Patroning

I was going to title this "patronizing," but that would give entirely the wrong idea.

Yesterday I got to feel like a patron of the arts—sent off a check to a nonprofit that's putting on a play in NYC (directed by a friend of mine), made a donation to Mary Anne's Kriti festival ("a three-day event featuring South Asian writers reading and discussing their work"—kind of like an sf convention, but for South Asian lit).

And then in the wee hours of the night, after I got too sleepy to make good judgments about incoming submissions but while I was still awake enough to enjoy a good read, I stopped by web comic A Softer World and poked around the site and found Joey Comeau's Overqualified (a series of not entirely serious job application letters), and then found and devoured the first three chapters of Joey's novel-in-progress Lockpick Pornography.

It's really excellent so far—funny and sharp, filled with all sorts of genderfuck and smart (and funny) commentary about queer issues. I was going to start describing the plot, but Joey puts it better than I could: it's "political and dirty and ranty and queer and it has crime and sex and good intentions."

Why are you still sitting here reading my journal when you could be reading something like that?

Oh, and the reason I mention the novel in this particular entry is that Joey is trying to come up with tuition money to avoid being kicked out of school, so the novel chapters are actually a fundraiser. The chapters are free to read, but there's a PayPal donation button at the bottom of the page. If you like what you read (or, for that matter, if you like A Softer World), send Joey some money; support an artist. I did.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the book.

P.S.: Another eight hours of sleep last night. Ambien, how I adore you!

3 Responses to “Patroning”

  1. Catherine O

    catching up on my FL and just saw this. Hey, thanks 🙂 Formal thank-you note to come along with tax letter, later….

    I’m glad you’re getting that patronus feeling, anyway. (Patronic?) 🙂 I wish you could make it to our donor reception and to the show, but maybe some other time 🙂

    reply
  2. metasilk

    AUTHOR: metasilk
    URL: http://www.metasilk.com
    COMMENT ID: 4512
    DATE: 02/21/2005 12:12:26

    reply
  3. Anonymous

    OK, ignore me using the enter key to tab from field to field, thus leaving the blank metasilk above and the nameless comment here.

    All I wanted to say was “Patroning” reminded me of Harry Potter & Patronus charms, before I read the rest of it.

    –kir the silly keypresser

    reply

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