Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

I wasn't going to wade into the current WFC bruhaha (as opposed to past WFC bruhahas), because honestly this will probably continue until those who venerate Lovecraft et al over all other influences are dead, or at least out of the active field.

But look: if your idea of a celebration of world fantasy relies heavily on an old, long-dead, relevant-only-to-some-readers white male American literary figure, you're wrong. Not because you're racist or sexist, but because you're stuck in the 1970's. There has been fifty+ years of evolution in the world of fantasy the field that you're willfully blind to/ignored - more than an entire generation of readers and writers.

But hey, that in itself is not a terrible thing - everyone has their interests and if you don't want to pay attention to current trends and/or events, that's a personal choice. Just like many folk don't really care about writers who were working before 1980. But then recuse yourself from doing the programming for an event that is supposed to acknowledge ALL of the field: past, present and future. It's not that difficult: don't take on a volunteer job you know you're not qualified for or interested in.

But if you do, then getting pissy and throwing comments about "social justice warriors" (like that's something offensive) and the passive-aggressive version of "the lurkers support me in email" when many of your peers speak out against those choices? Just makes you look and sound like a badly-socialized five year old.

Nobody was impressed.

As irritated as I get when people owe me money (or goods or services) and are late in payment, I get even MORE annoyed, I discover, when friends are shafted. Especially when the only reason they haven't been paid is that the person owing seems to have decided that they just don't HAVE to.  And don't bother to actually talk to the person they're shafting.

(in this case, since last summer)

Look, if you promise someone payment in exchange for services? You honor your agreement. You don't just disappear off the radar and hope everyone forgets/absolves you.

Nobody forgets.

Fascinating, and rather depressing conversation happening on Twitter right now about the Great Mostly White Male "most anticipated fantasy books of 2015" lists dropping now. (the females seen on these lists? Robin Hobb and Kameron Hurley. Both potentially gender-neutral names, and Kameron says she specifically requested that they not put an author photo on the book cover).

I admit - I considered going with a male pseudonym for SILVER ON THE ROAD. I'm pretty damn sure that if I had, the book would be getting more attention, pre-pub, because the brutal truth is that male-name writers get more ink, especially but not exclusively from male reviewers. Especially if the books in question are epic (non-romantic) fantasies.  In terms of sales alone, choosing to publish under a female name is established idiocy.

And yet... this is my book. The thought of having to hide behind another name, of not being able to talk publicly about the book except through the scrim of that name, or a stand-in... to buy into the "only men write epic fantasy worth talking about" game...

Fuck that.

Hi, my name is Laura Anne Gilman, and I write some damn good epic fantasy.  And yeah, I'm female.  If that makes you shy away from a book, then you're the idiot, not me.



/vent

So, Felicia Day (an actress and gamer) wrote about her own personal responses to Gamergate, how it's made her change her interactions with people (and it's a painful piece to read), while Chris Kluwe (a football player and gamer) went on a rather delightfully profane rant against the people behind Gamergate.

They went after Felicia, not Chris.

That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the people behind the (bowel) movement of Gamergate.

Don't identify them as gamers.  Their primary affiliation is as pathetic, vicious trolls who get off on causing harm.

It's been a very, very long time since I was as angry at someone as I am right now.

Literally, wordless and shaking with anger. Blast-level anger of the sort that doesn't fade after I've had time to rant it off.

Because yes, I hold certain standards for people I call friend, and the first is that you don't blame someone else for your own fuckups, and the second that you don't EVER use professional standing to threaten someone over a personal matter. Ever.

No, I'm not going to name names.  They know. Just consider this a bankable warning: I have a very long fuse, but once it goes off, there is no going back or unsparking it.

This morning's brief-but-fierce thunderstorm has done its job: it's no cooler out there, but much steamier. Ugh. The Transformer Office has been relocated to directly in front of the AC, along with the cats. I have deadlines that wait for no weather front. :-( On the plus side, Transformer Office can handle it.

Working on the revisions to HEART OF BRIAR and the draft of MILES TO GO. A day spent writing is a good day, no matter what else happens. I keep reminding myself of this...

Spent much of yesterday reading the SCOTUS decision on the Affordable Care Act, and the fallout therein (including Rand Paul's OMGWTF exposure of his own stupidity OMGWTF?). Am somewhat disgusted that so many people are focusing on the "oh noes they're MAKING ME GET INSURANCE!" aspect of the law and ignoring all the many other very important bits that improve the health care situation for much of the population. It's reminding me much of all the "YOU CAN'T TELL ME TO WEAR A SEAT BELT!' complaints I heard when those laws were pushed through. Dude, put on your seat belt, prepare for eventualities, and read the actual law already, okay?

Toward that, I give you this:

http://artinfo.com/news/story/811251/how-artists-will-be-affected-by-the-supreme-courts-decision-to-uphold-obamas-affordable-care-act

"Under the ACA, states will set up group exchanges by 2014, which will.... allow individuals and small businesses to band together to form groups, just like if they were part of a large corporation. The exchanges will not be able to consider pre-existing conditions when creating groups — currently one of the biggest reasons why individuals or small businesses have a hard time getting affordable insurance."

In other words, folks: the ACA is the reason why I don't live in fear of ending up in the hospital and having my life savings wiped out by medical costs - because the Freelancer's Union was able to set up exactly that. And if you work for a small company that doesn't offer health benefits, or are self-employed and can't afford insurance, the ACA could change that*.

Yeah, I think this is better than what we had before. You're not going to convince me otherwise, no matter how much you say "oh noes the taxes! oh noes the loss-of-my-freedoms!" Dudes, the Patriot Act was a loss of freedoms. This is just a reminder to be a fucking responsible adult. IMGDO.

*Catastrophic, to cover your ass, or more as your situation required. And if you want "Cadillac" insurance, you can pay more for that, too. Market options. not perfect, but yeah again...better.

Having just overhead a conversation walking back from lunch, I have to vent.

Gentlemen? Considering the emotional investment and physical self-worth y'all seem to have wrapped up in the size of your sexual organ, how much money seems to be spent in the hopes of enlarging it a single inch, and how hurt you are if even the slightest hint is made that it may on the small side? If you then turn around and make comments about a woman's sexuality based on the size of her breasts*, that makes you utter and total shitweasels.

Thrice that if the subject of your comments is the teenaged girl walking not ten steps ahead of you, well within hearing range.

I have spent the past 40 years learning to control my temper. But this afternoon one gentleman just came within the count of ten of getting his head handed to him. And I don't mean verbally.



*Yes, everyone has different preferences. This is about not being a shitweasel. And don't give me that "men are visual" crap, either. What you respond to sexually and what words come out of your mouth are NOT inextricably linked (and if they are, do us all a favor and stay in your cave. Nobody - not male nor female -- is impressed.)

I had wanted to come home and do a post about the opera I saw this afternoon. Instead, I am going to cuddle the CutePuppy, drink a glass of wine, & think kind, gentle, healing thoughts. Can't hurt, right?

EtA: this may be nothing politically-motivated. I find that damned unlikely, considering the threats against the Congresswoman previously, but possible. However, that does not mean we should give a free pass to the culture of violent hate espoused by national (and mainstream) political figures.

Reports are that the "target" map on the Palin website has been taken down, and her Twitter account shut down. I hope to HELL she and others of her ilk start to realize that if just as when you preach understanding and compassion, you spread that, if you call for violence and hatred... this is what you get.

Other folk have said that they don't want to hold Palin responsibile, that freedom of speech gives her the right to say whatever she wants. I agree that she has the legal right to say anything within the bounds of Freedom of Speech... but that does not absolve anyone from responsibility for those words, between them and the 3am reckoning of what they may have encouraged someone else to do.

(and yes, I consider that in my own words and writings. I have to. Fiction explores the darkness within us, but I have no desire to encourage it to grow.)


EtA2: Me: "the right to bear arms IN A WELL-REGULATED MILITIA." Okay? Can we remember that? Not the right to perform personal revenge fantasies with a goddamned automatic rifle!" My dad: "Feel better now? Me: "no!"

Another rant (this one about the tone and 'tude of pirate sites being snarky about how they will deign to honor a legal takedown notice, threatening legitimate copyright holders, and disclaiming Oh No WE don't host anything illegal HERE!) written up, stared at, and deleted.


Y'know, as I've said before, if you're going to do something illegal, then do it. Don't pretend to honor the law or give a fuck about other peoples' rights when clearly you don't. If you upload/host illegally-procured files, then you're a selfish bastard who enjoys stealing and enabling other people to steal. Own your selfishness, already.




[if you download illegal files, all legalities aside, beware of viruses that might be embedded in those files because come on, you're trusting someone who has already proven they hack to show off/screw with other people...)

Oh I have this rant i want to do about the apparent illiteracy of an entire generation, but I have neither time nor energy so I will simply say incIdent, people. TruLY. PleASUre. This is your language. Learn how to use it, please.


[illiteracy is not txtspk. Txtspk presumes knowledge to alter.]