Daniel Ausema's Blog, page 15

April, a month for poetry...

...and fittingly, since it's National Poetry Month, cruel or not.

It began with the publication of two of my poems (as well as one short story). The middle included the sale of two more poems. And then to close out the month, I sold a novelette called "The Poetics of Defiance" to GigaNotoSaurus, which is about a partnership between an alchemist and a poet--and the story includes snippets of the magic-infused poetic lines he crafts to get them out of trouble. It's a story I love, and I'm thrilled that people will have a chance to read it.

But wait, there's more. I also set myself a goal at the start of the month to write a poem every day. Thirty poems later, it's now May. The poems ranged from haiku to sonnet to pseudo, in-secondary-world epic fragments, but most of them were free verse, probably in the 20- to 40-line range (I haven't gone back to analyze specifics). And they ranged from straight-up science poetry to SF, fantasy, horror (there was a strong undercurrent of horror in the poems early in the month, for some reason).

I'd had the idea to do this some April for a number of years now--the last two years I did a compromise goal of one poem every week, and that led to several that have been published, including the "Seasons in a Moon Ocean," which is nominated for a Rhysling--but each time the month came around I told myself it wasn't a good year to try. Honestly, I could have made that argument this year as well, even more than other years, but with the way February's novella-writing challenge went, I decided to give it a go anyway.

What I find when I'm writing poetry is that I'm very open to things I see, hear, read, notice sparking some further thought. So it's a great spur to creativity of all kinds (not to mention, in my opinion, a healthy mindset in general). And the poems themselves? Some will probably not be worth submitting, when I get back to give them another look, but I suspect most will be very worth the effort. And many of them you'll see popping up in magazines and anthologies (and chapbooks? collections?) in the coming year or two.

Poems sold to Illumen

Last week Monday I had two poems published on the same day. This week Monday I had two poems accepted for publication. If this keeps up, I might grow to like Mondays...
These two are scheduled for the August issue of Illumen. One is a fairly short free verse that just skirts the edge of fantasy (or is it a non-speculative poem with a fanciful metaphor? You decide...). The other is a Fib--a poem that follows the Fibonacci sequence, with one syllable in each of the first two lines, then two, three, five, eight--with a touch a steampunk and a stronger horror/uncanny vibe.
I had a poem in Illumen several years ago, when the magazine had a different publisher. So it's great to be returning to their pages.

Episode 6 released

So far this season, each episode has centered on one of the characters of the Weave ***Season Two spoiler alert*** former residents that is, as they go their separate ways.

Now, as we're nearly to the halfway point of the season, you can find out what's happening with the last of those characters, Williver. He was in the thick of the climax for Season Two...and he's struggling now—struggling with an infection that seems to be rapidly accelerating.

Find out in Episode 6, "The Poetics of Completion," which went out to subscribers last night and should be out (or will shortly be) in Amazon and B&N.

So far this season, each episode has centered on one of t...

So far this season, each episode has centered on one of the characters of the Weave ***Season Two spoiler alert*** former residents that is, as they go their separate ways.

Now, as we're nearly to the halfway point of the season, you can find out what's happening with the last of those characters, Williver. He was in the thick of the climax for Season Two...and he's struggling now—struggling with an infection that seems to be rapidly accelerating.

Find out in Episode 6, "The Poetics of Completion," which went out to subscribers last night and should be out (or will shortly be) in Amazon and B&N.

Two poems published in one day...

...in two different publications as well. 
I'm thrilled with each, naturally. And I love the picture the editor of Polu Texni found to go with my poem.
"Monuments of Frost" is a science fictional poem about art on another planet. After writing it, I looked back and saw it as having a sort of kindred connection with Ursula LeGuin's brief stories of other places in Changing Planes.

The other one isn't available to read online yet, but you can order the issue now to read it. "Beings of Air" appears in issues 2.4 of Mythic Delirium. As with the other, while it isn't specifically inspired by any other work, I see a connection with other stories, this time Italo Calvino's Qwfwq stories (which I highly recommend, anyway...). Some crawl through Wikipedia led me to learning all kinds of things about our atmosphere, and I turned that into a fable-like poem about the beings that live up there. It will be featured this June and free to read them, but buy a copy anyway, and you can read it right away.

"The Blood Tree War" published

Today my short story "The Blood Tree War" was published at Diabolical Plots. This is a story of carnivorous plants told from their perspective. It's fairly short, so I won't say any more about the plot, etc. As far as its writing, I believe this (like many of my stories) started as a one-hour writing exercise with some writer friends. But I'm pretty sure I had a vague idea of wanting to write a story somewhat along these lines even before that exercise took place, and I simply combined the idea I already had with the prompt for that week.

A quick, somewhat dark story, so give it a read, would you?

A Spire City freebie

On a lark I posted this microfiction story on Twitter the other day. It's a Spire City mini story that captures the atmosphere and danger of the city, the series, and Orgood's cruel infection.

Enjoy!

A Dart of Deadly Serum
As soon as the cloaked man shot me—in the shadow of the foundry, where rain and steam mingled with soot—I snatched the dart from my flesh. Too slow. The poison sac was already empty, its contents working on my blood, transforming me into an animal. Already a line of fur ran up my forearm. Growing teeth forced my jaw to open, and I howled. Then snarling, I bounded after my executioner.

Guest post at Steampunk Cavaliers

I'm joining a few other writers, mostly some of those who'd been involved in the late, lamented Darkside Codex series, at a new blog called Steampunk Cavaliers. Some of the participants were introduced a few weeks ago, and there are a couple others who will be popping in now and then but weren't included in that into.

My first post went up earlier this week. It's about why I see serial fiction as such a logical part of the steampunk scene. In it I look at serial fiction in the real-world Victorian era, including one of my favorite anecdotes about how dangerous the format was seen by those in power.

So check it out, and follow the blog for new reviews and other steampunk-related goodness every week. (And if anyone is interested in having a steampunk serial featured or reviewed over there, feel free to contact me.)

Urchin Again (and some sweet deals)

Season Three has now begun! From the first time I sat down to write out season three (roughly at the same time the season one was first being published by Musa), this first episode was called "Urchin Again." It follows Chels dealing with the devastating aftermath of the Season Two finale...

If you haven't had a chance to subscribe, then don't delay! I'll send you episode 1 right away, and you'll get the rest of the episodes as they come out.

To celebrate the release of Season Three, I've also lowered the price for the Seasons One & Two ebooks—$2.99 for Season One and $3.99 for Season Two (if you're buying in the US, and automatically converted from that elsewhere). The main links for those are also over on the Spire City tab. So now is a great time to dive into the series and find yourself caught up in the struggles of this steampunk city.

Time to Subscribe to Season Three!

After the dramatic finale to Season Two, what will happen to the people who lived in the Weave? And what will the cruel Mint do to continue his hunt against the city's powerless? Each of them reacts in different ways, which opens up many new parts of the city and new ways of seeing their infections. So sign up now to receive all the Season Three: Unwoven episodes as they are released.

This is the final season, bringing a close to the stories of Chels and Orgood and the rest, starting with episode 1, "Urchin Again," which will come out on March 7, and ending with episode 13, "All Things Must Complete," which will be released on May 30. Thirteen weeks, thirteen episodes, and one dramatic finale.

All the details on subscribing are on the Spire City tab. There is a special deal going on right now, through the end of the month. If you've read the other seasons, then subscribe for the low price of $5 US. Or if you're new, subscribe for $12 US, and I'll send you seasons 1 & 2 immediately, as well as signing you up for season 3. This is a limited time, so take advantage now! You might even have time to read through seasons 1 & 2 before season 3 starts...if you hurry.