Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wheeeeeee Butch!

For immediate release – June 22, 2009

Sinclair Sexsmith, the “kinky queer butch top” behind Sugarbutch Chronicles and the editor of Queer Eye Candy, has launched TopHotButches.com, a top 100 list in the spirit of AfterEllen.com’s Hot 100 and GO Magazine’s Women We Love, focusing on transmasculine queer people of all kinds – butch, tomboy, androgynous, masculine, AG, stud, dykes, queers, and transmen.

“There is a serious lack of transmasculine representation in mainstream lesbian culture,” Sexsmith said. “Even in queer-focused top 100 lists, masculine women and transguys are rarely included. This does damage in two ways: 1. it implies that the attractiveness and desirability of lesbians is based on the heteronormative gender role assumptions of femininity, and 2. it excludes two large groups – dykes who are attracted to transmasculine women and trans men, and the transmasculine women and transmen ourselves. Where are our desires on these lists? Once again we are rendered other, strange, deviant, not attractive. This list attempts to fill in that hole.”

The project features photographs and links for all the 100 people on the list, and profiles for the top 10. There is even an “honorable mention” category, with more than a dozen more names.

“I thought it would be hard to get 100,” Sexsmith said, “I thought, maybe we can get 50. But I had so many suggestions, and I had more names than I could fit on the list. There are more of us out there in culture than one might think.”

The list includes predominantly musicians, comics, actors, and writers, but there is a wide variety of professions represented, from athletes and tattoo artists to political activists, radio show hosts, and porn stars.

“Diversity was important in picking the final list, and in the order of the list. Not just profession, but also ethnicity, age, geography, and body size. I wanted a wide range of masculinities in this project, to show how many various ways female masculinity and trans masculinity manifest,” said Sexsmith. “It was also important to me to include trans men, as much as it might seem to be in conflict with the title of the project, because trans men are a significant part of this community, and have been a serious force behind the re-visioning the gender and masculinity in gender activism in recent years.”

The Top Hot Butches project may continue annually. Visit TopHotButches.com to see the full list, photographs, profiles, links, and further information about the project. Sinclair Sexsmith can be reached at aspiringstud[at]gmail.com for interviews and further comment.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Adventures in Query Land

I'm working up the gumption to send out another query letter, and it occured to me that phenomenon like #queryfail have somewhat mislead me.


The query process is not entirely made of up of uncouth baboons whose only goal is to annoy agents. In fact, it's probably full of lots of folks like me: folks who follow instructions, query politely and well. So my actual competition is made up of nice, smart people.

Daggonnit.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Manuscript

Hm. I've got my first round of rejections on the manuscript.


I've heard that you should never ever mention rejections, even very nice ones, in industry communications but... but... Gosh darn it, this is a personal blog. I don't put in my letter heads. It's good to have a website, but I don't wanna. I don't wanna update content all the time and I don't wanna build a following and I don't wanna do anything but hide this manuscript under a bed and go to work on the musical. But I've promised myself I would give this one a good go.

So I'm gonna do what I always do when I'm nervous and upset and worried... which is write more. Ciao!

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Long Silence

Haven't posted much lately, for a rather exciting reason- I'm agent shopping for my manuscript! So of course I'm polishing and writing synopses and query letters and the like.  And I've just started a musical project with a composer friend of mine. All quite exciting, all quite time-stealing.


That being said, I shall return to the land of fantasy and let the internet survive without me once more. Ciao!

 
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