Twisted Sister – WTF are we still doing this for?

Hey folks, it’s Angela, here (aka Ms. Ed Note)

So, WTF are we still doing this whole feminist lit mag for?

Trust me, I ask myself this – a lot. Insiders and regular readers of Twisted Sister know we’ve had some ups and downs, and continue to stumble over bumps in the road –

{cue child interruption and request for drink of water and then immediately commence fighting with spouse over towering stack of dirty dishes}

and we will continue to do so, because that’s life. It also one of the problems writers face, especially writers with children underfoot and –

{cue another interruption as spouse is yelling at / strongly encouraging children to put on their shoes}

— especially women with children, in heteronormative relationships, who still shoulder most of the household and parenting demands (countless studies and articles point to this invisible workload, while, not so-coincidentally studies of divorced women indicate increased happiness following divorce), so for women who have families, and still try to find time to write –

{cue yet another interruption as dog is barking at random people across the street}

— through late nights or early mornings while the rest of the household sleeps, or moments of rare time stolen in barricaded offices or writer’s sheds. And this demand on time, and interruption, is what makes the difficult job of writing even harder. That’s not to say those without children or partners don’t have demands on your time, for, everyone faces their own challenges; but –

{cue another interruption – ominous crash from downstairs… but, no screaming, so –}

— as a feminist lit mag, with a mandate of featuring female writers and strong female characters, we trudge through –

{cue a child’s urgent cry for action, leave laptop and commence search and seizure of ice cream carton from another child’s bed, confiscate spoons, and make note to unblock the toilet later}

— continuous challenges ourselves, to the point where we wonder what it’s all for. And then we step back, and celebrate Pride month, and see how far we’ve come as a society in celebrating diversity and see the power of representation – that once you put yourself out there, others will soon follow as they say, ‘hey, that’s me, too!’

Which is why we started this whole Twisted Sister lit mag – to celebrate female writers of horror and dark fantasy, and feature strong, action-oriented female characters – in short, it’s about representation of ourselves under our own terms.

And when I take my kids to the movies, and bawl my eyes out during the opening scenes of Wonder Woman, and I know what I’m doing this for.

Representation. Seeing myself, through others, in a different light.

Now, I just have to unblock the damned toilet.

XO

Twisted Sister

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Regular readers will notice we’ve gone monthly [baring yet another interruption} and we’re still open for submissions.  What’re we *dying* to get out hot lil’ hands on? Fiction — flash, and full length, poems, essays and rants. Weird and funny and gross or just spooky strange is always appreciated — post-apocalyptic, zombies, werewolves, cops & cons — or all of it together — as long as there’s a feminist bent to it, we’re good.

What do we want RIGHT NOW?

Sexy and twisted is at the top of our list, as is work related to everybody’s favorite day of the year — Halloween 😉 C’mon folks, give us your strange and twisted little thoughts — we want YOU!