Great Christmas short films that are actually German supermarket ads

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Cora

One thing I’ve noticed is that German TV advertising has gotten a lot better in recent years. Gone are the days of Herr Kaiser, Clementine and – the supreme horror of them all – Frau Sommer. The sexist coffee ads with the insufferable know-it-all neighbour Frau Sommer were so awful that I still refuse to buy the brand in question (even though it’s actually a local Bremen brand) thirty years later.

What’s even more striking is that some of the best TV ads currently running in Germany are ads for supermarket chains of all things. Now supermarket ads (provided the chains even bothered to run ads, which a lot of them didn’t) used to be tame, silly and bastions of sexism along with washing powder and coffee ads.

Things have gotten a lot better in recent years and particularly the supermarket ads have improved by leaps and bounds. And this holiday season, several German supermarket chains have created Christmas ads that are mini movies in themselves with a full plot.

So let’s take a look:

I’ll start with my absolutely favourite spot, courtesy of Kaufland. It’s a Star Wars themed Christmas ad, complete with a budding geek romance.

I love this spot so much, because it not just shows that girls are Star Wars fans, too, but also that boys can actually appreciate the romantic elements of the movies.

The supermarket chain Edeka has a completely different approach with this touching Christmas ad that even has a message beyond “Buy more stuff”. The ad caused quite a stir and passed way beyond the German borders, as the massive viewing figures indicate:

This animated ad of the mail-order company turned online store Otto tells the story of an aged postman making sure that one little boy’s Christmas wish is fulfilled, albeit thirty years late.

The Christmas ad of the discount supermarket chain Penny chronicles that thirty-year odyssey of a lost nutcracker.

Coincidentally, I had a nutcracker just like that one. A “friend” of mine killed it by stuffing sticky candy into its mouth. What is it with violence against nutcrackers by bullying kids?

The chain REWE also runs an ad about a boy and his best friend, in this case a snowman:

Another Christmas ad about a kid, in this case a little girl, and her best friend, courtesy of the department store chain Galeria Kaufhof:

I totally want Hugo, the plushie elf. Should have checked if Kaufhof is selling them.

And the little girl’s dad looks eerily like Mark Ruffalo.

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A new Helen Shepherd Mystery available: Mightier than the Sword

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Cora

I had my last day of class for the year this Thursday. My students were actually disappointed that there won’t be any class until January, which is certainly a first. But that’s the difference between adults who actually want to learn (and who can’t work due to legal restrictions) and kids/teenagers who often have more exciting things to do.

The run-up to the holidays is always a rush, so the next few days will be devoted to book announcements. Besides, I haven’t yet seen The Force Awakens and won’t until after the holidays. BTW, releasing The Force Awakens, after all one of the most anticipated movies of the year, so close to the holidays tells you a lot about who Disney/Lucasfilm think the target audience is, namely kids, teens and unattached young men. Cause if you have a family and/or if you have a job caught in the end of the year rush, you won’t have time to go to the movies now. This applies doubly if you’re a woman.

And now to the announcements. First of all, I took part in an SF Signal Mind Meld together with a lot of other awesome writers and other SFF people, where I talk about what makes the perfect SFF short story. I name a lot of stories, both old and new. I’ll probably do a “These are things I enjoyed this year” post about novels, movies, TV shows, short fiction, etc… sometime between the years.

I’m also pleased to announce a new distribution channel for our books, namely the e-book subscription service 24symbols. Okay, so for some reason, they seem to think I’m male, but I’m still always happy about new distribution channels. Plus, this offsets the loss of Oyster, which will close down in January, because Google bought off their entire staff.

Besides, I have a new Helen Shepherd Mystery available, the ninth in the series so far (and number 10 is coming soon). This time, Helen tackles what appears to be the politically motivated murder of a controversial cartoonist, together with the handsome Chief Inspector Simon Westmoreland of the Counter Terrorism Command. There is also jerk chicken. And Blue Mountain coffee.

So here it is:

Mightier than the Sword
Mightier than the Sword by Cora BuhlertWhen cartoonist Charlie Ellis is stabbed to death in his studio, everybody suspects a political motive. For his controversial cartoons had placed Charlie Ellis in the crosshairs two years before.
But Detective Inspector Helen Shepherd is sceptical. For why did Charlie Ellis not even try to defend himself and why did he open to door to his own killer? How did the killer manage to sneak past the police guard at the door in the first place? And what is the connection between Charlie Ellis and the other fourteen men in the Greater London area who happen to share his rather common name?
With the help of Simon Westmoreland, a handsome chief inspector from the Counter Terrorism Command, Helen finally manages to shed some light on the murder of Charlie Ellis.

More information.
Length: 12200 words
List price: 2.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Oyster, Smashwords, Inktera, txtr, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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Seasonal Views of Bremen 2015

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Cora

Yesterday, I didn’t have school, so I took the chance to go to Bremen and take a stroll over the Christmas market.

And since I was in Bremen already, I had lunch at the Übersee Restaurant, their lunch special of the week which was a pepper parmesan soup followed by deer goulash served with red cabbage and potato dumplings. I’m not normally a fan of meat heavy classic German food of the sort you can get at country inns, but I make an exception for venison, since I have something of a weakness for it.

I also used the chance to buy some spices (there is a great spice stand at the Christmas market) and pick up a couple of books. I also found some interesting new Romanhefte at the central station bookstore, including the revival of Butler Parker, a mystery series about a crime-solving butler which originally ran from 1953 to 1992, and the revival of the horror series Geister-Krimi, which originally ran from 1973 to 1981. I’m happy to see this vintage Romanheft series make a comeback, especially since the mystery/crime genre has all but died out in Romanheft form with the notably exception of Jerry Cotton.

Coincidentally, while looking up the publisher links for the Romanhefte I just mentioned, I also chanced to notice that Meine Schuld (My Fault), a True Confessions type magazine published by the same company, is sold out. I suspect this is linked to comedian Jan Böhmermann occasionally holding up issues of the magazine in his program Neo Magazin Royale.

Finally, I also took some photos of Bremen all decked out in seasonal splendour, so here they are: Continue reading →

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Star Wars Fever

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Cora

Friday, December 9, 1983, was the day I first saw a Star Wars movie (Return of the Jedi, which had just opened in Germany, since Europe always got Star Wars around Christmas in the time of the original trilogy). And the fact that I can still remember not just the exact date, but even the weekday after thirty-two years, whereas I’d have to look up the exact dates my grandparents died, should tell you how very important this event was for me.

As anyone who doesn’t live under a rock or on an uncharted desert island or currently isn’t stuck on Mars with only potatoes to eat and a few disco records for entertaiment should know, a new Star Wars film – the seventh altogether (discounting the two Ewok movies) and the first since Revenge of the Sith back in 2005 – will arrive in theatres soon. Alas, it won’t open on December 9 – if it had, I would probably have gone to see it on opening day – but on December 17, but that’s still close enough.

One thing that strikes me about the upcoming premiere of The Force Awakens is that unlike in the days of the original trilogy or even when the prequels premiered in the late 1990s/early 2000s, Star Wars is truly ubiquitous these days.

Of course, Star Wars was already a massive phenemenon in the days of the original trilogy between 1977 and 1983. I was aware of Star Wars long before I actually got to see one of the movies, because there were posters plastered all over town, there were trailers and Star Wars related ads on TV, there were toys in every store and in the hands of other kids, there were comic books and newspaper strips, t-shirts, bedsheets, Halloween costumes and lots of other merchandise that I gazed at longingly. And if you were a kid or a teenager back when the original trilogy came out, you likely were aware of Star Wars on some level, whether you had seen the movies or not.

But if you were an adult at the same time, especially if you didn’t have kids, you could go through your day completely unaware that there was a thing called Star Wars. Because your adult newspapers would not review the film, cultural programs would not discuss it, your adult friends would not have seen it, unless they were serious geeks. And if you should happen to glimpse a trailer on TV or a poster in the streets or an action figure in the toy aisle, you’d probably shake your head, dismiss it as “violent American trash” and promptly forget its existence. Unless you were a pundit paid to be alarmed about this “violent American trash” contaminating the minds of our children, which meant you would expound at length about how awful things like Star Wars were for children, usually without even having seen the film.

This was the world I grew up in, a world in which I frequently caught glimpses of this thing called Star Wars and yet the adults around me had no idea that it existed. My Mom had never heard of this film I was so desperate to see – she was still trying to come to terms with the fact that I didn’t want to see only Disney movies anymore – though she did enjoy the film once we went to see it. In retrospect I can even imagine why it was a shock to her, since I was into both Star Wars and Strawberry Shortcake at the same time and with equal enthusiasm. I never got any of the Star Wars toys or t-shirts or bedsheets I craved so much, because no one noticed my longing looks and no one assumed I would even want them. I’d have to check old photos what I got for Christmas in 1983 – which I just did only to realise that no one thought to photograph the presents, just lots of boring photos of boring relatives. But it definitely was nothing Star Wars related.

By the time the prequels hit, it was a lot more difficult to ignore Star Wars, should you be so inclined. I remember Star Wars Happy Meals at McDonalds, Star Wars characters on Coke cans and more reporting in the media than during the original trilogy.

That’s nothing compared to today, however. Today Star Wars truly is inescapable, cause it’s everywhere. The supermarket chain REWE is offering Star Wars collectible stickers as premiums with every purchase*. A giant billboard featuring a Stormtrooper decorates the wall of my local REWE market and REWE’s Star Wars related spot is on TV all the time. I hate it that the mother is the only non-geeky person in that family BTW – why are the mothers always the boring killjoys in these spots?

Meanwhile, I recently was waiting at the information desk at REWE‘s rival Real and had a full view of the toy department which had been turned into the Star Wars department, while the The Force Awakens trailer was running in a continuous loop on a giant LED screen.

Even our notoriously snooty cultural press and media has taken notice. Der Spiegel is now seriously reporting on the “Han shot first” debate and offering its take on Disney banishing Slave Leia merchandise. The comments on the latter article are interesting BTW, since most commenters seem to view the debate in the context of American prudery with regards to sexuality.

Now I remember a time, when Der Spiegel would never have acknowledged Star Wars except to lament how horrible the movies were. Because Der Spiegel was a serious political magazine – the “assault gun of democracy” after all – and would no lower itself to discuss such trivialities. Even though you’d expect that the “assault gun of democracy” here in Germany would appreciate the assault guns of democracy in a galaxy far away, especially since Verner Panton’s interiors for the Spiegel headquarters might just as well have been the Death Star brothel**.

Then two weeks ago, the venerable cultural program aspekte not just had a report about Star Wars (and the words “violent American trash” weren’t used once), but also one about the Sonneberg toy museum, which prompted me to tweet, “Hey, you just made the dream aspekte episode of my fifteen-year-old self – and yes, I was watching at fifteen.” Especially since I suspect that my fifteen-year-old self would have been all over the report about the anti-PEGIDA activists of Dresden, too – I was a Star Wars fan after all and knew that you had to fight the dark side. You can see the episode in question here BTW.

titel, thesen, temperamente, another venerable cultural program on German TV also felt compelled to report about Star Wars (and coincidentally also after some reports of real life activists fighting against injustice and censorship), though the titel, thesen, temperamente report was a lot more condescending than the aspekte report and the derogatory remarks by host Evelyn Fischer (who was born and grew up in East Germany, which means that the Star Wars phenomenon may well have passed her by) didn’t help either. Still, even though titel, thesen, temperamente didn’t care about Star Wars, they could not ignore the phenomenon. In the days of the original trilogy, they could.

Hell, even the Louvre – about as venerable a cultural institution as you can find anywhere on the planet – has gotten into the act as this poster for a current exhibition shows.

I’ve been wondering about why Star Wars is suddenly so present in spaces like news magazines and cultural TV programs where it wouldn’t have been present in the 1970s and 1980s and then it occurred to me. Magazines like Der Spiegel and cultural programs like aspekte and titel, thesen, temperamente may have been around for decades now, but the people behind the scenes have changed since the 1970s. Today’s cultural journalists are people in their thirties, forties and fifties. Ditto for the marketing directors of the supermarket chain. They are all members of the Star Wars generation, they grew up with the films, so of course they are going to acknowledge the Star Wars phenomenon. Perhaps there’s even a hint of “I’ll show you that it’s not just violent American trash” in there, directed at some long ago teacher or parent or newspaper article who failed to get it.

Meanwhile, the people dominated the press and media back in the time of the original trilogy were born in the 1930s and 1940s, perhaps even the 1920s. I suspect they did care about pop culture, but the pop culture they cared about was the pop culture of their youth. Hence the media reaction when John Lennon was shot (on December 8, 1980, coincidentally) and suddenly every single radio station played his songs and every single news program could talk about nothing else – whereas seven-year-old me wondered just who this John Lennon guy was and why I should care that he was dead beyond the fact that any death is sad. I go a bit more into this in another post commemorating December 9. I suspect the reaction was similar when Elvis died, though I don’t remember since I was three at the time.

So what the current outbreak of extreme Star Wars fever proves is that we won. It’s our world now and all of the teachers and journalists and pundits who once dismissed Star Wars as “violent and fascistoid American trash” are sitting at home, shaking their heads and yelling at clouds.

*Whereas I had to painstakingly cut every tiny grainy Star Wars photo out of magazines and newspapers and had to paste them into a makeshift album of my own – I still have it somewhere, too.

**Come on, you know the Death Star has a brothel.

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A New Job and a Blast from the Past

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Cora

I’m sorry that I’ve been scarce for a while, but this week I started a new job of sorts, teaching German to refugees. It’s very rewarding, but also quite stressful, particularly in the first week of class, where things haven’t settled yet.

My students are all adults. Most of them are from Syria and Iran, though I also have someone from Eritrea. They’re all highly qualified people who had good jobs in their respective countries and they’re eager to learn, which makes a pleasant change from teenagers who all too often aren’t.

The class takes place not at the school where I usually teach, but at the same high school I attended some twenty-three years ago. And while I visited to website of the school looking for something else, I came across a real blast from the past, namely my graduation photo from 1992:

Abi 1992 KGS Brinkum

KGS Brinkum, class of 1992

The grungy black and white look was all the rage back in the early 1990s. At the time, it was considered arty, now it just looks like a grainy newspaper photo.

I’m the girl with the long dark hair and the leather jacket in the top righthand corner BTW, standing between what were my two best friends in those days.

Looking at the photo I’m stunned by how many people I don’t recognise at all, let alone remember their names. Particularly the boys all blend together and there are so many more of them than I remember. I think half of them were named either Nils or Sven or Jens or Oliver or Christian or Thorsten or Tobias. I can’t even find the one I used to have a crush on (named Oliver, of course). The girls are a bit more distinct, though again half of them were named Claudia or Britta or Nicole or Annika.

The curious phenomenon that all school photos from a given era tend to look alike doesn’t help either. For example, my parents say that when they see elementary school photos from the 1940s or highschool photos from the 1950s, they immediately start looking for themselves, even if the photo is from a completely different school in a completely different city.

Meanwhile, I tend to look for myself on any elementary school photo from the late 1970s, highschool photo from the 1980s and graduation photo from the early 1990s. For example, take a look at these random graduation photos from 1992, the same year I graduated. They all look the same, down to the grainy black and white look.

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Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for November 2015

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Cora

Indie Speculative Fiction of the MonthIt’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some October books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. We have space opera, military science fiction, paranormal romance, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, Asian fantasy, weird westerns, cyberpunk, galactic revolutions, interplanetary wars, werewolves, were-rabbits, witches, dragons, aliens, telepaths, time travellers, supernatural detectives, feminist swordswomen, interdimensional inns, wild west mummies, bug-eyed monsters and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Sweep in Peace by Ilona AndrewsSweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews:

Dina DeMille doesn’t run your typical Bed and Breakfast. Her inn defies laws of physics, her fluffy dog is secretly a monster, and the only paying guest is a former Galactic tyrant with a price on her head. But the inn needs guests to thrive, and guests have been scarce, so when an Arbitrator shows up at Dina’s door and asks her to host a peace summit between three warring species, she jumps on the chance.

Unfortunately, for Dina, keeping the peace between Space Vampires, the Hope-Crushing Horde, and the devious Merchants of Baha-char is much easier said than done. On top of keeping her guests from murdering each other, she must find a chef, remodel the inn…and risk everything, even her life, to save the man she might fall in love with. But then it’s all in the day’s work for an Innkeeper…

Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them by Cora BuhlertBug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them by Cora Buhlert:

Six short science fiction stories that subvert the tropes and clichés of the golden age and caricature the gender dynamics of classic science fiction.

In these pages, you’ll travel from suburban America to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. You’ll visit New Pluto City and Garrett’s World. You’ll encounter the terrors of the Brazilian jungle and the horrors of American suburbia. You’ll meet phantom lovers and alien she-devils, devious man-eaters, unseen underwater monsters and the tentacled menace of the fearsome Eee’chuk-chi’up. You’ll encounter dashing space heroes who don’t get the girl and bug-eyed monsters that do. And you’ll meet intergalactic heroines who know exactly what they want from a lover.

This is a collection of six satirical science fiction stories of 7700 words or approximately 26 print pages altogether.

The Vintages by Andrei CherascuThe Vintages by Andrei Cherascu:

Ten years after the doomed mission to Carthan, a terrible disease is turning human Mindguards into a threat to society. The Enforcement Unit, the ruthless, peace-keeping arm of the Interstellar Federation of Common Origin, has outlawed their activity and is keeping them under strict surveillance.

Forty-seven prototech Mindguards who call themselves the Vintages have fled to the Hando Desert and seized control of the territory’s thoughtenhancing drug trade. Under the leadership of the mysterious Jaycen Nemeth, the Vintages are rapidly becoming a danger to the IFCO, bringing them into direct conflict with the Enforcers. As Nemeth’s influence grows among the Desert Dwellers, the prospect of a new Mindwar threatens the future of mankind.

This is the sequel to Mindguard.

51OgDdWlcNL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Soulbreaker by Clara Coulson:

There’s a hideous monster on the loose, crushing heads and taking names.

But Detective Calvin Kinsey is on the case!

Two years ago, Cal Kinsey was an up-and-coming cop in the Aurora Police Department. But during a fateful nighttime stakeout in search of a prolific killer, Cal witnessed the darkest corner of his dreams come to life. A rogue vampire slaughtered his partner—to put it nicely—and introduced Cal to the supernatural world he never knew existed in the shadows.

Now, Cal is a newly minted detective at the often mocked Department of Supernatural Investigations. By day, the agents of DSI are called “Kooks” by local law enforcement. By night, they’re known as “Crows,” reviled by the supernatural underworld.

Mere weeks out of the academy, Cal catches his first real case, a vicious murder at a local college. An unknown sorcerer has summoned a powerful creature from the Eververse, a realm of magic and mayhem that borders Earth, and set it on a dangerous warpath through the city.

Between butting heads with his grumpy team captain, stirring up ill will with the local wizards and witches, and repeatedly getting the crap beaten out of himself, Cal must find a way to stop the Eververse monster and send it back to the hell it came from…

…preferably before Aurora, Michigan runs out of coffins for the dead.

Instinct by Annathesa Nikola DarksbaneInstinct by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane:

Instinct can save your life. Ignoring it can get you killed. And sometimes, it can uncover things perhaps best left alone.

After the escalating series of events on Urzra, Captain Branwen Hawke’s crew is on leave, enjoying a vacation at the behest of the Kalaset itself. But for Branwen, the conflict on Urzra may have reawakened in her a desire for action that she fought for years to put down.

A chance encounter devolves into bloody violence, and without the support of her crew, the Captain ends up in a heated struggle for survival on her own as her instincts discover a danger hidden in the heart of Incarnum that may leave her dead, or worse.

Omega Trouchle by Eileen GlassOmega Trouble by Eileen Glass:

Alluring but barren, omega is an unfortunate affliction Skye is trying to outrun. He gets away with it for several years, fleeing to a new city whenever the wolves get too close, but his survival mechanism creates a terrible, unforeseen result. By dodging and ducking every rogue alpha to approach him, the one that finally keeps up is the size of a truck. Liam is not a wolf to be disrespected, and Skye is all too aware of his place in the pack. Natural selection has never been kind to him.

But, strangely, Liam sort of is.

Trouble is a novella of about 26,000 words.

The Lead Cloak by Erik HanbergThe Lead Cloak by Erik Hanberg:

Byron Shaw can track and find anyone on Earth. Except the people who tried to kill him.

By 2081, privacy no longer exists. The Lattice enables anyone to re-live any moment of your life. People can experience past and present events—or see into the mind of anyone, living or dead.

Most people love it. Some want to destroy it.

Colonel Byron Shaw has just saved the Lattice from the most dangerous attack in its history. Now he must find those responsible. But there’s a question nobody’s asking: does the Lattice deserve to be saved?

The answer may cost him his life.

The Dragon Prince by Patty JansenThe Dragon Prince by Patty Jansen:

The tyrant Alexandre is gone from Saardam, but a new menace has come: the eastern traders in a ship of metal that is said to have been forged with dragon magic. They bring a chest of gold to buy an office in the city.
The people don’t want them in their town. The Church of the Triune, which forbids magic, has increased its hold on the population, despite the Red Baron’s efforts to stamp it out.

Newly-crowned queen Johanna is staring into the empty coffers after the extravagant spending by her husband’s father before his death. King Roald is off in the garden to catch frogs, and she faces condemnation by the church in the knowledge that Saarland will need both money and magic to defeat the Red Baron’s army.

Flight to the Fort by Jim JohnsonFlight to the Fort by Jim Johnson:

The Scales Are Out of Balance

Tjety, an exiled Ranger of Mayat, and Ruia, a young fisherman’s daughter, team up to guide the survivors of a bandit attack through the dangerous and rugged Kekhmet frontier. Can they reach the safety of Fort Sekhmet before foul cultists and their horrible mummified creatures can capture them?

Flight to the Fort is the second episode in PISTOLS AND PYRAMIDS, an all-new monthly series best described as an ancient Egyptian-themed weird western with magic. And mummies. Lots of mummies.

This book contains some profanity and depictions of violence. Reader discretion is advised.

Dragon of Torik by Floyd LooneyDragon of Torik by Floyd Looney:

Short Story & Bonus Story
Four heroes run an errand for the Prince of Archlandia, heir to the throne, because the King is mad and cannot do the job himself. There is a report that the peppercorn workers of Torik are afraid to work because a dragon has appeared and people went missing. The prince has tasked the three large warriors and the slightly built archer to ferret out the truth of these reports. Alas, before they even arrive… trolls!

BONUS
Marwyn the dwarf has a tough life at the bottom of the ladder, except for gnomes, as a servant to a mean old witch. Until he is approached about a mission to save someone from the clutches of a dragon.

Preserving Eternity by Mercia McMahonPreserving Eternity by Mercia McMahon:

In an alternate Asia the Fumetsu are a Japanese-style culture of immortal beings, who live among mortal human races based on Sri Lankan, Ainu, and Korean style cultures. Life is tough in their city-state of Chieshi, which exists to protect the mountain on which the older Fumetsu live.

Mayu is a champion in the sport of women’s sword fighting and a once in a generation talent. She is also a keen advocate of women’s rights, who wants to cross over to the mountain and change society through politics. Then a rebellion happens and she has to decide how best to pursue her aims: by diplomacy or by the sword.

As the Fumetsu are eternally fertile relations between men and women are banned on the mountain, but compulsory in the city. Mayu’s dilemma is complicated by the love of her life and fellow swordswoman Yaeko already living on the mountain, and the rebellion could separate them for ever.

The Blue Dragon by Salvador MercerThe Blue Dragon by Salvador Mercer:

A thousand years ago, on the world of Claire-Agon, a war raged between men and dragons.

After an expedition of elite warriors kills an ancient nemesis, Seth the Sword Slayer, one of Agon’s most feared assassins, finds himself in the middle of a mysterious string of killings targeting the members of his elite group.

As the Kesh wizards call a conclave of Agon’s most powerful realms to Balax, the capital of Balaria, Seth attempts to set a trap and kill the rouge assassin in his homeland with the help of the governor’s troops, the thieves’ guild and his own assassin’s order. Seth must not only save his city from a new threat of destruction, but also navigate the politically deadly waters of high intrigue from the gathered realms.

Seth soon discovers that, in the world of Claire-Agon, when dealing with a Blue Dragon, sometimes appearances can be deceiving.

Time Junkie by Nigel G. MitchellTime Junkie by Nigel G. Mitchell

“My name is Timothy McGill, and I’m a time travel addict.”

Tim was just your usual frustrated and isolated teenager until he stumbled across krono, a new drug which sends him back in time while he trips out. From the moment he first tries it, Timothy begins a downward spiral into crime and corruption, all while living through the moments that led to his addiction. It’s a strange and thoughtful journey as Tim explores his past while trying to grapple with the present and determine his future.

 

Ancient Relics by Jim RudnickAncient Relics by Jim Rudnick:

“Taking on a new Captaincy with the Barony means that our Captain Scott can now live a life of ease. His drinking will be tolerated, his hangovers ignored and he will be in charge of the newest fastest Supra Destroyer in the RIM Confederacy.

Life is good for Tanner who enjoys his new ship and the favors of the Lady St. August yet the PTSD he still suffers from the thwarted prison escape on Halberd still haunts him. He copes but needs support from loyal friends and that keeps him going.

Except he soon learns that the simple task of doing his shakedown cruise on the BN Atlas means that he inadvertently finds a discovery that will shake the very foundations of science all across the galaxy.

A Conflict of Orders by Ian SalesA Conflict of Orders by Ian Sales:

Casimir Ormuz and the Admiral, at the head of the biggest fleet the Empire has seen since its founding, are on their way to Geneza to meet the forces of the Serpent.

On Shuto, capital world of the Empire, the Serpent has begun his siege of the Imperial Palace.

Ormuz and the Admiral must win their battle on Geneza, and then travel to Shuto to save the Emperor, to save the Empire. But winning the fight and lifting the siege are only the beginning. Still complicating matters is the millennia-long conspiracy which seems to be driving the Serpent’s rebellion.

So who is the real villain?

And when it all ends, who will be sitting on the Imperial Throne?

Rabbit Trails by Hollis ShilohRabbit Trails by Hollis Shiloh:

Logan is a lonely, nervous rabbit shifter — until he meets teasing, gentle Gabe. He’s so drawn to Gabe that he’s frightened about what that means for him. Gabe might be funny and sweet, but he’s also friends with wolves, and he has his own sadness beneath the goofy surface. Can they make a relationship work? Do they even dare try?

31,000+ words
sweet gay romance
set in the same world as the “Shifters and Partners” series but can be read alone

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More on Amazon’s problematic “Man in the High Castle” ads

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Cora

For starters, Amazon has agreed to pull its controversial subway ads for its streaming video series based on Philip K. Dick’s novel The Man in the High Castle, after lots of people including a few politicians complained.

The video included with the article gives a closer look at the subway car in question, which has been transformed into an ad for The Man in the High Castle inside and out. It also shows that the symbol held in the claws of the Reichsadler is not in fact a swastika as I had assumed from the photos posted online, but an Iron Cross, which unlike the swastika is not illegal in Germany nor elsewhere. It doesn’t make the ad campaign any less tasteless, especially since both the eagle insignia (though modified from the Third Reich version) and the Iron Cross are still in use in modern times. The eagle, which actualy dates back to the Roman Empire, is still the state symbol of the Federal Republic of Germany, though the modified modern version is called Bundesadler, i.e. Federal instead of Imperial eagle. And the Iron Cross, which dates back to the Medieval insignia of the Teutonic Order, is still the official logo of the German army.

According to the article, the New York City transport authority clearly wasn’t happy about the ads, but had no power to do anything about the ads, because they have no right to reject ads, unless they disparage an individual or group. Which isn’t bad as a policy, otherwise you’d get rejections of e.g. atheism ads or safer sex ads or birth control ads, too, because someone felt offended by them.

But what stuns me most about this whole affair is how whoever does the ad campaigns for Amazon could ever have thought that plastering modified Nazi and Imperial Japanese symbols all over subway cars in New York City of all places, a city which is home to one and a half million Jews as well as one million Asian Americans as well as 250000 people of German ancestry, was a good idea. It wasn’t just obvious that this advertising campaign would offend a whole lot of people, it almost seems to have been designed that way. Especially since it’s not just a poster or an ad banner, it’s a whole subway train redesigned inside and out.

Talking of which, is it normal in the US that entire trains are covered in themed advertising inside and out? Cause here in Germany, we do have the occasional themed train such as this neat example of a Bremen tram repainted to celebrate the local football club Werder Bremen or this one which advertises an ecological project. But themed trams are fairly rare, most just have regular ad banners. And the theme never extends to the interior.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon did not mind the controversy at all, because it got plenty of people talking about The Man in the High Castle and raised awareness of the show among these who hadn’t heard about it yet. In short, they got some extra publicity for the show out of their pretty tasteless ad campaign.

However, by all accounts The Man in the High Castle is good enough that it doesn’t need tasteless advertising and deliberately courted controversies to promote it.

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Some thoughts on Amazon’s problematic ad campaign for “The Man in the High Castle”

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Cora

The US genre sphere is currently awash with discussion of new SFF TV and streaming video shows, which makes me quite jealous, since it’s the TV doldrums over here in Germany at the moment. But from my US friends, I hear eager debate about Jessica Jones, Into the Badlands, The Man in the High Castle and The Expanse.

I’ll have more to say about Jessica Jones (which I enjoy a lot two episodes in) in a future post. And for other people’s commentary on these various shows, check out my weekly link round-up every Friday over at the Speculative Fiction Showcase.

But for now, I want to talk about the other streaming video series that has everybody excited, namely The Man in the High Castle, based on the eponymous Philip K. Dick novel.

Now I’m not going to watch The Man in the High Castle, because I intensely dislike alternate histories set in worlds where the Nazis and/or the Japanese won World War II. I go a bit deeper into the reasons why I dislike that particular trope (and it is a trope and a very hackneyed one at that) in this post on a completely different TV show. But in short, I don’t like “The Nazis win WWII” alternate histories, because they tend to be illogical, full of anachronisms due to bad research and often just plain offensive.

Now the original novel The Man in the High Castle is actually one of the better takes on the idea. Nor is it offensive, which surprised me considering that I have read some massively offensive work by Philip K. Dick (“The Pre-Persons” is nearly on a level with Randall Garrett’s “The Queen Bee” for misogyny and sheer offensiveness). Nonetheless, I’m not going to watch the series, because a) I’ve got enough shows to watch that I’m actually enjoying and b) the trailers I’ve seen didn’t actually fill me with confidence that the series would capture Dick’s novel well.

For starters, there’s way too much focus on Nazis, whereas the novel is largely set in Japanese controlled California and not in the Nazi controlled Eastern US. Though the production designer at least tries to avoid obvious anachronisms as the Misfits episode mentioned above, though I don’t believe that Communist East Germany is the best model for what a Nazi controlled America would look like. For starters, it was a completely different system, though there is some overlap between Fascist and Stalinist aesthetics. I’m also not convinced that there wouldn’t have been space age aesthetics in a hypothetical Nazi controlled America, especially since the Third Reich has space travel in the novel. But at least the production team are trying.

I’m a bit more worried by the fact that The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, the novel within a novel, an alternate history about how the Allies won WWII, which is explicitly not our timeline (yes, Dick actually answered the question I asked in the other post whether timelines where the Nazis won WWII have alternate history novels about the Allies winning), is replaced in the series by an underground movie featuring the usual WWII newsreel footage from our timeline. Though Paul Levinson seems to like the use of newsreels. And given Hollywood’s preference for formulaic storytelling, I’m pretty sure that Dick’s plotting by I-Ching did not make it into the series either.

Finally, there was the anachronistic music playing over the trailer (“Mad World”, a song from 1982 in the Gary Jules version from 2001, i.e. a song that likely wouldn’t exist in this alternate reality at all). Supposedly, the actual show also features “Edelweiss”, a sappy, faux-folksy song from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, a work which again wouldn’t exist in the alternate timeline of The Man in the High Castle at all. Never mind that Germans and Austrians either don’t know The Sound of Music or dislike it, because we’ve had an IMO far superior version of the same story with Die Trapp Familie (available on YouTube here), which featured actual German and Austrian folksongs instead of the Rodgers/Hammerstein songs.

So in short, I’m not interested in watching The Man in the High Castle, though I have no problem with its existence. If anything, Philip K. Dick is due another decent adaptation of his work after the many lackluster attempts of recent years. I’m not sure if The Man in the High Castle is a decent adaptation and in fact I’ve got my doubts, as described above, but it’s got to be better than some of the other travesties visited on poor Dick in the past twenty years (Minority Report, anyone? Or how about Paycheck?).

So imagine my surprise when I went to visit Amazon.com (I shop via Amazon.de, but use Amazon.com for links) on Sunday night only to find myself faced with a huge screen-filling ad banner full of Nazi imagery, including a New York skyline festooned with swastikas and the Statue of Liberty doing a “Heil Hitler” salute. I did a doubletake and then realised that this was just as an ad for The Man in the High Castle. Which didn’t make visiting an e-commerce website and finding myself faced with Nazi imagery any less offensive. And I was lucky that I was at home and alone. Cause I really wouldn’t want to open Amazon’s homepage in a public place and have people giving me the side-eye, because they think that I’m looking at Neo Nazi sites. In fact, if someone should catch you looking at a site full of Nazi imagery at work, it might endanger your job, at least here in Germany. This is pretty much the definition of Not Safe For Work. Considering how strict Amazon is regarding even extremely mild nudity on book covers, I find it problematic

So I tweeted the following and largely forgot about it:

Today then I got an e-mail from fellow indie SFF writer Marilyn Peake who sent me a link to a Mashable post and asked me if I’d seen it yet, since I was quoted therein. Turns out that the Mashable post by Patrick Culp was about Amazon’s ad campaign for The Man in the High Castle, which involved not just plastered its homepage with Nazi imagery, but also involved swastikas on the US flag and the Imperial Japanese banner emblazoned on the seats of New York City subway cars. Which is just… – okay, I have no words for that subway car. Though I find it interesting that people are sitting on the Nazi side in the photo, but not on the Japanese side. Cause I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have sat down on the swastika emblazoned seats.

When I showed the photos of the subway car in the Mashable article and the Amazon ad banner, as displayed in the same article (since it seems to have vanished from Amazon’s homepage, thank goodness), to a German friend, she was quite literally speechless.

Visiting Twitter, I also found that my tweet had gotten a lot of views, likes and retweets. There were also a few replies, including a bunch by trolls who apparently decided to project their hatred of allegedly over-sensitive US college students (who seem to be the current pet hate of US rightwingers*) on me, which is pretty fucking ridiculous, because a) I’m not American and b) haven’t been a student in ten years or so. But I guess trolls can’t be expected to actually check out someone before typing abuse at them.

Besides, here in Germany there is an added issue with using Nazi imagery in advertising, since publicly displaying “symbols associated with organisations hostile to the German constitution” is actually illegal in Germany. There are exceptions for educational, critical and artistic purposes, hence historical photographs in school textbooks and movies about the Third Reich may use the swastika, the double sighel rune and other banned symbols. The series The Man in the High Castle itself would be covered by this exception as well, since it’s clearly a work of art.

Advertising, however, is not art and therefore Nazi imagery may not be used for advertising purposes, even for films and TV series about the Third Reich. Even posters for historical films about the Third Reich like e.g. Downfall usually avoid showing the swastika. And indeed the Amazon.de site uses a completely different swastika-free ad, which manages to be evocative without breaking German law or being offensive.

ETA: Paul Levinson also weighs in on the Amazon ad campaign.

ETA 2: And the swastika emblazoned subway cars are gone. Good riddance. Honestly, you can advertise this show without Nazi imagery.

*Personally I blame that “Coddling of the American mind” article, which The Atlantic pushes at every opportunity. Because the US obviously has no bigger problems than college students asking for trigger warnings.

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New science fiction collection: Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Cora

I have another new release to announce and once again it’s a collection of short science fiction stories written during the July Short Story Challenge, where I wrote a short story per day in July 2015.

One thing I noticed while writing so many stories in such a short period of time was that my critical side completely shut down after a while and my creative side came out to play. As a result, I found myself writing a lot of unusual, parodistic or just plain weird stories.

Another thing I noticed is that certain themes emerged during the challenge. One theme was stories of lost worlds littered with abandoned technology that has long since become magic and legend (collected in Children of the Stone Gods). Another theme was really bizarre stories about aliens who look like anthropomorphic cartoon animals (collected in Operation Rubber Ducky).  A third theme were stories about men, women and alien monsters, which usually turned out to be parodies of Golden Age science fiction with its retrograde gender dynamics.

These are the stories you can find in Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them. In these pages, you’ll meet some prime bug-eyed monsters like the fearsome Eee’chuk-chi’up or the unseen terror of the Amazon (that’s the river, not the online vendor – and yes, I’ve had to clarify this). You’ll experience the hidden horros that lie beneath the peaceful facade of suburban America terrifying and see it invaded by aliens who want only one thing. You’ll meet the dashing Captain Crash Martigan of the rocket scout squad of New Pluto City as well as Captain Robert R. Garrett of the convict ship Perpetual Penitence, who really doesn’t like to be interrupted. And of course, you’ll everything about regulation No. 1.645 of the United Alliance of Planets handbook of space travel and colonisation (not to be confused with regulation No. 1.654, which is about personal waste disposal).

Word of warning: Men – at least human men – don’t get off very well in these stories, whereas women of any species and aliens – whether bug-eyed monsters or not – do. Plus, most of these stories contain sex, not very explicit, but at least one partner is definitely not human.

Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them
Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love ThemSix short science fiction stories that subvert the tropes and clichés of the golden age and caricature the gender dynamics of classic science fiction.

In these pages, you’ll travel from suburban America to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. You’ll visit New Pluto City and Garrett’s World. You’ll encounter the terrors of the Brazilian jungle and the horrors of American suburbia. You’ll meet phantom lovers and alien she-devils, devious man-eaters, unseen underwater monsters and the tentacled menace of the fearsome Eee’chuk-chi’up. You’ll encounter dashing space heroes who don’t get the girl and bug-eyed monsters that do. And you’ll meet intergalactic heroines who know exactly what they want from a lover.

More information.
Length: 7700 words
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Oyster, Smashwords, Inktera, txtr, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Der Club, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral and XinXii.

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First Snow of the Winter 2015

Posted on November 22, 2015 by Cora

I awoke this morning to see this outside my windows.

Snowy meadow

Snow on the meadow and carport.

Snowy street

Snowy street and neighbour house.

Snowy houses

Snowy neighbour houses. Sadly, they still look ugly even with snow.

Of course, the snow is wet and probably won’t last. But still, this is the first snow of the winter 2015/16 in our region. Quite remarkable, since it was well over 15° Celsius only a few days ago.

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