A series of random disconnected thoughts
Aug. 23rd, 2007 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfwhich, come to think of it, should be what I call this journal.
1. Haworth and the sale thereof. They're not dead yet, folks. Yes, they might kill the fiction imprint but the odds are that they might keep it going or sell it. They might even sell it to another company that is better at marketing fiction. Really. Am I saying this simply because I have 5 or so stories in forthcoming anthologies with them? Maybe. But I grew up in publishing (Mom is a 30 + year veteran of the biz) and it really is all about the market share. Publishers open, they close, they change hands. It's the nature of the biz. But as long as the books keep selling, someone will turn up to publish them. Maybe even you. Really - it could happen.
2. 2 very different takes on lesbians writing. The redoubtable Victoria Brownworth in the "Lambda Book Review" on the decline of lesbian writing specifically lesbian characters and lives: "Minorities have unique cultures and societies that are very much their own. That is to be nurtured, not dismissed, invalidated or erased." Well said. I don't always agree with her stances on things but when she's on, she's on.
And on the other end of the spectrum, Lee Rowan (m/m erotic romance writer) in her recent interview at http://www.glbtpromo.com/ said "Women's roles were so restricted (and in some ways still are) that it's difficult to write a female character who can be believable as an active, independent force."
Ye gods. Yes, I know Lee spent some time clarifying this on the list after the fact. It still didn't work for me. If I believed this, I wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning and function. In 10 years of writing fiction, I have written about women pirates, swordswomen, women bards, women vampires, women starship captains - many of them queer and most of them, I hope, strong and independent. Some of them were even based on real herstorical figures like Anne Bonney, Mary Read and M. Le Maupin (French duelist and opera singer). And I plan on continuing down this path. I am hardly in the minority on this - I know bunches of other women writers and readers who only want to write and read stories with strong female characters.
What's aggravating is that Lee is not the only female writer who talks about her writing this way. Makes me nuts.
3. Grace Paley died yesterday. She was a brilliant and righteous writer. I read "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute" zillions of years ago and can still remember many of its gorgeous scenes. If you want to write short fiction and do it well, curl up with some of her work this weekend.
Come to think of it, perhaps I'll do that by way of taking breaks from kitchen painting.
1. Haworth and the sale thereof. They're not dead yet, folks. Yes, they might kill the fiction imprint but the odds are that they might keep it going or sell it. They might even sell it to another company that is better at marketing fiction. Really. Am I saying this simply because I have 5 or so stories in forthcoming anthologies with them? Maybe. But I grew up in publishing (Mom is a 30 + year veteran of the biz) and it really is all about the market share. Publishers open, they close, they change hands. It's the nature of the biz. But as long as the books keep selling, someone will turn up to publish them. Maybe even you. Really - it could happen.
2. 2 very different takes on lesbians writing. The redoubtable Victoria Brownworth in the "Lambda Book Review" on the decline of lesbian writing specifically lesbian characters and lives: "Minorities have unique cultures and societies that are very much their own. That is to be nurtured, not dismissed, invalidated or erased." Well said. I don't always agree with her stances on things but when she's on, she's on.
And on the other end of the spectrum, Lee Rowan (m/m erotic romance writer) in her recent interview at http://www.glbtpromo.com/ said "Women's roles were so restricted (and in some ways still are) that it's difficult to write a female character who can be believable as an active, independent force."
Ye gods. Yes, I know Lee spent some time clarifying this on the list after the fact. It still didn't work for me. If I believed this, I wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning and function. In 10 years of writing fiction, I have written about women pirates, swordswomen, women bards, women vampires, women starship captains - many of them queer and most of them, I hope, strong and independent. Some of them were even based on real herstorical figures like Anne Bonney, Mary Read and M. Le Maupin (French duelist and opera singer). And I plan on continuing down this path. I am hardly in the minority on this - I know bunches of other women writers and readers who only want to write and read stories with strong female characters.
What's aggravating is that Lee is not the only female writer who talks about her writing this way. Makes me nuts.
3. Grace Paley died yesterday. She was a brilliant and righteous writer. I read "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute" zillions of years ago and can still remember many of its gorgeous scenes. If you want to write short fiction and do it well, curl up with some of her work this weekend.
Come to think of it, perhaps I'll do that by way of taking breaks from kitchen painting.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 02:56 am (UTC)yes, and so was walking, when you started.
practice more, you weenie.
(er, not you, her.)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 03:14 am (UTC)http://community.livejournal.com/greatpoets/2094402.html
and it's amazing. (i just went and reread; the piece is "this life".)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-26 04:36 pm (UTC)no active women in Lee Rowan's world
Date: 2007-08-24 04:54 am (UTC)I still feel frustrated that my concern about that statement in the interview seems to have been confused with: (1)an objection to m/m fiction (I don't mind it at all - anyone who wonders could check out my glowing reviews of some examples), (2)an unwillingness to admit that women were and still are oppressed/discriminated against (ye gods - I was trying to explain the need for "women's lib" to dim young men in the early 1970s), (3) a lack of interest in or sympathy for gay men, especially those living in dangerous times (since when does one form of oppression cancel out another?), and (4) a belief that lesbian writers should ONLY write f/f fiction (this was Lee's speculation). No, no, no and no.
Sigh. However, if that thread on GLBTPromo encourages the listmistress to write her proposed historical novel about 2 women on a plantation having a forbidden affair, it will have served as inspiration or encouragement. That's a reward in itself.
Re: no active women in Lee Rowan's world
Date: 2007-08-26 04:34 pm (UTC)Funny how that never seems to be an issue for these same writers but I suppose feminizing the guys to the extent that a lot of m/m stuff does gets around it. There seems to be a degree of self-loathing in the original comment that I find distressing. Write about guys because you like guys, not because you can't stand women. Not unlike the rational for coming out. :-)
Actually, I'm going to post a new thread on a related topic to see what comes up.
Grace Paley
Date: 2007-08-24 05:00 am (UTC)Will look up Grace Paley as soon as I work my way through my stack of books to review. (I assume Grace won't mind waiting.)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 05:05 am (UTC)Hmmm
Date: 2007-08-24 04:04 pm (UTC)"Men's emotional lives were so restricted (in some ways still are) that it is difficult to write a male character who is believable as a complex, multi-layered, feeling person."
Just saying. It seems to me that if one can write male characters who are not monosyllabic cavemen one can write women who are not passive wimps.
Re: Hmmm
Date: 2007-08-26 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-25 02:27 am (UTC)History is full of active, independent females - but you're not going to find out about them from American popular media. Sounded like Lee Rowan's mind was poisoned when she was young, and she's had trouble getting over it.