Cliff Jones Jr.'s Blog, page 2

The TL;DR Guide to ADHD Types

Much like its cousin autism, ADHD affects people in wildly different ways, so further categorization can be helpful. But the reading on the subject can be tough, so here’s some quick-and-dirty tips I hope you’ll find helpful.

1. Classic ADHD

When you try to concentrate, your brain slows down and you get easily distracted. You may also be hyperactive, impulsive, and disorganized. You need more dopamine, so exercise and stimulants can help.

2. Inattentive ADHD

You’re a daydreamer, likely an introvert. Again, you need more dopamine in your life, so get some exercise! And protein is your friend; go easy on the carbs.

3. Over-Focused ADHD

You have trouble switching gears from one task or train of thought to another. This means you can easily get stuck in a downward spiral of negativity. You may need an antidepressant or a mood-enhancing supplement like L-tryptophan, 5-HTP, saffron, inositol, etc. Also, protein is not your friend.

4. Temporal Lobe ADHD

In addition to everything else, you have trouble with memory and learning, and you can be quick to anger. A good magnesium supplement and some extra GABA can help you stay calm, and gingko or vinpocetine can help with memory.

5. Limbic ADHD

You feel kind of down all the time: sad, guilty, helpless, etc. The mood control center of your brain is going haywire, and you could use some supplements like DLPA, L-tyrosine, and SAMe to even out.

6. Ring of Fire ADHD

Your brain is running too hot, making you sensitive to noise, light, touch, etc. You may also be anxious, fearful, and hurtful to the people around you. Don’t use any stimulants. Instead, look out for allergies and try GABA, 5-HTP, L-tyrosine, and possibly anticonvulsant medication if supplements don’t work for you.

7. Anxious ADHD

You’re always tense, with frequent headaches and/or digestive problems. You often freeze up socially. Instead of stimulants, take GABA, L-theanine, Relora, magnesium, and/or holy basil.

Full disclosure: My primary motivation for making this post was to force myself to finally understand these types once and for all. I hope it’s helped you as well!

Reference: Dr. Amen’s 7 Types of ADHD

Cocktail Recipe: Manhattan Heights

First the recipe and then the backstory:

1.5 oz mezcal (preferably sotol)

1 oz sherry (preferably amontillado)

0.5 oz sweet vermouth

dash of chocolate bitters

cocktail cherry (with a little syrup)

This is the first cocktail recipe I’m posting, and it’s very close to my heart. It similar to a classic Manhattan, but with a smoky mezcal or sotol (or tequila in a pinch). To enhance (but not overpower) the delicate flavor of the spirit, I added a little vermouth and just a bit more sherry. The style and sweetness of the sherry is up to you, but I suggest something not too sweet, ideally an Amontillado. Stir all the ingredients together with ice and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass (like a coupe or an old-fashioned glass).

The Manhattan Heights is named for a neighborhood in central El Paso where my grandmother-in-law lived, my father-in-law grew up, and I spent some time myself. Right on the edge of the Franklin Mountains, this area is home to some delicious Mexican food, and it’s also where I did a lot of writing for my upcoming fantasy novel The Lasting Lands.

The focus of this drink is the mezcal, so choose carefully. The regional mezcal variant of Chihuahua (the Mexican state bordering on El Paso) is made from agave-related desert spoon plants and known as sotol. Tequila is technically a type of mezcal as well, but it’s generally not produced in the same artisanal way and doesn’t have the same smoky flavor. It also works in this recipe, but it makes for a much softer drink.

This cocktail is around 30% alcohol by volume, so it’s meant to be a sipper. Enjoy it carefully, consciously, with consideration. The ingredients and care coming together here—the fusion of the Old World and the New—is something that should never be taken for granted.

Dreampunk Around the Web

Facebook

The easiest way to connect with a bunch of dreampunks fast is to join the Dreampunk group on Facebook. It has over a thousand members and a decent amount of activity.

Bluesky

I manage a Dreampunk feed that features posts about several well-known dreampunk creators and properties. To get your posts to show up in the feed, just include the word “dreampunk.” If you need an invite code for Bluesky, hit me up on social media.

Reddit

I created r/drmpunk on Reddit, but it hasn’t gotten much traction so far. More recently, comedian Kevin Berrey created r/dreampunks, so you have options.

Slack

If live chats are more your thing, then I have the Slack channel for you!

Discord

Or if you’d prefer a dreampunk Discord, there’s one of those too.

Goodreads

Years ago, I created a dreampunk group on Goodreads. It’s not particularly active, but there’s some good info there, and it’s definitely a good spot to find some dreampunk authors.

Fable

I started a Dreampunk book club here, and if enough people join, we’ll actually get rolling.

Wattpad

Wattpad is where I first started collecting dreampunk writer contacts back around 2015. I moved on when they introduced ads and paywalls, but I think it’s still a pretty good resource for reading, writing, and networking with other writers.

A Dreampunk Manifesto

Credit: Phazed

Dreampunk is not a real thing. But neither is cyberpunk, surrealism, or any other genre label. Divisions between genres are entirely artificial. They are valid only to the extent that they inform the reader and inspire the writer.

Dreaming is to story as thought is to language, as mind is to matter.

Novelty, spectacle, titillation, escapism, and humor are all spices to be used liberally, but the nourishment a story provides is meaningful vicarious experience. Honesty is essential.

We are estranged from ultimate reality because it is strange beyond belief. Our beliefs have estranged us.

I revere the unconscious mind above conscious machinations. I respect intuition and recognize the magnitude of my own ignorance.

I seek to love, not to hate. I seek to support, not to destroy. I seek to understand, not to condemn.

That said, it is my duty to fight cruelty, bigotry, oppression, and other forms of evil wherever I may find them.

I resist all outside efforts to subvert and co-opt my free will. Of particular concern are large organizations such as corporations, governments, religions, and secret societies.

I respect personal privacy but abhor organizational secrecy.

I revere the ineffable beauty of nature, particularly the moon, a symbol of the impossible yet manifest—an enormous rock floating steadily above our heads, never changing course, never even turning its face. It calls to me, an avowed lunatic.

Credit: Brianna Ashby

Dreampunk Motifs

If you consume any amount of dreampunk, you’ll notice certain motifs repeating a lot, almost as if all the authors agreed to draw their imagery from a common pool of “dreamy” elements. Aside from the obligatory Alice in Wonderland references that everybody tends to make, these are the most common recurring motifs I’ve noticed. I’m not basing these on any systematic study of the literature, mind you, just my informal observations.

The Moon

See: 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami), American Gods (Neil Gaiman), Over the Garden Wall, the Roam series (Dez Schwartz).

Mirrors, Twins, Doubles

See: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (Lewis Carroll), Twin Peaks, Severance, Adventure Time, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Mirrormaze, Somniscope, Mirrors (Sonya Deulina Williams).

Shadows, Silhouettes, Darkness

See: Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie), Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami), Over the Garden Wall, Dreck (Cliff Jones Jr.).

Spirals, Swirls, Vortexes

See: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum), Rick and Morty, Dreck (Cliff Jones Jr.).

Doors, Gates, Portals

See: The Dark Tower series (Stephen King), Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman), The Scott Pilgrim series (Bryan Lee O’Malley).

Ladders, Stairs, Pyramids

See: Jerusalem (Alan Moore), Jacob’s Ladder, 1Q84 (Haruki Murakami), Dreck (Cliff Jones Jr.).

Mazes, Labyrinths

See: Pan’s Labyrinth, Westworld, Wolf in White Van (John Darnielle), Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes), Mirrormaze.

Games, Toys

See: Stranger Things, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Adventure Time, Jerusalem (Alan Moore), Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson), Wolf in White Van (John Darnielle), DreamScape (Antonia Rachel Ward),

Music

See: Adventure Time, Dance Dance Dance (Haruki Murakami), The Darkening of the Light (Tessa B. Dick), The Mighty Boosh, DreamScape (Antonia Rachel Ward).

Fire, Smoke, Fog

See: Twin Peaks, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey), Slaughterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut).

Trees, Forest, Caves

See: Adventure Time, Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami), A Monster Calls (Patrick Ness), Twin Peaks, Over the Garden Wall.

Flowers, Mandalas

See: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), The Neverending Story (Michael Ende), Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes).

Rivers, Seas

See: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Haruki Murakami), Black (Ted Dekker), A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula K. Le Guin).

Falling, Floating, Flying

See: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Dune (Frank Herbert), Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie), Storm Dreams (Jeb R. Sherrill), the Roam series (Dez Schwartz).

Drugs, Liquor, Tea

See: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Vurt (Jeff Noon), A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick), Dune (Frank Herbert), The Matrix, Dreck (Cliff Jones Jr.), Mirrormaze.

Birds, Bats, Butterflies

See: Twin Peaks, Over the Garden Wall, Black (Ted Dekker), Hoodoo (Ronald L. Smith), Vurt (Jeff Noon), The Sandman series (Neil Gaiman).

Cats, Rabbits, Sheep, Etc.

See: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), Donnie Darko, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick), The Darkening of the Light (Tessa B. Dick).

Have you noticed any other elements repeating in different dreampunk books, movies, or series? Please share your findings as a comment on this post!

The Dreampunk Guide to Adventure Time

I recently shared my collection of dreampunk TV series, and my all-time favorite show Adventure Time made the list. “But isn’t it more post-apocalyptic science fantasy?” you may ask. True, the original series wasn’t consistently dreampunk from episode to episode (though its spin-off Fionna and Cake revels in the plastic nature of reality). However, the following episodes fit the bill quite nicely:

Rainy Day Daydream (s1e23): When a knife storm forces Finn and Jake to stay inside, they discover the out-of-control power of Jake’s imagination.

Guardians of Sunshine (s2e16): Finn and Jake trick BMO into letting them into the video game called Guardians of Sunshine, where they attempt to defeat an unbeatable video game in a 3D digital environment.

Memory of a Memory (s3e3): Finn and Jake enter Marceline’s mind to awaken her from a sleep spell she had cast on herself, without knowing that they are being tricked by a person from her past.

The New Frontier (s3e18): Finn tries to stop Jake from embracing a dream that he believes foretells his final demise.

King Worm (s4e18): Finn has a vivid dream that may be more than it seems.

Who Would Win? (s4e21): Finn and Jake are determined to take down the Farm, but instead they fight each other for not training seriously.

Finn the Human (s5e1): Finn and Jake chase the Lich through a dimensional portal where they meet Prismo, who tells them that the Lich wished for the extinction of all life. This leads Finn to wish that the Lich “never even ever existed” and the creation of the Farmworld reality.

Jake the Dog (s5e2): Jake continues to watch the consequences of Finn’s wish within the Time Room with Prismo. As the situation gets worse in the world of Finn’s wish, Prismo tries to help Jake make the right wish to save both Finn and the entire world.

A Glitch Is a Glitch (s5e15): Ice King creates a computer virus to delete everything except him and Princess Bubblegum, so Finn and Jake try to remove the virus before it can glitch out the universe.

Puhoy (s5e16): Depressed by his relationship with Flame Princess, Finn enters a pillow fort built by Jake where he discovers a new world and makes a new life for himself.

The Vault (s5e34): When Finn starts sleepwalking and dreaming about the green Ghost Lady he filed away in his memory vault at the end of “The Creeps,” Jake and BMO help him tap into his repressed memories to uncover a secret past.

Food Chain (s6e7): On a field trip to the Candy Kingdom Museum of Natural History, Finn and Jake learn about the food chain by becoming the food chain.

Everything’s Jake (s6e18): Magic Man causes Jake to transport to a new world, to unlock his feelings deep inside.

Is That You? (s6e19): A memorial service for Prismo turns into a resurrecting adventure for Finn and Jake in another dimension.

Evergreen (s6e24): The story of Evergreen and his young assistant Gunther during the Cretaceous period, long before the Mushroom War, where they try to keep a major catastrophe from destroying Earth.

Astral Plane (s6e25): While asleep on a camping trip with Jake, Finn visits the Astral Plane and discovers the meaning of creativity.

Jermaine (s6e33): After a chilling dream encounter, Finn and Jake are determined to reconnect with their reclusive brother.

Hoots (s6e36): A charismatic stranger in Finn’s dream leads Cosmic Owl to shirk his duties.

Football (s7e5): BMO and Football make a deal, but one of them can’t keep up their end of the bargain.

Crossover (s7e23): Finn and Jake cross over into Farmworld Finn’s dimension.

The Hall of Egress (s7e24): Trapped and alone, Finn must unravel the riddle of the weird cave with no exit.

Broke His Crown (s8e1): When Ice King’s magic crown goes haywire, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum resort to extreme measures to help him.

Don’t Look (s8e2): Finn unearths a treasure with a terrible price at the top of Dead Mountain.

Beyond the Grotto (s8e3): Finn and Jake follow a sea lard, and in doing so, are led to a strange new world.

I Am a Sword (s8e5): Finn starts having nightmares about his missing Finn Sword and wonders if they are actually real.

Imaginary Resources (s8e23): Finn and Jake travel to a land where reality has been redesigned and improved.

Orb (s9e1): The dreams of Finn, Jake, and BMO fall under the influence of a mysterious orb.

Abstract (s9e10): As Jake goes through some personal changes, he’s haunted by a sinister dream encounter with his brother Jermaine.

Temple of Mars (s10e11): Searching for answers on Mars, Finn and Jermaine discover that they must first survive a cunning Martian mental trap.

Come Along With Me (s10e13): The fate of Ooo is revealed to two adventurers in the distant future: Princess Bubblegum gathers her allies while Finn and Jake look for a way to prevent the coming Great Gum War against Gumbald and his army and a powerful evil deity is unleashed upon Ooo.

Bonus: The spin-off series Distant Lands includes one very dreampunk episode that you won’t want to miss: “Together Again.”

Dreampunk in Print

The easiest way to answer the question “What is dreampunk?” is to throw out some clear examples of the genre and let you see for yourself. This list is by no means complete, so please add your own examples in the comments.

Somniscope: A Dreampunk Convergence

A multi-author novel/collection hybrid edited by Cliff Jones Jr.

Dreck (2023)

A novella by Cliff Jones Jr. Read the reviews!

DreamScape (2023)

By Antonia Rachel Ward.

The Dream Chasers series (2019–2023)

By Martin Matthews.

The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer (2022)

A multi-author collection edited by Janelle Monáe.

The Dream Phaze series (2019–2022)

By Matt Watters.

Legend of the Mind (2021)

A graphic novel by Jeffrey Hopp.

Mirrormaze: A Dreampunk Anthology (2020)

A multi-author choose-your-path collection edited by Cliff Jones Jr. Read the reviews!

Steggie Belle and the Dream Warriors (2020)

By Elias Pell. Read his interview!

The Mirrors series (2019–2020)

By Sonya Deulina Williams. Read her interview!

The Gay Wizard series (2019–2020)

By V. S. Santoni. Read their interview!

Urban Gothic (2019)

A novella by Stephen Coghlan. Read his interview!

The Soul Sleep Cycle (2017–2019)

By David Michael Williams. Read his interview!

The Vivid Dreamer (2018)

By Kurt Wagner, Suzanne Wyles, and Jason Gronich.

Exit (2018)

A novella by Crispian Thurlborn.

The Strange the Dreamer series (2017–2018)

By Laini Taylor.

Mis(h)adra (2017)

A graphic novel by Iasmin Omar Ata.

The Roam series (2016–2017)

By Dez Schwartz. Read her interview!

Letters to the Black Underground (2016)

By Yelena Calavera. Read her interview!

Storm Dreams (2016)

By Jeb R. Sherrill. Read his interview!

Hoodoo (2016)

A children’s novel by Ronald L. Smith.

Jerusalem (2016)

By Alan Moore.

The Dream World series (2013–2015)

By Tony Ballantyne.

Wolf in White Van (2014)

By John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.

The Scott Pilgrim series (2004–2010)

A comic series by Bryan Lee O’Malley.

The Darkening of the Light (2012)

By Tessa B. Dick. Read her interview!

A Monster Calls (2011)

A children’s novel by Patrick Ness.

Secret Cages (2009)

By Barry Hale.

The Newford series (1993–2004)

By Charles de Lint.

The Dark Tower series (1982–2004)

By Stephen King.

Perdido Street Station (2000)

By China Miéville.

Girl in Landscape (1998)

By Jonathan Lethem.

The Vurt series (1993–1997)

By Jeff Noon. Read his interview!

Neverwhere (1996)

By Neil Gaiman.

Fight Club (1996)

By Chuck Palahniuk.

The Sandman series (1989–1996)

A comic series by Neil Gaiman.

Amnesia Moon (1995)

By Jonathan Lethem.

Bigot Hall (1995)

A novella by Steve Aylett. Read his interview!

Snow Crash (1992)

By Neal Stephenson.

Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas (1987)

By Michael Bishop.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)

By Haruki Murakami.

Incarnate (1983)

By Ramsey Campbell.

White Light (1980)

By Rudy Rucker. Read his interview!