C.S.E. Cooney's Blog, page 22
May 7, 2021
Under Some Enchantment
I have set my alarm with the sound of the ocean. When the tide comes in, I must stop writing this blog. When the tide comes in, I must do the next thing: prepare tomorrow’s script.
But before I prepare tomorrow’s script, I will set my alarm with the sound of the ocean. I will only give myself 30 minutes to prepare tomorrow’s script.
Then, the tide comes in. After that, I must do the next thing: edits. But before I do edits, I will set my alarm with the sound of the ocean.
When the tide comes in, I will go for a walk. We will buy the meat for tonight’s meal. It is the anniversary of my best friend’s father’s death. We will eat his favorite meal, and toast to his twinkling blue eyes, which are the color of my best friend’s eyes.
But before I go for a walk, I make sure the next tide will roar in my reminder. Waves, waves to tell me that my friend in Rhode Island and I will sit and talk on Skype.
How many months has it been since we have talked? Too many months. Sometimes we are too far out at sea. Everything aches.
After that, I think, my ocean alarms can cease, can surge back into the long foam, the long dark, and it will be family time: food and entertainment, the ability to lose one’s sense of time.
It is all too easy to lose my sense of time.
I sit to write.
Suddenly, I find myself on the other side of the house, three hours later. What have I done in that time? Not write. Anything but write. But I find it hard to remember what exactly I was doing.
I am like that woman who opens her mouth to say what’s wrong, but all that comes out are nursery rhymes and fairy tales–except far more mundane.
I do not know what I did do. A great series of empty tasks. All I know is that I haven’t written.
I sit to write.
Suddenly, I am striding the nested crescents at the bottom of the hill, looking at all the flame-new flowers of spring.
I sit to write.
Suddenly, I’m grocery shopping. Suddenly, dishes. Suddenly something needs to come clean that has been dirty for too long.
Time passes. I haven’t written.
I have been afraid of my alarms, these constant jerks to attention, the rigidity. I have been afraid of becoming that stern cousin in Jane Eyre, the cold one, who sets herself a task for every hour. I want to be Jane Eyre instead, who can enter her flow state and emerge victorious with a strange new painting. Who can be wholly absorbed in the task she sits to.
Instead, this enchantment.
I must invite absorption, snap out of this fugue. Why does it take me thirty minutes to put on my shoes? I don’t even need to look for them. They’re right where I left them.
It’s just… I sit to put on my shoes, and the next thing I know, I am in another room, brushing my teeth, examining the flame-new silver in my hair, making another meal I don’t need to eat.
No, no. I must break this enchantment.
I must choose the waves. Not to drown me. To call me back.
May 5, 2021
The State of the Game: Negocios Infernales, a New Build!
A new blog at Hernandooney.com, the website that my husband Carlos Hernandez (writer, teacher, game designer) and I share! This one about the game we’re collaboratively designing: Negocios Infernales!
Carlos and I have been working on the instruction deck—“La Baraja de Consejos”—to accompany our oracle deck “La Baraja del Destino” for our game Negocios Infernales.
The seven sets of instructions are _almost_ done.
We also want to add in an affirmation deck at the beginning of Consejos. Something like “You, player, are great! You can’t be wrong! When in doubt, trust the cards! The cards are always right!”
That kind of thing. People get anxious with games sometimes, you know?
Anyway, as soon as these are done (SO CLOSE!), we are going to start RAMPING UP playtesting this summer: some virtual, but some NOT—as soon as all vax shots are current!
We hope to send a few decks to trusted friends/family out in the world to see how well this works as a GM-less, collaborative storytelling TTRPG game when *we* aren’t running it!
STAY TUNED!
FIREBREAK: An Interview, Dramatic Reading, and Audience Q&A with Nicole Kornher-Stace, Co-Hosted by Amal El-Mohtar!
Dear friends!
I am so happy to present to you, in celebration of Nicole Kornher-Stace‘s recent (yesterday!!!) release of her adult sci-fi novel Firebreak, a night to brighten our world by!
I shall, with my brilliant co-host Amal El-Mohtar (This Is How You Lose the Time War with Max Gladstone, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author and the New York Times Book Review‘s science fiction and fantasy columnist), have the honor of interviewing Nicole Kornher-Stace in a sort of “Ask Her Anything” style:
We will cover video games, climate change, big corporations, container gardens, homeschooling, ace/aro relationships in fiction, and whatever the heck else we can think of!
Then, the three of us will present a dramatic reading of a few excerpts from Firebreak. We will conclude with a Q&A with the audience!
Nicole and Amal and I have known each other for not-quite-two decades, and it is with great joy that we bring you this night.
Yours Truly,
C. S. E. Cooney
Please register for free at Eventbrite.
We close down tickets at noon EST on Saturday. We will send you a Zoom link Saturday afternoon, and we will see you on Saturday night at 8 EST!
Amal El-Mohtar pic by Betsie Withey, Nicole Kornher-Stace pic by Elizabeth Story, C. S. E. Cooney pic by Kathleen Jennings, Firebreak cover by Amanda Hudson
April 26, 2021
MarMar Mermaidpants Presents: A Mermaid Extravaganza!
Hosted by MarMar Mermaidpants
(AKA Miriam Grill)
LIVE from her bathtub!
You’ll need 3 things: 1.) Something Wet! (To drink!) (Or perhaps a foot bath!)
2.) Something Salty! (To eat!) (Or again, maybe that foot bath!)
3.) Something to Remind You of the Sea! (Seashells!) (Sea-glass!) (Ropes of pearls!) (Or... a FOOT BATH!)
A Mermaid Extravaganza will feature:
The Musical Stylings of NEPTUNE’S OWN
Jeremy Cooney
(of Hail the Void podcast)
Makeup Artist Rhiannon Parker-Cooney
With tips on MERMAID MAKEUP:
“How to doll up those scales!”
An Interview with Julia Rios
Editor of Mermaids Monthly
A Dramatic Reading by Fantasy Writers
Carlos Hernandez
&
Yours Truly, C. S. E. Cooney
Bringing you their latest: “A Minnow, or Perhaps a Giant Squid”
JUST released in the latest issue of Mermaids Monthly!
We will end with a singalong of
“Scylla on the Rocks”
By Brimstone Rhine
Music and lyrics found here!
Register for free at Eventbrite!
Poster by Mermaids Monthly editor Meg Frank
April 23, 2021
Swordfleur Skullybed
(from her Game of Squares prototype)
(Oh, this doggerel is VERY SILLY, ma belle amie–but it was so fun to play!)
Swordfleur SkullybedRose at her heart
Crypt at her head
Long black rapier gleaming bright
Crept to her love
On a brine-drowned nightDemoiselle La Tombstonetree
Saddled her mare
And galloped the sea
Churned those breakers white as lace
Challenged her love
To a game of chase"Tree!" cried Fleur"Oh, must thou fly?Thine old gray mare is fleeing highHad I an arrow to my nameI'd bolt her down And end thy game!""Fleur, my sapskull!"Tree replied"The game is this: I run and hideAnd you, like brigand in full roarCome run me downForevermore!"Swordfleur Skullybed
Seized with despair
(And seeing red)
Wrapped her cloak around a breeze
And flew like a bat
To the place she pleased(Where the crypt and the rose and the quiet reignedWhere the rain fell soft, and the glass bells rangWhere the demoiselles, all shanks and sharpsWith eyes like pits and teeth like sharksWere yet more kindly to their FleurThan Tombstonetree had been to her)Demoiselle La Tombstonetree Wild as a wager And flying freeWaved farewell and galloped onForgot the hourForgot the dawn(Forgot that the touch of the sun meant deathWould stop up her heart and rob her of breathWould turn her to pearls, all luster and glossAs pale as her lace, as gray as her horseA tumble of pearls which would wash up on shoreTo be gathered for garlands by faithful Fleur)Swordfleur SkullybedLoved by ladiesLong since deadGave all her garlands of pearls awayTo any demoiselleWho stayed
April 22, 2021
The Last Fallen Star: Which Clan is Carlos?
In which my darling Carlos quizzes himself on @gracikim’s THE LAST FALLEN STAR, and adorns himself with FLASH TATTOOS.
(Hot dang! I love a handsome man in flash tattoos!)
Hey friends! Graci Kim is the latest Rick Riordan Presents author, and to celebrate the upcoming release of her book, Read Riordan has posted a quiz to help you figure out which of the many magical clans you would belong to, based on your personality! Check out my results in the video below! You can take the quiz yourself here!
(And don’t forget to pre-order!)
April 20, 2021
La Carlotta in the Making
by C. S. E. Cooney
Upon her rooftop in her raven wigThe actress plays for pigeons and a dream
Of one day strutting stately, in full rig
Onstage, performing live but not livestream
But meantime, every kettle is her cauldron
A-bubble with the witchcraft of her work
A neon feather boa for her pauldron
Her corset, shield; stiletto heel, her dirk
And though no one is watching, how she hones
Her craft, as though her lips drop gems and gold
How every kitchen chair becomes a throne
And solitude a canvas for the bold
O lady! Though these days have worn you fine
Just know: you put the "diva" in "divine"
April 15, 2021
Join us for GHOULSPEAK!
Join the creators of GHOUL vol. II—an art zine with campy-horror vibes—for a reading of poetry, short stories, & an artists’ process talk!
About this EventJoin the contributors of Ghoul vol. II for a night of reading campy stories and poetry, talking process (both the artistic process and the business of zine-making), and showing off some really amazing art.
Meet Brett Masse, editor, artist, and designer of Ghoul II, as well as Aaron Byrd (writer), Crystal Hartman (artist), Skull Mouth (artist, cartoonist), Arista Slater-Sandoval (photographer), Patty Templeton (writer), and yours truly, C. S. E. Cooney (poet)! Hear us chat and ask us your questions!
We’ll be WICKED GLAD to see you!
SIGN UP AT THE EVENTBRITE LINK BELOW!Register on EventbriteMeet the Creators
Brett Massé is a graphic designer and artist focused on work centered around art, design, and games, with an emphasis on subcultures, DIY philosophies, and sociopolitical critiques of an instinct-driven society’s impact on technology and culture, making particular note to its influence on the environment!He lives with a cat named Boombox. Lately he’s been catching up on samurai movies and designing zines–LIKE GHOUL vol. II!!!
Patty Templeton is a writer, archivist, artist, and itinerant kitchen dancer. She was a 2020 Library of Congress Junior Fellow, is a provisional member of the Academy of Certified Archivists, and the author of the historical fantasy novel, There is No Lovely End. She enjoys hot coffee, loud rock shows, and reading while wrapped in rhinestones.
Aaron Byrd is a writer and father. Previously a logistics manager for a brewing equipment company, he now writes fantastic stories for his D&D group and recites poetry to his aquariums full of snails and floating plants.His son is a dinosaur.
Crystal Hartman is an artist and jeweler working in process oriented traditions to meet the abstract with a formalism guided by an appreciation for nature, figure (botanical, entomological, and mammalian), the balance of light and shadows, the feminine, ritual, and the act of gathering rooted in shared evolutionary histories.Her artwork has been shown at locations such as the Center for Contemporary Culture, Barcelona Spain, the National Palace of Culture, Sophia Bulgaria and The Lill Street Art Gallery, Chicago Illinois.
After studying Femininity in Argentine Society, filming with Null Skateboards in Spain, teaching and studying public art and cultural craft in Chaing Mai, Thailand, with an appreciation for cultural diversity she returned home to Colorado to found and direct a Studio Tour and relish in the local arts community. Currently maintaining a studio in Urbana Illinois, Hartman’s focus is directed at carving wax, and developing a concept of becoming relative to home and livable futures.
An advocate for the environment and for the literary arts, her visual reviews and collaborations can be found in select literary journals including La Piccoleta Barca, CutBank Literary Journal, Interrupture Magazine, and A5 Magazine. Crystal Hartman Art Jewelry can be found at select galleries and fine jewelry stores throughout the states.
Arista Slater-Sandoval was born and raised in Grand Rapids Michigan and moved in 2007 to Washington D.C. to pursue a BFA in photography at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. While there she completed a 5 months Teachers Assistance and residency program in New York city at the Center for Alternative Photography.After completing a BFA, she moved to Cambridge MA, and attend the College of Art and Design at Lesley University where she obtained a MFA in Fine Art Photography in 2013. While in grad school she pursued issues in communication, identity, love and romance thought alternative photographic processes.
Since moving to Santa Fe in 2016, she teaches full time at the Institute of American Indian Art while balancing studio time. She continues to work in alternative photographic processes and approaches while tackling large issues in feminine and multi-racial representation, domestic spheres and intimate relationships.
http://www.aristaslatersandoval.com/about
Cartoonist Skull Mouth‘s work speaks for itself. Follow his work here. Donate to the Navajo and Hopi Families Covid Relief Fund here.
AND YOURS TRULY, C. S. E. COONEY
C.S.E. Cooney is an audiobook narrator, the singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine, and author of World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans: Stories.
Her novel Saint Death’s Daughter comes out from Solaris in 2022. Find her 2020 novel The Twice-Drowned Saint in A Sinister Quartet , an anthology of long fiction by Mythic Delirium. Her novella Desdemona and the Deep was published by Tor.com in 2019.
Her poetry collection How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes features the Rhysling Award-winning “The Sea King’s Second Bride,” and her short fiction can be found in Ellen Datlow’s Mad Hatters and March Hares , Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and elsewhere.
March 24, 2021
This Saturday: Nightmares Unearthed!
Dear Fans of Horror and the Macabre,
This Saturday night, March 27th, at 8 PM EST, is my pleasure to host NIGHTMARES UNEARTHED.
Join us for a night of delicious dread!
We will be summoning the collective perilous powers of six world-class horror writers–Zin E. Rocklyn, Cassandra Khaw, Mike Allen, Daniel Braum, Emma J. Gibbon, and Gordon B. White–for our horripilating entertainment!
Each of these authors had books out in 2020 or will be releasing books later in 2021. They will be reading from selected works, then participating in a Q&A with YOU, the audience!
REGISTER HERE FOR YOUR FREE TICKETAfter you register, you’ll be getting emails from us about the upcoming event.
On the day of the event, you’ll get a Zoom link and a password!
We are looking forward to seeing you there!
Fondly,C. S. E. Cooney
MORE ABOUT THE AUTHORS!MIKE ALLEN
Mike Allen is a two-time World Fantasy Award finalist. He edits and publishes the Mythic Delirium Books imprint. His short stories have been gathered in three collections: Unseaming, The Spider Tapestries and newly-released Aftermath of an Industrial Accident. His novella “The Comforter,” a sequel to his Nebula Award-nominated horror story “The Button Bin,” has just appeared in an anthology of four dark long-form tales, A Sinister Quartet. He’s also a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry.
Find him at:
http://www.clockworkphoenix.com
http://www.mythicdelirium.com http://descentintolight.com
PRAISE FOR AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT“An incredible read. This collection of horror and dark fantasy poetry and short fiction needs to be on the shelf of any horror reader.”
— Cemetery Dance
“Allen overflows the tank with nightmare fuels . . . These horror shorts are sure to linger in the dark corners of readers’ minds.”
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
EMMA J. GIBBONA Korean War veteran must rely on wits, improvised weapons, and words from the dread Necronomicon to escape the lair of a deranged cult. A ghost cannot communicate how she died, no matter how desperately she tries, while an unconventional ghost hunter incurs the venomous wrath of the Queen of Night. Murderous conspiracies reveal themselves in online video clips, a saint blasphemes as a serial killer prays for mercy, and corrupt families in ancient kingdoms trade blood and souls for leverage over foes. Enduring nightmares for a living can lead to a fate worse than burnout. A gruesome invasion from outside space and time tests courage—and corporate loyalty—past all rational limits.
In these twenty-three stories and poems, two-time World Fantasy Award nominee Mike Allen spins twisted narratives, some wound through the fabric of our world, some set in imagined pasts or futures, all plumbing the depths of human darkness.
“The consistency, here, is simply excellence,” writes Bram Stoker Award finalist and Punktown creator Jeffrey Thomas in his introduction. “You are holding in your hands an overflowing cornucopia of monstrous goodness. Mike Allen may be the premier poet of this era of weird horror and surrealist fantasy. His work is completely fearless. He takes no genre boundaries as sacred.”
—The Plutonian
Emma J. Gibbon is a horror writer, speculative poet and librarian. Her stories have appeared in various anthologies, Including Wicked Weird and Wicked Haunted, and on the Toasted Cake podcast.
In 2020, she was nominated twice for the Rhysling Award for her poems “Fune-RL” (Strange Horizons) and “Consumption” (Eye to the Telescope). Her poetry has also been published in Liminality, Kaleidotrope and Pedestal Magazine.
Emma is originally from Yorkshire and now lives in Maine in a spooky little house in the woods with her husband, Steve, and three exceptional animals: Odin, Mothra, and M. Bison (also known as Grim).
Her website is emmajgibbon.com
ABOUT DARK BLOOD COMES FROM THE FEETPRAISE FOR DARK BLOOD COMES FROM THE FEET
Dark Blood Comes from the Feet is a strange and eclectic collection of seventeen stories from horror author and speculative poet Emma J. Gibbon.
Within its pages, you will meet secret societies who contract deadly diseases on purpose, dancers helping each other avoid “below,” monstrous children who must be loved before they return to the sea, a taxidermy-obsessed mother, small blue devils in the Maine woods, a black cat that retrieves the dying, the last witch in Florida, and “a huge fucking dog of potentially supernatural origin.”
Visit haunted houses, a Hollywood nightclub, limbo, Whitechapel, and other stops on a death tour, and a childhood hangout that spells destruction for kids and dogs alike. Listen to a punk rock sermon in a post-apocalyptic matriarchal society, witness crustaceans that have trouble staying dead, a cannibalistic romance, a gothic love story to tuberculosis and a downtrodden wife’s transformation.
“Careful, or you might cut yourself on these stories—little gems with sharp edges which deserve to be treasured alongside the jewels of Shirley Jackson and Sylvia Townsend Warner—in the tradition of the illuminating dark.”
—M. Rickert, World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award-winning, author of You Have Never Been Here
CASSANDRA KHAW“Gibbon is a compelling new voice in horror. Part punk, part metal, part crooner, her work resonates beautifully.”
—Catherynne M. Valente, NYT/USA Today Bestselling Author
Cassandra Khaw is an award-winning game writer, and former scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal. Their work can be found in places like Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. Their first original novella, Hammers on Bone, was a British Fantasy award and Locus award finalist, and their forthcoming novella, Nothing But Blackened Teeth, will be published by Nightfire in September 2021.
PRAISE FOR NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH(Forthcoming from from Nightfire in Fall 2021.)
“This is a glorious poem, a slow-motion collapse leading to the inevitable haunting. It is beautiful and it isbrutal and it is heartbroken. Absolutely recommended.”
— Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart a Doorway
Delicate and disgusting…Each page holds an image more finely drawn and disturbing than the last.”
— T. Kingfisher, author of The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places
Imagine chucking The House on Haunted Hill, Japanese folklore, Clive Barker, and Kathy Acker into aliterary blender. Nothing But Blackened Teeth reads like the ghost-punk noir you never knew you needed.It’s sharp, playful, and nasty as hell.”
— Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Survivor Song
GORDON B. WHITE“Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a really bad idea for a wedding, and a really great idea for a nightmare-on-the-page. This book is so magnificently rotten it writhes with literary maggots, and deserves a place of honor among its peers in horror.”
— yours truly, C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Bone Swans: Stories
Gordon B. White is the author of the collection As Summer’s Mask Slips and Other Disruptions, as well as the forthcoming novellas ROOKFIELD and And In Her Smile, the World (with Rebecca J. Allred).
A graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, Gordon’s short stories, reviews, and interviews have appeared in dozens of venues, including The Best Horror of the Year Vol. 12. You can find him online at www.gordonbwhite.com
PRAISE FOR AS SUMMER’S MASK SLIPS AND OTHER DISRUPTIONS“White’s grisly, tantalizing debut story collection is a love letter to the horror genre… White conveys visceral terror through gorgeous, evocative prose … juxtaposing the macabre with the sublime for a truly pleasurable read.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Gordon B. White’s stories are weird and wise and always surprising. An impressive first collection.”
— Kij Johnson, author of The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe
“With his debut collection, Gordon B. White establishes himself as one of the major new voices of speculative fiction. A quiet creeping dread that never lets up, As Summer’s Mask Slips and Other Disruptions explores pain, loneliness, and horror through a deeply personal lens of family and outsiders. These unforgettable short stories are not to be missed.”
— Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of The Rust Maidens
ZIN E. ROCKLYN“Tapping into the atmosphere, authority, and history of Southern Gothic fiction, Gordon B. White’s collection of horror stories is haunting, lyrical, and unsettling. There is a primal fear that lurks in us all: a worry that just beyond the end of the flashlight beam waits unimaginable horror—and this cornucopia of dark tales proves that point.”
— Richard Thomas, author of Disintegration and the Thriller Award-nominated Breaker
Zin E. Rocklyn is a contributor to Bram Stoker-nominated and This is Horror Award-winning Nox Pareidolia, KaijuRising II: Reign of Monsters, Brigands: A Blackguards Anthology, and Forever Vacancy anthologies and Weird Luck Tales No. 7 zine.
Their story “Summer Skin” in the Bram Stoker-nominated anthology Sycorax’s Daughters received an honorable mention for Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year, Volume Ten.
Zin contributed the nonfiction essay “My Genre Makes a Monster of Me” to Uncanny Magazine’s Hugo Award-winning Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction.
Their short story “The Night Sun” and flash fiction “teatime” were published on Tor.com. Zin is a 2017 VONA and 2018 Viable Paradise graduate as well as a 2022 Clarion West candidate.
You can find them on Twitter @intelligentwat
ABOUT FLOWERS FOR THE SEAThis “dark, dazzling debut novella from Zin E. Rocklyn that reads like Rosemary’s Baby by way of Octavia E. Butler,” will be published by Tor.com in Fall 2021.
Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp.
Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she’s pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.
Zin E. Rocklyn’s extraordinary debut novella is a lush, gothic fantasy about the prices we pay and the vengeance we seek.
DANIEL BRAUM“Zin E. Rocklyn is already an essential and urgent voice in fantasy, and we’re unbelievably lucky to have their debut novella on our list. Flowers from the Sea is a gorgeous, gothic novella that devours what’s rotten about the legacies that came before it and will show readers something vividly, wonderfully new.”
— Ruoxi Chen, Editor at Tor.com
Daniel Braum is the author of the short story collections The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales from Cemetery Dance eBooks in 2016; The Wish Mechanics: Stories of the Strange and Fantastic from Independent Legions in 2017; and the chapbook Yeti Tiger Dragon from Dim Shores in 2016.
Underworld Dreams is his third collection and was released from Lethe Press in September 2020 and is out now as an Audio Book. The Serpent’s Shadow, his first novella, was released from Cemetery Dance eBooks in July 2019.
He is the editor of the Spirits Unwrapped anthology. His work has appeared in publications ranging from Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet to the Shivers 8 anthology. His most recent story appears in the Best Horror of the Year Volume 12 edited by Ellen Datlow.
He is the host of the Night Time Logic series. And the annual New York Ghost Story Festival.
He can be found at https://bloodandstardust.wordpress.com
ABOUT UNDERWORLD DREAMSUnderworld Dreams is Daniel Braum’s third short story collection of genre transcending, strange stories full of tension between the supernatural and psychological.
Within the pages Braum’s multi-dimensional characters face dark underworlds and strange experiences that illuminate the human condition and world (we think) we know.
Appearing in the volume for the first time is the original story “Between Our Earth and Their Moon” and the original novella, the title story, “Underworld Dreams (Sogni del Mundo Sotteraneo)” along with an introduction and story notes by the author.
PRAISE FOR UNDERWORLD DREAMS“The premises are creative, with the characters usually facing strange choices in unusual circumstances.”
– Kirkus Reviews
– Damaged Skull Writer
“Awesome reading that’s going to disturb you, make you think, and maybe even scare you a bit.”
Our Surreal A.M.s
Hernandez and I have the strangest morning conversations, and I recently realized I’d love to preserve some of them.
Alas for the last 6 years of lost moments. Though I suppose some things OUGHT to remain private.
But really, sometimes it’s like we live in our own private cartoon strip!
This morning, for example:Me: Imagine it. An ouroboros Möbius strip NESTING DOLL!
Carlos: *blinks*
Carlos: *blinks*
Carlos: *blinks*
Carlos: Come for the nightmare, stay for the mathematics!
Or, our running gag about poor Amelia Earhart. (CW: MACABRE!) We’d read this article about one of her possible demises via coconut crab.
So sometimes, of a morning, there might be a scene:Carlos: (gnawing on my skull) Oh! Amelia! It is I, your beloved coconut crab!
or…
Me: (gnawing on his skull) (to the tune of Joni Mitchell’s “Amelia“) “Amelia! It was just a false alarm!”
I was thinking I should name our coconut crab characters, and how they could psych each other out by crawling into Amelia’s skull and pretending she’s still alive.
Like one goes: “NO DON’T EAT ME! SPARE ME, COCONUT CRAB!”
and the other goes: “IS THAT YOU, AMELIA?”
and the first one says: “NAH M’CRAB, JUST MESSIN WITH YA.”
I’d have to make a study of Micronesian languages to give the coconut crabs really swell names though…
Anyway, that’s my morning. How’s yours?
Now just imagine us as coconut crabs.
It really isn’t too hard, is it?
