So over the last week there’s been ANOTHER dumb SFWA soap opera of angsty Social Justice Warriors shrieking at people who actually make a living writing speculative fiction because of our lack of glittery hoo haws.

Sarah Hoyt’s response is friggin’ hilarious. Seriously.

http://accordingtohoyt.com/2014/02/18/my-last-post-on-sfwa-pinky-swear/

The latest thing was when a whole bunch of really accomplished authors who are still SFWA members signed a petition saying that they don’t like censorship in their speculative fiction org. (this is just backlash for all the bullshit of the last couple years) This thing was signed by the likes of Robert Silverburg, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, Misty Lackey, David Brin, David Gerrold, etc. So basically pick any one of them, and they’ve sold more books than 9/10th of the people they’re arguing against put together. And to give you an idea that is the entire political spectrum including some fairly flaming liberals.

I thought the petition was fairly mild. It was just about how freedom of speech was important in an org dedicated to speculative fiction and got into the running of their little newsletter and how much editorial control it should exercise in order to protect the delicate lilac scented feelings of the easily offended. So pretty mild stuff for anybody who has ever worked in an actual grown up professional organization.

Of course, the response was why do all these OLD PEOPLE not want women to write sci-fi? I saw one blog post that invoked Walter Cronkite and previous (i.e. old) generations expecting respect, but they didn’t understand this new, raw, instant feedback model we work with today… Only I kinda make my living with that whole new-fast-raw thing, and they were all screaming at me about how I should respect them more. Go figure.

Mostly it was just bleating and character assassination, that way all of the low information types can see a couple of out of context posts on Facebook and think Raymond E. Feist is the worst person EVAR! It is amazing the fabricated crap people will swallow to get their outrage on. So you know, the typical stuff  (and btw, Riftwar, read it as a teenager, friggin’ awesome).

Mike explains it here: http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/ Mike also points out that the people on one side of this particular petition seem to be politically diverse while having sold a shit ton of books, while the other side is a bunch of people marching in political lockstep who haven’t really accomplished much, except for yelling diversity over and over.

I don’t even know how I ended up in all these posts from the other side this week. As usual, the SJW crowd has a bunch of hyperbolic bleating about the racisty-hatey-hate-hate of people like me, and I’ve not even paid much attention to this one.  Come on guys, I was the one you were all supposed to hate two weeks ago.

Fans always find and forward me the best stuff. Over the last few days there was a Twitter post that said Larry Correia and Sarah Hoyt were white supremacists… Which will come as a shock to Sarah’s black grandparent, and I find it remarkable that my hate mail can simultaneously think I’m a white supremacist AND I’m also a swarthy menace stealing all the white women.

Meanwhile, there was another post attacking the Mad Genius Club posters, and it followed the Checklist and went for Dismiss. Only they dismissed the MGC people because they were just Americans. (and everybody knows how inexperienced Americans are!), except in this case they were mad at Sarah (Portuguese immigrant), Kate Paulk (Australian), Mike Williamson (British immigrant), and Dave Freer (South African).  I don’t blog there, but I got lumped in, so Larry (America FUCK YEAH!)

There was another post wondering why I hadn’t chimed in on this one, but they figured I was still begging for a Hugo (that’s so last month, it cut off in January, up next, arguing here about who all of us want to vote for to really piss you people off) or I was getting my panties in a twist over gendernormativecistranswtfery, but it did make me think… Let me describe yesterday to you, and no, this is totally factual and isn’t in any way exagerated:

I was too busy to respond yesterday, because over those 24 hours I wrote and sent off 2 pro paying short stories and got the contract for 2 more (so basically enough to qualify for SFWA… in one day), and then I got my 4th Audie nomination and found out my narrator was up for best narrator, (I’ve already won 2) and I also did one of my Book Bombs for my friend and fellow outspoken conservative writer, Chuck Dixon (which means I helped Chuck sell more books yesterday than most of those people will sell in their entire lives.) Then I watched the new episode of Face Off and painted some minis.

So all in all, it was a Tuesday. That has to really suck for them. 🙂

Oh, but wait, there’s more! I think this might be from the same poster warning you of the danger’s of my cismale gendernormative facism and Sarah’s (strangely tan) whiteness: “Larry Correia’s macho focused urban fantasy with a liberal dose of gun porn is message fic”

That sound you heard was the point whooshing obliviously past some minor blogger’s head, because I said in the article that she Skimmed Until Offended that we all can put message in, but we can only usually pull it off when we do story and entertainment first. Duh.

I do think she meant that as an insult. Personally, I think it would make a good cover quote. That’s sort of like that one reviewer who tried to insult me by saying that I was a “modern day Robert E. Howard.” Sweet. But that tells you something about someone when they consider comparing you to the guy who invented Conan and Solomon Kane an insult.

Now here’s a fun one for you. Let me give you a small look behind the curtain into the exciting world of self righteous nobodies throwing their weight around.

Mike posted this little tidbit where a “micro publisher” condemned all the super famous authors who signed that petition mentioned above.

[Image]Steven Saus saysFebruary 10, 2014 at 12:15 pmThis is really easy for me: As I posted on Twitter, all parties who have signed that petition can go ahead and recuse themselves from any projects (including paying ones) that I control. If they haven’t yet violated my respect policy as a publisher, they will soon enough.They’ve just put themselves on the list of “people whose opinions I can safely ignore”.

Okay… I read that, and thought bullshit. That’s like the commissioner of Bulgarian Arena Football telling a bunch of NFL hall of famers that they are hereby banned from playing in his league. But that name sounded familiar. So I searched my email. Yes. I have met this guy, or at least did a project for him.

You guys remember the Crimson Pact anthologies? I wrote several Son of Fire, Son of Thunder stories with Steve Diamond (and they are actually really good btw). The only reason I agreed to write anything in those anthologies was because they were being edited by my friend Paul Genesse, and I wanted to support a good guy and good editor. (wait, I just identified him as a male editor, is that sexist? I’m so confused now) Later on Paul had a falling out with Saus but I have no idea why. That’s the last I’ve had to do with Saus other than to collect my royalties (more on that later).

But here’s the interesting thing, a year or two ago I found out what their total copies sold was. I checked that number against the Amazon Affiliates link on my blog… At the time something like 80% of their sales had come through my fans, on this webpage.

Why yes, I’m sure Robert Silverburg and Misty Lackey are feeling the heat of Saus’ stark condemnation and wondering how ever their careers will survive. To demonstrate just how much this is going to harm their bottom lines, let me show all those grandmasters what they are missing out on! My royalties last quarter were $6.52. The quarter before? $16.70 (I mentioned it on my blog). Before that? $4.47.

In other words, at that rate it will take approximately 500 YEARS for me to make as much profit from those short stories as I made in my challenge coin Kickstarter. (on that note, Jack is almost done shipping them! Yay!)

Yes… Harlan Ellison, sure you are still collecting hundreds of dollars in royalties every quarter for stories you wrote decades before this micropublisher was born, but you have violated his RESPECT POLICY!

Don’t worry everybody. I’m sure there will be some exciting new controversy for them to get all butt hurt over next week!

I am back from LTUE and I had a great time.  It is one of my favorite annual events and I think this was the 5th year in a row I’ve been a guest. I was on a bunch of panels about a bunch of different topics and had fun on all of them.

My panels were all pretty full. I like to imagine that is because I’ve got a rep as being a nuts and bolts, non-artsy, practical business advice kind of guy. In actuality I think it is because people know that I am silly and entertaining. 🙂

I was on a panel about writing monsters. Rob Wells was sitting next to me and his panic attack issues started acting up because it was standing room only and a bunch of people were standing in front of the exit. Rob asked them to move, and they politely did so, but NOT FAST ENOUGH. So I took the mike and asked if anybody had seen the Bodyguard? Because don’t make me go all Kevin Costner, pick Rob up in my arms, run down the aisle,and kick the door open. Rob said that would be nice. I said I’d only do it if he sang the song. 😀

Yes. This is the kind of hard hitting literature advice you get at LTUE!

The Writing Action panel (i.e. The Larry Show) is just me talking about how to write better action scenes. I had a packed room and when I got the Time’s Up signal at the end, there were still a bunch of people with hands up to ask questions, and it turned out that there was nobody in that room after me for the next hour. So I said I’d stick around. Most of the audience stayed, so I ended up answering questions for an additional 45 minutes until they kicked us all out.

My good deed of the day was on a panel about… Heck… I can’t remember. I was sitting next to Daniel Coleman who is another local writer. (and on that note, it has been awesome over the last 5 years watching several people I’ve met go from brand new aspiring writer to published professionals). Dan’s daughter was selling those charity candy bars for her school and was asking her dad for help before the panel started. I figured we had a few minutes and a hundred people already captive, so being a devout capitalist I decided to help.

So I asked (using my normal, bellowing, former firearm’s instructor voice) the audience for their attention. Then I explained that this adorable child was on a mission of importance (she tried to escape, but I told her to stay in front, because cuteness is a weapon!) then I said that she was selling delicious chocolate (I’m guessing) for a super important cause (then I whispered to her what the cause was) LIBRARY COMPUTERS! So raise those hands and this adorable little capitalist will bring you chocolate! Boom. Done. Sold the box in one minute. If this writing thing doesn’t work out, I am super good at selling candy bars.

The best part of LTUE for me is hanging out with other authors. The Utah writing community is a solid bunch, with some really good folks in it, and LTUE is one of the few times I actually get to see some of these people. So for three days I get to talk with my peers and see people that I don’t get to see very often.

You guys remember this? http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2013/08/21/publisher-cancels-book-contract-because-the-writer-is-gay/ where a publisher cancelled a book contract because they learned one of the authors was gay? (and despite the Social Justice Warriors of SFWA warning you of my cismale hatemongery, I tried to help them out). I bumped into David at LTUE and I was happy to hear that much like I predicted, not only did they get a new, better contract, they got picked up by one of the big dogs, Scholastic, and they are getting a big marketing push. Good for them.

Being a gamer nerd, I got to playtest a new RPG that is coming out called Gallant. Stay tuned, I will plug it when it launches because it was really fun.

So LTUE was great.

In other news I turned in Monster Hunter Nemesis to my editors and Reader Force Alpha. This allowed me to play the SONG OF TRIUMPH. This is the song I play whenever I wrap up a project. Allow me to play you the song of my people! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iijKLHCQw5o

Yes. Because nothing says I’m making a living as a professional author like heavy metal bag pipes.

While I wait for my editor’s feedback on MHN I’m going to work on a couple of smaller projects. I’m doing a Grimnoir short for Tracy Hickman’s Soujorner’s Tales, and this will also be an audiobook on Audible.com.

Then there are soooooo many novels to write. I’ve got like 15 books under contract right now, so that is a good problem to have! The 3rd and final D6 novel is looming, and I need to get with Mike to talk about that. He’s currently deployed again, but it is headquarter’s duty so he’s actually got time to write. He’s sold a space opera to Baen, but last I heard he’s ahead of schedule and doing awesome on that one.

EDIT: forgot to add, of the audibooks that dropped recently I’ve listened to bits of each, and am only now getting a chance to listen to the whole things. Going in random order, I picked Into the Storm first, and finished it last night.

HOLY CRAP. Get it. Listen to it. It was fantastic. I know I’m biased, but I may have shed a single manly tear at the end. It was that good. Ray Porter knocked it out of the park.