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About our newsletter: Every issue of Tor’s monthly email newsletter features original writing by, and interviews with, Tor authors and editors about upcoming new titles from all Tor and Forge imprints. In addition, we occasionally send out “special edition” newsletters to highlight particularly exciting new projects, programs, or events. Read a sample here >>

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NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins March 1 at 12 a.m. ET. and ends March 28, 2013, 11:59 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. For Official Rules and to enter, go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

The Week in Review

Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.

• Because we love tormenting fans (and ourselves, let’s be honest), check out this post from Irene Gallo of Tor.com, who went behind the scenes to watch A Memory of Light being printed at the bindery. Also: Tor.com is having a NYC midnight launch for the final Wheel of Time book!

• Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit comes out today! Over on io9, there’s a fun list of 12 things you probably didn’t know about the epic new movie.

• Looking for new reading material for the holidays? Tor.com has you covered. They’ve invited some of their regular reviews to share their favorite reads of 2012. The result is an eclectic list of books sure to please almost any genre fan.

• A well deserved award: SFWA has named Gene Wolfe the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award Winner for 2012. If you want to check out some of the award-winning author’s earlier works, we’ve just announced 19 of his backlist titles are now available as ebooks.

• Tor.com has launched a new series: Talking with Tom. In this initial conversation, the legendary founder of Tor chats with L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

• In November, science fiction author Frederik Pohl made a rare appearance at Windycon, where he did an interview with ChicagoScope.

• Finally, io9 has their impressions of the first nine minutes of Star Trek: Into Darkness. Is anyone else ridiculously excited for this movie? I know I am, but I’m a bit of a Trekker, so…

The Tor/Forge newsletter went out this week! Check out these fascinating articles from our authors:

• The Toughest Part of Writing Cold City by F. Paul Wilson
• A Letter from Harry Ransom by Felix Gilman
• Crying Bully by J. A. Souders
• What if? Two little words that created S. J. Day’s Eve of Darkess by Sylvia Day

And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• Newsletter Sweepstakes: Big Fat Books for the Holidays (Ends 12/16)
• Goodreads First Reads: Impulse by Steven Gould (Ends 12/18)
• Goodreads First Reads: The Sixth Station by Linda Stasi (Ends 12/19)
• eBook Sale: People of the Earth by Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear is on sale for $2.99 (Ends 1/2)
• eBook Sale: Count to a Trillion by John C. Wright is on sale for $2.99 (Ends 1/2)
• eBook Sale: Larry Bond’s Red Dragon Rising: Edge of War by Larry Bond and Jim DeFelice is on sale for $2.99 (Ends 1/2)
• eBook Sale: Imager by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. is on sale for $2.99 (Ends 1/2)
• Goodreads First Reads: Homeland by Cory Doctorow (Ends 1/9)
• Goodreads First Reads: Kalimpura by Jay Lake (Ends 1/9)
• Goodreads First Reads: A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (Ends 1/9)

Crying Bully

Written by J. A. Souders

“I know you are, but what am I?” Chances are you’ve heard this once or twice in your lifetime. This may be a simple child’s joke, but it’s no joke when it comes to bullying.

Bullying might seem like a new epidemic, but I’m sure most of us can think back to that person we’d call a bully from our pasts. Why the big fuss lately, then? It might be because bullying seems to be getting worse every year and I’m fairly certain that has to do with how connected we are, due to the Internet and smart phones. We can never get away from it. When, once, we could leave school, or work, or wherever and escape from our tormentors, now they can reach us through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and our phones push their messages straight into our hands the second they send it. There’s no safety zone.

Because of its prevalence and inescapability, bullying has become the new “hot-button,” much the same way drugs and smoking were back when I was in high school. Organizations have been founded. Politicians vow to change laws to prevent bullying. A quick Google search shows pages and pages of different schools’ initiatives to stop bullying. Most schools have a zero-tolerance policy for it and kids accused of bullying are often expelled, just as they would be if they were found with drugs.

This is both a blessing and a curse. It’s easier now for a bullied child to get the protection they need, but at the same time it may have become too easy to “cry bully.” Every time someone says something we don’t like, or when they disagree with us, or someone says something mean, we immediately yell bully. That accomplishes exactly what we hope it will—it gets that person in trouble and we feel better about ourselves.

So we keep doing it, but we take it one step forward. We strike back. Sometimes it’s a good thing. Other times? Not so much. Can anti-bullying become bullying itself? It certainly can look that way some times. There are entire websites devoted to “outing” the “bullies” who dare dislike our books. Some even go entirely too far and send death threats to the bully and their families.

However, no matter how many rules we pass or how we strike back at the bullies, stopping them is almost impossible. There have always been mean-spirited people in the world. Always that certain person who needs to put other people down to feel good about themselves. But, a lot of what they do is protected under free speech. And even when it turns to harassment and/or violence, punishing that one bully is like plugging a dam with your finger. Our leaders and teachers and those in a position to stop it, often find themselves impotent.

From my book, Renegade, Mother—the leader of Elysium—has addressed this epidemic in her own brand of leadership. Eradicate all differences. Remove the right of free speech, make sure punishments are so extreme no one would dare argue. And when all else fails, brainwash. It’s effective—in Elysium—but do we really want that here?

But more damaging than all of that is all the people who’ve been “crying bully” and turning bullying into just another word. Like the boy who cried wolf, the more time we cry bully, the less people are going to pay attention. And the real victims of bullying will get ignored again, but this time it’ll be even worse, because no one will care at all. It’s a type of brainwashing and punishment all in one. One Mother would be proud of. One of which requires no more effort than watching the masses becoming indifferent to the issue because of constant exposure. And like that boy who cried wolf, the victim will get eaten.

We really need to focus on educating people on what bullying really is and stop using it as a buzzword to get people to respond to us, because if we continue to call everything bullying, then eventually nothing will be.

…………………………

From the Tor/Forge December newsletter. Sign up to receive our newsletter via email.

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More from the December Tor/Forge newsletter:

• The Toughest Part of Writing Cold City by F. Paul Wilson
• A Letter from Harry Ransom by Felix Gilman
• What if? Two little words that created the world of S. J. Day’s Eve of Darkness
• Big Fat Books for the Holidays Sweepstakes

The Week in Review

Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.

 

• On Sunday, Felix Baumgartner free falled from twenty four miles above the earth. In addition to the video above, io9 has first-person footage from his helmet or chest camera.

• Brandon Sanderson has confirmed the first event on the A Memory of Light tour: a midnight launch at the BYU Bookstore in Provo, Utah on January 8th! More details on the tour to come soon.

• Word Brooklyn hosted a Pirate Flix Video Remix contest for Cory Doctorow’s recent Pirate Cinema event. The winners were announced at the event, and you can watch them on BoingBoing.

• Tuesday was Ada Lovelace Day, remembering the famous computing pioneer. How did you celebrate?

• Barnes & Noble reviewer Paul Goat Allen thinks more men should paranormal romance. We absolutely agree!

• io9 has a wonderful time-lapse video of the space shuttle Endeavour as it travelled through Los Angeles, on its way to its new home.

• Korean artist Inshoo has some beautifully creepy re-imaginings of classic childhood heroines. My favorite is Dorothy, with her adorable little Toto hat.

 
And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Ends 10/23)
• Waiting on Wednesday: Renegade, by J. A. Souders (Ends 10/24)
• #TorChat Sweepstakes (Ends 10/24)
• Bard’s Oath by Joanne Bertin (Ends 10/29)
• Ghost Collection Sweepstakes (Ends 10/31)
• The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (Ends 11/8)
• Forge of Darkness by Steven Erikson (Ends 11/18)

Waiting on Wednesday: Renegade Sweepstakes

For a while now we’ve been seeing this title come up in your Waiting on Wednesday picks. So now we’re giving you the opportunity to enter for the chance to win an advance reading copy of Renegade before it pubs!

We have five copies to give away. To enter for the chance to win one, comment below and tell us what your Waiting on Wednesday pick is this week.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. You must be 18 or older and a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C. to enter. Promotion begins October 17, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. ET. and ends October 24, 2012,12:00 p.m. ET. Void in Puerto Rico and wherever prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules go here. Sponsor: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

The Week in Review

Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.

 

• It’s New York Comic-Con! If you’re heading to the convention, be sure to stop by our booth and check out what we have going on. If not, we have a consolation prize for you: it’s our annual Not at Comic-Con Sweepstakes!

• Over on Bad Astronomer, there’s a beautiful animated GIF of nebula IC 1396.

• Congratulations to author J. A. Pitts, whose book Honeyed Words just won the The 2012 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards!

• Some famous authors sound off about censorship, with hilarious results. Our favorites: Harper Lee and Kurt Vonnegut.

• The controversy has ended! The Mythbusters proved that Jack didn’t have to die in the movie Titanic.

• Celebrate All Hallow’s Read on October 31st! Neil Gaiman explains on GalleyCat.

• You can now get a PhD in comics. Yup, comics. Appropriate news for this weekend, right?

 
And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• Crown of Vengeance by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (Ends 10/19)
• Renegade by J. A. Souders (Ends 10/19)
• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Ends 10/23)
• Bard’s Oath by Joanne Bertin (Ends 10/29)
• Ghost Collection Sweepstakes (Ends 10/31)
• The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (Ends 11/8)

The Week in Review

Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.

• It’s Banned Books Week! Want to learn more about banned books and what you can do about it? Check out the American Library Association’s website.

• Tor.com has a collection of quotes from authors speaking out against censorship and banning books.

• Looking for something to read in October? io9 has a list of great genre titles to check out.

• Awesome indie store Word in Brooklyn has a video contest for Cory Doctorow’s Pirate Cinema! Check out rules and how to enter on Word’s tumblr.

• It’s Steampunk Week on Tor.com! Check out the great posts they’ve been putting up all week.

• Want tears in your eyes? Read “The Book and the Butterfly,” the last piece Ray Bradbury ever wrote.

The Tor/Forge newsletter went out this week! Check out these fascinating articles from our authors:

• Big Smart Objects by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven
• The Secret World of Hardware Revocation by Cory Doctorow
• The Books in the Book by Tina Connolly
• The Ingredients of a Hero (Not the Sandwich) by Christopher L. Bennett
• Law School, Magic School by Max Gladstone

And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• Crown of Vengeance by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (Ends 10/19)
• Renegade by J. A. Souders (Ends 10/19)
• The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (Ends 10/23)
• Bard’s Oath by Joanne Bertin (Ends 10/29)
• Ghost Collection Sweepstakes (Ends 10/31)

The Week in Review

Welcome to the week in review! Every Friday, we comb through the links and images we found and shared this week, and pull the very best for this post. Consider it concentrated genre goodness from all around the web.

 

• Finshed the prologue of A Memory of Light? Well, we’ve got you covered: now you can read Chapter One, “Eastward the Wind Blew,” on Tor.com!

• The very first review of A Memory of Light is online now. Check out Jason Denzel’s heartfelt (and spoiler-free) letter to Robert Jordan upon finishing the final book of The Wheel of Time.

• Over on our Facebook page, check out what released this week!

• Alex Bledsoe is doing a sort of video diary about the life of a writer. Check out his third video, about the revision process.

• Tor.com finishes up their series of picturing the seasons with some beautiful Autumn themed paintings.

• Did you watch the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony? You absolutely should. There are some really fun, ridiculous scientific discoveries.

• This week was the 25th Anniversary of one of the greatest movies ever made, The Princess Bride. Check out some little-known facts about the film.

• Various genre authors weigh in on the differences between science fiction and fantasy on io9.

 
And, just to make Friday that much sweeter, here’s a list of sweepstakes and sales we have going on!

• Graphic Novel Collection Sweepstakes (Ends 9/30)
• Immortal Surrender by Claire Ashgrove (Ends 10/5)
• The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan (Ends 10/5)
• Crown of Vengeance by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (Ends 10/19)
• Renegade by J. A. Souders (Ends 10/19)

Goodreads First Reads: Renegade by J. A. Souders

Enter for a chance to win a copy on Goodreads!

About Renegade: Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s believed that everything is perfect. Her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into Elysium’s secluded little world, Evelyn comes to a startling realization: Everything she knows is a lie.

Her memories have been altered.

Her mind and body aren’t under her own control.

And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb…and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

Enter for a chance to win here!

(Ends October 19)

Also, don’t forget to check out our other sweepstakes!