F.E. Feeley Jr.'s Blog

GRL 2024 - Midwestern Snub

Maya Angelou said that, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

Gay Rom Lit (GRL) has an opportunity to actually do something constructive and lose its own exclusive shit show reputation by going to Kansas.
The operators could have booked the meeting in Lawrence, Kansas - twenty five miles west with plenty of conference room in a college town and sanctuary city. Or even stayed in Olathe and promoted it in Lawrence.
They could have also avoided an Election Day.
But whatever…
GRL has been notoriously known for its dislike of other than masc presenting cis men so this sudden fear of trans people not being safe is somewhat ironic.
It’s also been known to favor more popular authors.
It posts its sign up at X hour at X day and then people have to scramble to pay for it shutting down open enrollment because “we don’t want to wade through authors we don’t know.” Now they simply move them into different rooms.
But all of this has been swept under the rug and justified 1,000 times before.
I just don’t get why Kansas is this big red line in the sand other than folks who write about that life don’t actually have to be in the situation where they’re forced to live that life. Much less support authors/ readers from that region whose daily lives are impacted by these morons in these state houses.
Especially since the 2024 Rainbow Readers Cruise is set to depart Florida - another bastion of tolerance and inclusivity at the moment - which just sounds dodgy af.
This isn’t a safety issue. This is an exclusivity issue. Again.
Have the rom lit, stage a protest, call the media, have the biggest event you’ve ever had, hire private security, and support those poor folks in this communities who’ve been forced to deal with those bills and those book bans.
You would do that if you were serious about defending people’s rights and being a community and supporting people.
But you’re not. You never have been. It’s a money making opportunity for the selectively outraged and the casually concerned.
It’s all bullshit.

Recensione in anteprima “Acque tranquille” – F. E. Feeley Jr.

Titolo: Acque tranquilleAutore: F. E. Feeley Jr.Serie: Memorie delle ombre umane #3Genere: HorrorCasa Editrice: Triskell EdizioniPrezzo: 4,99€Link …

Recensione in anteprima “Acque tranquille” – F. E. Feeley Jr.

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Don't Tell Writers They Can't Be Political.

Arts are inherently political. Artists are political. For those of you who don’t like it when artists (writers, actors, musicians, etc.) speak out about politics, feel free to ______ ( fill in the blank).
This is the dumbest take on any aspect of humanity that runs absolutely counter to history and the human race.
This take is akin to attempting to rob a police station.
It’s that level of stupid.
Your entertainment comes secondary and sometimes even tertiary to an artist's desire and visceral need to create based upon what they see and what the world has shown them.
That uncomfortable feeling your feeling is when their words hit where you live.
In religious terms, you’ve come under conviction because you know they’re right. You’re simply looking in a mirror that the artist is holding up. You just don’t like what you see.
This means the art or the artist has done their job.
Your right is to not view said media. That’s it.
This idea that somehow your lack of support will make this artist stop creating is also an unrealistic pipe dream.
You don’t possess that power. Never have. Never will.
So before you tell an artist to “stay in their lane” make sure you’re in yours, first.

Please Don’t Fetishize Anyone. It’s Gross.

Dear Readers of every race, gender, sexuality, body type, religious background – you will NEVER get this from me. Ever. It will always be my endeavor to represent people as truthfully as I can.The maps and keys to the kingdom are safe with me, never through me shall ye be overcome – Edna St. Vincent Millay “Conscientious Objector”The subject of fetishization has come up again- I absolutely refuse to post the link of the blog or the person who wrote it. This is my personal worldview. Take it or leave it.Fetishizing isn’t good whichever way you look at it. Ask women, people of color, so on and so forth. The issue at the center of this is pure capitalism. There is a market for the fetishization of people in all sorts of platforms and until there is no demand left, there will always be someone willing to offer the supply. I don’t care who they are. Some things stop being about right and wrong at a certain point and start to become about power, who has it, and who doesn’t. *I * don’t like it. I won’t buy it. I won’t support it. I think it’s reductive. That’s my choice and my right as an author but also as a reader. I quit watching television shows over stuff like this (i.e. The Magicians) for using harmful tropes (kill your gays) etc. and being a gamer, I won’t play unless there’s a way to make my character like me. Representation is key and the narrative better be damn good otherwise like the shows, books, etc. Bye-bye.As a writer, it’s my primary focus first and foremost that if I am going to write about people who are not me, to not do so in a way that hurts someone or uses old stereotypes or demeans them in any sort of way. I won’t do it. I will not fetishize anyone for the sake of a buck. I have to live with that and with me and I can’t do it. Money isn’t more important to me than the truth and in today’s world, as has always been the case I’m sure, the truth gets obfuscated for whatever political reason you can imagine and if a person believes fiction is a-political is a fool. There’s always someone willing and able (intellectually or otherwise) to utilize anything and everything you put out in the marketplace as to why a person should or shouldn’t be accepted into society. And what sucks is when conservative MM writers (and they’re out there) use their platform to further hurtful and harmful stereotypes or make bad people in the world (I.E. pastors who run pray-away camps) “well-intentioned” so they can live with their own religions/political/social outlooks on life and not have to leave their cognitive dissonance behind.Furthermore, these blog posts that show up every now and then are nothing more than virtue signaling a group of people who want to start an argument, win “them” over to your ‘side’, so you can be the preferred pet this season – Good for you. Love your hair, hope it wins. It worked once for ‘that guy’ and maybe you can end up with a book deal if you plagiarize a little bit, too. But I’m not going to Candace Owens or Milo whatever his name is myself any more than I did before. I’m just gonna be over here doing my own thing writing books for you, by me, for us.Thanks,F.E.

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Does Candace Owens know Masculinity?

https://fefeeleyjr.medium.com/does-ca...

Reconciliation? Hold that thought….

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Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris and President-Elect Joe Biden

 

The hours after election day were the longest of my life.  I know so many democrats out there this season felt the same way.

As a human being, I didn’t feel like I had it in me to watch the news unfold, to watch the ballots come in, mostly because the past four years has been such a shitshow that I had become used to surviving in this world day by day and hour by hour. Sure, I was hopeful. But I was also mentally and emotionally drained from four years of Trump.

However, the Political Scientist in me couldn’t ignore the importance of it all, both politically and historically. So, like so many of you, I tuned into multiple sources (including HuffPost, MSNBC, CNN, and yes, even Fox News) to watch the returns with an equal measure of dread and hope. (BTW a special shoutout to the makers of Zoloft) After an extended count, mostly due to the number of mail-in-ballots because of COVID-19, the wait was over; Joe Biden becomes elected.

Someone on the internet described Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ speeches last night as “…someone opening the outhouse door for the first time in four years, allowing us a breath of fresh air.”

I agree, and that breeze was sweet. It was nice to hear hope again, hear complete sentences and thoughts again, and hear that American’s best days were in front of her, once more, and not a figment of our imagination.

Joe Biden called for unity. In that, I agree with a caveat. Just as that breath of fresh air was sweet with the fragrance of liberty, it reminded me, even more so barely forty-eight hours later, of the putrid stink of authoritarianism and fascism that we all had to endure for the better part of four years.

We must hold accountable the Trump leadership and their cohorts for the insufferable, blatant, arrogant crimes not only against immigrants and their children but against our nation and our nation’s people. I am thinking today of the brutal assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, I am thinking of Russian bounties on U.S. Soldiers, the Mueller Report, the Steele Dossier, the Impeachment of the President for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, namely his willingness to act against American Sovereignty by accepting Russian “help” in the 2016 election against then-candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the forced sterilization of immigrant women in detention facilities in our country which are crimes against humanity.

 Then you have the demonization of American Journalists, the support of “Proud Boys” and other white nationalist organizations; you have the failure to condemn white supremacy, calling these people ‘good people’ after Charlottesville that claimed a protestor’s life, the Chinese Bank account, the refusal to release his tax returns, the massive amounts of debt Deutsche Bank is getting ready to call on, and calling our troops suckers and losers.

This is not a call for pettiness. This is not ‘prosecuting a political opponent’; this goes into the heart and soul of a nation governed by the rule of law. The Trump Presidency has strained the institutions of our country almost to the breaking point. Had it not been our founders’ brilliance in creating a ‘broken’ system of Checks and Balances, Trump would have succeeded in turning this country into an authoritarian state.

It has been the practice of the American Government in time’s past to insulate the American people from the big, black, book of “How fucked up things really are.” I do not think that ought to be the case in this regard. I know it isn’t good. I cannot imagine the chaos that must be in our government’s internal machinations after four years of mothballing by this administration. What foreign agency was able to gather American intelligence? Who else was involved? America deserves to know.

Again, not for pettiness, not for rubbing Republican’s face in it, but to, with sunlight, disinfect and cauterize the wounds created by Trump and to send a clear message to future attempts at overthrowing the United States Government by wannabe fascists, that the Wheels of Justice may turn slowly, but they turn. The weight of it is more than you can bear.

Let the American people see what they almost traded their rights as citizens for. Then we start to rebuild relationships across the aisle and dinner tables and state boundaries in this country.

Sure, we beat Fascism and the ghosts of the Confederacy without firing a single shot. America celebrated. The world joined in, but after every hard-fought war, there comes a time to hold people accountable. Justice, not simply American Justice, but Justice’s Justice demands this. And so, do I.

 

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How to survive a Cult (From a Survivor) or HOW TO AVOID BEING A HANDMAIDEN.

A lot of you are really concerned about the new SCOTUS pick and are fearful of cultish power being expressed over your daily lives and are probably wondering how to resist this.
It's pretty simple really.
HOW TO SURVIVE CULTS and CULTISH PEOPLE.
First, understand that fundamentalism is patently absurd. Its ideas are toxic, myopic, and self-defeating adding little or no value at all into the society in which it exists. Calling it out as such is important.
One must immediately understand that fundamentalism cannot survive with 'other thoughts'. The fundamentalist must cut a person off from the world entirely for the brainwashing to begin. Any and all outside thought, be it political thought, philosophical thought, and artistic expression cripples it. It falls apart.
BE LOUD!
Second, fundamentalism has a natural inflection point to where it either explodes and causes harm (9/11, etc.) or implodes - and the member simply walks away. It's easy for it to implode due to the introduction of the aforementioned. It also breaks down when it's members or those under its influence get a boyfriend/girlfriend, get a new job, etc.
INVEST IN SOCIETY AT LARGE
Third, in times like these and with people like this, it is highly imperative to openly express your opinions, your compassion, your artistic expressions, your innate humanness than ever, and understand while ideas cannot be destroyed, they can be challenged with better ideas.
Some of what they say can feel right, at times. They target the weak, the poor, and the uneducated. They use emotion and rhetorical flourish, imagery, and your darker inclinations to fear 'other' to recruit. Beware this type of influence, the charismatic nature of their leaders, it's absolute snake oil. It's deception in it's highest form and power is seductive.
DON'T BE FOOLED
Fourth, their leaders are inherently cowardly. While they may recruit 'true believers' to their cause, they don't really believe what it is they're preaching. Their powerful rhetoric aside, these people are after wealth, power, and it's the recruited that are the most dangerous. Where they offer security, we must counter-offer their potential recruits FREEDOM and all the tempestuousness that implies.
They can be resisted. They can fail. We can guarantee that this happens by simply rejecting their beliefs by our own beliefs and actions toward our fellow citizens.
CHOOSE TO BE FREE. CHOOSE TO FIGHT.

New Book to Patreon

So, I've started a Patreon Page for those of you interested in my work and would like to read it chapter by chapter as it's written.
The first chapter is a freebie and as the tiers suggest on the page, you'll be given exclusive benefits for each pledge.
But now, I want to introduce you to Redemption Road - a post-apocalyptic high fantasy novel set on Earth.
I'll be releasing new chapters as they're written and will make them available to my patrons.
Thank you. Please feel free to share.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/redempt...

Mourning 9/11

I feel like I've been mourning 9/11 in some form or fashion for the past 19 years.
When things happen to us, they happen TO us. They affect us physically, emotionally, spiritually, and so forth. They crawl into us and take up residence in our being. And in that instance, we are permanently changed because of it.
And for what it's worth, there is no 'getting over' these things. There's no such thing as 'closure' or 'letting go of the past', or any other hyper romanticized pseudopsychological nonsense. All that is the secular way of saying, "God works in mysterious ways."
Its absolute bullshit.
9/11 was the rock thrown into the proverbial still pond and the waves it created affected millions whose lives course-corrected and changed/ ended due to it.
The fear and hypervigilance that grew out of the remains of those buildings, that created in short order, the paranoia and anger and mistrust of 'other' haven't abated. I would argue that 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden are the meathooks wrenching this countrywide open even till today. So much so, that it seems like we're making Bin Laden a posthumous success story even though he's long since been made fish food.
And there are those who've taken full advantage of that fear. Their cynicism, their greed, their desire to drive a wedge between members of this society on the graves of those who perished on 9/11 is nothing short of absolute evil. Fox News, Breitbart, 4Chan, QAnon, and so forth are these evils that plague the mind of the fearful.
There is even talk of Civil War should Donald Trump not be reelected in the next presidential race. People are saying how 'ready' they are.
But the question I have for them is A) are you really ready for that? and B) if you were so ready for it, then why hasn't your ass been involved in the wars to protect this country in the past 20 years?
Because of the dead of 9/11, we've added those who are the dead from Iraq and Afghanistan. But they're not alone.
Every single day in America, since these endless wars began, 20 veterans die by suicide because of the war that they were involved in. Because those wars HAPPENED to them. It gets into them, it changed them on every human level and removed hope as a driving force in their lives. There are even those who killed themselves even when they never saw combat. Being over there in the intensity of a theatre of war was enough to plant seeds of doubt in the soul of humanity. I'm one of them.
Don't believe me? It's being said that mental illness in this country given the stress of our current political climate as well as COVID-19 is at an all-time high. NAMI - The National Alliance on Mental Illness, is saying that they're absolutely overwhelmed with reported cases of anxiety/ depression and people showing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
No, I'm not afraid of sectarian violence (Killer Cops aside) coming from Boogaloo boys, etc. ad naseum. I'm afraid that 9/11 has weakened us, along with Trump and COVID, to such an extent that we're incredibly vulnerable to an outside attack. The paper tigers with their AR-15's and Weaponized Words are the liability in this situation.
The Qanon and Breitbart and Fox news are simply the vectors by which systematic mistrust of government and the people who reside in this nation, were delivered. If you do believe in good conspiracy theories, here's one for you. It's all economic.
The Oligarchy cannot exist in a society with a healthy, vibrant democracy. And trust me, Bin Laden wasn't some freedom fighter, none of those dudes, those so-called 'leaders' were. They were tyrants who desired power above all else. They were a fifth-century version of Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg.
They handed their people guns and dogma and whatever else they needed to radicalize them and weaken the nations of the middle east one by one until there was nothing left. The same is being done here by people in Versaci outfits and quaffed hair and an hour of lying to you on television. Zeroing in on your fear of 'other' they are cutting the ties that bind you to your fellow citizen and your country as a whole.
With every single "They should have listened" or "they had a record" or "she wasn't exactly innocent" to justify the extra-judicial killings or outright murder of your fellow citizen without due process makes Osama Bin Laden a victor in shredding this democracy and our nation. Every single time we turn our backs on systemic racism or refuse to hold our elected officials accountable for their crimes, we give away our rights as citizens in this country. That little kid who shot those people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was a radicalized terrorist. He wasn't acting in self-defense. He was brought up to be a killer. Given the weapon and taken to the place where he would act as a single cell operative, no different than the Boston Bomber. No different.
His presence was meant to alter local politics to what he believed and instill fear in those who opposed his political ideology. That's all 9/11 was. That's all the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in 1995 by Timothy McVeigh was. That's all the murders of black people are and have been since the end of Jim Crow.
And just like Osama Bin Laden etc. et al, these advocates of this type of behavior aren't out at the forefront leading the charge. They're sitting comfortably in their million-dollar homes while you go out and do the dirty work for them. And as you catch Covid-19 from your rallies etc. and your refusal to wear masks, they have access to premium healthcare.
To them, your nothing more than useful idiots like those 15 hijackers, and your death(s) will mean nothing to them in the end.
Yeah, I'm in mourning. There's, even more, a reason to mourn today than there was 19 years ago.

Black Lives Matter

That's it. That's the blog.