Genre Grapevine for April 24, 2023
Note: My Genre Grapevine is back on a regular publishing schedule. Thanks for the patience from everyone. This column is also available free to the public. If you like my writings on genre issues, consider backing my Patreon or doing a paid subscription to my Substack.
Twitter Checks Out
My column a couple of days ago updated what's been going on with Twitter, culminating with Musk taking away the legacy blue check marks that confirmed the identities of prominent organizations and people. But instead of celebrities and other famous people suddenly realizing their lives were nothing without a blue check – which in my opinion is the outcome Musk secretly hoped for – people like Stephen King and Lebron James refused to pay to keep the blue.
As A.R. Moxon said, Musk somehow "decided that the blue check was the *reason* certain people had achieved celebrity, rather than an indication they had already done so. He decided that this meant that the social media platform had been *hording* celebrity from everyone else."
But most Twitter users knew the truth. They didn't want their timelines filled with crap from racists, scammers and trolls who'd paid Musk for personal validation. The result was, as the Washington Post reported, frustrated Twitter users "taking up arms against accounts with blue check marks and blocking them en masse in an effort they are calling #BlockTheBlue."
Musk tried to short circuit the #BlockTheBlue movement by subscribing previously verified people with more than a million followers to Twitter Blue without their knowledge or approval, including Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. Musk's sycophants even acted as if it was morally wrong for celebrities not to pay for the service. For example, the ever-questionable Piers Morgan attacked King, saying the author should pay Musk "A fortune for the huge promotion his platform gives you." Which is a strange thing to say about someone who has sold 350 million books and doesn't need Twitter as much as Twitter needs him.
There is a bright spot in all this: Once the Twitter legacy verified accounts lost their blue checkmarks, all the people who'd paid for blue vanished from most people's "for you" feed. Right now I again see all the tweets I want to see from people I'm following. It's like a glitch or all the #BlockTheBlue bans by people reverted Twitter to pre-Musk days.
Sadly, this likely won't last. And the entire Twitter ordeal remains a damn shame (except for Twitter working better in recent days).
As Ben Kuchera said, "Twitter had the best influencer program in the world. The company created an incentive structure where the most famous people on the planet created content on the site, daily, for free. Destroyed in one day because the new owner thought Stephen King should pay to write for him."
Spoutible Update
In my last column I talked about how many people in fandom were embracing Spoutible as a Twitter alternative. While this is true, several people including Sara M. Harvey, Skye Kilaen, Tessa Fisher and Joyce Reynolds-Ward pointed out how Spoutible majorly screwed up earlier this year in their dealings with Romancelandia and Courtney Milan.
See this post for more info on what happened along with an overview of the issues related to Spoutible's terms of service and the harassment that emerged. Also check out the comments by Harvey, Kilaen, Fisher and Reynolds-Ward on my post. I don't know if Spoutible learned from this or not. But do consider this when looking at the platform.
Genre Conventions and Anti-Drag Laws
With more than a dozen states having recently passed or considering anti-drag bills, members of SF/F fandom will not only have to consider if they'll want to host and support conventions in these states but also how these laws will impact the safety of attendees.
As Shepherd pointed out last month, "These laws define a drag performance as any person dressed as the opposite gender from the one they were assigned at birth performing for an audience of at least one person, to include *speaking or reading*. No trans people will be able to appear on panels at cons in these states without violating the law. Trans authors will not be able to give readings."
And don't believe these laws wouldn't apply to conventions. The laws are already being used to silence performing arts organizations. And in Florida, where a new anti-drag bill was recently passed, Pride celebrations are being canceled even before Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the bill into law.
As Rico Starlight said, "all fan conventions that take place in states that ban drag need to push back on anti drag laws. The fan con community, especially the anime fan con community, is very queer and a lot of trans people discover themselves through fandom." And as Lady Tora pointed out, "bills like this could make cosplay conventions a felony."
And The Demonic Diva was even more to the point, saying that the bills would essentially outlaw anime conventions, Renfaire, Comic Con, and so on.
Perhaps some people in fandom think this won't affect them because they don't wear drag or they're not transgender. But even getting past how vitally important it is to support everyone in fandom, these laws can easily be weaponized against genre conventions. The laws will also cause many people in fandom to fear going to conventions in certain states because they could be arrested for merely being who they are.
It's vital people in SF/F fandom push back against these laws.
Awards
The Chengdu Worldcon is accepting nominations for the Hugo Awards through April 30 at 23:59pm Hawaiian time. To nominate, go here. If anyone has trouble logging into the nomination site, contact hugoteam@chengduworldcon.com.
The 2023 Nebula Award finalists. The winners will be announced at the SFWA Nebula Conference in May.
Kimberly Unger's The Extractionist won the 2023 Philip K. Dick Award while Tade Thompson's The Legacy of Molly received a special citation.
Finalists for the 14th Annual Xingyun Awards for Chinese Science Fiction.
Finalists for the 2023 Tähtifantasia Award.
Morning Moon by Masakuni Oda and Critique of Speculative Reason: Collected Essays on Science Fiction by Yoshio Aramaki won the 43rd Japan SF Grand Prize.
Finalists for the 2023 Kurd Laßwitz Preis.
Finalist for the 2023 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire.
Spear by Nicola Griffith won the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction.
How to Get to Apocalypse by Erica L. Satifka won the 2021 Endeavour Award. Submissions for the 2022 award, which focuses on works by Pacific Northwest authors, are open until May 31.
Nominations for the 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, with a $25,000 cash prize, are open through April 30.
In an interesting award note, File770 reported that Sean CW Korsgaard, an assistant editor for Baen Books who also manages the publisher's media relations, recently cast suspicion on the Nebula Awards. In Korsgaard's words "a book from Baen led the Nebula ballot for Best novel this year ... and yet didn't get a nomination." As supposed proof Korsgaard offered "screen caps of the votes" from the Nebula Awards showing a Baen author in the lead shortly before voting closed. However, it turned out that instead of the image showing the actual voting tally, which isn't publicly released, the image showed the Nebula Awards Suggested Reading List compiled by recommendations from SFWA members.
Finally, an unofficial Hugo Book Club blog offered a very good thread about etiquette around award nominations. And as Phoenix Alexander said, "as award season/TOC season looms, it can be disheartening to not make any shortlists/anthologies/review round-ups. And that's ok! Feel the feels – and then keep writing the things only *you* can write."
Other News and Info
In the face of growing book bans across the U.S.A., authors are calling on publishers to stand up to the pressure after Maggie Tokuda-Hall "revealed that Scholastic required her to omit all mentions of racism in her book, including in the author's note about her own life." Tokuda-Hall shared the full story of what happened here. As Alex Brown said, "This is some fucking bullshit. Scholastic should be ashamed of themselves. To try and erase a person's lived history so they can sell books to bigots is deeply, egregiously offensive." A large number of authors protested this in a letter to Scholastic, including bestselling author Kelly Yang who told the publisher "I need you to be brave."
After being swatted numerous times over the last 10 months, Patrick S. Tomlinson wrote a must-read thread about what has been happening. Turns out his harassers subscribed him to an automated computer swatting service called Torswats, paying "well over a thousand dollars" so he can be swatted over and over. Vice recently ran a detailed article examining this criminal enterprise. As Tomlinson said, "Make no mistake here, this is domestic terrorism."
The Internet Archive lost a ruling in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against them by John Wiley & Sons, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. The publishers sued Internet Archive over their National Emergency Library created during the pandemic by uploading "ebooks" created from scanned versions of printed books. The Internet Archive plans to appeal and the case will possibly go to the Supreme Court.
Last month Wired published an article by Jason Kehe about Brandon Sanderson that was roundly criticized as one of the nastiest author profiles ever. Instead of critiquing actual issues or raising substantive questions, the article essentially mocked Sanderson for being a weird nerd. Sanderson later responded to the interview in an essay where he discussed his own life and his neurodivergence.
Excellent essay by Jeff VanderMeer on if climate fiction can help create useful change in our world. I remain hopeful that fiction and stories can change the world in positive ways, but read the entire essay.
The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) released a survey that supposedly showed self-published authors earning more than traditionally published authors. However, some authors questioned the survey's findings. Zack Argyle said, "Please, don't believe this heavily biased research. Self-published authors CAN earn more—that is true—but the median is absolutely not $12k per year. The majority of self-published authors make less than $1k per year. Go in with the right expectations." And James Lloyd Dulin pointed out that "I was sent this survey. They required that participants spent a minimum of 20 hours a week writing/publishing/marketing their work. Most indies don't have the resources to write part or full time."
In April of last year, the newly merged Draft2Digital and Smashwords informed Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki that they were closing operations in Nigeria and would no longer sell his books. They also promised his already-earned royalties would be paid in 3-6 months. How did that go? Well, this month Ekpeki received a new message from Draft2Digital saying they were still in the "review process" and would pay in late 2023. As Ekpeki said, "How about you just pay?" As I've previously reported, many international authors and creatives repeatedly face these types of arbitrary and infuriating payment issues and delays.
On a related note, the GoFundMe I'm running to help Ekpekiwith with visa processing and legal fees is now a quarter funded. Check it out.
In December Brian Keene wrote an open letter to Pete Kahle of Bloodshot Books, taking the small horror publisher to talk for not paying authors. Recently Joe Mynhardt of Crystal Like Publishing revealed that Kahle is stepping down from publishing and Crystal Lake is offering all of the Bloodshot Books authors a new home for their works. "We have given all the authors the option to take their rights back, in case they want to sub elsewhere or self-publish, but I'm confident that Crystal Lake is a great publishing house. We're trustworthy, pay on time, and hell, we've been around for over 10 years. Which is almost impossible in this industry."
Rae Knowles shared a thread about the Curator of Horror podcast's Chance Forshee sending her an inappropriate message. Knowles also referenced comments by others in the horror community that were evidently about Forshee, saying "Others have tweeted. I'm naming him." Max Booth III shared the thread and added "It is literally no secret at this point that Chance has been harassing me for a while now, going so far as to text my phone on my wedding night after I've made it clear (more than once) I didn't want any contact from him."
Gordon B. White shared a story: "A mediocre dude pops up and anoints himself the True Supporter of poor, downtrodden indie horror. In short order, he builds up an influencer persona out of nothing but tireless self-promotion, unearned cocksure bravado, and a refusal to take no for an answer. … Then, oops. Someone speaks up and it turns out this mediocre dude has been a real creep the whole time. In fact, he's been a creep to a lot of people, but his victims weren't comfortable speaking out publicly because of all the external support this guy had." Read the entire thread. Sadly, this story keeps happening not only in the horror genre but across fandom.
Good thoughts from Hillary Monahan on why "getting a reputation for speaking up about creeps in the industry" is not the threat people think it is. And as Premee Mohamed added, "some of us NEED people to speak up about creeps in the industry before the said creeps figure out that we're not part of any whisper networks and zero in on us as targets?? NOT EVERYONE knows who the creeps are!"
Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware dissects the anatomy of a fake literary agency scam in a must-read for all authors.
Cat Rambo apologized for accessibility issues related to their Wayward Wormhole intensive writing workshop and laid out steps to make it right.
Fascinating article by Lavanya Lakshminarayan showing how cyberpunk is thriving in South Asian literature.
The table of contents for Year's Best African Speculative Fiction 2021-2022 has been released. This year's anthology is edited by Eugen Bacon and Milton Davis and will contain poetry fiction from 2021 and 2022.
Scott Reintgen wrote an insightful thread about his book hitting The New York Times bestseller list. "It is the single biggest accomplishment of my career – and here's why it almost didn't happen. As Diana Peterfreund said, "Great thread about how small the difference can be between, 'this book was a NYT bestseller' and 'this manuscript is collecting dust in a drawer.'"
This is the best description I've seen summarizing ChatGPT: It's a "say something that sounds like an answer" machine. This means ChatGPT doesn’t always give correct answers or responses, but at least you get a response that "sounds" correct.
Someone on TikTok wasn't sure if their writing was any good so they asked ChatGPT to critique their work. Responses to the video from other writers ranged from "Hey authors? Maybe (absolutely) do not do this. Ever ever. Never." to "I am just sitting here screaming and screaming."
I agree 100% with Kaelan Ramos’s comment about the upcoming live-action adaptation of the classic anime Akira: "I'll never understand how, out of all the possible anime to adapt to live-action, they choose the properties that are primarily well-known for making outstanding use of the animation medium. There's no reason for this other than just pure hubris."
A writer named Demetrious Polychron is suing Jeff Bezos and the estate of J. R. R. Tolkien for $250 million for supposedly stealing ideas from his book The Fellowship of the King, which Polychron admits was heavily influenced by Tolkien. Evidently Polychron wrote a letter asking Tolkien's grandson to review his book and also left a copy of the book at the grandson's home but never heard back from anyone. As Thomas of SFF180 said, "It takes a situation precisely this ludicrous to make me root for Bezos."
Artist Jeremy Haun released a time-lapsed video showing him inking the cover for Knight Terrors: Black Adam #1. Not only is this video a powerful way to understand what a comic book inker does, the video's also hypnotically beautiful.
As Gretchen McCulloch said, "It has come to my attention that we're in thesis defense season and not everyone has seen the snake fight thesis defense fanfiction."
Despite what your teachers once said, spending all your time staring into space can take you places in life.
Opportunities
Each year the Dream Foundry offers amazing contests for emerging SF/F writers and artists, with large cash prizes and no submission fees. This year's contests are open to submissions through June 18. Here are the art contest details and here's the details for the fiction writing contest.
Apex Publication's Strange Machines: An Anthology of Dark User Manuals is open to flash fiction submissions of up to 250 words until April 30. Details>>
Wyldblood Press is also open for flash fiction submissions through April 30, but are looking for science fiction and fantasy of up to 1,200 words. They don't anticipate reopening for longer stories until 2024. Details>>
Submissions are open for Grist's 2023/2024 Imagine 2200 climate fiction short story contest. "Looking for stories of 3,000 to 5,000 words that envision the next 180 years of climate progress — roughly seven generations – imagining intersectional worlds of abundance, adaptation, reform, and hope. Large cash prizes up to $3,000. Deadline June 13. Details>>
Submissions will be open from August 1 – August 31, 2023, for the horror anthology Why Didn’t You Just Leave edited by Nadia Bulkin and Julia Rios. Details>>