Steampunk story “The Four Liars” accepted! Look out for it in the premier of 10Flash in July. I will, of course, post a notice when the issue is up. Exciting! I’ll be featured along with some really great writers who should be familiar names by now, including Gay “L&O” Degani and Erin “Babymamma” Kinch.
I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll save further discussion of the story for after it’s out.
I just wanted to drop a recommendation to head over to Kris Straub’s Ichor Falls. If you are a fan of horror he’s doing some pretty interesting writing over there (albeit all too infrequently). I actually wrote an Ichor Falls-inspired exercise here some time ago, back when Ichor Falls was just a webcomic experiment that Kris was playing around with.
In particular I like this piece, which is very possibly one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever read. It’s also a good example of incorporating contemporary internet culture into fiction without it coming off as patronizing or insulting.
For the past few weeks I’ve been struggling with a story for 10Flash, an exciting new market that’s opening up soon. I was invited by the editor to submit something, which is extremely flattering. I don’t want to disappoint!
Each issue of 10Flash is themed. In the premier issue we are all writing about librarians on vacation in an exotic land. It’s a great prompt to work with, and opens up huge possibilities.
I originally, as I even hinted at here on the blog somewhere, came up with a story about a Greek librarian visiting Atlantis. Basically the idea was that they would show him this amazing library full of every book imagined, even books from the future. But in the end he’s disappointed because it’s all on computers instead of actual paper.
It was a cute idea, but kind of cliche, I think, and I was having a hard time coming up with a way to make it an interesting story and not just a joke.
I’m happy to say that last night I came up with something way better (triggered by a random Twitter post, incidentally), so I’m trashing the Atlantis idea. I do want to eventually do some underwater Atlantis stories. There is something about the concept that fascinates me. But, really, is Atlantis going anywhere? The underseas kingdoms can wait.
The new story is, I think, much better. There are some steampunk elements, which is an aesthetic I love, and I’ve done some pretty fun research to really bring the story to life. I’m hoping to finish it up today and get a crit or two of it from the Writer’s Ink crew next week before submitting.
It seems a waste to just toss these couple of paragraphs, so here it is, the aborted Atlantean Library story. You can probably tell I was really struggling and couldn’t get into it. The idea was that he’d been taken to sea by this shifty merchant and tossed overboard, but I cut his interactions with the ship’s captain as I realized I probably wouldn’t have space for that. Easier to just toss in a line of dialogue explaining it later. As he’s drowning (which I didn’t convey very well at all), the Atlanteans slow down time and come rescue him.
I still kind of like the concept of this beginning, so maybe I’ll use the idea in another story sometime.
Crazy! I’m still trying to catch up. Sometimes it seems like a vacation just means doing twice as much work and being twice as stressed the week after you get back.
Star Trek rocked. I had the pleasure of seeing it in the Arclight Dome in Hollywood, surely one of the best theaters on the planet. I thought it was a pretty pretty movie full of pretty pretty people, and a blast to experience. Then I saw it again a few days later on my birthday and enjoyed it even more. I could go on about it, but I feel like all the discussion probably happened while I was away. Suffice to say I loved it.
(Oh, yes, I aged a year in a mere day on the 14th. Talk about time dilation. Birthdays ceased to have much meaning for me after they allowed me to start drinking legally, so I don’t really think about it anymore.)
My chosen traveling reading material was solid. Torso was quite good (though my copy kind of fell apart while I was reading it, which is irritating). Loyola Chin and the San Pelligran Order was also quite enjoyable, though I liked American Born Chinese more. Strangers in Paradise I only got through some of, and I’m still on the fence about. If I have any recommendations there, it’s to skip the first volume (the first three issues). They’re a little more, I dunno, cartoony than I was expecting, and not really to my taste. But between those initial issues and the next volume, Moore really refined his style and the mood of the book. I’m digging it so far. We’ll see if it interests me enough to continue past the third trade.
One of the highlights of my trip was visiting the Echo Park Time Travel Mart in LA. The Time Travel Mart is part of a network of children’s writing centers. I nabbed one of the little chapbooks full of stories written by the kids there about how much they hate writing. It seemed appropriate.
There are various other such themed stores around the country, if there’s one nearby you should check it out (I’m aching to swing by the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. next time I’m in New York). If I’d known about the one in San Francisco I would have gone there and gotten some pirate booty while we were in town.
California was awesome. Great weather, good times had with good friends, and sense of irony still firmly in place. That is a Los Angeles joke, but not a very good one. San Francisco was amazing, and has moved up near (or possibly at) the top of coolest places I’d love to move to were money and current state of life not an issue.
I’m still trying to catch up on everything that happened while I was gone, but we should be returning to our regularly scheduled programming momentarily.
Greetings from the distant past (last Tuesday)!
My latest flash piece, “The Squeeze,” should be live on Every Day Fiction right about now. Check it out if you haven’t already! Comment! Vote! Tell your friends (and enemies – I have nothing against evil support).
It’s an odd story, one that you’ll probably either totally get and think is hilarious, or not get at all and think I’m insane. I’m not sure which demographic I envy more. So it’ll be interesting to see the reaction.
I doubt I’ll get a chance to post anything tomorrow, so I’ll just do it now. Tomorrow morning I’ll be hopping on a flight to California, and won’t be home until the 14th, over a week from now. Communication will be spotty, but I will especially try to check in next Monday, when I have a story go live over at Every Day Fiction. I’ll probably set up a post for that to appear automatically if I can figure that out.
My in-flight reading material:
Torso, by Brian Michael Bendis and Marc Andreyko. A true crime novel about a serial killer case Elliot Ness investigated after all that Chicago business. Looking forward to this one. I met Andreyko a couple years ago and he seemed like a pretty cool guy, and I’ve enjoyed most everything Bendis has written.
Strangers in Paradise, volumes 1-3, by Terry Moore. I don’t really know what this is about, but all I hear is great things, and I’m greatly enjoying his current series, Echo.
Loyola Chin and the San Peligran Order, by Gene Yang. I’m a huge fan of his American Born Chinese, which I heartily recommend to anyone who is a fan of things that are good. You know who you are.
So I suppose that will be it for the next week or so. How will you all get by without me? I don’t know, but don’t tell me. All my illusions will be shattered!
I almost missed it, since it went up over the weekend, but Frank has an excellent new story up over at Every Day Fiction – check it out.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was about as disappointing as expected. They crammed a lot of unnecassary characters in, and to do so they condensed and butchered the portions of Logan’s origin story that are actually interesting.
Part of the problem is the taming of Wolverine for a mass audience, which is strange because the untamed Wolverine has about as mass an audience (in comic book terms) as you can get. The film completely passes over the years he spent feral and savage in the Yukon, living with wolves. His time with the Weapon X program is chopped down to like one mission. They don’t cover any of his time in Japan (though there is a hint at it after the credits). I’m not being fanboyish here – I certainly don’t expect the film to be slavishly devoted to the source material. It’s just frustrating when they ignore so much great material in favor of some 30-second fan wank appearance of Emma Frost or Gambit or other characters who have nothing to do with Wolverine’s origins.
Oddly enough, Wolverine is kind of a Mary Sue. For a character that has had tragedy after tragedy heaped upon his comic book incarnation, nothing bad really happens to him here. He has help at every turn. When he needs more power, someone comes along and gives it to him. When it looks like he meets someone who can defeat him, people who hated his guts five minutes before show up to save the day. This is motherfrakkin’ Wolverine, people. If anyone is custom made to have horror after horror perpetrated on him, just so that he can stand back up on his own and slice the shit out of whoever did it, it’s him.
There are other things to not recommend the movie as well – the last third of the film is fairly predictable and chock full of cliche. The filmmakers also underestimate the audience and feel like they have to explain things that are obvious.
It’s not all bad. There are some fun action scenes. There are some great performances from most of the cast (though I can’t imagine who thought it was a good idea to put Will.I.Am in there). If you want to completely shut off your brain and enjoy a fun action flick, you’ll find something there to enjoy.
I’ve got a new post up over at the Flash Fiction Chronicles, about what to do when real life and fiction pass uncomfortably close in the night. Check it out! Comment!
According to the May Table of Contents, “The Squeeze” will be going up over at Every Day Fiction on the 11th. It’ll be a funny little story to start your week. Unfortunately that’s right in the middle of my vacation, so I won’t be around to really see the response. I’ll do my best to check in, though.
Yes, I’ll be going on vacation next week, starting on Wednesday. The wife and I are California bound. We’ll meet up with friends in LA and drive up to San Francisco. As per local law, I will be wearing flowers in my hair.
This weekend will be crammed with chores and preparation for the vacation, but I will find some time to go see the Wolverine film. I believe we have some free passes around here somewhere, and this seems a good time to use them.
The formula for superhero films is always that the more characters you add, the worse it gets. I don’t get why the studios still haven’t learned this. Wolverine seems to be adding as many unnecessary characters as possible to an already complex origin story, virtually guaranteeing disaster. Wolverine is one of those characters who can be fun even in a bad story, so I think it should still be at least moderately entertaining.
