Notes From the Void #2

Wild Cards, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a series of shared-universe books where a space-alien germ bomb was set off over New York City on September 15, 1946. The virus, dubbed “Xenovirus Takis-A”, killed 90% of the people it infected (they “draw the Black Queen”). Of the survivors, 90% were horribly mutated (“Jokers”), and the remainder – that lucky 1% – developed superpowers (“Aces”). From there, the world wanders forward in a very roughly-parallel history to our own, with the butterfly effect in full force. For example, McCarthy investigates “dangerous wildcards” instead of “potential Communists”, and, misappropriating something Terry Pratchett said of Discworld, black and white set aside most of their differences so they can gang up on green. They’re very well-written, grown-up superhero stories, and I’m a huge fan (warning: the books are streaked with violence, sex, politics, and moral greys, and even longstanding favorite characters can and do die).

Aside from a hiatus in the late 90s, the series has been going on for a good twenty-odd years now, and a lot of very big science-fiction/fantasy names have taken part (George R. R. Martin edits, which should say something). Somehow I missed the release of the latest volume, Suicide Kings, back in December, but I got a chance to correct that this Monday. It was a good read, in that way that only a favorite, familiar series can be, though I have to admit that the older books felt more immersive. Unfortunately some of those (and even the reprints) have gotten disturbingly expensive, but the new trilogy (Inside Straight, Busted Flush, and Suicide Kings) is still in print. I’ll be happy to offer some good starting points if anyone is interested.

Also, while I’m pretty sure she isn’t playing Chrysalis, this cosplayer takes “anatomically pretty” to a whole new level. It must’ve taken hours to get ready.

It’s been a long and slightly painful week and I’ve drifting in and out of sleep for a couple hours now (hence the post-midnight update), but I have most of tomorrow (today?) set aside for writing. We’ll see how that goes.

Elves, by Ten-Chan

Back near the beginning of the month, I asked Ten-Chan to illustrate her pick of the four Elves versions, leaving most of the specifics open to her best artistic judgment. Yesterday morning (I suppose I should say “Monday morning”, by now), I opened my laptop to find her finished art waiting for me, and I think I can safely say that it’s been well worth the wait. Click through the thumbnail to see for yourself.

At the moment, I plan to commission a different artist for each version of Elves, but I’m not sure. Either way I’m sure I’ll have Ten-chan return in the future. What do you think?

Notes From the Void #1

So… this is my first Notes from the Void, the name for the posts I discussed last week. I’ve decided against making it a strictly-weekly feature; to keep them from overwhelming the site by sheer numbers, I’ll only post them on weeks where I don’t add other content (reviews, fiction, illustrations, etc).

It’s very fashionable right now to donate money to Haiti, but please be careful where you donate; anywhere money flows, there will be unethical people trying to take a cut, and even legitimate organizations can be astoundingly poorly managed. Charity Navigator seems to be a good place to check things out first; they don’t have the resources to check every charity, but they rate most of the big players. Personally, my Haiti-bound donation went to Doctors Without Borders.

On a lighter note, I’ve been spending a lot of time wandering RedBubble lately. My friend Caitlin introduced me to it back in August, when I bought a print of her “Tokyo” project, and I keep coming back, usually just to explore. They have a great talent pool, and their print quality is fantastic if you feel the urge to buy something. One of my favorite recent finds is JenniferB. Really, I think the best way for me to introduce her is to shut up and let two of her poems speak for themselves:

1. I Want To Fuck You With Words
2. To be continued…

Some of her writing is a bit morbidly uncomfortable, but I think it’s still worth reading.

In site-related news, I’ve commissioned Ten-Chan to illustrate one of the Elves stories I finished back at the end of 2008. She says she should be finished soon, and I’ll post it appropriately as soon as I can.

We Are Experiencing Creative Difficulties. Please Stand By.

Originally I planned to release First and Last and Always in time for the new year. I’ve been working on it, on and off, for about two years now, and I’m more than a little tired of having it on my plate for this long. At the moment it is pretty close to finished, but work is sapping a lot of my time and energy, and the home stretch is more difficult than I really care to admit.

Right now my goal is “by Valentine’s Day, even if I don’t sleep the whole weekend.” We’ll see how that goes.

In the meantime, I have been meaning to keep this site more active. I shouldn’t expect you to come back to the same page for six weeks running, and I feel badly about that. On the other hand, when I started this site, I made a very simple promise to you:

2. No filler.

We will not post unless we have things to say. 1000 Gears should be interesting even if you have no idea who we actually are.

Primarily I was concerned with “What kind of X are you?” quiz-memes and similar minutiae that is only actually interesting to the person taking the test. It’s very easy to slip into a routine of posting for the sake of posting, and I like that even less than silence. So, stuck between these two urges, I have a question for you, as my readers. If I were to post, once a week, sharing a small handful of interesting bits I’ve discovered online, would you consider that to be “content” or “filler”?

YaoiCon 2009 – Closing Thoughts

This is really a post to include more pictures and say all the things that I wanted to say, but couldn’t fit into the flow of the other posts. It’s likely to be a little bit discombobulated.

1. Tahdig! I think that only makes sense if you’re one of the three people I spoke with about it, but it’s awesome anyways.
2. Café Verführen has great souvenirs. Their shot glasses are etched, not printed, and their Sunday-morning gift boxes are copied from real vintage labels (seriously).
3. Ryusei is never ever without less than immaculately dressed. I think I’m a little bit jealous.
4. I wish I had taken up Tiff’s invitation to go watch Supernatural on Saturday night. I got some ideas for First and Last and Always that I needed to write down, and I didn’t see her at all on Sunday. She seemed like a good person to know.
5. In general, wish I were better about collecting phone numbers and email addresses.
6. The official YaoiCon “bishounen” events – Bingo, the Auction, and the (ahem) Bishounen Spanking Inferno raffle – can be a lot of fun in their own rights, but… (I never finished this sentence, and I wish I could remember what I was thinking when I started it. The events are fun.
7. Mostly for DreamSkaype, I’ve uploaded a picture of my special badge from my service as a waiter for the YaoiCon Café (not Café Verführen) back in 2007. Being called a “bishounen” feels like a compliment that I can’t properly accept, so I replaced it with something more comfortable.
8. I should bring Kelda another tribute offering of chocolate next year.
9. YaoiCon is always, at the same time, more and less expensive than I thought it would be.
10. …and then Buffy staked Edward. THE END!