Podcasts

Karen, Karen & Karin

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

More podcast catchup here. I have just listened to episode #10 of the superb SF Crossing the Gulf, which features Karin Tidbeck’s award-winning debut collection, Jagannath. Unsurprisingly they loved it. But, this being Ms. Burnham and Ms. Lord, they also have fascinating discussions. Highlights include the bit where Karen B. explains why happens in “Aunts” to Karen L., and the extended discussion of “Rebecka”. I note in passing that, like Ms. B., I know someone a bit like Rebecka. Thankfully I’m not the one who has to take care of her, though I worry constantly for the person who does. Also, like Ms. L., I too saw the action of “Who is Arvid Pekon?” in black and white.

Does anyone know what has happened with the Polish film of Arvid Pekon? Is there any chance we’ll be able to see it at Ã…con or Finncon?

Jack Wolf On ShoutOut

~ Cheryl

I have been catching up with all sorts of things since I got back from Exeter. Included in that is the Shout Out Bristol LGBT radio show. Part of that is ego boo, of course. I get mentioned a couple of times in the Feb. 21st show. But those are very short mentions and should not put you off listening.

And I do hope you listen, because the show includes a long interview with my new friend, Jack Wolf. Jack talks about his debut novel, The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones. His influences include Neil Gaiman and Van Gogh. The book has had a rave review in The Guardian, and is eligible for next year’s Crawford. It sounds very interesting.

Jack also talks about the subject matter of the LGBT History Month talk he did last Saturday, which is based on a PhD he’s doing on gender-variant people in history (mainly the 17th Century).

You can find the episode here. You’ll need to scroll down a bit to get to the February 21st show. Jack’s interview begins around 33 minutes into the show. Or, with any luck, this is a direct link to the mp3.

Small Blue Planet #2 – China

~ Cheryl

The second episode of Small Blue Planet is now available from the Locus Roundtable blog. in this one Karen Burnham and I make a virtual trip to China with the help of the multiple-award-winning Ken Liu and one of China’s hottest young SF writers, Chen Qiufan (a.k.a. Stanley Chan).

This one was a blast to record. While the Finnish episode was mostly about hanging out with dear friends, this one was more a discovery of many new things. Some of the language issues are fascinating. I’m in awe of Stan having written a story in Classical Chinese (which is roughly akin to someone like Tolkien having written a story in Anglo-Saxon). One of the best things about Finnish is that is has no gendered pronouns. Chinese has something just as spectacular. If you don’t know what it is, it will blow your mind when you get there.

Next month we’ll be off to Brazil in the company of Fabio Fernandes and Jacques Barcia. And I guess I’d better line up some future episodes. Hmm, who do I know in France…?

Yesterday’s Radio

~ Cheryl

Yesterday was Ujima Radio day. I very nearly didn’t make it, as the train I was planning to catch was cancelled. Fortunately I don’t trust FGW and there was a later train that, with the help of a taxi, got me to the studio in good time.

Being there on time meant I got to meet Mel and Shana, The Lovettes, who apparently did quite well on X-Factor. It was very clear that they were stars. To start with they were an hour and a half late for a two-hour show, having overslept from a good night out. But once arrived they blew through the studio in a hurricane of charm and energy. You can catch them singing live in the last 10 minutes of Tommy Popcorn’s show.

The first half hour of Women’s Outlook was all me. In the first segment I talk about Karen Lord’s books, and play an interview that I did with Karen over Skype. You may hear a certain amount of background noise during the first bit. We haven’t done pre-recorded interviews on the show before and a small amount of tech panic ensued. Thankfully it all turned out right in the end. You find find that material in this hour of the show (sorry about the title of the show still being wrong in the Listen Again section). The second half hour is all about feminism, and includes a guest from France.

I’m also on in the first 15 minutes of the second hour. That’s a less serious segment, in which Paulette wanted us to talk about power dressing and shoulder pads. Somehow I managed to get in a mention of Lucy Worsley’s recent TV shows, and to have a dig at the RadFems. Do also stay with the show for the Woman of the Week segment because Nia is an awesome lady who is well worth listening to. The second half hour is once again devoted to the issue of female genital mutilation, with again some interesting guests.

Next week on the show I’ll be talking about getting boys to read. I’ll be reviewing Ian McDonald’s Planesrunner (and introducing Bristol to the awesome Anastasia Sixsmith). Tim Maughan will be my guest in the studio.

Small Blue Planet Reviewed

~ Cheryl

In the new episode of Galactic Suburbia, Tansy Rayner Roberts reviews the first episode of Small Blue Planet. Her comments begin about 58 minutes in (though of course you should listen to the whole thing). On the subject of Small Blue Planet, Tansy says, “I was fascinated. It was really cool.” That’s very pleasing, coming, as it does, from such an experienced podcaster. And if you haven’t tried Small Blue Planet yet, you can find episode 1 here. You can also access the podcast via the Locus Roundtable iTunes feed.

New Feminist SF Study

~ Cheryl

Last night I got email from Lyda Morehouse drawing my attention to Cyberpunk Women, Feminism and Science Fiction: A Critical Study by Carlen Lavigne. It sounds very interesting, and Lyda understands that it mentions the AngeLINK series quite a bit. Of course being an academic work it is ferociously expensive, but the ebook is more in my range. Before I commit my $20, has anyone out there read it? Opinions?

Talking of Lyda, I’ve just listened to the latest Outer Alliance podcast, which is a live recording of a panel on QUILTBAG SF&F from Arisia. One of the audience members gives an enthusiastic recommendation for Lyda’s books. There are lots of other great recommendations in the show notes too. Good job, Julia.

Yesterday’s Radio

~ Cheryl

My appearances on local radio yesterday are now available as podcasts. The Ujima Radio show was all about China, in honor of the Chinese New Year. In this segment, around 23 minutes in, you can hear me enthusing about Ken Liu and Guy Gavriel Kay.

Somewhat to my surprise, I also featured in yesterday’s Shout Out Bristol. The entire show is given over to the hot topics of marriage equality and LGBT History Month. Around 45 minutes in there is a selection of sound clips from the two launch events. You get part of my speech opening the exhibition immediately after the Lord Mayor.

Small Blue Planet Update

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Yesterday Karen Burnham and I recorded episode 2 of Small Blue Planet, with special guests Ken Liu and Chen Qiufan. It will be a week or two before it goes online because there is a substantial time lag on Skype calls to Beijing and Karen needs to clean up the recording to get rid of all the silent pauses. It was, however, great fun to do,and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did when it finally airs. Ken had some really interesting things to say about translating from Chinese, and we discussed lots of interesting Chinese writers.

In the meantime, of course, episode 1, on Finland, is available from the Locus Roundtable blog. I’ve had quite a bit of feedback from listeners in the Nordic countries, but nothing much from elsewhere. This is a country bidding for a Worldcon, folks. You should be finding out about them.

Small Blue Planet, Episode 1: Finland

~ Cheryl

It is probably dreadful timing for me to be mentioning two podcasts on the same day, but Karen Burnham put the first episode of Small Blue Planet online last night to I need to point you at it. As you hopefully know by now, this show will feature me talking to people from the SF&F communities in various countries around the world. For the first episode my guests are Jukka Halme and Marianna Leikomaa from Finland. They are both good friends, so the chemistry was excellent on the show. I hope you enjoy it.

And yes, we do talk about the Helsinki Worldcon Bid.

On Sunday I’ll be recording Episode 2 with Ken Liu and Stanley Chan (Chen Qiufan) who will be telling me all about science fiction and fantasy in China. If you have things you want me to ask them, let me know.

Huge thanks to Locus for agreeing to host these podcasts. Hopefully this will do wonders for listener figures.

Women Warriors at Ujima

~ Cheryl

The podcasts from yesterday’s shows at Ujima are now available worldwide.

I started off with a slot in the last 10 minutes of the Tommy Popcorn show, where I got to preview LGBT History Month. Many thanks to Tommy for inviting me on.

The discussion of warrior women comes in the first half hour of the Women’s Outlook show (which I see the Ujima website still has incorrectly titled). I managed to get in some discussion of Julian May’s Saga of the Exiles, and Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity series. The other people on the podcast loved the picture of Lila Black on the cover of Down to the Bone. I was hoping to get a mention in for Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha as well (I love the opening of Rapture, which I wanted to read), but there’s only so much time available on live radio.

The second half hour of that segment features some women drummers who are a lot of fun and are clearly doing useful woman-positive work. I find it very sad to find such people insistent that they are Not Feminists, because to them Feminism is all about hating men. I blame you for this, Julie Bindel.

I’m also involved in the Lighter Side of Life segment in the first 15 minutes of the second hour of the show. That’s all about “What’s in a woman’s handbag?”. So if you want to know what is in mine, do listen in.

Next week I’m doing a slot on the main Outlook show where we celebrate Chinese New Year. Women’s Outlook takes a break until the 20th when, it being February, we’ll be doing love stories.

Ujima’s LGBT Show

~ Cheryl

I’ve now managed to listen to all of yesterday’s Women’s Outlook show on Ujima. I think we did OK. I’m still very much learning to do radio. It requires a lot more thinking on your feet than blogging, and sometimes you just can’t make the points you want to make because the discussion has moved on. Also Ujima is much more of a working class environment than the parts of the blogosphere I move in. I don’t expect the people I end up talking to there to have the same nuanced understanding of sexuality and gender that is expected of people online. I’m much more interested in knowing that people’s hearts are in the right place, than in having them use “correct” language all of the time.

Anyway, the first hour of the show is available here. In it we talk books, and I get to enthuse about Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve, and Stella Duffy’s Theodora. There’s also a lengthy digression on the subject of Julie Burchill. That’s followed by a segment on lesbian life with my friends Annabelle, from the City Council, and Janet, a recent arrival from Australia. Annabelle explains that Bristol Council has placed 21st overall, and 3rd amongst local authorities, on this year’s Stonewall LGB employer index. Janet contrasts the legal situation for lesbians in the UK and Australia. I get to be rude about Stonewall and explain intersectionality.

Toward the end of the hour you get to hear some background noise as Donald pops in to tell us off for using bad words, followed by Paulette apologizing for having quoted Julie Burchill. Later on we talk quite a bit about the forthcoming Revealing Stories Exhibition, and I talk about Michael Dillon.

Hour two, available here, starts off with the standard “lighter side of life” segment, which Paulette and I agonized over a lot beforehand. We ended up talking a lot about cross-dressing in comedy, and I think I got all of the right points in eventually. I also got to enthuse about the very wonderful Bethany Black.

The second segment is, I’m afraid, all about me. Everyone except Kevin can fast forward through that and on to the final segment in which a group of us chat generally about sexuality and gender. I get to comment on the relationship between LGBT folks and gender, and to dump on the Tories.

Next week the topic for the books section will be “warrior women”, which will be my opportunity to enthuse about the likes of Mary Gentle and Kameron Hurley. Even if you are not interested in the LGBT stuff, I hope you’ll take a listen to the books segments of these shows. Sooner or later someone at Ujima will notice they are getting downloads from all over the world.

New Podcast – Small Blue Planet

~ Cheryl ~ 12 Comments

Yes, I know, the last thing I should be doing right now is starting a new project. Don’t I have enough to do already? I thought of that myself. But this was such a good idea, so I’m doing it.

I blame Karen Lord. I was chatting on email to her and Karen Burnham, mainly about their awesome SF Crossing the Gulf podcast. Ms. Lord said something to the effect that someone should do a podcast about translation. Oh, I thought, that had better be me. Fortunately Ms. Burnham thought it was a good idea too, and offered to produce it and get it online. All I have to do is find the guests and interview them. And that, I can assure you, will be a pleasure.

The podcast will be called Small Blue Planet. The basic idea is that each month I will have two guests on the show, spotlighting a different country each episode. The guests will mostly come from countries where English is not the dominant language. They will be readers, writers and translators of science fiction and fantasy. I’ll get them to talk about the SF&F scene in their country, and also about their language. We’ll talk about conventions and fanzines, about their local writers, about what English-speaking writers are popular in their country, and about the pros and cons of their language and culture for writing SF&F.

Karen will be putting the finished podcasts up on the Locus Roundtable blog. And hopefully she’ll ask a few questions of her own during the discussion.

There was no question which country I should start with. Our guests for January will be Jukka Halme and Marianna Leikomaa. They have both chaired successful Finncons. Jukka is one of Finland’s foremost SF&F critics, and Marianna is an experienced translator. And yes, we will talk a bit about that Finnish Worldcon bid. We’ll also talk about Johanna Sinisalo, Hannu Rajaniemi, and many wonderful writers that you are probably not yet familiar with.

We will celebrate the Chinese New Year in February by talking to Ken Liu and Stanley Chan (Chen Qiufan). Ken is the first person ever to win the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award for the same story (“The Paper Menagerie”). Together they won the 2012 SF&F Translation Award: Short Form for Ken’s translation of Stanley’s “The Fish of Lijiang” (Clarkesworld #59). Stanley works for Google in Beijing and has won several awards for his fiction in China.

In March we move on to another emerging economic power: Brazil. Our guests will be Fábio Fernandes and Jacques Barcia. You probably know Fábio from his articles on SF Signal and other places. You may not know that he is the Brazilian Portuguese translator for Neuromancer, Snow Crash, A Clockwork Orange and many other fine books. Jacques is an author and musician. Several of his stories have appeared in English.

That’s as far as the planning goes right now. In April and May I’m likely to be at conventions in Europe and hope to do some live recordings there. I also have plans to reach out to Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Occasionally we’ll visit countries that we might think of as English-speaking, but which have a wide range of local languages as well; places such as India and South Africa. Some of you are probably thinking that I’ll be pestering you soon, and you may well be right. Email if you are keen.

The plan is to try to do one episode a month. However, I’m not going to advertise a precise schedule. It all depends on when our guests are available. Also Karen has her job at NASA and a small son to worry about, and I have a publishing company and bookstore to run. Don’t worry though, we’ll both blog and tweet about new episodes as they become available.

I am so excited about this. Initially it will give me a chance to promote the work of some talented friends, and longer term I’m hoping I’ll make new friends in countries I know little about. I know I’ll learn a lot, and I hope you will too.

On Shout Out: #TransDocFail, Doctor Who And Me

~ Cheryl

Last night’s episode of Shout Out is now available online. It includes Nathan and I talking about #TransDocFail, and a news report about a group of gay Doctor Who fans. That all starts around half way through, but there’s more mention of #TransDocFail and Julie Burchill earlier in the show. You can listen here. (If you come to this link more than a year after I posted it, you’ll need to scroll down to the January 17th episode.)

I could have done a lot better on the show. There were some key points I didn’t manage to get across. Practice. I need practice. But it is good to have these things out there.

Picking Your Fights

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

The row about Julie Burchill’s Observer article continues to rumble on in the UK media, becoming more and more meta by the day. The current situation is that everyone is up in arms about how a journalist who decided to vilify and threaten an oppressed minority because she said they were bullying her friend is now apparently being bullied in turn by that same evil minority group. Given that Burchill is such a shy and retiring individual herself, all of her friends are queuing up to defend her from awful people like me. My heart bleeds for the poor dear, it really does.

Sadly, however, I can’t fight on behalf of all oppressed minorities, so I’ll have to leave defending poor Julie to the rest of the Bolly and Lobster consuming commentariat. I have other things to do. Most of yesterday was actually spent working on the day job, but in the evening I headed off to Bristol to talk to Freedom Youth, a local LGBT Youth group. My colleague, Andy Foyle, and I were there to encourage them to get involved in the LGBT History Exhibition. It was a really fun evening, and I think I came over quite well thanks to my knowledge of superheroes, Buffy, Xena and so on.

Today I was in Bristol again for an appearance on Ujima Radio. This was for the launch of Paulette’s new Women’s Outlook show. We had a great half hour on women in literature, in which I got to talk about Tolkien, Eowyn and the forthcoming Kij Johnson lecture. That’s the first part of this podcast (and yes, the Ujima website has got the name of the show wrong). The second half hour of that podcast has women from three local feminist groups as guests. I was delighted to hear Anna Brown of the Bristol Feminist Network talking about their inclusive policy (and her colleague, Sian Norris, has been very supportive over the Burchill debacle).

Talking of Sian, there will be a Women’s Literature Festival in Bristol in March. Stella Duffy will be there, and therefore so will I.

I also got a couple of slots in the second hour of the show. It begins with a slightly silly session on public toilets, in which I argue the merits of gender-neutral bathrooms. The final half hour is devoted to discussion of Female Genital Mutilation. Paulette kindly let me get a mention in right at the end for Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death. Hopefully that will get Nnedi a few more sales.

Tomorrow night I’ll be on ShoutOut with a couple of other trans people talking about #TransDocFail, which I happen to think is far more important than Miss Stroppy Pants Burchill.

And next week on Ujima we have a whole hour devoted to LBT issues, so I’ll have lots more of me to link to after that.

New Aussie Podcast

~ Cheryl

Thanks to Kirstyn and Mondy of The Writer & The Critic I have been altered to a new podcast by prolific Australian blogger, Sean Wright. The podcast is named after his blog, Adventures of a Bookonaut, and Episode 1 is very interesting.

It contains three interviews. The first is with Luke Preston. He’s a thriller writer, but well worth listening to as he has come to novel writing from a screen writing background. Consequently he has some interesting views on how to write (which I suspect are better-suited to his chosen genre than to other types of fiction).

Next up is Joelyn Alexandra from Singapore who introduces us to her own writing, and to several other writers from her part of the world.

Finally there is an interview with Helen Merrick, author of The Secret Feminist Cabal. This is a must-listen for anyone with an interest in feminism and science fiction.

Thanks Sean, I’m looking forward to more episodes.

The Coode Street Filk

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

In this week’s episode of the Coode Street Podcast, Jonathan and Gary discuss getting a new intro for 2013. They wonder whether John Anealio might write them a song. Well, John is a talented and generous guy, so I’m sure he’ll come through. But just in case he’s too busy, I thought I would lend a hand.

Of course I am a talentless hack without an original idea in my head, and in thrall to right-wing US cultural imperialism (or possibly I just want to wind up Chris Fowler and Jonathan McAlmont). So I have shamelessly stolen re-purposed created a homage to filked a Southern Rock classic. It is quite appropriate in its way.

Rambling Fan

{refrain}
Lord I was born a rambling fan,
Trying to make a podcast and doing the best I can.
So when I have tech problems, I hope you’ll understand.
Oh I was born a rambling fan

Now Gary teaches English in Chicago.
His academic resume is grand.
He likes to spend his weekends chatting on the phone,
A glass of red wine in his hand

{refrain}

While Jonathan’s from far off Perth, Australia.
His jobs are SF editor and dad.
And if he spends too much time chatting on the phone,
His daughters tell him that he’s bad

{refrain}

The podcast known to everyone as Coode Street
Brings SF commentary to our ears.
It rambles and it wanders yet it always entertains,
May it keep doing so for years.

{refrain}

For those of you who are much to young to remember the original, here it is.

Kirsty & Mondy Do Paintwork

~ Cheryl

Over at The Writer & The Critic, Kirstyn & Mondy have been running a little project looking at self-published ebooks. I recommended a couple of titles out of my store. Last month they read Anticopernicus by Adam Roberts, and quite liked it. This month they turned their attention to Paintwork by Tim Maughan. Much to my relief, and I’m sure Tim’s as well, considering how mercilessly they shredded the other two books in this episode, they liked it. Indeed, Mondy said he liked it better than Adam’s book, which is high praise indeed. Kirsten had a bunch of niggles, some of which I will try to address by breathing girl cooties all over Tim next time I see him, but this led to an interesting discussion about how reviewers are allowed to find fault with books they like.

Anyway, I’m delighted that my recommendations passed this ordeal, especially given how badly some of the other books got panned. Hopefully that will give other people some confidence in my recommendations too.