Craig Laurance Gidney's Blog, page 62
April 29, 2013
Report: Effeminate teens starved, tortured, killed at camp to turn them into ‘men'
Reblogged from JerBear's Musings & Memories:
Gay Star News - Original Story
From Gay Star News comes this horrific tale of unspeakable evil perpetrated against youth who were or were preceived to gay and who were effeminate. Update May 1, 2013: As the blogger who originally posted this points out, no one has claimed these boys were gay but they were effeminate and in our cultures boys who are effeminate are perceived to be gay.:
Reparative Therapy at its worst.....
Report: Gay teens starved, tortured, killed at camp to turn them into ‘men'
Reblogged from JerBear's Musings & Memories:
Gay Star News - Original Story
From Gay Star News comes this horrific tale of unspeakable evil perpetrated against youth who were or were preceived to gay and who were effeminate:
29th of April, 2013 - Reported by Joe Morgan
Three ‘gay and effeminate’ teens have died after being starved, tortured and killed at a camp that promised to turn them into 'men'.
Reparative Therapy at its worst.....
A Definitive Guide To White Privilege
Reblogged from Thought Catalog:
0) White privilege, like whiteness itself, is intangible.
1) The problem with race in America is that people from all sorts of backgrounds coast through life without realizing how race still matters. They will make blanket statements like “we don’t have slavery anymore” or “there’s a black president now” or, even worse, “all of that stuff happened so long ago.” But that’s just it – it didn’t happen all that long ago, actually, and it is still happening.
Interesting post about White Privilege. I agree strongly with #9 and #16. (I've been that brown student....)
April 26, 2013
Glass Angels in my #yalit #novel BEREFT
Angels are a leitmotif in Bereft. Rafe’s mom, Ursele, begins to obsessively collecting glass angel figurines, believing that they are guarding her against “dark energy.” To Rafe, her collection takes on a sinister meaning. His mother likes the angels a little too much….and begins speaking to them.
Above is a picture of one the glass angels I imagine would be in Ursele’s collection.
April 25, 2013
The meaning of the Dan Mask in my #yalit #novel Bereft
The Dan Mask features prominently in my YA novel BEREFT. According to the Dan traditions (they live in Liberia), the mask allows the wearer to access the spiritual realm. Rafe’s father, Samuel, owns a mall kiosk that sells African masks. Samuel is very knowledgeable about masks and the spiritual meanings behind them. Rafe looks up to his father, who has had difficulties, legally and financially—and he admires his father for finally achieving some stability. So, in a way, the mask represents his father. The mask, which is gifted to Rafe by his father, also spurs Rafe’s interest in finding out more about African folklore.
Rafe finds out that masks not only hide who your are; but some masks, like the Dan mask, can also reveal things about oneself as well.
April 21, 2013
On “Wool” by Hugh Howey—and how to avoid alienating readers.
I finished reading Hugh Howey’s novel/series Wool, after reading the hype surrounding the book. The author has been considered something of a golden boy, a success story from the story mines of self-publishing. There is much to admire about the book. The first four sections are extended character studies that move the story forward while leisurely exploring the dystopian/post-apocalyptic worldscape of underground warrens, Ruined Earth and complex secrets. The major characters are older—an old sheriff, an aging mayor—and there are female characters that don’t strictly adhere to action-girl badass/ Mary Sue tropes, which is refreshingly adult. I tweeted about it, and called it a kind of an adult Hunger Games. Derivative of 70s style dystotian fiction (I.e., Logan’s Run, Soylvent Green), Wool managed to breathe life into stale scenarios. The last section of the book picks up speed, and the pace keeps the pages (or page-swipes) turning.
There are some problems, with the book. For instance, some of the world building has logic holes, and like (too) many SF books there is a homogenization of the cast. (No noticeable people of color in the future, eh? And LGBT are invisible or non-existent?) But it’s a promising effort, nevertheless.
Just as I finished the book, Howey’s infamous and unfortunate sexist post hit the twitterverse. A brief rehash—Howey had an encounter with an unpleasant person and in cutting the person down, used gendered insults—referring to the person’s looks and ending with a crude, dude-bro cri de couer. This misstep didn’t stop me from enjoying the novel. It didn’t anger me. It disappointed me. This is what the situation reminds me of, what I call in shorthand, the Anne Coulter Question.
Anne Coulter is simply the worst—part Atalanta, throwing apples of discord in politics, part living Id of far rightwing ethos. But when people comment on Coulter’s looks, and in particular, the often repeated claim that she might possibly be trans, I think it’s worse. There are so many wonderful ways—as writers, even—that we can put down unpleasant people. As writers of the imagination, with new and novel ways to pinpoint disagreeable people and their beliefs. It is supremely disappointing and, frankly cheap, when we resort to terms like bitch or that’s so gay or I bet she has a dick.
I do recommend the book and look forward to what Howey the fiction-writer brings to the table in future works. I just hope he doesn’t disappoint again with ill-advised blog posts. Don’t alienate your readers.
April 17, 2013
The Bereft #goodreads #contest is now over
The GoodReads contest to win a signed copy of BEREFT is now over. This afternoon, I sent the copies to someone in North Carolina and someone in Wisconsin.
Tonight’s promotion activity: finishing up a guest blog.
April 12, 2013
One More Day to Enter the GoodReads Book Giveaway Contest for a signed copy of BEREFT by Craig Laurance Gidney!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Bereft
by Craig Laurance Gidney
Giveaway ends April 14, 2013.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
April 7, 2013
In which I talk about the Giovanni’s Room Reading this weekend. #yalit
The Giovanni’s Room reading on April 6th was wonderful. In addition to reading, I met the Tiny Satchel Press crew–Editor-In-Chief Victoria A. Brownworth, art director Maddy Gold, managing editor Judith Redding and cover designer Christopher Bauer. I read with Lisa R. Nelson, whose book Drifting also out with TSP. Here is a picture of me with Nelson and Bauer.
March 31, 2013
Podcast: Craig Laurance Gidney and Ed Hermance interview #gaylit #yalit
Gil Roth of the Virtual Memories podcast interviewed me about Bereft, YA fiction, and other things. The podcast also features Ed Hermance, the owner of Giovanni’s Room, the bookstore where I will be reading next Saturday! Thanks to Gil for inviting to appear on the show!
Podcast: The Importance of Being Out.
