If you expected this blog entry to be about cigar branding scarification, move on. That opening is an example of my creative brand: sexual, edgy and funny. A lot of my poetry about queer sex walks that line, & mostly successfully. It’s such a strong brand, in fact, that when I step put of it people are disappointed. Get over it.
This is the other level of branding – the product itself – a product that can sustain itself without the writer being there but which usually can have greater resonance with the writer in person.
The one question I get asked most often about my writing is ‘What sort of things do you write about?’ I never know where to start or how to narrow the focus to a simple answer. Growing up gay, being a queer adult, family, childhood, media, music, aging, relationships, in your pants raunch – of course the moment one says queer they assume everything I write is about that, as opposed to coming to things from that perspective. There’s more to laugh than sex – there’s shirts, right.
I also write short fiction: scary, queer – sometimes both at the same time. Three novels under my belt (soon to be Smashworded).
My blog shows more sides of me as a person. This year I set out to make it even more rounded by adding the Monday Music component; making Wednesday the day I write about writing by explaining the thoughts behind specific pieces; Friday I bather on about anything. Plus the occasional bonus review.
Not to forget the photographs – mostly taken by myself on my walks & travels. I also include up coming events such as conferences (Bloody Words), events (FanExpo) or plays I’m going to see. I used to include spokenword shows I was going to attend but sometimes I didn’t make it; besides I’m not Facebook). Always list my rare up coming features. Part of the brand is performance.
August 28-31 – attending – FanExpo Canada http://www.fanexpocanada.com
October 19 – feature – Cabaret Noir – Welcome to Lake Pinebow
https://www.facebook.com/events/1651892755035275/
don’t let the sample scare you
Slap Unhappy
my masochist lover wants to leave
I’m not causing him enough pain
he’s tired of merely being ashamed
of being seen with me in public
he needs more domestic humiliation
I reminded him
it wasn’t my fault he needed an audience
in order to feel the depths of abasement
that got him off
besides I have rotator cuff tears from
spanking him every time
the dishes weren’t cleared away fast enough
testicular torture
aggravates my Carpel tunnel syndrome
tennis elbow from fisting
doesn’t get me off at all
the constant stream of abuse
I had to supply him with was so draining
I had no spite left
for people who really deserved it
like that asshole barista
who couldn’t make a latte
without a shake of cinnamon
I told him twice no cinnamon
and when it came with a dash
a sense of futility
flooded me with each sip
of that fucking latte
I had no choice but to go home
and take it out on my masochistic lover
but that wasn’t enough for him
now my masochistic lover wants
to leave
because I don’t make him suffer enough
he feels I don’t care when I hurt him
that I’m not into the brick-weighted nipple clamps
into the cigar branding scarification
He says I do those things
with too much detachment
I ask him why my not caring
doesn’t add to his sense of being abused
isn’t it worse when the abuser
does it out of boredom
and not out of passion
once he packed up his latex
I slapped him goodbye
then shut the door