National Novel Fighting Month: November ’22 Roundup

Bababooey

[EDIT a couple of hours after publication: I really did mean to put something more coherent there instead of that placeholder text. I really did. It’s been that kind of month in that kind of year!]

On the blog

A Pile of Australian Queer YA – what does the world of LGBTQIA+ teen fiction look like in Aussie publishing? Here are some recs and reviews from my recent investigation!

Young Adult, New Adult (???) and the Weird Business of Demographics – where lie the borders between genres and target audiences, and who draws them?

On AniFem

Fall 2022 Three-Episode Check-in – from princesses with books to maids with guns, let’s see how this season’s crop of new shows are coming along!

In The International Journal of Young Adult Literature

From Painters to Pirates: A Study of Non-binary Protagonists in Young Adult Fiction – a new scholarly paper, free to read! This scoops up and lays out a bunch of my thesis data, representing a lot of research work.

And don’t forget Patreon!

There are multiple exciting things happening over there! For all patrons, I’m writing up a series of PhDiaries: a retrospective on my experience completing an Arts doctorate, fashioned into a guide for those interested! For my Tricky Tricksters tier and up, I’m pushing past my nerves and posting excerpts of the new creative project I’m working on. This month, you get to meet Protagonist #2 of The Doorways Book. He’ll steal your stuff, but he’ll be so debonair about it.

Web reading

Liminality! We love it! Surreal, transitory spaces offer a deep uncanniness that many creatives love to play with, from net lore to horror films to House of Leaves. So what is “liminal horror” and why does it work?

Don’t Worry Darling is a movie with a lot of mess surrounding it, and a lot of mess in its plot and themes, too. Amanda looks at the changes made from the original script, the revised script, and the final version to see where things perhaps went wonky. Pairs nicely with her podcast co-host Friendly Space Ninja’s video on the same film.

While pretty common in anime and manga, the low-stakes cosy fantasy is relatively rare in English-language prose. Willow discusses the appeal of this twist on the genre and the fun new possibilities that pop up when epic conflicts aren’t the focus.

As the Buddha’s Temple Bells Toll: Looking Back to Kyoto Animation – Adam Wescott muses on The Heike Story and Looking Back, two very different artworks that both respond to the tragic arson attacks at KyoAni’s studio in 2019, and the way that storytellers might process grief or offer catharsis using very different genres.

Book Advances Are a Gamble, Not a Prize – author Anwen Crawford reflects on the current ways that authors get paid for their books, and how the industry norm is a risky, low-paying business for creatives.

Work Sucks, I Know: The Marxist Horror of Aggretsuko – would you believe I could never finish watching Aggretsuko because it was too stressful? Jeremy Tauber explores the ways this comedy depicts the inescapable terrors of capitalism, and the irony of it doing this so well whilst also being a Sanrio production trying to sell you mascot merch.

Is Bocchi the Rock! Mean to Bocchi? – when this show mines its protagonist’s anxiety for over-the-top comedy, is it asking us to laugh with her or at her? Your perspective may vary, but here is one from Bless.

On Developing a Non-combat Focused Magic System and Addressing Issues of Inequality Through Storytelling – I started reading the Book of Tea duology this month, and found this article by author Judy I. Lin super interesting.

Discussion: Goodreads Choice Awards 2022 & LGBT Books – stats on how many of the nominated books have queer characters, how those numbers compare to previous years, and which categories seem to consistently hold the most.

If I’m being honest, the song I have stuck in my head, whether I like it or not, is this. For a better option, though, try this:

See you all next time—for the final month of 2022!