Small reminder that today is the last day to vote for the British Science Fiction Association awards if you’re a member. Over at Torque Control, Niall Harrison is posting the list of works which have received at least one nomination in the categories of Best Artwork, Best Non Fiction, and Best Short Fiction (Best Novel forthcoming). Among other things:

-Best Non-Fiction is really sparse this year: there’s about 10 works nominated all in all, so any extra ideas would presumably be very much welcome.

-Best Novel not up yet, but from what I saw on the BSFA forums, the Best Novel category, more so than the Short Fiction, is still skewed towards men: a quick headcount reveals that out of 45 nominations, only 6 are for works by women (vs. 25/72, insofar as I can tell, in the short fiction category). If you’d like to recommend more works by women or to vote for something already on the list, now is the time. Just be careful that unlike the Short Fiction category (where anything published in English worldwide is eligible), the novels have to have been published in the UK in 2010 to be eligible.

So if you’ve got any recommendations and are a BSFA member, there’s still time to squeeze your votes in before the deadline. Send to awards@bsfa.co.uk.

(and yeah, if you’ve got any love for my Interzone short story “The Shipmaker” and feel like expressing it today, I’d of course be overjoyed. But again, the most important thing at this stage is getting in as many votes as possible to ensure the awards represent the BSFA membership as well as possible. So, as we say in France–“to the ballot boxes, everyone” 🙂 )

ETA: Best Novel is up, too.

PS: and to whoever already nominated either “The Shipmaker” and Servant of the Underworld: wow, thanks!

So, not up to much that I can safely admit (sekrit projects, plus speaking about the novel in progress on this blog seems to curse me to a halt in the writing of the manuscript). To tide you over until the weekend, a few links:

-I’m guessing by now most people will have seen the Amy Chua piece on the Washington Post, about why Chinese mothers are superior. I don’t have much to say about it other than “batshit crazy Asian mother”–and yes, I have an Asian mother, so I can speak from my (admittedly limited) experience. I can see some of the points, and some things Amy Chua mentions are certainly familiar from my own childhood, though not pushed quite this far. My TV time was limited; so was my video game time; neither of my parents were particularly happy when I brought home bad grades, and yes, both of them always pushed me to go further because they believed I could do better. And I’m glad they did it; I’m glad they placed a higher value on education than on sparing my feelings, and nurtured my ambition and drive–to the point where I thought of doing something as crazy as writing in a second language and getting away with it.
But, seriously, not allowing your children to be in school plays, forcing them to play a musical instrument and tormenting your daughter until she gets the piano piece right? Wow. That’s some serious going south here.
Allow me to dig up quintessential Chinese wisdom here, in the person of Confucius: “To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.” Ie, balance and perspective. Something that seems to be missing from all the horror stories about Asian moms (there were quite a few flying around on the internet in the wake of that article).

-And, in a lighter vein: Mature people truths (via Cat Rambo). Some of these are oh-so-painfully true.

-Finally, I’ve posted (with permission) on the SFWA forums “Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life”, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz’s awesome story about expatriation, identity and what it means to be an immigrant in a strange land. Recommended by Richard Horton in his year-end summary of Interzone, and generally quite made of awesome. (and I’m not only saying that because Rochita is my friend). Well worth a read if you have forum access.

EDIT: apparently, the Amy Chua thing is only an excerpt from a larger book, which is intended to deal with the problems of her education system as well. Mea culpa.
EDIT #2: and, apparently, the WJS just quoted the most controversial part of Chua’s book without bothering to add a corrective, because controversy makes for more readers. Great. As I said on LJ, I feel like hitting something, preferably a WJS editor.

For those who might be interested: my novelette “The Jaguar House, in Shadow”, first published in Asimov’s, July 2010, is now available for free on my website for your reading pleasure. (and, of course, if you happen to be in the right fraction of the population, it’s eligible for the Hugos/Nebulas/Locus Awards/Asimov’s Awards etc.).

Jason Sanford listed it as one of the three best novelettes in Asimov’s for 2010; so did Richard Horton; and it’s already received at least one Nebula nomination.

Go here to read it, and don’t hesitate to pop back here and tell me what you thought!

Writer friend T.L. Morganfield has just revamped her website with fabulous illustrations of Aztec characters from her novel–go check them out!

The current xkcd comic is made of awesome:

If you’re going to design armour for characters, can I point out that the primary use of armour is to protect your vitals–and by vitals, we’re including things like “organs within the torso”, but also more sneaky things like arteries? Aka, the brachial artery, which is pretty close to the skin in both upper arms, and the femoral artery, which is also pretty close to the skin in the upper part of the thigh?

Which why armour like this, which fails to protect either upper arms or thighs, is, er, pretty much useless? (it’s a bit blurry, but if you want to check it into all its glory, go to the full trailer here and flash forward to around 3:00)

(I’m not a big fan of sexy armours for female characters, for obvious reasons, but if they absolutely have to be sexy, can they pretend to be useful as well?)
(and yes, I’m aware lightsabers cauterise wounds almost instantly, making it unlikely the Sith is going to burst her artery. Please don’t get me started on the (lack of) worth of lightsabers as weapons)

So, as usual, I discovered my book was out in the UK through other people telling me through twitter :-p

aka the book of Aztec imperial intrigues/serial killer in the palace. More Teomitl and Mihmatini for those who liked those characters, and generally expanded worldbuilding–featuring Texcoco, Teotihuacan and a lovely, albeit hurried trip through the Anahuac Valley. Also, various political intrigues, the election of a new Emperor, and divers alarum and chases of supernatural creatures.

Oh, and star-demons, of course.

More info here, including the real blurb; the first spotted review here at Val’s random comments, courtesy of Rob Weber.

Book seems to be shipping through some of the usual places in the: amazon.co.uk, the Book Depository, Waterstones and WHsmith.

Meanwhile, I have a %%% cold and was up for much of the night–so right now I’m feeling a bit zombified. But consider this my celebration post, while I go on contaminating my colleagues at work with my germs 🙂

So, if I have the choice between:
-item 1: ebook for the Kindle, 7 euros. DRM-protected, MOBI format , found only after extensive search (amazon turned out to be the only seller I’ve found which would take my French money for this particular ebook). Can be lent to friends exactly once in the entire lifetime of the book. And, of course, my ebook reader doesn’t read MOBI, so we’re looking at cracking the DRM on my own ebook and converting it to epub via Calibre, probably losing a lot in the process (and, er, not exactly doing legal things, even though I wouldn’t be distributing the de-DRMed ebook).

-item 2: physical book. 5.50 euros including P&P. Fully owned by yours truly, lendable to whom I feel like it, as many times as possible. Can be dropped in the bath, lost in transit, etc.

What on earth makes you think I’m going to pick item 1 over item 2, exactly?

(yes, I know, item 1 takes up less space. But also can be lost when my hard disk crashes)

In other, less ranty news, I am now a proud subscriber to the digital edition of Locus, and it rocks. No more waiting a full month to get it, no more lost issues–and way cheaper than the international subscription for something I don’t keep around anyway (and before you ask, it comes in epub format, without DRM).

So, now that we’ve finally finished watching it…

(warning: spoilers below for all seasons)
Continue reading →

Since it seems to be the custom this time of the year… may I point out that:

-my novelette “The Jaguar House in Shadow” (Asimov’s, July 2010 issue) is currently eligible for the Hugos, Nebulas and BSFA. It’s in the SFWA forums for those who want to download it, and also online on my website.

-my short story “The Shipmaker” (Interzone, Nov/Dec 2010 issue) is eligible for the Hugos Awards, and for the BSFA awards (and has received at least one nomination already). Likewise, quite happy to email it to voters.

-for those with more time on their hands, my novel Servant of the Underworld is eligible for the Hugos, Nebulas and BSFA awards (and the email offer still stands). It’s also in the SFWA forums.

-if you hate my guts and/or didn’t feel my stories were great (fair enough), don’t forget to still read and vote. As I understand it, a lot of awards suffer from too few potential voters actually casting their votes, leading to the loudest people winning (Cheryl Morgan had a fascinating article about how a lot of people, especially women, abstained by saying they hadn’t read enough in the voting year; and how they were then drowned out by people who hadn’t read enough either but who voted anyway). So–go forth and nominate!

EDIT: just realised “The Shipmaker” is also eligible for a Hugo, if you feel so inclined.