Things I read when I get in from work after midnight.

New Text! New Text! Wheee Cleolinda, thank you for making my Phd fun. I can't believe I'm going to work M15M and the Secret Life of Dolls into a thesis.

Zounding Like Ze Bad German Accent.

I was just reading this article (gods, I love Jezebel) and was taken by the ze/zir gender neutral pronoun issue. One commentor makes a reference to Margaret Piercy using 'per' (short for Person) in Woman on the Edge of Time. I'm curious about how academic writing would respond to the introduction of a neutral pronoun. I think it's clearly a political choice  that is expressed in text, however I'm curious as to how it would play with and balance out other words. Would it highlight exactly where we see gender? and what about those pronouns like 'I', 'we' and 'you'? I wrote a paper a few years ago on the masculinity of I. do we need a neutered I? (a -?) thinking. thinking.

Move over Sparklepire...

The next big thing, I'm calling it now - Urban Fantasy, Faerie Romance. And pushing it are Holly Black, Cassandra Clare and Melissa Marr. This also seems to be a genre that is particularly open to feminist readings (seriously, I squee every few pages in Marr's books) and, holy shit, it's AWESOME.

The chicks are all "Sugar, this is all about my choices, I get them, welcome to the Future". Epic. Love. The texts are edgy, explicit without being gratuitous, and most importantly are written by young women for young readers (seriously, more boys need to get in on this shit, they're missing out).  So I think I'm going to read and review these books on here for the next little while. Not today, too much to do. But some review love wouldn't be all bad at all.

And I'll do it wearing these:

(found through Love Lorn Unicorn, told about by the Delightful Catie last night via Facespace, Visiting Peter Alexander before work today.)

Rattling Windows

They creep me the fuck out. I'm just saying, like, when Ms L isn't here and it's all night and I know I need to get me sweet arse off to bed because, like, urgh, early morning, and the windows are rattling, it's creepy.

Upside is I totally have Faerie porn to read (yay!). Downside is if I read it tonight I'll be tired tomorrow (boo!). But I got my Academic CV finished (yay!). But I need to redraft my Textual Intercourse essay as an example of my academic writing (boo!). And I totally need to print off Passionate Trousers and seriously re-write it (boo!). And I went to the gym (yay!) but I ate 2 bars of chocolate (boo!) and the were Nestle (boo!). And it'll take me 7 hours a day at the gym to get the body I want for summer (boo!). Heh. Unless I just get someone else's body (Heh). That is clearly only funny in my head (boo!).

Stupid rattly, creepy windows.

Making Time with Alice

She's done it to me again.

Starting again and again and again

Getting my app through a variety of drafting stages, each one slightly different to the last. It's like a have a collection of slightly disfigured clones on my desktop. Hot.

I've also got publications under control (for now) and the book launch for Verge 09 is in November so, we can expect to see No Oblivion getting all shacked up under a tree any day now. I was amused that the editor thought there were points where it was "crass". I was all... "Sugar... it's about two people shagging under a tree in a park. This isn't exactly cupcakes and Lady Grey we're dealing with". So feeling pretty good right now, on the writing side.

The dollaz are under pressure, as per usual and I need to have a chat with my DATM to see whether he'll be kind enough to fund my time in Hong Kong. Urgh. I hate that conversation. It's so disempowering.

I'm going to rework my Beverly Farmer piece as an example of academic writing. That will be the project for tomorrow, but I totally need to settle down and do my Harry Chapter. I'm starting to get a little concerned about Passionate Trousers and I'm not sure where the draft I scrawled all over is. Damnit.

Picture time!!



There's a BRIDGE, CHAAARLIE!!! A BRIIIIIIDGE!!