Greetings to you, my ornate, gold-filigreed souls of hope, anger, fear, and love.

Before this entry starts:
If you haven't already, please consider following, visiting, signing and donating:
BLACK LIVES MATTER WEBSITE
BLACK LIVES MATTER (TWITTER)
BLACK LIVES MATTER CHICAGO (TWITTER)
Feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start? WAYS YOU CAN HELP.
ARE YOU WHITE AND LOOKING TO BETTER EDUCATE YOURSELF ON RACE? HERE IS A STARTER BOOK LIST. You are not alone, and this is just one* of the most crucial actions you can take in the larger BLM movement: Taking the burden off of Black and Brown people having to explain their own oppression to you. White self-education empowers whites to help educate each other (like that racist uncle), and the actions you start can ripple out to others, continuing to help lift that burden for BIPOC.

*There are many ways whites can help the BLM movement, and many ways to harm it. 

NEXT:
It is Pride Month, and I am in no mood to say "Happy Pride". I am still working on what I wish we as a community could say instead. "Solidarity in Pride", maybe? My gut says "Angry Pride", in keeping with the very first Pride event at Stonewall. Or "Actionable Pride"? Seems toothless. Something that implies active involvement in what is going on, whether directly LGBTQIA+ related or showing up to visibly support and still center BLM.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
I'm in the latest issue of Good Little Girls, an online zine that celebrates women of all races, classes & identities. They've published a poem of mine that addresses chronic pain, ice cubes, and the shame & relief I find in opening up to my support system.
Our adventuring crew over at Shuffle Quest is finding ways to make more episodes (though more sparsely, now) and hopefully bring a little joy to everyone who is still cooped up in quarantine or under shelter-in-place orders. If you haven't checked in with the Shuffle Crew in a while, now's a great time to catch up!

A FEW WORDS ABOUT ART
It is a tough time right now for everyone. The circles I run in--artists, writers & performers of all kinds--are all talking to each other, working through where we fall on the spectrum of creativity in the intersection of COVID, BLM, Pride, and much more. From "I can't create like this, the weight is too heavy" to "this is forcing me to create amazing new things I never would have done otherwise"; all points on this spectrum are valid. If you are a maker or creator of any kind, and you feel overwhelmed by the world, please know your worth is not tied to your productivity. If you are inspired and more creative than ever before, be sure to validate your fellows who feel unable to create. Love them & love yourself <3 

Gwynn

Currently Reading
​Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
​Everything's Trash, But It's Okay by Phoebe Robinson

Happy New Year, you perfect lil french toast triangles!
​
Things to put into your perfect ears:

• If you haven't already, you can listen to the episode I wrote for Our Fair City as part of the Dr. Herbert West Mini-Series.
• You know all of us over at Shuffle Quest are still on our crazy. Our latest arc finds us in the Marvel Universe, where Ruddy finds out he's Wolverine, Phia is on fire--literally--and Omie discovers she's filthy rich and immediately takes everyone for a steak dinner.
• Frasier's parents Marty & Hester solve a dastardly dinner party death in  MURDER AT MARBLEHEAD by Stephen Winchell. We recorded 99% of this script party-style with everyone in one room and it was the most fun, ever. I had an absolute blast playing Hester's mother, Rose Crane.
• Kind friend and excellent writer Bilal Dardai adapted his play REDEEMERS for audiodrama and Our Fair City produced it! You can listen to it here, if you're still in the holiday spirit! It is a devious story of perception, judgement, and having the best of intentions.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Train Jam 2019! I'm going, and I've already been tapped to write for robots! ::incoherent joyful screaming::
• I battled in WRITE CLUB in November and was victorious! I am now 6w/4l! Soon as I clean up the final draft I'll post it over on the Live Lit page :) 
• Um...I fell in love this year. Which feels weird to put under "announcements," but it's pretty great and I feel very loved, and that is hella strange and new for me. So I think what I'm announcing is that I am in new territory and it is fun, happy and a little scary in a good way.

Anyway, that's it for now. Below I've signed off with both what I'm currently reading, and my list of books read in 2018 if you're interested in perusing. Have a wonderful new year, y'all!

Love,
Gwynn

Currently Reading
Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag
Victorian Secrets by Woolf & Baker


BOOKS I READ/ LISTENED TO IN 2018!
​
1984 by George Orwell
After Anatevka by Alexandra Silber (Concert Audio Adaptation)
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Alien: Out of the Shadows by Lebbon & Maggs
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr
An Apple for the Creature (Short Story Collection)
An Introduction to Information Theory Symbols Signals & Noise by Pierce
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Artemis by Andy Weir
Ashes to Ashes by Mel Starr
Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor (Binti #3)
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
Circe by Madeline Miller
Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan
Death is Deaf by Cliff Campbell
Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by JKR
In Falsitas Veritas by Cody Melcher
Kim & Kim vol. 2 by Visaggio & Cabrera
Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
Lost Gods by Brom
MARCH Book One by Lewis, Aydin & Powell
Monstress Vol. 1 by Liu & Takeda
Monstress Vol. 2 by Liu & Takeda
Ms. Marvel vol. 3 by Wilson, Miyazawa & Bondoc
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Paper Girls vol. 2 by Vaughan, Chiang, Wilson & Fletcher
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Parker: Selected Stories by Dorothy Parker
Playing the Whore by Melissa Gira Grant
Rat Queens vol. 3 by Wiebe & Fowler
Rat Queens vol. 4 by Wiebe & Gieni
Rayla 2212 by Ytasha L. Womack
Saga vol. 7 by Vaughan & Staples
Saga vol. 8 by Vaughan & Staples
Shrill by Lindy West
Sister Mine by Nalo Hopkinson
Six Months, Three Days by Charlie Jane Anders
Space Boy by Stephen McCranie
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor
The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta
The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by Ambreen Razia
The Dispatcher by John Scalzi
The Ghost Rebellion by Morris & Ballantine
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir by Jennifer Lewis
The Other America (speech) by Martin Luther King
The Queen: Aretha Franklin by Mikal Gilmore
The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner
The Ruby of Kishmoor by Howard Pyle
The Song of Achilles: A Novel by Madeline Miller
The Stranger's Latchkey by R. Austin Freeman
Three Guesses by David Goodis
Twain's Feast by Andrew Beahrs
You & A Bike & A Road by Eleanor Davis

Greetings, my loves! 

Much, much to update you on, and it's taking a little time to draft up, so please accept this humble placeholder in the mean:

I had a tweet that went viral and I wouldn't wish that experience on ANYONE, EVER. Many people say they want to go viral. I am here to tell you OH GOD NO IT IS A NIGHTMARE. And since my pride would not let me mute the damn thing, it was like drinking from a fire hose. That part I did to myself, I own that.

If you're in Chicago, set aside September 22nd for LitCrawl2018!

Also. I married two people, and it's been about five days and they're still happy, so good job me. I am a minister, by the way.

Also, also: I've updated the Live Lit page with my latest Machete piece. Hooray!

More soon.

-G

Currently Reading
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
An Introduction to Information Theory by John Robinson Pierce
Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner

Stay Busy, Valentines

I've been guest-editing the upcoming spring issue of Good Little Girls since early February, alongside GLG founder & Chief Editor Sonia Chintha. Sonia and I have been friends since high school, and coming back together to co-edit has been an utter delight, I couldn't be happier she asked me. It has also been wonderful reading over submissions and working to understand each writer's voice, their style, and their intended audience, so that my feedback is as accurate & useful as possible. (I always hated when people who didn't understand my work tried to change it to what they thought it *should* be, rather than helping me hone and sharpen what it already was.) This is entirely new for me. I have been an editor who selects from finished works; a writers' room member who both writes and co-edits along with all the other writers; and a hired reader/editor for full-length novels. But now I get to add to that: feedback editor for short essay and first person non-fic. So nice I'll say it twice: adding this new tool to my belt has been an utter delight.

UPDATES
I've finally updated my LIVE LIT and WRITINGS pages with additional works from the past couple years, including both WRITE CLUB and Paper Machete. Those who are too far away to attend shows have been patient but persistent about me updating, thanks for all the elbowing ;)

Hope March is treating y'all well. More soon!

-G

Currently Reading:
Same books as last post. Look, if you haven't already caught on, I'm a ril slow reader.

Happy mid-March, my lovely cinnamon sticks.

NEWS!
The Our Fair City script I wrote for their upcoming West Miniseries was cast and recorded in February. Not sure when the series drops, but oh my goodness can I not wait to hear what audio magic they've wrought! Keep your eyes peeled on their site and their twitter!

Shuffle Quest drops the finale of its third arc this week! We've got TWO one-shot recordings coming up soon, and we'll be diving back into the studio to record new arcs in April. It cannot be overstated how much fun recording with this goofy team is. SQ is on twitter and Discord if you like what we do and want to chat about it.

PleasureTown Season four has been cast and we're on to recording & cutting audio. Listening to our voice actors absolutely kill it with these scripts is such a joy. Keep an eye out for announcements in the coming months.

Speaking of all this great art-creating stuff, here's a really excellent post-mort about writing and editing that my game dev friend Tim pointed me to. The post by game dev writer Laura Michet reflects on the narrative-heaviness of a game (Where the Water Tastes Like Wine--which OMG looks incredible), and how she navigated both the writing & editing process when the project involved twenty-four writers. Anyone who has worked on audio drama, or any kind of collaborative work will bug their eyes out at that number. That's a lot of contributors for a project that needs to feel both seamless in flow and have stories with individual flavor. Michet's review of the work is valuable across the board in all kinds of art-making disciplines, but especially in collaborative writing, so I highly recommend taking a look.

In other news, if you're in Illinois, VOTE THIS TUESDAY! Also, regardless of your location, keep calling your members of congress, keep calling congressional committees and your local representatives. Be loud, be persistent, take no shit, and be good to yourselves. Use 5calls.org if you need numbers and scripts.

xo,
G

Currently Reading
An Apple for the Creature by editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner
Playing the Whore by Melissa Gira Grant
Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner

*Honorable Mention: I just finished the second trade of Monstress which is glorious, with jaw-dropping art and one hell of a story. By  Marjorie M. Liu (Author), Sana Takeda (Artist)

Greetings on this day of Chicago's first real snowfall, my darling bundles of love!

The great thing about posting so rarely is that there isn't a great thing about it. I should be posting more often.

UPCOMING SHOWS & NEWS
December 19th I return to WRITE CLUB to defend my champion titles and battle none other than fellow UMD alum, admirable dude, and good friend of 15+ years, Kurt Chiang, Artistic Director of the Neo-Futurists. The bouts are:
Ann Sonneville (MAGIC) vs. Karin McKie (SCIENCE)
Gwynn Fulcher (ETERNAL) vs. Kurt Chiang (TEMPORARY)
David Isaacson (MYTH) vs. Janna Sobel (HISTORY)
This show routinely sells out, so it is worth it to get your tix in advance.

Shuffle Quest just finished it's second arc and will be dropping a holiday special later this month. Catch up with Omie, Terok & Ruddy (and fan favorite side-kick Goblin Joe) before we embark on arc #3 in January, which is a dooooozy that will either gain us a lot of niche followers or lose us some, ART & COMEDY ARE BOTH ABOUT TAKING RISKS, RIGHT? SQ is also on Discord if you like what we do and want to chat about it.

PleasureTown Season 4's scripts are complete and casting is in full swing. We cannot wait for you to meet & fall in love with this season's characters as much as we in the Writers' Room have.

That Tomefoolery episode I alluded to last entry is out, and you can find it here. It was torture reading that godawful book, but enormously fun to record this episode with Cody, Tom & Joe.

In other news, keep calling your members of congress, keep calling congressional committees and your local representatives. Be loud, be persistent, take no shit, and be good to yourselves. Use 5calls.org if you need numbers and scripts.

xo,
G

Currently Reading
The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (second reading of the series <3)
Dune by Frank Herbert (to many friends' disappointment, I think it's just ok. I like the beautifully strange movie much better.)
Afrofuturism by Ytasha L. Womack (a great source of essays about the history of the genre, been reading it on & off)
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin (also been reading this one on & off, it's a dense read, but good!)

Hello my sweet treasure chests!! Shame on me for being absent so long.

You know that thing where you say yesssss to like, too many things? But you want to do all of them, so you stick with it??
I DID THAT AND HELLO HUMBLE PIE WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME I SLEPT?
So, my absence was mostly due to time constraints. But I'm here now, and that's what counts.

WHAT ARE THESE MANY PROJECTS? LET ME IMPART TO YOU THE HAPS:

SHUFFLE QUEST: Oh, my best beloveds. Oh my doves. This goofy podcast is live and the first four episodes are available for your perfectly-shaped ears! Join me, Joe Anderson, Cody Melcher, and GM Tom Harrison as we play a band of D&D characters, tossed from their home world into other pop culture RPGs, in an effort to save the multiverse! Everything that happens to them from world to world remains cannon! The first quest arc finds our adventurers dumped into the Men in Black world, where they make all kinds of hilariously awful decisions with idiotically fun consequences! (Rate/Review us on iTunes!) (Listen on Libsyn!) (Like our FB Page!) (Follow us on Twitter!)

PLEASURETOWN: SEASON 4 Is almost completely written. We in the Writers' Room have been working feverishly to refine, finalize and set our scripts in stone so we can begin casting in earnest. We have a huge cast this season, so it's going to be a doozy, but also beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking--the usual PT fare, but dialed up an extra notch ;) Keep an eye out towards the end of autumn, we'll be dropping the entire season in one go!

FUNNY PAPERS: Friends Stephen Winchell & Benjamin Vigeant have co-written a delightfully funny & campy play in which I get to play the villain! Opening this autumn, Funny Papers is the story of a determined lady journalist who beats the odds with the help of her know-how, her silly crew and a few g-g-g-g-ghosts!!

TOMEFOOLERY: That's right, I'm guesting on a new ep of Tomefoolery, set to drop on/around September 1st! In fact, Cody is hosting the entire Shuffle Quest cast! Me, Joe & Tom will join Cody in discussing the festering open wound that is Plunder of Gor, a book that no one should ever read willingly!

It feels good to be posting again my darlings. I hope your summer is sparkling and nicely scented.

-G

P.S. That Steppenwolf thing? I won.

Currently Reading
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
Plunder of Gor by John Norman (terrible book, do not read this, cannot stress enough that no living being should attempt to consume this horrible piece of "literature")

Oh hello there.

NEWS:

In twelve days I'll be performing at Steppenwolf for a special WRITE CLUB showdown on FRIDAY, MARCH 24TH ONLY. (There are three nights of performances, but the line-up is different for each show.)
--> Buy tickets here.

On April 8th I'll be returning to The Paper Machete. Consistently (for me) the toughest show to write for, the Machete is a weekly live news & pop culture show that takes satirical aim at all the things we hold dear. With a different line-up every Saturday, the Machete is at the historic Green Mill cocktail lounge, 3pm, free. As always, get there early, the place fills up to standing room only every single week.

Yesterday I wrapped a new episode of Tomefoolery with Host Cody Melcher and co-guest Charlie Baker. We dove into YOLO Juliet, an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet told via text messages & emoji. The book is as "good" as it sounds, which is why I won't even link to it here. I believe the episode drops this week, but if you're curious about Tomefoolery in general, you can check out previous episodes I guested on by heading over to iTunes, or any other podcast platform. Warnings for foul language and seriously heinous books that should never have been written, let alone read by human eyes. We read them so you don't have to.

In Other News:
​Somewhere in mid-January I started calling my senators and my congressman. I was a ball of nerves and each time I got the voicemail instead of a person I was relieved af and stuttered through my messages. I'd post about who I called and which issues I called about on fb to show that it's not THAT scary. On Feb. 3rd, I started hashtagging my daily call posts with #phoneactivistlunch, because I figured if a nervous dummy like me could do this, then maybe I can help embolden others to do it, too. I found a site that provided names, phone numbers and scripts for the issues I cared about. I saved my representatives' numbers in my phone--for ALL of their offices, not just DC--and began getting bold enough to try each office until I got a person, or unitl I could leave a message, since often the DC offices' vm is full. It's been almost two months of Monday-Friday phone activism, and surprisingly it flew by. I don't use the scripts as much, and I've started calling the numbers without exactly planning what I need to say, but knowing what I feel strongly about. I've added the Mayor's office to my contacts now, and started calling the Dept. of Homeland Security, and House Committees. It's all baby steps, and by no means am I under the delusion that I'm making huge waves of difference on my own. But I'm so glad that I'm not doing nothing, because depression over the state of this country, and over the treatment of its people by those in power would eat me alive if I just sat through it.

If you can call, do it. Make it as habitual as breathing. I like to call around 8:30am my time, when the DC offices have just opened and the staffers are still free to answer phones, I get more live people that way. I know technically that's #phoneactivistbreakfast, but it's too late to change the hashtag ;) I use 5calls.org if you're looking for scripts & numbers. 

Thanks for all the support, friends.

-G

Currently Reading
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (Yes, still reading, because it is so important and there is so much to take in.)
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
(Honorable mention because I love it so: Recently read Binti:HOME, the second installment in Nnedi Okorafor's Binti novella series. Slim, delightfully complex characters, and scifi told beautifully.)

GREETINGS MY DOVES

I just got a (very rare) manicure in preparation for NYE festivities, so naturally my first action is to commence destrying it by typing up a post. Good on me.

Ril quick: Here's what's cooking in early 2017
The First Time: First Issue is Wednesday, Jan. 11th at 8pm. We're all telling stories about our first issue with something, and we get to pair it with a song to be played by an awesome house band. So you get real stories AND a home-made playlist. It's an awesome show!

The Skewer 15: Chaos Reigns is on Wednesday Feb. 1st at 8pm. I return once again with a new rant that will be relevant to the goings on in January 2017. Come for the comic rage, stay for the communal keening.

How 'bout this December, y'all? Geez. Between the latest spate of celebrity deaths and personally witnessing rad artists pull together to turn a shock into a new beginning, holy hell this month was all over the map.

While we're on the subject, if you clicked thru to the links above, you saw the story of the Neos, what the flagship group in Chicago experienced, and how the NY and SanFran chapters stepped up in solidarity. If you know the Neos, enjoy their work and want to help, the best things you can do to support these ensembles are: 
A) make plans with friends to go see the new late night shows in 2017
B) If you don't live near where they're performing, tell your friends who are so they can check it out, and
C) If you're so inclined, skip a morning coffee or two and give to the fundraiser we're running here. Chicago Neos, Board and Artistic Associates (I'm both of those last two) each have their own page with their own personal goal, which feed into one big fundraiser, and you can help me reach my goal if you click on that link to give <3

Okidoke. On to the updates!

In December I guested once again on You Don't Understand, and over at PleasureTown we wrapped our third season. Woot!

You Don't Understand: On this episode, Tom sits me and co-guest Cody Melcher down to a game of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. This was an extremely fun, and also nerve-wracking and anxiety riddled evening. Highly recommend, though be prepared to lose friends if you're really committed to the game, oh my god so good.

PleasureTown: Season 3 has now been released in its entirety and you can take a listen here. This season happened to feature one of my best friends whom I've known since my University of Maryland days: actress and filmmaker Eve Rounds--her project, 22 Shots, is mentioned over on the LINKS! page.

That's it for me and I guess that's it for 2016 posts!

Look. This year has been a bit shit, in the general sense. Be strong. Have each other's backs.

Love,
Gwynn

Currently Reading
The Shadowed Sun by N. K. Jemisin
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

​Yesterday it was 65 degrees out. This morning I woke up to ice-rain. Dammit, Chicago.

Hey Lovelies!

I'm performing next Saturday, come on out if you're in town! Details and updates below:

Paper Machete - Come hang at the Green Mill this coming Saturday, November 26th (Thanksgiving weekend, which is a particularly fun and rowdy crowd). We'll touch on all the news and current events through some much-needed satire, humor and live music.

PleasureTown - We are in the final stretch of season 3. If you've been along for the ride with me and the rest of the PT crew, you've no doubt figured out how much we have fallen in love with many of our characters, but one in particular. Erin Kahoa and I took on co-writing the penultimate episode, but his genius engineering tied the whole thing together to create one hell of a heartbreaker. We also get to use the super-cool recording toy I've mentioned before, so when you listen, use your headphones to get the full effect, it's like VR for your ears.

You Don't Understand - We did it. Well, Tom did it. He saw 1983 fantasy film KRULL for the first time. Joe and I basically watched Tom watch Krull and it was just as good if not better doing that. Take a listen to the episode wherein we review the film: Ril fun times!

TOMEFOOLERY - Oof. Y'all I've talked about Tomefoolery before, but if you're not familiar it is one hell of a podcast. Stand-up comedian, historiophile and benevolent host Cody Melcher selects and challenges his guests to read an unsavory or morally/ethically difficult book prior to coming in for recording, and then we do an episode discussing said horrible book. I've done his podcast a total of three times now, and the latest episode was a doozy because it was the Sunday after the election and, well, we all had a lot to get off our chests. The fab Jen Ellison and I co-guested, you can listen to the episode HERE. I feel like historiophile might not be a word.

In October I got a dose of precious non-city time with some family in the Shenandoahs. The photo above was taken our first day there, at our favorite haunt, Blackrock. I remember crawling all over it decades ago with my siblings. Now I got to watch my nephews do the same, shedding their too-cool teenage attitudes to explore all up and down the trails, scale rockfaces and wear themselves out. You can't go home again, but you sure as hell can visit and make new memories. And Jesus, they're just as good.

Sharon Jones passed away yesterday. I managed to not get swept up in the emotional tidal wave of this year's losses in the music world, but this one hurts. Sharon Jones was incredible and she'll be missed.

Be good to each other.

Currently Reading
The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire