Back with a review

Back from NY ComicCon. Still recovering from the awesomeness...



For now, check out my review of Justina Robson's Keeping It Real!

Going to ComicCon!

Well, "The Morning Gift" is on hold for now while I figure out what I'm even trying to do with the thing. I've got my characters and I've got my history in there, but the plot is fuzzy and unfocused. Also, I'll be attending ComicCon tomorrow in New York, which means I'll probably be mentally exhausted for the remainder of the weekend. But yay, ComicCon! The guest list is insane and if I meet even just 2% of the people I want to meet I will be quite pleased with the experience.

As usual, I have lots of things I need to do. What's that sound? Is it bullets lining up and indenting themselves? Why, yes! It is! Time for a to-do-list.

Things To Do Soon or My Head Will Splode:

• Review Farthing, Issue 5 for Tangent
• Review Justina Robson's Keeping It Real
• Ink next week's MyLifeComics
• Actually draw the next Greenhorn because I've run out of inventory
• Continue work on a shhhhhhhhhhh secret project that I can't talk about yet
• Finish reading chapters of a friend's latest novel
• Sleep

This past week I finished two stories, rewrote another one, reviewed galleys for "Sonorous" for Apex Digest #9, and managed to find time for some Rogue Galaxy. I think if my head does explode, it's at least warranted.

Progress notes for February 20, 2007

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 605
Total Words: 2,083
Pages: 7
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: Tired. Got most of the plot figured out, but I know already that I'm going to have to go back and flesh out a lot of backstory. Ugh.
Stimulants: Two cups of coffee with hazelnut creamer
Songs played loudly: "Bend and Not Break" by Dashboard Confessional, "Stuck in a Moment" by Mika
Mail: Couple rejections yesterday, got Farthing #5 today.
Darling du Jour: They all blur as one, he'd said one morning to her and the others. That's when he made Erlon One-Eye. And No-Nose. Halfears. He'd done worse things as well.
Other writing-related work: Jotting things down for a review of Justina Robson's Keeping It Real.
The Internet is full of Things: The Barenaked Ladies' latest video for "Sound of Your Voice" might have cost the band only $3.45 to make, but that's cause they're some smart Canadians. Check it out!

Sea sale

"Birds, Gods, and the Naming of Things" has sold to the Strange Stories of Sand and Sea anthology forthcoming from Fine Tooth Press in 2007. Very pleased about this one.

Oh, and happy Presidents' Day!

Good ol' Weird NJ

Just stumbled across this. Yeah, that first guy you see driving that crazy car (Hoop) is actually just down the road from me. Well, his cars are at least. I haven't seen him, but those cars are hard to miss. Gotta love good ol' weird New Jersey.

Progress notes for February 18, 2007

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 559
Total Words: 1,478
Pages: 4 and a half
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: Kind of stuck on the entire plot. Need to think it out.
Stimulants: Green tea with honey.
Songs played loudly: "Stay Happy" by Joe Wilson, "Devotion and Desire" by Bayside
Mail: Nomail
Darling du Jour: Farinne set her eyes. "The Sisters are still beddable."
The caretaker scrunched her face. "And what lord would want a dead wife?"
Other writing-related work: Wrote up a new bio for Apex #9.
The Internet is full of Things: How is Britney Spears going bald news? HOW?

Bram Stoker 2006 Award noms

It seems that the Bram Stoker Award nominations for works published in 2006 have been announced. Let's see what they've come up with...

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL
+ Headstone City by Tom Piccirilli (Bantam)
+ Lisey's Story by Stephen King (Scribner)
+ Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
+ Pressure by Jeff Strand (Earthling)
+ Prodigal Blues by Gary A. Braunbeck (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL
+ Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry (Pinnacle)
+ The Keeper by Sarah Langan (William Morrow)
+ Bloodstone by Nate Kenyon (Five Star)
+ The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff (St. Martins)

Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION
+ Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge (Cemetery Dance)
+ Hallucigenia by Laird Barron (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction)
+ Mama's Boy by Fran Friel (Insidious Reflections)
+ Bloodstained Oz by Christopher Golden and James A. Moore (Earthling Publications)
+ Clubland Heroes by Kim Newman (Retro Pub Tales)

Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION
+ Tested by Lisa Morton (Cemetery Dance)
+ Balance by Gene ONeill (Cemetery Dance)
+ Feeding the Dead Inside by Yvonne Navarro (Mondo Zombie)
+ FYI by Mort Castle (Masques V)
+ 31/10 by Stephen Volk (Dark Corners)

Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY
+ Aegri Somnia: The Apex Featured Writer Anthology
edited by Jason Sizemore (Apex)
+ Mondo Zombie edited by John Skipp (Cemetery Dance)
+ Retro Pulp Tales edited by Joe Lansdale (Subterranean)
+ Alone on the Darkside edited by John Pelan (Roc)

Superior Achievement in a COLLECTION
+ Destinations Unknown by Gary Braunbeck (Cemetery Dance)
+ American Morons by Glen Hirshberg (Earthling Publications)
+ The Commandments by Angeline Hawkes (Nocturne Press)
+ The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford (Golden Gryphon)
+ Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear by Terry Dowling (Cemetery Dance)
+ Cinema Macabre edited by Frank Morris (PS Publishing)

Superior Achievement in NONFICTION
+ Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die by Michael Largo (Harper)
+ Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Vision of Hell on Earth by Kim Paffenroth (Baylor Press)
+ Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished by Rocky Wood (Cemetery Dance)

Superior Achievement in POETRY
+ Shades Fantastic by Bruce Boston (Gromagon Press)
+ Valentine: Short Love Poems by Corrine de Winter (Black Arrow Press)
+ The Troublesome Amputee by John Edward Lawson (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
+ Songs of a Sorceress by Bobbi Sinha-Morey (Write Words, Inc.)

Progress notes for February 16, 2007

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 402
Total Words: 919
Pages: 2
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: New bottle of wine beckons!
Stimulants: Absolutely nothin'.
Songs played loudly: "Just Take the Money and Leave" by Inkwell
Mail: A 3-day "some nice touches, but we'll have to pass" from the VanderMeer anthology. Also, Eugie's sending me Farthing's fifth issue to review.
Darling du Jour: "I should've burned your throats off," Lord Senli said. "Or sewn your lips together. Either would have pleased Halu Haekamel."
Other writing-related work: Nada.
The Internet is full of Things: Woman Allegedly Ties Up Valentine, Drinks His Blood. Sucks when your Valentine is a vampire, huh?

Progress notes for February 15, 2007

Working on a new story so until it's finished y'all get to enjoy some progress notes.

"The Morning Gift"

New Words: 517
Total Words: 517
Pages: 1 and a half
Deadline: Submission period opens on March 23
Reason for stopping: Tired, need to figure plot out
Stimulants: Coffee! Also, carrots?
Songs played loudly: "Sleepers" by Saosin, "Wake the Dead" by Comeback Kid
Mail: A second notice from ASIM that my submission has made it to the final round. Now comes the long wait...
Darling du Jour: The Sisters mocked Farinne as she worked: "We heard, we heard! Fivefinger Farry and One-Eye, what a couple they'll be! Think getting married'll make them each whole. Ignorant oafs."
Other writing-related work: Scribbled down some ideas for a freelance gig
The Internet is full of Things: Did anyone else notice Google's Valentine's Day logo yesterday? Googe?

Thud!

Originally, I was going to write up a real review for Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel Thud! when the thought crossed my mind: Why bother? If you, like me, are a fanatic for all things Discworld than you've bought the book already and have also read it (maybe twice). That's just the rule for us. New Discworld novel comes out, we go buy it. Sort of a cause-and-effect thing, eh? If you don't like Pratchett's humor, wit, or style, you're probably in a state of comatose and a review glorifying the man's words won't do a thing to change your mind. In short, you need medicine.

And Thud! is a great entry in the +30 series, possibly because it's a City Watch adventure. The narrative is led by none other than Sam Vimes, with a couple other Watchmen filling out the scenes (Nobby Nobbs, Captain Carrot, and Angua, my werewolf heroine, play vital roles within). The plot revolves around a murdered dwarf and the age-old drama that exists between trolls and the little bearded half-pints. It's up to Vimes to figure out who killed the dwarf before a terrible war is recreated right in the middle of Ankh-Morpork. The satire is spot on, as are the new characters popping up left and right. There's mystery and humor, even pole dancing. But really, I don't need to say anything else. You probably know all this already, right? You're not a brain-dead tomato stuck in a bed. You're smarter than that. You're a fan.

And now I must sit and wait for Making Money to come out.

Fourth season!

Well, this came as no frakking surprise, but the SCI FI Channel just picked up Battlestar Galactica for a fourth season. So long as Boomer (multiple Boomers!) is still around, all is well in the world.

Miscellaneous shtuff...

Got Justina Robson's Keeping It Real in the mail today.

I've finally gotten around to finishing a story, which is now going through a second reading and a quick set of line edits and then it's poof out into the real world with it. These things grow up so fast.

"Hold notice" from Andromeda Spaceway Inflight Magazine on a story of mine, letting me know it's made it through the first round.

And to round out this lovely little bit of randomness, here's a sketch of an armless monster on a Post-It, inspired by the work of Stefan G. Bucher's Daily Monster:

Chocolate comic

Thanks to Drawn! I found out about a new web comic which focuses on writing (well, a freelance writer, at least): Will Write for Chocolate by Debbie Ridpath Ohi. She's got some funny things to say about the blogosphere as well. And this doesn't appear to be the only comic she does. Anyways, check it out!

My title would've been Will Write for Sushi, but that's just me...

Comments are a go

Wow, I just realized that folks can now comment on MyLifeComics. This seems to be a new function of the site; at least I don't remember it being there a few days ago. I generally don't ever go back to look at the comics after posting, but now I finally have a reason to. The voice of the public shall be heard! Praise me, please!

New SF review!

Check out my review for The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction edited by George Mann!



From the FBS Quick Take:
Solaris Book of New Science Fiction is the inaugural anthology for the Solaris imprint from BL Publishing, containing exemplary stories both profound and emotionally captivating that are sure to get any science fiction fan excited.

It was a dark and stormy night

I completely forgot that I wanted to post about this...

Back in January, Jason Sizemore, editor and supreme being who makes old ladies cry at fast food joints, posted the artwork that will be used for issue nine of Apex Digest. Since my piece of flash fiction "Sonorous" will be in this issue, let me just say that I'm ecstatic over the artwork, almost to the point of drooling. Can't wait to see the final mockup...

This is a post about LOST

I only religiously watch three television shows: Battlestar Galactica, LOST, and The Office. One is window clear science fiction laden with drama, another merely a cast of dramatic characters in a real-world setting with science fictional things happening this way and that, which are supposed to be ignored or dismissed blindly, and the other is just damned funny.

Two of them I'm very happy with. Unfortunately, LOST has been more and more disappointing as each episode unfolds slowly and without resolution. I was very happy to hear that the execs are closing the show down at episode 100, which at least means the bloated beast will finally sink at some point, but until then it's just going to be irritating and in your face. LOST! Watch it tonight! People will shoot guns, and hey, yaneverknowwhomightgetshot (pan to .005 second shot of Sawyer maybe getting shot; this is in every episode preview).

I'd seriously forgotten about the show during its couple month hiatus, and don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's back on and I now have something to watch on Wednesday nights, but it keeps straying away from the characters that matter and making others nothing more that stiff stereotypes. So Michael kills two people and is allowed to leave the island, but the truly nice people who have just had unfortunate lives are stuck to suffer, linger, and make pouty faces? The producers of the show promise answers. Unfortunately, to get to those answers, everyone'll have to wade through the Ocean of What The Fucks, shivering at its surprising chill all while murmuring "What the fuck?" at every. thing. that. happens.

Can you tell that tonight's episode reminded me of why I can't stand LOST and yet at the same time I will watch it, watch it, and watch it until my eyes are dry enough to crack.

What the fuck?

Map!

I can't claim to understand what this whole map excitement is about, but all the cool kids are doing it. I'm hoping to discover that I have a huge fan base in Japan...



Create your own visitor map!

Latest purchase

I did really well yesterday at the bookstore and only bought one book, George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords. Generally I buy three to four books at a time, but I have such a backlog at home already that I buckled down and purchased the only book that needed purchasing. I finished A Clash of Kings a few days back and knew that I just had to get the next book in the series ASAP or else I'd go crazy. And this one is even larger than the previous one! I have a couple other books I'm trying to get through before I return to Westeros though, specifically some Pratchett, Strauss, and Vance.

London, Un Lun Dun

China Mieville takes a moment to talk about his upcoming YA debut Un Lun Dun (which now I figured out what the blazes the title means). I'm definitely interested in seeing how this all turns out.

But for now I must get back to writing about space pirates, robots, and candy.

Tis official

The big news of the day:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be officially out on July 21, 2007 at 12:01 a.m., making the book's debut a couple weeks after the release of the fifth film in the series. I was pretty much surprised to hear this, and considering we only just learned of the title a short whiles back I wasn't expecting to learn anything else for some time. Actually, I wasn't even expecting the book to be out this year. I guess I was under the suspicion that Rowling was still writing it, but I guess she's closer to done than we all thought. I just hope the final product wasn't rushed simply to align itself with better marketing opportunities. And pretty soon the movies are all we're going to have to look forward to...

I also hope that Rowling doesn't give Hagrid the axe, but that's a whole different sort of post that I'll save for later. The Keeper of the Keys and Grounds is my hero!

Locus Recommended Reading 2006

Happy February!

Though this is being linked to by every blogger this side of Sunday, I'll also point folks in the direction of Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading for 2006. Lots of good books and short fiction listed there. I do wish though that small press markets could be even looked at, but it's a dog-eat-dog world and sadly they are left on the side of the road, panting heavily as cars drive on by. There are times that I think some stories from Farthing or Apex Digest or Abyss and Apex are far more illuminating than those printed in the Big Three.

And that's the end of me complaining over this matter.

My Elves Are Different

Steve Wilson, a fellow cohort from FantasyBookSpot, is doing some spec-fic related comic strips lightly titled My Elves Are Different. The artwork is what it is, but the writing is sharp and full of personality, which is what matters most. And they're fun, so check them out!

Looks like Greenhorn has some competition...

Inkheart buzz

I've been quietly watching the theatrical development of Cornelia Funke's Inkheart with sincere interest. Unfortunately, I can't stand it when characters are simply changed so that an audience can grasp who they are quicker. Andy Serkis, who takes the lead villian of Capricorn, the man with a heart so black it might as well be full of ink, chats a bit about how the character has changed. I don't know. Personally, I don't believe Serkis has the stage presence to make a captivating villain (unless, of course, he's gone through seven hours of makeup or is a giant gorilla or whatever else he's been before when he's not himself, you know).

And Brendan Fraser as Mo? Ugh. No, no, no. I don't care that Funke fell in love with his voice, Fraser should not be Mo. No, no, nonononononononoonno. I can totally see Fraser mucking up the role and playing it a bit too campy for me.

The film is slated for a London release in 2008. I wonder if it'll make its way over here to the States...

Harry Potter and the Nudity that Scared Me

No, that's not the title of the secret eighth book. It pertains to the fact that 17-year-old Daniel Radcliffe has taken his career in a slightly different direction. He plays a demanding role in Peter Shaffer's controversial play Equus, which has something to do with sex and horses, I guess. Or maybe just horses. ::shrugs::



If you thought HP slash fanfic was out of hand before, just wait until the whole cast is dancing nude in stables and casting levitation spells on bails of hay and drinking spiced apple cider and polyjuice potions and turning into horses themselves. Oh, it's going to get sickeningly interesting very soon. Luckily for me, I never really cared for how Radcliffe portrays Harry, thus, his representation of the character is no more ruined than it was prior to the above horse/sex photos.

Un Lun Dun contest

That's right. Jay from FBS is hosting a contest to win an autographed copy of Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. This is China's skip into the world of young adults, but I still foresee the tale being ever as engaging and horrific as Perdido Street Station and The Scar. Plus, I think China did some artwork for the book.

And it's fairly easy to win. Click the link above, sign up for the forums, private message Jay, and boom...you're in the drawing. Good luck to everyone, even though now you're mostly my competition.

Oh, and there are two contests being hosted by Brian for The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski and 47 Rules of Highly Effective Bank Robbers by Troy Cook, but those are mystery novels and I care not for them. I think I've read a total of three mystery novels before in my life. And none of them were Sherlock Holmes...

It's a wikiworld afterall

Paul Di Filippo's "Wikiworld" from Lou Anders' Fast Forward 1 anthology (which I reviewed a few posts down) is now available to read for free online. So check it out; it's a fun one, but also a bit scary seeing how it's a future that might just one day come to be.

Some movies

I've watched some movies lately thanks to some post-holiday gift card usage. One I really liked, one I liked but didn't get, and one was pretty stupid but filled with things I like yet I still didn't really like it at all.

Slither is a light-hearted monster flick, with alien lifeforms dropping onto the planet via a chunk of meotorite. From there they take a semi-bad husband's body hostage, using him to procreate little alien slugs. The film rarely takes itself seriously, but one thing it does take is itself and its gross-out gore to the edge. Which I loved. And though there's some usage of heavy CGI, the filmmakers went the smart route and kept things classic. The Grant monster, by the end of the movie, is such a piece of marvelous work that I found it hard to look away from such an ugly thing. It's very high on the creepy factor, but again, it's not a scary flick. And yes, I'm a Nathan Fillion fanboy, but there's a lot of other great people in Slither. Namely Elizabeth Banks and Tania Saulnier.

I'd been told over and over that I should see Night Watch, that it was a film I'd really enjoy. Guess what? It is. It's that classic tale of light versus dark, literally. There's the Day Watch and the Night Watch, vampires and shape-shifting guardians. Evil voodoo. The gloom. Things of that nature. Plus, a stupid boy who is clearly more than he appears to be. Visually, the movie is gorgeous. I really wished there had been more parts from the past because it looked like such a world of grim epic fantasy that, for a moment, my heart lifted and all was right in the world. Unfortunately, I watched it without the subtitles (I know, Night Watch sin!!!) so I was both confused and a little put off by the dubbing. So I liked it, and will watch it again, hopefully figuring out some of the things I did not get. But come on folks, a guy pulled his spine out to use it as a sword. It doesn't get any better than that.

And lastly, we have Feast, a Project Greenlight product. The premise is quite simple: a miscellaneous scraggle of strangers are trapped in a dive bar as hungry monsters try to eat them all mean like. And that's it. Characters in the film are one-shotted via pause-the-film techniques which lead to bio sheets. Kind of lazy. Also misleading, which I guess was the point. Like Slither, Feast doesn't take itself seriously. But unlike Slither, Feast is a bad movie. There's little room for acting besides screaming and dying. The gore is over-the-top, as is expected, but I just didn't find most of it believable. Or enjoyable. Characters come and go, and it wasn't until 3/4s of the way through that we're shown who exactly we should be voting for. I wanted Jay (snoochie-boochies) to save the day. Alas, he kicked it pretty early. Don't worry, nothing I write here will ruin the movie. And don't get me wrong, I love monster flicks (see Slither; gawd, I really do love that film), but these monsters were pointlessly absurd. No explanation, not even half an attempt to give them some sort of cause for being. Sure, we're told why they're angry, but not why they live. To its credit, Feast does have some good commentary to listen to, which is much better than actually listening to the film's dialogue. In the end, I'm just glad this one came packaged for free with Slither. Ah...Slither...swoons eternally...

A new story in progress

I'm currently reworking a piece of flash fiction that I wrote a few months ago. I wrote it, submitted it once, and quickly forgot about it. Opening the file tonight, I was surprised to find some stuff in it that I really liked. Anyways, it was written in present tense (why, gods, why?), which I'm not happy with. So I'm changing tenses and trying to lengthen it to at least a decent short story.

So here's a current word count for all y'all:

"The Field Once Battled"

( ######======= )
869 / 2,000 : 43.5%

Why won't Blogger let me post a decent-looking Zokutou Word Meter? Snarls.

Hope to finish it up over the next few days. I'd love to finish a new story and start submitting it. It feels like all I've been doing lately is submitting all my old stories, which are beginning to either feel dated or just trunk-able to me. Oh well. Onwards...

Forwarding review!

Check out my review for Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge edited by Lou Anders here!

Taken from the FBS Quick Take:
Fast Forward I is a great anthology, filled with numerous and diverse stories and is bound to please any fan of science fiction.

And this bit of news has been all over the blogosphere today: HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire & Ice" into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. This is pretty cool and might possibly be the only reason I'd ever order HBO for myself. The show is probably a long ways off (as is the rest of the series, which Martin hopes to finish by 2011) so no need to start planning out casting roles right now...but still...epic fantasy that might be done well. On television! Eee!

Of course, nothing will ever meet my own imagination for how I perceive Arya, Jon Snow, Theon, Davos, The Hound, and so on...

Love, hate, just talk it out

It seems my latest comic over at Greenhorn has stirred up some heated discussion, most of which can be seen in the accompanying FBS thread here. I probably came across a little too harsh in the comments below the comic, but such is life. I'm just glad to see folks talking, you know.

Here's an update

All right, I've set up a site at Webcomicsnation for my journal comics, magically named MyLifeComics. I'll be reposting the comics on LiveJournal in case anyone wants to comment on them. The username is mylifecomics; feel free to add me and tell your friends. Unless they're old cause I make fun of old people a lot.

Stopped at my favorite bookstore yesterday and picked up a couple books:

• Jack Vance - Star King
• Jack Vance - The Killing Machine
• Jack Vance - The Palace of Love
• Robert Silverberg, editor - The New Atlantic and Other Novellas of Science Fiction by Gene Wolfe, Ursula K. Le Guin, and James Tiptree, Jr.
  

I also got The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction in the mail yesterday. Seems pretty good with a strong TOC to it. That'll probably be next on my review list after I finish up Fast Forward I. This should keep me busy for some time, I'd say.

Changes in the air

There are going to be some changes soon with the journal comic. Trust me, they're for the better. Stay tuned for further details...

Also, I just realized I colored the wires for my iPod Shuffle black when everyone and their mother certainly knows that they should be white. I'd like to take a mulligan, please.

Finished Inkspell

Well, I finished reading Inkspell by Cornelia Funke. Overall, it was decent but the whole time I was reading I kept thinking that there was just too many unneeded details and characters. The book was longer than it needed to be, and considering the sudden and incomplete ending, annoying in retrospect. There's some good bits, mainly involving Dustfinger and Farid, and a couple scenes that reminded me why I loved Inkheart so much. Though I liked the juxtaposition of everyone entering the book in Inkspell (instead of those living outside the book in Inkheart), I was just hoping for something more. But who am I kidding, I'll read the third book whenever it comes out.

Nebula thoughts

Swing-and-a-miss.

Seems the 2006 Preliminary Nebula Award Ballot is up and breathing. Scanning through, I see only a few things that I've actually read, which makes choosing my top choices rather forced. From the novels category I've only read Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain, which I really enjoyed a lot. Haven't read any of the novellas up, but I have enjoyed Paul Melko's work before. Novelettes...hmm...it's a tie between "Journey into the Kingdom" by M. Rickert and Peter S. Beagle's "Two Hearts." For short stories, my silent vote has to go to "Pip and the Fairies" by Theodora Goss, a wonderful (and quite sad) fairytale-like adventure set in modern times where the media gets involved. And I personally don't give a hopping hoot about movie scripts, no matter how amazing they can be at times. So there you have it, for now at least.

Twas a lovely day

Though right now it's pretty cold out. I'm really fearing February since that's usually the worst of the cold months. Good thing I got a new pair of gloves for Christmas. Cause otherwise, what's the point?

New layout

Well, it's a new year...so I've decided to try out a new layout for Wistful Writings.

This is a work in progress as I figure out how to use Blogger's customization tools. Stay tuned for changes...

Nice doggie...

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Things I need to do (I'm OCDDDDDDD, I make to-do-lists just to stay busyyyyyyy):

• Finish the other three parts for the upcoming Greenhorn series
• Review Fast Forward I
• See Children of Men
• Beat Suikoden V, even if it means not collecting every single character
• Laundry
• Possibly re-organize my bookshelves

Now, isn't all that exciting?

Comic and some thoughts

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I finished several books as of late. In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck is of standard fair for epic fantasy sorts, a young squire named Durand getting involved in a plot of treason and fighting for the Lord Lamoric, a man who is far more interesting than those around them. So there's a lot of knights galloping on horses, several jousting tournaments, and the occasional monster. The magic of the land is kept in the background, which I did not like. The writing was good except I kept stumbling upon several similes that were 100% jarring; hopefully by his next novel Keck will have improved because I did find some aspects of In the Eye of Heaven interesting and I wouldn't mind reading more from him.

Don't Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine by Tanith Lee are two books set in the utopian world of Four BEE. Yes, Four Bee. It's a strange world where everything is splendid, the youthful Jang can suicide daily to change bodies and body types, and the idea of God is obsolete. But one person decides she no longer wants to be Jang, seperates herself from her circle, attempts to make a child, and then becomes exiled to the desert. Lee's writing, here at its earliest, is simply compelling. She has such a handle on her characters and the story never strays too far from its absurdity. Characters come and go as different sexes, and through it all everyone remains clear. I definitely recommend the series for those that like their science fiction pulpy, fast-paced, and lush with alien ideas.

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin is set on the planet Athshe where a once-paradise is being conquered by humans. The forests are being cut down, the land cleared all over, but the Athsheans have had enough. Long thought to be docile, they attack the humans. The book sort of made me think of a deranged version of the Ewoks on Endor, where the little fuzzy creatures went rabid with rage, killing all in their path. I've always been a fan of Le Guin's work, and this is another piece of her genius: a battle between man and nature, where those working for the trees are able to fight through lucid dreaming. If you have the time, it's a short book and well worth the read.

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It seems I forgot to post a link to my review for Eragon, which was an absolutely horrible film on a hundred different levels. Right now though, Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth are looking amazing. I'm still having trouble finding a theatre that's playing Pan's Labyrinth around here. Ugh. Why is that the artsy films get no love but Night at the Museum is playing everywhere, ten times a day, over and over and over again? Tell me now, brown cow.

I got mad

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Don't hate/honk at me just because I don't have EZ Pass/the change for the toll in my hand the instant I come to a stop. Sheesh, peoples.

Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?

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And yet I never watched a single airing of A Christmas Story over the holidays. I long for the day when Elf becomes the classic Christmas movie. Really, I do.

Tree time

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Al doesn't speak too much English.

"The Feet Eaters"

My story "The Feet Eaters" has just gone live over at Aberrant Dreams.

Check it out!

I guess I was sleepy

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Did some sketching over the holiday break. So expect to see some comics over the next few days...

Holiday update

Happy (belated) holidays, everyone!

Had a nice Christmas morning with the family. Got a new desk which will come in extremely handy for drawing. Also, a stuffed hamster that can moonwalk. I specifically asked for no books or gift cards to bookstores because I have way too many as is and in the next few months I'm getting a bunch more sent to me. But my sister is trying to clear out her stash so she's given me:

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
The Outstretched Shadow (Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
To Light a Candle (Book 2) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara
Cast in Courtlight by Michelle Sagara

So there. I'll get to them eventually. Really, I will. When? ::shrugs::

Hooray!

...and now I'm off until 2007! Hooray!

You do the math

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Math is hard.

No, no, no, and no

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Lather, rinse, repeat. For fifteen minutes.

The review queue

Queue is a funny word. Killer in Scrabble, but if you look at it too long your brain begins to fritz out. Anyways, even though I've put a lot of my reviewing tasks aside for the time being I still have books that need reviewing. At the moment, I'm just reading some books that have been on my shelf for a bit, waiting, waiting, waiting. But here's what I'll eventually get to in the first few months of 2007:

• The Flock by James Robert Smith
• The Awakened City by Victoria Strauss
• Fast Forward I edited by Lou Anders
• Farthing, Issue #5

And that's pretty much it for now. I discovered some vanity press novels that Damon had slipped me along with actual real novels (bastard!), but I doubt I'll ever even open them. It gets cold up here in North Jersey, though, so they'll be at least good for burning. Wow, I'm the nicest. I'm sure other books are coming in, and there might be the occasional pop-up review (a la Ysabel), but for the most part that should be it.

An empty sandwich

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Ever eat a sandwich consisting of just bread, shredded lettuce, and black olives? It's not bad, certainly edible, but I wanted my tuna. Shame I was too lazy to go back and complain. Least they remembered the bread. And to charge me $6 for it.

Wind it up...

A haiku for you

Haiku2 for wistfulwritings
my favorite shop i've decided i need to enlarge my tanith
@ aboutmylife.netadvogato.orgblogger.comblogs.gnome.orgblogspot.comdeadjournal.comgreatestjournal.comlivejournal.commyspace.comspaces.msn.com
Created by Grahame

Oh, now this is funny. Especially that last line...enlarge my Tanith, indeed.

Bow staff skills, vacuuming skills...

That's a lot of canes...

Not my seventh review

Check out my review for Robert Silverberg's The Seventh Shrine!

Old people, schmold people

Gift-wrapped truths

It's true.

The Burning Review

Check out my review of The Burning Land by Victoria Strauss!



From the FBS Quick Take:
The Burning Land is a novel worthy of the term epic, all without being book 1 of 12 and having a Dark Lord bent on making commoners suffer needlessly.

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

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Clearly, the rain gods of Clifton exist just to smite me.

Shtuffs...

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I picked up some more books at my favorite shop. I've decided I need to enlarge my Tanith Lee collection. Here's what I got:

• Ursula K. Le Guin - The Word for World is Forest
• Tanith Lee - The Birthgrave
• Tanith Lee - Don't Bite the Sun
• Tanith Lee - Drinking Sapphire Wine
• Stephen King - Carrie

I was really hoping to find some of King's short story collections, but alas, none could be found. I did notice, however, that Cell is out in mass market paperback. Might have to pick that one up soon too.

Olives in the sky...

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Sadly, I did not see this olive-eyed daughter of hers. I eventually grew annoyed with this woman talking only about her daughter and how pretty she was and how when she got older she was going to be the one girl all the boys fought over and blah, blah, blah. The guy with her was most certainly not a husband or boyfriend so I can only imagine what his opinions on this topic were.

In other news, I hit the first draft of an urban fantasy short story called "Nineteen and a Half Cats" at 3,700 words. I'm currently editing it and hopefully I can stick a fork in it soon. I haven't completed a short story in awhile and was beginning to worry I'd hit a snag of sorts. It's all right though as my backlog of tales is still pretty large.

A new month is here

...and it's raining out, but fairly warm with little to no breeze. What's up with the weather this December? I didn't mean for that question to rhyme as much as it did.

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Journal comics

I'm doing a couple journal-style comics, but don't expect these every day. Just more or less when I feel like doing them. And here's something I've discovered--I never draw myself the same way twice. Anyways, here are two for now (click them to enlarge the picture):

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Top 50 favorite short stories

I've been reading short stories now for several years, and this list (can you tell that I like lists?) has been growing inside my head for some time. To ease the migraines and furry little demon lords, I'm going to post what I think are my Top 50 favorite short stories EVAR. Well, maybe not EVAR since more and more will probably continue to impress me, but you get the point. These are more like my Top 50 stories as of November 29, 2006. And you'll probably notice that most of these come from recent or just emerging authors, and that's because I've been doing more reading of what's current than what's in the past.

Feel free to yell at me for that. Throw fireballs for all I care. Or, better yet, suggest short stories to me that you'd think I'd enjoy. I'm attracted to the weird, the extreme, and the tragic (and, well, anything involving broken robots).

Personal thoughts/comments/quips are added when I feel like adding them. So there.

Also, please note that these are in no order whatsoever. Just my favorite fifty I could come up with.

Top 50 favorite short stories

1. Cory Doctorow - "Craphound" (I will say this time and time again that Doctorow's story of aliens, yard sales, and friendship is one of the most powerful tales I've ever read.)
2. Ursula K. Le Guin - "The Birthday of the World"
3. Ursula K. Le Guin - "Darkrose and Diamond" (I'm a sucker for Earthsea, though I enjoy her short stories about the world more than the novels. Weird.)
4. Neil Gaiman - "Harlequin Valentine"
5. Margo Lanagan - "Singing My Sister Down"
6. Kelly Link - "The Girl Detective"
7. Paul Melko - "Doctor Mighty and the Case of the Ennui"
8. Jay Lake - "The Soul Bottles"
9. Jay Lake - "Fat Jack and the Spider Clown"
10. Albert E. Cowdrey - "Imitation of Life"
11. Sandra McDonald - "Lost and Found"
12. Patrick Samphire - "Uncle Vernon’s Lie"
13. Liz Williams - "Mortegarde"
14. Josh Rountree - "The Queen's Wood"
15. Josh Rountree - "A Better Place"
16. Lawrence M. Schoen - "The Game of Leaf and Smile" (One that I can see myself re-reading every Halloween.)
17. Michael Bishop - "Bears Discover Smut" (Brilliant and fun.)
18. Richard Bowes - "There's a Hole in the City"
19. A.M. Dellamonica - "The Spear Carrier"
20. Dario Ciriell0 - "Valley of the Shadow"
21. Ruth Nestvold - "The Old Man and the Sneakers"
22. Heidi Cyr - "X & Y"
23. Anne McCaffrey - "The Girl Who Heard Dragons"
24. Aliette de Bodard - "A Warrior's Death"
25. James Tiptree, Jr. - "The Women Men Don't See"
26. Paul Di Filippo - "Shipbreaker"
27. Ian R. MacLeod - "New Light on the Drake Equation"
28. E. Sedia - "God's Chosen" (Hooray for broken robots!)
29. Richard Parks - "Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge"
30. Tanith Lee - "En Forêt Noire"
31. Mary Robinette Kowal - "Cerbo en Vitra ujo" (Effing disturbing. That's all I'll say.)
32. Jeffrey Ford - "In the House of Four Seasons"
33. M. Thomas - "The Tinker's Child" (Hooray for broken robots!)
34. Heather Lindsley - "Just Do It"
35. Ef Deal - "Czesko" (I was really drawn into the story simply by the voice of the narrator.)
36. Lisa Silverthorne - "Wild Feed"
37. Joan Bauer - "Blocked"
38. Pamela Zoline - "The Heat Death of The Universe"
39. James Tiptree, Jr. - "Painwise" (Too weird for words, but awesome regardless of the matter.)
40. M.K. Hobson - "Discovery's Wake" (Go tenure!)
41. Forrest Aguirre - "Treason Is"
42. Merrie Haskell - "Dead Languages" (I'm a Buffy fan, so what?)
43. Lavie Tidhar - "304 Adolf Hitler Strasse"
44. James Enge - "Payment Deferred"
45. Hannah Wolf Bowen - "Watch Dog"
46. Jeffrey Ford - "In the House of Four Seasons"
47. Ann Sterzinger - "Tremors" (My goodness, this horrific tale is tattooed in my memory.)
48. Lucy Sussex - "Frozen Charlottes"
49. Vera Nazarian - "The Slaying of Winter"
50. Paolo Bacigalupi - "Small Offerings" (You commoners won't get to read this for a few months, but by the gods I'm now permanently afraid of the miracle of life.)

And that's all for now. Looking over the list, I've realized I've missed many short stories that I absolutely loved, but they'll just have to wait for the next list, whenever that'll be.

Moo, indeed

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Enjoy your wine and turkey and naps!

Ysssssabel

Check out my review for Guy Gavriel Kay's Ysabel, an excellent book that everyone should be on the lookout for in February 2007!

Here's an update (somewhat!)

Philcon was fun though a bit different than what I was expecting. Met some good folks like Neil Clarke, John Joseph Adams, Diane Turnshek, and others. Bought some mags and drank some beer. Overall, not terribly bad for my first con but I've quickly learned that other (bigger) cons are more about socializing than just panels. Those are the ones I really want to attend.

29-day sale of the dark robot story "67442" to Murky Depths for Issue #1 in September 2007. I think this makes me an official international author.

And lastly, check out the Thanksgiving/LOST-themed comic at Greenhorn. Hurley stars in it, which should be reason enough to go lookie at it.

I think that's it for now.

Farthing, Issue 4 review!

Check out my review of Farthing, Issue 4, September 2006!

Con time!

I'll be attending Philcon 2006 on Saturday the 18th. It looks to be a fun con, with Charles Stross as a guest. Neat! Hope to meet some folks there. I'm sure that if anyone needs to find me they can just look towards the hotel bar. Heh.

Update

I'm not doing NaNoWriMo. I've decided that, at the moment, I do not need the extra pressure. I'm going to work on my short stories for now. Besides, I like short stories. They are easier (I said easier, not easy!) than novels to me. And that's that. Good luck to those doing NaNoWriMo though! May 50K come before you know it!

Also, I bought Final Fantasy XII. It's amazing so far.

And have started a videogame blog called Game Beliefs. So check that out!

NaNoWriMo - Day #3

Progress notes for November 03, 2006:

Waterways



New words: 583
Total words: 3,739 of 50,000
Pages: 11
Deadline: Dec. 1
Reason for stopping: NEED. SOME. SLEEP.
Stimulants: Coffee, beer
Exercise: I drove for three hours. How's that?
Songs sung too loud to please the neighbors: "The Last Three Years" by Joe Wilson
Mail: None
Today's words Word don't know: I can't remember right now
Mean Things: Suprisingly...nothing
Tyop du Jour: None
The life of a WrITeR: Ugh, no writer today

NaNoWriMo - Day #2

Progress notes for November 02, 2006:

Waterways



New words: 1,440
Total words: 3,156 of 50,000
Pages: 10
Deadline: Dec. 1
Reason for stopping: No more writing for tonight as I need a break
Stimulants: Hot chocolate from Starbucks
Exercise: None, but maybe some stretches before bed
Songs sung too loud to please the neighbors: "The Priest and the Matador" by Senses Fail
Mail: None
Today's words Word don't know: swimmable
Mean Things: Embarassed a boy in front of a girl
Tyop du Jour: None that I can remember
The life of a WrITeR: Took out the trash, got a haircut, and went food shopping

NaNoWriMo - Day #1

Progress notes for November 01, 2006:

Waterways



New words: 1,716
Total words: 1,716 of 50,000
Pages: 7
Deadline: Dec. 1
Reason for stopping: Need to shower and shave. Plus, I need major sleep.
Stimulants: Two cups of coffee...mmm...
Exercise: Went for a short walk
Songs sung too loud to please the neighbors: "Girl in America" by Mat Kearney
Mail: None
Today's words Word don't know: None
Mean Things: Baby knocked off boat
Tyop du Jour: None
The Internet is full of Things: Sushi pillows. I want one!
The life of a WrITeR: Did the dishes

Jigsaw review!

Check out my review of Jigsaw Nation edited by Edward J. McFadden III and E. Sedia! Lots of neat stories! Enjoy!