Laura Anne Gilman's Blog, page 54
October 14, 2014
Small Wins
(even if those things were, in order: sorting books, talking to your agent about a proposal, and cleaning out the litter box).
Tomorrow I need to be more productive, which means a) getting all the sleeps tonight, and b) forcing my stress into useful formations, rather than the formless aiggghhh that's been dogging me today.
I can do that. I can.
But or now, I'm going to feed the cats, have some fried dumplings, and watch some tv. Because it's Tuesday night, and that's what we do on Tuesday nights. Especially when we're brain-zonked.
Oh, yeah, and Seattle was lovely, and productive, and you'll be hearing some more about that in a bit....
October 8, 2014
Various and Sundry has to unpack the cat
Writerly Stuff:
Revisions on many things continue. I am very boring on social media during revisions, unless you're privy to the maniacal cackling and frustrated sobbing....
For those of you following the progress of SILVER ON THE ROAD, I just sent the following character references off to our art director:
Random Feel-Good Link:
Defining a mensch (the woman who posted the ad, not the people she was addressing, for clarity)
Kickstarter reminders:
We still have a week left in the (now fully funded but pulling for awesome stretch goals) TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER anthology
Word-warroom-mate Chrysoula Tzavelas's WOLF INTERVAL kickstarter has also fully funded, with a little under two weeks to go and some nifty bonus offerings, so you should totally be checking this one out, too.
In other news, I am off to Seattle in a few hours, for five days of Chaos, Plotting and Inevitable Hjinks. I should go pack, or something, right?
October 7, 2014
Help a writer out?
Ditto, anyone from the Ho-Chunk/Winnebago tribes.
I can only offer my sincere gratitude, a mention in the acknowledgments, and a copy of the finished book, if so desired, in payment....
and yes, since someone asked, I HAVE tried contacting the official websites and several museums. And gotten dead silence back. And the two academics I tried to reach out to basically told me "nobody will talk to you because you're white." Which may be true [as I elaborate on in comments], but since I'm looking to NOT fuck things up, I need to TRY.
October 6, 2014
this is going to be one of those "fasten the seatbelt and put a cover on your coffee" weeks...
So I will proceed with caution, but I will proceed nonetheless.
And to start things off on the right wrong foot, my phone is beeping at me. But not all the time, oh no. Only when I unplug it from the charger. Mind, if the charger is unplugged from the wall, that's fine, so long as the cord remains plugged into the PHONE. Only when I remove it from there does it start to beep. And any attempt to reboot it makes the phone insist it has NO CHARGE WOE IS IT but when I plug it in again, hey, 100% charge!
....my phone's dead, isn't it? Or at least borderline revenant? Fuck.
Meanwhile, I have mailed off all the things I needed to mail, and emailed almost all the people I need to mail, and I'd be making all the phone calls I need to make except, well, phone. *points to previous paragraph*
Tonight is the SFWA mill-n-swill, wherein I need to talk to several people in person. Then tomorrow and Wednesday I am back to neck-deep in revisions. And then Wednesday night I am off to Seattle for five days, to do Various Things. And continue working on revision because Merc retrograde and Busy Weeks mean nothing to deadlines ....
October 4, 2014
for various reasons....
Also, unrelatedly but importantly, the TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER kickstarter is $305 away from funding! A Tuckerization in my story for that anthology is still available, and might make you the hero who pushes us over to 100%. I'm just putting that out there....
October 3, 2014
A Slow and Steady Revise....
He looked down the street, his trouble-sense pricking at him. Maybe April, maybe something else, maybe nothing, but it was time they were gone.
becomes
He looked down the street the way they’d come, his trouble-sense pricking. Maybe April, maybe something else, maybe nothing, but the need to be shed of town and back on the road gnawed at him.
(from SILVER ON THE ROAD, Aug/September 2015)
October 2, 2014
A hint! A hint! My kickstarter for a hint!
So that means it's time to hint at what my story's going to be about....
hint #1: the story is called (at the moment): LONG ROAD HOME
hint #2: here's the (at the moment) opening sentence:
We’d been driving nearly ten hours, two dogs and a kid asleep in the back seat, when I realized the GPS was lying.
What happens next? Ah, we'll have to get 100% funded for you to find that out!
September 30, 2014
Another Day, Another Mansplainer
Tl;dr? From a woman's point of view I can tell every man out there that being catcalled doesn't make us feel better about ourselves, and being catcalled sure as hell doesn't make us feel good about you-the-catcaller. In fact, it confirms our suspicion that the only thing impressive about you is your sense of entitlement, and odds are you're too self-centered to make a decent sexual partner.
And whinging about how we don't 'appreciate' your attention is a dead-sure giveaway that your hand is the only thing that should be touching your dick.
-----------------------------------
Originally posted by
jimhines at Another Day, Another MansplainerA friend of mine posted something about catcalling and street harassment. To the absolute shock of … well, pretty much nobody, the very first comment on her post was a guy explaining why women shouldn’t be afraid of catcalling, and isn’t it funny how the women complaining aren’t the ones experiencing the “privilege” of being catcalled in the first place? Also, women wouldn’t be afraid if they carried guns, and the real threat are guys “in a dark van with no windows parked next to your car in the Walmart parking lot.”
His suggestion? “Now what would happen if a woman who’s the center of the cat call took the power back, walked up to the offending rake and asked for his number and told him to show a little respect and maybe if he was lucky she’d let him earn the opportunity to do some real cat calling?”
This is the point where I facepalmed so hard I gave myself a concussion.
Guys, is it really that hard to shut the hell up and listen instead of immediately trying to tell women why they’re wrong about their own lives and experiences?
It’s pathetically predictable.
Woman complains about harassment.
Dudebro feels uncomfortable.
Dudebro tells woman why she’s wrong to feel that way.
Because Dudebro’s discomfort at women complaining about harassment is somehow more important and valid than women’s discomfort about actually being harassed.
The CDC put out a report this year about sexual violence, after completing more than 12,000 interviews. They found that one in five women have been raped in their lifetimes, and 99% of those rapes were committed by men. (The report states that about two percent of men were raped as well, which I strongly suspect is an underestimate. They also found that approximately 80% of those rapes were also committed by men.)
“But I’m not like those other men,” says Dudebro, waving the “Not All Men” flag with righteous pride.
Then stop acting like them.
When a woman says she’s uncomfortable with something and wants you to knock it off, stop arguing. Stop telling her why she’s wrong, and stop making excuses to keep doing it.
Stop pretending it’s about complimenting women. (Here’s a tip: Compliments don’t go from, “Hey baby” to “Fuck you, you stuck-up bitch” in the blink of an eye.)
Stop treating women as objects you’re entitled to instead of people.
You seriously want women to believe you’re not an asshole and a potential threat? Start by shutting up for a minute and actually listening to what women are saying.
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
September 29, 2014
Radio Silence-ish.
Hello, Monday!
It was, ducking the tl;dr, an excellent convention, well-attended (they filled their available space without becoming TOO crowded), well-paneled (the conversations were lively and intelligent and utilized audience participation well), and well-fed. And the fact that this was only their second year? It's pretty amazing how well they've got their shit together. If you're in the Binghamton area next September, give 'em a try!
(April Steenburgh and I, mid-question, during the dystopian fiction panel. We look disturbingly pleased with ourselves, considering the topic matter...)
I also go to shill the new Kickstarter for TEMPORALLY OUT OF ORDER, since our editor/publisher was there as well. Nearly 80% funded, with $2100 to go - and you'll be able to get new stories from Seanan McGuire, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, Stephen Leigh, Gini Koch, Laura Resnick, and me - pls Other Really Good Writers to be Named Later, as we hit stretch goals!
My story? Nuh-uh. You don't get a hint until we hit 90%. :-) But one of our stretch goal authors, Juliet McKenna, has blogged about hers...
And now, with the cats placated, there are new words to write. Older words to rewrite. Blog posts to ponder. Coffee. Coffeecoffeecoffee. Hello, Monday!
