In my younger and more vulnerable years (a month ago, when I was poking through the library archives) my father (Ursula K. Le Guin) gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. In a 1995 letter to Forum, the internal organ of the Science Fiction Writer’s Association, she said, after some discussion of changing the membership criteria (to which she was opposed):
I’d like to say, in response to Darrell Schweitzer’s plea to the “older famous writers in the field” to set an example, that I have never allowed and will never allow the franchising of my works/worlds/characters/universes, or the use of any of the above in any kind of electronic or other game; and that I don’t do readings or any kind of PR appearance at Borders or the other commoditybook chains. For anybody who gets decent advances, and so has the luxury of such choices, this seems to me a minimal commitment to literary values and writerly solidarity.1
Now… the specifics of what Le Guin won’t do are not …
