Wow.

[naomi_jay]

I'd never heard of Jessica Verday before yesterday, but I definitely plan to follow her now. This is such an awesome response to such a nasty situation.

I have to confess, I feel weird about Trisha Telep being involved. She was my agent until last year. We didn't part badly, but we haven't had any contact since then, and I can hardly say I "know" her. But her response to this still surprised and saddened me. The more time I've had to reflect on things, the more I've come to realise we weren't a good fit agent/writer-wise, and I'm grateful now that we parted ways when we did. I'm even more grateful now, because I don't think I could have happily remained her client under the circumstances. I'd hate to see this become a witch hunt, because the internet is pretty unforgiving, and threatening anyone with death (as has already happened) is never an eloquent solution to a problem.

On the other hand, Jessica Verday is in the right. Whatever else you may make of the situation, that's undeniable. And I'm buying one of her books on payday, because anyone with that much integrity is worth reading, as far as I'm concerned.

Comments

[mardelwanda.livejournal.com]

I always thought the art community (which I realize has many sub-communities) as being way more relaxed about sexuality, looks and differences than middle America...or Middle England..but I guess that's not so.

Did you see the update to Jessica's blog? The agent takes all the blame for the decision... but then possibly the publishers don't want a repeat of the internet sensation we had over book covers.....which maybe is needed after all?

I like Jennifer's take on love also. I have gay family members and I'm glad they have people they love, I don't care who they are. Acceptance - what we all need.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Acceptance - what we all need.

Totally! :)

I saw Trisha's response. I'm still not sure what to make of it. I think she'd be the first to say she's handled the whole situation wrongly, but I'm not convinced she's made things better with her comment on Verday's blog!

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

I do wonder, looking at the editor's response, whether there may not be a certain amount of simple mis-communication here. Without reading the story in question I obviously can't know whether it comes across as explicitly "pro-gay" or whether the "deep love" between the two boys is presented in the caring, sensitive and essentially platonic manner Verday's original post would imply. There's nothing in either post that precludes Telep's request for change having been meant as "the nature of this anthology doesn't suit what I get from your story as it stands", which is surely the editor's responsibility to determine. And if she felt that then I'm not really sure I could support the making of a big public issue over the objection. It's not an "anti-gay" stance by Telep, it's simply a value judgement that Verday disagrees with.

Oh, and as for mardelwanda's comment about the "art community" - that's irrelevant. The anthology is compiled for a specific market, and that market is NOT the "art community".

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. It seems clear to me from Verday's post and Trisha's response what the problem was: Verday wrote a story depicting a boy/boy relationship (therefore gay). Trisha asked her to re-write it as boy/girl (therefore straight), on the basis that she didn't think the publisher would accept a gay story. I don't think Verday's post implies a platonic relationship - she says in the comment thread that there are kissing scenes, so it's clearly a romantic relationship.

What I get from it all is that, for whatever reason, Trisha didn't approve of the gay romance angle. I'm not calling her a homophobe. But she made a judgement call on behalf of the publisher that she shouldn't have. I think it's important that issues like this get flagged, not so we can all decide Trisha is evil and Verday is a saint, but because when you sweep issues about anything like this - sexuality, race, gender, whatever - under the rug, it sends out the message that a certain way of life is "wrong" and another isn't, and that's not a message I can support.

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

But the problem is people (yourself included) have been throwing round phrases like "such an awesome response" and "anyone with that much integrity" that surely make it look like there's a bit of "Trisha is evil and Verday is a saint" in the air.

I didn't watch Brokeback Mountain. I had no desire to. I don't like cowboy films, and I'm not much for romance. The fact that it's "gay" didn't put me off because I was never "on". But apparently, according to some people, that makes me homophobic. And so they feel it's within their rights, nay it's there bounden duty, to lecture me on it.

I got the feel that there's at least some of that going on here too. I didn't see the comment that made it clear this was a story with a "clearly romantic" relationship, but if it was then I can sympathise even more with Telep's concern over whether it would suit a publisher aiming at certain markets. Sure the way she handled it (especially if it really was a "re-write it as straight", not just a "this wouldn't be a problem if it were straight, but I'm a little concerned" that Verday chose to interpret a certain way) sucked. But the tone of that discussion, and to a lesser extent the tone here, looks like gay-rights preaching about how fundamentally evil most straight people are. Your comment about sweeping issues under the carpet was, I'm sure, referring to inappropriate editorial decisions, which are merely so unimportant as to make the comment laughable. But the alternative is that you're suggesting that NOT publishing a gay story in any given anthology is inherently an evil form of discrimination. See how daft that is?

It's a subject a lot of people get wildly irrational about. And the specific details of this incident are not entirely clear, because we've only been given interpretations. I was merely calling for a bit of balance and, dare I say it, acceptance.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Okay, I need to clarify my comments. I think. I think Verdan's response was awesome because she could have thrown a tantrum, spewed a load of bile all over the internet and, like one particular idiot I saw on Twitter, called for Trisha's death. Instead she wrote what I feel to be a dignified response to a potentially damaging situation. There have been a lot of author-behaving-badly stories on the net lately; it's nice that this wasn't one. I admire her sticking to a principle she believes in and for putting a positive message out there.

I'm not suggesting that not publishing a gay story is a crime or evil. I'm a bit puzzled as to where that came from. What I am saying is that excluding a story for having gay content is offensive to me, the same way that changing the cover of a book featuring an African-American narrator to show a white person is offensive. Of course people.don't have to read a story with gay content if it doesn't appeal to them, the same way I don't have to read space opera or military history. But I think it would be nice if the choice were there, rather than being made for me by an editor, whatever her intention was.

For what it's worth, I don't think Trisha is homophobic for a second. I think she made a poor judgement call and compounded the problem with a flippant apology. I'm sure she doesn't need me to defend her though.

[mardelwanda.livejournal.com]

to me, as i was reading it, it felt flippant. possibly because of the wording. maybe she was going for lighthearted, though. It seems like the ball was dropped here though - with the teens and young adults that my kids knew and know, they are all more accepting of various lifestyles than she apparentlt realises. Not only that, but i'm sure there are many gay teens who happen to be readers. that's a big market, and if you have a book that caters to bith 'interests' then you have a winner.

of course there are always those nervous parents...

[sanguinepen.livejournal.com]

Oh Hell No!

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

You said it!

[yolandasfetsos.livejournal.com]

This situation is ridiculous. And to be honest with you, I can't believe anyone would suggest to a writer that they need to change their boy/boy story to girl/boy. Seriously, WTH?

...because when you sweep issues about anything like this - sexuality, race, gender, whatever - under the rug, it sends out the message that a certain way of life is "wrong" and another isn't, and that's not a message I can support.

Yes! I totally agree with this.

I've actually had The Hollow on my TBR pile for ages because it sounds like an interesting story.

I wonder if all of this will have an effect on future anthologies?

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I wondered too. It's hard to judge if this will just quietly die down once everyone's had their say, or if there will be long-term impacts on the people actually involved.

[hildebabble.livejournal.com]

Ditto. Verday has earned mad respect from me!

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

I hope she finds another home for the story - it would be fantastic to see it published.

[tezmilleroz.livejournal.com]

I think the story will be here: http://jessicaverday.blogspot.com/2011/03/secret-project-revealed-2009-debs-ebook.html

I've read THE HOLLOW. Pretty standard YA paranormal romance, but with ghosts.

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

Thanks for ruining the twist for me! :P

[tezmilleroz.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* I should not be allowed on the Internet... ;-)

[naomi-jay.livejournal.com]

*takes away Tez's cake*