Wiscon is fast approaching. I am already wishing I was on the plane (where I hope to have a nice nap). I suppose I need to pack first, though. And compile my panel notes.

I have many Things to Do, both at dayjob and at home. At least that will make the next couple of days move quickly! And then next week, I took vacation for a few days before I leave for WisCon. I have to pack, and assemble my panel notes, in particular organizing my thoughts for the Dr. Who panel.

I hope to do some cleaning of my vile, vile accumulations of dust that are a result of a) living in a 19th century house, b) in a city, and c) not cleaning my floors for months and months. Since dust mites are one of my allergies, I usually have to dose up on antihistamines at some point in this process. Fun. But the handvac doesn't work nearly as well as actually mopping.

I also have change-of-season laundry I'd like to get done: winter coats, blankets, items it is suddenly too warm to wear, all that. I might wait a little longer before I take my trench coat to the dry cleaner; I'd like to resew some of the buttons, and attempt to get an ink mark out, and maybe clean the cuffs ahead of time, since the dry cleaning seems ineffective at removing stains (maybe I have a crappy dry cleaner).

This all sounds so boring, but it's enormously satisfying to me when I get these things done. It's a way of establishing control over my environment, I think, which makes me feel more upbeat and successful in general. Sometimes even a small thing, like changing my sheets, can do that. But the floors...they really, really need it regardless of my personal feelings in the matter.

I am actually reading the thing I said I would read next! I started To Love and to Cherish by Patricia Gaffney over the weekend and am loving it so far. I've been highlighting a lot of quotes, in the hope that when I'm done I'll be able to use them to form some coherent thoughts, as I did for To Have and To Hold. My favorite line so far is about Lent. Sort of.

Christy and Anne are an interesting pair - both think no one can understand their true, imperfect selves, and both are more compassionate than they realize. I love the realism of their conflicts and of their attraction to each other.

In the fanfiction world, I'm reading Freezer Burn by Domenika Marzione (domarzione) - I was introduced to Marzione's fic because of its original secondary characters and meticulously accurate military feel (I suspect she either served in the military or very closely with it). Those attributes works beautifully with the Captain America point of view in this lengthy, well-thought-out vision of S.H.I.E.L.D.'S discovery and reaction to the resurgence of HYDRA. It's set in the movieverse, though the other Avengers characters are not foregrounded for most of it. The best thing? Peggy!!! She's been in numerous scenes so far, and none of them wasted. There's also some excellent use of Black Widow.

And I continue to work my way through About Time 3: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who (Seasons 7 to 11), which is making me wish someone would do a vid combining footage of Jo Grant with a bunch of Glam Rock videos from Top of the Pops.

In the last week, I finished a book for review (and the review!). I also read a bunch of fanfiction that I didn't love enough to review, or that I didn't finish.

Next up is, most likely, Forever and Ever by Patricia Gaffney, the last book in the Wyckerley trilogy, about which I know absolutely nothing. I don't think I'll reread To Have and to Hold, I'll just remind myself of the plot.

But I also seem to be in the mood for some sort of dark mystery or thriller. This might be a result of a friend of mine going to Iceland for vacation, which led to me reccing her Liz Hand's Available Dark. Which reminds me, I still have to go back and read Generation Loss. But I don't think that will be the next one I read, since I don't have it yet.

And I have another book for review. Since the galley is paper, I might save it for my long flights to and from WisCon next week.

And I have the usual pile of things for preview.

And I was recced an Avengers AU in which the characters are Olympic athletes.

Acquired this week: Doll Bones by Holly Black, which looks terrific. *bounce* I need to finish up her last trilogy before I'll allow myself to read this, but they're all short, I could do it in a weekend...if only I had a weekend to just lie around and read, which won't happen in the near future.

Not sure if I'll be posting next week, as I have social stuff going on up until I leave for WisCon, which means I'll have to read in the crevices of things. Plus I am hoping to finish a story and send it off before I leave (June 1 deadline) - I am well on the way to accomplishing this goal! Today is looking at the zero draft printed out and deciding on an ending!

My gym is closed this week for renovations, and I thought I might still work out at home, but now I'm not sure. I took last night off - I walked home, ran an errand to CVS, did a load of laundry...I am a couple of loads of laundry behind, what with needing to wash and put away my winter gear, but at least now I am caught up with the stuff I really need!

Next week, I'm off from work and plan to do a lot of housecleaning, and socializing, before WisCon. So it's unlikely I'll work in visits to the gym as well. I will bring workout gear to the convention, and hopefully at least do some cardio while there. A good thing about WisCon is that there are many opportunities to get out of the hotel and walk around outside.

I worry about taking time off because I am afraid I will lapse completely. Maybe I can use that fear to not lapse.

I have a new weightlifting plan to try, one which is three times a week and preogressively heavier, but starts with less weight than I've been using. I might cut back the weight on the overhead presses, even. Maybe I've been lifting too much, and that's why I've been so tired. Maybe lighter and more often is the way to go.

-->Spoilers for books that came out in the 1990s.

One of the panels I'll on for WisCon is a discussion of Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis Trilogy. I made quite a few notes of potential discussion topics. In the hope of getting some feedback before the convention, I am posting them here, so please feel free to comment/critique/remind me of things I am totally missing/tell me about awesome essays I should read.

First, a quick summary: the trilogy opens after humanity has destroyed itself in a war. The first point of view character, Lilith, survived the destruction and is now held captive on a spaceship full of aliens, the Oankali, who want to save humanity, but on their terms. The terms are not revealed immediately, but eventually we learn the aliens wish to trade genetic material with the humans, to create a new, hybrid species that will someday venture back into space and find their own new "trade" partners. The humans will not be allowed to breed on their own; there will be no more pure humans born, because pure humans, by combining intelligence with hierarchical social structures, are doomed. A few unchanged Oankali will go back into space; however, the ones who stay on Earth will only survive through the genetic Constructs who result from tailored mating with humans. The blending of species is made possible by a third oankali sex, the ooloi.

There are a lot of intersections in these books. Humans/aliens are the major one, but human gender is explored as well as alien gender, with a lot of male/female human conflict and some exploration of race, mostly through the lens of Difference between humans, aliens, and human/alien constructs. It’s reiterated a number of times that the alien beings called ooloi are neither male, female, or both male and female; they are a third sex. There’s exploration of complex power relationships between the humans and the aliens. Slavery/freedom is addressed from a number of angles, both in the relations between the humans and the aliens and among the humans alone.

However, there’s a lot of gender essentialism – where are the gay humans? If they’re there, they’re not shown; thinking along that path, there’s the possibility that the Oankali chose not to revive any because gay people might not go along with the mating plan, though they were probably harvested for genetic material, since there are so few surviving humans. I can believe the Oankali might have set gender after adulthood because they likely chose that system, being focused on reproduction; they have the ooloi to back it up in the womb and even afterwards since they can control your hormones, your sexual pleasure, etc.. Gay people are a glaring absence in the whole trilogy. I would have expected at least a mention of the topic, unless Butler deliberately avoided it. In Imago there’s a single hint of non-heterosexuality: one of the Oankali adults asks if the human Francisco has a “female mate,” which suggests that the possibility of a “male mate” is on the table, with humans.

The five-person mating groups that make human/alien genetic blending possible are a way of exploring alternate sexualities, but the focus does not seem to be on polyamory as a choice. Reproductive needs make these groups more of a mandate. The human pair who have sex through an ooloi feel repelled when they physically touch each other, so despite the great pleasure they receive through the ooloi, they have lost something they previously had. The oankali partners have sex through the ooloi as well, but one human and one oankali do not ever seem to have sex with an ooloi, and the human and oankali partners do not seem to practice sexual touching without an ooloi partner. The humans in a mating group do not seem to go outside of it for sex at any time, nor do the Oankali; biological markers seem to make this repellant to all concerned.

To the oankali, parenting a same-sex child seems to be a special and necessary bond.

“You want to be what you are. That’s healthy and right for you.” (Nikanj to Jodahs, Imago) – that quote covers a lot of ground. The constructs in future generations, as more physical changes happen, might have more variation. The goal is more variation, using the abilities the oankali gained from examining and understanding human cancers. My theory is that even the oankali take time to adapt to change, even change which they have initiated.

The gender essentialism exception in the first two books is always the pre-metamorphosis children – it’s reiterated that they are truly neutral, but the human-born constructs at least seem to be referred to as “daughters” and “sons” before metamorphosis – in fact Nikanj tells Lilith in Dawn that she is pregant with a daughter, and later on Jodahs says that the human-born rarely change from such a designation (Jodahs, however, becomes ooloi). However, Akin’s “sister” becomes male after their early separation. So there’s some complexity going on there. Biological influences are shown to be stronger than anything else, presumably because the Oankali in particular exist to reproduce and change and spread. Their whole society’s purpose is negated if they don’t reproduce. There are hints that Oankali without mates are very sad and desperate beings who might even die from sexual hunger (in Imago), but there are no hints that alternative methods of mating are possible, though it ought to be; why can’t the ooloi make reproduction work differently, at need?

Everything gets more complicated in Imago. Jodahs is called “male” as a child, but becomes ooloi. Butler made a wise choice in having the ooloi narrator be first person; it’s thus much easier for the reader to immerse in the character and its differences from baseline humans. The oankali are also shown to have difficulties with Jodahs’ differences from oankali ooloi.

Manipulation is also a large issue in the books. The ooloi have a whole range of ways to manipulate through chemicals and physical changes in others, but they also are shown to have a strict moral code achieved in large part by consensus with all oankali. However, the ooloi seem to have more societal power than males and females, so their opinions/decisions seem to have/would likely have more weight...I'm not sure if this is borne out by the text, or if my human hierarchical tendencies are influencing my opinion!

It’s unclear if the ooloi in Adulthood Rites wanted Akin to remain with the resistors, for example, though the consensus among all oankali was otherwise; it seems unlikely, given how worried the ooloi were about creating a human-born male construct in the first place, that they would want to risk him.

The Oankali always believe their decisions are best because the humans are flawed (intelligence plus hierarchical behavior) and doomed because of it. It’s not until Akin brings his point of view that humans are allowed fertility and autonomy on Mars, but despite the oankali consensus to allow this, they still believe that humanity is ultimately doomed. While believing in the doom, they nevertheless improve the health of the Mars humans as far as possible to aid in their survival. The continuation of life is the oankali’s ultimate moral as well as physical drive. The oankali feel this gives them the right to sometimes, as Lilith puts in, treat the humans like animals by improving their health without prior consent. Lilith and the resisters are the voice against that. Lilith remains torn between the desire to survive and the desire for autonomy through the entire trilogy.

I know some of you are Friday Night Lightslovers. The complete series on DVD is currently on sale at Amazon for $39.99.

1. As I mentioned yesterday, I've been trying to keep up with the various calls for submissions for erotica anthologies. I found one this week that at no point told you how much it paid. The call did mention payment methods further down, just not how much one would be paid for a story, or even a range based on length or something similar. I am not sure if this was an oversight or what. I sent a query email this morning. Maybe I will get a response. If not, I'm not submitting.

2. I am saddened that the going rate for short stories in most print erotica anthologies these days seems to be $50. When I first started selling to anthologies, a bit over a decade ago, the going rate was $100. So, for a 2000 word story, instead of getting five cents a word, you're getting 2.5 cents a word. And if your story is longer, well. I am utterly not ashamed of writing to the lower end of the requested wordcount as often as possible. It's easier to fit a shorter story than a longer one, anyway, so chances of acceptance go up.

The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, a reprint anthology, still pays roughly $120 USD, but I think the first time I sold to it the rate was roughly $150; that might have to do with changes in exchange rates. Because the editor is in England, he pays in pounds. There are both British and American editions.

3. I love reprints. I love getting paid twice for the same story, particularly if I didn't get paid much for it in the first place. I am sad that there are fewer opportunities for reprints these days; in a quick, admittedly limited survey I just did of current print anthology calls for submissions, none accepted reprints. The main market seems to be anthologies that accept only reprints.

This weekend I need to write a book review that's due Monday, and I'm also hoping to at least draft a complete short story. I have four calls for submissions that all have a June 1 deadline. This could be tricky, since there's an entire week of May in which I will not be spending any time writing due to local events and to WisCon. But surely I can write at least one submission. Maybe two. The minimum word counts are 1500 for two of the anthologies, and 2000 for the other two.

I missed the May 1st deadline I attempted - my story draft was only half as long as needed, and I wasn't satisfied with the idea. It's not terrible, but it needs more time to gel, and perhaps a market that will take shorter stories (heh). But the goal is to push myself to write more, so I will keep pushing. I have a couple of July 1 deadlines for submission, as well. And one for September - if I can't make that one, I should just throw away my pen.

On the fun side, Saturday night is roller derby! So after a hard day's concentration I can watch women skating in a circle, and occasionally falling down. Or knocking each other down. It's very soothing, particularly if your brain is tired.

Once again, time management is going to be an issue I need to think about, if I want to write more. I now have Tuesday nights off, for the rest of the summer, but I still have gym, playing with the Adorable Tots, and seeing friends now and again. The friends part is important. Over three years of writing a novel a year, I fell out of touch with three or four people and have never really added them back in to my local social circle. (My online circles have widened, but that's not the same.) It's just so hard to do everything I want to do.

Okay, gym tonight, and I will lift weights.

I have not done a lot of reading in the past week, mostly because it was concert week and I only had a few tiny snatches of time to read anything; I read some short fanfiction stories and one mystery. This week, I need to finish a book and write a review, so that's going to take precedence over pleasure reading.

Little Green by Walter Mosley, is the newest Easy Rawlins mystery, set in 1967. It is somewhat different from its predecessors, because it has a lot of not-so-subtle thematic stuff about Easy re-evaluating his life that felt to me like meta commentary on what a writer is to do with his hardboiled detective character when history is moving forward and L.A. begins to swarm with hippies. That is not to say it's a bad book; I think it's really excellent. It's just probably not a starting place, if you've never read anything in the series before. I think it's a lot more rewarding if you can compare and contrast, and also enjoy all the secondary characters who return for this outing. Which reminded me I have missed quite a few books in the middle of the series, now up to twelve. More things to add to the mental TBR.

In About Time 3, I've reached season eight of Dr. Who, which means the first appearances of Jo Grant, The Master, and Captain Mike Yates. I'm still hugely enjoying this series. By the way, Volume 7, which covers the first two seasons of the new series, is out September 9th. Yes, I am buying it. I am helpless in the face of this addiction.

Next up will be another book for review and something from the TBR. Since I'm pretty much losing a week of leisure reading for WisCon, any reviews/previews I need to turn in for early June actually need to be done a bit ahead of time!

I'd been feeling ambiguous about seeing Iron Man 3, but I read a spoilery review last week that got me totally psyched.

I wasn't able to go to any of the earliest showings because of Bach Festival rehearsals, but after getting home around 10:30 pm on Friday night, I crawled out of bed Saturday morning to see a 10:20 am showing with a friend. And was amused to find that said friend, who is not an early riser, actually called me while I was waiting a bit to call her. We were both pretty psyched, and were early enough to get coffee first. I'd lent her my DVDs of numbers one and two the previous weekend, though I didn't have time to re-watch them myself.

BTW, morning showing? Not at all crowded. We got the best seats in the house, and there weren't any people there who weren't geeky. The next showing was the one that looked like it would have a lot of noisy kids.

I spent rather too much time on Monday reading other people's reaction posts. So I figured I'd better do mine today before I forget my own random thoughts!

( Spoilers ahoy!Collapse )

I will very likely see this movie one more time in the theater - I think it will reward a second viewing.