Cora Buhlert's Blog, page 101

Christmas 2015 (with Photos)

Christmas 2015 is officially over, though the fact that December 27 is a Sunday sort of makes it an unofficial fourth Christmas day.

I spent Christmas at my parents’, as usual, eating food, decorating and gazing at the tree and watching TV. Pacific Rim was on tonight, which my Mom has never seen before, but thoroughly enjoyed. Though it was interesting that I had to explain what kaiju are and what mecha are and how they work to her. For those of us steeped in genre lore, it is easy to forget that mainstream viewers, even those who like SFF films, aren’t necessarily familiar with kaiju and mecha. Though I know that my Mom has seen kaiju films before and she very likely watched anime featuring mecha with me (definitely Neon Genesis Evangelion). But I guess it didn’t quite register with her.

BTW, rewatching Pacific Rim I was struck by how it is very much a Japanese movie made by a Mexican director with mostly British actors. It’s also a movie that is NOT about either the US or Europe to a degree that is rare in western cinema. Yes, there are scenes in Alaska and San Francisco, but most of the action takes place elsewhere and Europe doesn’t figure at all. Plus, you see kaiju attacks on cities like Manila, Cabo or Lima that are usually completely ignored by the destruction orgies of contemporary Hollywood summer spectaculars. I guess the fact that Pacific Rim is an effect-laden summer spectacular that is NOT your typical US-centric blockbuster is also why the planned sequel never got under way.

What is more, I finally persuaded my parents to replace our aging 37-year-old fairy lights for which you can’t get replacement bulbs anymore with LED lights. Or rather, I bought two strings of LED lights, put them on the table and said, “Look, I got us new Christmas lights.” The new LED lights look great on the tree BTW, since they have a lot more lights (120 per string compared to 35 for the fairy lights) and make the various ornaments sparkle. My parents like them, too. They still insist on having a few real beeswax candles on the tree, though.

Talking of which, the research I did for Alfred and Bertha’s holiday adventure, The Tinsel-Free Christmas Tree, bore unexpected fruit when I realised that some of the oldest ornaments in our collection, which my parents bought as newly-weds some 50 years ago, are actually made from the tin/lead foil called Stanniol that was also used to make tinsel (which I didn’t put up this year and ours is Mylar anyway). The texture and look are completely different from Mylar and other modern materials, for starters. Not that I have a problem with that. The older ornaments are products of their time and besides Stanniol is not dangerous unless you eat it or casually discard it.

Our Christmas was pretty quiet this year, since my uncle – who usually visits on Christmas Day or Boxing Day – elected to spend the holiday elsewhere this year and decided to inform us of this fact only two days before.

My parents are seriously pissed about this. I’m not sure how I feel about this except being annoyed about the not so subtle censure in my uncle’s behaviour that my Dad and I don’t spend enough time on my uncle and wheelchair-bound aunt, that we don’t visit often enough and don’t jump whenever my uncle has a problem. Never mind that my Dad and I both work, whereas the relatives who visit my aunt every week are retired and also live closer to my aunt’s care home, which is bloody difficult to access, because you can’t park there, which makes every visit an expedition of several hours (and I like my aunt). It’s also telling that nobody minds that the other two nephews visit very rarely. Apparently, married guys with children and jobs outside the home are allowed to have lives, whereas single women without children and with jobs which only take them outside the home part of the time apparently aren’t allowed to have a life. Though I suspect that my aunt and uncle no more get what I do than they get what the other two nephews do. Plus, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten a good dose of xenophobia, if I had dared to mention that I’m working with refugees now.

On a more general note, my extended family has sort of disintegrated in these past few years, partly due to death and illness and partly due to my (and to a lesser degree my Dad’s) refusal to put up with the bullshit of certain relatives anymore. I’m basically down to one aunt and two cousins now and a couple of more removed relatives (second and third cousins, etc…) now. I should probably feel more guilty about this than I do, especially since there is some subtle blaming cum gaslighting going on. I also probably shouldn’t blog about this, but I don’t care.

Meanwhile, we had an unexpected visitor for Christmas Eve, since my parents’ neighbour, who’s a nurse, had her shift rescheduled on short notice and found herself all alone on Christmas Eve, so we invited her over.

In other news, I’ve had a nice Christmas present, since my newly released German language lesbian holiday romance Heiligabend im Café zum Lila Kakadu is not just selling really well, it has also hit No. 1 in the lesbian fiction category at Amazon DE. Something about that story really seems to strike a chord with readers, since it sells well in both English and German. I guess I’m not the only one who has to deal with family problems on Christmas.

Finally, here are some photos of our Christmas tree, ornaments, presents, etc…

Our Christmas tree in its fully lit glory.

And here is a moody, if blurry smartphone shot of the fully lit tree.

A close-up look at the tree with various angel ornaments and lit beeswax candles. I’m particularly fond of the two angels made from woodshavings.

Another close-up look at the tree with my collection of cartoon inspired ornaments, a dwarf riding a shooting star and a beautiful rhinestone studded golden heart.

Christmas tree close-up, the third. Most of the glittery ornaments in the upper part of the tree are made from Stanniol, the above-mentioned tin-lead foil.

My parents and neighbour Rosi.

Rosi and my Mom.

My Dad unwraps presents, while my Mom looks on.

My Mom unwraps presents while my Dad sleeps.

My Dad is very pleased about his brand-new tool set.

Wrapped presents (my Dad’s)

Wrapped presents (my Mom’s)

Wrapped presents (mine)

Unwrapped presents (my Dad’s) with a pair of socks serving as a censor bar. The stapler is from me BTW, because I was fed up with my Dad’s ancient and hard to use stapler.

Unwrapped presents (my Mom’s)

Unwrapped presents (mine). Lots of books and a Star Wars t-shirt.

Talking of Star Wars, here are Finn, Poe and Rey exploring my parents’ living room cabinet. And no, those are neither moons nor death stars.

Finally, here is Else, the department store mannequin I bought at a going-out-of-business sale several years ago, in full holiday get-up looking pensively out of the window.

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Two new Christmas stories available – Zwei neue Weihnachtsgeschichten erhältlich

As promised, here are the last two new story announcements for 2015. And as befits the season, both are announcements for Christmas stories, one in German and one in English.

Let’s start with the English language story.

Bertha and Alfred, those two crazy kids of the twenty-first century, are back along with the world’s most obnoxious omniscient narrator. This time around, Bertha and Alfred prepare the celebrate Christmas, twenty-first century style. There is bad athropology and wall to wall Latin, there is roast Anser anser domesticus and a sustained debate over the merits of Picea abies versus Abies nordamanniana, there is an argument about how to decorate the Christmas tree as well as the persistent question whether Ricky Hoppenstedt will manage to destroy the world.

As always, Bertha and Alfred’s adventures are described in best bad hard SF style complete with lots of info-dumps, clunky overexplanations, wall to wall Latin, gender dynamics straight from the 1950s and bonus bad anthropology and history (But who cares? Those are the soft sciences).

So enjoy:

The Tinsel-Free Christmas Tree

Bertha and Alfred, married for twenty years, enjoy a truly science fictional life in the twenty-first century. But in spite of all the technological marvels surrounding them, an argument about how to decorate the Christmas tree escalates and threatens their marriage.

This parodistic piece is a mundane short story of 2900 words or approximately 12 print pages, written in the style of science fiction’s “golden age” of the 1940s and 1950s.

 

More information.

Length: 2800 words

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Oyster, Smashwords, Inktera, txtr, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

My second story is one that will already be familiar to regular readers of this blog as last year’s sweet lesbian Christmas romance Christmas Eve at the Purple Owl Café.

Now the story is available in German and has already hit a subgenre bestseller list at Amazon DE.

***

Reguläre Leser dieses Blogs kennen wahrscheinlich noch Christmas Eve at the Purple Owl Café, meine weihnachtliche lesbische Liebesgeschichte vom letzten Jahr.

Jetzt gibt es die Geschichte auch auf Deutsch unter dem Titel Heiligabend im Café zum Lila Kakadu und sie hat sogar schon einige Unter-Bestsellerlisten bei Amazon DE erobert. Falls sich jemand über die Namensänderung wundert, der Grund ist, dass eine echte Bremer Musikkneipe als Vorbild für das Café diente.

Heiligabend im Café zum Lila Kakadu

Nach einem heftigen Streit mit ihren Eltern über unerträgliche Verwandte findet Katie sich an den Feiertagen ganz alleine wieder. Also macht sie sich auf zu dem einen Ort in der Stadt, wo am Heiligabend jeder willkommen ist, dem legendären Heiligabend im Café zum Lila Kakadu.

Das Heiligabend im Café zum Lila Kakadu hat eine bewegte sechzigjährige Vergangenheit. Heutzutage ist es aber nicht nur ein Ort, wo man gute Musik and nette Leute finden kann, es ist zufälligerweise auch eine Lesbenbar.

Katie ist das egal, außerdem war sie bisher sowieso immer viel zu beschäftigt mit Studium und Karriere für romantische Beziehungen irgendwelcher Art. Aber denn trifft Katie die unkonventionelle Jess auf der Weihnachtsparty im Heiligabend im Café zum Lila Kakadu…

More Informationen.

Länge: 5000 Worte

Preis: 0,99 EUR, USD oder GBP

Erhältlich bei Amazon Deutschland, Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon Niederlande, Amazon Frankreich, Amazon Italien, Amazon Spanien, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australien, Amazon Brasilien, Amazon Mexico, Amazon Japan, Amazon Indien, Kobo, Apple iTunes, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Der Club, BOL, Otto-Media, Donauland, buecher.de, buch.de, eBook.de, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, 24symbols, Oyster, txtr, Inktera, Smashwords, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral und XinXii.

Diese Geschichte gibt es auch auf Englisch.

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A Colony of Groots and the Quest for Star Wars Toys

I didn’t have school today, but I went out anyway to run some errands and do some grocery shopping for the holidays. This wasn’t the main pre-holiday grocery haul – that’s on Wednesday. But I was glad to get some purchases out of the way.

I also stopped at the bank to get some money. Now the bank is directly adjacent to the cemetery of Brinkum (you can take a virtual stroll across the cemetery in this YouTube video – apparently, virtual cemetery strolls are a thing) to the point that the bank parking lot is always full whenever there is a funeral.

While walking back across the parking lot of the bank to my car, I chanced to look across to the cemetery and noticed something I’ve never noticed before, namely that the willow trees growing near the cemetery boundaries looked rather familiar.

“Say?”, I said to my companion, “Don’t they look like Groot?”

We agreed that the willow trees indeed bore an uncanny resemblance to Groot. So I snapped a photo. Take a look for yourself:

A colony of Groots has invaded the cemetery of Brinkum.

Most of my errands today involved banks, grocery shopping and other practical things. But I also took the opportunity to stop at the Werder Karree mall, which I know has a pretty good toystore, to look for Star Wars action figures, because I wanted some figures of the new Force Awakens characters. I’d already looked at a big box grocery store, but their selection of Star Wars toys was limited to a handful of Stormtroopers, Kylo Ren and some figures of characters from the prequels and the original trilogy (which I already own, if I ever wanted them). Oh yes, and Star Wars branded alcohol-free champagne, which must rank pretty high on the list of the most absurd Star Wars tie-in products.

The action figure selection at the toy store was somewhat better, though The Force Awakens toys still seem to sell out faster than they can ship them. Plus, the Star Wars section of the “boys aisle” (oh, how I hate the gendering of toys) looked like the aftermath of a First Order attack. Still, I got lucky and found Finn and a nice Poe Dameron figures sans helmet. And Stormtroopers and Kylo Ren, of course. Lots of Stormtroopers and Kylo Rens. Alas, no Rey and no BB-8. And isn’t it telling that even though Star Wars toys are still labelled as “boys’ toys”, the figure that’s hardest to find is the lone female figure? Okay, maybe not the lone female figure, since there’s also Captain Phasma, who coincidentally was sold out as well. Still, I snapped up Poe and Finn and decided that I’d pick up Rey and BB-8 later.

On the groundfloor of the same mall, there is a Rossmann drugstore. Now I don’t normally shop at Rossmann, but I needed some cosmetic items and I just happened to have a “10% off everything” Rossmann coupon. So I went to the store, picked up my purchases and made my way to the cash register. Since I don’t normally shop there, I’m unfamiliar with the layout of Rossmann stores and so I ended up in the toy aisle.

I spotted the familiar Star Wars logo and thought, “It’s a long shot, but why the hell not?” Rossmann‘s selection of Star Wars toys was much smaller than the one at the toystore, but they did have a few action figures. Lots of Stormtroopers and two Kylo Rens and – lo and behold – a lone Rey figure. Of course, I snapped her up and I also got her cheaper because of the 10% off coupon. Still no BB-8, but I’ll find one.

At home, I set up my brand new Force Awakens action figures on the table to show them off to my parents who were coming over for coffee and Christmas cookies. And here they are:

Finn, Poe and Rey look ready to take on the First Order – or maybe just to attack a plate of Christmas cookies.

In the top left corner, you can see my laser projection clock, which looks uncannily like a laser cannon from this angle.

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New Fantasy Story Available: Kiss of Ice

I’ve said before that I’d have a couple of promo posts and new book announcements coming up in the run-up to Christmas and here is the second of them.

This announcement is for Kiss of Ice, a dark and wintery fairy tale. At any rate, it’s quite dark for a fairy tale by American standards, for when compared to the original undisneyfied Grimm’s fairy tales or Hnas Christian Andersen’s, it does not seem all that dark.

Kiss of Ice is what we call a “Kunstmärchen” in German, i.e. a story written in the style of a fairy tale that can be attributed to a specific author. For example, Hans Christian Andersen and Wilhelm Hauff were both authors of “Kunstmärchen”.

The counterpart of the “Kunstmärchen” is the “Volkmärchen”, i.e. the fairy tale that is a genuine folktale not attributable to any specific author. The fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault or Ludwig Bechstein fall into this category.

For some reason, the English speaking world does not make the distinction between “Kunstmärchen” und “Volksmärchen”, to the point that there is no equivalent word to “Kunstmärchen”. I have no idea why this distinction does not exist in the English speaking world, since it is so immensely useful.

Anyway, here is the story:

Kiss of Ice

The Winter Knight is sent out to execute the Ice Maiden who has already killed countless men. So far, none of those sent to bring the Maiden to justice have ever returned. But the Knight is confident that he will succeed where they failed, for he is protected by powerful magic.

When the Winter Knight finally reaches the castle of the Ice Maiden, she is strangely calm in the face of death and does not even try to resist. But has the Winter Knight truly succeeded where so many before him have failed or does the Ice Maiden still have a trick or two up her sleeve?

 

More information.

Length: 4700 words

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Oyster, Smashwords, Inktera, txtr, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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Great Christmas short films that are actually German supermarket ads

One thing I’ve noticed is that German TV advertising has gotten a lot better in recent years. Gone are the days of Herr Kaiser, Clementine and – the supreme horror of them all – Frau Sommer. The sexist coffee ads with the insufferable know-it-all neighbour Frau Sommer were so awful that I still refuse to buy the brand in question (even though it’s actually a local Bremen brand) thirty years later.

What’s even more striking is that some of the best TV ads currently running in Germany are ads for supermarket chains of all things. Now supermarket ads (provided the chains even bothered to run ads, which a lot of them didn’t) used to be tame, silly and bastions of sexism along with washing powder and coffee ads.

Things have gotten a lot better in recent years and particularly the supermarket ads have improved by leaps and bounds. And this holiday season, several German supermarket chains have created Christmas ads that are mini movies in themselves with a full plot.

So let’s take a look:

I’ll start with my absolutely favourite spot, courtesy of Kaufland. It’s a Star Wars themed Christmas ad, complete with a budding geek romance.

I love this spot so much, because it not just shows that girls are Star Wars fans, too, but also that boys can actually appreciate the romantic elements of the movies.

The supermarket chain Edeka has a completely different approach with this touching Christmas ad that even has a message beyond “Buy more stuff”. The ad caused quite a stir and passed way beyond the German borders, as the massive viewing figures indicate:

This animated ad of the mail-order company turned online store Otto tells the story of an aged postman making sure that one little boy’s Christmas wish is fulfilled, albeit thirty years late.

The Christmas ad of the discount supermarket chain Penny chronicles that thirty-year odyssey of a lost nutcracker.

Coincidentally, I had a nutcracker just like that one. A “friend” of mine killed it by stuffing sticky candy into its mouth. What is it with violence against nutcrackers by bullying kids?

The chain REWE also runs an ad about a boy and his best friend, in this case a snowman:

Another Christmas ad about a kid, in this case a little girl, and her best friend, courtesy of the department store chain Galeria Kaufhof:

I totally want Hugo, the plushie elf. Should have checked if Kaufhof is selling them.

And the little girl’s dad looks eerily like Mark Ruffalo.

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A new Helen Shepherd Mystery available: Mightier than the Sword

I had my last day of class for the year this Thursday. My students were actually disappointed that there won’t be any class until January, which is certainly a first. But that’s the difference between adults who actually want to learn (and who can’t work due to legal restrictions) and kids/teenagers who often have more exciting things to do.

The run-up to the holidays is always a rush, so the next few days will be devoted to book announcements. Besides, I haven’t yet seen The Force Awakens and won’t until after the holidays. BTW, releasing The Force Awakens, after all one of the most anticipated movies of the year, so close to the holidays tells you a lot about who Disney/Lucasfilm think the target audience is, namely kids, teens and unattached young men. Cause if you have a family and/or if you have a job caught in the end of the year rush, you won’t have time to go to the movies now. This applies doubly if you’re a woman.

And now to the announcements. First of all, I took part in an SF Signal Mind Meld together with a lot of other awesome writers and other SFF people, where I talk about what makes the perfect SFF short story. I name a lot of stories, both old and new. I’ll probably do a “These are things I enjoyed this year” post about novels, movies, TV shows, short fiction, etc… sometime between the years.

I’m also pleased to announce a new distribution channel for our books, namely the e-book subscription service 24symbols. Okay, so for some reason, they seem to think I’m male, but I’m still always happy about new distribution channels. Plus, this offsets the loss of Oyster, which will close down in January, because Google bought off their entire staff.

Besides, I have a new Helen Shepherd Mystery available, the ninth in the series so far (and number 10 is coming soon). This time, Helen tackles what appears to be the politically motivated murder of a controversial cartoonist, together with the handsome Chief Inspector Simon Westmoreland of the Counter Terrorism Command. There is also jerk chicken. And Blue Mountain coffee.

So here it is:

Mightier than the Sword

When cartoonist Charlie Ellis is stabbed to death in his studio, everybody suspects a political motive. For his controversial cartoons had placed Charlie Ellis in the crosshairs two years before.

But Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd is sceptical. For why did Charlie Ellis not even try to defend himself and why did he open to door to his own killer? How did the killer manage to sneak past the police guard at the door in the first place? And what is the connection between Charlie Ellis and the other fourteen men in the Greater London area who happen to share his rather common name?

With the help of Simon Westmoreland, a handsome chief inspector from the Counter Terrorism Command, Helen finally manages to shed some light on the murder of Charlie Ellis.

More information.

Length: 12200 words

List price: 2.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Oyster, Smashwords, Inktera, txtr, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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Seasonal Views of Bremen 2015

Yesterday, I didn’t have school, so I took the chance to go to Bremen and take a stroll over the Christmas market.

And since I was in Bremen already, I had lunch at the Übersee Restaurant, their lunch special of the week which was a pepper parmesan soup followed by deer goulash served with red cabbage and potato dumplings. I’m not normally a fan of meat heavy classic German food of the sort you can get at country inns, but I make an exception for venison, since I have something of a weakness for it.

I also used the chance to buy some spices (there is a great spice stand at the Christmas market) and pick up a couple of books. I also found some interesting new Romanhefte at the central station bookstore, including the revival of Butler Parker, a mystery series about a crime-solving butler which originally ran from 1953 to 1992, and the revival of the horror series Geister-Krimi, which originally ran from 1973 to 1981. I’m happy to see this vintage Romanheft series make a comeback, especially since the mystery/crime genre has all but died out in Romanheft form with the notably exception of Jerry Cotton.

Coincidentally, while looking up the publisher links for the Romanhefte I just mentioned, I also chanced to notice that Meine Schuld (My Fault), a True Confessions type magazine published by the same company, is sold out. I suspect this is linked to comedian Jan Böhmermann occasionally holding up issues of the magazine in his program Neo Magazin Royale.

Finally, I also took some photos of Bremen all decked out in seasonal splendour, so here they are:

Bremen Central Station with Christmas lights and mini Christmas market.

These huge wreath are suspended from the roof of the entrance hall of Bremen Central Station. In the background, you can see parts of the Brinkmann mosaic, a colourful 1950s ad for the Brinkmann tobacco company.

The full Brinkmann mosaic can be seen in this photo BTW. It’s huge and almost impossible to capture in its entirety.

A look down the festively decorated Obernstraße, the main shopping street with the St. Petri Dom in the background. The fairy-light covered building on the left is Karstadt’s department store.

Bremen’s Renaissance townhall, an Unesco world heritage site, with the Christmas market in the foreground.

Another view across the main Christmas market with the townhall, part of the former Bremer Bank building, a statue of Otto von Bismarck, the Romanesque St. Petri Dom and the 1960s building of the Bremen city parliament in the background.

The St. Petri Dom seen from the other side with a look across the Domshof (churchyard) square. There are more Christmas market stands here, including the beautifully illuminated Happy Sailor carousel.

The Roland statue, which depicts Frankish knight Roland, hero of the Chanson de Roland, overlooks the Christmas market. The statue, dating from 1404, is the symbol of Bremen’s independence. It’s huge – the statue alone is more than five meters tall. The head is a replica, the original is in a museum.

It’s not a proper Christmas market without a giant Christmas tree and this example is particularly gorgeous.

A historical carousel forms the centrepiece of Bremen’s Christmas market. In the background, you can see the townhall again.

A particularly beautiful stand selling sweets.

This beautifully decorated stand sells Christmas ornaments. In the background, you can see the church of Our Lady, which is currently undergoing renovations.

Wooden candle-lot Christmas pyramids are a traditional holiday decoration in Germany. This oversized example adorns the Christmas market.

The Elchbar not just offers mulled wine and other alcoholic beverages, it also has an animatronic moose singing Christmas songs.

An alpine themed mulled wine stand, complete with deer and mountain goats.

Bremen’s main Christmas market is in the city centre, but there is a secondary market that on the Schlachte, a boulevard that along the river Weser. Here, a boar watches over a stand that sells venison sausage.

A lot of the stands at the Schlachte market are maritime themed. Here, a sharknado has deposited a great white shark on the roof of a fish roll stand. Worse, the shark has just eaten Rudolph.

The Schlachte market also includes a pirate village. Here, a pirate is taking a well deserved nap after a long day of pillaging and plundering.

Another pirate is climbing the trees along the river.

Birdhouses and Christmas trees line the Schlachte. On the other side of the river, you can see the Weserburg art museum and the headquarters of Mondelez International.

This illuminated chandelier behind the Kontorhaus mall is one of the more interesting Christmas decorations in the city.

A look down Sögestraße, Bremen’s other main shopping street. Note how the swineherd statue (Söge means swine in Low German, since the swine were once driven to market through this road) is echoed in the Christmas lights.

The other end of the Sögestraße with festive illuminations. On the left, there is Karstadt’s department store. The angel holding a halo on the building on the right is not a Christmas decoration BTW, but a regular part of the building, which once housed the jewelery shop Brinkmann und Lange.

The shopping mall Lloydpassage, built in the 1980s, with festive illuminations.

This beautiful Rococo building houses the Café Stecker, a Bremen institution since 1908. On the right, you can see the statue of Mother Cordes and her donkey Anton, a vegetable vendor and well known Bremen original.

The story of Mother Cordes as well as a better look at the statue may be found here. I’m a big fan of statues commemorating ordinary people, therefore I’m pleased that Mother Cordes is not the only Bremen original to be honoured with a statue. Heini Holtenbeen (Heini with the wooden leg), a disabled beggar, has also got his own statue. There were also initiatives to get other Bremen originals such as the fish vendor known as the Aal-Onkel (eel uncle) and two elderly sisters who used to sell flowers at the flower market honoured with statues, but so far they haven’t come to fruition. I still remember the flower vendor sisters from my childhood, while my mother remembers the Aal-Onkel making his rounds through the office buildings of the city in the late 1950s/early 1960s.

Finally, a rare sight: The big top of the Circus Roncalli is being disassembled on the Bürgerweide parking lot.

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Star Wars Fever

Friday, December 9, 1983, was the day I first saw a Star Wars movie (Return of the Jedi, which had just opened in Germany, since Europe always got Star Wars around Christmas in the time of the original trilogy). And the fact that I can still remember not just the exact date, but even the weekday after thirty-two years, whereas I’d have to look up the exact dates my grandparents died, should tell you how very important this event was for me.

As anyone who doesn’t live under a rock or on an uncharted desert island or currently isn’t stuck on Mars with only potatoes to eat and a few disco records for entertaiment should know, a new Star Wars film – the seventh altogether (discounting the two Ewok movies) and the first since Revenge of the Sith back in 2005 – will arrive in theatres soon. Alas, it won’t open on December 9 – if it had, I would probably have gone to see it on opening day – but on December 17, but that’s still close enough.

One thing that strikes me about the upcoming premiere of The Force Awakens is that unlike in the days of the original trilogy or even when the prequels premiered in the late 1990s/early 2000s, Star Wars is truly ubiquitous these days.

Of course, Star Wars was already a massive phenemenon in the days of the original trilogy between 1977 and 1983. I was aware of Star Wars long before I actually got to see one of the movies, because there were posters plastered all over town, there were trailers and Star Wars related ads on TV, there were toys in every store and in the hands of other kids, there were comic books and newspaper strips, t-shirts, bedsheets, Halloween costumes and lots of other merchandise that I gazed at longingly. And if you were a kid or a teenager back when the original trilogy came out, you like were aware of Star Wars on some level, whether you had seen the movies or not.

But if you were an adult at the same time, especially if you didn’t have kids, you could go through your day completely unaware that there was a thing called Star Wars. Because your adult newspapers would not review the film, cultural programs would not discuss it, your adult friends would not have seen it, unless they were serious geeks. And if you should happen to glimpse a trailer on TV or a poster in the streets or an action figure in the toy aisle, you’d probably shake your head, dismiss it as “violent American trash” and promptly forget its existence. Unless you were a pundit paid to be alarmed about this “violent American trash” contaminating the minds of our children, which meant you would expound at length about how awful things like Star Wars were for children, usually without even having seen the film.

This was the world I grew up in, a world in which I frequently caught glimpses of this thing called Star Wars and yet the adults around me had no idea that it existed. My Mom had never heard of this film I was so desperate to see – she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that I didn’t want to see only Disney movies anymore – though she did enjoy the film once we went to see it. In retrospect I can even imagine why it was a shock to her, since I was into both Star Wars and Strawberry Shortcake at the same time and with equal enthusiasm. I never got any of the Star Wars toys or t-shirts or bedsheets I craved so much, because no one noticed my longing looks and no one assumed I would even want them. I’d have to check old photos what I got for Christmas in 1983 – which I just did only to realise that no one thought to photograph the presents, just lots of boring photos of boring relatives. But it definitely was nothing Star Wars related.

By the time the prequels hit, it was a lot more difficult to ignore Star Wars, should you be so inclined. I remember Star Wars Happy Meals at McDonalds, Star Wars characters on Coke cans and more reporting in the media than during the original trilogy.

That’s nothing compared to today, however. Today Star Wars truly is inescapable, cause it’s everywhere. The supermarket chain REWE is offering Star Wars collectible stickers as premiums with every purchase*. A giant billboard featuring a Stormtrooper decorates the wall of my local REWE market and REWE’s Star Wars related spot is on TV all the time. I hate it that the mother is the only non-geeky person in that family BTW – why are the mothers always the boring killjoys in these spots?

Meanwhile, I recently was waiting at the information desk at REWE‘s rival Real and had a full view of the toy department which had been turned into the Star Wars department, while the The Force Awakens trailer was running in a continuous loop on a giant LED screen.

Even our notoriously snooty cultural press and media has taken notice. Der Spiegel is now seriously reporting on the “Han shot first” debate and offering its take on Disney banishing Slave Leia merchandise should. The comments on the latter article are interesting BTW, since most commenters seem to view the debate in the context of American prudery with regards to sexuality.

Now I remember a time, when Der Spiegel would never have acknowledged Star Wars except to lament how horrible the movies were. Because Der Spiegel was a serious political magazine – the “assault gun of democracy” after all – and would no lower itself to discuss such trivialities. Even though you’d expect that the “assault gun of democracy” here in Germany would appreciate the assault guns of democracy for the galaxy, especially since Verner Panton’s interiors for the Spiegel headquarters might just as well have been the Death Star brothel**.

Then two weeks ago, the venerable cultural program aspekte not just had a report about Star Wars (and the words “violent American trash” weren’t used once), but also one about the Sonneberg toy museum, which prompted me to tweet, “Hey, you just made the dream aspekte episode of my fifteen-year-old self – and yes, I was watching at fifteen.” Especially since I suspect that my fifteen-year-old self would have been all over the report about the anti-PEGIDA activists of Dresden, too – I was a Star Wars fan after all and knew that you had to fight the dark side. You can see the episode in question here BTW.

titel, thesen, temperamente, another venerable cultural program on German TV also felt compelled to report about Star Wars (and coincidentally also after some reports of real life activists fighting against injustice and censorship), though the titel, thesen, temperamente report was a lot more condescending than the aspekte report and the derogatory remarks by host Evelyn Fischer (who was born and grew up in East Germany, which means that the Star Wars phenomenon may well have passed her by) didn’t help either. Still, even though titel, thesen, temperamente didn’t care about Star Wars, they could not ignore the phenomenon. In the days of the original trilogy, they could.

Hell, even the Louvre – about as venerable a cultural institution as you can find anywhere on the planet – has gotten into the act as this poster for a current exhibition shows.

I’ve been wondering about why Star Wars is suddenly so present in spaces like news magazines and cultural TV programs where it wouldn’t have been present in the 1970s and 1980s and then it occurred to me. Magazines like Der Spiegel and cultural programs like aspekte and titel, thesen, temperamente may have been around for decades now, but the people behind the scenes have changed since the 1970s. Today’s cultural journalists are people in their thirties, forties and fifties. Ditto for the marketing directors of the supermarket chain. They are all members of the Star Wars generation, they grew up with the films, so of course they are going to acknowledge the Star Wars phenomenon. Perhaps there’s even a hint of “I’ll show you that it’s not just violent American trash” in there, directed at some long ago teacher or parent or newspaper article who failed to get it.

Meanwhile, the people dominated the press and media back in the time of the original trilogy were born in the 1930s and 1940s, perhaps even the 1920s. I suspect they did care about pop culture, but the pop culture they cared about was the pop culture of their youth. Hence the media reaction when John Lennon was shot (on December 8, 1980, coincidentally) and suddenly every single radio station played his songs and every single news program could talk about nothing else – whereas seven-year-old me wondered just who this John Lennon guy was and why I should care that he was dead beyond the fact that any death is sad. I go a bit more into this in another post commemorating December 9. I suspect the reaction was similar when Elvis died, though I don’t remember since I was three at the time.

So what the current outbreak of extreme Star Wars fever proves is that we won. It’s our world now and all of the teachers and journalists and pundits who once dismissed Star Wars as “violent and fascistoid American trash” are sitting at home, shaking their heads and yelling at clouds.

*Whereas I had to painstakingly cut every tiny grainy Star Wars photo out of magazines and newspapers and had to paste them into a makeshift album of my own – I still have it somewhere, too.

**Come on, you know the Death Star has a brothel.

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A New Job and a Blast from the Past

I’m sorry that I’ve been scarce for a while, but this week I started a new job of sorts, teaching German to refugees. It’s very rewarding, but also quite stressful, particularly in the first week of class, where things haven’t settled yet.

My students are all adults. Most of them are from Syria and Iran, though I also have someone from Eritrea. They’re all highly qualified people who had good jobs in their respective countries and they’re eager to learn, which makes a pleasant change from teenagers who all too often aren’t.

The class takes place not at the school where I usually teach, but at the same high school I attended some twenty-three years ago. And while I visited to website of the school looking for something else, I came across a real blast from the past, namely my graduation photo from 1992:

KGS Brinkum, class of 1992

The grungy black and white look was all the rage back in the early 1990s. At the time, it was considered arty, now it just looks like a grainy newspaper photo.

I’m the girl with the long dark hair and the leather jacket in the top righthand corner BTW, standing between what were my two best friends in those days.

Looking at the photo I’m stunned by how many people I don’t recognise at all, let alone remember their names. Particularly the boys all blend together and there are so many more of them than I remember. I think half of them were named either Nils or Sven or Jens or Oliver or Christian or Thorsten or Tobias. I can’t even find the one I used to have a crush on (named Oliver, of course). The girls are a bit more distinct, though again half of them were named Claudia or Britta or Nicole or Annika.

The curious phenomenon that all school photos from a given era tend to look alike doesn’t help either. For example, my parents say that when they see elementary school photos from the 1940s or highschool photos from the 1950s, they immediately start looking for themselves, even if the photo is from a completely different school in a completely different city.

Meanwhile, I tend to look for myself on any elementary school photo from the late 1970s, highschool photo from the 1980s and graduation photo from the early 1990s. For example, take a look at these random graduation photos from 1992, the same year I graduated. They all look the same, down to the grainy black and white look.

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Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for November 2015

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some October books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. We have space opera, military science fiction, paranormal romance, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, Asian fantasy, weird westerns, cyberpunk, galactic revolutions, interplanetary wars, werewolves, were-rabbits, witches, dragons, aliens, telepaths, time travellers, supernatural detectives, feminist swordswomen, interdimensional inns, wild west mummies, bug-eyed monsters and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews:

Dina DeMille doesn’t run your typical Bed and Breakfast. Her inn defies laws of physics, her fluffy dog is secretly a monster, and the only paying guest is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. But the inn needs guests to thrive, and guests have been scarce, so when an Arbitrator shows up at Dina’s door and asks her to host a peace summit between three warring species, she jumps on the chance.

Unfortunately, for Dina, keeping the peace between Space Vampires, the Hope-Crushing Horde, and the devious Merchants of Baha-char is much easier said than done. On top of keeping her guests from murdering each other, she must find a chef, remodel the inn…and risk everything, even her life, to save the man she might fall in love with. But then it’s all in the day’s work for an Innkeeper…

Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them by Cora Buhlert:

Six short science fiction stories that subvert the tropes and clichés of the golden age and caricature the gender dynamics of classic science fiction.

In these pages, you’ll travel from suburban America to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. You’ll visit New Pluto City and Garrett’s World. You’ll encounter the terrors of the Brazilian jungle and the horrors of American suburbia. You’ll meet phantom lovers and alien she-devils, devious man-eaters, unseen underwater monsters and the tentacled menace of the fearsome Eee’chuk-chi’up. You’ll encounter dashing space heroes who don’t get the girl and bug-eyed monsters that do. And you’ll meet intergalactic heroines who know exactly what they want from a lover.

This is a collection of six satirical science fiction stories of 7700 words or approximately 26 print pages altogether.

The Vintages by Andrei Cherascu:

Ten years after the doomed mission to Carthan, a terrible disease is turning human Mindguards into a threat to society. The Enforcement Unit, the ruthless, peace-keeping arm of the Interstellar Federation of Common Origin, has outlawed their activity and is keeping them under strict surveillance.

Forty-seven prototech Mindguards who call themselves the Vintages have fled to the Hando Desert and seized control of the territory’s thoughtenhancing drug trade. Under the leadership of the mysterious Jaycen Nemeth, the Vintages are rapidly becoming a danger to the IFCO, bringing them into direct conflict with the Enforcers. As Nemeth’s influence grows among the Desert Dwellers, the prospect of a new Mindwar threatens the future of mankind.

This is the sequel to Mindguard.

Soulbreaker by Clara Coulson:

There’s a hideous monster on the loose, crushing heads and taking names.

But Detective Calvin Kinsey is on the case!

Two years ago, Cal Kinsey was an up-and-coming cop in the Aurora Police Department. But during a fateful nighttime stakeout in search of a prolific killer, Cal witnessed the darkest corner of his dreams come to life. A rogue vampire slaughtered his partner—to put it nicely—and introduced Cal to the supernatural world he never knew existed in the shadows.

Now, Cal is a newly minted detective at the often mocked Department of Supernatural Investigations. By day, the agents of DSI are called “Kooks” by local law enforcement. By night, they’re known as “Crows,” reviled by the supernatural underworld.

Mere weeks out of the academy, Cal catches his first real case, a vicious murder at a local college. An unknown sorcerer has summoned a powerful creature from the Eververse, a realm of magic and mayhem that borders Earth, and set it on a dangerous warpath through the city.

Between butting heads with his grumpy team captain, stirring up ill will with the local wizards and witches, and repeatedly getting the crap beaten out of himself, Cal must find a way to stop the Eververse monster and send it back to the hell it came from…

…preferably before Aurora, Michigan runs out of coffins for the dead.

Instinct by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane:

Instinct can save your life. Ignoring it can get you killed. And sometimes, it can uncover things perhaps best left alone.

After the escalating series of events on Urzra, Captain Branwen Hawke’s crew is on leave, enjoying a vacation at the behest of the Kalaset itself. But for Branwen, the conflict on Urzra may have reawakened in her a desire for action that she fought for years to put down.

A chance encounter devolves into bloody violence, and without the support of her crew, the Captain ends up in a heated struggle for survival on her own as her instincts discover a danger hidden in the heart of Incarnum that may leave her dead, or worse.

Omega Trouble by Eileen Glass:

Alluring but barren, omega is an unfortunate affliction Skye is trying to outrun. He gets away with it for several years, fleeing to a new city whenever the wolves get too close, but his survival mechanism creates a terrible, unforeseen result. By dodging and ducking every rogue alpha to approach him, the one that finally keeps up is the size of a truck. Liam is not a wolf to be disrespected, and Skye is all too aware of his place in the pack. Natural selection has never been kind to him.

But, strangely, Liam sort of is.

Trouble is a novella of about 26,000 words.

The Lead Cloak by Erik Hanberg:

Byron Shaw can track and find anyone on Earth. Except the people who tried to kill him.

By 2081, privacy no longer exists. The Lattice enables anyone to re-live any moment of your life. People can experience past and present events—or see into the mind of anyone, living or dead.

Most people love it. Some want to destroy it.

Colonel Byron Shaw has just saved the Lattice from the most dangerous attack in its history. Now he must find those responsible. But there’s a question nobody’s asking: does the Lattice deserve to be saved?

The answer may cost him his life.

The Dragon Prince by Patty Jansen:

The tyrant Alexandre is gone from Saardam, but a new menace has come: the eastern traders in a ship of metal that is said to have been forged with dragon magic. They bring a chest of gold to buy an office in the city.

The people don’t want them in their town. The Church of the Triune, which forbids magic, has increased its hold on the population, despite the Red Baron’s efforts to stamp it out.

Newly-crowned queen Johanna is staring into the empty coffers after the extravagant spending by her husband’s father before his death. King Roald is off in the garden to catch frogs, and she faces condemnation by the church in the knowledge that Saarland will need both money and magic to defeat the Red Baron’s army.

Flight to the Fort by Jim Johnson:

The Scales Are Out of Balance

Tjety, an exiled Ranger of Mayat, and Ruia, a young fisherman’s daughter, team up to guide the survivors of a bandit attack through the dangerous and rugged Kekhmet frontier. Can they reach the safety of Fort Sekhmet before foul cultists and their horrible mummified creatures can capture them?

Flight to the Fort is the second episode in PISTOLS AND PYRAMIDS, an all-new monthly series best described as an ancient Egyptian-themed weird western with magic. And mummies. Lots of mummies.

This book contains some profanity and depictions of violence. Reader discretion is advised.

Dragon of Torik by Floyd Looney:

Short Story & Bonus Story

Four heroes run an errand for the Prince of Archlandia, heir to the throne, because the King is mad and cannot do the job himself. There is a report that the peppercorn workers of Torik are afraid to work because a dragon has appeared and people went missing. The prince has tasked the three large warriors and the slightly built archer to ferret out the truth of these reports. Alas, before they even arrive… trolls!

BONUS

Marwyn the dwarf has a tough life at the bottom of the ladder, except for gnomes, as a servant to a mean old witch. Until he is approached about a mission to save someone from the clutches of a dragon.

Preserving Eternity by Mercia McMahon:

In an alternate Asia the Fumetsu are a Japanese-style culture of immortal beings, who live among mortal human races based on Sri Lankan, Ainu, and Korean style cultures. Life is tough in their city-state of Chieshi, which exists to protect the mountain on which the older Fumetsu live.

Mayu is a champion in the sport of women’s sword fighting and a once in a generation talent. She is also a keen advocate of women’s rights, who wants to cross over to the mountain and change society through politics. Then a rebellion happens and she has to decide how best to pursue her aims: by diplomacy or by the sword.

As the Fumetsu are eternally fertile relations between men and women are banned on the mountain, but compulsory in the city. Mayu’s dilemma is complicated by the love of her life and fellow swordswoman Yaeko already living on the mountain, and the rebellion could separate them for ever.

The Blue Dragon by Salvador Mercer:

A thousand years ago, on the world of Claire-Agon, a war raged between men and dragons.

After an expedition of elite warriors kills an ancient nemesis, Seth the Sword Slayer, one of Agon’s most feared assassins, finds himself in the middle of a mysterious string of killings targeting the members of his elite group.

As the Kesh wizards call a conclave of Agon’s most powerful realms to Balax, the capital of Balaria, Seth attempts to set a trap and kill the rouge assassin in his homeland with the help of the governor’s troops, the thieves’ guild and his own assassin’s order. Seth must not only save his city from a new threat of destruction, but also navigate the politically deadly waters of high intrigue from the gathered realms.

Seth soon discovers that, in the world of Claire-Agon, when dealing with a Blue Dragon, sometimes appearances can be deceiving.

Time Junkie by Nigel G. Mitchell

“My name is Timothy McGill, and I’m a time travel addict.”

Tim was just your usual frustrated and isolated teenager until he stumbled across krono, a new drug which sends him back in time while he trips out. From the moment he first tries it, Timothy begins a downward spiral into crime and corruption, all while living through the moments that led to his addiction. It’s a strange and thoughtful journey as Tim explores his past while trying to grapple with the present and determine his future.

 

Ancient Relics by Jim Rudnick:

“Taking on a new Captaincy with the Barony means that our Captain Scott can now live a life of ease. His drinking will be tolerated, his hangovers ignored and he will be in charge of the newest fastest Supra Destroyer in the RIM Confederacy.

Life is good for Tanner who enjoys his new ship and the favors of the Lady St. August yet the PTSD he still suffers from the thwarted prison escape on Halberd still haunts him. He copes but needs support from loyal friends and that keeps him going.

Except he soon learns that the simple task of doing his shakedown cruise on the BN Atlas means that he inadvertently finds a discovery that will shake the very foundations of science all across the galaxy.

A Conflict of Orders by Ian Sales:

Casimir Ormuz and the Admiral, at the head of the biggest fleet the Empire has seen since its founding, are on their way to Geneza to meet the forces of the Serpent.

On Shuto, capital world of the Empire, the Serpent has begun his siege of the Imperial Palace.

Ormuz and the Admiral must win their battle on Geneza, and then travel to Shuto to save the Emperor, to save the Empire. But winning the fight and lifting the siege are only the beginning. Still complicating matters is the millennia-long conspiracy which seems to be driving the Serpent’s rebellion.

So who is the real villain?

And when it all ends, who will be sitting on the Imperial Throne?

Rabbit Trails by Hollis Shiloh:

Logan is a lonely, nervous rabbit shifter — until he meets teasing, gentle Gabe. He’s so drawn to Gabe that he’s frightened about what that means for him. Gabe might be funny and sweet, but he’s also friends with wolves, and he has his own sadness beneath the goofy surface. Can they make a relationship work? Do they even dare try?

31,000+ words

sweet gay romance

set in the same world as the “Shifters and Partners” series but can be read alone

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