My Whole Expanse I Cannot See…

So, one evening some time ago I was browsing Amazon, looking for something new to read, something Steampunky, maybe akin to Cherie Priest. This is when the Amazon A.I. suggested, Pilgrim of the Sky by Natania Barron. Immediately I realized, “Holy shit, I know her!” She’s a twitter friend, and I knew she’s a really great writer, but I had no idea she’d actually published a rather unique Steampunk novel. Of course, I bought and loved it.

Well, now Natania is doing something really cool. Every Tuesday and Thursday at 9 pm she’s reading a chapter from Pilgrim of the Sky, from the first to the last, live via Google+, with full replays on her youtube channel. You can catch up on the replays over the weekend, then start watching live. It’s a really imaginative, well-crafted tale of love, loss, and courage with a strong female lead, and Natania’s reading gives it a certain spark.

Aside from its paperback version, Pilgrim of the Sky is also available for Kindle and iBooks. Apart from Natania’s readings, I definitely recommend owning Pilgrim of the Sky in one form or another. It’s totally a page-turner.

I want to make a quick apology to my subscribers, people who read the blog posts via e-mail. I’ve been publishing with a sickening level of typos. I fix the typos quickly, but that’s of no consequence to e-mail subscribers. The nineteen of you must think I’m addled or careless, or both. I’ll take addled, but I really do care.

I apologize for the errors, they are over and done.

An unknown biological catastrophe claims a chunk of the world, cuts a clear border between the tainted and the untainted. This tainted place is called Area X, named so by an unnamed government, a government not at all above sacrificing lives to unlock the mystery that is Area X. This government charges a cloak and dagger agency, The Southern Reach, with the handling of Area X, infiltration; training personnel to cross the border and study Area X.

The very first team reported a place once inhabited by people living in modest homes, a lighthouse off the coast, then, somehow, nature took it all back. Life became death, grass, vines, spread over the homes, forests grew thick, marshlands swelled, the people apparently swallowed by nature growing unabated. Loss of life aside, the early reports described Area X as beautiful, peaceful, pure. This picture didn’t last long. Then came the mass suicide of one team, another self-destructed in a hail of gunfire, blasting each other to fleshy mounds of former colleagues. The eleventh expedition came home, only to die of a very rapid terminal cancer. Despite the early reports, Area X is dangerous, its beauty, false. Answers, however, are more important than lives, The Southern Reach is willing to spill as much blood as necessary in order to know what they need to know.

Enter the twelfth team, four women; a surveyor, a psychologist, a biologist, and an anthropologist. Teams are chosen by various statistics, skill-sets and variables known only by The Southern Reach. Team twelve is tasked to study Area X, and each other. Any member who might behave oddly or appear “changed” by Area X is to be shot on sight, lest the mission as a whole be compromised.

Thus, the stage is set for Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, Book 1 of the Southern Reach Trilogy.

The novel is narrated by the biologist, teams leave their names and lives behind. It’s much easier to remain impartial to each other if everything is impersonal. It’s also easier to shoot a “changed” colleague in the face if they don’t have a name, or a story. The biologist is a flawed character, a woman more comfortable around frogs and dragonflies than people and their conversations and desire for closeness. Yet, through her story, her struggles, we do care about this detached woman of science. This is part of VanderMeer’s skill, he makes us care about characters whose general lives are incomprehensible, as there’s always still some relatable spark in them.

Immediately, VanderMeer sets a tone of dread, we’re told early that members of the team will die, one very quickly. From the start, we know the mission is damned, there’s no heroic happy ending. We don’t know the hows, we only know that the biologist is looking back from the ruins of a wrecked ship. We read, desperately at times, because we want to know the hows, and more urgently, the whys. Why does The Southern Reach send people to Area X like cattle to a killing floor? Why is such a beautiful place so full of death? So many whys, but I won’t reveal them here. There’s also a what, a most important what. What ultimately becomes of the biologist? We don’t want Area X to claim her, but there’s a constant fear that in her final sentence, it will.

VanderMeer uses perfect words to paint images of gorgeous landscapes, macabre dark, hidden places, and images of death and decay that will disturb readers long after the final page is turned. His use of descriptive imagery, quick plotting, and rich character development is spot-on, perhaps the best balance he has ever struck.

Annihilation is a short, fast-paced novel that is really the beginning of a much deeper narrative. For those who have never read Jeff VanderMeer this novel is a perfect introduction, and for those who have, his brilliance will only be further demonstrated.

Buy Annihilation, it absolutely won’t disappoint, and I’m sure the rest of the trilogy will be just as spectacular.

Oh, if you hurry, you can win a copy of Annihilation here!

So, maybe I didn’t fully explain my Annihilation Giveaway game fully enough, that, or nobody reads the blog anymore.

If it’s not the latter, then here’s a little clarification of how I want the game to go…

Example: Crazy Annihilation prediction entry:

Annihilation actually takes place underneath the Smurf-blue icing of a sentient cupcake that sits on the desert tray of a South American Despot. The Despot never eats this cupcake, for he knows that it can think, and feel, and love.

Have fun, be creative, win a copy of Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer!

So, I’m half-way through Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, and it’s… amazing. I feel like whatever Jeff writes, it all starts to exist somewhere, another universe, a parallel Earth, somewhere beyond fiction that makes money and entertains us. His writing is something arcane, the pages flicker with that spark of life that goes to coalesce somewhere else to become reality.

I want to make some crazy predictions about Annihilation, but not yet. Not yet. First, I want to have a giveaway!

I want to give out five e-copies of Annihilation, Kindle or iBooks, winners pick the format.

In this post’s comments section, I want you to write what my most crazy Annihilation prediction might be. My five favorites will win.

Only one entry per person, so make them count.

I’ll announce the winners… Friday at 9 pm.

So, this isn’t going to be a sweeping narrative, more like a list of happenings…

On Friday the 31st I needed an emergency trach change.

On Tuesday the 4th I SOMEHOW severely sprained my right shoulder, and by Thursday the 6th, the pain was so bad I kept getting dizzy and feeling like throwing up (which would be BAD).

On Thursday the 6th, after getting into the van for an appointment with my pain doctor, I couldn’t breathe because the temporary trach tube I had placed on the 31st started pressing against the wall of my trachea and blocking my airway. The tube had to be held in just the right way so I could breathe. So, we went to the e.r. rather than the pain doctor.

In the e.r. I got a new trach, a slew of drugs, and that’s that. Shoulder’s better, breathing’s better.

So, it’s Monday, 10ish pm as I start writing this, and I’m waiting for Tuesday after Midnight. It’s one of my favorite parts of the week, New Release Tuesday, when new movies, music, and books are released. The iTunes Store also puts out a new batch of sale items, HD movies for $9.99, SOMETIMES $4.99. I’m not sure which movies are due, I like the surprises, but I do know something about what’s coming tomorrow. I know about a book, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. Annihilation is Jeff’s first novel in four years, and considering its author, it’s going to be amazing.

More tomorrow.

Tattoo by Kyle, Doc Dogs’s Las Vegas Tattoo, Ybor City

So, the way that this tattoo wraps around my leg, it’s basically impossible to photograph, properly anyway.

It reads…

One day I know…

One day I’ll be…

Looking back on me…

It’s from a Priscilla Ahn song, One Day I Will Do, which is off of her really excellent second record, When You Grow Up. The entire record is worth buying, but I’ve gotten really fond of One Day I Will Do.

To me, it’s a song about a life that’s in a drift, and then regretting that drift. You know you could do better, could be better, but you’re not. You’re just not. You know that at the end of everything, you’re either going to to see your life as a giant waste, or as something that was good and beautiful. Knowing that one day you’ll look back across the expanse of your life and might find it lacking, could easily find it lacking, is a sobering thought, a thought that could lead you toward someplace that feels… right.

I feel like this song, I’m scared of that look back on myself. I’m scared I’ll see ruin and waste. These words are kind of a prayer etched into my flesh, a prayer to remember to be better, because at the end of me, I don’t want to look back and see the waste I’m living now stretched until my last then.

So, to get back into the swing of things (as cliche as that sounds), I’m just going to do a write whatever’s ever in my head kind of thing.

I made some cosmetic, minor cosmetic, changes to the blog. I upped the font size a little, mostly for my own aged eyes, and I FINALLY figured out how to fix the search button. Since the blog launched the button read, “Se,” the box around it wasn’t wide enough. Until… NOW. It actually wasn’t really hard to fix, I just never took the time to dig through the CSS (the file that governs such things). I wonder lately (I wonder on and off) if I should totally redo the blog’s look, totally scrap and start fresh. Though, I don’t think I can bring myself to do it. It’s like my room, I see the black and purple and I feel… comfortable. Little else feels comfortable, I don’t know if I should purposefully destroy something that’s still cozy.

Aside from the blog tweaking, I’m watching this indie comedy, In A World… It’s about a woman vying for the job of being the first woman to speak the iconic movie trailer phrase, “In A World…” I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but I just hit the end, and it was kind of amazing. The end of a something tends to make or break that something.

Something.

No, I’ll write more than a snarky, “Something.” I’ve basically taken January off, but now it’s time to get back to writing, not on a schedule, but better than not writing ANYTHING.

I have two new tattoos to post, several books to review, and just a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my… eccentric brain. Yes, we’ll say eccentric. Thoughts that need put down here, not shuddered up behind my eyes.