Welcome to Guisin-dong

Here's a small gift for you: 'Guisin-dong', a short fiction I wrote a couple of years ago (part of my collection of Seoul 'dragedies' in English). 

Frankly, you don't want to visit Guisin-dong. Even I, who visited every single Seoul neighborhood, never set foot there.

Now that you've been warned, you can download it for free, right here:  Guisindong2012StephaneMOT.


Any comments and critics are welcome (e.g. on this site, on the Facebook page, on Amazon...).

blogules 2015
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
NEW: join blogules on Facebook!!! and Twitter (@stephanemot, @blogules)

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An interview in and about Seoul

Interview with

Benjamin Joinau, "L'Atelier des Cahiers"

This short video interview (in French) with the publisher of 'Impressions papier hanji' was recorded in the middle of the summer and in the heart of Seoul (Seochon, Jongno-gu, my favorite neighborhood and Benjamin's new lair). I'm at my Bela Lugosi best, but this is about 'de Vermis Seoulis', haunting places, and the dark side of Seoul. 





Ce bref entretien vidéo avec l'éditeur d'"Impressions papier hanji" a été enregistré au coeur de l'été séoulite, et au coeur de la capitale (à Seochon, Jongno-gu - mon quartier préféré et le nouveau repaire de Benjamin). Ambiance sombre, mais il est question 'de Vermis Seoulis', de hantise, de fantastique, et du côté obscur de la ville.


See also / Voir aussi:

• "Impressions papier hanji" release (2011)
• "Impressions Papier Hanji" / Kindle" on Kindle, paperback (2012)
• L'Atelier des Cahiers

blogules 2013
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
NEW: join blogules on Facebook!!! and Twitter (@stephanemot, @blogules)

Out of Place

"Out of Place" is the title and theme of Seoul Writers Workshop's 4th annual anthology of original fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction*. Yesterday, in tune with this writing-as-a-performing-art week-end in Seoul, a few contributors read their piece to a large audience, and I'm afraid I barely managed to mumble mine under a light as dim as my voice (that's okay: as always I've got the excuse of being French).

But you want to buy this book to make other voices, voices that really deserve attention and care, heard : this year, proceeds from the sales go to The House of Sharing, a charity that supports the cause of comfort women, the victims of sex slavery during Japanese occupation.

Contributed to this year's anthology edited by Christopher R. F. Sanders with Kathryn Whitney, Jorge Miramontes Sandoval, Ang McLaughlin, and Becky Bosshart:
- Death Metal: A Revenge Story (Sean Bienert)
- Je t’attends (Brooke Carlson)
- A Hamster Wheel (Kelly Carroll)
- Catching Butterflies (Alex Clermont)
- The Marble and I (Parag Dandgey)
- Stretch (Hamish Dee)
- Astigmatism (Dianne Despi)
- You Can Always Come Home (Ben Dowling)
- short convo (Jürgen Dünhofen)
- For Daniel Who Is 4 (Vanessa Falco)
- Speakeasy (Meriwether Falk)
- Cheap Thrills – What Price? (Pamila J. Florea)
- Dust to Dust (Grace Gallagher)
- Kodachrome (Jeff Glenn)
- I Drank from Your Hair (John Grimmett)
- Yonsei Lake (Gwee Li Sui)
- The Thirteenth Student (Aireanne Hjelle)
- Turkeys Can’t Fly (Matthew David Jenkins)
- The First Wind of the Death (Joel Killin)
- Silk on Belly (Bruce Kim)
- Cracks (Eric Lynn)
- The Beautiful People (J.C. Maxwell)
- Dawn / Daughter / Stars (Craig McGeady)
- Evening Clouds (Shaun Morris)
- Black Snow (Stephane Mot)
- The Road to Sanbuk (Valerie A. Nelson)
- Out of Place (M. Lee Nielsen)
- Date Night (Karin Roest)
- The Halmoni (Michael Solis)
- Hiking on the East Coast in October (Emily Sorrells)
- color / cockpit / the taxi driver (Ayshia Stephenson)
- Bed Solo (Jennifer Waescher)

blogules 2011 - also on Seoul Village

* For the 3rd edition, see "SWW 2010 anthology").

dragedies

My "dragédies" are now available on Amazon.com*.

What is a "dragedy" ?

You may have heard about "dragees", sweets you offer to somehow exorcise festive events - generally a wedding or a birth... dragedies basically and nonsensically announce death, which means they can be sweet and sour, sad and funny (my definition of humor being the ability to accept death in general and one's weaknesses in particular, in order to make life in general more acceptable, and one's existence in particular more bearable to others).

This excuse for a book proposes a handful of dragedies, and some definitions, along with a few Seoul crumbs which somehow fell into my lap or lens.

Worms in the city, books in the sky, trouble in the company... these 17 dragédies stretch over three decades and three continents :

- La mer amarrée
- de Vermis Seoulis
- Le Dévisseur
- Le regard d'un ami
- Brouillon
- La Bibliothèque de Babel II
- Neige Sale
- Paranoïa
- Etat de Grâce
- Nouvelles du front
- Le Salon de Lecture
- La Malédiction
- Comin'up next
- Si Paris m'était comptée
- Le blues de la grille
- Rendez-vous Rue Van Boo
- L'Année du Chien

Yup. That's in French. Or kindo. So luckily, it won't be as poorly written as my blogules.

And oh. That's fiction. I mean both the book and this last wishful comment.

Stephane 2009


* "dragédies (la mer amarrée et autres dragédies)" - ISBN:978-1449510916 - website : dragedies.com - Facebook group. Soccer nerds can still order my other book (also in French), "La Ligue des Oubliés, l'autre histoire du football" : "The League of the Forgotten / The Other History of Football" tells the tales of unlucky soccer players, personalities or events - they didn't even have the chance to exist.


see this post in French

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ADDENDUM - FAQ ATTN NON-SPEAKING READERS

Q: What if I can't read French ?
A: No problemo : I can't WRITE in French. Besides, there are a few pictures in this excuse for a book.

Q: What on Earth is a dragedy ?
A: dragedy (noun, fem. - pl. dragedies) : bittersweet candy and preemptive death notice. Etym. dragée (tiny, hard confectionery) and "tragédie" (tragedy, or death's foreplay). i.e. "'If I read 'dragedies' ? I almost choked on them !"

Q: Why not "short stories" ?
A: First, I'm not much of a story teller. And to me, it sounds the same as if a painter exhibited his works under the title "40 x 60 in. frames".

Q: Why add a glossary ?
A: I felt the need to put down my vision on such essential concepts as "life", "death", "love", "footballer"...

Q: Why this pen name ?
A: It's not a pen name. MOT (noun, masc.) : French word for "word". 1 - significant unit. 2 - insignificant author.