arealpipwrites

[arealpipwrites]

I am so aware this is the most BIZARRE thing to just drop into your ask box with- but I just read the entirety of your “Angel Baby” series on Ao3– amazing, fantastic, was crying at my kitchen table over how much I came to love Azi and Crowley’s kids, your amazing mix of medical realism, magic, and advocacy were flawless and wonderful to read. I’ve never read an Outside POV fic and it was sooo interesting-

But I am dying to know, if you have any idea: what does the E stand for in E. M. Butterfly? Assuming the M is Miran?

I am so aware you wrote this awhile ago and this is so strange but thank you really for writing such a wonderful fic !!

Thank you! I have no idea what the E is for. I remember E.M. Forster, and I must have pulled from there. And M. Butterfly, the famous character who was transgender before that word was used. I'm so glad you liked it!

[arealpipwrites]

I just called HBOMAX support in the US at (855) 942-6669, and selected option 4 and told the nice representative that this show is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, and that, like them, it is meant to be a TRILOGY. I also told them that it is full of REPRESENTATION and is INCLUSIVE of LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and POC. I hope this helps!

We know now the best way to make an impact in OFMD renewal efforts is to call. For those of you who have phone anxiety or live outside of the US, you can DM ouibek on Twitter or email ofmdphonehelp AT gmail DOT com and they'll help you out!

Please share your name, email address, and key points you'd like to hit. You can use a burner email if that makes you more comfortable.

And for those of you who are calling directly, I'm hearing it recommended that you first state explicitly why you're calling (to express your disappointment that OFMD was canceled and that you hope they'll change their minds), and THEN launch into your little script. Apparently some reps have been confused and are used to fielding calls from less tech-savvy customers and are assuming you're calling because you're physically unable to watch. And, as always, make sure you're friendly and polite to the reps when you call. Polite menaces, that'll be our brand.

Now let's get our damned show back!

[arealpipwrites]

"She's got Dutch Boy fingers" is my new favorite phrase. This song is pretty hilarious. It's not from my normal time period, but it amused me, so I share. #AlixDobkin #lesbiancode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed7wG6OMC3U

[arealpipwrites]

Polyamory in 1908

I'm reading an autobiography by "two single ladies" who lived together and shared a bed for their entire adult lives (over five decades). They went to live in a part Northern California where there were few white people. There, they wore "split skirts" and made friends with a local indigenous family (Klamath tribe) that had a wife and two husbands. They observed:

"Of course, if Mart and Essie and Les are all satisfied, it really does seem as though it were their own personal concern. On the other hand, two husbands at the same time would scarcely be tolerated in most white communities." The book is "In the Land of the Grasshopper Song: Two Women in the Klamath River Indian Country in 1908-1909" by Mary Ellicott Arnold and Mabel Reed

[arealpipwrites]

From Walt Whitman Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

These lines, which I've extracted from an 1856 poem by American poet Walt Whitman really feel, to me, like he's talking to all queer people from across the centuries. “What is it then between us?

What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?

Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not,

I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me,

In the day among crowds of people sometimes they came upon me,

In my walks home late at night or as I lay in my bed they came upon me,

I too had receiv’d identity by my body,

I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,

Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak” (These are individual lines, that I've pulled out of the poem, from sections 5 and 6 of the poem, and I've set them all next to each other, because they speak to me best when the stuff in between is removed. Go check out the poem to see the full context.) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45470/crossing-brooklyn-ferry

[arealpipwrites]

Ingling Pyander 1599

Here's an English Language poem from 1599 about an "ingle", or young male who prostitutes himself to older men. "Sometimes he jets it like a gentleman, Other whiles much like a wanton courtesan; But, truth to tell, a man or woman whether, I cannot say, she's excellent at either; But if report may certify a truth, She's neither of either, but a cheating youth." What is striking to me, as I'm reading history, is that there is a lot more acceptance in these older societies, for very unequal relationships like this (which are engaged in by a large percentage of men). There's a sense of the absolute of the right of older men to take advantage of younger ones or to hire transvestite prostitutes (or, in India, the hijra) as well as a sort of tolerance for casual sex ("laddish fun" in the English parlance) between younger men (15-20ish), but then the real societal contempt is for the 1-3% of men who exclusively pursue romantic relationships with other males. What I'm reading is suggesting that in conservative/homophobic societies in the modern world, including Arab and Indian (Subcontinent) societies, 50% of males will engage in homosexual behavior in their lifetime. And that same number (about 40%) was the number I found for males in London in roughly the 1700's.

I do wonder: do modern liberal westerners have, essentially, the same behaviors that humans always have had, or does the new vocabulary and the greater openness change how men structure their intimate relationships? Does existence of a more out and proud LGBTQ+ community make sex with males less accessible to those males who like to consider themselves "straight"? Is that fact potentially part of the resentment that the conservatives have for LGBTQ+ and the modern liberal order? I will keep reading. And thinking.

[arealpipwrites]

Molly House in Hardcover or Softcover

At Last! Hardcover edition: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/a-r-pip/molly-house/hardcover/product-4d7gze.html?page=1&pageSize=4 Softcover edition:

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/a-r-pip/molly-house-paperback/paperback/product-eqz7pg.html?page=1&pageSize=4

[arealpipwrites]

$72.32 Raised for The Trevor Project

Molly House sold 32 copies on Amazon during the month of June, raising $72.32 in revenue, which I donated to The Trevor Project. Thank you everybody who bought a copy or told a friend about the book. You all are fabulous people!

[arealpipwrites]

An ode to the Condom from 1744

The meter of this poem reminds me of silly children's books, but it is indeed an ode to the condom, advising people to use them to avoid pregnancy and STI's. It's a public health pamphlet, but all in rhyme. Enjoy this excerpt and follow the link to read the whole thing. “Happy the Man, in whose close Pocket’s found,

Whether with Green or Scarlet Ribbon bound

A well made Cundum; he nor dreads the Ills,

of Cordees, Shanker, Boluses, or Pills;

But arm’d thus boldly wages am’rous Fight,

With Transport-feigning Whore in Danger’s Spight. But lest by Chance some direful Flaw should spring

From hasty Thrust and Vigor of thy Thing,

Do as Sage Ch_s_l_n is wont to do,

For greater Safety put on two.” From The Machine, or, Love's Preservative. A poem in imitation of Homer and Virgil, and Dryden and Pope. London, 1744

https://books.google.com/books?id=y5pkAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=the+machine,+love%27s+preservative&source=bl&ots=qFvQlCSOyF&sig=ACfU3U3vSFXvrtSuV1Zy5t6as5M8kLmA8A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj3ofjJt7HxAhUBElkFHcT4A9EQ6AEwBXoECAgQAw#v=onepage&q=the%20machine%2C%20love's%20preservative&f=false

[arealpipwrites]

I want to add that on JSTOR you can get access to up to 100 scholarly articles per month free of charge. I'm reading about the history of gender, and it is making me wish I had been a Gender Studies major in college. https://support.jstor.org/hc/en-us/articles/115004760028-MyJSTOR-How-to-Register-Get-Free-Access-to-Content

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[arealpipwrites]

Molly House is Free on Smashwords for Pride Month!

Hello Friends! Happy Pride Month! For this month, I've made Molly House free on Smashwords. Since Amazon won't let me lower the price to zero, any sales I make on Amazon this month, I'll donate that amount to The Trevor Project at the end of the month. So if there is a friend you wanted to recommend the book to, this month is a great time! (And if you can spare a minute to write a recommendation that would be awesome.) Meanwhile, I'm reading about smuggling in London in the 1790's and early 1800's, so that I can bring you a world of molly smugglers who flout the emerging police forces. There is a rich world of contemporary records about everything from gay men in drag at public masquerade balls to dildo shops to all manner of fabulously imaginative smuggling schemes. I am devouring it all, and I can't wait to turn it into a story.

https://booklaunch.io/arealpip/mollyhouse

[arealpipwrites]

How to rob a ship in the Thames

This is today's treasure! An exhaustive list of all the trade into and out of London in 1798, and all the ways that "miscreants" and people "unrestrained by the principles of rectitude" manage to steal/smuggle 30% or more of all of the cargo that came into London. The problem in London, in 1798, is that the great ships that arrive can't actually dock on the shores of the Thames. They have to weigh anchor in the middle of the river and wait to be unloaded by dozens of littler boats, and the whole river is so full of boats and goods that you can't keep track of who is who, so many boats get robbed in broad daylight, during the unloading process and no one can stop the thieves because no one can figure out who is who in all the chaos. Here is my favourite scheme so far: A captain comes into London and decides to go ashore for the night, leaving the ship in the care of the first mate and two of His Majesty's famously "incorruptible" revenue officers. In the dead of a moonless night, they allow a bunch of coopers (barrel repair specialists) and lumpers (strong longshoremen) to climb aboard the ship. The coopers take the lids off the barrels. The thieves remove 1/6th of the sugar inside each barrel, put it into black sacks labeled "molasses" (because dry molasses is cheap but yet is similar in weight to sugar). They haul it all away in little boats to the private warehouse of the "receiver." The coopers put the lids back on the barrels, and the ship's owner and the captain don't find out about their loss until days later, when the barrels are in a warehouse and are being opened.

[arealpipwrites]

Ooops.

If you happened to download the Amazon version of Molly House, do please download the new version that's now available. I made a rather embarrassing error (which doesn't affect the story any) and I'd be most grateful to you all if you just grabbed the new version. It should be no additional charge.

Thank you so much.

[arealpipwrites]

Molly House pre-sale

Hi friends! On Saturday, the Molly House eBook will go on sale at Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. But if you click the pre-sale link above, you can buy it today. Nifty!

[arealpipwrites]

Molly House Website And Pre-Sales

Hello friends! Things are moving forward with the ebook publication of Molly House. Check out my website https://booklaunch.io/arealpip/mollyhouse Right now, you can pre-order the eBook on Smashwords, where it is available in multiple ebook formats that are compatible with most eReaders. I’m working on getting Molly House into other on-line stores right now, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Stay tuned.

[arealpipwrites]

Molly House gets pulled from AO3 today!

Today I pull Molly House down from AO3 and make my first attempt to upload the new version of it to Smashwords. They are very picky about formatting, because they have to transform my file into a half-dozen formats so it can be read by a variety of devices including Kindle and Nook. They'll even have a simple PDF version available. Fingers crossed that my first upload is accepted.

[arealpipwrites]

What About Women?

What is known about lesbians in the the 1700's and 1800's in England? I'm re-reading the very excellent book Queer City: Gay London From the Romans to the Present Day by Peter Ackroyd which can be bought from a variety of on-line sellers. On pg 141, he notes that in the 1700's "It was rumoured that notable lesbians were asked to join the Hellfire Club, at Medmenham Alley by the Thames, where they could freely enjoy their sport in various orgies and rituals." I've got to look up the reference again, but I recall reading somewhere of the existence of a "female flagellists society" in the 1700's or 1800's in London. So we have, in London, not only sex clubs for lesbians, but even clubs for lesbians who have a specific kink. Which really tells you how much of a scene there has to be. (At least among people with leisure time and disposable income.) Obviously, even in the modern world, we know that secret places like these very seldom come to the attention of the public, and many come into existence, live for years or decades, and then disappear without any newspaper or legal court or historian ever knowing of their existence. So, if you are writing about the past, I think it is good to start from the assumption that anytime you have a large population (London had a population of over a million) people in the sexual minority are going to find each other and create small societies in the shadow of the dominant culture.