Personal – Page 76 – Michele Lee

May 30

Literary Meme

There’s always time for a meme!

* What was the last story you read?

I’m almost done with Seven Days in Benevolence by Steven Wedel.

* What was the last poem you read?

“The Passing Bell” by Sophia Ahnikalish Schwan

* What was the last comic you read?

Garfield

* What was the last movie you watched?

Knocked Up. It wasn’t as funny as people made it out to be, and I didn’t like the two lead female characters. I did like Seth Rogan’s character though.

* What song are you listening to now? Say something about it–what it means to you, who introduced you to it, something like that.

I’m not actually. I have Dr. Phil on. I know, I know.. but I find that talk shows and court shows are good studies for character building and dialog.

* What’s your guilty-reading pleasure?

It depends on which community I’m talking to at the time. I love dark and tragic stories, but sometimes when I’ve had too much dark and tragic I love a paranormal romance, especially if it’s erotic to lighten things up.

* Say something about the last poem you wrote!

I like it. It’s been forever since I wrote it, but I like it.

* Say something about a story you’re writing now!

I am in the middle of a short story and a novel. The novel is a significant (ie total textual) rewrite of my first ever novel, which I still feel has merit. It’s the dark tale of a werewolf pack and now not everyone dies at the end 😉 The short story is a dark sf tale. I think it’s sort of Heinlein-ish. It centers around a business where you can pay to fulfill your murderous fantasies.

* If you were a fictional character, who would be writing you?

Charlaine Harris. I feel like and ordinary person in a magical world, but not really part of it. Her stories pretty much encompass my opinion of my life.

* Last story you recommended to someone?

Do reviews count as recommendations? Outside of that technically it was Bad Candy House by Jeff Strand. I recommended a peer listen to Jeff reading it to help her read her own work.

* And a link to your favorite magazine, because they probably need your help. 😉

Apex Digest
Murky Depths

* Lastly, link to a friend’s copy of this quiz!

GUD started it 😛

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May 24

Death and the Maiden part 4

Part four of Death and the Maiden moves outside of the restrictions of a magazine strip and into a space of its own. It features full color pages of the same surreal, near pornographic art that can also be found in the first three sections (in Issues 1-3 of Murky Depths).

The Black Order and the whores of New Babylon are caught up in a war of pornacracy and gendercide. In the midst of it all Flip, an outcast whore from New Babylon falls for Mr. Death, an outcast from the The Black Order. With the expanded space Calder has the chance to not just catch new readers up on the premise, and expand the world tenfold, but Flip and Mr. Death also face down metal-lined clones determined to carry out the sentence of execution on them for their crimes. A spot of action takes the comic out of the reflective and pushes boldly forward.

Calder “pornographizes” (his word) our vanilla world, from the inside out, creating a skewed world of up the skirt shots and Barbie-doll bodies. Death and the Maiden is like no other comic, veined with social commentary and cloaked in unrelenting sex.

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May 20

Observations…

Clinton won Kentucky by about 35%. I’m disappointed. Yes, I’m officially beginning to cheer for Obama, most because I’m incredibly tired of the same old same old which is McCain and Clinton respectively. But then, I’m not at all surprised seeing as Obama gave us Kentuckians a single “I’m here because I have to be” visit.

Also, I’m watching FitTV right now. There’s a show on bellydancing called Shimmy. I have a blast doing my completely amateur interpretation of bellydancing. But this is just disturbing. It’s showing groups of 1 to 3 women doing specific moves in these really weird surreal locations, like a basement with a sand floor and a rooftop where you can see dome skylights behind them but the sky is a misty orange. Not only is is disturbing to see these women, all dressed similar and moving EXACTLY the same way (yes, I know that’s the point, but it’s disturbing when you see it) with the exact same look on their face, but they also keep doing tight close ups on bare stomachs and thrusting hips that makes it look rather like a soft core droid porn.

This of course means that I expect to see a Jennifer Pelland story along these lines soon.

(Oh look, and now the back ground is a parking garage that has a serious leak, or perhaps there’s a typhoon occurring.

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May 20

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

“It took a qualified wizard to detect a summoning in progress. It only took a half-literate idiot with a twitch of power and a dim idea of how to use it to attempt one. Before you knew it, a three-headed Slavonic god was wreaking havoc in downtown Atlanta, the skies were raining winged snakes, and SWAT was screaming for more ammo. These were unsafe times. But then, in safer times, I’d be a woman without a job.”

That paragraph, about a page in, sold me on Magic Bites. It stars Kate Daniels, a mercenary who handles odd jobs in a world where technology and magic are warring– and technology is losing. In a Magic-punk version of Atlanta, Kate is stunned to learn that the city’s knight-diviner (a prestigious member of the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, the guardians of the city) has been murdered. A friend of her father’s Greg was also Kate’s guardian, and the closest thing to family she had.

Barely taking time to grieve, Kate launches herself into investigating Greg’s murder, more than willing to let the Order use her attempts to cover their own, quieter investigation. What she discovers puts her in the middle of the vampires and werecreatures, both of who have suffered loses similar to Greg’s murder, but neither is willing to admit to outsiders what they know and both want to blame each other, threatening to tear the city apart in a supernatural beastie war.

Andrew’s world threatens to leave the realm of urban fantasy altogether, building a city where magic and tech flip off and on in dominance, tearing at each other in constantly flexing waves. Andrew’s characters too, are the battered survivors of the decaying city, each urban fantasy breed–from vampires to shape shifters and beyond– have a made over, wilder representation in Kate Daniel’s world.

Magic Bites is a book that jumps headlong into mythology and magic, leaving the reader charmed and definitely wanting more. Similar in feel to Jim Butcher’s Dresden series this series is sure to be a stand out in the world of paranormal fiction.

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May 20

Dammit…

I’m having to choose between wordpress theme for which my stat counter works (which is not this one) and logging in to see a flatline at “0” on my hits chart. This is terribly depressing (especially since I know I’ve been getting hits because I’ve had comments, emails referring to my posts and real life people mentioning my posts) so I keep going back and forth on whether I should change it or not.. So if, by chance you see this blog change a bunch in the next few days that’s why.

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