Blogetary (Weblog + Commentary = Blogetary)

The computer turns on now, but I still need to open it up and see if squirrels were trying to tell me if they needed nuts or to have their cage cleaned. You never know.

The plug in the sink is still there. It had gone down enough that I didn’t see any water down in the pipe and thought maybe someone else in the building had used drain clogger or a snake to get rid of the clog. But no.  It’s still there. With the leak.

Slowly working my way through revenue enhancing work.  But it’s a little scary.  I hope things break soon, some how.  I either need enough freelance work to make a solid living, or a job. I’m not finding either. So, we’ll see what happens.

I’m having some cool writerly moments lately. They vary from seeing my name and poem in a print magazine (which I don’t think will ever get old) to magical maybes to wandering around my head with my story and not being able to wait until I can get back to it.

Twenty-four hours ago, I was doing dishes and the sink plugged up for no reason I can fathom, and I discovered I have a leak in the pipe below this sink. Then this morning, the computer wouldn’t turn on. Light was on, but nobody was home. I was beginning to think the world was against me. But I had a lovely day in Little Tokyo with some friends. We went to a Loli-Goth event for the Goth Lolita Bible at Kinokuniya Bookstore sponsored by Tokyo Pop. This is volume 1.

I didn’t go to the event for the first volume. But I had some friends who did. I decided to tag along to this second event to see all the fabulous dressed up Loli-goth girls. It was fun. We even got to make crafty things and talk to cool people about where they got their togs or how they made them.  We got to swig pink lemonade and snack on pink pocky and strawberries.  This is volume 2, what the event was about.

I did not have appropriate Loli-wear and I don’t think I could have carried it off if I had. The design and materials were very pretty. Very fun. Some of the hair styles were terrific!

I don’t have pictures. I maybe able to link to pictures in a few days, but not yet.

So, we decide to come home (we took public transit instead of driving because it’s just easier) and once we got off the subway at Hollywood and Highland and found our bus stop proceeded to wait, and wait, and wait. Finally we started walking. We discovered a broken down bus, and the one that took people on for the broken one had already left. There was not a second one in sight. So, we kept on walking. Found a good major bus stop to wait at, but by now it was dusk. Marginal people were gathering around the bus stop. Still no bus in sight. We continue walking.

By the time we go to my friend’s house at about 8:45-9PM (we’d left downtown around 6 or 6:30), her uncles took pity on us and fed us cocktails, dinner, and cookies.
Now I am home, and the computer works – miraculously – but I’m still going to have to figure out what happened so it doesn’t happen again. I checked the sink, but the miracle didn’t go that far as it is still clogged and still leaking. In fact, the only reason the water has gone down is because of the leak.

*sigh*

However, I think the miracle decided to continue in another direction as 2 separate places I have submissions to have contacted me saying they’re still deciding and I’m one of the finalists (yay!) and someone who I figured was a no-pay from a couple of months ago, might actually pay me. That would be good.

So, it’s been a really good day, today. On the whole.

I was searching something I’d bookmarked for research and was mildly entertained to see what else I had bookmarked for writing research. Here’s my list:

1. Tips on buying Roman Chain Mail: http://legvi.tripod.com/cohorsiitalica/id27.html
2. String theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory
3. Parallel Universes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction)#Other_dimensions
4. Celtic Tree Lore: http://www.dutchie.org/Tracy/tree.html
5. Trees in mythology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trees_in_mythology
6. Villains: http://www.tamicowden.com/villains.htm
7. Irish Leine Shirt: http://www.sewingcentral.com/cgi-bin/Web_store/web_store.cgi?page=pay015.html&cart_id=4242630_17816
8. Fencing Glossary: http://www.fencing.net/glossary.php
9. Madagascar Dry Deciduous Forests: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar_dry_deciduous_forests
10. Western Saddle Guide: http://www.western-saddle-guide.com/unsaddle.html
11. Fourth Dimension: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Dimension
12. Desert Ironwood: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/desert_ironwood.htm
13. Saturn: http://www.lessonplanspage.com/more/205sat.html
14. Collective Unconscious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_unconscious
15. Catholic Saints and Angels: http://www.catholic.org/saints/
16. Conifer Cone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinecone
17. WTU Plants of Washington: http://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection.php
18. Spiderz Rule: http://www.spiderzrule.com/legends.htm
19. Native American Legends: http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Old-Man-Coyote-Makes-The-World-Crow.html
20. Astrology and Magic of Cornelius Agrippa: http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/agrippa.html#B

That’s enough for now. So, take a look at your bookmarks from writing. Whatya got?

Pop the champagne cork for Kaz Dreamer on LJ who has just accepted representation from literary agent Miriam Kriss! YAY!!!!

You can read about it all here.

The contest for the Writer’s Market is coming to an end in a few days (June 30). If you’re interested in a trying for a copy of the 2008 Writer’s Market then go here.

The next contest is for a brand new shiny copy of the 7th Anniversary Issue of Aoife’s Kiss. Yes, it is the issue with my poem in it. Yes, I have signed that poem. So, if you’re interested in possibly owning a signed copy of my poem in this issue of Aoife’s Kiss then post a comment down below. We’ll keep it easy this time. You don’t have to say anything particularly clever. Just post.

The deadline will be July 25 at midnight to give you plenty of time to decide whether you want to buy yourself a copy (it really is a good mag) or try for a free one through this contest.

Have a good evening.

THINGS -

Today I got the brand, new shiny Rhysling Anthology of SF, Fantasy & Horror Poetry for 2007 published through the Science Fiction Poetry Association. It’s purty and I can barely wait to crack it open. I also received in my mailbox today, the most current edition of Electric Velocipede, which let me know two things: 1) Bettendorf, Iowa doesn’t need an ark — YET (phew!) and 2) Issue 15 that was due out in August will now be issued with #16 altogether and probably in October.

STUFF -

My grocery store is north. My bank is south. So, there are days when I do my grocery shopping at the drugstore near the bank rather than at the grocery store. And then, I usually end up standing in front of the tiny section of books and staring at them. I don’t know what I’m looking for really. I study the names, the titles, the covers, the stories. I never buy any of the books because they aren’t really the type I read (any more). But I still study them. Part of me asks, “would I want my name in 2 inch gold foil on the front of a book and larger than the title?” (no- I’d much rather have the title larger than my name – but that’s just me). And then I wonder if I could ever write a book that would end up a mass market paperback in a drugstore. I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to be a Nora Roberts or Sherrylin Kenyon, not that there’s anything wrong with them, I’m just not sure that’s who I am.
MORE STUFF -

Of course the real reason I ventured forth today, other than to deposit checks and buy food (well – is it really food in a drugstore? Some of it barely contains food at all), was to find air conditioning. It’s 92 degrees in my apartment right now and it’s 6:55 PM. Typically, my brick oven pizza apartment is 10-15 degrees warmer than the hallway and I’ll open the door to let in a cross breeze and let Pye and I cool down. Not today. It was actually no different. Nay, even a bit cooler in my apartment. I was only out for an hour (with sunblock and sunglasses) and I feel burnt to a crisp. My eyes feel burned. The sun felt oppressive and was stealing energy from me. Yes, I’m drinking plenty of water.

One more thing….

I think I’m going to extend the deadline for the 2008 Writer’s Market Contest to the end of the month, June 30th. I know that’s a bit to wait to see who gets the doorstop, but I think it might be a good idea. If you don’t know about the contest then go .

I have a friend, Chandra, who has been working very hard this year on not one, not two, but on THREE books. Today there was a tiny little notice on Amazon about one of them she’s finished and is in the last stages of publication.

I tried to find suitable pictures of Dr. Who imbibing champagne for the occasion, but couldn’t.  I did, however, find some delightful champagne cupcakes accompanied by a nice glass of the widow’s champagne.

Cheers, Chandra! Here’s to all your hard work and faith!

To the folks of Aoife’s Kiss and Electric Velocipede (and everyone else). They’re both out of Iowa and if you’ve been watching the news then you know they’re basically in need of an Ark out that way.

Kaz and Chandra have on two separate occasions reminded me lately of how what we read inspires us as writers. And I know Christina can’t walk through a bookstore without coming home with something and she writes all the time.

I have a pile of books to be read, but about a month or two ago I was hanging out  in Barnes and Noble (my first mistake) and saw books on the shelves there that had been on my Amazon Wishlist for years. They were Riddle Master and Cygnet by Patricia A. McKillip. There was one other that intrigued me by her, more recent, called Solstice Wood, more of a mythic realism type story where the other two are straight high fantasy. So, they came home with me because I love her writing and can’t stop myself. I can’t say I’ve read all of her books, but I’ve read many. The first one belonged to my best friend‘s sister. It was called The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. This was before the internet; the picture on the book is nothing like any of the editions on Amazon. I had never heard of her; it was the only book I had ever seen by her. I read and read and read it again. I couldn’t find anything else and thought it must have been the only thing she’d ever written. Then I found out differently and did my best to work through the books I could find.

Anyway, I’m in the middle of writing all sorts of things right now, fantasy fiction (short and long), articles, documents, etc. And besides the McKillip books, I have others waiting for me to read by Jeaniene Frost, by Vikki Pettersson, and others – newer, shinier, more action than you can shake a stick at. But my brain only wants McKillip right now. I want magic. I want dragons and swans and crows and high towers. Girls who run barefoot with diamond pins that drop out of their hair and boys who hear a call and have to search for it.

Solstice Wood was good. It still had McKillip’s magery with words, and subtlety, but it wasn’t enough. Too modern. Too many cars and cell phones and shiny modern things. So, I’ve been wending my way through the RiddleMaster Trilogy and then through the two Cygnet books, where I can hide in the forest between old trees, perched on moss-covered rocks, listening to the music of running water and the occasional rustle and call of birds and other wildlife.

That’s what I’m reading.

McKillip’s writing normally has cover art by Kinuko Craft. Glorious work, and true fantasy art. Below is the cover for Song for the Basilisk, though the illustrator has done several fairy tale covers as well.

My sister, mother, and I sponsor a child in Zimbabwe through a program. Besides money, we take turns sending him post cards, stickers, pencils, little things we all like to get in our letters sometimes. I don’t know if any one out there has been reading news about that part of the world recently, but the incumbent president and government, afraid that the election will do what it’s meant to do and vote in someone the people want, has stopped any aid from entering Zimbabwe. They’ve also physically threatened both American and British diplomats for reporting this. You can read more about it here and here. Similar actions were taken in Myanmar after the cyclone where it was said the powers that be were holding the aid hostage to insure that the populace would still vote for them.

These people are literally dying for the right to disagree, the right to outwardly stand up and say, “I don’t like what you’re saying or doing.”

In the mean time, in the Western world, we piddle about on the internet and discuss our “transparent” lives and whether or not we feel “safe” exposing so much of our selves online. What should we say or not say in this oh-so-public space. It’s a valid discussion. I’m not saying it’s not. Since we can’t really erase what we say and it’s up here for any future lovers, spouses, children, friends, employers, or clients to find if they have just a little internet savvy, it’s a definite consideration. But there’s a danger, I think, in trying so hard to be so perfect on the internet that we lose our right to dissent and expression through attrition.

We’re human! We think. We feel. We express those feelings and thoughts. It is a need so deep that we are willing to die to express those feelings on a very visceral level. We also screw up and say sh*t we wish we hadn’t.

So what.

We’re human. That’s what we do. If an employer or client will choose not to use you because of some flame war you were involved in who knows when, then they aren’t worth working with. I’m not saying being a flamer or cyber troll or getting involved in some internet drama is a good thing, but we all have the right to express ourself, to disagree, to ARGUE!

YES! Arguing is not bad. In fact, we learn when we argue. It’s not always a civilized debate and yes, unfortunate things can be said, but in the end, we learn when we argue. We learn when we watch arguments.

I know how we come across on the internet is important, but it’s no different or more or less important than how we come across in real life, either. Plus, not expressing ourselves, not being true to ourselves, is as harmful as the supposed harm you do yourself when you post that pic of you hugging the toilet when you were 19, or engaging in an openly hostile debate with supposed power figures.

I remember having dinner with my former boss and his family and some of their friends. One of the friends was discussing not being able to justify the cost of a new microwave to her boss. I was going to jump in and disagree and point out how that could be done. My former boss looked over at me and shook his head. He shut me up. It wasn’t during scheduled work hours but he shut me up and I let him take that power of expression from me and that was wrong. I should have spoken up. Okay, we can say it’s being polite. But be “polite” often enough and suddenly you become so used to being silent that you don’t speak up when something needs to be said.

I had a discussion with a former colleague once. What I considered everyone’s basic right to expression – both at work and outside of work – he considered insubordination. And I know my former boss has accused me (anonymously) of having “entitlement” issues because of my opinions. Well, I guess, if I believe that EVERYONE is ENTITLED to their opinion, to express that opinion, and to a place at the table, then I suppose I deserve that title.

“Men of Letters” used to engage in disagreements and heated arguments via letter all the time. We’re so worried now how it will look if someone gets hold of it, we don’t engage. Emily Dickinson constantly argued with her editor about her poetry. He didn’t like her punctuation marks, but she had valid reasons for them. The poetry she was writing was not the accepted form but she knew its worth and argued for it. YES! SHE ARGUED WITH THE EDITOR! For shame! So what. She lived to fight another day and was true to herself.

You know, it all goes back to that lesson we all have to learn in high school. Don’t be so g-d damned worried about how others see you that you aren’t true to yourself.

And always remember that not only do you have right to self-expression, but so does everybody else.