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julia update - may 2016
in this update:
1) Whipping Girl 2nd edition excerpts & related articles
2) new YouTube videos & a Kat Cataclysm book (aka, my fiction!)
3) Outspoken will come out later this summer - looking for beta readers
4) keep me in mind for 2016-17 college events!
Happy almost summer! I've spent the last couple months shepherding several writing projects toward fruition - here's where things stand:
1) Whipping Girl 2nd edition excerpts & related articles!
 As many of you likely know by now, the second edition of my first book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity came out in March - here is a wonderful BuzzFeed article about the new edition & the legacy of the first edition.
While the book interior remains pretty much the same, it does have a new Preface that provides historical context for the book and discusses the many things that have changed with regards to trans activism, awareness, and acceptance since. If you're interested in a sneak peak of the new Preface, you can glean parts of it via the "look inside" function on the Amazon page for the book, and/or you can read excerpts from it in both of the recent blogposts of mine:
Excerpt from Whipping Girl Second Edition (which is self-explanatory).
Expanding Trans Media Representation: Why Transgender Actors Should Be Cast in Cisgender Roles (which discusses my evolving thoughts on trans media depictions and representation, a topic I covered at great length in Whipping Girl).
(btw, speaking of media depictions, in March, TIME published my piece The Truth About Caitlyn Jenner’s Politics, which critically examines how the media covered recent debates about her political views.)
Anyway, more info about the 2nd edition of Whipping Girl can be found here. It can be purchased online at Amazon, Portland's independent bookstore Powell's, the Philly-based LGBTQ bookstore Giovanni’s Room & the Chicago feminist bookstore Women and Children First. You can also use Indie Bound to find brick-and-mortar independent bookstores near you that are or will be carrying the book.
2) new YouTube videos & a Kat Cataclysm book (aka, my fiction!)
In earlier updates, I mentioned that I am writing surreal, silly, sex-positive fiction under the pen name, Kat Cataclysm. I'm happy to announce the release of my first publication under that name: General Surgery & Surgeons General: a Kat Cataclysm chapbook.
This modest forty-some page collection offers a potpourri of Kat’s absurdist short stories, slam poems, and whimsical musings, which touch upon and/or outright tackle diverse topics such as YA dystopian fiction, photosynthesis, mountain climbing, temporal anomalies, bisexuality, ethical non-monogamy, Santa Claus, Prince’s song lyrics, malapropisms & paraprosdokians, and the trials and travails of the contemporary author. As if that were not enough, the book also premieres several excerpt chapters from the eventual Kat Cataclysm debut novel 99 Erics.
You can learn more about Kat Cataclysm and the book here. The book can be purchased at either:
CreateSpace, which offers the best royalties for the author
Amazon.com (in both book & ebook formats), where (once again) you can “Look Inside” the book by clicking on the cover.
Also, while on tour with Sister Spit in March, I recorded live performances of four of the pieces in the chapbook - here are links to those recordings:
Those recordings are part of my newly revamped YouTube channel, which is currently divided into three play lists: Kat Cataclysm, *soft vowel sounds* (my solo music project), and my trans-themed spoken word. I will be adding new videos as the year goes on. In particular, I play to upload quite a few videos of some of my old trans-themed slam poems once my book Outspoken (which contains print versions of these pieces) finally comes out. Speaking of which. . .
3) Outspoken (my 3rd full-length book) will come out later this summer - looking for beta readers!
 In previous updates, I've mention my forthcoming book Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism -- a compilation of forty-eight of my previously unpublished and/or difficult to find trans-themed writings from 2002-2014. (You can learn more about it via the link.) Unfortunately (due to all my other goings on), I've had to push back the release date a bit. My goal right now is to release it in either August or September -- I will announce it here first, so stay tuned!
Since I am self-publishing, I am hoping to find a few beta readers. Ideally, these would be people who have some writing/editing experience themselves, and who are anxious to read the book (which you would get to do before anyone else!). If you were to be a beta reader, all you would have to do is read the book and, if you find any typos or mistakes along the way, please alert me to them. All of the chapters in this book have been previously edited, so I promise it won't be a harrowing experience!
If you happen to be interested, please send me an email and a brief (one or two sentence) mention of any previous writing or editing experience you might have. Aside from my gratitude, you will receive (for free, of course) a pre-release version of the book (which you will use for beta reading) and then the officially released version, in which your help will be acknowledged in the Acknowledgements. I'd also be happy to send you a signed copy of Whipping Girl 2nd edition and/or another book of your choice.
So drop me a line if you're interested!
4) keep me in mind for 2016-17 college events!
I know that for many of you, the semester has just ended. But I wanted to put this out there for those who are thinking ahead to next year:
If you are affiliated with a college -- especially if you belong to a transgender, LGBTQIA+, women's, and/or feminist-related organization -- please consider bringing me out to your campus. And even if you aren't associated with a college yourself, feel free to forward this onto people that you know who may be students or staff elsewhere.
For those interested parties, I have a booking webpage containing all the pertinent information, including short descriptions of some of my most frequently requested talks, plus lists of colleges & conferences where I have presented or performed in the past. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
That's it for now. And remember, between updates, you can always check out:
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