Books in 2008, #9

#9. The Fart Party by Julia Wertz

Similar to Jeffrey Brown's work, The Fart Party is a slightly skewed autobiographical account of a young woman living in San Fran at the time and dealing with issues of self-doubt, the monotony of daily life, and, of course, love. The artwork is simple, but the heart of the book lies in the way Wertz does not shy away from being vulgar, rude, crude, and in-your-face-offensive. It's here that she charms the reader, making herself look like a fool and allowing us to enjoy that experience with her. The book also comes packed with sketches, comics not presented online, some interviews, and guest work from her brother.

The only problem that I found was that a lot of the comics, strangely, read differently on paper than via the website/blog. Where her blog entries and comments are often angry and dismissive, here in the book she is presented much more easygoing. The first two-thirds of the book deal with a range of subjects, the best being flashbacks to childhood memories, and the last bit then takes on a relationship and its impending end. Good stuff, and definitely recommended to anyone that enjoys reading autobiographical comics, as well of fans of random spouts of violence.

Just received

...my 300th rejection. Didn't even sting.

Onwards we go...

Books in 2008, #8

#8. Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown

Read this in one sitting. Brown has a way of just sucking a reader in, despite the loose artwork and constant self-obsession, and the story he tells touches on a myriad of relationshippy things. Clumsy is the story of a doomed love, of a deep look into sex, intimacy, and heartache. It is an autobiographical account of Brown's...er, involvement...with a girl named Theresa. Sometimes the narrative is a bit unfollowable, which is to blame for the lack of a solid voice throughout. The back page of the book explains the timeline, but it still can be very unclear. One strip has them in bed together, the next they are miles away talking on the phone.

And boy are they in bed a lot. Brown doesn't shy away from detailing sex, during-sex, and after-sex moments. But I think that's what makes this book more special than any other graphic telling of young love. It doesn't dance around the most intimate of moments; instead, rather bluntly, it shows the world them, and for that Clumsy is a well-recommended read that I'm sure I'll pick up again at some point and immerse myself in fully.

One game beat, 7,938 to go

Holy spinach dip, I just finally beat Rogue Galaxy.

Whew. When I say finally, I mean finally. Hours logged: over 75. I became too OCD with this game, having to complete nearly every aspect before taking on the last boss. That meant making every item in the factory, forging every weapon I could, and finding the nine rare artifacts spanning the galaxy. Plus, the last time I took on the end boss it kicked my ass and I was so frustrated over losing that I never went back until I finished up some other things.

Hmm...watching the ending right now. Most overly dramatic part of the game, for sure. Kisala decides she wants to be the queen of Mariglenn. Jaster's response? "Oh, you're totally not queen material!" Ha!

Dang. Seems the game isn't technically over. There's a Ghost Ship to explore.

Feck.

Black Box

Akira gets real

Looks like Akira is being made into a live-action film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Please, Hollywood...just stop. Go read a book or something. Don't do this to one of my favorite mangas, a great anime. Just leave it alone. How about you go do a live-action Pokemon film starring Brad Pitt as Ash? I'd rather see that than this. Please, please, please. I'm begging you. Leave Tetsuo, Kaneda, and the gang alone.

EDIT: Oops. Turns out Leon's producing the movie, not starring in it. My bad. Not as annoyed now, but still somewhat bothered.

Editing as I go

Up to about 1,600 words on the WOTF story. I'm aiming for maybe 5K or 6K, knowing that this contest actually prefers longer stories over shorter ones. Basically, I'm really writing this one specifically for them. Normally, it'd be darker or harsher, and a lot more concise. I prefer brevity over longwindedness. Not that my current writing is longwinded. Eh, you get what I mean.

Anyways, the writing is slow going, if only because I'm actually editing as I go. This is pretty new to me in that I'm studying prose a lot more than I normally do. I sit and think about modifiers, try out a few, read it out loud, try another, read it again, re-read the paragraph above to see if it flows well, edit it, edit the dialog, and so on. I hope this isn't making the piece worse. I like it so far, but then again...I'm my biggest fan.

Here's an oddity. For some reason, I used the verb scanned three times already. No, no, no. I think once will be enough, even for a futuristic SF piece.

Books in 2008, #7

#7. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

I can't really go into details about this book. I'm too bloody close to it. Or it to me. There really can be no explaining. Hornby channels through Rob Fleming these sad, wistful things about sex, love, relationships, parents, birthdays, music, heartache, childhood, adulthood, life and everything good and bad in it...and I get it. All of it. Each and every word is written as if plucked from my very brain and I can't help but feel like I just got done going through an unsuccessful stint of rehab. Drained, exasperated, all my energy sucked dry. Fuck. I love this book.

Tangent thoughts

This has been bothering me lately, but I'm not sure why, and I'm pretty sure no one else will know why either...

What happened to Tangent Online?

After being diligently run by Eugie Foster, Dave Truesdale came back in mid-September 2007 to reclaim his baby. Dismissed from her editing job, Foster strolled over to head up the revitalized Fix Online, where I now review short fiction and the like. There was no pressure to pick one site over the other or anything. Some said they'd stick with TO, others jumped ship and swam for a better fix (get it?), and a handful found it hard to side and chose to work for both review sites when the materials presented themselves. Fair is fair, but I've never dealt with Truesdale personally and only know what I do of him from online flamewars. So I went with the boss that I knew and trusted.

Within a month and some days, FO went live, downright swimmingly. The site has continued to publish reviews on a steady and excellent schedule, especially when one considers that this is a labor of love for reviewers, that their time and effort is spent because they know they have readers and a respectable place to post such thoughts. The site itself uses a Wordpress theme, looks very shiny, and does what it needs to do: get short fiction in people's faces. I'm fairly sure no one thought, "Gee, let's take five months to make the prettiest most elaborate site ever, that way when we post blocks and blocks of text it'll have a really nice border around it and people will love us dearly so!"

What has TO and company been up to since Truesdale's pillaging?

Nothing.

Not a single peep, unless you count an excuse-heavy post about what might or might not be happening in the future. Which is a shame, really. You ever have a friend that can kill a conversation immediately? That's what this feels like.

Truesdale says:

In all humility, Tangent and now TO changed the face of short sf/f reviewing for the *entire* field when it debuted in July/August 1993. That was almost 15 years ago. Even Locus, and then Locus Online changed demonstrably since Tangent came on the scene. Fact.

Okay, sure. Not arguing facts. But we're not living in the world that existed fifteen years ago. Things do need to be a bit speedier these days, and yes, there's irony there considering this is the publishing business and all, but come on. So long as the site is functional and not littered with Geocities ads then it is fine to continue posting reviews and such.

So much time has been wasted, so many missed opportunities, and for what? A little bit of "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Thankfully, there is the Fix Online and even IROSF seems to have resurfaced. Sure, took longer than expected and it isn't completely finished, but they aren't worried about that. They want discussion, they want people's attention, they want to give something back. Not take it away.

More DS games

Well, I've gotten a few more Nintendo DS games since my last roundup. Here's what I've been playing (and not playing) over the last few months.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - Mmm, Zelda. This is a very fun game that truly uses the stylus and touch screen to its best capacity. Drawing on the map and making teeny notations is fun, and besides...it's Zelda! ZELDA! Hack-and-slash, baby! Rupees galore! The storyline is connected to the Gamecube game Windwaker, but I never played that one. No matter, really. There's lots to do, such as sailing, deep sea diving, and constructing one kickass boat, among other things. It can be quite challenging at times though, especially when it asks our young protagonist to be sneaky rather than stabby. Haven't got to play the multiplayer WiFi mini-game, but it looks tough. I'd rather slice at grass and buy bombchus, you know?

Flash Focus - There's a whole slew of these "training" games for the Nintendo DS, and from what I've seen they are more or less the same game. This one splits the daily tasks between sports and miscellaneous goals. Personally, I don't turn this on every day and train my brain like they'd like me to. I have my favorites--volleyball, soccer, box tap, boxing--and that's about it. Each time you play you up your stamp count, which eventually opens up more things in the game. There isn't a whole lot here, but for the price and the time it takes to do what one wants to do within it works out just fine. However, I absolutely hate ping pong on the Harder difficulty. It's enough to make me want to jump out my window.

Sim City DS - Okay, yet another impulse buy. Unlike Animal Crossing: Wild World, this one didn't turn out to surprise me in the end. I used to love playing Sim City on my SNES and part of me was hoping to relive those nostalgic moments. But it didn't happen. And won't any time soon. For one thing, the screen is way too small when it comes to mass planning a city. You can only zoom in once, and even then it is very difficult to see what is what and what is where. Just not what I thought/hoped it was going to be, unfortunately...

Drawn to Life - A very standard and linear 2D platformer that offers the unique ability of allowing the player to draw and create many pieces within the game itself. You can create the main character, the gun-like weapon he or she will carry, the clouds, flowers, submarines, rockets, and so on and so on. You are the Creator, an artistic god to the Raposa, a very anime-ish race of people that ask for your help in repopulating their village. And that's basically it. You go level to level, drawing things, jumping on enemies, searching for some items, and then back to see the mayor and learn about the next mission. I'm only halfway done with the game, but the fun, at least for me, and I suspect the reason most people bought the game, is drawing via the stylus. It doesn't make a subpar platformer brilliant, but it does help it shine a bit. The visuals are decent, the music is good, and seeing something you've created implemented (no matter how lightly) in a videogame is a whole lot of fun.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village - My latest purchase. Half a mystery adventure game and half a bottomless pit of puzzles, Curious Village is remarkably well done. The puzzles, the real meat of the game, range from super easy (almost downright silly) to oh-my-goodness-I-need-to-be-mauled-by-rhinos-I'm-so-dumb ones. Yup, they really test one's thinking. I've only gotten up to Chapter Four, which means I've found about 50 puzzles and have solved maybe 35-40 or so. There are a couple of other tasks to do in the game to keep things interesting, but really it is just puzzle after puzzle after puzzle. I suspect, by the end of it all, I'll be sick of the people in the village much like this. Still, the art style, animation, and voice work is all phenomenal, a real triumph for the system. Sometimes that's all that is stopping me from hurling the game against a wall in frustration simply because I can't figure out how to move ten quarts of orange juice into two other beakers so that they all have a specific amount and whatnot. Ugh! Good and frustrating, indeed!

So, there you have it. See you again in a few months? I can't stop buying DS games. They are too much fun.

Rainy morning

It's a cold, rainy morning here in New Jersey. And no work today. Woo! I still got up early because I have lots of things that need working on today. MyLifeComics, the Outback Guide comics, the WOTF story, the review of Black Static #3 for The Fix, and some Nintendo DS-ing. Yes, I have to consider DS-ing work just to make time for it. Oh well. Coffee's made, I'm in my comfy clothes, and ready to get to it...

New story in the works

I've been thinking about what I want to do about the upcoming quarter for WOTF. I guess I knew all along that I wanted to write a new story since nothing in my collection really called to me. So, a few minutes before Thursday's LOST came on, a first sentence came flying out of nowhere and smacked me across the face. You know how they can be, sometimes.

I didn't get to do much with it until this morning though. So, 678 words done for now and I'm digging the piece already. Modified humans, annoying tourists, and air shows. Woo. I've had to remind myself a few times not to get too vulgar or crude with the piece though, considering the market I'm aiming this piece at. I've also set my word count a little high (5K or 6K, probably) if only because they actually like longer stories than not.

But now I have to pay bills, renew my car insurance, clean, and do other not-fun things like that. Maybe more later though...

Nine unique structures to be built soon

Some of these designs are crazy looking. The future is coming sooner than later...but when are we going to get flying cars? Huh? I'd rather have that than a building shaped like a giant drill.

An honorable mention

I received a phone call last night from Joni Labaqui of the WOTF contest letting me know my submission was an Honorable Mention for the first quarter of the year. I didn't get to return her call till this evening, but man...it's weird to be talking on the phone about a story. A story that didn't win, let alone, but still...HMs aren't too shabby. I'll keep trying.

My name, along with other winners, should be up at the blog a little later on.

So, here's the stats: 4 submissions total (3 HMs, 1 Semi-Finalist)

I haven't sent in anything yet for the next quarter. Deadline is postmarked by March 31. I don't really feel like anything in my inventory is a good fit currently for WOTF. Too many curse words, too much sex, too much creepy creepiness. I might have to write something new. Me needs to think this one over a bit more...

An important reminder

Remember, couples everywhere, that...



Heh.

Writers' strike over

After 100 days, the writers' strike is over.

Thank goodness.

Not that is matters, considering I watch one or two shows total. But this should hopefully lower the number of dance contests, singing bees, and game shows built to embarrass and ruin lives that I have to flip past before landing on Mythbusters to take me away to a happy place.

Books in 2008, #6

#6. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

I've noticed something about Picoult's novels, something that I've absolutely grown to hate. The twist endings. Hate, hate, hate them. This is the third book of hers that I've read, and so far she seems to hang every outcome on something that is both jarring and completely out there that it nearly ruins the book for me. Note: I said nearly, not that it does.

Some spoilers right now. In The Tenth Circle, the twist was Trixie's mother had committed the grueling murder of Jason. In Salem Falls, the novel ends on a shocker with a father making out with his daughter. Here, we're spoonfed a story so contumaciously forceful and unbelievable involving Josie, a second gun, and the boy she loved. I know it is meant to surprise, to shock shock shock, but what it really seems to do is undermine everything Picoult built from page one.

Still, I love her characters, the way they think and react and do ordinary things that are heavy on their consciouses. Strangely, Nineteen Minutes features two characters from the only other books of hers that I've read. It was kind of nice to see them again. Much like in Salem Falls, a lot of personalities don't begin to truly shine until the courtroom scenes begin.

But the book is about a school shooting, and it is tough material to absorb completely. There is no happy ending. There is no happy beginning. There is no true finale where everyone gets why what happened and move on with their lives. The action that troubled Peter takes is horrific, but Picoult manages to dance on the edge of calling him a monster versus calling everyone else monsters. No surprise, the book reminded me very much of high school. It made me think a lot about what I saw then, what I heard, what was done to me and how I reacted. There are extremes in this world, terrible ones, and Nineteen Minutes doesn't aim to answer them. Only console those that lived through them...

GoodReads widget

I've added a Flash widget for my GoodReads profile to the right-sided column of Wistful Writings. Scroll down until you see it. If you're on the site, feel free to add me as a friend! If you're not on the site, er, sign up. It's free, fun, and you get to geek out about books with an entire community that are they themselves geeking out just as hard.

I've been using the site for some time now, but am not even close to finishing up cataloging my books. Currently, it says I have 310. Hmm, not bad, not bad. Though this isn't taking into account that some are books I've read but do not own. I think when I hit 500 the floor of my apartment will give out from all the weight and send me crashing into the creepy basement.

I can't wait.

Dark Sword Miniatures #2 poll

George R.R. Martin is asking his fans to vote on the next set of miniatures featuring the cast from A Song of Ice and Fire.

It was a tough call for me, but I picked the Red Viper of Dorne over Samwell Tarly, simply for the fact that I can't get that momentous battle between him and the Mountain out of my head.

Who are you voting for?

Some changes, perhaps

In comparison to the thousands of other bloggers out in the e-world, I'm pretty terrible. I post sparingly, and generally it is just a long review that I'm mostly positive no more than three people read. And what's worse, I put a lot of time into them, really try and think about what I've read, and then worry what others will do to my feeble thoughts. Why? It doesn't matter, really.

With that said, I'm cutting back on reviews. I will continue with my gig at The Fix Online, but other than that I won't be taking on any more assigned (er, meaning promised) reviews. Just not worth the time and effort in the long run. Of course, I'll comment on stuff I'm reading when I can, but if it isn't some huge dive into the meaning of life and so forth then no biggie.

So, about being a bad blogger. I'd like to change that, post more interesting things, get a wee bit more personal, but there's a problem: I've already separated my personal life from Wistful Writings with my daily journal comic at MyLifeComics. I mean, I save most of the things that happen for over there, leaving this place to be the hot-spot for any and all things pertaining to my writings. Hah, I said hot-spot. As if.

But I'd like to talk more about things here. About music, about animals, about videogames, about food, about anything I feel like I want to.

I'm in a weird mood tonight. Might be the fact that I'm working on a short story about civilized cannibals (aren't they all?) and kidnapped little girl. Odd, creepy stuff. You know, my usual shtick.

Also, song lyrics will re-enter my life, just because...

You're the echoes of my everything,
You're the emptiness the whole world sings at night.
You're the laziness of afternoon,
You're the reason why I burst and why I bloom
You're the leaky sink of sentiment,
You're the failed attempts I never could forget.
You're the metaphors I can't create to comprehend this curse that I call love..
How will I break the news to you?
- "Hold Me Down" by Motion City Soundtrack