Another Scheherazade Update

Well, I'd hoped to have a World Fantasy Con writeup, but that's still in the works. Instead, I have an update on Scheherazade's Facade, which was originally scheduled to come out last month. First, as you might recall, it was pushed back to October 2011, because the publisher was dealing with a personal crisis.

Now, I've heard that it's being pushed back to October 2012, a full two years from now, again due to publisher reasons. Several other projects from Norilana books have been affected, as far as I know, and the relevant people were notified at the same time I was. (I'm not sure how much to say publicly at the moment, so we'll keep it at that.)

I've contacted those authors slated for inclusion in Scheherazade so they should be aware of what's going on. In the meantime, of course, I'm still shopping for another publisher willing to take on this project. And that's all I have at the moment.

Moments That Make You Go ...

This is another Scheherazade's Facade related post. For that, I'm sorry. It's just that the durned project is once again at the front of my mind and taking up a fair amount of attention.

I heard back from another of the various publishers I've pitched, and to no one's surprise, they turned me down. In this case, they cited the fact that they already had enough anthologies lined up, and couldn't take on another. Fine, acceptable, everyone has their own projects to worry about. The next sentence, however, floored me and made me stop and blink.

"Although it pains me to say so, I think you'll do better with this one with an lgbt audience than an sf one."

I'm not going to tell you guys what I read from that statement. Let's just say my eyebrow hit the roof, and that I sincerely disagree. My belief is that an anthology of fantasy stories featuring themes of gender, sexuality, transformation, self-discovery, acceptance and exploration is still fantasy.

Thoughts?