My good friend and co-author, Sonny Whitelaw, was snubbed at a writer's festival recently (where she was an invited guest) by a rather well-known, award winning Australian literary author, (who shall remain nameless). Apparently even breathing the same air as someone who write "speculative fiction" was hazardous to this literary luminary's health. When introduced to Sonny and informed she'd written for Stargate, he turned his back on her and started talking to someone else, without even acknowledging she was standing in front of him. What a pig.

Of course, I may be unfairly maligning this revered author. He may not be a literary snob at all. He might just be an all-round a***hole about everything:)

Anyway, without getting into the whys and the wherefores of  literary snobbery, I think I can confidently claim that most of these award winning ignoramuses have never actually read a fantasy novel, and after seeing the following covers on cracked.com, I can understand why.

Actually, after seeing their list of The Best (Worst) Fantasy & Science Fiction Book Covers, I'm think I'm going to join the other side.

There are 4 pages of these covers, and the comments are hysterical, particularly the ones about "pony porn". I have reproduced a few here, but you really need to go and have a look.

Cringeworthy doesn't even begin to describe them:)

Zeor: "No! Come back! You haven't
seen any of my good pentagrams yet!"

Author, Jack L Chalker: "Hey Bernie,
what' the biggest number there is?"
Editor, Bernie Ciscain: "Ninety trillion.
Why do you ask?"
Jack L Chalker: "No reason."

So tell me, author-who-has-slaved
-over-his-masterpiece-and-wants-to
be-taken-seriously-as -a-writer. What
would you like to see on the cover?