Hol Baumann – [Human]

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On high rotation over the last couple of weeks has been Hol Baumann’s [Human] from ultimae records. As I’ve written before, ultimae’s catalog is a little more beat-driven than I would usually listen to, and [Human] is probably at the upper end of beats in my collection. That said, why I’m enjoying it, and enjoying writing to it, is that the album is still very atmospheric – the beats fade off into the background and quiet melodies shuffle forwards. At times it’s edging into world music – a woman singing in a language I don’t recognise (on the song called “Radio Bombay”, so perhaps it is Hindi). I guess that part of writing to music is avoiding music with lyrics I can understand – those words would distract from the words I want to put on the page: I’m seeking atmosphere, and the human voice can create haunting senses … this is an album filled with atmosphere and drive.

I plugged the album in at work for a while and a colleague thought for a moment that it was Massive Attack – so perhaps that’s an indication of the style and tone of Baumann’s album. Again, as with other ultimae releases, this is in a beautiful package – a three-fold digipack, with a 16 page booklet filled with stunning photographs. And a mini “hidden track” too, after a few minutes of silence in the final track.

If you want to sample Baumann’s music, this is his last.fm stream.

Pecha Kucha, tutoring, reviewing and swimming: another frantic weekend

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This is really just a diary entry, nothing too extraordinary here.

My Pecha Kucha presentation slowly evolves. I hope to have it down tonight. I’ll post the talk after Thursday sometime. I’m finally up to date with the creative writing study guide and ready, as I will ever be, to begin marking. Just as well because, even though the deadline isn’t until this coming Friday, the first portfolios have begun to arrive. I’m well into China Mieville’s new paperback The City and The City for review. It has been out in hardback for a while. I am enjoying it – this writer seems capable of everything. Yay, I did manage to get into a pool amongst all the busy-ness and become immersed – so refreshing.

Silver Lines – music by Anna Rose Carter

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Silver Lines is a laid-back EP (around 20 minutes) of solo piano works. All the information about the who and what is on the Schedios Records Bandcamp download site. I’m not often a fan on pure piano – though I do enjoy manipulated works, so it was a surprise to enjoy this so much. Silver Lines is a wonderful engaging background piece to stream or download. The download costs four pounds (GBP), but of course the neat thing with bandcamp is the full streaming so you can listen right through before you decide to buy. There is a CD available too – direct from Schedios.

Schedios Records is fairly new outfit – this is just the second release and the first – Clem Leek has sold out, but is still available digitally (stream and download).

Bored Out Of My Skull link

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

My latest story published on line is here – Bored Out Of My Skull, on the ever-wonderful The New Flesh Magazine. This is quirky weird strange horror, perhaps humour bizarro. I don’t know, but it was a fun story to write.

Yes, it’s Thursday when I usually post about what I’m reading, but truly nothing much has changed since last Thursday – still deep in the heart of reading the tutoring manual and readings. Whew.

Bored Out Of My Skull – new story on The New Flesh Magazine tomorrow

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

A new story – “Bored Out Of My Skull” – is coming out on the The New Flesh Magazine on the 17th (okay, it’s already the 17th here in New Zealand, but I’ll post a proper link tomorrow).

Bored Out Of My Skull seems like a dopey title for a story – a total cliche and I do rail against using cliches. The story, however it is more literal – involving drills and helmets: the kind of thing that naturally finds a home at a place like The New Flesh which publishes flash fiction of the more bizarre and quirky kind. Originally I wrote the story with the cliche as a kicking off point, never thinking the title would stick.

This will be my third publication at The New Flesh, following the more literary “While He Lay Crumpled” and humourous “Submission”. Thanks to the editors Suzie and William for accepting my story.

Igneous Flame – Intox – gorgeous ambient

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I have a couple of Igneous Flame albums – Intox and Oxana. Both are wonderful drifty drone-ambient pieces. Intox is a little over an hour long – so it suits me for a writing spell. It’s good music to be more concentrated to, there’s nothing too invasive or requiring too much attention (unless you want to to really give it attention). Oxana has some shipping forcasts later in the album which adds a little edge.

I still like CDs for variety and some of Igneous Flame disks are still available at Shopsonic, but you can stream music from the Igneous Flame MySpace page. There are also some neat videos at the NME site.

Frantically editing the novel

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

Late post here – I spent the weekend editing the novel and re-writing the last chapter. Mostly the edits are okay – minor changes to sentence flow here and there, for the most part it seems to be working, though that may all change when the editor looks at it. What did need a lot of work was the ending – it was all over too suddenly, so I have rewritten that from scratch. The 400 word final chapter has become three 500 word chapters and rounds it out much better. Of course it’s still draft material, and will take some revising, but it fits the pace and tone better so I feel a little closer to the end. I do want to get it submitted before I’m too caught up in tutoring. That was my weekend.

Where I Write – a photo project by Kyle Cassidy

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Professional photographer Kyle Cassidy has a wonderful project of photographing science fiction authors in their writing space. Where I Write is a quick and cool insight into the variations in how people write – Michael Swandick’s bustling busy office, Will De Smedt’s orderly space, Ellen Datlow’s living room approach. I think my favourite is Joe Haldeman handwriting in notebooks by candle- and lamplight.

Deep in the heart of reading for tutoring

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

I’m tutoring in creative writing again this year, and the first portfolios are due in a little over two weeks which means the early first ones will probably arrive in week. I’ve gotta be prepared and that means reading the book of readings and the study guide so I both refresh myself (this is my fifth year with this course) and settle in, plus keep up with anything new. The first portfolio is poetry, so I’ve been reading Frost and cummings and Wendy Cope and Basho. It’s refreshing and directed. I know that tutoring in this course has helped my own writing hugely. I recommend creative writing courses to all: they’re not the be-all and end-all, but they have a lot of value, both if you’re a student or a tutor (or, I imagine, a lecturer).