photo credit: Mozambique – Moments

NaPoWriMo continues on its relentless course towards the implosion that will no doubt occur sometime around the three week mark. I’ve just about caught up after an indulgent weekend of not writing anything, and although they are of, uh, questionable quality, at least there are ideas present that I can pry out and try to polish. As long as I get some good ideas out of the exercise I’m going to take a win from it, and so far there’s been only a couple that I wouldn’t want to revisit. I’ve taken (in the absence of better prompts) to finding interesting news articles and rewriting them–with or without artistic license–in poetry form. It’s turned out some relatively good pieces, though as the month progresses I dare say that it will descend into tiny little ‘newsku’s; the haiku form being the last bastion of hope for those puffing and gasping for inspiration in the final days of April.

In exciting news, my good friend Tim has decided to host a steampunk themed party for his 21st celebrations. I found a very helpful and enthusiastic website in the form of the Steampunk Workshop, whose tutorials cater for those who are looking to get started producing their own steampunk-themed pieces. Of particular interest to me is the electrolytic etching of brass, a process which is remarkably simple for the results it achieves. My initial thought is to create some sort of face mask, that I can then adorn with various pieces of brass etched with the process. I have an idea involving jigsaw pieces, glass, the aforementioned brass, some zinc, and a willing compatriot, but we’ll see how it goes.

Nothing much else to report, I’m a bit put out about the recent Amazon move to block alternative print on demand (POD) books than those they support, but that’s been discussed more thoroughly in other places. I’m not really upset for myself personally, because I don’t yet have the confidence or the necessary thousands of words to begin thinking about self-publishing, but it’s a bit of a big blow for the thousands of people that rely on Amazon to get their books out to readers. From a business point of view it’s an understandable move, as the sale of other POD vendors’ books could be seen as a piggyback that uses Amazon’s resources without providing them with adequate recompense. However, it’s still a pretty crap situation.

Musical recommendations have ranged from Husky Rescue, to Birds of Tokyo (Perth boys represent, yo), bumping on Explosions in the Sky, before rolling over Low, through Rilo Kiley to finish up with Beirut. If there’s not enough quality in those names to satisfy you, then I guess you must be some kind of strange quality vacuum whose gaping maw devours stars with a small sigh and licking of lips.

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