The Importance of Womance

“So many fictional heroines seem to lack a great support base in female best friends. I’ve read about the Tomboy, the Lone Wolf, the Only Girl in the Clubhouse, et al, but not much about the girl with the BFF to whom she’s pours her heart and soul …. Nothing makes me a little sadder than reading books with fantastic female characters…who can only carry conversations about the men in their lives.”JJ
That has always bothered me, too. I didn’t — consciously at least — set out to address that when I wrote my most popular novel, The Secrets of Jin-shei, but friendship among women, sisterhood if you will, is the foundation of the story, and its followup, Embers of Heaven.
On sisterhood
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Super-Creepy Art Inside an Abandoned Mental Hospital
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Nightmare inducing stuff.
Actually, Ellen Datlow, this one made me think of you. It’s the kind of place that one of your anthologies seems to have come to life in.
Creepy art
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Hotels Add Libraries to Keep Guests Inside
Some hotels are giving the humble book another look, as they search for ways to persuade guests, particularly younger ones, to spend more time in their lobbies and bars. They are increasingly stocking books in a central location, designating book suites or playing host to author readings. While the trend began at boutique hotels like the Library Hotel in New York, the Heathman Hotel in Portland, Ore., and the Study at Yale in New Haven, it is expanding to chain hotels.
Hotel libraries
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Dolphins are people
Following the lead of Hungary, Costa Rica and Chile, the government of India has recognized dolphins as non-human persons. The decision means that India has officially banned the capture and importation of dolphins for commercial entertainment.
I concur. Wholeheartedly. I have been hugged by by one. But, ironically, I got that opportunity at a dolphin park, which will be banned in countries that agree to treat them as ‘non-human persons‘.