Immortality, the 1960s, and the Power of Women’s Voices

Set in Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love, Gwendolyn Kiste’s Reluctant Immortals, gives voice to two often forgotten women of literature — Lucy Westenra from Dracula and Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre. Having both been turned immortal against their will, the two women band together in the face of an eternity in which they must continually fight off the control of the men who changed them. When Dracula and Rochester make a sudden return, the two women draw on the strength of their sisterhood to make a stand and claim their own power and space in the world.

I recently spoke with Kist about her novel and the writing life in an interview published on Interstellar Flight Magazine. In the interview, she notes:

“Women’s voices have so often been silenced. That’s true of real-life women as well as female characters. We tend to be seen as being less important to the world and less important to storytelling. You can see this throughout literature, and while it’s been getting better over the last few years, we still have a long way to go.”

Culture Consumption: January 2023

Hi, lovelies. Here’s my month in books, movies, television, and games.

Books

When I purchased Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunesthe cashier paused to tell me, “This one’s messed up.” Having now read the three stories in this horror collection, I can heartedly agree with the cashier’s sentiments.

In the titular novella, two women meet online and begin a deeply intimate relationship that unveils their darkest desires. Written through emails and chat transcripts, the story shows just how far we are willing to go to obtain the love of others. It’s a captivating and disturbing exploration of human desire.

The following two stories further explore the depths people are willing to go to achieve approval and acceptance from the people around them. “The Enchantment” is the story of a couple who agree to be caretakers on a remote island, until a stranger suddenly appears by boat, shattering their solitude. In “You’ll Find It’s Like That All Over,” a man attempts to return a lost item to a neighbor only to find himself caught in an increasingly harrowing series of wagers.

This is a powerful and unsettling collection of stories — and I loved it. I’m looking forward to seeing more work from LaRocca.

In The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia provides a retelling of the classic H.G. Wells tale, The Island of Doctor Moreau, bringing the story to the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico.  Dr. Moreau and his daughter, Carlota, live in an isolated and remote estate, where the doctor performs experiments to blend human and animal into intelligent hybrid creations. Other than the hybrids, the only other companion that Carlota has known is the alcoholic overseer, Montgomery Laughton, who is escaping the ghosts of his past by finding sanctuary at the estate.

Carlota loves her sheltered existence on the estate, which from her perspective is perfect in every way. However, her world is jolted when the handsome son of her father’s patron comes to stay for a visit and begins making overtures of love.

This is another phenomenal novel from Moreno-Garcia. I love her choice to tell the story from both Carlota and Montgomery’s points of view and how she builds the relationships between them and the strange family housed on the estate. It’s also a gorgeously wrought world, weaving elements of Mexican culture and history into the tale. I love it.

Andrea Gibson’s Lord of the Butterflies is a gorgeous collection of poetry that explores gender, mental health, American culture, love, and relationships with wisdom and compassion. Her work is lyrical and moving, and this will likely be a collection that I’ll return to again and again when I need something uplifting.

“The heartbeat is actually the sound made
by the heart valves closing.
If you, my love, ever hold a stethoscope to my chest,
I will tell you to listen for the silence in between.
What is and what will always be yours
is the sound of my heart
finally opening.”

Writing for Games: Theory & Practice by Hannah Nicklin is a fantastic book for anyone interested in delving into writing stories and developing narratives for games. She provides a solid theory for storytelling and story structures and how these basic elements fit into the development of games.  I love that Nicklin also thinks about the various ways in which people learn by including case studies, and a practical workbook with exercises designed to allow the reader to apply the knowledge they gleaned.

Continue reading “Culture Consumption: January 2023”

Ten Things That Made My 2022

Let me be real: 2022 was another tough year in a variety of ways that I won’t get into. Lately, I’ve been trying to focus on the things I’m grateful for, rather than dwelling on the negatives. So, please allow me to highlight some of the fantastic, wonderful, and exciting things that I experienced or discovered over this last year.

1. I completed two tiny video games — What Lies Underneath and Bluebeard: An Interactive Tale. Each I constructed with different game making tools, representing different kinds of gameplay and storytelling, and I am proud of the work I did on each of them.

2. . . . and all of that hard work paid off, since the games I made earlier in the year helped me snag my first freelance work in the games industry. I am currently working a contract writer for Lost Lake Games on a project I can tell you nothing about.

And I am also working with Patrick Knisely, a solo dev in charge of One Frog Games. Together, we are working on building the story, world, and scenes, which will be incorporated into the gameplay for a platforming game tentatively titled Monochrome Heights (play the demo).

3. I sold my fourth poetry chapbook, titled Necessary Poisons, which will be published by Interstellar Flight Press later this year. I’ve been working on this collection of strange little poems since 2016, and I’m so grateful and delighted that it has finally found a home. (A cover reveal and release date will be be coming soon.)

Continue reading on The Narrative Thread…

Ten Things That Made My 2022

Let me be real: 2022 was another tough year in a variety of ways that I won’t get into. Lately, I’ve been trying to focus on the things I’m grateful for, rather than dwelling on the negatives. So, please allow me to highlight some of the fantastic, wonderful, and exciting things that I experienced or discovered over this last year.

1. I completed two tiny video games — What Lies Underneath and Bluebeard: An Interactive Tale. Each I constructed with different game making tools, representing different kinds of gameplay and storytelling, and I am proud of the work I did on each of them.

2. . . . and all of that hard work paid off, since the games I made earlier in the year helped me snag my first freelance work in the games industry. I am currently working a contract writer for Lost Lake Games on a project I can tell you nothing about.

And I am also working with Patrick Knisely, a solo dev in charge of One Frog Games. Together, we are working on building the story, world, and scenes, which will be incorporated into the gameplay for a platforming game tentatively titled Monochrome Heights (play the demo).

3. I sold my fourth poetry chapbook, titled Necessary Poisons, which will be published by Interstellar Flight Press later this year. I’ve been working on this collection of strange little poems since 2016, and I’m so grateful and delighted that it has finally found a home. (A cover reveal and release date will be be coming soon.)

Continue reading on The Narrative Thread…

Culture Consumption: December 2022

Hi, lovelies. Here’s my month in books, movies, television, and games.

Books

Brom’s Slewfoot is from the start just a pretty book to look at — the cover and illustrations within (all done by Brom) being gorgeous images of the fantastical.  The story itself is also richly told.  Abitha is a spirited young Englishwoman balking against the constraints of the Puritan society, where she is expected to be a demure wife and do as she is told. When her husband suddenly dies under uncanny circumstances, she is left alone and without his protection. However, something else lurks in the woods, something dangerous and unsettling and beautiful — and it may be the key to either her freedom or her damnation.

Slewfoot explores the constraints and hard-fought freedoms of a woman living in Puritanical America. Abitha fights hard for what is rightly hers as she navigates the rocky waters of her reality. I love her as a characters — and I equally love the strange creatures that lurk in her woods.

I will definitely be acquiring and reading more work from Brom.

15 Ways to Stay Alive by Daphne Gottlieb uses a mixture of found and original poetry to explore “broken hearts, scattered dreams, postpunk politics.” With gritty and vivid imagery, these poems explore survival and healing on both a personal and communal level.

“A map of the ground is writing itself
on my ankle, hip, knee; gravity’s kiss
in blackening my ribs. There is nothing
broken, they say, except the ride.

We are all alive, they say,
we should all be grateful.
We should not get lawyers.”

— from “after the midway ride collapsed” by Daphne Gotlieb

Continue reading “Culture Consumption: December 2022”