I have a post up at The Ontological Geek as part of their romance series this month (which Critical Distance kindly linked and quoted as well). I'm writing about a pattern I've noticed in the Bioware video games I love to play: a fantasy race (elves in Dragon Age, asari in Mass Effect) whose people… Continue reading Elsewhere on the Internet: Game stories
Category: Fiction
A note on #readingwomen–and other underrepresented authors
As noted, I am a fan of the push to #readwomen2014. Now that VIDA has released their Count for 2013 (a breakdown of how many male or female writers are published or reviewed by leading literary publications), it's clear that calling for change in concrete terms (such as quantity of reviews and reviewers) can indeed be effective, and… Continue reading A note on #readingwomen–and other underrepresented authors
Books by women I’ve read in 2013
At Flavorwire, Lilit Marcus explains why she only read books by women in 2013: I’m a writer. When my book, Save the Assistants, came out in 2011, all I wanted was for other people to read it. So it seemed only logical to repay the favor. Most of my favorite writers – Iris Murdoch, Willa Cather,… Continue reading Books by women I’ve read in 2013
You should message me if: you read women’s fiction
Book Riot posted this excerpt from a recent interview with Meg Wolitzer, whose careful, observant fiction I really enjoy. Wolitzer often speaks out against various institutional biases against women authors, and in this interview she theorizes about the way packaging can discourage male readers from picking up new books by female authors. Book Riot's Josh Corman… Continue reading You should message me if: you read women’s fiction
A game for book snobs
So awhile ago on Twitter, I linked to an article that satisfyingly applied charts and graphs to my pet peeve of book titling, "The ___'s Daughter." (To be fair, my expressed peeve was with "The ___'s Wife," but you can see the connection.) The article at The Millions also called out the title construction "The… Continue reading A game for book snobs
Scenes of Unsolicited Literary Criticism
This post was original published on Peachleaves blog. Last fall My GP is usually an in-and-out kind of guy, which I appreciate; no need to hang around getting to know one another once I get what I came for. But while I was undergoing the first round of thyroid tests, I guess he realized we’d… Continue reading Scenes of Unsolicited Literary Criticism