At SF Signal, Daniel Abraham has written a letter from genre to mainstream. Quite amusing, even if it does read like a letter from a stalkerish ex-boyfriend.
On a related note, at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books there is an interesting post about why fans of paranormal romance are that much more enthusiastic and fanatic than fans of contemporary romance. Thanks to Estara for the link.
Though I’m not sure that I buy the thesis that paranormal fans are more enthusiastic and engaged, because science fiction and fantasy have a more active fandom culture and are used to banding together against those who would disparage their favoured genre. Because the overlaps between SFF fandom and paranormal romance readers isn’t all that big – indeed, SFF fandom does its utmost to pretend that paranormal romance and urban fantasy don’t exist. Besides, no genre is more disparaged than romance.
At the Book View Café, Deborah J. Ross has a great post on villains, evil and the other. Some very good observations there, including that the old view of vampires as unambiguous monsters is linked to othering.
At Inkpunks, Andrew Romine talks about Star Trek and how silly it is that writers, particularly SFF writers, are afraid of repetition. Again, he’s got a point there. It’s not just that Star Trek is formulaic as hell (I’ve been recently rewatching the original series, the only Star Trek I can still watch), but also that characters are far more important than plots. Think about what it is that makes me love one police procedural show on TV, but immediately change the channel at another, even though the actual cases and mysteries are very similar, it always comes down to the characters. If I love the characters, I’ll watch the show. If I don’t, it doesn’t matter how good your mystery is.
USA Today has an interesting interview with Lilith Saintcrow. Found via Jay Lake.
The linguistics blog Language Log is trying to push a new word: Assholocracy.
sending...