September was another notably busy month, but I got a huge chunk of work done and a majority of what I wanted to write in September done and posted. Here’s hoping October will be as successful as I try to find a balance between my critical writing and just… having fun and sharing my favorite pieces of media with y’all.

It’s also my birthmonth so I’m trying to return to my tradition of giving gifts to y’all in the form of writing and a wee giveaway (but I won’t say no to gifts anyone wants to buy me off of my book wishlist!)

Now, on to what’s on the menu for October:

My Website

Stitch Reads Stuff – October TBR List

#IKnowWhatIReadLastSummer Book Reviews

• Taste of Wrath (Sin du Jour #7) – Matt Wallace (Plus an audio send-off for my favorite series.)
• Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) – Rebecca Roanhoarse
• Borderline (The Arcadia Project #1) – Mishell Baker

Fleeting Frustrations #2 – Miss Me With Non-Intersectional Fandom Analysis

Regular Reviews

• Rebekah Weatherspoon’s Rafe
• Talia Hibbert’s Untouchable
• Craig Schaefer’s The Neon Boulevard
• (More to be added as I read more things)

Gratuitous Birthday Story

Gratuitous Birthday Giveaway

Urban Fantasy 101: A Quick Guide to Dastardly Demons

Patreon

Audience Participation: Choose Your Own Essay

Patrons at the $5 and $10 Tier get a week to choose an article they’d like to read from a list of three different options. The next week, it goes live for them. By the end of the month, all Patrons will have access to it! There’ll also be a 2-month delay between when my Patrons get it and when it goes up here. (More details will be posted on the Audience Participation intro post!)

What Fandom Racism Looks Like: Beige Blank Slates (Snippets at the $1 Tier and a possible final draft for everyone else)

We’ll be back to focusing on transformative fandom’s focus on a few characters deemed blank slates and questioning why the blank state status isn’t granted more widely. I’m even planning to talk a bit about blank slates in my own writing and some of the positives for the slates (featuring the Inception fandom).

Little Wolf, Big Red Snippet ($1 Tier)

I’ve got a dedicated notebook for this story and it’s time y’all got to see what this work is going to look like! So if you like paranormal romance, cute werewolves, and fabulous F/F content… You’re not going to want to miss it. (This is a birthmonth treat because I won’t be able to post the story once it starts getting NSFW.)

Slavefic Revisited

Primarily self-reflection about this piece and what I wish people thought about when they feel that urge to defend slavery the way that fandom and the romance/erotic genres of published fiction tend to write it.

Patreon-exclusive Birthday Surprise

It… wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told y’all what it was, now would it?

Writing/Inspiration File: Demons ($5 Tier and up!)

I’m going to talk about my demons just in time for Halloween!

Urban Fantasy 101: Dangerous Women ($1 Tier and up!)

The best thing about Urban Fantasy are the dangerous women that populate its pages! Snippets for sure, fingers crossed for a full draft!

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Now that we’ve gotten into what’s coming up in October, let’s talk about some necessary updates!

First As y’all may have noticed, one major thing that didn’t get uploaded last month was this year’s “Dear Comic Fans” letter about racebending. Part of the reason why it’s not up is that I’m not entirely satisfied with it and I feel like I’m once again rehashing how much a bunch of nerds hate Black women playing their racebent faves. It’s old, anger-inducing news.

The other reason is that I was thinking about ending the annual letter after this year.

Instead of focusing on how much I can’t stand the racist opinions folks have about racebending, I need to be focusing more on what I love about racebending and about seeing characters of color in lead roles. Currently, I’m just trying to let go of the series and figure out a better, more productive way to channel my feelings.

(I’m still going to be angry – and I’ve got that whole ass academic paper about Iris West and fear of “redhead erasure” in progress – but I know I can do more introspective and educational commentary instead of steady snark.) It’ll be out sometime before the year is out, but when depends on when I get over myself and decide to let go of the project for good.

On a related note, I’m trying to rework my current approach to criticism. I’m not going to stop being critical, but y’all… I know by the second chapter if I’m going to hate a book. Y’all already know I don’t like Kylo Ren or certain parts of his fanbase; I don’t need to write any more about him or them. I’m like a repetitive grouch machine at this point and I fear that I’m missing the mark on my own personal goals for this site and myself as a critic-in-progress.

So, I’m going to be wiser about this whole criticism thing and pick my battles better, returning to what I wanted to do which is educate folks about the “why” behind certain tropes and genre conventions without being a pushy butt about it and do insightful criticism of the media I consume. No more hate-consuming for me – or, at the very least, I’ll keep it to my private twitter once I do a little tidying up.

Finally, I’m introducing two new-to-me aspects to my Patreon page that I hope will bring in new Patrons, keep my older Patrons intrigued, and allow me to put my darn MA in English to good use.

First, I’ll be introducing a $10 “Ask an English MA Anything” tier that will essentially be me privately looking at a chapter of work (either for editing or for critique) or answering writing questions patrons at that tier have.

Then, I’ll be introducing “Choice” by letting patrons at the $5 Tier choose one essay topic for me to write about that month that’ll be made available to all Patrons regardless of their Tier a short time after they’re published. (That I mentioned in the plan for this month!)

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I’m hopeful that I can meet all my goals for this month! I’ve got my planner filled in and I just need to adjust to waking up and going to bed early. This month, my main gift to myself is the gift of organization and hopefully, that’ll turn out like a little gift to y’all too!

If you’d like to help me keep focused on my writing in these trying, jobless times, feel free to share my support tweet or support me directly via one of the following avenues:

Paypal| Ko-fi| $StitchMM| Patreon| Book Wishlist