Let’s be real. It’s been a rough week. As things in the U.S. go from bad to worse faster than I even thought they would, it continues to be tough to stay productive or even motivated to write about books and television. Instead, I’ve spent a ton of time on the phone with my dumpster fire of a representative’s office. I’ve signed petitions. I’ve read and spread important news, and I’ve spent a ton of time just sitting in paralyzed silence thinking about how fucked we all are. Finally, yesterday, I just got good and drunk, which helped a little, but I can’t stay drunk forever.
I’m not doing well.
On the bright side, this coming week brings the return of The Expanse, which I’m looking forward to writing about, on Wednesday and Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet on Friday. I’m not sure if I’ll write about that one or not, but it looks moderately promising. I’m not excited about it, but I’m not excited about much these days. I figure at least it’ll be something to do other than watch the ongoing destruction of America in mute, helpless rage. It turns out watching that video of Richard Spencer getting punched in the face over and over can really only provide so much comfort in these trying times.
I didn’t read that much SFF stuff on the internet this week, mostly because I was glued to real world news instead, but it also seems as if there’s just not the usual volume of long-ish, thoughtful posts that I prefer to read. I suspect that I’m not the only one struggling with productivity and feelings of inadequacy. There were a few good things, though.
So, the inauguration of the runner-up happened. More importantly, however, millions of people around the world, in hundreds of cities and on every continent, came out the day after. I, sadly, didn’t make it to the march in Cincinnati due to car troubles and family obligations, but I have decided that once my car is fixed up this is the last time I miss out on an opportunity to participate in this kind of an event. In the meantime, I spent the week calling my dirtbag congressman’s office every other day this week, for all the good that does (not much, probably), and I’ve continued working on staying busy and productive. I’m doing a shitty job of eating healthy and exercising so far this year, but I’m doing an awesome job at reading books and staying caught up on writing reviews.
This coming week I expect to turn out another three or so book reviews, and I’m also planning on getting started on a series of posts on reading diversely that I’m pretty excited about. I’m also hoping to finally get out to see Hidden Figures, and I’m working on getting caught up on some television watching since the week of February 1 will bring a new season of The Expanse, the beginning of Powerless, and Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet, all of which I will probably have some things to say about. Frankly, as pumped as I’m feeling about being politically engaged and getting more active in my community, I’m also looking forward to having some work to take my mind off of our new fascist regime and likely impending apocalypse. I hate to fiddle while Rome burns, but it sure beats drowning in impotent rage and overwhelming feelings of general helplessness.
Corrina Lawson at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog makes a good case for Recasting Leia Organa. I’ll continue to be devastated either way, but I think this has moved me to Team Recast.
Despite this being another week of helplessly spectating the death of US American democracy, I’m, personally, feeling pretty good. I haven’t exercised as much as I’d hoped, and I haven’t eaten as healthy as I’d like, and I’m watching the future of my country be gleefully pissed away by Republicans, but I’ve read quite a bit and been fairly productive, writing three book reviews and accomplishing a ton of research on a series of posts I’m hoping to get out in the next week or two.
We’re still early enough in the year that a lot of what’s being blogged about is still best-of and looking-forward-to posts, so I’ll spare you much of that. The only truly essential reading on that front this week was John DeNardo’s first installment at Kirkus of 225 Speculative Fiction Books to Look Forward to in 2017.
That said, this list of 13 LGBTQ Comics to Look Forward To This Year is pretty exciting as well if comics are your thing. They aren’t usually mine, but I have been getting more interested in them the last couple of years, and a couple of these look like must-reads.
The comic I’m most looking forward to this year, though (aside from new volumes of Saga and Monstress and Bitch Planet, natch), is Ladycastle. It looks delightful.
Amazon released an English-language trailer for Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter from Studio Ghibli, and it looks magical:
This trailer for Sleight looks excellent:
Finally, there’s a proper trailer for season two of Into the Badlands, which I still consider one of the best and most sadly ignored shows of 2015. I am so stoked for this, you guys:
The first week of a new year is generally a slow one for all of us, mostly taken up with previous year wrap-ups and anticipatory posts about the new one. That’s pretty much the case this year, too, except for the slight frisson of fear of authoritarianism that seems to be constantly, anxiously simmering in the background of all my social feeds. So 2017 is off to–generously speaking–an uneasy beginning. For many of us, myself included, the world is an uglier, more frightening and less hopeful place than it was this time last year, and the news is less encouraging each day.
Like (I imagine) many people, I’ve been dealing with things by throwing myself into my work. Also, by putting my congressman’s number on speed dial for when I feel like complaining.
In any case, I’ve written more–or at least more productively and happily–in the last week than I have in the last couple of months, and I’m already in the middle of my fourth read of the year. I’ve been cleaning house and cooking, and taking control of my life where I can. Also, calling my Republican congressman’s office about every other day to complain about stuff and ask him (or asking his poor, beleaguered interns to ask him) to to clarify his garbage opinions.
It helps. Both the productivity and the complaining.
This week, I published six posts here at SF Bluestocking:
I loved Rogue One when I finally got to see it on New Year’s Eve, but it wasn’t exactly a flawless movie. Max Gladstone’s suggested fixes make a good deal of sense.
The other interesting crowdfunding campaign I saw this week is Lawless Lands: Tales from the Weird Frontier. It’s a little steep at $15 for a digital copy of the finished book, but it’s got a pretty good Table of Contents and a neat concept.
This Polish musical about man-eating mermaids is relevant to ALL of my interests:
Last of all, there’s finally a trailer for Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, and it looks excellent so far:
So, tomorrow is the big day, when we find out once and for all if we’re really going to be stuck with Donald Trump for the next four-to-eight years. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and there are several convincing scenarios for how this shit show could go down in the days, weeks and years to come, so I am doing my damnedest today to be kind to myself and not worry about it. Sadly, I did not have the foresight to stock up on rum, but I’ll be okay. At this point, I’m more concerned with the monster cold I’m coming down with the night before I need to start holiday baking. Also, I’ve still got no fewer than half a dozen books I’d like to finish reading by the end of the year.
So, basically, my plan is to pretty much go no-internet this coming week. In between baking French macarons tomorrow, I will be checking the news, but other than that, I’m planning on a week of total internet avoidance. My hope is that this will allow me to nurse this cold, get all my baking done by Wednesday-ish, and finish several books. With next weekend being taken up with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I don’t expect to do a Weekend Links post, but on the 26-30 I will be posting my year-end wrap-up posts, full of my favorite books, short fiction, TV, movies and so on from 2016. The first full week of January will likely be a light posting week as I work on settling into a new and hopefully more tranquil and productive routine, but there should be a couple of looking-forward-to-in-2017 posts in there. After that, my plan is to get back into a solid rhythm of reading/watching and reviewing, and I’ve got a couple of longer-term project ideas that I’m excited to get into more after the holidays.
In the meantime, here’s the neat stuff I’ve found on the internet this week.
If you’re looking for a fast read to finish out the year (instead of stupidly saving like five 600+ page behemoths til last like I did), Tor.com has you covered. Their full list of 2016 novels and novellas has some great stuff on it, and if you’re looking for something free to read you can check out their 2016 novelettes and short stories, which come with convenient links.
I was never more than moderately interested in Passengers to begin with, but I was nonetheless disappointed to find out that it’s actually gross sexist garbage.
After a fraught year, Chuck Wendig’s advice on How to Create Art and Make Cool Stuff in a Time of Trouble was welcome, useful, and as reassuring as anything can be these days. I expect that it will be advice that I will come back to again and again in the coming months.
Finally, here’s a video of Neil Gaiman reading “The Raven” by candle- and fire-light:
Another week, another embarrassing lack of true productivity. I’m still not sure if or when I’m every going to feel normal again during this time of living in, as Chuck Wendig puts it “Fucking Cuckootown, Population All Of Us” and I, frankly, don’t want this insanity to become normal. That said, I’d love to be able to get a good night’s sleep again someday, or get through a day without crying or having a panic attack. Mostly, I’d like to write something meaningful that isn’t a letter to a legislator. I’ve been really struggling the last few weeks to feel as if book and television reviews and listicles are a worthwhile way to spend my time–I can’t help feeling a little as if I’m fiddling while Rome burns–but obviously a complete stop of all productivity and joy on my part doesn’t fix anything and just makes me miserable. So I’m trying to get back on track.
The good news is that I think I’m almost there. I just ordered my weekly/monthly planner for 2017, which will be here by Tuesday, and I’m feeling optimistic at just the idea of that symbolic fresh start–throwing out the 2016 planner and filling out a new one with plans and ideas for the future is a small thing that feels really important to my mental health this year. Also helpful is the knowledge that there is a sort of end in sight for at least some of my current anxiety. The Electoral College will vote on December 19, and then we’ll have a much better idea of what we’ll be dealing with for the next few years. I think I’ll be able to deal with whatever comes, even if it’s going to be terrible. It’s the uncertainty that generates panic and worry, and that’s hopefully going to be done with in a little over a week.
I’m not making any promises for my end-of-year productivity, but I am trying to wrap up a few more book reviews by year’s end, I’m planning to see Arrival and Rogue One both this week, and I’m working hard to whittle my list of 2016 favorite things down to some reasonably manageable number. So, things are happening. There’s going to be some content between now and New Year’s, and then I’ll be letting January 1 act as a sort of reset. Just a couple more weeks to go.
In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been reading on the internet this week.
Brain Pickings rounded up the Best Science Books of 2016. I’m still feeling pretty crummy about not reading more non-fiction this year, personally, and there are a couple on this list that I may have to add to my 2017 reading list.
While I haven’t decided on any particular projects for next year yet, spending more time focusing on queer fiction is definitely on my to-do list. Autostraddle has some good suggestions on where to start with queer high fantasy.
Meanwhile, Fantastic Stories is still plugging away at their Kickstarter campaign for their People of Color Take Over project–guest edited by the incomparable Nisi Shawl. There’s still over three weeks to go on this one, but the sooner you sign up to back it, the sooner you’ll start getting daily updates with some excellent POC-written flash fiction.
Last year, Nisi Shawl wrote A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction, published in Fantastic Stories. Now, in addition to guest-editing POC Take Over, she’s starting a new column over at Tor.com where she will be expanding upon that crash course and talking in more depth about the authors she mentioned in her original piece. She’s kicking off the new series with a look at Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day.
Crossroads of Canopy is one of my most anticipated new releases for January 2017, and this Q&A with author Thoraiya Dyer made me that much more excited about the book.
Because we’re well into the holiday season, this mean old atheist has started her annual couple weeks of listening to Christmas music. “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses might be my all-time favorite Christmas song, but my favorite Christmas album is Annie Lennox’s A Christmas Cornucopia, which has solid renditions of a lot of fairly traditional carols that I adore. The best one, though, is “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” and there’s a video for it in which Annie Lennox leads a pagan revel through a snowy wood. I will leave you with that this week:
Sure, things in the world are shitty right now, but nothing can take away that time Annie Lennox was a badass Christmas witch.
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts, but I’m slowly getting back up to speed after an extremely disappointing and upsetting couple of months. Like many creative types in the US (and elsewhere, too, I guess) recent events have taken their toll, primarily in the way of tanking my productivity. It’s only been in the last week or so that I’ve really been able to write anything less tiresome and more interesting than letters to my congressman. I won’t say that things are back to normal–I have a feeling that letters and calls to my congressperson are going to be a major part of my life going forward–but I am working on establishing some kind of new routine that lets me accomplish some SFF-related stuff and sleep at night.
To that end, this week I tried to make sure I was spending some time reading stuff that wasn’t just politics news, and I think I’ve got a pretty decent round-up of good links for you. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be working to get back to a more regular schedule of posting reviews, and I’ll have some year-end posts as well as some looking-forward-to-next-year posts. In the meantime, here’s some cool stuff to read/look at:
Awards eligibility and recommended reading posts are slowly trickling out now as well. Fran Wilde’s is good, with a more than expected amount of stuff on it that I haven’t read yet. This Uncanny Magazine awards eligibility post is great because it includes links to all the listed works online.
Now is the time to resist the slightest extension in the boundaries of what is right and just. Now is the time to speak up and to wear as a badge of honor the opprobrium of bigots. Now is the time to confront the weak core at the heart of America’s addiction to optimism; it allows too little room for resilience, and too much for fragility. Hazy visions of “healing” and “not becoming the hate we hate” sound dangerously like appeasement. The responsibility to forge unity belongs not to the denigrated but to the denigrators. The premise for empathy has to be equal humanity; it is an injustice to demand that the maligned identify with those who question their humanity.
After basically a full week of having the cold from hell (brought into the house by my daughter; thanks, kid), I’m finally on the mend, though by no means well. I did accomplish a couple of things this week, mostly some short reviews on Goodreads of some of the things I read over the summer, though I did also put together a list of most of what I’m planning on watching this fall, even if I haven’t decided what shows I’ll be covering in-depth. My guess is that I’ll definitely be writing about Lucifer–there’s no way that the arrival of Lucifer’s mom won’t give me plenty of material for feminist analysis–and Supergirl. Probably I’ll keep writing about Ash vs. Evil Dead, although I’m not really terribly excited about the new season, and I’m hoping to tackle Westworld. Sadly, the shows that I’m most excited for (The Expanse, iZombie, American Gods, Star Trek: Discovery) are all ones that I have to wait for til next year.
This week, my plan is to wrap up whatever reviews of my summer reading I can get done between Monday and Friday, and then I’m giving myself permission to just give them a star-rating on Goodreads and move on. I got so behind on things the last few months with so much travel and stress, and I think it’s gotten to the point that being overwhelmed by the backlog is itself a barrier to productivity. So this gives me an end in sight to all the negativity and anxiety of the summer and a clean slate as we move into the new season. I will also, by the end of the week, be posting my fall reading list, which should get me through the end of 2016. I expect the coming week to be a relatively busy one, but with the goal of making things easier going forward.
Because I’ve been so sick, I’ve not been doing a ton of internet reading this week (although I did help a lonely murloc find love in World of Warcraft), but I did read a few interesting things.
I’ve only been sort of peripherally aware of the discourse surrounding this Lionel Shriver nonsense–I mean, my goodness, it seems as if some entitled pseudointellectual white author publicly humiliates themselves on a weekly basis these days, but this one is a doozy. This weekend, however, I’ve made a point of reading up on it, at least a little bit. Judging by the perenniality of these events, I figure those of us with any privilege whatsoever can never learn enough about cultural appropriation and identity.
It’s been another sort of slow week for me in terms of writing, primarily because I’ve been playing a lot of the new World of Warcraft expansion. I hadn’t even planned on buying it, to be honest, but it turns out that it’s really good, the most fun I’ve had playing WoW since probably Wrath of the Lich King. However, it also hasn’t helped that I think I’ve been slightly depressed lately, and nothing kills motivation like clinical depression. Last weekend, I didn’t even get around to doing my regular weekend links.
Instead, I’ve been engaging in a lot of self-care, and I think I’ve managed to head off anything more serious. After rushing to max level with my druid in WoW (Bigmamapain on Dalaran server, if you want to say hi), I’m sure to be spending less time in the game going forward. I’ve been working on wrapping up the last bits of what I’ll be able to finish from my summer reading list, and I should have my autumn list out this week, along with some kind of plan on how to accomplish my goals with a little more regularity going forward. I hate to say, but I think I’m going to have to start giving myself deadlines. This summer (and, really, the whole year before that, what with breaking my foot and all) saw some major disruptions to the routine I had gotten myself into, and I need to figure out some way to get back into a reasonable groove of exercising, eating healthy, reading and writing. I was much happier and healthier when I was doing those things in reasonable proportion to each other.
I’m currently reading Nisi Shawl’s new novel, Everfair, which was one of my most anticipated new releases this fall. So far, it’s excellent, and I’ve also been enjoying her posts and interviews around the internet this week:
The other big news of the week was the 50th anniversary of Star Trek:
The Kickstarted documentary For the Love of Spock is now available through iTunes and Vimeo, with DVD and Blu-ray available for pre-order. It is excellent, and I highly recommend at least renting it.
Feminist Frequency looks at body diversity in video games:
I read Charlotte Ashley’s “La Héron” months ago when it was included in the Up and Coming anthology of work by Campbell Award-eligible writers, and it’s definitely a story that has stuck with me. This week “La Héron” showed up on Podcastle. I highly recommend it.
I know I’ve talked many times about how much I love Tor.com’s novellas. If you are still on the fence about them, you can now download a sampler for free.
I’m not even going to make excuses for this week’s lack of writing productivity. I did do some other stuff, though, like cooking some meals, getting my daughter all ready for 8th grade, baking some things, playing No Man’s Sky and finally watching Stranger Things. I’ve also been trying to get through a little more of my summer reading list while trying to figure out my fall plan, so I’ve been reading a good bit. I even recorded a little bit for a Cabbages and Kings podcast about this year’s Clarke Award shortlist, where I talk a little about why I loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so much. I feel as if I’ve been busy, just not writing. I didn’t even get started on this until late Sunday and only then because our planned evening excursion to see the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream outdoors was aborted due to a storm.
Last weekend, of course, was this year’s Hugo Awards ceremony at MidAmeriCon, which I didn’t get to attend. I did watch the live stream of the actual event, however, and it was nice to see Vox Day and his Rabid Puppies lose again (in pretty much every conceivable way, to be honest). What I was struck by, personally, was how different the atmosphere seemed this time around. Last year, the Puppies and their slates managed to cast a pall around the whole proceeding, and numerous No Awards didn’t do much to alleviate things. This year, most people seemed to be having fun, and there were only two No Awards among a whole bunch of deserving winners.
Cora Buhlert’s Hugo posts are worth checking out if you want the full scoop, as she does a great job of collecting all the various posts on these things.
N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season took home the award for Best Novel, which it richly deserves. I was genuinely surprised to see it win against Uprooted, which has won pretty much every other award there is, and the popular Seveneves and well-liked Ancillary Mercy, but it was definitely my top vote.
There’s still nine more days on the Hath No Fury Kickstarter campaign, and they’re well into stretch goals at this point. This is shaping up to be an excellent anthology, and $10 gets you a digital copy of it.
Lady Business has introduced a new feature, Raiders of the Lost ARC, which kicks off with Courtney Schafer sharing some underappreciated novels of the 1980s.
Bitch Media talked about the limits of celebrity feminism. Turns out celebrity feminists have been plain old fallible humans all along.
This Pornokitsch review of No Man’s Sky manages to touch on pretty much everything that I find so wonderfully enchanting about the game.
Even if you hated Ghostbusters, you have to admit that its VFX were excellent:
I will have more thoughts on Stranger Things coming out this week, but in the meantime I’m just glad I’m not the only one who really fell in love with Barb:
William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy is getting a pretty rad redesign
SF Bluestocking 