Daniel Clausen's Blog, page 63
March 17, 2013
Nxy Book Review Interview
You can see the full interview here:
http://www.nyxbookreviews.com/posts/i...
The Interview
Nyx Book Reviews: Hi Daniel, welcome to Nyx Book Reviews. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Daniel Clausen: I read too much. Sometimes, I write too much. Luckily, I do most other things in moderation. Up until this very moment of my life, I’ve been most proud of my short story collection, The Lexical Funk. The book was almost everything I wanted it to be. In a year or so, I hope I can look back with some kind of objectivity and say that Ghosts of Nagasaki was a great book.
Could you describe your book, The Ghosts of Nagasaki, in one sentence?
The book is a novel of ghostly possession, memory, and (perhaps) redemption that is real from a certain point of view.
What makes your book stand out from other books in the fantasy genre?
The book is a specific kind of fantasy: magic realism. Fans of pure fantasy may not like this book. Fans of pure ghosts stories will probably not like this book. Fans of Haruki Murakami will find some elements very familiar and likable. People who believe that mortgage-backed securities and unionized ghosts share a mystical relationship will find this novel perhaps the most truest thing they have ever read.
http://www.nyxbookreviews.com/posts/i...
The Interview
Nyx Book Reviews: Hi Daniel, welcome to Nyx Book Reviews. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Daniel Clausen: I read too much. Sometimes, I write too much. Luckily, I do most other things in moderation. Up until this very moment of my life, I’ve been most proud of my short story collection, The Lexical Funk. The book was almost everything I wanted it to be. In a year or so, I hope I can look back with some kind of objectivity and say that Ghosts of Nagasaki was a great book.
Could you describe your book, The Ghosts of Nagasaki, in one sentence?
The book is a novel of ghostly possession, memory, and (perhaps) redemption that is real from a certain point of view.
What makes your book stand out from other books in the fantasy genre?
The book is a specific kind of fantasy: magic realism. Fans of pure fantasy may not like this book. Fans of pure ghosts stories will probably not like this book. Fans of Haruki Murakami will find some elements very familiar and likable. People who believe that mortgage-backed securities and unionized ghosts share a mystical relationship will find this novel perhaps the most truest thing they have ever read.
January 28, 2013
Excerpt from Libby Heily's Tough Girl
The following is an excerpt from my friend Libby Heily's new YA novel, Tough Girl.
The book in short:
Danger lurks everywhere in eleven year old Reggie's world—from the bully next door to the unwanted attentions of a creep at school. Raised by her mentally ill mother, Reggie is left to fend for herself. She escapes in daydreams, battling aliens with her alter ego, Tough Girl.
When Reggie's mother disappears, her fantasy life spirals out of control and starts to invade reality. She is hunted by a creature of her own design, and even Tough Girl is not strong enough to stop him.
Will Reggie survive long enough for her mother to return, or will her dream world take over?
The excerpt:
The Art of Aliens
I remember when I was 8 I drew a picture of an alien. He was immense, too large for the page. His flesh was brown and lumpy and his eyes were wobbly. He had no mouth, and no arms or legs. My mom looked over my shoulder and said, "That's not what aliens look like."
I smirked at her. "How can you know for sure?"
She shrugged and said, "Fair point."
Fast forward twenty some odd years later and I'm still making up aliens. Now, my aliens are more similar to humans, but I blame that on Star Trek and old age.
In Tough Girl, there are several alien species created by eleven year old Reggie. There's the evil alien overlords, the Octhmuslans. This nasty bunch evolved from octopuses. They slide along on 6 tentacles and use the last 2 as arms.
The Octhmuslans regularly employ Klecks - graceful muscular creatures who love to party but are also skilled at torture.
There's also Chihihaga, an insect like alien in charge of Planet Girth. He has a weakness for scotch and female humans.
And then there's my favorite, the Bublaran - the life giver. This is a giant ball that does not speak. She communicates through pulsating light and creates life just by existing.
I created aliens because I was curious about other worlds. Reggie creates them as a means to escape her life. That leaves me to wonder how all the other creatures in the realm of sci-fi came into being, and if any of them found life in the fiction realm because someone asked, "How can you know for sure?"
*If you're interested in purchasing a copy of Tough Girl, you can contact Libby Heily at: libbyheilyauthor@gmail.com
The book in short:
Danger lurks everywhere in eleven year old Reggie's world—from the bully next door to the unwanted attentions of a creep at school. Raised by her mentally ill mother, Reggie is left to fend for herself. She escapes in daydreams, battling aliens with her alter ego, Tough Girl.
When Reggie's mother disappears, her fantasy life spirals out of control and starts to invade reality. She is hunted by a creature of her own design, and even Tough Girl is not strong enough to stop him.
Will Reggie survive long enough for her mother to return, or will her dream world take over?
The excerpt:
The Art of Aliens
I remember when I was 8 I drew a picture of an alien. He was immense, too large for the page. His flesh was brown and lumpy and his eyes were wobbly. He had no mouth, and no arms or legs. My mom looked over my shoulder and said, "That's not what aliens look like."
I smirked at her. "How can you know for sure?"
She shrugged and said, "Fair point."
Fast forward twenty some odd years later and I'm still making up aliens. Now, my aliens are more similar to humans, but I blame that on Star Trek and old age.
In Tough Girl, there are several alien species created by eleven year old Reggie. There's the evil alien overlords, the Octhmuslans. This nasty bunch evolved from octopuses. They slide along on 6 tentacles and use the last 2 as arms.
The Octhmuslans regularly employ Klecks - graceful muscular creatures who love to party but are also skilled at torture.
There's also Chihihaga, an insect like alien in charge of Planet Girth. He has a weakness for scotch and female humans.
And then there's my favorite, the Bublaran - the life giver. This is a giant ball that does not speak. She communicates through pulsating light and creates life just by existing.
I created aliens because I was curious about other worlds. Reggie creates them as a means to escape her life. That leaves me to wonder how all the other creatures in the realm of sci-fi came into being, and if any of them found life in the fiction realm because someone asked, "How can you know for sure?"
*If you're interested in purchasing a copy of Tough Girl, you can contact Libby Heily at: libbyheilyauthor@gmail.com
January 18, 2013
Indie Reader Review of Ghosts of Nagasaki
Indiereader.com just posted a review of the Ghosts of Nagasaki.
You can check it out right here:
http://indiereader.com/2013/01/the-gh...
Verdict: THE GHOSTS OF NAGASAKI is an evocative and beautifully written journey about a man’s attempt to reconcile with his ghosts.
An American business analyst in Tokyo begins “the dangerous excavation of [his] past” and begins typing his memories that center around his visit to Nagasaki as an English teacher four years prior.
What starts seemingly as a trip down memory lane, recalling his relocation from America to Japan to be an English teacher in a “super-conglomerate English language school chain” and his initial experiences with beer-drinking peers, becomes an unraveling of painful memories of his first foster family, the life and death of his friend, Debra and an odyssey that crosses from the real to the surreal as he confronts the ghosts of Nagasaki –his and those from a Japanese novel.
Daniel Clausen’s writing is smooth and mesmerizing. There is a constant paradox that the protagonist is trying to reconcile in his journey. The protagonist escapes to a world filled with beauty and comfort: “my eyes overcome the poverty of my words. They fall out the window and deeper into the mountains.” This lyrical language that describes the mystique of the protagonist’s picturesque Japan and his dreamlike stream of consciousness is contrasted greatly with the narrative that focuses on the concise dialogue, cruder language and descriptions that reveal the other English teachers’ somewhat shallow and seedy experience of Japan’s nightlife and culture.
Clausen’s depiction of Japanese culture is compelling; effectively lacing the narrative with details about everything from street vending machines that dispense cans of coffee to effectively integrated details about Japanese pub life, language, and cultural tidbits.
The structure of the novel is based on several timelines that weave in and out of one another. Though some are clearer than others, it is at times difficult to follow the transitions, especially given the ambiguity about what is real and what are in his streams of consciousness.
THE GHOSTS OF NAGASAKI is an evocative and beautifully written journey about a man’s attempt to reconcile with his ghosts.
Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader
You can check it out right here:
http://indiereader.com/2013/01/the-gh...
Verdict: THE GHOSTS OF NAGASAKI is an evocative and beautifully written journey about a man’s attempt to reconcile with his ghosts.
An American business analyst in Tokyo begins “the dangerous excavation of [his] past” and begins typing his memories that center around his visit to Nagasaki as an English teacher four years prior.
What starts seemingly as a trip down memory lane, recalling his relocation from America to Japan to be an English teacher in a “super-conglomerate English language school chain” and his initial experiences with beer-drinking peers, becomes an unraveling of painful memories of his first foster family, the life and death of his friend, Debra and an odyssey that crosses from the real to the surreal as he confronts the ghosts of Nagasaki –his and those from a Japanese novel.
Daniel Clausen’s writing is smooth and mesmerizing. There is a constant paradox that the protagonist is trying to reconcile in his journey. The protagonist escapes to a world filled with beauty and comfort: “my eyes overcome the poverty of my words. They fall out the window and deeper into the mountains.” This lyrical language that describes the mystique of the protagonist’s picturesque Japan and his dreamlike stream of consciousness is contrasted greatly with the narrative that focuses on the concise dialogue, cruder language and descriptions that reveal the other English teachers’ somewhat shallow and seedy experience of Japan’s nightlife and culture.
Clausen’s depiction of Japanese culture is compelling; effectively lacing the narrative with details about everything from street vending machines that dispense cans of coffee to effectively integrated details about Japanese pub life, language, and cultural tidbits.
The structure of the novel is based on several timelines that weave in and out of one another. Though some are clearer than others, it is at times difficult to follow the transitions, especially given the ambiguity about what is real and what are in his streams of consciousness.
THE GHOSTS OF NAGASAKI is an evocative and beautifully written journey about a man’s attempt to reconcile with his ghosts.
Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader
November 12, 2012
Ghosts of Nagasaki: Page 1
"The long backward perspective one gets from the angle of a word processor some years later is a tricky one. As a connoisseur of biography and autobiography I know that there is nothing less reliable than someone writing about his or her own past from his or her own perspective. And for the general welfare of those who look for the bare facts of the matter, I am obliged to stamp on the very first page, in the very first paragraph, in bold italics: All fact-seekers beware."
---Ghosts of Nagasaki, page 1
---Ghosts of Nagasaki, page 1
September 11, 2012
Excerpt of Ghosts of Nagasaki released in Foliate Oak Literary Journal
A fantastic web-based journal Foliate Oak has just released an excerpt from The Ghosts of Nagasaki in their September edition.
You can check out the excerpt here:
http://foliateoak.weebly.com/daniel-c...
Also, pre-release copies of The Ghosts of Nagasaki are now on sale. You can contact me directly at: lexicalfunk@gmail.com to order a copy.
You can check out the excerpt here:
http://foliateoak.weebly.com/daniel-c...
Also, pre-release copies of The Ghosts of Nagasaki are now on sale. You can contact me directly at: lexicalfunk@gmail.com to order a copy.
August 17, 2012
Ghosts of Nagasaki: Advanced Review Copy
Release the sharks! Better known as critics.
I'm in the process of putting together a list of reviewers to send advanced review copies out to. If you have a blog, a column, a youtube channel or another credible means of reviewing my new novel The Ghosts of Nagasaki and would like a review copy, you can email me directly at: lexicalfunk@gmail.com.
You can also recommend a reviewer to me.
There will be paperback copies available and digital copies for review.
To be quite honest, anyone who volunteers to read a 250 page digital copy of the book would be doing me an enormous favor (saving me postage and the cost of printing out a book).
As always, thanks for your support.
Later,
I'm in the process of putting together a list of reviewers to send advanced review copies out to. If you have a blog, a column, a youtube channel or another credible means of reviewing my new novel The Ghosts of Nagasaki and would like a review copy, you can email me directly at: lexicalfunk@gmail.com.
You can also recommend a reviewer to me.
There will be paperback copies available and digital copies for review.
To be quite honest, anyone who volunteers to read a 250 page digital copy of the book would be doing me an enormous favor (saving me postage and the cost of printing out a book).
As always, thanks for your support.
Later,
July 12, 2012
Ghosts of Nagasaki: Free Ebook: "Silence"
Well, the release of my newest novel, The Ghosts of Nagasaki, is still at least a few months away.
However, I have released a stand-alone ebook on Goodreads: Ghosts of Nagasaki: Silence, for anyone who would like to get a taste of what the book is about.
If you go to the book here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...
and click: read book
You can read the entire ebook on Goodreads for free.
If you would like a pdf copy, just contact me through goodreads.
The paperback copy of the book costs about 2.30 each to print. I will be sending out a few of these preview books to those who are willing to blog about the book or pass copies on to friends and local bookstores.
If you are interested in passing out some copies of the small book to potential readers and bookstores, just contact me through goodreads mail and we can discuss the details.
I hope you read the preview book and tell others about it as well.
Later,
Daniel
However, I have released a stand-alone ebook on Goodreads: Ghosts of Nagasaki: Silence, for anyone who would like to get a taste of what the book is about.
If you go to the book here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...
and click: read book
You can read the entire ebook on Goodreads for free.
If you would like a pdf copy, just contact me through goodreads.
The paperback copy of the book costs about 2.30 each to print. I will be sending out a few of these preview books to those who are willing to blog about the book or pass copies on to friends and local bookstores.
If you are interested in passing out some copies of the small book to potential readers and bookstores, just contact me through goodreads mail and we can discuss the details.
I hope you read the preview book and tell others about it as well.
Later,
Daniel
June 14, 2012
Enter the Bureaucrat-Samurai Inoue
Hey everyone, here is another excerpt from The Ghosts of Nagasaki.
Check out an illustration here:
http://cbocquee.blogspot.com/
Thanks to Christian Bocquee for all his help!
Enter Inoue:
I suddenly realize that I’m saying his name rather loudly. Now, I’m saying it again. “I-NO-U-E.” And as I’m saying it I rifle through my backpack looking for Chinmoku. Soon, the book is in my hands and I’m leafing through the pages. And then I find it.
“Oh shit,” I say out loud. “It’s him! It’s that bloody fascist samurai that persecutes the Christians.”
I say the name one more time, and as I say it, I’m sure I call up his spirit. And as if on cue, I hear the door swing open and crack against the wall.
The izakaya suddenly goes silent. When I turn around all I can see is a row of salarymen lining the entrance. And there he is. The regional manager casually walks in, wearing full samurai armor, his fat oozing from the sides, his rosy cheeks and smile masking a mind made for cruelty.
“Oh God, who invited this cunt?” the Welshman says out loud.
I see the majority of the people scatter and flee for the door. They hurry to pay their bill and leave, but it soon becomes apparent that no one can leave with Inoue’s large frame blocking the entrance. Inoue lingers there, taking in deep gobs of air and letting them out slowly.
“Hot in here, eh,” he says and gives a short little sputter-laugh.
And it is. The people previously trying to make their way out the door fidget and try to find places to stand and sit. With so many people in the izakaya and none of the jolly merriment of seconds before we all seem to be sweating. I see out of the corner of my eye Kichijiro’s head shoot up from the table and his hands start to tremble with fear. Inoue finally begins to make his way over to our part of the table. He gives a kind of half-sputter laugh, then sits down next to the Welshman.
“You guys are dressed a bit formally for a party, aren’t you?” the Welshman says.
The samurai gives that same sputter-laugh and then calls for beers for him and all of his men. “I just came to congratulate you for a job well done and to wish you farewell on your journey back to your country.”
Kichijiro is shaking all over, and I’m rubbing my eyes, desperately trying to see what is there in front of me. I blink my eyes. When I close my right eye, I can see the same fat man in a full business suit. When I close the left eye and open the right, it’s my foster father Chuck. When I open both my eyes again, there is no mistaking it—it’s Inoue in full samurai armor.
All of us sit still. Our sweat and musk soon fill the room. I look to see where Aussie-Grunge is, and when I see her even she has a look of panic. One of the salarymen comes with a small Japanese folding fan and begins to fan Inoue. While the rest of us remain silent, Inoue and his troupe make off-the-cuff remarks in spattered English about foreigner arrogance, lazy work habits, and a lack of respect. I expect Mikey Welsh to do something—come up with some witty insult, pull down his pants and flash them, something—but all he does is shake his head. I soon realize that I’ve now met the one person who intimidates even the Welshman.
Inoue puts his flabby arm around Mikey. “I will miss you, you little arrogant foreigner—‘arrogant,’ is that the correct word?” He gives another stunted bureaucratic laugh. “My English is so poor. But what do you expect from us Japanese? We are just a simple people with simple ways.” Finally, Inoue and his troupe stand up. They ask for their tab, and I see Kichijiro settle down with a sigh of relief. “It’s okay,” Inoue says. “I did not mean to interrupt your party. Have all the fun you can handle. Everyone knows that the common worker is the soul of Japan. I just came for this one,” he says, pointing to Kichijiro.
“You see, he is my sister’s son. I try to look out for him. I give him a good job and a nice salary, but look what happens. Family, what are you going to do, eh?”
The look of disgust on the Welshman’s face is pronounced. Is he seeing what I’m seeing?
Check out an illustration here:
http://cbocquee.blogspot.com/
Thanks to Christian Bocquee for all his help!
Enter Inoue:
I suddenly realize that I’m saying his name rather loudly. Now, I’m saying it again. “I-NO-U-E.” And as I’m saying it I rifle through my backpack looking for Chinmoku. Soon, the book is in my hands and I’m leafing through the pages. And then I find it.
“Oh shit,” I say out loud. “It’s him! It’s that bloody fascist samurai that persecutes the Christians.”
I say the name one more time, and as I say it, I’m sure I call up his spirit. And as if on cue, I hear the door swing open and crack against the wall.
The izakaya suddenly goes silent. When I turn around all I can see is a row of salarymen lining the entrance. And there he is. The regional manager casually walks in, wearing full samurai armor, his fat oozing from the sides, his rosy cheeks and smile masking a mind made for cruelty.
“Oh God, who invited this cunt?” the Welshman says out loud.
I see the majority of the people scatter and flee for the door. They hurry to pay their bill and leave, but it soon becomes apparent that no one can leave with Inoue’s large frame blocking the entrance. Inoue lingers there, taking in deep gobs of air and letting them out slowly.
“Hot in here, eh,” he says and gives a short little sputter-laugh.
And it is. The people previously trying to make their way out the door fidget and try to find places to stand and sit. With so many people in the izakaya and none of the jolly merriment of seconds before we all seem to be sweating. I see out of the corner of my eye Kichijiro’s head shoot up from the table and his hands start to tremble with fear. Inoue finally begins to make his way over to our part of the table. He gives a kind of half-sputter laugh, then sits down next to the Welshman.
“You guys are dressed a bit formally for a party, aren’t you?” the Welshman says.
The samurai gives that same sputter-laugh and then calls for beers for him and all of his men. “I just came to congratulate you for a job well done and to wish you farewell on your journey back to your country.”
Kichijiro is shaking all over, and I’m rubbing my eyes, desperately trying to see what is there in front of me. I blink my eyes. When I close my right eye, I can see the same fat man in a full business suit. When I close the left eye and open the right, it’s my foster father Chuck. When I open both my eyes again, there is no mistaking it—it’s Inoue in full samurai armor.
All of us sit still. Our sweat and musk soon fill the room. I look to see where Aussie-Grunge is, and when I see her even she has a look of panic. One of the salarymen comes with a small Japanese folding fan and begins to fan Inoue. While the rest of us remain silent, Inoue and his troupe make off-the-cuff remarks in spattered English about foreigner arrogance, lazy work habits, and a lack of respect. I expect Mikey Welsh to do something—come up with some witty insult, pull down his pants and flash them, something—but all he does is shake his head. I soon realize that I’ve now met the one person who intimidates even the Welshman.
Inoue puts his flabby arm around Mikey. “I will miss you, you little arrogant foreigner—‘arrogant,’ is that the correct word?” He gives another stunted bureaucratic laugh. “My English is so poor. But what do you expect from us Japanese? We are just a simple people with simple ways.” Finally, Inoue and his troupe stand up. They ask for their tab, and I see Kichijiro settle down with a sigh of relief. “It’s okay,” Inoue says. “I did not mean to interrupt your party. Have all the fun you can handle. Everyone knows that the common worker is the soul of Japan. I just came for this one,” he says, pointing to Kichijiro.
“You see, he is my sister’s son. I try to look out for him. I give him a good job and a nice salary, but look what happens. Family, what are you going to do, eh?”
The look of disgust on the Welshman’s face is pronounced. Is he seeing what I’m seeing?
May 10, 2012
Interview with Libby Heily
You can check out my interview with Libby Heily, author of the upcoming book "Tough Girl" right here:
http://daniellclausen.wordpress.com/2...
http://daniellclausen.wordpress.com/2...
April 3, 2012
New Excerpt from Ghosts of Nagasaki
In anticipation of the release of my third novel--The Ghosts of Nagasaki--I will be releasing excerpts of the book in phases.
You can check out the latest excerpt--Enter the Welshman--right here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
In case you missed it, the first excerpt can be found here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
Spread the word, leave comments, feel free to repost, etc.
More to come!
You can check out the latest excerpt--Enter the Welshman--right here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
In case you missed it, the first excerpt can be found here:
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
Spread the word, leave comments, feel free to repost, etc.
More to come!
