No one can tell us we're wrong, searching our hearts for so long, both of us knowing...

 I have been sitting on writing this one for a bit to try and let my feeling settle.  But you know, I'm not so good at that.  This is going to be a long one, so prepare however you feel fit.  The following review is a two-fer for Peace Talks and Battle Ground (with bits touching on the whole series), the latest two books in the Dresden Files series.  It will give heavy spoilers for pretty much everything including character deaths, so if you haven't caught up and care about that kind of thing, this is your last chance to turn back.

I Hope That Somethin' Better Comes Along

 I'm no stranger to bad genre fantasy books.  The sins of the sword and sorcery lot are familiar to me, but sometimes I'm thrown for a loop.  Like when two authors with half a century in the genre create some of the worst books I've ever finished.

Normally I'd say, "don't waste your time and TBR on things you hate."  Life is short, and unless you are obligated to do so (like you make a bad book podcast, or you're being paid to edit or review such a work), you aren't going to get anything out of finishing dreck.  In this particular case, I can almost use the trilogy as examples of what NOT to do in epic fantasy.

When Your Heroes Turn Out to Be Assholes

Amidst a global plague and uprisings against police violence, J.K. Rowling decided now was a good time to cast off any doubts about being a decent human being and confirm her TERF status to the world.  It's been a while coming, and I'm not surprised, but people are (understandably) furious and hurt that a once-beloved creator is such an asshole.  What do we do now, people ask, how do I reconcile my love for her books with the fact that she's an inexcusable bigot?

With the newest set of revelations, people are (understandably) trying to find a better alternative, with more progressive views, and in some cases coming up short, but occasionally finding a good egg.  I personally know a lot of people whose first experiences with a positive gay character in literature is Vanyel Ashkevron, so they're understandably upset.

First off, I am so sorry if this has happened to you.  You would hope that people who spent their time imagining impossible things could empathize better.  That they don't feels like a betrayal on a massive scale.

Many of us have spent a fair amount of time playing with these characters.  We've written and enjoyed fanfiction, art, made crafts, imagined where we'd be in their world.  Those experiences we've had are still valuable.  The friends we've made within those spaces are still excellent.  We can and should still revisit these things.  In no reality should we toss out our handmade wands or cross-stitched banners, we shouldn't delete our fics or art.  We own these things.  We own the fandom.  We have made it inclusive, we understand that the world is wider than these TERFs have designed it.

That's the beauty of metanarrative and fannish spaces.  We've taken a thing and made it whole.  We've filled in the gaps, we've speculated and diverged and made it something new.  We know a trans girl wouldn't get kicked out of the girls' dorm in Hogwarts because the castle knows she's a girl.  We know a world that has charms for everything could enact gender conforming potions.  We know that when Hermione and Fleur take Polyjuice that inside Harry's skin, they're still girls, still themselves.

So.  Don't give her any more of your attention or your money.  There are a plethora of more inclusive writers out there to bloat your TBR, but I also know they can't take the place of a formative work of your childhood (I grew up on C.S. Lewis, who was also a piece of shit, I understand).  Keep writing fic, keep knitting scarves, keep finding the holes and making something new.  If your conscience finds the canon too constricting, that's what we're here for.

And donate to a trans charity.  Tell your friends you love them, tell yourself that too.

Wow this brought out a sappier side than anticipated.  Don't worry, I have more junk rattling around in here.

Today in, "Things that should be obvious"

I am not a person lacking for things to read.  My TBR is robust and ever-growing...

So when people push back against a simple suggestion like, "If you're writing in a genre, read something published in that genre written within the last five years," I am frankly baffled.  This advice is so common-sense, I'm not sure what the malfunction is with these people.  But it does explain quite a bit about (for instance) dudes trying to write in genres that aren't their own, convinced they've hit on something people IN the genre have never thought about.  You know the ones; "I wanna write a romance book, but this one will have a plot!"  "I wanna write YA, but you know, sci fi!"  "I want to write a book about what would happen if the Nazis won the war."  And you talk to them and suggest, ever so gently (or not, if you're me) that the genre in question has a zillion different versions of this, and have they read any? they get offended, or offer an example 10+ years out of date ("I read the Hunger Games." MY DUDE).

Your job as a writer is twofold, and the second half of that is reading.  And I have long since championed reading broadly (you will get far fewer historical details wrong if you've read some recent histories, even if what you're writing is a historical romance), but also being familiar with your chosen genre.  This includes contemporary examples therein.  If you love sci-fi, and you can quote me chapter and verse some Heinlein and Asimov, Clark and Herbert, cool (but I mean also read some goddamn women in the genre).  But the genre has moved on.  There are issues that they didn't cover (or covered POORLY), and there are issues that modern readers are more interested in, by and large.

From a financial standpoint (and a reader-engagement standpoint), you are only hurting yourself by not being familiar with the trends in your genre, or the conventions, or just who's writing good shit in your field.  If you're trying to pitch your book, it helps to have some other titles that you can compare it to, or that you can recommend in addition to your own work.

And that's a wrap

Hey, since I recently deleted Facebook, this space can be used to store my annual reading charts, huzzah!  Let's see what I've been up to.