Well, one of the tricks to being a full-time freelancer is having multiple sources of income. I write fiction, I write nonfiction (the stuff I do for Tor.com), I edit projects, and I also teach karate (though that has been severely curtailed by the apocalypse). Plus I have a Patreon (which pays, like, one bill a month or so, but it's better than nothing).
Likewise, I write fiction, I'm a consulting editor for Tor Books, I write lots of cover copy for other people's books, etc.
And I write, edit, and teach historical fencing. Well, until the beginning of March on that third one, at least.
Poem, The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered: https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poe...he kind of bookshop where remaindering occurs.
The Writer's Almanac is back. Keillor relaunched it as a podcast a few months after PRI cut ties, and it's now being syndicated to public radio stations through PRX instead of PRI. I've been listening to it pretty much every day since the podcast return.
I guess he's not evil and can be spoken of again. ? Life is weird. Cosby Show and MJ never got cancelled (Cosby reruns continued) and they were quanta leaps, horrifically worse than GK.
Uh, what's an "MJ"? On another note, this thread seemed a good place for yet another digression (what's one more in a thread that's already hip deep in them): the subject of Baum's Oz books came up on another board, and this morning, a couple of things occurred to me about Baum: 1. He responded to (and incorporated) reader suggestions on a level that would never fly in today's excessively litigious, IP-rights-obsessed environment, and 2. Partly as a result of that, he was perpetually retconning himself like crazy.
Oh, yes. Michael Jackson. Back when his solo career was on its way up, and everybody was saying "Michael Jackson this" and "Michael Jackson that," before the weirdness started, with God as my witness, I initially thought they were talking about this Michael Jackson, and couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. (Speaking of which, my understanding is that when the singer died, his Hollywood Walk of Fame star was out for repairs, and the radio host was flattered to find that his star was serving as a temporary stand-in for it, attracting various memorials.)
Is that true? I used to read the (shudder) Xanth novels, and Piers Anthony would have extensive acknowledgement sections full of puns readers had sent it that he'd used in the books.
I think Keillor seemed to be hit harder than he was because of a confluence of events. He'd apparently made some sort of sweetheart deal with MPR when he revived A Prairie Home Companion that gave him broader ownership rights, so when they cut ties with him (for what I am loathe to describe as old-fashioned, blunderingly self-involved, mid-century New Yorker-style my-boner-is-of-intense-literary-value sexual harassment), they lost the rights to the name of the show and the back catalogue in a way that made it seem more like he was being unpersonned than if they'd had a choice in the matter, plus the fact that it was announced in vague terms before the details came out about his pattern of behavior, and it was coincident with the reckonings over men like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey so it'd be reasonable to assume it was on that scale (which is not to say I think he shouldn't have been kicked to the curb for treating his workplace like a dating service when he was signing the paychecks, but, well, I still watch Star Trek, and Gene Roddenberry did all that and more). It shouldn't have been acceptable then, and it's not acceptable now, and I'll probably reevaluate how forgiving I am if a story comes out that after all that that he's still telling dirty jokes and coming on to employees (ew) less than a third of his age (ew!). Also, it was a station-by-station thing, but reruns of the Cosby Show were discontinued are are only on one station now in the US, and the Michael Jackson episode of "The Simpsons" has been removed from streaming services.
And of course, it all boils down to the individuals involved. Particularly where only off-color humor is involved, given that some (regardless of gender) might take offense at off-color humor itself, while others might take offense at being specifically excluded from off-color humor.
The only people who would take offense at being excluded from off-colour humour are those people privileged enough not to deal with it very often, i.e. it's a non-issue. and on that note, back to Trek please
Not at all. Consider an analogous situation: While it's not as common today as it was, say, 20-40 years ago, there are women who take great offense if a man opens, or even holds, a door for them, reading into it an implied sexist slight, and responding (either vocally or with body language) in the vein of "I'm not helpless; I can open my own damn door." I open or hold doors for anybody, if it's convenient to do so, and appreciate it when others do the same for me. Or a bit closer to home: when I expressed surprise at Kirsten Beyer's rather salty nickname, and shock that it was evidently self-chosen, she took great offense at my shock, apparently thinking that I was shocked that a woman would embrace an "anatomically unlikely" nickname. I was in fact shocked that a writer, by definition a highly literate person, (other than, say, Norman Mailer, or some individual whose name escapes me, whom David Gerrold once described as having "taught Norman Mailer how to cuss"), would embrace such a nickname. And then, of course, there are ST sentient cultures who find common courtesy to be deeply offensive. The point is, I have met people, of both genders, who consider off-color jokes deeply offensive, others (again of both genders) who enjoy off-color humor, and still others who take offense at the notion that they would need to be "protected" from off-color humor. And of course, the key word is humor. If there's no actual humor involved, just profanity for the sake of profanity, that's an entirely different matter. Off-color humor without the humor is simply off-color. And please don't be sorry for mentioning Keillor. That was actually the first I'd heard of his situation, since about the only nationally-distrbuted programs KUSC still buys is From The Top.
Only one more time, then I'm issuing infractions: back to Trek please If you do want to debate this further feel free to open up a thread in one of the BBS's many forums available for general discussion.
So . . . Richard Arnold . . . yeah I'm kinda tapped out, but I enjoyed hearing from all the authors. Best wishes on all your endeavors.