All Posts in “Geek Factor”

Come Up to the Lab: My Gender Workshop

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Ever since Time Magazine proclaimed a “Transgender Tipping Point” a year and a half ago, I’ve been exploring trans identities and expressions that aren’t included in mainstream acceptance—because as a nonbinary trans person, I have yet to occupy any mainstream tipping point. So I’m researching this for a new book I’m working on: “Trans! Just for the Fun of It!” and that makes this workshop a laboratory. So…

…come up to the lab, and see what’s on the slab!

Workshop participants will be encouraged to step out of any gender/sexuality comfort zones they’ve managed to establish for themselves. We will experiment more or less safely with a few of the very real dangers of living a trans life in a cis world, including a good long look at whatever it might be that shames us, humiliates us, and otherwise prevents us from having a wonderfully fun time with our genders. The tools I’ll be using include postmodern theory and Tibetan Buddhism, which overlap in slapstick.

All this to say you can expect a day full of laughs, more than a few head-scratching puzzles, and most likely a tear or two or three. Please do join me!

Manchester, UK: Saturday, 6 February 10am

SOLD OUT: London, UK: Saturday, 13 February

kiss kiss

Kate

Thankyoucherub

Thank you… who?

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ThankyoucherubThe gender workbook update is written and laid out in a final draft—everything but the acknowledgements. Since this is a crowdsourced book, I've thanked YOU in the dedication—yep, it's dedicated to twibe. Now, I'm asking for your input one last time: who deserves thanks?

You helped teach me, so now I want to know who taught you, because I want to thank them properly too. Please leave a SHORT comment here, or better yet tweet me with names of people—they can be friends, professors, parents, siblings, novelists, pornographers, SciFi show, storytellers, mentors, alive, dead, or in some other state of existence we don't know about yet. Angels, saints, and demons count. So do friendly faeries, elves, hobbits and so on. Who helped you on your sex and gender journeys? 

Wow. It's all done except for this.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

So, please: let me know who I should be thanking for the awesomeness that is YOUR fabulous sexuality and gender. Clock is ticking. Deadline for thank you's is noon (EDT) tomoro, Saturday, July 7. If you tweet your answer, please use the hashtag #MNGW (My New Gender Workbook).

kiss kiss

Auntie Kate

 

HCWiphonescreenshots

Hello, Cruel App! Yes! On yer iPhone or iPad!

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Hello, Cruel World is currently back on the shelves in its 4th printing, widely available in bookstores… AND NOW it's also a shiny new app for the iPhone and iPad. I am so excited, I can't see straight.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Thanks to the awesome persistence of the loverly coders at Apollic Software, led by Daniel Siders. And thanks to my dear publisher, Seven Stories Press.

Here are just a few of the features you get for your US$ 2.99:

  • All 101 alternatives to suicide for teens, freaks, and other outlaws, laid out in nifty scroll-through cards with fun illustrations.
  • Super smooth, intuitive interface.
  • Easy choice of alternatives as rated by effectiveness, ease, and degree of safety/danger.
  • Awesome selection of alternatives by cloud.
  • Easily tag alternatives as your favorites.
  • Live link to the hashtag stayalive on Twitter.
  • The ability to email a Get Out of Hell Free card to anyone you like!
  • A list of actions you can take if you need help NOW to stay alive.

Check out some dee-lish screen shots:

HCWiphonescreenshots

I am thrilled beyond words, so I'll stop using words and just point you to the link so you can go see it for yourself:

HELLO, CRUEL WORLD APP for iPhone & iPad

(future versions of the app will be available on other platforms)

Love you to pieces, so please stay alive.

Auntie Kate

MyLife:I Was a Love Thief

My Moving Fingers Write and Having Writ, Move On

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MyLife:I Was a Love Thief I'm out on the road, and I haven't been doing much blogging. I've been writing, but I've been writing for other folks. Here are some links to some new pieces:

I hope you have fun going through these new pieces. I'm on the road for another two weeks. Best way to stay in touch is through Twitter.

kiss kiss

Kate

Censorship

Disappeared Sex Positive, Gender Bent Books On Amazon.com

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CensorshipFollow Breaking News on Twitter: #amazonfail

It's been called to my attention that it may not be possible to buy new copies of any of my books on Amazon.com. You can find Kindle editions for Hello, Cruel World and My Gender Workbook. Whoopee. And there's no record of my sales record there, either. Dang.

I'm not the only queer, sex positive, gender bent author to have gone missing.  

Thank you, Melissa Gira Grant at Sexerati, who's got the most up-to-date coverage of this weird, weird right wing news of literary censorship. 

Among the MIA (Missing In Amazon): Barbara Carrellas, Dossie Easton, S. Bear Bergman, Helen Boyd, Laura Antoniou, Candida Royale, Julia Serano, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, Lawrence Schimmel. And those were just the first couple I searched for. Holy poop! 
Wasn't Bush voted out of office?? Who is putting this kind of pressure on Amazon.com? Whoever it is, they don't know how subversive and queer Judith Butler is. You can still buy her books on Amazon. But I wouldn't. I'd buy all my books elsewhere, until Amazon comes to it's senses.

I'm writing my agent and publishers to see what's up. In the meantime, you can buy my books through your local queer and sex positive bookstore. If you don't live near a queer or independent bookstore and need to buy online, do check out Powell's Books, a fabulous independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Or you can find them used at ABE Books.

Petitions and write-in campaigns have already begun. Check with your fave queer authors' blogs and websites and Twitter accounts for more updates. I'll post more when I know more. 

In the meantime, persevere. Enjoy your sex positive, genderbent theory and porn.

Frak Amazon.com.
Kate

News Flash: Barack Obama is the Son of Two Men!

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Well, according to Terry Moran of ABC’s Nightline he is. In his opening remarks, Mr. Moran informed his viewing audience that American history is being made. I’m sure there’s gonna be You-Tubing galore, but just 5 minutes ago, I heard the man say this:

“The Democratic Party gave its heart and soul, and it seems the muscle and bone and sinew of their political organization to Barack Obama, the son of a black man from Kenya, and a white man from Kansas.”

Maybe Terry Moran had just worked himself up to a tizzy with all that homoerotic flesh and blood imagery… or maybe it’s the TRUTH! And you thought my last post about WALL•E broke some gender territory!?!

That’s all. I just had to let you know.

kiss kiss

your friendly neighborhood not-man, not-woman
from neither Kenya nor Kansas

PS — yep indeedy — here’s a YouTube clip already. Terry is so worked up by all that body imagery.