My Cup Runneth Over

So I've been reading a lot. Reading books both good and bad--keeping them straight is a bit of a task sometimes. But mostly good; I figure, if I want to write, I have to know what writing is.

Right now, I am in the middle of:
The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross.
dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delaney
Down the Mysterly River, by Bill Willingham (this one is available for free on Wowio, but they are currently down for global retooling--so, you know, check it out sometime.)

I plan on doing a pretty detailed review of most of the books I read from now on; it's good brainwork. So look here for a review of the Stross book in the near future. After that, I'm thinking of doing a sort of cross-analysis/comparative review of dhalgren and Gene Wolfe's Peace. It may just be that I read them in close succession, but they seem to have a lot in common. In my head, they are taking on this antipodean relationship--opposite poles of the inner life of man in extremis.

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My productivity spurt continues apace, with more short story work and two critiques at the Online Writing Workshop for SF, fantasy and Horror. Where's all this coming from?
Where can I get more?
I really hope I can start posting novel chapters soon. I worry about it, though; I've not got the best attention span, and a novel is a big undertaking. Part of me wants to continue with short stories a while before I go for the big leagues.

Hrrrm.... Click Here to read the rest.

Critters

I'm from Kansas. we've got our share of little things crawling around...Grasshoppers, army worms, toads, turtles, snakes....tons.
But we don't have this:


It's a cute wee crab! I call him crabby. Of course....fast little guy, inne?

They're everywhere. I even saw a couple that wandered into a shopping mall...Guess that's what you get living less than 500 meters from the Ocean. Funny how I've never seen a mouse here.
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In other news, I have suffered an enormous jump in productivity. I have, in the past week, written an entire Japanese Ghost Story, several pages of notes on a a novel and the beginning of that novel...
It feels funny. I am approaching a level where I actually think I might be getting good enough to publish. Knock on imitation wood... Click Here to read the rest.

Ummm...What?

So, I was browsing around a bookstore, and I found...
This:



Fair enough...It's a dictionary of demons and devils. It's got lots of uses--Writing, Gamers, Demonists. Nothing wrong with that. But...
Take a close look at the left-hand side. As the saying goes, one of these things is not like the others...



Yeah. Martin Luther is apparently now a Demon and or Devil. Now...I wonder how that happened? I mean, unless this is a translation of a 16th century Catholic guide to the nastiest people on earth. What do you reckon? Some residual ancient Catholic prejudice? Hmmm...
I looked up the entry, but my Japanese isn't good enough to understand just what they were thinking, putting the father of the Protestant Reformation in a guide to demons. It did feature a nice picture of Old ML looking shifty eyed and nasty (I would have gotten a snap, but I was already getting nasty looks for snapping pics in the bookstore.)

I'm not even going to get into the MIB... Click Here to read the rest.

Of course

The exercise I set for myself came to nothing; or rather, it came to an idea for an entire short story. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the exercise, but makes me happy nonetheless.
At this point, I have so many ideas and so few results. What's a boy to do?

Here's an idea: get off your ass and write. Click Here to read the rest.