Find the reprint of my dark sci-fi short story, "The Treasons," in Volume 1 of Something Wicked's new anthology.
Link
Friday, November 30, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
11/19/12: Tales for the Toilet
Find my dark satirical short story, "Danforth Becomes A Priest," in Tales for the Toilet, a new anthology of toiletesque tales, from Crowded Quarantine Publications.
Link
Link
Friday, November 16, 2012
11/16/12: Ginger
Yesterday, I started reading William Gibson's Neuromancer. In the first few pages, it mentioned "preserved ginger." I Noticed this, for some reason.
Minutes later, I opened a package I got in the mail. Inside it, the flap read "Ginger Jar" (it was a repurposed box, turned inside-out for shipping).
This morning, I went to a health store and bought a supplement. Right beside the supplement, was a bottle of "Ginger Wonder" (in a big wall of supplements, the two Just Happening to be side-by-side).
The clincher: a few hours later, over lunch, my mother related a story about ginger -- rather interesting in itself. She had decided to prepare a recipe containing "crystalized ginger," but had never heard of such a thing, and had no idea where to purchase it. Shortly after, however, she'd needed some chili powder, and, despite having several bottles of chili powder, she couldn't find any -- until she went to a forgotten drawer of spices, in which was chili powder ... along with a bottle of crystalized ginger. (As it turns out, my father found a box of random spices some years ago, and put them in this drawer.)
(Well, no, I guess this is the clincher: the "preserved ginger," like that in Neuromancer, is pretty much the same thing as the "crystalized ginger" my mother fretted over. As I understand it, ginger is first "preserved," then processed further, with sugar and such, until it's "crystalized," and the similarity is close enough that the two are called either "preserved" or "crystalized," interchangeably. Like my mom, I had never before heard of either type of ginger, until now, twice within twenty-four hours.)
(Actually, wait -- here's the clincher: this ginger theme comes at a time of extreme digestive problems on my part, for which ginger is, reputedly, rather helpful. I decided to buy some ginger tea, this evening ...)
Minutes later, I opened a package I got in the mail. Inside it, the flap read "Ginger Jar" (it was a repurposed box, turned inside-out for shipping).
This morning, I went to a health store and bought a supplement. Right beside the supplement, was a bottle of "Ginger Wonder" (in a big wall of supplements, the two Just Happening to be side-by-side).
The clincher: a few hours later, over lunch, my mother related a story about ginger -- rather interesting in itself. She had decided to prepare a recipe containing "crystalized ginger," but had never heard of such a thing, and had no idea where to purchase it. Shortly after, however, she'd needed some chili powder, and, despite having several bottles of chili powder, she couldn't find any -- until she went to a forgotten drawer of spices, in which was chili powder ... along with a bottle of crystalized ginger. (As it turns out, my father found a box of random spices some years ago, and put them in this drawer.)
(Well, no, I guess this is the clincher: the "preserved ginger," like that in Neuromancer, is pretty much the same thing as the "crystalized ginger" my mother fretted over. As I understand it, ginger is first "preserved," then processed further, with sugar and such, until it's "crystalized," and the similarity is close enough that the two are called either "preserved" or "crystalized," interchangeably. Like my mom, I had never before heard of either type of ginger, until now, twice within twenty-four hours.)
(Actually, wait -- here's the clincher: this ginger theme comes at a time of extreme digestive problems on my part, for which ginger is, reputedly, rather helpful. I decided to buy some ginger tea, this evening ...)
Thursday, November 15, 2012
11/15/12: Book Synchronicity
Ah, the classic book synchronicity. It's a repeating phenomenon, I've learned, often involving two random books read back-to-back -- yet containing the precise same things.
The books, this time, were The New Alchemists by Dirk Hanson, and Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson, read in that order (arbitrarily, out of a pool of over a dozen recently-bought books). The formats and subject matters of these books could not have been more different, one being a clinical retrospective on the burgeoning computer industry, the other a personal memoir of drug trips, bizarre "coincidences," and their possible implications. Yet, they contained several parallels.
1) Both detailed the life and career of Nikola Tesla, sometimes in overlap.
2) Both quoted Timothy Leary.
3) Both mentioned Thomas Edison.
4) And last, but far from least: the books both outlined RCA's Spectra-70 computer, even mentioning, specifically, how it was discontinued. (To my knowledge, I did not know of the Spectra computer beforehand, or that RCA had ever dabbled in the trade.)
I bought the books on two separate occasions, several hundred miles apart, without prior knowledge of either's existence. Then, I Just Happened to read them back-to-back.
(Also, as implied, this is not my first such experience, nor is it the tenth.)
(Furthermore, it bears mentioning that, just hours before reading the part of Cosmic Trigger in which the Spectra-70 was mentioned, I had the thought of, I need a significant synchronicity, since I haven't blogged of one for so long. This, too, is not the first such time I've had such ask-and-ye-shall-receive.)
(And, more: In The New Alchemists, one chapter detailed how computers were, at the time, being groomed for speech recognition (the book was written in 1981). On the very same day I read this, literally hours apart, I received an old newspaper clipping from my father, completely randomly -- which detailed how computers were being groomed for speech recognition (the paper was from 1984). I had not discussed anything from the book with my father, nor has he ever given me clippings from decades-old newspapers before.)
(Did I mention that Cosmic Trigger was primarily about just such synchronicities?)
The books, this time, were The New Alchemists by Dirk Hanson, and Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson, read in that order (arbitrarily, out of a pool of over a dozen recently-bought books). The formats and subject matters of these books could not have been more different, one being a clinical retrospective on the burgeoning computer industry, the other a personal memoir of drug trips, bizarre "coincidences," and their possible implications. Yet, they contained several parallels.
1) Both detailed the life and career of Nikola Tesla, sometimes in overlap.
2) Both quoted Timothy Leary.
3) Both mentioned Thomas Edison.
4) And last, but far from least: the books both outlined RCA's Spectra-70 computer, even mentioning, specifically, how it was discontinued. (To my knowledge, I did not know of the Spectra computer beforehand, or that RCA had ever dabbled in the trade.)
I bought the books on two separate occasions, several hundred miles apart, without prior knowledge of either's existence. Then, I Just Happened to read them back-to-back.
(Also, as implied, this is not my first such experience, nor is it the tenth.)
(Furthermore, it bears mentioning that, just hours before reading the part of Cosmic Trigger in which the Spectra-70 was mentioned, I had the thought of, I need a significant synchronicity, since I haven't blogged of one for so long. This, too, is not the first such time I've had such ask-and-ye-shall-receive.)
(And, more: In The New Alchemists, one chapter detailed how computers were, at the time, being groomed for speech recognition (the book was written in 1981). On the very same day I read this, literally hours apart, I received an old newspaper clipping from my father, completely randomly -- which detailed how computers were being groomed for speech recognition (the paper was from 1984). I had not discussed anything from the book with my father, nor has he ever given me clippings from decades-old newspapers before.)
(Did I mention that Cosmic Trigger was primarily about just such synchronicities?)
Friday, November 9, 2012
11/9/12: For When The Veil Drops
Find my horror flash story, "Nothing Bad Has Ever Happened Here," in For When The Veil Drops, a new anthology of speculative fiction from West Pigeon Press. Available in print and digital.
Amazon link
Amazon link
Sunday, November 4, 2012
11/4/12: Swamp Biscuits and Tea
Find my bizarre humor short story, "The Wedding Bystander," in issue #2 of Swamp Biscuits and Tea, for free.
Link
Link
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