Don't Open Till Doomsday - The Redesign

Hey Gang!

So, I managed to sell the print rights to "The Redesign" to a small press, PunksWritePoems. They put a call out for "doomsday" stories, one of which I had lying around, so I sent it in, they bought it, and bam, here it is. Haven't even had a chance to read the other stories, but I know it features a bunch of other writers that no one's ever heard of, so I'm in good company!

The book you reach for when the world ends.

Check it here!

And of course, Amazon.

Short Story: The Redesign - NewMyths.com (2016)

Hey, hey, hey, y'all:

Got a fresh new story hot off the digital webs all ready for your eyes. The Redesign is live over at NewMyths.com. I workshopped this way back in 2014. I wrote this on invitation, for an anthology. Which was a mistake. At least, for me. It was so tailored to the anthology that after they rejected it, I found it wasn't really a good fit anywhere else. I mean, at least, that's what they told me when it was rejected twenty or so times. One place did actually want it for a minute, dropped me a rewrite request. I worked it over for a month, they thought about it for a while, and then decided they really didn't want it. Thems the breaks kid. But then the lovely people over at NewMyths.com decided they wanted it, so it all worked out in the end. 

It's funny. Like all other document media, it takes a while for things to come out. Like I said, I wrote this two years ago and feel I've moved way beyond this piece. Reading this is like looking back at 2014 me and shaking my head. Oh, not cause I don't like it, just my tastes and interests and style has changed, but this work stays frozen in time. Which is good. Or a thing, at least. 

I like the story, and still feel that the central concept is good: after the robots rise up and take over, then what will they do? Or more specifically, will they continue on being and making robots that reflect their human origins? And if not, what would that look like? Well, who really know. Sure as shit not me. But, this being fiction, I can suppose. And I do. I think they'd do a drastic Redesign.

Automation by Amanda Burgloff from NewMyths.com Issue 34, 2016.

Short Story: The Body Corporate - GigaNotoSaurus (2015)

Hey, y'all. A bit of news:

Sold a short story to GigaNotoSaurus: "The Body Corporate."

This is one of those that went around to everyone and they all "loved" it but no one wanted it. Love might be the new hate.

Luckily, someone did love it: Rashida J. Smith! An editor who put up with my many nits with a smooth grace.

This story was written in response to a friend of mine who wanted to write a story about natives vs. corporates. He pitched it to me and by the end of the discussion I had so many ideas that I had the start of my own short. So, thanks Mike. I stole your idea.

Oh, that and the "Grimly" at the end of the story was directly inspired/a riff on this terrible creature:

Malaysian Assassin Bug!

http://www.arkinspace.com/2012/05/assassin-bug-malaysias-macabre.html

Check it out!

Jack Vance - Interview

Jack Vance died recently. Obit. Interview (1 of 12):

Blade Runner Convention Reel: Drool.

Wow, this footage makes the movie look even older. It also makes it feel more gritty and real. For Blade-heads:

"Unidentifying Object" Sigur Ros / UFO Target Earth Mash-Up

For this other project I'm working on I did this little mash up of Sigur Rós's "Refur" (B-side of "Sæglópur") with footage and voices from this incomprehensible 1974 movie called UFO: Target Earth. It's a pretty amazing piece of cinema, as the movie lacks all plot, character development, comprehension, and sense. That being said, these people, their voices so flat and non-actory, I think they sound beautiful. I've already used these people speaking in another piece, but right here was the first. Be sure to turn it up and Check It Out:

And if you really want to see the movie it's available from the Internet Archive right here.

Karl Schroeder: Emotions

"There are no distinct emotions. You have learned that in the human heart, love resides within such and such a circle, hate there in another, and between are pride, jealousy, all the royal and plebeian emotions. We say instead emotion is one unbounded field. Our way of life causes us to cross this field, now in one direction, now another, again and again on our way to the goals to which or world has constrained us. The paths crisscross, and eventually, the field has well-travelled intersections, and blank areas where we have never walked. 

We name the intersections just as we do towns but not the empty fields between them. We name these oft-crossed places  love, hate, jealously, pride. But our destinations were made by the conditions of our lives, they are not eternal or inevitable.  

We know that the answer to human suffering lies in changing the ratio of emotions so grief and sorrow lie neglected, even nameless, in an untravelled wild." 

-Karl Schroeder, Ventus.

Waylines Magazine: Going (Semi-)Pro

Listen, we're all getting pretty saturated with the online tipjar that is Kickstarter. But that doesn't mean that there aren't good projects out there nor does it mean that you shouldn't check out some of the better ones.

One of the things I took away from my Kickstarter campaign was a sense of community. Not only was Kickstarter a project in a global marketplace (I had support from all over the US, Singapore, Canada, and Australia), where family members and random strangers could throw me their support because, but it was also an opportunity for me and project campaigners to give back to our backers and the greater community. I released my project as a copyleft Creative Commons for anyone to download, distribute, and remix/mess-with (as is this entire blog). And so I tend to be drawn to projects that try to instill a sense of community and openess in their final product. Which is why I'm a backer of Waylines Magazine's Kickstarter Campaign.

Waylines Magazine is a new magazine from a good friend of mine and fellow Clarion West 2011 and editor over at Ideomancer David Rees-Thomas and some dude I've never met but seems like a very talented filmmaker and graphic designer (he did the Waylines Layout) Darryl Knickrehm. Besides being an online magazine, they're going to pay to put out videos and short films as well. And the best part of their Kickstarter is that the more they raise the more they give back. Many Kickstarter campaigns just pocket anything extra they make, which is fine if that's how you run your campaign and get people to support. But the great thing about Waylines is that for each tiered goal they make they are going to reward authors, filmmakers, and Waylines contributors. They've already reached the goal of going from token payment to semi-pro and now with 52 hours left at the time of this post, they are trying to raise another $500 to go pro, paying all contributors pro rates! 

Hey, even if you don't want to support at least swing by their campaign or website to check what they're all about. Here's their campaign video: