Kari Sperring's Occasional Blog
https://www.karisperring.com/
Welcome to the website for Kari Sperring, writerenhttps://www.karisperring.com/templates/default/img/s9y_banner_small.pngRSS: Kari Sperring's Occasional Blog - Welcome to the website for Kari Sperring, writer
https://www.karisperring.com/
10021The Drowning Kings
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/67-The-Drowning-Kings.html
<p><br />
<br />
A lot of us are in lock-down or working from home right now, and cut off from our usual activities. I've been getting on with working on the follow-up to the Grass King's Concubine, but I've also been doing on-line readings from my Sekrit Projekt novel, which is a mystery with supernatural elements, set in 9th century Wales. You can find the first three installments here:</p><br />
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhmAUZBnGSE" title="The Drowning Kings 1">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhmAUZBnGSE</a></p><br />
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhmAUZBnGSE" title="The Drowning Kings 1"></a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3o6Gn-aa9M" title="Drowning Kings 2">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3o6Gn-aa9M</a></p><br />
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0iJxtwUwEE&t=123s" title="Drowning Kings 3">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0iJxtwUwEE&t=123s</a><br /></p>
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2020-03-23T18:08:32Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=670https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=67New Novella!
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/66-New-Novella!.html
<p><br />
<br />
So an exciting thing happened while I was away at Worldcon: my novella Serpent Rose came out from NewCon Press. You can find the details on their website here: https://www.newconpress.co.uk/info/book.asp?id=143&referer=Catalogue</p> <br />
<p>I've always felt conflicted about the figure of Kign Arthur. As a historian of the early middle ages, he can be a problem, as the evidence for him is very thin, yet there are a lot of rather misleading books out there about him. As a writer, though, I find the whole canon of Arthurian works fascinating. We tend to tell the same story, these days, but in the 12th through 15th centuries, there were many many different stories told, with different heroes and different endings. Serpent Rose is one of those: I wrote it in an attempt to explore the characters of Lamorak de Galis, who is said to have been the third greatest of Arthur's knights, yet remains obscure in most retellings. The Prose Tristan contains elements of what may be lost stories about him, and I have used some of those. But his story wove its way into a story about the Orkney brothers, too, and particularly Gaheris. These days, he's one of the minor figures in the Arthur stories, but like his elder brother Gawain, he seems once to have been more significant, and, also like Gawain, his character has rather taken a beating from Sir Thomas Malory onwards. I've always rather liked him though, so...</p> <br />
<p>Serpent Rose is high Arthuriana, set in the imaginary world of tournaments, heroic knights, quests and castles, rather than in a pseudo-early mediaeval context. It has a companion piece already written, which focuses on Gareth's wife (Lyonese/Llinos) and her story, and there are a couple more planned. <br /></p>
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2019-08-23T13:06:17Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=660https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=66Worldcon in Dublin!
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/65-Worldcon-in-Dublin!.html
<p><br />
<br />
I shall be at the Dublin worldcon, having missed last year. You can find my schedule on the convention's programming App, Grenadine, via their website, which is here: https://dublin2019.com/whats-on/programming/</p><br />
<p>I will be reading from new work, as well as doing several panels. I hope to see some of you there.<br /></p>
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2019-07-27T13:26:12Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=650https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=65
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/64-unknown.html
<p><br />
<br />
Hi there!</p><br />
<p>You can find me on Facebook these days, for updates on what I'm writing and what I'm doing.<br /></p>
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2019-04-01T13:07:03Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=640https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=64My Mancunicon schedule
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/63-My-Mancunicon-schedule.html
Mancunicon, the British National Science Fiction convention, is approaching rapidly and I have my schedule. I'm <br />
particularly looking forward to interviewing Aliette de Bodard on <br />
Saturday and to the Tanith Lee tribute item. I hope to see at least some<br />
of you there!<br /><br /><br /><strong>Revealing History, Revealing Now</strong><br /><br />Friday 17:30 - 18:30, Room 8&9 (Hilton Deansgate)<br /><br />We<br />
think of historical fantasy and alternate history as changing the past:<br />
but can they be used, instead, to reveal it? How do the tools of SF and<br />
fantasy enable writers to tell stories that allow us to think <br />
differently about our understanding of history? How can such stories <br />
help us to better understand the present? (And which "us" is defining <br />
"our", in any case?)<br /><br />Susan Bartholomew (M), Jacey Bedford, Aliette de Bodard, Kari Sperring, Sarah Walters.<br /><br /><br /><strong>A Tribute to Tanith Lee</strong><br /><br />Saturday 14:30 - 15:30, Deansgate 3 (Hilton Deansgate)<br /><br />Tanith<br />
Lee was the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award, for Death's <br />
Master (1980). She was nominated for and won various World Fantasy <br />
Awards, and wrote over 90 novels, 300 short stories, poetry, a <br />
children's book and episodes of the TV show Blake's 7. Her work explored<br />
feminism and sexuality. In this discussion, five of her literary <br />
"nieces", who all have a short story in an anthology dedicated to her <br />
(to be published by Storm under the title Night's Nieces), enthuse about<br />
her works and what made her such a critical figure in female and <br />
British Fantasy until her untimely death in May 2015.<br /><br />Storm Constantine, Kari Sperring, Sarah Singleton, Freda Warrington, Liz Williams, John Kaiine<br /><br /><br /><strong>Guest of Honour Interview - Aliette de Bodard<br /></strong><br />Sunday 16:00 - 17:00, Deansgate 2&3 (Hilton Deansgate)<br /><br />Aliette de Bodard was born in the USA, and grew up in London and Paris, where she now lives and works.<br />She<br />
began publishing short fiction in 2006, and gained rapid notice, <br />
particularly for work in her Xuya setting, including the Nebula <br />
Award-winning stories "Immersion" (2012) and "The Waiting Stars" (2013),<br />
and the Hugo-nominated novella On a Red Station, Drifting (2012). <br />Her<br />
first novel Servant of the Underworld, published in 2010, began the <br />
Obsidian & Blood series of Aztec mysteries. Her most recent book is <br />
The House of Shattered Wings, a BSFA Award nominee this year.<br /><br />Kari Sperring (M), Aliette de Bodard.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Historical Fiction and Fanfiction</strong><br /><br />Sunday 17:30 - 18:30, Room 8&9 (Hilton Deansgate)<br /><br />Historical<br />
fiction is set in the past. Fanfiction is produced by fans, for fans, <br />
using famous people or source texts as an inspiration. Frequently the <br />
worlds overlap. This panel discusses the overlaps, benefits and pitfalls<br />
of them. The overlaps include writing fanfiction about historical <br />
fiction, setting fanfiction in an alternative universe by placing the <br />
narrative in a different historical era, fanworks about real-life <br />
historical figures (Historical RPF), or historical fanworks - any <br />
fanwork set in the past.<br /><br />Amanda Baker (M), V Allan, Kari Sperring, Zoe Sumra, ickle_tayto<br /><br /><br /><strong>Science Fiction Criticism - Masterclass 1</strong><br /><br />Sunday 19:00 - 20:00, Room 10 (Hilton Deansgate)<br /><br />Every<br />
Summer the Science Fiction Foundation holds a Masterclass in Science <br />
Fiction Criticism with world-renowned critics, academics and authors. <br />
This session provides a taster. Participants are required to sign up in <br />
advance (at Ops) and should read the short story assigned for the <br />
session. There is a limit of ten participants.<br />This session will be looking at Liz Williams, 'The Banquet of the Lords of Night', which can be found online at<a href="https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/williams_05_13_reprint/" target="_self">https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/williams<wbr />_05_13_reprint/</a><br /><br />Tony Keen, Kari Sperring.<br /><br />I<br />
will also be working in Green Room (when aren't I? My favourite place!)<br />
and helping out with the bid for Follycon, so this is shaping up to be a<br />
busy convention.
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2016-03-22T11:48:38Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=630https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=63Picocon 32 14th and 15th February 2015
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/62-Picocon-32-14th-and-15th-February-2015.html
<p>I'm one of the guests of honour at this year's Picocon (which is number 32), alongside three great writers -- Frances Hardinge, Ian MacDonald and Cory Doctorow., at Imperial College, London. I'm delighted to be asked -- it's the second time I'm been one of their guests and I'm glad I was interesting enough last time that they wanted me back. It's one of my favourite cons: it's run by the members of the Imperial College Science Fiction and Fantasy Society, who are mostly students and they put on wonderfully imaginative, entertaining programmes. I came up through student sf societies and university-based cons, and going to Picocon is like going back to my roots.</p> <br />
<p>There's more information on their website here:  <a href="https://www.union.ic.ac.uk/scc/icsf/picocon/">https://www.union.ic.ac.uk/scc/icsf/picocon/</a><br /></p>
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2015-01-22T21:14:36Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=620https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=62Guest of Honour at Novacon 44
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/61-Guest-of-Honour-at-Novacon-44.html
<p>I'm been invited to be Guest of Honour at Novacon 44, in Nottingham on 14 - 16 November at the Park Inn Nottingham. It's a real honour and I'm delighted to have been asked. </p> <br />
<p>You can find the details here:  <a href="https://www.novacon.org.uk/n44/">https://www.novacon.org.uk/n44/</a><br /></p>
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2014-11-01T11:24:45Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=610https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=61Writers who last?
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/60-Writers-who-last.html
<br />
So, <i>The Guardian</i> has an interesting article today about forgotten writers. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/10/literary-reputations-zero-hero-dj-taylor">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/10/literary-reputations-zero-hero-dj-taylor</a><br /><br />Being<br />
me, I am of course certain that I will be forgotten myself (without <br />
having ever reached the heights of minor recognition, let alone 'hero') <br />
apart perhaps for some of my academic pieces. And that's fine with me, <br />
too. Also being me, I've read at least 3 of the 'forgotten' writers <br />
mentioned here (Morgan, Dreiser, Wilson) and heard of all the others <br />
apart from Mary Mann. But I'm not typical, I suspect (I have a widely <br />
-read mother and I have been known to read historical literary criticism<br />
for fun and then tracked down the books.)<br />The article focuses on <br />
'literary' writers. There are names it doesn't mention -- Rosamund <br />
Lehman, John Fowles, Elizabeth Taylor, Elizabeth Bowen -- which I hope <br />
means people are still assumed to be reading them. There are, of course,<br />
far more 'forgotten' genre writers who were huge in their time -- <br />
Weyman, Sabatini, even Michael Innes, who was A N Wilson under a <br />
pseudonym.<br />As the article shows in the case of Virigina Woolf, <br />
writers can go out of fashion and be rediscovered, or indeed rescued <br />
from obscurity entirely. Dumas has never stopped being read or being in <br />
print but he has only begun to be accepted by the literary establishment<br />
as more than just a 'popular' writer in the last quarter century or so.<br />
On the flip side, Dickens was canonised almost at once, despite his <br />
popularity, and remains so despite the problems of misogyny, classism <br />
and sentimentality in is work. (I do not like Dickens. If I'm going to <br />
read social realism of that period, I'll take Balzac and Dostoyevsky.)<br />Who<br />
are your favourite forgotten writers? And who do you predict may be the<br />
writers canonised into fame by later generations? I'd like to see a <br />
rise in the recognition of Anne Bronte over her sisters, of Emily Eden, <br />
Rosamund Lehman and Rumer Godden. And, moving closer to now, Patricia <br />
Geary, Pat Murphy, Tanith Lee (who really belongs up there with Angela <br />
Carter already), Justina Robson, Judith Tarr and Zenna Henderson.<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2014-05-10T15:42:48Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=600https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=60
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/59-unknown.html
A quiet year so far: no that that's a bad thing! I shall be heading up to Glasgow to attend this year's Eastercon, Satellite 4. Hope to see some of you there!<br />
<br />
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2014-04-14T15:54:21Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=590https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=59World Fantasycon
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/58-World-Fantasycon.html
<br />
Tomorrow morning, I shall be setting off to Brighton for World <br />
Fantasycon. I'm not as ready as I'd like -- on the plus side, my hair <br />
has been cut and coloured -- I have purple streaks!! -- I have baked <br />
fairy cakes to take along (almost entirely lactose free [there are 4 <br />
with lemon curd in] plus some that are also gulten-free. All lemon <br />
flavoured, because, well, this is me.) I've done some packing. But I <br />
lost much of yesterday to a migraine and thus am behind. Bah.<br />Skirts <br />
are being selected (of course): green cord mini with deer print; teal <br />
and fuchsia flippy; beautiful batik beaded (by request of the marquis). <br />
I'm now havering between blue blurred flower print (just about my knee) <br />
and silky silver and lilac pint (floor length). These decisions are <br />
important <img src="https://www.karisperring.com/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" class="emoticon" /><br /><br />And I have programme:<br /><br />Thursday 3.00 pm.<br /><b>Living in the Past: Writing Historical Fantasy</b><br />When<br />
writing historical fantasy, how important is it to stick to the facts, <br />
or is the past fair game for authors of fantastic fiction to manipulate <br />
how they wish?<br />Aidan Harte, Helen Marshall (mod.), Sophia McDougall, Mark Charan Newton, Tim Powers, Kari Sperring.<br /><br />Friday 6.00 pm<br /><b>Reading</b><br />I haven't decided exactly what to read yet. Any suggestions?<br /><br />I hope to see some of you there.<br />
<br />
<br />
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2013-10-30T11:24:36Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=580https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=58What Safety Means to Me
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/57-What-Safety-Means-to-Me.html
<br />
I wrote this, originally, back in 2010, for the UK fanzine Journey <br />
Planet and their issue focusing on sexual harassment. It seems germane <br />
to the current discussions.<br /><br /><br /><br />I don’t remember when I <br />
learnt that my body was not mine alone. That knowledge, that I am partly<br />
public, has been with me for years and years and years. I absorbed it <br />
in the comments of family and friends on how pretty – or, more often <br />
plain – I was. I drew it in from the pictures on the television, the <br />
Slimcea girl who was showing herself to the world, perfected through <br />
self-privation.; the Playtex girdle woman who knew that hours of <br />
discomfort was better by far than being seen to be imperfect; the <br />
Harmony girl on whose hair men always remarked. I knew it from my <br />
mother’s comments on actresses and models and friends. My mother is a <br />
kind woman, and her comments were seldom cutting, and yet I knew all the<br />
same from her that X wasn’t as pretty as she might be, due to the size <br />
of her hips, or that Y dressed badly for her shape. I knew it through <br />
the girls at school who were harsh in their judgement of everything – <br />
openly their enemies, privately, their friends, most privately of all, <br />
perhaps, of themselves. I’m so fat, I’m so plain, my nose is all wrong, <br />
I’m flat-chested, my boobs are too big. Not one of us was content with <br />
herself and nor were we encouraged to be. We were female in public, <br />
there to be seen and to remarked upon. Sometimes boys were remarked on <br />
also – for size, for hair colour – but it was only certain boys, not all<br />
boys. It was not all the time. There was no Slimcea boy, no girdle guy,<br />
and the Old Spice man was an adventurous surfer. People did not touch <br />
my brother in the same ways they tried to touch me, and they did not <br />
caution him that his behaviour must be modulated at all times to avoid <br />
the wrong kinds of attention from the opposite sex. Boys have powerful <br />
impulses. You mustn’t lead them on. It was a double warning: my body was<br />
not only mine, and it was up to me to police it at all times lest it <br />
cause problems. We are taught, all of us, from early on, that the female<br />
form is both desirable and dangerous. We are taught to feel ashamed of <br />
it or awed, covetous or intimidated, despairing or resentful. Girls are <br />
taught that it must be controlled and disciplined, pummelled and <br />
starved, before it can become acceptable – ‘figure faults’ must be <br />
corrected, different parts must be displayed or covered, stripped of <br />
hair, dyed, strapped in, or out, or down. Yes, some of us opt out of <br />
some or all of this. But whatever we do, there will likely be comments.<br /><br />And<br />
you’re wondering, out there, what all this has to do with anything, <br />
you’re wondering, and maybe saying, ‘well, men have body image issues <br />
too, and people yell things at them too’, and all that is true enough. <br />
But what I’m saying is this: we are taught as a culture that women are <br />
to be looked at, and both sides accept this. And this inevitably affects<br />
the ways in which we behave to ourselves and to each other. The female <br />
body is culturally packaged and sold back to us, not as it is – the <br />
shape of a person – but as something separate, something at once less <br />
and more, and it’s this attitude that leads to the Open Source Boob <br />
Project nonsense of a year or so ago (the promoters of that seemed to <br />
have forgotten that breasts come attached to people). Being female is an<br />
action, in every moment and every space, it is loaded, immanent with <br />
meaning, coded, complicated.<br /><br />When I was nineteen, a man I knew <br />
though fandom stalked me for about 6 months. I did not know it was <br />
stalking, though I knew it was worrying and distressing and undesirable.<br />
I didn’t know it wasn’t my fault. Some of that was down to <br />
circumstances – stalking had not at the time been widely discussed and I<br />
had no label for it. Part of it is down to my own education: I didn’t <br />
know what to do with the situation, how to deal with it. I’m not sure I <br />
told anyone, apart from my boyfriend of the time.<br /><br />He blamed me <br />
for it. I must have done something to make this happen. I spent 6 months<br />
feeling scared and culpable, trying to avoid the stalker and <br />
simultaneously feeling that I ought to be extra nice to him, because <br />
somehow I had made him do this, I had brought this on myself, while all <br />
the time inside me all I could hear was fear and revulsion and a desire <br />
to get him as far from me as I could. Another young woman might have <br />
reported him, made a fuss, made threats: I wasn’t that woman, I hadn’t <br />
been told that was allowed. <br /><br />I’m lucky: that man didn’t hurt me. <br />
In the end, he found another young woman who was actually interested in <br />
him and entered into a long relationship with her. But all these years <br />
later, I wish that 19-year-old self had known she was allowed to make a <br />
fuss, to summon college porters, to threaten him with the wrath of <br />
college authorities. Because I didn‘t have to endure that, I didn’t have<br />
to hide in my room like that for all that time, it had never been my <br />
fault. He was attracted to me. I was not attracted to him. That should <br />
have been the last of it. But my context – and that old boyfriend – <br />
convicted me of being female in public, contributory in my own fate. <br /><br />I was lucky.<br /><br />I’m<br />
not even sure I should write that, though my head is full of sentences <br />
which start that way. I’m lucky, I’ve never been raped. But what about <br />
the man – a different man, around that same time – who insisted on <br />
spending the night in my room despite my protests, and on handling me <br />
despite my protests, because he was unhappy and I owed him? What about <br />
the man who verbally coerced me into sex? The man who forced me into his<br />
car? The man – a complete stranger who openly groped my body in a con <br />
lounge? The man who informed me I would be providing him with sex due to<br />
my hair colour? What about all those men who looked and saw my shape or<br />
my clothes, saw Woman, but not Person? Was it luck that meant none of <br />
those situations got out of hand? Lots of time, no, it wasn’t, it was <br />
other people – the good guys and gals of fandom who came over and <br />
intervened, who protected and helped, who helped me when I didn’t know <br />
how to help myself. Sometimes it was… I don’t know. Not luck, just a <br />
sense that I had to get through this and out the other side.<br /><br />Not <br />
all the situations I’ve listed above happened within fandom, but all of <br />
them happened. I’m not particularly pretty: I was just sometimes in the <br />
wrong place. It’s a sad fact that most women have had brushes with this <br />
kind of thing. Which is not to say that all men are bastards, all men <br />
are abusers, all men are the enemy. Nothing is that simple. Nothing is <br />
that easy. <br /><br />And fandom can be extra-complicated, because it <br />
constructs itself as a safe space in many ways. It’s often said that <br />
fans include a fair number of people whose experience of wider society <br />
has not always been kind, and who are perhaps thinner skinned or less <br />
comfortable with some forms of socialisation. A lot of people expect to <br />
be more readily accepted within fandom. (I’m not 100% sure that this is <br />
true: fandom can look pretty unkind sometimes. But this is not the place<br />
for yet another discussion of the Myth of Fannish Tolerance.) Fans can<br />
be more touchy-feely with one another, they may dress a little (or a <br />
lot) oddly. It can be hard to see where boundaries lie. It can be very <br />
easy to cross those boundaries by accident. It happens. But there is a <br />
huge difference between accident and intent. And that’s where the <br />
difficulties arise. That’s when safety for one person becomes danger for<br />
another. <br /><br />If you dress like I do – I have done – then it will <br />
draw attention of all kinds. I accept that (and the only time I resented<br />
it involved a hotel employee who was hoping for a bribe). I accept that<br />
if I wear a short skirt, someone may comment and the comment may not be<br />
complimentary. I accept that I may be asked for contact or more. I <br />
dress as I do because it’s how I am, who I am. And I accept the <br />
consequences. <br /><br />Up to a point, and here it is: it’s still my body,<br />
my self. I’m still a person, under the clothes and the flesh. I have <br />
the right to say no. I have the right to say no and walk away. I have <br />
the right to say no and walk away and to have that respected. It was the<br />
chant of the Reclaim the Night marches: Whatever I wear and wherever I<br />
go, yes means yes and no means no. It ought to be easy.<br /><br />It <br />
isn’t, of course. People get confused, or resent what they see as <br />
rejection. People misinterpret, they hope, they imagine. We all do it. <br />
But the thing is that once that ‘no’ is established, that should be the <br />
end of it. My reactions are my responsibility. Yours are yours. I didn’t<br />
owe that young man who stalked me anything, but he didn’t understand <br />
that, and for month on month, he made my life unsafe. <br /><br />And it really is that simple. It’s okay to ask. But no is no, and that should get to be the end of it.<br /><br />Endnote: I'm 50. I'm average looking. These days, I'm fairly sharp-tongued. <br />I've<br />
yet to get through a single con without someone behaving <br />
inappropriately to me. Touching, backing into corners, talking to my <br />
(modest) cleavage, asking creepy questions, standing too close. I am, I <br />
repeat, 50. I've been with the same man for nearly 26 years and we are <br />
usually together at cons. And men go on doing this, sometimes in front <br />
of him. <br /><p>This is not how the world should be.</p><p>You can find more of this discussion by looking for the #sffragette hashtag on twitter</p><br />
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2013-06-29T09:06:43Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=570https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=57#Womentoread
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/56-Womentoread.html
<br />
So, yesterday I decided to indulge in another round of that intermittent habit, poking the internet with a stick, but starting a hashtag -- #womentoread -- over on Twitter. I asked people to recommend sff by women. The response was astonishing: I'd hoped that some of my friends would pick it up, but... One of the very first to do so was Seanan Mcguire (Thank you, Seanan!) and it just took off. All afternoon (my timezone) and well into the evening, people were naming their favourites, exchanging names and recommendations and ideas. It was huge fun and the enthusiasm and engagement and excitement was just wonderful. I am profoundly grateful to everyone who joined in and help this happen. Towards the end of the day (my time) writer Harry Connolly (gave me the idea of capitalising on all this momentum by linking it to a series of blogposts about specific women writers and post links to these pieces on twitter using the hashtag. (You can read Harry's article <a href="https://burger-eater.livejournal.com/988597.html">here</a> I've written about women writers whose work I love before, of course, but the problem has been that relatively few people saw them -- mainly my existing social circle and readers. And that is a key issue for many women writers: underexposure. But the hashtag, as I said, has some momentum, so this seems like an opportunity to try and raise the profile of writing by women and to address that underexposure to some degree.<br />But why now, exactly. I've done something like this before (last year with the fantasy by women thing). That's part of it. I am an activist to my bones: it's coded into me to try and <strong>do</strong> something when I see an injustice. And I know far too many really great women writers who are underrated, under-reviewed, under-recognised. I see male writers praised for doing things in books which women did before them, which women are doing as well as them -- but the women are ignored and sidelined. It is a <a href="https://io9.com/handy-charts-reveal-why-youve-never-heard-of-most-fema-478627713">fact</a> that books by women are reviewed less frequently than books by men, and that prestigious review locales pay less attention to women than men. <br />This year's review survey came out two days ago. During the day, my twitter feed was full of men -- many of them high-profile and influential -- decrying the under-representation of women writers in reviews (and I am very glad to see them recognising this and commenting on it) but immediately going back to talking about, promoting and praising works by other men. Last week, my friend and fellow writer Juliet E McKenna found ourselves in a major branch of a major UK book-chain in Oxford and noticed a promo table for fantasy. We're both fantasy authors, we took a look. The theme was clearly 'If you like George R R Martin, try this". It was a table about 4 foot x 4 foot square, piled high with fantasy. Great.<br />Except... all but three of the writers represented were men. And of the remaining 3 -- the women -- two were not epic fantasy writers but established Big Name Bestsellers -- Stephenie Meyer and Suzanne Collins and the books by them on that table were both sf. That's fine. I love sf by women. But those two books -- <i>The Host </i>and <i>The Hunger Games</i> weren't there because they were 'like' <i>A Game of Thrones</i>; they were there because they're already bestsellers in a related field. The other women present was an epic fantasy author and a good one -- Robin Hobb. Who has a gender-neutral name. <br />I'm not saying the men on that table aren't good: there were some excellent books there, by excellent writers. There were also books by men I've never heard of, which are quite probably also excellent books. But the overall impression was 'This is A Man's World'. Jules and I started making a list of who was <strong>not</strong> on that table, of women who are epic fantasy writers and published in the UK.<br /><br />Kate Elliott<br />Judith Tarr<br />Freda Warrington<br />Gail Z Martin<br />Trudy Canavan<br />Karen Miller/K E Mills<br />Glenda Larke<br />Cecilia Dart-Thornton<br />Gaie Sebold<br />Juliet E McKenna<br />Tanith Lee<br />Amanda Downum<br /><br />That was in about a minute. Now, you can argue, very reasonably, that some of those women are out-of-print here (but you might like to think about how they came to fall out of print in this context, given that contracts depend on sales, sales depend on exposure -- and women do not get the exposure).<br />A table that censored women from a genre.<br />A twitter feed that decried a wrong -- and then went back to the male default.<br />I saw red. At some point on the 22nd April, I asked, rather wistfully, if we could declare the next day -- yesterday -- promote women writers day. I got two responses, both from women, saying, yes, lets, and so...<br />I did.<br /><p>You can see some of the responses and recommendations <a href="https://storify.com/feministponies/women-to-read?utm_campaign=website&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email">here</a>. You can find more by going to twitter and hunting for the hashtag #womentoread.</p>You can share the idea. You can write a review of a book by a woman. You can blog about a woman writer you admire. You can post a list of links to the websites of women writers you love. It doesn't have to be ep;ic fantasy or even sff. It can be any genre. And then, please, go to twitter and tweet that link with the #womentoread hashtag. If you're not on twitter, post the link here in the comments and I will tweet it for you.<br />This isn't about me. I know how it can look, I'm a fantasy writer. But really, it isn't. This is about all those fantastic women writers whose books I've treasured for years, about Tanith Lee and Evangeline Walton, Judith Tarr and Kate Elliott, Anne Gay, Storm Constantine, Sherwood Smith, Rumer Godden, Juliet McKenna, Barabar Michaels, Elizabeth Goudge, Liz WIlliams, Dion Fortune, Sheila Gilluly, R A McAvoy, Barbara Hambly, Leah Bobet, Sarah Monette, Justina Robson, Amanda Downum, Claudia J Edwards, Sharan Newman, Freda Warrington, Stephanie Saulter, Lisanne Norman, Jaine Fenn... I could go on and one and on. Some of those writers are long-established, some are out of print and out of contract, some are new, some are dead. But they are all great.<br />And me? Later today I'll be blogging here and on my livejournal blog about a woman whose books were a lightning bolt to my writing world, Nancy Springer.<br /><br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2013-04-25T11:40:57Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=560https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=56Eastercon
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/55-Eastercon.html
<br />
<p>Eastercon (EightSquared Con <a href="https://www.eightsquaredcon.org/web/Welcome.html">https://www.eightsquaredcon.org/web/Welcome.html</a>) is almost upon us, and this year I'm on the organising committee. So I am expecting a very busy weekend. I will be around for all of it -- I'll be the blur of speed in black and white -- but hopefully there will also be time for catching up with people and even sleeping.</p><p>And to see our wonderful guests of honour, Walter Jon Williams, Freda Warrington, Anne Sudworth and Professor Edward James.</p><p>I hope to see some of you there.</p><a href="https://www.eightsquaredcon.org/web/Welcome.html"></a><br />
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2013-03-26T10:46:38Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=550https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=55World Fantasy Convention
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/54-World-Fantasy-Convention.html
I shall be at World Fantasy con in Toronto this weekend (1st-4th Nov). I have one panel, on Faith and Fantasy, at 9 a.m. on Friday and otherwise will be round and about the place. It's my first trip to Toronto, and I'm very much looking forward to it!<br />
<br />
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2012-10-30T18:10:21Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=540https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=54Worldcon schedule
https://www.karisperring.com/index.php?/archives/53-Worldcon-schedule.html
<br />
<p>Only one more week until worldcon! I am really looking forward to it. I don't get to worldcons very often and I always have a blast at them. And this year it's in Chicago, which is one of my favourite US cities.</p><p>Here's my schedule:</p><p><b>Fri Aug 31 9:00 --10:30am, Anarchism in Fantasy and Science Fiction</b><br />San Francisco Room<br />Eleanor Arnason (M), Farah Mendlesohn, Kari Sperring, Richard Dutcher<br /><br /><b>Fri Aug 31 1:30 -- 3:00:pm Magic and the Power of Language</b><br />San Francisco Room<br />Kari Sperring, Karin Rita Gastreich, Mary Frances Zambreno, (M) Saladin Ahmed, William S. Annis<br /><br /><b>Sat Sep 1 10:00 -- 10:30:am Writer Under Glass #29</b><br />Fan Lounge<br />Kari Sperring <br />Come and watch me write <img src="https://www.karisperring.com/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" class="emoticon" /> Sadly, there will be no cats helping.<br /><br /><b>Sat Sep 1 2:00 -- 2:30:pm Reading</b><br />Addams Room.<br />Kari Sperring. <br /><br /><b>Sun Sep 2 9:00 -- 10:30:am Kaffeeklatsche </b><br />Kaffeeklatsche 3 <br />Kari Sperring <br />Come and have breakfast with me!<br /><br /><b>Mon Sep 3 1:30 -- 3:00:pm Autograph Session 19</b><br />Autograph Tables <br />Adam "The Shark" Selzer, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Emma Newman, Fabio Fernandes, Gene Wolfe, George R. R. Martin, Kari Sperring.<br /><br />Also, for the next ten days or so, I am guest blogging at Charles<br />
Stross' blog. Charlie has very kindly let me loose on his readership. <br />
Today, <a href="https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2012/08/questions-questions.html"> we're talking about the histories of the Celtic and Gaelic speaking peoples</a>. Come by and join in!</p><br /><p><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</p>
Kari Sperring's Occasional Blognospam@example.com (Kari Sperring)2012-08-23T15:46:07Zhttps://www.karisperring.com/wfwcomment.php?cid=530https://www.karisperring.com/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=53