Now we are six
|February 13, 2011|
I’m not a big one for anniversaries and birthdays (sorry, kids) but it occurred to me this morning that I started this blog in February, and indeed, when I went looking, I found that last Thursday, Mutterings turned six. Interestingly, my first post (here) was about the lack of women in book awards (based on an Edgars committee I had chaired, that came up with male nominees. Sigh.) By coincidence, I posted this past Friday on Facebook about a Sisters in Crime study concerning, yes, the lack of women in book awards, and reviews.
Sigh. Will I be writing the same post when the blog turns ten?
At least women can publish under their own names — those poor Bronte girls had to hide behind men’s names remember. And then we had the poor dears who had no first name — Miss Read, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Mrs. Gaskell.
I’m just glad to hear that someone else isn’t big on birthdays and anniversaries (I come by it honestly because my mother wasn’t either!!). Tell your kids to contact mine in case they want to have company at their pity party. I don’t bother to keep regular birthday cards … I just keep a stash of belated birthday cards. And thank heavens we had the sense to marry in a year ending in zero — makes the math easier on both of us.
It hardly seems like six years, Laurie! where does the time go? May you blog for many years in good health.
Too bad we have short-sighted nominating committees. It’s my opinion that among our better writers women are doing a better job than men in character development and in including in their novels a variety of human issues, both personal and political in the broad sense of the word. It also seems to me that some men who are perennial nominees are writing the same book over and over. These books provide readers a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure, and it may be that even more women writers engage in similar repetition; however, are these the books–by either gender–that merit nomination?
My husband and I have missed/not celebrated our anniversary countless times over the last 38 years. Who knows why more men are nominated…more Counting the days until the next Mary Russell 🙂
Well for pity sakes, whatever are we to do besides console ourselves with; ‘it ain’t so bad or was worse’. Piffle! I say. Laurie busts buns putting out this amazing web page, her books, her self over and over and yet, how little difference it appears to make. Of course we will soldier on and not stop and write and write and write, and that does make a difference published or not, acknowledged or not…so girls word warriors everyone, carry on,YES! I mean if the Egyptian folk can take back their country can we not write ours?
M. Diane
I have always heard that girls will read books about boys OR girls but that boys will only read stories about boys. Maybe this goes for adults, also. And for adults buying books.
Laurie,
I have greatly enjoyed your books, partly because you are one intelligent woman, and as a woman clergy have been interested to see how your knowledge of Hebrew scripture has found its way into the Holmes books. But your reflections on women writers parallel other discussions on the paucity of pulpits for women, the seeming preference for men in pulpits and church leadership even in denominations who aren’t making a theological case for the superiority of men–and the inequities of pay for women clergy. So I don’t know if it helps at all, but we have not yet arrived at gender equity anywhere!
Blessings–and keep up the blog and the books.
Your books have been a lot of fun to read, and they sell, not bad for these days, BTW, remember when the NY Times created a separate children’s best seller list so J. K. Rowling wouldn’t displace about a half dozen men?
At least things are changing, albeit slowly. I see similar things in the art world. Male artists tend to be more readily accepted in galleries, while women’s art, no matter how fine, is viewed as a hobby. One gallery owner even admitted to me he chose a male artist over a female, and paid him a higher percentage because “he had a family to support.” In the workshops I teach, most of the students are women, who have finally gotten to turn to their passion for art after raising a family (and often helping support it). The men usually went to art school early on, married a woman who’d support the family, and thus established careers earlier. THEN they got recognition and acceptance because they were “serious artists.” Sorry, it makes me a little crazy.