megwrites

1. Something awesome: ephemere is taking preorders for a book of calligraphy and art entitled Kandila. If you've ever seen the breath taking work that she's posted before, then you already know that this is definitely a worthy addition to any library. Plus, the more you pay, the more extras you get. The basic package starts out at $25US, which I think is more than reasonable for something this beautiful and obviously made with great talent, love, and dedication.


2. Re: The #YesGayinYA thing, deepad has a really, really great post asking for critiques of the books on the list here in her post: "In which I am derailing and contrary and also unsupportive of the Market".

A lot of what she says were things that were really front and center in my mind when I compiling the books for the #buyabiggaynovelforscottcardday list from Twitter and comments. And things that I think are essential to this conversation. And other conversations, frankly. Especially about the US-centrism of the discussion, and about the work that goes into critiques and reviews of books.

I also highly recommend you check out: this post about it from colorblue, who says:

More often than not, I find representation unaccompanied by critical analysis (that takes into account underlying hierarchies) worse than the alternative. The representation of minorities that most often gets past gatekeepers is the representation least challenging and most flattering to the status quo, and I don't see how this will change if it isn't even acknowledged.

And, on a personal note: I'd rather not see myself represented at all than see myself represented in that fashion by major publishing houses, because it hits too close to home, leaves me in the most awful headspace. That said, I've always had access to stories about people somewhat like me, and my privileges have ensured that there are quite a few stories like this (outside the big name US publishers, that is).

The fact is that we don't need to create a glut of literature that is rubber stamped by the establishment and then act like we've done a favor to either GLBT+ youth or the world in general.

Thus, I urge anyone who was checking the Big Gay Book List for recs to immediately head over to deepad's entry and look at the comments and see what people (especially people who are talking from their lived experiences and actual identities) are saying about books that you might think are good - but remaining willfully unaware helps nothing.

Authors Say Agents Try to “Straighten” Gay Characters in YA by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith.

You need to read all the words in this, and you need to think very carefully about it. Especially if you work with or want to work with the big names in the U.S. publishing industry.

The money quote?

The overwhelming white straightness of the YA sf and fantasy sections may have little to do with what authors are writing, or even with what editors accept. Perhaps solid manuscripts with LGBTQ protagonists rarely get into mainstream editors’ hands at all, because they are been rejected by agents before the editors see them. How many published novels with a straight white heroine and a lesbian or black or disabled best friend once had those roles reversed, before an agent demanded a change?

This does not make for better novels. Nor does it make for a better world.

Let’s make a better world.

I have no doubt (and by no doubt, I mean I've heard the stories) of the same happening in adult genres as well in the NYC-centric U.S. publishing industry.

This is what I mean when I get angry about what's on the shelves, when I talk about the lack of diversity in the genres of fiction that I read. This is also why I get really furious in discussions about agents and submissions when agents want to claim that it is "just business" and don't want to have the discussions about how they, as a group, are engaging in these shenanigans either by asking people to straight/whiten/etc their characters or just by rejecting things out of hand.

This is why I laugh when people pretend like editors and agents are always acting as benevolent gatekeepers who only let the best manuscripts get through, and that people who don't get published obviously just weren't good enough. This is why my opinion and the way I look at self-published works has really changed in the last few years.

This is why I can open a book and see certain specific genre agents' names in the acknowledgements and know better than to bother because I can actually, physically track the books that I've hated, the books that have been chock full of racist, sexist, queer hating ickiness and see that a lot of those books were all handled by the same agent.

This is part of the reason why I've very much stopped believing that getting a mainstream publishing contract is actually even anything to strive for and have largely shelved the idea that my writing career should center around such hopes.

Because in the last few years, I've really had my eyes opened to the fact that it doesn't just take a good book to get a deal and some sales - because things aren't that fair. Because there are a lot of people - agents, editors, etc - who are literally weeding out diversity because they only care about straight, white readers, who don't think that the queer/POC/disabled/etc reader even count.

If you ever wondered why I'm perpetually angry, or why when people talk about e-book prices, book sales, and piracy that I feel like ripping furniture to shreds because there are so many layers of fuckery going on that it can never just be a simple case of anything - you know why now. Because of things like this.

If you don't know, Orson Scott Card is a well known, long standing queer hater who thinks that gay folks should be locked away if they dare to show their horrible queerness in public. Recently he rewrote a very nasty, and hateful version of Hamlet which revolves around the idea that gay = evil.

But this is the internet and at least in my section of it, we don't hold with those kind of shenanigans from people who are (not to put too fine a point on it) howling bigoted douchemonkeys.

The response, at least on Twitter, was the #buyabiggaynovelforscottcardday hashtag in which people from all over threw in their recommendation for queer/LGBT+ novels, books, even short stories and comics and graphic novels that would put any reader on the top of OSC's "Evil Queer" List.

And being the person I am, I have tried to compile that list by following the hashtag.

( A very long, dubiously complete but completely alphabetized list of recommendations from the #buyabiggaynovelforscottcardday hashtag )

Because occasionally, people completely justify our continued survival as a species by doing things like what Chris Pesto, a junior at Syracuse University did in responding to a woman and her father who (though they aren't students there) like to walk around the campus holding signs saying "Homosexuality is a sin".

Though a slight boo to Syracuse University for having let the anti-gay protesters walk around campus several times previous without putting a stop to it.

Still, the response that Chris Pesto's protest drew makes my heart happy. And I'm in full agreement - that skirt really is an abomination. If not in God's sight, then definitely in mine.

There are a lot of straight people who are voicing some rather heated resentment of the change to the Lambda Literary Awards rules.

For the record, I identify as a bisexual, cisgendered female. Yes, I am marrying a cisgendered male in less than twelve days from now. No, I don't give a shit if you think this makes my bisexuality "legitimate" or not. We're not here to debate the erasure and denial of bisexuals. That's a whole other post.

What I'm here to say is that I'm really frustrated with so called "allies" who are upset about this, who think that this is about gay men vs. straight women and who has the "right" to pen m/m works. That's missing the point completely. Writing GLBT-themed/centric works does not carry the same level of risk, reward, or hardship for GLBT folks and straight people.

Even as a straight writer pens their GLBT-themed/centric work, they get to go home to their legally and socially sanctioned marriages (and yes, I acknowledge that I share in this privilege because my partner and I are of different genders) and their gender security and their knowledge that nobody is going to say that their sexuality is "just a phase" or "just experimentation." Nobody gets to vote on the legality of your marriage, Straight Writers. Nobody gets to choose whether they refer to you by the right pronoun, Cisgendered Writers.

So don't look the GLBT community in the eye and say that because our topics are the same, that we're all on equal footing. Our daily life experiences are very different, and I think those experiences deserve one tiny award of their own. I think we GLBT writers deserve one place where we don't have to compete against YOUR STRAIGHT, CISGENDERED PRIVILEGE. It's one award. It's not a statement that "straight women can never write m/m slash again!" Nobody is taking away your toys. It's not a universal declaration. It's ONE GODDAMN AWARD.

These writers who are objecting didn't mind being part of the GLBT scene when calling themselves allies added to their Liberal Street Cred, when it made them cool and different. But when it comes time to actually support the GLBT community and make one eensy, weensy little sacrifice? They just won't do it.

Ally does NOT mean "I am the same as you", it means "I support you". Sometimes support means sitting down, shutting up, and giving people some space. If you're not ready to accept that fact, if you need to have access to every single area, then you're not an ally. Quit calling yourself that and quit pretending - both to us and to yourselves - that you're here to support us.


*Just so we're clear, I'm talking to the people pitching a fit about this. If you're a straight writer of GLBT subject matter and you're not part of this fail, I'm not even talking in your general direction, so feel free to keep on keeping on.

Dear Authors of the World,

If I read one more novel where the only openly gay, lesbian, trans, or bi character in the book dies, somebody's getting a fucking slap. I'm getting tired of this. That makes two books in a row, and I've lost count of how many in total.

I'm not asking that no GLBT characters ever die. But maybe if there's only one in the whole book, they could, I dunno, live to see the sequel. Or you could have more than one token queer. Whichever.

And yeah, same goes with race and gender. If the straight, white males or straight white people or straight males (or any permutation therein) have a higher survival rate than everyone else? Then the problem is with you and not me and you need to get some help for that.

Because I promise you that it will translate into your sales being at least one book less than they would have been.


Love Conditional On Compliance,
Me

Whenever I see calls for queer SF/F, or queer fiction in general, I always wonder if I would be allowed to submit, if I fit under the category of "queer", if what I write fits under the category of "queer".

I write plenty of things with/about people who are neither cisgendered nor straight, I write stories of gay couples and lesbian adventurers (that lesbian pirate story will see an audience one day, I hope) and folks who began life as one gender but knew they were another.

But does that count? I don't think I've ever written a story that was centered on anyone's sexuality so much as what they're doing. I mean, yeah, the sexuality enters into it sometimes and for different reasons, but that's never been the thrust of the story.

Is queer fiction just fiction with queer people or is there another element to it?

For reference: I am a cisgendered, bisexual female. Yeah, I know. It seems like every girl who gets drunk at a party and smooches other drunk co-eds for the enjoyment of cheering frat boys claims to be as well.

Which is precisely the problem. Seems like, sometimes, being bisexual doesn't count for anything. I'm not straight enough to be heterosexual. The women I've loved and been with don't go away, the things I feel for and about other women don't go away. Yet, I can play straight if I have to (around certain family members, for instance). I'm engaged to a cisgendered male, so people make understandable presumptions. And for that reason, I often wonder if I have a place at the queer table, if I'm allowed. Do I count?

I guess there are moments when I feel as though I have to fight both sides just to be recognized, just to have my identity acknowledged as real, legitimate, and not just a phase or a state of confusion. Because I'm definitely not confused about this, and I never was. I've always known that I'm not straight, and I've always known that I'm not gay. I didn't just "go over to the dark side" during college and come back when it was convenient, but keep the name to give me street cred. I'm not a lesbian in denial.

This is me. I'm here. I'm real and I really feel these things. I'm not lying, and I'm not too stupid or confused to know what I feel. I'm a conscientious adult who knows her own mind. And for the record, I've never once kissed a girl for anyone's pleasure and enjoyment but my own, and every time I have been with women, I've been stone cold sober and there way nary a frat boy in sight.

I've seen collections of Gay and Lesbian fiction (collectively and separately), and that's a good thing. My word, I'm not crying for less Gay/Lesbian fiction. I say, more! Let us have more queerness, queerness all over! But I don't think I've ever seen collections of Bisexual fiction. And I wish I did. It'd be nice, you know? Nice if every once and a while I saw stories about people that were like me.