Shaun's Rambles 001: The Gallo Conspiracy and Trial By Fire

...in which I begin a podcast of random thoughts had while driving home from work.

In this edition:

• Some thoughts on the controversy over Irene Gallo's statements about the Sad / Rabid Puppies
• Some thoughts on Trial By Fire by Charles Gannon and the absence of sf/f awards for adventure fiction

Enjoy the rambles.

You can download the mp3 directly from this link or stream the episode below.

On the SF/F Novel: What Happened to Short Novels?

Later tonight, I'm recording an episode of The Incomparable with Jason Snell, Scott McNulty, Paul Weimer, and Fred Kiesche.  We'll be discussing the Nebula Awards novel finalists, and among the topics I intend to bring up is the fact that I have been bouncing off of novels hard lately.

In the last few months, I've increasingly become weary of novels over 300 pages, and even more weary of novels exceeding 500.  Part of this comes from experience:  over and over, I'll pick up a novel of that length and come to the realization that it should have been cut down by 30% to avoid bloated side stories.  There are all kinds of reasons that a novel should be trimmed, from excessive "as you know, Bob" explanations (a trait that Kim Stanley Robinson has somehow avoided in his exposition-heavy work) to simple elongations of otherwise tight narratives are pretty common.  In other words, novel bloat is the primary culprit.

On the Hugo Awards: Two Scholarly-ish Projects to Come (An Announcement)

As you may well be aware, I am currently working on two projects related to the Hugo Awards.  I know I've mentioned both of these at some point, though the second is certainly the most visible of these projects.  I'm also sure you know that the Hugo Awards have been enormously controversial this year, earning mainstream attention in major newspapers and entertainment sites such as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Boing Boing, and so on.  That conversation is still happening; one need only look at File 770 to see it.

Why I've Quit Game of Thrones and Will Not Return

(Trigger warning:  this post will involve discussion of sexual violence, homophobia, and related subjects.  If you watch Game of Thrones, you probably already know what I'm talking about.

I'm also releasing this post early because I can't wait until Friday to drop it.  I'm moving my Retro Nostalgia feature to Friday for this week only.)

I loved you, Game of Thrones.  I loved you so much that I used to wait up late at night to catch the latest episode after it had aired because I didn't have HBO.  I loved you so much that I started doing a weekly ritual with a friend where we'd watch the new episode together between bouts of silly video games.  I loved you so much that I reviewed every single one of your episodes in the first season and even convinced myself to keep watching after the Red Wedding, when you filled me with so much dread that I honestly thought there was no hope left in the GoT world.

I loved you.

But no more.

Patreon Update: Ch-ch-ch-changes and a Question

My Patreon page has been updated to reflect the changes to my blogging/writing efforts.  If you'd like to support what I do, please become a patron!

On a related note:

I've had some difficulty thinking about how to change the patron levels to better reflect what folks would want from such a thing.  In principle, folks support a Patreon because they like what a person does, but I also like the idea of adding something additional to the pot.  Thus far, that "addition" has been varying levels of voting ability and/or topic suggestion ability.  Now, I wonder if it might make more sense to make topic suggestions and votes a public function and replace the current levels with something else.

The question:  what would I replace those things with?

Some things I've considered:

• Quirky handwritten letters w/ handwritten maps and other weirdness (I love drawing maps)
• The Encyclopedia Obscura entries (absurd, quirky alternate history entries to an encyclopedia)
• Access to fiction (which some said I shouldn't offer)
• No idea...

I suppose what this comes down to is a confusion over what works for something like Patreon, especially when what you're offering is written content that isn't fiction.  So if you have any ideas, do let me know.  Otherwise, I'll just leave the page as it is for the time being.

Anywho!  Thanks for the support!

On Black Widow and Marvel's Gaps (or, Why We Need a Black Widow Movie)

On the recent Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) episode of The Skiffy and Fanty Show, I argued that part of what bothered me about the Black Widow scene wherein she reveals having been sterilized in the Red Room is that it clarified what was an obvious gap in Marvel's Cinematic Universe.  We need a Black Widow movie, I said -- more so now than ever.  This is a somewhat complicated position, and I'd like to explore that in-depth here.

For those that don't know, I'll spoil the bit everyone is talking about:

The Reboot: New Schedule, the Focus, and New Beginnings

Here we go.  I've been thinking about this for the past month.  A number of people have offered their thoughts on what I should do about this blog and my various blogging efforts (thanks!).  The following list is a far more compact set of regular (in italics) and irregular features, with the former having a set schedule.  I think it's more focused and better tuned to what I want to be doing in each space.  Having a set (but reasonable) schedule is also good for me, since it gives me a structure that isn't too cumbersome.

Here it is: