Blurb Request, Piety (Dragon Poetry)

Hi all,

I’m currently seeking a few blurbs/short reviews for Piety, a dragon-themed mini poetry collection.

* More Info + PDF Download @ http://jessINK.com/piety.htm

If you could provide a short 2-3 line blurb/review for Piety, I’d greatly appreciate it.

I’d be happy to link back to your blog/website with the blurb from the product page on jessINK. I intend to use some blurbs on the promo copy for a future dragon-themed short story collection. Cross-promotion available via Q&A and/or guest post contributions too.

I *could* post a quick ad on the sidebar of Dragonsinn.net, though it’ll be a bit troublesome because I have different HTML templates per section of the website. I’ll probably update the sidebar once I finally have a dragon-themed anthology + novel ready (June 2012 onwards).

Thanks for reading!

Jess.

P.S. Currently formatting Teen Guide, co-authored with Matt Posner. We’re looking forward to publishing that one.

Female Assassin

I put up a (Busy) notice in August 2009 (didn’t blog till December 2009) — I might do that again sometime in August this year. That’s the second blog post I’ll be repeating “as part of a schedule” (somewhat — here’s the other one regarding “next book/s“) — guess it’s just the way I work, lol. I think I’ll have to do it coz it’s the only way I’m going to be able to focus on:

1) completing the final edits for 1: The Intern
2) completing the final edits for The Other Side of Life
3) completing my bachelor’s degree
4) drafting the plots for the upcoming installments in Sins07 (which 1: The Intern is part of), and The [Cyberpunk] Elven Trilogy (which TOSoL is part of)
5) deciding which book project I’d like to create/develop, after #4

If not, I’m going to be listening to Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory over and over again, while I “try” to “sort out my thoughts” (I can work to music in the background, but silence is usually best when I REALLY want/need to concentrate on something).

–> Asian girl sketch / pencil. I prefer working in ballpoint pen. Wanted to get the angle of the face/head correct though, so started off (and stayed with, in this case) with pencil. The above sketch is also a vector (image can be enlarged and still stay sharp) — Inkscape is a good alternative of (the very impressive, but very expensive) Vector Magic. Here’s a good Inkscape tutorial too.

I’m currently going through 1: The Intern — not sure how long I’ll take to edit and make sure everything’s as I’d like it to be.

I’ll have to think about what I want to do with another incubus/succubus project I have in mind. I don’t know which project I’ll jump to once I finish editing The Other Side of Life – I think I’ll have my answer by December 2010.

Yes, I’m aware I’m jumping around all over the place. It’s how I sort things out sometimes, lol (particularly when there’s a lot to sort out).

I like to write haiku sets (of ten) when thinking of future plots/themes/characters/etc. I wrote one yesterday which was female-assassin-themed — production-wise, I’m getting a little bit stuck with the same things I’m getting stuck with regarding the incubus/succubus project (format of the story: short story? Novella? Full-length standalone novel? Series? Mainstream? Alternative?).

I think I’m going to (take a couple of close friends’ advice and) ignore all of that / go back to basics / focus primarily on the storyline + characters, lol. By the way, I remember (I think it was Delta of Venus) one of Anais Nin’s short story collections, where the same character was featured in two entirely different stories. I thought that was pretty cool.

Anyway I have to continue working on my strategic marketing assignments, because I just caught up with my schedule (and don’t want to fall behind again).

Included below is (half of) the Female Assassin Haiku Set (the other half is plot-related, which I might expand on in another set). First drafts are usually freeform and written in a slight stream-of-consciousness style — I find it helps keep the whole process real.

[Haiku Set: Female Assassin]

1. Shut Up
All your lecturing
And constant yammering make
My plugged-up ears bleed.

2. I live for the moment
When my cold gaze locks
Onto their terror; victim
Draws their final breath.

3. (Evil Menstrual) Cramps³
A shotgun splinter
Shooting up my entire
Left side…I can’t move.

[#3 is real, oh-so-real...]

4. Hitwoman 101
What I do rewards
Quick intellect over a
Quick trigger-finger.

[#4 is c/o Eido's "Hitman" game]

5. You Break My Heart, & then
Ignore me; here’s a
Poison kiss to burn your lips
And remember me.

=== The End ===

Traditional Publishing Industry

Was digging up some old files — found a haiku set I’d written in April 2010 on “the traditional publishing industry.”

P.S. Sense of humor required. Grammatical + spelling quirks are deliberate.

[Haiku Set: Traditional Publishing Industry]

1. Gang of Middlemen
Corporate greed +
Social-climbing = Work’s
Top Priority.

2. Wolfpire
Mister Vampire
Met Miss Werewolf, and spawned a
Lucrative franchise!

3. Zero Karma
Monkeys chasing tails,
Slipping on banana peels
They flung earlier.

4. Business Transactions –
Where we care not for
Suppliers or customers:
Ju$t the bottom line.

5. B.S.
“It’s all a game of
Luck and chance — there’s no need for
Marketing research.”

6. E-revolution
Dinosaurs, leeches,
and parasites will be flushed
out of the system.

[E-revolution is c/o Mark Coker @ www.smashwords.com]

7. Thanks
For all the drama.
I’ll stick with something more sane,
Sensible & safe.

8. Good Gamblers
All good gamblers know
their stakes — I’ve better chances
Sticking with Indie.

9. I was blind
But now I see, that
the way to go is my own;
from you i’ll be free.

10. Fact vs. Fiction
Be responsible:
We’ll point fingers to not be
Held accountable.

=== The End ===

// sum-up of the traditional publishing industry ^^

// for a more serious/scholarly look at the publishing industry, check out my quite-popular post, Indie vs. Traditional Publishing.

// unrelated note #1 — here’s how a person surfed into my blog not too long ago! keywords = “jess c scott poetry analysis”

// unrelated note #2 — latest sketch [this was a preliminary study -- i intend to do an improved version...when i'm not so busy/tired with homework + formatting files for future book projects].

that was based on Korean popstar, se7en.
the sketch below was based on Korean popstar, Rain.

think i’ll draw some ladies later in the year, haha (i NEED to get started on proper “human anatomy” type sketches/studies, lol).

// unrelated note #3 — The Devilin Fey *almost* managed to cracked the Kindle top #1,000 in the past week (maybe it will, later). i got a nice screenshot of TDF taking the #1 spot in “Hot New Release in Bargain Books” (got the screenshot by chance / was Googling something else).

// unrelated note #4 — i have 3-4 more books i’ll be putting out by the end of this year. right now i have 6 (and the most deviant one is selling at the fastest rate, hmm…) — so i might “disappear” yet again for a while from online spaces/social media places/etc, to concentrate on the (quality of the) books + my summer “strategic marketing” course + my fall 2010 semester (3 upper division courses + one elective). it’d be nice and relaxing to just focus on those + doing some drawing/whatever on the side.

// unrelated note #5 — Proactiv works — glad i tried it out.

Contemporary Poems, Sneak Preview, Porcelain

Update July 2010: PORCELAIN is done :)

* * * * *

Screenshot #1: Some of the sketches in Porcelain (above = eBook version)

A quick look at the two sections which I thought would be the most tedious to do. They actually ended up being quite smooth to see through (I shouldn’t speak so soon…).

Screenshot #2: Automatically generated linked TOC (table of contents) :)

I think Porcelain has ~50 poems, and maybe ~20 short fiction pieces. Plus some essays and stuff.

This is a poem included in the book, which I wrote when I was 17+ (I think). I liked the poems I wrote at that age — it was a slightly wayward but very intense time of my life.

.:Trouble:.

When purpose precedes passion
Fashion; dignity
Reason; intuition
Religion;
faith.

When fame succeeds Art
Love; a random fling
Social networking; personal connectivity
Philosophy;
Truth’s axiom.

I’ve just realized that the TOC shows 40 (instead of 50) poems right now, so yep, that’ll be a bit more tweaking to do.

Damn my perfectionist ways…

P.S. I’m about 10% done with packing/clearing stuff out of my room -_-.

Figs, D. H. Lawrence

Goodness knows why I never discovered D. H. Lawrence’s poems — I’d better get to my TBR (to be read) pile once the Spring 2010 semester is over.

Side Note: I’ve been tweaking/improving the Kindle editions of EyeLeash and 4:Play. Unfortunately, there’s a 36-48 hour wait (I’m about 15 hours in…), before you can make anymore changes. I think it could be improved a little bit more (something to do with the paragraph spacing, which is not as accurate as I’d like it to be), so I hope I can get that fixed over the next few days.

In the meantime, here’s D. H. Lawrence’s poem, Figs. One of my most favorite poems (and writers) of all time, ever.

Figs
by D.H. Lawrence

The proper way to eat a fig, in society,
Is to split it in four, holding it by the stump,
And open it, so that it is a glittering, rosy, moist, honied, heavy-petalled four-petalled flower.

Then you throw away the skin
Which is just like a four-sepalled calyx,
After you have taken off the blossom, with your lips.

But the vulgar way
Is just to put your mouth to the crack, and take out the flesh in one bite.

Every fruit has its secret.

night light

‘night light’ is a poem I wrote, which was accepted for publication in an issue of Side of Grits (Rural Messengers Press).

‘night light’ also features in (the poetry section titled ‘Appetizers’, of) my second book, 4:Play, and my freebie eBook, Porcelain. The formatting’s better there; it isn’t supposed to be left-justified.

night light

(i hear) clock on mantelpiece
heart *thump-th-th-th-thump*
your step floorboard creak
door swing you’re in

(i see) your shadow figure
lunging forward throwing covers
crystal-white night light you
hungry action ready go

(i feel) you me move
alive awaken midnight
blinded.by Truth Purity
blood.on.fire baptized skyhigh

(i taste) glory power you
man woman love life
egos breaking selves transcending
bodies holy communion

(i smell) you me clean
dirty fresh wet
sweet tongues bathing
skin+bones hit by lightning

The Boy at The Train Station

–> pic by buttonheart

‘The Boy at The Train Station’ is a poem I wrote, which features in the January 2010 issue of AMULET (print issue / AMULET features 12 carefully chosen writers each month to be presented to the literary public).

Here it is, because it’s one of my personal favorites, lol.

The Boy at The Train Station

I only saw him for two fifths of a second.
I wish I had for longer.

He was seated on the floor, against a wall.
Nobody saw him.