Sunday, March 23, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
I'm Looking Through You
I'm Looking Through You by Jennifer Finney Boylan
In my capacity as editor of Southern Gothic and Postcards From..., I see a lot of ghost stories. It's damned hard to write a good ghost story without slipping into cliche, because the ghost is the very unliving embodiment of horror cliche. Even great writers find themselves struggling with ghost stories.
Jennifer Finney Boylan can write ghosts, Jack. I don't often get a chill reading a book , but I definitely suffered a few chills reading this one. Funny thing, it's non-fiction, but it reads like the best fiction, which, coming from me, is a compliment. Funnier thing, it's not a horror story, which is why it makes a great ghost story.
Just to make a completely unfair comparison, we could probably agree that Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is one of the great ghost stories of all time (along with Peter Straub's Ghost Story). You can certainly see the early chapters of Hill House in Boylan's description of the Astrid Hotel and environs. But I would suggest that Hill House isn't nearly as good a story as I'm Looking Through You, which also beats Ghost Story hands down. True, they are completely different works of genre - horror fiction versus memoir, but if horror fiction can't achieve the believability of memoir, it fails entirely. And although the final chapter of Looking Through You might verge ever so slightly into sentimentality (but what memoir doesn't?), at least she doesn't plow her car into a tree at the end of the tale.
You've got to appreciate that.
In my capacity as editor of Southern Gothic and Postcards From..., I see a lot of ghost stories. It's damned hard to write a good ghost story without slipping into cliche, because the ghost is the very unliving embodiment of horror cliche. Even great writers find themselves struggling with ghost stories.
Jennifer Finney Boylan can write ghosts, Jack. I don't often get a chill reading a book , but I definitely suffered a few chills reading this one. Funny thing, it's non-fiction, but it reads like the best fiction, which, coming from me, is a compliment. Funnier thing, it's not a horror story, which is why it makes a great ghost story.
Just to make a completely unfair comparison, we could probably agree that Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is one of the great ghost stories of all time (along with Peter Straub's Ghost Story). You can certainly see the early chapters of Hill House in Boylan's description of the Astrid Hotel and environs. But I would suggest that Hill House isn't nearly as good a story as I'm Looking Through You, which also beats Ghost Story hands down. True, they are completely different works of genre - horror fiction versus memoir, but if horror fiction can't achieve the believability of memoir, it fails entirely. And although the final chapter of Looking Through You might verge ever so slightly into sentimentality (but what memoir doesn't?), at least she doesn't plow her car into a tree at the end of the tale.
You've got to appreciate that.
Evidence of Reincarnation?
This morning, my 7-year-old son commented that Boba Fett's ship:
looks like an iron.
To my knowledge, the only kind of iron he's ever seen looks like this:
So how did he make the visual connection between Slave I and irons that used to look like this Hoover model:
ca. 1962, if he's never actually seen one?
looks like an iron.
To my knowledge, the only kind of iron he's ever seen looks like this:
So how did he make the visual connection between Slave I and irons that used to look like this Hoover model:
ca. 1962, if he's never actually seen one?
Thursday, March 13, 2008
All About the Bens
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to be split into two movies.
Because why not? There's not going to be any more books to make into movies, so why not milk this cow until all that's left is a desiccated husk.
Because why not? There's not going to be any more books to make into movies, so why not milk this cow until all that's left is a desiccated husk.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Tater Bud Rides Again
"Not the Same Holiday Inn" has been selected for the 2007-2008 Best of the Foliate Oak Online print edition. Hoody-hoo!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
(100 Days of) War
I have a new blog up especially dedicated to my newly finished novel, (100 Days of) War. I'll post short bits of the novel there, although you can already read several parts of it at Nature, Nature Physics, The Foliate Oak, Pindeldyboz, Bewildering Stories, and The Rose and Thorn.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Million Writers
The nomination period for the 2007 storySouth Million Writers Award is open until March 31, 2008. If you liked any of my stories published online in 2007, please head over and nominate your favorite.
My stories this year that qualify are:
Ananke
Man for a Moment
Last year, two of my stories were recognized as Notable Stories: Even Angels Fall, and Harvest My Heart.
My stories this year that qualify are:
Ananke
Man for a Moment
Last year, two of my stories were recognized as Notable Stories: Even Angels Fall, and Harvest My Heart.
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