Writing Update

Academic, Ashen Wings, Writing

Just figured I’d provide a quick update here —

Fiction: I’m still working on the umpteenth draft of King’s Monster. At the moment, it’s going slowly because of my nonfiction writing commitments, but I’m hoping that after my Big Bad Deadline of July 3-4, I might be able to settle into it more comfortably. I’ve made myself accountable to a writing buddy to “report in” every Monday, and with luck, that will keep me at least tinkering on it! … I’ve also started jotting a few notes about a potential sequel to Clockwork Heart. Shall I use the same protagonists or write about one of the side characters?

Nonfiction: My most immediate deadline is to finish writing up my paper for Japanese Transnational Fandoms and Female Consumers, a conference at the University of Wollongong, Australia, July 3-4, that will become a special issue of Intersections: Gender & Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific. I’ve collected all the data it looks like I’m going to get — now I need to turn it into something meaningful. Several U.S. boys’ love/yaoi publishers were kind enough to answer my questions about marketing BL in “the West,” and this paper will look at the challenges they’ve faced and solutions they’ve developed. Y’know, these publishers have been simply fantastic about working with me; it’s really gratifying, considering some of the horror stories I’ve heard about researchers trying to get corporations to talk to them.

I’ve also recently picked up two editing responsibilities — one for the new anthology two other scholars and I just got accepted, Girls Doing Boys Doing Boys: Japanese Boys’ Love Anime and Manga in a Globalized World; and a gig as a guest editor for November’s special issue of Particip@tions: International Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, where I’ll have a paper that quantitatively describes Western boys’ love readers.

All of which is fun and useful, but not fiction. I know, I know. I really need to spend more time writing fiction! It’s what I love, after all. However, I hope to apply for promotion to full professor this next academic year, and all of this conference-going, paper-writing, and article-editing is part of the job. And, y’know, I can think of a lot more boring things to study than yaoi….

drupagliassotti @ May 26, 2008