Featured Website: Stories and Verse and Pie of Course

Hail and well met friends!  Today, I bring you Stories and Verse and Pie of Course.  Well, there isn’t much pie yet bet given the quality of Kinni’s stories and verse we’ll let that slide.

Viking:  Let’s start with your artwork. You use a lot of high contrast, silhouette imagery. What got you started on this particular style?

Kinni:  The game Limbo. It’s a very simple style that just has such a fantastic ambiance, especially for the sort of gothic tone to my writings.

Viking:  How do you go about creating your art?

Kinni: Paint tool SAI and a Wacom tablet.

Viking:  Some of your influences come out in your poetry but clearly there is more behind the scenes. Where do yowe u draw from to create your poetry?

Kinni: I literally carry a notebook with me everywhere. When I see something that inspires me I either start writing there or jot down quick notes then visualize later what I felt when I saw the inspiration in question. Moods also play a big role. As I mentioned before the post, ’Ink Black Blood’ was written when I was in a very bad depression, ’Calcutta in my Mind’ was inspired by a PBS documentary titled ’The Story of India’. I wrote it as what I imagined it to be like having never visited India myself, although it is on my bucket list. Otherwise I like to use a lot of allusions to other art I like. ’Ink Black Blood’ references the classical violin piece, Danse Macabre by Saint Saen, the ballet Coppelia, the Libretto by Saint Leon in said ballet, the stories ’Sandman’ and ’The Doll’ by ETA Hoffmann that inspired the ballet, as well as the original ’The Nutcracker and the Rat King’ also by Hoffmann, which coincidentally inspired another more popular ballet, ’The Nutcracker’.

Viking:  Given that list of references, I wonder, do you dabble in music as well?

Kinni:  I do not, I don’t have any formal training, but some of my closest friends are classically trained musicians.

Viking:  Your story, To Die Upon a Kiss has particularly grabbed me. The first part in particular frankly freaked me out. Where did this idea come from?

Kinni: The characters, Armand and Chai, are RP characters in a text RP between a few friends of mine; Armand being my character in the RP. Another character soon to appear, Emile, is also from that RP. The story is derived from an alternative narrative I conjured in my mind based on the characters. It also stems a bit from a fascination I have with clockwork and old fashioned toys. I find them sort of metaphoric in a society that puts so much emphasis on physical perfection and ideological cohesion.

Viking:  Do you have any notion of how long this story will be?

Kinni: I have the basic outline of enough plot for roughly one and a half novels so far and more keeps adding itself as I progress. Truth be told I wouldn’t mind this ending up a novel series, but for now I’m keeping it a weekly free format for any to enjoy.

Viking:  Finally, are already published or are you planning on getting published?

Kinni: Unless you count student publications I am not yet. I do have hopes to be, but it is a long process that involves a good bit of work, and a pinch of luck. As I said earlier I would like to see Die Upon a Kiss perhaps get a book, but I first need to progress a lot more. Otherwise planning to put together a portfolio of poetry to send to a periodical.

Now that you have had a chance to hear about Kinni’s genuinely haunting writing and and striking art, go to the blog and check it out for yourself!