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Sep. 15th, 2011 11:06 pmSo the big explosion in the writing blogverse this time is based on these two items:
Yes to Gay YA
and
Agency's Response
(To which Brown and Smith issued a joint statement basically saying they stand by their original words, and emphasizing that this should be about the blanket issue).
I would advise reading both articles before delving into either comment section if you really want to form your own conclusion. I don't know how someone else's more objective analysis of these two perspectives would go, but mine is that one of these two did their best to keep the complaint professional, and one made it very much personal. And that keeping it professional seems to increase that side's cachet, while making it personal reduces the other. But I am not objective. I AM a writer, for one, though not in YA. Moreover, I am a regular correspondent with one of the authors as well as a fan of several of her works, and a regular reader of the other's blog (and have read some of her fiction work, in the form of some manga-esque comics). The agents/agency, while on my list to query, are effectively unknown entities to me.
_____________
On more personal and thus more boring notes:
To go back in time slightly:
The event mostly went well. The lack of husband and several friends was more than made up by some of the people who WERE present, including two pleasant surprises (One was only there to merchant for a day, but we got to chat a fair bit. The other shared my cabin, so we spent more time together). And some newish people I didn't know well and like even better now. Lots of good company, overall. I got to the semi-finals in the archery shoot -- though my first round was in many ways the most interesting, as it really was a case of winning by a handful of seconds; he shot at least as well, and ended with a beauty. But semi-finals! I think that's the best I've done.
The food was EXCELLENT. I got through court without making any major oopses (though I stepped down as Baronial Herald, I ended up asked to do Royal Court at nigh the last minute. The extra running around had the queen say that if all this bustling put me into labour... apparently the last few reigns have been punctuated by queens or ladies-in-waiting who were quite knocked up> Theirs was the first one without). I even got to do a bit of dancing, though i took care not to overdo it (Cristina worried as it was, becuase I start panting so soon these days, but that's more about having less space to expand my lungs and less about how I feel while I'm panting. Actually, it reminded em of the times I fenced in a corset.)
The weather was meh - we had a thunderstorm roll in Friday night (Which made a spectacular backdrop for dark ages court), and it went drizzly and wet part of Saturday. But I kind of preferred that to sweltering, and by Saturday night it was pretty much cloudless, so we got to do both fire pits and fire arrows.
My one disappointment is hard to articulate without spending more words on it than it deserves. The bardic circles went well, and I was very happy with all I heard from pretty much every comer. I was, however, exceedingly disappointed in what I SANG on Sunday night (Saturday went okay but nothing standout). Mostly because that night, I sang three times, and
A) ALL three were someone else's requested song, not songs I would choose to lead if anyone else were available (One Colin usually leads if either of us does, and he's much better at it)
B) two of these weren't songs to which my voice is well suited, which means I WILL be disappointed in my performance to an extra degree, as wil the listeners, no matter how much they want THAT song NOW. (One, people pointed out that even though I'm an alto with an occasional tendency to tenor, I sing too high for most people to join in, and trying to drop it pushed, not the lowest part of my range, but one of those weird transition zones voices have, though they thanked me for trying anyhow).
and C) my voice wasn't at its best, especially in the deeps. Which last I could have lived with, if I'd done my own choosing.
However, the circle included a lot of strong new voices and a lot of strong out-of-towners, so i got to hear a lot of good stuff both nights. Which is a lot more yay.
Since then:
Renos progress. Most of the outside of the house is done. Next for Colin and my FiL is electrical, wall destruction, then insulation, and while they're doing this, HVAC is happening.
Baby progresses. Lots of kicking and moving. Which I usually LIKE to feel, except when it's too big and sudden and I jump or squeak. Hips occasionally bad. Got a therapy ball to sit on some of the time, which is fabulous, though for now, I can only do so for a couple of hours or so, not full time (and I'm always playing music, so I bounce fairly often, which is better than just sitting still - realistically, just sitting on it isn't *much* better than perching on a chair, and my posture's not that improved.)
Work progresses. I'm on for sure to the end of September. More happy. And this week I made the other part time person almost ecstatic by the amount of work I got through. (I do two jobs; one, which has been in extreme high priority mode all summer, which I do exclusively, and one which we share, but which has been low priority for me, and thus piling up on her. I finally had a week where I could take some of the strain off her.)
Writing doesn't progress. The week before the event was focused on sewing (to excellent effect) and the week after I was too tired. After that, I felt a bit disconnected from the story, so I started to run through a quick reread/editing pass. I'm near the end of that (and which gets less reread and more edit the nearer I get to current work, no surprise.) and feeling better about the answers to where and how to break this story from its sequel.
Bike -- had a big argh. I took it in last week because the bearings in the pedal system were badly messed up. Got it back Tuesday, rode it to and from work Wednesday, and this morning I had a flat tire. Which either implies - the guys at Gord's screwed up, or my timing sucks incredibly. If it's a busted seam instead of a hole, I WILL assume they over-inflated the tire. (Because I had a busted seam once before, and I KNOW that time they didn't check how far they inflated, they just made it as hard as they could.) Sigh. Just when I was all happy that she was no longer taking extreme effort just to take to and from work.
Had a good visit with a pair of friends I haven't seen in AGES -- we needed to speak to one for practical home-renovation related reasons (he's an electrician) and he brought the other friend along for a chance to hang out. REALLY happy; I hadn't realised I missed her until i saw her. We ended up feeding them both supper - made mildly embarrassing by the fact that this particular brand of farmer's sausage has a layer of plastic inside the plastic wrap that looks just like the natural skin, at least until it's cooked. (The sausage turned out tasting fine anyhow, but it's kind of ugly to have to remove plastic. Honestly. I think between my MiL and us, we've bought three or four brands and kinds of Farmer's sausage the last few months, and never had this problem before.)
Anyhow, on that dull note, I should sleep.
Yes to Gay YA
and
Agency's Response
(To which Brown and Smith issued a joint statement basically saying they stand by their original words, and emphasizing that this should be about the blanket issue).
I would advise reading both articles before delving into either comment section if you really want to form your own conclusion. I don't know how someone else's more objective analysis of these two perspectives would go, but mine is that one of these two did their best to keep the complaint professional, and one made it very much personal. And that keeping it professional seems to increase that side's cachet, while making it personal reduces the other. But I am not objective. I AM a writer, for one, though not in YA. Moreover, I am a regular correspondent with one of the authors as well as a fan of several of her works, and a regular reader of the other's blog (and have read some of her fiction work, in the form of some manga-esque comics). The agents/agency, while on my list to query, are effectively unknown entities to me.
_____________
On more personal and thus more boring notes:
To go back in time slightly:
The event mostly went well. The lack of husband and several friends was more than made up by some of the people who WERE present, including two pleasant surprises (One was only there to merchant for a day, but we got to chat a fair bit. The other shared my cabin, so we spent more time together). And some newish people I didn't know well and like even better now. Lots of good company, overall. I got to the semi-finals in the archery shoot -- though my first round was in many ways the most interesting, as it really was a case of winning by a handful of seconds; he shot at least as well, and ended with a beauty. But semi-finals! I think that's the best I've done.
The food was EXCELLENT. I got through court without making any major oopses (though I stepped down as Baronial Herald, I ended up asked to do Royal Court at nigh the last minute. The extra running around had the queen say that if all this bustling put me into labour... apparently the last few reigns have been punctuated by queens or ladies-in-waiting who were quite knocked up> Theirs was the first one without). I even got to do a bit of dancing, though i took care not to overdo it (Cristina worried as it was, becuase I start panting so soon these days, but that's more about having less space to expand my lungs and less about how I feel while I'm panting. Actually, it reminded em of the times I fenced in a corset.)
The weather was meh - we had a thunderstorm roll in Friday night (Which made a spectacular backdrop for dark ages court), and it went drizzly and wet part of Saturday. But I kind of preferred that to sweltering, and by Saturday night it was pretty much cloudless, so we got to do both fire pits and fire arrows.
My one disappointment is hard to articulate without spending more words on it than it deserves. The bardic circles went well, and I was very happy with all I heard from pretty much every comer. I was, however, exceedingly disappointed in what I SANG on Sunday night (Saturday went okay but nothing standout). Mostly because that night, I sang three times, and
A) ALL three were someone else's requested song, not songs I would choose to lead if anyone else were available (One Colin usually leads if either of us does, and he's much better at it)
B) two of these weren't songs to which my voice is well suited, which means I WILL be disappointed in my performance to an extra degree, as wil the listeners, no matter how much they want THAT song NOW. (One, people pointed out that even though I'm an alto with an occasional tendency to tenor, I sing too high for most people to join in, and trying to drop it pushed, not the lowest part of my range, but one of those weird transition zones voices have, though they thanked me for trying anyhow).
and C) my voice wasn't at its best, especially in the deeps. Which last I could have lived with, if I'd done my own choosing.
However, the circle included a lot of strong new voices and a lot of strong out-of-towners, so i got to hear a lot of good stuff both nights. Which is a lot more yay.
Since then:
Renos progress. Most of the outside of the house is done. Next for Colin and my FiL is electrical, wall destruction, then insulation, and while they're doing this, HVAC is happening.
Baby progresses. Lots of kicking and moving. Which I usually LIKE to feel, except when it's too big and sudden and I jump or squeak. Hips occasionally bad. Got a therapy ball to sit on some of the time, which is fabulous, though for now, I can only do so for a couple of hours or so, not full time (and I'm always playing music, so I bounce fairly often, which is better than just sitting still - realistically, just sitting on it isn't *much* better than perching on a chair, and my posture's not that improved.)
Work progresses. I'm on for sure to the end of September. More happy. And this week I made the other part time person almost ecstatic by the amount of work I got through. (I do two jobs; one, which has been in extreme high priority mode all summer, which I do exclusively, and one which we share, but which has been low priority for me, and thus piling up on her. I finally had a week where I could take some of the strain off her.)
Writing doesn't progress. The week before the event was focused on sewing (to excellent effect) and the week after I was too tired. After that, I felt a bit disconnected from the story, so I started to run through a quick reread/editing pass. I'm near the end of that (and which gets less reread and more edit the nearer I get to current work, no surprise.) and feeling better about the answers to where and how to break this story from its sequel.
Bike -- had a big argh. I took it in last week because the bearings in the pedal system were badly messed up. Got it back Tuesday, rode it to and from work Wednesday, and this morning I had a flat tire. Which either implies - the guys at Gord's screwed up, or my timing sucks incredibly. If it's a busted seam instead of a hole, I WILL assume they over-inflated the tire. (Because I had a busted seam once before, and I KNOW that time they didn't check how far they inflated, they just made it as hard as they could.) Sigh. Just when I was all happy that she was no longer taking extreme effort just to take to and from work.
Had a good visit with a pair of friends I haven't seen in AGES -- we needed to speak to one for practical home-renovation related reasons (he's an electrician) and he brought the other friend along for a chance to hang out. REALLY happy; I hadn't realised I missed her until i saw her. We ended up feeding them both supper - made mildly embarrassing by the fact that this particular brand of farmer's sausage has a layer of plastic inside the plastic wrap that looks just like the natural skin, at least until it's cooked. (The sausage turned out tasting fine anyhow, but it's kind of ugly to have to remove plastic. Honestly. I think between my MiL and us, we've bought three or four brands and kinds of Farmer's sausage the last few months, and never had this problem before.)
Anyhow, on that dull note, I should sleep.
