Did you see it? The funny part?
The newspaper misspelled "warming." SpellChecker's a bitch.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Don't Pee Yourself
Did you see it? The funny part?
The newspaper misspelled "warming." SpellChecker's a bitch.
Monday, April 16, 2007
The Road to Hell
Cormac McCarthy has won the Pulitzer for his novel The Road.
I read The Road last year during my year of reading dangerously, and I have to say it's a powerful story. And scary. God almighty is it scary. There were times when I just had to put the book down and walk away, and I dreaded going back to it. Friends, that doesn't happen to me. I've never had a book affect me that way. I read The Shining when I was a kid and it didn't scare me this bad.
That said, the ending of The Road leaves a lot to be desired. It is horrible, tragic, as everything you and the narrator have feared since the first pages of the book finally comes to pass. And then - Boioioioing! it all gets fixed, quick and neat as that. Deus ex machina - God out of a machine - a wanton violation of the prime directive of fiction writing. He wrote himself into a corner of horror from which there was no reasonable escape, so he escaped unreasonably.
Big sigh.
Even so, everything up to that point is definitely worth the read. I nominated this book for the Nebula and it probably deserves to win that, too. Cormac McCarthy isn't the first author to find himself at the end of his book with basically nowhere else to go and 20 more pages to write. In fact, of the 30 or so novels I read during my year of reading dangerously, I'd say all but one or two suffered the same or similar lame and/or hurried cop out in the last pages. It's an unfortunate fact of reading and something that distinguishes the really good writers from the really great ones.
I read The Road last year during my year of reading dangerously, and I have to say it's a powerful story. And scary. God almighty is it scary. There were times when I just had to put the book down and walk away, and I dreaded going back to it. Friends, that doesn't happen to me. I've never had a book affect me that way. I read The Shining when I was a kid and it didn't scare me this bad.
That said, the ending of The Road leaves a lot to be desired. It is horrible, tragic, as everything you and the narrator have feared since the first pages of the book finally comes to pass. And then - Boioioioing! it all gets fixed, quick and neat as that. Deus ex machina - God out of a machine - a wanton violation of the prime directive of fiction writing. He wrote himself into a corner of horror from which there was no reasonable escape, so he escaped unreasonably.
Big sigh.
Even so, everything up to that point is definitely worth the read. I nominated this book for the Nebula and it probably deserves to win that, too. Cormac McCarthy isn't the first author to find himself at the end of his book with basically nowhere else to go and 20 more pages to write. In fact, of the 30 or so novels I read during my year of reading dangerously, I'd say all but one or two suffered the same or similar lame and/or hurried cop out in the last pages. It's an unfortunate fact of reading and something that distinguishes the really good writers from the really great ones.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Man for a Moment
My strange story, "Man for a Moment," has been accepted for publication in Hub.
When I workshopped this story a few years ago, it got the strongest reaction I've ever gotten from a story. Everyone said, "Ewwwwwwwwwww!" and "Why? Why!" If you want to know why, you'll have to subscribe to Hub. Starting with Issue 3, subscriptions are free, so you might as well sign up.
When I workshopped this story a few years ago, it got the strongest reaction I've ever gotten from a story. Everyone said, "Ewwwwwwwwwww!" and "Why? Why!" If you want to know why, you'll have to subscribe to Hub. Starting with Issue 3, subscriptions are free, so you might as well sign up.
This story generated more "Great story, but..." responses than any story I've written. I received encouraging rejections from F&SF, Chiaroscuro, and Cemetary Dance. A former associate editor at Brutarian said it was the best story of its kind that he had read in a long time, but...
Speaking of editors, I'd like to thank Bridget McKenna at Aeon for helping me tighten this story. I think I did two rewrites for her before she ultimately decided not to publish it. Frustrating? Of course, but it made it a better story.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Year of the Anthology
I'm pleased to announce that my story, "I Dreamed of Griffons in Flight" has been accepted for publication in the Black Dragon, White Dragon anthology edited by Rob Santa.
It appears that this is the year of the anthology for me. Last year was the year of the electronic publication. So far this year, I've had stories published or scheduled to be published in Stalking Shadows, Tattered Souls, Triquorum (5 or 6), an untitled Kerlak anthology, and now Black Dragon, White Dragon.
Plus one major magazine - Nature:Physics.
It appears that this is the year of the anthology for me. Last year was the year of the electronic publication. So far this year, I've had stories published or scheduled to be published in Stalking Shadows, Tattered Souls, Triquorum (5 or 6), an untitled Kerlak anthology, and now Black Dragon, White Dragon.
Plus one major magazine - Nature:Physics.
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