Eggplant Literary Productions, Inc.

Good plan thanks :)

Here are some links to some background of the whole situation 1, 2 and 3.  For those of you unfamiliar with the company I’ve included an explanation of what’s going on under the cut.

I sympathize on the anxiety, too.  Having dealt with it the past year it sucks and I would never wish it on anyone.  I hope it gets better for you.

With regards to Spellbound & Spindles: this project was never presented or intended to be limited to only PoC writers or voices.  I would never edit such a project because I am not PoC and thus don't have the requisite experience to head such a project.  The write up on the Kickstarter campaign was:

"We want to create a special edition of Spellbound, our children's fantasy e-zine, and a companion adult anthology, titled Spindles, to take full advantage of fairy tales’ plasticity. We want to publish fairy tales retold to include minority, LGBT, and disabled characters. We want to create stories that include the whole spectrum of humanity and make them truly universal."

That’s it.  Fairytales retold to feature characters other than traditional white, cisgender, able-bodied, and featuring settings other than Western-European settings.  To that end, both anthologies fulfill that purpose. 

I would never edit such a project because I am not PoC and thus don't have the requisite experience to head such a project.

I received three times as many great stories as I had room.  I had to reject so many excellent tales and couldn’t give a reason beyond “not a perfect fit”.  Many of the stories were great but just not right for this project: The YA stories (neither anthology is YA), the stories that weren’t retellings but fantasy tales with some fairy tale elements, the stories that had nothing to do with fairy tales other than to feature a princess.  I had to evaluate each story not only on its own merits but also on how it would fit in with the theme of the anthologies and how it fit with all the other stories so that both anthologies are balanced, with no part outweighing the others. (I received sixteen submissions dealing with Little Red Riding Hood, for example.)

I don’t know exactly how many of the contributors to the anthologies are PoC, any more than I know how many are disabled, or LGBT.  I could make guesses, based on names and profile pictures (where applicable) but I would surely make mistakes.

So far the only suggestion I have seen is that I need to bring on a PoC editor.  I’ve addressed the economics, but I’ll add in the practical considerations. This project is done.  I have accepted the stories.  Marcie has accepted the poetry.  Sam is getting the final art in now.  Bringing in another editor at this point would be pointless. 

If there have been other suggestions, I’m afraid I’ve missed them.  I have only seen some of the Tumblr posts, specifically the one in response to my earlier response and the one in which EggplantLit was tagged.  I’m willing to listen to other suggestions of what I can do moving forward. 

On the guidelines pages for all Eggplant's projects the following note has been posted for a while: "Eggplant Literary Productions absolutely encourages submissions from—and submissions about—persons, of any race, color, creed, religion, national citizenship/origin, gender or sexual orientation, disability, age, or physical appearance." 

Where I have failed or not fully lived up to the openess I want for Eggplant, I have tried to acknowledge my mistakes, and learned from them so that I can be better in the future.  If my comments on the questions about the guidelines have led people to question my dedication to being as open and welcoming of writers of all backgrounds, I will try to listen, take advice to heart, and make the changes I can to not make the same mistakes again.

Color studies, rough drawing and final lines (wip) for the piece that I’m creating for the Spindles fairy tale anthology put out by Eggplant Literary Productions!

This piece is based on the tale of the Princess Who Never Smiled.

The final illustration will be done in watercolor and acrylic, though the rough color studies are done in photoshop.

"Spellbound & Spindles is a pair of anthologies of fairy tales retold to be more inclusive and diverse.  Featuring PoC, disabled and queer characters, as well as non-western European settings and fairy tales not found in the Grimm’s collection, the books show how resilient and universal “One Upon a Time…” is.”

Good plan thanks :)

Here are some links to some background of the whole situation 1, 2 and 3.  For those of you unfamiliar with the company I’ve included an explanation of what’s going on under the cut.

I want to make a clarification: Eggplant is in many respects a one person operation. Samantha Press is in charge of the artwork, and Marcie Lynn Tentchoff takes care of poetry acquisitions.  I (Raechel Henderson) run everything else: reading all the other submissions (for Spellbound, for the e-book line, for Miscellanea), I take care of the contracts, the payments, layout and design of all the publications, I write the jacket copy, send out calls for submissions, run the booths and conventions and everything else.  I get some help from my sister who sends out review requests.  But Eggplant is my company.  I point this out to make it clear that any failures fall on my shoulders.

Hiring a PoC editor is nothing I can do yet.  At this point Eggplant doesn’t make enough to pay another staff member.  I don’t get paid, but everyone else does.  My philosophy has always been that everyone gets paid.  I make sure pay rates are clear up front so authors and artists can decide before submitting if it is worth it.  I don’t ask people to do work without compensation, and so I haven’t opened up to bringing on other staff.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have plans to do so when I can in the future, just that I can’t at this moment.

I don’t want people to feel misled by the Kickstarter.  I don’t think that it has been misleading.  But it is clear that I mishandled several aspects of the guidelines.  I apologize for that.  If I could do things differently, I would have posted the guidelines during the Kickstarter campaign, which I think would have allowed me to improve them based on feedback and not have depended on the Aarne-Thompson classification list.  I could have added in other, more diverse resources.

For backers who feel that I have misrepresented this project, I ask that you look at the table of contents for each anthology.  I do believe they reflect what we set out to do: there are stories with PoC, disabled and queer characters, there are stories and poems based on fairy tales from Peru, Japan and other countries, the settings range from Mongolia to Brazil to New Zealand and more.  If backers still have reservations, I hope they’ll contact me to discuss it.

Moving from the practical to the personal now, I’ve been suffering from depression, anxiety and panic attacks for the last twelve months.  I didn’t get help until last month, and just this week went on medication.  The worst of it was in January and February it colored my reading of the comments on the guidelines, so that I read them as attacks and I responded defensively.  I am not writing this to excuse my responses (and in fact I’ve not mentioned this until a post on Eggplant’s website a couple of weeks ago) because I didn’t want people to think I was trying to engender sympathy).  I’m just offering it up now as some added context that people can take or leave.

Almost a year ago we launched the Spellbound & Spindles Kickstarter.  I can now announce the table of contents for the two anthologies of fairy tales retold to be more diverse.  This was the most involved, largest project I’ve ever undertaken.  I really love the stories and poetry.  I hope everyone else will, too.  I’ll post a final write up of the fiction submissions log soon. 

Spellbound Table of Contents

Fiction

Jacinta and the Cornstalk by Kari Castor The Boi Who Drew Cats by Jay Wilburn Black River, Blue Sky by Pamela Love The Frog and the Condor by Christina Tesoro The Four Skilled Sisters by EM Beck The Key by Alex Townsend Veruska and the Lúdvérc by Bogi Takács

Poetry

What you need to know about fairy godmothers by Laurel Klein Mirror Image by Beth Rodriguez Counting by Jennifer Moser Jurling The Coquí Captain by Beatriz Fernandez After the Nettles by Sara Cleto Vasilisa the Beautiful by Sharon Fedor

With artwork by Jane Baker, Paul Davey, Melanie Gillman, Charli Gunn, Tory Hoke, Susan Knowles, Nilah Magruder, Marta Milczarek, Audrey Roche & Steve Wood.

Spindles Table of Contents

Fiction

Clay and Holy Words by Tabitha Joy Queenie the Beautiful and her Magical Doll by Szmeralda Shanel The Death of Koschei the Deathless by Cheresse Burke Queens and Favors by A. L. Thomas The Little Mermaid of the Lakshadweep Sea by Alix Heintzman Dionisia and the Sea-Serpent by Joanna Hoyt The Four Sisters by Kitty-Lydia Dye The One-Handed Girl: A Retelling of a Swahili Fairy Tale by Sarah Livesey The Brahman and the Onion by Priya Sridhar Hosh Nizhóní, The Cactus Rose by P. Anthony Ramanauskas Beautiful Beneath the Sun by Asia Nichols

Poetry

Fairy godmother to deaf Cinderella by Verity Fisher Remembering, or The Little Merman by Jonathan J Wlodarski Fairest by Jillian Schmidt The Snow Girl by Rachel Smith Kiwi, Takahe, and Moa by E.A. Fow Snared by Laurel Klein

Spellbound is $16 for hardcover or $5 for ePub

Spindles is $20 for hardcover or $7 for ePub

Wireless operators in France had a life expectancy of six weeks. Noor was actively transmitting for over three times as long.

While she was in France, every other wireless operator in her network was slowly picked off until she was the last radio link between London and Paris. It was “the most dangerous and important post in France”.  

She was offered a way back to Britain and refused.

In fact, in her transmissions to London, she once said that she was having the time of her life, and thanked them for giving her the opportunity to do this.

She was captured by the Gestapo, but never gave up: she made three attempt escapes. One involved asking to take a bath, insisting on being allowed to close the door to preserve her modesty, and then clambering onto the roof of the Gestapo HQ in Paris.

We are thrilled to announce that submissions for our second annual New Visions Award are now open! The New Visions Award, which was created in 2012, will be given to a middle grade or young adult fantasy, science fiction, or mystery novel by a writer of color. Established by Tu Books, an imprint of LEE & LOW that publishes YA and middle grade science fiction and fantasy, the award is a fantastic chance for new authors of color to break into the world of publishing for young readers.

With the recent uproar over the lack of diversity at this year’s BookCon that led to the creation of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, to articles in the New York Times by Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers addressing the lack of diversity in children’s books, it’s obvious that readers want to see more writers of color represented. It is our hope that the New Visions Award will help new authors begin long and successful careers and bring new perspectives and voices to the science fiction, fantasy, and mystery genres.

The New Visions Award is modeled after Lee & Low’s successful New Voices Award, which was established in 2000 and is given annually to a picture book written by an unpublished author of color. This award has led to the publication of several award-winning children’s books, including It Jes’ Happened by Don Tate and Birdby Zetta Elliott.

Details

The New Visions contest is open to writers of color who are residents of the United States and who have not previously had a middle grade or young adult novel published.

Manuscripts will be accepted now through October 31, 2014. The winner of the New Visions Award will receive a prize of $1000 and our standard publication contract. An Honor Award winner will receive a cash prize of $500. For further details, including full eligibility and submission guidelines, please visit the New Visions Award page.

can I just

I compiled most of the writing websites I’ve mentioned on my blog into one post. I find a lot of these sites useful, so hopefully they can help you out!

Imagination Prompt Generator: This give you a one-sentence writing prompt that will help you come up with ideas. I think it also allows you to set a ten minute timer for each prompt.

Wridea: I really like this site because you can write down simple ideas that you can organize later and put into a bigger project. You can share these ideas or the site will help you randomly match ideas. It’s great for brainstorming and building a fully formed outline.

List of Unusual Words — Here’s a site you can browse through that gives you a list of unusual words for every letting in the alphabet. If you’re looking to switch up your vocab, or looking to develop a way a character speaks, this is a good reference.

Picometer — Here’s a writing progress meter that can be embedded on your site or blog. There’s also the Writertopia meter that shows word count/current mood. 

Cut Up Machine: This website takes whatever words you typed or pasted into the box and rearranges your sentences. It’s not practical for writing a novel, but it might help with poetry OR coming up with ideas. Experiment with it and see what you can come up with.

Orion’s Arm: This is a great website to use if you want to research worldbuilding or if you have science questions. There are tons of resources you can use.

Word Frequency Counter: If you’re finding that you’re using the same words over and over again, this website should help. You’ll be able to count the frequency usage of each word in your text. This should help you switch up the words you’re using and understand where the problem might be.

Phrase Frequency Counter: This is same site explained above, but it counts the phrases you’re using.

My Writing Nook: This allows you to write or jot down ideas wherever you are. You don’t need to have your laptop in order to access it, so it might help you during this time. You can write as long as you have your phone.

Writer: The Internet Typewriter - This site lets you write, save, share, and/or convert your writing online. I tried it out and it’s pretty cool. It saves for you and is a great way to brainstorm or plan out some ideas.

The Forge - The Forge is a fantasy, creature, spell, and location name generator. It’s awesome.

One Word: This site gives you one word to write about for 60 seconds. This should help you get started with your own writing and will work as a writing prompt to get you warmed up. It’s a great way to get yourself motivated.

Confusing Words:  On this site you can search through confusing words that often stump many writers. It’s not a huge reference, but it should help you with some writing/grammar issues.

Cliché Finder: This site allows you to enter parts of your writing and it will search for clichés. If you find that you’re using the same phrases over and over again, this will help a lot. I haven’t messed around with it too much, but it looks useful.

Hand Written Fonts: If you’re looking for great hand written fonts, this is a great reference. All of them are pretty awesome.

Tip of My Tongue — you know when you’re trying to think of a specific word, but you just can’t remember what it is? This site will help you narrow down your thoughts and find that word you’ve been looking for. It can be extremely frustrating when you have to stop writing because you get a stuck on a word, so this should help cut that down. 

One of the big problems with hashtag activism is you’re never sure if it’s genuine or not.

There’s an organized, ongoing attempt by people from 4chan/pol, reddit, MRA/MRM sites, and Stormfront all working together to attack feminists on twitter— specifically Black feminists/womanists. 

https://twitter.com/hashtag/YourSlipIsShowing?src=hash #YourSlipIsShowing (created by sassycrass on twitter) covers some more of the issue, and so_treu, sassycrass, Blackamazon christocarbone and thetrudz are covering this really well, including posting screen shots of discussions of tactics. 

Here’s a storify about it: https://storify.com/sassycrass/yourslipisshowing-documenting-a-hoax and here’s a quick look at how an authoritative state like Azarbaijan can control and hijack hashtags - http://www.katypearce.net/shenanagins-again-and-again/ . The 4chan etc trolls are using the same tactics (signing up at the same time, RTing each other, using names and photos of real-looking people, etc).

They’re targeting specific people, overwhelmingly Black women who are active and outspoken (and often critical of) movement feminism.

(NB that the hashtag SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen mentioned in the buzzfeed article was created by karnythia as a way of commenting on the failings of institutionalized feminism and the white women who predominantly run it, ignoring the needs and concerns of WOC. Trolls picked up on it and posted a bunch of hateful and ridiculous shit.)

EDITED TO ADD:

Marvelous storify by So_True here: https://storify.com/so_treu/yourslipisshowing-6-16-2014 . Lots of information including some history of white on Black violence and suppression on both a civilian and governmental level.

https://storify.com/eaton/pol-vs-social-justice Storify about /pol/ and EndFathersDay with screenshots from /pol/

EDITED TO ADD pt 2:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/end-fathers-day-and-feminist-troll-accounts buzzfeed account of some of what’s been happening, including mention of #whitecantberaped.

Note that trolls are grabbing photos/avatars of actual people, which is really gross, and some of them are also RTing tweets from actual people with words changed, or posting edited screenshots of tweets from real people to make them sound racist, abusive, etc.