Hi everyone!
I got a comment on my last post that noted that I hadn't posted anything since August, and wondered if this blog was dead. Answer: NO. I have been busy. I planned and executed my first trip to England! And things, and stuff. I did not blog. I intend to blog. I will. I will definitely blog.
So that's something to look forward to, right?
Friday, November 15, 2013
Saturday, August 31, 2013
BOOK REVIEW: You, by Austin Grossman (SPOILERS)
RATING: 2 out of 5 stars
I went into reading this book with high hopes, because I thought a novel about making video games, with a mystery involved, would be interesting. But...
The first problem is that whoever wrote the jacket copy made false promises. The main character, Russell, gets a job with old high school friends at their company, Black Arts Games. The book's description says, "But mostly he needs to know what happened to Simon, his strangest and most gifted friend, who died under mysterious circumstances soon after Black Arts' breakout hit." This is a lie. Russell reminisces about things they all did together back in their high school days, but hardly gives a thought to the circumstances of Simon's death. The false expectation set up there IS NOT THE AUTHOR'S FAULT, but there are plenty of things that ARE the author's fault, and he is not helped by the way the cover sets readers up for disappointment.
To start with the positive, as far as I can tell Grossman gets everything right when he describes the video game industry in the late 1990s; I've known many people in that field since the early 1990s, and I was tickled to see mentions of a couple of people I met long ago, John Carmack and John Romero. But describing an industry accurately does not necessarily make an interesting story. Russell is a very low-energy main character, who sort of drifts into his job as a game designer without really caring about games, and then he gets an undeserved promotion to lead game designer when a bunch of the company's employees leave. He does develop some motivation and job satisfaction along the way, but then the book wanders into long, long, long descriptions of him playing through the whole backlist of the company's games, and having conversations with the games' characters that could be interpreted as either imaginary or magical.
The most interesting thing about the book is the hunt for a mysterious "bug" that goes through all of the games, occasionally causing the appearance of a devastating weapon that wreaks havoc and does things it should not be able to do. However, I found it difficult to stay interested through the looooooooong sections of game summary. There's hardly any dialogue in the entire book, and few scenes with conflict, tension, or action that's shown directly. Russell spends a lot of time pondering the nature of games and wondering whether it's okay to like his job rather than preferring to work in a more conventional profession, such as being a lawyer (he's a law school dropout), but he never seems to fully engage with his life and move forward.
And another thing! There are many places in the book where Russell describes things that he wasn't present for, such as events in Simon's life, so he shouldn't know about them. They could possibly be interpreted as vivid imaginings, but they're not presented that way. They're told as if they're facts and Russell is an omniscient narrator. That bothered me every time it happened. I was not as bothered by the shifts between Russell's first-person story and the sections of second-person "you" describing the player in a video game, but the third-person omniscient sections took it too far.
The book was just barely engaging enough to keep me reading all the way to the end, but it took a lot of work to get through the second half, and I kind of wish that I hadn't.
Check out my Goodreads page to read more of my opinions about books!
I went into reading this book with high hopes, because I thought a novel about making video games, with a mystery involved, would be interesting. But...
The first problem is that whoever wrote the jacket copy made false promises. The main character, Russell, gets a job with old high school friends at their company, Black Arts Games. The book's description says, "But mostly he needs to know what happened to Simon, his strangest and most gifted friend, who died under mysterious circumstances soon after Black Arts' breakout hit." This is a lie. Russell reminisces about things they all did together back in their high school days, but hardly gives a thought to the circumstances of Simon's death. The false expectation set up there IS NOT THE AUTHOR'S FAULT, but there are plenty of things that ARE the author's fault, and he is not helped by the way the cover sets readers up for disappointment.
To start with the positive, as far as I can tell Grossman gets everything right when he describes the video game industry in the late 1990s; I've known many people in that field since the early 1990s, and I was tickled to see mentions of a couple of people I met long ago, John Carmack and John Romero. But describing an industry accurately does not necessarily make an interesting story. Russell is a very low-energy main character, who sort of drifts into his job as a game designer without really caring about games, and then he gets an undeserved promotion to lead game designer when a bunch of the company's employees leave. He does develop some motivation and job satisfaction along the way, but then the book wanders into long, long, long descriptions of him playing through the whole backlist of the company's games, and having conversations with the games' characters that could be interpreted as either imaginary or magical.
The most interesting thing about the book is the hunt for a mysterious "bug" that goes through all of the games, occasionally causing the appearance of a devastating weapon that wreaks havoc and does things it should not be able to do. However, I found it difficult to stay interested through the looooooooong sections of game summary. There's hardly any dialogue in the entire book, and few scenes with conflict, tension, or action that's shown directly. Russell spends a lot of time pondering the nature of games and wondering whether it's okay to like his job rather than preferring to work in a more conventional profession, such as being a lawyer (he's a law school dropout), but he never seems to fully engage with his life and move forward.
And another thing! There are many places in the book where Russell describes things that he wasn't present for, such as events in Simon's life, so he shouldn't know about them. They could possibly be interpreted as vivid imaginings, but they're not presented that way. They're told as if they're facts and Russell is an omniscient narrator. That bothered me every time it happened. I was not as bothered by the shifts between Russell's first-person story and the sections of second-person "you" describing the player in a video game, but the third-person omniscient sections took it too far.
The book was just barely engaging enough to keep me reading all the way to the end, but it took a lot of work to get through the second half, and I kind of wish that I hadn't.
Check out my Goodreads page to read more of my opinions about books!
Monday, August 5, 2013
When Depression Strikes at the Worst Possible Time
Real depression is rare for me—like
maybe one short bout every few years, due to circumstances. This
summer I had the highest number of simultaneous high-importance
deadlines of my life, and in the middle of those I had a sudden and
painful interpersonal drama from the least likely direction, and then
because of those things all at once, I strained my neck from sitting
in front of the computer for way more hours than usual, under way
more stress than usual. And then I took prescription pain medication
for that and worked in a fog for several days, and then discovered
this new dance craze called "withdrawal symptoms" (not
actually either a dance or a craze).
First, I took a couple of days to just rest. I did whatever I felt like doing. If it was crying, fine. If it was getting into bed and alternating between napping and staring at the wall, fine. I started with the easy ones like those and ended up with more enjoyable ones, like reading The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (because although it's grim, it gave me perspective on how my life wasn't really so bad), and listening to Maria Bamford's new comedy album, which is GREAT, and perfect for anyone who occasionally goes to the dark side in their thinking. I was still depressed at this point, but I started to feel it lifting slightly.
Then I listed all the things I thought I SHOULD get done, and narrowed the list down to only the things I HAD TO get done, with completion dates. I figured nothing was going to be much fun for a while, so I might as well just methodically go through my work step by step and stop having to worry about those obligations. That helped. I get a lot of satisfaction from checking items off a list.
Still in a funk, I added in exercise: taking long walks in the mornings, before it got too hot and sticky outside. I also fixed my nutrition by adding in more fruits and vegetables and reducing junky, fatty, and sugary foods (not eliminating, mind you, but cutting down). That's when I started to have longer stretches of feeling better, especially for the few hours after the walks. Those walks also gave me good opportunities to think through my problems and decide how I wanted to handle them. It's much easier to think when I'm away from my usual environment, which is full of chores and time-wasters like Facebook games. Which I had been playing too much in an effort to just not think about it for a while. That escape was probably helpful at first, but after a while it's time to stop hiding and make some changes.
This whole issue was why I delayed my Victory Mohawk. I wanted to be able to feel sincerely victorious for those pictures! And I did.
Now I am back to my usual level of cheer, with some new insights, and my energy level is back up. So! If you have occasional funks or depressions, following a similar process may be helpful. If you have serious depression frequently, add a call to your doctor ASAP, because frequent, intense depression is an illness that needs treatment just like any other serious illness.
So what did I do about it? And what can
you do about it if a similar thing happens to you?
First, I took a couple of days to just rest. I did whatever I felt like doing. If it was crying, fine. If it was getting into bed and alternating between napping and staring at the wall, fine. I started with the easy ones like those and ended up with more enjoyable ones, like reading The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (because although it's grim, it gave me perspective on how my life wasn't really so bad), and listening to Maria Bamford's new comedy album, which is GREAT, and perfect for anyone who occasionally goes to the dark side in their thinking. I was still depressed at this point, but I started to feel it lifting slightly.
Then I listed all the things I thought I SHOULD get done, and narrowed the list down to only the things I HAD TO get done, with completion dates. I figured nothing was going to be much fun for a while, so I might as well just methodically go through my work step by step and stop having to worry about those obligations. That helped. I get a lot of satisfaction from checking items off a list.
Still in a funk, I added in exercise: taking long walks in the mornings, before it got too hot and sticky outside. I also fixed my nutrition by adding in more fruits and vegetables and reducing junky, fatty, and sugary foods (not eliminating, mind you, but cutting down). That's when I started to have longer stretches of feeling better, especially for the few hours after the walks. Those walks also gave me good opportunities to think through my problems and decide how I wanted to handle them. It's much easier to think when I'm away from my usual environment, which is full of chores and time-wasters like Facebook games. Which I had been playing too much in an effort to just not think about it for a while. That escape was probably helpful at first, but after a while it's time to stop hiding and make some changes.
This whole issue was why I delayed my Victory Mohawk. I wanted to be able to feel sincerely victorious for those pictures! And I did.
Now I am back to my usual level of cheer, with some new insights, and my energy level is back up. So! If you have occasional funks or depressions, following a similar process may be helpful. If you have serious depression frequently, add a call to your doctor ASAP, because frequent, intense depression is an illness that needs treatment just like any other serious illness.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Multicolor! Victory! Mohawk!
AS PROMISED! The success of the What Fates Impose fundraising campaign brings:
WOOHOO!!!
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
I Have Messed Up My Neck
I spent a lot a lot I mean a LOT of time at my computer over the last two weeks. I didn't realize how incorrectly I had been sitting until about a week ago, when that neck I mentioned started to feel sore. But at that point there was still so much computery stuff left do do, with deadlines, that I rearranged the way i was sitting and just kept working.
I'm testing the Blogger app on my phone from my bed today because that was not an effective solution! For one thing, my neck really needed more of a break, and for another, I kept catching myself back in the same old bad position every time I got absorbed in what I was working on. So today I shall rest this neck in the least painful position I can find, with occasional breaks to gently stretch it and move it around, and I'll avoid sitting at the computer.
But hey! If this is the price of victory, I'll pay it! Because two big and awesome things are done now: the funding for What Fates Impose, AND my new alternate history story of Incan Steampunk, "The Emperor Everlasting." That required so much research, but I learned a lot of actual history and ended up with a story I love.
This means Victory Mohawk pictures will be slightly delayed (wouldn't want pained grimaces smudging the Victory of it all), but you'll definitely get them! I promise!
Sunday, July 14, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Amanda C. Davis
Note from
Nayad: Last interview of the series! I've been posting
interviews
Amanda's story in WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination, "The Scry Mirror," shows how managing one's expectations is a crucial element of happiness, and it digs into some seriously creepy depths.
Here's Amanda with her thoughts on writing and what looks like an awesome egg recipe: I'm going to have to try it! *for a solid three minutes, mirrors around the world reflect the wrong images*
Do you have any advice for aspiring
writers?
GUEST POST: Jennifer Brozek and her Karen Wilson Chronicles
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Wendy N. Wagner
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Alasdair Stuart
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Ferrett Steinmetz
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Sarah Hans
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Lucy A. Snyder
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Beth Wodzinski
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Tim Waggoner
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jamie Lackey
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Remy Nakamura
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Cat Rambo
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: David Boop
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Andrew Penn Romine
AUTHORINTERVIEW: Erika Holt
with authors contributing to my speculative fiction
anthology, WHAT
FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination, which is all about the conflicts and problems that make people want to predict the future, followed by the new problems that come from trying to find out what's next.
It's also the last day of the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE, and although we are fully funded (yay!) you can still get in on it to pre-order the book and get awesome rewards until 8pm Central TODAY, July 14th, 2013. All extra help we get will go toward the finishing details for the book and making more books like it possible, because we want to keep on creating anthologies and paying authors the pro rates they deserve.
You can easily tell your friends about the project by using this page to give us three clicks. Time's almost up!
It's also the last day of the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE, and although we are fully funded (yay!) you can still get in on it to pre-order the book and get awesome rewards until 8pm Central TODAY, July 14th, 2013. All extra help we get will go toward the finishing details for the book and making more books like it possible, because we want to keep on creating anthologies and paying authors the pro rates they deserve.
You can easily tell your friends about the project by using this page to give us three clicks. Time's almost up!
Amanda C. Davis writes short stories in the genres of science fiction, fantasy,
and horror. Her work has appeared in Shock Totem, IGMS, three Triangulation
anthologies, and others. She works in the combustion industry by day and spends her nights baking, live-Tweeting horror
movies, and embarking on the occasional harebrained scheme (with varying
results, but at least her failures make entertaining blog posts).
Here's Amanda with her thoughts on writing and what looks like an awesome egg recipe: I'm going to have to try it! *for a solid three minutes, mirrors around the world reflect the wrong images*
Depends. Put enough coffee in me and
I'll lecture for hours. On the other hand, I'm constantly telling my
crit partners that I'm always wrong about everything. I'd probably
better just stick to that for now.
Which subjects and themes do you
write about often, and why?
I'm definitely one of those writers who
pulls the same themes over and over again. I love sacrifice and loss,
dread, the realization that you've been wrong for a really long time.
Following your duty to a terrible end. I like to treat magic like
science and science like magic. And I've got this stable of character
types who keep appearing in various shapes and sizes, to the point
where I've named them, and can recognize them and their hybrids even
where I didn't expect them. I couldn't speculate on why. It'd just
get embarrassing.
What's your favorite story of all
the stories you've written, and why?
I don't necessarily have a number-one
favorite, though within genres, I'm more satisfied with some than
with others. Can I pick two? People seemed to like "Drift"
and
"Shimmer."
What do you like and dislike about
the process of writing a story for a themed anthology?
I pretty much love everything about it.
I thrive on deadlines, and I approach prompts and themes as puzzles
where I have to find the approach that's maximally appropriate,
unique, and interesting to write. The only downside might be that
stories written to theme can be harder to place elsewhere, which is
why (shh, trade secret) I often incorporate a second or third element
that's in regular demand. And anthologies! I adore them. Don't get me
started. I'm so excited about the table of contents in What Fates
Impose, so excited to read it.
Where can people find other
published work of yours?
All my published work is linked from my bibliography.
Earlier this year, World Weaver Press released a collection of my
sister Megan Engelhardt's and my fairy-tale retellings, available in
a vast bouquet of formats, and we're very proud of it:
http://worldweaverpress.com/books/wolves-and-witches/
What else would you like to tell
people about any subject?
One egg. Quarter teaspoon coarse-ground
black pepper. Half tablespoon crumbled feta cheese. Two tablespoons
chopped baby spinach. Scramble, fry on medium-high, flip when the
bottom holds together on a spatula and the top is solid enough not to
slide off. Fold in half. Top with ketchup or hot sauce according to
taste, but you don't need it; that's a lot of black pepper.
*
Last day to get involved! The WHAT FATES
IMPOSE Fundraising Campaign closes TODAY, July 14,
2013, at 8pm Central. Join us and be a part of making history! 
GUEST POST: Jennifer Brozek and her Karen Wilson Chronicles
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Wendy N. Wagner
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Alasdair Stuart
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Ferrett Steinmetz
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Sarah Hans
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Lucy A. Snyder
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Beth Wodzinski
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Tim Waggoner
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jamie Lackey
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Remy Nakamura
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Cat Rambo
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: David Boop
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Andrew Penn Romine
Saturday, July 13, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Erika Holt
As of this posting we have only 30 more hours to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE, and WE ARE FULLY FUNDED. Yay! We're up to $5,185 from 217 Beloved Backers!
You can still pre-order the book and get awesome rewards until 8pm Central on Sunday, July 14th. All extra help we get will go toward the finishing details for the book and making more books like it possible, because we want to keep on creating anthologies and paying authors the pro rates they deserve.
You can easily tell your friends about the project by using this page to give us three clicks.
Erika Holt lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she writes and edits speculative fiction. Her stories appear in Shelter of Daylight Issue 6, Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead, and Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales. She is also co-editor of two anthologies from EDGE and Absolute XPress: Rigor Amortis and Broken Time Blues: Fantastic Tales in the Roaring ’20s, and assistant editor of Nightmare Magazine. I can give you my personal guarantee that she's fun to drink with!
Erika's story in WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination is called "Murder of Crows," and it's a chilling tale about the nature of trust, belief, and terrible choices.
Now here's Erika to tell you about her methods of developing stories, some of her favorite writing themes, and her thoughts on divination. *all the crows in the world startle into flight*
Victory Mohawk Progress Report
WHAT FATES IMPOSE is fully funded! There's still time to get in on the pre-orders and rewards through 8pm on Sunday, July 14th, but right now I'm working on something I told you I would do.
As promised, I am on the path to posting Multicolor Victory Mohawk pictures of myself on the internet! To let you know that I'm serious, here's a photo of my hair at the bleached-out stage. :)
What's next, you ask? How about some blue, turquoise, and green? I have to write a big chunk of my next short story before I get to start putting on the colors, but the colors and the photos will be along within a few days at most.
As promised, I am on the path to posting Multicolor Victory Mohawk pictures of myself on the internet! To let you know that I'm serious, here's a photo of my hair at the bleached-out stage. :)
What's next, you ask? How about some blue, turquoise, and green? I have to write a big chunk of my next short story before I get to start putting on the colors, but the colors and the photos will be along within a few days at most.
Friday, July 12, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Andrew Penn Romine
As of this morning we have only 57 more hours to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $4,862 from 202 Beloved Backers. That's a thrilling 97%, but we still need $138 to get to $5,000. The Countdown Is Happening! We're SOOOOOO CLOSE. :)
Thanks to everyone's efforts, we have unlocked a new bonus for backers! Everyone gets two bonus art downloads for contributing any amount from $1 on up. You can easily tell your friends about the project by using this page to give us three clicks. Will you help us? Because we would love to create this book and pay our authors pro rates for their work.
Andrew Penn Romine lives in Los Angeles, where he works in the visual effects and animation industry. A graduate of the 2010 Clarion West workshop, his fiction appears online at Lightspeed Magazine and Crossed Genres as well as in the anthologies Broken Time Blues: Fantastic Tales in the Roaring 20s, and Rigor Amortis, and in Fungi from Innsmouth Free Press.
Andrew's story for WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination, "Ain't Much Different'n Rabbits," is, I believe, the most disturbing story in the whole book, AND I LOVE IT.
Here's Andrew, explaining himself. *swarms of fireflies all light up at once*
Here's Andrew, explaining himself. *swarms of fireflies all light up at once*
Thursday, July 11, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: David Boop
As of this afternoon we have only three more days to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $4,663 from 192 Beloved Backers. That's an amazing 93%, but we still need $337 to get to $5,000. The Countdown Is Happening. We're SO CLOSE. :)
If you'd like to help out, you can easily tell friends about the book by clicking here. If you contribute any amount from $1 on up at our Kickstarter page, you will get our first bonus art download in addition to whatever rewards you choose, and we're only 8 backers away from making that TWO bonus art downloads. Will you help us? Because we would love to create this book and pay our authors pro rates for their work.
David Boop is a novelist, short story writer , and super-friendly guy. I first met him after he was on a panel at NorWesCon. I don't remember the topic of the panel, but I remember the title of his book, which was such a good title that I needed to compliment him on it: She Murdered Me with Science. He's is also in a table of contents with me in Space Grunts: Full-Throttle Space Tales #3, edited by Dayton Ward, as well as having stories in a bunch of other tables of contents! He offers flash fiction critiques for one of the reward levels in our fundraising campaign.
David's story for WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination is called "Dipping into the Pocket of Destiny." It shows how trying to get an edge over the competition depends on both the quality of your information and the context around it, so you need to keep an eye on cause and effect.
Here's David with some context for you! *as the strand of fate that brought you here is woven into place, Events of Significance begin to play out*
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Cat Rambo
As of this afternoon we have only four more days to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $4,356 from 183 Beloved Backers. That's 87%, but we still need $644 to get to $5,000. The Countdown Is Happening. But we're so close!
If you'd like to help out, you can easily tell friends about the book by clicking here. If you contribute any amount from $1 on up at our Kickstarter page, you will get our first bonus art download in addition to whatever rewards you choose, and we're only 17 backers away from making that TWO bonus art downloads. Will you help us? Because we would love to create this book and pay our authors pro rates for their work.
(Photo by On Focus Photos, http://onfocusphoto.com)
Cat Rambo lives, writes, and teaches by the shores of an eagle-haunted lake in the Pacific Northwest. Her 200+ fiction publications include stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and Tor.com. Her short story, “Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain,” from her story collection Near + Far (Hydra House Books), was a 2012 Nebula nominee. Her editorship of Fantasy Magazine earned her a World Fantasy Award nomination in 2012.
Cat's story in WHAT FATES IMPOSE, "To Read the Sea," is a powerful and unsettling flash fiction story about the magical objects that come from the ocean, and the dark motivations of the people who want them.
Here's Cat to tell you about divination and the many ways to do it, as well as her thoughts on writing. *tides around the world impossibly rise all at once*
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Remy Nakamura
Note from Nayad: The series continues. This week I'll post interviews with authors contributing to my speculative fiction anthology, WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination. If you want to read strange tales about predicting the future, you've found the right book. I hope you enjoy these author interviews!
As of this afternoon we have only five more days to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $4,267 from 178 Beloved Backers. That's almost 85%, but we still need some help to get to $5,000. The Countdown Is Happening.
If you'd like to help out, you can easily tell friends about the book by clicking here. If you contribute any amount from $1 on up at our Kickstarter page, you will get a bonus art download in addition to whatever rewards you choose! Will you help us? Because we would love to create this book and pay our authors pro rates for their work.
Remy Nakamura is a graduate of the Clarion West workshop, and one of the excellent writers contributing to Inkpunks, and I personally covet at least one of his shirts (the one he was wearing when I met him in the middle of the night at WorldCon in Reno). His story for WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination is called "Pick a Card." It features Tarot cards and a tortured man in prison who seeks a way out.
I'll let Remy take over now to tell you about his reasons for using Tarot cards, his themes, and the way he came up with the idea for his story.
*Ferris Bueller-style group dances start up on stairways across America*
As of this afternoon we have only five more days to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $4,267 from 178 Beloved Backers. That's almost 85%, but we still need some help to get to $5,000. The Countdown Is Happening.
If you'd like to help out, you can easily tell friends about the book by clicking here. If you contribute any amount from $1 on up at our Kickstarter page, you will get a bonus art download in addition to whatever rewards you choose! Will you help us? Because we would love to create this book and pay our authors pro rates for their work.
Remy Nakamura is a graduate of the Clarion West workshop, and one of the excellent writers contributing to Inkpunks, and I personally covet at least one of his shirts (the one he was wearing when I met him in the middle of the night at WorldCon in Reno). His story for WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination is called "Pick a Card." It features Tarot cards and a tortured man in prison who seeks a way out.
I'll let Remy take over now to tell you about his reasons for using Tarot cards, his themes, and the way he came up with the idea for his story.
*Ferris Bueller-style group dances start up on stairways across America*
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jamie Lackey
As of this morning we have only five more days to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $4,116 from 171 Beloved Backers. That's 82%, but we still need some help to get to $5,000. The Clock of Let's Get Serious is now ticking.
If you'd like to help out, you can easily tell friends about the book by clicking here. If you contribute any amount from $1 on up at our Kickstarter page, you will get a bonus art download in addition to whatever rewards you choose! Will you help us? Because we would love to create this book and pay our authors pro rates for their work.
Jamie Lackey lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and their cat. Her fiction has been published by over a dozen different venues, including The Living Dead 2, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Daily Science Fiction, and she has appeared on the Best Horror of the Year Honorable Mention and Tangent Online Recommended Reading Lists. She reads slush for Clarkesworld Magazine, works as an assistant editor at Electric Velocipede, and helped edit the Triangulation Annual Anthology from 2008 to 2011. Her Kickstarter-funded short story collection, One Revolution, is available on Amazon.com.
Jamie's story in WHAT FATES IMPOSE, "Another Will Open," gives us a look at the difference between easy answers and hard choices, and how to pick a direction. Here she is with her thoughts on where that story came from and some advice for aspiring writers.
Monday, July 8, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Tim Waggoner
Note from Nayad: The series continues. This week I'll post interviews with authors contributing to my speculative fiction anthology, WHAT FATES IMPOSE: Tales of Divination. If you want to read weird stories about fortune-telling, this is the book for you. I hope you enjoy these author interviews!
As of this morning we have only six more days to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $3,879 from 160 Beloved Backers. That's almost 78%, but we still need some help to get to $5,000. The Clock of Let's Get Serious is now ticking.
If you'd like to help out, you can easily tell friends about the book by clicking here. If you contribute any amount from $1 on up at our Kickstarter page, you will get a bonus art download in addition to whatever rewards you choose! Will you help us? Because we would love to create this book and pay our authors pro rates for their work.
Tim Waggoner is a popular, award-winning horror writer who has published over thirty novels and three short story collections, and also a creative writing teacher at Sinclair Community College and in Seton Hill University’s Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. His story in WHAT FATES IMPOSE, "The Goggen," is a creepy modern fairy tale about the darkness lurking behind waterfalls and inside human minds.
Here's Tim with great stuff about his writing themes, writing advice for you, and how the I Ching gave him the right wisdom to get him started as a professional writer. *out of nowhere, an orchestra starts playing dramatic classical music*
Sunday, July 7, 2013
AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Beth Wodzinski
As of this morning we have only seven more days to go on the Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for WHAT FATES IMPOSE. We're up to $3,732 from 153 Beloved Backers. That's almost 75%, but we still need some help to get to $5,000. The Clock of Let's Get Serious is now ticking.
If you'd like to help out, telling your friends about this book project is free and easy by clicking here, and there are reward levels from $1 on up at our Kickstarter page.
In addition to being an excellent writer, Beth Wodzinski is the editor of an outstanding magazine, Shimmer. Her story in WHAT FATES IMPOSE is called "One Tiny Misstep (In Bed)." It features fortune cookies, gives the reader many choices, and demonstrates exactly how deceptive choices can be.
Here's Beth, testing out various methods of online divination to find answers to my questions! *flocks of shimmery birds take to the skies in what is clearly an omen of some kind*
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