So, yeah. I’m dancing.

I might as well get right on out and say it:

My novella, From the Ashes, just sold to Entangled Publishing as part of their 2012 superhero anthology. Not only that, but I’ve been recruited as Senior Editor for Entangled’s Flirt and Ever After lines.

So, yeah. I’m dancing like a fool.

image by MeiTang on sxc.hu

It’s kind of funny how things happen, really. Back in January, Savvy Authors ran their EditPalooza writers’ workshop; back then I was working as an editor for Lyrical Press, and when Liz Pelletier asked for participating editors from various publishers, I joined in. EditPalooza was a lot of fun; I got to meet some really cool authors, and got to work with Liz, who turned out to be pretty awesome.

Then life went back to normal. I took a break from editing for a while; I needed to simplify my life and destress, as I’d managed to work myself to the edge of a nervous breakdown fueled by the fact that I wasn’t coping with my grandmother’s death as well as I thought. Things calmed down, I settled back into my daily routine in the day job as a freelance business writer, and got back into the habit of writing fiction on the side. I’m not sure what chain of links led me to Entangled’s website, though I’m pretty sure it had something to do with Twitter. It always has something to do with Twitter. Twitter will be responsible for the downfall of the western world.

Well, no. But it’s pretty much destroyed my attention span.

Anyway. I ran across the Entangled website, recognized the folks from Savvy Authors, and thought what they were doing was pretty cool. I also noticed the submissions call for their superhero anthology.

A week before the final submission date.

Meaning I had four days to churn out a 30k story if I wanted time to let a few beta readers hack it apart.

I don’t know how I did it. I do know I didn’t sleep, but that’s not news. Somehow From the Ashes made it out the door in time, and so help me but I’d have embarrassed myself if not for my friend Amanda, who is just about the best editor in the world and who caught my more cringe-worthy mistakes. I wasn’t expecting to hear anything for a few weeks, so when I saw an email from Liz the very next day, I think I died a little inside. Wow, I thought. That was fast. My story must’ve been really bad.

But it wasn’t a rejection. It was a note from Liz asking if I remembered her from Editpalooza, and asking if I was interested in joining the Entangled Publishing editing team.

So. After I picked myself up off the floor, I sent back the coolest, most composed email ever, stating my interest. Yeah. Stop laughing. You know I was shrieking and squealing and grinning like an idiot even in text, but let me have my illusions. Liz said great, and I took the editing test to see if my editing style and skill level were a good match for Entangled’s needs.

Let me tell you something: everything you know about the agony of waiting for a response to a submission is compounded exponentially when you’re waiting for a response not only to a submission, but a job application – with the same people. I bit my nails down to the quick. I refreshed my email obsessively. I think I sprouted a few more grey hairs. I drove my husband out of his mind, constantly asking if he thought I should have made the story hetero instead of LGBT, if they’d hate the story but love my editing, hate my editing but love the story, or absolutely despise both and wonder how I ever ended up involved in publishing the first place.

It was more a “none of the above” situation. I’m pretty sure I deafened an entire city block when the email came. I had to reread it six or seven times to convince myself it was real, and yes, they wanted the story and wanted me. I’m 99.9% certain I made a rambly, awkward jackass out of myself on introductory phone calls with Liz, the inestimable Heather Howland, and K.L. Grady, the walking epitome of awesomeness who’ll be my editor on From the Ashes.

But jackass or not, there it is. I’m happy. I think “happy” may be the biggest understatement of the year, actually, but it’s a start. I’m really looking forward to working with the Entangled team, both as an editor and as an author, and I think 2012 promises to be an amazing year all around.

But right now, well…

…I have a slush box to clean out. ~flees~

So now “mainstream” = “white?”

The other day I read a feature spot on a new author (who shall remain nameless because he seems like a nice guy, a good writer, and he can’t be blamed for what’s written about him). In this spot he was described as a “writer of color,” which rocketed my little brown behind right back to 1960 (a miracle when I wasn’t even alive then) and made me wish I could tame my unrepentant waves into an afro so I could be a “writer of color,” too.

The author of the article went on to praise him for choosing, despite his color, to write a character and storyline that broaden their appeal by being “mainstream.”

Let me translate that for you, in case you missed it.

He praised the black guy for choosing to write a white character anyway, because white characters are more popular to a predominantly white audience.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the demographics of the North American reading public. The majority of people who buy books and read for pleasure are of some Caucasian descent; it’s undeniable fact, and a rather sad one at that. While the brown people of the world may no longer be a true minority considering our widespread populations and growing buying power in the middle class market, the hard numbers show that (in North America, at least) most of us just don’t read – so in the book-buying demographic, we’re still very much a minority.

But I thought we’d moved past the race of the protagonist mattering to the reader’s ability to empathize with them, as long as the story is well-written and the characters sympathetic. I can understand a white audience not wanting to read 50 Cent’s reprehensible G-Unit books; I don’t want to read them, and I’ve spent parts of my childhood surrounded by the kind of lifestyle they promote. But cultural differences denoted by skin tone have become either marginalized or more widely accepted in North America, and considering how many people of a rainbow of colors share a similar lifestyle, it shouldn’t be so hard to have a protagonist of some shade of brown that’s still considered mainstream. Hell, I write non-Caucasian protagonists…just not all the time. My characters range the human color spectrum, and I’d like to think both Remilliard and Kensington have appeal despite standing on opposite ends of that spectrum.

Many authors write non-Caucasian protagonists. Justine Larbalestier’s (say that three times fast) main character in Liar is most certainly not white, and it created an understandable stink when the original cover for the novel depicted a Caucasian girl. Yet the story is one that anyone can love, and it’s most certainly mainstream enough to reach a broad audience.

She’s just one example. There are many more, and many entirely mainstream books that feature non-Caucasian protagonists while still retaining wide appeal (Le Guin, anyone?).

So why are we still viewing characters “of color” (are we picking up my disdain for that term yet?) as a detriment?

Eh. It’s only one person, one article…but I can’t help but wonder how many still share that view, and why. Especially when we really need more diverse protagonists that will not only make non-Caucasian characters more mainstream, but engage readers in multi-ethnic markets so there’s no longer such a paucity of us with a stake among the book-buying public. Many authors have taken steps to demonstrate that ethnic characters can and do have widespread appeal; I’d love to see more join them, until our fictional worlds are as diversely populated as our real one.

Not a zombie!

Guess who isn’t dead?

Oi, where in hell have I been?

Well, to put it shortly…

1. Tooth pain. Bad tooth pain. One of my molars is now nothing but an L-shaped shell that has blessedly been numbed entirely until I can get it pulled out.

2. Months of mental exhaustion from a combination of work and pain that tried to carve my brain cells out and eat them.

3. Months of playing World of Warcraft to distract myself from the pain, and then getting sucked in until it killed what few brain cells I have left.

4. My computer crashing constantly, which was 90% because of #3.

Basically I’ve been kind of slogging through life on auto-pilot. And I got entirely sick of it a couple of days ago. It feels like waking up from a dream where even in the dream I’m sleeping, but it’s good to feel alive again (and not to be in pain anymore, and not to be wasting any more time on a game that really can be like an addiction; I’ve 95% quit, and only log in for about 5 minutes a day).

I have been working on revisions in that time, though, and I’m almost done. I’m not going to start querying with the new version yet, though. I still have to proofread it with a fine-tooth comb, for one, and get some feedback from beta readers to see if it works or not. Also, I still have a couple of fulls out on the old version. It’s a one in a million shot that either agent will want to represent me (isn’t it always?), but should either of them express interest, I think it’d be rude to say, “Oh, you know that manuscript you just wasted a couple of days of your life reading? Well, I have a better one now. Sorry to waste your time!” If someone likes it as-is (well, obviously with revisions–there are always revisions once it gets into an agent’s hands, as they have the professional perspective to help shape it)…well, it’d be stupid not to trust their judgment.

Still, it’s a tricky situation. When I started querying, I thought I was ready. Someone asked about that in the Twitter #askagent chat last night, actually – about what to do when you thought you were ready to query, and then end up rewriting until it’s practically a different, better novel, and if it’s all right to requery. Most were pretty positively responsive, as long as you wait a decent length of time to requery. I don’t know. I don’t even know if I’m going to query with the new version. Depending on the response I get from the agents with fulls, I’ll make a decision on where to go from here.

I miss writing. I’ve been doing a few little drabbles the past few days; nothing really important, but just warming up unused muscles.

As if the entire ramble wasn’t random enough, let’s close off with a completely different topic:

I really wish people would stop making such a huge fuss about President Obama bowing to the emperor of Japan. When in Rome, people. When in Rome. It’s called politeness and mutual respect, and if we’re going to expect everyone to conform to our customs when on our soil, then we can have the courtesy to respect their customs when on their soil. It’s not a sign of weakness or deference, and the kind of close-minded centrism rising around that sentiment is why half the world hates us.

That’s all. So. How’re you? (…if there’s anyone even left in this ghost town…)

AmazonFail update.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/amazon/archives/166384.asp

Thought so. That’s much more sensible than all the pitchfork-waving that was going on before.

Amazon Fails.

This started on Twitter, but is beginning to explode all over the internet: Amazon has stirred controversy and roused protests from its customer base and many high-profile authors (and other names in the publishing industry) by removing the sales rankings from content deemed as “adult,” causing it to no longer show up in certain searches or on certain best-seller lists.

As if the regression back to antiquated standards of censorship wasn’t bad enough: apparently the decision as to what constitutes “adult” materials is highly discriminatory against LGBT publications. While Playboy and other materials with heterosexual adult content retain their sales rankings and remain easily available on all searches and best-seller lists, many LGBT publications with only nominal romantic or erotic content have been de-listed with little to no feasible explanation for the change except for a canned response about the new policy. At the same time, books discussing preventions, cures, or other discrimination against homosexuality retain their sales rankings and now have a more prominent position in searches for “homosexuality” with other, more relevant publications now removed from search results.

Outrage has come fast and furious, and the #amazonfail hash tag is currently the most popular one on Twitter. I’ve been following the conversations, and the outpouring of shock and anger has been growing at understandably exponential levels.

For decades many groups have fought for freedom of speech, freedom against discrimination, and freedom against censorship. Such a simple act, while seemingly innocuous, is an enormous step backwards and displays a complete misunderstanding of the meaning of equality. If the LGBT community – our stories, our authors, our world – were truly seen as equal by those at Amazon who made this decision, then this policy never would have been enacted at all.

I can only hope that this was a short-sighted mistake, and that Amazon didn’t think this or its ramifications through. I can’t imagine a corporation of this size being so willfully blind, and willfully discriminatory. An Amazon spokesperson apparently claims that it was a glitch – but another author has proof that it’s been happening since February. That’s quite a long time to go without fixing a glitch.

Whatever it is, I hope that it’s corrected soon, and that Amazon doesn’t abuse its position as a leading mainstream book retailer to force censorship on a public that never asked for it. I’d like to hold out hope, for now, rather than joining in the rabble-rousing and automatically assuming malicious intent. It’s just too senseless and irrational; there has to be a better explanation than what most are assuming. Amazon didn’t achieve its premiere ranking by being stupid.