Category: Other Cool Blogs

Other Cool Blogs: Women in Writing

Erin Penn

Back Blurb about women writing SciFi in 1963

The back-cover blurb to Margaret St. Clair’s Sign of the Labrys (1963)
(found at Mimsy Were the Borogoves)

 As a woman genre writer covering the spectrum from science fiction to mystery, fantasy to (a very little bit of) horror, I have witnessed the different treatment of female and male writers. The covers change if the author is male or female (in 2013 there was a big discussion about Coverflipping – I highly recommend searching on that), major panelists at conventions are skewed to white male, Internet attacks are different – males are attacked for politics and females are attacked for … well, being female. The list goes on. And if the author is of color, the differences in America are even stronger.

But the fact remains women have been major influences of all forms of genre writing from the start.Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is generally considered the first work of science fiction. 

And yet female authors are quietly moved from the sci-fi and fantasy area to the romance area if a bit of romance appears in the story. This happens despite females making up the majority of the national readership; the number of female readership is at least partly because females make up the majority of the population. But if you look at book reviews and national reading lists published by major news outlets, females often don’t even appear on the list. Only with the advent of blogs and online resources have book reviews of female authors have come to equal standing of male authors.

For my blog, I have tried to make an effort to cover both male and female authors in blogs, author spotlights, and book reviews. Not the easiest thing in the world. And I admit, I fail horribly at covering different ethnicities.

More on this topic can be found at the following blogs:
Juliet E. McKenna – Feb 15, 2016 – Brief thoughts on women being erased from SFF – again
Juliet E. McKenna – (date unknown) – Equality in SF&F – Collected Writing (this is a Wiki of blogs on the topic)
The Guardian – Sept 23, 2013 – The Stella Count: why do male authors still dominate book reviews?
Maureen Johnson – May 13, 2013 – Coverflip: What Now?
The Frisky – May 9, 2013 – Check out these Gender Swapped Covers
Huffpost Books – May 7, 2013 – Coverflip: Maureen Johnson Calls for an End To Genderifed Book Covers with an Amazing Challenge 
Flavorwire – April 1, 2013 – Are Book Covers Different for Female and Male Authors?

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words February 17, 2016

Erin Penn

A Cup Of Coffee On Writers Desk Stock Photo

FreeDigitalPhotos.net photo by Praisaeng

Replenish

This week’s other cool blogs postings from Magical Words returns to the incredible Tamsin Silver. (see other blog from her I commented on HERE)

This weeks blog is Hump-Day Help: Refill/Restore/Replenish. 

Very timely for me in the middle of tax season. I get an hour … yes one hour … of personal computer time per day right now. The other waking hours are one hour to get ready for work and the hour once home to pack for the next days work (lunch, layout clothes, shower, and the like) and an hour to wind down – not on the computer because that will not wind me down. On the weekends I get an extra hour each day, one for groceries and one for clothes. That is pretty much my life right now outside of work. Yes, I am working seven days a week and have been since January second.

Oh, and that one hour of computer time is devoted to keeping this blog running, keeping in touch with friends, dealing with bills, and the myriad of other obligations.

Any of it writing or creativity? Not really. And I am tired. Core-center through-and-through tired.

Ms. Silver hits it spot on. Take care of yourselves. It is necessary – as a writer, as an artist, as a human. Read the Magical Words blog – again the link is here. And go rest, refill, restore and replenish.

(And to all of you out there holding down two jobs AND raising kids – you people are amazing!)

WRITER’S & READING EXERCISE: Do one creative thing. Something that makes you smile with accomplishment once you are done.

(Addition from 2/25/2015 – Ms. Liana Brooks has an excellent addition to this discussion at http://lianabrooks.blogspot.com/2016/02/maslow-vs-deadline.html
I love Maslow’s pyramid of needs and this makes sooo much sense for writer’s block.)

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words January 26, 2016

Erin Penn

This week’s “other cool blogs” is another Magical Words author. You may know him as D.B. Jackson of the Thieftaker series (historical urban fantasy) or as David B. Coe  of Blood of the Southlands series. Either way the man writes some pretty amazing stuff, all character driven. And he obsesses about POV. Stories are viewed by the reader from the narrator’s Point of View (POV); usually the POV character is the hero or heroine of the book in genre fiction.

The January 26, 2016 blog, The Power of Secrets, is about … secrets (shhhh). Read the blog – link here: http://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/quick-tip-tuesday-the-power-of-secrets/ 

WRITING EXERCISE: Create a secret for your present WIP.

For Honestly, Troy, the hero, has a lot of secrets. Some get revealed in the story, some get only partially revealed, and some never are shown but are driving him.

The most obvious of the revealed secrets is his amputee. Initially he hides everything under clothes and mannerisms. As he gets to know Kassandra, he shows more and more of this weakness.

The partially revealed secret is his present government work. He does translations. But for whom and why? … and what is he translating?

A secret I never shared with the reader since the POV character, Kassandra, did not learn about it during the story is how Troy’s mother died. Yet the secret drove him to quit school and join the military and even now drives several of his decisions. The reason he won’t let the pain control him lies with what happened to his mother.

YOUR TURN
If you are a writer, what secret does your characters have and how does it shape them? Are you going to reveal this to your audience or keep it a secret.

If you are a reader, what is a secret in a recent story you read? How did it drive the plot?

Other Cool Blogs: Liana Brooks

Erin Penn

Snape "Detention, Saturday night, my office."

Meme from the Internet

At the beginning of January I reviewed a book by Liana Brooks. She is one of my favorite authors, and I follow her blog. Back in 2014 (when she updated her blog it was moved to a June 25, 2016 post) she wrote an amazing piece about villains; more precisely how to layer the villains in a story. If you are a writer of mysteries, superhero prose, or other genre where the character has people-type conflict, this blog is an absolute must-read. Her breakdown of the immediate villain, the intermediate villain, and the big bad really helped clarify writing for me.

For Harry Potter the immediate villain was his family (uncle, cousin, etc), the intermediate villain was Professor Snape, and the Big Bad was He-who-should-not-be-named. I never really thought about this formula before so I found this advice really good. … Sometimes formulas are bad because authors follow them mechanically; other times they are a reveal how the masterpiece was created. 

You can find the blog post here: https://www.lianabrooks.com/nanowrimo-boot-camp-day-3-the-antagonist/

WRITING EXERCISE: Think about your Work-In-Progress or other story you have read and watched. Is there a progression of villains within the story? I broke down Harry Potter – what other stories can you think of? Comment below.