Kim Fielding's Blog, page 82
May 31, 2012
Violet's Present now available
My longish short story "Violet's Present" is now available from Dreamspinner. Here's the blurb:
When Matt’s Great-great-aunt Violet dies, she leaves him a precious gift: a photo album he loved as a child. Then Matt starts having dreams—very good dreams—about Joseph, one of the men in the pictures from the 1940s. One morning when Matt wakes up, the bruises are still there. Could there be more to Violet’s present than he thought?
Visit Dreamspinner to read an excerpt or to buy.
When Matt’s Great-great-aunt Violet dies, she leaves him a precious gift: a photo album he loved as a child. Then Matt starts having dreams—very good dreams—about Joseph, one of the men in the pictures from the 1940s. One morning when Matt wakes up, the bruises are still there. Could there be more to Violet’s present than he thought?
Visit Dreamspinner to read an excerpt or to buy.
May 30, 2012
What I'm Up To
I have five projects in various states of readiness.
My short story "Violet's Present" will be available June 1 from Dreamspinner Press. It's a longish short story, an angsty time travel piece with settings in 1940s Nebraska and Europe.My novella Speechless will be available from Dreamspinner in July. The blurb:
Travis Miller has a job as a machinist, a cat named Elwood, and a pathetic love life. The one bright spot in his life is the handsome guitar player he sometimes passes on his way home from work. Finally working up the courage to speak to the man, Travis learns that Drew Clifton is suffering from aphasia—although Drew can understand everything, he is unable to speak or write. The two lonely men form a friendship that soon blossoms into romance. But communication is only one of their challenges, because there’s also Travis’s inexperience with love and his precarious financial situation. If words are the bridge between two people, what will keep them together?
My fantasy novel Brute is currently under consideration by a literary agent. This one is about a maimed, ugly giant and the effects of bullying and love.Another novel--a gay romance set in Venice and other central European locales--is being edited to prepare it for submission.A short story about a series of accidents will be submitted to the publisher soon.Whew!
My short story "Violet's Present" will be available June 1 from Dreamspinner Press. It's a longish short story, an angsty time travel piece with settings in 1940s Nebraska and Europe.My novella Speechless will be available from Dreamspinner in July. The blurb:
Travis Miller has a job as a machinist, a cat named Elwood, and a pathetic love life. The one bright spot in his life is the handsome guitar player he sometimes passes on his way home from work. Finally working up the courage to speak to the man, Travis learns that Drew Clifton is suffering from aphasia—although Drew can understand everything, he is unable to speak or write. The two lonely men form a friendship that soon blossoms into romance. But communication is only one of their challenges, because there’s also Travis’s inexperience with love and his precarious financial situation. If words are the bridge between two people, what will keep them together?
My fantasy novel Brute is currently under consideration by a literary agent. This one is about a maimed, ugly giant and the effects of bullying and love.Another novel--a gay romance set in Venice and other central European locales--is being edited to prepare it for submission.A short story about a series of accidents will be submitted to the publisher soon.Whew!
May 29, 2012
Book Review: The Psychopath Test
I'm eclectic in my interests and reading lists. So today I'm posting a review of Jon Ronson's book
The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry
. It's a nonfiction exploration of modern diagnoses of mental illness.
Jon Ronson's writing is witty and engaging--so much so that I gobbled this book in one afternoon. The flashbacks, and occasional flashbacks within flashbacks, are a bit annoying, but over all the writing is a pleasure. He meets some truly fascinating people. The point of his book--that definitions of madness are subjective and labile--is an excellent one. So in general I recommend this book.
However, there are some problems with it. One is the subtitle, which is somewhat misleading. It might lead a person to assume that the book is about the considerable amount of money that is made from diagnoses of mental illness, but that's a topic that he touches on rather briefly. Second, and more importantly, he arrives at his main thesis in a rather roundabout way and rather belatedly. By the time he gets there, his conclusions seem well-supported, but for a long time it's unclear where the book is heading.
Drawbacks aside, the book is both entertaining and thought-provoking.
I give it four stars.
Jon Ronson's writing is witty and engaging--so much so that I gobbled this book in one afternoon. The flashbacks, and occasional flashbacks within flashbacks, are a bit annoying, but over all the writing is a pleasure. He meets some truly fascinating people. The point of his book--that definitions of madness are subjective and labile--is an excellent one. So in general I recommend this book.
However, there are some problems with it. One is the subtitle, which is somewhat misleading. It might lead a person to assume that the book is about the considerable amount of money that is made from diagnoses of mental illness, but that's a topic that he touches on rather briefly. Second, and more importantly, he arrives at his main thesis in a rather roundabout way and rather belatedly. By the time he gets there, his conclusions seem well-supported, but for a long time it's unclear where the book is heading.
Drawbacks aside, the book is both entertaining and thought-provoking.
I give it four stars.
May 27, 2012
Good Bones on Sale
In celebration of Dreamspinner Press's 5th anniversary, Good Bones is 20% off in print and ebook versions. Sale ends May 31.
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_603
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_603
Good Bones on sale
For the next few days, Good Bones is 20% off if you buy directly from Dreampsinner. Http://dreamspinnerpress.com
May 25, 2012
Voices in My Head
When we were little, I told my brother that dreams were actually movies shown by little guys in your head. I also told him that if he locked himself in the bathroom while we had a babysitter, candy would fall from the sky. He was deeply scarred by all of this: when he grew up, he became a lawyer.
But here’s the truth: there really are little guys in my head.
They’ve always been there, and there are actually two gangs of them. One gang is made up of voices I’ve heard in life, and those I’ve heard in the media (hi there, Spike!), and some of them were born right there in my skull. They tell me stories. Lately, for instance, I’ve heard quite a lot from a brave, ugly giant, as well as from a computer geek from Sacramento. I really like these guys, even the not-so-nice ones. You may have met some of them, such as the creepy wizard and the werewolf ex-boyfriend with control issues.
Unfortunately, there’s the other gang, too. I imagine they all resemble Voldemort or Vezzini the Sicilian. And they only have one story to tell me: “You can’t.”
Now, for some reason I don’t quite understand, I’ve spent a lot of my life listening to the second gang. They’re pretty convincing. They convinced me I couldn’t write a novel, couldn’t get anything published, couldn’t drag my older kid to live for half a year in a country where we don’t speak the language.
It took me a long time, but fairly recently I’ve come to realize that the second gang is full of shit. I could do those things, and a lot more besides. Now, they’re still muttering, and sometimes I’m still listening. But now that I’ve learned to tell them to shut the fuck up, I’ve found that I can hear the first gang a whole lot better. I can hardly get their words down in print fast enough.
You know, listening to the voices in your head isn’t crazy—but listening to the wrong ones is just plain nuts.
But here’s the truth: there really are little guys in my head.
They’ve always been there, and there are actually two gangs of them. One gang is made up of voices I’ve heard in life, and those I’ve heard in the media (hi there, Spike!), and some of them were born right there in my skull. They tell me stories. Lately, for instance, I’ve heard quite a lot from a brave, ugly giant, as well as from a computer geek from Sacramento. I really like these guys, even the not-so-nice ones. You may have met some of them, such as the creepy wizard and the werewolf ex-boyfriend with control issues.
Unfortunately, there’s the other gang, too. I imagine they all resemble Voldemort or Vezzini the Sicilian. And they only have one story to tell me: “You can’t.”
Now, for some reason I don’t quite understand, I’ve spent a lot of my life listening to the second gang. They’re pretty convincing. They convinced me I couldn’t write a novel, couldn’t get anything published, couldn’t drag my older kid to live for half a year in a country where we don’t speak the language.
It took me a long time, but fairly recently I’ve come to realize that the second gang is full of shit. I could do those things, and a lot more besides. Now, they’re still muttering, and sometimes I’m still listening. But now that I’ve learned to tell them to shut the fuck up, I’ve found that I can hear the first gang a whole lot better. I can hardly get their words down in print fast enough.
You know, listening to the voices in your head isn’t crazy—but listening to the wrong ones is just plain nuts.
Voices in My Head
When we were little, I told my brother that dreams were actually movies shown by little guys in your head. I also told him that if he locked himself in the bathroom while we had a babysitter, candy would fall from the sky. He was deeply scarred by all of this: when he grew up, he became a lawyer.
But here’s the truth: there really are little guys in my head.
They’ve always been there, and there are actually two gangs of them. One gang is made up of voices I’ve heard in life, and those I’ve heard in the media (hi there, Spike!), and some of them were born right there in my skull. They tell me stories. Lately, for instance, I’ve heard quite a lot from a brave, ugly giant, as well as from a computer geek from Sacramento. I really like these guys, even the not-so-nice ones. You may have met some of them, such as the creepy wizard and the werewolf ex-boyfriend with control issues.
Unfortunately, there’s the other gang, too. I imagine they all look like Voldemort or Vezzini the Sicilian. And they only have one story to tell me: “You can’t.”
Now, for some reason I don’t quite understand, I’ve spent a lot of my life listening to the second gang. They’re pretty convincing. They convinced me I couldn’t write a novel, couldn’t get anything published, couldn’t drag my older kid to live for half a year in a country where we don’t speak the language.
It took me a long time, but fairly recently I’ve come to realize that the second gang is full of shit. I could do those things, and a lot more besides. Now, they’re still muttering, and sometimes I’m still listening. But now that I’ve learned to tell them to shut the fuck up, I’ve found that I can hear the first gang a whole lot better. I can hardly get their words down in print fast enough.
You know, listening to the voices in your head isn’t crazy—but listening to the wrong ones is just plain nuts.
May 22, 2012
Student bloopers
Want to make your head hurt? Check out the recent student bloopers I posted on my blog.
http://kfieldingwrites.blogspot.com/2...
http://kfieldingwrites.blogspot.com/2...
Bloopers
I wear many hats, one of which is college professor. This time of year--when my grades have just been turned in!--I like to share bloopers from student papers and exams. So here we go. These are verbatim.
Whatever you do, don't claim to be a witch!! If so, get ready to be burned alive at the steak.Fogging was also very common, which is being whipped or beaten.If you ask me I think that trails by ordeal were forms of punishment as well.People seen the punishment as harsh and this resulted in more crimes being committed and in sighted riots or revolts.Before there were prisons or a pubic way to enforce crime, the world still had to punish people for their crimes.Snapped judgment is a set of influenced assumptions open to a whole set of schemas that are judgmental.NCAA is an anti-hate group.In this research paper, I will be talking numerous events that were vigilante events in America that happened.For the most part, compared to other countries, America might be considered similar and different for a variety of reasons.Terrorism in general is a dangerous threat to the United State because of the political and religious reasons.American citizen's loss a sense of security that day.The intelligence process that the United States is a lot like a college research paper.Is the exchange of something for sexual favors? It is also said to be the state of being prostitute.One was either for or against it and both sides had good legal arguments to back up their believing's.A pogrom is a program.A pogrom is a thing Jewish people wear on their head.A pogrom is a child born from a mixed race relation.A pogrom is a type if antihate movement.
Is your head hurting now? Here's how I feel:
Whatever you do, don't claim to be a witch!! If so, get ready to be burned alive at the steak.Fogging was also very common, which is being whipped or beaten.If you ask me I think that trails by ordeal were forms of punishment as well.People seen the punishment as harsh and this resulted in more crimes being committed and in sighted riots or revolts.Before there were prisons or a pubic way to enforce crime, the world still had to punish people for their crimes.Snapped judgment is a set of influenced assumptions open to a whole set of schemas that are judgmental.NCAA is an anti-hate group.In this research paper, I will be talking numerous events that were vigilante events in America that happened.For the most part, compared to other countries, America might be considered similar and different for a variety of reasons.Terrorism in general is a dangerous threat to the United State because of the political and religious reasons.American citizen's loss a sense of security that day.The intelligence process that the United States is a lot like a college research paper.Is the exchange of something for sexual favors? It is also said to be the state of being prostitute.One was either for or against it and both sides had good legal arguments to back up their believing's.A pogrom is a program.A pogrom is a thing Jewish people wear on their head.A pogrom is a child born from a mixed race relation.A pogrom is a type if antihate movement.
Is your head hurting now? Here's how I feel:
May 21, 2012
Thank you to everyone who visited and/or commented during...
Thank you to everyone who visited and/or commented during the Hop Against Homophobia! Our lucky winner--and birthday girl!--is crowzma. :-)
