I've Moved!

If you didn't already know, The World in the Satin Bag has moved to my new website.  If you want to see what I'm up to, head on over there!

Blog Move Begins: What Subscribers Need to Know (Plus, Important Info for Email Subs)

As you may recall, I've just opened up a brand new website for all my stuff.  Obviously, this means that I will be moving my blog to that site in the very near future.  That process begins now.  Here's what you need to know:

What's happening to your RSS feed?
I will be redirecting my Feedburner feed to my new site-controlled feed.  In theory, you shouldn't have to do anything.  Your feed reader should pick up the new feed and update your subscription.  That's how it's supposed to work.

If you want to manually change your subscription, you can find the new feed here.

How will we know if the feed redirected correctly?
Two ways:

1. You'll see lingering posts from this blog page suddenly appear in the other feed.  Since I haven't transferred the last 5 posts or so into my new site, they'll get pinged in the feed reader.
2. You'll see a Test Post on Sunday or Monday.
3. You'll see (maybe) a new regular post on Monday or Tuesday.

If you do not see either of these things by Tuesday of next week, then something went terribly wrong and you'll have to manually update your feed reader to the new feed.  My hope is that this doesn't occur.  But you never know...

What about email subscriptions?
This one is a bit tricky.  The most common option for email subscriptions is the one offered through JetPack.  Unfortunately, JetPack won't allow me to import my email subscribers list so I can avoid interruption in service or pinging all of you email subscribers with another subscription request. As such, I am strongly considering MailChimp as a replacement.

What that means for email subscribers is that one of two things will happen:

1. You most likely won't notice a darn thing, because I'll import your emails into MailChimp and service will resume as per usual.  At worst, you may get an email from MailChimp saying you've been signed up or something.
2. You'll get an email from me saying "if you'd like to stay an email subscriber, you'll need to resubscribe," followed by copious amounts of apologizing.

I don't want to go with option #2, but depending on how difficult it is to integrate MailChimp into Wordpress, I may have to.

So that's it.  In the next few days, things are going to change completely.  This blog will be "shut down" and my new website will take over.

Shaun's Rambles 004: Interviewing the Fans -- Paul Weimer

(Note:  I'm starting to move things over to my new website.  This shouldn't affect current feed subscribers, but do expect more announcements about the shift in the future.  For now, I'm crossposting so nobody misses anything.)

...in which I continue this podcast thing on my new website by talking to Paul Weimer about how he became an sf/f fan. In this episode:

• I interview Paul Weimer about his first books, his genre influences, and his development as a reader.

Enjoy the episode!  You can download the MP3 here or stream the file below.

Quick Note: New Website Incoming!

Dear Readers,

I'm currently at CONvergence, but I did want to let you all know that The World in the Satin Bag will be moving over to my new website, shaunduke.net.

No need to change feeds or anything like that.  In fact, you shouldn't have to do anything other than bookmark the new page in case you want to check it out.  The feeds should automatically shift over when the new page is complete (in about a week).

I'll say more about all this later.

A huge thanks to Dave Baxter for all his hard work on this.  He has been an enormous help!

Now back to the convention!

On Unofficial Blacklists: Why I Keep a Mental List of Authors I Won't Read

In April of this year, I posted a list of five reasons I won't read someone's work.  Whether it's because you don't write what I read or you're a giant turd nozzle on the Internet, there are a variety of reasons for why I skip on someone's work.  By implication, that means I keep a constantly changing list of authors I won't read -- a list I have begun calling my Do Not Read list.

My DNR list isn't particularly long, and it does change from time to time.  For the most part, the only people who show up on the DNR list are folks whose online (or in person) behavior is particularly nasty.  This usually comes in two forms:  an author whose politics I find repugnant (and who often openly talks about those politics in a way that suggests they would like it pushed on the rest of us as "normal") or an author whose behavior towards readers and/or reviewers suggests they will respond to negative criticism (or anything, really) in a way that will make me uncomfortable.  Most authors don't fit into either of these categories.  In fact, most authors know not to respond to negative reviews and most authors don't hold (or discuss) political views that are, to put it lightly, bigoted.

Shaun's Rambles 003: On Negative Reviews and Their Value

...in which I talk about things some people don't want to write.

In this edition:

• A discussion of the value of negative book reviews and why I think many people, including me, are hesitant to write them.

Enjoy the rambles!

You can download the mp3 directly from this link or stream the episode below.

Shaun's Rambles 002: The Value of Book Reviews and Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman

...in which I continue a podcast of random thoughts had while driving home from work.

In this edition:

• What is the value of book reviews (to me)?  Suggested by Jonah Sutton-Morse (Twitter / Cabbages and Kings Podcast)
• Some thoughts on Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman

Enjoy the rambles.

You can download the mp3 directly from this link or stream the episode below.

Shaun's Rambles 001: The Gallo Conspiracy and Trial By Fire

...in which I begin a podcast of random thoughts had while driving home from work.

In this edition:

• Some thoughts on the controversy over Irene Gallo's statements about the Sad / Rabid Puppies
• Some thoughts on Trial By Fire by Charles Gannon and the absence of sf/f awards for adventure fiction

Enjoy the rambles.

You can download the mp3 directly from this link or stream the episode below.

On the SF/F Novel: What Happened to Short Novels?

Later tonight, I'm recording an episode of The Incomparable with Jason Snell, Scott McNulty, Paul Weimer, and Fred Kiesche.  We'll be discussing the Nebula Awards novel finalists, and among the topics I intend to bring up is the fact that I have been bouncing off of novels hard lately.

In the last few months, I've increasingly become weary of novels over 300 pages, and even more weary of novels exceeding 500.  Part of this comes from experience:  over and over, I'll pick up a novel of that length and come to the realization that it should have been cut down by 30% to avoid bloated side stories.  There are all kinds of reasons that a novel should be trimmed, from excessive "as you know, Bob" explanations (a trait that Kim Stanley Robinson has somehow avoided in his exposition-heavy work) to simple elongations of otherwise tight narratives are pretty common.  In other words, novel bloat is the primary culprit.

On the Hugo Awards: Two Scholarly-ish Projects to Come (An Announcement)

As you may well be aware, I am currently working on two projects related to the Hugo Awards.  I know I've mentioned both of these at some point, though the second is certainly the most visible of these projects.  I'm also sure you know that the Hugo Awards have been enormously controversial this year, earning mainstream attention in major newspapers and entertainment sites such as The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Boing Boing, and so on.  That conversation is still happening; one need only look at File 770 to see it.

Why I've Quit Game of Thrones and Will Not Return

(Trigger warning:  this post will involve discussion of sexual violence, homophobia, and related subjects.  If you watch Game of Thrones, you probably already know what I'm talking about.

I'm also releasing this post early because I can't wait until Friday to drop it.  I'm moving my Retro Nostalgia feature to Friday for this week only.)

I loved you, Game of Thrones.  I loved you so much that I used to wait up late at night to catch the latest episode after it had aired because I didn't have HBO.  I loved you so much that I started doing a weekly ritual with a friend where we'd watch the new episode together between bouts of silly video games.  I loved you so much that I reviewed every single one of your episodes in the first season and even convinced myself to keep watching after the Red Wedding, when you filled me with so much dread that I honestly thought there was no hope left in the GoT world.

I loved you.

But no more.

Patreon Update: Ch-ch-ch-changes and a Question

My Patreon page has been updated to reflect the changes to my blogging/writing efforts.  If you'd like to support what I do, please become a patron!

On a related note:

I've had some difficulty thinking about how to change the patron levels to better reflect what folks would want from such a thing.  In principle, folks support a Patreon because they like what a person does, but I also like the idea of adding something additional to the pot.  Thus far, that "addition" has been varying levels of voting ability and/or topic suggestion ability.  Now, I wonder if it might make more sense to make topic suggestions and votes a public function and replace the current levels with something else.

The question:  what would I replace those things with?

Some things I've considered:

• Quirky handwritten letters w/ handwritten maps and other weirdness (I love drawing maps)
• The Encyclopedia Obscura entries (absurd, quirky alternate history entries to an encyclopedia)
• Access to fiction (which some said I shouldn't offer)
• No idea...

I suppose what this comes down to is a confusion over what works for something like Patreon, especially when what you're offering is written content that isn't fiction.  So if you have any ideas, do let me know.  Otherwise, I'll just leave the page as it is for the time being.

Anywho!  Thanks for the support!

On Black Widow and Marvel's Gaps (or, Why We Need a Black Widow Movie)

On the recent Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) episode of The Skiffy and Fanty Show, I argued that part of what bothered me about the Black Widow scene wherein she reveals having been sterilized in the Red Room is that it clarified what was an obvious gap in Marvel's Cinematic Universe.  We need a Black Widow movie, I said -- more so now than ever.  This is a somewhat complicated position, and I'd like to explore that in-depth here.

For those that don't know, I'll spoil the bit everyone is talking about:

The Reboot: New Schedule, the Focus, and New Beginnings

Here we go.  I've been thinking about this for the past month.  A number of people have offered their thoughts on what I should do about this blog and my various blogging efforts (thanks!).  The following list is a far more compact set of regular (in italics) and irregular features, with the former having a set schedule.  I think it's more focused and better tuned to what I want to be doing in each space.  Having a set (but reasonable) schedule is also good for me, since it gives me a structure that isn't too cumbersome.

Here it is:

Speculative Fiction 2014: It's Here!

That's right.  The anthology of online reviews, media and fan criticism that I edited with Renee Williams has officially been released by The Book Smugglers.  You can read all about it here.

The collection includes works by a whole lot of amazing people,:

Abigail Nussbaum, Adam Roberts, Aidan Moher, Aja Romano, Alex Dally MacFarlane, Amal El-Mohtar, Ana Grilo, Andrew Lapin, Annalee Newitz, Anne C. Perry, Bertha Chin, Betty, Charles Tan, Chinelo Onwualu, Clare McBride, Corinne Duyvis, Daniel José Older, Deborah Pless, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Erika Jelinek, Foz Meadows, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, Joe Sherry, Jonathan McCalmont, Juliet Kahn, Justin Landon, Kameron Hurley, Kari Sperring, Ken Neth, Mahvesh Murad, Martin Petto, Matthew Cheney, Memory Scarlett, Mieneke van der Salm, N.K. Jemisin, Natalie Luhrs, Ng Suat Tong, Nina Allan, Olivia Waite, Paul Weimer, Rachael Acks, Rebecca Pahle, Renay, Rose Lemberg, Saathi Press, Sara L. Sumpter, Shaun Duke, Tade Thompson, Tasha Robinson, The G, thingswithwings, and Vandana Singh.

The book is currently available in print via Amazon US and Amazon UK.  An ebook version can be purchased on the The Book Smugglers announcement page (scroll down a bit); ebooks should become available on other sites soon.

The Book Smugs are also running a giveaway for 5 copies of the book; the giveaway closes on May 9th.

A big thanks goes to my co-editor, Renee Williams, for being so organized and putting in so much work on this anthology.  I feel like we did an amazing job together, and I am truly proud and honored to have worked with you.

Also:  a huge thanks to The Book Smugglers (Ana and Thea) for their hard work, their prompt responses to our questions and concerns, and for keeping us (mostly) on track.

Lastly, a huge thanks must go to the contributors, who brought so much to the community in 2014, to the fine folks on the Internet for suggesting essays and reviews for us to consider, many of which we might have otherwise missed, and to anyone else who helped me or Renee throughout this process.

Now it's official.  I'm an editor person thing.  Cool.

Addendum to the Redemption Post: A Set of Apologies and Conclusions

As some of you are aware by now, I wrote a post entitled "On Forgiveness and Redemption (Storify)."  The post contained (obviously) a Storify of a series of tweets I made some time ago.  I received some pushback to this at the time, some of it public and some of it privately.  At the time, I didn't quite understand the degree to which privilege, power, and so on were involved in the situation (especially my own), which is one of the many reasons I chose not to respond to Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and others who felt it important to speak to me about what I had written.  This issue again cropped up yesterday (and this morning) when I became involved in spreading misinformation about a related concern (more on that below).  I am now in a position where I both feel I am not quite able to disentangle my own emotional investment from what is going on, but yet feel compelled to issue a statement, several apologies, and a declaration of future intent.*

All of these posts will be left online unless requested otherwise.  I generally disagree with deleting Tweets or posts solely because I may have been wrong or criticized -- except in cases where I have been specifically asked to do so by an individual who feels that the continued existence of such materials does more harm than good (or where keeping them there might have a detrimental effect on my person).  As such, I will leave these things as they are.  If you are someone who has been harmed by something I have written and you would like that thing removed, I will respect your wishes and delete it -- emails requesting as much will be kept confidential.

First, some apologies:

1. I must reiterate my apology to Kari Sperring for my behavior on 4/29/15.  In brief, I spread misinformation about what occurred at a panel at Eastercon because I believed the account to be accurate.  I then proceeded to report that incident to the Eastercon chair.  At the time, I did not know who had made the alleged statement, but it was revealed late last night that the accused was Kari Sperring.  This morning, I came to the conclusion that the incident report was not accurate and that my actions (speaking about banning whoever said it and sending a response to Eastercon's chair) was inappropriate.  I have apologized to both Eastercon's chair and Kari for everything I have done.  I should not have assumed the account of the "incident" at Eastercon was wholly accurate, nor should I, as someone who did not attend Eastercon, have reported the "incident" to Eastercon.  Hearsay is insufficient grounds for doing either of these things.  I also should not have stated that anyone should be banned from a convention I did not attend and who had not even had a chance to respond to an allegation.  I assumed, and I leaped.  For all of this, I apologize.
   
   That I know I should not have done these things does not absolve me of guilt for doing so.  My actions have caused someone harm, and it was clear that my intent was to do so from the start, albeit of a professional sort.  That harm, however, extended beyond the professional to unintended personal harms on the part of Kari (which I won't discuss because that is not my place).  For that, I also apologize.
   
2. I must apologize to those who felt my previous post on redemption diminished or devalued the real pain many still feel as a result of past interactions with Requires Hate.  Though it was not my intention to devalue those experiences, the net affect amounted, I suspect, to the same, and that is not something I want my words to produce for anyone.  I apologize for doing so and for opening or throwing salt in any wounds.  I should have understood that even given time, many people still have legitimate pain that may not ever go away, and that writing even from my own experience the value of redemption and its necessity for this community could only worsen those feelings.  I cannot speak for everyone, and I should not try.  In essence, I think my comments have done more harm than good.  For that, I also apologize.
   
3. I must apologize that it has taken me so long to issue a response.  I realize that this may have given the impression that I was either walking away or not interested, but I assure you that I stepped back and took so much time because some people both public and private spoke candidly with me about what I wrote and impressed upon me, perhaps unintentionally, the importance of not leaping in again.  That I then leaped indicates that they were right from the start.  It would be wrong of me to send off another stream of tweets when I am certain that doing so would not come from a position of near-objectivity.  It would also be unfair for me to do so when so many people expressed their concerns to me personally under the assumption that I would actually listen.  Their assumptions were correct, and so I must come to this response with respect for them, as they gave their respect to me.

Lastly, a few thank yous:

• Thank you to every single person who has called me out, publicly or privately, for my various failures over the years, but especially now.  That so many of you have felt comfortable enough telling me why I was wrong is a complement I suspect you didn't intend to give.  I often feel that I don't deserve the respect that so many of you have offered, and yet you continue to offer it.  Thank you for that vote of confidence, even as I flounder and shove my foot far down my own throat.
  
• Thank you also to those who have pointed out to me that my privilege extends beyond the nature of my birth, that indeed what I say in public can have an affect on many people by dint of my being a figure of some authority in this community.  It is something I have struggled to understand because I too often think that I am not important enough to have that kind of impact, but it is clear that I was mistaken.  I suspect most people don't like being told they are privileged, and that may have been the subconscious reasoning for my refusal to accept it, but I am glad that it has been pointed out to me so I can make better use of that privilege for, well, good things.

Having written everything I have written here, I have come to the conclusion that I need to do a few things.  

First, I need to back away from the conversation.  I am no less prone to kneejerk reactions and instinctual leaps than anyone else, and my connection to many different conversations within sf/f and my own emotional investments have led me to a range of bad decisions, responses, and opinions.  It is clear to me that I need to do my best to "detox," to remove the impulses that lead me to accept things that confirm what I already believe and reject what I don't already believe (specifically, to the issues found in this post).  I also need to do a better job of understanding myself, my privilege(s), and the ways in which I mobilize these things towards intended or unintended goals.

Second, it is clear to me that so much of what I have been writing and discussing in the past month or more has been overtly negative.  It seems to me that this is a terrible use of my time and a contributor to the problems noted in the previous paragraph.  It is also clear to me that I should be doing more to positively contribute to the sf/f community.  Running a podcast isn't enough.  How I conduct myself online also matters.  And my conduct online has been, at times, poor.

I hope that people who have come to know me over the past few years will still feel inclined to tell me when I have crossed a line.  This is very much a learning process, and I am thankful that I have earned enough goodwill in this community to warrant respectful disagreements and criticism from so many.  My intention is to do better.  To be better.  I can't promise I will always succeed, but I can promise that I will try.

----------------------

*One of the other reasons I did not respond at the time was the fact that I came down with a chest cold that lasted for two weeks, and from which I am still recovering.  This coupled with my emotional investments (if you read the Storify, that will make sense) led me to believe that it would be wrong of me to leap into response without reconsidering my own position in relation to what others had said.

On Legitimacy, Academia, and the Hugos (or, Someone Needs to Take a Class)

If you've been following the Hugo Awards fiasco, you might have come across Philip Sandifer's fascinating analysis of Theodore Beale / Vox Day, his followers, and the Hugos.  Sandifer has since become a minor target within the Sad / Rabid Puppies discussion, but not so much for what he actually said as for who he declares himself to be:  an educated man.  Why would this matter in a conversation about the Hugo Awards?  What is so offensive about being a PhD in English (or any other individual with a PhD in the humanities)?

Why I Don't Shop at Chain Bookstores (Often)

I live in a town which has very little in the way of independent bookstores.  There's one very tiny feminist bookshop, which is nifty, and a handful of comic shops, but there's little else.  If I want to shop somewhere that isn't a chain, department store, or Internet store, I have to wait for one of the two massive Friends of the Library events (one in the fall; one in the spring), which is always a zoo and hardly conducive to calm browsing.  Basically, I have few options.

None of this would be a problem if I still had access to a Borders or a good independent bookstore.  Back in the old days of living in Santa Cruz (pre-2009), Borders was my go-to-chain.  It had a decent enough selection and little of the stresses that other chains often created.  Their membership club was free (and for a time offered "points" for purchases, which you could add up to discounts later on), too.  It wasn't the only bookstore I went to, of course.  There was a great used bookstore in the part of town (called Logo's) and a wonderful independent bookshop with superb selection.  Basically, downtown Santa Cruz was the ultimate bookshopping spot for me.

Non-US SF/F Fandom Survey: Perspectives on the Hugo Awards

As you might have heard, I've been working on a survey for non-US sf/f fans to get their perspective on the Hugo Awards (as the title suggests).  That survey went live yesterday.  If you are a non-US sf/f fan, please consider taking the survey to give your thoughts!

Thanks!

The Future Blogging Game Plan Thing: Opinions Welcome

As I mentioned on Twitter the other day, I've started putting together a new structure for my online writing.  Today, I offer up one possible restructuring effort.  Your opinions are always welcome, even if you fundamentally disagree with the whole endeavor.

On a side note:  I do plan to move this blog to its own website soon (to coincide with my own personal site).  I don't know if I will keep the World in the Satin Bag name, though I probably should.

Here is the structure I'm considering: