Michón Neal's Blog, page 24

Cuilverse: The Importance of Touch

Warning: Your head may or may not explode. Oh, also, there may be some language and talk of adult situations below. Not much, I assure you. I’m saving most of that for my books.

Touch is significant in all of my stories because it has played such a significant role in my own life, good, bad, and neutral. I am a highly sensitive and sensual person. This leads to some rather odd situations, such as my visceral reactions to people or ideas I dislike, my physical reactions to music I love, and my discomfort with some forms of PDA. My own sexuality, sensuality, and all of the mental and emotional aspects that go with it are myriad, complex, yet not the subject I’m discussing today. Today is about how this sense of touch plays out throughout the Cuilverse and how it affects the people in it.

There are rarely accidental touches in my books, except for my favored “literally bumping into each other” trope. There are also a few clumsy characters or those who become clumsy when they’re thinking very deeply about something (which occurs quite often). When characters intentionally touch, I love exploring everything behind it.

The vampires, especially scaroth, have codes written into the ways they touch one another. They often use kisses on the wrist to show devotion, to offer apology, and the further up the arm they go, the closer they want to get to you. A kiss on the neck is usually reserved for lovers. There are also scaroth who are able to heal small injuries through a kiss. Since they are the stewards of sexual pleasure the greatest punishment they can receive involves being banned from touching those they love. Rape is anathema to them; it is their greatest sin. In fact, due to the fact that the scaroth race originated for the purposes of pleasure the rates for forced sexual situations and molestation is virtually nonexistent. On the other hand, partly because of their Promise (which I’ll explain in more detail in a later post) they are charged with judging those who do harm people in such ways. Scaroths tend to be rather energetic, violent, and even pushy. Most flirt with the edge of sexuality yet never cross the line because they can literally sense how far the other person wants them to go. It also doesn’t hurt that their natural magnetism brings them as many lovers as their appetites can handle. Lucky bastards.

For logmin, touch is something quite different. They experience no sexual attraction because of their very biology. They literally cannot have sex and many of them do not enjoy it even if they try. They are also along the asexual spectrum and deal with it in as many different ways as human asexuals do. Some of them are highly sensuous, a few of them do have sex with their partners, some of them never have sex, and unlike their human counterparts a few of them (I’m looking at you, Queen Aeryn) lure in victims with the temptation of sex. I mean, these are vampires and they do get hungry. Anyway, some of them are sex-averse, some of them don’t care either way, and a few others, like Don actively seek ways to regain sexual ability, if not the actual desire. Jean Claude, being a lot younger than Donartez, has a more unique situation. He was given the ability to respond sexually to Queen Aeryn by Mark Ulf, who travels back and forth from the future so knew she’d be something other than logmin this time around. Whew, that was a mouthful. Suffice it to say, most logmin are not as weird as Don and Jean.

Another creature, the elf, also has its own unique rituals surrounding touch. Elves have the ability to gain basic information about another person by examining the other’s hand with their own. It’s a complicated process and takes a good minute or so, but the longer they explore your hand the more information they gain about you. It’s one hell of a handshake, I’ll tell you that much. There is also a lovely little ritual they do when they intend to marry their mates, but I’m keeping that a secret for now. Yes, it involves hands. Ah, I should also point out that the vast majority of elves end up in triads, as there are three sexes and not two. This is actually important to the plot of one of the books I’m writing now, but like Mark Blue/Ulf, I’m going to be an ass about it and not tell you why.

In general, my characters all pay attention to touch in order to communicate, to learn, to grow close. There are comparisons and contrasts between consent and force, pleasure and pain, and comfort and aversion. Some characters usually ask before touching, some learn to ask, others don’t give a shit. A few are tactile addicts and love exploring objects or textures as much as people. I do write a lot about sex, since it’s such a common way people touch one another and I don’t think it’s shameful but I also like to stress that all forms of touch can be equally as meaningful, sometimes more so. I don’t like to write things without purpose and more often than not all of the complex information, situations, and communication behind a touch are implied and are important to that scene, to those people. Touch can shape so much of who we are as people, how we interpret the world, and how we interact with everything and everyone around us. I can only hope that that shows in my writing. If not, then I’ve got plenty more books to come that will.

Filed under: Health, Sexuality or Lack Thereof, The Cuil Effect Tagged: characters, stories, touch, vampires

Character and Song #23: Joe Ashton

Joe looks like an older, more refined Mark Ashton.  He wears his hair long and can often be found wearing sunglasses. Due to something that happened when he was younger  his eyes are more sensitive to light than his other family members. I fell completely in love with Joe as he grew into a central part of the cuilverse. He has a patience most  scaroths aren’t capable of and this only serves to make him more dangerous. In addition, he also can tap into the sapiosexual energy of his partners instead of merely the physiological arousal. This is how he became legendary for being the only person to  get logmin Queen Aeryn to lay with him in her previous life. He’s wise, he’s sexy, and he’s always had Mark’s back. He first appears in the Allison Dutch series and can be seen popping in and out of the rest of the cuilverse. His song is Blue Magnetic Ocean by Mystical Sun.

Filed under: The Cuil Effect Tagged: Allison Dutch, characters, polyamory, stories, vampire

Big Changes and Chances

The reason I haven’t been on lately is because there’s been a huge change in my life. I’m excited about it but it also requires a lot more of my time and effort. Please be patient with me. I will be sure to post an update about these new developments if all goes well. In the meantime, send me all the good vibes you can! And enjoy this wonderful song.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: happy, opportunities, work

A Different Way To Write: Cuilly

 

I don’t write stories about generalizations. My characters aren’t plot devices to move the tale to its most exciting point. My word-flow isn’t flowery for no reason or hurriedly written down in order to fill up white space. I don’t have to force any character into a situation that doesn’t ring true for their actual nature. No, I write…something else.

My stories are about specifics. My characters represent ideas and points of view. The words I write are as jarring, haphazard, or nerdy as the character possessing my left hand at the moment. Relationships, fears, and dreams unfold for each character as their personality and circumstance dictates. My stories are full of chaos, beauty, and hidden agendas unfolding and tumbling inexorably to their logical conclusions. Monsters, demons, angels, humans; no matter what they are, they can never escape their true nature.

To write cuil is to break from the molded and modeled expectations of the literary profession. It hacks and twists the normal modes of storytelling to knock the breath out the reader. It is dripping with sarcasm and absurdism is buried so deeply in each letter that even the most normative occurrence leaves you in stitches as you grasp to sort it all out.

Other writers focus on worlds or characters, often at the expense of one or the other. My characters and worlds are literally made for one another. The created peoples are not blanks into which I pour whatever qualities are “in” or standard. My characters make me uncomfortable with their depth, uniqueness, and vulnerability; they’d certainly make many readers feel the same. They are also trapped within the rules of the universes they reside in, by the societies they hail from, and by their own personal limits.

There are barely any flat characters in my stories. Even ones who are hardly mentioned are usually dynamic characters in some way. They all grow and change, just like real people. I think dynamic characters aren’t used often enough in stories nowadays or are only used to round out the plot all pretty-like. When I began writing 14 years ago, I dared to let the characters show me who they really were. I gulped as I let the worlds they inhabited take over my mind and become organic structures.

My books aren’t like any others out there. Not just because they’re semi-autobiographical in a sick and hilarious way. Not merely because many of my characters are of color, queer, and/or polyamorous. Not even because I throw in bits of actual history, philosophy, and science alongside mysticism, idiocy, and creative license and dare the reader to tell the difference. My books are different because of where they are heading and what I hope they will do. I hope that my writing can help change the way people think about themselves, and in turn about others as well. I hope to bring to light all the people the world never wanted to see and find that they are still very human. I want to show how we all embarrass ourselves time to time, how we all doubt, and how we all fight to keep living. I mean, there are other books out there that I’m sure cover some of these topics. But are they written in a cuil way?

 

*If you happen to have had your interest piqued or just would like to know what I’m rambling about here, head on over to my links page.

Filed under: Stories, The Cuil Effect Tagged: Books, characters, stories, transparency, writing

4 Ways Parents Teach Kids that Consent Doesn’t Matter — Everyday Feminism

I love this. I’ve already practiced or set into practice the first three. I hadn’t heard of the touching-the-shoulder thing to help kids wait. That’s something I’ll try out with my little one. Consent is so important and it needs to learned from a young age. Learning about how consent should happen and how it works helped me understand my powerlessness in awful situations. Due to the way I’d grown up and the abuse I’d suffered at such a young age, I grew older never realizing that I could say no or how to say no. And even the times I did the other person or people could not respect it. I ended up cutting a lot of people out of my life if I felt they had issues respecting boundaries or expressed an inability to understand consent. I always worried about having a girl grow up in this world. I worried about having boys, too, but I had this absolute fear that I’d have a daughter and most others in the world would still not appreciate and practice consent. Seeing articles like this and hearing more about developing a consent culture give me hope. I’ve often contrasted consensual and non-consensual behaviors in my stories and of course now I have more tools to better model what consent-culture looks like from the cradle to the grave. That’s powerful. Take a moment to read this and think of the ways you were taught, or not, about consent and how you can teach others about it.

 

4 Ways Parents Teach Kids that Consent Doesn’t Matter — Everyday Feminism.

Filed under: Ethics, Inspiration, Life Tagged: choice, emotional health, Health, Inspiration, Personal, transparency

The Dark Side

This is some heavy shit. I do not post this lightly. I don’t need any nonsense spouted about this. It’s a hard topic with very little information available. I don’t recommend this for young or delicate eyes. Use discretion. There is no graphic language or anything but it is an incredibly difficult topic.

Potential trigger warning: I was terrified of reading this, especially given my past being on the receiving end of such monstrosity. It’s definitely got me on the verge of tears but not for the reason I thought it would. Yes, this is a difficult subject. Yes, there are really those out there who hurt people. There are also wonderful people fighting immense battles like the kid here. People just trying to understand what is happening to them. I cannot begin to understand what it’s like from the other side like that. The only comparison I have is to my own mental disorders and the fight to not let them destroy my own life. What has me nearly crying is the shame and fear around this. This young man was turned away by the people who were supposed to be able to help. If we want things, if we want THIS to change then we have to start really talking about it, thinking about it, learning about it. We have to be brave enough to stare our monsters in the face and strip away their power. I have no idea if pedophiles can be redirected, cured, or simply managed like others with mental disorders but my God do I want to at least find out. It starts with us. How can you fix something if you won’t even look at it? It gives me a whole new challenge to change my perspective on something I’ve never understood. One day soon, I’ll be sharing my own story in my books. My family’s been warned because all of that pain might come rushing back and I’ll need their support like never before. But if I write it, will people like this young man read it, understand how they can hurt people, and find the courage to seek help? I’m really hoping the best for him. He’s a brave soul.

The Story of a 19-Year-Old Pedophile

 

 

 

Filed under: Ethics, Health, Sexuality or Lack Thereof Tagged: Accountability, broken, fear, illness, integrity, trauma

Character and Song #22: Truth

You read that right. Although in this case the Truth isn’t so much here to set you free than to smack you dead in the face. Along with her merry crew…ha ha, ok, let’s be honest since we’re in the presence of the truth; along with her intimidating band of awkwardly named sidekicks, Truth hunts down Bad Guys, Trize, and Lazy Asses to dole out some hardcore veracity on how things really are. Her eyes and hair change color depending on her mood or what she senses from others (sounds a bit like someone else we know). No one’s really sure where she came from or exactly what her task is on Earth. All That Guy knows is that she and he rowdy, eccentric friends make his life way too interesting. You’ll find out more about her adventures sometime next year. In the meantime, enjoy Morgan Freeman dropping some Truth with B.o.B. in Bombs Away, which would make a suiting theme song for her.

Filed under: The Cuil Effect, Truth Tagged: Books, characters, fiction, series, stories, Truth, truth hurts, writing

Cuil Peeks

Cuil Peeks.

Filed under: Life, The Cuil Effect Tagged: Allison Dutch, black tree, book guide, freebies, sneak peeks, stories, writing

10 Reasons You Might Want to Make Some Fucking Art | The Creativity Post

A fabulous read. It captures brilliantly just why I love and have to write. I never enjoy anything so much. It’s as necessary as breathing. And it is so much fun.

10 Reasons You Might Want to Make Some Fucking Art | The Creativity Post.

Filed under: Inspiration, Integrity, Life Tagged: art, creativity, discovery, writing

Aesthetic Attraction

Keizick:

I just want to say, as an allosexual, I have the biggest aesthetic attraction for Tilda Swinton. There are a few others I feel aesthetically attracted to, yet she stands out as far as eliciting the most enduring attraction in me. I often find myself aesthetically attracted to androgynous (and androgynous-appearing) people even though I have aesthetic recognition for all genders. And don’t even get me started on the other kinds of attractions. I’ll save that fun exploration for my books. I’m definitely the odd one out. This will be interesting.

Originally posted on The Thinking Asexual:

So anyone who’s spent any time learning about asexuality from asexuals likely knows that many asexuals experience aesthetic attraction to people, despite our inability to feel sexual attraction. Aesthetic attraction is about the image of a person, the visual: their body, their face, the way they dress, even the way they move (though this is sometimes separated out and identified as kinesthetic attraction). Asexuals can have types, when it comes to physical appearance: certain body types they find especially attractive, hair color they prefer, eye color, style, etc. Basically, if you’re an asexual who experiences aesthetic attraction, it’s the same experience as being a sexual person feeling sexually attracted to someone hot, except there’s no sexual component to finding the other person hot.

It occurred to me that the way a lot of asexuals describe and define aesthetic attraction isn’t actually correct. Asexuals frequently mix up what I call aesthetic…

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Filed under: Uncategorized