Where the writing goes.

For anyone who has been following my blog for a long, long time, there might be some recollection of my having once posted snippets of short fiction on here as well.  I stopped doing that a while ago, frightened by the prospect of having my work stolen (something that is easier to do, and more difficult to prove with words than it is with imargery).  But I have no ceased writing!  Since finishing my six thesis books, I have continued to write short ficiton for myself.
Emboldened by my recent visibility on GUD Magazine's blog, I am beginning to submit some of them to contests and literary magazines. 

First up is Nanoism's December five-part twitter serial contest.  I'm posting about it here for three reasons!
a.) So that you know about this magazine, because it's awesome and because there is a chance I might be in it! 
b.) Because, as an incentive, they allow you to submit two different stories if you mention the contest! 
And
c.) This is a nifty contest, and a really cool little magazine, and you should submit!  Yes you!  Whoever you are, send them something and make it good!  They make it very simple to do so.
The deadline is October 31st, and winners will be published in December.

Second, I am also submitting to Fantasy Magazine's Halloween flash fiction contest.  Flash fiction is good for me.  It forces me to be succint, to have an entire story arc in mind when I begin, and to actually finish the thing.  1,000 words is also a pretty good goal for a single day of writing. 
This contest is particularly good because the premise requires that a graphic be paired with the story, as the inspiration, and I can make my own.  Thus, it gives me a possible venue for showing my art as well: two-for-one!
The deadline is October 16th, so get to work!

Blogging!

So I just wrote a guest post for GUD Magazine's blog!  It's on the topic of banned books, and is a belated post in recognition of the ALA's 'Banned books week' several weeks ago.  Check it out!
And while you're there, be sure to take a look around the site.  GUD's an excellent literary magazine, and the freebies there alone are enough to be worth your while.  Plus, they've recently gotten a whole slew of honorable mentions from 'The Year's best horror'.  I have three of their issues, and I've been enormously impressed by everything I've seen an read of them.  They have some great editors, and a lot of diversity in what they publish.  Definitely worth keeping an eye on. 

My brain is getting in the way of thinking.

I have difficulty working with music or sound around me.  Or rather, I have difficulty conceptualizing... once a sketch is down and I'm onto the grunt work of rendering, I can listen to anything.  This is something I am just realizing.

Despite five years of art college, it took until now for me to recognize this pattern in myself.  I honestly thought that the reason I tended to do most of my work in silence was because I was too lazy to turn on music, or an audio book until I was several hours deep into a project.  I also though that the reason that I didn't like spending time in the noisy Print studio at school was because I am antisocial. 

It took until I was living with Evan full-time, working in the same studio space as him for the problem to truly surface.  He loves music, and works best with his MP3 collection, a podcast, or an internet radio station playing in the background.  He does a lot of insanely tedious work for a graphic design firm, so he seriously needs it.

I know why this is, too.  I have Asperger's Syndrome (as I've probably mentioned before) and tend to automatically visualize everything.  If there is a music track playing, my mind is working to visually map that song, with colour, imagery, and geometric shapes.  If someone's speaking, my mind is creating a tableau based on whatever they're talking about, overlaid with a running transcript written in a pleasing serif font.  This ties in with the synesthesia so common in us Aspies, apparrently.  Also, sometimes I just hallucinate stuff, for no other good reason!  My brain does not like to think that I am lonely.

The net effect of this sort of all of this?  I become almost blind when there's too much sound going on around me.  I'm seeing what I'm hearing, and I'm finding it almost impossible to focus on whatever is in front of me.  So even if I'm doing fine, inking and listening to music, someone talking to me over that can make my entire workspace go invisible. 
I love working in coffee shops, because they remove me from the constant temptation of internet time-wastage, while also getting me out of the house.  This is where I write best.  Unless it is too loud there. This is highly frustrating.

The best solution I can think of is to find myself a quiet, private place to get started on my work in.  Where that is, I have no clue, as I live in a townhouse with no backyard to speak of.  Anyone else out there with similar issues, and perhaps suggestions?

SOZD*!

Today is 'Support Our 'Zines Day'!  Something I was informed of upon waking this morning, by an incredibly exuberant Eimhin.  He, not the procrastinator that I am, has already posted a wonderful and comprehensive list of 'zines-of-amazingness on his own blog, which I recommend that you peruse.  But there really is no possible way to over emphasize the importance of literary magazines, both in purveying excellent literature (and visual art, comics, and poetry...) and in promoting artists, burgeoning and established alike.  So take a spin about these bizarre and marvelous publications, and if you can afford it, show them some love.

GUD Magazine
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
Crossed Genres
McSweeney's 
Weird Tales
Leading Edge
Brain Harvest
Electric Velocipede
Sybil's Garage
Tin House
Flash Fiction Online
The Cafe Irreal
Fantasy Magazine
Strange Horizons
ClarkesWorld
Shimmer
Steampunk Magazine

If there are any others I have missed, or simply have not heard of, please tell me about them in the comments!  There are few things as satisfying as discovering a good new source of fiction.

I listen to not nearly so many Podcasts as Evan, but I am a generally huge fan of the readings over at Telltale Weekly.  Alex Wilson's voice and inflection are perfect for these readings, and his content selection is excellent.  It was through Telltale that I first found out about Kelly Link, actually (you must listen to 'The Girl Detective' as read on the site) which has, of course, led to all sorts of  fascinating developments in my life.

*SOZD still sounds to me like a state of drunkenness.
Somewhere between dameschwipschen and completely toasted.  Probably not the ideal state for reading, but to each one's own.  Go for it.

Random pet peeve

This may strike you as strange, but one of my biggest language-related pet peeves is the misuse of the word 'cannibalism'.

Cannibalism is the devouring of the flesh of one creature by another member of its same species.

Anthropophagy is the devouring of human flesh, by any creature. 

So a chicken that eats another chicken is a cannibal; but a chicken that eats a human is anthropophagus.

There, important English-language lesson of the day.  Use this knowledge well.

All that talk of not having any art done...

...and I forgot that I hadn't posted this sketch here.  Done in my Canson sketchbook, one fine afternoon whilst sitting about at the Hardbean Cafe downtown. 

A larger version, as always, can be seen on my DeviantArt page.

Graphite.  5 1/2" x 8"

On the misappropriation of 'masculine' and 'feminine'.

Still struggling with my artwork and creative motivation.  In the meantime, I've decided to write about something that has bothered me since I was just a wee childling.  That is...gender, and how it's characterised!

As a child, I was what is commonly referred to as a "tomboy".  I liked dinosaurs and dragons, hiking and getting muddy, running about and playing outside.  I hated dresses, and as of 3rd grade began refusing to wear them entirely.  I would not wear pink, make-up and purses held no fascination for me. 
For a long time, people thought this meant that I did not want to be a girl.  Hell, even I was convinced of that for a while.  But what has come more and more apparent to me over time is that being a girl is never what bothered me.  It was (and is) the false set of roles and restrictions that are handed to every child upon determination of their biological sex at birth.  Restrictions that are, inarguably, a lot more restrictive to the development of individuality in girls than they are to boys. 

Duck, lest ye run afoul of the steam shooting out of my ears.

Sometimes, even well intentioned people can be very, very insenstive.  It usually comes when someone questions or challenges their priviledge in a situation where they don't perceive that they have it.  I've been guilty of this in the past myself.  Today, though, I'm going to ran about somone else.  Someone who's very near and dear to me, but who can still be a complete jerk at times.

Exactly one month ago today, Melissa McEwan over at Shakesville wrote this post, about how we, as women, often have to make the decision between protesting when someone makes a sexist (or downright misogynistic) statement and potentially ruining the evening for that person, or "swallowing shit" and only ruining it for ourselves.  I had an evening like that not long ago, where I decided to just swallow the shit and deal with it.

Nothing to show

I'm having one of those days where nothing goes quite right.  I can't mix the colours I want, the shading goes all wrong, the line ends up elsewhere than where I want it.  The grey catbirds come out looking a little more on the green side.  It's not  artist block, it's more of an artist stumble. 
My time tomorrow has been booked by parents and parents-in-law, so I know I'll get little to nothing done--which only adds to my sense of frustration.  This was supposed to be a day for making!
Normally, if I'm having trouble in one sphere of creativity, I move to another until the stumble resolves itself.  Today there seems to have been little recourse but to write and avail myself of Write Habit's list of literary magazines in the attempt to find someone who might want to publish my work (hopefully with a little bit of pay to be exchanged, as well).
So at least that was something.

There can't be anything much more boring than reading about someone who cannot create.  More interesting posts are in the offing, I promise.

In regards to actually getting to work.

So my lovely mate, E, has been in LA for the past week.  He was there attending the workshops and award ceremony attendant upon winning one of the quarterly Illustrators of the Future contests.  Incredibly impressive.  If you want to go rush over and take a look at his work right now, having heard that, it's here.  Go over.  Spend some time.  I post his DeviantArt rather than his website, because he updates it more often.  (Mine own, more neglected, is here).
So I've gotten up off my own butt, and I'm getting back to work on the art that I've been ignoring, due to demanding-contract-dayjob.  I admit to bouts of self-doubt and criticism of late.  There are a few things that are difficult in a relationship between two creative people in the same field, and being torn between extreme pride in your mate and jealousy/self-doubt is one of them.  That, and some people will come at you with the preconceived notion that in a creative couple, one of you must be inherently "better" than the other.  More about that in another post.
Anyhow, I've been spurred to work on my artwork, more vehemently.  Also to pick up my writing again.  After the six books of mini short stories I wrote for my BFA thesis, I took a rather substantial break from writing.  Partly because I didn't know how to surmount the main (and very legitimate) criticism that occurred during my thesis critique: that I have difficulty ending a story.  Or at least, coming to any kind of conclusion.
So this is my goal.  I have several short stories in the works at the moment, and for practice I'm going to try writing flash fiction.  Just to practice better how to bring a story from a begining to a thoughftul conclusion.  The stories will probably begin showing up on here. 
And of course I will be submitting to Illustrators & Writers of the Future as well.  E says he had a smashing time at the workshops, and heartily recommends attendance.  By which he means getting off one's ass, and getting the courage up to submit to this thing.  Now. Because it honestly cannot hurt (except one's confidence).