Labor of Love you say?  ABSURD Obsession?  Complete waste of brain power and time?  Pursuit of expression of the indomitable human spirit?  Art?  All of the above?  Sure.

Anyway, here is the game I rewrote and redesigned that was inspired by my favorite writer’s book.  The Life Story of a Chilean Sea Blob and Other Matters of Importance by Theodore Carter.

The Rules

Blob Together

Gelatinous and Loving It!

A solitaire puzzle for 1 or cooperative game for the whole family. Based on Micropul a game by Jean-Francois Lassonde and inspired by the short story collection The Life Story of a Chilean Sea Blob and Other Matters of Importance by Theodore Carter.

Contents

48 unique tiles

Goal

The Chilean Sea Blobs have been splattered into pieces and you have to help them get put back together.  Try to form the largest blobs possible in a single color – even if it has two faces!

Each tile has at least one sea blob section on it.  Connect the sea blob pieces to other sea blob pieces on tiles already in play.  There are two rules.

1. Any new tile that you lay must attach to the rest of the tiles already in play.  Tiles may only be placed by matching blob colors together.
2. The sea blobs like each other, but they don’t want to mix up their colors.  So the purple and green sea blobs may never touch.

Starting The Game

Find the start tile.  Half of the tile is covered by a purple sea blob, and the other half in green sea blob.

Shuffle all the tiles and lay them face down on the table.  Each player receives 6 tiles.

Each player takes a turn laying a tile. For every tile you lay you may draw one tile.

The game ends when all the tiles are played.

Scoring

To score each blob must have at least one face and be close, meaning that no part of the blob is open to the table or, in other words, it must be surrounded by white tile.

Count the corners of each tile within each completed sea blob (Face Tiles are worth 5 points).  That’s your score.

Note that it is possible to make two, two-faced blobs and include each blob section in the blobs.  If you can manage that… take a picture!

But I did pause long enough to write this post so you could get hooked up.  I’m a bro like that.

So here’s the fix.

Phillips books are Rum, Sodomy, and False Eyelashes, (that’s got a nice ring to it, don’t it?) and Rut.

And here’s his blog if you haven’t been reading it…. Pocketful of Ginch.

From the looks of it there are a number of good reads on that website to add to your summer reading list as well.

Check out Scott Phillips’ May 6th Last Collector Standing interview.

Check out this article.

Poetry’s Latest Battleground: WSJ.com

Search for a New Poetics Yields This: ‘Kitty Goes Postal/Wants Pizza’

Google-Inspired Verse Gains Respect; Shakespeare Meets the Anagram Generator

From the look on Gary Sullivan’s face, he’s happy with the development of his movement.

Check out the magazine.

There’s a very nice preview function.  My story is page 15 and features a photograph with a pile of newspaper.  

I’ve read about half the magazine so far.  It’s pretty good.  There’s zombies, and cowboys, horror, and humor, and one strange absurdist (that’s me.)

Nicely Done, Bryce!

There is a growing community of absurdist writers.  I’ll be introducing some of them in this blog by way of reviewing there works–the first step I’m planning to take as a member of this literary community.  I’ve been writing absurd works for a while.  I just didn’t realize that there was a movement going on and that I was part of it.  Some of my closest writing friends have been doing it as well, though we never considered how to label our work… we just knew it defied categorization into any of the established genres.

So now that I’m more aware of what’s happening, I’m planning on getting more involved by reading more absurdists and reviewing their works. I’ll be reaching out to the more established community members leaving thoughtful comments on their blogs as well as my blog url.

In this way I hope to establish myself as a participant in the absurd conversation.  So when my new friends come to my site to see their works reviewed or whenever a new reader comes they’ll see my new absurd logo.

So what’s up with that?  What the hell is it?

One of the interesting elements in neo-absurdism is the idea that identity is mutable.  This idea is very appealing to me.  All of my work deals with identity issues.  Even Torque, my gritty pulpy crime novel, dealt with identity  in the criminal class.

The other element of neo-absurdism that I find extremely appealing is the allowance for humor.  Absurdism isn’t always funny, much of it is bleak–I’m thinking of Beckett here, but to be able to laugh at the human condition and not be labeled as genre writing, is a pretty cool feature.  Thus my Alien novel fits the mold, although in a fringe way.

What’s my Alien novel?  It’s a humorous take on the Alien Invasion genre.  It’s not very serious and most Alien Invasion enthusiasts will suggest that while the book actually contains an alien race bent on overthrowing Earth, the circumstance, and the method of invasion is absolutely absurd.  And they’d be right.  It’s not really an Alien Invasion Novel.  It’s an absurdist novel.  I just have some revision work to do.  Like a lot of revision work to do.

So back to the logo.  Bringing those two beloved aspects of neo-absurdism together, I created the faceless cartoon head.  The “Absurd Circle” referring to the human head.  Its faceless quality referencing the concept of mutable identity.  It can be taken a step further that the head is really empty, which works for me.  The more I consider what life is about, the more I realize I don’t know anything… nor does anybody else.

The more theories I hear, the more religions I become exposed to, the more I think it’s all so absurd.  It’s so hard to live and so easy to die.  We absurdist reject suicide… it’s much more fun to laugh at the human condition, to find man’s ridiculousness endearing.  Vonnegut wrote, “Don’t let anyone tell you anything different, we were put on Earth to fart around.”  I’m paraphrasing, but I’m certain he used the words “fart around.”  And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately, farting around.  Thus the new logo.

But since then, I haven’t written neo-Noir.  My writing, and even Torque, to some extent has been laden with questions of identity.  In many of my fictions characters wear masks, or in the case of the new book, My Alien Sex Fiend, there’s a character who literary shape-shifts.  The book has an alien in it, and it has clones, and it’s not entirely serious.  So what category of fiction is it?  Sci-Fi fans wouldn’t called it Sci-Fi.  I don’t think it fits comedy either, and is that even a real literary genre?

Thematically, my writing has been dealing with the idea that identity is mutable.  You can decide who you are and change it as quickly as you change your profile pic in Google or Yahoo.  In our current age, it’s really that easy.

This is absurd.  Or should I say neo-Absurdism.  So am I really an absurdist?  I think the world is pretty absurd.  Is that what the world thinks of me?  I mean outside of my wife and kid.

Absurdism questions the nature of identity, but it’s also allowed to tell jokes without being dismissed as genre, which sounds like my description of the Alien book.

One of the things I need to do on this quest, is find others who’s literature is similar to my own and see how they define themselves.

I sought and found Tom Cho.  The title of his book, Look Who’s Morphing, caught my eye.  So I looked it up.  And the cover of his book made my eyes sore.  But the reviews and the tidbits I read of it made me instantly connect with it.

Kind of an Asian Fonzie look, isn’t it?  How absurd is that?  His jacket cover reads,

“Within my fantasies there is a deep intellectual and emotional engagement, a fundamental questioning of the nature of identity, and the way it is constructed in a world filled with images of popular culture.”

I can jive with that–identity questions and pop culture references, that’s what I’m playing with as well.  So there’s one example.  But his book is full of short stories.

Most of my writing colleagues have gone the traditional path that the University system lays out for us as writers.  Write short stories.  Publish those stories.  Then write novels.  At Johns Hopkins I learned very quickly that my short stories suck.  And they did.  Big time.  They read like treatments for novels.  And that’s what I treated them like.  So I started writing novels.  I was one of the first in my group to get a novel finished.

But then the question came up.  How does an unknown writer, even one with an agent, attract the attention of an editor?  My good friend Scott Phillips came back with, “Publish short stories, editors read those lit mags.”

Well shit.

And I’m currently disillusioned with traditional publishing.  Not really so much, but I know they aren’t going to take My Alien Sex Fiend because by nature it defies categorization which is required to fit into the machine of the big publishing houses.  Hence  my experiment for the year on alt-publishing.  But perhaps the principle of attracting attention through short work still applies?  Especially during the run up to publishing a novel.  Yeah, that sounds good.

So I reached out to an alt-publisher, Bryce Beattie, over at Story Hack.  He’s conducting his own experiment.  I decided to contribute.  I sent him a 140 word version of a flash fiction story called “Fashioning Time.”  And he’s accepted it for publication in a POD magazine.

I haven’t published the full length version of this story on my blog because I’ve promised it to another site who’s looking for an artist to make some paintings inspired by the story.

I’ll post updates as they come in.

That’s the spirit of this post.

Darcy’s revision technique calls for taking all the breaks out of the chapters so there’s no white spaces.  She uses single space and reduces the font size until the entire book is about 30 pages in length.  She prints this manuscripts and makes annotations in the form of highlighters and sticky notes.  She pinks her plot points and yellows her character development.

It’s highly useful for pacing a novel and seeing if your middle is sagging.

But alas, I’m without a printer.  So I did what any Mac writer/tinkerer/econ conversatist (that’s a nice way of saying I’m too cheap to buy a printer and would cringe at using the ink and pager) would do.  I made a pdf.  And hey! it’s the green thing to do.

The results were interesting.  And worth sharing.

Check out the screen grab.

I used the various highlighter colors in the Format Pallette to note the aspects of the manuscript I wanted to review.  It’s best to use really bright colors.  That’s a tip, folks, write it down.  Then clicked on print.  In the bottom left corner there’s a PDF button that allows me to save to PDF, saving the me and the planet.

I made several copies of the Shrunken Mss script plotting out Character Arcs, Plot Points, B story lines, Scenes that worked, and minor Character appearances.

What Darcy does is lay the manuscript out on the floor and steps back to look at it.

I placed three highlighted shrunken manuscripts side by side on my screen.  I used the open PDF drawer to look at my manuscript pages as thumbnails and was able to cross analyze a number of different issues.  The good scenes vs. the naughty scenes was particularly interesting.  I easily could see where naughty stuff for the sake of being naughty yielded diminishing returns.

My thumbnail drawer allowed me to look at 26 pages at a time.  I had the option to scale my thumbs into a larger size for closer analysis.

I tried it using Darcy’s method of deleting all the white space, but found myself struggling to figure out where I was in the MS.  So I tried it again, leaving all the page breaks at the chapter ends intacted.  It shortened my document creation time as well as giving me the much needed anchor.

One of the cons of the PDF method is that I had to scroll to see end chapters.  But I didn’t feel that it detracted from the experience appreciably.

In one of my Shrunken Manuscripts I highlighted a minor characters appearances.  I noted he disappeared after a certain page.  So I went back in and highlighted in a separate color places where I could have him return.  Print, Save As PDF.  And now I was not only able to analyze the current draft but also plans for revision work as well.

On top of learning something about my manuscript, this was playtime.  I had lots of fun with it.  It invigorated the revision process and gave me a view of the book as a whole.  Thanks Darcy!

So far I have had wonderful reviews from my students.  Here are some of the comments that they made verbally and in writing as they did their reflections in their journals.

Bryce (second grade boy)  Is that a real Goblin?  It looks like it.  He’s gobblin up his dad.  That’s not a real goblin (as he looks at the picture)  His hands aren’t green.  That’s really cool to look at the pictures and see.  (Favorite part of the story)  Let’s make a deal.  That’s a good story.  Actually, monsters aren’t really ghosts are they?  My dad and I saw a ghost together.  That was fun!

I liked the part where he said,”Eat my dad” when it really was his dad.

(Bryce draws a picture of the Goblin as part of his reflection)  I would sow the goblin’s mouth shut so he can’t rip somebody’s head off.  He can kill somebody.  He has a stream of blood coming out of his mouth.

Kimmy/second grade girl

(comments while drawing a goblin)  He goes back.  He has greenish-brown  hair.  His hand is cool.)

(Kimmy’s comments to Bryce)  Why would you say he’s good?  He eats people!  He’s good to the little kid but…

The goblin looks awesome!

Bryan/third grade boy

I like how he’s going to make his dad do a whole bunch of stuff just to make him brush his teeth.

I’m going to ask my dad to turn into an airplane and I’m going to fly him to Florida and my mom too.  Then I’m going to fly back home.  Then I’m going to have one gigantic enormous party.  I’m going to be home rockin out.  Then I’m going to give all my dad’s money to a hobo to buy a car.

“You’re going to be home alone like the kid in the movie?”

Yeah, and I’m going to set a thousand mouse traps to catch all the bad guys.

David/third grade boy

I’m going to tell my dad to dress up like a clone trooper. Yeah, we can get out the light sabers.  That will be so cool!

another third grade boy

I’m going to tell my dad to dress up like a super hero.

Bryce/third grade boy.

He looks like R2 D2.  I’m going to ask my dad to dress up like Java Fat.  He’s this guy that’s a clone that has a jet pack; he can fly!

I’ll make a deal. (talking about the scene where the kid makes a deal with Maurice) He’s dressed up like a human;he’s a real monster.  Clunk!  Oh, no!  He gets gone.  Oh, no, nothings under there.  Clunk!  Mom, monster!  Oh no, dad’s dead.  Call the doctor!

Emily/third grade girl

It’s a weird story.  His daddy’s weird!  They have the same pajamas on.

Kimmy/third grade girl

It’s a boy story.  It’s funny. (comments as she draws)   Be forced to eat’em.  Monster, you still there?

This is a story that boys in first to third grade can relate to, especially second and third grade.  As a teacher, it would be a good story to teach word choice and voice.  The students really related to it and could take off from it to make the story their own such as the boys talking about what they want their dad to turn into and then what happens.  Also, all the boys took off to Star Wars and jet packs and acting that out.  The boys’ and girls’ thinking also went to ghosts and demons and their experiences with them.

Word Choice:  (What kid’s laughed about)

I don’t have to pee.

His own teeth are frightening.  Every one is pointy and crusty with yellow gunk.  The inside of his mouth is bloody, like he’s eaten another one of his kids.

He’s always talking about it like he’s got a clock for a brain.

If you hold him by the tail, Dad, he’ll bite your hand off.

Kids can relate to it, and it creates a lesson to teach voice for written expression.

Kid’s can relate to this because the dad doesn’t take over totally.  The father allows the kid to have control as Bryan says, ” I like the way he’s going to make his dad do a whole bunch of stuff just to make him brush his teeth.”

Like his dad is clueless allows the kid to be more knowledgeable than his dad  about stuff.  ”If you hold him by the tail, Dad, he’ll bite your hand off.”

Time is a “Dad thing” affirms that Dad’s and kid’s priorities are different and dad can respect that.

Dad allows the kid to be irritated with him for always bossing him around with things that the kid just can’t see are as important as how he wants to spend his time.  He’d much rather build his imaginary creature than brush his teeth and Dad and him both get that their priorities don’t always mesh.  The kids love that!

They also like the ending because the  fun doesn’t end. There’s something to look forward to as dad’s going to be a Clone Trooper tomorrow.  They can also ask their own  dad to be something.

“So I pretend he doesn’t exist and keep doing what I’m doing.”  finally    This allows the kid to express his feelings by his behavior but more importantly in his thoughts of pretending he doesn’t exist.  Kids and parents both have feelings and are respected.  ”Dad finally gets the message and leaves,” empowers the kid but within limits as dad consistently comes back even if he is Maurice, the goblin.  Both win.

Other great descriptive word choice:

space dragon guy going
kid snack
Small nose and almond shaped eyes that can smile and frown as well as her mouth.  Her short black hair curves away from her face in slopes shaped like bananas.

breath stinks

The relationship with the mom is very important as mom is there and she’s a loving, nurturing mom, one who is giving of self and who will get up nightly to nurture her son and who would gladly spend the day with her child only if she could.  She also understands her kid as he’s probably grumpy because he didn’t sleep well, but she doesn’t let him completely off the hook as she frowns  with her eyes and mouth when the kid becomes angry and  says, ” I hate dad.”  The message is a clear one, not a good choice to choose those words but ok to be irritated.

Mom is also real, one that brings her down to earth and maybe like all moms not perfect;  After all, her breath stinks.  Kids can relate to that.  She’s like my mom, too.

The book is filled with endless possibilities.

See, mom’s been right all these years… I am special.

Hey Jeremy,

I’m glad you received my words in the spirit in which they were offered.

The bottom line is that I believe your potential is greater than the dumbass stuff. To hell with the lowest common denominator!

I learned a few things from having my blog a few years ago. I never told anyone about it while it was active because I wanted the reaction to be as objective as possible. Here are some of the things I learned:

1. Consistent postings eventually lead to consistent traffic

2. Images are a must (a lot of people found my blog by searching images on Google)

3. Building an audience takes time

4. A link from a popular site or message board can come suddenly and yield dramatic results

5. You must clearly understand why people visit your site, understand your reader’s expectations and meet or exceed them

I suggested the slice of life in China because I think it’s a potential gold mine, even if you just post interesting pictures of Hainan Island or if you come across some Engrish. I’d bet that people would visit your site regularly to read about what living there is like. One of the blogs I check regularly is about a guy who deliberately moved from San Francisco to Detroit – now, I would never move to Detroit and I don’t really agree with this dude’s beliefs but I still find his site interesting enough to visit regularly. People like personal, slice of life stuff; it’s genuine.

Back in 2005 there was some early talk about putting those virtual strip search x-ray machines in airports. I blogged about it and it included an image of what the machine does. Someone on a message board linked to my post and KABOOM! I got over a thousand visits and several other links from other sites. It was a short post with an image, a link to a news article and my comments but it was the most successful post I ever wrote and I had no idea it would be so popular. That’s the cool thing about having a blog.

Since you’re looking to grow an audience you must get a clear idea of why anyone would visit your site but more importantly, why they would return. I know it’s a cliche but variety is the spice of life as well as the spice of a blog. I think a mix of short stories, vignettes, life in China, images from China as well as your opinions on things will help grow your blog.

One last thing… when I started my blog the purpose was to explore the ways in which the USA was devolving into Oceania of the novel 1984 (hence the address freedomisslavery.info, an address I no longer own by the way). Everything I posted fit into that box – every news article, every image and every one of my comments served as evidence that the USA was turning into Oceania. The purpose of the blog was crystal clear and I understood exactly why people would keep coming back. That kind of clarity is absolutely essential.

Ciao!

Thanks Bro,

And now you need to start a blog that teaches people the essentials of blogging. It really helps to have people with experience sharing lessons they’ve learned.

I’m taking stock now of what directions I want to go in. I hear what you’re saying about variety. So some kind of mix of stories and travel journal is likely what’s going to happen. I don’t want to get started on my rants regarding news or governments of any form. I may end up isolating myself and having no country. And I find it temporal. I’m trying to look beyond this temporary existence, using my quirky stories as the vehicle of that examination.

The purpose of the blog for me, as the writer, is to use it as a lab. So this kind of exchange is essential.

Thanks again for your earnest review and insightful comments. JT

Anyone else want to jump in on this please feel free to post a comment or shoot me an email.