We’ve got two upcoming titles. One is the second book in the Nanodaemons series, the insane IoT programs that run our lives in the future. The second is the series starter for Cyberpink, a colourful blood sport.
Go ahead. Vote already:
This is a quick post to inform you Mythographers about which titles are available on paperback.
So, here they are in sniffable, lickable format:
Here they are, your favourite stories in lickable, sniffable format:
Ba Dum Tshh!
Frivolous Fox Diligent Dog is now available on paperback.
Also, we noticed that some readers had purchased a faulty version of The Girl Who Twisted Fate’s Arm. We only dug up the data a few days ago, and the purchases happened at 2016.
Sorry about that.
If you bought the paperback with the lesser quality, feel free to email us the receipt and we’ll see how we can get the proper, shiny, sexy version in your hands.
Just like we said on our End of the Year Course Correction post, we’ve published two titles in paperback format! And we do what we say dammit, even if it’s only half the time.
So, here they are, two of our best stories in sniffable, tearable, lickable format:
Or you can just go download them right now like the impatient dude or dudette you are:
Long story short, Europe has a new law regarding personal data. You can read about its long-term impact on this Wired article.
But in simple terms, it means two things:
Now, we walk a fine line here. We’re constantly in a catch-22. On one hand, we do use all these products from the large corporations, like the Amazon platform, gmail delivery, Google Analytics. They are tools that open up immense possibilities and can make a small business rival larger ones.
But on the other hand, they do not respect your privacy. And we know that. Now, under the GDPR, these same corporations like Facebook and Google need to abide by these laws for their European customers.
You may not be located in the EU, but it doesn’t matter. These are laws and rights that should be enforced globally, and we plan to adhere to them.
So, here it is:
That’s all up to the point of writing this post, we’ll update it with others as they come up.
It’s International Women’s Day and we decided to celebrate it in our own way. We made a tag and everything #mythicwomensday.
Be it goddesses of Olympus, monsters that prey on heroes’ flesh or tragic seers that warn others of catastrophes, women have always played an important part in Greek mythology.
Yeah, men didn’t really treat them well. Zeus was the prime bad example. But despite all that they managed to inspire us through the centuries.
Since we have plenty of stories with female protagonists, let’s take a look at some you might like.
The Amazons were the bad girls in plenty of Greek myths. Pretty much everybody fought them, Hercules, gods, demigods. Feared and respected as warriors, they are used in our stories as a powerful private army under the wing of CEO Artemis.
Read about Aura, renamed as Amazon Antioche (She who goes against the city.)
Eris is the goddess of Discord. She’s famous for presenting the golden apple to the Olympian goddesses that said “To the fairest” and inciting the most epic catfight in mythology. In our stories she’s a tornado of a woman, always peppy and smiling, bringing breakups to couples Uber-style.
The muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. There are plenty of them strolling around the gods in Olympus. You’ve already met Ourania, the Muse of Astronomy and Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy. In our stories they are androids (gynoids more specifically) that supervise the projects of the Olympian CEOs and are assigned wards to inspire and help with cutting-edge innovation.
Read the stories with the Muses.
The meaning of the name Cybele/Kyveli is unknown, possibly from Phrygian roots meaning either “stone” or “hair”. This was the name of the Phrygian mother goddess associated with fertility and nature. She was later worshipped by the Greeks and Romans. In our story she’s an alien princess that can blow up when agitated and take the planet with her.
The Gorgon sister of Medusa. She was an immortal unlike Medusa. All three have the hair of living, venomous snakes. Known for her bellowing cries and of course her petrifying gaze. In our stories, Evryali is a pianist that puts men and women under an enchantment and makes them love her unconditionally.
Erinyes were beings that tormented those that committed the most heinous of crimes. A manifestation of guilt, they chased people forever. In our stories, Erinyes show up from the guilt of a narcissistic teenager and appear through technology to torment her every 108 minutes.
Witches were plentiful in ancient Greece. The Hellenic Witch was one with nature and the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, initiated into secrets like Eleusinian Mysteries and the prophesies of Delfi. In our stories, the witches try to live normal lives in the Athens of today, using the wonders of technology along with the arcane practices of the goddesses.
Comment about which Mythic Woman archetype you like best, or what inspires you.
Watcher’s Web is an exciting survival story set in an alien wilderness.
She is lost on an alien planet. He said he’d help her get home. He lied.
Jessica’s plane develops engine trouble over the dry Australian inland—and crashes in thick, unfamiliar rainforest.
A group she thinks is a search party shows up, but it consists of large-eyed not-quite people who kill all survivors except Jessica and a long-haired hippie named Brian.
No one is going to come to rescue her. In fact, they’re not even on Earth.
While the pair wrestle their way through the forest in search for help, Jessica becomes ever more suspicious of Brian. Why does he know so much about the world where they have ended up? Why is he so insistent on helping her?
Jessica has always been able to use her mind to tell animals what to do and now she’s hearing voices in her head. Another man is pleading her not to listen to Brian. Except this man can kill someone with a single look, and he uses his mental powers to order people around.
In this utterly strange and dangerous world where people seem to want something from her, who can she trust?
A gritty survival story in the vein of The Hunger Games, set in a Star Wars locality.
Start Reading Watcher’s Web for Free on Amazon US
The rich and powerful tapestry of world building captures the imagination and just doesn’t let go. The characters are full of life and complexity. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It is easy to identify with the peoples and through suspension of disbelief, this world was very real, as are the struggles being faced. Love books that make me think about what I would or wouldn’t do in that situation. Great strong female lead.
Hollywood, are you listening? This story should be made into a movie! Avatar, move over. There’s a new kid on the block! This story is well written and the characters have plenty of depth. The story flows from one page to the next, from one chapter to the next. It keeps you on the edge of your seat from page one til the end.
Get the 4-book series:
Here’s something that should put your mind at ease:
I, George Saoulidis, give you permission to have a black/asian/latinx/whatever Achilles in your story. I also retroactively give you permission to have any possible combination of skin colour/sexuality/hero name from the Greek epics.
How the fuck can I possibly give permission for something like that, you might ask?
Exactly.
That’s my point. The same way that it’s nobody’s business to give you permission to do something like this, nobody can stop you from doing it either.
The Greek epics do not belong to me, you, or any other Greek in the world. They belong to everybody. So much so that the words “public domain” are too puny to describe them. They’re infused into our culture, shaped the very pathways in our brains. They have inspired endless creators for literal millennia (pause and let that sink in for a moment.)
So, do you want to take a popular myth and make it your own? Are you inspired by Odysseus or Achilles or Zeus and want to see yourself in their shoes, and you also happen to not be white and male? Do you want to cosplay as them, write about them, make films and games and VR experiences about them? Do you want to create and have found inspiration in the most influential and badass mythology of all time?
By all means, go for it.
That won’t mean that I’ll like your story. It won’t mean I’ll spend money on your story. If it objectively sucks, I’ll happily tear you a new one. Or worse, I’ll just ignore it. But if the story is good, if your vision is great, if your interpretation is modern and touches the souls of those around you, then go for it.
Nobody’s stopping you. Not me. Certainly not Homer.
In case you live under a rock, Stargate is a massive franchise that has heavily influenced quite a lot of media. It has also influenced a lot of our stories.
Stargate is resurrected after a few years of inactivity through an all-inclusive portal called Stargate Command. To kick things into gear they offer a brand new web-series called Stargate Origins, which is a prequel and an origin story of the discovery of the Stargate on Earth.
The show is well-made but low budget for now, with short episodes. You can watch 1-3 for free and sign up with a one-time fee for full access to everything, including all the movies and all the series before that.
By purchasing the All-Access Pass, fans will have access to exclusive content, including full episodes of the new STARGATE series, Stargate Origins, and fans will also have access to a library of STARGATE TV shows and movies, including SG-1, Atlantis, Universe, and all three movies, Stargate (1994), Stargate: The Ark of Truth (2008) and Stargate: Continuum (2008). All-Access Pass holders will be the first to view each episode of the new digital series Stargate Origins episodes.
Fans in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are able to purchase the All-Access Pass
You can use Opera VPN app to bypass the country limitations, though you should expect it to affect streaming.
The All Access costs just $20. That fact alone makes us really appreciate this modern move. Instead of going for a subscription model, this all-you-can-binge website has it all, trivia, interviews, forums, video that complete the Stargate mythos and promises more to come. Unfortunately, this access seems to be finite:
All-Access starts on September 20, 2017 and ends on May 15, 2018. After May 15, 2018, the All-Access content will no longer be available through your All-Access Pass, but you will still be a member of the Stargate Command community, which will continue.
So, it seems they’ll shift to a subscription model or something similar in the future, and just want to get a rush of fans to the site with this offer. We’ll see.
We love Stargate because it fits with our storytelling: Alien beings with wondrous technology that are consumed by their god complex.
Don’t worry, we won’t suddenly turn it all into an Ancient Aliens in Greek Togas theme. But Stargate has influenced a lot of our tales.
The series has become convoluted and messy, as all long-running sci-fi seems to have. Thankfully, io9 has compiled a guide that will get you up to speed or simply remind you of the important bits.
One of the blogs that have popped up recently is that of the Ancient Blogger, a bloke from UK that writes about Greek and Roman mythology. He doesn’t just write, it seems there’s a wealth of pictures and videos and he shows us everything with a touch of humour.
This is him telling us about the aspis, a hoplite shield. Don’t know what that is? Well, click the video then, duh.
And since at the time of posting this, Valentine’s Day is dangerously imminent, I’d like to point you to a specific blog post about Unrequited Love in Ancient Greece.
It all starts with, and on, the island of Lefkada which sits in the Ionian Sea (west of mainland Greece). It’s here where you’ll find a particularly vertigo-inducing white rock which gave the island its old name, Leucas. Apollo had a temple here and if you know your Greek love gossip then you know Apollo is never far from a tragic date.
When Aphrodite was grieving for Adonis it was suggested to her by Apollo that she jump off the white rock to cure her feelings. Whether this was sage advice or the sort of thing which siblings do to each other is unclear but as Aphrodite emerged from the sea she was indeed cured.
The famous Sappho apparently jumped from here to cure herself of love, but died, which isn’t exactly surprising. Strabo contends that the first mortal to attempt the feat wasn’t Sappho (as is sometimes stated) but Cephalus who had fallen for Pteralas (10.2.9). Whether Cephalus survived isn’t known but we do have a list of those who attempted and (mostly) failed thanks to a Greek grammarian called Conon who lived around the time of Augustus.
Image Credit Vitaliy Raskalov/Vadim Mahorov/Marat Dupri. Check out their daring and illegal climb atop the pyramid.
Guillermo rubbed his temples. Hard.
“You can’t just take ‘a pyramid.’”
Kyveli scoffed. “Why not? You have three of them.”
Guillermo breathed in deep. It was surprisingly chilly for being in a desert. “Because… It is an ancient monument to a Pharaoh, a tomb, actually. It has stood there for about three thousand years.”
The Teddy Bear held up a ridiculously tall parasol that only covered her from the sun, leaving him out to get a tan.
Kyveli tilted her head. “A Pharaoh?”
“Yes. Royalty. Like you, actually. You wouldn’t want someone to show up after eons and just pick up your tomb as if it was a vacation souvenir now, would you?”
She opened her pretty mouth to speak.
“Yes,” he interrupted. “I know, there won’t be a tomb left. There won’t even be a solar system left. But you know what I mean.”
Kyveli turned back to the magnificent view from atop the pyramid. Her eyes glinted as they darted around. Translucent images appeared in her field of view, and Guillermo was shocked to realise that she was actually looking up information on the Pharaohs. The ship’s Mind digested the volumes of data and gave her the highlights that it knew she’d like.
He let her take it all in.
He stood in silence, watching her. How would the Ancient Egyptians react to a visit from her? He had no doubt in his mind that she’d fit in nicely right next to Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Delicate features, thin fingers, red skin like velvet. Throw in one of those characteristic Egyptian crowns that frame the entire head and she’s a Queen now.
Worshipped by trillions.
The mind doesn’t just boggle, it shuts down completely. Guillermo tried to imagine what that actually meant. And he was no novice either, he had stood next to kings as they addressed crowds beneath them.
He spun around to watch the desert. Trillions of souls. What had they called them? Panhuman species, variations on the same theme and archetype of two hands, two feet, standing upright, across the stars. Like grains of sand.
Grains of sand at her feet.
Yes, that was the only analogy Guillermo’s brain could come up with to make the comparison.
He snorted at his thoughts. He was under the mistaken impression that the humans of today seemed somehow more advanced than the Egyptians were. But the difference of two thousand years of science was negligible next to the Ekrignontes. He squinted up at the shiny orb in the sky that called itself a silly name and had a silly Teddy Bear avatar and had the power to slice Jupiter up like an orange.
Humans were just playing with rocks, stacking them pretty.
Kyveli gestured and dismissed the AR data.
He smiled back at her.
“So I can’t take one? Not even the little one?” She pointed hesitantly at the smaller pyramid of the three and gave him the puppy eyes.
To force himself away from the urge to please her was like scratching a sunburn.
“No.”
Netflix’s marketing has been a blast. From Bright’s Orc auditions, to blending reality with Black Mirror episodes, to the upcoming Altered Carbon series with a real booth at CES promoting the fictional company’s services, they’re spinning their stories and firmly lodging them into everyone’s minds.
Netflix is doing exactly what we predict future corporations will do, meaning blend their own narrative into the real world and in the end it will become indistinguishable from reality. Of course, these are all PR stunts and viral tricks for now, but it won’t be long before these are used as real-world propaganda by more nefarious corps.
Image credit: Mat Smith at Engadget
When they ventured inside, an army of slightly too pretty attendants, dressed-in-white offered vague sci-fi responses to questions (“It’s about transferring your conscious to a new, better body”), while screens all around scrolled through the benefits of replacing your body for a new (sexy, stronger, smarter) model. The aforementioned staff clutched tablets to take email addresses with promises of more information come February 2nd. Plenty took the bait, genuinely curious of where this company was based and whether this was all even possible.
The twist, if you can call it that, happens once you turn a corner, and you’re confronted with a vacuum-sealed human. This is another mannequin, although with some carefully-placed condensation inside the bag, made it rather unsettling. Naturally, I had to poke the “person” in a bag. Morbid fascination.
Needless to say that, at this point we frickin’ love Netflix.
BOO! A Halloween Story
€2.99
Nanodaemons
Cosmophobia (Audiobook Edition)
Erinyes
The Girl Who Twisted Fate's Arm (Createspace Print Version)
€9.99
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information
Have a cookie. The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
