You build up the fright or worry and then you go and get the tattoo and are like, “wow, I way over-worried”. It was great. I’m sure having an artist like I did helps a lot. They talked with me about the tattoo, about life, about me, them, etc. Was really wonderful.
Hope
“The Chase” (TNG 6:20) remains one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. It, along with “Darmok” follow in the footsteps of the best of this franchise. Thinking sci-fi with a look to the past, the future, and creating a sense of Hope and unity.
Hope is a rare commodity in these times, especially under a growing dystopian Trump dictatorship. His Gestapo disappears people off the streets and he threatens Constitutionally-protected rights of American citizens.
But with a Pride Month high and shows that swell my heart, I can believe in Hope. I can and will fight for my dreams, my rights and my existence.
Kate Wilhelm, writer/goddess
It’s both exciting and sad that I’ve discovered so many things now that I’m older that I never knew about when I was younger. This isn’t about being trans, that’s something I’ve known since I was in single digit years. No, this is about an author.
This is about finding authors who were alive and writing when I was devouring a genre but never heard of them. I was at the library all the time, constantly checking out sci-fi books to read. I also spent every last cent I earned or was gifted for birthdays/holidays at my local bookshop. Books were my candy growing up.
This particular author is Kate Wilhelm. She was writing short stories and novels since the 1960s, especially in the New Wave movement of the late 60s and early 70s. Her writing is amazing, beautiful prose & psychologically-based stories. I love her atmospheres (no SF pun intended) & the inner lives of her characters. Three of my favorites books of hers were The Abyss (two novellas), Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1977 Hugo Award for best novel) and Somerset Dreams and Other Fictions (collection of short stories and novellas).
She died in 2018. I read my first of her books in 2020. I could have been a fan. I could have seen her at a convention or a book signing. I could have told her how much she impacted me (both as a reader and a writer (her craft can teach a great deal)).
Why didn’t I know about her? Maybe because she was a woman in a pretty male-dominated genre, especially at her peak? But, she outclassed so many of them. Maybe because I didn’t look hard enough? I’m not sure, but I try to sample so many more authors today so that I don’t miss out on someone amazing who I might be able to have a connection while we’re both still walking around.
Just my 2¢ on an idea that popped into my head at 4:14 am this morning.
Tattoo booked! Next week. So excited (and a little scared). First one, but the design is something I created and it’s so affirming!
I think blogging is a little like pirate radio, without the illegalities. Maybe this is because I 🩷 the film Pump Up the Volume. I certainly don’t have a big audience, but it’s nice to think there might be someone out there who hears this. And maybe they smile or nod their head once in awhile.
Junebat by John Elizabeth Stintzi
Perfect score, 10 out of 10. A fantastic collection of poetry from the author who created Vanishing Monuments, a stunning novel of joy & sadness.
Standout poems in this collection for me are:
- Selected Definitions of Junebat
- War Wounds
- Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Junebat
- The Night After Flights of Cider
- Evidence Disproving the Existence of a Junebat
- America (I’m Putting My Queer Shoulder to the Wheel)
- If You Could See Me You Would See
In “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Junebat”, I absolutely resonated with: “You are not your body unless / you are” and “You are not a boy or a girl unless / you are.” (section XI).
In one of my favorite poems, “America (I’m Putting My Queer Shoulder to the Wheel):
Despite the fear of the mortal danger
I grew bold in a way the system hated.
I decided that if this world was going
to kill me I’d die against the grain.
I decided that if America confronted me
with her rancid mouth screaming
I would stand as tall as her and scream back.
Happy Pride Month. 🏳️⚧️ 🏳️🌈. Still a lot to do, especially with the 🍊 monster in charge, but we will stand proud & stand up for our rights. We aren’t going anywhere. 🩷
Crying I am so happy. Trans joy is possible in these times. I swear it’s true. Some care about us. And that is something powerful.
Tattoo design decisions done! Large one perfect & have location. Want to do political one (identifying WHO I am), on my wrist or hip. Fingers crossed 🤞 I follow through with my choice.
Finished reading: Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien 📚
Incredibly slow start. Took almost 100 pages to get moving. Then was pretty exciting until it puttered out. Definitely a YA novel even though he was trying to break out of that genre
Stop with new AI of the week!
OMFG, I don’t want YAAIF (yet another AI feature). Make good apps, make great OSes, fix buggy software, add features we asked for. Leave the stuff we don’t want alone.
I’ve been a heavily invested Apple fangirl for ages. If Apple only focuses on AI, I’m not sure where I’ll end up. I hate PCs and dislike droids (phones and Star Wars). I like the 🍎 ecosystem but I don’t need these silly bells and whistles.
It’s amazing how a simple thing like painting your toenails with a new color can heighten a day and brighten a mood. 🩷
Other ear pierced (joy!) and tattoo design revamped and finished. Support engaged. Ready to take on the world and share my journey!
I knew, but waited.
Now, I rise during a genocide.
I’m still me … I’m on my feet.
I will meet them face to face. 🏳️⚧️
Finished reading: The Best of Fredric Brown by Fredric Brown 📚
Except for Arena, it feels pretty much schtick to me. I guess that makes sense for most SF written in the 40s & 50s.
There was one personality, and one hidden beneath it. Now, two are standing next to each other, one cheering the newly emerged one on. How will this play out. I’m feeling Dawn is the end point.
Daniel Brook's book on Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld
There’s a fascinating book coming out by Daniel Brook, called The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Visionary of Weimar Berlin.
Wow, so, over 100 years ago, people were already talking about race and gender as social constructs. This wasn’t something invented a few years ago by people that Republicans and related fascists hate. And gender fluidity goes back millennia, back to the beginning of recorded history and literature.
One thing that blew my mind in this review from LitHub, is that the infamous Nazi book burning pictures we have are of Nazis burning his books from his Institute for Sexual Science, a think tank and surgical center in the 1910s and 1920s. Hitler and his Nazis burned and tried to erase his research, but it has lived on. Trump, Republicans and Christian Fascists are trying to do this today, and they will fail also.
We’re here, we’re queer, and we are strong.
You can read the article on LitHub.
I quit all the Meta properties, never did TikTok and quit twitter the day before South African Apartheid Hitler-wannabe Musk took it over. I’ve never regretted it. I LOVE micro.blog. Sorry to put politics in a praise post for this great service but there it is.
