I am an attorney in Texas, and I write fiction and poetry in my spare time. In addition, I publish Lone Star Stories, a webzine of speculative fiction and poetry, as well as MultiVerse, a webzine of speculative poetry reviews. You can find my home page here.
Photo copyright 2004 Eric Marin
*grin* Thanks, Joseph! |
I'd tell you I really enjoyed "The Solipsist," Eric, but you don't really exist.
Joseph Paul Haines |
Thanks, Josh and Justin! You're quite welcome, and congrats to you! |
Ditto what Josh said!
Justin |
Congrats, Eric! And thanks for the mention. |
Oh, and there are a couple of other stories of interest in the AE issue as well by RMers Josh, Justin, and Eugie. :-) |
My story "The Solipsist" is now online at Aberrant Dreams. Enjoy! |
Thanks, Josh! :-) |
Cool, Eric! |
Thanks, Terry! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :-) |
Nice poem, Eric! Congrats! |
My poem "Wards" is up at Tales from the Moonlit Path. Enjoy! |
Thanks, Josh! :-) |
Congrats for both, Eric! |
My poem "Dreamer" is up at The Harrow. Enjoy! |
My poem "The Queen of Black Moor Lake" is up at Gryphonwood. Enjoy! |
Imagine which could get you arrested under certian circumstances, and you'll see... |
Heavy petting beats hugging anyday. |
And I thought hugging was more intimate . . . . |
Eruc, you're moving way too fast! The tree will think you're fresh. The first step is to *hug* the tree. |
Thanks, Josh! (I'm really not upset; it's more interesting to me to read such a reaction than anything else.)
I'm glad to hear that the review intrigued you, Lisa. I hope you enjoy reading "Flashes in the Trees" when you get a chance to see a copy of ASIM #20. Now I'm off to go pet a tree. *grin* |
It's not that bad a review; it actually piqued my interest. Sounds like an interesting story structure, Mr. Mann. ;) |
Sorry about that one, Eric. I liked it, anyway.
Who knew you were just another tree-hugging Austinite? |
I remember early reader comments about the political aspect of one of the three pieces in "Flashes in the Trees" being too strong, and this reviewer took that opinion and really ran with it. What's amusing to me about this, is that I'm not that much of an environmentalist. I just like trees and thought it would be fun to write with their point of view in mind.
So, I now have my first negative review. Woo! Despite the pan of my work, the overall review of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #20 was quite positive. Way to go, Stu! |
I hope you enjoy it, Josh! :-) |
Cool, I'll download the podcast tonight! |
My flash piece "The God of the Goblins" is now available as a podcast on Escape Pod. Stephen Eley did a great job reading the tale. :-) |
My poem "The Dirge" is now up at Fireweed. (Scroll down to the last poem.) Enjoy! |
Hi, Terry. It was a pleasure. :-)
Actually, the armadillos were the subject of the monkey/dinosaur war. The winners had them for dinner. Josh is just trying to block out the carnage. ;-) |
Just remember, no actual armadillos were hurt in the making of this con. Monkeys or dinosaurs either, for that matter... |
Hi, Eric. I'm glad I was able to meet you.
Terry Bramlett |
Well, everyone else seems to post con reports, so I'm going to try my hand at one for ArmadilloCon 27.
As I've said in earlier posts, this was my first science fiction and fantasy convention, as a reader or a writer, and it was definitely a unique experience for me. First off, the organizers of the writing workshop and the con did great jobs, and I applaud their efforts to make guests and fans as comfortable and happy as possible. (I thought the writing workshop was quite fun and educational, and my earlier post addresses my experience with the workshop in more detail.) Overall, I enjoyed the con, but I have to admit that if I had not spent a considerable amount of time chatting with Josh Rountree, his wife, and, to a lesser extent, Mikal Trimm, about non-reading and non-writing topics in the hotel lobby, I would have been bored more often than not. I'm not a fan sort of fellow; I just don't get into such things to the extent that true enthusiasts do. I enjoyed meeting people, whether guest writers and artists or fan attendees, but I'm not the type to go lurk around authors like Martha Wells and Charles de Lint whose work I enjoy a lot; they get plenty of such attention from others, and they don't need more from me. The panels on the writing process or publishing business interested me, but fan-oriented panels held no such appeal. I sat through a panel exploring who would win if monkeys warred with dinosaurs with Joe Lansdale, Howard Waldrop, and several other excellent authors that was tear-inducingly funny, but that was Josh's idea. Josh and I also attended a panel on finishing novels that almost managed to inspire me to write a novel, but the urge passed quickly. I really am a poetry/short fiction writer at heart. I did get a chance to meet and talk with some really nice people, including Andrew Fox, author of Fat White Vampire Blues, who was unbelievably gracious enough to sit through my reading of flash and poetry at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday. (So, did Josh and his wife, my two other listeners, and I owe them all many thanks for their support.) I had a chance to talk with Jim Minz of Del Rey and Josh about football (Josh now has an enormous incentive to finish one of his novels, but I'll let him share the news about that), with Wil McCarthy about writing outside of the hard science fiction subgenre, with Julie Kenner about practicing law and writing, with Deborah Lane about Wheatland Press, and with Rick Klaw about editing webzines. I also met RMer Terry Bramlett briefly. My two panels, "Good Weird Fiction" and "The Rewards of Electronic Publication" were interesting, although "Good Weird Fiction" was by far the best attended, largely due to the entertaining (and dominating) presences of Joe Lansdale and Jim Minz. My main contribution to that panel involved naming some rising female authors of "weird fiction," such as Dora Goss, Sonya Taaffe, Sandra McDonald, and M. Thomas. (There are many others like Samantha Henderson who I didn't get a chance to name in the tiny gap of time I seized.) The electronic publishing panel was rather disorganized and sparsely attended, but I enjoyed meeting my fellow panelists, Jayme Lynn Blaschke of Revolution SF, Elizabeth Burton of Zumaya Publishing, and author Joan Upton Hall. I mentioned Lone Star Stories at various appropriate points on my con panels and at other times as well, and I'll be curious to see if I receive any website visits and submissions as a result. To sum up, I enjoyed myself, but I'm not going to start looking for excuses to attend cons outside of Austin. |
In ArmadilloCon news, the writing workshop went quite well today. I really enjoyed leading my sub-group of writers with Martha Wells, and the editors panel I sat on with Jim Minz and Rick Klaw was quite entertaining. Jim and Rick had the most to say, but I managed to share some useful information with our writer audience as well.
All of the instructors showed a real commitment to helping the workshop attendees improve their craft. Kudos to Wendy Wheeler and Jennifer Evans for organizing the workshop. Oh, and I just have to say that Charles de Lint is a really nice man, and Sean McMullen is a hilarious speaker. After the workshop ended, I chatted with Deborah Lane of Wheatland Press and bought two Jay Lake collections, Greeting from Lake Wu and American Sorrows" and one collection of Howard Waldrop's, Dream Factories and Radio Pictures. I also listened to Josh Rountree's panel "New Directions in Heroic Fantasy," and Josh handled his panel role with aplomb. I then shot the breeze with Mikal Trimm and Josh before leaving the con for the night to spend time with my wife and daughter who leave for West Texas tomorrow morning. I plan on hanging out at the con for most of the rest of the weekend. I have two panels to do -- one on Saturday, one on Sunday -- and a reading late Saturday. So, far I've enjoyed myself. More reports later. |
That's an amusing image, Josh. *grin* |
I'll wear a LSS sandwich board for the right price... |
Thanks for the marketing idea, Mikal! :-) |
You might want to print up a bunch of LSS fliers and carry them to the Con, Eric--maybe even mention some of the bigger names published there, throw in an address to inquire about ad rates (heh)...
Couldn't hurt to stoke the ol' publicity machine. |
Thanks, Terry! :-) |
Oh, crud, Eric, that was me (Terry). I forgot to log in last time. Duh. Anyway - have a BLAST!!! |
Thanks, Mystery Guest! I'm sure I'll have fun.
Thanks for the thought, Melissa! :-) That's cool, Josh. It'll be nice to see a friendly face in the crowd. *grin* |
Hey -- my Saturday panel got moved so I'll be able to watch you and Mikal and Joe debate the finer points of weird fiction after all. |
Too bad you're nowhere near Upstate NY, or I'd suggest coming to Albacon! |
You'll LOVE it, Eric! Cons are HUGE fun. You know you're in the right field when you go to a Con and feel (Finally!) like you're Home. Enjoy! Enjoy! |
I’ll be attending my very first convention this month -- ArmadilloCon 27 in Austin, Texas. Here’s my convention guest schedule:
Day One -- Friday August 19, 2005 8:30 a.m. to 5: p.m. – Teaching at the ArmadilloCon 27 SF/F Writers Workshop. (I’ll be team teaching with Martha Wells. Coolness!) 5 p.m. onward – Wandering, looking for dinner, checking out the Opening Ceremonies, mingling at the Meet the Pros Party, and wandering some more. Day Two – Saturday August 20, 2005 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. – Wandering yet again, finding lunch, wandering further. 2:00 p.m. To 3:00 p.m. – Autographing. (Autographing what, I wonder? The Zeppelin anthology is about the only autographable item I can think of at present. I may slip away to listen to Martha’s reading.) 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Sitting on the “Good Weird Fiction” panel with such nifty writers as Mikal Trimm (moderating) and Joe Lansdale. 4:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. – Yet more wandering, consuming dinner, and additional wandering. 11:30 p.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Reading. (Any suggestions for reading material will be greatly appreciated.) Day Three – Sunday August 21, 2005 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Wandering again and searching for lunch. 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. – Sitting on the “Rewards of Electronic Publishing” panel. 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. – Wandering the con for the last time. This should all be quite fun. :-) |
New mini-reviews of the poetry of Flytrap 4 and the May/June 2005 issue of Star*Line are up at MultiVerse. |
You're very welcome, Lisa, and thanks for the congrats! :-) |
Jeezuspleezus! Thanks for posting that list, Eric! I had no idea! And congratulations on your extreme good taste, as evidenced by Kevin's mention. |
I just purchased a copy (hardcover, silly man that I am) of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Eighteenth Annual Collection, and I discovered that "Ink Spot" by Kevin Anderson, published in the first issue of Lone Star Stories received an Honorable Mention. Go, Kevin! (By the way, if anyone knows how to reach Kevin, please let me know.)
Friends and acquaintainces who also received Honorable Mentions that I have not seen posted elsewhere: 1. Samantha Henderson for her poem "Grandma Came from Eldritch," published in Neverary; 2. Barth Anderson for his story "Alone in the House of the Mims," published in Strange Horizons; 3. Mikal Trimm for his poems "The Clockmaker's Wife" and "The Game of Not Knowing," published in Star*Line and Dreams and Nightmares, respectively; 4. Alan DeNiro for his stories "The Keeper" and "Tetrarchs," published in Electric Velocipede and Strange Horizons, respectively; 5. Lisa M. Bradley for her story "Gehenesis," published in Brutarian Quarterly; 6. Karen L. Newman for her poems "Absolute Zero" and "Unspoken," published in EOTU and Aoife's Kiss, respectively; 7. Jay Lake for his seven (!) stories "Adagio for Flames and Jealousy," "Apologizing for the Concrete," "The Dying Dream of Water," "Shattering Angels," "Sloe-Eyed Jacks and the Homicide Kings," "The Soul Bottles," and "Tiny Flowers and Rotten Lace," published in Fortean Bureau, Nemonymous Four, Flytrap 3, Dogs in the Moonlight, ChiZine 19, Leviathan 4, and Realms of Fantasy, respectively; 8. Michael Jasper for his story "Coal Ash and Sparrows," published in Asimov's; and 9. Chris Roberson for his story "In Sheep's Clothing," published in Black October. Congratulations to them and to all of the other recipients of Honorable Mentions for 2004! |
Thanks, Josh! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :-) |
Good one, Eric! |
My poem "Echo Bay" is online at Between Kisses this month. Enjoy! |
Issue No. 10 of Lone Star Stories is now online:
Fiction: "A Treatise on Fewmets" by Sarah Prineas; "The Tailor and the Fairy" by Samantha Henderson; and "Book of the Flagellants" by Mikal Trimm. Poetry: "Now, While the Stars are Invisible" by Danny Adams; "Reincarnation in Andromeda" by Deborah P. Kolodji; and "In Late December" by Beth Bernobich. Enjoy! |
Thanks, Kaori! I'm glad the poem had that effect on you. :-) |
Eric, I thought the way you linguistically stripped down the language was cool. It made me feel displaced from my own language, the way I feel when I read Chaucer.
Kaori |
Thanks, Terry! :-) |
Nicely done, Eric.
Terry |
Thanks, Josh! *grin* |
Great job, Eric! And a real pick-me-up too. ;p |
I posted a poem of mine over at Taverner's Koans (it's the first comment to Alan's weblog entry) for anyone interested in reading a bit of experimental speculative poetry. :-) |
New mini-reviews by Samantha Henderson of the poetry of ChiZine #25 are up at MultiVerse. |
My mini-reviews of the poetry of Abyss & Apex Issue 15 are up at MultiVerse. |
Mark Anthony Brennan was kind enough to let me know that the anthology, Best of SDO, that he and Dave Bowlin edited received a very positive review in Swords & Scribes this month. The reviewer, Armand Rosamilla, liked my contribution, "Fingered," and I am, therefore, very pleased. :-)
Go buy a copy of Best of SDO and check out the other stories chosen by Mark and Dave (available at Project Pulp and The Genre Mall). |
Just for the record, this representative of Tangent never considered Jennifer's poetry reviews trash and continues to lament the discontinuation of them. |
One market's trash is MultiVerse's treasure. Jennifer Mercer's reviews of the poetry of Poe Little Thing and Issue 14 of Abyss & Apex, which appeared briefly at Tangent Online, are now up at MultiVerse. (I removed the review of my poem, "a plan," due to editorial conflict, but at least I remember how nice a review it was. *grin*). |
Degenerates? Where? All I see are cowboys. 'Though them chaps do seem overly tight.... |
I reckon this here topic is degeneratin' real fast. Gotta whistle me up a Topic Cop 'fore things get too far outta hand. *grin* |
Don't ask what 'loke' means--I'll have to kill you... |
"We see by our outfits that we are both cowboys--
If you get an outfit you can be a cowboy too!" I reckon I loke me some Smothers Brothers, um-hum. (There--Smothers Brothers and Slingblade--taa daa!) |
Okay Josh, that last message sounded more like something outta "Sling Blade," than from the Smothers Brothers. |
Them Lone Star Stories is good'uns. Um huh. |
I see by your outfit that you're a cowboy too... |
*rofl* Why do the last few messages remind me of the Smothers Brothers' "I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy..."? |
Thanks, Josh! I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying reading Lone Star Stories. :-) |
Cool, Eric! I likes me some Lone Star Stories. Yes I do. |
Patrick Samphire has posted a positive review of the fiction of Lone Star Stories No. 9 at Tangent Online. |
My mini-review of The Adventures of the Faithful Counselor: A Narrative Poem is up at MultiVerse. |
My mini-reviews of the poetry of Say...have you heard this one? are up at MultiVerse. |
I have the pleasure of announcing that Danny Adam's poem, "Now, While the Stars are Invisible," will appear in the August/September 2005 issue of Lone Star Stories. |
I did note that, Amy, and I sent the reviewer an e-mail about it. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon. :-)
Eric Martin, er Marin |
Eric,
Did you know the review refers to you twice as Eric "Martin", both in the listed TOC and in the review itself? Or do you have a new pen name? ;-) -- Amy S. (not signed in) |
My flash piece, "Doubled," received a positive review at Tangent Online today. :-)
Oh, and that graft-oriented writer, Mikal Trimm, received a nice review of his Shadowed Realms contribution as well. ;-) |
Thanks, Josh! I'm glad you enjoyed them. :-) |
Cool, Eric! I like the rodent poem in particular. |
Two of my haiku are online at Between Kisses this month. Enjoy! |
Issue No. 9 of Lone Star Stories is now online.
Fiction: 1. "The Hangman Isn't Hanging" by Jay Lake; 2. "No Mosquito is a God" by Jon Hansen; and 3. "A Good Hair Day in Anarchy" by Ken Scholes. Poetry: 1. "My Brother, He Has a Wonderful Thing" by Pam McNew; 2. "Do Over" by Karen L. Newman; and 3. "Reptile Brain" by Samantha Henderson. Enjoy! |
I'll have you know I hate fishing.
Now bribery, on the other hand... |
I'm sure Mikal is very appreciative of your concise and eloquent review of his poem, Josh. Of course, that's what he gets for fishing for a review here . . . . *grin* |
Eric - didn't you get the review of Mikal's poem I sent? Maybe it got lost in cyberspace. I'll post it here so you can add it to the site:
Mikal's poem is reel good. Git on over there an reed it. ;) |
Gee, it's such a shame no one reviewed last week's SH poetry entry...;p |
I'm happy to be of service, Josh! *grin* |
Thanks for the site, Eric. It's a boon to those of us who are poetically challenged. ;) |
I'm glad to hear that you find MultiVerse useful, Kaori. :-) Good luck with your poetry writing! |
It's good to see you expand Multiverse already. Your reviews are pointing out to me what works and what might not, something I need as I build my own wall of poems.
Kaori |
Thanks very much, Terry! I certainly hope the speculative literature community finds the MultiVerse reviews useful. :-) |
Nice reviews, Jennifer and Eric! Nice catch, poetry reviewing. A splendid service to the community. |
In the aftermath of the elimination of poetry reviews from Tangent Online, I was able to recruit Jennifer Mercer, the former Tangent Online poetry reviewer, to review for MultiVerse. Her reviews of the poetry of ChiZine #24 are now online at MultiVerse. Enjoy! |
I reviewed some of the poetry for the current issue of Mythic Delirium, and you can read the reviews on MultiVerse here. |
Thanks, Terry! :-) |
Message 461687 - Congrats, Eric! Nice going! |
Samantha Henderson's reviews of poems by Greg Beatty and Rio Le Moignan are now online at MultiVerse. |