Jim C. Hines's Blog, page 175

Rape in the Media

I'm talking about sexual assault and the coverage of rape in the media.  Both the description of rape and the victim-blaming in the reporting are likely to be anger-inducing and/or triggering for some readers.

Shadesong pointed out two very different news stories about CBS reporter Lara Logan, who was separated from her crew and repeatedly raped during the protests in Egypt. The difference between the CBS News report and the LA Weekly report is obvious from the images chosen for each story.

For CBS, Logan was one of their own.  Not a sexual object but a human being, a colleague.  They present the facts in a concise article.  Logan was reporting on the celebration in Tahrir Square.  She was separated from her crew.  She was raped and beaten before being rescued by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.  The story concludes with, "There will be no further comment from CBS News and correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time."

Contrast this with Simone Wilson's "report" in LA Weekly. "South African TV journalist Lara Logan, known for her shocking good looks and ballsy knack for pushing her way to the heart of the action, was brutally and repeatedly raped…"

Wilson emphasises Logan's appearance, calling her "the gutsy stunner" or referring to "her Hollywood good looks," while at the same time sensationalizing/sexualizing the rape with phrasing like, "…Egyptian protesters apparently consummated their newfound independence by sexually assaulting the blonde reporter."  (Emphasis added.)

Of course, it was really Logan's fault, because she should have known better, right?  Wilson brings up an Esquire interview in which Logan was called "insane" for wanting to return to Egypt.  (Um … she's a reporter.  This is her job.  Would a male reporter be similarly criticized for choosing to report in Egypt?)

No report of rape would be complete without an attack on the victim's sex life.  The longest quote in Wilson's article is reserved, not for anything to do with rape, but for an excerpt from a New York Post article from 2008 about Logan's sexual history in which she's called a "sultry" "home-wrecker," a lurid piece which sounds more like the setup for an erotic romance than actual reporting.

The pathetic thing is how normal this is.  This is how rapes are reported in this country.  Sensationalized and sexualized, deliberately playing into readers' rape fantasies.  (Why else would Wilson include the following quote from Mofo Politics: "OMG if I were her captors and there were no sanctions for doing so? I would totally rape her.")

This is the story we tell, again and again — that rape is about sexually attractive women getting what they deserve, for being sluts or for being unavailable or for just being where women don't belong.  This is how we treat survivors of rape, blaming them and sexualizing/fetishizing what they've been through.  This is how we encourage rapists, fantasizing and justifying the act of rape.

The next time someone asks what "rape culture" means, tell them to go read LA Weekly.

Dream Casting

Interviewers often ask me who I'd cast if there were to be a movie of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] and the subsequent books.  I don't get out to see many movies, so I usually try to brush that question off.  But then on Twitter, I came across a reference to a new project from Felicia Day, and it occurred to me that she could do a very nice job of playing Danielle.

A few Tweets later, and we have:

Danielle: Felicia Day

Snow: Emma Stone or Kristen Bell?1

Talia: Zoe Saldana

And maybe Wil Wheaton for Diglet the goblin?  I know it's a smaller part, but I could see him having lots of fun with that.

Dear Hollywood - please make it so.

What do you think?  Any ideas for the rest of the cast?  Queen Bea, Prince Armand, Hephyra (from books two and four, because of course we're going to do all four films), Roudette, Trittibar, etc?

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I'm not familiar with their work. These were suggestions from two of my Twitter friends. ↩

The Anti-NY Playbook (Bashing Commercial Publishing)

I asked on Twitter a while back why, if e-publishing is so successful, so many self-published e-authors are still promoting themselves by bashing commercial publishing.  Instead of, you know, promoting their writing.

To be clear, I'm not saying that all self-published authors do this.  But there are a number whose public personas spend most of their time going on about how awful commercial publishing is. And I finally figured out why their rhetoric bugs me so much.

It's because this is the same stuff I've been hearing for years … only a decade ago, it was coming almost entirely from scammers and vanity presses.

Take the author who cited Snooki's book as proof that commercial publishing is imploding.  New York is only interested in celebrity trash!  There's no room for the truly original, so your best bet is to sign with Publish America e-publish your own work.  (See First Book Friday for a list of non-celebrity authors who sold their books to major publishers in recent years.)

Another e-published author criticized commercial publishing for being too slow.  Why wait two years for your book to come out when Publish America can release it within a week of signing the contract you could self-publish through Amazon and start earning 70% Kindle royalties within 90 days?  (Assuming you don't care about things like editing, good cover art, pre-publication publicity, and so on.)

But commercial publishers want to rip you off!  Look at these e-published authors who are selling like crazy, getting 70% royalties and making tens of thousands of dollars every month.  It reminds me of the way Paolini used to be "proof" that self-publishing was the way to go.  By the same logic, don't Rowling and Meyer prove that commercial publishing is the best choice?  Because that way you can become a bajillionaire like them, right?  (Paraphrase: Don't use outliers to make your arguments.)

Whether it's the old-school scammers or the new indie author with a grudge, we all know the real enemies are the evil, greedy, clueless editors and agents.  The people who are only in it for the money and wouldn't know a good story if it hugged their face and planted a book that burst out of their chest a few days later.

The only problem being that this is bullshit.  Most editors love the field, and love discovering new writers and new stories.  The agents love signing new authors and watching their careers take off.  These are jobs that eat up a hell of a lot more than 40 hours a week, and if you're just in it for the money, then you learn pretty quickly that you chose poorly.

Are there bad editors and agents?  Of course … just like there are lousy [insert any other career here].  What's your point?

I'm not against e-publishing.  (Heck, I'm about 90% ready to e-publish Goblin Tales.)  I know not all e-published authors are taking this approach to self-promotion and publicity.  But to those who are, well, when so much of your playbook seems to have been swiped from Publish America and their ilk, I hope you'll understand why I look elsewhere for worthwhile information and conversation.

First Book Friday: Lynne Thomas

Welcome to First Book Friday.  Today we have Lynne Thomas (rarelylynne on LJ), Head of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.  That's right, she's a librarian, so don't mess with her.  She's fears nothing, except possibly desserts as big as her head.

Lynne brings us the story of her first (but definitely not last!) experience as a book editor.  A book which came about, in part, because of a T-shirt…

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Jim has asked me to talk about my experiences as a first-time editor on Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].

I've been part of Doctor Who fandom for about a decade, thanks to my husband, Michael. I'm an academic rare book librarian at Northern Illinois University, who happens to archive SF/F literature as part of my current job duties. (Best. Job. EVER. Especially since I get to work with Jim C. Hines's papers.)

The anthology's title came from a t-shirt that Tara O'Shea, my co-editor, designed for her first Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention in 2006. There's a pervasive notion in Doctor Who fandom (particularly in the UK), that the series is primarily pitched to and enjoyed only by male viewers. Tara wanted a book, aimed at both male and female fans, that told the stories of female fans, in a series of personal essays, who had been in the fandom all along, often behind the scenes. The subtitle could have easily been "No, really. Women like this series, too."

Just after Tara signed the contract, her personal life imploded, and Tara and the Mad Norwegians realized that she needed some help to get the book done on time. This is where I was brought into the project as co-editor. The folks at Mad Norwegian Press had been friends of ours through Who fandom for nearly as long as I've been part of it. I had previous academic editing and writing experience (including a co-authored academic book, Special Collections 2.0). Editing creative nonfiction — personal stories — was new to me, even if the organizational skills for editing do translate.

Adding an editor changes a book, because we all bring different contributors to the table (this was an invitation-only anthology). Tara laid out much of the initial groundwork, getting Seanan McGuire into the project, for example. I brought in additional SF/F authors, (many of whom archive their papers with me at NIU) who also happened to be Doctor Who fans (Elizabeth Bear, Catherynne M. Valente, Jody Lynn Nye, K. Tempest Bradford, and Mary Robinette Kowal). Carole Barrowman, Captain Jack Harkness actor John Barrowman's sister and writing collaborator, agreed to write for us, to my astonishment, when I cold-contacted her through her website. Our publisher also helped us reach contributors who had written Doctor Who tie–in books (Kate Orman and Lloyd Rose) and acted on the series (Lisa Bowerman). Through other friends in fandom, we got interviews with actors like Sophie Aldred, who played Ace in the Seventh Doctor's era. (Tara had to interview her; I was too nervous. Ace is my favorite companion.)

We then filled out the rest of our roster with other writers who had interesting, positive fandom stories. Many focused on their Doctor Who inspired creative activities such as writing fanfiction, cosplaying, and creating fanvids and fancomics.  We were very lucky to get an original comic from the creators of Torchwood Babiez. Working with writers is great fun, but it is intensive. I see my job as editor as giving writers feedback that will make their own work better, while still retaining their voice and vision. With some of the fan writers, this involved numerous drafts to figure out how to best tell their story. Over the course of two and a half years from pitch to publication, the book came together, and debuted at last year's Gallifrey One Convention.

I couldn't be more proud of this little book. The positive reaction from our readers has been completely overwhelming. Reading events have been standing room only. Fans have made fanart, fanvids about the book, and have even cosplayed Verity, our cover chick — named for Verity Lambert, Doctor Who's first producer — at conventions!

It was such a pleasure to work on this amazing project with Tara, the Mad Norwegians, and all of our fabulous contributors. Doctor Who has had a huge impact on my life, largely because of the community of fans, now friends, whom I have met through the series. Chicks Dig Time Lords is ultimately a love letter to my favorite show, its fandom, and the sense of community that comes out of being part of fandom.

Because fandom, you see, (much like the Doctor's TARDIS), is truly bigger on the inside.

E-book 2: Electric Jig

For those of you wanting the next update on Goldfish Dreams [B&N | Amazon], I checked the numbers, and it's selling 1-2 copies per week.  I.e., still not king.  So I figured I'd try something else.  Review copies of an e-book cost me nothing but the time it takes to send an e-mail, right?  If you're a reviewer and would be interested in a review copy of Goldfish Dreams, (epub or mobi format), please let me know.  I figure I'll start by giving away a dozen or so copies and we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, the e-book experiment continues!  I've downloaded a copy of Sigil and have been playing around with creating my own epub files, both by working with the software and by reverse engineering the work Steven Saus did for me converting Goldfish Dreams.

I've created and uploaded the sample chapter of The Snow Queen's Shadow as an epub file here.  To those of you with e-book readers who want to check it out, please let me know if you run into any trouble with the file or formatting.  I tested it in iBooks on my phone, and it turned out fairly well, but I'd love to hear how it does on other platforms.

Because you see, once I get all of the bugs worked out, I can take the next step in my e-book journey.  I was thinking that it might be nice to do a little e-pubbed collection of my goblin-related stories.  It would be five short stories, probably priced at either $2.99 or $3.99, called Goblin Tales.

One criticism of my experiment with Goldfish Dreams has been that it's a mainstream novel, and I haven't built an audience in that area, so naturally sales aren't as good.  Short fiction collections don't tend to sell as well as novels, but Jig and company are in many ways the foundation of my career, so I suspect I've got more of an audience for goblin stories.

What do you think?  Goblin Tales: Best Idea Ever, Utter Waste of Time, or Other?

Snow Queen Preview

Random.org has picked two winners from last week's contest.  After counting up all the commenters on LJ, DW, and the main blog…

epeeblade wins a copy of Goblin Quest [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] for suggesting Goblins vs. Klingons.

Jennifer wins a copy of Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].  She suggested Goblins vs. Digi (who I believe is the little LEGO-Spaceman-looking guy here).

I loved this contest.  People came up with some wonderfully fun suggestions, and if you haven't read them, you could do far worse than to click over and see who the goblins should face in their next adventure.

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[image error]I've posted the first chapter of The Snow Queen's Shadow [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] in PDF format here.  Go forth and sample, if you wish.

I'm planning to get an epub version posted in the next day or so as well.  I'm using this as practice for doing my own e-book conversion.  PDF is a pretty universal format, but I figured some readers would prefer epub.

And … that's all I've got for today.  Enjoy!

Health Care

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 46 million people without health insurance living in the United States as of 2009.  From the same report, roughly 30% of people with health insurance are covered by a government program.

In 2007, life expectancy in the United States ranked 42nd in the world.  "Researchers said several factors have contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations. A major one is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while Canada and many European countries have universal health care."  (Other factors include obesity, racial differences, and higher infant mortality.)

A PBS Frontline report compares health care in the U.S. to Japan, Switzerland, Germany, and the U.K.  The report finds that the U.S. spends more of its GDP on health care, yet we have the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rate.

I linked last week to the story of author Melissa Mia Hall, who died of a heart attack.  There's a very good chance that she could have survived, but she was one of those 46 million without health insurance.  The treatment that might have saved her life would likely have bankrupted her.

More than sixty percent of U.S. bankruptcies are due to medical expenses.  The article notes that roughly 3/4 of those being bankrupted actually had health insurance, "but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services."  Others lost their jobs and benefits as a result of health-related issues.

People are terrified that "socialized" medicine is going to destroy the country.  Yet a 2010 study comparing health care in the U.S. and other nations found that "Britain, whose nationalized healthcare system was widely derided by opponents of U.S. healthcare reform, ranks first in quality while the Netherlands ranked first overall on all scores."  This despite the fact that we in the U.S. spend more than twice as much, per person, as any of the other nations studied.  (Author Liz Williams describes her first-hand experiences with U.K. health care here.)

Basically, many of these countries with evil, scary, government-run health care appear to be kicking our ass when it comes to actually taking care of their people.

Over the past few years, I've heard some groups arguing that the U.S. is or should be a Christian nation.  Wasn't Christ the guy who commanded his followers to love and care for the poor?  "It is estimated that the changes made by the [Health Care Reform] law will result in 16 million additional individuals enrolling in the Medicaid program."  (See Stephen Colbert for more on America's Christian attitudes toward the poor.)

I don't get it.  I don't understand the fear.  I don't understand the greed.  No health care system is or ever will be perfect, but we could do so much better.  Instead, health insurance companies rake in billions in profits while an estimated "68 adults under age 65 die every day because they don't have coverage." (Emphasis added.)

Our current health care reform has much room for improvement.  But for God's sake, can we please try to move forward and make things better instead of fighting so damned hard to move backward?

Discussion and debate are welcome, as always.

Active vs. Passive

[image error]I got me some cover flats for Snow Queen on Saturday.  So naturally, much of that day was spent scanning and uploading to my various sites … turns out I have a lot of 'em.  Go figure.  Anyway, click the thumbnail for a larger version.

Speaking of things princess, stormsdotter sent me pics of the sweet Talia costume she made.  Not only that, but she immediately went out and kicked Batman's ass, because that's what you do when you have a Talia costume.  Check 'em out!

And now, on to today's grammar lesson.  I'm sure someone, somewhere, has made this joke before, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  (I assume I don't need to tell people not to do the last one?)

ACTIVE VOICE:

Jim submitted his manuscript to the editor.

PASSIVE VOICE:

The manuscript was rejected.

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE VOICE:

Dear editor,

I know you're too busy with your bestsellers to actually read submissions from new writers.  I appreciate that your unpaid intern was able to take thirty seconds to glance at the first page of my manuscript.  Thanks for getting back to me after only three queries.  A friend of mine didn't hear back on his story at all, so I appreciate you responding in only two and a half years.

Thanks,

Jim

First Book Friday: Mark Terry

Mark Terry is a little different from the other authors I've featured here on First Book Friday .  For one thing, he writes thrillers, not SF/F.  But I like him anyway.  For another, Mark is the only one who's tossed me around like a rag doll — he's a black belt in Sanchin-Ryu, and we've worked out together a time or two.  (He's not in my local class, but we see each other at regional events.)

Mark has been blogging about writing and publishing, and recently did a four-part blog series about book contracts.  Check out his blog here.  But first, read on for Mark's bumpy publishing journey.

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I wonder if anyone has a "typical" first-book experience. Mine is, to say the least, weird. So much so I'm not even sure what to call my first book.

After a lot of effort and rejection, I finally sent a manuscript out back around 2000 or so, maybe a couple years earlier, to an up-and-coming independent publisher called Write Way Publishing. Write Way focused on mysteries, published in hardcover as well as trade paperback, and had several authors who had been nominated for major mystery awards like the Edgar and the Anthony. The manuscript was called BLOOD SECRETS and featured a forensic toxicologist. The publisher offered a ridiculous no-advance, 4-year publication window contract and was pretty much a total bitch during the so-called "negotiations." I signed. Then she moved the pub date up, then did it again. I was now about 18 months or so out from publication.

Websites were just starting to be big, so I came up with the marketing idea to write a novella, a prequel to BLOOD SECRETS, called NAME YOUR POISON. It would have 12 chapters and I would serialize it a chapter per month leading up to the publication of BLOOD SECRETS. I wrote it. A friend of mine was teaching website design at the high school level, the kids designed some sites, I chose one, and off we went, one chapter at a time. This happily coincided with Stephen King's serialized web-based publication of THE PLANT (which has a rather strange publication history itself), so I was getting some traffic and media attention and even the occasional review, thanks to riding on Mr. King's coattails.

And then Write Way Publishing, right around month six, declared bankruptcy, released the rights to me (thankfully) and I was no longer going to be a published novelist. I was not happy, although to be fair, WWP released the rights to me. Other authors were not so lucky and found the rights to their novels tied up in bankruptcy court for a couple years.

Right around that same time, POD publisher company iUniverse came onto the scene and offered a deal to active members (of which I was one) that was hard to pass up. For a six-month period iUniverse would publish any members' book for free! I quickly wrote another prequel called CATFISH GURU, also featuring forensic toxicologist Dr. Theo MacGreggor. They came up with excellent artwork, which is not always the case with iUniverse, and a collection of mystery novellas titled CATFISH GURU was published.

So I suppose that is my first published book. I don't always view it that way, although I find that the writing and the stories hold up reasonably well. The next book, DIRTY DEEDS, had a far more traditional publishing history. It sold to the first independent publisher it was shown to, High Country Publishers, and was published about a year later. I since then became a full-time freelance writer, acquired an agent (several over the years, actually), have published nine books both traditionally and self-published, (and collaborated on a nonfiction book) and from time to time the whole publishing process proceeds smoothly and as expected…

No, wait. I'm lying. It never proceeds smoothly. But that's what I've come to expect, so… There's the story about being dropped mid-contract along with a whole bushel-full of authors. There's the story about the small press that offered a contract, then disappeared off the face of the earth, their website replaced by one advertising a pet crematorium… At the moment anyway, I'm quite pleased with Oceanview Publishing, which published THE FALLEN  [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] and has THE VALLEY OF SHADOWS scheduled for June 2011. Let's hope it continues smoothly.

Random Questions

Why did Zazzle remove the 20 Neil Gaiman Facts T-shirt?

This was done as a result of a law regarding "rights of celebrity/publicity," meaning it's illegal to sell unsanctioned merchandise using the name or likeness of a celebrity.  I'm working to get this straightened out.

Unsanctioned? But Gaiman tweeted and linked people to the shirt.  Why did they still take it down?  Why did they ignore the note you included stating that you had permission?  Why did they cancel every order but didn't bother to contact you until days later?  Why did you have to send multiple e-mails to Zazzle before they'd respond?  Why are they still not answering all of your questions?

Because they suck.

Is Star Wars fantasy or science fiction?

Who cares.

What the hell is "forcible rape" supposed to mean?

It's shorthand for "I have no freaking clue about rape."  (Fortunately, the language of that particular bill is being changed.)

Why does the new "V" series suck so badly?

In the show, the Visitors are trying to find and destroy the human soul.  In the real world, the network is trying to find and destroy the soul of its viewers.

Why haven't you written about the death of author Melissa Mia Hall?

Because my current feelings are unprintable, and I need to work through my initial disgust and fury at the state of health care in this nation, and the people who fight so viciously against the idea that we should do better for all of our people.

Did you know you're only 11 away from having 2000 Facebook friends?

2000 is a nice, round number, and is pleasing to my sense of mathematical aesthetics.  11 of you should friend me at once, so that I can win at Facebook.

Do you believe that science fiction/fantasy qualify as literature?  What about romance?  What about comics?

Yes, yes, and yes.  Please go away and come back when you have something less asinine to argue about.