Amazing Creators: Jem Zero!

I am pleased to say that this is the very first edition of my Amazing Creators segment that I will have up roughly once or twice a month. Short fictions and updates will be sprinkled in between. For the first interview I bring you the lovely and talented, Jem Zero. Ze is both a writer and artist much like myself. I found it really cool that we have even more than that in common being that we both fight disability to survive and forge forward in life. Jem has an active twitter and website (note the highlights as links). I had a few questions for zir and lets get to them.



1. Tell us about how you became a writer and artist. Age and ideals. Influences. That sort of stuff. I have been writing since I was the tiniest kid; I first learned to use a keyboard around 6. It was in my blood. I was a better writer than I was an artist for a long, long time. My art still isn’t really that good (in my opinion) though I do make a decent living from it. When I was in middle school I was angry at not being better at drawing, so I started lying about having been better in the past, which made no sense. I was really easily embarrassed as a kid, is all I can say.

2. Tell (what you can) about your current success about to be published? What do people get to know. The story is a romance that takes place in Canada and is about religion, growing up, and polyamory. This was actually my first novel after years of failures, aborted attempts, and focusing on a lot of fanfiction because I was too scared of my own ideas. It’s a double success since the first novel I ever finished is getting published.

(The story sounds really interesting. Be sure to watch Jem's twitter feed for updates on release)

3. Since you're an artist, will you be doing the cover? No, the press has their own artists. My style isn’t really what I’d want for the cover, anyway.

4. Galaxy Zento is big on disability and equal rights support. As I understand, you are an activist as well. What can you tell us about that? I’d like to get more involved in disability activism. At the moment, my main involvement is mostly on a local trans health board. I also write about accessibility and LGBTQ+ rights in my articles. I plan on reaching out to the Governor of my state about the ableism in some new healthcare legislation, so we’ll see how that goes. Other than that, I’ve done petitions, crowdfunding, and emails/phone calls to legislators where necessary.

5. Where do you hope to be in 5 years? I really hope to be in a position where my disability isn’t constantly putting roadblocks in front of me. I don’t wish to be “not disabled,” just that I’ll have found workarounds to a lot of the health problems that keep me down. I want to be published, and I want to be able to get advances to work on future books (that’s the dream, right?) and I want my art career to be solid enough that I can financially support myself and my fiancée (who I hope to be married to by then)! I’m getting a certificate in accounting to supplement my creative endeavors, so I’d like to be someplace with that, too.

6. And tell us about you and your family in general. I live with my mum, since I’m currently too sick to run my own life. Also present are my sibling and my fiancée. I try not to give myself shit about living with mum because I know plenty of cultures have much closer family units and children will stay with their parents their whole lives, with caregiver roles shifting as they age. I’d like that. My mum has always been very supportive of me. My sibling is also autistic and queer, so we have a lot in common, even though we argue a ton. They get along really well with my fiancée, which I like to see. I try to encourage them both to create more. I want to see them confident in their own abilities. My mum is a Celtic Monk and hand makes prayer necklaces, and is very crafty in general. I’m not crafty, so I always admire her creativity.

A bit more specific stuff about me: I’m a lesbian and nonbinary, and I use ze/zir pronouns. I have a physical disability and also cognitive/neurological disabilities. I have a lot of pets! I love creepy crawlies and don’t get why people find snakes, spiders, and rats to be scary or gross. My work is very queer-positive, with a lot of focus on body acceptance, sexual empowerment, and deconstructing norms. I make my living doing portraiture, which I find very soothing, but I’d like to get deeper into illustration and get better at other styles. My biggest barrier is finding the right photoshop brushes.

(Jem was kind enough to explain to this old man how ze and zir work. They are essentially used like 'she' and 'her' while be being considered neutral in their application. I found it very interesting as I never knew this. Galaxy Zento is inclusive and respecting of others world and personal views.)

7. What do you think is important for people to realize about a disabled creative like you or anyone? My biggest thing is deadlines and instructions. Many times, I don’t get clear instructions because the editors don’t think about it, or assume someone has more experience or familiarity than they actually do, or because they think it could be inferred. I try never to assume things, because if I assume wrong it’s the end of the world (in my head). Sometimes I need deadline flexibility, or advice, or a really specific explanation of what I need to do, what I could do, and what I should not do. Lack of communication is my biggest problem with editors.

Many don’t seem to understand neurodivergent people’s limitations or needs. A problem I ran into a while back was having a deadline that was too flexible. The client said “by January” and then insisted she meant “before January.” We had a big disagreement about it and she ended up dropping me, which was actually a blessing in disguise because she was seriously underpaying. But it made me realize that having a deadline to aim for is better than having indefinite openness, even if I need some wiggle room.

Excellent interview and I thank Jem for being a part of it. I would like to add it is important to remember that people are people before anything else. That includes skin color, sexuality, size, shape, religion or political view. If we could all remember that people are people first we could transcend so many barriers and be a much happier people. I think Jem is a shining example of this and a fantastic start to Amazing Creators! Thank you so much Jem! We'll see you online!

OH hey, as an added and super note, you should check out Jem's Patreon!

Iron Maiden founder dies of Multiple Sclerosis

Clive Burr, gone too soon

Let's say you have dreams you want to accomplish in life, like writing books, designing games, or heck, anything. Then lets add something to that, namely a life threatening disease that could take you out anytime it feels like it. Let's put this in perspective.

Do you understand how your body works? At the very end of everything your body does, responsible for everything your body is capable of, is your nervous system. Multiple sclerosis (at a laymen level of explanation) is a disease that eats your nervous system. Now pause and think about that for a second. Every single function of your body, your organs, your senses, requires your nervous system to function.  Without the electric charges of your nervous system, your heart will stop beating. UNDERSTAND? At any time, if you have MS, it could damage the nerve actions required for your lungs to work. It can screw up your swallowing reflex and choke you to death. Got it?

That is what I live with. People tell us to shut up about having MS; that we are just full of excuses. Oh if only that were true. You see, you can get therapy for being "full of excuses". And if I were full of excuses, guess what, you'd never see me complete a damn thing. And what brought all of this about today was this story:

Clive Burr, founding member and drummer for Iron Maiden has died of MS at only 56 years old. He was diagnosed in 2001. Treatment for MS made it hard for him to pay for his home and general life. Think about that. He had amassed something of a fortune by being one of the worlds greatest heavy metal drummers. MS took it all. Would you say his problems were just excuses? Really?

I take copaxone shots to stabilize my MS. They cost my insurance nearly 6000 dollars a month. And still, my legs randomly go out on me, I have strange gasping fits, cognitive fogs, dizziness, and severe fatigue for no discernible reason. I have hand tremors that ruin my artwork and make even general things difficult. My insurance, medicare, lists me as "catastrophic" in coverage. It's a twisted situation.

Now, let's set aside my personal dreams for a moment (namely my universe of Galaxy Zento and all that it has going for it with 4 published books and a board game). I'm also a disabled parent of a young man with autism. Without being able to go out and work a regular job to teach him about life, I have to do something. I can't have him thinking that a disability like mine (without letting him know how easily it could kill me) means giving up on lifelong dreams or even making an effort at life itself. I can't be the disabled Dad who stares at the walls all day. That is what Galaxy Zento is for. It's the job I do to show him how to live, in spite of what holds him back.

And every time someone tells me my artwork isn't good enough or my game isn't good enough to be given any consideration, they actually help me with him. Because when I don't give up, just because people hate on my work, it shows him something. And I can't just wait in life until I can afford to pay someone else to do the artwork. If you can't see why after all you just read, I don't know what to tell you.

I know my art isn't the best you can get. It's cartoony and not seriously "graphic". Its not like a Rembrandt painting. But it's also not like I don't work hard. I work very hard and beyond my capabilities at times. That means I hurt myself to get things done. Hard to avoid actually.

But every single day, I have to wonder if I am going to be able to function for the whole day, or just part of it. That's because MS can take me out at any given level of exhaustion at any given moment of time; no matter what I've actually been doing. I could totally just be sitting on my ass, doing nothing, and crash anyway.

Is it so terrible to want people to understand? I mean, I get it if someone just doesn't like my work and they turn their nose up at it. That's going to happen. But for those who tell me I'm full of excuses, that actually stings at times. Maybe it shouldn't. But over 400,000 people in the US alone have MS. And it totally depends on what area(s) of the nervous system are damaged for each person, but its capable of killing you outright.

Famous people who died of MS

Celebs with MS

Even bigger list

Just to be clear; I don't expect anyone to jump on a bandwagon and buy things from me just because I have MS. I do want people to realize that I'm not your average game designer, not your average artist, not your average author. I'm not even your average parent, husband, or human being. It's understanding and awareness that I'm after. What would you want in my situation or if you have MS. If you do have MS, what is important in awareness for you? Feel free to post in comments.

In spite of Multiple Sclerosis

Really, it's more like 'in spite of anything barring my path', but I think you'll get the idea. It's helpful to remind myself what spurs me on to overcome disability and be even borderline productive. With the seasonal change bringing barometric changes, the cognitive fogs have been slapping me around. Imagine allergy season getting you moderately stoned every day instead of plugged up. Or consider that your cognitive abilities (to think clearly) are plugged up instead of your sinuses.

All the more reason to fight like a cornered animal.

The less you do, the more MS takes away. The less you use any particular life skill (especially physical) the faster MS takes that away. You have to pace yourself, but definitely don't want to just give up. Even so, MS, or as people are calling it now 'the MonSter; does a lot of damage to a lot of people. It's not so easy to just overcome.

I really hate the fact that I can't work a regular shift job. I have to be able to rest at any given time my body requires. I also have to be able to move around because my nerves go haywire from time to time. So I work from home and put my power into things I always wanted to do.

Wanted to write books about my fantasy universe: published 3 of them so far.

Wanted to make my own board/card games: published one board game so far.

Want my son, who has autism to understand that Dad is still productive: working so far.

My hands don't want to do my artwork. I force myself forward anyway. I will fight for what I love to do until I can't sign my name anymore. That's why I dedicate my artwork to everyone who fights MS or other disabilities  to keep doing what they love to do. That includes just being able to get out of bed on any give day.

You have to have some spite against the disease. You really do. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you just turn Hulk against MS. Decide that MS can go to hell and you're going to make it across the room today (or to the park, or whatever). Yeah, I'm stubborn in some of the wrong ways too, but you kind of have to be. What are the wrong ways? Well, you pay for what you do in a day when you have MS. The harder you exert yourself, the harder MS tends to hit back. So if I got outside and dig that rotten portion of tree root sticking up in my yard, I'll probably be physically and mentally useless for about three days.

I'll probably still try to do it.

Just to spite my MS as if it were an entity that could understand said spite.

So, between showing my son the importance of never giving up and giving MS the finger; you pretty much have my reason for doing anything. What do you do in spite of your MS? Let me know in the comments. I'll end this with an uplifting song:

Amazing People: The Blind Roboticist

They call him, Robo Doc. Dr. Marco Bitetto is an award winning roboticist. That means he develops robots and artificial intelligence programs for robots. But hold on. Those of you who follow me regularly, know that I'm all about people who don't give up based on various disabilities to do what they love. So how does Robo Doc fit the bill. Well...

He's blind.

Not only has he had to overcome blindness, but when he was a kid; the so called experts labelled him as retarded. He had to overcome blindness and dysgraphia to teach himself how to write. He also learned two languages on his own. Wait a second; what the heck is dysgraphia? For him, it was insult to injury.

Dysgraphia is a disorder in the ability to write. We aren't just talking about bad handwriting here. It's more like a short circuit in the neuro-process that allows you to write words. It also messes with other fine motor skills as you might imagine. But the Doc didn't let this stop him.

He developed programs that helped him move forward. He achieved a Bacheoler of Science Degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the State University of New York in 1991. He even worked as an engineer for a radio station.

During his education at the University, he was so distinguished in his skill set that he earned scholarships and grants the whole way through. Basically, he was paid to go to school. Try that on for size. He built two laboratories in his house to do his undergraduate work.

Really, you can see a great deal about him to the technical and historical at his Amazon page HERE. Read down the column on the left!

Now he's developed artificial intelligence programs that could seriously change the world for the disabled. And he's not looking to start a business, rather help the people of the disabled community overcome as he has. Some of the AI programs he's developed have worked for him as a voice interviewer, translations of color and patterns to sound, and the applications for these could be limitless.

You can see a video that demonstrates an artificial intelligence called Kate on his Amazon page. If you have a love or fascination with robotics programming, you should check out his books too.

You can also find Robo Doc at Goodreads HERE.