Monthly Archives: January 2012

Artist of the Month: an interview with Mark Satchwill

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This month’s Artist of the Month is Mark Satchwill, who is not only the artistic half of NoHo Noir, but he is a versatile and accomplished artist in his own right. He’s been exhibited by various galleries, including Adonis Art in London and the Flavel Centre in Dartmouth, and he’s worked for magazines like “Diplomat” and “Dark Valentine,” as well as for hundreds of international collectors. He works as easily with paints as he does with digital media. He’s most famous for his watercolors, but he’s also noted for his marker work: he’s even been profiled by Letraset. (As an example, this portrait here of the Doctor Who character Idris, as played by actress Suranne Jones, is one of his marker portraits). You can see more of his blog here, and his deviantArt page here.

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Hi Mark! Where are you from? Where did you to go to school? How did you get into illustration?

Hi! I’m from Watford, a small town on the outskirts of Greater London. I grew up here, then went and lived in different places all over the UK, finally settling back here a few years ago. I knew I wanted to do something in the arts from quite a young age. After my ‘A’ levels I went on to a 1-year Foundation Course at Stevenage College, where you tried different disciplines before deciding what you wanted to pursue on a Degree course. Some of my tutors thought I should do a degree in Fashion but I chose a 3-year Graphic Design Degree, with Illustration as my main focus, at Leeds Polytechnic (now Leeds Metropolitan University).

To cut a long story short I had a fairly unhappy time on the course. After graduating in 1990 I spent a few months trying to find work but eventually got a regular job. I never gave up painting and drawing completely but it was only really about five years ago I decided to pursue and art career seriously again. Continue reading “Artist of the Month: an interview with Mark Satchwill” »

Why American Gods is one of the best fantasy novels of the past decade

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Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough and looked don’t-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife.

I first heard the opening lines of “American Gods” read by Neil Gaiman himself about twelve years ago, at a CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) fundraiser held at my old college. At the time, I attended Art Center College of Design in sunny Pasadena, and when I heard that Gaiman– who wrote “The Sandman,” one of my favorite comics ever– would be speaking, I was thrilled. I made a point of attending, and being the budding artiste, I sketched him in one of my old sketchbooks. While I drew, he read from his new book, and I was immediately hooked: it sounded like the coolest thing ever. I knew I would love this story– what was it called? Oh yeah… “American Gods.” Awesome!

Anyway, after the talk, I gave him the sketch, thanked him, and went off, pleased as punch. I figured I would get the book when it came out, so I would find out what happened to Shadow.

But things didn’t quite work out that way. I got distracted by school and later by work, and I never got around to reading “American Gods,” even though all of my friends assured me it was great and I would love it. But I wasn’t sure whether I should believe them. After all, I had been disappointed by Gaiman’s film “Mirrormask”– what if “American Gods” disappointed me too? It would be so depressing!

And as the years went by, and more people told me how great it was, I resisted reading it more and more. I thought I would read it eventually, but I never felt like it, and I always figured I could get around to it later. Continue reading “Why American Gods is one of the best fantasy novels of the past decade” »

Author of the Month: an interview with Katherine Tomlinson

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Katherine Tomlinson-- illustration by Mark Satchwill

For this month’s Author of the Month interview, I’d like to present Los Angeles screenwriter, author and blogger Katherine Tomlinson, who is not only an old hand in the movie biz, but a fresh new voice in the horror and urban fantasy genre. Reminiscent of both Shirley Jackson and Stephen King, her stories are evocative, disturbing, sharp as a knife and hard to forget. She’s been featured in the St Martin’s Press anthology “What Was I Thinking?,” as well as by ThugLit, Shotgun Honey, A Twist of Noir, Luna Station Quarterly, and the late great Astonishing Adventures Magazine, where I first met her as one of the on-staff illustrators.

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Hi Kathy! Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? How did you get into writing?

I’m an army brat. I was born in Washington DC but brought up all over the place. I knew I wanted to be a writer from the time I was pretty young—before high school for certain. I used to share a room with my little sister and I would tell her bedtime stories every night. In high school and college I wrote for the “literary” magazines but then I graduated and got a job as a reporter and stopped writing fiction for a long time. (The first professional byline I ever got was for writing a non-fiction piece for my grandmother’s hometown newspaper. It ran the day before I turned 17. I’m very proud of that.)

I began writing fiction seriously when John Donald Carlucci hired me to edit Astonishing Adventures Magazine in 2007. We hooked up through a Craig’s List ad. Through him I’ve met so many people who have mentored me and supported me—Cormac Brown, Sandra Seamans, Patti Abbott, Paul D. Brazill—the list is long. Continue reading “Author of the Month: an interview with Katherine Tomlinson” »

Why I don’t like “The Hunger Games”

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The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question “How can we eat?” the second by the question “Why do we eat?” and the third by the question “Where shall we have lunch?”

–Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

Even though food and hunger are a big part of “The Hunger Games,” I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was written by someone who had never been without a meal in their entire lives. “Where shall we have lunch?” seems about right. It’s rural poverty, starvation, and survivalism as imagined by someone whose biggest food decision for the day is whether to eat lunch at Panera or Starbucks.

I have skimmed through this book in the past, but Megan at the PoseySessions blog convinced me to give it another chance. I have read it in its entirety; I have given it another chance. This book would be fine for twelve year olds– I might have liked it well enough when I was twelve– but I am surprised that so many adults find Collins’ work to be so amazing. It’s not.

It was a struggle to get through this book. The bones of the story is good, but the writing is inept and clunky, the characterization is flat, and the world-building is unbelievably bad. “Games” in fact features some of the worst dystopian worldbuilding I’ve ever seen… it’s like Caprica on Valium. Continue reading “Why I don’t like “The Hunger Games”” »