Seasons is a series of short stories written in the second person, describing a visit with a very old woman (so old, in fact, that she’s a ghost.) Each short story is paired with a season, and each season is depicted with beautiful artwork by Sanjana Baijnath. To read them, start anywhere and follow the cycle of the seasons; the stories themselves have no beginning and no end, but they do follow a very traditional narrative order.
This series was conceived after an initial commission with Sanjana for the now famous “Vex Harrow Autumn” image.
So, take a few minutes, read and enjoy the lovely images of Seasons.
We recently commissioned some artwork for Vexations in the style of a gorgeous bust image digitally painted by Katie De Sousa—click on her name to see her artist’s thread and view a larger version of the bust image.
We haven’t decided exactly where to use it, but it might end up being on the back cover of Volume 10.
This season’s commissioning of cover artwork has begun, so if anyone thinks that they would like to put something into the Vexations series this is a good time to contact us with work. Unsolicited commissions are welcome, but keep in mind we don’t have an impressive budget (since this doesn’t really make us much/any money.)
If you would like to help us pay for cover artwork look into purchasing a special edition—we use these special editions to pay for covers of future editions. The sale of 10 special editions pays for a single future cover.
Since a bit has been going on in the field of dark publishing, I figured that I would tell some people about recent events that have come to my attention. Some of which directly affect the Mill Avenue Vexations crowd.
One of them is that Circle Dark Publishing have shut down their operations indefinitely. They were one of the first publishers to pick up a story from Vexations and published "Step On It" in their horror and dark fiction anthology Twilight and Thorns. To this end, the story may eventually become available to readers for free since the e-book that contained it is no longer in circulation. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy.
The Ashen Eye another publication has also folded, also right after their very first issue—which is available for purchase now if people want to support their efforts. They were holding a Vexations short story for later consideration as entry into their second offering, but that will now never happen. C’est la vie.
Mill Ave Inc. premiered May 21st at Valley Art Theater; but even with that date passed, the documentary film of our Ave is not yet passed. According to the filmmaker, Nico, it is their intent to push it to a wider audience. Perhaps eventually nationally as theaters permit. Ourselves – such as our lovely author who is currently in Michigan – look forward to it reaching this far.
We don't have any direct news of where it's going or when, but it certainly looks like this film has quite a distance to go.
Visit http://www.millaveinc.com for more information. (Watch out though, this page plays sound - it's reasonably good music, but still a surprise when the volume is up.)
Below is a synopsis of the film from the website.
Mill Ave Inc. is a documentary that essentially started when Nicholas Holthaus (known by most as Nico) started taking video footage of bands and venues in the mid-late 90s, when it became apparent that a lot of venues along the legendary Mill Avenue would be closing its doors due to...a lot of things.
Take your pick: corporate muscling, community apathy, myopic planning, copycatting, smoking bans, increased conservative prevalancy, ASU's techno-corporate expansion...
It seems there was not one singular cause for the disintegration of Mill's culture and liveliness that people everywhere had come to enjoy. Or was there?
It's taken me a lot longer than usual to get this sort of news out to the people who read this, and I like to use this place as a vehicle to appraise people of things (especially media events) that happen to Mill Ave. So I've been a little slow on this one.
The literary reviewer, H. M. Garber of goth e-zine Gothic Angst, has published a review of Volume Five from Mill Avenue Vexations: Drum Circle. Find a quiet place with the tattoo of drums in the deep, take a deep breath in the smoke and mire, and imagine what it's like to hover embraced with a loved one, and go read the review.
Kyt has the unique ability to immerse her reader into, not only her story, but the culture and flavor of her college town and its underbelly. It’s as though you are looking at a textual moving photograph. She uses her storytelling skills to draw the reader in and engross them in the fascinating world that exists on her Mill Avenue.
Garber is picking up on one of the important missions of my fiction! I would like to use it to introduce the clash of cultures on Mill Ave – but also the distinct groups that exist there and why they're wonderful and interesting. This is from the college students, to the working class, to the street rats, and, yes, even the street preachers.
All of these people create the brimming cultural flashpoint that is the Ave; even as it dissolves into a new Ave that wasn't before I would like to draw from the old, include the new, and give people who aren't from Arizona a taste of what it's like to visit Phoenix and Tempe.
