August News

Hello, friends! Here is my news for the month of August:

I have a new poem up at my poetry home-away-from-home, The Rye Whiskey. “Metaphysics and Bananas” is an ekphrastic piece, inspired by The Uncertainty of the Poet by Giorgio de Chiroco. Thank you, as always, to editor John Patrick Robbins.

“Anisomelia,” appears in the latest issue of BigCityLit. Thank you to editor Alyssa Yankwitt and the rest of the BCL team.

"After" and "High School Reunion" Issue 2 of Pocket Lint magazine (Canada). My thanks to editor Warren Dean Fulton for this nifty, old-school print mag.

I’m also thrilled to share that my poetry collection, Requiem for a Robot Dog, was featured on the Wardrobe’s Best Dressed. The Wardrobe is a part of Sundress Press, and promotes work by women, nonbinary and queer authors. Many thanks to guest editor Heather Leigh for selecting my book. The post also has a sample poem from the collection, “Amen.”

Aside from that, I haven’t been writing much lately-- futzing with some prose, no poetry at all. BUT I received a very nice message from someone who read and enjoyed my work in the latest issue of Pocket Lint, and I heard from a poetry friend in Nigeria that he just published his first poetry collection. He dedicated it to his parents and to me. I never get used to the idea that people around the world have read my work. Like most writers, I also can’t stop thinking that if I’m not productive all the time, I’m a failure. Just thought I’d share as a reminder that no matter how you’re feeling about your work at the moment, someone out there appreciates it.  

Check out My Grief in a Nutshell by Korede Kakaaki. I got my copy and am looking forward to diving in. 

Finally, in case you missed it, I posted the Necropolis (Order of the Four Sons, V) soundtrack here on this blog. I’ve also created a playlist on Spotify for it, as well as Books I-IV, and my untitled WIP set in Corbenic. Hope you give ‘em a listen and enjoy:

The Order of the Four Sons

Carcosa

Where Flap the Tatters of the King

The Sacred Heart

Corbenic

Next up, I will be posting trivia for the sixth and final book of the O4S series. I may write another bonus O4S trivia piece because I’ve thought of things I forgot on the last five. We’ll see.

Thank you for reading! As always, I would be thrilled to hear from you, so please feel free to post a question in the comments or shoot me a message via email or social media.

 

 

The Necropolis Soundtrack

For you O4S fans out there (all five of you), here is the soundtrack for Necropolis, The Order of the Four Sons, Book V. 

I've embedded links to YouTube on this list. If you're on Spotify, I've created a playlist called Necropolis. I plan to do the same for the rest of the series, including Books I-IV.

Consider this your spoiler warning - if you haven't read Books 5 and 6 of the series, you might want to stop now.

**10/12/21, Edited to add, I've created Spotify playlists for all the books. The Spotify lists actually have more songs than what I included in these posts, so, I hope you enjoy the bonus tunes. 

Spotify Lists:

The Order of the Four Sons

Carcosa

Where Flap the Tatters of the King

The Sacred Heart

Necropolis

Going Forth by Day

If you want my commentary on the songs, here are the other soundtrack blog posts:

The Order of the Four Sons

Carcosa, Part 1

Carcosa, Part 2

Where Flap the Tatters of the King

The Sacred Heart

Going Forth by Day

The Necropolis Soundtrack

1. Cerulean – Utopia, Goldfrapp

I'm wired to the world
That's how I know everything
I'm super brain
That's how they made me

Fascist baby
Utopia, utopia

Coyote and I always thought of Book I as the dungeon crawl, Book II as the western, and Books III-IV as the fairy tale. Books V-VI are the dystopia. Oh sure, on the surface, Cerulean seems terrific—everyone’s young, happy, and have everything they need. All they have to do is cede their emotional control and then, later, their soul. NBD.

2. Starry Wisdom – Immortals, Fall Out Boy
 
In an odd way, Starry Wisdom (and the Order higher-ups for that matter) are temporary immortals. They do have vulnerabilities, but otherwise, they can ride the crazy life train as long as they want. Or, they can step off. But that’s not enough for Joan and her little inner circle. They want real immortality. They want godhood. Nothing less will do.

 
3. Bathory & Mihaly – Kill of the Night, Gin Wigmore
 
The danger is I'm dangerous
And I might just tear you apart
Oh, ah, oh
 
I'm gonna catch ya
I'm gonna get ya, get ya
Oh, ah, oh
I wanna taste the way that you bleed, oh
You're my kill of the night…
 
The student surpasses the master. Wherever Mihaly is, I think he must be at least a little bit proud. (As I mentioned in the Book V trivia, their fight is one of my favorite scenes in the series. I love Mihaly using the chapel figures to fight her—both St. George and the dragon!)
 

4. Joan/Michael - Black Milk, Massive Attack
 
Love you for God
Love you for the mother…
 
Obviously, the most fucked up mother and son relationship imaginable requires a dark song. I don’t know where people get the idea that motherhood is some sort of sacred office because I’ve seen plenty of bad ones, and poured every one of those bad traits into Joan.

 
5. Kat’s Funeral – Dark Paradise, Lana Del Rey
 
Every line of this song is Bathory without Kat. If anything could make Bathory suicidal, it would be the loss of her little puss. Fortunately or unfortunately, Bathory loves herself too much to really consider it.

 
6. Bill joins the Borg Collective – Powerhouse, Raymond Scott
 
This is an instrumental—if you grew up watching Looney Tunes like Coyote and me, we associate it with industry and assembly lines. We joked that Bill getting hooked up to the machine was a process the people of Cerulean have down like clockwork.

 
7. The Uriel Recordings – Say Amen (Saturday Night), Panic! At the Disco
 
I pray for the wicked on the weekend
Mama, can I get another amen?
 
Joan’s story is told by the person who loves her most—Michael. And Michael, of course, is pretty much the only person who has witnessed her long and extraordinary history. The tragedy of this song and of Michael is that he could have been such a good person. Like Katarina, like Janus, he’s someone who could have been a wonderful person, but was never able to overcome his upbringing. Better luck next time, Mike.

 
8. Joan – Personal Jesus, Depeche Mode
 
Joan is her own personal Jesus. They say the greatest sin, the sin that brought down Lucifer, is that of pride. You’d think a former pope would know that.

 
9. Sanctuary – Take Me to Church, Hozier
 
If the Heavens ever did speak
She's the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday's getting more bleak
A fresh poison each week
"We were born sick," you heard them say it...

Joan's propaganda doesn't even have to be particularly good-- she's got her people hooked on her sermons. Literally. 

 
10. Ceana – Lovesong, the Cure
 
A well-known song, but I think it sums up Michael’s feelings about his wife—simple, straightforward love and devotion.

 
11. Matriarch - No Handlebars, Flobots
 
A song about someone who has no limits—no limits on ability, but no limits on ambition and ego either.

 
12. The Scarab Protocol/Tabernacles – Zion Train, Bob Marley
 
Which man can save his brother's soul? (save your brother's soul)
Oh man, it's just self control (oo-hoo-oo)
Don't gain the world and lose your soul (just don't lose your soul)
 
Again, things seem pretty good in Cerulean—except for the whole losing your soul thing. Nothing comes without a price. And maybe the Cerulean peeps would deserve it if, you know, they'd had any choice in the matter. But the horror of it is, they didn't. 

 
13. Geomancers – Stunnin’, Curtis Waters
 
I'm a pretty boy, I'm stunning (Stunning)…
 
Whoa, used to be a hot boy but I'm straight gorgeous now
Whoa, if you wanna see me you gon' have to book appointments now
Whoa, baby, call me stone cold 'cause I'm so stunnin' yeah
Whoa, I smell like fresh cookies out the oven mixed with money

I will always have a soft spot for the Corbenese boys—so pretty, so clever, so well-dressed, so rich. But arrogant. And the whole misogyny thing. So I will just admire them from a distance.

 
14. Football - Hook 'Em Horns, Johnny Ringo
 
Since Emily mentions she went to the University of Texas-Austin and she teaches the young Corbenese soldiers how to play football.

 
15. Cat Attack – E-Girls Are Ruining My Life, CORPSE

She say I kill her cat...
 
This is one of those songs I listened to while writing because of the feel of it—a good action sequence needs something with a hard, fast beat.  

 
16. Opening Salvo – Bring da Ruckus, Wu-Tang Clan

The geomancers make an (unathorized) move, but you gotta give 'em credit-- they bring da ruckus.

 
17. Rostov – Nightmare, Avenged Sevenfold
 
Every word of this song describes JD's experience of having his own subconscious turned against him by Starry Wisdom's answer to Freddy Krueger.

 
18. Ghosts – Street Spirit, Radiohead
 
For all the spirits trapped in Cerulean who are slowly fading away, if not being consumed outright by Starry Wisdom mages to fuel their own power. A sad dirge for the necropoli, the cities of the dead. 

 
19. Pinkie Swear – Die Young, Kesha
 
Let's make the most of the night like we're gonna die young

Young hearts, out our minds
Runnin' till we outta time
Wild childs, lookin' good
Livin' hard just like we should
Don't care who’s watching when we tearing it up (you know)
That magic that we got nobody can touch (for sure)
 
Alyssa tells Kate about her Terminus Revelation. Kate reminds her that she actually has something to live for now, and makes her swear to try and avert it-- pinkie swear, even. Alyssa agrees. But then…
 

20. Al gets tossed off a building – Blow Up the Outside World, Soundgarden
 
Nothing seems to kill me no matter how hard I try
Nothing is closing my eyes
Nothing can beat me down for your pain or delight
And nothing seems to break me
No matter how hard I fall
Nothing can break me at all
Not one for giving up though not invincible I know…
 
So much for the pinkie swear. I think Murph says it best: "Oh, Al."
 

21. Attack on the City - Jesse James (Just Ask), Bruce Springsteen 
 
At least once in every world, we toss in a Jesse James reference. This is Cerulean’s. The Colonel is humming it when they launch their first coordinated attack on a Cerulean city.
 

22. Leto Undercover – Game of Survival, Ruelle
 
Are we the hunters?
Or are we the prey?
 
Leto poses as one of the Corbenese exiles to get in good with Bathory and Nathan. It feels very much like a Daniel in the lion's den scenario, but look how that turned out.

23. Booya – Born for Greatness, Papa Roach

No we're not nameless, we're not faceless

We were born for greatness

It doesn't matter if the world has gone mad

If we just hold on, if we just hold on, yeah

The sky is falling and the world has gone mad

Emily's leadership pays off in a big way-- the team successfully take out one of the Starry Wisdom MVPs and her minions. (Also a daeva, a rejected god. Again, NBD.) Thank goodness Emily decided to teach the guys how to play football! Hook 'em horns, Hayes!

 

24. Nathan’s Journey – Beast, Southpaw Remix
 
I'm a motherfuckin' beast…
 
Say what you will about Nathan DePriest—he knows what he’s about.
 

25. Knock-Out Gas – Bodies, Drowning Pool
 
Starry Wisdom comes up with a fearsome counterattack measure-- taking a page out of the Corbenese's book, they create a knockout gas, which results in one of our heroes getting captured.
 

26. Open a Gate – All the Things She Said, Tatu
 

The Colonel, captured. Michael offers Alyssa a trade. The geomancers try to stop her, but just try to stop Alyssa from rescuing the one parental figure she has left. She has five minutes and the clock is ticking.

So that's the list. Next up is the soundtrack for the sixth and final book of the series, Going Forth by Day.