Am I Still Here?

I'm trying to revive my interest in actually keeping this blog going. Not that I want to ditch it, I just don't have tons of time to put something together to post. But I'm not giving up! (I am, however going to avoid J-pop music videos for a little while. I think my brain is adapting too quickly to translation-language. "We can do this together!" I don't want to sound like a walking subtitle).

I may have spoken to a few of you about what I'm planning for my geek-tastic tattoos. Granted, I'm broke as sin at the moment, but if I ever obtain money again I'm walking down to the neighborhood parlor and slapping these ideas down on the artist's table.

Right leg- I'm taking the sakura design from Yoshitaka Amano's cover art for the first issue of The Sandman: Dream Hunters. The branches will begin on the top of my foot and reach around my ankle, going higher across my calf. I'll have my black fox climb these branches, looking over his shoulder at the viewer. Again, artwork will be derived from Amano's work in Sandman. I just have to put together a composite of the images I want and presto.

Back/shoulder- Mostly shoulder, for the moment. This time the artist I'm looking at is Charles Vess (another Sandman artist, actually...) for the most part. I want chrysanthemum blossoms to curl over my left shoulder blade and over my right shoulder, ending just above my right collarbone. I'm taking the blossoms from traditional Asian tattoo styles, not Vess. Vess' work will supply the design for Hal Duncan's Jack and Puck, who'll get to chase each other across my back for the rest of my life. I know I can find a faun in Vess' repertoire to base Puck off of, but I'm expecting Jack to be a bit more difficult. I'm also leaving the bottom edge of the tattoo alone for hte time being, because there's no telling what I may want to add to it in the future. Payul and Leland?

Left arm?- Chain of narcissus blooms. "Nuff said.

Yeah, I'm still working on the final designs. Hopefully I'll be able to get to work on these before too much longer. Being poor sucks.

Currently reading: Peake's Gormenghast and various stories from Peter Straub's American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny From the 1940s Until Now. Loving both, especially Gormenghast even though it's taking me forever to read it. I still have half the mini-series to watch when I get the chance.

I'm Still Alive!

My apologies for disappearing for so long. Class and work have been keeping me occupied from dawn til far past dusk, and I haven't had time to wash dishes, much less blog. In fact, I'm only on here because I'm taking a break from writing my latest paper. I have a few announcements to make, just to catch up with myself-

Miyavi will be performing in Dallas on my 21st birthday (in less than one week). I'm not going. I don't want to discuss it.

Last Drink Bird Head is on its way to my doorstep! It's the latest anthology from Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, and I'm terribly excited about it! It's a limited edition, 160 page collection of flash fiction from 80 writers (if my counting can be trusted) including Hal Duncan, Felix Gilman, Jon Courtney Grimwood, Jeffery Ford, K.J. Bishop, Jay Lake, Cat Rambo, Ekaterina Sedia, and Jeffrey Thomas. I'm so excited about this book that I sacrificed Miyavi's concert for it. Even better, all proceeds from the sale of this book go to ProLiteracy.Org, which is just as totally awesome as the book itself. Anyone who hasn't bought a copy yet should order one- it's a guaranteed keeper and it benefits a great cause. Now I just have to order Jeff Vandermeer's Booklife...after another paycheck or two.

Halloween is this weekend! I have to work on Saturday, sadly, but I'll be working in my costume. Beware the zombie elf behind the counter at the bookstore!

World Fantasy is also this weekend. Again, I won't be there, but this year's lineup for the World Fantasy Awards is, naturally, pretty freaking badass. I may have to stream the ceremony at work, because (except for every category Gaiman is in) there is some seriously stiff competition. I'm not even sure who I want to win in some cases...

In fact, Ekaterina Sedia's The Rhetorics of Fantasy , which I've already posted about here, is up for an award, and I just found out that she's written another book on the genre with Edward James, A Short History of Fantasy. Jeez, I'm going to need another shelf by the end of the week. That, and another job.

Ten Things

Ten Things

Ten things I have learned about writing -- a la Elizabeth Bear and Ben Peek. This can also be read as a Stages of Writing thing, as these are largely consecutive "steps", to my mind. So:

1. Don't eat the crayons, even if "purple tastes gooooood". No, really. Put that down; it's not meant for that.*

2. Young talent must be nurtured. A child who has a certain knack for, say, writing stories in English class needs to be taken aside and told it in order to make them realise that they're special, to encourage them and (more importantly) alienate them from the dickwad jocks around, breeding a seething resentment of their low status in the high school pecking order. Compensatory arrogance and narcissistic rage are the powerhouse of the creative impetus.

3. Writing is 100% inspiration and 100% perspiration. It's what you breathe and what you sweat, all of it, equally. It often stinks for that reason, but not devouring shit will usually improve this state of affairs.

4. Flattery is for fuckwits; ruthless critique is the only critique of any value. Workshops can be valuable then, but if a workshop session doesn't make you want to kill someone** it's not worth shit. Even if it does you probably won't listen to the content and rewrite your crappy mood-piece / novel fragment / background summary so it's an actual fucking story. You will however want to a) get your own back on the bastards b) show these fuckers that you really are a genius, so there. In attempting to achieve the first you will hone your critical skills. In attempting to achieve the latter you will apply those skills to your own writing.

5. Learn to kill your darlings. But torture them first. And after you've killed them, strip the meat from their bones, take them apart and build them into one motherfucking huge serial-killer-style shrine. Alternatively, put them back together and reflesh them with muscle and sinew sliced from your own naked body (or neighbourhood pets) and vat-grown in your underground laboratory; raise them from the dead as a glorious army of skeletal warriors, unquestioning servants in your plan for world domination.

6. Shoeboxes full of adolescent scribblings make pretty fire. Should your army of undead sentences rise up against you, ceasing to obey your every whim and becoming instead an unruly mob seeking equal rights and inclusion in every story or novel you try to write, putting all of them -- every last motherfucking one of them -- to the torch will liberate you to start anew, utilising the skills acquired over five-ten years of twiddling and tweaking. As a wise man once said: exterminate all the brutes.

7. There is really only one way to be a writer: start writing, carry on writing, and keep on writing until it's five in the morning. A mix of uppers (e.g coffee) and downers (e.g. cigarettes) can keep you balanced for an indefinite period on the knife-edge between consciousness and complete collapse. This is known as "the Zone". Remember: sleep-deprivation is the poor man's hallucinogen.

8. Bad writers burrow; good writers steel themselves and face the fucking consequences when the monster they've created gets loose and runs amok inside their heads, raping innocent memories and pillaging knowledge, growing in might and violence until the landscape of the mind is all but consumed in chaos. Fear not. Once you have tamed the monster it will be a loyal friend and ally, demanding only the occassional virgin sacrifice. And that's what virgins are for.

9. "Art" is a poncy term for craft combined with flair. What distinguishes the talented writer from the good writer (c.f. Delany) is having the audacity to take on an insanely difficult project and the panache to fail gloriously, shrug it off and start on another even more insanely difficult project. Pretentious writing is only pretentious because it is not ambitious enough. Your detractors will not make this distinction, but what do they know? Bastards.

10. Fuck that shit.

* 1a. This simple childhood rule applies also in adult life to: playing computer Solitaire; browsing the interweb; checking email; surfing for p0rn. If you are doing any of this you are eating the crayons. Stop it now.

** 4a. If the someone that ruthless critique makes you want to kill is yourself then you are not a writer and never will be. You are a delicate flower... to be snipped off and worn as a buttonhole by men of cruel wit and savage passions.

...
Once again, I have stolen something off of someone else's blog. This time it's Hal Duncan's, since I was on there for the last post looking for something else entirely. Also, read the comments on his page!

Outer Alliance

So...I'm way late in doing this (the day everyone was supposed to post was actually the 1st...but we'll pretend) but I figured I'd join in the fun anyway.

*Deep Breath* (Wow, it's like coming out all over again!)



As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.

The next step is supposed to be a link or an excerpt or something something something reflecting one's work in queer spec fic...but, um, yeah. What I want to post is still just a title and an idea in my head, and I've convinced myself that everything else I've written is crap (or just WAY too long to deal with...or on the computer without internet access!) so I refuse to post here. That said, I have the vague goal of getting the particular piece mentioned above written soon enough to submit it to Crossed Genres, which is doing a LGBTQ themed issue. We'll see if I can get my head together soon enough to pull that one off- and we'll see if it's even remotely good enough to get published.

Speaking of coming out- submitting my "I want to join" post on the Outer Alliance's page may have been the most intimidating thing I've ever done in my life. Calling myself a writer when I've never been published (I'm not counting my local junior college magazine- especially since they wouldn't take genre fiction), and calling myself a blogger when I have one reader (hello, Aeri) seems a wee bit pretentious and insubstantial. That, and the Outer Alliance's membership list is composed of a number of my personal heroes- Hal Duncan and Cat Valente, guys! There are so many heavy hitters on the list, and more sure to come...and here I am, saying "Oh, um, I'm really nobody, but can I listen in on the awesomeness going down here? I'll be quiet and good, I swear..." and hoping no one tags me for an impostor.

Oh dear...class starts in an hour and a half and I need to find lunch. I sort of like having a computer lab to hang out in for the four hours between my classes! I think I'll be able to blog a little more often now.

(FYI- The Monk by Matthew G. Lewis is one of the funniest freaking books I've ever read. Am I alone in this?)

Reading List

Just Finished:
Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe

By 'just finished' I mean I read the last page less than two hours ago. This book was my first Gene Wolfe experience, and while I wasn't exactly overwhelmed, I was intrigued enough that I think I'll pick up one of his more renowned books before too long.

Reading at Work:
The Involuntary Human by David Gerrold

This is my lunch-break book, partially because it's a collection of shorter works ranging from Star Trek screenplays, novel excerpts, short stories, and quotes from the character Solomon Short. It's been great fun!

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Is there anything about this book I can say that hasn't already been said? I'm reading a third printing of the first edition, priced at $100, which means I can only read it when I'm sitting with a customer back in our locked collectibles room, where it's located. I am in love.

About to Start:
The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant

This is a collection including Jeffrey Ford, Margaret Muirhead, Kelly Link, and a large number of other writers all previously published in the lit magazine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet.

The Orphan's Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente

First off, Valente gets a gold star for being mentioned in three blogs in a row. Secondly, this is the sequel to The Orphan's Tale: In the Night Garden, and if it's anything like the first, I'm in for a hell of a ride!

Impatiently Awaiting:
Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories edited by John Kilma

This anthology contains works by Jay Lake, Hal Duncan, Michael Moorcock, Marly Youmans and Jeff Vandermeer, among a number of other great writers (it's just that the ones listed are the reasons I ordered the book).

Top Reads 2008

I was digging around Half Price a few days ago with my friends, pulling out old favorites and recent good reads (and, of course, new eye-catching titles) when I came across a copy of The Book Thief. I handed it over to one of my friends and told her that it was probably one of my favorite books from last year, probably in my top five. That got me to thinking, though...What have I read recently (as in the year 2008) that really moved me? That was so good, every time I see another copy of it, I'm tempted to buy it and send it to someone else who needs to read it? My coworker and I read Hal Duncan's Vellum at the same time, and a number of our other coworkers heard us talking (very animatedly) about it and started reading it, too. Now everytime we get a customer named 'Seamus' or 'Renard' or 'Carter', we twitter a bit, exchange significant looks, and in general scare the living hell out of said customer.

Anyway, that's part of the joy of finding a really good new book, right? You share it with people you love and you know will love the book almost as much as you (because you always have first rights to fangasming, since you discovered it, right?). Well, these books made the cut out of the massive stack of things I read in 2008 to be listed as my top five. Not all of them are new- or even from this decade (Delany's for example), but all are excellent reads which I've pushed to customers at my job or to my friends and coworkers. My copy of Vellum is starting to look a bit tattered from being loaned out...maybe I should keep the next copy I buy...


The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente (I have a link to one of her interviews on my last blog)



The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village by Samuel R. Delany (It's the only non-fiction book to make this list, and yet somehow it's still about SF. Go figure.)



The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Ok, ok, it's a YA novel...don't judge me! Get the book and judge it!)



Vellum and Ink by Hal Duncan (I'm counting these on one line because they're a...duology. I guess)



Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (This is another I keep talking up to customers. I plan on re-reading it sometime soon, too)