Through a Forest of Ideas

[February 1st, Weird Wednesday] “The Screaming Skull” by F. Marion Crawford

2012-02-01T23:49:00.000+02:00

As with AlfredKubin, I have no prior experience with the author other than seeing Crawfordand “The Screaming Skull” pop up in some conversations on Twitter. I think thepremise to be interesting, though the execution is peculiar enough to interruptmy reading and throw me out of the story. Therefore, I’m left with abittersweet aftertaste.

“The ScreamingSkull” is at its core a very simple story, perhaps unsettling at best, thoughfar removed from horror. Retired captain Charles Braddock has inherited theestate of his late and dear cousin Luke and his wife, Mrs. Pratt. However,Braddock learns of a rather unusual and quite vocal resident, a smooth humanskull, which engages in nightly screaming sessions. The story encapsulesBraddock’s coexistence with this screaming skull to an unidentified friend ofthe captain, starting from the early signs of habitation and catching up tonow.

Crawfordpresents this story of denied habitation [for Braddock vehemently rejects theidea of ghosts and vengeful spirits] as a one-sided dialogue. As soon as I gotthrough the first page it was evident that Braddock conversed with someone,though I had access to Braddock’s words only. Although Crawford is asilver-tongued storyteller and I enjoyed Braddock’s voice as a narrator and aperson, I encountered several difficulties as I read “The Screaming Skull”. Theshifts from first person point of view to second person and back demanded Ishift gears as to how I perceived the world inside the story. Was I to act asBraddock’s collocutor or was I to hide in his head and hear his thoughts?

At times,Braddock steers the narration off course to recount stories connected to hisservants or his past as a captain. I think it’s clever how Crawford used thestory-within-the-story to add substance to the world of “The Screaming Skull”. Braddockand his wordy descriptions also help flesh out the surrounding, adding textureto a monologue, which borders on a stream of consciousness narrative style.This narrative technique’s main drawback manifests, when you look at theoverall structure of the story. The main story concerns the skull and Braddock,but at the same time you focus on these interludes to make sense of background.My need to shift from one POV to another coupled with the story’s demand toswitch focus from the interludes to the overall story arc complicated myreading process.

Two overallthemes dominate “The Screaming Skull”, disbelief and guilt. Braddock strugglesto rationalize the skull’s nature and why it screams. There is a strongrejection towards all that not known and metaphysical, which borders to blindand desperate ignorance of what the skull is and why it screams. Through denialof the obvious truth [as to the identity of the skull, then about the cause ofits owner’s death] Braddock seeks to absolve his guilt towards Mrs. Pratt [Iwill not comment any further on the connection between those two; that is foryou the reader to discover]. Guilt makes sense of the story.

Guilt explainswhy the captain talks as fast as he does and why he launches into thesemini-stories, to escape talking about the skull. The guilt is evident inBraddock’s emotional attachment and interaction with the skull. He tries toplease the spirit inside, despite his failure to name it as such. He enters astate of contradiction with himself, both trying to humor the skull and appeasethrough his care and manners. Since Braddock rationalizes every event connectedwith the skull, he overlooks the true danger of his predicament. In thiswell-mannered panic “The Screaming Skull” resembles Poe’s “The Tell Tale Heart”as both of the stories share the motif of the narrator’s guilty conscious as ameans to their demise. While Poe straddles the gothic genre tropes, Crawfordhead off to uncharted waters and leaves a lot open for discussion.

In the end, Iconsider “The Screaming Skull” a peculiar story. It possesses rich texture, butis a spoken monologue distilled from a conversation. The buildup doesn’t surpriseor frighten, but the promised resolution is quite satisfactory to keep going,until you reach the ending.

[January 31st] Dear Aspiring Writer Dude

2012-01-31T21:05:00.001+02:00

Dear Aspiring WriterDude,

I haven’twritten to you, maybe because I never thought I’d take my split personalityfetish to my blog, but I consider writing to you, because you are beginning to looklike a stoner caught in an endless phase of the munchies and there is only somuch sugar before your body decides to flip you the bird and slap you the badkind of diabetes, which coincidentally has deep roots in your family tree.

I appreciate howvaliantly you fought during your exams, even though the amount of studying youdid barely covered the minimum. I also admire your ability to handle the latenighters at work so that you could study in the morning and I also think thatsome time off of everything is a good award. You did a brilliant job at notbuying an axe and going The Shinning on some of the people, who annoyed youduring your low-on-sleep periods. Certainly, you managed to learn the days ofthe week and not to make a mess of the launch of the podcast, whose fiction andnon-fiction pieces you are responsible for. Overall, good job.

Selling yoursoul to 9gag, though, was a low blow. You know how you are when it comes to abrand new shiny. You know you can’t resist it and that you keep coming back toit. Addiction is not beautiful or elegant in any of its manifestations andyours to 9gag is not any different at. This is why you should get your butt inyour chair and get cracking. You didn’t write all the goals with the idea that theywill complete themselves through their own volition.

Don’t allow fearto keep you off your chair and your work.

Best,

Your Conscience(?)*

*Do writers haveone?

PS: I realize Ihave missed a lot features, but I will catch up.

[January 20th, Culture of Bulgaria] How to Remove Hexes and the Evil Eye the Bulgarian Way

2012-01-20T22:18:00.000+02:00

In the recentmonths, I’ve taken to Bulgarian folklore and old wives’ tales. One of thetopics I adore deals with charms and ways to battle the ‘whammy’ otherwiseknown as the ‘evil eye’. If you don’t know, Bulgarians are extremely superstitiousand living in a household, where all your dreams had to be looked into thedream dictionary, I’m a great deal superstitious myself and have never doubtedthe techniques my grandmother used, when my sister and I were still small andreceived a lot of attention.

The whammy or ‘evileye’ is a hex, which is cast on newborns or small children, when family orfriends cuddle, croon or devote too much attention. This whammy manifests asheadaches, sudden crankiness or drowsiness. The child will grow uncomfortableand may even develop a mild fever. Sometimes adults are susceptible to whammiesas well, especially, if they have been away from their loved ones. Naturally, Ithink that the whammy is the result of a child having to deal with too manypeople at a time, which can be exhausting even to an adult. Yet, I can’t denythat washing my face will get rid of the whammy. Perhaps it’s placebo, but evenwith placebo, it’s quite potent.

Water in onecapacity or another always is incorporated in the rituals for removing whammiesand their effects. My granny’s personal favorite is to fill a glass with coldtap water and bring to the front door’s handle. She would scoop a bit of waterand pour it over the handle, making sure that the dribbles fall into the cup.This ‘washing’ of the handle would be done three times total so that the energyof the outsiders would be washed out of the handle and therefore our home. Thenshe would bring the glass to my forehead and wash my face three times.

The Turkish Eye or the Evil Eye Beads, whatever you prefer.

Of course thereare other ways to do this. Some people prefer to simple wash their child’s faceat the sink, while others bring holy water from the church. Third, whisperwords of power out of earshot to imbue the water with cleansing properties.There are literally hundred ways to do a proper hex removal, though we alsohave excellent preemptive techniques, which ensure no whammies will hit you inthe first place. I remember vividly that my sister used to have a blue beadties to her hand. Then, when she grew up a bit, she carried a bracelet with aTurkish eye for protection. Though I have not seen in it practice, I also knowthat a red string tied around your wrist will protect you from the evil eye.

And this hasbeen a very short guide on how to remove and protect yourself from whammies?

[January 18th, Weird Wednesday] "The Other Side" by Alfred Kubin

2012-01-18T15:50:00.000+02:00

The opening story in “The Weird” is an excerpt from “The Other Side”by Alfred Kubin, first published in 1908. I have no knowledge of the traditionsin European literature at the time of its publication and this is the firsttime I’ve encountered Alfred Kubin as a writer. I opted for an openinterpretation of this text without any prior research, which might have helpedme say something accurate as to the meaning of his work. The only textdiscussing “The Other Side” that I have read is Maureen Kincaid Speller’sexcellent take on the excerpt.

Weird Wednesday’s purpose as a feature is to allow the stories tospeak to me and “The Other Side” has proven to be vocal. After the initialreading, I willingly accepted the reality that had befallen the city of Pearl,where an epidemic of sleep knocked out the city’s whole population for severaldays. However, the mysterious and highly contagious disease functions as ameans to set the stage for an inevitable rebellion, instigated and flawlesslyexecuted by all members of the animal kingdom.

In a grandiose and all-devouring display of dominance, the city ofPearl wakes to swarms and herds and prides and packs and flocks of beastlyconquerors, who have overthrown humans. At his stage “The Other Side” reads asan environmentalist's wish fulfillment fantasy come to life, yet, reading thisexcerpt as nothing more than the literal would be insulting to the potency ofthe prose and its latter direction.

The 'weird' in this tale has rooted itself within the nameless protagonist'sdelivery, who serves as a vessel for the reader’s senses. This man collects'slices of life' encounters between the old and the new citizens of Pearl,neatly chaining one with the other complete with observations. What causessurprise here is not so much the abrupt uprising of the natural world, but the still,calm 'matter-of-fact' reception of these apocalyptic events by the population.It is this peculiar juxtaposition between the dangerous outside world, whereone might become prey no matter the hiding place, and the pacified calmnessdisplayed by the citizens, who insist on keeping up with appearances no matterwhat, that tilts the reader’s perception of how reality functions in the DreamRealm.

This tilted reality can be likened to the absurd logic, on whichdreams run. In this direct sense, I'm reminded of Paul Jessup's stories in hiscollection “Glass Coffin Girls”, where our reality rots and transforms into areflection from a carnival mirror. Certainly, the sickness that affects manmadeobjects supports the idea of how reality erodes. Perhaps the denizens of Pearland the Dream Realm haven't woken from their slumber, but have only achieved consciousnessin a never-ending shared dream.

The possibilities for interpretation are countless, because Kubindidn't intend to rationalize the bizarre fate to befall Pearl. However, thestrongest association I make with everything that has transpired within theexcerpt concerns themes in Bulgarian literature and models in behavior duringthe centuries of enslavement by the Turks and then decades under the communism.I’m rather surprised how well “The Other Side” is in dialogue with the peculiaritiesin works by a great number of revolutionary writers and poets as well as thepsychological survival tactics the Bulgarian society had to adopt in order forits identity to withstand the occupation during those two periods.

For instance, the concept of sleep on a mass scale, such as Kubin’s sleepepidemic, has a rich history in Bulgarian literary traditions as willfulsurrender of the conscious mind. During the centuries under Ottoman rule,Bulgarian writers and poets used the 'sleep' to criticize society for theircomplacency and slave mentality, even though Kubin’s sleep epidemic doesn’tserve as such within the context in the excerpt. Further touching pointsbetween Bulgaria and Kubin can be found within the need to maintain normalcyunder any and all conditions, even if that is impossible. This persistence tokeep a semblance of what Pearl used to be while under the constant animalattacks and demolition can be compared to the same efforts Bulgarians had tomake during the Ottoman occupation. The animals represent not only the fear ofthe citizens, but serves as masks that show the true nature of the humanoppressors. For me this association is easy to make, because anthropomorphismhas its place in our literary traditions and is still practiced today [eventhough we use it to bring diversity to our swear language]. Last on the listhere is the narrator's psychological breakdown near the excerpt's end. Itneatly embodies the inner discord of a person, who hopes and thinks and triesto resist a status quo, even if that desire is expressed through his heart'strue intentions.

I will conclude by saying that “The Other Side” by Alfred Kubin is anextremely potent story, mainly because it's represented not in its entirety. Thereis no clear way to define the proper dimensions of this story, which I don’tmind, because it allows for the reader’s imagination to fill in the blanks. Asan excerpt “The Other Side” remains limitless, irreal and opulent as a dream.In short, a fine way to open a compendium dedicated to the all-encompassingweird.

[January 16th] To-Do List Apocalypse

2012-01-16T00:49:00.000+02:00

As you can tell by the lack of posts, I'm extremely busy though I missed at least five great opportunities to share my opinion on relevant topics such as the bitch fight over a negative review written by Liz Bourke at Strange Horizons [oh boy that was a delicious fight] and a matter of female objectification as led by Jim C. Hines. All rather brilliant, but at the moment, I'm amidst preparing a final paper for this semester, dealing with domestic warfares in my household and preparing all the future shows over at "Tales to Terrify" [more on that later] and writing for "Weird Wednesday" [thankfully I prepared earlier this time and am having help on polishing the rough edges].

This is why I'll leave you in the company of naughty pen and his nerd dirty, dirty talk.

I think the follow-up to that was "You will fit me like a glove".

[January 14th] The Kitschies: Creative Tenticles of Doom

2012-01-14T18:36:00.001+02:00

Being a part ofthe genre community means that you will face one award after another. It’s aninevitable event in any book nerd with ties to SFF. I’m not much of an awardperson, because I’m constantly dwelling in the past. The books I read have allbeen talked about to death and I don’t have the reading capacity to catch upwith all the new ones to hit the shelves and pop up on a shortlist. My abilityto hold a proper conversation on any award’s shortlist and comment on thelikely winner is therefore impaired. I’m indifferent towards awards, because Irely on a number of recommendations from people, whose opinions I trust.

For this latterreason, paradoxically, I can’t not comment on Anne Perry’s and Jared Shurin’saward The Kitschies, which I’ve been following for two years, counting 2012. Ihave been a reader of Pornokitsch long enough to know that our tastes inliterature overlap and I can trust their decisions. When someone, whose opinionI hold of importance, speaks, I pay attention, which is why I will follow howthis year’s Kitschies develop and even comment on the Inky Tentacle categoryfor Best Cover Art.

Did I mention that the awards are handmade tentacles? I pronounce Professor Steampunk Octopus as the award's unofficial mascot! Art by Meg Lyman

The Kitschies’mission is to “honour the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertainingworks of genre literature”, which means that the judges will search forenvelope pushers and innovators of our time. It’s an interesting angle andperhaps even makes the selection easier as you have specific criteria to workwith other than the ‘best’, which is the case with quite a few other awards.

The award’s afresh, young, promising one; qualities that only add to the appeal of it. It’sa lot easier to come to follow a tradition as it makes its first steps and hasroom to grow and branch out. As a new award, The Kitschies have the potentialto pleasantly surprise the genre community [although the possibility of theexact opposite is also true]. The first sign that The Kitschies will be one ofthe awards to keep a close eye on is the announcement before the revealing theshortlist on Friday, which shed light on the withdrawal of two books from therace due to close relations between the judging panel and the authors.

Even though I’vemade minimal observations about the industry, there is no denying that it’s abit incestuous. Though nothing wrong in on itself, this crosspollination ofactivities makes it hard to organize awards without some sort of controversy attachedin one way or another. It’s of great importance to eliminate any closerelations in connection to awards, whose winners are decided through a judgingpanel.

So, if you arean award buff, take your time to check The Kitschies. Here is their shortlistfor you to see:

Red Tentacle:
The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington (Orbit)
Embassytown by China Miéville (Tor)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd (Walker Books)
The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers (Sandstone)
Osama: A Novel by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)

Golden Tentacle:
Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick (Tor)
God's War by Kameron Hurley (Night Shade Books)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Quirk)
The Samaritan by Fred Venturini (Blank Slate Press)

Inky Tentacle:
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch; illustration by Stephen Walter, design by Patrick Knowles (TAG Fine Arts) (Gollancz)
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan; design by Peter Mendelsund (Canongate)
The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco; design by Suzanne Dean, illustration by John Spencer (Harvill Secker)
Equations of Life by Simon Morden; design by Lauren Panepinto (Orbit)
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd; illustration by Jim Kay (Walker Books)

[January 13th, Culture of Bulgaria] The Head Shake vs. The Head Nod

2012-01-13T11:24:00.001+02:00

I’ve beenthinking about a good topic for my cultural post, but I decided againsttackling yet another religious holiday, even though January is one of thebusiest months for name days. I’m picking body language, because it’s aninteresting topic on its own and Bulgaria seems to be one of the few countries[I’m including Greece as well], where the head nod is inverted in meaning withthe head shake.

Who ordered the scizophrenic head shakes?

Or so the rumorgoes, but I’d like to talk about the myth’s basics.

As you know, internationally,the ‘head nod’ signifies agreement, whereas the ‘head shake’ stands for theopposite. You see it in movies, you see it on the TV and if you’re a traveler,you have confirmed this for yourself. Now, in Bulgaria, it’s said that shakingyour head actually means that you are saying yes, while nodding your head meansthat you are disagreeing with a statement or answering in the negative. I’m notsure where this rumor started, because where I live in Varna, I have yet tospot a person shake their head for a ‘yes’ and nod for a ‘no.’

I had to googleto confirm that this rumor is alive and well. Tourists that have visitedBulgaria have experienced this conundrum, which further perplexes me. In mycommunity and social environment [including Bulgarian television] there are noexamples to confirm this, although there are accounts of this being a thing.The only gesture to come close to this idea is what I call the ‘reverse nod’.

The ‘reverse nod’is a means to communicate disagreement. Basically, you tilt your head back sothe chin lifts, rather than dips as is the situation with a normal nod. In myfamily, we like to add a very clear ‘tsk’ noise to emphasize just how much we’renot on board with an idea or as is the case with my mother, how much somethingis SO not happening. Naturally, when you repeat this movement in a quicksuccession, it seems as though you’re nodding, but you’re not. I myself havebeen perplexed by the movement, especially when the person in front of me doesnot provide the much needed ‘tsk’ noise.

I haven’t seenthe head-shake-yes in action and considering that I’m born, raised and locatedin Bulgaria, it’s saying something about the validity of this myth. However, Ican’t dismiss the veracity of this myth based solely on my own personalexperience as I believe two factors to be heavily present. Americanization andbody language dialect.

Bulgaria’s onthe fast track, when it comes to adopting Western values and mannerisms thathave no root in our own culture. In the process, each new generation shedssomething inherent from Bulgarian culture, which is no longer functional. Thisis the reason why Bulgarian kids are more adept at expressing themselves betterin English than in Bulgarian. The same can be said about body language as Ipersonally have grown up with American TV and have picked up all my visual cuesfrom sitcoms. Bad stares, grumpy stances and the rolling of the eyes, all havecome from US shows and to some degree Latin American soap operas [our channels hada lot of those]. It’s not unlikely for the new generations to pick up andimplement something as fundamental as the head shake and nod. Perhaps ten totwenty years ago, more people said yes with a head shake and no with a headnod, but now with the internationalization of culture this practice is slowlybeing forgotten.

The secondfactor I mentioned deals with the dialect of body language. Bulgaria might beof a diminutive size, but each province has its own dialect. It might be slightchanges to how one letter is pronounced. It might be connected with how acertain word is used and it might be a very jarring sentence construction, buteach province has its differences as is normal. That is why I don’t think itout of the question to assume that some provinces would have kept on theinverted head shake/nod, while others like mine have discarded it. My onlyfault here is that I have not travelled extensively within my own country to beable to confirm this.

Basically, whatI’m trying to say is to take all the information you read in travel guides witha bit of salt. If you do come to Bulgaria and feel that you’re unsure how toproceed in regards to the head shake vs. the head nod, it’s best to rely on theverbal ‘da’ for yes and ‘ne’ for no.

[January 12th] The World Fantasy Award: Y U NO World Enough?

2012-01-12T14:20:00.001+02:00

I'm not much of an award person. I seem to miss all the major awards. I grow confused about eligibility and all of the dates. With my limited, often retrospective reading I don't think I can stay tuned to how fast new books pop up on award radars. Perhaps that is a fault of mine, but nevertheless, I 'm interested in The World Fantasy Award and Lavie Tidhar's call to internationalize the recommendations list.

Here a small excerpt from his post at The World SF blog:

The judges for the WFA have to wade through an enormous amount of material. That that material is exclusively in the English language comes as no surprise, but still. I would like to see 2012 being truly representative of the best that international fantasy has to offer.

I would also like to see the Special Award (Professional and Non-Professional categories) being representative of the international scene.

We can help make this happen.

So here’s your mission – should you choose to accept it!

Tell us, in the comments, who you would like to see shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Best Novel? Best Short Story? Special Award?

We’ll put together your recommendations into a list and post it. And let’s all hope for a year where the World Fantasy Award reflects that first word in its title.

You can read the rest of the post [HERE]. I'm behind the idea, though I'm not sure how successful it will be from the get go, because the domination of the English language hasn't happened without a reason. Excluding the USA, there exist an amount of countries with English as an official language and English is appointed as an international business language as well. Turning the tide towards including works in other languages [some less than popular such as Bulgarian] will bring in its own set of difficulties, unless they have been translated.

As it is, I don't think the award can achieve the true potential of its name, unless it promotes world literature and that means somehow having the financial means and the time to translate fiction and then promote it. But then the award will turn into a publishing house, which as an idea is ridiculous.

[January 11th, Weird Wednesday] "Foreweird" by Michael Moorcock and "Introduction" by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

2012-01-11T23:35:00.001+02:00

I would like to start the first analysis [or something close to an analysis] of “The Weird” with a side note. Today I've spotted that Through A Forest of Ideas received traffic from Tor.com. After some googling kung fu, I discovered that Tor.com have linked “Weird Wednesday” under their Of Interest section on the site. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic about the development for numerous reasons. It's all rather personal, but mainly, I'm happy to have come up with an idea that is met with interest. Thank you Tor.com.

Now, with this out of the way, I'll proceed with my thoughts on “Foreweird” by Michael Moorcock and the “Introduction” by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. For the purposes of the analysis, I have switched the texts as the VanderMeers deliver a clearer and conciser definition of the weird tale without an actual textbook definition of the genre being presented. That is where the weird tale's charm lies. No man, no reader or scholar can name something that has no name to begin with.

After I completed both introductory texts, I felt rather than understood that the 'weird' is much like a literary version of the primordial goo of life. It's full of potency. No measurement can weigh, count or calculate the dimensions of the weird. It constantly evolves. It searches for new ways to adapt to its cultural habitat, which in itself is a complex, growing system. The weird is more than the sum of its parts though it's not as simple as to be compared to ordinary synergy. Sometimes it can be best understood as the tropes it's not as the VanderMeers explain before assuming roles of evolutionists and tracking its historical roots in stories from beyond generations.

I'm still fascinated after having reread the historical breakdown of the development and countless 'weird sightings' in world literature over the decades. Here is where I reach the conclusion that you can't understand the weird as you might [think you] understand a scientific phenomenon. The best you can do is observe it in the context of a specific era and the literary traditions that dominate it. It is here where “Foreweird” by Michael Moorcock makes much more sense to me. Moorcock adopts a different approach to the presentation of the weird to the readers.

His writing flows from paragraph to paragraph, acquires the quality of a river's delta. Every sentence swerves and takes you into a new direction. Moorcock switches from his understanding of the weird tale to cardinal misconceptions, the stigmata behind the lack of rationalism, the weird tale's multifaceted nature and how shapeless it can be.

The weird tale's main 'fault', according to Moorcock, is its inability to fit in a package, stay still and allow itself to be marketed to the masses. And yes, I have not heard about the 'weird' before, because it hasn't popped on the mainstream's radar. Thinking about both texts, I think that the answer as to why the 'weird' can't be defined [though I'm of the opinion that connoisseurs of the weird tale do not see it as an outstanding issue] is because the weird leaves more questions asked than answered. Moorcock states such is 'a superior kind of fiction' and I agree with him, because presenting readers with all the answers acts as a prerequisite for lazy reading. Now, engaging the reader to solve mysteries in an environment, where the rational is excluded from the equation, begets creativity; encourages to take the dark, unexplored route; keep the primordial goo healthy and expanding; allow for later works and writers to take charge and evolve as well.

Here I'd like to detour and share my experience with the 'absence of rationalism' in animation, both in the West and in the East. The examples are children's TV shows, which I think are inherent carriers of the idea that you don't need rationalization. I think the weird tale has found a host that succeeded in entering the mainstream as children are much more adept at accepting the weird, the strange and the fantastic without prejudice and demands for explanations, at least as far as my experience and memory of being a child are concerned. Ample examples are “Totally Spice”, a French cartoon series, and “Sailor Moon”, a Japanese anime and the most famous representative of the magic girl genre.

“Sailor Moon” featured a trio of the Sailor Starlights [bear with me on this one], who perplexed me. If you're aware of magic girls, then you know that from a normal, human state, a female character undergoes a magical transformation, which is signified by a change of outfit. The Sailor Starlights, in their depowered states were male pop stars before transforming into powerful female warriors. The curious thing about this magical gender switch is that it's not explained.

There's no evidence to support any theory as to whether the character truly change their gender or are just dressing as male. I'm mentioning “Totally Spice” because the premise is about a teen version of Charlie's Angels look-alikes with outrageous James Bond gadgets and a penchant for fighting super villains. I am also referring to this series, because of the sudden body transmogrifications.

One episode paid a strange homage to Franz Kafka's “The Metamorphosis”, while another sees humans mutate into human-vegetable hybrids [perhaps a subconscious tribute to “The Vegetable Man”]. There is no science to explain why these mutations have occurred other than the drop of the words 'chemicals' and 'machine'. What do I intend with all of this? Nothing in particular, other than to illustrate that the 'weird' is alive and well in different mediums, perhaps even connected to its literary sibling.

Anyway, let's conclude. Although a grand statement, I do believe the 'weird' [based on the historical background provided by the VanderMeers and Moorcock] to be one of the strongest forces to keep the wheel in speculative fiction turning.

[January 10th] Horror Podcast "Tales to Terrify" and I As An Editor

2012-01-10T23:19:00.002+02:00

I've been talking about this Secret Project for ages and now it's time to reveal it. I've been picked up by Tony Smith, you know, the Hugo award winner for the science fiction podcast StarShipSofa, to work on a new podcast as an assistant editor, but this time the genre is horror. As you might have guessed, the name of the podcast is "Tales to Terrify" and we're launching this Friday, January the 13th, because we all need a certain sense for fatality.

Here is the official promo for the "Tales to Terrify"

Something creeps in between the cracks of your opened browser tabs. It hisses and whispers behind the static of your headphones. It’s there, when you touch the keys on your keyboard. You can only catch a silhouette in the corners of your screen.

Yes, your computer has been possessed and the ghost that will haunt your browsing history from Friday, January 13th onward is “Tales To Terrify”.

Tony Smith, Hugo award winner for his internationally renowned science fiction podcast Star Ship Sofa, dares to allows the scariest, spookiest and creepiest horror stories that have been published to speak as the producer and editor of your new favourite horror podcast.

The voice of “Tales to Terrify” is award winning author and narrator, Lawrence Santoro, who has known dark tales since early childhood. Functioning as assistant editors are new comer writer and reviewer, Harry Markov and multi-tasking writer and slush reader, Sarah Hendrix. The task to bring disturbing visual content falls on our art director Church H. Tucker.

“Tales to Terrify” will gather together fiction from both established and break-through voices in horror from around the world to interpret horror in all of its nuances and manifestations. In the shows to come you will hear already published stories by names such as Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Gary McMahon, Gemma Files, Caitlin R. Kiernan and Nick Mamatas among many others.

“Tales to Terrify” will function as horror-centric hub for fans of fiction, art, movies and other horror-dominated genres.

Hush now and let us haunt your feed.

Our first show presents "Chair" by Martin Mundt. Since this is a rather huge deal for me, I would like to ask you to help spread the word and make the debut of our first show a success. Speak, link, tweet and gossip. Thank you in advance.

Here is the URL: http://talestoterrify.com/

[January 9th, Notable Book Mention] "Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai

2012-01-09T15:02:00.002+02:00

I'm in the midst of preparations for an exam, which has sucked every free minute that I may have outside work, so I can't necessarily discuss the topics that I want, but be sure that I will return on Wednesday and Friday with the regular features and some news as well.

In the mean time, here is one of the books that I desperately want to read. Notable Book Mention "1" is the autobiographical YA "Inside Out and Back Again" by Thanhha Lai.

For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by . . . and the beauty of her very own papaya tree.

But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape . . . and the strength of her very own family.

This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

[January 6th, Culture of Bulgaria] St. Jordan’s Day, Epiphany, Men’s Water Day

2012-01-06T21:08:00.002+02:00

Allthe names in the title of this post signify the same day, January6^th,which for us Christians is a big holiday. But before I head into thedetails as to why that is, let me welcome you back to Culture ofBulgaria feature, where I will do my best to introduce you to some ofthe holiday traditions and beliefs we have accumulated. I intended tobegin with New Year’s Eve oddities during celebration of thebiggest, international holiday, but right now I’ve the perfectchance to talk about another holiday rooted in Christianity.

I'vebeen thinking about the purpose of all religious holidays in thecontext of Bulgaria's state and I've made some interestingconclusions, which could be false, but I like to believe that not asingle element of one's culture remains fixed and timeless. Everyritual changes and there is nothing more evident than the changes tolong lasting religious holidays, which still have their appeal to oursociety.

The actual baptism of Christ

Asyou might have guessed, religious holidays are all about religion.Today is St. Jordan’s Day,though I'veto say that this translation is wrong as the name of the holiday istaken from the name of the river Jordan,where Christ has been baptised by John the Baptist. Factually, we'renot honoring a saint as we'reremembering Christ’s baptism, thus making it the third mostimportant Christian holiday in our calendar. Nevetheless,people with the names Yordan [Bulgarian spelling and pronunciation ofJordan], Yordana, Dana, Dancho, Boyan, Bogdan and Bogdana celebrate.The last three are tied to the aspect of the Epiphany.

TheEpiphany aspect dealswith the part of the script, where the heavens open during Christ'sbaptism and the spirit of God appears as a white dove. There is avoice that recognizes Christ as God's true son. This is the truereligious importance of the holiday, the power of the act andrecognition of the ritual as one sanctioned and approved by God. Thismoment is the serves as the basis for the belief that on the nightbeforethe 6^thof January the sky opensdirectly to the heavens above, where God can hear you. Make a wishand God will grant it to you.

Withthe fall of strong religious belief, this aspect has fallen into thebackground. You won't talk with your family about watching the sky atnight and the wishes that you madeto God. In a certain sense, Bulgarian society has moved on towardsunspecified belief and reliance on the multitude of superstitionsrather than strictexplanations from the Bible. The best example is the ritual to markthe holiday.

The cross has been caught and then passed on the youngest participant, which this year is a nine year old boy.

Aswith all holy days, Bulgarians have numerous ways to mark theoccasion, the most popular still being the “Throwing of the Cross”,which is an all male activity. On this day, after church service, thepriest and village [village sounding more authentic] men gather at alarge, natural body of water. Then the priest proceeds to throw thecross in the cold water. This is the signal for all the men to jumpin and retrieve the cross. The man to retrieve the cross is said tohave a happy and healthy year, because he has been blessed. As St.Jordan’s is still widely practiced, the “Throwing of the Cross”is a news-worthy event every year and today was no exception. It’shere that St. Jordan’s day adopts the [horrendous] Men’s WaterDay title, which official Bulgarian sites dedicated to our culturehas translated it as. Of course every region has its own versions ofhow the ritual should go.

Duringbreakfast and lunch I followed the news channel’s special segmentsdedicated to how each city celebrated the holiday, who caught thecross [in Varna, it’s a peer of mine from my university] where andalso announcing curioustrivia about the holiday. Fromwhat I've seen and read, the news are centering on the act ofcatching the cross as thereason for receiving an astounding health through the whole year.Lessemphasis is placed on God's role for making all the bodies of waterholy, even though the notion is still present.

Evenso theimportance ofwater is greatandtherefore features in allof the celebrations and rituals. On this day, all natural bodies ofwater become sacred and their waters obtain healing properties. Sickpeople bathe in the cold waters to wash away illness, churches changetheir holy water with fresh one from the closest river or lake forthe coming year and families bottle this holy water and keep it intheir homes to use, when someone falls ill on bed. Andwhile the churches still follow theserules, individuals are less inclined to bring healing water to theirill family member. My grandmother, who is a practicing Christian, hasabandoned this notion as she knows that medicine has covered ourbases, when it comes to illness.

The Dancing Chain

Thisleaves me with the third aspect of the holiday,getting drunk. Before I can proceed with a bit of credibility, I haveto bring you to the cityof Kalofer. Themen dress in old,traditional,period clothes toperform their own version of honoring the day. Theyform a chain and dance in the freezing water for well over half anhour. Theriver Tunja explodes in manly laughter and shouts, loud music andmerriment, which more or less is an antiquated equivalent of poolparties, if I have ever seen one. This brings me to my point. Inorder for the men to last in the ice cold waters they have to drinkthe night before and some of the participants haven'tslept a wink in order to pass.

Givenhow dissatisfied we are as a nation and society with our lot [checkEuropean studies, we rank quite high] it's no surprise that we findways to involve alcoholism in our rituals and holidays as a means tolook forward to some fun. Whatdo you think happens, when Yordan comes home from work? Wine happens.That's what.

Anyway,I hope that this was not the 'too long, didn't read' variety of apost. Tell me what you think? Do you have any interesting traditions,where you come from, too?

[January 5th] Quiet Mouths, Loud Thoughts

2012-01-05T22:42:00.001+02:00

I have a scheduled a post, but because of my exam, I haven't had the time to write it down. The good news is that I passed. Instead, I have a wonderful quote that a colleague of mine has sent me.

[January 4th] Announcing "Weird Wednesday"

2012-01-04T20:14:00.000+02:00

It’s the first Wednesdayin the year and the first Wednesday of my “Weird Wednesday” feature dedicatedto the analysis of “The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories” editedby Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Initially, I decided to launch this feature withthe rather longish discourse I have for “The Other Side” by Alfred Kubin, butthen held back on the idea as I think that this compendium deserves a fair andtrue beginning.

Inspired by thisnotion to do a proper analysis and ensure that there is a certain amount of thegrandeur and drama I enjoy [so much] to this feature, I will start at the verybeginning. First, I want to announce the rules of the game [it’s a game,because nothing planned to run for the span of a year is allowed to be tooserious] and the goals I am after.

Rules:

1. “The Weird Wednesday”will run every Wednesday from January 4^th until December 27^thwith each post being dedicated to a single work. I have done the math and knowthat I have around 52 weeks to work with and over 100 short stories to workwith. One of the solutions to this predicament is multiple posts per Wednesday.I will have to see whether another strategy won’t be more interesting for thereaders.

2. Each analysiswill be based on some research on the author, the work itself and the links itshares with previous works. I’m saying some, because I’m far from assuming thatI will have the necessary time and investigation skills to reach to agroundbreaking conclusions about any given work. Context matters, true, but sodoes sleeping at some point.

3. There will bea proper schedule for each month as well as update posts and a page on thisblog, where all links from previous reviews will be gathered. I plan on linkingan icon of the book to the feed for the category in my blog for the sake ofeasy navigation.

Goals:

1. I’veabandoned all delusions that I command the English language. Don’t misunderstand,I do think I’m doing an admirable attempt to do it justice, but it’s stillmostly an attempt. I wish to level up as they say, improve how I express myselfand how I carry myself with my words.

2. I avoidreviewing anthologies without internally connecting each work with a differentone. With “The Weird” and it’s thousand pages, hundred stories and decades ofgenre history, it’s neither physically possible nor appropriate to do. I intendto experience the evolution of this genre chronologically, through the storiesand through my reflections.

Hopes:

1. I hope that Ifinish this within the year of 2012. On paper, this feature might look easy todo and stick to, but life is unpredictable. There will be setbacks. I will getin my way. Others will get in my way. The hope is to make it through the yearwith a successful conclusion and what I hope to be a better grasp over theEnglish language.

2. I hope Icreate a dialogue the way I have always failed to do on Temple Library Reviews.I hope to lead discussions about the different points in the stories that Ipresent in this space and learn more than I have on my own.

The Schedule:

Here is theinitial schedule for the rest of January. Since this is exam month at themoment, I will have to limit myself with one work per week.

[January 11^th]Thoughts on “Foreweird” by Michael Moorcock and “Introduction” by Anne and JeffVanderMeer

[January 18^th]“The Other Side” by Alfred Kubin

[January 25^th]“The Screaming Skull” by F. Marion Crawford

Last [far fromleast] I wish to thank Maureen Kincaid Speller, who inspired me by reviewingthe compendium story by story. Check her analyses on The Paper Knife.

[January 3rd] Scribblle Me This, The Writing Intentions

2012-01-03T12:04:00.001+02:00

I have beenthinking about the writing experience from 2011 and can say that I failed, whenit came down to documenting my progress. Of course I don’t suffer from theillusion that I did all that much writing in the first place, but at the sametime I can confirm that I’ve completed several flash fiction pieces, severalshort stories and one novel revision, which is not what a busy bee writershould have achieved.

Oddly enough, this the title of this is "Writer's Block"

This year Istart with better plans, because I believe that improvement lies within bettertime management, better understanding of how your life can take a turn for theworse [in terms of actual opportunity to write] or enter dead waters. Rightnow, I know the course of my year in a sequence of ‘green’ and ‘red’ zones rightuntil July, when I’ll most likely graduate. If things go my way [and I getenrolled in a long distance Masters program], I’m pretty sure the rest of myyear will be clear to me as well. Given all these factors, I planned for thefollowing:

1. Completerevisions on “Crimson Anatomy” based on beta readers feedback in time for theAngry Robot open month as well as initiate an agent hunt, because it’s not allsmart at all to place all your eggs in one basket. Project Timeline: January 1^st – February 29^th.

2. Completerevisions on “V is for Virus”, my futuristic super villain novel, which I’mhappy to say is completed as a draft and pretty well sketched in my head, so I’llhave a very pleasant go at the revisions. Contrary to “Crimson Anatomy”, theconcept for “V is for Virus” as well as the feel, the voice and the overall arcin the series have remained constant for more than a year, which is usually agood sign with me. Project Timeline:November 1^st – December 31^st. The reason for thisparticular timeline is because I will split the current draft into two and thenhave a go at writing my first 100,000 word manuscript, which oughta be hectic.

3. Start a newnovel project. I’m indecisive as to which project to select. I’m tempted by thepossibilities. It’ll be either my YA novel “Airboy”, whose first draft is notcompleted and not up to scratch at that [though I will probably have to speakto an architect to help me with the main mystery object], my high concept secondaryworld fantasy “White” or a retro-futuristic super hero tale of emancipation “SuperPowered House Wives”. Project Timeline:August 1^st – October 31^st. This will have to happen aftermy European tour in late July.

4. In general, Ihave written down to complete and sent to publication twelve short stories in2012, one for each month, which I think is believable aspiration. I’m keepingtabs on three to four anthology projects at the moment, so that guarantees athird of this goal to be fulfilled. I think the main focus will fall onfinishing “Lungs”, which is around 60% completed. I’m not happy with how “RabbitHeart” turned out as a short story, so I see a novella potential in thepremise. Project timeline: focus on March1^st – Middle of May [final exam sessions begins at that point andI will be writing a thesis, so I don’t think I will have much time to considerwriting anything longer].

These are thegoals, which I know I can finish in ideal conditions. This means work, schooland personal life remain a constant. Since they are ideals, I realize that Iwill manage around 60% of what I have planned, this meaning that I probably won’treach “V is for Virus”, but it never hurts to aspire to great success, right.

This may make meappear slightly crazy [for more than one reason], but at the same time I’mcurious. Do you have plans for your writing?

[January 2nd] Onward, Fair Steed of a Journal

2012-01-02T16:22:00.001+02:00

With the 2011recap out of my way, I can truly focus on what is to come. As with every year,I have set expectations for myself high as ever. I believe that this body andmind of mine can do more than I’m doing with them, so every year I challengemyself, more mentally than I’d like, but I consider taking bringing my bodyinto the mix as well. I’m aware that I will fail, I always do, but as a friendof mine says ‘shoot for the stars and you just might end up on the moon’. I’vetaken to this advice and even though I know that I probably won’t transforminto my wish fulfillment character, I will end up achieving more than I wouldhave chasing after this ideal of me.

I'm not sure why I'm including this photo; I guess I'm trying to say: Be afraid, be veeery afraid.

Some people knowdiscipline firsthand, others bribe themselves with treats. I know that I willcheat either way, so overworking it is. This post will focus on the goals Ihave set myself for my blog.

1. I’m more thanever determined to blog on a regular basis. Last year has been scandalouslyquiet, which I can’t afford, considering that this year I’m getting seriousabout my career here, now, even though I’m without adequate material forsubmission, agentless [kinda obvious why] and rather a minor fraction of the sphere. The rest of mygoals have pretty much to do with fulfilling this one as well as help meestablish my identity.

2. Cover morebooks. I’ve been awfully out of touch with what’s been published and what ishitting shelves, so I’m more than ever ready to comment on books that I havebought, read, am reading or want to read. Knowing me, this will more often thannot manifest in critique of the cover art, which is how a book engages me inthe first place, more often than not.

3. Weird Wednesday.I think I’ve discussed this, but come this Wednesday I’ll do an official launchof my Weird Wednesday feature, which will be a yearlong review of The Weird,the monstrous tome edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer.

4. I’ve decidedto revive the Culture of Bulgaria feature, where I’ll tackle the nationalbeliefs, holidays and cultural traits, which I’m more or less a product of.This decision stems from my intention to better understand myself as aBulgarian and reflects my interests in non-fiction, fiction reading and fictionwriting.

These are myimmediate goals, which I see as doable, until I graduate, which should happenby July this year. I’m counting the days, until I can part ways with myuniversity, which has pretty much been a negative element in my life for thepast four years. Once I have the whole bachelor thing behind me, I will seewhether I can bring some more plans together, though I assume they will benothing grand.

And what aboutyou? Any ideas for reinvention?

[January 1st] And in the Spring I Shed my Skin

2012-01-01T18:23:00.000+02:00

NB: I know it's far from spring, but these lyrics from "Rabbit Heart" by Florence + the Machine sum up how I feel about New Year.

I’ve waited forJanuary 1^st to write my End of 2011 post, because I needed to havethis year behind me, if I am to discuss it. Of course, I missed on yesterday,because I prepared my short story “The Woman Who Wanted to Play Miss Havisham”for submission to Pandemonium: Stories of Smoke. I’m excited, because this willbe the first proper SFF story with Bulgaria as setting I am sending out to dothe submission rounds. It gives me a great thrill to have written it and includesome social commentary on my own.

Most of all Ihave wanted to wait until January 1^st to include this cheekypicture, which does a splendid job at summing 2011 and my experience with it.

I’m also playingLily Allen’s “Fuck You” to emphasize how thrilled I am to say a very literal ‘Fuckyou’ to the past year.

Theoretically, 2011should have been a good year for me. I’ve landed a long term job position withall the right benefits and most importantly, steady income to help my familymove along. I’m extremely grateful for finding a place in my current firm. Themoney ensured that we not only needn’t have wondered how to provide all thebasic commodities and pay bills, but that I could contribute to paying offdebts my family had for the better part of the last decade. We are notcompletely in the clear, yet, but I can’t stress how relieving it is not tofear the days in the calendar.

I’ve seen mywonderful, talented, loud-mouthed, wise-cracking, tough-as-nails sister throughher toughest academic year, the high school entry exams, which in Bulgariacreates a shadow economy of private lessons. This is so because the educationsystem fails to prepare pupils for the exams, which is why parents are forcedto sent children to private lessons. Sometimes the monthly total exceeds whatthe minimum wage here is. Fortunately, my sister had teachers, who understoodour situation and charged less. Now, I’m seeing my sister through her firstyear in the high school of her choice and I’m relieved that the next five yearswill be quiet in general.

Because I havesteady income, I allowed myself the pleasure to plan and after years of intensewanton I realized my dream to visit a convention, which turned out to be thebest experience in my life as a geek. I felt insane to be amidst all thetalented people at Fantasy Con and give a handshake to the numerous people Ihave made acquaintances with over Twitter. It’s been madness for me and I’mimmensely proud that I planned this trip on my own, executed it on my own anddid not get fatally lost in the UK, which right there at the end constituted areal possibility.

As you can see,some of the big things in life are improving, yet, all of the above, I didalone. I had to work on a full work day, care for my sister [including all bureaucracysurrounding her exams, taking her to her lessons, jumping hoops, checking herhomework and be for her in all her moments], work towards my Bachelor inEconomics and in the meantime devote myself to the SFF community by reading,writing, reviewing and joining conversations. I still have to do all thesethings alone. My mother has been working on the other end of the country, whilemy father has disappeared completely from our lives upon the divorce. It’s my grandparents,my sister and I with me being the only adult within the age to do most of thebills and be the parent figure in my sister’s life.

Sometimes I feeltrapped by all of this. Sometimes I feel remorse for feeling the first, becauseI have weathered a lot with my family as a unit. There are ties that run deep,strong and more powerful than I would wish them to be, because they make thepossibility of a fresh start all the more complicated. Between running betweenthese two absolutes, I have come to loathe the job that I have. I worked in thecustomer care department as a call centre operator and the stress led to healthcomplications I never thought I’d be subjected to, one of them being quite theweight jump. I’ve bloated. Severely. Thankfully, I switched departments and nowI’m in office heaven with so many funny, filthy-mouthed and dirty-minded peers.However, because 2011 had to be awful, a quick succession of small scaledisasters happened, which I’m afraid almost broke whatever was in charge ofsanity. I’m getting better, but I have never stopped asking whatever the fuckruns the show ‘haven’t you had enough’.

It comes to nosurprise to say that my writing, reading and involvement in the SFF society hasbeen minimal. I closed Temple Library Reviews, because I felt burdened by thewhole thing. As always, I came to see myself as not one to fit in that mouldfor I set out to achieve goals, which could not be reached given the nature ofmy efforts. 2011 turned out to be a year of endings spring saw me part wayswith Apex’s The Zombie Feed, where I worked for less than half a year. I’mextremely pleased with the results I had promoting Mark Allan Gunnells’ novella“Asylum” and Paul Jessup’s novella “Dead Stay Dead”. However, I did manage tobecome an assistant editor to Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s anthology project “SpaceBattles”, which comes out next April, and have engaged on a new editorialposition, though I’m not at liberty to disclose the complete details as of yet.

On the writingfront, I set out to edit “Crimson Cacophony” [now “Crimson Anatomy”] and I didto the point that it has been sent to beta readers and have critique to carryme out through a new round of edits. Other than this, I haven’t achievedanything worthwhile in terms of new words written. Projects have been started,projects have been finished [less often that I would like to], rejected or notedited to be sent out to venues, though I’m surprised I even did all of this. I even have two short stories accepted, which ought to be released some time this year.

My reading has been disorganized and purposeless. I can’t even track the booksI have done. Once I closed Temple Library Reviews, I announced it the year ofReading Unwisely and I think that this is perhaps the one goal that I realizedto the fullest of its potential. I have, even so, reviewed for Innsmouth Free Press, The Portal, Rise Reviews, Pornokitsch, The World SF Blog and contributed non-fiction for Beyond Victoriana.

This past yeargobbled me up, minced me with its teeth and spat me out. Given my crap trackrecord, I have no reason to hope that 2012 will be any better, but I have myhopes, I have my plans and I’m a firm believer in the power of change. Even ifit is only a principal change, I revel in the moment, when in less than afraction of a second 2011 ceases to exist and then it’s a brand new year. I don’tlive so much for the promise of the year being better as I do to bury thecorpse of the last year.

All that shitabove, hey, that was last year. The calendar is burning in the hearth, the evilhas been exorcised, the bad is forgotten, the hard drive has been defragmentedand the good has been backed up for the shitty days of the Blue Screen ofDeath. So I’m happy, fresh and the awfully archaic naïve and hopeful person,who has no place in this world, but here I am and at the moment, I feel like2012 will be like this:

Art by Tsvetka aka Ink-Pot

[December 26th] Post-Christmas Plan

2011-12-26T13:29:00.002+02:00

With Christmasbehind me [thank god], I can unlock my bunker’s hatch and see the sun [or anapproximation of the sun; the weather is far from grand, but you get my point]without any of the unnecessary, forced cheer. While I do like the idea ofChristmas and what it theoretically represents as a holiday, Christmasfestivities have morphed into a vehicle for maintaining the appearance ofsatisfied, joyous family union to the point you really have to go down therabbit hole of self-delusion to squeeze out the promised Christmas spirit.Unless of course, you are a member of a family, which has not been warped bythis reality into a squinting cynic, and you really do have a jolly good timeat every Christmas. Congratulations, you’re a better person than me or acharacter in a Christmas movie [yeah, I’m snarky when it comes to Christmas].

Anyway, I’m donetalking about Christmas. I’m already looking towards the passing of 2011. It’spassing excites me and I’m scheming what to do with the whole of 2012, whenthat tiny New Year’s moment elapses, when December 31^st shifts intoJanuary 1^st. Unlike most people, I don’t view New Year’s Eve as anexcuse to consume alcohol with reckless wanton, though I see it too often amongmy peers, which I’m sure is common, since New Year’s Ever has been the biggestparty in the calendar since I’m old enough to remember, but to me New Year’sthe time to shed a skin you don’t need, leave yourself pink, fresh, with nerveendings naked and virginal, but heeding the lessons of past years. It’s arestart button on a simply calendar level and I love it.

After I’ve read “Booklife”by Jeff VanderMeer, I think that I’ve been on the right track to get somegeneral ideas on how I want the year to pass, but I’ve been missing thestrategic element to bind my goals from year to year in a Master Plan, whichwill ensure that I reach my overall goals for a minimal amount of time. I’vecome to understand that knowing what you want is a lot different from knowinghow to get what you want. So without further ado, I have drafted a five yearplan and the achievements I want to have to my name. With that in mind, I’vefound a course of action to support these plans. It sounds all very general,but this is my warm-up post to a week of publicly stating what I will cut downon and what I will emphasize on come next year, because I believe that statingthese goals to a broad audience creates a pact. If I’m to keep these goals tomyself, I’m much more likelier to cheat [yeah, I’m a douche like that], butstating my intentions on the web will keep in line.

In general, Ienvision my 2012 to have more reading, writing and exercise and less TV, 9gagand unhealthy foods. It’s a scary perspective, hard to reinvent my personalitytype, but I don’t see myself lasting longer, if I don’t lead a healthier lifestyle,for the sake of my body and mind.

Do you guys makeplans?

[December 21st] Alternative Alamat edited by Paolo Chikiamco

2011-12-21T10:08:00.000+02:00

I've been meaning to mention this anthology for about the better part of a month and have been failing to do so, but better late than never. I'm extremely lucky to have connected with Paolo Chikiamco, who is working hard to promote Filipino fiction through the anthology he's edited Alternative Alamat.

Since I'm a fan of mythologies, especially different, lesser explored mythologies, I have a copy of this lovely anthology to read and comment upon, which I hope will have some time in January.

While you wait on my words of wisdom, I give you the table of contents and official description:

Table of Content:

“Ana’s Little Pawnshop on Makiling St.” by Eliza Victoria

“Harinuo’s Love Song” by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz

“The Last Full Show” by Budjette Tan

“The Alipin’s Tale” by Raymond G. Falgui

“Keeper of My Sky” by Timothy James Dimacali

“Conquering Makiling” by Monique Francisco

“The Sorceress Queen” by Raissa Rivera Falgui

“Beneath The Acacia” by Celestine Trinidad

“Offerings to Aman Sinaya” by Andrei Tupaz

“Balat, Buwan, Ngalan” by David Hontiveros

“A Door Opens: The Beginning of the Fall of the Ispancialo-in-Hinirang” by Dean Alfar

Description:

Philippine mythology is full of images that ignite the imagination: gods of calamity and baldness, of cosmic time and lost things; the many-layered Skyworld, and weapons that fight their own battles; a ship that is pulled to paradise by a chain, and a giant crab that controls the tides… yet too few of these tales are known and read today. “Alternative Alamat” gathers stories, by contemporary authors of Philippine fantasy, which make innovative use of elements of Philippine mythology. None of these stories are straight re-tellings of the old tales: they build on those stories, or question underlying assumptions; use ancient names as catalysts, or play within the spaces where the myths are silent. What you will find in common in these eleven stories is a love for the myths, epics, and legends which reflect us, contain us, call to us–and it is our hope that, in reading our stories, you may catch a glimpse, and develop a hunger, for those venerable tales.“Alternative Alamat” also features a cover and interior illustrations by Mervin Malonzo, a short list of notable Philippine deities, and in-depth interviews with Professors Herminia Meñez Coben and Fernando N. Zialcita.

[December 20th] Anthology Projects Worth Your While

2011-12-20T23:22:00.000+02:00

That's how my brain feels like at the moment

As I'm gearing up to switch from academic to creative writing, I'm jotting some ideas for short stories that I've been planning to write for the following projects:

1] Pandemonium: Stories of Smoke to be edited by Jared Shurin and Anne Perry: I've been following the critical non-fiction these two have produced on Pornokitsch to be confident that they know what they are doing and their first anthology has gathered some of the biggest rising names in genre to date, which in its own is one hell of a feat.

Coming in spring of 2012, Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke brings you London as you've never seen it before - science fiction and fantasy in the great tradition of Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens lived and breathed London in a way few authors ever have, before or since. In his fiction, his non-fiction, and even his own life, Dickens cast an extraordinary shadow over the city he so loved - so much so, indeed, that his name has become synonymous with a certain image of London. A London of terrible social inequality and matchless belief in the human potential; a London filled with the comic and the repulsive, the industrious and the feckless, the faithful and the faithless, the selfish and the selfless.

This London is at once an historical artifact and a living, breathing creature: the steaming, heaving, weeping, stinking, everlasting Smoke.

2] Bibliotheca Fantastica to be edited by Claude Lalumiere & Don Pizarro: Dagan Books impressed me with their Cthulhurotica anthology, which will delightfully be continued come next year, and Lalumiere has been hailed as a force in the short form, so I wish to be involved hopefully as a contributor.

What we want: Stories having to do with lost, rare, weird, or imaginary books, or any aspect of book history or book culture, past, present, future, or uchronic. Any genre. Although the fantastical is not essential per se, stories should evoke a sense of the fantastic, the unknown, the weird, wonder, terror, mystery, pulp, and/or adventure, etc.

3] Fungi to be edited by Orrin Grey & Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Creepy mushrooms in an anthology produced by one of the key authorities on creepiness. Yes, please.

Orrin Grey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia tackle the darkest of all horrors: fungi. William Hope Hodgson’s “The Voice in the Night” and its Japanese adaptation, Matango, terrified and fascinated the editors. And now, they’re back for more.

Fungi is an anthology of dark speculative fiction (horror, fantasy, science fiction, and any other variant, such as steampunk) focused solely on the fungal. No happy mushrooms from Mario Bros. A fungus of some type must be a key element in the story, not just a throwaway element. A character can attempt to poison someone with a mushroom, mushroom cultivation may be of importance to the story, the dark patch of mould on the ceiling may begin to terrify an unhappy tenant, a group of people may consume hallucinogenic mushrooms, etc.

We are looking for a variety of settings and protagonists. Mushrooms sprout around the world, after all.

4] The Worldbuilder Project inspired by Empire State written by Adam Christoper: Technically not an anthology in the traditional sense of the word, but I think it can be fitted here. The project itself can lead to a potential inclusion into an anthology, which is always a bonus.

[December 19th] Ready, Set, Edit

2011-12-19T22:45:00.003+02:00

Somehow, I will always consider editors and writers in editing stages to be this in real life. I mean, not evil and mindless in their rage, but at constant war with mistakes in manuscripts.

I've had Crimson Anatomy [previously known as Crimson Cacophony] out to beta readers and I've received some feedback, which suggests that a lot has to be changed, both big and small. I thought that readers had to be informed about certain physical transitions, which now I realize I overdid and will have to tone down, if I'd like to avoid any annoyance on the part of the reader.

I was aware at the time that some aspects in the novel would need to be fixed, but I also knew that my perspective on the novel has shrunk to what was on the pages and not how it could be altered to support the ideas expressed on the pages. What this feedback has managed to show me is that everything has to have its purpose to be written about, within a scene, then within a sub-plot, then within the work as a single, whole work of art. Now I know these things in theory, but I learn best by doing something a thousand times wrong, which has happened here.

Now I'm ready to tackle this beast, again. I'll write a synopsis of the new draft, hopefully the final one in terms of big changes and then read the manuscript to make notes and then I shall invoke the Red Pen's power:

"On manuscript's pages white
no error shall escape my sight.
Flee, for tis not how I write.
Succumb to Red Pen's viscous bite"*

* - Any similarities between this little rhyme and anything that or may not be a pop-culture icon are purely coincidental.

[December 18th] Art based on American Gods

2011-12-18T08:48:00.004+02:00

In January, I did a post about art based on books, the example being One Flight over A Cuckoo's Nest and I have been thinking about how different mediums can recreate a single work of art, which in this case is a book, through the whole year. I like the idea of connectivity between arts; how books can inspire art can inspire music can inspire film can inspire sculptures. Above all, I have been meaning to find more fantastic art that recreates a popular book. This time I have struck gold with Neil Gaiman's "American Gods".

The novel itself is extremely visual and well suited for the following illustrations below. What novels would you like to see represented with art such as this?

[December 17th] Interview with Zoran Živković

2011-12-17T18:56:00.003+02:00

I've stumbled upon on this brilliant, long and informative interview of Zoran Živković, which you can find on World Literature Today. I've managed to finish part one and so far it's revealed a lot about the literature in Europe, a field, which is quite murky to me. I hope you find some interesting tidbits for yourself as well.

[December 17th] Miranda Rights in Downton Abbey?

2011-12-17T18:51:00.001+02:00

This week proved to be one of the more exhausting variety and I found myself season two of "Downton Abbey", which I find as one of the best period shows I have watched in a long while. The writing is smart, the characters interconnect well enough to keep me watching and there is character growth, which I found overly enjoyable. Edith has become one of my favorite support characters in the series.

As entertainment, "Downton Abbey" stands on its feet and achieves a lot with the typical British eight-episode season format compared to shows with twice as many episodes per season. However, I can't be entirely sure of whether authenticity is handled in the same way. Now, I don't know about how society operated, how all the different circles in society interacted with each other or how Britain's institutions structured and exerted control over the population during and after World War I.

What I do know is that members of the police force did not use the Miranda Rights during an arrest, which did happen in the season's finale, when two men, who looked like detectives more than officers, arrested Bates for the murder of his wife Vera. The scene itself possesses enough inherent drama to create a strong emotional response without there being any need for the officers to speak, much less use an antiquated version of rights, which were accepted as police procedure during arrests in the late 1960s in the US.

I try to rationalize as to why they were included. Everyone can relate to the severity of an arrest, so there is no need to evoke sympathy from the viewer by using a popular device for creating tension in modern cinema and TV. I assume that this is an oversight, but one that I find harmful to the suspension of disbelief. I'm only mentioning it because this simple detail derailed the whole experience in that scene.

Have you had similar moments, when watching shows or enjoying movies?

[December 15th] Shoot Your Writer's Ego, Wallow in Self-Pity

2011-12-15T22:17:00.000+02:00

I feel as if I'm wearing my insides out in such situations.

I’ve had sometime to think this through. For the reason that I can adorn any situation withfar too much drama than it’s needed, I choose to stay away from personal topicson this blog, but I’m beginning to grow confident that I can present some ‘reallife’ experience in my posts. It’s a good time as any to dispel some of themysteries that surround my person [believe it or not I’m a prime suspect ofbeing a sentient cat with the ability to type in QWERTY].

Since this storyis more of a moral, which has a lot to do with writing, I think it’s bestshared here out in the open. As you can see by all the ‘I think’, ‘I this’ and ‘Ithat’ sentences I’m all self-conscious about what happened at my day job, sohere’s hoping that you don’t think ill of me [and you can definitely recognizehow too many episodes of Downton Abbey have left a mark on my turn of phrase].

My office jobfor the past three months [I switched departments before attending Fantasy Conthis year] has me writing eight hours per day. It’s simple writing with a simplepurpose and a low level of importance. This means that as long as I manage alot of it everyone is happy, but here comes the ‘but’ thing. Being a writeramong non-writers can be deceptive of how good you really are and because mywriting [influenced by my fiction-writing style] used English a bit moreimaginatively my mistakes either have not been mentioned to me or could nothave been pointed out to me by non-native speakers, which my day-to-daysuperiors are. What we have is a recipe for a big ego [being constantly askedto translate words and how to best write a certain phrase] with no safety net [sofar there is no challenger on the front].

Since I pridemyself in being this good in English [though I’m sure this blog post is filledwith God knows how many imperfections, which I’m not picking up no matter howhard I try], it’s fairly easy for me to get my head stuck in the clouds. I lovereceiving the praise, not for the sake of attention whoring, but because Iassociate my childhood with weekends spent inside the house scribbling words adinfinitum. I think I had to write Thursday more than a hundred times to get itright and remember it. I still hate this day, when I mention it in English,mainly because of my ordeal learning it. My friends used to play outside. I hada dictionary and one hell of a mother, who fits the profile of the constantlyridiculed cliché of an Asian parent. I’m not regretful. I didn’t think much ofbeing in the same private classes with students two-three years older than me.I just love English and when I’m praised, I feel validated to the point I maydevelop a bit of an ego.

Thankfully, thatego got shot down Tuesday, when the editor in charge of the sales copy team I’mworking under [new set of duties for me] had me brought over to discuss changesto the first website copy I had written. Oh boy was it a humiliating. I can’tunderstand how a person [my editor is from Texas, so I’ll call him Editor Tex] cansay that he likes what my material and at the same time chop down everysentence I have written and rephrase until you can’t tell it has been writtenby me.

Editor Tex is anawesome person, by the way. I can see that he is indeed trying to help me andwhere he was able to explain why the changes in some expressions was needed [wordswith negative connotations of any variety should be replaced with words that ona subconscious level are all about sunshine and smiles] I immediately wrotethose down. However, there were changes, which I didn’t understand. Editor Tex couldn’tprovide an exact answer as to why he made them and went on to explain how thereare subtleties to language use [the purpose of the editing session was to teachme those], but without really presenting an argument for the changes insentence structure.

My initialreaction to all of this was: Holy flyingcow from Jupiter, can I string one sentence together correctly? It was as if I had never studied the language, as if the sacrificed hours had amounted to nothing. I fully realized that this is needless dramatic gut response, but at the time I couldn't help it. Thankfully, I kept repeating myself that this is not about me, but about the writing. At the same time, how I can separate myself from the writing, when my English is my work. It's my grand work, which has lead to this individual ones. All so complex on an emotional level.

I don’t knowwhat to make of this situation. To the people I have confided the situation, I’mto ignore some of the more perplexing changes Editor Tex makes as to a matterof taste and to take away what I do find useful. Another individual told methat to her Editor Tex abused his power as an editor, providing destructive-rather-than-constructivecritique. It’s tricky territory to be in as I greatly respect editors and I’vegrown comfortable receiving bathed in red works I have given to readers withfar superior understanding of the English language. It’s just proof that alanguage is so rich that it always gives you more to learn and I’m happy tolearn. But I can’t deny that sitting there for closely 45 minutes [all spent ona page and a half] humiliated me in ways I can’t even begin to comprehend. Idon’t hold anything against Editor Tex and I certainly can’t imagine havinganything else than a verbal discussion. Yet, having to sit there and hear theeditor wonder how he can make sense of my sentences, because my phrasing was sooff and in real time… Far from pleasant. If there ever was a version of the SAWfranchise to do with writing, then my experience would qualify.

In short, I’mgrateful that I work in an office, whose superiors are invested in helpingtheir employees work to developing their skill sets. I’m big enough a boy to understandthat there is no chance I will nail this sort of writing from the first timearound. I’m also grown up enough to admit to myself that I’m far from being thebest, never will be and that the best I can hope for is constant improvement [butgiven that I shut up, shoot down my ego and get cracking]. I will have to growthicker skin, because fine tuning how a non-speaker uses English so that itconvincingly mimics a native speaker [while living in a non-English-speakingenvironment] is going to be tough, humiliating and humbling. No other wayaround it.

I’ll leave thefloor for you guys. Do you think I’m a whiner? What are your nightmare storiesconnecting with editing sessions?

[December 12th] Of Books and Innuendo, a Meme

2011-12-12T07:00:00.000+02:00

Today I have a little cheeky challenge, which I've picked from Rhube's Tumblr In Search of Happines Max. The picture below says it all and since I'm oh-so-adventurous I decided to try it myself, because what's the harm of trying.

My book was 'By Myself' by Lauren Bacall, which I finished over the weekend. The quote is below:

“It was my first night – opening night, the theatre was packed – I was terrified and I didn’t even have to open my mouth.”

Here's the deal. I want to see how adventurous you are and whether you can have fun with this joke. Take the nearest book, do the meme and then post your answers here. I will edit them pack in my post and see where it goes. Let's have a laugh and let the books be the judge of us rather than the other way around.

[December 11th] From Reactive to Proactive Reading or How I changed My Reading Patterns

2011-12-11T15:26:00.001+02:00

I'm sexy and I'm reading

In mypreparation for the Weird Wednesday feature, whose launch date remains as January4^th 2012, I have encountered something about my reading I have notpaid much attention to and I assume is private due to the nature of my languagesituation. I know enough English to write, read and express myself on an aboveaverage level among my peers, who have had the same educational profile andhave not studied English at university level. Reading books has never beenchallenging, apart from those written in an intentionally modified English [“TheColor Purple”] or older books [“The Vampyre”]. Being a native benefits thereading experience in such cases, but otherwise I’m doing fine with literature.

Or so I wouldthink. Until recently, I’ve been ignoring a trend in my reading, exemplifyingan interest in quantity of reading rather than quality. Back in my schoolyears, when I studied in a private group every weekend on top of my schoolstudies, my teacher used to make us read everything and anything. Newspaperarticles, magazine articles, book passage, passages from a more scientifictext, from and outside our textbooks. Eventually we moved to books and we hadto read a book over the summer, mark down all the new words and add those toour own vocabulary, so that when the time came to talk about the books, abarrier has been lifted and I understood more about the book. This continuedduring high school, where I studied typical US/UK classics such as The Pictureof Dorian Grey, The Scarlet Letter, Pride and Prejudice and Jane Ayre. While Ienjoyed all these books, I can’t say the same about the reading, notes with newwords, bringing out the dictionary, spending afternoons writing the new wordsand pronouncing them and then returning to the text. This killed the joy inreading and at the time I had grown to be an avid, if a bit slow a reader.

You have tounderstand that for a teenager, studying causes an allergic reaction, whichbrings out chronic postponing of any kind of academic activities. At the time,I felt like studying will never end for me and I tried to avoid anything to dowith studying. So when I graduated and took up reviewing, I took to reading forpleasure, which is to say that I only read. Never tried to engage with the textin another way. If there was something that I didn’t understand then I woulduse the context and go on with the story. Sometimes this helped me get throughsome books easier with minor communication breakdowns between me and the text.Other times I had lucked out and did need a dictionary to help me along theway. “A Book of Tongues” is a perfect example of how the prose acted againstme, no matter how much I loved reading this twisted tale. This time around Idid try to get out some of the words, translate, then assemble all thefragments of understanding and confusion into a coherent narrative, but seeingas how I fell behind on my schedule and diminished chances of reading morebooks, writing more of the self-serving reviews I did back then, fighting tocome ahead the bloggers who read more and faster, I rushed the process andnever returned to it.

It’s complicatedto explain what I mean by ‘passive’ or ‘reactive’ reading, but it deals with a preoccupancywith number of books read, the act of having read something, stating that youhave completed a novel everyone else has, modeling choices of books based ontrends in the blogging circles [where the ‘new shiny’ rules, not that I haveanything against it]. It’s easier to blame external forces for this behavior,but that’s not quite true, because I made all decisions when it came to my ownreviews and blogging. Subsequently, I took stories with dragons and magic to besimple stories about magic and dragons without thinking further. A friend ofmine once told me that SFF literature is the most potent of all kinds ofgenres, because it has layers upon layers to utilize and comment upon our ownreality, better than other genres have. I’m quite proud to say that the man isa psychologist, erudite and has serious, always active views on everything.

Yesterday, as Istarted to read The Weird edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer I faced a rather windingand ornate foreword by Michael Moorcock. I had difficulties catching on to someof his thoughts and felt lost in the general purpose of the text. The languagebarrier rose high as it had back during my school years and I had a choice. Readit once and try to decipher it on my own in the privacy of the back of my mindor surrender, grab the dictionary and return to where I began all those yearsbefore in reading in English.

I grabbed thedictionary. Read the “Foreweird” by Michael Moorcock and the introduction bythe VanderMeers, sat down with a journal for my thoughts, a notebook for thewords that I did not know and Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English andstudied. Contrary to what I expected, studying this time around brought immensepleasure. For obvious reasons, doing anything because you so choose is pleasingin itself as opposed to forced practice from any educational institution. Butthere is more than that. The fact that I chose to return to this text andre-read with the new words in my mind stimulated my thought process, pushed meto add something from myself into my opening post for the Weird Wednesdayfeature based on the words of Moorcock and the VanderMeers rather thansummarize as I usually happen to do. I think that this is what pro-activereading is all about, opening to the text and working on how the words caninfluence me. Needless to say, this process for me has to be more conscious andI can’t say for certain if anyone can relate to me. Language is not a toughbarrier to remove. You think you know it, but then it surprises you.

In short, I’mleveling up, which is quite due, seeing as I’m in my twenties already and timeis not waiting for anyone.

I think I wentoverboard with this post and I doubt anyone has hung long enough to make anycomments, but I’d like to hear from you about your adventures in reading. Howhas your act of reading changed given any given circumstances?

[December 10th] The Books That Have Not Been Read

2011-12-10T13:58:00.001+02:00

One of theactivities I’ve been failing at in 2011 is keeping my reading active anddiverse. I’ll probably touch on the subject in my year end posts, but I haveread around twenty books and I am not too proud of that fact. A rather slow anddisorganized year, which has a lot to do with real life, personal rebellion andthe passive nature of the act of reading. The result are titles, which I’vebeen accumulating over the months. Promises I have made to authors to read andmention their books, not for the sake of hits or promotion [although writersneed the word of mouth to remain alive and well in the public’s memory], butbecause I trust my judgment that I’ll enjoy these books and that in one way or anotherthey will contribute to my development.

Dear readers, meet my books. Dear books, don't cry. You shall be read.

Long Fiction:

1] EmpireState ~ Adam Christopher

2] Shotgun Gravy~ Chuck Wendig

3] Kultus ~Richard Ford

4] Wolfsangel ~M.D. Lachlan

5] I WonderWhat Human Flesh Tastes Like ~ Justin Isis

6] Gorel andthe Pot-Bellied God ~ Lavie Tidhar

7] Osama ~Lavie Tidhar

8] Alchemy ofStone ~ Ekaterina Sedia

9] UnseenWorld ~ Sean Cummings

10] FuneralParlor ~ Sean Cummings

11] SerialKillers Incorporated ~ Andy Remic

12] HighSociety ~ Paolo Chikiamco [graphic novel]

13] Harmonicaand Gig ~ R.J. Astruc

14] The BookThief ~ Markus Zusak

15] The ColorPurple ~ Alice Walker

16] The TimeTraveler’s Wife ~ Nancy Niffenegger

17] Regicide~ Nicholas Royal

18] InfernalDevices ~ K.W. Jeter

19] MorlockNight ~ K.W. Jeter

Short Fiction:

1] Like TwinStars ~ edited Cecilia Tan & Kelly Clark

2] Helleboreand Rue ~ edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft and Catherine Lundoff

3] IrregularCreatures ~ Chuck Wendig

4] Subversion~ edited by Bart Leib

5] AlternativeAlamat ~ edited by Paolo Chikiamco

6] The Weird~ edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

7] ODD? ~edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

8] Sourdough~ Angela Slatter

9] Evolve Two~ edited by Nancy Kilpatrick

10] TheGrinding House ~ Kaaron Warren

Non-fiction:

1] Jurisdiction‘in optima forma’ or why Orthodox Slavs had no witch hunts ~ MariaSchnitter

2] Charms andmagic ~ Iveta Pirtova

3] PrayerMagic ~ Maria Schnitter

4] BulgarianFolk Magic ~ Ivanichka Georgieva

5] HistoricalRoots of the Magical Fairy Tale ~ V.Ya.Prop

6] The Historyof Sexuality ~ Michel Foucault

7] Hermaphroditesand the Medical Invention of Sex ~ Alice Dreger

8] Intersex~ Catherine Harper

9] AlmostPerfect ~ Brian Katcher

10] Time ofDeath, Decomposition and Identification ~ an Atlas by CRC Press

11] TheCambridge Companion to Modern Chinese Culture ~ edited by Kam Loule

12] Handbookof Japanese Mythology ~ Michael Ashkenazi

13] Revenge ofthe Penmonkey ~ Chuck Wendig

14] Confessionsof a Penmonkey ~ Chuck Wendig

15] 250 ThingsYou Should Know About Writing ~ Chuck Wendig

You have the word guys. Tell me what you plan onreading? How far behind are you on your reading and do you actively plan toread?

[December 9th] Not Writing

2011-12-09T18:37:00.001+02:00

Befitting the title don't you think?

I’m not writing.It’s the antithesis of what I am, I know, but I haven’t been sitting and I havenot been committing to the new techniques, new routines, new promises.Partially, I find my mind distracted by the changes occurring in the realworld.

My jobdefinition is constantly at fluctuation, where I have to pay constant attentionto it even outside the office; recalibrate my goals, redistribute my time andengage with my duties in a way I haven’t been asked to do in my other positions.First, because I haven’t had the chance to work in an office and hold a responsiblebefore. Second, the nature of SEO is shifting with the blink of an eye, so Ihave to adapt and take every new project in stride and not rely on any routine.As you may know, I thrive on routines and every aspect of my life struggles, ifI’m not in some sort of control over my routine.

The semester iscoming to a close and while control during the semester has been non-existentand I focused on my work life, I have to write a series of papers on less thanthrilling topics. No mistakes are allowed. The stakes are rising and while I’mrelatively secure on some of the topics, already having scored high results onone of my papers, I’m not so optimistic with the follow-up papers in terms ofdelivering them with ease, even knowing what’s expected from me. Exam month is closingin as well with January seeing a major shift in my work, study and thereforepersonal program.

Then there arethe Secret Projects I have been working on. One for Jaym Gates and one that isnot to be announced until later on. What I’m at liberty to discuss is that itdemands a fantastic amount of preparation and production. Working on thisSecret Project has taught me the value of developing a clear idea, devising aplan and starting off from as far as possible, if you wish to achieve a greatresult and I believe that once I can announce the details the project will go ballisticover the community.

So, this is menot writing. Why have you not been writing? [I know some of you haven’t beenand you might as well admit it].

[December 7th] The Nature of Best-Of Lists and Having Your Voice Out There

2011-12-07T10:44:00.000+02:00

Books you consider to be the "best" should blow your mind, then implode and restructure your skull and brain in ways you have not anticipated, but you like. Great books hung and haunt your memory, perception and creativity.

I'm participating in the proud tradition of Smugglivius hosted over the Book Smugglers' blog. It's a month long event with bloggers and authors sharing their very best picks from books and media for the past year, which is epic scale as far as The Best-Of lists and events are concerned.

The concept of ranking books is ludicrous to me. I can't quantify joy. Joy cannot be measured and even if it could be, every book would be a source of different joy, unless you are reading in a very niche, niche subgenre [detective stories about the supernatural death of Lincoln with flying monkeys involved in some constant way throughout every novel]. It's why I don't quite like these lists, which seem to centre around a set of criteria as to how best rank certain books.

When I ran Temple Library Reviews, I paid more attention to these best-of lists, because I sensed a certain trend among reviewers as to what rose to popularity in certain circles, which is more or less obvious given our nature to create a sort of mini societies, where ideas and recommendations are exchanged. I myself don't believe in the ranking itself; the system that determines, which is number one and why and why book "X" should switch position with book "Y". Should book "Z" even be on the list or is book "W" a better fit?

I'm not sure whether or not these thoughts cross reviewers' minds during "Best-Of" seasonal preparations, but creating a list is not something someone with a love for their blog will consider lightly. Perhaps it's the cynic in me at the time, who whispered about the potential insincerity of others and the more marketing oriented motifs others had [more or less provoked by my too unhealthy drive for competing with others]. Perhaps there are bloggers, who pick books in order to secure more ARCs and review copies from hot new publishers. I'm not ruling that out.

This year I'm freed from prejudices. I don't have a review site, I don't have a territory like I though I did, I can talk about books and review books without the numbers game shuffling in the back of my head [what I can say, it's one of my many failings] and see the good in the "Best-Of" lists as emphasis on books enjoyed, words that have left an imprint and stories that have caused spiritual alterations. They are about managing to squeeze in your voice and try to persuade someone to discover and share your love for any given book on the list, because favourite books are no JUST the writer's intellectual property, they belong to the reader as well.

[December 6th] "By Myself" by Lauren Bacall

2011-12-06T21:10:00.000+02:00

As of late I’vebeen enjoying Lauren Bacall’s cheery, bubbly autobiography “By Myself” and Idon’t want the book to end, but I’m crawling slowly to the finish line. The endis near, but I decided to voice my thoughts as they come to me. It’s differentthan my critical approach to a work and I don’t believe that there is somethingto get out of a biography thinking critically about it, not the way you woulddo a novel.

Obviously, “ByMyself” is geared towards a different generation, whose members have been atone point exposed to the names bombed heavily through the book’s pages. Throughsome of my American pop-culture exposure, I have recognized almost half thenames Bacall lists at any given time, but since the Boggart-Bacall family hadan active social life, it’s inevitable. I don’t know so much, because it justgives me other personalities from the past to explore.

What drew me in “ByMyself” was the cover art, which demanded my attention the second I laid myeyes on it and as with “Wild Swans” the book was a gamble on my part andanother good pick. I guess I’m born with the intuition to judge good books bytheir extraordinary titles [in this case, the author’s name and the book’stitle are switched, which I, at first, understood as the book being titled “LaurenBacall” and that the ‘by myself’ bit was a hint that it was an autobiographywritten by the actress herself – hopefully without the aid of a ghost writer]and cover art. While I do believe that there is something noble in seekingbeauty wrapped in rags, I deny that my epidermis shifts with waves of pleasurewhen I hold brilliance pampered and styled for the privilege of being in myhands. What can I say? I’m an egoist when it comes to the reading experience.

“By Myself”entertains me, because the Hollywood glory days have some indescribable swayover my imagination. My definition of class and pedigree [even people’s vicesat the time had class] is visually anchored in the 1950s, despite the locale.To be honest, some of the classiest people in Bulgarian public life, of stage,music and screen rose to prominence during the 50s and 60s, despite communism’slong and over-extending shadow. To be introduced to a point of view, which hasexperienced those days firsthand, is thrilling to me as a reader. To have myPeeping Tom tendencies tickled, oh what joy.

Lauren Bacall isa sympathetic voice. I adore every chipper and honest sound she creates withher persona. If America can boast with sweethearts, then Lauren Bacall would beone of them, but let’s track back to the sounds and the book. It’s rarely thatI ‘hear’. I either experience the wonders of ‘hallucinations’ reading or feelthrough every page. This is the first book to have me imagine the voice of theauthor and narrate every sentence to me. I think that this method of readingwas enhanced by the fact that I couldn’t place any faces to names as I’mprobably the worst physiognomist in the world. The only other option for me wasto direct my mind in a different direction. I’m saying this a reader, it’s funto re-invent the act of reading. You get something more, something else andunknown, if you fine tune your perception and approach any work in a distinctway. I guess that’s also a reason why people tend to re-read, but this is topicfor another post.

Last, but notleast, the rise and fall of any artistic soul is relatable to every other. Itmakes no difference, if you are a dancer, writer, singer, painter, sculptor oractor as the case is, feelings of anxiety, fear, hope, pleasure and love forthe craft are universal. It’s uplifting to read about the success of a talentedand pure human being and dream that the big break is right around the corner. Ialso assume that readers, who have been through the ups and down career-wisecan relate to Bacall’s hurdles and struggles. All in all, I’m happy.

[December 5th] "Subversion" edited by Bart R. Leib

2011-12-05T11:17:00.001+02:00

Today is the release date of a rather interesting anthology, which I'd like to bring to your attention. What caught my interest is the fact the cover, which speaks for itself and is especially striking considering the current political and economic climate on a global scale. Here is more from the press release from Crossed Genres, which have always brought quality fiction through their Crossed Genres Magazine in the past. I'm especially interested to see the socio-political criticism, which is hinted at with the cover.

Subversion:Science Fiction & Fantasy Tales of challenging the norm

‘Traitor’ or ‘revolutionary.’ These labels are two sides ofthe same coin, just as ‘hero’ or ‘villain’ depends on thepoint of view of the person telling the story. These are obviousconcepts when spelled out in clear cut settings. Because of this, howone goes about subverting the norm (as a traitor or revolutionary) isbased on what the norm is. What is normal in one society can be, andoften is, taboo in another society. This allows tales of subversionto be subtle, blatant, personal, communal, and endless in variation.

- from the Foreword by Jennifer Brozek

Subversion: Science Fiction &Fantasy tales of challenging the norm is an anthology of storiesabout striking back at the status quo – whatever that might be. TheAuthority can be real or perceived; the act of subversion subtle orovert; and the consequences minute yet significant, or immense andworld-shaking.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Jennifer Brozek –Foreword

Jessica Reisman – “AThousand Wings of Luck”

Camille Alexa – “AndAll Its Truths”

Melissa S. Green –“Pushaway”

Daniel José Older –“Phantom Overload”

Kelly Jennings –“Cold Against the Bone”

Barbara Krasnoff –“The Red Dybbuk”

Natania Barron –“Pushing Paper in Hartleigh”

Kay T. Holt –“Parent Hack”

Jean Johnson – “TheHero Industry”

Cat Rambo – “Flicka”

Shanna Germain –“Seed”

RJ Astruc & Deirdre M.Murphy – “Scrapheap Angel”

C.A. Young – “TheDragon’s Bargain”

Wendy N. Wagner – “ATiny Grayness in the Dark”

Timothy T. Murphy –“Received Without Content”

Caleb Jordan Schulz –“To Sleep With Pachamama”

Cover art: “New Generation ofLeaders” by BrittanyJackson

ISBN978-0615533292

Toplace orders for the book, for review copies, or for additionalinformation, contact Crossed Genres Publications

Email:publicity@crossedgenres.com

[December 3rd] The Weird in its Cephalopod Beauty

2011-12-03T22:00:00.001+02:00

After rave reviews, heightened publicity covering and Weird Fiction Review, a website launched with regular material provided, all in the name of the weird movement in literature, I ordered my copy of the VanderMeers' latest monstrosity bound by ink and paper The Weird.

I've been captivated by the dedication the VanderMeers have placed in their promotion of different, peculiar fiction [often with a mad glint its glassy eye and a smile that carries the charm of an inter-dimensional morgue chamber] that is yet to claw its way to the spotlight [or maybe it has, but people are too afraid to admit it]. "The Weird" will be my indoctrination into this cult so openly led by two prophets of the tasteful bizarre. Inspired by the in-depth coverage provided by Maureen Kincaid Speller over at her blog Paper Knife, I'm tasking myself with the idea to read and place my thoughts on each of the more than hundred stories on this blog come 2012.

This will be one of the directions I'll be heading in for Through a Forest of Ideas next year. "The Weird" and all subsequent release of non-fiction connected to this anthology is of great interest to me and my writing.

[December 1st] Sad Kraken is Sad and Lonely

2011-12-01T23:30:00.000+02:00

Nothing to report as of it. December has come. Christmas is being dragged from its grave once again, too early, and I'm in an introspective mood. I'm quilting my thoughts together on a few things and waiting on an announcement, which should be due already. In the mean time, enjoy the image of a Kraken above.

[November 28th] A Touch of Racism in Music

2011-11-28T12:00:00.000+02:00

It’s been quite the debate over whether or not Florence + the Machine’s video for their single “No Light, No Light” is racist. Youtube’s comment section has gone up in flames and several official music critics have expressed their negative opinions in regards to the video. The cause for this criticism is the painted in black Asian dancer, who performs voodoo rituals during the video. Here is the whole bit:

I’m not convinced the video is racist. It’s decision to play a black-white motif [and I’d like to point out it has been present culturally long before the color became attached to races] with a set of religious beliefs that has everybody’s panties in a twist. To the average viewers pitting Christianity against Voodoo will represent Good versus Evil, mainly because misconceptions about Voodoo as a dark craft are still well and alive. What I believe this pairing to represent is the conflict between rigid control [Christianity] and the close to the heart desires [Voodoo] in the context of a dramatic, forbidden relationship, which throws the one receiving its affections off kilter [here comes the image of falling].

But Harry, the painted-black voodoo priest has a voodoo doll and pins it with needles?

Yes, imaginary reader I’m having a dialogue with. The priest does have a doll and uses the most recognizable imagery associated with Voodoo to illustrate the passionate throes and pain associated with the type of love, which Florence sings about. Florence never sings of anything easy. She intensifies every feeling, every motif in her lyrics to the point that it overloads the human emotional circuit-board.

It’s not an easy love. It’s all possessing and all possessive. It vibrates and finds itself in every aspect of the singer’s existence. If you watch the video closely, you will see that all the time Florence is laying in bed with a man, which means that the video sequence is happening within her soul space, it’s a conflict and questioning of what to do and how to behave.

On the outside, she is as calm and controlled as the choir of young boys are [the idea of false self-control is reinforced through the scene where she falls through the stained glass roof], but below the obvious surface she is rocked with these storms of emotions, sweet and torturous at the same time.

To me this would have been racist, if the dancer chosen to be painted black was Caucasian, which would have been a tasteless call back to racism in cinema, where people from African descent were portrayed using ridiculously painted over white actors. The fact that they chose an Asian and painted him black, thus creating a race that does not exist, but has the quality of haunting and visually striking beauty, is a giveaway that we, the viewers, have to think in terms of symbolism.

At the end of the day, however, I believe that this video will be perceived as racist, even if I don’t believe it. Working with religion, beliefs and skin color is dangerous, because these are deeply personal and defining to a lot of people. It’s the same with sexuality, especially the jab that homosexuals receive, so I can personally see as to how the video can and has offended a group of viewers, even if it had no intention to attack anyone. It’s the risks that you run with art, I suppose.

Tell me what you think. Is the video racist? Should artists in any medium try and experiment with skin color and religion? Has a music video offended you?

[November 27th] Julianne Moore & The Succession in Art

2011-11-27T12:15:00.001+02:00

The story I’m writing at the moment [titled “Blinding”] incorporates Bulgarian folklore, lore and fables. It’s echoing the path “Fables” and Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” in terms of transplanting characters from their plane of existence and their endings into our current state of reality. Considering that the inclusion of mythical beasts is a popular practice in the genre of Urban Fantasy as it is, I don’t consider breaking new horizons, other than contributing to the expanding story pull.

The act of writing “Blinding” has me thinking about succession in art and the establishing of a permanent continuity that feeds the collective memory to newer generation through different retellings. “Fables” reintroduces fairy tales to children, who prefer comic books to regular old books and “American Gods” has peaked my curiosity as to the different deities, other than the Greek or Norse ones. Succession in art is common.

The 80’s synth beats are reliving their glory days in nouveau electronic, pardon my French and the style of the 1950’s [which has influenced visual arts heavily] sneaks in movies, music and an eternal pin-up movement. Which brings me to Julianne Moore, Harper’s Bazaar and a very couture incorporation of famous paintings. Julianne Moore’s photo session has her adopt poses and style of some of the most breath-taking paintings in the last century, along with new creations. I've expected nothing else from Julianne Moore, who is a style icon in the celebrity circles. This concept photo shoot is quite exciting as it shows these memorable works in a completely new medium, which is far from the remakes that we see.

“Adele Bloch-Bauer I” – 1907 – Gustav Klimt

“The Cripple” – 1997 – John Curring

“Man Crazy Nurse #3” – 2003 – Richard Prince

“Seated Woman with Bent Knee” – 1917 – Egon Schiel

“Madame X” – 1884 – John Singer Sargent

What do you think about succession in art?

[November 26th] A Night Among the Bulgarian Cultural Elite

2011-11-26T09:47:00.001+02:00

Yesterday was the official book launch of Angel Angelov’s “The Act of Walking on Water”, a pleasant affair, though a bit lengthy, highlighting the release of a slim collection of shorts. I randomly learned about the event thanks to a newsletter from my favorite bookshop in Varna “Shakespeare & Friends”, which organized the event, provided wine and a buffet to boot. The event, given the capacity of the bookstore, was successful with over twenty people attending, which is a full house in my book.

Unlike most readings/launches I have been to [my experience is limited to this year’s Fantasy Con] the emphasis fell down on dialogue between the author and the guests, rather than any of the stories. Angelov didn’t read his works, nor did he discuss his collection. I felt no attempt of a sales pitch either, which I found so very different from what I’m observing in the West as behavior during such events.

From what I gathered, Angelov is a well-established niche author, one of the difficult ones to read, so there is no appeal for him to generate any hype. His built-in audience, no matter how small will track his works and to me it seemed that this audience consists of other intellectuals rather than mainstream readers, although that may not be true. If it is true, then that confirms my belief that the Bulgarian literary community is close-circuited as evidenced by the number of creators in attendance [literary critics, painters and theater folk].

The downside of this particular book launch was that it was more about the author rather than the book or the potential readers. I understand that with friends and personal acquaintances as the majority of the audience, there would be no incentive to ‘sell’ the collection, but at some point the event became as a sort of gathering to venerate Angelov and his strengths, which I considered to be tasteless, albeit good-natured and probably well-deserved. What I also didn’t find all that enjoyable was the tactless use of the space, where the author seemed to overstay his welcome in the bookstore. Obviously, from my conversations with the bookstore owners, there were no negotiated terms on how long the event should have lasted.

Even with these small imperfections, I had a good evening, which turned me into more of an active participant in the event as I had to translate in real time, from English to Bulgarian and from Bulgarian to English, as the bookstore owners are both English speakers. Also, I was the night’s oddity, being the only person under thirty [even under forty] interested enough to stay and have a few chats. Business cards were exchanged, photos were made. All in all, a great evening for meeting the Bulgarian cultural elite.

Your turn. Tell me what event you were recently? Did you like it?

[November 25th] The Art of Exit Man

2011-11-25T21:31:00.001+02:00

It's been a long day and I have been to the book launch of "The Act of Walking on Water" by Bulgarian author Angel Angelov. It was a wonderful hour and a half affair with chatting, wine and speeches devoted to the man of the hour, Mister Angelov. The wine has gone to my head, which is why I will be writing a complete report in the morning.

In the mean time, I've been meaning to bring your mind to the art of Exit Man. He's from Spain or at the very least a Spanish speaking country, judging by his website, which I can't seem to effectively navigate. This type of art I most commonly associate with skaters as it appears on a lot of their T-shirts. It's pretty breathtaking with its psychedelic choice of colors, though I have picked the least colorful pieces of art.

The peculiar thing about this art direction is that I see it on all the power boxes in my city. There is a real urban movement in Varna to go around and paint over all power boxes out in the street, which would be real dangerous to touch. I have to bring in some amateur photos of these sites.

In the mean time, enjoy. Also, tell me what is the art that has you interested?

[November 24th] On Writing Longhand and the Importance of Words

2011-11-24T18:17:00.001+02:00

I’ve not spoken about writing in a long time, because I consider the craft of writing as a rather personal experience. My main understanding is that every story is different and every writer is unique in his/her thoughts, inspirations and techniques are strictly individual. From where I’m standing, I’d rather not dish out advise. There are plenty of websites, which provide you with countless posts on the technical aspects of writing. Magical Words serves advice like a petite French restaurant; compact portions sculpted to beauty. Chuck Wendig overtakes the table as an Italian seven course meal, calorie rich and dripping sauce.

In that metaphor, what am I? I’m just a story in the kitchen and I’m fine to be one. Recently, I had to switch from writing on the keyboard to writing longhand, because my day job demands me typing. The implications are two-fold. First, my fingers are already tired from hitting away at the keys and second, my brain associates this time of writing as a chore*. Writing as an act and a process, sitting down and typing words, grew to be tedious and my ideas, no matter how bright and shiny and witty suffered, when it came to give them shape.

Write or Die is an excellent software, if your brain has already swollen with the pregnancy of a story, which your fingers desperately want to deliver, but not when your story has its own umbilical cord tied around its neck. I needed c-section and writing longhand functioned as such**. Yes, now everything is a thousand times slower. Yes, I have to actually make more time to write the same amount of words I crank out for an hour. But. The big But. I place the right words, I add texture to my story I can’t do when facing the white screen or race with my fingers, because everyone types faster than they write. Sometimes it’s all about the physical presence of the notebook that helps me get my idea out.

I’m feeling a bit guilty that I’m choosing impracticality over efficiency, which doesn’t make sense. It’s irrational. This sense of guilt is stupid, because it implies that you’re racing against something or someone. Is writing a race? Well, kinda. It’s a race against death. Everything is racing with death. Everything knows that it’ll lose a race with the big, underlined and bolded THE END; it’s more of a matter of how much gets done. This brings me down to the devil: quantity and boy do we know about quantity. Word counts, word meters and the month of the word count tracking NaNoWriMo***.

Quantity is a fixation. In “Booklife” Jeff VanderMeer pins this quest for wordcount as a goal that is hollow, pardon, I’m paraphrasing from memory. VanderMeer spends some time to the importance of the right words and his points are excellent. While I understand how setting a goal, which has to do with getting a set number of words down, helps track progress, this is a ‘surface’ progress. First drafts become our arenas to suck and fail, but I feel as though advice to allow yourself to fail during first drafts is misinterpreted as ‘suck, but just get it out, doesn’t matter how much you do suck’. In my mind, this conspiracy theory emerges, where this predominant attitude about sucking has joined this fetish for metric measurements in a craft, which is not meant to welcome math****.

The right words matter even in a first draft, because later on, during revisions, you’ll find that you have a solid first draft that needs little modifications on a linguistic level. That the prose actually helps you find the right direction for the story and relatively ease your journey in the land of Edits. Sometimes you can suck too much to know how to fix a story. And all the time you saved dashing through your first draft [and more] will go into your editing.

What do you do when crafting first drafts? Do you stop to think or go where the hands take you?

----

*I’d like to take the opportunity to distance away from my brain as we never have seen eye to eye on a various subjects.

** I disturbed myself with this metaphor, so I will stop with it.

*** Dudes, I’m far from criticizing NaNo for anything else. I still believe in its key value, to tech persistence and consistency when writing.

**** I hate math, so there you go.

[November 23rd] The Death of Anne McCaffrey

2011-11-23T11:13:00.001+02:00

I've just been able to come to the intertubes and I was floored with the news that Anne McCaffrey had died and yes, my title is intentionally dramatic. I personally have not had the pleasure of reading her work, although I had in my sights. Even unfamiliar with her body of work, I know of the influence Anne had in the community as evidenced by the long list Charles Tan has assembled with tributes.

Christie Yant over at the Ink Punks has written a post, which pretty much sums up how I feel about the passing of such a profilic author. I have to agree that I wish I have read her novels and send my thanks when she was alive. I'm not sure I would have loved them, but authors need to have a connection with their fans, need to know that they are needed.

I'm convinced Anne has had many people come to her with letters of gratitude and appreciation, but it never hurts to appreciate a good person [a fantastic author with a sprawling legacy in our community] while we have the chance. Something happens when an author dies; to the readers, to the writers, to the community as a whole. It's sad, irreversible and rings a bell that time is fleeting and you should make the most of it, even in your literary explorations. Don't be reactive, be proactive, when experiencing an author. Say 'thank you'. Cause you may never get the chance otherwise. And for me, meeting Anne will happen only through her work.

[November 22nd] The Walking Dead: A Descent into Boredom

2011-11-22T21:59:00.001+02:00

Eh, I'm kinda interested in hearing what you think about the new The Walking Dead episodes so far. I had such high hopes for the show, considering that I showed the enthusiasm to review it over at Innsmouth Free Press, but I made the fundamental mistake to create 'expectations', which unfortunately were not met. Is it normal that I should expect a show to be completely boring story lines, which go nowhere [it seems as though they are like drugged asylum patients with identity crisis]?

In my latest review of the series "Chupacabra" [yeah, I'm a bit behind], I open with the following:

“Chupacabra” follows after the weakest episode in The Walking Dead to date, which is not as hard as one would imagine. The episode is the latest to miss the mark for me, but at the same time, there is some improvement, as well as some thrills.

This is not how a review of a beloved show should start. It's very bizarre for me. Anyway, I just managed to sit through episode six "Secrets" and was equally struck down by blandness. I know these people can act, but the lines they are uttering make them sound like amateurs in a B movie. Of course, this is only my opinion.

Although it's not BAD, there are 40 minutes worth of screen time of nothing. "Secrets" showcases the laziest writing I've seen in quite awhile and sudden confrontations, which make no sense. Dale has never been so vicious and his behavior towards Shane broke any suspension of disbelief. So out of character.

Speaking of dull TV, the fall season has some pretty weak offerings. Grimm struck me as an overused idea stretched over a cliche archetype of a story. Once Upon a Time alienated me with unbelievable worldbuilding ideas. Even Fringe is reaching a point in its universe, where it repeats itself, considering that they largely left the shape shifting story line without a single mention and now are picking it up again.

So guys, the ones who are watching TV shows, what have you to say? What do you like? What can you recommend and what can you warn me of?

[Nomber 19th] State of the Writer

2011-11-19T18:58:00.001+02:00

I've been silent a bit more than intended and it's high time I share some insight on what's going on with plans and projects that I'm running.

Writing-wise I've completed the rough draft of "Girl with One Eye" and am two thirds in the first draft of "A Kiss with a Fist", though both have been tough to write. After reading about Paul Jessup's disenchantment with conventional storytelling, which expects a natural progression from point A to point B [resolution wrapped in a pretty colored bow], the stories I've written are divorced from this notion. There is no challenge to occupy the character's life and demand a swift resolution [well, there is, but it's not central to the story]. I like to think I'm in exploration of life as a series of things that happen to a person and the reactive element in human nature.

The difficulty with these stories in particular stem from the fact that both of the narrators don't have eyes for the beauty in their surroundings and in their lives as well, which demands more modest and transparent prose. After the sophisticated and richly ornate prose in "Crimson Cacophony" it came to be a shock to my system. Another hurdle comes from my aversion to using the keyboard, when I create, mainly because my day job demands I spent eight hours per working day typing, which saps my creative desire to write my first drafts on the computer.

And no matter how useful "Write or Die" has been in nailing down first drafts in record time, I can't use it when my brain is against the idea to tap on keys after work. I didn't know what the problem was [I thought I was being lazy], until I sat down to at least try and outline a scene. The result: I very convincingly wrote in my vision of the story on paper. Longhand, no matter how strenuous on my arm, is how I'll forge on with my short story projects from here on.

So what have you been working on?

[November 16th] Memoirs: A Tool for Alternative Education?

2011-11-16T16:14:00.001+02:00

I've been thinking about Jung Chang's memoir “Wild Swans” for about two weeks now, so I thought to finally share my thoughts on this book, which is only two years my junior with a first print dating back to 1991. With all the new releases, I'm reading, I find it oddly bizarre that a novel can be older than me or around my age. Although I'm tempted to review “Wild Swans”, I will keep my praise to myself, but look at my experience from another angle.

As with all worthwhile experiences, finding “Wild Swans” in the first place had been random. I was browsing through my favourite bookshop “Shakespeare & Friends”, when I stumbled on this thick beauty and decided that it deserved a chance. At the time it felt like an impulse purchase, but I know you know that some books speak to you in a language that only your body can decipher and this is pretty much what I believe happened to me. I've never read a memoir. Moreover, I have rarely had a hunger to read outside my comfort zone [though this is changing at the moment], but I extracted so much gut-punching knowledge from every page in “Wild Swans” about China that had me thinking about whether it's not better to study about history, other cultures and the development of countries and civilizations through fiction.

While I like to pretend I take interest in learning about other cultures and their histories, I rarely find myself in the position where I pay an academic level of attention to another culture or history of a nation. The way my brain is wired challenges me to digest information in raw form, no matter how well ordered or sparingly presented it is. Facts are not my thing and interest alone can't pull me through. With fiction, however, sign me up. “Wild Swans” presented me with a China all my history textbooks failed to do.*

Considering how the volume of information grows, especially now that most countries in the world connect with each other and attempt to re-establish cultural connection, the newest generation has a tough challenge to absorb as much as possible about any given subject. Theoretically, it would be a lot easier to learn about any country's history through a narration rather than paragraphs with dates. I'm not saying that this should be the dominant form in which history should be taught, because I've yet to see the perfect substitute of a good old fashioned textbook [in the sense that a textbook gets the job done]. Studying with fictional memoirs or even autobiographies would be an additional tool to help keep what has been studied in class.

Why do I believe this would work? Because history is indifferent to the student. It has happened in the past and those events do not concern him, even more so, if the student lives in Iceland and has to read about Spain. There is no connection, plus the 21st century is the era of “me”, if you take a look at how products are marketed on a personal level. They are not being sold to a consumer, but to the individual and all commercials seek to establish an emotion connection with its intended audience. Memoirs such as “Wild Swans” are the commercials that sell history.

They offer a brief glimpse into what has happened over a period of time, narrowed down to an individual, whose voice the reader is exposed to through the whole book. If the memoir is competent, then the reader will bond with the narrator and relate to the pain and the hardships through any turbulent era. It's not about the dates or the figures, but how they translate as tragedies or triumphs, which appeal on a more personal level. Given that teenagers are in the age, where they are in a constant state of discovery and emotional growth, it's a safe bet that a powerful book such as “Wild Swans” would use their raging hormones in history's favour and feed their desire to learn.**

Then again, this would bread problems on its own, because in order for this model to work, children would have to be avid readers and enjoy the assigned titles, which in middle and high school is an issue as no child likes to be forced to read. Personally, I hated every single book that was assigned to me to read, mainly because it was not up to me to make the decision. So my post is more of an exercise in theoretical thinking than anything else, but worth some thought. What about you? Do you like memoirs? Do you find them useful to access another culture or are they just another pretty story?

___

*: Of course, I can't confirm the historical accuracy in Chang's book. Perhaps, Chang tweaked some of the details to fit her plan for the story. However, the Zeitgeist and the mentality of the people in the one century in “Wild Swans” along with the major historical events ring true to me as a reader. I have read that the memoir has been labelled as a fictional narrative, but even if the example given in the book through the three generation of women had not happened, Chang reinforces the belief in her readers that these events, or similar ones given the historical context, must have happened to someone.

**: I'm talking in an ideal case scenario. Let's not forget that this is theory.

[November 15th] World SF / The Portal Merger

2011-11-15T15:53:00.001+02:00

Something in tone with the news

Yesterday, it has been finally announced that The World SF Blog (run by Lavie Tidhar) has merged with Val Grimm's The Portal. This is an exciting merge, one which I believe is a perfect fit as both venues are complementary of each other.

The Portal provides excellent, high quality reviews of short fiction [I had to follow quite a lot of rules and guidelines, which made me more critical about my reviews] with an international angle, while The World SF Blog has its fingers on the pulse of international SFF with a lot of fun authors [my christening has to do with horror duo S.L.Grey, which really tops my 2011 experiences].

As a contributor to both venues, I'm more than excited to see the full effect of the changes take place and focus my own efforts in one place entirely.

Here is the official press release post: World SF Blog to merge with The Portal; Expand Operations. And as soon as the new fiction editor Debbie Moorhouse has been announced, there is a new story on The World SF blog by Milena Benini from Croatia titled "Dancing Together Under Polarized Skies".

This reminds me. Are you interested in international fiction?

[November 14th] Chuck Wendig's Blackbloom, A Hermaphrodite Deity

2011-11-14T06:50:00.001+02:00

The Hermaphrodite-Angel of Peladan by Czanara

I've been exponentially unavailable to sit down and update my blog, even though I consider to have quite a few opinions as of late. But let's not wind up early on a Monday. I'm starting the week with a worldbuilding project hosted by Chuck Wendig. Wendig has become my go-to guru, when it comes to reading writing advice, mainly because he's telling things that ring true and mainly because he presents concepts, which I have already read in a flambe of tasteful profanity.

His latest project is creating the world of Blackbloom, where his loyal readers pitch in ideas under 100 words for every aspect of the world. Last challenge, the emphasis was on the Blackbloom pantheon and my goddess-god Tallyr has been picked. The reason why I'm happy for this is that Tallyr is the sole representative of alternative gender. Tallyr is a hermaphrodite:

Tallyr is the god-goddess of the Blackbloom flowers, which grant un-death. Tallyr was once called the Lightless Garden as he/she grew the Blackbloom flowers during the third season, when Blackbloom enters into an eclipse, when her power over shadows and their secrets ripens. It is said that his/her body is the soil and the seeds from which the Blackbloom flowers grow. Now, Tallyr walks as a frail figure with eye lids grown shut and the way he/she hears is through the vibrations in the ground.

I'm thrilled to have a hermaphrodite in the pantheon, because who knows what kind of myths may go around based on the fact that Tallyr represents both genders, which is apt because everyone dies, no matter if they are male and female, so un-death is available to all. In this vein of thought, the deity of un-death should represent both genders.

The next challenge is about geography. Come join us.

As a side question: Are you tired with a normal male/female pantheons that sprout in most fantasy novels? Also, can you recommend a book where an other than male/female gender is used for a deity?

[Nomber 2nd] KazNoWriMo & The Walking Dead

2011-11-02T22:27:00.000+02:00

Completely unrelated, but made of win.

It's almost midnight and I want to conclude my blogging task, because I'm more than certain that I will not get done any writing at the moment. Real life has occupied Wednesday and apparently my role in this predicament is one of the bitch. If I'm crass, it's all because Chuck Wendig is being a bad influence on my potty mouth.

Anyway, since I'm fairly behind on all sort of deadlines, I'm skipping #NaNoWriMo as 50,000 with school, work, parenting responsibilities and loads of side work is damn near impossible. Plus, I'm on a short story binge, which makes me pretty non-eligible to participate. This is the reason I'm going indie with Karen Mahoney's KazNoWriMo, which not only allows for work on multiple projects no matter their length, but the goal is more realistic for my schedule: 30,000.

In other news, I'm in charge of the The Walking Dead reviews on Innsmouth Free Press. Reviews for the first two episodes What Lies Ahead and Bloodletting have been posted. I'd like to hear what you think.

--
PS: Check me out at Day 02 through #Movember. I even cobbled a small verse:

On the 2nd day of #Movember the stache has still to grow,
let's all hope that it will be big and hang down low.

[November 1st] Movember is Coming

2011-11-01T22:43:00.000+02:00

Technically, Movember has come. For all that wonder, why I'm insisting on misspelling November, I shall clarify that Movember is the month, where men donate their faces for science. Thirty days we grow our staches so people may donate and when people donate scientists and doctors smile a snide smile [curling their own mad-scientist's moustaches at that], knowing that they have all the funds to kick cancer in the ass.

In all seriousness, cancer is nothing to laugh at and the worst thing is that these days it goes with a lot more lax attitude towards age differentiation. It can happen to anyone, which is why I've made up my mind to grow a stache [as feeble as it may be] and at the very least spread some the idea that you need to get yourself checked on a regular basis.

Day 01:

As clean shaven as I possible I embark on this crusade. Each day I will come up with a weird sing-song verse to spread some joy.

On the 1st day of #Movember I licked my upper lip,
so that it grows a stache with a long and healthy tip.

If you are in a donate-y mood, then click on my profile HERE or click on the icon to the right. It will lead you to my profile. I've joined the UK causes, because that's where my heart lies to be honest. Let's kick cancer in the ass.

[October 22nd] Radio Silence

2011-10-22T19:00:00.000+03:00

This is me at the moment.

I'm going to recharge the batteries and be offline for about a week. This week has been emotionally draining and craptastic to have me quit subscription to Reality. I want to pull my shit together and it's not going to happen, if I hang on the Internet as much as I do. There will be a lot less posting as well as no Twitter come Monday. I need it as I want to meet my deadlines.

I need to submit my review of The Walking Dead pilot and although I know exactly what I want to say, it's not going to write itself. Then I have a piece for Beyond Victoriana to write, which needs a lot of work done on as well, since the subject matter is hard and I allowed time to slip by again.

[October 20th ] Phantasm Fornication and Peroxide Buns

2011-10-20T19:30:00.000+03:00

Totally unrelated image. It's called "So That's Why They're So Fuzzy".

It’s been long overdue. I have been considering talking about process porn, because I love the process behind each individual work. The origins; the roots, no matter how far from the crown of a story, song or vision are add a new layer of meaning to it. Further satisfaction to what you already love.

While I don’t know enough to talk about writing as a craft or have read enough of the right books to discuss movements and impact on the genre community, I know enough of myself and the byzantine railroad tracks laid in my head to talk about creativity and how a story comes together on a connectional level.

Here’s process porn behind the opening story in the Lungs cycle, DOG DAYS ARE OVER.

DOG DAYS ARE OVER: This story is already written in a second draft, though there will be a third edit to add barbwire to an already sharpened edge. What I love about DOG DAYS is that I had no fucking idea what to do with it. At the time Lungs came out as an album, I had a lesser connection with this song and I initially had the intention to write a standard secondary world fantasy story about were-creatures.

Because I didn’t know what to do with it, I dropped the story down as possibly the last to start from the cycle. Time passed and as COSMIC LOVE failed to impress editors [it still does], Lavie Tidhar criticized that I wrote about America [COSMIC LOVE took place in the US as you got] and that I should be writing about Bulgaria instead. This is the one advice that still burrows in my head to be honest and one that I am taking very seriously as pretty much of my identity is formed by the scars I’ve received in this country. Scars from my nationality and the reality caused by my nationality.

I thought about doing a Bulgarian take on Fables at the time. The idea is still here in my mind, stored in a bright backburner, but this was not to be the fate of DOG DAYS ARE OVER. No, what I have in this story is not Slavic fairy folk. Rather a ‘bun’* who sleeps with the ghosts of Bulgarian men through the ages, only to feed upon them upon their climax. That’s the concept and the world I would tread in.**

I followed that image to its natural conclusion and DOG DAYS ARE OVER turned out to be my first speculative erotica piece that justifies the sex as a tool to tell the story and reveal the character, Nikoleta. I thought I reached a new level and yes, I guess I did, but at the end of the road, I knew I missed something.

Months passed and I saw a show running on my TV. Produced and starring people, who came from abroad to live in Bulgaria, it was called LOST IN BULGARIA and two lines from just a single episode resonated: “The American dream is to make it big and live well. The Bulgarian dream is to leave Bulgaria”.

Nikoleta ran. She always ran and I knew that she was right for herself in all the decisions she made in regards of her body and the things she did to herself and other people were not a form of self-punishment. No, sex was a tool and I knew that this ‘Bulgarian dream’ was the goal. This is why I want to go through a third edit, because these are the bits that translate the story into a squid of emotions that chokes on your mind, rather than a series of images.

How? Well you have to read the story to find out.

PS: Do share your stories. Also, do you like this? Do you want me to continue?

*- ‘Bun’ is the Bulgarian slang word for ‘bimbo’. These girls are the Bulgarian fashionistas, the source of inspiration of too many a dumb blond jokes and also overlap with the sluts. The Bulgarian ‘bun’ [the actual pastry] usually has a sweet cream feeling [much like an elongated donut, but not as fluffy] and we usually call say that ‘bimbo-buns’ are ‘buns with no filling’. The ‘bimbo-bun’ is characterized by their duck smiles and have such fake hair that I call them The Peroxides. I’m sure you want to see what they look like.

Here’s Brunette Bun [they come in brunette, blond, ginger, black and multi-streaked *gasp*]:

**- I’m sure that there is something metaphorical there, which implies that I hate my country. This is a misconception. I don’t hate or loathe my country. I simply hate the vast majority of people living in it.

[October 19th] Time Out, Get Your Scuba Gear On

2011-10-19T22:29:00.000+03:00

I have no idea, who the artist is. If you do, tell me, cause this is brilliance.

I'm a bit quiet these days as the week did not start on a positive note for me. Apart from the nasty cold Sunday, the weather turned truly ghastly. There was a storm the likes of which Bulgaria has not even dreamed about. Varna, which is on the coast, nearly drowned. The harbor half-sunk and the streets became canals.

I got all wet on Monday, trying to get to work in this weather, while the nation announced a code orange. Tuesday I found my house deathly cold, leaking and isolated in a small sea with literally no transportation to and fro. You know, other than inflatable rafts. Not kidding. The water level was high enough for inflatable boats and with the streets reduced to interconnecting rapids you could have a free rollercoaster ride. Naturally, I had to work from home, in the cold with fingers ready to snap from the chill.

Thankfully we had food, power, running water and the Internet so there was no crisis situation. Since my house is on a hill we sustained little damage overall, but there is the stress of the whole ordeal that disrupted my blogging routine. I expect to return to it sooner rather than later.

[October 16th] Editorship, Walking Dead, Books, Short Stories

2011-10-16T12:47:00.000+03:00

This post's image is called "Howlls" by artist Greenviggen.

It’s a mild update post with random things that may or may not interest you enough to care or comment, because it’s largely personal rather than opinionated post.

1] Editorship. I’ve concluded my slush reading duties for Bryan Thomas-Schmidt’s anthology Space Battles, but that doesn’t mean that the work is done. I’m considering a heavy campaign to promote the anthology around the Internet, probably month-long as soon as I get to see the cover. I’m thrilled with this project as the writers Bryan has selected are talented and breathe excitement in their work.

In the mean time, I submitted my application for the spot as guest editor for The Future Fire. Submissions are accepted through the whole of October and in short, The Future Fire plans to publish themed issues, which will be edited alongside guest editors. The guest editor has a say in what the theme will be, who the targeted authors will be, the work, the promotion and the funding, which is an excellent learning experience. I will keep my theme a secret, until I can confirm an involvement or not.

2] The Walking Dead premiers its second season in the US today, which means the pilot will be available in Bulgaria the following Monday [unbelievable]. This premiere will activate my duties for Innsmouth Free Press as I’ve agreed to do an episode by episode review. I won’t be comparing the series to the comics, because I stopped following the series a long time ago and as far as I know the series is taking liberties with the source material as it is.

3] I’m progressively growing aware that I don’t develop my interests and maintain my focus on fantasy fiction. While on its own, this is not so bad, I’d prefer not isolate myself in this tiny bubble. The world is wide, books abound. Time to expand my horizons. Right now I’m in the middle of my first memoir called Wild Swans by Jung Chang, then I’m considering buying a few books on marketing and commercials.

4] The months I spend in revisions and edits on Crimson Cacophony [though I’m considering changing that title to Crimson Anatomy, tell me whatcha think] has left me in a bizarre mental state, where I can’t disconnect from the voice or the world or the editing mode. Slowly, I’m acclimatizing to creation rather than improvement. I’ve sat to plot stories for the Lungs story cycle and the sheer diversity that I’m reaching within my mind propels perpetual creativity. It is a very nice place to be in, I admit. However, my creative process on the cycle will have to wait for another post.

So what have you been up to?

[October 14th] I'm The Minion-Assistant

2011-10-14T13:39:00.000+03:00

I love the publishing industry. It's only the writing that holds my interesting. I love the books. Their physical manifestation, their layout, their dimensions, their texture, their existence and because of this all encompassing love I like to play in different fields: review books, interview their authors, do some slush and editing and now promote them.

I've had my first marketing position with Apex's The Zombie Feed project, which gave me immense personal satisfaction, but my life didn't permit to stick to it and grow, so now I'm starting slow with small steps as Jaym Gates' personal minion-assistant. I'm not going to be talking about what I will be doing with and for her on my blog or on the web, other than the cryptic "secret project/assignment" tweets and mentions. It's neither my place to do so, nor do I believe it to be professional behaviour. However, I'm quite excited to be allowed to enter this side of the publishing industry.

Thank you, Jaym.

[October 13th] Debut on The World SF Blog

2011-10-13T18:18:00.000+03:00

As you may have noticed on Twitter, links about a rather exciting horror duo S.L. Grey surfaced on the web [many thanks to @pornokitsch for the additional support and appreciation]. I've been on a very long on-and-off relationship with reviewing literature; starting and stopping, running my own site and then contributing. I do feel as if there are some conflicts of interest, considering that I want to become an author myself and will possibly find myself with the people I review, but at the same time I can't not discuss books, even if I'm not as vocal as some individuals.

A manifestation of my obsession [or masochism, as I really don't have the time for this, but I am doing it; because!] will be my semi-regular appearances on The World SF Blog. I really have to thank Lavie Tidhar for the gig.** I've never kept my involvement a secret per se, but I've never made an official statement either, which I do like to make from time to time.*

My debut involves S.L. Grey, who penned together the irresistible The Mall, which is a staple of modern horror, ill-versed as I am in these matters. You can find my review here and I've also had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg, who shot back the answers in less time I took to writing and sending them. Extremely polite and professional people.

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* I do have a flare for drama
** You guessed it, Lavie, 'thank you'.

[October 12th] Seventh Round of Edits Completed

2011-10-12T22:02:00.000+03:00

I love the art of Lora 8. Something very special in that girl.

As I have told Twitter yesterday and today in the morning, I completed the seventh round of edits on Crimson Cacophony. This one matters, because I sat through the project without interruptions [read saying 'screw it' and start something else] and although with a one month delay [and a bit on top] I finished major edits. The ones that affirm my vision about the novel. I make my decisions and stick to them without throwing my story in disarray.

Crimson Cacophony is the first book I've ever conceived, so it's a corner stone for me as a writer to have it completed and sent to beta readers. I could have always scrapped it and returned to one of my other projects, but then I'd always feel as if I haven't been serious as a writer. I'd be one of the 'I've kinda written something, but it's not done yet' writers, whose work is, by the by, never ever quite done.

Now that this has been tossed out in the world, I want to return to short fiction and complete my Lungs cycle before moving to revisions of V is for Virus, the futuristic super-villain story I've been brewing in my head.

[October 11th] What I Listen to When I Write

2011-10-11T13:29:00.000+03:00

I haven't talked about music in awhile. It's mainly because I know my tastes don't really match with what people I know listen to. But there has not been anything to get me excited as the following two albums.

Nicola Roberts remains my favorite Girls Aloud* member, mainly because I love gingers, and cause Roberts has been the most underused and underrated band member, while the band pursued the pop commercial vibe. Now, Nicola has set her eyes on a solo career and her début is Cinderella's Eyes:

It's one of strongest pop albums I've listened to through 2011 so far. All the songs, but one, are on a never ending loop on my playlist. Her music is very upbeat and pop on psychedelic synth steroids to augment her pleasantly shrill voice. Roberts offers autobiographical lyrics and believe it or not 'KY' and 'open-open wide' are actually lines from one of her songs. Cinderella's Eyes bubbly and quirky nature serves as a natural energy booster and it's a fresh breath of air on the music scene.

Next comes Tori Amos' Night of Hunters. Tori has been coughing up albums almost every year and although some are instantaneous favourites of mine, she kind of lost me, when she released Abnormally Attracted to Sin to sort of redeem herself with Winter Graces. However, her classical Night of Hunters is stunning:

Paul Jessup has told me multiple times that Tori's best work is when she is alone with the piano and uses simple compositions. This whole album is as acoustic as it can come. It's Tori, her piano and a string quartet on some of the tracks. Further treat is having to listen her 10 year old daughter's voice on some of the tracks, which make the songs all the more haunting. As a concept album, the idea of the world and the story Tori wants to tell is accessible and to base all these songs on already existing classical pieces from the masters, genius. You can't not create to this music.

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* To those who have no idea about British pop, Girls Aloud is an all-female pop quintet, which at the moment is in creative hiatus, though I think it will remain a rather permanent one with Nadine's US solo ambitions.

[October 10th] iZOMBIE

2011-10-10T20:09:00.000+03:00

As I'm ever time deficient I shall retain the right to publish long and sappy posts at some undisclosed future moment. For the moment I'd like to invite you in the weird world of "iZOMBIE" created by writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred. This a beautiful piece of work, because Roberson works in a fairly simple to understand concept of how all the ghouls and creatures that lurk in the dark are connected by a simple math equation, while at the same time presenting these awfully human non-human characters. This might sound like an attempt to rip off shows such as "Being Human" with a weird round-up of classic monster icons, but it does a unique presentation and enchanting spin on the trope.

Allerd's technique although not one that is eye catching on its own [I'm spoiled when it comes to art] becomes magic when coupled with the story, characters and writing. This is synergy. The art and color palette lift the writing and line it with the perfect retro atmosphere. It just makes it all that much special to me. You should go and totally read it, it's not at all that gross or anything. This comic is not about a zombie, but about a girl, who happens to be a zombie.

[October 7th] On being an Outsider and Geographical Isolation

2011-10-07T13:32:00.000+03:00

FantasyCon has me thinking a lot about myself and where I fit within genre and if I fit in at all. It's not my objective to cause drama or add in unnecessary angst, but I continue to consider myself an outsider to the UK genre scene. No matter how close I feel I'm getting thanks to the Internet and the relevant social media channels, this proximity is illusionary.

This thought popped in, when I discussed books with Lavie Tidhar during the weekend. He kept on mentioning names without any hint of recognition from me. I'm not that good of an actor as the best I can do is kinda nod with understanding rather than imitate the spark of remembrance. So, he just flat out asked “What have you been reading?” and it had me thinking. What have I been reading all this time? Since I'm a slow reader, the answer is not much, but even my speed is not the only factor.

I can argue that I'm young. I'm certainly among the youngest genre reviewers and promoters of the genre, if not the youngest, though probably not any more. So certainly the majority of the people have had a great head start and have read more books. I, on the other hand, turned to non-translated English titles five years ago and this only happened, because I functioned as a reviewer, a position, which granted me access to glimpse what has been happening westwards, while my country tried to overcome its communist past [it's failing by the way].

It all boils down to me not being in the UK, because even if I haven't been an avid reader from an early age, I would have been exposed to the full spectrum of the genre. I'd have a subconscious sort of link to the scene's roots. I'd have more chances to discuss relevant titles through the years. Seen or heard about the various awards and ceremonies.* I have none of that, so conversations about the books that come out or are already out there will be challenging. Keeping track of what's coming or has become trendy will continue to be a conscious effort. Name recognition will remain difficult.

I'm not bitter about it. I'm far from considering myself a unique case. I'll just have to fight for the knowledge or you know, move to the UK.

---

* I only heard about the Man Booker Prize after a year of reviewing.

[October 6th] FantasyCon Bookhaul

2011-10-05T22:28:00.000+03:00

I promised myself that I will stay away from the books, but you can hardly blame me, because the con itself turned out to be the greatest enabler in the room. Right from the start I receive a goody bag filled with books. Although I didn't keep all titles, I walked away with the meaty The Crown of the Blood by Gav Thorpe & Stacia Kane's much celebrated urban fantasy Unholy Ghosts. I'm seeking diversity within the genre, so a swing from military fantasy to modern will be greatly appreciated.

I've also snagged a copy of Wolfsangel by MD Lachlan [who was kind enough to sign my copy], because I seem to be missing out on a lot of the titles published in the UK and everybody who is anybody has read this book [the fact that a lot of the people whose taste I trust have liked it]. And let's go down hill to weird-ville with The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon, which is one of those bizarre horror stories, which work on several level: physical and emotional horror.

Further Solaris titles I'm excited about are Kultus by Richard Ford, whose comic book inspired cover art has won me over immediately. My confession is that cover art highly influences if I'm to consider a book and the majority of the titles in the UK have that factor. I've no real idea what Regicide by Nicholas Royle is about [though it has garnered appreciative gasps from people in the know of things], but the cover's spell has had a hold on me.

I'm extremely proud of my very first Tartarus Press title, Sordough and Other Stories by Angela Slater. I spent a substantial amount on it, but it's bound to be a collector's item in future and has earned the 'run in a burning house to save' book. I'm interested to read Lavie Tidhar's Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God novella, because of how I adored his Cloud Permutations. The moment I read the title Everyone's Just So So Special [a fattened collection] by Robert Shearman I said to Rob, "I gotta have it". Last but not least comes I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like by Justin Isis, which is a Chomu Press title, a press I support wildly though I have not been as vocal as I'd like.

And this is my haul. Not as volumnous as it could have been, but my bank account would have laughed through the cash machine, if I hadn't attempted to administer some self-control.

[October 10th] FantasyCon 2011

2011-10-05T21:00:00.000+03:00

I’m reporting what happened in Brighton on a Wednesday, way after it’s appropriate to report a convention, because I decided to spend the Monday in Brighton. The journey home started on Monday in the early afternoon and I changed the following vehicles: train, bus, plane, taxi, bus, taxi for nineteen hours. The good from this situation was that I read The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon, which as you might have heard on Facebook is bloody brilliant and you must read. A special thanks to cheery as hell Gary for signing the book at 3am in the morning and the celestial being, which ensured I did not end up in Botswana [I was so very focused on reading, after all].

First con. First international tripped, planned and executed as a solo mission. A lot could have gone deathly wrong, yet it didn’t. All in all it’s a success. Brighton greeted me with cheeky sunshine, blokes with pasty, naked chests and girls, who genderbendered like chromosomes didn’t matter. The Brighton atmosphere contributed to one of those warm, cozy, baked to a golden crisp moments you can’t decide on if they’ve transpired or if in actuality you’ve gone through one really convincing acid trip. Not that I’d know what an acid trip is like…

First and last panel picture, cause I'm shit as a photographer and I'd rather not blind the panelists as I make a failed effort after another.

The organization behind the con impressed me, which I assumed is the norm for any British event, though I heard that the Nottingham edition impressed no one. Panels ran on time. Busy helpers chased deadlines, tapped suggestively on their clocks when a discussion extended beyond its assigned slot, tended to every con-goer’s needs and maintained one of the strongest happy moods I’ve seen. The panels were informative and while I didn’t learn anything that I’ve not already learned [no, I’m not pretentious; I just don’t have a social life and I’ve read a lot of posts by a lot of people, who are experiencing being published and fighting to stay that way], I confirmed that I had not formed any delusions.

The readings proved to be a tremendous success. Adam Christopher convinced me that I’m going to have to be on a lookout for an ARC of Empire State*. Anne Lyle acted out a light-hearted and promising dialogue from her upcoming book, while Robert Shearman almost made me cry. I mean literally. His reading came with the appropriate pantomime and I believed that he was in fact a distraught stewardess, who had slept with a Frenchman. I enjoyed the press launches with Solaris’ free-for-all signed books buffet and cupcake fiesta, topping the charts.

From a social angle, I placed a face [and a body] to a substantial amount of the people I know from Twitter. Adele [@hagelrat] became my Fairy Con Mother and I trailed behind her and a quiet Vincent Keen [@Fiskerton] for the majority of the weekend. My late night chat with Amanda [@ALRutter], Marc [@Marc_Gascoigne], Adam [@Figures], Alex [@Alex_Bell86] and Anne [@AnneLyle] goes down in history as one of those surreal moments you wish don’t end. Everything else is rather and in no proper order, but I met up with Ian Sales, Neal Harris, Mike Shevdon, MD Lachlan, Gary McMahon, Jenni Hill, Michelle Howe, Tom Pollock, Jaine Fenn, Tom Fletcher, Lavie Tidhar, Ian Whates, Simon Marshall-Jones, Steve Mosby, Mike Crispin, Stephen and Michaela Deas, Danie Ware. God, it continues. I’m thrilled to have met the TRUE Overlords, Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris as well as a charming Jon Weir. Of course, my meets and greets compared not to what Laura Lam performed as socializing. It’s as if the girl cloned herself and I think I saw her pretty green shirt in EVERY room.

Yes, that's Jon Weir. And he's not pretending to know me. He knows me. Kinda.

During FantasyCon I said my weirdest set of words: ‘sentient, sarcastic talking refrigerator’.

I also promised myself that I will not buy books, but succumbed to weakness and bought oh so many pretties. I’m extremely proud of my Sourdough and Other Tales by Angela Slatter as I have spent enough money on it to live off for two weeks in Bulgaria. I’ll do a separate post on the books tomorrow, so this is it. I loved it. Thank you everyone for being so welcoming and helpful and patient, when I asked my weird foreigner, touristy questions. It’s been a blast and I will do it again.

PS: I’m sorry if I didn’t mention someone on this post. If I completed that list, it would seem as long as a short story.

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* Yes, the original post said that I did have an ARC, which is not true, cause I don't, but I wish I do even though official ARCs are yet to be printed. Not an intentional lie [travel lag], but a mistake that still looks incredibly bad. Apologies.

[September 26th] FantasyCon

2011-09-26T20:02:00.000+03:00

I'm announcing it, officially, with all the fanfare and nyan cat colored lights. I'm attending my first ever con, FantasyCon, which opens this Friday in Brighton. The programme has been announced as well, which is a huge relief. I need a couple of days to make sure that I make all the right choices and visit most of what's available. I'll attend my first author reading and I'll have to somehow NOT buy tons of books... Yeah, not buy... *sigh*

I'm excited is an understatement.

In the mean time, six more chapters to go. Can I do it?

[September 25th] The New 52 Week 3

2011-09-25T13:36:00.000+03:00

As faithful as ever, I return with an update with DC's reboot feature. It's Week 3 and things are controversial as they can be. After last week's tasteless reinventions of famous characters, which robs the multiverse of its small diversity, now it's time for women to be portrayed as soulless sex-bots. Even so, there are a few titles I'm interested in reading. I've seen Batman and all Batman related titles be recommended, though that's too obvious. I'm certain that a lot of the attention is aimed at Batman and Superman, hence the multitude of titles based on either the Bat or Sup family. I'm not that fascinated by Batman to be recommending him.

[Birds of Prey] As you know I'm wildly passionate about Birds of Prey, because of the hugely successful run in the capable hands of Gail Simone. I had reservations about the new version, assuming that without Oracle a lot of the psychological warfare would be absent. The new issue packs action, hints towards a bigger plot and the introduction of Starling proposes a limitless amount of opportunities for development.

[Blue Beetle] From the episodes of Batman The Brave and The Bold, this new Blue Beetle captivates. Plus he's from a different ethnicity *gasp* and I never really had any idea what his origin story is. Right now, not much has happened and there is no foreshadowing as to a greater arc regarding the character, but it's a worthwhile investment.

[Catwoman] I know that the tacky sex panels dampened my spirits a little as the space could be utilized for a more fleshed out effort on story telling, but I love Catwoman. She's one of the iconic DC characters. She and Harley Quinn are magnetic. There's potential here. Let's hope it's less wasted on Rule 34.

[Supergirl] I don't know where this issue will take. As I'm not into the Kryptonian mythos, I'm grabbing onto this title in the hopes that I may achieve enlightenment. Plus Supergirl appealed to me as an easy going ball of sweetness and energy. From the looks of it, she may have gone a bit grumpy.

[Wonderwoman] The scene, where decapitating a horse gives birth to centaurs tipped the balance in favour. I love Greek Mythology and the writer here doesn't waste time at all as obviously Zeus has himself a brand new offspring and by the looks of it, Wonderwoman's mission is to keep safe the mother.

[September 24th] Shake it Out

2011-09-24T12:04:00.000+03:00

I've been a bad Florence + The Machine fan. Their second single has been released last week and I have not placed it on my blog. I have to admit that the heavy use of church organ makes it harder for me to enjoy this as much as I enjoy What The Water Gave Me, purely because my ears can't handle heavy sounds, while at the same time the song has a sonic/seismic quality that quakes through your bones.

Here's the video:

Lyrics:

Regrets collect like old friends
Here to relive your darkest moments
I can see no way, I can see no way
And all of the ghouls come out to play

And every demon wants his pound of flesh
But I like to keep some things to myself
I like to keep my issues strong
It's always darkest before the dawn

And I've been a fool and I've been blind
I can never leave the past behind
I can see no way, I can see no way
I'm always dragging that horse around

And our love is pastured such a mournful sound
Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground
So I like to keep my issues strong
But it's always darkest before the dawn

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh woah

I am done with my graceless heart
So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart
Cause I like to keep my issues strong
It's always darkest before the dawn

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh woah

And given half the chance would I take any of it back
It's a final mess but it's left me so empty
It's always darkest before the dawn

Oh woah, oh woah...

And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't
So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road
And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope
It's a shot in the dark and right at my throat
Cause looking for heaven, for the devil in me
Looking for heaven, for the devil in me
Well what the hell I'm gonna let it happen to me

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh woah

Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah
Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh woaaah

And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back
So shake him off, oh woah

[September 23rd] Super Blowup Dolls to the rescue

2011-09-23T10:09:00.000+03:00

As you know I've been keeping close tabs on The New 52 DCU reboot. This week DC writers have introduced readers to the brand new liberated sexy ladies. The examples are Catwoman and the new Starfire in Red Hood and The Outlaws. Laura Hudson discusses the issues with DCU's take on women with provocative characters at Comics Alliance:

But the problem isn't Star Sapphire. Or Catwoman. Or Starfire. Or Dr. Light raping Sue Dibny on the Justice League satellite or that stupid rape backstory Kevin Smith gave Black Cat or the time Green Lantern's girlfriend got murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator. The problem is all of it together, and how it becomes so pervasive both narratively and visually that each of these things stops existing as an individual instance to be analyzed in a vacuum and becomes a pattern of behavior whose net effect is totally repellent to me. As an anomaly, maybe Starfire could be funny, the way the big-breasted, over-sexed Fritz (who even got her own porno comic, Birdland, which is pretty good if you're into that) is often funny in Love and Rockets, mostly because the series is already packed full of incredibly diverse, fully-realized female characters. But as the 5,000th example of a superhero comic presenting female sexuality in tone-deaf ways, it's just depressing.

###

And the problem is that when I look at these women, I would very much like to see confident ladies who enjoy sex and are having a fun sexy time. But what I see instead are women who give me the same impression as creepy dead-eyed porn stars mechanically mouthing "oh yeah, I want it." And that feeling of coerced sexual enthusiasm is the creepiest, saddest, most unerotic thing I can imagine. And if I were able to have a boner, seeing something like that would make me lose it every time.

I've had issues with both titles, more with Red Hood rather than Catwoman. Laura nails down all that made me cringe and not connect with the titles completely. I think that the issue with the end panel in Catwoman, where Selina is riding Wayne, is that the sexual release acts as Selina's go to method for dealing with bad days and depression. Yes, Selina is down and the way Batman consoles her is with a Bat-gadget that only he can provide. This is not to say that I didn't find the panel erotic or tasteful. Batman and Catwoman are wonderful together and I expected Selina to get Bat's pants down, but the timing is off.

Instead of seduce him, she clings to his anatomy like some people cling to food, sappy music or movies [or whatever you do when you feel sad] and the panel in this case takes away from her power rather than empower the character. Selina's just one of those girls with a complex or low self-esteem issues that need to have sex to feel better. That's not the case, but to me it looks like it is.

Starfire is the worst example of how sexually objectified women are in comics [at this point I can even say that the Star Saphires are better presented]. First, I don't have a background with her as a character other than the Teen Titans animated series, where Starfire appeared as the goofy and kind hearted and sweetest girl ever. Tamaran, in the animation, praised love and emotions. I believe the animation used these cardinal principals from the comics.

In the New 52, Starfire can not even remember her teammates, because to her every human looks the same and therefore is not worthy to remember. While this character trait promotes racism [white people and Asians, anyone?] the biggest issue is the absence of love in sex for her as a Tamaranian. Never about love. It's physical and basic. What happened to the love? To veneration of emotions? Forget about pleasure, the stilted and casual deliverance of the line "Just that love has nothing to do with it" combined with the catalog posing in previous panels, is just wrong. Starfire is not a woman, she's a husk. A super powered blowup doll.

I'm saddened to see sex brought low-brow. I don't mind seeing sex. Yes, superhero stories are not by definition sexual as action and violence dominate themes. When I do see sex in comics I'd like to see my heroines as avatars of sex and not the cheap, imitations, the superpower blowup dolls you can contort into pale resemblance of sexuality and sensuality.

[September 22nd] Revision's Red

2011-09-22T11:31:00.000+03:00

'Dear Prudence' by Larkin

I realize that the technical term is editing at this stage, rather than revisions, but I felt a strong need to alliterate. Makes any titles catchier, even if it is a cheap trick.

An update then. Contrary to popular belief, mine included, I'm to meet the self imposed deadline on Crimson Cacophony. Arguably, I have 20,000 words more to add [the lack of detail in the latter third of my chapters is staggering in its scope and ambition] even with six remaining chapters. Though I'll certainly adopt the role of a surgeon should the need thereof arise. I prefer my chapters to be trimmed and slimmed down into bites. The inclusion of agent Thater is one of the highlights, which will make the ending more realistic in the sense that it will make a lot more sense.

One of the trends I've realized with this novel is that other than Syringe, all my other characters are male, which is rather abnormal for me. My fiction is female exclusive [am I using this right?]. Women rule, women destroy, women overcome. In Crimson Cacophony it's as though I'm overcompensating for ignoring my own gender.

I have six more days in order to conclude the subsequent draft of Crimson Cacophony, before my trip to the UK, where I shall be attending Brighton's FantasyCon. I'm not sure whether I have mentioned my trip before, but I will definitely spell out more in regards to the journey. My project is to have a travelogue from the dates 28.09 [date of departure from my home] and the 05.10 [time of arrival at my home].

-----
Project: Crimson Cacophony
Chapters Edited: 34
Words total: 64,700/80,000 (supposedly)
Chapters left: 6 (supposedly)

[September 21st] Candle in the Attic

2011-09-21T23:11:00.000+03:00

I've a brand new anthology, I'd like to sink my teeth into, which is now hot off the press from the ever so wonderful Innsmouth Free Press.

Candle in the Attic Window, our Gothic horror anthology, has officially arrived. We offer 27 poems and short stories inspired by Gothic themes from: Don D’Ammassa, Jesse Bullington, James S. Dorr, Leanna Renee Hieber, Paul Jessup, Ann K. Schwader, E. Catherine Tobler, Colleen Anderson, and many more.

The power has gone out and all that remains is the glow of a flickering candle. Come up into the attic and uncover some secrets: a vampire who feeds on something other than blood, the lover who returns from the dead, a cursed German industrial complex, a movie crew shooting a documentary in an old abandoned house, and a vengeful mummy.

----
The anthology also features a moody Philipino inspired story by the talented Theresa Bazelli. It's a real chiller and Bazelli barely tapped into her full Asian WTF-ary dominion over horror. I'll be munching over my copy soon enough.

[September 20th] The New 52, Week 2

2011-09-21T00:52:00.000+03:00

Part for time two of my DC’s The New 52 recommendation list. Out of the thirteen titles from last week’s release I set my eyes on the following precious, chosen ones. I've read most of them and the ones I haven't mentioned are the ones I will need two or three more issues to decide on whether to recommend of not.

[Batwoman] Easily, the most visually stunning comic book I’ve ever read. This is art of the highest concept, which could make me ignore even the shittiest story. Thankfully, the story is promising, especially with the supernatural angle.

[Demon Knights] Interesting bunch of immortals grouped together against a dynamic backdrop in popular mythological era. Madame Xanadu is a pure joy to read and the flirt with Etrigan promises for a fertile development ahead.

[Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.] Father Time as a small Japanese school girl. A group of highly recognized monsters as black ops team. A mummy as a cleric. Need I say more?

[Resurrection Man] Not very clear with what ‘overdue’ means or what the heck is happening at the moment, but the concept is nice and the writing to solidify the superpower is strong. I will gladly explore where this will head.

[Superboy] Can I say this is perfect? No, but there is a high possibility to see Superboy in a hero against hero action, which I so adore. Plus the theme about people that are being made and therefore are broken or incomplete fascinate me.

[September 19th] The New 52 Week 1

2011-09-19T22:28:00.000+03:00

I’m, yet again, missing in action, so this is why I’m late to comment on the first releases from the DC reboot. If you can’t tell, I’m excited, cause I’m a super hero fetishist and in the mean time I receive a strange tingling sensation, when my eyes zero in ‘#1’. From the thirteen titles released in the first week, I can recommend five as I know that those five I’ll be reading with a great interest.

[Action Comics] I admit I’ve never given Superman the chance he deserves. His purity puts me off, but with the reboot, Superman has a bit more character and comes off enjoyable in his cocky behavior. I’m very interested to see where this series is heading.

[Animal Man] The cover art had me drooling right after the line-up had been introduced and I have no idea, who Animal Man is. His powers kind of remind me of B’wana Beast, but I kind of only know B’wana from The Brave and The Bold. Fantastic first issue. It’s something I’d enjoy writing and reading in any format.

[Batgirl] It’s Barbara Gordon and Gail Simone. So far the first issue is wobbly with a rather weird nemesis and baffling last pages, but I’m not losing faith yet.

[Stormwatch] I have no idea, where this is going, nor do I know any of the characters, but I praise the superpower of speaking to cities. Yes, I’m reading a series because of a concept, but as far as I know, this is the sole series to tackle the overarching universal plot. This might get interesting.

[Swamp Thing] Good writing and interesting story, if you don’t trouble yourself with who in tarnation is the lead character: a human, a creature or a genetic margarita of both. Bonus point for nailing one of my favorite powers, plant life manipulation.

[September 5th] Thoughts on JLA Issue 1

2011-09-05T11:22:00.000+03:00

In the wake of The New 52 here is what I think about the 1st issue of the new Justice League series. Statler and Waldorf summarize the rollercoaster I entered, when I opened my issue:

Jim Lee’s art kept me attention. Although I’m not partial to how he draws Batman’s chin [I’m guilty of watching too much The Brave and The Bold], Lee commands the panel. I wish that Geoff Johns could do the same in the writing department. While it’s true that he captures the emblematic douche-ness of Green Lantern Hal Jordon [a character I dislike and the more I’m exposed to his dialogue, the more I dislike the comic]; I feel as though half of what he says is unnecessary.

I’m unaware what the general opinion for infodumping is for comic books, because I’ve read older series, where a speech bubble took two thirds of a one-third-page panel, but Geoff is in details, which I don’t care for. Do I really need to know how Batman got the tip for the alien thing that did something at the docks? Do I really want to know Hal’s life story, considering both heroes are on the run from the police?

After the initial introductions between Batman and Green Lantern, the issue follows a very repetitive pattern. Batman says something, Jordan acts on impulse rather than any reasoning, something unexpected happens and then Batman swoops in to fix things. Check the ending, which foreshadows Batman vs. Superman fight*. I’m also not at all pleased with Batman’s new need to prove himself superior or more accurately the writer’s goal to have him be superior. The easy peasy way how he figured how the power ring worked and guessed what the robot planted in the sewer, when the power ring failed too.

Another issue I had stems from Cyborg’s pre-hero arc. While I do care, who Victor Stone was before becoming Cyborg, I don’t believe starting as far away from his origin is justified. First, his appearance is disconnected from the main plot [though plot is an overstatement right now] and then this first issue has to establish the readers’ interest in a staccato pace. Maybe Stone’s accident as a cliff-hanger would have boosted the appeal.

Is this a bad comic book? In on itself, no. Considering how many months went into The New 52 in terms of promotion and promises how everything would be altered, yes. I’ve read worse, but I can’t deny that this issue suffers from inefficient storytelling.

---
* Also who else thinks a Batman vs. Superman brawl is as cliché as ideas come.

[September 4th] What the Water Gave Me

2011-09-04T21:48:00.000+03:00

I've been in a creative dead zone as of late. I've found myself interested in digesting art in all of its mediums rather than creating, which is always a bad thing, when my goal is complete these final edits before undertaking my trip to the UK. In the mean time, I've found it rather cathartic to add some order to my computer's hundreds of files and burn discs with files and movies. Again, while a fun, control-freakish activity is hurting my productivity.

I'll try to be good, but I can't promise anything.

As a peace treaty, I'm offering my new slice of inspiration "What the Water Gave Me" by Florence + the Machine, whose yet untitled album will be released on November 7th.

[August 24th] Weird Tales' sudden change of editors

2011-08-24T22:04:00.000+03:00

I'm very distraught at the news that Weird Tales has been sold and its staff fired. As I learn from The World SF Blog, a writer named Marvin Kaye has bought it in order to edit it himself. Details on the purchase are scarce and are competently summarized in the link I've provided. I find this very hard to swallow.

One of my goals as a writer was to have a short story accepted by Weird Tales under VanderMeer as an editor. Now that won't happen. I also lament the loss of the all female staff, which managed, in my honest opinion, to bring a state of Reconnaissance to the magazine. I can't say what will happen with the magazine now. I do hope it maintains popularity and credibility, but I am distraught that such an exciting and innovative era has come to an end.

Here is Ann's farewell letter.

[August 23rd] The Mall by S.L. Grey

2011-08-23T13:04:00.000+03:00

As I prepare for my interview with writer duo S.L. Grey, I'll leave you guys to watch the trailer of their book "The Mall," which is a refreshing take on horror.

It doesn't just scare, it disturbs and leaves you in unease through most of the time. Enjoy:

[August 22nd] Sex, Anime and YA at random

2011-08-22T13:04:00.000+03:00

This one is called "The Crying Tree"

I've been thinking about various topics to discuss in a blog post and also, I've been having random thoughts that can't exactly manifest into full fledged posts. So I'm stitching them together.

1] I'm tired of sex being ignored in fiction as an important pillar in a character's growth and arc. I see sex either tag along with ('naughtier') romance novels, where it acquires a sweet, sweet aura as 'making love' or I see sex turned into a weapon, either as manipulation or as violence. It's why most villainesses are portrayed as depraved or highly sexual. Poison Ivy, anyone? Catwoman certainly appears on a lot more pinup style art than say Wonder Woman? Why? Cause she is a bad girl, both from a legal and moral standpoint. When sex takes on a more important role in a work, the work itself is deemed as less important, because sex equals porn equals mindless fornication equals no place for a good story.

2] Japan needs to stop with the superhero crossovers they have picked up. Iron Man flat lined in a sense that Japan simply can't peg down his vices in a way that makes Tony Stark himself. Not to mention that the X-Men overhaul is appalling. While the Scott/Jean post-Dark Phoenix drama fits the Japanese storytelling method in anime, Emma Frost does not cry. Her name is Frost for a reason, you know. Composure. Yet, all the female characters are reduced to crying and panicky weaklings. Not to mention the breasts. I do not like the swollen flesh balloons and I do not like the closeups of them jiggling.

3] At the same time, I have to compliment Japan on giving the world "Ergo Proxy" and "Dead Man Wonderland". Though a bit typical for Japan as a story type, both follow a wonderful art direction, which more or less for my 'oh shiny' syndrome is a big plus.

4] Is YA a genre? From my comments on my Saturday post, it was mentioned that YA is an age classification, but more or less it has become a label and the term YA now creates certain assumptions and expectations, much like how Epic Fantasy makes the reader expect a multi-factional war. I feel the same way, when I hear adult fiction. I instantly think of sex and violence with a dose of reckless decadence.

5] I watched "Hanna" and was impressed. Just WOAH. It made me think of being a voyeour in a musical video game reality.

[August 20th] YA Fiction is Female Territory, No Boys Allowed

2011-08-20T10:55:00.000+03:00

I've been minding my own business on Twitter, when the @booksmugglers tweeted a link leading to a NY Times article, which in short complains that there are no books for boys and that YA books target a predominant female audience. You can see from the opening paragraph that you're about enter a bizarre world:

"At an American Library Association conference in 2007, HarperCollins dressed five of its male young adult authors in blue baseball jerseys with our names on the back and sent us up to bat in a panel entitled “In the Clubhouse.” We were meant to demystify to the overwhelmingly female audience the testosterone code that would get teenage boys reading. Whereas boys used to lag behind girls in reading in the early grades, statistics show, they soon caught up. Not anymore."

The author, Robert Lypsite, tries to convince the readers of his article that boys don't read because all modern YA fiction is geared towards girls. I think what Mister Lypsite is trying to say is that most popular and marketed YA novels that are spoken of are somewhat female centric. The Twilight boom has definitely boosted the profile of this particular YA genre. Is that a bad thing for boys and their literacy? Not necessarily.

For one, I as a boy always tried to read books written for adults. Can I say that based on my own experience I can judge for other boys? Probably not, especially not for American youth, when in fact I live elsewhere, but from my experience boys that do read, have been reading books with a very adult content, which was not especially targeted for them. Again, this may have a reasonable explanation in my country's case as we survive on the translated works from other countries, with our own national literary scene decomposing somewhere.

I think that boys read, but they may not read what Mister Lypsite is selling at the moment. As with all genres there are trends, certain genres and certain audiences rise to prominence, but that does not mean that there isn't anything else out there for other target audiences. It's just not in plain sight, which I think is far from the dramatic question Lypsite poses in his title "Is there any hope?"

Furthermore, I take gripe with the fact that most of his statements read like fabrications without any solid examples. Who said that editors "ask writers of books for boys to include girl characters — for commercial reasons —" and why would that "further blunt the edges"? I'm not a fan of the reasoning that a girl in fiction acts as a kryptonite for masculinity. And then of course comes the mandatory bash-speculative-fiction with "supernatural space-and-sword epics that read like video game manuals and sports novels with preachy moral messages — often seem like cynical appeals to the lowest common denominator".

Right, so the issue that Lypsite has is that boys are reading, but not what he's selling. Though I may be a bit biased by now, cause he certainly bashed speculative fiction. The whole article he wrote supports the theory that boys are interested in different readings such as nonfiction and that modern themes such as "disease, divorce, death and dysfunction" test better with girls. And I'm certain that should boys shift their interest in massive numbers to a genre, the industry will definitely pick it up and alter accordingly.

Plus, I think that the majority of boys are reading speculative fiction at the moment, but the one aimed at adults [though I am just stating this as a fact I have no data to back it].

SO, is there any hope for us poor, boys?

[August 19th] There is a difference from bird of prey to bird of prey

2011-08-19T12:45:00.000+03:00

Two days ago I finished reading Birds of Prey, volume 2. I'm a huge fan of Gail Simone and this is the sole DC series, I was able to follow without having to read multiple others. The first volume, which ran from 1999 to 2009 turned into my all time favorite series. The reason: an almost all female ensemble cast from the brawn to the brains to the designated driver. I love female super heroes and it has little to do with pubescent male wish fulfillment, but more with the strong ties in my childhood, when I was exposed to the Magic Girl anime sub-genre.

Since those days a woman in a costume fighting crime/evil supernatural menaces strikes a very deep, creative cord in me. Birds of Prey came to me as a refreshment in a testosterone filled spandex universe and fully embraced the concept of a female warrior. It works. The first volume under Simone did and the second volume under Simone did. Whenever the series was written by a man, it kinda did click with me much. Not say that men can't write female characters. Paul Dini did a fantastic job with Gotham City Sirens, although that title felt more sexual and naughty.

Now, with the DC Universe reboot or relaunch or whatever they are calling it these days, a writer other than Simone will be heading the series. I'm not familiar with Duane Swierczynski's work, but he sure ain't no Gail Simone. The worst offense the people at DC did was mess with the cardinal cast:

Oracle will no longer be Oracle, but a very mobile Batgirl. I'm not sure whether the series will survive without Oracle, because it was because of Oracle's mind games that each issue blew me away. The intricate cat and mouse games, the deception and infiltration and double crossing. Without Barbara Gordon as the mastermind behind this operation, the Birds of Prey will be just like any other superhero team. And that is sad.

There will be no Huntress, no Zinda... Only the Black Canary, who also got a costume redesign I'd not wish on my worst enemy. Can any one recognize Dinah? I sure, almost, couldn't. Then we have Katana, whom I care for none. A new character, who may be of some interest and then Poison Ivy. Poison Ivy suffers again from a superhero fashion faux pax, but I think that the change from a villain to a semi-hero would be interesting to see. Almost like a mirror version of what Huntress was, a hero tip toeing to the dark side from time to time.

Either way, it's a shame that the guys at DC didn't at the very least keep artist Stanley Lau, who produced all the beautiful covers for volume two:

Will I love volume three? Possibly not... The very least I can give it a chance and see whether Ivy might not make it bearable.

------
I'm back on the editing train. I'm two days behind and by the looks of it, I will possibly miss my deadline. I've finished the chapters I'm happy with and will now write brand new ones, inserting the very menacing agent Thater. Ouch.

Project: Crimson Cacophony
Chapters Edited: 20
Words total: 37,303/90,000 (with 30,000 to add)
Chapters left: 16 (supposedly)

[August 18th] First Sale: What does it mean?

2011-08-18T11:28:00.000+03:00

I'm going for a simplistic piece. I'm a writer. It's me and the words.

Last Saturday, I’ve hit a milestone in my path [‘career’ sounds too presumptuous at this point] as a writer. My dark fantasy short story “Hurricane Drunk” has been accepted by the editor of Arcane Magazine for their second issue. Writing these words still feels a bit weird. I’m used to the rejection routine; send a short story and receive a rejection.

I literally had to reread the acceptance email to understand that I’ve done it. I’ve sold a story. To a magazine [awesome one at that]. A paying venue. It’s a simple thing that has happened. Someone said yes [though not just anybody, I always aim high]. Yet, this ‘yes’ resulted in a complicated emotional response. At first I roared [though in reality I probably sounded like a squeaking rodent, which found cheese heaven], I felt as though I have conquered the world. It still does.

Publication. One word and a thousand victories attached to it. It’s saying, ‘yes, I’ve been paid to have my short story appear in venue X,’ to the people, who ask ‘have you sold anything’ and try to belittle your craft. It’s receiving appreciation. It’s verification that you can do it. It’s the hope that this is just the beginning and that if you invest further, you may reap more. For me publication has an additional meaning.

It means that I’ve crossed the language barrier. It means that I get to slay my greatest fear in the face. Writing in itself is hard. Crafting stories in any language challenges the mind and has no exact regulations other than the obvious grammatical ones. Writing in a language that isn’t yours raises the bar and makes it ‘nigh impossible’ to an artistic soul with a paranoia [*clears throat*].

All the rejections I’ve received whispered to me ‘the editors can sense that you are slipping on a skin that is not yours; they can tell; they know and they will not have none of that.’ I don’t live in an English speaking community. I have no sense of how the language is spoken on a day to day basis. I’m not immersed in the cultural undercurrent connected to the language. How am I supposed to recreate the authenticity of the language, if I’m not exposed to it? This is the question, which burrowed between the lines of every paragraph I wrote.

I understand that I’m fretting over technicalities, but a story can’t live on a ramshackled stage. It doesn’t work, when the writing itself ejects you from what’s going on the page. This first sale proves that all my love for the English language comes across in my sentence structures and word choices and equates me to other writers at least on a technical level [bearing in mind that every writer has his/her unique voice].

What the first sale isn’t, is a law that states that from now everything will be fine and dandy. As people say, it’s easy to get published. It’s hard to stay published. The first sale is a promise of what may happen. Whether it does happen or not depends on the individual. Needless to say, I’ll work towards establishing my name in a niche. It seems possible, now that all doubts and fears are slumbering in their cave.

[August 10th] Ahead of Schedule

2011-08-10T12:57:00.000+03:00

This week's piece comes from Dan Duncan & I chose it because I wish I had the ability to go back in time and not waste it. Yes, I procrastinated profusely... Does a person go to hell for that?

I surprised myself by being ahead of schedule [hence the wonderfully imaginative title of today's post] and have gone over the chapter quota I wanted. Instead of resting my ass on chapter 10, I've completed edits on the next two chapters as well. I'm in love with how I've set things up so far. I've even divided the book in two parts and one prelude. The only issue so far is the fact that the usual garden variety Urban Fantasy [along with a lot other speculative fiction genres] runs a minimum of 90K and I have 61K novel.

While I do predict 10K increase, where I have slacked off in the last chapters, I still need 19K more. Theresa Bazelli, my alpha, suggested more interrogations and a brand new character and what do you know, my subconscious is actually excited to include a new character in the novel. I even know who that will be. *itch itch itch*

Project: Crimson Cacophony
Chapters Edited: 12
Words total: 18,129/90,000 (with 30,000 to add)
Chapters left: 24 (supposedly)

[August 9th] Final Stage Revisions Entered

2011-08-09T12:45:00.000+03:00

The title of this piece is "Imagine" & I'm imagining finishing something properly.

As anticlamtic as the blog has been, I for one can say that I have been doing work on “Crimson Cacophony”. I’ve finished with the preliminary reading, assembled all the plot lines in a chart and am able to throw in notes in the table as to what I have to fix in order to connect each chapter with the next.

I can’t honestly say that this feels entirely organic, in the sense that I have to answer questions that I have left in my own writing, like how the hell is my character feeling confident in her abilities, when each and every success she achieves has someone else’s involvement as foundation. The whole novel is a careful balancing act between the depression she feels knowing that she is marionette with very promiscuous strings and the delusional hope that she can obtain the power [magical or otherwise] of the imaginary super ego she has created for herself.

I can’t say that this in particular is plot as the struggle is internal and represents the themes of identity and control, which I’m fascinated with for this particular project. Nevertheless, this constant swinging motion from one state to the next should go uninterrupted throughout the duration of the whole novel, while everything else happens.

On another note, I’m not entirely happy at how I’ve rushed the last third of the novel. If you read my manuscript you will see three distinct phases. “I’m so in love with this project” which runs its course in the first ten to thirteen chapters, where everything is written to the fullest and a balance between show and tell has been achieved. Then comes “Eh, I’m kinda not interested, plus this is the middle and I have no clue what happens” with chapters that are okayish, but mumble events, glossing over the details. AND then it all crashes and burns with “Can I get this over with” with chapters as intelligible as monkey dribble on banana peels.

So far I’ve passed seven chapters. So that leaves 29 more to go and 30 K more to add to the flesh and bones that I leave in my ending. Suddenly, I’m not very optimistic that an end of August deadlines is possible.

[August 4th] Back to the Editing Board

2011-08-04T11:34:00.000+03:00

"My, my, my, how dusty you are, Miss Typewriter!"

With July slaughtered and rotting in my basement, where authorities will never think to look, I now have free reign to kick ass during August. As I pass through my August rebirth, I have decided that now is the time to add some homemade deadlines to the mix. Which brings me back to “Crimson Cacophony,” which lays one editing away from being ready to sent to my beta readers.

My stance on editing varies. Sometimes I love the power to remodel a story, seeing it grow stronger. In the cases I don’t know quite what the story needs, I despise editing and revising. More often than not, I dislike it. Why? First, I always seek the thrill of the new. New worlds, new magic, new fucked up characters. I’m a follower of the Shiny. Second, I have a terrible long term memory. I will write up half a novel and then forget what I wrote in the beginning, which is the primary reason why most of my novels collapse in on themselves.

The creation of a coherent plot demands me dashing to and fro between chapters like rocket propelled pendulum, which is nigh intolerable as I hate treading on the same idea, same piece of writing, same moments. Déjà vu and I are not besties. Considering that last time I edited “Crimson Cacophony” I had to pretty much make sure that the book I wrote doesn’t read like a psycho off his meds, I didn’t look forward to spending more time editing.

Yet, here I am, digital red in my mouse-wielding hand, and ready for action. This time it’s a very different sensation. I think that according to Chuck Wendig’s cake analogy I should be entering the glazing phase; what I mean is that I know the novel [a feat with my inability to even remember my cell number] and I know what it needs [apart from a publishing deal]. It needs fine tuning to the beginning and middle, then expansion of the ending, which I have rushed a lot.

Fort the particular purpose of keeping all the subplots in check, not that there are that many, but I want to ensure that consistency is maintained at all times, I’ve finally charted an Excel table to see which chapter deals with which subplots. The act of rereading each chapter and then dissecting and arranging the bits in the correct cells, give me ideas of how to weld each chapter to the following. I know that charting chapters in Excel tables is what occurs during plotting, but I’m not a plotter. I can only plot when I have a misshapen thing of a novel, with moments of awesome, which have to be stitched together. I’m almost halfway through this reading and charting. My deadline is August 10.

Then from August 11th until August 31st I will apply all the necessary changes and stretch out the ending chapters. Can it be done? Why yes, I’ve seen people complete two thirds of a book in that time. I’m positive that dealing a final editing can be achieved for that time period.

So what are your plans for August?

[August 3rd] Knighst of Badassdome

2011-08-03T20:58:00.000+03:00

I've learned a hard lesson, never ever to trust cinematic trailers. Don't you think they are a siren song, which lures cash out of your pocket, but then turn into a swan song for the movie, once you watch it... on the big screen... especially if it's in 3D.

Yet, I can't ignore Summer Glau, Peter Dinklage and Ryan Kwanten. That's having some bits and pieces from Dollhouse, Game of Thrones and True Blood in one movie. The premise for "Knights of Badassdom" is ridiculous for a B-movie, enough to be a fun and mindless flick:

Do you think it will manage to entertain? And don't you think that there is a rather interesting trend in movies to focus on LARP? Not that every movie has a focus on LARPers, but the movie industry is definitely sinking their teeth into this section of geek culture.

[August, 2nd] In which July sucked

2011-08-02T10:47:00.000+03:00

I’m going to have yet another of those whiny posts, sharing just what I have been up to this July. I owe nothing but full transparency of my actions, trials and tribulations, which have so heartlessly prevented me from exercising my constitutional rights to forsake my real time life in the pursuit of online happiness.

In this moment of time, had I been a character I’d be the fat old lady in a corset, whose always a bit tipsy, always a bit swaying to either side and not always with her full set of marbles. She would be prone to sighing and drawing dramatic gestures with her fan. Yes, I am in fact the 18th century version of your drunken grandma. Deal with it.

July spared no mercy. I braved through the obligatory 48 hour summer flu, which whacked me senseless during the weekend. Then I spent two weeks getting fillings at the dentist, which meant sleepless nights due to the aching tooth. In those days, you learn that painkillers can and are willing to be your bestest friends in the whole wide world. Summer also meant crazy times at the office.

Despite all that, I’m quite happy. I fulfilled my beta reading duties for Theresa Bazelli, half of them anyways. In between that, I crammed in some reading, though for that I’ll present a very detailed report later on. Surprise, surprise I started final revisions on “Crimson Cacophony”, you know that novel I started in 2008 and kinda avoided to revise and edit.

August abounds with promise. Let’s just I don’t screw things up.

So what are your plans for August?