Claire Rousseau

Have a good con! I'm missing this one but I hope it's a bright spot for people who can make it.

If I ever have to come up with a solo conference panel extremely last minute, I'm pretty confident I could come up with a solid hour on the Problematic Feminism of Pern. From Not Like The Other Girls Menolly, to Strong Female Character Lessa, via Brekke & Kylara, ie. the madonna vs whore dichotomy

Oh I definitely got all the good bits of Pern, there's a reason I read all the books many times over & they shaped me deeply as a person! It's also why my mum thought her 11yo should read them, it's just that now I know there were things in there I was to young to pick up on and she was not.

Fascinating! All the Pern books were on the same sff shelf and from the same imprint when I was buying them as a kid. This was in France in the 90s.

My memory is that they were even shelved in a different section of Borders in the 90s than the rest of Pern, which were in Sci-fi/Fantasy. The Alanna books were there too.

I'm sure McCaffrey's intentions were good, but more than one thing can be going on at once.
Lessa is an awesome character - smart, fierce & complex - but her life partner keeps *physically shaking her* when they disagree & it's presented as Just A Thing F'lar Does, no big deal.

The Harper Hall books definitely have more of a YA feel to them (though that marketing category didn't quite exist yet when I was its target demo) and Menolly's books do read as a triumph over sexism, albeit due in great part to Menolly's exceptional talent. She's Not Like The Other Girls.

My mum literally bought us every subsequent McCaffrey book after that and also the rest of the Auel series. She is has a very French attitude to the portrayal of sex in media, and obviously she didn't see any issues with the messed up dynamics.

I don't even think those books are inappropriate for an 11yo because they include sex scenes, it's just the power/gender dynamics are so fucked up, you really need to be better equipped to go "well that's not cool or romantic" than any middle-schooler should be.

Dragonriders of Pern had to be the most formative but I was also definitely too young when I read Clan of the Cave Bear.
Both were handed to me by my mum who borrowed them from the library and thought I'd enjoy them *after she was done reading them* when I was like 11 or 12.

🐙

the cover of REVOLUTION IN THE HEART: STORIES INSPIRED BY URSULA K. LE GUIN. Feat Alaya Dawn Johnson, Charlie Jane Anders, Ai Jiang, Ann Leckie, Molly Gloss, & Many More. Edited by Jonathan Strahan.

It's live on Instagram so I think we're allowed to yell about it here too -- I am SO HONOURED to have been invited to participate in this @ursulakleguin.com -inspired anthology with @jonathanstrahan.bsky.social and @titanbooks.bsky.social ! Out this October! LOOKIT THOSE NAMES!!!

I can never get over the incredible mix of affection & pure *dragging* his arse in Diamonds & Rust.
So much tenderness, but also calling your ex an
"unwashed phenomenon". It's just perfect.

So I will say this as gently as I can: given the current state of the world, cons (especially held in the US) should really keep or enhance their online programming instead of eliminating it. I understand it takes resources to run a hybrid con but the alternative is to exclude the rest of the world

Someone clever did this to a lamppost on Coverdale road and now I am disappointed that every lamppost doesn’t have one

“Don’t trust everything you read on the internet.”

AI search results: what if I did tho

I mean, sheep are famously countable...

Whitby rescue will neuter feral cat and name it after your ex The initiative at Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary is to mark Valentine's Day.

Genius bit of Valentine's Day marketing for a great cause! I did a full witch cackle 🤣

Rescue will neuter a cat and name it after your ex www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Hugo nominations are open and I have only two requests:

1. Commit to picking 2 non-Tordotcom novellas for your ballot

2. For the love of all that is holy in this world, do not nominate adult/crossovers or middle grade books for the Lodestar - officially categorized YA only!

Lol don't worry, the balance of the universe has righted itself, I'd forgotten to check in online and had to queue for 20 minutes for an overworked easyjet employee to print me one.

And now for my anti-apocalypse skillz:

- it takes me like an hour to wake up properly & i'm USELESS without coffee
- i hold grudges, like a lot. i will struggle to be civil to arseholes in any situation
- i'm kinda loud, so it better not be zombies
- i get grumpy quick when my back hurts, ie. A LOT

Repost with your apocalypse skill:
- Veggie gardening, preserving & cooking.
- Community organising, will volunteer to help run stuff.
- Woodworking & general handiness, incurable i-bet-i-could-fix-that-edness
- To Jacob's most excellent point, will fight anyone who argues for not saving everyone.

Also you give very good hugs, which feels like it'd be an important skill for warding off despair in the apocalypse.

Is this how organised people feel all the time?

In a turn of events never before exposure by moi, I have made it onto the train I actually planned to take to the airport, not just the backup train that would get me there an hour and a half before my flight, not the full two. And that's without the train running late? I was just... on time?

Ohhh, I adored the one Angela Slatter book I've read, I've been meaning to try more of hers!
I just finished The Butcher of the Forest (you were VERY RIGHT about Premee Mohamed's writing!!) and I'm about to start The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson.

My ebook library hold for Freya Marske's Swordcrossed has just come in early & I'm so excited to get stuck in to another one of her wonderful stories!! I've also got a copy of The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, because is it even travelling if you don't bring along a paperback?

My next library audiobook, probably for the return trip, is A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alex Rowland, which the blurb says will appeal to fans of my forever fave, The Goblin Emperor, so I have HIGH HOPES.

I'm off to France today to hang out with family for a few days, so obvi, I've got to have a lot of books lined up.
I prefer audiobooks for the plane: a few hours left of The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, plus The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty out from the library.