Monday News: RIP Cathie Linz, how to read books via Overdrive, a Romance fanzine, and in praise of strong female characters
Publishing Newsdigital books / fanzine / feminism / genre critique / International Women's Day / librarians / obituary / Overdrive / Romance / RWA9 Comments
RIP Cathie Linz – Cathie Linz, who was responsible for RWA Librarians’ Day and who advocated for Romance and librarians, in and outside of RWA, passed away yesterday from colon cancer. She wrote more than 50 Romance novels as Cathie Linz and Cat Devon, and she co-founded the Windy City RWA chapter. Super Librarian Wendy has a list of a number of Linz’s books featuring librarian heroines. Susan Elizabeth Phillips seems to have posted the first mention of her death, and if you search on Facebook you can find more author tributes to Linz. The following is from Christina Dodd:
Cathie Linz (Cat Devon) was a librarian, a writer, and one of those generous, soft-spoken, iron-willed women who GOT THINGS DONE. Those of us who are members of Romance Writers of America are grateful for her concept of Librarians’ Day and the organizational skills that brought it about. Godspeed, Cathie. –Facebook
How to Read Borrowed OverDrive Library eBooks on Your Kindle, Android, iDevice or Windows Phone – In recognition of libraries and Romance, here’s a post from Nate Hoffelder on how to check out digital books from public libraries via Overdrive. He covers different e-reading devices and different Overdrive Apps, for virtually every hardware platform.
Many public libraries on the US and around the world lend ebooks through OverDrive, 3M Cloud Library, and other services.
When it comes to fiction, OverDrive is the most used platform. OD offers apps for Android, Windows Phone, and iOS. It also lets you read in your web browser and works with most ereaders, including the Kindle (but only in the US). –Ink, Bits & Pixels (aka The Digital Reader)
Trousseau – A zine for lovers of romance fiction – Kat and Jen of Australia’s Book Thingo have created a fanzine for Romance, and they delivered a sneak peek of their first edition just in time for the Australian Romance Readers Convention (ARRC) 2015. The cost for the first issue is $10, plus shipping, which will vary depending on your location. Check out the contents at the zine’s Tumblr site, and a list of contributors is as follows:
A huge THANK YOU to the terrific Laurie Ormond, who did the bulk of the proofreading — any remaining typos are all my fault! — and to our wonderful contributors, whose creativity is showcased in our inaugural issue: Ainslie Paton, Andrew Li, Clarisse Djaja, Decadence, Ian McLean, Jodi McAlister, Kate Cuthbert, M. L. Cuthbert, Rhyll Biest, Sam Joice, Sandra Antonelli, Shannon Curtis, Shiloh Walker, and Shona Husk. –Book Thingo
We’ve Forgotten the Strong Female Character – Although this post is from January, I saw someone RT it on Twitter, and it seems very appropriate for International Women’s Day, which was yesterday. Tricia Ennis defends not only the concept of the strong female character, but the phrasing of “strong,” which Alyssa Rosenberg argued in The Washington Post was a dead word (to be replaced by “complicated”). Much like “feminism,” Ennis argues that strong is an essential word, and that instead of ceding our investment in words that matter to women, we need to reclaim them and embrace their importance.
But here’s the thing: complicated women are exactly what is meant by the phrase “strong female character.” The “strength” implied by the term is in her complexity, her relatability, her compassion, her perseverance, her faults, her struggles, her triumphs, and her failures. It’s those moments in a character where they show you your best self, and your worst, and it’s any time you argued with your friends over which character from your favorite TV show you were, or said to yourself “I wish this person was my best friend.”
Women are no strangers to misrepresented phrasing. We’ve spent the better part of the last few years arguing against finding a new word for “feminist” because, to us, it is not the word that is the problem. The problem, as we see it, is in the misinterpretations of the few, that can hurt the cause of the many. But we don’t back down. We call ourselves feminists because that is what we are. We aren’t “equalists” or whatever other “feminist alternative” is in these days. We can’t abandon the word just because we, as Abigail Rine put it, “have a brand problem.” –Tricia Ennis
Something about “complicated” left a bad taste in my mouth as I was reading the last article. Then it hit me, “complicated” is a word that seems to get attached to the word “problem” a lot.
@Lostshadows:
I agree, complex has a better sound than complicated to me.
“A woman with depth.”
But I like “strong woman” too. I don’t see why anyone would think there was a problem with calling a character a strong woman? Is that because they read lit fic set in circuses instead of genre fiction?
Aren’t more women than men getting college degrees, aren’t more women than men seen as responsible in society? Twenty years from now and it’ll be men writing these ‘feminist’ tracts. Men are going right down the drain in this country.
I missed that WaPo article and am glad I did. I have no problem with (and actually seek out) strong females in all of my entertainment choices. Conflating the word “strong” with “complicated” doesn’t work for me in any way, likely because as @Lostshadows points out, “complicated” generally draws focus to problems. I doubt anyone checking the “it’s complicated” box on fb is doing it to indicate they’re in a “strong” relationship.
This constant policing of word usage is starting to make me cranky. I know it’s not new but I certainly feel like I’m running into it more.
If this quote has been offered here before, I apologize. Though I know nothing about the author, his words seem fitting for the discussion of what we call ourselves.
“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.”
Philip K. Dick
@Anna Richland: For me, ‘strong character’ means a fully created character. Too often women are two dimensional, there as sidekicks, decoration, reward/motivation, or all three, for the hero of the story.
Therefore, when I think of “strong female/women character” I don’t necessarily think of Eve Dallas or Zoe from Firefly. As far as I’m concerned, Ellie Dinsmore from LaVyrle Spencer’s Morning Glory and Roz from Nora Robert’s Black Rose are strong female characters in the same way, i.e., fully realized instead of flat.
@Greg Stranberg: (I’m not sure whether I’m feeding a troll, so please feel free to delete if that’s the case)
Women are, still, paid less than men for the same work, so do forgive me if I’m not particularly moved by the plight of whichever men your comment refers to.
Just FYI, if you’re having trouble downloading Overdrive books from your library, don’t hesitate to ask your librarians for help! While unfortunately it’s not universally true that all librarians are adept with the system, tons of libraries (maybe even most?) do have at least a couple people who are the resident “experts” and can walk you through the process. So if the text directions aren’t doing if for ya, get some live help. :)