Saturday, April 28, 2012

April Poetry

File:Waterhouse, JW - A Hamadryad (1895).jpgA lot of catching up to do! And since so much of it is poetry related, I better get all of it in order while there's still some April left (I love Eliot btw).

Okay, so way back when the folks over at Strange Horizons had their readers poll, it turns out "If Alice..." made second place, something I was totally delighted by! Even better, Rose Lemberg's wonderful "In the Third Cycle" won, which just shows what excellent taste people reading Strange Horizons have (well, the editors are also gifted with some good sense for lyrical awesomeness if you ask me).

(Not that it really matters, but I am writing this post by following my facebook timeline. I don't know about you, but on my scale for disturbing, this rates a comfortable seven. The end is nigh!)

The Spring equinox saw two of my poems go live over at Eternal Haunted Summer, "The Desert in His Soul" and "Isis Conquers All." Yes, I do know gods outside of the Greek pantheon.

File:Waterhouse - The Charmer.jpgNow, sea poems! "Becoming the Sea," which resides at NewMyths.com, and "Binnorie," harping away over at inkscrawl. The second of these two is the one I'm really excited about, not just because of the poem itself though. Inkscrawl, a beautiful zine of spec poetry of ten lines or fewer was about to fold after just two issues, but along came Rose Lemberg (aka The Amazing Rose). She bought inkscrawl, founded a press along the way, and well, she just spreads Amazingness with everything she does. She even got Sam Henderson to take over editorship of inkscrawl. Very nice.

I mentioned earlier the excellent taste of the poetry editors of Strange Horizons. This poet was then of course immensely honored that these same editors saw fit to choose another of her pieces for publication. "Cerberus, Seeking Lethe" is another one of my Night Cycle poems (they are like dreams, little critters, just keep happening).

Stone Telling published Bridging: The Queer Issue. The poetry selected is wonderful, and I am hereby doffing my hat to Rose and Shweta. One piece stands out though. Lisa M. Bradley's "we come together we fall apart" is epic, and it tells a story that cuts deep. I was lucky enough to be allowed to read the part of Marguerite for the audio version, a production of the ST cast well worth listening to.

April also saw the release of Bull Spec #7 (I do love rude acronyms!) In the poetry section, readers will find "The Fall Queen" by yours truly. Very much looking forward to future issues of BS.

April being what it is, the Rhysling Award nominations were released. I am ecstatic about being on the list and about being in such good company! *silly grin*

And because Good Things just did not stop happening, I woke up one morning to find my copy of Mythic Delirium in the mail. It does not just look pretty, it's also pretty awesome from the inside. I have two works in it, "A Different Scheherazade" and "The Forest King" which was inspired by art created by Anita Allen only then to inspire art in turn. I am particularly proud of the inspiration part. The whole issue also got a very nice review at Tor.com. Made me wish that there'd be more general awareness of spec poetry. This genre just has to offer so much stunning work from talented and dedicated people.

Appearing hand in hand with Mythic Delirium (also, note the coordinated covers) was Goblin Fruit's Spring 2012 Issue. I have my first evah poem accepted by the editorial team in there, so wow. Hopefully, readers will enjoy "The Golem on My Tongue."

15I'm going back to celebrating the rest of April now, if you don't mind :)  If you want to celebrate along, hop over to Fantastique Unfettered (ah, these acronyms!) and check out the daily prompts. Perhaps you'll just get a poem out of it.



Images taken from oldbookart.com and commons.wikimedia.org.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leap Day Post

Only once every four years I'll get the chance to write one!

So far, February has succeeded in being busy and eventful. For one thing, the combined power of the Fantastique Unfettered slush piles (fiction and poetry) has tried to overwhelm me (unsuccessfully, I still like correct grammar and spelling). I could write a post alone about cover letters and such, just not today. But hey, getting the editor's name right, that's always a great start!

Eventfulness: another one of my pieces was nominated for a Rhysling this February! "Lanterns," first appeared in Raven Electrick Ink: Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy marks this year's second nomination for that most prestigious of spec poetry awards. This means I have one poem nominated in the "long poem" category (a post on that), and "Lanterns" in the "short" category. I know, bragging sucks, but I'm just mighty happy, is all.


Adding to my state of happiness is the Strange Horizon's 2011 Reader's Poll. My poem "If Alice..." came in second after Rose's "In the Third Cycle." My congrats to Rose, whose poem is one of the most beautiful pieces I've seen in a long time.


(If you think the bragging is over, not quite yet.)

A bit of coolness and fruitful art begetting (yeah!) As Mike Allen explains in this part 2 of the Mythic Delirium 26 preview, I'm talking about this awesome illustration for my art inspired poem "The Forest King." (Don't you just wanna see that on real paper? Smell the ink? Feel the texture under your fingertips? You must SUBSCRIBE!)

On a final note, tomorrow a new issue of Niteblade will premier. It is a fine issue, with fine poetry, if I do say so myself. The poets published in this issue were wonderful to work with, where editing was undertaken, the results are stunning (I know I'm biased, so what). Thanks, guys!

I did dare February to "bring it" in my last post...already looking forward to March. :)

Sunday, February 5, 2012

January 2012

I post to catch up is overdue.

The year has barely started and so much has happened already. The first week of 2012 saw another acceptance of what I would call an early Night Cycle poem: A Metamorphosis of Dream will appear in Ideomancer. That felt like 2012 was kicking off just fine, I thought to myself, but it got better. My prose poem A Maquerade in Four Voices got nominated for the Rhysling Award! This is just way cool! It made me talk in all-caps for about three days or so, and I feel the need to shout out in joy whenever I think about it, too, so YAY! (In case you wanna see all the eligible work of 2011, look here.)

Story-wise, two tales will appear this March, The Castle of Ashes in Red Penny Papers (edited by the wonderful KV Taylor, full line-up here) and A Lie Written In Scarlet in Scheherezade's Bequest (where Erzebet YellowBoy does a no less wonderful editing job).

And then there is this thing called editing I do. Over at Niteblade, I finalized the first poetry ToC I did all on my lonesome. Now, I could say a lot of things about the March Issue, I really could, but I won't; there simply is no need. Read the poems contained therein, and you will understand why.

January was also the month of major Change at Fantastique Unfettered. Brandon Bell--beloved founder and most capable editor of the zine--has stepped down from his position as Managing Editor, and he entrusted me with carrying on this thing-like-no-other that is FU. These are some big shoes to fill, I'm well aware of that. I come prepared, and I come wearing passion like a witch's hat; let's do this! Brandon isn't gone however, he'll still be around as general assistant (soon to be replaced by kick-ass title), and FU is lucky to have someone like him. To add to the general climate of change, we are moving from print to online publication, which I think is gonna be really, really cool. The site is already looking all new and spring-timey and we have a poll up there which will help us determine whether to call our weekly news section "FU Weekly" or "The Weekly FU." Yeah, seriously. That's how mature we are.

So that was January. So, February. Bring it.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Works Published In 2011

It is the time of year to do a post listing all work eligible for awards, isn't it? All the pieces below have been first published in 2011.

Short Poems (1-49 lines)

Broken Towers, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #52
City of Clay, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #52
The Dirty Vampire, A Recipe, Bull Spec #5
Her Mother's Bees, Electric Velocipede
The Girl and Her Cloud, Electric Velocipede
The Little Red Tarot, Enchanted Conversation
Ereshkigal, Eternal Haunted Summer
Acteon's Hunt, Eternal Haunted Summer
Bacchanalia, Eternal Haunted Summer
The Eagle, Eternal Haunted Summer
Orpheus, Turning, Eternal Haunted Summer
The Words of Seshat, Eternal Haunted Summer
Before the Villain, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly
Eulogy, inkscrawl
Cages, inkscrawl
Curses, Jabberwocky
Bei Nacht--A Demon Song, Jabberwocky
Tricks and Treats, Raven Electrick Ink: Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy
Lanterns, Raven Electrick Ink: Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy  ETA: Lanters has been nominated for the Rhysling Award! Squeee!
It Was Beauty, Kaleidotrope #13
In the Arms of Scheherazade, Kaleidotrope #13
Weaving Loneliness, Liquid Imagination
Cloth Demon, Mythic Delirium #25
Babylon, NewMyths #14
The Djinn's Lover Paper Crow (Volume 2 Issue 2)
The Doll and the Needle, Polu Texni
The Princess Who Knew Fire, Polu Texni
In the End, All They Have is Words, Polu Texni
Fairy Tale Cursed, Scheherezade's Bequest
The Witch of the Third Night, Scheherezade's Bequest
The Demon in the Pool, Silver Blade
Beast Touched, Silver Blade
Little Ghosts, Star*Line 34.1
Dwarf Universe, Star*Line 34.2
Japanese Muse, Star*Line 34.3
Puppet Minds, Star*Line Interplay
The City That Wasn't There, Strange Horizons
The Honey Man, Strange Horizons
Desert Princess, Strong Verse
The Tiger in My House, Strong Verse
The Words CLung To His Lips Like Honey, Like Hemlock, Strong Verse

Long Pomes (50+ lines)
Beloved Witch, Jabberwocky
Golden Things, Elektrik Milk Bath Press: In the Garden of the Crow
A Masquerade in Four Voices, Stone Telling 5 ETA: Masquerade has been nominated for the Rhysling Award! And I am one happy poet!
If Alice..., Strange Horizons

Short Stories
The Job Interview, The Red Penny Papers
How Red Riding Hood Stole The Moon, Beyond Centauri Issue 32 (Sam's Dot Publishing)
The Girl Who Chose The Other Road, Shelter of Daylight Issue 5 (Sam's Dot Publishing)
The Story of the Apple Tree, Sounds of the Night (Sam's Dot Publishing)
Tumbling Out the Hatch,  Poe Little Thing


Monday, November 21, 2011

Niteblade #18

Two posts in less than 24 hrs? Inform the earthly distributors of a faith of your choosing, for it must be a miracle.

And now, let me tell you about Niteblade #18, lovingly called Spec Ed, which is short for Special Edition. And it is! It's a whole issue devoted to fantastically dark speculative poetry. Seeing as how I am a co-editor of this baby, together with Rhonda Parrish, it's not really my place to speak objectively about the quality of work in this little book. What I will say is that publishing a poetry-only edition takes guts and credit here goes all to Rhonda. Hopefully, readers of the genre will show the same degree of gutsyness in picking up these poems and giving them a chance--even if they don't normally read poetry. Did I mention that the packaging is really cool? Packaging, you ask, since when does Niteblade need packaging, being online and all. Well, listen up. This thing is not only deeply lyrical, it also comes to you as a real physical booklet that you can flip through and put on your shelves or give away. How cool is that?

If I have gotten you the least bit excited at all, please consider pre-ordering, because if you do so before November 30th, you won't even have to pay any shipping costs. So please, click me!

Good News

I'm pretty excited to see two more poems of my Dream Cycle (though Night Cycle is probably more appropriate) finding homes. Yesterday, I learned that Cerberus, Seeking Lethe will be forthcoming from Strange Horizons, and only a few hours ago, Erzebet YellowBoy wrote to let me know that Feral Dream Orphanage will be published in the "new" Jabberwocky in 2012.

Squeeee!

(And if you haven't read Erzebet's announcement yet, especially the part concerning lyrical prose, you should!)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

I Snuck Merfolk Into Stone Telling!


Yes, I did. The tailed people come hidden in a poem, a 700+ words prose poem to be exact, A Masquerade in Four Voices. Of course there are more than just four voices in the poem, but who said poets should be able to count stuff accurately? Anyway, you can hear the poem on the site as well, took a lot of people to make this recording happen, because this poem, it's a dainty creature, only the best will suffice, and to be honest, this one was really demanding since the moment it wanted to be written just like that. A little stubborn, as poems go...


Emily Jiang
Mike Allen
Nathaniel Smith
Martin Kauper (audio editing)
Rose Lemberg and Shweta Narayan

Thank you so much guys! <3