* Actually, we all had a really lovely con.

A picture is worth… is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Looks like I will be on four panels/discussions at Readercon this weekend. In addition to that we’re having the eBooks and SF Magazines discussion on Saturday night. Here’s my schedule for those who are interested:

Talk / Discussion: How Electrons have Changed Writing and Reading — Friday 4:00 PM, ME/CT
Cecilia Tan with discussion by Inanna Arthen, Leah Bobet, K. Tempest Bradford, Barbara Krasnoff, K. A. Laity

eBooks, the Internet, social media networks, PayPal — have these really changed the writer/reader relationship forever? Not surprisingly, SF readers are early adopters of new tech and sf publishers are leading the way in new content delivery. Is it really possible with new tech for a writer to cut out the publisher and still make a living? Is the writer who wants to “just write” doomed to obscurity now? Writers, what forays into the new frontier of electronic publishing have you made and what did you find out there in the wild lands? Readers, what have you enjoyed and sought out, what would you welcome?

Panel: The New and Improved Future of Magazines – Friday 8:00 PM, Salon G
K. Tempest Bradford, Neil Clarke, Liz Gorinsky (L), Gavin J. Grant, Matthew Kressel.

After last year’s “The Future of Magazines” panels, participant K. Tempest Bradford wrote: “The magazines and anthologies that I love tend to have editors who have taken the time to examine themselves or their culture, to expend their knowledge of other people and ways of being, to open their minds. These magazines and anthologies contain far more stories I want to read by authors of many varied backgrounds. As I said, it’s not fully about print vs. online, it’s about better magazines and books.” This time, creators and proponents of both print and online magazines collaborate on determining ways that any genre magazine can create a brighter and better-read future for itself, using Bradford’s comment as a launching point^[1].

eBooks and Magazines Planning Discussion — Saturday 6:00 PM, Meet in the lobby

Those of you interested in discussing the Magazine/eBook open source project, we’re going to meet at Readercon during the dinner break since this is the time that’s none of us are likely to have something else scheduled.

If you can’t make this time, that’s fine. We will also have an online space to discuss things after the con is over.

And yes, we will eat dinner while we discuss if we all decide the dinner time is fine. :) Meet in the lobby of the hotel, then we’ll decide where to get dinner. (Facebook event is here if you want to RSVP.)

Talk / Discussion: Interstitial Arts Foundation Town Meeting — Sunday 10:00 AM, RI
Sarah Smith with discussion by K. Tempest Bradford, Theodora Goss, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Shira Lipkin

The IAF is a group of “Artists Without Borders” who celebrate art that is made in the interstices between genres and categories. It is art that flourishes in the borderlands between different disciplines, mediums, and cultures. The IAF provides border-crossing artists and art scholars a forum and a focus for their efforts. Rather than creating a new genre with new borders, they support the free movement of artists across the borders of their choice. They support the development of a new vocabulary with which to view and critique border-crossing works, and they celebrate the large community of interstitial artists working in North America and around the world. The annual Interstitial Arts Foundation Town Meeting at Readercon is an exciting opportunity to catch up with the IAF and its many supporters to hear about they’re doing to support the interstitial art community in 2010, solicit your ideas for future projects, and to give you a voice in the development of interstitial art.

Talk / Discussion: How to Write for a Living When You Can’t Live Off Your Fiction – Sunday 11:00 AM, RI
Barbara Krasnoff with discussion by Inanna Arthen, K. Tempest Bradford, Jeffrey A. Carver, Rose Fox, Jeff Hecht, Alison Sinclair, Gayle Surrette

You’ve just been laid off from your staff job, you can’t live on the royalties from your fiction writing, and your Significant Other has taken a cut in pay. How do you pay the rent? Well, you can find freelance work writing articles, white papers, reviews, blogs, and other non-sfnal stuff. Despite today’s lean journalistic market, it’s still possible to make a living writing, editing, and/or publishing. Let’s talk about where and how you can sell yourself as a professional writer, whether blogging can be done for a living, and how else you can use your talent to keep the wolf from the door. Bring whatever ideas, sources, and contacts you have.

Footnotes

1. Yes, it is a little weird for me that they chose a quote from something I wrote to base this discussion on…

My Readercon 21 Schedule is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

So I have a couple of stories that I’d like to sell as individual eBooks, just to try the whole process out. I’ve made the ePub file — which took more doing than should have been necessary… — and I’ve tried it out on the eReaders I have around. But I’d really appreciate it if those of you out there with an eReader or a smartphone that has an EPUB-reading app would check it for me as well. Just let me know in the comments if you’d like a copy and I’ll send it to the email you leave there. Thanks!

Next step is getting accounts on and uploading my story to some eBook stores. I’m thinking iBooks, Kindle, Sony, Kobo, B&N, Scribd and maybe B&N once their self-publishing thing happens. Anyone have experience with these they want to share?

Trying Out This eBook Thang is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

@tinytempest #Dollhouse panel starting. This ought to be good.

@cabell Feeling a little trepidatious at the Dollhouse panel.

@MsAnastasia Starting my last panel of #Wiscon – a Dollhouse debate that already is sounding potentially heated. First up: separation of body from self.

@cabell Is Dollhouse biz model realistic? Only if u assume rich ppl are all in a big self-protective club… so yeh, probly.

@swanberg Dollhouse is a big hot mess. Sometimes the mess outweighs the hot, sometimes the hot outweighs the mess. -Kater Cheek

@swanberg Hiring a doll is like saying to Jessica Fletcher “Yes, I’d love to come to your cottage.” -Kater

@swanberg Enver was the best part of the show. He is amazing. – panel & audience

@madmarvelgirl ‘a piece of art does not have to be a female empowerment story to be profoundly feminist

@swanberg I don’t think a story has to be a female empowerment story to be proundly feminist. – member of audience

@cabell How does English prof afford Echo? Tempest: He edited a book all freshmen have to buy that w/new edition every year!

@cabell Tempest & Ana agree: any feminism in Dollhouse happened by accident & had nothing to do with Joss Whedon.

@tinytempest “The less I liked Echo, the more I liked the people who were keeping her down.” Kater Cheek

@madmarvelgirl ‘i will take evil & competent over cute & feckless any day of the week’

@swanberg Black handler with no sexual interst in Echo. If her handler had been white “what, is he gay?” Erases Boyd’s sexuality

@jdawley Audience member: Alpha gave Echo the ability to integrate her personalities. Charlie Jane: Well, she had midichlorians.

@cabell Come on, if ur working w/Eliza Dushku, u need her 2 act confused as much as possible. Play 2 her strengths

@Hamaker88 Oooh. Panel fight!!

@cabell I have no patience with authorial intent. Intentions don’t matter. WHAT YOU DID/PUT ON MY TV matters.

@rhiannonrevolts @cabell That’s my POV. Also, cultural studies all about reading any authorial intent through lens of sociocultural influences, so…

@sigridellis Dollhouse panel was raucous and wild, but ultimately productive, I thought.

WisCon by the Twitters: Dollhouse – Made of Win or Full of Fail? is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

@tinytempest Narrowly escaped being the Vanna White of this panel.

@wrdnrd This year’s not-another-race-panel features super awesome category “what would johanna do??” (Don’t cry, sis!)

@tinytempest @ceciliatan is DIRTY! hahahaha

@swanberg What small furryanimal would make the best zombie?

@alothian Which animal would make the best zombie? Andrea Hairston: kangaroos have handy pouches for body parts.

@yamainu Marsupial zombies rock the to-go bag

@tinytempest Amal: clearly it is time to breed the veliciraptor and the zombie. The Velocizombie’s time has come.

@tinytempest Sheveta: “Brains are smelly.” Amal: “But also delicious!”

@nivairface Peacock zombies! Oh my! I looove Not Another F%&$*ing Race Panel.

@alothian Discussion of tastiness of human brains. Amal El-Mohtar: the garlic slogan should be: even brains taste good with garlic.

@nivairface “Wow, we’re all women on this panel! … Oh, that’s right, WisCon.” <3333

@nivairface “Read the fanfic; there’s more sex.” GOOD TIP FOR LIFE. Thanks, Cecilia Tan!

@tinytempest “I would try to not have any emotions when people who said stupid things to me.” Andrea Hairston on her Spock impression as a kid.

@nivairface If you haven’t seen Andrea D. Hairston be Mr. Spock, you haven’t lived. ;)

@alothian Andrea Hairston talks about impersonating Spock as an academic persona: “Fascinating, but incorrect.”

@tinytempest “I feel like I have a long history of embarassment involving Mercedes Lackey.” @sparkymonster

@wrdnrd I love everyone on this panel SO HARD.

@tinytempest @ceciliatan: “Ricky Martin was pretending to be asleep in the next bed when I lost my virginity.”

@tinytempest @ceciliatan (continued) “Later, he told a friend of mine that that’s what turned him gay.” @ricky_martin

Several people tweeted the above :)

@yamainu Cecilia Tan admits to turning Ricky Martin gay, thus ensuring a best-selling autobiography.

@wrdnrd Cecilia Tan: “Now THAT’s a fic i could write.”

@tinytempest “If Tolkien can do it, you can do it.”

@wrdnrd WWjD question: Have you ever veganized a recipe or altered one for celiacs & had it go horribly wrong — or right?

@tinytempest Amal: “It’s not like she’s trying to eat vegetables to get back at them.”

@kiyasjoy Bourbon fixes everything!! @sparkymonster

@swanberg “I have learned not to disrespect cornmeal” @yoon li

@alothian What cybernetic enhancement would you choose? @sparkymonster: TWITTER IMPLANT. I concur.

@tinytempest Andrea Hairston “I want to BE a robot overlord. Fucking having an implant.”

@alothian @ceciliatan, not @sparkymonster, wanted the Twitter implant. Clearly I need it to help divide attention… Sorry!

@raanve This panel is the friggin best.

@swanberg “Kahnnnnnnn!” – the entire audience

@raanve Is there anything better than an ENTIRE ROOM yelling “Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!” ?? I THINK NOT.

@raanve Can we talk about Tasha Yar? Let’s!

@raanve Tasha Yar People: srsly, that tar monster? So much b-s! She & Data need to get their time in the sun.

@nivairface “In every show there are now red shirts, and I feel for them.” – Andrea Hairston

@kiyasjoy Uhura totally has a katana!!

@swanberg That’s your daddy issues – @sparkymonster to @CeliaTan

@wrdnrd WWjD question: What’s interesting in Finland?

@tinytempest Amal “Reindeers, like brains, are delicious.”

@swanberg “Khaaannnnn! yells that aren’t Khan. GO!” Wisconnnnnn! @Sparkymonster

@raanve Khan yells with names other than KHAN: I submit “Simon LeBooooonnnnnnnnn!”

@jdawley Not Another F’-ng Race Panel. “Kirk yells something that isn’t Khaaaaaan!!! Go!” Unanimous answer: “WisCooooooooooonnn!!!”

WisCon by the Twitters: The Revenge of the Not Another Fucking Race Panel is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

@tinytempest “I was seduced into Doctor Who fandom by a really cute boy” says @lynnemthomas

@rhiannonrevolts Asking me who my Doctor is…hard. Ten IS me, but I love others.

@rhiannonrevolts Really agreeing with @tinytempest about companions. Martha Jones saves the world!

@yamainu “Our fandom is bigger on the inside.” heard at Doctor Who panel.

@rhiannonrevolts RTD is going to get smacked by @tinytempest and I will laugh.

@charliejane i wanna watch! RT @rhiannonrevolts: RTD is going to get smacked by @tinytempest and I will laugh.

@rhiannonrevolts Martha Jones’ feelings for the Doctor were handled wrong, says @lynnemthomas and I agree.

@tinytempest “What’s the Tom Baker episode where he fellates an alien?”

@rhiannonrevolts RTD and teh Moff really have issues with women.

WisCon by the Twitters: Chicks Dig Time Lords is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Have I mentioned that it was a long weekend?

Yay WisCon! Yay New Connections! is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Late last week as I was getting settled in at WisCon couple of people brought this to my attention:

“I probably won’t ever be at WisCon again, sadly, as it used to be one of my favorite cons, but RaceFail has made it very unwelcoming and unsafe for me.” –Jay Lake

This was a comment on someone’s LiveJournal in response to their post on the panels they’d be doing at WisCon. Why Jay felt the need to express this sentiment at that time in this journal, I couldn’t tell you. But the comment had the predictable effect on me.

I made some snarky tweets at Jay on Twitter (hilariously getting his Twitter name wrong twice) and went on to spend a lovely weekend with fine people and free liquor. But then I read more of the conversation on that blog^[1] and saw a little of Jay’s post on the subject and then this going on in yeloson’s journal and I just…. smh.

So here’s the thing. I will say that I probably should have written an in-depth teardown of Jay’s crazypants instead of just snarking on Twitter. I just don’t like to give that dude any more time than he’s worth. But if his requirements for criticizing him must include having read the things he’s written, then obviously I’m the person for it. Because I was once Jay Lake’s friend.

I met Jay in 2003, I started following his blog shortly after, we always hung out at conventions whenever possible, we chatted and emailed and became good buds. He was at various times incredibly awesome to me. And at various times I stood up for him to people who had Things To Say just as I’m sure he may have done for me without my knowing.

But then.

Okay, the POC reading this will know what I’m talking about, and probably the allies will, too. Because we have all had that friend who is well meaning and smart, but who says problematic things about race (or gender or religion or whatever) and because they are otherwise awesome you engage with them on a good faith basis and try to get them to understand where they’re mistaken, how their problematic words are hurtful, and how they can possibly do better. When a friend tells you that you’ve got your skirt stuck up in your pantyhoes, you might be embarassed for a bit but you’re grateful a friend was there to tell you, right? Right.

But then the hits just keep on coming, and pretty soon you feel more ragey or just plain annoyed than you feel in kinship with this person. And then one day you have enough.

So this is pretty much what went on with me and Jay. He would say incredibly problematic stuff, I would attempt to untuck his skirt, and he would say thank you and profess to do better. Thing is, he didn’t. It was Lather, Rinse, Repeat every time. Finally I reached the point where I’d had enough.

The nature of the lather, rinse, repeat on issues of race, at least, was that Jay would use the same two nuggets of his existence as a shield against accusations that he was not as enlightened as he purported to be. One was that he’d been raised (partially) in foreign countries where whites where in the minority in the population (though not in terms of power, necessarily), and this gave him a better understanding of priviledge and of otherness than the average American white guy. The other nugget is that he has a Chinese daughter, and therefore he Knows, Man.

Setting aside the sketchiness for a sec, both of these elements can indeed lead someone with privilege to examine it, work against it in their sphere of influence, and come to deeper understandings of the workings of racism in our society in order to be a good ally and maybe change things. Unfortunately for Jay Lake, this doesn’t seem to have quite happened.

I’m going to go on another tangent — it’s related, so bear with me. This weekend at WisCon I was explaining to people at the Dollhouse panel that there are many levels to privilege and understanding and such. Down on the bottom level you have the folks who are just racist or sexist or whatever and haven’t ever examined anything and don’t want to for various reasons.

But then up higher is the level where people agree that racism is bad and wrong, we’re all equal, and everyone should just stop being so mean. Na’amen helpfully labeled this the Kumbaya level, because it’s that kind of surface, touchy-feely non-racism that doesn’t actively engage with people of color or any oppressed people.  Nor does it work to change things for the better because, hey, aren’t things just great now?

While the Kumbaya level is much better than just plain racism, people on this level often really frustrate us because they are resistant to acknowledge that they still have work to do. They don’t wear white hoods so they can’t ever say or do things that have a basis in racism. Not that they are racist, but they aren’t helping, which is bad enough.

This is where Jay Lake is right now. And he’s a walking cliche of Kumbayaness. He uses those two nuggests about himself not as a way to grow, but as a sheild against accusations of problematic behavior or speech. Literally. You can’t have a conversation with him about this stuff without him bringing up “but I have a Chinese daughter” as if that gives him special cred or insight. I can point to the words of many transracial adoptees to show that just because a white person adopts a child not of their race, they do not automatically have some special insight or are any less prone to fail. This situation most certainly can produce this result, but it is not a given. So no, no one is going to give him a pass for that.

Having spent many years reading Jay’s blog and talking to him personally on these issues, I feel I am qualified to say that he is a Kumbaya, not an ally. That his views and words are deeply problematic for many reasons. And that he constantly weilds his privilege like a bat instead of examining it deeply. He may know what privilege is and understand how it works, but that does not mean he isn’t guilty of still being mindlessly mired in it. After all, take the statment that started all of this. How he feels “unsafe” at WisCon because people there might make him uncomfortable. The privilege dripping from that whole mindset is staggering.

I meantioned that I used to be Jay’s friend and that one day I couldn’t take all of this any more. Here’s how we became unfriends: After years of being one of the people untucking his skirt from his pantyhose only to find it stuck there again the very next day or week or whatever, I finally said to Jay that in further discussions of racism, he could no longer use those nuggets I mentioned as sheilds, because that was problematic and unhelpful. If he needed me to explain why that was, I would do so.

His response? Silence. He unfriended me on all social networks where we were connected and hasn’t spoken to me since. I wasn’t too surprised at this. I’d avoided saying these things to him so bluntly before because even though Jay says that he wants his friends to be truthful and honest with him about his own behavior, he didn’t model that mindset, ever (or, at least, in the scope of my hearing/seeing/reading). People who criticized him professionally were “jealous of his success” and so forth. But there comes a time in every POC’s life where they have to lay it all out for that Kumbaya-level white friend. It either means that you and the friend come to a better understanding of stuff, or you lose that friend^[2]. You already know how this story ends.

The bottom line is this: I have read Jay’s words, his fiction, and have enjoyed a friendship with him for a time. So I feel I’m qualified to say that, yes, Jay Lake’s ass is showing, and in a big way, and more often than not when it comes to issues of race. He is not a racist, but he sometimes says racist things and holds some sketchy ideas in his head about race that he then articulates and wonders why people find it a problem. He does not model good ally behavior, he seems unable to truly examine his own privilege as a man and as a white person, and because of this he takes up the “Everyone is mean to me just because I’m white and male!” cross at every opportunity. The people who buy this act? Other Kumbayas.

The only thing Jay isn’t safe from at WisCon or any other SF event is people who don’t agree with him^[3]. Does feeling uncomfortable = unsafe? I’m going to go with: No. But you see, Jay has the privilege of sailing through life without ever having to purposefully encounter those that bring up uncomfortable thoughts around these issues. And if he chances upon them, he runs back to the comfort of those who are so very willing to prop up his privileged notions. If these are the only notions he has of safe and unsafe, he’s a lucky guy. A lot of us have to deal with real unsafeness.

And that’s what pissed me off the most about his bullshit. That he would use the language of safe space/not safe space in the context of a feminist event to justify his unwillingness to not be beloved by all. Yes, I know he said “Oh, I misspoke” and claimed “chemo brain” for the slip. And I would totally be willing to give him a pass on that if not for two things. One: that statement is of a piece with how he’s been since before he had cancer. Two: his comments on yeloson’s blog were long after he claimed to have misspoken.

Someone needs to pull his skirt down. Thank goodness it doesn’t have to be me, anymore.

Footnotes

1. The comments have now been erased or screened so you won’t see anything at the link. There is a screencap here — thanks gem225! — so his words are preserved forever and ever, amen.
2. Though the latter is more often the result in my experience, I can say that since RaceFail I have had more conversations that ended up with a happier ending.
3. Just like in life!

Thoughts On Jay Lake’s Continued Ass Showing is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Would anyone be interested in having a little netbook gathering since there won’t be a netbook panel again this year? People who are interested in netbooks could come and ask questions and paw at netbooks, people who own them can talk about the awesome stuff they’re doing with netbooks, and some other netbook-related activity.

Thoughts?

WisCon Netbook Gathering? is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford

Last year’s POC dinner was a big hit and folks have been asking if we’re going to do it again. I say: YES. Because I loved it and want more. This year we’ll have several gatherings just in case someone can’t make one or the other, though only one will be POC-only. If you identify as a person of color, you are welcome at these events.

Friday POC Dinner — 5:30 – 7:30

This is WisCon’s dinner block, so there isn’t any official programming to miss. I made a reservation in the Concourse’s restaurant (the Dayton Street Grille) for the private back room. To join us, just say you’re looking for the POC Group.

They won’t do individual checks for a group our size (I predict at least 15 people, last year we had 30) so bring cash. The menu for the restaurant is here.

There are also two Carl Brandon events happening on Friday and Saturday which are good places to hang with POC and allies. The Carl Brandon party on Friday night at 8:45 in room 607 and the Carl Brandon luncheon at 11:45 on Saturday (meet in the lobby).

I had wanted to do a second big POC-only meetup event, but perhaps this would be better coordinated at the con itself. We can do it in the POC safe space (the Solitaire room) if we want. Plus, last year we had several informal group meals of awesome POC-ness.

WisCon POC Meetups is a post from: K. Tempest Bradford