Galactic Suburbia

In which the boob window is explained. Don't say we're not educational!

News

Drink Tank loves us! Download their Hugo shortlist commentary here.

Mondy loves us too! He makes us go awww.

James Tiptree Jr finally in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and about time too.

Talking to Alistair Reynolds: he refutes the idea that science fiction has a limited number of plots

Locus Award Finalists

Clarke Award

Women in (Japanese) Comics: Cheryl Morgan reports; Anime News Network Some kickstarter stuff: Feminist Historical Anthology from Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Scalzi on Amanda Palmer and how she worked hard for 10 years to get her "overnight success"

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: We Wuz Pushed by Brit Mandelo Alex: Castles Made of Sand, Gwyneth Jones; Captain America; The Avengers; Confusion of Princes, Garth Nix Tansy: A Confusion of Princes, Garth Nix; The Avengers; Earth 2 & World’s Finest; Ishtar

Tansy's Note: "I do not mourn the boob window" is a classic line that should be long remembered and oft repeated - but Cheryl Morgan said it first! I only steal from the best...

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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In which we pore over the Ditmar ballot, Alex makes Tansy squirm about her nominations, Alisa makes Alex say 'sexytimes' more than once, and we take on the hard-hitting issues of the day: plagiarism, pirates and mommy porn.

News Ditmar shortlist

Shirley Jackson shortlist featuring Deborah B

Stephenie Meyer moves into film production and who can blame her?

Story Siren & Plagiarism: Smart Bitches presents the story. Kristi's apology.

MindMeld looks at great SF reads for teenage girls. But what KIND of teenage girls?

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa: Feed by Mira Grant Alex: By Light Alone, Adam Roberts; Lathe of Heaven, Ursula le Guin; In the Mouth of the Whale, Paul McAuley; Among Others, Jo Walton; Tansy: Womanthology, The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Feedback: Fifty Shades of Grey

Interview with the author

Mommy porn

COMPETITION - SHOWTIME - What’s your favourite vampire?

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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In which this Hugo nominated podcast is Hugo nominated and discusses the Hugo nominations while being Hugo nominated. Also, the internet is full of things. Some of those things discuss gender, feminism and equality, some have wide ranging implications for the future of SF awards, and some of them are nominated for Hugos.

HUUUUUUUUUGO SHORTLIST

Charles A Tan reviews the Fancast category

Hunger Games Hunger Games Hunger Games

Build up to make a hit The reviews are in: Topless Robot Forbes Our Alisa

But in the real world, the character Katniss Everdeen faces an even greater challenge: Proving that pop culture will embrace a heroine capable of holding her own with the big boys. It’s a battle fought on two fronts. First, The Hunger Games must bring in the kind of box office numbers that prove to Hollywood that a film led by a young female heroine who’s not cast as a sex symbol can bring in audiences. And second, for Katniss to truly triumph, she must embody the type of female heroine — smart, tough, compassionate — that has been sorely lacking in the popular culture landscape for so very long.

The Clarke Award Shortlist: Christopher Priest's original post Cat Valente responds: “Because let’s be honest, I couldn’t get away with it. If I posted that shit? I’d never hear the end of what a bitch I am.” And further she responds

Outer Alliance discussion on Gay YA Dystopia & Paolo Bacigalupi

Qld Premier cancels Premiers Literary Award “Before the election, the LNP pledged to cut government "waste" as part of its efforts to offer cost-of-living relief to Queenslanders.” Response of Queensland Writers Centre The Fake Geek Girl at the Mary Sue

Eisner Award shortlist

Kate Elliott on the portrayal of women in pain & fear

Ashley Judd on the media’s attitude to women and their bodies

Valente on the war against women in the real world

Philip K Dick Award

Chronos Award Ballot

Tehani on Aurealis Awards stats, gender

BSFA stuff - Actual winners

The first post that raised the problems with the ceremony.

A response (there for historical sake, though I think since at least partly recanted)

how the Tweets saw it

Cheryl’s take

EDIT: Since recording, the BSFA have issued a full and unreserved apology, along with an explanation of why it took them so long to respond.  That's how to do it, folks!

Jim Hines works through his privileged dumbassery Kirstyn McDermott works through whether her feminism is good enough

Vote for Sean the Blogonaut for NAFF

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Monstrous Regiment, Terry Pratchett; Showtime, Narrelle M Harris, Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy; 2312, Kim Stanley Robinson; The State of the Art, Iain M Banks

Tansy: So Silver Bright, Lisa Mantchev; Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis; Cold Magic, Kate Elliott

Alisa: The Hunger Games (movie and books), The Readers (podcast)

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs,, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us.

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If you're just joining us, and want to try out Galactic Suburbia for the first time, here are the top episodes that we think represent the best of 2011.

Episode 32: 11 May 2011 In which we bid farewell to Joanna Russ, talk e-publishing (again) and Alisa reads a real live actual book. With bonus raving about Doctor Who and Alistair Reynolds - in other words, another episode of Galactic Suburbia.

Episode 36: Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ Featuring: "How To Suppress Women's Writing," by Joanna Russ; "The Female Man," by Joanna Russ and "When it Changed," by Joanna Russ

Episode 47: 24 November 2011 In which we bid farewell to the queen of dragons, squee about 48 years of Doctor Who, dissect the negative associations with "girly" fandoms such as Twilight, and find some new favourites in our reading pile.

Or if you're feeling adventurous, you can check out our entire 2011 catalogue of episodes! Thanks to our silent producer for gathering those links.

Here are summaries of Galactic Suburbia's episodes from 2011, with links:

Episode 23: 5 January 2011 In which we greet a brand new year with discussion about digital media, awards, books, feminism, feedback, more books, anti-heroes, gender roles and take a look at what to look forward to in 2011.

Episode 24: 19 January 2011 In which we flit over the first shortlist of the year and some charitable links, sweep though a fortnight of culture consumed, and then leap with both feet into the pet subject of Inside Indie Press.

Episode 25: 2 February 2011 In which we hit and run the Locus Recommended Reading List, tackle e-books and piracy, and delve into the knotty issue of religion in science fiction.

Episode 26: 23 February 2011 In which Tansy and Alex soldier on womanfully without their lost comrade, to catch up on three weeks of publishing news, the Nebulas, books, books, and more books, and tackle the crunchy pet subject of Australian SFF Publishing in its entirety: how do Australian specfic readers get their books?  Who publishes them and how do we buy them?

Episode 27: 9 March 2011 In which there is cake, cake and more cake - we discuss the year that was Galactic Suburbia One, authorial in crowds, gender bias, and announce our exciting new project.

Episode 28: 22 March 2011 In which we keep celebrating our birthday, take in the Lambdas and the Tiptree, and did we mention there are Galactic Suburbia T-SHIRTS now???

Episode 29: 6 April 2011 In which we rant about feminist issues and gender disparity (are you shocked?), Alisa proclaims the death of bookstores and publishing, we look at branding and internet dramah, plus a million zillion award shortlists, TANSY BEING A TIPTREE JUDGE, a Swancon preview, and... um.  It’s a bit long. But full of crunchy Galactic Suburbian goodness.

Episode 30: 24 April 2011 Swancon 36 Edition In which we talk convention gossip, awards, go through piles and piles of reading for Tansy and Alex, while Alisa patiently explains her position on ebooks.

Episode 31: 27 April 2011 In which we do a quick (ha) awards round up and squee about the Swancon that was.

Episode 32: 11 May 2011 In which we bid farewell to Joanna Russ, talk e-publishing (again) and Alisa reads a real live actual book.  With bonus raving about Doctor Who and Alistair Reynolds - in other words, another episode of Galactic Suburbia.

Episode 33: 26 May 2011 In which we wax lyrical about awards, short stories and the love of reading.  Because it’s that time of year!

Episode 34: 8 June 2011 In which we surf the wave of feminist SF news that has deluged the internet this fortnight, plus Margaret Brundage, why YA books are allowed to be as dark as they want to be, the Tiptree Award, Connie Willis, were-thylacines, Ted Chiang and Alex finally discovers Bujold...

Episode 35: 23 June 2011 In which “best” becomes “superior,” Pottermore is Pottermeh, one of us wins all the awards, and we visit/revisit classic non-hard works of SF and Fantasy by Bujold, Willis and Pratchett (with bonus Russian fairytales by Valente).

Episode 36: Spoilerific Book Club: Joanna Russ Featuring: "How To Suppress Women's Writing," by Joanna Russ; "The Female Man," by Joanna Russ and "When it Changed," by Joanna Russ

Episode 37: 21 July 2011 In which we discuss the SF Gateway and some great additions to the Women in SF conversation, Alex eats all the Bujold in one bite, and Alisa’s puppy does his very best to oppress us.

Episode 38: 5 August 2011 In which none of your fearless podcasters are impregnated by mysterious aliens for the duration of a single episode, nor do any of us experience a rapidly accelerated pregnancy or give birth to an otherworldly demon/alien/vampire. Also: Batgirl, Bujold and a cranky feminist rant or two.

Episode 39: 18 August 2011 In which we defend Mary Sues everywhere, point at superheroes with their pants down, plan a Hugo Twitterparti and reveal which of the three of us is secretly a hardcore horror fan. But most importantly, Alex is watching Blake's 7 completely unspoiled and she loves Avon the best, hooray!

Episode 40: 1 September 2011 In which we hug the Hugos, plug the Stella, lament the loss of the Weird Tales team, and contemplate (briefly) our podcasterly mid-life crisis. Alex delves into the wonderful world of classic cyberpunk, and Tansy demands to know why on earth Alisa is still watching Doctor Who if she doesn’t actually like it?

Episode 41: 6 September 2011 Spoilerific Book Club: Hunger Games It's the trilogy that put dystopia into YA and not only kicked Harry Potter and Twilight off the bestseller charts, but also shot them between the eyes with a crossbow.  While they were stung by wasps. Tansy and Alisa are spoiling the hell out of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins.  Listener beware, the first rule about the Spoilerific Book Club is... WE SPOIL STUFF. Please only listen to this podcast if you have read the books in question, plan never to read the books in question, or really truly don't mind spoilers.  Also, towards the end, we get pretty spoilery about Harry Potter too.  It's relevant!  Mostly.

Episode 42: 14 September 2011 In which we discuss Orson Scott Card's Hamlet, the agent who said no way to gay YA, Tansy's Blake's 7 dolls, the superhero who fights with her hair, and Alisa works through her issues with Doctor Who.

Episode 43: 29 September 2011 In which Alisa and Tansy look at crimes against superheroines in the DC Universe, the good and the bad of the companions' journeys in Doctor Who, and why we love Olivia Dunham and her gun. We also plug our own books (yes really!), Tansy is still reading comics, and Alisa confesses that e-books have broken her brain. No, seriously, she's broken now.

Episode 44: 13 October 2011 In which we fight crime, rail against derailing and read a million books.

Episode 45: 27 October 2011 In which Alex and Tansy wax lyrical about Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing (despite knowing next to nothing about it), welcome the new Apex overlord Lynne Thomas, celebrate the twin dawns of All Hallows Read and Nanowrimo, and embark upon an epic marathon of Culture Consumed.

Episode 46: 10 November 2011 In which we celebrate the World Fantasy Awards, take on the Kickstarter phenomenon and why people like to support authors/artists directly, Alex is betrayed by Isobelle Carmody, Alisa still can’t finish Tansy’s novel, and we indulge in a feedback frenzy.

Episode 47: 24 November 2011 In which we bid farewell to the queen of dragons, squee about 48 years of Doctor Who, dissect the negative associations with "girly" fandoms such as Twilight, and find some new favourites in our reading pile.

Episode 48: 8 December 2011 In which we save the Tasmanian Devils, take on the Classics, review cars, discover that toy fandom exists, plan to read LOTS of Australian women writers, and Wonder Woman still doesn't have pants.

Episode 49: 20 December 2011 Spoilerific Book Club: Yarn by Jon Armstrong Welcome to Galactic Suburbia’s spoilerific book club for 20 December, 2011. This time we’re tackling Yarn, by Jon Armstrong. It is totally full of spoilers. Please only listen to this podcast if you’ve read the book, plan never to read the book, or really and truly don’t mind spoilers.

In which Alex falls by the wayside and Alisa & Tansy soldier on to talk about awards, Connie Willis, Tina Fey and Chicks Digging Comics. And more comics.

News The Galactic Suburbia Award has landed.

Manfire: the latest exploration of genderbending comics protest through artwork

Ditmar nominations open (wiki with things eligible; how to nominate)

Cool comment about understanding Aussie fiction awards from outside our country.

Aurealis Awards nominees: press release

Brit Mandelo new Strange Horizons fiction editor

Pinterest for Galactic Suburbia! Thanks, Celia

Swancon Program is out - Perth SF convention this Easter.

Tansy's Creature Court books (Power and Majesty, The Shattered City and Reign of Beasts) are now available on the Kindle internationally! Should be available on other platforms too - iBookstore etc. If you see them for sale somewhere in your country please let us know. Fly, my pretties, fly!

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa: All About Emily, Connie Willis; Bossypants, Tina Fey; Hunger Games Movie Tansy: Astonishing X-Men, Joss Whedon & John Cassaday; Saucer Country by Paul Cornell, Chicks Dig Comics, edited by Lynne M Thomas & Sigrid Ellis.

We'll be giving away a copy of Beyond Binary, edited by Brit Mandelo (and featuring a Tansy story). Tweet us with the name of your favourite queer/genderqueer/QLTBG character in SF or fantasy to be in the draw!

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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In which we honour the memory of Paul Haines by giving ourselves nightmares, and catch up (mostly) on several months of feedback about how Galactic Suburbia is singlehandedly keeping the bookselling business alive.

News Paul Haines in memoriam. Death notice and information about memorial service We discuss posts by Dirk Flinthart and Ben Peek.

If anyone does a round up of memorial posts about Paul, please let us know & we'll add the link. In the mean time, check out this post about his complete bibliography and how to get hold of his work.

Ladybusiness on coverage of women on SF/F blogs

New Galactic Chat: Claire Corbett

What Culture Have we Consumed? Alisa: Wives, Paul Haines; The Warrior's Apprentice, Lois Mcmaster Bujold; Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts), Locus Round Table featuring Nalo Hopkinson and Karen Lord Alex: Solaris Rising (ed Ian Whates); Reign of Beasts (Tansy Rayner Roberts); Pure (Julianna Bagott) Tansy: Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, The Opposite of Life by Narrelle M Harris

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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In which we keep it short (truly) through restraint and perseverance, despite setting Tansy off on a tangent about Lego and lots of crunchy gender bias stuff to chew through.

News

Nebula shortlist

Stoker shortlist

Paul Cornell on Panel Parity

Elizabeth L Huede on National Year of (Gender Biased) Reading

Tansy's thing: new feminist Doctor Who blog Doctor Her

Can princesses play with Lego? (Lego friends petition at Change.org)

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Vorkosigan - Shards of Honor, Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

Alex: The Islanders, Christopher Priest

Tansy: After the Apocalypse, by Maureen McHugh (collection)

Feedback episode coming too!

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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In which we pop the cork on the champagne bottle to welcome in the beginning of the 9 month science fiction awards season - hooray!

News

Responses to the Galactic Suburbia Award.

Crawford nominees and winner: Genevieve Valentine's Mechanique.

BSFA nominees

SF Translation Awards Fundraiser - donate and win awesome books

The Kitschies: yes really, rum and tentacles.

LOCUS Recommended Reading List! [and Poll]

Young Australian of the Year who founded Robogals: Marita Cheng

Women of SF in their own words, reviewed by Brit Mandelo

Diana Peterfreund: following up on Brave New Love [and how the internet often fails to pick up the pieces after a controversy has died down]

Women Writing Horror (it’s new, who knew?) [and the other Guardian article patronising genre readers, taken apart by Smart Bitches Trashy Books]

10 Great SF books for "girls"

Creature Court trilogy giveaway - we'll be drawing it next episode, email us to tell us about one book you read because of us & you'll enter the draw to win all three books by Tansy

Creature Court Spoilerific Blog Post - only for those who have read Creature Court Book Three, Reign of Beasts, by Tansy Rayner Roberts

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby; The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson

Alex: Clockwork Rocket, Greg Egan; A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, Ursula le Guin; The Business of Death, Trent Jamieson; Skyrim

Tansy: Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti; Batgirl: the Lesson; Redwood & Wildfire by Andrea Hairston; Blake’s 7: The Turing Test [Big Finish], Doctor Who: Foe From the Future [Big Finish]

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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Yesterday Galactic Suburbia put up a Very Special podcast, announcing the honours list and winner of the inaugural Galactic Suburbia Award.

After much discussion, and wanting in particular to create something that wasn't already out there in the multitudinous world of spec fic awards, we came up with this definition:

The Galactic Suburbia Award: for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2011

We didn't put links to the honours list and winner as show notes to the podcast, because we wanted our regular listeners to have at least SOME sense of anticipation as they listened, but now it's well and truly out there, so here is the list:

Honours List

Carrie Goldman and her daughter Katie, for sharing their story about how Katie was bullied at school for liking Star Wars, and opening up a massive worldwide conversation about gender binaries and gender-related bullying among very young children.

Cheryl Morgan for Female Invisibility Bingo, associated blogging and podcasting, and basically fighting the good fight

Helen Merrick, for the Feminism article on the SF Encyclopedia

Jim C Hines for “Jane C Hines” and associated blogging, raising awareness of feminist issues in the SF/Fantasy publishing field.

Julia Rios, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond for Episode 11 of the Outer Alliance podcast (The Writer and the Critic special episode)

L. Timmel Duchamp - for continuing to raise issues of importance on the Ambling Down the Aqueduct blog and various Aqueduct Press projects

Michelle Lee for the blog post "A 7-year-old girl responds to DC Comics’ sexed-up reboot of Starfire"

Winner

Nicola Griffith - for the Russ Pledge, and associated blogging

The winner will receive a Deepings Doll hand-painted figurine of a suffragette with a Galactic Suburbia placard, hand-painted by Jilli Roberts of Pendlerook Designs. (Tansy's very talented mother!) Each Deepings Doll is individual, so the one each winner will receive (we do plan to make this an annual tradition) will be unique.

If you have ideas for our Honours list for 2012, please email us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com or tweet @galacticsuburbs

=====

It's been lovely to see such a positive response from our honourees and winner. Already, Nicola Griffith, Cheryl Morgan and Timmi Duchamp have posted the award details on their blogs with gracious commentary. We at Galactic Suburbia had a great time chewing over what our award should be, and what we wanted to celebrate in the SF community.

In which women aren't funny, don't write important books, but come in handy as assassins and thieves.

News

Connie Willis named SFWA Grand Master

Liz Bourke on Strange Horizons & the art of the mean review

Survey shows that men (as well as women) often play characters of the other gender while gaming - in many cases, men are bored with or alienated by the big musclebound male characters, which game designers think they want. Sound familiar?

Hoyden about Town are asking for guest bloggers to crosspost their Australian Women Writers Challenge reviews on Hoyden (ASIF also keen to do so)

More on feminine tosh: a good solid article in the Australian media (shock!) about the women in literature issues of recent months (and, you know, decades).

Have we been following the “Women aren’t funny” stoush that played out in NYT? This interesting development.

DC Comics - cancellations & new titles - Tansy is especially excited by World's Finest (featuring the Earth 2 Huntress & Power Girl)

Stranger with My Face - Women in Horror film festival in Hobart, Tasmania - 17-19 February

Tansy’s book launch for Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three) on 2 February at Hobart Bookshop, 5:30pm.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alex: Ashes to Ashes season 2; Dr Who season 1; Rocannon’s World, Ursula le Guin; The Declaration, Gemma Malley; Grey, Jon Armstrong; The Collected Works of TS Spivet, Reif Larsen. BBC 4 “Cat Women of the Moon” podcast

Tansy: Destination: Nerva (Big Finish, audio), Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon, The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, DVD Extras Include Murder, by Nev Fountain

Alisa: absorbed in novel submissions; The Big Bang Theory; Swordspoint Audiobook, written and performed by Ellen Kushner

GS Award will be proclaimed... in a short while!

Winner of Alex’s Yarn giveaway: Jo

Tansy: Creature Court trilogy give away! Email to tell us about one book you read after we talked about it on GS to be eligible

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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In which we leap happily back and forth (with occasional ranting) over those fine lines between feminist critique and anti-female assumptions, plus share our bumper collection of holiday culture consumed. Happy New Year from the Galactic Suburbia crew!

NEWS AND LINKS

Hugo nominations open and we're gonna have our say

Aqueduct Press will be publishing Brit Mandelo's thesis, "WE WUZ PUSHED: On Joanna Russ & Radical Truth-telling"!

Islamic superhero comic turned animated series The 99 to screen in Australia (ABC3)

Amanda Palmer’s wedding post

Great piece on how the very idea of ‘Mary Sue’ is sexist, ties into this episode's theme about the criticism of female characters.

The wealth of powerful girl heroes in today’s YA WHAT CULTURE HAVE WE CONSUMED?

Alisa: Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal; The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman ; The Vampire Diaries; Primeval; The 99; Planetary; Homeland and Boxcutters.

Alex: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon, Julie Phillips; Changing Planes, Ursula le Guin; Perchance to Dream, Lisa Mantchev; Twilight Robbery, Frances Hardinge; Chronicles of Chrestomanci vol 1, Diana Wynne Jones. DOA and Going Postal

Tansy: The Freedom Maze, Delia Sherman; Beauty Queens, Libba Bray; Snuff by Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (TV) - Batman (animated) & My First Batman Book by David Katz, David Tennant & Catherine Tate in Much Ado About Nothing (DIGITAL THEATRE DOWNLOAD AWW YEAH).

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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In which we save the Tasmanian Devils, take on the Classics, review cars, discover that toy fandom exists, plan to read LOTS of Australian women writers, and Wonder Woman still doesn't have pants. News

Coffeeandink on The Erasure of women writers in SF and Fantasy

Mur Lafferty - My Problem With Classics

Open letter to publishers: book bloggers are not your bitches

Kate Gordon’s Devil Auction - help to save the Tasmanian Devils! (kitten pictures with TEETH)

Australian Women Writers Challenge Sign up now

Jason Nahrung posted a list of the books he plans to read for the challenge - let us know what yours are!

In association with this, Tansy produced a list of award-winning SF/Fantasy books by Australian women.

Please keep sending in your suggestions for a Galactic Suburbia Award - we hope to have a plan for this by our 50th episode and are loving reading the tweets and emails so far.

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Bellwether by Connie Willis; American Horror Story; Yarn by Jon Armstrong

Tansy: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor; Jingo & The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, Shortpacked, a webcomic about toy fandom, obsessed people, lots of GLBTQ characters and feminist commentary on pop culture such as this strip about False Equivalence.

Alex: Coode St podcast with Ursula le Guin, and also with Ian McDonald and Alistair Reynolds; Spook Country, William Gibson; One of Our Thursdays is Missing, Jasper Fforde; Pirates of the Caribbean 4!

Feedback from Kitty of Panel2Panel: Reasoning With Vampires Kitty's post about why Marvel has no equivalent hero to Wonder Woman

TANSY RECS for DC comics that don't treat women appallingly: Birds of Prey (start as early as possible, either with the Chuck Dixon issues which are pretty good, or the Gail Simone run which is #56-108) Power Girl: A New Beginning & Aliens and Apes - Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner Catwoman run by Ed Brubaker Stephanie Brown Batgirl: Batgirl Rising, The Flood etc. Secret Six, Gail Simone Batwoman. Anything with Batwoman. I HAVE NOT YET FOUND THE PERFECT WONDER WOMAN TRADE TO RECOMMEND. But I do think anyone interested in comics history could get value from reading her first year of adventures, available as Wonder Woman Chronicles Vol. One

Marvel dude saying we don’t have to have female characters

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don't forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

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