Dispatches From Tanganyika

It's been a while since I had a chance to catch up here, and unfortunately the news is not good. My mother had a slight stroke several weeks ago, spent four days in the hospital, and has required a great deal of care from me since her return home. Thankfully, she's going to be OK, but losing two weeks of work time brought home to me how unsustainable my hand-to-mouth existence really is. We almost lost our apartment and my mother's house (she owed two years of property taxes I didn't know about), and we might well have all been on the street by August if not for a lifesaving cash infusion from a very generous friend. That infusion was promptly sucked up by the bills that were already (over)due, and now, broke again, I realize I can't keep living like this. I love doing art and plan to continue making and selling it as much as possible, but even supplemented by my eBay signed book sales, it isn't enough to live on. I'm too physically defective to hold a real job, but not defective enough to receive disability.

And if I could still write books, I'd be doing it. That just isn't a possibility anymore. I wish it were.

But I can still write a coherent and effective paragraph, even a series of them, and I know there are people who can't or would prefer not to, and sometimes they pay others to do it for them. So I'm putting myself out there for others' writing needs. I don't think I could ghostwrite a piece of fiction from scratch -- hell, if I could do that, I'd just start writing my own books -- but I'm an excellent editor for manuscripts of any length and subject, and I can produce quick, clean copy for research papers, ads, catalogs, websites, love letters, and many other pieces of writing you may need. My rates are reasonable and negotiable. If interested, please contact me at docbrite@gmail.com (no LJ messages, please; I never think to check them). And, if you would, spread the word!

While packing up my contributor's copies (which filled nine boxes -- jeez, I was pretty prolific at one time), I found my copy of this anthology.



Two years of using men's restrooms has made me hate that U.S. cover more than ever, but I do find it interesting that while the premise is women writers talking about what they'd do if they had penises, at least two of the contributors, me and Patrick (then Pat) Califia, now identify as male.

(I don't remember who wrote it, and I no longer have the book handy, but the funniest piece was one that simply read -- I paraphrase -- "I would sit quietly until it went away.")