indie | The Dubious Monk

library niches / distractions / poem

I finally got the work I wanted to get done this weekend done today. Which is fine. Monday is still part of my weekend in this term’s schedule. But I can’t help thinking that all of this schoolwork is distraction from doing the stuff I should be working on. I don’t know. I feel like things are going along, like they’re working, but that in the end I’m working towards something I am not sure if I want.

I mean, yeah, I want to be a comics librarian, but what is that going to look like? It’s not the same thing as wanting to work at a university, or even be a YA librarian. There can’t be that many jobs that would be for me (which is part of why I’m so excited to do my practicum at the Schulz Library, it being pretty much my dream job). But if those jobs are even fewer and further between than regular library jobs then maybe I’ve got to be making that job myself.

One way I could see doing that would be to turn Librarianaut into something like Fleen. But while Fleen is journalism about webcomics, I could make a library for digital comics. Not just a directory but a research tool. Last week there were a pile of interesting reference pictures flying around Twitter from comics people. What happens when we collect those tools somewhere and make them useful for people who didn’t see them on twitter? That’s what a librarian is supposed to do. Improve society by giving people informational tools. I could do that for my niche (if indie digital comics can be considered my niche). I think I could.

This is what I’m thinking about tonight. I want to use these skills to make something. The way Holly makes poetry.

Tagged academic, fleen, holly, homework, indie, job, librarianaut, schulz library, twitter, university, webcomics, weekend, ya

10.11.08 [Monday]

free as in oatmeal stout

After a meh sort of meeting at school today, I stopped off for ice cream and beer, both of which were sorely lacking in my part of the fridge. I’m walking up my street, bag with ice cream in one hand, box of beer in the other, and as I was approaching a skinny woman probably in her 20s, she said “Hey, how’s it going?” I think that’s what she said. I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me. I glanced at her, and she was wearing big sunglasses and clothes that rode that thrift-store-hipster/actual-hobo line pretty well. She had been talking to me, and she eyed my box of beer.

“Hey, umm, would I be able to trade you a pack of smokes for one of your beers? ‘Cause I’m really hung-over and you’d just be saving my life,” she said. I stopped, and kind of made my “I don’t think so” face as I formulated the sentence about me not needing a pack of cigarettes.

“Please,” she continued. “I just need something to drink. I’m so hung over.”

That’s what convinced me. The fact that she felt that her being hung over was a reason that’d convince me to trade beer with her. It just seemed so illogical there was no way I could not reward it. This might seem to contradict completely my denial of Halloween candy to that kid for not having a costume last week, but he didn’t even try to convince me. His heart wasn’t in it. This woman really wanted a beer, and this was her form of legitimate reasoning. She was so convinced it would work, she said it twice. I had to respect that.

So I opened my box of beer and gave her a bottle. She was rummaging for smokes and I told her not to worry about it. She told me karma would smile on me and I told her to have a good afternoon.

And then when I got home I found, not five dollars, but my copies of Machine of Death waiting for me. I’ve only read a couple of stories so far, and I think I’m going to wait till December to really sink into it. I’ve got the electronic version ready to go on my reader so it’ll be good travelling material. If you want to buy a copy, now that the “Let’s Be an Amazon Bestseller for a Day!” push is over, I’d probably get it from Topatoco, where you can buy loads of other books/T-shirts/gewgaws made by other indie creators I’m proud to be, however tangentially, associated with.

Tagged amazon, beer, cigarettes, clothes, december, ereader, firing squad, halloween, hipster, hung over, ice cream, indie, machine of death, reasoning, short stories, topatoco, vancouver, walking, webcomics

10.10.20 [Wednesday]

the machine of death has arrived

So a few years ago I wrote a story for an awesome sounding SF anthology edited by webcomic people I really like (Ryan North, David Malki !, and Matthew Bennardo who I’m not really aware of outside of this context) called The Machine of Death. It’s available now on Amazon, but if you’re interested in buying it, it’d be great if you could do it on October 26 (from Amazon.com). If you want more information about the history behind the anthology and why we’d like you to buy it that day (hint: it has to do with being an indie publisher trying to make a splash), this post should explain things a bit.

But, you might be saying, what is this anthology about? Well, the concept is that they’re stories from a world where the Machine of Death exists. The Machine tells you how you will die. It is infallible, but can be cryptic. So the stories are funny or poignant or generally awesome. My story, Firing Squad, is about a traveller in a rebellious mountain country whose benevolence has consequences. The book has 30 or so stories, and each of them is also illustrated by cool people from webcomics. It’s kind of awesome.

So it would be great if you considered buying it (or telling someone else to buy it for you) on Amazon.com on October 26, 2010. It is Creative Commons licensed and will be available electronically for free, but actual sales are good things to encourage this kind of effort in the future. Thanks.

Tagged amazon, anthology, bearstache books, creative commons, david malki !, firing squad, indie, machine of death, publishing, ryan north, sf, short stories, webcomics

The Dubious Monk

chinese curses since twenty aught two

Tag Archives: indie

library niches / distractions / poem

free as in oatmeal stout

the machine of death has arrived

Follow “The Dubious Monk”