Not Wanting To Have Kids Is Normal

Every so often someone has to again point out the obvious: Not every human being is cut out to be a parent. Jessica Valenti argues, at the Atlantic site, that it would be a lot better for both parents and children if our society acknowledged this truth.

A Real Bargain

My 1994 story "All Rights," a tale of midlist writers, agents, and alternative realities, is now available for Kindles and other e-readers as part of Wildside Press's Fifth Science Fiction Megapack--twenty-five stories by such masters as Allen Steele, Jay Lake, Carol Emshwiller, Avram Davidson, Cory Doctorow, Frederik Pohl, George Zebrowski, and more at only 99 cents for the whole anthology. Such a deal!

Matters of Faith...and Disbelief

Mormon feminist Judy Dushku and atheist Susan Jacoby would seem to have little in common. But both women point out that in the ranks of both believers and skeptics, it's still men who speak for the group and largely control its discussion and practices. Joanna Brooks interviews Judy Dushku here, while Susan Jacoby writes about the underrepresentation of women among secularists here.

Two Upcoming Appearances

I will be at Albacon 2012 on October 18-21 in Albany, New York and at the YALSA Young Adult Literature Symposium on November 2-4 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Remembering Shulamith Firestone

Shulamith Firestone was ahead of her time in 1970, when she published The Dialectic of Sex, and as we're forced to fight political battles in the U.S. over issues that should have been settled long ago (I mean, contraception? Give me a break!), she seems even more revolutionary. The New York Times has an obituary of her here (marred as other Times obituaries are by the obit writer's apparent need to include a small swipe at the departed), and George Dvorsky discusses her influence on feminist sf at io9.com, while Julie Bindel's remembrance in the Guardian reminds us of both Firestone's radicalism and her increasing and ultimately tragic isolation.