Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Roots of Identity - Opus 4
 
Illustration for Roots of Identity Opus 4 Okal Rel anthologies by Richard Bartrop "Grip is about knowing who you are and where you belong, even when the whole damned indifferent universe is trying to tell you otherwise." - Berinda, in "Roots of Identity", Opus 4, by author Lexie Pakulak.
Lexie Pakulak author in Opus 4 Okal Rel Legacies anthologies This is the interior illustration, by Richard Bartrop, picturing protagonist Meg (short for Banimeg) in a genotyping office in the town of Eastport on FarHome. Richard is also the cover artist for Opus 4, which is currently in the editing stages and should be ready for production before Xmas 2009.

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Monday, September 28, 2009
 
Kathy Plett CNC Library Blog Many thanks to library director Kathy Plett for her September 24, 2009 post about Part 5: Far Arena on the College of New Caledonia's Library Blog.

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Saturday, September 26, 2009
 
Logo for Concept Science Fiction Convention in Montreal 2009
Couldn't even think of going to Con*Cept in Montreal in early October this year. Too expensive. :-( And a direct conflict with VCON. But I am cheered to hear from Con*Cept organizer Cathy Palmer-Lister that she received my soul-touch package of donated ORU books and buttons. My version of the next best thing to being there. :-) The ORU also got credited as a sponsor on Con*cept's sponsorship page which a lovely way to say "thanks".

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Added three ORU filk songs to a new section of the "Saga" page called "Fun Stuff" in keeping with Mel's title for the character-mockery section of the latest edition of the Guide to the ORU.

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009
 
Courtesan Prince on EBay Anyone need a copy of Part 1: The Courtesan Prince to hook a friend on the saga, or get started themselves, there's one available cheap on EBay! Maybe I'm weird, but I find it exciting to discover books from the saga getting recycled. Guess 'cause I'm in it to maximize the ORU's exposure in the world so other people get to know the characters and situations that have entertained me for so long. I've been reading passages for CFIS 93.1 these last couple of months, too. Behind on some of the other projects due to an up-coming job change. I will be the next "ARD" for the Quesnel campus of the College of New Caledonia. "ARD" stands for Associate Regional Director, but I gather all anyone ever refers to the position as is "the Ay-Ar-Dee". I start in Quesnel Oct 13, 2009. Once I'm settled in, I'll be family-less during the week, and will be working on Parts 8, 9 and 10 of the ORU saga for entertainment in the evenings. Three books to go! (Parts 6 and 7 are written and awaiting their slots in Edge's publication schedule.)

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
 
It's a wrap! Summing up the discussion.

Executive summary


Kick-butt female characters are fun. We don't want to give them up. But we are intrigued by the challenge of portraying their less violent sisters with equal force of character. Sterling examples of past successes are both inspirational and possibly indicative of the greater difficulty of holding the attention of a genre audience in the absence of serious butt-kicking, since many really fine pieces of writing of this sort are not as well-known as the greats of the butt-kicking variety.

Food for Thought


It would be interesting to explore whether this phenomenon is generally true of characters irrespective of gender. In which case, one might expect to find the best known cases of non-violent characters of influence occurring in supporting roles - like Don Quixote's Sancho or Buffy's Xander.

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Sunday, September 13, 2009
Women Writers Writing about Women
 
Tina and I will post two original messages each over the next week. One a day. Writers are invited to connect the topics to their own artistic interests. And if you don't write, there's life, reading and media examples to draw on. Today is Tina's second and final post of the discussion.

Wow. What an amazing discussion this has been. Lynda's post on Friday got some really great comments on Facebook. Like from Cenobyte B:
"...Because the genre developed in this predominantly male audience, there
developed certain tropes, and I think one of those tropes is that female
characters must either be lovers or adversaries... I think the era of
multi-faced female characters is just now coming to the forefront of all kinds
of literature, although more 'mainstream' literary fiction has had more time,
more space, and more of an audience to develop these themes. Science Fiction and
Fantasy are still eking on to the 'literary' scene, and so, as genres, are still
having to overcome some of those traditional tropes."

This and other comments over the last week have prompted me to ask myself a question.

As a writer, does the gender we are born to (or choose to embrace) have an impact on our ability to write from the opposite sex?

Many of the writers I know have asked this question at one point or another. It's normally asked if a man can write from a women's point of view convincingly or vice versa. The answer always seem to depend on the author, but for the most part authors are more comfortable writing from their own sex's point of view. There are of course exceptions to this rule. Our own Lynda Williams has a very male dominate cast in her Okal Rel series. I, on the other hand, find is easier to write from the female point of view even though I tend to write from both male and female perspectives equally.

Could this be the cause of these "tropes"? Is it because men were the storytellers? But why would women not write from women point of views when they finally broke into the genre? Was it because the "normal" storyline and characters were expected?

I agree that true women characters are just starting to be seen in genre fiction, and perhaps this is because it's only now become acceptable to portray that in genre fiction. I think fantasy caught on to this much sooner than Science Fiction, but it's coming. A new era perhaps?

I know that Lynda will write a closing post shortly, and I won't take away from that, but for myself I would like to close by saying I think that a strong female character doesn't need to have a fist fight or beat up a guy to captivate an audience. She can be hero without lifting a finger in anger, just as some of my female hero's have done in real life... but sometimes kick butt stories can be really fun to read. :)

Tina Hunter
http://www.tinahunter.ca

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Far Arena, Part 5 of the Okal Rel Saga
Ronald Hore's review of Far Arena, Part 5 of the Okal Rel Saga, is up on CM Magazine.

Ronald recommends the book, adding: "If you are a fan of the series, Far Arena advances the complex plot another step."

My favorite bit of his review is: "Far Arena is not your standard Space Opera, with large explosions on every page and ray guns blazing in all directions. The well-written story is character-driven and investigates the social problems that can arise. There are larger than life characters, but they are humanized by having to deal with their own personal problems as well as the larger affairs of their empires. "

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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Do women in SF have to kick-butt to get noticed?
 
Tina and I will post two original messages each over the next week. One a day. Writers are invited to connect the topics to their own artistic interests. And if you don't write, there's life, reading and media examples to draw on. Today is my second and final post of the discussion (Lynda).


Presuming, for the sake of argument, that women are less violent than men (1), do female protagonists in SF and fantasy still need to kick-butt to command an audience? If so, should we dismiss it as an artefact of the action-oriented nature of the genre? After all, the average guy can't kick butt like a hero, either, but it's more fun to identify with a Doc Savage than the wimpy guy next door. Or is there something disturbing about the popularity of Amazon-like females who beat the guys at their own game because it underscores how hard it is for authentic female behaviour to get, and sustain, our attention?

I confess to creating high-testosterone females in my own work (2) and thoroughly enjoyed the thought experiment, so I am not pointing fingers. I am merely curious about the whole phenomenon, because it seems to me, as I mature, that beefing up woman-power in terms of how a heroine can pack a punch is almost like admitting women can’t cut it unless they act like men.

Naturally there are exceptions. I'm partial to the portrayal of Captain Janeway of Star Trek (3) as a strong woman who doesn't enact her force of character in typically male displays of physical dominance, even though she's not afraid to crack hulls when necessary. And while no one could accuse Babylon 5's Delenn (4) of being ineffectual, her prowess is not the mash-and-bash kind.

I still suspect there is something about human nature that makes claiming attention for a woman in SF uphill work, and wonder if this is why I instinctively focused on men for my main characters even though in Amel's case – in particular – I set out to explore the traditionally female problem of making a come-back from victimization and overcoming the pitfalls of being too nice for one's own good.



References

1. Jurik NC & Winn R. “Gender and homicide: a comparison of men and women who kill..” Violence and Victims. 1990 Winter; 5(4):227-42. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2098088 on September 10, 2009.
2. Williams, L. “Vrellish Evolutionary Biology”. Science Fiction and Organization Conference. Sept 15, 1999. Retrieved from http://okalrel.org/saga/reference/essays/vrellish.html on September 10, 2009.
3. “Kathryn Janeway”. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Janeway on September 10, 2009.
4. “Delenn”. Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delenn

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Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Society's Influence on Women and the Genre
 
Tina and I will post two original messages each over the next week. One a day. Writers are invited to connect the topics to their own artistic interests. And if you don't write, there's life, reading and media examples to draw on. Today is one of Tina's posts.

Yesterday's post by Lynda was a great way to start things off. We spoke about the social sphere of influence that women in our history had and how society changed to take that away.

Society is funny like that. The 1960’s were really the decade for Science Fiction. It was popular, Star Trek and Outerlimits were on the television, and more mainstream people where becoming interested in "those kinds" of books. The changes that started in the 1950's with Rock 'n Roll (which had a profound effect on society) continued into the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. Racial segregation or integration, women in roles other than the damsel in distress, and the space race/exploration were all things that North American audiences wanted to see and so the genre catered.

In the 1980's and 90's it became more common place for women to be seen in what once were traditional male roles. Women became leaders in industry, medicine and finance. Women have a dominating presence in the office/ corporate world, but can be found in positions like welder, pilot and labourer. Women have integrated into the “man’s world” but most are still responsible for the “woman’s world”. Child rearing, cooking, cleaning.

Today, women are learning how to balance their lives in a completely new way. What’s interesting is that statistics show that more women are watching Science Fiction shows. They are reading more genre books. Is this because they are finding something in the genre that they want, or is it because they are looking for something and hoping that the genre will provided it?

During this chaos, a funny little subgenre called "women's fiction" popped up. Danielle Steel made her millions selling books about strong female characters, timeless values (love, children, home, family), and women's issues (cancer, divorce, children problems). Her characters are women who face tragedy and emerge stronger. This is a genre unto itself now and it's picking up speed.

Is this what all those women are looking for? Or is it that they are looking for something similar but mixed in with something fantastic?

For decades, Science Fiction and Fantasy have shown us what could be, what might be. They have been tools for escape, places of retreat from the real world. But perhaps it's time for a little realism to show through into the genre. Perhaps it's time for a little bit of "women's fiction" to find a place within Science Fiction and Fantasy just as Horror, Mystery and Romance have.

What do you think?

Tina Hunter
http://www.tinahunter.ca

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Monday, September 07, 2009
Social Resources and Women's Power
 
Social resources in the Demish world
Tina and I will post two original messages each over the next week. One a day. Writers are invited to connect the topics to their own artistic interests. And if you don't write, there's life, reading and media examples to draw on.

In a culture where women rule only the social sphere, do they have any real power? Or can whatever semblence of power they possess be brushed away by men should woman-power dare to oppose male goals? History suggests the guys trump the gals when push came to shove, but maybe that's most true of royals and nobles, and less so of everyday households. Or maybe the distortion is due to the kind of things history focuses on. Plenty of women could have won all kinds of domestic battles without it getting into the history books, even if the triumphs were critical to the lives of themselves, their children or their sphere of influence.

In parts six and seven of the Okal Rel saga I explore the gender-differentiated cultures of the Demish. The Silver Demish, in particular, are neo-Victorian with regard to women's roles although they lack the Victorian passion for everything shiney and new. Maybe my own disillusionment with never-ending change in the real world made me interested in portraying a sympathetic - if often humourous(1) and far from endorsing - view of arch traditionalists. Earlier books in the saga contain hints of women's importance on the home front in the Demish world, proving I always viewed Demish women as far from powerless. Or was the Vrellish liege Di Mon right, in Part 1: The Courtesan Prince when he dismisses male deference to a lady in a Demish parlour with "as if make-believe gallantry could compensate for the real disparity of power between Demish genders that lay behind the playacting."


References
  1. For example, see Interdicted by the League of Women, an excerpt from the draft of Part 7: Healer's Sword, in which Amel is served notice he must mend his ways if he wants to be accepted by Demish society


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Sunday, September 06, 2009
DISCUSSION: Reclaiming roles in fantasy for women who don't kick butt
 
Women who don't kick butt - discussion on Reality Skimming
"Kick butt" for the purposes of this discussion refers to the "fight someone and hurt them" (1) sense of the idiom, and my contention is that it is time to re-invent non-butt-kicking heroines in particular. Fellow writer Tina Hunter has agreed to debate the pros and cons of this idea with me, here, over the next week. Company is welcome! So is sharing the feed if desired.

I arrived at the idea of developing a non-violent heroine because my focal character, Amel, needed a new romantic lead and I wanted it to be someone, for once, who couldn't beat him in a bar fight. I also wanted to work with someone whose sense of self was rooted in a parochial upbringing - the proverbial "girl next door". Her name is Princess Samanda, or Sam for short, and she joins the Okal Rel space operatic saga in Part 6: Avim's Oath as a refugee fleeing the wreck of her engagement to the local "catch" back on her Silver Demish homeworld.

Writing a naive character with a greater capacity to be shocked than the jaded modern reader was surprisingly refreshing and lively. The challenge is: will people want to identify with someone who isn't slinging her enemies about her head when angered? Could I make Sam strong, and fun, without turning her into a damsel in distress?

I loved the way Joss Whedon turned the traditional victim in horror movies into something scarier than the vampires she dispatches (2). Nor does the Okal Rel Saga lack for examples of women you don't want to mess with (3). And I do "get" the idea of it all being metaphor and wish-fulfillment at some level. But what about heroines who act like women of their place and time, more or less, but are still awesome in ways that don't involve beating the bad guys into submission? Can we identify without feeling belittled? And is there anything worth learning from them?

References
  1. "Kick Butt". The Free Dictionary by Farlex. Retrieved September 6, 2009 from http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/kick+butt
  2. "Joss Whedon". Wikiquotes. Retrieved September 6, 2009 from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joss_Whedon
  3. For example see preview excerpt from Part 6: Avim's Oath forthcoming in April 2010 of "Sam Meets Alivda".

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Thursday, September 03, 2009
 
Got a kick out of seeing Robert Sawyer's Flash Forward TV series featured in the book reviews for the September 2009 edition of Discover Magazine. Discover has been my science hit ever since I gave up on Scientific American back in 2nd or 3rd year university. So it's got a special place in my heart. Way to go Rob.

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