I posed this question/these questions on Twitter, but I’m still curious, so I’m sticking them up here as well. How do you read online? Are there certain publications you seek out and methodically read every story in every issue they publish? Do you follow authors, rather than publications, reading whatever a certain author writes, regardless of ( Read more... )

Better late than never, right? Readercon had been on my list of must-attend events for a while, and this year, I finally managed to make it happen. It turned out to be everything I wanted, and more. In large part, this is due to my traveling companions, Kelly Lagor and Fran Wilde (who also has a great write-up of the con you should read.) My ( ( Read more... )

Women in Horror Month is over, but that won’t stop me from carrying right on talking. This time, it’s women on the page, and I’ll be picking on Stephen King’s It, and the problem of the token girl. In the interest of full disclosure, I liked It, but Beverly has always kind of bothered me, and my thoughts about her character have only recently ( Read more... )

My brain is all about the tangents lately. Thinking about how women are often not allowed to be the agents of their own destruction in horror movies, brought me to yet another pet peeve of mine, how they are not allowed to be the agents of their own greatness, either. Everyone knows the typical hero’s quest - young farm boy/peasant/seventh son of a ( Read more... )

My recent post about women in horror movies sent my brain on a tangent regarding possession and exorcism. I held Regan from The Exorcist up as a a female character allowed to be monstrous, until I really thought about it, and realized Regan is a problematic example. Her body becomes monstrous, her actions are monstrous, and at no point is she in ( Read more... )

As mentioned in a previous post, one of my Philcon panels was ‘The End of the Paper Book?’ As you might guess, the panel discussion centered around whether e-books will completely replace paper books, and what we’ll lose if they do. Believe it or not, I see the value in e-books, and I understand why some people prefer them. But I’m not one of those ( Read more... )

I’m way behind with this post, because I’m always way behind. Tardiness aside, I attended Capclave a few weekends ago (more weekends now than I’d care to admit), and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The first official thing I did, other than show up, check in, and drink, was attend Catherynne Valente’s reading on Saturday morning. She was a guest of ( Read more... )

It seems I’ve been remiss in mentioning this year’s Strange Horizons Fund Drive. As it turns out, time is the boss of me. I’d just got around to accepting that September had arrived, and now it’s almost over. Luckily, it’s not too late to support this wonderful publication, and you can even win some nifty prizes in the process. If you have a few ( Read more... )

A wonderful post today about censorship (or,  its opposite) by Kelly Barnhill, and the ensuing conversation on Twitter got me thinking about how lucky I was growing up. But let me back up for a second. If you’re not familiar with her work, Kelly Barnhill is the author of The Mostly True Story of Jack, among other things. She also happens to be a ( Read more... )

Another thing I’ve been thinking about lately is author voice and distinctive writing styles. There are some folks, if you removed their byline from a story, you’d still be able to identify the work as theirs. There are Lovecraftian stories, and Chandler-esque stories. Heck, Dickensian is a word, and the computer knows it; it doesn’t even stick one ( Read more... )