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A story I wrote for my lover who has died. RIP Brian.

Brian and Tai Gau

I have no idea what to write here, but I feel I must do something, say something. I learned a short while ago that my long-distance lover and significant other, Brian Wolfe (aka Ayem Willing), was killed in a motorcycle accident. Some of you knew him through the Fetish Fair Fleamarkets where he was the man who kept me upright when I was so ill I could barely function to run the show in Houston and who volunteered tirelessly for NELA and other BDSM organizations. He was an unrelentingly good person, who gave and gave and gave of himself. No, really.

I don’t know any details about the accident. What I can tell you is that the lest time I saw him, at the end of June, was that the motorcycle was his only transportation. He got laid off from his job a while back when the economy tanked, and in the economic difficulties that followed, he told me he could not keep up his car payments. Despite trying to cut a deal with them to repay (once he got another job), the repo men kept showing up, so he finally gave in and told them to “just take the damn car.” That left him only on two wheels.

I don’t know any details about the accident. I don’t know if there was a collision or if it was a solo accident, or not. All I can fixate on is that this was pretty much the last conversation I had with him.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty devastated by the news. I’m also pretty tender, so although I appreciate condolences, I don’t think I can actually handle them right now. So please don’t call me. Please do celebrate the life of a man who had strong passions and who wasn’t afraid to pursue them.

To that end, I have an erotic story to share, that I wrote for Brian a few years ago. (Story under the cut if you are interested in reading it.) Brian won a fundraising eBay auction back in 2007 for an original story written by me. So this has never been posted anywhere before. His request was for a sequel to The Velderet, my BDSM space opera novel, asking about what happened to two of the characters who end up together at the end of the novel.

I share the story with you all now, in his memory. Continue reading →

Concert Review- Amanda Palmer & Grand Theft Orchestra at the Middle East 7-31-12

Hey, Generation X, I’ve got news for you. We’re forty-something, guys.

This fact was carried home to me tonight upon leaving the fantastic live show of Amanda Fucking Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra at the Middle East Downstairs. You see, to leave the place, you have to climb a flight of stairs. Apparently, my 45-year-old knees can stand up (and pogo) for four straight hours just like they could when I was 25. But boy do you feel the difference when it comes time to climb.

Ow.

Anyway, my other thought about the audience was rock on Amanda for getting all these people away from the Internet for a night. There was a wonderfully high nerd quotient in the crowd tonight, as well as a wonderfully high female-to-male ratio, which probably meant more female nerds than are usually gathered in one place outside of a Harry Potter convention (yes, I spend my vacations at Harry Potter conventions, what of it?). Like an HP con, there was quite an age spread, too, from the teenagers to those my age and those even older. No one seemed particularly dismayed by this. The common thread among us wasn’t “type” (punk, hipster, nerd, hippie, jock, all of the above, none of the above) or generation, but AMANDA FUCKING PALMER.

Speaking as someone who has spent a good bit of her life trying to get people out of their boxes and crossing the lines, I state for the record, this is awesome. We live in the post-modern age. In the arts, screwing around with the boundaries of genre, making mash-ups and subverting tropes, collage and juxtaposition as commentary, these are all the tools in the post-modern arts toolbox. Applying the post-tools is an art form itself. Music, fiction, visual art, dance, the tools apply to all. So isn’t it about time we started applying those tools to the categories of identity? Gender, class, “type,” etc? Society will still try to tell you who to be, but it’s more imperative than ever that we don’t allow others to define us or our worth, isn’t it?

Wait, sorry, this isn’t the time for a rant about how LGBT youth are still committing suicide or how women who aren’t empowered sexually aren’t empowered at all or any of my other soap boxes. Or is it? Well, let me tell you about the show, which as you might have guessed from my assessment of the audience–but which carried through the acts on the stage–was as affirming and category-busting as it gets. Details, photos, links, embedded songs, and much opining, under the cut: Continue reading →

Hogwarts Alumni Party: Wiscon Rendition

Wow, that was fun, and very different from the last one of these parties I threw (at Arisia in January). This time I am at Wiscon, the Feminist Science Fiction Convention in Madison, WI. Here’s how the party went!

I decorated with some fun fabrics I had at home, one which is very ravenclaw (and added my scarf): Continue reading →

Teaser clip from The FanFiction Documentary (with me!)

Hansi Oppenheimer posted a teaser clip of the interview she did with me this past weekend for her documentary film on fanfic. Here it is from Youtube!

She’s trying to raise $1,800 to get to Ascendio in July to film interviews there, too, so if you want more info about the film, there’s lots of details at her IndieGogo page. (You don’t have to make a donation or order the DVD to see all the info…) Here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/104624

Would you like a 5,000 word erotic short story for one dollar?

Only 24 hours or so left on my first-ever Kickstarter. Having made goal, my main purpose in still posting about it is to remind readers that now they’re running out of time to get the perks, like an exclusive 5,000 word erotic short story, “Daron’s Night Out,” which can be had for even a mere one-dollar chip in!

(The only other way people *might* get to read this story is if an anthology I submitted it to–Bad Boys–accepts it… in which case it’d be a year or so before it sees print. But no telling whether it will be right for the editor.)

Click to chip in! It closes tomorrow (May 22) a little after noon!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458565937/darons-guitar-chronicles-omnibus-book

Guuuuys guys LOOKIT! My Kickstarter is Funded!!


We did ti! We did it! You did it. MY KICKSTARTER IS FULLY FUNDED. I went off to work at my taekwondo school tonight at 5:30 only $63 short of the goal. By the time I got home at 7:30, one magical backer (number 101!) splurged to top it up! Wooooooo! THANK YOUUUUU!!!

There are seven days left in the campaign, so you have only a week to get your autographed printed copy of the Daron’s Guitar Chronicles omnibus book or other time-limited swag. (Deets as usual here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1458565937/darons-guitar-chronicles-omnibus-book)

NLA Writing Award Winners! (The Prince’s Boy got honorable mention!)

Seriously, this one was just an honor to be nominated. I was up against some very good writers and some very fine books for this year’s NLA-I Writing Awards. I was concerned that perhaps the way The Prince’s Boy skirts non-consensuality and dubious consent might be a problem for some judges. But they saw fit to give it honorable mention. (And congrats to Jeff for winning!)

Laura Antoniou won a short story award, Mollena for essay, and tireless anthologist Rachel Kramer Bussel bagged both the win and the honorable mention in the anthology category. Gayle Rubin won the non-fiction book award.

Circlet Press is running a congratulations special for 50% off the ebooks of The Prince’s Boy to celebrate, both volumes 1 & 2 (catalog: http://www.circlet.com/?page_id=3), and of course the whole serial is still free to read on circlet.com.

In other news, the Kickstarter for Daron’s Guitar Chronicles is only about $550 from the goal with 10 days left! I’ll post more about that separately, but full deets here: http://kck.st/IlE7Bi

Here’s the full NLA-I press release: Continue reading →

Stormtrooper Shuffle video

Basically, I just enjoyed this too much not to share it. I know there are other Star Wars parody music vids out there, but I just really liked this one…!

Kickstarter update! 29% funded with 20 days go!

So a little over a week has passed on the Daron’s Guitar Chronicles Kickstarter, and it’s going great! We’ve been averaging about $100 per day, and at that pace we’ll just hit the target with maybe a day to spare? It’d be AWESOME if it sped up because I worry I don’t want to hit people over the head with it. But the one day I didn’t post, tweet, or Facebook about it was the one day donations were zero. So that seems to say I have to mention it every day to keep it going until we hit the target.

As of this writing we’ve raised $819 with $1,933 to go to make the $2,750 target. One thing I should point out is that if you’re waiting for your paycheck to clear before donating, your donation WON’T be charged until the last day of the campaign. Kickstarter waits to see if the target is successfully reached, and if it is, they charge everyone at once at the end. So you won’t be charged until May 22 at the earliest.

Here’s the link to the Kickstarter page, which has all the info on rewards (one of which is you just pre-order the paperback tome for $25) and where you pledge! http://kck.st/IlE7Bi Thanks! And remember, spreading the word and telling other people why you think the project is worthy of support helps, too!

Trying to embed that Kickstarter video one more time…

I uploaded it to Youtube and we’ll try it with the old style embed code and see if that works. (For those who missed my earlier post: I launched a Kickstarter! Please help me put Daron’s Guitar Chronicles into a paperback edition! Full details on the Kickstarter page here: http://kck.st/IlE7Bi)

Cecilia Tan's books on Goodreads
The Siren and the Sword The Siren and the Sword (Magic University, #1)
reviews: 16
ratings: 88 (avg rating 3.60)

Boys of the Bite: A Gay Vampire Anthology Boys of the Bite: A Gay Vampire Anthology
reviews: 9
ratings: 55 (avg rating 3.65)

The Velderet The Velderet
reviews: 11
ratings: 49 (avg rating 3.98)

The Prince's Boy: Volume One The Prince's Boy: Volume One (The Prince's Boy, #1)
reviews: 21
ratings: 49 (avg rating 3.88)