Daniel Ausema's Blog, page 12
April 21, 2018
Featured on my local library's blog
A couple of months ago, someone from my local library reached out to me about being featured on the library's blog. Last summer I had added Spire City, Season 1 to the library's offerings, through a program for self-published books. So they wanted to ask me a few questions, mostly about self-publishing. We spent a lovely time talking about the process and writing in general. I may have overstated how easy it is to get a book set up with Amazon--it certainly requires attention to detail for formatting and all that, which maybe isn't clear in my answer there. But definitely as far as where you spend your time and energy, it needs to be much more on writing, revising, editing, and getting experienced eyes on the stories. So the write-up went live on the library blog a couple of days ago, possibly the first of more features to come. To anyone who happens over here from reading that interview, welcome!
April 19, 2018
Guest post: Lindsey Duncan
Earlier this month I had the honor of visiting Lindsey's blog to talk about the origin of The Silk Betrayal. And now it's her turn to come visit over here. Her SF novel
Scylla and Charybdis
has just been released. I read the opening chapter(s?) some years ago, when that was all she had written and ready for critiquing, so I'm thrilled to see it published now. Knowing that she is a professional musician, I asked her to write something about how music plays a role in the novel.
Here is her answer:
When Daniel asked me to write about music in Scylla and Charybdis, my first reaction was, “… but there isn’t music in Scylla and Charybdis.”
This may sound like an odd declaration from a professional musician, so let me explain. It’s taken me a long time to get over my self-consciousness about including musicians in my work, and this goes back to my days in science fiction and fantasy fandom, playing in the worlds of other authors. In fanfiction writing, there is a concept known as the Mary Sue – an “author insert” who is bigger, better and more awesome than the characters of the original work. They romance the main character (sweep Captain Kirk off his feet, for instance) and generally save the day. And to me, as a beginning writer, including musicians felt a bit too close to writing a Mary Sue. I also was afraid that my passion for the topic would get the better of me, and I’d ramble about the technicalities.
Now, even those of you who don't know much about writing can think of the counter-example, that classic piece of writing advice: write what you know. Certainly, I've written musician characters since shaking off that first uneasy fear, but more than that, music and musical themes have crept into my fiction, singing out where I least expected it. And there are, indeed, notes of it in Scylla and Charybdis.
On the space station that Anaea calls home, music appears in a manner both spontaneous and personal. Rather than formal melodies written by human composers, it is designed to respond to the listener(s) and their mood, sculpted by technology. I reference the pentatonic mode, a set of five notes (hence the name) that will always harmonize, no matter the combination they are played in. My harp group plays an improvisation we call "White Strings" because, while in the key of C, playing just the white strings (skipping red Cs and blue Fs), the harps fall into pentatonic sync.
In the wider universe, traces of song appear in the artifact of printed sheet music, in the holographic preservation of orchestral concerts. Step into a special booth, and one is surrounded by a symphony recorded centuries ago. I had a lot of fun considering how classical music would have evolved between our now and Anaea’s now, though I must admit that classical music is not my specialty.
Which is not to say that I think music in Anaea’s world is all in the past, either. In the place she was born, it is continuous, ever-changing … and I’m sure it is in the rest of the universe, too, but with the possibilities of billions more minds. Musicians are always discovering some part of themselves in old songs. In our world today, traditional music from centuries ago is alive and evolving, with new compositions written in the style and arrangements sometimes borrowing from jazz and pop, sometimes their own beast. I have no doubt that this exploration will continue.
That’s a prediction more reliable than flying cars. Especially ones that look like horse-drawn carriages.
Much thanks, Lindsey. Now everyone go pick up a copy of the novel!
Here is her answer:
When Daniel asked me to write about music in Scylla and Charybdis, my first reaction was, “… but there isn’t music in Scylla and Charybdis.”This may sound like an odd declaration from a professional musician, so let me explain. It’s taken me a long time to get over my self-consciousness about including musicians in my work, and this goes back to my days in science fiction and fantasy fandom, playing in the worlds of other authors. In fanfiction writing, there is a concept known as the Mary Sue – an “author insert” who is bigger, better and more awesome than the characters of the original work. They romance the main character (sweep Captain Kirk off his feet, for instance) and generally save the day. And to me, as a beginning writer, including musicians felt a bit too close to writing a Mary Sue. I also was afraid that my passion for the topic would get the better of me, and I’d ramble about the technicalities.
Now, even those of you who don't know much about writing can think of the counter-example, that classic piece of writing advice: write what you know. Certainly, I've written musician characters since shaking off that first uneasy fear, but more than that, music and musical themes have crept into my fiction, singing out where I least expected it. And there are, indeed, notes of it in Scylla and Charybdis.
On the space station that Anaea calls home, music appears in a manner both spontaneous and personal. Rather than formal melodies written by human composers, it is designed to respond to the listener(s) and their mood, sculpted by technology. I reference the pentatonic mode, a set of five notes (hence the name) that will always harmonize, no matter the combination they are played in. My harp group plays an improvisation we call "White Strings" because, while in the key of C, playing just the white strings (skipping red Cs and blue Fs), the harps fall into pentatonic sync.
In the wider universe, traces of song appear in the artifact of printed sheet music, in the holographic preservation of orchestral concerts. Step into a special booth, and one is surrounded by a symphony recorded centuries ago. I had a lot of fun considering how classical music would have evolved between our now and Anaea’s now, though I must admit that classical music is not my specialty.
Which is not to say that I think music in Anaea’s world is all in the past, either. In the place she was born, it is continuous, ever-changing … and I’m sure it is in the rest of the universe, too, but with the possibilities of billions more minds. Musicians are always discovering some part of themselves in old songs. In our world today, traditional music from centuries ago is alive and evolving, with new compositions written in the style and arrangements sometimes borrowing from jazz and pop, sometimes their own beast. I have no doubt that this exploration will continue.
That’s a prediction more reliable than flying cars. Especially ones that look like horse-drawn carriages.
Much thanks, Lindsey. Now everyone go pick up a copy of the novel!
April 14, 2018
Catching up, "Gasps of the Scaled City"
Another story that came out earlier this year was "Gasps of the Scaled City" in Weird City #2. This story takes a very surreal image--a city that is built into (and out of) a gigantic fish, its scales teased upward into the houses and buildings of the city's residents--and treats it as a secondary fantasy of sorts. All is not well in the city, though the people who live there don't yet realize exactly what is going on...
I remember ten or fifteen years ago there was a mini movement of sorts of fantasy-ish/weird stories set in urban environments. Anyone remember Fantastic Metropolis? Pretty soon, "urban fantasy" came to mean something entirely different, and the movement, if it ever was one, seemed to fade away. But the images of those wildly inventive cities have stayed with me and definitely influenced a lot of my writing--Spire City, certainly. The fish city of "Gasps of the Scaled City" is very much in this vein.
Weird City makes both kindle and print versions of their magazine--the print version has beautiful artwork to accompany each of the stories. So definitely consider getting that version. Issue 2 has seven stories that examine death or resurrection in cities that are far from normal.
I remember ten or fifteen years ago there was a mini movement of sorts of fantasy-ish/weird stories set in urban environments. Anyone remember Fantastic Metropolis? Pretty soon, "urban fantasy" came to mean something entirely different, and the movement, if it ever was one, seemed to fade away. But the images of those wildly inventive cities have stayed with me and definitely influenced a lot of my writing--Spire City, certainly. The fish city of "Gasps of the Scaled City" is very much in this vein.
Weird City makes both kindle and print versions of their magazine--the print version has beautiful artwork to accompany each of the stories. So definitely consider getting that version. Issue 2 has seven stories that examine death or resurrection in cities that are far from normal.
April 9, 2018
Welcome to Pacific City!
For a third iteration in a row, I have a story in SFFWorld's yearly (ish) anthology series. This year they created a shared world of heroes and villains (super and otherwise) set in an imaginary city on North America's western coast, Welcome to Pacific City. The stories I wrote for the last two anthos shared a secondary world of my own, one I hope to return to with more stories, but clearly I couldn't shoehorn that into this year's theme. So I created a story of genetic modification and police brutality that's also, in some ways, a superhero origin story.
Looking through the info I've seen for the other stories, it looks like a fun anthology. And there's some fun info on the setting at the website, in-world tourist info with some guerrilla propaganda woven in. Well worth exploring the site. I always love that kind of detail surrounding an imagined world.
Each of the contributors has been interviewed on topics related to the antho, and those mini interviews are going up, with a new one each day. This past weekend, my mini interview went live. I wasn't planning to claim Robin Hood's mantle, but as I answered the questions, I realized that's how it was coming across. So I ran with it...
Enjoy!
Looking through the info I've seen for the other stories, it looks like a fun anthology. And there's some fun info on the setting at the website, in-world tourist info with some guerrilla propaganda woven in. Well worth exploring the site. I always love that kind of detail surrounding an imagined world.
Each of the contributors has been interviewed on topics related to the antho, and those mini interviews are going up, with a new one each day. This past weekend, my mini interview went live. I wasn't planning to claim Robin Hood's mantle, but as I answered the questions, I realized that's how it was coming across. So I ran with it...
Enjoy!
April 6, 2018
Catching up, story in Gallery of Curiosities podcast
This is reaching back into 2017 for this publication, which I never got around to mentioning here at the time. "Against Mint Justice" is in episode 46 of The Gallery of Curiosities, which is a fun podcast of strange and imaginative stories. The podcast host weaves his own story around my story with a framing device. So my story, well narrated by Lesa Whyte, begins just under 5:00 into the episode. You can listen to it on YouTube and on itunes, through the link on the Gallery's website (and no doubt other venues online as well).
"Against Mint Justice" is a Spire City story, a side story that doesn't tie directly in with any of the main characters (except for the title...sort of). In this story I was playing around with the idea of a serial with much shorter episodes. That isn't obvious in the final narration, but if you pay attention you might be able to hear how it splits into four very brief episodes. It tells the story of an urchin girl who steals a flying beetle by mistake.
"Against Mint Justice" is a Spire City story, a side story that doesn't tie directly in with any of the main characters (except for the title...sort of). In this story I was playing around with the idea of a serial with much shorter episodes. That isn't obvious in the final narration, but if you pay attention you might be able to hear how it splits into four very brief episodes. It tells the story of an urchin girl who steals a flying beetle by mistake.
April 2, 2018
The origin of The Silk Betrayal
This past weekend I was a guest at the blog of my friend Lindsey Duncan, Unicorn Ramblings. You can go read the story of how The Silk Betrayal came about, and stick around awhile to learn more about Lindsey's lyrical, McKillip-esque writing. She will be coming here in a couple of weeks to visit this blog.
March 31, 2018
Catching up, poem in Polu Texni
During these past couple months of blog silence, I had a few new things published and other things accepted for publication. So in the interest of getting caught up on some of that news, my poem "Ostracizing the Blacksmith" was published in Polu Texni. This is my fourth poem in that zine, and for every one the editor finds a good bit of art to accompany the poem.
This particular poem was inspired by an archaeological article I read at the time about some excavations of an old village showing the blacksmith's house conspicuously separated from the other buildings of the same time period. It reminded me, as well, of a YA fantasy I remember a teacher reading to my class years ago, where the people looked at the wandering metal workers with suspicion.
PS: I found the cover art for that novel. There's a scene fairly early on of the main characters entering the hill country where one is looking for help to rescue his brother. I don't remember all the particulars now (though I did get a chance to reread it as an adult), but there was some sense of shadowy, fear-tinted wonder, that these hills he'd always been afraid of might also prove to be home of the people who would help him. Even if the plot points faded away, that mood stayed with me for years.
Anyone else read the book?
This particular poem was inspired by an archaeological article I read at the time about some excavations of an old village showing the blacksmith's house conspicuously separated from the other buildings of the same time period. It reminded me, as well, of a YA fantasy I remember a teacher reading to my class years ago, where the people looked at the wandering metal workers with suspicion.
PS: I found the cover art for that novel. There's a scene fairly early on of the main characters entering the hill country where one is looking for help to rescue his brother. I don't remember all the particulars now (though I did get a chance to reread it as an adult), but there was some sense of shadowy, fear-tinted wonder, that these hills he'd always been afraid of might also prove to be home of the people who would help him. Even if the plot points faded away, that mood stayed with me for years.Anyone else read the book?
March 28, 2018
"The Towers are on Strike" at DSF
OK, life these past couple of months have thrown a real curveball at me, and I haven't hardly felt like I've had the chance to catch a breath. It probably will continue to feel like that for a while, as well, but I don't like to get into that on my blog.
In fact...when I read other blog posts, and the focus is on blogging itself (including lack of-), I tune out. So I won't say any more about that here. I do have a wide range of news and other items coming up here that I want to get caught up on and ready for, hopefully including a guest soon.
For now, though, I just want to point your way to a story that just came out this week, "The Towers are on Strike." The author notes explain a bit about where the story came from, so I won't go into that here. It's a whimsical story, in a way, though not without a bite to it. A fable, I guess, even without a trace of animal characters.
Do people still talk about the New Wave Fabulists? It's a term I remember coming up pretty frequently as an alternate name for slipstream (another term I don't hear as much recently) back when I started interacting with other writers on the internet. I haven't come across many discussions about fabulism--the genre? the movement? the approach?--recently, though for all I know that may be because I'm no longer keeping up with whatever the key centers of the approach are. Discussion board days are...fading. But rereading this story when it came out the other day, I remembered the term.
A fabulist approach is definitely a significant part of a lot of what I write, especially in shorter forms. Anyone want to steer me toward like-minded writers? Give the story a read and come back to let me know.
In fact...when I read other blog posts, and the focus is on blogging itself (including lack of-), I tune out. So I won't say any more about that here. I do have a wide range of news and other items coming up here that I want to get caught up on and ready for, hopefully including a guest soon.
For now, though, I just want to point your way to a story that just came out this week, "The Towers are on Strike." The author notes explain a bit about where the story came from, so I won't go into that here. It's a whimsical story, in a way, though not without a bite to it. A fable, I guess, even without a trace of animal characters.
Do people still talk about the New Wave Fabulists? It's a term I remember coming up pretty frequently as an alternate name for slipstream (another term I don't hear as much recently) back when I started interacting with other writers on the internet. I haven't come across many discussions about fabulism--the genre? the movement? the approach?--recently, though for all I know that may be because I'm no longer keeping up with whatever the key centers of the approach are. Discussion board days are...fading. But rereading this story when it came out the other day, I remembered the term.
A fabulist approach is definitely a significant part of a lot of what I write, especially in shorter forms. Anyone want to steer me toward like-minded writers? Give the story a read and come back to let me know.
December 30, 2017
Author copies
My author copies of The Silk Betrayal have arrived! Guardbridge rocked the design here, and it's very cool to have a hardcover copy, which is something new for me.
You too can get a copy :) Just visit Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Silk-Betrayal-Daniel-Ausema/dp/1911486217 Or if you prefer, I see that it's now on B&N's online store as well: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-silk-betrayal-daniel-ausema/1127574920 (and likely others...).
December 5, 2017
And now Silk Betrayal is out for real! Paperback and Hardcover editions
This post just went up on my publisher's Facebook page:
It's now out! The Silk Betrayal by Daniel Ausema is available to purchase on Amazon, our web store, and a number of other online retailers. If you like exciting fantasy with excellent characters and intriguing setting, get this. There will be sequels, but this first book is fine as a stand alone. (In fact, it was conceived as a stand alone by the author until I read it and said "I want more!")The start of a new fantasy epic.
Arcist magic draws upon archetypal images to shape emotions and compel action. Pavresh wants to study with the master arcist, to understand the underlying patterns of the magic. But he is swept up in the intrigues and revolts of the city of Romnai, events which could destroy their society or set its people free. Can he use his skills to shape the future or be caught in a web of betrayal?Hardback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sik-Betrayal-Daniel-Aus…/…/1911486209Paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Silk-Betrayal-Daniel-Au…/…/1911486217Faster and Cheaper in the UK, with more of the money going to the author and publisher, order from our website: http://www.guardbridgebooks.co.uk/…/…/the-silk-betrayal.html
It's now out! The Silk Betrayal by Daniel Ausema is available to purchase on Amazon, our web store, and a number of other online retailers. If you like exciting fantasy with excellent characters and intriguing setting, get this. There will be sequels, but this first book is fine as a stand alone. (In fact, it was conceived as a stand alone by the author until I read it and said "I want more!")The start of a new fantasy epic.
Arcist magic draws upon archetypal images to shape emotions and compel action. Pavresh wants to study with the master arcist, to understand the underlying patterns of the magic. But he is swept up in the intrigues and revolts of the city of Romnai, events which could destroy their society or set its people free. Can he use his skills to shape the future or be caught in a web of betrayal?Hardback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sik-Betrayal-Daniel-Aus…/…/1911486209Paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Silk-Betrayal-Daniel-Au…/…/1911486217Faster and Cheaper in the UK, with more of the money going to the author and publisher, order from our website: http://www.guardbridgebooks.co.uk/…/…/the-silk-betrayal.html
