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| Thursday, May 17th, 2012 |
marthawells
|
8:22a |
Antique Rose Emporium
Yesterday I took the day off and went with a friend to the Antique Rose Emporium, which is about a twenty-five minute drive from our house. It's a large plant nursery/garden site out in the country which is really gorgeous. Then we drove on into Brenham and had a very good lunch at a neat little place on the square (homemade bread, nom nom nom) and looked into the stores for a while. Then came back home and stopped on campus to walk around so she could see what had changed and we could check out the newly remodeled student center. So here are photos, all of the Rose Emporium First, a kitty:  This is Tasha  ( more photos ) |
| Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 |
rolanni
|
9:03p |
In which Rolanni is under the weather
The trees of Maine have initiated their annual assassination proceedings. The good news is, if I manage to outlast them, as I have for the last twenty-three seasons, I’m safe from their nefarious attentions for another year.
Catching up yesterday, for those who don’t do Facebook: Steve and I arose at an Unreasonably Early Hour, went to the lab and saw the echocardiogram done. The promise from the tech was that the doctor would read the results that day, and if there was any problem, would call us immediately. Otherwise, we should get the results in two to three days. (Jumping ahead — there was no immediate call from the doctor, so — yay.)
That chore out of the way, we retired to Eric’s for breakfast, thence to the post office, where a royalty check for slightly less than the cost of breakfast awaited (my last such check from Fictionwise), and finally to the grocery store. Arriving home, I found the galleys for the Ghost Ship mass market paperback my inbox, with a turnaround time of before we leave for Kansas City next week, so that’s what I’ve been putzing along at , with frequent breaks for naps.
In my spare time, I’ve been reading The Prestige by Christopher Priest. I can’t recall the last time the structure of a novel has annoyed me so much. Happily, Mr. Priest writes a clean hand, so I don’t doubt I’ll finish reading, but I suspect that this may be one of those very rare cases where I prefer the movie to the novel.
Tomorrow, we again arise before dawn, this time to take Socks to the vet for his post-dental-work check-up and, hopefully, his rabies shot. We’ll return to the Metropolis later in the day to get haircuts, which, in my case at least, is about three weeks overdue. Got a definite hedgehog look going…
In between those two necessary events, I’ll be right here, reading galleys.
Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there. Current Mood:  groggy |
matociquala
|
6:14p |
half angel. half eagle. one eye on the world.
The first volume of Shadow Unit is now available as a proper paper book with a gorgeous Kyle Cassidy cover. It will be available through Amazon within a week, and will slowly filter its way through the rest of the online distribution system.  This volume contains the first half of Season 1. Volume 2 should be available in about a month, with other volumes to follow. And of course, Shadow Unit in its entirety is available for free online, and as a modestly priced ebook through the usual sources. The story began in 2007, and will end in 2013. It's not too late to discover one of the coolest collaborative serials in the genre internets! Current Mood:  chipper |
coffeeem
|
5:07p |
O! M! G! Eleventy-one!!!!!!
*ahem* Has anyone out there been waiting for Shadow Unit in physical paper-type form? You have? Oh. Okay, then. That's good. Because the first volume is here.*exits, grinning* (This volume is the first half of Season One. It'll be available on Amazon.com within a week, and elsewhere within two months. Season One, volume two will be available within the month; I'll let you know.) Current Mood:  squee! |
coffeeem
|
4:14p |
There's no cure for the common cold.
There are, however, things that make life easier to endure while one's immune system is fighting the battle of Helm's Deep against the snot-orcs and the congestion cave trolls and the giant sore-throat spiders. (No, Bear, these are not good spiders. They are icky metaphorical spiders, and I am allowed to kill them if I want to.) For two days I've flung zinc tablets and decongestants at the problem. They've helped, but they haven't really made me feel better. At last, today, I have something that makes me feel as if I wouldn't rather die than have this cold. 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon honey 8 - 10 ounces of hot, but not boiling, water 1 shot whisky (Jameson's would probably be perfect. I have Highland Park single malt 12yo, which is probably pearls before cold-swine, but I don't care) Combine the above in a mug. Drink. Repeat as necessary. No, you won't be cured. But you won't care. Current Mood:  bleagh. |
klwilliams
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12:01p |
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sartorias
|
10:17a |
Request for Tire Kickers
Book View Cafe is a consortium of writers, as I've mentioned before. The last four months, several people have worked really hard on completely redesigning the book store from scratch. This is what companies pay big bucks for, but since none of us have big bucks, it's all volunteer labor. If you have the time, we'd appreciate it if you would try this link and poke around. There is a place for comments, if something is buggy, confusing, you think something would be better. If you choose to buy a book, great! Let us know how that goes, but just poking around is a big help. Here is the comments link where the designers will actually see them. (I don't think any of them read my blog, so I am going to try to close comments here.) Thanks! |
otterdance
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8:42a |
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mescott
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9:46a |
Winners!
And, thanks again to random.org, the winners are... ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7) kindkit and ladysalieri! Drop me a message and let me know where I should send your copies. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you all for playing! |
sartorias
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6:36a |
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marthawells
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7:20a |
News and Links
If you missed it yesterday, I had great news: I sold two new YA fantasies to Strange Chemistry Books. Last night there was much celebrating involving chocolate cake. Also, The Siren Depths is now up for preorder at Barnes and Noble and Amazon US, and they both have the preorder price now. *** Links I have been meaning to post and got way behind on: * N.K. Jemisin: Why There's No TipjarFor as long as I’m traditionally published, I’m not planning to do a tipjar. I really appreciate the thought, but thing is — you are contributing by checking out books from the library. The more lends and reservations a library gets for a particular book, the more books that library will purchase. And if it gets checked out a lot, they might prominently display it somewhere, which will (hopefully) earn me more long-term readers. You can also fill out a request card for your local public library, and ask that they get books they don't have yet. * Black Gate: C.S.E. Cooney’s How to Flirt in Faerieland & Other Wild Rhymes On Sale* Sense of Wonder: Interview with Verbena C.W., editor of Liu Cixin in English * XOJane: CeCe McDonald, the Girl Who Lived (And Why There is No Justice for Transgender Women of Color)* Cynthia Leitich Smith: Video: "Bookloose" by Dowell Middle School (McKinney, Texas) in support of continued funding for their school library. This was really cute. * Salon: Whitewashing, a history From "Tiffany's" to "Khan," we look at Hollywood's illustrious tradition of casting white actors in non-white roles by Aasif Mandvi * Air & Space Smithsonian: The Weird World of Folk Aviators With his whimsical sculptures, Gregory Bryant celebrates early ideas about winged flight. * Kate Elliott: Guest Post: Decolonizing as an SF Writer By Rochita Loenen-RuizAs I write this, I am thinking of a young writer somewhere in the world who comes from a country just like mine. I write reflecting on the process of decolonization that I am going through as I consider history. This look back may be painful and I may have to face unhappy truths, but still it is important. I need to understand the source of the pain, to accept it, embrace it and find healing so I can reclaim what is mine and become the writer that I want to be. |
dduane
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11:48a |
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| Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 |
kateelliott
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9:34p |
Guest Post: LOOKING FOR THE WOMEN (IN ANCIENT ROME)
Recently there’s been a great deal of discussion on the topic of whether women did actually exist in “historical times,” by which I mean to say that all too often “common knowledge” of what women’s roles were in historical periods is a mythology. If writers and readers base their expectations of women in fantasy fiction on these erroneous stereotypes, then not only is our literature and our reading the poorer for it but it is also getting it wrong.
Today I offer a guest post by Australian writer Tansy Rayner Roberts on this very (and very important) subject.
Looking for the Women (in Ancient Rome)
by Tansy Rayner Roberts
I was inspired to write this after Kate’s post about looking for women in historically-based fantasy worlds.
It’s long frustrated me that a great deal of fantasy fiction in the long tradition of the genre underestimates women. In particular, I am tired of worlds which are supposedly ‘based on medieval history’ and yet seem to be under the impression that women in the Middle Ages only turned up when a hero needed someone to marry, or to pour him a drink.
And I’m especially, especially tired of any attempts to interrogate the gender politics in fantasy fiction being shut down with the argument: it’s based on real history, so the sexism is AUTHENTIC.
I’m not going to lie to you. Every historical period has been unkind to women, up to and including our own. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t complex and interesting possibilities available to women of all eras, in between stirring the turnip soup and being oppressed.
My favourite fantasy fiction is fed by history, by the nitty gritty details of things that really happened, people who had real lives, tossed around with magic because that automatically makes things more fun.
I wanted to bring my knowledge of Ancient Rome to what Kate has already talked about, largely because I think we can all take a rest from pure Anglo medieval-inspired fantasy for a decade or two, but also because Rome is what I know best.
Ancient Rome is packed with the types of historical issues we see people running up against when trying to write non-sexist stories set in mostly-sexist societies. In Rome, there was a very clear division between the public and private spheres. Sadly almost every historical document that survived to document their society was kept because it related to the ‘obviously important’ public sphere in which men were dominant. Most of the sources we have about private life are conveyed in the words of men, such as the Letters of the Younger Pliny.
But while women had no technical power in that public sphere (which mostly consisted of military issues, senatorial politics and toga parties) they had immense power behind the scenes. They had their own religious rituals which were considered just as important to the well being of the state as the public, mostly-male rites. For a long time, scholars assumed women’s religion was less important because they weren’t allowed to make blood sacrifice, and it’s only recently that scholars have gone, um, maybe we only assumed blood sacrifice was more important than, say, baking the sacrificial cakes, because the men were in charge of it? Oops.
Women of all social levels ran businesses, owned property and slaves, and moved freely around their local city or, if they preferred, the Empire itself. Even aristocratic women could do those things, though they were more likely to have male relatives who wanted to control them. The older a woman got, the greater her status. Divorce was easy to achieve (as long as you weren’t too emotionally attached to your children, one hell of a loophole) but there was special social status granted to a univira, the rare woman who had only had one husband in her lifetime.
We know that Augustus, the first emperor, brought in legislation to try to control women, a little under two thousand years ago, and that tells us a lot about how unruly they had become! In particular, he brought in a law to force women of the upper classes to remarry within two years of being widowed (and one year of divorce). This was somewhat devastating, as divorcing your husband or becoming a widow had previously been the best way for a woman to achieve independence.
Still, we have some great examples of interesting women in Roman history, who had rich and fulfilling and complex lives, despite the patriarchal society in which they lived. Such as:
THE VIRAGO
The word ‘virago’ was supposedly coined by Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) to insult his rival Marc Antony’s wife Fulvia. It means ‘women who acts like a man’ and referred to the fact that Fulvia joined her husband on military expeditions. She wasn’t actually wielding a sword or wearing armour (not that I’d put it past her, she was a feisty lady), but it was apparently unusual for a woman to prefer to rough it in a tent with her husband rather than stay home in comfort with her children.
Having said that, we know of several other women who did the same thing, including Agrippina Major (the granddaughter of Augustus) who raised her children in military camps so they could be near her their father (and so they would all be far from the dangerous politics of the capital). Later, the Empress Faustina Minor discovered that following her husband to war allowed historians to trash talk her reputation (though the accusations that she had affairs with gladiators had little to do with her own reputation and everything to do with how much the Romans hated her son, the Emperor Commodus).
THE VIRGINS
While having a husband was the key to many social successes and honours in Ancient Rome, it was not always compulsory. The Vestal Virgins were the among the highest status women in the city. While there were some scary stories circulating about what would happen to a Vestal if she broke the chastity rule (buried alive for a start) they were nevertheless trusted to regulate that chastity themselves. They were not shut away or guarded by eunuchs as some 1960’s movies might have you believe!
In fact they moved through the city in freedom and comfort, attended dinner parties, performed rituals, and took part in several business-related duties including the receiving, archiving and dispensing of the city’s legal wills and other documents. They often had political influence, and had the same status in a law court as a man – which is to say their word had greater legal weight than any other woman of the time.
After thirty years of service (they sign up as children) each Vestal would be released with a generous dowry, and could either live independently or choose to marry.
THE MISTRESS
One of my favourite historical characters (only partly because of the marvellous historical novel written about her, The Course of Honour by Lindsey Davis) is Caenis, the mistress to the Emperor Vespasian (he who built the Colosseum). Caenis’ story is fascinating because it goes against everything we think we know about Roman society and their class system, and what women were allowed to do.
Caenis began as an imperial slave, serving Antonia (niece of the Emperor Augustus, mother of the Emperor Tiberius) as a personal secretary. She appears to have had an eidetic memory, and served her mistress dutifully through a time of great political scandal. When she was freed, she took the name ‘Antonia’ as was tradition.
But while freedwomen could run businesses and own property, one thing not allowed to Antonia Caenis was to marry above her station. Her love affair with the ageing general Vespasian thus was unlikely to be officially sanctioned by the state, but the class divide broadened when he became the surprise Emperor of a new dynasty. Luckily he already had two adult sons. He and Caenis lived happily together in the imperial quarters, she providing him with great advice and wisdom, until her death.
Even in a world where the rules of marriage and social status were quite complex and technically restrictive, love and smarts could beat them all into the ground!
There are so many other specific women I could have talked about – the further they got from the city of Rome itself, and the lawmakers who thought it was okay to dictate what women should do, the more likely they were to take all kinds of freedoms for themselves that the law didn’t actually allow for. Take mixed bathing – the public baths were supposed to have separate areas for men and women, but half the time they all jumped in together, with all the social ramifications that might imply, regardless of whether or not the current Emperor though it was a good idea. In smaller towns we even have women running local councils, or breaking with all manner of traditions expected of ‘good’ Roman matrons.
Then there’s the time that the Emperor Augustus gave a lecture about what men should demand of their wives, with all the senators laughing up their sleeves because they all knew that the women of his family had other opinions on the matter.
If we learn nothing else from Roman history, it is that there have always been strong-willed women who get their own way, no matter what the law or the ideals of the society say about it. Personality can rule over technicalities, and even a sexist society can produce some amazing, capable women, those who work with the system as well as those who work against it.
Too often, female characters only get celebrated in fantasy fiction if they are behaving like men, or taking on traditional male attributes – the kickass lady in armour, the sorceress who can zap you if you say the wrong thing, and so on. But while I’m all for putting women in (sensible) armour and throwing them out on the battlefield, I also would like to see greater use of other female roles in fantasy – of women’s brains, in particular. The further back you go in history, the smarter women had to be in order to exhibit and use the power they had. So let’s see more of THAT in fantasy.
If a story starts with a maiden, let’s not assume that she has to get locked in a tower. There are alternatives…
This post was written by Tansy Rayner Roberts for her Flappers with Swords Blog Tour.
Tansy’s award-winning Creature Court trilogy: Power and Majesty, The Shattered City and Reign of Beasts, featuring flappers with swords, shape changers, half-naked men and bloodthirsty court politics, have been released worldwide on the Kindle, and should be available soon across other e-book platforms. If you prefer your books solid and papery, they can also be found in all good Australian and New Zealand bookshops.
You can also check out Tansy’s work through the Hugo-nominated crunchy feminist science fiction podcast Galactic Suburbia, Tansy’s short story collection Love and Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press). You can find her on the internet at her blog, or on Twitter as @tansyrr.
Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds. |
madrobins
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8:48p |
Book View Café Reborn
If you have a minute, go check out Book View Café! Today we rolled out the New! Improved! bookstore. Easier to navigate, cleaner and better organized, plus, new bells and whistles (you can buy more than one book at a time! We can issue "coupons" for discounts! Joy!). And while you're there, check out ramblin_phyl's Guardian of the Freedom, released today. 
1763: all of Europe is at war with each other and the Turks are storming toward Vienna. The magical protection of Britain requires that Georgina Kirkwood, a potential Merlin, leave the secret Pendragon Society and disguise herself as man to fight for England.
Wounded and no longer able to carry a sword, Georgina is recruited by the King as a spy in the American Colonies. Transplanted to a land and people vibrant with life and ideas, she begins to question her loyalties. Only her love for Major Roderick Wythe gives her the grounding and stability to work with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams and many other notable leaders to discover what being the Merlin truly means and to determine who she is protecting from whom.
Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species, a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon, she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck.
A museum trained historian, Irene has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family she grew up all over the US and learned early on that books are friends that don't get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between.
Guardian of the Freedom (historical fantasy) Merlin's Descendants #5 Irene Radford May 15, 2012 $4.99 ISBN: 978-1-61138-171-9 |
otterdance
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4:07p |
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otterdance
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3:41p |
Today's Best Typo
“It’s stacked with mountain trout, my lord. Good fishing in that pond, and a tasty catch, if you care for fish." Stacks of trout. Yum! I'm also using the word "muscular" a lot lately. Where's that Thesaurus? |
ellen_kushner
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6:21p |
Overhead on Riverside Drive
Delia ( to extremely sulky, broody EK): You are my darling one. EK ( sulkily): No, I'm not. I'm not anyone's darling anything. Delia: So what am I, chopped liver? EK: Oh..........OK. Delia: Good; because I don't think there's any statute anywhere about marriage being between chopped liver and a woman. |
otterdance
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2:38p |
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desperance
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2:27p |
Shattered, like a glass Chaz
Well, damn. I hate it, that I am so stupid sensitive. I was actually having rather a nice day, making progress, getting stuff done. Then I heard that someone's really upset with me, over something I thought they'd appreciate; and now of course the whole day turns to splinters in my hands. And I can't fix things without asking my friends to help, again, the way I always do; and I hate that too, and now I'm kind of wishing for an extinction event, or at least a surgical meteorite strike just for me. I could paint a target on the lawn, if that would help. |
otterdance
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2:07p |
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matociquala
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4:54p |
our prayers are always answered. that miracles can happen.
I just had one of those labor-saving strokes of genius that I need to share with the world. Which is to say, the easiest method ever in the history of popovers. Here is my basic popover recipe: 2 tablespoons solid fat (butter or animal fat (duck fat, mmm) or solid shortening) 3 large eggs, at room temperature 1 cup (250 ml) whole milk, at room temperature 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 1 cup (140 g) all purpose or white whole wheat flour 1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten This tactic assumes you own a wand blender and a wide-mouthed quart Mason jar and a microwave. If not, just make the popovers the way you normally would--or if you are missing the wand blender but have a normal blender, you can melt the butter in a different container and use the normal blender. About an hour or two before dinner, take your Mason jar. Put the butter/whatever in it. Put it in the microwave and melt it. (If you are making Yorkshire pud and are waiting for the roast to be finished before you add the fat, skip this step for now, and stir the fat in before you bake the popovers.) Add the milk, eggs, salt, and sugar to the butter in the Mason jar (or blender)(or just put them in the blender if you are adding the fat later). Do not put the eggs directly into the hot butter before diluting it with the milk. Otherwise you will have scrambled eggs, which are nice, but not popovers. Whiz them all up with the wand blender. Add the flour and the wheat gluten. Whiz that too, until you have a nice smooth batter. Let the batter sit on the counter until dinner is nearly ready. If you are roasting something at 400 degrees, you're good; otherwise preheat your oven to 400 (F). (200 C) Liberally grease 9 cups of a 12-cup muffin tin, or if you are making Yorkshire pud, drizzle a little of the fat from the roast into the bottom of the cups. If you have one of the giant-sized six muffin muffin tins, then you will have bigger popovers and they need to bake a little longer. Using silicon cups for this results in popovers without stumps or a lot of loft, as they just levitate themselves out of the super-slick cups entirely. They still taste good! If you are using fat from the roast you're making, add it now and stir it in. Divide the popover batter between the nine greased cups. You can just pour it from the blender or the Mason Jar. Stick in oven. Do not peek! If you open the door before they are set, they won't rise properly. Bake for 35 minutes or until deep mahogany brown. Pull pan from oven. Tilt popovers in cups, or remove them to a rack or basket. Pierce each one with a bamboo skewer. (careful of the steam!) The purpose of these two procedures is to (a) prevent them from getting soggy and (b) prevent them from collapsing. Eat. However you meant to eat them. Do not plan on leftovers. Wash your one. dirty. dish. Oh, and the wand blender, sure. And the muffin tin. But that was inevitable.
ETA: Nota Bene
For even more loft in your popovers, preheat the muffin tin with the grease in it in the 400-degree oven for a few minutes before pouring the batter in. This is a bit tricky, though, and can be skipped. Current Mood:  i'm a fucking genius |
otterdance
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12:01p |
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modehistorique
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10:32a |
It’s that time of year again…
Originally published at Historical Personality Disorder. Please leave any comments there. Costume College is three months out and I’ve finally decided on this year’s Gala costume. Since the theme of this year’s CoCo is “Golden Age of Hollywood”, it leaves a lot of fabulousness to contemplate! After much consideration and debate, I’ve settled on The Dress, and now comes the part where I’m going to have to figure out how to obtain the necessary materials without breaking the bank. Because, you see, I’ve decided to attempt to recreate this dress:
 Gown worn by Dorothy Christy in "Marie Antoinette" (1938), designed by Adrian. Perhaps not the most outrageous outfit from that film, but it is one of my all time favorites (Hello! Black & white dress! I’m so ON IT!). ;)
The hardest part, other than trying to find accurate information about the construction of the gown itself, has been turning off my “historically accurate” brain in the search for materials. I would love to make the dress using silk, believe me, but I can’t entirely justify it for the purpose of a movie costume recreation, and on a graduate student budget. Hopefully, I can still do Adrian justice using synthetics (*twitch*) because I don’t plan on selling an organ to finance this costume.
Sigh… Such a pretty dress. I can’t wait to get started on it!
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otterdance
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9:52a |
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marthawells
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8:26a |
Great News - sold two new YA novels!
I have great news to announce: I sold 2 YA novels to Strange Chemistry! http://strangechemistrybooks.com/2012/05/15/announcing-martha-wells/The first book is Emilie and the Hollow World, to be published in August 2013, with a sequel to follow in Spring 2014. It’s a steampunkish fantasy adventure, set in a secondary world. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started writing Emilie in July 2009 when my husband was facing a lay off and The Cloud Roads had been on submission for about a year and still hadn’t sold. I finished it around December 2009, and it started out on its submission adventure around the summer of 2010, so it’s had a long road too. And I’m so so happy that it found a home with Strange Chemistry! And I want to thank my agent Jennifer Jackson ( Arcaedia) for believing in me and my crazy books. In short, WOOHOO!!!!! |
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