hurricane-2011: September 2008

Sci-Fi Times TV, the Sept. 24 Edition

I'm typing this entry from the library, where I've finally gotten a view of the show on high-speed Internet. Fun stuff!

On tap for this week: cleaning my studio and smelling the proverbial roses. All my galivanting has put my studio firmly in hurricane mode, with no actual hurricane to pick up the blame.

Today I got reacquainted with my front porch -- brought out a comfy chair, coffee, and my journal early in the morning and did my version of meditation. It was a long time comin'. This is my week to slow down and re-ground, before I start prepping next week for Necronomicon. Yesterday's highlight included a near-five-mile walk.

Shana Tovah to those who celebrate!

If my embedding below worked, Sci-Fi Times TV's Sept. 24 premiere follows. My stint begins around the 4:05 mark and ends around the 11:15 mark. I was able to embed the episode near the bottom of my webpage, in case it can't be accessed here.

[end of entry]

Covenant, the first volume in the Deviations Series, is available from Aisling Press, and from AbeBooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Territory, Borders, Buecher.ch, Buy.com, BuyAustralian.com, DEAstore, eCampus.com, libreriauniversitaria.it, Libri.de, Loot.co.za, Powell's Books, and Target. Deviations: Appetite is now available for pre-order at Barnes and Noble. The Deviations page has additional details.

Deep Carnivale

A glass window does double duty, holding a Deep Carnivale sign while reflecting an attendee and the out-of-doors.

On Saturday, Sept. 27, I joined Aisling Press & friends at Deep Carnivale, a literature festival held in historic Centro Ybor.

"More than 70 local poets, playwrights and authors will show up in Tampa for readings, book signings and spoken-word and hip-hop performances," said the St. Petersburg Times on Saturday. "And how cool is this? A poetry lounge for teens. Plus, plenty of kids' activities, vendors and live music. Expect the celebration to fill all four floors of the Cuban Club and spill out into the street."

Spill out into the street it did. We took up the whole block.... (cont.)

Large view

Taken from the steps of the Cuban Club. The Aisling Press table is above the cargo bed of the white pickup.

Bo Savino, K.L. (Kathy) Nappier, and I staffed the Aisling Press table, next door to Glenda and Tony Finkelstein and directly across from the Cuban Club. The festival took place on a sunny day with a few light clouds and enough of a breeze to keep us refreshed in 87-degree weather. (With highs below 90 degrees, we are now firmly rooted into fall.)

Bo Savino and Elissa Malcohn at Deep Carnivale

Bo's on the left, I'm on the right -- followed by a close-up of my corner of the table.

In addition to copies of Deviations: Covenant, I had copies of the anthology Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (which includes my story "Arachne"); a display copy of Electric Velocipede (which includes my story "Hermit Crabs"); and flyers for the forthcoming anthology Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (which will include my story "Memento Mori"). You can now see the book trailer for Unspeakable Horror below, and also at Dark Scribe's website.

Bo Savino and K.L. Nappier at Deep Carnivale

Bo and Kathy.

Tony and Glenda.

Michael Darling, who was stationed around the corner from us.

Other folks at the festival.

The musical duet Juniper, performing in the Hillsborough Community College courtyard.

Deep Carnivale Artists & Writers Sign-In

Artists and writers sign-in.

The Cuban Club, exterior. And some interior shots:

In addition to original music played in the HCC courtyard across from the Cuban Club and children's events in the HCC Ybor Room, the club itself provided five performance spaces: the Theatre for fiction and theater; the Cantina for mature audiences; the Ballroom and Lounge for poetry; and this venue, the Lobby, for fiction.

I get a bit into the text as I read from Covenant. My T-shirt is from OutWrite '98, a GLBT writers conference sponsored by the Bromfield Street Educational Foundation, which Mary and I had attended in both '98 and '99.

Kathy reads from her supernatural thriller Full Wolf Moon.

The Cuban Club's stained-glass window. The top sign to the right reads, "This floor: Poetry Lounge."

A quiet corner, early in the day.

This was my first visit to Ybor City, and I figured it was just the place to sample my first Cuban. The sandwich was both delicious and packed, providing me with both lunch and dinner.

Some shots of surrounding buildings:

The street sign reads, "N. Avenida Republica de Cuba," otherwise known as 14th Street.

I took this last one from the steps of the Cuban Club.

My trip down had one hairy but blessedly short-lived stretch, when a glob of thick fog whumped down onto the road less than halfway into my almost-two-hour drive. "The white line is your friend" definitely applied here, referring to the white line at the road's right edge. I could glimpse a couple feet of that for the sake of orientation. Otherwise I was blind, with my defroster on full, my fan blasting, and my window open. Honking the horn is a good idea, too -- ***makes a mental note for next time, if this ever happens again*** -- but I was driving on mostly empty roads at roughly 8 AM. No shoulder, but more than once I considered pulling off the road, which meant driving down an embankment. I chose to crawl instead, listening for any signs of approaching traffic. As soon as I found a decent place to pull off the road afterwards, I fished out my shop rag and made my windshield spotless.

The trip back home was a piece o' cake.

Speaking of horror -- here's the book trailer for Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet:

Invitation to go "Beyond the Realm of Normal"

Large View

Inspired by Sunday Scribblings prompt #129: "Invitation."

This Wednesday, September 24, SciFiTimes TV will debut at 9 p.m. Eastern. Oculus Media, the parent company of my publisher, Aisling Press, is one of the sponsors -- and I've been joining in the fun as "Commander Mal." I'll be popping in during the show to give the hosts (in character as "Bo" and "Nikto") a hard time.

The first show's interviews include:

Margaret Weis, owner of Margaret Weis Productions, who produces such role playing games as Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and Supernatural, and also the star author/co-author of such book series as DragonLance, Darksword, Rose of the Prophet, the DeathGate Cycle, Star of the Guardians, and more;

Cirroc Lofton, "Jake Sisko" on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine;

Ann Morris, one of the founders of Tampa Bay’s "Necronomicon" convention.

"In addition," says the website, "you’ll get a peek at some of our other favorites, and get a feel for the ship shod environment of the Achilles H.E.E.L.S., even as we bring you guests to make it worth the suffering we put you through in between!"

Yesterday I was down at the studio, giving my lines (thanks go to Glenda's daughter Amy for typing the scripts!) and then giving an interview as myself, out of costume. (The interview will air on October 8.) It also gave me a chance to hang out with some great, creative people and enjoy a lot of laughs. Not to mention the floor show (well, the wall show) of at least a half-dozen frogs congregating around Bo's porch light, playing "catch me if you can!" with moths who couldn't resist the photons.

This is my first on-camera "role," per se. I love doing spoken word performances of my own and sometimes other people's material. Back in 2002 I was trained as a voice-over artist at Chart Productions, Inc., so I had a chance to fool around with different personality types. Thanks to compression technology I've finally put the demo on my website. My Commercial voice-overs are character pieces, and the "Inner Child Dream Cookies" ad was one I wrote myself. The Industrial voice-overs are more sedate, including public service announcements, commercials for nonprofits, and instructional recordings. (Both are Windows Media Audio files.) So far, my post-demo VO work has been volunteer -- a few commercials for local cable and recording more than 1,000 names for the Vietnam Veterans Gathering, Inc., Voices for the Wall project.

I had a blast being "Commander Mal." Stay tuned for updates -- and come on over to "the home of the Universe Security Achilles High Earth Extraterrestrial Liaison Station, otherwise known as the U.S. Achilles H.E.E.L.S."

[end of entry]

Thank You, Book Basket and Friends!

The Book Basket, located in Homosassa, FL, hosted an author talk, reading, and signing on Saturday, September 13.

Thanks! -- to:

Daisy Bazo, owner of The Book Basket, for being a terrific host;

Cheri Harris, for promoting the event and authors in the Citrus County Chronicle;

The Homosassa Beacon for additional promotion;

Fellow author Belea Keeney, who set the event's wheels in motion;

Fellow author Loretta Rogers, who brought extra tables and "Autographed Copy" stickers -- and who, with Belea, brought copies of the local papers for our scrapbooks; and

Everyone who came and enjoyed and supported their local independent bookstore and authors!

(continued...)

This is a shot of me at my table, which included Deviations: Covenant; the anthology Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (which includes my story "Arachne"); Electric Velocipede (which includes my story "Hermit Crabs" -- no copies for sale, but I distributed cards); SciFiTimesTV.com (cards); and display flyers for the forthcoming anthology Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (which will include my story "Memento Mori") and the upcoming Florida Writers Association conference, where I'll conduct two workshops.

Several people admired my table covering, made by my childhood friend Elana, so I told the story behind it. That story appears in this entry.

Loretta, with her books The Twisted Trail (Avalon Books) and Isabelle and the Outlaw (The Wild Rose Press).

Belea, with copies of Florida Horror: Dark Tales of Horror from the Sunshine State (Carnifex Press), which contains her story "The Tale of Trapper Tommy."

Daisy Bazo, owner of The Book Basket.

Our group shot.

Chronicle reporter Cheri Harris spoke with each author by phone before the event and published this in-depth article on September 12:

(More legible in the large view.)

Other coverage appeared in the Homosassa Beacon here and here.

We had a wonderful audience, which listened as Belea, Loretta, and I introduced each other and read excerpts from our work. Afterwards we opened the floor to questions ranging from what inspired us, to how we got published, to how we go about the craft and business of writing. We were also on hand at our tables to talk with people one-on-one.

After the event I drove the short stretch to the Homosassa Public Library to donate a copy of Poets' Forum Magazine. The Summer 2008 cover includes my photo of one of the library's statues, along with my article, "Life and Art: More than Imitation."

Click here to see the original shot.

Belated thanks go also to author Gail Z. Martin, who included me (and fellow Aisling Press author K.L. Nappier) in her video blog for DragonCon. Kathy and I are in the "Day 2" installment. Kathy's segment starts at the 2:56 mark. I follow at the 3:20 mark, doing my best to think on my feet.

Click on the links to get to "Day 1" and "Day 3".

In other news, I have now completed the draft of the seventh and (I think) final Deviations book. (Volume #2, Appetite, is yet to be released, so I have a bit of backstock...). And more acceptances have come in:

Short fiction: "FTLM (Faster-Than-Light Messenger) Transcript" to The Drabbler #12, Sam's Dot Publishing

Poetry: "Where Relativity Ends" to Strange Horizons

Non-genre poetry: "The Light of Barbara Mabrity (1782-1867)" to Harp-Strings Poetry Journal

Drudkh - Anti-Urban (CORRECT Vinyl Rip!!!)

Genre: Melodic Black Metal, elements of Folk Metal
About: This is a fantastic EP. Drudkh means "Tree" in romanized Sanskrit

I searched for hours to find this. The common version floating around is a rip at the WRONG SPEED causing the length to be 9 minutes for each track instead of 6. Furthermore if you play it with itunes it skips at 2:50 minutes causing it to move to the next track, then that one skips too at 2:50!

If you look on Metal Archives you will see the 6 minute tracks are the correct length. Please spread this around and tell the people with the wrong version to delete it. I'd say buy it, but you literally can't buy it since it was limited to 999 copies. Enjoy!

Thanks goes to "nidhogg" for this correct vinyl rip!

Year: 2007
Download

(Edit 07/2009- there is a CD available with the bonus box of Microcosmos. The CD rip sounds almost exactly the same as this though.)

Metallica - Death Magnetic (Retail Edition)

Genre: Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal
About: In interviews they have said this is what it would sound like if there was an album between And Justice For All and The Black Album (1988-1991) and I can agree with that. Judging by concerts from 1989 IMHO that was their peak. And they are back. I am a St. Anger fan, but I can safely say this blows it out of the water. From about 4 listens, solid 9/10.

Year: 2008
Format: 256kbps AAC

Download pt 1
Download pt 2

DragonCon

As I write this I am in my hotel room watching the Weather Channel's coverage of Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna. Tomorrow morning I hit the road back to central Florida after a terrific weekend (continued)....

First, though, I want to send thanks to everyone who tunes in here. I had the thoroughly neat experience of meeting a gentleman who reads my entries and who was pointed in my direction by someone else. We bumped into each other by the freebies table where I'd set down various and sundry material. Makes me feel good when people like to visit!

This was my very first DragonCon and my first visit to Atlanta. I left home on Thursday morning shortly after sunrise, with a lovely waning crescent moon hanging in the pink-tinged east. My only wrong turn was overshooting the Days Inn.

My latest driver's accessory is a sippy cup, the type you find in the baby aisle at the supermarket and seen below, next to the TV. It fits the cup-holder and doesn't spill, and I could suck my coffee through a hefty straw. I powered my iPod through the cigarette lighter, played it through my cassette adapter, and sailed up here to the music of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (Glenn Gould at the piano); Kate Bush's Hounds of Love album; various pieces by Khachaturian, Kodaly, and Korngold; and topped off the trip with a gaggle of Hungarian Rhapsodies by Liszt. Took four breaks overall for gas, food, and stretches. Around 11 miles short of crossing from Florida into Georgia my 18-year-old car crossed the 30,000 mile mark. (Working out of my home has its advantages.)

Days Inn, room 531. Home away from home for me, Bo and Tom Savino (Aisling Press and the upcoming Internet streaming video show Sci-Fi Times TV), and K.L. Nappier.

The skyline from our balcony. Click here for the large view.

DragonCon was loads of fun -- and, at an estimated 30,000 attendees, a bit overwhelming. I'm used to convention activities centered in a single hotel. DragonCon's activities were spread among four, with additional hotels used for lodging. I am impressed and awed by all the work the volunteers put in to make this con happen; by a crowd that kept its cool even when the escalators got tired; and by the security officers who elicited the occasional, "Oh, wait, that's not a costume, that's real."

I would have loved to have gotten a shot of some of those officers posing with the Reno 911 group...

The crowds were still relatively small the morning of the first full day --

-- but eventually fired up to full capacity:

I was on two panels, "To Be SF ... or Not To Be SF?" and "Small Press & Self-Publishing," and otherwise hung out at the Aisling Press table.

Here's more of our set-up, including books by me, Kathy, Bo, and Tracy A. Akers:

Kathy Nappier got to say hello to Mama Bear, who simply stole the show on Friday.

Other tables in our row included M.B. Weston, Tony and Glenda Finkelstein, and Selina Rosen and Lynn Stranathan of Yard Dog Press, with Chris A. Jackson around the corner from us. If a small press is family, a line of small presses is extended family.

Kathy took this shot of me --

Elissa Malcohn at DragonCon with Jedi Knight

-- and here's a separate one of the Jedi Knight.

Many other knights (Jedi and otherwise) were in attendance, likewise Star Wars Storm Troopers, which start out young:

Plus various other iterations, together and separately, as in this quartet of Leias and friend:

Starbucks caffeinated all manner of life forms -- and while posing in costume was de rigeur, the candids provide some great juxtapositions.

Here a Spartan fuels up for battle at the Peachtree Center Mall's food court.

I got out to the freebie tables early and put out postcards for Covenant and for Electric Velocipede #14; book catalogues for Broad Universe; and flyers for the Science Fiction Poetry Association, Riffing on Strings, and the forthcoming Unspeakable Horror anthology. Note the organizers' optimistic use of masking tape here. Note also that I have not yet learned that putting freebies out early means exhuming and repositioning them later on, when the freebie tables become the advertising equivalent of bazillion-layer cakes. Fortunately, I also took copies with me to my spot at the Aisling Press table, where the info moved quite well (and, given the space to move between tables, in more ways than one).

Along with the costumes I had to take a couple artsy shots of the Marriott, which contained the dealer room.

DragonCon also had an ongoing Music track.

Rapid fire of costumes (identified where I know who's what), beginning with Ariel...

R2-D2 and the robot from Lost in Space...

Ghostbusters...

The Joker follows a Harlequin...

Jack Sparrow...

Several Atlanta streets were closed off on Sunday morning to make way for the DragonCon parade. I snapped a few early shots of the waiting crowd before heading down to our table.