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[debbiereese]

Writers: Please Respect Native Voices and Protocols on Using Our Stories

Please share this post with writers and editors in children’s and young adult lit. This is central to the current discussions regarding diversity.

In several places, I’ve written about the 1800s, when white ethnographers began going to reservations–uninvited–with the intent of documenting our stories. Those ethnographers were outsiders. Did they understand what they were writing about? Were their informants reliable? There are a lot of questions about those archived stories, and yet, present day storytellers use them to “retell” Native stories that get presented to children in classrooms as authentic. Some of those stories are ones tribes want to protect from outsiders.

To protect their stories, Native Nations developed protocols that researchers–and that means writers, too–are expected to use.

Dr. Peter Nabokov, a professor and author of several works of nonfiction about Native peoples, chose to violate those protocols with the publication of his newest book. In an interview published by the National Geographic on September 23rd, 2015, he was asked about the project:

You’re a white man yourself. How did the Acoma tribe regard this project?

They didn’t know about it. [Laughs] There was some concern about the republication of the Acoma’s Origin Myth. When it was published in 1942 by the Bureau of American Ethnology, it sat under-appreciated for a number of years. Later on, it appeared in excerpted form in anthologies. With the coming of the Internet, various people put it out in the public domain, including the pictures, the kachina masks, the maps and depictions of sacred altars.

I thought this publication of the Origin Myth deserved a second, more dignified shot. So I didn’t allow any pictures of the sacred altars or kachina masks to be republished, just the text. I feel this story deserves inclusion alongside the Bible, the Koran, and all the other great texts of world literature.

See that? He knows there are concerns but he laughed that Acoma didn’t know he was publishing the book. He tells us he wanted to be “more dignified.” What he chose not to include in his book suggests that he is more dignified in his treatment. That he wants the story to be alongside other texts of world literature suggests that he is aware and sensitive to the place of Native story in a global context.

Sounds good, but is it? The short answer is no.

Here’s an excerpt from a statement by Acoma’s Governor, Fred S. Vallo Sr., published in the Santa Fe New Mexican on September 23, 2015 (the same day as the interview at National Geographic). I am using bold text to draw your attention to protocol and Nabokov’s disregard of those protocols:

Nabokov agreed to submit the manuscript to the pueblo for review and to appear before the Acoma Tribal Council to discuss possible publication of the book. Virtually every other modern scholar and professional working with the Pueblo of Acoma has sought this permission when seeking to disclose sensitive cultural information. Contrary to popular misconceptions, Acoma has approved of disclosure in the past. Some examples of published work with permission of the Pueblo of Acoma include publications by Dr. Ward Allan Minge, Dr. Alfred Dittert, Dr. Florence Hawley Ellis, Dr. Kurt Anschuetz and others.

While a manuscript of The Origin Myth of Acoma Pueblo was submitted to Acoma Pueblo at the pueblo’s insistence upon discovering Nabokov’s planned publication, and was being reviewed by traditional leaders, Nabokov did not follow through on any of his other promises prior to publication.Nabokov holds himself out as a scholar and “friend” of Indian tribes. His actions suggest otherwise, as he does not exhibit basic respect for tribal beliefs and practices.

I think it is fair to say that Nabokov is exploiting Native people for personal gain. There’s no integrity in what he did, none at all. And his treatment of Acoma’s wishes gives me pause. What, I wonder, about the rest of his books?

Are you planning to use a Native story in a work of fiction or non-fiction? Find out if it is ok to use it. Do not assume–as the author of a recent children’s book did–that those protocols only apply to academic researchers. They apply to anyone. Don’t assume a visit to a tribe’s museum and a chat with a docent counts as authorization. It doesn’t. Don’t assume your friendships with people of that tribe are sufficient. They aren’t. Do it right. Respect the wishes of the tribal nation from whom the story originates. Not doing so could mean you’ll be written up in the news, exposed as someone with no basic respect for tribal peoples and on AICL, too.

For Further Reading:

Governor Vallo’s full statement in The New Mexican

Public Statement issued by the Pueblo of Acoma

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Men’s careers begin at book one, but women’s careers take four books.

But we’ve solved the sexism thing, haven’t we? 

[tessagratton]

[bibliodaze]

drbirdsadviceforsadpoets:

elloellenoh:

tessagratton:

Thursday evening an editor at Vice.com invited me to share comments with her regarding the discussion of sexism in Andrew Smith’s comments in their interview. She sent me a few questions and I answered them. Just now, she posted her article with comments from myself and a few other interested…

“I regret nothing I’ve said or done in the past week.

I will not stop talking.

I am not afraid.”

I want to highlight what Tessa says at the end of this post because I am with her. I will NOT stop talking about systemic problems in our society and I am NOT afraid. I have gotten hate mail, threats, and other unprintable commentary for simply taking a stand on an age old problem. I have received subtly worded emails taking me to task for my public opinions on sexism. This I find interesting. I have received hate and racist email for my position on racism, but I’ve Never received emails chiding me for being too vocal about racism before. But on sexism and taking issue with what a white male has to say, I’m receiving a lot of disapproval? I find this incredulous.

If a woman had said #IHaveWritten10NovelsAssholesGetALife in a public tweet, she would have been crucified by the internet. But the same people who were all outraged and created Keep YA Kind, have been noticeably silent over the evidence that a white man may not be as nice and kind as they wished him to be. Furthermore, during a panel on diversity, he dismissively and condescendingly put down the efforts of women of color who were discussing how much time and effort they put into writing their stories and getting it right. His response was to say they work too hard and he just writes what he wants to write. Let that sink in for a moment. It answers a lot of questions doesn’t it?

I am less interested in pointing my fingers at one man and more interested in dissecting the system that keeps sexism in place. Why so much benefit of the doubt when it comes to the words and actions of a white male? Why so much offense and protection? There is no doubt that if Andrew Smith had been a woman or a person of color, the reaction he received would have been FAR different. Consider that for a moment. When your golden boy shows that he isn’t perfect, do you rush to his defense or do you recognize that he is human with human failings? Because what I’ve seen is typical of how we treat men in society. It starts young where we pander to men and make them feel superior to women in all ways. It is reinforced by our media and our television and film representations, where we tell high school boys that their futures are more important than those of girls. When our society causes girls to be shamed of their bodies and their sexuality but glorifies men. Don’t fool yourself into thinking this isn’t all related. Because it all is. And we need to keep these discussions going or nothing will ever change.

Excellent comments by Ellen Oh. I think what’s becoming more and more obvious, as more people are willing to say it publicly, is that a guy can be a dick and get away with it. But when he’s finally called out, it takes people by surprise.

I’d argue some of the surprise is that no one has really called him out previously. Or maybe they have and it was met with a similar silence.

I think, though, that engaging in discussion about comments such as Smith’s (and the associated dismissiveness, smugness, etc) needs to continue. 

(I’m more and more of the mind though that these discussions need to happen off of twitter and instead should appear on blogs or in magazines. The tweet length limitation is too small and the energy gets to be too much for any nuanced discussion. It should be clear my comment is not directed at Ellen Oh or anyone specifically, really. Just a general thought about Twitter and how easy it is for people to get angry about people’s comments.)

I’d argue some of the surprise is that no one has really called him out previously. Or maybe they have and it was met with a similar silence.

A few years ago a blogger wrote a review of an Andrew Smith which contained criticism of dialogue and other aspects that she felt was homophobic. The response was indeed silence - from Andrew Smith. Another author - another white male author - proceeded to harass her in her comments for the next several days. It was immense and sustained - the author commented so many times it broke over into a second page of comments on the blog.

The harassment campaign only ended when Smith himself arrived on the blog to tell the author to quit it. But the damage was done. The blogger has locked her presence down and as far as I can tell has stopped reviewing. Her blog is private, her goodreads private.

Maybe it’s not that people haven’t called it out. It’s just they saw this incident and decided it simply is not safe to do so.

(#KeepYAkind amirite?)

[tessagratton]

Thursday evening an editor at Vice.com invited me to share comments with her regarding the discussion of sexism in Andrew Smith’s comments in their interview. She sent me a few questions and I answered them. Just now, she posted her article with comments from myself and a few other interested…

[elloellenoh]

“I regret nothing I’ve said or done in the past week.

I will not stop talking.

I am not afraid.”

I want to highlight what Tessa says at the end of this post because I am with her. I will NOT stop talking about systemic problems in our society and I am NOT afraid. I have gotten hate mail, threats, and other unprintable commentary for simply taking a stand on an age old problem. I have received subtly worded emails taking me to task for my public opinions on sexism. This I find interesting. I have received hate and racist email for my position on racism, but I’ve Never received emails chiding me for being too vocal about racism before. But on sexism and taking issue with what a white male has to say, I’m receiving a lot of disapproval? I find this incredulous.

If a woman had said #IHaveWritten10NovelsAssholesGetALife in a public tweet, she would have been crucified by the internet. But the same people who were all outraged and created Keep YA Kind, have been noticeably silent over the evidence that a white man may not be as nice and kind as they wished him to be. Furthermore, during a panel on diversity, he dismissively and condescendingly put down the efforts of women of color who were discussing how much time and effort they put into writing their stories and getting it right. His response was to say they work too hard and he just writes what he wants to write. Let that sink in for a moment. It answers a lot of questions doesn’t it?

I am less interested in pointing my fingers at one man and more interested in dissecting the system that keeps sexism in place. Why so much benefit of the doubt when it comes to the words and actions of a white male? Why so much offense and protection? There is no doubt that if Andrew Smith had been a woman or a person of color, the reaction he received would have been FAR different. Consider that for a moment. When your golden boy shows that he isn’t perfect, do you rush to his defense or do you recognize that he is human with human failings? Because what I’ve seen is typical of how we treat men in society. It starts young where we pander to men and make them feel superior to women in all ways. It is reinforced by our media and our television and film representations, where we tell high school boys that their futures are more important than those of girls. When our society causes girls to be shamed of their bodies and their sexuality but glorifies men. Don’t fool yourself into thinking this isn’t all related. Because it all is. And we need to keep these discussions going or nothing will ever change.

[veronikelly-mars-deactivated201]

Hold on, let me bold this part:

If a woman had said #IHaveWritten10NovelsAssholesGetALife in a public tweet, she would have been crucified by the internet. But the same people who were all outraged and created Keep YA Kind, have been noticeably silent over the evidence that a white man may not be as nice and kind as they wished him to be. Furthermore, during a panel on diversity, he dismissively and condescendingly put down the efforts of women of color who were discussing how much time and effort they put into writing their stories and getting it right. His response was to say they work too hard and he just writes what he wants to write. Let that sink in for a moment. It answers a lot of questions doesn’t it?

I don’t think there are more questions. And I think Ellen’s addition here is extremely, extremely important. 

[veronikelly-mars-deactivated201]

24 Thoughts on Sexism, Feminism, YA, Reading, and The Publishing Industry

This requires no more introduction than saying it’s a handful of thoughts worth considering and working through after the last week. 1. My feminism isn’t about making you comfortable. As a feminist, I am not obligated to make you comfortable. As a feminist, what I owe is honesty, integrity, and truth, no matter how uncomfortable it is. Not liking my feminism is your problem, not mine. 2. Being part of an oppressed class means using subversive means. Having a conversation in a calm, collective, “professional” manner depends entirely on how we define calm, collective, and “professional.” Those definitions are made through those in positions of power and privilege. And when the powerful class doesn’t want a critical lens turned on them, they will deny the oppressed class those calm, collective, “professional” tools. So you do things in the way you need to to achieve a desired effect. Satire. Humor. Sarcasm. Protesting. Those who don’t want to be criticized and don’t want to face the truth won’t listen to you anyway, so you do what you can, how you can, in order for everyone else to hear and understand. 3. Means, methods, tools, and places for criticism vary. You can’t use the same critical tools in every situation. Your methods depend entirely upon your goal and on the subject and situation at hand. When talking about an issue of sexism, if talking about the texts at hand won’t do the job, then you pick up the next tool available to you. This includes public commentary and interviews. Sometimes a blog post is effective. Sometimes Twitter is effective. Sometimes Tumblr. Sometimes the best tool isn’t online at all but in an interview in person. On a panel discussion. During a Q&A. If one tool doesn’t work, you pick up another. 4. White male allies need to step back. Quit patting yourself on the back for “empathy,” “niceness,” or “feminism,” especially if you’re a “nice, empathetic, feminist white guy.” Use your platforms and your privilege to amplify the voices of the oppressed. You don’t need to interpret it through your perspective. Let others have your stage for a bit and listen. As Eric Mortenson put so well — and this is hands down one of the best things I read this week: “If you’re really on women’s side, you don’t need to tell them. They’ll know.” 5. We love amplifying the white male ally voice. Take a hard look at whose voices you’re relating to and sharing. If it looks like a sea of white men, reassess. Watch who you’re crediting when you’re crediting an internet “kerfluffle.” Watch who you’re crediting when you’re crediting a discussion of sexism in publishing. Bet it’s not the same people getting credit. 6. When you speak in generalities, people insist on examples. When you provide examples, you’re called a bully. When you talk about institutional sexism in a broad sense, people want explicit examples. But when you provide explicit examples, you’re a bully for doing the very thing you were told you needed to do in order to prove your arguments legitimate. 7. "Nice" doesn’t mean above criticism. Plenty of nice people screw up every day. Plenty of nice people have good intentions. Your “niceness” doesn’t mean you’re above being critiqued or above being called out for a thing you did that’s not good. Your “niceness” doesn’t absolve you from responsibility. Your “niceness” has zero bearing on what you create and the art or thought you put out in the world. 8. Art and artist are not one in the same. It is HARD to separate art from artists, as well as art from personal taste. We are complex, challenging creatures. We don’t always know what we’re doing when we’re doing it. We don’t always know what we’ve created until it’s outside of ourselves. Let’s be generous enough to allow artists to live separately from the art they’ve created. Art and artist are also separate from personal taste. You may find someone’s art distasteful; I may find it enjoyable. That is not a reflection upon the artist or his talent. 9. Girls don’t get points for experimenting. They have to get it right the whole way through. Men are right when they try, even if they fail. "Trying" to be better isn’t the same as being better. Especially in a world where women can never be right and are never getting better. "Trying" doesn’t pass for women. 10. We insist we love critics and criticism until the heat is on. Back in the day, artists used to critique one another and did so harshly. There wasn’t fear that saying something critical about another artist’s work meant doom for your own career. Now that we rely on outside critics more often than not, in the form of trade reviews and yes, blog reviews, we constantly talk about the important role those criticisms play. Those who take this seriously do so because they care deeply about the art and they care deeply about representation, voice, accuracy, and a whole host of other things. But as soon as critics start to actually criticize art, suddenly, they’re out for blood. They’re the enemies. They have a vendetta. 11. Criticism isn’t easy, and it certainly isn’t fun. It would be worthwhile to praise those critics who work with the heat is on high as much as it’s worthwhile to continually pat those on the back who praise things generously, with less criticism. There are people who are absolutely, positively dedicated to change and fair representation. They put their criticisms out there every day in hopes of sparking change. It’s not easy. It’s NECESSARY. It makes us BETTER. 12. You don’t get to determine whether someone’s concerns about sexism, or any other -ism, is correct or incorrect. Just because it isn’t sexist to you doesn’t mean it’s not sexist to those who are speaking up about it, as well as the legions who are too scared to speak up or don’t have the means to speak up. 13. Nothing is either/or, but/and. Everything is a spectrum. Everything is complex. Calling out a weakness in an author’s work — or a series of work — doesn’t mean that the rest of the work is done poorly. Badly drawn female characters are not an indictment against how the boys are written. Suggesting that girls should be fully developed characters doesn’t take away from boys being fully developed or being the absolute center of the story. It’s not saying the books are bad. It means readers want these stories, where both boys and girls are fully developed. 14. Sometimes people who are “outsiders” have to speak up because insiders are too close to the source. Outsiders are reading the criticism. They offer a perspective that those too close to the art could never offer without bias. Critics put their work out into the world for outsiders, not insiders. It’s your job to help your friends and colleagues. It’s not mine. 15. Being called out sucks. Learn and do better. We are all problematic. We are not without fault. And when you’re called out on something, it sucks, especially if you were trying everything to not be wrong. Sometimes you still are. I am not above being called out. You are not above being called out. No one is. Learn from your mistakes. Listen to those who are offering you insight. Then DO better. When you’re given the chance to learn from your mistakes, take it. It takes privilege to leave the conversation before it’s over. And certainly, when you decide you’re exiting a conversation, rather than acknowledging it’s even happening — even with a simple “I am busy and can’t talk about this right now but will soon” — you’re not listening. Listening means sticking around for the hard parts. 16. There aren’t fair levels of scaffolding in this industry. Be aware of yours and what others are.

Critics don’t usually have agents, editors, publicists, publishing houses or any other level of scaffolding behind them. There aren’t other people to step in and do damage control or offer up insight into process.

If there are people on your side

with a financial stake

in your career

when you go up to bat for something, are selling a product, or creating art, you’re damn lucky.

17. You don’t get to invoke someone’s personal life as an excuse or value judgment. That’s theirs and theirs alone.

You aren’t empathetic or understanding when you invoke my mental illness as part of your “being understanding” of what I may be going through when I speak out. You also aren’t entitled to bring someone else’s personal life into the explanation for their creative weaknesses.

Those things are personal and the individual owning them is

the only person

who gets to invoke them in discussion, even if they’ve been open about it.

18. If you express criticism directly at someone, you’re a bully. If you don’t, you’re subtweeting/talking about them behind their backs.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. See #6. See #12.

19. Criticism isn’t bullying.

The purest definition of bullying is this: when a person with superior strength or influence

uses their their influence

to force a person to do what s/he wants.

Speaking up about sexism isn’t bullying.

Being told you should die and never come back or else you’ll be given a reason never to come back is bullying.

20. No one likes being called a cunt, a whore, a bitch, a pain in the ass, and no one deserves to be told they should be given something to be scared about.

Women don’t often engage in conversation about sexism because they are fun and the rewards are high.

21. People go to the ends of the Earth to defend a nice guy. People don’t defend women in the same way.

See: #KeepYAKind, #GrasshopperGate, #AndrewSmith, change your avatars to a Smith cover, buy all of the Smith books, give away all of the Smith books.

The only reason I (and others, all female) knew people cared about me or defended my right to say what I did and how I did it was because I was reached out to.

Privately.

Those who agree with you most are the ones with the most to lose if they speak up. Speaking up without fear of career consequence is a privilege I have that many others in this industry — those who experience the DIRECT CONSEQUENCES OF SEXISM IN THIS INDUSTRY THIS IS DIRECTED TOWARD IN THE FIRST PLACE — do not.

Because that’s how institutionalized sexism and racism work.

22. True feminism isn’t about ideation. It’s about action.

If you don’t put your money where your mouth is, you’re not working toward a solution to the problem. You’re hot air.

You can’t just believe in change. You have to be an active part of

doing

something about it.

And it’s not only about women. It’s about ALL classes of people that face oppression.

I assure you straight white males are not part of the oppressed.

Even if they think they are.

23. These conversations are born from hurt

No one decides overnight to highlight direct examples of sexism.

They are the result of people being hurt over a long time.

24. I have the right to speak.

The risk of speaking up for women, as a woman, is great and often ends in threats of violence and death. When I told another woman I don’t know how some feminists do this every single day, she said, “If you stay, as a woman in this fight, you end up steel whether you want to or not.”

For further reading:

Anne Ursu on Some Exhibits in YA Coverage and Kindness, Sexism, and This Infernal Mess

Sarah McCarry On Kindness

Leila Roy on If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say

Ana at The Book Smugglers on Andrew Smith, Systematic Sexism, and the Call for Kindness

Tessa Gratton on Andrew Smith and Sexism and In Which I Keep Talking

Phoebe North on Why

[jodiwilldare-deactivated2024022]

Girl World, Andrew Smith & Male Privilege

Girl World, Andrew Smith & Male Privilege

I grew up in a Girl World. That’s what I like to say. I have three sisters and zero brothers. The neighborhood we grew up on was filled with girls around our age. There was Jenni, the three Hanson girls, Kim and Steph, Dawn, Vicki, Beth, Kathy, and those were just the girls we hung out with on a semi-regular basis.

There were boys, of course, but they were periphery at best until puberty, and at…

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[tessagratton]

First of all, this isn’t about his books. I’ve only read one of them, a long time ago, and so can’t speak to them. Books speak for themselves, and readers, writers, everybody gets to interpret them individually and on their own merits.

This is about patterns and systemic sexism and how Andrew…

[lightsandlostbells]

There’s some extreme defensiveness in the comments, but I’m really grateful for this post, because I have read Grasshopper Jungle, and Smith’s comments cast a light on why I had such a visceral, uncomfortable reaction to the ending of this book.

See, I actually liked Grasshopper Jungle for about oh, 80 percent of the novel? I like things-running-amok stories, I like raunchy humor, I thought the relationship between Austin and Robby was very sweet. The depiction of the female characters bothered me a little, but not enough to make me rage-quit. Until the fate of Shann (the main female character and the protagonist’s girlfriend) became clear. I read the rest of the novel with a sick feeling to my stomach. I’d plowed through 300 or so pages of people getting graphically eaten by giant bugs, but this was what managed to disgust me.

And what I thought, very clearly, as I read the final part of the novel, was, “I wonder if the author has considered how horrifying this situation would be for a teenage girl.”

(spoilers ahead)

Because I am a young woman and at one point I was a teenage girl and I could very easily put myself in Shann’s shoes. Not the world-taken-over-by-bugs bit, but getting knocked up by your immature boyfriend. This never happened to me, thank God, but it was a consideration when I started dating. Here’s what happens to Shann: She finally has sex with her boyfriend, it sucks and is painful for her, he doesn’t use a condom, and she gets pregnant. The world is overrun by man-eating bugs and she must live in an underground shelter with her mom and stepdad, her immature ex (? it’s been a while since I read it, but they were on rocky terms), his BFF who he also has romantic feelings for, and very few other human beings. So … what options does she have for her pregnancy? She has to give birth. She has to raise this child (unless she wants to leave it outside for the bugs, which, come on, that’s barbaric). She is totally trapped. But all of these factors are completely left out of the narrative, because what matters is that Austin gets to have a son in the end, and is in touch with his roots, and gets to go out on the surface with his friend Robby and have adventures. While … Shann is just chilling in the bunker, I guess. The bunker that was made with the purpose of repopulation, so it’s apparently a really good thing that Shann got pregnant. Life goes on. Nature is amazing.

The fuck??

Hers is a really, really horrifying ending to me, for a variety of reasons. I thought Shann was pretty undeveloped compared to Austin and Robby, but holy shit, after I finished the book I could not think of anything else except this poor girl’s future. My bodily autonomy is extremely important to me; the idea of being forced at age 16 to give birth and raise a kid makes me very upset. Shann’s fate stuck with me for days. Afterwards, I wish I’d never read the book. There are still things I enjoy about it, but it’s all tainted by the ickiness of the ending.

So getting back to the interview and Gratton’s post: Andrew Smith says he is “completely ignorant to all things woman and female.” That is exactly what I wondered after reading Grasshopper Jungle. Whether there was just some gap in understanding, how big a deal it would be to be a pregnant teen girl in any situation, let alone a girl in a post-apocalyptic world. It’s not all HAPPY BABIES, everyone wants a baby, babies are the future. Something about the ending pinged me about how maybe Smith didn’t consider the ramifications of the pregnancy for Shann, or maybe didn’t care, or considered Austin’s feelings more important. Which is not totally an undeserved idea, because Austin is the narrator and protagonist. But it also comes out of a long history of women being used as objects in fiction, as bodies for sex and pregnancy, rather than people with feelings on how their bodies are being used.

For what it’s worth: I don’t think Andrew Smith is a wild misogynist and hates women or anything. I think he did some really good things with Austin and Robby as bi and gay characters, and there were some really interesting ideas about masculinity in the book. I don’t think he’s uncritical of masculinity, as mentioned in the interview! And I believe when he says he’s trying to do better. But the “I don’t know women and girls” statement completely showed in his writing for me, and that’s not a good thing.

[veronikelly-mars-deactivated201]

On the flip side, it sometimes seems like there isn’t much of a way into your books for female readers. Where are all the women in your work? I was raised in a family with four boys, and I absolutely did not know anything about girls at all. I have a daughter now; she’s 17. When she was born, that was the first girl I ever had in my life. I consider myself completely ignorant to all things woman and female. I’m trying to be better though.

from This Interview with Andrew Smith

Like, you’re fucking kidding, right? This is an absolutely abysmal answer to why you write terrible female characters in your books. It’s disturbing as HELL to me this is seen as charming or funny or cute and not being called out.

This isn’t an isolated incident. This happens over and over with female characters in Smith’s books. They’re pointless and yet he skates by without being called out on it by big trade reviews or media. 

Don’t tell me there’s not sexism in the book world or in the YA book club. Men can get by by this shit and women get raked over the coals for any tiny infraction and NEVER GET FORGIVEN.

(via catagator)

[amyntacreations-blog]

TO READ WILL BE AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE.

Typographic poster, with love to Peter Pan.

Now for sale at RedBubble!

[bibliodaze]

Added bonus: buying this supports Bibliodaze!

[firstdraftwithsarahenni-deactiv]

“An editor said to me, ‘It’s wonderful that you are depicting this Native American woman as a strong woman who is educated, she’s an attorney, but that’s just not realistic. We all wish that there were American Indian women lawyers, but that’s just not the reality.’ And I felt somewhat flummoxed. Because I had a tribal ID and I had a law degree, and I was sitting there. I realized it might be more challenging than I anticipated to get out the stories that to me rang true. But also that there was a tremendous need for them.”

Cynthia Leitich Smith, New York Times best-selling author of TANTALIZE and RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME, on the challenges of writing contemporary Native stories.

Listen to the full interview here, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.

(via kdhart)

[huggingthehorse-blog]

includes fascinating portrayals of casual drug use at house parties, how the author/protagonist had conversations about post-punk while seeing his mate’s band perform at some shitty small venue, internal monologues about consumerism while observing people in a mall and that time when the protagonist had an epiphany about living in the moment while walking in the rain

[bibliodaze]

“Sponsored By…” – Book Blogger Integrity and Conflicts of Interest.

Recently, there was some social media discussion among book bloggers and reviewers over the potential breach of ethics regarding a prominent book vlogger called Christine Riccio who did not issue a...

Sponsored content is nothing new, but when bloggers don't offer clear disclosure of their deals with publishers, it calls into question the basic integrity and transparency of not just their work but what we all do as book bloggers. I break it down at Bibliodaze.

[lrlamauthor]

Info on Micah Grey #3

The news is officially out - Strange Chemistry, my publisher, is no more. So there is no way that Micah Grey #3, the final installment after Pantomime & Shadowplay, can be released that way. Though in the interests of honesty, they’d already declined to offer on the third book earlier this year before this was announced (January was not a fun month).

I’m trying to figure out my options and the best way to get the last book out to readers. But it will happen - there is NO WAY I’m leaving that story unfinished. I love Micah too much. 

I’m understandably sad. My friend, Kim Curran, had the third book in her trilogy cut 2 months before publication. 2 years ago around this time it seemed my dream had just come true. And it did - Pantomime and Shadowplay are not bestsellers by any means, but I’ve had people say they changed their lives and that means the world to me.

If you’d like to help in the meantime, continuing to support and spread the word about Pantomime/Shadowplay would be most appreciated. Also, whatever profits I make from my self-published short stories are going to go into probably self-publishing the third book, so picking up “The Snake Charm” would help me out (available on Kindle).

Publishing is hard. Certainty is never guaranteed. It’s a loop, but I’m still writing and hoping and not giving up. *dejectedly eats chocolate*

[gordonlevitting-deactivated2013]

if you’re ever feeling overdramatic just remember that zelda fitzgerald once threw herself down a flight of marble stairs at a party because her husband was talking to someone else

[problematicselfie-deactivated20]

If you’re ever feeling overdramatic remember that F. Scott Fitzgerald intentionally triggered schizophrenic episodes in his wife and had her committed to psychiatric institutions against her will so he could steal her writing and keep her from publishing because he knew she was better than he was.

[tubooks]

In praising Green so much, the entertainment industry has continued its cycle of promoting the work of white men as “real” work, and the work of women as “simple.”

Mary Ann Badavi, “No, The Fault In Our Stars Is Not Young-Adult Fiction’s Savior” (via tubooks)

[elizabethwrites]

I have met John Green once, maybe twice. He is a very nice man who was extremely cordial to me. He has done a lot for YA.

But.

I read his first novel, Looking for Alaska, when it came out and I didn’t like it.

Why?

I don’t like manic pixie dream girls.

I haven’t read any of his other books. I have not read The Fault In Our Stars, and I won’t see the movie.

Why?

Because without reading the book, seeing the movie, or anything else, I know exactly how the story will go.

The Fault In Our Stars is about a girl with cancer. She will be dying. She will meet a boy in something cancer related like at the doctor’s or a hey, you’ve got cancer group. He will be charmed by her. He will do anything for her. There will be a road trip, probably for something the girl wants. The boy will arrange it. Then he’ll die. Manic pixie dream boys are no different than the manic pixie girls in this respect. End with girl getting message or note from dead manic pixie boy. She will vow I will or I do or I am because his manic love has helped her see life as it is, even though she thought she knew.

How’d I do?

[bizendal]

This was left on my table in the cafe today, and it absolutely made my day.

[bibliodaze]

Bibliodaze: Vaguely known about by random people in cafes. All thanks to Gwendoline.