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- Patty has arrived safely in Vancouver.
- I went to fencing yesterday, but did not feel well enough to fence. This was, however, illuminating and I will post later on it.
- My book is due in ten days. Progress is good, but it still feels tight and scary. I have not yet hit the not-hot Harry Potter torture fantasy stage of this thing yet, and suspect I might not, in large part because I love, love the chapter themes I am doing this time. It's very much organized around culture and intrigue, and is probably more my love letter to the series than the first one.
- Book trailers! Have you heard about this? Anyway, here's one for a novel my publisher has out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVBF3kXUymA
- I feel alive and steady; solid, if underwhelmed.
- There is still space available to attend The Elegant Arts Society's Victorian Bustle Ball in New Haven this week. Costume not required but always encouraged. Dance experience not needed; there's a workshop beforehand for those interested. More info here: http://www.elegantarts.org/bustle/
- Recent musical discoveries:
The Dresden Dolls -- I don't like all their tracks, but I like what they are doing.
The Tindersticks -- why weren't Michael and I obsessed with this band? Don't need to own it, but happy to listen to it on last.fm
- Inspired by several on-line wanks:
Just because someone creates fictional worlds that are misogynist, racist, classist or whatever, doesn't mean they think the beliefs of those words is a good thing. The worlds I write tend to be extremely misogynist and with less room for circumventing their structure, because I am interested in How People Make Do. I also assume that the reader is Not An Idiot and does not require me to repeatedly say This Is A Bad Thing and can suss that out for themselves event when Characters of Murky Conscience are Suprisingly Likable. That's the point. The insidiousness of bigotry is that it often comes with people, places or things that hold some appeal. It's supposed to make you uncomfortable. And no, this paragraph is not saying "stop examining the agenda of writers" but do stop asking them to only write worlds you want to live in.
I suppose a lot of this also comes out of listening to a lot of Nick Cave lately, much of which seems to take place in a weird quasi-fictional American 1930s where the Devil is walking and everyone is a detective or a cowboy and men are poor and it all involves a lot of God, misogyny and weird gay fear/fascination. And you know what? There's an internal truth to that fictional world and the stories of it fascinate me and discomfort me. And that's the point and it's fine. Yes, I am a gay woman and one of my favorite songs ever includes the line "a fag in a whale-bone corset draping his dick across my face."
- I went to fencing yesterday, but did not feel well enough to fence. This was, however, illuminating and I will post later on it.
- My book is due in ten days. Progress is good, but it still feels tight and scary. I have not yet hit the not-hot Harry Potter torture fantasy stage of this thing yet, and suspect I might not, in large part because I love, love the chapter themes I am doing this time. It's very much organized around culture and intrigue, and is probably more my love letter to the series than the first one.
- Book trailers! Have you heard about this? Anyway, here's one for a novel my publisher has out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVBF3kXUymA
- I feel alive and steady; solid, if underwhelmed.
- There is still space available to attend The Elegant Arts Society's Victorian Bustle Ball in New Haven this week. Costume not required but always encouraged. Dance experience not needed; there's a workshop beforehand for those interested. More info here: http://www.elegantarts.org/bustle/
- Recent musical discoveries:
The Dresden Dolls -- I don't like all their tracks, but I like what they are doing.
The Tindersticks -- why weren't Michael and I obsessed with this band? Don't need to own it, but happy to listen to it on last.fm
- Inspired by several on-line wanks:
Just because someone creates fictional worlds that are misogynist, racist, classist or whatever, doesn't mean they think the beliefs of those words is a good thing. The worlds I write tend to be extremely misogynist and with less room for circumventing their structure, because I am interested in How People Make Do. I also assume that the reader is Not An Idiot and does not require me to repeatedly say This Is A Bad Thing and can suss that out for themselves event when Characters of Murky Conscience are Suprisingly Likable. That's the point. The insidiousness of bigotry is that it often comes with people, places or things that hold some appeal. It's supposed to make you uncomfortable. And no, this paragraph is not saying "stop examining the agenda of writers" but do stop asking them to only write worlds you want to live in.
I suppose a lot of this also comes out of listening to a lot of Nick Cave lately, much of which seems to take place in a weird quasi-fictional American 1930s where the Devil is walking and everyone is a detective or a cowboy and men are poor and it all involves a lot of God, misogyny and weird gay fear/fascination. And you know what? There's an internal truth to that fictional world and the stories of it fascinate me and discomfort me. And that's the point and it's fine. Yes, I am a gay woman and one of my favorite songs ever includes the line "a fag in a whale-bone corset draping his dick across my face."
