the drowned cities by paolo bacigalupi, or the joy of advanced reader copies

Feb 01 2012

Another little perk of attending ALA Midwinter is the presence of several publishers (thought I’m told not as many as attend the ALA annual conference in June) whose sole purpose is to throw large numbers of advanced reader copies (ARC’s) of the books, about which they are hoping to create some readerly buzz,  at all the librarians in attendance. Having just spent a few weeks winnowing down my book collection (more on that in a future post), I felt like a semi-recovered addict thrown back into the opium den. Ahem. But I got some cool books.

Chief among those is the new young adult book by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Drowned Cities, NOT to be confused with The Drowning City (Necromancer Chronicles, Bk 1) by Amanda Downum or Joe Golem and the Drowning City: An Illustrated Novel by Mike Mignola (of Hellboy fame) and Christopher Golden, for which I also got an ARC, but I haven’t read it yet.

I have read Paolo Bacigalupi’s book, and it’s my favorite of his so far (I’ve read his Pump Six collection, The Windup Girl, and Ship Breaker), with particularly strong storytelling. It’s a near-future dystopian young adult novel in which climate change has caused massive changes in the former United States, parts of which have devolved into permanent civil war, terrorized by roving gangs of child soldiers. It’s a terrible world, made all the more terrible with the knowledge that what Bacigalupi describes in this fictional world is actually happening, now, in the real world. The locals’ attitudes about meddling foreign government and the experiences of the main character, Mahlia, who is the abandoned daughter of a foreign peacekeeping soldier and local woman are reminiscent of the children of American G.I.’s in Vietnam (derisively called “children of the dust”).

There’s also a really sophisticated treatment of nonviolence in the book, as Mahlia decides what she is willing to do to survive, and how far she is willing to go to try to save her friend, Mouse, aided by Tool, an half-man augmented with the DNA of half a dozen predators to turn him into the perfect killing machine, who nevertheless shows more humanity at times than the full humans around him.

In short, highly recommended. The book isn’t available until April/May, unfortunately, and if I really had my ARC act together I’d wait until closer to the release date, but the last time I did that I wound up forgetting and then never posting a review (for Ready Player One, which was also a good read), and that made me feel bad. So here ya go…

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in case you needed more proof that Jim C. Hines is awesome

Jan 30 2012

I commented on Jim C. Hines’ excellent essay about writing about rape in fiction (particularly speculative fiction) a couple of weeks ago. He impressed me then, but now he is my hero, because I have seen this:

Writer Jim C. Hines Poses As The Women On The Covers Of Fantasy Books

THIS is what a feminist looks like:

Thank you, Jim C. Hines, for risking ruptured/herniated disks for the sake of furthering the discourse on representation of women on speculative fiction book covers in this astute visual commentary. Well done, sir, well done.

P.S. – thanks to Forest B. for the link!

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what a writer can learn from reading 100 books and serving on an ALA committee

Jan 25 2012

Early in 2011 (or maybe late in 2010?) my friend Arla sidled up to me and started asking a few not-very-innocent questions.

“You’re in library school now, right?”

I assented to the factuality of the statement.

“How would you like to get a bunch of free books?”

After a bit of back-and-forth, I agreed to serve on the Over the Rainbow Reading List Committee, which Arla was chairing. The committee selects a long list of well-written books with significant, authentic GLBTIQ content  published in the previous 18 months or so (there’s some overlap so books published late in the year don’t get short shrift).

Our committee selected 74 titles for the 2012 list, including our top ten picks (find them here).

It was a lot of fun, and I read a lot of books I never would have discovered otherwise.

What I learned as a writer

  1. You cannot predict quality based on the size of the publishing house putting out a particular book. Quite a few books from small presses made the list, and there were books from presses large and small that didn’t make the cut. And we did have several independently published books that made the list.
  2. There are quite a few books with GLBTIQ themes published in a year. We considered 140 books, and that doesn’t even include erotica titles. As someone who likes to populate her stories with characters who are not all straight, including queer protagonists, I was happy to see so many books from all kind of publishers.
  3. The little guys can make a big difference. Because it’s what I write, I paid special attention to speculative fiction. Lethe Press, run by Steve Berman, had five titles on our list this year (one graphic novel, one book of short stories, and three speculative fiction anthologies), which I think was more than any other publisher. (I’m hedging that, because  I can never remember all the subsidiaries and who owns who.) Not bad for what seems to be mostly a one-man shop.

Learn more here: Over the Rainbow Books.

P.S. – Also because I was on the committee, I went to the ALA Midwinter meeting, where I got to shake Jeannette Winterson’s hand and get a signed copy of her new memoir. She was very gracious in the face of my dorky introversion. That’s me on the far right in the photo; Jeannette Winterson is the tiny woman not holding a book.

P.P.S – Also at the Midwinter meeting, I got to see a bunch of public librarians screaming, literally screaming at the top of their lungs like fangirls at a Twilight movie on opening night, at the announcement of the Printz, Caldecott and Newbery awards. Seriously. I have never seen a bunch of librarians so excited about anything. Apparently they were VERY excited about the Printz winner this year, Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (Atheneum Books for Young Readers). The Geisel winner also looks like a lot of fun.

 

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outer alliance recommends workshops for glbtiq writers

Jan 18 2012

Just read this post (and added my two cents, too) on the Outer Alliance, about workshops and writing teachers who are friendly to and supportive of GLBTIQ writers and writing. (They use the term QUILTBAG, which I love, and which may be gaining enough traction that I can actually start using.)

If you’re different from many of your peers, it can feel even more risky to bring your creative work to a critique group or writing class. You may find yourself trying to parse the comments and advice from the instructor or the other students, wondering whether they are being too harsh because they don’t understand your work, or glossing over problems in the writing because they don’t want to engage with the material.

It takes sensitivity, skill and grace to embrace those differences and help create a supportive, useful working environment. Not everybody can do that, so I’m happy to see the post and hope to see the list of recommendations grow!

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free e-book from chizine until 2am EST Saturday

Jan 14 2012

Cover of The Door to Lost Pages

Free e-book as a Friday the 13th promotion? Count me in!

The good folks over at ChiZine Publications are offering folks the choice of any of their e-books, free for the asking.

I just requested A Rope of Thorns by Gemma Files (haven’t read the first book  yet, but I’ve heard good things about the series), and have already read and would very much recommend The Door to Lost Pages by Claude Lalumière – I love the prose on that one, and it’s a very imaginative story, with a mysterious bookstore, so there you go.

The titles run the gamut from slightly dark fantasy to straight-up horror. Go have fun, kids.

http://chizinepublications.blogspot.com/2012/01/free-ebooks-for-friday-13th.html

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