I don’t live in Nashville but I’m close by and familiar with the city. This area is a really weird decision. Suicide by cop, maybe?

Awards =/= likelihood of publication. That’s a different thing entirely.

I clarified this for another poster. I meant, but did not clearly communicate, that the industry classifies those genres as sub-par. Anything that is within those categories that is seen as worth while is always lauded as “transcending its genre”. I did not mean that there isn’t anything literary in YA or women’s fic.

No worries, I wasn’t very clear to begin with.

But that’s my point. Your books are not published as women’s fiction because the genre is classified as sub-par. Same with YA, if it appeals to a traditionally Lit Fic or upmarket audience it is considered “surpassing its genre”. Once a book is moved out of those categories, you lose any advantage that being a female…

In general I just don’t like YA. I wish I did because I’d love to read more by female authors but I just can’t force myself to care about teenagers and their teeny struggles.

True. I didn’t think of that.

It is good if they encourage YA novels with diverse characters where their “otherness” wasn’t the entire point. That’s the “pandering” part.

I’m currently querying a novel and this doesn’t surprise me at all. Lots of agents give lipservice to “diversity” but none of them actually want anything from women but pandering YA crap about struggling LGBT teens. They definitely don’t want women who write books for adults.

Exactly. I make an EPIC mac and cheese but, some days, all I want is some orange nostalgia.

Glad to be of service ;)

I love real cheese as well and I agree that there’s something about Kraft cheese food that warms the heart on ocassion. When I eat Kraft, I don’t want cheese, I want orange goo that melts like a weird, non-food substance. It’s a comfort food thing. Gross on every day but the day you want it.

Roll for bluff!

Lol, yeah...

It’s Miss Congeniality! It’s not actually that great of a movie but I liked it a lot when I was young. Pretty funny in some parts.

Like all young girls in the nineties, Sandra Bullock taught me to SING.

Maybe I’ll try one day. It would be good to have something I enjoy that would force me to work out as well.

I know, it was a joke :)

I’ve been looking for a boxing class. It looks like something I’d like. I don’t know why.

Hm.