The Uber Abode : Talk with the Authors

*** Smitty has joined #TheUberAbode
Smitty> hello?
Sobbie> hey smitty
Sobbie> you made it
Smitty> Ah, finally
Sobbie> ignore the last email
Smitty> will do.
Smitty> Have I scared everyone off?
KitSileya> Well, I'm vertainly not everyone, but I am someone...
Sobbie> nope I think there is the same problem with others not being able to find undernet
Smitty> Kit, you can be everyone to me
KitSileya> LOL I tried about 5-6 different servers before I got lucky.
Sobbie> hehe when I came on it only took one try.... but that was about 5 hrs ago
Smitty> Kept telling me to use another server. So, I made it. How is everyone?
KitSileya> Well, apart from the fact that it's early morning, fine. How are you?
Sobbie> I'm doing good how are you?
Smitty> Splendid. Early morning would put you in the UK?
KitSileya> Norway, actually. Central European Time.
Smitty> Norway! Excellent. I just got in from work, my mindset is still caught up in traffic.
Sobbie> what kind of work do you do?
Smitty> I'm a Children's librarian in South Cental LA.
Smitty> hello Redback, welcome
Sobbie> oh cool
redback> well I made it!!!
Sobbie> hi redback
Smitty> I'm feeling strong. Grill me
redback> Hey Smitty
redback> Hey Sobbie
Sobbie> if you live in LA how come your stories are based in Buffalo?
Smitty> I spent 13 years in Buffalo. My wife got a job in LA, her family is here, so we moved out here. My heart is in Buffalo
Sobbie> ahh ok
redback> Do you think you will go back there and live at a later date??? ... Buffalo I mean...
Smitty> I started writing the drag king stories when we still lived in Buffalo
Smitty> I'd love it, my ties are very strong there, but I think not.
Smitty> More work outside the Western New York area
Sobbie> I reread wheels of fate this week its very good
KitSileya> I second that!
Smitty> Thank you. I'd love for you to read the rewrite
Smitty> it's a better book
Sobbie> where is it?
redback> and you mainly got your inspriation from??? ......
KitSileya> Is that the one you will publish?
Smitty> it's waiting for publication
Sobbie> ah ok
Sobbie> got a date for publication yet?
Smitty> I got my inspiration from falling in love in Buffalo, it's an easy city for me to work with
Smitty> and from my work with the Hag theater companyu
redback> .... *S*......... I will take your word on that considering I have never been there!
Smitty> not yet, but I am told it will be ready for the July Smittycon
Sobbie> Smittycon?
Smitty> Uhm, yeah. A few goofballs on the DragKings list are putting together a convention in London this summer.
Smitty> My first convvention
Smitty> bye, redback
Sobbie> hehe... gonna go to london?
Sobbie> she will be back
Smitty> Yes. It's only right, people are interested in the writing, I'd love to meet them
Sobbie> wow
Sobbie> now if you were holding it in LA I might have been able to get there
Smitty> I try and make a habit of it, anyone who's in the city where I am
Smitty> hey, we can always do coffee in LA, I'm easy to find
Sobbie> I'm in central oregon
Smitty> Close by
Sobbie> yeah but LA is a pain to get to
Smitty> Truer words never spoken
Sobbie> redback is in austraila
Smitty> That's too much of a commute to expect
KitSileya> LOL
Smitty> So, I get the feeling a few of you have read drag king?
Sobbie> I dont know you'll have to ask her when she gets back
KitSileya> Yeah.... I liked it.
Sobbie> yep just finished ch 31 this afternoon
Smitty> That's as far as I've gotten..just posted Chpt. 31
Sobbie> yeah you left a really nice cliffhanger
Sobbie> taking lessons?
Smitty> Every so often that's fun to do.
Smitty> I did it a lot more with the first one, but I like the emotional high of a cliffhanger
Sobbie> yep
KitSileya> It certainly grabs the attention.
Smitty> Anyone who has had the stamina to read till 31 deserves some high
Sobbie> lol
Sobbie> It only took me 2 days to read both books
Smitty> I hope that's good
Sobbie> yeah kept me reading till 6 am both days
Smitty> Then I take that as a compliment
Sobbie> it is
Smitty> I have a question for you, then. Who's your favorite character?
Sobbie> Joe
Smitty> Cool. Why?
Sobbie> cause he's so real and easy to get along with
KitSileya> Mine is Taryn. But I identify more with Rosalind.
Smitty> Honestly, emotionally I'm more identified with Rosalind, too
KitSileya> I like the fact that she grabs love with both hands when it comes along, even though she didn't think she was destined for passion.
Smitty> I like how you say that. May I quote you?
Sobbie> I have a hard time really identifying with either taryn or rosalind... but I have met ppl like joe
KitSileya> Feel free.
Smitty> He'd be pleased to hear that
KitSileya> Well, I've never met anyone like Taryn, either, but Rosalind and Joe? Yes, both.
Sobbie> I used to work with a guy like joe and I saw a lot of the kinds of things he had to go through
Smitty> I usually write about people I think are real, in one way or another. If you feel like you could sit down in a diner and meet them, I've done my job
Smitty> Tell me about him
Sobbie> I would love to sit down with Joe
Sobbie> "J" was post surgical trans. I only knew because he needed help with his shots. He was very into mystical stuff.
Sobbie> taught me a lot
Smitty> He's loosly based on a guy I knew in Buffalo, a wonderful, wonderful man.
Sobbie> "J" was a wonderful guy too
Smitty> Sounds familiar
Sobbie> egyptia is a woman I would like to meet to
Smitty> I wanted it to be that way with Joe- you'd never know, unless he mentioned his shot. It was just a side bit in a scene in the first book, but it was enough.
Smitty> I'm just getting to know Egyptia, I think she'll be fun
Smitty> she's wiser than I thought
Sobbie> yep her trying to explain the fem thoughts was really funny
Smitty> I wanted more of a trans prescence in the community
KitSileya> And right on!
Smitty> glad it worked.
Sobbie> yep it did
Smitty> I do try.
KitSileya> Well, I had absolutely no prior knowledge about that kind of community, but they characters do seem to form a whole, of sorts.
Smitty> I'm accused of being out to lunch sometimes with how femme's think, but that's usually in my own livingroom
Sobbie> lol
Smitty> if it makes sense, if there's a recognition, it's working
Sobbie> yeah I had a very limited understanding of the trans comunity before I read them
Smitty> I swear, I did not get out a Trans soapbox when I thought about writing! It just..it was what I knew, and what I wanted to see in a story
KitSileya> It makes sense, and it made me curious. There were a lot of the expressions I didn' understand until I researched them tho'.
Smitty> like?
Sobbie> well it makes me think.... I know I have a hard time understanding the community
KitSileya> I remember distincly missing the point of Taryn's bulldagger tattoo..
Smitty> ah. Some things I don't explain
Smitty> but it's also an American slang term
Smitty> old fashion.
KitSileya> Must have missed it growing up. And many other expressions as well. But I looked them up, and then reread the story. Much better.
Smitty> But I adore language, the evolution of words in a subculture, and what can happen when you reclaim those words
Smitty> some things are just new, and I expected that, like 'drag king'
Sobbie> hmm I guess I missed the historical parts
KitSileya> Well, as an English/linguistics double-major, I love the language too.
Smitty> heh. Another one! I have an undergrad English degree
Sobbie> I have been called bull dyke for ever so I figured it was an east coast thing
Sobbie> and I have an English lit minor
Smitty> it's surprisingly old. More in the African American community, historically- both bulldagger and bulldyker
Smitty> Ever read Judy Grahn's evolution of the term?
Sobbie> no
KitSileya> No...
Smitty> she's a poet, she traced it, hypotheticasll, back to Boudicea.
KitSileya> Because the 'c' is pronounce 'k'?
Sobbie> oh ok
Smitty> Yeah- Bou-a-Dicc-a, but alos, a Queen, who in the ancient worlkd would be associated with the sacred Ax and the Bull,
Smitty> can't type, damn it
Sobbie> lol
Smitty> the queen who wields the dagger of sacrifice
KitSileya> Well, she sacrificed London, right enough.
Smitty> it was an imaginative leap, but I adored it.
Smitty> heh
Sobbie> is that how Xena came to britanica and gabrielle got the sacrificial dagger?
Smitty> I think so
Smitty> RJ Stweart is a splendidly subversive mythological fellow
Sobbie> you know.... the more I watch xena and read fanfic the more I learn
Smitty> yeah, me too
KitSileya> Yeah, absolutely. Uberfic just covers so many cultures.
Sobbie> too true
Smitty> That's the beauty of it
Smitty> speak with passion about your culture and invite eveyone in
Sobbie> my problem is I rarely go into the history of any of it
KitSileya> Well, you certainly did that with 'Drag Kings'
Smitty> it bleeds over
Smitty> thank you
Sobbie> have you gotten a positive response to drag kings?
Smitty> very positive
Smitty> passionate, on a few fronts. It struck a chord
Smitty> I was surprised
Sobbie> it's so hard to be different
Sobbie> and to be identified as even more different in your sub group is even harder
Smitty> Agreed. I wanted to represent belonging, as well-
Smitty> a chance for the creation of strong bonds between people, inclusive bonds
Sobbie> inclusive is such a hard thing to find
Smitty> give a glimpse of a way of life that has it's sweetness and rewards, and is not so strange
Smitty> I think Xena fandom has a great amount of it
Sobbie> yeah that's true
Sobbie> too bad we cant get the polititians to read fanfic
Smitty> maybe they do, they just can't admit it yet.
KitSileya> LOL
Sobbie> lol
Smitty> everyone else sure seems to
Sobbie> well not here....
KitSileya> Or in Norway.
Sobbie> no one around here even knows what xena is let alone fanfic
Smitty> we certainly cross national boundaries in the readership
Sobbie> oh yeah... I have been keeping an informal tally of ppl who show up for these chats
Sobbie> so far we have hit every continent and many countries
Smitty> I think we lost most of them.
Smitty> The hits on my page are from just about every country
Smitty> and the dragkings list is from all over
KitSileya> I think it's thanks to the internet... Without it, fanfic would have remained primarily US/UK
Smitty> still cracks me up, that the world is reading about Buffalo
Sobbie> too true
Sobbie> buffalo is not known for its gay culture
Smitty> absolutely. The internet is no hierarchical magic
Sobbie> well in a way the internet does have a hierachy
Smitty> nope. But I plan to change that.
Smitty> Best group of people I've ever met'
Smitty> how so?
Sobbie> you have to have access to a computer
KitSileya> Well, it's the only thig I connect Buffalo with ;o)
Sobbie> and that usually means at least a minimum income
Sobbie> I know ppl from buffalo
Smitty> good point. Public libraries have them,, though- the kids in South Central use them all day long
Smitty> really?
Sobbie> they are not into the gay thing at all
Smitty> it's an acquired taste
Sobbie> yeah but do they even have public libraries in peru for example
Smitty> not as many
Sobbie> yeah when I lived in seattle my best friends were from buffalo
KitSileya> And it also depends on their mastery of English.
Smitty> I agree with your point, the internet is restricted by class and access. But I think that is changing,
Smitty> in some areas.
Smitty> The potential for exchange of information is staggering
Sobbie> yeah slowly but surely the computers are taking over the world
Smitty> tools, merely. We still need people to help us navigate, to make sense of the information
Smitty> but I would say that, I'm a librarian
KitSileya> My favorite profession. :o)
Sobbie> lol
Sobbie> I have a library in my back yard
Smitty> Good to hear
Sobbie> so I like librarians too
Smitty> Lucky
Sobbie> privately owned and operated but open to public
Smitty> Sounds like a great organization
Sobbie> you'd have to thank my grandmother for that
Smitty> all in the family?
Sobbie> not anymore
Smitty> she built it, I assume?
Sobbie> I have keys to it and we own one of the buildings but she gave it to a private corp a few years before she died
Sobbie> yep she used to have it in one of the rooms of the house
Sobbie> before it outgrew the house
Smitty> my favorite library started in a house
Smitty> Well, friends, sadly I'm nearing the end of my time
KitSileya> Thank you for taking the time to talk to us.
Sobbie> well thanks for coming I really enjoyed talking with you
Smitty> My pleasure. I'm flattered to be asked.
Smitty> goodnight
*** Smitty has left #TheUberAbode