Making time

Wee-ooooo blog! I'm glad I haven't had time for blogging. I've been very busy, it's good to have many life things happening. Feels like it's going somewhere. Here're some pix of me the other day:

Hair flick cos why not. It was warm enough to wear shorts! Uh-mazing. These shoes are my new-ish babies. Also new in babies: I adopted a cat. Her name is Janet.

Also new in news: my band released our first E.P.

Listen and/or buy it here: http://nunofthetongue.bandcamp.com/

News in also also: Moss Piglet #2 was borned.

Buy it here: http://mosspiglet.bigcartel.com/

And my new job is amaze, my hair is new, my life is good... yada yada.

Supanova 2014

I wasn't going to cosplay this Supanova, but a week ago I watched the end of the 5th season of Adventure Time and suddenly I needed to. Canyon is Billy's ex-girlfriend, a giant motorbiking awesome lady. Obvi, her tallness was what made me relate to her so instantly. But I also happen to have green hair, so it was pretty easy to put something together. I'll add to the costume and do it again at another point.

 Supanova was fun as always, it was hilarious seeing James Callis because he IS Gaius Baltar. Like, if Gaius was an actor irl but had the exact same personality. He even told some story about how he ad-libbed a line, and the director was like, "James. That was amazing." And he told it in a totally straight-faced smug humblebrag Gaius kind of way.

The Adventure Time panel was THE BEST. Actually the best. So awesome.

Hopeless x Agent Provocateur x Me

So I definitely didn't wear this anywhere today, I mostly sat around in my pajamas on tumblr, but I'm planning on wearing it very soon. I don't get a lot of nights off unfortunately, and this week was particularly painful work-wise, but I'm now relaxing in bed with my feet up so that's nice.

I got this bra from the Agent Provocateur sale, yay! I'm really glad I bought it on mega-sale for $50. Originally it was something like $200, which I would never spend on a bra, and honestly it's not worth that much. It's not perfect, like the straps are a bit too long in places and you can't adjust them. But flaws aside, I love it very much, and it was definitely worth the price I ended up paying. As a side note, I'm also wearing my Hopeless Lingerie harness with this, and I think Hopeless are better quality than Agent. Not to mention half the price. And it's an independent business run by a woman from Melbourne. Tick tick tick.

My real life and blog friend Tegan tagged me in this question-answer type thing, so that's what I'm going to do right now. If you're the kind of person who thinks that's boring, you don't need to continue reading.

1. What am I working on now?

I'm working on the second issue of Moss Piglet, my experimental sci-fi journal. Submissions have just closed, and the entries I've received are awesome. I'm planning on making it a bi-yearly thing so if you missed out, don't worry. There'll be another one in the next six months.

I'm also working on a 10k word project for Camp Nanowrimo. The good thing about Camp is that it's not as intense as Nanowrimo. You can choose your own word limit at a minimum of 10k, which is only 334 words a day for a month. At this point in my life I don't have the time to do a 50k in a month thing, but 10k will easily be a good start towards the story I'm writing (which is a cyberpunk thing, yay!)

I'm also 'working' on finding a new job, because my current one is causing me lot of emotional stress. And I don't think that's worth any amount of money.

2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

In terms of Moss Piglet, I've purposely set out to make a journal that's different from the majority of literary journals that are currently being published. (I love being on a high horse!) I've just found that the serious tone in both stories and the artwork in current journals is really boring. Like really boring. Like I don't even want to pick them up because they all have that same vibe. So I wanted MP to be willfully low brow. That's not to say that some of the stories aren't serious, because they are. But I want there to be variety. Silly/sad/funny/scary/whatever. No style out of bounds. And no particular style favoured. So the people submitting will feel free to write in whatever way they want, rather than trying to force their style to fit a journal's style in order to get published.

3. Why do I write what I do?

Who knows?! Nah, I write what I do because I feel like doing it, to be honest. I blog because I like having a record of my thoughts for the past couple of years. It's for myself basically. Because, as Tegan wrote, my memory is not good at all. So it's nice to remember things.

I guess people usually write journals, but I feel more comfortable writing at a computer.

4. What is my writing process?

Slack off, slack off, watch American Horror Story, spend hours on tumblr, slack off some more, then WRITE 50,000 WORDS IN ONE MONTH

then slack off for a year.


Thanks Tegan for the thingy! I don't really have anyone to else to tag apart from Hamish or Oscar I guess, who probably wouldn't do it. And apologies for those of you who were expecting a thoughtful blogpost and got pictures of my bra.

And oh yeah, I have this hair now. Surprise!

Ode to Lana Winters

I have to say, I love American Horror Story. I love it in the same way I love Stephen King - it's cheesy, kind of B-grade, but tells an awesome story that you get weirdly obsessed with. I just finished watching Asylum, the last of the three seasons I hadn't watched. I think it was the best of all of them, with Murder House second and Coven third. They just really went hardcore on the whole 'bad things happening to innocent people' idea. A story where someone you can relate to is helpless to other people and things, constantly trying to escape but trapped, now that's the kind of story people are gripped by. It's also a very relevant story in this current climate of asylum seeker detention centers. The show is made in America so I'm not sure the parallel was intended, but nonetheless it feels like a metaphor.

Something else I love about this show is the amount of interesting female characters it has, all with their own stories. Some strong, some weak. But not weak in the sense that they're a stereotype with no background. Weak as in they have their own struggles and they've been beaten down by them. The characters themselves have all been written strongly.

Unfortunately I think it is overwhelmingly a white show, especially seasons 1 and 2, with the exception of Britne Oldford who was awesome, but didn't play a very big part. Possibly they took that criticism when they were making Coven, which obviously has the amazing Gabourney Sidibe and a small cast of other incredible black women making up the voodoo coven. Like, that's awesome and all, but I wish they would start casting other minority actors in roles which aren't to do with their race at all. You know? Just as the main characters. Who aren't involved in race-related storylines. That would be nice.

Ok, on to the other stuff I guess. Lana Winters' outfits at the end of Asylum were off the chain! They almost made me want to wear skirt suits, pointy stilletos and fur coats... almost. Here're some examples:

And here are a few I just found on ebay... because you never know, maybe one day I'll reform my sneaker and tshirt wearing ways and become uber-glam.

uh, this one is mine. don't even.

Sooo excellent. Powerful journalist lady looks all the way.

Not actually grumpy

Hello there! I hope the new year is finding you well. It's finding me very well tbh. The general vibe, as far as I can tell from tumblr, is fuck last year this year rules? Which is something I can get behind. I'm glad I've documented the past few years on this blog, because I can see my own progression and remember that I've come a long way. I'm feeling very positive. I'm doing cheesy *positivity* things without shame, because they make me feel better. #Survival is so much more important than nonchalance and being cool. That is the theme this year. Shake off the shackles of irony and sarcasm. Stop pretending you don't care about yourself and what happens to you. Tell yourself you can do things. It makes you realise you weren't being realistic, you were actually holding yourself back.

Things I have done this year already:

1. Revisited my nano 2012 story and begun editing it.
2. Worked on the story of my nano 2013 story.
3. Started a story for a competition.
4. Almost sold out of Moss Piglet #1, and sold it at the zine fair yesterday.
5. Kind of successfully pushed work out of my mind while I'm not there (a work in progress)
6. Bought a new cymbal that I am in love with.
7. Hung out with nice people more. (being less socially anxious)(a work in progress)
8. Made some jewelry.
9. Played some gigs. (Bar Open + Boney)

So yeah. Going well.


How are you?

Australian Women Writers Challenge - My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

The end of the year is coming up verrrrry quickly and I wasn't sure I'd get this thing done on time! But low and behold, I picked this book up just before I went on holiday and i couldn't put it down. Which is the opposite of what I expected.

Stella 'Miles' Franklin's names have been used in this challenge as the names for how many books you're reading, so obvi she's a well important lady. On top of that, there's a literary award named after her called the Miles Franklin award, which you can win if your book is exemplary of Australian-ity and also is very good.

On top of that, she wrote this book when she was 16, and everyone considers it one of the greatest literatures in Australia! Sick!

On to the book itself (because if you want to know more about Miles you can just google her for all the goss bout her life.) It's a work of 'fiction' in that she's pretty much written her own bio but used other names. She writes about her life in the Australian outback, dairy farming (which she hates) and staying at her Grannie's house (which she loves.) All the usual teenage feelings like WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MY LIFE? And WHY AM I SO UGLY?  And then flirting with guys but hating them at the same time. It amazed me reading this book how similar it was being a teenage girl in the late 1800s to now. It's so ridiculously honest, to the point of being embarrassing for her many, many times. And yet she continues on with that teenage passion, like she hates what she's doing but can't do anything else.

The strong feminist element to this book makes it really relatable, in the same way Jane Austen's characters are never insipid or completely accepting of men having complete control of the world (like the history books would suggest women were back then, submissive and content.) She's constantly ranting about how unfair it is that men are allowed to be ugly, or assertive, or have interesting careers and lives while women were expected to be obsessed with marriage and family and nothing else. While times have changed a bit in terms of women's prospects in Australia, the sentiment is still very relatable.

There were few criticisms I had of this book, and they weren't to do with the writing or storyline (although I won't spoil it but you'll find yourself simultaneously in love with and completely frustrated by her feelings towards a certain Harry Beecham) but more I guess with the time and her unknown privilege. There were a few very racist moments, as is usual with books from this period (and now, but in other ways.) There were moments when she also came across as progressive for her time, and the racist moments were mostly observations of what others said to her rather than what she thought herself. But I think it needs mentioning nonetheless.

All in all this book was a surprise gem for me. I actually watched the movie when I was in Houston a month ago with my mum, and I enjoyed it a lot, which led me to reading the book. There's always some weird stigma for me that historical fiction is going to be really boring, and yet the best ones always just remind you of modern life with different clothes and jobs. This was one of the best representations of how it really is to be a teenage girl and have all your emotions all the time that I've read. I'm so happy that it has the respect of the literary world that it does. I can't imagine that happening nowadays, but I'm glad that it did.

Now apparently I'm an idiot because I just looked at the website and realised I'd signed up to read 4 books this year, not 3 as I thought it was this whole time. Dang it! If I magically find a book I can read in the next week I will, but somehow I doubt that'll happen. Anyway, let's just pretend 3 was always my goal. I've had an enlightened year reading stuff by Australian Women, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna do it again next year. 10/10 would highly recommend.

Jet Satisfaction

Saw Guitar Wolf at the Tote again. Always amazing. It was very hot and they went harder than last time, probably because of the heat. At the end before the encore, the bassist almost passed out and crawled back to the stage. They are definitely one of the coolest bands ever. Their commitment to being rock n roll is bar none.

I was pretty happy with my gothic getup, although when I got home I realised my buttcheeks were showing a little bit and hoped it hadn't happened much at the Tote. Yolo? This is also my new harness from Hopeless Lingerie. I love Zana Bayne's stuff but I didn't want to fork out for an amazing leather one when I wasn't sure if and how much I would wear it. This Hopeless one was much cheaper and made from satin so it's a bit less intense. It's still made really well though, the quality is beautiful.

What have I even been doing lately? I tried and failed Nanowrimo, although the best thing about Nano is even if you write 200 words it still doesn't feel like a failure. I wrote 5k, and even though that's only 10% of the Nano goal, it's much more than I've written in a long time.

Moss Piglet was in a gallery in London, which was documented by my friend Tom here on his tumblr. I went to an RMIT writing thing my friend Susie held, and it was good. There is a spreecast of it here.

I am feeling closer to writing a novel now I think.