Le Beran Quotidien

I just sold a science fiction short story, Drowned by Molly Ann Friday, to the Machine of Death anthology series. There is an interesting caveat however: I am not quite exactly sure when or where the story will appear!

The first Machine of Death book was wildly successful. And the second volume (to which I submitted) received almost 2000 submissions out of which only 30(ish?) were accepted. Editorial triumvirate  North, Bennardo, and Malki ! said they didn’t know if my story would fit into Machine of Death Vol. 2. But if it didn’t, they wanted to publish it by some means which they would figure out soon. The length is a problem. If I recall, the editors requested stories roughly between 200-7,500 words. So knowing that it’s always charming (not exasperating) to people when I break the rules but only slightly, I sent them one which was about 8,060 words (to give non-writers some idea, my entire novel– albeit a short novel– is 51,000 words– so this story is roughly 1/6th the size.)

I’m very pleased with the story and I’m excited to share it with you in whatever form it eventually takes.  Naturally, I feel tremendously lucky to be chosen out of such a prodigious number of writers. I have suggested to the editors that the story take the shape of a mighty eagle, descending a mountaintop, clutching an irrefutable golden scroll– as it originally appeared to me in my vision– but have yet to hear back.

Here’s a word “death cloud” of all the submissions for Vol. 2. As you can see– if winds are right– we could take out the entire eastern seaboard:

In recent days, I’ve been enjoying reading those stories that didn’t make the cut. A lot of folks have been posting them on their blogs and linking them via twitter.

You can also read the first volume of stories as a free ebook.

I must thank my Dates Worse Than Facebook Group for urging me to send in a submission. They already know they’re awesome but I’ll just remind them here again.

Here’s a comic I wrote about Occupy Wall Street. It’s drawn by Cricket. There’s a new page of Time Picnickers coming in a few days I just have to uh… draw it.

After I wrote this comic I saw Ted Rall did one on a very similar theme. Ted actually found a better quote in the N.Y. Times to exemplify “Juke-Think”. But you know, after they put up the pay-wall, I just can’t find the heart to Firefox>>Tools>>Private Browsing. That’s right, I said it, the Op-Ed  pages are not even worth turning off your cookies!

Ted also has a good article about generation Y (Is that really what we’re called?) here.

Addendum: How could I forget GM’s hilarious aborted ads and public twitter apology for it’s “reality sucks… but luckily the GM college discount doesn’t” anti-bike campaign from earlier this month?

All of this is via Bike Snob

That’s right, if you’re on a bike, photoshopped women with burnished cheeks will laugh at you. Ready to buy a truck? It’s only um… I can’t read the fine print. I’m sure it’s up there, and of course gas isn’t all that cheap, and well, there’s the financing plan which is like another 5-10% on 20-25K. But it’ll be monthly payments and at least all your friends will know you’re cool now cause you have that sort of enormous truck that GM swore they would stop making when the government bailed them out of bankruptcy a few years ago because the things proved intensely hated and unpopu– Whooops….

At least last time they tried this, America was rich, the auto reigned supreme, and they were clearly high:

 ”I hope we shall take warning from the example [of the ruin of the hereditary aristocracy] and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” -Thomas Jefferson, November 12, 1816 (also quoted in Citizens United)

Last week, Mayor Bloomberg had dismissed the protests in Zuccotti Park as a weather related thing and said the protesters could stay as long as they pleased, assuming in his motherly way that they’ll just sort of get it out their system. Then we could all return to that most sublime of all states, business as usual.

But just three days later Bloomberg changed his mind after receiving a letter from Brookfield Management citing (I swear to god) suspicious packages. He decided to clean out the park using a method that I’ve always found effective for hard to remove embarrassing stains: the pre-dawn raid. He gave the protestors, I think, about 12 hours notice. The protestors could return, he claimed, just not with sleeping bags and camping equipment or what a federal judge might call “their constitutionally protected means of expression”.

I biked down there early on October 14 when the raid was scheduled. All the streets were dark and empty and I wasn’t sure how many people would arrive to stand with the protesters. But a few blocks away from the park, I heard an enormous roar and smiled. The park was jam packed, filled to the brim with supporters.  Unlike previous visits, after entering the crowd, I couldn’t really move from my spot. There were too many people.

Here are the photos:

The General Assembly tells us to all link arms around the perimeter:

But at the 11th hour the mass-arrest is called off. The cleaning has been “postponed” since the management company believes it can “come to an arrangement” with the protesters. This message doesn’t come from Bloomberg but rather from the “deputy mayor”, as if Bloomberg himself is off attending to more important affairs and can’t be bothered with scheduling errors, or really, errors of any sort. Cheers break out, a brass band springs from the crowd, playing raucous celebratory New Orleans style jazz:

Police officers have lined the park with barricades that morning and so it is difficult to move around. It is impossible for all of us to stay in the park and protest. People spread out to march north and south  in celebration. Here officers line the north side of the park. Behind them is “Ground Zero”.  A new office tower rises, half-finished, beside the hole. Behind it, in the mist somewhere, is the equally half-baked “Freedom Tower”.

The threat diminished, immediately a girl falls asleep in a barrel:

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Hey Bros and Broettes,

I’ve made a website for my novel where you can read some excerpts. It is here!

Comics! By Cricket! No longer daily! But… uh… comics!

Important societal issues addressed in these pages: The Ace Hotel (or what my friend Paul refers to as “the gasoline on the burning tire-fire of Manhattan culture”), Sunday Business, smoking, Apes at College, et al… All below the cut!

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