Month: June 2012

I would like to like Moondragon better. However, if you look up the definition of entitled in the Marvel Universe, you will find Moondragon.

Moondragon is a human being who has achieved both physical and psychic perfection. You can do this too, if you train with outer space monks. Delusional, she believes she’s a god, and while she is influenced by the entity from which she takes her name, she’s a powerful metahuman with privilege issues.

As my friend Steve said, I talked about the Wasp’s costumes, but I didn’t object to Moondragon’s. Well, Steve, I do object to Moondragon’s 70’s costume. Like you said, this is very much accessory, and not costume.

Does this costume hearken back to a freer, more liberated time, or is Moondragon’s costume Marvel trying to equivocate that naked is cool? Well, all I gotta say is wherever you come down on opinions about the costume, I don’t think you can do much advanced martial arts in an outfit like this.

Fortunately, Moondragon’s outfits settle down a bit as she moves forward in time.

Moondragon dances on the edge of morality throughout her career at Marvel. Full of herself, she is a short-lived Avenger. She is often monitored by other heroes and heroines who don’t trust her, and they shouldn’t. Under the right circumstances, you could even see Moondragon as a villain rather than a hero. However the character is fully realized. She’s not a pleasant character, but she is a strong one. I’d rather not see Moondragon in a Marvel film.

As is evident from the title, this panel was about handling rejections.

Panelists: Cassie Alexander, S.N. Arly, Anne Leckie, Caroline Stevermer

The writers on the panel remind us that a rejection is not a condemnation of a work. For a story to be accepted, there are generally three factors:

The right editor at the right time looking at the right story.

The old chestnut of only worrying about what you could control, writing, and sending out the story, surfaced. Anne mentioned that she has a rule about not allowing a story to spend a night at her house.

Regardless of how prepared you are that rejection is part of the writing process, rejection by its very nature hurts. Many authors give up too soon. Don’t do that. An anecdote was related that one story had to go out 38 times before it hit the right editor at the right time.

In regard to longer manuscripts, it was suggested that yes came right away. If six months have passed in silent, it’s safe to assume no.

Harper “Fuckin” Lee got rejected all the time.

Cassie relates a rejection concerning her just published book. “Vampires are over.” Sometimes your moment of glory will come.

Sometimes you will be accepted at places where you have been previously rejected. Caroline relates that her agent rejected her ten years before she took her on.

One acceptance does not mean that the rejections will not continue.

Initially, writers can sometimes sell a story because they sound like someone else. However, they might have trouble selling in that same market because practice helps us individualize our styles, so you might have to try to sell somewhere else.

Continue reading “Wiscon Day 2: A Thousand Times No–Handling Rejections”

Here goes nothing.

Magneto married a woman named Magda, who, upon discovering he was the Mutant Master of Magnetism (TM), runs away from her husband into the mountains while she is pregnant with her two twins, a boy and a girl, and collapses in the mountains, conveniently on the door step of the High Evolutionary, who changes animals into bipedal human like beings as a hobby. Magda gives birth to Wanda and Pietro and dies. They are raised by their cow mama Bova, until it’s decided that Wungadore is no place for human children.

Wanda and Pietro go off to live the gypsy lifestyle. They demonstrate mutant powers, and are recruited ironically by their own father for the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Neither children nor father know of their relationships.

Magneto treats everyone in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants mean, thus giving credence to the word evil. Battles with the X-Men ensue, and neither twin feels good about being in a group that has evil in the title, but they stick anyway. But Magneto is kidnapped (along with the Toad) and Wanda and Pietro are suddenly free.

So, Wanda becomes Hawkeye’s friend, the Avengers are going through a rough patch, and Cap puts together a second generation of the Avengers team that’s sort of like an informal superhero probation squad. All of the ex-cons make good, saving the planet and stuff like that, and Wanda Maximoff becomes a super heroine.

With me so far?

Continue reading “Your Feminist Avengers Post 3: The Scarlet Witch”