Whine and cheese(cake) and writing but no WriterconUK
Ten days ago, I finally got all my ducks in a row, holiday okayed, finances healthy enough that I could decide, yes, I was going to writerconuk's meet in Coventry for the first weekend in August. Yay!
Seven days ago, I woke up with a tickle in my throat.
Having spent the whole of last week coughing and aching and living mostly on chicken soup, Tesco's own brand of medicated hot blackcurrant drinks, and way too many jelly sweets, I have had to scrub writerconuk from my agenda.
That sucks. A lot. It's great fun, and it's the only time I get to see most of the people there. I won't get to bitch about DC's 'reboot' with booster17! I had so much bitching to do about that, so here are a few excerpts. *g*
There is so much wrong with starting the DCU all over again with 52 new #1 books and only having two female creators out of over one hundred.
And it's not just the female creators that have disappeared, it's also way too many female characters that have either disappeared or been deaged and poured into obscenely tiny, cheese/cakey outfits.
Several male characters have been dropped because they were married and had kids and that's just not relatable to the audience DC is trying to attract. (The audience they've always marketed to, and who have been losing interest for years - young white males).
Superman and Lois (and at least one other couple) are no longer married. Apparently, according to Matt Idelson (DC editor), "Superman doesn't need a trophy wife".
I'll say that again: "Superman doesn't need a trophy wife".
There is so much wrong with that statement, I don't even know where to begin. I wish Lois was real so she could dickpunch him and the rest of the assholes in charge.
At San Diego Comicon this weekend, a female fan told Didio that she counted and out of the twenty-eight solo character titles only six were women and only two were not connected to older male superheroes. “How do you justify calling that diversity?” the fan asked as the audience cheered. Didio told her it was an industry problem and then dodged the question, calling on the next fan.
*SEETHES*
So, no fun fannish weekend. Which meant I suddenly had money to spare and a resentment of DC burning a hole in the pit of my stomach.
And then someone on my Twitterfeed (either @GailSimone or @dcwomenkicknass) linked to Womanthology, a startup large scale anthology comic showcasing the works of women in comics, and their fundraising page, Womanthology@Kickstarter, and an hour later I was pledging $70 to the cause.
Instead of a WriterconUK goodie bag, I'll have a hand-numbered issue of Womanthology, my name mentioned as a benefactor inside the book, and a sketchbook full of Womanthology art, sketches and ideas, and extra unseen work & interviews separate from the book.
All that, plus I get to feel good about giving my money to people who don't spit on me for not being a 16-35 year old dick male.
While all this has been going on, I've been dipping my toe back into the waters of original writing, over at lj_scribe - a weekly prompt-based short-form writing comm with regular prizes of lj tokens.
My first entry, a haiku, was chosen for the final poll and seems likely to be a winner, and last week's prompt of "This will be our little secret", inspired a poem, "Little Man", that made my skin crawl as I was writing it, and has garnered some stunning comments. (If you click the link, please read the warning at the top of the post.)
The comm uses a +1 system to select the entries that go into the final voting poll, a system that is apparently still in beta after over a year and, dammit, I WANTS IT! I fell in love with the Kudos button over at AO3 and the fact that we almost have something here, but not quite, is making me sadface and grumpy. *pokes lj*
I'm still writing fic, and it's mostly still Inception, though the current effort is actually a Harry Potter/Inception crossover, with Eames as a squib Malfoy cousin, and a Draco who wants Harry incepted into realizing he has 'options' besides breeding more Weasleys. *g*
I'm sure I've forgotten a load of stuff I meant to share, but all the green goo is making it hard to remember. I need to update more often, and not just fic. (Hmmm, I think I said something similar just after the new year, and look how well that worked out...)
*smooches you all through a prophylactic* (NOT LIKE THAT! So I don't infect you all with my lurgy, you dirty buggers!)
Seven days ago, I woke up with a tickle in my throat.
Having spent the whole of last week coughing and aching and living mostly on chicken soup, Tesco's own brand of medicated hot blackcurrant drinks, and way too many jelly sweets, I have had to scrub writerconuk from my agenda.
That sucks. A lot. It's great fun, and it's the only time I get to see most of the people there. I won't get to bitch about DC's 'reboot' with booster17! I had so much bitching to do about that, so here are a few excerpts. *g*
There is so much wrong with starting the DCU all over again with 52 new #1 books and only having two female creators out of over one hundred.
And it's not just the female creators that have disappeared, it's also way too many female characters that have either disappeared or been deaged and poured into obscenely tiny, cheese/cakey outfits.
Several male characters have been dropped because they were married and had kids and that's just not relatable to the audience DC is trying to attract. (The audience they've always marketed to, and who have been losing interest for years - young white males).
Superman and Lois (and at least one other couple) are no longer married. Apparently, according to Matt Idelson (DC editor), "Superman doesn't need a trophy wife".
I'll say that again: "Superman doesn't need a trophy wife".
There is so much wrong with that statement, I don't even know where to begin. I wish Lois was real so she could dickpunch him and the rest of the assholes in charge.
At San Diego Comicon this weekend, a female fan told Didio that she counted and out of the twenty-eight solo character titles only six were women and only two were not connected to older male superheroes. “How do you justify calling that diversity?” the fan asked as the audience cheered. Didio told her it was an industry problem and then dodged the question, calling on the next fan.
*SEETHES*
So, no fun fannish weekend. Which meant I suddenly had money to spare and a resentment of DC burning a hole in the pit of my stomach.
And then someone on my Twitterfeed (either @GailSimone or @dcwomenkicknass) linked to Womanthology, a startup large scale anthology comic showcasing the works of women in comics, and their fundraising page, Womanthology@Kickstarter, and an hour later I was pledging $70 to the cause.
Instead of a WriterconUK goodie bag, I'll have a hand-numbered issue of Womanthology, my name mentioned as a benefactor inside the book, and a sketchbook full of Womanthology art, sketches and ideas, and extra unseen work & interviews separate from the book.
All that, plus I get to feel good about giving my money to people who don't spit on me for not being a 16-35 year old dick male.
While all this has been going on, I've been dipping my toe back into the waters of original writing, over at lj_scribe - a weekly prompt-based short-form writing comm with regular prizes of lj tokens.
My first entry, a haiku, was chosen for the final poll and seems likely to be a winner, and last week's prompt of "This will be our little secret", inspired a poem, "Little Man", that made my skin crawl as I was writing it, and has garnered some stunning comments. (If you click the link, please read the warning at the top of the post.)
The comm uses a +1 system to select the entries that go into the final voting poll, a system that is apparently still in beta after over a year and, dammit, I WANTS IT! I fell in love with the Kudos button over at AO3 and the fact that we almost have something here, but not quite, is making me sadface and grumpy. *pokes lj*
I'm still writing fic, and it's mostly still Inception, though the current effort is actually a Harry Potter/Inception crossover, with Eames as a squib Malfoy cousin, and a Draco who wants Harry incepted into realizing he has 'options' besides breeding more Weasleys. *g*
I'm sure I've forgotten a load of stuff I meant to share, but all the green goo is making it hard to remember. I need to update more often, and not just fic. (Hmmm, I think I said something similar just after the new year, and look how well that worked out...)
*smooches you all through a prophylactic* (NOT LIKE THAT! So I don't infect you all with my lurgy, you dirty buggers!)