So. Miley Cyrus. *cue rant*
First and most importantly? She's FIFTEEN. If anyone should be taking heat for this, it's her parents. Maybe some folks are savvy enough at fifteen to make better choices, but I'm not going to judge the kid. Seriously. FIFTEEN.
As for the "oh my GOD, think of the CHILDREN" brigade: My daughter is the tweeniest tween you'll ever meet. LOVES Miley like crazy. She hasn't yet seen these pictures, and she probably won't until and unless some little douchebag...pardon me, I meant to say "badly behaved fifth-grader who lacks supervision"...chooses to show them to her.
Because how many ten-year-olds do you know who read Vanity Fair? This is yet another example of the media creating the story...at least in terms of "how will this affect her fanbase?" Now the pics are all over, and I'm having to send my spawn from the room when the fucking TODAY show runs the story at seven-fifteen in the morning. (I counted the minutes they spent on it, btw. Several more than they spent on the tornadoes in Virginia or the explosions in Afghanistan.)
~Edward R. Murrow, please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone in heaven. We're in serious shit down here.~
As for the whole "she had it coming because she said she liked the pictures" thing - I suspect Miley DID like those pics. Thought they were way cool. Because she's a fifteen-year-old girl in America, the land of the free and the home of the "good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere, but whatever you do, DON'T GET CAUGHT" ethos. And I suspect that after the shit hit the fan and Disney called her on the carpet, she was embarrassed. Because, in addition to being human? She's FIFTEEN.
I remember fifteen. I remember some of the choices I made, and the very bad consequences of those choices. The regret and shame I felt as a result. I remember having no one in my life to tell me how to make better choices, and literally no healthy examples around me, so I had to learn by trial and error. And trial and error? Sucks. Hard.
Fifteen-year-old girls are supposed to have someone to examine their MySpace and FaceBook pages, supervise their slumber parties, grill their dates, set curfew, double-check their homework, and not let them out of the house in indecent outfits. Because they are FIFTEEN, and often not capable of taking care of themselves - at least in this culture. Over in the FLDS compounds in Texas, Arizona and Utah, a fifteen-year-old girl is often taking care of herself, a forty-year-old husband and three kids. But I digress. Although not really, because is this REALLY that different? Isn't it all exploitation of one kind or another?
So where the hell is Billy Ray, besides posing with his daughter in one of the creepiest shots I've seen in a while? Busy being no better than a pimp, that's where he is.
And I'll say it one more time: FIFTEEN.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
More shiny!
~Phaze FANTASIES III -- including my long novella, "Hardcore" -- has been nominated in the "Best Other Works" category of the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards. In addition, "Mask" by James Buchanan, "Devotion" by Jade Falconer, and "Dragon's Fate" by Eliza Gayle -- also included in FANTASIES III -- have been nominated in the "Best Short Fiction" category.
The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards honor outstanding works of science fiction, fantasy and horror which include significant positive explorations of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters, themes, or issues.
The Winners and Recommended Short List for the 2008 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards will be announced at Gaylaxicon 2008, held October 2008 in Washington DC.
~4 Angels from Donna at Fallen Angel Reviews for my 2006 Phaze short vampire/Urban Fantasy romance, "To Have And Have Not" :
"This short story by Ms. March grips the reader from the first sentence. The heat that's generated between these two characters scorches the pages. I love the uncertainty that Jack shows, even though he's an alpha male, not only about his relationship with Laura but about himself and what he's become since the Breach. Ms. March packs a lot feelings and insight into this 27 page story that readers will not only enjoy but will be telling their friends about."
~4.5 Blue Ribbons from Chrissy at Romance Junkies for my November 2007 Amber Allure release, SEVEN YEAR ACHE:
"What an unexpected treasure Selah March’s SEVEN YEAR ACHE turned out to be. This story is chock full of emotional situations, a little bit of suspense and lovable characters. Rafe and Jamie’s friendship is definitely strained after so much time apart and when they would have thrown it all away, the women in their lives, Lilah and Aunt Cindy, manage to get them to see the situation from a different angle. This is a wonderful, heart-warming story that will alternately bring tears to your eyes and then a smile to your face."
As of today, SEVEN YEAR ACHE is also available through Fictionwise.
~Yes, I know I said something about running a contest for "There Came A Killing Frost." I'm waiting on the okay from my lovely and no doubt incredibly busy editor.
~Last but nowhere near least, I failed to mention last week that my brilliant and ever-stylish crit partner, Barb/Caridad Ferrer, has finaled in the Oklahoma RWA Chapter's National Readers' Choice Awards with her latest release, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE ACCENT. Apparently, they have good taste out there where the corn is as high as an elephant's eye.
*exposes geekdom by humming "Little Surrey With The Fringe On Top" from memory*
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
Shiny!
THERE CAME A KILLING FROST, coming soon from eRed Sage (scroll down to June's releases).
I might run a contest to promo this release. Yep. Seriously considering taking that radical step.
Don't just sit there. Alert the international media. This is news, dammit.
*crickets*
Okay, FINE. As my mother once informed me in a fit of high dudgeon (I love that word, don't you?) you'll miss me when I'm dead.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
Here's the thing, as my new BFF Dakota would say.
I've been surfing about, reading posts and comments here and there about the "wildness" and the "tackiness" and the lack of "professionalism" here at RT. And you know what?
~If you go to a Romantic Times convention looking to hold onto your dignity with both hands? You're gonna have a shitty time.
~If you go with the intention of turning up your nose at behavior of others? You'll find PLENTY of opportunity.
~And if you sit at home and troll the Romancelandia blogs to find evidence of Authors and Readers Behaving In A Manner Not Befitting A Lady so that you'll have something to post about or comment on? You're an asshat with too much time on your hands. Get a hobby why don'tcha?
RT isn't RWA. This isn't news. RT doesn't want to be RWA, and I can't tell you how many authors I've heard say, "...and thank God for that..." in the four days I've been here.
RT is a readers' convention with a sideline of workshops for writers and booksellers. It's not all that different from DragonCon or some of the other fan conventions that also hold a few workshops for artists in various media. So I'm asking... please... pretty-goddamn-fucking-PLEASE...
...could we quit with the comparisons? I'd really hate to have to break out the fruity analogies again.
For the record, I've never attended an RWA national conference and likely never will. As I age, I'm finding myself more and more allergic to the snobbery and the categorization and the asswipery inherent in organizations like RWA. (Are you PAN? Are you Pro? Should I pucker up to kiss your ass or turn around and bend over?)
I'm having a good time in Pittsburgh. I've met people I like - authors, readers, booksellers, cover models, waitresses, chambermaids and hotel desk clerks (in no particular order) - and I've never once worried that my dignity is suffering as a result of the fact that the chick next to me is dressed as a Domme vampire with bat wings and a quirt, and the hunk o' beefcake on the other side of the piano bar is leering at my cleavage. I've done very little "professional networking," but I've sold some books, given others away (major highlight of my week: the waitress that squealed like a schoolgirl when I autographed a free copy of SIN STREET for her, and then put down her pad and tray to hug me), gotten solid info from editors, visited with old friends and made a batch of new ones. I'm satisfied. If that makes me "unprofessional," then bless my own tacky heart. They say water finds its own level. Mine appears to be the one without the stick up its ass.
Yeah, I know, my metaphors are big with the mixy. Bite me. But not too hard, as I understand my brand of "tacky" may be contagious.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
At RT no one can hear you scream.
Pittsburgh FOR THE WIN!
So I'm at RT. Guess I didn't make that clear in the last post.
Prom on crack.Side o' beefcake.
More later.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
Off to see the wizard.
I packed false eyelashes, leopard-print platform stilettos, and a whip. Just sayin'.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
In which Selah has an epiphany right before your very eyes.
I'm a bitch, I'm a lover
I'm a child, I'm a mother
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint
I do not feel ashamed
I'm your hell, I'm your dream
I'm nothing in between
You know you wouldn't want it any other way...
("Bitch," Meredith Brooks, Shelly Peiken)
Angela T's got a great post today at Romancing the Blog about some of the differences between romance heroines and urban fantasy heroines -- which I would categorize more as "female protagonists," since "heroine" (while a good shorthand term) tends to put me in mind of a feisty (shudder) redhead locked in a losing battle with Mr. I'm-Too-Alpha-For-My-Shirt for the prize of Who Gets To Be On Top Every Damned Time, Forever-and-Ever, Amen.
Anyway. I prefer to write heroines who aren't just placeholders for the reader who wants nothing more than the hormone rush of pretending to be the owner of the girly bits after which the hero lusts. And I like to read characters who are fully-realized individuals in and of themselves, and not just foils for the dark, tortured, INTERESTING hero.
I keep hearing tales of editors telling authors that their heroines are "too strong," and "not nice enough" and "unlikeable," which seems to be shorthand for "the average reader won't be able to relate to a woman with real flaws and an actual personality."
What thoroughly insulting bullshit. Not to mention...hello? Lilith Saintcrow's Dante Valentine? Jacqueline Carey's Phaedra, from her Kushiel series? Lynn Viehl's...well, every heroine in her Darkyn series, basically?
Wait. None of those books fall strictly into the romance genre, do they?
Uh oh. I IZ SENSING A PATTERN.
Great. Now I have to rethink my entire career. Like I didn't have enough to do today, with the whole being-a-bitch thing.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
Meme. Because I'm just that lazy, oh yes I am.
You’re feeling...shredded by the wood-chipper of life.
To your left:
~two metal hair clips (one pink, one black)
~address book
~phone
~pile of DVDs and CDs (specifically: Dark Angel, Season 2; Brokeback Mountain, collector's edition; KANE; and KANE: Acoustic Live in London)
~a sheet of scrap paper from my son's math homework upon which I attempted - and failed - to explain ratios and how they might be used in real life.
On your mind: The deadline I'm fucking up even further by blogging instead of writing.
Last meal included: Bagel, cream cheese, coffee.
You sometimes find it hard to...breathe.
The weather: Chilly and bright.
Something you have a collection of: Children.
A smell that cheers you up: Clean laundry.
A smell that can ruin your mood: Dog poop.
How long since you last shaved: Um.
The current state of your hair: Knotted on top of my head to keep it out of my face.
The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): Big-ass sculpture of three maidens dancing in a circle around a fire - the fire is actually a place to put a candle. At the moment, it's sandalwood. It was a Christmas gift from my mother. You wanna see pictures???
Your skill with chopsticks: Not bad.
Which section you head for first in a bookstore: New releases.
Something you’re craving: Peace of mind.
Your general thoughts on the presidential race: You know what? I've got enough people pissed off at me this week. Pass.
How many times have you been hospitalized this year: Nada, but I'm looking at three days in May.
Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: Define "quiet." I seem to have misplaced that concept somewhere along the way.
You’ve always secretly thought you’d be a good...mother. Today, I'm not so sure.
Something that freaks you out a little: Insects of any kind.
Something you’ve eaten too much of lately: Antacids.
You have never...liked memes. They seem sort of self-absorbed. And yet.
You never want to...be so out of ideas for original blog content that I resort to stealing memes from Cindy Cruciger. AND YET.
You're tagged, Caridad Ferrer, wherever you are.
SelahMarch.com - Romance of Dubious Virtue
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