Destiny and danger collide in this thrilling, gorgeously imagined epic fantasy.
Tag: mikko azul
Square Pig in a Round Hole-June 2, 2019
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.
Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!
Blogging a day late again. I spent yesterday at the Wilsonville Festival of Arts in Wilsonville, OR, helping out at the Not A Pipe Publishing table with my friend and fellow author Mikko Azul. We each sold a copy of our own book, so it was a good day. The event continued today (without me) and I hope many of our books found their way into the hands of eager readers.
It was a beautiful day for a drive and an art fair in a nice park, but I can’t forget about band names! Here are this week’s treasures:
Broken-down RV? Or a careless human who failed to bear-proof their food?
A human, being a vertebrate, is already a bent fish. So is this doubly bent, or straightened out?
The invasion has begun. I welcome our robot overlords.
I like finding Biblical references in the club listings, though this is not a cheerful one. She is weeping and refuses to be comforted, for they are no more. (Coincidentally, this passage came up in this week’s study/conversation with my dad and brother, so I couldn’t not pick it.)
Here’s something cute and colorful to lift our spirits! Just be careful of the little sharp teeth and needle claws–that’s the surprise.
One last thing before you go: I share highlights from this blog in my quarterly author newsletter, The Storypunk Report, as well as news of what I’m writing and reading, and other goodies. Click the link to check it out and subscribe here for future issues. (Or just follow the blog for your weekly dose of band names.)
Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 29, 2018
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. … Continue reading Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 29, 2018
Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 22, 2018
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. … Continue reading Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 22, 2018
Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 15, 2018
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. … Continue reading Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 15, 2018
Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 8, 2018
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. … Continue reading Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 8, 2018
Square Pig in a Round Hole-September 1, 2018
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.
Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!
Right on schedule, it’s cool and overcast. But not raining, ironically good news for those attending Bumbershoot. I remember when tickets were $3.50 or $4; my spouse remembers when the event was free. If like us you can’t afford $100ish per day or $200ish for the whole weekend, there are still plenty of cheap shows out there. You might even encounter one of these bands:
Nostalgia hit! As a child I had what we called my “breakable collection”–kitschy decorative ceramic animals (and some people). The only one with a practical use was a piggy bank (not square). When they inevitably fell on the floor and broke, I would glue them back together and restore them to their place of dusty honor. I still have a few.
By happy accident of English spelling, this has an ear rhyme with no eye rhyme, as well as a gorier sonic connotation. I prefer to picture bears in suits, doing what they do.
The Road Warrior’s full legal name.
More fun with spelling! Us square critters gotta stick together, but crows are never anything but cool.
Where to start? Alternatively, if what is wrong, maybe you meant who. (And they were on a bill with Square Pig faves Mud on My Bra!)
Shameless Self-Promotion: On Saturday, October 6 at 2:00 p.m., I will be reading and signing my new fantasy novel Daughter of Magic at The Neverending Bookshop. Joining me will be Mikko Azul, author of The Staff of Fire and Bone. Come say hi!
Square Pig in a Round Hole-August 25, 2018
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically.
Selection is wholly unscientific and subject to whim, with a bias toward wordplay, humor, and local flavor. In most cases, I won’t know anything about the bands at the time of selection. Thanks to the Seattle Times club listings for abundant source material!
It’s been a quiet week of avoiding smoke and reading other people’s books before I dive back into my own work-in-progress. But after several weeks off, Your Mother Should Know is on schedule to begin recording our next two tracks, now that our practice space/studio is tolerably cool. Watch for “’68 Chevelle” and “Jerseyville,” coming soon!
Band names never rest, and these five caught my eye:
Would these be good hats? Because there are no bad hats, only bad hat owners.
Accuracy, or a specialized theatrical talent.
Points for rhyming and being definite. They’re done. Don’t even start.
Robot monster! Monster robot! It’s been awhile since I picked up that great B movie vibe.
A giraffe the size of the universe. It would still have seven cervical vertebrae, but would each one of them also be infinite?
Shameless Self-Promotion: On Saturday, October 6 at 2:00 p.m., I will be reading and signing my new fantasy novel Daughter of Magic at The Neverending Bookshop. Joining me will be Mikko Azul, author of The Staff of Fire and Bone. Come say hi!
Square Pig in a Round Hole-August 18, 2018
Naming a band is an act of concentrated creative expression. Square Pig in a Round Hole exists to reward five favorite band names each week. Winners are (usually) listed alphabetically. … Continue reading Square Pig in a Round Hole-August 18, 2018
Review: The Staff of Fire and Bone
by Mikko Azul (Not A Pipe Publishing, January 2018)
I received a review copy of the e-book from the publisher.
The Staff of Fire and Bone is a thrilling tale of a misfit with a destiny to save the world of Muralia—and the power to destroy it. Cedron is the son and presumptive heir to the Regent of Dulnat, but he is hated for his mixed parentage in a world where the four peoples prize racial purity. It doesn’t help that he has recently manifested uncanny and barely controlled magical power. When he is blamed for a disaster during a festival, Cedron escapes the city pursued by enemies, but soon gains allies—and knowledge of his destiny to right an ancient wrong, a destiny that requires the very lack of racial purity for which he has always been hated.
Cedron is an appealing hero. He wants to do the right thing, but he’s young and doesn’t understand his power. He can be a hothead and makes terrible mistakes as he learns to use it without letting it use him for darker deeds. His quest for the sacred stones that will help him save the world involves narrow escapes, battles with enemies (and future allies), heartbreaking losses, and courageous sacrifice. But it’s not all dire. There’s plenty of the kind of comic business to be expected when adolescents have an adventure, as well as philosophical reflections on what power is for and what destiny really means.
Like the best fantasy settings, Muralia feels both familiar and deeply strange. Its mountains, plains, and sky are full of colorful giant birds and tusked herd beasts. The deities of sun, moons, and earth literally inhabit those orbs, and sometimes appear to Cedron in times of great need. Cultural practices of the various peoples feel rooted in long history.
My one (admittedly minor) complaint is that characters are constantly noticing, realizing, and deciding things. I’d rather these verbs were reserved for occasions when a character at long last makes an important decision, or notices something crucial for the first time, or finally realizes a critical truth that has been overlooked till now. The rest of time, don’t tell me he noticed; show me what he noticed; don’t tell me he decided; show me the action. This is my own pet peeve, so it stood out in any otherwise well told, imaginative tale.
But for the staff of the title, I would award 5 stars even if not for anything else. I can’t say much without spoiling, but it is the most shocking and beautiful magical object I have encountered in 40+ years as a fantasy reader.
Order your copy from your favorite independent bookstore by asking for it at the front counter, or order it from one of these fine online booksellers:
Karen Eisenbrey 