I am pleased to share that “Ice Fishing on Europa” was selected to be in The Best Science Fiction of the Year Volume 7 by Neil Clarke. The anthology is currently available in hardcover and paperback and will have an ebook forthcoming over the next few months. There are many great stories in the anthology, check it out: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Science-Fiction-Year-Seven/dp/1949102696
Since I got stuck behind the ghost gate in a capsule for Republic of Two Systems Independence Day and missed it, I’m hosting a month long event starting now (4/11) focusing on crossovers. Take any of your favorite characters and settings from Imperial Radch, Provenance, and The Raven Tower and create a mashup with your other favorite media! The event ends May 11, 2021. Fanfiction, fanart, memes, and meta are all welcome! If you share your pieces on a03, tumblr, etc please tag it with #leckiecrossover2021.
Would you like to chat and hang out with other fans of Ann Leckie’s works? Join the Radchdome discord server! https://discord.gg/WAF8uv9f3k
(I am very bad at dreamwidth and legitmately forgot it existed for a year because of how insane everything was with the pandemic)
So I had my public library card locked because of fines so I ended up going and plundering the university library for fun academia reads. I finally paid my fines at the public library so now I can place holds again, I swear they should just hire me to work off my fines. Also I stopped at a few used bookstores looking for things that my public library didn't have and found a few things.
Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
So this is a lgbt SFF novel from the 90s which won the lambda award. I picked it up because of the biology aspects to the story. Griffith is really good at writing prose of common place functions and turning it into body horror. Ammonite itself feels very domestic/cozy since it's more about one woman's journey to realize herself. It plays with the only women world trope where men are killed by a virus. Naturally trans issues aren't handled in the novel. I do appreciate that anthropology is criticized for how ethnographies are collected, but there are other parts that are pretty lolwhat to me. In particular, the way that the one tribe on the planet speaks perfect Gaelic which apparently is a dead language in the time of the novel. It is explained but I still was like lolwhat at the explanation since that is not how genetic memory works ya'll. I liked Ammonite, but there was plenty of lolwhat moments involving biology. For some reason, there are aspects of the story that remind me of psionic sff of the 70s and 80s. If you like political machinations, survival stories, coming of age/healing stories, and lesbians then you probably would like Ammonite.
The Gender Book by Mel Reiff Hill and Jay Mays
I checked this out from the university as a reference/resource for the art tutorial I am working on. I feel it is a good 101 to gender for people who don't know much. It's like a magic school bus book, but every part features responses and stories told by lgbt people who were surveyed for the book. It also encourages self reflection and examination of gender. It isn't a perfect book, but it is really damn close. I would definitely recommend this for middle school and high school kids who want to learn about gender. For my purposes, it was really useful for getting the wording of the concepts I am trying to express. Sometimes it's hard to explain gender presentation ya know?
Nonbinary Gender Identities by Charlie McNabb
This is another find at the university library while I was looking for resources. Let's just say that my university library has an absolute trashfire of a section on trans people so I was actually surprised to find a book on nonbinary people. It was published in 2018 by a nonbinary librarian and cultural consultant. This is probably one of the most acceptable academic books on queer people I have ever read. It is written with the lay person in mind. Like I didn't have to go and dig through my roommate's gender studies and political science texts to figure out what the fuck the author is saying.
There are some things about the book that I didn't like but it relates back to my personal experience with gender. I really don't like the always knew narrative that tends to get put into things like this. I didn't know. I was let be and it wasn't until I was in graduate school i.e. last year I figured shit out. The other section that I have some criticism of is that the history of nonbinary identities, it was super basic and pretty much I could have read that all on wikipedia. I know there are people who are not familiar with trans history, but I was really hoping for something more in depth. Also somehow in that section Leslie Feinberg was skipped despite hitting a lot of other important trans activists in the history section. Also I feel that the section on lgbt community being a misnomer could have been written better. It essentially is a passage about TERFs.
What I think is the most important part of this book is the resource section which dominates most of the book. The author has put together lists of special collections/museum collections focusing on lgbt history for further research. You betcha that I photocopied that section out to keep an eye on those particular collections for job openings. The fiction related lists are ok, I would definitely say use at your own risk. The author essentially included books that have more than one gender or do not follow a gender binary probably based on literature research. I highly doubt that they had time to read everything on the list so some of the things are kinda eh. For example, Asimov's The Gods Themselves is on the list and I would NOT recommend reading it as an example of nonbinary in SFF. The same with Leviathan by Scott Westerfield, which arguably has no nonbinary representation and falls into the girl dresses as boy trope. There are also a ton of short stories that are missing from the list, but once again -- I realize that it can be impossible to get everything on a list. Although I was surprised that Queers Destroy SFF was not on the list since it was published in 2015 considering that webcomics published in 2015 are on the multimedia list.
Speaking of the multimedia list-- that is another use at your own risk list. Ranma 1/2 is included and I would not recommend that as nonbinary rep either despite that it did have an impact on me as a kid since it was one of the very few things with genderbending in I came across and was able to read without self censoring. In general, I tend to squint at manga/anime on lists like this because of translation/cultural contexts. Also Attack on Titan is listed and wowza I don't think the author has read/watched it since it's a pretty much a stinking pile of nationalist and antisemitic garbage. Although I do fucking love that there are several star trek episodes listed (unfortunately....they are bad....i am sorry it's all Rick Berman's fault. The writers TRIED but he was a huge dickhead). The things on the lists that I was really excited about was musical artists and podcasts since those are things that I consume A Lot because of my job, especially podcasts. The documentary list is also excellent and I have a bunch more things to watch later.
The other thing that I appreciated in this book is that there is a section devoted to nonwestren genders such as Two-Spirit and Hijra. I'm always deleted when the gender binary is addressed as being a tool of imperialist societies to oppress those being colonized.
Overall, it's not a bad book. I just wanted more information. I am way past trans 101 which is part of the problem. I want more in depth info. It's definitely something that I would recommend to people who want to learn more or be good allies. The resource portion of the book is FUCKING amazing how extensive it is. There's professional organizations, journal articles, collections, nonfiction, fiction, art, music and more.
Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction edited by Wendy Gay Pearson, Veronica Hollinger, and Joan Gordon
Yeah now this one is definitely not written for people outside of academia. I will preface this with I know fucking nothing about gender studies and queer theory in the realm of academia. Like, I literally didn't know who Judith Butler was until like 4 months ago and had to google "Is Judith Butler lesbian". Some of the essays are more readable than others, but my god there are some that I am like huh what ok there buddy.
I also wanted just lgbt content, I didn't need to know about new wave sff being more full of sex--I already knew that. There is also another essay on queering William Gibson's books through the penetration theory which FUCKING hilarious to me. Like I legit did not academics analyze shit with this idea because it seems dumb as fuck to me. However, there are two essays that I feel are good reads if you can deal with academia. "War Machine, Time Machine" by Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge is the most readable thing in the whole book and is absolutely delightful. It is very much a personal essay. Sad to say that some of the stuff that Griffith and Eskridge experienced is still in the sff community (looking at the most recent fiasco with a particular old white man writer). The other "Towards a Queer Genealogy of SF" by Wendy Gay Pearson is also good but more unreadable. I would skip the first part with the genealogy theory and shit and dive right into the discussion of gender and sex in SFF, it gave me some new reading material to go find. I am not quite done with the book, I have like three essays left and one is on ecofeminism in sff through a queer lens. Just so u know, I am not a fan of ecofeminism bc it can get very wombyn and terfy.
This is one of the few texts I have been able to find in the academic arena on SFF and Queer stuff. I wish there was more, but I don't got time to write that shit when I'm drowning in caterpillars.
Bellydance Around the World Edited by Caitlin E. McDonald and Barbara Sellers-Young
Ok I ramsacked all the belly dance books from the university library. I have like three more to read. This one is 50/50 readable for the layperson. What I appreciated about this particular book is that not all the authors are white north Americans. For me, it gave more more context to certain things in belly dance that I have learned or encountered particularly in Candance Bordelon's essay "Finding 'the Feeling": Oriental Dance. Musiqua al-Gadid and Tarab". In that essay it really gives context to the divide I have seen in cabaret performances when I watch them on youtube when it comes to expressiveness. You will see dancers that are incredibly expressive during their dance compared to others who are not and just keep smiling. I was taught to always smile which I feel is a very western thing? In tribal fusion there is more freedom in expression, but it's not like the levels I have seen in Egyptian and Cabaret dancers from Europe-- they get SUPER melodramatic which is fun to watch.
"Local Performance/ Global Connection: American Tribal Style and its Imagined Community" by Teresa Cutler-Boyers was interesting in the aspect of the author's claim that ATS classes are very diverse. You see the problem is that the author went to classes in two different major cities which does not give an accurate snapshot of diversity in belly dance classes. Having lived in three very different areas, it's incredibly dependent on population size and demographics. In my hometown, there is currently to my knowledge exactly one active belly dance studio. I have not gone, but from class photos and performance videos the dancers are primarily white middle class women. The dancers who preform at the Greek restaurants are also predominately white. My home town is a decent sized town with diversity, but that doesn't mean there's an active dance scene or that people can afford an hobby like dance because of the economic depression the area is in. (Belly dance is easily MORE expensive than fencing because of the amount of fucking fabric I go through). In Orlando, my campus belly dance group was the most diverse group I have ever danced with. At one point I was one of two white people. I suspect the higher diversity had to do with college campus and large city. There is also a belly dance scene in Orlando unlike my hometown that my college club regularly performed in. The group danced cabaret, but we would invite guest instructors from the tribal groups for special workshops. Now in Colorado, the scene is less diverse. Out of the two groups I dance with, I would say that the tribal fusion group is more diverse. But from seeing performances and attending different studio classes what I found was that most participants were middle aged white women despite being in a college town. It was really awkward at first for me because I am ALWAYS the youngest. In Denver, it's more of a mix. But Boulder, isn't exactly the shining beacon of diversity. It's probably the whitest area I have ever lived in. Like, I grew up in Florida in a very multicultural area ok. Colorado was somewhat of a shock to my system in more ways than one.
What I wish I could find addressed in more texts on belly dance is gender and sexuality. There was some gender related content in this book, but not in the way I was looking for. I currently know of only 2 other trans dancers. I know of very few gay dancers. It bugs me when people try to claim that belly dance is only for women because it is not. I think the best gender tidbit I got out of the book is that saidi (aka cane) traditionally plays with gender roles. The dancer embodies both masculine and feminine roles and switches between them during the choreography. The way that the cane is handled during the traditional/folkloric saidi is very important to which gender the dancer is embodies. Spinning the stick, whacking the stick on the ground, being more acrobatic with the stick is read as masculine. Holding the stick and using it as something to highlight chest shimmies, hip movements is considered feminine. Cane is one of the two props I have not used (the other being candelabra). So I am going to definitely bug my instructors to bring a cane choreo back.
There was also an essay on ecofeminism in belly dance and it was just a lot of lolwhat for me. Did I mention I'm not a fan of ecofeminism? The essay literally said nothing and gave no new insights. If you've been around belly dance long enough, you will see the influence of goddess feminism like instantly.
I am currently reading books for my thesis. Host-Plant Selection by Phytophagous Plants by Chapman and Bernays is the one I'm doing right now. My adviser said I didn't have to read it all, only the applicable parts. However, I am using my thesis books towards my goodreads challenge soooo I kinda want to at least skim the entire book.
I am reading Queer Universes : Sexualities in Science Fiction and it's SO WILD because it was published in 2008. It's a lot of academia talk in some of the essays, but it's still really interesting since they do talk about gender but in relation to new wave sff. I checked it out since it had an essay by the author of the current novel I am reading -- Ammonite. Like the essays range from 1990s to 2008 and it's just like wow I don't know if these authors would have expected or predicted the gender renaissance of SFF that started five years after they published this book. Seriously, after 2013 with Ancillary Justice, there has been a renaissance in sff dealing with gender since AJ opened the way for this stuff to get to the more mainstream sff audience. It existed before ya know? But it was much harder to get at or find for the average joe who was out of the loop.
Also side note, the book does use outdated language and primarily focus on gay, lesbian, and bisexual experiences.
So far the highlights have been voyager femslash campaign calling out rick berman (fuck berman) and some savage silverberg shaming. I feel like there's too much credit given to certain authors in some of the essays, but you know I'm disillusioned with the white male sff writes of way back in the old times. But at least they mention that some of those authors were shitty people with shitty onions. Right now it feels like a lot of rehashing of stuff I know, but also like I have to remember these essays are between 10 to 30 years old.
This book really makes me appreciate Bogi Takacs's vintage quiltbag sff reviews for tor.com since e pulls out books I hadn't heard of that feature trans and genderqueer authors. Here's a link to the series: https://www.tor.com/tag/quiltbag-speculative-classics/
I also have a book on nonbinary people and identity I need to finish my review of that was published last year and I found at my university library. I just have been sick and busy with grad school as always.
I also have a book on disability in sff which I'm interest to see how it stacks up to things I have read by actual disabled people and a book on orientalism in sff by asian scholars which should be fun because I see some joss whedon shaming in the one essay.
Growing up in South Florida, I encountered a lot of interesting wildlife from gators to land crabs. Now, land crabs are BIG ASS crabs that migrate en masse to the ocean from wherever their holes are. In the past few years there hasn’t been big land crab migrations. But when I was little, they would just come out all over and people would come with buckets and scoop them (Free Crab Meat yolo). Now the thing is land crabs are big ass crabs which means they have big ass pinchers. Their pinchers are strong enough to pop a tire.
The crabs waiting to take out a car.
when I said they were big, I wasn’t kidding. This one is a pretty impressive big ass crab:
So if you know anything about me, I just had to catch one of the fuckers. When you’re 8 you dont really have a lot of sense your head about grabbing things. I was the catcher of lizards, the annoyer of frogs, the grabber of snakes.
Now the thing about land crabs is that they are not very bright. They would get into the garage and not figure out how to get out and die and STINK to high hell. One time one got into the house THROUGH the garage and my mother chased it with a broom while my sister (3 at the time) stood on the chair screaming at the top of her lungs.
HALP, we’re stuck in a corner we don’t know what to do besides snip snip.
So to catch a land crab, I simply had to get it backed into a corner which required watching and waiting for a victim. There was plenty of potential victims, but they escaped me chasing them. Then one day, I managed to scoot one into the corner of the patio where it couldn’t get away. Now, one simply does not grab the crab from the front because you will get snipped and these bastards can latch on and not let go. I grabbed it from the back and shoved into a bait bucket my dad let me use to keep lizards in.
Now you see, the bait bucket was one of these.
And the deal with these bait buckets is that the black door OPENS such that the black door GOES INTO THE BUCKET. So I have this PISSED off land crab that’s almost half the size of the bait bucket. I realize. I can’t get it out. Oh fuck I can’t get it out. So I go tell my mom that I caught a land crab. My mom was like How did you catch that? I was like I grabbed it. My mom is like, ok, where is the crab. I show the bait bucket. My mom is like, sorry I’m not reaching in there.
So out of help on that front. I started to try to scoot the crab around so it would stop wedging itself behind the door with a stick. Eventually, I managed to get it into the bottom of the bucket. Land crabs climb btw so yeah it was trying to get to the top.
I shove the black door back.
and then…
I shake the bucket as violently as I can until the crab flies out and is momentarily stunned. Then it runs away. After that, I never tried to catch another land crab. Not even to scoot into a bucket to get out of the garage. The push broom was reserved for removing le crabs.
I neglected to mention in the review, that the cover art glows in the dark.
I'm currently reading The Poppy War which is really good -- it's everything 10 yo me was into but not in the bland proto european fantasy setting. Highly recommend.
So I finally got my password reset for dreamwidth yay! I lost it in the midst of finals and starting my internship. I started a review blog for science fiction related media. Mainly books since I read fast and my library system has a wonderful selection. Like holy shit, I can actually get the queer sci-fi I want easily at this library compared to my previous three library systems. Sometimes living in a real college town has its benefits. I am going to try to cross post the reviews here, but I am not good at technology (if my SQL database project taught me anything...i only know the arts side of things).
It's called Insectoid Reviews bc I am an entomologists so bugs are my brand! I'm currently trying to put out a review every week, but with life as it is, I'm hitting more of a every other week mark. During June, I'm doing a mini series of recommendations for Pride which go out on Wednesdays.
I've honestly been reading more than I have actually been writing. Honestly, I feel like I've read more in the first 3 months of grad school for fun than I have the rest of the year. Perhaps its because my new library system has really good selection? Whoever is in charge of acquisitions is doing a damn good job. But also, I'm living in a more liberal area than my previous libraries which may explain why I can get a hold of more queer sci-fi and fantasy easily. I literally have not needed to ask for something to be ordered. Its so wonderful. I use good reads to keep track of what I read, but also I thought it might help to make a post here with some comments so I can remember why I rated a book so. I don't like leaving reviews on goodreads because I always feel like I need to write something longer.
Books
The Stone Sky | N.K. Jemisin | 5/5 I enjoyed this conclusion to the Broken Earth. The world building was great and the prose wonderful. However, felt somewhat anticlimactic in some ways. Provenance | Ann Leckie | 5/5 I've been waiting for this one for a year. It did not disappoint. It was very different from the Imperial Radch trilogy, but the world building was wonderful. Ingray and company are fun characters and I hope we see more of them. It was relatable in areas especially with struggling with expectations. Hidden Figures | Margot Lee Shetterly | 5/5 I have not seen the film adaption of this book. It was highly informative and I really enjoyed the narrative. It was fascinating to see how all the factors came together. I'm glad these woman are getting more recognition instead of being forgotten.
Fresh Romance Vol. 1 | Various | 4/5 I love the art in this comic anthology. Most of the stories were self contained and fun. Although one was part of a serial. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic | Alison Bechdal | 5/5 I cried. I had listened to the musical. The comic had more detail and different structure. Very good.
Binti | Nnedi Okorafor | 5/5 Where do I begin with Binti? The worldbuilding was amazing. The aliens were suitably alien. The story was solid. It left me wanting more. Highly recommend. Binti: Home | Nnedi Okorafor | 5/5 The sequel to Binti did not leave me disappointed. It was a wonderful look at families, friendship, and continues to build on the world Nnedi Okorafor started in Binti. The Prey of Gods | Nicky Drayden | 3.5/5 This was a fun read. The romance between the two kids in the story was sweet and believable. I was sitting there like oh yep they are teenage boys. It was an over the top romp. There were things that made me uncomfortable in the story regarding the one character. However, I enjoyed it.
The Devourers | Indra Das | 3/5 This was honestly too much for me. The pacing was slow. The world was fascinating. But it managed to hit most of my squicks. Will Do Magic for Small Change | Andrea Hairston | 2.5/5 I tried to read this, I really did. However, I think I've been spoiled by other authors who try to do similar stuff. It just felt like too much going on all at once.
Spinning | Tillie Walden | 3/5 Honestly this one hit to close to home for me. The art was ok in the graphic novel. It wasn't a fun time for me.
Red Threads of Fortune | JY Yang | 5/5 AAAAH I LOVED THIS BOOK?? The world building is so good. I love Rider. I love the raptors and nagas. Mokoya is great. Please read it. Black Tides of Heaven | JY Yang | 5/5 This is the companion to Red Threads. It focused on Mokoya's twin brother, Akeha. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Red Threads but it was still wonderful. The pacing is slower but it goes more into depth with the world.
Podcasts I listen to a ton of podcasts at work while I'm doing data entry or imaging. These are ones that I listened to in the past three months.
Alice isn't dead | 5/5 It didn't spook me since it was in an audio format. The story is enthralling and the imagery is visceral. Highly enjoyed. Inkwyrm | 3.5/5 This is such a fun listen. It's like the perfect intersection of trashy and romcom. I wish the sound quality was better on the recordings. It got serious at the end of the first season which was a surprise. But the characters are delightful.
Sawbones | 4/5 Ok yeah I like the McElroy products. I started this one because it seemed interesting. It's funny and informative. but sometimes the topics are too much for me.
Ars Paradoxica | 5/5 I love this podcast so much. It's just the intersection of everything I like, conspiracy, science, character driven stories, time travel. Most of all, all the science gals are queer? That's a really big thing for me. I see myself in these characters as a queer woman in stem.
The Strange Case of Starship Iris | 4/5 I really enjoyed this space opera podcast. Its fun, whimiscal, but also serious at times. Sometimes the sound quality sucks :/. I really love the alien, Crej. They're great.
Under Pressure | 3/5 I honestly felt like this one meandered and didn't have a cohesive plot. It went all over the place. It was still a fun listen.
Within the Wires | 2/5 I tried. It just bored me. I think it's not the narrative style for me. I honestly just got so impatient with it.
Steal the Stars | 4/5 I really enjoy this one bc alien conspiracy. Its engrossing and I appreciate the characters. Fun story. Lots of twists.
Grad school had been keeping me busy and I wish I was actually working on original fic, but I've written a couple fanfics for Imperial Radch. Maybe its because I'd like some attention and validation for my writing. I'm a slut for instant gratification what can I say? But also sometimes its easier to explore in other people's worlds. You have more knowledge of things and don't quite have to make up as many things at least in my mind.
I wrote three fanfics in September? Wow? That's a lot for me! I don't do it often. But also its Radch Week so there's some catalyst for that!
I might try to do some small drabbles with my original fic? Maybe that will help me get back into the swing of writing original stuff. But then again it depends on those pesky brain weasels.
I'm Erin and welcome to my dreamwidth. I'm a grad student who is deep in fandom for Imperial Radch and also loves Star Trek. My trade is science communication and entomology. I'm happy to talk about creepy crawlies! I love bugs! I don't really know much about dreamwidth so bear with me since every site takes me a bit to learn. Outside of bugs and radch stuff, I write, draw, & dance or fence depending on my schedules. I'm planning to post some of my original fic here since I mainly write for my enjoyment and for my friends :).
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