Dear Internet,
Here we are yet again. Can you believe it’s been over a year since I last sent out a newsletter and I’ve moved house at least twice since then? You’ll be happy to know I’ve got a full time gig and I’m living on the East Coast. It hasn’t been as hard of an adjustment as I thought it would be but hey! I’m a tax paying member of society and who could want for anything more?
(I should also add I’ve meditated consecutively for 390 days, I’ve been smoke free (honest!) since January, and I’ve been yoga-ing steadily since November 2015. Yay me!)
For those old timers who remember and for new timers an explanation, this newsletter was originally to publish things about Skaldic Press, my pop up zine “so glad is my heart,” stuff from Exit, Pursued by a Bear, and any other writing news in a single location rather than spread out across my empire. Things become unsettled and frequency dropped to — nothing. So here we are, things are settled, and I’m back to shipping this newsletter out.
So what can you expect? Much as it is in the old incarnation, stuff of the above plus updates from my writing site, stuff I published around the web, and where fanciful delights will now reside. i’ve been doing a curation of links and things since the late ’90s and started archiving them on my site since 2010 as a, “here are things i’ve read, seen, written, and liked.” It seems more appropriate to bring fanciful delights over here so that you can peruse at your leisure.
So what’s been going on in Lisa’s Empire? Well, quite a lot of projects are brimming at the moment and I need to prioritize like woah because I’m getting overwhelmed and I’m not working on any of them. Some of the projects have been temporarily shelved, the job hunt and lisa.rabey.net (my profesh librarian site) for the moment while others haven’t been kicked off the ground yet (we are stacks is a library consultancy, cherrybomb comics is my comic bookstore) are also on hold. So what am I juggling now? There’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear which has been the home for my online blog / diary / journal for years. lisarabey.com, my profesh writing site where I’ve also started blogging and also repository for my writing and pitching. Skaldic Press, my publishing arm; Freyja Thomas my nom du jour for erotica and the like, and LMR Creative for coding / website / related. I’ve got another project I’m keeping under wraps at the moment until the site and content are ready and I’ll be sure to let you all know when it’s been launched.
June and July have been dry months with the only substantial entry published on my birthday and I know the slow down has to do with my promise for every text entry there will be an audio version. The creation and editing of the audio entry took waaaaaaayyyy longer than I had planned but now that I have something of a routine down, it will go faster and easier next time
I haven’t done much pitching or for that matter non-diary writing in some time and now that thing are settled, it’s time to kick that back into gear and track progress through blogging on that site. You can read about the catch up here.
I haven’t worked on Skaldic Press projects for awhile but this is not shelved. I’ve got the second chapter in my “The Lisa Chronicles” to compile, edit, and publish. I’m also toying with the idea of taking the first chapter, fictionalize it, and shop it around to see if there is interest. While Freyja Thomas has her own site, she straddles both lisarabey.com and Skaldic Press worlds so I need to get cracking on her work.
April of this year marked the 20th anniversary of Downpour on my Soul and I want to do a chapbook of it coupled with Downpour Revisited. A few weeks before I was to publish the chapbook, I went looking for beta readers, found a couple, and never heard from them again and now the project is languishing. So if you or anyone you know is looking to beta read anything from essays to fiction to erotica, have them get in touch okay?
I just finished listening to Juliet by Anne Fortier. I was skeptical at first as the story was a bit predictable, the subtle romance was obvious but all of that was overshadowed by the cleverness of the premise (retelling of Romeo and Juliet), how the book was plotted, and the few twists given to satiate the reader. When the book finished, I found myself wondering what was next for the characters, though truth be told we know they got a happy ending and that’s usually where the story ends. Another big plus is Fortiner’s use of Italian and setting the story in Sienna didn’t feel like a hack job of someone using only Wikipedia for their information. I quipped on Facebook all I wanted now was hard meats, crusty bread, and red wine.
On the TV front, I’m tied to whatever channels have apps on the Roku (thanks dear Ex-Husband for having full package cable and giving me logins) and I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve gotten hooked on Below Deck: Mediterranean. You crush on some characters, you love on some characters, and you hate on some characters. It also helps the scenery is gorgeous.
This weekend I’m seeing Star Trek with the second main reason my local theatre is giving free popcorn to loyalty members. Hell fuck ass yes! But I am a tad nervous about the movie – I haven’t seen anyone really get into it on Facebook and I’m friends with a lot of nerds. (This same near silence also happened with X-Men: Apocalypse so I opted to get it on Netflix. This surprised many as I have a massive crush on James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender (McFassy).)
- Roxane Gay will be writing the companion series, World of Wakanda, to compliment Black Panther and WoW is coming out in November. [NY Times]
- The author posits Jack Keruoac is the best looking male writer of all time but I have to go with Hemingway myself. [The Spectator]
- I don’t think anyone saw the love for animated gifs, vinyl, and print books to either remain steady or come back with a vengeance but I’m not surprised audiobooks are on the rise. [Wall Street Journal]
- Renaissance (14th – 17th century) folk were either into having a merry old time or covering up breasts and penises on art. [The Guardian]
- Case in point, the growing literature of broadside sheets from that era which told of murders, harlots, and sensational news. [Atlas Obscura]
- Skip to the end and the case of changing one’s personality still remains compelling. [The Atlantic]
- The most metal, as in heavy metal as in music, words in the English language. [New York Magazine]
- The public remains befooled by snake oil salesman. [Well + Good]
- After being nearly doxed by Gamer Gate, I could never do what this brave woman did. [The Guardian]
- Interesting thought: The politics of women in business fiction. [The New Yorker]
- The future if Barnes & Noble were to shudder. [The New Republic]
- “…the dead woman is never simply mourned and forgotten, but fully objectified and consumed.” [HazLitt]
- Hey! It would have been a $1000 USD if he had gotten away with it. [The Guardian]
- Henry Rollins on white privilege. [LA Weekly]
- Three step process to brainstorming like a Googler [Fast Company]
- “In Indonesia, non-binary gender is a centuries old idea,” [Atlas Obscura]
- I got my first iPod in 2005, add in the rise of audiobooks, I can see why they still have an appeal. [The Ringer]
- In light of the upcoming Olympics, compelling read about Stella Walsh who nearly lost her medals due to her autopsy. [mental_floss]
- Men! [Broadly]
- You know you wanna read the story of how Wannabe came to be. [The Telegraph]
hat’s it for this week!
Next time it won’t be so long! I promise. Just, you know, had some catching up to do.
lisa