capri0mni | Recent Entries

My Biases:

Here are some aspects of my identity that have the most weight when it comes to which directions my thoughts tend to swerve in:

I was born with a physical disability that affects how I move through the world.

The relative importance of this fact varies from day to day and hour to hour, but it's the thing that I've been living with the longest, and it's the thing new people notice first.

Because I can't take moving through the world for granted, I am almost always looking at the spaces between things, both literally, and metaphorically; I believe this is where my love of the liminal spaces of fairy tales, and dreams comes from.

I am White. I am Cisgender. I am American. My first language is English. I was raised as a Christian. If I get careless with my privilege in any of these areas, please remind me.

I've reached the age where nearly everyone on the Internet strikes me as being young, tender babes. And I want to protect ~~them all~~ most of them.

I am asexual and aromantic, and there are several other "micro-labels" to describe my various orientations; I consider myself Queer.

I am a confirmed Atheist. I got there after being Neo-Pagan for many years. The reasons I left Christianity are different than the reasons I left Neo-Paganism.

In July 2021, with the help of several people from the Disability Community on Tumblr (some of whom wished to remain anonymous), I redesigned a Disability Pride Flag, and entered it into the Public Domain:

The "Straight Diagonal" version of the Disability Pride Flag, entered into the public domain 2021

I also spend a lot of time on Tumblr. My blog is here: capricorn-0mnikorn

What you'll find here:

This journal is random, overall. I generally post whatever's on my mind, especially contemplative and/or silly. Favorite topics include literature, discoveries in science and nature, writing that I'm working on (or should be working on), drawings I've doodled, etc.

Politics is relatively rare, but it does come up, especially in the context of history. Like my body, my politics leans heavily to the Left...

What counts as "Good Manners" around here:

Don't be mean. There's no need to be mean. Remember, wherever you go, there you are.
Praise what you enjoy before criticizing what you don't.
When you do give criticism, let it be reasoned ("It sucks!" doesn't cut it).
Don't belittle, or mock, people for the things they enjoy.
If you must post provocative things, aim for provoking laughter, and provoking thought.
Remember that anger can splash onto innocent bystanders, and people "reading over your shoulder." If you must have an argument with someone in particular--rather than an argument for or against an idea--take it to private message (click [inbox] in the header), please.
When in doubt, puns.

For those new to Dreamwidth: Your Access List are those people with a Dreamwidth account, or validated Open ID of some other platform, that you trust to read posts you don't want everyone on the Internet to be able to see. A Custom Access Filter is a subcategory of access for topics that not all of the people you trust may be interested in. For example if some of the people on your access list subscribed to you for your fanfic, but don't like lots of photos, and others love the photos, but aren't interested in fanfic, you can make different filters, so people don't have to scroll past a whole bunch of stuff.

Anyway, here's my updated list of filters. Let me know which ones you'd like to be sorted into (your replies will be screened after a bit, for privacy's sake):

Disability Discussion
Creative Writing
Not!Writing creations
discussing narratives
Worldviews and mythologies
politics/news

And rarely used, but still worth keeping:

Eloise*
Signed Languages

*My OC / imaginary friend: a cross between an Internet Troll and a Scandinavian folklore troll who's made it her mission to troll for positivity.

One: For reasons I may (or may not) go into in my "Disability Discussion" access filter, I was recently handed a pamphlet from my city's Adult Protective Services. which includes the following definition:

Self-Neglect: Self-Neglect is when an adult is unable to meet their own essential physical, psychological, or social needs, which threatens their safety and well-being.

Oh. So you mean every single human being who has ever lived on this planet, who will ever live on this planet, or who may, one day in the far future, live on other planets?

2: Speaking of which, I have very mixed feelings about the recent Artemis 2 Moon Mission. On the one hand, I am grateful that human beings are willing to take the risks to explore beyond ever-expanding horizons, and show us portraits of Home that prove we really are in this together. On the other hand, I hate how this stinks of colonialism and capitalist exploitation. On the one hand, we dream of finding life on Mars (even simple, unicellular, life); on the other hand, if we follow ~~our~~ Elon Musk's other dream of building a colony on Mars, our very presence could cause the extinction of whatever life is there.

Three: Speaking of which (again), I think this is my favorite photo taken by someone on the Artemis crew. That faint blue crescent is us - all of us (who each need help meeting our physical, psychological, and social needs).

IV: I've been watching a lot of YouTube. One of my favorite channels is PattyCake Productions. Located in Orlando. Florida, their bread and butter is fully cinematic parodies of Disney fairy tale classics, told from the P.O.V. of side characters and villains. All their songs and music are originals. This is their latest. With properly human-edited closed captions (the [cc] button is in the upper right):

Watch on YouTube

Five: I've been getting the itch to write prose fiction again. But the last few years have been (barely acknowledged by me) emotionally and cognitively draining, and I'm having trouble getting over the hump of inertia.

Prompted by the Introduction Meme, over at

findingfriends, I checked my profile page, and realized this story I linked to, as an example of my writing, was on another site, which has since become unreliable. Since I don't want to lose it, I'm posting it here, instead.

It was inspired by the Czech tale "The Twelve Iron Shoes," the Grimms tale "The Cast Iron Stove," and the Norwegian tale "East of the Sun, West of the Moon.'

Perhaps a Note of Interest: Because I composed this read aloud on stage, it's (mostly) in iambic pentameter, with the line breaks removed.

THE BAREFOOT QUEEN
By Ann Magill

In olden times, when wishing made things so, there lived a princess loved by rich and poor. So fair was she, in face, and heart, and mind, that all who knew her wished to bring her joy. She never raised a hand, or spoke a word, or took a step, except in sheer delight. And so she grew within the palace grounds, becoming even sweeter day by day, for kindness was the only thing she knew.

But childhood and time will never stay, and many nobles sought to call her "wife." The king, dissatisfied, dismissed them all. Each seemed too harsh or proud for her kind heart.

And then, one day, a prince arrived at court whose manner was so easy, warm and free that all agreed he was her very match. The wedding feast was held, and songs were sung, and tears were shed, when loved ones said "Good-bye."

The princess, for her part, was unafraid. The man beside her on the carriage seat was kind as any she had ever known. And though the land grew stranger with each mile, she only saw new wonders to behold.

( Read more... )

Just shy of two weeks ago, I caught an episode of the YouTube Channel/Podcast "The Rest is Science: Cognitive Ghosts," about weird perceptional things like de ja vous, and the uncanny sensation that there's someone in the room with you. In the very last chapter of the video, They talk about the almost universal experience of people in the process of dying having dreams of loved ones who've died before them.

And they mentioned the hypothesis that it could be the brain's way of distracting the dying person from the physical pain of their body shutting down. Which is lovely to think that your last thoughts in life will be of love. But I also think, that as a uniquely, intensely cultural species, passing on our values and knowledge and life lessons is just as, if not more, important than passing on our genetic material. So our brains go into overdrive, with all the fervor of a salmon swimming upstream -- reminding us of all the most important knowledge we've learned (love each other, forgive each other), so we can pass pass that knowledge on to those who will live after us.

Will encourage me to spend more time here, I joined, and posted to

findingfriends.

My Introducing-Myself Post is here

The community's Sticky!Post asked that I post the code for their promo banner here. But it turned out to be large, fully saturated, and animated. So I'm just making my link big, instead.

Something I've not even talked about on Tumblr, I don't think: I've started (obliquely) following the manga One Piece through watching review / discussion channels on YouTube. I totally avoided being intimidated by the length, by not giving a flying whatsit about starting at the beginning. I got into it when my one of my favorite sea shanty / folk bands did a cover of the English translation of Bink no Sake, and I wanted some context for the madness. So I just dove into the fan wiki, and, out of curiosity, looked to see what the current manga chapter/anime episode was at the time. And I've been following along from that point on ever since. I don't have to worry about missing necessary context or plot developments from the beginning, because for the fans who make the videos, drawing connections between almost 30 years of story details is their favorite hobby.
A deepening pet peeve: Foods being sold as "Healthy Substitutes for [X]," for whatever the health kick trend of the day is, instead of just being celebrated in their own right. It leads people to expect a different flavor / texture than what they get, which leads them to decide that a food tastes disgusting, but if it were in a different context, it would be delicious. And then, worst of all, when that particular trend is no longer trendy, that perfectly good food practically disappears from store shelves, and the price skyrockets.
A case in point: I've recently discovered nutritional yeast. It's sold and promoted as "A Parmesan Alternative for Vegans." It's good. But it's not Parmesan. I'd say, if I were to put in in a family tree of flavors, that it's a first cousin to Parmesan cheese (rather than its twin) on one side, and, on the other side, a cousin to those instant Raman noodle flavor packets (with a lot less sodium than either). It doesn't work at all as a binding agent the way the cheese does, though. I like to sprinkle it on salads already tossed in dressing (so that it will stick), to add some protein and umami.
Lately, I've been haunted by a Grimm's fairy tale that I've tried (three or four times) to rewrite / fix during my NaNoWriMo Days (which I have since disavowed completely, due to that organization's embrace of generative A.I.), and been thoroughly demoralized by each time, at the end. I don't know if I'm really drawn to try again, though, or if my mind is just retreating back to it as a distraction from other, real-world stressors I'd rather not think about.
At the end of last year, and the start of this one, I decided to get back to my love for the character, and murder mystery stories of, Lord Peter Wimsey. I'd watched the 1970 TV adaptations by the BBC on Masterpiece Theater as teen, and subsequently read a bunch of short stories. But there's a whole lot I never read. Back in January, I started reading the third novel, Unnatural Death, over at Project Gutenberg. But real life rudely interrupted me in the middle of Chapter Two. And I'm just now getting bak to it. Anyone want to join me in a read-along?

Because of the latest Tumblr Update regarding Reblogs and Replies

I with be disabling both options, and cross-posting all my longer Original Blog Entries to my Dreamwidth Journal at Capri0mni.dreamwidth.org/.

I will include a link to all such cross-posts at the end of each Tumblr entry. If you wish to converse with me there, you are free to do so anonymously (no need for a Dreamwidth account). Note that all anonymous replies will be screened and invisible to everyone but me until I release them. Your IP address will also be logged. And if you are abusive to myself or anyone else, I will not hesitate to block you.

Because Tumblr has orders of magnitude more traffic, and I couldn't keep up with conversations on both sites simultaneously.

That will be changing as of today.

Yesterday, Tumblr changed the way it organizes conversations, making it more like Twitter, and making it impossible for the author of a post to keep track of who's sharing their work, or what they're saying in reply to it.

(If I wanted a Twitter-like experience, I would have gotten a Twitter account! [or Bluesky, or wherever])

So from here on in, I will be blocking all Tumblr reblogs and replies by default, and cross-posting my longer, more thought-out entries here. I'll put a link to the Dreamwidth versions at the end of the Tumblr posts, so if people want to comment can do so where I can see and filter them.

(I'm currently working on a behemoth of a post on the Bechdel test, and working out other metrics for representing marginalized identities in storytelling (whether fiction or nonfiction) -- most notably, on a personal level, disability representation.

One: I've (figuratively) fallen down with

storywrights (with "Resolution to write," at least). First, I failed to keep up posts on schedule when I didn't any replies/participation. And second, I (re)discovered that I just don't have the brain power / stamina to generate original narratives while also trying to balance and hold myself upright in my chair (and my wheelchair back has been broken for over two years -- it's stuck in a semi-reclined position, and the company no longer makes this model of chair, so I can't get it replaced). For a while I was beating myself up for being lazy / not even trying to extend my attention span. Then, I remembered that back when I was a teenager, I couldn't walk on my crutches and maintain a conversation at the same time, either. I think my muscle coordination activity and "generate spontaneous language" activity are trying to drive on the same roads, so to speak. And this is yet another reminder that cerebral palsy is also a form of neurodiversity.

If I work out a way to give myself upright back support, it just feels like the bottled-up stories would come flooding out of me...

2: But I think I'm on to something with my idea of "Plot modules," though:

Situation → Disruption → Reaction → Consequence → | (New Situation)

I only managed to write out five of them for the whole of the six weeks I'd planned for "Resolution to Write," but using this outline form helped me realize that, in the past, when I've had problems with a story faltering, and getting (metaphorically) stuck in the mud, it was because I'd been writing a character's reactions without being clear (even to myself) about what disruption they were reacting to. Which, in turn, made the consequence muddy, which made it hard to shift to a new situation.

III: I think one reason I'm "meh," or "uncommitted" to my gender (even though I'm cis) is because, in this culture, your gender expression is judged as a success or failure based on how sexually and/or romantically attractive you can make yourself to the persons of your choice. And I Do Not Want to be either sexually or romantically attractive to other people. [/aroace things; annual Valentine's Day rant]

The Next to Last: "Grain Free," "Paleo-Friendly" Granola is not actually granola. It does make a good trail mix, however.

Fifth: (this came to me while writing all of the above): I think why I have no trouble writing Dreamwidth and Tumblr posts and replies while trying to hold myself upright and type, but my brain nopes out while I'm trying to write fiction w/o back support is the same reason I couldn't hold a spontaneous conversation and walk on crutches at the same time:

Having a spontaneous conversation with another person takes at least an order of magnitude more mental energy than monologuing (or talking to yourself). This is a written monologue (so is a poem, or an essay). Writing a fictional story is closer to having a spontaneous conversation with your characters (and the world they're in).

...Anyway. Just a thought...

1) A recent dream I had: ( If this scene were in a movie, it would be universally panned as unsubtle and tone deaf )

2) There's much talk, in recent news (at least, on NPR), of how the political upheaval in France, South Korea, Germany, and Syria, are all connected in a web of general Global Populism. What I've not heard much about is how the murder of the United Healthcare C.E.O. is also part of this great wave. Sure, he wasn't Technically part of a national government, but considering how much power corporate conglomerates have over the daily lives of U.S. citizens, he may as well have been.

3) On a happier note (unintended pun), this video was in my recommendations, this morning:

Watch on YouTube

( Lyrics )

4) Speaking of spinning yarns, I recently watched another video (It's (still) okay to lie to your kids about Santa) about studies that show, at a certain age, children learn to look for evidence to back up the stories their parents (and their societies) tell them. But they're less likely to learn that skill if they are protected from untruths at all costs. And that got me thinking two things:

So never letting your kids be exposed to fictional stories has a similar negative effect on their intellectual health as never letting your kids be exposed to dirt has on their physical health (they can't build up a healthy resistance to 'infection')?
So (in general) at what age do kids learn the distinction between manipulative lies and playful stories?

5) Subtle sign of my culture's amatonormativity: Recently had cause to call for a heating tech to come figure out why my heater wasn't responding to the thermostat (It turns out, someone had flipped the emergency switch that shuts off the heater, and I'd forgotten that switch existed; it's around a corner that's hard to get to in my chair), and I called the company whose name is on my thermostat cover. When I gave the address to the receptionist, she asked if I were Mrs. Ann [Last Name]; I (while sighing internally at the assumption that all adults of a certain age must be married) answered: "Not 'Mrs.,' but yes."

Current Mood: curious

I've been busy kneading

storywrights into shape. So far, I'm the only member.

Check it out, maybe?

The community calendar for "Resolution to Write" has the colors of the Bi Pride flag (in the first Sticky Post). That was unplanned.

Still Dithering in my head about creating an alternative writing challenge to NaNoWriMo. I mentioned on Tumblr that I'm thinking of starting a Dreamwidth community for it, and this week, that post is one of the ones that has gotten the most attention. So I hope that will bring fresh people here.
One of the new media I've been following, sideways-like, is the anime/manga One Piece, which I stumbled into though an English-Translation cover of one of the series's main diagetic songs. I still haven't watched a whole episode, or read any of the manga, proper. But I'm loving watching reviews and character critiques on YouTube. It's like auditing an English (and Japanese) literature class from half-way through the semester.
I recently checked the status of my poetry chapbook, The Monsters' Rhapsody: Disability, Culture, & Identity (2016), over on Lulu.com, and discovered that the default list price was too low to cover printing and shipping costs for international markets, so for the Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, British Pound, and Euro, I've set the price at 0.03 above the minimum; for the U.S., version, I've set it at 0.55 above the minimum. Watch this space for when it's available. (if I succeed in writing what's in my head during my NaNoWriMo alternative, which is prose fiction, instead of poetry, I may publish it through Lulu again).
I've been thinking about disability and parasocial relationships. (1) How Normate people in "mainstream society" have an automatic parasocial relationship with disabled people (visibly disabled people at least) because of how we are used as tropes in popular culture (especially around Halloween and Christmas), so when they see a disabled person in real life, they assume a familiarity that doesn't exist. (2) The relationship with a hired personal care aide is very intimate and very real, and actually social on one hand, but on the other, the person who is your aide can be fired by the parent agency -- or quit -- without any say from you. So is the relationship really what it seems to be?
October 1 was the 28th anniversary of me living in this house, and I still feel out of sync with the changing seasons in Virginia, vs. the seasons in northern New Jersey & southern New York. Maybe it's like a duckling imprinting on the first creature it sees upon hatching? That it's my first experiences of the seasons, as an infant, and young child that remains throughout my life? One thing I have noticed is that I'm craving sweet desserts more after dinner, than I did in the summer. Maybe that's a response to shorter days, and less light?

Current Mood: thoughtful

One: Right now, I'm aiming for a 6-week challenge: From January 2 to February 13: The dullest of doldrums times in my particular culture. Also, I've heard that it takes six weeks of steady practice to get a habit rooted.

Two: Word count be damned. Instead, I'm thinking along the lines of "A Plot Chain Unit A Day": Situation -> Disruption -> Reaction -> Consequence. Start the next day with New Situation. That might be covered in 300 words, or it might take 1,000. If you don't have all the words in your brain (or time in your day), jot down the synopsis. As with NaNoWriMo, if you're on a roll, you can always write more.

Three: (Because, I, personally, need to be be connected to other people, as well as a schedule, to keep on track) Schedule in periodic breather days (every 3 days? once a week?) for getting feedback on knotty plot units, with a willing partner(s). That partner might also be writing (in which case, you'd trade) but they don't have to be -- they could just be your "sounding board." Breather Days could also be used for going back and filling in synopses, if need be.

(NaNoWriMo's culture of "Never look back, never pause, just throw as many words on the page as you can, regardless of what those words mean," is ultimately what always led to my mental and emotional burnout by the end of November)

There is no fixed word count for success. The point is to finish a satisfying story.

Whatcha think?

Current Mood: hopeful

My last attempt at anything related to NaNoWriMo was in 2020, when I quit halfway through, realizing that a mad word count dash a) resulted in nothing more useful than a long word salad, and b) was bad for my mental health. On the other hand, attempts to write completely independently, in the years since, without being accountable to anyone else, has led to me simply not writing.

My most productive writing (and my highest quality writing) has been done in a social setting, be that academically (college & university writing workshops), when I was writing with The Art Garden (a "literary magazine for the stage"), and the brief period when I was writing original fairy tales on commission (before I realized I couldn't manage making it a business).

I'd just about forgotten about NaNoWriMo, until I saw a post on Tumblr about their stance on A.I., and got all nostalgic about the good side of social writing. So: Poll Time:

Poll #31889 So, About NaNoWriMo...

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

View Respondents

Have you been part of NaNoWriMo in the past?

View Answers

I've watched from the sidelines
5 (50.0%)

I've signed up/registered, but never got around to writing much
1 (10.0%)

I've tried to win, but never did
2 (20.0%)

I've "Won" (written 50K words in 30 days) at least once, but never did anything with my draft
2 (20.0%)

I've revised my NaNo draft(s) with an eye toward publishing
0 (0.0%)

I've published my NaNo novel
0 (0.0%)

Are you planning on taking part in NaNoWriMo this year (2024)?

View Answers

I wasn't, but now that you've reminded me, I think I will
0 (0.0%)

I was, but after they published their stance on A.I. (Scandal with their forums in '23 / scandal with vanity presses in '22), I won't.
1 (9.1%)

No, but I wasn't going to anyway
10 (90.9%)

Yes. I've been looking forward to it; this is about me, regardless of them
0 (0.0%)

Will you join me in *My*NoWriMo, in January, 2025 (for a more personal, but still structured, challenge)?

View Answers

Let's parallel play with words!
0 (0.0%)

Let's give each other feedback on scenes / paragraphs as we go
0 (0.0%)

I'll cheer you on from the sidelines
6 (54.5%)

I'll be busy with my own things. You do you.
3 (27.3%)

No, but I'll be interested in the final product
3 (27.3%)

Ticky-Box!!
7 (63.6%)

I clicked on a YouTube video from a channel called "Nerdy Novelist," titled Why the argument "AI is Stealing" is irrelevant.

I watched it through, hoping he'd eventually get to a better argument against AI (Curious to see if he'd have the same different arguments that I've thought up).

But nope.

His only argument was that tech companies are writing better programs, so they can create "synthetic" training data sets, so they don't have to scrape copyrighted material for their large language models. And someday, book publishers will put compensation clauses into their contracts with writers. And if the computer in your mom's basement is powerful enough, no one will be able to sue you for copyright infringement.

As an example, he said he'd soon be able to user generative AI to write an entire novel in the style of Brandon Sanderson without his permission, 'cause you can't copyright a style (and no one can pinpoint Sanderson's style anyway).

And that was the whole video.

And the comment section was filled with tech-bros talking about how the people who are against AI (especially writers* who are against AI) are fools who are just purists and elitists.

I almost replied with a rant of my own about how "Legal" is not the same as "Ethical," but decided to type all this out here, instead.

*Specifically the writers from NaNoWriMo who are complaining.

Current Mood: aggravated

Thanks to the entity now embracing A.I. as a "Tool."

(After looking back at my stats).

There were a couple years where I tried to do multiple challenges in a year, burning out, not participating, and then coming back.

According to my profile, there, I started 19 distinct projects, between the November marathon proper and "Camp NaNoWriMo," with a total of 605K-and-a-bit words typed out. My last registered project was in 2020. I did not reach 50K that year; I think it was about that time that I realized simply typing 50k words at breakneck speed did not lead to crafting a story I actually still wanted to tell, come December (what really kept me coming back, over and over in spite of that, was the social permission to make a pillow fort out of an imaginary world, where I could retreat from seasonal attitudinal depression, and other pressures; Pillow forts aren't meant to be permanent).

Back when I started, in 2005, NaNoWriMo was a much different beast than it is now... There were no corporate sponsors, and the only prize you could claim was a winner's T-shirt. And the social vibe was a lot more like the spontaneous writers' communities that sprung up on old school Bulletin Board Systems, IRC chat rooms (remember those?), and Usenet forums.

(All of which I miss, BTW)

Last week, sometime, there was a poll on Tumblr asking if folks: "if you were put in charge of Doctor Who, would you make your [Original Character] canon?"

And at first, I thought of Eloise, the Pro-fun Troll, which I created for the Usenet Doctor Who Groups, and my answer to that poll, for her, was "No," because over the three years I was active in those fora, she'd grown an entire backstory and culture and worldbuilding that was only connected to Doctor Who by a thread thinner that a single strand of spider silk, and she* was, in actuality, always an Independent Character.

And That reminded me of the original novel(la) I'd started to write for her, some [*counts on fingers*] 18-something years ago (I'd gotten as far as Chapter Five out of many [unknown] more).

I'd lost the draft chapters of that work from the hard drive of my personal computer, but I remembered posting them to my LiveJournal, which I then imported over here to Dreamwidth. And I felt the need to hunt them down and retrieve them.

In so doing, I was reminded of conversations I've had here. And how much I wanted to get back to them.

In the meantime, I've given myself other prose fiction projects to work on, which I've been struggling with over the last year and three quarters:

An original fairy tale, with fairy tale logic and magic, whose protagonist has recognizably real-world Cerebral Palsy (though not named as such, in the story), and
Expanding/polishing/refining/tightening my short story retelling of The Frog King by the Brothers Grimm, and maybe self-publishing it in physical form, so I can have it on my bookshelf, and/or loan and give to others.

*Along with "Co-Hosts" I created to help her out during the parties.

Back when I was a senior in college (back in the mid-to-late 1980s), I actually wrote a fantasy novel for kids aged ~8 - ~11 (in a self-designed course for a single credit, under the guidance of my Literature advisor), inspired by a series of dreams and recurring characters that showed up in them.

My advisor encouraged me to try and get it published. And so, I arranged with teachers from my old school to have a class of 30 or so 10 year-olds beta read it, and give me feedback for revisions. The kids also encouraged me to try and publish it.

So I did.

Now, back then, there was no "Self Publishing." The closest thing was "Vanity Publishing," where you would pay 100% of the publishing cost of your book, which would be printed in hard copy, for the benefit of having 500 -1,000 books shipped to your personal address, which you were then responsible for storing and selling out of the trunk of your car in a parking lot, somewhere. And if word got out that you were trying to claim credit for being a "published author" because of a Vanity Press book, actual publishers wouldn't touch you with a 40-foot pole.

If you wanted to get published, you had to buy that year's copy of Writer's Market: a listing of magazine and book publishers, and agents, with a brief description of what material they published, and what they wouldn't touch.

Guess what genre no agent or publisher was interested in handling?

That's right, Gentle Readers: Fantasy for children aged 8 - 11. I would have happily sent out a dozen queries for each story I wrote, if there were publishers and agents willing to look at them. But for three to four years of trying, in directories of two-columns of tiny print, and several hundred pages long, I'd be lucky to find two or three outlets even willing to look at fantasy for kids.

The general consensus, across the publishing business, was that fantasy was a dead and obsolete genre. If it was for kids old enough to read chapter books and novels, it must also be firmly grounded in realism and actual history, because everyone knows the only people buying books for kids that age were teachers, who wanted stories with practical applications in the classroom.

***

After 3 - 4 years of trying, while I was in grad school, I finally got a rejection from the one agent who agreed to read my novel. A few days later, I received news that my mother had died from the breast cancer she'd been fighting, and my heart just went out of the project altogether.

A few years later, the first Harry Potter book was published. And it became a worldwide phenomenon. And it was the kids, themselves, who were driving the sales.

See, I think the real reason the books were such a success, even though they were never really very well written, was because they were in a genre the audience was hungry for -- a genre they'd been denied access to for all of their young lives.

Someone who is starving will think even moldy bread is delicious.

I've been spending more time on Tumblr instead of here, mostly because there are more people there, and the things I have to say about disability and queer rights can reach a much bigger audience. Also, the structure of Tumblr encourages multiple short posts a day on a regular schedule... And once I got into such a schedule it's hard for me to break out of it.

But a recent post on Tumblr has got me feeling nostalgic for my days around here. So I'm making a concerted effort, starting now, to weave this Journal back into my schedule.

Profile

Ann

April 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Welcome! A ramble about me, and this space:
Reorganizing my Dreamwidth Custom Access Filters
Friday Five: Five things make a post
An Original Wondertale I wrote, back in 2006.
Watched a video, have had a ~Thought~ ever since
Since having more people in my Dreamwidth circles...
5 things make a post: Getting unstiuck from my time away
The latest addition to my Tumblr Sticky Intro post (also a Tumblr x-post)
Confession: I've been neglecting my Dreamwidth journal in favor of Tumblr
5 things make a post
5 things make a post
I know I seemed to drop off the face of Dreamwidth for a couple of weeks...
5 things make a post
What I'm (tentatively) thinking for MyNoWri"Mo":
The current kerfuffle over NaNoWriMo has stirred up thoughts and feelings
I've gone and dug myself into an angry mood.
I deleted my NaNoWriMo account, today
What prompted me to start posting to Dreamwidth again
1 of my relatively recent Tumblr posts: Thoughts on why Harry Potter books were Such a Phenomenon
I'm still alive; I've been on Tumblr (under the alias "capricorn-0mnikorn")

Active Entries

Style Credit

Style: Poppy Fields for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jun. 11th, 2026 04:35 am

Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

The songs that are stuck in my head

Recent Entries

Sticky: Welcome! A ramble about me, and this space:

Sticky: Reorganizing my Dreamwidth Custom Access Filters

Friday Five: Five things make a post

An Original Wondertale I wrote, back in 2006.

Watched a video, have had a ~Thought~ ever since

Since having more people in my Dreamwidth circles...

5 things make a post: Getting unstiuck from my time away

The latest addition to my Tumblr Sticky Intro post (also a Tumblr x-post)

Confession: I've been neglecting my Dreamwidth journal in favor of Tumblr

5 things make a post

5 things make a post

I know I seemed to drop off the face of Dreamwidth for a couple of weeks...

5 things make a post

What I'm (tentatively) thinking for MyNoWri"Mo":

The current kerfuffle over NaNoWriMo has stirred up thoughts and feelings

I've gone and dug myself into an angry mood.

I deleted my NaNoWriMo account, today

What prompted me to start posting to Dreamwidth again

1 of my relatively recent Tumblr posts: Thoughts on why Harry Potter books were Such a Phenomenon

I'm still alive; I've been on Tumblr (under the alias "capricorn-0mnikorn")

Profile

April 2026

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags