Well fancy that.

[ricardienne]

It looks like Tamora Pierce has a dreamwidth journal now. The announcement on her tumblr promises, "There is also a forum for Tammy’s fans to discuss topics outside of those covered in Tammy’s posts, though membership is not yet open. We’ll let everyone know when it is!" So... a new Sheroes? It's true that the dominant membership of 'Roes these days is mostly former rather than current fans, but it still feels a little like she's trying to replace us oldsters. (Hrmph.)

I don't actually spend my time internet-stalking favorite authors from my teenage years that I love to hate (actually I do), but for some reason I had the urge to reread Shatterglass this morning. I don't think I had read it since it came out 2003 -- long before I became a Classics major -- and I can now say that a knowledge of Greek and a vague understanding of Indo-European linguistics gives you access to zero linguistic or historico-cultural "easter eggs" in all the tedious "as you know, the ancient history of the city stretches back 1000 years"  or "she said, using the Tharian word that meant "mage"" exposition. Tris, angsty glassmaker-dude, and amiable doofus policeman were actually less annoying than I remembered, but wow are TP's attempts to convey the mentalities of a foreign culture heavy-handed! On the other hand, Tris' "ugh this icky non-Western culture is gross and stupid and superstitious and I can't wait to go home" attitude was somewhat worse than I remembered. (And in a universe where all the characters constantly go on about magic and its connection to the living world and the human life force, why shouldn't death *actually cause* pollution with *actually dangerous* effects? Why does Tamora Pierce keep making up fantasy settings based on real-world historical cultures where religious and social and courtly rituals have a large role and then always make up characters to inhabit those settings who act like Richard Dawkins?)

Comments

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

As a former Sheroes modmin I can say, unless there has been some drastic and unprecedented change over the five years since I've left, Tammy has had no ability to do anything with Sheroes in a leadership capacity for ages, and it would take monumental change for her to be able to propose anything new with it, even so small as a software upgrade or a graphic design change. So I can see how she'd want a fresh slate. Especially one more, um, congenial to her actual target demographic.

[camlina.livejournal.com]

No, she hasn't had even a passing membership role in Sheroes for years and years. And it's true that Sheroes these days is not geared towards her fans in really any way.

Of course she can create any internet platform that she wants. And there are plenty of good personal and professional reasons for her to want a platform of her own.

OTOH, I vividly remember that when she dropped Sheroes like a hot potato her excuses were that it was too much of a liability, and too expensive to maintain. Her finances may well be more sound now, but I can't imagine the liability risk has changed substantially.

Mostly, though, there is way too much bad history between her and me, on a personal level, for me to view this with much objectivity, and my gut reaction is still very much "oh hell no she didn't".

[mhuzzell.livejournal.com]

Oh god, there is so much more sheroes gossip under that mod surface than I ever realised!

[camlina.livejournal.com]

My current stint as a mod is basically a stint in herding cats. It's going about as well as you'd expect.

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

No, it completely makes sense that if she wants to revive a forum for fans it would have to be a new one. I was never personally (or even peripherally) touched by the Tammy-related drama on Sheroes, but it always seemed like she was in an awkward place there; as an an author, she couldn't really engage in the fannish banter, speculation, and discussion about her books that often swerved into speculation or fandom, but she wanted to engage with her fans as a kind of on-line mentor. But her books were the area where she had authority (to a point), whereas, especially as the Sheroes demographic got older, her identity as The Tamora Piere, Author of the Tortall Books, was less and less relevant for that more general discussion.

Basically, I think it's really hard to make an author-organized fan forum work, and, also, Tamora Pierce is not as influential and significant a figure for her readership as she perhaps imagines she is.