Only three new posts have appeared so far on Making Light this January — which is a bit disappointing given that the site is home to five terrific writers. But one of the fun things about Making Light is that there’s always plenty going on even when there’s a long, seemingly quiet stretch in between posts.
For one thing, there’s the steady stream of links down the left-hand column — the particles, sidelights, parhelia, diffraction, and phosphenes where those five fine folks share an eclectic collection of links.
And then there’s the comment section. Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. I go there and lurk, mostly, like I’m a busboy at the Algonquin. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I’ve seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. It would be intimidating if everybody weren’t also so generally supportive and hospitable and nice. Very smart and very friendly don’t always go together, but they do in the Making Light community.
And that’s a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden started the blog, eventually also incorporating Electrolite, the former blog of her husband, Patrick Nielsen Hayden. The community and the ongoing conversation around Making Light goes back further than that, though — back to the pre-blog, pre-Web world of Usenet, when the Internet was without form, and void, and darkness moved upon the face of the deep.
Or back to the early ’90s, at least.
Here’s some background on them, in their own words:
We edit books, mostly but not exclusively science fiction and fantasy, for Tor Books. Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of discovering and acquiring the first novels, or in some cases the first adult novels, of some remarkable writers, including but not limited to Maureen F. McHugh, Susan Palwick, Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald, Jonathan Lethem, Cory Doctorow, Jo Walton, and John Scalzi. Among the many books we’re proud to have helped publish are several notable award-winners. Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin, edited by Teresa, won the Hugo Award in 2006, and Jo Walton’s Among Others, edited by Patrick (and copyedited by Teresa!) won the Nebula and Hugo Awards in 2012. In 2013, John Scalzi’s Redshirts, edited by Patrick, won the Locus Award and the Hugo Award. We think all of our authors are awesome.
In 2007, 2010, and 2013, Patrick won science fiction’s Hugo Award for Best Editor, Long Form.
They’re joined at Making Light by Avram Grumer, Jim Macdonald, and Abi Sutherland. (It seems unfair that Avram and Abi don’t have their own Wikipedia pages, too. And the entry on Patrick was updated to include his 2013 Hugo, but it also still describes his writing on Making Light by saying he is “critical of George W. Bush’s administration and the Iraq War.” I’m pretty sure he still is, but …)
I haven’t really said much here about what all these fine people write about. That’s part of what I love about Making Light — they write about whatever it is they feel like writing about. There are some recurring themes from the realms of publishing, politics and various fandoms — it’s a terrific place to discuss things like Sherlock or the latest Hobbit movie; Abi Sutherland’s series on dysfunctional families is insightful and moving; Jim Macdonald provides a steady diet of incredibly informative posts on emergency preparedness; Teresa’s occasional takedowns of publishing atrocities are epic; and at any point, any one of them might provide an encyclopedic discussion of something esoteric but fascinating — like nuclear launch codes or World War I or a tragedy at sea or even about the messy business of determining the canon of Christian scripture.
All of which is to say that I have no idea what they might write about next. But I’m looking forward to finding out, and you should join me.
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