K.A. Laity's Blog, page 177

BitchBuzz: Little Earthquakes

My latest column for BitchBuzz touches on the laughable comment by an Islamic cleric that women's provocative dressing and sexual desire causes earthquakes. Ridiculous because even small children who look for logical answers to natural phenomena know about fault lines But just another depressing indication of the scapegoating of women that goes on. Until my friend Byron turned my head around:



Dust kicked up across the net this week when a Iranian cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, claimed ...

Serially Yours

Have you checked out The Mangrove Legacy recently? I only ask because I am thinking about the end of it. It will take some weeks yet, of course, but I can see the resolution now and I am also contemplating polishing it up to send off to one or two places. Like everything I do (apparently) it doesn't quite fit into a neat marketing niche. But who knows? The lazy way of novel writing -- for those of you who say you want to write but just can't find the time -- this story is up over 90,000 words...

A Wet Weekend

Too many late nights; too little sleep. Far too much rain driving back from Massachusetts.



Last night it was Neil Innes at the Iron Horse in Northampton, MA. Here he is wearing his moustache in order to sing in French (okay, mostly in a French accent). Yeah, phone pic so the quality isn't good. But we had a good time. I went with my pal Peg and we had a nice Thai dinner before the show and then laughed and sang a lot. Innes had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the start. getting folks ...

BitchBuzz: Women Filming Women

My latest column for BitchBuzz incorporates some of my review of The Runaways. The Queen and I had an interesting discussion on Facebook about it -- I was a bit more critical of it, mostly because I found it choppy and too often given to clichés, but on the whole I liked it and would recommend it. Among the reasons:

The recently released Runaways movie, directed by Floria Sigismondi, gives an inside view of the ways women are exploited and manufactured for display in the glitzy world of...

Insanely Busy

So, here's some music to entertain you: BB column coming soon!

Revisiting the Past

[image error] I'm not generally someone who looks back, but sometimes it's unavoidable. At present the impetus to revisit the past comes from the need to make revisions to Pelzmantel that my editor has suggested. I must admit I winced a bit at the thought of having to look at something I wrote so long ago; would it be too painful?

Fortunately, it's not. My editor has pointed to a number of useful improvements which will definitely strengthen the story, but it remains something of which I can be proud. I kno...

Between Work and Wit

That it is National Poetry Month has not escaped me, but I will not bother to mention it as 1) I am not a poet and 2) poets get far too much attention as it is and 3) there are far too many bad poets who would only find this encouragement to go on. They make me think of the incredibly overwrought poet O'Bannion from Auntie Mame. Bad poetry can be found around most any corner, even in an economic downturn. It multiplies like cockroaches. Cockroaches, however, don't get open mic nights.

Oh, sure...

Fictionaut, Beckett, Sinclair & O'Brien

My pal Meg Pokrass invited me to join Fictionaut, where I've begun to post stories. Another new venue, another potential way to reach an audience. What should I put there? Any stories/pieces you wish were more accessible? Spending breakfast with Beckett today; but much to do. Found this program by linking to this short that also appeared on the DVD of Ian Sinclair's The Cardinal and The Corpse which my pal Pádraig obtained for me (ta!).

The title of this post strikes me as a bad name for a law...

Conceit: Ashes

Since Blogger has put the kibosh on FTP-fed blogs [no, don't worry if you don't know what that means:] I had to kill Radio Wombat, home of my podcasts (though old posts remain because it's on my webspace). But it made me realise I didn't really need a separate place anyway. I can put podcasts here! So here's my latest conceit:



As you can see, it's actually a video. This came about because sometimes an idea just hijacks my brain. Advice to a friend became a status update on Facebook, which was t...

BitchBuzz: Girl Band Movies

My latest column for BitchBuzz gathers up some suggestions for girl group films. They were on my mind because I'm eagerly awaiting the seemingly endlessly delayed opening of The Runaways tomorrow:

If you're still waiting for The Runaways to come along to your neighbourhood and rock your world, there are a few other films you can see in the meantime to keep those girl group jones at bay.

ROCK-N-ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, 1979

It's got the Ramones! P. J. Soles! A best friend named Kate (okay, that may...