K.L. Tremaine's Blog, page 5

twincitiesgeek.com

Starting in January I’ll be running a monthly column on twincitiesgeek.com about events in local geek culture that affect LGBTQIA geeks. I’m currently brainstorming columns and topics that I can handle. My first planned columns include but are not limited to:

“Sci Fi Made Me Gay: About CONvergence’s popular queer pop culture panel.”

“Uranus, Neptune, and Korrasami: Why Representation Matters.”

“The Future is Liminal: Trans and Bi Geeks in Fan Culture”

“An interview with the North Country Gaylaxians”

Each of my columns will be 500 words and having more time to work on them means that I’ll have more and hopefully more interesting things to say on a regular basis compared to when I’m blogging for myself.

So here’s to 2015!

Before Year End

I have 3 pieces that need to be done by December 31st.

Here’s my work list:

Untitled Fiction Piece – Wayfinder (Due Dec. 31)

Ulfens of Ustalav – Wayfinder (Due Dec. 31)

Magic Item: The Bear of Canterwall (Due Dec. 31)

Merry Christmas!

Vox Day: If a woman says she was raped by a white man, she’s probably lying, because only blacks and hispanics rape

artemisflight:

I try not to reblog stories from out of school, especially related to people who tend to be lionized by the folks over at GooberGrape. But seriously, this is a time when I have to bite my lip and take a stand.

Vox Day is, for the perhaps two people reading who don’t know, a particularly bigoted stain on the face of science fiction and fantasy writing. In a genre laced with its unfortunate sampling of neoconservative and neoreactionary writers, Vox Day is perhaps one of the bigger problems in the land. To quote his rationalwiki entry: “[he] is a science fiction author, game designer, musician, pseudo-libertarian, anti-vaxxer, racist, Christian apologist, pickup artist, stalker, and all-round […] idiot. He is the epitome of evidence that not all artists are sensible, intelligent people, contrary to stereotype.” He also claims to have some (presumably small, given his appearance) quantum of indigenous American ancestry and uses this token as an attempt to shield himself from liberal criticism.

Oh yeah, and his dad’s in the clink for tax evasion.

“One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.” —Bertrand Russell

So yeah. In case you were wondering: Theodore Beale? Not a fan.

Originally posted on we hunted the mammoth:

There’s at least one group that might welcome Vox Day

This is the final day of the We Hunted the Mammoth Pledge Drive! If you haven’t already, please consider sending some bucks my way. (And don’t worry that the PayPal page says Man Boobz.) Thanks!

I thought I’d seen every variety of rape apologism known to humankind. But this is a new one for me: Fantasy author and garbage human Vox Day (aka Theodore Beale) has decided that all claims of rape directed at white guys are suspect because … white guys don’t rape.

No, really. That’s his actual argument:

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Imposter Syndrome

I’m at the end of my first semester of grad school, wondering if I’ve done enough. I’m worrying that my stories might not be good enough, that my responses might not be insightful enough, that my responses might not be plentiful enough to represent concrete advancement toward my thesis.

There are definitely ways in which I still feel like an undergrad who somehow got moved beyond her capabilities.

I suspect this to be an overreaction on my part. A combination of a need to tear apart my own work and come up with something better combined with my long-term anxieties about my own academic and artistic performance coming home to roost. But it’s hard to avoid. And of course, like any student, I could have done more this semester. I could have pushed out more work. I could have made more comments. I could have participated more.

Skating has been my deliverance from anxiety this fall. I’ve been trying to keep talk about skating off of my writing blog but really it’s been an important thing for me in my life at this point that’s strongly different from my academic work and gives me something to do with my body and my legs. I’m enjoying learning to skate, and the competitive angle of roller derby gives the learning to skate some context.

Colonising History: The Culture and Politics of Assassin’s Creed

Originally posted on james patton:

I used to like Assassin’s Creed. I enjoyed the climbing and stabbing.

There are lots of reasons to dislike the games, though: super-linear mission structure, the AAA obsession with cutscenes, the twitchy and cluttered controls. I can live with those, though. I played these games year after year because, okay, I can hold down three buttons to run if I really have to. I can deal with the merciless checkpointing. This game does running, jumping, climbing and stabbing like nobody’s business, and that’s why I loved them.

“Loved”. Past tense.

With Assassin’s Creed 3, though, I just couldn’t ignore it any more: the series is, in a word, sickening.

By which I mean it mouths off about this, that and the other – it gets up on its high horse at every opportunity – to make itself feel good. To make us feel good. To congratulate us on how…

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Missing Layla: the dangers of xylitol poisoning

artemisflight:

If you love dogs, please read this!

Originally posted on Paws Abilities:

Even with Dobby and Mischief asleep next to me, my house feels empty today. It’s easy to take what you have for granted until it’s not there, and today I’m missing Layla like crazy. I’m lucky that this isn’t a permanent loss, but only a temporary one. Layla is spending the weekend at the emergency vet clinic, and the house is empty without her.

Layla was lucky. Last night, she got into a pack of gum containing xylitol, an artificial sweetener. Had I not caught her eating the pack and recognized the danger, things may have turned out very differently. My house might have been empty forever. Just the thought of losing her feels like a physical blow.

Xylitol is an artifical sweetener frequently used in sugarfree gum, candies, and baked goods. It has some oral health benefits for people and is frequently used as a sugar substitute for people who cannot…

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So I’ve been quiet

The last 10 days have been quiet while I got my last story submission of my first grad school semester done. I’ve finished up with four short stories which – while not fully ready for publication – I’m proud of my work on so far. Two are high fantasy (one action-oriented, one mystery) and two urban fantasy. I’m going to continue working on these; one is destined for a magazine submission, one for a contest, and the remaining two (with a fifth story I worked on this semester but didn’t finish) are probably going to form the basis of my thesis.

With the remainder of 2014 I have three articles to finish up for Wayfinder fanzine: A short story, a gazetteer entry, and a Weal or Woe article. And I also have a few things to say on my blog in the mean time.

Post-NaNo Wrap-Up

I wrote 50,000 words of fantasy novel (with the currently-unremarkable working title of Warrior Clans and Faerie Queens) in November.

I’m not saying that I wrote a 50,000 word fantasy novel, because I didn’t – this manuscript is looking more like 90,000 words with all said and done.

Projects for the month include finishing up the editing of several short stories, including one (possibly two) for publication, finish the text of WCFQ as a rough draft, and also finish the text of Crossworlds (a goal which I’m sure thrills my beta readers no end, considering Crossworlds was promised to them six months ago).

Welcome December, with your jingling bells and peppermint mochas. Welcome.

I believe Shia LaBeouf (and Piers Morgan is a rape apologist rat turd)

artemisflight:

Silence is acquiescence.

Originally posted on Another angry woman:

Content note: This post discusses rape and rape apologism, as well as mental health stigma

Actor Shia LaBeouf said in an interview recently that during a piece of performance art, he had been raped by a woman. I believe him. I believe when people say they have been raped, that they have been raped. I believe survivors.

To tackle rape culture, this is a position from which we must all start. Unfortunately, there are too many with a vested interest in keeping rape culture alive to see an outpouring of support for Shia LaBeouf. Instead, what we see is a gleeful rush of dismissal and disbelief, focusing on how LaBeouf wasn’t acting as they thought a survivor should, that he must be making it up for attention, that je seems kind of crazy, that it’s impossible for a woman to rape a man. Tired old tropes, the lot of them.

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Writing update

5 short stories under revision

2 short stories being written

1 novel 29,000/90,000 words (50,000 by December 1st)

1 novel 45,000/90,000 words

Doing my best here! I’m enjoying everything but wow this is getting to the stressful part of the year.