There are quite a few great shows cropping up these days. Here are a few that I'm looking forward to. The first is Bright.

And then there's Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

And the next one makes me cry every time I see it because I keep thinking of how Wonder Woman made me feel, and I'm thrilled that another minority group gets to have that same feeling. This is why I'm into SF/F y'all. THIS. (And that soundtrack is amazing.)

Last night, one hardback and one paperback copy of Blackthorne arrived on my doorstep. They're all official looking. It still feels unreal to see my name on a book cover like that--let alone four of them all neatly arranged on a shelf. (Oh, imposter syndrome. [sigh]) Oh, I should mention that Cold Iron, the first novel in the series, is on sale for 99 cents (the Kindle version) on Amazon. The paperback is $7.99 and the hardback can be found there too.

On to other things.

Today, I'm going to provide you with a bit more Suvi, Dylan, and Dar. 

Good morning! I hope your weekend was a good one. Mine was both good and bad. On the upside, we had the announcement that the 13th regeneration of Doctor Who will be a white woman. Like my weekend, this is good and bad. Good: Yay! Female! Bad: Not a WOC. I can be happy and unhappy at the same time, and I am. I'm so pleased that the Doctor won't be yet another white man that I'm actually planning on watching the show for the first time ever. Jody Whittaker is an amazing actress. (Just watch her in Antigone.) At exactly the same time, there is usually an order to these things in the more conservative end of the progressive pool. White women are generally the next in line when it comes to representation. In a lot of ways it's the safest choice, after all. Nonetheless, it didn't abate the shitstorm of misogyny on the internet from grown men who know less about sharing toys than the average five year old child. (Thank the gods none of them were on my feed.) Ultimately, this is pretty wonderful. Like Alex Acks says so well, I grew up having to pretend to be male if I wanted to play pretend as one of my SF/F heroes. To quote from their blog: "And yes, you can pretend as many things as you like, but for all children are intensely imaginative, they’re also weirdly pedantic in certain ways. If you don’t ever see a girl being the Doctor, you come to feel that the Doctor is not something you’re allowed to be. Like when the young son of a friend of mine sadly informed one of his female classmates (this happened before we had Ahsoka and Rey, mind) that she couldn’t play Jedi with him and his friends, because girls aren’t Jedi – his parents corrected him on that one, but he made a perfectly logical conclusion from what he’d observed." This was very much my experience as a kid. Anyway, it's a great read. Ultimately, I have two hopes: the first is that the companion won't be male. Inevitably, there will be pressure for romantic tension between them, and when that happens the balance of power will tip toward the man.[1] It's one of the reasons I hate the "a woman isn't successful unless she has a man" schtick. It reduces every female character as Woman = sex, romantic potential. It's awful.[2] Let's stop. Shall we? The second thing is, if the companion is male I hope he's not a black man because cue in the Driving Miss Daisy association. I want a black man to play a significant role in the series. That would be amazing. Just...context is important, y'all.

​And now, links.

I flipped open the latest issue of Vanity Fair this morning and was struck with a sudden thought about the first few pages. I've an art degree, and one of the things you learn as an art student is the power of images as communication. That's obvious, I know, but I wanted to set up my thought process for those who didn't go to art school.[1] Images are their own language. Art galleries spent a great deal of care in setting up the order of images patrons experience for this reason. Professionals are employed for this very purpose.

Now, back to Vanity Fair. The first advertisement I came to was of the cast of Empire.

In case you're not American or you are an American but you've been living under a rock, it's a great television series about the music business, and involves a powerful man who owns a hip-hop music label and is his family. The image above isn't the exact image in the magazine. I just wanted to give you an idea of my experience. Okay. The next image was from Star, another television series about the music industry. I can't find the exact image which is sad because in this case it does matter. It's a two-page ad showing a majority of PoCs (five out of seven) -- one white man and one white woman. Cool. Another success fantasy. I'm down. Flip page. 

Imagine emblazoned across the top the words: "Find your gift. Find your power." This is from the new series The Gifted. It's about a normal family with children who have super powers a la the Marvel Universe.

My brain went straight to: people of color fantasy about success = reality-based dreams. White people fantasy about success = gods.[3] I did a double take. 

Yeah. That.[4] Just. Wow.

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[1] Just as people will argue that words don't have deeper layers of meaning[2]--an absurd argument from my perspective
[2] In that the various definitions of individual words are implied even though they aren't directly used. For example the word dilettante. Merriam-Webster's definition is:
plural: dilettantes
 or dilettantiplay \-ˈtän-tē, -ˈtan-tē\

1. 1:  an admirer or lover of the arts
2. 2:  a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge :  dabbler

​Now, if you look up "dabbler" and "superficial" you'll note those two words have a negative connotation. Thus, the word "dilettante" holds an air of insult regardless of whether or not the user of the word intended it. That's obvious. And entire studies in literature wrapped up in this very concept. Professional writers are aware of this. Poets make careers of this very concept. So do song writers and playwrites. Words are our tools.

Now, look up the word "man" and tell me that it's 100% gender neutral. It isn't. It's impossible to use that word without masculine context. Context matters. And yet, someone will still step up and insist that it isn't the case. [eye roll]
[3] Oh, and of course the women are blonde which only adds an extra layer of white supremacy.
​[4] Yes. I'm aware that isn't the intent. Nor is it a universal interpretation. But the subconscious message is there.

This jpeg brought to you because of a Twitter rant and a conversation with Monica Valentinelli. 

Today will be a full day. I have to finish those blog posts, write 900 words on new novel, get a haircut, run some errands, and get my ass to Nicky Drayden's and Chris Brown's signings over at BookPeople. And damn it, it's noon already. Somewhere in there I have to find time for lunch. But at least the St.Louis adventure is booked. (I think. Glares at Travelocity.) I have something I can wear in a swimming pool at the hotel. And my hair is freshly dyed.

All super fascinating stuff, I'm sure.

​May your weekend be fabulous.

It's time for another snippet from Blackthorne. This time from Caius's point of view.

I decided to use this Aliens image because it made me smile this morning. No significance other than that. :) Let's move on into those links, shall we?

Today's link is Black Girl Nerds review Wonder Woman. For the record, I saw WW twice and bawled both times. ;)

Because we all know I work to music...have a short list of tracks I'm favoriting right now for the current WIP which is a gender-flipped Western/Seven Samurai mashup set in space. ;)

Highlights from the Persephone Track List:
Heart of Stone -- The Raveonettes
As the Rush Comes (Gabriel & Dresden Chillout Mix) -- Motorcycle
​Eyes On Fire (Zeds Dead Remix) -- Blue Foundation
Love Will Tear Us Apart -- Joy Division
Hurt -- Johnny Cash
Short Change Hero -- The Heavy
Killing Strangers -- Marilyn Manson
Beat the Devil's Tattoo -- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
The Fade Out Line -- Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws
2Wicky -- Hooverphonic
Teardrop -- Massive Attack
Nine Million Rainy Days -- The Postmarks
Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby -- Cigarettes After Sex
Home is Where -- Caveboy
Deep Six -- Marilyn Manson
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Enjoy! I'm off to shoot up imaginary bars. ;)

So, today Skiffy and Fanty dropped the interview they did with me for Blackthorne. I hope you enjoy it. We had fun discussing a broad set of topics explored in the novel. :)

Today, I'm posting a snigglet from Blackthorne's POV. I know it probably sounds like I have a dizzying number of POV characters. There are seven. Yes, that's a lot. However, when you compare that with the number of POV characters in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (twenty-four), it's nothing. I think y'all are sophisticated enough to handle it. (I suspect that if readers can handle a white man writing twenty-four points of view, they can handle seven from a white woman.) Also, if you want the breakdown: three of the seven are women, and four are men. Two of those men are POCs and one is gay. As you can see, I'm working on being more inclusive in my work as professional writers should. Doing so makes my worlds more realistic. Ultimately, it wasn't just out of a sense of duty. It was actually a lot of fun, but then one of the things I enjoy about writing is the ability to look through other people's eyes--specifically people who don't look like me. It's a big part of the adventure. Anyway, here you go.