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Morgan would have been 67 years old today.

Starting today, I am offering posters of Morgan's art for sale. Pick whatever piece of her art that you want on your wall and I will have it printed and sent to you. The gallery of her art is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/morgandhu/

Prices are sliding scale. If you send more than the minimum, I will split the extra between Doctors Without Borders and the Indian Residential School Survivors Society of Canada.

8x10 poster, (7x9 image), ships flat: $2.50-7.50.
9x12 poster (8x11 image), ships rolled: $3-9.

Shipping: $5 per order. Several posters may cost a bit more. Shipped directly from the printing company.

You can DM me via Glaurung on Dreamwidth, Glaurung-quena on Facebook, or email glaurung at dragonmaiden dot net.

Paypal (same email as above) works best. If you cannot do paypal, there's a fixed price Etsy listing: https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/ArtByMorganDhu/tools/listings/1183720872
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Two barely started plays, and about sixteen poems in the form of songs, some chorded for guitar.

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgan_Dhu
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For those who follow her here but not on Facebook.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1440223
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For several years, Morgan devoted many hours a day to playing Travian, a massively multiplayer online strategy game. Basically an MMO version of Civilization, in which you build up your cities in order to create and feed lots of troops, band together with other players, and then your alliance seeks to build the world wonder that wins the game while preventing all the other alliances from doing the same.

She was active on the Travian forums for a while as well. Sadly all those posts vanished when the forum software changed. But I did find a couple poems and some filks that Morgan shared with her fellow Travian players in her documents folder. They don't seem suited to AO3 so I'm putting them here.

Read more... )
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Her Star Trek parody play, her unfinished Xena novel, two short Xena fragments, and two Xena poems.

https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morgan_Dhu
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For those not on facebook, a complete archive of Morgan's surviving artwork is now online at

https://www.flickr.com/photos/morgandhu/albums

Some images were posted here on her blog back in 2008 or on her ancient website back in 2003. Everything else was never posted online before now.

All scans are full 300dpi resolution, and are creative commons (non-commercial share alike) licenced so that anyone who wishes to may make cards, prints, etc, if they so wish.
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This is Glaurung, Morgan_dhu's partner.

She didn't post here often, but just in case there are friends here who were not following her on Facebook, I am very sorry to report that after months of worsening illness, Morgan died on Friday May 3rd. I think she died in her sleep.

Something started going wrong with her kidneys shortly after the surgery to remove her kidney stones last fall. Her edema ballooned out of control, and the swollen tissue became extraordinarily painful. She could not lie down to be transported any longer, so we were not able to find out what had gone wrong or if it could be corrected. Around April 18th, she stopped being able to read, game, watch TV, or surf the net - the pain made a wall between her and the world, and all she could do was suffer or sleep. Fortunately we were able to give her drugs that helped her spend most of her time sleeping.

I'm glad it went so quickly and was over so soon. I miss her more than words can say.
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So, in the past few months, I’ve watched two films with similar stories and themes - The Miseducation of Cameron Post, and just the other night, Boy Erased. Both deal with a young queer person forced into the horrors of conversion therapy by parents who are determined to ‘make them straight.’ But they are rather different in tone.

In The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Cameron, the young woman at the heart of the story, is relatively unconflicted about her sexuality. No matter what her parents or the ‘counsellors’ at the Christian conversion camp think, she like girls, and she enjoys it. Though her belief in herself is temporarily shaken when she learns that her lover, Coley, has renounced her and their relationship, she manages to recover her sense of who she is despite the pressures around her. Her story is one of surviving the abusive bullshit dumped on her - which, sadly some other ‘participants’ don’t - until she manages, with some other proudly unrepentant teens, to escape and begin her own life.

The main character in Boy Erased, Jarod Eamons, has a more complicated road to travel. Again, a same-sex encounter that his parents discover results in his being placed into conversion therapy by his parents, but Jarod is more uncertain of his sexuality, wants to earn the love of his parents, and has been influenced by the profoundly Christian manner of his upbringing. As well, an early experience with another boy was, we learn later on, traumatic in a way that not only gives him reason to question his gayness, but also to be forced to confront massive trust issues with his parents, particularly his father.

The ‘therapy’ program is, like all these programs, abusive and carries the potential to deeply harm participants, even if they weren’t already struggling with sexuality and rejection by parents and family, church, and society.

Finally Jarod escapes, through the support of his mother, who has come to the realisation that if she must choose between her son and her church as she’s always believed in it, she chooses her son.

It’s a far more nuanced film, and one that shows not only Jarod’s coming to terms with himself and the trauma he experiences from multiple sources, but also a journey toward understanding for his mother, and even, at the end, a chance that his father can grow beyond his religious prejudices.

I’m glad to have seen both films, and hope that soon, no one will ever again have stories to tell about the abuses of gay conversion programs.
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I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the films that came out in the last few months of the year, as the internet elves make them available.

Recently watched BlackKKlansman, which was to my mind a truly extraordinary film. Well written, well directed, well acted. Spike Lee may have produced his best film yet with this. From the opening sequence, which was an assault of racist thoughts and images, to the final Black Power image, it was riveting. What I found fascinating was the way that he makes the ugliness and violence of the Klan so clear, and yet at the same time makes it impossible to see any of the Klansmen as positive characters - they are (with one important exception) shown as incompetent, full of insecurities, paranoid, and so on. It’s reminiscent of a similar choice made by Mel Brooks when making The Producers. The exception is, of course, David Duke. By making him appear not all that much worse than many of the other white men in the story, Lee reminds us that yes, the ridiculous pageantry and naked hatred can be disguised and made to seem electable.

While the undercover penetration of the Klan was the main plotline, the mere background was a strong story in itself, detailing the situation of Ron Stallworth as the first black man in an all-white, often openly racist environment. The choice to make Stallworth’s partner in going undercover a secular Jew - the actual identity of his partner remains unknown - is brilliant as it gives both men a reason to invest personally in the mission, although Zimmerman at first denies it.

The blending of past and present, ranging from images from Birth of a Nation and the harrowing eyewitness account if a lynching (in a powerful performance by Harry Belafonte) to shots of the Charlottesville march is profoundly chilling, reminding us that nothing we see is new, and nothing has been put behind us.

I’m still thinking about the film, days after seeing it. Powerful.


Another film I’ve seen recently is Bohemian Rhapsody. I wanted to see it, despite the discussions of its treatment if Mercury’s Sexuality, because I was a great fan of Queen and nothing can convince me that Freddie Mercury was not the greatest frontman in rock and roll history. I was prepared to be forgiving as long as Rami Malik’s performance lived up to its billing. Which it did. I was blown away by how well he inhabited Mercury’s persona. And while yes, there were some distinct problems with the way that Mercury’s sexuality was portrayed, It was very clear that Malik knew he was playing a queer man, and he played him that way. The text might have been less than accurate about the ways his bisexuality informed his life and his performances, but Malik puts it unmistakably into his chacterisation, and it is a thing of beauty. Whatever the problems were with the film, Malik made Freddie Mercury, the man, the artist, the musician, come alive in all his queer vitality.


So yeah, colour me happy with the movie. I’d have been happier with something more accurate, and less inclined to suggest that aspects of gay life that Freddie engaged in were due solely to his being lonely, lost, and misguided... but I’ll take Malik’s incandescent performance and ignore the things that could have been better.
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I love lists of great books. I realy love lists of great sf books. Tor.com has published a wonderful list by James Nicoll of “100 SF/F books You Should Consider Reading In the New Year.”

It is a great list, full of great books, some of which I have read, some of which I know only by reputation but have often wanted to read. Maybe this year I will.


I’ve starred the books I’ve read from the list. 45 out of 100, with a few that I think I have read but it was very long ago and I’. not sure.

A plus sign indicates the ones I own that are sitting patiently in my TBR list. Yes, I have a very, very long TBR list. A woman’s reach should exceed her grasp, or what’s a heaven for?


*The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (2014)
The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken (1981)
Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa (2001-2010)
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō by Hitoshi Ashinano (1994-2006)
*The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
Stinz: Charger: The War Stories by Donna Barr (1987)
The Sword and the Satchel by Elizabeth Boyer (1980)
Galactic Sibyl Sue Blue by Rosel George Brown (1968)
*The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold (1989)
+War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (1987)
*Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (1980)
*Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey (2010)
*The Fortunate Fall by Raphael Carter (1996)
*The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (2015)
*Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant (1970)
*The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas (1980)
+Gate of Ivrel by C.J. Cherryh (1976)
*Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho (2015)
Diadem from the Stars by Jo Clayton (1977)
*The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)
Genpei by Kara Dalkey (2000)
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (2010)
The Secret Country by Pamela Dean (1985)
*Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (1975)
*The Door into Fire by Diane Duane (1979)
On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis (2016)
*Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott (2006)
Enchantress From the Stars by Sylvia Louise Engdahl (1970)
*Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle (1983)
The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss (1997)
A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein (1987)
+Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1995)
+Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly (1988)
Winterlong by Elizabeth Hand (1990)
*Ingathering by Zenna Henderson (1995)
The Interior Life by Dorothy Heydt (writing as Katherine Blake, 1990)
*God Stalk by P. C. Hodgell (1982)
*Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson (1998)
*Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang (2014)
*Blood Price by Tanya Huff (1991)
The Keeper of the Isis Light by Monica Hughes (1980)
God’s War by Kameron Hurley (2011)
+Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta (2014)
*The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin (2015)
Cart and Cwidder by Diane Wynne Jones (1975)
*Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones (2014)
+Hellspark by Janet Kagan (1988)
A Voice Out of Ramah by Lee Killough (1979)
St Ailbe’s Hall by Naomi Kritzer (2004)
*Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz (1970)
*Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (1987)
*A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (1962)
Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier (2005)
*The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1974)
*Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013)
+Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee (Also titled Drinking Saphire Wine, 1979)
*Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (2016)
Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm (1986)
*Adaptation by Malinda Lo (2012)
*Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn (1979)
*Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy (1983)
*The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald (2007)
*China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh (1992)
+Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre (1978)
The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip (1976)
*Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees (1926)
Pennterra by Judith Moffett (1987)
The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe (2010)
*Jirel of Joiry by C. L. Moore (1969)
+Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2016)
+The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy (1989)
+Vast by Linda Nagata (1998)
*Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton (1959)
*His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (2006)
+Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara (1993)
Outlaw School by Rebecca Ore (2000)
*Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor (2014)
*Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (1983)
*Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (1976)
+Godmother Night by Rachel Pollack (1996)
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (1859)
My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland (2011)
*The Female Man by Joanna Russ (1975)
Stay Crazy by Erika L. Satifka (2016)
The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1988)
Five-Twelfths of Heaven by Melissa Scott (1985)
*Everfair by Nisi Shawl (2016)
*Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
*A Door Into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski (1986)
*The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart (1970)
*Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree, Jr. (1978)
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (1996)
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge (1980)
*All Systems Red by Martha Wells (2017)
The Well-Favored Man by Elizabeth Willey (1993)
Banner of Souls by Liz Williams (2004)
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (2012)
*Ariosto by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1980)
+Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga (2005-present)
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Happy solstice to all! May the turning of the year bring you light, and hope, and strength to carry on in the days to come.
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Well, I quite enjoyed the season finale. I had grown tired of the universe shattering cliffhanger finales with the stakes and the Doctor’s position as an avatar of Christ himsrlf escalating out of control. I like smallish stories, and this one did wrap up a point plot from the beginning, show us how far the companions have come, without killing any if them, and save the world. That’s enough for one episode, I think.

I like Jodie Whittaker’s portrayal of the Doctor, although I would love to see her facing greater challenges in future seasons.

And none of this season’s episodes have been awful, and a few have been brilliant. Good job for the first year. Now let’s crank it up for Jodie’s year two.

Your thoughts?
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So, I’m thinking of trying to post more here and build up my participation so that when I am slammed by FB’s new content restrictions, I still have a social network to ease my isolation.

Things are not good, for those of you who are not on FB, which is where I’ve been posting updates on my health and wellbeing. In fact, they are completely awful. I did finally get the kidney surgery I was waiting for, and sll the tubes and stents are out of me, but I have now fallen victim to a particularly severe case of restless limb syndrome (rls) plus none-stop pruritus, plus massive edema, and I am exhausted, unable to sit comfortably or lie down at all because of the extent of the swelling in my lower body and legs. The rls leaves me going crazy with massive crawling sensations in my legs, arms, and as can happen in severe cases, abdomen. Doctor is unable to pinpoint a cause. I am fucked.

Not reading much because of all of this. Not doing much of anything, in fact. Very depressed. Exhausted. Half insane from constant crawling and itching all over my body, plus pain where all my swollen parts are jammed together so I can sit and type this.

Not a happy camper,

I am thinking of mirroring some of the posts I make on FB here, and perhaps creating more original content here as well. That is assuming I don’t lose the battle with my body completely and just bugger off the mortal coil.

I’m back

Apr. 12th, 2018 10:41 am
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It’s been a while. I’ve been depressed, and sick - the first time in years that I’ve gotten a flu shot, also the first time in years I’ve gotten the flu - and not reading much and generally feeling unmotivated in the extreme. But I figure I should get back into the habit, so here is my book report for the oast few weeks.

Since the announcement of the Hugo finalists on March 31, I’ve been working on reading the ones I haven’t already read, which include novels from three Campbell finalists and, of course, the dreaded best series category.

Since my last book post, I have completed:

Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Falcons of Narabedla
Tanya Huff, The Future Falls
N. K. Jemisin, The Killing Moon
N. K. Jemisin, The Shadowed Sun
Sarah Kuhn, Heroine Complex
Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes
Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows
Peter Tremayne, Shroud of the Archbishop
Peter Tremayne, Suffer the Children
Cassandra Khaw, Food of the Gods
Sarah Gailey, River of Teeth
Seanan McGuire, Down Among the Sticks and Bones
Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty
Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal (eds.), Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler

(As always, my thoughts on the books I read, feeble as they may be, can be found on my book journal at bibliogramma.dreamwidth.org)

Currently reading:

Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140
Martin Delany, Blake, or the Huts of Africa Part One
Olaf Stapledon, Darkness and the Light
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (ed.), How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective
Ann and Jeff Vandermeer (eds.), Sisters of the Revolution
Samuel R. Delany, Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts and the Politics of the Paraliterary


What’s next:

More Hugo reading, of course. I have two more finalists from the best novel category for both 2018 and 1943, plus most of the graphic novel finalists, plus three YA finalists, plus novels from two Campbell finalists, plus two related works finalists, plus examples from four best series finalists. Assuming that I can find free copies of all of these, either in the voters packet or elsewhere.

And there’s a bunch of other stuff I want to read, new releases and books that have been sitting on my TBR list forever. So many, many books.
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And it’s reading Wednesday again.

I’ve been feeling a bit down this week, and in a lot of pain, which as usual has had an affect on my reading. I’ve spent a lot of time mindlessly playing one of my favourite games, called Rebuild. It’s after the Zombie apocalypse, and your responsibility is to clear out the town you find yourself in, collect survivors, feed them. It’s not as complex as a full-fledged RPG, it’s more of a turn-based simple combat strategy game, but it requires little thought, no manual dexterity, and it’s fun killing vampires. I don’t play the big RPG games because every time I’ve ever tried one, they’ve been dependent on manual dexterity. You have to be able to get past the guards at high speed, or jump precisely from the ledge to the rock in the middle of the chasm, or press the buttons in the right order, or something that involves complex manipulation of motion controls, and I have never been able to achieve that kind of accuracy, so I never get anywhere, and eventually I stopped trying to play them. Which is a pity, because some of them appear to be interesting, but I have no wish to get involved in a game and then get permanently blocked because I simply cannot execute a series of moves quickly or accurately enough. But enough about games.

I did get some reading done this week. Finished off a few things that I’d been slowly working through.

Books (and novellas)completed this week:

Shadowhouse Fall, Daniel José Older
Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, Chinua Achebe
Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki
Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization, Peter McFarlane and Nicole Schabus (eds.)
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, Jill Twiss
Hammers on Bone, Cassandra Khaw
Bearly a Lady, Cassandra Khaw


Books in progress:

Food of the Gods, Cassandra Khaw
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, Dorothy Roberts
Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts and the Politics of the Paraliterary, Samuel R. Delany
Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler, Alexandra Pierce and Mimi Mondal (eds.)


What’s next:

I’m in a mood of completion right now, so I’m thinking I’m going to go through my TBR list and read the sequels to all those first volumes in a series that I enjoyed but somehow didn’t get around to reading the next volume when it came out. There’s actually a fair bit of that on my list.

And there’s always new books coming out, and this year I want to get a head start on books that might be potential Hugo nominees fir next year.

And there’s the rereads of Heinlein and Le Guin that are on my back burner at the moment, to which list I’m now wanting to add Octavia Butler, because reading Luminescent Threads has put me in that mood.

And I have some specific ideas about the “social justice” reading I want to do this year. My priorities include: reading more about Indigenous history and experience and the processes of decolonisation; more books about the history and experiences of people of colour in Canada; writings both theoretical and personal by black and Indigenous women; and experiences of transgender, non-binary and intersex people. Some of these are not going to be easy to source on a zero budget - libraries don’t have a lot of this material available on ebooks, and other sources go by popularity, but I’m going to try. I’ve already got several books in all of these subjects to start on, so we’ll see what I can find to add to that.
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I haven’t completed any if my books in progress over the past week, because I’ve mostly been reading pulp magazines from 1942. Twenty-four of them, in fact. I did not read cover to cover, but I gave every piece of fiction a few oaragraphs to engage me, and if it did, I read it. Say, about two-thirds of the stories published. Most of the magazines were Campbell edited - primarily Amazing Stories and Unknown Worlds - with a few others tossed in for variety.

I did this because I wanted to give a fair shot at nominations for the Retro Hugos. Certainly I found some gems that I would never have thought of had I not done this reading.

And I noticed a few interesting things about the stories I read, too. First, there were a lot of stories that touched, in one way or another, on the war. Not surprising, the US had just gotten into the war a few months before the year began, and writers, even those who write speculative fiction, write about the world they live in, even if they put it into futuristic or fantasy trappings. Time travel was big. I found a lot of stories that in one way or another dealt with time travel, forward or back. Robots were pretty big, too. Not just Asimov, but other writers as well. On the fantasy side, there was a definite market for humorous stories, with L. Sprague de Camp being particularly known for such. And ghosts. A lot of fantasy involved ghosts. Actually, both Anthony Boucher and A. E. van Vogt wrote time travel stories involving ghosts. There were a fair few ‘bargain with the devil’ fantasies, too.

It was really rather interesting, immersing myself in sff from another time for a week. But now I’m back to the present, and all my Hugo nominations are in, and I’ve got some things I want to read for myself.

Next week, back to regular Wednesday reading posts. At least, that’s the plan.
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On Wednesday I was at the hospital dealing with multiple bureaucratic screwups in what was supposed to be a straightforward process of having some tests done and talking to a doctor about them. I arrive home exhausted and promptly slept the rest of the day. And the day after. And mist of Friday, too. So Wednesday’s book post is happening today instead.

Depression hit me for a few days this week, too, so my reading was impacted in a not good way. I feel so unlike myself when I can’t get into a book. But I think it’s turning around, slowly.


Books completed this week:
Raven Stratagem, Yoon Ha Lee
The Art of Starving, Sam J. Miller
Sleeping with Monsters, Liz Bourke
Up Ghost River: a chief’s journey through the turbulent waters of Native history, Edward Metatawabin
Fonda Lee, Exo


Books in progress:
Shadowhouse Fall, Daniel José Older
Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, Dorothy Roberts
Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts and the Politics of the Paraliterary, Samuel R. Delany
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, Chinua Achebe
Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki


What’s up next:
Finishing the Hugo reading. After that, I’m not entirely sure. Reading Liz Bourke’s Sleeping with Monsters has given me some ideas, as the book includes essays about a fair few books that have been languishing in my TBR file for some time.

And of course, the Heinlein and Le Guin rereading projects.

Plus, I keep a little list of books that I hear about from various sources and the dates on which are being released. These are books that I feel I absolutely must acquire. The list is only a starting point, of course - I’m forever hearing about books after their publication that I would have put on the list if I’d known about them. This is how the TBR pile just keeps growing. There are a few books on this list from February I still don’t have, and there’s the list for March. I need to try to read these as I acquire them so the TBR list doesn’t get any longer. The February/March list:

Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, Mothers of Massive Resistance
Djamila Ibrahim, Things Are Good Now
Therese Marie Mailhot, Heart Berries: A Memoir
Elizabeth Bear, Stone Mad
Nancy Kress, If Tomorrow Comes
Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone
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I continue to read. This is a good thing and makes me happy.

Books completed this week:
The Compleat Werewolf and Other Stories, Anthony Boucher
At The Dark End of the Street, Danielle L. McGuire
What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky, Lesley Nneka Arimah
Weave a Circle Round, Kari Maaren
The Illegal, Lawrence Hill
The Tiger’s Daughter, K. Arsenault Rivera
Provenance, Ann Leckie
So You Want To Talk about Race, Ijeoma Oluo
Proof of Concept, Gwyneth Jones
Want, Cindy Pon


Books in progress:
Raven Stratagem, Yoon Ha Lee
The Art of Starving, Sam J. Miller
Sleeping with Monsters, Liz Bourke
Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts and the Politics of the Paraliterary, Samuel R. Delany
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, Chinua Achebe
Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki


What’s next:

Still doing Hugo reading, mostly young adult novels and a few related works. A few more recommended novels - Lana Elena Donelly’s Amberlough, Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes, Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous - if there’s time. I read about a hook a day, so theoretically I have time for 15 more books before I have to finalise my ballot. Some more short fiction, current and retro.

After that, some rereads, Heinlein and Le Guin.

And I think I’ll do some concerted work on reducing the length of my TBR list, which at last count ran to 18 pages, single-spaced. I have a lot of lovely books sitting on my ipad waiting to be read, and they keep writing new ones to add to the list.
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More adventures in reading in between watching the Olympics.

Books completed this week:
Samuel Delany, The Atheist in the Attic
Robert Heinlein, Waldo and Magic, Inc
Robert Heinlein, The Green Hills of Earth
Robert Heinlein, The Menace from Earth
Robert Heinlein, The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (also published as 6XH)
Vita Sackville-West, Grand Canyon
Claire North, The End of the Day

Books in progress:
Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts and the Politics of the Paraliterary, Samuel R. Delany
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, Chinua Achebe
Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki
The Compleat Werewolf and Other Stories, Anthony Boucher
At The Dark End of the Street, subtitled Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power, Danielle L. McGuire
What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky, Lesley Nneka Arimah

What next?:
More Hugo reading, obviously.

I have a few YA books to check out - mostly Nebula nominees, since I really don’t follow YA novels except when they get a lot of buzz or are written by authors on my automatic “must read everything they write” list - plus a couple of the other novels nominated for Nebulas that seem interesting.

And I have a lot of short stories and novelettes to read from the various suggestion lists around the Net. The fact that I can pretty much only read those published in online magazines, unless they’re in an original anthology I’ve managed to acquire, makes my task a little easier, but still, there is a lot of great short fiction out there and I’m always behind on my reading.

And there’s some books I want to read for the related works category, too. Time is running out.

And there’s all the other books, too.

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Well, I’ve been reading less this past week than I have lately, because I have been pandering to my Olympics obsession, but I have still managed to read a few things.

Books competed this week:

Hidden Youth: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, edited by Mikki Kendall and Chesya Burke
All Systems Red, Martha Wells
Akata Warrior, Nnedi Okorafor
Policing Black Lives, Robyn Maynard
Crip Theory, Robert McRuer
Nerves, Lester del Ray
Hell is Forever, Alfred Bester
Boundries, Border Crossings and Reinventing the Future, Beth Plutchak
Agents of Dreamland, Caitlin Kiernan
An Ember from the Ashes, Sabaa Tahir


Books in progress:

Shorter Views: Queer Thoughts and the Politics of the Paraliterary, Samuel R. Delany
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, Chinua Achebe
Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki
At the Dark End of the Street, Danielle L. McGuire
The End of the Day, Claire North


What’s next:

More Hugo reading, contemporary and retro. More works by black authors in celebration of Black History Month. Maybe some other things just because that’s what caught my eye while persuing my list of books I have in my ebook collection but have yet to read.

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Another week, another Wednesday, another book post.

What I’m currently reading:

Akata Warrior, Nnedi Okorafor
Nerves, Lester Del Ray
Policing Black Lives, Robyn Maynard
Hidden Youth, Mikki Kendall and Chesya Burke (eds.)
Crip Theory, Robert McRuer
Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki


Books completed this week:

Null States, Malka Older
Homintern, Gregory Woods
Lethal Decisions, Arthur Ammann
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, Jennifer Teege
The Stone Sky, N. K. Jemisin
An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon
Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor
A. E. van Vogt, Asylum


What’s up next:

Well, still doing Hugo reading, and I have several books I want to read in the Related Works category - Beth Pluchak’s Boundaries, Borders and Reinventing the Future, Liz Bourke’s Sleeping with Monsters, and the tribute anthology for Octavia Butler, Luminescent Threads. Plus a few more novels - including some YA novels for the new not-a-Hugo category -and lots more short fiction - a couple of novellas that sound interesting and quite a few novelettes and short stories.

Plus, I need to do some reading for the 1943 Retro Hugo fiction categories (works published in 1942), if I can find the works I want to check out anywhere online. Fortunately, I’ve already read the books I feel are the strongest contenders for Best Novel - Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright, The Stranger by Albert Camus, Beyond this Horizon by Robert Heinlein and The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. Deadline for nominations is March 16, so I need to get cracking on this.

Plus, I’m trying to focus on reading books by black authors, both fiction and non-fiction, for Black History month. I have lots of books to choose from in my TBR pile that fit the bill, so there’s no problem finding the books to read, it’s just a matter of balancing my two projects for the month.

The Heinlein reread project has been put on the back burner for now, and I’m also feeling a need to reread some of my favourite books by Ursula Le Guin, but that will have to wait til March.

So many, many, many books, so very little time.

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Yes, I’m begging again.

My health has continued to deteriorate in a truly spectacular fashion. Two years ago it was lesions on my parathyroid glands requiring surgery, and a broken foot. Last year, kidney failure. Gall bladder attack. Kidney stones filling my kidneys and blocking my ureters so I can’t pee normally. Nephristomy tubes and stents in one of my ureters, that require regular changing. Waiting to be healthy enough for the necessary imaging to be done before surgery (it’s not safe to do contrast CT scans on someone in kidney failure, but they needed a contrast CT to determine where the stones are for surgery). Constant trips to the hospital.

Well, I’ve finally had the CT scan, but my nephrologist was still leery about surgery so he is trying to treat the stones pharmaceutically - if he can get them to dissolve a bit, he can go in to remove them with robots through my bladder rather than having to do an invasive and much riskier surgical procedure. I will need more imaging once this treatment is completed, to see if it worked. More trips to the hospital for imaging and consults and finally surgery.

And.... the imaging showed a mass on my ovary and lesions in my left lung, and I need to be seen by oncologists to check those things out.

Every visit to a hospital for scheduled imaging or consults with doctors or changing my my nephrostomy tubes means I have to hire an ambulance and two crews because I’m fat. Each visit costs me around $800 dollars. I’ve been going in once or twice a month for eight months now, not counting all the visits from two years ago, which still aren’t completely paid for. Our savings are gone and we’ve exhausted our credit but I still have medical appointments that are necessary for my state of health, and possibly my life if it turns put that I have cancer. But I have no money left and no way to get more.

I have a small, fixed income. My partner is my 24/7 caregiver and can’t work on top of doing that. We have already cut our expenses to a minimum to at least pay the interest in what we’ve had to borrow to cover hospital travel to this point. And we know that between the kidney specialist and the oncologist, I will need at least five or six more hospital trips, just to fix the kidneys and get diagnostic tests done on my ovary and lung.

So I’ve started a new GoFundMe. If you can help at all, please consider it. I’m out of options.

https://www.gofundme.com/morgans-2018-medical-expenses
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Oh look, It’s Wednesday again, and that means its time for another book post.

Books completed in the past week:

Tender, Sofia Samatar
Race, Gender and Sexuality in Post-Apocalyptic TV and Film, Barbara Gurr (ed.)
Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014, Ursula Le Guin
Amatka, Karin Tidbeck
The Fire This Time, Jessmyn Ward (ed.)
The Changeling, Victor LaValle
No Time to Spare, Ursula Le Guin
The Adventure of the Incognita Contessa, Cynthia Ward

Books I’m currently reading:

Null States, Malka Older
Policing Black Lives, Robyn Maynard
Hidden Youth, Mikki Kendall and Chesya Burke (eds.)
Crip Theory, Robert McRuer
Homintern, Gregory Woods
Lethal Decisions, Arthur Ammann
Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki

Next on the list:

No idea. More Hugo reading, I suppose. There’s still some novels and short fiction I want to read before the nominations close. And some related works - Beth Pluchak’s Boundaries, Borders and Reinventing the Future and Liz Bourke’s Sleeping with Monsters, both from Aqueduct Press, among them.

And there’s a lot of social justice literature I’ve got sitting on my ipad waiting to be read. And a huge backlog of fiction and other cool books to be read as well. While I seem capable of reading - which is not always the case given my fluctuating health - I really do want to take advantage of it.

Two movies

Jan. 27th, 2018 02:44 am
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Around this time of year, I like to check out the lists of films that were nominated for Golden Globes and Oscars, and see if there are films I haven’t seen yet, but want to. This year, the two films that struck me as belonging in that category were Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri and The Shape of Water.

And I found both, in different ways, disappointing. I’m going to discuss why, and that will involve plenty of spoilers, so if you are spoiler averse and haven’t seen these films yet, you should probably stop reading.

First, Three Billboards. Yes, it was brilliantly acted. The performances of all the significant cast members were truly works of art. And the story was a profound expression of a woman’s rage, which was both timely and well handled for the most part, although it did wander between the genres of realism and black comedy, making the actions of some of the characters - particularly when the police station is firebombed - more than a little farcical. It’s as if a serious exploration of grief and rage kind of ran away from itself and went way over the top.

What did not sit well at all was the way that casual racism and ableism were presented as quirks that might give a character complexity but did not play into the evaluation of the character’s moral compass. We are led to believe that the sheriff is both wise and good, because he loves a good joke and is a decent father, husband and lover. Even though he allows, perhaps even encourages police brutality in his jurisdiction, and seems to play distinct favourites with who gets police service and who doesn’t. As the dying sage, he gets to appoint the next hero to be, and that would be the most racist and least competent cop on the force, who proudly acknowledges torturing “people of colour” and throws people he doesn’t like out the window. But the dead sheriff says he’s basically a good person, and so he must be.

And that’s what’s disappointing. Racism is not just a cute character flaw, it is a lack of empathy and a misalignment of one’s moral compass. Being cruel to other people - and even the protagonist is cruel, to the “town midget” played by the badly under-used Peter Dinklage - is the film’s short cut to signalling that these are real and complex people, but as long as their heart is in the right place, it doesn’t make them less heroic.

And next, The Shape of Water. While watching it, I had the odd feeling that I was actually switching back and forth between two very different films, which happened to have a few overlapping characters. One film was a romantic fairy take, about a poor girl who finds a special bond with a magical beast and turns out to be his princess, and a swan, to boot. The other was a grim and vicious dystopic look at toxic masculinity, aggression, and abuse of power, told in the form of a classic 1950s science fiction story, but from the perspective of the bug-eyed monster. One film had well-rounded snd realistic characters, the other, a cast of cartoon villains and cardboard supporting characters. I could have enjoyed either film immensely, but the fusion of the two was unsettling and distancing. It was as if two different films had been shot and edited together.

Imagine my surprise to find that del Toro has been accused of plagarism, of having taken most of the elements that fit into the fantasy romance from a 1969 play called Let Me Hear You Whisper, about a cleaning woman who saves a dolphin imprisoned in a too secret military research centre. Let me make this perfectly clear - I don’t think del Toro committed conscious plagarism, particukarly since one of the seeds that grew into this film apparently came from a lunch meeting with another writer, and del Toro optioned that ideas from him properly and legally. But I would not be surprised if one of the two men, somewhere, somehow, heard about the storyline of the play and it drifted in the back of their mind until it crystallised during this conversation. I’ve also read that once upon a time, del Toro pitched an idea about a film based on Creature of the Black Lagoon, but told from the perspective of the creature. And if you blend the two stories, what comes out is indeed The Shape of Water.

Maybe even recognising that they are two different stories, at some basic level, is why there are two strands, with two different tones (even the musical choices of the two storylines show a different aesthetic) and two different acting styles. Elisa, Giles and Zelda are realistic characters, while Strickland, his wife, The General, and even the Russian spies (with lovely if over-the-top performances, especially from Nigel Bennett) are caricatures, more like characters from Doctor Strangelove. The sleeper agent Hoffstetler is part caricature, part realistic. And the merman is all mythos.

Despite being somewhat distanced from it by these disjunctions, I loved the story. Or stories. Both had very real things to say about empathy and humanity, love and compassion, transcending boundaries through love, and the moral vacancy at the heart of militarism and toxic masculinity. A good film, but not a great one.

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Trying to make Wednesday Book posts a thing again. I want to make more use of Dreamwidth, I’m too much on FB, I think.

So. Books finished in the past week:

Theodora Goss, The Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter
Nancy Kress, Tomorrow’s Kin
Farah Mendlesohn, Spring Flowering
Nancy Kress, Yesterday’s Kin
Tade ​Thompson, ​The ​Murders ​of ​Molly ​Southbourne
JYYang, The Black Tides of Heaven
JY Yang, The Red Threads of Fortune
Kate Harding, Asking for It
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker, All the Real Indians Died Off

Books I’m currently reading:

Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki
Homintern, Gregory Woods
Tender, Sofia Samatar
Race, Gender and Sexuality in Post-Apocalyptic TV and Film, Barbara Gurr (ed.)
Late in the Day: Poems 2010-2014, Ursula Le Guin
Amatka, Karin Tidbeck
The Fire This Time, Jessmyn Ward (ed.)
Lethal ​Decisions: ​The ​Unnecessary ​Deaths ​of ​Women ​and ​Children ​from ​HIV/AIDS, Arthur Ammann

Next on the list:

Who knows? I want to get some more Hugo reading done, so maybe Jemisen’s The Stone Sky, Victor Lavalle’s The Changeling, Rivers Soloman’s An Unkindness of Ghosts, or Malka Older’s Null States. Might try catching up on Laurie King’s Mary Russell series. Or reread some Le Guin that I haven’t read for a while. I’ve been reading a lot of non-fiction in recent months, I might be feeling more like some fiction for a while.

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There are a lot of writers whose work I love, and collect without thinking or checking reviews, because I know that whatever they write will be something I want to read. There are a fair number if writers whose work I keep coming back to, rereading, exploring, for many reasons. In some sense, you coukd say that all of these writers are favourites. But if you asked me who is my favourite writer, and made me pick just one, it would be Le Guin.

It wasn’t just her work, which was some of the best fiction, not just speculative fiction, written in the past 100 years. It was what she wrote about and how she thought about what she wrote, and how she lived what she wrote. She was an inspiration, as a feminist, as a political thinker, as a human being. She did an amazing thing, something you don’t often see geniuses do. She questioned herself. She interrogated her thought and her work. She was open to finding that she had been wrong, and to showing us all how her understanding had changed. She was never afraid to learn, and relearn, and learn more. She never rested on her laurels. And in that, as in so much else, she still has so much to teach us.

Goodbye, Ursula, and fair travels.

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And another Wednesday reading post. Hoping that the trend will continue and I will be able to keep reading and posting about it through the pain and medical shit. So....

Books completed:

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, Damien Duffy
The Power, Naomi Alderman
The Epidemic - A Global History of AIDS, Jonathan Engel
Crash Override, Zoe Quinn
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book 3, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge
Monstress: The Blood, Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda


Books currently reading:

Strangers from a Different Shore, Ronald Takaki
Homintern, Gregory Woods
Tender, Sofia Samatar
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, Theodora Goss
Race, Gender and Sexuality in Post-Apocalyptic TV and Film, Barbara Gurr (ed.)
Asking For It - The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture


Coming up next:

My reading intentions are still much the same as last week. More Hugo-related books - fiction, graphic narratives and related works that might be potential nominations. More books that can be loosely categorised as social justice books. Maybe a few Heinlein novels. Whatever else strikes my fancy - I’m thinking I might want to read some historical fiction or mystery/detective/suspense thrillers.

Book post

Jan. 11th, 2018 04:00 pm
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Yes, I know it’s Thursday, but I’m still doing a Wednesday reading post because yesterday did not really exist fir me, being as it was a day in which I spent most of the time sleeping in an attempt to recover from my hospital visit on Tuesday.

Books completed in the past week:

Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life
Ruthanna Emrys, Winter Tide
Nnedi Okorafor, Home
Malka Older, Infomocracy
Jacques Pepin, The Origin of AIDS
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Panther: A Nation under Our Feet, Book II


Currently reading:

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, Damien Duffy
The Power, Naomi Alderman
The Epidemic - A Global History of AIDS, Jonathan Engel
Gregory Woods, Homintern
Zoe Quinn, Crash Override
Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore (this promises to be a slow read, because it is one if those densely researched and written texts that could form the basis of an entire university course, this one dealing with the migrations of Asian peoples to and within America, and I like to read these a chapter at a time, to allow salient points to settle before moving on)


What may come next:

I’m doing some concentrated Hugo-related reading, so more of the recommended sff novels and novellas from last year that interested me - Jemisin’s The Stone Sky, Goss’ The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, Yoon Ha Lee’s Raven Stratagem, Malka Older’s Null States, Thompson’s The Murders of Molly Southburn, Samatar’s Fallow

Also, I might read a few more Heinlein novels to carry on my project of doing a full reread of all his fiction before Farah Mendlesohn’s book is published this fall.

And there’s a bunch of non-fiction books sitting in my TBR folder that I want to get to: Dorothy ​Roberts, ​Killing ​the ​Black ​Body; Reni ​Eddo-Lodge, ​Why ​I'm ​No ​Longer ​Talking ​to ​White ​People ​about ​Race; Robyn ​Maynard, ​Policing ​Black ​Lives; Pamela ​Palmater, ​Indigenous ​Nationhood; Susan ​Cannon ​Harris, ​Irish ​Drama ​and ​the ​other ​Revolutions; Kate ​Harding, Asking ​for ​It: ​The ​Alarming ​Rise ​of ​Rape ​Culture--and ​What ​We ​Can ​Do ​about ​It; and many, many more.

So the next books I read could be some if these, or they could be something completely different, depending on my mood. There are so many books I want to read, and those darned authors keep writing more of them. (Just kidding, more books is a good thing, even if I don’t live long enough to read all the ones I want to. Maybe heaven is a gigantic library where I can read for all eternity.)

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Dear science fiction and fantasy reading friends... I find that one result of my medical woes this year was that I read much less than usual, and hence I view the rapid approach of the Hugo nominating period with some dismay.

I have the beginnings of short lists in the short fiction categories, but I’m way behind on novels and am almost clueless about related works. If anyone has any suggestions about a novel or sff related work from 2017 that blew tham away, I’d appreciate hearing about it as I really need to do some concentrated Hugo reading over the next month or two. I welcome recs for short fiction too.

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I have been spending far too much time on Facebook and perhaps not enough here, although I know there’s some overlap between folks who subscribe to my personal journal here and folks who are FB contacts, so I’m reluctant to bore people who end up seeing much the same stuff in both places.

FB is a place where I post a lot of links to articles, but I also have gotten into the habit of posting interesting excerpts from books I’m currently reading. And it’s where I tend to post about what’s happening in my life, which these days is mostly about all the annoying medical shit I’m dealing with.

My kidneys are still in serious trouble. My urologist isn’t crazy about having to do invasive surgery on me because of multiple risk factors, so he’s trying to reduce the size of the kidney stones that are filling up mu kidneys and blocking my ureters with drug therapy. If we can get them small enough, he can go in through my bladder and zap them with lasers, rather than cutting mire holes in my back and opening up the kidneys.

On January 9th I go to the gynecological oncolgy department of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre to begin the process of seeing whether the mass on my ovary is cancer. Non-malignancy vibes are welcome.

In the meantime, I’m still in too much pain and have too much hardware hanging off me to resume ohysiotherapy, so I am still not able to walk. It’s been well over a year now since I broke my foot, and I have been hit with one medical setback after another, sapping my strength and my ability to function.

I am not a big fan of my life right now.

At least I still have books to read. And (most if the time) enough of a brain to read them.
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Christmas morning has brought me a wealth of wonderful presents.

Thank you so much, to my extended family - Angela, Sadie, Nancy and Mary - for a treasured gift, the ebook version of Susan Cannon Harris’ Irish Drama and the Other Revolutions. Susan’s scholarship touches on so many points of interest for me, and academic presses are so expensive, And, just.... wow, thank you, thank you, thank you.

And much gratitude to my beloved partner, who supports my reading habit with such marvelous gifts of ebooks:

Charlie  Angus,  Children  of  the  Broken  Treaty
Danielle  L.  McGuire,  At  the  Dark  End  of  the  Street
Andrea  Ritchie,  Invisible  No  More:  Police  Violence  Against  Black  Women  and  Women  of  Color
James  Daschuk,  Clearing  the  Plains
Edmund  Metatawabin,  Up  Ghost  River:  A  Chief’s  Journey  Through  the  Turbulent  Waters  of  Native  History
Pamela  Palmater,  Indigenous  Nationhood
Robyn  Maynard,  Policing  Black  Lives
Farah  Mendlesohn,  Spring  Flowering
Linda  Gordon,  The  Second  Coming  of  the  KKK
Samuel  R.  Delany,  Dark  Reflections
Mary  Beard,  Women  &  Power
Helen  Epstein,  Another  Fine  Mess:  America,    Uganda,    and  the  War  on  Terror 
Arthur  J.  Ammann,  Lethal  Decisions:  The  Unnecessary  Deaths  of  Women  and  Children  from  HIV/AIDS
Mindy  Klasky (ed), Nevertheless,  She  Persisted
dequi  kioni-sadiki  (ed),  Look  for  Me  in  the  Whirlwind
Mikki  Kendall  (ed),  Hidden  Youth:  Speculative  Fiction  from  the  Margins  of  History
Angela  Y.  Davis,  Freedom  Is  a  Constant  Struggle
Naomi  Klein,  No  Is  Not  Enough:  Resisting  the  New  Shock  Politics  and  Winning  the  World  We  Need
Keeanga-Yamahtta  Taylor  (ed),  How  We  Get  Free

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I wasn't reading for a while. Then I was, again.

I've actually read a fair number of books since my last Wednesday book post, which was.... A rather long time ago. May, to be exact. I won't bore you with all the books I've read since then, but I will give you the ones I've read this month.

Jayme Goh (ed.), Wiscon Chronicles Vol 11: Trials by Whiteness
Rosemary ​Joyce (ed.), Revealing ​Ancestral ​Central America
Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl (eds.), Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler
Katherine Burdekin, Swastika Night
Alison ​Weir, ​Katherine ​of ​Aragon, ​the ​True ​Queen
Keeanga-Yamahtta ​Taylor, From ​#BlackLivesMatter ​to ​Black ​Liberation
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction


Books I am currently reading:

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Adilifu Nama, Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film
Mitiarjuk ​Nappaaluk, Saanaq
Joanna Hickson, The First Tudor

There's a particularly interesting story behind Saanaq. It's been called the first Canadian Inuit novel. Written over a period of two decades, first in Inuktitut syllabics (published in transliteration in 1984) and later translated into French (published in 2002) and English (2014), it was commissioned by Catholic missionaries working in Nunavut, who wanted to improve their ability to communicate with the indigenous peoples living in the region. What they asked for was a simple phrasebook. What Nappaluk began writing was an episodic novel that, in telling stories about the Inuit people and their lives, served not only as a reading primer but a record of indigenous life in Nunavut and the arrival of Europeans in the area, from the rarely-heard perspective of an indigenous woman. It's written in a very simple, storytelling style, as befits a language primer, but it is both engaging and provides a fascinating glimpse at life among the Inuit just as Europeans were beginning to encroach on them.


What will I read next? I've no read idea. I seem to be drawn to non-fiction right now. Some of the unread books on my ipad that have been nudging me lately are:

Stephanie ​Coontz ​- ​Marriage, ​a ​History
Jill Lapore - The Secret History of Wonder Woman
Naomi ​Klein - This ​Changes ​Everything

So it coukd be any of those. Or something else.

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The ongoing health crises of the past two years seem to have had serious negative consequences for my ability to read in a sustained manner, but recently I've been having more success in managing to read.

I have liked to read multiple books at the same time - this allows me to pick the subject that most suits my mood when my brain goes "I want to read sonething now, please."


Current books in progress:
The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler, edited by Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl
First of the Tudors, by Joanna Hickson, historical fiction about Jasper Tudor, uncle of Henry VII.

And I've just begun reading Adilifu Nama's Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film, which looks to be very interesting. As the author describes his work:

"The present work examines the symbolic discourse and ideological messages encoded into black representation, including its structured absence, across a multitude of sf films as a symbolic dialogue with the multiple racial discourses and ideas surrounding black racial formation, past and present, that are circulating in American culture. Moreover, sf films of the 1950s to the current moment are discussed in this book with an eye toward drawing connections between sf cinema, black racial formation, and shifting race relations in America over the past fifty years. Too often the sf film genre is regarded as addressing only signature divisions in the genre: humans versus machines, old versus new, individual versus society, and nature versus the artificial. In this book, however, I place black racial formation at the center of these common dichotomies. As a result, a more complex and provocative picture emerges of how sf cinema, in imagining new worlds and addressing a broad range of social topics, has confronted and retreated from the color line, one of the most troubling and turbulent social issues present in American society."

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If by some strange chance any of the sff fans reading this do not know that Farah Mendlesohn has written a major critical work on Robert Heinlein's opus, and due to contract issues has decided to crowdfund its publication.... Well, now you know.

If you like Farah's work, if you like Heinlein's work, if you want to give me a super present by helping to enable the publication of this work that I desperately want to read, please consider supporting this crowdfunder.

https://unbound.com/books/robert-heinlein


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In Memoriam

Gregory Gerald Jodrey

Born in Gaspereau, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada on 9 Oct 1957, died on 8 Aug 1993 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.



Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my friend Greg Jodrey (though I and most of his other friends called him Gregor). It's not really surprising that I've been thinking of him, his memory always seems to come to the fore around now, because August 8 is the anniversary of his death. It's been 24 years since he was killed, and I can still see him, smiling, moving with a gangly sort of lope - I used to think of him as 'bopping along' when he walked - and I can still hear his voice. We shared an apartment for a few years, were friends from the time I met him, in 1972, until his death, we even almost had sex once, but it was just too silly so we stopped and had another drink and discussed the meaning of life instead. I loved him like a brother, and there will always be a Gregor-shaped hole in my life.

I think that I've been thinking about him more than usual because of the growing sense I have that my queer friends in the US are increasingly at risk.

You see, Gregor was killed at least in part because he was gay and had sex with a man who didn't, or couldn't, think of himself as being in any way queer. And because the defense was 'gay panic,' his killer - a man named Larry - served very little time for taking the life of a beautiful, warm, loving, intelligent, curious, witty person whom I and many others loved very much. And that in itself had serious consequences.

I'm not going to say that I know everything that happened the night that Gregor died. There were only two people there, and one is dead and the other is - and was then - a tragically damaged person who may not have known his own mind. Because you can't really talk about the tragedy of Gregor's death without talking about the tragedy of Larry's life, they are intertwined.

Larry was an indigenous person who had been taken from his family because of abuse, some of it sexual at the hands of older men, and then fostered in many places before being adopted by a kind and loving couple, whose relatives both I and Gregor knew well and were friends of. But because Owen and Susan were white, they could never truly have helped Larry heal all the woulds in his soul, because some of those came from being removed from his culture. They coukd not heal those wounds, no matter how hard they tried - and I knew them, too, I know they did everything they could.

What we know about the night Gregor died is that he and Larry were drinking at the local tavern - the town they lived in was small, there weren't a lot of options - and later they both ended up on the dykeland on the other side of the train tracks from the town. Forensics said sexual activity took place. Larry's defence team said that he was sexually assaulted, and that he battered Gregor with his bare hands until the body was barely recognisable in self defence. Those who knew both men, who knew that Gregor was shy and diffident, and not very athletic, and that Larry was a martial artist and a man carrying a lot of anger, didn't see that as a realistic scenario. In the end, Larry pled guilty to manslaughter, and the judge came down somewhere in between, giving him a sentence so light he was out of prison within a few months.

What I think happened is that Gregor and Larry were intoxicated, and had sex, and that somewhere in the process, something triggered Larry's undiagnosed PTSD, and his own deep shame at having been a victim as a child - and maybe at having enjoyed sex with another man, or maybe just at having let it happen - and that triggering made him lash out and try to obliterate the evidence of some element, chosen or otherwise, of queerness in his life. And the evidence he obliterated was my beloved friend.

Larry's life continued to be full of violence, some of it sexual. In 2006 he sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl. In 2008 he was convicted of the murder of a 92 year-old woman who had also been sexually assaulted.

It seems clear to me now that Larry badly needed help that he never received. And it also seems clear that because Gregor was gay, the degree to which Larry needed help was not identified then, when Gregor was killed, because killing a gay man who comes on to you seems appropriate to so many men.

There is so much tragedy here, that left two people dead, one person with the trauma of abuse, and one person in prison for life.

I used to be full of anger about Gregor's death - and in many ways I still am, because damn it, he was a beautiful soul and he deserved to live and I loved him so much - but in the years since his death, as I've heard more about Larry, I've come to see that this was a double tragedy, and that while gayness was a factor in Gregor's death, and how his death was understood and treated by the law and by society, Larry's life was a tragic one too, and that much of the pain he has caused can be traced to the ways that society and the law have treated indigenous people for generations.

morgan_dhu: (Default)

... But not in a good way.

So. I'm very conscious of the fact that the political climate in the US is going to hell in a handbasket made of highly flammable materials and that many people are already suffering, or afraid that they will be next. And that the world we live in is taking a decided turn to the nasty, with fascists and racists and all sorts of other truly scary types crawling out of the woodwork, empowered by the fact that something just as nasty as they are can be elected president of the United States. I post stuff about that on Facebook a fair bit, so if you're interested about my various concerns and responses to to world out there, you are most welcome, if you happen to do FB yourself, to connect with me there. I can be found under the name Morgan Dhu.

But here I'm sort of more into talking about myself, I guess. I might get back into political rants someday, but right now, I have no energy for that.

About a month ago, I was admitted to the hospital in kidney failure. Turns out I have kidney stones the size of small mountains partially blocking both kidneys, and they had gotten very sick as a result. The kidneys, in fact, are so badly off that doing anything right now to remove them - it has to be an operation, you see, not ultrasound, because the stones are too big to break up that way - because an operation might put too much stress on my kidneys, and in my condition that could kill me. (Also, the specialist who does the operation is booked months ahead anyway, because so few people need it these days that there;s only one guy in town who's really good at doing it.)I also have gallstones, in fact, I had a very unpleasant attack while in hospital, and it seems that my gall bladder will have to come out - but they can't operate on it either because my kidneys are so screwed up that doing it might kill me. There also seems to be a small mass on one of my kidneys that they can't examine closely because all the techniques available might hurt my kidneys and, well, kill me. And there's another mass that looks like an ovarian cyst, but they can't do the investigation necessary to be sure because (you guessed it) the investigation techniques available might hurt my kidneys and kill me.

So... After three weeks in the hospital, during which tubes were inserted into my gallbladder and kidneys to drain off the bile and urine, which supposedly will give my organs a chance to rest and hopefully heal up a bit, I am at home, peeing through tubes in my back and waiting to see if my kidneys are going to get sufficiently better that all these issues can be dealt with without killing me.

There is some good news. When I went into the hospital, the definitive blood test for identifying kidney damage, creatinine level, was 370 (in the units Canadian labs use, which are not the same inits American labs use) - the normal range is under 100 - and that was apparently a very scary number. My last blood test (last week) showed that creatinine was down to 170, which is not great, but is at least a largish step in the right direction.

I am almost completely without energy - I'm even finding reading hard. I watch movies and play mindless games and hope that somewhere inside my kidneys are healing.

morgan_dhu: (Default)


Somehow I spent all today thinking it was Tuesday, and so, not that it is technically Thursday where I am, I may as well make a Wednesday book post.

Books read:

James S. A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes
Max Gladstone, Three Parts Dead
Max Gladstone, Two Serpents Rise
Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda, Monstress: Awakening
G. Willow Wilson, Ms. Marvel Vol 3
G. Willow Wilson, Ms. Marvel Vol 4
Fran Wilde, The Jewel and Her Lapidiary

Currently reading:

Judith Merril, The Merril Theory of Lit'ry Criticism
Ben Aaronovitch, The Rivers of London

Up next:

The next volumes in the Expanse and Peter Grant series, because i want to read at least two volumes in each of the Hugo nominated series.

Also, I should catch up on the graphic novel series Saga - I read volume 3 when it was nominated, and I should read volumes 4 and 5 before I read volume 6, which was nominated this year. I'm waiting to see which of the nominated graphic novels will be in the Hugo voters packet, hoping not to have to buy them all.

I also still have to read Traveler of Worlds: Conversations with Robert Silverberg, by Robert Silverberg and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro. And i'm going to take another stab at Ada Palmer's Too Like the Lightning. I tried to read it earlier in the year and bounced off hard - I simply could not get into the story or the characters. But it's been so well received I should give it another shot.

And that will finish up the Hugo reading. Other hooks I hope to get around to soon are The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar, Wall of Storms by Ken Liu, Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo, Penric's Mission by Lois McMaster Bujold and a host of other things - including, I think, more of the October Daye novels, the Expanse novels, the Craft Sequence novels and maybe the Peter Grant novels.

So many books, so little time. My ipad is full of books I want to read and haven't had the time to.

morgan_dhu: (Default)

So, last time I posted, I was lamenting that I just couldn't seem to read any more. Well, as suddenly as if someone flipped a switch in my brain, it's come back. I'm almost afraid to talk about it, in case it runs away again.

But, it's Wednesday, and for the first Wednesday in some time, I have books to talk about.

Read in the past week:
Seanan McGuire, Rosemary and Rue
Seanan McGuire, A Local Habitation
China Mièvile, This Census-Taker
Kij Johnson, The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
Aliya Whiteley, Brushwork
Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric and the Shaman
Kai Ashante Wilson, A Taste of Honey
Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway
Becky Chambers, A Closed and Common Orbit
Liu Cixin, Death's End
Jean Roberta and Steve Berman (eds.), Heiresses of Russ 2015

Also, some assorted short fiction (stories and novelettes), including Ursula Vernon's The Tomato Thief and Nina Allen's The Art of Space Travel.

Most of this reading has been for the Hugos. I am feeling much better about actually being able to do the reading necessary to make informed voting decisions.

Currently reading:

I'm slowly making my way through The Merril Theory of Lit'ry Criticism, a collection of essays, articles and anthology introductions by Judith Merril, published by the most wonderful Aqueduct Press.


Up next:

More Hugo reading. I still have the graphic novels to read, and a few of the novelettes. Plus, at least one or two books from the remaining Best Series nominees - James S. A. Corey's The Expanse series, Max Gladstone's The Craft Sequence, and Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. Also, in the Related Works category, the Silverberg book.

Once @i finish all of that, some friends made me promise to give something by Brandon Sanderson a try, and there's at least a dozen novels from last year, plus some novellas and shorter fiction. Then, try to catch up on the new and interesting stuff from this year....

But at least there is reading again.
morgan_dhu: (Default)
My medical issues over the past year (yeah, i'll soon be a year since I was diagnosed with hypercalcemia and my life turned into one medical nightmare after another) have severely interfered with my new identity as a Hugo voter. Over the course of last year, I didn't read nearly as many well-recommended works as I'd wanted to. So when January rolled around and nomination season was gearing up, I made lists of the books and short fiction I hadn't read but that sounded really interesting, and tried to push my way through those lists. A few years ago I could have done it easily. This year, I barely read a handful of what I wanted to, though I did read enough, I felt, to make some good nominations in most categories.

And now the finalists have been released and there are many I haven't read yet. I'm working on them, of course, but it's so hard to just focus and read these days.

It's disorienting, like losing one of the core parts of my identity - which I suppose it is, I have no memory of a tine when I did not read, and read extensively and quickly at that. I'm told that no one knows when I learned to read. Like many kids, I would often look at my books even when I wasn't being read to from a very early age, but it was assumed that I was looking at the pictures or making up stories, as kids do. It wasn't until my mother started listening to me muttering things when we were out driving that she realised that - at not yet three years of age - I was reading billboards and window signs. And that at some point, I had actually begun reading for myself, not just following along as she read to me.

So it feels very strange not to be reading very much. As though I'm not myself. I keep expecting the real me, who focuses easily on her chosen reading material and moves through it like a fish in water, to resurface. Maybe she's just taking a time-out, getting used to operating while in constant pain and without much sleep. But I fear more and more that she's gone, and won't be coming back.

I miss her very much.
morgan_dhu: (Default)
Somehow I have gotten into the habit of Facebooking without saying things here, which doesn't really make much sense as the two platforms are very different and theoretically should both have their uses.

And since so many people are moving here from The disaster that I hear LiveJournal has become, I really should pop in here more often.

Not much to say right now, as I have been struggling with some very nasty escalation of pain and other mysterious symptoms that have plagued me since my parathyroidectomy last November. But I intent to post more here, if I can think of things to say.
morgan_dhu: (Default)

The week started well for reading, but degenerated rather sharply toward the end, as my unending medical woes took a turn for the worse and my brain became unable to deal with anything more complicated than endless games of Bejeweled.

Books/novellas completed:

Laurie Penny, Everything Belongs to the Future
Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom
Mary Robinette Kowal, Forest of Memory
Mary Robinette Kowal, Ghost Talkers
Roshani Chokshi, The Star-Touched Queen
Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky
André Carrington, Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction

Currently Reading:

N. K. Jemisin, The Obelisk Gate
Diana Pavlac Glyer, Bandersnatch: C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings

Next:

More from my Hugo reading list.

morgan_dhu: (Default)
i've been feeling very unwell this week, so my reading was somewhat slowed.

Books/novellas read:
Andrea Hairston, Will Do Magic for Small Change
Bao Shu, Everyone Loves Charles
Matt Ruff, Lovecraft Country
Nisi Shawl, Everfair

In Progress:
André ​Carrington, ​Speculative ​Blackness: ​The ​Future ​of ​Race ​in ​Science ​Fiction
Everything Belongs to the Future, Laurie Penny

What's Next:
I'm reading for the Hugos, so whatever is next will be something from my Hugo reading list.
morgan_dhu: (Default)

It's so hard to hear all the voices asking where was I when POC were marching, with the implication that those who do not march, do not demonstrate physically, put their bodies visibly on the line, are betraying all struggles except their own.

Please remember that some of us cannot march, cannot even walk. We do what we can. Believe me, I would give anything to have been able to stand physically, visibly, with others in the struggle for social justice for everyone.

But I can't.

And I hate feeling guilty for being too disabled to walk with all of those I support.

And yes, I do feel guilty that I can no longer stand and protest. I'm ashamed that my body will not let me do even the simplest of things to back my intent with action. It's been years since I was healthy enough to do more than write letters and, when I was able, contribute financially. Now that I'm no longer able to work, even from home, and am living on disability insurance payments, I can't even afford to support in that way.

i know I csn no longer contribute to the world in any meaningful way. I know I have nothing worthwhile to give. I have no value to offer to the struggle.

And it makes me feel guilty, and powerless, and ashamed, and unworthy.

morgan_dhu: (Default)

Sometimes I do art. This is what I did today. It's called "Resistance."

Resistance
morgan_dhu: (Default)

Both my reading page here and my Facebook feed are overflowing with accounts of marches from all over the world. I haven't seen this strong a spirit for resistance and change since the 60s, and I hope that the sheer size of the response means there is that critical mass of committed activists and participants to keep the spirit strong and growing.

I couldn't march here in Toronto, but friends in Boston and Victoria offered to carry my name in their pockets, so in a way i did march with them, and with all of you who stood up today for human rights, for human dignity, for cherishing the earth and all its peoples, for democracy and freedom of speech and all the other things we must fight for in the midst of this savage move toward fascism that's oozing out of the deep recesses of our past in places around the world.

We've made our opening statement, fired the first rally in this war. Let us continue as we have begun.

morgan_dhu: (Default)

trying to get into the swing of things.... This is a good way to start, I think.

I've been too sick to read much of anything for months, but even though I'm still feeling hellish, and my blood tests agree that there's some bad shit going on inside me, I'm pushing myself because the Hugo nominations are coming up fast.

In the past week, I've finished two books that I'd been reading through at a snail's pace, Nancy Ordover's American Eugenics, which is an important but very painful book to read, especially if you are a person of colour, a person with disabilities, or queer. I also finished Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures, on which the unexpected blockbuster film is based, and was given some hope along with the stories of struggle.

Begun and finished this week:
Lois McMaster Bujold, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
Kameron Hurley, The Geek Feminist Revolution
Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria

Currently reading:
André ​Carrington, ​Speculative ​Blackness: ​The ​Future ​of ​Race ​in ​Science ​Fiction
Andrea Hairston, Will Do Magic for Small Change

What's next:
Novels, non-fiction and novellas from my Hugo reading list. Probably either The Merril Theory of Lit'ry Criticism by Judith Merril, Octavia E. Butler by Gerry Canavan or Words Are My Matter by Ursula K. Le Guin for the next non-fiction book. In novels, I'm thinking Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country or Nisi Shawl's Everfair. Novellas, Victor Lavelle's The Ballad of Black Tom, Kai Ashante Wilson's A Taste of Honey, and the two Penric novellas by Lois Bujold. Plus, of course, a scattering of novelettes and short stories.

If anyone else is reading fir the Hugos and has some graphic novel recommendations, I'm still adding to my reading list in that category, as I am woefully ignorant of who's writing what that's really good. Do suggestions are welcome.

As ever, more in depth comments on the books I've read can be found on my book blog, bibliogramma.dreamwidth.org.

morgan_dhu: (Default)

I've mostly been reporting on the state of my health on Facebook, but seeing that I haven't posted here for a while, I figured I ought to try to bring the saga of my deteriorating state of health up to date.

So... Back in late May I was diagnosed with primary hypercalcemia, which means that something had gone haywire with my parathyroid glands and they were producing too much of a hormone that leaches calcium out of the bones at a rate that is not only very bad for your bones, but cannot be properly excreted. As calcium builds up in the blood, you get increasingly sick, and can end up having seizures and nasty life-threatening shit like that.

They did various kinds of imaging on my throat and while the pictures were a bit inconclusive, they figured it was provably due to one or more adenomas, non-malignant growths on the parathyroid. So they put me on the list for a surgery slot to have the adenomas excused from my parathyroids, and monitored my blood calcium closely.

While waiting for surgery, I fell and broke my foot. Back to the hospital. My foot was placed in this rigid boot that has a heel and unbalanced me to the point that even after I was ok'd for weight-bearing exercise, I couldn't balance on my uneven feet well enough to stand.

After about three weeks in the hospital, during which I developed a nasty UTI that would ultimately stay with me for the next four months, still unable to stand, I was transferred to a rehab hospital where I would receive regular physiotherapy. which would be of very little use because I'm still wearing this big-ass boot that destroys my balance. In the meantime, i get shuttled back to the hospital a few times, to have my calcium levels lowered (intravenous drugs plus massive IV fluids to make me pee out the calcium) and to have my foot monitored.

Once the boot finally comes off in late September, I start to make real progress with the physio - I'm shaky, but walking. Then.... Remember that UTI? They've been giving me courses of various antibiotics to try to kill the bugs in my bladder, and it's been coming back every time. They try a new drug, to which I have a seriously bad reaction. For about a week, I'm so weak I can hardly move, plus nausea and a bunch of nasty stuff. Can't manage the physio - haven't enough strength to stand.

It's now mid-October. They decide to send me home from the rehab hospital because I'm no longer benefitting from treatment. Once I get home, and get over the drug reaction, we find a private physiotherapist and start working on walking again. i just start to get my strength back and I'm walking a bit, when I get the call that I have a surgery date. November 17. Back to the hospital. UTI is back, too.

The surgery ends up being much more complicated than expected, because once they have my throat slit and they can see the parathyroids, they discover there are no adenomas. While adenoma is by far the most common cause of primary hypercalcemia, if it's not adenomas, it's probably hyperplasia of the parathyroids, for which the surgical solution is to remove 3.5 of the four parathyroid glands, a sonewhat longer and more difficult operation.

I come out of surgery with unbearable pain in my abdomen and groin, for which they plug me full of fentanyl, which does nothing. Eventually, they try something in the same family as ibuprofen, but stronger, which works some. Recovery is slow and problematic. The fentanyl gives me very bad constipation for three days, the abdominal and groin pain lessens but does not go away, I'm weak as a kitten and.... My calcium levels are not falling as they should. They do the IV drip to lower my levels again and after a few days, they send me home to recuperate, ordering continued monitoring of my calcium.

Meanwhile, I'm developing painful bedsores on my butt - a new thing, even though I have been pretty much confined to bed fir years. And the UTI is still bothering me. And I'm having fevers and chills snd on-going abdominal pains and all sorts of stuff, and I just can't seem to get any strength back. My doctor prescribes a long course of yet another antibiotic, which seems to finally mostly clear the UTI. All the other symptoms continue, and despite doing all the right things, my bedsore do not heal.

Regular blood tests show my blood calcium is still rising - and now there's a new twist. I'm suddenly seriously anemic, my hemoglobin is way lower than it should be, which is probably the reason for my extreme weakness and the impairment in normal healing.

Which brings us to now. The last blood test showed a very small drop in calcium levrls, I'm on iron supplements which should bring up my hemoglobin over the course of 4-6 weeks and hopefully help me regain my strength snd heal the sores, and my doctor is working on getting me a consult for the hemoglobin issue.

Oh yes, during all of this I've lost about 20 kilos, which when added to the 50-odd kilos I've lost over the past few years has resulted in a lot of loose skin that tends to crease and fold in an extremely painful way. Add to that the pain from the bedsores and I'm having extreme trouble sleeping. I'm lucky if I get four or five hours of sleep in 24. So I'm now exhausted and almost braindead. I'm in great pain all the time, from half a dozen different things that are going wrong. I'm depressed and just plain tired of trying to keep going, to the point of wondering how I might go about persuading someone that I really am a good candidate for assisted suicide, which is now legal, though under very limited circumstances, in Canada.

As the title says, life is hell.

morgan_dhu: (Default)

So, my health is kind of falling apart, even more than before. My trip to the hospital revealed that I have developed parathyroidism, caused by tumours on my parathyroid glands. Surgery is the only treatment.

Problem is transport. While provincial healthcare will cover an emergency ambulance transport, it won't cover something scheduled, like surgery. And because I am heavy and of very limited mobility, I need an ambulance and four people (two crews) to get to the hospital, and private ambulance services are expensive.

And I don't have any extra funds for something like this, and I've researched every personal and organisational angle I can think of. It's a hole in the system - my care is covered if I can get to the hospital, but getting to the hospital isn't covered by anyone.

So, I've started a crowdfunding effort to try and defray the transportation costs. I don't know if anyone out there is able and willing to toss a few pennies in the pot, but if anyone is.... You will have my eternal gratitude.

https://www.gofundme.com/morgandhu


Update

May. 21st, 2016 03:46 am
morgan_dhu: (Default)
still alive. Still in hospital.

I have hyperparathyroidism, caused by adenomas of several of my parathyroid glands. Surgery is needed.

I'm liveblogging the fun and games at my Facebook account - Morgan Dhu. Y'all are welcome to drop on and say hi.

Note: I have wifi, but only web access, no email.
morgan_dhu: (Default)

I had some bloodwork done yesterday. My doctor contacted me first thing this morning to let me know that some of my results were highly alarming (as in "are you sure you're not having convulsions?") and she wanted me in the hospital asap, so I will be heading into the hospital tomorrow for more tests and treatment if necessary and appropriate. Don't know if I'll have access to wi-fi there so it could be a while before I can post anything. If worst comes to worst, my partner will let folks know what happened.

March 2022

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