THE HOUSE OF DROUGHT
My first novella, “The House of Drought,” has been published with Stelliform Press as paperback and ebook! Check out this eerie, dark, gothic, and imaginative story of horror and weird fiction set in Sri Lanka! A HAUNTED HOUSE FOR THE CLIMATE CHANGE ERA. On the island of Sri Lanka, at a colonial mansion between the…
Mehr... THE HOUSE OF THE DARK WHALE
“The House of the Dark Whale,” a collection of 16 of my short works of weird, speculative, experimental, mysterious, uncanny, and fantastic fiction, is now out! It includes stories that have never been published before, those that have gone out of print, and others that are available as well as podcasts or in translation. $2.99…
Mehr... A New Year!
I know, 2020 is already old, on fire, and on the brink of World War 3: but I here comes my review of the year that just vanished into the fog. So, how was my 2019, especially in writing? For the first time, I set myself a daily target (1,000 words minimum) and stuck to…
Mehr... 2018: A YEAR IN REVIEW
As 2018 comes to a close, I want to look back on a year of publications. Below is a selection of some of my stories and poems that have come out during the past year.
Mehr... Movie Review: THIRAI KADAL (THE CHASM)
At their closest point, India and Sri Lanka are maybe thirty minutes of boat ride apart. Between them lies an inlet of the Bay of Bengal called Palk Bay: but it is more than just its shallow, reef-studded waters that divides the communities on both sides. No ferry crosses this strait, and Indian fishermen routinely…
Mehr... CARNIVAL GODS
I am extremely excited to announce that I am working on an eight-part interactive novel with Echoic Mobile Press: CARNIVAL GODS We are currently finalizing the first installment, “Neon Hieroglyphs,” and I think it’s coming along great–more details to be revealed soon!
Mehr... A GOOD YEAR
Today, my 15th and 16th piece of fiction this year have been published, with five more already scheduled for October and three for November, as well as (at least) five additional ones without a set date yet. 2018 has turned out to be my most productive year so far (and by far), and great things…
Mehr... Video: THE DUST BATHYNAUT
Please check out the kickstarter for “Sins and Other Worlds”, a marvelous anthology of dark science fiction put together by Eric Fomley and containing my story “The Dust Bathynaut”!
Mehr... Movie Review: PAD MAN
“Pad Man” is a 2018 Indian movie written and directed by R. Balki, starring Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, and Radhika Apte in the main roles. It is inspired by and loosely based on the story of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu who introduced low-cost sanitary pads and raised awareness for menstrual hygiene…
Mehr... Of Meatpleats and Screwbones—Dempow Torishima’s SISYPHEAN
Cronenberg meets Kafka meets Ligotti meets H. R. Giger in Dempow Torishima’s “Sisyphean”, a Japanese New Weird novel that is now available in English translation and imagines a future of biotechnology and genetic manipulation, which is built from meat, skin, and bodily fluids. Haikasoru aims to make selected Japanese literature available for an English-speaking…
Mehr... Glasboden / Glass Bottom in EACW Flash Fiction Finals
My text “glasboden” / “glass bottom” has been chosen as German-language winner of the European Association of Creative Writing Programmes Flash Fiction Contest – now up against 13 other texts for overall winner! glasboden die heimatlosen toten betrachteten den sonnenaufgang von unter dem ozean, das licht verzerrt und gedämpft durch die salzsatten fluten. strandkörbe…
Mehr... Theatre Review: PatriANarchy
On April 1st, 2018, Grassrooted presented “V Day 2018: PatriANarchy” at the re-purposed warehouse IdeaHell in Colombo 3. Nine short plays written by Paba Deshapriya, Dharini Priscilla, and Hans Billimoria were staged by a large cast of performers within two hours to explore questions of gender, cultural values, and violence. The setup of IdeaHell is…
Mehr... FRIEDENSFALL (Event of Peace)
Originally published in Novelle – Headquarters for Experimentalism #5 (August 2015) „Generalmobilmachung. Jeder fähige Körper, jede marktwerte Seele wird eingezogen für den Großen Frieden. Es hat begonnen, Bürger und Bürgerinnen: Der Frieden ist da!“ […] Die ossuarischen Wälder rund um die Hauptstadt blühten vor Unzerstörung, und das Meer schwemmte die Wiederauferstandenen an die Küsten. #experimentalfiction…
Mehr... Movie Review: HICHKI
Starring acclaimed actress Rani Mukerji, “Hichki” (Hiccup) is a 2018 Bollywood drama directed by Siddharth P. Malhotra and inspired by the 2008 American movie “Front of the Class”, which was itself an adaptation of Brad Cohen’s eponymous book. “Hichki” tells the story of a woman struggling with Tourette syndrome as she follows her dream of…
Mehr... Theatre Review: COMPASSION. THE HISTORY OF THE MACHINE GUN
Swiss director Milo Rau is highly acclaimed and somewhat controversial, his work documentary as well as political. From drowning refugees in the Mediterranean to the Rwandan genocide in 1994, “Compassion. The History of the Machine Gun” once again touches on the topics he has explored in “The Congo Tribunal” or “The Civil Wars”.
Mehr... THE BIRDCATCHER’S TALE
Nejuni had seven adults in her life: three aunties, three uncles, and the birdcatcher. The birdcatcher went into the jungle with her and brought back the most colorful girawas to sell on the market. Nejuni felt sad for the birds, but everyone needed to earn money. One day, they went very far into the forest…
Mehr... Movie Review: DIE TÄTER
In 2013, the Munich Higher Regional Court opened its trial against Beate Zschäpe and the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Germany, which is still ongoing at the time of writing. In 2016, the German public broadcaster ARD produced a series of three movies (“Mitten in Deutschland” / “NSU German History X”) detailing the background of…
Mehr... Movie Review: FOR A SON
The 2016 Sri Lankan/Italian movie FOR A SON (Per un figlio / Puthekuta), written and directed by Suranga Deshapriya Katugampala, tells the story of two Sri Lankan immigrants in Italy, a single mother and her teenage son.
Mehr... THE HOUSE OF THE DARK WHALE
Our prison was the coast. The anchor was up at the end of the citadel as it slips by, and off we glided. Looking through the crevices is like thinking about an enigma. It was a cold palisade before you—and as the short northern day merged with the long grass of the steppe, mute with…
Mehr... REVIEW ROUNDUP
Some reviews for THE MASK TRADE / Einige Rezensionen für DAS MASKENHANDWERK: “Mombauers Maskenhandwerk ist Fantasy und in diesem Setting außergewöhnlich. So ein Buch wollte ich lesen und habe es nicht bereut. […] Das Maskenhandwerk liest sich nämlich jetzt sofort besser als nie. Es sollte in der Masse der gängigen und wenig innovativen Fantasy-Romane…
Mehr... MIND SCRAPS
I went running, and I suddenly felt myself beleaguered by the forest that once was. It came back with me, it did, birds singing all day wherever I went, mocking me. The trees swayed outside my window at night, rubbed their branches against the glass. I ran through the park and there were no people,…
Mehr... IN MEDIAS RES
Everything smells grey. A bright light darts over the glass of a copier and a green wave washes over the paper, turns its skin translucent. Ozone builds up in the air, the windows are sealed shut. The photocopier hums back to its starting position, ready for the next page. The outside world is pitch black,…
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