Author: Sean Monaghan

Writer. Voracious reader.

phantomshadows available again

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The Venus Vulture album phantomshadows, which was originally released on the Resting Bell netlabel, is available again. It can be streamed or downloaded (for free) on the Venus Vulture Bandcamp page. phantomshadows is a minimal ambient drone album of four tracks, each around 14 minutes. The release was combined with a set of images, which are available on the Flickr page.

The funny details:
The release went out of print because I, silly me, had joined APRA – the New Zealand branch of the Australian Performing Rights Association. I think they do good work, but they’re not really compatible with creative commons licences. Christian, who does an extraordinary job at Resting Bell, was faced with paying GEMA (the German equivalent of APRA) fees for releasing my music – even though it was never my intent to generate money from this release. My bad. I’m no longer a member of APRA, though GEMA’s rules are different, it appears possible that I will never be able to release music through Resting Bell or any other German netlabel.

Wake by Jean David Morvan and Philippe Buchet

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Wake is a multi-volume science fiction graphic novel from the early to mid 2000s. I came across volume five, which combines story 6 (Artifice) and 7 (Maximum [in]security). The stories are fun, both brutal and humourous and a bit over the top. Navee, the main character is quirky, tolerant and at times impatient. What I really like most about the volume, though, is the illustrations. Buchet’s use of line, framing, colour and so on is hyper-real. The pictures remind me a lot of Moebius’s work from Heavy Metal. In particular I like the attention to detail – Snivel, Navee’s robot buddy, gets disected and retrofitted to two different bodies, ending up with a nice replacement, yet he always looks like Snivel. When Navee pulls on gloves from the three-fingered aliens, her middle two fingers are forced into a single finger space – not overtly done, but when I noticed that, it was pleasing to see the care that had been taken.

How does a graphic novel fit with reading for writing?

1. Read widely.
2. Graphic novels still have a story.
3. Maybe the story you’re working on but struggling with might lend itself better to treatment as a graphic novel.
4. Read widely.

New Venus Vulture track – “Doubtful Sound 3 March 1963” – available now

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I’ve uploaded a new three minute track to my Reverbnation page. This is another short drifty piece, a little very slow melody/chord progression with some distant voices speaking quietly. The title comes out of the story I’ve just submitted (see this post), and in keeping with my other Reverbnation tracks, is dated (arbitrarily, perhaps, but that’s all part of it). The track, as with the others there, is available for streaming or free download.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I’m having less focus on Venus Vulture music this year as I work on writing more – but I will keep shooting for a track a month.

Matthew Florianz

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Dutch ambient artist Matthew Florianz has a great catalogue of minimal ambient music to drift off to. His work is deep and subtle and very moody, and has been well reviewed in the ambient community. I have most of the releases on CD, and have been lucky enough to get some limited edition releases too. Niemandsland from 2006 was originally released with two disks of extra material and the three make a great developing soundtrack for a day of creativity. It’s nice to listen to CDs, rather than just streaming or listening to downloads through Winamp – in part because I can have the computer off and just edit or handwrite.

Florianz’s CDs are available through Shopsonic, and you can check out his MySpace page for updates, happenings and samples and songs to listen to while online. There is an album’s worth of tracks to listen to on the MySpace page.

Creativity

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Well, it was a busy week – I finally got my story ready and submitted for the Southern Horror Writer’s Horror Club on Flashes In The Dark. This was a story that took a lot of false starts. First it was about a Blight hitting Slope Point (Slope Point is the Southernmost place on New Zealand’s South Island), then a different version of the same premise (Blight rewrite), then a new story with the same characters (House at Bluff), then, finally, Doubtful Sound:

First started back in January, several runs at the story didn’t cut it. Not every file there is a totally new story – ultimately there are variations on each of the four. Finally, with Doubtful Sound I got something that I was happy with. You can see here, too, how I organise my files as I write – date each new version with the day I start it so that I can backtrack, give it a title that makes sense to me. I keep the old versions as I work through edits and redate the file as I make the changes on the screen.

Barris Debris – New Science Fiction/Horror story coming out soon

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My science fiction/horror story “Barris Space” has been accepted into the Lame Goat Press No One Can Hear You Scream anthology, which is cool. Lame Goat Press is really developing very quickly into something of note, and I’m pleased to be associated with it through my stories. Great work by Chris Bartholemew and Christopher Jacobmeyer, and Mark Crittendon, on getting this anthology together – there are some top authors, regulars and new, on the list.

The picture here isn’t the cover – Mark’s cover is amazing – this is just a doodle I did in a meeting.

Okay – this is a Saturday post, which falls out of my schedule, but that’s okay. See you Monday (or Sunday if you’re on Pacific time).

Sounds The Songs of Seabirds

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Sounds The Songs of Seabirds is prolific Vancouver artist Bob Singley. With an extensive catalogue of ambient and experimental music available to stream and download on his Bandcamp site, Sounds The Songs of Seabirds has hours of exquisite background sounds to tickle your ears as you work, rest and play. Some of the releases are long – over 100 minutes – one, the archive, stands at over 340 (like, six hours) and is growing. Suffice to say I haven’t listened my way through everything yet, but a couple of albums in I’m liking it so far. Most of the music is free to download, but with some nice self-deprecating humour there one album is billed as a fundraiser: “Hello. This album is a fundraiser for myself. I am trying to raise up money to pay my rent. And buy some eggs …” It’s $1 (or more, if you want). Cool that if you buy it, there’s a 25 minute bonus track which takes the running time up to an hour twenty (ie – burn a CD of it). The next album, Soorya Namaskaram, is a crisp work, droney with enough whiskers of melody and strum to keep it interesting – you can listen from the embed below, but do check out his download site, or his myspace page. While much of this is improvisational and live and doesn’t quite have the polish of many professional releases, it’s still very cool, with a freshness and immediacy that’s inspirational. Great stuff.

Thursday book – Witchsong

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I blog about Kim a bit, so it’s probably no surprise I’m starting my regular “reading for writing” series, proper, with one of her books – I’m a definite fan. Part of what’s cool about this book is how it shows Kim’s versatility – she writes adult horror/fantasy/supernatural novels, adult romances (as Kimberly Freeman), children’s novels and young adult novels. She’s even written an early reader and a picture book. Anyway, Witchsong is the fourth book in her young adult series about psychic Gina Champion, and perhaps the scariest yet as Gina is faced with a ghost hell-bent on retribution.

What’s cool about reading this, as a writer, is how well-balanced the novel is. Gina has to contend, as in the earlier books, with the supernatural events, sceptical police, busy friends, distant parents and added into this, very nicely, is her almost estranged relationship with her adult sister. Throughout the book things keep unfolding and the danger increases, as you would expect from a thriller, but Wilkins dials it back at times, really heightening the tension, with everyday things that have to be done. It’s as well-tuned as a racing engine.

There are many, many “how to” books on writing a novel out there, but the best guide, I say, is actually reading novels to really understand how to write a novel. While Witchsong might be targeted neatly at a teen audience, it’s still worth checking out for would-be writers.

(Kim recently changed the theme of her website, which runs on wordpress, to Chaotic Soul, the same as I’ve been using for ages! I guess there are only so many themes, and this one must be popular amongst horror writers – Graeme Reynolds is using it too).

Scott H Young dot com – super learning

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Scott H Young’s site on getting more from life is worth checking out.* Often I find I’m reading into websites just for little motivational pushes to help stay focused on the goal line, and beyond. I especially like Scott’s article on reading and how to read more (70+ books a year) and read more effectively (I do like the “cut down on TV” idea in there, though I think there are other ways of speedreading – I do it without the finger).

Okay, as per my previous post this is a Wednesday – random what’s up post. Tomorrow will be a reading for writing post on what I’m currently reading, which kind of relates to the above – reading 70 books a year. At the moment it’s more like 52 at a stretch, and if I’m going to post every Thursday about a new book, then I need to get cracking.

*Another guy, without the H – just plain Scott Young – has a site on getting more from life too, just from a different focus. Don’t confuse the two, though for some people I’m sure they are quite complementary.

What is this blog about?

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been watching my posts over recent times and realise that I’m all over the place. So, I’m going to try a little structure for a while. In general the blog has always been about creativity, whether that be writing, music or art. When I started it was pretty much all music (hence the blog name), then as my publication list began growing, the blog shifted to more of a focus on writing and, over time, has become very broad (perhaps some would say scattered). Anyway, here’s my plan for the next little while, assuming I keep blogging on weekdays**

Monday – weekend musings: how my projects have gone over the previous seven days
Tuesday – music to write to: a short review of music I’ve been listening to as I write
Wednesday – random notes on what’s up
Thursday – reading for writing: a short review of the book I’m reading*
Friday – music to write to or random

I will also, as they occur, post notes about current publications, music releases, general news, etc.

*I try to read a book a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. During marking blocks, heavy writing times and so on, sometimes I slip so I might write about something I read a last year, or the year before, or 1989 or whenever.

**Being to the left of the international dateline, if I post at, say, 9am on a Wednesday, that’s around midday on Tuesday in LA, 3pm Tuesday EST, so if my posts seem early …