First Book Friday: Tansy Rayner Roberts

[jimhines]

It’s been six months since the last First Book Friday post, where authors talk about how they wrote and/or sold their first novel. Previous entries in the series are indexed  here, and the submission guidelines are over there.

Tansy Rayner Roberts ( Twitter, LJ) is, in her words,  a writer, a mum, a doll merchant, and in her spare time (ha!) likes to

Comments

[starcat_jewel]

Two things jump out at me about this:

there were rumblings in the SF community about the fact that a prize named after George Turner, an eminent Australian writer of serious science fiction, had been won by some girl's funny fantasy novel, featuring more girls, and frocks, and exploding pirates, and that sort of thing

Sadly, not much progress seems to have been made in this area in 15 years.

The prize ran for three years (with a female winner every year, my successors being hard science fiction writers Maxine McArthur and Michelle Marquardt) before quietly disappearing into the sunset with a swag on its back and a sad song in its heart.

One can't help wondering if the disappearance had any connection with the first 3 winners all being female -- whether there was a feeling of, "Well, if it's not going to recognize any real writers, it's not worth the trouble." (Imagine, for example, the fuss and hooraw there would be if some year the entire slate of nominations for the Best Fan Writer Hugo was female. This could have been similar.)

Also, exploding pirates? Now I want to read that book!

[jimhines]

Isn't it in the rules somewhere? Women are allowed just one spot on the Fan Writer ballot each year? Sigh.