Writing Update, Book Review: The Power of Now, Links: Writing, Feminism, Disability and Media

Image courtesy of  Adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Things have been going well on the writing front. The director of the collection in which my upcoming book, Women in Science Fiction Television, will be published got back to me, saying that all files I sent worked. It is always a relief because emails, zips and assorted computer things can always be fickle! I am now waiting to hear back from him about any edit that needs to be done. I am so happy that this project is progressing so well.

I also got a returned chapter from another editor for another upcoming publication I have, in an edited volume. I worked through the changes today and could send it back in a timely fashion. I hope that it will have clarified everything.

This upcoming week, I’ll tackle my next paper (Lost Girl/Once Upon A Time), after having brainstormed it further these last few days. I have also researched University Presses in a more thorough way, since I hope to get my next book proposal (Scully centric) on the way and completed before the end of the month, or by mid-May at latest.

I also finished one of the two books I started back in February: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I took my time reading it, and I will probably go back to it later on. I can understand why so many people found this book inspiring. The text flew easily. I also like how he was so universal in his spiritual approach, and that he drew examples from different religions and philosophies. Considering myself a Christian with also interest in Buddhism, the fact that Tolle brought up so many diverse examples to show how everything came from the same place or higher power was very compelling. Being an overthinker myself, reading more about how to stop letting the mind run rampant was one of the reasons I enjoyed the book. I am glad I have been dabbing into such readings in the past months as new perspectives are important.

Links: Writing, Feminism, Disability and Media

• Writing as a Way of Life by Jamie Lee Wallace
• Weekend Edition – Ripples and Baby Steps Plus Writing Tips and Good Reads by Jamie Lee Wallace
• Living In America: Living With RapeCulture by Gretchen Kelly
• Feminist Friday Round Three: Rape by Gene’O Gordon
• Redefining Disability#8: Why Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things Aren’t Enough by Rose B. Fischer

Third AcWriMo Goal Completed!

The past few days have been busy and tiring, but I am happy to say that I am now done with my third (and final) AcWriMo goal. Indeed, I just finished writing my Star Wars: Jedi Knight paper and I am sending off to proof reading. I am very happy with how it turned out, and I am even really early, since my original plan was to write this paper sometimes in January. That means that I now only have a couple of things and projects to take care of and then I will be able to take my break next month. I can’t wait for it!

So, my AcWriMo word count is now 25,482. I will add all my blog posts to the overall count once the month is over. I’m still surprised of how much I was able to write. Of course, this won’t be 50K words like an actual NaNoWriMo, but it is a lot more than what I ever did in my failed attempts at NaNoWriMo. Thus, I feel accomplished with what I did this month! I will definitely take part again to AcWriMo next year, if I can. I know that having specific projects to work on was of great help, so I already had a to-do list, even before deciding what my goals would be.

Last Friday, I was interviewed for the French webdoc about fandom, Call Me Kate! It went really well, and I talked about vidding, the Organization for Transformative Works, and also how fannish and academic trajectories can blend at times. I can’t wait to see the finished webdoc!

I have also continued to catch up with TV and movies. I finished the single season of Painkiller Jane and I really enjoyed the episodes until the last one. I was really worried that it would end with a nasty cliffhanger, and until the final minutes of the last episode, I was biting my nails. I’m sad it didn’t last longer as I think they did a really good job at developing not only the story but also the characters and their relationships. At least, it felt “complete” to a degree, no matter how it could have benefited from more seasons.

I am still catching up with the most recent episodes of Beauty and the Beast 2012 season 2 and Lost Girl season 4. Once I am done with the two more recent, I might pick The Tomorrow People or Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. again, now that I have more than a couple episodes in store. I like being able to watch more than one or two at once. Of course, once I’m caught up I need to wait from one week until the next, as I am doing now with Beauty and the Beast 2012 and Lost Girl!

I finally got around watching The Wolverine as well. Just like with almost every other X-Men movies, I enjoyed 2/3 of it and had issues with the other 1/3. The thing is that I’m okay with it now. I was actually impressed with how they developed both female Japanese characters, as I wasn’t expecting much at first. I loved Jackman’s portrayal of Logan as always. The movie was well executed and it was great that it mostly took place in Japan. The intertextuality of the story, from visuals to dialogs, really amused me at times. Overall, I think that since the first two X-Men movies, it is my favorite – although I really enjoyed First Class. My biggest pet peeve with the movie is that the whole Jean/Logan thing really bothered me, as I never liked that couple. At all. Still, it was a good movie and once again I find myself waiting for the next movie in the franchise!

Speaking of movies, I had heard about the new Robocop movie which comes out next year, but I hadn’t given it any real attention. I saw bits and pieces of the old ones, and read about them, but I never watched them fully. Anyway, I click on the link to the international trailer for the new one this morning, when a friend retweeted it. And now I added it to my list of movies to watch when it comes out. I will spare you how my brain exploded because of multifandom-ness. And I also decided that I am going to get my hands on the three old Robocop movies because now I want to have seen them all to have a real point of comparison, and maybe plot some papers while on it!

On a final note, here is a Dana Scully tribute I made a few years ago, Praying and Fighting, the latest video of mine I posted to YouTube. I picked this one as latest addition to my channel, since I discussed this X-Files video during the interview for the webdoc.

Ever More Writing and TV Watching

While I am not partaking in NaNoWriMo – I tried once a few years ago to no success and original fiction isn’t something I’m really doing those days – I found out about AcWriMo, mostly through Dr. Narelle Lemon’s blog post about it. Since I am working on my book about Women in Science Fiction television, that is the perfect extra motivation to continue my efforts. I already did 2287 words and it is only the very beginning of the month. With how well I am doing, I believe that I will be able to go past my original goal (which was to complete one chapter only). IT is really inspiring to be that productive!

I am still catching up on TV as well, thanks to my new computer station. After finishing Continuum second season, I caught up with another show I had started this summer: Defiance. I wouldn’t say that this is a favorite show of mine, but I think they really developed the universe well over the course of the season – and I still want to try the game out at some point. The visuals are great and I am curious to see how things will unfold in the next season. I also realized that the handful of characters who really kept me invested in the show  are almost all female ones, as the list is the following:

• Amanda Rosewater
• Irisa Nyira
• Joshua Nolan
• Kenya Rosewater
• Stahma Tarr

I need to decide  which show I will catch up with next, but right now I decided to make myself suffer while continuing to work on my chapter tonight. I am watching Resident Evil: Retribution. I mean, those movies are certainly not masterpieces and rather horrible, but fun rides. But so far? Holy cow, that’s not even bad at this stage. I don’t know how people could come up with such bad stuff. At least, I’ll be able to say that I’m caught up with the movie franchise, since I never had interest in playing the video games.

To finish on a more positive note, here is my first (and so far only) Hunger Games video. I made it about a year ago, on one of my favorite songs: Senorita by Jean-Patrick Capdevielle, which I had originally vidded twice for Dana Scully from the X-Files (as it is my only case in more than eight years of vidding when I remade a video fully). The Hunger Games one is a Katniss Everdeen tribute.