Psychedelia Gothique

  I’ve been talking a lot lately about the influence of popular culture (especially music) on the Avenging Glory diptych. For two thirds of the diptych, the title character, Glory,   is only able to speak in song (and advertising slogans). This is explained here. I wanted to use popular songs as the source for her dialogue, but the need to avoid copyright infringement resulted in my having to rewrite all the lyrics. I did my best to make sure those lyrics were reminiscent enough about the songs that inspired them that readers would be able to identify them. In a few cases, it should be easy. But mostly, it will be hard, but FUN – at least for anybody with a musical trivia bent who is tired of Sudoku and Crossword puzzles. Sort of musical acrostics – but without the strict conventions and the hidden quote at the end. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, I came up with a promo idea…a sort of singing review of my book. It’s a rave review (of course!) The first per...

On Saturday, May 15th I will be a guest on Ahkil Chawli’s Majestic Mutt podcast in which successful individuals with atypical backgrounds show why everyone is a Majestic Mutt. Recent guests have included Canadian Astronaut Dr. Dave Williams, accountant and comedian Neha Kohli, and physician/Wellness Coach Dr. Mashall Khan, I was thinking about talking points for the show and realised that there is a HUGE aspect of my work in progress – which is the second half of the diptych that began with my novel, The Human Template – that I have yet to publicly broach. On the surface, it very much goes against the grain of public opinion. Writers, more so than most in the art world, have long been obsessed with plagiarism and the laws that protect us from the spectre of having our work stolen: copyright laws. Certainly, computers and the changing way we read – or enjoy any kind of entertainment – has shifted dramatically over the past 25 years. It is easier than ever for unscrupulous people ...

If you're an artist of any stripe, you likely entered the "copyright" discussion based on your well-justified fear of having your pocket picked by unscrupulous plagiarists and resellers. As a typical creative artist you make a tenuous living from your avocation. If you're trying to survive on it, you are most likely living well below the poverty line. But most of us harbour dreams of making enough money from our art to give up our jobs in the real world. The faint chance of doing that becomes nearly impossible when someone finds a way to steal the food from your hand when it's still on the way to your mouth.  I pretty much made back the money I invested in self publishing my horror collection, Psychedelia Gothique before pirates made it available for free all over the internet. I haven't made a penny on it in years, but that's at least partly my fault. If I had done a better job of self-promotion and made a bigger splash on the front end; if I had continu...