New-to-me interesting bits from around the reading, writing, and geekery Internet and blogging worlds, January 2012 version.
On Tor.com, Marissa Meyer writes From Werewolf Hunters to Rights Activists: Updating Fairy Tale Heroines “It suggested that if a girl were good and pious and silently put up with all the miseries of her life, she had a chance of being lifted up to something better.”
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, #21: African SF & Fantasy! Nollywood! Entomology! With Guest Nnedi Okorafor. “Nnedi Okorafor, author of Zahrah the Windseeker and The Shadow Speaker, joins us to talk about Africa as it’s represented in science fiction and fantasy. Dave and John discuss portrayals of Africa in fiction and film.”
Beyond Orcs and Elves: Diversity in Science Fiction and Fantasy for Young Readers, a three-part series. Part I, Part II, Part III. From Stacy Whitman’s Grimoire. “One of the hallmarks of this kind of epic fantasy are worlds populated by what has become the standard fantasy races: any combination of elves, orcs, goblins, hobbit-like halflings—called “kender” in Dragonlance, halflings elsewhere—ogres, giants, and dragons (though usually the hero is a white human or light-skinned elf or half-elf, and most often that hero is also a man/boy).”
Matthew David Surridge has A Few Words About Order of the Stick over at Black Gate. Since it’s a favorite webcomic of mine, I wanted to share. “The strip isn’t just about the game, nor is it just a showcase for Burlew’s killer sense of humour. The comic’s run for over eight hundred installments up to this point, plus extra stories in various print collections; it’s developed a coherent story, and surprisingly sympathetic characters. It’s gone from a gag strip to a fantasy epic — a nice trick, given that the story’s told with stick figures.”
Wake Up! It’s Time for a History Lesson, Victoria Martinez at Kristen Lamb’s blog. “So how does an historical author avoid the pitfalls that plague historical research and writing and keep even the most scrupulous readers happy?”
Over at Magical Words: What inspires you. “Today I want to talk about what inspires you to write. Not what gives you ideas, but what puts you in the mood or makes you want to write.”
Give Your Characters a Voice: Writing Strong Dialogue from Susan J. Morris at Omnivoracious. “When your dialogue is strong enough, and each character has a unique voice, readers not only feel like they’ve known your characters their whole life—they fall in love with them.”
A Checklist for creating alternate social and cultural norms in a fictional world at TalkToYoUniverse. “You’ve created a world. The “people” there, human or not, don’t live like we do. How do you go about writing their lives – their manners, their rules, etc. – without sounding either pedantic or overblown? It’s not as easy as it looks, but I hope this checklist will help you to get a good start.”
On a Pale Star 