The Writing Workshop

Good Grammar: New Words in the Dictionary

It's official: LOL and OMG are real words (Dirtier OMFG not included).

The Oxford English Dictionary has released their list of new words to be added to the pivotal dictonary, and a batch of internet and text-based words have made the cut.

The new words are quite varied - California roll and the ten second rule have been added, along with the Japanese word hentai, a genre of anime (comics) that feature gratuitous nudes and/or sex. (Notice too that I no longer italicized hentai - since it's in the dictionary, you can consider it a common English usage word and no longer considered foreign - and thus, no longer bound by rules for words from foreign languages.) Other fun additions (to me at least) are couch surfing, gremolata, headline (really, that wasn't a word before?), taquito, smack talk, and tinfoil hat.

Why does this matter to writers, though? Essentially, it's just another lesson in the evolution of language. Especially in today's technology-abled small world, people have to come up with language to describe new technology or the new adoption of a foreign word all the time. Writers can take advantage of this by making sure they're out there, knowing and listening to the language as it evolves.

Kevin Keller, Archie's Gay Bud, Gets His Own Mini-Series

New York Post has an article on Archie Comics' newest mini-series. The series will star Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character for the long-time publisher, and the first issue will hit the stands on June 14. Archie co-Ceo Jon Goldwater says, "This is the most important book this company has released in 70 years."

And that, at least to me, is stunning. To think that in comic books, the first major character to come out was Marvel's Northstar in 1992. Northstar is a member of the long-running Alpha Flight, and while he came out and was technically never de-gayed, he was definitely shoved back in the closet a few times. And also killed. The emergence of several more Marvel gay and lesbian heroes (and villains!) in the last few years has made a positive impact in the industry.

It was, however, the DC Comics heroine Batwoman who made history in the last few years, becoming the solo lead for Detective Comics. Alongside her is Image Comics' Midnighter, a gay Batman homage whose partner is none other than a gay Superman (it's better than it sounds, I promise), who first rose to fame as a member of The Authority.

But, frankly, Kevin Keller's popularity is amazing. He's only been around for a year, and let's face it: Archie Comics is known for wholesome children's comics. To have an openly gay character in that world is a brand new area, especially having Kevin be a character who is accepted without condition by the rest of the Riverdale gang. It's amazing and important. Kevin's creators have gone out of their way to make sure Kevin doesn't become a stereotype. I think this one of the reasons why he is so popular.

I have a feeling that a few parents out there won't be getting this series for their children, due to the "explicit" nature of the book. To that, I can only shake my head at them, because acceptance is what children should be taught, not hate. Kevin Keller represents the new era of gay inclusiveness in comic books. And to that, I can only say, "It's about damn time."

Writing Prompt: Five of Your Friends versus One Evil Island

Islands come in two distinct varieties: tropical and evil. Hawaii? That's a tropical island. LOST's island? That's an evil island. Barbados? Tropical. The island of Dr. Moreau? Evil.

Write a fictional story in which you and five of your friends crash (transportation of your choosing) onto a fictional evil island.

It's your decision as to whether the island is itself evil or if evil people (or other creatures) just live on it.

Get Published!: Your Ethics and When Not to Publish, a Story by Jessica Verday

On her blog this week, author Jessica Verday, writer of the popular Young Adult The Hollow Trilogy, told the story of why she rejected the offer to be a part of the Wicked Pretty Things anthology. To put it simply? Her short story was too gay for the editor.

To sum up Verday's take, it was announced Verday was going to be in the anthology, Verday wrote a love story between two boy fairies (the magical kind), editor asked Verday to change the story to a male/female story. Verday refused and decided she didn't even want her story in the book if the editor was that way.

Now, according to an update at the blog, the editor in question, Trisha Telep, responded by saying that the choice was all hers - she didn't think a male/male story would sell to the publisher, but the publisher is saying that they were perfectly ok with it. Verday is still refusing based on principle.

And I say, good for her.

In reality, we have no idea whose fault this is. It could be that what's the publisher told Telep to say, or that Telep is telling the truth. Or the publisher would have said exactly what Telep thought they would, but now they don't have to, so they're not going to say it publicly. They're not stupid.

Either way, it's still a case of homophobia - the fear of the gay. Telep was afraid the gay romance wouldn't belong in the anthology, which has a Young Adult angle, and that the publisher would reject the story because of it. In the end, Verday now has a story she can publish elsewhere. I suggest she go ahead and see if Kindle Singles is interested - it could be a nice match-up for the popular writer, and Amazon might be willing since she's already getting a bit of press over this.

In the end, for all the writers out there, I have one thing to say: you must only publish when your ethics say you should. Editors and publishers will make demands of you and your writing, and you must not allow them to change your intent or meaning. It's your name on the cover, not theirs. As an artist, you must have integrity. Readers can feel it when an author is being insincere in their work, and they frequently lose faith in the author because of it.

Before you see dollar signs, remember to ask yourself: is this really the kind of story I want to publish? If it's not, don't do it. If your writing is good enough, another publishing outlet will come along - one that won't jeopardize what you believe in.

Correction: Verday has informed me through Twitter that the boys aren't fairies, but that there is a magical fairy involved.

A Tale of Two Lawsuits

To show yet once again that Apple is the epitome of big bad business (don't listen to those hipsters), Apple is suing Amazon for their usage of the term "App Store", according to this Bloomberg report.

Amazon, in its development of an App Store (probably for a new Kindle, yes? - I'm not 100% sure about that one, anybody want to help?), is getting in hot water because, apparently, "App Store" belongs to Apple. Isn't that like saying "bakery" is an owned trademark? These things are called apps, so Amazon deserves to have its own "App Store". Apple is saying in its filing (no joke here) that customers will get confused by both stores being called App Stores and therefore, Apple should have sole rights to that name.

Yeah, no. I hope this gets thrown out. Trademarks can only apply to unique names - Apple App Store would be a unique name. App Store by itself? Not so much.

In yet another lawsuit this week, Microsoft is suing Barnes & Noble, in this report from Huffington Post. According to Microsoft, the Nook, Barnes and Noble's e-reader, is infringing on their patents for app technology. This is just one in a long line of suits filed by Microsoft over the Android technology that the Nook runs on. Microsoft has already sued Motorola over it, but has yet to go after Google, who technically created the programming.

My big question there is if their lawsuit is correct, why the hell are they going after the little boys instead of the big one? It seems fishy to me - maybe they'll try their hand at Motorola and Barnes & Noble first to see if they can win and then go after Google, armed with their previous wins. I really hate Microsoft now, though, because if a judge rules in favor of this, it could hurt Barnes & Noble to the point of extinction, since B&N is now relying heavily on the Nook for profits.

Without the Nook, Barnes & Noble becomes Borders. And we all know how that turns out.

Writing Prompt: Online Dating

Sometimes it's fun to write stories that could be written in no other time before now - the technology is different or the culture has changed, and you can write about a certain moment - the "now". Part of the big shift in technology in the last ten years has been online dating.

Write a story that utilizes online dating - write profiles for characters into the story, as well as the e-mails back and forth. If texting and phone calls occur, add these in.

Essentially, this the modern day equivalent of the epistolary novel - a novel told through letters.

Lambda Literary Award Finalists for GLBT Books Announced

The finalists for the 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards were announced last week. The Lambda Literary are considered the top awards for GBLT publishing and this year had a record number of entrants, according to Galleycat.

Richard Labonte, the awards administrator, said that the high number of entrants was due to the Awards accepting nominations from self-published authors. This makes the Lambda Literary Awards are one of the highest national awards for books that accept self-published author nominations. They do this, because GBLT publishing was often self-published in the 70's and 80's, when no mainstream press would take on the books.

You can see the full list of nominess here, at the Lambda Literary website. Notable among them are Just Kids, this year's nonfiction National Book Award winner, in the Bisexual Nonfiction category, and Chely Wright's Like Me in the Lesbian Memoir/Biography category. Wright, a country singer, made headlines earlier this year when she came out publicly, making her the highest profile gay country singer ever. I also enjoyed seeing Another Country by Scott Herring nominated in the LGBT Studies category, because I worked on the book during my time at NYU Press.

I personally love the Lambda Literary Awards, because they do manage to grab a great variety of books, from the well-received, high profile books to the random gay novel that nobody's ever heard of. The sheer volume of categories allows for these books to be discovered by readers, and I think that's something worth while.

Writing Prompt: A Game of Words

When you get a group of friends together, what they say isn't always they mean.

In today's prompt, your job is to get the reader to see what the relationships are between characters without ever actually saying it, all while having them play a simple board game. The goal is also to develop nuanced relationships - instead of just "boyfriend-girlfriend", go for "boyfriend-girlfriend who are only still together because she might be pregnant but they hate each other". Just don't say it explicitly.

Write a story that features a group of people playing a board game. Tell both the story of the game and the characters' stories, all the drama included, without ever coming out and saying it.

This is a test in how subtle you can be as a writer.