Why changing your profile picture and hashtags matter...

I recently have seen people saying that changing your profile picture or using hashtags like "#prayforparis" doesn't matter.  I would argue that the world showing solidarity for any event in a positive way does matter. There's a lot of things that it contributes. It gives the person doing it peace, it lets you do something in a situation where you are virtually helpless. It also lets people on the other side of the world know they are not alone in their pain.

On a bigger scale, what it does is allow us to help each other. Whether it was the open door hash tag that Parisians used, or messages of hope and compassion... It's not money, it's not mass policy change but it is something and it matters. Social media is a powerful tool. Hashtags can become movements but even if they don't what is the harm in providing comfort, solidarity and compassion?

I understand wanting to do more. I want to do more. But if we all do what we can, when we can the world will be better. Black Lives Matter started as an online social media movement and has become a national force to be reckoned with. They are making change. So, try again to tell me hashtags and profile pictures don't matter.

This all being said, I'll continue to use hashtags and my words and my online space to help spread messages that are important. I'm also going to make sure my writing reflects the values I want to see in the world.

I'm currently planning out a story about a Syrian refugee. I'm needing to do some more research to understand how to portray the regular views of a Muslim and how their religion affects who they are since I feel it should be a piece in the story even though it's not all there is to it. And to adequately portray it I know that I need a better understanding. I've been searching for someone who would just talk about what Islam means to them and how it shapes their life (I don't want to take my Christian past, especially since I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian religion. That feels like I'm just find and replacing and that's lazy.).

If you know anyone that would give me their opinions let me know! Comments here, @poetsanarachy or kitemry @ gmail

Late, late, always late

Bwah... So, I slacked off again but last week I was in San Jose for the Teen Top concert and didn't have a chance to be online much. It was so much fun though! I missed three days of work but it was a good mental health break and the concert was just so amazing.. And I have an autographed poster and got to shake all the members' hands. Seriously, was an amazing experience! ㅠㅠ I really hope they come back for another concert soon.

Needless to say, I also didn't get much writing done and missed the deadline for <i>Bygone Beasts</i>. But, I still want to finish the story I started. Maybe, I'll find a place for it later or I can put it up for free! \o/ I wonder if anyone would read it or anything. Would be awesome but I have a lot of work to do before I get that far. The idea is really exciting though!

The next submission call I'm trying to submit to isn't due for a couple of months, so I have no excuse about getting it done on time. It's a trans* submission call and I started the story a while ago now and so I need to refresh my memory on it and then get to work on continuing and finishing it up.

But, now, it's time for free fiction. I still haven't been able to get my website off the ground so I'm going to keep posting it in my blog posts for now until I find someone that can help me design my website at relatively low expense.

I don't think I've posted this one yet. It's called <i>Thoughts of the Past</i>. I wrote it seeeeeveral years ago and I haven't really reread it at any depth. It's g rated m/m romance theme though. When I wrote it I said it might be part of a bigger story and I still think that could be true. Who knows what will come to me. :) Let me know what you think as always!

<blockquote>Word Count: 573


~~~

His stormy blue-grey eyes stared out the window, watching the droplets of water roll down the glass in slow intricate patterns. A soft sigh passed through his soft lips, closing his eyes slowly.

The view outside this window was so vastly different from the view he had known all his life. Instead of the wide-open Kansas plains there were crowded buildings and streets. Where once he could look up and see billions of bright twinkling stars, he only saw a few dull lights, blurry with the smog that weighed heavily of the Tokyo skyline.

With a sigh he finally turned away from the window, eyes traveling over the comfy chairs and the other couch scattered across the living room. A coffee table was in front of him; an arrangement of various flowers in an ornate vase adorned the center. He was happy here, but still, at times he missed the home of his past.

The sound door of the apartment opening caught the man's attention, drawing his thoughts from the musings as he glanced up. "I'm home, Kenton," the person called and Kenton smiled, listening to the shuffling, knowing the other was taking his shoes and coat off. Finally, he stood up, his footsteps making a soft padding sound on the wooden floors. "Welcome home, Shiro," Kenton said, pushing his black hair out of his eyes, looking up at his Japanese lover.

Shiro smiled down at Kenton, his black eyes sparkling. "How are you, my little butterfly?" he asked, pulling Kenton to him, tilting the other's head up with one of his fingers and pressing their lips together lovingly. The taller man finally pulled back, letting gentle fingers caress lightly over Kenton's cheek. "You should smile, my love," he chuckled, nuzzling the other.

"Why," Kenton asked, leaning into the nuzzle, resting against the taller man.

"Then I will know that you are happy," Shiro answered, running the pad of his thumb over Kenton's soft lips. "I took you away from everything you know and love…I need to know that you are happy here, Kenton."

Kenton's lips twitched into a small smile. "Shiro…you're a silly man. Just because I don't smile much doesn't mean that I'm not happy," he said gently, reaching his arms up to lock lightly around the back of Shiro's neck. "I love you. My heart is with you. My home is with you. My happiness –is- you."

Shiro chuckled and rubbed Kenton's nose with his own. "All right," he conceded, running his thumb over Kenton's lips again before kissing him. "I love you, also," he murmured.

Finally Kenton pulled away from Shiro. "Do you want me to make dinner tonight?" he asked, heading towards the small kitchen.

Shiro grabbed Kenton's arm, pulling him back. "What's wrong, Kenton?" he asked, looking deep into his eyes as he held him firmly.

Kenton looked away but finally leaned against him. “I just miss my old home sometimes…It’s so crowded and noisy here…Sometimes it just gets to me,” he admitted, looking down almost ashamed of how he felt. “I am happy here, Shiro, but sometimes I miss the open fields and star-filled skies.”

Shiro chuckled softly, brushing his long fingers through the smaller man’s hair. “Then we will go visit your home,” he said simply.

“My home is here, but I would like to visit my past,” Kenton whispered. “I love you, Shiro.”

“As I love you,” was the man’s simple answer.</blockquote>

Ooops late but I had this written before Friday! T_T

Hello again! I'm on time twice (except I didn't type it until tonight)! I think I'm getting into the habit of getting these blogs up on time every single week. The more often I write them, the more I want to find a better methodology for my topics. Does anyone have suggestions for that?

I don't want my blog posts to be aimless and I want to make them interesting to read and comment on (duh!)! I don't think that's too tall an order. I just have to figure out a good direction to go.

The weather has been really weird. I'm hoping that it won't snow anymore until I get home at least TT But who knows how that will go! I can't complain about the weather too much since it's not as bad as out East. But walking to and from work has been a task! ㅠㅠ

So! I've been reading a lot. I finished Seduced by an American Millionaire by Lynda Chance. It's a novella and took me a while to get through. I usually don't mind the whole Harlequin plot what plot books but this one bothered me a lot. It was formatted badly and it had increasing instances of simple grammatical errors and typos toward the end of the story. I found the characters very two dimensional the book was very misogynistic. It's the first time I've given a book two stars in ages.

I did realize how important it is to not suddenly switch povs or settings without a separator or segue. It was very jarring and made it hard for the story to flow naturally. I'm definitely going to be watching for that in my own writing.

I've also started House of Bathory by Linda Lafferty. It was a bit slow at first but it's really picking up. I like the seamless transitions between historical and modern settings. I'm really excited to see where it's going and how the two eras are going to intermingle and come together plot wise.

The third book I've been reading has been getting the most attention from me. It's No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale. It's a young adult murder mystery, I suppose. I'm pretty far into the book and I'm still not 100% what the driving force of the plot is supposed to be. However, it's enjoyable and I do love Kippy's narration.

I suppose that's enough for now! I haven't written much this week but I did do some brainstorming and plotting for some short story submissions. But for this week... we have a really short short (312 words) called No Regrets. Please be aware by clicking the following link there is a trigger warning for suicide (very mild). It's another older story I wrote and it's a bit dark. Would love to know what people think of it! Thank you!

No Regrets

See you Friday~!

Hey, look! I'm on time!

Guess what?! It's Friday again! Actually while I'm writing this, it's Thursday. I hope everyone's been having a good week! I started a job in tech support on Monday. So, without fail I'm now gunning to do a lot of writing.

On Wednesday, I started a submission story for "Have A Drink" from Storm Moon Press. So~ It's a lesbian vampire theme and I really enjoy the vampire that sprung into my mind. ^_~ But, it came to me in 1st person for some reason. I'm going with it but I feel like it's going to be pretty difficult.

Last post, I mentioned I had bought a domain. Now I've found someone who can help my co-writer (Sammy) and I get it off the ground!

But in the meantime, I'm still using this and Free Fiction Friday will continue! Here's what's up for this week~ ^_^

I have another older story for you guys. It's from when I was really, really interesting in writing from the point of view of inanimate objects who have living consciousness. (I was really inspired by LotR.) So, this one is written from the point of view of a knife. It's another really short one but I'd love to have any thoughts you might have on it:

Pieces

See you next week!

New Website!

So! I meant to post this on Friday but never got past writing the subject. I found a place that made it easy to create a nice website ( http://kitemry.webs.com/ )! After that, I ended up purchasing my own domain but it's going to take me a little while to figure out how to get it up and running.

I did post a free fiction last Friday. It's from 2008 but when I reread it, it really affected me. I was kind of surprised it was able to do that and I worry my writing has become worse since then. But that just means I need to start writing more again; and I need to keep reading a lot!

But in any case, please check out the free short I posted and let me know what you think: http://kitemry.webs.com/apps/blog/

I'd also like to share writing.com with fellow readers and writers! Join with this link: http://www.Writing.Com?rfrid=candiedinago

See you later this week!

Long time, no see

I could give a lot of excuses as to why I fell off the blogging train again. The truth is that I was too unmotivated and depressed over the past few months to even try. I haven't been able to get any interviews even and not having a job has always proven to be the worst thing that could ever happen to my writing. I'm hoping that with the recent interview I had that this is something that will be changing soon. <br><br>

I was working on a submission that was going to be due in July and I had missed the deadline but then I looked at the site I want to sub to and found out that the deadline has been pushed back until december 31. This is exciting and means I have more time to truly put my best foot forward. It's still a story I plan to write in novel length but this way I can give it a happy ending... kind of like a west side story for romeo and juliet. ^^ It makes it easier to stomach the hardships my characters will be going through. <br><br>

As well as determining that I'm going to submit to this anthology I've found about 10 other upcomings on storm moon press that I am interested in subbing to. It's going to take a lot of work but it's time for me to buckle down. I'm thinking of picking 5 of them to use as my nanowrimo... You know, a kind of short story anthology of it's on and then I can get them proofread reworked before I submit them. <br><br>

I just have to buckle down and get to writing regularly again no matter how unmotivated I feel. Giving into this feeling only makes it all worse. I'm better than this! As always I'd appreciate knowing you're in my corner so leave me comments here or email me at kitemry @ gmail or tweet me at @jjangonestar and just ask me how my writing is going! I need the push right now to keep going.

How to work in boring information?

So I recently decided that one of my novels, I'm going to first put into a short story. It will have a lot of differences from the later novel version but some things remain the same. Things like... there's some boring information that I think is really important to my story! In the novel, I intend to just leave it as an introduction but how do I work some "boring" (I don't find them boring!) historical notes into my short story? I don't think I can just include an introduction but it feels like it's important to set up the culture going into my story as it's something many people aren't quite aware of.

I'll share the introduction below but I'm also angsting a bit because I'm just shy of 15,000 on the novel and the word count limit for the short story is 20k. I'm going to have to do some serious reworking of the pace and some of the finer details of the story to make it fit. Luckily I have a good amount of time to get ready to sub. I think maybe I can give the short story the happy ending that I don't feel befits the novel. Hm... Lots to think about!

The introduction is the following (and obviously it's in need of some editing):

Before the World Wars Germany had been a wonderful place to live. There were advances in many parts of society, advances that even America had lacked, still prior to even the black civil rights movement. In Germany, there were movements for gay rights, for equality, for democracy. The Wiemar Republic had noble intentions and hopes for a progressive society. It was the beginning of what could have been a golden social revolution. Perhaps the only country that was progressed as far as gay rights by this time was France, and the influence was not far from Germany.

For years, Magnus Hirschfeld pioneered the study of sexual science. He paved the way for many of the congresses and institutes that are dedicated to the study in this field. Hirschfeld was a Jewish, homosexual physician and a socialist. It was through him the groundwork for the gay rights movement in Germany and much of the modern world was laid down, not only that, but his was the first institute dedicated to the subject of sexual science.

Unfortunately, it was also through his work that the argument for why homosexuals were part of contragenics (any human who was not Aryan). He had hypothesized that homosexuals were actually a third gender and while he later debunked his own theory and abandoned it, it wasn’t before the Nazi party had latched onto it and used his theories against the people that he was crusading to help; the Nazi party used it as a basis for saying that homosexuals, like Jews were sub-human. During the Weimar Republic, however, he did prosper and provided invaluable research in a previous untouched field of study.

The hopes that were carried on the shoulders of the Republic were all but completely decimated after Germany’s defeat in World War II left the country in shambles and seeking a scapegoat for the hardships that followed, unstoppable inflation and skyrocketing unemployment. Everyone that was not the accepted majority of Germans fell victim to the anger and blame that the German people desperately needed in a time of nationalistic tragedy, rising inflation and fear of communist revolution. The Bolsheviks had succeeded in taking over Russia and Germany feared Communism as did most of the western world. Communism, after all was the worst fate that a country could fall to in those days.

Turmoil and desperation created many enemies two of the most pronounced and loathed the Jews and the Homosexuals even though many other groups bore targets as well. In the same desperation, Germany found two heroes, that they trusted would bring them out of their dark plight and restore Germany back to it’s previous glory. Hitler and Himmler.

The events of Roehm’s massacre in June of 1934 and the subsequent further outlawing of homosexual activity in June of 1935, the dates being no coincidence, and making it so that men had to even fear touching another man.

It is in this dark time that this story takes place.

It might be out of place to ask but if you were working with historical information but you have limited word count availability and it doesn't quite tie in nicely to your story then how do you make sure to set this kind of information without boring your audience?

So this stuff has pretty much been all that's on my writing plate lately as my cowriter hasn't been tossing me back her parts on the stories we're writing together. Hopefully next update I'll be able to talk about the progression of those.

The first 10k is the hardest...?

I might or might not have mentioned that I have a roommate -- Sammy. She's got a blog at sammyly. Make sure to give her some attention too and follow her updates! She'll be offering free fiction as well.

Together, we've been working on a novel. It's set in Seoul and it's about two step-brothers who get into drag racing. They'll be a lot of action and romance and, of course, hot cars. I hope you'll keep an eye out for when we finish it. Last night, we tipped over the 10k mark and I'm really excited about it! It's been a while since I've gotten anything to that point.

I've also started to try and edit some old short stories that I could share for Free Fiction Friday. It's slow going and I'm going to have at least a few done and ready to go before I start sharing. Please anticipate!

I don't have much else to share at the moment. Wish me good luck in my writing adventures!

Have a great week!

A new start!

A lot has happened since I last made an entry. Mainly, I'm now jobless again and so I'm taking the time while I'm job searching to get into the groove of writing seriously again. It's hard to get in that habit even more the more time you have. Life's kind of funny this way. But I've got a lot of ideas and I'm currently in the process of starting a novella with my roommate, Sammy. I'm also pulling out some of my old short stories to edit and finish and then use as free fiction here.

I talked about before how my first novel was going to be a WWII setting but the story is proving much more heavy and difficult to write. It is coming slowly and well... I think I just need to let it come naturally as it does. If I force it I don't think it's going to turn out the way I want and it's too important of a story to me to do half-way!

That's kind of where things are now. I just wanted to note turning over the new leaf and hopefully I'll be making blog entries at least once a week if not more! Once I get my short stories in line I'll start having Short Story Saturday. That'll be my little corner where I can share some free fiction with y'all!

I'm also opening to doing reviews of any sort! So please if you want a short story, novel or anything else reviewed please let me know. I do have limited funds so I cant purchase too many books to do this but I'm willing to purchase as many as I can. I do know sometimes authors will gift a book in return for reviews. I've done this in the past and I've found some great books this way and I know it helps my fellow authors. I'm also looking for blogs to follow and read as well as more friends on twitter (@jongupped) or goodreads!

That being said. I'm going to get my writing on for the night and possibly get some more reading done on The Hobbit which I've been making my way through again!

Writer's Group 5/12/2011

This week I was finally able to make it to my writing group again and that was amazing. We chatted quite a bit of course but I actually put down about a paragraph on my short story on top of about 500 words between the two writing prompts. I rather liked working with the prompts even though I found the second one 'Now that she was gone, I could tell the truth.' really difficult to work with. I managed about a paragraph on it though! And it would make for an interesting beginning to a short story but I'm not sure it's a story I'd actually be all that interested in.

The first prompt was to write about the first time your character felt humiliated. I had a lot of fun with that prompt and it could also be an interesting flash fiction but I don't really know (or care) how to expand on it so I think I will merely leave it alone. It's saved so I could always go back to it if I felt like I wanted to.

I'm happy that my Damon and Luke story is now sitting at 3880 words which means that progress has been made. I'm going to get some more work done on it and I'll be at starbucks all day which always helps the creative processes.

Current Writing Projects

These are a list of the projects that I have started. They're listed in the order of current priority. Honestly, nothing else will probably be written until I finish The Pink Triangle. However, this is where you get to tell me what you find interesting and would like to see come about. I might be able to spin out a free fiction story to spike your interest in the meantime. I really just want to be able to hear your feedback on it.

Untitled - Damon and Luke



This is a short story that I have been working on and it is set in Reno, Nevada. I'm about 1/3 or so into the piece and I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's an interracial pair with a bit of boss/employee drama on the side with it. Hopefully it'll catch your eye when it comes out, but I am hoping to get it submitted to a press.

The Pink Triangle



Synopsis:

There are few who know that during World War II German Nazis not only persecuted Jews, but also gypsies, other minorities and political prisoners. Perhaps, least known are the bearers of the Pink Triangle. History has swept under the rug the vile treatment of German homosexual prisoners within labor camps designated for them. Some victim stories rival the horrors that have been more famously recounted by Jewish survivors.

The Pink Triangle will be about two young and vivacious homosexual Germans that were childhood friends. It will draw from events before Reinhold’s arrest and Dieter’s enlistment into the service to avoid the same fate. Throughout, the novel readers will follow both of their journeys until their paths intertwine again.

But after they both experience the horrors and travesties of the Nazi regime from different sides, will they be able to reconcile their lives and find the passion for each other and more importantly for living that they once had?

Giro di Venezia (When in Rome)



This is a short homo-erotic romance story. It’s set in Venice between a young 18 year old from California and an older Venetian and the development of their relationship and emotions during the time that Ricky is visiting Venice with his parents. Luciano opens up this young man to a whole new world figuratively and literally.

Untitled



This story is a modern day cowboy story. There’s love and romance and a rekindling of a deeper connection that a fast paced life in the city had worn down and exhausted from our two heroes.

Political Gamble



This will be the second novel that I write and it is set in the 60s in Boston and starts right before the Kennedy assassination. Our two characters are a son of a politician and a young man who came into money through his father’s unexpected success. They both find themselves at Harvard and in a time of unexpected social turmoil and they both begin to find themselves in this story of romance, social changes and self exploration.

There are many more projects that I plan to do but these are the ones that are currently in the near future in the works. I look forward to your thoughts.