It seems that yet another white male is saying there are a lack of female authors in SFF, so that’s why SFF movies by women just don’t get made.

No, I shan’t line to the original article, but here is the discussion I came across: Stop Erasing Women’s Presence in SFF

Interestingly, most of the comments are people boggled by the writer of the original article not being aware of, say, JK Rowling. And then the commenter goes off to list their favorite five or ten female authors. There are a LOT of different female authors listed throughout that thread.

So this is where I once again completely geek out.

I read a LOT. You know that.

I also love geeking out. You know that too.

So you might remember that years ago (good grief, 14 years ago) I started keeping track of the books I read, and then later started tracking various information about those books–the gender of the author, the genre of the books, etc.

That means that I have a LOT of data on my personal reading habits. Which I love to manipulate. (Because: geek)

I know this is a confusing chart–I’m looking at two different types of data so I pared things down quite a bit. Here’s how to understand what you’re looking at.

The stacked bar charts are showing the gender of the author: women on the top, men on the bottom, multi-author books in the middle. That pink slice? Women who write under male pseudonyms.

You can see that I tend to read more female authors than male authors in any given year, but that sometimes I read more books written by men, but at no time have less than 40% of the books I’ve read been written by women.

The lines are the genre of the book of read. You can see that I predominantly read fantasy (Green line), but I also read a lot of mystery (red line). As romance is predominantly written by women, that line is pink. (Don’t try to figure out the numbers here, a book can have multiple genres–FREX I have a have a deep love for supernatural mysteries.)

So what is the point of this? It shows you that I read predominantly female authors, and the majority of my reading tends to be fantasy (although some years mysteries win out.)

Yes, I do re-read books a lot, but I am not re-reading the same fantasy book by the same female author over and over again (I rarely re-read them same book twice in a year).

It also shows that genre and gender are relatively independent. Yes, romance novels are mostly written by women. Yes, most comics are written by men. But since most of my reading is of fantasy and mystery, those categories are gender independent.

I have also complied a list of female authors I have read, across all genres.

That list currently has 275 authors on it. If you’re looking for something to read by a female author, I think you’d be able to at least one book on that list you’d like.

So next time some guy says there aren’t any good female authors, you can assure them there are quite a few, and perhaps recommend one or twenty books for them.

Flowers are from the Cranberry Wilderness and the Falls of Hills Creek.

The way the light turned out, I almost feel embarrassed looking at this display of naughty bits.

Lots of Bee Balm

Is this a white Bee Balm? Because that’s what it looks like to me.

We’ve wanted to do a long hike in the Cranberry Wilderness for quite awhile, however, a 2+ hour drive, then a long hike, then another 2+ hour drive was… unappealing.

So we’ve spent the past couple months gather things we’d need for an overnight trip where there aren’t hotels, Michael rented a tent from the Rec Center, and we were off!

Location: Cranberry Wilderness
Trails: North-South and Lick Branch trails and FR 76
Distance: 9.6 miles
Elevation: 2552-3795 feet (1618 feet elevation gain)

One of the books I have recommend this hike in the opposite direction.

No.

The direction we went–North-South trail followed by Lick Creek Trail and then taking the road back is the way you want to do this look.

First, the North South trail is fine, but it’s steep from the campsite to the ridgeline–about a 9% grade. And although it’s pleasant enough, it’s not the most rewarding view.

Although we did amuse ourselves.

That sign? It’s warning you that no motorized vehicles are allowed on the Wilderness.

There is another sign, in a wide view showing you the the surrounding trail.

There is no way you could GET a motorized vehicle to where these signs were, unless it was a hovercraft, and even then it’d be chancy. There were endless fallen trees, lots of going through narrow passages etc.

So, I giggled every time I saw those signs someone was forced to place in an area already inaccessible to motorized vehicles.

Also found a newly placed marker!

And several swarms of butterflies.

But, it wasn’t anything spectacular. No views down into the various valleys, etc.

Here is the start of Lick Creek at the top of the Lick Creek trail. Now things are starting to get pretty!

And this is the end of the trail–pretty much visible from the forest road (and by road, I mean Fire Trail type road, closed to cars but accessible in an emergency).

Why put the prettiest thing at the start of the strenuous part of the hike? What is your reward for finishing? A 9% grade? Bah humbug.

Additionally, since the last couple miles were on the forest road, that meant we were able to stretch our legs and walk out the kinks from the ascent and descent. Nice! And the road is along the river! So pretty!

So my recommendation is start this loop from the gate. Unless you’re a masochist, in which case this probably isn’t a long or miserable enough hike for you, so why bother?

Yesterday kept threatening thunderstorms all day, so no hiking. So today we went down to the Mont Chateau trail. The creek was running really high.

Location: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trails: Rock City, Ridge, Mont Chateau, Rhododendron Trails
Distance: 4.3 miles
Elevation: 1497-2107 feet (724 feet gain)
Temperature: 68-72 F

This is where I usually build my rock piles. As you can see, everything previous was washed away.

Much deeper water than normal. Plus MUCH colder.

Water was cascading down both sides of the split. Not fast enough to be dangerous, but fast enough for me to be extra careful.

Nature left this, perhaps in compensation for knocking down all my rock piles.

Why yes, I have been hiking a lot, so not that many books this month.

Best books of the month? I’d say Stiletto by Daniel O’Malley is the sequel to The Rook and just as good. The other was Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment by David Bodanis which I really enjoyed.

Graphic Novel

Mockingbird Vol. 2: My Feminist Agenda (2017) Chelsea Cain and Kate Niemczyk
Rivers of London: Detective Stories #4.1 (2017) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Lee Sullivan, Luis Guerrero, Mack Chater
Princeless Vol. 4: Be Yourself (2015) Jeremy Whitley, Emily Martin and Brett Grunig

Fantasy

Stiletto (2016) Daniel O’Malley

Threads of Malice (2005) Tamara Siler Jones

Non-Fiction

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist (1994) Dr. William Maples
Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment (2006) David Bodanis

Audio Books

Sanibel Flats (1990/2010) Randy Wayne White narrated by  Dick Hill
Legion: Skin Deep, Audio Version (2014) Brandon Sanderson narrated by  Oliver Wyman

How did things break down?

Ebooks and audio books, although a single paper graphic novel snuck in there.

Trade Paperback: 1
eBook: 6
Audio: 2

Genre-wise there was a fair amount of variety this month.

Fantasy: 5
Mystery: 2
Comic: 3
Non-Fiction: 2
History: 1

Male authors are still ahead. We’ll see how the rest of the year pans out.

Male: 6
Female: 2
Anthology: 1

Because Michael had to go into work yesterday, we didn’t get out to the woods until late, so we took the Iron Furnace trail, which is rocky but much less steep, down to the Mont Chateau Trail, and then played around in the creek for awhile.

Because what’s the point of being an adult if you can’t play in the creek?

Location: Coopers Rock
Trails: Iron Furnace, Mont Chateau Trails
Distance: 3.4 miles
Elevation: 1517-1946 feet (810 feet gain)
Temperature: 79-78 F

Last week’s storm knocked down my rocks, so I stacked up more.

I would have stayed longer if I wasn’t worried about stumbling on my way out in the dark.

Happy Sunday! Have some flower pr0n!