Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 122

Interview with a JOF: Meg Totusek

A quick commercial announcement: through 11:59 PST tonight, if you buy or own the Kindle edition of Libriomancer, you can pick up the audio book for $0.99.

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Meg Totusek is one of the moderators of the Journeyplatypi of Fandom group. As a big platypus fan myself, that was enough information for me to put her onto my list of Generally Awesome People.

Meg was kind enough to talk about conrunning, fandom, conflicts, and more of the behind-the-scenes stuff fans don’t always see.

Also, I’m told her mother has promised to kick my butt at WindyCon and make me eat nothing but healthy food if anyone is mean to Meg, so please be nice!

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1. For those of us who might not be familiar with SMOFs and JOFs, what are the Journeyplatypi of Fandom, and how did you come to count yourself among this august company?

The Journey Platypi are a group of con runners similar to the SMOFs (and some of us happen to be both!) who converse on Facebook about a wide variety of topics including registration queues, facilities, marketing, harassment policies and really anything that our members want to talk about. We work really hard to make sure that the group has a positive feel — we being myself and four other awesome mods: Warren Buff, Cathy Mullican, Crystal Huff and James Bacon — so that hopefully the group has a better chance of being productive. The Platypus became our mascot after a discussion about keeping things gender neutral, and because we love ridiculous things.

I’ve been in fandom literally all my life, but really got involved in running cons on a higher level in the last few years, and with JOF more than a year ago when it started up. I couldn’t tell you an exact date because the Facebook logs won’t tell me any more than that and I was too busy to note it myself.

2. You said you focus on running cons and fixing problems. Tell us a bit more about what’s involved there, and what kind of problems you work on.

Everybody in JOF focuses on different things. For instance, I work mostly on the Promotions side of things (I’ve been the voice behind the social media feeds for LoneStarCon and Chicon and am taking on Press Office for Detcon) while my best friend Jesi spends her time focusing on con safety issues.

One of the things that I’ve had my hands on recently was the backlash that came from the Song of the South situation. That was really difficult because there was so much more behind that situation than what we ended up saying. I got to read all of the rightly outraged tweets and try and talk with the people about it in a way that didn’t make it worse without bringing up all of the background stuff.  

3. Do you feel like lack of diversity is a problem with fandom, conventions, and SF/F in general? If so, what can the JOFs do to try to change that problem?

This is a difficult question for me to answer. I spend most of time working on the back end of conventions and in my experience I have seen more diversity behind the scenes than at the conventions. And because I’ve grown up in fandom, I naturally have a longer memory than a lot of people my age about the types of change, so I see change everywhere. That being said, at cons, some of that diversity is lost and that absolutely is a problem and I think that if you look, you can see JOFs making a lot of great changes.

For instance, Michael Lee of CONvergence is a JOF and their ‘Costumes are not Consent‘ got a lot of attention and were then seen at other conventions around the country. Crystal Huff of Arisia made sure that the convention had a budget line for ASL interpreters that is now a permanent thing that they do every year to make sure that those with hearing issues can still participate. I saw that extend to the CONvergence art auction this year and that was fantastic. Crystal is also in charge of the Photo Booth that many have seen and it turns out that we’ve been documenting age, gender, sexualty and race diversity in fandom. There is so much to be done, and the more JOFs work conventions, the more we can do for the better.

4. The “Us vs. Them” siege mentality – have you run into this as a JOF? Where do you think that comes from, and any ideas on what we can do about it?

I’ve never felt  ‘Us vs Them’ in the JOF vs SMOF sense, but I have seen it in the JOF/SMOF vs everybody else sense on both ends.

This is a particularly hard thing to deal with because to some extent, both parties are in the right. The con runners have spent a year, or years in the case of Worldcon, putting something together and sometimes making really hard decisions. Sometimes, there isn’t a better answer than what ended up happening, just worse ones. On the other hand as a non-working member of the convention, what ends up happening still isn’t acceptable. And because the decision making process isn’t transparent enough, nobody sees that this was the least bad option.

5. As a JOF/SMOF, what are the rewards, and how do you avoid burnout?

To me, working the convention is a reward because I honestly just love working them so much. I grew up with a lot of the people who run the conventions so it’s just like hanging out with family to me and the friends I make are so incredibly spectacular that it’s hard to describe. I met my fiance through running cons, so that’s a big one for me.

Burning out is a big problem, though. I have to be honest with myself about how much I’m working on and whether or not I can take on any more work. If not, I drop the ball and the con hurts for it. Taking breaks is something that I try and make sure I do. I’m taking 2014 off and going to London just as an attendee. I might do some low-level volunteering, but I can’t go anywhere near the level of work that I’ve done for the last two years. It would just be suicide. Admittedly I’m running the Press Office for the 2014 NASFiC so my definition of a ‘year off’ might be different than someone else’s, but if I completely walked away, I think I’d just miss it too much.

6. For the past two years, there have been complaints about accessibility and disability issues at WorldCon. Institutional memory seems like a serious problem for a convention run by different people each year. How can we do a better job making sure WorldCon is accessible to all fans, and to encourage all conventions to do the same?

Volunteer.

If you see a problem, don’t just talk to people about it, do something about it. Nobody is going to be more passionate about your problems than you. There are a good group of people who genuinely care about disability problems, but they can’t think of everything, and they have day jobs that don’t let them devote every waking moment to how to make a con better.  Join JOF or SMOFS so you can explain the issues that you see and get advice on solutions. People on those lists have years of experience and they will help you just like other people helped them on their problems. When we see problems, we pick them apart so that we can learn from them, not so we can be mean.

Two of the biggest problems committees face are as mentioned, the lack of institutional knowledge and the changing of venues. Even when someone runs a division two years in a row (which is crazy exhausting) they are faced with a unique problem each year. I know they seemed similar, but LoneStarCon had vastly different problems (for accessibility and in general) than Chicon did. Heck, Chicon 7 had vastly different problems than Chicon 2000 and they were in the same hotel! The more volunteers passionate about making Worldcon better for people with disabilities of any kind, the better.

7. I know volunteering is a good way to make sure problems you care about are addressed, but I feel like that can’t be the only answer. If I’m concerned about accessibility at Worldcon, for example, won’t it be harder for me to volunteer when I’m in Michigan and the con is in London? What are your thoughts?

A significant portion of volunteering for the con is done before hand in lots of conversations about what should happen and how to make that a reality. Volunteering, even on the lowest level, will give you a seat at the table for these discussions. It doesn’t mean you have to be on the ground. Heck it doesn’t even mean you have to show up at the con. Best of all, it’s done mostly through email. You can be in Michigan and work on London. I’m in NYC and work on London, and a few months ago I was in a tiny town in Missouri working on Texas.

And keep in mind that just because you’re not working doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to conversations. Write to the person responsible for the issues you want to see addressed. If that person doesn’t exist, write to the chair and point out the oversight. If you come up with possible solutions, suggest them!  If you know of a  group that will donate ramps to the con, or that will donate ASL interpreters to help, let us know!

Introduce yourself. It’s a lot easier to work with someone if you know their name before you know their problem. Seriously though, find me at a con, or email me and I’ll try to find someone to help you with your issue.

Diversity in SFF

I’ve been very much appreciating the #DiversityInSFF conversation on Twitter for the past week.

As in any such conversation, there have been a few trolls and some attempts to derail, not to mention some at-times tacky self-promotion, but overall I think it’s been a good discussion.

I haven’t read every single Tweet, but I think I’ve come pretty close. Here are some of the highlights I remember:

Tor.com added the following to their submission guidelines, “We want our stories to represent the full diversity of speculative fiction, and encourage submissions by writers from underrepresented populations.”
The Guardian published an article titled, “It’s time for science fiction to face up to discrimination,” arguing that SF/F has to stop ignoring the diversity of our own world. While there were some problematic aspects to the article (quoting only male authors), it’s nice to see the discussion getting picked up by a major news outlet. (The comments, on the other hand, are often cringeworthy.)
Lightspeed Magazine announced a “Women Destroying SF” issue. I don’t know if this was directly in response to the #DiversityInSFF conversation, but either way, I love that they’re taking shots at the “Oh no, girl cooties are destroying SF!!!” nonsense.
Mary Robinette Kowal put together a survey asking Who are the fans of speculative fiction?
Romantic Times posted an article about 5 Diverse SFF Novels You Should Read. (I have mixed feelings about my own novel being included in that list.)
People shared resources for encouraging and increasing diversity in the genre, including:

The Carl Brandon Awards, which I believe are still accepting nominations.
Diversity in YA is doing a book giveaway that y’all should totally go enter.
Disability in Kidlit shared a discussion about contributors’ least favorite disability tropes.
Writing the Other, by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward.
Polenth Blake posted a list of 100 Diverse Speculative Authors, “diverse in various ways including (but not limited to) sex, gender, class, sexuality, race, religion, country of origin, disability and neurotypicality.”
@POCKickstarter – “Trying to help people of color jumpstart their Kickstarter ideas.”

There was much more, including discussion of panel parity, accessibility issues, gender, sexual orientation, DC’s ongoing failures when it comes to diversity in comics, movies, small press vs. large, the need for translated fiction, and so on. I’ve also seen the discussion picked up elsewhere.

Along related lines, Rose Lemberg has started an #accessiblecons conversation on Twitter, talking about how to make conventions more accessible (an ongoing problem in fandom).

Will Twitter hashtags fix the world? Obviously not. But I strongly believe talking about problems, and more importantly, listening to the people pointing out those problems, is the first step to solving them. There are editors and agents who changed their guidelines as a result of this conversation. Authors reconsidered their own choices. Readers and viewers of SFF who took another look at their preferences and decided to check out something new.

If you’re on Twitter, I strongly recommend reading through some of the #DiversityInSFF conversation. A fair amount of it is 101-level, but in my opinion, there’s some very good stuff.

Interview With a SMOF: Catherine Schaff-Stump

Catherine Schaff-Stump is an author, a professor, a conrunner, and so much more. She’s published short fiction as well as the YA novel Hulk Hercules: Professional Wrestler [Amazon | B&N].

Catherine is also a self-identified SMOF, so I asked if she’d be willing to talk a bit about her experiences working behind-the-scenes, her perspective on fandom and inclusivity, and her thoughts on our community.

I’m hoping to do a few more of these interviews, because I find the conversations helpful and informative. And because you probably get sick of just hearing me babble all the time.

Thank you, Catherine!

1. Tell us about yourself and your entry into the Wide World of SMOFs.

The first time I heard the word SMOF used about myself was when I was casually talking to some Wiscon planners late night in a Con Suite. I mentioned that I was involved with Mindbridge, the organization that runs some of the cons in Iowa, and at that time, someone asked us what we were talking about, and my conversation partner said, “She’s Mindbridge, and we’re SMOFing.”

What we meant in that conversation was that we were talking about convention planning. There are certain members of Mindbridge who shoulder a bigger share of planning and running conventions, and we meet the definition of SMOF because we do this. I’d say there are actually about 10 “full-time” SMOFs in the Mindbridge Organization, people you can count on to shoulder many of the projects through administrative or personnel management. There are many more “part time” SMOFS who run conventions certain years, or volunteer for huge jobs like Con Suite. Some of the cons call them different things, like AnimeIowa calls their SMOFS gym leaders. I don’t know why, but the idea is the same–people who work hard to pull off conventions.

As the president of the Mindbridge Board, in my state, I am seen as a super SMOF. Really, the power of the board president resides in making out the agenda for our monthly meetings, but the illusory power is that some people think I can make lasers come out of my eyes and fry people I dislike. Which I’ve never done. No, never. However, the board is the public face of Mindbridge, so we try to look like real business people. Which is hard when you are super geeks just out to have conventions to have a good time.

Because we wanted to be more involved in the convention planning scene, four of us from the board tried going to a con planning convention a few years back, and met more SMOFs, but we actually didn’t go back to the convention again, because we actually thought our systems for running cons were pretty good, and we’d gone to a lot of expense traveling to the convention without learning a lot that was new. So, we chat with other convention runners at their cons, and bring back good tips and trade ideas.

2. You lie. I have totally seen you do that laser-eye thing! Okay, that explains what a SMOF does, but what does “SMOF” actually mean?

The understood meaning of SMOF is Secret Masters of Fandom. This is meant to be both a joke and a badge. What SMOFs usually do is work hard to put on conventions. The organization and quality of a convention depends on the abilities and qualities of the SMOFs involved. I guess the status piece of being a SMOF is that you’re someone who knows the answers in a given system, and you are respected/revered for that knowledge.

So that explains the Master of Fandom part. What about the secret part? Well, you can take that a couple of ways. It could be a joke about a shadowy cabal that guides the destinies of various fans. I’ve heard it joked about that way. But really, in the case of our culture here in Iowa, it means unknown or even perhaps under-appreciated. Some people really kill themselves to put on these conventions, and they may not get recognition for it. Hence, secret.

3. As an outsider to SMOF culture, I assume it involves meetings at hidden temples, presumably with fancy robes and sacred chants as the puppetmasters plan out the future of fandom, bestow Hugo awards upon the favored few, and decide where Sean Bean’s character will be killed next. Is that about right?

I really, really, REALLY hate to disappoint you, Jim. You’re one of my favorite guys on the Internet, and I do want to say that we have rituals and funny hats and a secret handshake. Mindbridge does occasionally have a Geek themed food night, or gets together to see a movie, or fund Trek Fest when their town council won’t do it for one year, but I’ve never once got to bestow a Hugo.

I take the 5th on Sean Bean.

But really, what we do is run cons. We support the three cons that we have (Icon, AnimeIowa, and Gamicon). Our organization provides insurance and pays the taxes for all three cons. Additionally, we try to match people with interest in helping to volunteer, run and plan cons. And that’s what we do. Anyone who’s interested can help run our cons. And provided everyone stays civil, they are welcome in our organization.

So, we see ourselves as inclusive. We really try.

4. Diversity in fandom. Is it a problem? If so, how much power do you think conrunners have to change that problem?

Diversity in fandom is a problem. We in Iowa have recently been watching the Internet with great interest. Our state is also diversifying. We want our con to be welcoming and comfortable for all potential members. So, we already have have a sexual harassment statement for the cons, and we have a back up system for those who feel they are being harassed. Soon we will have an overall Mindbridge statement posted that will cover harassment for any reason and its consequences. We’re patterning it on the State of Iowa’s.

So, we’ll have the actual wording in place, but we can’t do much with just words. I imagine in future years we will work actively on getting diverse guests and trying to find ways to pull in fans of many backgrounds, races, religions and creeds. Interestingly, AnimeIowa already has a diverse population, but its fan base is younger than that of our other two cons. I don’t know what that says, but I do know that young people of every kind seem to come out for anime here. It’s our more traditional cons we gotta work on, and make no mistake, we need to be welcoming.

Iowa is kind of welcoming already, in its strange Iowa mind-your-own-business way. We were early adopters in terms of state laws about interracial and gay marriage. Icon has hosted two wedding ceremonies for gay couples in its history, complete with cake and party. I think if we can get the word out, and make others feel welcome, we can do even more things like this. Because we all like cake and inclusion.

5. I’ve talked to several conrunners who described a siege mentality, an Us vs. Them view of SMOFs in their castle while outsiders fling giant wooden rabbits at over the walls. Or something like that. Is this something you’ve experienced? Where do you think that mentality comes from, and what can we do about it?

Another thing that we’ve been watching from afar on the Internet is this siege mentality. I dunno. Two of our board members are women. Some of our strongest members are women. What we lack, as I look over our board are fans of color. As I look over the conventions I see a bit more variety, but we are still a predominately white fan base.

However, our idea is that we need more people of all kinds, not less. We need new people to come in and do things, because more sharing means lighter loads. We want to share our knowledge, not sequester it. And we want new ideas about how to do things. I think our biggest problem is getting people to want to come to Iowa, to be geeks in Iowa. People think Iowa is boring.

Is it, however, a good place to be a geek? I would say yes. The state has five cons. We get really awesome guests, and we are willing to listen to our memberships base and hear what they want. And we are ready to be inclusive, and take those steps. So to visit the earlier analogy, I guess we would hope for a Trojan Bunny with fans of all sorts to come inside and siege our convention, buying lots of memberships, and making us a better convention.

The question of where do I think this comes from? Well, dude, I’ve got an interdisciplinary degree in Second Language Writing, and part of my studies were in intercultural communication, so I could open a whole can of lecture boredom on you and blah on, but I’m going to concisely suggest this: people fear difference and feel that difference will diminish their unique place in the world. Fear of the unknown is perhaps one of the greatest motivations of human kind, and we have to constantly work on the baseness of those assumptions. And while that is a gross oversimplification of some complicated issues, a discussion about this is a great place to start.

Fandom isn’t going to get any better until we discuss difference and get over being intimidated by it. And it isn’t about asking your black friend to educate you. It’s about getting out there and educating yourself. There are conferences and resources all over this country where you can take an active role in working on white privilege, listening respectfully, all sorts of things. It might be a good idea to occasionally have some fandom tracks on it. Wiscon does this pretty effectively, and while I still want to have my panels about who is the best Star Trek Caption (Avery Brooks, hands down. He hit Q), if we’re trying to be a more inclusive fandom, we must boldly go where fandom has not gone before. You see what I did there? With the Star Trek and the…oh well, you get it, right?

6. A writer friend told me one of the first rules they learned was “Don’t piss off the SMOFs.” I managed to break that rule pretty well last week, pissing off a fair number of y’all. I think some good came of that, but I also suspect most of what people saw was a bunch of us with claws out and fur raised. Where should we look to see more of the good work being done toward inclusivity and diversity in the convention scene?

First of all, your friend is probably right. If you want to get invited to a particular convention, you don’t want to aggravate the people who run it. There are good reasons to disagree, but the outcome for writers can be that if you anger con runners, there will be fewer cons for you. Unless you are Harlan Ellison, for some inexplicable reason. Anyway, I think that by this time next year, you will have been Toastmaster at Icon three times on your way to your fourth, so you are going to have to work harder with us, Jim.

Secondly, I consider myself a SMOF, and I wasn’t pissed off. You were trying to open a discussion, and conclusions were jumped upon. The Internet, by the way, is never a good place to have a sensitive emotional discussion. Just saying. I think that the medium was more at fault than the message on both sides of the issue. I have to say things like that because I’m a professor and if I don’t, they make me pay royalties.

As a white woman living in the Midwest, I might not be the right person to answer the good work question. I can tell you what I perceive, given those parameters. I’m always going to hold up Wiscon as an example of inclusiveness. Many people will point to the controversial Elizabeth Moon decision to dis-invite Moon as a guest because of her anti-Arab remarks, but I would contend that that is one of the ways you know Wiscon feels a responsibility to its constituency to attempt inclusivity. You may say something crazy, like, “How dare you not tolerate intolerance!!!” To whit I’ll just be doing a face palm. You know. Black is white. Day is night. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. That kind of face palm.

One important lesson is Mad Eye Moody’s: Constant Vigilance. While I hold up Wiscon as an example, this year a harassment event on the part of a long term harasser was brought up online. The con handled it quite well, and the company the harasser worked for also handled it well. The important thing is that we need to watch out for these sorts of things constantly.

I’ve been to a lot of cons because I’m a woman of a certain age. I’ve experienced a gauntlet of good and bad. As an 18 year old dressed as Starfire (the one with almost no clothing, rather than Teen Titans Go!) I’ve been pinched by a pro and cornered by men. Comic cons. Not really a bastion of tolerance and inclusivity.

As a writer on panels, I’ve been impressed by the respect I’ve been given at Convergence. For example, I was the only woman on a Steed and Peel Avengers panel this year, and there was no mansplaining or speaking over me. Now, maybe that’s because I’m a professor and I’m loud, but I’d like to imagine the con atmosphere has something to do with it too.

There are cons deliberately designed for inclusivity, which I have not had the good fortune to attend yet. There’s Sirens. Or Diversicon. Or Think Galacticon. They’re out there.

But any con can be a place of inclusivity if we work hard at being inclusive. I think we have a lot more to celebrate by enjoying what each other enjoys and being geeks together, rather than drawing geek lines in the sand.

I don’t even know what a geek line is, but I think you catch the drift.

A. C. Crispin’s STARBRIDGE, Reviewed by Jackson

The eight-year-old and I just finished A. C. Crispin‘s book Starbridge [Amazon | B&N | Kobo]. I read this series a long time ago and remembered enjoying them a lot. We’ve read some fantasy to Jackson, including my goblin books, but this was the first science fiction novel I read to him. I wasn’t sure he’d like it, but I was hoping…

I admit to skimming over a few of the romance/smooching scenes, because eight-year-old interests and attention span. And I’m sure I mangled some of the alien names, but fortunately, Jackson didn’t know.

The best thing I can say about the experience is that when we got done, Jackson immediately asked if we could read book two next.

What follows is his review, prompted by my questions.

What is this book about?

It’s about a girl named Mahree and a boy named Rob and an alien named Dhurrrkk’ who go out to save a bunch of different alien species, including the humans.  It also has Simiu (dog species) and Mizari and Chhhh-kk-tu, and those are only the ones I can remember right now. I think there are 12 kinds of species in that book. And one is so easily frightened that seeing a different species can make it die!

What were the most exciting parts of the story?

I think the most exciting part was when Dhurrrkk’ challenged that other Simiu to a death-challenge.

Who was your favorite character, and why?

I liked Dhurrrkk’ because, well, I can’t really describe it. I liked how he acted. Like at the beginning when Mahree was telling him about human cultures, and when she made a joke, and he was like huh? I don’t understand. What is a joke? And then he tried to make a joke later.

Do you think it would be cool to meet other aliens? What would you like about it?

Yes! Because I’d be able to meet new species and then I’d probably be able to get a super high-tech sword or something like that.

A lot of the characters talk about how important communication is. Do you think they’re right?

Yes, I think they’re right. If you can’t communicate, then pretty much everyone will get into a bunch of fights. Jackson then demonstrated various fight moves, including fake-punching himself in the face.

Mahree made a dangerous decision to try to communicate better, partly because she wanted to be special. Do you think she made the right decision? Would you do something like that?

No, because it almost killed her.

Did you like the ending?

Yes.

Who should read this book?

Everyone!

Us vs. Them vs. Grow the Hell Up

I’m still not entirely sure what the hell happened last week. I know it started when someone forwarded a comment I made on Twitter a few weeks back to the SMOFs listserv. I talked about that some here.

To back up a bit, “SMOFs” refers to Secret Masters of Fandom. It was originally coined as a rather joking, self-deprecating term for the folks who work their asses off behind the scenes running conventions and such. The folks who won the bid to host NASFiC in Detroit for 2014? They’ll be smoffing nonstop for the next year to make that happen. (Congrats and good luck to them all, by the way!!!)

I spoke to a number of people about fandom and SMOFs and convention history and so on last week. Multiple conrunners referred to a siege mentality, a sense that the SMOFs are constantly under attack, creating a strong Us vs. Them mentality. Reading between the lines, I suspect that when I critiqued fandom’s lack of diversity by referencing a photo of Worldcon Con Chairs, that was enough for some people to assume I was “them,” one of the people who was out to get the SMOFs, destroy Worldcon, and retire to my secret moonbase where I’d pet my cat and practice twirling my mustache.

Whatever. But later in the week, Nick Mamatas posted a pic of a “SMOF ZONE” sign at Worldcon. I retweeted the pic with the question, “So, um, anyone know the story behind this sign at Worldcon?” and “To clarify, I know what SMOF stands for. I don’t see how a ‘SMOF ZONE’ sign is going to do anything but irritate folks.” Because, you know, if you’re worried about an Us vs. Them siege, then even if the sign was meant to be tongue-in-cheek — and I suspect it was — it’s probably not going to help matters.

This was enough to get me labelled a troll and accused once again of being out to destroy people.

Look, I get it. I’ve seen the comments that anyone who considers themselves a SMOF should be ashamed of themselves. I’ve watched people accuse the entire group of being out-of-touch, exclusive, overly conservative, power-grubbing, and more. I’ve come across the outright mockery. I suspect the folks who identify as SMOFs have heard far worse, and that sucks.

SFWA has gone through similar crap lately. The organization has had its share of screw-ups, and people generalize them to everyone and everything associated with the organization. “SFWA is an organization of old white dudes stuck in the past, working hard to ensure their own irrelevance.”

That certainly describes some members, yes. But not all of them. Any more than the SMOFs listserv is made up of a unified groupmind convinced that anyone who offers criticism or asks questions is THE ENEMY.

I get that some folks prefer a simplistic binary view of the world. Hell, I’m sure I’ve fallen into that trap myself on occasion, though I try not to. But the whole “Us vs. Them” thing is inaccurate, childish, and harmful no matter which side you think you’re on. There are assholes on every side of every debate. Assuming an organization, whether it’s SMOFs or SFWA or liberals or conservatives or whatever, to be a monolithic borg-mind of Wrongness is just going to increase that siege mentality and probably irritate even the people who might agree with you. Assuming all criticism comes from the “Them” who are out to get you means ignoring real concerns and alienating potential allies.

Someone pointed out that it can be hard to hear criticism of something you’ve poured so much time and work into. Yep. I spend a year or more on every book, and as soon as it appears in the world, people start to point out my mistakes, things I could have done better, and so on. It’s hard. Sometimes it feels unfair. Occasionally I go home and curl up in my Protective Blanket of Fear for a while.

But “I worked hard on this” doesn’t exempt you from criticism. Those harsh reviews aren’t about anyone being out to get me. It’s not an Authors vs. Reviewers thing. It’s people taking the time to express their opinions because they care about this stuff. Sure, some of those opinions are wrong. Others raise valid points. Sometimes I even learn from the criticism, and am able to improve future books.

I love fandom. I love conventions. I love getting to geek out with people, to celebrate our stories and our jokes and our heroes and more. But our community also has some serious problems, and I intend to keep talking about them and trying to push for us to solve them. Not because I’m trying to destroy fandom, but because I care about it and want it to be better. And I think the “Us vs. Them” nonsense is one of the things that continues to hurt us, and gets in the way of progress.

I know there are people out there who hate me, and that’s fine. But I hope they hate me for me, for the things I’ve actually said and done, as opposed to their perception that I’m one of “them,” for whatever value of “them” you might be using at the moment.

Thanks for reading. This was something I needed to get out of my system.

Oh, and whoever has been taking it upon themself to forward my Tweets and blog posts to the SMOFs listserv, please feel free to forward this one as well. Thanks!

Two Libriomancer Giveaways

[image error]Tor.com is giving away 10 copies of Libriomancer [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. All you have to do is comment to enter. They’ll be picking the winners after 12:00 (Eastern Time) on September 3.

Why? Because Tor.com is just awesome that way.

(And can I just say thank you to everyone who said such nice things about me and the book in the comments? Skimming through those was a wonderful way to start the weekend.)

The Tor.com giveaway is limited to the U.S. and Canada. Having paid for overseas shipping on books before, I can totally understand this. Often the postage is significantly more expensive than the book itself, which is frustrating.

But I also know some people have been disappointed at not being able to enter. Which is why I’m putting an 11th copy of the book up for grabs. Leave a comment to enter, and I’ll draw a winner at random some time after lunch on September 3.

There’s one rule. Only people who live outside of the U.S. and Canada are eligible to enter

Podcast Fiction: Ahmed and Bear

I’ve had a harder time lately making time to read for pleasure. It’s something I usually try to do before bed, but between working double-time on the book and the kids staying up later, this hasn’t been working out as well. Then, after listening to Alethea Kontis’ Enchanted on the drive to and from GenCon, it occurred to me that I could at least squeeze some audio fiction into my 15-minute commute to and from the day job.

This is how I ended up on PodCastle and Escape Pod, searching for stories to listen to.

I started out with Saladin Ahmed‘s “Doctor Diablo Goes Through the Motions,” a short first-person superhero piece. At 14 minutes in length, it felt like flash fiction, though I don’t know the exact word count. More snapshot/commentary than full-length story, it contained a number of good, Ahmed-style observations about race, prison culture, and superhero tropes. Poor Doctor Diablo…

Next up was “The Tricks of London,” by Elizabeth Bear. PodCastle describes this as a “Giant Episode,” coming in at 79 minutes. The story is set in Bear’s New Amsterdam world, and features Detective Crown Investigator Abigail Irene Garrett, a forensic sorcerer and the only woman in the late nineteenth century Enchancery. (April 1879, to be exact.)

The story is told from the point of view of Detective Sergeant Sean Cuan, and describes their investigation into a supernatural serial killer.

Let me put it this way. I now need to read all of Bear’s New Amsterdam stuff.

The plot itself isn’t overly twisty, but the details she provides reminded me that Bear has a lot of practice writing this kind of fiction (see Shadow Unit), not to mention being a fan of Criminal Minds )

It’s the characterization and the language that really drew me in, though. While this story does fall into the “only one active female surrounded by male characters” category, it’s a deliberate historical choice, and handled quite well. I like Garrett a lot, and enjoyed her developing quasi-mentoring/friendship with Cuan. And Bear’s description is vivid and evocative. She chooses each word carefully, and it shows.

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Have you read or listened to either of these stories? If so, what did you think? And what other sites would you recommend for someone starting to get into podcast fiction?

Codex Born Discussion Post

[image error]This is the official discussion post for Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] for anyone who wants to chat about the book or ask questions. I may or may not answer all questions, depending on whether or not it would spoil things for future books (or, you know, if I just don’t know the answer yet).

Obviously, there will probably be spoilers in the comments.

My thanks once again to everyone who picked up the book, and especially to those of you who’ve posted reviews or shared the series with others.

SF/F’s “Colorblindness” and “Genderblindness” in a Single Photo

From time to time, I get a sudden flurry of comments or emails or Tweets (or all of the above) that let me know someone has stumbled onto an old blog post or comment I made, and has decided to tell their friends how Wrong I am about … well, whatever they think I was talking about.

In this case, it’s a comment I made on Twitter two weeks ago, after coming across a photo taken by Kevin Standlee. The pic was captioned as “The annual gathering of past, current, and future Worldcon chairs held at Chicon 7, 2012.”

It’s a wonderful picture, and it’s amazing to think of the history gathered together in that room. But as soon as I looked at it, I was struck by the following thought:

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I hear people talk about how welcoming fandom is, how the SF/F community accepts everyone, and then I look at this snapshot of our history, and I’m struck by how overwhelmingly white it is, and how the men significantly outnumber the women.

As I said in my very next Tweet, I have nothing but respect and gratitude for the men and women who’ve volunteered to do a tremendous amount of work putting these conventions together. Yet I look at that picture, and … damn, you know?

From the sudden influx of outrage, I’m guessing someone stumbled onto my comment about 48 hours ago, and was Very Upset. Most Upset Indeed!

I’ve broken the incoming unhappiness into four categories, with my thoughts on each.

1. “What about your Best Fan Writer Hugo award that you TOTALLY STOLE with your campaigning, making that category even whiter and manlier than it was before, huh???”

I paraphrased slightly, but that’s basically the first email I saw in my inbox when I got up yesterday morning. I believe the appropriate Internet-style response is, U MAD, BRO?

(ETA: Which is not to say that the lack of diversity in the Best Fan Writer category is not a problem. It is, as I’ve talked about before.)

2. “Maybe women and people of color just don’t want to be Worldcon chairs.”

Similarly, another person talked about how PoC have more important things to worry about, and talked about the “logistics,” emphasizing that running a Worldcon required a lot of time and money.

Um … okay. Do I need to spell out the underlying assumptions about time and money here, or the racism that walks hand in hand with them?

This is also a variant of an argument we’ve heard again and again. “We’d publish more SF by women if more women would bother to submit.” “We’d love to have more non-white panelists, but they just don’t come to the convention.” “If people want to make the genre more diverse, then those people need to stop waiting for someone else to do the work; they should jump in and get involved and make it happen.”

While I’m sure this isn’t what people intend, what I hear in these arguments is that we’ve created a community that isn’t particularly welcoming to nonwhite and nonmale fans and readers and authors.1 But working to change that community would be uncomfortable, so we’re not going to do it. We’re already here. Why should we care about making you feel welcome?

You say “those people” don’t want to be a part of this community. I ask why someone would put their time and effort and money and sweat into a community that doesn’t want them.

3. “You don’t understand how Worldcons work!”

Not as well as someone who’s actually run one, no. It would be arrogant as hell for me to claim otherwise.

I do know the cons are run by volunteers. That different groups bid to host them, meaning there is no unified, unchanging Worldcon Committee. I know they’re a hell of a lot of hard work. I know the World Science Fiction Society constitution, rules, and meeting minutes are posted here, and go into a lot more detail about the rules of Worldcon and the Hugos.

I’ll happily admit that I haven’t read every page of those rules, and there are certainly people who know more about how Worldcons work. But then, I wasn’t commenting on the process. I was commenting on the results.

4. “Nobody is telling women and PoC that they can’t run Worldcon or attend conventions or be part of fandom, so your charges of sexism and racism are unfair and spurious.”

This is a very narrow understanding of what racism and sexism are about. It comes up a lot, the idea that real racism and sexism has to be explicit and intentional and blatant. Making blacks sit at the back of the bus is racist. Refusing to let women vote is sexist. But nobody’s saying or doing those things, so we’re not sexist or racist! Yay, us!

You’re right, I’m not personally aware of any recent examples of people explicitly refusing to let women and PoC participate in the convention-planning and conrunning process. 2

But there are an awful lot of ways to discriminate against people without being obvious about it. There are ways to hurt people without intending to do so, or even realizing you’ve hurt them. You can tell someone they aren’t welcome here without ever saying a harsh word.

If you’re not the one being hurt, it’s easy to miss it. If you’re not the one being made to feel unwelcome, you may not realize it’s happening at all. But if you only recognize two states of existence, Blatant Racism/Sexism vs. Everything’s Just Fine And Dandy, with nothing in between, then you’re not listening to the voices of a lot of people you’re claiming are welcome in our community. And your refusal to listen is perpetuating the problem.

That’s what colorblindness and genderblindness look like in this context. It doesn’t mean everyone is equally welcome in our community, because they’re not. It means looking at a photograph dominated by white men, and refusing to see anything problematic in our history. It means twisting one rhetorical knot after another to try to justify why this isn’t a real problem, or if it is, it’s not our problem.

It is our problem. It’s my problem and yours. And it’s a problem we’re never going to solve if we can’t get past this knee-jerk defensiveness at the mere suggestion that our community might not be perfect.

—

See also, “Fake Geek Girls,” whitewashed cover art, sexist cover poses, the disproportionate number of white, male authors who get reviewed, and a whole host of other statistics and examples. ↩
I’m not saying it doesn’t or hasn’t happened; only that I’m not aware. ↩

Enchanted, by Alethea Kontis

I have an autographed copy of Alethea Kontis‘ book Enchanted [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. Why? Because I’m just that lucky, that’s why! The problem is that most of my pleasure reading has taken a back seat to research and work on the books I need to write, so I haven’t been able to actually read it. And then Alethea posted about the audio book of Enchanted being available, and I snatched it up. The timing was perfect, giving me something to listen to on the way to and from GenCon.

Here’s the official synopsis:

It isn’t easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past—and hers?

There’s a lot I liked about this story. Kontis blends elements from many different fairy tales into a new story. You’ve got pieces from Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe, The Princess and The Frog, and more. But Enchanted isn’t a fairy tale retelling. It’s its own story, one that could imaginably evolve into those familiar tales over generations.

Sunday Woodcutter and Prince Rumbold are the two main characters, both engaging and sympathetic, but the broader cast of characters was delightful as well. The Woodcutter sisters are great, each one strong and interesting, with her own voice and backstory. Trix, the Woodcutters’ changeling son, was just plain fun. Rumbold’s companions were equally engaging, and part of the book’s fun was simply watching these wonderful characters interact with one another.

The size of the cast meant I had a little trouble trying to keep track of everything on occasion, but it wasn’t a major problem. There were pieces of the story that felt like Kontis was trying a little too hard to make the different stories and backstories fit together. But again, this was just a minor bump, and nothing that threw me out of the story.

One of the best parts of the story is how well Kontis captures the feel of fairy tales, the dangers and the heroics and the characters who are simultaneously larger-than-life and also very human.

I also have to say that Katherine Kellgren did a marvelous job as the reader for the audio book.

Book two of the Woodcutter family’s story, Hero [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], comes out on October 1, and tells the story of Sunday’s axe-wielding sister Saturday. I’m looking forward to it. And it looks like a third book, Beloved, will be coming out in October of next year.

If you enjoy fairy tale mash-ups with wonderful female characters and action and romance and more, I definitely recommend you check this one out.

You can read an excerpt of Enchanted at Bookbrowse.