Michael Scott Monje Jr.'s Blog, page 13

Thank You! (Indiegogo Recap)

Hi everyone,

First of all, I want to thank all of you who contributed to the campaign for Imaginary Friends. During the campaign, we raised nearly $500 to help with the expenses surrounding the production of the book. Unfortunately, that was well below the stated goal of $3,200. Because of this, the web serial will have to run at a more leisurely pace, since I will have to continue to bid on other work in order to keep the lights on while I write.

While the campaign did not fully fund itself, I...

I Got a Job! (And other news)

Sorry I haven't been posting much for the last two weeks. Things have been a little bit hectic on the other side of the computer screen for the last little bit. I've had some wonderful opportunities this month, including both a fairly large web design project and a new job offer, and I've had some challenges--most notably, my partner Liz's recent seizure episode.
For about the last 10-12 days, helping Liz through that rough spot has been my focus, so I haven't been able to blog a lot. Today, t...

#MyWritingProcess Blog Hop: "Shaping" Clay is Exactly Right

To start things off, I want to thank Jeannie Davide-Rivera for asking me to participate in this blog hop. She is the author of Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed; Growing Up With Undiagnosed Autism , a thoroughly enjoyable memoir that speaks bluntly of its own truth. Jeannie was one of the first autism bloggers I met when I started blogging, and she published her own book just a few months before I released Nothing is Right. 

When she asked me to participate in this conversat...

Mother's Day

Sometimes, I am still too close to a topic to really be able to write about it without feeling like I'm letting myself get away from myself. Luckily, there are always others who have worked through similar issues, and I can listen to their words.

Today is one of those days.

Enjoy the song. If you like it, the album is here.

Nevermindfulness

I have a head that's mazy with the mythic,
and even though I know that Kurt Cobain
was aware he was producing music
with a degenerate ethic,
I can't forget his entrapment.

There is a special kind of glow that flows
from the ones who are fully aware
that the rhythm in their movement
and the message in their attunement
will never reach their audience,
who say the ways they can't communicate
and get mistaken for cynics
when all they really want is for their
simple cryptic to be
interpreted literally.

I think t...

Shaping Clay's Expressions of PosAutivity: #AutismPositivity2014

Reading Against the GrainIf there's one thing, and only one thing, that I'm going to talk about with regard to autism and communication, it has to be the way that it changes the context of what I'm reading when I read literature. For me, almost every story I encounter is multicultural literature, since almost all of them have either been written by allistic people or for allistic audiences.
It might seem like this is a small thing, or overly obvious, but it's not. Consider this: that every tim...

Behavior Modification

There is a man taskedwith shoving wooden dowelsand bamboo shootsunder my nail bedsand into my cuticles.
In our sessions I askhow he keeps his sanityaround family.Does brutalitynot seep into fathering?
He always smiles and basksin my uncomprehendingexacerbation.How can he feel guiltabout this situation?
He has been told I ama thoughtless automaton.He ignores my screamsbecause they taught himmy feelings were programmed.
I argue while hot steeldrives itself into my skin,debate my agencywhile nailbed...

Reintroducing Art to the House of Rhetoric (An Essay on Code Switching)

For everyone, regardless of neurotype, in the hopes that all the people can come to see all the ways to be.

I.

Language is itself a performance demand that requires code switching,
and it comes loaded with unspoken expectations, because its acolytes
find it impossible to imagine that there could be people who go about thinking
with methods that lie outside the aural semiotics they've been trained to live within.

They have been trained, though, as the proliferation of separate phonetic
and linguistic...

A Personal Appeal

For over two years now, I have enjoyed running this blog and experimenting with a combination of creative work and traditional essay writing as a vehicle for my activism. It's been an educational process. Not only have I learned about the ways that social justice activism are alternately supported and undermined by the academic research establishment, I have also met more people like myself through this work than I have ever known before.
Running the site comes at a cost, though. While I do ha...

Fear and Loathing

For Hunter, without whose work I might not have bothered. I always lamented your end, all the more so because of the times it has also been in my head.

You were there for me
in the days before I verbalized
my own identity.
Your words were always providing
a cool balm for burned feelings,
vitriolic oil over feelings still burning,
and a sense of honesty
beyond what I had a hope of experiencing
in my interactions with the people around me.

I heard from others about how your tactical tantrums
were attenti...