2022 was a busy, stressful year and obviously as the year wound down, I basically slowed my output drastically as I dealt with my dad getting sick, ultimately losing him, and reconnecting with my family as a result. However, I still did a lot of work I’m proud of, and I want to close out the year by sharing some of my best (or most interesting) work. I’ll also talk a little bit about each thing as I go through so you get a sense of my thoughts about them!
Read More »Tag: writing updates
What A May… What a May…
May was such a freaking busy month for me. But beyond that, it was also just a very big career boost for me in terms of who I got to talk to and how widely my work was shared and read!
Last month, I got to talk to… a lot of very cool people. I didn’t just get to talk to a bunch of other Black women and femme k-pop fans for my PCA 2021 project (which I’ll be presenting Friday and making public Monday/Tuesday on YouTube), I also got to talk to celebrities!
For KultScene, I interviewed rapper pH-1 over email and he did an excellent job of answering my questions. I loved learning about the creative process, how he writes for his different audiences, and where he’s heading next.
Read More »Stitch Has July (Writing) Plans
June… happened hard.
To be entirely honest here, June was probably the busiest I’ve been aside from the first two weeks of January where I was documenting the racism Rey/Kylo fans were slinging John Boyega’s way. June was ALSO (I mean, like January) a very racist month. I mean, my god, I basically didn’t get to do what I wanted to do with my site content because I had to deal with the fact that racists in fandom haven’t figured out that they can just ignore me instead of shit talking and slandering me endlessly.
And I’m trying to work as much as I can because again, I’m basically my family’s breadwinner and that is… a lot, so my hierarchy of writing (and reading) goes a little something like Day Job > (Freelance if I Can Get It >) Patreon > Website.
July is already looking like it’ll be busy, but I’ve whipped out my Happy Planner for the first time in about two months and I plan to get shit done – barring a hurricane or a massive terrible political moment, of course.
But I’m trying, y’all.
Read More »Stitch Does Stuff In August 2019
Hello pumpkins,
I know I was like “I’m not going to do another month with three public installments of What Fandom Racism Looks Like” but uh… so far that’s what August is shaping up to be.
I’ve got three installments of WFRLL on the docket to go up on my site this month: a piece on “Fandoming While Black”, the cultural appropriation in Korean pop/hip hop essay I’d been working for about two weeks after I failed hard at foregrounding, and a short installment on intent behind racist fanworks and how intent isn’t magical.
I’m also playing catch-up this month with my rec list for F/F content, the series squee post for Grayson, and, if I can get the time to reread it, my review for Alyssa Cole’s A Prince on Paper.
I’ll also be posting public video content related to the upcoming cultural appropriation essay and the Supergirl fandom’s continuously racist reactions to Mehcad Brooks and James Olsen. (And, despite the fact that I’m behind on my attempt at having a podcast on Patreon, I’m contemplating doing mini-podcast episodes starting the end of this month! We’ll see how this goes!)
On the Patreon front, I am supremely busy.
Read More »Stitch Does Stuff in July
I love Day Job.
I love being able to get up, come into work, and put together ads or blow through edits on a batch of articles for one of our clients. I love having the chance to use my English MA Editing Skills (TM) to make our marketing department a better one.
What I don’t love is not having time to write.
Sure, I make time as often as I can – if you follow me on twitter, you’ve probably seen my handwritten notes for my upcoming What Fandom Racism Looks Like series – but it’s not enough.
But I’m going to make it be enough… Somehow. Read More »
Stitch Does Stuff In June 2019
I actually finished most of my catch up events in May!
I did that while struggling to find a work-life balance.
Yes, I still have my job. It’s been a hard month and I’m definitely not sleeping or eating enough, but I’m still employed. I’ve still got two more months of probation to go before I can feel confident in my long-term (ish) career goals so I’m honestly going to be SUPER ANXIOUS about things until then.
But I enjoy my job, I like my bosses (no lie, I’m not kissing ass in case they find my site), and marketing has always been a career path I was curious about. I’m looking forward to devoting a reasonable amount of time to this job and having it lead to a career that I can be secure in!
My main goals for June involve developing a work-life-writing balance, responding in a timely fashion to emails for work and not for work, and figure out my hustle. I also want to figure out time management and work with friends to keep ourselves accountable as we work on our own projects!
I’m feeling pretty jazzed about this!
So let’s look at what June will bring us!
What I’m Into In June
Books: Stephanie Ahn’s Bloodbath, Abigail Barnette’s The Boyfriend, Dal Yong Jin’s New Korean Wave, Nalini Singh’s Wolf Rain, and Kim Suk-Young’s K-Pop Live: Fans, Idols, and Multimedia Performance
Music: BTS’s Map of the Soul: Persona, this playlist of Korean Rappers, Dolly Parton’s Jolene, the soundtrack for Hamilton
Shows: Absolute Boyfriend, Love O2O (again)
Movies: Aquaman, Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse,
Food: chicken rice, Publix subs, salmon
Stitch Does Stuff in March 2019
I told y’all that February would probably be a slow month for me and well… it was.
Visiting my father was fantastic and I loved seeing my brother, sister-in-law, and the little niblings, BUT my already slow writing process got slowed down to next to nothing.
So March, for the most part, will be all about playing catch-up on my website and on Patreon.
So anything I didn’t get to do in February will be getting done in March and there’ll be new posts going up between my website, Patreon, and my Dreamwidth account (which I keep forgetting about).
(You can check out last month’s post for details about the pieces I’ll be trying again in March.)
I’ve got a busy month ahead as I continue looking for full-time work and prepare for PCA in April, but writing remains my biggest priority! I’m looking forward to meeting my goals this month!
Now, let’s get to the goods!Read More »
Stitch Does Stuff in February 2019
What am I going to do in February 2019?
Well, for the first two-weeks of the month… probably not that much.
I’ll be visiting my elderly father in the USVI for a multi-purpose visit (he hasn’t been well, I won’t be able to visit for his birthday in April, my brother is getting his babies christened while his family is there, and doing research for a couple of stories I have set on the island) between the 4th and the 13th.
While I’m in the USVI, I don’t have internet access unless I get a ride to the local library or hang out at an internet café downtown where the tourists hangout. (I could go to the university to use their wi-fi/computer labs since I already need to ask a question of the librarians for a project I’m doing, but it is weird to hang out at a school I haven’t attended in like eight years.)
Despite the fact that I’ll have my big laptop with me, I probably won’t have that much time to work so I’ll be using my time from today up until my flight leaves to write and schedule as much as possible for the time period. Some content is already scheduled on my website and Patreon as well as some tweets to make up for the fact that unless I borrow my bro’s phone, I won’t be able to communicate with y’all.
Therefore, everything on this list is tentative because it depends on how the trip goes and how much free-time and writing headspace I can grab during the trip so I’m not playing catch-up any more than usual following my trip.
Wish me luck, folks!
Website
The Great Big Anita Blake Reread: Obsidian Butterfly
Strap yourselves in for another ridiculously long installment of my Great Big Anita Blake ReRead. I’ve got stuff to say about everything the novel did really well, what it still sucks at, and the one thing I wish I could carve out of the book with my bare bloody hands.
The Cruel Prince review
I should finish up with Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince some time during my trip. As I love fucked up fae stories? I have to review it.
Spiderverse and Miles Morales: A Spider-Man Novel, When Authenticity Matters
I’ve talked a ton about a) why I think Brian Michael Bendis kind of sucks at writing Black characters and b) why representation of marginalized people matters. In this piece, I’m going to talk about what Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Jason Reynolds’ Miles Morales novel so different from what we’d gotten on Miles before and how, some level of authenticity is important when we’re dealing with representation.
Queer-Coding, Bad-Bat-Takes, And Why The Joker Isn’t That Important to Batman
Despite what many comic book writers, editors, and some comic historians currently, the idea that the Joker serves as Batman’s darker “other half” is one that hinges on incredibly modern interpretations on the character that go hand in hand with ham-fisted attempts to squash them into these roles.
It’s also, not very accurate.
In Retrospect: The Authority Volume 1 (Issues 1 -12)
In a new blog essay series, I look at media I loved in my nerdy past and talk about what I loved, what I wished it did differently, and how it needs to change/how it may have already been updated. In this inaugural installment, to celebrate the awesome updates made in The Wild Storm comics out now, I talk about the first twelve issues of Wildstorm’s The Authority before Mark Millar got his gross little hands on it.
What Fandom Racism Looks Like: Misogynoir – Black Women in the Way
Few things inspire more misogynoir than a Black female character that fandom thinks “gets in the way” of a ship involving two white characters.
Updates and Junk
- PCA 2019 Planning Post
- Updated Who I am/What I do Post
Patreon
Ships ‘n Shit: Team Kill Dracula
One of the best ships to come out of Netflix’s Castlevania series is the OT3 relationship between dhampir Alucard, occasionally tipsy supernatural expert Trevor Belmont, and snarky Speaker Sypha Belnades
Stitch Loves Villains: Mariah Dillard
I’ve been promising a piece on Luke Cage’s Mariah Dillard since season one of the show. Now, I think I’ve got my angle. Since she’s a villain I love, I’m going to focus on that aspect of her character under my Stitch Loves Villains umbrella.
The Great Big Anita Blake Reread: Narcissus In Chains
- Snippet ($1 Tier)
- Draft ($3 Tier)
In book #10, the Anitaverse gets really gross. This is the start of the badness. I recommend preparing yourself with a stiff drink because this book is bad.
Urban Fantasy 101: Magical Negros in the Genre
- Snippet ($1 Tier)
I’m experimenting with topics for upcoming UF101 posts and I’m trying to see where I can go when talking about magical negro figures in the genre. I wind up scrapping a ton of UF101 pieces or putting them on the back burner/forgetting about them, but I think I’ve hit on something with this one.
Worldbuilding Wednesday: Nobles
A lot of the fantasy I’ve been reading (and some of what I’ve been reading) focuses on nobles in various groups. I want to talk about fixating on class and navigating writing wealth when you don’t have much/and keep tweeting #EatTheRich on a regular basis.
What Fandom Racism Looks Like: The Problem With Preference
- Snippet ($1 Tier)
- Full Draft ($3 Tier)
At some point this month, the draft of “What Fandom Racism Looks Like: The Problem With Preference” will be up. Before then, I’ll be putting up one last snippet!
Urban Fantasy 101 Notes
- Vampires Are People Too – “Show, Don’t Tell” is good advice when it comes to making sure readers get what you’re trying to put across when it comes to talking about the humanity of supernatural beings. What happens when the author only tells us that these characters are supposed to be sympathetic but… don’t show them.
- Hate Crimes – I keep coming across UF books with hate crimes/hate groups in them and I want to talk about what these crimes look like and why, if you’re going to use hate crimes and set up vampires and other supernatural beings as minorities, maybe… be more original? (I just have a bone to pick with how the allegories for race/disability/etc layered on these dangerous preternatural beings don’t even try to aim for originality when it comes to oppression.)
Women of Color in MCU Live Action Properties: Nakia
Am I going to write 2000 words about how Nakia was the best character in Black Panther and deserves to be loved? Yes, yes I am.
This month there won’t be an Audience Participation poll because I won’t have time to work on a piece and tweet reminders at the beginning of the month. Next month though, I’ll be back on track with it. I plan to have March’s post scheduled to go up on March 1st at midnight and I already know what I’m putting up for TWO poll options next month!
The Usual Support Links
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/A477I4N
PayPal: paypal.me/ZinaH
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/StitchMediaMix/
CV: stitchmediamix.com/zina-h-cv/
Book Wishlist: link: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/UXW2K0AOL5YK/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_RWWByb2JFWTRJ
I hope your February is awesome!
I’ll be posting pictures from my trip on twitter (@stichomancery) or instagram (@stitchmmix) whenever I get a chance/some service downtown or when we head to the island all the wannabe expats hang out on, but expect mostly radio silence for half of the momth! (I’ll share video and audio too, but that’ll probably go up when I’m in the airport on the way out.)
I appreciate y’all a ton and I can’t wait to get back and share my island with y’all as well as the stuff I do manage to get written this month!
(And then in March, it’s BLOG ANNIVERSARY AND GIVEAWAY TIME!
Stay sweet, pumpkins!
Stitch Does Stuff In January
I’m starting 2019 out right: by planning to write a bunch of stuff that I might not get to do because I always overshoot like it’s my job.
I’m aiming for big writing goals while learning how to use my time wisely and manage my writing time better.
Will this work? Who knows.
Will y’all get good content out of this no matter what happens? Definitely.
So here’s my January 2019 to-do list.
One thing I’m doing that’s new is posting my fiction goals (original and fan fiction) which aren’t set in stone and are moving from month to month because they’re primarily me adding words or doing revisions on existing work. Usually I keep it private because of how often i miss my goals or write unrelated things…
But I’ve realized that y’all might not know I’m always working on some kind of fiction and I’m trying to change that because my fiction writing is important to me and I want it to be important to y’all as well on some level.
Let’s get started.Read More »
Stitch Does Stuff In August
July was hecking busy and I didn’t get a ton of work done.
What sucks is that August is going to be intense and busy because I’m increasing the intensity of my job hunt and the moment I get hired, my writing output will shrink drastically. So, I’m going to try to make a manageable schedule with two main pieces for Patreon and two for my website that I will aim to get done and posted by the end of August with a couple smaller things for both platforms.
My goal from here on in is to make more of an active effort doing freelance and working on sending pitches to outlets that pay. I also have some fiction and non-fiction I’d like to work on and sell, but I’m pacing myself so that I can see if I can get some serious work done by the end of the year – work that folks would be interested in paying me directly for. (Which is another thing I need to figure out: how to use gumroad or some other storefront service to sell digital content directly to interested consumers!)
I’ll keep y’all posted on that front, but in the meanwhile, let’s look at what’s coming up in August:
Patreon
- “Dear Comic Fans, It’s Been Four Years And Y’all Are Still So Darn Angry About Not Just Racebending But Brown Folks In Your Nerdy Media In General” – Snippets at the $1 Tier and the finished draft at the $3 and $5 tiers
- “Urban Fantasy 101: Vampire Supremacy” – snippets at the $1 Tier and the finished draft at the $3 and 5 tiers.
- A currently untitled piece on heroic deaths, characters of color, and who fandom never fights to bring back – definitely snippets at the $1 Tier, possibly the draft at the upper tiers if I don’t sell the article based on the pitch I’m planning to send
- Slavefic Thoughts Revisited, a sort of coda to the “What Fandom Racism Looks Like” piece on slavefic that covers some things I think I needed to get into a bit more/that I glossed over – $5 Tier
- “Talking Tropes – Episode 2: Secret Royalty – $5 Tier
- Snippets for uh… basically everything – $1 Tier
- Image posts + longform captions/mini-essays for a handful of previous posts – $1 Tier
Website
- “Too White Bread for This Shit: Race and Racism in Laurell K Hamilton’s Urban Fantasy Series”
- “Urban Fantasy 101: What I Read Last Summer”
- “Who the heck is Ben Solo?”
- “What Fandom Racism Looks Like: White Prioritization”
- A currently untitled Urban Fantasy 101 Piece
- Some short book reviews!
Thank you for supporting me for another month!
❤
Updates for Upcoming Writing
One problem with grad school is that there’s only so much I can do to get my academic and nerdy interests to collide. As a full-time grad student and a freelance, my output here has plummeted because I’m busy trying to get my assignments in and not mess up at work.
But I am always thinking of things I can write for you all and so right now, there are some things that are definitely on the menu for upcoming months.
Stitch's Media Mix 
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