N-number of random things makes a post
Mar. 10th, 2012 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megwrites1. I'm trying out the Pheonix client for Dreamwidth, so let me know if anything about this entry has turned out wonky or otherwise not as it should be.
2. My husband put the finished draft of my novel into .mobi format and loaded it on our shared Kindle. It was like it was a really real book. I'm tempted to now to just give it away and let people throw money into some kind of tip jar because, eeeee! It looked really nicely formatted and like a real book and everything.
3. I'm still figuring out how to organize that inclusive SF/F writer's group/writer's support and critique comm thing type dealie place majigger. Right now I'm thinking of drawing up a basic statement of beliefs and goals and letting people see if they like it.
- Inclusivity is key. It's not just about diversity, but about actively including, encouraging, supporting, centering and listening to those who have been most pushed to the margins.
- Accessibility is part and parcel of inclusivity, and takes many many forms. Whether it's technical formatting or simply fostering a better environment, it matters. Without accesibility, inclusivity cannot truly happen.
- Intersectionality is as real as gravity and sunlight. It's a fact of life and it needs to be part of how we think about the work we do and the way we write.
- Inclusivity, accessibility, and intersectionality are three words that all say the same thing, "Your humanity is as real as mine. Your rights means as much as mine. You deserve as much respect as I do. All power differences between us are artificial and imposed and should be torn down."
- Lived reality and experience trump all. If you lived it, you are the expert in it. No amount of college courses, books read, research, or even temporarily trying to get an inside view on something (ie - voluntarily living homeless when you have a nice warm house and plenty of resources waiting for you) can ever approach what comes with living something.
- Nobody can speak for everybody, even those with similar lived experiences. They can speak for themselves, speak to experiences in their communities. Expecting someone to give you the "queer" viewpoint or the "Asian" viewpoint is both wrong and disrespectful to them and the many viewpoints, experiences, and communities that comprise those descriptors.
- Stories matter. There is no such thing as "just a story". Stories are powerful and that power needs to be respected. Stories shape us and are shaped by us. Stories define us as much as we define them. What we imagine indicates what experience, what we envision shows what we see, and what we create illustrates what we understand.
- The literature of the fantastic is extremely important. The ways in which we imagine the future are not only tantamount to telling truths about our present, but shaping what will be. The tales of what can never be or never was shape, indeliably, the reality of what is and what can be.
- Representation matters, both in quantity and quality. It's not enough just to have a lot of something. It needs to be done well.
- The burden for ending oppression ultimately lies with oppressors, not the oppressed. The burden for getting it right lies with those who keep getting it wrong. And the responsibility to stop further oppressive acts also lies with oppressors. It's the responsibility of the writer to make sure they're respecting the readers, not for the readers to contort and conform themselves to the writer, especially when the writer holds privileged over the reader.
- The most important part of getting it right is coming to the table with the willingness and humility to understand why you need to get it right, what getting it right is, and why it's been gotten wrong before.
- Anger against one's oppressors is ALWAYS justified. It's often a survival tool. No oppressed person owes their oppressors politeness. Nor do they owe them an education, an explanation, or a second of their time.
- Criticism and the willingness to listen to it and take it to heart, especially from those who's lived realities you are using in your storytelling is to be cultivated at all times. Put away defensiveness.
- Connections and communities matter. A lot.
- Just as individuals have a right to privacy, a right to share things only among a few trusted confidantes, so do communities of oppressed people. Some stories are not yours to tell. Some sacred things are not to be appropriated. Some discussions are internal and not meant to be participated in by outsiders. Sometimes communities need to talk amongst themselves. Respect this.
- Privacy and consent are intertwined and a fundamental right of all human beings. Meaning: no matter what has been shared before, a person reserves the right at all time to refuse to share further things or to revoke that sharing. Consent is ongoing, it can be revoked. If a person wants to change their mind, they have that absolute right.
- Everyone has a right to enjoy storytelling, to have stories that make them happy and represent them well, stories told by people like them and for people like them. Encouraging this makes for a better world and better people.
- Being an ally is a nice thought, but standing in solidarity is far better. To do that, one must take careful note of where others are standing in the first place and then redirect themselves towards that position rather than expecting it to go the other way around.
- Writing is important even if one never publishes. Sharing even just a snippet or an idea is a worthy thing. Whether one writes fast or slow, in one method or another, it's all valid.
4. I am now consumed by the need to start researching ALL THE FLOWERS AND PLANTS because there's a story somewhere in my head. Not sure where it is, and it's not ready to come out yet, but like a seed opening underground, I know something is going to pop up soon with some sunshine, some rain, and some time.
5. I mentioned this on Twitter and Tumblr, but it's that season again. My birthday is in April and when I get my inevitable gift cards/birthday money, I'm gonna need book recs. My criteria (copied from Tumblr) are:
- Really awesome SF/F or urban fantasy/paranormal romance by authors of color and/or about protagonists of color. The less fail-y the better. God, but I need some good speculative literature right now.
- Steampunk that doesn’t fail.
- Ditto the above for authors who are queer, trans, have a disability, etc.
- Any awesome history books about non-European, non-White people centric history.
- Any books about journaling, drawing, or painting that have been helpful, especially for beginners who don’t have a lot of nifty tools at their disposal.
- Hot, steamy, queeralicious romance, erotica, etc. Will try out heterosexual pairings or situations where it breaks through norms and tropes or otherwise is something besides the same old, same old. Kink is a plus.
- Any good social sciences/culture books about topics relevant to my interests.
- Any good pop science books, particularly on physics, astronomy, astrophysics, biology, or chemistry. ETA: Botany and other natural sciences are good, too.
- Any other books that seem like they’d be right up my alley.
6. This is my dog on Youtube. This is her tail of adventure, action, and whirlwind passion. She is absurd in every possible way and extremely sweet and inordinately fond of citrus and eating cloth. I just wanted to brag about her because she's really cute and sleeping next to me. Yes, she is named after the book/movie but only because she was named "Cora" at the animal control place we adopted her from and we didn't like that. I wanted to name her Sharptooth.
7. I'm on Goodreads. Go add me so I won't be lonely? *sad woe face*.
2. My husband put the finished draft of my novel into .mobi format and loaded it on our shared Kindle. It was like it was a really real book. I'm tempted to now to just give it away and let people throw money into some kind of tip jar because, eeeee! It looked really nicely formatted and like a real book and everything.
3. I'm still figuring out how to organize that inclusive SF/F writer's group/writer's support and critique comm thing type dealie place majigger. Right now I'm thinking of drawing up a basic statement of beliefs and goals and letting people see if they like it.
- Inclusivity is key. It's not just about diversity, but about actively including, encouraging, supporting, centering and listening to those who have been most pushed to the margins.
- Accessibility is part and parcel of inclusivity, and takes many many forms. Whether it's technical formatting or simply fostering a better environment, it matters. Without accesibility, inclusivity cannot truly happen.
- Intersectionality is as real as gravity and sunlight. It's a fact of life and it needs to be part of how we think about the work we do and the way we write.
- Inclusivity, accessibility, and intersectionality are three words that all say the same thing, "Your humanity is as real as mine. Your rights means as much as mine. You deserve as much respect as I do. All power differences between us are artificial and imposed and should be torn down."
- Lived reality and experience trump all. If you lived it, you are the expert in it. No amount of college courses, books read, research, or even temporarily trying to get an inside view on something (ie - voluntarily living homeless when you have a nice warm house and plenty of resources waiting for you) can ever approach what comes with living something.
- Nobody can speak for everybody, even those with similar lived experiences. They can speak for themselves, speak to experiences in their communities. Expecting someone to give you the "queer" viewpoint or the "Asian" viewpoint is both wrong and disrespectful to them and the many viewpoints, experiences, and communities that comprise those descriptors.
- Stories matter. There is no such thing as "just a story". Stories are powerful and that power needs to be respected. Stories shape us and are shaped by us. Stories define us as much as we define them. What we imagine indicates what experience, what we envision shows what we see, and what we create illustrates what we understand.
- The literature of the fantastic is extremely important. The ways in which we imagine the future are not only tantamount to telling truths about our present, but shaping what will be. The tales of what can never be or never was shape, indeliably, the reality of what is and what can be.
- Representation matters, both in quantity and quality. It's not enough just to have a lot of something. It needs to be done well.
- The burden for ending oppression ultimately lies with oppressors, not the oppressed. The burden for getting it right lies with those who keep getting it wrong. And the responsibility to stop further oppressive acts also lies with oppressors. It's the responsibility of the writer to make sure they're respecting the readers, not for the readers to contort and conform themselves to the writer, especially when the writer holds privileged over the reader.
- The most important part of getting it right is coming to the table with the willingness and humility to understand why you need to get it right, what getting it right is, and why it's been gotten wrong before.
- Anger against one's oppressors is ALWAYS justified. It's often a survival tool. No oppressed person owes their oppressors politeness. Nor do they owe them an education, an explanation, or a second of their time.
- Criticism and the willingness to listen to it and take it to heart, especially from those who's lived realities you are using in your storytelling is to be cultivated at all times. Put away defensiveness.
- Connections and communities matter. A lot.
- Just as individuals have a right to privacy, a right to share things only among a few trusted confidantes, so do communities of oppressed people. Some stories are not yours to tell. Some sacred things are not to be appropriated. Some discussions are internal and not meant to be participated in by outsiders. Sometimes communities need to talk amongst themselves. Respect this.
- Privacy and consent are intertwined and a fundamental right of all human beings. Meaning: no matter what has been shared before, a person reserves the right at all time to refuse to share further things or to revoke that sharing. Consent is ongoing, it can be revoked. If a person wants to change their mind, they have that absolute right.
- Everyone has a right to enjoy storytelling, to have stories that make them happy and represent them well, stories told by people like them and for people like them. Encouraging this makes for a better world and better people.
- Being an ally is a nice thought, but standing in solidarity is far better. To do that, one must take careful note of where others are standing in the first place and then redirect themselves towards that position rather than expecting it to go the other way around.
- Writing is important even if one never publishes. Sharing even just a snippet or an idea is a worthy thing. Whether one writes fast or slow, in one method or another, it's all valid.
4. I am now consumed by the need to start researching ALL THE FLOWERS AND PLANTS because there's a story somewhere in my head. Not sure where it is, and it's not ready to come out yet, but like a seed opening underground, I know something is going to pop up soon with some sunshine, some rain, and some time.
5. I mentioned this on Twitter and Tumblr, but it's that season again. My birthday is in April and when I get my inevitable gift cards/birthday money, I'm gonna need book recs. My criteria (copied from Tumblr) are:
- Really awesome SF/F or urban fantasy/paranormal romance by authors of color and/or about protagonists of color. The less fail-y the better. God, but I need some good speculative literature right now.
- Steampunk that doesn’t fail.
- Ditto the above for authors who are queer, trans, have a disability, etc.
- Any awesome history books about non-European, non-White people centric history.
- Any books about journaling, drawing, or painting that have been helpful, especially for beginners who don’t have a lot of nifty tools at their disposal.
- Hot, steamy, queeralicious romance, erotica, etc. Will try out heterosexual pairings or situations where it breaks through norms and tropes or otherwise is something besides the same old, same old. Kink is a plus.
- Any good social sciences/culture books about topics relevant to my interests.
- Any good pop science books, particularly on physics, astronomy, astrophysics, biology, or chemistry. ETA: Botany and other natural sciences are good, too.
- Any other books that seem like they’d be right up my alley.
6. This is my dog on Youtube. This is her tail of adventure, action, and whirlwind passion. She is absurd in every possible way and extremely sweet and inordinately fond of citrus and eating cloth. I just wanted to brag about her because she's really cute and sleeping next to me. Yes, she is named after the book/movie but only because she was named "Cora" at the animal control place we adopted her from and we didn't like that. I wanted to name her Sharptooth.
7. I'm on Goodreads. Go add me so I won't be lonely? *sad woe face*.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 03:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 03:56 am (UTC)Note: "tenents" should probably be "tenets."
no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 12:27 pm (UTC)Your dog!! So adorable!
Added you on Goodreads. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 01:23 pm (UTC)As for recs...I heartily recommend Amanda Downum's The Bone Palace--one of the two POV protags, Savedra, is a trans woman, and she's portrayed as nuanced and utterly competent. Also, the setting is evocative of Renaissance/Enlightenment Turkey and Eastern Europe. The other protag is an awesome lady as well. It is, however, incredibly dark fantasy in tone, in case that is not your cuppa.
In light of Andrea Hairston's latest book, Redwood and Wildfire, winning the Tiptree, I recommend her first book, Mindscape, as I've not read R&W yet. Be warned that I'm a bit biased as she was a prof of mine and I read an early draft, but Mindscape has fantastic worldbuilding and depicts a wonderfully complex POC-centric future.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 04:29 pm (UTC)I assume you've read 'Octavian Nothing' and 'UnLunDun'?
no subject
Date: 2012-03-11 05:25 pm (UTC)For book recs, seconding Amanda Downum! And I believe the third in her Necromancer Chronicles - Bone Palace is the second book in the trilogy - is coming out this month.
I love anything by Catherynne M Valente, but her Prester John series might be right up your alley. Her Orphan's Tales books are amazing, and I also really liked Palimpsest. Pro-woman, pro-queer (Palimpsest won a Lambda Award for GLBT Science Fiction or Fantasy), pro-diversity.
If you like dark fantasy, Caitlin Kiernan's a lot of awesome; she's a lesbian, so many of her characters are too, and she's also a transwoman . The Red Tree is my go-to for a good ghost story.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-12 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-13 01:56 pm (UTC)