About Nico


I'm a senior business analyst, writer, blogger and tarot consultant based in Toronto, Canada.


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5 Book Blogs You Should Be Reading

By Nico on Tuesday the 9th of March, 2010 at 4:14 pm

RSS IconThere are hundreds of literary blogs out there and I subscribe to several dozen of them, but recently I’ve pared down my RSS subscriptions again, and thought I’d share five of my favourites.

So I present to you, in no particular order:

1. Bookninja

George Murray posts several times a day, commenting on the latest in book news, reviews and miscellanea with snappy asides and acidic author bias. It’s lovely.

A few recent posts: “The literary Devil don’t want Toronto’s soul“, “Amazon and Apple bringing ebooks bar fight to Canada?“, “Sargent rallies the troops“.

Bonus: Free snark! (Read more…)

Submission (or Tales of an Aspiring Writer)

By Nico on Monday the 22nd of February, 2010 at 7:45 pm

WritingI submitted a few poems today to one of my favourite literary journals. I had a few poems rejected last year for inclusion in an anthology, one of which was reworked and mailed today, hopefully better than it was before.

It’s been a long time since I’ve submitted something. Though I’ve been writing more than ever, I’ve been so caught up in other projects that nothing’s been done about it.

I rationalize to myself that, after enough editing/fixing/tinkering, it’s necessary to finally print and send, but it’s so utterly terrifying. Yet, I’m even looking forward to getting a rejection letter, should that be the case. At least that means it’s been considered.

With that, it’s now time to get back to work and massage a new short story into something that might one day become publishable.

Wish me luck.

Save the Words: Vampirarchy

By Nico on Saturday the 5th of September, 2009 at 2:20 pm

My adopted word

My adopted word

Mes amis, I have adopted a lovely word in attempts to save it from extinction.

The word I adopted is vampirarchy, which refers to a set of ruling persons comparable to vampires.(1)

It is now my solemn duty to “use this word as frequently as possible from this day forth in conversation and correspondence”.

Given the state of the world, this should not be a terrible challenge, though I staunchly refuse to employ it in reference to ancient sparkling stalkers of young women. That would be quite inappropriate. (Italy’s right out.)

Adopt your own ailing word at savethewords.org. As you hover over various artfully depicted words, they cry out to be rescued from obscurity. It’s lovely.

Plus, you get a nifty certificate!

Footnotes:


  1. Is this a favourable association or not? I can’t tell. [↩]

Book Club: Wuthering Heights

By Nico on Saturday the 5th of September, 2009 at 10:59 am

My friend Jo and I both love to read. So do many of my other friends. We talk about books all the time, and thought it might be fun to (semi-)formalize this into a book club. Jo and I both feel left behind in the classics – there’s just too many of them, and only so much time to read, and we haven’t read all the same things. So, we decided on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights for our first book club pick.

The meeting was held in August, and as September’s meeting will be tomorrow, I’m rushing to capture my notes on the book here before they’re lost.

Neither of us had read Wuthering Heights before nor seen any of the various film adaptations,(1) and we were looking forward to it. I found myself disappointed. (Read more…)

Footnotes:


  1. Though I had the misfortune of being sent a link to the Kate Bush video shortly after our book club pick was announced. Yeah, I’m lookin’ at you, Kara. [↩]

Bruce Springstzine No. 1

By Nico on Thursday the 13th of August, 2009 at 7:46 pm

Bruce Springstzine

Bruce Springstzine

I couldn’t even tell you how many things I’ve bought off the Internet because someone I don’t know, but think is cool, told me to. But I know that it’s not a small number.

So, when Emily Horne, the photographer behind one of my favourite online comics A Softer World, told the Internet to buy Mike Saturday Lekcy’s BruceSpringstzine, of course, I did. And I’m so glad, because it’s awesome.

Lecky is the man behind the Vancouver-based Loose Teeth Press, and Bruce Springstzine No. 1 Weekend in the Void chronicles his experience at Toronto’s 2008 Canzine festival with Joey Comeau and Ms Horne. The whole thing has a sort of Thompsonesque feel, with delightfully drunken self-depreciating prose.

I’m out on the street with vague directions to head left until I see a subway station. If I hurry I can still make the last train to the end of the line, catch the bus from there to the airport. I do the sort of half-walk-half-jog Terry Fox Shuffle of the too drunk and do little pirouettes to avoid telephone poles and buildings…

The ‘zine is tiny, unpaginated, poorly photocopied and awkwardly held together by a single staple  – in short, it’s absolutely perfect.

I may not be as cool as Ms Horne, but I heartily encourage you to purchase it. It’s 4.95$US, postage included. You can’t go wrong.

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