Current status: no power at home, so an early dinner out with David instead of our planned cooking. https://ift.tt/2T0Cx3j

Gradually putting more on the bar… https://ift.tt/2To1Nlt

I bless your timeline with inside out Fezzik! #cat https://ift.tt/39Q0Esz

Oswin’s in the laundry basket. https://ift.tt/2IWsKXi

Today’s walk ended just as a few drops of rain fell. https://ift.tt/2xhdL7X

Thanks to Crayola for animating one of my Broken Crayon pieces! Special thanks to Crayola's Kate Loffio for being so supportive of me and my work.

Meanwhile, I am sooooooo excited about the upcoming launch of GURPLE & PREEN, a broken crayon picture book written by Linda Sue Park and illustrated by me, published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers! I'll be posting more info on my Broken Crayon resource page when it's available.

 

Finding it a challenge to carve out time for your writing because of other work or life commitments? I encourage you to join me in my Daily Writing Challenge. Even 100 words a day adds up! I also have an Inkygirl Daily Writing Challenge Facebook Page.

One of my goals in 2020 is to not only be more diligent about writing something FIRST THING in the day, but also not to be so picky about what I write (social media posts don't count, though :-)).

Reason: Last year, I was always trying to work on my middle grade novel first thing in the morning. While my goal of morning writing worked sometimes, there were many mornings when I just had too much going on. I'd be distracted because I'd be on the road, or have morning appointments, be stressed about book illustration deadlines.

As a result, I ended up NOT writing many mornings. That fed into my growing overall frustration at my lack of progress, and eventually I just gave up.

Keep in mind that I never have trouble focusing on contracted book work. If someone is expecting work from me and I have a deadline, that's one thing. My middle grade novel project, however, tend to always be shoved to the back burner. Part of the reason, I know, is psychological. In the stupid part of my brain: "Once I finish writing and revising, I'll have to start sending them out into the world, and what if I end up getting nothing but rejections again?" 

But I'm also aware that I've spent so many years focusing on illustration work that my writing muscles still feel rusty, and that's feeding into my whole "but what if I can't write anymore" insecurities.

The solution, I think, is that I need to write a LOT more, and on a daily basis, even if it's not writing for my middle grade novels. I like what Jeff Goins said in his post, My Morning Routine In 10 Simple Steps. After breakfast every morning, he writes something.

From the Goinswriter.com article on a morning routine:

This can be a blog post, book chapter, article, or just some random notes to myself. For me, it’s not about what I write as much as it is important just to write. Usually, I wrote around 1000 words; sometimes less, sometimes more.

I've started to do this as well. Sometimes I write by hand in one of my Rhodia hardbound journals (also an excuse to use one of my fountain pens), sometimes I write on the computer. Sometimes poetry, a sentence or two from an imaginary story that doesn't (yet) exist, stream-of-consciousness first-person of one of the characters in my book, sometimes a blog post.

Do you do morning writing? Do you have a life that makes finding writing time a challenge? Feel free to post below.

Happy launch day to DIANA: PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS, the newest in the DC Zoom line of graphic novels for middle graders. Written by Shannon & Dean Hale and illustrated by Victoria Ying. Thanks to Michele Wells at DC Kids for sending me a copy!

For more of my book collages, feel free to browse my BookADay Padlet as well as my BookADay and Book Recommendation archives. I read a lot more books than I have time to post, especially now that I've joined the Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge!

Advice for those who are trying to get published or who want a longterm career in the publishing industry: you need to develop a thick hide when it comes to criticism. 

No matter what stage you are in your career, if you are putting yourself and your work out there for people to see (whether it's agents or editors or art directors or reviewers or other readers), you WILL get criticism. It might be criticism in the form of critiques from a trusted group of writer or illustrator friends. It might be a form rejection letter or detailed rejection letter. Even after you get a contract, you will be getting feedback and change requests from your editor or art director. After your book comes out, some people will not like your book -- and some of those people may be reviewers.

If you are sensitive to harsh judgement, you need to find a way to cope with this early on if you want to stay in the game. Just don't do it in public!

For critiques of your work, never make changes right away. This is especially important for those who are insecure about their own skills! Let the feedback sit for at least a day or two (longer if you can wait), THEN come back to it with more objectivity. Do you agree with the feedback? Don't blindly make a change to your manuscript if you don't agree or understand why.

And never, ever respond to negative reviews in public.

Some useful resources:

Gail Carson Levine has great advice about how to take criticism, particularly from a critique.

11 Writers On How They Deal With Criticism - by Jason Diamond.

6 Top Tips For Dealing With Criticism Of Your Writing - from WritersEdit. This piece advises AGAINST reading all (if any) of your reviews in Goodreads and other places geared toward readers; I've heard this piece of advice from a prominent author in her workshop as well.

Deal With Criticism Like A Pro - by Bryan Collins on WritetoDone. This advice is mainly geared toward negative feedback from an editor; Bryan is a nonfiction freelance writer.

Writers & illustrators: It's tough sometimes (especially on social media re: publication news, book lists, awards etc), but try very hard to RESIST COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS. Focus on enjoying your own journey. You may be luckier than you think.

Happy launch day to Marcie Colleen, whose THE BEAR'S GARDEN with Alison Oliver launches from Imprint/Macmillan today!

Marcie Colleen is the award-winning picture book author of Penguinaut! (illustrated by Emma Yarlett) and Love, Triangle (illustrated by Bob Shea), as well as the Super Happy Party Bears chapter book series. She teaches Writing Children’s Picture Books for the University of California at San Diego both online and on campus, and runs her own Study Hall conducting a month-long online critique group dedicated to the crafting picture books. Find out more about how you can study with Marcie at thisismarciecolleen.com and on Twitter at @MarcieColleen1.

*UPDATE: Marcie has also launched her SUPER HAPPY Book Club on her YouTube channel, especially for families at home during school closures!

Launching March 24, 2020, THE BEAR'S GARDEN is written by Marcie Colleen and illustrated by Alison Oliver. You can read reviews of the book on Kirkus (starred review!) and Bookroo.

Author: Marcie Colleen
Illustrator: Alison Oliver
Publisher: Imprint/Macmillan Children’s

SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the true story of a community garden in Brooklyn, New York, picture book The Bear’s Garden is a testament to how imagination and dedication can transform communities and create beauty for everyone in unexpected places.

A little girl sees an empty lot in a city and imagines what it can be:

a place to grow,
a place to play,
and a place to love.

With the help of her stuffed bear, the girl brings her community together to create a beautiful garden.

Q. What inspired you to write this book?

The Bear’s Garden was inspired by the real-life Pacific Street Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden in my former neighborhood in New York City. The name always puzzled me—I mean, we didn’t have bears wandering around Brooklyn last I checked!

Come to find out, the garden was named for a teddy bear that was found in the weeds when the workers began to create a garden in the abandoned lot. Of course, immediately I started thinking of that little bear. How did he get there? Did he belong to anyone? Was he placed there on purpose?

The Bear’s Garden is my imaginative story about how the teddy bear came to be in those weeds. It’s also a love letter to my former neighborhood and the power of community that I felt while living there. I am the girl who finds love and beauty in every inch of that urban paradise

Q. As an experienced author, how do you manage your time in terms of balancing your creative work time with the business side (promotion, admin, school visits etc), yet still have a life outside work?

While everything I do, such as teaching and creating Teacher’s Guides, falls under the umbrella of being a full-time children’s author, I have struggled in the past to find time for my own creative writing. It seems my days get quickly overrun.

However, about a year ago I paired up with a fellow author friend, Kirsten Larson, to prioritize our writing projects. We get up at 5:20 every morning to write for an hour. The alarm goes off, we text each other a quick “Good Morning” and share our project goals for that session, grab our coffee, and set to write until 6:30 without distraction. At 6:30 we check in again with our progress. It’s been a game-changer. I think I have written more in the last year because of it. And it’s a fantastic way to feel accomplished no matter what the rest of the day brings.

Q. What advice do you have for young writers?

I have always loved reading and writing stories.

A few years back I found a book I had written in elementary school. It’s called Rainbow Hunt. And in the back of the book I found an Author’s Note I had written. It said,

“Marcie Goldstein lives in Liverpool, NY and loves to write books. Someday she hopes to be a successful author.”

So, my advice to young writers everywhere would be, know that your dreams can come true. Even if people say it’s a long-shot. I’m living proof. So keep reading, keep writing, and never stop dreaming.

Q. Anything else you'd like to mention? What are you excited about these days?

Despite the recent global health crisis that has left us all indoors, I am excited to see how we will learn to build more community within our lives—even virtually. The creativity and innovation that has developed in the last few weeks has been extraordinarily inspiring. Like flowers between the pavement cracks, we will find ways. And a lot of beauty is going to grow from this.

 --

For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive. Also see Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, a compilation of tips generously offered by children's book creators I've interviewed over the years.

Donalyn Miller's #BookADay Challenge is usually in the summer. After talking with people on Twitter and Facebook, Donalyn (happily) decided to hold a Coronavirus social distancing #BookADay challenge, so that readers who miss talking with other readers can gather and share.

You can see the "official" #bookaday guidelines on the Nerdy Book Club blog.

GIVEAWAY (U.S. only): Karla is giving away a copy of Marie Curie And The Power Of Persistence, written by Karla Valenti and illustrated by Annalisa Beghelli! *** ENTER HERE ***

Karla Arenas Valenti was born and raised in Mexico. Since then she has put down roots in a number of countries she now calls home: Japan, France, Germany, and the U.S. where she lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband and three kids. She writes picture books and middle grade novels. You can find out more about Karla at www.karlavalenti.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter @KV_writes.

I asked Karla to describe her book, and here's what she replied:

My Super Science Heroes is a picture book series for children ages 4-8. The series focuses on key scientists, but rather than defining those scientists by what they did (their achievements), we are choosing to highlight who they were (the traits that made those achievements possible).

This distinction is important as it allows readers (young and old) to re-frame what it means to “succeed” - in other words, you do not need to be a genius or Nobel-prize winner in order to be a hero in your own life. Arguably, what makes someone a hero is how they make use of their own “super powers” in pursuit of their dreams.

And what are these super powers?

The first one we chose to highlight is persistence.

Throughout her personal and professional life, Marie Curie encountered many societal and institutional limitations that threatened to block her progress. Rather than telling our young readers about these challenges, however, we chose to show them. Enter Mr. Opposition, a character designed to embody these counterforces and give Marie a chance to prove her persistence to all her fans and readers.

In this way, Marie’s ultimate success and notable achievements are not presented as the inevitable result of a gifted mind. Rather, we are honoring the tremendous effort she exhibited in never giving up on her dreams, a super power indeed.

Our next book focuses on the power of curiosity, exemplified by Alan Turing and his minion, Miss Enigma (due out Jan 2021).

My Super Science Heroes is unlike any other children’s book series focusing on historical figures, and we hope it will inspire countless of young scientists (and non-scientists) as they develop their own super powers.

Q: How did MARIE CURIE AND THE POWER OF PERSISTENCE get published?

This is a story about the unexpected surprises that come our way when we are open to any (and sometimes unconventional) opportunities.

I was living in Europe at the time, and a friend forwarded an open call for story submissions run by a non-profit science association. The Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) was looking for a creative way to raise funds to support their science initiatives, so they launched a contest for picture book submissions. The topic was a story about Marie Curie, but told in a way that would excite young readers about science

As a fiction writer, I was hesitant at first to submit a story on a non-fiction topic. However, I also viewed this as an opportunity to flex my creative wings, so I took the challenge and wrote a story about Marie Curie... the super hero.

As I researched her life, it became clear that, while she certainly accomplished a great deal as a scientist, her most notable achievement was her unwavering persistence in facing a number of challenges throughout her life. Persistence! A skill highly valued in the scientific community (and one present in all of us).

What if the book was about Marie Curie using her power of persistence to achieve great things in the scientific world?

What if she had an evil nemesis who lived in a craggy cave deep underground, and whose sole purpose was preventing the spread of knowledge?

What if he sent his minion, Mr. Opposition, to stop Marie in her heroic journey?

Thus was born the My Super Science Heroes series.

It was an unconventional premise, but I decided to submit the story. To my tremendous surprise, I won!

Working with Micaela Crespo Quesada (a super scientist herself) and the MCAA association, we identified the perfect illustrator for the project, Annalisa Beghelli. Her artwork brilliantly captured the super hero themes we wanted to explore. In a true collaboration, the three of us worked to bring this project to life.

Initially, the project was going to be funded exclusively through a global crowdsourcing campaign. Not only did we exceed our goal by 20%, but a couple weeks into the campaign, we received an offer by Kelly Barrales-Saylor at Sourcebooks for world rights.

Fast forward to today as we celebrate the world publication on April 7th of Marie Curie and the Power of Persistence.

Q. What advice do you have for young writers?

In a perhaps not-so-ironic twist, the most valuable piece of advice I can offer is to believe in the power of persistence. And I hesitate to say this is only relevant to young writers (since I myself only learned this as a writer after many years).

The journey I have taken to get to this point has not been a short (or always-joyful) one. Indeed, it has been more agonizing than not, more heart-breaking than uplifting, and certainly taken a lot longer than I expected.

There have been plenty of opportunities for me to give up and walk away (and if I'm honest, there have been moments in my life where I've had to do that). However, I am fiercely proud of this story because it feels like a real badge of honor; a testament to the courage it takes to pick up your "pen" and keep putting words to paper, despite everything standing in your way.

The truth is, we all have our own version of Mr. Opposition, and we all must do battle with the nemesis that intends to bring us down. But word by word, line by line, we can persist. That is no small thing.

--

For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive. Also see Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, a compilation of tips generously offered by children's book creators I've interviewed over the years.

I am so glad someone is doing this zine! I have been trying to find time to try and put together this exact thing!
Please submit!!!
It's Down to This

For info and submissions contact: responsezine@gmail.com

“It’s Down to This” is a new zine compilation that aims to give space to step back, take a deep breath and reflect on where we’re at.

Reflecting on our experiences with community accountability processes, survivor support, or general efforts to cultivate community response to sexual violence- this is a space to talk about our experiences with this work, what we have learned, where we want to go from here, what we feel, what we want others to be able to hear, see, think about, engage with.

It is an attempt to further give voice to our efforts and experiences in doing this work, to give space and voice to silence. To know and hear how we have survived in this work, how we have sustained this work, or why we burned out. To further document our attempts at figuring out what community accountability looks like, or what it even is. To be able to reflect and grow from our mistakes and epiphanies.

SEEKING: stories, essays, interviews, comics, artwork and thoughts reflecting on working around accountability and community response to sexual violence:

What has it looked like? What has it entailed? What could it look like? Who does it involve? In what ways? How is a community responsible? How is a community involved? What can an accountability process look like? What has it looked like? What works? What doesn’t? What were the fuck-ups, the successes?

*These questions are asked with the assumption that confidentiality will be respected and that stories will not be shared if they are not yours to share.

*The word ‘community’ is used with the awareness that it is often used problematically.

Looking for submissions that:

- explore the importance of accountability and support work as an act of community building and collective liberation, that express the importance of this work within social justice movements.

-reflect on the support, empowerment, recovery and growth that have come out of this work

-reflect on the pain, trauma and frustration of this work or which is inherent in this work.

-develop ideas and methods of sustainability around this work

-look at the social and political contexts in which community accountability and response to sexual violence and partner abuse grows and exists.

-share our stories

Anonymity and confidentiality will be respected.

DEADLINE: October 22nd, 2010

For info and submissions contact: responsezine@gmail.com

Feel free to send in ideas/proposals and ask for feedback!

This is a zine an amazing aquaintance of mine is putting together.
Please send your stories to: polypatriarchyzine@gmail.com, or mail them to 4951 Catharine St., Philadelphia, PA 19143.


Polyamory and Patriarchy Zine Questionnaire

These questions are for a zine I’m writing about polyamory and patriarchy. So often, people feel either that polyamory is the only revolutionary way to be intimate, or the worst way. I’d like to hear what you’ve learned from polyamory – ways it felt liberatory, and ways it may have felt like familiar oppressive gender roles dressed up in revolutionary language. My agenda isn’t to discredit polyamory, but to identify how much we have to learn about truly liberatory relationships.
These questions are fairly personal and ask you to revisit some painful memories, so please take your time, answer only what you feel comfortable answering, and let me know how you want your anonymity protected. Please use pseudonyms! Do give me contact info, though, if you want to review how I use your material before the zine is published.

1. Let’s start with gender. What gender roles did you learn from your family of origin? From the media? From your chosen community? How do you express gender now – is it different than how you were socialized to express gender?

2. What were your reasons for first trying polyamory? Was it your idea or a partner’s? Did you have any models in your community for successful polyamorous relationships?

3. What was the most empowering experience you’ve had in polyamory?

4. What was the hardest situation to handle in a polyamorous relationship? Looking back, what would you have done differently, if anything?

5. What kinds of insecurities did polyamory raise? Did they concern your gender or body image? How did you handle these insecurities?

6. How have you felt most empowered in polyamory? How has it felt expansive, liberatory, or healing?

7. Do you have a different kind of intimacy with lovers than with friends? Who are you more likely to turn to for emotional support?

8. How do your expectations change based on what kind of relationship you’re in? Do you have different standards of behavior for partners and lovers?

9. Has polyamory ever made you feel silenced, or unable to ask for what you needed?
What have your relationships with your lover’s other lovers been like? How have you handled feelings of jealousy and competition? How have you handled your partner’s jealousy?

10. Tell me a little about your best relationship, polyamorous or otherwise, and what made it work so well.

11. Today, what is your ideal relationship?

12. Do you want to see the zine before it’s published? Do you want a copy mailed to you? If so, let me know how to reach you.

Please send your stories to: polypatriarchyzine@gmail.com, or mail them to 4951 Catharine St., Philadelphia, PA 19143.

I also welcome your analysis and thoughts about sexual politics, polyamory, and this project – thanks!

Sassy and Peanut

Here is Microcosm's statement and my response.

Microcosm's Statement:
It has been way too long since Cindy Crabb asked us to write a public statement regarding allegations of Joe Biel’s history of emotional abuse and manipulation. It is not because we have chosen to ignore this issue. On the contrary, we have spent many hours discussing this topic. But we are not writing today to provide excuses. We hope to provide some answers and to encourage more questions.

Cindy is right that collectives need to confront abuse in all its forms by members within their collectives, even if it is just a collectively-ran business, but especially when that business lays claim to radical politics. It is for this reason that we want to say that we do recognize Joe’s history of emotional abuse and manipulation. Not just with Alex, but within other relationships as well. We know that Joe has been involved in one failed mediation attempt with Alex. We also know that he was involved in a more recent process that fell apart (this was outlined in posts by Cindy and Alex). Unfortunately, the collective was made aware of this latter accountability process only shortly before it fell apart. We, the collective and Joe, have recently started working with a counselor who is helping us to reconcile many issues within the collective. We do not believe this is a replacement for a larger accountability process, but we do see it as an important first step for our involvement and for the betterment of Microcosm as a collectively-ran company.

We recognize and agree with the statement put out by the Athens Support Network, who mediated the last accountability process.

“Joe is in therapy, and we feel that he is making progress through therapy. He has identified a large number of behavior issues and has done work and continues to do work to change them. He believes that he honors Alex’s experience. We, however, feel that he still has extreme problems with control, manipulation, defensiveness, and portraying himself as the victim.”
We have noticed some positive improvements in Joe’s behavior, but he does have a long way to go. We do believe that he can work through this and therefore choose, at this time, to continue working with him. We welcome suggestions on how we, the collective, can better facilitate this process. In the meantime, we will continue to work through this and figure things out as we go.

Cindy also pointed out that she would like more transparency about how things are run at microcosm. For that reason, we will soon be releasing some information on our website about how we run things. We honestly want to be a more transparent organization (which is why we’ve started posting annual financial statements). Over the past year, we have begun to change and implement a lot of new policies to help spread power among all of the collective members. We are excited about these changes and equally excited to share them with you.

Alex was right in that we need to hear from you. We know that Microcosm could be better and we want it to be so. For that reason, we need to know what it is that you think we need to fix. We’ve already heard some great things and we’ve worked to improve those. We’ll share more about that later, though. We want the focus to stay where Cindy and others have asked us to focus it for now - on Joe’s accountability.

Thank you Cindy, Alex, Ciara, and everyone who has put pressure on us to make change. It is a wonderful example of collective action. And we hope it proves that while we may be relatively large in the zine world, we are still just a small group of people who still love the community we are a part of and hope to make it a better place.

With sincerity and humility,
The Microcosm Collective


In response to Microcosms statement about Joes manipulative and abusive behavior.

This statement is to let it be known that despite Microcosms recent public statement finally acknowledging Joe Biel’s abusive and manipulative behavior, I will not be distributing Doris though Microcosm any longer. They published Doris 23, the Doris Anthology, the Support zine and Learning Good Consent, so I don’t have control of those publications.

In July, 2010, I asked Microcosm to write a statement, or have each collective member contact me with a personal statement, as a precondition to my continuing to work with them. I was following my sincere belief that organizations should have a chance to admit to the abusive behaviors of members, and that as long as they show a commitment to change, they should not necessarily be shunned. Below is part of the statement I made.

I believe that collectives, even when they are just collective businesses, are responsible for confronting issues of patriarchy (and other forms of domination) within their collectives, and working on change and transparency. I believe that Joe's behavior stems from patriarchy … the communication/manipulation models he uses are … patriarchtical.
In order to feel comfortable continuing to be published by Microcosm, I would need to know either from each collective member or from the collective as a whole (with a minority dissenting opinion) that they don't think Alex was crazy or that the attempts to deal with the situation are a witch-hunt. I would need to know from each member, or the collective as a whole (with a minority dissenting opinion,) that the collective recognizes that Joe still has issues with control and manipulation… I need to feel like the collective takes this seriously and does not put the burden of instigating change on the survivor/s, or on people negatively affected by Joe's behavior.

I do believe there are good people who work at Microcosm. I don’t want those people to suffer because of Joe’s behavior. I wanted to give the workers at Microcosm a chance to show their commitment to confronting Joe’s manipulative behavior, and a chance to make a strong stance against abuse. The statement that was recently released by Microcosm is too little, too late. I can’t believe it took 6 months to write a statement that could easily be summed up as “we agree with the statement made by the Athens Support Network.” Microcosm’s statement gives the impression that Joe has made more changes than he has.

I was hopeful that Microcosm might be able to take a strong stand against abuse. I feel like they failed. If this statement had come out immediately, and they had followed up with concrete examples of change months later, that would have been great. If they had waited six months and come up with a statement that firmly placed the responsibility of change on Joe’s feet, discussed concrete changes the collective was making to deal with his abusive behavior, and took a strong stand against abuse, that would have been great. This statement is very weak, particularly considering that Joe’s abuse has been known for years.

There have also been a number of incidents and issues that have come up since I made my request for a public statement that have contributed to my decision to not work with Microcosm anymore:

- I had asked that a public statement be made or that each collective member contact me with a statement about their beliefs. I received two statements, both of which referred to problems between Joe and Alex; neither called it abuse.

- Joe wrote a statement about his behavior, which I found extremely disturbing. Among other problems, it was very minimizing of Alex’s experiences of abuse, and minimizing of the extent of his current manipulative behavioral problems.

- I had a number of business discussions with people at Microcosm, where the communication was unclear and I felt like I was being manipulated.

- I was told by someone at Microcosm that they were unclear what exactly Microcosm would need to do for me to continue working with them. This was months after I had made these conditions known. Often, in accountability situations, the perpetrator and the people who benefit from continued friendship/relationship with the perpetrator want to know exactly what needs to be done to fix it. This need for an exact recipe puts the burden back on the survivor/people who support the survivor.

All of these things have added to my feeling that the collective is not taking Joe’s abusive patterns seriously.

I would like to take this chance to clear up some misconceptions about the accountability process I was involved in with Joe:

In late 2009, Joe told me that he had been in intensive therapy, had changed, and had no way of clearing his name. I helped set up an accountability team that was designed to confirm that Joe had recognized and changed his behavior; to help him deal with rumors, and to help him make amends. It was not designed to be a full accountability process.

Early on, it became clear that Joe still had very abusive/manipulative behaviors and that he was unwilling to own up to most of it. Joe had lied about the level of changes he had made. Because of this, the accountability process was disbanded.

I am disgusted by Joe’s abuse of his former partner, disgusted by his continuing manipulative behavior. I do not think he has even begun to make the kinds of fundamental changes necessary. I take abuse very seriously and while I think there are some people in Microcosm who are committed to working for a world without abuse, I also think there is complicity within the organization. I have been disturbed by my recent interactions with people working at Microcosm. I am glad they made a public statement, and that they have a counselor helping them deal with internal issues but am skeptical about their priorities, since they have not posted their public statement on their website. I feel mistrustful of the organization. I have a hard time not thinking that most people just signed on to the statement, hoping to save their pants. I understand that they have been working to be more transparent. I hope that they are able to change. I, however, will not be working with Microcosm any longer.

I'm working on doing more selling zines direct to stores, and since I haven't been traveling around much lately, I need your help! Let me know if you know of any stores that carry zines! I already sell directly to some - like Woodenshoe, Red Emmas, City Lights, Powells, Bound Together, Needles and Pens, Downtown Books and News, Quimbys... but I know there are a lot more stores out there that I don't know about.
Thanks!!

I only have 8 more pages to write for the Doris Encyclopedia, which is Doris 19-27 plus a bunch of new writing, interviews, and articles I wrote for MaximumRockandRpll and other zines! I'm taking pre-orders on a fundraising website called Kickstarter. click here to link
Spread the word!
thanks so much!!!
It's scheduled to be printed by the end of July!!!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/369768719/the-doris-encyclopedia

Come witness some Good Old Fashion Queer Magic
in The New Road Home Tour 2011!!

they are playing in Denver, Lawrence, chicago, Portland ME, Philladelphia, Pittsburgh. for more info check out Nomy's site at http://www.nomylamm.com/

DavEnd, Nomy Lamm, Melodie Younce and Erin Daly will remix notions of gender, sexuality, dis/ability, community and family, while tenderly, ferociously touching into themes of forgiveness, hope, and empowerment in these supposed "end times."


Pittsburgh
August 13th. Saturday. 8 pm
Irma Freeman Center for Imagination
5006 Penn Avenue 15224
$7 - 12 Sliding Scale - Noone Turned Away!

The "New Road Home Tour 2011" explores the new possibilities for the embodiment of dreams. This performance includes multi-part harmonies, multi-media displays of affection, badass costumery, storytelling accordion, bass, guitar, violin, live looping, improvisation, audience participation, and good ole fashion queer magic.

Emerging from the Olympia riot grrrl scene of the early 90s, NOMY LAMMhas brought her radically vulnerable message of body positivity to the whole wide world through a blend of zines, voice lessons, rock operas, performance art and collaboration. Currently she lives in San Francisco where she performs with Sins Invalid, (sinsinvalid.org) a bay area project that creates work around disability, sexuality, social justice and embodiment. Her current musical project, nomy lamm & The WHOLE WIDE WORLD is a flexible platform for collaboration with everyone and everything, and in the moment, with Melodie Younce, Erin Daly, DavEnd, and Caldwell Linker. (nomylamm.com)

DAVE ENDis a tender-hearted, genderqueer, costume designing, accordion wielding, songwriter and performer, based out of San Francisco. Currently, DavEnd is working on her 3rd studio album, “Likewize, I’m Sure” as well as finishing up a month long stint in Taylor Mac’s epic 5 hour play, ‘The Lily’s Revenge’. Ms End’s most recent performance project, Fabulous Artistic Guys Get Overtly Traumatized Sometimes: The Musical!, is the culmination of four years of nearly constant touring and performance, and brings together the worlds of music and radical performance art in a theatrical extravaganza, exploring the effects of heterosexism and street harassment on the development of queer identity.
(myspace.com/daveend, facebook.com/daveend

My book is coming out next week!
Upcoming Reading Tours:
August 11: Asheville NC, Malaprops Bookstore 7:00
September 23: Baltimore MD, Anarchist book fair; 6:00
September 24: Philadelpia PA, Wooden Shoe Bookstore; 7:00
September 25: NYC, Bluestockings Bookstore
September 26: Brooklyn, Bookthug Nation
September 27: North Hampton, MA, Food For Thought
September 28: may be somewhere in Vermont
September 29-30: Montreal
October 1-2:
October 3: Toronto
October 4: Pittsburgh

I had to use PHPMyadmin a few days ago to delete old tables in my WordPress Database. They were created by a plugin that I tried but decided not to use. Normally when you uninstall a plugin the developer deletes the tables in your database that they create. In this case this author didn’t. It […]

Financial planners have a big hate going for bankruptcy. They almost universally nay-say it and point to the many alternatives. CPAs and attorneys, on the other hand, often speak of the advantages to filing bankruptcy and are quick to point out the “fresh start” aspect of the move. But it’s a fact that too many...

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Hey there. Today I’d like to talk about SHOPPING. Like a lot of folks, I’m worried about my favorite small local shops and restaurants who are having to shut down during this crisis. I’m also REALLY worried about my favorite convention, SCA, and Ren Faire vendors, who’ve basically had all their events and income streams […]

I found a fun game to play. It’s a pale substitute for actually being at conventions and hanging out with my friends, but it’s something. Question: What new character can I pull together to cosplay with stuff I already have at home? Answer:

I just realized I haven’t updated any of my websites to reflect that everything has been cancelled. I should probably do that. Trying not to feel like I’m dropping balls. I mean, it’s not like things are “business as usual” at all. But every week there’s a few things on the “to do” list that […]

July 22nd, 2019
Rock the City in Romania
Scheduled to play from 8:45 - 11 pm.
In the US that's a start time of 1:45 pm eastern, 12:45 pm central, 11:45 am mountain, 10:45 am pacific.

Setlist: Plainsong, Pictures of You, High, Just One Kiss, Lovesong, Last Dance, Burn, Fascination Street, Never Enough, Push, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Shake Dog Shake, A Night Like This, Play For Today, A Forest, Primary, 39, Disintegration

Encore: Lullaby, The Caterpillar, The Walk, Friday I'm in Love, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You?, Boys Don't Cry.

August 7th, 2019
Oya Festival in Norway
Scheduled to play from 8:45 - 11 pm.

In the US that's a start time of 2:45 pm eastern, 1:45 pm central, 12:45 pm mountain, 11:45 am pacific.

Setlist: Plainsong, Pictures of You, High, A Night Like This, Just One Kiss, Lovesong, Last Dance, Burn, Fascination Street, Never Enough, Push, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Play For Today, A Forest, Primary, Shake Dog Shake, 39, Disintegration

Encore: Lullaby, The Caterpillar, The Walk, Friday I'm in Love, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You?, Boys Don't Cry.

THE CURE

40 LIVE – CURÆTION-25 + ANNIVERSARY

DELUXE BOX, HARDBOOK DVD, HARDBOOK BLU-RAY, AND DIGITAL FORMATS

AVAILABLE FROM OCTOBER 18th

 VIEW TRAILER <HERE>

PRE-ORDER NOW <HERE>

LONDON, August 8th — Less than a year before their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The Cure celebrated their 40thanniversary. On October 18th 2019, Eagle Vision will present two special performances in which they commemorated this milestone, when 40 LIVE – CURÆTION-25 + ANNIVERSARY is released in a Limited Edition Deluxe Box (2Blu-ray+4CD, or 2DVD+4CD, each with 40-page book), on Limited Edition Hardbook 2Blu-ray or 2DVD (each with 16 page book), and standalone digital formats.

The first film — CURÆTION-25: From There To Here | From Here To There– was captured on the tenth and final night of the 25thMeltdown Festival (curated by lead singer Robert Smith) at London’s Royal Festival Hall in June 2018. Presented in HD with 5.1 surround sound, Smith, Simon Gallup, Jason Cooper, Roger O’Donnell, and Reeves Gabrels performed a song from each of their 13 studio albums in chronological order, displaying the evolution of The Cure’s music live on stage. At the core of the set, they broke the cycle with some new, unreleased songs – offering a glimpse into the band’s future – before retracing their steps with another song from each album, ending with “Boys Don’t Cry.”

Released in theatres globally only last week, ANNIVERSARY: 1978-2018 Live In Hyde Park London features the band’s acclaimed 29-song, 135-minute anniversary concert. Filmed in one of London’s Royal Parks to a crowd of 65,000 fans, The Cure presented a four-decade deep set on July 7, 2018, including “Just Like Heaven,” “Lovesong,” “High,” and “The End Of The World.” Adding to the experience, the band is back-dropped by giant screens displaying footage that complements the unique moods and emotive song writing that established The Cure as pioneers of alternative rock. The result is a concert that Rolling Stoneexpressed shows the “unique power in The Cure’s live performance.”

Directed by Tim Pope – the long-time collaborator behind many of The Cure’s music videos and their award-winning 1986 film In Orange– Anniversary is chronicled in 4K with a 5.1 surround sound mix by Robert Smith and Paul Corkett. Pope states “I went to rehearsals in a very cramped studio just the day before the show… I knew as the set list unfolded that the only way to show people The Real Cure was to capture not only the grand, epic dimension of their stage show, but also the close, intimate side of this band simply making music together.”

“This really was the perfect way to celebrate 40 years of the band,” Smith exclaimed. “It was a fabulous day none of us will ever forget!”

THE CURE: 40 LIVE – CURÆTION-25 + ANNIVERSARY limited edition Deluxe Box includes gatefold 2x Blu-ray/DVD and 4x CDs, covering both concerts with nearly 9 hours of content, plus a 40 page hardback book. The limited edition Hardbook includes 2x Blu-rays/DVDs and 16 page booklet. CURÆTION-25 and ANNIVERSARY are available as standalone concerts on Digital

CURÆTION-25:

From There To Here | From Here To There

1.     Three Imaginary Boys
2.     At Night
3.     Other Voices
4.     A Strange Day
5.     Bananafishbones
6.     A Night Like This
7.     Like Cockatoos
8.     Pictures Of You
9.     High
10.   Jupiter Crash
11.   39
12.   Us Or Them
13.   It’s Over
14.   It Can Never Be The Same
15.   Step Into The Light
16.   The Hungry Ghost
17.   alt.end
18.   The Last Day Of Summer
19.   Want
20.   From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
21.   Disintegration
22.   If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
23.   Sinking
24.   Shake Dog Shake
25.   One Hundred Years
26.   Primary
27.   A Forest
28.   Boys Don’t Cry


ANNIVERSARY:

1978-2018 Live In Hyde Park London

1.     Plainsong
2.     Pictures Of You
3.     High
4.     A Night Like This
5.     The Walk
6.     The End Of The World
7.     Lovesong
8.     Push
9.     Inbetween Days
10.   Just Like Heaven
11.   If Only Tonight
12.   Play For Today
13.   A Forest
14.   Shake Dog Shake
15.   Burn
16.   Fascination Street
17.   Never Enough
18.   From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea
19.   Disintegration
20.   Lullaby
21.   Caterpillar
22.   Friday I’m In Love
23.   Close To Me
24.   Why Can’t I Be You
25.   Boys Don’t Cry
26.   Jumping Someone Else’s Train
27.   Grinding Halt
28.   10:15 Saturday Night
29.   Killing an Arab

August 9th, 2019
Way Out West Festival in Sweden
Scheduled to play from 10 - midnight.

In the US that's a start time of 4 pm eastern, 3 pm central, 2 pm mountain, 1 pm pacific.

There will be a Livestream here, but you will need to use a VPN if outside of Sweden.

Setlist: Plainsong, Pictures of You, A Night Like This, Just One Kiss, Lovesong, Last Dance, Burn, Fascination Street, Never Enough, Push, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Play For Today, A Forest, Shake Dog Shake, Disintegration

Encore: Lullaby, The Caterpillar, The Walk, Friday I'm in Love, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You?, Boys Don't Cry.

Saturday Oct. 5th

Honda Stage
The Cure 8 - 10 PM
Billie Eilish 6 - 7 PM
Brittany Howard 4 - 5 PM
The Kooks 2 - 3 PM
Men I Trust 12:30 - 1:15 PM

Saturday Oct. 12th

Honda Stage
The Cure 8 - 10 PM
Billie Eilish 6 - 7 PM
Brittany Howard 4 - 5 PM
Denzel Curry 2 - 3 PM
Orville Peck 12:30 - 1:15 PM

Robert before closing their show at Rock en Seine on Friday night with 'Boys Don't Cry': "We have time for one last song. This is for Ricky. It's called Boys Don't Cry".

Eden Gallup has shared the sad news that Paul "Ricky" Welton, Jason's drum tech, has died. Loved Ricky so much. Sending love and strength to his family, friends, and the Cure Crew. https://t.co/EDVML4LFh0 pic.twitter.com/q4fadoibqO

— Chain of Flowers (@CraigatCoF) August 23, 2019

View this post on Instagram

#Repost @edvendetta with @repostsaveapp ・・・ Tonight’s for you, Bro ????

A post shared by Al (@feralpunk) on Aug 23, 2019 at 12:17pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

This one's for Ricky. #curecrew #thecure #roadbrothers

A post shared by Al (@feralpunk) on Aug 23, 2019 at 11:38am PDT

View this post on Instagram

Rest easy Ricky. All our love. You will always be missed. @thecure #thecure #roadcrew #roadbrothers #tourfamily #justthebestguy

A post shared by Al (@feralpunk) on Aug 23, 2019 at 6:12am PDT

RIP Paul ”Ricky” Welton. I got to know Ricky on the Reflections tour . I saw him recently at the Hall of Fame induction this March . A lovely man. My condolences to his family and friends.

— Lol Tolhurst (@LolTolhurst) August 23, 2019

View this post on Instagram

Mixed feelings from today, as we gained a great chart position but lost a dear friend of ours, ‘Ricky’ (aka Paul Welton) drum roadie for the 2015 @rideox4official tour Celebrating and mourning, here’s to you Ricky it was always great to be in your company x

A post shared by Laurence Colbert ???????? (@lozcolbert) on Aug 23, 2019 at 3:10pm PDT

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@rideox4official @todaysfestival #todaysfestival TORINO 23/AUG/2019 #ride #ridetheband #rideox4 @andybebop dedicated “vapour trail” to Ricky... @mark_gardener_ride @lozcolbert @stevequeralt @edvendetta @feralpunk

A post shared by mars marsworld (@mars_marsworld) on Aug 23, 2019 at 4:45pm PDT

Andy from Ride also dedicated 'Vapour Trail' to Ricky at their show on Friday night. Again, no video of the dedication, but here's the song, and if I find video of the dedication, I'll post it.

View this post on Instagram

For Ricky x . . . . . . ????JuStine @liamgallagher @dougalsays @hicathhowsyou @zeb0rah @queenofcringe #champagnesupernova #tribute #LiamGallagher #asyouwere #WhyMeWhyNot

A post shared by Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher.daily) on Aug 25, 2019 at 4:10am PDT

Liam Gallagher dedicated Champagne Supernova to Ricky at his show on Saturday night.


Thanks to Eden Gallup for posting this on his Facebook today. A young Paul "Ricky" Welton on drums.


Paul "Ricky" Welton was a longtime member of The Cure Crew, Jason's drum tech, and a wonderful person beloved by all who knew him. He passed away on Friday, and his band and crew paid tribute to him. This is my small attempt to also honor him.

Farewell, Ricky. Thank you for all you did for the band, for your crew, for the fans, and for keeping the shows running every night. You were so loved, and I hope you knew it. As everyone has said, you will be missed greatly!

All love and strength to his family, friends, the band, and the crew.

Rock on in eternity, Ricky! We love you so much!

https://t.co/BoAi0VA5gR

Robert Smith of The Cure's 'Schecter Signature UltraCure' Guitar, Played at Pasadena Daydream Festival on August 31st

Your bid supports: Free Arts For Abused Children, Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, Little Kids Rock, Inner-City Arts, The Painted Turtle pic.twitter.com/skBiHZslmy

— The Cure (@thecure) August 29, 2019

Robert Smith is donating the guitar he will be playing this weekend at Pasadena Daydream Festival to be auctioned off to benefit @FreeArtsLA, @InnerCityArts, @littlekidsrock, @HollandsOpusFdn and @PaintedTurtleCA! ????

bid here????https://t.co/eZ9QdO3lgt

— goldenvoice (@goldenvoice) August 27, 2019

August 31st, 2019
Daydream Festival in Pasadena, CA
Cure are scheduled to start at 8:40 pm pacific

That's a start time of 9:40 pm mountain, 10:40 pm central, 11:40 pm eastern.

Setlist: Plainsong, Pictures of You, High, A Night Like This, Just One Kiss, Lovesong, Last Dance, Burn, Fascination Street, Never Enough, Push, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Play For Today, A Forest, Primary, Shake Dog Shake, 39, Disintegration

Encore: Lullaby, The Caterpillar, The Walk, Friday I'm in Love, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You?, Boys Don't Cry.

A dream that will soon become reality ????
Set times & maps are here for Pasadena Daydream this weekend! ▶️ pic.twitter.com/OlwpjpZ3EL

— goldenvoice (@goldenvoice) August 26, 2019

Who is ready for a day at Brookside at the Rose Bowl with @thecure, @PIXIES, @deftones + more? See you there ???????? pic.twitter.com/b9NKSbAJiu

— goldenvoice (@goldenvoice) August 31, 2019

Good morning Pasadena pic.twitter.com/OdNTjM8cJc

— PIXIES (@PIXIES) August 31, 2019

Newly designed merch for Pasadena Daydream Festival available NOW from https://t.co/98Kn7sVtpk and at the show on Saturday. #PasadenaDaydream #merch pic.twitter.com/Vn9RAjDYIW

— The Cure (@thecure) August 29, 2019

Tweets by CraigatCoF 

October 8th, 2019
The Foro Sol in Mexico City, Mexico
Cure are scheduled to play from 9:10 - 11:55 pm central time.

Setlist: Plainsong, Pictures of You, A Night Like This, Just One Kiss, Lovesong, Last Dance, 39, Burn, Fascination Street, Never Enough, Push, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Want, Play For Today, A Forest, Primary, Shake Dog Shake, Prayers for Rain, Disintegration

1st encore: Lullaby, The Caterpillar, The Lovecats, Hot Hot Hot, The Walk, Let's Go to Bed, Friday I'm in Love, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You?

2nd encore: Three Imaginary Boys, Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab.


Full schedule:

5 pm Doors open
5:40 - 6:05 Violet Vendetta
6:35 - 7:10 Rey Pila
7:40 - 8:25 The Twilight Sad
9:10 - 11:55 The Cure
Midnight Curfew

Tweets by CraigatCoF 

October 12th, 2019
Austin City Limits Festival in Austin, Texas
Cure are scheduled to play from 8 - 10 pm central.

Setlist: Plainsong, Pictures of You, A Night Like This, Just One Kiss, Lovesong, Last Dance, Burn, Fascination Street, Never Enough, Push, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, Play For Today, A Forest, Shake Dog Shake, Disintegration

Encore: Lullaby, The Caterpillar, The Walk, Friday I'm in Love, Close to Me, Why Can't I Be You?, Boys Don't Cry.

Note: Eden Gallup is playing bass in place of Simon.

Tweets by CraigatCoF