I’ve been super MIA from this blog during the pandemic, but not because I haven’t been busy!
This post from Once upon a Blog came at just the right time; I’m working a lot with fairy tale retellings again, and here we have some fun re-contextualizations of popular fairy tales for modern times. Click on the pic to read it!
Just a little reminder this Cyber Monday that if you’re looking for unique handmade books, art, and more, visit Urban Fables and get 15% off orders of $15 or more with code HOLIDAY17.
And if you’re looking for a new read, visit my Amazon page!
I’ll be selling my wares (like art, journals, and an extremely limited chapbook of my blackout poetry) at this event. It’s free admission, so stop by and get your holiday shopping underway. Click the flyer for more info:
One of the things I’ve been doing this year is getting back into art, since it was my first love (after paleontology, which at 7 I was convinced was my life’s calling–I mean, DINOSAURS, man!). Anyway, I now have an Etsy shop in which I sell handmade journals and books, mixed media art, and more; you can visit by clicking the image below or the “E” icon on the sidebar. I’ll be adding items frequently, so check back often!
I’ve been absent here for a while; there are reasons, and I’ll get into those in a later post. For now, have a look at the cover of my m/m novelette “The Long Change,” coming September 1 from The Wild Rose Press.
In the meantime, if you’d like to support my other creative endeavors, you can buy my artwork and handmade journals through my new Zibbet store.
What do you do with your coloring pages when you’re done coloring them? Here are 11 DIY ways to use your coloring pages!
Source: 11 Crafty Ways to Use Your Coloring Pages – Cleverpedia
“Self-loathing is in the writer’s blood.” What? No. http://t.co/3W9SwUeEsG
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) December 17, 2013
I’m a writer and I really don’t have self-loathing in my blood, or in my liver or indeed in any other organ or part of my body (including the brain, which I suspect is ultimately the relevant organ under discussion here). As a result I am more than vaguely annoyed by the declaration above, which comes from a Salon article about “Literary Self Loathing.”
This is not to say that on more than one occasion I have not had doubts or concerns about my writing — the thing that writers do when they’re in the middle of writing a book and they think to themselves okay, honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing and that’s going to be obvious to anyone who reads this thing is something that happens to me…
View original post 608 more words
SST Publications are proud to announce the release of Tales of Obscenity #1. This exciting debut issue of our new horror & erotic horror magazine features fiction by Jennifer Loring, Angeline Hawkes, Ty Schwamberger, John Everson, Jeremy Terry, M.R. Gott, Christopher Fulbright and J.F. Gonzalez. The beautiful cover art is by David Ho and the full-colour interior artwork and story illustrations are by Luke Spooner, Alan M. Clark, Allen Koszowski, Mike Mabrey, Daniele Serra and Vince Natale. This debut issue also features a ten page, full-colour Mini Gallery from cover artist, David Ho.
The magazine is now available from Amazon US (http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Obscenity-1-Paul-Fry/dp/1909640018/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366793646&sr=1-11) and will be available very soon, in print and eBook formats, from all major retailers.
To celebrate the launch of our new magazine, we have a fantastic special offer for you!
Purchase a print copy of Tales of Obscenity #1 from anywhere at all, and if you like it and would like to pre-order a copy of the Special Limited Hardcover Signed Lettered/Numbered Editions:
Just send your proof of purchase (snapshot/screen shot/scan/photocopy etc.) to mailpfry@gmail.com and we will give you:
£6 off a copy of the Signed & Lettered Limited Edition or
£3 off a copy of the Signed & Numbered Limited Edition!
(Please remember to state which edition you’d like to pre-order: either the Signed & Lettered or the Signed & Numbered and we will send you a PayPal invoice for the new discounted price.)
It’s like you’re getting a copy of the print magazine for nothing or for half price! What have you got to lose! It’s our way of saying thank you for all your support, and if you do like the mag, you might even fancy subscribing. You never know!
This special offer expires on May 6th, 2013 at 11:59 p.m. (GMT).
For more details about the very Special Limited Hardcover Editions please visit SST Publications: http://sstpublications.co.uk/sst/Magazines/Tales-of-Obscenity-1-Hardcovers.html
SST Publications is also proud to announce the publication of our new eNovelette Series.
We will be publishing novelettes as eBooks in the horror, erotic horror, dark thriller and dark sci-fi genres.
Our new eNovelette Series will be a little different as the bestselling titles from the series will be published as comic versions. These will be comic adaptations of the same story drawn by a comic/graphic novel artist. They will initially be released as eComics to see how well they sell.
If the eNovelettes and eComics sell well, there will be a print edition of them published in the future. Either published individually or in a collection containing a few eNovelettes/eComics that we have published in the series.
Novelettes are defined as having a word count of between 7,500 to 17,500 words. They are a great reading length as they are longer than short stories, but not too long as to be read quickly. They’re the perfect length if you’re after a nice, quick and enjoyable read to fill in a few spare minutes. Our eNovelettes will be around the 10,000 word count.
The first three titles are now available for pre-order directly from SST either individually, or together for a special discounted price.
For more info on the first three eNovelettes in the series please visit: http://sstpublications.co.uk/sst/Ebooks/eNovelette.html
I am counting the days until June 30. That’s the day I graduate from grad school with a shiny MFA and begin the rest of my life. It’s been a mostly enjoyable couple of years, and I’ve learned a lot, but this term is especially labor-intensive despite having finished my thesis (still needs edits). I’m ready to move on, both from the book and from school. I suppose I wouldn’t feel this way quite so much if the process hadn’t led to the unavoidable neglecting of so many other projects. Since completing my thesis, however, I’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to finish up a novella I began over 2 years ago, and to indulge in pleasure reading again.
But there is one thing I really, really miss and haven’t been able to fit back into my schedule yet. Art. You probably know by now that I have a BA in studio art. I draw, paint, photograph, collage… While I never pursued art as a career, it has always maintained an important role in my life. (And, since getting into the craftier side of things, I’ve become a junkie for Tim Holtz’s Idea-ology stuff.) I’m taking a leave of absence from work April 8 to May 6 in order to concentrate on my final project for school, but that will be the entire focus of my life during that time–as well as allow me to regain some of the sanity I’ve lost after spending 11 or more hours a day juggling school, writing, and my day job. In the interim between the end of class on May 6 and my final residency starting June 25 (with a 3-day jaunt to World Horror Con in between), however, getting back to art will be a major priority. I’ve got two collages-to-be sitting on my worktable already! And I want to get back into making music, which I started over 10 years ago. Maybe give my stuff a proper release on Bandcamp and probably for free.
I do have some good news–I’ve sold another short story. So, as of right now, I’ll have four stories out this year, three of them in anthologies. It’s pretty exciting, and since that leaves me with very few unsold stories left, I’m excited to get back to short fiction. I think short stories will always be my first love.
What about you? What are your passions, and how do you fit them into your life?
I’ve written 22,000 words (just on my novel–I’m also 4 pages into a new short story) in the past two months. This accomplishment seems to have spurred my creative energy in general, because now all I want to do is create something. Anything.
A recent post of mine bemoaned the fact that I didn’t have enough time to pursue all of my interests, at least not while juggling grad school and a job. It’s ironic, then, that this month I discovered a new hobby thanks to my dear friend Joy. They are called deco books, and they rose from the slam/friendship book culture of the 80s. The point of deco books, however, is the artwork. While my boyfriend frowns upon them as a waste of time, I value them for their therapeutic and stress-relieving properties. They have also led to a rekindling of my interest in collage and mixed media. My original senior project as an undergrad was to be a massive mixed media piece that was slightly too ambitious for the time frame in which I had to work, and the senior show in general. I always regretted not following through with it, and over the years I did a few more mixed media pieces before abandoning it in favor of writing and illustration.
Thanks to deco books, I’m creating art again, even if it falls more on the “craft” side of the spectrum at the moment. Just this evening I hand-cut a stack of artist trading cards to challenge myself to work that small (normally I work no smaller than 11×14–these are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2), and tomorrow I plan to buy some canvas panels for collage work. I started an art journal this week as well. I may be stretched a little thin, but I firmly believe that I do not have to sacrifice one of the things I love in order to succeed at the other. Like the ATCs, this will be a challenge to myself. And I think it’s one I can beat.
