Publications: Blink Ink & Scribing Ibis

Here's the lovely package you get when you order the Noir issue of Blink|Ink. And you will order it, won't you? It's got a lovely story by me and gruesomely hilarious one by Mr B (Paul Brazill) and loads of great photography as well as some terrific stories told in a flash -- and for just two bucks! A gorgeous little bit of mail to receive. I should also mention that the Scribing Ibis collection is now available at Amazon. It reprints my story "Sinikka Journeys North" along with a wealth of myth-inspired fiction.



The hell that is moving is over; big thanks to Robert for the final rescue (and sanctuary :-), thanks to Barb for giving Kipper a great foster home; thanks to Catherine for duty above and beyond, thanks to my pals on Twitter for listening to my panicky or whinging messages (especially @lochee :-), big thanks to Byron for a last burst of energy and to the countless others who helped, stored, or took things I needed to do without >_<


Not quite the foot massage I had in mind...


I had planned to have a bit of a lie in this morning, but this was not allowed.


Yes, multiply this by all the limbs (and stomach: how do you bruise your stomach? Very easily it turns out). Sore all over. The bruises will heal. And less achey already.

I Have the Most Amazing Friends

Well, you knew that, right? But they continually amaze me anew; I was flabbergasted today with this incredible treat. Thank you, Niamh! I am still speechless. Can you believe it? This cake shows the fae folk of Ireland welcoming me to a little cottage in Galway by the bay. And the pièce de résistance? Chocolate stout cake.

The pictures don't do it justice. The incredible artistry of the waves of the sea, the trees, and the little chocolate woodpile! All the little fairy folk and the roaring fire: absolutely gorgeous. Everyone said it was almost too beautiful to eat -- but we managed to find a way to do it. As Maryann said (or was it Allan?) it's kind of like a Buddhist sand mandala -- painstakingly created but not meant to last. Except chocolate, mmmm.

The perfect capper to a wonderful day; Mary's home is such a sanctuary, although even out in the hills it was in the 90s. I headed out to the cave as usual and there was a good blast of cold air coming out from its depths. It was a relaxing day with people drifting in and out, conversations and quiet. Wonderful to spend a glorious day with some of my favourite people :-) I felt much better than yesterday, when watching the horror unfold in Norway made me want to runaway with Yeats' Stolen Child.

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

10 Things I Love

Tapped by my Twitter pal, Betty Herbert, here is a random list of 10 things that I unabashedly love. They are not in rank order and this might be a completely different list tomorrow. Anyway, it distracted me for a moment from the packing panic.

1. Peter Cook

2. Mark E Smith

3. Jane Austen

4. Beowulf

5. Cary Grant films

6. Martinis

7. London

8. AbFab

9. My kantele

10. Writing

What are YOUR ten?! Don't think about it; just list them. I challenge you! Come here and leave a comment to tell me when you've answered.

BitchBuzz: How to Ruin the Holidays + Mangrove Trailer

First, my column for the week: if you're mild-hearted and love the holidays, you may want to skip it. I am particularly proud of finding that picture of Katy Perry:

How to Ruin the Holidays

By K.A. Laity

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Solstice or Yule, you have an equal opportunity this year to destroy all hopes for any beautiful memories from social gatherings by following a few simple rules.

People get too stressed trying to make the holidays perfect: cooking, cleaning, buying, singing, organizing and spend, spend, spending. They put up trees, light menorahs, bake cookies, mull wine and in the process, gain weight, lose hair and empty their bank accounts.

Ruining the holidays can be accomplished with very little effort and almost no spending or preparation. You do not need to make elaborate plans (although a well-thought out scheme can have a spectacular pay-off) and cooking is completely optional, as are fuzzy jumpers with appliqués.

How can you ruin the holidays? To find the answers: http://life.bitchbuzz.com/how-to-ruin-the-holidays.html#ixzz17d1QLUsM

While book trailers have been said to be a waste of time, I can't seem to help wanting to make them. So to amuse myself, here's one for Kit Marlowe's The Mangrove Legacy coming Dec 15th (in case you forgot ;-)

BitchBuzz: Why are People So Desperate to be Writers?

My column (in haste: NYC bound!):

Why are People so Desperate to be a Writers?

Everybody's a writer or wants to be. At least that's what the internet tells me. There are all kinds of ways to help writers or writer wannabes.
For example there is the persistent Twitter spam telling you that writers are needed very badly. There are ways to get paid for this, our urgent friend tells us. As Victoria Strauss writes at the Writer Beware® blog, the link included in that spam tweet leads to a service where you can pay to be told about jobs that will pay you for writing. Gosh!

Never mind that there are plenty of free sites offering the same thing: RealWritingJobs wants to help you out of the goodness of their hearts to find real writing jobs for about $50 a month. What a bargain! If that's not good enough for you, because you're an artist who's already written a magnum opus, why not pay PublishAmerica to enter one of Amazon's fine publishing contests? Wait—what's that? You can enter for free on your own? But what about the fine imprimatur that PublishAmerica gives you? You don't want to do without that, do you? And wait—that script writing contest for Amazon's new crowd-sourced film empire: did you know that they get to hold onto your script's rights for a year and a half even if you don't win anything?

Read the rest: http://life.bitchbuzz.com/why-are-people-so-desperate-to-be-a-writers.html#ixzz16xnp0mKV

UPDATE: I can't believe I forgot to include one of the things that sparked this story -- James Frey's Fiction Factory. Unbelievable.

BitchBuzz: Relax!

My latest column features something I know a bit about these days: relaxing!

The other night I joined my intrepid editor for the launch of Starbucks's new Discoveries drinks, who partnered with  Mills & Boon for the evening. 

The publishing giant apparently conducted a study that demonstrated that most women found it difficult to carve out time for themselves on a daily basis. I'm sure this comes as a surprise to few of us over-achieving, workaholic, multi-taskers. 

The importance of this for women cannot be overstated. Just look at the statistics about how heart attacks are climbing for women due to stress. I know all the excuses, but I don't want to hear that you are indispensable, can't stop now, there are just too many things to be done. Women don't just hold up half the sky, we hold up at least half the stress in the world, too.

Read the rest at BBHQ.

I have a new publication, too. More on that shortly. I've been busy writing my paper to give in Northampton Friday. Looking forward to the fun.Had a lovely lunch yesterday with my pal, Roger Sabin in Red Lion Square: yes, everything seems to lead back to Alan Moore.

Mondays Sometimes Require...

Reminding myself the semester is almost over, then will come the time to actually catch up...

Girls' Night Out

Friday night I went out with pals Jenise and Angela. Our first stop was the oh so sophisticated Wine Bar on Lark, but then Angela thought we should go play pool at the Hollywood down the street. Much larking on Lark -- for a long time we had the room upstairs to ourselves. The youthful patrons were afraid to face us at the pool table and waited until we went out to the patio.

Angela poses...

Frank glows...

...Jenise drinks!

Connecticut Jaunt

Despite the tight schedule I have this month, I decided to take the opportunity to run down to Connecticut and see my pals before I take off for Britain for a month on June 1. I headed out with the sun shining and the windows down while I blasted music through the lovely Berkshires. First stop was the Punk Rock Jukebox, where I proceeded to annoy Marko while he was trying to do his show. The Queen showed up to help me -- we achieved a new record time for raising the pulsating vein on his temple! Thanks for the Death CD, Marko!

Afterward we ran off to the pub to try Marko's new drink suggestion, the Green Tea Breeze. Very tasty! We were joined by Johnny 10X after he got off work, and then it was time to head over to Miss Wendy's where I was going to be staying. I refueled with some Earl Grey and then we headed to the Aloha Alcohula* where we proceeded to have Stoli-Bollis, a very dangerous thing to do. Not least of which because it led to a sudden decision to lacquer every one's nails with black polish (N.B. Friday had been intended to be a girls night, but the boys crashed it), so Marko and I ran to the store (me without shoes, so I had to stay in the car anyway) to get the polish. He got the once-over from the check-out guy, but he was undeterred in his mission: brave man.

So we painted fingers and toes and giggled like a bunch of teenagers. It was fun. Yes, that's my feet and hands above. Polish since removed.

After such lethal cocktails Wendy and I knew it would be wise to take a cab home, which is when we discovered that this was a seemingly impossible thing to do in Willimantic. Really? Really?! So, thank you Ken for coming to the rescue.

Saturday we woke up bleary eyed and settled for watching a very bad SciFi channel film (is there any other kind?) Kaw, about ravens on the rampage (yes, really -- it had Mennonites, too!), then headed out to Elena's to meet her new puppy Maya -- and play with the other pups, Shaq and Bodie. Eventually we wandered into West Hartford Center and after several misfires (everything was closed for good or for lunch or for renovation) had some lunch, then went over to the Cheesecake Factory to have dessert, but the wait was too long, so we went to the B&N instead, which oddly enough had Cheesecake Factory cheesecake in their café, so all was well.

Wendy and I relaxed Saturday night with the Three and Four Musketeers (Ollie, Ollie!). Sunday was breakfast at Nita's with the Boojums, where we got to hear about The joey Zone's birthday jaunt to Worcester and natter on about this and that. Then it was back to Miss Wendy's, where she had time to introduce me to a new anime series, Mushi-shi, before I headed back out on the road to NY.

A good trip! Thanks, everybody, for a great time!

*Best damn tiki bar in Connecticut!

Horror!

No, not just for the number of emails in my inbox (although that is horrifyingly substantial!) but because I begin the summer intensive course on horror film. First feature today: "Bride of Frankenstein"! Isn't this a lovely photo of Lanchester?!

Along with a lot of the Universals I'll have a few other things to show the early era, but with only twelve class periods altogether to convey the whole of horror film history, there are going to be holes. Massive holes! There it is.

More later -- Kalamazoo wrap-up, upcoming events, but at present haste precludes verbosity!

Flash Vacation

After dropping Gene off at work Friday morning, I made a quick escape to Connecticut (I blame the midterm craziness!). I tore through the Berkshires in some thick fog, filling up on cheap gas. My first stop in Willimantic was to surprise Perilous Cheryl, but the surprise was on me. I stopped by her office and they told me she was out sick. I was just about to call her when the QoE called me and mentioned that The joey Zone had been sick, too, so I decided maybe I ought to leave them alone and let them rest and recuperate.

Instead I decided to annoy Marko at the Punk Rock Jukebox -- hee hee! I got to pick the tracks from the Swill of the Day CD (so yes, blame me for "Rhinestone Cowboy"!), and to make him crack up on the air as well as distracting him so that he didn't realise there were no songs cued to play next. Always willing to do my part to make things a shambles. The new WECS studio is swanky and huge. As always, I came away with some recommendations on new music to find.

The QoE arrived before the end of the show, so we both picked on poor Marko and then headed off to the pub for lunch. I was pleased to notice they had free (albeit s-l-o-w) wifi at the pub, yee ha! So I got to show off Ianto some more. This was when I discovered my nice new leather bag is so thick that it muffles the ringer on my phone. I didn't realise that I had missed the calls from Miss Wendy until I got out my phone to take a picture of the Queen (but what a great picture, eh?).

Off to Miss Wendy's next, who took me to services at her temple which were very welcoming and relaxed. They said a kaddish in remembrance of her father Norman, who was a very sweet man. After the service -- which also had a young man reading who was becoming a Bar Mitzvah -- we shared food and drink, including some really good chocolate chip cookies.

Next we were off to the Aloha Alcohula AKA the best damn tiki bar in Connecticut® for some Żubrówka and a variety of cheeses and other snacks. It was a girly night, although one without any nail painting or home perms (we did, however, talk about boys). You can see Wendy's post for the possum update. We finally made our way back to Wendy's, where she and I sat up for a bit longer chatting, finally going to bed sometime after 3, so no surprise we slept late Saturday and then watched movies.

All in all a very relaxing trip and much fun. There's always time to steal a little vacation even in the middle of the semester.

Too Much Writing

A friend suggested I need to take a break from writing, but I can't think without writing, so I'm not sure how to do that. But being a little preoccupied at present with work (mostly writing), I cheat with the blog today, offering some words of wisdom from wiser heads than mine about this madness we call writing instead of actual original content (am I forgiven?):

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.
~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.
~Ray Bradbury

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.
~E.L. Doctorow

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
~Sylvia Plath

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not...Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don't have it, it doesn't matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent... Finally, don't worry about imagination. You have all the imagination you need...Persist.
~Octavia Butler

I am a galley slave to pen and ink.
~Honore de Balzac

What a writer wants to do is not what he does.
~Jorge Luis Borges

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
~Gustave Flaubert

1. Find a subject you care about.
2. Do not ramble, though.
3. Keep it simple.
4. Have the guts to cut.
5. Sound like yourself.
6. Say what you mean to say.
7. Pity the readers.
~Kurt Vonnegut

I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
~Isaac Asimov

Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.
~Tom Stoppard

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page,
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart.
~Stephen Crane

It's a Robot! Playing Guitar!

The Tornadoes' "The Robot" -- another gem from the great folks at Bedazzled, where they feature brilliant things like early Gen X video and a gazillion Harry Nilsson videos and music. Beautiful!

Off to the library tonight -- it should be fun.