Gone For A Minute Now I’m Back

This might be the 5th time I’ve dusted off this site and decided to write again. I want to blame business for it, but honestly my desire to participate in the overall Black nerd debates has waned a bit. That along with my already short attention span has made keeping up with blogging hard.

However I’m back (again) on the scene and for the most part still have some pretty strong feels about being Black, femme and nerdy in a world that likes to deny my existence.

I also have some wonderful news.

While it may be hard to tell based on the frequency of which I update here, I love to write. It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve had the courage to submit anything anywhere but last year at the behest of both the Nerdgasm girls and Inda Lauryn of Black Girl Squee, I submitted a short story to Crossed Genres for the Hidden Youth anthology. I honestly wasn’t expecting more than a polite rejection letter. Instead my story was accepted.

For those of you who might not know, Hidden Youth is the second Hidden anthology book from Crossed Genres. The first is Long Hidden which was released in 2014. The theme of the anthology is stories told from The Margins of History, meaning stories from the point of view of marginalized people of a certain era. Hidden Youth added an extra criteria, requiring the stories to have marginalized main characters under the age of 18.

Right now they have a Kickstarter active to raise money for the production of the book. The incentives for backers are not only ebook and/or print copies of Hidden Youth, but also ebook and/or print copies of Long Hidden as well. If you want to know just how good Long Hidden is make sure you check out Nerdgasm Noire’s review of the book.

Check out this post on Nerdy Girl Swag

Catching Up: April and May 2015

So I didn’t make a Catching Up post last month because I was getting ready for WisCon but don’t worry I got the wrap up for the few things I did during April and May.

Arsenal for Democracy:

• More Than A Hairstyle: The Resurgence of Natural Hair
• Film the Police
• After Baltimore: In defense of riots

I was also in an episode of the Arsenal for Democracy radio show.

Take a moment to check those out if you can. Also make sure you check out the Nerdgasm Noire website! We’re going to start putting even more content there as well!

Check out this post on Nerdy Girl Swag

Erasure: My Feelings on Proving POC Exist

There is a lot going through my head right now. After a fantastic weekend at WisCon 39, I’m trying to get back into the swing of writing regularly and have gathered a surprising amount of ideas over the past few days. However with all of the new ideas that have been floating around in my head there are also new doubts and worries, some of which are minor and some of which are slightly existential.

I think I should back up for a moment and let you know where all this begins. At WisCon I got the opportunity to once again interview Daniel Jose Older about his upcoming novels. During the interview, in a conversation about how realistic his novels were because of the diversity, I’d jokingly asked how he felt knowing that in 1000 years, his novels would be used as the proof that there were People of Color in the year 2015. He expressed not just hope, but certainty that it wouldn’t be the case, and that it seemed as if with campaigns like #WeNeedDiverseBooks, #INeedDiverseGames and many others, media was going towards a more accurate portrayal of race, gender and sexuality in the world.

I agree, but it feels like we have a long way to go, as evident (at least to me) by the fawning over the feminism of Mad Max: Fury Road. It’d been suggested to me by several people that I should watch it, and for a few weeks I felt apprehension about my concerns about not being as excited to see it as others. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic Australia but has no Australian Aboriginal Women in the main cast. To me, it seems empty to say that a movie is Feminist when it ignores and almost erases the stories of the women native to the setting.

If you ever wonder why twitter campaigns calling for diversity in media are important this is why. We shouldn’t have to prove a thousand years from now that we existed. We shouldn’t have to re-discover our histories because they were drowned out by the stories of those with power. The erasure of People of Color, especially Women of Color, being treated as the standard is why things like the K Tempest Challenge, #INeedDiverseGames, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, #DiversifyAgentCarter and so many other hash tags and calls for diversity are important. So going forward, as a Midyear’s Resolution to myself I’ve decided to not be afraid to speak up when I feel trepidation about dishonest representations. So….. wish me luck?

Check out this post on Nerdy Girl Swag

Catching Up: March 2015

So March was actually a pretty big month for me! Aside from my regular articles in Arsenal for Democracy, I also did an interview with Buzzfeed about Women in Nerd Culture. That was a fun experience, as I’ve never been interviewed for anything without having a partner or group with me. I was nervous, but the article came out great! You can check it at the link below:

8 Women Talk About Sexism in Geek Culture

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

 

Also here are my March posts for Arsenal for Democracy:

• The Oscars and the Pitfalls of White Feminism
• Beyond SAE: The bigger picture on college racism
• School Desegregation and Its Effect On Black Neighborhoods

Thanks for reading!

Check out this post on Nerdy Girl Swag

Catching Up: February 2015

So here I am again, neglecting this blog (aside from the #CareFreeBlackGirl videos), but I haven’t gone back on my resolution. I’m still writing more, just in other places, and I’m also working on a couple short stories to shop around. And then there’s the zine, which I am also still working on, but don’t think it’s as humorous as I had hoped. However there’s always time to rewrite, so I’m not too worried about.

However to make up for my absence here, let’s catch up on all of the other things I’ve written for other places, specifically for Arsenal for Democracy.

• The White Savior: The Last Hope for POC (According to Hollywood)
• American History: Ida B. Wells and Intersectionality
• Black Wall Street: We Did It By Ourselves and We Were Punished

Make sure you go check those out!

Check out this post on Nerdy Girl Swag

#NaNoWriMo2013 Day 2

Uh oh!
Actually not uh oh. Like I said yesterday, I hit a snag and literally couldn’t think of anything to write today. I was having a major case of Writer’s Block and really disliking what I wrote before. It’s all very plain, just one event then the next, with nothing really interesting in between. Again I considered just deleting the whole thing, but I realized that I needed to get at least the basics out and that I could go back and pretty it up later.
Then I got the idea to go even more bare bones. During my Writer’s Block I wrote out the outline to the first part of the story which helped me piece together some ideas I had.
Tomorrow I don’t work, so I’m hoping to get a large chunk of writing done then!
Here’s hoping!

#NaNoWriMo2013 Day 1

Not quite 1,667 but close. 

I’m already doubting what I’m writing, and considering it’s Day 1, I’m almost tempted to scrap this whole idea and go forward with something else.

But I won’t. I’m gonna stick to my guns. Really this time!

Alright, don’t yell at me, but…..

I haven’t written anything in at least a week. I’m afraid to look at what my daily word count is at now, because the anxiety in me thinks the number is going to be at like 200K words a day (I know that’s a ridiculous number, but the fear is real, so very real) and, although I type fast, I can’t do that. Especially without any plot behind it. Y’know?
BUT! On the bright side, I do have ideas. So many ideas. My active imagination means I am constantly thinking about cool (read: weird) shit and how that cool (read: weird) shit has an effect on normal (read: weird) people.

Also I have ideas for smut, but when don’t I?

My biggest issue though, is that I’m my own worst critic. Before I ever let anyone read anything, before I even finish writing things I’m already looking at and over analyzing what I’ve written. Mostly because I feel like whatever I’m trying to write needs to say something, and forget that I need to build tension, or characters or plots in order for something to be said. How do you portray the severity of something if you haven’t explained the reasoning behind it?

I can sense that I’m starting to rant here, so I’m going to nip that in the bud and just look at my word count and start writing.

Long Story Short

I’m having writer’s block. I’m still ahead of my count with writing, but I’m disliking the way that I write. Hopefully I’ll be able to write some more tomorrow. We’ll see. I think maybe tomorrow I’ll find something to do to stimulate my brain and convince me to write more. Whether it be exercise, reading or something like that. That usually helps.

 

Well shit.

I just wrote a long ass post about my writers block and it got deleted.

Dammit!