Wrestling out of the Squeeze

 

Embedly Powered

So this is what it feels like now that the Spring semester has started.

And why I haven’t posted anything for a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, some cool things have happened.  Through my series of posts on mythological characters, I connected with an up-and-coming British artist Rhea Babla. We got to talking about Dionysius, and she did this illustration.

I love the colors, and the mix of styles.  It almost scans to me like superimposed images.

So, besides balancing two jobs, I’ve been working on POSEIDON AND CLEITO here and there, and me and a friend of mine, the fabulous writer C.A. Clemmings, started organizing a critique group for LGBT fiction writers.

We’re looking for folks in the NYC area who can give and receive critique, support each other’s projects, and commit to critiquing 10-40 pages every two weeks and submitting their own work at least once every six weeks.

If you’re enthusiastic about LGBT fiction and it sounds like something you’d be into, drop me a line.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Poseidon!!

In keeping with a theme, I thought I’d troll around the net and post some images of Poseidon that caught my fancy.

He always comes across as a dark character in mythology.  Angry.  Spiteful.  Pretty much indifferent to human suffering.

This is a really cool sculpture of Poseidon at the Port of Copenhagen.  He’s built and mean, with his trident spear.  Not precisely how I’ve imagined him in my novel; the premise is Poseidon was a regular Neolithic guy who was idolized for political purposes.  But my portrayal is influenced by his physicality, and an inference of sadness from the ancient Greek sources.

Here’s a younger, leaner Poseidon.  It’s a famous bronze statue circa 5th century BCE Greece.  I bought a copy of it in Mykonos.  He looks more athletic, less musclebound, in these earlier renderings.

 

 

 

 

Kevin McKidd made a fine Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.  He didn’t have the long wavy hair and beard, but he definitely had the gravitas.  And it wouldn’t seem right if Poseidon didn’t have a British accent.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s Poseidon on a Greek postage stamp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like this illustration by artist Rhea Babla.  Pretty much lays out the iconography, and he’s a handsome, kind of earthy-looking dude.  You can check out Rhea’s blog, with samples of her artwork at Silver Platypus.