yikes

Judged by the people you surround yourself with

by

Hi World,

I saw this video and it made me think about the people we surround ourselves with.

My mother, now gone 14 years, always told me that no matter how innocent I was, I’d be judged by the friends I have. I think she was worried about me getting involved with a gang or something. As the poor kid in a town with no minorities I was the most likely to become the scapegoat.

I’ve tried to make sure I was friends with good people and to avoid situations where I would be associated with bigots, racists, etc.

I miss my mom, but with her health for her last decade, I am sort of relieved she didn’t have to live through Covid. I’m also happy that she hasn’t seen the people her family and friends have associated themselves with.

I’ve given the Freedom Convoy more attention than I should, but it’s directly affecting many of my friends and my city.

Antihate canada is a non-profit organization that studies hate groups and they have some interesting things to say about the organizers of the convoy: Tamara Lich, Benjamin “BJ” Dichter, and Ben King. THE ‘FREEDOM CONVOY’ IS NOTHING BUT A VEHICLE FOR THE FAR RIGHT

The movement is also supported by several American celebrities and prominent anti-vaxx advocates and hate mongers. The Citizen wrote an article about this support: ‘The Canadian revolution’: How foreign anti-mandate sympathizers are framing the trucker convoy.

Now I can hear all the deniers saying how they don’t trust the MSM… so how about straight from the source:

or how about this:

There have been reports of fires, looting, blocking emergency vehicles, and many other reprehensible things.

I’ve seen a lot of people sharing an image that says, “Proud Member of a Small Fringe Minority with Unacceptable Views.” Do they share the views of the organizers? Or how about the supporters?

It’s sad to see so many people who are willing to disregard the founding and actions of this protest just because they dislike the prime minister or agree with one or two parts of the protests ideas.

At this point I only see two ends to this; violence or the protesters going home unhappy.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Canadian publishing… WTF?

by

Hello My Imaginary friends,

Last Thursday I got an email from our wonderful publisher checking in to make sure everyone was okay after, “a tumultuous week for Canadian speculative fiction writers”.

I’m on parental leave and not as involved online as normal, also I’m kinda isolated from the larger writing community outside of events. I had no idea what was going on.

Holy Expletive did I wish I didn’t know after I read up on it. It made me sick and more than a little angry. Here’s a quick clean description from S. M. Carrière:

It began with accusations of non-payment and verbal attacks levelled against ChiZine Publishing by author Ed Kurtz.

Then things exploded.  Stories by others associated with the press, either having “worked” for (I put worked in quotation marks, because payment was not something they often did) or volunteered with them, and other authors expression concerns about behaviour and non-payment.  Some of it was truly sickening; verbal and emotional abuse that I found extraordinarily triggering. […]

Thoughts on a Bloody Mess – S. M. Carrière

If you really want to learn more you can check out this blog post by High Fever Books. It’s comprehensive and is still updating with information.

I’ve had very little dealings with ChiZine… Mostly the reading series that was run in Ottawa. The reading series in Ottawa was run by some fantastic people and I’m extremely happy that they don’t seem implicated in the terribleness.

When I first met the publishers, I thought they were the rockstars of publishing. They had edgy cool books, snarky attitudes, and a slight punk vibe. I pitched my first novel to them and was shocked that they liked the pitch.

Over the next two years, I periodically emailed about my submission, always getting emails about how busy they were. It was a stark contrast from Renaissance Press that actually published the novel. They apologized for taking too long (less then 3 months) and even walked me through what I should do to improve the novel.

I asked Sandra about the submission in person at the next years’ Can-Con and she replied curtly that, they’d get to it when they had a chance. From that moment on, she and Brett pretty much ignored me. I was on a panel at Limestone Expo and Sandra spent most of the time talking over me and interrupting the other panelists. I mostly tried to avoid them after that. I assumed it was me. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea and can rub some the wrong way.

I don’t know all the details, but there are a lot of people speaking out about WAY worse things that ChiZine has been involved. It’s seriously disturbing how bad some of the stuff being discussed is.

In case it’s not clear. I believe and support those speaking out.

In times like these, I truly appreciate my publisher. Renaissance isn’t the biggest, nor is it the fastest growing, but damn do they take care of their authors. They have a careful, people-oriented approach to publishing that I greatly appreciate.

I have nothing new to add to the conversation, but I do want to repeat two important messages:

  1. Don’t punish the writers for their publisher.
  2. Don’t assume that everyone involved with ChiZine knew what happened or were involved. There are some genuinely lovely people who were involved with the company that might not have been involved in the horrible behaviour.

Be kind, my friends,

Éric