This next week is going to be all about the moving, which will be extra fun thanks to spending nearly this entire month fighting off a migraine headache (stress, allergies, and shifting air pressure will do the job if nothing else will, oh yes), and thanks to poor Spouse having to go play in the dirt one last time on Tuesday and Wednesday. When I get a minute to breathe though, these are links for reference. I'm also posting them here to boost the signal, for any of you interested in such topics.

http://mormonsformarriage.com/ - A site for LDS members in opposition to Prop. 8 and other discriminatory legislation. If anyone checks this one out, note that there's a lot of 101 discussion and some serious fail in various comments and some of the wording of articles. I also may be on the radical end of the spectrum of people following the site, since I do in fact await a day when same-sex sealings (the LDS wedding ceremony) will be performed. And, of course, the continuing equation of Mormon subculture with church membership makes me flinch, but it's neither a widely known issue nor the most important one, so.

http://www.affirmation.org/ - I do not think there are any LGBT members following my journal, but just in case.

Neither of these links negate criticism of the LDS church, its leadership, and the overwhelming majority of its members for supporting Proposition 8 or other acts of homophobia and transphobia. Certainly, there has never been an official stand against the rantings of Orson Scott Card, and many of those rantings were first published in church-affiliated spaces. It's entirely possible that I'm still LDS only because I haven't attended church in many years, and therefore nobody's been able to pin me down for excommunication due to the ways in which my beliefs differ from current church policy (as opposed to church doctrine). Since I'm going to make them kick me out if they want me to leave the church, however, I figure it behooves me to push for better policy, and to make a stand for what I believe in. We might even manage to attend church on occasion thanks to the move, which means I get to be a thorn in yet another bishop's side. I feel this can only do them good.

Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy, is now available for pre-order. It contains my story, "Family Movie."

Very, very late with this, I realize, but Mythic Delirium Issue #20, the Tenth Anniversary issue, is now out. It contains my folkloric poem, "Klabautermann," along with pieces by dkolodji, sovay, bachsoprano, tithenai and mer_moon, and other cool cats. Oh, and a piece by some guy named Neil Gaiman. I hear he's getting to be kind of a big deal these days.

There's gonna be a book. Just FYI.

EEEEE.

It is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, as well as Shakespeare's birthday. So I give you a piece a few of you have seen before, and hope you all enjoy it. About four hundred words of chimerical faery tale, with Alice and Dorothy in for the trip.

( Tick-tock, says the clock )

Be sure to check ipstp for more goodies.

So sartorias is hosting an interesting discussion prompted by the upcoming Sirens Conference. The focus of the discussion is the ways in which fantasy has come to cater to female readers, with some specific questions posed for discussion.

This started as a comment to the post, but it got too long, so I'm putting it here and linking it back in the comments to Sherwood's post, in which she posits Bella Swan of Twilight and Hariman-sol of The Blue Sword as heroines of different types of wish fulfillment fantasies. I disagree.

( Question everything )

ETA: Now unlocked for linking purposes.

Nine nines and a bottle of rum.

The Oracle of Barnacles

One for the kraaken who rages below
two are the ships that pass in the night
three sheets to the four winds
when you take my meaning
and pray you north is true.
Five are the starpoints by which you steer her
sixpence the toll when you sail off the charts
seven the seas and eight comes in pieces
when nine fathoms downward you fall.
Death is always true.

END

Three of the six I tested late last summer (hence the lack of Spouse Report) and then forgot to actually blog. The last one might be of special interest to Oracles.

( Black Pearl )

( Squirting Cucumber )

( Delphi )

Or are we at my lucky number now?

Another two oracles add their voices. If this is a meme, maybe we'll get nine times nine.

Following on from these, inspired by this. Unlocked because that's how this labyrinth is walked, rough-hewn as it is.

Nine Things About Oracles (The Northern Exposure Overdub)

1. The bones she reads are her own.
2. The guts are yours.
3. Bring her honey-mead and oatcake, but don't expect them to sweeten her tongue.
4. This close to fire, everything tastes like ashes.
5. She'll answer the question you need to ask.
6. You're not going to know the question.
7. She's not going to tell you.
8. There's a reason runes look like thorns.
9. No matter what she tells you, it's pronounced doom.

My poem "Lifestory" is now live at Ideomancer, along with some really fantastic work by tithenai and time_shark. I haven't had a chance to read the stories yet, but I bet they're spectacular too.

My poem, "Kumiho," written for yhlee, is in the Not One of Us special publication, (Going Going) GONE, now available for sale at The Genre Mall (scroll down to special publications). I haven't gotten my contrib copy yet, but that TOC makes me excited. Two sovay poems! Riches!

The fisherangel poem, "The sky is the floor of an ocean," is now live at Mindflights.

My horror poem, "O. D.," is now live at Goblin Fruit. You can read it here, or hear me read it. I leaned on the accent and dialed it up special for this one.

My steampunk poem, "Now You See Her," is now available in the Winter 2008 double issue of Electric Velocipede. You can purchase it here.

My poem, "What You Never Knew About the Princess," is now live at Ideomancer. You may know the title as the name of a necklace made by elisem. That's no accident. The necklace is not mine, but it spoke to me once, and I hope I can share its words with its person now.

The divine Lioness is having a sale! Things that are tempting me quite a lot: "Making Deals with Leprechauns" and "You remember the beach -- the one with the dragons?" Also "Island of the Little God," which I would never wear, but oh, the name. Actually, I probably wouldn't wear any of them often enough to justify the expense, which doesn't stop me from wanting. Funny how elisem is one of the few people who can do that to me.

Also, if I had the money, I have a friend to whom I think "The Rose of the Vineyards" might belong. Sadly, I don't know that they'll ever be united.

The SFPA Online Halloween Reading is now live, including my reading of "Its Hour Come Round At Last," featuring minimal accent, monster voice, and what's called the "wahwah" effect in Audacity. Clearly, it was meant to be. I'm particularly digging Karen A. Romanko's "The Biology Building" this year, but everything that's up so far is awesome.

My sonnets, "Too Fond of Books" and "Faithful," are now live at Goblin Fruit, along with a whole lot of excellently shivery autumnal reading.