Coin-Operated Press FurZine issue is out!

Coin-Operated Press FurZine issue is out!

https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/

FurZine is 20+ pages of Furry art, photos, poetry & prose! 

My short story, “Fall Season” & 2 of my illustrations from my ongoing cat sword & sorcery series!

[Print] 

FurZine - £6.00 - £7.00

https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/product/furzine-1 

[Digital] 

PDF - FurZine - £3.00  

https://coinoperatedpress.bigcartel.com/product/pdf-furzine

New cat story accepted!

Just in time for autumnal antics, my short story, "Fall Season"(& 2 art pieces), was accepted and will appear in the FurZine anthology! As it's a Scottish press, this will be my first overseas publication!

https://bsky.app/profile/coinoppress.bsky.social (Bluesky)

@CoinOpPress (Twitter)

Ages when I "discovered" my favorite authors

Andre Norton 

Age 10-11 "Warlock of the Witchworld"

My oldest big brother brought home a coverless used paperback copy. My introduction to adult Fantasy. Magic as personal, unique, familial legacy, and frightening. The rest is history... 

Lois Duncan

Age 12 "A Gift of Magic"

I lost a lot of Summertime as a kid because I was always stuck in Summer School(which is also a favorite 80s movie of mine. My first film showing a pregnant teen and the storyline NOT punishing her for that). I found this book on the school library spinner rack(found so many favorites over the years on the spinner rack). The cover was a touched-up photograph of an eerie-looking pre-teen white girl. Her eyes aglow while she sat crouched in an easy chair, her fingers digging into its arms while she stared at the viewer. Behind her was another photo of a younger girl seemingly floating in shades of blue. The story was as surreal and real as a story could get about a regular girl inheriting her matriarchal line's ability to telepathy, telekinesis, and prescience.

Anne McCaffrey 

Age 20 "The Rowan"

Now in the realm of far-future SF with a psychic woman protagonist(thanks to A Gift of Magic) I started to relish reading about. This title was the first in a family drama/space opera series. The protagonist is in blue clothing and seat on a seat likened to a throne, appearing as regal as any queen. An orphan, she is considered one of the most powerful psychics in human-inhabited space. She sits straight with her ankles crossed, her arms straight with her fingertips on her seat's arms. She is flanked by a smallish(serval-size?) snow leopard-like domesticated cat. More psychic abilities and alien-implied invasions of the galaxy. The first story where the protagonist and her intended get together, she gets pregnant, and they don't immediately marry(they marry in the second book when she's pregnant with their third child). That blew my mind and I appreciated this subplot point. 

Ursula K. le Guin

Age 23(?) "Catwings Returns"

I know I read this story late in my local library, not even realizing it was a series. It had cats with bird wings born to a regular black cat mama. The cats flying through a city felt very real to me and delighted me that another writer could make a story about a cat character that could fly. Disclaimer: My first character I made up as a kid was a brown and white cat with bat wings I called Cat the Bat.😊😄 I worked as a substitute teacher at the time.

And now... For something different(TM)

The tortoiseshell that adopted me and my mom had her kitten about two weeks ago!

Weeks before, when she was still pregnant, I dismantled my backyard stove to make a house for her, complete with an old wood plank I used as a carry-around desk for years. I covered it with plastic while the walls were the cinder blocks from my yard stove.

I even put an old wood piece to elevate the basket she slept in as a kitten when she was still invited on our porch. This little hobgoblin decided to move her kitty to rest under my dad's lillies! In the front yard! Mom planted these next to our porch trough.

About three days ago, on a piece of abandoned washcloth and under broad leaves, is my tortie pal's kid! So we looked for a piece of board (the one making the roof for the backyard hut wasn't long enough) that could make a lean-to. The only one I found was too narrow but I lined it with new plastic.

When I looked under the leaves again, the kitten wasn't on the washcloth. After some more digging, my tortoiseshell moved her kitten under the thin plank! You mean to tell me I made you a beautiful hut, complete with concrete block walls and a thicker wood roof for the lean-to under the lillies?

"Tribes of Kai" micro-review

What an incredible graphic novel...

You were too short a story and I love you.

I first read "Tribes of Kai" while it serialized in the short-lived Frazetta Fantasy Illustrated Magazine back in the 1990s. The same periodical that showed a new ElfQuest story from Wendy Pini!

Tribes of Kai takes place on a prehistoric world. The technology is Stone Age. Belief system is in its nascent stages. Knowledge is passed down orally and language are cave dweller drawings. Anthropomorphic wildcats that have 'centaur' like bodies are the dominant species and the main characters. One such individual thinks differently from the tribe and is exiled. Through lush painted comic panels and a hypnotic narration, the reader wonders: is the protagonist a harbinger of doom? Or a savior?

Tribes of Kai is written by the mesmerizing storyteller Lance Haunrogue (Writer) and each-panel-a-gallery-masterwork Daren Bader (Artist).

Please look for Tribes of Kai where ever books are sold, on eBay, or through Flesk Publications website and you can check out the publisher on Facebook!

Illustrations, New Concepts, and a New Art Account!

[NOTE: Here, there be links!]
As a return to my Tabber the Red writing, I had an idea for an illustration while writing the latest cat fantasy.

 ShadoWalker & his Autumn angel (2018)

The concept was difficult and it took some planning but I think I got my point across. Oh! I can also introduce my new Instagram account: Hand drawn by Carmen Jr - While the Deviant Art is my official online portfolio, the Instagram is for friends and other artists to see progressions of my work - such as rough sketches, thumbnails, preliminaries, and drafts! As well as previous versions side-by-side with updated versions.

Story can be a challenge

I had a short story in mind but realized another story within the same world, yet dealing with a different cast, finally started to make sense. I also didn't want to force the characters of another story in the same series for the sake of meeting a themed submission guideline. That routine has hardly worked for me except in this year, when I crafted an article just for a journal and it was accepted! 

Mind you, this is 2017 and I've been trying to write professionally since 1996 with my first publication in 1999-2000!

Since this break in the semester, not only has the novel continued rolling around in my head as it should, but a solution came to a short story within the cat epic fantasy series! I've been on-again-off-again with a particular title within the collection and I realized it proved difficult to write another title because I needed the events of the title I'm STRUGGLING WITH NOW to happen!

EUREKA! Can you believe this? And now, that difficult story is almost writing itself! I'm still jotting down notes, swathes of exposition and setups. The story deals with one of my magic using characters who I believed for years to be a villain, or at best, an antihero. I couldn't be further from the truth! He's not only a nice and generous person, he's lovably sardonic and sarcastic! His sardonic personality was already fixed when he was originally 'conceived' but that was with a villainous character. With this more pleasant personality, my shero/heroine won't seem like such a masochist when she falls for him.

There have also been changes to his back story as well. Actually, I kept his origins but in the nascent conception, I had him move far from those trainings and how he was raised. I also had him a stranger to most of that background. Now I understand he couldn't possibly be who he is while disavowing his origins. He just wouldn't be that person! 

His back story also solves my reasons for the antagonistic relationship he has with another fellow magic user too! It's all making sense now. After HOW long? Sheesh... Well, 'til next time!

R.I.P. Martin H. Greenberg... Editor Extraordinaire

[Blogger's note: in this article, Here There Be Links! Click, if you dare]

Just learned tonight on Twitter that an editor I hold responsible for increasing and cementing my interest in the short story had died *three years ago*!

Martin H. Greenberg was his name, and if you were like me, in the 1990s on up, into speculative fiction AND a lover of the short story, you probably read any of his countless anthologies. That is, by himself or in a collaboration.

For instance, his "Cat Fantastic" series that he co-edited with one of my favorite authors Andre Norton.

I discovered the Cat Fantastic books in 11th grade when our high school had a book fair. I have been drawn to cats all my life. I often read cat-themed books, such as Andre Norton's "Breed To Come" and Tad Williams' "Tailchaser's Song" and that pretty much set me up.

Fast forward nine years later, and I published my first short story.

What does becoming a short story author have to do with Martin H. Greenberg? Well, school, especially in middle and high, English classes encouraged and commanded that the student read a variety of writing styles, the only way to be well-read in such a short time as a semester meant reading an English textbook anthology.

We have all read them, regardless of when we attended school. It is usually the thickest text we have in our book bag, and it will have samples of Shakespeare to Henry James to Virginia Woolf to James Joyce to Phyllis Wheatley. Yet, these stories could either touch us, enlighten us, or fill us with boredom.

The anthology is usually how many readers are introduced to new writers or get re-acquainted with old writers.

So, by the time I found that fateful book at my high school's book fair, I was already inundated by a public school system that had trained me to do much of my reading through short stories and by a variety of them, according to each anthology's theme.

There is a debt to be paid. One that I can never give to Mr. Martin H. Greenberg. I did not have a chance to speak with him, nor had I ever the inkling to communicate with him. What I did was keep buying the anthologies he edited.

Cat Fantastic II introduced me to many of the authors I now read, and to the further possibilities that exist within speculative fiction. I believe reading this anthology and others in the Cat Fantastic series made me a better reader, helped to mold me into a discriminating reader, and inspired me to become a writer and a better one at that.

So Thank You, Mr. Greenberg. I owe you much.

More points, more inspirations...

I said it before many times in my journals and so I'll say it again: I often list my inspirations for the canine historical drama. This list is as a litany; to remind me why this story must be told.

So, here goes: "The Aristocats". Why this? It's about cats! How could this inspire a dog story? But it did, in the elegant cat named Duchess, and the stray cat named Thomas O' Malley,  'the alley cat'!* The best part of this Disney film for me is when Thomas' friends perform their jazz music for Duchess and her kittens who are used to Opera and classical music. However, the home-raised cat and her kittens swing with the rest! When Duchess plays the harp afterwards is a treat.

I mentioned "Lady and the Tramp" in a previous post. The parallels between my story and this are far more obvious: Lady is a Cocker Spaniel, born to be a housepet. Tramp is a stray mutt with Terrier in him. He is older and more worldly. And has been around... In the full sense of the word. This is a Disney film as well, but the superlative writing makes that point that Tramp is no longer innocent, but that Lady is...

We come to the end of this post with the earliest influence of these films, and that's "City Mouse, Country Mouse".

Why this Aesop fable? Well, Aesop's use of animals as symbols of human folly made huge impressions on me.
In my childhood reading, I would come across an Aesop tale now and again. Yet, the significance of these fables never rang more true than when I spent hours reading a thick volume in my junior high library. I was so inspired, so enthused, I created my own tales, penning and illustrating notebook paper before self-binding the little pages by stapler.

"City Mouse, Country Mouse" is a tale of opposites. A country cousin leaves his rural home to visit his slicker city kin.
Mayhem ensues, with the country mouse rushing back to a world that, though no less dangerous, is familiar and makes sense.

This is no simple kiddy-tale, but a profound look at how our troubles can comfort us and that we musn't envy another's life.
Their ways may appear so alien and frightening that it could render a person to flee back to their comfort zone.

Please do yourself a favor, and read "City Mouse, Country Mouse" in any adaptation, in as many variations as you can find. You will appreciate its message.

*Viewers who watched "The Aristocats" know this little ditty!

What's the BIG Idea? Part 2

In my previous post, I continue to work on this particular storyline: about prophecy, lynxes, and caracals.
I wish to learn more, and therefore, I write more.

This cat series is where I feel at home, because it has been with me from the teenage years to my life now.

I may begin another blog with a different media to showcase the cat series as it involves a different set than the dog novel.

The cat epic fantasy is a series of short stories, and as it is NOT historical but fantastic, I have no background to go to, nor a foundation to read on, but have to build this world from the ground up. However, I find this refreshing to not be hindered by historical facts.

Do I create EVERYTHING myself? No. I still must research extensively, just not in the same way with the dog novel, which I must work within the framework of reality because there is no magic, no superhuman feats, or whimsy.
Simply put, folks trying to make it in a world crushed by the Great Depression...

What's the BIG Idea? Part 1

The short story I'm tweaking has to do with my "Tabber the Red" milieu, where, on a fantasy world, upright cats live, worship, breathe and die in their own ways.

With research that has taken me, officially, two decades to create, the idea began as a novel, which, after several attempts, false starts, and poor planning, became a short story, and soon progressed to several shorts, six of which were published.

This next story comes from an ancient time in this world, and a prophecy with a weapon forged by a god.

My inspiration for this weapon ranges from Tolkien's time-honored Ring of Power, to Moorcock's Elric of Meldibone''s soul-devouring sword, Stormbringer, and the demonic dagger, whose name escapes me, from Hickman and Weis' Death Gate.

When library books weren't enough, I found the fabulous reference Dorling Kindersley pocket-size encyclopedia series. Starting with Cats...
With all the reading and obsession I have for many things feline, I learned about caracals, which led me to more research.
Armed with fascination for the Middle East and India and the TRUE "1001 Nights" *no Disney's Alladin, please*, I began to piece together my caracals' culture, their belief-systems, as well as creating their pantheon of gods.

What formulated started with a lynx boy and a weapon..

What ideas make a story? Part 2

I'm reworking a short story within my cat epic fantasy milieu, so I'm excited by a lot of renewed interest in the Middle East and its past and present! *that's why I immensely enjoyed that documentary "Islamic Art: Mirror to an Invisible World" (2011)* 

Whatever misconceptions you have about the Middle East, drop them! If you love hearing about Middle Eastern cultures and how they have affected every level of modern society, watch this documentary! You don't have to be an art grad as I to appreciate BEAUTY and HISTORY.

Now, about the story..

**Please find and watch this documentary**

What ideas make a story?

I mentioned in last post about an awesome (most documentaries are!) documentary I recently viewed and a wonderful article about how a short story is borne in "bits and pieces".
*Check last post for documentary title and magazine issue/page*

"The Contract" (my childhood fascination with royal lines, and my distaste towards politics)

"I Guard the Gate" (my love for Ancient Egypt, angels and dimensional portals)

"White Ministrant" (my interest in Middle Eastern culture, modern and ancient. Also, my first foray into writing a creature-feature)

"Firefly Crown" (a continuation from "The Contract" story arc, or, far into the storylines' future as well as my first post love scene. I also feel this is a "Masterpiece Theatre" - Alistair Cooke hosting, but with cats)
Onto the next post..

Cat fantasy epic..part 2

I just finished a documentary on Islamic art called: "Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World" (2012).
It reflected Islamic art through the following countries: Egypt, Israel, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Spain, Mali and India.
I am also re-reading an article in The Writer Magazine called: "Making short stories from bits and pieces" by award-winning author, Linda McCullough Moore. (The Writer/August 2012/pg 28-29)

Why am I fascinated by ancient art that continues to beguile scholars and the world?

Why am I reading an article on the technique that got me published over the years in the first place?

There is an agreement I made with myself: when drafting a piece, I need to know what kind of information I will reach for to electrify my writing.

I can't remember exact influences and inspirations in that moment and time, but I try to give a snap statement to encapsulate what space the story means.
Here is a list of my published stories and what I state within parentheses.

"Su Ling" (after a Tang Dynasty short story and that particular form)

"The Merchant's Daughter" (social commentary and I wanted to write from a vendor's point of view)
Onto the next post...

Reworking cat epic fantasy...

Finally, a patchwork of short stories that I've wanted to use since I drafted them in 2004, I'm FINALLY working on.
What could stand on its own, I gave each a single document.
What was patchy and could be grouped together (i.e. Excerpts, scraps of dialogue, brief scenes and exposition), I gathered into a single doc.
I realized some of those created an original idea I could draft. Now it's about eight pages I can work with!

Just a thought...[Addendum]

How I enjoy stories where the supernatural world affects the natural world, and how I employ this in my epic fantasy cat stories!
I learned this technique from David Eddings*(Please read my April 2021 Post titled 'Our Heroes Are Actually Monster) when I read his fabulous Belgariad series!

 

How my character became a case of mistaken identity

I was probably in 11th or 10th grade, when a schoolmate from junior high approached me during lunch period to ask me 'How's Sonny?'
My best friend (still is), got mad at me afterwards and demanded to know why I never told her about this ex-boyfriend named Sonny.

I laughed as it took me a while to calm her down. I explained that Sonny was a comic character I invented while stuck in summer school math class (I would be imprisoned in Summer School almost every year from 5th grade to 11th, with maybe a year or two of respite that I did well enough to move on to the next grade).

Later, thoroughly mollified, my best friend expressed her disbelief at how could an invented character seem so real to a person that they would remember years after?

I reminded her about this anecdote years later and she laughed at how jealous she had felt towards this classmate knowing something about me that she didn't (my best friend and I did not attend the same junior high school).

****
Birth of A Character

Bored out of my skull, and stuck in a class whose subject proved my greatest enemy for most of my academic life (Math), drawing a comic book was my only release.

I was puny, a loner, and nerdy. I wore glasses, had braces near the end of junior high into high school, where the wretched railway system was blessedly removed (Thank Heavens!), and I was bullied for one less thing, which was a blessing in and of itself.

Drawing was always an escape, like reading, and so I concocted a group of high school friends (Kids always want their heroes older) and they were: bears, cats and dogs.

I used notebook paper, drew the panels, inked, colored and put in the word balloons.
The story took most of Math period and through endless viewing of the school movie "Summer School" (how appropriate! Cool movie, by the way).

Soon, classmates were actually waiting for me to finish it.
I made a copy in the school library, kept the original, and watched like wildfire as the copy changed hands. I received praise and criticism alike : "I like his hairstyle!" "I didn't like the ending!" There were cries for a sequel.
I didn't have the marketing sense then: Had I sold each page for a dollar, my classmates would have paid it, and I would've made a tidy little sum to spend at the end of summer.

This episode on the power of my words escaped me many times after.
I would finally GET IT when I ended up in one of the few honors classes I'd take in high school.