In which Lela wishes to change the world through snark

The harassment policy at NYCC is sorta terrible.

While they are VERY CLEAR (in the statement pointed to VICTIMS*) that harassment will not be tolerated, The RULES only say

1. Be nice and have fun! All of your fellow NYCC con-goers are there to have a good time, so be friendly, make a new best bud, give a free hug and have a paramount good time at NYCC! Any behavior that's offensive in public should be kept out of NYCC and in the privacy of your own home.

(link here)


 On top of that, the mechanics for a victim to deal with it are awful. The victim is instructed to "Go to the NYCC Show Office."


 JAVITS IS HUGE.
And during NYCC it is STUFFED WITH PEOPLE.
By instructing people to Go to the Show Office, Reed Pop is basically saying, "We are going to give you a lollipop and pat you on your head because there is NO FUCKING WAY we're gonna find that guy, confirm it was the dude that grabbed your tit and kick him out. Why don't you spend the rest of your already ruined day sitting here while we "look"? OH and that costume shows an awful lot of skin. NAKED IS NOT A COSTUME, YANNO?


*Click What if I'm Harassed?


So what do we do?

TO TWITTER MY FRIENDS ( and Facebook and G+ too !)

TWEET/STATUS UPDATE  How you will deal with immobilizing/capturing/ what-have-you a hypothetical harasser at NYCC? Freeze ray? Giant Hammer? Old Fashioned crotch shot?

Give me your super hero story of defeating a harasser! They should be over the top and silly. A fun game with a serious purpose.

Use the hashtag #ConHero and tag @NY_Comic_Con

This has an added benefit. If it trends then people all over nerddom will see it. It will make it clear that we don't accept harassment.




Collect your thoughts, loves. We will be launching this ship on TUESDAY, September 3rd.

** To improve harassment policy we need:
1) CLEAR RULES AGAINST HARASSMENT
2) BETTER WAYS TO REPORT HARASSMENT.
3) CLEAR CONSEQUENCES FOR HARASSERS

Examples of  tweets:
I see a girl getting harassed @NY_COMIC _ Con. I Use my + 5  Sword of Suffering to cut him in twain. I'm a #ConHero

Some dude grabs my booty @NY_ Comic_ Con so I make him walk the plank. I'm a #ConHero

In which Lela conducts a fake interview and the internet ESSPLODES!

I'm HEAD NERD CORRESPONDENT over at WHACK! Magazine. MOSTLY, this means I read graphic novels and tell people if they're good or not, but sometimes I do interviews.

Let me tell you a secret: I suck at interviews. Seriously. I ask the same questions everyone asks. The people I interview are generally better off just giving me their Playboy Playmate of the month stats. 

I like long walks on the beach and cold nights by the fire. Turn ons include flannel sleepwear and Zima Malt Beverage.

So I asked Chuck Wendig and Stephen Blackmoore if I could interview them back in JANUARY. And then I put it off. Why? Cuz I hate doing things I suck at.

When I came to the realization that I really HAD to do SOMETHING I did what I usually do-- I went to Twitter.

Gimmie some interview questions! 

HOW BIGGS ARE THEM CANZ? 

Now you have to understand that this was from a Dear Friend and so I giggled and this got me thinking. I suck at interviews, but I do not suck at snarky commentary. So I asked Chuck and Stephen if they were for it and we produced THIS .

And THIS thing we produced has taken on a life of it's own with 200+ notes and making the front page of Reddit and SO MANY NEW TWEEPS (Hi new twitter friends. This is all quite overwhelming) One of the biggest critiques I've heard is that they were expecting it so it isn't really the same thing.

Which is true, if the intention had been to put men in the same position as women are constantly placed by media. But that ain't me. This is really just about the ABSURDITY of those questions. The ridiculous labels put on women because they have/don't have kids. Because they write/don't write sex/violence/science/unsympathetic characters.

Thing is, there is DEFINITELY space for that kind of skewering satire. And there may even be dude writers who deserve that kind of treatment. But that ain't me.

But the thing is it IS TRUE that most women CAN'T answer the types of questions that I asked Chuck & Stephen with the candor or wit that they did.... not without risking the interview disappearing.

So I'm going to be hitting up LADY WRITERS for a a column called IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING. In which I will ask the terrible questions and the LADYWRITER in question will be allowed NAY! EXPECTED to hand me a fist full of TRUTHINESS.

I'm gonna be reaching out to people in the near future. If you have a suggestion for who you think would be a good fit COMMENTS are below!

( Idea for IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING came out of a conversation with Suleikha Snyder on Twitter)

GUEST POST: Clovia Shaw gives us a little nibble of her new book NOGITSUNE

If you don't know how much I (heart) Clovia Shaw you aren't paying attention. SHe was here during BIG COMICS WEEK reviewing CHEW and spreading LOVE for Third Eye Comics.  Here's a little snippet (a drrrrrrrty little snippet) from her new book :

[QUOTE]

Linc rested his cheek on her head, still pressed firmly inside her, his hand smoothing up and down her quivering thigh as his stomach heaved against hers.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” he said quietly.

“I’m pretty happy with it.”

He grinned into her hair, the length of velvety tail uncoiling from her leg so slowly it felt reluctant, leaving an uncomfortable chill where her skin was now exposed. Letting her get a foot solidly down first, he gave her ass a squeeze before shifting to disengage. Delia closed her eyes for the shiversome sensation as he withdrew slowly, her hands curling against his hot sides.

“Do you trust me to do this for you?”

Delia nodded, reaching down to snag the right leg of her panties and jeans so she could put her boot back through them. She’d been expecting the flare of foxfire to destroy the condom, but it was still disorienting in such a small space while hopping on one foot.

Alerted by the squeak, Linc just watched her topple headlong into the laundry, the flames in his palm receding to a glow so he didn’t miss anything.

[/QUOTE]

 First off, let me say that picking an excerpt from a longer sex scene is hard. Heh, hard. I try very hard to craft a romantic or sexual scene so that it makes sense in the context of the story, suits the tone of the rest of the book, and isn’t in there just because I was getting bored and wanted the characters to screw already.

Wait. Back up the truck. “Length of velvety tail?”

Don’t make it weird, man. The MC in Nogitsune, Lincoln Black, is descended from Japan’s legendary fox-wives—which in my universe, means he has spirit tails. It works, shut up.

I didn’t realize this was a Romance.

It’s not. If you took the romance with Delia out and just had them work together, Linc would still have a book, though it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun. My kitsune are sensualists, life-force harvesters who draw harmlessly on their lovers for a little extra afterglow buzz, and writing around that would be ridiculous.

Okay, so why this excerpt? We didn’t get to see anything!

Because it illustrates what I try to do with sex scenes—it’s easier without the distraction of hot, heaving, slick things. Physical intimacy can’t exist in its own bubble, discrete from the rest of the story. Something led the characters there, the plot rolls on around them, and worldbuilding rules still apply. Here, Linc is putting Delia in danger by having sex with her, but he’s not used to curbing his appetites. So he’s worried he’s started something he can’t stop. The bit with the condom is a window onto the local magic and the danger inherent in sleeping with another magician. Spit, blood, sexual fluids, hair—all these things can be used against you, so it’s a further trust to give, for Delia to let Linc handle the disposal for her. And lastly, there’s a casual fondness there that I think is very sweet when Delia trips bare-ass into the mountain of laundry, and rather than try to catch her, Linc just enjoys the view.

Or, you know, it’s just rude.

Foxes are habitual line-steppers, tricksters at heart, and don’t particularly care what you think of them. Linc could play Prince Charming as easily as any other illusion in his repertoire, but Delia doesn’t expect or want him to be something he’s not. It’s not like the laundry was going to eat her.

Stop acting like italics isn’t just you talking to yourself.

Fuck you, it makes me sound more personable and engaging. Or creepy and sad, but whatever.

…I spend a lot of time in my head.

Thanks to Lela for letting me rub my naughty bits all over her blog today, and for all you non-italicized people who dropped by to get a look at them. Nogitsune is available at Amazon and Smashwords, and you can come talk to me on twitter if there’s nothing good on late-night TV.