Galactic Suburbia

Episode 80: 5 May 2013

galactisuburbia — Mon, 06 May 2013 03:54:03 +0000

In which there is gallivanting, schlepping, recycling and rejoicing - cos a Galactic Suburbia baby is on the way!

News

Conflux Update: Alex’s Report, Alisa’s Report, Everyone Else’s Wrap Ups Ditmar winners (and associated awards) announced.

Through Splintered Walls Art Exhibition

Aurora Award ballot - Canada’s Ditmars?

Shirley Jackson Award shortlist

Culture Consumed

ALEX: Iron Man 3; Oblivion; Cloud Atlas

ALISA: The Adventures of Alyx, Joanna Russ

TANSY: A Song of Ice & Fire update, Flower and Weed by Margo Lanagan

Episode 79: 17 April 2013

galactisuburbia — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 01:14:43 +0000

Alex & Tansy discuss the Stella, the Shadows, behaving badly on the internet, criticising criticism of the Hugo criticism, and whether the suck fairy has visited Farscape, the Star Wars Thrawn trilogy, or The Mists of Avalon.

News

The Stella Prize announced its winner last night at a glittery ceremony. Carrie Tiffany won the $50,000 prize for her second novel Mateship with Birds and promptly gave back $10,000 to be awarded to her fellow shortlistees. Classy!

Australian Shadows Award - and the skulls go to…

Seanan McGuire talks about perceptions about self-promotion and the Hugos We also wanted to draw attention to the post Seanan linked to, “Language Myth #6 - Women Talk Too Much.” Particularly this quote by Dale Spender:

“The talkativeness of women has been gauged in comparison not with men but with silence. Women have not been judged on the grounds of whether they talk more than men, but of whether they talk more than silent women.”

Hugh Howey - The Bitch from Worldcon post

In response: Tobias Buckell - Don’t Punch Down

Chronos Awards - for SF & Fantasy professional & fan works coming out of the state of Victoria. Eisner Award shortlists - nice to see Saga & Hawkeye nominated, but Tansy particularly wants to draw people’s attention to the categories for comics & graphic novels aimed at children.

Mind Meld - favourite women writers in genre

(Also - books you savour vs books you devour)

Culture Consumed

ALEX: Farscape season 1; Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, Timothy Zahn; Rapture, by Kameron Hurley; Sky is Calling, The Impossible Girl (Kickstarted album)

TANSY: Game of Thrones Season 2; Swordspoint the audiobook, The Mists of Avalon, Coode Street Podcast episode 140 featuring Nalo Hopkinson.

Episode 78: 31 March 2013

galactisuburbia — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:47:38 +0000

In which awards are dissected into itty bitty bits and eaten with relish. Tasty tomato relish.

HUUUUGGGOOOOOOS!

Ditmars

Solstice Awards

This looks like a short podcast, but it isn’t. No culture consumed for you! Which does mean that Alex will have read ALL THE BOOKS by the time we join you again.

Episode 77: 11 March 2013

galactisuburbia — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 06:44:33 +0000

In which Alex eats fig frangipane made by her friend Dan… and Alisa and Tansy are bad at birthdays. If you eat cake while eating this podcast, let us know what kind!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY US WE ARE THREE!

News TIPTREE AWARDS

Random House and their new digital only imprints - specifically Hydra.

SFWA response to Hydra letter

Random House responds

NOTE: Since we recorded this, revisions have been made to the Random House imprint contracts.

Culture Consumed

ALISA: the life of a publisher…

TANSY: A Game of Thrones (the book) and nothing else ever again because THERE ARE MORE BOOKS.

ALEX: Warehouse 13, season 1; Shadow Unit (http://shadowunit.org); Arc 1.4; The Triangle; Anita Sarkeesian’s first Tropes vs Women in Video Games

Since we recorded this, Sean the Blogonaut has also posted about his thoughts on rape threats & gender issues in “grimdark” fantasy.

Note from the Silent Producer: The mp3 file initially uploaded for this issue was NOT the final version (there was a dropout in the audio at around the 1 hour mark). The latest upload has rectified this. Sorry folks.

Episode 76: 27 February 2013

galactisuburbia — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:25:53 +0000

In which we celebrate the real beginning of awards season, taste honey and launch Alisa into her new world as PhD student of publishing…

News

Nebula shortlist SF Signal Nebula post (with unfortunate comments and awesome responses)

Stella Prize longlist with special appearance by our own Margo Lanagan.

The Kitschies winners announced Interesting link found after recording: Lavie Tidhar on the Kitschies & diversity

Libba Bray on misogyny at the Oscars Also, go read NK Jemisin talking about race, misogyny & Quvenzhané Wallis with “Fantasy fans, where’s your outrage?” We didn’t discuss that one on the podcast because - well, what can we possibly say as three white women that Jemisin didn’t say a million times more effectively? Read her instead.

Thoraiya Dyer interviewed for Cosmos Magazine about how becoming a full time mum was actually great for her writing career.

Splashdance Silver back in e-edition - Tansy’s first novel, now celebrating its 15th anniversary.

Culture Consumed

ALEX: Etiquette and Espionage, Gail Carriger (http://randomalex.net/2013/02/14/etiquette-and-espionage/); The Chains that you Refuse, Elizabeth Bear; Rainbow Bridge, Gwyneth Jones; Caprica.

TANSY: Perfections, Kirstyn McDermott; For Darkness Shows the Stars, Diana Peterfreund

ALISA: The Honey Month, Amal El-Mohtar New Segment: Diary of a Publisher - it’s our duty (and that includes all our listeners) to keep Alisa honest as she walks away from her dayjob to take up the challenge of a PhD in creative publishing. Mind the flannel!

It’s our birthday next fortnight - have cake ready for when you listen!

Acceptance speech for Galactic Suburbia Award

galactisuburbia — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 11:08:30 +0000

Hi Tansy, Alex and Alisa

Congratulations to Galactica Suburbia on your 75th podcast and to everyone shortlisted for the second annual Galactic Suburbia Award.

What a lovely surprise to be nominated - and to win! - this year’s award for “activism and/or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012″. I’m thrilled that Australian Women Writers 2012 Challenge has been recognised in this way.

As Tansy points out in the latest Galactic Suburbia podcast, the AWW challenge isn’t just for Speculative Fiction: it’s for all genres. Nevertheless, the wide range of reviews linked to the 2012 challenge has drawn attention to many talented Australian Fantasy and Science Fiction writers, and helped to create a community of readers who have been willing to read outside their comfort zones - and that includes me!

I’m usually a crime/psychological suspense reader but, through last year’s challenge, I discovered lots of fantastic, new-to-me SpecFic and Fantasy authors, including Tansy, Margo Lanagan, Meg Mundell, Kim Westwood and Claire Corbett. Others have moved higher on my “to be read” pile, including Fiona McIntosh, Kate Forsyth, Kim Falconer and especially Andrea K Höst.

For the challenge this year I also intend to make a special effort to read some Australian horror - does that count as speculative fiction? - as horror doesn’t appear to have had attracted as much attention as the other sub-genres. I’ve been compiling a list of authors who might fit into this category, including Angela Slatter, Deborah Biancotti, Kaaron Warren, Kylie Chan, Ambelin Kwaymullina and - an author shortlisted for this year’s Galactic Suburbia Award - Kirstyn McDermott. If you know any more, I’d love to hear about them.

Apart from discovering new authors, other wonderful aspects of the AWW challenge have been to become acquainted with the output of small publishers, like Twelfth Planet Press, and to discover so many Australian book bloggers who specialise in Spec Fic. These include Tsana from Tsana’s Reads, Sean from Adventures of a Bookonaut, and Shaheen from Speculating on SpecFic, all of whom have joined the AWW team to help promote the challenge this year.

So far 370+ people have signed up for the 2013 challenge, and I hope we’ll get many more - especially male readers. (This year participants don’t have to pledge to write reviews, though it’s great if they do.) Maybe some of your listeners will sign up to read and review books by Australian women? There are plenty to choose from on the AWW SpecFic Review Listings site.

Finally, I just want to say - yes, this is sounding like an acceptance speech! - the success of the 2012 challenge wouldn’t have been possible without all the 350+ people, mostly women, who read and reviewed last year. Of special note is Shelleyrae of Book’d Out blog, who not only managed to read and review a staggering 100+ books for the challenge, but who also interviewed authors, hosted give-aways, created the AWW badge and curated the AWW GoodReads group. If anyone deserves to share this accolade, it’s Shelleyrae. I’m thrilled that she is also a member of the AWW team for 2013.

Postscript: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a SpecFic novel won the inaugural Australian women-only Stella Prize this year? My personal tip would be Margo Lanagan’s Sea Hearts. What would yours be?

Thanks Elizabeth

URLs for links:

Speculating on SpecFic: http://speconspecfic.com/

Tsana’s Reads: http://tsanasreads.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/reading-challenges-for-2013.html

Adventures of Bookonaut: http://bookonaut.blogspot.com.au/

The Stella Prize: http://thestellaprize.com.au/

SpecFic AWW review listings page: http://auswomenwriters.weebly.com/speculative-fiction.html

Book’d Out: http://bookdout.wordpress.com/

AWW 2013 Sign-up page: http://australianwomenwriters.com/2013-challenge/

Science & SpecFic shelf: http://www.goodreads.com/group/bookshelf/59176-australian-women-writers-challenge?order=a&per_page=20&shelf=science-speculative&sort=author&view=main

Fantasy: http://www.goodreads.com/group/bookshelf/59176-australian-women-writers-challenge?order=a&per_page=20&shelf=fantasy&sort=author&view=main

Galactic Suburbia Award 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:28:58 +0000

THE GALACTIC SUBURBIA AWARD for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012. Listen to the podcast discussing the winner and list.

WINNER: Elizabeth Lhuede (@elizabethlhuede) for the creation of the Australian Women Writers Challenge and her tireless efforts in contributing to the conversation about gender disparity in literature and criticism.

SHORTLIST:

Kirstyn McDermott (@fearofemeralds) for creation of the ‘female stick figure’ concept and the surrounding discussion about gender defaults.

Julia Rios (@omgjulia) for the Outer Alliance podcast, and her ongoing activism and outreach efforts towards ‘changing the conversation.’

Genevieve Valentine (@GLValentine) for starting the conversation about creepers at conventions and raising awareness about the importance of events having sexual harassment policies they are prepared to stand behind.

Various, for the overall creative, serious and awesome responses to the problematic concept of the “Fake Geek Girl.” Internet, this sort of thing is why we love you even when you’re bad for us.

Jim C Hines (@jimchines) for Cover Posing For A Good Cause and other important awareness-raising blog discussions.

The Hawkeye Initiative, a Tumblr meme which used artistic expression to demonstrate exactly why so many artistic depictions of women in comics are problematic, with sassy sparkles. (FAQ & The Mary Sue article for added context)

Anita Sarkeesian (@anitasarkeesian) for her TED talk articulating the vengeful online abuse she received in response to her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Kickstarter, and what this says about online culture and gaming culture in particular.

CD (@CDisoriented) for her wonderful blog Culturally Disoriented in which she talks at length about pop culture, social justice, disability and feminism.

Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) for “Things I Will Not Do To My Characters. Ever.”

Liz Bourke (@hawkwing-lb) for Sleeps With Monsters.

R-, the six-year-old who called out Hasbro for the gender imbalance in her favourite board game, Guess Who.

Geena Davis, for her speech on Gender Inequalities in Television & Why They Matter (plus ongoing activism in this area).

HONOURABLE MENTION (because not SF related):

Our own Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (@JuliaGillard) for the YouTube vid of the speech against sexism which made the whole world believe (however briefly) that Australia must be an amazing feminist country. Whatever else you do during your time in office, Prime Minister Gillard, we will remember this one.

Episode 75: 12 February 2013

galactisuburbia — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 07:41:19 +0000

In which we reveal the winner & shortlist of the Galactic Suburbia Award for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012.

NEWS Hugo Nominations close on Sunday, March 10, 2013

Chronos Awards also open: http://continuum.org.au/c9/chronos-awards/

Stranger with My Face Women in Horror Film Festival - 7-10 March in Hobart, Tasmania

Glitter and Madness Kickstarter - last days to support this anthology project!

CULTURE CONSUMED ALISA: Editing - Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer; A Trifle Dead by Livia Day; reading the country you have never seen: essays and reviews by Joanna Russ

ALEX: Saga, Brian K Vaughan; Band of Gypsys, Gwyneth Jones; The James Tiptree Award Anthology vol 2.

TANSY: Cabin in the Woods, Small Blue Planet, “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (novelette)

Episode 74: 31 January 2013

galactisuburbia — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:28:24 +0000

In which Alex touches Troy with her bare hand, Alisa discovers that the best part of Paris is not the part that’s underground, and Tansy cheats on both of them for love of Doctor Who (it was inevitable, really).

WHAT WE DID ON OUR SUMMER HOLIDAY!

Alex: Turkey and Egypt

Alisa: Honeymoon in Paris

Tansy: adventures on the internet including the article “Historically Authentic Sexism in Fantasy. Let’s Unpack That” syndicated on Tor.com, selling Wet Shirt Mr Darcy for the Deepings Dolls, and Verity! (a Doctor Who podcast)

Hugo Nominations close on Sunday, March 10, 2013. We’ll be making recs over the next few episodes, though in the mean time check out Tansy’s post on Hugo Recs for Best Graphic Story.

The Galactic Suburbia Award: for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012 - to be announced in 2 weeks, get your nominations in quick! Check out last year’s winner and honours list to see the type of thing we want to hear about, or be reminded of!

Culture Consumed:

TANSY: Eureka Seasons 1-4; Captain Marvel by Kelly Due DeConnick, Dexter Soy & Emma Rios; Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples.

ALISA: The entire series of The Closer, Tara Sharp 1: Sharpshooter and 2: Sharp Turn.

ALEX: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (the movie); Zendegi, Greg Egan; The Telling, Ursula le Guin… and how many books in total? Yes, Alisa really ran a book on this one.

AND!! Alisa’s exciting news!!

Happy Birthday to the Silent Producer, who totally missed us while we were away, and got a brand new episode to edit as his birthday present.

Episode 73: 22 November 2012

galactisuburbia — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 03:07:42 +0000

In which Alisa recovers from the brainsplosion that is World Fantasy Convention, Alex finally reads THAT Margo Lanagan story, and Tansy travels in three kinds of time.

News

The WFC Report

Stop Reviewing Movies with Strong Female Leads! at the Mary Sue at Jezebel at Bitch

Fake Geek Girls Unite: Mary Sue Coverage 1 2 3 The New Statesman Peter M Ball Pledges His Allegiance to the Fake Geek Army

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Dexter S6 and S7; Episodes 2; In Treatment S1; The Shield S1; Remember Why You Fear Me, Robert Shearman; Hair Side, Flesh Side, Helen Marshall

Alex: Singing my Sister Down, Margo Lanagan; some Kij Johnson, from At the Mouth of the River of Bees; One Little Room, KJ Parker; Holmes Sherlock, Eleanor Arnason

Tansy: The Diviners, Libba Bray; All New X-Men #1; Chicks Unravel Time edited by Deborah Stanish & LM Myles.

Don’t forget to send us nominations for the GS Award: for activism and/or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012.

Check out our sibling podcast, Galactic Chat - in the latest episode, Sean interviews Joe Abercrombie.

We are running away for summer! Back at the start of February!

Episode 72: 8 November 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:03:40 +0000

In which a new listener is born, Canada gets a Stella too, and we review a bunch of great stuff including Black Widow, Infidel, Swordspoint and Big Finish’s special releases.

News

Baby Announcement: Daniel Wessely is born!

WFA winners announced

Genrecon! Tansy talks Genrecon on the Voyager blog And again on her own blog Jason Nahrung on what he got out of Genrecon

Neil Gaiman’s new Doctor Who episode will feature the Cybermen, Warwick Davis & Tamzin Outhwaite. Boing Boing io9

Canada is getting a Stella too - theirs is the Rosalind!

Women in Horror article

Galactic Chat - Rowena Cory Daniells

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Infidel, Kameron Hurley; The Deep (BBC series) (http://randomalex.net/2012/11/06/the-deep-a-bbc-submarine-series/); Black Widow, Marjorie Liu; and books on women’s suffrage… (I might have lied about the free ebooks! Sad)

Tansy: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth, Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner; Big Finish Specials: UNIT Dominion, Love and War by Jacqueline Rayner & Paul Cornell; Voyage to Venus; Dorian Gray

Episode 71: 25 October 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:38:12 +0000

In which Tansy & Alex talk sexism, steampunk, Samuel Delaney and tiny baby Avengers fighting tiny baby X-Men. Also, feedback from listeners!

News

Pornokitch on the Mammoth Best New Horror introduction

Twelfth Planet Press announces Best YA SF anthology - Alisa & Tehani reading for this in 2013 and we hope it doesn’t break them.

The Fantasy Pin-Up Calendar Thing The Calendar itself Tansy’s post - when fantasy art embarrasses us all Skepchick asks us to Please Stop Making Calendars NK Jemisin on her involvement in the project

Sexism in the Skeptic Community - what happened after she spoke out

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Edge of Infinity, ed. Jonathan Strahan; Babel-17, Samuel Delaney; The Contrary Gardener by Christopher Rowe in Eclipse Online

Tansy: Wilful Impropriety, Ekaterina Sedia (ed); Hawkeye #1-3, Matt Fraction, David Aja; “A-Babies Vs. X-Babies” one-shot written by Skottie Young with art by Guruhiru

FEEDBACK

Suzy McKee Charnas story at SnackReads

Episode 70: 11 October 2012

galactisuburbia — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:27:31 +0000

In which Feminism 101 meets Aussie politics for a battle of the bands!

News

Julia Gillard and the Sexists of Doom

The Speech (and bonus Penny Wong Interview)

Commentary in the New Yorker

@vodkandlime talks about the response to the Gillard speech

Ben Peek on the failings of the mainstream media

British Fantasy Awards: special squeeage for Angela Slatter, first Australian to win one.

Jonathan Strahan and Nightshade Book launch Eclipse Online

Strange Horizons Fundraising Drive is on

Crikey looks at author earnings and advances.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Deathless, Catherynne M Valente; Arc 1.3; Hydrogen Sonata, Iain M Banks; Looper; abandoned: Armored (ed John Joseph Adams)

Tansy: The Outcast Chronicles, Rowena Cory Daniells; Unspoken, Sarah Rees Brennan; Wild Mary: A Life of Mary Wesley by Patrick Marnham, Under My Hat edited by Jonathan Strahan. Also GAME OF THRONES

Alisa: The Future is Japanese (ed Nick Mamatas); Looper; Death’s Daughter, Amber Benson; Casual Vacancy J K Rowling; Studying Men and Masculinities, David Buchbinder

Next Episode: feedback probably

Episode 69: 27 September 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:40:39 +0000

In which we admire our Hugo pins, discuss the narrative around bestseller authors like JK Rowling, and take on the idea of what a Best Of anthology actually means.

News

HUGO PINS

Trifle Club

The Casual Vacancy released - are you going to read it?

Giveaway from ages ago - copy of Showtime goes to Terry Frost for Joshua York from George R R Martin’s Fevre Dream

New Giveaway for Kaaron Warren’s Through Splintered Walls. Tweet, comment, email or Facebook us about your favourite Australian ghost story OR your favourite female vampire.

Paul Kincaid in the LA Review of Books suggests that SF is tired. Reviewer, heal thyself? He also talks on this subject at the Coode Street Podcast.

Aurealis Awards reminder: submit your books and stories now.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Soft Apocalypse, Will McIntosh, SportsNight (& Newsroom)

Tansy: Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan; Marvel Heralds; Outer Alliance Episode 24 Changing the Conversation with Julia Rios, Nnedi Okorafor, Jim C Hines & Sofia Samatar.

Alex: Battleship (http://randomalex.net/2012/09/27/battleship/); The Forever War, Joe Haldemann; City of Illusions, Ursula le Guin (http://randomalex.net/2012/09/27/city-of-illusions/); The Shapes of their Hearts, Melissa Scott (http://randomalex.net/2012/09/27/the-shapes-of-their-hearts/); Nova, Samuel Delaney

Episode 68: 12 September 2012

galactisuburbia — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:52:08 +0000

The post-Hugo edition! In which stats are chewed and swallowed, rebels become the government, the secret (true) history of Wonder Woman is revealed and Alisa joins another cult.

News

Hugo Awards: The Winners, the Ustream and the Stats (you can download the stats pdf at the bottom of the page that links to)

Caroline Symcox on coming out as Christian to SF Fans & coming out as SF fan as a curate.

Another Wonder Woman TV show in development - this one may contain some Wonder Woman.

Further discussion on conventions, creepers & safe spaces Genreville We Don’t Do That Anymore And the SF Signal Podcast

Science books written for girls, or possibly “girls”.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Newsroom; Getting Things Done podcast, David Allen

Alex: Outcasts; Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn; Midnight Lamp, Gwyneth Jones

Tansy: How to Train Your Dragon audiobook; To Spin a Darker Stair (Fablecroft); The Twelve Labors of Wonder Woman;

Episode 67: 30 August 2012

galactisuburbia — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:28:52 +0000

In which we talk trolling, internet pile-ons and Twittiquette (it’s a word, right?) as well as Weird Tales, Analog, heavy metal, straight white YA dystopias and (this may shock you) Joanna Russ.

News

Announcing the brand new Last Short Story podcast starring (so far) Jonathan and Mondy.

Tansy visits the Panel 2 Panel podcast to talk about comics with Kitty.

TPP event at Melbourne Writers Festival and Alisa’s Woman Achievers Award Alisa’s report and Jason Nahrung’s report.

The Weird tales dramah: Round up of links Jeff VanderMeer’s take on it.

In happier news, Ann VanderMeer now editing at Tor.com

Stanley Schmidt steps down from Analog

When authors go bad (on social media) and reviewers get burned.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Glory in Death J D Robb; trying to read Matched by Ally Condie, Outer Alliance podcast on the lack of queerness in YA dystopias

Tansy: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus; What Women Want by Nelly Thomas; Big Finish Audio - Invaders From Mars by Mark Gatiss & The Chimes of Midnight by Robert Shearman (2002)

Alex: Metal Evolution; We Who Are About to…, Joanna Russ; CSZ special on Joanna Russ; The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason

Episode 66: 15 August 2012

galactisuburbia — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:43:12 +0000

In which we suffer post-Olympics slump but make up for it by talking about sport in SF/F: from coyote baseball, holodeck racquetball and the points system of Quidditch to the history of sport in Doctor Who. And don’t forget that Buffy was a cheerleader!

News

World Fantasy ballot released. Mythopoeic Awards include Delia Sherman and Lisa Goldstein

New Science Fiction Awards Database Website by Mark R Kelly (Locus)

Kirstyn McDermott makes Jason Nahrung a mug based on Alex’s GS review of Salvage

New Galactic Chat: Sean interviews Trudi Canavan

Readercon Apology sets the standard.

Feedback: Sean & Kitty on the harassment at cons issue.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Existence, David Brin; all of Planetary, by Warren Ellis; Caliban’s War, James SA Corey

Tansy: “Foundlings” by Diana Peterfreund in Brave New Love; Shooting the Poo 14 (Sherlock Holmes) & 15 (Alien movies part 1)

Alisa: Coode St Podcast Ep 112 featuring Genevieve Valentine, and… reading unapologetically is a life skill!

Pet Subject: Sports in SF/F

The tennis match Alisa refers to is this one with Billie Jean King.

Episode 65: 2 August 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:40:44 +0000

In which we discuss gender at the Olympics and sexual harassment policies at conventions, fight about whether we should read the comments, and Alisa reads more novels than Alex & Tansy PUT TOGETHER.

NEWS:

Readercon harassment discussion: Masterlist & timeline of links Cheryl looks at the practical side of developing harassment policies for conventions

Translation awards winners

Travel Fund Mark II sends two Swedish authors to WFC.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood, Naked in Death by J D Robb

Alex: Stargate Universe season 1; Ashes to Ashes season 3; Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M Valente; Birds of Prey: Death of Oracle

Tansy: X-Men S.W.O.R.D No Time To Breathe; Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix (The Ultimate Graphic Novels Collection, not Marvel Masterworks as I said in the podcast, worth also noting that the US are more than 20 issues ahead of Australia); Besieged, Rowena Cory Daniells

For next episode: send us your favourite examples of sport in SFF.

Episode 64: 19 July 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 23:06:48 +0000

In which we talk Smurfette, gender bias on Wikipedia, Redshirts, Regency magic and Captain Marvel. Also, Tansy turns the microphone off a lot so you can’t hear her sneezing. You have much to thank her for.

News

Shirley Jacksons! Winners announced.

A new Sleeps With Monsters column by Liz Burke: The Smurfette Principle - We Can Do Better

How Kate Middleton’s wedding gown reveals the gender bias in the Wikipedia system.

Journey Planet Issue 13 - specifically special section on gender parity for con panels including our own Alisa

The ComicCon Batgirl returned to SDCC this year, asking DC Comics about why Stephanie Brown has been removed from the Smallville comics.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Redshirts by John Scalzi (read by Wil Wheaton)

Tansy: The Truth by Terry Pratchett (read by Stephen Briggs), Sherlock Holmes The Final Problem/The Empty House (Big Finish Productions), Captain Marvel & The Avenging Spider-Man #9 by Kelly Sue DeConnick Alex: The Secret History of Moscow, Ekaterina Sedia; Salvage, Jason Nahrung; Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us! PS: the actual Twitter hashtag for Nick & Amanda’s wedding is #raivanswed. But we are proud that our suggestions of #amandaheartsnick and #nick<3amanda inspired them to choose something better! Also, did you know you can’t use <3 in a hashtag?

Episode 63: 5 July 2012

galactisuburbia — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:00:40 +0000

In which we look at the politics of female author portraits, why you shouldn’t tweet celebrities about their alleged irrelevance, and start thinking about what we’re going to vote for in the Hugo’s

News Women in SF & Fantasy in Australian media - the article is a month old, but still relevant!

WA Premier’s Book Awards Shortlist announced and Penni Russon is on it!

Top 10 list of the greatest female SF/fantasy authors ‘of all time’ - do you agree?

Tansy’s Pinterest board of portraits of “Lady Novelists”

It’s Not Wise to Be A Jerk to Felicia Day

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Schismatrix Plus, Bruce Sterling; Embassytown, China Mieville; Snow White and the Huntsman; Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth; Diamond Eyes, AA Bell

Tansy: Salvage, by Jason Nahrung; Medea, Kerry Greenwood; Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold; Ame-Comi Wonder Woman & Batgirl; Silk Spectre #1 by Darwyn Cook & Amanda Conner; The Invincible Iron Man, Matt Fraction

Alisa: Blackout, Mira Grant

[photo: Stella Miles Franklin, older and more characterful than we usually see her in images]

Episode 62: 18 June 2012

galactisuburbia — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 05:35:46 +0000

In which Alisa and Alex bravely confront the realities of podcasting without Tansy, and come up rather short… (ha!)

Convention Highlights

Alex’s blog & con report roundup

Embiggen Podcast (hang around after we stop talking to hear it!)

Chronos, Ditmar, etc: the Aussie winners

Other news

Locus Awards: more winners

Women in SF & Fantasy in Australian media - check out the article quoting several Australian spec fic writers & editors

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Prometheus; Ishtar (Kaaron Warren, Deb Biancotti, Cat Sparks).

[Photo Credit: Cat Sparx - Kirstyn and Mondy enjoying the convention!]

=========

In collaboration with Writer and the Critic, we are delighted to present a special podcast dedicated to the critically acclaimed Twelve Planets series of short story collections and recorded live at the beautiful Embiggen Books in Melbourne.

Episode 61: 9 June 2012 Craftonomicon!

galactisuburbia — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:35:53 +0000

In which we report live and punchy (not enough sleep to be sassy) from Day 2 of Continuum 8: Craftonomicon, Natcon 2012 in Melbourne Australia.

NEWS The Con so far: panels, parties, yarn and cupcakes…

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Deadline by Mira Grant

Alex: Game of Thrones s1; Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency; The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood (YES ALRIGHT AT LAST)

Tansy: Timeless by Gail Carriger, Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan

[Photo credit: Cat Sparks]

Episode 60: 24 May 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:33:14 +0000

In which we celebrate our 60th episode and Peter MacNamara Award for Excellence win with cake, yarn and superheroes. For best results, consume this podcast with fabulous cake and/or sock yarn.

News

Nebula Awards

Aurealis Awards: Sturgeon shortlist

2012 Mythopoeic Awards

Women, Men and Social Media

50% female speakers at a tech conference and how it was done

The Hugo Packet is released

Kirstyn examines her 23 year old self through the lens of her current feminist self.

Marvel Comics follows Archie’s lead with a gay marriage between Northstar and Kyle: the news was launched by Whoopi Goldberg on The View.

Chicks Unravel Time announced from Mad Norwegian Press and Tansy is in it

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: The Monster, Garth Nix and Sean Williams (Troubletwisters #2); Agatha H and the Clockwork Princess, Phil and Kaia Foglio; Birds of Prey: Dead of Winter; Wonder Woman: Rise of the Olympian

Tansy: Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire, Made in Dagenham

Alisa: Black Heart by Holly Black; The Avengers movie

Please send feedback to us (especially about any cake you may have eaten or yarn you may have knitted with this podcast) at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Episode 59: 10 May 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:45:27 +0000

In which the boob window is explained. Don’t say we’re not educational!

News

Drink Tank loves us! Download their Hugo shortlist commentary here.

Mondy loves us too! He makes us go awww.

James Tiptree Jr finally in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and about time too.

Talking to Alistair Reynolds: he refutes the idea that science fiction has a limited number of plots

Locus Award Finalists

Clarke Award

Women in (Japanese) Comics: Cheryl Morgan reports; Anime News Network Some kickstarter stuff: Feminist Historical Anthology from Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Scalzi on Amanda Palmer and how she worked hard for 10 years to get her “overnight success”

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: We Wuz Pushed by Brit Mandelo Alex: Castles Made of Sand, Gwyneth Jones; Captain America; The Avengers; Confusion of Princes, Garth Nix Tansy: A Confusion of Princes, Garth Nix; The Avengers; Earth 2 & World’s Finest; Ishtar

Tansy’s Note: “I do not mourn the boob window” is a classic line that should be long remembered and oft repeated - but Cheryl Morgan said it first! I only steal from the best…

Episode 58: 26 April 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:50:47 +0000

In which we pore over the Ditmar ballot, Alex makes Tansy squirm about her nominations, Alisa makes Alex say ’sexytimes’ more than once, and we take on the hard-hitting issues of the day: plagiarism, pirates and mommy porn.

News Ditmar shortlist

Shirley Jackson shortlist featuring Deborah B

Stephenie Meyer moves into film production and who can blame her?

Story Siren & Plagiarism: Smart Bitches presents the story. Kristi’s apology.

MindMeld looks at great SF reads for teenage girls. But what KIND of teenage girls?

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa: Feed by Mira Grant Alex: By Light Alone, Adam Roberts; Lathe of Heaven, Ursula le Guin; In the Mouth of the Whale, Paul McAuley; Among Others, Jo Walton; Tansy: Womanthology, The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Feedback: Fifty Shades of Grey

Interview with the author

Mommy porn

COMPETITION - SHOWTIME - What’s your favourite vampire?

Episode 57: 11 April 2012

galactisuburbia — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:20:32 +0000

In which this Hugo nominated podcast is Hugo nominated and discusses the Hugo nominations while being Hugo nominated. Also, the internet is full of things. Some of those things discuss gender, feminism and equality, some have wide ranging implications for the future of SF awards, and some of them are nominated for Hugos.

HUUUUUUUUUGO SHORTLIST

Charles A Tan reviews the Fancast category

Hunger Games Hunger Games Hunger Games

Build up to make a hit The reviews are in: Topless Robot Forbes Our Alisa

But in the real world, the character Katniss Everdeen faces an even greater challenge: Proving that pop culture will embrace a heroine capable of holding her own with the big boys. It’s a battle fought on two fronts. First, The Hunger Games must bring in the kind of box office numbers that prove to Hollywood that a film led by a young female heroine who’s not cast as a sex symbol can bring in audiences. And second, for Katniss to truly triumph, she must embody the type of female heroine — smart, tough, compassionate — that has been sorely lacking in the popular culture landscape for so very long.

The Clarke Award Shortlist: Christopher Priest’s original post Cat Valente responds: “Because let’s be honest, I couldn’t get away with it. If I posted that shit? I’d never hear the end of what a bitch I am.” And further she responds

Outer Alliance discussion on Gay YA Dystopia & Paolo Bacigalupi

Qld Premier cancels Premiers Literary Award “Before the election, the LNP pledged to cut government “waste” as part of its efforts to offer cost-of-living relief to Queenslanders.” Response of Queensland Writers Centre The Fake Geek Girl at the Mary Sue

Eisner Award shortlist

Kate Elliott on the portrayal of women in pain & fear

Ashley Judd on the media’s attitude to women and their bodies

Valente on the war against women in the real world

Philip K Dick Award

Chronos Award Ballot

Tehani on Aurealis Awards stats, gender

BSFA stuff - Actual winners

The first post that raised the problems with the ceremony.

A response (there for historical sake, though I think since at least partly recanted)

how the Tweets saw it

Cheryl’s take

EDIT: Since recording, the BSFA have issued a full and unreserved apology, along with an explanation of why it took them so long to respond. That’s how to do it, folks!

Jim Hines works through his privileged dumbassery Kirstyn McDermott works through whether her feminism is good enough

Vote for Sean the Blogonaut for NAFF

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett; Showtime, Narrelle M Harris, Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy; 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson; The State of the Art, Iain M Banks

Tansy: So Silver Bright, Lisa Mantchev; Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis; Cold Magic, Kate Elliott

Alisa: The Hunger Games (movie and books), The Readers (podcast)

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs,, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us.

Galactic Suburbia - quick picks from the best of 2011

galactisuburbia — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:07:31 +0000

If you’re just joining us, and want to try out Galactic Suburbia for the first time, here are the top episodes that we think represent the best of 2011.

Episode 32: 11 May 2011 In which we bid farewell to Joanna Russ, talk e-publishing (again) and Alisa reads a real live actual book. With bonus raving about Doctor Who and Alistair Reynolds - in other words, another episode of Galactic Suburbia.

Episode 36: Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ Featuring: “How To Suppress Women’s Writing,” by Joanna Russ; “The Female Man,” by Joanna Russ and “When it Changed,” by Joanna Russ

Episode 47: 24 November 2011 In which we bid farewell to the queen of dragons, squee about 48 years of Doctor Who, dissect the negative associations with “girly” fandoms such as Twilight, and find some new favourites in our reading pile.

Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you can check out our entire 2011 catalogue of episodes! Thanks to our silent producer for gathering those links.

Summary of 2011

galactisuburbia — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 06:18:27 +0000

Here are summaries of Galactic Suburbia’s episodes from 2011, with links:

Episode 23: 5 January 2011 In which we greet a brand new year with discussion about digital media, awards, books, feminism, feedback, more books, anti-heroes, gender roles and take a look at what to look forward to in 2011.

Episode 24: 19 January 2011 In which we flit over the first shortlist of the year and some charitable links, sweep though a fortnight of culture consumed, and then leap with both feet into the pet subject of Inside Indie Press.

Episode 25: 2 February 2011 In which we hit and run the Locus Recommended Reading List, tackle e-books and piracy, and delve into the knotty issue of religion in science fiction.

Episode 26: 23 February 2011 In which Tansy and Alex soldier on womanfully without their lost comrade, to catch up on three weeks of publishing news, the Nebulas, books, books, and more books, and tackle the crunchy pet subject of Australian SFF Publishing in its entirety: how do Australian specfic readers get their books? Who publishes them and how do we buy them?

Episode 27: 9 March 2011 In which there is cake, cake and more cake - we discuss the year that was Galactic Suburbia One, authorial in crowds, gender bias, and announce our exciting new project.

Episode 28: 22 March 2011 In which we keep celebrating our birthday, take in the Lambdas and the Tiptree, and did we mention there are Galactic Suburbia T-SHIRTS now???

Episode 29: 6 April 2011 In which we rant about feminist issues and gender disparity (are you shocked?), Alisa proclaims the death of bookstores and publishing, we look at branding and internet dramah, plus a million zillion award shortlists, TANSY BEING A TIPTREE JUDGE, a Swancon preview, and… um. It’s a bit long. But full of crunchy Galactic Suburbian goodness.

Episode 30: 24 April 2011 Swancon 36 Edition In which we talk convention gossip, awards, go through piles and piles of reading for Tansy and Alex, while Alisa patiently explains her position on ebooks.

Episode 31: 27 April 2011 In which we do a quick (ha) awards round up and squee about the Swancon that was.

Episode 33: 26 May 2011 In which we wax lyrical about awards, short stories and the love of reading. Because it’s that time of year!

Episode 34: 8 June 2011 In which we surf the wave of feminist SF news that has deluged the internet this fortnight, plus Margaret Brundage, why YA books are allowed to be as dark as they want to be, the Tiptree Award, Connie Willis, were-thylacines, Ted Chiang and Alex finally discovers Bujold…

Episode 35: 23 June 2011 In which “best” becomes “superior,” Pottermore is Pottermeh, one of us wins all the awards, and we visit/revisit classic non-hard works of SF and Fantasy by Bujold, Willis and Pratchett (with bonus Russian fairytales by Valente).

Episode 36: Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ Featuring: “How To Suppress Women’s Writing,” by Joanna Russ; “The Female Man,” by Joanna Russ and “When it Changed,” by Joanna Russ

Episode 37: 21 July 2011 In which we discuss the SF Gateway and some great additions to the Women in SF conversation, Alex eats all the Bujold in one bite, and Alisa’s puppy does his very best to oppress us.

Episode 38: 5 August 2011 In which none of your fearless podcasters are impregnated by mysterious aliens for the duration of a single episode, nor do any of us experience a rapidly accelerated pregnancy or give birth to an otherworldly demon/alien/vampire. Also: Batgirl, Bujold and a cranky feminist rant or two.

Episode 39: 18 August 2011 In which we defend Mary Sues everywhere, point at superheroes with their pants down, plan a Hugo Twitterparti and reveal which of the three of us is secretly a hardcore horror fan. But most importantly, Alex is watching Blake’s 7 completely unspoiled and she loves Avon the best, hooray!

Episode 40: 1 September 2011 In which we hug the Hugos, plug the Stella, lament the loss of the Weird Tales team, and contemplate (briefly) our podcasterly mid-life crisis. Alex delves into the wonderful world of classic cyberpunk, and Tansy demands to know why on earth Alisa is still watching Doctor Who if she doesn’t actually like it?

Episode 41: 6 September 2011 Spoilerific Book Club: Hunger Games It’s the trilogy that put dystopia into YA and not only kicked Harry Potter and Twilight off the bestseller charts, but also shot them between the eyes with a crossbow. While they were stung by wasps. Tansy and Alisa are spoiling the hell out of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins. Listener beware, the first rule about the Spoilerific Book Club is… WE SPOIL STUFF. Please only listen to this podcast if you have read the books in question, plan never to read the books in question, or really truly don’t mind spoilers. Also, towards the end, we get pretty spoilery about Harry Potter too. It’s relevant! Mostly.

Episode 42: 14 September 2011 In which we discuss Orson Scott Card’s Hamlet, the agent who said no way to gay YA, Tansy’s Blake’s 7 dolls, the superhero who fights with her hair, and Alisa works through her issues with Doctor Who.

Episode 43: 29 September 2011 In which Alisa and Tansy look at crimes against superheroines in the DC Universe, the good and the bad of the companions’ journeys in Doctor Who, and why we love Olivia Dunham and her gun. We also plug our own books (yes really!), Tansy is still reading comics, and Alisa confesses that e-books have broken her brain. No, seriously, she’s broken now.

Episode 44: 13 October 2011 In which we fight crime, rail against derailing and read a million books.

Episode 45: 27 October 2011 In which Alex and Tansy wax lyrical about Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing (despite knowing next to nothing about it), welcome the new Apex overlord Lynne Thomas, celebrate the twin dawns of All Hallows Read and Nanowrimo, and embark upon an epic marathon of Culture Consumed.

Episode 46: 10 November 2011 In which we celebrate the World Fantasy Awards, take on the Kickstarter phenomenon and why people like to support authors/artists directly, Alex is betrayed by Isobelle Carmody, Alisa still can’t finish Tansy’s novel, and we indulge in a feedback frenzy.

Episode 48: 8 December 2011 In which we save the Tasmanian Devils, take on the Classics, review cars, discover that toy fandom exists, plan to read LOTS of Australian women writers, and Wonder Woman still doesn’t have pants.

Episode 49: 20 December 2011 Spoilerific Book Club: Yarn by Jon Armstrong Welcome to Galactic Suburbia’s spoilerific book club for 20 December, 2011. This time we’re tackling Yarn, by Jon Armstrong. It is totally full of spoilers. Please only listen to this podcast if you’ve read the book, plan never to read the book, or really and truly don’t mind spoilers.

Episode 56: 22 March 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:17:25 +0000

In which Alex falls by the wayside and Alisa & Tansy soldier on to talk about awards, Connie Willis, Tina Fey and Chicks Digging Comics. And more comics.

News The Galactic Suburbia Award has landed.

Manfire: the latest exploration of genderbending comics protest through artwork

Ditmar nominations open (wiki with things eligible; how to nominate)

Cool comment about understanding Aussie fiction awards from outside our country.

Aurealis Awards nominees: press release

Brit Mandelo new Strange Horizons fiction editor

Pinterest for Galactic Suburbia! Thanks, Celia

Swancon Program is out - Perth SF convention this Easter.

Tansy’s Creature Court books (Power and Majesty, The Shattered City and Reign of Beasts) are now available on the Kindle internationally! Should be available on other platforms too - iBookstore etc. If you see them for sale somewhere in your country please let us know. Fly, my pretties, fly!

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa: All About Emily, Connie Willis; Bossypants, Tina Fey; Hunger Games Movie Tansy: Astonishing X-Men, Joss Whedon & John Cassaday; Saucer Country by Paul Cornell, Chicks Dig Comics, edited by Lynne M Thomas & Sigrid Ellis.

We’ll be giving away a copy of Beyond Binary, edited by Brit Mandelo (and featuring a Tansy story). Tweet us with the name of your favourite queer/genderqueer/QLTBG character in SF or fantasy to be in the draw!

Episode 55: 8 March 2012

galactisuburbia — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:07:34 +0000

In which we honour the memory of Paul Haines by giving ourselves nightmares, and catch up (mostly) on several months of feedback about how Galactic Suburbia is singlehandedly keeping the bookselling business alive.

News Paul Haines in memoriam. Death notice and information about memorial service We discuss posts by Dirk Flinthart and Ben Peek.

If anyone does a round up of memorial posts about Paul, please let us know & we’ll add the link. In the mean time, check out this post about his complete bibliography and how to get hold of his work.

Ladybusiness on coverage of women on SF/F blogs

New Galactic Chat: Claire Corbett

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa: Wives, Paul Haines; The Warrior’s Apprentice, Lois Mcmaster Bujold; Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts), Locus Round Table featuring Nalo Hopkinson and Karen Lord Alex: Solaris Rising (ed Ian Whates); Reign of Beasts (Tansy Rayner Roberts); Pure (Julianna Bagott) Tansy: Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, The Opposite of Life by Narrelle M Harris

Episode 54: 23 February 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:49:59 +0000

In which we keep it short (truly) through restraint and perseverance, despite setting Tansy off on a tangent about Lego and lots of crunchy gender bias stuff to chew through.

News

Nebula shortlist

Stoker shortlist

Paul Cornell on Panel Parity

Elizabeth L Huede on National Year of (Gender Biased) Reading

Tansy’s thing: new feminist Doctor Who blog Doctor Her

Can princesses play with Lego? (Lego friends petition at Change.org)

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Vorkosigan - Shards of Honor, Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

Alex: The Islanders, Christopher Priest

Tansy: After the Apocalypse, by Maureen McHugh (collection)

Feedback episode coming too!

Episode 53: 8 February 2012

galactisuburbia — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:03:27 +0000

In which we pop the cork on the champagne bottle to welcome in the beginning of the 9 month science fiction awards season - hooray!

News

Responses to the Galactic Suburbia Award.

Crawford nominees and winner: Genevieve Valentine’s Mechanique.

BSFA nominees

SF Translation Awards Fundraiser - donate and win awesome books

The Kitschies: yes really, rum and tentacles.

LOCUS Recommended Reading List! [and Poll]

Young Australian of the Year who founded Robogals: Marita Cheng

Women of SF in their own words, reviewed by Brit Mandelo

Diana Peterfreund: following up on Brave New Love [and how the internet often fails to pick up the pieces after a controversy has died down]

Women Writing Horror (it’s new, who knew?) [and the other Guardian article patronising genre readers, taken apart by Smart Bitches Trashy Books]

10 Great SF books for “girls”

Creature Court trilogy giveaway - we’ll be drawing it next episode, email us to tell us about one book you read because of us & you’ll enter the draw to win all three books by Tansy

Creature Court Spoilerific Blog Post - only for those who have read Creature Court Book Three, Reign of Beasts, by Tansy Rayner Roberts

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby; The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

Alex: Clockwork Rocket, Greg Egan; A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, Ursula le Guin; The Business of Death, Trent Jamieson; Skyrim

Tansy: Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti; Batgirl: the Lesson; Redwood & Wildfire by Andrea Hairston; Blake’s 7: The Turing Test [Big Finish], Doctor Who: Foe From the Future [Big Finish]

Galactic Suburbia Award Honours List

galactisuburbia — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:20:25 +0000

Yesterday Galactic Suburbia put up a Very Special podcast, announcing the honours list and winner of the inaugural Galactic Suburbia Award.

After much discussion, and wanting in particular to create something that wasn’t already out there in the multitudinous world of spec fic awards, we came up with this definition:

The Galactic Suburbia Award: for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2011

We didn’t put links to the honours list and winner as show notes to the podcast, because we wanted our regular listeners to have at least SOME sense of anticipation as they listened, but now it’s well and truly out there, so here is the list:

Honours List

Carrie Goldman and her daughter Katie, for sharing their story about how Katie was bullied at school for liking Star Wars, and opening up a massive worldwide conversation about gender binaries and gender-related bullying among very young children.

Cheryl Morgan for Female Invisibility Bingo, associated blogging and podcasting, and basically fighting the good fight

Helen Merrick, for the Feminism article on the SF Encyclopedia

Jim C Hines for “Jane C Hines” and associated blogging, raising awareness of feminist issues in the SF/Fantasy publishing field.

Julia Rios, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond for Episode 11 of the Outer Alliance podcast (The Writer and the Critic special episode)

L. Timmel Duchamp - for continuing to raise issues of importance on the Ambling Down the Aqueduct blog and various Aqueduct Press projects

Michelle Lee for the blog post “A 7-year-old girl responds to DC Comics’ sexed-up reboot of Starfire”

Winner

Nicola Griffith - for the Russ Pledge, and associated blogging

The winner will receive a Deepings Doll hand-painted figurine of a suffragette with a Galactic Suburbia placard, hand-painted by Jilli Roberts of Pendlerook Designs. (Tansy’s very talented mother!) Each Deepings Doll is individual, so the one each winner will receive (we do plan to make this an annual tradition) will be unique.

If you have ideas for our Honours list for 2012, please email us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com or tweet @galacticsuburbs

=====

It’s been lovely to see such a positive response from our honourees and winner. Already, Nicola Griffith, Cheryl Morgan and Timmi Duchamp have posted the award details on their blogs with gracious commentary. We at Galactic Suburbia had a great time chewing over what our award should be, and what we wanted to celebrate in the SF community.

Episode 52: 25 January 2012

galactisuburbia — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:32:35 +0000

Welcome to a very special edition of Galactic Suburbia, in which we will be taking a leaf out of the Tiptree Awards’ book and announcing both the Honours list for the inaugural Galactic Suburbia Award, and the winner as well.
The Galactic Suburbia Award…

for activism and/or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2011

Episode 51: 19 January 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:25:52 +0000

In which women aren’t funny, don’t write important books, but come in handy as assassins and thieves.

News

Connie Willis named SFWA Grand Master

Liz Bourke on Strange Horizons & the art of the mean review

Survey shows that men (as well as women) often play characters of the other gender while gaming - in many cases, men are bored with or alienated by the big musclebound male characters, which game designers think they want. Sound familiar?

Hoyden about Town are asking for guest bloggers to crosspost their Australian Women Writers Challenge reviews on Hoyden (ASIF also keen to do so)

More on feminine tosh: a good solid article in the Australian media (shock!) about the women in literature issues of recent months (and, you know, decades).

Have we been following the “Women aren’t funny” stoush that played out in NYT? This interesting development.

DC Comics - cancellations & new titles - Tansy is especially excited by World’s Finest (featuring the Earth 2 Huntress & Power Girl)

Stranger with My Face - Women in Horror film festival in Hobart, Tasmania - 17-19 February

Tansy’s book launch for Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three) on 2 February at Hobart Bookshop, 5:30pm.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Ashes to Ashes season 2; Dr Who season 1; Rocannon’s World, Ursula le Guin; The Declaration, Gemma Malley; Grey, Jon Armstrong; The Collected Works of TS Spivet, Reif Larsen. BBC 4 “Cat Women of the Moon” podcast

Tansy: Destination: Nerva (Big Finish, audio), Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon, The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, DVD Extras Include Murder, by Nev Fountain

Alisa: absorbed in novel submissions; The Big Bang Theory; Swordspoint Audiobook, written and performed by Ellen Kushner

GS Award will be proclaimed… in a short while!

Winner of Alex’s Yarn giveaway: Jo

Tansy: Creature Court trilogy give away! Email to tell us about one book you read after we talked about it on GS to be eligible

Episode 50: 5 January 2012

galactisuburbia — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:35:44 +0000

In which we leap happily back and forth (with occasional ranting) over those fine lines between feminist critique and anti-female assumptions, plus share our bumper collection of holiday culture consumed. Happy New Year from the Galactic Suburbia crew!

NEWS AND LINKS

Hugo nominations open and we’re gonna have our say

Aqueduct Press will be publishing Brit Mandelo’s thesis, “WE WUZ PUSHED: On Joanna Russ & Radical Truth-telling”!

Islamic superhero comic turned animated series The 99 to screen in Australia (ABC3)

Amanda Palmer’s wedding post

Great piece on how the very idea of ‘Mary Sue’ is sexist, ties into this episode’s theme about the criticism of female characters.

The wealth of powerful girl heroes in today’s YA WHAT CULTURE HAVE WE CONSUMED?

Alisa: Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal; The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman ; The Vampire Diaries; Primeval; The 99; Planetary; Homeland and Boxcutters.

Alex: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon, Julie Phillips; Changing Planes, Ursula le Guin; Perchance to Dream, Lisa Mantchev; Twilight Robbery, Frances Hardinge; Chronicles of Chrestomanci vol 1, Diana Wynne Jones. DOA and Going Postal

Tansy: The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman; Beauty Queens, Libba Bray; Snuff by Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (TV) - Batman (animated) & My First Batman Book by David Katz, David Tennant & Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing (DIGITAL THEATRE DOWNLOAD AWW YEAH).

Episode 49: 20 December 2011 Spoilerific Book Club: Yarn by Jon Armstrong

galactisuburbia — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:37:48 +0000

Welcome to Galactic Suburbia’s spoilerific book club for 20 December, 2011. This time we’re tackling Yarn, by Jon Armstrong. It is totally full of spoilers. Please only listen to this podcast if you’ve read the book, plan never to read the book, or really and truly don’t mind spoilers.
Characters:
Tane
Vada
Kira
Pilla
M-Bunny

authors & books mentioned:
Philip K Dick
Janet Catherine Berlo - Quilting Lessons - notes from the scrapbook of a writer & quilter
Jennifer Chiaverini
The Friday Night Knitting Club novels - Kate Jacobs

GREY up for grabs - comment with your thoughts on Yarn and Alex will choose a random winner.

Episode 48: 8 December 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:45:00 +0000

In which we save the Tasmanian Devils, take on the Classics, review cars, discover that toy fandom exists, plan to read LOTS of Australian women writers, and Wonder Woman still doesn’t have pants. News

Coffeeandink on The Erasure of women writers in SF and Fantasy

Mur Lafferty - My Problem With Classics

Open letter to publishers: book bloggers are not your bitches

Kate Gordon’s Devil Auction - help to save the Tasmanian Devils! (kitten pictures with TEETH)

Australian Women Writers Challenge Sign up now

Jason Nahrung posted a list of the books he plans to read for the challenge - let us know what yours are!

In association with this, Tansy produced a list of award-winning SF/Fantasy books by Australian women.

Please keep sending in your suggestions for a Galactic Suburbia Award - we hope to have a plan for this by our 50th episode and are loving reading the tweets and emails so far.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Bellwether by Connie Willis; American Horror Story; Yarn by Jon Armstrong

Tansy: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor; Jingo & The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, Shortpacked, a webcomic about toy fandom, obsessed people, lots of GLBTQ characters and feminist commentary on pop culture such as this strip about False Equivalence.

Alex: Coode St podcast with Ursula le Guin, and also with Ian McDonald and Alistair Reynolds; Spook Country, William Gibson; One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde; Pirates of the Caribbean 4!

Feedback from Kitty of Panel2Panel: Reasoning With Vampires Kitty’s post about why Marvel has no equivalent hero to Wonder Woman

TANSY RECS for DC comics that don’t treat women appallingly: Birds of Prey (start as early as possible, either with the Chuck Dixon issues which are pretty good, or the Gail Simone run which is #56-108) Power Girl: A New Beginning & Aliens and Apes - Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner Catwoman run by Ed Brubaker Stephanie Brown Batgirl: Batgirl Rising, The Flood etc. Secret Six, Gail Simone Batwoman. Anything with Batwoman. I HAVE NOT YET FOUND THE PERFECT WONDER WOMAN TRADE TO RECOMMEND. But I do think anyone interested in comics history could get value from reading her first year of adventures, available as Wonder Woman Chronicles Vol. One

Marvel dude saying we don’t have to have female characters

Episode 47: 24 November 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:58:45 +0000

In which we bid farewell to the queen of dragons, squee about 48 years of Doctor Who, dissect the negative associations with “girly” fandoms such as Twilight, and find some new favourites in our reading pile.

News

RIP Anne McCaffrey i09 obituary Charles Tan rounds up a bunch of tributes

48th anniversary of Doctor Who! Tansy says it with pictures

Weirdfictionreview.com - a website devoted to The Weird and created by Luis Rodrigues. The project is the brainchild of editing-writing team Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Critiquing the Bigotry of Twilight-haters, not the same thing as defending Twilight

Original article

Sarah Rees Brennan

Holly Black

Announcing the Galactic Suburbia Award - we don’t know what it is yet either but we’re figuring it out! Send emails/tweets to make suggestions. What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: The Steel Remains, Richard Morgan; Alastair Reynolds, Blue Remembered Earth; “The Glass Gear” in Valente’s Omikuji Project; also watched Thor.

Tansy: Batman (1989); All Men of Genius, Lev A.C. Rosen; God’s War, Kameron Hurley. Comics: Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman (abandoned); Batgirl the Greatest Stories Ever Told

Alisa: Once Upon a Time; The Courier’s New Bicycle, by Kim Westwood

Note: the post we discuss which looks at the believability of the war in God’s War by Kameron Hurley was in fact not written by Cheryl Morgan, but by Farah Mendlesohn. Which explains why I wasn’t able to find it on Google last night. Thanks to Cheryl for correcting my confusion and my apologies to Farah. (Tansy quietly headdesks to self)

Episode 46: 10 November 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:36:58 +0000

Howie needs a hat

In which we celebrate the World Fantasy Awards, take on the Kickstarter phenomenon and why people like to support authors/artists directly, Alex is betrayed by Isobelle Carmody, Alisa still can’t finish Tansy’s novel, and we indulge in a feedback frenzy.

News

World Fantasy Awards!

Realms of Fantasy sinks for the third time

Graham Joyce calls BFS Extraordinary General meeting December 9th -

Authors kickstarting their own projects: Matt Forbeck - 12 novels in 12 months. Laura Anne Gilman’s novella CE Murphy’s novella (mentions also of self publishing projects of Tracy & Laura Hickman, and Liz Williams) Catherynne Valente’s Omikuji project looking for subscribers in order to keep the project going. And Tobias Buckell talks about how just because you’re self publishing doesn’t mean you have to be a … What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts, The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood

Alex: the Stone Key and The Sending, Isobelle Carmody; I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett; end of Life on Mars S2; This is Not a Game, Walter Jon Williams; Distress, Greg Egan

Tansy: Ally Condie, Matched; Lisa Goldstein, The Uncertain Places; Gail Simone, Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation; Geek Tragedy, Nev Fountain

Feedback: well overdue!

Episode 45: 27 October 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:36:51 +0000

In which Alex and Tansy wax lyrical about Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing (despite knowing next to nothing about it), welcome the new Apex overlord Lynne Thomas, celebrate the twin dawns of All Hallows Read and Nanowrimo, and embark upon an epic marathon of Culture Consumed.

News

Joss Whedon makes Much Ado About Nothing in secret at first we knew next to nothing then we knew something and every new bit of something brings squeeage!

Harry Potter DVDs to disappear from the shelves after Christmas (and Tansy’s still not over the whole Disney revelation)

Lynne Thomas’ first issue of Apex comes out next week featuring an article by Tansy on The Australian Dark Weird. As the new editor, Lynne talks about what she wants from authors at Outer Alliance

The lack of (paid) women reviewers (in the lit scene) continues to dismay and fascinate us in equal measure.

All Hallows Read is upon us And if you’re going to gift a scary book to someone, why not make it Australian?

Nanowrimo is imminent!

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Tansy: Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Alex: Life on Mars S2

Tansy: Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Alex: Obernewtyn, The Farseekers, and Ashling, by Isobelle Carmody

Tansy: Debris by Jo Anderton

Alex: God’s War, Kameron Hurley

Tansy: Marvel’s Ultimate Universe: Ultimate Spiderman, Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates

Alex: Shadow Unit

Tansy: Big Finish and Mary Shelley: Mary’s Story (for 99p) & The Silver Turk.

Episode 44: 13 October 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:50:45 +0000

In which we fight crime, rail against derailing and read a million books.

News

Our Sisters in Crime, Still Fighting and Why the Faux Oppressed Whinge

Ada Lovelace Day

Wonder Woman gets a father (yesthisisnews)

Alisa’s news: Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex now available as e-book

Tansy’s news: publishing date for Reign of Beasts and the Creature Court Fashion Challenge Contest

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: The Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons; Yarn, Jon Armstrong; Thief of Lives, Lucy Sussex; Yellow Blue Tibia, Adam Roberts; The Word for World is Forest, Ursula le Guin; Eyes like Stars, Lisa Mantchev

Tansy: The Courier’s New Bicycle, Kim Westwood; Thief of Lives, Lucy Sussex; Catwoman: Crooked Little Town, by Ed Brubaker; Fablecroft blog series On Indie Press wraps up; Sofanauts interviews Paul Cornell; Two Minute Timelord round-table about Season 6 Doctor Who

Alisa: Doctor Who. Shorts: The Book of Phoenix (Excerpted from The Great Book) - Nnedi Okorafor (Clarkesworld March); Younger Women - Karen Fowler (Subterranean Summer), Valley of the Girls - Kelly Link (Subterranean Summer)

Episode 43: 29 September 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:25:37 +0000

In which Alisa and Tansy look at crimes against superheroines in the DC Universe, the good and the bad of the companions’ journeys in Doctor Who, and why we love Olivia Dunham and her gun. We also plug our own books (yes really!), Tansy is still reading comics, and Alisa confesses that e-books have broken her brain.

No, seriously, she’s broken now.

News

The WSFA SP shortlist (Tehani wooo!)

Death of Sara Douglass

Catwoman & Starfire - this isn’t what empowerment looks like i09 on a seven-year-old who loves Starfire and her reaction to the new version of the character: “She doesn’t do anything.” A great webcomic response to the Starfire issue. Tansy blogged about it too!

DC Comics, Bunker & the Current State of LGBTQ Superheroes (Tansy would have commented on how Bunker is portrayed as a gay superhero in the Teen Titans but he wasn’t in the first issue!)

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Haven, Fringe S4, Doctor Who Season 4?, Ringer, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, A Taste of the Nightlife by Sarah Zettel and one of my new reading projects

Tansy: The Almighty Johnsons, New 52 (Batgirl, Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Superboy, Blue Beetle); Justice League Generation Lost (Part I), Power Girl: A New Beginning

Pet Subject: Indie and E-books Twelfth Planet Press Website Twelfth Planet Press E-Store Wizard’s Tower Bookstore (yay Cheryl) Tansy is Rocking the Romanpunk on her blog this week in celebration of the e-release of Love and Romanpunk.

Feedback: Björn is embarking on a quest to read all women authors for a year - and he needs a catchy title to help this become an awesome internet meme. Can you help him? Send us your suggestions and we’ll think of some prizes for the best ones.

Episode 42: 14 September 2011

galactisuburbia — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:16:56 +0000

In which we discuss Orson Scott Card’s Hamlet, the agent who said no way to gay YA, Tansy’s Blake’s 7 dolls, the superhero who fights with her hair, and Alisa works through her issues with Doctor Who.

COME ON IN, EPISODE 42 IS FINE

News

Subterranean Press address email complaints about Hamlet’s Father by Orson Scott Card And Rain Taxi review that started it

The other big Internet Thing - agent says no gay in YA dystopia please & authors speak out

New podcast - Live and Sassy Twelfth Planet Press opening for novel submissions

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Retribution Falls, Chris Wooding; Blake’s 7; Hyperion, Dan Simmons.

Tansy: Torchwood (non spoilery), Justice League comics (the new 52), The Business of Death by Trent Jamieson

Alisa: Podcasts: Locus Roundtable (Gail Carriger and Francesca Myman; Kathleen Goonan, Eileen Gunn and Gary K Wolfe); Eurocon 2011 Gender in SF&F Panel; The Outer Alliance Podcast Episode 11, Season 3 Doctor Who [Book calling for papers on the topic of race and Doctor Who]

Episode 41: 6 September 2011 Spoilerific Book Club: Hunger Games

galactisuburbia — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:43:37 +0000

It’s the trilogy that put dystopia into YA and not only kicked Harry Potter and Twilight off the bestseller charts, but also shot them between the eyes with a crossbow. While they were stung by wasps.

Tansy and Alisa are spoiling the hell out of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins. Listener beware, the first rule about the Spoilerific Book Club is… WE SPOIL STUFF.

Please only listen to this podcast if you have read the books in question, plan never to read the books in question, or really truly don’t mind spoilers. Also, towards the end, we get pretty spoilery about Harry Potter too. It’s relevant! Mostly.

Episode 40: 1 September 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:43:44 +0000

In which we hug the Hugos, plug the Stella, lament the loss of the Weird Tales team, and contemplate (briefly) our podcasterly mid-life crisis. Alex delves into the wonderful world of classic cyberpunk, and Tansy demands to know why on earth Alisa is still watching Doctor Who if she doesn’t actually like it?

News

Weird Tales Sold, Editorial Staff Kicked Out

Strange Horizons Fundraising Drive

The Stella: new Australian novel prize for women

Galactic Chat Kelley Armstrong Ben Peek

Tansy’s win

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa: Doctor Who Season 2, Outer Alliance Podcast Alex: Trouble and her Friends, Melissa Scott; Only Ever Always, Penni Russon; Synners, Pat Cadigan; Blake’s 7. Tansy: SF Squeecast #3, Panel2Panel, Among Others by Jo Walton, Alcestis by Katherine Beukner, Stormlord’s Exile by Glenda Larke, AM KINDLED WILL TRAVEL

Pet Subject: Hugoriffic! Were you there for the Hugo Twitter party? Or did you have to resort to sitting in the live audience? The stats The results Hugos commentary round up

Episode 39: 18 August 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:52:52 +0000

In which we defend Mary Sues everywhere, point at superheroes with their pants down, plan a Hugo Twitterparti and reveal which of the three of us is secretly a hardcore horror fan. But most importantly, Alex is watching Blake’s 7 completely unspoiled and she loves Avon the best, hooray!

News

The Mary Sue Conversation: Zoe Marriott Sarah Rees Brennan Holly Black Elizabeth Bear “Sometimes a book is about a female character because there are female people in the world.”

What if Male Superheroes posed like Wonder Woman? Gender Bent Justice League Bonus, superheroes without pants (except Wonder Woman):

Cat Valente steps down from Apex Magazine as fiction editor, Lynne M Thomas steps up.

Alex wants to be in Reno. Watch the Hugos! Join @GalacticSuburbs in whatever the right time zone is and Twitterparti the Hugos with us!

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa - The Hunger Games, Life on Mars UK, The Women’s Hour Podcast, Doctor Who Tansy - Lords & Ladies, Terry Pratchett; Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, Rob Shearman; Rob on the Big Finish Podcast, Xena & the mystical pregnancy Alex - Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi; Blake’s 7; Across the Universe, Beth Revis.

Featured Feedback:

Grant Watson (as well as our producer) pointed out to Tansy that Jason Todd died in “A Death in the Family” and not “The Killing Joke.” She is very sorry.

Kirstyn McDermott took us to task over our dismissive attitude to horror, and we decided to address her concerns and chew over our complicated relationship with the darker side of spec fic.

Episode 38: 5 August 2011

galactisuburbia — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 12:49:10 +0000

In which none of your fearless podcasters are impregnated by mysterious aliens for the duration of a single episode, nor do any of us experience a rapidly accelerated pregnancy or give birth to an otherworldly demon/alien/vampire. Also: Batgirl, Bujold and a cranky feminist rant or two.

News

Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award - given to a living writer for the first time, Katherine MacLean. Mythopoeic Awards

World Fantasy, of course!

World SF Travel Fund raising money to send Charles A Tan to WFC The Mystical Pregnancy trope - torture porn? Reproductive terrorism, exploiting women for being female. Violent degradation of women’s bodies for plot.

Vote For Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles Swedish Writing Fairy crunches the numbers

Andromeda’s ~~Offering~~ Offspring Issue 1 - new fanzine to “open up new female voices in SF, raise the awareness of female SF writers and share ideas.” (you can find them on Facebook apparently)

Where are the women in the new DC Comics? newsy report proper interview with Batgirl crusader

SF Signal Episode 70 - 6 men talk about their favourite podcasts and illustrate what we mean by gender disparity in SF gatekeeping Alisa makes reference to recent Mind Meld

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa - Passage by Connie Willis; Red Glove by Holly Black; The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang; Alex - Diplomatic Immunity and Cryoburn, Bujold; Chicks Dig Time Lords, ed. Lynne Thomas; The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell; Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (http://wp.me/p11HLi-Nf); Songs of the Earth, Elspeth Cooper (abandoned). SF Squeecast. Tansy - Glenda Larke-Stormlord Rising; Malinda Lo-Huntress; Penni Russon-Only, Ever, Always

Feedback lovely review at Hoyden About Town

Episode 37: 21 July 2011

galactisuburbia — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:44:08 +0000

In which we discuss the SF Gateway and some great additions to the Women in SF conversation, Alex eats all the Bujold in one bite, and Alisa’s puppy does his very best to oppress us.

News The Locus Awards Prometheus Award winners Sturgeon and Campbell Awards Shirley Jackson Awards

Recent announcement - Gollancz announces the SF Gateway, huge project to digitise & make available thousands of SF classics as ebooks.

Linda Nagata on ‘What’s in a Name’ and her career trajectory as a female writer of hard SF Chris Moriarty on labels in the women & SF conversation Women and the chilly climate at Scientific American

Liz Williams at the Guardian on the way science fiction reflects human belief Alastair Reynolds to write Doctor Who novel: Tansy and Alex’s obsessions in one package!

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Maureen Johnson on www.whyy.org/podcast; Twin Peaks; Mercy (not genre but interesting feminism); Alex: sooo much Bujold (3rd, 4th and 5th omnibi, and Memory); lots of books, because of holidays! But particularly Heartless, Gail Carriger; Blackout, Connie Willis; Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, NK Jemisin… also Harry Potter 7 and Transformers 3. Tansy: The Demon’s Surrender, The Holy Terror & Robophobia (Big Finish), Subterranean’s YA Issue

Pet Subject: Feedback from our Joanna Russ episode

Episode 36: Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ

galactisuburbia — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:03:07 +0000

Featuring:

How To Suppress Women’s Writing, by Joanna Russ

The Female Man, by Joanna Russ

“When it Changed,” by Joanna Russ

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia @ gmail.com - we’d love to hear your stories of discovering and rediscovering Joanna Russ.

Follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!