[Tuesday 21st February] Asa - "The Way I Feel"

I've had a long day at work and I've been on around for hours of sleep, so my brain's capable only of browsing naughty words and processing pretty moving images. Fortunately, I have the latest of "RuPaul's Drag Race" and "Smash" to get me through the night.

Because I love you, here is the wonderful Asa with "The Way I Feel". Have a Happy Pancake Day to all in the UK.

[January 31st] Dear Aspiring Writer Dude

Dear Aspiring Writer Dude,

I haven’t written to you, maybe because I never thought I’d take my split personality fetish to my blog, but I consider writing to you, because you are beginning to look like a stoner caught in an endless phase of the munchies and there is only so much sugar before your body decides to flip you the bird and slap you the bad kind of diabetes, which coincidentally has deep roots in your family tree.

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

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

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

Best,

Your Conscience(?)*

*Do writers have one?

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

[January 16th] To-Do List Apocalypse

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 5th] Quiet Mouths, Loud Thoughts

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.

[October 22nd] Radio Silence

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 19th] Time Out, Get Your Scuba Gear On

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.

[September 26th] FantasyCon

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?

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

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, 2nd] In which July sucked

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?

[July 9th] 10,000 views

Hold the presses. Hold the presses.

The blog has made 10,000 views, which considering how often I updated is nothing short than perplexing. Thank you all, thank you all and keep coming. You never know. I may actually say something smart that may be of use sometimes.

Until then, enjoy some fine humor from Deadpool:

PS: Insert 'congratulations' and well wishes in the comment section below.

[July 8th] Soundtracks

"I may or may not have an addiction..." ~ artist is Gnato

I'm into TV shows as you may or may not know [I even need a spreadsheet to stay atop of what episode of what TV show I need to get to] and the magic of the TV show is the title sequence with its own soundtrack. As I child, whenever the extended title sequence started I'd pose along with the main cast and just imagine I am part of the story. With some title sequences I might still do that [*cough*True Blood*cough*], but you know, alone and such.

To me the soundtracks and title sequences are for TV shows what gorgeous covers are for books, a sensory hook that lures you into digesting the content waiting past that point. As covers reveal a bit about the book [scantily clad women in UF covers usually refer to a sexually charged story line] soundtracks set the tone for the TV show.

Here I've prepared two reworked themes from two shows that I follow. The one is an orchestra arrangement of the old 80s X-Men cartoon [which I adored as a kid as it got me into comics in the first place]. The original theme is rather goofy as 80s cartoon themes oughta be, but Jason Sturgill gives it the Inception make-over and now it rocks.



The next is an acoustic/electric violin cover of The Game of Thrones theme, which I adore in its original composition, but also enjoyed tremendously in this version.



Do you agree with me? Also what are your favorite themes from a TV show? My all-time favorite has to be Fringe with its booming and demanding theme.

Monday, May 9th: Roll a D6

It's Monday and my social calender is off the charts. Couple with work, lit club responsibilities and the proverbial university paper thing (1 more page added in the morning), I will be unable to provide you with the necessary wit, insight and inspiring thought patterns (can I hear the aww-s already?). However, I'm not leaving you without a treat. Namely, a recent D&D spoof based on the very popular (though not very meaningful) "Like a G6".

Sunday, May 8th: The Geek Zodiac

Since I'm working on an university paper on the Influence of Transnational Corporations over the Global Economy (15 pages, but boring enough to require multiple episodes of various TV shows to numb the pain) I've no follow-up on the Saint George celebrations (sorry to disappoint). To make up for this, I've included The Geek Zodiac. Floating as a shortened url on Twitter (I think I can almost remember who tweeted it) I found this Asian Zodiac rip-off made of Awesome Sauce.

PS: BTW, I'm a pirate. Tell me what are you? (Also, click on it, in order to enlarge as I doubt any one can read anything at that font size)

Some Christmas Cheer

Due to holiday mayhem and deadline accumulation, I shall present you with some multi-cultural and hilarious Christmas cheer. Enjoy:

Ready, Set, Write... and Edit on the multiple projects I have in mind

Guess the witch!

NaNoWriMo is over and so is the celebratory weekend filled with doing nothing. My wrists had to rest a bit and I also have family return home for the weekend, so there. I have perfect excuses to justify not-writing. All of which end now.

I've jotted down ideas for my 1920s inspired mythological story called "Rabbit Heart". It's a story especially written for an anthology called 20Spec: Speculative Stories of the Roaring Twenties. It's a secret so far, but it has a very famous witch from mythology appear. I've also planned this one to fit in the "Lungs" concept of Florence and the Machine inspired shorts. I have to keep it under 5000 words, which will mean that I will use some dream logic to weave in all the elements I've envisioned.

In the spare time... Okay, that was a lie. My main focus will always be revising "Crimson Cacophony", a novel neglected when NaNo came. I kind of dread it, because it will involve retyping it from the journal I wrote it in. Several months of journal pages. But then again, if it was not for the journal I would not have finished it at all.

So what are you working on?

It Gets Better [tongue-in-cheek: Save the GLBT peeps]

This is far from writing related, but then again nothing really is writing related, we relate to writing since writing is all about connecting things. So I hope you connect this idea, somehow. The 'It Gets Better' campaign is a Youtube based meme/collection of videos, all of which aimed at teens with an alternative sexuality [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual] who think of suicide. Being bullied to the point where a person can think that life is not worth it is perhaps the lowest humanity can fall down to and it's only fair that the younger generation receives a message of reassurance that it does get better by people, who have been there.

I'm personally in this position, not entirely outside the closet, but not entirely in. I live in a social environment that is not very open towards different people and I could have used this, while I was growing up and coming to terms that I am homosexual:





I know, the videos, don't promise WHEN things will become better. AND you should know that 'it gets better' does not mean a sparkly happily ever after [I'm still waiting for mine], but it's a slow transition. It's there. It's happening. Just you wait and see.

From two to ten fingers... the journey

I promised myself that I would blog a lot more frequent, but at the time I published that post I had undertaken a massive typing mission. Ambitious little me wanted to transcribe reviews, hit all the insane novel quotas, tweet and post at the regular intervals. Though in theory I could squeeze all of the above in whatever portion of the I have, I neglected something rather small, which instantly turned into something rather big. I experienced a weak, but persistent prick in my right forefinger, which also happens to be my main typing finger [because I use, you guessed it, two fingers, when evolution has given me ten]. Can you sense where this is heading? 

So, during the days leading to the weekend I discovered that I couldn’t type, because the prick of pain intensified. Yeah, no typing whatsoever or at least in limited quantity over the span of the weekend. I came to the conclusion that A) I’m way too young to have such issues and B) that normal people typed with more than two fingers. Since I know me, I didn’t bother to even feign shock at the fact that I’ve been doing something wrong. I just facepalmed and googled a guide for typing with ten fingers. This is what I have been doing for the past three days. 

The guide gave a span between two days and two months to get it. Two days to get the whole new sensation of all the fingers on the keyboard and the right positioning and two months to get the speed back. I am not sure whether I will manage to return to my former speed of 80 to one 100 words per minute [though the latter has happened only on a few occasions]. I do hope to master or at least achieve decent speed, because after all I need to type. You can imagine how 80 words per minute can damage my single most important digit. Therefore, I am doing the slow-poke dance on the keyboard. What I do know is that I as far as quantity goes I get the same amount. That may puzzle you a little, but before I typed faster than I could compose my sentences and now everything is balanced. 

This was me. The voice from beyond. 

Vacation... [Literal and Metaphorical]

I let things here stagnate, because I had to poll some crazy shifts with some even weirder sleeping regimes. Plus, I had to travel away from the city. Real life keeps me away here [though I have some other projects that do swallow my time as well] and since I have long since ditched the structure of the blog, I wanted to sort the chaos before I resume any regular posting. 

BUT until then, more chaos and a rather intimate reading moment. My family has a villa, situated in a smaller town than my own, which we use every summer. A good fourth of my childhood was spent there and I always recall these days as the best, even if I did not have all the TV channels I wanted or an Internet connection [a very serious issue for a budding teen]. I wrote my first short story in that villa. I also completed my first novel [in Bulgarian] and attempted to re-write it, even if it read like something from Stanbeck. It's because of the disconnection that I manage to do a whole lot, which when tempted with a personal computer and a wi-fi is nigh impossible. This combined with the nature... Can you spell heaven?

As you can imagine I experienced heaven again. Two families [my family has known for decades] visited us and every single one of these people are heavy readers during their vacations. I spent two silent afternoons, six adults reading, first on the beach and then under the grapevine. It was a comfortable silence, mute joy. The best bit was that my Dumas made company to Dan Brown, Stephen King, Joe Hill, one German crime fiction author and another thriller author. We all asked what happened in our books and who liked what, agreed on our different tastes and kept on reading... 

No name calling. No genre slamming. Acceptance and peace. I learned that weekend that genre acceptance was possible. Ain't it wonderful?

Cows, cows, cows

A lot has been accomplished today, which is a post for a different time. For now, be mesmerized by the cows.

Little Asian Girl... enough said

Sometimes this is all you need.