"A garden left for ruin by and by as I hide inside of my private prison."

[greygirlbeast]

0. Comment. Please comment. I need the distraction.

0.1 I'm not replying to Facebook comments, unless they appear here on LJ. Sorry. I hate Facebook.

1. No, I'm not a "horror writer." I'm not sure who does and doesn't want to wear that label, and I don't care. We each make these decisions for ourselves, and that's how it ought to be. I don't much mind labels (as I've said before), if they are accurate labels. But calling me a "horror writer" ignores an enormous amount of my writing, and, worse, has the unfortunate effect of my being overlooked by fantasy and sf readers and editors who aren't into horror. I write dark and urban fantasy (the real stuff, not that PR crap), science fiction, weird fiction, erotica, and what the hell ever. Lots of times, it's horrifying. This does not make me a "horror writer" sensu stricto.

2. Okay, look. Either we, as a society, stop sexualizing the kids, or we, as a society, stop being paranoid and screaming kiddie porn at every innocent bathtub photo and every faint whiff of underage (and I include here reasonable teenage) sexuality. because, it's one way or the other. Not fucking both. I am speaking, specifically of Abercrombie & Fitch's "padded bikini 'push-up'" bra for very young girls. And, by the way, as I was writing this, Abercrombie & Fitch yanked the page selling the bra in question.

3. Yesterday, I wrote 1,489 words on "Some Random Notes Before a Fatal Crash." I might find the conclusion today. I need to, because I've got to pull Sirenia Digest #64 together. On Saturday, I'll be in Boston with kylecassidy figuring out the author's photo for Two Worlds and In Between.

4. Very good news regarding The Drowning Girl. I've officially secured (mostly through the efforts of readingthedark) permission from Radiohead to reprint lines from "There, There (The Bony King of Nowhere)" in the novel, lines that are crucial to the book. Penguin legal has approved the whole thing, so its a go. I'm still working with R.E.M.'s management, to gain permission to quote "Find the River," and it looks like that's also going to work out.

5. My thanks to Steven Lubold, Cassandra Brewster, and Sonoye Murphy for the recent and highly appreciated care packages. You guys absolutely fucking rock.

Contemplating Hurt,
Aunt Beast

Comments

[kylecassidy.livejournal.com]

Saturday is going to rock. Plans plans plans.

Maybe it's a plot rather than a plan. I won't be sure till it unfolds.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Saturday is going to rock. Plans plans plans.

Yep.

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

Either we, as a society, stop sexualizing the kids, or you stop being paranoid and screaming kiddie porn at every innocent bathtub photo and every faint whiff of underage (and I include here reasonable teenage) sexuality. because, it's one way or the other. Not fucking both.

For really fucking real. I remember reading an article before this ever came out about women in upscale spas in Philly, taking their pre-pubescent (like, eight, nine, ten years old) daughters in for godsdamned bikini waxes and pretty much forcing them to do it. It made the staff so uncomfortable, and they pushed so hard for it, that the places made up waivers saying no, really, this is what this woman wanted for her child.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Okay. New levels of insane.

And never mind how phobic of womens' body hair the society is. Basically, women are having their pussies waxed to look like prepubescent girls, and having their prepubescent girls waxed to look like adults.

[ellistrae.livejournal.com]

Whaaaa??? Ewwwww. I cannot imagine forcing my child (if I had one) to have her ladybits waxed under ANY circumstance. Yikes. Hell, I've never even done that to MYSELF. That is so many different flavours of wrong I don't even know where to start.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

dark and urban fantasy

sometimes the way they place books in stores makes one wonder what they are smoking.... there are days when if they would just shelve everything by author, not genre, it would make looking for stuff easier.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

there are days when if they would just shelve everything by author, not genre, it would make looking for stuff easier.

Not in the eyes of marketing, which, these days means "niche" marketing. Most buyers come into a bookstore interested in a given niche (PR, sf, high fantasy, chic lit, whatever), and publishers and bookstores (who created this phenomenon in the first place) cater to them. Otherwise, customers wander about lost and frustrated, needing someone to hold their hands.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

0 I need the distraction of commenting. This works out well for both of us.

0.1 Gods, Facebook is tiresome. I wish it away on a pretty regular basis.

1 And. The. Struggle. Continues.

2 See 1. I lean toward the first option. I wish I felt I could discuss the matter further, because the last bit of scholarship I ever did centered on the daycare panics of the late 80s / early 90s, and the subject both says a lot about us as a society and is never discussed. At the same time, the last bit of scholarship I ever did was on the daycare panics, so the amount I've said on the topic is already more than I have the courage to say.

3 I apologize if this is impertinent, and if I move you to tell me to fuck off, I accept it. Your daily word counts have climbed significantly since I've started reading your blog. Has the process or the feeling of finding those words changed? This is just curiosity to see if the topic is something you feel like talking about.

4 That's really good to hear. Radiohead always struck me as being full of reasonable people, including those behind the scenes; I am under the impression that they have a lot greater control over their material than most bands get, but that could just be the way they released their last two albums.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

0.1 Gods, Facebook is tiresome. I wish it away on a pretty regular basis.

Aye.

I lean toward the first option.

I lean towards the second, but...

Your daily word counts have climbed significantly since I've started reading your blog. Has the process or the feeling of finding those words changed? This is just curiosity to see if the topic is something you feel like talking about.

Yeah. They have. The style is changing rapidly. Mostly first person now, and stripped down. Still sentence level, but different. And faster. And, I hope, this is preparing me for YA. It also makes me more productive.

Radiohead always struck me as being full of reasonable people

Indeed.

[jdack.livejournal.com]

You're not alone in hating Facebook. I refuse to have a page there.

In truth I likely would not have a Twitter, LJ or any other social media type account were it not for my day job.

I was just saying the other day that if it weren't for the soul-crushing office jobs so many of us have and their mindless repetition and boredom, half the internet wouldn't have made it. Your cracked.com's and your diggs and reddits and twitter and what have you.

An entire industry almost solely surviving (and thriving) because millions of people like me have internet at their jobs and nothing better to do. Amazing.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

You're not alone in hating Facebook. I refuse to have a page there.

I grudgingly have a page. If only I could shut off or screen comments, it would help. Promotion, promotion, promotion.


I was just saying the other day that if it weren't for the soul-crushing office jobs so many of us have and their mindless repetition and boredom, half the internet wouldn't have made it.

Agreed.

An entire industry almost solely surviving (and thriving) because millions of people like me have internet at their jobs and nothing better to do. Amazing.

And pathetic. Zynga, I'm looking at you.

[pepsiswinger.livejournal.com]

0.
Those blasted clocks have all run down
Oh, does time stand still without you around
The birds don't sing their little song
The prophecies have all proved wrong

The Persian rugs have gone thread-bare
The waxy moon has lost its flair
The wishes drown beneath the well
The razor blades have all gone dull

But this is confidential; you're the one to blame
And now the forecast calls perpetually for rain
And although it's rather late, I lie awake in vain
'Cause I'm still waiting for what's wonderful
Just the other side of pain

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Gratis. Beautiful.

[whiskeychick.livejournal.com]

rainy and dreary here, but not unpleasantly cold. But Spring is definitely kicking winter's hiney right now. Hope she gets around to RI soon.

I was going to comment also on your word count. Someone beat me to it, obviously. I just wish you many more productive days with a follow-up of a true day off soon. One where you can be by the sea and content in knowing you did smashingly well.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I just wish you many more productive days with a follow-up of a true day off soon.

There is a downside.

The faster I write, the more I am expected to write, by myself and by others.

[mb2u]

0. This is a placeholder, you may turn it in at a later date for an actual comment. Thank you for your cooperation.

0.1. Facebook is useful for...um, let me think of something...

1. I've always considered you a musical comedy writer, myself. Maybe I just don't get it?

2. What? What?! What?!? That's as bad as girls running around with "PINK" on the back of their pants-They want you to look, they don't what you to look, you're not supposed to look, but you look because it's THERE, dammit!

After that, I need coffee.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

0.1. Facebook is useful for...um, let me think of something...

Being commented at in a way that is, somehow, wholly different from LJ comments. Being tracked down by people you want no contact with.

They want you to look, they don't what you to look, you're not supposed to look, but you look because it's THERE, dammit!

Exactly.

[bellarabesques.livejournal.com]

This painting (http://i36.tinypic.com/2pouopk.jpg) by Roberto Ferri reminds me strongly of your work. I guess today is as good a day as any to send it.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Very nice.

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

What's for dinner tonight?

[humglum.livejournal.com]

Nothing terribly exciting.
I'm making a big pot of chili.

[waristerrorism.livejournal.com]

Abercrombie should know: that top could be more cute.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

What?

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Facebook: agreed. It's devalued the word "friend" for me. I'd much rather read your thoughts here than there. Likewise making comments. It doesn't feel as exposed, if that makes sense.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

It's devalued the word "friend" for me.

The whole goddamn internet has.

It doesn't feel as exposed, if that makes sense.

It does.

[mrs-ralph.livejournal.com]

Speaking of sexualising...wouldn't it be nice if they would stop making every woman feel like she has to look like she is going to be in a porno in order to feel attractive? Maybe I'm showing my age but thongs and shaved crotches irritate me in more ways than one.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Speaking of sexualising...wouldn't it be nice if they would stop making every woman feel like she has to look like she is going to be in a porno in order to feel attractive?

Yes.

Distraction

[cliff52.livejournal.com]

There can really be no good motive for pushing prepubescent children ahead of their years. It seems pathological or at best cruelly selfish.

The pre- years seem so golden in retrospect and the pubescent period sucks mightily all by itself without shoving the innocent into it before their time.

Second comment: I always enjoy your biographical notes (The wedding dress story, skinning the lion). Thank you for sharing and please, Aunt Beast, may we have some more?

Re: Distraction

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

There can really be no good motive for pushing prepubescent children ahead of their years. It seems pathological or at best cruelly selfish.

I almost sense a meat-market mentality.

Second comment: I always enjoy your biographical notes (The wedding dress story, skinning the lion). Thank you for sharing and please, Aunt Beast, may we have some more?

Sure, and you're welcome.

[insanitybook.livejournal.com]

Prepare to be distracted!

Why do you not like Facebook?

I'm about one third of the way through Silk, and I can only slightly understand why you might get classified as a "horror writer." It has elements in it that would be found in horror stories. However, I would not classify you as solely a horror writer.

I don't know what's worse...that bikini, or the fact that I would have wanted one when I was little.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Why do you not like Facebook?

Truthfully, it's a little hard to pin down.

I don't like that there's so little privacy protection, and that FB is blatantly, openly anti-privacy, pro-transparency.

I don't like people I last saw twenty years ago and never want to see again tracking me down and making asses of themselves (this has happened to me several times).

I don't like not at least having the option to completely disable comments (and making my account private defeats the purpose).

I don't like all the spam (mostly games) I get, that I then have to go to the trouble to block.

I don't like a lot of people's pushy, presumptuous attitudes, a mindset which seems different from that on LJ.

...really. It's a long list. Summarizing is hard.

that bikini, or the fact that I would have wanted one when I was little.

A&F is counting on that. And really, it's not the bikini that I find grotesque. It's the padding push-up part.

[lois2037.livejournal.com]

I don't quite hate FB, but it is so much like a loud rattling party that I've gotten stuck at and can't carry on even a decent one-sentence conversation with anyone. I do, however, enjoy the "like" button and I wish LJ had one. I also wish FB had a "don't like" button, as well.

The little girls in the push-up bikinis can wear them with their Walmart makeup, I guess. What a stupid idea! There are actually moms defending this stuff, saying that girls want to dress up. UGH!

I wish writers could just be considered writers, and let the writing fall into whatever category it may. That would confuse the marketers, of course, who really want to jam everyone into nice, manageable little boxes, but it would open up a lot more possibilities for working in whatever genre, and I believe all of us readers would really like that.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I don't quite hate FB, but it is so much like a loud rattling party that I've gotten stuck at and can't carry on even a decent one-sentence conversation with anyone.

See, that's enough right there to make me hate it.

I do, however, enjoy the "like" button and I wish LJ had one. I also wish FB had a "don't like" button, as well.

The like, and even theoretical dislike, button is so reductive as to become absurd. How would you blanket like or dislike one of my posts, as they are almost always a mix of good and bad things?

[sovay]

I've officially secured (mostly through the efforts of readingthedark) permission from Radiohead to reprint lines from "There, There (The Bony King of Nowhere)" in the novel, lines that are crucial to the book.

Fantastic.

Would you like to be visited next week?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Would you like to be visited next week?

Maybe. At the moment, I'm awash in a sea of chaos.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

You keep saying you're not a 'horror writer.' Who keeps calling you a 'horror writer'? Did I miss something?

Also: ignore the shemps and feeps who are spraying diarrhetic rhetoric at Sucker Punch. It is fabulosity.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

You keep saying you're not a 'horror writer.' Who keeps calling you a 'horror writer'? Did I miss something?

Example: I am routinely chosen for horror's "year's best," and never for fantasy "year's best," and only once for an sf "year's best" (in 2005). I could cite many examples. They abound.

It is fabulosity.

That is good news.

[eredien]

I've been really sick and not doing much, but if you are looking for something beautiful and intriguing, I just posted to my LJ with a list of various animals made into basically flying robots.