Joshua Alan Doetsch

I, Cyborg

scrivnomancer — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:14:37 +0000

If you were to look at a cyborg PoV visual display, from my perspective, at mealtime, the text would read something like this:

CONUNDRUM: Raw vegetable more optimal for health / Cooked vegetable (with cheese) desired

Collating…

…

SOLUTION: Exploit natural laziness

…

RAW VEGETABLE CONSUMED

Thoughts, as I pack, of places and gods…

scrivnomancer — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 02:09:26 +0000

He sat down on a grassy bank and looked at the city that surrounded him, and thought, one day he would have to go home. And one day he would have to make a home to go back to. He wondered whether home was a thing that happened to a place after a while, or if it was something that you found in the end, if you simply walked and waited and willed it long enough.

–Neil Gaiman, American Gods

There. I was political & relevent. Can I go home now?

scrivnomancer — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 02:53:45 +0000

Love on the Strange

scrivnomancer — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:45:42 +0000

I was (and am) a huge fan of the podcasted audio drama Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery. I listened to that show through a transitional period of my life. I started during a time when I, in possession of a fresh Masters Degree, was back living with my parents, working a soul-draining graveyard shift at 7-11, and (with no other expenses) still not making the monthly minimums on my debt.

And I continued listening to the show when I landed a job writing for a video game company and was very suddenly thrust from Chicago to Oslo, Norway. The show was one of the familiar things I brought with me when I jumped far out into the big bad world. I followed the exploits of the occult detectives Sparrow & Crowe (you can now follow them in comic book form as well). In more than one culture, sparrows and crows are psychopomps, beings who guide others between worlds. It was no different for me.

One great thing about the internet (and you have to take in the great things, in the face of YouTube comments), is it sometimes gives you the chance to keep in touch with the creators of the things you love. And somewhere along the way, I got to collaborate with them. Twice! First was for a prose Sparrow & Crowe anthology, Weird Winter Stories (containing my story “How to Kill Santa”).

And now round two! I give you Weird Romance. It is another Sparrow & Crowe anthology, this time centering on theme of the strangeness of love. There is a lot of variety here, a lot of twisted gems, fathoming the depth of the oddity that is l’amour. My story is “Harlow’s Fairytale,” and I’m rather proud of it, rather fond of the character Harlow. You should sit down and read her tale. There’s a frog prince…but it’s not very Disney.

Scrivnomancer the Gray

scrivnomancer — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 02:14:30 +0000

Do not take me for some cheap conjurer of adverbs!

Read: Help a Writer Out!

scrivnomancer — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:04:30 +0000

It’s about time Martine Svanevik’s book got out there. Go vote #56. It’s like investing in good future fiction for no money. A steal! Encouragement, at the right intersections in life, does some amazing things.

Shameless Promotion. Read: Help a Writer Out!

A Love That Defies the Tyranny of Worms

scrivnomancer — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:40:32 +0000

A valentine for a valentine, loveling. Have Simon Meeks send you something sweet. Leave a review comment for Strangeness in the Proportion, and I will send you a Jane Doe toe tag book mark (genuine toe tag). Just leave the review and email me (scrivnomancer@gmail.com) your shipping particulars. This is a bribe for a comment, not for the content of the comment. Tell me I suck a bucket of sloth extremities, and I still send you a toe tag. Let’s have some strange love!

Speaking of strange love…get a FREE sample story from the upcoming Weird Romance anthology. It’s like downloading the single before the killer album.

A happy V-Day to all, whether you celebrate it genuinely…or are hip and trash it as a commercial institution…or are double hip and circle back to loving it genuinely despite that (because every holiday is now a series of tweets by the hip telling us why we should loath that particular day…except Halloween…that’s still cool to genuinely enjoy…for now…).

Alternative Writing & Weird Romance

scrivnomancer — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:52:29 +0000

My short story, “Harlow’s Fairytale” is coming very soon to a Weird Romance anthology near you.

In alternative writing news, today I was fooling around with an experiment at work, to interact with with players via in-character Twitter roleplaying. Many personalities. I had an awkward, teenage love spat with myself. This is always stressful. But the makeup sex is fantastic.

Tonight, I saw Bright September play live, in a darkened room. This is the song I particularly liked, “Sleepless Lullaby.”

Weird Romance Approaching…

scrivnomancer — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:23:20 +0000

Creativity & Such

scrivnomancer — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 19:52:39 +0000

Back from an impromptu trip to Vegas. Stories and anthologies spinning like plates. Change in job title. Impending move from Montreal to Durham, North Carolina. More news to come.

Had a lot of fun doing an interview over at Writing & Whiskey.

Check it out: Josh Doetsch: On the Creative Process.