Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) - Nerds protecting nonces

Have you guys heard of jack l chalker all this guys books are basically sissyifaction fantasies
I've read When the Changewinds Blow. I had to look it up to remember what it was about and as soon as I saw the main character's name all I could remember was there was some lesbian scene and her period became a big deal storywise at some point.
 
I'll say it. Jordan was a better author. His books were comfy core. They were almost bold in the way that nothing happens for long stretches of time. The WoT books feel almost pastoral.

Sanderson is the equivalent of a child slamming his action figures together to recreate anime battles. His magic systems border on Tom Clancy gun fetishism. Pausing only to go into skits where two-three characters have a wacky quip off.

After sleeping on it I've figured it out. His style is like he accepted every Grammarly or ProWritingAid's suggestion to tighten up the prose leaving it starting and stopping in fits instead of flowing naturally. That's what annoys me along with the formal tone.
 
I'll say it. Jordan was a better author. His books were comfy core. They were almost bold in the way that nothing happens for long stretches of time. The WoT books feel almost pastoral.

Sanderson is the equivalent of a child slamming his action figures together to recreate anime battles. His magic systems border on Tom Clancy gun fetishism. Pausing only to go into skits where two-three characters have a wacky quip off.

The first 4 books of WoT are great, but the slog in the middle is painful to get through. Also Jordan could write PTSD and the struggles of command. He was also funny. Unlike this excerpt you linked from Sanderson, which just annoys me. I have said it many times, Sanderson has the worst sense of humour. It is actively jarring.
 
The first 4 books of WoT are great, but the slog in the middle is painful to get through. Also Jordan could write PTSD and the struggles of command. He was also funny. Unlike this excerpt you linked from Sanderson, which just annoys me. I have said it many times, Sanderson has the worst sense of humour. It is actively jarring.
The big difference is RJ was a dirty old man who wasn't afraid of sex, whereas Sanderson's writing comes across as someone who starts wringing his hands and stammering at the merest whiff of anything sexual.
 
I'll say it. Jordan was a better author. His books were comfy core. They were almost bold in the way that nothing happens for long stretches of time. The WoT books feel almost pastoral.

Sanderson is the equivalent of a child slamming his action figures together to recreate anime battles. His magic systems border on Tom Clancy gun fetishism. Pausing only to go into skits where two-three characters have a wacky quip off.

Vin is a girlboss protagonist done correctly; that is, without Mary Sue cringe.

Yeah, I agree, BrandoSando is a normie dweeb, but the first Mistborn trilogy knocked me on my ass.
So essentially Robert Jordan for the current year.
You do know that Sanderson finished the WoT series at Jordan's behest, right?

I need to get back into WoT. Jordan was a true Renaissance Man badass. Degree in physics from the Citadel, was a helicopter gunner in Vietnam, wrote theater productions, hunter, poker player, pipe collector.

He deserves the title of "American Tolkien", instead of GRRM's fat ass.
The big difference is RJ was a dirty old man who wasn't afraid of sex, whereas Sanderson's writing comes across as someone who starts wringing his hands and stammering at the merest whiff of anything sexual.
RJ's not like GRRM where it'll be a long, detailed porno scene. He's more matter of fact about it. It'll be more like "she was pretty and her dress revealed her curvy body". Or there's a scene where the characters on a ship, and the sailor women are working with their tops off.

You get the point without thinking he was writing the scene one-handed.

The only time I've seen Sanderson mention sex was when Straff Venture (a villain) is abusing one of his slaves, and a conversation between Vin and Elend and it's in the third book, when they're married:
Vin: "But then I'd have to fight naked!
Elend: "I wouldn't mind"
Someone I know gave up on Stormlight Archive because he said felt too much like anime.
 
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RJ's not like GRRM where it'll be a long, detailed porno scene. It'll be more like "she was pretty and her dress revealed her curvy body".
I'd never compare him to GRRM and his "fat pink mast/myrish swamp" shit, but RJ clearly fucked whereas GRRM wanks and Sanderson sits in the cuck chair, wishing he was the girl.
 
If anyone else cares, the 2023 tax return is now available (finally). For better or worse the organization is not doing too shabbily. $1.1 million dollars in investments alone, dues received slightly up from the prior year, expenses higher but not cripplingly so.

Inside baseball, but I had to get this copy from the California Secretary of State website. The IRS Exempt Organization Search is currently down, and probably won't be up again until they start accepting 2024 tax returns. The links and tax ID is below.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc. - 46-1973968

Search links:
https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/

https://rct.doj.ca.gov/verification/web/Search.aspx?facility=Y

Result link for SFWA:
Obviously more there than just the 2023 990

If I did this right, and the site allows you to post all this crap, the full PDF should be attached to this post and images of all the pages with data should follow.

OnlineFiling_CT0197563 conv 1.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 1.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 2.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 3.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 4.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 5.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 6.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 7.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 8.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 9.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 10.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 11.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 12.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 13.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 14.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 15.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 21.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 22.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 23.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 25.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 26.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 27.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 28.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 29.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 30.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 31.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 32.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 33.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 36.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 37.png2023 SFWA 990 for RRF1 conv 38.png

Edit: I'll post my thoughts in a bit, but while they're basically in solid shape there's some decidedly odd things on this I'm curious about.

Audited Financial Statements - There might some entertainment here, if a CA resident wants to namefag and be a general pain in the ass. Autism follows.

There's no federal requirement, since they don't take money from the federal gov't., but there apparently is in CA for any donations above a certain dollar limit. And they have them done, (see the transmittal page and page 28 of the filing, on Schedule D) but they're not required to be filed to the state and they're not available on the SFWA website. However, "[W]hile the audited financial statements do not need to be filed with the Registry, they must be available for inspection by the Attorney General, and made available to the public if requested."

Meaning, if somebody wanted to be a namefagging pain in the ass I guess you could hassle them until they either mailed or emailed you a copy or had to let you into the office to read their copy. I'm honestly not sure what on what terms they have to do this, but upon request they HAVE TO do something.

I doubt these statements would show much more than the tax return, but one never knows. If nothing else we'd get to read the notes. Assuming it was not only available via office visit, no copy for further perusal allowed.

References/screenshots:
Attorney General’s Guide for Charities Revelant passage, Page 43:
1737308970711.png
Public Act No. 23-98 AN ACT CONCERNING CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS, Sec. 16(b)(2), page 34
1737309477129.png

What's a little surprising is that most charities post all this crap on their website, so potential donors know they're on the up and up. The SFWA does not. It is not required, but it is pretty typical these days. You'd think if anybody would embrace teh internetz a trade group of SF&F authors would have.

Will look at the statement itself after football. Formatting, though...
  • Did notice The person listed as CFO/return signatory (Page 1 and Page 7) is not the same person listed on the officer list (Page 8) as CFO.
    • Probably nothing but a scrivener error, but I saw it 🤷‍♂️
  • Page 1 - This turned out to be a nothing burger but the person who signed the return was an EA not a CPA - only CPAs can issue financial statements, so I was a bit confused. Turns out he works for a CPA - at this level the auditor pretty much always does the financial statements, so I assume the CPA put her name on the audit
 

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I'm skeptical about this, it is del Arroz after all, but I'm curious what others think.

How Donald Trump Advisor Peter Thiel Completely Upended Science Fiction And Fantasy Publishing

Article highlights:
  • Homo Peter Thiel is setting up an SF&F publishing imprint that is stealing the cream of the crop from Baen, including for at least one series Larry Correia
  • Baen itself is on life support
  • had no idea Christopher Ruocchio (sp?) boomeranged from Daw to Baen back to Daw and their Chinses VC bux, but this much at least is provably true
  • 8,000 words of irrelevant JDA self-promotion and culture war sperging
I do hope File 770 links to the article. That would be amusing.
 
I'm skeptical about this, it is del Arroz after all, but I'm curious what others think.

How Donald Trump Advisor Peter Thiel Completely Upended Science Fiction And Fantasy Publishing

Article highlights:
  • Homo Peter Thiel is setting up an SF&F publishing imprint that is stealing the cream of the crop from Baen, including for at least one series Larry Correia
  • Baen itself is on life support
  • had no idea Christopher Ruocchio (sp?) boomeranged from Daw to Baen back to Daw and their Chinses VC bux, but this much at least is provably true
  • 8,000 words of irrelevant JDA self-promotion and culture war sperging
I do hope File 770 links to the article. That would be amusing.
Don't know if there's any major issue with JDA aside from the culture wars sperging+shilling for his product.

It'd be so fucking funny if Baen and the like all crash. I can't recall the last time I've seen a Baen or Daw book new and for sale in a chain store.


The only reason I've ever bought Baen stuff was because they make hardcovers, decently, for a lot of old school sf/f authors like Poul Anderson, Fred Saberhagen, Keith Laumer, Andre Norton, and etc.
 
I'm skeptical about this, it is del Arroz after all, but I'm curious what others think.

How Donald Trump Advisor Peter Thiel Completely Upended Science Fiction And Fantasy Publishing

Article highlights:
  • Homo Peter Thiel is setting up an SF&F publishing imprint that is stealing the cream of the crop from Baen, including for at least one series Larry Correia
  • Baen itself is on life support
  • had no idea Christopher Ruocchio (sp?) boomeranged from Daw to Baen back to Daw and their Chinses VC bux, but this much at least is provably true
  • 8,000 words of irrelevant JDA self-promotion and culture war sperging
I do hope File 770 links to the article. That would be amusing.

Larry Correia has a response the muckraking out on his blog: A Note About Me Writing For Multiple Publishing Houses (https://archive.ph/doDbT)

He isn't being stolen, he's an independent contractor exploring markets Baen doesn't specialize in. Partly for the money (he is an unabashed capitalist), but also to stay creatively fresh. Writing for Aethon lets him experiment with KU and the progression fantasy genre, while Ark Press seems to be offering new business models and support for other genres he hasn't tried before.

Ruocchio's change back to DAW for the Sun Eater series apparently happened in July 2024. It seems like a good business move, in retrospect. The whole reason Chris went to Baen was because DAW refused to pay for more books in the series, and were also refusing to do more printing runs. They hadn't learned the same lesson TOR did, which is that you can't stay in business with "award winning" DEI-fiction without a stable of white guys who actually sell to subsidize it.

I imagine this was Baen's thought process: "We can make money on these new books while DAW sits around with a thumb up their ass. If they go broke, we can acquire the rights the whole series from them at a discount. If their ChiCom masters demand they start actually turning a profit, they will have to buy the rights for the rest of the series back from us in order to have a complete set."
 
I'm skeptical about this, it is del Arroz after all, but I'm curious what others think.

How Donald Trump Advisor Peter Thiel Completely Upended Science Fiction And Fantasy Publishing

Article highlights:
  • Homo Peter Thiel is setting up an SF&F publishing imprint that is stealing the cream of the crop from Baen, including for at least one series Larry Correia
  • Baen itself is on life support
  • had no idea Christopher Ruocchio (sp?) boomeranged from Daw to Baen back to Daw and their Chinses VC bux, but this much at least is provably true
  • 8,000 words of irrelevant JDA self-promotion and culture war sperging
I do hope File 770 links to the article. That would be amusing.

I admit, even working in publishing, some of the stuff in the article is shocking. Even if some of the stuff has been public knowledge for a while - the first round of staff layoffs at Baen, Ruocchio's return to DAW, these both happened last year.

But Peter Thiel poaching a former Baen editor and two of Baen's existing editors, and Baen's biggest author below the age of 70 who reliably sells? For all the sensationalism, those are body blows to Baen.

Toss in others... thier most promising new fantasy author, Howard Andrew Jones, died last month, and you don't sell Ruocchio back to DAW if you don't need a massive cash infusion.

I make no secret I'm a big Baen fan, but something tells me there are some issues behind the scenes that this is exposing for the first time.
 
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But Peter Thiel poaching a former Baen editor and two of Baen's existing editors, and Baen's biggest author below the age of 70 who reliably sells? For all the sensationalism, those are body blows to Baen.
This was my thought. Even if Correia is a 'freeish agent' they've been divided and conquered successfully.
 
I admit, even working in publishing, some of the stuff in the article is shocking. Even if some of the stuff has been public knowledge for a while - the first round of staff layoffs at Baen, Ruocchio's return to DAW, these both happened last year.
Can you comment on the Baen IP thing that almost doesn't seem real.
 
Fuck, I just started reading those. I didn't know he died.

I will admit, as soon as I saw the memorial posts and obituaries, I was floored.

One of the best fantasy series of the decade, and losing him is a tragedy.

Hope his work and legacy live long after he does.

Can you comment on the Baen IP thing that almost doesn't seem real.

What Baen IP thing?
 
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