I had a Thinking Blogger Award that I was displaying here, but the link went dead and I have no idea how to find a new image to replace it. Ah well, I am proud to have won the award. EDIT: Someone special tracked it down for me. The Thinking Blogger Award was apparently started by this blogger in this entry, and was awarded to me on March 17, 2007, by this blogger in this entry, except I was distracted at the time, and failed to follow up with the required post in which I was supposed to award further Thinking Blogger Awards. Sue me.

Anyway, if you want me to add you, please leave a comment. I would like to have a few more LJ friends. I prefer friends who POST once in a while! ( Read more...Collapse )

I won't be quitting my day job, but it was nice to have this arrive in yesterday's mail.



Fledgling authors get warned a lot about discouragement and despair in the querying and submitting phase, and I would still consider that to be the hardest and most demoralizing slog to get through. But if, like me, you get published by a small publisher that's in no position to do promotion and marketing and advertise your book, you'll most likely face a second discouraging phase once it's actually in print and it seems like no one is reading it.

My sales didn't take off like a skyrocket, going ever-higher and higher, but they also didn't hit an initial max as all my blog readers and followers and friends obligingly went out and bought a copy and then plummet afterwards. Instead, I got a sawtooth of good sales periods interrupting the doldrums and a gradual accumulation, ultimately doing nearly twice as well as I thought I was doing. Later, I'll do an analysis to see if (as expected) the upticks in sales corresponded to when I did author readings or had new ads out.

This is for the first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet. In the most recent months reported, sales have fallen off as my attention (and blogging and advertising) has mostly focused on the second book. But I'm releasing combo ads that tout the two books as a continuing tale (which is true) so maybe that will fuel another good month or two for the first book.


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My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.


My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback. eBook version and hardback versions to follow, stay tuned for details.



Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for GenderQueer now and for Guy in Women's Studies once they come out.

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This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.

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Index of all Blog Posts

https://laconm.libcal.com/event/8105228

Mesa Public Library, from which I used to check out books when I was a kid, is hosting me to read from GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, lecture for about 20 minutes, and then open it up for questions and discussion.

This will be the first event of its sort to be hosted in Los Alamos, the place where the majority of the action in the book takes place.

They want folks to register for the event in advance so as to know how many people will be in attendance, so if you're interested, please click through!

It's October 7, at 7 PM Mountain time, aka 9 PM Eastern time.



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The book in question, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, was published by Sunstone Press in Spring 2020. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.


My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, is also being published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It's expected to be released in early 2022. Stay tuned for further details.



Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page

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This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.

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Index of all Blog Posts
comments at Dreamwidth -- https://ahunter3.dreamwidth.org/80991.html#comments

Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXzNyCf4aI


THE PANELISTS

Esther Lemmens -- Esther is the founder of the Fifty Shades of Gender podcast, where she gets curious about all things gender, sex and sexuality, exploring stories from gender-diverse folks with inclusion, acceptance and respect.

https://www.fiftyshadesofgender.com/

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Ann Menasche -- Ann is a radical lesbian-feminist and socialist activist and a founding member of the radical feminist organization, Feminists in Struggle.

https://feministstruggle.org/

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Rachel Lange -- Rachel Lange is the editor of QueerPGH, and a freelance writer and editor. They live in Pittsburgh, PA.

https://www.queerpgh.com/

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Moderator: Cassandra Lems

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You're secluded in quarantine, and all the performances and events have been cancelled, so it's a good time to read a book!

My book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, has been published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.


Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page

———————

This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.

————————


Index of all Blog Posts
comments at Dreamwidth -- https://ahunter3.dreamwidth.org/72847.html#comments

Kramers Bookstore of Washington DC is convening a panel discussion of my March 2020 Book GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, hosted on the Zoom platform, on January 16 at 2 PM Eastern Standard Time.

PANELISTS

Esther Lemmens -- Esther is the founder of the Fifty Shades of Gender podcast, where she gets curious about all things gender, sex and sexuality, exploring stories from gender-diverse folks with inclusion, acceptance and respect.

Ann Menasche -- Ann is a radical lesbian-feminist and socialist activist and a founding member of the radical feminist organization, Feminists in Struggle.

Rachel Lange -- Rachel Lange is the editor of QueerPGH, and a freelance writer and editor. They live in Pittsburgh, PA.




Panelists will critique and discuss GenderQueer for half an hour, then I will join them for further discussion of any issues that have been highlighted. Guests can pose questions or make comments at the end.


Topic: Kramers Hosts a Panel Discussion of Allan Hunter's *GenderQueer*
Time: Jan 16, 2021 12:45 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89677508850?pwd=aTBTekVoWVhsSXZzQ3lSS1FyazRmdz09

Meeting ID: 896 7750 8850
Passcode: 901259
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kducsyRNSK



Kramers will be publicizing it on their media


———————

You're secluded in quarantine, and all the performances and events have been cancelled, so it's a good time to read a book!

My book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, has been published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.


Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page

———————

This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. Please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.

————————


Index of all Blog Posts
comments at Dreamwidth -- https://ahunter3.dreamwidth.org/72558.html#comments

In a rare public post, I am setting forth my answers to the Friday Five questions. Friends who know me, try not to reveal too much about me if you comment.

1. What could you do for an hour or so today that you would really enjoy doing? Eat Italian food! Also possible devote a little time to needlework.

2. What could you do for an hour today that might improve your life in the future? I could job hunt, and I really SHOULD job hunt. I may do this but tomorrow, not today. Today is a day for taking things easy.

3. What could you do for an hour today that could strengthen or improve a skill you would like to be able to rely on? This is actually tough for me to answer, even though I wrote these questions myself. I will think about it. The thing is, I can't think of a skill I want to improve. Oh -- maybe sight singing.

4. What could you do for an hour today that would make your living space more pleasant to live in? I have been doing this one in ten minute increments: cleaning the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, washing pots and items that can't go in the dishwasher, and sooner or later I will wipe down the countertops, which really really need it.

5. What could you do for an hour today that would improve your relationships with loved ones? I could call my mother to thank her for the birthday money (will do), I could thank the relatives who sent me birthday cards, and I could pay special attention to my love. Probably will do all of these.

Since I've been back at work, I've missed the many cocktails we used to make and enjoy at home. Somehow we just revert to the same old same old drinks, because it's a bit of trouble to find new recipes, make sure we have the ingredients, and mix them up. So recently I decided to institute Saturday Cocktails -- a special new cocktail to try out each Saturday. (Sadly, we are going to do Mocktail February this year, so it will be Saturday Mocktails for a while. I will miss drinking alcohol!)

This past Friday I decided we should try out our Saturday Cocktail immediately after the choir "dress rehearsal" with orchestra -- because it is exhausting to stand and sing all night, and we deserved a treat. This one was a hit! We drank many, many of these from Friday until even tonight, when I am currently drinking one after work, by myself because A. is at Alice's.

Note many recipes for this drink call for twice as much coffee liqueur as the following recipe. A. and I both think that would be too sweet, but suit yourself if you're going to try this one. Without further ado:

MIND ERASER

In a rocks glass filled with ice, pour 1 ounce coffee liqueur (e.g., Kahlua) and then float 2 ounces of vodka on top, pouring down the side of the glass so it stays separate. Top with 2 ounces club soda (we use seltzer), poured down the side of the glass the same way. Drink it down using two short straws.

Mind you, we are anti-plastic straw in this household, but we made an exception for this recipe because we had some long plastic straws on hand, and I cut them in half for this recipe. And we wash and reuse them until they disintegrate.

And now I think I'll have another.

This entry was originally posted at http://anais-pf.dreamwidth.org/. Friends can comment here or there using OpenID.

-- this is the email notification I've gotten a few times about a few entries:

"1 user(s) likes this - «Birthday Gifts from Allan»

"Read the latest LiveJournal news at http://news.livejournal.com/

"If you’d like to unsubscribe from this notification, please click here."

So, I can't see WHO liked the entry, and I think it's kind of pointless for me to know that SOMEONE liked the entry, so I unsubscribed. So "like" away on my entries, but I won't see that you did. To see who liked an entry, I believe that one either has to have a LJ paid account OR one has to have the kind of LJ account that allows advertising to trample all over one's friends page and one's own entries. I have a basic account so apparently I don't get to see who liked stuff. Which, by the way, is fine -- I think it's just another step in the Facebookization of LJ, which I had to see.

More later.

Dear LiveJournal friend,

When LiveJournal notifies me that your birthday is coming up, and I don't know you personally and I can't remember seeing any posts by you recently, and you never comment, and I am not all that attached to you through your storytelling or comments or friendship in the past, I am likely to cut you from my friends list. This doesn't mean I'm angry with you, it just means I don't like having people on my friends list who aren't acting like friends, even within the weird context of social media "friending." If in the future you discover you have been cut, feel free to write to me or comment here and ask to be refriended. But honestly, if you're not going to write here and you're not even reading my stuff, why bother?

On the other hand, there are a few people I've friended who never friended me back, who I keep on my list anyway because I'm interested in what they have to say. Most of those people are famous or infamous. It's arbitrary.

Fear not -- I don't cut people with whom I actually interact on LiveJournal or elsewhere, and I don't cut people for merely disagreeing with me.

Signed,

Anais

Originally posted by versailles_rose at USA Folk - Register to Vote!

Originally posted by mallorys_camera at LJ Friending Meme

I think it's important for those of us who still use and enjoy LiveJournal, with its unique characteristics, to answer this post, which seems to be part of a sincere effort on the part of the new owners of LJ to improve it while retaining the characteristics that are most appreciated by its users. Click through to the original post to answer this.

Originally posted by theljstaff at How do you use LiveJournal?

I found out how to switch my LJ home page, etc., back to the way it was! This didn't completely change EVERYTHING back but most of the annoying stuff is gone. I'm sure it will be back permanently later on, but meanwhile, if anyone else wants to know:

Go to the home page (livejournal.com) and up at the top right there should be a magnifying glass icon. If there is a question mark in it, click on that and it might say "switch back." I dunno . . . for me, I had to click on the EMPTY SPACE to the LEFT of that magnifying glass and then I got a pull-down menu (I hate pull-down menus!) that allowed me to click on "switch back to the old version." Well, hooray for now. By the way, I learned all this by reading a friend's English translation of a post about this in Russian. Apparently the LJ Overlords no longer care about us English-speaking users.

Yeah, I know I haven't written much here lately. But I've been reading.

This format change is such bullshit. Things I care about are hard to find, things in which I have no interest are even more in my face (top blogs, anyone? I do NOT CARE about celebrity gossip blogs or stuff in Russian!) -- speaking of which, it now says "my blog" instead of "my journal." This pisses me off. All of it. Fucking LiveJournal. Grrrrrr. Oh and this ENORMOUS amount of white space and little roundy corners? Sucks. Sucks. Sucks.

/rant

Questions from today's thefridayfive.

1. Would you sell your soul to the devil and what would it take? No way, no how.

2. Who do you think will be the first 5 people you meet in heaven? If there is a heaven, the 5 people should be my father and my four grandparents. That's assuming that nobody more important dies before I do. However, I find the whole idea of meeting people in heaven to be highly implausible.

3. Is life more fair to some then others? Life is unfair. Of course it's more fair to some than others.

4. Do you think some people are just born unhappy? That could very well be. I think it's a sliding scale and some people have different set points from other people.

5. If you could have a magical power, (like the charmed ones) what would it be? Having vaguely heard of a television show called Charmed, I went and looked it up on Wikipedia. Huh, sounds like the show might actually have been good. Never saw it. Maybe I should get some DVDs of it from the library. Anyway, I can't decide between premonition and telekenisis. It seems as though premonition might be more valuable, but I'm not sure. Premonition is certainly a logical magical power for me, based on my name.

A Shropshire Lad II: Loveliest of Trees

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A. E. Housman 1859 – 1936

From thefridayfive

Spring is here and Summer must be right around the corner. Let's get wet!

1. Do you like to swim? Yes, I do. It's my most preferred form of exercise.
2. Do you prefer salt or fresh water to swim in? Fresh water, because salt water stings my eyes, and because salt water is usually moving around too much for "serious" swimming. However, I do love the ocean and I like playing in the waves.
3. Have you ever snorkeled or scuba dived? Yes yes yes! Both are wonderful! Especially in tropical waters where the sea life is fascinating. It has been too long. I need to figure out how to get to the tropics, or at least the sub-tropics, sometime within the next year or so.
4. What is your favorite beach food? Food that's eaten at or near the beach, I guess? Conch fritters, I suppose, if they're done right (not too chewy, not too greasy). Or soft-serve ice cream cones, half chocolate, half vanilla.
5. What does your favorite beach towel look like? It's blue and faded because it's at least 30 years old, and it has tropical fish on it, of course.

Originally posted by gloriabrame at Were you given insulin at South Nassau Hospital?

These questions were written by lillibet in the LJ community thefridayfive and posted there by me. :)

1. How many hours of sleep do you like to get in a night? Apparently my body wants nine whole hours a night. At nine hours, I am rested, calm, even-tempered and cheerful.
2. How many hours of sleep can you survive on indefinitely? I have gone for very long periods on seven hours a night. Any less and I get really snarly. It was wonderful to find out that's not my true personality. :)
3. Do you enjoy napping? No. I only nap when I know I had better nap or else, if you know what I mean; or when I am so exhausted that I really should be going to sleep for nine hours.
4. The average amount of time it takes a person to fall asleep is seven minutes--do you tend to need more or less time than that? When I finally turn off the lights and put my head down, I am usually asleep within what feels like seconds. It's probably three or four minutes.
5. If you were offered a pill that would enable you to sleep only two hours out of every twenty-four and remain fully functional, but you could never sleep more than that, would you take it? Assuming my body could still fully self-repair and my brain could reset itself and whatever else mysteriously happens during sleep, I would be very tempted to take it. Could I have a trial period, please?

I'm not very good at remember what happened in which year, even in my personal life, much less in public events. This song reminded me of some of the important and not-so-important things that happened this year. I have loved this guy ever since he and his girlfriend posted their break-up song. (It's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoXtkK9d33o)



My own personal summary for the year may follow in a week or so. I've got some work to do on it. Meanwhile, happy holidays to you all!