Adventures of a Bookonaut: Helen Merrick

Dec 16, 2012

Adventures of a Bookonaut Podcast Ep 1

Play direct through the player below or download direct as an mp3 or via iTunes ( you will need to go to the podcast home page and click the subscribe to iTunes link).

Episode 1 Show notes

In Episode 1 Sean interviews Luke Preston author of Dark City Blue, Joelyn Alexandra, Singaporean crime writer and academic and author of The Secret Feminist Cabal, Dr Helen Merrick.

Luke Preston has recently released his crime thriller through Momentum books. In the interview they discuss the process of being published through a digital first publisher, the impact film and the study of scriptwriting has had on Luke’s noel writing and what the near future holds for Bishop, Preston’s hard as nails hero with a heart. You can purchase Dark City Blue through all good digital retailers with the added benefit of no DRM.

Joelyn Alexandra flew all the way from Singapore just for this interview (no not really). Sean and Joelyn talk about her writing, the Speculative fiction scene in Singapore and dispel some misconceptions about Singaporean writers. The interview was recorded live so apologies for the sound quality.

Joelyn mentions some fine folks in the interview some links to their writing are given below:

Wena Poon - http://www.wenapoon.com
Joyce Chng - http://awolfstale.wordpress.com
Dave Chua - http://davechua.wordpress.com

People in Happy Smiley Writers Group Projects
Sarah Coldheart - http://www.seriouslysarah.com/blog
Raven Silvers - http://www.ravensilvers.com/blog
Lina Salleh - http://lookykrill.wordpress.com
JY Yang - http://www.misshallelujah.net
Yuen Xiang Hao - http://www.opendiary.com/notkieran
Rosemary Lim - http://www.twotrees.com.sg

Graphic Novelists/ Artists:
Cheeming Boey - http://www.iamboey.com
Max Loh - http://paperperil.tumblr.com

Dr Helen Merrick is senior lecturer in the Department of Internet Studies at Curtain University, she’s taught cyberculture, women's studies and history.

In addition to teaching in the Department of Internet Studies, Dr Merrick supervises PhD students, and researches feminist theory, science fiction, feminist science studies, sustainability and online cultures.

In this interview Sean and Helen discuss her book, the current state of Feminist SF and consider what men in the genre, might be able to do help cultivate a healthy respect for female writers and feminist science fiction history.

Some of the links mentioned in the interview:

New Eves

Pamela Sargent

Thank you for listening, you may leave audio feedback at https://www.speakpipe.com/Bookonaut, or you may leave written feedback on Facebook, the Podomatic page, or below.

Music: Music featured in this podcast is from the song Voodoo Machine by Lavoura downloaded from the Free Music Archive and Licenced under these conditions

Voodoo Machine (Lavoura) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

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Jul 8, 2012

eBook Release - The Secret Feminist Cabal - Helen Merrick | Wizard's Tower Books

Although Helen Merrick’s book, The Secret Feminist Cabal has been out for some time (it won a 2010 Atheling Award and was nominated for the 2010 Hugo’s). This is the first time I have seen it promoted in ebook form (which makes it so much more tempting to buy- and I did) and it’s available at Wizard’s Tower Books, headed by the wonderful Cheryl Morgan^1.

What is the Secret Feminist Cabal?

The Secret Feminist Cabal is an extended answer to the question Helen Merrick asks in her introduction: "why do I read feminist sf?" In this wide-ranging cultural history we are introduced to a multiplicity of sf feminisms as Merrick takes readers on a tour of the early days of sf fandom, tracks the upheavals of the 1950s and 1960s and the explosions of feminist sf in the 1970s, and contextualizes subsequent developments in feminist sf scholarship.

Her history is expansive and inclusive: it ranges from North America to the UK to Australia; it tells us about readers, fans, and academics as well as about writers, editors, and publishers; and it examines the often uneasy intersections of feminist theory and popular culture.

Merrick brings things up to date with considerations of feminist cyberfiction and feminist science and technology studies, and she concludes with an intriguing review of the Tiptree Award as it illuminates current debates in the feminist sf community. Broadly informed, theoretically astute, and often revisionary, The Secret Feminist Cabal is an indispensable social and cultural history of the girls who have been plugged into science fiction. [Source]

Published by Aqueduct Press books, it is available from Amazon, but I prefer not to deal with them if I can avoid it, besides you can purchase both formats ( mobi and epub ) from Wizard’s Tower DRM free.

If you are keen on the paperback version Booktopia has it for $21.90 and if you type the words FINALS in the appropriate coupon box in checkout (before midnight tonight) you can get free postage(not just on Helen’s book but on your whole order).

^{1. After a little more digging it seems that its probably been available through Aqueduct press for a while in ebook form↩}