Homepage Update, March 23: DARC AGES, BLOOD & SWINE And More

This week's Homepage update includes:

- DARC AGES, Chapter 24.

- THE ARGUS PROJECT, Chapter 13.

- BLOOD & SWINE: A Comedy of Terrors, Chapter 7.


Choice quote from BLOOD & SWINE, Chapter 7:
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Carl climbed out of the container and hid behind a crate. Inside the warehouse, the music played so loudly that nobody could have heard him come. He peered at the open space near the entrance door, where the floor had been cleared.

A battery of colored lamps and strobe lights illuminated at least fifty dancing men and women. Carl sniffed at some strange, sweet odor and realized the warehouse was reeking with pot, tobacco and perhaps other smokes.

Over the speaker system, some artist with a German accent shouted bombastic lines in English:

I am the dance floor master!
I am the eardrum blaster!
The techno priest from afar!
It's 3 AM, do you know where your feet are!



Without the phone (and its camera), Carl felt very vulnerable. The best he could do was to try and bring back some evidence of crime, but he worried that the two UGG thugs might see him.

As he hesitated, hunching down behind the crate, his knees aching, he noticed a movement in the upper corner of his vision and looked up. From a high open window near the ceiling, a thick wispy spiral of white smoke drifted in from outside.

Or was it smoke? It seemed to move independently of the draft. Carl blinked hard and looked again; now the smoke was gone... and in its place stood a tall male figure on the walkway beneath the window. The man bent his neck to look down on the party floor.

He was dressed in a dark jacket and pants, and had a full head of gray hair. His face was obscured by shadow, and yet his eyes seemed to reflect the flickering primary colors of the light show.

The tall figure stirred, and a reflex made Carl duck down; for some reason he couldn't explain, the sight of the stranger sent an icy chill down Carl's already quite chilled spine.

He drew a few half-choked breaths and peeked up again; now the stranger had vanished from the walkway. It occurred to Carl that he might have been hallucinating.

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Read the rest.

Nurglon Assumes Command of Republican Party, Changes Its Name To "Rage Party"

POX News,  March 23:
GOP National Campaign HQ, Washington, D.C. - During a conference signaling the start of the run-up to the 2010 Midterm Elections for the U.S. Congress, tentacled politician Nurglon (r) interrupted the GOP party chairman to make the following declaration:

Nurglon: THIS DITHERING HAS GONE ON FOR LONG ENOUGH. I HEREBY ASSUME FULL COMMAND OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. STEELE!! COME HERE, YOU.

Nurglon paused to devour a screaming Michael Steele (r), and continued:

N: I HEREBY DECREE! FROM NOW ON, THE ORGANIZATION FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY SHALL BE NAMED THE RAGE PARTY.

POX News correspondent Sarah Tannin: What's your party program, Nurglon?

N: PROGRAM? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' PROGRAM! THE RAGE PARTY SHALL HAVE ONE GOAL ONLY: DESTROY!! REPEAT AFTER ME: DESTROY!! SAY IT LOUD, I'M ANGRY AND PROUD!

Attendant party members, some waving Confederate flags and nooses, then joined Nurglon in a 5-minute "Destroy!" chanting session.

Several overexcited attendants were injured from biting each other.

Interview With Kameron Hurley

Interview with writer Kameron Hurley. Check it out.

Also read: Kameron Hurley's story "The Women of Our Occupation."

Nurglon Endorses Pope

POX News, March 17: 
While retreating from Capitol Hill, stating that her/its movement away from the building was merely a "temporary realignment," hundred-eyed politician Nurglon (r) made some rare and frank comments on the recent scandals involving the Pope and other Catholic Church officials.

In this transcript of a hasty running Q & A between Nurglon and POX News correspondent Sarah Tannin, Nurglon explains her/its stance.

Sarah Tannin: Nurglon, what is your religion?

Nurglon: I WORSHIP GREAT CTHULHU. BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP NURGLON, MISTRESS OF GREAT CTHULHU, LORD OF THE UNSPEAKABLE BEYOND!

ST: And what is your relationship to Earthbound religions like, say, Catholicism?

N: THOSE WHO DO NOT BOW DOWN TO THE ELDER GODS ARE ONLY FIT TO BE FOOD FOR MY SPAWN.

ST: So you don't approve of --

N: HOWEVER... I AM WILLING TO ALLOW THE VATICAN TO CO-EXIST WITH MY FAITH WHEN I AND MY SPAWN RULE THE EARTH.

ST: How come?

N: BECAUSE I LIKE YOUR POPE! HE'S SUCH A CHARMER! HIS EYES REMIND ME OF GREAT CTHULHU'S! HE AND HIS MINIONS SHARE MY GOAL, TO CRUSH THE SOULS OF YOUR OFFSPRING AND TEACH THEM UNQUESTIONING OBEDIENCE TO POWER!

ST: Now that's a little harsh --

N: I WOULD GLADLY LET POPE RATZINGER AND CARDINAL BRADY LIVE FOREVER AS UNDEAD HUSKS, ANIMATED ONLY BY MY TIMELESS MALEVOLENCE, IF IT WOULD HELP ME CRUSH THE SOULS OF ALL YOUR WEAK, PITIFUL CHILDREN!

ST: Jesus...

N: NO! DO NOT UTTER THE NAME OF THE BURNING LIGHT!

ST: What do you mean? Jesus Christ...

N: YOU SAID IT AGAIN!

ST: What? Jesus?

N: STOP SAYING "JESUS"! GOSHDARN! I SAID IT!

The interview was interrupted as Nurglon began to spout smoke and fled the site. The Vatican has since refused to comment on Nurglon.

A cardinal who wishes to be anonymous said to POX News that "Nurglon is welcome to join our Holy Church, if she/it agrees to publicly condemn the evil of contraceptives".

Homepage Update & Shout-Out To Literary Agents

Item 1: HOMEPAGE UPDATE
This week's homepage updates are
- DARC AGES, Chapter 23
- THE ARGUS PROJECT, Chapter 12

Item 2: ATTENTION LITERARY AGENTS!
My homepage is also a showcase for my unsold, unpublished manuscripts -- including presentations and sample chapters -- an opportunity for YOU to discover exciting new fiction.

Visit my homepage, and find out why YOU should get in touch with me about becoming my literary agent.

I'm not kidding. If I was kidding, I'd be saying something like, "How many times was Stephen King's breakthrough novel CARRIE rejected by big publishers? - About half as many times as the next Stephen King will be rejected."

Website Update

Due to illness (just the flu/cold, I'm getting better...), this week's homepage update is late and light:

DARC AGES, Chapter 22.

Norman Spinrad Interview

An interesting interview with the author Norman Spinrad, on Michael Ventrella's blog.

Choice Quote:
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VENTRELLA: Do you have any tricks you use for making sure that your characters are believable and consistent?

SPINRAD: Not really. Except mainly in fiction as in the real world, chez Emerson, “consistency is the hobgoglin of little minds,” meaning that fictional characters don’t have to be and probably shouldn’t be “consistent” if you want them to be “believable.”
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Homepage Update: DARC AGES and "The Last Weblog Of Jonathan Lippincott"

This week's homepage updates are:

- Another chapter of the web serial DARC AGES (also available in complete form as Print-on-Demand paperback, from CafePress.com );

- The short story "The Last Weblog of Jonathan Lippincott," part of the PRECINCT 20: DEAD STRANGE story cycle. (It is also an homage to H.P. Lovecraft, and a satire of comment spam... the supreme irony is that this post will of course get comment spam! ;-))

Enjoy... and aren't you glad we're finally past February?