Casting Spells Doesn’t Pay Bills (But Are Fun to Read And Fiction Needs More of Them)
I grew up in a household molded predominantly by two similar yet antagonistic faiths. On my mother’s side, most family adhered to the LDS faith – that is to say, what most would call “Mormons.” On my stepfather’s side, there was a pull from what I knew at the time to be “Allred Mormonism” but which is perhaps better known as the Apostolic United Brethren. These faiths might seem like they would go hand in hand, but in actuality there was a lot of dissonance between them. More importantly, however, is that each had their own dark secrets that as a child I wanted to unlock and master. My grandfather…
Widdershins & Presidential Assassination
In Eileen Holland’s The Wiccan Handbook (2000, Weiser Books) the author tells an unusual tale about her attempt to influence Saddam Hussein using the magical powers given to her by her Neopagan faith. As quoted: “The news was full of stories about Iraq in late 1998, with televized (sic} footage of sick and starving babies that moved me to tears. I grew more and more upset with Saddam Hussein, upset that he could build palaces while his people suffered. Having all the power means having full responsibility. I knew Western propaganda means having full responsibility. I knew Western propaganda was working overtime, but you can’t fake pictured of emaciated babies…
Haiku 002
You are mad at me “Sorry I’m not a catgirl.” But you could have been.
A Moment to Reflect on 2019 // Goals for 2020
2020 is almost upon us. Last year around this time I stated: “This year has been pure 100% garbage.” Boy if only I had known what 2019 was gonna bring! Failed out of college, financially ruined, health is the worse its been in all of my existence. My goals were an interesting lot. I intended on getting my finances figured out. That… still hasn’t happened, surprisingly! Career wise I wanted to “strive to learn more, and not fall into bad habits.” It’s been a process; I think work cutting hours back from 72 to 65 has in some ways helped. I still had some moments in 2019 I wasn’t proud…
JK Haru is to Isekai What The Iron Dream is to Science Fiction
In 1972, Norman Spinrad wrote a piece of work titled The Iron Dream. The concept, on its face, was simple enough: “What if Hitler, instead of starting World War II, emigrated to the United States and became a science fiction author?” The story in practice, however, was far different: in embracing certain tropes common with Nazi ideology, it crafted a a story-within-a-story titled Lord of the Swastika that showed the reader how much of the popular science fiction of its day was incredibly problematic. Taken out of the context of its ideology, it could easily be compared to almost any other science fiction work of its time (and indeed even…
Haiku 001
How much can I fit In the haiku prose format Oh no out of space
The Horrifying Truth Behind Jamie Hawke
I’m sure many of you are familiar with author Jamie Hawke – he’s an indie author who is adept at crocheting light science fiction stories with unique superhero characters and racy erotic content via his Supers: Ex franchise. He’s also got some clout for his portal world Rift Wars series, in which a science experiment goes wrong turns a video game meant to help the living come to terms with the deceased opens up gateways to other words and dimensions. But not a lot of people know the truth behind this dynamic author – that it’s he’s actually capable of writing good stories that don’t have sex in them, but…
Anime Discussion: Doreiku
Last year, an anime show titled Dorei-ku: Boku to 23-nin no Dorei aired on Japanese television; the streaming rights were later acquired by Sentai Films and as a result it can be watched on VRV in English. This show is a thing. I’d like to read the novel it’s based off of, since I imagine it’s not restrained by the 12 episode format of this show, but alas it’s not in English. There’s apparently also a comic, that has a solid fan translation, but I can’t be bothered, so here we are! At any rate, I can’t really recommend this show. But unlike a lot of other viewers, I really…
Review: Dark Magician as a Hero
Sol Press USA, under its “Panty Press” publishing line, announced what it claimed to be the first “h-novel” to ever have an official English release: “Busy Wizard: This Warlock Just Wants to Provide for his Wives!” The voracity of this novel being the first of its kind stateside is debatable, but the fact remains that a light novel with adult content being properly translated into English and given a wide distribution is almost unheard of. A fantasy adventure harem story seems like a solid place to test the waters, and the author’s rising popularity with the source material means there’s a lot to work with and translate. It helps that,…
Some Yuri You Might Enjoy
Continuing in my attempt to expand this blog and what I use it for, I was in a discussion with some people and one of them said they were into something called “Yuri.” I wasn’t familiar with it, so I did a quick Google search, and man have I been missing out! Turns out there’s all sorts of Yuri out there. I thought it would be neat to put together a few of them that caught my eye, so that’s what we’re posting about today. So without further hesitation, let’s dive right in! Red Alert 2’s Юрий In the Command and Conquer franchise, Yuri (played by Udo Kier) was an…
