Bedtime for Toys

Remember that name, folk. They are going places.

Of course, I am a bit biased. That's our Nashii there...the one with the blue-green guitar. (She's described as a bass tigress, Malaysia's finest export!).

And Rolling Stone has just declared the best 25 bands on MySpace (there are over 1,700 to choose from) - and guess what, Bedtime for Toys was among them.

Their MySpace webpage is here.
You can listen to them there.
And you can vote for them in the Battle of the Bands here.

Go listen and then you'll be able to say you heard them when they weren't big time...

Sigh.

I am married to a lovely man. And I resent it when he is - because he is a Muslim male - accused of being a total sex maniac/rapist/seducer. Women, we are told, must cover up because Muslim men cannot control their lusts otherwise. Talk about the vilification and demonising of the Muslim male.

And injustice to the Muslim women as well - lets blame the victim, why don't we? You were raped? Your fault - you weren't dressed properly! No matter that there are countless examples of "properly" clad women being raped - remember the unfortunate young woman raped and murdered on a bus by the bus driver, for no other reason than that she was the last passenger and he could do it?

We are told again and again by people who study crime and the criminals involved, that rape is just as much, indeed probably more, about violence than sexual desire, but you can't get that concept into the thick heads of some folk.

This morning there was a bit in the paper which went one step further. Let's:
a) call ALL men sex-obsessed, out-of-control predators, and
b) identify the rather sedate Malaysian school uniforms as one of the (major?) causes of rape, pre-marital sex and sexual harassment.

Here's part of the news item (from The Star):
"The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction," National Islamic students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement. "It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it," she said. (Now how insulting is that to our menfolk.)

Munirah said that "covering up" according to Islamic precepts was important to fend off social ills, including "rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex. This leads to babies being born out of wedlock and, to an extent, even prostitution..."

Alas, no one listens to my suggestion that if a man has this terrible problem then he should go veiled so he can't see the source of his temptation. Problem solved.

Why drape women - Muslim or otherwise - in clothing inappropriate to our tropical climate and our modern life style as working women? And what is the matter with us that we agree to be the victims of this idiocy?

I give up.

Reader expectations

Cheryl Morgan over here has something interesting to say about what science fiction readers want when they read fantasy (basically lots of sensawunda ideas).

She is commenting on how some series/trilogies (with reference to The Shadow of Tyr, book 2 of The Mirage Makers) tell you all about the world, and then the remaining books are focussed more on the plot and the characters, and therefore perhaps of less interest to a certain type of reader.

There are also some interesting reader comments following the post.

I must say that I always thought Cheryl to be one of the best reviewers around when Emerald City was extant, because she was very good at giving the reader an idea of whether they would like the book.

Oh my, and I see I shall have to be on my best behaviour at Worldcon .... help!

Your cup of tea...

This weekend was the Wesak Day long weekend so we took our houseguest (and a fellow writer) up to Cameron Highlands.

Photo 1: Hrugaar and me strolling through the Boh tea plantation.
Photo 2: Note how steep the hillslopes are.


Photo 3: these two men are picking the leaves at the top of the bushes

Photo 4: Close up of the machine they use, which has to be hauled manually up and down those rows - and up and down those hills.

Photo 5: Gradually the bag at the back of the machine fills with leaves.






Photo 6: The machine can't cut the ends of the rows, so this has to be done by hand clippers. The leaves fall into a sort of catch-box on the clippers and are then emptied over the shoulder into the pack on the back.

Truly, a lot of tough manual labour goes into your cup of tea...

Would you eat this?

Pictures taken by my husband in the market, Kuala Terengganu. The prickly durian, much favoured fruit of nearly all Malaysians, in spite of its overpowering smell; and keropok lekor.



Think of it as fish sausage - made from fish paste and flour, basically. What it looks like, I'll let you decide.

It has yet to be cooked - either boiled or baked, and eaten with lots of chilli hot sauce.

Oh, and note the lady selling the keropok on the left - traditional style for Terengganu and Kelantan states - sitting cross-legged on the counter.

What the civet in my roof looks like

I have blogged several times about the wildlife in my house. I am at the moment enjoying the presence of another (human and not particularly wild) fantasy writer - his visit is being much appreciated by someone who doesn't have nearly enough contact with people who write fantasy - so I did a real good clean out of the spare bedroom before he came.

There was a blind snake under the bed, and a very large Spotted Gecko in the bathroom. There are also wild honey bees driving themselves crazy around the outside lights - who will also come inside to the light if you leave the door open.

My visitor was disappointed there was no frog in the bath, though. And the civet in the ceiling seems to be suspiciously quiet. For those of you have never seen one, here's a rather dead specimen we saw on the road on the way back from Terengganu. They are the size of a largish domestic cat with a much longer tail.

This species is the Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), Musang Pulut in Malay. They are omnivorous, and squeak a lot. They also scent mark a lot, a strong smell of screwpine (pandan).

Crappy reading...

Author Juliet Marillier (who lives in my home state of Western Australia) writes here about her time at the Children's Book Council of Australia conference. She makes mention of a professor from USA who, in Juliet's words:

"used his keynote address to slam consumer culture and what he called the ‘endumbment’ and ‘commodification’ of children through the commercialization and standardization of children’s books. He was especially damning in his criticism of publishers for giving in to commercial interests by producing books principally for entertainment – his example was a certain series aimed at girls, with various tie-in products available – rather than books that reflect community values and standards."

Luckily Neil Gaiman was also speaking at the conference. He took up that point and disagreed with the blanket condemnation of ‘entertainment’ fiction (in Juliet's words again):

"Neil made the most telling point (for me) of the whole conference by recalling his sense of excitement and wonder at reading a certain thrilling adventure novel as a child, then his surprise on returning to that same book as an adult and finding the prose quite flat and clunky (think Famous Five). What we writers give our readers, Neil said, is a ‘raw code’ or ‘loose architectural plan’ which they use to build the book themselves. No two readers read a book alike – it’s the reader who gives the characters faces, builds the landscape, brings life to the story. Even if the book is poorly written, it is a seed, and if it falls on fertile ground it will grow, bloom and be treasured. A book may be one of those commercial titles written for corporate profit, but it can still take root in a child’s imagination. Neil pointed out that some fine things can be grown in crap."

Oh yes.
Better for a kid to read something with passion, than to read nothing.
When I was eight, I went through a stage of refusing to read anything except Enid Blyton. This was partially as a result of being introduced to a library for the first time in my life (on a trip to visit my grandfather in Melbourne) and discovering that Blyton had written SO many books. I was in book heaven, overdosing on delicious mindless reading... Sexist, racist, uppercrust crappy entertainment - and I loved every enthralling word.

And I still remember, fifty plus years later, the joyous, glorious pleasure of that month or so, gorging on books. I even somehow managed to grow up reasonably tolerant.

I might have been eight years old, yet the only other things I remember about that trip, apart from my grandfather, was falling off a Melbourne tram and skinning my knees, the joys of running through piles of Autumn leaves (we don't get much of that in W.A.), pressing a doorbell for the first time in my life (my mother was mortified because I was so taken with the sound that I didn't take my finger off it), and the smell of the scullery in my Grandfather's house (it was gas, I realise now. I'd never smelled it before).

I was a farm kid, O.K.?

Terengganu loves purple

,



Just what is it with mauve and purple and the state of Terengganu??

Just about every second building is painted in these two colours! Bus shelters and shops and stalls and lamp posts and street names: nothing could resists the public purple-painter person...

Did they get a cheap job lot?















Oh, and just to show that, yes, I can work anywhere, even when I am feeling lousy, here's my latest word count for Stormshifter on the picometer from the Writertopia website:

Kapas Island, Terengganu

We just spent the weekend away on a small island off the east coast. It was actually the family day (Photo No.9) of the Science Faculty of the University where my husband works.

I was feeling lousy most of the time with my friend the virus, so it wasn't an unqualified success...still, a pretty spot. And there were compensations: who can better sitting on the beachside tables of the Qimi resort with a mango ice blended on the table? (Photo No.7). Beats staying in bed feeling sorry for oneself!

The resort we stayed at was not the Qimi (which is run by a delightful couple - she used to be cabin staff on Malaysian Airlines), but a place called the Mak Cik Gemok (lit: Fat Aunty), and that's the Aunty there, a character in her own right, surrounded by members of her family, in Photo No.5.


Photos No 6 & 7 are of pandanus plant and the fruit (and me).


There's also a photo (No.4) of the neighbouring island, Gemia.

Esperance, West Australia - Southern Ocean beaches

Enjoy!

A good review that made me think...

This one is from Deathray magazine (February 2008 issue) in the UK, written by Owen Williams - another 4 out of 5 stars for The Shadow of Tyr.

I must admit to my shame that I don't know this magazine.
I am guessing, but I think Williams is someone who has a love-hate relationship with the genre, and I'm relieved to find I fall on the good side of the divide! The review was certainly entertaining and had me thinking about my own work, which is always a good thing. Go out and buy the February issue to read it all. Here are some exerpts:

Heart of the Mirage was “immediately notable for fantasy world building that owed more to the Roman Empire and the Arabian Nights than to traditional medieval genre tropes. The follow-up The Shadow of Tyr…shifts the action to the heart of the Empire and replaces the Arabian elements with some shades of the American War of Independence.”
…
“Larke’s writing is breezy and refreshing, conveying some heavy themes with a light touch and a deft vocabulary; uniquely among fantasy authors, she knows the correct usage of ‘disinterested’. There’s also a lot of humour in the novel; a level of wit – rather than out-and-out comedy – that sets it apart from some of its more po-faced contemporaries, in a way a little bit reminiscent of Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar series.”
…
“Really strong and believable female leads like Ligea are all too rare in a genre where even exceptional writers, such as Robin Hobb, generally use men as their protagonists. The threat of Arrant taking the limelight from Ligea is worrying…”

I must admit, I had no thought of the American War of Independence when I was writing the book; I was thinking in more general terms, but I certainly was basing my story on a background of any Empire resulting in inequality and the misuse of power, and whether the struggle to be free is worth the price paid.

The bit about Fritz Leiber blows me away. Wow.

As for the last bit - well, I kind of thought of both Heart of the Mirage and The Shadow of Tyr as being Ligea's story, while Arrant's story is covered in The Shadow of Tyr and The Song of the Shiver Barrens. Ligea is in the latter too, and her role is important and crucial, but she doesn't take centre stage. I don't look on her as being overshadowed by her son though - she is far too strong an individual for that, but it is Arrant's book. And I hope it is still good for all that...

Hurricane Katrina x 50

Burma/Myanmar is suffering. There could be as many 100,000 dead in a cyclone (hurricane/typhoon, call it what you will). Less than 2,000 people died in Katrina - and we thought the scale of that was huge?

People have no food, no clean water, no power - and little help.

The military junta that rules them is preventing aid workers from entering the country and denying the international press as well. Doubtless they are looking after their own interests - i.e. that of the top military brass - because that is about the only thing they do well.

When we look for examples of evil overlords to model the villains for a fantasy novel, we don't have to look any further than 21st century Burma.

Authors that pass in the night...

...sort of like those proverbial ships.

One of the really, really great things about being a writer is the great people you meet who are also in the business. Next week I have one such person coming to stay - but more about that at a later date.

Several years ago I met another struggling writer at a convention in Melbourne. We made a connection - and parted to our distant parts of the world almost immediately afterwards with no expectations that we could ever get together easily. Which was sad, because we had so much to talk about and there were so many points of connection and contrast that could have kept us in conversation for weeks.

In the intervening time, I read about her successes with delight; she has received considerable critical acclaim for her work internationally and has gone from strength to strength. Another Australian sf/f author makes good on the world stage! There must be something in the water downunder (other than a suffeit of salt and yukky tasting minerals).

Yesterday, I received a package from her, completely out of the blue, containing some books - which have gone to the top of my to-be-read pile. She's a special person.

Thank you, Anna Tambour. [And if you haven't got my email by now, write to me giving me the correct address...]

Me sick. Yuk.

Will try and post later.

The Shadow of Tyr : "intense and refreshing fantasy "

Another 4 out of 5 star review, this from Rhian Drinkwater at SFX Magazine in the UK (Jan 2008).

Here are some of the nice things said:

"The Shadow of Tyr …stands up successfully as a story in its own right. It tells the tale of Ligea Gayed, a woman with powerful magical ability who is trying to end slavery and bring down an empire, and of her son Arrant, who’s born into the middle of a war and turmoil and who simply – and heartbreakingly – wants his parents to be parents and warriors or kings.

"It’s this frustrated desire that provides the driving force of the climax of the book, and though the major plot points are war, rebellion, death and strategy, it’s the intense emotions of the main players that really shine through."
…

"The Shadow of Tyr is not for those looking for bloody depictions of war, but for those more interested in the emotional costs of rebellions and politics, it’s a well-written and satisfying read."

Hospital tales, lizard vandals and writing fun

Progress of Book 2, Stormshifter, in the Random Rain Cycle (all titles provisional):

And for those who want to know if I have sold it yet, the answer is no.

Hey, how's that anyway? Back in the race, with over 5,000 words added, in spite of spring cleaning and hospital visits.

The cleaning remains unpleasant (are there actually people who enjoy this thankless task?).

The hospital visit was inconclusive. Both MRIs show ... nothing. Other tests show that the problem has improved slightly, so we have opted for a wait and see policy. In the meantime I continue to be an eight-fingered typist. I set out for the hospital at 9 a.m. and arrived home at 4 p.m., so that was a whole day gone.

Highlight was hearing a conversation between a Chinese Malaysian family and a nurse, in Malaysian, with the crowning moment being - after much puzzlement on behalf of the nurse - her statement: "Oh, you're in the wrong place! You were sent to cuci darah (wash the blood, i.e. dialysis), not cuci luka (clean a wound)!" Which kind of brought home to me how intimidating the whole hospital environment must be if you don't speak the local language or English properly, and are not familiar with words like "dialysis".

The most depressing moment of the visit was looking around masses of waiting patients, quite literally hundreds as I went to 3 different clinics and the pharmacy, all with nothing to do except wait, and noting exactly two people with books (one of which was a text book and not being read anyway.) Where is the joy of reading for these folk? Where is the idea of making good use of tedious waiting time? Why, oh why do Malaysians not read?? And to the solitary middle aged Malay lady who was reading a book - good on you.

The news from our street over the weekend was of a nasty break-in, with a man and his 12 year-old-daughter being woken up by gun-toting intruders, threatened with a knife to the neck for good measure, physically slapped, and put in terror of their lives because they didn't have huge amounts of money and jewellery in the house.

Scares me witless, as we would have had even less if we'd been the ones robbed. I have given all my valuable jewellery to my daughters for just this reason, and I don't own huge amounts of cash to keep in the house anyway. At least we do have a good alarm system.

So anyway, with this story fresh in my mind while I was working yesterday afternoon, and home alone, I heard a noise coming down the passage. I rushed out and came face to face with an intruder, armed with inch long claws, foul breath and a toxic bite. Fortunately he was as scared as I was and took off down the passage at full speed, forgetting how he came in the first place. He ended up on top of a bookcase and smashed a rather nice Japanese vase before decamping out the grille of the french doors. He was also only a metre long, most of which was tail...

Writing, not reading?

Several times I have been intrigued by someone approaching me who wanted to be writer, but who - as became apparent during the course of the conversation - read very little, even in the genre they wanted to be published in. This strikes me as curious in several ways:

• firstly, why wouldn't you support the industry that you want to be a part of;
• secondly, how do you expect to learn about stories/books and how they are written (put together) without reading them - many of them;
• and thirdly, shouldn't you know what's out there (to study the market) before you write your contribution to the genre?

Maybe it is all part of a trend - the physical process of writing anything is now so easy, and publication/communication is so easy through the net, that everyone now wants to be a writer. I started by pounding out things on a typewriter back in the days when even correction fluid didn't exist, so believe me, I know it has got easier.

At the same time, there are so many forms of other entertainment at our fingertips, in our homes, following us around through iPods and other portable devises, that our reading time is cut - unless we make a conscious decision not to let other forms of entertainment take over. It is not a coincidence that I have not had a working TV in the house for well over two years now.

Still, it does seem weird that everyone and their cat apparently wants to write - but not everyone wants to read...

This (written by Rachel Donadio) from the New York Times, Sunday Book Review of 27^th April, via Bibliobibuli (a great site if you want to keep track of what is happening out there in the literary world).

“… Americans are reading fewer books than they used to. A recent report by the National Endowment for the Arts found that 53 percent of Americans surveyed hadn’t read a book in the previous year…”

But:
“In 2007, a whopping 400,000 books were published or distributed in the United States, up from 300,000 in 2006, according to the industry tracker Bowker, which attributed the sharp rise to the number of print-on-demand books and reprints of out-of-print titles (...)the same N.E.A. study found that 7 percent of adults polled, or 15 million people, did creative writing, mostly 'for personal fulfillment'.”

“And the numbers suggest the books will keep on coming. IUniverse, a self-publishing company founded in 1999, has grown 30 percent a year in recent years; it now produces 500 titles a month and has 36,000 titles in print…”

Do they get read? Not much, apparently. "Most writers using iUniverse sell fewer than 200 books." Even though there is loads of help out there:

“…there are hundreds of creative writing programs offering M.F.A.’s and other credentialing. The Association of Writers and Writing Programs represented 13 programs when it was founded in 1967. Now it includes 465 full-fledged courses of study, and creative writing classes are offered at most of the 2,400 college English departments in North America.”

So...who is going to read all those books?