradford, Gavin Grant (chair), Leslie Howle, Roz Kaveney, and Catherynne M. Valente. As always, the Tiptree Award invites all to recommend works for the award. Please submit recommendations via the Tiptree Award website at www.tiptree.org.
For more information, visit the Tiptree Award website at www.tiptree.org.
Paul Witcover over at the inferior 4+1 (inferior to no one!) pointed to this Reuters story about a survey looking at Americans favorite books. The findings:
"While the Bible is number one among each of the different demographic groups, there is a large difference in the number two favorite book," Harris said in a statement announcing the results.
Men chose J.R.R. Tolkien’s "The Lord of the Rings" and women selected Margaret Mitchell’s "Gone With the Wind" as their second-favorite book, according to the online poll.
But the second choice for 18- to 31-year-olds was J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, while 32- to 43-year-olds named Stephen King’s "The Stand" and Dan Brown’s "Angels and Demons".
Picks for second-favorite book also varied according to region. "Gone With the Wind" was number two in the southern and midwestern United States while easterners chose "The Lord of the Rings" and westerners opted for "The Stand".
In the comments, a clever commenter named Kit suggests the following diabolical scheme for authors:
You know that you can use the bible to make your amazon #s zoom, right? Make all your friends order your book and the cheapest possible edition of the bible simultaneously. Pretty soon people who click on the most-clicked-on amazon title will see:
readers who bought this also liked YOUR TITLE HERE
So obvious, it just might work…
Heretical Amazon Hacking Read More »
…than anything else I’d post here today. Go read Alice Kim’s "We Love Deena" at Strange Horizons. Brava!
Someone in the household who is not me is working on a paper and is trying to remember the term John Clute (or possibly Roz Kaveney) included in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy that is identical to the term used in Holland for when dikes are constructed and water is pumped out that describes the land that’s left behind. Help!
Nevermind — found it: Polder!
From John Clute’s review of Greg Frost’s Shadowbridge* (which I absolutely can’t wait to read; I adored Fitcher’s Brides):
The second section of Shadowbridge is a thoroughly routine Young Adult novella, a hugely distended tale within the network of tales that makes up the book, 90 pages long, as benumbing for an adult to read as almost any story written for the Young Adult market, whose products are about as close to genuine fiction as megachurches are to monasteries where silence is observed.
Wha, huh? You cannot imagine how funny this is after spending nine days attending about 16 lectures discussing the complexities of writing children’s and YA literature…
*See some excerpts from the generally glowing reviews it’s getting at his site.
Just popping in to say that I’m really liking io9, the new science fiction concern of the Gawker empire. The contributions of the extremely smart Charlie Anders–who’s also on this year’s Tiptree jury–and editor Annalee Newitz are particularly fun. And the site’s top ten most anticipated SF titles of 2008 included several of the books my own hot little hands can’t wait for (especially Karen Joy Fowler’s Wit’s End, which will be fabulous).
Thus far the contributors seem to be playing nice with others, something that could never be said about many of the Gawker tentacles*… and I hope it stays like that or at least doesn’t get mean in an uninteresting way. But, hey, Scalzi’s watching that so I don’t have to.
*Y’all know how I love the Fine Lines at Jezebel.
I have a cold. It comes and goes. For Christopher, it just stays, so I’m not complaining (too loudly). And we haven’t even begun to Xmas shop yet. But a post on recent writing stuff, anyway…
Turkey City 2007.
For those of you who don’t know, the Turkey City Writer’s Workshop is, to quote the home page, "a long-running Texas science fiction institution," held in Austin. It is, of course, the genesis of the infamous Turkey City Lexicon. When Chris Nakashima-Brown graciously invited Christopher and me to attend this year’s incarnation as guest workshoppers, we immediately said yes. (Or it would have been immediate, were I better at keeping up with the e-mail.) Plus, any excuse to impose on Maureen’s hospitality is thoroughly welcome.
The thing that makes Turkey City a bit different than the usual workshop is that it takes place over one day. The format involves spending the hours up to lunch reading everyone’s stories (we had 12, I believe, a few of which came a day or two in advance via e-mail), grabbing lunch, then indulging in the standard Milford-style critique circle until every last story’s been given the royal treatment. It’s kind of like Survivor: Workshop. Sounds brutal and hellish, I know, and, well, it is brutal, but thankfully not so much with the fiery torture. We didn’t see a whole lot of TC’s legendary acid and scrappy critique stylings, for which I’m grateful. Instead, we read a bunch of really good stories and had very cogenial discussions about how to make them better. I got some excellent feedback on my novel’s opening. Afterward, there’s a party, which was fun (if sort of a blur due to the complete and utter exhaustingness of the day). (C-Nak’s house, btw, is basically the coolest pad in the world.)
The next day we slept in, then went for a delicious lunch at local staple Las Manitas Avenue Cafe. After that, we paid a visit to the extremely excellent Harry Ransom Center to see the current exhibits; one was about the trend for costumes and staging in Victorian photography (including a whole bunch of Lewis Carroll’s stuff that I’ve loved for ages), the other about Arthur Miller’s theater and featuring some amazing letters written during the McCarthy era about his refusal to name names. Christopher and I both had our pictures snapped in the interactive part of the Victorian exhibit and they can be seen at those links–we’d have done something more interesting if we hadn’t been so wiped. Then on to Book People, where I overindulged in the stupendously wonderful children’s and teen section. (Seriously, best staff recommendations and selection EVER. What a great bookstore.) Airport, ice cream, hellish flying experience that at least involved free booze from the flight attendant, and home home home. Needless to say after this report, Maureen and Chris are the best hosts around.
Revision. & Again.
Yes, we all love Scrivener. I’m finding it’s really and truly worth its weight in gold (or more, actually, because it probably doesn’t have a weight in gold) as I go into revision mode. Not that it’s not wonderful during composition, but it seems there are so many functions I’m only discovering now.
Which is a short way of saying that things will probably continue to be sporadic around these parts until next year. My intention is to turn around the major revision of Monster Nation in the next month or so (I leave for my next MFA residency January 13, and more on the First Year of the MFA soon), which will be lots of work. I’m working on my revision outline the rest of this week and then will dive into it. Luckily, as I said, Scrivener makes rearranging and tweaking your story spine and managing the overall task of stuff so much more intuitive. This is a very good thing. Then, I’ll circulate it to some people and see what they think. (And start something else.)
Oh, revision, my favorite favorite part of the writing process. The part when you get to make stuff good.