Alan Baxter's Blog, page 74

MageSign reviewed at Scary Minds

Those fine folk over at Scary Minds have written a very nice review of MageSign. It includes things like:

While I can't fault Baxter's writing from a technical viewpoint, the dude can certain string words together, I think it's the pacing that will turn people into firm fans of the Writer. Baxter doesn't waste any unnecessary time getting his action happening, and constantly winds up the tension as things start to look very tricky for Isiah and his allies. Magesign gathers momentum from page to page and hits break neck speed as the final confrontation rockets over the horizon. You better hang on there kids, inexperience readers are going to crash and burn on this one.

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I would simply point out that if you are after a well written, enthralling read, that doesn't let up with the surprises and impact, then look no further. Alan Baxter once again delivers an excellent novel, full recommendation on this one.

I do love a good review. You can read the whole thing here.

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Get your Christmas out of Sol Invictus!

We're nearly at that time again. It should be stated from the outset, and really doesn't need to be for regular readers, that I hate Christmas and everything about it. I do love being able to spend time with friends and loved ones, enjoy good food, exchange gifts and all that malarkey. But you don't need a special day for that. Just like you should tell your partner that you love them all the time and not only on February 14th. But what really pisses me off is all the Christians who think it's okay to berate people who leave Christ out of Xmas. Given that the whole thing is stolen and shoe-horned into a medieval fantasy in the first place, it's a bit rich.

I've also taken to responding to, "You can't have Xmas with Christ!" with, "Then you can't have Thursday without Thor! Where's your celebratory hammer?" There's history with all these things, and it behoves the modern mind to know it.

If you get off on the whole Christ mythology, then bully for you. Why you pick one crazy mythology out of hundreds and insist it's the truth absolutely mystifies me, but if that's your wagon, then giddy up. And the Western world has certainly jumped on board the whole Xmas lunacy and subverted it into a materialistic circus of misery and one-upmanship. So I can understand the desire to suggest that people look past the crass commercialism and look for what Xmas is really about. But you know what? It's not Christ. Sure, it's been hijacked to be about Christ, but if these people were really honest with themselves, they'd admit there's more to the story. Then again, as that great physician Gregory House said, "Rational arguments don't usually work on religious people. Otherwise there would be no religious people." – (Season 4 Episode 2, The Right Stuff.)

The Christians, since some decades after the death of Christ when the Christians began (thanks to the cult set up by Paul), have always been keen on appropriating something popular, pretending it's theirs and then using it to further their own agenda. They're like a virus, chewing up holidays and spitting out Christian rhetoric. But it's not only the Christians who have pinched things for their aims.

Over the years we've merged and melded many things into our modern culture and, while the Christians always shout the loudest at Xmas, there are many other influences that have survived the Jesus takeover.

Burning candles, mistletoe and holly berries, for example, are originally from Yule, the Pagan celebration of the sun god, Mithras. Who is also a very clear blueprint for the myth of Christ himself:

"Both Mithras and Christ were described variously as 'the Way,' 'the Truth,' 'the Light,' 'the Life,' 'the Word,' 'the Son of God,' 'the Good Shepherd.' The Christian litany to Jesus could easily be an allegorical litany to the sun-god. Mithras is often represented as carrying a lamb on his shoulders, just as Jesus is. Midnight services were found in both religions. The virgin mother…was easily merged with the virgin mother Mary. Petra, the sacred rock of Mithraism, became Peter, the foundation of the Christian Church."

Gerald Berry, Religions of the World

Mithras (from the Persian god, Mithra, adapted to Greek as Mithras) allegedly has many features Christians might find familiar:

- Mithra was born on December 25th of the virgin Anahita.
- The babe was wrapped in swaddling clothes, placed in a manger and attended by shepherds.
- He was considered a great traveling teacher and master.
- He had 12 companions or "disciples."
- He performed miracles.
- As the "great bull of the Sun," Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
- Mithra ascending to heaven in his solar cart, with sun symbolHe ascended to heaven.
- Mithra was viewed as the Good Shepherd, the "Way, the Truth and the Light," the Redeemer, the Savior, the Messiah.
- Mithra is omniscient, as he "hears all, sees all, knows all: none can deceive him."
- He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb.
- His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," hundreds of years before the appearance of Christ.
- His religion had a eucharist or "Lord's Supper."
- Mithra "sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers."
- Mithraism emphasized baptism.

Funny old list, that, eh? I said allegedly above as there's often about as much evidence for these things as there is for the mythology of Christianity; that is to say, not much at all. Though the vast majority of it is backed up by archeological evidence well predating Christian times.

The Roman emporer Aurelian first instigated Dies Natalis Solis Invicti in 274 CE, which is the birthday of Sol Invictus, the sun god, often considered to be one and the same as Mithras. This birthday festival was celebrated with a huge party and feast on December 25th, a date I'm sure you'll find familiar. It was Constantine who decided, for mostly political reasons, that Christianity would be the state religion, though he did release an edict in 313 CE proclaiming religious tolerance of all faiths. But there were still enough adherents to the Mithraic tradition that even in the 5th century, Augustine preached against them as Christianity continued its takeover.

Incidentally, it was also Constantine who made Sunday a day of rest. Not because of Christ myths, but for Sol Invictus. In March, 321 CE he decreed:

On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.

But I digress. Going back to Christmas being a Sol Invictus celebration, even the Syriac bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi wrote in the 12th century:

"It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day."

Ernest Renan, in 1882, pointed out how things could have been when he said, "if the growth of Christianity had been arrested by some mortal malady, the world would have been Mithraic" (Renan, E., Marc-Aurele et la fin du monde antique. Paris, 1882, p. 579)

And the whole celebration of the sun god idea can be taken back to well before Roman times. There is much evidence — including many ancient monumental alignments — to demonstrate that the event of the winter solstice, and the return of the sun through longer days, was celebrated hundreds to thousands of years before the common era in numerous parts of the world.

When "the people" are really into something, the worst thing to do is try to tell them they can't enjoy it any more. The best option is to co-opt it into your own agenda over time. So the Pagan sun worship was Borged (resistance is futile) by Mithras and Sol Invictus celebrations, and those in turn swallowed by the Christians; not as biblical doctrine but to compete with Pagan cults.

Regardless, in the end the effect is the same: "Christmas" is not the birth of the "son of God" but the birth of "the sun". The deity Mithras and the celebration of Sol Invictus, inextricably intertwined, also ended up drawing in the Christian mythologies and the Christ myths gathered the most adherents and strength and swallowed up those things that birthed them.

Then combine into this Saturnalia, described by the poet Catullus as "the best of days", which was a big old party in honour of the Roman deity, Saturn. There was a huge banquet followed by gift-giving and partying, where social norms were put aside in the name of hedonism and good times. Which sounds damned fine to me. This festival was originally held on December 17th, but subsequently extended right through to the 23rd. After all, why party for one day when you can get your groove on for a week. And many of those practices were also taken into the Christmas celebration and made a part of the whole thing.

Saturnalia

And everything I've written here only touches on the depth and complexity of the history of our culture. So the next time some twat says, "You can't have Xmas without Christ!" you can respond with, "Yes, you can, actually. Just ask Mithras."

Enjoy the things that make you happy. Be nice to each other, have fun and indulge yourselves. Give gifts, eat too much, drink too much, and don't forget to spare a thought for those less fortunate and try to do something to help them as well. But don't be wilfully ignorant. It's never been easier to explore truth and history, to understand yourself and your culture. Get out there and expand yourself.

And blessed Solstice to you all.

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Batman: Arkham City – the writing dos and don'ts

I was planning to write a blog post about the writing and storytelling in the videogame Batman: Arkham City. No regular reader here will be under any doubt that I'm a Batman fanboy of the highest order. I did love the game and I'm still playing out the last bits and pieces of the sidequests and subplots, but I'm glad I didn't write that great long post about the story of the game. Because Patrick O'Duffy did a bloody fine job of it already. Patrick says:

But as of yesterday I have finished the game (both the core plotline and the host of side missions) and having done so I think there's a lot to consider from a writing POV about the way the game handles its stories and characters. Arkham City does some things right and some things wrong – more the latter than the former, to be honest – and a lot of that is pretty directly applicable to writing fiction. So let's step away from the fact that the game is a lot of fun and features my favourite character and see what else we can learn from it.

And he's right. Go here and read his excellent and detailed post on the subject.

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Give your favourite fiction some cashmoney love for Xmas

I've just been to a few of my favourite fiction podcast sites – places like Pseudopod and Podcastle, among others – and donated a few dollars their way. I'm a starving artist, but I love to listen to the things they produce and they pay their authors well. It's in all of our interests to support them. They all have an option on the site to subscribe (by paying a regular amount every month) or to simply donate once.

When we buy a magazine – in ebook or print – we're directly helping that publication to stay alive. But so much content online these days is essentially free and relies on the generosity of its fans to keep it going. I read a thing recently that talked about how downloading doesn't really cost sales. From the article:

The report states that around a third of Swiss citizens over 15 years old download pirated music, movies and games from the Internet. However, these people don't spend less money as a result because the budgets they reserve for entertainment are fairly constant. This means that downloading is mostly complementary.

On the whole, people can be honest and kind and they do value the things they consume. I'm firmly against DRM and all for open source and Creative Commons. I think it engenders a greater sharing of art and a greater consumption overall. The Swiss study cited above seems to validate that opinion. I know for a fact that I've bought music from a band I discovered via downloads. I've bought books by authors after borrowing one of their works from a friend too, and that's exactly the same thing. It's all about learning that these things exist, discovering that we like them and subsequently paying for those things we enjoy.

With stuff that's always free, however, like podcasts, it's not so easy to follow that line of action and end up giving back. So we have to make that little bit of extra effort and find a way to give. Most podcasts, ezines, magazines, publishers and so on have a PayPal option on their site for you to drop a few shekels through and show your appreciation. Tis the season to be loving and generous, so get online and get clicking. Throw some cash around. It only has to be the cost of a few beers and you'll be making a real difference to your culture and the livelihoods of struggling artists like myself – we need places to sell our work to, and they need cookies to pay us. It'll make you a better person, I promise.

(Incidentally, Thrillercast has a donate button too. Just, you know, in case you were interested.)

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My kind of holiday wishes

Although, there is a part of me that disagrees and would love to see the Great Old One rain despair. Especially at this time of year. The irony would be delicious.

Midnight Echo 6 is out now

Midnight Echo magazine, issue 6, is out now. This is the official magazine of the Australian Horror Writers' Association and always a great read. This particular issue is a special one – it's a science-fiction horror special, featuring a great selection of stories including my own yarn, Trawling The Void. It also features the winning short story and flash fiction from the AHWA competition. Also an interview with Charles Stross and an interview with Chris Moore.

You can read an interview with me about my story, and an excerpt of the story, right here. There are interviews with other contributing authors and interviews with the editors too, so you can find out all kinds of stuff and read loads of excerpts before you buy.

The fiction included is:

"Earthworms" by Cody Goodfellow
"Trawling the Void" by Alan Baxter
"Out Hunting For Teeth" by Joanne Anderton
"Graveyard Orbit" by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
"Surgeon Scalpelfingers" by Helen Stubbs
"Silver-Clean" by Jenny Blackford (poem)
"The Wanderer in the Darkness" by Andrew J McKiernan
"Winds of Nzambi" by David Conyers & David Kernot
"Duncan Checks Out" by Nicholas Stella
"Dead Low" by Cat Sparks
"More Matter, Less Art" by Stephen Dedman
"Seeds" by Mark Farrugia

You can get a limited edition print version or any format ebook, so get out there and get your copy now. All the details here.

This blog post brought to you by the word: Interview.

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French translation reprint in Monstres! anthology

I'm still pretty tied up in the Kung Fu seminar, but it's nearly at an end. My wife will be very glad when I get home and start pulling my weight again. In the meantime, I had to mention this bit of news. Some time ago I sold a reprint of my monster short story, Deep Sea Fishing, to the Monstres! anthology, coming soon from Celephais Press. The story was first published in Seizure, issue 4. It's very exciting on many levels. Firstly, it's my first foreign langauge translation – in this case into French. The anthology title should have been a clue – that wasn't a typo. Not to mention the title of this post.

My story has been translated by Vincent Corlaix. I'm intrigued to think about what he may have done. I wonder how much of my voice and style survives a translation. I guess that's the sign of a good translator – one who will keep those things intact. I'm sure Corlaix has done an excellent job. In translation, my story is called Pêche en haute mer. Which is kinda cool. It's a Lovecraft-inspired yarn and fits the monsters theme well.

The other good thing is that Celephais have released the cover art, and it's bloody brilliant. See for yourself – click it for a bigger image:

You'll notice the list of contributors on the back cover and I'm very proud to share a Table Of Contents with a couple of very good friends – Kaaron Warren and Bill Congreve. It's also nice to see my name right next to Lavie Tidhar. It's actually the second time I've shared a ToC with Mr Tidhar – last time in Murky Depths, #16. Lavie, we must stop meeting like this. People will talk.

This antho will be available in early January and I'll drop another mention then for those French-reading friends and readers. Or perhaps you could buy a copy for the French friends in your life. You've got a French friend or two, right?

Here's the full ToC:

Blue (Blue), de Pablo Dobrinin, traduction Jacques Fuentealba
Dieu est argent (Working for the God of the Love of Money), de Kaaron Warren, traduction Benoît Giuseppin
Les reines de l'évasion, de Célia Deiana
Fantômes (Fantasmas), de Carlos Gardini, trad. Jacques Fuentealba
Blood Faerie, une symphonie nocturne, de Yohan Vasse
Tania (Tania), de Fermín Moreno, trad. Jacques Fuentealba
Les meilleurs partent toujours en premier, Nelly Chadour
À l'aube de la nuit (Until Sunrise), Bill Congreve, trad. Luc Kenoufi
Mater Insania, de Marija Nielsen
Altera in alteram, de Léonor Lara
Ma femme est un shoggoth (I married a Shoggoth), de Jeffrey Thomas, trad. de Maxime Le Dain
Lien de sang (Blood Relations), de Lewis Shiner, trad. Élodie Meste
En préparant le pot-au-feu, de Timothée Rey
Grand-père Loup (Grand-Father Wolf), de Steve Rasnic Tem trad. Mathieu Rivero
L'Évolution des espèces (La evolución de las especies), de Nuria C. Botey, trad. Marie-Anne Cleden
Pêche en haute mer (Deep Sea Fishing), de Alan Baxter, Vincent Corlaix
Le vieil homme et la mer. Et l'étranger. Et le Kraken. (El viejo y el mar. Y el extraño. Y el Kraken.), de Pedro Escudero, trad. Jacques Fuentealba
Zombi Revenge, psyché, de Marc-Olivier Aiken
Lanjnoir (Blakenjel), de Lavie Tidhar, Thomas Bauduret
Je ne suis pas un monstre, de David Pierru

I'll get back to regular blogging when my mind and body recover from this seminar, hopefully towards the end of the week.

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Service interruption due to kicking butt

I apologise if things are a bit quiet around here for a couple of weeks. As most of you probably know, my "day job" is teaching people to kick butt – I'm a Warrior Scribe. Martial arts practice and instruction, just like writing, requires constant practice and improvement, and the taking of every opportunity to learn. For the next two weeks I'm at an intensive Master training seminar with my teacher in Sydney, training six hours a day and spending the evenings drinking with training buddies, then collpasing into bed with phrases like, "Ow, my fucking arms!", "Where did that bruise come from?" and "Holy shit, Kung Fu hurts but it's so freaking cool!"

So posting here will be infrequent if not non-existent until mid-December. In the meantime, let me leave you with a word and a challenge. The word is collop. It's good, epiglottal sort of word, huh?

collop
noun;
1. A small slice of meat.
2. A small slice, portion, or piece of anything.
3. A fold or roll of flesh on the body.

The challenge is this – use it in a sentence in everyday speech. If someone asks if you want ham on your sandwich, say, "Sure, just a collop, thanks." Or perhaps say to your loved one, "Baby, let me lick your collops." You know, that sort of thing. Do feel free to comment with any successful usages of the word. And you're welcome – it's a good'un, I know.

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End of Movember 2011 – still time to donate

I've reached the end of Movember, where my upper lip has spent 30 days donated to charity. It's over, but you can still donate here: http://mobro.co/AlanBaxter

If you can spare a few bucks, please do, as it's for a very good cause. All the details are on the link. And here's the final product. Thirty days of growth:

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Great offer from Murky Depths

You may remember that I was recently lamenting the demise of Murky Depths magazine. That's still a very sad thing, but there is some good that's come of it. It was always hard to get Murky Depths outside the UK, as shipping costs were so high. Now there's a special offer going on, directly from the publisher. Any non-European country can get any issue of Murky Depths for US$12.50, including all postage and fees. So US$12.50 is all you'll pay for any issue. It's a pretty sweet deal. If you only buy one, might I recommend issue #16, which contains my story, Mirrorwalk? But seriously, they're all great.

You can also get a boxed set of issues 1 to 8, which would make a great Xmas present, for yourself or someone else.

Hop to it!

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