Alas, a Blog | Feminist, anti-racist, pro-fat, plus whatever else we feel like talking about.

Silly Interview with Mary Robinette Kowal, intermittenty teal storyteller

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Mandolin

Mary Robinette Kowal is a woman of incredible multiple talents — a professional puppeteer who sews regency dresses and narrates audio books — and wins Hugo Awards. Her first novel series, the Glamourist Histories — fantasy novels about Austen’s regency period — recently concluded. I even drew some fan art about it. She also teaches writing online — oh, just visit her website.

RS: A lot of novelists let short stories lapse when they embark on their novelling careers. You keep publishing strong short fiction, like last year’s “Midnight Hour” in Uncanny Magazine. How do you make time for short stories, and what do you get from them that you don’t get from longer fiction?

MRK: Honestly, these days I start a lot of the short stories while I’m teaching my Short Story Intensive. Part of the process is that I write along with the students in order to demonstrate how to start from a story seed and then develop it into a story. I often have a market in mind when I’m doing these, so the demonstration does double duty. The thing that I love about short fiction as a writer is that I get to experiment with a lot of different styles and ideas without the huge time investment of a novel. Plus, as a reader, I find that a short story can often deliver more of a sucker punch to the emotions and I kinda like that.

RS: You have one of the coolest career histories of any working writer I know, having been a professional puppeteer. In fact, I am going to take this opportunity to link to your audition video for the Henson workshop because it is amazing. (insert vid) How would you go about presenting yourself in puppet-form? Feel free to be practical, metaphorical, or to alternate.

MRK: Well… as it happens, I have been doing these videos recently in which a puppet answers questions about writing. In puppet form, I curse a lot more than I do in real life. And I’m teal. [RS: You can see one of her episodes here.]

RS: You sew absolutely beautiful regency dresses which have served as award gowns, bridal dresses, and icons for Scalzi fundraisers. When and how did you start sewing? And if you’d like to share any pictures of your dresses, I would not object.

MRK: My mom taught me to sew when I was in elementary school, and then the puppetry career refined those skills because you can’t buy an off-the-rack pattern for puppet clothing. The Regency gowns began as “research” but I keep making them because they are simple and fun.

RS: Your glamourist histories are, in part, an hommage to Austen. Perhaps you would indulge me in some silly alternate history. Imagine Jane Austen living today, not as her historical self reincarnated, but just as a person who happens to be alive now. How might you imagine her life?

MRK: Her choices would not be as constrained today as they were then. I like to think that she and Cassandra would have a nice flat together and that Jane would continue writing. She’d attend conventions, like RT, and have a circle of friends that she snarked with on Twitter. If you’ve ever read any of her letters, you know that she was the queen of the cutting comment and would OWN Twitter. She would probably have to have a day job but would have picked something that she felt a connection to, not just something that made her life easier so perhaps social work or maybe an anthropologist — no. Wait. I’ve just remembered her childhood histories. I bet she would have gotten a PhD in history.

RS: Like many writers, your artistic talents abound in many creative fields. What drew you to and kept you writing?

MRK: I was one of those kids who wanted to do everything, and they all seem to revolve around forms of storytelling. What I like about writing is that there are no limits. I don’t have to worry about gravity or physics or a budget when I’m planning a story, or at least not in the ways I have to worry about them when I’m creating a puppet show.

RS: I read an interview in which you said you dread the “what are your upcoming projects” question, and yet, I fear, such things are inevitable since interviewers have to give us a way to promote what we’re up to. You suggested the question “What are you excited about?” instead, which I’ve used myself. But this wouldn’t be a silly interview if I did something practical like listen to what you want to be asked. So, instead: if your next/current project was an adorable animal, what kind of adorable animal would it be?

RK: A three-legged German Shepherd. Okay… I know, that doesn’t sound very adorable, but let me tell you about this German Shepherd. Her name is Ghost Talkers. She was a service dog in the war, and lost a leg saving the life of her human partner. She’s back home and healed now, and is so delighted and happy and enthusiastic, but can also very serious, because she’s a veteran. When she walks, it is a bouncing uneven gait that’s kind of funny, but when she runs you can’t tell that she was wounded. And if you let her, she would totally serve again because she’s kind and loyal and will save your life, then cover you with kisses.

—

Quick “Making Lemons into Jokes” campaign note: At $155, “If You Were a Butt, My Butt” is close to having an audio version!

If you want to support the Butts and send some money to Lyon-Martin health services (LGBTQ health care, offered regardless of the patient’s ability to pay), subscribe to my Patreon. You can stay in it for the long-haul, or just pay in for a single month so all your contributions go to L-M.

Posted in Interviews | Comments Off

So It’s Trump vs Clinton

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Ampersand

(Map source.)

On the bright side, this makes Hillary Clinton’s chances as good as they possibly could be.

On the dark side, this suggests that the Republican Party… well…

1. On Tuesday night, the Republican Party confirmed the worst suspicions liberals had of it. Five years ago, it would have sounded like a partisan slur to say the GOP harbored enough racial resentment, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, anti-elitism, and latent authoritarianism to nominate someone like Donald Trump. But it was true.

2. Credit where it’s due. The Republican Party is what congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein said it is: “ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.” In case you are skeptical of that final charge, recall that Trump began his rise in the Republican Party as a champion of the birther movement.

Frankly, I don’t think the Republican Party is this way; I think it was made this way. Years of contempt for facts – most notably, in fostering global warming denialism – and of teaching the base that no one but Fox News can be trusted have produced the Party of Trump.

This is a bad status quo. The US has a two-party system, and it functions best when it has two parties that, while disagreeing, are both committed to good governance and, frankly, reality. The only thing that we can really hope for is that a resounding victory for the Democrats will cause the Party of Trump to pull itself back from the brink. But that’s not at all a sure thing.

On the bright side, this is certainly causing some (not all) conservatives to reconsider.

And on the second bright side, it’s nice that Cruz, who has really tied himself to the transphobic mast in recent weeks, sank like a hateful bigoted smarmy stone.

What do y’all think?

Posted in Elections and politics | 55 Comments

Making Lemons into Jokes: “If You Were a Butt, My Butt”

Posted on May 3, 2016 by Mandolin

If you’ve been following events in online science fictiondom, you probably know the last few weeks have been tumultuous. If you are *not* following events in the online science fictiondom, then honestly, I’m kind of jealous.

In my family, humor has always been a way of putting crap into perspective. When life hands you lemons, make jokes. And then possibly lemonade, too. It is coming up on summer.

In that spirit, I’m trying a self-publishing experiment. And that experiment’s name is “If You Were a Butt, My Butt.”

If my Patreon reaches $100 by the end of the month, I will write and send “If You Were a Butt, My Butt” to everyone who subscribes. If things go well, I’ve got some stretch goals, too, like an audio version.

I will be donating the first month’s Patreon funds to Lyon-Martin health services. Lyon-Martin is one of the only providers that focuses on caring for the Quiltbag community, especially low-income lesbian, bisexual, and trans people. They provide services regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.

My Patreon is a subscription monthly service, so if you choose to join and then unsubscribe after a month, then all the money you pay in will go to Lyon-Martin. My subscribers also get one free piece of flash fiction or poetry each month, so you’ll receive that, too. (And anything else you sign up for.)

Humor can turn anything ridiculous. That’s its healing power. When that’s the aim, being mean-spirited or nasty defeats the point. I can’t promise I won’t make any metafictional jokes, but I’m not going to focus on it. The rare times I do, it will be silly.

Given the circumstances, a bit of erotica is unavoidable. It also won’t be the focus, will be in good humor, and will be marked so you can skip.

Really, I’m just farting around.

So if you want to get behind butting into the conversation with something cheeky, then scoot your derriere to my Patreon. We can do it.

(If you want to skip all that jazz, I also have a newsletter. It doesn’t come with free fiction, but it does come with updates about my writing and teaching.

Obligatory footnote: I reserve the right to limit harassment.)

Tagged News | 3 Comments

The coveted triple cat lap

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Mandolin

I was going to make an announcement today, but I need to spend a little more time on prep work. So instead, have the coveted triple cat lap:

More common: Five Cats on One Couch

Rarer: the possibly impossible quintuple cat lap.

Posted in Cats | Comments Off

Open Thread and Link Farm, Ride Art Like An Elephant Edition

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Ampersand

Talking Dworkin with trans folks who were taught to hate her – Ehipassiko
Thanks to Grace for the link.
How Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk – The New York Times
If you’ve already maxed out how many NYTimes articles you can read this month, try getting to it via the Google Search link instead.
And for a contrary view, Is Hillary Clinton really the foreign policy super-hawk she is portrayed to be? – Vox
Okay, but by making the primary question asked “is Clinton more hawkish than Republicans,” the article sort of puts its thumb on the scale. I mean, yes, she’s not as hawkish as the Republicans, that’s almost a given. But that doesn’t mean she’s not too hawkish. And although Clinton favors the Iran deal now that it would be ridiculous to oppose it, iirc she was opposed to negotiating with Iran when the policy was just starting out.
Are Men Really Harassed Online More Than Women? – Forbes
Clinton emails: Past cases suggest Hillary won’t be indicted – POLITICO
Having Feelings About Rejection Doesn’t Make You a “Nice Guy” – Brute Reason
“‘Nice Guy’ is an important concept because it allows us to describe and discuss gendered patterns that might otherwise remain invisible…. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if the concept is still as useful as it originally was, because its meaning has become diluted to the point of uselessness.”
Democrats Have Gotten More Liberal Since 2008, But Not Enough To Nominate Sanders | FiveThirtyEight
Trust Us: Politicians Keep Most Of Their Promises | FiveThirtyEight
Although the article doesn’t say so, this is one reason a left campaign like Bernie Sanders’ can be important: pushing Clinton to the left during the primary may have a good chance of affecting how she governs when (if) she becomes President.
But alas! the creature grows degenerate.
This discussion of a jewelry ad starring Gwyneth Paltrow was entirely worth the ten minutes it took me to read it. (Click on “Next” to see the second page of discussion.)
A brief history of menstruation in outer space.
Mysterious as the Trans Side of Mulan
From the title, I anticipated this article would interpret Mulan as a trans man. But it actually interprets her as a trans woman.
Courts Pretty Much OK With FBI’s Occasional Stints As Child Porn Distributors | Techdirt
The Hidden Dangers of AI for Queer and Trans People by Alyx Baldwin | Model View Culture
Also some interesting points about facial recognition software and race.
I really like where this discussion of werewolves and the changing orbit of the moon went.
Trump’s Foreign Policy Speech | The American Conservative
“Trump’s foreign policy speech yesterday veered between a few sensible comments and a large number of contradictory and worrisome assertions.”
Clinton’s Delegate Lead Would Triple Under GOP Rules
And if the GOP used the Democrat’s rules, they’d definitely be heading to a contested convention.
‘Normal America’ Is Not A Small Town Of White People
It’s New Haven, CT.
The disastrous, forgotten 1996 law that created today’s immigration problem
Written by Republicans, but signed with some misgivings, but basically with enthusiasm (or an eye on political gains), by Bill Clinton.
House Democrats won’t say they think they have a shot at a majority — is that a huge mistake?
“A question Democrats may want to ask themselves is when, exactly, they are hoping for a more politically congenial environment than a presidential election year with Trump leading the opposition ticket?”
Nordic Countries Do Actually Soak The Rich
Night Vale and trigger warnings. “What’s that concept called?”
Five short poems about “what if people call themselves toasters now?”
Teen birth rates are at an all-time low. We still don’t know exactly why. – Vox
Glenn Hauman: Neil Gaiman Does Not Need A Pity Hugo | ComicMix
Arguing that Gaiman and other “human shield” Rabid nominees should decline their Hugo nominations this year. Honestly, I agree – it would be best if all the people nominated who were on the Rabid slate withdraw from consideration – but that’s not going to happen. And I don’t have the stomach to vote “no award” for the human shields, or even to criticize them for not withdrawing.
Hugo Awards: 3-Stage Voting: kevin_standlee
This is interesting, and Kevin Standlee is someone whose ideas always deserve a respectful hearing. He defends his proposal a bit more in comments here.
Analysis of Slate Voting for the 2016 Hugos
From this estimate, there were about 205 “rabid puppy” voters; several people quietly declined nominations; and E Pluribus Hugo might optimistically have cut the number of Rabid nominees in half, but wouldn’t have eliminated the effects of slating.
“There is no Klingon word for ‘deference,’ and Plaintiffs are entitled to none.”
From a case in which Paramount is suing fan Star Trek filmmakers, an amicus brief on behalf of speakers of Klingon, arguing that Paramount cannot own a language. It’s pretty awesome.
Conservative Media Lash Out At John Boehner For Calling Ted Cruz “Lucifer In The Flesh”
Sometimes I can’t help but love election season.
The new age or the stone age: we either deal with the costs of trade or they deal with us
If we want to continue seeing the benefits of trade – and we should – then we need to start dealing with the problem of people harmed by trade.
How Politically Correct Should the Workplace Be?
I love “fictional dialog between two improbably calm and stiff-talking people as they discuss an issue” as a genre.
Kansas Lawmaker Equates Contraceptives with Eugenics
“The best way to repudiate eugenics is to empower poor women to make their own choices.”
Zootopia – A Physical Accessibility Near-Utopia
By the way, I really enjoyed Zootopia, and if you’re not allergic to kid’s animated films I highly recommend it.
Facing Years in Prison for Fleeing Abuse: Cherelle Baldwin’s Story Is Far From Unique
Update: After almost three years in jail, Cherelle Baldwin was found not guilty.
Abortion Opponents Move the Goalposts (part 3)
“Instead of looking only at deaths directly associated with the medical effects of abortion, they’re looking at every time a woman who has had an abortion at some point in her life dies. Not even kidding.”

Posted in Link farms | 27 Comments

Friday read! “Cup and Table” by Tim Pratt

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Mandolin

“Cup and Table” is my favorite of Tim Pratt’s stories–and it has a lot of competition. To explain how much competition, let me tell an anecdote about the audio magazine I used to edit, PodCastle.

I was no longer on staff when this happened, but at one point, the editors I who took over after I left received a letter. That letter complained of how many stories about lesbians were in the magazine, arguing that PodCastle should just be called LesbianCastle. One of the editors deviously ran the numbers and found that, proportionally, they did not actually run that many stories about lesbians. However, they did run a surprisingly high percentage of Tim Pratt stories. A percentage that, in fact, exceeded the percentage of stories about lesbians. He suggested that they call themselves PrattCastle instead.

By the time those events occurred, I was gone and many other stories by Tim Pratt had been bought by successive editors. But I did publish my share, including an audio version of this one.

I greatly admire Tim Pratt and his ability to write swift, smart prose that flows fast through action that seems unpredictable, and yet is often perfectly crafted. “Cup and Table” is emblematic of how smart his fiction can be. I also recommend his collection Hart & Boot.

Cup and Table:

“Sigmund stepped over the New Doctor, dropping a subway token onto her devastated body. He stepped around the spreading shadow of his best friend, Carlsbad, who had died as he’d lived: inconclusively, and without fanfare. He stepped over the brutalized remains of Ray, up the steps, and kept his eyes focused on the shrine inside. This room in the temple at the top of the mountain at the top of the world was large and cold, and peer as he might back through the layers of time—visible to Sigmund as layers of gauze, translucent as sautéed onions, decade after decade peeling away under his gaze—he could not see a time when this room had not existed on this spot, bare but potent, as if only recently vacated by the God who’d created and abandoned the world.

Sigmund approached the shrine, and there it was. The cup. The prize and goal and purpose of a hundred generations of the Table. The other members of the Table were dead, the whole world was dead, except for Sigmund.

He did not reach for the cup. Instead, he walked to the arched window and looked out. Peering back in time he saw mountains and clouds and the passing of goats. But in the present he saw only fire, twisting and writhing, consuming rock as easily as trees, with a few mountain peaks rising as-yet-untouched from the flames. Sigmund had not loved the world much—he’d enjoyed the music of Bach, violent movies, and vast quantities of cocaine—and by and large he could have taken or left civilization. Still, knowing the world was consumed in fire made him profoundly sad.

Sigmund returned to the shrine and seized the cup—heavy, stone, more blunt object than drinking vessel—and prepared to sip.”

Illustration by Galen Dara at Lightpseed Magazine. Read here.

Posted in Fiction, Recommended Reading | Comments Off

Visiting Kit Tea, a San Francisco Cat Cafe. See also: Excuse to post cat pictures.

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Mandolin

A few months ago, a friend of mine and I went to Kit Tea, an Oakland cat cafe. I took a bunch of pictures, but I am only posting them now, because I am me.

I had never been to a cat cafe before, but of course I had read about them because I A) live on the internet, and B) like cats. It seemed like a good lark for a weekday afternoon.

When we came in, we saw the following wall mural:

…which I stared at for a bit because while I quite like hairless cats, and I am terribly amused by the conjunction of cats and yoga, somehow adding these things together broke my brain. (Also, it seemed like possibly uncomfortable appropriation, but I may be reading too much there.)

Inside the cat cafe, we discovered that just in case the flesh and blood cats were insufficient, there were lots of cat objects to compensate:

I didn’t open the Cat-opoly to see what was inside, but I suppose it’s quite possible that I could have spent the time we paid to get into the cat room playing cat monopoly instead. On the other hand, if the cats at KitTea are anything like the cats in Chez Swirsky, they would have made short work of the game by scattering everything and then plopping down on the board.

There were also some cat toys that I’m surprised to find I didn’t photograph, such as Tetris scratching posts, and a giant cat-hamster wheel.

The cats themselves were pretty lackadaisical. It was the evening and they had been accepting the petting of strangers with good grace all day so they were tired. Also, they were cats, so they were tired.

This dilute tortoiseshell did decide she wanted human company, jumping straight onto someone’s lap and subsequently refusing to move:

This brown tabby was happy to let people pet him as long as they didn’t expect him to get up:

This gorgeous orange fluffball spent most of his time hanging out on wall-mounted shelves, but eventually came down and sat by my friend and me. Periodically, he accepted head and shoulder petting.

I don’t think this orange and white tabby ever came down, though.

There were other cats, and I petted some of them, but either I decided I didn’t want to take pictures of them, or the photos were so bad I’ve blocked them out. But there were other soft, purring creatures about.

I like the wall-mounted cat furniture. When we move, I want to get a bunch of it, so that our five cats have more room to roam and aren’t argh just on us all the time Jesus Christ cat why don’t you stop standing on my chest

A cat cafe is to some extent wasted on someone who has five cats. When I want to pet a cat, I pet a cat. When I want to pet a bunch of cats, I pet a bunch of cats. When I want to see cats interacting, I toss Pete at his nephew or his brother, and they adorably groom each other. When I want to see a cat playing, one is always in the mood. And my cats are always excited to see me since I’m not a stranger.

It’s still totally worth it to poke around a cat cafe if you are cat-deprived in your life, or merely suffering from the slight cat deprivation that results when one has less than five cats. (Five cats. Headdesk.) And ESPECIALLY if you are thinking of adopting a cat because the cats at Kit Tea are looking for homes.

Posted in Cats, Living a life | 4 Comments

Retelling and Retaleing: Take a class with me and Cat Rambo!

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Mandolin

Take an online class from me and Cat Rambo! May 21, 9:30-11:30 AM, Pacific Time.

Personally, I love retellings. As a kid, I had a collection of picture books retelling the Cinderella story in a dozen different settings. SFWA president Cat Rambo and I are teaching a class on the subject.

Authors constantly draw on the stories that have preceded them, particularly folklore, mythology, and fables. What are the best methods for approaching such material and what are the possible pitfalls? How does one achieve originality when working with such familiar stories? Lecture, in-class exercise, and discussion will build your proficiency when working with such stories.

Retellings are one of writing’s basic tools. We’ve been collectively dabbling with Greek mythology, and Shakespearean plays, and oral folklore (and urban legends and a hundred other things) for centuries.

To a certain extent, all fiction is retelling. It’s all in conversation with past writing and storytelling. A retelling is conscious of its place in that conversation–whether that’s “This is Rapunzel, but my way” or a slantwise satire of Narnia.

If you’re curious about our retellings, here are a couple from Cat and me.

From me:
Alice in Wonderland: “Tea Time”
Dr. Who: “The Girl Who Waited (for the Guidance Counselor to Get to His Point”

And from the amazing Cat Rambo:
Charlotte’s Web: “Magnificent Pigs”
The Little Mermaid: “Foam on the Water”

Posted in Teaching | Comments Off

Hugo Nominations Are Out, And The Rabid Puppies Dominated The List. A Few Thoughts.

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Ampersand

Spacefaring Kittens publishes the list of nominees (marking which ones came from the Rabid Puppies list, which is most of them), and comments:

…How about just no awarding the shit and ignoring the troll’s trolling?

I’m basically with this view this year.

Winning a Hugo is a two-stage process; a first stage to select the shortlist of nominees, and a second stage to select the winners from the shortlist.

Last year, the Sad and Rabid Puppies selected a bunch of sub-par work that never would have made the Hugo ballot without the use of slates (slates: groups of fans strategically nominating from a pre-agreed short list in order to combine their voting power). By gaming the vote this way, they dominated the Hugo nominations in the first stage of voting. But in the second stage of voting, which can’t be effectively slated, virtually all their choices ended up coming below “No Award,” the option Hugo voters can choose if they feel that none of the nominees deserve to win a Hugo Award.

This year, the Sad Puppies have more-or-less backed off slating, and just published a recommendation list, arrived at through an open voting procedure. But the Rabid Puppies once again did a slate, chosen by one person – professional asshat Vox Day – which dominated Hugo nominations this year. But Day deliberately chose many nominees that would plausibly have been Hugo nominated anyway. (No one thinks that Neil Gaiman requires Vox Day’s help to get Hugo-nominated, for instance.)

Last year, I ranked every Puppy nominee below “no award” on my ballot. That seemed to be the right thing to do. Winning a Hugo is a two-stage process, and works that couldn’t have gotten past the first stage of voting without gaming the vote, in my view can’t legitimately win a Hugo Award.

This year, I don’t think I’ll do the same. It seems ridiculous to penalize works that could plauisbly have made it onto the Hugo ballot just because (as John Scalzi put it) “the Puppies are running in front of an existing parade and claiming to lead it.” This year I’ll read all the nominees, and vote for the ones I think are wonderful; those that I think don’t deserve to be on the ballot I’ll rank below “No Award.”

A few other Hugo-notes:

1) My guess is that we’ll see Noah Ward win on at least a couple of categories this year, but most categories will have a named winner.

2) Next year, assuming the voters at this year’s Worldcon agree to this, there will be a change in the Hugo vote-counting rules – E Pluribus Hugo – which might reduce the ability of a minority of slate voters to game the process and unfairly dominate Hugo nominations. Early data may indicate that EPH won’t make as large a difference as people are hoping. If further changes are necessary to prevent the Rabid Puppies from gaming the system to dominate nominations, I expect further changes will be made.

3) By a wide margin, more people voted to nominate works for the Hugos in 2016 than in any prior year. And the Rabid Puppies still dominated the outcome. If there are hundreds of possible nominees, and if most nominators vote honestly, then a small group of slate voters can overpower the large majority of honest voters. I hope that this result will persuade people who have been saying “all’s that’s needed is for more people to nominate” to change their minds.

4) A tedious parody of “If You Were A Dinosaur, My Love,” which was published on Vox Day’s blog, is one of the nominees for best short story. 1) This shows that the Rabid Puppies are in no way against message fic. 2) This shows that the Rabid Puppies are in no way about ensuring that good-quality fiction is nominated.

5) But on the bright side, as Mandolin pointed out on Twitter, this makes “Dinosaurs” the first piece of fiction to have its fanfic nominated for a Hugo. History!

6) I wonder if there was no effort to nominate “HPMOR” at all, or if HPMOR’s fans tried but just didn’t have enough votes?

7) DragonCon is starting a fandom awards that is connected to a much larger convention than the WorldCon (home of the Hugos), and which anyone can vote in online. Which is what the Puppies have been saying they want all along. So will they be content with getting what they want and stop trying to fuck with the Hugo Awards?

8) Once again, no sign at all of a competing left-wing slate controlling the Hugo Awards. It’s only the Puppies who are doing this shit.

9) I’m going to try to post less often about the Puppies this year, because we’ve all already heard this song. But at least it gives me an excuse to post adorable puppy photos.

Posted in Hugo Awards | 10 Comments

Silly Interview with S.B. Divya, Defense Attorney for the Oxford Comma

Posted on April 26, 2016 by Mandolin

Thanks to S. B. Divya for granting me a silly interview!

S. B. Divya is one of those people who is talented across many areas: science, engineering, art, fiction, music, and extreme sports. She’s got a shiny new novella available from Tor.

1. Your bio says that “S.B. Divya is a lover of science, math, fiction, and the Oxford comma.” I am here to tell you that the Oxford comma has, unfortunately, been put on trial for its life. However, you are its defense attorney! Make your case.

Your honor, I humbly present the Oxford comma, also known as a serial comma. It is abastion of orderliness in a sea of grammatical chaos. This comma is an exemplary citizen, always obeying a simple rule: that it follows each item in a list until the last. Let us not create an exception to the rule! Let us not say, “It follows each item in a list except for the second to last and the last, which shall be joined by a conjunction.” Nay, let us stand fast against such unwieldy rule-making – such convoluted thinking – and embrace the simplicity that is embodied by this innocuous punctuation mark.

2. Any good debater should be able to do both sides of the debate, right? If you had to, how would you argue that the Oxford comma should go to death row?

We all know that prisons and pages suffer from overcrowding. Why not make room by removing … ah, no, never mind. I can’t do it! I can’t betray my ideals and play devil’s advocate in a convincing fashion. “It’s a waste of space” seems to be the best this side has to offer, and really, in this glorious age of digital documentation, who cares? No trees were harmed by the insertion of one little comma.

3. Your website has a headline showing five eff words: fact, fiction, feminism, future and family. Do they all figure in your writing?

They do. Of course they feature in my blogging, but those are common themes in my fiction as well. Let me break them down one by one, starting with the word “fact.” I love science, and I love incorporating it into my fiction. This is not to say I haven’t dabbled in the magical arts, but my favorite stories are the ones that involve a kernel (or more) of plausibility.

Fiction – this one speaks for itself! I’m getting to the point where I could write about being a science-fiction author, to tie this one back to the fact side.

Feminism: the “f” word that started it all. Yes, the female (and gender neutral!) characters in my fiction are equals to the males. Ultimately, that’s what feminism is about so far as I’m concerned. Equal opportunity – it sounds simple on paper, but it’s a beast to wrestle in the domain of social change.

As to the future, that’s the realm of most science-fiction. It’s probably fair to say that I speculate about the future more than the average person. This doesn’t always work in my favor (think disasterizing on a regular, involuntary basis), but it does give me plenty of ideas for stories.

And family? None of us would exist without one. Even the lone wolf character is defined by the absence of family support. Whether by blood or adoption or romance, family is what drives us at a fundamental level. This is what shapes our personalities at an early age, where we learn who we want to be.

4. You have a novella coming out from Tor.com Publishing. What was the best part about writing it?

That nobody had any expectations of it – not even me! I wrote it on a lark, an attempt to write something longer after working at short fiction for nearly two years straight. This meant I could throw in a lot of my favorite topics – gender divides, social inequality, hackers and tinkerers, the beauty and danger of nature – and out popped a mess of a story (my first drafts are like that) with a main character who I loved and a compelling plot.

I didn’t know what to do with the thing after I wrote it so I let it lie for a while, figuring I’d eventually edit it and submit to the usual magazine suspects. I went back to short fiction for a few months until I heard about the open call for novellas from Tor.com Publishing. Writers (like most people) can use a good motivator. This one got me to revise and submit the novella because, why not? I had nothing to lose!

5. What was it like working with Tor.com’s new arm?

When Tor.com Publishing offered me a contract, I was blown away. My editor there has been extremely patient and thoughtful while working with me. I knew very little about the world of book publishing, and that was what I was dealing with. I took a bit of time to find a wonderful literary agent, who was also very patient and understanding, and then the ball’s been rolling merrily downhill since then.

I’d say the whole experience has been extremely smooth. My husband and I have been doing a major home renovation over the same months that I’ve been working with Tor, and the latter has been much easier to deal with! They handled the cover art and design (which I love) and have been proactive with marketing and publicity. I haven’t published any other books so I have nothing for comparison, but I would certainly recommend them to any writer.

5. You do a lot of what I guess I should call extreme sports. In our house, we mostly call them adventure sports, and the only one I do is SCUBA diving. What draws you to these hobbies? And if you want to tell a story or two… I certainly wouldn’t *complain.* ;)

I love being outdoors. Nature is my temple, and being out in the wilderness restores my sanity in wonderful ways. As for the adventure sports, I can lay some of that at my husband’s feet. He was a diver before we met, and he convinced me to try it. I loved it! Still do. I place a lot of faith in the technology that lets us stay underwater, and I hope we make some advances there before I’m too old to dive. My best and worst dive experiences were during a week-long liveaboard trip in the Maldives. The best: huge manta rays swimming just inches above me on their way to a cleaning station. The worst: currents! Holy fast currents, Batman, those were tough for me to deal with.

Mountain biking was another one that my husband drew me into. I love easy cross-country rides, but I’m not an aggressive rider. I never learned to jump or ride ramps – the Slickrock trail in Moab defeated me after two downhills – but I love where these rides take me. You can go a lot further on a bike than on foot in the same amount of time, which means you get to see more amazing scenery. Sure, some of it whizzes by, but I walk all the scary sections so I get plenty of time to take it in.

(And then there was that time we almost got lost in the desert…as the sun was setting…and it was raining…and I nearly strangled my beloved husband for not backtracking in time…but we made it out alive. We did damage the delicate cryptobiotic soil during our exit, which I’m not proud of, but you know, survival takes precedence. Not as dramatic a story as 127 hours – thank goodness! – but exciting enough for my tastes.)

To flip the narrative a bit, I did get my husband into snowboarding, and I’m usually the impetus for backpacking trips. I also arranged a trip for us on deep-sea submarine off the island of Roatan. Our deepest point was around 1100 feet. That was an incredible experience. Everything is still and silt-covered – it looks like undisturbed dust. We lost most of the marine life around 300 feet, and then we saw lots of strange little translucent jelly-things.

I’ve done a decent amount hiking in and around Yosemite, and I got up Half-Dome the year before I got pregnant. Those cables are scary, but the exhilaration of being up there – awesome! I stole from these experiences shamelessly for Runtime, and I wish I had access to the technology that my main character does. My biggest weakness in sports is literally that I’m weak. I don’t have a ton of strength or stamina so having gear that enhances my body’s natural abilities would open some amazing doors.

The one “extreme sport” I’ve wanted to do for a long time is skydiving. Now that I’m a parent, though, I feel like it would be irresponsible to do it until after my daughter is more grown up.

6. Upcoming projects and any other notes you’d like to make–please insert here!

Since I’ve written about it above, this is probably where I should mention that my novella, Runtime, will be available from Tor.com Publishing on May 17. You can pre-order it now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBooks.

I’d also like to put in a word for Escape Pod, the science-fiction podcast and magazine, where I work as Assistant Editor. I hope people will go listen to some great stories (or read them on the website if that’s their preference). A lot of what we publish is original fiction and I hate to see it missed because it’s not a traditional genre magazine.

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