Zowie, IT’S NOT YAOI!
Zowie! It’s Yaoi!: Western Girls Write Hot Stories of Boys’ Love (Paperback)
I can forgive many things…but someone honing in on a genre I love and create for, when they have NO business doing so, reeks. I look at this cover and I think Beavis and Butthead slash. As my friend Monotrouble so elequently pointed out…Come to Butthead. It’s books like this that make it IMPOSSIBLE for OEL/BL creators to get the respect and the patronage of BL readers who might be willing to give OEL/BL a try.
I’ve said this about artists, and I think it applies perfectly to this situation: Just because you can draw a sweatdrop, doesn’t mean you’re a mangaka. You know what, just because you’re a chick and you write some hot m/m, doesn’t make your work BL.
I’m trying very hard not to be disrespectful to the creators involved…I’m sure that they’re good at whatever they do…but I can tell by looking at this book and the way it’s presented, that what they do has nothing to do with YAOI! This sickens me. I’m tired of my peers and I, and our OEL/BL work being judged by this sort of hackish misguided crap. THIS IS NOT OEL/BL.
I sit here right now with my stomach turning because Avon tossed cash at something like this and not toward MASzine, Torquere Press, or Juxtapose Fantasy. I look at the line-up and I see a ‘gay erotica’ writer, a ‘BDSM writer’, a ‘lesbian erotica’ writer, and a few other ‘erotica’ writers…BUT NO WHERE IN THEIR CREDS do I see any BL community affiliations. 0_o. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that if you wanted to present a fiction anthology featuring english BL fiction, you might have hired some writers who specialize in it?
-Tina Anderson
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[...] Remember my ranting and raving about this? Sorry ladies…my original opinion still stands: [...]
[...] On the other side of the relationship, as a writer and publisher, I know that when you are going to sell a book, you need to know who your audience is and try to find a way to let them know that you’ve made this book especially for them. Get it wrong — or worse yet, seem like you merely trying to manipulate a fan base — and the reaction can be quite severe. Get it right, and hopefully you make enough money to keep publishing the books you love. [...]
Hey Crat, I think one of ‘your fans’ is griping about this one:
http://logophilos.livejournal.com/101489.html
LOL! Fruit of the tainted tree dude. I know this Susan chick, once upon a time I ‘offended’ her at Kita’s LJ and that likely explains the use of ‘this person’ as opposed to just using my name, which is right at the top of the blog. I think my points been made elsewhere on my blog, perhaps she’ll find it.
Besides, I was told to lay off Zowie and I did, but…Riddle me this, if she really wants to know my issue more clearly, why didn’t she just ask me? Comments are open, oh, and why lock it up? Yep, sounds like another bonafide ‘Crat Fan’ at LJ…I don’t like her, and I need my friends to agree with me on why.
I’d love to know what you would need to explain “more clearly” too.
It’s not like you’ve been secretive about it or to be more honest it isn’t that difficult to see what the problems are with this book (or worse title) anyway.
Yep, you just so love to make friends… ^.^
I made this post as a reaction to THAT COVER. Seriously, before I spoke with Ms. Lewis, I had every right on the planet to be pissed; I make my living writing BL comics, this is my market, and that cover and it’s obvious aesthetic vulgarity pissed me off and so I blogged. How anyone can look at that cover and not see my issue is either blind, mentally challenged…or, logophilos.
My issue with the marketing aspects were clearly explained here:
http://gynocrat.wordpress.com/2006/10/07/the-emerging-bl-lit-scene-stateside/
But she won’t link to that because, it’s not something she can be confused about, and thus, no drama.
-Tina
Yeah that’s the easy part, but of course things like this are never that simple or cut and dried, I mean come on… That LJ post is friends only, god knows what else is going on behind there now.
My suspicions is that the LJ post is going into meltdown since “naming you”, next up on the list is probably purging the f-list to see all those who are friends of yours. ^.^
LJ fun at its best.
No way! LMAO! Well, eating your young is a sign of desperation. =_=;
Aw man, the sad thing is, my editor from DramaQueen found the link just by clicking on my ‘referrals’ which are quite public. I saw it then, clicked it, saw her entry was locked, and just asked a few people about it in my LJ. Mutual ‘friend’ peeps were perfectly willing to come forward with info on the initial postings, but basically after that, I could really care. At least Ms. Lewis had the guts to address my issue with her project by trying to kill me with kindness [futile, but I respected her enough to back off]. This chick Susan is just bitching incognito, so why expend my precious snark?
Though I can try and clear up her intentions, in nutshell [because it’s now funny at this point] FACT: Nix Winter has a history at Uniquely Pleasurable, which is Susan’s stomping ground. MAYBE: Nix went to her for a shoulder to cry on because I’ve been called out for picking on Zowie [which I've not discussed in ages...talk about dated]. FACT: She linked to this Blog entry instead of the one explaining my thoughts on distinctions of slash marketed to yaoi manga fans. FACT: Her locked link URL shows up on my ref list. FACT: Covert LJ slagging in friends circles is ok with Crat, and quite therapeutic…it’s what Locked Entries are for and I have no issue with them, that’s all it looked like to me and so I say, Gouge away.
Hey, is this something serious?
Oh lord no! Though I think she feels you’re on her F-List somewhere, which is rather sad. Her link to my blog came up on the meta page and you just pointed it out to me—the rest was done by some mutual friends, but you know, other than her obvious hubris at the start, I really could care. I don’t like it though when people play themselves off as collected, when in fact, they’re the ones who are known to pull shit like, fly off handles, screw with people offline, and I could go on- but I won’t. 0_0. Everyone knows I too have struggled to define the genre I write for, and rather than examine those issues, she’s focused on the one post that is directly hurtful to someone in her circle of friends. This isn’t blind concern about an issue she happened to find on the internet…like she’s playing it off as…
It boils down to her trying to garnish some drama, and its ok, in her locked LJ is fine, if she won’t abandon the confines of it for a discussion about defining the uniquely western genre and seperating it from ‘yaoi manga’ genre, then I don’t care. In fact, she’s brought many of her F-List’rs to my blog, and upon reading my other entries on this subject, I’m now showing up on their feeds.
*thumbs up*, thanks Susan.
Oh dear lord, I wouldn’t give you the link if she was on my list…I was curious what the entry was about…ya know I thought it was about my box…
Man, I wish I regreted opening the tin of worms but…if you say the feeds got good then hell, maybe it’s all for the best.
LOL! I don’t think she would talk about DramaQueen or Rush, I think her main avenue is original slash. 0_0. It’s a shame though, she’s getting really bent just because I know she’s discussing me, over this issue, and I actually said something about it. Come on! I’m not going to come over and bazooka your house emo kid.
Yeah, my feed list got fat, in just 48 hours. LJ RSS feeds are cool. ^___^; I wonder though, has she made the connection that Iris Print is publishing my manga? Oy vey. I think she just gave them two good reviews…I wonder if she will retract them with some excuse like: I don’t want to be connected in any way to THAT PERSON.
LMAO! Kellie will want to shake me to death, oh well. I did post something at my LJ, public, but I had to lock it because some people chimed in with their opinions. Geeze, I thought I was disliked on the intarweb.
BAZOOKA MOE!
^^; That’s so silly. I’m still trying figure out why, if she’s as concerned with the issue of proper designation of work and marketing as such, why she didn’t just go to this entry: The Emerging BL Lit Scene Stateside
I told my friends not to send me screen caps, at this point, her Scarlet O-Hara rendition of, I wont go to her blog because she’ll destroy me just for disagreeing with her is her modus. No Susan, I only destroy those who wank me…in this case, it’s better you stay away. LOL!