I have a thorough distaste for making New Year’s Resolutions. It’s a tradition that goads me into setting unrealistic goals, with which I often soon become impatient and wind up casting aside. Even so, I don’t just want to keep getting swept away by the soul crushing and mind numbing inanities of life, year after year. I want to be productive and proactive without letting high expectations get the better of me. At the start of 2009, I decided to simply delve into the things that interested me and not concern myself excessively with how they might progress or end.

After a quick review of last year’s work, I was amazed to realize that I wrote more in 2009 than I had in the previous three years combined. While I may not be staking any claim to fame or achievements that might impress anyone, I’d go as far as to say that 2009 was a phenomenal year for me. I’ve somehow become a part of this amazing global community of online writers. I’ve become acquainted with so many interesting and talented people, from so many diverse cultures and circumstances. Everyday, I learn or read something that electrifies and inspires me. A new year has begun and I simply want to keep sharing and growing as a writer.
Read more »

Survival By Storytelling Magazine

The first issue of Survival By Storytelling Magazine abounds with burgeoning talent. Although Kaolin Fire’s fantastic Science Fiction themed cover led to some disappointment due to the absence of a “true blue” Science Fiction story, I feel privileged for having been given a glimpse of what might emerge from the fertile minds of such a diverse group of young writers.

In addition to a nicely balanced collection of short stories, Issue #1 features two non-fiction articles, a film review, an author interview and a selection of wonderful poetry.

“Economies of Scale” by T.M. hunter is an informative article that takes the current state of the publishing industry into account, while encouraging writers to assert the monetary value of their work. This is likely to be a useful read for those who don’t already have their own formed opinions regarding the manner in which they wish to share their writing.
Read more »

Media Whores is currently available electronically from Smashwords and will be paired with Made in DNA’s upcoming title, Bukkake Brawl for Print release next year.

Made in DNA is the pseudonym of an American author, living in Japan. He describes his special brand of fiction as sex-punk/sex-fi. After reading a short teaser from one of his latest works, I jumped at the chance to read the erotic, cyberpunk novella, Media Whores.

Media Whores takes place in New Tokioh, a techno-punk’s dystopia lurking beneath the radiation contaminated mess that was once Nippon. The unapologetically depraved sex-idol, Kurarua is the product of an absurd, sensation seeking society. A beautiful and monstrous vortex of unchained desire, dealing out a mess of pain; she makes our dubious hero her bitch and drags him along in her violent and doomed quest for the ultimate climax.

Mind you, these are not characters for whom one is apt to feel much sympathy. Is there really any need though, to feel anything but awe for a woman who is both able and eager to make a badass yakuza bend over and scream like a girl, whether he wants to or not? Like our haplessly addicted protagonist, we’re just along for the ride.

Read more »

If you’ve been paying attention, you already know that there’s been a lot of buzz lately about Google’s latest endeavor, Google Wave. Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

This is a screencap of how my Google Wave page currently appears.

Members such as Made in DNA and Jim Hanas are already forging ahead and exploring all the various possibilities of Fiction Waves. If you already have a Google Wave account and would like to see how it’s all panning out or even add your own two cents – do check it all out.
Read more »

Cassandra Baron is the star character of my NaNoWriMo novel, tentatively titled CASSANDRA.  In this second novel of a series Cassandra Baron, becomes infatuated with a human named David Kilpatrick.

David happens to be the right hand man for Dominic Locke, the interim leader of the ancient race of predecessors to werewolves, known as the Rath. She becomes embroiled in the internal conflicts of the Rath and soon find herself facing off  with Dominic’s daughter, who is destined to be another new Power in the world.

Origin & Circumstances

Cassandra’s mother was the progeny of an amphibious civilization, long gone. Her father is the human musician, Jonathan Baron who discovered that his mother was a sea-dwelling, aboriginal remnant of that ancient race. Her genetic makeup was determined by the avatars of an ancient race of sentient ships known as the Vorsha. She was designed to be their perfect creation.
Read more »

In two days, National Novel Writing Month will kick off for the 10th time. Many of us will immediately launch into the writing-frenzy and use this momentum to get as far ahead with our word-counts as we can. Invariably, some will stall out at the very beginning and find it difficult dredge up the will to continue or catch up. It can happen to anyone.

It happens to me more frequently than I’d care to recall. It might be more of a problem for NaNoWriMo beginners than those who’ve done it a number of times already and are familiar with the pitfalls of taking on such a huge personal challenge.

For most, the greatest hindrance is a lack of confidence in their ability to bring such a complex web of ideas to life. For some, the prospect of meeting the thirty day deadline is simply too daunting.
Read more »

Japanese girls with darkened faces and glaring make-up is something I’ve noticed cropping up in anime, from time to time. I’d heard the words yamamba, mamba and in some cases, ganguro being bandied about but never gave it much thought, until recently.  At first glance, yamamba and mamba struck me as nothing more than a psychedelic parody of the goth subculture. Looking more closely, it becomes apparent that there’s more to the dark tans, white makeup and neon colored hair adopted by yamamba and mamba enthusiasts.

Subcultures & Feminist Anthropological Archetype

Sported with flamboyance and a casual air of self-assertion, these wildly creative styles are profound displays of non-conformity in a culture that on the surface, seems to be defined by pervasive ritualism and self-repression. The somewhat garish appearance of a mamba get-up bears some similarity to imaginings of Yama-uba, the mountain hag of Japanese folklore. While the resemblance between the yamamba/mamba subculture and this archetype is said to be nothing more than coincidence, I couldn’t help but wonder how feminism might relate to the manifestation of anthropological archetypes as earmarks of esoteric subcultures.
Read more »

In early October of 2005, someone on my LiveJournal “friends” list mentioned something called NaNoWriMo. I became curious about this “National Novel Writing Month” that a bunch of people were suddenly talking about and decided to check it out. I was blown away by the idea of trying to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I was amazed at the fact there seemed to be a worldwide movement of sorts, as thousands of people were participating in what had somehow become a global event of unbelievable proportions. I decided at the very last minute that I would hop on the bandwagon, as well. My first attempt at NaNoWriMo was a bust. Nevertheless, I had a blast. With the exception of 2008, I’ve been throwing myself into the NaNoWriMo fire with fervor, ever since.

I’ve decided to not let the life and health issues that bogged me down last year, prevent me from participating this year.  Maybe I’m being grossly optimistic–but hey–isn’t that what this whole thing is all about? Maybe I’ll write something nebulously macabre and witty, thereby purging all of this darkness festering inside.
Read more »

Writers are natural stalkers. Sure, it’s a little creepy but that’s what makes it fun–I mean, er… Educational. Productive. Absolutely not criminal. Think of it like being on a safari or bird-watching. See? Totally harmless.

It has been said that a story isn’t just an art. It’s a wild beast that we must hunt down, capture and make a meal of, if we must. Figuratively, of course. We’re not complete psychopaths, are we? Are we???

Most creative individuals are in the habit of observing the people and things around us. We’re not even usually conscious of what we’re doing. We study people, the way events unfold. We do this intently and unthinkingly. We become avid spectators in an arena that offers up infinite degrees of wonderment.

Humans make for irresistible subjects, to begin with. They’re mystifying and amusing. They are self-contradictory and xenophobic oddities. They say they’re wrong and they say that they’re right, believing both equally. They embody a multitude of mysteries that inspire an incredible array of possibilities.

Every unsuspecting passerby becomes fodder for our fictional machinations. They are our hapless accomplices in an endless parade of imaginary atrocities and epic deeds of heroism. We find a wealth of inspiration in the mundane. With no solid basis upon which to build our suppositions, we psychoanalyze complete strangers and invent convoluted histories and personalities for them.

Little does the kindly old lady walking her chihuahua down the street know, that she is destined to be– in some form or another–the dastardly culprit who devours the scrawny rebel zipping by on his skateboard. This will be at the behest of her four-legged Little Precious, who happens to be the Devil… who happens to be an extra-terrestrial entity that crash-landed on earth eight billion years ago.

No way am I going to write that. It’s just silly. Really. Except for the part about chihuahuas being the demonic incarnation of aliens. That, I have always suspected.

I been bothered lately, by the notion that some human proclivities seem to exist in purer concentrations in certain places on this earth. Places like Darfur, in Sudan exemplifies the topsy-turvy reality of a civilization seething with poverty, ignorance, and unimaginable cruelty.  I’m not claiming the absence of kindness in the world. That would be unfair.

I’m constantly amazed by the resilience of humans and the adroitness with which we walk the line between sanity and complete madness, every day.  The contradiction that exists within us humans is what makes us such amazing creatures.

The pitiful thing about our species is that we have evolved to the point where we can see the difference between what we are and could become.  The grace and the beauty of spirit that we so desire continue to elude us.  Countless millennia have gone by and we haven’t grown any less vicious or selfish.  We crawled out of the swamps, the caves and the deserts to climates less harsh – but we carried our savagery with us.  Our knowledge grows by leaps and bounds, but our spirits haven’t.

Evolution is like the clock that stopped ticking decades ago and no one even noticed.

You can scoff at what I’ve said and dismiss me as ignorant and uneducated. Would I have a different perspective on these things if I were a scholar? All I have is my simple mind and my eyes.  I know what I see.  I know that I don’t like it. A bit overly melodramatic, maybe but tell me:

What age were you, when you first wished you were something other than human?
Then tell me why.