Exquisite Corpse

This entry is part of an on-line exquisite corpse – a short story told in 10 installments by 10 different authors. My 250 word installment is below; if you’re interested in writing the next part, scroll down to the bottom of this post for details on how this all works…

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6.

had companions. Drifting over the ridge, a dozen bulbous creatures with buzzing gossamer wings and grasping claws darkened the sky. Dianne and Peter sank to the ground, watching the nightmare creatures pass over.

Peter’s eyes grew wide. “The lodge,” he muttered, fear staining his voice, “Dad!” He pulled out the satphone and punched a speeddial, biting his lip as the phone connected.

“Bruce here,” came the answer, his father’s voice slick with whiskey. Peter groaned inwardly. Taking a deep breath, he told Bruce what he wanted him to do.

*

Bruce hung up and tossed the phone aside. Damn kids had been trying for god-knows-how-long to get him out of his lakeside lodge. Well, screw them. He’d worked hard all his life, and he was damn well going to retire where he pleased. What, did they think he’d gone nuts?

Turn on the gas in the kitchen?

Take a rifle and get into the woods, with a clear shot at the lodge?

They couldn’t convince him to retire to a village with the other old-timers, so they wanted him to what? Blow up his house?

Screw them.

Bruce poured another dram of scotch and picked up the TV remote. A noise like helicopters reached him, and he punched up the volume. The noise increased, and Bruce turned to look over the ridge, swearing.

The tumbler slipped from his fingers, smashing on the timber floor.

The darkness of the swarm filled his vision. Bruce stood, shaking, reaching for his

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This is part 6 of 10. You can find the other installments here (but DON’T DO THIS YET if you want to join in):

1. www.sleep-dep.blogspot.com (26 June 2009)
2. www.multi-dimensional.blogspot.com (27 June 2009)
3. www.deb-onair.blogspot.com (29 June 2009)
4. www.additiverich.com/morgue/ (1 July 2009)
5. www.jennitalula.wordpress.com (1 July 2009)
6. http://podagogue.blogspot.com (2 July 2009)
7.
8.
9.
10.

WANT TO READ IT? Jump back to the previous entries using the links above.

WANT TO JOIN IN? This exquisite corpse operates on a first-come, first-served basis. If you want to write the next installment, FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS:

1.IMPORTANT – Don’t read any of the previous entries! Read only the one you see here.

2.ALSO IMPORTANT – Post a comment here, saying “I claim the next entry”, followed by the URL/web address of your blog. If you don’t do this, we’ll never know where to find you.

3.Copy the text of this blog entry into a new post on your blog, but DELETE THE CHAPTER and write your own as the next installment. Start with the chapter number as I’ve done here, and start exactly where the last chapter left off (in mid-sentence if necessary).

4.Your entry should be EXACTLY 250 words long, unless you are writing chapter 10, in which case you must bring the story to a conclusion in 250 words or less.

5.At the end of the chapter, where the text reads: “This is part X of 10″, change this to the number of your chapter.

6.Add the URL/web address of your blog and today’s date onto the list below that, so people reading later entries can jump back to your chapter.

7.Finish your chapter and post it within 24 hours of claiming your place. There – it’s freaking easy! You can go back and read the rest of the story now.

8.IF YOU’VE JUST FINISHED ENTRY #10 and finished the story, DELETE THESE INSTRUCTIONS from the bottom of your post – they’ll just confuse people. ALSO, let CG know by posting a comment on the first entry (on www.sleep-dep.blogspot.com), or sending him an email on squid.mohawk@gmail.com. CG will assemble a full version and send it round to all of the contributors.

Podcast Novel Review: "Lost Gods" by Drew Beatty

I love a good supernatural urban fantasy, and I also love a good old-fashioned grifting story. It's rare to see the two genres cross, and I wasn't sure that it could possibly work. But after listening to the first chapter of Drew Beatty's Lost Gods, I was left hoping that such a wonderful hybrid creature could indeed exist.
I was not to be disappointed. Lost Gods starts out on a very low key, but it consistently cranks up the stakes as the story progresses. What begins as the story of two shady characters who share a dark secret planning a con that will set them up for life evolves into a struggle between ancient and (almost) forgotten powers, that threatens everything we know and love. Without wanting to step into spoilerville, I can say that this story delivered a whole lot more punch than I was expecting, and did so in clever, unexpected, and thoroughly well-thought-out ways.

Beatty maintains a relaxed grip on his prose and dialogue thoughout, rarely breaking a sweat as the fate of the characters and, finally, all of us, is thrown into the swirling chaos that he creates. His narration is likewise laid-back and unhurried, which makes for easy and pleasurable listening. Beatty's confidence with his work and with the mic shows through in a well-presented audio production that any amateuer podcaster ought to be proud of.

Lost Gods is equal parts dark supernatural thriller, grifter tale, and black comedy. The final chapters wind up towards some of the best twists I have come across in storytelling for a long time, particularly in podcast novels. For sheer "I-never-saw-that-coming" value, this is a winner.

I rate Lost Gods 4 Stars out of 5, purely for it's dry and original entertainment value. Fantastic stuff.

Complete at 21 Chapters, Lost Gods can be found at Podiobooks.com, and Drew Beatty can be found on Twitter or at either of his homepages, LostGods.ca, where readers can also download PDF chapters, and drewbeatty.com, where Drew keeps a blog and updates on the podcasting world (Hat Tip: Ron Earl thanks for picking up the linky foible). There is a book version of Lost Gods in the works too; check out Beatty's homepage for more details.

Podcast Novel Review: "Chasing the Bard" by Philippa Ballantine

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to meet a couple of awesome people at a little library in Dannevirke, in the frosty Tararuas, about three hours north of Wellington, New Zealand. Podcasters Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine were surprised that I made the drive when there were opportunities to catch them in Wellington, but it may come as no surprise to anyone with a two-year-old and a busy family life that getting away on the weekend is sometimes easier than doing things during the week. Thus, the drive to Dannevirke. Ah, road trips.

Philippa Ballantine is New Zealand's only podcaster (that we know of - yell out if this is a misconception, please), and she is also now rightly referred to as "Award-Winning Novelist Phillippa Ballantine", in light of her recently being presented with the Julius Vogler Award for her podcast novel Chasing The Bard.In order to fully prepare for this meeting, I started into CTB in earnest. I was dubious at first, always having been more of a fan of dark, gritty sword-and-sorcery fantasy than the fairy kind, but I was quickly disabused of my preconceptions.

Ballantine writes fantasy that is enchanting and compelling, weaving the multiple worlds of the fey and human together with grace and skill. The fantastic realm that lies but a breath beyond our own is composed with delicate crafting, Ballantine's worldbuilding carefully disguised as setting and character. And when the need arises, Ballantine can turn to the dark and brutal with as much skill as she writes of charm and love.

The story is based loosely around the life of the great Bard, William Shakespeare, whose destiny is wound together with the immortal faerie realm and its epic struggles that span the rise and fall of entire human civilisations. To say more would be to spoil the grand, intricately woven tapestry that is the plot, and I wouldn't do that to you. Suffice to say that the blend of historical detail and fantastical elements makes for a well-rounded and deeply satisfying story-telling experience.

Soundwise, I was hugely impressed by CTB. I had started into Ballantine's previous work, Weaver's Web, a little earlier, but had to put it aside because the audio levels were too low to easily hear over the speakers in my workshop. WW is now instead slated for iPod listening sometime soon. Accordingly, I was pleased to hear that the mastering of CTB was greatly improved, and ultimately could not fault the production. While narrating and voicing many of the female characters herself, Ballantine also employed additional voice talent (including Tee Morris) for some of the parts, which lends a sense of theatre and realism to any podcast drama. The podcast also features music, atmos, and enough sound effects to augment the story without overwhelming it.

Call it cultural cringe, but I was not expecting a lot out of this podcast, and I was pleasantly surprised by just how accomplised a production a fellow Kiwi could put together. Apparently the people handing out the Julius Voglers thought so too, as did the Parsec Awards commitee: CTB has been nominated for Best Speculative Fiction, Long Form, and I wish Philippa all the best in that competition too.

I'm going to give Chasing The Bard the full 5 Stars, and not just because we both live in Wellington. This is historical fantasy that deserves to be listenened to.

And just in case you were wondering, I'm now listening to Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword, by Tee Morris - and so far, it's just brilliant.

Beware the Invasion

In only a few hours now, an Invasion is going to be unleashed.

I can't say what it will be, our only warning comes from the disturbed genius known as Melzer.

Mur Lafferty tried to get the message out, but they got to her first.




So now we can only lock our doors, load our shotguns, and hope that living on an isolated island at the bottom of the South Pacific will be safe from the horror we can only imagine.

(Apologies to you poor souls who live much closer to the actual Invasion. I'll be thinking of you as the news feeds drop out, one by one.)

Book Review: 'Vacation' by Jeremy C. Shipp

It's hard to say what you should expect of this book, because no matter what you go in thinking, Vacation will defy you.
I first discovered the work of Jeremy C. Shipp when I chanced upon his short story Camp via the mystery that is Twitter. Upon reading this story, I was immediately aware that here was a talent unlike any I had read before. Shipp has a unique and profoundly disturbing voice, one that at once repels the reader and forces them to keep reading, no matter what. Reading Shipp is a bit like watching torture: You know it's awful but you just can't seem to turn away, even though it's you that's being tortured.

This is just the sort of layering that Shipp brings to his work, and he does so with a tight sparsity of language, his prose almost poetic but at once too delicate and too brutal. I immediately sought out more of his work, and gobbled it up hungrily.

Of all his short stories and flash fiction, my favourite remains the creeping and murderous Dog, a coming-of-age tale that is as bloody as it is haunting.

So when I saw the opportunity to read and review Shipp's novels, I jumped at it. I finished reading Vacation a couple of weeks ago, but it has stayed with me long since. Wrapped up in a story that traces the main character's awakening to the harsh realities of the world he lives in, Shipp threads philosophy and sociology together with a scathing deconstruction of modern consumerism and the Western world's self-inflicted blindness to the suffering of the rest of the planet at our expense.

At turns surreal and frighteningly real, Vacation challenges the reader to deny that they are in fact living through the same drug-addled haze that Bernard Johnson has been until the time he goes on his own Vacation. Utopia disintegrates into dystopia, and Johnson is thrust into a dark world where life is worthless, minds become the puppets of guerrilla warlords, and the grand illusion of the world he knew is ground to dust.

Vacation is a provocative stream-of-conscious monologue. Shipp stretches the boundaries of the form with care and precision, twisting the point-of-view to his own purposes, more often deluding and deceiving the reader than elucidating, and in this way, draws his style together to complement both the themes and the plot. Vacation is a story that tells of one man emerging from the haze of his past into the bright and painful harshness of the truth. Chapter by chapter, Vacation becomes clearer, crueler, and ultimately draws the reader down into the inescapable fact of the sheer falseness of our existence.

It's hard to describe Vacation in any of the usual ways, as it is not satisfying or compelling in the traditional sense, yet it demands to be read, and it demands that you put it down understanding yourself perhaps better than you did when you picked it up.

And remember, this is a fictional novel, not a self-help motivational piece. Shipp has succeeded where so much fiction fails; he has fleshed layer upon layer of meaning into a fantasy to the point that it is more real than our own realities, yet he does so through a lens that is both distorted and blinding.

I think I enjoyed this book, although enjoyed may not be the best word. I know that I am glad I read it, although glad may not be the best word either. I seriously recommend it, and that is the best way I can put it.

Take it away with you on Vacation, and you may not come back the same - if you come back at all.

Crescent: The Novel, and Phil Rossi's Cover Me Competition

Phil Rossi's Crescent: The Book Launch is Coming (mp3 Promo Link).

On July 9th, the print version of Phil Rossi's awesome Sci-Fi Podcast Novel Crescent will be released on Amazon.com.

Rossi is harnessing the power of his wired-in fanbase to slam the Amazon Charts by encouraging everyone to purchase a copy of Crescent at the same time, 1pm EST, on July 9th.

In yet another example of how this pioneering group of authors are taking the publishing world and reinventing it, Rossi is also running another competition (I honestly don't know how he finds the time!) called RossiCoverMe.

By following Phil Rossi on Twitter, you can have the opportunity to submit suggestions for songs from which Phil, who is also a brilliant musician, will choose one to record a cover version of. His efforts to date have been pretty damned impressive, including a fantastic version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

The current theme is NIN - Nine Inch Nails. I personally am waiting for the now legendary rendition of Sympathy for the Devil that Rossi is rumoured to play.

Go Phil!

Warning: The Dark has been Unleashed

Today is the official release date for JC Hutchins' Personal Effects: Dark Art in US Bookstores. My copy is shipping from Amazon very shortly, and I can't wait to get my hands on it and sift through all that mystery goodness - oh, and to read it, of course.

If you've been living under a rock for the past few months and don't know what PE:DA is all about, start by watching this video by the author:



And if you're not already, then you should be listening to the exclusive Prequel Novella, Personal Effects: Sword of Blood.

Hutchins is also regularly updating his site today as PE:DA marches up the chart, with an all day online party. If you're in the US and can get to a bookstore, go grab your copy and email JC a photo of your with your book, so he can add it to the growing page of happy fans.

But there's another very important thing to remember here: For a few years now, writers like JC Hutchins, Scott Sigler, Mur Lafferty and others have been entertaining their growing fanbases by releasing their work for free as podcast novels. Creating anything as involved as an audiodrama takes a huge amount of effort, energy, time and passion, and all of this for virtually no reward in the short term. Getting a book deal is more than just a payday for these writers - it's a vindication. It's proof that the fans who are so willing to gobble up their stories for free also want to see these writers succeed, so that they can put their day jobs aside and focus, full-time (instead of at between 10pm and 3am), on writing more great stories to entertain those fans.

That's what this is all about. There is a nut here to be cracked, and it's not just about Hutchins, or PE:DA. It's about showing the publishing world that there is some good to be acheived by relinquishing their greedy clutches on writers' material, and adopting new business models that make the most of today's wired society.

I know that I wouldn't be writing this blog had it not been for my stumbling across the free (and stunning) Audiobook Drama Hoad's Grim by Jack Kincaid late last year, and I wouldn't have bought PE:DA either, because I never would've heard about it.

Hutchins et al are at the forefront of a revolution of published fiction as we know it. We'll look back on these heady days in years to come and be inspired by their vision and their sacrifice.

This is the future of fiction, folks. Make yourself a part of it.