Dec 272017
 

In the fall of 2017, we received not one but two new Star Trek series. Well, one and a half. I’m speaking, of course, of Star Trek: Discovery and it’s underachieving, pot-smoking, distant cousin, The Orville.

What are these two series, and what exactly is their relationship to the established Star Trek corpus? To answer that, I will draw on Harold Bloom’s theory of poetry, arguing that all poetry is misreading of previous poems. However, some poems are “weak misreadings”, which merely replicate the previous poem, and others are “strong misreadings” in which the poet includes his own ideas. This distinction will help us understand where to place these two series.

***

Continue reading »

Nov 302015
 

Even after the prequel trilogy, I still have fond memories of going to see the original Star Wars with my uncle. I plan to do the same with my nephew and niece this holiday season. From what I’ve seen in the trailers and commercials, there’s cause for cautious optimism: a race and gender diverse cast, a world that returns to the tactile, lived in quality of the original trilogy, plus things that don’t need changing, like John Williams’ score.

There is, however, one thing I’m a little suspicious of. I refer specifically to what is clearly intended to be the breakout, cute character of the new trilogy.

I refer, of course, to BB-8. I am increasingly convinced there is more to this little automaton than meets the eye, and we all should be suspicious of him/her/it(?).

Continue reading »

Nov 302015
 

The audiobook of the Lovecraftian horror anthology Cthulhu Lives, which includes my short story “The Thing in the Printer”, is now up on Bandcamp.

The audiobook of the Lovecraftian horror anthology Cthulhu Lives, which includes my short story “The Thing in the Printer”, is now up on Bandcamp.

Nov 072015
 

My steampunk erotica story collection The Innocent’s Progress and Other Stories will be a part of The Circlet Press Steampunk Bundle which also includes the award-winning House of Sable Locks by Elizabeth Schechter, the bizarre and witty Erotofludic Age by Vinnie Tesla, and the exuberantly swashbuckling 1901: A Steam Odyssey by Lionel Bramble; along with Like a Wisp of Steam, edited by J. Blackmore.

This goes on sale November 15th, 2015, until February 15th, 2016. You can’t ask for a better deal than that.

Vinnie Tesla called The Innocent’s Progress:

Confident, humane, nuanced, slyly comic–it is excellent writing.

 Posted by at 23:20
Apr 062014
 

The final stop on my blog tour to promote “An Angel Has No Memory” is at the Scarlet Letters blog:

How long is a book? SFWA says that a novel has to be at least 50,000 words long, and most novels today are much longer. But a novel isn’t the same thing as a book. A book can theoretically be of any length, contain multiple works by multiple authors, or even just be a compilation of LOLCats.
How long is a story? Hemingway wrote a story in six words: “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” I once asked a romance novelist what was the difference between a category romance and a literary romance. She said, “About 20,000 words.” Category romances are meant to be short, fast reads, compared to more involved reading of literary stories.
Mar 142014
 

The next stop on the blog tour for An Angel Has No Memory is at Stephen Zimmer’s blog, where I talk about straight men writing lesbian erotica.

First, should white people make hiphop? I say yes, for the same reason I think black people should make heavy metal, and indeed anybody should make anything. The claim that any particular group has a monopoly on any particular form of expression goes against the whole idea of freedom of expression. Hip-hop itself is based on promiscuous borrowing and recombination of culture items, defying conventional categories of race and class and genre.

Second, should white people dominate the charts and awards ceremonies for hip-hop, leaving black artists on the margins of the genre they created? That’s a thornier question.