[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

June is LGBT Pride Month, so we thought a Mind Meld on LGBT themes in Fantasy and SF would be perfect, and asked some authors to send some recommendations our way!

Here’s what they said…

I like reading about worlds in which society takes no stand against same-sex or even multiple partners, where the gender of a character’s sexual desire is not a central emotional issue. There aren’t many, but there are a few, including Elizabeth Lynn’s Chronicles of Tornor, and, of course, most of Melissa Scott’s books, both those written alone and those written with her partner Lisa Barnett. Ellen Kushner has explored the ways society (and the lovers themselves) can make lovers of any gender suffer in her Riverside series: Swordspoint, The Privilege of the Sword, and The Fall of the Kings. And finally, I want to mention the little-known Elemental Logic novels of Laurie J. Marks: Fire Logic, Earth Logic, and Water Logic, which take place in a society where the family units consist of multiple husbands and wives and their children. There are conflicts aplenty–mostly having to do with the military culture that has been occupying them for decades. Beautiful world-building, fascinating, thorny, very human characters.
Read the rest of this entry

UPDATED to include a response from Delia Sherman

[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

Very often, in secondary world fantasy novels, the default political setup is to have a Monarch of some sort, often one that acts in a seemingly autocratic manner. Many times, this Monarch rules by some sort of divine right or providence.

When people create worlds, we only really have our own world for reference, or from which to glean conscious and subconscious influences. Kingdoms, empires, monarchs – that’s all human history has pretty much known. Even today, we’re under the illusion we have democracy, but it’s much more wishy-washy than true ancient Athenian democracy, where power was genuinely more equally distributed, and more citizens played a role in the functioning of society. Today our monarchs and empires now are largely trade-based hegemonies, imperial campaigns given the spin of delivering peace through drone bombings. We are now subject to political and financial kings and queens (well, strictly speaking, in the UK we’re still subjects to the queen, but hey).

So in one sense, that’s life. That’s all we’ve ever known.

Emphasizing this point, many fantasy writers tend to look towards history, consciously or otherwise, for inspiration. Given that, aside from moments in the ancient world, there are very few examples where there are not kingdoms and empires, it’s inevitable.

There’s a wonderful season of Shakespeare on the BBC at the moment, which is hammering the point that I think still lingers today, and that’s a fascination with those who hold ultimate power. The pressures. The mental state. The sheer audacity to rule. Holding a position of god on earth. It is the biggest stage in a nation. So what does that do to an individual? What does that do to their mind? Can they ever be truly human? Such questions continue to inspire fantasy writers today. We’re very much interested in that big stage and what it means when ordinary people connect with it in some way.

Read the rest of this entry

Small Beer Press has posted the Table of Contents for their upcoming anthology Interfictions 2 edited by Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak:

1. “The War Between Heaven and Hell Wallpaper” by Jeffrey Ford
2. “Beautiful Feast” by M. Rickert
3. “Remembrance Is Something Like a House” by Will Ludwigsen
4. “The Long and Short of Long-Term Memory” by Cecil Castellucci
5. “The Score” by Alaya Dawn Johnson
6. “The Two of Me” by Ray Vukcevich
7. “The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria” by Carlos Hernandez
8. “Shoes” by Lavie Tidhar
9. “Interviews After the Revolution” by Brian Francis Slattery
10. “Count Poniatowski and the Beautiful Chicken” by Elizabeth Ziemska
11. “Black Dog: A Biography” by Peter M. Ball
12. “Berry Moon: Laments of a Muse” by Camilla Bruce
13. “Morton Goes to the Hospital” by Amelia Beamer
14. “After Verona” by William Alexander
15. “Valentines” by Shira Lipkin
16. “(*_*?) ~~~~ (-_-) : The Warp and the Woof” by Alan DeNiro
17. “The Marriage” by Nin Andrews
18. “Child-Empress of Mars” by Theodora Goss
19. “L’Ile Close” by Lionel Davoust
20. “Afterbirth” by Stephanie Shaw
21. “The 1211″ by David J. Schwartz

Additioanlly, the volume features Introduction: On the Pleasures of Not Belonging by Henry Jenkins and Afterwords: An Interstitial Interview by Colleen Mondor, Christopher Barzak, and Delia Sherman.

• John Picacio shows off his awesome cover art for Are You There and Other Stories by Jack Skillingstead. (Also at Missions Unknown)
• Pyr SF shows off the full jacket design for Paul McAuley’s The Quiet War. Meanwhile Paul McAuley pimps his own covers for his numerous current reprints.
• Great news of the Week: Solaris Books has been picked up by Rebellion and will continue to produce great science fiction and fantasy.
• Interviews & Profiles:
  • @Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf: Mark Teppo (Lightbreaker).
  • Over at Joseph Mallozzi’s blog, Jasper Fforde answers reader questions. (And a reminder for those folowing in his book club: discussion starts soon on the next book, Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover.)
  • Agony Column continues with part 2 of their podcast interviews celebrating Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine’s 60 Years, featuring Jeffrey Ford, John Kessel and Delia Sherman
  • Ideology of Madness interviews Matt Sturges.
  • @The British Science Fiction Association: Andy Remic
  • Genreville TV interviewed Kaaron Warren and Robert Freeman Wexler at KGB Fantastic Fiction.
• Jess Nevins on The Zeppelin Pulps.
• Scott Edelman shares another installment of the 2000 Nebula Awards Weekend.
• Hal Duncan has a new BSC column. In the first installment, he talks about the definition of science fiction.
• NK Jemisin asks Who’s Afraid of Urban Fantasy? [via Bibliophile Stalker]
• Serialized Excerpts:
  • Sciencefictionandfantasy.co.uk is is serializing the first 5 chapters of Kells Legend by Andy Remic.
  • Barbara Martin is is serializing the first 5 chapters of Angel of Death by J. Robert King.
• Cheryl Morgan has posted her thoughts on Thoughts on Hugo Nominations.
• Norilana Books announces that Warrior Wisewoman 3 edited by Roby James, their annual anthology of science fiction featuring powerful and remarkable women, is now open to submissions.
• Empire Online asks: Is sci-fi better when it’s low budget? [via Whedonesque]
• Tom Baker says…er…I mean stars in Doctor Who: Hornet’s Nest, a five-part adventure series for BBC audio dramas. [via Big Dumb Object via Wired]
• Dave Franzese has posted a fun set of ray gun drawings. [via Drawn!]
• Blow Your Circuits With AMC’s SciFi Robots Quiz.
• Lists:
  • @SFX: The Top 10 Greatest Superheroes Ever Revealed. (Realted: The Daily P.O.P. looks at Captain Britain.)
  • @ScifiSquad: The Top Ten Sci-Fi Mind Control Movies.
  • Mike Brotherton lists The Ten Scariest Science Fiction Movies.
  • @Movie Moron: Top 10 Best Graphic Novels – Being Turned Into Movies. [via Raymond Thornton, an excellent illustrator.]