Ripped off Neil Gaiman this time...
Jun. 6th, 2004 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingTHREE WEEKS WITH THE UNDEAD By Stephen Jones
A recounting of the tour supporting a book of short stories about vampires...
"There then followed the question and answer session, this time moderated by Julia. It began fine. Then some guy in the audience asked me that hoary old question about why I don’t use more women writers in my anthologies. I am so sick of hearing that. I tried to point out that the book included seven stories by women, which wasn’t a bad percentage for a horror anthology, and that I had also edited another book which he might have heard of, The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women. He continued to argue. I went on to explain that I don’t choose stories based on the race, creed or sexuality of the author but on what I perceive to be the quality of the fiction. He wasn’t having any of that either. We argued some more. I lost my temper. Voices were raised.
At which point, a woman from the back of the room marched towards the panel, exclaiming in a loud voice that I was a disgrace, that she had never heard such language (I don’t think I was swearing, at least not that much), and that she was leaving! Which she promptly did.
I was momentarily stunned. Something like that had never happened to me before. I made a throwaway comment about the woman’s behaviour, and another guy in the audience leapt to his feet and said that I had treated that woman badly and that she was entitled to her opinion. I flippantly replied that I thought we were there to listen to the opinions of the people on the panel. He disagreed. Attempting to get the talk back on track, I called him an “idiot” and told him to sit down!
That’s when I realised I had lost our audience. If they had had weapons, I’m certain they would have rushed us at that point."
A recounting of the tour supporting a book of short stories about vampires...
"There then followed the question and answer session, this time moderated by Julia. It began fine. Then some guy in the audience asked me that hoary old question about why I don’t use more women writers in my anthologies. I am so sick of hearing that. I tried to point out that the book included seven stories by women, which wasn’t a bad percentage for a horror anthology, and that I had also edited another book which he might have heard of, The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women. He continued to argue. I went on to explain that I don’t choose stories based on the race, creed or sexuality of the author but on what I perceive to be the quality of the fiction. He wasn’t having any of that either. We argued some more. I lost my temper. Voices were raised.
At which point, a woman from the back of the room marched towards the panel, exclaiming in a loud voice that I was a disgrace, that she had never heard such language (I don’t think I was swearing, at least not that much), and that she was leaving! Which she promptly did.
I was momentarily stunned. Something like that had never happened to me before. I made a throwaway comment about the woman’s behaviour, and another guy in the audience leapt to his feet and said that I had treated that woman badly and that she was entitled to her opinion. I flippantly replied that I thought we were there to listen to the opinions of the people on the panel. He disagreed. Attempting to get the talk back on track, I called him an “idiot” and told him to sit down!
That’s when I realised I had lost our audience. If they had had weapons, I’m certain they would have rushed us at that point."