Diversity in speculative fiction

Seattle writer and literary critic Nisi Shawl has written an interesting article about some new works of speculative fiction that span the compass from the medieval period to the future, with a focus on diversity: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2003973129_scifi28.html

I used my Native American icon because I AM Indian, enough to be on the tribal rolls (with all the dubious benefits adhering thereto) if I could prove my heritage. It's interesting that now I and all my family are eager to be known as Native American, when our great-great-grandparents were at pains to hide it. When some of my family tried to trace our lineage, the trail dried up before we reached its source. We have only our family memories and stories by which to identify ourselves.

That's a sort of non sequitur. Nisi's article is brief, but makes interesting reading. Nisi's one of the driving forces behind the Carl Brandon Society, an organization to promote and support speculative fiction writers of color. http://www.carlbrandon.org/ I'm glad to say that, despite my pale appearance, they let me join. They, at least, took my word for it.

First matron lit book report

By popular request--well, fairly popular--herewith follows my first report on this new genre, matron lit, also known as boomer lit, granny lit, or elder chicklit. I took my reading list right from this article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0202/p14s01-legn.html

I slogged through most of Larry McMurtry's book LOOP GROUP. I don't understand why this writer has the reputation of creating good female characters. I found the book lifeless, despite a more or less endless series of outrageous events. The older women characters are bawdy, yet somehow without humor, and utterly without an inner landscape I could relate to, and which I think of as the essence of women's fiction. Every female character was as randy as some creature out of a Playboy cartoon, but still the book lacked any real sensuality. At the end, I was left with a sense of ennui that was exaggerated by a bad taste in my mouth.

Gee, can you guess I didn't like the book? On my recent trip to New York, my editor at Ace gave me a book to read on the train, and that one I couldn't put down until it was finished. It wasn't matron lit, because the characters were younger, but it was clearly women's fiction, and it was lively and funny and telling. The book is THROUGH THICK AND THIN, by a fairly new writer named Alison Pace, a quick read, but a book that has something to say about women in contemporary America.

Okay, on to the next! And I'd be interested to hear if someone feels differently about LOOP GROUP.

A Nobel Prize for Doris Lessing

You may already know that Doris Lessing, who wrote the odd science fiction novel THE MAKING OF A REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE EIGHTH PLANET, has just received the Nobel Prize. She's such an interesting writer! Born in Iran in 1919, she has a bibliography that is as varied as it is long. Check her out on Wikipedia.

Eighty-eight. A Nobel Prize. Still writing! Wow.

We should order up one of those for our own wonderful Carol Emshwiller. If you haven't read THE MOUNT, you really, really should.

A farewell to books

In keeping with my new venture, distance-teaching for the excellent Long Ridge Writers Group, I've undertaken a complete renovation of my study. This means cutting the accumulated stuff at least by half.

Ack! Books everywhere! Under things, on things, in the shelves, doubled in the shelves . . . and it's so hard to decide which should stay and which should go.How can I part with my copy of HALFWAY HUMAN, for example? I love that book, tattered paperback that it is. And how can I keep going on my task when SMOKY, THE STORY OF A HORSE, suddenly is in my hand? My dad gave me that book, and I must have read it a dozen times at least when I was a kid. It's my favorite book of all time. And the Edward Eager books surfaced, along with a copy of SILMARILLION that I bought and simply couldn't read . . . but maybe one day I'll be smarter.

Then there are my friends' books, my book club's books, the books I hope I'll find young adult readers for . . . I don't even want to think how much money I've spent on all of these, or how much time I've passed reading them. The numbers stun me.

Library sale, here I come. But I may have trouble letting these treasures pass out of my hands.