Announcement: Comments Moderation Change

A while back, I changed my comments system to un-moderated w/o all the CAPTCHA and Google account requirements.  I did that as an experiment.  Overall, it’s been a good one, as folks have been able to comment without much difficulty.  However, the spambots have become a little more persistent and “clever” in recent weeks, which […]

Announcement — 2010: A SFF Film Odyssey begins in February!

What is it? The SFF Film Odyssey (2010 edition) is the result of a twitter conversation I had last year, in which I remarked that it would be super cool if I could figure out a way to review every SF/F movie released since 2000 in one year.  Unfortunately, that’s nearly 1,000 films, and I […]

Gender Essentialism, Genre, and Me

I’m late to the party.  The first major SF/F controversy party.  And while this post won’t be about Kemp’s argument specifically, it does come out of the discussions about his post — most particularly the criticisms.[1] Part of the problem I have with traditional gender roles is the way they assume what manhood (or womanhood) […]

Self-Published Books vs. Literary Awards: In Response to Linda Nagata

I’m a little late to the party, but Linda Nagata kindly rebutted my original post on the logistical issues of literary awards as a rationale for the rejection of self-published books from the consideration lists.  Here, I’d like to respond to some of her arguments. First, I’ll say that I don’t disagree with most of […]

A (Possibly Evolving) List of Great Novels by African Writers — for @jmmcdermott

I’ve been commanded by Lord McDermott to put together a list of great novels by African writers so he’d have some stuff to read.  And that’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve intentionally chucked out the books everyone has likely read, such as Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (I know for a fact that Mr. McDermott […]