Lord, Have Mercy on our Souls

I know I promised a photo-laden post, but I stumbled on something in the AQ Connect group forums that I just couldn’t pass up.

http://jennifersolow.blogspot.com/2006/04/surefire-query-letter-is-here.html

If you’ve never seen somebody completely self-possessed, try this writer.

First of all, why any agent would accept such an unpleasant and odd query is beyond me.

Second, are you allowed to send agents things that are practically pornography?

Third, who on God’s green Earth IS Jennifer Solow?  Her blog is titled “The Famous Author Chronicles,” but I’ve never heard of her in my life.

Sigh.

Prelude to a Post

This isn’t really a post, but a warning that a big post is coming up.

Why bother, you ask?  Well, the reason’s quite simple, really.

There’s another photo shoot today.

In effect, there’s going to be a huge photo-laden post as soon as I get access to the photo-editing computer I use.  (It’s not at my house, so it might be a couple of days.)

Most of the reason I’m posting?  Because the shoot is three hours away, I can’t get ready for another hour and a half, and I don’t have anything better to do.

Although I can tell you that Angels on Sunset Boulevard by Melissa de la Cruz is probably the most massively creepy California cult novels I’ve ever read.  I think I’m afraid of MySpace now.  Go check it out – she’s the same author that brought you The Au Pairs (which I’ve never read) and the wonderful Blue Bloods series.

“A Piece of my Soul just Exploded…”

Well, my siblings and I just finished watching the season/series finale of the Nickelodeon television series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Can’t say it was disappointing.

The graphics, as usual, were awesome – for a weekly animated kids’ show, the battle scenes and animation were amazing.  I’ve always been amazed by the animation on Avatar, but the finale battles – the multi-element battle between the Avatar, Aang, and his nemesis Fire Lord Ozai, as well as the blue fire-on-red fire Agni Kai between bad-guy-gone-good Zuko and his literally insane younger sister, Azula – really took the cake.

I was equally impressed by the solution Aang found to killing Fire Lord Ozai, which he was deeply morally opposed to.  While it was a bit extreme and hard to believe, I was secretly glad that he didn’t have to compromise his spiritual beliefs in order to save the world’s balance.

My sister was a bit unhappy at the ending, though.  The way the pairings worked out.  I wasn’t pleased myself, but I understand…

Although, if anybody’s up to storming Nickelodeon, I’m definitely with them.

Dance, Dance – No, NOT About Fall Out Boy

I’m extending Dance, Dance into a full-length thing.

I remember posting about this a while back – I’m not sure where, though, as I’m having difficulty locating the post.  To refresh your memory, it’s the backstory for Ian Drake.  (So far, I also have backstories for Zoe Lee, Sofie Beretta, and Gary Logan.)

In the story, he’s a freshman in high school, putting Dance, Dance about a year before The TECH Project.  He’s just gone from a Catholic grade school to a public school, and he’s also trying out for a major company ballet.  Issue?  His new friends at school don’t know about his dancing.  And what’s going to happen when they find out?

Very fun to write.

Anyhow, I’m extending it from a 4,000-word short story into something bigger, maybe a novella or novel.  I’m not sure how long it will end up being…

That’s the latest writing project, in any case.  If you’re interested, I can tell you more.  My mother and sister are getting a little annoyed with my babbling.

The Zine: Punk and Feminism

Ever hear of a Zine?

No, not a random magazine. Zines started back in the 1930s, starting off as sci-fi things called fanzines. The first-ever fanzine is generally acknowledged as The Comet, which was first published in May, 1930. You can read more about fanzines at its Wikipedia article, which links to a lot of different pages.

After a few decades, the 1970s punk movements in the UK and the United States created the modern zine. According to Wikipedia, a zine is a publication that has “circulation must be 5,000 or less and the intention of the publication is not primarily to raise a profit”.

In the early 90s, a new scene helped push the zine revolution: the Riot Grrrl movement. The riot grrrls made zines more explicit and confrontational, keeping with its feminist roots.

Zines are definitely known for their DIY efforts, meaning that most are made on photocopiers or (in these times) on home printers. Some even say that blogs are the new zines: as long as they remain works of people’s creativity and individuality and have a small “circulation,” they will remain zines.

Some other zine sites:

• Zinesters
• Grrrlzines
• ZineStreet