Tuesday, March 6, 2012

March Madness for March 6th Author Tantra Bensko

March Madness for March 6th Welcomes Author Tantra Bensko


Biography

Tantra Bensko teaches Experimental Fiction and Intro to Fiction classes through UCLA Extension Writing Program, Writers College, and her own academy online. She is the author of a few books with 2 more short story collections scheduled to come out soon from Night Publishing, and Make-Do Publishing. She has 190 stories and poems in magazines, winning many awards, such as two from Cezanne's Carrot. She runs a resource site, Experimental Writing, Exclusive Magazine, and LucidPlay Publishing. She lives in Berkeley.

 What others are saying about this book
 Lucid Membrane by Tantra Bensko
“This prose shimmers like a cubist rendition of nonexistence.” Kyle Muntz


 Book Review Lucid Membrane


Please purchase directly from Tantra, other than b/w ebooks. 

Please remember you MUST leave a comment on this post to have a chance at winning this book!
PLUS...Join this blog and be in the running to win not one but TWO books written by your host..."Empty Chairs" and "Faint Echoes of Laughter"

19 comments:

  1. Sometimes my membranes aren't all that lucid, so I probably need to read this.

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  2. Some books just can't be described – you simply have to read them. Tantra Bensko's Lucid Membrane is one of those. I looked for the synopsis eagerly, wondering what she would say, but realising that there isn't one, I also realised how impossible it would be to describe such an original, experimental book in a few words.
    Excellent post, Soooz. And Tantra, keep on keeping on!

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    1. thank you very much, Gerry, much appreciated.

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  3. Sounds interesting. And different. On my to read list as of now.

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  4. These stories sound thought-provoking. Shame I haven't got a Kindle or that my computer can't get Kindle app either :-(

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    1. Kate my color ebook is pdf so doesn't require that, though i suppose has to be read on a computer.

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  5. I'm drooling over the review by Kyle Muntz...and I have no idea what it means. I read the words experimental fiction and I'm in. Looking forward to an adventure into Tantra's world! :D

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  6. You have gathered together an amazing array of interesting authors on your site, Soooz. It's so scintillating to find out about these brave authors who write - and teach - experimental stuff. I wish I was brave enough to write experimental stuff, so better I read this book of the talented Tantro Bensko.

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  7. Wow, this has been so beautiful reading your comments! So appreciated, with a big open armed yay.

    http://lucidmembrane.weebly.com/ tells a lot about the book, has excerpts from some of the stories, and there are quite a few reviews of Watching the Windows Sleep linked there too, which is a chapbook containing 50 pages of stories from Lucid Membrane, so you can get more of a sense of it.

    Anyone care to guess what my art on the cover of the book is?

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    1. I already did, but was on a wrong path ;)

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  8. The cover is so intriguing, I'm guessing a dissected mushroom or paw-paw. Some type of fruit...or a breast dissected.

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  9. It's lucid and hilariously rewarding - if you dare reading it !!!

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  10. Thanks to all the lovely folks who participated by commenting above.
    The winner of "Lucid Membrane" has been selected...and the winner is...
    Julia Peculiar!

    Congratulations, Julia.
    Please contact me on suzieb4burke@hotmail.com and notify me where to send your E/book prize.

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  11. I just sent Julia a message, Soooz, to tell her the good news as she's a friend of mine!

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  12. Hey, lucky Julia! I'm the proud owner of an original colour copy. Couldn't resist that cover. Tantra is an amazingly talented writer. She's so original, she challenges the reader on every page, and with every sentence, in fact. She's also a wonderfully warm and supportive friend, who deserves every success.

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  13. Yah, for Julia! Being Peculiar is promising for fitting in with this book.

    The art is actually made from clams! I used to live in Olympia Washington, by the water, and was wandering around after many folks had been digging for clams in the mud. Someone had cut up clams but left them there, all their internal organs showing. I took them, and put them on my scanner, giving them a kind of funeral you could say, some attention to their lives, while showing off the beauty of their insides.

    I put one of my giclee prints behind them, with the flowers, when scanning. I was Times Journal of Photography's World Class Photographer, and they had me write some tutorials on technique. I wrote one about using the scanner to create photographic art, so it's a subject I took seriously.

    To make this art, I then used the clone tool in Photoshop, and other methods, to make it more complex. Thanks for the guesses. Only one person I've asked so far has said clams, and I would never have guessed. Knowing what it is, myself, it seems obvious to me, which of course it isn't. The hearts are kind of kissing, in this image.

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  14. Whoopee!! Thank you for my prize.

    Mushrooms sprang to mind when I saw the cover, Tantra...clearly way off the clam theme.

    I have sent an email, Soooz, and look forward to reading my new e-book. :D

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  15. One of the unusual things about the book is that it's transmedia, so you can put the password that you find in the book into the website, and see all kinds of other fiction as well.

    And, if you have the color version, which is pdf for ebook, you can read 3 extra stories that are made up of words highlighted in colors throughout the manuscript. I call those trance-media. It's similar to how a hypnotherapist holds her head to the side when saying certain words, to create a story within the story. The yellow story in my book is just for the subconscious, helps become more lucid. The red and blue stories are good to read consciously though.

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  16. HiSooz...I commented, but as usual....Wrong thread.

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Please leave a comment/review on any of the stories/poems contributed.