My story "While Researching A Horror Story" leads off Issue 361 of Bewildering Stories so go to:
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/ and take a look. Bewildering Stories has been offering exciting sci-fi, horror and fantasy to web readers for years. Its weekly edition is a reminder of the great print pulps of the past.
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue361/researching_horror1.html
I saw Jonathan Lethem yesterday at the Miami Bookfair read a very funny section of his new novel, Chronic City. In it, eagles have made a nest on the window ledge of Richard's Manhatten apartment, and the death throes of the squirrels and rodents the birds eat are driving him crazy. But the eco-activists won't let him chase the birds away. Great stuff, and Lethem, is a dapper little guy now coming into more general recognition as a writer of merit. In the Q&A, I asked him about a movie deal I'd read about for his novel Motherless Brooklyn, with Edward Norton as Lionel Esrog, the orphaned detective with Tourette's Syndrome, trying to find the killer of his mentor. Lethem said he doesn't actually know what's up, but that he got and cashed the check from the studio like five years ago, and if they want to buy anything else and not produce it, he'd be happy to work with them.
http://www.miamibookfair.com/events/jonathan_lethem_on_emchronic_city_emben_.aspx
Monday, November 16, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Taste of Lemonade
I am coming out of a funk and have a lot of things to do I've put off. My funk is related to depression or more likely malaise, a general feeling of nothing being worthwhile. Crazy bastard that I am, I draw the funk out as long as I can, savoring bad spirits like a wino does cheap wine.
I think I do that because I trust my feelings. If things seem not to be worthwhile, maybe they're not. Or my relation to the things anyway. What usually happens is I finally develop some physical symptoms, Illness As Metaphor as Susan Sontag wrote, and lay in bed ill, then gradually make changes in my diet or routine or sleeping pattern until I recover. A feeling of wellness comes to me then, not just no longer being sick, but the physicality of wellness itself, the joy of being healthy, awake, alert.
So I'm back. For months I could not write anything, an example of the funk. Even blogging seemed futile, communication seeming easier with Trafalmadorians than earthlings, and I just stopped. Now I feel like the good people of Trafalmador have sent a psychic note of appreciation and I can continue our correspondence with renewed vigor.
I want to thank Michael Gavaghen for his encouragement not only to continue revising my manuscript of my novel The Barricades of Heaven but to also establish a weekly procedure of sending out query letters to get an agent to promote the work to publishing houses. I made light of his note and basically said my book was a lemon and New York was the Big Lemon rather than the Big Apple. But now, going back into the manuscript, to prepare a second sub for FNW I should have done months ago, I find I can see the words plainly again, I can hear their cadence.
It's fun to read, and fun to work on, though just a month ago I would have sworn it to be cursed, and the source of my despair. The lemonade is delicious.
I always have trouble writing a synopsis. Today I will have to get one done, at least one that covers pages 1-27 subbed to FNW that will come up tomorrow or the next meeting. I would rather talk about themes.
In my book, technology has come up with its own alternative to Viagra, the DooMee device, which attaches to any computer with a USB or Firewire port.
There is also the related theme of augmentations, both breast and, in a new light, penis augmentation. While people have commented on the comic nature of these things, I'm quite serious. I think people are too easily surrendering their basic nature to technology, as though becoming an android is somehow superior to being a human being. The media overload has us wanting to merge with the machines. Children set other kids on fire and feel no remorse. A man goers on a rampage at an Army base and shoots fifty people and feels justified. This is what happens in an android culture. Is this really what we want?
In a related note, as Brian Williams likes to say, last night at the Miami Bookfair, author Richard Powers read from his latest novel, where scientist have found a gene for happiness.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1328949.html
Next week my story "While Researching A Horror Story" appears at Bewilderingstories.com. This was re-written after the original, "The Haunted House", was mauled at Friday Night Writers last year. But harsh feedback is much better than praise, and shows all the weak spots to be fixed. Haunted House had plenty of weak spots. As John Dufresne pointed out, I had managed to write a horror story that was not scary. So I made changes, and cut over 7 pages, and subbed it. The editors at Bewilderingstories.com had some changes they suggested to make the story stronger. So now we have a readable product, ona story I started 10 years ago.
Check out the current issue and then next week see Issue 361 at http://www.bewilderingstories.com
Ah, smell the lemons. Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. Remember Trini Lopez. I'll try to post a video. But some hackers or somebody seem to override the Google/YouTube feed for Blogger.com
I think I do that because I trust my feelings. If things seem not to be worthwhile, maybe they're not. Or my relation to the things anyway. What usually happens is I finally develop some physical symptoms, Illness As Metaphor as Susan Sontag wrote, and lay in bed ill, then gradually make changes in my diet or routine or sleeping pattern until I recover. A feeling of wellness comes to me then, not just no longer being sick, but the physicality of wellness itself, the joy of being healthy, awake, alert.
So I'm back. For months I could not write anything, an example of the funk. Even blogging seemed futile, communication seeming easier with Trafalmadorians than earthlings, and I just stopped. Now I feel like the good people of Trafalmador have sent a psychic note of appreciation and I can continue our correspondence with renewed vigor.
I want to thank Michael Gavaghen for his encouragement not only to continue revising my manuscript of my novel The Barricades of Heaven but to also establish a weekly procedure of sending out query letters to get an agent to promote the work to publishing houses. I made light of his note and basically said my book was a lemon and New York was the Big Lemon rather than the Big Apple. But now, going back into the manuscript, to prepare a second sub for FNW I should have done months ago, I find I can see the words plainly again, I can hear their cadence.
It's fun to read, and fun to work on, though just a month ago I would have sworn it to be cursed, and the source of my despair. The lemonade is delicious.
I always have trouble writing a synopsis. Today I will have to get one done, at least one that covers pages 1-27 subbed to FNW that will come up tomorrow or the next meeting. I would rather talk about themes.
In my book, technology has come up with its own alternative to Viagra, the DooMee device, which attaches to any computer with a USB or Firewire port.
There is also the related theme of augmentations, both breast and, in a new light, penis augmentation. While people have commented on the comic nature of these things, I'm quite serious. I think people are too easily surrendering their basic nature to technology, as though becoming an android is somehow superior to being a human being. The media overload has us wanting to merge with the machines. Children set other kids on fire and feel no remorse. A man goers on a rampage at an Army base and shoots fifty people and feels justified. This is what happens in an android culture. Is this really what we want?
In a related note, as Brian Williams likes to say, last night at the Miami Bookfair, author Richard Powers read from his latest novel, where scientist have found a gene for happiness.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/1328949.html
Next week my story "While Researching A Horror Story" appears at Bewilderingstories.com. This was re-written after the original, "The Haunted House", was mauled at Friday Night Writers last year. But harsh feedback is much better than praise, and shows all the weak spots to be fixed. Haunted House had plenty of weak spots. As John Dufresne pointed out, I had managed to write a horror story that was not scary. So I made changes, and cut over 7 pages, and subbed it. The editors at Bewilderingstories.com had some changes they suggested to make the story stronger. So now we have a readable product, ona story I started 10 years ago.
Check out the current issue and then next week see Issue 361 at http://www.bewilderingstories.com
Ah, smell the lemons. Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet. But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat. Remember Trini Lopez. I'll try to post a video. But some hackers or somebody seem to override the Google/YouTube feed for Blogger.com
Friday, November 6, 2009
Fun with Words and Numbers
I can add two great bargain books to my collection, Michael Connelly's The Overlook and James W. Hall's Magic City, each purchased for $1.00 at my used bookstore. Both feature enduring heroes, Harry Bosch, and Thorne, hardened individuals doing the right thing in a world determined to go wrong. Both start with murders, then really get cranking. I read 100 pages of Connelly last night, and will finish both this week(end). Dr. Hall taught at the FIU Creative Writing program for years, and is not only a fine writer but a wonderful person, always with a smile at life's rich pageant. He retired this year, and has a website and blog that offer insight and perspective.
The book I finished yesterday, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of those extraordinary novels that combine the best of classic storytelling like Dickens with a modern perspective on writing and reading and how those two activities can actually change lives. It is one of the best books I've read in a while. I paid $16.00 for the trade paperback, and would do so again if I need a gift for a friend who reads.
What else? I'm listening to Pandora while I write, switching to my SteelyDan station, for attitude.
"Out the corner of my eye
I saw you in Rudy's
You were very high"
Or now
"So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and wave goodbye
I'll make it this time
I'm ready to cross that fine line"
I find myself wondering this morning why the US Army would train a Lebanese Muslim and not suspect he might have a serious problem going to where we are at war with Muslims. Nothing explains or justifies what this crazy murderer did. It just seems like the Army really might want to consider not arming Muslims, then upsetting them. I could be wrong, but it just seems better security that way.
I have an email from Michael Gavaghen, encouraging me to keep writing and sending out query letters. Michael worked for years, collecting rejections until he found, after all this effort, someone who would actually read his novel, and try to promote it. He recommends I send out 20 query letters a day, then 20 more. Michael is strong, like bull. His words carry much iron. Him good friend to Indian. Indian has misplaced his pipe. There is firewater in the wikiyah, that tent thing over there. While you're up, get us a couple cold ones.
The book I finished yesterday, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon is one of those extraordinary novels that combine the best of classic storytelling like Dickens with a modern perspective on writing and reading and how those two activities can actually change lives. It is one of the best books I've read in a while. I paid $16.00 for the trade paperback, and would do so again if I need a gift for a friend who reads.
What else? I'm listening to Pandora while I write, switching to my SteelyDan station, for attitude.
"Out the corner of my eye
I saw you in Rudy's
You were very high"
Or now
"So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and wave goodbye
I'll make it this time
I'm ready to cross that fine line"
I find myself wondering this morning why the US Army would train a Lebanese Muslim and not suspect he might have a serious problem going to where we are at war with Muslims. Nothing explains or justifies what this crazy murderer did. It just seems like the Army really might want to consider not arming Muslims, then upsetting them. I could be wrong, but it just seems better security that way.
I have an email from Michael Gavaghen, encouraging me to keep writing and sending out query letters. Michael worked for years, collecting rejections until he found, after all this effort, someone who would actually read his novel, and try to promote it. He recommends I send out 20 query letters a day, then 20 more. Michael is strong, like bull. His words carry much iron. Him good friend to Indian. Indian has misplaced his pipe. There is firewater in the wikiyah, that tent thing over there. While you're up, get us a couple cold ones.
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