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Houston and Galveston were very wet. This was mostly nice, as it didn't feel like July at all. It was less nice while driving blind on 45 during the torrential rains that escorted us in and out.

I got to swim in really real water, the kind with salt and sand and seaweed and waves strong enough to roll me and drag me along the bottom. The ocean demanded a tithe of a hair tie, and Brazoria County demanded a parking fine (for lo, they are fuckers). It makes my apartment swimming pool seem very sad in comparison. The next place we live needs to have coastal access.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science had an exhibit on Ur, and we were thwarted from going both days we tried. I am very cross. But it's running into August, so I may try to sneak back in a few weeks.

And I came home to shiny beads from elisem, so that's nice.

Pity the book vacation's over now.

Gender discussion brings all the girls to the yard

Today truepenny talks about her characters and gender, and how she ends up with a lot of men.

matociquala joins the discussion, and provides a list. Mmm, lists.

My characters tend to default female. There was a time (late high school and early collegeish) when male characters were hard for me, and tended to come out flat and a bit...err...beefcakish. (Adam really doesn't like to think about his origins, but it's so fun to tease him.) Eventually I got over that, and am now comfortable with male characters, but I still get more girls showing up with resumes when I start casting stories. I never noticed a dearth of good female characters in the books I read growing up, which may be because I'm young, or may be because I never paid much attention.

Of course, three out of four short stories I've sold have male narrators/protags. (Two of them are totally pwned by women, though, and the third would be if he could find one.) The fourth story is nothing but lesbians.

( Let there be list! )

So on further inspection, it's a pretty even split. Yet I still think of my characters as default-female.

And what's with all these straight people?