Champagne and Socks

Saturday was jampacked! After breakfast in the hotel with Terri, Tansy and Finchy and Jonathan and guest appearance Kelly Link and where we invented the drink The Hypocrite, we hightailed it to the panel Masters of Podcasting. It was the only panel I did all weekend and it was such a pleasure – Terry Frost for PaleoCinema, myself for Galactic Suburbia, Jonathan Strahan for Coode St and Kirstyn McDermott for Writer and the Critic who moderated. We had a smallish room and almost all the audience were podcasters too, though I think we had some more nonpodcasters fill the audience after we took the poll. The panel turned into a really relaxed podcasting community discussion where we just kinda shot the breeze and bonded as podcasters and podcast listeners. It was really cool.

I then scooted on to the TPP A Stitch in Time pattern beta testing workshop in the bar. I was sure that noone would turn up. Tansy said she’d come and sew with me as company and then someone wielding a crochet hook accosted me in the hall so we headed over to the bar. I pulled out the pattern we had to test – a little stuffed Roswell grey – and crochet hooks and yarn and everyone dived in. We had I guess 4 or 5 of us trying the pattern and a couple of others who sat with us and did other crafts. And I have to tell you, I had the best time. I was so happy to be crafting in a group with some fellow geeks. There were others who did an awesome job interpreting some of the instructions, working through the pattern and then helping and explaining to others. It was such a fun hour. And I spent it thinking how awesome fandom is. (Photo from Cat Sparks)

There should be more crafting circles at cons. Actually something I really loved was the scattered boxes of craft throughout the con – you were encouraged to pick up works in progress and work on them and if I’d had time I would have. I wonder if that could be something we could carry on through – even something like working on blankets or scarves over the course of a con and then donate the finished ones to a hospital or somewhere?

A photo of how far we managed to get in the hour (photo of our crochet thanks to Tansy and Finchy). But I saw Jo’s later on in the con and she’d managed to make it past the head and body and onto the legs!

I headed off to lunch, which is where I was when Tansy rang me to tell me about the catastrophe that was the printing of Through Splintered Walls. It was at this point that we discovered that there had been a terrible printing error in the book and would need to stop selling it and try and recall all those sold. (If you’re reading this and didn’t know, please contact me to organise an exchange or replacement. The printer is currently reprinting the entire print run and I expect to have those by early next week.)

I then returned just in time for the Galactic Suburbia live recording panel. It’s still weird recording in front of an audience and also where we can actually look at each other whilst we talk. I figured that it wouldn’t be rude to craft on the Galactic Suburbia panel since I do normally do so when recording. Apparently, I’m told, you can tell? Anyway, I was balling up a skein of sock yarn from Blue Moon Fibre Arts during the podcast. This is a photo of the sock I started during the con after balling the yarn and where it got to by the time we landed back in Perth yesterday. I’m just turning the heel.

After the podcast, we headed back to the dealers room and prepped for the Embiggen Books Event. I was very excited about this and not just because I might have been really wanting to find a way to visit this store this time in Melbourne and bring everyone I knew who loved bookstores with me. It’s a truly gorgeous specialist store that’s really really supportive of small press and generally funky and interesting books. We all traipsed down Swanston Street to set up at 4pmish for a 5pm start. The Writer and the Critic were so generous to host, record and produce the podcast. Yes I’ve been dying to be on their podcast for ages! And it was so awesome to watch Kirstyn do her audio technical stuff. Very cool.

First some shots of the bookstore:

Mondy graciously hosted the podcast and interviewed 9 of the Twelve Planets authors and myself. Ian did what he really has a great skill in doing – he asked the exact right questions in the right way, with lots of humour, such that everyone opened up and really said such interesting things. I sat that there listening to everyone talk about their individual collections, their approach to the project and their own style and approach to writing and I realised just how great the sum of these parts this project will be. And what a vibrant, creative and thoughtful group of writers I have been lucky enough to collect. I’m so looking forward to hearing the podcast. And discussing it with others.

Here’s a few action shots from Finchy and Jason Nahrung.

And Jason has a few more shots of the event over on his Flickr stream.  A big thank you to Warren at Embiggen Books for letting us take over his store at 5pm on a Saturday evening. And also thank you to those who helped carry books and food and wine down and to those who came down to watch. Especially those who came down just for the event outside of the con. And also thank you to the TPP authors who came in great spirits and enthusiasm.

After the event we all headed over to a cool little place near the Wheeler Centre for drinks. Check out the beer in beakers!

I’ve been a bit quiet again about these parts but last weekend C and I made a whirlwind trip to Sydney for the Aurealis Awards. I’m so glad C came with me. I’m just not enjoying flying as much these days as I used to and it made such a big difference to have C along. And I’ve found the perfect way to get myself to sleep on the plane – bring enough entertainment (knitting, podcasts, reading) to fill the entire trip. I fell asleep before takeoff from Perth on Friday night at midnight (hadn’t been sleeping during the week) – I even complained to C that they didn’t do the safety demo and he just looked at me like I was odd. On the way back I slept for about half, still not bad for me. But still what use is three hours sleep for me?

After the red eye, we arrived at the hotel at 7am and were unimpressed not to be able to check in. We headed off for breakfast with C’s sister and a couple of friends down to Ripples at Luna Park. So we’d been there an hour and were taking in the gorgeous Sydney Harbour Bridge up close and personal. Breakfast was lovely and it was nice to just hang out and talk weddings and things. And then we headed back to the hotel, via a little chocolate shop to run an errand for Terri. Sadly the shop did not have what she was after but all the chocolates looked so delectable I grabbed a few things for the little party I knew we’d have later that night when Tansy and Alex arrived.

We got back to the hotel at midday and our room was still not ready. By this stage, I was pretty ragged and just wanted my room so I could nap before the awards. We waited in the lobby, I fell asleep a couple of times, watched the staff behind the desk not be there pretty much most of the time. Eventually we got to check in at 1.45pm and I’d just showered and laid down when Tansy rang me to tell me she’d arrived.

We’d booked a suite for the weekend – two rooms and lounge and stuff for Galactic Suburbia to hang out. We knew we’d chat long into the night! I’d organised strawberries dipped in chocolate to be there on arrival as a surprise but the hotel stuffed that up too. Bit of a shame. Tansy and I caught up a bit before Alex arrived and then it was all on! We grabbed dinner, with Emma who we found at some point, before we glammed up for the awards. (I took no photos)

It was fantastic to see everyone start to filter down into the lobby to head off to the Independent Theatre. Lots of hugs and squeals and quick catch ups.

The awards were nerve wracking! I had three speeches I was in charge of … should the occasion arrive! Some of the categories were excruciating when I had several horses in the race – I love all my babies equally! I did get to accept Sue Isle’s Aurealis Award for “Nation of the Nights” from Nightsiders for best Young Adult Short Story.

And then, Galactic Suburbia was awarded the Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence. I can’t really capture the feeling of sharing such an honour with Tansy and Alex. We were so blown away for the podcast to be recognised. As we stood there sort of processing it all, Tehani read the most amazing few words about the project:

The Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award for Excellence is awarded at the discretion of the convenors for a particular achievement in speculative fiction or related areas. This award may take into account a body of work or achievements over a number of years; it can also be for a work of non-fiction, artwork, electronic or multimedia work, film or TV, or that which brings credit or attention to the speculative fiction genres. The award was originally known as The Convenors’ Award for Excellence and was renamed in 2002 after Peter McNamara (d. 2004), publisher, editor and the original Aurealis Awards convenor, shortly after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Galactic Suburbia (GS) is an Australian feminist speculative fiction podcast, hosted by Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce and Tansy Rayner Roberts (produced by Andrew Finch). Since March 2010, GS has been providing fortnightly podcasts covering SF news, culture and opinion, and in particular discussing these topics from a feminist point of view. Of particular note is the “Spoilerific Book Club”, which has produce in-depth and critical analysis of books ranging from Joanna Russ’ How to Suppress Women’s Writing, to the hugely popular YA dystopia ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy. The GS team produce serious critical analysis, whilst still keeping the topics entertaining and accessible.

Galactic Suburbia was one of the first Australian podcasts of SF literature and culture, and has inspired many new Australian podcasts, including The Coode Street Podcast, The Writer and the Critic, and Bad Film Diaries, Live and Sassy and The Book Nut. Thus GS has founded a new arena for SF criticism and review in Australia, as well as bringing a new international audience to Australian writing, not only promoting works by Australian authors but also highlighting feminist issues within the global speculative fiction scene and thereby encouraging vital debate and discussion among community members.

It’s still not really sunk in for me, I guess. To be recognised for excellence for our little podcast is just amazing. It just makes us so happy that people tune in every fortnight, and shout at the podcast, and laugh with us and cry with us and eat cake with us and send us feedback. Being part of Galactic Suburbia – not just getting to mull over and dissect ideas and issues with two intelligent, thoughtful women – but seeing a community grow around it has just been one of the most positive and uplifting projects I’ve ever been involved with. Hearing from other people that things we’ve discussed have made them think about how they are in the world, how they read and how they interact with text and film and audio and the world, and in some cases *changed* that  – I mean, that’s the best outcome you can ever hope from the work you do. And it’s shown to me that you *can change* things, you *can make a difference*, even “just” three women talking into their laptops in their bedrooms on a Thursday night. And, that change is possible? I mean, that means *anything* is possible.

If you listen to the podcast, I want to say thank you. Thank you for listening and for hearing. Thank you for reminding me that fighting the good fight is the point. And that one person *can* make a difference – what’s the quote? – that’s the only way it’s ever been done.

After the awards, we went to the after party. I have to admit I didn’t overly mingle. I spent a lot of time catching up with TPP peeps. It’s so rare to see them in person and we have things we’re bubbling on the back burner! And then at midnight, we whisked away for more chatting in the room – intersectionality, awards and all sorts of thing!  Luckily for me, C was watching a rugby game which started at 1am so I was actually in bed before he was done!

And then up at 8 or something stupid with 4 hours sleep. I think I had 10 hours over the weekend. But I was not going to miss the awards breakfast – it’s the point of going, don’t you know! And it was awesome! We had the most amazing chats with Kirstyn and Cat and Kaaron. I forgot to go back up to the room and a grumpy C eventually came down to tell me I had to check out

And then we headed off to do more family stuff. The weekend was a great opportunity for me to meet C’s other side of his family and we spent Mother’s Day lunch with his aunts and grandmother. I had a really lovely time and it was a really nice way to end the weekend. After lunch we caught the bus to the airport and headed home.

I’m not sure I’m a big fan of the whirlwind one day on the other side of the country and back thing, especially when I’ve got a high sleep debt but it was worth it. Great to see everyone in a non con setting, a bit more laid back and a lot of fun.

You can check out the new Galactic Suburbia episode on our website or at iTunes. You’ll notice we were really subtle about the Hugo nomination, because we didn’t want to be tacky.

In which this Hugo nominated podcast is Hugo nominated and discusses the Hugo nominations while being Hugo nominated. Also, the internet is full of things. Some of those things discuss gender, feminism and equality, some have wide ranging implications for the future of SF awards, and some of them are nominated for Hugos.

HUUUUUUUUUGO SHORTLIST

Hunger Games Hunger Games Hunger Games

Build up to make a hit
The reviews are in:
Topless Robot
Forbes
Our Alisa

But in the real world, the character Katniss Everdeen faces an even greater challenge: Proving that pop culture will embrace a heroine capable of holding her own with the big boys.
It’s a battle fought on two fronts. First, The Hunger Games must bring in the kind of box office numbers that prove to Hollywood that a film led by a young female heroine who’s not cast as a sex symbol can bring in audiences. And second, for Katniss to truly triumph, she must embody the type of female heroine — smart, tough, compassionate — that has been sorely lacking in the popular culture landscape for so very long.

The Clarke Award Shortlist:
Christopher Priest’s original post
Cat Valente responds:
“Because let’s be honest, I couldn’t get away with it. If I posted that shit? I’d never hear the end of what a bitch I am.”
And further she responds

Outer Alliance discussion on Gay YA Dystopia & Paolo Bacigalupi

Qld Premier cancels Premiers Literary Award
“Before the election, the LNP pledged to cut government “waste” as part of its efforts to offer cost-of-living relief to Queenslanders.”
Response of Queensland Writers Centre

The Fake Geek Girl at the Mary Sue

Eisner Award shortlist

Kate Elliott on the portrayal of women in pain & fear

Ashley Judd on the media’s attitude to women and their bodies

Valente on the war against women in the real world

Philip K Dick Award

Chronos Award Ballot

Tehani on Aurealis Awards stats, gender

BSFA stuff – Actual winners
The first post that raised the problems with the ceremony.
A response (there for historical sake, though I think since at least partly recanted)
how the Tweets saw it
Cheryl’s take

EDIT: Since recording, the BSFA have issued a full and unreserved apology, along with an explanation of why it took them so long to respond.  That’s how to do it, folks!

Jim Hines works through his privileged dumbassery
Kirstyn McDermott works through whether her feminism is good enough

Vote for Sean the Blogonaut for NAFF

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett; Showtime, Narrelle M Harris, Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy; 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson; The State of the Art, Iain M Banks

Tansy: So Silver Bright, Lisa Mantchev; Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis; Cold Magic, Kate Elliott

Alisa: The Hunger Games (movie and books), The Readers (podcast)

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs,, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Yesterday was a huuuuge day! We woke up to a twitter stream informing us that the Hugo ballot was out and Galactic Suburbia was on it! We’ve made it onto the first ever Fancast category ballot and it’s absolutely amazing, hard to take in and just totally floored me. Thank you to every one who nominated us!! We’re so glad you think what we’re doing is Hugo worthy. This category is absolutely awesome, if you don’t listen to the other podcasts, you’re missing out!

Best Fancast

• The Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan Strahan & Gary K. Wolfe
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Alex Pierce, and Tansy Rayner Roberts (presenters) and Andrew Finch (producer)
• SF Signal Podcast, John DeNardo and JP Frantz (presenters), Patrick Hester (producer)
• SF Squeecast, Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, and Catherynne M. Valente
• StarShipSofa, Tony C. Smith

As you know, at Galactic Suburbia, we LOVE awards season and we’re major fans of the Hugos. To be a part of it is too too cool. I’d already decided that this year I’d follow Alex’s suit and work me way through the entire Hugo packet and I can hardly wait til the 2012 one is out!

If you want to play along and if you want to cast a Hugo vote! you can do so by buying a supporting membership here.

And if that wasn’t enough for one day, I was so pleased to hear that Nightsiders by Sue Isle won the Tin Duck for Best WA Long Fiction Best WA Professional Production. I’m so very proud of this book. I’m so very glad that others are enjoying it and getting as much out of what she has done in this collection as I did.

If you’re just joining us, and want to try out Galactic Suburbia for the first time, here are the top episodes that we think represent the best of 2011.

Episode 32: 11 May 2011 In which we bid farewell to Joanna Russ, talk e-publishing (again) and Alisa reads a real live actual book. With bonus raving about Doctor Who and Alistair Reynolds – in other words, another episode of Galactic Suburbia.

Episode 36: Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ Featuring: “How To Suppress Women’s Writing,” by Joanna Russ; “The Female Man,” by Joanna Russ and “When it Changed,” by Joanna Russ

Episode 47: 24 November 2011 In which we bid farewell to the queen of dragons, squee about 48 years of Doctor Who, dissect the negative associations with “girly” fandoms such as Twilight, and find some new favourites in our reading pile.

Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you can check out our entire 2011 catalogue of episodes! Thanks to our silent producer for gathering those links.

Subscribe through iTunes or download our latest episode (from last Thursday!) at Galactic Suburbia.

Yesterday Galactic Suburbia put up a Very Special podcast, announcing the honours list and winner of the inaugural Galactic Suburbia Award.

Below are Tansy’s shownotes for the episode. I just wanted to say how proud and honoured I am to get to play a role with my two fabulous friends on Galactic Suburbia and how truly honoured I am to read, listen, see and hear about the feminist conversation that goes on every day *out there* on twitter, on podcasts, on blogs and flickr and tumblr and at conventions.

After much discussion, and wanting in particular to create something that wasn’t already out there in the multitudinous world of spec fic awards, we came up with this definition:

The Galactic Suburbia Award: for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2011

We didn’t put links to the honours list and winner as show notes to the podcast, because we wanted our regular listeners to have at least SOME sense of anticipation as they listened, but now it’s well and truly out there, so here is the list:

Honours List

Carrie Goldman and her daughter Katie, for sharing their story about how Katie was bullied at school for liking Star Wars, and opening up a massive worldwide conversation about gender binaries and gender-related bullying among very young children.

Cheryl Morgan for Female Invisibility Bingo, associated blogging and podcasting, and basically fighting the good fight

Helen Merrick, for the Feminism article on the SF Encyclopedia

Jim C Hines for “Jane C Hines” and associated blogging, raising awareness of feminist issues in the SF/Fantasy publishing field.

Julia Rios, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond for Episode 11 of the Outer Alliance podcast (The Writer and the Critic special episode)

L. Timmel Duchamp – for continuing to raise issues of importance on the Ambling Down the Aqueduct blog and various Aqueduct Press projects

Michelle Lee for the blog post “A 7-year-old girl responds to DC Comics’ sexed-up reboot of Starfire”

Winner

Nicola Griffith – for the Russ Pledge, and associated blogging

The winner will receive a Deepings Doll hand-painted figurine of a suffragette with a Galactic Suburbia placard, hand-painted by Jilli Roberts of Pendlerook Designs. (Tansy’s very talented mother!) Each Deepings Doll is individual, so the one each winner will receive (we do plan to make this an annual tradition) will be unique.

If you have ideas for our Honours list for 2012, please email us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com or tweet @galacticsuburbs

The new episode is up! Go fetch it and consume it with digital gusto!

In which women aren’t funny, don’t write important books, but come in handy as assassins and thieves.

News

Connie Willis named SFWA Grand Master

Liz Bourke on Strange Horizons & the art of the mean review

Survey shows that men (as well as women) often play characters of the other gender while gaming – in many cases, men are bored with or alienated by the big musclebound male characters, which game designers think they want. Sound familiar?

Hoyden about Town are asking for guest bloggers to crosspost their Australian Women Writers Challenge reviews on Hoyden (ASIF also keen to do so)

More on feminine tosh: a good solid article in the Australian media (shock!) about the women in literature issues of recent months (and, you know, decades).

Have we been following the “Women aren’t funny” stoush that played out in NYT? This interesting development.

DC Comics – cancellations & new titles – Tansy is especially excited by World’s Finest (featuring the Earth 2 Huntress & Power Girl)

Stranger with My Face – Women in Horror film festival in Hobart, Tasmania – 17-19 February

Tansy’s book launch for Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three) on 2 February at Hobart Bookshop, 5:30pm.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Ashes to Ashes season 2; Dr Who season 1; Rocannon’s World, Ursula le Guin; The Declaration, Gemma Malley; Grey, Jon Armstrong; The Collected Works of TS Spivet, Reif Larsen. BBC 4 “Cat Women of the Moon” podcast

Tansy: Destination: Nerva (Big Finish, audio), Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon, The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, DVD Extras Include Murder, by Nev Fountain

Alisa: absorbed in novel submissions; The Big Bang Theory; Swordspoint Audiobook, written and performed by Ellen Kushner

GS Award will be proclaimed… in a short while!

Winner of Alex’s Yarn giveaway: Jo

Tansy: Creature Court trilogy give away!
Email to tell us about one book you read after we talked about it on GS to be eligible

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

On the latest episode of Galactic Suburbia I mentioned I’m about to start working through a Stephen King reading list, given to me by Kirstyn from the Writer and the Critic. Tansy thought others might want to follow along. So here it is:

1. Carrie
2. Salem’s Lot
3. The Shining
4. Different Seasons – but only The Body and Shawshank therein. Do NOT read Apt Pupil, Alisa!
5. Thinner (published under Richard Bachman)
6. IT
7. Eyes of the Dragon
8. Misery
9. Bag of Bones
10. Duma Key
11. The Dark Tower

Many awesome things happened today. Some of which will have to wait for later for me to talk about! But it felt like I was on a real roll. When I woke up, I was chatting to C who told me he was done for the day at his course and I said mournfully that I had hoped he meant he was done with the course and was coming home today (wishful thinking) and then after several minutes of teasing he said, “in all seriousness, I AM coming home tonight” FOR REALZ! So I’m up waiting for my sweetie to come home tonight. Sigh. It’s been too long (don’t ask me how I’ll go with the next tour. I don’t want to think about it right now).

So I decided it was gonna be a GREAT day and I would hear some NEWS. And I did hear said news. I hope I have more on that later.

Then I had to go to the dentist. I was hoping for no fillings and I got no fillings, today. But I have four more to get. And he says I have to give up chocolate. For good. I’m not sure how that will go. I’m going to try something. Because there really is only so much pain you can have in your mouth for long periods of time.

I did get one short story proofed and back to the author today. I should probably do something more productive than what I am going to do for the next couple of hours waiting for C (Watch TV and knit).

We did also just record this fortnight’s episode of Galactic Suburbia tonight and I think I started to get somewhere on a) expressing my feelings about Doctor Who (defining and then expressing) and b) why I am still fricking watching it then. It’s starting to coalesce and that is starting to make myself feel better. I think the answer is, given our discussion on the show, I can’t not watch it, now. In any case, I think I feel better about it. And that’s a good thing. We thought we hardly had enough in he show notes for a show this fortnight, but no, no need to panic, we did just fine!

But … does anyone in Doctor Who fandom know if/where there are discussions or criticisms with a Jewish slant on Doctor Who? I’d greatly appreciate being pointed in the direction.

EPISODE 38 Shownotes

In which none of your fearless podcasters are impregnated by mysterious aliens for the duration of a single episode, nor do any of us experience a rapidly accelerated pregnancy or give birth to an otherworldly demon/alien/vampire. Also: Batgirl, Bujold and a cranky feminist rant or two.

News

Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award – given to a living writer for the first time, Katherine MacLean.

Mythopoeic Awards

World Fantasy, of course!

World SF Travel Fund raising money to send Charles A Tan to WFC

The Mystical Pregnancy trope - torture porn? Reproductive terrorism, exploiting women for being female.
Violent degradation of women’s bodies for plot.

Vote For Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles
Swedish Writing Fairy crunches the numbers

Andromeda’s Offering Issue 1 – new fanzine to “open up new female voices in SF, raise the awareness of female SF writers and share ideas.”
(you can find them on Facebook apparently)

Where are the women in the new DC Comics?
newsy report
proper interview with Batgirl crusader

SF Signal Episode 70 – 6 men talk about their favourite podcasts and illustrate what we mean by gender disparity in SF gatekeeping
Alisa makes reference to recent Mind Meld

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa – Passage by Connie Willis; Red Glove by Holly Black; The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang;
Alex - Diplomatic Immunity and Cryoburn, Bujold; Chicks Dig Time Lords, ed. Lynne Thomas; The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell; Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (http://wp.me/p11HLi-Nf); Songs of the Earth, Elspeth Cooper (abandoned). SF Squeecast.
Tansy – Glenda Larke-Stormlord Rising; Malinda Lo-Huntress; Penni Russon-Only, Ever, Always

Feedback
lovely review at Hoyden About Town

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Secondly, Galactic Suburbia got an absolutely awesome review over on Hoyden About Town on Friday. I think what I love most about this review is how much it captures how I see the podcast and how well I think we are meeting what we hope the podcast to be:

And I love it that the three of them are coming from different places in the SF world – authoring, publishing, and consuming – though of course they’re all fans as well. And that they are fans of different aspects of SF, from ‘hard’ engineering science fiction to magical fantasy. And that you feel like you’re hearing part of their life, instead of actors in a studio: sometimes the baby cries, sometimes the dog barks, sometimes they need to take a break to take care of things. And most of all I love it that it feels like I’m sitting in a living room with them over cake and cocktails, and talking and joking and ranting and arguing about the cultural and fan world that simultaneously captivates and frustrates us immensely.

We love feedback to the podcast! Please keep sending it! We love hearing that you argue with us, laugh with/at us, read along with us. We love reading your stories about feminism and SF.

- went live yesterday!

SHOW NOTES

New episode up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

In which we discuss the SF Gateway and some great additions to the Women in SF conversation, Alex eats all the Bujold in one bite, and Alisa’s puppy does his very best to oppress us.

News
The Locus Awards
Prometheus Award winners
Sturgeon and Campbell Awards
Shirley Jackson Awards

Recent announcement – Gollancz announces the SF Gateway, huge project to digitise & make available thousands of SF classics as ebooks.

Linda Nagata on ‘What’s in a Name’ and her career trajectory as a female writer of hard SF
Chris Moriarty on labels in the women & SF conversation
Women and the chilly climate at Scientific American

Liz Williams at the Guardian on the way science fiction reflects human belief

Alastair Reynolds to write Doctor Who novel: Tansy and Alex’s obsessions in one package!

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Maureen Johnson on www.whyy.org/podcast; Twin Peaks; Mercy (not genre but interesting feminism);
Alex: sooo much Bujold (3rd, 4th and 5th omnibi, and Memory); lots of books, because of holidays! But particularly Heartless, Gail Carriger; Blackout, Connie Willis; Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, NK Jemisin… also Harry Potter 7 and Transformers 3.
Tansy: The Demon’s Surrender, The Holy Terror & Robophobia (Big Finish), Subterranean’s YA Issue

Pet Subject: Feedback from our Joanna Russ episode

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Our Joanna Russ special episode of Galactic Suburbia is up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

Featuring:

How To Suppress Women’s Writing, by Joanna Russ

The Female Man, by Joanna Russ

“When it Changed,” by Joanna Russ

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia @ gmail.com – we’d love to hear your stories of discovering and rediscovering Joanna Russ.

Follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

I have another post to follow the last but right now I am finishing up my reading for the Special Russ Galactic Suburbia episode later tonight. Thee is nothing to soothe one’s feminist ails like reading Russ, I guess.

There used to be an odd, popular, and erroneous idea that the sub revolved around the earth.

This has been replaced by an even odder, equally popular, and equally erroneous idea that the earth goes around the sun.

In fact, the moon and the earth revolve around a common center, and this commonly-centered pair revolves with the sun around another common center, except that you must figure in all the solar planets here, so things get complicated. Then there is the motion of the solar system with regard to a great many other objects eg the galaxy and if at this point you as what does the motion of the earth really look like form the center of the entire universe, say, … the only answer is:

that is doesn’t.

Because there isn’t.

 

And this:

What is frightening about black art or women’s art or Chicano art – and so on – is that it calls into question the very idea of objectivity and absolute standards:

This is a good novel.

Good for what?

Good for whom?

One side of the nightmare is that the privileged group will not recognise that “other” art, will not be able to judge it, that the superiority of taste and training possessed by the privileged critic and the privileged artist will suddenly vanish.

The other side of the nightmare is not that what is found in the “other” art will be incomprehensible, but that it will be all too familiar. That is:

Women’s lives are the buried truth of men’s lives.

The lives of people of colour are the buried truth about white lives.

The buried truth about the rich is who they take their money from and how.

The buried truth about “normal” sexuality is how one kind of sexual expression has been made privileged, and what kinds of unearned virtue and terrors about identity this distinction serves.

And she goes on but you should really go read the book!

EPISODE 35

In which “best” becomes “superior,” Pottermore is Pottermeh, one of us wins all the awards, and we visit/revisit classic non-hard works of SF and Fantasy by Bujold, Willis and Pratchett (with bonus Russian fairytales by Valente).

News

Pottermore announcement made during our podcast…

Theodore Sturgeon finalists

David Gemmell Awards…

NatCon professional guests for next year are Kelly Link and Alison Goodman.

Chronos Awards

Sidewise Awards finalists

Translation Awards winners

Stoker Awards announced

Coode Street Horror Special with Stoker winners Datlow & Straub

Gender Spotting Tool – Naff.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Connie Willis’ Passage in progress, the next 3 Twelve Planets.
Alex: so much Bujold (Cordelia’s Honor and Young Miles omnibuses… omnibi… whatever, Fly by Night, Frances Hardinge, Red Glove, Holly Black. Series 2 of V (reboot)
Tansy: Deathless, Catherynne Valente; I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett; Wyrd Sisters audiobook, Terry Pratchett/Celia Imrie.

Next Fortnight: Galactic Suburbia’s Spoilerific Book Club Presents: Joanna Russ. Reading How to Suppress Women’s Writing, The Female Man, “When It Changed.”

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

New episode up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.

EPISODE 33

In which we wax lyrical about awards, short stories and the love of reading. Because it’s that time of year!

News
Aurealis Awards winners as reported by roving reporter Tansy

Nebula Awards winners

Translation Awards

Aqueduct links to 25 commemorations of Joanna Russ

New podcast – How I got my Boyfriend to Read Comics

Last Short Story is on Twitter @lastshortstory

New Galactic Chat: Kirstyn McDermott

What Culture Have we Consumed?
Tansy: The Shattering, Karen Healey
Alex: The Wise Man’s Fear, Patrick Rothfuss; How to Suppress Women’s Writing, Joanna Russ; Welcome to Bordertown, Ellen Kushner and Terri Windling; finished Stargate SG1 for the second time.
Alisa: Ken Liu’s Paper Menagerie (F&SF March/April), Joanna Russ’s We Who Are About To

Pet Subject: Last Short Story 2011

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

New episode up! Grab it from iTunes, by direct download or stream it on the site.