To some extent, women's fiction still comes with automatic disrespect.

Right, but my point is that it's just accepted. No one bothers to protest the fact that her chick lit novel isn't up for the Pulitzer, you know? Fiction like Giffin writes is not romance, but it's not Maeve Binchy-esque either, it exists in its own little pink ghetto, and no one expects different.

Yeah, I don't mean to say she should be *surprised*

And what I was trying to say, badly, was that a lot of genres come with that immediate disrespect, not just women's fiction. Sci fi isn't considered worthy in most lit circles, and neither are mysteries.

The book world is just like high school. Which is ... just like the rest of the world, really.

::flomp:: so.tired. Chicon seems to have gone really well. My panels were pretty good, everyone else's were amazing. The writers workshop I helped run, in conjunction with a more experienced writer (Jack McDevitt) went really well. I didn't pass out or drool during my reading and people came to it. I got to pitch my first agent and picked up six new interviews for cooking the books. Yeah, totally happy. And exhausted.

Oh that's fabulous, Sox. Good for you!

Congratulations, Sox! I didn't even know Nature published short stories. How cool! It's evocative, although I can't quite figure it out.

I didn't know they did stories either. That's a wonderful story, very bare, just like the planet.

Thanks you guys!

Sox, that's a brilliant little story. You do a lot with very little there, embedding the world-building in the interpersonal drama. So well done...