Chuck Wendig's Blog, page 64

Aliette de Bodard: Cannibalizing A Draft (Or: The Art Of Rewriting)

And now, a wonderful guest post by Aliette de Bodard, which serves as a good reminder that we are best when we know our process — and when we know that our process is an ever-shifting chimera, as is every book, as is every writer. Yes, we’re literally chimeras. Shut up and go with it, and now read this very good guest post please and thank you.

* * *

I’m not a writer given to much revision.

That makes me sound like everything that comes out of my keyboard is perfect, which is *so* not the case! Rather, what happens is that I do a lot of preparatory work for a piece: I’m the antithesis of a discovery writer, and about 50% of my writing time on a draft is spent researching, brainstorming and outlining so that by the time I get around to writing line one of chapter one I’m usually pretty definite on what exactly is going to happen and when.

Accordingly, it was a bit of a shock when I wrote In The Vanishers’ Palace, my latest book. Originally I set out to write this because I was pretty close to burnout and I wanted to write something just for fun. I’ve always loved Beauty and the Beast, and I wanted to try my hand at a retelling where they’d both be women, and the Beast would be a Vietnamese dragon: something that would merge my love of fantasy and the Vietnamese tales of my childhood, where dragons are water spirits bringing good luck, and the heroes are scholars rather than sword-wielding knights.

Obviously, as I should have known, “fun” became a synonym for “pulling hairs when writing” and “wanting to set fire to everything”. It sounded like a simple idea to rewrite a fairytale–but by the time the first draft was done and I got the first reader feedback it was obvious that my retelling was not working on a major scale. Character motivation and arc was all over the place, and more importantly the plot itself fizzled out, a sure sign that id need to redo the entire thing.

It was a terrifying thought, a bit like jumping out of a plane without a parachute (not helped by the other looming deadlines on other projects and the general fatigue due to being the primary caretaker of two young children in addition to a day job and writing!) In retrospect it’s due to making a couple of ambitious decisions, one of which was having a romance subplot (the Beauty and the Beast part, in which my impoverished scholar falls in love with the dragon whom she’s indentured to) at the same time as a motherhood subplot (the dragon has two adopted children who are now teenagers, and quite busy asserting their independence in the most disastrous possible way). These two plots are not incompatible, obviously, but my brain, fed by tons of media representation, kept insisting it was a terrible mistake.

I looked at my field of ashes draft and thought I might as well toss it in the bin: usually I manage to salvage scenes but this felt like no single scene was working properly.

I moped for a couple of weeks (a totally writer thing to do! Well, at least this writer!) And then I sat down, turned to a fresh page in my brainstorming notebook, and wrote, very deliberately, “list of current scenes in the draft”, and “list of scenes I would like in new draft” (ok, it might have been a teensy bit more cryptic since they were notes to myself). I also took another notebook and did pages of brain dumps that were essentially me talking to myself about what I needed to fix. Writing it down without judgement was actually super helpful to unlock the issues and possible fixes: since it was longhand and not on a computer, I didn’t feel like it was a final story or even graven in stone. It forced me to keep thinking, to keep track of what I was doing, but not in a way that paralyzed me.

By the time I was done, I had a completely new synopsis for a book that only vaguely resembled the original one. I set to writing it, duly–and was surprised that while I couldn’t recycle whole scenes, I could totally plunder my draft for bits and pieces. An abortive, intimate scene around a basket of fruit (because apparently nothing says flirting like giving a basket of fruit to ones’ beloved!) couldn’t be re-used, per se, but I kept the basket of fruit and moved it to earlier in the narration. A scene where my character breaks into a secret hospital room and which completely fizzled out in the original was replaced by a scene in which my scholar character goes looking for the dragon’s children and finds them in the room: I ended up re-using the setting!

From other scenes, I cut and pasted bits, sometimes no longer than sentences–and all of it actually made the subsequent draft faster to write, because there were a bunch of small things and small details I didn’t need to fumble for, but could lift wholesale out of my previous draft.

Basically, I took a knife to my previous draft and used the fragments of its corpse to make the next draft–which is either very sophisticated cooking or advanced draft cannibalism. I wouldn’t say the revision was fun (funnier than first draft, but that’s mostly a comparison between being cut by a sword and being bitten by a dog), but it was certainly way more painless than I expected.

So, my three lessons learnt:

In case of doubt, take the book apart
Books always involve pulling out hair
Draft cannibalism is always a thing

(I did learn a fourth one, which is that I’m totally incapable of making a draft shorter. The final version of In the Vanishers’ Palace is almost double the size of the original one. So much for my plans to write short!(*))

(*)I always write long, and any of my friends could have told me writing a short book with complex characters, complex worldbuilding and two subplots in addition to the main one was DOOMED TO FAIL.

* * *

From the award-winning author of the Dominion of the Fallen series comes a dark retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land… 

A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.

A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.

When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.

But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets…

Aliette de Bodard: Website

In The Vanishers’ Palace: Indiebound | Amazon

[image error]

Myke Cole: From Fantasy To History

Psst. Time to give your eyes and brain to Myke Cole, who wrote a book of — *checks notes* — actual history, because Myke is bad-ass that way. He’s also a nerd in the best way possible, and so here he’s humbly asking you to give his historical nerdery a shot. And, knowing Myke’s writing, I think you oughta listen to him.

* * *

Hey Science Fiction and Fantasy (SF/F) fans. Thanks for giving me your eyes for a minute.

I ‘m here to ask for your help.

You see, I wrote this book. It’s called LEGION VERSUS PHALANX, and it’s my first work of non-fiction.

Bear with me for a minute while I lay this out. A couple of years back I rediscovered my love of wargaming. I found myself refighting battles between the Roman legion and the “Greek” phalanx. It was this super cool “who would win a fight?” thing. You’ve got the Roman legionaries with their short swords, and the Greeks with their 21-foot pikes. Different armor. Different fighting styles. Different commanders. Batman vs. Superman. X-Wing vs. TIE fighter. You get the idea.

I thought. “This is awesome! I’m going to go read a book on legion versus phalanx battles and get smart on it!”

And off I went to Barnes & Noble.

And . . . well, there wasn’t one. Yeah, I was shocked too. It seemed so damn obvious. But after a few days of searching, I had to accept defeat. Nobody had written a book deep-diving on how the legion fought the phalanx, who won, and why.

Well, this is me we’re talking about. Suffice to say that about a year later there now *was* a book on legion versus phalanx battles.

But I had one small problem: I had to sell it.

My agent has a saying, “I sell one of two things – your manuscript or your reputation. The more you have of one, the less you need of the other.” When it comes to fantasy books, I have a little bit of a reputation.

But when it comes to *history*, to *nonfiction*, I have ZERO reputation. In fact, when I brought the book to my agent, he almost wouldn’t take it out. “Look, Myke,” he said after reading it, “this is a great book. But you have to understand that to sell a book like this, you have to have a Ph.D., be a professor. Nobody is going to buy it no matter how good it is.”

But, he took it out anyway, and as the rejections rolled in, I began to get the sinking feeling he was right.

In the end, fortune smiled on me. Osprey, the world’s leading publisher of military history (and my hands down favorite nonfiction publisher) picked me up.

Good news, right? Maybe.

You see, to get the deal, I made them a promise.

In my proposal, I told them that the fantasy and science fiction audience *loves* history, and in particular military history. I told them that SF/F geeks are gamers, miniature painters, the type of readers who obsess over weapons and tactics, who thrill to the kind of dramatic tension inherent in battle-narratives. “They’ll cross over,” I said, “publish this book, let me tell the story in a pop, non-scholarly voice, and I will bring you SF/F fans. They will buy this book. They will LOVE this book.”

See, I don’t come from the scholarly community. I come from *this* community – the geek tribe of SF/F fandom. THIS is what I know, all of you. So I am stepping out on a limb in publishing LEGION VERSUS PHALANX.

And I am betting that you’re going to step out on it with me.

I believe in this book. The story of how these units fought is *amazing.* I paid special attention to the drama in each battle, highlighting the personalities of the generals – the passionate, mercurial Pyrrhus of Epirus, the egotistical and fastidious Lucius Aemilius Paullus. Each of the six battles I cover in the book was near-run thing, selected for the fact that the fight was *close*, that it could have gone either way. I tell the story with my novelist’s eye toward a story arc. If I did my job right (and I think I did), you will get caught up in the story every bit as much as you would a work of fiction.

The fantasy novels you love all extrapolate from history. The court intrigues and vicious civil war of Game of Thrones is rooted in the real life Wars of the Roses. Tolkien’s Middle Earth lives and breathes for us because Tolkien built it from the historical and mythological bones of a world that did live and breath – the craggy mountains and dark forests of early medieval Europe. Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series rises high in the fantasy firmament . . . borne on the shoulders of the very real history of the Napoleonic Wars. The Paladins I always play on the rare occasions I actually get to sit down to the D&D table are based on the legendary champions at the court of the real-life Frankish emperor Charlemagne. The list goes on and on and on.

Fantasy resonates and transports because it is inspired by, and extrapolates from, the history of the real world.

After eight fantasy books, I’ve decided to cut to the chase and go right to the well-spring of that inspiration, and I’ve bet my publisher that you’ll come along for the ride.

So here I am, hat in hand, asking you to prove me right. Thanks.

* * *

From the time of Ancient Sumeria, the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder, and with overlapping shields, they presented an impenetrable wall of wood and metal to the enemy. It was the phalanx that allowed Greece to become the dominant power in the Western world. That is, until the Romans developed the legion and cracked the phalanx.

In Legion versus Phalanx Cole weighs the two fighting forces against each other. Covering the period in which the legion and phalanx clashed (280–168 BC), he looks at each formation in detail–delving into their tactics, arms, and equipment, organization and the deployment. It then examines six key battles in which legion battled phalanx: Heraclea (280 BC), Asculum (279 BC), Beneventum (275 BC), Cynoscephalae (197 BC), Magnesia (190 BC), and Pydna (168 BC)–battles that determined the fate of the ancient world. Drawing on original primary sources, Myke Cole presents a highly detailed but lively history of this defining clash of military formations.

Myke Cole: Website | Twitter

Legion Versus Phalanx: Indiebound | Amazon | B&N | Powells

[image error]

Macro Monday: Harassed By Bots Edition

This is apropos of literally nothing, but the We Bare Bears Halloween special was delightful.

Listen, I’m just saying, there are some seriously good cartoons going on right now — DuckTales, Craig of the Creek, Apple & Onion, Hilda, Dragon Prince, and so forth.

aaaAAAAAAaaanyway.

So, what else is up?

In case you missed it, the SUPER MEGA ULTRON MEATYFACE BOOK BUNDLE of mine is 50% off with coupon code NANO2018, dropping the price of ten books to ten bucks. Just in time for National Novel Writing Month. Click here to make with the grabby-grabby.

I’ll be at Hal-Con this weekend in Halifax, Nova Scotia! You should go! Sure, it’s in Canada, in Nova Scotia, but whatever. Do not make me doubt your commitment to Sparklemotion.

I have seen the final cover for Wanderers, and we’ll do a cover release soon — it continues the pattern of me being considerably fortunate when it comes to amazing book covers. Del Rey, as with everything, has done a phenomenal job.

Did you know you can also preorder Vultures, the very last Miriam Black novel? Fuck yeah you can. Pre-order in print (hardcover and paperback) or in digital.

Also, the novella Interlude: Tanager stars Wren, from the series, and bridges the gap between The Raptor & The Wren and Vultures. You can preorder the Death & Honey collection (with Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson!) now in limited print edition from Subterranean Press — digital and audio pre-order links coming soon.

You’ll also find me over at the Washington Post, where they talk about the Marvel kerfuffle.

And finally, a thing at The Mary Sue about it, whereupon they discuss the theoretical influence of bots and puppets on the aforementioned kerfuffle. Which leads me to —

One last quick FAQ!

Q: “Chuck, do you believe bots got you fired?”

A: Probably not, no. But it’s clear they were present — a link in the chain, at least. I think I tweeted my shenanigans, and then Comicsgate got involved (via one of the half-dozen YouTube videos Ethan Van Sciver did about me, which itself is nested among dozens of tweets about me, which makes me wonder if he’s a little obsessed with me?), and then bots, and then the alt-right celebrity clowndicks. I don’t think any one factor there did it — though maybe it was the clowndick support that pushed it over the edge, if I’m interpreting the scuttlebutt correctly. I don’t think any one snowflake made the avalanche, necessarily.

As I’ve noted elsewhere, it does posit the uniquely 2018 chicken-and-egg question of which came first, the bots or the outrage. Or do they feed one another, a bizarre Ouroborous, except for a snake eating its own tail, it’s just a recursive diarrhea fountain?

Also, it’s probably worth noting that “firing” is in many ways the wrong term — I was never an employee, so strictly speaking, I wasn’t fired. But I was taken off two comics, yes.

Q: “But Chuck, shouldn’t you take responsibility that the only person who got you taken off those books was… you? Look in the mirror lately, big guy?”

A: Hey, I take responsibility for what I tweeted, and if Marvel didn’t like that, they were free to boot my ass, as I’ve noted before. I said what I said and stand by it, nor do I make apologies for it — and getting taken off the book is no great loss for me, either in terms of prestige or income. It just sucks from a bigger picture POV, in terms of the chilling effect it’ll have on others.

As to whether I deserved it, or if I’d gone over some line — one can argue whatever they want, but nothing I said in that tweet thread was unique, or new, and in fact was pretty much a rehash of things I’d said before. Things that went just as viral, that were just as vulgar. At no point before then did I receive a warning, nor was there any kind of morality clause or speech clause in my agreement. So, were I warned and told to shut up, and I kept on doing it, that’s on me. But without warning, and with obeisance cast only toward the alt-right, it’s hard to see how anything I did now was different from anything I’d done before. Things that, frankly, are very much part of my voice as-is. And that have earned me much of the attention that Marvel traded on in hiring me in the first place. And that were considered not only okay before, but were encouraged. So, why now?

The greater point though is, it seems particularly odd to be angry with me over what I said — I think my anger, even if you find it disagreeable, is righteous. There continues to be an unholy shit parade marching down American streets and the news is more and more troubling every day — up to and including the latest news that the Trump administration wants to erase transgender identity from a legal standpoint, thus effectively trying to undo the civil rights of trans Americans. That coupled with toddler concentration camps and credible-but-unexamined sexual assault accusations and then Khashoggi and then climate change and then this and then that — what, I’m not supposed to be angry? Fuck that. This is gross. I’m going to continue to say that it’s gross.

And I think it bears noting the repeated connection between some of the negative reviews of my Star Wars work — yes, yes, disclaimer, I know some people just don’t like my writing, we all get that, huzzah, hoorah. But some people didn’t like the presence of LGBT characters in that storyworld, and those people, the Worst People, are celebrating me no longer writing Star Wars comics, are celebrating this administration, are celebrating the literal removal of legal protections and acknowledgments of LGBT Americans by this administration, and it would not be unreasonable to see them celebrating LGBT Americans being erased in other, considerably more disturbing or violent ways. It’s why I think it’s important to hold the line and to speak up and speak out. Even if it costs you something.

So, I said what I said, and what I said got me booted off some books.

I also stand by what I said.

And I can continue to think that Marvel on this sided with a particularly grotesque part of our political spectrum — the rotten alt-right fringe, who gone so far beyond conservatism they’re gladly authoritarian. And I can continue to think that this is a win for Comicsgate, because that amorphous blob of real people and their multiplicative puppets has been gabbling for my head for quite some time now. The tweets asking for Disney/LFL/Marvel to fire me have been countless. This is their victory. And they seem to be savoring it.

SO YEAH.

So goes the last I’ll speak on this.

Here, have some cool bug macros.

A Face Full Of Friday News Fritters

AWOOGA, AWOOGA, it’s time, I guess, for another Friday news purge? I don’t usually do newsy stuff on Fridays, but I got news, and the means to share it, so here we are. In November I intend to rock up with a trebuchet blast of writing advice and inspirado, so look out for that during NaNoWriMo.

Meanwhile, let us begin.

Wait, Where Is Friday Flash Fiction?

So you’ll notice that it’s another Friday without a flash fiction challenge.

Here’s why, and the reason is twofold —

First, it’s honestly kinda creatively taxing to think up new challenges week to week. I like it! But it takes just that extra little bit of creative effort in the morning to be like, okay now write a thousand words using “cat spaceship” as your prompt. I felt like I was reiterating a lot of challenges, which leads me to —

Second, the participation dropped off. I’m sure in part because my challenges got less and less creative as time went on. So, for now, we’re putting a hold on Flash Fiction Challenges here, though who knows, one day maybe we’ll get back to them.

Ragnatalk

And we are live with Episode Three of Ragnatalk — “The Appleist.”

We talk, well, apples. And Anthony and I introduce our brand new horror franchise for kids. And we exalt Greg Pak, rightfully so. OH AND FINE WE ALSO TALK ABOUT THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME, THOR: RAGNAROK. 

Episode 3 covers minutes 20-30 of the beloved Christmas film.

Go check it out, give a listen, share it around, do a dance.

You can even listen to it on Spotify, now.

Says Who

Oh also, you can find me on a whole different podcast, too — the Says Who podcast, run by Maureen “The Notebook” Johnson and Dan “Dan” Sinker. Here I talk about the Marvel situation, and art, and resistance, and dogs, I think, and maybe The Notebook. Maybe. I dunno. Maybe. Come listen!

Speaking Of The Marvel Thing

Obviously, the news of a week ago kinda went winging around the ol’ Internets like a… a laser boomerang. Is that a thing? I’m a writer, I say it’s a thing. And I was surprised at the attention it received — and some of the attention it received, apparently, was from a tide of bots and sock puppets! Ha ha ha hey it’s an info war, everyone, you’re invited, I’m the host, let’s have some fun.

Yeah so that’s a thing, I guess. You can track some of that from here — the whole thread is worth looking at to see some conclusions and to see how Comicsgate factors in.

Welcome to 2018.

Noir at the Bar

This, a release from author Jon McGoran —

‘Noir at the Bar’ Crime Fiction Reading Series Goes International in Support of #TeamEvie

by Jon McGoran

This month, from Oct. 20 – 28, dozens of crime writers around the world will be reading from their work to support one of their own. “Noir at the Bar: Chilled to the Marrow,” is a series of literary events in nine different cities around the globe intended to show support and raise funds for #TeamEvie, as Evie Swierczynski and her family—including her dad, crime writer Duane Swierczynski—rally to beat Evie’s recently diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia. When a  Gofundme page was established by a friend to help Evie’s family deal with the expenses and lost income as they focus on Evie’s recovery, members of the crime fiction family got together to setup events in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Baltimore, Asbury Park, Austin and London, featuring some of the biggest names in crime fiction, including Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Alison Gaylin, Bill Lashner and 70 of their closest crime-writing friends. (see a full list below).

Each event will be slightly different, but they will all feature some combination of raffles, auctions, donations, percentages of sales and other fundraisers, and they will all feature some of the most kick-ass crime fiction around (maybe with a seasonal twist), read by the some of the best crime writer around.

Originally started in Philadelphia in 2008 by blogger, critic, and editor Peter Rozovsky, Noir at the Bar has become a popular event in cities around the world, where people can hear popular crime writers perform brief readings of their work in a comfortable, appropriate, and noir-rhyming bar setting. The very first Noir at the Bar featured none other than Duane Swierzcynski.

Here is the complete Noir at the Bar: Chilled to the Marrow lineup:

Philadelphia / Sun. 10/28 – 6:30 p.m.

Misconduct Tavern, 1511 Locust St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hosted by Jon McGoran, with Merry Jones, Bill Lashner, Robb Cadigan, Greg Frost, Don Lafferty, Ed Pettit, Bernard Shaffer, Erik Arneson, Dennis Tafoya, Bill Myers.

St. Louis / Sat. 10/20 – 7 p.m.

Meshuggah Café, 6269 Delmar Blvd, University City, Missouri

Hosted by Jedidiah Ayres, with Shaw L. Coney, Seth Ferranti, Sarah Jilek, Kenny Kinds, Jessica Leonard, Fred Venturini, Kea Wilson, Josh Woods.

Los Angeles / Sun. 10/28 – 7 p.m.

Mandrake, 2692 La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034

Hosted by Eric Beetner and S. W. Lauden, with Sara Gran, David J Schow, Attica Locke, Christa Faust & Gary Phillips, Anna Snoekestra, Aaron Phillip Clark, Dennis Palumbo, Duane Swierczynski.

New York / Sun. 10/28 – 7 p.m.

Kew and Willow Books, 81-63 Lefferts Blvd, Kew Gardens, NY 11415

Hosted by Alex Segura & Scott Adlerberg, with Jordan Harper, Jason Starr, Lawrence Block, Alison Gaylin, Rob Hart, Jill Block, Kellye Garrett, and Megan Abbott.

Washington, DC / Sat. 10/27 – 5 p.m.

Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St NW, Washington, DC 20010

Hosted by E. A. Aymar, with Adam Meyer, Deb Shutika, Eleanor Cawood Jones, Jenny Yacovissi, Tara Campbell, Erica Wright, Angie Kim, Aimee Hix, Kathleen Barber.

Baltimore / Sun. 10/21 – 6.30 p.m.

Zella’s Pizza, 1145 Hollins St, Baltimore, MD 21223

Hosted by Nik Korpon, with Damien Angelica Walters, SA Cosby, Jessica McHugh, Kim Alexander, Erik Arneson, Andrew Novak.

Asbury Park / Sun. 10/28 – 6 p.m.

Bond Street Complex Basement, 639 Cookman Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ

Hosted by Jay Butkowski and Jen Conley, with Angel Luis Colón, Lee Matthew Goldberg, Thomas Pluck, Gregory Rossi, S. A. Solomon, Albert Tucher, Dave White.

London / Mon. 10/22 – 7 p.m.

LHT Urban Bar, 176 Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, London E1 1BJ

Hosted by Nicola East, with Susi Holliday, Mark Hill, William Shaw, Derek Farrell, Jay Stringer, J.A.Marley, Alex Caan, Felicia Yap

For more information, visit jonmcgoran.com or email jon@jonmcgoran.com

Duane is great and their family really needs help and support on this, so please, check out these events, check out the Gofundme page, and send some love.

I would be at the one in Philly, but, I’ll be at —

Hal-Con

Hal-Con is next weekend! Join me in Halifax (also with fellow penmonkey, Delilah S. Dawson!) October 26-28th, in Nova Scotia. I’m excited! I’m told there is poutine! And something called a donair, which sounds a lot like doner kepab, but with a special sauce? Whatever! I’m in! Let’s eat! I mean, sure, let’s also go to the con! BUT MOSTLY LET’S EAT.

NaNoWriMo Sale

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

*checks notes*

Wait no that’s Christmas? Whatever.

But it is National Novel Writing Month in November, and as such, I’m throwing up (*hrrrk*) my Mega Super Gigantor Book Bundle for sale! It’s ten books, eight of which are writing-related in focus, two of which are novels if you want ’em. (Hey, maybe November is also novel reading month?)

Normally, it’s $20.

But use coupon code NANO2018, you’ll get it for 50% — aka, $10.

So go check it out now, and please to enjoy.

Monday Morning FAQ!

SoooooOOOoooo, in case you missed the news — this happened. It was a whole thing. Got a lot of media attention, as it turns out. As such, a lot of other questions popped up around and about the situation, and I thought I’d try to answer them — most of these I already answered on Twitter, but I’m gonna pop a few more in here, too, for posterity’s sake.

I do appreciate the outpourings of support. It’s been a wonderful counter to the overall situation, and also a great counter to the hot fresh tides of hemorrhagic diarrhea that have sloshed upon my beaches, spewed forth from the Worst People. And trust me, there’s been a whole lot of that. To what end, I dunno — they got me fired, good job, clowndicks, now what? But I’ve noted about 40 YouTube videos celebrating the firing, and gotten lots of communication from The Worst People, some of which relies on the standard poo-poo baby insults (soy, cuck, and a new one, NPC? wtf is that?), and private messages that were more comfortable using nastier (often homophobic) epithets.

I guess this is their victory lap? So it goes.

But, I got considerable support, too, and thanks, honestly, for that. I was at the Bucks County Book Festival yesterday in Doylestown, PA (chatting with the inimitable Fran Wilde!) and I had a lot of people come up and offer their support — people I don’t know, people who were not necessarily fans before? It was nice. I had people at the farmer’s market, at my son’s school, all aware of the situation. Which threw me for a loop, but they were all in on the solidarity, and that was rad.

I also know that some folks put themselves out there by supporting me online — either because they work with Marvel, or are especially vulnerable to harassment — and many who did speak up for me DID receive harassment all their own. So both thank you and apologies for that.

(I also appreciate folks sharing links to my books and such. That really means a lot, and honestly, it does help.)

So, to answer a few more QUESTIONS and such that have come up — kind of an FAQ, evolving out of this situation:

Q: “Chuck, but don’t you actually suck and are also the worst?”

A: I mean probably, I dunno.

Q: “But didn’t you want Roseanne fired from her job and isn’t it the same as what happened to you?”

A: Roseanne said racist stuff and boosted dangerous, wackadoo conspiracies, which is different. But also, you’re free to call for me to be fired, and Marvel is free to fire me. I mean, I don’t like it, and I think it sets a troubling precedent and a chilling effect (alongside a very clear message to comic creators: “We do not have your back, not one little bit”). But it is what it is. They were free to do it.

Q: “Were you really fired for your politics?”

A: They told me as much, though in an EW article, there was this:

Which is sorta weird, because it suggests they don’t like… bad words? Politics are fine, as long as I don’t put the word ‘fuck’ in there? Which for the record is probably nonsense. I mean, hello, DEADPOOL, the movie, is gloriously, deliriously filthy.

And again, we’re talking about someone (ahem, me) who has written blog posts expounding on my love of tasty, tasty vulgarity going back to like, 2009. My first novel, Blackbirds, is heady with the stink of countless vulgarities. Shouldn’t have been a surprise. Couldn’t have been a surprise.

Q: “Did you receive any warnings beforehand?”

A: None, zero, bupkis.

Now, this answer and the one before it combine to suggest, at least to me, that booting me off the comics was in fact ideological — like, okay, if you didn’t like my vulgarity or whatever, you would’ve done one of two things:

1) You would’ve asked me to tone it down. “Chuck, you’re being poopy,” they would’ve said, and then I could’ve decided on my own if it was worth toning down my poo poo doody words to keep a job.

-or-

2) They would’ve just let me finish the last two issues of Shadow of Vader and then softly urged me off the second as-yet-unannounced SW comic. And then just… quietly never hired me again. That woulda worked. I might’ve wondered if something was up, but not enough to speak out about it. I would’ve casually assumed that they didn’t want to hire me again for XYZ reason, which is 100% normal in freelancing anything.

But this wasn’t soft. It was done with purpose and swift measure, suggesting an ideological bent. Further, nothing I’d said or done in my tweets recently had made the news — well, it made cuckoo alt-right news blogs, which is the only place I make that kind of splash. So, if someone there felt, uhh, splashed upon, it means they felt that way because they pay attention to exactly that kind of news — fringe right-wing stuff, not MSM.

(Well, okay, I had some tweets in the mainstream news recently — specifically, the shitposting tweets between Sam Sykes and I, which resulted in You Might Be The Killer, directed by Brett Simmons, and still currently airing on the SyFy network and showing at film festivals. So: my tweets were bringing me only good news. I say this not to humblebrag — well okay maybe a little — but also to note that the way I tweet is not unknown. The evidence of that literally exists in film form.)

I mean, hey, maybe I’m wrong; maybe someone just had it UP TO HERE with all my BAD WORD TURDS and just couldn’t take it anymore but this seemed like something else to me. This felt explicitly political. As if I had peed in someone’s ideological pool.

Q: “Who really fired you? Marvel? LFL? Disney?”

A: I have no way of actually knowing this, and can only go with what was said on the call, which was that this was my editor, at Marvel. I asked specifically “where does this come from?” and that was the answer.

Q: “Were you fired because you included LGBT characters?”

A: Not to my knowledge. I only noted that in my original thread about all this because that is what tipped off the harassment wave at the beginning of all this, way back when Aftermath came out — and that harassment wave arguably culminated in this campaign to get me fired, which, ultimately, seems to have worked.

Q: “Would you ever write for SW or Marvel again?”

A: My understanding with Marvel is that I’m done there, like done-zo, game over, it’s KOS if I show up. Star Wars, well…

Star Wars is like, the greatest thing to me. It forms part of my pop culture blood and bone. And the people I have met, both fans of SW and the people who work inside the architecture of that storyworld (all fans themselves!) have been amazing.

I don’t expect they’d hire me again (breathe a sigh of relief, Worst People), and it’s not like I have time anyway — Del Rey has me for a couple big books of my own I need to put out into the world first (WANDERERS — 2019!) Plus, other projects are lining up, which is nice. But, sure, I’d work in SW again. I love it too much.

Q: “But Chuck, don’t you actually hate fans and insult them?”

A: No. What? No! Why the sweet hot fuck would I hate fans? Fans, in the truest sense, literally supported me and my endeavors. That’s true of fans of SW, of Marvel, and of me personally. The only people I’ve ever insulted are the ones who harass, the ones who have very poisonous ideas about dehumanizing people who don’t look like them.

If you feel insulted by that —

Well, check your soul, see what you really stand for.

Q: “But Chuck, didn’t you actually insult people who didn’t like your book and also The Last Jedi?”

A: Also no. No, no, no. My own wife didn’t like The Last Jedi! (Though she’s come around on a second viewing. In fact I literally just caught her re-watching the Yoda “we are what they grow beyond speech” this morning.) Tons of people don’t like present-tense writing, so they didn’t like Aftermath. That is perfectly normal and cool. Like what you like, don’t like what you don’t like. The people that got me salty were the ones who again, were harassers, or were the keepers of awful ideologies.

Q: “But as a brand representative –”

A: I should stop you there. I see this often enough that I need to call bullshit. Freelancers are not brand representatives. Yes, if a company finds our tone or words reprehensible, they shouldn’t hire us, but no one in their right minds expects a freelancer to be a banner-carrier for a brand. We do work. We are real people. We get to have real opinions. I’m not your dancing monkey.

Q: “But Chuck, aren’t you antifa?”

A: Well, I am anti-fascism, yes — which, last I checked, wasn’t supposed to be controversial. Being against a dictatorial, authoritarian regime is… pretty much stock-and-trade for the entirety of American history. That said, I do not belong to any “antifa” groups — I don’t put on a mask and do whatever the fuck antifa do. I’m Eleanor Shellstrop — not really into joining groups.

Q: “But Chuck, didn’t you call for violence against Trump supporters?”

A: I’ve been seeing this one a lot.

Let’s refer to this tweet right here, and then, you tell me.

Because it feels to me like, ohh, I dunno, when I say, “this isn’t the same as calling for violence,” I’m making it clear that this is not the same as calling for violence. It’s almost like I said, “The sky is blue!” and then a bunch of people got mad because they assert that I said the sky is red?

Obviously, no, I do not call for violence. My support for incivility is one meant to support noisy protest, whether in the streets or in restaurants or in government buildings. It’s one that says it should be okay to use your words, all of them, even the vulgar ones, because you shouldn’t have to couch your scorn for this administration’s actions in a pillow of polite comfort. That comfort serves those we protest, not the protestors.

Let me say, of course, that if you feel that my tweets felt like a call to violence — I offer a genuine apology if what I said came across that way. I don’t see it, but then again, I don’t always see the whole shape and tenor of things I say, because I, like most people, am firmly up my own ass. I’m just doing my best over here, so if it came across that way: apologies.

That said.

That said.

Do understand the deepest fucking irony of being precious about this, mm? The PA GOP governor candidate talked about stomping Tom Wolf’s face with golf cleats. The president has routinely flirted with inciting violence at his rallies. Or hey, remember Greg Gianforte? Or GOP mailers with rifle scope crosshairs on Democrat opponents? Not to mention the codified policies of putting kids in cages, which one could argue is a violent, illegal act. Or shrugging off the violence against reporters — or the deaths of reporters. Or cozying up to white supremacist groups. Or, or, or.

So, no, I’m not calling for violence.

But those calls are out there, and they’re coming from inside the house.

(The White House.)

(Zing!)

(Ahem.)

But I am mad. I mean, am I not supposed to be?

If you aren’t mad, I gotta wonder why.

Q: “But you did delete some tweets because you knew they went too far.”

A: I deleted some tweets because they were the tweets being sent around by huge alt-right celebrity types — thus, they were open portals to endless harassment, and deleting them shut those portals, therefore snipping a lot of that harassment. I very, very rarely delete tweets, but these, I had to, just to stem the frothy poo tsunami trying to crash on my house and home.

For the record, I still stand by them. I still would like to tell the GOP to eat shit. I still compare them — particularly, GOP Congress — to prolapsed assholes. That’s not a call to violence, it’s just me being pissed, and trying to (perhaps weakly) utilize some of the vulgar rage magic put forth by some other maestros of the form, like Bill Hicks or David Simon.

Q: “What is a prolapsed asshole?”

A: It’s like a regular asshole, except instead of an innie, it’s an outie.

Q: “Did you see David Simon tweeted about this?”

A: I did, just this morning. And it is not exaggeration to say that it is currently one of my fondest moments in this weird-ass career of mine. A tweet like that from David Simon is a blessed object. I wish to get it made into a cross-stitch and hang that shit above my desk.

Q: “What happens now to Shadow of Vader?”

A: Ennnh? I don’t know. I like to think they’ll keep my first three — they told me I was being pulled off of 4 and 5, which leads me to believe that my completed scripts for 1, 2 and 3 will still end up out there. I was honestly very proud of them. The third issue in particular! The editor (same who fired me) was very happy about it. I wasn’t kicked off the book for lack of quality. And I had started to see the art for issue 1 rolling in from Juanan Ramirez, and the covers from Greg Smallwood were whoa-dang.

Q: “And you were kicked off a second book?”

A: Yes, a comic, not a novel, to be clear.

Q: “Should we boycott Marvel?”

A: That’s between you and your gods. I won’t encourage it, and I also won’t tell you not to. Boycotts do damage — they would theoretically damage the company, but would also damage creators across the board, including some marginalized ones. One option would be to continue to buy those comics, but only those — Nnedi Okorafor, or Eve Ewing, for instance. Or Jody Houser’s upcoming Star Wars run, or Greg Pak’s run.

Or don’t — I mean, I dunno, boycotts aren’t mean to be clean, they’re meant to burn down a forest. Again: between you and your gods. If you do cut out Marvel, I hope you’ll increase your comic buys elsewhere, supporting creators telling cool stories where you can.

Q: “Should we buy Shadow of Vader when it comes out?”

A: Again, consult with your intestinal flora on that one. You could buy my issues and not the ones by others. Or you could say fuck it and never buy them, or buy them all or — again, you do you. Do what feels right and feels necessary.

Q: “Who will write the rest of Shadow of Vader?”

A: I do not know. (I won’t lie, whoever picks up that job will earn an askance glance from me. That’s petty, I know, but I’m a messy bench.) I did full outlines for issues four and five, so I don’t know if they’ll cleave to those or do some other thing. Epic shrug.

Q: “What was the other comic series?”

A: I don’t wanna say and spoil anybody’s pudding. It’s not announced yet. When it is, I’ll flag and and say HEY I COULD’VE WRITTEN THAT, and then we’ll all rage like Ewoks about it.

Q: “Chuck, you gonna be okay?”

A: I’m gonna be great, seriously. I’m privileged in a lotta ways, and very little of my income was from comic stuff, so — I’ll be aces. This more concerning to me in a LARGER, WHAT-IT-SAYS, RED-SCARE, BLACKLIST kinda way. I hope we’re ALL okay. As I’ve noted, marginalized creators are subject to considerably greater harassment and also are more vulnerable to this sort of thing.

If this can happen to me?

It can damn sure happen to you.

Vote in November.

Yub-nub, frandos.

And thanks again.

In Which I Am Fired From Marvel

Hello! I was fired from Marvel — from two Star Wars projects. The detail from the tweets I tweeted:

So, here’s a thing that has happened – I just got fired from Marvel. Taken off issues 4 and 5 of SHADOW OF VADER, and taken off an as-yet-unannounced SW book. This might be a long thread, so apologies in advance. (I hesitate to talk about this, because honestly, it gives the Worst Possible People a win, something they’ve wanted for a while. But I also feel like I’ve long held to honesty and forthrightness, and I don’t feel like lying when people realize I’m not on these books anymore.)

To rewind a little bit, when SW: AFTERMATH came out, I assume most know but maybe you don’t, I put some ahh, elements in there (LGBT characters) that were not received well by a certain subset of fandom. That resulted in both a negative review campaign, found across various FB groups and other Worst Places on the Internet, that began mounting the very minute the book dropped online. I was literally at a midnight release of the book, and when I got done, there were already a pile of one-star reviews piling up – which seemed strange, obviously. And scary, too. I didn’t understand what was happening at the time. (And as a caveat, obviously I recognize that yes, some people just don’t like the book for the Usual Reasons, and people who hold those reasons are not to be lumped in with the more septic side of fandom. Tl;dr see also TLJ reviews.)

I also started receiving TONS of harassment – harassment that has gone on for years, harassment that has required me to contact local police and warn them of SWATting attempts, harassment across all corners of the Internet, here, FB, Reddit, YouTube. Some of it was bot stuff, obviously, or sock puppets, but some of it was pretty creepy, and very personal. I didn’t call a lot of it out or even highlight, but it was there, a sort of… constant background noise. (Christ, for an extra special treat go search for my name and check out the YouTube videos if you want an eye-opening glimpse.)

And I was worried of course because, jeez, I thought I had screwed up. I wondered for a time if the book was bad. But then it hit list and stayed on list for four weeks – and the next two books hit list, too, and EMPIRE’S END landed even higher on the list than the first book. And privately, I was told by folks inside LFL that there was no worry here, that they valued that I spoke out both speaking up for myself and for STAR WARS, which has always honestly been a progressive brand and company. And it made me very proud to work for them, too, not just because — holy hell, basking in the glow of STAR WARS, but because the people were great, and they totally got it. (Hell, a lot of the people inside LFL have experience considerable harassment. I mean, that’s not news, but Kelly Marie-Tran? Bueller? Bueller?)

After I did HYPERION with Marvel, they hired me then to write the TFA adaptation, which meant I got to work with some wonderful folks – @hantos and @cracksh0t – on a project that was tricky, because it ended up being more a translation of the movie than an adaptation. (I know Heather received some of the worst harassment in the entire industry – I can’t speak to how well Marvel did or did not protect her from it, but I know she was at the bottom of a major misery funnel from Comicsgate and their ilk. Far worse than I suffered.)

Still, I thought things were good, and I hoped to do more work with Marvel or SW or a combo of the two someday – comics isn’t really my “thing,” per se, but I felt like I was getting a handle on it. Of course, the harassment continued – and it got worse again when TLJ came out. Which I’m sure is no surprise to anyone who has ever tweeted, “Hey, I really liked THE LAST JEDI!” That’s really when I started to see lots of YouTube videos and stuff about me and it was… Well, it was creepy. And I’d seen other signs of people being… fired for political reasons, or folks like @ChelseaCain who was yanked around and was also the subject of considerable nastiness.

And then we announced SHADOW OF VADER juuuuust last weekend, and people were excited, and I thought everything was good. I was not made aware of any issues, and my online self has always been my online self, so. Except, yeah, no. Today I got the call. I’m fired. Because of the negativity and vulgarity that my tweets bring. Seriously, that’s what Mark, the editor said. It was too much politics, too much vulgarity, too much negativity on my part.

Basically, because I was not civil.

Which, of course, is their decision to make. I’m not their boss. (And, turns out, they’re not the boss of me, either. Har har.) (I joke because otherwise, I cry.)

My understanding over this call was that this was a Marvel decision, not an LFL decision, but I can’t really confirm that. The editor said he had made the call. He seemed genuinely upset at my tweets and profanity, so maybe that’s accurate. And again, that’s his right to do so. If they honestly feel that my presence will damage the book, I don’t want that. I want the book to shine, and artists like Juanan Ramirez and Greg Smallwood to do their amazing thing. Artists like that are gods in my mind, so I’m happy to not distract from their literal magic.

But it does set a troubling precedent. One we’ve seen already – James Gunn, Jessica White, and so on – of folks fired because they riled up the wasp’s nest of asterisk-gate. And it seems odd to be mad that I’m mad about politics when – well, look around. Climate change, kids in cages, sexual harassers at the topmost tiers of power, and so on. A call for civility as the PA GOP candidate threatens Tom Wolf with a golf cleat stomping. I dunno, man.

I know it hands Comicsgate a big win. It will embolden them. But they won — I’m out of Marvel and, I guess for now, at least, out of any kind of Star Wars. Do your victory lap, I guess. (Just please leave me out of it.) (All that being said, a lot of wonderful people still work inside those institutions and storyworlds, and I hope you’ll continue to support them and the stories they’re telling.) To conclude: this is really quite chilling. And it breaks my heart. I am very sad, and worried for the country I live in, and the world, and for creative people all around. Courage to you all. I have a dire fear this is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

P.S. Vote in November like your life depends on it. Because it just might.

Friday Funday News Dump!

THINGS THINGS THINGS

VARIOUS THIIIIINGS

*does the Things To Talk About dance*

*which involves a lot of gallumphing*

*also partial nudity*

Let us begin.

Ragnatalk: The E! True Hollywood Story

So, finally, finally, Thor Ragnatalk, Episode 2 has come out. This was — this was a hard one to record, and we really weren’t going to talk about the whys and whyfors of that situation, but Anthony and I felt we had to explain ourselves and, maybe too, tell our truths, so this episode is exactly that. As always, you can listen to new episodes at Ragnatalk-dot-com, where you can hear us reveling in the glory that is Thor: Ragnarok, taking the movie in ten-minute chunks. It’s also available where PODCASTS LIVE, like for instance, over at Appletown. Listen, subscribe, hear our great shame, our tale of woe, our journey of iniquity.

p.s. may contain pee jars

Death & Honey

HEY SO, remember Three Slices?

In case you don’t, a quick refresher:

My very good friends and authorial talent batteries Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson said, “We should do a collection of three novellas,” and I dunno what I said, I probably mumbled something and covered myself with a bean bag so I could drink more low-shelf whiskey, which legally constituted an agreement on my part. As a result, Three Slices was born. (You can get it on e-book or audio!) Kevin wrote a Iron Druid story, Delilah wrote a Blud tale, and I wrote a Miriam Black novella.

And it was a lot of fun and there was much rejoicing.

We decided to do it again.

It’s called Death & Honey.

And this time, there’s a print version.

*hold for applause*

Subterranean Press is offering 1500 signed numbered editions, and only 52 (!) signed leatherbound copies of our little collection, and you can pre-order now. (Releasing in February.)

What’s in it?

Well, Kevin wrote a new Oberon’s Meaty Mystery.

Delilah wrote a new Rhett Walker story.

And I wrote a story tied to the Miriam Black universe, starring the character Lauren Martin, aka, Wren — it bridges the gap between The Raptor & The Wren and Vultures. (It is not essential to read this to understand either of those books, but is a narrative value-add, so to speak.)

There will of course be an e-book and audio edition, too. More on those when there’s more to say.

In the meantime, here’s the cover to the print version, by Galen Dara —

[image error]

Bucks County Book Fest

Aaaaand finally, I’ll be speaking this Sunday at the Bucks County Book Festival, appearing at a panel at 1pm with AWESOME AUTHOR HUMAN Fran Wilde! We’ll be speaking at the Editor Tent, talking about… ummm?

Sci-fi and fantasy and probably knock-knock jokes and loud birds and ice cream.

TBD.

You can find the whole Bucks Book Fest schedule here.

Hope to see you there!

For World Mental Health Day: When Writer’s Block Is Actually Depression

This is not the first time I’ve noted this, nor will it be the last, but I like to occasionally put a fine point on this —

Sometimes, writer’s block is not writer’s block.

Let’s rewind a little.

I got a nice email. Part of this email contained the following:

Anyway, things have worked out and I’ve recently been trying to get back on the horse. But, I just cannot seem to make any headway. I feel as though every idea I’ve had is as useful as a paper parachute. And it feels impossible to garner any new “worthy” ideas. If I try to just push on with one, it doesn’t work. I’ve tried all the basics; Bradbury’s noun-cohesion technique (I don’t think he called it that, but *shrugs*), free writing, random word/character/title generators, fan-fiction (don’t judge me!), writing advice; books, blogs (including your own), studying my own past work; finished, unfinished, etc. But, I still feel like a fish on a beach: floundering, hopeless, lifeless. Obviously this leads to all the angst-riddled and existential questions: am I good enough? Should I give up and become an accountant? The list goes on.

So, to get to the point, can you offer me a torch or even a slither of light to help find my way through the dark?

There’s a lot going on here. Because there’s a lot going on with any writing process and with anybody’s brain, whoever they are. Our brains are fucking thorntangles of complicated business, with lots of thoughts and fears and weary worries and woes — and then adding onto that the expectations of work, of writing, of creating something in an imaginative way, ha ha, ohhh, boy, that can be like shoving a bunch of angry ferrets through a narrow pipe. It can work if all the ferrets play nice, but they won’t, because they’re ferrets. They’ll form a squirmy, ferrety ball and won’t go down that pipe.

We all have days, as writers, as makers, where it’s hard.

It’s just hard.

We maybe don’t know why. It just is.

Writer’s block — which is silly that we call it that, because everybody feels blocked and frustrated from time to time, from parents to plumbers to astrophysicists — manifests out of an unholy host of reason. And out of those reasons are a panoply of potential solutions.

Hey, maybe something in the first part of the draft isn’t working.

Maybe you’re not ready to write the book yet.

Maybe it needs more time in the ol’ THOUGHT OVEN.

Maybe you need to take a walk, move some blood from your sluggish body into your brain — blood carries oxygen and oxygen, if I remember my science correctly, CARRIES IDEA MOLECULES.

Maybe you need to eat better. It’s hard to think with a glob of corn pudding in your head — created when you’ve eaten too many damn carbs and haven’t worked them off. Maybe eat a lighter snack next time and sit down.

Maybe you could use some coffee.

Maybe you could use some liquor.

Maybe this just isn’t the book for you.

Maybe you should try something small, build up some confidence, get you that sweet, sweet dopamine hit of finishing a smaller, more doable project.

Maybe you’re just psyching yourself up and out.

Maybe it’s a normal fear of failure.

Maybe it’s the rarer, but also normal, fear of success.

Maybe you just gotta write the hell through it.

And maybe, just maybe, it’s not writer’s block at all.

Maybe it’s depression. Or anxiety. Or the one-two-punch of them together.

I’m not qualified to tell you that. Nor am I qualified to tell you how to fix it. I am qualified, though, to tell you that it’s normal. It’s not odd to suffer under the yoke of those disorders. It doesn’t mean you’re broken, it means you join millions of other human beings — and honestly, I’d bet a not-small-percentage of other artists, too — who just got a lot of shit going on upstairs. (Doesn’t help that the world is basically a Portajohn filled with yellowjackets right now, and we all feel trapped inside it.) So, you need to be kind to yourself and get the help you need for depression and anxiety — and trust me when I tell you, that help shouldn’t look like the help you’d give to fix writer’s block. The solution for one is not the other, because the problems are literally different. In that case, the block is a symptom of a larger thing — and treating depression like it’s writer’s block?

Well, it’ll just make the block worse.

And the depression, too.

Because you’ll feel inadequate. Frustrated. It’s like thrashing around in quicksand.

Every process is different, and every mind is different, too, and how we join one mind with its process is a tricky thing — one made trickier by depression and anxiety. But it doesn’t mean you can’t work. It just means you’ve gotta find your own way forward.

Some people sculpt a tree with a chainsaw — others use gentle little wire loops to sculpt detail into clay. Yours might require a gentler, finer detail — a slower pace, a kinder rhythm. Do what you must, but most of all, recognize that whatever’s going on upstairs is not unusual, it is shared by many of your kin, and like them, you can still keep on keeping on.

Hi, Dad, I’m In (Twitter) Jail

[image error]So, this morning I woke up to find that I had been put in Twitter Jail for *checks notes* five hours. And I was put there because *checks notes* hell, I don’t know. They didn’t tell me. They didn’t ask me to delete any tweets, they didn’t give me a sense of what rule I broke, or when, or what offending tweet had caused the world such pain.

Curiously, it tells me I can send DMs to my followers — but, that’s actually untrue. I try to send a DM and it just gives me a vigorous reminder of my lockout.

OBVIOUSLY IT WAS THIS TWEET

CLEARLY IT IS THE RED DELICIOUS APPLE LOBBY THAT HAS PUT ME HERE

SCREW YOU, LIAR APPLE, YOU FRUIT JUDAS

I WILL SPEAK MY TRUTH AND WILL NOT BE SUPPRESSED

(I stole that joke from author Allison Dickson, FYI.)

I can of course guess at what put me here — over the weekend, just at the cusp of the Kavanaugh vote, I did a tweetstorm about civility — the initiating tweet has since had 17,000 shares. Which also means it ended up drawing the attention of a series of weepy right-wing-celebrity clowndicks, including but not limited to, Ben Shapiro, James Woods, Dinesh d’Souza, Curt Schilling. It also unleashed a high tide of septic idiots, 95% of them bots or sock puppets, to harass me (often to call me some variant of “soy” or “cuck,” which is the most diapery, baby-boo-boo insult they’ve yet come up with, one based in all sorts of disproven dumdum ideas about masculinity). I blocked many hundreds of abusive users, reporting most of them — a fraction of which, Twitter dealt with, most, they did not. I also received various threats, which is always fun. (One semi-threat said that if I wanted to pull an Anthony Bourdain, they’d buy me the rope. How polite! Like Mister Rogers said, always look for the helpers.) Then the Comicsgate/Gamergate media got a hold of it and suggested I was calling for violence against Trump supporters, which takes a particularly special lack of reading comprehension to get there considering I wrote this tweet specifically to put that idea out of anyone’s heads. All this, plus the standard calls for Disney to fire me from Star Wars, which is maaaaaybe a little misguided, because Disney doesn’t employ me. I’m not an employee of Disney or LFL or Marvel. I am there on a case-by-case freelance basis. Further, the income I get from that work is, presently, insert Unkar Plutt voice, a very tiny portion of my actual YTD.)

Aaaaand then, a Twitter suspension.

Of five hours.

For unspecified, unnamed tweets I don’t even have to delete.

(I will note that I did delete two tweets out of that thread on Sunday, not because I disagreed with them or thought them problematic, but rather, because those two tweets had become the funnel for harassment. They were the gateway, and I was hoping to shut it down.)

Obviously, if I misstepped somewhere in a way I’m not aware of, I’m genuinely sorry to anyone I might’ve upset. It’s hard to see what that was, or would be, however, in part because Twitter won’t even tell me what I did wrong.

So, this is a good reminder that:

a) Twitter is an arbitrary company with a great product and shitty enforcement tools that routinely allow for the worst among users to thrive and for others to get caught up in brute force suspensions driven by those same worst users

b) You do not own your tweets or anything you put on Twitter (trust me on this one, I have practical experience on that), and so you should always have a centralized backup that you own and control

c) Twitter has one helluva bot/sock puppet/troll problem, and won’t address it

d) This is not a first amendment issue, and I won’t frame it as such — despite the ironic fact that the same dipshits who probably mob-reported me would exclaim exactly that upon their own suspensions. Twitter can do whatever it wants. It can ban me arbitrarily for posting too many heirloom apple reviews. (YOU’LL NEVER STOP ME.) Twitter, again, is an amazing service governed by a shit company with zero ethos

e) This country is in dire fucking straits, and my call for a lack of civility remains true, no matter who that offends — which, arguably, is the point. Civility means saying things that aren’t troublesome, that don’t upset the balance, that acquiesce to abusive powers. And make no mistake, these powers are abusive. Children in cages, abusers and criminals at the highest levels of government, a willful acceleration of climate change, voter suppression, Russian meddling, tax breaks for the richest while the poor and middle-class continue to flounder… well, that list goes on and on. And both social media — and mass media — are helping to aggravate that problem rather than grapple with it, because it is advantageous to them to do so. A civil response is a complicit response. We must not be civil. Again, to be clear, violence isn’t the answer, either — but you don’t have to be polite in your protests. You don’t have to curtail vulgar language. They’ll reframe any protest you make as being uncivil, down to the notion that they will call protesting itself an uncivil act. Don’t buy it. Stand up, be counted, make your voice heard as loudly and as firmly as you must.

And to reiterate —

Do not rely on Twitter to be your pal.

This is doubly true if you’re a creator of any stripe — do not, not, not, use Twitter or IG or FB as your Authorial Homebase. Don’t do it. They own it. You don’t. If it goes away, either because it shuts down or because they shut you down, you’ve just cut off a vital avenue.

Find a place to call yours, and own it. I see too many authors with disused websites — or no website at all! — and they rely solely on someone else’s social media service to exist and conduct marketing and professional work. Be wary of that approach.

OKAY SEE YOU IN FIVE HOURS, FRANDOS

(Related: another sci-fi author, Patrick Tomlinson, was fully suspended, and you can read his account of how that happened at his site.)

p.s. vote like hell in November

Macro Monday Is A Dark Lord Of The Sith

Soooooo, some news! With the wrap up of the brilliant Darth Vader run by Charles Soule, I will be writing a five-issue miniseries for Marvel Star Wars called:

SHADOW OF VADER.

*thunder rumbles*

It was announced at NYCC this past weekend!

Each issue takes the POV of someone affected by Vader — i.e. someone cast into his literal and figurative shadow. The first issue is a riff on Friday the 13th, with Vader as our slasher killer. The second is basically Willrow Hood: A Star Wars Story. Third issue is about a morgue attendant on the Death Star who becomes somewhat… obsessed by a series of unusual deaths, deaths that ahem, might have been caused by a mysterious choking sensation. Fourth issue shows the return of Aftermath‘s Acolytes of the Beyond. And finally, the fifth issue shows a conflict between Leia and a new Resistance pilot who has learned of Leia’s grim, Vader-flavored bloodline.

You can check out the first two covers, both by Greg Smallwood:

[image error]

I mean, right? So cool.

Art on the first issue will be by Juanan Ramirez.

You can read more about it at StarWars.com, plus read about tons of other cool SW-related publishing announcements. (Including Alphabet Squadron!)

The day that was announced was also the day that You Might Be The Killer premiered on SyFy, and though I did not get a chance to watch it live, I did DVR it and watched it last night. I also followed along as it aired, checking out the hashtag and it was great fun to watch people… well, having great fun, especially on a day so deeply shitty and divisive as Saturday was. (Goddamn, this country cannot get its head out of its ass, can it?)

I think that’s it for news from me, so here you go, have a butterfly, just don’t eat it.

…

You ate it, didn’t you?