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The Skwib
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The Skwib -- Mark A. Rayner's irregular and explosive weblog, a daily sputtering of satire, humor, comedy, and odd, odd fiction...
Recent Posts Tagged With 'skwibby fiction'
A Traditional ‘Christmas’ at the Tundra Household
Dr. Maximilian Tundra was heading home again for the holidays, dread clutching his heart like an iron fist. He’d managed to avoid Thanksgiving, but there was no escape from The Feast. The Feast, as it was known amongst Clan Tundra, was a toxic...
Are you SAD?
A public service announcement from The Skwib This time of year can be troubling for bloggers; the days get shorter, the holiday season has its own particular stresses, and for those running weblogs, there are the dangers of SAD. Statistical Affective...
Proving his religion — Dr. Tundra and the Noodly Norsemen
London, Ontario (The Skwib) — Global warming is caused by a lack of Vikings. So says the charismatic preacher, Dr. Maximillian Tundra. He is the leader of a sect of the Pastafarian religion, which posits an omnipotent creator-being called the ...
Dr. Tundra hits his peak
He had been lost for many days — perhaps as many as forty, he wasn’t sure — but one thing was certain, he had reached the highest point that he could climb without proper equipment. Dr. Maximilian Tundra was uncertain why he had dec...
Norse Pastafarianism — an interview with its leader, Dr. Maximilian Tundra
The Skwib: Thank you Dr. Tundra for agreeing to chat with us about your controversial new sect of Pastafarianism. Could you explain to our readers, in case they don’t already know, what the differences between your group and other Pastafarians...
New sect of Pastafarians believes it is Vikings, not pirates, that cause global warming
London, Ontario (Ruetars) — The first schism within the Pastafarian religion has appeared in the sleepy Canadian city of London, Ontario, and it is led by the charismatic preacher Dr. Maximilian Tundra. “Other worshipers of the Flying Sp...
Marvellous Hairy is now an eBook!
For those of you waiting to experience the thrills, the laughter and the dementia of Marvellous Hairy until it was in eBook form, your wait is over. You can find it in all the major formats at Smashwords for only $3.99 US. Yes, you read that correc...
Seeking cherub-monkey parity — the conversation continues
Welcome to the second half of a conversation between Rob Kroese, author of Mercury Falls and Mark A. Rayner, the scribbler behind Marvellous Hairy. You can find the first half of the conversation at Rob’s blog, Mattress Police. Check it out a...
Writted good!
Okay, I’ve got to be honest, Nanowrimo is not going so well for me this year. This is due, largely, to the fact that I’m still somewhat distracted by trying to get some attention paid to Marvellous Hairy. I’ve been running a vir...
Counterintuitive Fairy Tales: Doug’s Disaster
Doug was freaked out. Global warming was going to melt his face (right after it killed all the polar bears and drowned the Maldives). It was a maxim that terrorists or free-roaming gun-nuts boarded his bus and either blew it up, or shot him with a se...
Webmonkee creates book trailer for Marvellous Hairy
On the off-chance you didn’t catch this on my author’s page, you should check out the video Webmonkees created for Marvellous Hairy: Practical Applications of the Infinite Monkey Theorem: Click here to view the embedded video. If the embe...
Alternate History Fridays: Remember, Remember the Fifth of November
Thomas Cadwell watched as the children danced around the bonfire, singing: A penny loaf to feed the Pope. A farthing o’ cheese to choke him. A pint of beer to rinse it down. A fagot of sticks to burn him. He marked the fifth of November ̵...
Go Tuck (erize) Yourself — The Tuckerization
There’s only a few days left to enter this contest, which includes a draw for: a chance to appear in a walk-on role in my next book a chance to win one of ten copies of Marvellous Hairy, a novel in five fractals a “mystery” item fr...
Dr. Tundra versus the flashmob zombies
Dr. Maximilian Tundra had never felt so paranoid. Earlier that day he’d lost his medical license; luckily, he also had a PhD in biochemistry, so he would still get everyone call him “doctor”. But it was the loss of easy access to pharmaceutical...
Why do lit-ah-rary types look down on SF
So what is it about science fiction that causes “literary” types to look down upon it? Like any genre, SF has its bad and good. No scratch that, like any writing, there is both bad and good. I’ve read plenty of unreadable “...
The pleasures of the pod
Rather than share more video of perverted parrots, I thought I’d share a few pertinent links for your listening, reading and web-surfing pleasure. First off, the next episode of the Marvellous Hairy Podcasts is available today. You can find Ep...
The Blue Light, 2011
After his injury in the war, his leaders told the soldier, “thanks for your service, but we don’t need you anymore.” The soldier was sent home, without much help, or rehab, and no occupation, that was for sure. So he got work doin...
How Anne of Green Gables Destroyed the World
“Like most of you I was inclined to say the war was caused by fish.” However, after a close examination of the evidence, Cadman Michaels — who held doctorates in theoretical physics and history, but who called himself an Alternate H...
Listen to Marvellous Hairy at Podiobooks.com
Release your inner monkey along with thousands of other listeners at Podiobooks.com. Marvellous Hairy is being serialized at podiobooks.com, and you can find it here....
The Marvellous Hairy Podcasts
As readers of The Skwib, you may be aware that I am also a novelist releasing his second work, Marvellous Hairy – a novel in five fractals. It’s available direct from the publisher now, and in stores in October. But I’m also podca...
Bonus Audio: The Monkey’s Tail…
This story has been published a few times: first in Trunk Stories #2 (Dec. 2004), and then it was reprinted in Broken Pencil #29 (2005) and most recently in Yareah Magazine, (Feb. 2009). I thought I would repost it here in it’s entirety and ad...
The Marvellous Hairy Podcasts
As readers of The Skwib, you may be aware that I am also a novelist releasing his second work, Marvellous Hairy – a novel in five fractals. It’s available online from the publisher now, and in stores in the Fall. But I’m also podca...
Listen to my new novel, Marvellous Hairy
If you’d like to join me for the podcast of my second novel, you can find the listing of them as they’re released at the Marvellous Hairy website. While you’re there, sign up for my newsletter to catch all the news as it happens. ...
MARVELLOUS HAIRY Podcast
If you’d like to join me for the podcast of my second novel, you can find the listing of them as they’re released at the Marvellous Hairy website. While you’re there, sign up for my newsletter to catch all the news as it happens. ...
Thag Go Grunka Gathering!
Everyone at the Grunka Gathering was in good spirits, except Thag. Every fifth or sixth summer, depending on the position of the stars, all of the Grunka clans would gather and share their stories, swap items (sometimes mates too) and have a bit of a...
Thag not center universe!
The winter had been especially severe, and as Thag had predicted, the clan didn’t have enough food to survive it comfortably. To the Shaman, Weasel-Scratch-Face-Brother, this had been an opportunity to blame Thag. “The Sky God is angry wi...
Thag not like politcs!
Thag had made his decision — he was not taking Onga back, even if the shaman, Weasel-Scratch-Face-Brother, insisted. Thag could see why Weasel wanted him to take her back; Onga was driving the shaman crazy. The flesh-pole with ears shaman insi...
Attention book reviewers and influential readers
We interrupt the usual claptrap here on The Skwib for a little promo. If you consider yourself a book reviewer or an “influential readers” then I have review copies of my second novel available. What’s an influential reader? If yo...
Windows file copy dialog author visits some friends & Sunday O-Rama
Another classic xkcd: The author of the Windows file copy dialog visits some friends: Sunday O-Rama While I’m procrastinating, perhaps a few announcements are in order. MARVELLOUS HAIRY is coming! That’s right, my second novel is on...
Thag not wear hair gel!
If he were honest, Thag would say that his affair with the nubile Vunga, the half-daughter of the shaman, could not last forever. Not only was she was at least ten years younger, but eventually the Thunka Grunka clan would demand that he and Onga ...
