It's going to be a pretty short Casual Friday today, and perhaps quite a babbling one, mainly because of this:


That being the manuscript of the novel I have coming out in November, back from the line editor, and thus covered with many, many tiny notes, which I have to address, either accepting or ignoring them.  I have to return the marked-up manuscript to Tor by next Wednesday.  To save a day or so, I may take it over to their offices myself, like in the old days when that was the safest way of delivering a manuscript to Virgin Books.  So that's a large chunk of my working days until then sorted.  Earlier this week I wrote some comics pages, and finished up a quick comics-related side project that re-unites me with an artist with whom I've worked for before, for a rather unexpected publication.  And I spent Monday working with another collaborator on our venture into what I'm for now only referring to as a new medium for me.  That went rather well.  (And was one of the things that caused me such joy in tweeting on that day.)  And I've also got back into the new Hamilton story, which is moving along nicely.

First up, let's deal with some matters outstanding. Comics for Heroes is an organisation that sends your spare comics to children's hospitals and troops overseas.  If you live in the USA, then they're the people to take your longboxes to, sending your unwanted extras off to a very good home.

And if you live in the UK (particularly if you're near London), and have some spare comics, how about passing them on to James Bacon? He's helping out with teen and children's events at the Chicago Worldcon, and giving him your extras is a great way to spread the word to new readers.  He can be found at: chikids@chiconmail.chicon.org.

On Saturday, March 10th, at 3pm EST, I'll be doing a live Creator's Workshop for the members of the Comic Experience Book Club, a subscription service.  I'll be talking purely about the craft of writing Knight and Squire, which I find a very refreshing idea.

I'm interviewed on the latest edition of the Comic Book Roadshow podcast, talking about Demon Knights and Saucer Country. I had a great time as always with those guys.

I was pleased to contribute to this blog in support of Brett Ewins, the great 2000AD artist who's been suffering from mental illness, and has gotten into an unfortunate situation as a result.  Lots of cool art from Brett to be found there, and some grand celebrity contributions.

The nominations for the Eagle Awards are up, the link there going to an online form where you can vote for your favourites.  Congratulations to everyone on that list.  It's great to see Doctor Who Magazine once again in the running, Maura McHugh's Jennifer Wilde getting a nod, and Michael Carroll in a tough fight for Best Newcomer Writer.  But what will it take to get Frank Hampson on that Roll of Honour?

Another awards system you can get involved with is the Clarkes.  Yes, they're juried awards, but every year the Torque Control blog holds a contest, where you get to pick which six titles (from the list of sixty novels sent to the Awards by publishers) will form the short list.  As you'll see, I went about picking my list in a rather unconventional way.

Okay, so let me get to the central story of this week's blog.  I went along to the London Super Comic Con last weekend, and in general had a good time, sitting at my table meeting people literally every moment I spent there, and giving away, as always, free comics.  It seemed a well-organised event, and the crowd was large and enthusiastic.  I felt quite a disconnect from the organisation, however, because they'd responded to my decision about only appearing on convention panels with an even split of male and female guests by simply dropping me from the DC panel.  (Though they then arranged for me to appear on what was a balanced costume contest judging panel, where we had a good time, saw some brilliant cosplay, and gave the prize to an excellent Dr. Doom.)  My alienation was eased, however, by a decision UK comics writer Simon Spurrier took.  He was on a 'how to write comics panel', and decided, only warning the moderator about it on the way in, that he was going to make his own stand for Panel Parity.  What happened next he describes here. Simon had sought out beforehand a talented female comics creator, Tammy Taylor, her blog being here. Tammy had the courage, when Simon left the panel, to stand up and go and take a seat on it.  She was welcomed by moderator and fellow panelists, and did incredibly well, speaking about the given subject with great authority (which obviously doesn't come as any surprise).  I'm sure Si would join me in saying she wasn't given anything at that moment: she still had to go up and take it.  We had a chat afterwards, and I may have gushed a bit at her over the awesomeness of what she did.  I'm hoping she'll be a guest on here soon, and I hear she's coming to Eastercon.

The best thing about that whole incident is that now anyone who sets up a convention panel that isn't gender-balanced might suddenly find that the panel and the audience have other ideas.  I talked to a couple of other creators that day who said they'll be tempted to make sudden exits in the future.  And the representatives of little Melksham Comic Con told me they could announce complete Panel Parity (which is relatively easy for small events like theirs, but still, it's a great gesture).  Convergence in Minnesota have also told me they'll be at Panel Parity for every panel they themselves control (they sub-contract a handful), which is a much larger achievement, but made easier by their very balanced audience.

On this same subject, as I've mentioned before, a few weeks ago I got a life-changing email from a friend of mine, SF academic Farah Mendlesohn, in which she took me to task for the way I'd initially approached the Panel Parity campaign.  She called me on my egotism, and on various specifics of how I'd set up the plan.  It was a hard message to read, but I realised, after a lot of huffing and puffing, that she was right.  And so I made several changes to the plan.  (I've referred to several aspects of this since then, but never all in one place, apart from editing the original blog post.)  Si's approach, for example, in actively finding a woman creator beforehand to take one's place on a panel, is one I now follow.  (At the time, I felt I shouldn't be the one choosing who was 'worthy', but that puts even more pressure on those who might come and take a panel place.)  I'm also now at pains to point out that I'm the latest in a whole history of people who've been doing this for decades, including many creators who always let convention organisers know beforehand that they won't appear on non-balanced panels.  (I've now been in touch with every convention I'm going to, though some haven't replied.)  I'd argue that this means it's always easy to drop me from a panel, as the LSCC did.  But I agree that's probably the way forward for more long-term change.  And I've turned down anything that turns the Plan into personal publicity, sending such inquiries to the female-led 50/50 campaign, soon to be announcing itself.  (Drop a line to hagelrat@googlemail.com to get involved.)  There's a fine line between trying to not put oneself in the spotlight and just hiding, but I'm attempting to walk it.  All in all, I intend to learn from female creators along the way, and adjust my approach based on their advice and help.  I hope to be an ally, not a supporter who offers that support with conditions attached.  (The campaign will continue, with the adjustments I've mentioned now in place.)  I'm hoping that one day soon a Tammy Taylor will come up and take a panel place when nobody on that panel is prepared for it.  Farah and I will hopefully be appearing on an Eastercon panel about all the issues brought up by this situation, and about male reactions to feminist policy in general.  I think that might be an excellent hour.  I continue, in short, to do my best, but fail often.  And working through these issues with Farah again this week has been an honour, if at times a painful one, a journey through some serious detail which took me to some depths, but left me feeling, well, welcomed and encouraged.

Speaking of Farah, I picked up her new book at the BSFA meeting last Wednesday, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, (co-edited with Edward James).  It's both a useful primer on the history of the fantastic, and pursues depths in various directions, exploring the sub-genres and all the many different sources of fantasy story, with contributions from Nnedi Okorafor, Gary. K. Wolfe, Adam Roberts, Roz Kaveney and many others.  All wrapped in a beautiful John Picacio cover.

It's been a heavy week: enormous considerations of one's own conduct, Richard Carpenter passing away (such an important writer to me, one of the greats of British telefantasy, his Robin of Sherwood being utterly central to everything I've done, never mind that he actually changed 'what everyone knows' about the Robin Hood myth, that his RoS novelisation became the art-cover definitive young reader edition, that everything he did was rooted in deep research and a love of the Matter of Britain, that Rob Holdstock was a fan of his, that offhand one can name a bunch of great shows he created, from Catweazle to The Scarlet Pimpernel, that he was one of the few great fantasists whose primary medium was television, and here I am, never having met him despite being in the same building a few times, writing off all that in a few lines), and then, dear God, Davey Jones.

So, today's music choice is one of my favourite songs, which shows off all sorts of joy and talent.  Look at the narrative this clip from the TV show builds up, from what's happening in the audience to what the two 'too cool' band members are doing to undermine it all.  And look at how good Davey is.



Here's to the hard weeks.  Sorry this has been mad, even by my standards.  I'll be going along to the British Fantasy Society open night this evening. I hope to see some of you there. Until then, Cheerio.