felis_ultharus

It's been a quiet few days. I've been holding off printing my novel before I can actually get a copy to one of my three editors -- that way I won't be able to snatch it back in a panic state, deciding it's terrible. I've been making minor adjustments to things I wasn't quite happy with.

I've spent much of the last week doing research for my website. Spent the day at the Archives trying to dig up information on Canada's first victim (in 1891) of the "gross indecency" laws, a man with the astonishing name of Napoléon Lamoureux.

Records from that era, though, are spotty and hard to sort through. I couldn't find any minutes of trials for that time and place, nor subpoenas, and the handwritten notes judges take during the trials didn't include his or any of the other men arrested for the same crime that year.

I only know these men were convicted, because they show up at the St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary and are recorded as having been convicted in Montreal.

In brighter news, one of Canada's best-known gay activists, Brent Hawkes, was awarded the Order of Canada last week. The Order of Canada is the country's highest civilian honour, something like a knighthood in Britain. Hawkes -- an openly-gay Protestant minister -- performed the same-sex wedding that triggered the court case that finally got us same-sex marriage. But he has a gay-activist résumé going back more than thirty years.

I'm really proud to be in a country that gives gay activists honours like that, even if that kind of recognition was a long time coming.

History

I have updated by historical website, although it's just a summary of the section. Really, it's the Cole's-Notes version of half a year of research.

I have to say that researching homosexuality between the fall of New France and Confederation was agonizing -- it's the least-studied period of Canadian history, generally, and I uncovered a lot of info that no one studying this area has looked at.

Social Life

It was a great New Year's -- spent it with montrealais and his boyf at the drag show at Club Mado. New Year's is really the only time of the year I go out clubbing, so I really enjoyed it.

Resolutions

My New Year's resolution is about time management. As I'm only working 20 hours a week, there's a lot more time to write than I've been using, and I think that if I treat my writing as a second job -- with times and schedules rather than just a minimum amount each day -- I'll be better able to use my free time.

Currently, the border between writing-time and play-time is so fuzzy that I feel guilty for relaxing or hanging out with friends or doing other things. If I'm more disciplined with my writing during the day -- treating it like any other job -- I'll be more able to do things like hanging out with friends and going out to clubs, etc.

It's taken me two months, but I was finally able to get the information I needed to make the post on Dr. James Miranda Barry on my LGBT history site.

Not much else to report. I've just been working on a short story this week, and a couple of poems that didn't turn out so well (I'm trying to assemble six pages worth of flawless poetry to send out).

Most of what I've been reading lately related to Barry, though now I'm finally getting around to a book I got last Yule. It's the latest in that series of books -- The Children of Hurin -- that Christopher Tolkien has been pumping out of his father's corpse. I honestly wonder if Christopher is just writing the damn things himself now.

I am doing better today, though I'm going to have to push back the update to my website until next week, because of illness and work and general stress. Plus I've had trouble researching, since all the good books on Dr. James Barry are in McGill's Osler library, and (unlike the Redpath and Maclennan libraries) I don't think non-McGill students have access to them.

Unfortunately, Concordia alumni can't get interlibrary loans.

I probably have enough basic material to work with, but I'd like something to flesh it out, and I'm already unsure of my sources.

Oh well. I think I'm going to stay in and edit today, and I'll figure out what to do with research afterwards.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it.

History

I've posted another entry in my historical blog, this one about the end of the death penalty for homosexuality in Canada in 1869.

I sifted through a lot of 138-year-old political debates to find out how controversial that provision in the criminal-law reform bill of 1869 was. The short answer: it wasn't.

The politicians spent a lot more time arguing whether garotting should be punishable by whipping -- which sounds like a debate from "The Onion in History," or one recalled by Grandpa Simpson.

Politics

Harper prorogued Parliament, meaning he's shut it down for a month. This is the culmination of the tantrum-throwing in the committees, the blanket secrecy Harper demanded from the bureaucracy, the secret trade discussions, the illegal campaign financing, and the refusing the implement the Kyoto requirements voted on as law by parliament.

This means, in practical terms, that a lot of high-profile bills have died on the order paper before they became laws, including the highly flawed and unconstitutional "age of consent" bill.

It also means the Clean Air Act is dead, and hearings into the RCMP pension theft have stopped. Convenient, eh?

It's been awhile, but I now have a new post on my LGBT history site -- it's about the early sodomy trials, though it's mostly about how little we know about them. It'll get a bit more interesting when we hit the Kingston penetentiary next Sunday.

It's been a good week for writing. Either today or tomorrow, I'll be 90% of the way through my massive edit.

Once I hit that 90% mark, I'll be sending a chunk off to node357, because those passages deal with things we both experienced in Esquimalt, and I want his perspective on them. Then I'll rewrite a passage right near the end -- I want to have it re-written before I move to the editing stage.

After about two days of that, I'm looking at about a week or so of remaining edit, then printing, then showing it to others.

I've posted George Herchmer Markland on my other site. Not as well-researched as Alexander Wood, but still an interesting story.

I'll finally be three-fifths through my massive edit today or tomorrow. And I may not have to give up my whole weekend after all, since I'm way ahead on the work I usually have to give up a weekend for.

Another update on my queer history journal. I'm finally done with the context-stuff, and I can move on now to tackle the subject of homosexuality in early English Canada more directly.

The LGBT community day was marvellous. The people who took over after Divers/Cité copped out did it so much better than Divers/Cité that I hope they handle it every year. They're organizing the parade tomorrow, so it'll probably be better than previous years.

Not only was the community day fun, we had a marvellous rain storm in the middle of it. It was pelting. I went out in it. It didn't last long, but it broke the miserable heat of the last few days ^_^

Another update, this one about France's laws. A two-parter about laws.

After those, I'll get to the Loyalists, then finally to actually queer topics in Canada -- Alexander Wood, George Herchmer Markland, and some of the victims of the early laws.

Also, I'm nearly halfway through my massive edit -- I am still working on my novel in all this! I'm also at the end of my first week being pretty much the only person in my department (one on paternity leave, the other on vacation).

Mostly, though, my attention is occupied with the Pötterdamerung. I'm glad it's finally here. I pick up my novel at 9 am tomorrow. There have been so many leaks, I'm afraid to go online for fear some jackass is going to ruin it for me :/

I have updated again, this time about the rise of homophobia in Britain.

I spent yesterday going over some truly ancient documents -- sessional papers of the Canadian parliament dating to 1867, and handwritten criminal accusations dating to the 1790s -- I actually got to hold these in my hands.

I'm looking very much forward to the Harry Potter, though, today. and I'm counting down to the book next Saturday. For the record, all plans are off that weekend ^_^