Do Not Tamper With

So, I’ve been working on Blood in The Water off and on for a few months. Unfortunately I don’t have a record of when I actually started it, the closest I have is November.

Anyway, it started as a spin-off as the now discarded Keep What You Kill story, with a premise I enjoyed much more: Post-apocalyptic vampires. Because damnit all if I can’t stay the hell out of end of the world scenarios!

But my main problem was that there was a certain plot point that was too contrived. I needed a why, and I didn’t have one.

And then the antagonist started to speak, and he said the answer to “why” was “Because I, the antagonist, say so.”

“Of course!” I exclaim jubilantly. “Genius! Have some pie, Mr. Antagonist.” He likes pie.

This all came after I was working on Amethyst Breed for a few weeks. Hopscotching from story to story seems to be how I work best I find. I guess it gives me fresh perspectives.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled Internet surfing.

God, if there was ever a control test for the “PUT WARNINGS ON YOUR FANFIC!” debate, this is it.

Ok, so Amanda FUCKING Palmer is doing something Amanda FUCKING Stupid. (Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Amanda Palmer (nor Neil Gaiman). I’m apathetic to her existence. I supported the tummy pudge indecent though.)

Basically she and this other musician dressed up as conjoined twin musician girls who’s back-story is filled with abuse and poverty.

And it’s fake. No, Totally, see how EDGY Amanda Palmer is?!

Now, let me walk you through my reaction:

That’s SO WRONG!
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!
FUCKING STOP IT!!
….But…wait…
How is this any different from Alice Cooper and his crutch walking, straight-jacket-wearing, baby stabbing, woman beating self?
Hmm…
Or Lady Gaga? (Whom Palmer apparently hates so I derive a bit of glee from comparing the two of them)
Or Marylin Manson?
Or especially that Brothers of the Head movie?

How can I enjoy Coop and be offended by this? Wouldn’t that make me a hypocrite?

I think the difference is, for me, is that deep down, we all know Alice, Manson, Gaga, and Brothers of the Head are fictional. We know that it’s all pretend, but when the cameras are off, the fantasy goes to sleep and the artists go back to being regular people.

But Palmer, she has some sort of air of…well, people are calling it ablist bullshit, and it is, but it is also, undeniably art.

In the same way a Myspace camwhore on DeviantArt is art. This work which Palmer created is very War of the Worlds meets Jerry Springer. It’s shocking, it’s exploitative, and it’s ignorant.

But, there’s no one to exploit.

Unless you count the fact that Palmer was such a “Saint” to “Rescue” the “girls” and “Help them live out their dream!”
These quotes are getting tiresome.

That’s the thing, the whole thing smells of “My Pet Cripple”, but now with %100 less disability!

But that’s not all, my friends. No, the twins were ABUSED! SEXUALLY!

Amanda, do you know how prevalent sexual, physical and mental abuse is among disabled people? You should look it up. After you do that, maybe you won’t brush it aside as a footnote in a character’s back story.

The best part of all this? Amanda isn’t trying to say anything with this whole thing.
It’s not a political statement.
It’s not a petition for disability rights/problems/whatever.
It’s not about child abuse or prostitution.
It’s so Amanda can release music without having to owe her record label another album because apparently there’s some sort of SNAFU going on about that.

It. Is All. About. Her.

I’m glad I never liked you, Amanda Fucking Palmer

I only understand the basics of what’s going on about the whole Amazon pulling Macmillan books thing. I know it’s wrong and I know that Amazon is being a bully.

So, in retaliation, I’ve removed my Amazon Associate links from my blog and I will be removing them from my webcomics as well.

If this, plus Amazonfail of a few months ago bother you, and you no longer wish to give Amazon your business, I recommend Book Depository. They even have free international shipping! The only down side is that they have no wish-list feature. Maybe that will change. We can hope.

Oh dear. Oh…oh dear.
Well, um, the musical numbers were good?

I never saw the the original movie so I can’t compare the two but I found this greatly disappointing. In a time where we have Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Repo!, and even the horrible Rent, it’s easy to see why they decided to reboot the film. Money, of course.

The problem lay in the fact that there were too many characters to focus on and too many plot lines were just glossed over. To make matters worse, the time the movie spans is four years. With no sense of passage of time other than notifications of “Freshman year”, “Sophomore year” glittering across the bottom corner of an otherwise black screen.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

One character is told by a producer that if he provides $5,000 dollars, they’ll produce his short film. Character gets the money, gives it to producer, then, surprise surprise, Producer skips out on him with his money.

Then we’re told it is now senior year.

How the hell did that character handle the situation? What was the resolution?

Oh, and speaking of Chicago, in the movie, they were going to do a production of it. It’s mentioned twice, one lame audition, and one as set up for Black Girl’s character arc. Then we never mention it again. We don’t get to see it performed or anything. It’s like the writer’s had instant amnesia.

Every single story line in this movie except for the one belonging to the talented black girl ends up like this.

Other than talented black girl and quirky Asian girl, I hated all the characters. Everyone was one dimensional and shallow. There was no sense of personal improvement or struggle or anything that was compelling at all.

Don’t waste your time.

So, on Friday I received an email telling me that the course I registered for, the Graphic Memoir one was cancelled due to low enrolment. That sucked. I was bummed. I’m going to try to enroll in a Douglas Collage course on Memoir Writing, but it might be too short notice.

However, look what I got in the mail today!

That’s right boys and girls! There is a Santa Clause, and his name is Allison. Thanks Allison! So much!

I am still squeeing.

Get your copy NOW!

So fandom, we’re at it again, are we? Another racism conversation? Great.

Look, yes, Racism is bad. *isms at all are bad, but they happen. And there will always be people who don’t care. Because of this, *isms won’t go away. It also won’t go away because you keep bringing it up.

I watched Avatar the other week, and guess what? I loved it. I thought it was beautiful and, given the subject matter, done with class. Why is Avatar, which is an obvious allegory for the settlement of the Americas racist, but Schindlar’s List a movie with a message? Both events happened, historically (More or less), so why is one racist tripe while the other is not?

Yes, Transformers II is blatantly racist. I’ll give you that. You don’t have argument from me on that.

What about Star Wars. They’re aliens. They look and act completely un-real and unfamiliar. I never saw Jar-Jar as racist because he, just like Jabba, and Yoda, and Sebulba and Chewy and countless other creatures in Star Wars looked and acted otherworldly. I never realized that Jar-Jar Binks was problematic until Lisa Simpson pointed out that he was “A tired Stereotype”.

And that’s what Avatar had: Sterotypes. Everyone was a steriotype. A trope. And that’s ok.

Of course, if this movie made me think of any other race, it made me think of Gelfling…

I understand the concept of voting with your wallet, and I respect it, but just because you find something to be racist, doesn’t mean I do, nor does it mean that you have the right to make me feel guilty for enjoying a piece of artwork. Because that movie, like it or not, was art.

And here’s another thing, The biggest argument I always hear is “People keep making these movies because people keep paying for them. Stop paying for them and they’ll stop being made.” But guess what? It’s not just the viewer’s responsibility. What about the writers writing racist characters? What about the directors, the makeup artists, the costume designers?
What about the actors accepting racist roles? Why don’t they show their self-respect and put their foot down and say “This is wrong. I won’t do it.”? They have more power than we do, bucket-loads more. Appeal to them, and leave me alone.

I am so totally registered for this course!

In the new year, I’m going to try to finish a page of A Girl Called Kermit every 2 weeks. I’ve broken it down into chapters now, one for each health issue I want to address. My main problem with AGCK before was that it was too “And then this happened and then this happened…” so I’m hoping that by breaking it down into chapters that will relieve some of the monotony in the narration.

Last night I lay awake pondering how the same mind who created AGCK could also create NecroRaver. If Project C got published, would it’s questionable content make others upturn there nose at my other works? And then I remember that Clive Barker has written children’s stories and Julianne Moore starred in movies with incest and also wrote Freckle Face Strawberry. But I am not a celebrity.

Welcome to my morning thoughts.

So, as anyone who cares about the publishing world knows by now, Black Matrix’s pay rates are 1/5th of a cent per word. ONE FIFTH of one cent. Per word.

And some people are ok with this.

Seriously, people? Seriously?! Are you so desperate to get published that any little acknowledgement is good enough for you? That one word you crafted, let’s say it was the best damned perfect word in your entire manuscript, isn’t even worth a whole penny?

Why are you selling yourself so short? It makes you appear that you have no confidence in your work or respect for yourself.

Others still, are defending Black Matrix, insisting that “We can’t all be multi-published authors and we’re just struggling little folk trying to make it, stop being cliquey!”

…I am not a commercially published author by any stretch of the word, though I am trying hard to be. But come on, guys! I’m longing, I’m hoping, and I’m wishing, but I’m not an idiot. No matter how much I tell people “It’s not about the money, I just want to get my stories out there.” doesn’t mean that the Powers That Be can walk all over me and not pay me what I deserve for having put in the time, effort and love (and hate) into the project.

Here’s a fun fact! On Elven Lacryment I have two ad-spots provided through Project Wonderful. I’ve set the ad’s base prices to 10 cents and 5 cents respectively. Currently, as I’m typing this, one of the spots is earning 20 cents and the other is earning it’s 10 cents. I am earning 30 cents on my webcomic right now, just by running ads. Of course, some days it’s less and some days it’s more, but the website manages to sustain itself. I’m pretty sure that the comic’s entire run has less than 1000 words in it. My comic earns more online, unpublished, than it would if Black Matrix touched it.

They’re not helping you, they’re preying upon you.

Did you know that one of the requirements for a publishing company to be part of SFWA is to have a pay rate of at least five cents a word?

How can you not see what a dis-service you’re doing to yourself and your story? How can you treat your characters, your world that way?

Your art deserves better than that.

A short animated film produced and narrated by my beloved Nick Cave

I watched two artsy movies last night. The first one was a disappointment. The second one was one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen.

The first one was Franklyn, the story about three un-connected characters joined together by fate.