Transcriptase

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I meant to do this last week in light of the Helix Craptacular.

So without rehashing the events of July, the fallout has been relatively positive.  Because of a combination of personal feelings and contractural issues, some are choosing to leave their work up in Helix’s archive.  I cannot fault them for that.  I’ve had a little time to consider how I would handle the situation would it have been me, and I tend to be rash and mouthy and a little caustic.

I know, you’re absolutely floored.

The authors in question chose to do something positive about it.  Sure they could have launched a boycott, but in all honesty, a boycott won’t speed along what what will happen all on its own.  Authors will stop submitting (despite what he claims as a backlog), Helix will lose readership, and it will go away. 

They didn’t rail like many of us, did, but they didn’t have to.  There was enough noise made about this and their feelings were known, directly or indirectly.

In essence, no one likes to be publically associated with someone perceived to be a bigot, and certainly not professionally.  (I think there are too many *ly-words in that sentence).

Instead they chose to open Transcriptase, a fantastic collection of spec fiction which includes everyone writing in that genre – not the narrow-minded view of some publications with regards to gender, race, culture, and any other petty excuse they can come up with.

I’ve been poking around, and while I don’t make it a point to read Spec or Sci-Fi or Fantasy on a regular basis, I found myself really enoying what I was reading. 

And I’m picky.

Go treat yourself to some really fantastic fiction.