Life Events and Zines!
Aug. 24th, 2020 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thephantomscholarLOL So yeah, I haven't posted here in ages! I've taken on probably more projects than I should, and this was what got dropped. Oops! Not intentionally, I just kept never finding the time to post! Part of the problem is that, as I'm sure many others out there have found, all this social distancing and working from home makes you think you have all this spare time! So you take on more projects, then realize you've over-committed, but also that you don't want to drop any of them because they're all so cool LOL! So, between that and the logistical complications that social distancing adds to every-day life, yeah, I've dropped a few balls here and there.
The really exciting news, though, is that I got my dissertation proposal done and submitted! So now, if my committee go for it, I'll effectively be doing my Ph.D. thesis on Phantom!! And I cannot tell you how gleeful that makes me. I haven't got final approval for it, though, so we'll have to see! I've heard back from one member of my committee, and she seemed pretty positive about it although with some minor comments. But I still haven't heard feedback from my supervisor or the third member of the committee. So keeping my fingers crossed!! LOL And needless to say, nervous!!
The other thing, of course, is that I've been trying to figure out wtf to do with the Spirit And Voice project I started here back in the spring. Because, that ball has totally gotten dropped and I know it! And yet I don't want to drop that project. Because, exploring and sharing Phantom as a NeoPagan path is very important to me! But I've been having major trouble finding time to write and post the kind of stuff I did earlier on top of everything else. Plus, although I love the posting format here because it's so user-friendly and accessible, I find it hard to publicize work from here. Because, Dreamwidth doesn't seem to have the ability to easily cross-post to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
Recently, though, I've started getting into zining on the inspiration of a writer whose work I really love and has honestly changed my life! Although, I'm still figuring out the form, as it's an idiom I've felt kind of excluded from before finding her work. Because, I've always understood zines as a somewhat hyper-visual form, and of course I'm a Braille reader/screen-reader user! But this writer makes their zines super-accessible, which is awesome! And that's made me feel more welcome in the form. So I've started one zine of my own already. It's called Creature Of Darkness, and it's first issue is almost ready to launch I think! It explores/will explore how Phanship has been my way of working through and transforming trauma into power, and how that's shaped my spirituality and politics.
And then it occurred to me, why not do Spirit And Voice as a zine, too? And paradoxically, I think that'll make the workload balance easier. Because, for that, I can write shorter pieces/pieces of varying lengths as the ideas strike, and then later assemble the good ones into issues. Plus, I can take hard-copies of it and my other zine to events like Pagan Pride! Uh, whenever they resume in person that is. Although, I'm going to start it as an e-zine just like my other one. Because, since e-text is what's most accessible to me, that's how I primarily think of them. But thanks to Lulu Press, print copies will ultimately be a thing, too! So keep an eye/ear out for that in the nearish future. I don't know how soon it'll get up and going, though, as the school year is about to start which will make things get busy again.
And it won't duplicate Creature Of Darkness, either. Because, although Spirit And Voice likely will draw on my own experience, that's not it's primary focus. Rather, it's focus is on exploring and developing a path and practice - so rituals, theological reflection, meditations, connections between Phantom spirituality and politics, etc. Whereas, Creature Of Darkness is much more autoethnographic.
So that's what's up! And the nice thing is that shifting Spirit And Voice to a zine will allow me to leave this blog for just regular, personal life stuff. And that feels better! It feels more organic and manageable that way.
The really exciting news, though, is that I got my dissertation proposal done and submitted! So now, if my committee go for it, I'll effectively be doing my Ph.D. thesis on Phantom!! And I cannot tell you how gleeful that makes me. I haven't got final approval for it, though, so we'll have to see! I've heard back from one member of my committee, and she seemed pretty positive about it although with some minor comments. But I still haven't heard feedback from my supervisor or the third member of the committee. So keeping my fingers crossed!! LOL And needless to say, nervous!!
The other thing, of course, is that I've been trying to figure out wtf to do with the Spirit And Voice project I started here back in the spring. Because, that ball has totally gotten dropped and I know it! And yet I don't want to drop that project. Because, exploring and sharing Phantom as a NeoPagan path is very important to me! But I've been having major trouble finding time to write and post the kind of stuff I did earlier on top of everything else. Plus, although I love the posting format here because it's so user-friendly and accessible, I find it hard to publicize work from here. Because, Dreamwidth doesn't seem to have the ability to easily cross-post to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc.
Recently, though, I've started getting into zining on the inspiration of a writer whose work I really love and has honestly changed my life! Although, I'm still figuring out the form, as it's an idiom I've felt kind of excluded from before finding her work. Because, I've always understood zines as a somewhat hyper-visual form, and of course I'm a Braille reader/screen-reader user! But this writer makes their zines super-accessible, which is awesome! And that's made me feel more welcome in the form. So I've started one zine of my own already. It's called Creature Of Darkness, and it's first issue is almost ready to launch I think! It explores/will explore how Phanship has been my way of working through and transforming trauma into power, and how that's shaped my spirituality and politics.
And then it occurred to me, why not do Spirit And Voice as a zine, too? And paradoxically, I think that'll make the workload balance easier. Because, for that, I can write shorter pieces/pieces of varying lengths as the ideas strike, and then later assemble the good ones into issues. Plus, I can take hard-copies of it and my other zine to events like Pagan Pride! Uh, whenever they resume in person that is. Although, I'm going to start it as an e-zine just like my other one. Because, since e-text is what's most accessible to me, that's how I primarily think of them. But thanks to Lulu Press, print copies will ultimately be a thing, too! So keep an eye/ear out for that in the nearish future. I don't know how soon it'll get up and going, though, as the school year is about to start which will make things get busy again.
And it won't duplicate Creature Of Darkness, either. Because, although Spirit And Voice likely will draw on my own experience, that's not it's primary focus. Rather, it's focus is on exploring and developing a path and practice - so rituals, theological reflection, meditations, connections between Phantom spirituality and politics, etc. Whereas, Creature Of Darkness is much more autoethnographic.
So that's what's up! And the nice thing is that shifting Spirit And Voice to a zine will allow me to leave this blog for just regular, personal life stuff. And that feels better! It feels more organic and manageable that way.
