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Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Movies On Sunday Morning - Hellboy 2

Jen and I went to watch Hellboy 2: The Golden Army this morning. It's still kind of weird seeing Luke Goss--even in layers of make-up--after first encountering him as half of the 90's band Bros.

As for the movie, it was good fun, visually beautiful as one can expect with anything Guillermo del Toro touches. (OMG - I can't wait for his film version of HP Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness .. !!) Several of the designs in Golden Army was reminiscent of del Toro's designs for Pan's Labyrinth. And Johann Krauss' suit was a nice tip of the hat to Steampunk. Perhaps the script did fall a little short in places, not as tight as the first film, but del Toro has a knack for bringing out unexpected reactions in his audiences; at least, in me. I had a case of the watery eye when Red had to kill the plant elemental. That kicked home. Ouch.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Friday Buffy-ness

After having a lengthy conversation about how fantastic the Buffy The Vampire Slayer television series is, here's a poll, just for the fun and the fans. (See top left of page)

"The hardest thing in this world is to live in it."
Buffy The Vampire Slayer - "The Gift"

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Americans in New Zealand Wants Me To Tell An American To Vote


They were handing these out at the bus stop in Wellington
earlier this week.
I work with at least one American at the university -
she and her husband are still awaiting their voting forms
after three months...
(click pic for bigger version)

Monday, August 25, 2008

Periphery Reviews

Several new reviews for Periphery:

OurChart

HipsterBookClub

Rainbow Reviews

*Puffs Proudly*

Previously, on Weebly...

I've had enough people now tell me that they are having trouble accessing the Weebly site where I post general updates about my writing that I think moving these to a seperate blog on Blogger is called for. That was a long sentence.

From now on, please find these updates here. I will post a direct link from The Strickland Diaries as well. Below, I have posted all the entries that had been on Weebly to date.

Apologies for any inconvenience and the changing of bookmarks!


WEEBLY NOTICES TO DATE:


Juno Maps

07/14/2008

Check out the partial maps of Juno City at my novel blog. CLICK!

Blog About THE BOOK
06/24/2008


I've created a blog, STRICKLAND DIARIES solely devoted to the unnamed novel I'm writing because I didn't want it cluttering up this space with all manner of weird yet interesting things. Head on over and check it out. Especially if you happen to be fluent in French, or know much about physics and math. And quantum theory.

Nicola Griffith Interview
06/17/2008

A new interview with Nicola Griffith in four parts is now up at Suite101.
Each part contains a link at the end to the following part.

Marianne de Pierres Interview

06/14/2008

I interviewed Australian SF author Marianne de Pierres,
award-nominated author of the awesome Parrish Plessis and and Sentients of Orion series, for Suite101.

Read the interview, in two parts HERE

Periphery Review

06/12/2008

At Pretty-Scary, a great review for Periphery.

Article At Suite101
06/12/2008

My latest article, Writing Speculative Fiction, is now up at Suite101. Please feel free to leave comments or questions.

Haunted Hearths Review
06/12/2008

My story The Oath was recently published in Haunted Hearths (Ed. Catherine Lundoff). A review just went up at Pretty-Scary. I had a lot of fun writing it, because it's a small-town tale and has Gypsies :)

Feed Your Armies With Clonazepam and Zoloft
06/10/2008

This is alarming. A human rights violation without anyone raising an eyebrow.

America's Medicated Army


New Editorial Project
06/04/2008

Still pretty hush-hush-ims, but wickedly cool Australian SF author Marianne de Pierres and I are conspiring on a new speculative anthology. Watch this space...


Mark Deniz Announces Scenes From A Second Storey
04/23/2008

And here it is then! Mark has just officially announced the anthology for which he asked me to contribute to. It will be called Scenes From A Second Storey, and there will be both an Australian and International version.


In My Other Life I'm An Academic

04/22/2008

Who'd have thought it. But yes, I think academic life appeals to me a bit, even though I am still adjusting to the whole idea of being graded and having to write exams 14 years after having left school.
It's mid-term break right now. My major is English Literature, but I've also been taking Religious Study papers, simply because the nature of the papers have always been a personal interest of mine. This term I'm doing Religion and Human Biology, which focus on Darwinian Evolution and how we might be evolutionary primed to believe in supernatural agents. The English paper I'm doing is Contemporary Fiction, which features the following prescribed books:

  • The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
  • The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
  • The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
  • On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  • Eucalyptus by Murray Bail
  • The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
  • The Queen of Subtleties by Suzannah Dunn
  • The Sea - Murray Banville


It's always a good thing to read something you normally wouldn't, and literary fiction is not something I pick up regularly. Some of these books I have really enjoyed, though as a genre writer I cannot be but galled when the authors are considered better writers than, say a Stephen King or a Nicola Griffith. Thus, I chose to write my first essay on a discussion of literary merit, comparing Jonathan Franzen and Stephen King in terms of what their fiction might contribute on a cultural level, and whether such contribution may possibly influence the merit of the work. we'll see how it goes.


New Short Story

04/22/2008


The wonderful Mark Deniz of Morrigan Books has asked me to contribute an original story to an anthology he will be editing. I don't think he has said much about this publicly, so lest I not be the one to let the cat out of the bag. Suffice to say that I think his concept for the collection will yield fine and intriguing results. I'm thrilled to be part of it.


Stalking Daylight

04/22/2008


Australian SF author Marianne de Pierres and I have been working, on and off for two years on a film treatment for Enchanter Productions, tentatively titled Stalking Daylight. We just heard from the producer interested in the treatment that he would like to option the treatment so he can take it to the Cannes Film Festival as one of his projects in a bid to garner further interest. This is good news, especially after Marianne and I have worked quite a bit on the project and are really both at the point where we want to see it move on to the next step. Fingers crossed!

Periphery Now Available

Periphery - Erotic Lesbian Futures is now available. The first 200 copies sold out within two weeks and left the publisher scrambling for more. Thanks to Steve Berman at Lethe for the great job he's been doing amidst all the other kerfuffles he's had to attend to. If we sell a few more, it will be the biggest title Lethe Press has ever had. (Bribe your friends now!)

Table of Contents

Marianne de Pierres
Nicola Griffith
Gwyneth Jones
Kristyn Dunnion
Lyda Morehouse
Tracey Shellito
Melissa Scott
Carolyn Ives Gilman
Jean Stewart
Catherine Lundoff
Elspeth Potter
Cecilia Tan
Sharon Wachsler

Periphery Reviews

Arlene Germain, Contributing editor, The Crown

"An exceptional collection of 14 stories of remarkable and wondrous erotic science fiction. While exploring the spectrum of human emotions, the quintessential hallmark of great storytelling, the various talented authors take the reader on a magical and sensual sojourn. A captivating and compelling reading experience awaits those who dare to venture beyond the ordinary. . . . Well worth the time to enjoy. There is something to satisfy everyone within these covers. . . . A genuine galactic jewel. . . . Offers an odyssey which will fascinate, excite, and enlighten any reader."

Sheela Ardrian, Reviewer, Fearless Books
Works on all three facets: as erotica, as Lesbian literature, and as science fiction. Many of the stories emphasize one or two of those facets over others, but a few manage to balance all three with thrilling results. This is also a fine sampling of work from today's prominent writers of queer and speculative fiction. . . . Fans of dystopic science fiction will be especially delighted. This would make an ideal textbook for a class on queer literature or dystopic fiction. Grab a copy before the fundies set them on fire.