The Habitrail

The Harlequin Scam

2009-11-19T02:24:59Z

I imagine most people have heard about the latest from Harlequin: the new imprint, Harlequin Horizons, which they're calling self-publishing (but is really vanity publishing), and which they say will give authors their dream of being a Harlequin author (but nowhere on the book will appear the word "Harlequin" and Harlequin readers will not be expected to consider buying these books), and which will cost the author anywhere from $600 to $40,000 dollars, and for which even though Harlequin will not invest a penny of its own time or money Harlequin will still retain half of any sales profits.

I have nothing against self-publishing; quite the contrary. It's a great option for many authors and I heartily applaud them; it extends the repetoire of books available to me, the reader, to include the kind of niche-market books I often prefer to read.

I think vanity publishing is a very poor choice for anyone, especially since now there are so many self-publishing service companies available -- yes, you pay Lulu or whoever to do the editing and layout and cover art and ISBN and Amazon stuff when you don't have the expertise to do it yourself, but then it's your imprint and any profits are yours.

Would I mind if TorStar, the parent of Harlequin Enterprises, also owned a Lulu type outfit? Nope. I don't care that they own a newspaper, and for all I know they also own drugstores and tobacco shops and orange juice stands. Would I mind if TorStar owned a scammy vanity press like Dorrance? I don't like the existence of scammers, and I'd dislike TorStar for it, but I wouldn't blame Harlequin.

Do I mind that Harlequin's name and reputation is being plastered all over this new vanity press "Harlequin Horizons", and that authors are being led to believe they can buy HQ author status and that if their book sells well enough they'll get picked up by HQ proper and that it might be worth their while to spend twenty or thirty thousand dollars promoting an unedited piece of crap? Or that they'll get charged five times the actual cost of filing for copyright? Yeah. I've got a big problem with that.

The response in the blogosphere suggests a lot of readers and writers have a problem with it. And that makes me love the writing world. The support and mentoring and pay-it-forward ethics are unmatched in any other biz.

Gaylaxicon

2009-10-16T21:53:31Z

Gaylaxicon 2009 was last week. Has anyone seen any con reports or lists of the Spectrum winners?

fandom auction

2009-09-28T20:09:53Z

Over at http://scripts.cgispy.com/auctions/auction.pl?action=all&user=maryd there's an auction going on to raise money for Kim P, a fanfic writer who needs to have surgery to keep from completely losing her vision. Lots of books and other goodies -- including this awesomely cool Kiwi Gift Pack, donated by moi:

http://scripts.cgispy.com/auctions/auction.pl?category=Other_Cool_Items&user=maryd&item=1254629785

C'mon, please! Get some really cool stuff, and help out a fellow writer so she doesn't go blind.

what I've been reading

2009-08-26T03:00:02Z

Wild Seed, by Octavia Butler: Superb. Brilliantly written, a mix of SF and alternate history; engaging, believable, and with finely drawn parallels to the male/female and white/black power struggles throughout history. One of her finest works, I think. *****

The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi: An astonishingly good first novel by a very young writer. The POV changes were sometimes mishandled, and the ending seemed a little weak, but overall a very good read. I look forward to see what she produces next. ****

Farthing, by Jo Walton. I liked this book even more than I expected to. The alternate history aspect was very well presented and believable, the characters vividly drawn, and the change in POV from first-person Lucy to third-person Carmichael was excellently handled. The ending, while sad, was utterly believable. I'll be looking for the rest of this series. *****

Skin Folk, by Nalo Hopkinson. An amazingly varied collection of short stories, but with a strong interconnected theme. All the stories are well written and imaginative, but I particularly appreciated the ones with the unusual, strong dialectic voice: they're not as easy to read, but the vivid atmosphere evoked by the unusual vocabulary and sentence structure had a powerful impact. I'd like to read one of her novels. ****

Footnotes to Sex, by Mia Farlane. This book was not anything like what I expected -- or anything like the back cover copy describes. It's well written: clearly differentiated characters, believable setting, realistic dialogue, well -edited prose, consistent voice. But the characters are tedious and distasteful, the storyline dull and repetetive, and the entire book seems pointless. Not an author I'll be looking for more works from. **

IBARW

2009-07-28T04:00:42Z

It's International Blog Against Racism Week. (Thanks to jenwrites for alerting me to this.)

I'm listening and reading and trying to learn. Thanks to all the people who post their experiences, their advice, their do's and do-not's. It helps.

I'd appreciate novel recommendations. I'm sadly aware that most of the books on my shelves are by white authors featuring white characters. I'd like to expand my reading, so if anyone can suggest books by AoC and/or with CoC that they've found to be enjoyable reads, I'd be grateful.

Chocolate Cake A La Awesome

2009-06-10T01:34:44Z

Pre-heat oven to 325 F / 170 C.

Grease and flour a large 10-inch tube-pan/funnel pan/ring tin/bundt pan.

With a mixer on high, cream together in a large mixing bowl:
1 1/2 cups (325 g) butter
2 1/2 cups sugar

Add:
2 teaspoons vanilla

Add, one at a time, on high:
5 eggs

In another bowl, sift together:
2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Into a measuring cup, put 1 1/4 cup milk.

With the mixer on low, add some of the flour/cocoa, then some milk, then some flour/cocoa, then some milk, then some flour/cocoa, then some milk, then the last of the flour/cocoa. Mix until well-blended. (Make sure you don't have flour gunked onto the bottom of the bowl.)

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 60 - 70 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. After removing cake from oven, wait about 15 minutes before removing the ring from the cake pan. No need to frost this cake or sift sugar over it; it's rich and moist and just sweet enough on its own.

Corned Beef A La Awesome

2009-06-10T00:32:00Z

Corned beef (aka corned silverside) can be turned into total awesomeness thusly:

Cook your corned beef as per normal in a pot of water (with potatoes, onions, bay leaves, whatever you fancy).

Mix together 1/2 cup bourbon or brandy, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons mustard, and 1/2 cup apple juice or thin applesauce. Preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C.

Remove beef from pot of water and put into a roasting pan, preferably on a rack. Baste with several spoonfuls of the bourbon/apple sauce. Pop beef into oven. Every 5 - 10 minutes for a half-hour period, baste the beef with more sauce. At the end you should have about half the sauce left.

Remove beef from oven, slice, and serve with leftover sauce poured over slices of beef.

Agreeing to disagree

2009-06-10T00:11:02Z

Your lj, your rules. My lj, my rules. (It's taken me a few weeks to realise that. Yeah, I'm slow.)

Comments are welcome on this lj. I don't need to know who you are. I don't care if other readers of this lj know who you are. It's what you say that's important. Make me think, make me learn, make me consider another point of view.

support FOC_U

2009-05-16T03:12:08Z

FOC = Fen of Colour = genre fans who do not identify as Caucasian.

FOC_U = fen of colour who would like to remind the rest of the world that they do exist, they have been around just as long as any other type of fen, their opinions do matter, and they are not just disposable rags to be used by authors and publishers for polishing their white-privilege swords and ray guns.

Go here for info: http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/670385.html (sorry, can't remember how to add links!). FOC, make your voices heard.

----------------------------------------

This public message has been brought to you by a colourless fen who fully supports FOC_U.

silence isn't agreement...

2009-03-06T19:35:29Z

...it's a mixture of confusion and frustration and enlightenment.

I haven't quite figured out how White Author Writes POC Characters Poorly became Don't Diss White Writers Cuz Grumpy Editors Are Taking Names, or where Racist Jerk Maliciously Outs Someone Who Uses A Pseudonym came in, or how that turned into Asshat Who Has Arranged His Life So That He Doesn't Pay Taxes, But Happily Accepts Lots Of Tax-Funded Benefits, Claims To Be Morally Superior To The Rest Of The World. Nor do I want to know.

The whole ugly mess has made me think, though, and it's been enlightening. There are white-person privileges I have taken for granted without being aware of it -- and now my awareness is heightened. There are opinions and experiences of my own that I have assumed would be shared by others -- now I realise they are unique to me. I cannot assume that just because I don't care if a man or straight woman writes lesbian characters, that means other lesbians feel the same way, or that POC don't care if white authors write POC characters. I cannot assume that because I've been discriminated against as a lesbian, I know what it might feel like to be discriminated against as a POC.

beth_bernobich said it very well:

Racism is wrong. Outing is wrong. Silencing is wrong.
(This admonishment is for me, too.)

Please continue the discussions. Some of us are listening and learning.

Is it just me...

2009-01-17T20:17:52Z

...or has Absolute Write been down for a few days?

my brain is like a brothel...

2009-01-15T03:27:08Z

...The story ideas just keep coming and coming! (Yeah. I know. Bad, bad joke.)

Thanks, y'all, for the good thoughts. The story's been submitted, and hopefully I'll start writing yet another new one this weekend.

Sold, and sold!

2009-01-11T22:25:51Z

Two sales this weekend: a flash story, and a story from waaaaaaay back (my VP story, in fact) that I'd despaired of finding a home for. Plus, the cheque from Three Crows Press arrived this morning.

Yay for nice editors, and yay for money!

Tomorrow I send a story to Cecilia Tan, and cross my fingers, toes, and eyes.....

Musings on POV

2009-01-06T00:24:59Z

Recently, someone in a writers/readers group commented that "many readers assume that if a story is written in the first person, then the main character and the author are one and the same." Another member agreed that the reader "can't help but begin to identify the story with the writer to a certain extent and wonder how much comes from real life." In a second online group, writers discussed how a Bad Attitude (of the No One In Publishing Recognises My Genius Because All They Want Is To Publish Mindless Books For Mindless Readers kind) can taint an author's prose to the point that everyone -- readers, editors, agents -- except the author himself can see it.

And I think -- maybe -- that this all boils down to point of view. Whether it's a tight first or third POV, in which every word of the narrative comes from the character, or an omniscient POV where an external narrator tells the entire story, the POV requires that the author subsume his own personality and let the character/narrator tell the story. If a first person POV seems so real to the reader that she assumes character = author, the author is doing it right, so who cares if readers you'll never meet assume that you are that sarcastic bitch or irreverent android or serial killer? An external narrator can be an extension of the author -- assuming that the author himself has a likeable/entertaining/fascinating voice -- but surely the author must be willing and able, if necessary, to adjust that narrator as needed to fit the story. (Subsume, subsume, subsume. What a delicious word.)

An author who is annoyingly unlikeable and cannot remove her own POV from the prose is, I think, automatically doomed to remain unpublished.

Edited to add: This also seems to fit with the words of wisdom from cathellison: Having to be emotionally honest while writing in first person is...painful. Ugly....The more I give myself over to the awfulness of how people think, the better the writing seems to be.

Yeah. There's just not much room for the author in a story.

Call For Submissions

2008-12-11T22:34:18Z

Nominations are open from December 12, 2008 to January 31, 2009 for lesbian short stories to be considered for the 2008 Year’s Best Lesbian Fiction. This anthology celebrates lesbian fiction, the short story form, and the editors who publish these stories. As the collection is intended to complement rather than overlap with the existing Year’s Best Lesbian Erotica and Lesbian Romance anthologies, we are not seeking to reprint stories that are purely erotica or romance.

Story Eligibility: Short stories to 12,500 words, with a lesbian character or theme, first published in an edited market in the 2008 calendar year.
Anthology Editor: Fran Walker
Guest Judges: Lynn Pierce (Lesfic_Unbound forum moderator) and Joan Opyr (author of “Idaho Code”)
Publisher: Bedazzled Ink
Publication: June 2009, in trade paperback
Payment: $25 + 1 cc

For more information or to nominate stories, go to: http://www.bedazzledink.com/nuance/yblf2008.html

***feel free to cross-post widely***

Sale!

2008-12-09T20:38:22Z

My short story "Look But Don't Touch" has sold to the very nice people at Three Crows Press ezine. Yay! And their turnaround time was less than a week. Double yay!

This is you.

2008-11-06T22:38:59Z

Last week, a young woman in Somalia was forced into a hole, buried up to her neck, and stoned to death by about 50 men, in front of a crowd of 1000 onlookers. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7708169.stm)

Her father says she was a 13 year old girl who'd been raped by three men. Others claim she was an adult woman who'd confessed to adultury. Either way -- her society's religion (Islam) didn't approve of the fact that she'd had sex (willingly or not) with a man (or men), and so they took away a basic right: her life.

Yesterday, millions of Californians whose religion(s) disapprove of an adult wanting to love, make a life with, and marry another adult when those two adults are of the same sex, took away their basic right to marry the person they love and nullified the legal marriages of thousands of Californians.

I could just say, "Well, you have to live with yourself, and with the decision you made when you voted for Prop 8, and with the consequences of that vote that you've forced on other people." But I'm not that gracious. I am, in fact, one of those "other people". So, to all you Californians who voted Yes on Prop 8: your choice was disgusting, cruel, and hateful, and I despise you for it.

Writers I am lovin'.

2008-07-26T22:38:44Z

Charles de Lint. Robin Hobb. Barbara Hambly.

What authors are you currently lovin' on?

i can haz editor luv?

2008-05-12T21:33:09Z

Yez i can!

::pets shiny email from editor saying nice things about my story::
::crosses fingers that my story makes the final cut::

I can haz kitchen?

2008-05-09T23:09:55Z

Yez I can!

::dies of happiness::
::goes off to cook something in new kitchen::

Oh, dear.

2008-04-18T02:40:59Z

Just in case you were wallowing in a fit of optimism and hoped that Lanaia Lee and Cheryl Pillsbury had learned their lesson, obtained a conscience, and/or crawled off into the woodwork: sorry, it hasn't happened.

From Lanaia Lee's free-to-read Yahoo group

Michael G posts one of his poems.

Cheryl responds: "Beautiful, love it."

Lanaia adds: "Michael, you have such a flair for poetry, you really need to go out on your own, I think you are that good!"

Cheryl chimes in on cue: "Michael, please sign a contract and the world savor your words as we do, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Michael says: "Thank you very much for your kind words i am considering doing that", followed by "Hmmmm well can you e-mail me a contract offer?."

Cheryl wastes no time, and nine minutes later, she posts: "Already sent, look at and ask me anything."

Michael: "I have a question, with the 550.00 option does that include the book being edited?."

::oh, dear::

But at least he didn't jump at the opportunity to throw his money away (yet); two days later, Cheryl posted: "Michael, have you decided yet?"

Is it getting harder?

2008-04-10T20:11:52Z

I've been reading fantasy for decades. And I think maybe there's been a shift. Twenty years ago the stories had generic standard-fantasy-plots and fairly invisible prose -- books like Eddings and Lackey and the author of those Sword of Shanarra (sp?) books. A decade later the plots got more convoluted and unpredictable, and the worlds got more vivid: B Hambley, A McCaffrey, etc, though the prose wasn't particularly memorable. Nowadays the plots continue to be strong, and the worlds unusual and fascinating, but the prose has also take a step up. Invisible, servicable prose has been out-muscled by writers who have lyrical, haunting, distinctive voices: Jo Walton, Ellen Kushner, and the newest writers on the block, beth_bernobich and cathellison.

Is there a real pattern here, do you think, or has my reading been too selective and erratic to draw any conclusions?

When author and fiction collide

2008-04-07T00:09:32Z

More noodling on the subject: how much of the author makes it into their prose?

For the vast majority of fiction I read, I have zero idea what the author is like. But, given the law of averages, it seems likely that at least some of the authors whose work I enjoy reading are not people I'd want to hang with. In fact, some of them are bound to be downright asshats I'd want to kill if I had to sit next to them at a party. But I'll never know.

Occasionally I'll run across an author whose blog I find fascinating, and because of it I'll seek out their fiction. In contrast, occasionally I'll run across an author's comments on politics or whatever and find myself in disagreement with them, but it generally doesn't affect my perception of their fiction: for example, I thought Jo Walton's comment that if someone wrote fanfic with her characters it would be "like rape" to be over the top because it seemed to be trivialising rape; but I still loved The King's Peace. I don't agree with Orson Scott Card's stance on gay marriage but it didn't stop me from enjoying Ender's Game. On rare occasions I'll find an author's public comments so distasteful that it puts me off trying their books (such as Larry Niven's recent suggestion to Homeland Security).

Writers write what they're passionate about. Does an author's personality inevitably sneak into their prose/voice? Or is it the hallmark of a good author that they can sublimate their own personality and opinions and prejudices so that the narrator/POV character tells the story?

I'm starting to think the latter.

If a story is good, I don't much care who the author is -- unless they grievously offend me. If a story makes the author sound like a prat, I think it's a pretty safe bet that the author is a prat. And since I read for enjoyment, not to be annoyed, it behooves prats to not write like prats.

Or something like that. Dunno. Still noodling on the concept.

comparing writing styles

2008-04-03T19:20:17Z

Coneycat's recent lj post (here, since I forgot how to do links: http://coneycat.livejournal.com/577224.html?view=1239496#t1239496) has got me thinking. Can you tell a fiction writer's style from their blog posts? Do short, witty, concise posts equate to a good short story writer? Do thorough, insightful, well-structured arguments indicate a good novelist? Is pretentiously annoying fiction the inevitable result of a lj user whose blog posts consist of "I am smarter than everyone else" followed by "oh, but I didn't mean to insult anyone by that, I don't mean that other people are stupid, just that I can't understand why no one recognises my genius or sees that I am always right and they're all wrong"?

Dunno. From the few writers for whom I'm familiar with both their fiction and blog posts, I think maybe, yes, it's true. Sadly, I have to admit that my infrequent lj posts are reflected in my inability to Apply Butt to Chair when it comes to fiction writing.

What do y'all think?

TGIF

2008-04-03T18:58:56Z

Thankfully, it's Friday.

It'll be a busy weekend. Apple harvesting, chicken coop building, and something else that I can't remember right now. Plus, I've got hob an lam to read, and after that, Year's Best Fantasy And Horror, which just arrived in the mail this morning. (The mailman nearly fell off the porch because his gaze was riveted to my slippers, which are plush killer whales. Jealousy on his part, no doubt.)

In other news, I'm told that my short story in an upcoming anthology will share a ToC with Nicola Griffith. Is it possible to die of intimidation?