An Introduction

Name: Jennie Kermode

e-mail: jennie@innocent.com

Age: thirty four

Residence IRL: The west end of Glasgow, in Scotland; the whole top floor of a beautiful old Victorian townhouse known as the House of Kadath, battered by the years but still tall and magnificent. I can't stand little short houses with ceilings under twelve feet high. They make me claustrophobic.

Residence online: I don't participate in IRC or other such dubious practices, and the only newsgroup which I currently have time to contribute to on a regular basis is alt.gothic, though I am also known on uk.people.gothic, and uk.gay-lesbian-bi, which I visit when possible. I am an occasional reader of rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science, uk.people.polyamorous, alt.support.intergendered and rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc; and in the past I have been found in alt.horror.cthulhu, soc.bi, and uk.people.bdsm, but none of those really work for me any more.

Next Party: On the 24th I'll be holding a Eurovision party, for the famous song contect. Everybody attending has to represent a country and bring appropriate food and drink, plus their own musical composition. I haven't decided what I'm going to be yet. Of course everybody really wants to be Finland but they won't admit it, so maybe I'll just go for that. I'm sure it'll be a disco sensation regardless.

Occupation: I'm a writer, researcher and editor, taking on assorted contract work. If you're interested in this, you can find out more here. I have a novel, The Orpheus Industry, which came out in late 2004 as a Double Dragon ebook, with a print version available from Lulu. I'm content director at Eye For Film, the UK's biggest online film magazine. I write articles for newspapers, magazines and web publications, directly and via agencies. One of my short stories, All that Glitters, is currently being filmed in Los Angeles, and in summer 2004 I wrote and co-directed a short zombie movie, Dead End Job. On a volunteer basis, I do proof reading work for Project Gutenberg. I also write, edit and do promotional work for a number of small businesses and campaigning organisations. I previously ran a clothing company, Incarnadine Ltd., but was unable to keep up with it as my disability caused me too many problems with the physical work involved; I prefer to concentrate on work I can do well.

I was unable to work full time or away from home for most of the last decade, since I was busy taking care of my partner, Donald, who suffered from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Fortunately, he has been doing much better since his bone marrow transplant four years ago, so our long term prospects have improved. He is now trying to get himself into a position where he can re-enter the world of work. Now all I have to deal with are the limitations placed on me by my own illness and consequent disability.

Qualifications: I have a Master's degree (with honours) in English, from the University of Glasgow, which included modules in Scottish Literature, Philosophy and Russian; also, A-levels in English Literature, Biology, Government and Politics and General Studies (an amusing little quiz); and GCSEs in English Language, English Literature, German, Spanish, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology and History. I really wanted to be a biologist (specifically, neuropsychology or aquatic invertebrate studies) when I was younger, but was told I could never get on the course without good qualifications in Chemistry, only to discover later that there were people on the course who didn't even have qualifications in Biology! I hope to go back to university if finances and Donald's health ever permit. I'm interested in doing a distance learning course in Biology, but this would depend on me feeling able to tolerate being an undergraduate again in a system which is increasingly dumbed down... In the past, I've also done courses in small business management and in video film-making and editing.

Social life: I know that some people end up cut off from the world without formal work, but that's not in my nature, and I've always been very busy socially, with lots of different interests. I am a Fellow of the Society of Io, my former university's science fiction and fantasy society, which shows films and stages various events: games, quizzes, that kind of thing. It's always been a good thing for me; I've met a lot of good friends there, and I try to return the favour by giving it all the support I can, especially in regard to nurturing the young writers it attracts.

I'm always busy on the local goth scene, the fourth biggest in the UK outside of London. I go to regular goth club nights Bedlam, Amatis and Elysium, and occasionally attend local fetish club Violate, which has a lot of goths in attendance as well as catering to certain of my other interests. I go to gigs from time to time, and keep in touch with people via parties and email.

I occasionally go over to Edinburgh for clubs, gigs and parties along the same lines. I enjoy the (second incarnation of the) Mission there, an excellent maze of a place with music I can dance to on all three floors, a comfortable queer-friendly atmosphere and a surprising number of rather cute regulars. I love dancing at clubs and I love the design work that goes into trying to come up with new clothing and a new look every time. I like the creative process involved, even when it's hard work. I can get higher on adrenaline when dancing than on any drug, and the rush from pushing my muscles to the point of exhaustion can be better than sex.

Twice a year I go to the Whitby Gothic Weekend, which is the biggest social event on the UK goth calendar, and a good chance for me to catch up with friends (including some from overseas) whom I would rarely see otherwise. It's a lot of fun, and it also provides a much needed holiday; I always like going to the sea. If you want to read more about my adventures there, check out my Whitby review page.

I used to perform with local Rocky Horror cast Dr. Scott's Extra Forks, but I've had to give that up now, because I just don't have the time or energy anymore. I've always loved film, and I go to the cinema whenever I have the time and there's something tolerable showing. I'm lucky in that I have been able to get an unlimited access pass for my local Cineworld, and also Glasgow has some good independent cinemas for the more unusual stuff. On days when none of this stuff is going on, I like to go out to dinner with friends or play games like chess and scrabble.

I'm fairly active in gay politics and related issues, though not much on the scene as it were, because dance clubs have never appealed to me. I take part in various campaigns and I go to the Pride Scotland march once a year (or, at least, I shall continue to do so provided that it doesn't go all Mardi Gras on me again). I've been to a few BiCons, where I sometimes lecture or run workshops, and I do a lot of writing on related subjects. This year I shall be helping the Equality Network to promote Intersex Awareness Day for the first time in Scotland.

I regularly go to parties, which make a good accompaniment to clubs and cinema trips and other such social activities, providing more opportunities for conversation, catching up with friends and getting to know new people. I find them physically less arduous than most social events, so tend to have a lot more fun.

I like reading, and enjoy most things which make me think and inspire my imagination. I never believed in limiting my education to formal academia, so I read a lot of non-fiction, especially historical and scientific works. I enjoy a lot of visual art, and I draw and paint, though I know I'm lacking in a number of technical skills which I would like to learn sometime to improve my work. I used to have a big mural of Yggdrassil, the Norse world tree, which I painted in oils in my old living room. I love working with strong colours. I also like designing, and making and altering clothes. When I can afford it I love to go round the specialist secondhand shops to buy interesting new garments, or attractive materials which I can use to make my own things, or just to get ideas. I like to visit museums and art galleries (another area in which Glasgow is rich). I like to sit in coffee houses sometimes and watch the world go by. Other times I'll just wander off into the park, and spend hours under the green trees, close by the river where the dark water swells like a promised grave; it's peaceful there, where life is moving at a different pace.

Relationship status: I have two partners, both of whom I am deeply committed to and hope to be with for many years to come. I've been living with Donald for fifteen years now. He's thirty four, and is in the process of trying to get his life back together after a decade struggling with leukaemia. We've been through a lot together, and it has been hard, but he has also been a great source of strength to me, undoubtedly one of the best things ever to happen in my life. He's intelligent and steadfast, inventive and remarkably good at games of all kinds; fierce enough to stand up to me, patient enough to put up with me. He doesn't have a webpage, but he's finally created an online presence for himself with this livejournal. My other partner is Stuart, who posts to alt.gothic, and a few other places, as Potato Junkie. He and I have been together for four years, and we intend it to be permanent. He's twenty five, a web designer, photographer and music reviewer. Apart from being absurdly pretty, he's smarter than he pretends to be, has a well developed sense of fun, and knows a lot about bees. I feel unnaturally lucky to have two such wonderful people in my life.

I'm not looking for any other relationships at the moment; if things stay as good as they are, I doubt I ever will be. Presently I'm not really noticing other people anyway. Flirting can still be fun, but if I meet somebody else I'm seriously attracted to, I'm likely to have that person promptly shot in order to avoid the disruption.

Sexuality: I'm bisexual (though very picky, and generally only attracted to other goths); polyamorous (though I have been in monogamous relationships; and I refuse to get involved in cheating on anybody - my relationships are based on honesty); and I tend to prefer sadomasochistic to vanilla relationships (I switch, depending on my mood and the other person). I'm also intersexed, though not externally so obviously that every sexual partner has noticed, but this has obviously influenced the sort of people with whom I have found myself in serious relationships, as has my illness, since a lot of folk don't like that kind of 'baggage' or may find its manifestations disturbing. I've enjoyed the occasional one night stand (provided I knew where I stood), but prefer to have at least the possibility of commitment. These days, though, I'm really not looking for anything else.

Friends: When I meet people whom I happen to click with, I form close friendships very easily, though I'm often too busy to keep up with them to the extent that I'd like to. I'm very loyal to my friends, and even when I'm failing to keep up with correspondence I'll go to great lengths to help them out of trouble. I have been burned plenty in the past, however, by people taking advantage of that sort of thing, mostly because I was always someone who would step aside quietly and accept my losses. These days I'm more ruthless, which intimidates a lot of would-be friends, but keeps me out of trouble. It's a trade-off I can live with. There are maybe thirty people whom I hang out with on a frequent basis here in Glasgow; most of my friends are scattered throughout the UK, Europe, and the wider world, so that I see them only occasionally, usually keeping in touch online.

Some of my friends have gone to the trouble of creating interesting webpages of their own, so, if you're curious about that sort of thing, you might want to pay a visit to Weeble, Raj, Joy, Stevie or Paul.

I also have seven excellent fish: a little ghost carp, Iridium; a silver carp, Sufiya, and a red one, Octavia; a shubunkin, Echelon; two weather loaches: Rorschach and Uroboros; and a new shubunkin, yet to be named

Religion: None. I have friends of many different creeds, but remain to be convinced of the 'reality' of any anthropomorphised deity. To the extent that I could call anything 'God', it would be an omnipresent God made up of everything and, most significantly, the patterns behind everything; God as the universe or its fundamental constants, not loving, not even self-aware, but infinitely beautiful nonetheless. I feel no need for religion because I am confident in my faith. Mahatma Gandhi once said that he used to think God was truth until one day he understood that truth is God.