Cat Valente at Finncon, Two Interviews

~ Cheryl

The latest podcast to go up on Salon Futura is the full version of my interview with Cat Valente from Finncon. As you may recall, I broadcast part of it on Women’s Outlook a while back, but the whole thing is about half an hour long and so I had to trim quite a bit. As is the way with mainstream media, I chose to trim all of the interesting writing and publishing business neepery, but you’ll get all that good stuff here.

The interview covers the whole of Cat’s career from her childhood obsession with fairy tales through her student days in Edinburgh, her early success with The Orphan’s Tales, the amazing phenomenon that is the Fairyland books and her later adult novels such as Deathless and Radiance. There is, inevitably, mention of David Bowie (Cat and I had just done the Bowie & Prince panel). There is also a fair amount of giggling by both parties. My excuse was that I was getting to interview a writer whose work I absolutely adore.

By the way, the nice Finncon people videoed a lot of the panels and have been beavering away editing the material. I have no idea whether the Trans panel or the Bowie & Prince panel will ever end up on the Internet, but I think you are safe from the Cat & Cheryl do karaoke “Starman” thing because that would be a copyright violation.

However, the GoH speeches are available, so if the above is not enough Cat for you here is Johan Anglemark interviewing Cat in the main auditorium. I’m sat down the front taking notes. I don’t think they ever pull the camera back far enough to see me, but they can’t avoid showing the anime dance practice taking place outside. Check it out, it is awesome.

Coming in Translation from Aqueduct

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

MonteverdeToday I got email from Aqueduct Press talking about their forthcoming releases. Among them was Monteverde: Memoirs of an Interstellar Linguist, a short science fiction novel by Spanish writer, Lola Robles. It has been translated by my friend Lawrence Schimel, so I immediately got in touch with him for more information. I’ll have more to say about the book in the near future. Today, however, I wanted to thank Aqueduct for taking a risk on a translated work. I also note that Lawrence has been telling me about science fiction in Spanish featuring trans characters, including a story by Lola and a forthcoming novel by Sofía Rhei.

It so happens that Lola and Lawrence will be at the forthcoming Eurocon in Barcelona. Possibly Sofía will too. And of course I will be there. I’m looking forward to it.

Helsinki Site Info

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

Yesterday hotel bookings for Worldcon opened, and the inevitable panic on social media ensued. Getting a hotel room for Worldcon isn’t, thank goodness, as bad as trying to get a hotel room in San Diego for ComicCon, but it is complicated by the host city being different each year.

Anyway, I do know Helsinki tolerably well, and I have done site reports before now. I figured it would be useful to remind you of them.

First up here’s some video I took of the convention center and city when we were bidding for 2015. Obviously this is a few years old now (it is from 2013), but not much has changed.

There’s also a photo album, taken on the same trip.

One thing that has changed is that there is now a train from the airport that takes you directly into the city center. My report on that (from this year) is here.

Freedom Youth in the News

~ Cheryl

The Bristol Cable has just run a nice little article about Free to be Me, the history of Freedom Youth that was launched at Bristol Pride this year. The article also includes a few quotes from some busybody called Cheryl who was on hand as an expert in local LGBT history.

By the way, the layout was done by Joe Burt who also did Airship Shape & Bristol Fashion and the Colin Harvey novels for me, and is published by my friend Richard Jones at Tangent Books. Richard, like me, is heavily involved in the Bristol Festival of Literature, about which you will be hearing much more in the run up to the end of October. And on that subject, Pete Sutton was on Radio Bristol talking about the festival yesterday. This listen again link is here, and Pete comes on at about 1:22.

Mike Carey at Waterstones

~ Cheryl

As promised, I have uploaded the other Mike Carey interview to Salon Futura. This is the one that we did at Waterstones in the evening. It is almost an hour long, so we have a lot more time to talk about Fellside. Mike and I go on a little rant about the economics of private prisons. The conversation also touches on films. The Girl with All the Gifts is due for release on September 23rd. Here’s the trailer.

One of the reasons I didn’t want to release this too soon is that Mike would have had to kill me, because during the interview he mentions the possibility of a prequel to The Girl with All the Gifts. That book is now official, so I no longer have to worry.

Inevitably Mike and I talk about the X-Men. Indeed, I suspect that we could have talked about superhero movies all evening had not one or two people been scowling at us from the audience. Obviously I mentioned the Felix Castor novels, which led us on to the idiocies of publisher branding policies. We even managed to mention the Steel Seraglio books, which Mike wrote with his wife, Linda, and daughter, Louise.

The sound quality is rather poor in places, for which my apologies. My little microphone doesn’t cope well with a cavernous shop, and there were all sorts of issues with capturing audience questions. Hopefully it is all listenable.

This event was arranged by the Bristol Festival of Literature. My thanks to Pete Sutton for doing a fine job.

Next week in the Salon I’ll have the full version of my Finncon interview with Cat Valente.

Helsinki Worldcon Academic Track – Call for Papers

~ Cheryl

Finnish conventions always have a great academic presence, and their Worldcon promises to be no different. I have just been sent the Call for Papers for Worldcon 75. The theme of the track will be “100 Years of Estrangement”. The deadline for submitting abstracts is October 31st.

As it happens, I know exactly what I am going to submit. It is a paper called “Genly Ai and the Trans Panic Defense”. I have been meaning to write it for some time now, and this is a perfect opportunity.

Making Movies – Part II

~ Cheryl

Not about me this time, this is about real movies.

As those of you who follow trans issues on social media will know by now, there is yet another controversy about a trans woman being played by a cis man in a movie. In this case the flick in question is Anything, starring Matt Bomer as the trans woman, and directed by Mark Ruffalo.

Jen Richards has done a great job on Twitter of articulating the issues, but for those of you who don’t click through on links here are the main points:

  1. There are plenty of great trans actresses who need work;
  2. No matter how good the male actor, and good trans woman will always bring more authenticity to the part;
  3. Every time a movie casts a cis man as a trans woman it reinforces the idea that trans women are “really men” who are “just acting”, and thus feeds the nonsense that leads to “bathroom bills” and murder.

The last one is the key point. You can make an argument for using a male actor if the character is going through transition, as was the case in The Danish Girl, but if the character presents as female throughout you don’t use a male actor. Personally I have no issues with cis women playing trans women. Indeed, the extreme dysphoria experienced by Chloe Sevigny [the interview is in the Malice, I’m not linking to it] while filming Hit and Miss provides a very valuable lesson about what trans women go through.

Something else worth bearing in mind is that women such as Jen Richards and Jamie Clayton are putting their careers at risk by speaking out on this issue. Just as there are NFL bosses who now won’t employ Colin Kaepernick (Go 49ers!), there are (old white male) studio bosses who will turn against anyone seen to be “rocking the boat”. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for September 18th because Her Story surely deserves an Emmy.

There is, perhaps inevitably, a petition asking for the film to not be released. I can’t see that happening. Ruffalo says it has already been shot, and there are doubtless all sorts of contractual issues that would make is very difficult for it to be stopped now. The only thing that can really stop it is if it looked like being such a financial flop that the studio decided to cut its losses, and frankly, with the amount of free publicity it has got, I can’t see that happening.

So what can Ruffalo and Bomer do to make amends? Well to start with they can accept Eden Lane’s offer of an interview (because there are trans women who have good jobs on American television). I’m sure Janet Mock would have them on her show too.

They can also get onto other chat shows, and insist then Jen and or Jamie come on with them to discuss the issues (and be paid for it).

And of course they can donate any money that they make from the film to trans charities. I’m sure they can afford it.

Finally, they can talk to other people in Hollywood and do their best to make sure that this never, ever happens again.

Making Movies

~ Cheryl

Hey girls, you know that thing where you have been asked to be interviewed for an educational film, so you get your hair done specially and you spend ages agonizing over what to wear and doing your make-up, and the two guys who are on with you rock up, look at you, and go, “oh, I just threw something on this morning…”

Of course I knew this was the way things were when I signed up for the woman gig. Also I enjoy the whole dressing up thing, so I’m not complaining. But I also know that when the film gets shown people watching it will glaze over the gay guy and the trans guy on it, but will go on endlessly about how unconvincing I look and how everyone can tell I’m “really a man”. Because that too is the way the world is.

Dysphoria. It is real because other people really do judge you.

Finns for Hugos

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

MaresiCore
Yeah, I am lamentably late publishing anything for Women in Translation Month. It is, after all, the last day of August. But I didn’t want to talk about these two books until the current year’s Hugo excitement was over, because they are both candidates for next year.

It would be nice to have a Finnish author or two on the ballot in Helsinki, wouldn’t it?

Of course, this being Finland, both books are by women, and both have strongly feminist themes. I wouldn’t expect anything less of my amazing Finnish friends. Both are translations. But there the similarities end. The Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo was originally written in Finnish and is science fiction. Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff was originally written in Swedish and is YA fantasy. Both are great books in their own way.

So if you’d like to know more, check out my reviews. You can find The Core of the Sun here, and Maresi here.

Parsec Award Announcement Coming Soon

~ Cheryl

The winners of this year’s Parsec Awards will be announced at Dragon*Con this weekend. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the announcement.

As you may know, the Parsecs are given for achievement in speculative fiction podcasting. Salon Futura isn’t up for anything, which doesn’t surprise me as uploads are anything but regular. Besides, you have to submit your podcast in order to be considered, so I’m clearly full of FAIL on that account. However, quite a few people I know are among the finalists.

There are no Clarkesworld stories up in the fiction categories, which may be because Neil didn’t submit any. However, Beneath Ceaseless Skies has a few contenders. Also both Uncanny and Strange Horizons are finalists in the Best Speculative Fiction Magazine or Anthology category. Verity, the all-woman Doctor Who podcast, is a finalist in the Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (Specific), which will give Tansy something to crow about after the torrent of awards that have been heaped on Alisa and Alex for Letters to Tiptree.

However, the category that I am most interested in is Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama (Short Form). That’s because one of the finalists is Ray Gunn and Starburst, written by my good friend ‘Olly Rose. There will be a great deal of celebrating done in Bath if the results go the right way.

Mike Carey in the Salon – Part I

~ Cheryl

Fellside
Today on Salon Futura I posted the audio from my interview with Mike Carey on Ujima Women’s Outlook back in May. We were mainly discussing his latest novel, Fellside, but conversation also strayed onto The Girl with All the Gifts and the X-Men.

Mike’s comments are particularly interesting in view of the US Department of Justice’s recent decision to stop using private prisons. Whether the UK will follow suit is very much open to debate.

As I note in the interview, I was also scheduled to interview Mike at Waterstones that evening. I have edited the audio from that and hope to have it online for you later this week. In the meantime, here is Part I.

YA and Gender Conference, Italy 2017

~ Cheryl

Hello academic pals. Here is a conference that you may be interested in. It is called Literature, Translation, and Mediation by and for Children: Gender, Diversity, and Stereotype, and it will take place at the University of Bologna at Forlì in October 2017. That’s a fair way off, but abstracts have to be in by January 31st so you don’t as much time as it seems.

You may be asking why I am recommending this. Well, obviously the subject matter is of interest. But in addition one of the organizers of the conference is Dr. Raffaella Baccolini who was the scholar Guest of Honor at Finncon this year. She’s very smart, and a lovely person. I’m sure she’ll put on a great conference.

Also, there’s the location. Forlì is not actually in Bologna. It is a little way south-east thereof. It is actually closer to Ravenna than Bologna, and if I am going to be in the area there’s no way I am not going to see those mosaics and to pay my respects to Theodora. About half way between Bologna and Forlì there’s a little town called Imola, which is home to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, one time home of the San Marino Grand Prix. And of course San Marino itself is just a little further along the main road from Forlì.

Actually, to be frank, if I’m going to Italy then I have to go to Rome too because there are things in the Capitoline Museum that I need to see. I would love to go to Pompeii as well, but I don’t know how far the budget will stretch.

Anyway, it sounds like an amazing opportunity, and I shall certainly be submitting a paper. Hopefully some of you folks will be interested in going too. I don’t want to have to consume all of that great Italian food and wine by myself.

You can find the Call for Papers here.

Whisky Tasting Redux

~ Cheryl

As Twitter followers will know, last night I attended a whisky tasting given by the fabulous folks at Independent Spirit in Bath. Chris Scullion is enormously knowledgeable about whisky and always worth listening to. Last night’s tasting focused on things that were new in stock, so it was a bit of a mixed bag.

There are a couple of things I want to mention from last night. The first is the question of non-proprietary bottlings. Normally whisky distilleries are incredibly protective of their brands. Nevertheless, casks of malt whisky do sometimes find their way onto the market. Mostly these are sold with made-up names, though the disguise is often tissue-thin. Once in a while, however, the independent bottler will do a really good job and the distillery will allow the use of their name. The final whisky in last night’s tasting was a 7-year-old Talisker from Douglas Laing which does bear the distillery name. Very nice it was too.

One of the malts in the tasting was a Tullibardine. That’s not a well-known distillery, but it is notable for two reasons. Firstly the bottles carry a date of 1488. That’s the year in which King James IV of Scotland stopped by to purchase beer for his coronation. Making whisky is a much more recent activity at the site, but the distillery still proudly trumpets its royal connection.

Tullibardine, however, is no longer Scottish owned. The current owners are a French family who are primarily in the wine business. Their name is Picard, and we all know what that will mean some time in the far future. For now, however, it just means that they have access to some very interesting barrels in which to mature the whisky. The malt that we had last night was the Tullibardine 225, which is matured in Sauternes casks. That gives it a very different, and very fruity, flavor. They also do the Tullibardine 228 which is matured in Burgundy casks. Personally I prefer the 225, but they are both very interesting.

My thanks again to Chris for a fabulous evening. If you do happen to be in Bath, do pop into the shop and say hello.

Paul Cornell in The Salon

~ Cheryl

Here’s another Ujima interview that I am posting because the Listen Again link has expired. In keeping with our theme of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who, here is Paul Cornell.

Obviously the main topic of conversation was Paul’s Shadow Police novel, Who Killed Sherlock Holmes. We also discussed some of his other projects, including This Damned Band which is now available as a graphic novel. Along the way we discuss diversity in fiction, fandom, and why a vicar’s husband is so obsessed with devil worship. At one point I do actually say, “this interview has gone completely off the rails”, which I guess shows you how much fun Paul and I were having.

If you haven’t bought Who Killed Sherlock Holmes yet, you might like to listen to Paul read from it at his recent BristolCon Fringe appearance.

Next week, Mike Carey.

Changes Afoot at Charing Cross Gender Clinic

~ Cheryl

News broke this afternoon that Charing Cross Gender Identity Clinic is severing its relationship with its current host, West London Mental Health Trust. In a statement the Trust said:

The Board has made a decision that the medium-term strategic focus for the Trust will be to develop mental health services, physical care and integration between the two.

As a result, the Trust has come to the conclusion that patients requiring gender identity services would be better served in the long term by another provider, and has therefore served notice on our contract to NHS England.

Gay Star News, who are not averse to a big of clickbait, followed this up with a report saying that the clinic was about to close, and that this was brought about by a massive increase in demand. Neither of these things appear to be true, at least in the short term. WLMHT makes it clear in their announcement that they intend to continue services until a new host is found for the clinic. While they do mention increased demand in the announcement, they do not blame it for their decision.

Charing Cross has been in the forefront of gender medicine in the UK since at least the 1930s, and for a long time was the only clinic in the country. It is still the only clinic serving the heavily populated South-East of the country, and the whole of Wales because the Welsh government has been shamefully remiss in failing to provide a proper service for trans citizens. Even some of my friends around the Bristol-Bath area attend Charing Cross rather than the more local Exeter clinic. Losing it would be a major blow, but it is by no means clear what will happen.

Dr. Stuart Lorimer, a widely respected gender specialist with a long history at Charing Cross, popped up on Twitter to say that the decision to cut ties with WLMHT had been made by the clinic, not by the Trust.

https://twitter.com/GenderCareDrL/status/768814047420616704

He also noted that the clinic had alternate hosts already in mind.

https://twitter.com/GenderCareDrL/status/768818899525726208

I can certainly see the advantage of trans services not being so clearly associated with a mental health trust. Equally it is true that Charing Cross has been a problem for WLMHT. I doubt that the Trust’s management will have been pleased with this report by the Quality Care Commission. It is difficult to know whose spin to believe here. Possibly there was simply a breakdown of relationships and a need for a new start.

What is clear is that, to coin a well worn political phrase, Something Must Be Done. Because an awful lot of trans people are dependent on Charging Cross and will be very worried about their future right now.

Hopefully this will be an opportunity for Welsh trans activists to pressure their government for a local service. The Assembly has done a lot of talking but very little spending of money. It is time for that to change.

I also know that Caroline Lucas, the MP for Brighton Pavilion, has been pestering NHS England for a GIC in her city to serve its very large trans population. This may help her cause.

Equally hopefully, one of the organizations that Dr. Lorimer has in mind will come through and take on the job of managing the clinic. They might do a better job. Certainly there’s room for improvement. What worries me is what happens if no London-based NHS organization is willing to take up the challenge.

Indeed, it is worrying that an NHS Trust can say publicly that it doesn’t want to provide services to trans people any more and is dumping them, because that’s what the WLMHT press release says. It may not be true, but if it is what is to stop other NHS trusts all over the country from doing the same?

The alternative is that NHS England will give the contract to a private provider. I note that Dr. Lorimer and some colleagues recently set up a private consultancy providing gender services. I have seen some trans people already expressing concern about this. An NHS England contract would presumably stipulate the certain services had to be provided for free, but a private operator would always be looking to squeeze more profit out of the service and would be likely to cut and run if it could not make enough money doing it.

All in all, it is a mess, and a mess that is likely to continue while there is no serious commitment from government to provide health care for trans people. (Or indeed any health care for anyone where some Tory MPs are concerned.)

Update: Dr. James Barrett, the Lead Consultant at Charing Cross GIC has issued a statement. Dr. Lorimer has distributed it via Twitter:

https://twitter.com/GenderCareDrL/status/768884234996023296

That certainly confirms that the clinic feels that the break happened on their initiative. It doesn’t explain why the WLMHT saw fit to claim that the break was their decision. All in all it seems like there is a breakdown of the relationship between the Trust and the GIC, in view of which perhaps a parting of ways is for the best.

On the LGBT Trail in the British Museum

~ Cheryl ~ 8 Comments

Last Friday I had a day in London which I spent mainly doing research in the British Museum. Part of that involved following up items in R.B. Parkinson’s fine book, A Little Gay History. However, I found that several of the items in it are not currently on display, and I found quite a few more than might have been featured.

This post is photo-heavy and quite long so I am putting the rest of it behind a cut.
Continue reading →

Cavan Scott in The Salon

~ Cheryl

I have been working on processing some of the interview material that I did for Ujima and has now vanished from the Listen Again service. This week will be mainly about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who, with a bit of Star Wars and The Beano thrown in. I’m starting up with Cavan Scott who does all of those things. Later in the week I’ll bring you Paul Cornell as well.

Here’s Cav. I had the poor man in the studio for a whole hour. With the music, news and ads removed it boils down to about half of that. Among other things we talk about how he came to have the #1 selling book in the whole of the UK.

Hugos Best Dressed Award, 2016

~ Cheryl

Back when I was doing Emerald City I started an award for the best dressed person at the Hugos. It is hard doing it when I’m not actually at the ceremony, but being a hopeless fashionista I try to keep up the practice as much as possible. My apologies to all of the people whose fabulous outfits have not got onto teh intrawebs. Next year I will include you all.

I do try to include the guys as well. Sadly far too many of them seem slaves to oppressive Western cultural traditions and turn up in boring suits because that’s the only thing that is socially acceptable. I think they need a liberation movement. I miss having Charlie Stross and Cory Doctorow to liven things up. It’s a shame that Chuck Tingle wasn’t there. I’m sure he would have put on a good show.

Having two women host the ceremony certainly got us off to a good start. Both Pat Cadigan and Jan Siegel looked lovely. Jan dear, I now have serious cleavage envy.

Lynne Thomas always looks lovely at these things, and it is no surprise that someone in the audience yelled out “best dress” when she came on stage. Sadly she’s not a winner this year.

I didn’t see Zoe Quinn’s entire outfit, but she gets an honorable mention for these adorable unicorn shoes.

ZoeQuinnHugos2016
Photo by Lyda Morehouse

There’s an honorable mention also for Michi Trota, who not only gave the best speech of the evening but also had a fabulous necklace.

MichiTrotaHugos2016

Runner up, Hao Jingfang, bravely bucked the ballgown trend and looked positively angelic. Sorry about the poor picture quality, it was the best I could find.

HaoJingfangHugos2016

However, the winner was called by Pat from the stage, and who am I, a mere mortal, to contradict her word? Besides, she’s right (as usual). Therefore, for not only looking utterly gorgeous, but also fitting in perfectly with the artistic theme of the convention, the Emerald City Best Dressed at the Hugos Award goes to Alyssa Wong.

AlyssaWongHugos2016
Photo by John Scalzi

Africa Gets Speculative

~ Cheryl

While the world’s attention has been on Kansas City, exciting things have been happening in Africa. Yesterday saw the official launch of the African Speculative Fiction Society. They already have their own awards, the Nommos (named after characters from Dogon cosmology). I hope that in due course there will be equivalent of Eurocon bringing science fiction and fantasy goodness to countries all around the continent.

Tade Thompson, who is the UK regional officer for ASFS, is due to be on my radio show later this year when his latest novel is out. I’ll be asking him about the new society then.

Hugos in the News

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

One of the effects of the Puppies has been to bring the Hugos to the attention of the mainstream media. A lot of the coverage has, of course, been embarrassing, but now that the Awards are a subject for discussion we are starting to see more serious coverage, and more general interest around the world.

So, for example, I was very pleased to see this coverage of the Awards in a youth-focused news site based in India. Hopefully that is giving young Indian writers dreams of rockets in their future.

Of course Nnedi has a point:

All of the fiction winners this year are really good, and it would be nice to see them get celebrated for that rather than for their dealing yet another defeat to the Puppies.

China at least has got it’s act together and is enthusiastically celebrating a second win. The South China Morning Post majors on the fact that Hao Jingfang beat Stephen King to the trophy, whole The Shanghaiist notes that Hao has two published novels that I hope will now get translated.

Hao, however, is no stranger to mainstream news. Her story was actually cited in The Economist back in July. Another political news site, Quartz, picked up the story after her win.

Newspapers in the Philippines have also taken note of what went down in Kansas City. Here’s The Inquirer celebrating Michi Trota’s win.

Next year, of course, we will get to see what Finnish newspapers make of Worldcon. The Helsinki Sanomat has generally had good coverage of FinnCon so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do for the big show.