Go Forth Fourth

Mason and I recorded our fourth MangaKast for your enjoyment.  If you have any interest in the latest Bleach or Toriko chapters, tune in!  We also discuss Blue Exorcist (aka Ao no Exorcist) and One Piece.

http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/go-forth-fourth/

Newest Installment is Live!

Though I'd been planning on publishing a new installment of the Precinct 13 sequel every TUESDAY, tomorrow I have plans that are going to take me away from the computer, so I thought I should post today.

Here's the link: http://www.wattpad.com/43901166-unjust-cause-part-2-a-demon-named-furfur

Remember, it's free to read and I'd love comments and kudos to keep me going!  Hope you enjoy it.

Video... Evidence

The reading from the other night is live and on-line.




It's long. I read the entire story of "God Box," as well as part of the WIP that I'm posting on WattPad. But, if you make it to very end, you'll be rewarded with my squee about Attack on Titan and Free! anime and my secret name on AO3.

Well.. THAT was a Surprising Success....

'll tell you no lies.

I was scared to death that last nights' reading at Dreamhaven was going to be a bust.  Even, so I was determined to make the best of it.  I brought along several copies of King David & the Spiders of Mars and planned to read "God Box," my science fictional Biblical horror retelling of the"golden hemorrhoids" story from Judges. I even took my laptop along in case there was more than me and Eric (the coordinator) and I had extra time to read from my WIPs.  I got all dressed up.  I wore tie.  I left early (early enough to stop for coffee, even.) 

Pre-show jitters (with cat):




And I kind of held my breath, expecting... crickets.

But... lo and behold, people came. 

Lots of people came.

There was hardly an empty seat in the house and someone brought a very professional video camera (on a tripod and everything), so there may be a YouTube video of the reading at some point.  I gave the guy my card, so when/if it goes up, I asked him to let me know.  I'll be sure to link to it here (and anywhere else you're likely to go looking for me.)  But, of course, he was one of the first people to arrive, when all the seats were still empty, and we joked that he should splice in the ComicCon crowd where everyone is shouting, "Loki, Loki" and try to make it sound like "Lyda, Lyda" and I even raised my hands and said, "SAY MY NAME!" 

I doubt he'll really do that, but it was fun to imagine, especially since I was still terrified I'd be filmed reading to an empty room.

But, so the reading went REALLY well.  As you know Bob, I'm a bit of an extrovert, so the more people, the higher my energy level. 

Did I mention that I'd also stopped for coffee?

Yeah, it could be... "interesting," this film, but, honestly?  I had a BLAST.  I even read from Tate's WIP, the sequel to Precinct 13 (and mostly didn't blush or mumble over the especially dirty bits), and and let people know that they could read a bit more (and the updates as I post them) on WattPad. 

So... yeah... a surprising success.

Plus afterwards there's a tradition at the Speculations readings of going out for pizza after, and I can't even remember the last time I has as much fun as I did last night.  A bunch of us were still there as they were turning off lights around us and we even stood around in the cold wind continuing to talk until almost 11:00 pm.  ON A SCHOOL NIGHT! 

I have to thank everyone who showed, because I... I *really* thought this was going to suck so much.  So if you were there last night and reading this: THANK YOU.  Big time.  And, if you missed, well, fingers crossed the video will go up soon, and you can see what I'm liked hopped up on crowd and caffeine.

Your Wednesday MangaKast

If you want to hear what my son and I sound like first thing in the morning, here we are again bringing you the latest, breaking news in Bleach and Toriko:  http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/a-cookie-for-kenpachi-or-our-third-podcast/

An Experiment

I've decided to just jump into this kind of crazy, new world of self-publishing/social media, and so I'm writing the sequel to PRECINCT 13 in serial fashion on a site called WattPad, which allows for quite a bit of interaction between the reader and the writer--kind of like an original fiction version of archive of our own.

So, if you'd like to read the sequel AS I WRITE IT, check out the first installment here: http://www.wattpad.com/43223189-unjust-cause-part-1?d=ud

PLEASE let me know what you think of it!  I'll let you know here when new stuff goes up there, but the plan is to try to post once a week.

More Nerdiness from Mason and Me...

If you want to listen in, Mason and I recorded our second MangaKast.  Just like last time, the podcast is actually playable on the WordPress site--you just have to press the little, almost invisible forward arrow icon there at the top of the page.

The podcast is a bit... well, I ultimately left a lot of it unedited, because we just sort of ramble around subjects and I found it kind of adorkable.  Of course, if you're not following Bleach or Toriko, it will probably make a whole lot of NO SENSE.  I'd suggest catching up on Bleach, but there's, well, 573 chapters and counting...

Meanwhile, if you want to read something by me that's just kind of fluffy fun, I wrote some fan fic for  an Anime called Free! (aka "the gay swimming anime") which I'm considering turning into a regular story.  The original fic is called "The Merman Who Hated the Sea" and it's here:  https://archiveofourown.org/works/1328380

New (Goofy, Fannish) Podcast...

My son and I are huge manga nerds.  Every Wednesday is like a holiday at our house.  We get up early and rush to the iPads and read the latest iterations of Bleach [for both of us] and Toriko [for him.]  I also just read a lot of manga.  I'm pretty sure I've talked here about my love of Bakuman and others.

At any rate, we've started a very on-the-fly, first-thing-in-the-morning, first reactions kind of podcast, where we get up, read the manga, and... well, basically freak out for a while and then talk about it.

If you want to listen to my unbridled enthusiasm (and my adorable 10 year old son), you can check it out here:

http://mangakast.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/first-ever-mangakast/

Wyrdsmith and a Con Report...

First, go check out the wonderful interview with my fellow Wyrdsmiths, Adam Stemple, over at our blog:  http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com/2014/03/q-adam-stemple.html

Also, I wrote up my Saturday and Sunday con report for MarsCON over on my LJ--

Saturday: http://lyda222.livejournal.com/330315.html

Sunday:  http://lyda222.livejournal.com/330924.html

In a nutshell, good times were had by all otaku, I asked Dr. Demento for directions to registration, and postalized for Moon-Moon and the Free! anime.

Awesome Review of My Short Story "God Box"

The Little Red Reviewer blog reviewed King David the Spiders from Mars and picked out my short story "God Box" to say nice things about.  Among other things, she says:

There is some intense characterization and worldbuiling happening in this short story, it’s as if Kayla walked out of a novel or a space opera series to let us in on one small event that would shape the rest of her life. Biblical Terror? shit just got real.

The full review is here: http://littleredreviewer.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/king-david-and-the-spiders-from-mars/

Yay!

MarsCON Schedule

The preliminary schedule is up on the MarsCON page, and from what I can tell I'll be on two panels.  One on Saturday at 11 am and the other on Sunday at 3 pm.

GETTING INTO THE MIND OF A RELIGIOUS FANATIC

Exec Lounge (Krushenko’s)—Saturday, 11:00 am

Uber villain or bit player, what are they like? Are there any useful generalizations? Are they likely to be suicidal and does that depend on the religion or the person? ow can they make for interesting novels and stories without being stereotyped and one dimensional?

With: Naomi Kritzer, mod.; P M F Johnson, Lyda Morehouse, G. David Nordley, David E. Romm, Ozgur K. Sahin

DULL, REALISTIC CHARACTERS

Atrium 2 (Re(a)d Mars) — Sunday 03:00 pm

The people who really explore space and fight modern wars have a lot of self control. They don’t slam fists into spacecraft controls like Hulk Hogan. Do you have to forget about them in fiction, or can you make them interesting? And if your protagonist is like that do you just have to accept that critics will complain and press on in hopes of finding an audience that appreciates a little verisimilitude?

With: Bridget Landry, G. David Nordley, mod.; Patrick W. Marsh, Lyda Morehouse, Kathryn Sullivan

General MarsCON information is as follows:

MarsCon 2014

Time Is The Key
March 7-9, 2014

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Bloomington-Minneapolis South
7800 Normandale Boulevard
Bloomington, MN 55439

Send questions about MarsCon to info14e@marscon.org, we’ll do our best to send answers!

There’s more about MarsCon on Facebook and Twitter.

Zombies and Unicorns, Oh My!

The Loft has asked me back to teach as part of their Summer Youth Program, so I'm reprising my successful (17 17-year-olds!) "More than the Zombie Apocalypse" SF/F class.

If you know someone who might be eligible, more details can be found here: https://www.loft.org/classes/detail/?loft_product_id=62116

A quickie interview with me (and my alter ego)

Over on the Wyrdsmith's page, you can catch up with what I've been doing with myself: http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com/2014/02/q-lyda-morehouse-and-tate-too.html

Garnet Lacey Fan Fic

If you're a fan of the Garnet Lacey series, let me point you over to AO3, where there is a new bit of fan fic available that features Sebastian and Matyas.  It's short, it's sweet (and a bit sexy): http://archiveofourown.org/works/1159841

A New E-book

My alter-ego is proud to announce that her novel Messiah Node is now available for the first time as an e-book via Wizard Tower Press: http://www.wizardstowerbooks.com/products/messiah-node-lyda-morehouse

Here's a little bit about it:

The sign.

When a meteorite falls from the sky, the destruction left in its wake lights a political fuse that could bring on Armageddon.

The prophet.

Just when the world could use a savior, the prophet Elijah appears. His search for a messiah leads him to the daughter of the archangel Michael.

The savior.

Meanwhile other messiah hopefuls spring up around the world -- including Page, an AI already tangled in webs of religion and deception. Yet as false shepherds lead the lambs to their doom, it may be up to Page's creator, the criminal mastermind known as Mouse, to save them all....

Reviews

"Messiah Node's cool, ethereal fusion of cyberpunk and mythology fits perfectly with with action-adventure storytelling and a piercing examination of religious extremism."
-- Alyx Dellamonica, Locus

"I'll give Lyda Morehouse a big thumbs-up for this book; Messiah Node is full of great characters, a great plot, and lots of action. The book has all the ingredients that exemplifies good modern science fiction; a blend of genres that will appeal to the wider public, and Morehouse is a writer that stands out in the crowd. This is a terrific blend of fresh ideas and an intriguing futuristic vision."
-- Vegar Holmen, The Alien Online

"Morehouse knows how to pace her story, weaving strands of plot and drawing the reader ever deeper into its fascinating but unnerving world. Although the third book in a tetralogy, this one includes enough backstory to stand solidly on its own. The final volume ought to be riveting, for apocalypse is on the horizon"
-- Regina Schroeder, Booklist

"... an excellent read. I was up half the night finishing it."
-- Cheryl Morgan, Emerald City

Anthology News

I have a short story called "The God Box" that will be out a Biblical Horror Anthology called KING DAVID AND THE SPIDERS OF MARS, which is available for pre-order on Amazon at:  http://www.amazon.com/King-David-Spiders-Sonya-Taaffe/dp/0976654687

"The God Box" is the story of the golden hemorrhoids from... Judges, I think, except recast as a science fiction story set on Jupiter's moon Ganymede.  I'm actually kind of proud of this story, so you know, if the rest of the book sounds at all cool to you, please consider pre-ordering a copy

Bonus Halloween Podcast

Rachel and I decided to do a bonus Halloween podcast (very short, only about 10 minutes) in which we listen to some more poetry in ancient Sumerian and talk to Professor Dalglesh about the first author (do you know who that was?  Hint: it was a woman!) and general language things...

The podcast is embedded in the blog post, and you can follow the links inside to get a more in-depth picture of the things we discussed.  http://entertheunseen.com/notes-halloween-travels/

Also, as Dylan, I wrote a short story for the Unseen World:  http://entertheunseen.com/portfolio-item/read-frayed-edges/

Fans of my urban fantasy work should enjoy "Frayed Edges," it's very much like a Garnet novel or maybe even Precinct 13. 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  My family and I always love carving pumpkins, and this was my scary guy.  I based him partly on my Anime crush, Renji Abarai (the funky eyebrow things are his.)

Mason, my son, came up with this design, which I think looks like an homage to Grumpy Cat/Tard:

Podcast

I'm doing a podcast (under the stage name "Dylan Calish), which I hope will become a monthly thing.  It's called "Travels in the UnSeen World" and you can take a listen to the first episode here:  http://entertheunseen.com/travels1/

Here's how it's described:

Who wouldn’t want to learn to say “devour the corpses like a dog; so say well all” in the phonetic interpretation of Cuneiform?

In our very first podcast of “Travels in the UnSeen World” you can learn that phrase as well as several other evocations to the god Inanna as read to us by Professor Cass Dalglish. We will also learn about the five types of demons that inhabit the UnSeen World from author Rachel Calish… in an interview that was crashed (almost literally) by several unseen guests….

So, grab your passports, fellow travelers, and get ready to enter the UnSeen….

Sounds cool, right?  Well, feel free to check it out.  It's a project that I've had in mind for a long time.  Like any good otaku, I've been trying to teach myself Japanese.  As part of this, I've listened to some VERY boring language tapes.  "John Learner would like a cup of coffee."  And phrases like this where nothing untoward every happens to Mr. Learner. He always gets through customs without a hassle.  Makes a phone call without dialing the wrong number.  And any number of completely unlikely scenarios when you're traveling abroad, right??  And, anyway, I have always thought it'd be so much more fun to learn a language if you were actually following an interesting story.  This isn't quite that, because it's also in support of my friend Rachel's new book and the world she developed around it, but there is a strong language component that's part of this.

Anyway, it's a creative project that's keeping me off the streets.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

You want these don't you?

They're all five of the AngeLINK books (Archangel Protocol, Fallen Host, Messiah Node, Apocalypse Array, and Resurrection Code), and I've donated them to my publisher, Dybukk Press, as a new incentive for their kickstarter that they're running to recoop the production costs of the newest anthology King David & The Spiders of Mars, in which my short story "God Box" will appear.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/king-david-the-spiders-from-mars-tales-of-biblical-terror-bible-fiction

How can I entice you? Should I let you know that some of these books are bordering on rare--in particular Fallen Host, which has been out of print the longest. I ran out of my private supplies about a year ago, and have taken to picking them up wherever I see them. This one is in mint-condition (not even previously incribed!) All the others are straight out of the box I bought them in, new!

I'd also be willing to personally inscribe them to you and/or just sign them.

SOLD!  I'm happy to report these were gone before the hour was up!

So, what do you say?