The Machineries of Mars

The Empire of Sol!

Some say it lay in an ancient past.

Some claim it will rise in a distant future.  

But one thing is clear. What rises must fall again. And no one knows what will crawl from the ashes.

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In the last days of empire, Mars became a pleasure planet for the wealthy and powerful. Every vice was permitted there, every hunger satisfied. But what happens when an empire collapses and the wealthy stop coming? What happens when the machines that fed humanity’s dreams for so long are left on their own? What dreams might rise in them?

The Machineries of Mars tells a tale of battle and honor on the red planet. If you like stories written in the tradition established by Edgar Rice Burroughs and expanded on by such writers as Alan Burt Akers, Leigh Brackett, Gardner F. Fox, and S. M. Stirling with his In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, then The Machineries of Mars may just be the kind of Sword and Planet adventure you’re looking for.

--- By the way, another tale from this lost anthology is also available as of today. Check out Tom Doolan's blog for more information: 

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Vocabulary

I've been talking to my students this week about various elements of professionalism, ranging from concepts such as punctuality to knowing where and how to find information that you need. Today we are going to talk specifically about vocabulary. 

Every field, from plumbing to psychology, has its own terminology. Some terms will have common meanings in the world as a whole, but special meanings within a field. A professional knows these terms and their subtleties; a non professional most likely does not. 

Below, I'm including the list of "psychological" terms that we'll be discussing today. I thought it might be interesting to run it here as well. 

WORD PAIRS

Affect vs Effect

Confident vs Confidant

Covert vs Overt

Councilor vs Counselor

Deductive vs Inductive

Discreet vs Discrete

Disinterested vs Uninterested

Envelop vs Envelope

Exhaustive vs Exhausted

Explicit vs Implicit

Extant vs Extent

Former vs Latter

Hallucination vs Delusion vs Illusion

Imply vs Infer

Manic vs Maniac

Nature vs Nurture

Obsession vs Compulsion

Positive vs Negative

Principal vs Principle

Psychotic vs Neurotic

Qualitative vs Quantitative

Sensation vs Perception

Simple vs Simplistic

Stereotype vs Prejudice

Stimulant vs Stimulus

Timber vs Timbre

Valid vs Reliable

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New Cover and TOC for Killing Trail

Killing Trail was the first item I self published, back in 2010. This 24,000 word collection of western tales has been among my better sellers, but hasn’t sold much of anything over the last six months.

When I first put the book up, I knew relatively little about formatting an ebook and setting up a clickable table of contents. I’ve decided to reissue the book in an updated version with a clickable TOC. The stories themselves are not changed so if you’ve already bought this book don’t buy it again. In fact, I think Amazon is supposed to let those who bought it know about the update and provide it to them free of charge. I don’t know how that works because I haven’t done this before. But let me know if you have the book and get a notice about the new version. Or if you don’t get a notice and want the clickable TOC version let me know and I can get it to you.

I also uploaded a new cover for the book, which contains the pseudonym, Tyler Boone. I’ve got several more western stories in the planning phase and when I do publish them they’ll go up under the Tyler Boone name.

If you haven’t read the Killing Trail collection already, I hope you’ll give it a look see now. Here’s the link to Amazon. The book is also up for the Nook  but I’ve not yet changed the cover there. Since sales on Nook have been very very very minimal, I’m not sure I’ll bother to make the change.

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Charade You Are

Today marks the first time that Razored Zen Press has published an entire work by someone other than myself. Although the Louisiana Inklings Anthology has material in it by other folks, it also contains stuff from me. Last night, a short story called Charade You Are went live on Amazon. Outside of the introduction, which I wrote, the tale is the product of another mind. One that is—perhaps—even more twisted than my own.

Charade You Are is a political satire. The name on the cover as author is Reagan Pheasant, which is a bit of word play on the contents. It is, as you probably have surmised, not the author’s true name. I know Reagan Pheasant but am not going to reveal their identity.   

The reason for the mystery is simple. Charade You Are contains some graphic sexual scenes and some very strong language that might get Reagan into trouble at their job. The sexual scenes are neither erotic nor pornographic per se. They are not meant to titillate but are part of the satire. As I said, I know Reagan Pheasant. They have a point to make about the increasing polarization that we’ve seen in our government and society over the past twenty or so years. I think they make the point well, and with humor, albeit of the black kind. Otherwise I wouldn’t be involved in publishing it.

I don’t want to discuss the story more at present because I don’t want to spoil anything for those who might read it.  Over time I can talk more about it, and if anyone has questions I can relay those to Reagan. I can’t guarantee they’ll answer them.

Charade You Are is 99 cents on Amazon. 

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NOTES TO A HUSBAND

I first met J. Bruce Fuller at a science fiction convention many years ago. He was much younger than I, and I remember him having a lot more hair than now. We talked quite a while after one of my panels and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. In fact, we’ve worked together several times on various poetry projects, including my collection of vampire haiku called Wanting the Mouth of a Lover. I’ve been very happy to see him gaining a reputation as a prominent Louisiana and southern poet. From my reading of his work, it’s well deserved. Below, I review his latest chapbook offering.

  

J. Bruce Fuller. Notes To A Husband.  Imaginary Friend Press. 2013. 18 pp. Introduction by Amy Fluery. Edited by Dan Nowak.

J. Bruce Fuller is a Louisiana native who obtained his MFA in poetry from McNeese State University and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Louisiana—Lafayette. He has already been widely published and his latest poetry chapbook, Notes To A Husband, is the subject of this review.

In Fuller’s latest chapbook, he uses the form of notes from a wife to a husband to illustrate the waning of a relationship. There is no heightened poetical language to mask or mythologize the relationship. It is laid out stark on the page, in the common language of humanity. All the ambivalence of such dramas is there. Even while the woman thinks “about old lovers” she washes her husband’s “favorite mug.” She admits her own faults; she sugarcoats nothing.

It’s often claimed that what is left unsaid is at least as important as what is actually said. Notes To A Husband illustrates this perfectly. I’ve seldom been made so keenly aware of what can be revealed “between the lines.”  In her introduction to Fuller’s collection, Amy Fluery refers to the “indirection of silence,” and I think that’s a very fine way of describing the depth to be found in these mostly brief poems. They’re like the proverbial house that is much bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside. They expand in your consciousness as you read them.

I highly recommend Notes To A Husband.  You can find out more about the collection, or order a copy for yourself, at Imaginary Friend Press: www.imaginaryfriendpress.com

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Coming Soon from Razored Zen Press

I’ve just published one new item through Razored Zen Press, and in the next few weeks will be releasing two more. The first item is a print version of the Louisiana Inklings anthology, which appeared in ebook a year or so ago. This is a collection of writings from members of my writing group, which I organized and edited. A few of my own pieces are included, although all are more literary than genre fiction. I used CreateSpace, Amazon’s printing arm, to produce it, and the proof copy came out perfect. I’ve now ordered the first actual copies. If all works out well with this, I’ll probably start producing some print versions of other ebooks I’ve published, such as Killing Trail and Days of Beer.  I might produce some “super” collections, of several different individual ebook publications lumped together.  I expect Louisiana Inklings to be primarily of interest to local folks around the Abita Springs and southern Louisiana area, but if you want to check it out, it’s here: 

One of the soon-to-be-released items is a longish short story/novella called The Machineries of Mars. This is a Sword and Planet fantasy tale, which was originally earmarked for an anthology that never came to fruition. The editor released the stories back to us a month or so ago and I’ve been setting it up for publication. I really like the cover I’ve come up with for it, although I had to have help from Lana to bring it to fruition. I’ll talk much more about it when I upload it.

The second soon-to-be-released piece will be the first ever non-Charles Gramlich story to be published from Razored Zen Press. It’s a political satire from a friend of mine and will be published anonymously because it contains graphic depictions of sexual activity. I still have to do the cover for this but it’ll probably be done within a week or so.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I make progress on getting projects finished and published. It’s always nice to see them appear.

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While I was Away

Well, I'm back from CONtraflow and starting to dig out from under everything that has piled up. I much enjoyed the con and got to meet several new folks as well as visit with old friends and acquaintances  Most of my panels were pretty well attended, although the one on self-publishing had only two folks. I'd expected more for that one.  Maybe the tide is turning there.

Unfortunately, I came home to find that someone had smashed up the reflectors we'd put up by our driveway to help us back out in the dark mornings, and then they bashed in our mailbox so that it has a big dent in the top and the lid will no longer shut. It was also leaning rather drunkenly to one side. Our house was the only one so hit in the neighborhood, which bothers me quite a bit.

I spent half an hour of time that I could ill afford getting the mailbox back in some semblance of working order. We see kids in our neighborhood quite often and expect it was one of them that did the damage. We don't know for sure, of course. The reflectors were stolen once before but I walked around the neighborhood until I found them and brought them back. 

Lana and I have always tried to be friendly to the neighboring children, going so far as to give a bicycle to one local kid. But it seems I must constantly be reminded that no good deed goes unpunished.  

Of all crimes, I think I understand vandalism the least. To simply destroy things. Why?

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Going to be Away for a Few Days

I generally dislike breaks.We were off Monday and Tuesday for fall break and I did enjoy the time off. However. when I got back to work I had a massive pile of material waiting for me to deal with. Breaks mean that other people now have time to do work that they then send to me for evaluation. I've already had five research proposals land on my desk through Wednesday and Thursday of this week. I have a test to give today (Friday), and then mid-terms are due first of next week. Any rest I gained from the break has already been crushed by the piled up work that has appeared since.

In addition, I'll be gone much of the weekend to CONtraflow Con right here in the greater New Orleans area. I mentioned it back a blog post or two ago. I'm looking forward to that, but I won't be getting school work done during that time so Monday and Tuesday of next week will be overloaded.

For these reasons, I probably won't be visiting blogs again until after mid-terms are turned in early next week. I'll leave you with the following. Hope you enjoy, and I'll see you when I return.

The Talera cycle:  http://www.amazon.com/Swords-Talera-Book-One-Cycle/dp/1434400816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382103261&sr=8-1&keywords=swords+of+talera

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Gravity and A Little Something Else

Lana and I went to see the movie Gravity today. We watched it in 3D at the IMAX theater. Those of you who know me know I'm a long way from a movie buff. Frankly, I usually don't give a crap about them. But I have to say the 3D IMAX version of Gravity was pretty overwhelming. 3D has come a longggg way since the last time I saw such a movie, which was probably 15 or 20 years ago. It was incredibly engrossing and did not feel contrived at all. I did have a mild headache after leaving the theater, but I'm not sure if that was a function of the 3D effect, the thunderous sound system, or both. The headache went away pretty quickly.

Even in non 3D, I suspect this movie would be very good. It was as intense and suspenseful as anything I've seen in years. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney did amazing jobs as the only two characters we ever put real faces to. I've always liked Bullock, have generally not been particularly admiring of Clooney, but both deserve award nominations for this movie.  Of course, much of the credit also goes to the writers who put wonderful dialogue into the actors' mouths.

The special effects were just outstanding. Although we expect good special effects these days, I thought this movie took it a step above and beyond (so to speak). Both Lana and I felt at times like we were right there inside the astronauts' suits. The sheer immensity of space and the awful loneliness of it came through in just about every frame. As Bullock or Clooney reached to grab for a hand hold, or strained to reach something just off their fingertips in the darkness, I reached with them. I felt like I'd gone through the ringer by the time it was over, and will give the movie my hearty recommendation. I've not done that very often for movies here.

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I'll end with a little change of pace. Here's a little teaser I worked up for "Under the Ember Star."  What do you think? I've done a couple more of these as well and will be posting them over the next few days.

http://www.amazon.com/Under-the-Ember-Star-ebook/dp/B009D01JC6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381887047&sr=8-1&keywords=under+the+ember+star

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CONTRAFLOW 3

I'll be a guest at the New Orleans area CONtraflow 3 convention this coming weekend, October 18-20. It's being held at the DoubleTree Hilton near the New Orleans airport in Kenner, Louisiana. Kenner is a suburb of New Orleans. The Con link is:



The phone for the hotel is:  504-467-3111

Here's my schedule at present.

The Pulp Writers: Robert E. Howard and Beyond, Friday, 4pm, Panel Rm 2

Exploring Dreams and Nightmares, Friday, 8pm, Panel Rm 3

The Truths of Self Publishing, Saturday, 3pm, Joey Grillot Memorial Movie Rm

Getting Published, Sunday, 10am, Panel Rm 2

I did some similar panels last year and they were well attended and we had a lot of fun. If you happen to be anywhere in the area, it's a great con.  Big enough to be interesting but small enough to feel pretty intimate. 

All are welcome, whether you're big into SF/Fantasy or not.

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Two Big Mistakes

One of my chores on the farm when I was growing up was to gather the eggs from our chickens and guineafowl. Guineafowl are a vaguely chicken-looking kind of bird that is raised much like chickens. They tend to eat ticks and are sometimes used to control those pests. That’s probably part of the reason my dad kept them. Although generally smaller than chickens, they taste much the same when cooked, and their pint-sized eggs make tasty omelets. Guineas are also wilder than chickens and I remember having to search much further afield to find their nests and eggs. It was an adventure.

In contrast to the guineafowl, our chickens tended to stay close to the chicken barn where they both nested and roosted. That made their eggs easier to find, and we ate fresh eggs for breakfast just about every morning. Some chickens would quit laying eggs if you took the ones they produced, so to keep those hens laying Dad would sometimes replace their real eggs with wooden ones painted white. The chickens didn’t seem to notice the difference. Apparently, neither did another creature that sometimes haunted our hen houses.

While we wanted our chickens and guineas, of course, one of the most undesirable visitors to our farm was a large variety of black snake that we called a chicken snake. They often grew four or five feet long, and I saw some as long as seven or eight feet. I never saw a chicken snake eat an actual chicken, but I found them coiled up in the hen’s nests at times when I was out gathering eggs. Those nests were almost always empty of eggs, although I don’t believe the snakes were quite so empty themselves.

One day, I found a big six-footer in one of the nests where Dad had placed some wooden eggs. The snake had already swallowed one “egg,” which made a noticeable bulge in its belly, and had a second in its mouth. I remember watching in fascination as its jaws and throat distended around the white oval of wood, which it slowly worked back into its throat.

Normally, chicken snakes swallow the eggs they steal whole and then crack them inside their bodies, either by muscular contraction, or by wrapping themselves around a rock or tree for some added help. They then absorb the nutrients and crap out the pieces of shell. That was not going to happen for this unfortunate egg thief. I couldn’t even imagine the pain he was going to experience when he tried to crap out two intact wooden eggs.

I figured it was nothing short of merciful to kill him with a hoe to the neck. I trust he would have done the same thing for me if our roles had been reversed.

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A Bottle in My Pocket

I don’t have an actual memory of this event but I remember being told about it hundreds of times. Apparently, up until I was two or three years old I used to carry my milk bottle around in the pocket of my overalls. This apparently incensed by older sister to no end and whenever she was left babysitting me she’d take it away. Daddy would then get mad at her and give it back to me when he came home. 

I guess Dad figured I’d grow out of it on my own, and I did. For example, I no longer carry a whiskey flask in my back pocket everywhere I go. I stopped that about five years ago now. 

Come to think of it, most all of my older siblings (3 brothers, 1 sister) tried to do some raising of me. Thank goodness I was able to avoid being unduly influenced.

If you were a younger child, did your siblings try raising you as well? How successful were they at it?

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Careful What You Ask For

My brother-in-law, Roger, used to eat a lot of chili peppers when I was a kid. Although I don’t remember doing so, I apparently used to bug him fairly regularly to give me one, even though I had no idea what a chili pepper was. It just seemed that he enjoyed noshing on them so much.

One day, Roger gave in to my--no doubt adorable--entreaties. He fished around in his bag of dried peppers to find just the right one for me, a nice big yellow one. He insisted, of course, that I needed to eat the whole thing at once rather than taking a small bite.

I listened.

I regretted.

I remained a little scared of Roger for a long many years after that. I did learn an important lesson, however, never ask anyone again for a bite of anything they seem to be enjoying.

Be careful what you ask for. You might just get it.

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The Old House

The house where I grew up was old. From what I heard, it had originally been built around an old log cabin that stood there. It had an upstairs that was almost always filled with shadows, and several different attic spaces. It creaked a lot.

I often got a little creeped out in that house. There was an opening into part of the attic right next to the landing of the stairs. Dad hung a board over the opening and put in a hook to keep it closed. Mom used that space sometimes to store goods she canned, like green beans, corn, beets. But she only used the front of it and I could see it extended pretty far back into the darkness. My brothers told me about the “things” that lived in that attic and how I better hope they never “got me.” I believed them.

We slept upstairs during the winter and I would go up the stairs at night with my back against the outside railing of the stairs so I could stay as far away as possible from the attic. I’d watch the hook on that door like my life depended on it. When I’d come down the stairs I’d often jump over the last few steps so I could get past the attic before anything grabbed me.

One late afternoon, probably when I was about ten or eleven, I was home by myself for a little bit. I’m not sure where mom and dad were. I was sitting in the living room watching TV when I clearly ‘heard’ footsteps coming down the stairs. I bolted, out of the living room, down the short hall and out the front door, never stopping to look behind me to see what shambling horror might lurk there.

When mom and dad got home a short time later, I was sitting near the front porch with our pack of hound dogs around me. They asked me why I was outside and I just told them I’d wanted to play with the dogs. I let them go in first, though. When they didn't scream and come running out, I followed them in.

Years later, I figured that what probably made the sound of footsteps was a squirrel dropping a nut down between the walls and it bouncing off the support boards as it fell. My rational mind tells me this anyway. My imagination is still not quite so sure.

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Lethargy

I had a pretty good summer with writing. I finished the fourth Talera novel and it is off to the editor. But that was about a month and a half ago now and I've been in a state of lethargy to semi-lethargy ever since. I have made progress on one long nonfiction work but definitely could be further along on that if I'd put in a bit more effort. I've got a second project that is essentially done and ready for getting out but I just haven't had the energy to pull the trigger on it. Other than that, I've started several pieces, written the first five or six pages, then let them fizzle. On the weekends I've just been sitting around, watching football and movies mostly, and not even doing as much reading as I probably should.

Lana often tells me I should cut myself some slack, but it too often feels to me as if that's all I'm doing. I keep telling myself I'm gonna pick it up, and I do for a few days, but then slide back down again into...meh. A few weeks back I ordered myself to shake it off and stated clearly to myself that I'd do more in the writing arena and pick up with the blog and with promotions. I did the scorn series here and then fizzled. I haven't done much promotion at all, and part of that is because I'm not sure what to try next.

I realized a year or so ago that I couldn't make headway by working harder. I don't have youth on my side for that anymore. I realized I had to work smarter. Unfortunately, I've cut back on working hard and haven't figured out how to work smarter. The only ways I can figure out to improve my promotional efforts is to work 'harder,' to visit more blogs, join new forums, take more speaking engagements, etc. And so I'm back at square one. I think my lethargy has arisen from this, and it's extended into my writing as well as into promoting.

My mom once told me when we were arguing about one point or another, "Charles, I thought you were smarter than that. I just thought you were smarter than that."  At the time I was convinced I was pretty darn smart and got a big laugh out of her comment.

A few years further on and I'm beginning to think that maybe Mom was right.
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Reviews

Running some reviews today. De Noux and Johnston are friends who also happen to write damn fine books. I didn't know Kyle Knapp personally but knew of him through David Cranmer's blog. De Noux and Johnston are still writing and deserve wider recognition and readership. Unfortunately, Mr. Knapp is no longer with us.  His work is very fine, though.

A very fine collection. A combination of youthful verve with a mature voice. The author's youth is most on display in the often daring wordplay and the willingness to risk an entire poem on the turn of a single line. The maturity is seen in how well the author infuses multiple emotions and moods into the same piece. The typical poem, it seems to me, generates a single mood or feeling, while many of these poems evoke a range of emotions, from melancholia, to gaiety, to a risque humor. Well done.

http://www.amazon.com/Celebrations-Ossuary-Kyle-J-Knapp/dp/098337757X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379607908&sr=8-1&keywords=celebrations+in+the+ossuary

This is a fantasy short story featuring a childhood version of a character (Lerebus Shieldbreaker) who plays a large role in some of Johnston's full-length fantasy series books, The Ursian Chronicles. This is something of an origin story for the character, or at least part of that origin story, and I believe there are more stories related to this one although this is the only one I've read so far. The nice thing about Johnston's writing is that not only does he tell a good story, but his prose is lyrical, which gives his work the extra jolt that I like from my fantasy reading

http://www.amazon.com/Shieldbreaker-Sword-Ursian-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B0078K97E0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379607942&sr=8-2&keywords=road+of+the+sword%2C+johnston

I'm not quite sure how to categorize this one. A young man in New Orleans begins to discover that he has superpowers and becomes a masked crime fighter. Then he meets a girl with similar powers. They fall in love. Or do they? There's a pretty big mystery behind it all, which is revealed in the end. Good stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Mistik-Superhero-Novel-Series-Volume/dp/1481061585/ref=sr_1_33?ie=UTF8&qid=1379607992&sr=8-33&keywords=o%27neil+de+noux

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Writers and Genres

In talking to a writer friend the other day, she mentioned my “genre.” That seemed a little odd at first because I rather pride myself on writing in lots of genres—Fantasy, Horror, Western, Science Fiction, etc. In our discussion, it seemed that she meant, primarily, fantasy, but only a portion of the stuff I’ve written would be classified as fantasy by fantasy readers.

After I thought about it, I began to divide my fiction writing into two ‘broad’ genres. These are 1) action-adventure and 2) weird. Weird includes stuff that carries elements of horror, noir, and the surreal. Since it was of interest to me, at least, I thought I’d post the breakdown here. In part, I’m wondering if the breakdown into these two broad areas might help sales a bit. I know some folks who read specifically, and only, in one genre. For some readers, if they are looking for “X” and happen to read “Y” by a writer, then they’ll avoid that writer in the future, even if most of what he or she writes is indeed “X.”

Anyway, here’s the breakdown for myself, as I see it:

Action-Adventure                        Weird

Swords of Talera                         In the Language of Scorpions

Wings Over Talera                      Midnight in Rosary (with erotica)

Witch of Talera                           Micro Weird

Under the Ember Star                  Harmland

Bitter Steel                                  Wanting the Mouth of a Lover

Cold in the Light

Killing Trail

Harvest of War

I was thinking of other writers I admire and how they might fit into one or both of these categories. I decided to place those writers in the same categories below. This is my opinion, of course. Any discussion is welcome.

Action-Adventure                              Weird

Edgar Rice Burroughs                         H. P. Lovecraft

Robert E. Howard                              Edgar Allan Poe

Louis L’Amour                                    Ray Bradbury

John D. MacDonald                            Clark Ashton Smith

Someone who combines the two throughout much of his body of work is Joe Lansdale, and maybe Dean Koontz.

What say you?

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When a Man Writes a Woman (Character)

For a long time I would not write a female character, other than as a love interest or as a secondary character. There were two primary reasons for this, which I’ll talk about below.

 1). I didn’t feel competent to do so. I knew women but certainly did not feel like I understood them. I realize today that I still don’t understand them. But then, I don’t really understand men either. I don’t understand humanity very well in general, I fear.  Humans are  complicated organisms. Most don’t even understand themselves.  But I realized somewhere in the 1990s that if I wrote about female characters, I might begin to understand them better. I’ve always learned through writing about things.

2). I was afraid I’d get it wrong and would be thrashed over it. I had seen men write female characters and be taken to task for creating a male-fantasy version of a female character. Many times I felt the criticisms were correct. But not always. Then I had an enlightening experience. I shared an idea about a female character with my writing group and the three women in the group were absolute adamant that a woman would not do what I was going to have my character do. I was rather depressed over that, so I asked a couple of other women, not writers but work colleagues, what they thought. They both said, absolutely, a woman might do that. In fact, that’s what “they” would do in that situation. Probably I should have already known it, but I had an epiphany: “not all women are alike.”   

By the way, these are the same reasons I haven’t written much about characters who aren’t ethnically white. I didn’t grow up African American, or Native American. Although I can generally envision some of the experiences such folks might have, I can’t literally “feel” the experiences the way they would. This makes me cautious in writing non-white characters because I don’t want to get it wrong. I want to treat all my characters with respect in the sense that I don’t want them to be cardboard cutouts or caricatures. But I particularly want to make sure to do this for women and non-white characters because they have too often been treated as stereotypes. At the same time, I don’t want to limit my characters either. I don’t want to avoid making an African American or a woman into a villain simply out of fear that some folks might disapprove.

Under the Ember Star was my first long work with a female lead. Ginn Hollis was not a consciously constructed character in the sense that I didn’t sit down to build a female character and then put her into the work fully formed. Instead, I tried to write her as naturally as I could, not so much writing a “woman,” as writing a human being who is also a woman. I think that’s probably the only way I can do it. In the reviews I’ve gotten for the book, most have said specifically that they liked the character of Ginn, so I feel pretty good about that. However, so far, I haven’t gotten any reviews from female readers. That makes me a bit curious about how women feel about Ginn. Well, maybe one day one of them will tell me.

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Ember-Star-Human-Knacker-Wildside/dp/1434444538/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379002084&sr=8-1&keywords=under+the+ember+star

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SCORN #4

I didn't intend for it to be a whole week between "Scorn Posts" but school is in session and I have been swamped with work. I'm also trying to jump start an older nonfiction project that I have and that has taken a lot of what little spare time I've had. Anyway, here's the next entry in my Scorn series below.

4. From inches away we lock gazes. The mirror and I. The glass fogs with our breaths but at least that means we are alive. Then one of us begins to scribe letters in the mist. I do not know which of us it is. I read an R E S O L… I hope for a moment that the scribe has simply left off the “V E.” But perhaps I am reading the word backward. 

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SCORN #3

She is gowned in razors, and the blood on her hands is not her own. I have no weapons to match hers. So I study her cautiously, from far away. I conceal my scent with wormwood. I bind my belongings to my flesh so that no stray sound alerts her to my presence. It would not do to let the predator know that you are stalking it. Such a revelation would be prelude to a fatal nocturne.

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