Wednesday, July 4, 2018

4th of July & An Ominous Writing Realization

I haven't celebrated Independence Day since 2016. I know I'm not alone in that regard because this is the second 4th of July in a row marked by a noticeably dismal quiet. No one of my acquaintance is hosting—or even having—a barbecue. Nobody who lives near me has set off a single firework. For all intents and purposes today feels like any other Wednesday. There is no laughter echoing through the valley, no loud music, no shared bond of hope and nostalgia with friends and strangers alike. Although the phrase has been used so often during 45's farce of an electoral college presidency as to have become something of a cliché, I truly do have to keep reminding myself this is not normal.

No matter where in the country I was living and no matter who the incumbent president was, Independence Day used to be the Christmas of summer—a day we collectively put aside our differences without even realizing we had done so and simply enjoyed each other's company at parades, barbecues, and picnics. Fireworks were a must! The familiar sound of animated crackling and boisterous booms would start at the stroke of midnight and not end until the following one. Then everything changed...

People used to muse aloud that the 4th was merely an excuse to get drunk and set off fireworks, but I don't hear anyone even halfheartedly trying to reassure themselves of that anymore. The sad part is, I think most of us really did believe it was just America's excuse to party hardy. Aside from politicians and other talking heads, few of us consciously equated the holiday with a celebration of freedom. Today, as so many of us continue to lose individual liberties on a daily basis, we finally recognize what we've lost and the freedom the 4th of July once represented. That freedom wasn't perfect and America still hadn't realized her full potential, but she was firmly headed in the direction of progress. With that proverbial rug having been pulled out from beneath us, it's little wonder that summer's Christmas feels like any other day in this dystopian version of our former glory.

As I sat here and reflected on what was versus what is, I couldn't help but see the parallels in my writing. Notwithstanding everything I'd been going through pre-election, I finally realized precisely what it was that had hammered the nail into my erotic muse's coffin. To put a fine point on it, as a woman whose works of adult fiction all revolved around capture fantasies (a PC way of saying rape fantasies,) it grows increasingly difficult to work up the necessary libido to pen more of them. In the pre-45 world, I felt in control of my life, my body, and my future so it was little wonder how alluring capture fantasies were to me. I wrote for similarly situated women who felt empowered enough in real life to enjoy giving up that power for the length of a book or novella. Fantasies are supposed to be in the realm of make-believe and stay there.

In today's America, I can't truthfully say I genuinely believe women will still have the right to vote in five years, much less the right to control our own bodies. Evangelicals and white supremacists have teamed up and turned this country into the fundamentalist Christian version of ISIS-meets-Apartheid. The United States of America is now South Africa at its ugliest inside Saudi Arabia at its most oppressive. Conservative white women may be living in subjugated bliss—at least until the oppression begins affecting them in ways they hadn't anticipated—but the rest of us are living in a twisted nightmare.

I used to dream of semi-retiring so I could move either to Paris' Montmartre district or to the tiny Shakespearean hamlet of Stratford-Upon-Avon. Whichever opportunity presented itself, I dreamt of spending my days typing away on a laptop at an outdoor cafe, writing my books in an atmosphere conducive to creativity. Now? I don't really dream. I'm not situated high enough on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to think beyond immediate survival. I'm very sick, I have no healthcare, and I'm watching the GOP dismantle any hope for better days ahead.

On the rare occasions when I do daydream, my psychological flights of fancy are downright macabre: Civil war. Vengeance. Deporting white supremacists and rabid evangelicals. Watching 45 and his regime stand trial before The Hague. As I said, very macabre.

I know I've changed—and not for the better. But then the same can be said of America.

—Tina/Jaid

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Facebook, Non-Fiction, & Other Announcements

A few announcements...


Facebook

I will be deleting my Facebook account and Facebook author page over the course of the next couple of months. The author page will go first because I have far less on it to download that isn't already backed up. My main account—uggh. That one will take some work! My decision to leave Facebook came after learning (a) I was one of the affected parties Cambridge Analytica took data from and (b) reading multiple press reports concerning Zuckerberg's recent cozying up to conservatives in an attempt to not be held accountable and continue to mine and sell our data. While A pissed me off, B made the situation irredeemable. The GOP isn't going to aid Zuckerberg for free so it's logical to assume Facebook will become yet another propaganda machine for the hard right.


Genocidal Smile

I recently removed my 1st and only nonfiction book from publication. I stand by every assertion I made in it, but I want to rework some sections and then include them as part of a new nonfiction book that encompasses more than I originally focused on. Do I still believe Paul Ryan constitutes a major threat to minorities, the elderly, and the poor? Absolutely. The speaker says he'll never run for public office again, but he will. In my opinion, the only reason he's "retiring" from the house is because he knows he cannot win reelection in the 2018 midterms. So he'll bide his time, hope we forget the atrocities he's committed against our most vulnerable populations, and reinsert himself into political life when he thinks he stands a chance. Paul Ryan has always wanted to be president... he will come back.


Newsletter

Now that I've made the decision to leave Facebook, there will only be 2 surefire ways to get my announcements: sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of the jaidblack.com homepage OR subscribe to this blog for auto-updates. If you want book release information only, I suggest signing up for the newsletter. If you want book and personal updates, I suggest subscribing to both (or this blog at minimum.)


More to come

I'm still working on my adult fiction (erotic) titles, but I'm also going to be releasing R-rated adult comedies. I realize some of you won't necessarily like that—but!!!!—I've got to write the stories that want me to tell them. 

By allowing myself to be pigeonholed into writing "what sells" I've done you and me a disservice because I've accomplished almost nada. After testing the waters in nonfiction and satire, I now know I have an audience for that too. (HUGE relief lol) I don't want to be one of those authors 20 books deep (or more!) into a single series that invariably declines in creativity and originality with each subsequent title. I want to finish the series and serial I've already got looming over me and never, ever put myself in this position again. I've disappointed myself and let you down along the way so... yeah... never again!! 


That's all folks!

Until the next update...

Tina/Jaid xx

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Now Available - The Yuge Wall of Jina: It's Fully Loaded

It's a year past schedule, but the sequel to The Yuge Wall of Jina: It's Bigly is finally out! 😁 The synopsis and purchase links follow below:

I had a life in the Normal States of America— a wonderful, safety-pin-awesome, it just doesn't get better than this kind of existence. As a successful artiste, beloved daughter, and one of New York City's most desirable catches, no woman could have asked for more. ​​And then in the year 2073, he came along... ​​

One moment my life was near perfect and a blink of an eye later I became the prisoner-wife of a Cro-MAGAnon man. Now a freaked out captive held hostage in Trumpgolia, my abductor is demanding entry into my passage. He wants to fertilize my eggs and use my uterus as an unwilling host for the growth of his spawn. My only desire is freedom and my only hope is escape, but in order to secure either of them I must first penetrate... ​​

The Yuge Wall of Jina. ​

And this time, my friends, It's Fully Loaded.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Likely the ONLY nonfiction book I'll ever write

$6.99 eBook

I know my readers are waiting for sequels in 2 of my fiction series, but given the iffy state of my health this is the one book my conscience dictated I finish ASAP. It releases Feb 1st under my birth name so... fait accompli.

For 1.5 years I've been studying this man; what the media (and ourselves) have been describing as "spinelessness" in the Speaker of the House is turning out to be anything but. Paul Ryan's behind-the-scenes actions are cold, methodical, and reveal the darkest of intentions.

It doesn't matter what your political leanings are; if you never read another book I write make it this one. It's bound to offend extremists on both sides of the aisle—namely the alt-right, the evangelical right, and the alt-left—but my longtime readers also know I'm bound to not give a shit ;-O

Genocidal Smile also delves into more of my own personal backstory than I ever planned to reveal, but relating the parallels between what I'm seeing play out today vs what I've already experienced firsthand became unavoidable. (If you read it, you'll understand why.)

The synopsis follows...