I’m still overwhelmed from all the congratulations I’ve received since Friday. You guys are the best. This is such a major change in my life, and you all made it even better than it already was. Thank you. Deeply.

I plan to return to my regular blogging schedule soon–the ever-so-reliable schedule of ‘don’t post for weeks at a time, rant about social justice stuff, follow that up with random writing advice and Amsterdam musings, sink back into oblivion’–but for now, I wanted to share some Otherbound-related links and show you how my new apartment is progressing. (To those who don’t know: I’m in the middle of a move, and renovating the new apartment completely. It’s exhausting and awesome.)

• The awesome Jeremy and Jeffrey West featured Otherbound on their This Week in YA video! I make an appearance around 5:52. I am on the YOUTUBES. My CAT is on the YOUTUBES. This is awesome.

  I don’t normally follow vlogs/YouTube shows, but I may need to make an exception for this one.

• As some of you know, I’m a big fan of www.QueryTracker.net: it’s a lifesaver when you’re querying. If you’re hunting for an agent, I highly suggest signing up. It’s great to find agents and keep track of your records. They also feature interviews of authors who recently signed with agents, and my interview went live this weekend.
• When I first announced the deal on Friday, I linked to Goodreads in several places… and it turned out the link I gave was utterly borked. In case anyone missed it: Otherbound on Goodreads! I have one review already. It makes me feel special. (I can already tell I’m going to be crap at this ‘authors should avoid reviews at all costs’ gig. Oh well.)
• In addition to giving me that very first novel review, Awesome Irish Person, CP Extraordinaire, and Good Friend Helen Corcoran blogged about Otherbound–her thoughts about the book, and her experiences helping me with it. She said nice things. This is me, a pile of mush.
• Lastly, Lovely Agent Joan announced the book deal on the Erin Murphy Literary Agency website and said nice things about the book, as well. This is Corinne the pile of mush, blushing.

I think that about covers it!

Moving on to other things: some of you may remember how much I squeed about buying a new floor last month. Well, this weekend we–that is, my mother, a friend, and my uncle; my task was mostly to provide them with junk food–finally installed said floor.

And it is gorgeous.

Check out this scorchingly lovely pattern:

*fans self*

I’ve been horribly slack about updating my blog; I blame edits. /roughdrafter4life.

Thankfully, I have some awesome news to share regarding my friends/critique partners. Celebration time \o/

Natalie C Parker sold her debut, Beware the Wild, to Harper! You can find all the details at her blog, including a very catchy description I will now shamelessly steal to entice y’all:

… in which a claustrophobic Louisiana town is dominated by its sinister, encroaching swamp, which swallows up a boy who is instantly forgotten by everyone except his sister, and replaced by a mysterious girl from the past who is intent on taking over his family and his life.

Doesn’t that sound awesome? I think it does, and luckily, it is awesome, too. I had the pleasure of reading this book the other month and I blazed through it, which is always a good sign. You want this book.

Next, Jodi Meadows revealed the title, cover, and back cover blurb for the sequel to Incarnate on her blog–right here! I read Asunder, too, and also blazed through it, which at this point isn’t a surprise because I do that with all of Jodi’s books. This new cover is particularly fascinating knowing what happens in the book… and that’s all I can say about that.

Seriously though, go look, especially since she’s holding a contest for one of her awesome mitts!

Lastly, Beth Revis’s Shades of Earth is up for preorder on Amazon and the Book Depository, which I am VERY EXCITED about. I haven’t read this one, sadly, which means the wait for January seems… pretty insurmountable.

*makes grabby hands*

The US trip is so happening. It’s very exciting. I just need to sort out the last leg of my trip and I’m all ready to book.

In the meantime, I wanted to share two links:

One, if you need a website, Patrick Samphire of 50 Seconds North makes some seriously pretty ones.  Unprofessional websites are a serious pet peeve of mine, so the more people get pretty ones, the more zen my life will be.

Because it’s all about me, you know?
Two, if you’re into boys, superpowers, and smut, you could do a hell of a lot worse than to check out Katey Hawthorne’s website, especially the giveaway she’s running in honor of her upcoming novel RIOT BOY. Win books! CDs! Absinthe spoons! It runs until November 10th and all you need to do is comment.

*retreats to plot on new!novel*

I don’t like to spend too much time on publishing drama. As worked up as I can get over things, I try to have a positive attitude about things, especially in this here blog. No one wants to read about a sourpuss unless they’re spectacularly witty, and that’s just too much of an effort, frankly.

Since there have been Big Developments in the whole queer YA thing though, ie. the agent giving her side of the story, I figured not posting a follow-up might be sort of weird.

In short, I’m irritated. I’m irritated because, until someone produces a recording of the original phone conversation, none of us can know the truth, yet people are throwing around accusations of liars, of manipulators, of homophobes and hoaxes. People are accusing those who spread the original story of being part of an unthinking angry mob, and accusing Rose Fox of Publishers Weekly of not fact-checking properly. (How was she supposed to do that, anyway, given that the authors expressly wanted to keep the agent’s identity quiet, and practically no agent would ever admit to making those requests?)

Yeah, sure, before the rebuttal, people wondered who the agent was and wondering if the situation was that black-and-white, and there were a few things lobbied about that got my hackles up — hence my first post — but overall, people were focusing on the bigger picture. They were talking about buying queer books, and agents and editors were clarifying their openness to books with queer content.

Since the rebuttal, well…

Scott Westerfeld said it best: “I feel foolish for getting only one side of the story. But I’ll make up for it by uncritically accepting the other side!” -the Internets

I don’t know the authors, but I know enough people who have vouched for them that I refuse to believe this is a publicity stunt or hoax of any kind. I don’t know the agent, either, but I don’t think there was any malicious intent there either and I don’t think I care enough to debate it.

Why? Because it doesn’t matter to the larger issue at hand.

(Still irritated here, for the record.)

People are accusing the agents of this and the authors of that. People are saying, see, this was a malicious hoax, there was never any problem in the first place! People are defending the publishing industry and the openness of the YA genre. They don’t know any agents or editors who would request such a change! And look at all these (half a dozen) authors who had no problems getting their queer characters published! And the original post was dubious, anyway, ’cause this could never happen in their utopian YA world where Wicked Pretty Things was a collective hallucination and LIAR never had a white girl on the cover and and and…

Well, it has happened. Often. Whatever happened in this particular case doesn’t take away that less than half a percent of published YA feature significant queer characters–not even main characters per se. It doesn’t take away that various other authors have stepped forward to say that, guess what, editors and agents have asked them to de-queer their characters.

Focus on those facts. Because those facts? They indicate a problem. And that’s what matters.

I love YA, and I love the YA community. We can do better.

Stepping off my soapbox now, since I’m getting a little snarkier than intended, but first! Obligatory linkage to smart, smart people:

Scott Tracey refutes some of the arguments that have come up over the past few days.

Cleolinda Jones has a long, fantastic round-up of this entire situation, including various experiences by authors who’ve been asked to remove queer characters from their books.

Kate Hart at YA Highway rounds up the various opinions on both sides.

K. Tempest Bradford shares her observations.

I know, right? None of you would EVER have expected this from me! Ever! In a million years! I mean, I keep my support of queer books firmly to myself most of the time, so–

Yeah, okay, let’s move on.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this post at Publishers Weekly. Short version: Two authors co-wrote a book. The book has five point of view characters. One of these characters is gay and has a same-gender relationship. They get a big-time agent (still unidentified) interested in representing their work… on the condition that they either remove the gay PoV or make the character straight. (They had permission to have him come out of the closet in a sequel, though. Yay?)

I’m guessing y’all know why that’s unacceptable, so I won’t linger on that. Basically, just read the post, especially the advice near the end, and browse the comments. This is not an isolated occurrence. (The kerfuffle earlier this year surrounding Jessica Verday’s short story made that abundantly clear.)

One point I did want to make–and something I’ve seen most people echo, thankfully–is that the agent’s reasons for requesting these changes don’t matter. Whatever her personal biases or lack thereof, requesting a change like this contributes to the marginalization of an already underrepresented group.

However, not everyone agrees. I’ve seen these arguments mentioned in defense of the agent, or in disagreement with all the outrage spreading in the Twittersphere:

* It’s an editing decision. Agents should be allowed to edit/make suggestions. YES, that’s true. Maybe the agent thought five characters was too many, was bogging down the story, or the gay character’s PoV added nothing new to the story. This entire argument is invalid given the current situation. Obviously, this decision was about the character’s gayness, or she wouldn’t have presented straightening him out as an option. In general, though, I think such arguments only hold water if they’re backed up by those reasons (“remove this PoV or it won’t sell” vs “it drags down the pacing for such and such reason”). I’ve seen various authors mention that they had such criticisms on their queer-themed novels and none of them blamed the agents for homophobia. This isn’t an argument people are making, so there’s no reason to, er, argue it.

If there’s a sensible editorial reason for “make the character straight instead of gay”, I’d love to hear it. Like agent Sarah LaPolla pointed out: When would sexual orientation ever “not work?” Does a character’s straightness ever get in the way of plot?

Yes, if an inordinate amount of time is spent on the character’s relationship or coming out or dealing with homophobia or whatever, and it takes away from the meat of the story, that’s a valid editorial comment. Those could go for straight characters just as well. Again, that’s not what we’re arguing here. 

* It’s a marketing decision. Queer romances don’t sell as well as straight romances. She just wanted to increase the potential audience. But that’s not the book that’s written. By that logic you should never write a niche book because hey! It could have more commercial appeal!

The last thing we need is to shove queer characters back into hiding. People can’t buy these books if they don’t exist. How can we ever expect queer characters to be commonly accepted–especially as PoV characters–if they’re never let past the gatekeepers?

* This is just a fluke. Most agents and editors are completely open to queer content. For a perfect take-down of this argument, I’d like to direct you to this post by Rick Lipman, who writes about how it’s a sign of remarkable privilege just how many people are shocked by this.

Also, Robin Talley points out how this probably happens way more often than we hear, it’s just often invisible. She also speculates on the difference between queerness in contemporary and SF/F novels.

Lastly, Rachel Manija Brown, one of the authors of the novel that caused all this, compiled a list of queer characters in SF/F YA, with commentary. I definitely need to check out some of these.

And I also need to get back to writing BLINK so it can join that list one day. Front-and-center lesbian romance FTW!

Yesterday, I said I had faith I’d be able to solve those remaining three plot problems soon enough. Today, I’m down to one. Boo-yah!

Anyway, before I get back to problem-solving, ie. scribbling furiously in my notebook, here’s some things that caught my eye this past week:

Maggie Stiefvater is brilliant as usual, talking about first lines and first pages and how to pace a novel.

Katey Hawthorne (more commonly referred to as K.V. Taylor or just ‘Katey’ around these parts) had her very first book release last week! It’s a Loose Id paranormal romance called Equilibrium, and it’s about boys with superpowers. Best thing ever, y/y?

Wait, Holly Black’s White Cat cover is whitewashed?

Signal boost: A small-town library destroyed in Irene needs your help.

The delightful Beth Cato has a new story out at Daily Science Fiction. It’s short and solid. Take a look if you have a few minutes!

Dagan Books is looking for a slush reader. These people make very pretty books.

Agent Mary Kole has a post up to help people looking for critique partners.

Also, I have a new phone. It’s my first Android phone. It is very shiny. This is not a link, but I wanted you to know, anyway.

Um, sorta.

I arrived back in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon and walked around in a daze for most of that time. Like my brother-in-law put it, it was like my mind had returned to factory settings: I wanted to lug my suitcase into my old bedroom instead of the one I’ve been using for years, and at the airport I was expecting to see a car picking me up that was sold ages ago.

I’m a little better now, but not much. I’ll try to actually talk about Clarion West at some point, but for now, I think link-spamming is better for everyone involved.

• My classmate Eliza Hirsch has a series of posts about the workshop on her blog. Check ‘em out.
• The fab K.V. Taylor’s first book, Scripped, is now up for pre-order. Which is just freaking exciting. It’s got creepy Appalachian fae, y’all–you have to check it out.
• K.V. Taylor’s other incarnation, Katey Hawthorne, also has some sweet news–her superhero romance story Equilibrium now has a cover, and it’s pretty damn shiny.
• You dig music? Check out my classmate Mark Pantoja’s band, Mist Giant. You can listen to three tracks online or just buy ‘em straightaway. It’s name your own price, so even if you don’t have any money, you can still enjoy and spread the word. Sweet deal, right?
• Beth Revis’s A Million Suns got a cover and blurb while I was gone!
• And so did Jodi Meadows’s Incarnate!

I was going to type more, but I have this sneaky suspicion I’m crashing and crashing hard. Ahhh, jetlag. Gotta love it.

You know that thing where you spend your days (beta) reading so you don’t have anything interesting happening to blog about, and then this friend comes over for the US so all of a sudden you’re busy dragging her around to the Dam and the Red Light District and the Central Station and canal tours and crappy steakhouses and NSFW souvenir shops and windmills and snackbars and the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank house and pancake restaurants and Japanese restaurants and even more NSFW souvenir shops and monkey zoos?

‘Cause that’s the thing that just happened to me.

It’s a thing that doesn’t make for a lot of blogging.

It’s also a thing that makes one very tired, and since I need to rest up for Clarion West — and may I point out that it’s less than two days until I’ll be on a plane to Seattle? — I honestly can’t work up much of a blog post right now.

Which is why you get links.

Adam Heine’s post, Opinions on Piracy (and Some Data), was a pleasant surprise in my Google Reader. While I’m leaning more and more towards — well, not yay piracy! but at least I’m okay with piracy! — I’m always interested in reading other people’s informed opinions on the matter, and Adam’s posts tend to be measured and well-written.

Both K. Tempest Bradford and Rachel Swirsky have posts up encouraging people to join this year’s Clarion West write-a-thon — Tempest is even offering a Kobo eReader to one lucky participant who enters her drawing!

Basically, the gist of the write-a-thon is that you commit to a goal for six weeks of writing — big or small, doesn’t matter — and convince people to sponsor you for whatever amount they want. That money goes to Clarion West, which, in case you hadn’t heard, is a pretty damn nifty SF/F writing workshop yours truly will be participating in.

Starting, um, Sunday.

^{Hold me.}

In other news: You know how I’m a giant comics nerd? Specifically, an X-Men nerd? Well, I watched X-Men: First Class in the opening weekend with a friend and thoroughly enjoyed it, but was irritated beyond belief at the same time. For a movie that’s all about combating bigotry, they sure managed to squeeze a lot of racism and sexism into a two-hour space. I particularly enjoyed N.K. Jemisin’s rant about the movie. (Warning: Cursing abounds. Delicious, justified cursing.)

Fassbender was still freaking awesome, though. <3

And now I ought to go and work on further preparations for my trip. I don’t think I’ll be around much these next few days, but expect a number of delightful interviews and guest posts to go up during my absence!

Natalie Whipple’s post “What To Expect When You’re Submitting” has some great information on the submissions process — what it’s like, how to deal with it, when to call it quits… There isn’t nearly as much information out there on the submissions process as on the querying process, so it’s great to see that being remedied.

There have been some posts around on jealousy and how to deal with it. My favourite of these is Gayle Forman’s take, “That Green-Eyed Fucker”. I’m all for honesty and acknowledging one’s emotions, so her post really rang true to me.

Agent Mary Kole wrote a fantastic post on physical clichés in your writing. I have to admit: I’m utterly guilty of this.

This Scottish anti-rape PSA is amazing.

Issue four of The Red Penny Papers is out!

Today’s the last day to get 10% off at The Book Depository — both the US and UK sites. Use the May11 coupon. (I recommend checking both sites if there’s a book you want to buy; there are often differences in price, and shipping is free anyway.)

There are a ton of wonderful agent blogs out there; any writers starting out in this industry not reading them are doing themselves a major disservice. I can’t count the number of things I learned from my blogroll alone.

What stands out about Kristin Nelson’s blog, though, is the frequency with which she tackles the nitty-gritty side of things. Many agent blogs tackle querying and related topics — which is absolutely priceless information for aspiring authors — but I don’t see posts dealing with contracts or editors or clients nearly as often. Once you have the querying process figured out (and even if you already have an agent to take care of the business side of things) I think it’s important to have an idea of what goes on behind the scenes.

A few (mostly recent) posts that caught my eye:

• By Far The Biggest Issue — on a new clause in a boilerplate publisher contract
• One Possible Peril of a Multi-Book Deal — on joint vs. separate accounting
• One Book or Two? Maybe Three? — the perks and pitfalls of multi-book deals
• eBook Royalty – Another Way To Protect
• A Story the Editor Will Never Know — on the sophomore book curse
• What Agents Talk About When We Talk About Auctions

… and that’s not even touching the Agenting 101 series linked in the sidebar, for authors who prefer to deal with publishers without an agent.

I’d sing her praises further, but you’re probably skipping over to all the new tabs open in your browser now. Smart idea.