CharCharChar

Day 4 My goal for Day 4 was to focus on "fun" reads and progress on Freshwater. Goal technically accomplished! I wished I'd created a more specific goal so I could feel more sure of completing it, but in breaking out of burn out it can be helpful to keep goals loose. For fun reads, I read short story " Open House on Haunted Hill " which fills my "choose your own prompt" square to read a piece by an out LGBT+ author where to my knowledge the piece doesn't have clearly indicated LGBT+ characters. I was expecting She of the Mountains to focus more on the positive after a single positive scene. I was incorrect. There are a few more positive moments spread out, but much of the content focuses on hardship.  Woops. Not a "fun" read like the goal asked for, but I did finish. (To be clear, I found She of the Mountains to be meaningful and well-crafted, I just wouldn't label it "fun") I am uncertain if I will use She of the Mountains ...

Small Spoilers for Iceman: Thawing Out and How to be Ace On Day 2 I reached my goal (see Day 1 ), and on Day 3 I rested. I am feeling burned out by the hardship in How to be Ace, Freshwater, Carry the Ocean, Tonguebreaker,   and She of the Mountains. How to be Ace  was meant to fill my "brings you joy" square. It's not, at least not yet. The art style is cute and the words are large and legible. But the main character is just suffering quietly without much agency, in a very relatable ace way, which is just making me glum about my own experience growing up ace. However, it should be a quick read and perhaps there will be a positive framing later on. Oh, and there's a page that literally put aromanticism under the umbrella of asexuality. Face palm. --- Though on that note, I appreciate that the author made separate informational pages about once a chapter instead of trying to weave explanations into the story.  Day 4 (morning) I started Day 4 off with continuing  She o...

Day One Goal accomplished! I sampled each title from my TBR pool . I started with the picture books out on the grass on a beautiful sunny day. (Something bit me!) No, I didn't finish the picture books. A Day in June has a lengthy but interesting reading guide at the back. (It turns out leather has meaning :P ) And I was interrupted in the middle of My Two Uncles .  The rest I charged through from 11pm to 12am because I'd forgotten. For the short stories I squeezed in a few sentences from each. But there was victory nonetheless. Day Two Goals Reject (temporarily or permanently) titles for this readathon and titles I happen to have checked out. I have too many :P Complete a few short titles to feel like I'm making progress, but not all of them, so that I can have some easy reads for other days Focus on Freshwater  the group read. Oh! And I almost forgot. Queer Books I Happen to be Reading Right Now, that aren't Specifically for the Readathon Carry the Ocean by Heidi Culli...

Queer Lit Readathon round 7 (June 6 - 12) is here! CharCharChar's TBR Pool Instead of a typicaly TBR (to be read) list, I'm calling this a "pool" of titles that I could read. Challenges Tonguebreaker: poems and performance texts by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarsinha Burning Sugar: poems by Cicely Belle Blain A History of my Brief Body: essays by Billy-Ray Belcourt Audiobooks Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi She of the Mountains by Vivek Shraya Graphic Novels Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash How to be Ace: a Memoir of Growing Up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess Iceman: Thawing Out  by Marvel Short Stories " The Squid who Lived Forever " by Polenth Blake  " Association of Dead " by Naomi Kanakia " A Vector Alphabet of Interstellar Travel " by Yoon Ha Lee " Blood is another word for hunger " by Rivers Solomon " Once and Future King " by Jeannette Ng Picture Books My Two Uncles by Judith Vigna This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman...

The March 2021 Carnival of Aces is dreams .  I love daydreaming even more than I love talking about writing. And you're right, this set up is not conducive to completing stories. But for now I'm enjoying the ride.  How characters connect with eachother in my daydreams varies. I've tapped into a dozen attraction types (yes there are a dozen or more), woven in boundary and expectation discussions, visualized hug positions and slow escalation of intimacy and breaking away and coming back together.  The bit that trips me up is - what do I want for myself? Do I want a person to sleep next to in bed? To lean against on the couch? To confide my emotional pain in? To split the chores with? To ask "how was your day"? To inform for the hundredth time how adorable my cat is? To take with me to family gatherings? I don't know.  Enjoying a daydream is a very shaky error-ridden blueprint for what would be enjoyed in reality.  In these quarantine times, I can't go out ...

The March Carnival of Aros is intersectionality and inclusivity .  I'm starting up a local Ace and Aro group . I've been meaning to do it for a while, and I'm getting the ball rolling again. Now is a great time to think about inclusivity. This post focuses on race, but the concepts can be applied to general inclusion of marginalized groups.  The Situation I'm white I'm starting a local ace and aro group I live in a city highly ranked for segregation. *cue the sad confetti* There is an assumption that asexuality/aromanticism/queerness is a "white thing"** Online spaces, queer spaces, and online queer spaces are often white-centric** **I don't recall specifically where I learned the last two points, or what evidence they had, but I believe these points to be true I'm not inventing the Wheel I'm not in this alone. I don't have to figure out how to be inclusive by sitting around with my thoughts.  The  White Supremacy Culture Characteristics ...

For AroWriMo 2021. The theme is "choosing to be yourself".  Also published with the 2021 ASAW edition of AAA Literary Journal here . Content Notes: a ghost, pressure.   Word Count: 1885 Lights, Camera, Aro! "Stop," says the man holding the threads of my future in my hands. "Look darling, come here for a second would you?" I approach the dimly lit desk, his co-chairs in too dim of lighting to make out after being in the stage lights. "We all know you can act, you wouldn't have made it this far if you couldn't act. What I'm asking for from you, is to emote, to bare your soul through improv. Can you do that?" I stand frozen, fighting back tears that don't belong. This is where good little girls say "Yes, I can do that." But it's too much of a lie. I don't know what's there to emote, and if I'm willing to look at it, let alone let others see. "We picked this scene specially for you darling," he adds...