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ANTHONY R. CARDNO

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Anthony R. Cardno is an American novelist, playwright, and short story writer.

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EMBARRASSING MYSELF FOR GOOD CAUSES - Justin Bieber Cover

April 10, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Anthony BB.jpg

I meant to post this a few days ago. In case you might have missed it, I did a cover of Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and A Beat.” Why? Because I promised that if Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s Kickstarter for the RAYGUN CHRONICLES sf anthology he wanted to edit hit full funding in the final 24 hours of the project (which it was looking like wouldn’t happen), that I would record myself singing a Justin Bieber song. And “Beauty and A Beat” is the only one I can claim more than a passing familiarity with, since my pals Hollywood Ending covered it a while back (and put their own spin on it).

I was originally going to just download the karaoke track and play it on my laptop while I sang into the camera on the laptop, but then my friend Darrell Long got involved, which pulled our friend Barry Mangione in, and the result was four hours in DisGraceLand Studio in Brewster, recording my vocals and Darrell’s rap (we call him Dicki Minaj now) and Barry’s backing vocals, then mimicking the effects on the original, then shooting the video, and then spending another hour getting it uploaded to Youtube. The result is here:

Over the weekend, I made another promise: that if the Kickstarter for the LONG HIDDEN anthology hit $30,000 (enough to include brand new artwork for each story in the anthology), I would record myself singing a Britney Spears song. (The LONG HIDDEN folks chose the artist this time.) So be watching for that sometime in the next month or so. (I’ll be on the road for two weeks for work starting Sunday, so recording will have to wait til I get back.)

Now I’ve also committed to two other videos.

1) If Barry Mangione’s APPLY THE GRAFT project manages to raise almost $10,000 in the next few days, Darrell and I will create a Bieber/Britney/Buble mash-up.  Here’s the link to donate to that project if you’d like. And here’s a link to my interview with Barry about the project.

2) My young actor friend Sam Lant is doing his annual fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House in Pasadena. He’s about $1,500 short of the goal he set for himself. So I promised that if he hits his goal, I’ll do a cover video of whatever song he chooses (So far, it’s a toss-up between Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance.”) If you’d like to donate to that worthy cause, here’s the link to Sam’s Donation Page.

Interestingly, no one has asked me to cover One Direction. I wonder why.

In RAMBLINGS Tags Anthony R Cardno, musician, Justin bieber, singer, cover, semicolon blog

ROSEANNE RIVERS, Author - Interview

April 8, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Roseanne Rivers

Roseanne Rivers

I’m happy today to be part of the blog tour for author Rosanne Rivers, whose YA dystopian novel AFTER THE FEAR is now available.

Rosanne lives in Birmingham, UK and considers it one of her favourite cities, second only to Rome. She delights in writing for children and young adults and hopes to bring readers to an unfamiliar yet alluring setting. Rosanne was inspired to write when she read the Harry Potter books, and at age fourteen, she wrote romance fanfiction on just about every pairing you could dream up from the HP series. She currently lives with her partner and two bunny rabbits and is working on a fantasy YA with a twist.

ANTHONY: What was the inspiration for AFTER THE FEAR?

ROSANNE: In After the Fear, everyone is born with a personal debt to the government. This was inspired by the huge deficit the UK, and quite a few other countries, have at the moment. I wondered how we would pay this off, and whether our grandchildren will still be paying for our mistakes in years to come. The new world came quite naturally after this; I have always wondered how there was so much money in live, public spectacles such as music gigs and football matches, and so I created a world in which the new government pays our country’s debt by providing huge ‘shows’. These shows revert back to the oldest forms of entertainment – public executions.

ANTHONY: How did you develop the world that Sola lives in? Is it an extrapolation from where we are now as a society?

ROSANNE: Definitely. Every aspect of the world is either a more extreme version of where we are now, or taken from patterns which have occurred in the past. For example, from seeing where Facebook was heading (tagging you into locations, recognising your face in pictures, tagging other people in your statuses etc), I knew I wanted to explore a society in which social networking was mandatory, and everyone, everywhere knew where you were ALL the time. This social networking site became ‘Debtbook’ in After the Fear. The ‘trigger cameras’ are a version of CCTV cameras here in the UK which activate upon hearing certain words. Even the Demonstrations could be seen as an extreme form of the way certain criminals are sensationalised in the media. Yet aside from all the politics, it’s a fun read too!

ANTHONY: What is the significance of the book’s title?

ROSANNE: ‘The Fear’ could be interpreted as the fear Sola feels in the Stadium, which compels her to kill others for her own safety. After that fear has gone, she can no longer justify her actions, so in a way she revels in it. It’s also about the fear which forces the cities to stay away from each other and the hidden fear of the Shepherds. So the title gives some hope for the future, because when all that fear is gone, Sola may live in a better world!

ANTHONY: The YA speculative fiction market has exploded over the past few years, and it’s hard now to say that teen fiction is “not about anything meaningful.” Some of the things you touch on in ATF were once the province of preachy memoirs like GO ASK ALICE, but now are almost an expected part of YA spec fic. Any thoughts on why this shift has occurred?

ROSANNE: I think teen fiction was always about something meaningful, whether it was tackling more personal issues such as bullying or not fitting in, to more widespread issues like where the world is heading, poverty and corruption. Spec fic might have exploded recently because of the way technology is becoming so readily integrated into our lives. Some see it as a time of change, and whenever the world shifts, people begin to speculate about the future. What better way to do that than with fiction?

 

AFTER THE FEAR

ANTHONY: With a plethora of dystopian YA fiction out there, what should prospective readers know about AFTER THE FEAR that sets it apart or makes it something they should move to the top of their reading queues?

ROSANNE: I guess what sets it apart is that it isn’t about a society which is on the cusp of a revolution or some huge change; it’s exploring how life continues for those everyday people who are ruled by tyrannical governments or leaders. It’s about how you would really react in that situation, and how when you’re trying desperately to survive you ignore the bigger questions you should be asking. I think After the Fearcan be read and interpreted in so many different ways, and hopefully that’s what readers will enjoy!

ANTHONY: What’s your writing process like?

ROSANNE: It’s very mixed! I usually spend about a year with an idea in my head, mulling it over and adding notes to a word document every now and then. Then I jot down a semi-coherent plot totally full of holes and with only about 4 characters. I usually write the first chapter at this point, although this is likely to be scrapped later on! I’ll sketch out some of the faces of my characters and stick them on my wall too so they’re looking down at me, telling me I MUST write about them. After all this, once I’ve written the first 5000 words that I’m happy with, I’ll probably write around 1000 words a day until the first draft is finished. Then I rejoice before the editing process begins…

ANTHONY: What’s next for you?

ROSANNE: I’m currently writing a YA fantasy novel centred around an all-female organised crime gang. Think Game of Thrones meets Sons of Anarchy. During this time I’ll also be adding notes to the ‘After the Fear -possible sequel’ document on my comp…

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

ROSANNE: My favourite book is probably Poison Study by Maria V Snyder. It’s fast paced, has a fantastic heroine and a seriously cool love interest (who I kind of have a massive crush on).

You can find out more about Rosanne’s projects on her website, Facebook, Pinterest, Goodreads, and by following her on Twitter @cityjuliet.

ALSO, you can enter to win a free copy of AFTER THE FEAR through the Rafflecopter Giveaway. Don’t miss out on a chance to win stuff!

In READING, RAMBLINGS Tags Roseanne Rivers, After The Fear, Author, Interview, semicolon blog

BARRY MANGIONE OF THE GRAFT - Interview

April 7, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Barry Mangione

Barry Mangione

As I said last post, I’ve promoted a lot of Kickstarters on here recently. It’s usually about books, and last post it was about sending theater students to Scotland. This one is a bit more personal than most.  While I’ve only known Barry Mangione for a couple of years, he has become a close friend and an inspiration. Even when I’m at my most self-deprecating (usually when attempting to write song lyrics), Barry believes in me, and I in turn believe in him.  His latest project is a bit of a departure for him, as well as being a summary of where he’s been the past few years and how he’s got to where he’s at now: mentally, physically, spiritually. Apply The GRAFT is going to be something new and unique, but it needs your help. I’ll post the Kickstarter and website links at the end, but first: read what Barry has to say about the project and how important it is to him.

ANTHONY: Let’s start off with a simple description: What is APPLY THE GRAFT?

BARRY: The GRAFT is interactive self-healing through music, visual art, and social media. It’s a story that starts with hitting rock bottom, continues through a healing process, and ends with finding happiness and love.

ANTHONY: Is APPLY THE GRAFT musical theater, or something different?

BARRY: It’s a live acoustic performance by musicians, so there are no actors in The GRAFT. The story is told through the music, the lyrics, and the videos that accompany the songs.

ANTHONY: How will the interactive component work?

BARRY: Throughout the show, the video screen displays questions for the audience to answer based on their own experiences. For example, “If you were given everything you needed to face one fear and conquer it, which fear would you face?” A Twitter account also appears on the screen (@applythegraft), and the audience is asked to Tweet their responses at that moment to that account. Someone monitoring the Twitter feed selects some of the audience’s responses, and then displays them on the screen for the entire audience to see and share.

ANTHONY: Does this mean that Twitter followers not in the theater can also take part in the experience?

BARRY: Anyone who happens to follow @applythegraft will see the Tweets that people are sending during the show, but since they’re not in the theater, they won’t see the questions prompting those Tweets. If someone is familiar with the show, the music, and the progression of the questions, it would be very interesting to follow along even if you’re not in the theater. I think it would be very interesting for someone who’s already seen the show to follow the performances on Twitter when they know the show is live.

ANTHONY: Something the Kickstarter video doesn’t really address: What happens on stage in between the nine musical numbers?

BARRY: Questions appear both during the songs and in between the songs. Some songs have an instrumental bridge that provides space for the questions to be displayed. Other songs don’t have that, so questions will be shown after or before those songs. For breaks in-between songs, the video being shown will be the focus of the show until the music starts up again.

ANTHONY: Tell us about the song-writing process for GRAFT.

BARRY: It was a therapeutic process for me. It started with the second song in the show, “I Wish I Had My Skin.” I had two other songs already written for other projects, but saw a link between them. When I decided to go with the GRAFT as a theme, I wrote songs around each of the themes and healing steps that make up The GRAFT: Gratitude, Ruthless honesty, Acceptance, Forgiveness, and Thoughtfulness. It was a different process for me, because I normally write individual songs. Writing several songs that would each tell their own story while also conveying a greater message was challenging!

ANTHONY: The stage production will include art by Scott Witt. How has that collaboration worked?

BARRY: Scott has been phenomenal! He offered his services when I mentioned The GRAFT during a live streaming show. I had seen his work and really liked it. I gave him some rough demos of the songs, and some lyric sheets and asked him to draw whatever came to him. I had no idea he would connect with the material so well. I’m really happy to have Scott on board, and looking forward to more artwork for the full-length video for the show.

The Graft.jpg

ANTHONY: APPLY THE GRAFT is a deeply personal work for you. What else would you like people to know about the project that you haven’t told us yet?

BARRY: I think there may be a perception that The GRAFT is only for people who’ve hit rock bottom or are going through deep suffering. I’d like people to know that the tools in The GRAFT are applicable for anyone at any stage of their life’s journey, and the show itself is not just about healing, it’s also about entertaining the audience. I don’t promise to give anyone the answers to their life’s problems with The GRAFT. My hope is that when people leave the theater, they’ll have questions to take with them that will lead them to their own answers, because we all have to find the truth for ourselves.

ANTHONY: The Kickstarter for APPLY THE GRAFT is moving slowly. What perks can backers choose from?

BARRY: What can we do to spread the word? The backer rewards start as low as $5.00 for a lyric book. Besides tickets to the show, you can get two one-on-one life coaching sessions and private performances of the show. One of the more interesting perks gives you the chance to be a part of every show, not just the one you attend, by submitting photos or video to be included in the show’s featured video. If you have photos or a short video that embodies one or more of the themes in The GRAFT, you can submit it to us and we can include it as part of the show. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s already contributed, and thank anyone in advance who will be pledging their support in the future. As far as spreading the word, the term “viral” is just a new word for an old phrase: “word of mouth.” The best thing people can do other than pledging support through Kickstarter is to tell friends about it through social media and create a “buzz” around the show. It’s a show and an experience that has the potential to change people’s lives, so the more people who know about it, the greater the chance someone will see it and it’ll make a difference in their life.

So there you have it. You heard the man: even if you can’t contribute monetarily to the Kickstarter, you may know people who can. Spread the word, about this interview if nothing else. Let’s get Barry to a theater with Apply The GRAFT so he can build even more word-of-mouth.

You can follow Barry on Twitter @BarryMangione.  You can follow the project itself on Twitter @applythegraft. You can find Barry on Facebook, and The GRAFT on Facebook as well. And there’s the website, of course.

But most importantly: the Kickstarter. <—– There’s the link. Click on it. Watch Barry’s video explaining the project in more detail. Read what he has to say. Listen to the demos. And help that dollar amount go up. He’s got 18 days left and a long way to go, but we can make this happen.

In RAMBLINGS Tags Barry Mangione, The Graft, Musicians, interview, semicolon blog

SIGNS OF OUR OCCUPY, KICKSTARTER - Interview

April 2, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Signs of our Occupy

Signs of our Occupy

I’ve featured a lot of book and webcomic Kickstarters on this page, so here’s something a little bit different: a theatrical Kickstarter. The students of Oakland School of the Arts are taking a very personal theatrical creation, “Signs of Our Occupy,” to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, and they need help with production expenses. In the following interview, conducted through OSA theater teacher Michael Berry-Berlinski, the students of OSA talk about why this project matters and why you should help them raise as much money as they can:

ANTHONY: Hello OSA! Thanks for taking the time to chat with me about “Signs of our Occupy.” Let’s start with the easy question: what is “Signs of our Occupy” about?

“Signs of our Occupy” is an original theatre production consisting of 14 monologues, each expressing a unique perspective on the Occupy Movement. The show looks at issues and hot buttons that involved thousands of people in the Oakland area. The show is political in nature, but we do not take any particular political position. Instead, we offer commentary on the events themselves, as told through characters that are fictional in nature. Each of the 14 monologues are based on actual signs created by protesters in the movement. ~ Sarah

ANTHONY: Most of us were distanced from the Occupy movements (in Oakland, in New York, and elsewhere). They were just images on the screens of our televisions and computers. In the Kickstarter video, several of you talk about the events of Occupy Oakland happening just outside the school. How did it feel to be at the epicenter of something so large, so international?

Our school was at the epicenter of this movement in Oakland. This was exciting, yet at times, scary. Daily we heard the police, the riots, the protesters, the loud sounds of breaking glass. At times we felt like we were in a war zone, yet we knew that there were people marching in the street for a better Oakland. It was cool to see our school on tv, or to see friends and family in the crowd. There were a lot of times I was proud to be from Oakland, then other times when it was embarrassing to see people in my city doing so much damage. Being so close to the scene, feeling like we were a part of the movement, that was an experience unlike any other and it will stay with me for a very long time.  ~ John

ANTHONY: We rely on the Arts to put society under a lens and bring attention to important issues, but that scrutiny can be double-edged. Sometimes, we end up filtering the message so much that it becomes diluted and loses impact. In your stage production, how are you dealing with making the universal personal?

I think everyone has felt suppressed in some way or another in their life. What makes this topic appealing to an international audience yet very personable at the same time is that the themes are so relatable. People of all races, nationalities, social statuses all struggle at some point. We know this show will be recognizable to so many people because the themes of standing up for justice, community and solidarity are universal, yet at the same time they are very personable issues for people.  ~ Amy

ANTHONY: The format of “Signs of our Occupy” reminds me of shows like “The Laramie Project,” which has endured controversy and censorship/banning. Has there been any reaction of that kind so far to “Signs?”

We have not staged the show yet, however, we do see a mixed reaction when people learn we are doing the project. Most are very excited…..they think it is a cool concept and really important message. They also love we are doing it at Fringe and sharing Oakland with the world. Still others feel it was such a personal thing, that they are not 100% loving the idea of the show. ~ Lukas

What has the writing process for “Signs” been like? How are the monologues being crafted and refined?

All 14 actors have been teamed with 14 Literary Arts students from our school and we have all selected a sign that we connect with. From that, we began writing, giving a unique perspective in each of our stories. There are some pieces that are pro-movement, some that are anti-movement. All are personable and come from our own experience or point of view, through the fictitious characters we are creating. We are just wrapping up a 4 week revision process and now starting to move into the blocking phase of rehearsal.  ~ Cameron

ANTHONY: How did the opportunity to travel to Edinburgh come about?

Our Director takes a group to Edinburgh every 2 years to perform. This year we created this original work and then set out to raise the $60,000 to make the dream possible. We have booked our own airfare, hotels, venue space to perform, etc. It is a lot of work. We hope to continue on the success from 2 years ago at the Fringe and set the standard for other students inn our department to go in years to come. ~ Ashly

ANTHONY: The money from the Kickstarter will go to defray technical production costs so that the families of the students can concentrate on airfare, hotels, and other such costs. How intricately technical will the production be? Will there be a multi-media aspect, and if so, how is that being incorporated?

We will have sets, lights, sound and costumes to pay for the trip. We will have multimedia and video as well as some other special effects. Our show will contain music both live and pre-recorded. All of this takes money to create, buy rights to and then transport overseas. By contributing to our Kickstarter campaign, you play a huge role in helping us defray our costs.  ~ Elana

ANTHONY: Will there be an opportunity for supporters of the project to see the production? Will it be filmed, or performed in the US at a later date?

Yes! Our show will be performed in Oakland at Oakland School for the Arts Blackbox Theatre in June. It will be open to the public and of course, our AWESOME supporters! Tickets are $20 each and all proceeds will go towards our trip! Please stay tuned for show dates which will come soon! ~ Max

ANTHONY: What do you all hope the long-term effects of “Signs” will be, especially on other teenagers?

To expand the views of individuals and to allow them to think about revolutions and social change. We want people to leave the theater wanting to make a difference in the world around them. We hope to speak to a great human need of reclaiming the political space in which we live. Hopefully from this, people will remember our show and our message and how we were all represented in unity.  ~ Nia

And there you go, straight from the students’ mouths. You can find out more about the details of the Kickstarter and what perks backers can expect by going to the SIGNS OF OUR OCCUPY Kickstarter page.  If you donate, tell them Anthony sent you. They have 19 days left in the campaign and while they’ve already hit their $7,500 goal, the more they raise the better!

In RAMBLINGS Tags Signs of our Occupy, Kickstarter, Interview, semicolon blog

ESCAPE/ARTIST, TED FISHER - Interview

April 1, 2015 Anthony Cardno
TED FISHER

TED FISHER

I’ve been acquainted with escape artist / street performer / magician / jack of all trades and all around nice guy Jason Escape for a while now thanks to Twitter. He impressed me right away as a man concerned not just with making a living at his trades-of-choice but also with social justice and being a good person and a positive light in this world. I’m not the only one who thought so, as you’ll see in this interview with Ted Fisher.  Ted, with his wife Karen, is the director of a 15-minute documentary about Jason called “Hanging Downtown,” and is now running a Kickstarter to film a full length documentary about Jason’s life both on stage (on the streets of Boston) and off. When I found out about the project (a little belatedly) I jumped at the chance to talk to Ted about the Kickstarter and his documentary-filming experience.

ANTHONY: How did you become familiar with Jason Escape?

TED: I met Jason on Twitter. I was hoping to make a 5-minute documentary, and in my search I discovered what he does and thought it would be very interesting. Quickly, however, I realized that there are many interesting aspects to his life. So my wife and I traveled to Boston, and the result was … eventually … a 15-minute documentary called “Hanging Downtown.”

ANTHONY: Why make a documentary about Jason?

TED: In the 15-minute documentary, one theme that emerged was the idea of struggling to overcome a challenge. It addressed his struggle to be recognized as a performer, his struggle to engage an audience, and his struggle to complete a challenging escape. Since then, however, he’s gotten married, had a child, and faced the challenge of making a living as a performer. Ropes, chains, handcuffs? Easy. Father, Husband, Businessman? Now that’s a challenge.

So the new feature-length film provides an opportunity to learn more about him, and to explore this wild challenge of being an escape artist and family man.

ANTHONY: Documentaries come in all shapes and sizes. What’s the feel of your film going to be?

TED: I love the classic observational documentaries. At the same time, both my wife and I are really from a background in the fine arts, and we love the complex, multilayered approach you find in the best contemporary art. So, you might say we’re using strategies from art to shape a traditional observational documentary.

ANTHONY: What’s your plan for filming, and what equipment will you be using?

TED: My camera bag looks a lot more like a photojournalist’s than you’d expect. I’m a proponent of HDSLR video — using the video capabilities of still cameras or hybrid cameras — so I use small cameras like the Panasonic GH1 and GH2. Everything is chosen to be extremely mobile and lightweight. I value audio highly, so items like a quality lavalier microphone and a good shotgun microphone on a boom pole are essentials — but everything packs up in a very small case. Small LED lights are used to augment available light when needed, but again the emphasis is on working in a way that matches the street performer aesthetic.

hangingdowntownposter_486x720-202x300.jpg

ANTHONY: Is this your first documentary/film? What other films or directors have influenced your plan for this documentary?

TED: I’ve made several short documentaries, and with my wife the 15-minute “Hanging Downtown” documentary, but this is our first feature.

ANTHONY: What do you hope people get out of seeing Jason’s story?

TED: I think the theme of facing a challenge is probably going to be key to the new film. But I think the balance between his career, his ambition, his performance and the other elements of life is going to be something that everyone can relate to.

ANTHONY: What else would you like people to know about Jason and/or the film?

TED: Jason is amazing as a documentary subject because of what he does — it’s something that’s incredibly visual, has an element of danger, and is fascinating on screen — but to us the more important aspect is that he’s chosen to really reveal himself, and to let the audience in to experience his life.

ANTHONY: The Kickstarter still has nine days left. You’ve met the initial fundraising goal of $1,000. What will the money be used for, and what is the plan for funds raised over the intial goal?

TED: Realistically, our initial $1,000 goal was set when we weren’t sure if people were going to love the idea of the film as much as we did. But when people backed the Kickstarter, often specifically commenting how much they loved it and wanted to see it succeed, we realized there was an audience for the film. We celebrated loudly when we saw the funding hit our goal — but quickly realized that our real costs in just getting to Boston and staying there might be double that initial $1,000. So we’re thrilled to meet all of our backers, and to see the Kickstarter be considered a success, but we know we need to raise much more and stay with it just to see the filming begin. Our production approach is just my wife and I and sometimes a very small crew. We work with a very low-budget, minimal approach. So … we’re pretty streamlined. But airplane tickets and hotel rooms are the first hurdle to the initial filming.

ANTHONY: What sorts of perks are you offering backers?

TED: Well, we’re very excited to present a download of the initial 15-minute documentary “Hanging Downtown.” It’s still screening at festivals, but very soon we’re going to put it into the hands of our backers so they can discover Jason in that film and become part of our team for the feature-length doc. As well, we’re really focused on the importance of music in the film, so we’re offering a download of the soundtrack. Then, of course, people are going to want to see the new feature when it is done — and that’s another reward. Beyond that, we’re are offering a chance to meet Jason at special coffee and lunch events in Boston and San Diego right between performances.

There’s one other very innovative reward offered as well. We are creating a small team of Associate Producers. These are people who will see the film as it develops — in online preview screenings — and provide feedback and commentary for scenes of the film straight from the editing computer. We want to take advantage of the new possibilities for sharing with our audience early, no matter where they are. So we are building a group of people who can be very involved in the film, and who can help us understand how it is working as we refine it over time. We think it’s a new and exciting direction to go.

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who has never read it to convince them that they should?

TED: As a documentarian, it makes sense that I love very personal nonfiction — like the diaries of Anais Nin, for example. My wife is an art historian finishing her Ph.D. in the history of photography, so right now she has a stack of huge academic photo histories in front of her. I think the reason to read any book is similar to the reason to watch a film — it allows us to “try on” someone’s experience of life, and to better understand our own as a result.

You can find out more about the project on the Kickstarter page.  You can also learn more about the original documentary by visiting Ted’s website. You can follow Jason himself on Twitter @JasonEscape and get a better sense of what Jason is all about by talking to the man himself.

In RAMBLINGS Tags Ted Fisher, Artist, escape artist, interview, semicolon blog

SEANAN McGUIRE, MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL - Interview

March 31, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Seanan McGuire

Seanan McGuire

MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL, the second novel in Seanan McGuire’s INCRYPTID series, launched today. I’ve read the first chapters and the book gets off to a rollickin’ start — no surprise for any adventure featuring Verity Price nor for any book coming from Seanan’s pen. As always, I’m honored to have Seanan stop by and spend a few minutes answering questions.

ANTHONY:  Let’s start out with an easy one: where does MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL pick up in relation to the previous book, DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON?  Can new readers jump right in with this volume, or do they need to read the books in order?

SEANAN: It’s always best to read things in order.  I try to provide enough information to let new readers find their way in without feeling shut out,  but the introductions all happened in the first book.  MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL picks up a few months after the events of DISCOUNT ARMAGEDDON, and focuses on the same central cast.

ANTHONY: What interesting new Cryptids are we introduced to this time around?

SEANAN: Hey, now.  That would be telling.

ANTHONY: You can’t blame a guy for trying! Has your approach to writing Verity changed at all now that she has a full novel behind her?

SEANAN: Nope!  If there’s something tall, she’ll try to jump off it; if there’s something that needs to be shot, she’ll shoot it; if there’s a dance floor available, she’ll be on it.  She’s matured as a character–I feel like that’s inevitable–and she’ll continue to grow and learn, but the core of Verity Price remains the same, which means that writing her is fun and familiar.

ANTHONY: You’ve also written a number of short stories about the Healy-Price clan, three of which detail how Jonathan Healy and Frances Brown met in 1928. Will the Jonathan-Fran stories get collected in print form at some point?

SEANAN: I hope so?  Honestly, that’s not something that’s easily within my control.  If the main series keeps selling well, I’ll hopefully be able to convince DAW that we should do a collection of the Jonathan and Fran stories.  I’ll have to write enough to make a volume first, so…

ANTHONY: I’ll keep my fingers crossed, as I really enjoyed those stories. There’s also so much more family history to explore — Alex and Enid Healy leaving The Covenant and the generation between Jonathan & Fran and Verity and her siblings, for two examples — so I have to ask: will we be seeing other stories that fill in the InCryptid backstory any time soon?

SEANAN: Yes, but.  I tend to give those stories away for free, to say “thank you” to my fans for reading, and that means that they have to come after paying work.  I eventually want to work all the way through Jonathan and Fran to Alice and Thomas, because Alice and Thomas are really the relationship that defined the current generation.  It’s going to take me a while to get there, since again, I can’t always drop everything for another InCryptid short.  I feel like it’s going to add a lot of depth to the later books in the series, though, so I keep pressing forward.

ANTHONY: Of all the holidays celebrated by the Aeslin  Mice, what is your favorite?

SEANAN: It varies, but I’m very fond of the Sacred Rite of What the Hell is That Thing, I Don’t Know, We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Gun.

ANTHONY: The last time we chatted, I asked about your favorite book and you discussed IT and 2012 being the latest in Pennywise The Clown’s cycle. Now that 2012 is over — was Pennywise’s latest rampage everything you hoped it would be?

SEANAN: It was, it really, really was.  I went to Maine and spent time with Cat Valente, whom I adore, and we tramped all over Bangor, and it was glorious.  I’m so glad I’m a geek.

ANTHONY: Oh, I wish I could have been along on that trip! Finally, any other upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about?

SEANAN: Right now, I’m working on the eighth Toby Daye book and the third InCryptid book.  Coming out in the next year, I have MIDNIGHT BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL–naturally–as well as the seventh Toby book, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, which I’m very proud of.  There’s a new Mira Grant coming up, PARASITE, which doesn’t have a release day yet.  And then there’s VELVETEEN VS. THE MULTI-VERSE, which wraps up the first Velveteen vs. cycle.  It’s going to be a busy year!

You can keep up with Seanan’s news, learn more about the InCryptid universe, and find two of the InCryptid stories referenced above by visiting Seanan’s website, and you can also follow her on Twitter @seananmcguire.

In READING, RAMBLINGS Tags Seanan Mcguire, Author, Midnight Blue Light Special, Books, Interview, semicolon blog

DAMIEN WALTERS GRINTALIS, Author - Interview

March 28, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Damien Walters Grintalis

Damien Walters Grintalis

I first became familiar with author Damien Walters Grintalis through Twitter, and shortly thereafter through backing the Kickstarter for the second issue of Fireside magazine (for which backing, Damien “tuckerized” me into her wonderful short story “Scarred”), and when we finally met in person at last year’s Readercon, we hit it off famously. Damien is an active member of both the Horror Writers Association and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). She’s a staff writer at BooklifeNow and an associate editor at Electric Velocipede. In addition to her short stories (which include recent  appearances in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Electric Velocipede, Penumbra and Arcane magazines), her first novel, INK,  has been out since early December. INK is about a recently divorced man who meets a really sketchy tattoo artist in a bar … which sounds like the set-up for a joke, but things take a much darker turn when the new tattoo takes on a life of its own.

ANTHONY: INK has been out for a few months now. How has the reaction been?

DAMIEN: So far, the reception has been overwhelmingly positive and readers seem to like it. I’d assumed release day would come and go without a peep and that if anyone read it, they would hate. A normal debut author mindset, I’d like to think.

ANTHONY: Why are tattoos such a staple of genre fiction, and specifically of horror fiction?

DAMIEN: I know tattoos are a recurring staple in Urban Fantasy but when it comes to horror, I was only aware of Bradbury’s “The Illustrated Man” and thought a living tattoo was an unexplored facet of the genre. I’ve since heard about another book and an episode from the Tales from the Crypt TV show so it’s obviously been explored before, but I’d like to think it hasn’t been done to death yet.

ANTHONY: If you encountered Sailor, unaware of who he was was, what would your tattoo be?

DAMIEN: I have a penchant for text tattoos, so it would be the line “Something wicked this way comes”. Given Sailor’s ink game, I wonder if the letters would emerge and wrap themselves around my neck or force their way down my throat? Shakespeare was brilliant, but I’d rather read his words than choke on them.

ANTHONY: In INK, Jason’s ex-wife is particularly snobbish about horror fiction. Most bookstore chains don’t even have a “horror” section any more.  Of all the genres, why does horror seem to have more of a stigma attached to writing/reading it? 

DAMIEN: I suspect it has to do with the glut of horror fiction published in the 80s. There were a lot of great books published, but there was also a great amount of dreck and, unfortunately, the genre was left with the reputation of the latter. I do think horror is shaking the last traces of that stigma, though.

ANTHONY: What was your writing process like for INK?  And how has it changed as you’ve worked on other novels? 

DAMIEN: I wrote INK mostly at night, cranking out 2,000 words or more in each session. I write during the day now and my progress is a bit slower, although I attribute that to taking more care with my words than the schedule change.

ANTHONY: You also write a lot of short stories (including what is for obvious reasons my personal favorite, “Scarred”). Does your writing process differ from novels to short stories?

DAMIEN: Slightly, yes. With novels, I usually see a character in my head doing or saying something (In INK’s case, I saw Sailor walking.), and sometimes I know right away the why and how and what; sometimes they linger for a bit until they reveal their story. With short fiction, I often have a handful of lines pop out that define the basic concept and spin the story from there. Sometimes the concept remains the same throughout; sometimes it spins off in a different direction.

ANTHONY: I was lucky enough to be “tuckerized” into “Scarred” by you as part of a Kickstarter perk for Fireside Issue 2, long before we finally met in person.  What sort of pressure is involved in tuckerizing someone as a lead character into a story when they know they’re being tuckerized (as opposed to doing it as a surprise for the person)?  And did that affect the writing and editing of the story at all?

DAMIEN: After the first draft was complete, the only real pressure was “Will Anthony like this story?” But when I was writing that first draft, I didn’t think about it. The story grew from the first line and your character simply slipped into place.

Ink-Cover-Art-200x300.jpg

ANTHONY: Back to INK. There was a Mercedes Benz commercial during the Super Bowl after which you tweeted, and I paraphrase, “He’s perfect for Sailor.” (Awesome commercial, by the way!) With Willem DaFoe as Sailor, who else would you cast in a film version of INK?

DAMIEN: I never thought of anyone specific as Sailor before I saw that commercial and, in truth, my image of Sailor isn’t quite Willem Dafoe, but he does come close. I see all the characters very clearly in my head and they look like regular, non-celebrity people to me, so it’s hard to say who I’d cast. Maybe Jake Gyllenhaal and Kate Hudson for Jason and Mitch, but they’re both far more glamorous and attractive than the Jason and Mitch I envision.

ANTHONY: You’re very effective at stringing out the tension in INK — the reader is aware of what’s going on long before Jason is, but even so we don’t get to see one of the “monsters” of the piece in “full light” until near the end. Why is this such a staple of horror fiction and film, and why is it so hard to do effectively?

DAMIEN: What we can’t see is so much more effective, more powerful, than what we can. Think of the movie Alien. You see bits and pieces of the creature throughout, but it’s not until the end that you see it in its entirety. If Ridley Scott had chosen to reveal it early on, the movie would definitely have lost some of the nail-biting tension.

Is it hard to do? I’m not sure. As you mentioned, in INK, the reader knows what’s going on before the character does and I worried that technique would spoil the story for some readers. But given who Sailor is, I couldn’t find a way to effectively hide that fact without it coming across as trite. Instead, I put his card on the table up front and chose to keep the griffin under wraps for as long as I could, hoping that knowing it was there but not seeing it would keep a reader engaged.

ANTHONY: Well, it worked for me! What else do you have coming up, and where can people find it?

DAMIEN: I have short fiction forthcoming in Interzone, Lightspeed, Apex Magazine, Shock Totem, and Daily Science Fiction, and my agent and I are working on the final edits to my next novel.

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question:  What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

DAMIEN: I have quite a few favorites, but I think I’ll spotlight one that many people (in my experience from talking about books with friends) haven’t heard of: I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. It’s a brilliant, dark dystopian book. If you’re the type of reader who wants everything explained and everything tied up with a neat bow, it will frustrate you and quite possibly piss you off, but it’s haunting in a very, very good way.

You can follow Damien on Twitter @DWGrintalis, check out her website for the latest publication news, check out INK (and Damien) on Goodreads, and purchase INK as an ebook or in print.

In READING, RAMBLINGS Tags Damien Walters Grintalis, Ink, Author, Interview, semicolon blog

Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Author - Interview

March 20, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Today, I welcome my old friend Bryan Thomas Schmidt back to the site. Every so often, Brian and I like to catch up on his latest editorial and authorial goings-on. He’s recently successfully funded a Kickstarter and has another on-going right now, both for anthologies of science fiction short stories. So, without further ado … my latest chat with BTS:

ANTHONY: Welcome back, Bryan. Good to chat with you again.

BRYAN: Thanks, Anthony. Always good to be here.

ANTHONY: Congrats on finishing Beyond The Sun. That was your first Kickstarter success story and from the Table Of Contents, I think it’s going to be well received. Of course, I admit I’m biased, since I have a story in there, but Robert Silverberg, Nancy Kress, Mike Resnick, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Cat Rambo, Jennifer Brozek, and many more recognizable names are a part of it. I feel lucky to be included.

BRYAN: Me, too. It really came together in an amazing, blessed way, and the stories are far above what I expected. Tons of variety on the theme of colonial science fiction stories, and just top notch writers. I’m grateful.

ANTHONY: Was the success of Beyond The Sun part of the impetus for your present Kickstarter Raygun Chronicles?

BRYAN: In part. Every Day Fiction wanted to work with me. And being a small press, they were throwing around ideas to fund this. They really want to pay writers pro rates, and they also wanted to take it to the next level of writers. Plus, they had some great writers they’ve been working with who deserve a better audience. With my experience and contacts, I was able to recruit some top name talent to the project to appear alongside this developing talent, which will ensure greater interest in the project than we would have had without it.

ANTHONY: For sure, with names like Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick, A.C. Crispin, Allen Steele, Seanan McGuire, Brenda Cooper, Robin Wayne Bailey and Sarah A. Hoyt, who could resist?

BRYAN: I know, they are great choices. That’s three Star Trek writers (Smith, Rusch, Crispin), two Star Wars writers (Crispin, Rusch) and five others with experience and demonstrative skill in space opera. Resnick has the Starship space opera series from PYR, Allen Steele has written several, including Apollo’s Outcast, his latest, a YA in a definite Heinlein vein, and Hoyt’s Darkship novels from Baen. Seanan and I met at a Con last year, and I’ve heard her wax on about her love of Firefly, so that’s what I pitched her. “How’d you like a chance to write a story with the Firefly feel?” She jumped on it. Crispin, Resnick and Cooper actually had trunk stories that were perfect. Everyone was very quick to jump aboard when asked.

ANTHONY: You have reprints as well as new stories, correct?

BRYAN: Yes, we have picked some reprints from a defunct space opera zine called Ray Gun Revival, which EDP funded. There were a lot of old school stories with larger-than-life characters and that older feel, but still contemporary, and a few with diverse takes and I thought they deserved a bigger audience and would make a great remembrance as well for RGR fans, so EDF suggested we combine the two and add some new stories  and Raygun Chronicles was born.

ANTHONY: Tell us about the Kickstarter. How’s it going?

BRYAN: Well, we’re almost half funded with 9 days to go. We launched in January and end March 7th, so we need $500 each day for the next 9 days to fund. If we don’t fund, it doesn’t happen. It’s tough because Kickstarters often start slow and drag until you reach a certain level. Then, if it’s a success, people pile on. Projects which fund 50% tend to be more likely to get 100%, so we’re hoping the next 9 days will be exciting, but it’s hard. No matter how you spread the word, people often think “I’ll do it tomorrow” or it gets buried in posts. With all the people who love pulp fiction out there, I know we have an audience. The challenge is to find it. We had a PR firm signed up before we launched, but right after we launched, they backed out, which was a big blow, because we hadn’t planned a huge PR campaign on our own. They were handling it. With all we have going on, including one of the publisher’s first son being born in the midst of this, we’ve really had to scramble. But it’s paying off. Last week was our best week since the launch. We got $900 in new pledges and had our best day ever with over $500 coming in. So that’s the big hurdle. Now we need some slightly smaller big days to make it happen.

ANTHONY: This is your third anthology project as editor, correct?

BRYAN: Yes, I edited Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales 6 for Flying Pen Press last year, and then Beyond The Sun, but in addition to Raygun Chronicles, I have an anthology of military fantasy, Shattered Shields, I’m coediting for Baen Books with Jennifer Brozek, and a YA reprint anthology I’m packaging as well. I have 9 more ideas in development.

ANTHONY: So you enjoy editing anthologies? Why?

BRYAN: Yeah. Anthologies allow me to create a concept and play with other writers, including my own writing heroes like Rusch, Silverberg and Resnick. I also get to help and encourage writers in developing their stories and pay them decent money to do it. And since I love doing that, it’s become part of how I make my living, and it’s a blessing to do what you love, you know?

ANTHONY: For sure. So tell us a bit about some of the Raygun Chronicles stories.

Bryan: Well, as far as the new stories go, Peter J. Wacks has written us a story called “Space Opera” which has a conductor conducting an orchestra as a historical battle replays. It’s actually quite well executed and unique. Brenda Cooper’s “Holly Defiant” about a writer who discovers a talented singer and fears she’s about to be kidnapped by slavers and sets out to save her, finding surprising connections to her (the writer’s) past. That’s just the new ones I’ve seen. Some will be written once we fund. As far as reprints, both Milo James Foreman and TM Hunter have series about classic-style space opera heroes named Captain Quasar and Aston West, and these tales are full of action, humor and satire and a lot of fun. We also have a bit of all-American fun with humans tracking down a UFO in Lou Antonelli’s “The Silver Dollar Saucer,” A.M. Stickel’s Star Trekinspired “To The Shores of Triple, Lee!”, another of Mike Resnick’s great and funny Catastrophe Baker tales, and a never before released short from AC Crispin which is excerpted but expanded from her fantastic space opera novel Starbridge about three travelers fighting to survive and find oxygen to continue their journey, who discover a new sentient life form.

ANTHONY: Sounds great. How can we help?

BRYAN: Well, for as little as $5, you can get the ebook of the entire anthology when it’s published. For $25 you get both print and ebook. There are hardbacks available for as little as $40 and also t-shirts, exclusive bookmarks, story critiques and more. We tried to offer something for everyone at various income levels. We even have a trip to OryCon for the book launch at the highest level. All you have to do is go to the Kickstarter and select your level to preorder the book, and we’ll do the rest. It’ll be in your hands in November.

For those curious about the type of book Bryan puts together, you can find the announcement of the Table of Contents for BEYOND THE SUN at sfsignal.com.  You can also find the TOC for his first anthology, SPACE BATTLES, on sfsignal.com as well. You can follow Bryan on Twitter @BryanThomasS, sign on to his Facebook Author page, and visit his website, where he also posts transcripts of the weekly Science Fiction / Fantasy Writers Chat #sffwrtcht that he hosts on Twitter every Wednesday night at 9pm Eastern.

In READING, RAMBLINGS Tags Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Kickstarter, Author, interview, semicolon blog

FIRESIDE KICKSTARTER - Guest Post

March 17, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Galen Dara's cover art for Fireside

Galen Dara's cover art for Fireside

Tonight, I’m taking a break from interviewing people and letting my old friend (by which I mean, we’ve known each other a whole year now!) Brian White talk to you a bit about why you should, if you have a few extra bucks and love good stories from all genres, back the Kickstarter to fund Year Two of Fireside Magazine, to help the magazine move into its new format. So here’s Brian. Oh — ignore the nice things he says about me, but pay attention to the nice things he says about everyone else:

One of the great things about my multigenre fiction magazine, Fireside, has been watching a community grow up around it as we have spent the past year funding it through Kickstarters.

By using crowdfunding to create a magazine, we have — inevitably, in retrospect — created a crowd around it. It is pretty awesome.

We see things like people who are collecting the coasters my wife makes that we have offered for rewards. People who have been drawn into illustrations in each issue. And then there’s Anthony, the only backer whose name has been used in a story in every issue. It’s really fun having these common threads running through Fireside, like seeing family every time you get together.

We’re hoping to keep this community together as we move into our next phase: relaunching Fireside as a monthly website and ebook. We’re running a Kickstarter now to fund the entire year at once, as opposed to the three issues we funded one at a time last year. It’s been a lot of fun doing it that way, but it’s time to create some stability and certainty in this experiment in publishing great fiction and in paying writers well.

Our plan for each issue in our second year is to have two flash-length stories, two short stories, and an episode of a serial experiment by Chuck Wendig. We have a terrific slate writers for the short stories: M. Bennardo, Jennifer Campbell-Hicks, Karina Cooper, Jonas David, Delilah S. Dawson, A.E. Decker, Steven J. Dines, Adam P. Knave, Ken Liu, James McGee, Jason Ridler , and Lilith Saintcrow. We already have eight of their short stories in, and they cover a wide array of genres. They are also awesome.

It will all be offered on a website being designed by Pablo Defendini, with a focus on simplicity and on readability on screens of any size. There will be ebooks too, for those who prefer to read e-ink and not a glowing screen.

If we do fund successfully by our deadline of March 5, we will be opening to flash fiction submissions on March 15. We will be re-opening to short story submissions as well in the future, sometime after we get Year Two going on July 1.

Our hope is to use this Kickstarter to give us the bridge to start moving to subscriptions as our main source of revenue, but I hope our community stays close and excited as we continue to create art together. It’s been so gratifying that people believe in us. They are the spark that brought Fireside to life.

* * * * * * *

What Brian didn’t mention is that as of this posting, there’s still a little over $15,000 in pledges to raise in 12 days. Here’s the link to the Kickstarter campaign. Help us get this thing funded, so there are more chances for me to see characters named after me!

Also, here’s the link to the magazine’s current website where, for free, you can read two of the three stories featuring main characters named after me: Christie Yant’s “Temperance” and Damien Walters Grintalis’ “Scarred.” Both of these stories will also be reprinted in my anthology THE SEVEN TORTURES OF ANTHONY CARDNO, about

In RAMBLINGS Tags Fireside, Kickstarter, fundraiser, semicolon blog

SOMETHING ABOUT JANUARY - Interview

March 13, 2015 Anthony Cardno
Something About January

Something About January

I try to make a strong effort on this site to support bands from the NY/NJ/CT/PA area who are working hard to get their music out there. Today’s interview is with Joe Parella, the lead singer of SOMETHING ABOUT JANUARY. SAJ first came to my attention on Twitter around the time I started posting interviews, and it’s taken me a while to coordinate this chat, but it’s finally done.  Just in time, too, as the guys are working on a new album. SAJ consists of Joe Parella on vocals and guitar, Mike Linardi on drumsvocals, Jon Rodney on bass/vocals and Joe Cowell on guitar.

ANTHONY: How did Something About January form?

JOE: SAJ formed basically by constantly running into each other through the school system and music program and eventually ending up collaborating one by one until it was us four.

ANTHONY: What inspired the group’s name?

JOE: The name came from a show we played in the month of January. We played a killer set and decided we wanted to start taking this seriously as a group. One of us said, “Man, I guess there’s just something about January.”

ANTHONY: You’ve posted a lot of your music on Youtube. What’s the response been like?  Any plans on touring outside of the New Jersey area?

JOE:  Youtube is the best way to get your tunes out there because it is free and fast. The response has been pretty good but not as great as we want it to be. We have plans for touring much further down the road due to financial reasons and also we don’t want to rush into anything unprepared. We are taking our time to get there.

ANTHONY: You’re working on a new album now, right?  How’s that process going, and when will the music be available?

JOE: The new record is going to be totally different. It is a nice raw sound while the songs are still catchy and real. We decided to get away from the things that we were comfortable doing and our producer that worked with us really helped us get the sound we wanted. It was the best process we have ever been through. It is five songs and will be out sometime in the near future.

ANTHONY: What did you learn in putting your first EP together that you’re applying to the new album?

JOE: We learned what NOT to do haha. We really don’t love that cd in any way other than the fact that it taught us EVERYTHING. We listen to it and realize how fake and unnatural it sounds compared to our live show and that is very important. Our live show is full of energy but when you go into a studio and try to capture that, it can be really tricky. The new album will have barely any edits and no pitch correction at all. We hope this captures a more energetic feeling.

ANTHONY: What’s the band’s songwriting process like?  Who contributes what?

JOE: We all write the overall process but it normally starts with one of us having an idea. Being that we are all away at different schools, the internet has been our best friend recently with throwing ideas back and forth. Sometimes we all just click and create a song in no time and look up and don’t know how it happened but that is extremely rare in the process.

ANTHONY: Has your songwriting process changed at all in the time you’ve all worked together?

JOE: Songwriting is like anything else. The more you do it, the better you get at it and the more you learn what not to do. The only way to get better is to make a fool of yourself  and take a chance. Every time you make a mistake, you gain something out of it. Overtime, a lot has changed and it never stops. Every time we write a good song, we prove to ourselves that we can write a good song and that is an important reward to receive.

ANTHONY: You’ve posted a number of covers on Youtube as well. How do you approach deciding what song to cover, and how do you “make it your own” rather than sounding just like the original?

JOE: Whenever we record a cover, we listen to it and see if we can make it our own. In many ways, just the fact that we are the ones making it is what gives it a bit of a different spin but that is not enough obviously. We have to make sure that we have fun doing it and feel like it is our own song rather than a cover. If you play a cover and it feels like you are just singing someone else’s words, you have done something wrong. You have to be able to get into it and have a passion for it as if it were your own song or else it will come across as a poor performance.

ANTHONY: Of the covers you’ve done, what’s been your favorite so far?

JOE: Our favorite is “Hey Ya” by Outkast for sure. It is totally our own and so fun to play live.

ANTHONY: What’s in the near future for Something About January?

JOE: The future for us is basically to just keep growing and getting better. A lot of bands make the mistake of thinking they are already grown before they actually are and end up biting off more than they can chew. We really just want to take our time and do things the right way rather than rush and do a halfway job. Writing is the most important thing as well as musicianship. Without that, a band has nothing so we really like focusing on getting better and everything else will come with time.

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

JOE: My favorite book has to be Fight Club. It is so philosophical and interesting with an amazing story behind it. I recommend it to everyone because it literally changed my life and perspective on life itself.

You can find SOMETHING ABOUT JANUARY across the internet: on Facebook, on Myspace, on Purevolume, on Youtube, on Bandcamp and of course on Twitter as @SAJ_NJ

Since Joe mentioned it, here’s that OUTKAST cover:

In RAMBLINGS Tags Something About January, Boy Band, Musicians, Interview, semicolon blog
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Photo credit: Bonnie Jacobs

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Anthony’s favorite punctuation mark is the semi-colon because thanks to cancer surgery in 2005, a semi-colon is all he has left. Enjoy Anthony's blog "Semi-Colon," where you will find Anthony's commentary on various literary subjects. 

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