Dusk
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My gay e-zine True Tales is currently offering news coverage of Hurricane Gustav, with breaking news of the hurricane's effects on the gay community, as well as the leather/BDSM/bear communities. As with our Katrina coverage, I'll be keeping a special eye on the effects of the hurricane on gay writers and artists.
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I don't know whether anyone has posted about this yet, but here are the finalists. Finalists from very small presses (i.e. the type that attract authors on the scale of most of us here): MLR Press has a finalist in the erotica category: William Maltese & Wayne Gunn's "Ardennian Boy." Blind Eye Books has a finalist in the SF/F/H category: Ginn Hale's "Wicked Gentlemen." Interestingly, all the finalists in the Men's Romance category (which is where the very small presses have made their biggest mark) are from larger presses.
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JSmith said: "We do have an 'Ask Me' option" Oh, believe me, I noticed that you were in advance of a lot of other sites. But I still prefer the option of not having to choose an option.
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I tell people, "I have a sexual orientation that it takes PowerPoint to describe." Seriously. My sexual orientation just doesn't fit into the normal boxes. I usually tick "bisexual," because that's as close as I can get to a standard label, but being forced to choose a label is annoying. I wish that every site on the Web would stop requiring gender and orientation labels, except on a voluntary basis. Now, I think voluntary labels are wonderful. As rknapp and others here have said, there should be a place for labels for people who can easily say what they are and want to share that information with others. But as colinian says, being required to pin a label on oneself is annoying.
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eliotmoore asked: "Would women be so quick to write rape into their stories?" Yes. Rape stories are a popular subgenre in the fan fiction community, which is predominantly female. Sometimes those stories are written for titillation, sometimes to explore serious issues of abuse. The stories that are written for titillation aren't necessarily by authors who aren't concerned with real-life abuse. Sometimes rape survivors write such stories. The authors make a strong distinction between fantasy and reality, as I imagine many authors in the gay fiction world do. Personally, I can't easily read stories where rape is presented for titillation, but I do very much enjoy stories that explore abuse issues.
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The professional authors (and semi-pros and amateurs) are pouring out their stories. Have fun reading what they've posted.
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After the outgoing vice president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America posted an entry at the SWFA blog, slamming professional authors who post their works online (he later toned down his wording), author Jo Walton wrote a post encouraging authors to "give away professional quality work online" on April 23 "to celebrate our technopeasanthood." Over at the SWFA blog, the moderator, Will Shetterly, encouraged people to post links at that blog on April 23 to their online work (in replies to a special entry he'll post on that day), adding, "If you can't come up with something new for the 23rd but already have work that's free on the web, offer the link. Everyone's welcome in the IPST!" I queried, and he clarified that, yes, he meant everyone: pro, semi-pro, and amateur writers. It seems to me that all writers who support the right of pro authors to publish their works in the manner that they wish may be interested in participating in this celebration. If you would like an icon by which to spread the word, here are some nice ones by John Scalzi, Mary Dell, and Leigh Dragoon.
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For those of you who are interested: The Slash Skinny is a news and market report I edit on four genres of professionally published literature and art featuring same-sex attraction: original slash, femslash, yaoi, and yuri. Past issues are available free online at The Slash Skinny's Website. The April 2007 issue is available through the link in this sentence for 99
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The Erotic Authors Association, which was founded in 2000 and which I now direct, is accepting membership applications through February 18. (The next enrollment period is in April.) There are three categories of membership: Authors, Professionals (editors, illustrators, etc.), and Corporate Membership (forums, e-zines, etc.). The Join Us page lists member benefits. All writers of erotic literature are welcome to apply. Authors must have had their writings published or self-published in print, electronically, on the Internet, in audio or video format, or have had their writings performed. For those of you who'd just like to browse, there are some goodies linked at the site, such as "A History of Erotic Literature," articles by well-known erotic writers, and market reports.
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Those of you who are professional writers - or even just readers - may want to know that a big U.S. distributor of books has filed for bankruptcy, causing headaches for many big presses and trauma for small presses. Among the publishers affected are Cleis Press, which is one of the oldest and largest GLBT publishers, and Green Candy Press, which carries gay titles, among other things. Here's a New York Times article about the impact on big publishers, a blog entry about the impact on small publishers, a list of the affected small presses, an abridged list of the affected big presses, and a post about Cleis's situation by erotica author Violet Blue. She mentions that Cleis is having a "buy three, get one free" sale right now. (Shipping is always free from Cleis.) Perhaps now is a good time to support Cleis if you'd been thinking of doing some GBLT book-shopping.
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Razor wrote: "Perhaps I should've included the option of bittersweet." Yup, yup, yup. My liking for bittersweet so outweighs the other options that it would be misleading for me to vote.
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It sounds to me as though this gentleman Has Issues. I'll be kind and assume that he's some closeted writer who's scared to death you'll find the children's stories he wrote under his real name and report him to his boss. Regardless, he's not making things any easier for himself by being rude to his fans.
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I'm with what jamessavik says. Find something common you can talk about. The weather, bad cafeteria food, which teachers should be fired, etc.
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DomLuka wrote: "So I guess I'm asking those ready to fight every time they don
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I'm too new to know about all the problems that have occurred, but I ran a discussion board once that attracted flamers like fruit attracts fruit flies. Yes, running a forum is a thankless business. A small but vocal minority make clear that they dislike the administration's way of doing business, and they just don't shut up. (This is as opposed to the folks who politely offer constructive criticism. I always welcomed those posts.) So I can fully understand your weariness, Myr. I hope you don't forget, though, that a lot of the reason that the silent majority don't speak up in such situations is that they don't want to make matters worse by contributing to flame threads. They figure the best way to keep peace in such situations is to keep silent till everything blows over. But all of us need to be poked now and then to remember to send thank-you notes. I posted mine when I first got here, a short while ago, but I'll try to remember to do so periodically from now on.
