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rambling Wiscon notes [30 May 2012|10:12pm] [ mood | jetlagged ] I'm still jetlagged (I swear, I only adjusted to Wisconsin time just when it was time to come home again!), so this will be rambly and partial. I don't think I went to as much programming this year as at previous Wiscons--partly because I was dealing with bad headaches on a couple of the days. My favorite panel was probably "De-Gaying and Whitewashing: What Publishing Trends Mean for Writers" (with Mary Anne Mohanraj, Liz Gorinsky, Andrea Hairston, Malinda Lo, and Neesha Meminger). I was happy to finally be on a panel with oracne ("Short Stories vs Novels," which was a lot of fun), and also to have Tibetan food with her! My favorite reading was rose_lemberg's awesome The Moment of Change feminist SFF poetry open mic at Michelangelo's, featuring Rose, cafenowhere, shadesong, britmandelo and others. (Also, Michelangelo's provided very good brownies.) Andrea Hairston's Guest of Honor speech/performance was beautiful and inspiring (punctuated by the Star Trek theme song). Favorite food of the con: probably brunch at Bluephies with nwhepcat. (Runner up: the amazing chocolate cake with raspberry sauce which I get every year at the dessert salon.) Books/publications I bought at Wiscon (many of 'em from Aqueduct Press): The Wiscon Chronicles vol. 6: Futures of Feminism and Fandom, ed. Alexis Lothian The Moment of Change: An Anthology of Feminist Speculative Poetry, ed. Rose Lemberg Here We Cross: a collection of queer & genderfluid poetry from Stone Telling 1-7, ed. Rose Lemberg Unruly Islands by Liz Henry Oracle Gretel (chapbook) by Julia Rios Impolitic! by Andrea Hairston and Debbie Notkin We Wuz Pushed: On Joanna Russ and Radical Truth-Telling by Brit Mandelo and the April 2012 issue of The Cascadia Subduction Zone Clothes I lost and gained: I lost my purple cardigan on Monday sometime between lunch in the hotel restaurant and going upstairs to my room. I was in a headachy exhaustion haze at that point, so maybe I dropped it somewhere? Anyway, the hotel has my info, should it turn up. But at the Gathering, ellen_kushner had handed me a pair of black trousers with multicolored vertical stripes and pronounced them mine. I thought, But they're not my size or my style!--but tried them on and discovered they fit me perfectly and looked exactly my style. Also, nwhepcat gave me a beautiful rose-colored tie-dyed scarf. (But I still want my cardigan back!) As always for me, the best part of Wiscon was the people--getting to see old and new friends, sharing fun and inspiration. 1 comment|post comment

home [29 May 2012|08:56pm] [ mood | recumbent ] I'm home from Wiscon, after a long (but smooth) day of travel. It was so great to see everyone! I'm far too fried to post cogently at the moment, but I will in the next day or two. 5 comments|post comment

pre-WisCon noveling [23 May 2012|08:56pm] [ mood | excited ] Made some finishing touches to chapter 23 and added it to the Jo book. (Chapter 24 is getting close to done.) Word count: 71,582 Page count: 251 Getting there!! 1 comment|post comment

pre-Wiscon post [23 May 2012|07:31pm] [ mood | pre-Wiscon-ish ] Tomorrow morning I'm off to WisCon. My schedule (fairly light) is here. Looking forward to seeing lots of you there. Not looking forward to my Travel Day. (I doubt that's what George Harrison meant when he wrote "arrive without traveling," but I wish that's what I could do!) I had hoped to have this draft of the Jo book done by WisCon, and it's not, but it's getting there. By Readercon, perhaps? I'm about 95% packed. Ugh, I hate traveling. But yay WisCon! 4 comments|post comment

as the weekend becomes a distant memory... [14 May 2012|03:43pm] [ mood | in need of caffeine ] It is Monday afternoon, and I need more caffeine. (I don't think I had enough coffee this morning, but now I want more Darjeeling.) Yesterday my friend Lara Parker and Kathryn Leigh Scott did a book signing at Dark Delicacies. Lara Parker was signing the gorgeous new editions of her Dark Shadows novels (which Tor has reissued to tie in with the new film), Angelique's Descent and The Salem Branch (the book she was writing when I met her at Antioch). Kathryn Leigh Scott was signing her new nonfiction book, Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood. It was a fun event. After which, I tried to race to the nearest movie theater that was playing The Avengers, but I didn't give myself enough time. So...I still haven't seen it. Maybe I'll get a chance before WisCon? In any case, I am so looking forward to WisCon. 2 comments|post comment

Tim Burton's Dark Shadows [11 May 2012|05:55pm] [ mood | pleased ] Well, I still haven't seen The Avengers, but I have seen the new Dark Shadows film. I had long looked forward to this film--until the first trailer came out, when I began to worry that this might be yet another charmless remake of a classic TV show. Many old-school fans were rubbed the wrong way by the jokiness of the trailers (and by some less-than-respectful comments from Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter). I had already purchased a ticket for a special screening for fans, and I wondered if it would devolve into a hate-fest, with disgruntled old-school fans booing. But the screening was at the Vista Theatre (five minutes from my apartment), so I couldn't very well not go--and I'm glad I did, so I could be won over along with, as far as I could tell, pretty much the whole audience of hardcore Dark Shadows fans. Dark Shadows the movie is about 1000% better than I was expecting. The tone is just right--there is humor, but there is also depth. Johnny Depp's Barnabas is as complex as Jonathan Frid's, and he captures the essential pathos and fish-out-of-water discomfort (along with bloodlust, romantic yearning, and love of family) of the character. In fact most of the cast did a great job of making the characters their own. I particularly liked Chloe Moretz's hilariously sullen take on Carolyn Stoddard. ( spoiler ) Helena Bonham Carter almost made me forgive her snide comments with her marvelous performance as Dr. Julia Hoffman. (She may think the acting in the original Dark Shadows was "borderline bad"--but I think she channeled Grayson Hall!) The only weak link was Eva Green as a very one-note Angelique the witch, with none of the layers or charisma Lara Parker brought to the role. (And okay, I may be biased because Lara Parker is a friend of mine, but still!) The script did some unexpectedly witty things with canon. The TV show had often used the characters Victoria Winters and Maggie Evans interchangeably (with waitress Maggie ending up with Vicki's governess job when Vicki left the canvas), and I had assumed the film would simply include either Vicki or Maggie and drop the other. Instead, Maggie Evans uses "Victoria Winters" as an assumed name. To my pleasant surprise (and relief) the film feels true to the spirit of Dark Shadows, and it has quite a bit of charm in its own right. TV Guide (Michael Logan): The Scoop on Dark Shadows From Tim Burton, Helena Bonham-Carter and The Original Cast NPR: 'Dark Shadows': The Birth Of The Modern TV Vampire Dark Shadows News Page: Lara Parker On The Dark Shadows Movie 12 comments|post comment

weekend [06 May 2012|09:22pm] [ mood | lethargic ] Yesterday I finally managed to see The Cabin in the Woods. A bit gory for my taste (though the gore was certainly justified by the premise), but I loved the meta. But, of course, now I need to figure out when I'm going to see The Avengers. I went to my local comic book shop yesterday for Free Comic Book Day. At 11 a.m. they were already out of the Firefly comic, but I did get the free Buffy comic (which also includes a Caitlin R. Kiernan comic). I've been reading Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother?. Not sure I love it as much as Fun Home--for one thing, I'm just not as interested in psychoanalytic theory as Bechdel seems to be--but it's still pretty damn great. I stayed up too late last night watching The French Lieutenant's Woman on TCM (which I hadn't seen in ages), and have felt slightly hungover all day from wonky sleep. Could use more weekend... 2 comments|post comment

International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day [23 Apr 2012|08:31pm] [ mood | tired ] It's International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, and I'd been meaning to post the following poem anyway, what with it being the 20th anniversary of the LA Riots. This little poem first appeared in 1992 in High Performance magazine (a special issue they did called The Verdict and The Violence, edited by Wanda Coleman). I'm pretty sure I scribbled the poem while stuck in freeway gridlock. I remember jotting down the traffic sign. 4/30/92 crawling toward work on 405 freeway morning after Rodney King decision refineries to my left belch white smoke palm trees to my right jacarandas blooming Budweiser & Maui $360 roundtrip billboards N-110 EXITS CLOS CENTURY - ML KING 4 comments|post comment

henna day + anthology [22 Apr 2012|01:50pm] [ mood | busy ] It is Henna Day, and the cool henna on my hair is pleasant on this warm day. It's been a way too busy weekend, including lots of apartment cleaning--but on Friday I went with my friend E. to Burbank for a One Life To Live prop sale. They had lots of (expensively priced) furniture and framed artwork that had been used on the show--but I picked up a few inexpensive items (including a framed wedding portrait of [Trevor] Todd and Tea, a framed picture of [Roger] Todd and Starr, the journal Brody kept in the mental institution, the journal Marty kept when she had amnesia, and a letter from Patrick Thornheart to his son Cole in prison!). [ETA: Forgot to mention that at the prop sale they had giant hilarious David Vickers movie posters: one for Vickerman and one for The Boy With the Chipmunk Tattoo.] The other day I received my contributor's copy for News Clips and Ego Trips: The Best of Next... Magazine 1994-98. Back in the mid-1990s, Southern California had a thriving live poetry scene, which Next... covered with interviews, reviews, and other features (plus an events calendar). The anthology includes my review of an outdoor Allen Ginsberg reading/concert in Long Beach (1994) and an article I wrote about the pros and cons of poetry workshops. Looking through the anthology is making me nostalgic. Nostalgic for the '90s already? That seems wrong, somehow... 6 comments|post comment

RIP Jonathan Frid [19 Apr 2012|11:13am] [ mood | sad ] I had no idea when I posted yesterday about the 45th anniversary of Jonathan Frid's first appearance on Dark Shadows that Frid had passed away. I just saw the news this morning: Darks Shadows Star Jonathan Frid Dead at 87 So sad...but I'm glad I managed to see him at a couple of the Dark Shadows Festivals in Burbank in recent years. ETA: MSNBC Frid obit Kathryn Leigh Scott remembers Frid ETA2: My friend Lara Parker remembers Frid 5 comments|post comment

happy Frid-iversary [18 Apr 2012|07:36pm] [ mood | nostalgic ] Forty-five years ago today, Jonathan Frid made his first appearance as Barnabas Collins at the end of Dark Shadows episode 211: I keep meaning to post about the upcoming Tim Burton/Johnny Depp Dark Shadows film. The trailers look beautiful but are way too jokey for my liking (akin to a trailer for a remake of Wuthering Heights in which Cathy runs through the moors calling "Heathcliff!"...and then the cartoon cat shows up and they start dancing to Barry White). Maybe the movie will be great. Maybe it won't. Hopefully it will at least interest some new people in watching the original show, which I continue to adore. 7 comments|post comment

my WisCon schedule! [18 Apr 2012|05:18pm] [ mood | pleased ] Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading Sat, 1:00–2:15 pm (Conference 2) Karon Crow Rilling (moderator), Kimberley Long-Ewing, Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, Ada Milenkovic Brown, Gwynne Garfinkle, Deirdre M. Murphy, Michelle Murrain, Larissa N. Niec, Katherine Mankiller, Phoebe Wray. Short Stories vs Novels Sat, 4:00–5:15 pm (Senate B) David D. Levine (moderator), Benjamin Billman, Richard Chwedyk, Gwynne Garfinkle, Carolyn Ives Gilman, Victoria Janssen. Some writers claim they can only write short, others insist they can only go with longer works. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each form? Should you force yourself to try the length that doesn't seem natural for you? What benefits are there to those who can successfully write both types of story? At one time, authors were told they needed three short story sales (of the pro variety) before they should try to sell a novel. Is this true? If short isn't your form of choice, are you just screwed? Really looking forward to WisCon... 3 comments|post comment

GH is saved...for now, anyway! [11 Apr 2012|03:03pm] [ mood | jubilant ] I am so relieved: GENERAL HOSPITAL Renewed! THE REVOLUTION Canceled I'm thrilled GH got a stay of execution. Also pleased that they're not even letting The Revulsion live until they need its time slot in September. Ha! 6 comments|post comment

noveling, plus a GH-related surprise [01 Apr 2012|05:45pm] [ mood | surprised ] I've finished chapter 21 of this draft of the Jo book, and am working on chapter 22 (though it's a tough one). Word count: 65,553 Page count: 229 Four chapters to go?! *** Today is General Hospital's 49th anniversary. I do hope ABC lets it live until 50, at least. Someone posted a cool early GH promo on YouTube, and to my surprise, it also features a promo for the ABC daytime show my dad wrote, Day in Court. As far as I know, this is the only available footage of the show, as ABC wiped the tapes. I hadn't realized that the show my dad wrote was GH's lead-in! I did know that my dad knew Frank and Doris Hursley, GH's creators, but now I understand why--they were working for ABC Daytime at the same time! 4 comments|post comment

reason #1,472 why Ron Carlivati is my hero [29 Mar 2012|02:52pm] [ mood | impressed ] ...or, how Ron Carlivati rescued Robin Scorpio from a hack writer's clutches and saved her from the grave: GH’s Ron Carlivati and Kimberly McCullough on the decision to have Robin turn up ALIVE! Now if ABC can just decide to cancel The Revolution and save GH from the grave. They're supposed to make their decision in the next couple of weeks. 2 comments|post comment

RIP Adrienne Rich [28 Mar 2012|02:53pm] [ mood | sad ] Poet Adrienne Rich, 82, has died In 1983, for my final high school semester, I ended up taking a controversial Women's Studies class (because the class I'd wanted to take had been canceled). It was my introduction to feminism, and it changed my life. Among the books on the syllabus were Adrienne Rich's The Dream of a Common Language and On Lies, Secrets, and Silence. Both of them changed the way I thought about writing and the world--and "Twenty-one Love Poems" in particular amazed me (and still amazes me) with its beauty. I saw Rich read her poetry twice. The first time was in the late '80s at Bread & Roses Bookstore. (I remember I'd come to the bookstore straight from a full day of defending women's health clinics against the harassment of Operation Rescue. The more things change...). The second time was in 1991 at Sisterhood Bookstore, when An Atlas of the Difficult World had just come out. Both bookstores are now gone, and now so is she. It's hard for me to fathom, when I've spent so many years reading and rereading her poetry and nonfiction--so many years being entranced and infuriated and engaged by her work. 14 comments|post comment

synchronicity [27 Mar 2012|10:33pm] [ mood | amused ] This evening before I left work, I scribbled a few lines of the Jo book into a notebook in the parking garage, and the last words I wrote were "Maybe it would be a terrible, life-wrecking decision. But it would be living." Then I drove out of the parking garage and turned on the radio, which immediately began to play the chorus of "Livin' Thing" (which, incidentally, is from 1976, the year the scene I was writing takes place). And I burst out laughing. 2 comments|post comment

I knew it! [26 Mar 2012|03:11pm] [ mood | busy ] ( spoiler for today's General Hospital ) 12 comments|post comment

poem up at Strange Horizons [26 Mar 2012|09:19am] [ mood | pleased ] My poem "bell, book, candle" is up at Strange Horizons. A good start to my week! 14 comments|post comment

rainy henna day post [25 Mar 2012|02:24pm] [ mood | good ] It is Henna Day, and it is raining plentifully in L.A. I'm looking forward to rinsing the wet henna out of my hair. Yesterday I got a superb haircut from my genius hairdresser (so there is far less hair to slather with henna than there's been in awhile). I'm reading Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand and Susie Bright's memoir Big Sex Little Death (which is available for free Kindle download this weekend in honor of Susie Bright's birthday). Last night I watched House of Dracula (1945), which handful_ofdust blogged about recently. I think it's the only one of that batch of 1930s-40s Universal monster films I didn't see when I was a kid. An odd movie, in which the kindly scientist (Onslow Stevens) trying to devamp Dracula (John Carradine) via blood transfusions ends up getting his own blood contaminated by Drac-blood and turns, not into a straight-up vampire, but a sort of vampire/Jekyll-Hyde/mad scientist combo. The movie features what was probably the silliest appearance of Frankenstein's monster to date. The scientist only manages to bring the monster (Glenn Strange) back to life near the end of the movie--whereupon the monster lunges at Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), who the scientist had cured of lycanthropy via brain surgery (!) earlier in the film. Talbot sets the lab on fire, and Frankenstein's monster perishes in the flames after only being alive again for maybe five minutes. Heh. 4 comments|post comment

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