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I’ve heard agents can be incredibly rude unless you’re a “name.” I’ve also heard that increasingly, authors are managing to get published without an agent, and can also publicize their books, and go on blog tours, and reach out to readers all without that pesky agent, and the hand in the pocket. Just sayin’…

Great story! (But a billion $$$ for five women – a tad pricey!) With that much money it would be safer to clone your harem (no one (or very few) would know – as opposed to an abduction) the research to achieve that could yield profitable advances in medical care/science thereby hiding the intent of said research. (And I believe it’s naive to think it hasn’t already been tried or accomplished.

Ahem. *Gets on soap box* What the fuck? I mean seriously what the fuck? How the shit can an agent reject a query letter with material within three hours of receiving it and then have the audacity to say “I’d give you feed back but it’d be overwhelming” in your form letter with links that have nothing at all to do with the material sent. The shit? Seriously? Are you fucking kidding me? As someone who is college educated you can’t analyze dick in three hours to come up with “overwhelming” anything—assuming you read it the instant I sent the fucking thing. Why don’t they just say the truth, “I glanced at it and don’t feel like reading it sorry.” I’d rather have that than some flat out blatant impossible lie. I’m fine with the rejection, I’m not fine with the glaringly obvious bullshit response. That is all. *Huffs and climbs off soap box* TL:DR What the fuck form letters.

Cultural Appropriation is utter fascist bullshit. The idea behind is that it is “racist” to enjoy anything that isn’t of “your culture”. In other words, by this SJW logic, we’re all racists for enjoying Studio Ghibli movies, or for eating Chinese Food. DAFAQ? It doesn’t make any sense. SJWs made this term up so they can bully artists and writers, to control what can and cannot be expressed. That is it. I will say this, if you’re going to write about a culture outside your own, take time to research about a culture if you’re gonna write about it. For example, compare Disney’s Peter Pan’s portrayal of Native Americans, vs say Pocahontas. One was goofy made up shit, one actually did some research. Also, concerning race relations, write your characters, all the characters as people first. Think of race/culture in terms of something like sports teams and or heck fandoms. At the core of everything we’re all just people. How we look, dress, talk like, believe, etc. that’s all external trappings. Nothing is sacred. Don’t worry about it.

Ha thank you for addressing my OP. I really didn't intend for a debate to break out when I started this, but debates are healthy and often fascinating as long as people don't get too pissed off. This one remained civil I think, though. (Very much so compared to the one on facebook...) I know other writers with very diverse representations of cultures in their stories who worry about this sort of thing as well. I thought it might be useful for people like us to get some perspective on the subject. I'm never going to stop worrying about other people's feelings. It's my nature, and as frustrating as it can be, I like that part of me. So I'd still like to hear how you guys figure out the best way to be respectful in your own stories. I think Chrissy gave a good example in her first post about the dude sitting on the porch.