text:
Summer Art Workshop in Cebu
November 16, 2014 – 08:45 pm
Summer Workshops for Kids at Ayala Center Cebu
AYALA Center Cebu, Cebu's premier destination for shopping, dining and entertainment, launched its Happy Colorful Summer campaign recently, a series of workshops for kids and fitness enthusiasts throughout March, April and May plus a line up of new store openings, international artists, summer concerts, fashion shows, music and art festivals and other events for the whole family.
With school out, happy kids do what they love and Ayala Center Cebu has lined up a premium selection of workshops at The Active Zone for kids aged four to 12 starting April 7.
Keep the kids active this summer while bringing out the best in them with fun learning workshops in taekwondo, fashion modeling, painting and jazz and contemporary dance classes.
Taekwondo, "the way of the foot and the hand", originated from Korea and is one of the world's most popular martial arts. It combines self-defense and combat techniques with sport and exercise.
Benefits include an improvement of strength and balance, concentration, discipline and respect. Have your child learn the basics or advance their martial art skills with Kenn Sports Academy's Taekwondo Workshop.
There will be two batches – April 7 to May 2 and May 5 to 23. Classes will be held on Mondays and Fridays from 11 a.m. – 12 nn at The Active Zone.
Registration fee for 15 sessions per student is at P2, 500 plus a P500 receipt from any Ayala Center Cebu store for regular shoppers and P2, 500 for Amore/VIPinoy cardholders upon presentation of their card.
Classes will be held in two batches from Mondays to Fridays, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. with the first batch from April 7 to April 29 and second batch from May 5 to 22. Registration fee for 12 sessions per student is at P3, 500 plus a P500 receipt from any Ayala Center Cebu store inclusive of a photoshoot and fashion show and P3, 500 for Amore/VIPinoy cardholders.
If you have a budding artist at home, Joel Olivares' Painting Workshop on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will further their potential, hone their skill, and celebrate their artistic streak, imagination and creativity.
Registration fee for ten sessions per student is at P2, 500 plus a P500 receipt from any Ayala Center Cebu store or P2, 000 for Amore/VIPinoy cardholders not inclusive of materials.
Let the kids show their jazz hands as they learn the art and joys of dance with Ballet Center's Jazz and Contemporary dance classes from April 8 to May 13, every Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Registration fee for ten sessions per student is at P2, 500 plus a P500 receipt from any Ayala Center store and P2, 000 for Amore/VIPinoy cardholders.
Share the fun and excitement as the kids showcase their new talent at the Grand Culmination Day at The Activity Center on May 24. Reservation is ongoing with limited slots available.
Source: cebudailynews.inquirer.net
Tyler School of Art Pre-College Summer Workshop
Summer Camp Art and Craft Workshops.mp4
by giveshisview
The Chorus and Cassandra
Grand Street Magazine, Autumn 1985
In his imperishable Treatise on the Art of Political Lying, published in 1714, Dr. John Arbuthnot laid down a standard for falsifiers and calumniators that has yet to be excelled:
Detractory or defamatory lies should not be quite opposite to the qualities the person is supposed to have. Thus it will not be found according to the sound rules of pseudology to report of a pious and religious prince that he neglects his devotions and would introduce heresy; but you may report of a merciful Prince that he has pardoned a criminal who did not deserve it.
Sixteen years ago I went to the Examination Schools at Oxford University to hear Professor Noam Chomsky deliver the John Locke Lectures. The series was chiefly concerned with modern theories of grammar, syntax, and linguistics, but Chomsky attached a cond…
Event to highlight fashion designers — Bellevue Reporter
Seneca & Spruce will showcase emerging fashion designers from the Pacific Northwest as part of the official launch party Aug. 15. The company, founded in 2013, is a online magazine and retailer based in Seattle.
House's history dug up — The Columbian
She is a graduate of Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, where her focus was literary arts. And she sees something of that in archaeology. "It's discovering ..
The new social studies: A Fulton workshop - Summer 1967-68 (Masters' theses. Education)
Book (State University of New York, College of Arts and Science, Professional Studies Division)
Ugandans may be quiet, but they are not dumb — The Observer
We talk of hundreds killed during the Amin error and thousands in the Luweero triangle war, and millions in the war in the north with no deep feelings. We seem not to take hard lessons and ensure it never happens again. Instead some ..
Summer Art Workshop Quezon City
Summer Art workshops in New York
Summer Art Workshop San Diego
Summer Art workshops NYC
Shakespeare in Action is a Toronto-based, multi-racial Shakespearean theatre company for young audiences. The company aspires to enhance the arts and education by bringing Shakespeare's plays to children and students across Toronto. Founded in 1988 by Artistic...
Loxton knows how to celebrate SALA; 64 exhibitions, workshops, art competitions, town garage sale... join the tour: office@salafestival.com Tue, 5 August 2014 02:21 AM
RT @ace_southwest: Catch stories, art, songs, workshops & trails with @story_republic until 16 Aug @newlynexchange #storytelling #penzance Tue, 5 August 2014 02:25 PM


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"""
LICENCE
-------
Copyright 2013 by Kitware, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Please refer to
KITWARE_LICENSE.TXT for licensing information, or contact General Counsel,
Kitware, Inc., 28 Corporate Drive, Clifton Park, NY 12065.

"""

from .svm_learn_impl import SVMClassifier_learner as learn
from .svm_search_impl import SVMClassifier_searcher as search

# TODO: Should describe the learning params file format here and/or define a
#       base class for impls here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Tombstone Lost. In May, 2002, Metro Public Works advised Christ Church Cathedral, corner of Broad & 9th Avenue North, that new sidewalks were to be constructed along Broadway and Ninth Avenue. The Cathedral Archivist and Property Manager requested that careful examination be made for a tombstone of Col. John Maclin, which was described, in 1859, as being "near the lamp-post" at the "corner of Broad & McLemore Street" (now called 9th Avenue North). Historical research has not located a photograph of the exterior of the church, built in 1894, or pavement surrounding the building which shows a tombstone in the pavement. No tombstone was visible in the sidewalk in 2002. During June, 2002, prior to laying the new sidewalks, Metro Public Works carefully examined the area under the old pavement near the corner and did not find a tombstone.
Brief history of the corner of Broad & 9th Avenue North (formerly called McLemore): Fletch Coke, Archivist, Christ Church Cathedral. 2002.
The lot on which Christ Church Cathedral now stands was originally part of 240 acres granted, in 1794, by the State of North Carolina to the Trustees of Davidson Academy. By 1805, the land was divided into Lots. From 1815 until 1837, ten acres were owned by John C. McLemore. In 1843, Thomas Maney acquired 1 ½ acres, from McLemore's ten acres, including the appurtenances (house & outbuildings), garden and stable lot, located on Broad and McLemore. In 1859, during the residency of Judge Thomas Maney and his family on this property, historian A.W. Putnam wrote in History of Middle Tennessee, "The headstone which used to stand at the grave of Col. John Maclin, now lies in the pavement, near the lamp-post, corner of Broad and McLemore Street."
to the home page, click on "Report a Cemetery" and send an email.


Meet the 4moms High Chair! Traditional high chair trays are tricky. You have to line up the rails and coordinate the latches to attach them. 4moms believed that high chairs would be better if the tray was simple to use. That's why they created the 4moms High Chair. Magnetic latches make it easy to attach the tray, and the magnetic tray top holds the included bowl in place, making mealtime less stressful. This clever high chair is a baby registry must-have!
Recommended for children less than 60 lbs.


Today Emma went on a school field trip, and I got to go along as a chaperone! We had a blast seeing all of the animals and eating lunch together. It was a great birthday treat for me.
Starting last weekend we began celebrating Ray's 38th birthday. We saw three different movies, went out to lunch together, and just tried to do more quality family things together. Today Ray spent the day with Emma on her school field trip and was able to go home after and just relax. Tonight we capped off his celebration with cake, a steak dinner, gifts and more quality time as a family.
Ray you are loved so much, by so many people for a variety of reasons. I love you for who you are, for the loving and devoted Daddy you are to our two precious girls, for the supportive and thoughtful husband you are to me, for the loving son you are to your parents, for the wise older brother you are to Eric... there are just of few of the reasons why I and so many others LOVE you.
We wish you a Happy Birthday and a year filled with love, laughter, health, happiness, and prosperity.
Emma performed in her first school performance today, the Texas ABCs. Each student had a speaking part, and Emma talked about the letter M, which stands for "Mockingbirds, Music, and Mt. Belvieu!" She also sang some other songs, like "Deep in the Heart of Texas." She did a great job with her class, and she loves to be on stage and be the center of attention.


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With Amazon's announcement that SSD is now available for EBS volumes, they have also declared this the recommended EBS volume type.
The good folks at Canonical are now building Ubuntu AMIs with EBS-SSD boot volumes. In my preliminary tests, running EBS-SSD boot AMIs instead of EBS magnetic boot AMIs speeds up the instance boot time by approximately… a lot.
Matrix that out for reasonable combinations and you get 492 AMIs actively supported today.
I list AMIs for both PV and HVM, because different virtualization technologies are required for different EC2 instance types.
Where SSD is not available, I list the magnetic EBS boot AMI (e.g., Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid).
To access this list of recommended AMIs, select an EC2 region in the pulldown menu towards the top right of any page on Alestic.com.
If you like using the AWS console to launch instances, click on the orange launch button to the right of the AMI id.
The AMI ids are automatically updated using an API provided by Canonical, so you always get the freshest released images.


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The Get Up Kids Secret Group set hits all the right emotions
By Mike Damante on December 6, 2019 at 11:59 PM
The Get Up Kids have always been known for putting on satisfying setlists,but Friday night's show at Secret Group truly touched upon the past and present.
Touring off the fantastic new album "Problems," the Get Up Kids opened with the record's nostalgia-driven opener "Satellite,"which wouldn't feel out of place between a "Four-Minute Mile" or "Something To write Home About" track. "The Problem Is Me," "Lou Barlow," "Fairweather Friends," "Waking Up Alone," and the underrated "The Advocate" were all "Problems" songs performed. With such a beloved back catalog of work, the Get Up Kids always incorporate fan favorites like "Holiday,""Red Letter Day," "Don't Hate Me," and "Action & Action," as well as other important songs "Overdue" and "Campfire Kansas." It was great seeing "Coming Clean" return to a regular the Get Up Kids set as well.
The show being held at Secret Group was fitting since longtime local promoter Andrew Youngblood has always been an avid fan and friend of the band. The crowd, like the band, certainly aren't kids anymore, but still emotive and energetic just like the Get Up Kids. The band's shows are always a place for the past and present to intertwine.
Mike Damante
First thoughts: Anti-Flag '20/20 Vision'
Angels & Airwaves return to Houston
'Pick It Up! Ska in the 90s' a skankin' good time
Vinnie Caruana plays intimate house show
Vinyl review: AFI 'All Hallow's E.P.' 20th anniversary
New music roundup: The Menzingers, Bayside, Lagwagon, nothing.nowhere, Vinnie Caruana, Chris Farren
Miked Search
scott on Houston is getting an 'emo night,' here is what they should play
worm on Third Eye Blind, Dashboard Confessional play semi-subdued kind of night
Silas Dargan on New record roundup: Refused, Good Old War, T.H.E.M
best song on New record roundup: Everclear, Best Coast, Millencolin
dave on Review, photos from MUSINK music, tattoo festival

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This website is subject to change without notice.
Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the extent allowed by law.
Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements. Consult with your healthcare professional before purchasing any of our products.
This website and its content is copyright of OrthoPlex or of it's brand name suppliers. All rights reserved.
INFORMATION ON THE www.OrthoPlex.com WEB SITE IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE and any information or materials posted on the web site are intended for general informational purposes only, and should not be construed as medical advice, medical opinion, diagnosis or treatment. Any information posted on the web site is not a substitute for medical attention. See your health-care professional for medical advice and treatment. Consult your health professional for assistance in chosing to use any product found on our sites.
YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY THE www.OrthoPlex.com and its affiliates, employees, agents, and representatives, and to hold them harmless, from any and all claims and liabilities (including attorneys fees) which may arise from your submissions, from your use of material obtained through the web site, or from any such acts through your use of the web site.
www.OrthoPlex.com provides this Internet site for your general information only. www.OrthoPlex.com reserves the right to delete, modify or supplement the content of this site at any time for any reason without notification to anyone. www.OrthoPlex.com makes no representations, warranties or assurances as to the accuracy, currency or completeness of this site or its contents. www.OrthoPlex.com shall not be liable for any damages or injury resulting from your access to, or inability to access, this site, or from your reliance on any information provided at this site. Any communications you send to the Web Board site are on a non-confidential basis, and www.OrthoPlex.com is under no obligation to refrain from reproducing, publishing, or otherwise using them in any way or for any purpose.


If you wish to get in touch the please fill out the contact form and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Please note that if you are messaging over the weekend it may take a little longer than normal for us to get back to you.
Thank you for contacting The Swing Kings. We will always to get back to you as soon as possible, but please note that if you are messaging over the weekend it may take a little longer to reply.


Leicester City have confirmed that they have rejected a bid from AS Roma for Algerian winger, Riyad Mahrez. Manager Craig Shakespeare earlier in the week announced that no offers had been made for the talisman winger, but this has now changed.
With AS Roma losing their own tricky winger Mohamed Salah to Liverpool, the Italian team are looking to bolster their attack for the upcoming season, especially out wide. Having finished 2nd last season in Serie A, only four points behind Juventus, Roma know they need to strengthen their side for the new Champions League season whilst also continuing to chase down the Turin side and win back the title, something they have failed to do since the 2000/2001 season.
Mahrez's future is in the air at the moment, having announced that he wanted to part ways with the one time Premier League winners back in May. However, the ex-PFA winner signed a new contract deal back in August 2016, meaning he's tied down to the club till 2020. With such a long term contract in place, it is rumoured the Midlands side want £50 million for the winger but Roma did not match that estimation with Shakespeare saying, "The bid was politely declined because it was a low offer".
Roma may go back in with a higher offer, with the Salah deal raising £36.9 million, whilst Tottenham will also be on red alert to the news that Leicester are listening to bids for the player.


text:
Colombia stalls signing the FTA with Panama
The Bulletin Panama
The Panamanian Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ricardo Quijano said that Panama has a special interest in signing free trade agreements with Colombia and Mexico to enter the Pacific Alliance not as observers, but as a full member.
However, there have been delays with the agreement with Colombia, because they are currently analyzing the legal content to amend the text of the treaty.
"We are a little worried because we wanted to have it finalized and signed between July and August. Colombia is taking longer than expected, but we are still waiting for their reaction," said Quijano.
Meanwhile, the problems with Colombian export taxes on textiles and footwear products continues to affect negatively the Colon Free Zone's traders who have suffered multi-million dollar losses over the past few months.
Some companies that operate there are even thinking of laying off some of their employees to keep their businesses afloat.
The Colon Free Zone's users are also being hit hard by the lack of payment from their Venezuelan customers who owe them between $700 million and $800 million.
After a recent visit by Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli to his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, it was agreed facilities will be made available to the businesses so they can obtain enough dollars to pay their debt. Quijano said that it is expected that the matter will go smoothly and the first payment will be received shortly.
With regards to the Free Trade Agreement with Mexico, Minister Quijano said that the negotiations are starting from zero. "We already sent the formats and the Mexican authorities are studying them. The first round of negotiations will start at the end of the month and, depending of what happens, we will advance to the next round," concluded Quijano.
Panama has great interest in forming part of the Pacific Alliance to assure its position as the logistic hub of the region by serving as a platform to transport products from Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile to the European and Asian markets.
Colombia Panama


How much should I pay a screenwriter up front for signing the contract?
Home » Blog » How much should I pay a screenwriter up front for signing the contract?
Question by muhammad_ali_muhammad_ali: How much should I pay a screenwriter up front for signing the contract?
I am making an auto/action film and investing millions of dollars and I would like to know the salary for the screenwriter for signing the contract.
Screen writer contracts vary a great deal. I would advise that you have an entertainment lawyer and executive producer work through those details.
You can gather some ideas from this Wikipedia artcile at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenplay.


text:
Poor Bol Bol: Projected lottery pick falls deep into the second round
By James O'Connell
Jun 21, 2019 | 1:04 AM
Well, that's unfortunate.
Bol Bol appeared to be nothing less than miserable on Thursday night. The 19-year-old out of Oregon, son of former NBA player Manute Bol, dropped like an anchor at the draft. First he fell out of the lottery, after being projected in the top-five before the college season and in the late lottery in the days leading up to the draft. Then he fell all the way out of the first round. And kept falling.
Bol Bol "I want to prove everybody wrong" pic.twitter.com/OrGBTVK6Tx
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) June 21, 2019
The 7-foot-2 center went from can't-miss prospect to spending quiet time in the "Green Room" (an award show-style table setup on Thursday) as he was the last of the bunch to be drafted.
The Denver Nuggets would eventually trade for the No. 44 pick from the Miami Heat to draft Bol. The 19-year-old averaged 21.0 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 2.7 blocks in just nine games. Bol's season came to an end due to a stress fracture in his left foot.
Foot injuries and players who are freakishly tall don't necessarily agree with one another, as the injury appeared to raise more concern among teams than originally anticipated. Still, Bol has an outstanding handle for his size, great agility, plays smothering defense (at times) and is an elite shooter.
[More Sports] No Market for Chris Paul »
Bol — decked out in a suit adorned with a sparkling spider web — was visibly distraught, even when his name was finally called. The best he could muster when asked how he felt afterward, still on camera, was a tepid, "It feels pretty good."
"I just want to prove everyone wrong, and come out and be the best player I can be.
Bol's immediate path to glory isn't going to get any easier with the Nuggets. Denver's roster is loaded with bigs led by Nikola Jokic, Mason Plumlee, and Paul Milsap. Given that the Nuggets are a contending group who doesn't need immediate contributions from Bol, as they also have Michael Porter Jr., their first-rounder last year, returning from injury, giving Bol time to develop.
Latest Basketball
No Market for Chris Paul


UNIONBANK of the Philippines will launch a virtual currency ATM in Makati.
In a recent chance interview with reporters, UnionBank Chairman Justo A. Ortiz said the Aboitiz-led lender will soon launch an ATM for virtual currencies, which will be placed in its concept branch "The ARK" in Makati City.
"We're going to put up a Bitcoin ATM in our Ayala Ave. ARK [branch]. The machine is here already," Mr. Ortiz said.
Virtual currency is a type of digital money issued, controlled and used by a certain virtual community.
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Etherium and Ripple are virtual currencies that are not regulated by any state or central bank. They rely on cryptography to secure and verify transactions as well as control the creation of more units.
Such currencies can also be used to pay for goods through the internet and can be treated as an investment given its fluctuating valuations.
Mr. Ortiz added that the bank will partner with financial technology firm Coins.ph to enable the system.
In a separate statement, UnionBank said the ATM will provide their clients with an alternative channel to convert peso into virtual currency and vice versa.
The lender added that the move to launch an ATM of this kind is part of its aim to serve the evolving needs of its clients, including those who use virtual currencies.
"That should be interesting. It's not part of what you do on a daily basis, but it's cheap now. Maybe it's time put a few in your drawer," Mr. Ortiz added.
The usage and trading of cryptocurrencies in the country is legal and regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.


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Notorious Tabloid Editor Dylan Howard Departs American Media Inc.
Dylan Howard, the National Enquirer editor who was elevated to chief content officer at American Media Inc. following a U.S. Justice Department probe of the company in connection with the same secret payoffs scheme that put Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen behind bars, exited the company on Mar. 31. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that his contract was not renewed.
By Gary Baum
Gary Baum
Plus Icon garymbaum
More Stories by Gary
Farce on Top of Tragedy: 'Rust' Producers Escape Accountability (Column)
Les Moonves Accuser's Family Speaks Out About LAPD's Mishandling of Her Case
Chateau Marmont Agrees to Landmark Union Contract
Neither Howard nor AMI immediately responded to a request for comment. Variety first reported his departure.
Howard's tenure atop AMI's tabloid empire (which included RadarOnline and Star) brought him to the white-hot center of not just Trump's narrative but those of Harvey Weinstein and Jeff Bezos as well. His tactics landed headline-generating scoops while earning him a singularly notorious reputation in media as a henchman for the powerful. Ronan Farrow accused him of digging up dirt on Weinstein's accusers and shredding documents incriminating Trump that the Enquirer had amassed but never printed. Later, Bezos made public Howard's emails threatening to publish compromising pictures of the Amazon founder and girlfriend Lauren Sanchez unless Bezos' Washington Post stood down on what Howard characterized as the paper's critical coverage of Saudi Arabia's business relationship with AMI.
After AMI entered a plea agreement with the Justice Department, Howard transitioned to the CCO position under company head David Pecker. In the new role, he oversaw start-up subsidiary Broad + Water Studios, which produced documentaries in keeping with the firm's tabloid instincts. In November 2019, The Daily Beast reported that he'd proposed to secretly pay $1 million to R. Kelly to participate in a TV docuseries he was hoping to develop about the R&B singer's underage rape allegations. The proposed arrangement would have involved the formation of a shell company to hide payment from AMI to Kelly. Howard acknowledged the overture to The Daily Beast but noted that it "went no further than general exploratory discussions between [Kelly's camp] and myself and was never advanced internally at American Media."
Howard also busied himself with multiple podcast series and co-authored quickie true-crime books (some based on each other) on favored tabloid topics, ranging from the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein to the death of Natalie Wood. Even after the Justice Department agreement, he was able to find AMI new partners for his projects in the likes of Endeavor's nascent audio division and continue to foster existing relationships with such entities as the Reelz Channel and Discovery Communications. He was also able to convince a series of high-profile figures, from Megyn Kelly and Phil McGraw to Martin Sheen, to promote his work — even when not long before he'd subjected them to his adversarial reporting.
In 2017, the Associated Press reported that Howard was accused of sexually harassing employees at AMI's Los Angeles offices earlier in the decade. The company claimed it had conducted an internal review at the time and didn't find serious wrongdoing. He later departed AMI for 15 months to run Celebuzz, where he faced similar allegations. Howard then returned to AMI to oversee the Enquirer and all of AMI's newsrooms out of its New York office. Pecker previously declined to respond to The Hollywood Reporter's questions about the various harassment claims.
Dylan Howard's Hollywood Reboot: Why Are So Many A-Listers Working With a Tabloid Henchman?
American Media


OK so you might be thinking isn't this the same idea as your Snowflake Cupcakes??? Well… yes. White chocolate, it turns out, is just as pretty when piped into hearts, tinted pink with food coloring, and dusted with edible pearl dust or edible glitter. Make the toppers a few days in advance and keep them in the fridge.
The recipes for yellow cupcakes and chocolate buttercream are my absolute favorite. The cupcakes are super buttery, light, and moist. And the chocolate buttercream… sorry, words cannot describe.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.line the cups of a standard (12-cup) muffin tin with paper or foil liners. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a liquid-measuring cup, mix milk and vanilla; set aside.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry ingredients, followed by milk-vanilla mixture, then remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix.
In bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix confectioners' sugar with cocoa. Blend sugar mixture with butter alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Beat until smooth. Blend in vanilla.
Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Stir in food coloring. Let cool a bit, but not harden. Pour into a a pastry bag with a #3 or 4 tip or into a ziploc bag with a tiny bit of a corner cut off. Place wax paper on a cookie sheet. Pipe white chocolate into your desired shapes. Let harden in refrigerator.
If you want your hearts to be shimmery like mine, dust with edible pearl dust (available at craft stores) or sprinkle with the regular decorating sparkles from the grocery store while wet.


Most people have been involved in an auto accident at some point in their driving lives. Often, in a simple fender-bender, the drivers simply exchange phone numbers and insurance information. While that may be sufficient in certain cases, it is insufficient in an accident involving commercial vehicles.
Generally, in a two-party crash between private persons, the only parties involved are the drivers and each driver's insurance company. In addition, assigning liability is equally simplified because it usually lies exclusively between the drivers.
However, if one or more of the vehicles is a commercial vehicle, many other factors enter the equation. The number of parties involved is no longer limited to the drivers and their insurance companies, but now include the person or entity that hired the commercial driver as well as the insurer of that party. Because the commercial vehicle is often a large vehicle transporting heavy cargo, the potential damages are often larger than the average accident. Additionally, certain laws apply to commercial operation of vehicles that do not apply to private drivers. Finally, a professional driver may be held to a higher standard of care in operating a vehicle.
The take-away from this is that accidents involving commercial vehicles are much more complex than garden-variety, private-party automobile collisions. If you are involved in such an accident, the Prescott Law Group is here to address the peculiarities and complexities inherent in a commercial vehicle accident. Call (928) 445-1909 to make sure that your case is properly handled by talented professionals.


text:
Q: Identify records diagonally and generate primary key I need to check the data diagonally and generate respective primary key for the same.

In the table ID1, ID2, Place and Date are the columns.
I need to check the data diagonally with respect to Date, for eq:
Row2 : ID1 - 36495037 and Date - 01-06-2019  : Identifier should be 54321 and version should be 1
Row4 : ID2 - 36495037 and Date - 01-06-2019  : Identifier should be 54321 and version should be 1
Row6 : ID2 - 36495039 and Date - 01-06-2019  : Identifier should be 54321 and version should be 1
ID1 in row2 = ID2 in row4 and ID1 in row4 = ID2 in row6 : Identifier - 54321  and version 1,2 and 3 respectively.
I have tried using below query, joins and union as well, but it's not helping.
select ctid,ID1,ID2,Place, Date ,ROW_NUMBER () OVER (partition by ID1,ID2, Date ORDER BY ctid)  as trans_version from table_name;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


On March 20, voters will decide whether or not to approve approximately $500,000 in additional property taxes payable to Aurora Township for services for senior citizens.
The increase would result in additional property taxes of $12.50 annually for the owner of a $150,000 home – the median home value in Aurora Township.
Shall Aurora Township, Kane County, Illinois be authorized to levy a new tax for the sole and exclusive purpose of providing services to senior citizens under Article 220 of the Township Code, including but not limited to construction, maintenance, repair, and operation of a senior center, and have an additional tax of 0.025% of the taxable property therein extended for such purposes?
(1) The approximate amount of taxes extendable at the most recently extended limiting rate is $4,029,812 and the approximate amount of taxes extendable therefore if the proposition is approved is $4,513,503.
(2) For the 2017 levy year the approximate amount of the additional tax extendable against property containing a single family residence and having a fair market value at the time of the referendum of $100,000 is estimated to be $7.18.
Who asked for this referendum?
Representatives of Senior Services Associates, a not-for-profit agency based in Elgin, asked the Township Board to place this question on the ballot. Aurora Township's senior population is growing rapidly, they argued. Senior Services have had to eliminate programs, impose hiring freezes and start wait lists for other services. The not-for-profit offers adult protective services, care management, caregiver assistance and in-home services, to name a few. A similar ballot question passed in Elgin Township last year.
Although Senior Services Associates has been in the forefront of advocating for this referendum, proceeds from the new tax would be available to all nonprofit agencies that serve seniors in Aurora Township.
If the referendum is approved, how will the money be spent?
In the end, the Township board will approve all expenditures.
The board has not voted upon a process to decide exactly how the funds would be spent but an unpaid advisory board will likely be appointed and make recommendations to the board. It is likely that the board would partner in a unified application with the local Funders Consortium, a group including the Dunham Fund, the Inc Board, our local United Way, the City of Aurora and the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley.
By law, all spending would have to be on services for senior citizens.
Although the question includes a reference to construction of a senior center, one already exists in Aurora with a long-term lease.
What happens if the referendum is not approved?
In short, the status quo.
Aurora Township will continue to participate in the Ride in Kane program, which offers subsidized paratransit opportunities for disabled persons and senior citizens. The program, a partnership with Pace and subsidized by federal grants, averages about 3,000 rides a month. Total cost of the program is approximately $650,000.
The Township also offers handyman services for low-income seniors. It also cuts the lawns of 100 low-income seniors. As of March 13, we have a waiting list of 35 people for that program.
In recent years, Aurora Township has provided Senior Services Associates with an annual grant of $15,000 to support their senior center at 800 N. Lake Street in the Northgate shopping center.
Please feel free to contact Aurora Township Supervisor Bill Catching at William.c@auroratownship.org or by phone at 630-897-8777.


text:
Q: Customize Lookup Field Search Results I'm having difficulty configuring the Lookup list reference in lighting. For example in the image below I would like to set different fields per each object to make the search results more relevant.

I found the following documentation in reference to this question: Configure Lookup Search Results in Lightning Experience
Even after setting my custom field choice as the 2nd usable field it doesn't appear to be taking.

A: One over-sight I had from the Salesforce Documentation was the following:

*

*Examples of usable fields are short-text, phone, currency, percent, date, or time fields.

*Examples of unusable fields are HTML-formatted fields (URL and email), inline image fields, pick lists, or long-text fields.

Therefore the field of choice must be a USABLE field type. With that said, a workaround I found with this was to create a formula text field that concatenates the values I would like to see. The beauty of this solution is you could setup each object with an Identifier__c field that contains logic to provide the best identifier information available on the record. For example something like the following could allow for a more flexible help field.
IF(  NOT(ISBLANK( ShippingStreet )), ShippingStreet + ', ' + ShippingCity + ', ' + ShippingState,
   IF(  NOT(ISBLANK( Some_Field__c )), Some_Field__c,
      IF(  NOT(ISBLANK( Some_Field2__c )), Some_Field2__c, '')
   )
)

Be sure once you create the field you add it to you search results


Thank you for your interest in the Ubbi line of products! Here at Ubbi we pride ourselves on creating products that are easy to use and help simplify parents' lives while keeping babies and happy and safe as can be. If you want to offer your customers our unique, modern, innovative and quality products - then we would love you to carry our brand. To set up an account simply call 718.422.0592, email sales@ubbiworld.com, or fill out and submit the form below. Once we receive your application we will reach out to you to complete the setup process.


Riverwatch Dental's team is here for you! Friendly, knowledgable and professional, we are here to increase your comfort, alleviate your anxiety and help you get the best smile possible.
Originally from Warrenton, GA, Abby earned her Bachelor's Degree in Dental Hygiene from Augusta University in 2017. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with family, friends, and her fur baby, Izzy. She likes long walks to her bed where she can curl up and watch Netflix or a good movie. Her summers are spent on the beautiful beaches of Hilton Head Island.
A native to Augusta, Brooke graduated from Greenbrier High School and from Augusta University with a Bachelor's Degree in Dental Hygiene. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with family, friends, and her golden-doodle, Emmy.
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Bre moved to Augusta in June of 2015. She holds her Expanded Functions Certification with the Georgia Dental Association. When not at work, Bre enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Her favorite vacation spots are Hilton Head Island and Lake Moultrie in South Carolina. She is a South Carolina Gamecock fan, and an Atlanta Braves fan as well.
Courtney hails from Houston, Texas and moved to Augusta in 2015. She has over 8 years of experience in administration and 4+ specifically in medical administration. When Courtney is not working, she spends her time chauffeuring her children to school, soccer, basketball, and cheerleading. She also enjoys dinner out with friends, game nights, and traveling as far as she can, as often as she can.
Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, Frances moved to Augusta in January of 2015. She has worked in medical and school administration for over 15 years with two years in dental. Frances is the proud mother of two children. In her free time she likes to collect gems and minerals, work in the yard, listen to music and crochet.


Bob Beatham, a lifelong Bangor resident, is a veteran observer of Maine's high school and youth sports scene as a basketball coach, commentator, and columnist. He is currently the longtime public address announcer at Bangor's Mansfield Stadium and serves as the voice of John Bapst and Brewer High School football. Beatham is also the scorekeeper for John Bapst basketball. The University of Maine at Farmington graduate is the service coordinator for Aging Excellence, an in-home elder care agency located in Bangor, with other offices throughout Maine and New Hampshire.


The Borough manages stormwater through local stormwater management regulations. Residents are required to submit a Stormwater Management Plan for installation of any new or replacement impervious coverage over 499 square feet. Click here to view the Borough's stormwater management regulations. Click here to view special requirements for small projects.


text:
Q: Error executing a command console cmd I am trying to copy a folder from a local resource to an external resource from a file. Cmd and am using the following command lines
/ / I: is my external drive (DD)
/ / C: is the local disk
I am using a server with Windows Server 2008
@ echo off
0f Color
ECHO Start Copying Folders.

if exist I:\CapasClientes (
RD /S /Q I:\CapasClientes ROBOCOPY C:\AZ\MM\CapasClientes I:\CapasClientes *. * / E) else (
ROBOCOPY C:\AZ\MM \CapasClientes I:\CapasClientes *. * / E)
ECHO Folder CapasClientes copied correctly ..

pause

Exit

what happens is that I have tested changing the drive (I:) to a local code works perfectly but when I leave the drive (I:) I get an error which says it does not recognize the command "e" which backs up subdirectories of the folder I want to copy.
PDT == I made this same routine on another server and does not leave any error when copying from local drives to the same unit outside.
I appreciate your cooperation ..

A: More simple :
@echo off
robocopy "C:\AZ\MM\CapasClientes" "I:\CapasClientes" /ZB /COPYALL /MIR
if errorlevel 8 echo FAIL
pause
exit

Parameters used :

*

*/ZB : Use restartable mode; if access denied use Backup mode.

*/COPYALL : Copy ALL file info.

*/MIR : MIRror a directory tree.

More info at SS64.com


text:
Person taken to hospital following crash in Maldon
Crash on Heybridge Approach, Maldon
By Francesca Edwards @bwt_Francesca Multimedia Reporter
The scene at Heybridge Approach
An air ambulance has landed at the scene of a road accident in Maldon.
Police, fire engines and ambulances are also at the scene of the collision on Heybridge Approach.
Traffic is slow moving on the A414 Northbound between London Road and Heybridge Approach.
Police Update:
Essex Police confirmed the collision occured shortly after 1pm and both drivers were treated by paramedics.
A spokesperson said: " We were called shortly before 1.15pm on Monday 23 November to a collision involving a Jaguar F-Type and a Hyundai i30 in Heybridge Approach, Maldon.
"Paramedics treated both drivers and enquiries remain ongoing."
East of England Ambulance service confirmed four people were treated at the scene and one was taken to hospital following the crash.
As spokesperson said: "Two ambulances, two Hazardous Area Response Team Vehicles and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance were called to a road traffic collision on Doubleday Drive, Heybridge shortly after 1pm today (Nov 23).
"Four patients were assessed at the scene and one was transported by road ambulance to Broomfield Hospital for further assessment and care."


text:
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This Week in Quality Digest Live
Standards Features
AIAG/VDA's FMEA Manual Is a Major Advance
William A. Levinson
New process is qualitative rather than quantitative
What's Behind Boeing's Production Shutdown of the MAX Aircraft?
Michael Lueck
Computer system, cutting corners, self-certification all play a part
Five Signs Your Company Is in Dire Need of Root Cause Analysis and Corrective Action Training
Miriam Boudreaux
Stop fighting the auditors and get back to basics
Quality Is Everything
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
The world affects your job, and you affect the world. Take pride in your work.
Quality Digest Top Stories for 2019
Here's a sample of some of the stories our readers found most interesting in 2019
Standards News
Six Healthcare, Nonprofit, and Education Organizations Win Baldrige Awards
Awards to be presented March 24, 2020, at the Quest for Excellence Conference, in National Harbor, MD
Vireo Health Uses Trackwise Software to Track Product Quality, Process Performance
How the nation's leading multistate cannabis company ensures quality and safety standards
Global Food Safety Initiative Releases Its New Auditor Knowledge Exam
New auditors must pass the exam before auditing for GFSI-recognized certification programs
ISO and WHO are working for universal access to quality health products that are all at once safe, effective, and affordable
Cority Unveils Enhanced Quality Management Solution on Its True SaaS EHSQ Platform
Streamlines shop floor processes, manages nonconformance life cycle, supports enterprisewide continuous improvement
Better Building With New International Standards for Building Information Modelling
Allows construction industry to collaborate across projects and national borders
ANSI Acquires Full Ownership of ANAB
Enhances accreditation services portfolio across global market
ISO Releases Update for Guidance on Integrated Management System Standards
Features illustrations as applied in real-world organizational contexts
New (E-)Takeoff for Aviation Industry
Standards like ISO 10303 and ISO 14306 help to keep planes high in the sky
Chad Kymal
It's Been a Rough Transition to IATF 16949
Third-party audit findings, conclusions, and recommendations
Published: Thursday, August 17, 2017 - 11:02
Send Article (Must Login)
Globally, there are more than 68,000 organizations certified to ISO/TS 16949:2009 that will need to undergo a transition audit to the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) international automotive quality standard, IATF 16949:2016. As of April 2017, 181 of these audits have been completed, resulting in an average of 5.3 nonconformities and nearly one major nonconformity (0.73) per audit.
There is a lot we can analyze and learn from these audits. What areas are receiving nonconformities? What surprises lie in these nonconformities? What are third-party auditors finding or not finding? For example, who thought "total productive maintenance" was going to be one of the top nonconformities? The list of nonconformities can be used as a preventive measure to ensure key registrar nonconformities are addressed before your transition audit.
Omnex has performed a large number of gap analysis audits for our customers and will compare our findings to the list of registrar nonconformities. What were Omnex's top findings? How many of them still remain? Why are companies still receiving major nonconformities for "auditor competencies" and "customer-specific requirements" (CSRs), when those were one of the top findings in Omnex's gap analyses? These are just some of the questions we will explore.
Top five nonconformities
The top five nonconformities overall are "total productive maintenance" (48 nonconformities), "control plan" (38), "contingency plans" (37), "control of production service provision" (26), and "internal auditor competency" (23). See figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Top five total nonconformance clauses
The two biggest surprises shown in this list are total productive maintenance (TPM) and control of production and service provision. The requirements for TPM (clause 8.5.1.5 of IATF 16949) have increased significantly from those of ISO/TS 16949. We can infer that when organizations are implementing IATF 16949, they have so much to update in other areas that maintenance is not getting the attention it needs. Despite the many additional requirements found in IATF 16949, the third-party auditors are not overlooking the expanded requirements for TPM. Total productive maintenance has also made it to the top-five list of major nonconformities, showing that it is indeed an area that needs the attention of the IATF 16949 implementation champion.
Similarly, control of production and service provision (8.5.1 of IATF 16949) has requirements for "special processes" and "implementation of actions to prevent human error." Control of production and service provision is showing the fourth most nonconformities of all areas in IATF 16949. (We will present more information on the remaining top nonconformities during the webinar with Quality Digest on Aug. 22, 2017).
Based on automotive industry data, the top-five major nonconformance clauses are customer-specific requirements (7 nonconformities), internal auditor competency (7), quality management system (QMS) audit (7), TPM (6), and management review inputs (6)—see figure 2. Omnex gap analyses are also finding major nonconformities in CSRs, internal auditor competency, QMS audits, and management review inputs. Management review inputs have not changed drastically enough in IATF 16949 to be resulting in so many major nonconformities. Omnex gap analyses have found many of the majors are the result of a variety of issues with the ISO/TS 16949 management reviews.
The Omnex webinar on Aug. 22 at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific will review information on 35 minor and 29 major nonconformities across all sections of IATF 16949 from Clause 4.0—Context, to Clause 10.0—Continual improvement. The issues involved in the nonconformities, as well as the implementation of these requirements in a manner that reduces the risk of being issued a nonconformity, will be discussed. Finally, we will end the webinar with a list of key preventive issues to review as well as any other issues that have not yet been added to the list of third-party auditor nonconformities. The goal is to provide professional insights to assist you in achieving a successful IATF 16949 implementation in your organization.
Figure 2: Top five major nonconformance clauses
For more information on this topic, check out the webinar, "Rough Transition to IATF 16949—Third-Party Audit Findings, Conclusions, and Recommendations," coming up on Tues., Aug. 22, 2017, at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern. I will be presenting, and Dirk Dusharme of Quality Digest will be our host. Click here to register.
Quality Digest does not charge readers for its content. We believe that industry news is important for you to do your job, and Quality Digest supports businesses of all types.
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( 1 ) Hide Comments
Chad Kymal is the CTO and founder of Omnex Inc., an international consulting and training organization headquartered in the United States. He is also president of Omnex Systems, a software provider of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 27001 management systems. He developed and teaches auditor training for ISO 9001, IATF 16949, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001, as well as an Integrated Management Systems Lead Auditor training course where all three standards are combined in a single audit.
Kymal is also on the ISO/TC 176, ISO/TC 207, and PC283 committees for ISO 9001:2015 (quality), ISO 14001:2015 (environmental), and ISO 45001 (health and safety) management system development.
09/05/2017 - 05:29 am — Lise1962
webminar regarding a rough transition to IATF 16949
I have not been able to attend the webminar
is it possible to get a copy?


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text:
Reddit is launching a new NFT avatar marketplace
Ivan Mehta 7 months
Reddit is launching a new NFT-based avatar marketplace today that allows you to purchase blockchain-based profile pictures for a fixed rate. The company said that you need not have a crypto wallet to buy them, so your credit or debit card should be enough, and you can use Reddit's own wallet product to store them.
The social network said it is releasing 90 designs with the total amount of NFTs going for sale in this early-access phase being "tens of thousands."
The company noted that if you purchase one of its limited-edition NFTs, you will have licensing rights to use it on and off Reddit as an avatar. These rights aren't as extensive as owning an NFT from Yuga Labs' Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which allows you to make merchandise or TV Shows based on the bored ape you own. What's more, you can mix and match your avatar's look with merch available in the avatar builder, and the avatar will have a "glow-like effect" next to your comments in communities.
Image Credits: Reddit
This is not Reddit's first rodeo with NFTs. Earlier this year, the company began testing a feature that would allow you to set any Ethereum-based NFT as your profile picture — weeks after Twitter released a similar function. Last year, Reddit released limited-edition NFTs based on its mascot Snoo, called CryptoSnoos.
Reddit has partnered with Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain, to mint these avatars on-chain. You can use Reddit's own blockchain wallet called Vault — which is available on the firm's native app — to store and manage these NFTs. Currently, Vault is used to earn blockchain-based community points and spend them on special features like badges and animated emoji.
Today, NFT avatars will be available to members of the r/CollectibleAvatars invite-only subreddit for a first look. The community will have details about setting up a wallet, exclusive AMAs by artists and behind-the-scene posts about the one-off profile pictures. Because there's no auction, all NFTs have a fixed price and can be bought through fiat currencies like U.S. dollars. Listing prices for these NFT avatars are $9.99, $24.99, $49.99, $74.99 or $99.99. If you are not part of that community, the company noted that these collectible avatars will be available to buy on its avatar builder page for everyone in the coming weeks.
The company has worked with artists — some from communities like r/Comics, r/ProCreate and r/AdobeIllustrator — for the first collection. Reddit noted artists also receive royalties — with a 50/50 profile split with Reddit — from secondary sales of these NFTs on marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible.
Reddit says that while NFT profile pictures is an early-stage blockchain project, it wants to explore more features with the tech.
"In the future, we see blockchain as one way to bring more empowerment and independence to communities on Reddit. Reddit has always been a model for what decentralization could look like online; our communities are self-built and run, and as part of our mission to better empower our communities, we are exploring tools to help them be even more self-sustaining and self-governed," the company wrote in a statement.
Reddit has joined a long list of companies that are experimenting with NFTs. After launching NFT support on Instagram, Facebook recently ported some of those features to the blue app. After launching its own digital art collection in May, eBay acquired NFT marketplace KnownOrigin in June. In May, Spotify started testing a feature that allowed some artists to promote digital collectibles on their profiles, and link-in-bio startup Linktree rolled out new features for creators like unlockable links for specific NFT collection holders. Expect more of these tests in the near future.


text:
The Truth About Drugs Like Tylenol (Acetaminophen)
Beyond Deterministic Genes: The Morphogenetic Field
Home / Featured / IKEA to Start Selling Air-Purifying Curtains to Help People Breathe Easier
IKEA to Start Selling Air-Purifying Curtains to Help People Breathe Easier
by Seth PollardPosted on May 7, 2019
In recent years, IKEA has become more health and environmentally-conscious, removing Styrofoam from packaging, reducing plastic use, and even planning to use only renewable and recycled materials in its products by 2030. The company launched products perfect for city-dwellers wanting to get in touch with nature, including a sustainable DIY indoor garden, as well as a hydroponic gardening system that goes in your very own kitchen. Now, IKEA plans on helping buyers breathe easier with air-purifying curtains.
The new Gundrid curtains employ some pretty high-tech ways of purifying the air. They don't use any special filters or electricity. Instead, the curtains contain a mineral-based photocatalyst activated by both indoor and outdoor light that works a lot like photosynthesis.
Read: IKEA may Nix Use of Environmentally-Destructive Styrofoam
Once activated, the Gundrid curtains filter out common indoor air pollutants, including formaldehyde.
An IKEA representative explained:
"Successful laboratory tests have been carried out to ensure that the photocatalyst coating works and that it is safe. The next step is chamber tests and home tests to confirm that Gundrid efficiently removes volatile organic compounds in a room."
Mauricio Affonso, Product Developer at IKEA Range & Supply, said in a press release:
"For me, it's important to work on products that solve actual problems and are relevant to people. Textiles are used across homes, and by enabling a curtain to purify the air, we are creating an affordable and space-saving air purifying solution that also makes the homes more beautiful."
IKEA noted in the press release that 91% of the world's population is exposed to air pollution, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) guidelines for health and safety.
Read: IKEA Launches Sustainable DIY Indoor Garden
Lena Pripp-Kovac, Head of Sustainability at Inter IKEA Group, added:
"Besides enabling people to breathe better air at home, we hope that Gundrid will increase people's awareness of indoor air pollution, inspiring behavioral changes that contribute to a world of clean air.
Gundrid is the first product to use the technology, but the development will give us opportunities for further applications on other textiles."
[1] Bustle
Featured image source: Ikea
Seth Pollard
All Natural | What does it really mean?


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Hell Gate by Andrew P. Weston
S..E rating: 5 of 5 stars
Who "was" the Grim Reaper before becoming Satan's strongest champion? This series chronicles the exploits of Satan's right-hand warrior, Daemon Grim (the reaper). It began with Hell Bound and Hell Hounds … and continues with Hell Gate. In addition to my reviews of those, I capture some key
The series is all about Daemon Grim
Hell Gate is all about revealing the mystery Daemon Grim's past, which we've been teased about for two books, and here it is!
The crazy milieu of Hell persists, so start with Hell Bound to get grounded; more on WTH is Hell below.
The cat and mouse hunt after Frederic Chopin and Nikola Tesla reaches a climatic milestone; the duo's evil plotting that began in book #1 is finally revealed too.
Grim takes readers in realms of the Quran (Jahannam)
The inclusion of mystics (namely from ~1500, Saint Teresa of Ávila and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim) was a pleasant addition
Hell Noir Style: The milieu and conflict are so epic in scope, and weird in substance, that the story lends itself more for narrative storytelling over dramatic showing. As before, Mr. Weston doles out exposition-through-dialogue; as I read this, I just envisioned a Noir film in which the protagonist provided a snarky voiceover. I felt like I was called into Grim's police office and sat in a room full of smoke as he coached me through a mysterious case.
What is Hell's Milieu? Grim was introduced to the Heroes in Hell series in the anthology Doctors in Hell. Heroes in Hell is a fantastical place built from myths and religions—so do not expect Tolkienesque elves or dwarves. The primary realm explored is called Juxtapose, which is a satirical mirror of our earth's cityscapes (the Seine river featured as "Inseine", Paris called Perish, the Eiffel Tower represented as the Awful Tower, Facebook is called Hatebook). Since time has little meaning in Hell, beings from past and present meet and scheme (i.e., Tesla and Chopin). There are other realms beyond Juxtapose connected with ethereal gateways. All are populated by beings being tormented and try to outwit Satan or their comrades. Even Erra, the Akkadian plague god, has visited Hell to torment Satan. No one is safe! It is a splendid, wacky place that works well.
Where to Start on your trip to Hell: Hell Gate is wacky and fun, but is not the beginning. The Heroes in Hell is primarily a series of anthologies; this novel focuses on Grim but has story arcs connected to HIH. Given the breadth of abstract interactions, I recommend initial readers begin with either:
Doctors in Hell (HIH #18): Daemon Grim is introduced in this collection, and even though it is #18 in the series, it is a perfect entryway for HIH newcomers.
Or…. Hell Bound (Grim novel #1): Daemon Grim's first novel, occurring chronologically after Doctors, but before Hell Hounds.
Or for those who've done that, note Grim also appears in Pirates in Hell and Lovers in Hell
Sword and SorceryGroupreads: Jack Williamson AND Lumely's Primal Land 2019 July Aug
Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy"
July Aug 2019 Groupreads topics have been chosen. Please join in the discussion or groupreads!
A) Jack Williamson group discussion-read-LINK
Classic Jack Williamson, ie The Reign of Wizardry or Golden Blood (~1933 Weird Tales)
B) Lumely's Primal Land group discussion-read-LINK
Brian Lumley's Primal Land (Shad) series, The House of Cthulhu: Tales of the Primal Land Vol. 1 and Tarra Khash: Hrossak!: Tales of the Primal Land
Banner/Masthead Credits
Frazetta's 1964 cover to Jack Williamson's "The Reign of Wizardry"
Melvyn Grant's cover to Brian Lumely's Tarra Khash: Hrossak (Primal Lands #2) 1991
Labels: Goodreads
The Eternal Champion - Erekose - Review By SE
The Eternal Champion: Book 1 of Erekosë Trilogy by Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock has been dishing out pulpy fantasy since the 1960's. Perhaps his most famous brand is his skein of adventures from "The" Eternal Champion--which actually refers to many heroes (Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, Erekose, etc.) not just this book; the anti-Conan hero called Elric is arguably the most recognizable. The champion mashup is huge, although many are short stories or collections of them, the bibliography has >100 entries. Despite the huge popularity of these, there is a dearth of film/movie adaptions (however the BBC is taking on a TV version of the Runestaff/Hawkmoon stories this yr (2019).
Moorcock's books read at the same blistering pace he writes. He blends metaphysical ideas (time travel, coexisting multiverses...) with epic adventure. In just ~180pages, you'll be whisked across continents and decades of history. This can be fun, but there always seems to be a loss of realized potential and strings of inconsistency.
Cover: My paperback of The Eternal Champion from 1970 has a splendid Frank Frazetta depiction of a heavily armored knight on horse wielding an ax...under the title "Eternal Champion." The art is awesome, but Erekose has a sword (and occasionally a lance).
Sword Kanajana: Speaking of that sword, it is magical and can only be wielded by Erekose; however, it doesn't play a huge role in the book beyond that; and, late in the book when awesome weaponry of ancient days are needed, this sword is not used.... but an unnecessary/genre bending sci-fi element is introduced from out of nowhere. The climax of the book would have been awesome if Moorcock stuck to his sword (rather than his figurative "guns).
Multiverse weirdness: This serves as John Daker's initial awakening as "the Eternal Champion." Our protagonist doesn't seem to care that he is/was married. His mental struggles to come to terms with his predicament do not resonate since we get near zero information of his real life.
Love?: Several romantic relations are introduced, but are seeping with shallow masculine perspectives. I was reminded of Moorcock's stunningly misogynistic entry into the Ghor, Kin Slayer: The Saga Of Genseric's Fifth Born Son (which soured the whole collection for me).
Pacing and consistency: The first 60 out of 180 pages are a drag; for a warrior called from another world to do battle, there is surprisingly no action for the initial third. This is a strange setup for an ambitious take on war... and that theme I found enjoyable to explore (depressing to read).
Supposedly, the Humans are threatened so much that their king calls upon Erekose via sorcery to help them against the evil (sorcerer) Eldren. However, we are not shown any instance of threat or attack. This approach reinforces the idea that the threatened Humans may actually be the aggressors in the war; that's okay, but we are not shown any indication that the Eldren are even in contact with the Humans. Why would the king stoop so low to use sorcery (which he loathed)?
In short, the first third of the book really needed to show some Eldren vs Human conflict, even it was to be misinterpreted by readers, the Humans, and Erekose.
Not Cliche: Despite the execution, I do admire the idea of an Eternal Champion and the approach to blurring the lines of good-vs-evil, especially in war. Trope fantasy usually has evil wraiths/orcs vs. good human knights. I suppose the current Grimdark genre would like this tone.
In summary, fans of the Eternal Champion will think this is ok. New to the Eternal Champion? I would not start here. Starting with Corum, Elric, or Hawkmoon may be better.
Transformation - Review by SE
Transformation by Carol Berg
Transformation has been on my to-read list for almost two decades, and I'm glad to have finally focused on it. It is one of Carol Berg first novels, and she is still cooking up new fantasy (pen name Cate Glass, An Illusion of Thieves).
Transformation is epic, but feels fresh, and is very engrossing. It is highly recommended for fantasy readers. Here's why:
- Perspective: It is written in first-person perspective, and at 450 pages it's a decent size. Yet it reads fast. Most fantasy epics are omniscient third person. Inherently, first-person indicates the narrator will always survive, but Seyonne and his friends, family, etc. are always in peril.
- Complex, fun story: There are tons of plot twists, betrayals... so it is tough to share a summary without spoiling (the official Book Blurb is a good overview). Somehow every story arc is concluded in a satisfying way, but that doesn't mean you'll stop at this first installment.
- Atypical, angelic warfare: The overriding conflict is essentially "~angels/humans vs. ~demons" but none of those categories match religious cliches or fantasy tropes. There are several humanoid cultures, but not the trope elves, dwarves etc.. The sorcerers are the "angelic" ones, but are far from perfect.
- Exorcism/magic: A key magic system has several types of sorcerers/sorceresses that need to work together as team: i.e., one can find possessed victims, another can open doors into mental-battlegrounds, and another can enter and fight/exorcise demons. Other fantasy may have different flavors of mages (druids, illusionists, etc.) but they aren't dependent on each other--here we have Searchers, Aifes, Wardens that truly rely on one another.
- The Books of the Rai-kirah trilogy: Transformation starts the series, then Revelation, then Restoration
- The Author's website has excerpts, reviews, glossaries, maps, and more.
- Official Book Blurb:
"Seyonne is a man waiting to die. He has been a slave for sixteen years, almost half his life, and has lost everything of meaning to him: his dignity, the people and homeland he loves, and the Warden's power he used to defend an unsuspecting world from the ravages of demons. Seyonne has made peace with his fate. With strict self-discipline he forces himself to exist only in the present moment and to avoid the pain of hope or caring about anyone. But from the moment he is sold to the arrogant, careless Prince Aleksander, the heir to the Derzhi Empire, Seyonne's uneasy peace begins to crumble. And when he discovers a demon lurking in the Derzhi court, he must find hope and strength in a most unlikely place..."
July-Aug Groupread Poll for Sword & Sorcery Group
The Sword & Sorcery Group on Goodreads invites you to vote for our next group read topic... then come join in!
Topic(s) poll for July-Aug; Top two usually win. Folks were feeling weird & horrific, so let's have an early Halloween, Sword and Sorcery style
Michael Shean' Nifft the Lean, Mines of Behemoth, or The A'Rak
Jack Williamson's classics, The Reign of Wizardry or Golden Blood or others
The Mask of the Sorcerer Sekenre: The Book of the Sorcerer We Are All Legends by Darrell Schweitzer
John R. Fultz's books of the Shaper: Seven Princes, Seven Kings, Seven Sorcerers
Brian Lumley's Primal Land Series: Tarra Khash: Hrossak!: Tales of the Primal Land, Sorcery in Shad, Tales of the Primal Land
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Disgust and Desire: Anna Smith Spark interview by SE
Gencon attendees going to the Writer's Workshop, you'll get a live version of this at Aug 2nd; Fri 5pm, Q&A with Anna Smith Spark! See you then in Indianapolis.
This is also being simulcast on BlackGate.com
Disgust and Desire: An Interview with Anna Smith Spark
It is not intuitive to seek beauty in art deemed grotesque/weird, but most authors who produce horror/fantasy actually are usually (a) serious about their craft, and (b) driven my strange muses. This interview series engages contemporary authors & artists on the theme of "Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction." Previously we cornered weird fantasy authors like John Fultz, Janeen Webb, Aliya Whiteley, Richard Lee Byers, Sebastian Jones, Charles Gramlich, and Darrell Schweitzer. This one features the "Queen of Grimdark," Anna Smith Spark.
Anna Smith Spark is the author of the critically acclaimed Queen of Grimdark. The David Gemmell Awards shortlisted The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying continued the Empires of Dust trilogy (Harper Voyager US/ Orbit US/Can). The finale, The House of Sacrifice, will be published August 2019. Anna lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a Ph.D. in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website greatworks.org. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model. Anna's favorite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.
Twitter: @queenofgrimdark / Facebook: Anna Smith Spark / Blog CourtofBrokenKnives.org
This interview will focus on her take on Beauty in Weird Fiction, but you'll be interested in previous engagements. During the Feb 22, 2019: Fantasy Focus Podcast she discussed challenging the stereotypes of heroes and the role of good & evil in literature. She tackled politics in the real world in her Sept 17, 2018 Interview with Three Crows Magazine (long live Brexit!). In August 2017, she spoke with Rob Matheny and Philip Overby on the Grimm Tidings Podcast (part 1) and (part 2) covering the pressures of being a new author, her thoughts on the ever-evolving Grimdark sub-genre, about her struggle with dyslexia, dyspraxia, and Asperger's Syndrome.
A) You dedicated The Court of Broken Knives to your father. Tell us more about your father's influences. Did he read to you? Did he write?
My father is a poet. He writes, and also publishes poetry on his website greatworks.org.uk. His poetry is in the high modernist and post-modernist tradition: complex, literary, intensely personal, intensely political deconstructing language and meaning. Many of my parents' friends are also poets, playwrights, artists, teachers: I grew up in a household saturated with language. Many of my earliest memories involve listening to my father and his friends discuss literature and art.
My father had, and continues to have, a huge impact on my writing. He shaped my love of fantasy and history as a child – he read me Tolkien, Alan Garner, Kevin Crossly-Holland, Roger Lancelyn-Green; later, he introduced me to The Wasteland, Lear, Blake, TH White, Hope Hodgson, Gene Wolfe, M John Harrison. We went on holiday in the English countryside every year and talked about the landscape and the mythologies rooted in, we went to the British Museum together and looked at the statues of ancient gods.
We're very close still, my father is the only person who sometimes sees my writing before it goes to my editor.
B) You have Ph.D. in English Literature: what was the thesis about, and did it inspire Empires of Dust at all?
My thesis was about a Victorian occult group called the Theosophical Society, which was the forerunner of a lot of New Age belief. My key text was Madame Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, which took elements of Hinduism, Buddhism, Hermeticism and the Kabbala, 'rationalized' them as Platonic allegories and rewrote them in light of (a misunderstanding of) Darwinian evolutionary theory. Kind of like The Da Vinci Code, 'revealing the truth about human history encoded in random weird religious shit', only a) deeply politically problematic, orientalist, structurally racist; and b) at its height tens of thousands of people believed in it. The Secret Doctrine tells the true history of mankind (sic) from the creation of the universe to our eventually future evolution into gods – imagine evolutionary theory and reincarnation mashed up together into a sort of spiritual self-improvement conveyor-belt. With totally head-f**k Lovecraftian bits like humanity's stage as a race of sentient root vegetables. Quite a few of the leading suffragettes were members of the TS, which feminist history tends to try to ignore (can't imagine why). My thesis was a close reading of the text trying to unpick all this and make sense of why so many people, including leading suffragettes, were attracted to it.
Madam Blavatsky herself was an amazing, terrifying figure. She presented herself in overtly orientalist terms, created an image herself as an ancient being, a grotesque high priestess. Like every misogynistic horror of female power: the witch, the hag of the ford, the crone. She was clearly a charismatic. Those around her seem to have truly believed she was in contact with other beings. She certainly abandoned her husband and children to live as an independent woman, she <may> genuinely have spent several years travelling alone in Nepal and Tibet.
My thesis didn't directly inspire my books. But there are obvious overlaps of interest. I've always been fascinated by ancient history and mythology, I've studied western occult and magical traditions, and these things obviously come out in both my academic studies and my fiction. Blavatsky herself is there, I suspect, in elements of the novels: the way I depict the gestmet owes a lot to descriptions of the revulsion and fascination Blavatsky evoked.
C) Empires of Dust features a very poetic, almost experimental, writing style. Is this your natural voice? How deliberate was the design of the text's structure?
"A dead dragon is a very large thing. Tobias stared at it for a long time. Felt regret, almost. It was beautiful in its way. Wild. Utterly bloody wild. No wisdom in those eyes. Wild freedom and the delight in killing. An immovable force, like a mountain or a storm cloud. A death thing. A beautiful death, though. Imagine saying that to [character]'s family: he was killed fighting dragon. He was killed fighting a dragon. A dragon killed him. A dragon. Like saying he died fighting a god."
There was no conscious thought behind the first book at all. After many years of not writing, I started writing one day and a year later The Court of Broken Knives was there finished.
I write what I see in my mind. As I said above, I grew up with poetry and mythology, that poetic way of writing is a deep part of the way I see the world. And it's what matters to me above everything. The way the words sound read aloud, how they look on the page… Sometimes I have no idea where these words are coming from, it astonishes me to see what I've written. But equally I'll agonize for weeks about the precise placing of a comma or a line break.
I also suspect I'm mildly synesthesic. It's fairly common among people who are neuraotypical. I have words that I experience as a taste when I read them, also words that trigger a sensory pleasure feeling in me. 'Shell'. 'Liquid'. Very weirdly, I think technical military terms like 'a troop of horse' and 'advancing in echelons' trigger a synesthesic response in me. It's possible that the way I write is influenced by this.
D) The Court of Broken Knives replays epic, tragic history: Amrath's bloodline (death embodied) fights the city of Sorlost (the city where life & death are balanced). What is the alluring part of Death, so much that it forms the premise of the book's conflict?
The eroticism of war and death is something that has always fascinated me. That absolute terror of annihilation. The compulsion throughout human history to prove oneself by killing. To quote myself in The Tower of Living and Dying: 'All men long to see dragons. Dream of wonders. Hope deep down in the depths of their souls to see wonders blaze and burn and die'. All through human history, vast armies have marched off to kill and die and gloried in it. The central paradox of The Iliad, the Tain, the Eddas: the rapturous beauty of the ruin of all things. There's repeated reference in The Iliad to the 'killing bronze', 'the black ships', a hero as 'manslaying.' It's so painfully, erotically beautiful language even as it's utterly chilling, the language of the death cult. Go and read Male Fantasties. Then feel horror and shame.
To be more cheerful, as a good Romantic, I'm continually, morbidly sensually aware of the fierce beauty of mortality in the face of annihilation, the futility of life yet how precious it is.
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Empires, kings, lovers, poets… just dust in the wind, dude, as the great philosopher Ted Theodore Logan once said. But, as Le Guin put it in the single greatest line ever written in fantasy, to which everything else is a mere footnote: 'I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning.'
E) What resonated with me was the "Beauty in Death" theme which becomes real via Marith. Strangely most covers hide his beauty… showing only his back. Can you supply images/media-links you used to inspire your vision of Marith Altrersyr? Or is he as a monstrous, Lovecraftian beauty (i.e., too abstract to capture)? Have you ever painted or drawn him? Are there depictions of Marith Altrersyr?
"Marith swerved his horse toward her. His face was rapturous. Ecstatic. So beautiful her heart leaped. He raised his sword and for a moment she thought he would kill her, and for a moment she thought she would welcome it if he did. So beautiful and perfect his face. So joyous and radiant his smile."
The language describing Marith is heavily influenced by the descriptions of Achilles in The Iliad, and by the romance that Alexander the Great then created around himself based on that.
[…] blazing like the star
that rears at harvest, flaming up in its brilliance,—
far outshining the countless stars in the night sky,
that star they call Orion's Dog—brightest of all
but a fatal sign emblazoned on the heavens,
it brings such killing fever down on wretched men.
That's Marith.
All-consuming beauty can never be embodied visually. What see that to me is perfect, mesmeric beauty, the apotheosis of desire … no one else will ever quite be able to see that. Like looking at someone else's children: the mother sees perfection, total love, all their life's meaning, dreams of hope and fears of sorrow, you see … a kid. That kind of beauty is so much a projection of the lover's own psyche, it can't be communicated. That's why we fall so deeply in love with characters in books but not films, I think. We can feel desire for a beautiful character in a film, but not love them, identify with them, be haunted by own illusion of them. Marith might be plain, even ugly, to everyone else apart from Thalia. Like attempts to depict Helen of Troy. Or indeed the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall – they can cast a beautiful woman as Anne Boleyn, give her witty lines and beautiful dresses, but what it is her that leads Henry VIII to act as he does, they can't ever quite show that, because it's not about her face or her body, it's about his projection of himself onto her.
There are, however, some pictures of Marith that get alarmingly close to what I see when I write Marith. My friend Quint VonCanon drew them. They take my breath away.
F) Thalia is similar captivating. In fact, she epitomizes the "Desire and disgust" of a beautiful death dealer. Is there something you find repellent and beautiful that others may not appreciate?
"She brought the knife down. Again. Again. Again. Hands not stabbing but sawing, cutting at bone and sinew, almost beyond her strength. [Her friend] screamed until she stopped screaming. Thalia stood beside her and raised her left arm. She cut herself from wrist to elbow, a shallow jagged cut over the course of her scars. The blood ran down …
In a corridor she met Tolneurn. He had been waiting perhaps. He looked at her, covered in [her friend]'s blood, her dress clinging to her body. His eye flickered. Disgust and desire. Desire and disgust."
Good and very difficult question. I have a very strong sense of disgust. I am of course massively trypophobic, feel ill just typing the word. I have a horror of insects, worms, crawling things. I also have a very good memory for things that have disgusted me, can be haunted a triggering image or the taste of something bad for weeks. I've got vast issues around body horror and a disgust at my physical self, had various eating disorders and all that, probably resulting from my complex feelings about my body stemming from my neuroatypicality.
The scene in Tales From Moominvalley where Little My tells the smallest whomper but one about her granny covered by fungus, and then the granny's voice calls out from behind a door. The idea of someone alive, covered in mould, grown all over with fungus and still cheerfully talking. A thing I read once about Chernobyl, about workers sent into the reactor core covering themselves in sellotape to block the radiation. The scene in La-Bas when Giles de Rei embraces the rotting bodies of the children he's killed, knowing what he's done is the most terrible thing a human being can do, and the pity we feel for him. I felt so much pity for him.
G) Do you identify more with Thalia or Marith?
Probably Marith, really. He's my animus. The absolute dark heart of me. A lot of the darkest, most self-destructive scenes in The Court of Broken Knives are drawn from my life. His parents' response to him comes from my life too. I've been through some very dark periods, and that exhausted, terrified, angry response to mental illness, that desperate frustration, wanting just to scream 'Why? Why can't you be happy? Why do you have to do this to us?' … I can understand, now, exactly why my parents felt that, and it seemed important to write it.
H) Do you see beauty in your own dark art?
Oh, yes. I can't write something unless I feel it is beautiful. That's the center of why I write. The feeling that comes when I know I've created something worthy of beauty. The great fantasy novelists I idolize, Bakker, M John Harrison, Le Guin, T H White, Eddison, they have that, that absolute beauty and grief.
I) Empires of Dust comes to an end this August (when House of Sacrifice releases) … can you reveal your next steps? Does the story end with this trilogy?
The story ends with The House of Sacrifice. I always had the end written. I think of Empires of Dust almost as a biography (or the hero's journey [insert heavy irony and little speech-mark hand signals while I say that like I'm giving myself rabbit ears]). The Court of Broken Knives is the strivings of youth. Who am I am? What do I want to do with my life? The Tower of Living and Dying is full adulthood. We've got where we want to be so… now what? The House of Sacrifice is … the end. The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last … as some bloke who also wrote fantasy books once said.
I have various things in my head about what I want to do next, but I can't talk about them at the moment.
I've written several short stories set in Irlast, for the Knaves anthology from Outland Publishing, Unfettered III from Grimoak Press, and for Grimdark magazine and Three Crows magazine; I've got stories coming out later this year in Legends III: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell from Newcon Press and Lost Gods from Grimbold Press. And, not in Irlast, Michael R Fletcher and I are writing a special series for Grimdark magazine. It's called In the Shadow of Their Dying, and it's been so much fun to write. Fletcher is good friend of mine and a brilliant writer, we're challenging each other to see just how far we can go. Filth and disgust and total OTT gross-out.
J) You have Asperger's, dyslexia, dyspraxia and perhaps some other mental health issues, and you have learned to leverage those to create art. Can you discuss some milestones of that inspirational journey?
I was always aware that I felt 'different', as a child I found it very hard to relate to other children and spent a lot of time on my own telling myself stories. (Looking back, I must have come across somewhere between Wednesday Addams and one of those Oxford dons who's never heard of the Beatles, so it's possibly not surprising I had some problems socializing with others my own age). Then when I was a teenager I fell apart completely. At one point it looked as though I wouldn't be mentally well enough to take my GCSEs. I'm ashamed, now, at what I put my family through. I went through some utter hell, abusive boyfriends, all that crap. Spiraling circles of my pain and others' pain. Marith. I stopped telling myself stories, the idea that I could write something without the gods raining down laughter on me seemed impossible. I got my life back together enough to get my PhD, get a job that paid enough to get a mortgage, fortunately. But I felt dead.
I got the dyslexia and dyspraxia ('clumsy child syndrome,' that kid at school who flapped when they got excited, dropped their books all the time, was picked last every week in gym) diagnosis just after I'd finished my PhD, and that explained some things. But the Asperger's diagnosis didn't come until my thirties, after I'd had another total mental collapse after having children. I had post-natal psychosis, in my head the best thing I could do for my baby was kill myself and have her brought up by social services.
The Asperger's diagnosis changed everything.
I understand myself now in ways I never did. Rather than 'why do I think I'm different? Why do I have such low esteem?', when things get bad I can tell myself that I have Asperger's, that the world is maybe different, maybe harder for me, and that's just who I am, and that's okay.
I don't think Asperger's is a 'gift', I don't think it's a 'superpower', it certainly doesn't make me 'better' or 'more interesting'. It's a rope round my neck, often, I'm pretty useless at managing in an office, I'm not likely ever to get promoted beyond office junior, I quarrel with my family all the time about insanely stupid things, I can't drive, I'm still always falling over my shoelaces and dropping everything. But it's who I am, it probably does have some relationship to my writing, I am not 'proud' of being Asperger's but I'm certainly not ashamed. I would never wish it away.
Depression, however, is a disease that poisoned my life and the lives of all those around me. There's a romantic attraction to the fucked-up doomed creative. But depression wreaks creativity. More importantly, depression wreaks friendships and marriages and all this other boring normal life things. Depression is not beautiful.
K) Grimdark challenges history tropes of good and evil (black and white), and you challenge readers to empathize with antagonists/villains and despise protagonist/heroes. Any tips on how to create characters that are very gray but still interesting?
Write real people. Write about complicated, infuriating, messed-up, muddled-up, multi-layered, blind to themselves people.
To be honest, the biggest tip I can give is the very old 'read a lot'. Get into the head of other people in all their complexity, leading lives very different to your own, thinking in different ways. I read a lot of history and historical biography, which certainly shows people in their myriad shades of grey. War diaries and eyewitness accounts are especially important. It's so easy to see historical events in terms of good and bad, or not to think about the feelings of the people actually involved. Reading accounts of soldiers' lives from both sides of a conflict gives such a deep sense of shared humanity. Accounts of life as a German soldier in WWII, for example. Accounts written by people fighting for something that cannot be seen as anything other than abhorrent. But people, trying to stay alive, with families and friends they love. Not the ranting vomit of sociopaths. Normal people, no different to any of us. Aware or somehow keeping themselves unaware that they are involved in terrible things. Then think about yourself, your own motives for the things you do. The bad things and the good things.
The trope of good versus evil is incredibly dangerous because it stops us needing to think about how other people might feel, what their motivations for behavior we dislike might be. Breaking down those tropes and thinking about people as basically just people is a radically important political thing.
L) More broadly, any tips on how to create art that is "dark" yet "attractive" enough to read?
Oh, goodness. I mean… some people hate my books. Completely hate them. Too dark, too bleak, unreadably violent, too horrible. That's fine. Different books are for different people. It's impossible to write a book that pleases everyone.
Literary quality is important, obviously. A beautifully written, complex 'dark' book will stand, a badly written one won't. Das Boot is in places virtually unwatchable. Huysman's La-Bas is disgusting. Zola's L'Assommoir almost broke me mentally. But they stay in the mind, compulsive, gripping, impossible to look away from, because they are all in their own way so very good, so beautiful. King Lear and The Trojan Women are both chilling, horrible, bleak beyond bleak, and also probably the two greatest things every written in any language, towering, unmatchable masterpieces of language.
Complexity, also – all of the above are far more than just good versus bad. They make you think deeply about what you're engaging with, question yourself. All those shades of grey, again.
And humor, moments of light, moments of joy. Not just to sharpen the pathos (although that, too – 'horrible ugly people do horrible ugly things in a horrible ugly place' isn't a great sales pitch), but because life is too complex just to be 'dark.' The worst moments of my life, the most terrible moments of pain – there were still moments of happiness, of seeing something beautiful. A single flower in bloom, the smell of the earth after rainfall. The taste of a good cup of coffee, a stupid joke, a minging but curiously morish cheese feast pizza, for gods' sake. Even in war, in suffering, in the shadow of the valley of death, there are moments of good things.
One of the things that makes Shakespeare unarguably the greatest dramatist in western literature is his delight in a good knob joke even when the night is at its darkest.
M) My favorite grimdark author Clark Ashton Smith (alive before the genre awoke) was a poet, illustrator, and sculptor; many others interviewed by S.E. have other artistic talents beyond writing. If so can we share them (i.e., images of fine or graphic art) or mp3s (of music). If not, which artists/pieces inspire you to write?
I can neither draw nor make music. I sing like a cat being strangled. Beauty and repulsion without the beauty.
A huge jumble of art and music has influenced me over the years.
Art: Brugel's The Triumph of Death; Blake's Nebuchadnezzar; Goya's Black Paintings; Schiele; Turner.
Music: Industrial folk, folk folk, goth, Leonard Cohen, The Three Penny Opera, Philip Glass, In The Nursery's musical setting of Flecker's Samarkand.
You can find playlists that inspired/evoke the novels on my Court of Broken Knives blog.
N) You seem to have a shoe fetish — which convention goers may witness. Any images of your feet we can share, and explanations?
The shoes thing! I love my shoes, yes. Shoes make me very happy. It's become a bit of an albatross, now, though, because people expect to see more and more outrageous shoes when I'm at cons.
I have literally no idea how I'm going to top [the dragon shoes].
O) The world of Irast: Sophie E Tallis prepared the map for Empires of Dust. Can you describe how you partnered to create this?
When I wrote The Court of Broken Knives I didn't have any physical map of Irlast. I didn't world-build at all, the world just sort of unfolded itself to me, like I was really travelling through it, as I wrote. I could see the world in my head, I knew where places were, slowly I began to learn more about the history of different places in the world. The world of Irlast is a part of my subconscious, it's formed from my deepest interests and loves. Discovering more about this world I was creating, just wallowing in exploring it, was a huge part of the writing for me. It doesn't make coherent sense as a 'real' world, because of the way it emerged it's not placed in any one period, in the same way that a lot of folklore or pre-modern historical writing is. Timelessly mythic / a hodgepodge of all my favourite historical periods flung together with no attempt to paper over the cracks.
At the end, when I decided I needed a map because all the best books have maps, I was lucky enough to know Sophie. She's incredibly talented. I drew up a hilarious 'cubist' map of Irlast based on the mental map in my head, squares shaded in green for forest, yellow for desert, blue for lakes, and wrote up descriptions of the different cities. Sophie took that and created the map. (As it's got sea all round it, she asked me if I wanted sea beasts round the edge and I was hardly going to say no.)
For The Tower of Living and Dying and The House of Sacrifice, I was then following the action on the map as it unfolded, like tracing Alexander's route on a map of Asia. So IP could see the terrain different people were inhabiting, the difficulties they might encounter, the landscapes they would see. One of my favorite television programs is Michael Wood's In the Footsteps of Alexander, and I was doing what Wood did there, tracing Marith's footsteps on my map.
Helen's Daimones - Audible Codes
The audible version of Helen's Daimones is free with the below codes.
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"Helen is one of the stranger heroes to feature in swords & sorcery. Is she delusional, mad, gifted? I was never quite sure — she is only a little girl — but I was never able to take my eyes off her" - Fletcher Vredenburgh from Blackgate
The Dyscrasia novels by S.E. Lindberg are deep, intricate reads that harken back to the pulp days of Lovecraft, Howard, and others... Helen's Daimones is weird fantasy, weirdly told, for weird readers."- Bob Milne Beauty in Ruins - Speculative and Imaginative Fiction
Helen's Daimones its the gateway novella for Dyscrasia Fiction. Helen and Sharon are orphans haunted by supernatural diseases, insects, and storms. They are your tour guides in this entry-way novella into Dyscrasia Fiction which explores the choices humans and their gods make as a disease corrupts their souls, shared blood and creative energies. In Helen's Daimones, guardian angels are among the demons chasing the girls. When all appear grotesquely inhuman, which ones should they trust to save them?
Kathy Bell Denton's voice is hauntingly beautiful:
Labels: Helen's Daimones
Sword and SorceryGroupreads: Jack Williamson AND L...
Disgust and Desire: Anna Smith Spark interview by ...