Good morning, Readers!

The Monster Launch happened this weekend! Yay!

It was a great event, with the most excellent staff at The 3 Brewers were run off their feet and remained cool and calm, and were altogether excellent.  I cannot thank them enough for ensuring our attendees were well looked after.  They were exceptional.

Thanks also to Caroline Fréchette, of Renaissance Press, for driving me to the locations we were investigating for the event, for supplying the raffle tickets, and for being the night's M.C.

Thanks of course to the authors who came out to celebrate as a group for all their hard work in getting the word out.

And, last but certainly not least, a massive thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us.  You are the reason we write.  We couldn't do any of it without your support.  You're wonderful.

I'm calling the night a success!

If you want more images of the night, or have any yourselves you'd like to include, I have a photo album on my Facebook Page.  You can view it here.  If you have some, feel free to send them to me and I'll add them!

And now onto a winner!

I ran a giveaway for the book Sky Road Walker on my Facebook page (via Rafflecopter).  The winner has been selected!

Congratulations Abhinav Shuckla!

There will be a book headed your way very shortly.

If you're sad you didn't win, don't worry.  You have one more chance (two, if you're an eNewsletter subscriber).  As of writing this, there are 16 hours left in the Goodreads.com give away.

CLICK HERE

to enter.

You still have some time.

And now I must leave you and do work things.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I still haven't found the section of story I want to read on Saturday.

PANIC!

So... I'll be doing that again today.  I have to find a great piece that is under five minutes.  This is trickier than it might seem.

In life stuff, I had considered trying online dating again, just to see if it's any better than the last time I tried.  I don't like dating. The whole thing is uncomfortable and awkward, and I'm not one for small talk.  A friend of mine is currently doing it, and I get periodic updates about her exploits...

...I'm not jumping back in.  Nope.

So... I went on a tangent about what it's like being asexual in a culture soaking with sex, but decided that such a discussion is better suited to a different post, so I deleted it.  Just take my word for it that it's difficult as fuck trying to date as an asexual.

And I don't really want to, as it happens.  I'm not fussed about having a boyfriend/husband in my life.  I'm quite happy with my male friends, and female friends, and really my life is pretty damned good.

I'm just feeling the same social pressure every woman feels to get hitched, I suppose.

Blerg.

Last night I looked around at my bedroom and finally realised that my depression has gotten out of hand.  It's a mess.  I need to get a grip.  It's been a difficult year for my depression, though.  I'll get there.  I'll start by cleaning my room.  Hopefully.  I always have such good intentions and then the depression takes over and I just lie in bed and stare at nothing.

And this is a very disjointed blog post.  Sorry.  I'm panicking about Saturday.

On that note, I have to find a damned passage to read.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So, the epic Multi-Author Launch Party is this weekend.  I'm doing a reading.

I am yet to select a passage to read.

Damn everything.

There go ALL my plans for today.  Today I am simply trying to find an appropriate passage to read, and then practising the fuck out of it.

Because I am nothing if not prepared...

Ahem.

So I'm off now.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Sorry this blog post is late.  I spent all of this morning putting in the captions for a video I've uploaded; the first of the latest ChiSeries Ottawa readings   The ChiSeries takes place in a pub and so capturing the audio was really very difficult.  I cleaned it up as best I could in post, but some of it was still garbled nonsense.  I'm going to have to invest in a better microphone for the camera.  In any case, I went through this morning to put in the captions.  I hope I got everything right.  So, do yourselves a favour and watch with the captions on.  It was a great reading. Trying to capture audio in a pub is tough.  Sorry it's so crappy.

​In any case, here it is:

And now I have to try and catch up on the rest of the day's work.

Man I wish I could hire an editor.  Fingers crossed this YouTube thing starts paying off so that I can.

Le sigh.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Really bad headaches seem to have become common place for me of late.  I'm in day three of an episode currently.  I'm certain that it's directly related to the problems I have with my back.  But I am too poor to see a chiropractor or a masseuse, so I'm going to have to live with it for now.

Because I'm in such rough shape, I'm far behind in all of my work, and not quite able to deal with writing a full blog post.  So I'll just lead you to this post, by fellow Canadian writer Renee Miller that has some hard truths about what writing is really like.

And I'll remind you that I am running a giveaway for Sky Road Walker on Goodreads.  You can enter that by clicking here.  Spread the word (it helps me out)!

And lastly, OMG THE BOOK LAUNCH IS THIS WEEKEND!  If you're coming, please RSVP via Facebook so we can warn - I mean, inform - the staff at The 3 Brewers.  If you don't have facebook, you can leave a comment on this post, and I shall add you to the numbers.

That's all I can manage right now.  I'm going to try and be productive today. Wish me luck.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

So, uh, there's no way I can possibly follow up on yesterday's post, so instead, you get this press release about the upcoming book launch.  You're coming, right?

THURSDAY OCTOBER 20TH 2016 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE by Renaissance Press


Join us for our MONSTER LAUNCH party!
Eight authors. Seven books.
One revolutionary game.


The celebration will be held at the 3 Brewers pub (240 Sparks St., Ottawa)
Saturday October 29th, 2015, from 5:00 - 7:00 PM.


There will be readings by the authors, prizes to win, special prices and of course, the opportunity to get your books signed. The authors will be wearing costumes, so please feel free to dress up as well!

Life in the ’Cosm by Cait Gordon
This science-fiction comedy follows  the adventures of Virj Ofreesin, a lovesick writer who goes on a foolish adventure to save the half of the bigender being he loves… in all the wrong places.
ISBN 978-1-987963-16-8 – Available now!
​

Good morning, Readers!

I know I've discussed this before, but in the light of the recent idiocy by the ultra-right group One Million Moms regarding an ad run by H&M, I think I need to talk about it more.  I've been thinking about it a lot.  First, here's the ad:

I quite like this ad.  It shows women.  All kinds of women.  Being, well, women.

Of course, One Million Moms decided that it was a trashy ad for a number of reasons.  The reason that created the most furore, however, was their complaint of the inclusion of a transgender woman (or, in their words "a man dressed as a woman") in their ad.

There's only one problem.  The woman they singled out as being unworthy of womanhood is not transgender at all.  She's Fatima Pinto, Muay Thai boxing champion.

There is so much to unpack with this complaint I scarce know where to start.  Tempting as it is to level a tsunami of derision at One Million Moms for their mistake, I feel like it speaks to a broader attitude, common even in people who couldn't be further from the right-wing nut jobs that make up the group who made the error.

Story Time:

During a visit home to Australia, I amused my older sister and her eldest daughter with some martial arts training. It included push-ups.  When I performed a push-up my sister said, "Ew. I don't like it when women's arms have muscles that stick out like that."  I'm paraphrasing, but the "Ew" is stuck in my head forever.

Don't rag on my sister.  She is not alone in this view.  Muscularity is considered "mannish" and "unfeminine" and therefore inappropriate and ugly on women.  Women who are muscular are accused of being "men in women's clothing."

Femininity has long been associated with softness, demure murmurs, fluttered eyelashes...  It's long been about goddesses, and rainbows, fairy dust and flowers.  It has also long been analogous to submission, ineptitude, and weakness.

These are the things that are considered feminine, and, therefore, beautiful.  And who doesn't want to be beautiful?  Women are taught all their lives that beauty is something they must strive for.  It will be their greatest success.  So, in order to make ourselves in the image of acceptable beauty, we tend to diminish ourselves; make ourselves smaller - physically, personally, intellectually.  We restrain from strength because we have been taught that being our full selves is intimidating and therefore not beautiful.

Women can't be too ambitious.  It is unseemly.  Women cannot be too confident.  It makes them a bitch.  Women cannot be too strong, or get angry, ever.  It's unladylike.

We are bombarded with these messages all our lives.  Is it any wonder that when faced with a badass like Fatima Pinto, some women immediately assume she must be a man?  Muscularity, after all, is unfeminine.

I call bullshit.

Yes, Ms. Pinto is muscular.  She is also stunningly beautiful.

The two are not mutually exclusive, and nor should they be.

Story Time:

Growing up, I thought that perhaps I should have been a boy.  I wasn't interested in dresses and make-up.  I was interested in adventuring, exploring, archery, swordplay, action movies.  I didn't feel like I was boy given the wrong body.  I was very much a girl.  I was in the right body.  But I saw what the boys were doing - all the things I wasn't allowed to do because "that's not for girls" - and I wished against wish that I could be a boy, just so I could do the things I wanted.  I rebelled.  The colour pink became toxic.  Dresses were foul.  But my rebellion was really a defeat, an acceptance of the equation that feminine = bad, incompetent, unintelligent, weak.

I know I'm not alone here.  That's why Xena: Warrior-Princess was life-changing for me.  Yes, it's a ridiculously campy show.  But there is something there that is deeply profound.  On screen, before the eyes of a girl who felt like a freak, was a tough, beautiful woman who was strong, and capable, and unapologetically angry; an avenger.  She wore armour, and rode horses, and used swords.  She punched and kicked her way across the screen, fighting people and gods alike.

Suddenly, what it meant to be a woman shifted.

Gone was the idea that women were meant to be submissive and demure.  The idea that women must diminish themselves, and repress their emotions, and hide their strength flew out the window.

As I grew, I found more and more examples of women being their full selves.  There were archaeological discoveries of women given warrior burials, buried with their weapons.  There were records of women who owned land in their own right, and conducted business on their own.  There were remembrances of women who broke the mould in times far more restrictive than my own.

(Plug: Rejected Princesses is a book all about that.  You should go buy it.  No, it's not one of mine.  I just think it's a fantastic book that should be in every household.)

These were real women.  Real women like me.

They were not "men in women's clothing."  They were women.

What is feminine to me has shifted, by virtue of realising just how many women were bold, were strong, were fighters, killers, leaders, academics, vigilantes, outlaws and so many other things that we're told all our lives that women cannot be.

We can.  We are.  And we're still women.

It's long past time we discarded the ridiculous gender norms that are constricting women - and men - snapping us all into moulds that are ill-fitting, malformed, painful things that do justice to no one.

Fatima Pinto is not a man in women's clothing.  She's 100% woman, and 100% badass,  She is muscular.  And she is beautiful.  She is strong.  And she is feminine.

Incidentally, the ad did have a transgender woman in it, beautiful model Hari Nef.

And you know what?  She's a badass woman too.

So, One Million Moms, I am angry at you.  I am angry at mistaking strength for masculinity.  I'm angry at you, but I also know that this stunningly erroneous attitude is something that has been rammed down your throats, my throat, everyone's throat - against all evidence to the contrary - for a long, long time.  So I also pity you.  Because I have no doubt that you've had to diminish yourselves in order to fit the mould.  I am certain of it, because all the anger you've been forced to repress at your situation is now flooding out, lashing out at others who have refused to diminish.  Because they will not suffer as you have.

And that makes me incredibly sad for you, One Million Moms.

Now I must go and be a woman writer of speculative fiction.

​Ciao!