Friday Five Returns

It's been a long time since I've done a Friday Five, but since I'm in the swing of things, here we go again

1) Let's start off with a nice sale. If you click the link here, it'll take you to a page full of great indie fantasy novels about gentlepersons of negotiable morality. A daylight robbery opportunity no less. Michael McClung's The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids is my favourite on the list, but I've heard many good things about most of them.

2) I mentioned this article yesterday (in an article I didn't publicise) but let's talk about it again - Malinda Lo's piece on writer identity. I think it's a really good and specific take on the subject that I'll be returning to again, and I'm really looking forwards to her other articles about writer craft. Thanks to Juliana for leading me to this one!

3) Another article that I saw recently that I want to spread around is this one on the new Enola movie. I haven't seen the movie, but I have seen criticisms like this before of the Single Story on "powerful women" and I thought this was one was well argued. Has it put me off seeing the movie? Dunno, but has it made me interested in the thought of a sequel in which Enola has a posse, and the posse allows for multiple stories on powerful women? Yes, yes it has.

4) More links! This one a twitter thread from Carly Watters, talking about what she's learned as an agent. Always interesting to see what's going on in the more untalked about parts of the industry.

5) Now a personal observation, bordering on rant and not quite. And... well, I remember everything about the allegations of abuse brought against certain authors (nearly all male) earlier this year, most of them admitted to. And I remember how there were a lot of responses, but mostly centered around individuals. There wasn't much talk about how to address the soil from which these people came. The soil in which, without wishing to absolve them or make them more deserving of sorrow than anger, they were nourished and shaped to become the people they became. The soil that will produce more people like those authors. I've been reminded recently how much being in an alienating situation can affect people. I get that this is a very back-burner thing given the state of the world and how many ways people can split their attention, but the world will change and these potentially alienating situations will come again. They shouldn't be forgotten.