Two amazing and thought-provoking essays about the changing face of technology:

The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens chronicles the rise and fall of teen entrepreneurs who built effective Tumblr networks and monetised them. Yep, this is what the new generation is doing when you think they’re just ‘spending all their time on the internet:’ dominating their own realms of social media.

At the Toast, a love letter to the era that was Livejournal, a time when we wrote intensely personal diaries for public performance.

Kate Elliott’s tour-de-force essay on Writing Women Characters into Epic Fantasy Without Quotas

Deb Biancotti on the Appeal of Icy, Remote Research Stations. Buy her new book!

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Friday Links Provides the Recipe

Coming Home To a Pirate Near You! (cover reveal & announcement that my debut novel Splashdance Silver & its sequel Liquid Gold will be published as an omnibus by Fablecroft) Update: the books are now available in the wild, Tehani was selling them at Contact last weekend!

Speaking of the weekend, I was delighted that Cranky Ladies of History and Galactic Suburbia both won Ditmars! Actually I was delighted with all the wins – with an extra shout out to the fabulous Glenda Larke who took out the inaugural Sara Douglass Series Award. Congrats to all finalists and winners!

Random Act of Fiction! The Egyptian Androsphinx

Margaret Brundage & Weird Tales [SF Women of the 20th Century #17] (the sexy pastel covers by a bohemian female artist in the 1930’s that defined the visual style of pulp SF for a generation)

Review: Black Widow #1 by Mark Waid & Chris Samnee

Review: Mockingbird #1 by Chelsea Cain & Kate Niemczyk

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New episode of Sheep Might Fly!

You can listen now to Episode 10 on iTunes (or your own favourite podcast app, I hope), and also stream, download & follow Sheep Might Fly here on the Podbean site.

“Fake Geek Girl,” was originally published in Review of Australian Fiction Volume 14, Issue 4. You can buy the issue containing the story (along with a fantastic piece from Stephanie Lai) directly from their website.

Meet Fake Geek Girl, the band that plays nerdy songs at the university bar every Friday night, to a mixture of magical and non-magical students: lead singer Holly writes songs based on her twin sister Hebe’s love of geek culture though she doesn’t really understand it; drummer Sage is an explosive sorcerous genius obsessing over whether Holly’s about to quit the band to go mainstream; shy Juniper only just worked up the nerve to sing her own song in public and keeps a Jane Austen themed diary chronicling the lives and loves of her friends. When the mysterious, privileged Ferd joins their share house, everything starts to unravel…

In Part 10: Hebe and the Library Resource Cupboard of Doom, the sisters are forced to talk about their feelings, Sage is forced to witness the results and admit a few truth bombs of his own, and Holly defends her status as Fake Geek Girl with benefit. (also, she writes a song about it)

This is the last part, the story is now COMPLETE! Thanks so much for listening and tune in next week for a brand new serial, original to the podcast – Glass Slipper Scandal, which is about newspaper hacks, trashy pretty princes, gold-diggers and long-suffering bodyguards in a fairy tale kingdom.

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Title: Mockingbird #1 (2016)

Writer: Chelsea Cain

Artist: Kate Niemczyk

The Buzz: Last year, I raved about Chelsea Cain’s Mockingbird one-shot as part of the SHIELD anniversary – and I wasn’t the only one. Mockingbird/Agent 19/Bobbi Morse is a fantastic character with so much potential: scientist, secret agent, martial artist, Avenger. It doesn’t hurt that she is played with great dynamism by Adrienne Palicki on the Agents of SHIELD TV show. Until the recent one-shot, she has never had her own solo series, and I am so glad that Chelsea Cain has snatched Mockingbird to her bosom.

“I’m drawn to Bobbi because she’s a terrific character—she’s brainy and cool and confident, and quick with a quip,” she enthuses. “In fact it turns out we have a few traits in common. We’re not big sharers. We’re control freaks. And we’ve both been married to Clint Barton.  I mean, what are the odds?”

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New episode of Sheep Might Fly!

You can listen now to Episode 9 on iTunes (or your own favourite podcast app, I hope), and also stream, download & follow Sheep Might Fly here on the Podbean site.

“Fake Geek Girl,” was originally published in Review of Australian Fiction Volume 14, Issue 4. You can buy the issue containing the story (along with a fantastic piece from Stephanie Lai) directly from their website.

Meet Fake Geek Girl, the band that plays nerdy songs at the university bar every Friday night, to a mixture of magical and non-magical students: lead singer Holly writes songs based on her twin sister Hebe’s love of geek culture though she doesn’t really understand it; drummer Sage is an explosive sorcerous genius obsessing over whether Holly’s about to quit the band to go mainstream; shy Juniper only just worked up the nerve to sing her own song in public and keeps a Jane Austen themed diary chronicling the lives and loves of her friends. When the mysterious, privileged Ferd joins their share house, everything starts to unravel…

In Part 9, A Gentlewitch’s guide to Saving the World, by Miss Juniper Cresswell, Esquire, our girl Juniper outlines her 13 step plan to prevent the band and its internal friendships from a messy implosion. Her secret weapon? Ferdinand Chauvelin. Her other secret weapons? Costume drama and cake.

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New episode available for streaming or download.

In which all 3 of us celebrate 6 years of Galactic Suburbia with an excellent baby and variable cake. ALISA IS BACK THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

What’s new on the internet?

JK Rowling, Native American “magic” and cultural appropriation.
National Geographic outlines the issues.
An open letter to Jo Rowling on the Native Appropriations blog – why indigenous people are not magical creatures.

Nisi Shawl’s crash course in the history of black science fiction

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