For those who haven't heard...and as often as I mention this project (or read from it in public) there are Readers who haven't heard about it...I'm working on a Space Opera. The elevator pitch is: Persephone Station is a gender-flipped Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven set in space with six women of color and one white woman who never speaks. It will be published by Saga Press of Simon and Schuster. Looking for music to inspire such a thing has been fun. I'm still searching--that's a lot of the fun with this sort of thing, at least for me. So, I may have posted a list before. It's changed since then. It generally does as I get acquainted with the characters and the story. So, in no particular order...
1) Short Change Hero -- The Heavy 2) Killing Strangers -- Marilyn Manson 3) The Fade Out Line -- Phoebe Killdeer & The Short Straws 4) Can't Kill Us -- The Glitch Mob 5) Beat the Devil's Tattoo -- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 6) Lay Myself Down -- Mazzy Star 7) Tennis Court -- Lourde 8) Intro -- The XX 10) No Soul (PMT Remix) -- ILS/The Crystal Method 11) Butterfly -- Bassnectar (featuring Mimi Page) 12) Predator (Final Mix) -- Front Line Assembly 13) Black Melt -- Massive Attack 14) Overkill -- Kosheen 15) Say My Name -- ODESZA (featuring Zyra) 16) Anxiety -- Ladyhawke 17) Heart of Stone -- Ravonettes 18) Two Weeks -- FKA twiggs 19) You Don't Get Me High Anymore -- Phantagram 20) Stigmata -- Marilyn Manson & Tyler Bates
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I spent most of the past few days with the muscled in my back tensed--ready for the horrible news that the state of Alabama elected a corrupt pedophile because he was running as a Republican. Things have been that squirrelly around here. I was starting to think that we'd reached the point of no return. I got even more stressed when I heard about some of the stunts that were being pulled to prevent black voters from voting.[1] Nonetheless, Democrat Doug Jones won the Senate seat in a staunchly Republican state. I can't even begin to tell you how relieved and happy I am about this. (Mind you, its' taken a while to loosen the tension in my shoulders and back.) This is a good sign regarding the 2018 elections. I was almost as happy as I was when I heard about the indictments of Manafort and Gates in October. All of these are signs that we've a chance to seriously slow down this shit show in 2018. But it's clear an important message has got to sink in when it comes to the Democratic party. This, from the previous link: "Jones’s mobilization of African American voters was critical to his victory, and Democrats saw in his turnout emphasis a model for how the party must mobilize its essential voter coalitions in the coming year. In the final weekend of the campaign, Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) and other prominent black Democrats rallied for Jones." That's right, black voters were key to the win. Let me repeat that: black voters were key to the win, not disillusioned white Trump voters--black voters. It's long past time we stopped focusing on whites who voted for Trump. I've long felt those articles were a form of racism. Why focus on 32% of those who bothered to vote and still support the scumbag when we need to shore up and unify the other 68%? Black voters are important to the political process and they outnumber white Trumpians. Where are all the heartfelt articles about their anxieties and needs? Anyway, I'm thrilled to death about Alabama's special election results. Now, let's see if the Republicans pull out all the stops to prevent Jones from assuming his seat ASAP. There are already rumors that they will push for a wait until after the vile Tax bill is passed. Did I mention I'm sick to death of Republicans being lying, cheating, scummy bastards? Yeah. [sigh] ---------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Alabama recently instilled a photo ID law--one wherein voters are required to have a state sanctioned picture ID in order to cast a vote. It's one of the oldest means of preventing minority groups and the poor from voting. It costs money and time to obtain a driver's license or a state ID. And they have to be periodically renewed. The poor can't afford either. As it turns out, a lot of the stories about Alabama closing driver's license offices in primarily black neighborhoods were from 2015. (They decided against it after catching vast amounts of flack for it.) However, I did see reports of individuals traveling to the polls being held by police for minor traffic violations for up to an hour before finally being ticketed.
Good morning, y'all. Ready for some righteous rage, serious thought, and maybe a little laughter? Okay. Let's do this thing, shall we? Today's videos (sorry for all the white cis women, y'all. i'll do better next week.):
I'm going to complain again about YouTube. I subscribe to The Freq Show. Why the fuck do I need to see an anti-feminist barf her internalized bigotry all over the screen after I watch a Feminist video? Fuck Off, YouTube. Fuck. Off. (In other words, don't just let the video continue to play after it's done, folks.)
And now for the links.
Folks are gearing up their lists for awards-eligible work and well...mine's not much of a list. (As you can tell, I suck at this self promotion thing.) There's only Blackthorne, my 700 page Epic Fantasy novel and the sequel to Cold Iron. I really do need to start writing short stories. :) Oh! And today I got the following feedback:
"And holy shit guys. This is a HELL of an epic fantasy. Lots of women characters with agency. Queer rep. And serious critique of the shitty power structures of fantasy feudalism. AND a great yarn. Seriously impressed. The last chapter contains the line. "Honestly, the stories people in power tell themselves to justify their station." "heirs to a kingdom are heroes because they dismantle its power structures" is my dream fantasy plot." ----@gaybookgeek Mind you, officially that's for Cold Iron, but it could easily be for Blackthorne too. "I don't get it. Who was that little boy and what did he have to do with Bruce Willis?"
--woman who was obviously unclear on the concept of 'time travel story' in a theater restroom after having seen the film 12 Monkeys This morning, I read an article about how the (male) producer of the movie Annihilation is at odds with its (male) director. This, because "After the screening, Ellison (the producer) became concerned that the movie was “too intellectual” and “too complicated” and wanted changes made to make it appeal to a wider audience." Okay. A couple of things here. First? Because one of the changes he wanted to make involved making Natalie Portman's character, the biologist, more 'sympathetic' I can't help feeling a lot of the issues involve men and misogyny. I read the novel. The biologist is a complex, even difficult character. She's not a happy person. Women are simply not allowed to be difficult on screen in mainstream America unless they're being categorized and dismissed. (see The Iron Lady[1]) Secondly, SFF has never actually been a mainstream thing. It's niche. Most people who watch super hero films don't read comics, and most consumers of SFF media don't read. You can see this at ComicCons everywhere. The entire focus is on TV or film stars and buying media-related...stuff. The literary arm of the convention--even comic book art--is an afterthought. Better yet, compare the attendance numbers between SFF literary conventions (100-800 people) and ComicCons. I'll say it again. SFF is not actually a mainstream thing. TV and film are.
This is the time of year when I want to be positive and hopeful about humanity in general. Needless to say, last year was a tough one in that department. This year has also been challenging--already, but so far, it hasn't been quite as bad. I'm over the shock for a start.
For the record, I'm a fan of "Happy Holidays!" People who insist on "keeping Christ in Christmas" are merrily attempting to erase every other belief system that exists. No one group has a monopoly on holy days in December, y'all. So, learn to share. That used to be a core Christian belief. Whatever happened to it? Anyway, we bought our tree early this year, and Dane and I decorated it together. (I prefer live trees. I love the smell.) I also enjoy watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, and this year I even got to see Santa arrive.[1] Usually, I'm too busy in the kitchen and miss that part. For me, the holidays aren't The Holidays without seeing Santa at the end of that parade. I blame Miracle on 34th Street. (Doris Walker, Susan's mother, works for Macy's and manages the parade.) I prefer the 1947 version for the record. The reason why is because there are little details that don't hold the same punch when you don't have the freshly dead specter of WWII hanging overhead. For example the following scene has a lot of power when you understand that that kid is a war orphan. This film premiered in 1947--just two years after the end of the war.
Happy first Monday of December, y'all! Ready for those links? Let's do that thing. First up, today's video:
2017's main themes seem to be horrible, terrible, awful politics and ALL THE GREAT TV IN THE UNIVERSE. It's as if the entertainment world has said, "Holy crap. Reality is a steaming pile of shit right now. Let's have a little something to save you from existential nuclear dread and sanity damage, shall we?" You know what? I'll take it.
Which brings me to today's offering.
I'm a Gilmore Girls fan. (The show helped me through my HRC-losing-the-election depression. No Joke. Also, I'm so not Team Dean. Rory makes the worst decisions when it comes to men.) Amy Sherman-Palladino is an incredible writer. She has a gift with dialog. Dialog is tough. Great dialog is tougher. It's like ballet. It requires talent and a LOT of training and in the end it must appear effortless or it doesn't work at all. Sherman-Palladino is amazingly amazing and this show from what I've seen--I watched the first episode--is no different. It's brilliant, funny, and nails so many issues around being a woman in a world where CIS white men's needs, dreams, and problems are always center stage. I'll follow her anywhere...but...
Amazon Prime. FFS, is there any way to watch the show without signing up? Because I'm okay with paying for episodes. I've done it before. However, I refuse to pay $70 for a service when I only buy 3 or 4 things on Amazon a year. Fuck that. Sorry, I'm on the last part of the rewrite which involves restructuring the ending a bit. Endings are difficult as every writer knows. They require a lot of thought and consideration. More often than not, they involve things you may not have (yet) discovered about your story--things like theme. My rough drafts always have sucky endings for this reason, and if I rush through this part, I always regret it. So, I'm not doing that. Not with this novel. The story is too important to me to do that this time. But that means less blogging. I don't have big plans for the weekend. I'm not doing anything exciting. I'm just writing, watching some television[1], and going on long walks. None of which make for interesting blog posts. May you have a lovely weekend that doesn't involve pie-atrocity. I'm looking at you The Great British Bake-Off. ----------------------------------------------
[1] Which often involves British Baking because it's so soothing--except when they decide to bake American pies and OMFG DON'T DO THAT TO A PECAN PIE!! OR THAT TO A PUMPKIN PIE!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! I THOUGHT BRITS WERE CIVILIZED![2] [2] Joking.[3] [3] Not joking.[4] [4] Joking. [5] [5] Or am I? I've talked a bit about personal health issues. Largely, I do it so that those starting out as writers understand that life isn't going to stop throwing obstacles in your path once you become published. As Rosanna Rosannadanna used to say, "It's always something." The idea is that you don't let it stop you. Fight the good fight, my friends. Anyway, let's talk about something that happened yesterday and how it's pretty disturbing.
I got a phone call from my insurance company yesterday. It seems they have a "new" program that they wanted me to take advantage of--one where they've hired a registered nurse to interface with their clientele. I was instantly alarmed. Why? Let's travel back to a time before Obamacare. Around a year before Obamacare. I broke and dislocated my elbow in martial arts class. |
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