Another Influence Passes

I was sad to learn John Varley passed away last week. The first book his I read was Titan. I can't remember if it was in junior high or high school. I only remember I borrowed it through our county library's Books Through Mail program for those of us who didn't have regular access to the system.

(This was in the late 70's and early eighties when money was tight because of the Energy Crisis, electronic borrowing hadn't become a thing yet, and before I had a driver's license, much less a job.)

John wrote strong female characters long before it was acceptable. He'd definitely get slammed by both sides if he wrote the Gaea Trilogy today. But this was one of the first books I read where a woman was the spaceship's captain. Needless to say, John had a huge influence on my own development as a writer.

I'd re-read John's trilogy every few years until life got in the way. One of my goals for 2026 is to re-shelve all my books in my new library in our house.

It's funny how something you read nearly fifty years ago can stay with you. That a woman can be in charge and not disparaged because of it. Maybe that's why I love sci-fi writers like John. He could see the changes coming and said so long before the reality hit.

Thanks, John. And I hope you are pain-free and at peace in the next world. 

A New Kickstarter: The Chase

 WMG Publishing is running another kickstarter for a new book in Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving Universe.

The nice thing is there are some cool sci-fi writing classes included in the pledges. So if you're looking to expand you're genre repertoire, you might want to check out this kickstarter.

Women in Science Fiction and in Real Science

I was going to talk about something entirely different today, but it's been a bizarre week for the intersection of women, sexism, science and fiction.

Kris Rusch talked about how women were quite prevalent in science fiction writing until the last twenty or so years in her blog post, Hidden Treasures. She goes on to lament how much work is being lost as the public switches from print to digital. To counteract the obscurity, she has started a website, Women in Science Fiction.

Kris's efforts came to my attention at the same time I heard Nobel-winning scientist Tim Hunt make some rather sexist remarks concerning the need for gender-segregated labs because female scientists were too distracting.

#DistractinglySexy pictures flooded Twitter, and AJ+ put them together in a highly amusing video.



Sometimes, laughter is the best response to stupidity.