Month: May 2017

Goal Review May 2017

Posted May 31, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Goals / 0 Comments

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I Want to Read:

Masquerade by Laura Lam

Asexualities edited by Megan Milks & Karli June Cerankowski

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

I Want to Write:

The rest of DemiPrincess1

The rest of Ribbon Dancer

I have… actually not failed miserably at these goals. I’ve read both Masquerade and Asexualities and I’ve finished the first draft of DemiPrincess1 AT LONG LAST. I’ll, um, spare you the all-caps, but please imagine this all in all-caps. I took a little time to just let the manuscript rest (and get a bit of betareading feedback on it) and distract myself with other things. Such as nonfiction. But I’ve also already started to rework what I’ve got and… When it’s not busy being unbearably hot, I’m really excited.

I really, really like this story (which is good because it’s so very much something that I wrote just for me that I want to share with you all when it’s done) and… I’m kind of in the middle of this… thing. Where I want to do too many things and, therefore, struggle to do any of them.

For example: Ribbon Dancer is on hold (though to be fair this is partially because I’m trying to resign myself to the fact that this will likely be a novelette and not a short story, despite my best efforts). But I also started on a nonfiction essay that is kind of, sort of time sensitive. And I still need to do a bunch of research to properly support the arguments with Proper Academic Sources. And I’m still grumbly over the whole way in which some of the essays in Asexualities felt… erasive and invalidating even though, on the whole, it fills me with squee and bounce because WE EXIST (take that, “The terms are not used often enough to be included” Merriam-Webster!) and also most of the essays are totally awesome and if you enjoy academic essays and like learning about asexualities, I would definitely recommend most of the ones I’ve read.

So… yeah. Mixed month in terms of goals technically, but honestly my reaction is just to squee and bounce and be happy because I did several things that I’m really, really happy about and proud of!

Livetweeting Sera Myu: The Beginning of the New Legend

Posted May 28, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Film & TV, Not-A-Review / 0 Comments

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Sera Myu: The Beginning of a New Legend Tuxedo Kamen vs King Endymion

And here is the Storify!

This musical is the first of the second stage musicals and… Honestly? I was extremely disappointed in it. It reuses so much from previous musicals, often line by line. It adds in the Amazon Trio for… Reasons. That are never actually explained. And it adds in the whole Amazon Trio dream plot, but with none of the narrative to back it up, taking away even more time from the main Beryl/Galaxia plot that’s going on. It gives away emotional and impactful scenes to other characters (see Uranus and Neptune’s betrayal being given to the inners) and relies so heavily on familiarity with the franchise for its emotional punches that I’m not convinced it’d make any sense to someone who doesn’t know Sailor Moon’s plots (and specifically Sera Myu’s plots) already.

How to Make a List of Asexual Books Post

Posted May 24, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 2 Comments

Tags: aromanticism, asexuality, musings

So… There’s something I’ve noticed about a lot of people making lists about asexual representation. Actually, there’s a few things I’ve noticed and they all fall into slightly similar patterns.

Before I start talking about how to make lists about asexual representation, I want to discuss something else briefly. I want to talk about how these lists make me feel. This is especially true of lists or listers that include multiple queer orientations in their lists. These lists often make me feel like the asexual representation is tacked on as an afterthought with barely any research into what asexual representation exists in the field. The books are out there!

Changes?!

Posted May 23, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 0 Comments

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After… much consideration and deliberation I’ve decided to up the length of time posts are Patreon-exclusive to a month. No changes will be made to any of the other posts, but it will be a full month before blog posts and review posts cycle through to the main blog and become publicly available.

This change does not apply to already posted or scheduled posts. More specifically, the following posts will still appear on the 7 day schedule and will be publicly available on Patreon within 7 days after their appearance on Patreon as well:

How to Make a List of Asexual Books Post
Book Talk: The Traitor’s Tunnel by C.M. Spivey
Book Talk: Stake Sauce Arc 1 by RoAnna Sylver
Book Talk: Seven Years among Dragons by Lyssa Chiavari
Book Talk: Masquerade by Laura Lam

Livetweeting the final day performance of the revised Sera Myu musical The Birth of a Legend

Posted May 22, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Film & TV, Not-A-Review / 0 Comments

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Last Saturday, I watched the final day performance of the Sera Myu musical The Birth of a Legend. I loved and adored the copy of the original run and this musical was… very different. You can read the Storify of the livetweet here, and you can read on for some slightly more coherent thoughts now that I’ve had some time to let it sink into me.

As always, the fansubs I’m watching come from SeaofSerenity.net and hopefully one day soon I’ll actually remember to announce it in the livetweeting threads. I’m sorry I keep forgetting. 🙁

Sale: Sea Foam and Silence AND Feather By Feather (Also! More books with mermaids!)

Posted May 14, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in News / 0 Comments

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News. The text 'news' underneath a big envelope. News and updates on the site.

Quick (and very belated) announcement: The ebook editions of both Sea Foam and Silence and Feather by Feather and Other Stories are discounted throughout the rest of May!

Sea Foam and Silence is discounted to $0.99 (or what its equivalent is in your currency when I submitted the price change) and Feather by Feather has been discounted to $1.99 (or its equivalent in your currency).

But, hey, it is late and I should get some sleep after staying up way too late watching Eurovision, so let’s talk about May and books a bit more! May is also #mermay, you see! Which, basically, means that my Twitter TL is filled with the most gorgeous of mermaid art. Hence the discount of Sea Foam and Silence. It is a perfect #mermay treat! (Feather by Feather and Other Stories also has a little mermaid retelling, but the vast majority of that book is not mermaid-related. There’s a kelpie and some swan maidens. They’re as close as the other stories get to having mermaids.)

Anyway, it took me a ridiculous long time to connect the dots regarding #mermay, mermaids and, you know, my little mermaid retelling. WTH, brain? That is some seriously terrible connect-the-dots work there. But rather than complain about my terrible and awful brain. Let’s look at some other books and stories that you could read for mermay! 😀

The Seafarer’s Kiss by Julia Ember was released in May and it, too, is a queer little mermaid retelling! Bisexual in this case. So… If you want more queer mermaid retellings for mermay… That said, there is criticism of the way the book portrays enbies and trans people, so do be warned of that.

Who Is Willing by M.C.A. Hogarth features the Naysha, a mermaid-like alien race. They’re secondary characters, but they’re very prominent, so… If you happen to have a hankering for mermaids in space… This novella may well be worth looking at/for.

If you’re looking for an m/m erotica novella, Ariel Tachna’s Why Nileas Loved the Sea might be of interest to you.

Want something more YA? Maybe Between the Sea and Sky by Jaclyn Dolamore is more your style. It’s been ages since I read it, but I remember it as a sweet, fast read.

And… Somehow I was under the impression that I had more mermaid-related books in my life. Anyway! Hope there’s something you enjoy in that list!

Livetweeting Sera Myu: The Eternal Legend (and Bonus Quest For Glitter)

Posted May 14, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Film & TV, Not-A-Review / 0 Comments

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Here’s the Storify! With bonus Eurovision Quest For Glitter because, um, I am terrible with scheduling and remembering dates and forgot it was Eurovision day. In brief:

Sera Myu: The Eternal Legend was amazing and I heart it so much and next week we’re watching the revised musical, which is also the final day for Anza’s run as Usagi/Sailor Moon, as well as Ayako Morino (Ami/Mercury), Misako Kotani (Rei/Mars), Akari Tonegawa (Makoto/Jupiter), Sanae Kimura (Haruka/Uranus), Hiroko Tahara (Michiru/Neptune), Rei Saitou (Setsuna/Pluto), Sayuri Katayama (Seiya/Star Fighter), Momoko Okuyama (Yaten/Star Healer), and Sakoto Yoshioka (Princess Kakyuu).

It will be emotional. It will be filled with ad libs. It will be revised. It will be GLORIOUS. But this week was already GLORIOUS. I had some minor narrative quibbles. Like “Why doesn’t Usagi remember Queen Beryl?” and “But do we have enough backstory to really back this up if you only watch the musical?”, but mostly I’ve just been swept up in this musical and enjoyed it. It was fun and filled with all the things I love about Sailor Moon and Sera Myu as a whole. This musical contains one of my favourite Myu songs ever (the first Reprise of Orleans no Sei Senshi, also known as “When the musical followed the anime and Haruka and Michiru became Tragic Queers until Usagi saves the day”.)

Eurovision: Following 2017’s venture into an Alternate Dimension, Eurovision was dominated by the colours black and white and a distinct lack of glitter, with many participating countries assuming this is a genuine singing competition rather than a colourful glitterfest which pretends to be apolitical (and actually mostly wasn’t this year) where stranger really is better because EUROVISION and Portugal taking the win by a possibly unprecedented landslide with a ballad. (Seriously, if you haven’t seen Love Love Peace Peace before and want to understand Eurovision, click that link.)

I am too cynical for this year’s Eurovision, but by then it was ridiculously late at night and so I hied it off to bed to watch the second half of the musical on Sunday and, lo, here is the Storify of both.

Next week, bring tissues. I will need a MOUNTAIN of tissues to get me through the musical next week.

This post previously appeared on Patreon and is sponsored by generous patrons. Thank you so much for your support! It means the world to me! <3 I love you all!

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8 Things To Keep In Mind When Boosting And Supporting People

Posted May 11, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Miscellaneous / 0 Comments

Tags: musings

One thing that, in my experience, comes up a fair bit when people see aces and aros ask allies to speak up about the issues we face too is the idea that people can’t boost our voices or issues because something else is happening that affects that person directly. This post, however, won’t look at aces and aros specifically. It looks at general ways I’ve found that are important when speaking up about the hurt done to other marginalisations when your own marginalisation is being hurt too.

It is written from an ace perspective on account of the fact that I am ace spec, after all, but I have done my best to keep the tone of this piece neutral-to-positive and general. It’s also, because I spend most of my time on Twitter, going to use Twitter terminology more than anything else, but I think it applies across various platforms. I hope you’ll find it useful, so let’s dive straight in with the first and, in my opinion, most important point!

Heads-up regarding the serials of Sea Foam and Silence and A Promise Broken

Posted May 7, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in News / 0 Comments

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Hi, all! This is a quick heads-up to let you know that, come June, I’ll be taking down the online serialisations of A Promise Broken and Sea Foam and Silence on Wattpad and this website.

This is part of a general restructuring and upheaval of my online presence in general. Right now, I’m coping particularly badly and am not in a good place in any way. I’m really sorry about that and I hope to have a more detailed and explanatory post available later this month. I just wanted to give you all a heads-up that the stories were going to come down, so you could still read them online if you were waiting on doing so!

The sampler pieces from Feather by Feather and Other Stories will be moved to Patreon and start reappearing as early as tonight! As of now, I’m undecided about whether to repost the serials to Patreon in some format.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and support as I work on figuring myself out!

Livetweeting Sera Myu Sailor Stars Revised Edition

Posted May 6, 2017 by Lynn E. O'Connacht in Film & TV, Not-A-Review / 0 Comments

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You can catch up on the Storify here! It’s a little bare bones this week, due to the fact that I’m struggling with a dip in mental health as well as some offline issues in my extended family, but at least I was on time? Being on time is a start!

Truth be told, though, I honestly can’t tell you whether my feelings about this musical stem from just genuinely not liking most of the changes or from the fact that I’m currently in a mindset to dislike most things anyway.

It’s just… It didn’t address any of the issues I had with the original musical (it actually managed to add one) and it altered some of the things I really liked originally. And the fourth-wall breaking period drama shenanigans just aren’t enough for me to like it as a whole.

Those shenanigans, though, are a lot of fun and honestly if you like Sera Myu I’d recommend both these musical just for the changes made there because it’s such a neat bit of playing with the structure and format of what a musical is and can be.

Anyway, I’ll be in the Discord chat for a little while longer, so if you’re a Patron at the Starshine level or higher and want to chat about the musical while it’s still fresh in my mind come hang out with me. 😀

This post previously appeared on Patreon and is sponsored by generous patrons. Thank you so much for your support! It means the world to me! <3 I love you all!

Lynn O'Connacht: Queer acespec indie SFF author & editor

Month: May 2017