Finished reading: Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon 📚
fantastic read. 5 stars. Perfect melding of sci-fi with trans experience. can be read either way or both ways. fast paced read too!
Finished reading: Herculine by Grace Byron 📚
A good read but glad I got it from the library. I’m not much into the demonic horror genre. The writing was good though it dragged at times. I think I could have rated this a 3 or if I was more into the genre a 4, but 3.5 sounds pretty good.
I never realized how many wonderful friends I’ve had. As I’ve unveiled myself to an ever widening group of people, the love and acceptance I’ve felt has warmed my heart and wiped away some of the sadness in my world.
Hope, no matter how small or fleeting, is still hope and I will cherish it.
My writing as of late seems to be ideas comes to me before the sun comes up and I’m in bed and then it percolates all day in my head, and I produce the work between 4:30 and 6:30pm. Hey, I’ll take it!
I can’t say how much this MAC makeup ad means to me as a Trekkie and a trans woman. It makes me smile. It gives me joy. It’s always the little things that truly make me happy.
Finished reading: Between Two Rivers by Moudhy Al-Rashid 📚
Good but could have been a long form article rather than book length. Still, I enjoyed.
Simple Joy
A simple moment of joy. I wrote a new poem after I woke up this morning. It was entitled “happy” and it talked about how many moments of joy and happiness we miss because we’re working so hard and spending so much to find happiness and joy. There is so much in nature, or among our loved ones, or even strangers.
I was walking this afternoon and came across this leaf. It was like a ton of other leaves lying around but it just struck me and I was in the moment and I was taken by it. It brought me a small measure of happiness that no amount of money or effort could buy.
Let’s all try to spend some time engaging with our surroundings and letting the little, simple joys of life inspire or just pleasure us.
I haven’t written much here lately. But, it’s partly because I’ve been writing poetry for a collection I’m pulling together. I haven’t had writing flow so easily in ages, so whenever it hits me, I go right to it. I’m sure more posts will be forthcoming!
I’m not going away. Ever. 🏳️⚧️ I love who I am and I love my sisters, brothers, and chosen family. Fuck all who try to come for me.
Always have loved Tears for the Dying, ever since hearing them in Bad Girl Boogey. This cover of Jolene is fantastic.
I miss my guitar. I’m watching videos of garage bands and remember jamming and just making sonic poems. Hmmm…maybe time to look into getting another guitar?
“Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more.” —Ulrike Meinhof, journalist
Finished reading: The Virtues of Underwear by Nina Edwards 📚 I heard about this from a podcast. I think the author was on and talking about the material I think the podcast had all I needed but still a cute read.
Happy birthday to Agatha Christie. Her novels were so important to me when I was younger and just out of university. In a complex world, her cozy little mysteries took me away and made me think, smile and worry. I bought or borrowed so many of her Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries!
Finished reading: Heretic by Catherine Nixey 📚
4.5 out of 5 rating
An excellent resource though it would probably be better as a reference than stand alone work. It’s got so much detail and includes many references.
I liked it more than her first book, The Darkening Age, in that it didn’t feel like a disconnected series of rants (even though her rants were correct). This book feels more polished, and it makes it better.
A new week, newly re-energized. Fall is here, one of my favorite seasons. Crisp air, changing colors, often beautiful skies.
It’s been a hard week, but some things have rescued me from the abyss. One was a single word, the power of which can’t be underestimated. Another was seeing micro.blog posts by people I follow. It’s so amazing to see them look at the world we live in and react thoughtfully to it. There is hope. 🩷
Finished reading: Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960-1964 by Chris Alexander 📚
A fun fanboy/fangirl read if you were into these films (I was! And still am.). Each film reviewed had a detailed synopsis, an interview with Roger Corman, and an analysis of the film and its impact. Lots of great production stills and, even better, lots of posters in various languages for where the film showed.
Finished reading: Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante 📚
One of the best books I’ve read so far. Beautiful, fast flowing prose that hit me in the heart and gut. I absolutely love Hazel Jane Plante!
Happy birthday to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
While I watched the various Hollywood incarnations of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (be they the original with Boris Karloff, the spoofs with Abbott & Costello, etc.), I didn’t read her actual novel until university. In a horror films class, of course. I remember not really enjoying the book, thinking that the movie was so much better.
Thankfully, I revisited the novel once I was older. By then, I knew more about her, her life, and the Romantic era. I love epistolary novels, but the beauty of this work is that there is no monster, only The Creature and its creator, Frankenstein. The Creature taught itself to read by finding three books, Milton’s Paradise Lose, Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther, and one volume of Plutarch’s Lives. Wow, talk about heavy hitting philosophical treatise on life and meaning. The novel is sewn through with thoughts on life, death, meaning of life, existence, love and being an outsider, shunned for who you are. This novel continues to resonate with me at each stage of my life and journey.
An interesting study on the novel was done by Charles Robinson, in his book “The Original Frankenstein”. He worked with an early draft held at the Bodleian Library. An amazing look at how the novel originally was structured. It flowed better and was a faster read. Worth checking out if you are interested in the history of this novel.