ATTENTION pirates, pirate lovers, & #piratecore perusers: PLEASE listen to ship in a bottle by fin aka steffan argus - & his whole album lost at sea. i really like the song abandon ship too. thank me later

“It may be relevant that I’m Catholic, and so supernatural events are not entirely ruled out. One time I was going to write a book which was sort of ‘The Exorcist in San Bernardino.’ … I got a book by Malachi Martin which was actual transcripts of exorcisms—dialogues between priests and devils—and I thought, ‘Cool! Wow, boy, I’ve got all my research right here. This is great.’ And I opened the book, and on the first page it says, ‘The author and publisher advise that anyone reading this book say the following prayer before and after each chapter.’ And I slammed it shut and thought, ‘Well, I don’t need that. Uh-uh. I ain’t doing that.’”

— Tim Powers

"For respectable reasons, I find it useful to approach writing in a provisional state of paranoid schizophrenia - to be a paranoid schizophrenic from nine to five, and then take off the funny hat and go have dinner and behave like a normal person. It’s nice to visit and not have to live there, so I commute to paranoia every morning and come home at night, and I feel free to take days off and not go in at all, I don’t gel my mail there. But for the purposes of my work, especially plotting it, and outlining it, it’s real valuable to think: ‘Nothing is a coincidence. Everything contains a message. There arc no random events, no coincidences. And whatever someone really means, it's not what they just said.'"

-- Tim Powers, In Praise of Paranoia, Locus #446, 1998

On Stranger Tides

One of the biggest influences on my writing has been On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. The book is a historical fantasy novel that includes real historical figures, and involves the search for the Fountain of Youth. It is rich with magic, drawing on the ‘voodoo’ of Creole Caribbean culture. For me, one of my favourite parts of the novel is the unusual protagonist—John Chandagnac is a puppeteer, an occupation that is drawn on in a creative and entertaining way towards the end of the novel.

The book draws on classical elements of pirate lore, such as zombies, sea battles, sword fights, and, of course, voodoo, and interweaves these in an entertaining and original narrative. The voodoo is, as far as I understand it, researched well and in keeping with traditional conceptions of the spirits (e.g., the Loa). 

It has, of course, had an immense impact on popular culture, famously the Monkey Island video game and The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (though the less said about that film, the better). The mixture of magic and history has directly influenced my own creative writing, and it’s something I’ve explicitly drawn upon or paid homage to in my work. Fans of pirate adventures could do worse than find themselves On Stranger Tides.

A delightful essay by Cory Doctorow about Tim Powers, secret history, Qanon and other conspiracy theories, tarot, Tumblr, and Twitter.

My method of using Tumblr to is similar Cory’s except that I don’t make up stories about what I repost. I don’t reshare to Twitter much anymore—though that might change at any moment. I grab stuff from Reddit. And my reposts are more likely to be whimsical than his, I think—he’s more likely to share Soviet brutalist architecture, I’m more likely to share a cute emu video.

The resemblance between how he uses social media and how I use it is not coincidental. I’ve always thought he’s great at using social media, and when I’m trying to solve a problem with social media, I find myself thinking, well, how does Cory do it? That’s until recently—now I’m more trying to find a balance between screen time and real life (and stillI marvel that Cory gets as much done as he does AND seems to be more active on social than I am!)

I use the Tumblr queue extensively. As I type this, I’m recovering from Covid, and for three days seemingly the only things I was capable of doing were (1) sleeping (2) watching a little TV and (3) social media. So boy howdy is my Tumblr queue fat now!

What Tim Powers book would you recommend, for someone who has never read Tim Powers? Thanks!

Oooh, good question! Unfortunately, I have two answers. Let's see if I can find a consensus by the end.

No… I already know the answer.

My favorite book of his is "Expiration Date". It just has so many wonderful ideas that have become a part of my DNA, and then my college roommate read it, and we both had this Tim Powers mythology in our DNA that if you were to put us in the same room right now, mythology from this book will come up.

To summarize "Expiration Date" - When someone dies, their ghost / spirit / soul can be captured in a vial in their last breath. Thomas Edison's last breath was captured in a test tube. And an 11-year-old boy accidentally inhales Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison was a very powerful man in life and he is also a very powerful ghost. But because this kid is only 11, he's not able to "digest" Thomas Edison. So the ghost of Thomas Edison is stuck inside of him. And now people are after the kid, who want to inhale Thomas Edison for themselves.

The second book I was going to mention was "Last Call" that takes place in and around Las Vegas is about poker and the tarot (and playing poker with the tarot) and the Fisher King, and a man's soul, and the birth of Las Vegas.

Now here's the thing… both these books are great. Neither has anything to do with the other. But then Tim wrote a third book "Earthquake Weather" that ties these two books together into a trilogy.

And that is my lengthy answer. Take it as you will.

Thank you for asking!

God knows where we are

"God knows where we are, the real us.  Heaven or hell, I suppose, or simply gone." —Tim Powers, Expiration Date

A House With Good Bones, by T. Kingfisher

A House With Good Bones, by T. Kingfisher

My experience of reading A House With Good Bones was weird, because I made some silly assumptions. It was also fun, and good, and I’d recommend the book. However, this isn’t an in-depth review; I’ll share more about this book elsewhere through GeeklyInc, so I’m focusing on my reading experience here. When I dive deep into the book, I’ll let you know. Onwards. I’ve previously read and enjoyed…

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searching for a character from a book - ddg does not even have the slightest clue where to begin, google images actually does a great job identifying that the character is a Jinn, and is from the book Declare. (although there's some weird anime mixed in too)

Title: Down and Out in Purgatory | Author: Tim Powers | Publisher: Baen (2017)

“With a yell Duffy ran toward the door, but his own legs weren't working correctly, and he made slow progress. Then he must have fallen, for he blacked out and dropped away through hundreds of disturbing dreams…he was a child crying with fear in a dark stone room; he was an old, dishonored king, bleeding to death in the rain, watched over by one loyal retainer; he stood with two women beside a fire on a midnight moor, staring into the black sky with a desperate hope; in a narrow boat he drifted on a vast, still lake; he sat across a table from a shockingly ancient man, who stared at him with pity and said, ‘Much has been lost, and there is much yet to lose.’”

— The Drawing of the Dark

"[We pulled out the carpet in our new house.] Under the strips they put along the edge of the wall to attach the carpet to, we found every foot a penny, alternating heads and tails, heads and tails. I did take these out, but I’m wondering what kind of precaution they might have been, that I should have left. In a pinch, I can go put ‘em all back! So far so good."

-- Tim Powers, In Praise of Paranoia, Locus #446, 1998

A Voyage Through the Best Nautical Fantasy Novels

Ah, the salty spray of the sea, the mysterious allure of the unknown depths, the thrill of a chase across the high seas—nothing quite captures the imagination like a nautical adventure. And when you blend this with the magic and mystery of fantasy, well, you’re in for quite a journey. Let’s set sail and navigate through some of the best nautical fantasies ever penned. The Liveship Traders…

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i feel like i never draw tim smiling but bb robin tim smiles a lot! (in between angst and tragedy)

brought to you by my continued attempts at figuring out tim’s early robin hair