Profile

When I was a little girl, my father would tell people that I was born with a book in my hand.





I'm usually reading 2-3 books at a time (my bedtime book, my breakroom-at-work book, my in-the-car-just-in-case book) and I'm always writing one story while a dozen others are in queue, waiting to be finished. It's who I am -- a woman obsessed with the written word.

That said, I'm just gonna ramble for a while....

When my son was about 10 years old, I cut a deal with him: he could say "fuck" as often as he liked as long as I never heard the word "ain't" pass his lips again. The arrangement has worked out well for both of us. Now he's a happy, healthy 19-year-old gothboy with pointy nails, white face paint, and long hair that's dyed blue-black. I do his roots for him once a month. If the dye gets in his eyes, he may very well say "fuck." He never, ever says "ain't."





Call me a proud parent....

When my daughter was in middle school, she went through a brief preppie stage during which she wanted to shop at the Gap. Although I try very hard to be a supportive parent who is tolerant of her kids' differences and quirks, everyone has their limits. At one point, I turned to her and wailed, "Why can't you just be Goth like a NORMAL kid??????" Thankfully, she recovered quickly and went back to buying most of her clothes at Hot Topic. She turned 15 at a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which we attended each month. Because I had a friend in the live cast, she got a lap dance from the guy playing Frank-n-Furter.

It was a touching and joyful moment for all involved.





Call me a progressive parent....

I'm a 40-something mom and grandma in a small rural town in Kentucky. Since I'm also straight and white, people automatically assume that means I'm Christian and conservative, that I'm into country music and cornholing, and that I'm pro-tobacco and anti-diversity.

Uh, no. And I'm not into makin' babies with my cousin, Billy-Bob, either.

I'm a non-theistic pagan and a social liberal/economic moderate. I listen to just about any type of music except country and rap, though my heart belongs to Irish punk and German folk metal. I don't get the sudden, insane popularity of cornholing. (I mean really, a bunch of drunks stand around in a field somewhere throwing bean bags or balls at a hole in a board. What's the point?) I'd like to see pot legalized (for medicinal purposes) and that toxic and addictive killer, tobacco, de-legalized.

I'm adamantly and steadfastly in favor of legalizing gay marriage.





Not same-sex unions, not domestic partnerships. M-A-R-R-I-A-G-E. Period. Call it what it is -- two people who love each other and are committed to each other having the same rights, protections and recognition under the law as everyone else. No disclaimers, no hidden clauses down there in the fine print, no loopholes. End of sentence.

Like my bumpersticker says, "Freedom is the distance between church and state."





No good has ever come from people with religious agendas having sway over legal issues. Let's keep the two separate.

Professionally, call me a retail drone. I'd rather be doing something else, but at least it pays the bills -- almost. One of these days, I'm going to crack down, finish the novel, and hopefully start supplementing my meager income with my writing. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I'm into gay (male-on-male) fiction, gay cinema and indie films. I'm a fairly serious film geek, and am primarily interested in small, quirky, beautifully written, overlooked and underrated films that were labors of love for the people making them. Once a week, I make a 100-mile round trip to rent movies, because Movie Gallery has nothing -- and I do mean nothing -- that I'd care to watch.

I love vampires of the Bram Stoker, Lost Boys, True Blood, Nosferatu, and (early) Anne Rice variety.





Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series makes me cringe and -- as my daughter would put it -- vomit a little bit into my mouth.

"Do I dazzle you?" Oh, puh-leassssseeee! The stuff reads like a 1970's Harlequin Romance. How atrociously bad can writing be?





Soapbox moment here: Call it slash, fanfiction, or whatever -- I love it. I love writing it, and I love reading it -- *IF* it's well-written and the author doesn't feminize the characters. The biggest flaw in most of the fanfic I see out there is that so many writers present one or both of the characters in their pairing as either women (circa 1957 variety, no less) or children. Come on, you're into the concept of male-on-male romance, or you wouldn't be writing this stuff, right? So why turn your guys into penis-packing girls? Especially guys who are portrayed as hyper-masculine, iconic types in canon. I'm sorry, but Batman isn't going to sob on Robin's shoulder because he found a chip in their wedding china, and you're not going to convince me that he would. Starsky wouldn't tear up because Hutch gave him a frilly, lace-covered, powder-puff-pink, heart-shaped box of candy on Valentine's day. And Spock sure as hell isn't going to cry himself to sleep in Kirk's arms, sniffling and hiccuphing like an over-tired toddler, because his father didn't let him have a puppy when he was three. Men really do have a softer side. They love. They hurt. They need. They like to snuggle. They can be incredibly tender and sensitive and loving and supportive and giving. They sometimes cry. But they do it all in a uniquely male way. If you want your fiction to be believable, learn the difference.

As far as the mpreg thing goes: You've got to be kidding, right?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LCVZWFAEodk/RlsZ4DY7KLI/AAAAAAAAEp8/CZa3oPlOxvQ/s400/nielsen-prg.gif

To each his own, I guess, but geez.... ::::shudders delicately::::

I'm totally, utterly, and insanely in love with the Donald Strachey mystery series.





The dynamics between gay P.I. Donald Strachey and his hubby Timmy Callahan made me "come out of the closet" as a slasher and actually post fanfic for the first time. Bookverse, movieverse, it's all good. The books by Richard Stevenson are razor-sharp and hilarious, and the movies are probably the most gay-positive films you can find anywhere. If you haven't seen them, check 'em out. http://community.livejournal.com/smallfandomfest/245537.html#cutid1 Then plague HereTV to make more of them! http://savestracheys.livejournal.com/

I've lived here in "Mayberry" all my life. There are pros to that, and there are cons. Lately, the cons have been tipping the scales. I've been divorced for a dozen years now. Believe me, that's a helluva long time to be alone. I'd love the find the right guy, fall in love, have a quiet handfasting in the woods, and settle down someplace where we can live out our version of Happily Ever After. But lets face it, a middle-aged pagan chick who lives and breathes m/m romance, has a gothboy son, a lesbian daughter, and a T/S daughter-in-law isn't going to have the easiest time in the world hooking up with guys who are both open-hearted and open-minded enough to feel at home with our family dynamic -- at least out here in Mayberry. Their loss, of course. We're a really interesting bunch once you get to know us....

One of these days, once I've sold a few novels and been declared the Patricia Nell Warren of this generation (Hey, a girl's gotta have her dreams, doesn't she?) OR gotten lucky and hit the jackpot playing Powerball, I'm going to blow this popsicle stand and move closer to the ocean or to the mountains, maybe find a remote spot in Alaska where they have to fly my groceries in by helicopter every three months. Change my ringtone to the theme music from "Northern Exposure" and commune with a moose, perhaps.






Ummmmmm, just as long as I still have access to the internet....


"Not all who wander are lost"
~~ J.R.R. Tolkien