Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Vixy & Tony, "The Ocean."

A brief look back at events earlier in the year.

Every time I confirm a publication date, I write it in my dayplanner. This is both because my planner is my secondary brain (I would be lost without it, and probably homicidal), and because that way, I never forget to post when something new hits shelves. I don't like going "buy buy buy" all the time, but a certain amount of promotion comes with the job, and I like letting people know when things are available.

When I opened my planner to today, I found a note from myself, written months upon months ago, letting me know that today was the release date for Wicked Pretty Things.

Well, damn.

For those of you who may have missed the whole sordid mess, Wicked Pretty Things was a YA paranormal romance anthology in which I was supposed to have a story. I withdrew my story, as did many other authors. You can see my original post on the situation here, which includes links to various other posts on the topic. As you can probably guess (if you don't already know), it was a big mess. Eventually, so many people pulled out of the book that it was canceled. It's not coming out today; it's not coming out ever.

I hate that this book had to die. I hate that withdrawing my story was necessary. I am so very proud of our community of authors and readers and bloggers for standing up and saying "no, this is not okay; no, this is not that time; no, this is not that place; no, we will not say that we're against bullying and discrimination, and then sit passively by while we bully through exclusion, while we discriminate against teens who need literary escape as much, if not more, than anyone." We said no. We said no, and because of that, things changed, even if it was only a very little bit.

I'm sorry that I'm not celebrating this book's release day today. I'm sorry that I'm not running a contest and babbling about how wonderful it all is. But I am very, very proud of everyone who was involved with this project and stood up for what they thought and knew and believed was right. Things are getting better.

We're making them a little bit better every single day.
Tags: contemplation, state of the blonde
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  • 48 comments

cryptaknight

August 2 2011, 22:11:48 UTC 5 years ago

If it makes you feel better, all the drama surrounding Wicked Pretty Things and your response to it was what made me go purchase Feed for my Kindle. When your name came up, several people recommended your books; I had an Amazon gift card and thought that any author that responded in such an awesome and eloquent way had to be worth reading.

Is the short story that was intended for that anthology going to be released in another collection or sold separately?

paksenarrion2

August 3 2011, 02:18:34 UTC 5 years ago

The drama surrounding Wicked Pretty Things is what drew me to Seanan as well. So *counts fingers* eight books later, I am a huge fan of hers, not only for her writing but for her willing to take a stance on this.

dusky_rue

August 3 2011, 16:38:54 UTC 5 years ago

The Wicked Pretty Things debacle is how I found this journal too. I've been here ever since.

seanan_mcguire

August 3 2011, 16:35:27 UTC 5 years ago

That does make me happy. :) Thank you.

The short story that was intended for the anthology is not currently being shopped anywhere, in part because I'm looking at expanding it into a YA novel, called Harvest.