What's your writing soundtrack?

I often write to music.  My conversations with other writers leads me to believe this is fairly common.  Music helps you cut out distractions, gets you in the mood, inspires you, propels you forward and, in my case at least, helps me get back to a story after a hiatus, since I use the same playlist throughout a writing project (my playlists are actually often named after stories I'm working on).
Thing is, I write to really cheesy music.  No no, I mean really cheesy.  This is my little guilty pleasure.
Current playlists include things like Francis Cabrel, Michel Pagliaro, Superstition, Eye of the Tiger, and several Bond theme songs.  In the past, I've also written to Metallica, Supertramp, and the Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack, among other things.
For those who don't know Cabrel and Pagliaro, the former is a sappy French singer songwriter that no male will admit listening to (and who used to look like this; it was the 70's), and the latter is an old Québécois rocker that sounds like what you'd get if you crossed AC/DC with Bryan Adams, and then put their lyrics through Babel Fish.  They're both awesome.
I need to know I'm not alone.  What's your writing soundtrack?  Is it cheesy?  Is it really cheesy?  Or is it super-extra hip and do I need to now go crawl under a rock in shame?  You can tell me.  As you can see, I won't judge you.  Promise.

Submissions!!!

If you are looking for a place to submit your great writing, look no further. We are now accepting submissions for issue 7. The issue is coming out in September and the submission deadline is July 30, 2012.

Spread the word to your writing circles and all of your amazing writer friends. Really, you want to be a part of something like this!

If you are curious about what we print then I would recommend that you download a copy of issue 6 which you can do here. That will give you a feel of what we are after, but don't feel it has to be like anything there... we are not putting limits on your creativity. Read Alex's earlier post What kind of stories do you print?

We are looking forward to the next round of great writing.

CKUT Interview with Kathyrn Butler

We were lucky enough to be interviewed by Kathryn Butler of CKUT earlier this month. It was right before our issue 6 launch (thanks again to everyone for coming!) so we were pretty excited about the whole project. Kathryn did a very good job of making us sound much more on-point than we actually were, but I don't want to ruin the illusion too much, so here is a link to the interview.


If you have more questions that you would like us to answer, please send them to us as comments or emails. We would be happy to hold onto that feeling of being media icons :) Thank you -- Alex Newcombe

What Did You Think of the Launch?

Spring was making a discreet appearance in the fog on Friday, as we gathered for the launch.  Dozens of poeple packed the Cagibi, a nicely decrepit café on St-Viateur.  We drank and ate and talked.  We listened to music and wrote,  while mist covered the windows.

            Here Be Monsters launches mark time for me, like a little pause in our hectic lives to live our passion for stories.  I’m always humbled by how many people come to share that with us.  It’s an amazing feeling, and I always end the night with a nicely swollen ego.

            What I mean to say is, we had a great time (but being a writer, I needed two paragraphs to get there).  And now, I’d like to ask you how you liked it.  What did you enjoy?  And most of all, do you have any suggestions to make our future launches even better?  As an example, we’ve been talking about asking people to participate in the prompt-writing.  What do you think of that?  Would you do it?  Or at least would you enjoy watching new, different people struggle with impossible combinations of ideas and then look awkward on stage reading their stories?

            Anyway, if you want to take a minute to send us your comments, it’d be greatly appreciated.

            We’d also like to thank everyone who helped us bring about issue 6: Alana Newcombe (graphic design), Annabelle Métayer (cover art), Parissa Mohit (book trailer), Sam LeClair (editing), and all the writers whose work appears in the issue: Anna Avdeeva, Kim Goldberg, Tyler MacFarlane, Molly Lynch, Ira Nayman, Justin Joschko and Ben Lemieux.  Thanks also to Le Cagibi for being wonderful hosts, and to Sam LeClair and Nathan Wilsonand the Byrd of Prey for the gift of their wonderful music.

            See you soon.  And don’t forget that Issue 6 is now out, and also available online.

An Excerpt From Molly Lynch's USS Roosevelt

Here is our last excerpt before the launch tomorrow.  It's the opening of USS Roosevelt, by Molly Lynch.  It's a wonderfully rich and complex story about a retired aircraft carrier that's turned into a country.  Yes, I know, I wish I'd had that idea myself.

On August 7^th 1977, Columbia law graduate June Ashland and CUNY English professor, Cormac Madden boarded the ex-USS Roosevelt, a defunct military aircraft carrier anchored in the Bay of Maine. The 700 thousand ton hull had been stripped of its armor and armament, its air-traffic-control equipment and twelve hundred beds, in preparation for sinking. When the couple were confronted by armed coastguard, the young law student held a megaphone to her mouth and read out the 1973 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships. She followed this with section two of the Civic Land Use Act, declaring that, as the ship had been gifted by the US Navy to the people of Maine, it thereby fell into the category of property deemed accessible to the public.

After maintaining open and continuous possession of the vessel for twelve consecutive months (receiving supplies from a network of international supporters), the couple put forth an official “claim of title based on adverse possession.” Then, with the nautical and engineering aid of a small crew of supporters (including three Caribbean coca traffickers and two Cuban secret envoys to the US), the archaic engines were set in motion and the vessel was taken out to sea. 159 miles east of Nova Scotia, they stalled the giant engines and anchored the rig in international waters.

Two days later, June went into labour, and with the guidance of the NYPD manual on emergency delivery, Cormac cut the umbilical cord of their first daughter, Dashiell Ashland Madden. On August 13^th 1978, June hoisted a six-coloured surrealist painting of a galaxy of fish over the ship and renounced her American citizenship. Cormac tossed his Green Card into the Atlantic, tore up his Irish birth certificate and the couple declared legal sovereignty over Roosevelt Island, the first North American Marxist Democracy. Baby Dashiell was the country’s first naturalized citizen.

Molly Lynch writes fiction and poetry.  She grew up in the woods in BC, studied English and religion at Concordia in Montreal and is presently completing her MA in creative writing  at the University of Toronto.  She has recently finished her first novel.