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Annotations to Crap Books II: Son of Crap Book

This post is a bit late, but I got invited back to Podside Picnic to continue my conversation with Pete on what we jokingly call "crap books". This time, we circled back to talk a little bit more about the influence of D&D and the Satanic Panic on what I'm calling my genre (mis)education. Again, the latest episode is free to listen here if you haven't yet, and I also had some follow-up posts with annotations that build upon that first episode. Because the crap books conversations tend to flow, I may misremember stuff, so of course I'd name the wrong title of Leiber's Lankhmar books. I mentioned Swords Against Wizardry or Swords Against Deviltry, when the one I meant is simply called The Swords of Lankhmar. My interest in Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser was spurred by my friend César lending me the books, but I don't remember if this was...

August 15, 2020
Horror, Memoir, Reading, Uncategorized
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Update: Clarion, Curious Fictions and Ghost of Tsushima

This is the last week of the Clarion Write-A-Thon and I'll be honest: I am happy that I have several stories ready to revise and polish, but glad that as with all good things, it is coming to an end. That's not a knock; simply that I'm not sure I can keep up with that same pace for a longer period of time. It was good to stretch, to get out of my comfort zone and see what I can accomplish, if pressed. In the end, I'll have five new stories to get ready for submission, plus one that I haven't started yet. I missed my mark only on Week Four because the prompt (which I'll paraphrase as, "imagine a recipe for an impossible dish and write a story about it") didn't spark an idea until far too late, and even then, it's a full-length story and not flash. I'll...

July 26, 2020
Memoir, Writing
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Updates

As I'd mentioned in a previous post, I've been participating in Clarion West's Write-A-Thon. As a part of that, I also joined their writing challenge to finish a flash fiction story every week based off writing prompts. I've now completed three flash fiction pieces, and hope to complete three more before the Write-A-Thon's complete. One of the last prompts was a list of words, where "axolotl" was included. This immediately brought to mind the supremely weird Julio Cortázar short story, Axolotl which I then used as an inspiration. I'm pleased with what I came up with and can't wait to revise it and get it ready to submit. After reading my story recently, a friend reminded me about the Blood Sea of Istar (from the Dragonlance Chronicles I'd talked about on Podside Picnic and on my follow-up post). It was a weird moment for me, realizing how this area of Krynn...

July 11, 2020
Fantasy, Narration, Writing
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I’ve Joined Clarion West’s 2020 Write-a-thon

I will be part of Clarion West's Write-a-thon this year, writing every day from June 21 - July 31. My goals are to have several stories completed by the end of this time, ready to be submitted. I'm also raising funds for Clarion West, so if you've enjoyed my fiction in the past consider sponsoring me. I'm eager to meet this challenge, and finish the summer with strong stories! ...

June 21, 2020
Writing
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Added To the University of Liverpool’s “Resisting Dystopia” Reading List

"As The Shore To The Tides, So Blood Calls To Blood" was added to the University of Liverpool's "Resisting Dystopia (Part II)" reading list earlier this week, which I hope will help put my story in front of more new readers. Very exciting. As I came down off the initial thrill, however, I wondered how many fantasy dystopias are out there. For me, the term "dystopia" is one that seems very rooted in science fiction rather than fantasy, but as I asked other people their opinions, a few titles came up. There is, of course, N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series, as well as the new Dark Crystal series on Netflix, but I'm not certain if there's many more. Given the way our world is headed, I wouldn't be surprised if our own dystopian leanings leak into worlds of our imagination more and more often. ...

May 8, 2020
Fantasy, Writing
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