Kenn Ghannon: Blog

In the United States, we celebrate 'President's Day' today. For me, it is an extra day off - a long weekend.

On a whim, my wife and I decided to do something inappropriately extravagant and dash off to hide for the weekend. It wasn't planned. It was more of a 'You wanna?' 'I wanna' discussion on Friday.

In my haste to run away and hide before our kids could insert themselves into our plans, I didn't even think about needing to prep and submit a new chapter on Friday for publishing on Saturday. Thus, the reason this week's chapter is late.

I've submitted it just now and I'm sure it will be published shortly. Apologies for the delay.

After consideration, I'm going to change the way I list future crowd-source changes. Instead of including a summary of the change at the end of the chapter as well as the name of the person making the change, I'm just going to list the names of people who've contributed.

As it is, I have to make the change in two places - the upload copy and then again in the master copy. I then have to copy it one last time to the end of the upload copy in the 'Editing Credits' section and affix the name of the crowd-source editor. It might be laziness, but it takes quite a bit of time - time I'd rather be writing.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

I hope that you and yours have a safe and happy new year. Let's hope 2022 brings us the relief we prayed for in 2021.

Some of you might have noticed I put a New Year present in your stocking (unless you or your significant other, like mine, decided to take down the stockings the day after Christmas, in which case the analogy just doesn't work) - I've started posting Tome 2 of 'Runesward'. I'm doing this against my better judgement and going back on a promise I've made to myself several times - not to begin posting a story until it was complete.

Tome 2 is NOT completely written. It is, however, in a good place and I feel that I have sufficient time in coming months to finish it off. For this reason, I feel that I am going to post it one chapter per week - at least for now. I may re-think this in the future but for now, you should receive a fresh chapter every Saturday.

I acknowledge this is slow - and I'm truly sorry. However, like all authors, you can read faster than I can write (a fact I constantly lament as I finished 'A Better Man, Book 2' by G. Younger - available for sale on his web-site - in a single day and now have to wait possibly several months for the next installment... we really need to come up with a device that can read an author's mind and just write the book directly from the author's head...). Plus, my process has me going back over my writing a month or so later to 'tidy up' what I've written so that it seems to make sense to me.

You'll notice that Chapter 30 was edited by Robberhands. He did initial editing on many of these early chapters but then, as Covid raged, I lost track of him. It's been two years or more since I've heard from him. I like to think that he's out, traveling the world, enjoying himself.

I hope you enjoy the second book of Yren's adventure.

Before the mobs line up to lynch me, let me explain:

The problem lies not with the people but with the language. English, by its nature and heritage, is imprecise. We have too many words with the same or similar definitions and too many words that can encompass more than one definition. In this case, the problem lies with the word 'sex'.

'Sex' can be a noun and a verb - and therein lies the problem. If we can limit 'sex' to be a noun only, we get rid of such problematic words as 'transsexual' (where transgender probably originated), 'homosexual', 'asexual' and so on. Besides, we already have suitable replacement terms for the verb 'sex' (such as 'fuck, 'making love', etc.).

'Sex' - the noun - refers to a scientific, biological state defined by the 23rd chromosomal pair. A person's sex is either 'female' (having the 'XX' chromosomal pair) or 'male' (having the 'XY' chromosomal pair). The only ambiguity could arise from chromosomal mutation where the 23rd chromosomal pair is actually a triad ('XXX' or, more often, 'XXY') and such chromosomal mutation usually brings severe health issues. This even clears up hermaphroditism because most, if not all, hermaphrodites are still either 'XX' or 'XY', their genitalia being due to a genetic sequence.

Limiting 'sex' to being a noun only, it opens up a much more robust definition of 'gender' as a state of being (or sociological engagement). 'Gender', therefore, is a psychological construct (though 'construct' has troubling connotations, it's still proper here). Gender is the identity constructed by the brain - itself a genetic construct - through Nature as well as Nurture and has nothing to do with sex. If anything, since 'gender' is a function of genes influenced by experience rather than chromosomes, it is much more precise than 'sex' anyway. People are not 'asexual' (they can't be; everyone has a sex), they're agenderal ('a-' as a prefix meaning 'not' and thus agender/agenderal meaning someone who doesn't have a specific gender). People are not 'homosexual', they're homogenderal (which, honestly, doesn't make sense but is being used to build a point).

'Gender' is a construct but it is not, in most cases, actively constructed. It is no less real or immutable than sex, it's just built from a different, more precise DNA quanta and honed by life's experiences. This is not to say someone can't 'decide' to be a particular 'gender'. Since gender is much more fluid, it is inevitable humans will 'decide' to use a mask of a particular gender to facilitate their own agenda; potentially reprehensible, but it is going to happen. It happens with 'sex' it will (and likely does) happen with 'gender'.

More reprehensible is the fact some people will push a person who is not sure of their gender into being something they're not - the 'experiences' part of the Nature/Nurture equation. To identify 'gender' requires maturity. We should not require a child to identify as a 'gender' until they're mature enough to understand what they feel and think. That is not to say a child will not know their gender intrinsically, just that a child is confused enough about the world to add such pressure as having to define how they think or feel on their plate. Some will know from the moment they're born what their gender is - and that's fine - but let them gain some experience before they're forced to define it.

This brings us to 'transgender'. We are doing a monumental disservice by describing someone as 'transgender' because it implies they changed or have some control over their gender - their gender was 'a' (it is necessary to eliminate the stigma of calling a gender anything 'male or 'female' based) and now it is 'b'. If 'gender' is a psychological construct developed by (or imprinted onto) the brain genetically and guided by experience, then intimating they somehow changed their gender or 'crossed' their gender is denigrating their identity. The 'Kinsey scale' doesn't pertain to sex, it pertains to gender (and is much too narrow in scope to provide much relevance here).

Can gender change over time? It is certainly possible. In most cases where we use the term 'transgender', though, it hasn't. It just means we have not separated the noun 'sex' from 'gender' properly. 'Sex' (the noun) is physiological and immutably defined by the 23rd chromosomal pair. 'Gender' is a person's identity and is defined by their genes and honed by their experience.

Throughout my professional career, I've had one goal. It's what my degree is in, it's what I intended to move towards in the company in which I've worked for the past 20 years, and it's what my professional training has all been targeting. I thought I was well-prepared so when a promotion opportunity opened at my company in the field I always wanted, I jumped into it with both feet.

To mis-quite Blizzard Entertainment: I was not prepared.

The Wuhan Flu is partially to blame because it has made everything more difficult but, honestly, I had bitten off more than I could chew. It sapped my will and my creativity. I've not written more than a few pages in months.

I've not opened SOL except to briefly read a few stories. I've not checked my email except in passing (though I had a bit more than a few waiting for my attention). I came to the point where I didn't want to write - I just wanted to read to lose myself in the story for a time. My Kindle has gotten a LOT of use in the past 1/2 year. When I finished with work, I just wanted to sit in my comfortable recliner, kick back and read or watch mindless, mind-numbing television.

When I did get the urge to write, I tended to go back to the things I've already written and try to make them better. I'm never happy with the words my fingers type out. I never think it's good enough to make it out to others. I'm still amazed anyone read, much less liked, Runesward - Tome 1, Pretty CAPable and Fairly CAPable.

I'm glad some of you did. I'm just amazed at it. I see so many flaws...

I'm sorry to those of you who've been waiting for the adventures of Yren or Calix to continue. I'm slowly getting to the point where I can go back and pick up where I left off 1/2 a year ago or so. I'm going to try to make a concerted effort to write SOMETHING every day - but we'll see how far that goes...

Thank you for reading,
Kenn Ghannon