Writers--share your thoughts at The Bernie Blog

I've taken on yet another position--I'm now the editor at The Bernie Blog. Check it out here:

http://bernie2016.blogspot.com

We now have a "How to Submit" page. Please read it and consider sending us a piece. Here's the submissions link:
http://bernie2016.blogspot.com/p/how-to-submit-to-bernie-blog-and-other.html

Thank you. We're looking forward to hearing from you.

To all the Canadians--I hope you had a good Canada Day yesterday. To all the Americans--have a great Fourth of July holiday weekend! To everyone--be safe and enjoy your summer (or winter)!

Crafting Great Story Openings (Story Hooks)

Overwhelming.

If most people could sum up their typical day in one word, overwhelming might be at the top of the list.

Think about your typical day. You have places to go, people to see, bills to pay, children to feed, spouses to listen to, bosses to deal with, appointments to make, and other unexpected diversions (some pleasant and some not-so-pleasant) coming at you from all sides. You really could use a break to relax and unwind, but it’s got to be a quick one because you don’t have much time. You have things to do!

What does the mad pace and constant rush of our current culture got to do with writing fiction? To put it succinctly—everything. A writer doesn’t have much time to get the twenty-first century reader hooked into a story before the reader realizes he/she has a million other things to do and puts the book (or Kindle) down to go tackle the to-do list. If you want to entice readers to pick up your book and keep turning pages—even when the kids are yelling for supper—then you’ve got to create a strong interest in your story and characters quickly using a bare minimum of words.

“But wait,” I hear some of you saying. “I have to tell the reader all about this wonderful world I’ve created first. I have to tell them about the planet’s terrain and the weather conditions, and the fantastic hairstyles they all have, and how the price of coffee affects who they vote for to become their supreme dictator…” 

I have just one word of advice about this sort of thing: Don’t.

The opening lines and pages of a story have one purpose only—to grab readers by the heartstrings and make them care about a character and the circumstances this character finds himself or herself in. If you’re using the opening pages to describe the weather, how are readers supposed to come to care for your character and his/her story? The reader wants to connect immediately with a character and experience his/her pain, joy, fear, or anxiety. The details of the setting can wait. Get us cheering for a character first.

One of the best ways to hook a reader is by starting in the middle of a scene that illustrates the character’s “journey”—a physical and/or emotional journey. In other words, the character from the very first line is about to take an action or make a decision that will change the course of his/her life. It can be as big as saving an entire star system or it can be more intimate like deciding whether or not to go on a blind date (the premise of one of my novels). Whatever the action, don’t start at the “absolute beginning” and list all the minute details, but rather start somewhere in the middle of the scene closer to the point when the character makes the decision that will propels him or her on a journey. 

 

What's missing from this pretty picture? Maybe it's a "who"? 
You need a character in your opening scene, not just scenery.

Let’s say your heroine has already decided to go on the blind date. The first scene could show her getting ready for the hero to arrive at her front door, and he’s more than an hour late. Think emotions. What is going through her head right now? Fear? Boredom? Frustration? Did he back out at the last minute? Was he killed in a car accident? There are many emotions your heroine could be feeling, so choose one and start with it. Here’s the first line I’d go with:

“Some blind date he is—how dare he keep me waiting!” 

There’s a hint of frustration there, isn’t there? And possibly a little fear or worry. But as you can tell, I didn’t describe what my heroine is wearing or how she fixed her hair or even give her name. All those things can wait. The first line doesn’t need details—it needs to help your reader identify with a character and feel his/her emotions as if they were the reader’s own. If you’ve ever felt stood up while waiting for your date to arrive, I bet you can relate.

My next paragraph might be:

Rachel stomped her foot and growled at the back of her front door. It had been at least six weeks since her co-worker caught her in the break room crying over Billy dumping her. Why had she allowed Maddie to set her up on this stupid blind date with her bumpkin cousin who didn’t seem to own a watch? Did she really seem all that desperate?  On Monday morning, Rachel vowed to give Maddie a piece of her mind!

You’ll notice that a first scene doesn’t need to tell the reader tons of background information. By showing the reader what is happening in the hearts and minds of your characters, the back story will come through. Keep in mind that fiction writers aren’t “storytellers”. In reality, writers are “story show-ers”.  If you show your characters living their lives through their words and actions, you will never need to tell how they feel or bore readers with dry details. Your readers will experience your story through the character’s emotions and reactions to the situation. Your readers will live the scene through your characters…

And then you’ll have hooked them into your fictional world and the fascinating characters who inhabit it and the relationships they experience. The soup may boil over and the boss may keep texting, but your readers won’t want to put your book down because they have been caught up in a whirlwind of emotions and feel as if they’ve truly come alive inside your story. Now, that’s a great hook.

For more easy-to-follow tips on how to impress an editor and get your manuscript published,  read Defeating the Slushpile Monster.
 

Available for the Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/kindleSlushpile and in print at http://tinyurl.com/slushpile

If you're looking for a freelance editor, send me an email with the subject line of "Editorial Services" at cynthianna@hotmail.com  

P.S. If you get a chance to review any of my books, thank you. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to leave me your opinion, good or bad. If you do a review, send me your email address and the link to the review so you can be entered into a special drawing. I promise the giveaway will be an exclusive for readers like you.

P.P.S. It's not too late to sign up to the Triple C Newsletter (sign up box on the right side bar). Subscribers will receive a free ebook!

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Doctor Who vs. Agents of SHIELD--Creating Strong Female Characters

Doctor Who vs. Agents of SHIELD—Creating Strong Female Characters
By Cynthianna

As a follow up to my critique of the Doctor Who 2014 season finale (The Death of Doctor Who), I thought I’d give you some insight into how I formed my opinion. I read manuscripts for a living; I edit manuscripts for a living; I write manuscripts for a living. In other words, I help create characters on a daily basis. Top that with an education in film studies and psychology, and you can understand why I don’t watch TV in quite the same way as others watch TV. Many viewers simply turn on the telly in order to lull themselves to sleep at night. When I switch it on, I analyze characters, de-construct plots, and ask difficult questions of those in editorial control. Sometimes it lulls me to sleep, too.

This introduction leads to the point of this piece: Creating strong female characters and how it applies to two current science fiction television series, Doctor Who (new version) and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. How are strong characters created on screen? In visual mediums we see characters acting out their personality traits through dialogue and actions. We don’t read captions proclaiming “shy girl” or “bad guy” or “nerd” under the face of the actor to tell us the character’s disposition or his/her role in the story. We infer their personalities by watching the actors bring the characters to life through their interpretation of the dialogue and physical direction given in the script. Therefore, we see a little girl hiding in a corner, a sneering mobster wielding a gun, or a computer jockey entranced in front of her keyboard. 

The actors don’t create the characters per se—they are simply the means by which the characters written in the script are shown to the viewers. The final responsibility for creating strong characters rests with the TV show's writers and producers—not its actors. Sometimes fans confuse these two groups and blame the actors for a show's failures when nothing could be further from the truth.

My biggest disappointment with the current season of Doctor Who, besides the producer’s apparent lack of respect for sci-fi fans’ sensibilities and intelligence, is its failure to create strong female characters. It’s not enough for a producer to state, “This is a strong female character because I say so.” Viewers need to see female characters acting strong and competent in a consistent manner; otherwise, why should we believe this claim? Just as an out-of-tune guitar string after a few strums becomes annoying and irritating, so does an inconsistent character. We long to experience a character in tune. Many fans will give up on a TV series when the characters seem out of tune. Once an exodus of viewers begins, it can be difficult to halt.

All is not lost in TV-land in 2014, however. Excellent examples of consistently strong female characters in a science fiction setting can be found on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. While Doctor Who has only one regular female lead this season, Agents of SHIELD presents Agents Melinda May, Jemma Simmons, and Skye. These characters are all portrayed as capable career women who concentrate on the task at hand. Simmons is a biochemist with two Ph.D.s, and Skye is a computer hacker second to none. Ace pilot May runs intricate operations as the second-in-command and kicks butt with her martial arts skills. She isn’t a twenty-something, either. It’s really nice to see a television series that demonstrates women do get better with age!

In every episode this season so far May, Simmons, and Skye have worked hard to keep the world safe and to clear SHIELD’s tarnished name. None of these characters waste much screen time putting theirs or their male companions’ romantic needs before the mission objective. Men and women in Agents of SHIELD are portrayed as equals, fellow agents working together in a just cause. Sure, there is a minor storyline of one minor character, Agent Bobbi Morse, and her ex-husband working together (and possibly reconciling), but the screen time devoted to this subplot is minimal compared to the overall story and doesn’t detract from the integrity of the characters. The female agents of SHIELD have a job to do, and they do it well. 

By contrast, the Doctor’s lone companion in the TARDIS this season is Clara Oswald, a young woman in her mid-twenties. Clara, a middle school English teacher, has a romantic companion in the character of Danny Pink, a former soldier turned math teacher. Unfortunately, Danny doesn’t become a regular companion in the TARDIS as many viewers had hoped after seeing previews. Danny’s character is written as a stereotypical “baby-killer”, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. A more sensitive portrayal of a young soldier would have been appreciated, since many sci-fi fans currently serve or have served in the military.

Viewers quickly learn that servicemen who served in an unpopular war are still worth fretting over by female characters, however. Clara worries how her boyfriend Danny will cope with her obsession with the Doctor and her desire for exotic exploits. In fact, much screen time in the season’s premiere is spent on Clara dealing with her conflicting emotions over the Doctor’s newly regenerated form. How can Clara have romantic feelings for a thousand year old Time Lord who now appears to no longer be a twenty-something but a silver fox of fifty-ish? Science fiction fans could be excused for thinking they were watching a Downton Abbey repeat, or some other soap opera, instead of a sci-fi/fantasy adventure. What has the Doctor’s sex appeal for Clara got to do with his ability to save mankind or travel through time and space?

The character of Clara Oswald in episodes written by producer Steven Moffat demonstrates to viewers—particularly impressionable young girls—that a woman’s primary function in life is to please her man. For Clara, this could be construed as either Danny or the Doctor depending on the episode. The inconsistent rendering of her character becomes irritating, but the missed opportunity of turning Clara into a strong female role model is more than annoying—it’s tragic. Apparently Moffat did not create the character of Clara to be an equal to either the Doctor or Danny. She could have easily been written as a compassionate teacher with reserves of patience and courage (such as classic series companion Barbara Wright), but instead we witness her rudely slapping the recently-regenerated Doctor. (Is corporeal punishment still allowed in British schools, and is it ever acceptable for adults to slug their friends? Ouch.)

Clara’s poorly crafted character isn’t unique in Moffat’s Doctor Who. Most of the female characters in the Moffat-written episodes fail the Bechdel Test. (The Bechdel Test was developed for films. To pass, a movie must have at least two women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man. Read more: Sexism and Doctor Who)  The Doctor’s female companions generally don’t work side-by-side on projects as the female agents do on Agents of SHIELD. Instead, they focus their dialogue and actions on the male characters’ needs and directives. (One exception: Donna Noble and Martha Jones did work together in a few 2009 episodes. They have much higher Bechdel Test scores than more recent companions.) But it could be argued that the new series Doctor Who female characters have been created simply to serve as window dressing. Male characters get to make the important decisions.

A troubling question could be asked of show runner Steven Moffat: Were the female characters in this latest season of Doctor Who created solely to please male fans without a thought to how women fans may view these same characters? It’s possible. At least, it appears that some reoccurring female characters have been created to entertain males. The Silurian sleuth Madame Vastra and her human sidekick Jenny, lesbian lovers in Victorian England, seem to be added as titillation for teenage boys. After all, porn movies with lesbian action are aimed primarily at heterosexual males, are they not? (Notably absent in Moffat’s era, the reoccurring character of Captain Jack Harkness, a bisexual. Is Moffat afraid Jack's bisexuality wouldn’t appeal to heterosexual men?)

If Vastra and Jenny are to be seen as equals to the show’s male characters, why aren’t they shown doing more science and making less references to their mutual attraction? Work is work. What you do in your bedroom stays there during work hours. How do repeated references to any of the characters’ sexual orientations help the Doctor save the day? Sexual expression is a topic for late-night adult programs. Better for an earlier-in-the-evening series to present characters working together as equals and allow them to get on with fighting monsters and saving the world without unnecessary interruptions.

Romantic subplots and sexual innuendos were few and far between in the classic series of Doctor Who and for good reason—they detracted from the storylines aimed at a family audience. Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD seems to have taken the place of Doctor Who as a family-friendly television show for sci-fi/fantasy fans with a minimum of adult soap opera theatrics.

Child-friendly show or not, creating strong female characters should be at the top of every television producer’s list. Women watch a lot of television, simply put, and mothers exercise control over what they allow their children to watch. It’s foolhardy to disappoint such a large portion of the viewing audience.

We sometimes forget that it’s been less than one hundred years since women gained the right to vote in the United States and in many other countries. We sometimes forget that women are still victimized and kept “in their place” through violence and rape. We sometimes forget the horrors of human trafficking and sexual slavery still exist. It’s time that we stop forgetting and take positive action in all our forms of entertainment to teach children—and adults—that women and men are equals. Female characters deserve to be created and portrayed on the screen with respect and dignity. Female characters should act as positive role models and not reinforce negative stereotypes.

To sum up, women aren’t just eye candy to gain television ratings. We have brains and abilities. To denigrate one of us is to denigrate us all. 

  grammarly.com/grammarcheck

Beware of Book Mills!

I love my current publishers!

Writers, beware of book mills!

Things are going along fairly smoothly in life when suddenly a mistake you thought you’d corrected years ago rears its ugly head. No, I don’t mean my ex (ugly as he is!) showed up on my doorstep. That I could easily handle by kicking his butt to the curb. This mistake has to do with one of lowest of pond-scum-feeding con artists who exist in the publishing world—the book mill.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, here’s a quick definition. A book mill simply churns out book after book after book with little or no editing or consideration of the material. Any and all topics and genres and writing abilities are fair game because no one at the book mill actually reads the manuscripts submitted. All the book mill wants is for wannabe authors to buy tons of copies of their own books so the book mill can make a tidy profit with little effort. They may promise “promotion opportunities for only $99!” but the author receives little or no sales boost from handing over money to the book mill, and, of course, it’s a non-refundable fee. In fact, the book mill routinely bombards its authors with meaningless communications promising to put their titles in front of famous talk show hosts and radio stars, along with entering the books into prestigious book expos—all for a fee, of course. It’s not hard to see that a running book mill is a great way to scam a lot of money off of anxious writers who have no knowledge of how the publishing world works.

I didn’t realize at the time (well over a decade ago) that I was dealing with a book mill, but it gradually became obvious. I had sold the electronic rights to my novel to an ebook-only press, but I had been asked to sign print books at a book-signing. This is way before the Kindle debuted, so not many people were interested in having an e-book author at a book-signing event. Where would I get print copies to sign? An online acquaintance recommended this book mill, and from his comments I thought they sounded legitimate. The book mill agreed to the print rights only to my novel since I informed them I had sold the e-rights earlier. Win-win, right?

The book mill did a quick spell check for “editing” and then told me my novel was now available for purchase. I bought some copies for the signing, but I was very disappointed when they arrived in the mail. The print books were extremely expensive for the quality of the product. A stock image photo slapped onto a rather sorry solid color with the book’s title printed above in a standard font was the “cover art.” (Even I could have done that well over a decade ago!) But at least I had a book in hand to sign at the event. I was hopeful it would eventually sell well in both print and electronic formats.

Flash forward a few years: With practically zero print sales (none I couldn’t account for personally), I requested my book’s print rights back from the book mill and asked them to pull my title from their web site. Years passed and I never heard a peep from this company. I heard nothing about them on the grapevine either. I figured the book mill must have gone out of business. I felt very relieved to have escaped their clutches.

My novel’s e-rights eventually expired with its first electronic publisher. I revised and re-sold the novel to a publisher of both print and ebooks with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with for some time now. With fresh edits and a snazzy new cover, I was happy that my “baby” had found a good home. Everything seemed to have come together for this well-reviewed book with its mixed-up publishing past. 

 

Flash forward to a few weeks ago: An email arrives in my inbox from an unknown company saying they’re publishing my novel and that I can pay them money to promote it. What the…? Who are they and why did they pirate my book? I immediately contacted my publisher and then wrote back to this unknown company asking them to take my book down from their site. Immediately the abuse began. I eventually learned that this new company was in fact the same old book mill I had dealt with more than a decade ago operating under a new name. They claimed I had “infringed upon my copyright.”

Say what? Along with other legal-sounding mumbo-jumbo the email stated they’d “return my copyright” for a mere $99. Imagine that! Thing is, if I didn’t pay them right away they claimed they’d take me to court and sue me for the "infringing on the copyright" to my own work. Wow! (I dug out the old contract. There’s not a word about having to pay them any fees whatsoever in their contract or that they would file for a copyright on the work.)

Weirder yet, I had filed for the copyright for my novel with the US Copyright Office many years ago. It’s my book and I registered the copyright, so what nonsense is this? My current publisher said to stop communicating with this company directly, as they’re obviously trying to frighten me into paying them money to shut up. She wisely asked for the book mill’s legal counsel contact information so the two “publishers” could discuss the matter. The book mill seemed to ignore this request.

Weeks later, another email arrives in my inbox stating that I need to buy my copyright back from the book mill since my book hasn’t sold any copies in over a year. Well, of course it hasn’t sold any copies! I told the company many years ago to take it down from their site, and I’d requested my print rights back. Since the “new company” is actually the “old book mill” surely they have this information at hand and could see it was all a mistake, right? I was advised by my publisher to send them a short and simple email to the book mill reminding them to contact my novel’s current publisher as requested earlier, just in case the first email had been missed.

Then all hell broke loose.

The most unprofessional and nasty emails followed. There’s simply no other way to describe the horrid tone of these communications. Personal attacks? Plenty! I must be an axe murderer in my sleep. What an odd sideline for a romance author!

The book mill also sent these insulting emails to my publisher as well, since I had provided contact information. We can only assume they did this for maximum fright tactic/belittling effect. Apart from calling my current publisher every name in the book (how professional!) they continue to insist I’ll be in a world of financial hurt if I don’t pay them. I’m beginning to wonder if they haven’t taken lessons from either Tony Soprano or the Godfather. Needless to say, my current publisher and the company lawyer will be conversing directly with the book mill from now on.

You know what? Even if I win the lottery tomorrow, there’s no way I’ll ever pay these people. Who gives in to a bully? Why would anyone pay a bully for the rights to his/her own work? With further research, we’ve discovered that this book mill has been sued before for employing similar tactics with their authors.

A Better Business Bureau web site says the book mill in question publicly stated that their contracts don’t last more than ten years. My original contract would have ended a few years back then. This might explain why I’d never heard from the old book mill with the new name until recently.

It doesn’t appear they were bought out or sold. It’s simply the same book mill operating under a new name. Why on earth should a business change their name in midstream unless they’ve got something to hide? This is an ongoing nightmare, so I’ll fill you in on any news as it comes available.

The moral of the story is this: Writers beware of book mills! They are not your friends, especially if they constantly request money for so-called services. And never ever forget the old adage: “The money flows from the publisher to the author—not the other way around.” A legitimate publisher takes you on as an author because they truly believe in your book (like my novel's current publisher). You deserve nothing less!

Editor’s note: My husband and I will be leading a panel called “What makes a good publisher?” at ConClave 38, October 10-12, in Dearborn, Michigan. Hope to see you there!

What Makes a Story? Beginning, Middle… End?

I usually post a modified version of the book reviews I do for an established literary site on my blog and Goodreads, but this time I don’t feel comfortable doing so. I’m a different type of book reviewer, you could say. I’d rather say nice things about a writer’s work, or at least make some constructive criticisms of where he or she could improve it, but sometimes I’m at a lost for words. This is one of those times. Amazing, isn’t it?

Back in the day of the dinosaurs, those of us who had the pleasure of taking English composition classes and creative writing courses where taught the basic structure of fiction. Every short story, novella or novel has a beginning, middle, and last, but not least, an end. These are sometimes called by fancier names such as inciting incident, rising action, and resolution, but they pretty much mean the same thing. When a reader sits down to read fiction he or she expects to find character(s) who start a journey of sorts—physical and/or emotional—and after a series of incidents, which illustrate the personality of the character(s), the story comes to a resolution of sorts. A story may have a “happily ever after” ending or a “happy for now” ending or the merely satisfactory  “that’s the way it goes but tomorrow is another day and we’ll keep trying” ending. One thing is certain—the tale comes to a conclusion. 

I guess this isn’t the case anymore. How did I know my English professors back in the dinosaur days were wrong? After recently reading a “short story” collection by a recent graduate of an Ivy League Institution, I’m led to believe that strings of words thrown onto a page can qualify as a story. Okay, it’s not all that bad, but in a way it is. It’s a crime. A young author, with a strong voice and a talent for coming up with interesting characters and situations, has been taught that telling just the beginning and middle somehow equals crafting a complete story. To me, and probably the majority of humanity, it doesn’t. Who would knowingly mislead impressionable students?

Another sad observation—when did using passive “was” verbs and adding he saids all over the place equate to creating dynamic prose? I’ve learned a lot over the years from genre writing workshops, particularly that a good writer shows not tells the story. Readers don’t want to read a listing of dry facts. Readers want to imagine the characters in their minds taking action. In the process of exercising our imaginations, we readers walk away from the story feeling that we’ve learned something about ourselves or life and, better yet, were entertained in the process.

How can readers learn anything from being told the beginning and some of the middle of a character’s arc? We can’t. An incomplete piece of fiction breaks the cardinal rule of all artists, “Whatever you do, don’t be boring.” Maybe in Ivy League literary fiction circles the entertainment factor isn’t considered all that important and, subsequently, has been junked? Perhaps root canals are considered entertaining in those circles? Yikes!

 Throwing up academic credentials as an excuse for being boring reminds me of a conversation at a party a friend and I had with a man introduced as a creative writing professor from a local private university. My friend asked him what sort of creative writing the professor had published recently. This gentleman stated that he didn’t publish his fiction because, “It was too good to be published.” My friend and I continued talking about our recent novel ideas and book deals while the creative writing instructor looked at us as if we’d grown horns or a third eye.

I surmised the professor didn’t enjoy receiving rejection letters from publishers, so he simply didn’t even try to pen publishable fiction anymore. But then that begs the question—Why should parents pay tons of money to a college which employs an instructor with no interest in writing publishable fiction to instruct their children in the craft of creative writing? Shouldn’t the professor teach “creative ways to avoid rejection” classes instead?

After this recent book review, my impression of creative writing classes offered at prestigious and costly private colleges has not improved. I learned one simple axiom in many writer’s workshops: Writers write. And the sole purpose of writing for publication is to connect with readers—not to bore them. I liken offering incomplete works to the reading public to a master chef tossing uncooked ingredients willy-nilly onto a plate and calling it a culinary masterpiece. (I realize some enjoy sushi, but I want my fish cooked.) When you can’t finish the job, you’re not really a success, are you? 

I can’t boast an Ivy League education, but my books have received some great reviews over the years. Not one reviewer has ever said my fiction was boring or incomplete. I listened in English class and took notes at writer’s workshops and became a published author. Thank heaven I received good advice!

Click on the Cynthianna Mainstream Romance book link at the top to learn more about my PG-rated romance novels and novellas. You can even review one if you wish. ;)

Racism: Not MY Science Fiction!

 

I'm a nerd. Like my earrings?

Some days I have to pinch myself and ask, "What year is this?"

To be clear, I don't drink and I'm not on any medications. It's just that sometimes people and events strike me in such a way that I can't quite believe I'm living in the twenty-first century. For a writer of speculative fiction, it's doubly odd to think that others who love to read, write, and discuss science fiction/fantasy books, TV, and film like I do would hold onto outdated beliefs of racial superiority and want to celebrate these beliefs by honoring a publication that prints such content.

I won't mention the names of the publication,the  sci-fi convention, or the individuals involved because this isn't a rant or tirade to tear down the reputations of these institutions or individuals. (I'm honestly worried about them.) This is just an attempt to come to terms with the horribleness of a situation that fills my heart with fear and dread. And, as a writer, I work through weighty problems in prose.

I think the Twilight Zone moment came for me when I expressed my horror on an online forum at the idea that a beloved sci-fi con would even contemplate honoring  a science fiction-oriented publication that would print racial slurs as "humor". I was told I was on a "witch hunt" and trying to "censor" free speech. When I tried to explain that an editor of an ezine is both legally and morally responsible for the contents of said publication and must take responsibility for the outrage that its content could incur, it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Here's what I said:

A "compiler" (of an ezine) is still considered an "editor"--they are the person or group of persons who put together a magazine or ezine. They put their name(s) on the publication as the person(s) who take responsibility for its contents. If this editor doesn't want to take responsibility for the contents of his ezine, then he should have struck his name off it a while back. I have nothing against the man personally--never met him--but as a professional writer/editor I have to make judgement calls on what is suitable for publication all the time. (I'm paid to do this!) If the writing of a manuscript is substandard--the book doesn't make it out of the slushpile. If the content is offensive to the majority of readers in 2014 (that's 2014 not 1854), I have to tell the publisher that the content is possibly something they wouldn't feel comfortable publishing. It's the way the publishing world works. If you are "self-publishing" you are essentially taking on all the legal responsibility of a publisher upon yourself as "editor/compiler". 

So, once again, does the convention want to "honor" (give credit and glorify) racist jokes? I would think the majority of convention attendees would be adults who wouldn't find racist humor funny. I never said that this editor couldn't attend the con or that he has never helped out at other cons. Good for him! However, if he has taken on the responsibility of publishing racist commentary and his name is on the publication, then he must accept the outrage publishing such racist commentary can incur in the year 2014. 

 That's about it. I grew up loving science fiction in the era of the original series of Star Trek where Mr. Spock talked about "infinite diversity in infinite combinations" and other such nonsense. Thing is, I believed it. Uhuru was an African professional woman who worked alongside an Asian navigator and people from diverse Caucasian backgrounds on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. They didn't make juvenile racist jokes at each other's expense. They reflected Gene Roddenberry's dream that some day soon all of mankind would live in peace and harmony. 

It's a beautiful dream. Why are some folks in the twenty-first century trying to kill it?

Are they afraid it's coming true? You look into any elementary school these days and you won't see what I saw when I entered first grade in the South. You see white kids and black kids and red kids and yellow kids and brown kids and kids who are something altogether unique. We've become a multicultural and diverse society. Star Trek is coming true! My heart soars!

But for others... they're afraid. They don't like change. They want to live in the nineteenth century where slaves and women knew their place and don't speak back to their superiors. And so they lash out through the glorification of demeaning, bigoted humor to put people of color, women, homosexuals, and other minority groups in their place. The worse thing of it for me is that these haters dare to call what they write science fiction.

Oh, Gene! Please come back! We truly need your shining optimism about mankind's diverse and peaceful future!

Do those who espouse racist beliefs have the right to exercise free speech under the U.S. Constitution? Absolutely. Do these same people deserve to have their racist speech honored at a volunteer convention where some of the volunteers aren't white, heterosexual males of a certain age and social status? No, they do not. If the white heterosexual males of a certain age/status can't see why some volunteers might feel nervous and uncomfortable knowing they're not really accepted by the convention's board of directors because of the color of their skin, their gender identity, or other minority protected status, then it might be time to take the board to a first grade class and introduce them to the next generation of science fiction fans.

Because what it comes down to is this: a fan-run sci-fi convention is about the fans. They are a diverse and lively lot, and they live in the year 2014--not 1854. 

Let's not take a step backward. Let's "boldly go where no one has gone before!"

True science fiction fans celebrate diversity. They do not attempt to squash it.

(Feel free to leave a comment below. Please act like adults and use your manners--no profanity,  name-calling, or finger-pointing. In other words, plese refrain from cursing or other nasty words. This is a family-friendly blog. Thank you.)

(P.S. If you like my TARDIS earrings in the photo above, check out my hubby's Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheophilusSaxe )