Where Personal and Professional Life Collide...

ETA: and now people have decided that attacking and shaming me is the acceptable response to this post. People, "they're allowed to have strong feelings but you aren't" isn't helping the situation. I have not "gone after" anyone (in fact, the only person I've gone after was the author of the original article). I vented my own feelings on the topic, and my disappointment and crankiness that people have left over this, and at the same time ignored the good that's being done, too.  Trying to shame me for that does not win you debate points.




So this weekend a bit of a nasty kerfuffle started in SFWA because of an unfortunate article published in the SFWA Bulletin.

I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that an older member of SFWA who has repeatedly revealed a rather wide streak of misogyny and arrogance took offense at other members calling him on it, and reacted badly (i.e. threw a temper tantrum). Apparently this older member has not realized that freedom of speech also means other people have the right to call you on your asshattedness. In public.

The SFWA board acted swiftly, not to punish anyone for their right to speech (we still believe in that) but to make sure that more editorial oversight is exercised over what is printed in an official SFWA communication. They also took responsibility for not previously exercising that oversight, and plans are underway to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

As a SFWA member, personally, I'm satisfied that the Board is doing what it should to protect SFWA going forward (sadly, we can't boot members for being asshats unless they cross a certain legal line). However, as I'm sure everyone can imagine, this has not stopped people on both sides from deciding to turn this into a mudfight and/or leaving SFWA in a huff.

IMGO, leaving SFWA because we (alas) have asshats in the organization makes me wonder if those people are also going to leave the human race. I think that's a fair question?

This is particularly grating on a week when some of us have spent our time volunteering to make sure that the SFWA booth at Book Expo America (BEA) runs smoothly, and our members are well-represented to the publishing industry (including librarians, bloggers, and audiobook people, etc). This kerfuffle has totally overshadowed any mention of what we're doing, and I may be a bit cranky about that.

This week is BEA (BookExpo America). Goodbye, work-week. I'll see you next Monday.


Things to Do This Week, alphabet edition


- BEA set-up (for the SFWA booth) (Monday)
- networking with librarian-types for BVC at BEA
- managing the cats at the SFWA booth
- my signing at the SFWA booth (1pm Tuesday)
- various BEA gatherings and get-togethers
- networking with digital media types for BVC
- networking to drum up business for d.y.m.k. productions
- do not lose my s.h.i.t.
- BEA break-down (Thursday)
- puppy-sitting (Thursday-Saturday)


If I happen to get some writing done, or production work, or...well, anything other than BEA, then that will be a beautiful plus. But this week? I'm not expecting it.

If everything works out as planned, you may refer to the SFWA booth team as Goddamned Superheros. Or Pepper fucking Potts.

will be May 19th-May 22nd, in Washington, DC. Yes, Skiffy is invading the nation's capitol. We'll try to do less damage than the British (and much less than the Tea Party) did.

However, should you happen to be in the area that weekend, and you have any interest in getting things (books, shirts, body part) signed, or meeting Famous Writers (and the rest of us), then then you should come by the Open Mass Signing Friday, May 20 from 5:30 to 7:00 at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut NW, Washington, DC. The signing is open to the public.

C'mon down. DC in the spring is pretty, and we throw a damn good party...

For my sins (and because I really do buy into the "pay forward" theory) I've volunteered* to work with the incoming non-member queries about how to [fill in the blank] with regard to publishing/writing.

Many of the queries run along the lines of "how do I become a successful writer?" Verbatim.

*is flummoxed*

ETA: oh, I know what to tell them. I just don't understand how anyone can come in cold, asking for An Answer presumably waiting to be handed over, and if it's arrogance ("it can't be THAT hard") or stupidity ("it can't be that hard?").


I can tell someone where to go for information on agents, and manuscript formatting, and how to tell a scam from a real deal, and what questions they should ask when offered representation/a contract. I know how to, delicately, tell someone that no, we aren't a publisher and can't help them spread the word about their 2000 page epic boy-and-squirrel romantic fantasy. I'm even -- because I was an Evil Editor and have no soul to speak of -- able to dash their hopes about joining SFWA before they've made their required professional sales, no matter how bestselling their book will be some day.

But the total hopeful haplessness of some of the questions....

Do other "arts" professions get this sort of thing? Do people walk up to actors and say "how do I get a movie deal?" Do they ask painter "How do I sell my painting for a million dollars?"









* in SFWA, "volunteered" means Mary Robinette Kowal says "will you...?" in a voice that means "you WILL."

SFWA politics, that is. For those of you who aren't members, sorry about this. For those of you who are members, and feel too delicate to wade into such things... it's time to toughen up.

I rarely speak publicly about SFWA. I am a lifetime member, have been a member since 1990 or thereabouts, and have also been a long-term volunteer for the organization, but I mostly stay quiet about my personal opinions therein. I can't, this year.

We have an election coming up. In a nice change of pace, we have two candidates in the ring for President from the very beginning: Russell Davis, SFWA's current Western Regional Director, and Andrew Burt, the current VP.

I know both men personally, over my years in the industry, and I have been following their actions in SFWA carefully for the past few years.

If you've also been following along at home, you already know who to vote for. If you haven't, here's my suggestion: vote for Davis.

Why? John Scalzi has the full rundown here, complete with his own rather scathing [if accurate] personal commentary. But I can give you a capsule explanation:

Russell Davis has put his time in the trenches. He's earned his bread as a writer (novels and short fiction) and as an editor (for a small but advance-paying press), and knows the reality of the industry. His platform is well-thought-out and practical, even if I don't agree with all of it. And, perhaps more to the point, he has the respect of people within and without SFWA; people he will need to accomplish anything in that position.

Andrew Burt has published five stories in the past decade, and one novel. I won't go into the possible disqualification of that novel being technically self-published, because the stories were enough to get him in, but it's worth noting that he seems to treat his writing not as a career, or even a beloved sideline, but as a step toward SFWA office. Is that someone we want leading our organization?

Even if you can overlook that, there's the fact that he has, over his term in SFWA, managed to alienate pretty much everyone who has ever worked with him, and a large number of people who stopped to actually listen to him, including me. Even for a lawyer, that's impressive. His last act as a member of the anti-piracy committee [leaving out any discussion of the right/wrongness of that action] created such a stink [the infamous inaccurate DMCA letter] that he -- rather than stepping aside for the good of the organization, had to be forced aside by the membership. In short, he is arrogant, narrow-viewed, and seems to believe that it doesn't matter what the membership or the outside world thinks, so long as he knows what is right for us.

If he is elected, for the first time in my twenty years as a member, I honestly believe that SFWA will not survive. And despite my gripes and disappointments with the organization, I still believe in it, and what it can accomplish. Allowing Andrew Burt to destroy it from within would be a damned shame, and one that we the membership can prevent. All it takes is that you vote.



note: comments welcome, but keep it civil. This thread I will be moderating, if needed.