She talks to wolves...

During Book Blogger Appreciation Week, many bloggers participated in a meme detailing their reading habits and to-read stacks. Perhaps because I'm odd, I find this sort of minutiae fascinating: a glimpse of readers all across the world in their nooks and cafes, along with voyeuristic photos of assorted bookshelves and tottering heaps of hardbacks and paperbacks. It was fabulous. I, of course, want to participate, so you'll find my rainy Sunday morning contribution below.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?
I don't have any particular snacking habit while reading. Besides, I read all the time. Sometimes I read when I'm eating a meal. Sometimes I read while I have a bit of chocolate or drink my tea.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?
The thought of marking in books once horrified me long ago, but I've become more liberal about it (especially since many fine annotations and cultural observations have come to us from people many years gone marking in books). I tend not to mark in the books I read for pleasure, but the ones I read academically get written in right quick.

How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?
I'm really good about not forgetting where I stopped reading, so I hardly need to use a marker at all. Sometimes I like to use a pretty bookmark, though. I disapprove of dog-earing a book as it damages the pages, but I won't say I've never done it. Seeing a book laying flat open makes me hiss unless it's a hardback. Protect those paperback spines, people!

( Click the cut for more! )

I hope some of you will choose to share your answers and shelves as well! Like I said, I really do find this sort of thing interesting.

Not only is this week National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness week, but it's also Book Blogger Appreciation Week in which many book bloggers across the Internet are being remarkably generous with giveaways and also sharing their favorite blogs among their peers. I wish I'd known about this in enough time to participate with a book giveaway of my own! There are also awards being awarded to the community: it's quite an amazing carnival.



Well, if I can't be a participant on the blogging side this year, I can definitely be a participant as a contestant! Yes, indeed. I may or may not have entered as many giveaways as there are letters in the English alphabet.

Allow me to promote a few of the giveaways:

Bibliofreak has put together a number of prize packages that have the laudable side effect of benefitting the Seattle Public Library. She's giving away Shakespeare insult buttons, Scrabble tile earrings, READING IS SEXY stickers, and quotable coasters.

Jenn's Bookshelves is giving away a book of your choice! Er, within reason. No requesting a signed edition of Leaves of Grass or even one of the Absolute Sandman volumes.

Boston Bibliophile is giving away the fascinating graphic novel What It Is by Lynda Barry along with samplers of other comics. Pretty much anything that includes the words "grab-bag" and "graphic novels" is my cup of tea!

Debbie's World of Books is giving away an Amazon.com $25 gift card, also known as manna from heaven to bibliophiles.

Finally, just go and browse the giveaways. Not only will you find contests for The Hunger Games (Collins), Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (Black & Castellucci), and Rampant (Peterfreund), but you'll discover many excellent new book bloggers as well.

Remember that Interstitial Arts Foundation Call for Artists I've been putting out over the last few months? Well, I thought you might like to see a sneak preview of one of the resulting creations:



“Information is sacred. I don't remember why, or who told me. But I know that information is sacred, so I write it down, scraps of knowledge and observations. I used to write in leather-bound journals with elegant heavy pens, but my fetish for elegance has fallen by the wayside in my rush to commit everything to paper. Now I use cheap marbled composition books, purchased by the dozen. The pen is still important, though. It must write in smooth lines of black, not catch on the page. There is too much to capture.”

From "Valentines" by Shira Lipkin. Necklace by SToNZ.

Isn't that gorgeous? It'll be up for auction come November! And, other artists, there's still time to participate!

As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.

I am one of those who create queer speculative fiction, although I have no easy excerpts from "Heartwood" to share with you today. However, I can tell you that "Heartwood" focuses on the relationship between a human spacefaring pirate and her planet-bound alien lover. Also, the as-yet-untitled story I'm currently writing involves queer men in an alternate Victorian England.

Although it is not speculative, I'd like to share with you my one published lesbian poem: "Ireland, A Sapphic Poem."

And, finally, I'd like to recommend Jacqueline Carey's Santa Olivia for those seeking an overwhelmingly positive portrayal of a queer relationship. Trust me. (You can read my review of the novel at Green Man Review.)

This week at Green Man Review, the Neil Gaiman special edition is live! It features an essay by Deborah Grabien on her first meeting with Neil; a section full of recommendations on which work in Neil's oeuvre to start with, by greats such as Holly Black, Ellen Datlow, Delia Sherman, Charles de Lint, and Terri Windling; and two reviews by yours truly.

One of those reviews was published on September 9th, 2007: that would be the review of his young adult collection, M Is for Magic. However, my review of the Coraline film is new:

"The better part of a decade ago now, Neil Gaiman wrote a fantastically disturbing novel called Coraline. The titular heroine is a young girl, a smart and clever explorer languishing from the unfortunate condition of boredom. Luckily, this is a condition not fated to last, for her neighbors are oddballs and there's a creepy inverted world on the other side of a mysterious door. There are primordial rats who sing a terrifying song (we were here before you fell / you will be here when we rise) and an Other Mother with shiny black buttons for eyes. There are Lovecraftian horrors lurking in dark spaces between realities, and there are eerily evocative Dave McKean drawings. There's even a talking cat who chooses to use his powers for good.

How exciting it was, with such a novel, to discover that Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame would be doing a Coraline film adaptation! With Gaiman's wicked perfect tale and Selick's imaginative palette, how could anyone possibly be disappointed?

The answer is that we pretty much couldn't be." [Read the rest of this review by following the link.]

The blog Simply Funky covers the Hive this week, with an article that begins thusly:

Collaborating Unknown Moments

Ever wonder what your neighbor down the street is doing right now? Or how about what a busy mother in Iowa was doing 30 minutes ago? Maybe even what a lazy teenager in Florida will be doing in the evening? Every one of us has some sort of story to tell.

Photograph Kyle Cassidy decided to capture "the quiet, unknown moments that make up our lives" in a unique way. He recruited 23 strangers from across the country to keep cameras with them at all times for 2 full days.

A few weeks ago, I started training at a new job. I've been meaning to talk about it a bit here: not in specifics, but in generalized terms as it's been a learning experience and introduced me to a new bilingual environment. However, I've been too busy and exhausted! They've been exploiting my class-free summer and working me nearly 40 hours a week (which I'm definitely digging from a financial perspective), so I've been struggling to adjust to a new and full schedule. It's beleaguered my blogging though, as you will have noticed.

So! I figure it's time for a meme that so many of my friends are doing; I myself got this one from ajodasso.

I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that you think should be obvious, but you have no idea about. I promise true answers.

Have at it! And do let me know if you're doing this meme as well: I promise to come 'round and ask you something in return.

There are all sorts of invisible conditions: things that affect our health and our capabilities but don't have an easy outward identifier. Conditions that, subsequently, many people can't understand: can't understand that they affect us sometimes, but not always, or can't understand that they always affect us because we just don't look that sick.

Many people I know live with fibromyalgia: they have to learn how to measure out their days in available energy. I've known people who suffer from seizures and that certainly switches your life around! My mom is violently allergic to latex, which ended her brilliant nursing career six months before she could have drawn retirement. The steps she must take to control her environment now are sobering. Several members of my family (including me) suffer from horrific migraines: our triggers vary from perfume to flowering trees to a lack of caffeine. This set of examples of invisible conditions is ridiculously short, but I'm only going to introduce one more. The one I'd like to talk about today.

I suffer from temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD).

I'm not in the habit of quoting Wikipedia, but they have a nice enough brief description that I'm going to do so here:

"Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD, TMJ or TMD), or TMJ syndrome, is an umbrella term covering acute or chronic inflammation of the temporomandibular joint, which connects the mandible to the skull. The disorder and resultant dysfunction can result in significant pain and impairment. Because the disorder transcends the boundaries between several health-care disciplines — in particular, dentistry, neurology, physical therapy, and psychology — there are a variety of treatment approaches."

It took more than half my life to realize I had problems with my TMJ, although I can look back now and note a number of symptoms that were manifestations of a problem. I experienced well-spaced but regular incidents of severe jaw-popping. I would have strange ear pain that wasn't related to any discernible infection or illness. I've also had regular and frequent experiences of tinnitus for as long as I can remember.

However, this condition didn't become one which perceptibly affected my entire life until my early 20's. Now, it's become one that I can't go a single day without thinking about and feeling. It's contributed to me losing a job, thanks to being unable to function and so fulfill my required schedule. It's caused me to miss classes because I couldn't drive and to miss out on social plans because I couldn't move without falling over or bursting into tears.

Let me stop here and note that I am writing this post in the hopes of helping other people understand one of many insivible conditions; I'm not looking for any sort of pity. I'm still trying to figure out living with TMJD and sorting out treatment possibilities, and I have faith that I'll manage that.

Let me share with you the symptoms I experience on a regular basis:

Jaw clenching. I mainly clench, sometimes grind, my teeth every night in my sleep. I have to wear a night guard to mitigate the pressure I'm putting on my teeth, my jaw, and subsequently the areas surrounding my jaw.

Muscle tension. Because of the jaw clenching, the muscles around my jaw, down my neck, and throughout my shoulders are usually incredibly tense. This constant tension translates into pain. Mostly, it just feels like there's a low-burning acid in those muscles. Sometimes, they're locked so tightly that I can barely turn my head. When I've been that bad and a friend has massaged my shoulders in an effort to help, I've actually become terribly nauseated and ill from the treatment.

Dizziness. Because of the muscle tension and inflammation, there's often the opportunity for my inner ear to become distorted. Most of the time, I just experience short, sweat-inducing swings: a moment when the world swings around me and I'm disoriented. Short dizziness, you understand. However, on several occasions, I've graduated to outright vertigo: constant spinning of the room (which I can feel even with my eyes closed), a severe list to one side when trying to move, and a tendency to fall in that direction when unassisted.

Headaches. As you can imagine from all this clenching and muscle tension, I end up with headaches more often than I'm headache-free. Unfortunately, the more severe the related pain, the more likely a migraine is going to be triggered. Let me tell you: TMJD at the height of symptom-severity and a migraine together represent some of the worst experiences I've suffered in my life.

Tooth pain. Doesn't even really need to be said, does it? But, yes, I experience tooth pain from all the clenching as well. Luckily, it's not really an active ache most of the time. Instead, it manifests as a semi-regular soreness when I chew food.

Less often, I experience:

Facial swelling. Yes, sometimes I look in the mirror to see a most definitely swollen face. This is generally accompanied by the sweat-inducing swings and muscle tension tending toward the further extreme.

Jaw popping/clicking. I mentioned earlier that I very occasionally experience severe moments of jaw popping: I can measure the distance between these in years. They're sudden and they hurt. Unfortunately, jaw clicking is becoming more common: it doesn't hurt, but it's really annoying. In fact, I've been experiencing that a lot today thanks to clenching my teeth so severely last night that I woke up with my front teeth hurting. (My husband also noted that he's been able to hear me clenching and/or grinding.)

Also, TMJD has already cost me one tooth. Thankfully, the tooth was already dead. It had a root canal in 2004, then was replaced with a palladium/gold alloy in 2005.

Let me say that in another way: the severity of my jaw-clenching actually caused a chunk of palladium/gold alloy to break and fall out of my mouth.

Yeah. TMJD is completely invisible and completely real.

Next time on TMJD Bites!: Treatments, Sledgehammers, and You Shouldn't Chew Gum!

So, there's this writer you might have heard of on my friends page: Shira Lipkin, AKA shadesong. Not only are we fellow alums of Scheherezade's Bequest (the online magazine of Cabinet des Fées), not only is her story "Valentines" being published in the Interstitial Arts Foundation's forthcoming Interfictions 2, but she is also one seriously classy dame. She is a Survivor Speaker and a major fundraiser each year for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

Although she often works directly and extensively with BARCC, her main fundraising efforts for them each summer are expended in running one of the best Blogathons around.

For those who aren't sure what a Blogathon is, allow me to fill you in: each summer, many bloggers raise funds for their favorite charities by committing to update their blogs every half hour for a twenty-four hour period. They must blog every thirty minutes, no exceptions. As you can imagine, to make this more interesting, they generally develop themes for their bloganzas. For example, The Chef's Table will spend 24 hours cooking "a chef's tasting menu" and sharing recipes. In 2005, catvalente wrote "The Descent of Inanna," which was subsequently published as a limited edition by Papaveria Press. Last year, shadesong played the part of a psychometric xenoarchaelogist, writing pieces of flashfic to accompany creative items donated to her for the purpose. She later auctioned those items for further donations to BARCC.

This year, shadesong has solicited crafts and goods inspired by her works. If you were to scroll through blogforbarcc (the community set up for auctioning this year's donated items), you would find custom yarn (Phoenix-style!), lovely jewelry (Sihaya designs! Wyrding Studios originals!), autographed CDs (s00j's Sirens!), and even incredible edibles (Polidori chocolates! ginger syrup!) . You would also find a print that has struck my heart with primal desire:


"From the Ashes" by Aaron Aurelio Acevedo.
(Gorgeous work, aaronace.)

This coming weekend, shadesong will be posting pieces of her flashfic every half hour along with the creative items inspired by them. I hope you'll tune in to read them! And if you've a bit of change to spare for charity, please consider supporting her in her endeavors. They are incredibly worthy.

...besides, not only will you be helping charity - you'll be supporting the arts and possibly getting something shiny in the bargain as well!



Read shadesong's original post on Blogathon 2009 at this link.

Via angevin2, an intriguing meme utilizing only images.

The rules:
Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
• NO CAPTIONS! It must be like we're speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
• They must ALREADY be on your hard drive - no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you've saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
• You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don't want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like.

( Learn to speak without words... )