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Jan. 2nd, 2020 08:52 pm1. Ah...yet another article on the showdown between Chinese-American romance writer Courtney Milan and the RWA - Romance Writers of America Racism Row Matters Because the Gate Keepers Are Watching
Well, yeah it does matter. What a lot of people don't realize is how big a money-maker the romance genre actually is. Or how many books are published in it. As a genre, it makes more money and publishes more books annually than all the other genres combined. If you want to make money selling books? You write romance.
( excerpt )
The debate makes me nervous as a writer, I'll admit, because I can't help but wonder if I've screwed up here or there? We all do. What seems fine in our eyes, may be offensive in someone else's. Marvelous Mrs. Maizel made that point in it's last episode -- where Mrs. Maizel, who is nervous about going on stage at the Apollo is advised by Shy Baldwin (think Johnny Mathais) manager to make jokes about Shy. Bad idea. So she does -- and what she thinks are rather innocuous jokes about Shy putting on makeup, how pretty he looks, and his clothes -- taken in another light, are considered "Judy Garland jokes" or jokes about Shy's homosexuality thinly veiled. She's booted from the tour. Or, I'm reading Milan's novel "After the Wedding" and am noticing how careful the writer is trying to be about writing a black man of multi-racial parents. Is it perfect? I don't know. We live in a society that is obsessed with appearances. And defines people based on physical mannerisms, traits, color of skin, language, gender identifiers, voice, religious and sexual practices to the point in which it is almost absurd. None of that matters. We are all human. We are all spirit in organic matter, individual and unique in of ourselves like all other life on this planet. But our egos are insanely invested in such things over and above everything else...and we discriminate based on them. To the point in which sometimes I wonder if the human race is worth saving?
Ugh.
I do not care what race, gender, age, creed, ethnicity, size, shape, etc you are. That's what I loved about fanboards and lj and dreamwidth -- I often had no clue about any of that. I got to know the essence of a person -- not their physical attributes and sexuality.
I'm considering removing all the human physical descriptions (color of eyes, skin, etc) from my current novel. It would probably shave off about 100 pages right there.
2. Went back to work today with a bright and shiny attitude...which lasted until about 9 AM...this resolution to be a kinder person would work a whole lot better if I didn't have to work and commute to work for a living. The combination of my commute and workplace is trying to beat it out of me. Although my co-workers were nice when I told them this -- they said I was already a very kind person. Yeah, well, I know I can do better.
What happened? I went to work with a game-plan, and got blindsided one hour in. Apparently my boss and a coworker managed to renegotiate all the labor rates and add personnel and remove personnel, and change their titles on my fixed unit rate on-call contract without informing me. I found out when the consultant sent me the modification that my boss signed, which I've never seen.
Then, it was just one brain teezer after another. Also, on the commute home, people were being stubbornly uncooperative - standing in my way, doing nothing but playing with their cell phones or staring into space.
By the end of the day, my shoulders hurt, and I was trying not to kick things.
I think the Universe saw my New Year's resolution, and giggling, decided to see how long it would take me to break it on the very first day back to work.
Next year, I'm not going to make any resolutions.
Also, it would help if I could get an hour or two of sunlight a day. Ugh. I leave in the dark, although sunrise often hits as I board a train -- so I get about fifteen to twenty minutes on the way to work, and ten minutes when I return. No wonder I'm Vitamin D deficient.
Well, yeah it does matter. What a lot of people don't realize is how big a money-maker the romance genre actually is. Or how many books are published in it. As a genre, it makes more money and publishes more books annually than all the other genres combined. If you want to make money selling books? You write romance.
( excerpt )
The debate makes me nervous as a writer, I'll admit, because I can't help but wonder if I've screwed up here or there? We all do. What seems fine in our eyes, may be offensive in someone else's. Marvelous Mrs. Maizel made that point in it's last episode -- where Mrs. Maizel, who is nervous about going on stage at the Apollo is advised by Shy Baldwin (think Johnny Mathais) manager to make jokes about Shy. Bad idea. So she does -- and what she thinks are rather innocuous jokes about Shy putting on makeup, how pretty he looks, and his clothes -- taken in another light, are considered "Judy Garland jokes" or jokes about Shy's homosexuality thinly veiled. She's booted from the tour. Or, I'm reading Milan's novel "After the Wedding" and am noticing how careful the writer is trying to be about writing a black man of multi-racial parents. Is it perfect? I don't know. We live in a society that is obsessed with appearances. And defines people based on physical mannerisms, traits, color of skin, language, gender identifiers, voice, religious and sexual practices to the point in which it is almost absurd. None of that matters. We are all human. We are all spirit in organic matter, individual and unique in of ourselves like all other life on this planet. But our egos are insanely invested in such things over and above everything else...and we discriminate based on them. To the point in which sometimes I wonder if the human race is worth saving?
Ugh.
I do not care what race, gender, age, creed, ethnicity, size, shape, etc you are. That's what I loved about fanboards and lj and dreamwidth -- I often had no clue about any of that. I got to know the essence of a person -- not their physical attributes and sexuality.
I'm considering removing all the human physical descriptions (color of eyes, skin, etc) from my current novel. It would probably shave off about 100 pages right there.
2. Went back to work today with a bright and shiny attitude...which lasted until about 9 AM...this resolution to be a kinder person would work a whole lot better if I didn't have to work and commute to work for a living. The combination of my commute and workplace is trying to beat it out of me. Although my co-workers were nice when I told them this -- they said I was already a very kind person. Yeah, well, I know I can do better.
What happened? I went to work with a game-plan, and got blindsided one hour in. Apparently my boss and a coworker managed to renegotiate all the labor rates and add personnel and remove personnel, and change their titles on my fixed unit rate on-call contract without informing me. I found out when the consultant sent me the modification that my boss signed, which I've never seen.
Then, it was just one brain teezer after another. Also, on the commute home, people were being stubbornly uncooperative - standing in my way, doing nothing but playing with their cell phones or staring into space.
By the end of the day, my shoulders hurt, and I was trying not to kick things.
I think the Universe saw my New Year's resolution, and giggling, decided to see how long it would take me to break it on the very first day back to work.
Next year, I'm not going to make any resolutions.
Also, it would help if I could get an hour or two of sunlight a day. Ugh. I leave in the dark, although sunrise often hits as I board a train -- so I get about fifteen to twenty minutes on the way to work, and ten minutes when I return. No wonder I'm Vitamin D deficient.