FREE for International Short Story Day

Yes, the longest day of the year is devoted to the shortest of stories. Happy summer solstice -- how are you spending the longest day of the year? I'm sharing some of my short stories that are available on the net for your reading pleasure, which ought to keep you busy a while:

“Homework.” Flash fiction. Necon E-Books. June 2012. Honourable mention, May Flash Contest.
“Twitter Wedding.” Poem. Asinine Poetry (Summer 2012).
“Just Waiting.” Short story. Near to the Knuckle, 5 June 2012.
“On seeking a place for a picnic.” Poem. Short Humour, 22 May 2012.
“Biscuits.” Flash fiction. Short Humour, May 2012. Also available at Postcard Shorts, May 2012.
“Bill is Dead.” Flash fiction. Pulp Metal Magazine, Spring 2012.
“Words.” Flash fiction/podcast. Dogcast 5: March 2012.
“Yuletide Feast.” Short story. Short-Story.Me: 21 Jan 2012.
“Mandrake Anthrax.” Short story. A Twist of Noir, 14 Dec 2011.
“A Charming Situation.” Short story. Written for the Sherlocking fan site: Scribd (Nov 2010).
“Touched by an Angel.” Short story. Kalkion (Jun 2010).
 “Wixey.” Flash fiction. Wild Violet 8.1 (2009).
“Fluorescence.” Short story. The Harrow (Jul 1008).
“Palakainen.” Short story. New World Finn 7.2 (Apr-Jun 2007): 4-6. Reprinted: Mythic Passages (Feb 2009).
“Sinikka Journeys North.” The Beltane Papers 25 (2001): 14-19. Reprinted: Mythic Passages (Feb/Mar 2004). Collected in Unikirja.

 ~and the one that started everything off

“Revelation.” The Official Clive Barker Page, www.clivebarker.com. Winner, MGM/United Artists/Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions Short Story Contest, November 1995.

NEWS!

☼ The big news is the cover art for UNQUIET DREAMS, my forthcoming story collection from Tirgearr Publishing. I love the spooky gal in the hennin and the magpie OF COURSE! Judging by the reaction when I posted it on Facebook, folks dig it. I am quite bowled over by Mike (FREAKIN'!) Mignola saying, "Wow - great cover!" I tell you, Kem is floating on air with that praise. And the always generous Steve Bissette has given me a sweet pull quote (thanks!):

“Kate Laity’s Unquiet Dreams  is the long, deep plunge in the coldest quarry in the woods; the lingering look under the rotting wood at all the writhing life there; the stare into the abyss until one realizes something is staring back.”

☼ The lovely Maura trundled me out on a little jaunt to Kinvarra, Yeats' Tower and Coole Park, which was simply glorious. You can see the pictures beginning here. It was a magical day! Fitting as I took "unquiet dreams" from Yeats, I owed him a visit.

☼ A new poem up at the Short Humour Site: "Kingsley Amis in the Afterlife" -- be sure to check out Chloë's poems, too!

☼ My post "How to Write More" over at A Knife and A Quill seems to have hit a nerve, and I have an hilarious interview with Mr B where we do our best Morecambe and Wiseing. I have another writing gig to announce soon, the direct effect of ROOK CHANT. I don't want to jinx it, but everything's coming up Milhouse lately: I hope it lasts.

☼ I'm planning to migrate the blog over to the website, where you may notice I've been tinkering with the layout and the look. It would be advantageous to have everything in one place, though it's a bit of a wrench to shift from here where I've been for EIGHT years. I experimented by migrating the serial over to Kit's page and all seems well, though of course there are about ten times as many posts here. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

BitchBuzz: Jane Eyre's Everlasting Appeal

A perennial favourite of mine, for sure -- especially in the Dame Darcy illo'd version, I wax rhapsodic about the book over at BB:

Jane Eyre's Everlasting Appeal

By K.A. Laity

This month marks the 164th anniversary of the publication of Charlotte Brontë's immortal Jane Eyre. Women love Jane—well, a certain kind of women love this heroine. Women who love Jane Eyre tend to appreciate her backbone. Jane does what needs to be done, she overcomes outrageous odds and she never gives up—or gives in to what she knows is not right. Her fans also tend to like middle-child Anne Eliott in Persuasion or the poor overlooked and overworked Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.

Jane is a real plain Jane; not an ugly duckling waiting to bloom. The truly plain know they have other qualities more worthy, but also know well that most people will never notice them. Her whole early life—slipped over in most film versions—shows Jane's real strength, her utter faith in herself, her complete self-reliance. 


A lot of men I know hate Jane Eyre; not dislike, not ignore, but actively hate this book. I think the primary reason is Rochester. In my River Song voice, "Spoilers!"...

Read the rest, including those spoilers, over at BBHQ as usual. Feel free to 'like' or 'share' it too. This is how people find my stuff, you know. I rely on you all to be the Relay. You can tell how much I love Jane: the serial's main character is her daughter! Did you realise that? :-) One of the reasons I really enjoyed the recent very gothic film version is that it was totally Jane's story, not focused on the romance as the center. Of course, my fave Rochester will probably always be Toby Stephens.

I can't believe it's Thursday already. This week has been a blur for many reasons. Tomorrow is the Fiction Slam, which I will attend and maybe, just maybe, read at, too. Saturday I'm bound for Dublin. Madness!

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: The Tempest

First a quick link: I am the featured writer interview in the latest Text Novel newsletter: "The world is my bison." :-) TextNovel is one of the places that The Mangrove Legacy appeared before its publication and of course, the new serial Airships and Alchemy can be found there as well as on the serial blog. And if you want to know how to pronounce the word, see here.

Be sure to see the round up of all the overlooked films over at Todd's blog.

I love Julie Taymor's vision: she has an imagination that sings and flies and creates some amazing works. How, you ask, how could her film of Shakespeare's wondrous Tempest, the most magical of all his plays, fail?

Simple: bad CGI.

Unconvincing, twee and hokey CGI. Cringe-worthy! Today's audiences expect better graphics. We don't need to see Ben Wishaw's (digitally unsexed) Ariel duplicate like a badly loading JPEG. Almost none of the CGI is good: worse, almost none of it is necessary.

Because the rest of the film is wonderful. Helen Mirren makes a glorious Prospera. Every minute the camera focuses on her becomes completely captivating. Glorious: it's the only word that works. Sally Potter offers another stunning wardrobe -- I want ALL of Helen Mirren's clothes (especially the one above). There's a great cast: how can you go wrong with Tom Conti, David Straitharn, Chris Cooper, Alfred Molina, Alan Cumming? Even Russell Brand didn't annoy me much; after all Trinculo is a fool. Felicity Jones makes for an irresistible Miranda and Reeve Carney provides an adequate Ferdinand (a lousy part: there's little for him to do in any version of the play) looking golden and mooning after Miranda. Djimon Hounsou gives us a Caliban of the earth, who seems to have sprung from its depths like a mudman, his Butoh-inspired movement making him visually Other as much as his strange exterior and race. Wishaw embodies Ariel with some CGI enhancement, which I think doesn't give him enough credit for the way his acting as Ariel must shift gender and aspect so often. When clothed in black wings as the harpy, he's magnificent.

So forget the bad CGI: see this film anyway. It's worth it for Mirren alone, and there is so much more besides. Peg and I were talking about this on the way back; maybe Taymor just doesn't care about the CGI being good. But audiences now want it to look seamless. We saw this at Upstate Films in Rhinebeck which was a terrific theatre except for the fact that they turned up the house lights the second the credits began. The credits in this film are a piece of the story: Portishead's Beth Gibbons sings Prospera's final speech with Elliot Goldenthal's music and it's quite wonderful.

BitchBuzz: World Domination (and bonus fez)

For my latest column, I channel EL Wisty:

A Simple Guide to World Domination

By K.A. Laity

Some people use the holidays to give gifts, bond with families and eat too much. These people will never control the globe.

Lots of people have a good string of days off this time of year when they are free of the mundane tasks required to make a living scraping by in a moderately successful job. Most will spend their time imbibing festive drinks and exchanging gifts. The more ambitious, however, will put this freedom to better use by formulating a plan to dominate the world.

While reading Manisha Thakor's piece on how women seldom ask for raises, instead hoping their hard work will be noticed and rewarded (it won't), I was struck again by the failure of so many women to risk not being seen as nice. 'Nice' will not conquer worlds: look at Dick Cheney. I'm sure Alexander did not remember his co-worker's birthdays. And if Stalin ever brought cookies to the office, they were probably poisoned. If you want to rule the world, keep a few of these things in mind...

Read the rest of the guide: http://life.bitchbuzz.com/a-simple-guide-to-world-domination.html#ixzz18x3hyVk5

I'm off to Robert's tomorrow for Xmas gatherings. Can I be away from the internet for that long? Well, I will have to adjust. I may actually do some reading if I am not (as usual) put to work peeling potatoes (apparently my only culinary skill).

I'm pleased with the latest installment of Kit Marlowe's serial, Airships & Alchemy. It's the beginning of chapter two and we're with the Italian alchemist now -- and his Venetian lion, Eduardo. And as I observed yesterday to a friend, I have a theory that adding a fez improves almost anything. That reminds me: Marko sent a picture of the birthday gift I gave him. Looks good on his car!  :-)

Serially Yours

Have you checked out The Mangrove Legacy recently? I only ask because I am thinking about the end of it. It will take some weeks yet, of course, but I can see the resolution now and I am also contemplating polishing it up to send off to one or two places. Like everything I do (apparently) it doesn't quite fit into a neat marketing niche. But who knows? The lazy way of novel writing -- for those of you who say you want to write but just can't find the time -- this story is up over 90,000 words now.

All it takes is patience and 500 words or so a week. It's really not so much: just persistence and commitment.

So many things require the same; we worry about the big issues and agonize over decisions, but much of our life results from the simple steps -- and continuing to make them. I am always reminding myself of this. It's worth doing.

Happy Solstice!

After the darkest night, the sun begins its return. It's the start of winter but the beginning of the return of the light. Enjoy the season, a good time for contemplation. I hope to do a little more of that -- not to mention writing -- now that I'm ready to turn in grades.

There's a new podcast up over at Radio Wombat, another Conceit, this one entitled "Words"; there's also a new episode of my comic Gothic serial The Mangrove Legacy up, too -- oooh, scary, kids! Ghosts!

For some seasonal reading, check out my evergreen repeat, Anglo-Saxon Yuletide which has appeared in print, electronically and occasionally as a performance.

Housekeeping

I moved the serial blog, The Mangrove Legacy, to the "new" Blogger format, which is actually no longer new, in the hopes that it would make it easier to add things like "tweet this!" links and so forth. Hasn't worked out that way, so I'm hesitant shift this blog over because of course there will be so much in the sidebars, etc. to restore. But I do need to make some changes to the sidebar on this blog, but I've been dragging my feet.

I cannot convey to you how much I hate tedious typing and html-ing. Not to mention wasting time on this when I have a million and one things to do this month because I have goofed off most of the summer -- yes, I brought this on myself, but it doesn't make it any easier to get it all done. For the umpteenth time I wonder why I do not have a staff of about ten to do these things for me -- or five! I'd settle for five.

In the meantime (yes, yes, will get the final UK posts up this week) check out the latest adventures of Lizzie and Alice over at the serial. You will be entertained and gently amused. Tell me what you think of the new layout (if it looks any different to you at all).

Image via Email a Joke.

Effortless

In slow increments of about 500 words at a time, my serial novel The Mangrove Legacy, has passed over the 70,000 word threshold. My, my. Break a task into tiny steps and it gets done (eventually, but fairly effortlessly).