Alexander Pyles's Blog, page 3
November 7, 2019
Review: Socialist Realism
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The title immediately hooked me and what made me stay was the stark, brutal honesty that Trisha Low offers in SOCIALIST REALISM.
This is a book long essay that is part travelogue, part stream of conscious, part art criticism, and part memoir. Low finds herself moving west, searching for home or a utopia or an identity, anything that will pin her down. She reflects and examines the end of relationships, her partially estranged family, the United States’ toxic culture of oppression of sexism, racism,...
November 5, 2019
Nanowrimo Update #1
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So, after the first four days of #Nanowrimo, I can tell that this is going to be a slog by the end. I’ll be posting these updates every Tuesday until the end of the month, just to keep me accountable and keep you all updated.
I’ll have the stats from the past week posted below along with whatever insights I have at that time. What has happened so far is that my story has evolved a non-linear timeline with multiple POVs occurring at various times, which was just entirely organic. I attempted to plot...
November 2, 2019
Review: Severance
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I wasn’t sure what to expect from Ling Ma’s debut novel, SEVERANCE, but the only true label I can ascribe to it, is that it is first and foremost a millennial novel. Ma is the first author to so thoroughly nail the working ethos, apathy, and thirst for belonging that encapsulates millennials.
Set in the present, Candace Chen is your basic child of immigrants-turned young professional, working in New York City. After her Chinese parents pass away, she is left adrift and instead throws herself into her wo...
October 31, 2019
Review: Wounds
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I almost could not wait to get to Nathan Ballingrud’s second collection, WOUNDS: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, but reading it around Halloween, felt like the best time for it. I wasn’t wrong either, this collection disturbed me as much as the first, and Ballingrud doubles down on the dark fantasy horrors that made some appearances in NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS. This collection also features, VISIBLE FILTH, which was made into a Hulu original movie and aired earlier this month, so be...
October 30, 2019
Book Release: MILO
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So, today MILO (01001101 011010001 01101100 01101111) drops and I could not be more excited!
The title character seeks a release from his lifelong chronic illness. His friend discovers a miracle that offers a second chance, but is it too good to be true? Milo explores the relationship between disability, technological progress, and the cost of our society’s emphasis on corporeal normalcy.
None of this could have been possible without Radix Media and the lovely team over there. I have to hand it to them, after man...
October 29, 2019
Nanowrimo Prep – Everything is Burning
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As I’ve stated a few times on twitter, I’m planning on doing National Novel Writing Month, in order to produce a slim rough draft of a brand new novel. I’ll be honest, I’m still hammering out the details and various plot points as I’m outlining, but it does feel like this is already on fire a bit…Let me explain:
Okay, so to put #NaNoWriMo2019 in perspective, I am shooting to do a full draft of a brand new novel 50k-60k in one month.
While also:
– working fulltime
– freelancing 12+ hours a week
– pare...
October 26, 2019
Review: A Point of Honor
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The sixth installment of the FUTURES series, brings a disquieting reflection on what it means to live both online and offline. A POINT OF HONOR by Aeryn Rudel, featuring art by Sabrina Cintron, is an off-putting, but intimate snapshot of what could happen if you could literally duel online trolls.
Set in a near future USA, the government has decided to re-institute old dueling codes, which are reinforced by a new federal agency, the Bureau of Honorable Affairs. Anyone who suffers from slander, libe...
October 24, 2019
Review: What You Call
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We are now more than half way through the FUTURES series and Radix Media refuses to let up with the emotional gut punches with each of these installments. WHAT YOU CALL by germ lynn wrecked me.
It’s 2061 and the government launches what is believed to be a benevolent program to create and give support robots to the sick and vulnerable. It is pitched as “showing compassion.” Well, that evaporates when the program, without warning, is ended and the robots are snatched back to be reconfigured and...
October 22, 2019
Book Release: Unravel
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Another Black Hare Press anthology drops today! This one is filled with people on the wrong side of the law, bad cops, and crime.
Crime and noir fiction aren’t natural genres for me, but I still contributed five micro fictions, which were all accepted! I’m proud of these, since they have a range of tones from the taunting criminal, to the aging cop, to the grizzled sleuth.
The list of all those stories will be at the bottom here. As with the other anthologies, I’m alongside 100+ other authors and their g...
October 19, 2019
Review: Hard Mother, Spider Mother, Soft Mother
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The fourth installment of FUTURES is by Hal Y. Zhang and is maybe one of the more intimate reads of the series. It’s a layered, emotionally resonate piece of literary, near future science fiction that encapsulates whole lives in under 25 pages.
Ellery Lang moves back in with her mother, Valerie Lang, after finishing school in her late 20s. Recently, her mother has begun spouting increasingly weird theories, bordering on conspiracy. Then, just like that Valerie leaves, and in doing so creates a cas...
