"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

[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.

[insanitybook.livejournal.com]

I thought you (at least used to) have the ability to turn off comments. Or maybe I made that up. I tend to create memories accidentally.

My self-esteem was low enough as a child that I would have seen that bikini and thought, "OH MY GOD, GIVE ME BOOBIES!" Now that I'm an adult, I see padded bras as a way of lying. I'm just imagining someone sexily removing my padded bra and then going, "Oh...is that all?"