So, I noticed that I have a Wikipedia entry, which is cool (although weirdly incomplete in places, but still–wow*) and that something that is really highlighted in the entry is my Romany heritage.  After reading a dear-hearted internet acquaintance’s (who is also an amazing SF writer) blog post about a recent horror, I realize that it’s probably time for my quarter-annual post about being Romany**.

Hi. I’m half Romany (Kalderasha, to be specific) and half German Jew.

The Romany consider me to be a Gadjo–an unclean outsider–at worst, and at best, a tolerable Didikai half breed. I don’t speak Romanes, I don’t hold to standards of cleanliness (like, I love a good bath and own two cats whom I adore, both of which are quite marime, or dirtyfilthyuncleanforbidden), I’m married to a Gadjo unapologetically (who is also a gentile, if you are keeping score for the Hebraic side).

That being said, I embrace my heritage–both sides. I’m extremely vocal about my Romany side, more than my German Jewish side, mostly because it is abundantly clear to me that the Rom are not only wickedly underrepresented in culture, but are also, right this freaking minute, under direct attack, suffering horrific neglect and poverty, and living under atrocities that most of us, thankfully, could never imagine. A simple Google news search for “Romany” or “Romani” will bring up some of the more recent icky stuff, centered currently in Italy and the Czech Republic.

What is interesting to me is how contrary public opinion is over the Romany. On one hand, there’s the perceived romance of it and the adoption of “gypsy” to signify a free-spirited lifestyle (which is particularly weird to many Rom, since there are a lot of strict cultural mores within), simultaneously existing with racial profiling, restricted access to education, forced sterilization, and ghettoization—all aimed at the same peoples.

I don’t write about being Romany in my fiction, or rather, I haven’t yet. I know I will because I suspect I must, sometime. And not only is it, uh, close to my heart, it fits in well with some SFF issues I tend to obsess about: what will happen to the cultures and individuals that cannot or will not adopt forward technology.
But anyway. That’s my speech. Hope you enjoyed it. You’ll see a variation next quarter***.

*and a big thank you to whomever decided I was interesting enough to even write the thing, BTW.
**Usual posts occur around Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, but one in which the proliferation of “Gypsy costumes” makes me want to crawl under a table and hide. The second usually occurs in Renaissance Faire season, in which it’s quite popular for some lasses to tighten up their corset and shake their tambourines. The third floats, and is usually tied to someone saying “gyp” within a twenty yard radius of me or some media depiction or high fantasy novel where the Rom are portrayed as rogue heroes, magical adepts, fortune telling  belly dancers, or baby munching demons.
***Wink. You’ve been warned.

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And just so this post isn’t just about ME, I wanted to point out a site which is probably old news for 90% of you reading this, but of which I am now a believer: Duotrope.com. AWEsome. I’ve been using them for awhile to find info on markets, but only recently started using their online submission tracker (I’d been using Sonar2, which is also rilly rilly good, but limited to the one box you install her on). The sub tracker at Duotrope is all web-based, so you can check your subs/stats/etc on the fly…and I am getting more and more on the fly these days.

Right now, it’s free (!), but they are soliciting donations to keep it so. I’m totally broke, but even I threw them a few bucks to keep this service running and available to all. If you use the sub tracker there, remember to toss them a few bucks now and then, will you? And if you’ve been looking for a solution for keeping track of your subs, I recommend them ever so highly.