Joshua Alan Doetsch's Blog, page 5
October 3, 2013
Message In a Bottle
Dear Passive Aggressive Open Letter Writer:
You suck.
Sincerely,
Self-loathing Hypocrite
August 13, 2013
GenCon and the Siblings Three
It’s that time of year. Once again, I ready for the Valhalla of geekery that is known as GenCon. My brother and I go most every year, but this year’s a little different. This year, a film that our sister is in (Motivational Growth) will be showing at the convention (click above picture for event details). And now my sister is very suddenly visiting her first GenCon. It’s her first time…and she’ll be on a QnA panel! How did my little sister get on a QnA panel at GenCon before me? What a strange world…
Are you ready? Is GenCon ready? Because the Doetsches are showing up in force. For the first time ever, we siblings three will be gathered, at the same time, in the same convention. THE EARTH MIGHT SHATTER! That’s right! See GenCon as it was always meant to be seen: In 3-Doetsch!!!
June 21, 2013
Empty Spaces in the Dino Saddle
My thoughts this week have been a roiling, burning, churn-churn-churn. All frayed fibers and caffeine burn. I have absolutely no idea how to express myself to the right people (and I make a living expressing). I didn’t sleep a minute of Sunday night. More than one somebody I know has recently found out they’re not long for this world, and one has already passed (far too young). More post-it reminders on the mortality fridge saying, “Live! Live! Live” and “Do! Do! Do!” and “Say! Say! Say!” My problems are tiny by comparison. And it seems like obligation eventually swallows everyone in life. Comfortable oblivions. I keep bouncing around on my silly little adventures, and one by one, another someone fades into “real life.” I can’t rightly hold it against them, but it gets a lonelier riding dinosaurs.
More coherent, useful posts (on life developments, moving, travel, and upcoming publishing/reading events) coming soon. Stay tuned. Tonight, I’m off across the Ocean in search of vikings.
April 24, 2013
I, Cyborg
If you were to look at a cyborg PoV visual display, from my perspective, at mealtime, the text would read something like this:
CONUNDRUM: Raw vegetable more optimal for health / Cooked vegetable (with cheese) desired
Collating…
…
SOLUTION: Exploit natural laziness
…
RAW VEGETABLE CONSUMED
April 17, 2013
Thoughts, as I pack, of places and gods…
He sat down on a grassy bank and looked at the city that surrounded him, and thought, one day he would have to go home. And one day he would have to make a home to go back to. He wondered whether home was a thing that happened to a place after a while, or if it was something that you found in the end, if you simply walked and waited and willed it long enough.
–Neil Gaiman, American Gods
April 12, 2013
March 21, 2013
Love on the Strange
I was (and am) a huge fan of the podcasted audio drama Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery. I listened to that show through a transitional period of my life. I started during a time when I, in possession of a fresh Masters Degree, was back living with my parents, working a soul-draining graveyard shift at 7-11, and (with no other expenses) still not making the monthly minimums on my debt.
And I continued listening to the show when I landed a job writing for a video game company and was very suddenly thrust from Chicago to Oslo, Norway. The show was one of the familiar things I brought with me when I jumped far out into the big bad world. I followed the exploits of the occult detectives Sparrow & Crowe (you can now follow them in comic book form as well). In more than one culture, sparrows and crows are psychopomps, beings who guide others between worlds. It was no different for me.
One great thing about the internet (and you have to take in the great things, in the face of YouTube comments), is it sometimes gives you the chance to keep in touch with the creators of the things you love. And somewhere along the way, I got to collaborate with them. Twice! First was for a prose Sparrow & Crowe anthology, Weird Winter Stories (containing my story “How to Kill Santa”).
And now round two! I give you Weird Romance. It is another Sparrow & Crowe anthology, this time centering on theme of the strangeness of love. There is a lot of variety here, a lot of twisted gems, fathoming the depth of the oddity that is l’amour. My story is “Harlow’s Fairytale,” and I’m rather proud of it, rather fond of the character Harlow. You should sit down and read her tale. There’s a frog prince…but it’s not very Disney.
March 16, 2013
Scrivnomancer the Gray
Do not take me for some cheap conjurer of adverbs!
March 5, 2013
Read: Help a Writer Out!
It’s about time Martine Svanevik’s book got out there. Go vote #56. It’s like investing in good future fiction for no money. A steal! Encouragement, at the right intersections in life, does some amazing things.
Shameless Promotion. Read: Help a Writer Out!
February 14, 2013
A Love That Defies the Tyranny of Worms
A valentine for a valentine, loveling. Have Simon Meeks send you something sweet. Leave a review comment for Strangeness in the Proportion, and I will send you a Jane Doe toe tag book mark (genuine toe tag). Just leave the review and email me (scrivnomancer@gmail.com) your shipping particulars. This is a bribe for a comment, not for the content of the comment. Tell me I suck a bucket of sloth extremities, and I still send you a toe tag. Let’s have some strange love!
Speaking of strange love…get a FREE sample story from the upcoming Weird Romance anthology. It’s like downloading the single before the killer album.
A happy V-Day to all, whether you celebrate it genuinely…or are hip and trash it as a commercial institution…or are double hip and circle back to loving it genuinely despite that (because every holiday is now a series of tweets by the hip telling us why we should loath that particular day…except Halloween…that’s still cool to genuinely enjoy…for now…).
