To be announced

Sweet stuttering Ganesh, who would imagine such protest over a harmless challenge issued by our very own sweet Chuckles?

all he did was invite 100 women to submit to a certain magazine on a certain day. He did that because he doesn't quite believe that this certain magazine avoids fiction written by women, so why not try a test and find out?

Some women have agreed to do this. Some of them will have to write brand new stories to participate (cough, duck) but why not? Nothing like a good old slushbombing to lighten the mood. Happens to Strange Horizons every year.

But there's always someone who takes exception to an idea. I think it's kind of a test - if someone isn't completely outraged by your notion, it probably sucks. I've taken a glance at some of the comments and posts and such that are from the disagreeing. I have to say that I'm disturbed by some of the sentiment I've seen in the protest.

One argument was, if we (women) all sub at the same time, the sheer competition will destroy all of our chances. (that's a paraphrase and some of the subtlety of meaning has, naturally, been lost)

Or this, to not put too fine a point on it:

"It'll make the women look like whiny brats."

I'm not exactly sure how the simple act of sending a story on a certain day can be interpreted as whiny or bratty, but that's not what gets to me about the statement.

One person said:

"Don't wait for a special day to make a statement. I would think it would only increase your chance of rejection."

Again, I'm scratching my head - what statement? This isn't a protest, it's a bit of a test with a good healthy dose of submissions prank on the side. And why would it only *increase* a woman's chance of getting rejected? Because we're being whiny and bratty?

Someone else said, even more disturbingly:

"It'll annoy JJA and GVG."

Annoy? For sending them exactly what they ask for? Why would that be?
Because we're women?

You're terrifying me, people. I'm serious.

If a hundred fiction submissions by women is enough to Annoy Those Who Must Not Be Named, But Only Referred To By Their Monogram, then maybe women writers better start fighting a harder battle than launching a harmless slushbump.

Because a hundred extra subs trickling in the week after august 18... hell, I bet if we'd done it entirely in secret and NOT informed They Of The Monograms that it was coming, they wouldn't even have noticed.

I ask again: What is there to fear from this? Why get all nancy-kneed over a harmless prank?

And why do it in a way that sounds like we're all going to get in trouble if the Men notice what we're up to?

Have you guys heard of a dude named Mark Tushingham?

okay, it's not a quiz. He's a scientist working for Environment Canada, and he has written an SF novel, published by a Canadian small press, called Hotter than Hell. (the publisher is DreamCatcher publishing, Inc., available at their website and at Amazon.com, but it's a 4-6 week wait at Amazon, for anyone made curious.)

Anyway, the book seems to be about the precarious position Canada would be in once global warming advances a little further, speculating that the US would invade Canada because it has the world's largest supply of fresh water.

Tushingham was invited to go talk at the National Press Club in Ottawa¹ about the science behind his book. it's the sort of talk that many of my friends here on LJ are familiar with, either attending one or giving one.

Well. the Minister For the Environment, Rona Ambrose - ordered him to cancel this talk. oh yes, comrades, is pravda. "Because he didn't follow the proper process," apparently. He's also cancelled some TV and radio interviews.

Obviously, my friends, all of you SF writers who are giving a panel discussion at any SF convention in Canada had better write Ms. Ambrose, and ask her for permission. Oceania has never believed in global warming.

drakkenfyre turned me on to the story. I'm just spreading the word.

related articles:

Climate Change Expert Muzzled - Toronto Star

Paradoxically, the incident takes place during the same week the Conservatives unveiled new "whistleblower" protection, designed to shield outspoken public servants from intimidation and threats to their livelihood....Tushingham was also warned not to speak to reporters and spent much of yesterday in hiding..

Scientist author muzzled as Tories weaken Kyoto - London Free Press

The scientific, or literary, muzzle was put on Tushingham just as the Tory government was preparing to quietly confirm it's killing off more than a dozen research programs related to the Kyoto protocol.

Late yesterday, on the eve of a long weekend when governments traditionally dump bad news for the least possible public exposure, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn issued a news release saying 15 programs were being eliminated.

Lunn said the programs had run their course.

please also read cristalia's post about this, which gets deeper, further, and more satisfyingly into The Real Issue, here.

¹Newsmaker Luncheon National Press Club Dining Room, 165 Sparks St. (rsvp 613-233-5641; www.pressclub.on.ca). Noon. $25; $20 members. Dr. Mark Tushingham, an Ottawa-based environmental scientist, will speak about the effects and issues surrounding global warming.

( And now it's Time to dust off the oracle. Gain some perspective. Become utterly confused. )
...When I consult an oracle, it's because my intuition, which is usually pretty good, is completely frazzled and confused. so a card that says "trust your intuition" generally is not helpful.

I suppose you're wondering what that's all about.

I had the most peculiar sensation while I was making the corset. I wasn't sewing in my livingroom. I wasn't using my teeny, ancient old Elna set up on a wooden TV table with my ancient ironing board next to me.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I was in a large room with a very high ceiling and clerestory windows. That the corset I was sewing wasn't for me, but for an upcoming production in a play. That I was at work, and that I'd worked in this place for a long time, and I was content working in this place. That I might get a bit of a gig here and there doing costuming for TV, but mostly it was theatre, and that while it wasn't a 9 to 5 job per se I wasn't starving and I had a spring steel budget of my own, thanks so much.

And then that would recede, a bit, but it wouldn't go away completely. And it was a good feeling. It felt really good.

And then I just found out a couple days ago that The Alberta College of Art and Design has a faculty of fibre arts. So far, that's all I've found in town here that has anything remotely to do with a post secondary education that has anything to do with sewing clothes. Well, maybe the university of Calgary still has a faculty of Home Economics or something. I haven't really looked because I don't know where to look.

But that's CRAZY. I can't do a four year fibre arts program. That's an impossible dream. Tuition alone is five thousand dollars a year. I've had yearly incomes that weren't much more than that. That doesn't include supplies or books or food or lodging. I'd never be able to do it the money is just unattainable how would I LIVE, but I can't stop thinking about it.

Ohmigod. Art college. I'm so shin-kickingly JEALOUS of people who are chasing or have chased BFAs. (I kick your shins. and yours. and yours. and yours too, dammit. And a great big fookin' kick all the way to Stockholm, Sweden.) But I can't do that, it'll never happen.

Actually a lot of good things are happening to me just now. a lot of opportunities opening, potentials blossoming...between that and the weather it feels like spring is coming really early. Good things that I really don't know how on earth it happened. Things that a month ago didn't even occur to me as possibilities.