Sit down and get comfortable
Internets, there was a lot of jackassery today. It's kind of impressive.
The Wicked Pretty Things imbroglio: Jessica Verday explained that she was pulling out of the YA anthology because she was asked to make a story with a male/male romance into a male/female romance. No problem with the actual content, violence or language; just make one of the characters a girl. Verday said AW HALE NAW (I may be paraphrasing here). The editor, Trisha Telep, came back (see the update on that post) and... kind of?... apologized, saying she thought the anthology was supposed to be "light on alternative sexuality," and that the publisher itself wanted no such thing and would love to have the story. Her comment ends with, "By the way: if you want to see a you tube video of me wrestling a gay man in Glasgow, and losing, please let me know," which strikes me as one of the stranger attempts I've seen to drop Some of My Best Friends Are Gay cred, but okay. Well, except not "okay," because... what? "Light on alternative sexuality"? "When presented with a story that is perfectly acceptable to me in every other way, including the mild romantic content, I would rather pretend that gay kids don't exist. No, the word fuck is totes okay. Just get rid of the gayness." The shit?
In a second post, Verday notes that the publisher is deeply chagrined over the whole thing, they "support LBGTQ writing," and that... Trisha Telep, who basically apologized for assuming that her employer shared her prejudices, will still be editing the anthology. Thus, Verday will still not be appearing in it. There you are.
But now, other writers won't be, either. Lesley Livington, Karen Mahoney, and Lisa Mantchev have pulled out, and even Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely) has asked them to take "a Melissa Marr-ish slant" out of their cover copy. (Honestly, I'm not terribly impressed by how close the anthology title is to her book in the first place, and then also name-dropping her.) So I'm going to be really interested to see if Running Press tries to soldier on, or if they replace Trisha Telep and try to get everyone back. Because once word gets out to everyone else, no one's going to want to have anything to do with this thing.
ETA: Brenna Yovanoff has also dropped out. The premise of the anthology was that it was 13 stories. We're now down to eight.
ETA, Saturday: Seanan McGuire is #6, and Ann Aguirre is dropping out of a separate anthology.
Meanwhile, in simpler, but no less craptastic news (perhaps a larger level of craptacity, even), Brian Keene is calling for a boycott of Dorchester Publishing, for the simple reason that Dorchester Publishing hasn't been paying its writers and is publishing their work anyway. Lots of them.
Also: Scott Adams feels oppressed:
The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone. You don’t argue with a four-year old about why he shouldn’t eat candy for dinner. You don’t punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don’t argue when a women [sic] tells you she’s only making 80 cents to your dollar. It’s the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.
I was hoping this was somehow ill-advised satire, but it looks like not.
Also-also, this:
@christylemire: So I wasn't the only girl at Sucker Punch. A guy and a girl were having sex down the row from me and @BenMank77. Glad someone had fun.
@christylemire: For those asking, yes, they were having actual sex. Ben saw the girl's bare ass, I heard seats creaking. Stadium seating is so multipurpose.
@christylemire: Cute RT @[redacted] @christylemire this made my day. i still dont see how he saw my bare ass. i didnt even pull my pants all the way off.
Fin.
The Wicked Pretty Things imbroglio: Jessica Verday explained that she was pulling out of the YA anthology because she was asked to make a story with a male/male romance into a male/female romance. No problem with the actual content, violence or language; just make one of the characters a girl. Verday said AW HALE NAW (I may be paraphrasing here). The editor, Trisha Telep, came back (see the update on that post) and... kind of?... apologized, saying she thought the anthology was supposed to be "light on alternative sexuality," and that the publisher itself wanted no such thing and would love to have the story. Her comment ends with, "By the way: if you want to see a you tube video of me wrestling a gay man in Glasgow, and losing, please let me know," which strikes me as one of the stranger attempts I've seen to drop Some of My Best Friends Are Gay cred, but okay. Well, except not "okay," because... what? "Light on alternative sexuality"? "When presented with a story that is perfectly acceptable to me in every other way, including the mild romantic content, I would rather pretend that gay kids don't exist. No, the word fuck is totes okay. Just get rid of the gayness." The shit?
In a second post, Verday notes that the publisher is deeply chagrined over the whole thing, they "support LBGTQ writing," and that... Trisha Telep, who basically apologized for assuming that her employer shared her prejudices, will still be editing the anthology. Thus, Verday will still not be appearing in it. There you are.
But now, other writers won't be, either. Lesley Livington, Karen Mahoney, and Lisa Mantchev have pulled out, and even Melissa Marr (Wicked Lovely) has asked them to take "a Melissa Marr-ish slant" out of their cover copy. (Honestly, I'm not terribly impressed by how close the anthology title is to her book in the first place, and then also name-dropping her.) So I'm going to be really interested to see if Running Press tries to soldier on, or if they replace Trisha Telep and try to get everyone back. Because once word gets out to everyone else, no one's going to want to have anything to do with this thing.
ETA: Brenna Yovanoff has also dropped out. The premise of the anthology was that it was 13 stories. We're now down to eight.
ETA, Saturday: Seanan McGuire is #6, and Ann Aguirre is dropping out of a separate anthology.
Meanwhile, in simpler, but no less craptastic news (perhaps a larger level of craptacity, even), Brian Keene is calling for a boycott of Dorchester Publishing, for the simple reason that Dorchester Publishing hasn't been paying its writers and is publishing their work anyway. Lots of them.
Also: Scott Adams feels oppressed:
The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone. You don’t argue with a four-year old about why he shouldn’t eat candy for dinner. You don’t punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don’t argue when a women [sic] tells you she’s only making 80 cents to your dollar. It’s the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.
I was hoping this was somehow ill-advised satire, but it looks like not.
Also-also, this:
@christylemire: So I wasn't the only girl at Sucker Punch. A guy and a girl were having sex down the row from me and @BenMank77. Glad someone had fun.
@christylemire: For those asking, yes, they were having actual sex. Ben saw the girl's bare ass, I heard seats creaking. Stadium seating is so multipurpose.
@christylemire: Cute RT @[redacted] @christylemire this made my day. i still dont see how he saw my bare ass. i didnt even pull my pants all the way off.
Fin.