K.M. Alexander's Blog, page 22

Prose Palaver with J. Rushing

So, funny enough, despite being friends with a lot of fantastic authors, I’ve never once used this blog as a platform to interview them and pick their brains about fiction, stories, and writing in general. A great big missed opportunity, right? After all, whether you’re a reader or a writer getting insight into an author’s approach can be really eye-opening. Plus, it’s always a great way to discover new writers and, of course, new books. Today I’m going to fix that!

Welcome to Prose Palaver, my new series where I’ll be interviewing fiction authors who I personally know. The goal is to do something a bit different from the standard author interview. These won’t be canned “where do you get your ideas” sort of questions. I’m hoping the tone within is more conversational, allowing us to open up and talk craft on a deeper level.

In this first interview, I’m interviewing my friend and travel buddy J. Rushing who’s debut historical fantasy novel RADIO just launched in ebook on April 4th. Jim and I have known each other over a decade now, we come from a similar background, and we’ve spent many hours drinking scotch and talking stories in those years. A former elementary teacher from Seattle, Jim now finding himself living and writing in Baden, Switzerland.

[!] Quick Note: The intent of this article was to try to regain some sense of normality as we’re all sheltering-in-place and working to flatten the curve in our communities. Because of that I specifically avoided discussion about the virus or related topics. Enjoy!

K. M. Alexander: Hi, Jim. Thanks for coming to my blog. You get the dubious distinction of being the first Prose Palaver interviewee—no pressure.

J. Rushing: Thanks for having me. You know I’d never pass up an opportunity to talk shop with you, and it’s an honor to get to be here while you smash the champagne against this new ship.

Thanks! I’m excited to launch. So, let’s talk about you. Congrats on the launch of RADIO ! I bet you’re eager to get it out in the world. Tell us about it. Give us a short pitch.

Thanks. It’s been a long time coming and I’m so happy to finally give readers the opportunity to discover this world I’ve been living in for the past few years. While RADIO has a strong plot, it’s really focused on the characters. If there was one core theme for RADIO it would be struggle. The struggle against addiction, a struggle to save one’s livelihood and legacy, the struggle to work with people who are at odds philosophically but share a common goal, struggle with feelings of loss and betrayal, every character struggles with something. As for a pitch, I’m pretty happy with my back cover copy so I’ll go with that:  

Amid the music, lights and energy of 1928’s Paris, something sinister pulses through the æther. The Radio of the Gods manipulates minds across the continent and its creator, the arrogant god Marduk, will sacrifice everything to keep his kind from perverting his masterpiece.

Attempted treason and bitter betrayal force Marduk to escape into a new, unknown body. Worse still, the previous owner, an opium-addicted jazz guitarist, is still inside.

Desperate, drug-addled and fighting for control, Marduk is forced to rely on the few friends he has left – and one terrifying enemy — to see his mission to fruition. If Marduk and company fail, the gods’ vain machinations will destroy everything they’ve built, including civilization itself, all made possible by his RADIO.

You’re an ex-pat living abroad, and you lived in Paris when you started writing this book. I remember you talking about the idea’s gestalt when we were coming back from a trip out to the Olympic Peninsula. How much did the city influence and inspire the world and the writing?

I remember that day vividly. RADIO started out with two basic ideas. Well, one question and one challenge to myself. The question was, What if consciousness behaved like a radio signal? As in, what if it’s external to the body rather than intrinsic? That one small question started an avalanche of ideas and concepts. As I was setting out to turn those concepts into a story, I set a challenge for myself. 

Human beings are complex. No one is evil or good 100% of the time. Evil people still pet kittens and good people still wish others dead. I love it when a writer can make me truly like a truly bad character. The challenge I gave myself was, could I write a protagonist that is more than just an anti-hero, but a true asshole, and still have people like them? So far, the feedback I’ve been receiving is that yes, I can. That has been both a huge compliment and a huge relief. 

As for Paris, everything about RADIO is dripping with Parisian influence. Aside from merely setting the story in Paris, I wanted to capture the true atmosphere of the city. Paris is a million things at once. So much of the media surrounding Paris only focuses on its place as a city of light and love. Paris is viewed as a gleaming jewel or a fairytale city full of beauty and wonder. The trouble is that these images are absolutely true yet only ever show half the picture. Paris is a gorgeous, romantic city from the knees up but look down and the streets are filthy and trash-strewn. It’s a city full of art, science, and literature, but it’s also a city of excess, vanity, and selfishness. It’s a city that is both fuelled and hobbled by its history. Living in Paris is as much a non-stop struggle as it is a non-stop joy. It’s the hardest place I’ve ever lived yet the most vibrant. I wanted to build a story set in the darker, dingier half of the Parisian mystique. There’s so much to explore there and it’s so often ignored.

That’s a fair point. Paris, as a character, tends to get polished up and viewed through rose-colored lenses—overly romanticized. In many instances, it’s almost more of a fantasy setting rather than a living and breathing city. How much of the Parisian culture crept into RADIO—in particular, the characters and how they behave and interact with one another?

That’s a tricky question since most characters aren’t specifically Parisian but I think there are aspects of Parisian culture present. Paris is a funny place. Most of the French stereotypes people hold in the U.S. are actually only Parisian stereotypes and a lot of those aren’t even true. For a classic example, I only had one rude waiter in almost three years of living there. Seattle or New York are much worse. But there are quite a few that do still hold up. One thing that struck me as unique and a bit odd when I moved to Paris was how survivalistic people in public all seem to be. Day to day life always seemed to be about carving out your own space and not yielding to others. Population density likely has a lot to do with that and Paris has been dense for centuries. In a city like Seattle, or Tokyo, or Edinburgh, if two people approach each other on a sidewalk, they’d each take a small step to the side to allow each other to easily pass but in Paris, pedestrians will shoulder check each other to maintain their own path. On the flip side, if you ask almost any Parisian for help, if you make your interaction at all personal, it’s like a social switch flips and they are more than willing to make time for you. I think the brusque streets yet willingness to help when called upon definitely found their way into RADIO. 

Living in the city already gives one a unique perspective. How much research did you have to pour into this work? The clubs from that era really only exist as records, right? Any books you’d like to recommend that helped you out?

I tend to be very open and willing to experiment in my writing but there are a few aspects where I refuse to compromise. Most of my writing is set in worlds that are a take on our own. I only like to ask my readers to suspend disbelief over a few core details. In the case of RADIO, it’s mind control, gods, semi-immortality, and consciousness being external to the body. Past these few asks, it’s very difficult to allow myself to just make things up. 

RADIO was as well researched as I could manage. At one point I swore to myself that I’d never write anything historical ever again because the self-induced pressure to be accurate was so great. I’ve calmed down since then. Everything from the music of the era, to street names, trains, and clubs, all were present in January of 1928. I can’t and won’t promise perfection but I can say that to my knowledge there are no anachronisms and all of the details are as period-accurate as I could make them. While the research was difficult and often tedious, it often yielded some amazing fruit. For instance, I discovered that the grocery store I shopped at most often while living in Paris turned out to be the site of what was probably the most terrifying nightclub in the city. If you get a chance, look up pictures of L’Enfer. It was right across the street from the Moulin Rouge in Montmartre. Trust me, the effort is worth it.

As for books and resources, the internet was my best friend. I would try to find the same information from as many sources as possible to help determine accuracy. It wasn’t a perfect system but being an ex-pat makes finding more official English language reference materials a little bit challenging. I do want to mention one book, however. In researching opium and opium addiction, it became very clear just how biased and inaccurate the various available resources were. Then I found a book called Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction by Steven Martin. Basically, he was an opium antique enthusiast who also realized the shortcomings of the available material and decided to gather accurate, modern data by documenting his own experiences. Those experiments turned into a full-blown addiction and his book covers everything from his first antique pipes to his detoxing and withdrawals. It was important to me to make my depiction of opium use and how it affects the body as accurate and respectful as I could and this book was invaluable to me. It’s wonderfully written and I recommend it to everyone, whether or not you’re doing research.

You recommended it to me as well, and I have a copy in my TBR pile. You talk about being careful around anachronisms, and it’s funny how many writers don’t think about that stuff. But it really goes a long way toward making a place feel like a place and an era feel like an era. Paying attention to little nuances like that are essential, don’t you think? Otherwise, you risk pulling readers out of a story.

I totally agree. It’s really all about building trust. When your readers trust that you as an author, have full command over the world and characters you’ve built, they are a lot more willing to follow your lead and focus where you want them to focus. Sometimes you want them to doubt what they’re reading and when it’s by design, it can be really powerful and engaging but inaccuracies breed mistrust and when that happens, readers start to spend more time looking for other mistakes rather than enjoying the ride. 

Trust is a good word for it. Along with living abroad, you’re also an extensive traveler. I’ve lost count of how many countries you’ve been to at this point—what from your travels finds its way into your work?

The last seven years have been an absolutely wild ride. When my wife was able to transfer to Paris, we sold almost everything we owned, I quit my job as a teacher, and we made a pact to explore the world as much as we could for as long as we could. We haven’t looked back. 

When I travel, I often take a notebook with me (or just take notes on my phone) and I devote a little time to scene scouting as I explore both new locations and old favorites. I write down the sounds, smells, flavors, mood, and any other specific details that seem to make a given place unique. Sometimes it’s a matter of just taking mental notes but I always keep myself open. Even if I don’t plan on using the location in any current projects, I try to capture something that may prove useful. In RADIO, and really all my work, the atmosphere of a scene matters as much as any character and my research while traveling has been so helpful. Sometimes being able to describe the right smell or sound can really make a scene pop and help readers immerse themselves. 

All that said, one of the most important writing lessons I’ve learned from traveling is that the world is much more similar from place to place than one might assume. I’m so lucky that I get to travel but I don’t think it’s a necessity to be able to write nuanced scenes set in far off places. We often hear the phrase “write what you know” and for a lot of topics, that can be sound advice, but I don’t think it’s very applicable to setting. The thing is, we all know a lot more about the world than we think. For instance, where I live now in Switzerland is very similar to the Pacific Northwest where I grew up and first adulted. Sure we have castles here and you have volcanoes there but seasons, weather (generally), greenery, large bodies of water, mountains, even social interaction styles, all are close enough to be easily understood and described by someone from either location. Lazy writing is always going to be bad writing but if a writer is willing to do the research, a rich setting can be built using a combination of our own experiences and a healthy dose of new learning. Everyone’s mileage will vary (pun intended) but I don’t think writers should feel limited to only their personal travel map. The world and the internet are big places, explore them.

I’ve done a more in-depth write up on the subject over at my own blog.

That’s a great point. I mean, how many people write novels set during specific periods of the past and never live during that era, you know? Research matters. Did you find that your research happened en masse, or was it something that you would dive into as you wrote?

Almost entirely as I wrote. Big picture items like opium, jazz, 1920’s slang, the city of Paris, these were always going to be important areas of study so they were researched in large chunks though I still supplemented that research as I went along. Everything else happened on a scene by scene or character by character basis. I won’t pretend that a strategy like this doesn’t slow my writing down but it just works better for me. It forces me to find the right details while I’m in the moment and inspired rather than just settling on the available details I have from past notes. 

I also tend to research as I write. Especially since I’ve become more exploratory in my writing rather than sticking to a strict outline. Research is one angle, but stories—all art, really—aren’t created in a vacuum. Is there a specific set of authors or creators who have influenced your writing? I know a few just from our discussions, but let’s get specific to RADIO.

Absolutely. A lot of influences made their way into RADIO from Agatha Christie to Cormac McCarthy but the most obvious influence pertaining directly to RADIO is probably Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The dynamic between M (Marduk) the protagonist and Bernie, or Bernard as M calls him, is built off of the framework of Holmes and Watson. I say framework because I wanted Bernie to be more assertive and challenging toward M and more active in the story than Watson is with Homes. That said, I really enjoy Watson’s role as the reader’s proxy in the story and I tried to emulate that. Bernie is the moral hero of RADIO and as such, readers can attach themselves to him more than any other character. He’s the anchor just as Watson always was.   

Another big influence for me is Chuck Palahniuk, specifically for both tone and his ability to make unlikeable characters likable, or at least sympathetic. A prime example of this is Victor Mancini from Choke. The bleak, stained atmosphere of Fight Club was also a big influence however The Cypher by Kathe Koja does this even better. There’s a beauty to the dark, dirty negativity in that book that really resonated with me. The Cypher has that mid-90’s David Fincher vibe, but on steroids. That aesthetic is all over RADIO to varying degrees. Fincher meets Poirot. 

Hunter S.Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a clear influence for the drug scenes but not for the reasons one might expect. While his descriptions of drug trips are wild and fun, they lean toward an Alice in Wonderland-esque rabbit hole. I was more influenced by how immersive his descriptions were. You can’t read them without feeling the disorientation. My depictions are meant to be accurate but strive to be as enveloping as Thompson’s. I will add that in one early scene in RADIO, I take a few liberties with the effects of opium but there are other, fantastical circumstances involved that heighten the experience.

Lastly, I’d like to mention Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love. That book is so good for so many reasons. She did such an amazing job creating characters and a culture (in her case, a family culture) that is totally closed off to the outside world while operating in plain sight. It’s also a culture filled with humans who are unique and who fill every role from hero to villain. It’s a culture that is different, and vile, and follows its own rules. All of these elements helped inspire the Mentium, the clandestine group of gods Marduk is both a part of, and who he is his fighting to stop in RADIO.

I still need to read The Cypher . It sounds right up my alley. I’m glad you mentioned Marduk. There’re a lot of interesting choices for the gods that make up the Mentium, some obscure others less so, what made you settle on Babylon’s Marduk as the choice for the main character? I have to admit I found it a refreshing alternative over the tired Odin and Loki archetypes.

Marduk is one of the most important ancient gods in a pantheon that nobody knows about or at least pays attention to. Mesopotamian religion and others from the Fertile Crescent are the source of many of the stories from the Abrahamic religions. Eden, the flood, most of the Old Testament stories are repurposed versions from the Torah which in turn drew heavily from Mesopotamian sources. Western religions trace their roots back to Mesopotamia so it felt fitting that the central god in RADIO should come from there as well.

In many ways, that connection through history is another sub-theme that runs throughout the narrative. Music is a big part of this book, and we wouldn’t have the “pantheon” of music we see today without the explosion of jazz and the use of radio to spread it throughout the world. You’re a musician yourself and have gone as far as building your own guitars, how did that knowledge help you when you approached the musical elements of RADIO?

Music is a huge part of my life. I’ve been playing guitar since I was eleven years old and spent many years playing saxophone in middle and high school concert and jazz bands. It just made sense to have the two jazz musicians in the book follow suit and play guitar and sax. One of the most beautiful aspects of music is how, no matter how deep your understanding, you can feel it and move to it, and appreciate it. If all you understand is that you enjoyed it, wonderful. If you’re waiting on the edge of your seat for that Ab7 to finally resolve, wonderful. Both people are having a great time together. In RADIO, I tried to build the musical scenes in such a way that a layperson can still feel immersed in the music while those with more musical knowledge can dive a little deeper. 

I also spent years in college playing on stage in a local rock band so the interactions between the musicians in front of a crowd and under the lights is something I have first-hand experience with. Most people have no idea what being on stage would even feel like. I made it a point to try and make those scenes as vivid as possible to give readers the chance to see what it’s like looking out at the crowd vs. up at the stage. 

I think you did an excellent job, as you know I’m a jazz fan but a non-musician. That said, I thought the music scenes were evocative—you captured that frenetic energy that lives within jazz. You know, I realize he didn’t make a name for himself until about 30 years after RADIO , but you really should have referenced a Jimmy Rushing song in the book. I feel like that was a missed opportunity.

I actually have a story about him. When I was in high school, a friend of mine worked at a framing and poster shop at the mall. One day he came by my house with probably a three by four-foot poster board of Jimmy Rushing. At that time, I hadn’t seen him before and my friend was hiding the name on the poster so I was confused why I was being gifted a massive picture of a sweaty guy pouring his soul out into a microphone. I love Jimmy Rushing’s voice. He has this syrupy transition technique from phrase to phrase that is just so satisfying to listen to. I wish I still had that poster. Actually, I should check some of the closets at my parent’s house. 

He’s an incredible vocalist. I’ve always dug his work with Count Basie, but I really enjoy the album he made with Dave Brubeck. Brubeck’s cool jazz piano and Rushing’s rich vocals work so well in tandem. Okay, enough jazz talk. We’ve certainly covered a lot: RADIO, Paris, research techniques, ancient religions, and so much more. I hope our discussion got my readers excited about your book and writing. I don’t want to keep you too much longer, but why not share what’s next for you?

In the near future, my focus is on getting the paperback edition of RADIO to market and continuing trying to navigate the intricacies of launching a book in the middle of a pandemic. A lot of people have a very doom and gloom outlook about publishing right now but I see our current situation as both a challenge and an opportunity. I will mention just how glad I am that I chose to self publish. I can be so much more dynamic and responsive with marketing than any big publishing house. Right now, I think that’s a huge advantage.  

In the coming months I’ll be settling into a new project. While the idea of RADIO being the first of a series is a possibility, it was written as a stand-alone novel. I have ideas for sequels but they’re in their infancy and I want to wait until they mature enough to start those endeavors. In the meantime, I have a few open projects and I’m trying to decide which will fit best as my next WIP. One is a near-future post-apocalyptic series that involves both bio and eco themes. It’s more than fitting for our current state of affairs but also a bit serious. The other is a contemporary urban fantasy which, while still dark, is a lot more fun. Once I make up my mind, I’ll dive in headfirst.

I’m excited to see where you go next. I started rereading RADIO a few days ago [Disclosure: I was an early beta reader for Jim], and I can’t wait to continue. Knowing what I know, the possibility of a sequel is an interesting one. (Maybe Jimmy Rushing can still make an appearance.

Buy The Stars Were Right for 99¢ and Give Back

If you’re at all like me, chances are you could use a little escapism these days. Something to pull you away from refreshing news feeds and doomscrolling through social media all day. Perhaps I can help?

Let’s Give Back

For the next thirty days I’ve dropped the eBook price of my urban fantasy novel The Stars Were Right down to 99¢ everywhere it’s sold. Unfortunately, that’s as low as retailers will let me go, but let’s turn that into something useful. Along with the price reduction, I’ll be donating 100% of the profits to the World Central Kitchen who is working to safely distribute fresh, individually packaged meals in communities that need help. It’s an incredible charity that has become vital in recent days, and it’s one I’m proud to support. So, no matter where you buy The Stars Were Right, you get a bit of escapism, and together we help feed those in need during this time of crisis. Not a bad deal, right?

You can buy the eBook from any of the retailers listed below. Want to help me give more to the World Central Kitchen? Use Gumroad and name your price—100% of the earnings will be donated at the end of the promotion.

Kindle • Kobo • Nook • Apple Books  • Google Play • Gumroad

Don’t have 99¢? Get the book anyway. (Seriously.)

I realize as I put this book on sale, an astronomical number of people have lost their jobs over the last few weeks. To those folks, even 99¢ can seem like a lot to swing for a piece of entertainment. So, if you can’t afford to buy the book right now, you can download it for free. Use the Gumroad link above and set the price at zero and bam, it’s yours.

We’re all in this together. Stay home. Stay healthy. Let’s flatten the curve. 

I hope you enjoy losing yourself in a book for a bit.

Prine

Rest in peace, Mr. Prine. Thanks for all the incredible music.

I wasn’t sure which song to share for this post, there are so so so many great ones. He gets credited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, and I can’t argue with that title. There’s something about his lyrics that are so approachable and yet so evocative. He does so much with so little. Once, when called out for listening to country music on a jukebox, Charlie Parker advised Dizzy Gillespie and some friends to “listen to the stories.” I think about that interaction a lot, and I can’t think of anyone that embodied country music’s storytelling persona better than John Prine. He will be missed.

Stephen L. Betts & Patrick Doyle had an excellent piece in Rolling Stone covering Prine’s extraordinary career, and it’s very much worth a read. Since most of us are still staying home and doing our part to flatten the curve, it’s a good time to put on his music and let his gravelly voice take you to a different time and place. You won’t regret it.

Yeah, It’s Still Weird

Lately, I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like. Like everyone else, this shelter-in-place/stay-at-home/stay-indoors/quarantine/pick-your-homebound-term life has disrupted a lot of my normal flow. Creative work still haunts me, but it’s easy to find myself distracted and not doing the stuff I want to be doing. I know I’m not alone. A lot of my fellow creators are feeling it as well. That being said, it’s odd—in all honesty, the day-to-day in the Alexander household hasn’t changed all that much. We’re both fortunate we can work from home, and work has certainly continued. Recently I’ve gotten a few questions from readers, so in the vein of John Scalzi, I’m going to answer those questions through a self-interview.

So hey, where’s Gleam Upon the Waves ?

Hmmm, right off the bat, eh? I figured this question would come, and I have an answer for it. Work has continued in fits and starts, despite me feeling weirdly oppressed by the world right now. It’s sitting at 106k words—which means it’s grown a little (sidebar says it was near 100k when it was “done”) as I’ve clarified or added bits and pieces to the whole. It feels like it’s in a pretty good place now. The initial goal was to try a launch in 2020. But, like everything else in the world, I’m playing that by ear now—we’ll have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, I’ve also started working on some short stories set in the universe as well, and I’ll be releasing those for free. So stick around. Follow along, we’ll be back to the Territories before you know it.

What about map stuff?

I haven’t completely abandoned my mapping projects. But they’ve taken a backseat to other creative work after finishing my goal last year. I’ve found a few wonderful sources that I feel will be great additions to the set as a whole, and I’ll keep plugging away with the intent to release more sets. In the meantime, if you’ve used my brushes in your maps, please shoot me a message and let me see ’em! I love seeing how they get used.

Also, over on Twitter, John Hornor Jacobs asked if I had any brushes to help people map out dungeons. I don’t, but the request got me thinking. I could see some benefits and uses in floorplan-style brushes. As with my other sets, I’ll want to make sure they’re historically accurate and rooted in antiquity. So, we’ll see how I do finding sources.

 Anything new around here?

Yeah, actually. I have a few new posts in the works, and I still have more Raunch Reviews coming. I have a Trip Report queued, but I haven’t launched it yet. It documents our trip to Portland we took back in January for Kari-Lise’s birthday. It was a blast and mostly filled with loads of eating. But, it feels kinda odd looking back now, with the world in so much turmoil January was like a lifetime ago. So I keep hemming and hawing over releasing it or not—I will eventually—but it makes me miss restaurants, people, and normal life.

There’s also a plan in the works where soon I’ll begin interviewing my writer friends. They’re good people, and they write good books, and—since I don’t have anything fresh right now—I decided I should step out of my own book world and promote them. So stay tuned!

So, like… how are you feeling?

Fine, and yet weird. Kari-Lise and I are both healthy. I’ve been dealing with some allergy issues, but they’ve mostly subsided. We’ve been at home for three weeks now, and as I said, our day-to-day hasn’t changed all that much. I’ve got some low-key anxiety these days, which isn’t something I’ve really experienced before—mostly me worried about the health and livelihood of friends and family.

I know a lot of freelancers, artists, and small business owners, and the economic downturn has been particularly rough on all of them. So please keep them in mind when we emerge from this. Those books, movies, music, poetry, art, and so on—those things keeping us sane as we’re all at home—yeah, artists made those. Art is essential, especially in times like these, let’s remember that on the other side.

Hopefully, that answers some questions. If you have anything else, you want to ask me, feel free to shoot me an email or leave a comment below. Life in my household has settled into a bit of a rhythm. We’re looking into making our own masks for the times we need to get out of the house. We avoid social media these days. Seattle remains on lockdown for the foreseeable future—at least through May 4th, but I think it’ll be extended. I honestly don’t see how any of this changes until widespread testing is available for everyone. Until then, we’ll all be living in a perpetual state of what-if and rolling the dice with the health of friends and family, and it’s hard to operate in a society where that is happening.

I’m very grateful for our governor and the local officials handling the virus here in Washington State. The response has been phenomenal, and I feel very proud to be a Washingtonian. They made hard decisions early, and it’s made a big difference. Seattle was once the hotspot for this outbreak, and every day we fall further down the list. Staying home saves lives and it shows.

I know I’m not alone in feeling grateful for the doctors and nurses who face this daily. Those people are heroes, and they deserve our utmost admiration and honor. I’m also thankful for the people still making sure we have power and internet and running water. I’m grateful for the folks who make deliveries, carry the mail, pick up the garbage, and work in the grocery stores. They’re also heroes. It’s been encouraging to see validation that “low skill” workers are, in fact, critical to our society. They should be compensated accordingly for their labor and service—I just wish it didn’t take a pandemic to open some people’s eyes. My hope is we’ll see a change when this is all over.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Wash your hands.

Raunch Review: Harry Potter

Quick Note: I wrote this post ages ago, before COVID-19, shelter-in-place, and social distancing was a thing. I debated posting it, but eventually decided it should go live. I want to help foster a sense of normalcy during these difficult times. So, with that as a goal, let’s side-eye some of the faux-profanity from J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, eh?

Raunch Reviews is a series about profanity. Not real profanity, but speculative swearing. Authors often try to incorporate original, innovative forms of profanity into our own fantastical works as a way to expand the worlds we build. Sometimes we’re successful. Often we’re not. In this series, I examine the faux-profanity from various works of sci-fi and fantasy, judge their effectiveness, and rate them on an unscientific and purely subjective scale. This is Raunch Reviews, welcome.

[image error] Raunch Review: Harry Potter
The Author: J. K. Rowling
Work in Question: The Harry Potter Series
The Profanity: “Merlin’s Beard”

Within the Harry Potter series, there is one example of faux-profanity that is a bit of a conundrum for me. Partly because it’s played for laughs, but mostly because it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. “Merlin’s Beard” desperately wants to be profanity. It reads like a pejorative. It follows typical stylings of oaths evoking a name and pairing it with a physical feature. We don’t see these often today, but many oaths of this kind were popular in the Middle Ages, and later due to semantic drift, they became the mild-minced oaths popular in the 20th century.

But even in the magic-filled world of the Potter series, Merlin remains little more than a historical figure. He’s not worshiped or viewed as a deity, he was merely a respected wizard of antiquity, so evoking his name carries little weight. It’s not blasphemous, and this makes it odd to see his name employed in this manner, with no reason for its usage given. Oaths are rooted in a rebellion toward authority, and there’s no rebelling here. It’d be like an American swearing by Martin Luther King, Jr. or Abraham Lincoln. It wouldn’t carry any punch. So, while Harry Potter has done well in the past, it stumbles here, leaving us with a pseudo-oath more befuddled than anything else.

Score: [image error][image error][image error][image error][image error] (2.0)

Love in the Time of COVID

With everything happening around the world today, it feels like a strange time to write a blog post—yet, here I am. As many of you know, I live in Seattle, Washington. One of the United State’s hotbeds during our outbreak of COVID-19—the novel coronavirus currently wreaking havoc across… well, everything.

As it stands, Kari-Lise and I are currently doing our part to social distance ourselves away from others, and we’re lucky that we’re both able to work from home. Not everyone can, and that adds a lot of extra stress into people’s day-to-day. Since last Wednesday, I’ve really only left my house to get groceries.

It’s been surreal watching this roll across daily life. People have lost their jobs. Events have been canceled. Much of the city is on lockdown—schools, restaurants, bars, churches, gyms, theaters, etc. are closed. Businesses have reduced their hours, some have closed completely, a few permanently. Nothing here is normal. Everything feels slightly off and a little uncertain. Time stretches past in long intervals. It’s easy to get distracted reading and re-reading the same gibberish over and over. There’s an odd pall hanging over everything you do and a mild panic bubbling beneath the surface. I have a few friends both here and abroad who suspect they might have contracted COVID and knowing that gets your mind spinning. Thankfully, all are staying home, resting up, and all seem to be on the mend.

At the time of me writing this, Washington State has passed a thousand confirmed cases of COVID-19—hopefully, with the city shut down and the stay-at-home measures in place, we’ll start to see a slowdown sooner rather than later. I’d love for all of this to be over in a few weeks, but honestly, I don’t see that happening. I don’t know how this is sustainable. It boggles my mind that corporate America isn’t demanding comprehensive and expansive testing. We’d be able to properly quarantine and care for the sick and wouldn’t have to shut down entire swaths of a city based on assumptions.

Regardless of the next two weeks, it’s becoming more and more clear to me that this pandemic will have a profound impact on the economy, our society, and ultimately our culture. It’s important to reflect on this. The world as we knew it won’t ever go back to the way it was, it never does, it can’t—it’ll emerge different, changed by what we’re experiencing now, hopefully for the better.

I’m not sure if a post like this is helpful or not to the grand dialog as a whole, but it’s useful to me. I’m usually not as open on here about the day-to-day of life, but perhaps I should be—being vulnerable in times like this is how we can come together and build empathy for our varied experiences. Humans are stronger together, and one way or another, I’m sure we’ll get through this. Until then…

Be kind to everyone. Give grace. Don’t horde. Help where you can. Love each other.

The image above comes from the cover of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s El amor en los tiempos del cólera, or as we know it in English: Love in the Time of Cholera—of which I shamelessly stole as a title for this post.

Have questions for me? Leave a comment below or shoot me an email.

You Weren’t Supposed to Eat It

“Some old lady said that my book left a bad taste in her mouth. I wrote back to her and said, ‘You weren’t supposed to eat it.’”

—Flannery O’Connor

Five Genre-Busting Fiction Writers You Should Read

When it comes to reading, I always appreciate the weird. I’m drawn to tales that are on the fringe, stories that are difficult to place within traditional genres. Weird fiction—as a result, calls to me. There’s something about those category-defying stories that make me feel at home. Perhaps you also enjoy stories like this? (If you read and enjoyed my books, I’d wager you did.)

It’s been a while—Halloween, actually—since I’ve given book recommendations. So, let’s rectify that today. Below I’ve shared five authors who write fiction that’s a little hard to pin down. As of this year, whenever I share books, all links will now go to IndieBound instead of Amazon—be sure to support your local bookstore. Also, where possible, I am now linking to each author’s official website. So be sure to give those a visit as well.

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Rebecca Roanhorse



Recommended Book: Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1)

What begins as a gritty desert-focused modern fantasy following a Navajo monster hunter quickly expands into something more—Roanhorse takes the contemporary threat of environmental catastrophe creates a refreshing post-apocalyptic setting in which she places her southwest desert setting. What you end up with is a world that reworks your standard monster-hunting tropes and takes them into fresh and wonderfully strange territory. A fantastic read.

Also by Roanhorse: Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2), Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience (Short Story)

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Fonda Lee



Recommended Book: Jade City (The Green Bone Saga #1)

Transcending your standard genres and weaving an intricate wuxia tale of criminal clans in a pseudo-1980s city, Lee goes in places no other fantasy has before. A story of family, crime, and honor, complete with magic enhanced abilities and kung-fu style action. Here you’ll find complex characters, a visceral world, and a high body count. A perfect blend of genres to create a unique and utterly refreshing experience.

Also by Lee: Jade War (The Green Bone Saga #2), Exo

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Charlie Jane Anders



Recommended Book: All the Birds in the Sky

A strange and often surreal tale that weaves together a helping of science fiction, a dash of awkward romance, a smattering of academy fantasy, and a hefty serving of the downright bizarre. It’s hard to truly pin down this tale of love during that awkward twenty-something malaise—it’s been called magic realism, it’s been called fantasy, and it’s something right in the middle. Polarizing it might be, but it’s solidly unique.

Also by Anders: The City in the Middle of the Night

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Ruthanna Emrys



Recommended Book: Winter Tide (The Innsmouth Legacy #1)

Often it’s easy for series rooted in Lovecraft to slip entirely into the horror genre. However, Emrys takes a different approach. Here she creates a forlorn experience that reexamines the atrocities and ramifications of American internment camps and the Cold War through a slightly stranger lens. History and horror are woven together here in a fascinating (if not polarizing) tale of human nature.

Also by Emrys: Deep Roots (The Innsmouth Legacy #2), Imperfect Commentaries

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Cherie Priest



Recommended Book: Chapelwood (The Borden Dispatches #2)

Taking the historical account of Lizzie Borden and coupling it with Lovecraftian Horror, Priest manages to create an engaging and wonderfully weird series in The Borden Dispatches. While her first book is delightful, her second is divine. The characters are more established, the plot tighter, the world richer, and the events within more distressing with every page turn.

Also by Priest: The Toll, Brimstone

If you’ve spent any time here, you’ve undoubtedly you’ve heard me sing the praises of one of these authors before. But, perhaps they’re new to you, and hopefully, you find something here to enthrall you, and you’ll discover a new genre-defying world to explore. Have a suggestion of your own? Is there a favorite genre-busting author who’s work you enjoyed? Leave a comment below and let me know!

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Corpus Libris

I quite enjoyed this video by Jacco Kliesch inspired by #bookface and made in collaboration with Stadtbibliothek Erlangen, the public library in the German city of Erlangen, and I think you will too. Happy Friday!

Raunch Review: Judge Dredd

Raunch Reviews is a series about profanity. Not real profanity, but speculative swearing. Authors often try to incorporate original, innovative forms of profanity into our own fantastical works as a way to expand the worlds we build. Sometimes we’re successful. Often we’re not. In this series, I examine the faux-profanity from various works of sci-fi and fantasy, judge their effectiveness, and rate them on an unscientific and purely subjective scale. This is Raunch Reviews, welcome.

[image error] Raunch Review: Judge Dredd
The Author: John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra


Work in Question: Judge Dredd
The Profanity: “Drokk”

With instances of censor-slips, we usually see creators go the easy route. Spellings or pronunciations are changed just enough to trigger a memory in the audience, so they connect the slip with the profanity it’s replacing. Generally, these sorts of faux-profanity don’t score very high around here. They’re lazy, typically unoriginal, and often hold back worldbuilding rather than enhance it. At first glance, it’s easy to see Judge Dredd’s “drokk” as a slip, but one must view the word in the context of the world it inhabits.

[image error] A sample of Dredd’s linguistic drift as applied to faux-profanity

On the streets of Mega-City One, there are plenty of faux-profanities. In most cases, they’re excellent examples of linguistic and cultural drift. That is to be expected in a future setting, since language changes continuously, and Wagner took this into account when writing the series. There are plenty of fantastic examples of plausible drift within a language: “God” becomes “Grud,” “Jesus” becomes “Jovus,” “Elders” are “Eldsters,” “Gasolene” is “Guzzalene,” and “Scavengers” are called “Scavvers.” So it’d make sense to see other words develop as well. While the usage is familiar, there’s a pedigree that points to this being more than just a simple censor-slip. “Drokk” emerges as something wholly its own blending in with the semantic argot of Mega-City One. A solid bit of fictional profanity.

Score: [image error][image error][image error][image error] (4.0)