I'm down to only three stories still looking for homes. It's nice to have all the sales, but it also means I really need to write more. Novels are so time-consuming.
The story is called "Tale of a Fox" and is up at Fly in Amber. Here is my little blurb about it from my website:
This is yet another story written for a contest at Backspace. The parameters were to write a story based, however loosely, on a song. The song I chose was "Shiki No Uta", the song that plays over the closing credits of the anime Samurai Champloo. The title means "Song of Four Seasons", although my story really only hits on three. I had wanted to write a story for some time that was set in Japan, and specifically that included a kitsune and an onmyoji. I hope to write more onmyoji stories in the future; I love the intricacies of Heian era Japan.
On the Importance of Naming: Asuka means "fragrance of the bright day" which I thought was just lovely. Masuyo means "to increase the world" which sums up his ambition well. Katashi means firmness, which I found very appropriate for him.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Books in August
In August I finished off the last volumes of Full Metal Alchemist, namely 13-23. I have 24 on preorder, but it's not out until January. I'm not sure if that will be the last or second to last, but it definitely feels like the story is coming to an end. It's so different from the anime series and movie I don't know what's going to happen next, but it's awesome.
Tamas by Bhisham Sahni is a novel set in the Partition, when Pakistan became a separate country from India with much religious rioting. I've read nonfiction books on the subject which were deeply upsetting, and I've seen more than a few Bollywood movies that were set at that time, or dealt with the fallout of it all (often a bit too shrilly overdramatic). In comparison, this novel written by someone who lived through it all, feels very emotionally remote. It's a good story and feels real, just muted.
Speaking of nonfiction, I picked up the book version of a DVD I've been working through when I can find the time (so, not often), Taijiguan, Classical Yang Style by Yang, Jwing Ming. I like Yang's writing, we actually have quite a few of his other books and I delve into them from time to time. Learning the form is probably much easier with the DVD than with the pictures in the book, but the book has a lot more information on the hows and whys as well as the history. Someday I'll have enough time to really devote to this, right?
Another nonfiction I picked up as possible novel #5 research, American Exorcism by Michael Cuneo. It wasn't quite what I needed for what I'm thinking of for novel #5, but was interesting in it's own right and I read the whole thing in two afternoons. Cuneo (who describes himself in a way I could also describe myself, as an open-minded sceptic) looks into exorcisms, both the old school Catholic and the kind done by Pentecostals and Evangelicals, also spending some time on the Satanic scares of the early 80s, something I remember happening from my childhood years and was tremendously interesting to put into a larger context.
I also finished off my Cory Doctorow kick with his last two novels, Makers, which I actually found a bit depressing (for its near future in which no one has any financial security or job stability), and For the Win, which has displaced Little Brother as my favorite Doctorow. FTW is set mainly in Mumbai and China, where kids are put to work in sweat shops playing videogames to rack up megacharacters and win all the rare prizes to be sold to lazy gamers in the US and elsewhere. The plot centers on these kids getting organized, getting unionized, across national boundaries (and joining forces with all the other exploited workers of Asia). Lots of ideas about workers and economics, with details that put you right there in the heat, smelling the food, hearing the roar of the computer fans. I'd highly recommend that one; I think Doctorow is at his best when he's writing YA.
I've had Joe Hill's books on my shelf for quite some time now, gifts from two Christmases ago plus his new one which I picked up when it came out. It seemed like a good time to dig into them now (yeah, I don't know why, sometimes I just get these urges). I started off with his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts, which was engrossing as hell. Clever stories with marvellously complicated characters, what's not to love? Here's a little taste of Books in September: his novels are even better.
Banto again fell silent. Argument can counter argument, but argument is helpless against faith. -
Bhisham Sahni
What Aunt Mandy would say about it is that she's still trying to figure out what it is she's supposed to be. What my father would say is Mandy is wrong if she thinks the question hasn't been answered yet - she already is the person she was always sure to become. - Joe Hill
Tamas by Bhisham Sahni is a novel set in the Partition, when Pakistan became a separate country from India with much religious rioting. I've read nonfiction books on the subject which were deeply upsetting, and I've seen more than a few Bollywood movies that were set at that time, or dealt with the fallout of it all (often a bit too shrilly overdramatic). In comparison, this novel written by someone who lived through it all, feels very emotionally remote. It's a good story and feels real, just muted.
Speaking of nonfiction, I picked up the book version of a DVD I've been working through when I can find the time (so, not often), Taijiguan, Classical Yang Style by Yang, Jwing Ming. I like Yang's writing, we actually have quite a few of his other books and I delve into them from time to time. Learning the form is probably much easier with the DVD than with the pictures in the book, but the book has a lot more information on the hows and whys as well as the history. Someday I'll have enough time to really devote to this, right?
Another nonfiction I picked up as possible novel #5 research, American Exorcism by Michael Cuneo. It wasn't quite what I needed for what I'm thinking of for novel #5, but was interesting in it's own right and I read the whole thing in two afternoons. Cuneo (who describes himself in a way I could also describe myself, as an open-minded sceptic) looks into exorcisms, both the old school Catholic and the kind done by Pentecostals and Evangelicals, also spending some time on the Satanic scares of the early 80s, something I remember happening from my childhood years and was tremendously interesting to put into a larger context.
I also finished off my Cory Doctorow kick with his last two novels, Makers, which I actually found a bit depressing (for its near future in which no one has any financial security or job stability), and For the Win, which has displaced Little Brother as my favorite Doctorow. FTW is set mainly in Mumbai and China, where kids are put to work in sweat shops playing videogames to rack up megacharacters and win all the rare prizes to be sold to lazy gamers in the US and elsewhere. The plot centers on these kids getting organized, getting unionized, across national boundaries (and joining forces with all the other exploited workers of Asia). Lots of ideas about workers and economics, with details that put you right there in the heat, smelling the food, hearing the roar of the computer fans. I'd highly recommend that one; I think Doctorow is at his best when he's writing YA.
I've had Joe Hill's books on my shelf for quite some time now, gifts from two Christmases ago plus his new one which I picked up when it came out. It seemed like a good time to dig into them now (yeah, I don't know why, sometimes I just get these urges). I started off with his short story collection 20th Century Ghosts, which was engrossing as hell. Clever stories with marvellously complicated characters, what's not to love? Here's a little taste of Books in September: his novels are even better.
Banto again fell silent. Argument can counter argument, but argument is helpless against faith. -
Bhisham Sahni
What Aunt Mandy would say about it is that she's still trying to figure out what it is she's supposed to be. What my father would say is Mandy is wrong if she thinks the question hasn't been answered yet - she already is the person she was always sure to become. - Joe Hill
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