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The Hatchery

Category Archives: Con Reading

Ad Astra and Interviews, Part One

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Elizabeth Hirst in Con Reading, Con Reports, Flood Waters Rising

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Ad Astra 2014, advice, convention, fandom, Flood Waters Rising, interview, Sunset Val, writing, YA, YAwordnerds, Youtube

This weekend, I got a chance to sell some books with Pop Seagull Publishing, recharge with other like-minded peeps, and even do a couple of interviews. Here’s the first of two, for http://www.youtube.com/YAwordnerds. Looks like they’ve got a really good thing going over there, so check ’em out!

Overall, we had an amazing weekend at Ad Astra 2014. I just want to give a shout out to all the organizers, volunteers and fans that made it such a great weekend!

I’ve got my con reading all stacked up now, and I can’t wait to read it all! I’m nose deep in Sunset Val’s Final Boarding, and you should be too! Seriously… this guy’s good.

Fantasy Genre Weigh-In: The Princess Debate

28 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by Elizabeth Hirst in Con Reading

≈ Leave a comment

Princesses: you either love ’em or you hate ’em. Some say that they promote the class
system, dependence on men and passivity in young women…and others just
really, really love fantasizing about balls and poofy dresses. As a fantasy
writer, I find this debate fascinating, both because it impacts how we see
fantasy as a genre, and because it tends to place a lot of cultural
significance on princesses that I’m not sure we can universally pin on them.

So for those of you just tuning in,who don’t read a lot of literature on women’s issues or have little girls, I’ll
just spend a moment re-capping the debate, as I understand it. In the
anti-princess camp, we have a lot of very well-meaning people who want to stick
up for women and teach young girls to be independent and not rely on men or
marriage to achieve success (a worthy goal in and of itself), and so they
attack much of ‘princess culture’ as they have dubbed it, as just another brainwashing
tool of our society to make girls fit into a pink plastic mold. And I get it. I
don’t really like the sea of pink in the ‘girls” toy aisle either. It is
limiting that boys have a world of colors and activities thrown at them and
marketed to them, and girls have one color only.

And that brings me to the other (extreme) side of the debate… people who use the word princess as a term that
only gives worth to women and girls who behave a certain way, conform to
societal expectations and act in a passive manner, waiting for a man to come
and save them. Since this is usually a PG blog, I won’t get too much into
purity balls here, but you’ll get pretty much all you need with a Google
search. The word princess is thrown around a lot in these circles, too, which,
I believe, is really more of an attempt to cash in on Disney culture for their
own ends rather than Disney or fantasy works really promoting this view.
Naturally, I don’t condone these types of views. In all relationships, it takes
two to tango, and if the people running these events are so concerned about the
behaviour of their daughters, shouldn’t they have a similar event for their
sons?

As is often the case, I think that the truth about princesses and what they mean to us lies somewhere in the
middle of these two polarizations.  I don’t agree that being a princess or playing princess or writing princesses
always has to be limiting. After all, princesses eventually become Queens,
don’t they? I think, in some ways, little girls play princess because they’re
trying to own their own power as a woman. They’re trying to negotiate just what
makes them special, and how their femininity intersects with power. They’re
trying to learn how to be who they are (a young woman) and be powerful and
strong. That’s what I think girls playing princess are searching for.

And, I suppose where you stand in the debate depends on how you see princesses and their narratives. Some people
would look at, say, Disney’s Cinderella, and say that she never does anything
for herself, she always submits to the abuse that is heaped upon her, and in
the end her reward is getting married to a rich man that she doesn’t know,
which is supposed to solve all of her problems. I can see where people are
coming from with this argument, it’s just that… well, like most other fairy
tales, I have always seen them more as unrealistic metaphors that serve to
teach people about virtue and vice, rather than something we should be directly
emulating. What I always got from Cinderella, even as a kid, was that she is a
really, really nice person who dreams of the freedom to choose her own
relationships and get out of her abusive family situation. I think the point of
her being as sweet, kind and longsuffering as she is, is to point out that she
hasn’t been tainted by the cruelty that’s been shown to her, but rather lives
in the memory of her kind father and the hope of something better in
future.  Her story is more about the divine reward of virtue and eventual punishment of vanity and cruelty rather
than a brainwashing text about how I need a husband. In fact, I would say that
the villains of the piece are the ones who are desperate for a husband at any
cost. Because Cinderella is kind and unblemished by the world, she deserves the
best things in life and divine help (in the person of the fairy godmother) even
if she never stops being a servant girl. Yes, the fact that she gets this
through marriage is dated. But this story was written in… what, the
seventeenth century? And at least the Disney version shows Cinderella talking
to the Prince all night and hitting it off with him… it’s not like he just
appears as a random stranger and wants to whisk her away to his palace. They
meet, they talk, they fall in love. I guess, as far as the ‘classic’ Disney
movies go, I think we should leave the debate where it is. They were made fifty
plus years ago, and for the time they were made, they really weren’t all that
horrible with the gender stereotypes. As long as we contextualize the movies
for our daughters, and explain that society has changed since then, what’s the
harm? Most of the message is about being a good person, not about being
dependent on a man. And. let’s face it: they’re well made and fun to watch.

That being said, there are obviously many new movies and products being produced now with the ‘princess’ label
which, I believe, are far more pertinent to critique, as they reflect how
society feels now about princesses and the agency of girls and young
women. There are many products out there that I just can’t stand with the
super-pink labeling, and I won’t lie about that (those horrible Barbie
direct-to-video movies, anyone?), but there are also subversive things going on
in the world of princesses that I think are worth looking at and pursuing. The latest
two Disney princess movies, The Princess and the Frog, and Tangled, in my
opinion, provide great role models for young women. Tiana is a hard-working
African-American woman who is determined to open her own restaurant, even in
the face of racism and poverty, and she is not impressed by the overtures of
the lazy ‘prince’ until he learns to do things for himself and grows some
character. At the end of the movie, instead of ascending to some lofty perch as
an ornamental figurehead, the prince joins Tiana in starting an exciting
upscale restaurant on the waterfront using his inheritance as the start-up
cash. Rapunzel of Tangled  is a strong-willed young woman with the hereditary creativity and strength to rule a
nation, but who must first overcome something many, many young girls must deal
with: a belittling, selfish parent who wants to lock them away rather than let
them spread their wings. I not only enjoyed these movies, but I identified with
these characters as people, real women, not just a stereotype in a pink dress.
They’re princesses too.

In the world of books, I was also inspired by Rob St. Martin’s Princess Smith and the Clockwork Knight. What
makes this book great is that the lead character, Britt, comes into her own as
a princess not by being graceful or beautiful or well-mannered, but by being a
rough-and-tumble smith’s daughter who can pilot a mech suit with ease and forge
her own iron crown. These traits serve her better as a ruler than being
mannerly or pretty, but she is still very much a princess. I think the key here
is that good princess stories look at the title of princess as being about
power and responsibility, about using what you’ve got to fight for your people,
rather than being (all) about the manners and dresses and tea. If we run with
these themes of princess-hood, I don’t see why princess stories can’t be all
that we want them to be for our girls, and much, much more.

So, in conclusion, by all means, let’s not fall prey to tacky marketing campaigns that want to define our daughters
by the colour pink. Let’s encourage them to be their own people, and not be
defined by societal expectations of who they are. But, conversely, let’s not
blame all of these problems and pressures that they face on princesses as a
whole. Princesses are only as flexible as we, as active participants in the
art-making process and engaged citizens, make them, and I don’t think we’re
done with them yet. I’m still going to write princesses into my stories, and,
like many of the young women and girls I admire, they’re going to be as bad (or
as good) as they want to be.

Review: The General’s Garden by Michele LaFramboise

11 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by Elizabeth Hirst in Con Reading

≈ Leave a comment

As an author who is also going through school for animation, I admire those who endeavor to both write and draw. It’s not easy to balance two talents, and to be good enough at both to present a clean, professional-looking finished product. That’s why I was so excited to meet bilingual author and artist Michele LaFramboise.

Michele clearly has a passion for her work, was fun to talk to, and gave me a great autograph and drawing after I purchased her short graphic novel, The General’s Garden. I also agreed to give her a review, and so, review I shall.

The General’s Garden revolves around the exploits of three kids in a science fiction setting, who break into a General’s garden, and start eating his food, only to be discovered, sentenced to work and then sent home.

Let’s start with the things I really liked. First of all, the production values on the book are very, very nice. The fonts, layout and colour scheme of the cover are lovely and appealing, and drew me in right away. The interior was also quite crisp, and the line art had great weight and balance to it. I think my favorite thing about this book was actually the backgrounds, as I really admired the texture and artistry in Michele’s pen work, and the depictions of the garden are rich, clear, well-balanced and interesting.

As for the plot, I’m not sure I got it. I think this may be the problem of the translation. I wish my French was better, so that I could have read it in its original form, but alas, I only got to grade eleven French class. My main critique, as I see it in this version, is that there are lots of fun shenanigans that will interest kids and young teens, but I’m not sure I get the context. Why are warriors the best gardeners? Why are there hints of technology in what mostly seems to be a fantasy context? I’m also not sure why the arrival of the parents solves the kids’ problems so easily. They clearly seem to know each other, but I’m not sure how. I’m going to assume there’s a larger universe at play here, which most readers are familiar with, but I am not. There also didn’t seem to be much character change. The kids are bratty when they break in, and bratty when they leave. There were also a couple of printing issues in my version, where pages repeated themselves, although this may just be an isolated error.

So, my verdict on the General’s Garden would be: give it a look, especially if you can read French, and enjoy Michele’s artistry and unique vision of a garden in a far-off place. I’d say this book would be great for kids ranging from about nine to fifteen.

Liz’s Con Reading: Sunset Val by Rob St. Martin

23 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by Elizabeth Hirst in Con Reading

≈ Leave a comment

So, I’ve decided to start a new, intermittent series discussing some of the various reading materials I’ve picked up at con. I think this will be a fun way for me to steer readers in the direction of some good reading (after you’re done Flood Waters Rising, of course, :P) and also to give some exposure to local authors that I really like.

Before I start, though, I just want to lay out some ground rules for these reviews, since I am also an author and publisher, and I want to be clear on some basic premises, for anyone who has had their book reviewed or would like it to be reviewed.

Rule #1: I am only ever going to be reviewing books I liked, or books that I thought had some interesting quality that would appeal to my readers. This is not a critical blog, and it won’t ever be. Only positive reviews will appear here.

Rule #2: I may not include something that I read from con for various reasons, not necessarily because I didn’t like it. To be completely honest, I just may not have gotten to it yet. My policy on things I haven’t reviewed will be strictly don’t ask, don’t tell. Please don’t be insulted if you sold me a book and it hasn’t appeared.

Rule #3: I’m going to try and keep the reviewing limited to indie works that I’ve picked up at cons, but anything that I get at con will be game.

Those are the rules, so without further ado:

Sunset Val!

A Thrilling Tale of Airship Piracy

By Rob St. Martin

Let’s start with the basic premise of this book: A fierce, redheaded girl named Val with a penchant for dreaming and some skill with the fencing foil gets pulled into an alternate universe of steam and airships by a mad scientist. When an attack by air pirates separates Val from the man who brought her through the dimensional rift, she and her friend Eve, a girl patched together like Frankenstein’s monster, must overtake a slave ship and fight, with lots of interesting new allies at their side, for their freedom as the sky’s newest all-woman pirate crew.

Sound awesome? You know it does.

The look and feel of this book, both from a design point of view (the cover is sepia-toned, and the typesets swirly and antique) and in subject matter, feel decidedly steampunk, but I think that what sets this book apart from other selections in the genre is its narrative voice. Because Val is from our time and place, and because the place she travels to is an alternate universe, the narrative avoids archaisms or pseudo-victorian language in favour of Val’s interior narrative, which is gutsy, funny, and definitely true to the interior narrative of a teenage girl.

The book isn’t very long (173 pages) and feels stylistically like a YA book, but it still holds its own with older readers, aka me. I liked some of the elements of victorian dress-up that were present in the book, and think that this book will especially appeal to strong young women with a flair for the unconventional. My one word of warning, without meaning this as a criticism, is that any parent who may want to buy this for their son or daughter should know that the subject matter gets pretty serious at times, and may be more suitable for the older
teen reader. The author does not pull any punches regarding the main character’s enslavement, an unnecessary surgery performed on another character, or any of the violent battle details that accompany the girls’ rebellion on the slave ship. However, Val’s sarcastic wit and feisty character pull you through, and some of the chapter subtitles really add touches of whimsy that keep the mood from bottoming out. With regards to content, my advice would be just to know your kids, and if they like action, adventure, and a little bit of a scare, go for it.

I think, in conclusion, that my favorite thing about this book was the strong female characters who don’t just lie down and accept their fate, but fight for the world that they want to live in. I love strong female characters, especially ones that feel real to me, that aren’t just girly stereotypes on the one end, or uber-masculine killing machines on the other. Every girl or woman in this book has a distinct personality, prejudices, and flaws that need to be overcome in order to work as a team and triumph, and I think that’s a great overall message for everybody, guy or girl. I’ve picked up the sequel at this year’s con, and I can’t wait to dig into it. (Might be a while though, as I just started Nicholas Nickleby before the con… have you ever seen the size of that book?)

Anyhoo, if you want to buy Sunset Val and check it out for yourself, go to: http://http://www.amazon.com/Sunset-Val-Rob-St-Martin/dp/0986653101

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