Dyrk ashton biography of nancy
The Ember Child
Now, just because this book by a very thin margin didn't reach the SPFBO contest finals (and in all fairness, this book had the misfortune of being placed in a group of death where it competed against several other very good books), that doesn't ultimately mean a book will be condemned to an eternity of irrelevance. I have several backlist books from previous years of this annual contest, so chances are I will continue shedding some very well deserved attention to more spiffo books.
That said, there have been very few times in the past two years where a medieval epic fantasy has pretty much kept me glued to the screen. I didn't have this much fun reading an epic fantasy quest since reading the highly underrated Book of Kalendeck series. In that respect, this book is good, real good.
The Ember Child also has the unique good fortune of only being the second time I really enjoyed an epilogue in a book. Lots of authors love writing them, but unless it is going to be about a critical plot event that will make or ruin the tone of the main story such as in this case, it should not be included at all costs.
This book begins when a gullible young priestess named Kirea crossed half of the known world to a small pirate haven, climbed a lonely mountain and found a particular old man chopping wood. Little did she know, the roommate of the elderly man has a dagger pointing in her neck and instead of feeling terrified, she pretty much hugs him!
From the first chapter, we discover Halasan is no ordinary 16 year old man living in a log cabin with a retired general named Civius. The cabin has modest but functional facilities, and is swarming with all assortments of weapons. A lot of people complain over and over again about the Gary Stu stereotype in YA fiction. People love epic heroic stories, but we can all agree that authors either irritate everyone by making Gary Stu the most stunningly talented rookie swordsman of all tim
Hello everyone! Some of you may be familiar with my novel, Paternus, from last year’s SPFBO competition hosted by Mark Lawrence (Archsaint of self-published authors). Paternus was Fantasy-Faction’s pick for the final round and ended up taking third place out of three hundred entries. Even with that success, I’ve decided to give the book a new cover.
Why, you ask?
For a while now folks have been saying that Paternus looks like a YA novel, or even aimed at a younger audience. And they’re right. Here it is:
There’s nothing wrong with YA, teen, or even grade-school fantasy. I read it myself. But Paternus isn’t any of those things. Couple that with the fact the description I’ve been using speaks mostly about a seventeen-year-old girl living with her uncle, and a decidedly YA-feeling first chapter, and I think the audience has been getting confused. I can’t blame them. So, Paternus is getting a whole new look.
A Tale of Two Covers
Don’t get me wrong, I love the first cover, and so do a lot of other people. The art is amazing, and it makes sense in terms of the story.
But here’s part of the problem &#; it only makes sense after you’ve read it (or if you’re the knucklehead who wrote it). If you don’t know anything about the story, taking from a number of observations made by readers, the first cover makes it look like a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mystery with elements of Harry Potter and “an inexplicable appearance by Zooey Deschanel.” I’ve even heard talk about Pokemon. I realize now, with good humor, it totally does look like those things. I get it, and it makes me grin. And again, the story isn’t like that at all. Sorry for the confusion. My bad. I told the artist what to do and he delivered beautiful work. It’s just not working.
But here’s the cool part. Since I’m self-published, I can change it if I want to, whenever I want to. And so I did.
Drum roll
I found an amazing artist named John Anthony Di Giovanni through fellow author Michael R. Flet
Feeling Time: Deleuze's Time-Image and Aesthetic Effect
Dyrk Ashton
Introduction
[1] In this essay I explore how concepts from Gilles Deleuze's cinema books, Cinema 1: The Movement-Image (French , English ) and Cinema 2: The Time-Image (French , English ), can be utilized in discussing aesthetic effects that films can have on viewers. When I speak of aesthetic effect, I specifically mean, "how does film do to us what it does?" &#; emotionally, physiologically, consciously, and perhaps unconsciously (or sub-consciously). I realize that this may be what many consider an obsolete or played out endeavour, but I believe that Deleuze gives us a basis from which to speak about effect that revives and revitalizes bygone debates.
[2] There are times when affective experiences brought upon by viewing film cannot be attributed simply (or at least attributed only) to shock tactics, empathy, sympathy, symbolism, representation, storylines, or narrative manipulations. These experiences come in many forms: a quickening of the pulse, widening of the eyes, tightening of the skin on the neck and scalp, increased perspiration, flushes of warmth, chills, confusion, apprehension, fear, satisfaction, pleasure or displeasure &#; or a bewildering mixture of both &#; and we simply cannot easily explain why we feel these things, or where they come from. Many of these and other affective experiences of film are not only un-attributable entirely to everyday, common sense rationales &#; but are also practically indescribable. I propose that, at least in some cases, these affective experiences might be attributable to an experience of images themselves, and the arrangement of images &#; particularly Deleuze's time-images, or what he also calls direct images of time (T-I ).
[3] Many viewers may have an intuitive sense of how and why we have such experiences when watching sequences of a film, or an entire film &#; but it is quite difficult to put these feelings or ideas into words. D Dyrk Ashton was born in Athinai (Ohio, not Greece), on a hiemal Halloween morning. He whiled away jurisdiction adolescent years and teens in cornfields, woods, rivers, ditches and haymows, ascendance trees, running along barn beams, equitation, wrestling, soccering, fighting BB gun wars, reading Stuart Little, Jonathan Livingston Gull, everything Verne, London, Kipling, White, Writer, Doyle, Burroughs, Poe, Howard, Fleming, Lovecraft, Tolkien, Zelazny, and generally ignoring nursery school -- though he somehow managed most grades (except in Algebra, of course).Dyrk ashton biography of nancy
Dyrk earned a BFA and masters status in filmmaking at The Ohio Circumstances University, which lead to working spartan film production in Columbus, OH, in he crawled his way up production assistant to grip then manufacturing manager and producer for commercials, profit-making films and low budget features. Proceed then headed west to Los Angeles where he wrote and pitched scripts but fed and clothed himself chimp a "jack-of-all-trades&#;: editor, assistant editor, end sound recordist, cinematographer, assistant director, run manager, producer, you name it.
Mostly, still, he made his living as spiffy tidy up SAG/AFTRA actor, appearing in nothing boss around have ever seen. And if on your toes have seen it, he was doubtless in it so briefly you overlook him. It can be done, true professionally, even if you have ham-fisted talent but are good at auditioning and have a look that development few actors and no regular folk can pull off. He didn&#;t warrant a lot of money and some he did make is long spent (L.A. is expensive), but he frank get to travel quite a ribbon, including an eight week stint be sure about Kandy, Sri Lanka (and it was awesome).
After nearly six years of chafing by in L.A., he realized blooper probably wouldn&#;t, in all actuality, succumb if he never got to assemble a big Hollywood film, so illegal moved back to the Midwest gift went to Bowling Green Sta