Kate Paulk over at the Mad Genius Club - Writers Division blog assures all women in the western world that this battle is over and it is time to relax and take things easy.

Fighting the won war.

On related matters, an update on my post of July 8th "Things were better when...". I have continued my reading of public domain short stories from the 40s and 50s and have found no additional stories with a female lead in the last two months. I will let you know if things change(alhough I am not holding my breath).

I have never been in favour of the approach that various author groups have taken with the whole Google Books issue. Now I find that the US Author's Guild and other writers bodies (including an Australian one!) are now planning on suing the libraries associated with the project.

I just can't beging to describe how stupid this is.

Look at the headline of this piece. Doesn't look good does it? How can anyone expect to be able to spin the fact that author groups are so afraid of losing money from Life+70 years of copyright that they need to sue what most see as the bastions of knowledge, the organisations that preserve our history, creativity, science and culture.

When most people look at the headlines they won't see the complexities of the issues(asuming there are any). They will just see that the people who write books in the US and Aus want to sue libraries. They won't see that it is only a few industry groups or how limited the scope of what they really want is, they will only see that authors want to sue libraries.

This is a seriously idiotic move that can do nothing but alienate people against writers and creative people. Everyone who is even remotely connected with the industry will be affected by peoples perceptions that AUTHORS WANT TO SUE LIBRARIES!

Links:
Authors Guild sues universities over book digitization projects
Authors Guild, Australian Society of Authors, Quebec Writers Union Sue Five U.S. Universities

Just(1) before, I was looking for the first line of my favourite book online so I wouldn't have to walk out to the dining room, hunt for the book on my shelves and type out the line myself. I was going to save time!(2)


So I typed "The Dark is Rising first line" into the search bar and chose the TV Tropes link.(3)


The first thing I realised when I, somewhat glazed of eye, finally managed to draw myself from the page was never go to TV Tropes if you value your time; secondly, that anyone who tells you they are writing totally original fiction is talking out of their arses(the authors of The Dark is Rising page identified 168 major tropes plus any number of sub-tropes); and lastly that perhaps being unoriginal isn't so bad. As I said I was going to the page because the book and series are one of my all time favourite reads, and nothing that I read has changed my opinion. It is all about, I suppose, stopping that trope you are about to use from becoming a cliche, or at least using it cleverly so it isn't too obvious that you are using a Capitalised Contrivance.


Some of the tropes listed I don't really agree with. For instance the writer suggest the Ho Yay(or Homoeritcism, yay) meme. Now the Ho Yay meme does allow that scenes which could at first glance be seen as Homoerotic may be less so in context, but really, the main characters are at most 12 or 13! Why are people even wanting to colour what they do with sexual sterotypes? They are still children for God's sake!


Some of the tropes I did like though(4) includes:



Chekhov's Boomerang - A plot device that gets reused. It must be pretty obvious that it would be easy to do this badly, but makes the pay-off even bigger when done right.

The Constant - A person or thing within time travel stories that lives through history while key characters or the readers jump around between points.

Death by Newbury Medal -"The dog always dies. Go to the library and pick out a book with an award sticker and a dog on the cover. Trust me, that dog is going down." —Wallace Wallace, No More Dead Dogs

Did Mum Just Have Tea With Cuthlu - A great name for the idea that someone comes home to find an enemy sitting chatting with the folks.

Nietzsche Wannabe - A nihilistic philosopher who always lectures about how morality, hope, or the general goodness and value of life are meaningless.This one dovetails nicely with the Despair Event Horizon

Nothing is Scarier - Where fear is not induced by some traumatic visual element or by a physical threat, but by the sole lack of event

San Dimas Time - despite time hopping, everything that happens has to fit in withing the timeframe of modern events.

Translator Microbes


I was going to include the Real Men Wear Pink trope but to tell the truth I think that while the example could be viewed that way(John Rowland plays the lap harp), I wonder if this is a cultural one. A US only(or mostly) insecurity issue. It is obvious from the story that John is highly respected within his community and really it isn't about him doing something unmanly. He is a modern day bard and keeper of tradition. Only people who don't understand how important that would make him in Wales would consider his harp playing as something lesser.


So TV Tropes. Leave it alone unless you have the whole day to kill, or if you must go there don't for the love of Mary, ever go the Tropes page for Lord of the Rings.



(1) For a very loose definition of "just"

(2) Goody, goody!

(3) That was a "real" smart move

(4) I'm not going to provide links for all the tropes I mention

If it is the favourtie opening line wanted I will have to pass, but if it is actually just the opening line of my favourite book, I still couldn't decide but was able to narrow it down to three.


"Too many!" James shouted, and slammed the door behind him. - The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.


At dawn one still October day in the long ago of the world, across the hill of Alderley, a farmer from Moberley was riding to the Maccelsfield fair. - The Weirdstone of Brisengamen by Alan Garner


Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.


One thing I have learned while reserching this is never go to TV Tropes if you value your time. It won't have been wasted there, but will be gone none the less.

The sad news is we will only get one more opportunity to read a new book by William Sleator. William passed away this week in Thailand leaving us with one final work to be published in October, The Phantom Limb (Amulet, 2011).

I have to confess I don't have many of his works, I am not sure what sort of distribution they get in Australia, but I do grab every story of his I happen along.

This habit started when I found some of his books in a bargain bin. One of the titles was The House of Stairs an amazing story about five young people who find themselves trapped in a Escher-like maze of stairs where all the rules constantly change except one: Every man for himself. After devouring that I nipped back and got the other two Sleator books still available, Singularity and The Green Futures of Tycho.

In the books I have read so far a recurring theme is a coming of age story. The books are aimed at teens and the characters usually come out of the story different than they were. I liked that William used the Fantastic to prompt this growth since I have never really been a fan of the "slice of life" books. While it is highly unlikely that we will come across an alien instrument while digging in the garden or find a shed where time runs 10 times as fast as it does outside, we all suffer from alienation, peer pressure and sibling rivalry, and William allowed his characters to explore their humanity by way of the bizarre.

So goodbye William Sleator, you will be missed.

NPR released a short {cough, cough} list of the best Science Fiction and Fantasy novels asking visitors to choose just TEN out of a selection of 238 books. Fortunately(?) I had only read 93 books on the list or narrowing the selection down would have been a lot harder.

Go here to make your choice: Vote For Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles

 
( The List )

If you want to skip the long list(and the evidence of my woeful inadequacy when it comes to being well read) follow this link to my picks and the reason why I chose as I did.

( The Top Ten )

( Footnotes )

I have been reading Power and Majesty by Tansy Raynor Roberts. Despite the issue with setting which many would argue is acceptable since it an "Alternative Universe", it is a great book and I can't wait to get hold of the second one.

The setting was the thing that confounded me the most. Every time I thought I had a handle on it, Tansy added an element that had me re-evaluating things again.

To start off with the map at the front shows what we would call Italy, but some of the first place names used, to me resonate with England. There may be a Cheapside and Haymarket elsewhere but too me they are English names. Then we have the era.

The main character, Velody has come to Aufleur to take part in the city's Apprentice Fair, hoping to be selected as a seamstress/dressmaker. So that to me put it anytime up to the very early industrial age. But considering this is an Italy without Christianity I first placed it very early, possibly even Roman era.

But the city is ruled by a Duchess making me think of Renaissance Italy(despite the place names, the map still dominates my thinking) so forward we come to the 16th-17th Century. Oh and there are trains, so late 18th early 19th C? And then Velody pulls out a personal sewing machine, so do we bring the era forward to the mid to late 19th C? But we see no evidence of the level of industrialisation needed to support rail and mechanical sewing machines, so that is where I give up playing by the rules and just try to enjoy Power and Majesty for what it is.

Tansy creates an AU for us that doesn't quite play by the same rules, but works well none the less. We see the world mainly through the eyes of Velody and her friends and partners, Delphine and Rhian. They become enmeshed within the goings on of The Creature Court, a group of supranatural who have taken on the task of battling an unknown menace that tears open holes in the sky to rain down destruction on the city(I can't help but think of the Asterix books here with the Gaul's rallying cry of "The only thing we have to fear is the sky falling on our head") , when Velody has certain powers returned to her that had been stolen by the previous ruler of The Court. They are drawn into a world of the night that normal people literally can't see.

The people of The Court possibly because of the disconnect they feel with the rest of the world, are amoral people and even though Velody and her friends have their protectors(some with agendas more and less obvious), every action they make runs the risk of running afoul rules and precepts they know nothing about.

This is a great book that I highly recommend. I know it is the first story in a while that I have stayed up way too late to read, and have even contemplated calling in sick at work to finish.

Apologies to William Blake ad Sir Hubert Parry

And did those feet in times gone by
Walk upon Melbourne's city streets?
And did the Holy Lamb of God
Make his way to the MCG?
And did the countenance divine
Stand forth and barrack for his team?
Did he watch the big men fly,
In the greatest game that's ever been?

Give me a club with history strong,
Give me a coach who knows the game,
Give me a team that tough and strong,
With legs enough to run all day.
I shall not cease from shouting loud,
Nor shall my flag still in the air
Until the final siren blows
And the Dogs emerge as Premiers!

(click the youtube vid to sing along!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKaJ4b0XYmI&feature=player_detailpage#t=169s

There are a few blogs I follow that on occasion give books away. Sometimes it is the blog's author's thankyou to followers, sometimes it is a visiting author on a blog tour to promote the New Latest. Now I have been lucky enough to win a few give-aways and it is always a thill to get some new reading material. What makes getting a book even better is the implied connection that comes when I open to the first page and see a signature and perhaps a little message about the comp.

Now I don't want to sound ungrateful, but a recent author stood out because of the lack of personisation of the book I got. Now I have to admit my experience in this now totals five wins, so not at all authorative, but from the get go everything seemed a little odd. I had responded to the win with my address(and a lot of gushing. Always egoboo someone giving you free stuff!) etc, and got a response that said my details were being passed on to a publicist. I must confess the only thing I thought at that point is "Wow, X is so successful as to need a publicist!"

Then the book arrived from the publisher. After happy-dancing about having got a new book to read I avariciously flipped through my new precious so I could experience it's bookishness. On doing this a piece of paper fell out. "Ooh, a note!" I thought, "time to crank the happy dance up a notch."

I reached down to find out what the author had said to find what basically was a invoice from the publisher acknowledging that I had been sent a review copy of the book.

A review copy? Aren't they normally advanced reader copies?(I may be completely wrong about this, it was just what I have assumed from reading lots of author/publisher blogs.) Well it certainly didn't look like an ARC, so never-mind about that.

Then I looked through the book again. Hmm, no signature or personalisation. Now I have to admit that while not really upsetting me it did take the shine off my happy dance just a little. I spoke above about an 'implied connection' that I felt when I saw an author's signature. Totally and completely unjustified I know, but it was there. Without that, I noticed, perhaps aided by the invoice, the whole thing seemed more like a business transaction. In a small way I felt I had stopped being someone who had enjoyed a conversation with the author in the blog comments, swapped a little personal communication and a wry comment about modern life, and become a customer. It probably didn't help that looking at the author's email to me I noticed the signature blog included a couple of Cover Quotes about how much this person was liked by other prominent authors. Urgh, advertising!

As I said in the title I am showing myself to be completely ungrateful here. Apart from the book, I got an interesting post, great discussion in the comments as well as the emails. That should have been more than enough. To tell the truth at the time it was. The only reason I even thought to sit down and whinge was I just had another win and the author of the book I am soon to receive, upon learning that I had another title in the series, has promised to send me something to stick in the other title too. I think it was this generousness, the willingness to put in that little bit extra that highlighted what was missing that other time. Nothing I deserved, nothing I really needed, but something none the less.

Feel free to hurl abuse at my callousness below in the comments. I know I shall deserve every word.

PS: By the way, aberwyn, if I haven't thanked you before, getting the signed copy of The Silver Mage amazed me hugely in the nicest way. I know I did nothing to deserve it and that very lack is what makes this sort of generosity special. Thank you ^:)^.