Blurb Written: Ace by Angela Chen

Posted on 04/28/2020 by Julie Sondra

I was invited to read ACE: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex early and provide a blurb. Please check this book out if you are interested in adding an important new title to your ace and aro library.

Book info:

Title: ACE: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
Author: Angela Chen
ISBN:978-0807013793
Publisher: Beacon Press
Release Date: September 15, 2020

My blurb:

Accessible and eloquently written, Ace sensitively and accurately spotlights an interconnected series of outsider experiences. Few asexual-spectrum narratives so authentically and diversely capture the truths, the quirks, the tragedies, and the triumphs of our lives without alienating non-ace readers or appealing only to one subset of the ace population. Ace creates an inclusive tapestry of validating and eye-opening narratives that will give some readers an experience they may have never had before: seeing our “anomalous” perspectives and emotions given the sensitive examination and validation we’ve always been denied.

Finished NaNoWriMo 2019

Posted on 11/30/2019 by Julie Sondra

I finished NaNoWriMo 2019 with 50,768 words this month (and making the book In Bloom about 101,600 words total). I don’t plan to finish this book within NaNoWriMo–I’ll have to complete it and edit it through other means. 🙂

Character Sketch: In Bloom

Posted on 11/30/2019 by Julie Sondra

I thought I’d show off my space lesbians from In Bloom. 🙂

One day, though probably not super soon, I will wrap up Kamber and Joanne’s story.

NaNoWriMo 2019

Posted on 11/01/2019 by Julie Sondra

Guess what? I’m doing NaNoWriMo again.

Yeah, the writing program I once used to talk about never doing, but consented to try in 2018, and now am doing again in 2019.

I decided to continue 2018’s book! Because of course I’m a blathery weirdo and I’m sure I can get another 50,000 words out of this thing.

Wish me luck with another installment of working on In Bloom!

An Ace Evening with Swankivy

Posted on 10/24/2019 by Julie Sondra

I’m doing a live YouTube event (my first time!) to celebrate Asexual Awareness Week. I’ll just be sitting down to an evening with my webcam and I’ll start by sharing some discussions of how media handles asexuality, good or bad.

Subscribers and interested parties can chime in live in the attached chat, and if appropriate, I will address whatever they’d like to talk about. It’s a chance to talk to a pretty seasoned ace activist about subjects that might not be covered all that commonly, but it’s also fine if the talks devolve a little into other things. I’ll try to keep it mostly on topic but there’s no telling what will happen.

You can sign up for a reminder and tune in 8 PM Eastern on Friday, October 25. The finished video will appear here when the event is over.

Japanese Edition: The Invisible Orientation

Posted on 07/11/2019 by Julie Sondra

The Invisible Orientation is now available in a Japanese translation.

This is a translation of the original material and is still a Western conception of the culture and concepts of asexuality. Its content has not been localized.

But it is available in bookstores and through its Japanese Amazon page.

My sister, whose husband is from Japan and has relatives there, recently found the book in a bookstore and bought a copy. Here it is in the wild, with photos from her Instagram. 🙂

Spoke at WIND

Posted on 06/25/2019 by Julie Sondra

I was asked to give a talk about Pitch Wars and approaching traditional publication at the University of South Florida as part of one of their camps for young writers. I spoke to a group of 16- to 25-year-olds for about an hour in an informal presentation about the whys, hows, and whethers of agents and publishing. This was in association with the youth writing workshop WIND.

The group was small and attentive and someone brought their cat. 🙂

There weren’t too many questions and I didn’t get into any real dialogues with them or anything, but I felt like the presentation was probably useful for some of them. (I saw a few taking some notes.) I mostly went over how to make choices regarding traditional versus self-publishing, small publishers versus big ones, agents versus no agents, and then some nuts and bolts about how and why to write a query letter and approach agents, with some other info on what happens next and what to expect. It was fun to talk about this stuff again as I’ve not been involved in Pitch Wars for some time and my own writing-related stuff has really gotten buried under other life stuff.

I was able to go out to dinner afterwards with the organizer, Eric, and we had some nice Thai food and great conversation about short stories, publishing, science fiction, and being authors. Great time, I’d do it again.

Spoke at “Unthinking Sex, Imagining Asexuality” Book Celebration

Posted on 04/28/2019 by Julie Sondra

I was honored to be one of the guest authors (and the only author appearing by Skype!) at this spring’s “Unthinking Sex, Imagining Asexuality” book celebration at Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium.

With other ace-spectrum authors Angela Chen, Lauren Jankowski, and Ela Przybylo, I discussed my book, its publication, its impact, and publishing in general.

Unfortunately my Skype connection was one of the worst I’ve had and I could not hear the other authors reliably. I couldn’t tell what they were saying enough of the time to really feel involved in the conversation, but sometimes I did get to hear a string of discussion that didn’t get interrupted, and it was a blast. I really wish I had been there in person, but I guess that’s what I get for trying to “appear” in another country an entire continent away, huh? My appearance ended abruptly when my connection shattered for good.

It is SO wonderful to know that asexuality and aromanticism are subjects of enough interest that we have MULTIPLE authors writing from MULTIPLE perspectives about MULTIPLE experiences of our orientations, and even more people out there wanting our words. It is so mind-blowing to remember that ten years ago the idea of an asexual or aromantic authors’ panel would have been a fantasy.

Now it’s a reality.

Upcoming Appearance: “Unthinking Sex, Imagining Asexuality”

Posted on 02/16/2019 by Julie Sondra

For anyone who might be interested, I’ll be appearing through Skype at an event called “Unthinking Sex, Imagining Asexuality” as one member of a book panel at Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium, April 27, 2019, 7:30 PM Pacific Standard Time. This is in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

It was not practical for me to make the trip this year, so I’ll only be there virtually, discussing my book in the distinguished company of other asexuality authors Ela Przybylo, Lauren Jankowski, and Angel Chen.

My book will be available for purchase during and after the event.

Interview: Smash Pages

Posted on 02/14/2019 by Julie Sondra

I’m used to being interviewed about asexuality, but this time someone who became aware of my work through The Invisible Orientation ended up reaching out to me for an interview regarding my webcomics. It was a nice change to discuss something other than asexuality.

If you’d like some insight into my webcomics, my process, my thoughts on non-traditional media, my techniques, and my philosophy regarding art, I am linking the interview with Alex Dueben below.