Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 123

Gender and Pronouns and NPR

From an article in the New York Times:

…the lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning told the “Today” show that his client would like to be considered a woman and referred to as Chelsea.

With that, the debate over how to refer to Private Manning exploded in newsrooms, comments, blogs and Twitter.

I’m sorry, but what is there to debate? My legal name is James, but I prefer to be called Jim. I don’t recall needing other people’s approval for that, and I definitely don’t remember anyone, anywhere ever needing to debate whether or not it was appropriate to call me by my chosen name. Nor has anyone ever demanded I drop my pants before they would acknowledge me as male.

It gets worse. A spokewoman from NPR weighed in on this “debate”:

National Public Radio will continue for now to refer to Private Manning as “he,” according to a spokeswoman, Anna Bross. “Until Bradley Manning’s desire to have his gender changed actually physically happens, we will be using male-related pronouns to identify him,” she said.

Not only is NPR deliberately refusing to respect Manning’s wishes, they’re also explicitly linking gender identity to physical sexual characteristics. Sorry, but neither sex nor gender identity are that simplistic. (See here for an article on Germany’s new law which will legally acknowledge and recognize intersex children, along with some examples and statistics about sex and gender.)

If you’re worried about confusing your readers, you open with a sentence stating that Pfc. Manning has asked to be referred to as female, and with the name “Chelsea,” and you continue from there. But NPR was apparently more concerned with policing Manning’s genitals.

Unfortunately, this is also one of those stories that’s easy to dismiss if it’s not something that affects you personally. It’s easy in part because our culture works awfully damned hard to erase people like Chelsea Manning from our stories and our awareness, in part by refusing to respect their right to be called by the names and pronouns they choose.

When was the last time you saw or heard about a transgendered character on mainstream television? Oh sure, they’re used as the butt of transphobic jokes all the time, but that’s it. (See pretty much every sitcom ever for jokes about the horror of a guy starting to hook up with a woman who turns out to be — gasp — another guy! Yay, let’s all laugh at the intersection of transphobia and homophobia!)

On the same day that NPR’s spokeswoman released this ridiculous statement, one of the panelists on the Diane Rehm show (also broadcast on NPR) joked about how we shouldn’t trust military secrets to a guy who wears lipstick.

Bite me.

Look, I get that if you’ve grown up with a simplistic binary view of gender, it can be both difficult and uncomfortable to move beyond those narrow, exclusive definitions. When a friend of mine asked to be called Rachel instead of Rich many years back, I screwed up sometimes. I used the wrong pronouns. I used “Rich” sometimes out of habit.

It happens. You apologize, and you try harder. These days, trying to think of Rachel as “Rich” feels utterly wrong and bizarre.

But blatantly refusing people the respect and dignity of referring to them by their chosen names? Refusing to acknowledge someone’s identity because of what they may or may not have between their legs? That’s just dickish.

It’s also harmful.

As a society, we erase transgendered people. We treat them as jokes. We pretend they don’t exist, or if they do, they’re simply damaged, deviant, and broken. We don’t accept them as fully human. And we lash out verbally, emotionally, and physically against them.

NPR contributed to that dehumanization today. They contributed to the fear and hatred and violence that goes with it.

For future reference, here’s how the conversation about someone’s preferred identity should go:

Person A: “Hey, I prefer to be called by this name and pronoun.”
Person B: “Okay.”

It really isn’t that difficult, people.

ETA: NPR has a contact form for anyone wishing to write to their ombudsman about this. Thank you icecreamempress for that link!

Libriomancy in the UK and a Westland, MI Appearance

Today is the release day for the UK edition of Libriomancer!

Amazon UK: Paperback, E-book
Waterstones: Paperback, E-book

This is my first UK release, and I’m thrilled with everything Del Rey UK has done, particularly the gorgeous cover.

For those of you who might have been running into territorial issues, this also means you should be able to get the e-book edition in UK territories now.

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Tonight I’ll be at the Westland Public Library in Westland, Michigan. From 7 – 8 p.m., I’ll be talking about sexism and SF/F cover art. Assuming no technical glitches, there will be pictures. And almost certainly poses as well. So if you’re in the area, stop by and say hello!

Publishing News: Two More Victims of the Straight Agenda

From the Salt Lake Tribune, Cedar Fort Publishing apparently cancelled the release of Woven, a YA fantasy novel by David Powers King and Michael Jensen, because Jensen refused to remove a reference to his boyfriend in his author bio. Cedar Fort is a “predominantly LDS” publisher, but Jensen says he was told his book would not have to conform to strict LDS standards.

Jensen says he was surprised there was a problem because he had submitted the biography five months earlier. He and King discussed their options.

“I was speechless,” says King, who unlike Jensen is a practicing Mormon. “My first reaction was, ‘Is this really happening?’ We decided, what good was it … to omit truths and not be honest with ourselves?”

The article says Cedar Fort has declined to comment on the story. I checked their Facebook page, Twitter account, and blog, and found nothing about King and Jensen.

Does Cedar Fort have the right to kill a book because the author refuses to hide his sexuality? I obviously haven’t seen the contract, but I suspect they do. Utah is one of many states with no employment discrimination laws protecting LGBT employees.

While it pisses me off and makes me said, I’m not overly shocked at a primarily religious publisher pulling a book over something like this. Though it sounds like they were aware of Jensen’s sexuality all along, so I have no clue why they waited until the last minute to pull the plug.

But I find myself wondering, for every publisher, editor, and agent who explicitly rejects someone for their sexual orientation, how many others are doing the same thing without saying why?

I’ve never had to worry about mentioning my family in my author bios, or thanking my wife in the acknowledgements of one of my books. My guess is that most straight authors never give it a second thought.

When people talk about continuing the fight for inclusiveness, diversity, and acceptance in publishing? This is what we’re talking about. It’s one more example of people’s prejudices and bigotry hurting the publishing world. Sometimes it’s explicit. Other times it’s subtle and unstated.

(I loved GenCon, but I can’t help noticing how many all-male and/or all-white panels I was on this past weekend.)

Judging from the number of people I’ve seen talking about this story, my guess is that King and Jensen will come out of this with a better deal in the end, and good for them. But what about the rest of the authors who get pushed aside and kicked down and overlooked because they have the wrong color skin, love the wrong people, or identify as the wrong gender? In many cases, I doubt it’s conscious or deliberate discrimination, but intent doesn’t change the end result.

We’ve got a lot of work left to do…

Back from GenCon

I’m home from Gen Con, and working on catching up with everything. The convention was an absolute blast. Most of my time was spent on the Writers Symposium, signing books in Authors Alley, and hanging out with truly excellent people.

Huge thanks to Marc Tassin, who organized the Writers Symposium and did (in my opinion) a tremendous job of it. Thanks also to Don and Molly for all of their work both helping to run the programs and for making sure Marc occasionally stopped to eat or sleep.

There were many Moments of Awesomeness, far too many to list here. But I’m going to share a few highlights.

Almost a decade after he gave me a most excellent blurb for Goblin Quest, I finally got to meet Wil Wheaton in person. We only chatted for a minute or so, but it was long enough for me to say thanks, and to joke around a little before he went on his way.
I was on a panel with Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon, and had a blast. Even if Larry kept rubbing my head for luck They were both wonderfully warm and friendly people.
On Saturday, Paul Genesse put together a pizza party dinner thing, which I shamelessly crashed. This was a high point of the convention. I laughed harder than I have in ages, thanks to folks like Mary Robinette Kowal, Scott Lynch, Douglas Warrick, Danielle Friedman, Monica Valentinelli, and more.
I went True Dungeoning! Pat Rothfuss had organized a True Dungeon event for Worldbuilders, and invited me to participate. It was much fun. Though as a newbie, I was a bit lost in the beginning. I ended up being the rogue, solved my three puzzle boxes, and totally looted the corpses of John Scalzi and Pat Rothfuss!

GenCon is a big event, with probably close to 50,000 people this year. This was only my second time attending, and I definitely needed to retreat to the hotel room from time to time to recharge. But this also means there were a lot of people I don’t see very often, or hadn’t yet met in person, and that was the absolute best part of the weekend.

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I posted a few more pics on Facebook.

I’m slowly getting to various emails and other work that piled up over the weekend. Not to mention catching up on sleep. But I got to hang out with amazing people, sold 40+ books over in Authors Alley, and generally had an absolute blast.

Totally worth it.

My thanks to everyone who helped to make this weekend so much fun.

Gen Con

I’m heading down to Gen Con on Thursday, which should be tremendous fun. I’ve been once before, and while it’s a little overwhelming, I also get to hang out with a lot of friends and generally wonderful people I don’t see very often. I’ll be part of the Writers Symposium, doing panels and workshops and such, and I’ve got a few autographing times as well. I’ll have books to sell, and will also be happy to sign whatever you’d like to bring.

The full schedule looks like so.

Thursday

3 p.m., Room 2 – Should You Plot or Not?

4 p.m., Dealers Hall – Signing Tables

Friday10 a.m., Room 1 – Online Presence

11 a.m., Room 3 – Reading

3 p.m., Dealers Hall – Signing Tables

4 p.m., Room 3 – Meet the Writers of the Future

7 p.m., Room 1 – Writing a Series

Saturday

11 a.m., Dealers Hall – Signing Tables

2 p.m., True Dungeon (Worldbuilders Charity Event. No more tickets available – sorry.)

4 p.m., Room 1 – Hard Fantasy (Moderating)

Sunday

8 a.m., Room 1 – Read and Critique Workshop

9 a.m., Room 1 – Read and Critique Workshop

I expect it to be a bit exhausting, but a lot of fun.

So who else will be going?

Sexual Harassment Conversations, in Comic Form

Clippy Comic

Born out of a random Twitter quip from earlier this afternoon…

Post-Release Nap Time

Yesterday was exciting, overwhelming, draining, marvelous, exhausting, and gratifying. Thank you so much to everyone for your support, support that came across in so many ways. There were several times yesterday I actually got choked up reading some of the things people were saying and doing.

Like Mindy Klasky‘s comment that, “The final chapter of CODEX (no, I’m not going to spoil it for you) actually left me with a real, physical chill.” Or everyone who came out to Schuler Books last night for the launch. Or friends who loaned me their blog platforms to talk about the book.

I’m happy and a little dazed today, but there are some things I needed to share.

BOOK GIVEAWAYS:

Two wonderful friends are hosting contests to win an autographed, personalized copy of Codex Born [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].

Seanan McGuire – Leave a comment naming the first book that changed your life, and you’re entered to win.
Elizabeth Bear – Create a humorous book macro about either my books or hers. (I really want to see what people come up with for this one!)

KINDLE AVAILABILITY:

Some people noted that the e-books weren’t available outside the U.S. Unfortunately, this is not something I have control over. It’s a territorial issue, meaning the e-books are only available to U.S. mailing addresses.

The U.K. edition of Libriomancer will be coming out in two weeks, so that e-book should be available then.

As much as I’d love for everyone, everywhere to be able to give me money buy the books, I’m afraid this one is out of my hands.

That said, the U.S. e-book of Libriomancer has dropped to $7.99 to match the mass market paperback price.

VIDEO SILLINESS:

Over on Facebook, DAW has posted two videos I did when I was in New  York earlier this year.

Video One: In which I chat about Codex Born.
Video Two: Talking about cover poses.
Video Three: I don’t know, but I’m told it will be very silly, and may include random comments about Anton Strout. This one will be posted once Video Two gets 200 likes on Facebook.


Romantic Times also did a video interview with me at BEA, which was a lot of fun.

I’m sure there’s more I should be mentioning, but this is all my brain had room for.

And don’t worry. As I get through this week, the blog will shift back to its normal routine of randomly yelling at clouds.

Codex Born is Out Today

[image error]Today marks the official release date for Codex Born and the mass market paperback of Libriomancer!

Codex is my ninth fantasy novel with DAW, so being an experienced, even jaded author, I am naturally not going to be spending the entire day freaking out and checking Amazon rankings and bouncing uncontrollably and flailing about like a muppet in a paint-mixing machine. (And if you believe that…)

My thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the first book, who pre-ordered this one, who offered support and encouragement, spread the word about the books, and just generally made my world a better place.

I’ve got two events scheduled for this week if you’re interested.

Tonight (August 6), I’m at Schuler Books in Eastwood from 7 – 8:30.
Saturday (August 10), I’ll be at Kazoo Books (Parkview Location) in Kalamazoo starting at 2 p.m.

BLURB OF AWESOMENESS: You know, a number of people have gotten blurbs from bestselling author and former SFWA president John Scalzi. But how many authors can boast something like THIS?

“This is the perfect follow up to Libriomancer. It has more magic, more action and more backstory.  And I love love love the Lena diaries!!!”

-Kristine Scalzi

VIDEO JIM: When I was in New York earlier this year, we filmed a promotional video at the Penguin/DAW offices. They’ve posted the first video over on the DAW Books Facebook page, along with a note that if it gets 100 likes, they’ll move on to videos 2 and 3, which get a bit … sillier.

LINKS TO STUFF:

The Big Idea – A guest post at John Scalzi’s place, talking about the character of Lena Greenwood.
My Favorite Bit – In which Mary Robinette Kowal lets me share a bit more about Lena, including one of my favorite pieces from Lena’s backstory snippets.
Tell Me – A guest post at Jennifer Brozek’s blog, talking about Isaac’s love of books and magic.
Literary Escapism has an exclusive excerpt from the book, showcasing one of the odder fight scenes

BUY STUFF (If you’re so inclined…)

Libriomancer

PAPERBACK: Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound
HARDCOVER: Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound
EBOOK: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks
AUDIO: Audible.com

Codex Born

HARDCOVER: Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Schuler Books | Indiebound
EBOOK: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks
AUDIO: Audible.com

OTHER STUFF:

Carrie S. at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has a lovely new review of Codex Born.

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Stay tuned for more, including a few book giveaways!

#SFWApro

Other August Books

In an effort to stop obsessing over my own book coming out tomorrow, I wanted to point out a few of the other books showing up in August. (I’ll add sales links for Kane and Klasky when they become available tomorrow.)

Wrong Ways Down, by Stacia Kane. (August 6) For fans of Kane’s Downside series, I’ll just mention that this story is from Terrible’s point of view, which is something I suspect many of you will appreciate.

Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], edited by Todd McCaffrey. (August 6) A collection of memories, essays, and insights about the creator of Pern.

Possession [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy], by Kat Richardson. (August 6) Tor.com has an excerpt from Richardson’s latest Greywalker book here.

Single Witch’s Survival Guide, by Mindy Klasky. (August 13) This is the first volume of Klasky’s Jane Madison Academy series, where her librarian-witch opens a school for witches. Go Team Librarian! The first chapter is posted here.

Velveteen vs. The Multiverse, by Seanan McGuire. (Mid-August) I wrote the introduction for McGuire’s first delightful Velveteen collection, and I’m very excited to see the second coming out! Preorder from ISFiC Press here.

What are you looking forward to reading this month?

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