Yesterday I wondered whether I was really right about space opera…

And I concluded by observing that: “I did notice something else when I was putting together my non-exhaustive list of contemporary space opera authors—any guesses?”

No takers, alas—weeps quietly in corner, fun spoiled—but fear not, I am going to tell you anyway! 😉

What I noticed (ta-da!) was that the off-the-top-of-my-head-names that I came up with for contemporary space opera writers were universally male: John Scalzi; Iain M Banks; Peter F Hamilton; Alastair Reynolds; Ken MacLeod

A-ha, I thought, now this is interesting—but is it really true that no or significantly fewer women authors are penning space opera? So first off I took the easy route and consulted Te Wikipedia, which offered several more names for my list:

Stephen Baxter;  M John Harrison; Paul J MacAuley — and yes, drum roll, Justina Robson.

I must admit I was surprised by the inclusion of Justina Robson, because I thought/found Keeping It Real to pretty much read as a variant of paranormal urban fantasy. And of course there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it’s not what I consider “space opera.”

Anyway, Te Wikipedia having yielded one woman author’s name, a strong smell of burning ensued as I thought: “OK, female authors who write stories that fit my definition of space opera from yesterday’s post”, i.e.:

“I think of ‘space opera’ as involving adventures in space, preferably with space ships and things like warp drives (or an equivalent), where the overall idea is loosely science based but not in a way that would prevent the story happening, and some of the themes can be pretty serious, and often it’s about telling big stories but it doesn’t has to be, and yes sometimes there is ‘magic’ but we dress it up as science and everyone is happy…”

And in fact I did come up with some names and I feel that they constitute pretty big misses, both for me yesterday and for that Wikipedia article. First off and biggest miss:

• Lois McMaster Bujold and her Miles Vorkosigan series. (Do I hear it for pretty big miss–I think I do, I mean honestly!…)
• Elizabeth Moon and her Serrano series
• CJ Cherryh and her Chanur series, which although it has harder scifi elements in terms of how the space and space travel works is such a  swashbuckling adventure that I find it hard not to put it down as space opera
• Joan Vinge’s Snow Queen and Psion novels also fit the bill…
• Catherine Asaro with novels like Diamond Star and her Triad duology
• Marianne de Pierres & her Sentients of Orion series
•  C. S. Friedman’s In Conquest Born

So there you go, seven not-quite-off-the-top-of-my head women authors’ names, & not bad I feel for starters—because I am sure there are plenty more out there. Any suggestions yourselves, on who I’ve missed?

But looking at this list, I do feel embarrassed at having not included any of these authors myself yesterday—and waddya reckon, time that Wikipedia article got edited to include ’em? 😉

On 6 August I hosted a guest post by Rowena Cory Daniells titled “Fantasy: The Poor Cousin of Science Fiction” — and as sometimes happens with feature posts the comments took on a  life of their own.

The general trend of the comments was that it was actually the other way around, that science fiction, with the possible exception of near-future dystopia, has become the poor relation of fantasy in all its various expressions—the big fantasy epics, steampunk, and vampire fiction—on the shelf. (Rowena’s original point was slightly different, relating to science fiction still fundamentally being more respectable than fantasy, i.e. ‘science’—if not always “as we know it, Jim”—not ‘magic’ based.)

Paul Weimer even did a spin-off post on his own ‘Jvstin Style” blog, with a post titled “Why Is Fantasy Ascendant Over SciFi” — here

In response to Paul’s observation that: “Since 2001, the future that seems to be ahead of us in the real world has gotten progressively darker, grittier and less appealing. It’s been more difficult to come up with an appealing future for SF. While SF is not predictive, the starting conditions have been more and more bleak to work with” … and that fantasy offered a “way out of the trap.”

I in turn replied: “the premise about bleakness does not hold so well, I feel, if one applies it to space opera. That is effectively “fantasy in space” but has been fading at much the same rate as more science based predictive SF …”

But since then I’ve been thinking—hey, hold on a minute, am I really right about this? When I was thinking about space opera I was thinking about the old EE Doc Smith, westerns-in-space variety, which has by and large died out (but—Firefly, anybody?)  Space Opera itself though… When I actually sat down and thought about it, there’s John Scalzi (Old Man’s War, Redshirts), Peter F Hamilton (The Reality Dysfunction et al) Iain M Banks and his Culture novels, Alastair Reynolds (Revelation Space) not to mention Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief (which I reported on here) all of who are currently writing what I would term space opera. (Note: I know this is not an exhaustive list, I’ve left off Ken McLeod for example–who else?)

Do I have a definition of ‘space opera’—well yes I do and its pretty loose (like space opera itself, he-he), but mainly I think of ‘space opera’ as involving adventures in space, preferably with space ships and things like warp drives (or an equivalent), where the overall idea is loosely science based but not in a way that would prevent the story happening, and some of the themes can be pretty serious, and often it’s about telling big stories but it doesn’t has to be, and yes sometimes there is ‘magic’ but we dress it up as science and everyone is happy… And it definitely doesn’t have to be a western lookalike but if you call it Firefly then it probably is—a western that is, and space opera, to boot! 😉

So I think I may just have revised my thoughts from a week back and decided that in fact space opera is still very much with is… Whether it’s as big as Fantasy though, I don’t know… What do you think?

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OK, OK, I did notice something else when I was putting together my non-exhaustive list of contemporary space opera authors—any guesses? There will be a secret spot prize for the first person who guesses right. (I promise to be honest.)

Recently, I’ve had word of three new reviews — but the cool thing about this is that rather than all being for the latest book out,  there is one review for each of my three books currently published: Thornspell (Knopf, 2008); The Heir of Night (Harper Voyager 2010; Orbit 2011) and The Gathering of the Lost (Harper Voyager US; Orbit UK/AUS/NZ 2012)

The review for Thornspell was by Australian editor Tehani Wessely and appeared on Good Reads. You can read the review here.

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UK/AU/NZ mass market paperback

The review for The Heir of Night appeared on the Founding Fields site (US-based), from regular reviewer “Shadowhawk” here

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USA

The Gathering of the Lost review came in from reviewer Sharon Stogner on the ismellsheep entertainment site (US); the review is here.

(You may also recall that I did an interview with ismellsheep as part of my Blog Tour.)

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As well as a really nice reader comment being posted on my USA/Aus/NZ release day post—but I’ll reproduce it here since that is back a-ways now:

“I read both books cover to cover and have been re reading them for the last two weeks. I cant wait for daughter of blood book 3. You have an incredible series here and i hope you continue to publish a gazillion more.”

Thank you, Ema! Believe me, I am “flat out like a lizard drinking” on WALL3 even as we speak—and I, too, hope for many more great books to come. 🙂

Night’s Magic ………………………………………………..Sir Isaac Newton (1643 –1727)

"Newton was not the first of the age of reason.
 He was the last of the magicians." – John Maynard Keynes.

When Isaac closes his eyes
he is hanging, arms outstretched
only faith keeps him
from falling – a magic trick.
In his left hand is the Book of Revelations
in the right, the Book of Nature,
written in geometry.

He opens his eyes to take note
of God’s will in action. Observations
must be interpreted –
bodies in motion, fruit from the tree.

Reclusive, he experiments upon himself,
slides a bodkin into his eye socket
between eyeball and bone
until he sees severall white darke
& coloured circles.

Sibyls and Daemons
are still close enough
for him to hear their voices.
The sun rises so slowly it’s too hard
to pick the moment of first light
or the last of the night’s magic.

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(c) Helen Heath

Published in “Graft” (Victoria University Press, 2012)

Reproduced here with permission.

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About The Poem:

On June 24 I posted a “What I’m Reading” feature on Helen Heath’s “Graft” in which I quoted the first few lines of Night’s Magic. I also commented that:

“One of the aspects that immediately interested me with this book was what I call the “history of science” poems, focused around such seminal figures as Sir Isaac Newton (Night’s Magic), Marie Curie (Radiant), astronomer Beatrice Tinsley (Spiral Arms) and Galileo Galilei (And Yet It Moves.) The poem Making Tea In The Universe, which won the inuagural ScienceTeller Poetry Award in 2011, is also part of this sequence.” 

Given my interest in both history and science, I noted that this was possibly my favourite sequence in the collection—although I also very much enjoyed the fairy tale retelling sequence as well and featured the prose poem, Fairytale V: O Brother (Hansel & Gretel) here on July 3.

You may also listen to my radio interview with Helen, recorded for Women on Air, Plains 96.9FM, here.

I am grateful to Helen for allowing me to feature Night’s Magic here in full today.

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About the Poet:

Helen Heath is the author of Graft, a collection of poems. In 2009 she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the IIML, where she is currently working toward her PhD. Her research project explores how science is represented in poetry. She is using this research to write poems about the intersect between people and technology. Helen won the inaugural ScienceTeller Poetry Award in 2011 for her poem ‘Making Tea in the Universe’. Her writing has been published in many journals in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US. Helen’s chap-book of poems called Watching for Smoke was published by Seraph Press in 2009. She blogs at helenheath.com and writes poetry and essays.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

On Saturday I visited the Hagley Writers’ Institute and one of the questions I was asked included whether or not the fact that I write Fantasy fiction meant that I had a passion for Fantasy.

Those of you who follow me will know that I have spoken of my love for the style of fiction characterized as Fantasy on several occasions, including how that love evolved and the journey to writing my own books. Some of those posts include:

• My recent Gemmell Award essay, “Why I Chose To Write Fantasy & Writing Influences”

• 

  USA

  And last year’s post on “Why Epic Fantasy”

• I also began my Blog Tour for the launch of The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two with a post on SF Signal titled “Celebrating Epic Fantasy…”

And if you look under the Epic Fantasy category in the far right side bar you’ll find  a whole bunch of posts basically dedicated to aspects of the genre that I love, the heroes and heroines, and the world building, not to mention the sheer fun.

UK/AU/NZ mass market paperback

So yes, my colours have been well and truly nailed to the public mast, as well as being worn on my sleeve: hear this world — Helen Lowe loves Fantasy! 😉

But as I have also alluded to from time to time, more in the body of posts rather than as a specific feature, writing can be a tough game. It’s a solitary occupation and the rewards — either financial or intrinsic — are uncertain at best.

So what I said in my reply on Saturday, was that I found it hard to envisage how one could sustain oneself in a writing life if one did not feel passionate about your work. I think if I got up in the morning and thought “meh, Fantasy” I would find some other sort of tale to tell. And if I got up in the morning and thought, “meh, writing” then I doubt I would be an author. I wouldn’t have the right kind of fuel in my engines for the sort of sustained  effort required to produce books.

And although I have not met a huge cross section of fellow writers, those I have met do all seem to be passionate about the style of writing they do. Usually, it seems, the kind of stories we burn to tell, are also those we love to read. In fact, it is exactly that symbiosis I was alluding to in my recent guest post on the Supernatural Underground, where I talked about the awesomeness of other writers’ stories being part of what keeps me going.

Writing what you love also relates to another question I tried to answer on Saturday, which was about how to write a winning query letter. It goes without saying that there is no formula, but what I truly believe is that to have any hope of success, we must write the query letter from the heart, in a way that is true to ourselves / our story. If we do that, there is a chance the sincerity and authenticity of the query may resonate with the letter’s recipient, i.e. we may just get lucky and find someone who is on the right/same wavelength. Conversely, most of us are pretty quick to spot a fake — the person pretending to be something they’re not (for whatever reason.)

The Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012

So “be yourself” and “speak from your heart” was the only advice that I felt I could give. But this, I feel, is equally true of books as it is of query letters. If we are not writing what we love, from the heart, then I think that lack of authenticity will come through to readers. So although there is no guarantee of success for books, anymore than there is for query letters, I do feel that being true to ourselves and to our muse, and writing from the heart, are essential prerequisites for authentic fiction.

And if our fiction is indeed authentic there may be a hope — although no more than that can be guaranteed — our books will be able to go out into the world and find readers.

On Friday I posted that I hoped to see my poem ‘Stepping Into Rain’ (first line) featured in the Christchurch Press—and here it is! Photographic evidence, no less.

‘Go the Poem’ indeed!

And go The Press for featuring poems once a week. Seriously, that rocks “in my book.”

About the poem — ‘Stepping Into Rain’ is entirely a story, a fictional ‘slice of life’ told in poetic form.:)

To read more of my poetry, you can look here — as well as under the Poetry Category in the far right side bar, here (Any featured poems not credited in the title are most likely mine.)

Today I’m taking time out from writing Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three to visit the Hagley Writers’ Institute where I’ll be presenting on the topics of:

• my writing career generally  (he-he)

• finding an agent

• the publication process

• promotion

• and writing routine

Southern Ocean beach (Credit: P Fitzpatrick)

Hmm, on reflection, am hoping the students won’t be too bored…

I think maybe I shall add in a bit about being tucked away in this tiny corner of the world: and it really is tiny, guys, in landmass and population terms—its the surrounding vasty wilds of ocean (Tasman, Pacific, Southern) that are the “non tiny” bit, the sense of which is part of what inspired me to write “Ti”, which you can read here.

(Bonus poem, aye! 😉 )

This has been something of a week for guest features:

FSF author Rowena Cory Daniells featured on Monday with her guest post titled “Fantasy, The Poor Cousin of Science Fiction” — & there have been some great comments, with  discussion, here.

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Helen McKinlay

Tuesday is Tuesday Poem day, and this week I featured a poem by fellow Tuesday Poem community poet, Helen McKinlay. The poem is “Juice of Nelson Haven” — check it out here.

I also very much enjoyed the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub — selected by fellow community member Eileen Moeller, it is “What We Call Frog Hunting” by US poet Jane Springer. Well worth a read, here.

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And yesterday I was very pleased to host a guest post by Ripley Patton on her YA novel, Ghost Hand — focusing on why this particular story and also about her current kickstarter project to see the novel published. Check the post  out here — and if you like what you read, consider supporting the Ghost Hand kickstarter. (A link is provided at the end of the post.)

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What’s Coming Up?

Well, today I’m hoping to see my poem ‘Stepping Into Rain’ featured in the Christchurch Press. Shall nip out to buy a paper very soon to “check and see” — if I have not done so already by the time you are reading this! 😉

And hey, still old fashioned: there’s nothing quite as nice for me as seeing my work featured in ink, on paper.  It’s so, you know, tangible…

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Last but not least, Andrew Robins, who penned last week’s review of Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312, here, tells me that there may be a review of John Scalzi’s Red Shirts in the offing. So — watch this space!  (But no breath holding mind, OSH & ACC might not approve!)

Introduction:

I was privileged to get to know Ripley Patton when she was living in Christchurch and taking the initiative to “kickstart” SpecFicNZ into life. Yes, it took an American to do it, even though we have plenty of people actually writing fiction of the SF/Fantasy/Horror variety here in Aotearoa-New Zealand. So kudos to Ripley, and her original core team, for making it happen.

Ripley has since moved back to the United States with her family, but while in New Zealand she was working on her novel Ghost Hand, which I had the pleasure of reading as an early “beta reader.” She has recently decided to self-publish Ghost Hand, embarking on a kickstarter to do so. As a way of showing author collegiality for the project, I have invited Ripley onto “…on Anything, Really” to guest post on why she chose to write this particular book, amongst the myriad of book ideas and possibilities that surround any author.

Welcome, Ripley.

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Ripley Patton’s Ghost Hand: Why This Story?
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by Ripley Patton

One of the things people often ask a writer is “Why this story?” Why did you choose to write this genre? Why that world with those main characters? What about this story called to you over all the other stories banging around in your head?

Those are all good questions, questions I had to answer for myself as I set out to write my first novel, Ghost Hand, a YA paranormal thriller.

Why that Genre?

The first question I’d like to address is why a 43-year-old woman would want to write Young Adult Fiction.

YA is what I love to read.

Given the choice of reading a YA book over a book written for adults, I will always choose YA. YA doesn’t take itself too seriously. It has a sense of humor, a youthful vitality, and a purity of voice and perspective I enjoy. A wise writer creates the stories they themselves want to read.

My writer-self is a teen.

I started writing at the ripe old age of thirteen, and I honestly think my writer-self is still that age, sighing at the boys and worrying about what I look like and what people think of me. There is something magical about telling a story from that age. As teenagers, we are creatures of childhood and whimsy, and we are also fierce independent adults, all wrapped in the awkward and beautiful package of adolescence. And yes, there are also zits.

I have teenagers.

I currently live with two amazing teens, my 14-year-old daughter and my 16-year-old son. Reliving adolescence through their eyes has given me a new perspective, a new appreciation for the challenges teens face, and a deep desire to address those issues and experiences through my writing. Plus, my kids read my work, and they won’t let me get away with bad YA writing.

Why that World?

Coming from a short story writing background, I knew that writing a novel was going to be a challenge, especially in the world-building department. I knew I wanted to write a fantasy because that is my first love, but I was humble enough to realize that I was not ready to create an entire world from scratch. Conventional wisdom says “Write what you know,” so I decided to set Ghost Hand in this world, current day earth, in my very own hometown, but with one slight change. What is that change? An anomaly. A rare birth defect known as Psyche Sans Soma, or PSS. Kids are being born with ghost limbs, ethereal, glowy, see-through limbs where their flesh-and-blood limbs should be.

Why that Character?

I love strong young female characters. They represent who I am and who my daughter is. But so often in modern YA, the strong female character is just a romantic prop. She is an object of desire, rather than a character in her own right. I love the paranormal, but paranormal romance always leaves me feeling cheated. So, I decided to write a paranormal thriller instead. In Ghost Hand, my main character, Olivia Black, solves her own problems and rescues herself. Is there romance in Ghost Hand? Yes. Is it the main challenge my characters must navigate? No way.

Why that Theme?

When I think about what really called to me about the Ghost Hand story, it was the theme more than anything else. For fifteen years my husband, who is a therapist, worked with troubled teens. So many of today’s teens are the walking wounded. They have had experiences beyond their years, and they carry the internal wounds to prove it. In Ghost Hand I wanted to explore the reality of the emotional burdens teens carry. I wanted to ask the questions: “What if someone could reach inside of you and pull out your deepest, darkest hurt? What would it look like? And what power would it still hold over you?”

These are the questions Olivia has to face when she discovers that her ghost hand can do just that. It can pick-pocket the soul.

Want to Know More?

Thanks to Helen for letting me share on her blog about Ghost Hand. And thanks to you, her readers, for listening. Want to know more about the book? You can read the first two chapters on my website HERE.

Ghost Hand is a finished, polished YA novel of 84,000 words, but it isn’t available for purchase quite yet. I recently commissioned a professional cover design for Ghost Hand, and I am currently running a Kickstarter Project to raise funds for a professional edit and the first print run and e-book versions of the book. You can pre-order a copy of Ghost Hand and support its publication at the same time by backing it today. Pledges are made securely through Amazon, and you aren’t charged a dime unless and until the project succeeds.

I hope you will consider helping me make Ghost Hand a reality.

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Ripley Patton

About Ripley Patton:

Ripley Patton grew up in the wilds of southern Illinois, much like her main character, Olivia Black, and that is where she first began writing. She has had over twenty short stories published in magazines and anthologies and her story “Corrigan’s Exchange” won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Short Story 2009.

Ripley recently spent five years living in New Zealand where she survived two major earthquakes and started a national speculative fiction writers association, SpecFicNZ, because there wasn’t one.

She now lives in Portland, Oregon with two teenagers, one cat, and a man who wants to live on a boat.

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To check out Ripley’s Kickstarter Project for Ghost Hand, please click HERE.

Ripley Patton

Just a reminder that on the blog tomorrow I shall be featuring a guest post by from Ripley Patton who—as some of you may already know—is currently embarked on a kickstarter for her YA novel Ghost Hand.

I’ve invited Ripley to come on “…Anything, Really” and post on what she was trying to achieve, as an author, with the Ghost Hand story.

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photo credit

And on Friday 10, I “should” have my poem ‘Stepping Into Rain’ featured in the Christchurch Press. I hope that those of you who have access to The Press may read and enjoy.