Jason Fischer's Blog, page 9
January 16, 2014
The (Slow) Hunger Games
Greetings folks! [blows dust off ye olde blog]
Like any other field of endeavour, writing attracts many types of personalities. Every sort of philosophy and viewpoint is represented, somewhere, by someone. From the best-selling authors through to the twitching crafters of manifestos and bizarre fan-fiction, we’re all sitting down to Make the Thing Happen.
One thing I believe we creatives have in common is a hunger. A drive to get those words out, to crystallize whatever we’ve got going on inside our skulls. Everyone has a different reason for doing this, be it a personal journey, a desire for fame and wealth, a need to communicate an important message as far as possible. A deep love of a franchise. Or even just for the lolz.
But it’s important to remember that we’re all hungry, even if it’s for different things. And that’s fricken awesome, folks. Hunger is a great drive for creation, and should be applauded. The opposite of a striving, hungry soul is a complacent and stagnant one. If a writer can deliver that sense of urgency, of importance, to those who read their work, they’ve made the world just that little bit better.
What I’ve observed, both in my own journey and observing that of others, is that the hunger changes. You might change targets, several times. The small victories near the starting line no longer seem sufficient, and as you grow and evolve, you just get hungrier.
Not hungry like the hummingbird, a blur of activity that has to eat and eat, just to keep going (and oh, how I hummed!). I’m thinking more like the deep hunger of a reptile, some long-lived thing that hides beneath rotten logs. You’ll pounce on something and eat, and it will be amazing and satisfying. You’ll digest it for weeks, months, before you need to eat again.
I think that long-view can only benefit the average creative. Focusing on resonance instead of the quick and shiny glim of a tasty bug. Growing into an impressive force that lurks beyond human ken, and is remembered, nay, feared 
Be driven by that deep, slow hunger. Work on something ambitious and memorable, and focus on it like an ancient swamp creature with nothing better to do. I dare you!
“Dude….just finished writing an awesome book. Dude? Where are you going?”
January 1, 2014
New review for “Everything is a Graveyard”
The folks over at ScaryMinds have just released a review of my short story collection “Everything is a Graveyard”. About it they say:
“Jason Fischer’s first collection Everything Is A Graveyard is arguably the best release of tales to chill by this year. A very solid collection of post apocalyptic stories that have a uniqueness about them that will provide you with hours of entertainment while making you wonder why on earth this Author hasn’t released a collection previously. As expected Ticonderoga Publication have produced a polished release that simply states professionalism. Excellent release that is one of the must have books of 2013. Do not miss this collection, it’s destined for cult status, highest recommendation folks.”
10 stars out of 10. Plus many other very kind words by the reviewer. I’m quietly stunned. Best review ever! I always love it when people enjoy my stories, and get a thrill when someone takes the time to write a review.
To read the rest of the review (and see some of the other excellent reviews and content hosted on this site) click on the following link:
December 5, 2013
Notes from the coal-face
Hey all long time since I blogged on my Doings Of Note. Sadly, real life has a way of derailing these things. I’m really going to try and update this thing more often, even if it’s just hair-metal video-clips and vague absurdities.
I try my best to keep stupid non-writing stuff away from this site and on my social media. The end result is a paucity of updates on the Fisch-Blog, and a near constant stream of puns and dodgy pictures everywhere else.
Anyways, onto the shareholder report. Here is what is going on at Fisch-Tech Enterprises (ie my comfy chair and laptop). Following the launch of my zombie-tastic short story collection “Everything Is A Graveyard”, I found that I’ve largely abandoned short form writing. Don’t get me wrong, I regret nothing, and learned a lot of things from working on shorter pieces. At some point, every journeyman writer should try to encapsulate a SF idea in flash fiction form.
In recent months though, I’ve found that I can’t write in anything shorter than novella length. I’m naturally leaning towards beefier slabs of writing, with the leisure to develop characters, let them drive the story, and take it into weird and wonderful directions that my poor outlines don’t expect. It’s nice to feel comfortable working on longer pieces, and I’m no longer a slave to the Take Over the World Now! mindset that drove me circa 2007 or so.
Case in point – the current novel (tentatively named “Wipe”) didn’t even exist as a concept until about a month ago. It was driven by a radio commercial, a workmate’s fear of not having done much with her life, and a whole bunch of random internet wool-gathering. When the last bit fell into place, my creative flywheels started spinning, and just like that the first 6 chapters have fallen out of my head. In about a fortnight.
I love the characters like they’re real people, and find the setting compelling enough that I constantly want to go back, to reveal just that little bit more of it. Each day, I simply can’t wait for my next writing session. That’s not work, friends, that’s Loving the Gig That You’ve Got.
It is so nice just to revel in the sheer joy of writing again. To put aside all of that knife-gripped-in-the-teeth results-driven creativity, and just have a ball. I feel sad that I forgot this feeling for so long, but it’s sure nice to have it back.
In closing, I give you this video of animals caught stealing. Peace out, y’all!
November 14, 2013
It’s Officially Official…
…my debut short story collection “EVERYTHING IS A GRAVEYARD” is, as of today, officially released in all markets. There was a book launch and sales of the book at the Melbourne Zombie Convention, but now, it’s open season on this mad epistle.
Direct from my brain to your hands, you will thrill at the troubles of minotaurs, and death come shambling, crying, laughing to your door. The beasts of the Outback, now murderous and cunning. Arcologies, mouldering in the twilight of humanity. Lastly, do not forget the muscle cars, tearing through dead cities, burning through the last of the fuel with style.
Don’t just listen to my obviously biased bleatings. Here’s what some others have to say about my new book:
“If you haven’t been reading Jason Fischer, your literary diet is lacking in zest, zing, and essential vitamins. ‘Undead Camels Ate Their Flesh’ is alone worth the price of admission here.” – Gardner Dozois
“Without a doubt Everything is a Graveyard contains a wealth of left-field undead storytelling. But that’s not the whole story. Fischer’s apocalyptic obsessions cover much wider ground than that, from sheer fantasy to the realism of the ever-present threat of dropbears. If zombie tropes, and indeed all apocalypse stories, are about our personal and social attitudes to mortality (and they are), Fischer explores the personal and social absurdities and profundities like few before him.” – Robert Hood
You can buy this book RIGHT NOW. Either through Amazon, or directly from Ticonderoga Publications. May you read, and enjoy
November 6, 2013
DRAGON ASSAULT – Coming Soon!
Deep in the Goblin Underland beneath The Span, excavators have uncovered a vast ancient complex of galleries and chambers, where glyphs in the stone spell out “Look Ye Upon The Makers of Gods”, and something extremely dangerous is destroying all who enter there. The Goblin King has appealed to the Council of The Span for assistance, and help is sent – but it’s not quite the allied army the Goblins were expecting. When the King refuses to send any Goblin to die with the Council’s party, one unlikely volunteer steps up to represent his kind.
Thus begins my tale “Cogfetch and the Crypt”, which is part of the exciting new game DRAGON ASSAULT. An e-book of this will be available as an in-game purchase, alongside all the usual weapons, potions, and other e-books set in this richly detailed fantasy world.
If you look back on the RPGs of the 1990s with fond memories, if you still wish you were hacking and slashing through Eye of the Beholder and Bard’s Tale, then this is the game for you.
A whole bunch of talented and award-winning folks have collaborated on this project, which is coming close to completion. I’ve had a play on the development site, and (without any bias) Dragon Assault is just damn good fun.
Don’t just take my word for it, head over to the Dragon Assault Facebook page and have a look at some of the teaser artwork. The game itself is due out in 2014, and it’s gonna rock.
October 30, 2013
Of Zombies, Dionysius, and eating the brains of Apollo.
I made a throwaway comment on social media the other day, how I believed that all zombie fiction is essentially the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy writ large. Having pondered on the idea for a day or two, I thought it worth expanding upon.
“The Apollonian is based on individuality, and the human form which is used to represent the individual and make one being distinct from all the others. It celebrates human creativity through reason and logical thinking. By contrast, the Dionysian is based on chaos and appeals to the emotions and instincts. Rather than being individual, the barriers on individuality are broken down and beings submerge themselves in one whole.”
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollonian)
Now, if that doesn’t sum up the rugged individuals resisting the mindless zombie hordes, I don’t know what does. Broken down to its purest theme, the modern zombie narrative tells us about the struggle of the Apollonian holdouts, maintaining reason and logic against the overwhelming default state of chaos.
Throughout western literature, this idea has been used over and over, by everyone from Nietzsche to Stephen King. As far as the Greeks themselves are concerned, this dichotomy is probably a carry over from earlier Egyptian mythology (which is all about Order resisting Chaos) and seems to be a story as old as recorded history.
In George Romero’s excellent movie Land of the Dead, we see the complete destruction of one man’s Apollonian order, and as the dust settles, an uneasy accomodation between these two philosophies (the survivors of Fiddler’s Green and the evolving zombies). It should be noted that “the Greeks did not consider the two gods to be opposites or rivals, although often the two deities were interlacing by nature.”
In my favourite moment of this movie, the turncoat human Cholo DeMora (played by John Leguizamo) cops an infected bite. He is from that moment on doomed to turn into a zombie, and walk the earth in undeath. Even as his companion offers to end his life (and spare him from this fate) Cholo stops him.
: [Cholo is bitten by a zombie and Foxy hold a gun aimed at him] It’s your call man.
: [hesitates then shakes his head no] Nah, I always wanted to see how the other half lives.
And just like that, we realise that Cholo was a Dionysian figure all along. Rebuffed earlier by his employer, this character opens the floodgates to chaos, turning against his own kind, and dooming Fiddler’s Green. Stealing the ultimate weapon, he is ostensibly holding this gated community to ransom for what is effectively useless currency – there is nothing left to the United States but barter economies, walled enclaves in a new Dark Ages. This always bugged me about this movie, but I finally understand that it was never about the money for Cholo. This is the story of an Apollonian figure rejecting his Dionysian counterpart, who then behaves true to form.
Finally, I’d like to really draw a long bow, and talk about the Maenads. These were the female followers of Dionysius, known for madness and chaos, for drunken revelries in the wilderness. In every story they are mindless, wild, individual creatures broken down and remade as agents of chaos – a mad group, never individuals from that point.
It’s almost incidental that they throw the equivalent of wild parties, with drinking, mad dancing and crazy music. Discount these facts, and everything else points to the ancient Greeks inventing the modern zombie some 2000 years before Romero thought of it.
“Rather than being individual, the barriers on individuality are broken down and beings submerge themselves in one whole.”
In the maenads, we have women who reject their role, murdering their own children, turning from civilisation. Anytime they encounter man or beast, they attack it in a frenzy, tearing it limb from limb. Whenever they eat flesh, it’s not for sustenance, but in an attempt to consume the divine, to rise above their earthly forms. Much like the zombies, they aren’t eating to survive. It’s a communion, a frenzy that exists beyond the normal actions of life.
“Ack. I should have aimed all my javelins for the head.”
“The goal was to achieve a state of enthusiasm in which the celebrants’ souls were temporarily freed from their earthly bodies and were able to commune with Bacchus/Dionysus and gain a glimpse of and a preparation for what they would someday experience in eternity. The rite climaxed in a performance of frenzied feats of strength and madness, such as uprooting trees, tearing a bull (the symbol of Dionysus) apart with their bare hands, an act called sparagmos, and eating its flesh raw, an act called omophagia. This latter rite was a sacrament akin to communion in which the participants assumed the strength and character of the god by symbolically eating the raw flesh and drinking the blood of his symbolic incarnation. Having symbolically eaten his body and drunk his blood, the celebrants became possessed by Dionysus.”
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maenad)
So, in summary, whenever we tell a zombie story, we’re reverting to a very old mythology. If we do it properly, we’re exploring the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy each and every time.
October 17, 2013
Author Appearances in December
Heya folks,
A quick update about some upcoming appearances:
14th December, 1pm - BOOK SIGNING
Come along to Collins Booksellers, Edwardstown. I’ll be there signing copies of my new book EVERYTHING IS A GRAVEYARD, and will most likely have some copies of the zombie-tastic QUIVER as well.
19th December, 9pm – RADIO
I’ll be making an appearance on The Show’s Christmas special, along with other guests they’ve had throughout the year. Tune into PBA-FM, 89.7fm, or stream the show via the following link:
Busy Fisch is Busy
Oh boy, we live in exciting times! While I’ve admittedly spent the last few days playing Silent Hill: Downpour, the rest of the time has been flat out. Between hanging out with my awesome family, studying clinical coding and working in an interesting and challenging job, I every now and then (with the firm and wise encouragement of the good Mrs Fisch) get into the study and Get Those Words Down.
I count myself blessed that I get to do this writing thing that I enjoy. It’s a wonderful feeling, sitting down and casting out one’s mind, playing make-believe for hours on end. Even better when you come out of it at the other end, a little bit dazed and in need of a cuppa, with a whole new slab of story to share with other people.
I’m at the part of my career where I’ve always got something on the go, and where I often have to be somewhat cryptic about what I’m working on. Nascent works are delicate things, and if they are commissioned pieces they usually have an embargo attached to them. Also, it’s kind of a jinx thing, as even self-propelled works can mutate and change mid-stream, and then I look back at these blog-posts and feel daft.
Anyway, here’s the current state of play at Fisch Industries:
Currently working on:
Military Science Fiction novel (collab)
Cthulhu short story
Tie-in novella
Collaboration short story
And here’s the rest of my dance-card, which makes the next 12-18 months pretty flat out:
YA book (working title “Bossfight”)
YA book (working title “Ripley Quarterquick”)
Sequel to Quiver, working title “Hard Nock Life”
Various short stories (about 6 different ideas, just for me!)
The Severed Garden (crazy fix-up novel based around my existing Raoul the Minotaur stories, and some new material. Think lots of marginalia, weird plates, poetry, surreal interstitial and transmedia stuff. Dream project that will take as long as it takes)
Cabalista – self-pubbed flash-fiction antho I want to get off the ground. Will try my hand at illustration, though it will probably involve fummetti and Photoshop
And everyday, this list of stuff fricken GROWS. I need to win lotto just to get on top of this to-do list
October 8, 2013
Of launches and a pub full of rotters!
Wow, what a great weekend! Saturday started with the book launch for my new collection “EVERYTHING IS A GRAVEYARD”, which was great. Nice turn-out of locals at the SA Writers Centre, and the lovely Lisa Hannett did the honour of launching my book. She did an amazing job of analysing my stories and proved once more that she really REALLY knows her stuff. 
Here we see the author inserting the obligatory pun into his signature.
A fat stack of books with my name on the cover! Cool!
A few hours after the Adelaide launch, the Ticonderoga Publications road-show hit the airport, and we went straight over to Melbourne (via the Virgin Lounge – free food and everything!). We caught up with the lovely Angela Rega after her booklaunch (Her ”The Cobbler Mage” is an absolutely gorgeous book, BTW – marbling on the in-leaf pages and everything).
Sunday brought us to the the inaugural Melbourne Zombie Convention. The event was sold out, and 600 guests converged on the Royal Melbourne Hotel, decked out as zombies, zombie-hunters, and the occasional bemused “normal”.
Sold a bunch of books (both “Everything is a Graveyard” and my zombie novel “Quiver”), chatted to heaps of folks, caught up with many excellent writers and publishers, and even sat on a panel with other writers to talk all things undead in literature. Had an absolute ball, and even got quoted in The Age:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/a-lively-day-for-the-undead-20131006-2v2ga.html
Many thanks to Russell B Farr and Liz Grzyb of Ticonderoga Publications for taking a leap of faith on my book, and for making this brilliant weekend happen. One very happy author, signing off.
Michonne (excellent Walking Dead cosplay) buys my books!
The bad-ass Ticonderoga crew. Most excellent publishers Russell Farr and Liz Grzyb, and yours truly.
Some rotten bugger I bumped into.
September 30, 2013
Melbourne Zombie Convention – Panel Appearance
Hi folks! Not only will I be in attendance at the Melbourne Zombie Convention, but it will be my pleasure to appear on the following panel. I will be there alongside these bright sorts, talking all things zombie and literature related.
3:30pm – 4:00pm Zombie Literature Discussion Panel hosted by Australian Horror Writer’s Association Geoff Brown featuring Sue Edge, Chuck McKenzie, Rob Hood, Paul Mannering and Jason Fischer.
When not holding forth, I’ll be found in the dealer’s room or in the nearby vicinity. I’ll be there with Russell B Farr signing copies of my zombietastic collection “Everything is a Graveyard”. Also, the survival-oriented Chuck McKenzie will be selling copies of my novel “Quiver” over at the Notions Unlimited table.
