Leta Blake's Blog, page 79
October 4, 2013
Fanworks Friday: Pandora’s Aquarium #elementary #toriamos
An elementary fanvid set to Tori Amos’ Pandora’s Aquarium. I would embed the video but it’s not set up in a way to do that, alas, so you’ll have to go to the fanvidder’s blog to watch. If you like the song or the show or both, I recommend it!
October 3, 2013
Any Other World: Training Season #johnnyweir #mm #romance
My upcoming novel, Training Season, is a romance featuring a male figure skater and a rancher. The story has existed in various stages and forms for a few years now, but it has only come into its own in my latest sweep of edits and additions. It is turning into something that I feel rather pleased with, if I do say so myself, and I look forward to sharing more information on it soon, including a lovely cover designed by the always wonderful Dar Albert. Expect that cover reveal soon.
In the meantime, I wanted to talk a bit about the initial moment of inspiration for this novel. The spark originated from watching the following video. It is a fanvideo, a montage of Johnny Weir’s performances over some of his earlier years, set to the absolute perfect song. It was the combination, and the impeccable editing, that really engaged my mind and made me start to ask some really important questions. Such as, what does it look like when you work hard at something with no guarantee that the outcome of years and years of work will pay off? (Hello, I am a writer, I think I understand this quite well, actually.) Or what does it look like when someone keeps screwing themselves over because they just don’t believe, deep down, that they deserve it? What happens when they meet someone from outside of their world who gets them, sees them, and loves them anyway?
Other questions came up, too, but those were the very first ones, and they were all due to this little fanvid right here. Oh, Johnny Weir, you are a divine mess at times, aren’t you? And, yes, he is, in part, along with some other skaters and some people I know in my day-to-day life, the inspiration for the character of Matty Marcus–God’s gift to figure skating, and victim of his own worst impulses.
Enjoy the video. The way it makes you feel is pretty much what this book is about. The emotional base of it stemmed from this video.
October 2, 2013
Things That Schools Teach Girls #feminism #sexism
Ever since my daughter started school three years ago, I’ve noticed that the kind of messages she receives there often make me uncomfortable.
I will not go into the year-long sexual harassment with constant threats of sexual assault she went through in the first grade which ended only when I used the legal terms above in an email to the principal instead of calling it ‘chasing’ and ‘trying to kiss’ and ‘won’t leave her alone’. You read that right, first grade. That was met with a ‘boys will be boys’ attitude and the declaration of ‘well, I see her go over to talk to him on the playground’ which verged on “she’s asking for it”.
I aggressively sought to end the issues but, ultimately, it was my daughter who put the final nail in the coffin when the boy in question was being taunted by other children for the earrings he wears and she alone stood up for him.
“Adam’s a girl, Adam’s a girl!” the kids chanted.
Bird stood up and said, “Adam is NOT a girl, unless he SAYS he is a girl, and he SAYS he is a boy, so he is a BOY. Stop making him feel bad. That’s mean!”
Yes, she stood up for the boy who’d tormented her all year, because that’s the kind of child she is! Afterward, he came up to her, thanked her for standing up for him, and promised, since she didn’t want him to, he’d never chase her, try to hold her down, or attempt to touch or kiss her again, and he’s held true to his word.
I’m still not sure he fully understood why what he did was wrong and hope that he hasn’t transferred his behavior to another girl, but, for now, he is my daughter’s ally instead of enemy and that’s good news.
But, I’m not going into that, and believe me there’s a lot of that to go into! What I want to talk about are the insidious things. The small messages that girls receive from their teacher. Of course, I’m only getting my child’s side of the story and I’m not in the room to see what actually happens, but I’m going to assume that the gist of what she’s telling me is true.
Not Listening to the First Request vs Mouth Noises
Every day when Bird and I talk about her school day, I ask about who “turned a card”–their way of keeping track of who got into trouble. Every day she tells me what the kids in her class did to turn cards. Sometimes she’s one of them. I’ve noticed a distinct pattern, though. Boys turn cards for things like mouth noises (making noises with their mouth, beat boxing, or car sounds) and girls turn cards for things like not listening to the first request.
One boy in her class, Clarence, turns multiple cards a day for things like getting out of his seat and wandering the room, rolling on the floor, mouth noises, and shoving other kids. Bird, however, has to turn cards for not responding to the first request or being bossy. The teacherly term Mrs. Elder uses for being bossy is “doesn’t show respect to fellow students or the teacher”. Really? This is the same kid who stood up for her sexually harassing bully last year because kids weren’t treating him with respect.
When I ask her for details of her lack of respect for other students, she tells me stories like this one:
“Well, we usually split off into pairs and I usually am paired with Jessa, but today Mary Anne was absent, so Abby came with me and Jessa. We were supposed to decide who would be the leader, but all of us wanted to be the leader and then our time was up and Mrs. Elder asked the leaders of the groups to all raise their hands.”
Bird raised her hand–and so did Jessa and Abby. Mrs. Elder told them they had to choose and Abby put her hand down and told Bird to put her hand down, too. Bird said, “But I didn’t put my hand down because I would do a better job at it than Jessa and so I kept my hand up. Mrs. Elder had me turn a card because she said I was being too bossy.”
Too bossy. Because she was sure she’d do a better job than someone else. Because she was confident and assured.
Now, perhaps there is more to this story than my daughter told me. Perhaps she rolled her eyes at her teacher after being told to put her hand down and that is why she was written up for a lack of respect. I can see her doing that, frankly, because she’s expressive and holding her face still under strong emotion is hard for her. (She still shouldn’t roll her eyes at her teacher, though. Don’t get me wrong.) But for the teacher to have told her she was too bossy? That rubs me the wrong way.
I remembered the quote above when she was telling me this story and I said to her, “Well, I think you are going to be a good leader of people when you are older because you know what you want and you are sure of yourself, so I don’t really agree with your teacher that what you did by holding your hand up and refusing to put it down was wrong. So, let’s just move on.”
I admit I feel conflicted for undermining her teacher–and not for the first time this year, frankly. There was another issue where her teacher wrote her up for having not paid attention to the first request and, frankly, if you leave a well-behaved and very smart child without work to do for more than a few minutes, expect them to go off into a daydream world and have to say their name more than once to get them back, lady. And, seriously, you’re making her turn a card for daydreaming and for having to say her name more than once and repeat yourself, but boys are turning cards for rolling on the floor when they get their work done early? One of these things is not like another.
But also, what’s up with the gender divide? Boys turning cards for aggressive behaviors and active classroom disturbances do not seem on par with girls having to turn cards for daydreaming or refusing to put their hand down because they know they’d do a good job at a task. The message here is clear–boys get in trouble if they make a big, loud scene and girls get in trouble if they aren’t perfect, aren’t completely attentive, and if they have opinions and refuse to cave to peer pressure.
I’m not liking this, y’all. I’m not liking it at all.
October 1, 2013
Pro-Tip: How to Write a Bio
Reblogged from S.L. Armstrong:
I get sent a lot of author bios. :) Some are short and sweet, some are a page long. Very rarely do I see a bio that is 100% spot on for what I--as a reader--would like to see.
Bios, in my opinion, should not exceed 15 sentences. That means three paragraphs of five sentences each. And I don't mean 82-word sentences, either.
September 30, 2013
September 29, 2013
There’s Something About Holding An Actual Book #therifter #ginnhale
Look what was waiting for me when I got back from New York City! Now imagine me dancing in my kitchen, clutching these to my chest, and grinning like a maniac in love. Oh, books, I love you like whoa. Never doubt my love for you.
BOOKS, I LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!
Please go buy them at BLIND EYE BOOKS or BARNES AND NOBLE or AMAZON.
September 28, 2013
The Story of the Birthday Present That Didn’t End In Divorce #yay #porn
As you’ll read more about in a post I scheduled for October, I’ve had a bout of the birthday blues. This turning thirty-nine thing has really hit me hard for some unknown reason. I gritted my teeth through the tiny, only-us birthday party my husband and child had for me, and tried to appear as if I wasn’t having an existential, omg-I’m-old-now crisis.
The night following the birthday party was plagued with uncomfortable, unsettling dreams of insecurity and vulnerability. Dreams that my husband wanted to divorce me because I just wasn’t “worth it” anymore. I woke up feeling sad, anxious, and vulnerable. The feelings plagued me all morning even though, intellectually, I knew they were silly.
Over a surprise lunch–Hub and I just happened to both come home for lunch today–I told Hub about my feelings about turning thirty-nine and told him about my dream. He laughed and told me that divorce had never entered his mind in all our years together and that he loved me and I wasn’t all that difficult. And then he said, “Oh, by the way, I got you another present but it wasn’t child appropriate so I coudn’t give it to you last night.”
He dashed upstairs to where he’d hidden this clearly sexual-in-nature gift. I had to wonder, “What was it? What could it possibly be?” I considered lingerie and sex toys, but those aren’t really in character for him. What he returned with was 100% in character and absolutely his style of gift…and something that he knew me well enough to know I’d like.
He handed it to me and I stared at it for a moment.
“It’s a porn parody,” he said, just as I read the words she sucks but in a good way.
Then I recognized the girl.
“Oh, my God!” I yelled. “I love Lexi Belle!”
He cracked up and said, “I like her, too.”
I said, “Holy crap, this is awesome! Look at this! This is amazing! Oh my God!”
He laughed some more and I turned it over to look at the back, checking out the very adult scenes back there.
“Oh, wow, that one looks hot. I wish one of the guys was James Deen, but they look good. When are we going to watch this?”
“Soon. When Bird’s not here.”
“Awesome!”
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of our shows and he’s always loved dirty, filthy parodies and anything that’s a bit ridiculous, and he knows me well enough to know that I kinda-sorta like the porn, yo.
I bounced up, grabbed him in a hug, and said, “Oh, man, I love this so much! Thank you!”
He laughed some more and kissed me.
Then I said, “You do realize you just gave me porn for my birthday present and I loved it. How many women are like that? Some women, if you gave them porn for their birthday present, they’d divorce you or something.”
He laughed some more.
I said, “Why would I dream you’d ever leave me? I’m clearly awesome!”
The End
September 27, 2013
Fanworks Friday: Embers #hungergames #katniss
A fantastic Hunger Games fanvid by gigglemonster.
PASSWORD: katniss
music: maggie rogers
fandom: the hunger games, katniss character study [contains spoilers for the first movie]
notes: 58mb avi, 3:28
September 26, 2013
Visualizing The Rifter Series (Part One) #ginnhale #ravishan
John
Also John
Kyle at the Bell Dance
Future Kyle
Ravishan
Ravishan
Laurie
Pesha
John’s teraniums.
John’s strawberries
Ourath
Fikiri
Hirra
Ji
Rousma
