In that prologue, "Koleili" is giving birth. "The People crouched outside the hut of woven mats, silent, expectant, for they felt the chill of magic in the air." My guess is that most ppl won't see "hut" or "crouched" or "magic" as problems.
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RWA received enough pushback to their decision on Courtney, that they've rescinded it, "pending a legal opinion." https://twitter.com/romancewriters/status/1209632798832812034 … I'm taking a look at Davis's book because she and her bks mattered, somehow, to RWA.
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I've now opened (in Amazon's look inside) Davis's second book in the Dream Suite. In the Acknowledgements she thanks Suzan Tisdale. She did that in the acknowledgement for the first book, too. I know not to read too much into Acknowledgements but... hmmm.
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In bk 2, WEAVE FOR ME A DREAM, the year is 1894. Place is Vancouver Island, British Columbia. No prologue in this one. Instead, there's "The Storyteller." She is "Old Grandmother" weaving at her ancient loom. Weaving stories. What I'm seeing in Davis's writing is stereotyping.
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I think it is accurate to say that she really likes Indians. That's why she wrote these two books in the 90s and reissued them in the 2010s as ebooks. But the "Indians" she likes/creates do not exist in real life. This is all romantic nonsense that is harmful to everyone.
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There is a defense of Davis over the bk Courtney critiqued, w/ people saying Davis wrote that bk in the 90s. Implied in that defense is that she wouldn't write it today. Implied is that she knows more today than she did then. Ppl are also saying "nobody said anything" (then).
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Those defensive arguments are put forth all the time, but they are not valid. Davis first published these Dream bks in the 90s and reissued them now, in the 2010s. I can't compare the two, but the ones available now are dreadful.
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And the "nobody said anything" defense is so weak! Maybe people didn't want to make Davis uncomfortable, so they didn't say, HEY THIS IS A MESS. They let her be. If they are friends of hers, they aren't very good friends. They've let her republish this deeply flawed series!
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If they are friends who did not see the problems, and are reading/learning in this thread, they better talk to her right away. AND they better speak up whenever they see an outsider trying to create characters like this.
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Just pause a minute and think about what writers who create historical fiction/romance are trying to do when they're not of the culture or nation that their story is about. They're leaping backwards in time but they're making other kinds of leaps, too. Language is one.
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As I read thru Davis's book, I see another italicized word. "Siem." Supposedly, it means "Head Man." What is Davis's source? I also see that she has created several characters whose names start with a K. Why?
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Another leap: from whatever Davis believes (spiritually or religiously), to what she *thinks* Salish ways are... And I wonder if Davis would call, for example, Christianity "magic" (in the bk, some of the characters have "magic").
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Circling back to the prologue. The baby born in the prologue is called Tanu. The Salish man named Hawilquolas... he's a man of status. He's that "Siem" I mentioned a couple of tweets back. His protection keeps Tanu and her mother from being despised because...
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"... Tanu had been illegitimate, the seed of a stranger. The People would have cast out Koleili and her baby." Is that accurate? Would Salish ppl of the 1860s do that? As before: what is the source for this information? I'm remembering Cassie Edwards defending her stories...
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So anyway, Tanu and her friend Kitkuni are bathing... ‘Our ancestors pounded their chests with flat stones to keep themselves from growing here.’ Kitkuni pointed at her swelling breasts. ‘Perhaps they were wiser than we.’ What is the source for THAT?!
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I'm not far into the book and it is more and more of this same kind of thing. I'm not tweeting every thing that makes me cringe. Some may think it is cruel to do that to Davis. The sympathy is for her rather than for readers who are misinformed by what she's written.
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Oh... now there's a "Trickster, and, a few pages later, a "shaman."
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Over and over there's evidence that this is a not-Salish person creating the words, thoughts, actions of what they think a Salish person would say/do ... and over and over, it is a mess. Now, Davis's character is calling the shaman's clothing a "sacred ceremonial costume."
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Tanu is also called "She Who Is Blessed." And... the people view her as their Queen. Much is made of her green eyes.
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Now, Tanu meets her real father. Nicolas. Things about her that are revered, she realizes, come not from her Salish mother, but from her French father.pic.twitter.com/RH0qX8Hz99
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I am gonna step away from this book. I may pick it up again later but what good would come of doing that?
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My larger point is that
@romancewriters has at least one writer who is creating harmful content about Native peoples. I'm calling it out. When Courtney Milan called out that author for harmful content, complaints were filed. RWA's ethics cmte decided to censure Courtney Milan.Show this thread -
RWA has some work to do. I'm not a member. If I was, I'd cancel my membership but I'd keep putting public pressure on them, calling for change. Substantial change.
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In her complaint, Kathryn Lynn Davis said that she lost the promise of a 3-book contract because of Courtney Milan's "cyber-bullying." If the 3-bks are like SING TO ME OF DREAMS, then I hope the contract was cancelled because whoever that contract was with said "never mind."
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In defense of Courtney's tweets about TOO DEEP FOR TEARS she said that if Courtney had read the whole book, she would see that her objections are wrong. I'm still rdg SING TO ME OF DREAMS to see if there's anything in here that tells me I'm wrong to object to ...
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... that passage the Salish girl says about how their ancestors pounded their chests with stones to keep their breasts from growing:pic.twitter.com/6mt9SPCtoC
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What I usually do in my critiques is to note a passage (like that one) and see if I can figure out what the author's source might be. It is important to know what sources are--and to say "don't use this" because of unreliable content in some sources. Esp ones about Native ppl.
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It is, in short, a service I provide to writers when I do critiques. I do that even when the content in a passage (like that one) is ridiculous because obviously, Davis thought it was legit, and all the ppl who read the bk and didn't say 'wait" to it think it is legit, too.
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All of this matters so much! Davis is serving as an editor. If your book has Native content--I hope this thread is telling you that she might not be equipped to help you. Actually, because she's an editor, I think I'm gonna ask her a question in my next tweet in this thread.
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Hey,
@kathrynlyndavis: I'm trying to verify information in your bk, SING TO ME OF DREAMS. Can you tell me the source you used for that passage abt Salish ppl using stones to pound their chests?Show this thread -
And,
@kathrynlyndavis, can you tell me the source you used for the words you present as being Salish words?Show this thread - Show replies
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