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Disheartening

16/2/2016

Good morning, Readers.

Image courtesy of artsjournal.com. Click for link.

I'm feeling a bit blue today, and it has nothing to do with the weather.

I've had a quick look at some numbers, and I'm not going to be able to buy that plane ticket to When Worlds Collide next month (when it will be cheaper), and certainly not if I want to buy stock to sell for Ottawa ComicCon. I'm very sad about it, as I am really eager to go.

I'm still determined, and so I'm looking into short term loans from various places.

I will get there. I will.

I'm just sad that I can't really afford it without considerable, and probably high interest rated, help.

Le sigh.

In happier news, though, I might get to go to Ad Astra as well this year. I've been offered a ride down, and to split a hotel and petrol costs with three of the loveliest writerly folk I know. I'm thinking that I will do it, but I have to go over finances again.

So, not is all lost, I guess.

I will get to When Worlds Collide this year. I will.

Somehow.

In other news, with my latest painting all done, I'm taking a short break from painting stuff for my YouTube channel. I meant to have a video up by now for that channel, but I forgot to export the paintings, so I'll do that today, and hopefully have that video up soon. I have plans for a slightly more artistic bent to my channel than whatever mess I was doing previously.

I was a video editing fiend last night, fixing and re-uploading ep 04 of Nights at the Round Table, where we discuss The Day of the Triffids. I also edited and uploaded a bloopers video for the same programme, as it was a holiday, and I thought we'd celebrate it. Ep 05, in which we discuss the film K-Pax, was also edited and uploaded, but scheduled to air next Monday.

I edited, uploaded and scheduled all footage from my SMC Akwardly Plays segment. We're up to episode 21, but that won't be airing until mid-March. I did the same for CoOpted. There are fourteen episodes of it. To give you some idea of that that means, We've only aired three thus far.

That's a whole of of editing, and I didn't even get done all that I wanted to. I have two more episodes of Nights at the Round Table to edit together. Those, however, take roughly four hours an episode to edit, and then another couple to export, so it's going to be a little while yet. Maybe this weekend, if I have the time.

That was a tangent.

Instead of painting this morning, I'll be hunting for appropriate music for the YouTube video I'm planning to upload soon.

And since that is very time consuming, I'm headed off to do that now.

Ciao!

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Happy Family Day!

15/2/2016

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Good afternoon, Readers!

Image courtesy of szauna-szeansz.hu. Click for link.

Today is Family Day here in Ottawa, a day we made up to give ourselves a much needed day off work during the coldest month of the year. Thank goodness for today. I needed the day off.

As I'm not at the office, I'm not painting or writing. I AM still working on stuff, though, having spent yesterday doing a whole whack of video editing. I intend to finish that editing today, so that I'm all caught up, and there will be a lovely long list of videos queued and ready for viewing for the next month or so on Silver Stag's YouTube channel. Do subscribe for awesome content like Nights at the Round Table, where we discuss speculative fiction books and films, and a couple of Let's Plays which showcases hilarious gameplay... hilarious because I'm so, so bad at it...

I was up very late last night... actually very early this morning... getting the editing done, so I only woke up about an hour or so before midday. Oh well! I can get the rest of this day done quickly, I hope. Editing will take a while (seriously, one episode of Nights at the Round Table takes me about four hours of editing), but I can get it done.

I have to go and get to work now.

Ciao!

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Laid Up in Bed

11/2/2016

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Good morning, Readers.

Image courtesy of studentblogs.le.ac.uk. Click for link.

A double whammy today.

Yesterday I pulled piece of glass out of my foot. It had been there since the week before, when the room I train in had a mirror replaced, and the fools that did it neglected to vacuum. It always felt funny in that spot, but it didn't hurt... until I found the piece of glass and removed it. It started to hurt a lot after that. This morning, I spent what little energy I had draining the site. It's pretty gross.

Now it's covered in Polysporin, hurting like hell. Yay, infections.

My stomach is also not behaving itself. There's been a bug going 'round and I suspect I have it.

So I'm laid up in bed, feeling miserable.

I hate being ill. It's not just the discomfort that my issue. I can deal with that. That's just a part of life. It's that I won't get any work done. My digital painting stuff, and my writing stuff are all at the office. Where I'm not.

GRRRRR....

I'm writing in the morning, during the time I'd usually be commuting to work. So, likely by the time you're reading this, I'll be hopefully be fast asleep, and the whole not working thing won't be an issue...

I guess this means I can finish up the book I'm reading for Nights at the Round Table...

Anyway, I hope all your days are going better than mine.

Ciao!

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Are You Sure...?

10/2/2016

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Good morning, Readers!

Image courtesy of thetrevorproject.org. Click for link.

I've been pondering for a good couple of months or so on whether or not I should write this blog post. I decided that to hell with it all, I'm going to write it. First, let's get the unimportant stuff out of the way.

I identify as asexual. That's an easier way to explain it, as I'm actually really more a grey-A/grace, specifically demisexual. Human sexuality, guys. It's complicated.

The point is, I don't ever feel physically/sexually attracted to someone... unless I've known them a while and I've formed a strong bond with them. And even knowing them a while and bonding with them isn't a guarantee. That's a lot to explain to people, so I usually just say that I'm asexual should the topic ever come up. It hasn't come up all that often.

For the record, I'm hetero-romantic, so I tend to form romantic bonds with men.

I've copped a lot of flack from people close to me when I've told them this. I've gotten everything you might expect from people who haven't really bothered to educate themselves about human sexuality. The most annoying opinion I've ever received was, "Maybe it's just that you've never had a good experience."

It's true. I haven't. But I highly suspect that that's a symptom, not the cause.

I'm not going to get into all the shitty ways people erase asexuality. That's not the point of today's post. The point of today's post is that I got an email from someone who had read Human and knew of my sexual identity. I'm paraphrasing, but the email basically said this:

"I really liked Human. And Phew! Those sex scenes! Are you sure you're asexual?"

Yes. Yes, I'm sure.

I spent a lot of time - most of my life, in fact - thinking that I was broken, that something was wrong with me, that I was a freak. Sure that there must be a way to fix the thing that was broken in me, I started researching. A lot. More than you could ever think possible. I was determined to fix myself.

Turns out, I'm not broken at all. I'm just atypical. The story of my frakkin' life!

Now, despite being annoying - when someone tells you they identify as something, it's not your job to question it. Your job is to nod your head and say, "Okay. Cool." or something similar - it was actually very flattering. Why?

Well, I touched briefly on it yesterday.

It means that I successfully portrayed something that was outside of my own lived experience. I wrote convincingly about something I really don't know all that much about, and I did it so well, that the reader who emailed me thought that my sexual identity was in question.

So, yay me!...?

Granted, it's not that hard to get at least a little knowledgeable in the field. Societal obsession with sex is frakking everywhere.

Still, the mark of a successful writer is to convincingly write from a perspective not of their own. This is why I get really pissy with people who give a free pass to male writers who so poorly depict female characters. "Women are complicated" isn't an excuse. If a male writer is unable to convincingly portray a female character, then he isn't a good writer.

If a female writer isn't able to convincingly portray a male character, she is not a good writer.

If an asexual cannot convincingly portray a sexual character, they are not a good writer.

And so on and so forth.

So, as irritated as I was with the questioning of my identity, I was also quite flattered. It means that I am, at the very least, an adequate writer.

And that's not nothing.

Now I'm off to paint.

Ciao!

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And the Results Are In!

9/2/2016

2 Comments

Good morning, Readers!

Image courtesy of trophies2u.co.uk. Click for link.

So, you remember last week when I talked about the little experiment fellow author Renee Miller was doing? Well, the experiment is over and the results are everything I expected. You can review the results here, but let me simplify it for you.

You cannot tell a person's gender from the way they write. In other words, the idea that writing style is gendered is utter horse shit, and should be treated as such. Gender does not determine quality, quantity or genre in any way, shape, or form. So stop it with the gendered bullshit, already.

But Sonia, I hear (some) people cry, I bet the female writers deliberately wrote like men in order to confuse the voters! It was a deliberate misdirection for the sake of the feminist agenda!

Don't laugh. People make these idiotic arguments all the time.

I cannot speak to what the other female writers did. I can only speak to what I did. And what I did was write the first thing that popped into my head when Renee wrote the submission guidelines for her very unscientific experiment. Those guidelines were:

Write a scene between two people involving an inanimate object no bigger than your computer screen. Must be in first person.

Now, for some reason, I thought the guidelines read first person, present tense so that's what I wrote.

The Nature of Pride
“Oh come on!” I say, pointing emphatically at the thing on the pedestal with both hands. “That is not art!”
“Of course it is!” Lindie replies, rolling her eyes at me.
My jaw drops as I stare at her. Perhaps the art museum was not the best choice for our fourth date. I mean, I really like this girl, what with her nerdy, slightly androgynous aesthetic common to all art history students, and her bright, brainy conversation. I was hoping that if I impressed her enough with my highly cultural choice of date location, I might finally get her back to my place for some… you know…
“Art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power,” she continues. “This is clearly doing that. So it’s art.”
“It’s a computer screen with some paint splattered on it. It’s an accident, is what this is.”
“Did you even read the card? The artist wanted to convey the threat of modern technology, how it’s nothing more than the murder of the human spirit.”
I shake my head. “Bullshit,” I say. “That’s just the B.S. esoteric explanation the artist pulled from his ass in order to sell this piece of crap. How much did it cost, anyway?”
Lindie checks her pamphlet. “Twenty-five million,” she informs me.
“Twenty-five million?! Holy shit! This is the best fucking scam ever! I’m going to go home, pour some coloured goop onto my iPad, claim I’m ‘making a statement’” – I use the international symbol for quotation marks with both hands to provide a visual cue in case my obvious sarcasm wasn’t enough – “and sell it for thirty million. Jesus! The art world is populated by absolute suckers!”
I should realise in this moment from Lindie’s glare that I’m running my mouth, and it isn’t appreciated, but I just can’t let this thing lie. I mean, be real. Twenty-five million? For a computer screen someone accidentally spilled paint on?
“It’s like the story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes.’ This museum got swindled, and everyone has their heads too far up their asses, trying to appear all cultural and learned, to admit it!”
“Oh my god,” Lindie says. “You are such an idiot.” She turns and starts to walk away.
Damn. I’ve blown the date. I reach out and grab her arm. “I’m sorry,” I say, pulling her into a hug. “I’m sorry. How about we just go back to my place. I’ll put on some music, open some wine, and we can talk about other things.”
I smile when I feel Lindie’s arms snake around my ribs. “That sounds nice,” she says. “Just one thing.”
“Anything.”
“Admit that the computer screen is art.”
My shoulders lock, my arms now stuck around her, as my back stiffens.

I’m not getting laid tonight.

These were the results for my particular piece:

Votes female: 3
Votes male: 4

Actual gender: Woman.
Biological sex: Female.

I know, I know, how cis-normative of me.

Granted, first person is not a style I typically write in (I have two books out of thirteen or so that are written in first person perspective), and first person, present tense is something I never write in at all, so my piece would likely have thrown off even the most avid reader of mine. Hell, I fooled a Beta Reader!

That, however, is not a deliberate misdirection. That scene was the first thing that popped into my head when reading Renee's prompt, so that's the scene I wrote. I did not consciously alter my writing to appear more masculine because I had a point to prove. I trusted enough in the fact that the idea of gendered writing was utter rot that I did not feel the need to perform a magic trick with words.

I appreciate anyone who had that thought though. It makes me look like far better an writer than I am.

Which brings me to another matter. If I did perform a deliberate misdirection as to the gender of the author with my words, good. That means I'm a good writer. It means that I can successfully inhabit the mind of a character that is not my own gender. Any female writer who may have performed a deliberate misdirection in the experiment can pat themselves on the back. They successfully portrayed something that was outside of their actual experience.

It's a brilliant writer who can do that.

So for those espousing the superiority of writers of the masculine gender (and there are a lot of such people), you can knock it off now.

Now, off you all go and buy some great books by fabulous female writers. Here are a couple I've enjoyed:

There are a tonne of other absolutely brilliant female writers. Who are some of your favourites? Leave your recommendations in the comments. I'm off to paint.

Ciao!

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Got Time?

8/2/2016

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Good morning, Readers!

Image courtesy of Renaissance Press' Facebook page. Click for link.

How are you all? I'm well.

It was another productive weekend, and I had a lot of fun. My Kung Fu brother Jon came over Saturday after I was done teaching kick-boxing, and we played some Borderlands co-op for Silver Stag's YouTube programme CoOpted. We did far better this time than we did the last few times. I might be getting the hang of things.

Sunday, I had no plans whatsoever.

Can I tell you how lovely having no plans is? It's wonderful. I slept in for a long, long time and then went out to lunch with the Amazing Flatmate. After that, we did more work on our masks. We both decided that we wanted to attempt to make our masks into fox masks.

The Amazing Flatmate has already painted hers. I've only just finished shaping mine. Now I have to find some faux fur, and decide how I'm going to make the gold and silver wire designs on the fur. In truth, mine looks more like a pig than a fox, but it cannot be avoided. It was shaped to my face, and I apparently have a high forehead. Oh well!

While waiting for the mask to dry, I edited together this week's episodes of everything for Silver Stag Entertainment. The next episode of Nights at the Round Table will be up at midday today, and the week's episodes of SMC Awkwardly Plays and CoOpted are both uploaded and scheduled. I'm feeling very on top of things right now.

While I was waiting for the various videos to export of upload or process, I decided to glue feathers onto a silly little sculpture I made out of the left over papier maché stuff we had from our first session of mask making. It was just a vaguely bird-shaped lump before. Now I'm quite proud of that silly little sculpture. When it's done, I'll upload a picture of it.

Now, onto the main event. Friend and wonderful person Jen Desmarais is becoming a published game designer. The good folk at Renaissance Press are publishing her card game Blush. They'll be doing a Kick-Starter to help fund the publishing of this fabulous game, and currently have a casting call out. From their Facebook page:

How knowledgeable are you about human sexuality? Would you like to show off your knowledge, or maybe learn a little bit more? Or maybe just lend a helping hand in promoting Blush, our newest game by Jen Desmarais, which we will be launching later this year?

We will be filming a short session where we will be asking questions to anyone who would like to answer (and providing the correct answer afterwards, of course) in order to promote the Kickstarter campaign we will be starting in March.

So, if you'd like to participate, please come and see us this coming Friday the 12th of February, between the hours of 2:30 and 3:30 PM, at the main entrance of E building of Algonquin College!

We are looking forward to seeing all of you!

So, please, if you have the time and you're out and about, drop by Algonquin College and participate. I'm really excited for this game, and so happy for Jen.

Right, I have a lot of work to do. I must do it.

Ciao!

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Do a Thing?

4/2/2016

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Good morning, Readers!

This image has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it was hilarious. Courtesy of boredpanda.com. Click for link.

Today is an interesting day! I just got an email from Amazon, giving me notification of my first ever royalty cheque. Actually, it's a direct deposit, but the point still stands. I'm getting this little bit of money from the Amazon Australia store.

Guys... I'm getting royalties!

Wha...?

I've been writing seriously for seven years, publishing for six. This is the first royalty I've ever received. Granted, it's not much, but it's there. It's a royalty cheque (deposit). Guys... I think... I think I'm a writer now...

So, uh, thanks for buying my books, Australia! I know what I'm going to spend that eleven dollars on!

Food. I'm going to buy myself some food.

That wasn't what I was planning on blogging about this morning, I was just so blown away when I read that email first thing today that I had to say something!

What I was intending to blog about it this:

Fellow Canadian author and wonderful person Renee Miller is doing a little experiment. She put out a call last week for her writer friends to submit a piece. She wanted to test the assertion that one can tell the gender of the author by the style of writing.

She, like myself, believes that this assertion is absolute horse shit. And she wanted to expose it for the horse shit it is by conducting a reader experiment. Essentially, she asked her writer friends to submit a short piece, and then posted them up for her readers to judge whether or not the story was written by a male or female writer.

Please, please, do participate. You can find the premise, the rules and the stories all here. Read them, and guess which stories were written by writers of which gender. There will be a second batch to guess, so be sure to participate then as well.

I think this is a very interesting experiment she's doing, and I do hope that many people participate.

As you know, I'm not in agreement with gender roles at all. I think they're stupid, baseless presumptions of ability based on nothing but stupid presumptions of imagined differences. Anyway, I don't want to get started on it, because I could rant for days how utterly full of shit gender roles are, and I want to spare you that.

I would like to remind you, however, of that time I plugged my writing into a computer programme designed to guess the gender of the writer, and my results were thus:

59% Male
41% Female (or European male)

That European male thing still cracks me up!

Anyway, those who know, know that I'm about 100% female, so the whole "writing is gendered" thing is utter horse shit.

Anywho, do check out Renee's experiment, and buy one of her awesome books while you're at it, m'kay? I have things to paint, so, uh...

Ciao!

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Disheartening

Happy Family Day!

Laid Up in Bed

Are You Sure...?

And the Results Are In!

Got Time?

Do a Thing?

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Disheartening

Happy Family Day!

Laid Up in Bed

Are You Sure...?﻿

And the Results Are In!

Got Time?

Do a Thing?

Author

Archives

Categories

Are You Sure...?