My blah

I jokingly call this journal my “blah” (see what I did there?), but usually try to avoid posting things when I’m upset or depressed.

That said, this must be the longest winter in recent memory and I am surprisingly irascible lately. I am irked by things small and large–things like work annoyances are “small,” things like my PayPal account being hijacked this past weekend are “large.” No matter what happens, I keep yearning for the pinpoint of light that I can just barely see at the end of the tunnel.

Somewhere between 160 and 205 days, my daily schedule will become less harried. I will be able to work toward things that I want. Until then, I’m just burning time. Throwing it away. Watching it mutate and procreate as one moment becomes the next. In those exchangeable, inescapable, unreclaimable moments, I’m utterly convinced that I would feel like myself again if only the sun would come out.

Thirty-four days until Daylight Saving Time begins. Forty days until spring.

Heavy snow is due Wednesday…

Is explicit content worthy of disqualification?

I get semi-regular e-mails from Amazon’s “Author Central.” This morning, I received information about their “third annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award!”

The exclamation point is theirs, not mine.

The pitch: The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award offers authors of unpublished or self-published English-language novels a chance to win one of two $15,000 publishing contracts with Penguin USA, and distribution of their novel on Amazon.com. For the first time, Amazon.com customers will vote for two grand prize winners: one for general fiction and one for the best young adult novel. The 2010 competition will now be open to novels that have been previously self-published.

Well, good for you, Amazon.

Though, when I look at the official rules, I am surprised to find this: “We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to disqualify your Entry from the Contest if the Entry (x) contains obscene, offensive, pornographic or sexually explicit material.”

Really? Let’s look at the language in use.

- obscene
- offensive
- pornographic
- sexually explicit

Most people–not necessarily regular readers of contemporary fiction–would say that obscene and pornographic are synonymous. But maybe Amazon means obscene in the “foul language” sense. That’s fine.

Offensive. Let’s assume they mean “racist” or “hateful.” Also fine. I can accept that.

Pornographic. Material rendered with the intent to titillate. Such passages might be described as…sexually explicit. And I wouldn’t say that such a description is false.

However, aren’t rape scenes sexually explicit? Aren’t there sections of novels which are indeed explicit while also being necessary to the character development of a protagonist?

And how “sexual” does “explicit” material get? Is Slaughterhouse Five explicit? Is The Great Man or The Epicure’s Lament (look these books up…highly recommended) explicit?

Really, on a personal note, what I’m asking is: how do we define “problem” material? And why is it a problem at all?

Though, in this instance, the more important questions are, “How does Amazon define ’sexually explicit?’ How does Penguin?”

I know that my book has sex in it. Six scenes, to be exact. I would describe them as explicit because sex, as most people have experienced it, is explicit and I strive to create fiction which reflects a real time and place. For an eighteen year old girl to encounter five noteworthy sexual experiences–one of the encounters isn’t the hers–over the course of eight years…that seems to derive from a genuine time and place.

Shouldn’t that be worth something better than disregard or disqualification?

Free theatre is back!

So, despite Wednesday’s show being sold out, the producers at Whistler in the Dark are encouraging everyone to attend!

From the Meg Taintor, Artistic Director:

“If people are trying to make online reservations, they will find that the event is technically sold out. This does not mean that they shouldn’t come anyway – we’re going do our best to get everyone in if possible!”