Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
[1]
I'm exploring new mediums with my cartoons. On canvas, with gesso, graphite, charcoal, pencil and acrylic. The text reads, "Uhh, why did I change my gender? The details are a bit fuzzy."
More to come.
For Illustration Friday [2].
[1] http://jaysennett.com/wp-content/uploads/foggy-no-65.jpg
[2] http://www.illustrationfriday.com/index.php
Posted in Cartoons, Writing | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Ira Glass on Creativity and Storytelling [1]
As I start back into writing fiction, this link came at just the right time (via Big Contrarian [2]). Yesterday I reread draft portions of a novel that, quite simply, are horrible.
But that's what rewriting is all about.
[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hidvElQ0xE
[2] http://www.bigcontrarian.com/
Posted in Writing | No Comments »
Monday, October 16th, 2006
"You keep thinking that you get to keep your body. That your body stays with you just because you're stuck inside it," I said. "You don't get to keep anything, not really. Nothing's a given."So says the narrator to her lover in Jennifer Burke's [1] A Life Less Convenient [2]. A novel of short stories that function rather like mediations, I was drawn in by the dispassionate voice of the narrator as she navigates through the cumulative effects of an auto-immune disorder and love on her body.Writes Burke her Afterwards:I suspect that relationship demons constitute another type of chronic illness that is managed day to day with varying levels of commitment and different definitions of "problem," "success," and "cure."Indeed, what becomes "normal" in these stories is the every changing body of the narrator, and the choices she must make in order to care for herself: the train she misses because she will not run over the parking lot for fear of falling and inflicting more pain on her body; the hair that she gives as a gift to her lover; the food she refuses to eat in order to stall severe stomach pains.Love is often calculated in terms of the cost of the psyche. Rarely I have read the costs it can exact on flesh and bones.A Life Less Convenient [2] intertwines queer sexuality with disability to create a novel about one character's life with an auto-immune disorder. This book has been published by Merge Press [4], a new small press out of Richmond, Virginia. I can see why. Illustrated with some fantastic photos the book defies easy categorization. Which is exactly my kind of book.Burke's deft writing forced me to examine the many things I take for granted from my lover. Most significantly, that I need not weigh each touch against the physical feelings in my body. Our society spends an inordinate amount of time pushing away disabilities of all kinds. Yet love ~ that thing we all say we want ~ becomes the thing which the narrator struggles to manage. Truly, I think, there are no maps for a lovestruck queer woman with lupus.Changes in location and time suggest the D. to whom the letters are written are, in fact, a different person, but how often do we continue to fall in love with the same person until we get the facts of the story right?A Life Less Convenient [2] is a complex, well-written novel about how very complicated life is, how those complications come to rest in our bodies, and how we might use those very bodies to navigate through it all.This book is well worth your time. Please click on over to Merge Press [6] and pick up a copy. Or stop by A Life Less Convenient [7] and leave some comments.
[1] http://jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.jenburke.com
[2] http://www.alifelessconvenient.com/
[3] http://www.alifelessconvenient.com/
[4] http://jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.mergepress.com
[5] http://www.alifelessconvenient.com/
[6] http://www.mergepress.com/
[7] http://www.alifelessconvenient.com/
Posted in Queer, Writing | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 18th, 2006
I'm rereading my novel as preparation for rewriting it. I have vowed that I will treat my own writing as professionally and kindly as I do the words of my other writers.
Why do we always treat ourselves worst of all?
Posted in Writing | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, August 9th, 2006
[This cartoon is free to you to do with whatever you want. Even make a million bucks. Good luck.]The main difference between boss-employed work and self-employed work is that as a self-employed worker you're whoring to yourself, for yourself. Unlike salaried work, where you whore youself to your boss, for your boss.I had thought about writing some fab marketing words about why I'm so great and why you should hire me. But I'm not great and not everyone should hire me. I only need a few of you. ;-)So I'll just cut to the chase. I'm a freelance gadfly and independent writer, author, publisher and filmmaker thrilled to come to your town (I will travel!) and share with you what I've learned about transsexualism, white privilege, male privilege, culture and art making, the politics of publishing [1], yoga and anything else that might grab your fancy. All polished off with a chaser of humor and a cartoon or two. I'm willing. Are you ready?Contact me at jay[at]jaysennett[dot]com.
[1] http://www.jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.homofactuspress.com
Posted in Queer, Writing | Comments Off
Friday, March 10th, 2006
Jen at Transcending Gender [1] has produced a wonderful, excellent effort for this month's carnival. Check it [2] out, and her blog, too, if you haven't, and don't, already.Next month yours truly will play host to the carnival.
[1] http://jaysennett.com/cgi-bin/mt/www.jenburke.com
[2] http://www.jenburke.com/2006/03/10/the-carnival-of-bent-attractions-march-2006/
Posted in Queer, Writing | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
The deadline is tomorrow, November 15 today for Self-Organizing Men: Conscious Masculinities Through Time and Space. (Read the entire call here [1]; and the anthology will be published by Homofactus Press [2], and each contributor will receive royalty payments for as long as the book remains in print.)We have already received some amazing words, plays, poems, essays. Some images are on their way to us, too. Several people agreed to be readers of the submissions, and our Homofactus [3]community just grows and grows.This process amazes me. What started out as a call for submissions morphed into a publishing company. Loathe to submit to the process of pitching a book, I decided to publish the book myself. Which led to another book in the works, then a third book.
[1] http://www.jaysennett.com/blog/2005/06/call_for_submissions.htm
[2] http://www.homofactuspress.com/
[3] http://www.homofactuspress.com/
Posted in Man, Queer, Writing | 16 Comments »
Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
I just learned about and signed up for something that sounds really fun, and yet somewhat ominous. NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. The basics are that between midnight the morning of Nov. 1st and midnight the night of Nov. 30th, you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel. That's roughly 1,700 words a day. If you succeed, you get a certificate and a first draft of your own novel. If you don't make the 50,000, you are that much closer to finishing your first novel anyway!You can sign up and learn more at www.nanowrimo.com [1]. This will be an adventure for me. I hope some of you writers out there will join us crazy ones at a one month attempt at major writing discipline! Keep us posted!
[1] http://www.nanowrimo.com/
Posted in Writing | 1 Comment »
Saturday, September 10th, 2005
A fundamental personal tenet: in the times of catastrophe my primary goal is to offer practical assistance. In the case of Katrina survivors that means assisting in providing meals, water, shelter and other basic needs.
So I signed up for a two week hardship volunteer stint with the Red Cross. I don't know where they will send me.
I should be back before October 1, 2005. If I am able to use my cell phone, Ona Marae will post updates about my experiences / whereabouts during the next several weeks.
During my time in the Gulf Coast, Nick Kiddle and Ona Marae will share with you their words of wisdom. I feel grateful to them for agreeing to blog during my absence. I will do my best to have them continue when I return.
And sometime soon, when she has a free moment (!), Jennifer Gee, one of my most thoughtful commenters will blog here as well. My only request to her is that she discuss, among the many topics at which she is expert, what it means for to live a the B in LGBT.....
Thank you to the three of you. You'll be in my thoughts as I make my way down South. And a very big heartfelt thank you to the Divine Ms. H.
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Katrina, Writing | 2 Comments »
Thursday, July 28th, 2005
Changed the title from self to just publishing.
Right now I'm firming up publishing plans with my first author. Great guy. Exciting work. Keep checking back for more updates as I report on this very exciting writer.
When I think of this guy I think of a quote I got today in my inbox: The Future is Transsexual.
Posted in Writing | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, July 20th, 2005
After receiving another grammatically incorrect rejection form letter, I decided to take the plunge and post some of my fiction here. I have decided to do this act periodically. Current publishing model promotes notions of scarcity:
"we will only publish works that have never been published anywhere in the history of the world"; or
"we do not accept simultaneous submissions, but it takes us at least six months to tell you if we accept you, and another eighteen months to publish it, if we do."
In an effort to push out against my own fear and entrenched notions of what is the right way to get published, I offer up a short, short.
Now, I want your feedback. Critique away, both good and bad. I don't care if you are FtM, transsexual, asexual, bisexual or not, if you read, then you are qualified to comment.
Oh, and I'm looking for meaty comments. "That's interesting" does not help me.
So please, my dear readers, bring your intelligence and thoughtfulness to my fiction. Please, please!
___________________________________________
Today Donatello Jackson slides the barrel into his mouth. His teeth clatter. A sweat droplet rolls down his index finger as he triggers himself off.
Posted in Writing | 2 Comments »
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005
Since the mid 1990s many great books have been published addressing notions of masculinity, maleness, gender and feminism. From Michael S. Kimmel and Michael Messner’s Men’s Lives to R.W. Connell’s Masculinities, to Mark Allister’s Eco Man: New Perspectives on Masculinity and Nature conversations have begun around this thing called “masculinity.”
This work has continued into transmen/ftm/trannsexual male communities with the work of Morty Diamond’s From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FtM and Beyond and Jamison Green’s Becoming a Visible Man. DJ Katastrophe, poet and hip hop artist Tim’m West and performance artist and activist Imani Henry also represent progressive forces investigating, interrogating and reorganizing understandings gender, masculinity, race, class and feminism.
Posted in Man, Queer, Writing | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2005
In April I wrote [1] about wanting to achieve a goal of receiving 100 writing rejection slips.
Well, last week I received one, bringing my total to 2.
The most shocking fact...the rejection email contained two major grammatical errors!
Thrilling! Absolutely f---ing brilliant!
[Note to self: Consider starting own publishing company with higher standards.]
[Further note to self: I have a lot of work ahead of me, with only 2 rejections to my name.]
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/2005/04/finishing_up_a_.html
Posted in Queer, Writing | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 19th, 2005
Ona Marae has agreed to join me in blogging heaven. Her initial blogs will focus on the revolutionary nature of Jesus, Christianity and that mythical creature: the queer Christian. I was a religion major in college and wrote my honors thesis on the nature of a just war in Karl Barth's ethics. Ona and I have chatted about religion and spirituality for about nine years now. She is inspired and inspiring and has fought for herself and her religion.
She writes:My cat and I live and love in Denver. I am a 40 year old feminist lesbian with a disability. I am white, a farmgirl gone urban, overeducated but living on a disability income. I am a writer and glbt/disability rights activist. I am a Christian also and combine the activism closely with my spirituality. I also have worked part time at a battered women's shelter for 8 years. I was a monthly writer for LIC (Lesbians in Colorado) Magazine and now write for Spinster Wisdom. I have published poetry in glbt magazines and books and am looking for that first breakthrough with a short story!
Posted in Religion, Weblogs, Writing | Comments Off
Monday, May 16th, 2005
Crawford Kilian's post at Writing Fiction [1] just leapt out at me this morning. He responded at length to a newbie writer's questions about language, publishing and the necessity of obtaining an advanced degree. "Embarking on a writing career is like investing in your retirement. You are sending your future self a gift, and you can't expect to start spending the proceeds right now."
[1] http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/fiction/
Posted in Writing | 2 Comments »
