A few links
* The New Rude Masters of Science Fiction by Cat Rambo
http://www.kittywumpus.net/blog/2019/12/31/the-new-rude-masters-of-science-fiction/
You cannot trust a system like that to account for the people who are not represented in daily speech, who are discouraged by a thousand tiny things from speaking. You cannot trust it to let them speak when they need to or when they have value to add. If we are to build a society that accommodates those folk, they must be part of the conversation. If we are to create a literature in which every reader can find a place, the underrepresented writers must be part of that conversation as well. We do not ask for a system where privileged authors are using that privilege to speak for those groups, but one where members of those groups get to speak for themselves. That is at the core of #ownvoices.
Lots of generalizations are made about millennials. Here’s mine: they rub older people the wrong way sometimes because they won’t put up with the bullshit acceptable in the past. Personally, I dig that. I hit the fact that society uses politeness and the expectation that I be “nice” against me on a daily basis, and so the way I see these fierce young folks say “ok boomer” and move on is a revelation and a joy to me. Day by day, I get a little ruder to the people who think nothing of demanding that I cater to their time and energy rather than mine, and it’s the millennials rolling their eyes at the clueless that egg me on.
* Your Heart is a Moving Target by Kali Wallace
http://www.kaliwallace.com/news/2020/1/12/your-heart-is-a-moving-target
Part of it, I know, is that the world is terrifying right now, so planning for the future on the scale of "submit stories! write another novel!" can often feel like sticking your fingers in your ears to ignore widespread apocalyptic collapse of both natural and human systems all around the globe. Part of it is run-of-the-mill work and money stress that makes it hard to think about anything beyond what the new few weeks and months will bring. Part of it is, hello, lifelong chronically depressed and anxious person here, reporting for duty, if by duty we mean eating pancakes on a Sunday morning while writing a blog post.
But I don't think that's all it is. I think there's something else going on. I had a lovely conversation with friend and fellow writer Adriana Mather the other day about various challenges we're dealing with in our writing lives. Nothing unusual or extraordinary for authors five books into our publishing careers, but the one thing that we both kept coming back to was the wide disconnect between the mental space needed to tell the stories we want to tell, and the persistent knowledge that both the publishing community and the publishing industry are really good at completely eradicating that mental space for writers.
* Whatever Happened to ____ by Anonymous (Warning for abuse)
https://longreads.com/2020/01/15/whatever-happened-to-______/
The truth is, writing takes time. Much of the labor is done in private. I’ve worked on books for a decade each, though simultaneously. I’m a steady multitasker, always parenting. I teach college too, because writing is a gambler’s income while teaching runs closer to steady, and if you’re lucky, it comes with health insurance. There was a time when I had 185 students per semester. That meant almost 1,000 essays every 10 weeks — 5000 pages of reading, editing and comments. Even then, I kept writing. My strategy is to let ideas sift, settle and reconfigure. I work in bursts when time allows, instead of adhering to the write-every-day adage. I’ve published three books while serving as primary parent, learning to care for an infant, then catching up on caring for a toddler, then navigating sending the same child to grade school, forever trying to stay just ahead of the learning curve as our child grows, in an ever-evolving job.
***
Can You Vote? Check your voter registration here: https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote
comments
http://www.kittywumpus.net/blog/2019/12/31/the-new-rude-masters-of-science-fiction/
You cannot trust a system like that to account for the people who are not represented in daily speech, who are discouraged by a thousand tiny things from speaking. You cannot trust it to let them speak when they need to or when they have value to add. If we are to build a society that accommodates those folk, they must be part of the conversation. If we are to create a literature in which every reader can find a place, the underrepresented writers must be part of that conversation as well. We do not ask for a system where privileged authors are using that privilege to speak for those groups, but one where members of those groups get to speak for themselves. That is at the core of #ownvoices.
Lots of generalizations are made about millennials. Here’s mine: they rub older people the wrong way sometimes because they won’t put up with the bullshit acceptable in the past. Personally, I dig that. I hit the fact that society uses politeness and the expectation that I be “nice” against me on a daily basis, and so the way I see these fierce young folks say “ok boomer” and move on is a revelation and a joy to me. Day by day, I get a little ruder to the people who think nothing of demanding that I cater to their time and energy rather than mine, and it’s the millennials rolling their eyes at the clueless that egg me on.
* Your Heart is a Moving Target by Kali Wallace
http://www.kaliwallace.com/news/2020/1/12/your-heart-is-a-moving-target
Part of it, I know, is that the world is terrifying right now, so planning for the future on the scale of "submit stories! write another novel!" can often feel like sticking your fingers in your ears to ignore widespread apocalyptic collapse of both natural and human systems all around the globe. Part of it is run-of-the-mill work and money stress that makes it hard to think about anything beyond what the new few weeks and months will bring. Part of it is, hello, lifelong chronically depressed and anxious person here, reporting for duty, if by duty we mean eating pancakes on a Sunday morning while writing a blog post.
But I don't think that's all it is. I think there's something else going on. I had a lovely conversation with friend and fellow writer Adriana Mather the other day about various challenges we're dealing with in our writing lives. Nothing unusual or extraordinary for authors five books into our publishing careers, but the one thing that we both kept coming back to was the wide disconnect between the mental space needed to tell the stories we want to tell, and the persistent knowledge that both the publishing community and the publishing industry are really good at completely eradicating that mental space for writers.
* Whatever Happened to ____ by Anonymous (Warning for abuse)
https://longreads.com/2020/01/15/whatever-happened-to-______/
The truth is, writing takes time. Much of the labor is done in private. I’ve worked on books for a decade each, though simultaneously. I’m a steady multitasker, always parenting. I teach college too, because writing is a gambler’s income while teaching runs closer to steady, and if you’re lucky, it comes with health insurance. There was a time when I had 185 students per semester. That meant almost 1,000 essays every 10 weeks — 5000 pages of reading, editing and comments. Even then, I kept writing. My strategy is to let ideas sift, settle and reconfigure. I work in bursts when time allows, instead of adhering to the write-every-day adage. I’ve published three books while serving as primary parent, learning to care for an infant, then catching up on caring for a toddler, then navigating sending the same child to grade school, forever trying to stay just ahead of the learning curve as our child grows, in an ever-evolving job.
***
Can You Vote? Check your voter registration here: https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote
comments
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