Pictures of Chinatown Without Comment

Soy Kee and Company on Pell Street, prior to 1897. Photographer and figure unknown.

____ "[Soy Kee Co. store front]"  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, b&w film copy neg.  http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b03206 (accessed January 30th 2013)

  Soy Kee and Company on Pell Street, prior to 1897. Photographer.  ____ "[Soy Kee Co. store front]"  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, b&w film copy neg.  http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b03206 (accessed January 30th 2013) 

 

Inside of Chinese hand laundry in San Francisco 1890s or early 1900s. Photographer and figure unknown. The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. "The Chinese Experience in 19^th Century America." last modified 2006. Accessed 3/26/2013 <http://teachingresources.atlas.uiuc.edu/chinese_exp/perspectives02.html>

 

The inside of a chop suey cafe, 1900s. Notice the all white cliental. Ostrow, Daniel. Manhattan's Chinatown: postcard history. South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2008

Entrance to joss house, early 1900s. Taken from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.______ "Entrance to Joss House in Chinatown" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York) Aug. 12, 1900.

 

Soy Kee and Company and the Port Arthur Restaurant on Mott Street, early 1900s. Photographer ___  "[Port Arthur Restaurant 1900s]"  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA b&w film copy neg.   http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print  (accessed January 30th 2013) unknown

My Desk

I have a paper I need to finish. Well actually I have about four papers due at the end of the semester one of which is 30+ pages and I need to have as much of that done as early as possible so I can concentrate on the others ones which are all shorter. So I have been working around the clock trying to get this paper as complete as possible before I turn the first draft in. The point is I've been spending an extra lot of time at my desk.

Every once in a while I run across an article about famous writers' creative space. Whether it's a particular desk, a bedroom or writing shake in the woods people seem interested in looking at the spaces that authors occupied while they wrote. As someone who does a lot of writing, both academic and fiction my spaces is important to me. I need to have my books in easy reach, I need to have something to drink on my desk, I have a bowl of fruit on the table next to my desk. How I decorated it is also important to me. Right now on my desk, itself I have a lovely print of an original piece by Wylie Elise Beckert called The God of Deadlines, a print of a Edward Gorey piece, a photograph of my cat, a little cut out figure of Michel Foucault (you can see his feet and legs in the photo) and some business cards and quotes. On the shelf above my desk I have a photograph of my little nephew. There is also a gorgeous print of an original art piece by Joanna Estep which depicts Loki slaying Baldr from Norse mythology done in the style of the marvel comics and while the two are in a very homoerotic pose. I also have more books and my Wonder Woman lunch box.

What about you, what does your work space look like? Do you like to have art and things to look at as you write, or do you like to keep it plain?     

A Call for Help: A History of Sexuality for Romance Writers

So a conversation about m/m historicals on twitter yesterday evening got me thinking. Right now I'm in graduate school working towards a Ph.D. in history, and one of my areas of specialty is sexuality.  The more I write, study, read and talk to people about it the clearer it becomes that sexuality, although always a focus of mine, is going to end up one of the major focuses of my academic work.

Which brings me around to historicals. Personally I find the idea of writing a historical, specially one with same-sex attraction in it, daunting. Lots of writers do it though and I was wondering what m/m (but also other GLBTQA authors) would like to know about sexuality from a historical stand point?
What is useful information?
What questions do authors have about the history of sexuality?


My own academic specially is American history but I am engaged in the larger field of theorizing queer historiography. I've also done a small amount of research into the history of same-sex relationship in China.

What I want to know, and what would be interesting for me professionally, is what kind of historical narrative do writers already know?

So this is my request for all the m/m romance writers out there who write historicals or are interested in writing them: contact me with a short description of what you have read or heard about the history of sexuality. Also if you could include the top five questions you have about the history of sexuality that you think would be most useful for m/m (or other GLBTQA) romance writers to know that would be great.

Don't be afraid, I won't judge you and I don't bite. You can leave it in the comments or email me at: acosmistmachine[at]gmail[dot]com

A Note of clarification: Thinking more about this I guess the two questions I was trying to get at (all be it in a rather sloppy way) in my first request was: 1. Do you view sexuality in the past as essentially the same or different as sexuality in the present? 2. If you do view it as different how do you then express that difference to a modern day body of readers who may have very little historical background?  

Thank you all for the wonderful responses I've gotten thus far! :~)

National Coming Out Day: Or Confessions of a Queer Butch Who Writes M/M Romance

So I am a female-bodied masculine of center person who generally goes by labels like "queer" and "butch" within the LGBTQ community and just "gay" to my coworkers and mom's friends. Throughout my adult life I've dated people who identify as women and gay women at that.

Yet I write predominantly m/m romance.

I struggle a lot with this because I know I'm not the only queer person or gay woman to write m/m romance yet the overwhelming view of the genre is that it is completely straight women with a few gay men. I mean that makes sense, why would hot and heavy sex scenes which rely heavily on the appreciation of the male form be written by lesbians? Especially the way western society constructs what it means to be a lesbian.

I know for me the answer to that questions is simple: there is a big difference between my sexual fantasy and my lived reality. Lots of things I enjoy reading, writing and fantasizing about do not and should not have a place in my real life. Take my ongoing and deep-abiding love of tentacles and tentacle sex for instance, never going to happen, never want it happen, but boy do I love reading and writing about it.

So for me the question of why I write m/m romance and erotica is not as troubling as why I don't write more lesbain romance and erotica. For me as well there is a lot of guilt, good lesbian romance and erotica is in the vast minority as compared with its male-centered counterparts and if I am going to have a stake in writing anything it should be that. Or at least that's how I feel more often than not. The truth is that while I do write lesbian romance, I write much, much more m/m romance.

There is also a fear in the back of my mind that I write about men more than women because of my own internalized misogyny that tells me that writing about men is better than writing about women. I have no good answer or way to assuage that fear.


Then again I think that there is also a part of me which is too close to the queer female experience and community. Whenever I sit down to write a lesbian romance I am always caught up in the flood of queer politics: what it means to represent X character this way instead of that way, or making sure my femme characters act like Y and not X so I don't support Z view of what it means to be femme. That's not good story telling, that's in-group political thinking. On the other hand this is a group I've been intimately a part of since I first came out to myself in my late teens. I'm not as familiar with what it means to be a gay man. In some ways I think that actually helps and makes me feel freer to just write the just story and not the politics.

I think also the female form, especially in sexual situations, is more scrutinized and I am aware of that. There is so much literature and debate on how to represent a woman sexually in a positive way or if that is even possible. Which leaves me with an entire folder on my computer of lesbian WIPs where the politics literally swallowed the storyline.

None of these issues help sooth the guilt I feel for not writing more lesbian romance, and none of them make the cultural misogyny theory any less likely. These issues are definitely what comes to mind though as I turned over the question of why would a queer woman write more m/m romance than lesbian romance? I just wish I could be the kind of writer who shrugs and says "I write about gay/bi/pan men because that's who my characters are" and is okay with that answer. 

Either way I am a queer butch writer who writes m/m and lesbian romance and most of the time I'm okay with that. 

On Research

I write speculative fiction and to date (not including the paranormal story and the near-future post-apocalyptic story lurking in my Now Editing folder) I have written stories heavily based on some form of historical/mythological reality. This is to say generally speaking I don't make my worlds up wholesale, instead I construct them from actual historical times and places and actual mythological creatures, figures and events. Therefore these stories require quite a bit of research.



While writing Heart of Water and Stone, The Kraken Lord and the Eater of the Sun and a still unfinished WIP called The Forest God's Thegn which is set in the same universe I used a lot of research sources owned by my brother. My brother Gabe's academic field of interest is archaeology specializing in Viking Age Iceland and Icelandic metal working. So I was extremely lucky to have not only his knowledge but also his extensive library of books as a resource.

I've also been lucky in that, as habitual student, I have had access to University libraries and data bases. This is extremely important for me because I have no money to buy my own research materials, although my Amazon wishlist is full of them. My library access came in especially handy when I was writing Regarding The Detective's Companion and needed resources on things like 1840s British cotton mills.

It's always a challenge though for me to decide where to draw the line. I don't write historical fiction, I write speculative fiction which means although there might be lots of historical details at the end of the day all my stories take place in other worlds where trolls, magic, angels, demons, mythological Gods and almost two hundred year old super computers really do exist. So I'm always asking myself how much historical detail is enough?

This became even more problematic with Like Fire Through Bone, which is set in an empire which is based on a combination of Byzantine and ancient Rome with come cultural elements from what is now modern day Turkey. Like this suggests the setting is not clearly based on any one historical time or setting but a kind of writerly mash-up of a whole bunch ( the academic in me cringes to even say that).

I did a lot of different kinds of research for this one. I did a lot of historical research into the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Empire for one. I also did search into early Christian mysticism and early Greek Orthodox mysticism. Several of my characters are eunuchs and physically castrated so I did a lot of reading first-hand accounts of modern male bodies people who have been castrated for various reasons. I went onto online boards to hear what they had to say about how castration affected their sex lives, mood swings, body changes and so on. I read a lot about ancient forms of castrations and historians debate what kind of social role eunuchs played in the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

At the end of the day though looking back on all of these stories I know I could have done more research (if there is one thing degrees in history and law have taught me is you could have always done more research). There were also places were I very purposefully went against actual historical fact because it fit better into the fantasy aspect of the story and I worry about that. I worry if that's okay. I wonder if I should have done more.

I've read several articles recently where authors talk about research and the research they've done for their books. The moral of the story in these articles basically, leave no research stone unturned.

In reality I know that's not possible. One small aspect of the historical research for one of my stories I know is what some historian or archaeologist somewhere has dedicated their life to. I worry though when I can't get a book because I can't afford to buy it and the library cannot get it for me. I worry when I leave out or change a detail to encourage the fantasy elements of the story. I am still worried about the setting for Like Fire Through Bone being a amalgamation of a bunch of different times and places. I worry less, I think, that someone might disagree with my writerly choices and more that someone might accuse me of shoddy research (I'm an academic its my worse nightmare anyway) So when have we done our due diligent as writers with the research?

Don't get me wrong, I do not condone a lack of research on the part of a write. Research is essential, as far as I'm concerned. I just wonder how much is enough?

What do other writers think, especially other fantasy and speculative fiction writers? What's the signal for you that you've done enough research? In your opinion how much is enough?

I'm Doing Okay ...

I'm visiting my sister who is expecting her first child and it occurred to me while sitting with her and hanging out that I'm actually really happy where I am in my life right now. I'm going to be living on my own again this summer which will be good for me having my own space again. I will be going to graduate school in the field that I love. I am writing everyday now and working through the process of publishing and I love both of those things just as much as I had hoped I would.

It feels like this year a whole bunch of things I really wanted to do with my life and hadn't gotten done have fallen into place. My life is just kind of slotting together into something really wonderful and that I'm really happy in. I'm active in my religious community still but not to an overwhelming level. I'm happy with my appearance more then I've ever been, I think. I find myself more attractive and more just really me every day.

I'm worried about money, I'm worried about finding a job and that school will be overwhelmingly difficult. I also feel like though that the last couple years have been a process of getting myself to this point of being exactly where I want to be.

Hopefully from here things will only continue to get better.

The God of Chaos and Other Things

So ironically enough going to see the Avengers in theaters with my brothers yesterday (the movie was excellent we all enjoyed it) reminded me how much love Loki in Norse mythology.

I say ironically because I just spent the better part of a year obsessively studying Norse mythology and Viking age Iceland (I've written a number of novella stories related to this) yet it was a comic book movie that reminded me of my love for the God of chaos. Loki though is really an amazingly complex character. He can be good, or evil, God and Jötunn, truth teller, liar, shape-shifter, God of fire and all around plotter and schemer. He is my favorite kind of character.

This lovely illustration by Arthur Rackham for a scene from Wagner's Ring Cycle where Loki taunts the distraught Rhine maidens has hung over my writing desk pinned to by bulletin board since  I was about sixteen. It is one of my favorite Arthur Rackham illustrations and one of my favorite portrayals of Loki. I love the fact that steam rises from the water where his foot touches it as if his body is made of fire.

Another of my favorite illustrators, John Bauer, did an rendering of one of my favorite myths involving Loki all be it a rather strange and confusing one.

In this story which is told in a short stanza within the Hyndluljóð 

Loki ate some of the heart, the thought-stone of a woman,

roasted on a linden-wood fire, he found it half-cooked;

Lopt was impregnated by a wicked woman,

from whom every ogress on earth is descended.

In this story Loki eats a human heart. We aren't quite sure why or who's heart it is although it does seem to be the heart of someone who practiced very powerful magic because eating the heart impregnates Loki. Loki ends up giving birth to an "ogre." Now "ogre" itself is a French word and although very similar creatures appear in many mythologies ogres as large, viscous, people-eating creatures is a central European folktale creation and doesn't actually appear in Norse mythology that I am aware of.

The passage can also be translated thus:

A heart ate Loki,-- | in the embers it lay,

And half-cooked found he | the woman's heart;--

With child from the woman | Lopt soon was,

And thence among men | came the monsters all.

Now between "ogre" and "monsters" I like to think, and other have also put this forward, that Loki gave birth to the first troll-mother, and that is where the Norse trolls come from. 

It makes sense within the realm of Norse mythology and even more sense given the way I have re-imagined trolls in my own work. I can very easily see them as being the children of chaos, fire and very powerful magic. It would still probably horrify Girin though. 

I am excited to announce that my fiction will be published

So a couple months ago I sent off a story as a submission to Less Than Three Press for their upcoming private detective anthology. To my complete surprise and happiness they accepted the story for publication in Private Dicks:Undercovers Anthology.

Right now the release date for  Private Dicks: Undercovers Anthology is October 24th 2012

My story is, as of now, titled  Regarding the Detective's Companion and is a steampunk detective story. My rather awkward little story blurb for it is as follows.


The year is 1843 and in London Jamie Griffith is trying to secure a name for himself as a private  investigator or at least scrape together enough money to make the rent. His luck seems to be taking a turn for the better when he is visited by a man offering him the opportunity to work for an unseen client. The mysterious client wants Jamie to travel to College of Natural and Computative Science at Cambridge and investigate a one Professor Robert Daniel Hallingsworth’s involvement in the untimely death of the college’s dean. Eager to prove himself Jamie takes the case and heads to Cambridge to go undercover posing as a research assistant for the extremely eccentric Professor Hallingsworth.  Jamie soon finds himself drawn into Hallingsworth’s world and that of the genius inventors and mathematicians Hallingsworth surrounds himself with. It might be due more to his budding feelings towards the professor then anything else, but the longer Jamie stays at the College the less like a cold blooded killer Hallingsworth seems.  As the evidence begins to pile up Jamie begins to wonder if anything he had been originally told about the case was in fact the truth.    

They've also accepted yet another of my stories, this time as a stand alone ebook. So stay tuned and I'll be writing about that one shortly.

I am extremely excited about this, the first piece of fiction I've ever published and ecstatic about working with the lovely folks at Less Than Three.


Thanks to everyone for giving me encouragement through this process.  

2010 places on the net that were (and I hope will continue to be) important to me: Here are some of the high lights.

* I added a Not Safe For Work warning next to a few of these. But really guys, if you work in a place where you have to be careful what you look at what are you doing reading my blog at the workplace? Use your heads.

Genderfork NSFW

Genderfork is just a beautiful place to be. It’s created to be a positive place to embrace and celebrate the gender diversity in our world. It always makes me smile because I know there will always be something cool/beautiful/uplifting posted there. I’m used to being different for so many different reasons but sometimes I get tired when there is no one around me who is even a little bit similar to me. When I go to Genderfork I can remind myself that I’m not the only one who doesn’t fit the norms and that isn’t always a bad thing.  

Dicebox NSFW

Dicebox is the only online comic I have consistently read since it started in 2002.  It’s just one of those things in my life that never changes. No matter what I’m going through or how my life is changing Jenn Manley Lee’s art will always be breathtakingly beautiful, the storyline of Dicebox nicely complex and the relationship between Molly and Griffen amusing. Besides this comic was where I learned about gender-neutral pronouns in more then a strictly theoretical way.

Ravelry

If you’re a knitter or crochet-er Ravelry is the place to be. I’m not a die hard knitter like my Mom but I have been known to knit a hat or two during long committee meetings. Ravelry is a little like Facebook in that you have a profile and you can join groups and talk to other knitters or crochet-doers (I’m not sure what to call you guys). They also have a huge search engine full of patterns, yarn stores, books, and supplies. If you want to know what other people are making out of that yarn you just got go on Ravelry. If you want to see if you can find a hat patter with ear flats that’s also free go on Ravelry. If you want to see pictures of what this patter is going to look like once you’re done and you don’t want to rely on the tiny black and white picture at the bottom of the patter go on Revelry. It’s just that cool.

Rooster Tails  NSWF

This is an incredibly adorable comic-blog by a transman and his genderqueer partner in New Zealand. I’ve loved every single entry so far and can empathize with it a lot. It’s not just how gender issues are talked about, but also the strips on anxiety, the X-Men, butch mice and sweater-vests make me glad I’m not the only one who thinks about these things.

Vegan Dad

I have to admit it I’m a little bit of a snob when it comes to cooking. I love to cook and part of my job these days is to cook. Which means that I just can’t turn off the at little voice in the back of my head that say “I could do better.” Vegan blog’s I’m particularly hard on. I’m always reading them and thinking, they could use less expensive ingredients or there is an easier way to do this, or but I can’t eat this and buy local at the same time. Vegan Dad’s blog isn’t like that though. It’s become one of my two go-to places for vegan cooking. Why because the recipe’s are easy, fast, cheep-er and delicious. I haven’t made a bad thing off of this site.

Male Submission Art NSFW

When I am an professional academic I study race, gender, sexuality as these concepts have changed over time. I’ve found that one of the best ways to do this is to study images that reflect societal ideas and ideals regarding any or all of these concepts. However, while there as been lots of brilliant work done on gender and race both in theory and in American society, there is not that kind of body of work on sexuality. When I say I study sexuality I mean not just sexual orientation but sexuality more broadly. My perception of academia is this is not widely encouraged. More over historical theory tends to look at sexualized images as strictly who is being oppressed by whom and how does this image support larger systems of procession. There is no or very little acknowledgement that an image might mean different things to different people and a sexual one doubly so. Male Submission Art has meant so much to me because for the first time I am presented with thoughtful commentary on what makes pictures sexual and to whom. I appreciate and respect the work being done by maymay, the site maintainer, immensely. I also find many of these images sexy or attractive myself which is rare when it comes to visual erotica.