Nithska

SOPA Links, What, Why, Take Action

2012-01-18T00:05:00.003-06:00

What is SOPA?

Why is SOPA Dangerous?

What can I Do?

History, Knocking at Your Door

2012-01-10T23:03:00.000-06:00

My standard disclaimer: this post is not about writing, genre, books, movies, or any of the typically fun or diverting topics usually addressed here. This one's political/social and if you're not up for that sort of thing, HERE's something you might check out instead.

First, read this article about anti-gay myths debunked.

And HERE's another, less scholarly article but it does reveal the social security argument's origin with AFA/James Dobson, and points out the stupidity of the argument.

Politicians such as Rick Santorum are campaigning, in part, on a platform that opposes same sex marriage, and even go so far as to suggest parents in jail are preferable to gay parents. That's such a ridiculous statement that I'm not going to waste time with it: anyone who cares to apply some critical thinking will see it does not hold up, and if you fail to be able to do so we'll both be wasting our time.

I support same sex unions/ gay marriage, marriage equality: however you want to frame it.

The arguments against that I keep seeing and on which I'll comment:

Santorum's own 'Why not polyamory/polygamy then?' and
'If gay marriage, why not bestiality?'

That latter one is typically stated with a caveat that the speaker 'isn't implying the two are alike.' Back in 2009, the last time I directly addressed such, I replied:

"Of course not. Though this is a familiar tactic. The writer innocently mentions homosexuality and [something reprehensible like bestiality]. It is just an extreme example. But of what? If they are not linked, then why mention it. This is hostile action. Read it again. Recognize it. Hostility. It sounds nice and reasonable, but it is not... Reject, reject, reject any attempts at so called reasoned difference of opinion that uses this tactic."

The polyamory/polygamy argument is more interesting (more interesting to me means that this seems a reasonable question to more people whereas those more offensive comparisons usually only come from extremists.) It also betrays an ignorance born of a belief that what we call marriage today is a static institution that has always looked like it does. It is not and has not. In the past, group marriages were quite common, including in those cultures giving rise to western society. And even when it became a union between husband and wife, the union was typically not the romantic/emotional commitment that we understand it as today.

The problem with group marriages is that typically at their center was a man whom had the rights surrounded by the woman he essentially owned. Is it possible for polygamy to work? Well, it did in those societies, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything approximating the equality that our society deems normative. A pure Libertarian philosophy would leave the question of polyamory/polygamy up to the participants. But, the question specifically is: if marriage between same sex couples, why not marriage with more than two partners? Or a dog?

Marriage is an agreement/contract, so of course the dog is a facetious--and hateful, but that's beside the point-- question. The basic structure of marriage is an agreement/commitment between two consenting adults. No new provisions need be made to accommodate same-sex couples.

But where the institution of marriage as understood by the United States government remains fully functional and essentially unaltered by same sex unions--the framework for the institution is extant and requires no alternation but to acknowledge those unions (essentially a contract between two parties)--what we are talking about with polygamy is a much more complex arrangement. It is not a structure currently extant in the United States and would require laws to define it, and so forth.

Should that institution be created? I don't know, and being a proponent of same sex marriage does not require that I do. They would be two very different institutions even if they carried the name 'marriage.'

The tactic that I allude to above is at work here too. It's funny, that my first post here back in 2005 was about this very topic. Also, to be clear, while same sex marriage _from the state's POV_ would look no different than the same contract that opposite sex couples enter into, from the POV of the participants, it would mean everything that marriage entails in the hearts and minds of anyone in our society. It would mean that they have equal rights to marry the consenting adult of their choice, just as their heterosexual counterparts are able to do.

Why not same sex marriage? The relationships already exist, but unacknowledged for what they are. The family's already exist, but without the protections marriage provide. All manner of _but they can get power of attorney_ type claims fail to to acknowledge the base question: why should they have to? Why not same sex marriage? What are you afraid of?

Here's what I know.

Some people are gay. They have the same rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Your church does not have to acknowledge same sex marriage. In fact, I encourage that if you are an opponent, express yourself through your church's policies.
Not all Americans share your denomination or faith. While right now, you might imagine that 'might makes right', some day you will find yourself in the minority and you'll hope that your concerns are dealt with in a way that does not seek to impose non-empirical laws based on someone else's holy book or an interpretation contrary to your own.
America is not a theocracy, but a secular state. That's a good thing. Our very religious forefathers left an officially Christian nation. Turns out giving the State too much power in this realm inhibits the freedom of believers. Hmmph.
Sexual orientation is not a choice, and treating everyone, regardless of orientation, as equal members of society is only right. It is not legislating privilege.
What 'has always been' is not a good argument. Look at slavery. Look at equality for women. Look at equality in general.
Semantics is a game as well: turning words into something they are not.
Faith is one of the greatest things in the world and I would never stain that for someone else. But Faith is only ever something that each of us may have for ourselves. We can live as a light, an example. As soon as you posit yourself as holding the Truth--and everyone else better find the same as you, or else--, you essentially lay claim not to Faith but to Fact.
Facts require proof.
Ergo, the right question is: why not same sex unions? The framework exists, we know that gay people are real, raising families right now without the benefits that go with marriage. History is watching, and the only right side to be on is the side of families. Guess what? With or without your 'permission' that includes families of same sex partners. Who are you to deny those families what yours takes for granted?

If you want to reply, feel free. Name calling or anything that I'd classify as Trolling will not see the light of day. Arguments should be fact-based. Appeals to authority are invalid unless you have the batphone to the Absolute and can conference me in for verification. Otherwise, you are a person like the rest of us and must make your way as a human rightly should: by thinking for your self. If your reply is one of disdain to proclaim why I 'just don't understand' or 'haven't thought through the implications' or whatnot, that is fine, but it must be a _cogent, coherent, and reasoned_ reply of disdain. Lack of these merits is a waste of my time.

2011 Awards Eligible Work by Brandon H. Bell

2012-01-08T16:25:00.002-06:00

A couple works that are eligible for awards consideration (Hugo/Nebula.) This is the sort of post that I inevitably feel is akin to slapping 'Titanic' on the side of your ship, but if it gets a few more eyeballs checking out my little bit of output in 2011, that's great.

Short Story:

Plastic Trees, Eschatology -- July 3rd 2011

Novella:

Elegant Threat, featured in the M-Brane Double along with Alex Jeffer's The New People, M-Brane Press (reveiwers, I can forward a pdf copy of the novella. Contact me at the editors(at)fantastique-unfettered.com.)

Other:

I qualify--first time--for the 'best editor short form' category, but since I don't see that this is broken down into market types (i.e. best fanzine editor, best semipro editor) I'll humbly note Fantastique Unfettered's award eligibility for the 'best fanzine' category, and for the 'related work' category. I'm proud of the Hail Caesar (available online thanks to the CC-BY-SA license) & Thomas Ligotti articles, and in awe of the hard work Alexandra Seidel did on her roundtable with Hal Duncan & Mike Allen, the 'Alexa Chats' series of interviews, and additional book reviews through the year. FU has grown into a great resource for content about various aspects of the fiction world: we hope you'll check it out.

That doesn't seem like much, though Elegant Threat is about 30k and I also saw three new issues of FU to publication, so not too bad. Though it does not qualify since it is a reprint, my story Things We Are Not was reprinted at the Lovecraft eZine.

OK, here's to a more prolific 2012!

Locus Online Reviews FU#4!

2012-01-07T22:56:00.002-06:00

"Another example of the kind of zine I tend to like, when done well: surreal and strange fantasy based on unusual ideas. This one is clearly a labor of love. It has a variety of content: fiction, verse, interviews and other editorial matter, and full-page illustrations." --Lois Tilton, Locus Online... More, plus reviews of the seven original stories HERE.

Accomplished in 2011, Goals for 2012

2011-12-13T19:28:00.001-06:00

Any day now we'll have brought Fantastique Unfettered to it's first birthday and fourth issue. Contained in issues one through four are dozens of stories, poems, nonfiction editorials & reviews, and some pretty nifty artwork.

This is the sort of project that, stepping back and looking at it fully-formed, I'd believe I could never accomplish. And I'd be right: this has been (continues to be) a group effort. Having Christopher Fletcher, Alexandra Seidel, M.S. Corley, Jaym & William (see the press kit for proper introductions) and everyone else who has kicked in support of one kind or another has transformed an interesting experiment into a great small press magazine.

Adjusted to fit better into the rest of my life during 2012, I believe we'll have the time and resources to take Fantastique Unfettered to a whole new level. I'd count it, blemishes and all, among my best work.

I don't dare call myself an artist, AND I'm quite proud of those title pages. All our stories get a dedicated illustration. Most poems do as well. And while I've been fortunate to get help with these from contributing artists, typically it is me, Gimp, a collection of free-use images, and some Johnny Walker for inspiration. Learning Scribus has been an experience too. The improvements on that front continue: it can be a beast at times. Next mountain to conquer: ebooks. If anyone has info about the Page Perfect Nook Color/Table program, let me know: that looks like the way to go for an ebook version of FU.

I had only three publications in 2011:

Plastic Trees, Eschatology
Things We Are Not, (reprint) The Lovecraft eZine
Elegant Threat, The M-Brane Double, M-Brane Press

Flash fiction is hard (for me) to write. Good stories have so many components that need to chug along _just so_ and I find it difficult to get the emotion I want in such a short space. Hence, the flash fiction I've written tends to come from a dark place. Plastic Trees is a story I wrote while in a degrading job and I thought it was just about that experience. Fast forward to 'post TCATHR', and I see this little story, humbly, as a perfect expression of the most dire claims Ligotti makes of existence. Not that I agree with him, but I grok that feeling that maybe I'm much less than I've believed. It is a fruitful well for this sort of tale. I just notices that a Google search for "Plastic Trees" ranks the story on the first page: not bad considering a certain song of a similar name.

Things We Are Not... If you are familiar with Lovecraft, Poe, and Stephen King this is a story you will enjoy. If not, I worry it is hard to understand. It is self-referential and a story that demands more from readers than I typically allow. Meta-Lovcraftian Mythos SF. The rats uplifted by a nanotech plague have read Lovecraft and think they've found, in Cthulhu, a God that can be theirs. There's a crow who would give them their wish, for the farce of it. Mix in a few last humans, a selection of civilization-destroying plagues, and lies, lies, lies... and the fun begins. It was originally published as the title story in the GLBTQ anthology from M-Brane Press.

Elegant Threat composes a rough third of my composite novel/future history. The core narrative functions as a stand-alone novel, but my hope is to see the whole published. Right now I have the title in mind, A History of the Family in Space. But maybe that's too unwieldy.

Anyway, Elegant Threat, the novella, is the ass-end of the M-Brane Double... so at the link above you will see Alex Jeffer's superlative fiction, The New People. Mine is in there too! I promise.

Elegant Threat imagines an ocean world--in the Alphas Centauri system--with mountain-like high tides and the fauna to match. The story follows the remnants of the crew fleeing into high tide to rescue their fellows stuck on the titular vessel. I like a certain kind of SF adventure, and if you share those tastes, Elegant Threat is great fun. Here, and here, and here, are posts intended to entice.

I wrote two editorials for FU in 2011:

Hail Caesar: Creative Commons and the Small Press
This Inscrutable Light: A Response to Thomas Ligotti’s The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

The first is available online at Question Copyright and a few other blogs, under the CC-BY-SA license we use at FU. You too are able to post it under the same license and with attribution. It is a nice, short, and snappy explanation of what could be dry and boring.

And while I'm thinking about it:

Hey, Hollywood. When you need the next great idea, we've been working on your behalf. When the superhero shtick grows old, we'll be waiting. ;)

The Ligotti article is in the soon-to-release issue 4. I hope it proves a worthwhile treatment of and response to Ligotti's nonfiction book. This is the sort of non-review that I would like to see more of in FU.

We gave each issue of FU a subtitle (like so). (Kalpa), (Unless), (Prolefeed), (Ralewing).

After that first issue (Kalpa means something close to 'eon') we fell into a naming convention that referenced some significant work of fantastic fiction. Doctor Seuss, George Orwell, William Browning Spencer, (and in 2012) Ursula LeGuin, and Shakespeare. At times I've cringed at the earnest tone of the introductions that elucidate these subtitles. In each case those intros were written hours before sending the completed issue off to our publishers. So: whatever else might be said, we've spoke from the heart.

In 2012:

FU #5 (Shifgrethor)

FU #6 (Shakespeare Unfettered)

The Aether Age eZine --We've copylefted an entire universe/ shared world. Steampunk fans will find much to like, but there is so much more going on here. Streamlined guidelines, inexpensive Nook & Kindle versions of the anthology, and a focus on flash fiction & poetry lower the barriers to entry. I hope you'll check it out.

And hoping to see a slightly larger smattering of stories published. Atlas Bled. Nilay, Among Mermen. Steerpike's Folly. A Child's Image of Her Father. Human Rain.

Completion of the novel.

That would be a good 2012. Here goes. :)

Fantastique Unfetterd #4 Table of Contents

2011-11-15T00:47:00.001-06:00

The forthcoming issue, subtitled (Ralewing), will feature the most nonfiction we've had in a single issue, the most poems in a single issue, a special Mike Allen Feature, original stories from Hal Duncan, Alma Alexander, and D. Harlan Wilson, (and several other fine authors), a discussion with Mike Allen and Hal Duncan, a response to Thomas Ligotti's nonfiction book, and more reviews, interviews, art, etc. It's going to be a good one and I hope you'll check it out. See the full TOC HERE.

Writing...

2011-11-05T17:22:00.003-05:00

I find if I actually state what I am working on, it helps me to feel some pressure to follow-through and complete it. Right now I have a few stories in the pipeline...

A Child's Image of Her Father - This story is more familial/ real life than SF, though it has an element of the weird. I like this story a lot, but it is wanting for a closing scene and a bit of fleshing out. The good thing about having many projects going at once is that it gives me time to pull back from a story like this and let it ferment for awhile.
Nilay, Among Mermen - The story of what happens to the ship's foreman and 'Evar's crew' during the events of Elegant Threat. Takes place inside the shell-like corpse of a spirewhale. I intended to submit this to the Future Lovecraft anthology, but didn't complete it in time.
Human Rain - Occasionally I get an idea that is so close to another property that I consider if it's worth writing. I had the idea behind Broken Vessels long before I saw the DW episode Blink, but after it aired, I almost didn't write that one because I felt it'd be treated as derivative of Blink. Not that the trope of the inanimate thing that moves only when not seen hasn't been around for years. Again with Human Rain I have a concept to take place in Sol System in my Elegant Threat universe, where the posthumans first demonstrate their antigravity tech. The crisis in the story ends in a climax that hipsters will cry foul for resembling the game play mechanic in a certain popular video game, never mind that I'm using a trope used by Niven, Simmons, and many others besides. I'll still write the story, because it is all in the telling.
Steerpike's Folly - A story that jumped almost fully formed from wherever stories jump. This follows the titular ship (again in my Elegant Threat universe) on a trip to perform a 'burial at sea' on the moon, Shanama. Bad things happen, involving daliphants, the deep sea bulges, and the Posthuman's formative final city, where something hunts and some well-meaning would-be rescuer has placed a mechanism that encourages humans to becomes wolves to each other.
Bakhara - the tales of Amr & Pristina from Elegant Threat continue, now on Oasis, where one follows the call of dead men, and the other hunts the man who killed her family. More daliphants, the New Madhi, news of Cancer, and vengeance (none of that sissy Jedi 'I'm too noble for vengeance's stuff for these slicks.)
Toro - The concluding Elegant Threat story. I need to write Bakhara to know exactly how this one goes down, but on a thematic/premise level, I want to deconstruct the whole idea of nobility as presented within the stories to this point. And I'm using the most cliched plot I could come up with: the big character who everyone thought was dead, but isn't, so the others come to the rescue.
Return to Themis - An Aether Age story written in a picaresque style similar to the Dying Earth stories from Vance. Features two characters, a Kemet and a Helene, whose travels lead them further and further out into the Aether from the orbital Titan, Themis. Might just be for my own enjoyment since I promise not to publish my own story in anything I edit in the future, but I'm looking forward to this one.

Working on Fantastique Unfettered, I find myself focused more on my own SFnal ideas. Or maybe it's just that I need to work out the Elegant Threat story to its conclusion. :)

Zen Cho on The Hidden People

2011-10-19T00:08:00.003-05:00

Please take a moment to read this wonderful post by Fantastique Unfettered #3 (Prolefeed) contributor Zen Cho, discussing the fantastic in Malaysia in general and the elements that grew into her story.

From the post:

"Fairy is a misnomer, of course. Malaysia is populated by the uncanny in its various forms, but none of those forms come with little wings and a cone hat. You're more likely to encounter a reanimated fetus rifling through your stuff on behalf of its sorcerous (and larcenous) master, or pick up a beautiful hitchhiker who will then proceed to devour your internal organs." Read more after the jump...

Courage...

2011-10-15T13:26:00.001-05:00

Please consider making a small donation to Fantastique Unfettered. We are prepping our fourth issue, marking year one of this venture, and also preparing to launch the Aether Age ezine. Fun stuff, and more information here. Thank you!

Personal update... with the work on FU, I've not done much fiction writing. I have a couple short stories going, and an editorial on Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. Other than that, I am looking forward to our new publishing schedule so I can focus on finishing Elegant Threat. Part two is called Bakhara and follows Amr and Pristina as they leave Dar al-Salam to head into the wastes toward the New Madhi settlement and the dead men who called these very two different survivors so far away from the seas of their nightmares. Part three, the remaining Amenaza Elegente crew return to Shah Ferdowsi space and the seas of Shanama.

After that (and for something completely different), I'll return to Bardonauts, to complete that story of a Buddhist rakshasa, night things (avicinauts), alien invasion, and travels through the bardo. This meshes the dharma vampire idea I've had for awhile, with my love of the Barker-esque society of Others, with my Plastic Trees green spiders in particular and the alien invasion trope in general. Um, and alien uplift. And it's all kinda about dealing with grief. ;)

Last, I'm going to just say to hell with it and write a picaresque Aether Age tale very much inspired by the Dying Earth books (or at least the Cugel stories) as well as the Fafrd & Grey Mouser stories from Lieber.

That's my plan. With FU bringing my focus on short works by other writers, I want to turn my attention in my own work to the long form.

I see, not a lot, but enough talk that it's worth addressing... to the question of 'why would a writer want to be an editor.' When we first started FU, I thought we'd do all this 'modern' stuff (podcasts, ebooks, etc.) and that my IT background would be a leg up on those sorts of endeavors.

In actuality, I've found that creating a print zine preferable.

We're not against other formats (Aether Age is launching as an eZine; M-Brane Press and Hadley Rille have ebook versions of many of the projects I've been involved with) but for now, FU is a print magazine. And though I have that ache to write more, creating each issue of FU has been a creative endeavor with its own, unique rewards.

That's all I can offer to that 'why do this' question... I'd like to think that FU is growing into something differentiated from other genre options out there, something particularly socially aware perhaps, without being politically obnoxious. We are, in a time when so many are self-righteously strident in their exclusion of GLBTQ folks, a market enthused to publish works addressing such content, along with that of other under-represented groups. And, in the final sum, we're publishing work that is compelling, fun, challenging.

So that's about all I can think to say about that. <-- Forest Gump voice if you please. ;)

B

Aether Age -> unSteampunkdoubleplusgood

2011-08-17T06:37:00.003-05:00

A new Aether Age MARKET is right around the corner, and it ain't what you're expecting.

In the mean time, grab a copy of the print edition in hardback or paperback or get your Kindle edition for just $2.99. I'm a Nook Color owner, and we are working on a B&N version too.

What the Hell is The Aether Age?

Tor.com described it succinctly: "Aether Age plays with the concept of highly industrialized ancient civilizations"
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, Editor & Publisher, BullSpec said: "These things have happened before, but this one is really in a position to be interesting and important..."
In the 'Steampunk Without Empire' podcast from Salon Futura, in which Karin Lowachee, Lavie Tidar, and Jeff VanderMeer discuss the subject with Cheryl Morgan, The Aether Age: Helios is mentioned.

Post Steampunk or Alt-history? You decide.

19 tales

The Earth has passed into a breathable aether,

Egypt, Greece, and beyond are mechanizing

Join the alt-historical journey into the world of...

The Aether Age: Helios

Book One of the Aether Age Codex

____Available NOW____

Fascination Street

2011-07-13T17:15:00.002-05:00

This post is mostly for Facebook readers. Mostly.

I am restructuring my social networks.

The truth is, ubiquitous as FB has become, there are writerly connections here who have no interest in grainy family photos, and on the other hand, friends and family who don't understand and are quite frankly scared at the latest zombie erotica book one of my compatriots edited. And yes, that's real and not a 'crazy example.'

And that's the point.

Our lives have become so immersed in these forums that it is probably a good idea to stop and take stock.

What is my goal here? What do I intent to accomplish?

The Brandon Bell facebook page will remain, but I intend to use it less. I hope you'll 'like' the Fantastique Unfettered & Aether Age Facebook pages that will remain and we'll keep updating those.

If you want to stay in touch and remain up to date with me, then Google+ is the best place. See below for details.

If you search on Google for "Brandon H. Bell" You'll have quick access to all of the below in that first hit.
Google+ seems to fit all my needs and is a great, pared-down replacement for Facebook, or a more robust twitter. Join me on Google+! I can send you an invite if you want it and you have all month to ask. My Google+ has a circle for 'friends' and that will be a place to hang out and talk as adults without sharing stuff that is maybe not 'for mass consumption.' If you and I haven't connected big time, but this sounds like fun, hit me up! I'm talkin' to you! The intention is not to lose contact, but to make my life more sane.
My Google+ Page
My Amazon Page
My Blog: Nithska
The Magazine I'm an editor at: Fantastique Unfettered (here's the facebook page for it)
A World I helped create: The Aether Age (and here's the facebook page for this)
twitter, for 'just the facts': @nithska

Be good, have fun, and I hope we all connect more, not less :)

Google+ Me

2011-07-11T17:26:00.000-05:00

I am on Google+ and you can find me HERE. :)

Blurb for a book that doesn't exist (yet)

2011-07-09T12:28:00.001-05:00

"It is 100BCE and the ancient world has mechanized itself.
The Earth passed into a breathable Aether several centuries before.
Now something is coming, out of the dark, out of the Aether...
And so begins the war for Helios."

Plastic Trees published at Eschatology

2011-07-04T15:28:00.000-05:00

Please check out my latest flash fiction, Plastic Trees. One could say too much about a flash story since it is so short. Brevity aside, this does a good job of capturing where I was at emotionally when I was laid off and then found a job that treated its workforce with what, in my assessment, was less dignity and respect than a human being deserves. Mix in a little depression, a touch of angst, and a penchant for the weird, and you have Plastic Trees...

Free Fiction Online... and a Dollop of Audio

2011-06-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

I've tried to make my stories and other creative endeavors more accessible, looking at if the blog and my other sites do their job well: delivering stories and such to interested readers. An ongoing process, I'm sure, but I realized all these efforts have focused on my work in print.

So! A list of my stories you can easily find online. Unfortunately you will not be able to read my story, Found Objects, over at Nossa Morte since it is now defunct. But I do love that cover for the issue.

If you can get past the writerly sin I committed in the story of having the main character wake up at the start (yeah, I know: being on the other side of the slush, I realize my error now.) ...A great place to start is my story, Broken Vessels. I stand by the story, and think you'll enjoy this creepy tale of loss, love, and faith in the darkest night, made all the better by Tisch Parmelee's pro performance of the tale. Listen to it HERE.
Everyday Weirdness published two of my flash stories. One takes place in the same plague world as my story Things We Are Not in the anthology of the same name. Click to read Gandhi's Plague. The other story is a solitary thing written in homage to David R. Bunch. Read it as though listening to an evangelical preacher and the highlights make perfect sense. Ward of the State awaits you!
While I'm thinking of it, you can now read Things We Are Not online too. It was reprinted in The Lovecraft eZine... how cool is that?! :) While I don't think of myself as a horror writer, I grew up on Lovecraft, King, McCammon, Barker, Straub, Robert Chambers, et al, and whatever the labels, sometimes creepy is just right. Things We Are Not... It's a tricky story.
A poet? Me? Well, I never said such a thing. But you can read my three Senryu entries over at SpaceWesterns.com... 3 Senryu.
My first story published by M-Brane SF was a quiet little SF tale about a man, a town of androids, and the Rapture. Find the answer to... Do Men Dream of Bloody Sheep?
And, last, my very first published story. This tale existed as a gonzo movie in my mind for years, when I decided to plop the idea into a story structured to prove a premise (as a wise man once suggested all good stories do.) The result was my first sale to the webzine Byzarium. Apocalypse on speed meet familial struggles and the power and duty of our choices: The Fourth Horseman.

Aaron Polson Fans...

2011-06-24T17:22:00.001-05:00

I've noticed a nice stream of readers jumping over from Aaron Polson's site, which I really appreciate. If you are coming here from Aaron's site, give me a shout...

Shoot me an email, and I'll send you some free reading material (that normally is not free.) Let me know which you'd like most:

A cornucopia of weird

Barnacled SFnal adventure

Put 'Aaron Polson Fan' in the subject line and I will keep an eye out for your email. Unfortunately, the premium items I have to give out right now have not yet been published in standard ebook formats so these will be in pdf. If you have a Nook Color, fwiw, ezPDF is well worth the few bucks in order to read pdf docs on the device (the built-in reader is too slow.)

Thanks for visiting the site!

Brandon H. Bell

Vernor Vinge Deepness/Fire sequel excerpt available at Tor.com!

2011-06-23T00:47:00.000-05:00

Vernor Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep is one of the most exciting and adventurous modern space operas. It's (prequel?) A Deepness in the Sky was a different sort of story, but awesome in its own right. Grab those books if you haven't read them yet.

There is something satisfying about an author who 'gets' the science but doesn't get hung up on it. Sample his work at the link and get a taste of the new book in this loose series. If Deepness is any indication, reading the prior books may enhance enjoyment but not be required to jump in to the new tale. Check it out HERE.

Hail Caesar

2011-06-14T17:40:00.003-05:00

"It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking."

--Julius Caesar

On seeing the Hail Caesar article linked under the Motivations heading on this Creative Commons page, I thought I'd go ahead and share the article out from my blog.

Write story

Get said story published

Profit! Karma!

I believe short fiction is important. The small press magazine I edit (Fantastique Unfettered, aka FU) uses a Creative Commons license, CC-BY-SA, for reasons related to this view, and in service to the dual end-goals of money and karma on behalf of the writers we publish.

Our alignment is not indie against corporate, small against large, or fan against pro. Those are foolish stances. Our alignment is one against obscurity [1], expressed via a pragmatism that acknowledges money may or may not follow our good karma. We certainly hope it does: our goal, after providing quality fiction to our readers, is to pay writers professional rates.

Read the rest HERE...

And note, you can share the same article anywhere you want, just give attribution back to me (very easy and outlined at the end of the article: If you can cut and paste, add a link, you are good to go.)

"Photo by Chalmers Butterfield" CC-BY-2.5; GFDL-WITH-DISCLAIMERS; CC-BY-SA-3.0-MIGRATED. More HERE.

Video Peek of the M-Brane Double featuring my novella, Elegant Threat

2011-06-08T00:22:00.000-05:00

We might see the book go live tonight on the various book sites! I'm quite pleased with how well this has come together, and humbled to see my story featured alongside Mr. Jeffers. So Cool! :)

Hope Will Never Die...

2011-05-23T00:55:00.000-05:00

"Why did people think the world was gonna end this weekend, dad?"

I had to pause. It's not good form to tell your kid, "Because people are stupid." And maybe that's not fair. The best I could come up with was, "Because people believe crazy things." That worked well enough.

But I kept thinking about this all day today. The local kids, including our own 18yo kept up with jokes about the end of the world being on their graduation day. Someone apparently has already made 'I survived The Rapture' tee-shirts, which they thought quite clever. No one else has admitted it to me, so could it be I'm the only one who feels overwhelmed at the idea that my generation is beginning to run the show? And that we are apparently as big a group of idiots as the last.

But, optimism is the proper tone to take on these occasions, even if we have to fake it until we make it.

That's when I realized: The Rapture did happen this weekend.

These guys aren't the nutjobs I suggested to my kid. They're absolutely right. The Rapture happened, and The Absolute cast Her gaze upon the world, and didn't take a one of us. Sorry. Everyone got it wrong. I'm not a prophet or anything. Don't get me wrong. I've met people who 'talk to God.' They tend to be bigger idiots than the rest of us, as far as I can tell. Insofar as 'talk to God' means 'you can't contradict me,' or 'I'm closer to the truth than you,' etc., they are invariably the biggest idiot in the room, and potentially the most dangerous.

Me, I occasionally rub elbows with The Absolute when standing in line for coffee, or sitting and waiting to get my oil changed. We'll exchange an "excuse me," that sort of thing, but nothing much more.

The Absolute isn't a big deal. God. Allah. Yahweh. Brahma. The Dharma. et al. She just wants a sexy but bookish little lady to chat up, pass some time (yes, sorry again, The Absolute is lesbian, and a reader.) But all this end of the world stuff just isn't her gig. And really, we're not all that captivating either (said sexy lass aside.)

We're kinda on our own.

I said it once to her, thinking maybe I'd get a little something extra, a little 'bat-phone to The Absolute' action. She just stuck her head forward a bit, smiled, raised her eyebrows, all the while sucking on her caramel machiato.

"You know how it goes," she said.

Yeah. It's like that. You know how it goes. That's about all The Absolute is willing to offer to us solitary human beings. And we do, right? We know how it goes.

How powerful a thing is a human being taking responsibility for his or her own actions, words, aspirations, life? How powerful a thing is a human beings who finds reason for a morality beyond 'Me?'

Now don't get me wrong: The Absolute seems totally chill with your religion or creed. But I also see her frown at the petty cruelties and inconsiderations we visit on each other. Seems like what we do matters a whole lot more than what we believe.

Anyway, so yeah. Rapture. Check. Raptured.... not so much. Maybe next time. Maybe we'll figure out some greater truth and then... She'll find us worthwhile. Until then, remember that person driving too slow, or taking too long at the register just might be Her, and She doesn't really care what you believe or how right your are or how close to the bat-phone you might be. She just cares that you say 'excuse me' and give a little smile, because She has bad days, ya know, and that smile.... Well, it means a lot. Sometimes it reminds Her of the beauty of Everything. That's all She cares about. Unless you are a sexy little senorita, but that's another matter altogether. Oh, yeah, She's mixed-race. It was just, you know, kind of inevitable.

Of course personification of a philosophical concept or literal interpretation of old religious texts make no more or less sense than any of the above. Which you could interpret a couple ways, right?

But where does that leave us? Responsible for ourselves?

Think about it. In the mean time, pre-order the M-Brane Double!

;)

B

7 Books that Inspired Elegant Threat

2011-05-14T14:58:00.000-05:00

I was thinking about what books fascinated me so much that I'd want to write a story like Elegant Threat. I thought I'd offer another list post while awaiting the Double's publication at the end of the month. The interesting thing about these books is that in each case they work withing a given structure or trope while refusing the limitation often implied by such a tale. I like that. I hope that Elegant Threat, individually, and the larger story of Oasis, succeeds in that same task.

The Blue World -- It would be easy for me to choose The Tschai books or Demon Princes, but Blue World is Vance's SFnal story of inadvertent settlers on a watery world and thus has more overt similarities to Elegant Threat. In The Blue World human society has grown rigid and static in servitude to the largest of that ocean's dominant life form until the main character challenges the status quo. The intricate societies that Vance created were often the big attraction in his stories more than an intricate or mind-blowing storyline. So much SF takes for granted 'normal conditions' and our alien planets become little more than different geography from earth, with smeeps instead of rabbits and blue trees instead of green. That rings false, and in the Oasis story that Elegant Threat begins, I knew its people to be in similar servitude due the the conditions of the places they might live in the system. Geography as identity. Ecological niche as identity. This is the sort of fun and stimulating subject-matter that is a feature of science fiction's own homeland.
Solaris -- Forget the rancid George Clooney movie. Stanislaw Lem's book is one of the great works of science fiction, taking the classic tropes of exploring new worlds and the encounter with alien intelligence and then probing how we might cope with a truly alien intelligence that is beyond our ability to comprehend. It's been awhile since I read it, but in my recollection is the feeling that subtextually Solaris is also addressing how alien we are to each other. How difficult it is to penetrate the totally alien intelligence staring back at us in our fellow . I have been known to read into things, but there you go. What I love about Solaris (and what the recent movie adaptation didn't 'get' to its detriment) is that it is very much about the human experience, while also being about the encounter with an alien intelligence. By refusing satisfaction with the typical SFnal scenario, we delve deep into the characters, but Lem never lets that render the facts of the story into an allegorical space. These themes are oblique in Elegant Threat, but central to the full Oasis story.
The Starry Rift -- Alice Sheldon, who wrote most of her stories as James Tiptree Jr., was badass of the first order. Her stories pulled you in, unsuspecting, and then tore you apart with their brutal honesty and clarity of sight. The Starry Rift, a sort of fix-up novel, is not the best of her work or even representational of her typical work. But it contains The Only Neat Thing to Do, a story of a young lady making ethical choices at great personal cost. It's a story that brought tears to my eyes when I first read it. There is another story in the book that I can't name offhand, but in which a first contact scenario is played out where despite noble intentions from the characters, virtually nothing goes well for them. There's more to that story, but these are the themes pertinent to Elegant Threat.
Hyperion -- It is never stated in Elegant Threat, but when Fantomas makes a comment about 'the final Bushido' it is very much a reference to Dan Simmons' Hyperion, in which Colonel Kassad tale features what Simmons called 'the new Bushido.' The society of the Rigel Kent system is composed of refugees from Post-Singularity Sol System, and hence their knowledge of human history is largely a familiarity with twentieth century media. Hence these references that no one would ever notice were I not to point them out! Beyond that, though, is the tradition of SF stories that Hyperion well represents, of stories set after some event that renders earth inhospitable.
Schismatrix Plus -- Sterling-suits have featured in my stories beginning with Best Gift in Hadley Rille's Return to Luna. When I read Schismatrix, the 'Lobsters' (I think that's what Sterling called them) struck me as expressions of Marshall Savage's similar ideas about self-contained life-support suits from The Millennial Project. If we ever become a space-faring species, these suits are a given in my mind. What does a future look like that is aware of all of Twen Cen's dreaming? That's part of Elegant Threat too.
Dune -- Every writer working in a tradition probably hopes that their work pays homage to the seminal works that came before, while not being merely derivative. No difference here, and of all the planet stories I can think of, Dune is the one that bears the most superficial resemblance to Elegant Threat. If I were pitching to James Cameron, I'd begin with, "Imagine Dune on an ocean planet...." But that's misleading, if it led a reader to expect Bene Gesserit witch analogues or a Spice Guild, and so on. Instead, I mean merely that in each story, we have a planet with unique characteristics and resources, and then disparate groups with motivations related to those resources.
Humanist Texts: The Lotus Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, Rumi's The Glance, TNH's Call Me By My True Names... I'm missing some texts that played into Elegant Threat, but these are some of the ones that had the biggest influence on me. From the Kosei translation of The Lotus Sutra comes phrases like 'the great assembly' that worked their way into my story. A Poem from TNH's book led to the central image from which all of Elegant Threat sprang. That poem is called Recommendation. From the Bhagavad Gita comes lines quoted in the book that address fear and uncertainty and help to define the code by which the slicks seek to live and to die if necessary. We in the West, I think, miss out on so much wisdom in other traditions, and that passage is one of the greatest in all of religions thought. So a little bonus for my readers. The universality of truth, expressed through disparate sources, unlikely sources, helped to shape my narrative in which there are not, necessarily bad guys, simply people acting out their ideas of what is right, or at least what is right for them at that moment.

So, I have some trepidation with this post because it would be easy to come across as though I am comparing myself to the above tales or being a bit pompous with the final entry. Instead, I hope that if the above books are familiar to you, you might decide that Elegant Threat might be interesting too. And even better, if you are not familiar with these book, you might just have some more reading material to add to your list. :)

7 Reasons to Pre-Order Elegant Threat aka The M-Brane Double

2011-05-11T01:00:00.003-05:00

My publisher described Elegant Threat in this way... [It is] "the story of people who wrangle aquatic fauna from the harrowing tides of the moon Shanama against a backdrop of imminent conflict with the mysterious Post-humans and sectarian strife within their own ranks."

Here's a list of reasons to pre-order it now:

This is a story in which none of the major characters are Anglo, and the dominant cultural threads descend more from Mideast & East than West. That said, there are strains of western influence, most notably the pop-cultural relics of The United States of Texas. Desi Space Western, anyone? Sunni Space Opera? Spanglish Pirates in Outer Space? Diversity is an important aspect of my writing, not out of a sense of political correctness, but because three of my daughters are mixed race and I want the dreams I leave behind to reflect that part of them. I'm also partial to the idea that the kids (and we're all kids in my mind!) who never get to be the heroes can have main characters in my story that look a bit more like them.
Strong female characters rule the day in Elegant Threat. There is no exception. We have the regal and sophisticated ships mum, Pristina, the hardened slick Boski, and the daughters Cancer and Toro, one an angry and longing for home and the other a child who wants nothing other than to be a slick like her parents... providing she can play the occasional tune on her violin.
If you're like me, there's nothing more satisfying than a good space adventure. Love the stories that change how we see the world, the tales of dark, dank horror, or the second world fantasies that surprise us with their invention. But a story of outer space, exploration, danger, and dangerous creatures: that's the stuff! Unfortunately, these tales often insult our intelligence with cardboard characters and a lack of verisimilitude for their more fantastic elements. Elegant Threat takes a single Sfnal trope, anti-gravity, and extrapolates from there. Behind these settlers in the Rigel Kent system (Alpha Centauri) lies an entire history of human conflict.
The story takes place across eight easy-to-read 4k chapters. If you're reading this blog, chances are you are a bookish sort (I consider that a compliment!) and among all the other things going on in your life, it can be hard to fit in another book. This is easy to fit in, and when you are done, flip it over and you'll have The New People, another easy read at about the same length. It has been suggested that the novella is the perfect length for the science fiction story. The benefits of the novella length is in the depth of character development and world-building while still retaining short-story-like focus on a plot arc. The problem with the novella is that does not fit well in the 'normal spaces.' Too long for most story collections, too short for publication by itself. Oh sure, you can grab a copy of Legends or its ilk, filled with great stories by publishing superstars. But discover a new writer at this length? Hard to find outside of the small press. Ah, the small press: filling the niche once again. ;)
If you enjoy the story, you can find more in this universe right now. Hadley Rille's Return to Luna features the first story in this timeline, Best Gift. M-Brane SF #5 has my 'Abraham' story set in Sol system in between these two. Forthcoming is a short story, tentatively titled, Nilay, Among Mermen. Last, for now, I'm working on the triptych's second part, called Bakhara.
I'm always interested in writing in a certain mode, in this case the classic SFnal planet story, but for the reader who 'doesn't read that sort of thing.' The tale of people in extremis is a form too, and another lens that I used. Why do we strive, labor, and live? What does it mean to be brave, courageous, to have valor? What use honor? And can we ask these questions without all the military SF 'liberals/civilians/women/et al don't get it and don't understand' mumbo jumbo? Oh, yes we can. And I suggest the answers come with added clarity.
Print books are... not going anywhere. And, the small press is the perfect place to find that special something which justifies the print medium. Presented in the a style that honors the old Ace Doubles, with each novella back to back and upside down to each other with dedicated covers, The M-Brane Double, featuring both The New People by Alex Jeffers and Elegant Threat by Brandon H. Bell, is something that with current technology is only able to be presented as intended in print format. From the novella length, to the retro art and form, you just won't find anything else like this in 2011 featuring new work by fresh writers.

Ok, there's my list, and I hope it is enough to convince you to click through and order your copy today! I've focussed on my own story in this list, but make no mistake, the Big BIG reason to order the Double is because you get Alex's story too. Take care and hope you'll snag a copy. :)

Free Print Editions of The M-Brane Double!

2011-05-10T17:30:00.001-05:00

(You can pre-order the M-Brane Double NOW: click HERE)

Some truisms I've discovered over the past couple years:

Promotion is par for the course for writers & small press editors
It's damn hard to attract eyeballs toward your efforts
Reviewers, professional or reader-level, are the rarest of gems.

I'd like to offer a freebie to anyone so inclined to take me up on a bargain. I have a pdf of Elegant Threat, my novella included in the M-Brane Double that will be published by month end. It's lacking some of the final edits and flourishes included in the final version, but is basically the story as you will find it in the print Double.

Anyone who is willing to post a review of any kind (though I am particularly hopeful for reader reviews on Amazon/Barnes & Nobles, etc.), email me at nithska gmail.com and I will send this pdf your way. If you post a review, follow up with me and I'll send you a copy of the print edition of the Double, including Alex Jeffer's The New People, meaning you will have this very cool book containing another full story waiting to be read.

My interest is simply: most readers will not buy a book lacking reviews or evidence of other readers. So make no mistake, even a few simple but honest comments are helpful on the retailer listings.

I'll have to limit this offer to the first five or so claimants (but I would find some way to reward any beyond that number!) In reality, getting one review of a project has been a challenge. Want to help us hit this one out of the ballpark?! Wondering why the additional sports metaphor? I don't know, but I hope you'll let me see you some fun reading material. Hit me!

Here's the publisher's introduction to answer the question 'why do I want to read this?':

"I have been telling readers about Brandon H. Bell since I first read his work in the slush-pile the first month I was producing M-Brane SF magazine. In the slightly more than two years since M-Brane SF #1, I have published Brandon’s stories twice more in the magazine and in a couple of anthologies (Things We Are Not and the M-Brane SF Quarterly #1), and I have been gratified to see, as his list of publishing credits steadily lengthens, that other editors are seeing what I see in this extraordinarily imaginative and intelligent writer.
The story you are about to read is a marvel, and the realization in print of a project that Brandon Bell has been working on for a long time. He has created a rich, lavish, fascinating and sometimes frightening Post-Singularity, interplanetary milieu. Some lucky readers have had a chance to peer into it a couple of times already: one of his first published short stories, “Best Gift” (Return to Luna, Hadley Rille 2008) was, as Bell describes it on his website, “a tale about Sterling Suits, Neo-Dromedaries, and the persistence of love, trust, and faith on the lunar surface.” The next glimpse into this strange world was in M-Brane SF #5 (June 2009), with the story “Abraham Discovers an Artifact Impenetrable to All Harm,” an enigmatic and startling story about an unusual family struggling to make their way in the universe at the edges of an impending war between humans and Post-humans. These stories were so fascinating that my only complaints were that they were too short and that there weren’t enough of them. But now, with Elegant Threat, we finally get to spend a longer time in Bell’s world.
Elegant Threat—the story of people who wrangle aquatic fauna from the harrowing tides of the moon Shanama against a backdrop of imminent conflict with the mysterious Post-humans and sectarian strife within their own ranks—was envisioned by its author as the first of a triptych of stories that will eventually comprise a much longer novel. But this story herein—a novella of about thirty thousand words—is also complete, self-contained and will satisfy readers even if the other portions are never seen (though all readers of this one will certainly clamor for the rest and Bell likely shall feel obliged to produce it soon enough).
Bell has deployed an interesting and unexpected literary device in telling this story. Its subtitle, On the Demise of Captain Fantomas Patton-Guerrero and Loss of La Amenaza Elegente, gives the reader a big clue up front essentially how the story is going to end, as does the very first chapter’s final line: “…La Amenaza Elegente dropped toward the planet, beginning its descent toward the place that would soon become its grave.” As with an ancient Greek tragic play or a Shakespeare drama, we go into it knowing that Captain Fantomas and his ship are doomed but the fascination lies in seeing how and why this disaster unfolds. And even though the ending is foretold from the earliest pages, the reader will not see coming the stunning sequence of events that bring about that ending. This way of telling the story, as if it is a recounting of an event that the reader may have heard of before, adds an alluring patina of history to it. But what really makes this story and this way of telling it succeed is the way that Bell draws such lovely, nuanced characters and makes the reader really care about them enough to hope that maybe somehow, against all odds, they will still avert tragedy even though we already know that the Amenaza is not going home again.
Now, without further delay, please visit spectacular, deadly Shanama and witness the fate of La Amenaza Elegente.
—Christopher Fletcher, Editor, M-Brane SF"

The Double is due out at the end of May!

BB

The New People & Elegant Threat: M-Brane Preorder

2011-05-01T19:34:00.001-05:00

M-Brane Press has opened a pre-order for the M-Brane Double, featuring Alex Jeffer's The New People and my own Elegant Threat... On the Demise of Captain Fantomas Patton-Guerrero and Loss of La Amenaza Elegente.

I have a page HERE that outlines some information about Elegant Threat.

The thought is not original to me, but perhaps the perfect length for a science fiction tale is the novella. Therein is enough space to flesh out a tale with character arcs and world-building on a scale that the short story is often not able to support. And too often, novella length ideas are fleshed out into novels because the later are easier to market.

The M-Brane Double take a classic Ace-inspired layout and uses it to bring the best of both worlds. With two novellas in the book (back to back and each with a dedicated cover) the readers gets plenty of reading material, while the individual tales --I assert-- are chock-full of all that makes you love an SF story. Both tales are set on watery worlds, a happenstance that I find quite appealing.

Science Fiction stories run the gamut from mundane tales that look very much like the current day, to alternate histories, dystopias, cyberpunk futures, alien invasions, and a myriad other modes and subject matters. There is nothing, for me, like a good space adventure. These stories have gone by many names: space opera, space westerns, new space opera, baroque space opera... And they range from science fantasy of the Star Wars mode, to work struggling hard for verisimilitude, sometimes to the point that hard SF is as fitting a descriptor.

'Space western' might be apt to my tale of Shaivist, Sunni, Mahayanist, and New Madhi settlers in the Alpha Centauri system, and the ecological niche they've been forced into... but in a very real way all these labels are limiting. If they help a potential reader to identify my story as something of interest, great. And, I wrote this tale as a something my daughters would find compelling: ages 10 to 20. There's a challenge! So add to the labels, juvenile. I don't know if my story really holds up to the expectation of YA fiction, but I do hope my girls love this story.

I am writing an interlude right now. This short story covers what happens to a certain character who is 'off screen' for much of Elegant Threat. I hope to submit that story to an anthology called Future Lovecraft if I am able to complete it in time. None of my Shanama stories are overtly Lovecraft, but squint just right and certain tales in the milieu will fit in that mold.

Next comes Bakhara, the middle tale in the Elegant Threat sequence, in which the reader gets to travel to Oasis, including the city of Dar al-Salam and the holy site of Rub al-Ghali.

Please join me on this journey. Grab your pre-order copy HERE along with a slew of extras! This is a limited offer for the first 100 people to take the leap. Please help us meet this goal. The small press is struggling right now, and this is an awesome and unique venue for SF at the novella length. If you will go out on a limb and buy the Double, give us a bit of your faith that we're right and this is a good idea... I believe you will be rewarded with two fantastic stories.

Thanks for your support.

Brandon

An Unused Curiousity: A Map of Carcosa

2011-04-06T20:18:00.001-05:00

A Map of Carcassonne

Labeled in the Provençal dialect, but with a smattering of Catalan, Venetian, French, and English, the map is an obvious fake to those familiar with the Cite de Carcassonne. The fortification is without egress –a solid wall– and encompasses a collection of anachronistic structures situated around a central amphitheater. The Basilica, also within the fortification, stands amidst a gallows field. Alongside a pallid royal crest, in Occitan, is the phrase “Find Not Yourself in Carcassonne.”

It is true that close examination of the map has led to outbreaks of hysteria and subsequent disappearances. The map’s existence belies the oft inferred conceit, that these poor souls marked their location within the gateless walls upon the vellum, only to run, shrieking, into the streets of a viral and impostor city.