Welcome to my LiveJournal. I'm a science fiction writer with a growing collection of published short stories, and my collection Unwelcome Bodies is currently available from Apex Publications. It includes, among other stories, "Captive Girl," which was a 2007 Nebula finalist and which made the 2007 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards short list. I started this journal to have a place to talk about writing and the writing life, although you'll probably notice various digressions into belly dance and politics.

Please note that anonymous comments that aren't signed will be deleted.

If you're near Arlington (Massachusetts) and want to see some really cool gothic bellydance (and me), come to Raks Spooki tonight!

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4838934

It's 7:00 to 10:00 at the Regent Theater, and proceeds to go Women for Women.

I've been really bad about posting updates here. I've gotten used to the quick and lazy style of Facebook updates, alas. LiveJournal takes more effort. So here, in no particular order, are some updates.

-I'm currently 3/4 of the way through stealthmuffin's next novel MS. It's definitely a worthy successor to the first two books in the series, and it's been an incredibly quick read. I think I'll be able to finish it tomorrow, at which point, I'll be able to clear my head and switch back over to my own stuff. I really want to get this revision of Chameleon off of my plate, as hopeless as I think it is to try to sell it. Getting rid of it will be a huge weight off of my shoulders. And if my agent likes it and starts shopping it around, it'll be nice to have a piece in circulation that I'm not particularly attached to (unlike Machine, which every major SF publisher has already turned down, save one). Then I'll finally be able to turn to something else. Probably shorts, I think. I could really use a nice short or two under my belt. Hell, I might even try to revise the derivative piece of crap I had the writing group look at a couple of months ago.

- Speaking of shorts, I got a lovely piece of fan mail from Janis Ian today about "Captive Girl." Holy fucking shit -- a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter sent me fan mail. And speaking of writing new shorts, it's time to finally write a story that tops "Captive Girl," because as much as I appreciate all the attention that it's gotten and is still continuing to get, I'd really like to not feel like a lyric from "How Do You Sleep?" -- you know, the one that goes: "The only thing you done was yesterday, And since you're gone you're just another day." I can hear Lennon croon that line in my ear every time I get a new bit of praise for that old story.

- I've finally seen photos of my performance from the show up in Haverhill a couple of weekends ago, and I need to work on my game face. I thought I was projecting that I was feeling confident and pleased with myself, but in every picture, my expression is completely blank. Well, it's a step up from projecting fear, I suppose.

- In upcoming performance news, Kate and I are dancing this upcoming Sunday at Raks Spooki in Arlington. The line-up really kicks ass. I'm still flabbergasted we'll be up there alongside all those other amazing dancers. Kate and I taped our rehearsal on Sunday, and we're both very happy with how the dance is looking, so while I'm nervous for Sunday, I'm not anxious, if that makes any sense. I must remember the lesson of the game face for Sunday! Yes, we're allowed to look blank and haunted in our first dance, but damn it, I am going to project enjoyment for the second one!

- And we're also beginning to choreograph our dance for the December Za-Beth show. My hope is to be done with the rough draft choreo by this Saturday. It'll do us some good to do speed choreography, followed by speed-learning. We've tended to take months on choreo in the past, and if we're going to get anywhere as dancers, we really need to speed that up.

I think that's it.

Tonight, I was tasked with coming up with a full choreography for my solo on 11/1. It didn't have to be a good choreo, and it certainly didn't have to be my final one, but it needed to be complete. I succeeded, and have a full dance that is perfectly serviceable, but which I hope to improve upon between now and the show. It's always easier to edit than to create, so I'm pretty confident I'll pull it off.

I made a spreadsheet to keep track of my moves, dividing the song into its different beat components, and as I was sitting down to make a note at one point, I scratched one big toe with the nail of the other one. I winced, but didn't think anything of it, and ran through the dance a couple more times. When I was done, I sat down again to finalize my notes, and noticed a little blood on the top of one of my big toes. "I thought I'd hurt the other one," I thought as I swiped it clean.

Then I looked at the other one and saw all the blood.

Then I looked at the floor and saw more.

Ah.

Can you say "hyper-focus" boys and girls?

I've cleaned the floor, my toe, and the wound, and bandaged the puppy up. It's not bad, really, but you know how feet can bleed. I'm just grateful my costume is dark. I don't *think* I got blood on it, but if I did, it shouldn't be obvious. I'll try to remember to pull the costume pieces out when the sun is up so I can look at them in natural light.

So, I have suffered for my art tonight. I think that calls for a treat :)

For those who are interested:



Yes, we're teeny-weeny, but it's what we've got.

And if embedding still isn't working, just go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGXPpn7JAFU

If you're near Worcester, and want to attend a free outdoor arts festival and maybe see someone you know bellydance (ahem), check out stART on the Street!

http://www.startonthestreet.org/start-street

The bellydance show starts at 3:45, and we're on the second stage, which is at 244 Park Avenue, across from the Bank of America parking lot.

Today was an ill-timed sick day. I missed work, missed dance class, and missed troupe practice. And, of course, Melina's mother Rhea was going to be co-teaching the dance class tonight, which I missed, and now we've only got one troupe practice before the performance on Sunday.

Way to go, immune system.

But about an hour ago, I started feeling well enough that I was finally able to whip my WIP into good enough shape to share with my writing group. I don't need to hand it off until Sunday, so I'll sit on it until then, just in case I get further ideas on how to improve it.

Also, I think we'll do fine on Sunday with just the one rehearsal. Two would have been better, but oh well.

Hopefully, I'll get a full night's sleep tonight. Last night? Not so much.

...it looks like stART on the Street finally has their schedule up. We'll be dancing as part of the bellydance showcase at 3:45. stART on the Street is a free arts festival in Worcester next Sunday, so if you're in the area, come check it out:

http://www.startonthestreet.org/start-street

I'm feeling completely unmotivated to do anything tonight, and I suspect that's a product of having such a busy weekend. So I've poured myself a small drink, and once I'm finished with this recap, I'll spend the rest of my night reading, which is something I don't do often enough. The current reading material is the latest Electric Velocipede, which I got at WisCon, but am only now getting around to reading. See what I mean?

( Saturday: The Improper Spectacle Belly Dance Show and Workshop )

( Sunday: Broad Universe's Birthday Parties for Mary Shelley )

I'll leave you all with an image from the Mary Shelley event at Back Pages. We'd brought nibbles of our own, including Frankenstein's monster cookies, but one of the audience members decided to bring a treat of his own, and showed up with a full tray of these:



Yes, a marshmallow, pretzel, and Cheerio Frankie. How cool is that? And to make it cooler, the guy who brought them has read and loved my book and wanted to know when I'd have another one out :)

For once, someone took a profile shot of me that doesn't make me look like a chipmunk, so I have a new bellydance userpic for my posts.

My dream started with me meeting my agent face-to-face for the first time. He told me that the opening of my novel was crap, and it needed yet another revision, but not to bother giving it to him because he was dropping me as a client. All the editors he'd pitched my novel to had rejected it, but he hadn't had time to tell me because he'd been so busy with clients who were actually selling their work.

Then the dream transitioned to me getting together with two fabulous bellydancers (Rachel from Moire and Melina) so we could all go together to a show to dance. Melina knew the way, so we formed a caravan of three cars, with me at the rear, only I couldn't keep up, and I struggled not to lose them on the highway.

And these are my creative releases?

I was one of those kids that either got something or didn't. Reading? Got it at age three-and-a-half. Multiplication? Didn't get it until long after everyone else did. Dinosaurs? Got 'em. Riding a bike? Let's just say that my mother had to point out that if I started to fall, I could actually put my foot down to stop myself from hitting the pavement.

At some point, those of us who get things quickly start running out of things to get, and all that's left are things that are hard work. And for most people like us, things that take hard work aren't nearly as much fun as things that come naturally.

( [more] )

I just realized that the two shows I want to try to dance in at the end of August are the same weekend as the Broad Universe Mary Shelley Birthday Party events that I promised to help out with.

*sobbing*

So I'll do the Saturday workshop/show, and the Sunday Broad Universe events, and feel rotten about what I'm skipping both days.

After a decent rehearsal on Friday and a better rehearsal on Saturday afternoon, I'm glad to say that Kate and I saved the best for last, and nailed our performance on Saturday night. Could it have been better? Of course. But for where we are now, we did just fine.

Kate's currently on vacation for a couple of days, but when she gets back, we'll be getting to work on choreographing a piece for the July 18 Aepril Schaile hafla at the Dancing Gypsy.

For them's that care, I'm dancing in The Goddess Dancing show tonight at B.U.:

http://www.thegoddessdancing.com/Chrysalis.htm

We'll be the token tribal act, and the only people dancing to a Prodigy song. Go figure ;)

Tonight, if all goes well, I will get a ton of stuff done.

However, if tonight goes like most nights where I have nothing planned, I will get about half of my to do list completed and then hit a wall.

We shall see.

Yesterday's show went well, but alas, it was poorly attended. Kate/Kezmaya and I were on fourth, which was a good spot for us. We're too new to want to wait too long to go on, but we don't want to be too early, either. So fourth was nice. Of course, we were on after a really fabulous dancer -- Ela Rogers -- but our dance was different enough from hers that I hope we didn't suffer too much by comparison. Best of all, we both felt good about our performance, which bodes well for the future. I'm pretty sure I nailed all of my timing on the choreo, and I caught on pretty quickly to all of Kate's cues when I was following her during the improv. My only real regret was that phoenixdancer wasn't there. She's never seen Kate and me do a duet, and I'd hoped she'd get a chance to before she moved away.

Next up, the Goddess Dancing show on Saturday, where we'll be doing nothing but improv, and to a much less challenging song. And then we'll try to choreograph a piece for the hafla after the Aepril Schaile workshop in Spencer in July. If we can't pull it off in time, I may just solo to the piece instead.

I've had an overbooked week...

Sunday - costume fitting in Boston
Monday - work, then bellydance workshop
Tuesday - work, then bellydance rehearsal
Wednesday - day off from work for sanity's sake, then Falmouth Library

And after a night off, it picks right up again...

Friday - work, then bellydance rehearsal
Saturday - bellydance show, cleaning up rental property

And then I'm taking Sunday off to lie around in a heap.

Well, not strictly. Both tonight and Sunday I'll be writing and dancing, but on my own schedule and not someone else's. Tonight's writing task is to begin to tackle the rewrite of "...That Has Such People in It" for the Dark Futures anthology. I read through it yesterday, and I think I have a handle on what it needs. Once I'm done with that, then it'll be time to turn back to my other invitational piece. It's been giving me serious problems, and what it needs is for me to do some quality daydreaming about the protagonist and her actions. If that fails, then I may try an entirely different piece that came to mind yesterday that should be much easier to write, much easier to keep to the word limit, and be much less impactful, alas.

On June 20th, I'll be dancing in the "There's No Place Like Home" show, which is a fundraiser for a family that lost everything when their house burned down. The show runs from 1:30 to 4:00 at the Roslindale Community Center in Roslindale, MA:

http://jenwrites.livejournal.com/778250.html

I'm also dancing at The Goddess Dancing's 20th anniversary show on June 27th, starting at 8:00, at B.U.:

http://www.thegoddessdancing.com/Chrysalis.htm

I'm doing both as part of Tassellations, my duet group, and we're doing a different performance at each. For the fundraiser, we'll be doing a short choreography to a Teribus song, then improv to "Istanbul" by They Might Be Giants. At The Goddess Dancing's show, we'll be doing improv to a Prodigy song.

My bellydance teacher and troupe leader has had to stop holding classes and rehearsals at a time and place that Kate and I can attend, so we've dropped out of both. I totally respect my teacher's reasoning for her decision, and we were going to lose her at the end of the summer anyway, but I'm still bummed that I won't be learning from her anymore, and that I won't be dancing her choreographies again.

Still, I think this will be a good thing in the long run. Kate and I can go back to being a duet again. We'll be forced to choreograph songs for ourselves, and to find performance opportunities for ourselves. And most importantly, we'll start becoming a part of the local bellydance community as ourselves rather than as someone's student.

Right now, we're busily preparing for two performances and watching videos of other tribal improv groups to see what moves we can easily lift from their repertoires. Next, we'll start coming up with actual combos of our own to add to our dance. We'll be rehearsing every Tuesday night this month, since we'd already planned to set those nights aside for class. Once we get past these performances, we're going to start practicing choreographies from the DVDs we own so we can get more shared moves between us that we can start pillaging for our own choreos. And, of course, we'll go back to taking classes together once we decide who we want to learn from next.

So while I'm sad, I think this is going to be a good thing. Time will tell.