Genre Gender Discrimination

So, I was working on my novel this morning, and discovered something intriguing:

All of my ‘bad guys’ are male.

Of the cast of ‘good guys,’ the majority are female.

Now, I am definitely of the opinion that strong female characters were lacking in genre fiction, and in dystopian sci-fi are only recently showing up at all.

But what’s it say when only a few characters on the ‘good’ side are guys?

Of course, not all of these characters are perfect, in fact they each make things more complicated in their own ways. Am I unintentionally saying something I shouldn’t? What do you think?

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Monday Pick-Me-Up

Here’s a video for all those creators out there. I very often use this song to launch my writing sessions:

For those who don’t know, the band is Blind Guardian, a power metal band with a spectacular vocalist. I love this song, probably too much.

What song helps you launch your creative process?

Mars Curiosity

So, I’ve spent my Sunday completely ignoring the things I SHOULD be doing because of the internet coverage of the Mars Curiosity lander.

When I was young, I was one of the kids who wanted to be an astronaut. I’m a self-described “astronut.” I like the ideas of space, space travel, and the potential it gives everyone.

Now, it’s been a few years since I kept my finger on the pulse of space science, but the Curiosity Landing has proven NASA is still willing to be relevant. With their NASASocial program, they’re reaching out to the people who want to see NASA succeed, and that’s something that makes me very happy.

Now, about Curiosity, for those who AREN’T following it, here’s an animation of major parts of the mission so you get an idea of what’s going on.

The short version: This is the largest rover we’ve sent to Mars, and it had some serious challenges on getting to the surface accurately and unharmed. So the answer the folks at NASA came up with? A sky crane. Seriously, if this isn’t straight out of science fiction, I don’t know what is.

I can’t wait to find out if this mission landing is successful, and I won’t find out for about another hour, so if you want to join me, come watch the NASA Social stream!

Wordplay Fun

There once was a [person] from [place]
Whose [body part] was [special case].
When [event] would occur,
It would cause [him or her]
To violate [law of time/space].

A friend of mine linked me to a site on the Wayback Machine that included limericks of all kinds. Here are two, but you can find more here.

There once was a buggy AI
Who decided her subject should die.
When the plot was uncovered,
The subjected discovered
That sadly the cake was a lie.

Medium Doesn’t Matter

I still find people talking about physical books are a superior product. That the medium of delivery matters more than a general personal preference would tell you.

Look, I’m not saying someone is dumb or wrong for preferring physical books. What I’m saying is that the reasons often given, two of them offered in the quote from Nathan Fillion above, aren’t really the most important reasons someone can prefer a physical book.

You think I’m wrong?

If those things, the scent or feel, were truly the most important things about a physical book, then I could fill a book with outright gibberish, nonsense words or even random characters, and it would be as valuable as any other book.

You can’t tell me you believe that to be true, so I’m going to assume that the story or information is more important to any person than either of those qualities.

Now, for some things, I prefer a physical book. I’ll take a well-indexed physical copy of a reference book over any digital copy without good search tools. But a searchable, hyper-linked reference e-book is a much more useful tool, if the information can be displayed in a usable way.

And for most of my ‘normal’ reading, I prefer my kindle. An e-book gives me the same story as the physical copy most of the time, and I’m in it for the story, and end up giving away soft covers when I’m done with them except for a select few.

So what would I like to see? I want hardbound books that will last again. No more cheap paper and binding. Sure, it makes the hardbacks cheaper for the consumer, but the permanence, the reason you’d want a hardbound, is not as good as it used to be. Sure, I’ll only buy four a year, but those four books will be ones I want to see on my shelf for years. For all my other reading, I want quality digital books I can read on the go.

It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. We can have both.

So what do you think, does the medium matter to you?