Food. Food. Food. It’s all about food. I couldn’t start this post in any other way. Food speaks for itself. It’s an entity. It’s been a dear friend since early childhood. Food’s never abandoned me and has always been there when I needed it. That’s the sort of dependency you’d expect from a guy with extra muffin in his muffin top without an active lifestyle. Said muffin top followed the universe in its infinite quest for expansion and despite my best efforts, I could never really deter the muffin top from following its dream. In translation, I’m not good at saying no to food, sweets in particular. Read More The Geek Way to Go 30 Days Without Sugar – A Mighty Challenge!
These Posts are by:
Haralambi Markov
What I adore about fans is how effortlessly they can recombine fandoms and create a super fandom, stronger than both. Artist JB Casacop had taken one of fictions and TVs most striking characters and lending himself some of the iconic Star Wars imagery presents an admirable and skilful rendition of Khal-Drogo as a Sith Lord. It’s mindfucking. That’s what it is. Now I’m sure everyone wants a Star Wars/Game of Thrones crossover.
As I base my writing for this blog on emotional authenticity for the first time in a long time (as I have done in this previous post), I hope to discuss what happened to me in 2013 as a mechanism to get out of my own damaged, self-victimizing headspace and transition into a healthier place so I can finally create rather than agonize. The mind does not lend itself to easy understanding and I often question my actions, including why I chose to start my Women in Genre month in April.
In all honesty, I realized how tight my schedule would be between March and May. A new three-month project at work awaited along with a packed program at university resulting in finals and a student competition I had hand in organizing. Instinctually, I knew I needed a distraction, rooted in the SFF community. Something positive. What I thought I needed was to build something and took to a very personal place to tell stories about the women in the community who have shaped me as a reader and writer.
I haven’t been writing. Not at all. Not one word for myself. I have given all my words elsewhere. I have painfully typed up the same words, the same call to actions, the same sentence structures for my office job. Used the same inbred sales vocabulary. Stunted my texts at the same length. I performed plastic surgery on the same thought. Over and over and over.
Hey, I wanted this.
This is what I repeated to myself for more than a year when exhaustion first settled in my mind and spread until sleep didn’t cut it. I said a lot of things to myself, including:
- Hey, I made it. This is my dream. Getting paid for writing.
- Dude, I moved out on. I wrote myself out of a life I feared, still fear, I’ll lead until I die.
- I’m learning a new trade.
Probably nobody knows, because I’m hella late when it comes to announcements that may get me ahead in my career, but I review for the SF Signal now (be afraid). It’s a monthly event as time runs short on my end for my turtle eyes (unfortunate, but what can you do). My very first review became live in August along with an introduction.
The first book I chose was Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa? by Andrew Bergen. You can find the full review HERE. This month I take aim at the latest release by Dagan Books, the breathtaking Bibliotheca Fantastica edited by Don Pizarro – review HERE. Both books have one thing in common and that is both titles haven’t caused a wave amidst the blogosphere (yet!). The reason I did this is because I’m a hipster and because I hope the reviews create more visibility for both titles. Read More A Call for Book Recommendations for my SF Signal Spot
Book munchers (otherwise known as readers) have acquired some peculiar habits. From what I have discovered talking with different people over Twitter and in person over the years, readers turn the act of reading into a personal ritual (having concluded reading Bibliotheca Fantastica, I can whole heartedly agree). A shocker, right? While not necessarily surprising, reader habits are fascinating to me, because you can always see how an individual’s personality reflects onto the most private and vulnerable of acts.*
I know a friend, who allows books to possess his interest and as a direct result writes down small details, which he can then discuss in depth (often asking me whether I read the same book cause I tend to forget just about everything). I know another who holds annual re-reading events where she returns to known routes and places in the books she loves since teenhood (what a weirdo!). I too have a weird habit and it concerns my attention deficiency in the sense I need new, shiny and pretty things in front of me at all time.** Read More The Weird Habits of Readers: The Act of Situational Reading
I’m resurrecting this feature I adopted for Temple Library Reviews, because I’m more or less not into the proper mood to review, nor am I interested in continuing something I tired of years ago – I have long since lost the need to write full reviews for personal blogs. With that in mind, here is what I think about “A Wild Sheep Chase” by Haruki Murakami, based on just the first 100 pages I’ve read. Chances are I will spoil the book partially, so be warned.
As with all Murakami stories, the linear has no place in his narrative structure as the text flutters from moment to moment, leaving the reader to seek significance in the choice, isolated scenes in the narrator’s life. Slice of life comes to mind as a possible genre to describe the story, because a unified, central plot remains absent through the first 50 pages. Only after the introduction of the “strange man” do things pick up, but for the second 50 pages the reader is prepped with detailed accounts about the man and his boss only to be thrown into length flashbacks, which don’t seem to serve the story so far.
Read More [100 Pages] “A Wild Sheep Chase” by Haruki Murakami
May has been a quiet month as I’ve been on several real world missions and most of the objectives have left me rather exhausted to maintain a very proper online presence. Nevertheless, I think I will return for June, even though my objectives have doubled. Turns out I want to achieve a lot and I can’t manage my time quite as effectively as I want. Anyway, I have chosen to write today, because it’s June 1st. I don’t know whether the world has synced with Bulgaria, but today is the day of the child. It’s a nice holiday and I used to call it the second Christmas, because I would always receive treats before getting into puberty and no longer classified as a child (much to my disappointment). Read More Day of the Child and Why I’m Still a Child at Heart
Who reads genre and doesn’t know who Catherynne M. Valente is? I suppose such people exist, but I don’t concern myself with them. I have certainly heard of her work as early as 2008 when a few late-to-the-game reviewers picked up her The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden. First, I took notice of the cover, then the premise and then the actual author’s name, which sounds like a very good name for a genre author – fantastic and melodious. Read More [Women in Genre, Day 29] Catherynne M. Valente and a Fairy Tale Narrative