NaPoWriMo 2020 Preview Poem: American Breakdown

Image by moonzigg from Pixabay

America, America, alas

the cracks in your facade are on display

how many dead when all has come to pass

how many dead because of the delay

addressing a disease that came to stay

you told us it would all be over soon

deluded jackass braying at the moon

~Sly~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Sly and Snarky

notes

This Rhyme Royale was penned by my snarky political alter-ego Sly Fawkes with love to the village idiot currently occupying the White House--as much love as he deserves, anyway.

The prompt was to write a poem about my favorite birds. The bald eagle is one of my favorite birds. This one looks angry.

IWSG Book Club: Questions for Chill Factor

Disclosure: If readers purchase a copy of the book through the above link, I receive a small commission from Amazon. I really wasn't a fan of this book, and I don't recommend it. I gave it two out of five stars. But you're welcome to check it out if you like.

The questions come from the Insecure Writers Support Group Book Club discussion of this book.

1. In the opening of Chill Factor, I love the way Sandra Brown begins with setting, weaving in character activity and then details to create this uncertainty when we meet Ben Tierney. He is out in the open air of snowy mountains with a shovel where there are four unmarked graves. Then, as it continues, his thoughts detail the event and mystery of the graves, as he finds his way back to his vehicle. The introduction of the character, setting, and mystery are powerful. It makes you quickly flip the page to find out what happens next.

QUESTION: The first chapter ends in uncertainty. At that point, did you think Ben Tierney was a hero or a killer?

I thought there was a fair likelihood that Ben was a killer (or one of a group of killers) at that point.

2. In the second chapter, Brown is in the female POV and she reveals the thoughts of the ex-husband in such a subtle way through the female's thought summary that you almost feel like you are hearing his thoughts, not hers. It’s so seamless it feels like you are in the room with them.

QUESTION: How do you handle deep point of view between characters?

I don't think I really give it much thought. If it works well, then it's a good technique.

3. A. Which characters did you like the most in Chill Factor? Why?

I liked Scott the best. He seemed like he was trying to do the best he could with a horrible situation.

B. Which characters did you like the least in Chill Factor? Why?

I thought every male character except for Scott was awful. Dutch and Wes were both abusive. Ben was passive-aggressive. William was a nasty little weasel.

4. Throughout Chill Factor, we’re not positive if Ben is a good guy or a bad guy. Have you ever put your readers on this roller coaster ride, tricking them into thinking a good character might be bad, or vice versa? And what techniques did you use?

I've written characters who were somewhat ambiguous. I never start out with any particular technique in mind. My characters are pushy jerks who write themselves.

5. As a fellow asthma sufferer, it was nice to see that as part of the heroine's character development and nicer to see that it didn't stop her from being depicted as strong. Too often asthma and allergy sufferers are portrayed as weak.

QUESTIONS: What other characteristics often make a character seem weak? What other characters have overcome weaknesses to be portrayed as strong?

I really don't feel that Lilly was a strong character. The line about her "not wanting to play the feminist card" made me say "oh boy, here we go" early on in the book. I have asthma, and I found it rather insulting that the author used Lilly's condition as a plot point to make her "need" Ben.

I was not a fan of this one. My review is here.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3240905259?book_show_action=false#_=_

WTF Wednesday: There Are No Rewards for Being a Handmaiden

This is my response to a post by Brenda Brooks on Feminist Current.

I fell into the same trap. I said to myself "well, what could it hurt to refer to myself as cis? After all, trans people have a much harder battle than I do. They just want to be included, to be normalized." But more and more I saw that wasn't what they wanted. They wanted the entire narrative to revolve around them.

I would see signs proclaiming "trans women are women." I started to wonder why there were never any signs proclaiming "trans men are men."

The trans rights activists were saying that medical terms for female anatomy were "violence against trans women." Meanwhile, trans women were carrying baseball bats and wearing t-shirts with slogans such as "punch a TERF" and "die cis scum." In the UK, Posey Parker was detained by police for "hate speech." This "hate speech" was the phrase "woman = adult human female." I have never heard of any trans person being detained for expressing a desire to "punch a TERF."

None of this sat well with me. I believe the last straw was when I saw women being referred to as "menstruators" and "non-men."

Now I see trans women claiming that the hormones they take are making them "have periods." They are not having a period. A period involves the expulsion of the endometrial lining from the uterus. That is what a period is. I have been TERFed for saying this.

As a writer myself, I was once scolded for referring to trans people in a perfectly neutral fashion. I wanted to modernize a story I wrote in which a voodoo priestess does a spell to change the sexes of the attendees of a frat party who sexually abused her niece. Rather than simply saying "so and so woke up and screamed in horror to discover that he was now a girl," I had the local doctor wondering at the sudden rash of gender reassignment surgeries on the college campus. Since I had the audacity to mention trans women in a neutral fashion rather than the most glowing terms, I was jumped on by commenters. I said "fine, I'm changing the ending back to 'it's magic, I don't have to explain shit.'"

The trans cult has gotten way out of hand. A trans woman could claim that the key to immortality was to chop up your neighbors and bathe in their blood, and everyone would say "Oh, she's so BRAVE!" No-one even questions how screwed up many of the things the "queer" and trans communities are pushing are.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Sunday Funnies With Sly: Mike Pence Edition

Coercion & Abuse in the Gender ID Community | with ⚢ GNC-Centric ⚢

Come as You Aren't Party: My Annoying Alter-Ego from Another Dimension

This is Sligh, pronounced Sly. He’s a totally genderfluid enby. He’s 21 years old and is a gender studies major. He’s not really a bad person, he just tries way too hard to be extra woke, and he’s annoying AF because of it. He believes that trans women are women and biological sex is a social construct cuz that’s what his woke friends on Tumblr told him.

Wanna make an alter-ego (or just an avatar)?

Go here.

Giant comets are zooming in: There is no such thing as "Trans"

Giant comets are zooming in: There is no such thing as "Trans": There's no such thing as “trans.” You've been lied to. Everyone is free to dress as they please, use any mannerisms and voices they ...

Give it a read. They dare to say what a lot of us are thinking.

Carpe Diem Shikoku Island Pilgrimage: Sakura Temple

Sakura Temple, Shikoku Island

Sakura temple

I sang of cherry blossoms

when I was a girl

~cie~

notes

When I was in the fourth grade, we learned about Japan. We sang a little song about Sakura. These days I wonder if the school would have been accused of some sort of disrespect or cultural appropriation. I have trouble understanding how learning about other cultures is a bad thing. Shouldn't we try and understand each other? I guess I'm just too old to be "woke."