Monday, October 13, 2008

Bio and other fun

Isn't that cute? It's a little icon thingie I made on one of those website where you can do that sort of thing. They didn't have any hair options that are really like mine, but this is okay.

I have a new bio, which I sent to my Del Rey edtor last week. It is:

Stacia Kane has been a phone psychic, a customer service representative, a bartender, and a movie theatre usher. Writing is more fun than all of them combined.
She currently lives with her husband and their two little girls. She wears a lot of black, still makes great cocktails, likes to play music loud in the car, and thinks Die Hard is one of the greatest movies ever made. She believes in dragons and the divine right of kings, and is a fervent Ricardian.
Visit her online at www.Staciakane.com.


My editor really liked it, so hopefully that's a good sign that it doesn't make me sound like a loon. I do hate writing bios; I try to write serious ones and end up sounding like a pretentious git, so I try to funny it up and sound like some sort of escapee from Arkham ("Stacia Kane spends her nights in a bunny suit, stealing candy from children and plotting the destruction of do-gooders," that sort of thing).

The bio also apparently started a debate in the DR offices about Richard III, which is awesome. (One political point I will make at every turn is the innocence of Richard III. "Because truth should be more powerful than lies...and truth is important.")

Anyway. What else. Oh, I just got to explain to my almost-four-year-old what a panty liner is, that was fun (sorry, is that TMI?)

We bought Halloween costumes this weekend. Hubs tried to drum up some interest in doing some sort of Halloween activity at his work, but that did not go over well. Apparently Halloween is "not Christian" and is therefore inappropriate. Yes, really.

The checkout girl at Woolworths mentioned this to us as well, that it's hard to get anyone interested in Halloween for that reason (it's seen as "un-Christian" and therefore wrong to celebrate. Yes, really), and she found it confusing because she thought America was a fairly religious country, but we seem to love Halloween, how does that work? So hubs and I basically explained to her that while you do occasionally hear of some religious group or lone pastor who thinks Halloween is evil, most Americans simply see Halloween as an amusing and light-hearted holiday that hurts no one, and the schools and a lot of churches and workplaces enter into the fun of it, and only sourpusses and the supremely unimaginative do things like hold candlelight vigils to pray for the souls of those poor unfortunates who are led by Satan into committing the great sin of dressing up like Superman or Princess Leia and asking strangers to put mini Snickers bars into their pillowcases or plastic pumpkin carriers or whatever they're using (when I was a kid we used pillowcases, as they are much bigger. In trick-or-treating, as with so many things, size matters.)

In this pro-Halloween, anti-stupidity stance I have no worries about offending potential readers; frankly, if you think Halloween is evil, you're probably not really the target audience for my books about sexy demons and drug-addicted atheistic witches anyway, right?

Objecting to the celebration of Halloween for religious reasons makes about as much sense as objecting to evergreen trees with lights on them for religious reasons; we're talking about trappings, not beliefs. Halloween costumes are fun; trick-or-treating is fun. Trees with lights in them are pretty. Get over it. (Yes, for some of us Oct. 31st is a holiday with deeper meaning, but that doesn't mean that's all the holiday means or should mean to anyone, and it certainly doesn't mean no one should be allowed to have any fun that night.)

Anyway. I'd intended to do this "as me anything" meme thing, but maybe I'll save that until Thursday, as my little Halloween story developed a life of its own here. So on Thursday I will invite you to ask me anything, no matter how scandalous or shocking. Be prepared. Heh heh.

14 comments:

BernardL said...

That is a great way to write a bio. It comes at a perfect time for me as an example. I have to come up with one for a pen-name, and couldn't figure out what the heck to write for an imaginary name.

pacatrue said...

Um, what's a Ricardian?

Stacia said...

Ugh, Bernard, bios are the absolute worst. I hate them and always have.

Paca, I linked to the Richard III society there. :-) A Ricardian is someone who believes Richard III was innocent of murdering the Princes in the Tower and was a good King and all that. :-)

Anonymous said...

You know, our area of town might be poor and old, but we don't have the anti-Halloween people or the "Jesus is the reason for the season!!!!" people (exclamation points added to differentiate from those that might believe that and those who believe it and try to make everyone else believe it too). holidays are celebrated enthusiastically and typically with a child/light at heart view.

I feel sorry for people who never let themselves enjoy anything.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I also thought you'd love this quote from Barack Obama about how his mother saw religion. I know I really liked it:

"Religion was an expression of human culture, she would explain, not its wellspring, just one of many ways-and not necessarily the best way-that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives."

Angie said...

Great bio! I hate writing them; next time I'll probably take a leaf from your book and make myself out to be a whack-job.

And speaking of whack-jobs, yeah, the folks who picket Halloween definitely qualify. [blinkblink] I remember when I was volunteering at an elementary school, the policy was that parents were "asked" not to send their children to school on Halloween costumed as witches or goblins or ghosts or whatever, for fear that it might offend someone. For kids who wanted to go as some supernatural creature on Halloween, it was suggested that they could go trick-or-treating as whatever they wanted, and have a different costume for school. Ummm, sure. Right. o_O

Yes, for some of us Oct. 31st is a holiday with deeper meaning, but that doesn't mean that's all the holiday means or should mean to anyone, and it certainly doesn't mean no one should be allowed to have any fun that night.

Exactly. [nodnod] And that applies to Christmas too. I'm an atheist and love both Halloween and Christmas. You don't have to be a Christian to get into the "peace and good will" philosophy, and the decorations are beautiful. And yes, costumes and candy are fun no matter what religion you are or aren't.

Angie

Robyn said...

Great bio!

And as a conservative Christian children's pastor, you have my full permission to trick-or-treat. But save me the mini-Butterfingers.

laughingwolf said...

love that new bio!

btw, charles started a neat flash horror special and invited all who wanna participate, many have

mine are: freaky flash... I and II, so far

come, join in the fun... YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO! :O lol

Stacia said...

Um, Angie, I sound like a whackjob in the bio?


Sorry all, I have the stomach flu and am too sick to fully respond. Ugh, I feel like someone ripped out my stomach and replaced it with a cement mixer.

Angie said...

No, not in the one you actually wrote. [flail] Sorry, I put two things together in one sentence which should've been separate.

1) good bio, the real one. :)

2) this: ("Stacia Kane spends her nights in a bunny suit, stealing candy from children and plotting the destruction of do-gooders," looked like a fun approach and I'll be keeping it in mind next time I need to write one for myself.

Better? [facepalm]

I was going too fast when I typed the comment and didn't read it over before I posted. :P

Angie

Seeley deBorn said...

Great bio! I'm quite fond of my almost totally fictional one, and hope that no one ever makes me do a real one.

So the religious thing is why the UK doens't do trick of treating? Huh. I'd always thought it was the old tradition of staying indoors and avoiding the ghouls. Whereas we, in the New World, fly in the face of scary and spend a day being naughty.

Me, I'm going to work as a Viking.

writtenwyrdd said...

I like the bio. You were a phone psychic, too? Wasn't that a lousy way to not make money?

I just got the newest release of yours at Ellora's Cave and am settling down to read it instead of getting any writing done.

Stacia said...

Lol, thanks Angie, I think that would have been more obvious if I hadn't been sick. :-) It is fun sometimes to write goofy ones, but like I said I always look at it and think "Is it funny or do I just sound like an asshole," you know? Ugh!


Yes, we're much braver, Seeley. :-) True, I don't know that the religious thing is the reason everywhere, but the girl at Woolworths certainly seemed to think that was why. *shrug*


Lol, YES, Written, it was! But it is where I met the hubs--he was a supervisor, la de dah (as was I, eventually) and it was actually a really good company to work for despite the shittiness of the actual job. So I can't call it a total loss. But yeah, my editor asked me about it when she saw the bio and I told her I could sum up the entire experience in two sentences:

1. When am I going to win the lottery?

2. When my babyDaddy coming back (alternate version: getting out of jail)?

Aw, thanks! I hope you like it! :-)

writtenwyrdd said...

Yep, that sums it up pretty well, D.

BTW, a preview of Personal Demons is at the back of Brimstone Kiss, the #2 Delilah Street Paranormal Investigator series. You probably were aware of that, though.