Sintra

Careful, or the crazy sea monster will get you!

This pic is from the Castle of Sintra, a 19th century architect's trip in which the King of Portugal lived painting nymphs on the wall. Don't ask.

Sintra is a small city 30km from Sintra. There's an Arab castle, a Palace and a crazy masonic garden designed to be haunted.

Enjoy the pics.


The Garden of Regaleiras: Daphne's Grotto.


This is a teen-sized chapel in the middle of the garden. It's not quite child-sized but is only about ten metres tall.


Another pic from the Regaleira Gardens.

Lisboa

This is the cloister of the Sé, the Cathedral of Lisbon.



I'm back home, resting from my one week vecation in Lisbon. I had a blast and everything would have been perfect if the Lisboetas weren't reptilian humanoids trying to commit saricide. Seriously guys, if you want to join Spain (28% of Portuguese think that merging with Spain is a good idea), you have to treat Spanish tourists better than that. I would totally understand if people who know me wanted to kill me, but complete strangers?

I was spit at in Mafra, almost driven over by a scooter redesigned as ice-cream cart and stuffed nearly to death on sardines and bacalao... Eh, that last one might have been my fault.

I also fell down the stairs of a tower in Sintra, but that could have been because of the slippery steps (however, I'm still investigating the RH hipothesis in that one too). Thankfully, I didn't twist anything or hit anything too hard.

Oh well, saricide attepts figure in the job description.



A nice view over the Tejo.


I think this one was taken in Alfama



And a street in Baixa.

Going back home

It's my last day in Lisbon. The plane arrives in Madrid at 1.10 am (vueling changed the schedule, that's what you get for flying low cost). I have no idea how we're going to get back home at that time of night without spending 40e on a taxi. Wish me luck. There shall be pictures soon.

Sardine Kisses

I'm in Lisbon!

This is the first day of a one-week vecation I'm taking before attempting to start studying for my internship in earnest. I'm so tired I want to cry, but damn did I have a good time. We started at the cathedral, stopped for lunch at Alfama and ended up in the Castle.

By the way, I had sardines. God, I'd forgotten how good those are. The first bite filled me with quiet contentment. Let's all sing an ode to sardines, the staple of the coastal Mediterranean diet. Dang, are they good! Sardines taste like the sea. They were grilled, (I think that's the term in English, I said "roasted" in LH before and everyone went "wha?"), salty, fleshy... all mine.

Unlike in Madrid, people here don't walk--they stroll. If you ask a lisboeta, they'll probably say that people in Madrid don't walk--they run. Fair enough. It was nice to slow down for a change.

The views from the Castle were wonderful. Miguel took a nap sitting on a bench up there while I read the guidebook and looked out on the river. The orangutan pidgeons didn't get us. All was good.

Kisses from Lisbon. When I get back, I promise there will be pictures.

Apex # 9: review continued

It has taken me a while, but I've finally finished Apex 9. At first, I was pacing myself, trying hard not to run out of reading material and making sure I studied before diving into anything else. Afterwards, shit happened. I got a bad neck-ache which made a weird tingling sensation tickle down my arms and fingers. I knew this happened, but I never thought the feeling was quite this impressive. I discovered sitting at the computer worsened it, so I stayed off the keyboard (and off my pdf issue of Apex) until it went away. That's when the internet went to hell.
Anyway, I've finished Apex issue 9 and wanted to share some of my findings.

Pyramus and Thisbe by Jeremy Adam Smith is the kind of story that stays with you. I'm not entirely sure if this is all good, a big part of it is the "what the fu..?" feeling. Pyramous is a robot, Thisbe is human, everything else reads like a Reinascence alternative history or fantasy. The language is beautiful and anyone who mixes SF and Fantasy gets extra credit in my book. It is certainly a memorable story, however unclear and the ending is chilling.

Sufficiently Advanced by Bev Vincent started off with an interesting premise: an astronaut is ship-wrecked in a planet where primitive natives teleport without thinking about it twice. It goes downhill from there, however, playing off the theme that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". The story is ok, but I feel a bit let down because the beginning was so cleverly drawn.

Rob D. Smith's Don't Show Your Teeth is about people who take their collections too seriously. Seriously too seriously. Like that guy we all know who hits on you with a phrase from Star Trek. Ok, that's not so bad. But you get me.

The story is straight funny horror and it does its job. There's not much here to distinguish it from other horror pieces, but it's competently written and entertaining. And yes, a good hint to send to that friend who splurges his salary on comic books and Dracula teeth replicas.

Cain XP11: The Voice of Thy Brother's Blood by Geoffrey Girard. The first part of this story appears in Apex 9, but since the rest is due in later issues, I'll save my critique until I read the whole story. So far it looks very good.

Poppet's Left Impression is a poem by Brandy Shawn. I don't usually dig poetry unless it's by Lorca and this is no exception, but, of course, that's not saying much, is it? I'll simply refrain from critting poetry from now on.

Apex Parting Shot is Sonorus by Paul Abbamondi. The second person POV works well in this simple horror story about you when you find a musical instrument in the woods.

All in all, issue 9 surprises and delivers. My nightmares are a lot more interesting since I started reading Apex. I never suscribe to anything (because I can't commit to mags), but issue 9 was the last push I needed and I have now, for the first time ever, declared my fidelity (at least for a year) to Apex Digest

Nibble Nibble

I got a HOLD notice from Interzone for my story "Slow Stampede" and a "we're considering this" from Aberrant Dreams for "History of Stone".

Most nibbles don't pan out, but once in a while a mag bites and they sure give my poor ego a break.

Otherwise, I'm doing research on the mesopelagic zone of the Ocean for a story temporarily titled "Habitat's Plunge". If anyone knows where I can get cool data on things like pressure, temperature, salinity and ecosystem, speak up. I'd be eternally grateful.

"Family Values" accepted by COSMOS

Yay!
This story grew out of Liberty Hall Flash. I'm very fond of it because it was a joy to write (unlike some of my more obscure stories which take months of revision) and it sold really fast. I wouldn't define the story as satire, but it does have a strong humor streak.
This is my second pro sale.