Daniel M. Bensen's Blog, page 100

Preternatural California

Whenever Anglos think of mythology, seems to me, they think of European mythology.

Pick up a book and go to a movie theater and what do you see? Vampires, werewolves, angels. Well  this isn’t Transylvania or the Black forest or the Levant. This is Stockton, the armpit of California.

We’ve got werewolves in our theaters, but where are our monsters? The Hoo-soo’-pe water maidens? Wiwe, the Body of Stone? The killer owls? 

I’ll tell you where they are. They’re in the Delta, undercutting the dykes. He’s in the basement of the Caeser Chavez library. And the fucking owls are camped out more or less permanently in the live oak across the street from my crappy housing development.

Yes, they kill people. And I’m the only one who has clue one how to stop them. I’m the last sucking shaman. Yeah, shut up, that’s what we’re called.

~~~

Whoo! This is a good one. Maybe some synergy here with the Unseen Colonized. What do you think?

 

70 Buddhist Philosophy with Steve Bein

Welcome back to the Kingdoms of Evil podcast!

http://www.thekingdomsofevil.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/70SteveBSep1.mp3

This week I’m talking to Steve Bein, philosopher, martial artist, adventurer, and author of the Fated Blades series. Of which the second book, Year of the Demon, is newly available in paperback. We eventually do talk about that, but first:

Novelocity

Luc Reid

The Codex Hive-Mind, company to be miserable with

Writers of the Future

Tex Thompson

Diana Rowland (who used to be a cop)

Erin Cashire (who used to be a nurse)

Year of the Demon

Codex is not safe from the FBI!

I’m thinking of sci-fi stories whenever I’m under the water

Pop-culture Buddhism

Who needs a military when you can send cartoons to other countries?

My alien invasion story

Japanese quality control

Don’t walk around in my head in your dirty shoes

Dharma Transmission

Bulgarian Muslims: converts and settlers

Yet another Catholic sex scandal

The wonderful new Pope

Without change, your philosophy will die, but if you change your philosophy, isn’t that killing it?

New Frontiers is done!

87K words. Jan2013-Aug2014. NEW FRONTIERS is done.

I sent the final draft to Jennie Goloboy to shop to publishers. Thanks to everyone who helped and supported this project, including Melissa Walshe, Tex Thompson, Simon Roy, Ben Poulsen, Michael Silva, Christine Yip,  Lucy Chochrane-Davis, and Francis Zammit.

See you in the library, space-cowboy.

The Unseen Colonized

When the colonizers came, the natives tried to fight.

When they lost, they fled.

And when the colonizers pursued, the natives fled further. They opened the holes between dreams and moved into the unseen world.

The dreams tried to fight, and lost, and fled in their turn.

Now the natives have made the unseen world their home. They have changed and developed and few see anything of value in the seen world.

Until one of them discovers the internet.

~~~

Or, if that last line is too stupid for you:

“…until a party of explorers stumble into the unseen world. They say they were sent by a man named ‘Thomas Jefferson’…”

Maybe those “dreams” are just Australopithecines in a world where humans never evolved.

The unseen colonized

When the colonizers came, the natives tried to fight.

When they lost, they fled.

And when the colonizers pursued, the natives fled further. They opened the holes between dreams and moved into the unseen world.

The dreams tried to fight, and lost, and fled in their turn.

Now the natives have made the unseen world their home. They have changed and developed and few see anything of value in the seen world.

Until one of them discovers the internet.

~~~

Or, if that last line is too stupid for you:

“…until a party of explorers stumble into the unseen world. They say they were sent by a man named ‘Thomas Jefferson’…”

Maybe those “dreams” are just Australopithecines in a world where humans never evolved.

A Loncon3 Book List

So I spent a crazy week in London, attending Loncon3, My First Con Ever. I finally got to meet my agent, Jennie Goloboy, in person and I had a blast hanging out with and learning from her as well as my agency-siblings: Tex Thompson (author of the American rural fantasy One Night in Sixes out right now from Solaris), Carrie Patel (The Buried Life out in April from Angry Robot), and Foz Meadows (the Hugo-nominated essay, Politics Belong in Science Fiction). We did and talked about so much I can’t even, but in the interests of biting off what you can chew, here are just the books I learned about at the convention and which I MUST read.

 Adrian Tchaikovsky, SHADOWS OF THE APT (I met Adrian waiting to get into the Dougal Dixon kaffeeklatsch. I found out later that Mr. Dixon wasn’t even aware he was supposed to talk to us, but we spec-bio fan boys talked amongst ourselves and now I have to read about Adrian’s bug-people and his new book about monsters, coming soon!)
Lauren Beukes,  BROKEN MONSTERS (What a cool person Lauren Beukes is! She does this thing where she goes all Mad Journalist and interviews people about the setting of her novels. The stories she told us you can’t tell in fiction…anyway, this book is about a time-traveling serial killer, but what do I need elevator pitches for? After ZOO CITY, I’ll read anything Beukes writes.)
Lauren Beukes, Florrie’s Dragons (It’s…uh…for my daughter)
Sarah Lotz, THE THREE (Beukes likes it. Scary plane crashes)
Glen Duncan, THE LAST WEREWOLF (Another Beukes recommendation. I don’t usually read urban fantasy, but when I do, it’s because a globe-trotting, multi-talented, socially-conscious role-model recommended it)
Laura Lam, PANTOMIME (…I’m going to be reading a lot of South African authors, aren’t I?)
Charlie Human, Apocalypse Now Now (I need a way to read comics electronically. Any suggestions?)
Peter Watts, BEYOND THE RIFT (I loved BLINDSIGHT . Although Watts disagrees with me about the nature of consciousness (how dare he?) I’m eager to add this book of short stories to the pile)
Four Lions (Kim Moravec, recommended this when I described The World’s Other Side to her. A sit-com about terrorists! Thanks, Kim!)
Terry LaBan, Muktuk Wolfsbreath , Hard Boiled Shaman (Tex, you are so cool)
Brian K. Vaughan, Saga (alright Tex, you can stop showing off now)
Emma Newman, recommended by super-editor Lee Harris of Tor.com.
Aliette de Bodard‘s next book. (it isn’t linkable yet, but it’s about sorcerers and fallen angels in WW1 Paris. I know, right?)
T.L. Morganfield, The Bone Flower Throne (more Aztec fantasy!)
Benjanun Sriduangkaew, Scale-Bright (Okay, the other time I read urban fantasy is when it’s recommended by the person at the helm next wave of genre fiction)
Tex Thompson, ONE NIGHT IN SIXES (I, of course, have already read this “rural fantasy,” but my wife needed a signed copy of the classy British edition)
Gaie Sebold, SHANGHAI SPARROW (and while I was at the Solaris booth, why not buy a bunch of their other stuff. They emailed the ebooks to me in exchange for cash. I’m living in the future!)
Eric Brown, JANI AND THE GREATER GAME (it has a clockwork elephant on it. Clockwork!)
Guy Adams, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INFERNAL (I asked for something “like ONE NIGHT IN SIXES.”)
Al Ewing, THE FICTIONAL MAN (because having a human being created in mockery of my writing has always been a dream of mine)
The work of Frances Silversmith (remember the writing group that kicked me out? Frances remembers me!)
Rachel Acks, They Tell me there will be no Pain (Rachel and I had a couple of mind-blowing conversations, but more on that in a later blog. For now, it’s enough to know that Rachel is one of the women destroying science fiction.)
Sunil Patel, Gramadevi’s Lament (what’s the difference between a town and the people who live there?)
John Chu, The Water that Falls on You from Nowhere (honestly I had about three seconds to ask John the title of the story before they kicked us out, but it still looks cool)
Jeffrey A. Carver, NEPTUNE CROSSING (free for kindle)
William Campbell Powell, EXPIRATION DAY (who also writes sci-fi about not being a person. What a coincidence!)
Vylar Kaftan, I’m Alive, I love you, I’ll see you in Reno (Nebula award-winner, guys. Also, a wonderful human being, who talked to Tex and me forever, showering attention from on high. Don’t worry, Vylar, you are a better representative of the US abroad than I’ll ever be.)
The Reading and Writing Podcast (because I’m looking for something to accompany my Writing Excuses binges)
Chef (pitched by Rachel as “The Tampopo of Southern food.” I am on board!)
Hari Kondabolu (I went to college with this guy! He was in my class! I went to his shows in the student union. But it took an Australian and a Bulgarian to point that out. Way to go, me.)
The Thick of It (Yes, Minister with cursing? Yeah!)
Sleepy Hollow (this one’s from Jennie in her history nerd hat)
C.M. Kosemen, Osman Hasan and the Tombstone Photographs of the Dönmes (this guy just keeps getting deeper. This is a book about his family, who were Dönmes, a group of Sabbateans. This is on the tail end of a conversation with Tex and my wife about amphibian evolution…I’ll get to that later)
Patty Jansen, AMBASSADOR (God, where did I even get this recommendation? I’m still thinking about those amphibians)
John Horner Jacobs, THE INCORRUPTIBLES (I just can’t get the map out of my head. Here’s for more fantasy set in American history!)
Ira Nayman, WELCOME TO THE MULTIVERSE (Had a fun chat with the author, and it sounds like a funny book)
Christopher Nuttal, SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (a cool premise: Star Trek meets Middle Earth)
Clare Davidson, TRINITY (it has a nice cover)
Katsuyama Umiyuri, TSUKINOMORI NO MAYUMIKO  (Mayumiko of the Forests of the Moon. I met the author and asked for a book that doesn’t have much kanji.)
John Gribbin, THE ALICE ENCOUNTER (Meet the dark matter people)
Eric Brown, STARSHIP SUMMER (a space-opera novella from PS Publishing)
Marie Brennan, TROPIC OF SERPENTS (the fine people at the Titan booth noticed my pictures of dragons and thought this would be the book for me. It is.)
Daryl Gregory, AFTERPARTY  (and then things got awesome. Titan apparently publishes every author I love, including Charles Stross, Cory Doctorw, Julius freaking Csotonyi, and my hero Daryl Gregory. There followed a feeding frenzy. First I bought this near-future pharma-fiction. This is also the first book from the con that I actually finished reading and it is EXCELLENT. What if there was a drug that would make you a better person?)
Daryl Gregory UNPOSSIBLE (Short stories from the person I want to be when I grow up)
Samit Basu, TURBULENCE  (Superheroes in India. I’m about half-way through and I already want more Indian SF)
Kieran Shia, KOKO TAKES A HOLIDAY (I pitched NEW FRONTIERS to them(!) and asked for something like that)
Thomas Metzinger, Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity  (Then things got even better. I had a kaffeeklatsch with Daryl Gregory and he, like, talked to me. This was one of the super-high-level books that came up in the conversation)
Cixin Liu and Ken Liu, THE THREE BODY PROBLEM (Another book I can brag about having read)
Ben H. Winters, THE LAST POLICEMAN (A detective at the end of the world. Wow.)
Marcus Sakey,  BRILLIANCE (A different look at superheroes)
Daryl Gregory, We are all Completely Fine (And finally, the novella Deryl Gregory, himself, signed for me after have talked with me about my career and my writing like the just absolutely excellent human being that he is. I also read the novella, and it’s absolutely excellent, too)

And that’s my reading list. What does your reading list look like? What’s shaking the foundations of science fiction in your opinion? Keep watching for more revelations and musings from My First Con Ever. I have enough material to last until Sasquan!

Into the volcano!

Magic falls from the sky as meteoric dust. Wizards have used it up in places of high population density (except after meteor showers, when there’s a brief Jubilee). But if you’re in a desert or steppe where settlement is impossible, you have magic. This gives nomads an advantage over settled people except near hot-springs, active volcanoes, and other upwellings from the earth’s core.

For millennia, the Ring of Fire has been the bastion of civilization against the depredations of the shamans, but someone has just figured out you can mine magic out of the ground if you dig deep enough.

Hear you in September

Vacation time, listeners. Go enjoy the songs of birds and the sizzle of hot asphalt with free ears because The Kingdoms of Evil podcast is off the air until September 1.

If you can’t wait 2 whole weeks without content, and you’ve already listened to our extensive archive of podcasts, updates will continue in Science Fiction Theater! A new little story idea every Friday.

And who knows what I’ll do at LonCon3. Stay tuned.

In Charge

The black eel writhed in its wreath of blue flames, and I knew I had to re-schedule the rest of my life.

The old king had died and his Charge had chosen me. Randomly, as far as I could tell.

Certainly I could think of half a dozen better people to be In Charge than me. But the eels don’t change their minds. They can’t be reasoned with, either, or moved or avoided, unless you count suicide as an option. The only thing eels do is kill you if you don’t build black pyramids for them, and kill anyone who disobeys or tries to stop you.

I spent some time swearing. Staring at the wall. Even a little crying. Hell, a lot. I can admit that, right? It’s not as if I have to care what anyone thinks of me any more.

But you can’t fight being In Charge.  Eventually I stopped stalling and walked out of my house and ordered the first person I saw to fetch the robes and scepter from the last king.

Now I’m sitting on my lawn, waiting for the general and the prime minister to get over here and abase themselves before me. I really hope I won’t have to kill anyone. If the rest of my life isn’t very short, it’s going to be very, very long.

Gilgamesh the Biker

Science Fiction Theater Supplemental: Adam J. Thraxton has a fantasy idea to share with you: The Epic of Gilgamesh retold as a biker yarn.

Gil is the worst kind of man – gang leader of the Summer Orks, through several towns in the midwest he’s known as a rapist, murderer, and sociopath who likes nothing more than boozing and watching the helpless scream. In response, the government sends in Ann, a hired mercenary with a reputation not that much better. She meets Gil after beating him near to death while blocking him from his latest rape, and she offers Gil one chance to redeem himself – putting down a wanted man in California, and as they travel, Gil’s sanity unravels as he is plagued by monstrous, ever more savage dreams.

My original plan was to eventually throw some magical realism in there – build up to storming the gates of the underworld in the Epic to actually -be- the gates to the underworld.

So what do you guys think? Add your ideas to Adam’s or volunteer your SFT supplemental stories in the comments.