Malinda Lo

afterellenbookclub: queerbookclub: knowhomo: LGBTQ* Posts We...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:29:35 -0700

queerbookclub:

knowhomo:

LGBTQ* Posts We Love (and Blogs We Love to Follow)

Queer Book Club’s Hogwart’s House Reading List

…

WOW! I’ve been thinking, hmm, maybe I should combine the Hogwarts posts into one big post - but KNOWhomo did it for me! Thank you!!

See KNOWhomo’s full post, which includes the full text of all four of my Hogwarts posts!

So amazing, you guys!

So cool! And not just because 2 of my books are in it, although that totally does make me SQUEAL!

Trac Changes: On Coverflipping, Misogyny, and, Oh Yeah—How You and I Are Part of the Problem

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:26:04 -0700

Trac Changes: On Coverflipping, Misogyny, and, Oh Yeah—How You and I Are Part of the Problem:

Well worth the read.

Sex and YA Fiction | Malinda Lo

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:01:13 -0700

Sex and YA Fiction | Malinda Lo:

If I have any political agenda when it comes to representing girls’ sexuality and desire, it’s that I want to describe it positively. I don’t know if “sex positive” is out of fashion these days, but the term still speaks to me. I think it’s OK — and even realistic — for girls to feel desire and to express it physically and with confidence. From the beginning.

whedonesque: The last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired...

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:45:32 -0700

whedonesque:

The last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired ten years ago today on May 20th, 2003

"I myself have been idiotically told that I write “awful” books because the people in them are..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:35:58 -0700

“I myself have been idiotically told that I write “awful” books because the people in them are unpleasant. Intelligent readers do not confuse the quality of a book with the moral rectitude of the characters. For those who want goodigoodiness, there are some Victorian good-girl religious novels that would suit them fine.”

- Margaret Atwood on “likable” characters. Clearly this is a topic on which many authors have a lot of pent up rage. (via bennettmadison)

The Woman Warrior and the complexity of Chinese American identity | Malinda Lo

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:57:34 -0700

The Woman Warrior and the complexity of Chinese American identity | Malinda Lo:

For those of us who occupy the spaces between identities — because of our personalities or because we have a foot in more than one subgroup — finding representation anywhere, in any form of media, can be extremely rare. It can be tempting to hand a person a book and say, “This is where you fit in,” but in many, many cases, that won’t be true. It may end up alienating the person more than making them feel welcome.

Spectacular dogfight between ravens and hawks captured in...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:15:29 -0700

Spectacular dogfight between ravens and hawks captured in stunning photographs | Photos by Alisa Schulman-Janiger | via grindtv.com

YA!flash: So about the so-called lack of boy stuff in YA

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:46 -0700

YA!flash: So about the so-called lack of boy stuff in YA:

yaflash:

So I have a lot of feelings every single time I hear that people are “angry” or “annoyed” or whatever that they can’t find ONE SINGLE YA BOOK IN THE ENTIRE YA SECTION FOR BOYS TO READ and YOUNG MEN ARE FAILING BECAUSE GIRLS ARE TAKING OVER LITERATURE and HOW CAN BOYS POSSIBLY BE EXPECTED TO WANT…

Word.

racebending: Hi everybody! When I’m not working on...

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:02:40 -0700

racebending:

Hi everybody! When I’m not working on Racebending, I’m a grad student at UCLA where my colleagues/friends and I are currently researching the wellness outcomes of LGBTQ Asian Pacific Americans! (See above video for more details.)

We are in the process of conducting a survey of people who identify as LGBTQ and Asian Pacific American and would love your participation. Make sure our voice is heard! We were awarded a small grant so we will be raffling off a bunch of $50 Amazon gift cards, too. The link to the survey is www.uclaqapistudy.com!

Please consider taking the survey and reblogging!

"I don’t read reviews about myself, even in film and in television, so I wouldn’t read reviews about..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:29:12 -0700

“I don’t read reviews about myself, even in film and in television, so I wouldn’t read reviews about my art. I think it taints the experience of it. When you do a movie or you are working in television, the people that you work with become your life; it is a very intimate experience that takes you somewhere emotionally. The experience of painting something has the same effect. Whether the painting is a success or a failure, the time that I was involved in it remains the same. To read a review about yourself, whether good or bad, can extinguish your experience and make you feel regretful, and I don’t want to regret time passing.”

- Lucy Liu, who is apparently also an incredible artist in addition to be an actor, to Hunger

Anthropology and writing | Malinda Lo

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:01:07 -0700

Anthropology and writing | Malinda Lo:

A lot of times I hear people advising writers to observe strangers on a bus, or (since I write YA) to pay attention to the way teens act if you have the opportunity to hang out with them. But … to write something really true (and I’m including fantasy and science fiction in here, too, because truth isn’t limited to the real world), you have to go beyond external observation. You have to figure out why someone does something, and you must be both objective and empathetic to it.

metteivieharrison: What is YA?

Thu, 16 May 2013 07:18:57 -0700

metteivieharrison: What is YA?:

metteivieharrison:

1. YA usually has a YA protagonist (13-19), but not always.
2. YA is usually shorter than adult fiction (60-80k, though fantasy can be longer).
3. YA is usually more quickly paced, with more dialog, less exposition, and fewer subplots.
4. YA tends to be in first person or very close third, and it…

My favorite part: There is no ennui.

bin42: From “Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived from the the DNA...

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:10:01 -0700

bin42:

From “Creepy or Cool? Portraits Derived from the the DNA in Hair and Gum Found in Public Places” (Smithsonian)

…the “Stranger Visions” project is a startling reminder of advances in both technology and genetics. “It came from this place of noticing that we are leaving genetic material everywhere,” says Dewey-Hagbog. “That, combined with the increasing accessibility to molecular biology and these techniques means that this kind of science fiction future is here now. It is available to us today. The question really is what are we going to do with that?”

Moral: Be careful where you leave your DNA!

explore-blog: J. K. Rowling’s hand-drawn spreadsheet for Harry...

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:15:48 -0700

explore-blog:

J. K. Rowling’s hand-drawn spreadsheet for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

*author organization flail-squeal*

"When people who aren’t of color create a show and they have one character of color on their show,..."

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:01:12 -0700

“When people who aren’t of color create a show and they have one character of color on their show, that character spends all their time talking about the world as ‘I’m a black man blah, blah, blah’ … That’s not how the world works. I’m a black woman every day, and I’m not confused about that. I’m not worried about that. I don’t need to have a discussion with you about how I feel as a black woman, because I don’t feel disempowered as a black woman.”

- Shonda Rhimes, “the most powerful African-American female show runner in television,” to the New York Times Magazine

“Le Feu Follet” by Helen Warner (Flickr) More...

Wed, 15 May 2013 07:37:29 -0700

“Le Feu Follet” by Helen Warner (Flickr)

More breathtakingly surreal photos on my website.

"…VIDA isn’t calling for quotas. We don’t want quotas because that’s not how art works. But we..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:32:52 -0700

“…VIDA isn’t calling for quotas. We don’t want quotas because that’s not how art works. But we do want people to be conscious of their gender bias and we want men particularly to be more open, and women who’ve been trained in a patriarchal system to be open to other voices, because they don’t always realize how parochial their tastes are, or they’re too afraid to like something on their own. Like, oh we all love Cormac McCarthy or, oh we all love Philip Roth. Well I like Cormac McCarthy but I don’t love him and I certainly don’t like Philip Roth, and I’m okay with that. We don’t all think one thing. We should think for ourselves and have a diverse and healthy and dynamic literary setting in this country that isn’t about worshiping a small group of white straight guys that a very small elite group of tastemakers have decided is the shit.”

- Erin Belieu, poet and co-founder of VIDA, in a wide-ranging and excellent interview over at Lambda Literary, which you should totally read, especially in light of the recent Coverflip situation

On conspiracy theories | Malinda Lo

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:01:56 -0700

On conspiracy theories | Malinda Lo

OMG lookie, it’s my good friend Sarah...

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:28:38 -0700

OMG lookie, it’s my good friend Sarah P!

butchesandbabies:

This is me (Sarah) with my youngest daughter Aviva. She is six months old and is the best cuddler ever.

bin42: From Uncovered: NASA’s Retro Drawings of Humans on Mars...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:34:27 -0700

bin42:

From Uncovered: NASA’s Retro Drawings of Humans on Mars (Mashable)