A year ago I posted about a YA manuscript that was getting a certain kind of negative response from agents - basically, some said they would be interested IF a certain (gay) character's POV and references to his sexuality were removed.

But this saga has a happy ending: the manuscript has been picked up by Viking press, gay characters intact ( Read more... )

From the book Sex at Dawn:
pg. 78: [comparing humans with chimps and bonobos] There is a high degree of variability in potential sexual combinations in humans and bonobos; homosexual activity is common in both, but rare in chimps. [Bonobos are the only primate besides us that has sex for reasons other than reproduction ( Read more... )

A literary agent offered to represent a YA manuscript - on the condition that one of the main characters be made straight or have his POV and any mention of his sexuality cutThese authors aren't the only ones with a story like that. It's 2011 and this kind of unseen discrimination is happening - and not just with sexuality; authors have been told ( Read more... )

Borders.com just told me that Twilight: the Graphic Novel will be released in March.

O_o. Um. Yeah. No.

Any desire I may have had to read or watch New Moon has been successfully killed. From what I understand, the books only got worse from there on out.

Scholastic U.S. reverses decision to ban book
... In a letter sent to her publisher, Amulet Books, Scholastic’s book fairs division asked her to clean up the relatively mild language and to change the two same-sex parents to a straight couple. “The other issues [Scholastic had problems with] - words like ‘crap’ - just made me shake my head and ( Read more... )

There is a petition you can sign protesting Amazon's new practice of stripping the sales ranking from books with homosexual themes. No telling whether Amazon will listen or not, but it's worth a shot.

Are all romance novels White, or is it just my library? Are the romances featuring non-white characters hiding behind the anonymous covers? Even the ones with titles like "The Sicilian's Mistress" or "The Spanish Billionaire's Bride" feature awfully pale-skinned mediterraneans. Out of all the romances I've seen come across the desk, I've seen ( Read more... )

One of the books I've been waiting for came in yesterday. So of course, when I got home from work, I decided to open it up, and read maybe the first chapter or two...

Spent the rest of the evening in a book coma ^^;.

Which I would've known would happen, if I'd stopped to think about it. It was worth it, though; the book (How to Ditch your Fairy ( Read more... )

I finished Twilight this morning. It's ... cute. And yeah, I can see why it's so popular with teenage girls. But I kept finding myself reading like a writer. I'm not sure exactly why. But if the story can't grab me and keep me reading like a reader, then the book's not doing its job ( Read more... )