megwrites

1. A six year old guesses the plots of classic novels based on their covers. Well, classic Western literature. Favorite reinterpretation? The Great Gatsby.

2. Now your e-reader is reading you. A fairly scary prospect that makes me want to only ever read paper books and also invest in tinfoil and perhaps think about going off the grid with my paper books. The thing is? It's not that I consider how and what and the manner in which I read so secret and sacred. I'll gladly give that info out, I'll tell you all about it. It's just that I want to be asked up front about it.

What I don't trust about this is that these companies are going to do anything useful or even good for consumers and that they can be trusted at all to gather any data in this sneaky kind of manner.

Especially since it seems like they're willing to invest more in getting data like a kid trying to sneak a cookie from the jar rather than just, yanno, asking readers what they want and then fucking listening. I find the "well TV and movies have focus groups" statement disingenuous. Yes, they have focus groups, but the people in the focus groups know they're in the focus group and are aware that they're there specifically to be a data point for producers.

3. Brave from a trans man's point of view. I really like this reading of it, and it had occurred to me a few times during the film.

However, what bothers me (about movies in general, not this article) is that while we have films about women doing masculine things and wanting to be less "princess-y", we don't have a lot of films or movies about boys (or at least AMAB people) wanting to be less masculine and wanting to be very princess-y. Or about a princess who has been wrongly called a boy and a prince her whole life. Not to take away from this very good reading of it, it's just, well. I think it's not just about having more women but more types of women. There are plenty of women filled TV shows and movies. It's just they're all filled with white cis straight ladies.

4. In case your blood pressure needed to be raised (TW: blackface, dire racism and bigotry and white supremacy, and all around fail): Save the Pearls. It's just...yeah. It's as bad as you think and worse. And there's some very good commentary here about why even calling white people "pearls" while referring to PoC in the book as Coal, Tiger-Eye, Amber, etc is problematic as hell. Feel free to use Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook to register just how disgusted you are. Also, keep in mind the press is a vanity press and the awards are all bought.

5. I definitely want to pick up Salsa Nocturna the minute I get the chance. It's gotten praise from people I trust (like N.K. Jemisin) and I like what I'm hearing. So, quick book rec there.

1. New layout! Woohoo, it's all pretty and has my tags and blurb spaces and everything I want. Courtesy of thefulcrum. So purtylicious.

2. The userinfo has changed around a bit.

3. Right now, I'm having a rockin' time with DarkRoom. It's basically a program which gives you a fullscreen writing space with just you, a black background, and your words. I've got mine set so it looks just like the Ye Old Green Screens (for those old enough to remember those type of computers). It's surprisingly helpful and just in time to be useful for Nanowrimo.

4. RECS!

Captive Girl by Jennifer Pelland - A rending, haunting story that sinks it's teeth in and doesn't let go. I was particularly impressed by the fact that not only was the storyline and characterization to my liking, but the prose itself is. It's well written on many levels. Without giving too much away, the story involves a woman who's work helping to guard the planet has caused a disability which she must give up when the project she works for is shut down. But the question becomes whether the disability is so much physical as mental and whether love and captivity are ever the same thing. If you're bothered by open homosexuality or sexuality in the disabled, this story may not be for you (but hell, this *journal* may not be for you, either).

Note: if you enjoy this story, you may consider donating to the site, as the authors are paid from a portion of the profits the site makes that particular month. So, go give money to this fabulous author and keep her writing, eh?

When Science Fiction Cliches Go Bad by Jennifer Pelland - Three absolutely hi-larious little ditties that had me falling out of my chair. Again, be warned of queerness, uppity wenches, and Amazons gone awry. What I really like about this humor is not only that it's strangely thoughtful and even better done than the cliches themselves most times, but that there has yet to be a line so beautiful, so well written as: Alix threw her hands in the air. “The aliens have porn.”. No *really*. Yes, the aliens have *porn*. There's a wealth of other sucker-punching oneliners that made me squee, but I'd pretty much have to repost the whole story to get them all in here. So just go, duder. Just go.

The author can be found as jenwrites on LJ.