Blogathon 2009!

What
Blogathon! I post every half hour for 24 hours, to raise money for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

When
July 25-26, 9am-9am EST.

Where
Shadesong.livejournal.com.

Why
Because I believe in doing good.

Why BARCC?
Because BARCC is an amazing organization committed to helping survivors of rape and sexual assault and effecting social change to dismantle rape culture.

I’ve been a survivor speaker for BARCC for two years. I don’t just give my survivor speech – though that’s powerful in itself! The survivor speech is followed by a Q&A which is often the first time people in the audience have felt able to ask questions of a rape survivor. This can be tremendously valuable not just for the audiences of high school or college kids, but for audiences like police, emergency physicians, nurses, first responders – people who see the survivor in those first raw horrible hours and need to know how best to do their jobs, and have questions that can often only be answered by us. The Survivor Speakers Bureau kicks ass. We are fearsomely brave women who eviscerate ourselves so that others can learn, and can help others.

But I also love love love my work in community education and prevention. I love manning a table at street fairs and getting people to talk about a subject that’s so often taboo. I love helping people make their Clothesline Project shirts. I love running workshops on building and maintaining healthy boundaries, and dissecting why high schoolers do and say the things they do, and how *they* can help change our culture. (I love the high school workshops; the kids talk to me with my middle-school height and my Docs and silly t-shirts.)

This is such important work.

You have heard the statistics. Per a Department of Justice survey in 2000, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape at some time in their lives. In Massachusetts alone, 4,418 adolescents and adults are sexually assaulted each year – that’s 12 people each day and one every two hours. BARCC covers the biggest population center of Massachusetts, and its coverage area stretches quite a bit – is why it’s the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

So 12 people a day. And if they call a rape crisis center – we’re who they call.

If you call BARCC after a sexual assault, we will have someone meet you at the hospital and stay with you through your exam, through talking to the police. We will give you up to a dozen sessions of in-person counseling, free of charge. We can get you into group therapy. We can talk you through the night. We are deeply, deeply committed to being there for you, and for your loved ones – because this doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and we know it. We have resources for your partner, your roommate, your mom.

We are on the street, helping communities develop their own programs. We’re in your schools. We’re everywhere. We are ~100 fiercely committed volunteers, working with a staff of dozens to change our world.

These programs, dear reader, cost money. BARCC is fortunate in its volunteers! But all of the materials we give out at those street fairs cost money. It costs money to run the office itself. You know this.

We’re doing amazing work. We kick ass.

We need your help.

Why now more than ever?
The state has cut funding across the board, for BARCC and all of the organizations like it. About 30%. *wince* Keep in mind that rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence rates go up dramatically in times of economic crisis. We have less funding to help more people. And it’s not just that those rates go up – it’s that we community education volunteers are damn good at our jobs, and therefore BARCC’s visibility is going up all the time. More people are aware of us, so more people are calling.

What can I do?
I know times are hard for everyone; I know I can’t count on a lot of big donations here. But – maybe think about how much you spend at Starbucks in any given week, or what you’d spend at the movies. And donate that. Because trust me, it all adds up. There are over a thousand of you reading me – what if each of you gave $10?

And yeah, I know that won’t happen. *laugh* But – give what you can. Every dollar counts. Every sponsorship has an impact.

Are you doing auctions this year?
Why, yes, I am. Check out BlogForBARCC! Auctions go up on Monday, July 20.

And flash fiction?
Not on the spot – but I’m posting fiction and poetry every half hour, yes.

Do I get sponsor goodies?
Probably, but I haven’t sorted out what yet. You get entered into a drawing for Fabulous Prizes, though.

I’m sold! How do I sponsor you?
I’m glad you asked!

Current total: $140.00
Goal: $3,000.00

Blogathon 2009!

What
Blogathon! I post every half hour for 24 hours, to raise money for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

When
July 25-26, 9am-9am EST.

Where
Shadesong.livejournal.com.

Why
Because I believe in doing good.

Why BARCC?
Because BARCC is an amazing organization committed to helping survivors of rape and sexual assault and effecting social change to dismantle rape culture.

I’ve been a survivor speaker for BARCC for two years. I don’t just give my survivor speech – though that’s powerful in itself! The survivor speech is followed by a Q&A which is often the first time people in the audience have felt able to ask questions of a rape survivor. This can be tremendously valuable not just for the audiences of high school or college kids, but for audiences like police, emergency physicians, nurses, first responders – people who see the survivor in those first raw horrible hours and need to know how best to do their jobs, and have questions that can often only be answered by us. The Survivor Speakers Bureau kicks ass. We are fearsomely brave women who eviscerate ourselves so that others can learn, and can help others.

But I also love love love my work in community education and prevention. I love manning a table at street fairs and getting people to talk about a subject that’s so often taboo. I love helping people make their Clothesline Project shirts. I love running workshops on building and maintaining healthy boundaries, and dissecting why high schoolers do and say the things they do, and how *they* can help change our culture. (I love the high school workshops; the kids talk to me with my middle-school height and my Docs and silly t-shirts.)

This is such important work.

You have heard the statistics. Per a Department of Justice survey in 2000, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape at some time in their lives. In Massachusetts alone, 4,418 adolescents and adults are sexually assaulted each year – that’s 12 people each day and one every two hours. BARCC covers the biggest population center of Massachusetts, and its coverage area stretches quite a bit – is why it’s the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center.

So 12 people a day. And if they call a rape crisis center – we’re who they call.

If you call BARCC after a sexual assault, we will have someone meet you at the hospital and stay with you through your exam, through talking to the police. We will give you up to a dozen sessions of in-person counseling, free of charge. We can get you into group therapy. We can talk you through the night. We are deeply, deeply committed to being there for you, and for your loved ones – because this doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and we know it. We have resources for your partner, your roommate, your mom.

We are on the street, helping communities develop their own programs. We’re in your schools. We’re everywhere. We are ~100 fiercely committed volunteers, working with a staff of dozens to change our world.

These programs, dear reader, cost money. BARCC is fortunate in its volunteers! But all of the materials we give out at those street fairs cost money. It costs money to run the office itself. You know this.

We’re doing amazing work. We kick ass.

We need your help.

Why now more than ever?
The state has cut funding across the board, for BARCC and all of the organizations like it. About 30%. *wince* Keep in mind that rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence rates go up dramatically in times of economic crisis. We have less funding to help more people. And it’s not just that those rates go up – it’s that we community education volunteers are damn good at our jobs, and therefore BARCC’s visibility is going up all the time. More people are aware of us, so more people are calling.

What can I do?
I know times are hard for everyone; I know I can’t count on a lot of big donations here. But – maybe think about how much you spend at Starbucks in any given week, or what you’d spend at the movies. And donate that. Because trust me, it all adds up. There are over a thousand of you reading me – what if each of you gave $10?

And yeah, I know that won’t happen. *laugh* But – give what you can. Every dollar counts. Every sponsorship has an impact.

Are you doing auctions this year?
Why, yes, I am. Check out BlogForBARCC! Auctions go up on Monday, July 20.

And flash fiction?
Not on the spot – but I’m posting fiction and poetry every half hour, yes.

Do I get sponsor goodies?
Probably, but I haven’t sorted out what yet. You get entered into a drawing for Fabulous Prizes, though.

I’m sold! How do I sponsor you?
I’m glad you asked!

Current total: $140.00
Goal: $3,000.00

“Fortune”

Oh, this one’s a doozy.

In December 2008, my dear friend SJ Tucker fell drastically ill. S00j is a traveling bard; as such, she din’t have health insurance. Fortunately, she has a bunch of creative and determined friends! We started a community and auctioned stuff we made. But it wasn’t enough.

So Phil Brucato and Sandra Buskirk, anthologists extraordinaire, announced a charity anthology. And invited me, as Phil had loved .

You can read “Fortune” in Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard’s Name. All sales benefit SJ Tucker and go to offset her medical expenses. This book has helped tremendously, but they still need to raise a few thousand dollars to pay off her hospital bill – so please do go buy a copy!

—
Reviews:

TheWrongHands says: “But the really outstanding story of the collection, for me, was Shira Lipkin’s “Fortune”. From the mythic roots in the descent of Inanna to the modern wry word-twisting (I loved “Lie back and think of Vegas” as an encapsulation of half the things that are wrong with that city), she lays down a hard and shining path before you and compels you to walk it. I was caught on every word and drawn in to the character’s journey. Really brilliantly well done; brava.”

Kelley O’Hanlon says: “Inanna’s descent, a fortune told in cards, and the true experience of one soul in Vegas. I found myself in tears over and over again while reading this story. It goes into very dark places, and comes out the other side in hope. I know I’ll be re-reading this story, whenever I need to be reminded that my life is what I choose to keep with me, and who I decide that I intend to be. It’s a gift, paid for in blood, and written in the same.”

Deborah J. Brannon says: “This story hits on several of my favorite storytelling devices: Tarot cards and a mythological retelling (here, the Descent of Inanna). However, for some reason, the magical realism aspects didn’t entirely mesh well with the terrifying, yes, but sadly all too typical narrative of the degradation and dissolution of a woman alone. However, in spite of that one complaint, this is a powerful recasting of the Inanna myth and Lipkin couldn’t have picked a better back-drop than Vegas. Knowing that pieces of this story were autobiographical makes it linger all the more.”

Twelve

This is the rare thing that rose up without a connection to Wind Tunnel Dreams, to jewelry, to masks, to anything but the fact that I am thoroughly steeped in fairy tales. That, and the fact that I am often subject to marauding troops of morbid Girl Scouts.

No, really. My daughter is fourteen, and she and all of her friends are still very active in Girl Scouts. Which is awesome. They’re also a pack of bloodthirsty miniwenches. Which is also awesome.

So, with fairy tales on the brain and the crashthumps of the girls upstairs, it was no stretch to imagine the twelve dancing princesses as maenad-ish vampiresses.

You can read “Twelve” at Cabinet des Fees, where it was published in March 2009.

—
Reviews:

Joshua Gage says: “Twelve’ is a really exciting piece.”

When Her Eyes Open

In September 2008, I did one of my frequent collaborations with Kythryne Aisling of Wyrding Studios. We solicited prompts from our readers… and every weekday, I wrote something and she created a piece of jewelry based on the same prompt. We had lots of fun – Kyth’s a great collaborator, a very gifted artist, and a good friend!

“When her eyes open, the desert turns to glass” was a prompt I’d been saving for late in the month. Kythryne and I both loved it and felt we could do something great with it, but I had no idea *what*. I deliberately wanted to avoid anything about atomic bombs, because I know Ellen Klages covered that brilliantly in “The Green Glass Sea”.

One day, in the shower, I had the mental image that started it all – running, the sensation of running for your life… or someone else’s…

I wrote the poem and sent it to Kythryne; she went into what she called a fugue state as she twisted tektite and glass into a gorgeous swirl of glow-in-the-dark wire to mirror the poem.

When Her Eyes Open

You can read “When Her Eyes Open” at Lone Star Stories, where it was published in February 2009.

(It was only recently pointed out to me how autobiographical this poem is. Overwhelmed Shira is overwhelmed.)

—–
Reviews:

Charles Tan of Bibliophile Stalker says: “”When Her Eyes Open” by Shira Lipkin is a poem with a clear narrative and it’s that aspect that I was drawn to. In so few lines, Lipkin conveys character and dramatic tension. That’s not to say it’s not devoid of other qualities such as apt metaphors and stylized repetition but it’s the previous qualities that makes this my favorite poem.”

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz of The Fix says: “Shira Lipkin’s “When Her Eyes Open” is a poem that tells a story. Lipkin uses language with efficiency to convey the dire straits of her heroine. There are some startlingly beautiful lines here, not the least of which are these last two:

When her eyes open
the desert turns to glass.”

The Angel of Fremont Street

One day, I was folding the clean laundry and listening to music. “I Wish I Was a Girl” by Counting Crows came on, and I was swept away by part of the chorus:

“I wish for all the world that I could say
‘Hey, Elizabeth, you know, I’m doing all right these days…’”

And I thought, you know? I am. And I wish I could tell myself that.

This requires some backtracking.

Fifteen years ago, I was raped. Yes, the rape in “The Angel of Fremont Street” really happened, very much like that. By sheer instinct, I started talking to the rapist, pulling him off his internal script; I made up a whole other life, a whole other person.

Named Elizabeth.

Fast-forward back to know, and hey, Elizabeth, I *am* doing all right these days. I’m happy. I have a great kid, a great husband, wonderful friends. And the girl I was that night… well, I wish I could tell her.

Over the next two years, the story seed there germinated. What if we *do* leave our prior selves behind? Personas, false faces, masks of convenience or of necessity. What if they’re still around? What would they do?

And could they ever know that everything worked out okay?

“The Angel of Fremont Street” came out in a beautiful, painful, cathartic two-day burst when I was meant to be working on something else entirely. It was its time. It was originally called “Hey Elizabeth”, but my editor at ChiZine wanted a different title – and when you sell your very first short story and all they want to change is the title? Fine by me!

You can read “The Angel of Fremont Street” at ChiZine, where it was published in January 2009.

Unruly Harvest

At WisCon 2008, I went to one of Elise Mattheson’s haiku earring parties; she makes dozens of pairs of earrings that can be all yours for the price of a haiku. You go in and pick out your earrings, and she gives them a title. You write a haiku, based on the title or the earrings or both, and read it aloud or have her read it for you. The earrings are then yours. It’s good fun.

I don’t remember the haiku I wrote that night. I’m sure it’s in one of my scattered notebooks! But even as I was writing the haiku, a longer poem was pushing its way out… I had to go upstairs right then and write it out.

Unruly Harvest

The earrings and poem are named “Unruly Harvest”. You can read the poem at Polu Texni, a Magazine of Many Arts; it was published in December 2008.

Wind Tunnel Dreams

Wind Tunnel Dreams was my big interconnected writing project in 2007-2008 – now I’ve packaged it for handy home use!

Seventy thousand words of reader-inspired, community-inspired short stories, flash fiction, and poetry, yours for the quite reasonable price of $15 (plus $2 shipping & handling within the US)!

This book includes every Wind Tunnel Dream ever written, the entirety of a year-plus project. Revisit the fortune-teller and the jewel-queens, Galen the gryphon and the muses at the end of the world, Shayara and Places You Haunt!

Logistically, this is how it’s going to work: I’ll take orders until I have enough money to order the print run (which will be 100, based on my informal polling). I’ll keep you posted as to how much more I need, and what the printing status is once that goal is reached. All profits from this go straight to Elayna’s Explo fun.

Yes, this’ll be available outside the US – I just need to figure out how much it’ll cost to mail. I don’t have an exact weight on it yet. People outside the US can go ahead and order, and I can invoice you via Paypal for the difference in shipping. Sound good?

Cover will be by the amazing Jenny Anckorn, once I figure out what I want on it. Ideas? And I’m trying to think up a good bonus for purchasers. Ideas welcome there, too.

Order today!

Thank you, as always, for your support…

Wool and Silk and Wood

The fall of 2007 was rough. My longstanding comic project, Shayara, had fallen apart – the artist backed out for the last time. I’d been focusing my creative energies so long on Shayara, and I didn’t know what to do.

So I posted asking for writing prompts, and decided to write flash fiction every day in November. 30 shards of story in 30 days; 30 different worlds. Stretching my brain.

Yes, this was madness. I do mad things.

I was flooded with prompts, and with sponsorships (early in this process, my cat got sick and required tests and surgery (he’s fine now). I’d promised to use every sponsored prompt. One of those, from my friend Emily (an avid knitter and fiber freak), was “wool and silk and wood”.

I had no idea what to do with this. But I had to use it! So I let it sit in the back of my head until it was ready, and one day, in the shower, the Grandmother started talking to me.

She was angry and sad and bitter, and she loved fiercely – loved her grandsons, loved her ways. And she was left out of the tales that prizes questing and adventure. She was a quieter wonder.

And she was spilling out of me in… poetry.

Understand, I had not written poetry since I was a teenager. Yes, I have the obligatory folders stuffed with trite teenage angsty poetry. But I have never in my life considered myself a poet. (Says the girl who’s now sold three more poems.)

But this was a poem. Undeniably.

And I looked at it, and I said, “You know? This doesn’t suck.” So I researched poetry markets and thought it’d be a good match for John Klima at Electric Velocipede. I wrote a rambly cover letter that was probably about as long as the poem itself and sent it off. My very first submission.

I was at the airport, stealing a last peek at my e-mail before my flight home for Christmas, when his acceptance came through. “Wow,” he said. Twice. And my daughter saw my face light up and hugged me before she even knew why I was glowing.

Waiting is brutal. But almost a year after I wrote it and he bought it, it appeared in Electric Velocipede #15/16. You can read it here.

——–

Reviews:

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz of The Fix says “Lipkin’s poem stands out with its lyricism and the wonderful way in which we are reminded of the magic of everyday things. I love how Lipkin captures a grandmother’s yearning to keep her grandchild, even as she already accepts her own heartbreak at the grandchild’s obvious choice. Can anything be more speaking than this line? “There is alchemy right here, if only you would see it.””

What, another blog?

Hello and welcome!

I started this blog (separate from the one with more stream-of-consciousness rambling) to have a place to talk about my writing. Specifically because I wanted to do a director’s commentary sort of thing – showing you where things came from, and what sort of journey they had on their way out of my brain.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you like being behind the scenes…