More Material

Actually, no more NEW material was submitted to the writing class. I had caught cold, after being knocked out from the Southern California fire ashes and last weekend's peace march.

I re-wrote a scene from Sanford's high school years, where he gets bashed by jocks. I had written that scene before, but lost it when my old laptop crashed, so I had to rewrite from memory tonight.

I added a scene which had survived that laptop crash, dealing with graduation and the baby steps as Sarah. It had been workshopped at a class I really hated, so I wanted to workshop again, with some revisions, at a better class.

I'll look forward to some great critiques coming in, and to catching up on overdue classwork (some exercises are overdue at this time). And a public thanks to Masha Hamilton for a great class.

More Novel Research

I've been free all weekend, allowing me to do some crucial activities that would not only let me rejuvenate myself, but also become building blocks of the novel - all in town, without having to go to San Francisco or elsewhere.

I spent the evening of Friday the 26th in West Hollywood, club-hopping, starting out at the Palms bar and its Halloween costume-clad lesbians, and continuing on to Club 7969 and its transgender strippers. The Palms was not as great as it was the last time I visited, on a Monday two years ago; it certainly did not help going into a bar without knowing anyone, on a busy night (even though not THAT many people were there for the early hours I was in). I would rather go back on the Monday karaoke nights, when I can get cozy with a smaller crowd. On the other hand, Club 7969, was quite a spectacle, despite being very heavy on the Y chromosome. The transwomen, most of them identifiable only by their low voices, were friendly to me. And even though I wore my double-female-symbol necklace, and my outfit (tunic belted shirt and capri-length tights) screamed more "casual" than "sexy," a few men still dared to hit on me. This was my first visit to Club 7969, a place often used by working girls to pick out their customers; perhaps Martha, Sarah's first girlfriend with a tragic past, could start out doing something similar - work as a stripper at a club, then serve the customers later - before getting a legit job as a flight attendant (with fake references from a customer).

After being exhausted from the hangover (and the antiwar protests of yesterday), I spent today at a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Pasadena. Located next to the famous Gamble House (of the Proctor & Gamble fortune), the sprawling church was crowded with many congregation members. I was warmly welcomed, and able to attend a newcomers' meeting with a church volunteer and two other fairly new members. This built on the Berkeley church visit of last New Year's Eve, by giving me a better peek into the various demographics and programs at the church, including groups for various age brackets, groups for gay families, and so forth. I look forward to the day when I am able to attend this very church on a regular basis, so that I can actually take advantage of these groups. For the novel purposes, I could use Kirsten as a newcomers' guide, so that when Sarah attends church the first time, Kirsten could be the first face she sees, and the two could become friends through groups for young lesbians. (Of course, after Martha dies, this friendship will turn into love, eventually culminating in marriage.)

As I headed home from Pasadena, I was also happy to catch up with my mentor Gayle Brandeis, at a coffee shop in San Dimas where she was doing some poetry reading. We caught up with our life stories, CodePink activism, and more, and of course I updated her on my novel progress and the Masha Hamilton online class.

Now, I need to get back to classwork for Masha's class, where I need to submit an excerpt in 48 hours. I think I will be submitting Sarah's job search frustrations after community college, as she gets rejected over and over, sometimes nicely and sometimes rudely, until she lucks out at United Airlines. I'll see what I can come up with.

More items to go into childhood

As I started writing Sanford's childhood, I could only come up with three scene ideas, and only two actual scenes. The picnic scene, the "doctor" scene, and an idea of early adolescence.

Now, that's nowhere near being enough. I need to show something other than gender obsession. Some sort of normalcy, something that a non-transgender reader can identify with. For one, I need to set up Sanford with his grandfather Warren, at the airplane museum at Paris' Le Bourget field, when Warren decides to visit Sanford and his parents on Paris assignment. This is where Sanford can build up that interest in airplanes that, as a boyish activity, will keep his parents happy - while at the same time, planting the seeds for Sarah's eventual work as a flight attendant. But at the same time, Sanford will still be attracted to the women in aviation in some way, and adopt, perhaps, Amelia Earhart as his heroine. In addition, Grandpa Warren's presence will also give a chance for him to tell the tales of his Korean War service, setting things up for Sarah's eventual Seoul assignment - and relationship with Kirsten.

Many transgender women end up being computer wizards, because of their outcast status as little boys. I want the same to happen to Sanford. To that end, I need to give him a computer in childhood. Perhaps it'll be a computer that I myself wanted, but never had - an Apple II series, complete with its vast game catalog. Sanford could enjoy playing Archon, a game I myself enjoyed, where he will insist on playing the Dark side, because of its Sorceress. As he hits adolescence and returns to the US, he could move on to a 386-class PC, on which he will play Microsoft Flight Simulator - and perhaps a few military flight sims - to continue that interest in aviation that Grandpa Warren had started. (I already mention, sometime in 1995 right before the release of Windows 95, that Sanford, now Sarah, is an expert at tweaking MS-DOS to run games optimally.)

Let's see what I can come up with.

The beginning - update

I only wrote just over 12 pages of material, covering two scenes from Sanford's childhood, but it is now out there, and uploaded to the writing class - a day late.

I feel so much better, having cranked out that very rough first draft.

I only wish I could've worked on an early teenage scene, with the wet dream sequence and all, but that can happen later.

I still wish I had a much more convincing child's voice though...