Funk and Fugue

John Winkelman

With the inauguration now in the past the world exists in the consensual illusion of having returned to something like normal. That is absolutely not the case of course, and it will be a long time before we even have an idea of what normal looks like. It certainly won’t be what things looked like on this date four years ago, or even one year ago.

On this weekend in any other year I would be at ConFusion right now, hanging out with old friends, meeting new friends, talking about reading and writing and past cons and publishing and not getting published, and drinking and carousing and enjoying being in the company of good, smart, talented people.

Of course ConFusion is cancelled for this year, and I think ConFusion 2020 was the last normal thing I did before lockdowns began last March. I miss the experience terribly, but it is not as bad as it would be if it were going on and I was not there.

Right now I am sitting in the waiting area of a hospital, waiting on test results for a family member who is in poor health. This is part of a process which has been ongoing for some years now, so while it is not unexpected, it is also not a thing which could be predicted in any meaningful way.

Thus even though the exceptional chaos of the past four years is over, we are still awash in the ordinary chaos of daily life here in the cyberpunk hellscape that is the mid twenty-first century.

Anyway.

It’s been a quiet week for books here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. One book arrived – War Stories, an anthology courtesy of my subscription to Apex Book Company.

I am almost done with Democracy, Incorporated, and am about 120 pages into The Brothers Karamazov. I plan to round out the month with short stories before I pick up another book to follow the Wolin.

Writing is still going nowhere, though I can feel the knots in my mind loosening up and the creative juices beginning to flow again.

In the absence of ConFusion for inspiration I will need to rely on the mundane chaos of the world.

Breaking Cat News!

John Winkelman

We have achieved cuddling! I repeat – we have achieved cuddling!

Poe and Pepper are getting along famously. Zyra and I started letting them interact under strict supervision about a week ago. Two days ago, after the usual running and tussling and what-not, they fell asleep near each other on the floor. Then last night while Z and I watched a movie, the Orange Ones climbed onto the sofa with us, piled up, and fell asleep. Then this morning, with the whole house and its innumerable nooks and crannies available, The two of them chose the same shelf and fell asleep.

2020 Just Won’t Let Go

John Winkelman

Just when you think you’re safely out of 2020, the eldritch, cyclopean terrors of the time rise up and pull you back under. More about that in a dedicated post.

Not a lot to report for this past week. Work has been keeping me busy, and at any given time during the day I likely have a small orange cat asleep in my lap, which is the exact opposite of motivation to be productive.

Two new books arrived this week. On the left is the new hardcover version (Kickstarter exclusive) of Dyrk Ashton‘s fantastic Wrath of Gods, the second book in the Paternus trilogy. On the right is Arkady Martine‘s A Memory Called Empire, from my most recent order from Books and Mortar.

In reading news, I am almost 100 pages into The Brothers Karamazov, which puts me at just under 15% of the way through the book. I am also less than 100 pages from the end of Sheldon Wolin’s Democracy, Incorporated, and I am no longer either angry or sad when reading. Now I am just taking notes.

Still not a lot of writing happening here, though I feel like some could happen at any minute. Yup. Aaaaaany minute.

Maybe once I get caught up on my sleep. So, sometime after 2035.

Hitting the Ground Running in 2021

John Winkelman

We had a great start to the acquisitions process here at the Library of Winkelman Abbey. The first full week of 2021 saw six new books arrive.

On the top left is Box of Bones, by Ayize Jama-Everett and John Jennings, from a recently-completed Kickstarter campaign run by the ever-excellent Rosarium Publishing.

In the top middle is volume 2 of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s A Writer’s Diary. I picked up volume 1 around 20 years ago, and I swore I had purchased vol. 2 at some point, but it is nowhere to be found and I suspect it was lost during a move or vacation or something. I had to buy this one used, as new copies sell for over a hundred dollars.

On the right is Kim Stanley Robinson’s newest book The Ministry for the Future. I am already 400 pages in, and it is magnificent! I have been a fan of Mr. Robinson’s work since I first read Red Mars over twenty years ago. The Ministry for the Future is more in line with his works like the Science in the Capitol series or even New York 2140, of which this could well be a prequel. Robinson shows his work and imbues his novel with a strong sense of hope, though hope born of difficult struggles and terrible loss.

The bottom row is the result of an impulse purchase made after I discovered The Russian Library series published by Columbia University Press. I have recently started following Read Russia, and they are in partnership with CUP to publish lesser-known (outside of Russia) Russian writers of the past 250 or so years; from the late 1700s to well into the 21st century. So far they have released about two dozen books, and many more are scheduled for the next few years.

On bottom left is Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry by Konstantin Batyushkov, translated by Peter France. In the middle of the bottom row is Between Dog and Wolf by Sasha Sokolov, translated by Alexander Boguslawski. On the bottom right is City Folk and Country Folk by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya, translated by Nora Seligman Favorov.

(Yes translators are important, and they deserve as much recognition as the writers.)

So between these books, and Doctor Zhivago which arrived last week, and my slow but steady process through The Brothers Karamazov, I am in for an interesting few months of reading.

Speaking of reading, I am currently making progress in three books: The aforementioned The Ministry for the Future, the aforementioned The Brothers Karamazov, and Sheldon Wolin’s Democracy Incorporated. Cheerful stuff, here in the first full week of 2021, four days after an insurrection and attempted coup at the nation’s Capitol Building.

Assuming society still exists next week, I will post an update to my progress through these books.

Publication Announcement – Coffin Bell #4.1

John Winkelman

Today is a grand day! My short story “Occupied Space” was just published in issue 4.1 of Coffin Bell, a “journal of dark literature”. This my first unsolicited prose piece which has been published since, well, ever. I have had a few things published here and there over the years, but they were always requested in advance. So this is kind of a big deal for me.

“Occupied Space” started during NaNoWriMo 2018 as “Crossing Zones”, one of a dozen or so short stories I wrote in lieu of 50,000 words of a novel.

I submitted the story to several venues before and after sending it to Coffin Bell back in late January of 2020. Not expecting it to get picked up, I submitted my story at the $10.00 tier in order to receive editorial feedback. 2020 became kind of chaotic after January, and I lost track of my submissions until September, when I realized I still had one outstanding. I sent a note requesting a status update, and in early November I received notice that “Occupied Space” had been accepted.

The editors also sent their notes, which amounted to a couple of pages of bullet points which were immensely helpful even after the fact, because how we write one thing is generally, in a technical sense, how we write everything. The feedback helped me solidify some ideas I had been mulling, and now I think “Occupied Space”, rather than being a one-off story, will become part of a larger series or collection, or perhaps even the seed of a novel.

According to my trackers at Duotrope and The Submission Grinder, this submission had a response time of something over 250 days, but again, in 2020 I give everyone a free pass on everything. I’m just happy that Coffin Bell managed to stay open and in business during the Plague Times.

Reading through the Coffin Bell blog, I felt a strong sense of deja vu, particularly in this post about litmag financial transparency. Point by point I saw every problem, complication and decision we had made at The 3288 Review duplicated in another publication. I am sure if I searched the sites of a hundred other small magazines I would find 99 other posts or stories which echo this one. It isn’t easy to run a literary journal. It has to be a labor of love, or nobody would ever do it.

So please: read my story, and also read the rest of the stories and poetry in this and all the other issues. The work is beautiful and the pieces well-chosen. I will probably submit work to this venue again, after a cooldown period of a year or so.

2021 Books and Reading Material Acquisitions List

John Winkelman

Welcome to the list of books and other reading materials which arrived in calendar year 2021.

This is the seventh year I have made a list like this. The previous six are here:

I keep the complete list of books I own over at LibraryThing, and the terribly incomplete list of books I have read over at GoodReads. This list will be updated frequently.

January (12)

  1. Pasternak, Boris (Pevear, Richard and Volokhonsky, Larissa, translators), Doctor Zhivago
  2. Jama-Everett, Ayize and Jennings, John – Box of Bones, book 1 (Rosarium Publishing)
  3. Robinson, Kim Stanley – The Ministry for the Future
  4. Dostoevsky, Fyodor – A Writer’s Diary, vol. II
  5. Batyushkov, Konstantin (France, Peter, translator) – Writings from the Golden Age of Russian Poetry (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  6. Khvoshchinskaya, Sofia (Favorov, Nora Seligman, translator) – City Folk and Country Folk (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  7. Sokolov, Sasha (Boguslawski, Alexander, translator) – Between Dog & Wolf (The Russian Library of Columbia University Press)
  8. Martine, Arkady – A Memory Called Empire
  9. Ashton, Dyrk – Paternus: Wrath of Gods, (Kickstarter exclusive HC, signed, # 108/500) (Paternus Books Media)
  10. Liptak, Andrew and Gates, Jaym (eds.) – War Stories (Apex Book Company)
  11. Baltasar, Eva (Sanches, Julia, translator) – Permafrost (And Other Stories)
  12. Dreamforge #7

February (11)

  1. Tiqqun – The Cybernetic Hypothesis (Semiotext(e))
  2. Pike, J. Zachary – Son of a Liche (self published)
  3. Poetry #217.5
  4. Jacobin #40
  5. Graeber, David – Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Melville House Publishing)
  6. Winter, Evan – The Rage of Dragons
  7. Navarro, Elvira (MacSweeney, Christina, translator) – Rabbit Island (Two Lines Press)
  8. Poetry #217.4
  9. Cherkovski, Neeli – Ferlinghetti: A Biography
  10. Dunker, Anders – Rediscovering Earth: Ten Dialogues on the Future of Nature (OR Books)
  11. Lazo, Orlando Luis Pardo (ed. Gulley, Hillary, translator) – Cuba in Splinters: Eleven Stories from the New Cuba (OR Books)

March (12)

  1. Lange, Norah (Whittle, Charlotte, translator) – Notes from Childhood (And Other Stories)
  2. Sizemore, Jason and Connor, Lesley (eds.) – Best of Apex Magazine, vol. 1 (Apex Book Company)
  3. Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr – The Gulag Archipelago, volume 3
  4. Elemental (Two Lines Press)
  5. Poetry #217.6
  6. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #10
  7. Rain Taxi Review of Books #26.1, Spring 2021
  8. Lloret, Bruno (Jones, Ellen, translator) – Nancy (Two Lines Press)
  9. Harrow, Alix E. – The Ten Thousand Doors of January
  10. Robin, Corey – The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump (Oxford University Press)
  11. Eubanks, Virginia – Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
  12. Poetry #218.1

April (5)

  1. Pelland, Jennifer – Unwelcome Bodies (Apex Book Company)
  2. Tobler, E. Catherine – The Kraken Sea (Apex Book Company)
  3. Estes, Nick, Yazzie, Melanie K., Denetdale, Jennifer Nez, Correia, David – Red Nation Rising (PM Press)
  4. Uncanny Magazine #24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction
  5. Poetry #218.2

May (20)

  1. Brown, Jericho – The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press)
  2. Jordan, June – The Essential June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press)
  3. VanderMeer, Jeff – Hummingbird Salamander
  4. Jacobin #41
  5. Attlee, James – Under the Rainbow (And Other Stories)
  6. Salvage #9, Autumn/Winter 2020
  7. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #11
  8. Peninsula Poets #78.1 (Spring 2021)
  9. Fantastic Lairs: Boss Battles and Climactic Encounters
  10. Gable, Scott, and Dombrowski, C (editors) – Cooties Shot Required (Broken Eye Books)
  11. Gable, Scott, and Dombrowski, C (editors) – Whether Change: The Revolution Will Be Weird (Broken Eye Books)
  12. Smith, Angela Yuriko and Noel, Scot (editors) – Worlds of Light and Darkness (Uproar Books)
  13. Knabb, Ken (editor and translator) – Situationist International Anthology (Bureau of Public Secrets)
  14. Poetry #218.3
  15. Liem, Tess – Obits (Coach House Books)
  16. Kelly, Robert – A Strange Market (Black Sparrow Press)
  17. McDermott, J.M. – Maze (Apex Book Company)
  18. Kheir, Mohamed (Moger, Robin, translator) – Slipping (Two Lines Press)
  19.  De Boever, Arne and Neidich, Warren (editors) – The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism, Part 1 (Archive Books)
  20. De Boever, Arne and Neidich, Warren (editors) – The Psychopathologies of Cognitive Capitalism, Part 2 (Archive Books)

June (11)

  1. Grisanti, Tamara Burross (editor) Coffin Bell One (Coffin Bell)
  2. Grisanti, Tamara Burross (editor) Coffin Bell Two (Coffin Bell)
  3. The Paris Review #237, Summer 2021
  4. Rain Taxi Review of Books #26.1, Summer 2021
  5. Granta #155: The Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists
  6. Moreno-Garcia, Silvia – The Return of the Sorceress (signed, # X of XXX) (Subterranean Press)
  7. Massie, Elizabeth – Desper Hollow (Apex Book Company)
  8. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #43 
  9. Hogan, Ron – Our Endless and Proper Work (Belt Publishing)
  10. Cin, Tice – Keeping the House (And Other Stories)
  11. Poetry #218.4

July (7)

  1. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #12
  2. Palmatier, Joshua and Coe, David B. (editors) – Derelict (Zombies Need Brains)
  3. Bray, Patricia and Palmatier, Joshua (editors) – The Modern Deity’s Guide to Surviving Humanity (Zombies Need Brains)
  4. Butler, S.C. and Palmatier, Joshua (editors) – When Worlds Collide (Zombies Need Brains)
  5. Sullivan, Michael J. – Nolyn (Ryria Enterprises)
  6. Saunders, George – A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
  7. Jacobin #42

August (4)

  1. Anti-Eviction Mapping Project – Counterpoints: A San Francisco Bay Area Atlas of Displacement & Resistance (PM Press)
  2. Straczynski, J. Michael – Together We Will Go
  3. de Souza, Carl (Zuckerman, Jeffrey, translator) – Kaya Days (Two Lines Press)
  4. Poetry #218.5

September (7)

  1. Campbell, Bill, and Khodabandeh, Bizhan – The Day the Klan Came to Town (PM Press)
  2. Wiesenthal, Simon – The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
  3. Coolidge, Sarah (editor) – Cuíer (Two Lines Press)
  4. Victoria, Elisa (Whittle, Charlotte, translator) – Oldladyvoice (And Other Stories)
  5. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #13
  6. Rain Taxi #26.3
  7. Poetry #219.1

October (6)

  1. Rucker, Rudy – Juicy Ghosts (Transreal Books)
  2. de Carvalho, Maria Judite (Costa, Margaret Jull, translator) – Empty Wardrobes (Two Lines Press)
  3. Sanford, Jason – Plague Birds (Apex Book Company)
  4. Stucky, Janaka (editor) – Ekphrastic Beasts (Black Ocean)
  5. Poetry #219.2
  6. Tavenor, C.D. and Trast, Meg (editors) – Gaia Awakens (Two Doctors Media Collaborative)

November (15)

  1. Hilbig, Wolfgang (Cole, Isabel Fargo, translator) – The Interim (Two Lines Press)
  2. Pulphouse Fiction Magazine #14
  3. Jacobin #43
  4. Salvage #10
  5. Roanhorse, Rebecca – Black Sun
  6. Peninsula Poets #78.1, Fall 2021
  7. Michigan Roots: A Poetry Society of Michigan Anthology (Poetry Society of Michigan)
  8. Nette, Andrew & McIntyre, Iain (editors) – Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950 to 1985 (PM Press)
  9. Du Mez, Kristin Kobes – Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
  10. Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix – Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
  11. Crenshaw, Kimberle (editor) – Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement
  12. Grassmann, Preston (editor) – Out of the Ruins (Titan Books)
  13. Muir, Tamsyn – Harrow the Ninth
  14. Rios, Joseph – Shadowboxing (Omnidawn Publishing)
  15. Foglio, Kaja and Phil – Girl Genius: Sparks and Monsters (Studio Foglio)

December (13)

  1. Poetry #219.3
  2. The Paris Review #238
  3. Speakman, Shawn – The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey (Grim Oak Press)
  4. Arshi, Mona – Somebody Loves You (limited subscriber edition, And Other Stories)
  5. Scott, Paulo (Hahn, Daniel, translator) – Phenotypes (And Other Stories)
  6. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #44
  7. Hines, Jim C. – Terminal Uprising
  8. Scalzi, John – The Collapsing Empire
  9. Scalzi, John – The Consuming Fire
  10. Scalzi, John – The Last Emperox
  11. Harrison, Jim – Complete Poems (Copper Canyon Press)
  12. Ambrose, RM (editor) – Vital: The Future of Healthcare (Inlandia Institute)
  13. Inque Magazine #1