Cesar Torres's Blog, page 20
May 6, 2010
12BW: Reviews, Interviews and a Reading
There's a lot to tell you about lately.
Firstly, there are a few new reviews of "The Twelve Burning Wheels." And the reviews are good. Check em out:
Reviews of "The 12 Burning Wheels"
Interview!
Then, just yesterday, I got interviewed at the online sci-fi mag (and e-book library) Suvudu!
May 5, 2010
KMFDM '92: "Can We Govern Your Soul?"
The Internet is amazing.
I stumbled across a video clip that kinda blew my mind. It's a pretty decent recording of KMFDM playing at the Cabaret Metro (now known as Metro) in 1992, touring their new album "Money." They are preforming "Vogue," the best cut on the album.
In that fraction of a moment when that date and location popped up, my memory shot me backward through time. I AM THERE MOSHING AT THAT SHOW, KIDS. I am. Wearing my Doc Martens and losing oxygen by the second under the heat of a c...
May 3, 2010
Craig Mod: An E-Book Master of the Universe
If you care about literature and the future of the book in our digital age, you cannot afford to miss out on Craig Mod's excellent blog. He not only has a great vision for the book (can we say collective, bee-hive like annotations in the cloud?), but he also has a designer's eye for good form.
Do not miss out on Craig Mod's blog. DO NOT.
The quote below from Craig makes me quiver:
Physical books and e-books are both text at their cores. Book designers long ago established rigorous rules for...
April 27, 2010
'About that avian fetishism of yours…'
Today I am here to provide you some insights into my aesthetic, through the form of a narrative. My writing has an aesthetic, certainly, one which I can discuss with anyone, any time. But I also happen to enjoy visual art and personal style, which includes home decor and other personal details.
My aesthetic remains on some days unclear to me, though to others on the outside, it may seem clear as day. What am I getting at?
As of late, I am seen as the "bird" guy. Not of Alcatraz, but as that...
April 21, 2010
New Short Story: On the Coercion of Djinn
Author's note: I'm posting a short, short story today, just because. You might even call it a vignette. This is part of a larger work, but I think as a vignette it stands fine on its own. I am a huge fan of metafictions, and here's a tiny one. Can't get Sethon's book on the Kindle, I'm afraid.
On the Coercion of DjinnBy Cesar TorresThe book had to be at least a couple of centuries old: There was a fragility inherent in the dry, worn edges on the covers, and the hairline cracks along the...
April 15, 2010
Career Day Today!
I'll be speaking later today at Little Village Academy in Chicago to speak to 6th, 7th and 8th graders to speak about how I became a published author. I'm pretty thrilled about this. Last time I spoke there on Career Day I focused more on what I do as part of my day job, but this time around I'll be able to talk about the trajectory of my career in publishing (which happens to be very very young yet). Here's some highlights of what I will talk about:
How important reading is. I definitely...April 13, 2010
How to Fuck a Worm Queen: 12BW and Facebook
Hey y'all, I started a Fan Page on Facebook to promote my book, "12Bw". I don't have a marketing department to help me promote the book, so I will go where the people are. Facebook.
At my page you can get announcements about my book and future projects, invites for readings and appearances, and post your pictures of birds and weird creatures to the wall. Being a first time author can best be summed up this way: It's a slow, slow, slow, slow start.
And yes, you can find links to buy the book...
April 6, 2010
New Weird 101
We live in America, a country obsessed with genre, category and brand. We love categorization and tags, genres, slots, labels and subgenres that can be marketed to the masses. It's part of what makes America such a massive capitalist engine, but it's also what makes certain kinds of art hard slippery, like a bar of wet soap. I make no assumptions about my work. I write what I like and what I know, and it is driven by a wide speculative force, meaning I like to dream of the impossible, the...
March 30, 2010
CS 587: The Idea File
April 2, 2010
On the novel. The novel is my focus in my graduate work. Creatively, it's the form I prefer to write, and as we move the novel into the digital era, I am curious as to what changes, if any, the act of reading a novel will take.
Author Jonathan Lehrer just posted a great article to his blog titled "Attention and Intelligence." Read it here. Lehrer suggests via a new bit of research on mice and also on a piece he wrote recently for The New Yorker that "being smart is not about...
March 25, 2010
PIRACY: Through the Golden Filter
Book piracy is not the same as music piracy, but they are coming ever-closer to each other. As more books go digital, leaks and piracy will become much more a part of their life cycle. Now don't get upset. It's not all such a bad thing, and here's why.
One of my favorite current bands is the Golden Filter. I got to see them last year in Spring when they opened for The Presets at the Metro. They stood on stage, bathed in red light, a simple duo outfitted with synths and drums, and they...
