#and of course there are shades of that. because it's still bujold and she's still great

[proto-language]

taking a dip back into the penric & desdemonda novellas and just. argh. i love pen & des so so much and i think it's such a brilliant dynamic. and i really wish that focus weren't being taken away from that by... well, by any romantic plot, but particularly by one which feels so much like ground which has already been trod in the vorkosigan saga.

[queenlua]

i’m not really a Hunger Games person, but this review of Mockingjay reminded me of why there’s still some half-finished Haymitch fic lying around one of my hard drives somewhere:

“Basically I would have preferred anyone at all besides Katniss as the narrator (it could have had interleaved chapters with Katniss, even! Bujold did this with Mark in Mirror Dance -- I looked it up, and while I remembered his torture scenes as taking forever, they only actually take two chapters, one of which is two pages), and this would have done a lot to eliminate the twin problems of a) no actual plot happening on-screen in the book, and b) the parts which might ordinarily have been taken up with plot being filled instead with annoying and boring angst. I have a favorite candidate narrator, of course: Haymitch. (Though almost any other character would have done as well. Peeta. Gale. Finnick. Prim. Every single one of those, I felt, had a more interesting story than Katniss.) Haymitch is by far the most interesting character -- he's a drunk. A bona fide, soused, passed-out-half-the-time drunk. And yet he brings it together to help mastermind a rebellion. He holds it together enough to see the rebellion to its end. He kicks and prods Katniss into action when she's being angsty (with less reason than he has, I might add). When the war is done, he moves back to 12 and passes out again. He retreats from the world even more than Katniss. He's a loser in the game of life. He has no one and nobody, except maybe Katniss, sort-of-kind-of, and she doesn't even like him. He's broken. And yet he is fascinating to me where Katniss is not, because he also wins; he sees his plan through to the end, even though in a real way it doesn't benefit him at all. Think about all that Haymitch is doing while Katniss is busy whining. Wouldn't that have made a way more interesting book? Plus which I would love to know what he had to say about the love triangle; I would find that more interesting than what Katniss thought about it.

[. . .] Of course, with Haymitch as the POV character, it wouldn't be a YA novel. You'd have to start wrestling seriously with things like -- well, Haymitch clearly knows what Coin is up to, he's not *ahem* stupid and naive. What Coin is doing becomes less of a twist and more of a serious ethical/thematic question of shades of grey.”

[aion-rsa]

How Winter’s Orbit Went From AO3 to Published Space Opera

https://ift.tt/3r0YY7S

There have been some very public examples of works that began life as fanfiction (i.e. not-for-profit stories written in the already existing fictional worlds or pop culture, often by and for writers from communities underrepresented in commercial storytelling) only to later become published books— the most famous examples probably being E.L. James’ 50 Shades of Grey, Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, or Anna Todd’s After. But not all works published on fanfiction websites are fanfiction. Fanfiction platforms, such as Archive of Our Own or Wattpad, also play host to “original” (not based on an existing canon) non-commercial fiction. While these original works are, by and large, less common than fic, they often have much in common with their transformative fandom neighbors.

Winter’s Orbit, a healing and action-packed queer romance space opera that hits bookshelves next week, began life as an original work on Archive of Our Own (AO3), where it gained an enthusiastic following. Now, British author Everina Maxwell, is hoping to find a broader, commercial audience for her story about two space princes in an arranged marriage on which the political stability of their solar system rests. The story of Winter’s Orbit path from original work on AO3 to published book is a fascinating one, and one that is emblematic of the increasingly candid impact the world of transformative fandom is having on the book industry and other spheres of the commercial entertainment world. We talked to Maxwell about her debut novel, what it was like to bring Winter’s Orbit from AO3 to Tor Books, and how the transformative fannish experience has impacted her writing.

Den of Geek: Where did the kernel for the story of Winter’s Orbit begin? Was it a character? A relationship? A setting? A theme?

Everina Maxwell: It all grew out of the first scenes: a good-natured prince is told to marry the widower of his cousin. It’s a political emergency. But his cousin and this diplomat had the perfect marriage, while the prince himself is a talkative disaster; how can he ever match up to the previous marriage? Was it as perfect as it looked? So I guess that’s a character, a relationship and a setting! I like to start from something that has an inbuilt tension. It means I’m anticipating scenes before I even properly plot them out.

Winter’s Orbit is told through the dual perspectives of the two main characters. Did you find it easier to write from Jainan or Kiem’s point-of-view?

Jainan—the diplomat—makes more sense to me; he’s introverted, anxious, and his thought processes flow logically from his basic assumptions about the world. On the other hand Prince Kiem is an absolute delight to write. It’s just fun to be in the head of someone who’s happy by nature and genuinely delighted to talk to anyone who crosses his path.

Winter’s Orbit is such a comforting book, but it also deals with some heavy issues, including domestic abuse. How did you go about balancing the hurt and the comfort of this story?

When it comes to fiction, I think the dark and the light are two sides of the same coin. Healing is possible; danger and trouble can pass. Though Winter’s Orbit is a “light” book, it’s definitely true that it contains heavy topics. To me, it’s reassuring on a very deep level that it’s possible to find happiness and joy even if life hasn’t been easy.

I do believe in content warnings to let people know if it’s a story will deal with specific upsetting topics, and I encourage anyone who wants details to check out the content warnings page (https://everinamaxwell.com/content-warnings).

Do you think romance and science fiction make good bedfellows?

They always have! I grew up reading writers like Bujold, who built up a universe where love stories were essential to the action plots and vice versa. I strongly believe books in every genre benefit from two people having unreasonably strong feelings about each other, and romance is just one subset of that.

Winter’s Orbit began life as an original work on Archive of Our Own. When and why did you start considering publishing it commercially and what did that process look like?

It was very long and meandering, since when I was writing it I didn’t have a long-term plan. At first I was just trading Kiem and Jainan snippets with a friend; later I posted them for more people to read, then when I had a whole story to share I put it on AO3. I still don’t know if that was technically the right place to put it, but it was the only writing website I was familiar with, I knew my way around it, and I’d read origfic on there before. The first draft was online for a couple of years. People very kindly read it and told their friends. I still have no idea how Tamara (my now-agent) found it, but she contacted me out of the blue and rewrote it with me, and then Ali Fisher at Tor picked it up and really helped me with the final rewrite. I wrote it five years ago now—I don’t know if that seems too long or too short, but it certainly doesn’t seem accurate.

How different is The Course of Honour from Winter’s Orbit?

The Course of Honour was laser-focused on Kiem and Jainan’s relationship. And don’t get me wrong, Winter’s Orbit very much is too, but working with a professional editor encouraged me to consider the implications of worldbuilding and plot events, and to build them out into a bigger picture. I knew some of this stuff from the beginning—I remember answering a comment years ago with some of the galaxy link explanations—but it wasn’t until the third major draft that it became part of the plot.

How did the decision to change the title come about and how did you settle on Winter’s Orbit?

It turns out The Course of Honour is already the title of a book! I’m bad at titles and my editor was really helpful on this one. I liked how it made the winter imagery more central.

What role has fanfiction played in your life as a reader and a writer, if it has?

I’ve both read and written fanfiction but as a very small fish in a very large pond—if you’re reading this and wondering what my AO3 handle is, you’ve almost certainly never come across it! Casual writing and shared-world creation with friends have brought me huge amounts of joy over the years, whether connected to a canon or not.

Fanfiction is such a broad category, loosely defined as non-commercial works based on existing stories, but I am super interested in some of the common narrative and stylistic traits that much of fic shares. How would you define Winter’s Orbit’s narrative and prose style and interests, and how much of that, if any, comes from the world of transformative fandom?

Winter’s Orbit’s primary concern is its two main characters. Where there was a choice between a revealing conversation about the characters and an action scene, the character work often won out. I think one thing that fannish experience gave me was a strong appreciation for character arcs and permission to unabashedly put them at the centre of a story.

Read more

Books

How Do You Approach Worldbuilding?

By Kayti Burt

Culture

Ngozi Ukazu Interview: Check, Please and Beyond

By Kayti Burt

Do you think there are story things the world of fanfiction (generally) does better than the world of commercially published fiction (generally)?

This is a complicated question, since “fandom” includes so many people who are interested in so many different things! I will say that my experience has been based around stories with a laser focus on character development (including relationships) above everything else, and this focus produces some amazing works—though my narrow description there leaves out worldbuilding fans and so many others. Ultimately it’s a rich and creative community that has both its own tropes and room to experiment.

Do you have any plans to continue writing in this world and with these characters? (I would read so many more!) Either way, can you tell us what you are working on next?

I’m not totally ruling out revisiting these characters, though they’ve earned a bit of a rest for now! I definitely plan to continue in the Resolution universe. I’m currently working on a book set on a planet outside the Iskat Empire, starring two even bigger disasters than Kiem and Jainan (and an expansion of Remnant powers). I’m very excited for that.

And, finally, what stories, of any kind, have been bringing you joy recently?

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There are so many good books coming up this year, which is lucky because generally it’s very hard to concentrate. On the queer SFF side, I’m very excited about The Unbroken by C. L. Clark, which is North African post-colonial fantasy, and She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, which deals with the rise of a genderqueer emperor in fantasy China. I’ve read these two and they’re excellent. I’m waiting impatiently for Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard and The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. Oh, and on the romance side, I really loved Division Bells, by Iona Datt Sharma, a beautiful queer workplace romance which is almost elegiac about public service. I’ll stop now—but it’s a good year for books!

Winter’s Orbit is available to buy and read on February 2nd. You can preorder here. Find out more about Everina Maxwell on Twitter or at her official website.

The post How Winter’s Orbit Went From AO3 to Published Space Opera appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2M81tql

[voyage-in-the-dark]

2016 in books

(Going through my Goodreads to pick the books that made a big impact on me this year; these books are the formative influences that really shaped me each month. If I had to redo the year, I must reread these books.)

January -- Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles in Love & The Curse of Chalion, Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy. January rereads -- Andrea K Host’s Hunting, Sharon Shinn’s Jovah’s Angel.

So, January seems to be the month I first discovered Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s so weird because it feels like I’ve known her works for forever. I have a huge soft spot for The Curse of Chalion and Miles in Love; Chalion is the first time I was introduced to the trope of the powerful and assured woman with a scandalous and uneasy reputation, causing others to fear her or feel uneasy around her because they don’t know what to do with her. I love this trope. Miles in Love was the first time I was introduced to Miles (the character, not the series), and he was so different from what I’ve usually known. Surprisingly endearing. I finally read the Mistborn trilogy and I devoured it -- it was so creative and good and that ending still guts me.

I reread Hunting and Jovah’s Angel and loved them waaay more than when I first read them.

February -- Lois McMaster Bujold’s Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Andrea K Host’s The Sleeping Life, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Richard II, and Twelfth Night. February rereads -- Andrea K Host’s Stained Glass Monsters.

February was the month when I read a lot more Shakespeare than I’d ever had, for one of my modules. To this day, Twelfth Night remains one of my favorite plays -- there’s a liveliness, quickness, and sweetness that none of the other plays have. I am so heart-eyes over Viola. Macbeth is my favorite tragedy. The Sleeping Life also came out and it was great -- I’d read and reread Stained Glass Monsters obsessively while waiting for the sequel; SGM is one of my favorite novels by Host, mostly because Rennyn Claire is the trope of the powerful, enigmatic, and supremely self-assured and capable woman. I only wished TSL was longer. 

February was also my first venture into classical plays -- Oedipus the King is one of my favorite Greek tragedies. Admittedly, I’ve literally only read 2. I’m amazed at the power and force of it. Gentleman Jole was so good. I love Cordelia. I love love love Cordelia so much and I was so happy to have a novel with her; Jole was a wonderful protagonist. Very sweet, very sincere, very moral.

March -- none.

I read very little this month; spent most of my time watching films. Got into Marvel, watched a lot of superhero films this month.

April -- Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Jane Austen’s Emma, Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Archivist Wasp. April rereads -- Ilona Andrews’ Silver Shark.

Lol obviously I have to reread a romance each month. Stop me. Anyway, Archivist Wasp is one of the best books of the year for me. It was beautifully written, and I love Wasp so much. I love her wayward kindness, I love the compassion that she struggles to hide, I love her relationship with the soldier.

May -- Homer’s The Odyssey, CS Pacat’s Captive Prince trilogy, Ada Limon’s Bright Dead Things, NK Jemisin’s The Shadowed Sun & The Awakened Kingdom. May rereads -- Erin Bow’s Sorrow’s Knot, Lynn Flewelling’s Tamir Triad, Robin McKinley’s Deerskin, Juliet Marillier’s Daughter of the Forest.

So, this was an eventful month. I reread a lot of fantasy/fairytale retellings. I loved all the things that I reread way more than the first time I read them: Sorrow’s Knot was beautiful and hopeful and aching; Tamir Triad was a very solid fantasy while also giving me food for thought when it comes to gender; Deerskin is just one of my favorite books despite the brutality and the awfulness, because of the bond between the princess and her dog, and the gradual healing and catharsis that happens -- it’s gentle and good and is just really healing to read; Daughter of the Forest was the first of multiple Marillier books that I made my way through. I enjoyed Daughter the most, made my way through Heart’s Blood and Heir to Sevenwaters as well, whereupon I noticed the pseudofeminism and subtle misogyny, which was very, um. Not fun.

I also first read the Captive Prince trilogy -- I have some reservations about the trilogy, but it was good; and I had a lot of fun talking to my sister about it (which was the main reason why I read this). The Odyssey remains one of my favorite plays of Greek tragedy because of Penelope and Circe. Who cares about Odysseus lol. I love subtle and cunning women who slide under the narrative. Bright Dead Things was one of the first few poetry collections I read all the way through and I am very fond of it. I also made my way through NK Jemisin’s works (Shadowed Sun, Shades of Inheritance, Awakened Kingdom, etc). They prove my growing suspicion that NK Jemisin is talented as hell and writes fantastic stories.

It’s not on the list up there, but this is the month I spent some time rereading Linda Howard’s romance/romantic suspense novels and came to the realization that I honestly detest the adult het romance genre. It’s a lot of ‘alpha’ males who are honestly just threatening and gross, but are seen as hot, and the novels just perpetuate the whole rape culture thing and sexism and misogyny and it just goes on. Ugh.

June -- none. June reread -- LJ Smith’s Nightworld,

Didn’t read much again apparently. Oh yeah, I went overseas twice and watched a lot of movies. This is the month I watched Hellboy II, Snowpiercer, Under the Skin, Now You See Me 2, and got into Hamilton.

I reread most of my LJ Smith books (they were such favorites of mine when they were younger) and I found that I still love the story with Keller, and the one with Jez and Morgead. Still some of my favorite romances.

July -- Nora Sakavic’s The Foxhole Court, Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch. July rereads -- CLAMP’s Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles.

TFC is up here mainly because it made me realize I really love team-stuff where everyone works together (this is honestly what I remember from the book -- the moments where everyone played together). Oh, and also it’s another bonding thing between me and my sis. Akata Witch was just so different from the usual stories, it was so good. 

But the highlight of this month is definitely Tsubasa. It was a formative influence, and rereading it now, I am still so heart-eyes over it. Okay, I LOVE IT!!!!!

August -- George Orwell’s 1984, Joan Wolf’s The Road to Avalon & The Edge of Light, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Kate Elliott’s Jaran. August rereads -- JK Rowling’s Order of the Phoenix to Deathly Hallows.

1984 is a huge formative influence. It changed the way I think about dystopia and oppression and propaganda. Jaran is one of my favorite love stories of all time; I was heartbroken by and also loved Avalon and Edge of Light -- and they made me pick up The Once and Future King. I love this kind of male protagonists. And of course, the bulk of the month was taken up by Harry Potter. I love this series with all my heart. It shaped so much of my life when I first read it; rereading it again, it made me refine my mental perception of Harry (he’s a lot angrier than I remember lol, also a lot more wonderful), and understand/judge/perceive the characters, events, and their stories in a new light. Ginny is still super hot.

September -- Intisar Khanani’s Memories of Ash, Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World, Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey. September rereads -- none.

Memories of Ash made me realize I love Intisar Khanani’s works, and it also made me realize I love these stories with strong bonds of friendship, loyalty, kindnesses, and camaraderie, and are romance-free. The Home and the World is beautiful and also heartwrenching, and it... I can’t explain why it has such a special place in my heart, but it does. 

October -- Kate Elliot’s Spiritwalker trilogy, Rachel Aaron’s No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished, Emily Martin’s Woodwalker, Bliss Carman’s Sappho: One Hundred Lyrics. October rereads -- Rachel Aaron’s Nice Dragons Finish Last & One Good Dragon Deserves Another.

Cold Fire is one of my favorite romances ever; I love the Heartstrikers series -- they’re so good. I realize I really love those stories where there are lots of likeable characters who are all kind and supportive and friends with each other; I honestly could’t care less about romance in these stories, but they’re so hard to find. And so I end up looking endlessly for good love stories, because good love stories have the same effect as those. Woodwalker because I realized I really like stories where there is a HUGE plot-twist at the end that changes everything, that frames/reframes the way you look at things. I love these stories. Carman’s book of poetry is here because it introduced me to Sappho and also I love her writing, it’s beautiful.

November -- Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit. November rereads -- Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

These two books are the highlights of my year, without a doubt. I love both to bits. I already wrote a huge and long post about Ninefox Gambit that is probably suffused with my love for it. And I have so little experience with dystopia and apocalyptical stories that it gives a new framework with which to think of things. P&P made me realize no other love story will ever match up to it, ever, probably. My favorite love story of all time. It made me realize that there can be so much UST or URT between two characters even though the book is SO clean there isn’t even a hug. Or a touch.

December -- Suzanne Collins’ Gregor series, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Martha Wells’ The Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. December rereads -- Tamora Pierce’s Mastiff, Eliza Crewe’s Soul Eaters trilogy.

Some of my favorite books of the whole year are all here -- the Gregor series is <33333 Hunger Games pale in comparison because the Gregor series feels so much more... heartfelt. I felt so much for all of them; I still remember the events as clearly as if I’d read them a couple of days ago; I still grieve for some of the characters, and I still miss some of them. My main takeaway was, again, a framework for dystopia and apocalyptical stories. The third book -- that thought experiment with the baby Bane is still so... raw. 

Martha Wells is the best thing to happen to me in the end of 2016/start of 2017. I’ve already worked my way through her entire backlog and I. love. all. her. worlds.

-----

So, the best books of the year for me are definitely: 

Archivist Wasp

Jane Eyre

The Fall of Ile-Rien

Gregor

Ninefox Gambit

Pride & Prejudice

1984

Memories of Ash.