Settle in for some links! Grab an afternoon beverage–tea, coffee, some bubbly water. It’s this time of year when I’m kind of over being cold all the time, and I’m ready for spring. Even if that means I’ll be set upon by debilitating allergies. That’s how much I want winter to be over.
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The Ripped Bodice’s “The State of Racial Diversity in Publishing” report for 2018 is officially out. You can also see previous years here.
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One of my favorite artists, Jen Bartel, has teamed up with Adidas to come out with a Captain Marvel shoe. It launches March 8. They’re absolutely stunning, in my opinion. Not sure how much they’ll cost though.
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Tor.com has a very thoughtful post on how two fantasy novels processed their main characters’ trauma:
The more I thought about these two books the more I saw how unique they were in their approach to storytelling. Rather than a typical quest arc, or bildungsroman, or boarding school tale, or even picaresque, what struck me about both books is that they center trauma and grief as their true subjects. Each novel mines the inner life of an introvert who has been forced into a terrible situation, and then each protagonist is given the page space to quietly, honestly, process their trauma and begin to recover.
Have you read either of the books mentioned?
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The Cookie Monster did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit, and it’s just as sweet and adorable as you’d think.
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I love The Reductress. If you haven’t heard of it, think of it as The Onion mixed with a women’s magazine. This article, “Cat-Eye Looks That Say ‘Meow! Here is My Butthole!’” had me crying with laughter this week.
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
I have an old injury that means I can’t wear heels, so I’m rarely the target audience for cute, fandom-related shoes. Which is probably the best thing for my wallet. But I have STRONG shoe lust for those Captain Marvel kicks.
Oh Cookie Monster, you so cute
As far as the Tor.com essay goes: I’ve read Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor and it’s wonderful – one of my comfort reads. Definitely a quieter book, with Maia having to deal with not only the effects of Setheris’s abuse, but also the way his father behaved towards him and his mother and the effect that years of isolation had on him (he didn’t know things others assumed he’d know about his own kingdom, his mother hadn’t been allowed to teach him goblin things, he had no experience with casual conversation, etc.).
As regards the Tor.com article, I’ve read The Goblin Emperor and highly recommend it.
Another recommendation for The Goblin Emperor, the characters are vividly drawn and you just feel Maia’s (? It’s been a while) feelings and growth.
I guess I’m The One Person TM who couldn’t even get halfway into The Goblin Emperor. I found it absolutely dull and riddled with typos and errors–characters changing names without warning and other highly distracting failures in correction.
If I hadn’t spent most of my time noticing mistakes, to the point I began to feel that the people who had published the book must not care at all about it–so why should I?–I might have powered thru farther, but alas.
Cookie Monster AMA was gently humourous & just all-round lovely.
I second LG’s feelings about Goblin Emperor.
Best Cool Thing this week: the trailer for Good Omens has dropped & I’ve watched it at least 6 times today! I have decided not to re-read the book until after I’ve seen the show. I cannot squee hard enough, I’m so stoked for this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJoR4vlIIs
Historical authors, I found you the premise for your next book. You’re welcome. https://twitter.com/UnburntWitch/status/1102623309638725632
I am so sad and frustrated with Ripped Bodice’s Diversity Report. WTF. I have been trying so hard to diversify my reading, and really enjoying the new authors I have found, but so many of them are self published, and that makes it hard to find the good ones. I know you all have helped me a lot, both by directing me to good authors and just flying the flag, but I wish I knew how to help more.
I’m querying agents (in another field) and I’ve been struck by how consistently these agents are calling for #ownvoices and queries from diverse authors while being so remarkably not-very-diverse themselves. I mean, it’s a whole sea of white women agents out there! I suspect the problems go even further up the chain – if commissioning editors are resoundingly white, and agents also very white, then it’s not surprising that diverse authors just aren’t getting picked up. But the focus of the publishing world seems to be on diversifying the supply side of the things rather than changing the folks with the buying power. I don’t think the problem is that we don’t have enough amazing aspiring authors, I suspect the problem is that we don’t have enough amazing commissioning editors from diverse backgrounds.
@Tam: You are absolutely right about that. Publishers Weekly does a yearly salary report. It shows the gender disparity in publishing (more women work in the industry) compared with pay (but get paid less and hold less managerial positions). But they also report on diversity as well and it is very white.
I really loved Among Others. I’m not sure that one has to be a GenXer / late Boomer who grew up reading SF/F to fully appreciate it, but as a GenX SF/F fan, I so, so, so resonated with this book. It’s set in Wales in like 1980 and the protag Mor is like 15 and a huge SF/F fan.
Sara Ryan has this lovely review that explains it more – https://sararyan.com/2011/02/among-others-by-jo-walton/
I suspect that someone who’s not familiar with Heinlein and Ursula LeGuin and Pern could still enjoy this book, but I think it’d help.
Thank you so much for the Cookie Monster AMA! I needed that. And now I need some cookies.
I have to rant a bit about The Goblin Emperor. I liked it, but the naming conventions were so tedious and confusing. The character names are all non-English language based which tends to be difficult for me. (Maybe they’re Slavic based? Lots of v’s and t’s and double consonants.) And there were a lot of similar names (Bazhevar and Bazhevel). I had to keep looking back to see who people were.
On top of that, the author created a whole system of language rules. There’s a “language handbook” included as a preface. (It’s part of the Kindle sample if you’re curious.) Here is an excerpt showing forms of address:
“Men are mer, married women are merrem, single women are min. … Even the merest pocket baron, however, must be addressed as osmer, his wife as osmerrem, his daughter as osmin.”
I found the titles sooo frustrating. I could’ve gotten used to the unfamiliar names, but the court is very formal so there are Osmers, Osmerrems, and Osmins all over the place. And when Mer Bazhevin, Merrem Bazhevin, and Min Bazhevin are three different people … Every time a character appeared on the page, I’d have to stop and decipher who they were.
So, I really did like the story, but I had trouble reading it and remember it with frustration.
/rant 🙂
@MaryK – While I did love the book, enough that I bought the audiobook too (the narrator is great), I admit that I also had a bit of trouble with the names. Since I didn’t realize there was a language guide at the end of the book (I read it in e-book form), I mistook at least one person’s title for their name and didn’t figure it out until maybe halfway through.
It’s definitely one of those books that’s grown more appealing to me during rereads – no need to decipher names/titles/words, just sit back and enjoy the characters and story.
@LG – I’ve thought about getting the audiobook because when I like a book I usually listen to it as well. I’m hesitant though. I process written words better than spoken words and the thought of listening to all those name variations is daunting. It’s on my library wishlist waiting for a time when I feel up to it.
@MaryK – One nice thing about the audiobook is that the narrator uses distinct voices for the characters, so that may help with telling the characters apart. As for remembering names, though, I’m glad the audiobook wasn’t my first exposure to it – it would have been overwhelming, and the language guide is not included in the audiobook (unless there’s extra content somewhere you’re supposed to download?). And Kyle McCarley, the narrator, messes up at one part that I can recall, mispronouncing someone’s name (Beleshar instead of Beshelar – I thought a new character had entered the room and was thoroughly confused).
Jason “650-plus romance covers” Baca is retiring:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/people.com/books/romance-novel-model-jason-baca-retiring/amp/
I’m seeing (in writing groups and in general) a significant amount of three behaviors wrt publishing diversity:
1. Tokenism. “I already have a ____ client.” “We just acquired a ____ story.” The other 99% of the lineup looks identical from a distance, but more than one ____ would be excessive, apparently.
2. Publicly broadcasted calls for Own Voices stories being met privately with “It’s not Own Voices ENOUGH,” according to the white cishet able-bodied recipient’s idea of what Own Voices should sound like, which leads to great stories by Own Voices authors being rejected.
3. Paying white cishet able-bodied authors to write “diverse” protagonists that either meet the white cishet able-bodied recipient’s idea of what Own Voices should sound like or use “diversity” like window dressing that has no effect on character or plot, which leads to publishing offensive material that caters to bias.
Until changes happen in staffing at every level of the process, this isn’t going to radically improve. Since many entry-level positions in publishing are unpaid/poorly paid internships, they’re given to people privileged enough to not have to earn a living wage, which excludes most of the people who are needed to broaden the perspective of the industry. The whole system needs to be overhauled, and no one with the power to do that wants to because it would mean less money for the higher-ups.
On the bright side, readers don’t have to wait for publishing to get its act together. It’s been relatively easy for me to stumble across greater diversity in SFF, but it doesn’t fall into my lap the same way for romance. Author Rebekah Weatherspoon does the work of gathering books in one place at http://www.wocinromance.com/, organized into nearly 60 categories. Anot
Oh my Bob…
So I loved the Goblin Emperor for all the reasons mentioned in the article. The scene where he asks for his former guardian to be posted far, far away? Ugh. Feels. In many ways nothing happens because so much of the conflict is internal but also everything happens.
So I picked up Among Others and Oh My Bob. Firstly, I got so sucked in that to perform necessary tasks I had to switch to audio because stopping wasn’t going to happen. Thank you Smart Bitches for teaching me about kindle sync. Also the audiobook reader has a lovely Welsh accent.
Secondly, a teenager dealing with grief through classic science fiction and having no friends in school and wanting to be in the mountains is 100% my actual childhood. 50% of my friends in highschool died and I coped by reading about 90% of the books mentioned and hiking the Appalachian trail during the summers. Definite shades of A Little Princess going on but with better class critique and oh yeah, fairies. Highly recommended, even if you didnt grow up in former coal country hunting fairies in ruins. The way the protagonist reshapes her life to make it worth living is beautiful.
Love the Captain Marvel shoes