Cerberus Writing Band

Where the three-headed monster dreams Dan Rabarts http://dan.rabarts.com Grant Stone http://d1sc0r0b0t.blogspot.co.nz/ Matthew Sanborn Smith http://bewarethehairymango.com/

[cerberuswritingband]

Dan -

One of the heads of Cerberus went a-loping over the Tasman Sea, and attended Australia's National SFF convention, Continuum X. While his official Trip Report is still forthcoming, you can read the short version here:

[cerberuswritingband]

Let's Go A-Mangoing!

Matt here.

From The One-Thousand:

Had a sparkling idea the other day. In the past, I've mostly taken my vacation time in one to four hour increments so I could cut out of a boring day at work. This year, I needed to take a week off to move and that very move fouled up my plans for MuchoMangoMayo 2014, which were already contingent plans. The other day I thought, "Why not take another week off?" I asked around at work, certain it would screw something up for somebody. Fortunately, I'm delightfully unnecessary! So I'm taking the first full week of May off and I can get the fibrous bulk of MMM 2014 done then. Hooray! The only thing that could—wait, not the only thing. One of the things that could screw everything up is if I get chosen for jury duty next week and get stuck in a trial that lasts for weeks. MuchoMangoJunio. Hmmmm . . .

[coelasquid]

A thought on gore and monsters in horror fiction

Okay, so I love horror stories, I love Creepypasta, I even love a lot of bad Creepypasta just because it’s so earnest. You can tell a great deal of it is being written by kids who just want so bad to make something scary but just don’t quite understand how to communicate the ideas in their head efficiently. But I love it, and I love them for trying so hard. So if it’s any help, I made an effort to identify some running themes with these writing issues and assemble some of my own thoughts on horror in stories, comics, and motion pictures and how the pacing of those different mediums effect how you have to deliver the spooky. Just in case it helps ease the frustration for anyone wondering why their spooky stories are having a hard time carrying through on the spooky front they want it to.

And it’s long as hell so I’ll put it under a cut.

Read More

[cerberuswritingband]

- Dan

[cerberuswritingband]

Poster Syndrome

Matt here, from The One-Thousand:

Sorry I haven't been here in a couple of months. I moved across town and it was hairy working that around my day job. I did take a week off, but then all sorts of awesome people I usually don't see were in town and available, so they took precedence. I went to ICFA a couple of weeks ago, hung out with old friends, made new ones, spent too much money on books, had the most magnificent steak of my life, soaked in Ellen Klages' tales of Clarion down under, and got brain freeze with Ian McDonald. It was awesome. Because of these things and my short story writing frenzy the first two months of this year, I am, as usual, way the hell behind on Mangoes. My boss, who's a fan of the show, says I was even farther behind last year. I still have to record all four April shows (yes, there will be an April 30th show this year), and of the thirty-one shows I need for MuchoMangoMayo, I've only finished writing the first one yesterday! I hope to have the second done today. I inadvertently shot off story 148 of The One-Thousand the other day. It was a twitter story and I submitted it before even realizing I'd taken another step toward my goal. The Boy made supper for me today. Ravioli and garlic bread. A nice surprise for my exhausted ass. And for the rest of me as well. Another Cerberus story is nearing completion! I always have to check the spelling on that. Being a comic book geek, I always want to write Cerebus. It's a fine line between a three-headed dog and a talking aardvark. Anyway, the current version of the story is deep and cloudy (that's good). My esteemed co-authors have begun to write some things that are just beyond my comprehension and I'm loving it. I have other writer friends and acquaintances who talk about having imposter syndrome, which is crazy, because they're all great, published writers. I was explaining to one friend recently that I've always had the opposite problem. I'm convinced that I'm much better than I actually am, and why hasn't the world recognized my genius? Rather than living in fear of being caught, I live in disappointment for not being caught. How boring life would be if we were all satisfied. Embrace your issues. Hold them tightly. Love 'em up.

[mapsontheweb]

Map of New Zealand and Western United States, together, with same latitudes

Source: brian nz (flickr)

[therealteemorris]

Being a more than a passing student of history, I was delighted at the portrayals of these two men. Edison’s real life business acumen is definitely on display, as well as his utter ruthlessness when dealing with his rival, Tesla. Both men show their historically correct arrogance and entitlement. Tesla reaction to one of his designs that Edison co-oped is priceless! It’s the attention to historical detail in a fictional, especially Steampunk, setting that I find so appealing. It’s a maturity of craft that is fully threaded throughout all three novels, but on prominent display in Dawn’s Early Light. Pip and Tee have delivered a fully realized fictional setting, complete with historical figures acting IN CHARACTER! It is a delight to read.

Paul Ellis, in an Amazon review of Dawn’s Early Light which hit stands today. It’s reviews like this that make me want to write like a motherfucker! Damn, this feels good! (via therealteemorris)

[cerberuswritingband]

Blogging - SJV Awards 2014

In case you missed it yesterday, the 2014 SJV Final Ballot has been announced, and I'm on there four times, along with heaps of good people, fellow authors and editors and artists, the whole grand spread of creative work that makes up the NZ SpecFic scene. Good times. Good luck to everyone, and well done for making the list. http://dan.rabarts.com/2014/03/sjv-awards-2014/

- Dan

[cerberuswritingband]

Cerberus member Dan Rabarts makes the final ballot in NZ's prestigious Sir Julius Vogel Awards with 4 nominations!

- Dan

[cerberuswritingband]

Angels and Automatons: a shared-world steampunk anthology

Angels and Automatons is a steampunk anthology that chronicles the rise and fiery destruction of a town on New Zealand's West Coast.

Just finished transcribing my short story for Steam Press's #AngelsandAutomatons #kiwi #steampunk anthology. Almost 9k of epic action and drama in the goldfields of the West Coast, circa 1864. Going to need an equally epic edit, plus an epic effort from all of you to help make it happen.

[cerberuswritingband]

Number 2

Much better than it sounds. Cerberus has completed its second story and that story has been released into the wild to find a home. Our armies of fans rejoice.

-Matt

[cerberuswritingband]

On Finishing and 146

-Matt here, from The One-Thousand:

Finished story 146 tonight and sent it out the door. Wouldn't it be great if the rest of the year rolled on like the last couple of days? What happened is I thought I'd write a new story for Charles Coleman Finlay's guest issue of F&SF within the two week submission period. But I got off to a bad start this year because of my crazy, dizzy head (which is all better now, thank you), so I figured I wouldn't finish in time and submitted another story. Yesterday after a couple of false starts at even newer stories, I realized I had literally hundreds of partial stories lying around on my hard drives, and why not finish them up? "Finish what you write" is an old maxim that Neil Gaiman, for one, always offers when asked for writing advice. I made a new wallpaper for my computer that's just a white background with the words, "It's all about finishing stories." Then I remembered a roughly thousand word story that seemed good to me even though I once thought I should add more. I reworked it and that was 145. Today I finished that story that was meant to be for F&SF and that was 146. So there you go. Tomorrow, I'll look for another unfinished story I can finish. Maybe you've got some unfinished business too. Of course you do. Now I'm off to record and post a couple of Mangoes!

[cerberuswritingband]

145

-Matt here, from The One-Thousand:

Finished and sent out story 145 tonight. And then I celebrated that by submitting another story.

[cerberuswritingband]

The Mango of Justice!

-Matt here, from Beware the Hairy Mango:

  Huge thanks to Chas from Historic Games (give them some love!) for catching this one on HuffPo. Chas says—and rightly so—, "Never bring a gun to a mango fight!"  

80 Year Old Woman Thwarts Robbery By Throwing Mangoes At Thieves  

Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

[cerberuswritingband]

Harlan's New Glass Teat

-Matt here, from The One-Thousand:

Have you subscribed to Harlan Ellison's YouTube channel yet? Why not? He's not only a writer worthy of being one of my literary heroes, he's also lots of fun to watch. The link is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1XrlRQsRxYfuc47CCJN05w The channel seems to include all the brilliant spots he did for Sci Fi Buzz in the nineties (Harlan Ellison's Watching)! Here's a little taste:

[cerberuswritingband]

Welcoming the new year in with story news and other soundbites. But, not with sound. Just words. And pictures. And links.

[opticallyaddicted]

"

I am inspired by my knowledge of Psychoanalysis and Philosophy.

I paint the things that cannot see the human eye.I look at what passes in the depths of our body and mind

“

Agim Meta

http://agimmeta.org/

https://es-es.facebook.com/agim.meta.798

http://www.agimmeta.info/

[cerberuswritingband]

Art by Agim Meta. Obvious Dali influence here, but that's not to diminish the artist's talent and the exploration of new corners. I repost this because I think we should daily think thoughts that we haven't thought before and Agim Meta's art certainly inspires new thoughts. 

-Matt

[cerberuswritingband]

Just saw this on Facebook. The artist is Junior Fritz Jacquet. Check out his website here: http://www.juniorfritzjacquet.com/

-Matt