Lucifer – Pilot: The Good, The Bad, and the Oh-So Ugly

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Lucifer title card

I’ve wanted to write this since September when I got my grubby little hands on the pilot episode of Fox’s Lucifer series that showed at San Diego Comic Con.

I’m a huge fan of the character. I got into The Sandman in middle/high school and then dove headfirst into Mike Carey’s run of Lucifer, the spin off that looked at Lucifer kind of concurrent to The Sandman. I also have read and LOVED the first two issues of the new Lucifer book that Holly Black is writing on. On top of that, I was a religious studies minor in undergrad (who spent a fair amount of time studying all things Lucifer).

So when I say I’ve got opinions on this new Lucifer show, I’m coming from a place of expertise and knowledge.

Instead of writing a 3000 word angrypants rant about why this show is basically THE WORST, follow along as I look at the good, the bad, and the oh-so-ugly of Fox’s pilot episode for Lucifer.
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URBAN FANTASY 101 – GENTRY-FICATION

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urban fantasy 101 - gentry fication

In 2010, Black people from across the diaspora made up just over 32% of Chicago’s population.

But I bet you couldn’t tell that from reading Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files or Chloe Neill’s Chicagoland Vampires series where there are zero main characters who are Black and few recurring characters who are explicitly “of color” in the respective series.Read More »

I’m Done Being Patient: Agent Carter and the Bare, White Minimum

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women in agent carter
Three of the four women who show up in Agent Carter season two/episode two and have dialogue.

I’m finally starting to grasp the idea that the writers and showrunners on Agent Carter view intersectional feminism as a great myth. I’m also clear on the fact that fandom feels the same way.

Last year, when Agent Carter came out in January, it was heralded as this fantastic show for women, womenhood, and feminism.

Except it’s not.

It can’t be.

Not when it lacks:

  • Women of color
  • Queer women
  • Disabled women
  • Trans women
  • Fat women

All women are not all represented in Agent Carter so why should all women support it? How are we supposed to respond to it as women who are diverse and who are not represented?Read More »

[Review] Degrassi: Next Class

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Warning for: spoilers for the series, brief discussions of biphobia, consent, and date rape.

 

Degrassi

I am officially old.

Why?

Because I watched Degrassi: Next Class on Netflix and spent more time worrying about those teenagers than anything else. Maybe it’s because I worked in high schools for like a year and a half. Maybe it’s because some of my nieces and nephews are the same age as the characters onscreen. I’m not sure. Either way, it was a little hilarious to realize that I was finally and officially, no longer part of the core demographic for Degrassi.

However, I watched all ten episodes anyway, because I feel strongly about shows like Degrassi and Skins that look at serious issues that affect teenagers these days. Mind you, I completely think that Degrassi: Next Class did a much better job of tackling relatable issues than Skins did in much of its run and was infinitely more diverse with regard to race and sexuality.

Mostly because it’s true.
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My First Day of Grad School

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It was amazing!

Straight up.

Our class talked for like 2hrs about race, gender, and what it really means to be an American (spoiler: we talked about the colonialist/imperialist legacy of the United States and how people became American  — aka conforming to social ideals that were not their own — and addressed ideas of “historyless” country and how people swore that people with no supposed history couldn’t have culture).

It was amazing.

I even made two new nerd friends. I’m going to cherish them!Read More »

[Snippet] My Favorite Kind of Night

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Over on Twitter I’ve been talking about some erotic fantasy that I’ve been writing for the past week and change. I’ve decided to provide a relatively safe for work snippet of the story so far as motivation for myself and to see if it sounds interesting to readers.

When this is done, it’ll be a sexy story about a mage who works in retail and the two pretty preternaturals that wander into her job one rainy night. One’s a big cat shifter and the other is a genderqueer sex demon (a concubus). I’m hopefully going to be able to get this published somewhere (or self published) but we’ll see.

Anyway, here’s a brief (safe for work) snippet from “My Favorite Kind of Night”:Read More »

Patreon – Past, Present, and Future

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Patreon

Hello folks!

It’s January 1st and 2016 is stretching in front of us, full of possibilities and endless hope. I know that I’m excited to see what the year brings me. Right now, I’m rethinking what I put out for Patreon subscribers and how I’ll be managing my time and content output especially with graduate school starting in less than two weeks.Read More »

2015 In Review

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So much happened in 2015. Here’s a quick rundown of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Also included: some of what I’m thankful for in 2015, what I’m looking forward to in 2016, and a list of New Year’s Resolutions!

The Good

  • I was published for the first time! I sold a piece of flash fiction (“Accidental Queen of the Spiders“) to Fireside Fiction and it was published in their August 3rd I may never stop talking about this because this is such a huge deal.
  • I spent from April to September of this year writing about James Bond for The Mary Sue. I got a lot of exposure from it and made many new friends as a result.
  • I’m actually currently doing reviews for Word of the Nerd!
  • I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens and cried forever.
  • I (eventually) got accepted into the Master’s Program for Literature at my alma mater in Miami.
  • I got a car at the beginning of the year. It’s a milestone.
  • I’ve been making inroads in writing and I’ve learned so much from fellow writers throughout the year.
  • I’ve found a community of really cool people thanks to twitter and publishing. Sure, publishing has a lot in common with media fandom in that there are some really powerful and terrible people out there, but I’ve actually met a ton of really amazing and wonderful diverse people, some of whom have taken me under their wings a bit.
  • As of 11:23pm on December 30, 2015, I have written at least 198,175 words in at least 75 different finished files. This number only includes most of what I’ve written between September and December of this year because I wasn’t keeping track of what I was writing until September.

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Five things that I learned during the “Year of the Spy”

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Sometimes, when it’s very quiet and I close my eyes, I swear that I can hear the brazen, brassy tones of the James Bond theme song playing in the silence. At first, it was a bit worrying. But now, I’m kind of used to it. It’s all part and parcel of what comes with diving headfirst into “The Year of the Spy”.

I’m not sure how this happened, but 2015 officially became “The Year of the Spy” thanks to several major blockbusters, comics, and shows that centered around international espionage. If there were spies in it, chances are that I watched it, read it, and generally was obnoxious about it on twitter. I couldn’t help myself.

It’s been a long year of spies and immersing myself in almost everything to do with this genre of fiction. I’ve learned and noticed a lot. Much of it was… kind of negative, but there were a few standouts.

So instead of giving y’all a twenty thousand word recap of my year of the spy, I’ve written up five things I’ve learned or had reaffirmed over my year being ridiculously invested in all things spy-related!

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Maggie Stiefvater’s Got An Issue With the Star Wars’ fandom’s focus on Poe & Finn

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Obviously, this post has spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And some of them might be above the cut.

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Earlier yesterday, The Raven Cycle author Maggie Stiefvater took to tumblr (in a response to a message sent from one of her fans) to announce that she had beef with the Star Wars fandom in the wake of Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

Why does she have an issue with the fandom?

Could it be because fandom insists on shipping Rey with Kylo Ren despite everything he did to her?

Could it be because of racist AUs like the ‘segregation’ AU someone saw floating around?

Or could it be because clueless and offensive people fandom have decided that Finn is the ultimate misogynist for – wait for it – daring to hold Rey’s hand at some point in the film?

No.

Not even close.

Maggie has beef with the Star Wars fandom because they’re focusing too much on Poe Dameron and Finn.

You know, the first men of color to ever be main characters in a Star Wars film.

Instead of basking in that beautiful POC rep (or, if she must complain, point out that we still haven’t had a woman of color with a significant presence in the film series on that same level), she’s steamed because fandom isn’t focusing as much on Rey as they are on Finn and Poe.Read More »

Help Zina H make it to grad school!

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Help me make it to grad school!

I’ve wanted to go to grad school since the moment that I graduated from FIU (Florida International University) in 2012. Unfortunately, life didn’t go as planned and I spent the next few years trying to make things work for me in the workforce.

In September, I decided to apply at my alma mater for grad school. I didn’t go with the history department again I decided to go with the English department for an MA in Literature because much of what I’ve been doing in my spare time has revolved around media analysis and looking at things like race and gender.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get in the way I had planned. Instead of being admitted immediately, I was at first told that I would have to defer my enrollment to the Fall 2016 semester while I took two classes (which would’ve come up to over $2000 for the semester) in the Spring. Thanks to the director of the program really going to bat for me, things changed for the better.

Earlier this month, I was given late (and conditional) acceptance to grad school in the English Department’s Literature program. I’m officially in the program and registered for three classes starting next month and I currently have a place to stay with one of my darling professors from undergrad!

Here’s the thing though, while I am 99% sure that I’ll be getting loans to cover classes and bills (and I’ll be looking for work in the area and on campus, as well), there’s still a gap period before any of that will go through and I have no income to cover things like food and transportation (because my car is currently not with me).

I’ve wanted to continue on to higher education from day one and now that I’m so close to getting where I need to be, I really don’t want to have to turn around and give up. I’ve been accepted into a great program at the college and I’ve got a place to stay for the meanwhile.

All I need is a little help to make sure that I can survive until loans disburse and I can get a job in Miami!

Thank you for any help and money that you can give!

[To read more about what the money will go towards, visit my YouCaring page!]

Obligatory X-Mas Post

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I like saying that I’m in it for the presents, but let’s be real:

I don’t get up at 5:30 in the morning for stuff. We’re celebrating the fact that almost everyone in our family is together and able to share gifts, positivity, and love. I enjoy watching my niecelings tear into gifts and scream when they see something they wanted all year.

This is the second year that our mom has missed Christmas because she’s still in the Virgin Islands and her absence is missed. We still have her wrapped gift from last year and we’re hoping that she can come back soon.

Don’t get me wrong, the stuff is nice. It’s great. I got some good stuff and I always feel like my family notices me and what I’m into. (The Cassandra Clare book made me ugly laugh for figurative hours because she’s such a huge guilty pleasure for me.)

But I’m also invested in watching J howl when she opens a new type of make up, M mean mugging for the camera, and Tiny T cackling with delight when she gets a new doll. My nieces are getting bigger and bigger every year and I love seeing the way that their interests and reactions change. These are my babies and they’re getting so big. I’ve got to bask in it while I can.

Today wouldn’t be half as fun without my family.

Even if they did wake me up at five thirty in the freaking morning…

So happy Xmas if you’re into that sort of thing (and happy Friday if you’re not). I hope you all get to spend time with the people that you love!

On Grayson, fandom, problematic media, and the drive to “defend” popular male characters

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Content notes: This post mentions and/or links to descriptions of sexual assault and harassment as well as racism.

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If you were to listen to a certain group of Dick Grayson fans on the internet, you’d probably come to the conclusion that comic book fans are frighteningly intense and that the Grayson series (written by Tom King and Tim Seeley with pencils by Mikel Janin and colors by Jeromy Cox) is rife with orgies and plagued with issues of consent on every single page as Dick is forcibly separated from his friends and family to fight in the war against SPYRAL.

If you were to listen to that weirdly vocal group of fans, you’d also be just as wrong as they are.Read More »