D1sc0r0b0t

The Living Dead Boy

2009-11-03T20:43:00.000+13:00

My story The Living Dead Boy is now available in the latest issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Despite the title, it's got nothing to do with zombies. It may be partially autobiographical but I can't be sure. Some stories you don't want to look directly at them when you're putting them together.

While I was writing this one, I was listening to American Music Club's The Golden Age and The National's Alligator on endless repeat. So it's partially their fault.

Shiny things at Prima Storia

2009-10-19T09:23:00.000+13:00

Over at Prima Storia, you can find my interview with Jeff VanderMeer about Finch and Booklife.

While you're there, be sure to check out Ripley Patton's story The Comfort of Cabbages. Ripley's an amazing writer and you won't be disappointed. But you might cry.

The Distance

2009-09-20T22:05:00.001+12:00

I'd hoped to put up a blog entry every day this week. Unfortunately the day job rather clobbered me. But today's the conclusion of NZ spec fic blogging week, so here goes. This may or may not make sense.

When I started writing with the serious intention of being published, I was worried about the distance. New Zealand really is a long way from the rest of the world. And at the time, I couldn't see any chance of being published here - I didn't know of any local magazines (except for the literary ones). I was going to have to send my stories to Australia, the UK, and most of all the US.

The distance revealed itself in the price of overseas postage, the long wait for replies, even the sheer madness of trying to purchase stamps on the US Post website and getting them delivered here. (Seriously US Post, Howick's an actual place - you should look it up sometime). But it was great. I started to feel like I was part of a community, even if they were on the other side of the world. First time I got an 'alas' rejection from Gordon Van Gelder I did a little happy dance.

Then I started getting published, not much, but enough to keep me going. I met editors and fellow writers, but in the States or Australia. Podcasting arrived and my world got bigger still. Mur Lafferty's I Should Be Writing was like having my own personal trainer, pushing me to be better. Escape Pod brought a constant stream of new fiction. The original Starship Sofa schooled me in the grandmasters. More magazines started accepting electronic submissions - the stamp nightmares went away.

Easy as it had become to communicate with people overseas though, the distance was still there. Where were all the kiwi spec writers? Where were the New Zealand magazines and websites?

I discovered Semaphore - a New Zealand-based spec fic publication. It was Marie Hodgkinson, Semaphore's editor, who first told me about this thing called SpecFicNZ. And there they were! Writers just like me, living in the same time zone!

SpecFicNZ isn't ready yet. We're still working on it. But it's coming, and for everyone writing speculative fiction in New Zealand it's going to be big. Want proof? Go back to the main NZ Spec Fic blogging week page. Look at how many people have added pieces to our mosaic. Here we are. This is us. This is what we do. And there's no distance at all.

And that's it for me. Thanks are due to Dan Rabarts for his amazing Hugh Cook article, the Wily Writers for reprinting The Salt Line, and Tim Jones for reading it. And most of all, to Anna Caro for coming up with the idea.

If you want to get in touch with me or anyone else who has been blogging this week, just drop us a line. We don't bite, mostly.

And just think how big NZ Spec Fic Blogging week is going to be next year.

E haere rā

Keep cool till after school

Hugh Cook - The Wordsmith and the Warrior

2009-09-16T09:00:00.017+12:00

Today's entry for NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week is a guest post by Dan Rabarts. Hugh Cook is an absolute inspiration to me and Dan has summed up why far better than I could. But enough from me. Let Dan tell you about:

Hugh Cook – The Wordsmith and the Warrior

Hugh Cook might not be a name instantly recognised by readers of the fantasy genre, but to his legion of dedicated fans across the world, mention of the man and his work inspires a sense of reverence.

Cook remains one of New Zealand’s unsung heroes of fantasy literature, despite his achievements outshining those of many of our more well-known authors. Between 1986 and 1992 Cook released his Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series, a ten-book cycle of stand-alone fantasy novels. Set on a world ruled by bloodthirsty emperors, threatened by swarms of monsters, and blessedly devoid of goblins and elves, the Chronicles capture a history of Cook’s lands and their people in a multitude of voices, spanning continents, and all occurring roughly within the same timeframe of a decade or two. Characters recur across the books, making cameo appearances from one story to the next, weaving a complex web of events that draws the reader through the series, however unrelated each volume may seem to be at a glance.

Cook was among a group of authors who eschewed the traditions of Tolkienesque high fantasy, choosing instead to write about the dark, unsavoury aspects of human nature in the grim harshness of a world bent on crushing the meek. In Cook’s world, orcs are hunted for their blubber and sea dragons are vain creatures who pretend to recite poetry in their sleep before sinking into snoring heaps. Empires are driven to war by syphilitic emperors, who are in turn murdered by warring sons. Heroism is a constant theme, usually as a partner to vanity, folly and ultimately death, and can be summed up in the immortal line, “vaunting their boasts with the blood of their lungs on their lips.”

Suffice to say that Cook rebelled, writing unorthodox fantasy in an unorthodox world. He dismantled old tropes and bent the genre like light through a smoked lens. He replaced the tired theme of good versus evil with one which instead pitted brutality against barbarism, and rarely delivered a clear victor. Cook not only rejected the clichés of the fantasy genre; he subverted them with an almost malicious glee.

To judge Cook’s success by book sales alone would be misleading, but the numbers are certainly impressive at first glance. Altogether, the Chronicles sold around 450,000 copies, and that in itself is reason for celebration for any New Zealand author. The Wizards and the Warriors, together with its US incarnation, Wizard War, sold over 160,000 copies, a phenomenal sales record for any fantasy author. Unfortunately, as the Chronicles became less conventional and more obtuse, sales began to decline. This was compounded by the decision made by bookselling chain W.H. Smith to drop Cook’s books from their shelves when sales slowed, which inevitably led to an even steeper fall. Despite a rebounding of style and content in the last three books of the series towards more action-based storytelling, Cook had largely lost the means to supply to his mainstream audience, with sales for these three books falling to between 7,000 and 10,000 copies each. I bought all my copies of Hugh’s books in my local Whitcoulls here in New Zealand, where his books enjoyed pride of place on their shelves with every release. But if the books were not on the shelves overseas, then Cook’s fans had little chance of finding them.
Cook’s prose drew heavily on the landscape, places and mythology of New Zealand, from the legendary Taniwha of Quilth, to the Ngati Moana, to a prison called Maremoremo (after Paremoremo in Auckland). Our native flora and fauna often made cameo appearances in wild locales, including weka, kauri and rimu, to name but a few – all of this well over a decade before Peter Jackson delivered our country up to the world as Middle Earth. Cook refused to suffer from cultural cringe; he embraced our country’s uniqueness and used it to flavour his own inimitable world and style.

China Mieville, author of Perdido Street Station, sums Cook up nicely; “Hugh Cook was one of the most inventive, witty, unflinching, serious, humane and criminally underrated writers in imaginative fiction. Or anywhere.” It remains a shame that so few New Zealanders know that Cook was a Kiwi writer, but there is a good reason for this: Hugh Cook may have lived in New Zealand and written in New Zealand, but I suspect he saw the same tired faults with our nationalistic model of publishing and author recognition as he saw in the failure of the fantasy genre to redefine itself. Accordingly, after publishing Plague Summer here in 1980, he bypassed the New Zealand publishing model and went instead to the London market, where he secured publishing deals almost simultaneously for both his science fiction novel The Shift (Jonathan Cape, 1986) and the first volume in the Chronicles series, The Wizards and the Warriors (Corgi,1986).
What separated Cook from so many of his contemporaries was his ability to alter his prose style from book to book, while he never lost his unique authorial voice. Two of the Chronicles, The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers and The Wazir and the Witch, take the form of actual recorded histories, thick with the idiosyncrasies of both the imaginary scribe and subsequent editors, and are thus peppered with redactions and long, apparently unrelated diatribes. These books are full of acerbic dark wit and bleak philosophies, and represent, in some ways, Cook’s ultimate success at writing fantasy that transcended the sword and sorcery models of the genre. For all their apparently random digressions beyond the story, these two books might be seen as the pinnacle of Cook’s genius, for there is a depth to these tales that no amount of Feistian swashbuckling or Eddingsesque adventuring could rival. Some readers even suggested that ‘Hugh Cook’ was not one writer but many, a collaboration of individuals writing in isolation with a single grand design in mind. But Hugh Cook was just one man, a prolific author and poet, whose storytelling skills ascended beyond the formulaic norm into something infinitely more enduring.
Ironically it was these two books, with their challenging diversions into philosophy and metaphysics, that seemed to undermine Cook’s mainstream success. Book sales for these two volumes showed a steep slide from his earlier highs, and may have contributed to the W.H. Smith decision and its consequences for Cook’s publishing career. Cook did with fantasy what hard science fiction does to that broader genre, by delving into in-depth ruminations of the unknown and fantastical in the body of his storytelling. Cook teased apart the nature of magic and the supernatural as demi-scientific concepts, as well as exploring the brutal underside of human nature as represented by its practice in politics and warfare – stark metaphors for the real world, despite being dished up in the barbaric soup of a fantasy setting. Apparently, booksellers suspected that works of this complexity and wisdom would not be appreciated by fans of the tales of blood-soaked armies, pirates, and torturers that had preceded them. This was truly a pity.

Cook’s epic plan for a sixty book series was accordingly cut short, and after publishing the brilliant conclusion to the Chronicles, The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster, he went on to champion print-on-demand technology and electronic formats, constantly moving into newer and stranger worlds with his writing. He was among the first authors to publish works through Lulu.com with the Oceans of Light trilogy and later, Cancer Patient. Even so, the Chronicles remain Cook’s legacy, and copies of these volumes continue to fetch outlandish prices in second-hand book markets around the world (my own collection must be worth a small fortune, according to Amazon – but it is most certainly not for sale).

Cook was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2005. He endured months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment in Auckland, which briefly sent the cancer into remission. During this ordeal he wrote Cancer Patient, a collection of musings, poetry and recollections which document his struggle with the disease and what he learned about life and the human condition in the process. This book is available for free as an online e-book or as a download from zenvirus.com, one of Hugh’s many websites. Unfortunately in 2007 the cancer returned, and Cook passed away on November 8th, 2008, after bravely battling the disease for so many years. It is a testament to the scope of his fanbase that the obituary I wrote for him, which was published in the New Zealand Herald and which I posted to my blog in December last year, remains one of my most frequently visited pages.

Ultimately, Cook was both Wordsmith and Warrior. Poems, stories and characters were his tools and his weapons. He wrote with a passion, producing fiction at a prolific rate, and the English language would be greatly enriched if all the words and terms he had coined in his oeuvre were to be introduced into common parlance. He fought to find new ways forward in the publishing world, exploiting technologies that are only now starting to establish their true place in the electronic market. He maintained his integrity as an author to the very end, determined to always share the stories he had to tell, and not those that others wanted him to tell. At the end, he fought an unseen enemy – fought it and beat it, if only for a short time. Even in this, he had a story to tell, one that may not have been able to completely defeat that insidious foe, but which may yet bring comfort to others who face those same demons at some stage.

For those of you interested in reading Hugh Cook’s work, samples and full-length copies of some of his books can be found at Zenvirus.com. Also, keep an eye out for a reissue of The Walrus and the Warwolf, due for release in 2010 by Piazo Publishing, with an introduction penned by China Mieville. Walrus is recognised by Hugh’s fans as his finest hour, and well worth a read by any lover of epic fantasy. To quote Mieville again, “To honour the memory of this wonderful and generous-spirited writer and man, those - too bloody few - of us who know his work should do all we can to bring it to the world's attention.”

Hugh Walter Gilbert Cook (1956-2008): Wordsmith. Warrior. New Zealander.

Man’s first death is the random potential
Of aeons before conception,
And the surf, merging life with form,
The surf is creation and rebirth.

(Cicada Sun, Landfall #118, 1976)

Dan Rabarts can be found at freshly-ground.blogspot.com and podagogue.blogspot.com.

I would like to thank Colin Smythe, China Mieville, and the Cook family for their kind assistance in preparing this article.

The Salt Line featured on Wily Writers

2009-09-15T14:16:00.000+12:00

(Blogging live from TechEd 09, where my brain is being pummelled into new shapes)

That cool thing I was talking about yesterday? It's here.

My story The Salt Line is now up on the Wily Writers website. It's available both as text and as a podcast, narrated by the remarkable Tim Jones. This story appeared last year in Unfurled and it's great to have it made available to a larger audience.
I'd like to thank Wily Writers, particularly Angel McCoy and Ripley Patton, for the opportunity to release the story. And I have to send an extra special thanks to Tim Jones, who narrates it wonderfully. Believe it or not, this was his first podcast.

Go check it out! As for me, I'm about to start a session on architectural considerations for Silverlight. Wish me luck!

"with no likeness to humanity except that they stood on two legs; with arms yet not arms; faces human, yet how unlike!"

2009-09-15T00:39:00.001+12:00

Day one of NZ spec fic blogging week comes and goes and I do not post. With good reason though - tonight I've been working on something very cool that will drop later in the week.

But if I had blogged, it was going to be about some of the very earliest of NZ speculative fiction writers. Luckily, Anna Caro has done just that.

But she missed one.

Behold, The Great Romance, published pseudonymously in 1881 (predating HG Wells) and featuring spaceships, space suits and alien luuuurve.

The text, along with an introduction by Dominic Allesio is available at the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre

Look at that. I made a blog post after all.

Century paper

2009-09-13T08:03:00.000+12:00

With Tech Ed and NZ Spec fic blogging, next week's going to be a busy one.

And right in the middle of it, this comes out. Tony sez:

"StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1 is only a few days away from going on sale. Here’s a sneak preview of the cover art, designed by Skeet.

Skeet’s brief was to create a picture that would pay homage to the 50s SF pulp magazines. I think he’s produced an amazing piece of work.

Get ready for the 16th September when the book will be available to buy in print form. There will also be a new website and free eBook released on that day.

I hope you think it captures the style and feel of the SF Golden Years?"

By the way

2009-09-09T00:17:00.000+12:00

What do you think of the new blog layout?

NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week

2009-09-09T00:15:00.000+12:00

(Reprinted from Anna Caro's blog)

14th-20th September is NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week

What?
This is an opportunity for anyone in (or even with links to) New Zealand to talk about Speculative Fiction, to publicise what they've been doing or simply share some knowledge. It's an opportunity to learn what others have been reading, writing, watching or drawing, to start a conversation, to gather some recommendations for reading or some tips for writing.
NZ Speculative Fiction Blogging Week is organised by Core members of SpecFicNZ, who are working towards the launch of a national SpecFic Writers organisation in 2010.

Why?
Because speculative fiction still doesn't get the recognition it deserves in New Zealand and because there are so many people out there doing so many exciting things - and so often they don't know about each other.

How can I participate?

1) Help get the word out! Link to this page, tell your friends, encourage people you know to write.

2) Write a blog post any time from 14th to 20th September. It can be a review of a book by a local writer, an update on your own writing, photographs of a place near you which has some links to speculative fiction, related art - the possibilities are endless. Don't feel you need to be an expert of have any kind of qualification for joining in - this is for everyone!
Please do remember to post a link to your post in the comments to this page, otherwise we may not see it. Comments are screened to stop spam, so don't worry if it doesn't show up straight away - we will be checking frequently.

3) Check back over the week to see what others have written. They'll all be linked to in this post as we get them. Discover what other people are thinking, doing and writing, and don't forget to comment - you may get some interesting conversations going or even meet some new friends.

Century

2009-09-07T17:45:00.002+12:00

On September 16, StarShipSofa Aural Delights is 100. OK, I work behind the scenes on the sofa, so I'm biased, but I believe it's one of the best fiction podcasts in the Multiverse.

To celebrate the century, Starship Sofa Stories Volume 1. A free PDF will be available to download, along with a POD dead tree version. All proceeds from the book and donations will go to keeping the Sofa's rusty old engine in WD-40.

The table of contents is fairly impressive and a great collection of the best stories the Sofa has run:

StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1

Into The Blank Where Life Is Hurled	Ken Scholes
London Bone	Michael Moorcock
The Second Coming Of Jasmine Fitzgerald	Peter Watts
Lester Young and The Jupiter's Moons' Blues	Gord Sellar
Vampire's Kiss	Gene Wolfe
Vinegar Peace (or The Wrong-Way Used-Adult Orphanage)	Michael Bishop
Godzilla's 12 Step Program	Joe R Lansdale
Jesus Christ, Reanimator	Ken MacLeod
The Sledge-Maker's Daughter	Alastair Reynolds
Mars: A Traveler's Guide	Ruth Nestvold
The Empire of Ice Cream	Jeffrey Ford
The Ant King: A California Fairytale	Benjamin Rosebaum
In The Olden Days	Spider Robinson
Tideline	Elizabeth Bear

Stay tuned and keep watching the skies for that furniture-shaped ship. Who knows what tales yet lurk beneath its cushions...

From here, Worldcon rocked.

2009-08-10T21:24:00.005+12:00

So how was Worldcon for everyone?

Me? I loved it. Thanks to Cheryl Morgan and the rest of the team at Convention Reporter it was, well not nearly the same as being there, but I certainly got a feeling for everything going on.

Best part was watching the Hugo awards come in on Twitter. I was particularly pleased to see Electric Velocipede, Weird Tales and Cheryl take rockets. And very cool that both the best short story and best novellete ran on Starship Sofa recently.

I'm not going to lie to you - sometimes, living at 36°52′S 174°45′E, it can feel like you're at the end of the world. Sites like Convention Reporter and services like Twitter, though? We're not that far away at all.

And next year I might end up doing some reporting of my own. Already got my membership for Melbourne...

Time for a bit of a knees-up eh?

Shhhh.

2009-07-10T21:07:00.002+12:00

This is rapidly turning into The Year In Which I Did Not Blog.

So: in lieu of content some statements, some of which are true:

I have taken a picture of Kenny Loggins' star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Monkeys can sense the ghosts of dead cowboys.

The scene at the end of Dick Whittington's Blues with the fox? That actually happened to me one morning in Hammersmith.

I used to drive my parents mad by putting on a fake American accent. Now my kids do it to me. Drives me mad.

In a previous life I was Louis XVI. But so were like twelve other guys, so it doesn't count.

Time's so tight even my reading is suffering lately. But I've just finished Lush Life by Richard Price. I've been a fan of Price since I read Clockers 15 years ago, and he never disappoints. Amazingly, I'm only just now learning that he wrote some episodes of the last series of The Wire.

Speaking of The Wire, I bought season 1 a while back, never having seen an episode before. By this time you don't need me to tell you how good it is. But if you haven't seen it? Dude.

And on the subject of things the cool kids discovered years ago that I'm only now getting: Aesop Rock.

Gobsmacked

2009-06-01T22:25:00.005+12:00

So last night at Conscription my name got called and I walked up to the front and mumbled something incoherent. And later on when the room stopped spinning, it turned out I'd won for best short story. I'm still absolutely gobsmacked. Every category this year had really strong contenders. It's great to see what a diverse and talented group of people live round these parts, you know, if you hadn't figured it out already.

This was my first con and I enjoyed it, thanks mostly to my fellow nominee Regina (Ripley) Patton. Regina is an excellent writer and definitely one to watch - she's going to go far. In fact, stop messing around here and go read her story in this month's Semaphore Magazine.

Hm. If everyone goes off to Semphore, there's nobody left to read this paragraph. I should have thought about that. Oh well.

Update:Ripley's con report sums up the whole thing better than I could.

(Crickets)

2009-05-20T21:17:00.003+12:00

So generally when my blog goes quiet, it means I'm hella busy.

Yep. Still am.

It's all good though. The family are well, the day job is very interesting and thought the writing is slow, I'm happy with how it's going.

And now, in lieu of actual content, albums I downloaded from emusic.com:

Famous penguin residency provider and author Jeff VanderMeer blogged about Shearwater the other day. 30 seconds in I knew I needed the whole album.

I don't get to read Uncut much these days, much as I'd like to. Liz bought me a copy a while back with a cover CD full of Springsteen-influenced music. Included on which was The Gaslight Anthem. Thank you New Jersey!

Another month, another AR Rahman album. Soundtrack to what is apparently a Memento remake. I'll be checking it out.

All this, and Madvillain too. Nice video!

My happy place

2009-04-02T21:37:00.004+13:00

Nothing to say, so here's a picture of my desk.

Until recently, the bookcases downstairs were filled with, well, books. Most of them still are. But I've set up the bookcases by my desk in a different way. Less books, more... just stuff that's important to me. That's right - this is a picture of my happy place.

Liz printed up the Shimmer cover for my surprise party ages back. I found it when I was tidying and decided it needed to be above the desk.

Note the neglected XBox looking all lonely and sad. And all that sunlight coming through the window.

Apple II floppy drives divide the bookcase. Here's the section for books on writing with catapault, flintlock pistol and mannequin for when it gets really nasty.

Copies of F&SF, Shimmer and Electric Velocipede are stored in a box because they have been known to bite.
The next two shelves are either books that inspire me, or in the particular case of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, frighten me with their immensitude. Yes, that's a complete set of Knuth. No, I haven't read it all.
The top shelf contains all my writing-related paperwork, which thanks to so many online submissions these days, fits in a single box. Also my modest collection of comics - Sandman, Maus, Preacher. And Nick Fury. 'Cause you gotta have Nick Fury.

While we're talking about things that make me happy, may I present Mr. B the Gentleman Rhymer. Astute followers of the b0t will know this is the second cricket-related rap video we've seen here. Well, this one's chap hop, technically. But still. I don't even like cricket.

Good things

2009-03-28T21:34:00.002+13:00

Been far too busy to update lately, but so many good things have been happening.

1: Section 92A seems to be dead and buried. Like all Hollywood monsters, there's every chance it will be back. Hopefully though, they'll leave the knife and hockey mask off.

2: Over at Tor.Com, Jo Walton has nice things to say about Keri Hulme's The Bone People. Comments include a bunch of recommendations for further reading.

3: The final ballot for the 2009 Sir Julius Vogel Awards are up. And there's this guy up for best short story and best new talent... I don't know. He might be OK. It's a really strong field this year. Nice to see NZ speculative fiction in such rude health.

Check out what's up for best dramatic presentation - short form...

Submit. Again.

2009-03-20T19:34:00.002+13:00

1.

Cat Rambo on rejection. If you're submitting to magazines, you need to read this. Then stop whinging about getting rejected and write something else.

And while we're on the subject: as part of the recent Starship Sofa site update, the submission guidelines for articles, poe'ry and short fiction. Send us some stuff: operators are standing by.

2.

I've been downloading a lot of hip-hop from emusic.com lately. Last month Blu & Exile rocked the iPod.

This month Madvillain (if you've listened to the Jack Wakes Up podcast, you've heard some of this before)

But the album I keep coming back to is Raheem Jamal's Boombox. Came out in 2007, but it feels nice and old-school. You can check out a bunch of tracks here. Start with "Right Now".

Speed and getting up to it.

2009-03-15T08:53:00.003+13:00

Over at Scalzi's place, Mary Anne Mohanraj has a couple of posts you need to read if you're at all interested in writing about people who don't look back at you in the mirror every morning.

Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part I

Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up to Speed, Part II

Go read them. Then go read them again.

Here & There & Tears for Fears

2009-03-12T22:16:00.005+13:00

1: So something's growing. Go over to Tim Jones' blog and read the guest post by Ripley Patton.
Reclaiming Gravity: The Birth of a New Zealand Writers' Association. It's early days, but I'm expecting great things from this. If you're interested in finding out more, drop me a line.

2: Unbelievably, I forgot to mention that Starship Sofa is playing The Serial Murders by Kim Newman. I've been enjoying Kim Newman's work for a while now, especially his Diogenes Club stories, so having one on the sofa is very cool.

3: If you know me, you'll know I will still argue for Tears for Fears as one of the most important bands of the 80s. So obviously this had to end up on the b0t.

Head Over Heels: Literal Video Version - watch more funny videos

OK, I can't post that without having the real thing too...

Write On

2009-03-10T20:53:00.003+13:00

If you haven't discovered the Write On podcast, you're missing a treat. It's the radio show of the Otago Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors and hosted by local crime writer Vanda Symon.

The latest programme includes an interview with David Howard from Otago University Press and it's well worth a listen if you're at all interested in New Zealand publishing. It's not all doom and gloom either - he's got some interesting thoughts about the future of small press.

Jazz Cats

2009-03-04T21:37:00.002+13:00

My story "Dick Whittington's Blues" is available in the latest issue of Semaphore Magazine. It's full of cats, foxes, jazz, and young kiwis looking for luck on the Hammersmith & City line.

This story has a soundtrack. I had Sonny Rollins playing the whole time I was writing it - this piece in particular. Turn up the speakers before you read.

Bad Monkeys

2009-03-03T22:20:00.005+13:00

Good news! No more monkeys crossing state lines:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Felonious Monkeys

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Bad news: This means there's absolutely no chance of a BJ and the Bear remake. The whole thing is about a monkey crossing state lines!

Also - however BSG finishes, it won't be a fraction as good as it could have been. Imagine: humans and cylons reach earth. It's completely destroyed. They're all standing around wondering what to do next.

Suddenly, an ape on horseback throws a net over them...

Wings

2009-02-27T22:31:00.002+13:00

Prima Storia is a brand new web-based fiction journal. The Summer 2009 stories are up now, including my story, When Her Wings. Go check it out!

Mistadoblina

2009-02-17T21:22:00.003+13:00

This is dedicated to all those record companies who think it's appropriate to suspend New Zealand's Bill of Rights just to stop some kid downloading Eminem.

(Warning: the way it's worded, watching this video in New Zealand after February could lead to you getting your Internet connection disconnected)

Public Address: The Public Bad

Guilty by association copyright protesters paint it black

New government fails to defend Internet freedom

Internet Blackout NZ

Two posts in a week

2009-02-13T20:25:00.003+13:00

I bet you think that's pretty clever...

1: I've been listening to Auvergne Chants by Elysium. They're a vocal ensemble featuring none other than Starship Sofa's Diane Severson. It's a collection of medieval chants, from the Auvergne region of France and I really like it - the production is superb and it's haunting stuff. It's a little hard to get hold of - don't go looking on emusic or iTunes. But it is still available. Try Four Dogs Music for a start.

2: The Clone Wars started on Cartoon Network today, so Emily and I sat down to watch. Only got though about 10 minutes (which took 20, thanks to CN's hyperactive ad breaks), but so far it seems pretty good. But what is up with the clones? Sure, getting Temuera Morrison back for the voices might have been expensive, but couldn't they at least tried to get someone with a New Zealand accent? They all sound like Dick Van Dyke now. It's going to bug me every time one of them speaks.

3: More music. Blu & Exile - So(ul)Amazing. This month's emusic downloads kick in tomorrow. Will be getting this album.