Insert Witty Journal Title Here

I didn't catch it the first time I watched the Neil Gaiman episode, but I did catch it the second time and said something about it on Facebook. The captions actually didn't catch it. It says '-----class'. At least the ones that aired on BBCA the first time it was shown.

This month's Ansible says:

"Neil Gaiman's Doctor Who episode 'A Nightmare in Silver' (11 May) includes a dialogue homage to Ursula Le Guin, or perhaps Orson Scott Card.... About nine minutes in, a character is heard to say: 'It can't be broken – it's a solid state ansible-class communicator!' [NG]"

Does authorial intent matter here? Is it an homage to OSC if Gaiman thought it was an homage to OSC? Standing all by its lonesome, without getting into Gaiman's head (or perhaps someone else's, if he wasn't responsible for that bit of technobabble), isn't it a shout-out to Le Guin?

OSC doesn't get to claim credit for the ansible. He just doesn't. Well, and the fact is he doesn't. He's on the record somewhere or other as identifying his source.

So people don't get to claim credit on his behalf either.

* Finish my project for school that's due tomorrow. :} Half my grade!! Grr.
I did it. 47. That's a 97. That's an A. I hope. Official grade not posted yet.

* Book a shuttle to the airport.
Done. Have to walk across the street to the hotel or spend 43$ extra dollars both ways!!

* Charge up my camera's batteries and make sure there's an empty card in.
Done.

* Read.. what do I need to read? Stuff! I should really read the Jemisin duology for a start.
Um. Yea. Meant to read Heart of Thomas. Didn't even search for it. Started The Killing Moon. Should I bring the sequel on the plane? Too much? They're pretty big books.

* Watch Iron Man 3, or I'm going to be spoiled rotten. Facebook and LJ have already blown up!
Saw Iron Man 3 and the Doctor Who finale. Behind on Game of Thrones. Have not seen Star Trek. And everyone's talking about Star Trek. Grr.

* Watch and/or read some queer anime/manga for my panel?
See Heart of Thomas above. Yea.. not so much.

* Do some Fake Geek Girl research?
Um... yea, didn't do that.

* Eventually... pack.
Still not started.

* Print out travel info, particularly the bus from Midway.
Did that anyway. Yay.

Also, did not get the print version of the trivia book even started. Well, slightly started, but yea.

Also, do not know yet what I'm reading at the OA reading and thus do not have a printout of said non-existent thing. I could ask trivia questions from my book that are quiltbag or Wiscon-related? I have a copy on my ereader, so that might sort of work.

I fly tomorrow! Won't make it in time for the reception, unless I came straight from the union with all of my stuff.

* Finish my project for school that's due tomorrow. :} Half my grade!! Grr.
* Book a shuttle to the airport.
* Charge up my camera's batteries and make sure there's an empty card in.
* Read.. what do I need to read? Stuff! I should really read the Jemisin duology for a start.
* Watch Iron Man 3, or I'm going to be spoiled rotten. Facebook and LJ have already blown up!
* Watch and/or read some queer anime/manga for my panel?
* Do some Fake Geek Girl research?
* Eventually... pack.
* Print out travel info, particularly the bus from Midway.

Oh yea.. and write a story appropriate to read at the Outer Alliance reading. Piece of cake.

Addendum: Er, yea.. totally forgot I was trying to get a print copy of my trivia book done. School seemed to be the priority, so I was assiduously procrastinating that.

Merlin Season 1 disc art.

1. Merlin
2. Arthur
3. Uther and Gaius
4. Gwen and Morgana
5. The dragon

Yup, that about sums it up. The women aren't very important. But at least they beat the dragon.

For the record, it's a horrible picture of the dragon.

I posted a mini-rant on Facebook about the whole #womeningenre thing. I'm not going to rehash it here.

Strange Horizons posted a gender count of sf/f reviews in review publications. It should be noted that Ladybusiness also did a count of sf/f reviews on blogs.

io9 reported on it with "Handy Charts Reveal Why You've Never Heard of Most Female SF Authors". It's probably getting more links because of the catchy title and increased readership of io9 versus Strange Horizons. It also shares better on Facebook.

Leaving aside whether or not I have heard of "most female SF authors". Well, maybe not leaving it aside. I don't read the reviews in any of these publications, so that's not how I'd hear about them anyhow!

Now leaving it aside, as you probably won't be too surprised to note, the comments are full of people (I'll leave it at 'people') asking for recommendations for female sf/f authors to read. And then other people suggesting some.

Really?! Really?! You need to ask a [expletive deleted] question like that?!

Ways to find good female sf/f authors without asking in the comments on an io9 post:

1. Google 'female sf/f authors' or 'women science fiction authors' or some similar search. Voila!
2. Look at your favorite awards list. Note the female-sounding names. Have at it.
3. Browse the shelves of your local library or bookstore for female-sounding names or people who look like women in their author photo or for female pronouns in the author bios.
4. Ask on Facebook. Your friends know your tastes more than random io9 readers do.
5. Look at your Amazon or Goodreads or LibraryThing recommendations for, again, female-sounding names.
6. Read everything on the Tiptree Award lists. Even if it's by male authors. It'll do you good.
7. Look at the books on your own shelves, real or virtual, for female authors. Have you read them yet? Did you like a particular author? Read the rest of her stuff!
8. Look at the past guests of honor of WisCon. Not all are female. Not all are authors. But a lot of them are both!
9. Look at the freaking #womeningenre tag on Twitter, for cripe's sake.
10. Because 10 makes a nice round number. The next geek you run into -- it might be your wife, your son, your bff, a coworker, whatever -- ask them, "who are some of your favorite female sf/f authors?"

Message ends...

Arisia was a bit of a blur. Not because I did a lot of things, or that I got drunk a lot, because I don't drink. I still had a cold and I tried to take it easy. But somehow I don't feel like my memory was working quite up to speed. At any rate, I did do things!

Saw some great costumes. The TARDIS dress that's going around, I saw that. I actually attended the Masquerade, but I caught that one in passing before that. I also saw the creepy weeping angel stalking the con. That was seriously freaky. The moon jelly at the Masquerade was absolutely gorgeous. And it glowed in the dark! It was awesome. Saw lots of Doctors, mostly 11. There was a toddler 11 who was, of course, adorable.

Because I've mostly going to WisCon and Readercon in the last 5 years, with 1 Boskone thrown in, Arisia was definitely a different sort of con. Not just the costumes, of course. The dealer's room was actually overwhelming to me. Lots of costuming stuff, or knickknacks and things for your home. If I had had a plan or a house, I would've totally bought stuff. (I think maybe I'm repeating my earlier lj post..) Well, anyway, it was cool. The art show was also interesting, though I couldn't really say better or worse than WisCon or Boskone. Managed to sneak into that about half an hour before it closed.

I attended 3/4s of the bellydancing. That was cool and was eye-opening to me. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and was so totally geeky. I encourage people attending Arisia to go see it.

I watched the unaired pilot of Big Bang Theory. That was interesting. Sheldon was _very_ sexual, which I didn't like. But there was an actual female geek. (Who was also a sort of love interest, but.. I suppose we can't have _everything_, can we?) I sort of feel like we need a Friends of Hilda. Gilda? Drat, what was her name?

I also attended the Lightning Talks. That was interesting. Even if the first one was all about meat. I like the format, since you can sort of sample all sorts of stuff in 10 minute chunks. It appeals to the knowledge grazer in me.

I was on a panel as a pinch-hitter. The panel would've only had 2 people without me. Which probably wouldn't have sunk it, since we only had 1 audience member. But that's all right -- we had a good discussion -- on the future of disabilities and what sf shows us, etc. We touched on technology, society, laws, etc.

I attended a bunch of panels, including several of the queer panels.

Now, some things I did miss, because I decided sleeping or being a slug in the hotel room was a better plan. And once because the Thai delivery person, mentioned in the previous post, wanted me to come to the lobby to pick it up. There wasn't any good place to sit down there and eat that wasn't already taken, so I went back to my room. And then inertia, and an optic migraine out of nowhere, kept me there.

I got to see a 3D printer in action at the maker showcase. I didn't stick around and ask questions or anything. But I did learn they smelled. :)

Well, all in all, a successful Arisia experience. I'd go back. I wish it wasn't in January, when I'm likely to be recovering from Christmas and likely to be sick or risk getting sick by going... and of course the hotel is a bit expensive. But the con had free wifi (tho the hotel didn't. Hear that Readercon?!?!) and offered a few cheap/er/ alternatives to the hotel restaurants. But still overpriced, of course.

I feel a little more prepared for Boskone. Maybe I'll order from the Mexican restaurant this time.

UPDATE: Oh yea! And I went to an OA meetup. That was cool. I really need to make more of an effort to do that sort of thing and socialize, rather than just be audience or panelist or shopper throughout a con. :)

Sigh. Now LiveJournal is trying to be all weird and new on me. I hate when sites do that (Google, I'm looking at you.)

Duotrope was a useful free resource. I was willing to donate to that because I was grateful they provided this free resource and I wanted to see it continue.

But the way they've handled switching to pay is bad. In many different ways, it's bad. There's no sliding scale (pay X, Y, or Z depending on what you can afford, or pay ZZ if you've contributed before, etc). There's no subscription levels (level 1 is limited, level 2 is less limited, level 3 is everything, level 4 is everything plus a virtual gold star, etc). There's no free option. Let's face it, what they're offering non-subscribers is useless. It's not even enough to entice someone to stick around and maybe pay later.

For a company that relies on crowdsourced information as a fundamental part of its business model, they apparently do not understand community and community relations at all. And saying you're a private company so you don't have to share information is just a very poor way of saying you don't want to share information.

Have I earned more than 50$ from my writing? Yes. Have I earned more than 50$ a year from my writing? No. I don't even think the money I did make was from markets found on Duotrope. Well, 2$ of it I will credit to Duotrope. I have donated more than 2$ back to them.

It's not a justifiable business expense to give them 50$ a year. At least, not for me.

I expect an alternative for Duotrope will pop up soon. For now, here's ones I know of:

Ralan.com -- It looks like the 90s called and want their website back, but there's useful market info in there.

Writer's Market -- 20-30$ to buy it on Amazon. That extra 10$? That's for a yearly subscription to their online database. Alternatively, you can more than likely peruse the book at your local library. For free. The 2013 edition will probably be reference-only, but they should have older copies for you to check out.

Writing magazines - Subscribe to one of them. Read them in the library. Check out back issues from the library. Share with a friend. Download to your Kindle. Whatever suits you.

Facebook/Twitter/Groups -- Join a group like Broad Universe or Outer Alliance or any sort of group where you all can share calls for submissions. Follow the right people on FB and Twitter.

For myself, I'm going to make a list of markets and response times. I'm going to export my data and do a better job of tracking it myself. In a Google spreadsheet most likely.

If anyone has any other good places for market info, response times, etc etc, let me know.

I've been reading this. I'm not sure what I think of it as a whole, but I know he's got the wrong end of the stick on steampunk. And I'm not even a big steampunk reader.

"Cowardice, Laziness and Irony: How Science Fiction Lost the Future"

It's been about a month, so here's some links!

I Am Not a Puzzle Box - Metaphor. If it doesn't make you think differently, you can use it to make other people think differently.

The Omniscient Breasts by Kate Elliott - About the (straight white able-bodied cisgendered) male gaze.

Adults Read YA - From the 'Duh' files, but they did a study and stuff.

Comic Relief Video with David Tennant - To make up for all that reading I'm making you do above. :)

Janus and Aurora content online - Historical feminist SF fanzines. Online.

Sonic Screwdriver Remote - The BEST Christmas/Hanukkah/Today is Friday present ever!!!

Racism in the Books We Write by Justine Larbalestier - Helps to have read Liar, or to at least not mind being spoiled for Liar

Worldcon and Accessibility - Read the post, but then read all the comments as well. Then go forth and improve your local con.

And now for these I'm too lazy to look up links. That's why Zuckerberg invented Google. (I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Google was totally invented by a librarian, right?)

Ann VanderMeer is an editor at Tor.com now!

Call for subs - Crossed Genres is paying pro rates on their magazine. They list upcoming themes on their website, so go look those up.
- Crossed Genres antho for super powers that may not seem so super at first.
Spencer Hill Press antho for extra time

I'll leave it at that. I have a Tivo to program.

I was going to post about Readercon first, but then the Chik-Fil-A (see previous rant) thing annoyed me more in the moment.

So, Readercon.

I used to live in Waltham and work in Burlington, and yet Readercon never crossed my radar as something worth considering going to. I don't know how or why I missed it. Maybe I never heard of it. Maybe it sounded boring. (Compared to anime cons? Yea.)

It wasn't until I'd moved north to New Hampshire, and gone away to California to attend Clarion, that it really entered my radar. Some of the instructors mentioned it. Some of my classmates mentioned it.

But, see, I made the mistake of going to a Wiscon first. I cannot sing the praises of Wiscon highly enough. Will do my best to never miss one.

Readercon was crap by comparison. Unfair comparison? Perhaps. But it's not exactly comparing apples to oranges. Just crappy apples to delicious apples. :) Without having a mediocre apple in between to temper my opinion.

I posted con reports. They're around here somewhere if you want to read them.

* Hotel wifi is EXPENSIVE. (For all numbers above $0 I think it's a ripoff, but I mean EXPENSIVE. And it was moreso the second time! The price kept going up!)

* Hotel location is crap. You can't walk to anywhere to eat. The hotel shuttle is unreliable. If you want food, you're stuck with the hotel food, ordering in, or knowing someone with a car going somewhere you can eat (vegetarian, though I have no other dietary restrictions).

* Repeat, hotel location is crap. I don't have a car. It's easier for me to get to a con in BOSTON than it is to get to a con ~20 minutes away from me. My options are 1) expensive or 2) ridiculously convoluted and time-consuming.

* Hotel layout is crap. There's a 'lounge', but it's not conducive to lots of small groups talking. Unless you're the type who likes hanging out in people's hotel rooms, or your own, you're going to be stuck in this crappy lounge or in the hotel bar. (Contrast to Wiscon which has a nice lounge, random chairs other places, lounges on other floors, and just lots of random spaces for conversations. And organized parties everyone's invited to.)

* Getting on programming. Good luck! You have to be a Big Name, or a Medium Name, and know the super secret password or something. Broad Universe didn't even get a reading this year. (I don't know the circumstances behind that. Which is part of the problem.)

* The programming itself. Some of it sounds cool, some of it sounds different, some of it sounds ultra-academic and niche and what and I'm-too-stupid-to-be-at-this-con.

I didn't go this year. I thought about it. I waffled. I wiffled. I booked a room, but did not buy a membership. I knew lots of cool people that were going. Clarion instructors, Outer Alliance people, Broad Universe people. I would have only gone to see them. And y'know what? I can see them at other cons.

Every year K reminds me I didn't enjoy myself the times I did go, so why was I even considering it this time? Because it's so close! It should be cheap and easy and fun! But it's.. none of the above.

So this crap they pulled with the harrasser? The admitted harrasser? The serial harrasser? The two year suspension? Yea, it's crap.

The only time I felt uncomfortable at a con was at Readercon. I know some geeks lack social skills. I honestly think if I wasn't socialized female, I wouldn't have as many social skills as I do. It was probably just that. It was maybe just that. But I was wary of him the next time I went to Readercon. I didn't want to have a conversation of any type with him.

And now to know if he'd gone beyond 'this guy makes me uncomfortable' and I'd reported it, I'd be lucky if anything happened? Yea.. y'know.. not so welcoming, Readercon. And you were already not so welcoming on other fronts.

I had a conversation on the bus home from one Readercon where I was complaining about the location and suggesting other hotels in the greater Boston area that might be better. That I'd be willing to pay more for a better location. And a couple of the people I was talking to said in effect, y'know, get involved, we need fresh blood, etc etc.

Yea, no, sorry. Been there, done that. I know the work involved. And to be constantly fighting an uphill battle against an entrenched concomm? No thank you. I'd sooner go off and start my own con. One a lot closer to the Wiscon model than the Readercon one.

One with well-considered policies we were ready to enforce.