The Witch Who Came In From the Cold is live!!! Read or listen to Episode 1 FREE right now:
New Releases of Note
Cover Reveals
On the Internet
The 2015 Diversity in Publishing survey is out and, to no one’s surprise, publishing is overwhelmingly the domain of straight white women. Why does this matter? For starters, it reflects the extent to which low salaries, unpaid internships, stringent educational requirements and more serve to limit access to publishing jobs. Then it leads to in-group bias in editorial decisions and acquisitions–straight white women tend to favor books written by and about straight white women, and can be shockingly blind to insensitivities and offenses in the work they choose to promote. That’s how we get multiple children’s books featuring smiling slaves and the parade of unending Nazi romances, just to point to a few recent examples. Readers and writers can and should do more to promote the diverse voices among us–actually promote, as in buying books and boosting others’ voices instead of talking over/for them–but publishers need to take a long, hard look not only at their own editorial board but at their hiring practices and recruiting process. Daniel Jose Older has more, especially on the tendency to confuse the calls for better representation with censorship.
If you’re more worried about your right to tell a story than how exploiting the pain of others impacts them, I guarantee you screwed it up.
— Justina Ireland (@justinaireland) January 27, 2016
Heather Webb on time management for writers.
In Writing
- Revisions on A Darkly Beating Heart. Lots and lots of revisions. With more to come.
- Final chapters outlined for rhymes-with-“fey hairwolves.” Now, to have free time to finish drafting it . . . !
- Long potential career path chats with a friend, leading to settling on next project.
- Freelance work.
As it’s the end of January, I’ll give my monthly writing total, which is also my yearly total for 2016: 29,107 words. Ugh. Ew. Yuk.
January and February are historically my worst months for word counts. Aside from the fact that I always seem to be in the midst of substantive edits for contracted books in January (and this year is no exception), thus taking away from my drafting time, I do seem to struggle with seasonal affect during this time. The post-holiday malaise is real, too, and my motivation bottoms out around this time. I know, however, that once I turn in ADBH revisions, I will feel so light and ecstatic. As I’m aiming to do so in one week, I’m going to grit my teeth, get through my final pass, and then look forward to joyous, joyous drafting for the rest of February.
Therefore, I am setting my February word count goal for 45,000 words.
Events!
I’ll be at New York City Teen Author Festival in March!
An Evening of Treachery at McNally Jackson
I’ll also be at Northern Virginia Teen Book Festival and the Tyranny of Petticoats Launch Party earlier in March.
What I’ve Been Reading
How was your week in reading and writing? What are you planning for February?
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