The AWFLs Have Killed Publishing

That is Affluent White Female Liberals, in case you're confused. From Echo Chamberlain: Progressive White Women Have Killed Literary Zeitgeist

Progressive white women now dominate publishing at every level, from agents to publishers to marketing to readers. We live in a timeline of Booktok, romantasy and cliterature. You have to go into bookstores wearing those heavy goggles they put on during the atom bomb test in Oppenheimer, otherwise your retinas will be burnt out by harshly colourful book covers.

Here is a bit, referencing one of the current crop of insane offerings.

It’s doubtful that a male protagonist describing morally empty promiscuity as intuitive and healthy would get past the desks of literary agents who are urban progressive white women in their twenties to forties. Broader US publishing, reviewing, and agency staff were reported as 72.5% female and white. And to be clear, the novel All Fours isn’t put across as ironic or meta, this is the broad sentiment of the book. The narrator is very careful to not commit microaggressions against black people or other minorities, but when it comes to fidelity or empathy for her lacklustre husband – well, whatever.

I miss civilization.

If you prefer video, this is the Echo Chamberlain video on the same subject. Progressive White Women Have Ruined Fiction

A Publisher Not Part of the Manhattan Insanity

Something that is needed. Publisher Stuff - by Ian - The Bugscuffle Gazette

Given the current state of arts in America, we need all of the alternatives we can get. Will everything be great? Of course not. But what was the last great book you read, and when was it first written and published?

We’ve been talking with an author who’s been burned — a lot — by publishers in the past; and is — quite understandably — a tiny bit skittish, so we thought we’d do a quick post for those authors who suddenly seem to be finding us.

Hello! This is Raconteur Press, and Ian and Rita are the co-CEOs.

Before we go any further, this is the important part: Ian and Rita don’t have a clue how to be publishers. Ian did some Army time, and retired from law enforcement after 26 years; and Rita taught English at a liberal arts college for a brief while before realizing it was less stressful to counsel pilots.

The current breed of Woke that has an iron grip on publishing in Manhattan has decided that they will simply not publish anything by straight white men. (Racist? Yes, but they can't see that.) I don't know if they have expanded that ban to straight white women, or straight men in general, but I would not be surprised.

We are a small press, and we don’t have a lot of reach — yet.

We believe in treating our authors fairly, with open books and transparent accounting.

Our guiding light is: “It Must Be Entertaining, All Else Is Negotiable”, and we stick by that. We publish rollicking, entertaining stories in the vein of the old pulps; and just about the only thing we don’t want is erotica, romance, grimdark, or anything where the good guys lose, and the world sucks.

This is what Raconteur Press has to say about themselves on their website.

"Have Fun, Get PAID!!" Raconteur Press is an independent publisher of SF/Fantasy Anthologies in the tradition of the great pulp magazines of the 1930s-50s.

RIP Scott Adams

Scott Adams: 8 June 1957 to 13 January 2026.

I loved his Dilbert cartoons, when I was working in the insanity that was (is?) info tech. He captured the insanity on most days, and was perfect in a couple of instances. I particularly liked this example from 1994.

I started by reasoning that anything I don't understand is easy to do.

(Page down for Scott Adams's final statement written on the first of January, and published after his death.)

A Final Message From Scott Adams pic.twitter.com/QKX6b0MFZA

— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) January 13, 2026

The Left Is Still Gunning for Tolkien

Tolkien is Bad. That is the stance of a university class, and if you don't fall in line, and believe exactly what you are told to believe, you will not pass the course.

You shall not pass.^‡

They won't be satisfied until all of Western Civilization is destroyed.

Gary "Nerdrotic" B. does a better job of explaining why this stance on Tolkien is crazy than I can manage.

This is Nerdrotic's video Why They Hate The Lord of the Rings - The Scouring of Tolkien. It is a 17 minute video, so plan accordingly.

‡ see the scene on the bridge of Moria, for the reference.

The Feast of Saint Crispin

The Battle of Agincourt - 25 October 1415. A decisive victory in the Hundred Years War. (Pronounced ˈædʒɪnkɔː(r) or "a-jinn-core")

The Hundred Years’ War was a discontinuous conflict between England and France that spanned two centuries. At issue was the question of the legitimate succession to the French crown as well as the ownership of several French territories.

A war that lasted that long is too complicated to explain in a blog post. (The link above is to Encyclopedia Britannica, does a fair job of summarizing.)

But people have believed it was worth remembering, including William Shakespeare.

610 years isn't exactly an auspicious anniversary, even if it ends in zero. But here we are.

By most contemporary accounts, the French army was also significantly larger than the English, though the exact degree of their numerical superiority is disputed. Common estimates place the English army at about 6,000, while the French army probably consisted of 20,000 to 30,000 men. This suggests that the French could have outnumbered the English 5 to 1. At least one scholar puts the French army at no more than 12,000, indicating that the English were out numbered 2 to 1. It seems clear, however, that the English were at a decided numerical disadvantage.

While my favorite version of the speech is from the 1994 Danny DeVito movie, Renaissance Man, the version embedded below is more complete.

This is the Band of Brothers Speech from Henry V as performed by Kenneth Branagh.

While it pains me to say so, this version by Kenneth Branagh from 1989 is one I actually like better than the 1944 version from Sir Laurence Olivier. I don't like the way plays were treated by the movie industry during the '40s, '50s or '60s. Everything had to be a spectacle.  The worst example being A Man For All Seasons. If you have a chance to see a stage production, it is a wonderful play. I despise the movie.

And in case anyone is interested in the brothers, St. Crispin and St. Crispinian, here's a link.