Bits and Bytes
I've got a bunch of links and newsbytes for y'all today, so settle in and get your clicking fingers ready.
First, I'm sad to say that Diana Wynne Jones passed away this morning. She leaves behind a wonderful legacy of fantastic fiction, including one upcoming YA novel Earwig and the Witch. Our deepest sympathies to her friends and families.
In completely unrelated news, author Jessica Verday was asked to change the short story she'd written for a YA anthology. The change? According to her blog post from earlier this week, "I was told that the story I'd wrote, which features Wesley (a boy) and Cameron (a boy), who were both in love with each other, would have to be published as a male/female story because a male/male story would not be acceptable to the publishers." Rather than make the change, Verday decided to pull her story from the anthology completely, even after the publishers assured her they had no objections about a G-rated M/M story and that the editor, Trisha Telep, had spoken without their knowledge. At this point, the publisher has every intention of keeping Telep as the editor, on this and other similarly-themed anthologies. Which means they've not only lost Verday's story, they've lost one from Ann Aguirre as well, since neither either feels they can support the anthologies or the editor who's working on them.
However, if you'd like to look at an anthology you can support, take a look at Tales for Canterbury, a collection of original short stories and reprints put together by genre authors, including names like Gwyneth Jones, Jay Lake, and Neil Gaiman. Proceeds go to help people in New Zealand after the earthquakes, and... well, if you want more information, check out what contributing author Karen Healey has to say about it. Pre-orders are already available, so collect the awesome and support the cause all at once!
And well, just because it made my day to see something that involves two of my very favourite things (books and cats), please have an awesome video that fills me with glee:
Obviously I need to add a few of these to the ideal library in my head.
First, I'm sad to say that Diana Wynne Jones passed away this morning. She leaves behind a wonderful legacy of fantastic fiction, including one upcoming YA novel Earwig and the Witch. Our deepest sympathies to her friends and families.
In completely unrelated news, author Jessica Verday was asked to change the short story she'd written for a YA anthology. The change? According to her blog post from earlier this week, "I was told that the story I'd wrote, which features Wesley (a boy) and Cameron (a boy), who were both in love with each other, would have to be published as a male/female story because a male/male story would not be acceptable to the publishers." Rather than make the change, Verday decided to pull her story from the anthology completely, even after the publishers assured her they had no objections about a G-rated M/M story and that the editor, Trisha Telep, had spoken without their knowledge. At this point, the publisher has every intention of keeping Telep as the editor, on this and other similarly-themed anthologies. Which means they've not only lost Verday's story, they've lost one from Ann Aguirre as well, since neither either feels they can support the anthologies or the editor who's working on them.
However, if you'd like to look at an anthology you can support, take a look at Tales for Canterbury, a collection of original short stories and reprints put together by genre authors, including names like Gwyneth Jones, Jay Lake, and Neil Gaiman. Proceeds go to help people in New Zealand after the earthquakes, and... well, if you want more information, check out what contributing author Karen Healey has to say about it. Pre-orders are already available, so collect the awesome and support the cause all at once!
And well, just because it made my day to see something that involves two of my very favourite things (books and cats), please have an awesome video that fills me with glee:
Click to viewObviously I need to add a few of these to the ideal library in my head.