Monthly Archives: May 2014

by

Fiction Friday #2

71TAq23LJALFrom Goodreads.com: The Dominion, once divided by savage clan wars, has kept an uneasy peace within its border since that long-ago time when the clan Leonne was gifted with the magic of the Sun Sword and was raised up to reign over the five noble clans. But now treachery strikes at the very heart of the Dominion as two never meant to rule–one a highly skilled General, the other a master of the magical arts–seek to seize the crown by slaughtering all of clan Leonne blood.

Why I recommend it: This is the first book in a six-book-long fantasy series. I recognize that not everyone has that kind of time or love of fantasy, but for those who are able to invest the energy and attention into the series, they will find a very rich world with vivid characters and gripping political struggles. This particular book starts out a little slow, as it’s setting the stage for much of the series-wide conflict, but I had a hard time putting it down the first time I read it, and subsequent re-reads always reveal new information I’d missed. If fantasy, world-building, and political intrigue are your cuppa, this series is not to be missed.

by

An Announcement and Some Silliness

So, CorgiHat went live while I was at MomoCon, which is why the announcement for this is a little belated. You’re still completely welcome to sign up for the CorgiHat Beta group, as we’re going to be improving the app and launching other apps over the next several months. For now, though, we’re taking a bit of a break to get caught up on personal stuff and plan the next iteration of the product.

I also completely forgot to mention that Bodies Are Disgusting is now available on Google Play! It took a little while for me to iron everything out, and to celebrate, the book is free until 6/6/14 on Google Play only!

In silly news, I realized that yesterday was the third anniversary of Alonso Munich’s death! Happy death day to him. :D I’m very excited about his story and hope that I can share some more of it with you all soon.

by

Bodies Are Disgusting: Art

It’s hard to believe that Bodies Are Disgusting came out over five months ago. In the interim, I’ve been working on multiple different projects (CorgiHat and Alonso Munich Is Now Dead, I’m looking at you), but that doesn’t mean that I never think about Bodies anymore.

Over the next couple of weeks, I want to share some of the art that goes with Bodies, including some of the art I did and some of the things my friends have done.

Kicking it off in style is a piece done by my friend Luke (AKA Ludicrousbox/Studio Under The Stairs):

bodies pixels by lukeAt the time, Luke was doing pixel commissions. From left to right, top to bottom, we have: Ori, Doug, Lucien, Amanda, and Simon.

Looking at them all together like this still makes me ridiculously gleeful.

by

CorgiHat Beta Sign-Ups

So, the first cut of the application is available now for our beta testers, and we’re planning a full release by Friday! This is a really exciting development, and we can’t wait until we can show our hard work to the world. :D

If you’d like to sign up to be part of the CorgiHat Beta, you can do so here: Beta Tester Sign-Up Please allow a few hours for your Google ID to be added, as we have to do manually add each group member.

(Cross-posted from the CorgiHat Development Blog.)

by

Music Monday #2

Animal Life – Shearwater

Born inside the gates of a family
Hardened by a roman machinery
Cast among the building sites,
The coiling wires, the shots collected

Called out in the wake of a lottery
Held inside the family gathering
Mirrored beams and dog-like stretch
A wandering association
Murmurs in the dark confessional
And rides along the road, ephemeral
As an animal life

Rusting in the shade of the batteries
Hanging from a rope in the gallery
Pacing down the balance beam
Of half-remembered holidays
No rush of light, no sun or belonging
No joy in building, love in the finishing
Chasing down an anodyne
And half-reflected radiance
To hide below the ancient barricade
In chambers like the rooms a swallow made
For an animal life

Charging down the maw of the ocean
I want to come close, I want to come closer
I held your name inside my mouth
Through all the days out wandering
But called up from the mouth of oblivion,
Cast away like dogs from the shelter
I shed the dulling armor plates
That once collected radiance
And, surging at the blood’s perimeter:
The half remembered wild interior
Of an animal life

by

Fiction Friday #1

(To serve as kind of the counter-point of Music Monday, every other Friday will be Fiction Friday, where I’ll post about fictional works that I’ve enjoyed and which I want to share with everyone!)

Clean Sweep

From Amazon.com: On the outside, Dina Demille is the epitome of normal. She runs a quaint Victorian Bed and Breakfast in a small Texas town, owns a Shih Tzu named Beast, and is a perfect neighbor, whose biggest problem should be what to serve her guests for breakfast. But Dina is…different: Her broom is a deadly weapon; her Inn is magic and thinks for itself. Meant to be a lodging for otherworldly visitors, the only permanent guest is a retired Galactic aristocrat who can’t leave the grounds because she’s responsible for the deaths of millions and someone might shoot her on sight. Under the circumstances, “normal” is a bit of a stretch for Dina.

And now, something with wicked claws and deepwater teeth has begun to hunt at night….Feeling responsible for her neighbors, Dina decides to get involved. Before long, she has to juggle dealing with the annoyingly attractive, ex-military, new neighbor, Sean Evans—an alpha-strain werewolf—and the equally arresting cosmic vampire soldier, Arland, while trying to keep her inn and its guests safe. But the enemy she’s facing is unlike anything she’s ever encountered before. It’s smart, vicious, and lethal, and putting herself between this creature and her neighbors might just cost her everything.

Why I recommend it: It’s a very charming story that spends a good deal of time on fascinating world-building and uses one of my favorite fantasy/supernatural tropes, the interdimensional innkeeper. I could hardly put the book down, and I can’t wait to return to the setting with the next installment in the series.

by

Music Monday #1

(In order to liven the place up a bit, I’ve decided to start a recurring theme, Music Monday. Every other Monday, I’ll post a song and lyrics– where applicable– for everyone to enjoy.)

Seamstress – Dessa

I kept an angel
In a box beneath my bed
Little beast had broke her jaw
And I tried to fix her head
They said I had to put her back
That I had to put her back exactly where I found her
But I know I saw
That she was doing good, till the cat got her

And I came to write a letter
But my pen was full of hymns
I came to drown a sorrow
It seems they’ve learned to swim
Mouth full of pins and heart pumping gasoline
It’s late
I’m still at the sewing machine
Stitching up strays fifteen years
But this one’s mean
But I fixed you up
When they said you were past repair
And I stitched you up
I thread a needle with my hair
And I fixed you up
When you were still a common sparrow
But look whose on the shoulder now when the road goes narrow

I kept an angel
In a box beneath my bed
Little bitch had broke her jaw
And I tried to fix her head
They said I had to put her back
That I had to put her back exactly where I found her
But I know I saw
That she was doing good, until the cat got her

Well I’m putting you out of my misery
We ain’t got much but we’ve got history
It was a mercy kill
No
It was a suicide
No
It was an accident
No
Well at least I tried

Wait soft drugs and seam ripper
Tough love and tape measure
Stitching up boys is different that way
You fix a bird you buy it a cage
You fix a man
You fix a man, and he flies away

When I ran out of thread
I couldn’t let go
But that’s not sewing
That’s, that’s just poking holes
And it’s a strange breed
A different kind of creature
That looks for love through the eye of a needle
But the creed of the seamstress is
That you’re pretty in pieces

I kept an angel
In a box beneath my bed
Little beast had broke her jaw
And I tried to fix her head
They said I had to put her back
That I had to put her back exactly where I found her
But I know I saw
She was doing good, until the cat got her

Take a seat and let me get a look at your face
Busted, back’s been broke for days
Not much, little something for the pain
Don’t fuss, or we’ll never get a seam to lay straight
And I keep it clean as I can adjust
Adjust the machine in a mattress plus
I never did need for a pattern
Just some good restraints and my bedside manner

When I ran out of thread, I couldn’t let go
But that’s not sewing, that’s, that’s just poking holes
When I ran out of thread, I couldn’t let go
But that’s not sewing, that’s, that’s just poking holes

by

A little taste of what’s to come!

I know that I have not been providing a lot of updates recently, particularly in the art and writing department. Part of that is because I’ve been spending a lot of energy on work, and part of it is because it’s getting close to release time for CorgiHat. However, I’ve definitely been writing, and thought I’d share the first couple thousand words of my current project, tentatively titled Alonso Munich Is Now Dead. This project is less horror and more supernatural mystery. The sample can be found below the cut.

Continue reading →