Bookshop offering refunds for Go Set a Watchman

A lot of readers seem to be particularly upset with Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. So much so that it’s now socially acceptable to return this thoroughly read book if you bought it from Brilliant Books in Traverse City, Michigan.

Capitalist publishing stifles originality

Anyone who’s read Ursula K. Le Guin’s National Book Awards speech last year will be reminded that capitalism stifles creativity.

Best of 2014: Fiction

Here are my top 15 fiction reads covering myths, fairy tales, contemporary, short stories, sci-fi & fantasy, and romance.

Mythology, Fairy Tales & Folktales

The Golden Ass: Or Metamorphoses by Lucius Apuleius
Those Ancient Romans knew how to tell a story! Bestiality, homosexual priest gangbangs, female paedophiles, incest, and so much more. {My Review}

Ursula K. Le Guin, confronting sexism in sci-fi publishing since 1987

_{Image: Hugh D’Andrade (Click image to enlarge)}

LonCon3 #25: Diversity Within Young Adult Science Fiction

Panellists: Kate Elliott, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Mahvesh Murad, John Hornor Jacobs, Marieke Nijkamp (vice president of We Need Diverse Books)

From Earthsea to Noughts and Crosses, The Summer Prince to Akata Witch, children and teens need to see books with characters that represent the diverse world they live in, whether they are dystopian romance or fantasy adventure. Organisations like We Need Diverse Books are helping to promote diversity in children’s literature, but what actions can we take – as readers, writers, publishers, and book-buyers – to help them in their goals? And who are the great authors of the past few years we should be catching up on?

LonCon3 #5: Reimagining Families – where’s the diversity?

Panellists: Jed Hartman, David D Levine, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Laura Lam, Cherry Potts (moderator)

In a 2013 column for Tor.com, Alex Dally MacFarlane called for a greater diversity in the way SF and fantasy represent families, pointing out that in the real world, “People of all sexualities and genders join together in twos, threes, or more. Family-strong friendships, auntie networks, global families… The ways we live together are endless.” Which stories centre non-normative family structures? What are the challenges of doing this in an SF context, and what are the advantages? How does representing a wider range of family types change the stories that are told?