SL Huang (aka MathPencil)

My short story HUNTING MONSTERS is OUT! Read it right now FREE!!!

Oct 07 2014

My short story HUNTING MONSTERS is out TODAY! Read it online right now at the Book Smugglers!

WHEEEEEEEEE!

You can also head over to the Book Smugglers to read my essay on the Inspiration & Influences behind the story. I talk about worldbuilding! And fairy tales! And diversity!

Questions you may have:

I love the story so much I want to have the ebook and its gorgeous cover on my ereader! Where can I put money into the paws of you and the Book Smugglers?!

So kind of you! You can buy a copy at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Google Play, or Apple. You can also buy it direct from the publishers!

What wonderful extra things do I get if I buy the ebook?

Aside from a beautifully formatted ebook of the story and your very own copy of the magnificent cover art, you will also get my Inspiration & Influences essay and a Q&A about the story and my work. Highlights of the Q&A include:

An analysis of “Beauty and the Beast” someone in my writing group called “a good start on a uni thesis” — I don’t think she meant it as a compliment but I am taking it as one!
My best tip for learning to write short fiction if you’re like I used to be and always faceplant in 100k extra words when you try to write short!
What my favorite fairy tale is! Which you may never have heard of!
The childhood story that has already prompted my mother to email me saying, “THAT’S NOT HOW I REMEMBER IT”, totally afraid that everyone will think she is boring and normal! (Eek, Mom, sorry!! *ducks*)

Who did your amazing cover art?

The splendidly talented cover artist is Kristina Tsenova — check out her deviantART and her Facebook!

I have such strong feelings about the story that I want to talk about it. Where can I do that?

Anywhere you want, of course, but here is the Goodreads page!

Have a question I didn’t answer? Ask it below!

If There’s One Thing I Hate More Than Dumb Excuses To Support a Racist Team Name, It’s Dumb Excuses To Support a Racist Team Name That Use Bad Math.

Oct 04 2014

By Assaf Yekuel (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I just watched the segment on The Daily Show that interviewed Native American activists and R*dskins fans about the Washington D.C. football team’s name. One of the peripheral points brought up was that a whole mess of people claim to have Native American heritage who don’t — often a great-great-great(etc.) Cherokee ancestor. (Why is it always Cherokee? I have no idea.)

Anyway, one of the R*dskins fans claimed she was 1/12 Cherokee, and said, “As [someone who is] 1/12 Cherokee, I am not offended [by the name].”

WHAT

YOU CANNOT BE 1/12 ANYTHING

THE MATH IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE

YOUR HERITAGE HAS TO BE IN INCREMENTS OF INVERSE POWERS OF TWO SERIOUSLY YOU JUST SAID SOMETHING THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE

I mean, supporting a racist team name is bad enough. You really have to compound that with BAD FAKE MATH?!

(Seriously, you have two parents, so you’re 1/2 of what each of them are. They each have two parents, so you’re 1/4 each whatever your grandparents are. You’re 1/8 what your great-grandparents are, and 1/16 what your great-great grandparents are. NOTICE WHAT NUMBER ISN’T IN ANY DENOMINATOR? THAT’S RIGHT, 12. If you’re going to invent imaginary Cherokee heritage, at least invent something possible. GAH!)

Cover reveal: My short story HUNTING MONSTERS is coming out next week!

Sep 30 2014

EXCITING NEWS

My short story “Hunting Monsters” is being released next week by Book Smugglers Publishing! And today is the day of the cover reveal!

Feast your eyes below. *stares at cover till my eyeballs fall out of my head*

I adore this cover, folks. I adore it. It’s a perfect fit for the story, and just . . . so . . . beautiful. A huge thanks to the artist, Kristina Tsenova. Head on over to the cover reveal post at the Book Smugglers to read more about me, the artist, my story, and why they chose it!

“Hunting Monsters” will appear online at the Book Smugglers one week from today. It is also being made available as an ebook — you can preorder it right this very moment on Amazon. Or on Amazon UK. Or on Smashwords. (And other retailers will be available post-release!)

And if you can’t wait, it’s available for direct buy from the Book Smugglers RIGHT NOW!

I leave you with this thrilling tweet from Justin Landon of the Staffer’s Book Review:

I don’t mean to brag, but I’m reading HUNTING MONSTERS by @sl_huang coming soon to @booksmugglers. It’s really good.

— Justin (@jdiddyesquire) September 29, 2014

Wheeee YES!

We’re Small Bloggers, but We’re Feeling the Fallout: Ellora’s Cave and the Suit Against Dear Author

Sep 28 2014

I can’t think of anything knowledgeable to say about the Ellora’s Cave lawsuit against Dear Author that other people aren’t covering. But as someone who writes, publishes, and blogs, obviously I’m very concerned with following and reading about it.

People are already expressing concern that this will have a chilling effect on the greater conversation, that it will impact what bloggers, reviewers, authors, and other industry people are willing to say. And that terrifies me.

Just this morning, in fact, I was chatting with some of my fellow Menagerie members about what we might blog about this week. I suggested someone might want to write about the Ellora’s Cave issues, maybe a Menagerie member who had something new to say or who had more knowledge of the romance scene and/or publishing as a whole than I have. It would certainly be a post I’d be interested in reading. Well, we’re all following it, but nobody in chat at the time felt they had any new or informative opinions suitable for a blog post.

Later on another Menagerie member popped on and we were talking more about blogging. And this conversation happened (edited for clarity):

Me: I was suggesting earlier that someone blog about Ellora’s Cave and their suit against Dear Author, but nobody’s into it :p
Other Menagerie member: Ha, I am watching the EC stuff. But I do not want to poke that hornet’s nest!
Me: Why not?
Her: Because law suits.

And I suddenly thought: Holy shit, it’s happening to us.

Members of my blog are worried about what we say about Ellora’s Cave because they’re afraid of being sued.

And I’m angry. I’m so angry.

I have no insider knowledge on the EC suit. It’s possible they have a legitimate reason and this isn’t a SLAPP lawsuit as some seem to be speculating (or very carefully not speculating). I’ll reserve my own hypotheses for outside the blog, because I am not a lawyer and, as my colleague said, because law suits . . . shit.

But no matter what the case, there’s fallout happening, and we’re already feeling it.

We’re small fry here at the Menagerie, in the grand scheme of the Interwebs. This blog in particular launched less than a week ago. And obviously we are not in the awful position of being directly involved with any aspect of this case, and I feel for everyone who is. But I think this was a necessary post to make, because it’s important that we talk about these things. It’s important that we speak up when we feel silenced. It’s important that small and entirely uninvolved bloggers like us are feeling like we shouldn’t express opinions about a potentially important event in our industry. That we do more risk to ourselves by opening our mouths than is worth it to editorialize . . .

. . . because law suits.

20 Little Details If You Want to Set a Story in Los Angeles

Sep 24 2014

By Matthew Field, http://www.photography.mattfield.com (Own work) [CC-BY-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

In Southern California, freeways are always prefixed with a definite article. “Take the 101 to the 405 to the 10 to the PCH . . .”
Because of earthquakes and the lack of a frost line, houses with basements are rare. I’ve only ever seen one residential place with a basement here and it was sort of a quasi-basement that was halfway a ground floor because the house was built onto the side of a hill; it wasn’t fully underground. (Underground parking lots are frequent, though.)
Speaking of earthquakes, we get ‘em, but they usually aren’t a big deal, and a lot of times you won’t even feel them. But even though they’re usually pretty eh, they’re just rare enough that when one happens everyone goes around saying, “OMG did you feel the earthquake this morning??!!” and posts it to their Facebooks, even when they’re just tremors. I usually feel maybe 1 earthquake a year on average and am aware of 1 or 2 more I didn’t feel but other people did.
That stereotype about every waiter / bartender / barista here being an out-of-work actor / dancer / screenwriter / musician? TRUE. At least in large part, heh. Lots of other people live here with no desire to work in Hollywood, though.
It’s not uncommon for [the raging traffic] to impact where people are willing to do hobbies, where they look for jobs, and even the people they’re willing to date.
There’s a stereotype that everyone in LA is a transplant. Although a lot of people are, I do know a decent number of people here who grew up here.
LA is a very diverse city, to the point where any fiction that shows LA as lily white makes me skeptical on realistic grounds. In particular, we have a lot of Hispanic people. A lot. In general, I can’t think of a minority demographic that isn’t solidly represented among people I know (though unlike in the Midwest or Southwest, most of the people I know with Native American blood — and I have like 6 or 7 friends who do — look white and do not feel connected to the Native culture, only have the genetic background . . . though I also know a few who are very invested in their Native heritage).
Cost of living, like in most cities, is pretty high, but because of the sprawl it’s a little easier to find a part of town where a bigger apartment and/or house might be more affordable. Other parts of town, not so much.
LA is more like a bunch of little cities and regions mashed into one. Most people here consider “LA” to mean “LA County” in the broadest sense, including places that are separate municipalities, like Santa Monica and Pasadena. But every smaller part of LA, even the ones that aren’t their own cities, have “village” names, so if you ask someone in LA where they live, they’re likely to give you the regional name —
Parts of LA are very citified; others [are] very residential.
“Van Nuys” or “Westwood” or “Downtown.” They might also answer more broadly, like by saying “the Westside” or “the Valley,” which are regions that include a lot of different littler regions. All the overlapping regional names, as well as which parts are separate cities (West Hollywood is, North Hollywood is not,^[1] what), are very confusing to newcomers, and even sometimes to people who have lived here a while.
“Hollywood” is both a geographical part of town and a name for the film industry. So if you say you “work in Hollywood,” that could mean your job exists on a street in the geographical region of Hollywood, or that you live nowhere near Hollywood but you work in film. It’s usually clear which is meant by the context.
Mass transit here kinda sucks. The subways don’t go all that many places, and buses cover the rest of the city, but they take forever. Trying to get somewhere on a bus might take three hours.
Because of the sprawl and the raging traffic, it also might take hours to get somewhere in a car at rush hour. Angelenos know every trick in the book to get around traffic, but sometimes it’s unavoidable, and “an hour to go five miles” situations are not uncommon in certain parts of town at certain times of day. Or if there’s an accident. (It’s not uncommon for this to impact where people are willing to do hobbies, where they look for jobs, and even the people they’re willing to date.)
I do know some people without cars, but it’s much, much, much rarer than in other cities — the assumption would be that a person living in Los Angeles has a car. Even most students have cars.
In some parts of town street parking is easy. In other parts it is impossible. Know which part of town you’re in if you want your characters to be able to park.
Parking tickets are a fact of life. I do not know a single person here who has never gotten a parking ticket.^[2] This is partly because parking regulations can be complicated and absurd and are different everywhere you go.
Parts of LA are very citified; others have pockets that are very residential. Once again, this is a product of the sprawl.
It does rain here, but is only likely during part of the year (the wet season, which roughly correlates with winter). When it does rain, it’s the “relentless downpour” type; thunderstorms are almost unheard of. The rest of the year you can go months and months and months in a row with blue skies.
Desert, woods, mountains, beaches, forests — Los Angeles is surrounded by all of them (this is part of why so many films can be set here so easily). You may have to specify a region, however — for instance, pine forests are exceedingly unlikely unless you’re up in the mountains, in which case they’re gorgeous.
Palm trees are all over the place here.
Motorcycles can split lanes in California. (And helmets are required by law.)
Alcohol is sold in grocery stores in California.

Footnotes (↵ returns to text)

For a while I had three different library cards because I frequented two parts of town that did not consider themselves technically Los Angeles.↵
As time in LA increases, probability of getting a parking ticket approaches 1.↵

Author - SL Huang (aka MathPencil)

My short story HUNTING MONSTERS is OUT! Read it right now FREE!!!

Like this:

If There’s One Thing I Hate More Than Dumb Excuses To Support a Racist Team Name, It’s Dumb Excuses To Support a Racist Team Name That Use Bad Math.

Like this:

Cover reveal: My short story HUNTING MONSTERS is coming out next week!

Like this:

We’re Small Bloggers, but We’re Feeling the Fallout: Ellora’s Cave and the Suit Against Dear Author

Like this:

20 Little Details If You Want to Set a Story in Los Angeles

Like this:

Author - SL Huang (aka MathPencil)

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