Video Games are Real

Author: Caleb J. Ross

Charactered and Vain make for great reading

Vain Magazine could claim more ancestral lit zine origins than most. They have the staple bound cover of an indie mashup, the forward thinking mindset of an east coast glossy, the strong literary content of small press chap network, and the design sensibilities of art school college grad with trust fund comfort to keep his ideals high and his being higher.

Writer, editor, designer, and 1000 more -ers, Richard Thomas, turned me on to Vain Magazine last year when his story, “Underground Wonderbound” graced its pages. I was impressed, not only with his story, but with the overall aesthetic appeal of the magazine. Too often, hand-stapled, small print magazines get the scoff. This one deserves some praise.

Now, after all that build up, I’m here to let the ego shine. My story, “Charactered Pieces,” appears in the new issue, #7, right now. I wrote the original version of this story in college, and it has been sweating since. The Vain Magazine version is a much better, much more mature version, but still has all the underdeveloped Siamese twin left leg goodness of the original.

August 17, 2009
The Coming (Staying?) of Metafiction…

Metafiction (see: “intertextual fiction”): self-referential fiction. A simple definition but one open to great possibilities. Think of the infinite mirror effect in that when two similar subjects are forced to reflect each other, self-commentary snowballs.

For me, the pull started with Jorge Louis Borges’s story, “The Garden of Forking Paths”:

“In all fictional works, each time a man is confronted with several alternatives, he chooses one and eliminates the others; in the fiction of the almost unfathomable Ts’ui Pen, he chooses – simultaneously – all of them. He creates, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork…No one realized that the book and the labyrinth were one and the same.”

Wow.

For Borges, character was secondary to plot, a tactic generally snubbed by the literateri as a convention of commercial(ized) fiction. But for Borges, the philosophical ideas were so strong that they became characters in and of themselves. The Library of Babel and The Circular Ruins (both appearing in stories of the same name) are far more interesting concepts than any character that may be dropped within them.

A few years after I discovered Borges, I happened upon Mark Z. Danielewski’s HOUSE OF LEAVES which takes the idea of Metafiction and mashes it against illustrative elements to create both a figurative and literal labyrinth with(in) the text. See this and try not to drool:

Then I found Steven Halls, THE RAW SHARK TEXTS which, while obviously influenced by HOUSE OF LEAVES, succeeds as a great story in its own right.

I bring up Metafiction for two reasons:

1) I think we are only beginning to see with Metafiction what will certainly become a much more popular style in the years to come. With desktop publishing at a point that anyone with a computer and a thumb can layout a book, and with other artistic mediums now being so easy to manipulate on-screen, the possibilities truly are endless to create mini-networks of self-referential “book objects.” And where there is ability, there will be a niche (then (un)fortunately a grocery store shelf) to fill.

2) What else is out there? I’m looking more for the book that manipulates the physical features of a book (more like HOUSE OF LEAVES rather than manipulates the concept (less like Borges’s work). Post a comment, guide me.

August 15, 2009
Colored Chalk #9 now live. Heaven or Hell? We’re taking a vote.

Hard to believe we are already at issue #9. And the stories just keep getting better. This new issue is all about Heaven and Hell.

From Richard Thomas, #9’s editor, and Colored Chalk staple:

IS IT YOUR IDEAL HEAVEN OR UNBEARABLE HELL?

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. One man’s trappings are another man’s freedom. What is heaven and hell to you? Is it brimstone and hooves opposing angels floating on ethereal clouds? Is it merely the eternal battle of dark vs. light, good vs. evil, right vs. wrong? Is it pushing a boulder up a hill day after day to no avail or having your liver eaten for eternity, each new dawn awakening to this horrible echo? Is it just a quiet moment of peace, that subtle bliss as you fall asleep or waking next to those you love?

The writers in this issue of Colored Chalk all speak about their versions of heaven and hell, visions of horrible moments they hope will never happen to themselves, or the ultimate goal, the rapture and pinnacle of good and all that is right in the world and beyond. Or maybe it’s just a weekend stuck in a crummy hotel, a quick kiss before leaving for work, the commute that drains your life force, and the smiling face of a daughter or son eager to have you home.

Now wait…where were we…heaven, or hell? You tell me. I hope you enjoy the work of these gifted writers as much as I do.

Issue 9 contains fine work Zsa Zsa Wong, Vincent Louis Carella, Beth Mathison, Craig Wallwork, Karen Brown, Shaindel Beers, Christopher Dwyer, M. Kilbain Lazer, Paul Mallaghan, Michael Paul Gonzalez, Valerie Geary, Kara Kilgore, Gayle Towell, Gavin Pate, and Nik Korpon

As always, we promote legal theft as a downloadable and distributable .pdf file. Go to the Issue 9 page for details, printing instructions, and visual over-stimulation.

August 2, 2009
David Blaine’s new chapbook…and I helped!
Over at Outsider Writers, Pat King, etiquette aficionado and all-around glorious specimen, is heading up an OW Chapbook Series, designed to paper and bind voices of the otherwise electronically chained OWC editors. So, what the hell does this have to do with me? How can I wring the appropriate ego from this post? Two ways:
1. I am an OWC editor, meaning that a fiction chapbook of my own waits in the pipeline. More on this in the future, you can be sure. For now, let this description suffice: Mitchell, a twenty-something Cougar Cub with a midlife girlfriend named Marsha, wakes each morning, slightly more machine, slightly less human. As his condition progresses he looses his capacity for human emotion, and potentially with it Marsha. “As a Machine and Parts” (working title) is a story of Mitchell’s struggle to find out which assembly line he belongs to.
2. Pat asked me to design and lay out the first chapbook, a request I immediately accepted. And, if I do say so myself, the final product is quite stunning (with help from art by Jeff Filipski, of course).
The first author, David Blaine, as been around the poetry interwebs for years. He has published two previous chapbooks, “A Fine Feathered Faith,” and “The View from Here” (about which David McLean of Epic Rites Press says “This is what they used to call poetry. You want this book, believe me, especially if, like me, you try to write poems, because this fucker shows us how to do it.”)

Now, I’ve never claimed to be a poet (and actually, have demonized poetry on occasion), but truly, I like this guy’s stuff. The forthcoming OWC chapbook, ANTISOCIAL is filled with examples that make poetry relevant. Forget the pseudo-intellectualizing verbosity so commonly associated with poetry. ANTISOCIAL is straightforward, digestible, yet not against encouraging a bit of self-reflection. Plus, it just might make you laugh.

Pre Orders are open now. The chap comes out in late Summer/early Fall, and as of today will be limited to 100 copies. “But Caleb, it probably costs too much.” Stop whining. $6.00 is all it takes to own this wonderful artifact. “But Caleb, I don’t know where to get it.” Click here. “But Caleb, I am out of excuses.” True, you have no excuses.
July 15, 2009
“A Trench…” now available (again) in the new issue of Cause & Effect

Last year I spit out a filthy little story called “A Trench is No Place for God,” reappropriated, for a good cause, from one of my novels-in-progress. The cause: the 2008 Nefarious Muse short fiction contest. And although this heavy little taste of that novel did not win, I am proud to say the good folks over at Cause & Effect recognized something redeeming and accepted it for their issue 12.

Author’s note:

This story fits snugly in a war-themed novel that I am working on, inspired by the Tom Waits song “Hoist that Rag.” During a 2007 writing intensive with the brilliant Craig Clevenger (The Contortionist’s Handbook, Dermaphoria, and upcoming-not-soon-enough, Saint Heretic) I reached back into this novel for a chuck I could modify as a stand-alone story. “A Trench…” was that chunk.

The best part, Clevenger had some positive things to say (“I love the exchange, a “priest” out of his depth in a very real sense, and a war victim who’s much more in control than Million would have expected… his trivial wounds in the heat of battle, his audacity to seek help in the midst of so many other more seriously wounded soldiers… I like it”), sandwiched by some genuinely helpful direction. This Cause & Effect version represents that direction.

Visit Cause & Effect, buy a copy of issue 12. Only $7.50. Consider it an investment; you can use your copy as toilet paper when the world’s supply inevitably runs out.

Last, but perhaps most important, I will take a Dremel tool to your cochlea if you do not also read Nik Korpon’s “Glass Bubbles.”

June 27, 2009
New story up at Full of Crow

I have known Lynn Alexander and Aleathia Drehmer for a few months, just long enough to realize how much they truly care about art in all its forms. Both women have been past editors over at Outsider Writers Collective (where I met them), but have moved over to head the online lit zine, Full of Crow.

My story, “Globe Valve,” is now live as part of their Summer 2009 flash fiction supplement, MiCrow (get it? Micro…). When Lynn approached me about submitting a story, I jumped at the chance. I have rarely worked with a more passionate editor.

Author’s Note:

I wrote this story specifically for Full of Crow, but intend to leverage it for an upcoming project (more on that in the coming months). On the surface, “Globe Valve,” seems a straightforward vignette involving two people who witness a jumper suicide from the balcony of a downtown condo. But a single surreal moment, when one of the characters touches the falling body, opens the story up to much more.

Head over to Full of Crow to read it now. Leave some comments here, let me know what you think.

June 15, 2009
Broken Clocks but a fully functioning new issue of Colored Chalk

Extree, extree! The new issue of Colored Chalk sits ready for consumption amid worthy virtual newsstands/host servers! Also, corruption within the Govna’s office! Read all about it!

Will I ever be disappointed with an issue of Colored Chalk? No. No, is the answer to that question.

How best to describe the issue 8 theme, Broken Clocks? How about a some text from the minds behind the pages:

It’s the human condition to lick the wounds of our mistakes and pick at scabs of regret.

from the original theme by Alex J. Martin

Be it misery or reverie, we mutate with our memories, traversing private histories, with critical eyes, and an editor’s pen.

issue 8 editor, Jason M. Heim

Issue 8 contains fine work from Nik Korpon, Justin Holt, Derek Ivan Webster, Richard Thomas, Elizabeth Kate Switaj, Carol Stone, Stephen Graham Jones, Rebecca Gaffron, Alan Frackelton, Linda G. White, Tait McKenzie Johnson, E. Ryan Gaudreau, Christi Krug, Terence Kuch, Chris Deal, and R. James Onofrey.

As always, we promote legal theft as a downloadable and distributable .pdf file. Go to the Issue 8 page for details, printing instructions, and visual over-stimulation.

June 1, 2009