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Ok, so I reorganized a bit. I have the utmost confidence y'all can figure it out.
Well, last night I began to really
understand what it means to have a journal online. Mary Anne and I read
at the Janus Society's Erotic Reading III, which was very cool, btw. But
when I met Al, the organizer of this event, he told me he was sorry to
hear about my job. I was flattered and a bit taken aback to realize he's
been reading my journals; flattered because, well, that's what they're
here for, and taken aback because I suddenly realized that I have people
reading them daily other than Mom (hi, mom!). Wow. It's a very cool and
nerve-wracking feeling. Well, more cool than nerve-wracking, really.
It's odd, though, because it subtly shifts my audience; I am now trying to
take into consideration that people reading this might not know me very
well . . .
I should have known this would happen; the day Mary Anne
linked my journal to hers the bandwith on this page tripled! Thanks for
reading, guys.
To go back to the Erotic reading: well, it was a
relief to get up in front of people and *perform* again. It's been far
too long, and I think it's something I need to do periodically for my
mental health. To get that kind of feedback from a large group of people
is such a rush; I've been doing this since I was a little girl, thanks to
dance lessons. In Franklin I was involved in theatre and poetry slams in
Indy, but out here I've been too busy with writing, working (heh) and
developing a circle of friends to find an outlet for performance. I hope
I get to do more readings out here. I need to find a weekly cafe to go to
read poetry at least.
It was also neat to see Mary Anne read, as I'd
only heard her read once, and that was while she was sitting next to me at
Bardic circle. She's very friendly with her audience, and I noted how she
didn't just pause for laughter (as I'd been taught to on the stage) but
reacted to it, smiling knowingly at her audience and joining them in it
when appropriate. I'm too much of an actress, holding for laughs without
breaking character at all; next time I'll try Mary Anne's idea of thinking
of the audience of a group of friends I'm sharing this with. Cool, eh?
She's very cute when she reads, conveying all the emotions quite honestly
until her audience is in a sort of frenzy of pent-up . . . er, well, we
know these are erotic stories, yes? She leaves her audience in *quite* a
state.
Working backwards through the weekend: Saturday was the May Day party at the house (with El yelling, "Let the workers of the world UNITE!). Very fun, the rain only spitted on the party a bit (I forgot and didn't have the energy to lead everyone in a cone of power to hold it off . . . 'sides, a large group of people in one place willing it not to rain sometimes works whether or not you're chanting) so we were outside for the first part of it. We did the Maypole, which was fun, even if we were lacking a really good May song (a personal preference). Still, we had drums and clapping. It probably itched my pagan bone rather than scratched it, but oh well.
Later on that night we watched 5th
Element, which was ok. I didn't think Milla was really all that hot, as
she's so skinny she doesn't even look female when she's naked. Oh
well.
Friday, huh, well, Mary Anne and I ran errands all day long. I
got to see Mills College, which is beautiful. Picked up my stuff from
Remedy (Pacbell fired all of them and is going with a different temp
agency - karma, man). Played a short game of truth or dare that night,
which was interesting.
And on Thurday night we went to see Ursula K. LeGuin read. Very impressive lady. Her new book, Steering the Craft gives exercises and suggestions on ways of thinking about and working on what you write. As I haven't finished it yet, I won't *recommend* it, though you should probably all go pick up a copy and see for yourselves. Heh. When she was signing my book, I'm afraid I couldn't help blurting, "I just sold my first story", and she asked to whom, and Mary Anne piped up with "Me". Then we told her it was Masquerade books, and erotica publisher. Mary Anne asked LeGuin if she'd ever written erotica, and she said no, she found it hard to even read because it was so "action based". I know what she means, but I really don't think that's what mine is about. Maybe, sometimes I'll try for that, since people like it, but for the most part I like to focus on character and emotion and inner dialogue. Mary Anne and I told her we were trying to change the face of erotica (heh, we're not *ambitious*, over-confident or anything). LeGuin sounded doubtful and I tried not be crestfallen, as she's certainly never read my work and wouldn't know what she was talking about in this area. Still, she's such a role model that it's hard not to take her word as final.
Today? Oh, well, now that I'm done with journalizing I'm off to bring eggs and milk to milady Mary Anne, who's feeding me lunch in return (not a bad trade). Transcribing stuff, writing stuff, working on my resume . . .