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The awesome Terri started chronicling her crazy cupcake adventure from Continuum – she’s promised us a blog series about each Twelfth Planet Press book themed cupcake she made for the event, and starts here with Jason Nahrung’s creepy beach gothic novella Salvage, blue frosting and coconut.
Grant Watson aka the Angriest follows up on our Continuum panel “Where are all the wonder women?” by discussing Wonder Woman’s pants, and how it’s not actually the wardrobe that’s the problem.
A new Shortpacked comic addressing gender/feminist issues! This one is a mild but entertaining dig at the mansplainers of the world.
N.K. Jemisin takes on a topic dear to my heart, the over-regulation of magic in fantasy fiction. Considering how often things go wrong with technology and recipes in the real world, what makes people think that magic would always produce predictable results? (the answer of course is that like with creative writing, the methods that are easier to teach/communicate become prioritised over all the rest)
Hoyden About Town take on the idea of Shakespeare and the Bechdel test
The Mary Sue discusses a recent Kickstarter for Roominate, an inspiring toy/project designed to teach girls vital science/engineering skills.
Speaking of fabulous female scientists, I was very sad to hear about the recent death of Caroline John, who played Dr Liz Shaw in Doctor Who – in 1970 she wasn’t only the first companion in colour, but she was also the first companion to have a qualification that matched the Doctor’s own title, and her portrayal as an intelligent woman was inspiring to many – including me. Her snarky repartee with the Third Doctor and the Brigadier are part of what makes Season 7 one of the best seasons of the show in its 50 year history. In Spearhead from Space in particular, it’s important and kind of revolutionary that they have a character undercutting the show’s entire new premise right from the start, and that this characters is female. She was totally Scully 25 years before the X-Files, even down to the red hair!
Liz Shaw was one of my favourites when I was little, and having recently enjoyed some of her Big Finish work, I’m sad to say goodbye to Caroline. Many sympathies to her family. The staff of Big Finish themselves have posted a nice tribute to Caroline and how important she was to them.