Ordinary Day

Got up this morning to see there’s yet another SFWA explosion. How many are we up to now, then?

There’s a petition going around, it seems. A petition protesting that the SFWA Bulletin is instituting procedures to try to avoid things like what happened this past summer, during the LAST round of SFWA explosions. Apparently, some people out there are still upset that people might, just might, be justifiably cranky about sexism in the genre.

I first spotted the news when James Nicoll posted about a Twitter thread on it, here. Then I went out to run some morning errands, and when I came back, Dara reported that the petition alluded to in that post had in fact surfaced. James talks about it here, linking in turn to Radish Reviews’ in-depth post.

Radish Reviews has reported that there are in fact two versions of this thing floating around, and addresses both of them here. I read them. And I knew I was in for some hurting the instant I saw the phrase “politically correct” bandied about right out of the gate. In the petition TITLE, even, as well the first paragraph.

Oh, and it gets more fun from there. I particularly like how scare quotes are thrown around “sexism” and “offensive”. And by like, I actually mean, if I facepalm any harder I’ll give myself a concussion.

I’d rant further on this if I could think of anything to say that I haven’t posted about a dozen times already–about how, if the first words out of your mouth are to cry “political correctness!”, that chances are very, very high that you are in fact part of the problem. But then, people who are inclined to cry “political correctness!” aren’t going to put much credence in what I have to say anyway.

So I’m going to simply stick with noting that yeah, I’m still feeling pretty much at peace with my having decided that I’d just as soon stay out of any organization that continues to be this toxic.

Further commentary on the matter:

• C.C. Finlay points out that editing in a private organization’s bulletin is NOT censorship
• Sunny Moraine further clarifies what is and is not censorship
• ETA: Dara is appalled not only by the petition, but by the general lack of actual ability to punctuate
• ETA: Cora Buhlert is, like the rest of us, pretty much boggling
• ETA: And just in case C.C. and Sunny didn’t make it clear enough, Elizabeth Barrette also makes the difference between editing and censorship very, very clear
• ETA: As per usual, Mr. Scalzi’s commentary on the matter is pithy and succinct

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Just saw this over on James Nicoll’s LJ. He links off to this official notice from SFWA in which they say that an unspecified member has been expelled from the organization.

The now-former member in question being, of course, Vox Day. He has a post up about it on his own site (to which James also links), but I ain’t linking to that guy. Click over to James on LJ or James on Dreamwidth if you’d like to actually see what Mr. Day had to say about it.

(I did actually read his post, which was surprisingly bile-free. But I didn’t look at the comments, because I like not running up my blood pressure.)

And I daresay this would also explain this post of Mr. Scalzi’s.

As I’ve said before, I am not actually a member of SFWA so I have no actual horse in this race. But I do feel like they did the right thing, on the general principle of making the organization more welcoming to people who aren’t raging egregious asshats.

ETA: Also! My belovedest of Daras has an excellent musical contribution of her own to contribute to this topic.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Here’s a fun thing I apparently missed while I was on vacation: some nimrod made a “SFWA Fascists” Twitter account attacking the various notable SF/F authors who have been speaking out against racism and sexism–in other words, the people who are speaking up for treating everybody like people. Names like Scalzi and Kowal and Hines and Jemisin are on the list, and others have started calling this the roundup of People You Should Be Following On Twitter. Props to them!

And the maddest of mad props to Mr. Hines, who, being awesome, has responded beautifully.

***

In other news, The Mary Sue has reported that Lionsgate is scrambling to distance themselves from Orson Scott Card. They’re even going to host a LGBT benefit premiere for the movie.

How nice for them. I’m still not going to see the movie.

I’ve seen quite a few people opining that to specifically avoid seeing this movie because of Card is ill-advised, on the grounds that Card probably wasn’t even involved once his rights were optioned, and also because boycotting it would hurt the pro-LGBT people at Lionsgate and who have worked on the film. I don’t buy it, and I remain pretty damned sure that not one person, from Harrison Ford clear down to the catering staff, is going to be financially harmed by my failure to buy a ticket. They’ve gotten paychecks. They’re not going to starve.

I’ve also seen people opining that there are way better ways to assert one’s support of LGBT causes than by inaction–i.e., not seeing a movie. I don’t buy that either. For one thing, speaking up publicly about why you choose to not do a thing is itself an action. For another thing, it is inappropriate to assume that people avoiding the movie aren’t doing other, more active things in support of LGBT rights. Like, say, donating money, which Dara and I have done on a rather regular basis.

***

Meanwhile, in other news of Movies I Am Specifically Avoiding This Summer, I’d also like to call out this excellent little commentary as to why exactly Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan in the current Trek flick is problematic.

(Yes, I’ve heard the criticism pointing out that casting Montalban to play a Sikh in the original series wasn’t exactly ethnically appropriate either. But moving from that to casting a white guy was not, in my humble opinion, a step in the right direction.)

***

However, to shift over to news of Movies I’m Feeling a Lot More Hopeful About, I’m very much looking forward to seeing Despicable Me 2 and Pacific Rim as soon as possible. And I shall direct you post-haste over to Tor.com who provides this helpful guide to Knowing Your Kaiju.

Because it is critical, CRITICAL I SAY, to know which monster is about to stomp your city into rubble.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

So, um, yeah, this has shown up on tumblr, and lo, the Internets, they are asploding all over again. Basically, someone’s seen fit to grab screencaps of posts on the recent SFWA controveries–specifically re: Day/Beale’s rephrensible behavior towards N.K. Jemisin, as well as Jemisin’s GoH speech.

Dara’s breaking out the popcorn over here, with an example of one of these screencaps she’s finding particularly telling. Me, I’m not even sure where to begin on the metric boatloads of FAIL all over those screencaps, and make no mistake, there’s a LOT of fail being quoted there. Nor am I surprised that whoever put up the tumblr is choosing to be anonymous, while–inevitably!–getting snarked on anonymously for doing so.

Folks, I’m really past the point of anger on this or even indignation. I’m just standing back agape at the number of clowns that keep coming out of this clown car made of FAIL.

***

And meanwhile, re: the last post I did about ongoing sexism in SF/F, there’s a followup to that, too!

Foz Meadows has reported that Jo Fletcher books has removed Rod Rees’ post from their site, as well as a followup post they did to try to explain why it went up in the first place. She has commentary on why burying the evidence, especially when that particular furor went up at the same time a bunch of posts about harassment at conventions did, was an especially bad idea.

***

And it’s only Monday, people. This is shaping up to be a long week. Somehow I’m not surprised, either, that Scalzi’s now backing off from this as fast as he possibly can.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

One more SFWA-related post since 1) today is Father’s Day, and 2) it’s my turn to post over on the Here Be Magic blog today, so here: A Call to the Fathers of the World.

Also, I’d like to commend to your attention fellow Carina author J.L Hilton’s excellent post right over here, for those of you who didn’t see me post this to the social networks yesterday.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

In my last SFWA post I linked off to N.K. Jemisin’s excellent Continuum GoH speech, and now that I’m home from work tonight I see rumblings that this has caused one of the most repellent people in the SF/F genre to shoot off his mouth again. What drives his hateful spewings over the top this time is that he apparently put them out onto the SFWA authors’ Twitter feed, in particular.

Trigger warning on all of these links: repugnant racism in the quotes being shared.

Jim Hines addresses the matter here.

Foz Meadows has an eloquent and passionate response over here.

Amal El-Mohtar calls for Beale/Day’s expulsion from SFWA here.

As I have posted in previous posts, I’m not in SFWA and I’m not likely to be any time in the immediate future. So I can’t add my voice to El-Mohtar’s to call for his expulsion.

But I can say this. The man can have any opinion he likes, and yes, free speech means he gets to say it on his own platforms. But free speech also means that the rest of us get to say that the message he’s trying to vomit forth has no place in a civilized society. That it has no place in the company of writers who are trying to look forward, not back, and who are trying to embrace all voices, not just those of white males.

The rest of us get to say that no, that crap is not okay.

Y’all pardon me, I’m going to go buy every single N.K. Jemisin title I don’t have in my ebook collection yet now.

ETA: And speaking of voting with your wallet, John Scalzi has an excellent suggestion for how to support diversity in SF/F right over here.

ETA #2: Dara’s declared that Mr. Beale is in fact a white supremacist. I agree. If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a goddamn duck.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Because yes, this conversation is ongoing, and I keep seeing commentary that’s worth attention.

From Seanan McGuire, Sexism, the current SFWA kerfuffle, and “lady authors.”.

From N.K. Jemisin, her Continuum GoH Speech, including her commentary on what it’s like to be a PoC in Australia, and how she extrapolates from that to what advances she’d like to see in the genre as a result of what’s going on.

From Chuck Wendig, 25 Things to Know about Sexism & Misogyny in Writing & Publishing.

And, linked to by Wendig, Delilah S. Dawson adds On Sexism in Publishing, or Why I’m Writing this Now Instead of Two Days Ago.

I decided after absorbing the ongoing commentary about this from many sides that it would be worth my time to put down the dues to join NIWA, the Northwest Independent Writers Association. Because for the time being, while I do have a title out from Carina and expect to finish my trilogy with them, I’m still an indie/hybrid author.

Because if there’s one thing this ongoing controversy is teaching me, it’s that it’s important for writers to make their voices heard. And I’d like to support an organization that gives a voice to authors in my position. I’m looking forward to seeing what this association will bring for me. But at the same time, I’m hoping that SFWA will be listening to the voices being raised, and that moving forward, there will be progress.

ETA: Editing to add Chrysoula Tzavelas’ excellent suggestion to help fight -ism’s in publishing by signalboosting authors who have been overlooked because of their gender, their race, their sexual orientation, or anything else that may have gotten them tagged too unusual for the market.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

As the SFWA controversy still rumbles around the Net in various writing circles, I’ve seen the topic come up of whether, if SFWA is inaccessible and/or irrelevant to a lot of today’s working writers, is it time to fire up a competing organization? That very question has been raised to me in comments, and I’ve seen it raised on at least two other blog posts. Like Cora Buhlert’s Revenge of the Girl Cooties post, as well as the World SF blog, which is asking whether SFWA can continue to be relevant in an increasingly global writing market.

Over on her own blog, Dara has now addressed the question of, if a competing organization were to arise, what would that actually mean? Picosummary: a lot more work than many might think. I encourage you to go give her a read.

I’ve also seen people suggesting that perhaps SFWA should follow the example of RWA and admit members who aren’t published writers yet. I think it’s certainly an idea worth considering. Though me, I’d be just as interested in seeing them open up a tier of membership allowing members who have sold to professional markets–even if they aren’t advance-paying markets.

Now, I get it. I get that a publisher who actually pays you an advance is still going to be the most Serious Business thing you can do for your career if you’re a writer. But the problem is, that still pretty much means “a publisher who can get you into print”, because I have yet to hear of any serious digital-only markets that will pay advances. (If such markets exist, I’d love to hear about them!)

And as the number of aspiring writers continues to rise, the advance-paying markets, the ones who can in fact get you into print, become harder and harder to sell to. I’ve personally experienced an advance-paying market telling me I had a good novel–but they didn’t want it because they had no room in the schedule for it, and they were sure some other market would take it. (And I had to wait well over a year to get that response.) Fewer and fewer advance-paying markets are taking unsolicited submissions, just because it’s become so easy to submit a novel to markets these days that they’re drowning in tidal waves of slush. They have to lock down their submissions queues if they want to get any work done at all.

Which of course means that aspiring writers have to then court agents instead, if they want to get to those otherwise inaccessible advance-paying markets. But this doesn’t solve the problem, because the agents that are taking unsolicited submissions are also drowning in slush. An author still has to wait, often upwards of many months, before an agent may get back to them. And that’s assuming the agent doesn’t have a policy of “if you never hear from me, that means no”.

Given all these things, I cannot be surprised in the slightest that many writers who tell absolutely lovely stories are turning to digital markets instead. I’ve read quite a few of them from Carina now. I’ve gone this route myself, of course, and y’know what? I’ve never had anything less than a professional experience working with the team at Carina. I will say with pride that Valor of the Healer is an infinitely better book because of the editing it received from Deb Nemeth, my editor.

And yet. Because I sold to a digital market, one that didn’t pay me an advance, I’m still not eligible for SFWA.

I may eventually be. I do have an agent, and once I have my trilogy with Carina out of the way I do plan to have her shop my other forthcoming works around to hopefully higher-profile markets. But realistically speaking, at best it’ll probably be four or five more years before I could make the necessary sales. And by then I’ll have at least five digital novels out–Faerie Blood, Bone Walker, and the entire Rebels of Adalonia trilogy. I’ll also have novellas in the Warder universe, which I will be putting up for public sale as soon as I finish them and get them to my long-patient Kickstarter backers. And I have every expectation that as I continue to work with Carina as well as on my independently published works, my craft will improve and I will grow as a writer.

Yet not a single one of these words will make me eligible for SFWA. And I have to admit, if a competing organization that could pull off the same level of professional competence arose, one which would accept digital, independent, or hybrid authors, I’d be looking very seriously at joining it. I will in fact be looking very seriously at the Northwest Independent Writers Association, though so far their scope is limited to the Pacific Northwest and I’d like to see something more national, if not global.

But it sure would be nice if SFWA would consider opening up an auxiliary tier of membership for those of us who have sold to professional digital markets with good track records of paying their authors. I’d absolutely pay dues for that.

Until then, I’ll be over here working on my books.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

One of the drawbacks about being non-traditionally published is that so far I’m not eligible to join writers’ organizations in the genres I write in. Even though I have two books out, the fact that one of them is published via a digital publisher and the other is self-pubbed (both digitally and in print) means I’m not eligible to join SFWA, the Science Fiction Writers of America.

This, for the longest time, was one of the things you needed to accomplish if you wanted to be taken seriously as an SF/F author. It’s still one of the things you need to accomplish if you want to be eligible for the Nebulas. (ETA: Noting from comments below that while you don’t have to be in SFWA to be nominated for the Nebulas, you do if you want to vote.) And while SFWA membership isn’t necessary to get you nominated for the Hugos, the underlying criteria for said membership are still pertinent there too–i.e., you have to be published via qualifying markets. Which still means, at least if you’re a novelist, markets that can get you into print and in bookstores.

Please don’t get me wrong. I love having books out there available for the digitally-inclined to read. But there’s still a part of me that feels like I’m still a fifth-tier citizen in Writerland, just because I can’t say “here is this organization of Writers Who Know What They’re Doing who have agreed that why yes, I am in fact One of Them”.

And then I hear about things like the latest blowup involving SFWA and I wonder if this is really a goal I want to accomplish after all.

In the latest issue of the SFWA Bulletin, they published a piece by Jim Hines. Those of you who know of Jim know he writes excellent fantasy novels, that he’s a staunch anti-rape advocate, and that he’s been relentlessly skewering the inherent ridiculousness of how female characters are portrayed in SF/F cover art when compared to their male counterparts. Jim’s piece goes into said cover art and the radical notion that women are people–pretty much the words he used, in fact. In a genre where too damned many people are still whinging about “fake geek girls” (a notion guaranteed to raise my blood pressure), Jim’s voice is all too necessary. Especially when women saying the exact same things sadly do not get nearly the same attention as men.

The problem is, the same issue also published a rebuttal by Mike Resnick and Barry Malzberg. And from everything I’m seeing posted on the topic, their rebuttal was horribly sexist and essentially boils down to “nobody called us on our sexist bullshit back in the glory days of the 70′s, so why are people doing it now? OHNOEZ CENSORSHIP!”

Jim’s got a link roundup post on the matter right over here, so I’m not going to go into too much depth on quoting Resnick and Malzberg. Many others already have, and again, I’d like to keep my blood pressure down, thanks. (Though I will note Foz Meadows has an excellent post on the topic, and so does Kameron Hurley.)

As for me, I’m standing back looking at this and I’m thinking, “And this is the organization I have to eventually join if I want to be taken seriously as an SF/F writer?”

I swear, people, it makes me wish I actually were more of a romance writer rather than someone who writes SF/F with a side helping of romance. For one thing, the simple fact that I’m a woman and that I put any love story at all into my plots will get me labelled as a “romance writer” by the same sort of cloud-yelling, cane-shaking, rampaging sexists that can’t deal with the notion of girl cooties all over their precious rocketship stories. For another thing, I’m also sick of the sneering condescension far too much of the SF/F world levels at the romance world in general. Because I don’t know about the rest of you, but I got enough shit for my reading choices when I was a kid that I know exactly how it feels, and I’m not going to turn around and level that kind of garbage at somebody else who might happen to be reading a genre I don’t like. This is exactly why you won’t even see me sniping on people for reading Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey or whatever.

I’ve got my share of issues with the romance genre, sure. I can’t read most contemporary romance because it’s way, way too heteronormative for me, and more often than not the gender roles and expectations in play set my teeth on edge. And because I am at heart an SF/F reader, I tend to get really bored really fast if a novel’s only focusing on the development of a relationship. I need more going on than that. Give me a fun rollicking historical with spies, or the Napoleonic era. Or something with magical or paranormal elements, like Zoe Archer’s excellent Blades of the Rose books.

But you know what I won’t find in the romance genre? People in positions of power, people who’ve been in the field long enough to have respected names and who should in theory have the experience to know better, telling me how cute I am for trying to write my little novels. Which they then promptly dismiss anyway.

I’m heartened that there’s been a big outcry in response to Resnick’s and Malzberg’s cane-shaking bullshit. But I wish it wasn’t necessary.

ETA: Dara has a few words to say on this topic too, right over here, on the general theme of Gosh This All Looks Familiar.

Son of ETA: Holy hopping gods, a lot of you are coming in to read this post. Hi, visitors! May I offer you a cookie?

Revenge of the Son of ETA: Mary Robinette Kowal has an excellent post on the matter over here. She’s been heavily involved with SFWA so she’s looking at it from the inside, so it’s valuable to me as someone who can’t join the organization to see her voice speaking up too.

Bride of the Rampage of ETA: And, Ann Aguirre, whose work I have in fact read, speaks up VERY LOUDLY and with absolute justification that yes, women who write SF/F are still sneered at, and worse, by their male peers. THIS SHIT IS NOT OKAY.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.