Category: writing

Book Update and such!

I’m mailing out 4 books today. I’ve requested some rarer books from some of the people at BookMooch, none of them have gotten back to me though. I’m also going out today to have some work done. I’m not saying what it’s a surprise. I finished reading the Adventurer’s Handbook last night and started on Chabon’s book, which is intriguing so far, though I don’t find the subject that interesting his style has a way of keeping your eyes on the page. I’m hoping as I continue reading I’ll find myself slipping into the characters and story. Back to the Adventurer’s Handbook, the book is a great introduction to the high age of exploration in the 19th and 2oth century. The only problem I had with the book is that it only wets the appetite. Conefrey does a great job summing up some of the great adventures and explorers of the last 200 years, but then he mentions that these people wrote their own books! I’m a terrible bibliophile and seeing all these references drove me mad. My reading list is long enough as it is, now there are an additional 7 or 8 titles on it. Thanks for nothing Mick!

The writing club starts in two days and I need to submit my piece. Since I came up with the idea I figured I’d be the first person to put myself up for public scrutiny. Problem? I don’t really have a piece I feel comfortable with showing, my fault completely as I haven’t been writing as much as I’d like. What writing I have been doing has been essays and non-fiction. I have ideas for stories but none of them have condensed into plot or story, just ideas. I’m putting the finishing touches on my Mainspring review, which I will be submitting in a few days.

That’s it for now.

Bullfinch’s Mythology

I’m pulling it out. Why? Because I need to brush up on my mythology and folklore. I’m liking these fairytale pieces I’m doing, but it’s been a really long time since I’ve read any folk tales and such so I need a refresher. I have a copy of Bullfinch’s and a big book of folkways too. I don’t have any collections of the Bros. Grimm work though or anything else. I might have 1001 Arabian nights, but maybe not. My guess is that it’s at home in southern California. Also I have access to a medieval bestiary which should provide endless inspiration for slightly off color posts.

Pokemon Pearl is a long game. I only play it at work and at this rate I’ll never beat it. Yes, I play pokemon! It’s a great game with solid mechanics, graphics, etc… I won’t say anything about how Nintendo has marketed the hell out of the thing, that’s their prerogative. So I’m going to start Dragon Quest Heroes and we’ll see how that goes. Not much to say so I’ll end it here.

That’s it for now

What I am reading, work update

As you can see from the title this is not the next large post in my “about me” series, this is just a small post letting people what I am reading and writing right now. I finished Mainspring and am in the midst of writing up the small review for it that I hope will appear in the next Steampunk Magazine. I liked the first half of the book which was a fine adventure/coming of age novel but half way through it became strange, a mix between a heretical theology tract and bestiality erotica. Bizarro (You really do need to click on that link). I’ve started reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, which I am loving. The book’s premise is this: What would happen tomorrow if every human of on the planet just disappeared today? Weisman explores when and how all the infrastructure and changes we’ve made to the planet would disappear, in so doing he looks at our past and explores the hypothetical homo sapien free future. You don’t have to wait for a review of this book, head down to your public library and pick it up, I don’t think you will be disappointed. As far as writing goes, I’m working on a blurb about myself for Gawker‘s Artist program, the Mainspring review, an essay on how a organized religion is often an excuse for laziness in the here and now, an essay exploring gothic horror in videogames, and some scraps of poetry.

Next post is the one you are waiting for.

Thoughts and a mini review of Neptune’s Ark

I guess that last post was my 100th, so congrats to me for making it that far. I finished reading Neptune’s Ark today. I’m not going to put up another review here, full of spelling errors and bad grammar. Instead I’ll just say that if you love the ocean and the life that is in it, if you love the California and western US coastline, if you are put in awe by the power of time and evolution, you need to read this book. Here is my tiny review, if you require more:

A deep look at the evolution of the pacific coast of the North American continent. It also looks closely at the life that was born, prospered, and languished there. Wallace’s work is scientific
and factual, yet poetic and haunting. He creates a yearning for the ocean physically, mentally and spiritually.
The parts of the book that most affected were the recollections of the genocide we humans waged against pinnipeds and cetaceans, from the 18th through the 20th century. Reading the stories of Russian sealers clubbing to death seals by the 1000s in a day bring my blood close to boiling. The horror is that I know these actions are repeated today, if not on the same scale, the violence, horror, and needless deaths of these animals is a crime we humans will never be free of, and this is only one species… It is hard at times to be optimistic about our species…
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