Sage Advice, and Work

First, thanks to Sage for his insightful review of Write With Fire. Much appreciated. The book is getting a fair number of reviews, so far all good ones!

Work is kicking my ass and I’m way behind. So, it’s standard operating procedure for first thing in the new semester. I’m keeping my head above water so far, although with the pouring rain outside at the moment I don’t know how long that will last.

Lana seems to be almost completely recovered from her surgery. She’s already feeling much better than she was before so I’m happy about that.

While listening to the rain and helping students, in the background I’m running “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T. S. Eliot. If this isn’t a masterpiece then I don’t know what is. I wish I could write a poem this fine.

"The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep."

No time to write poetry now, though. The students are coming, hungry for overrides, in need of schedules, wanting me to fix all their problems with a few taps of my fingers on the keyboard.

And guess what: The electricity just went kaput! Better save this before the laptop battery loses its charge.

I’ll post this when our current returns!
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100 Books, plus more

Gary at the Tainted Archive tagged me with this and I was in just the mood to play. Before I do, though, two quick comments.

1. Rick over at The Writer and the White Cat had some very kind things to say about Write with Fire and its author. Since I respect Rick's own writing ability I'm very flattered. Thanks, my friend.

2. I go back to work tomorrow and my commenting on blogs may be sporadic at best the rest of the week. And now:

The BBC believes the majority of people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

1) Look at the list and put an ‘X’ after those you have read.
2) Tally your total at the bottom.
3) Tag a few people you think would enjoy sharing similar information about their book interests.


I'm not going to tag anyone, but feel free to try it on for size yourself.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare X (some of them)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez X
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood X
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley X
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez X
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchel
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X (Some of them)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad X
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole X
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I’ve read 31, plus 2 partials. Wow, I usually do pretty bad at these kinds of lists. I never was one to read a lot of what I was told I should read. Some day I’m going to post my own list of “required” reading.
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Movie OD

First, thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. And thanks to everyone who suggested possibilities for the books I mentioned there. Special thanks to Greg, Writtenwyrd, Don, and Daniel, who did indeed identify some of the books. I owe you folks. I now can put authors and details to “The Secret Staircase,” “Smuggler’s Island, “Claws,” “Listen to the Worm,” “Panther!,” and “My Gift to You.” Don over at Issa’s Untidy Hut came up with the most. I knew my blogging pals were cool.

Today’s post is on movies. Now, I don’t watch many movies. And only when they are absolutely convenient to me. But we’ve got the Showtime movie channels for free for a bit and I thought, why not take a day off and watch a few. I was actually pleasantly surprised that I didn’t hate most of what I saw. But here’s my take, ranked from my favorite to least favorite:

1. Rambo. OK, this has to be one of the all time goriest movies ever. So, rather naturally, I enjoyed it. I imagine the effects of the artillery and mines was probably portrayed very realistically, but I’m skeptical that regular rifle fire, even from a sniper rifle, would completely disintegrate whole heads or blow off limbs at the shoulder. I’ve seen the effect of high powered bullets on animals as big as deer, so thus my skepticism. The end was rather touching, though, and it seemed to bring the series to its close.

2. 3:10 to Yuma. It’s a western and I liked it, although it’s no Once Upon a Time in the West. Russell Crowe did a great job as the villain I thought, and had some great one liners. However, there were some letdowns in the orchestration of the whole thing. How does a prisoner in cuffs manage to kill two members of the posse taking him to the prison train without, perhaps, being bound and watched a little more closely after that? On the other hand, this one had by far the best all around cast of the movies I saw. Even the supporting actors did well, and many of them were well known, such as Peter Fonda.

3. Snow White: A Tale of Terror. Sigourney Weaver did a bang up job as the wicked stepmother/witch in this one. I thought she was superb. This was a somewhat loose retelling of the Snow White story but was pretty enjoyable. It was definitely a horror rather than a fantasy. The supporting cast was much weaker than Weaver, and I could kind of see at the beginning why the Stepmother didn’t much like the stepdaughter. I would have wanted to strangle the little priss myself. Some interesting visuals as well.

4. Into the Wild. This is the story of the young man who walked on his own into the Alaskan Wilderness, lived for something like a year in an abandoned bus there, and then died from eating poisonous plants. I came close to abandoning this one early on because the kid was just so immature. He was born into privilege to the point where he could afford to rebel against it all. And he did, against a life and parents that were not nearly as bad as he seemed to think. However, I have to admit the boy had some testicular fortitude and in the end I felt quite a bit of sympathy for him. He learned a bit of wisdom, although he died before he got a chance to exercise it. There were also some very good supporting actors in this one, especially Hal Holbrook.

5. There Will Be Blood. Twenty minutes into this long, long movie I turned to Lana and said, “OK, I see where this is going. We’ll have one scene with blood at the very end and then fade to black. That was exactly what happened, with no tension or suspense in between. How can a pretentious art film be so incredibly cliché? How many times has this story been told? 1). A businessman who is already somewhat unscrupulous becomes more and more brutal and bitter over time, as he also descends into alcoholism. 2). Said businessman gets everything he thinks he wants but nothing he needs. 3) said businessman runs off the only people who give a damn about him. There were two good things about this movie. Daniel Day Lewis did a great job as the despicable businessman, and the musical score was quite good. These could not save what was ultimately a rather silly and completely predictable film. This is the only one of the five I wish I had my time back on.
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Books I'm Looking For

In past days my record keeping on my books was not always as disciplined as it is today. I know, I'm very very bad. Lana will have to punish me. But, nevertheless, there are a number of books in my list of previously read books that have titles but no author listed. And I have not been able to identify or locate them. I hang my head in shame, I tell you!

In hopes that someone in the blogosphere might have an idea about the authors for these books, I'm going to give the details I know about here. Said details are very slender. But if anyone recognizes any of these I'd appreciate a heads up. So without further ado, I air my dirty book laundry below:

1. Title – The Freak
Genre – Horror
Time period – I would have read this probably sometime in the 1980s or earlier.

2. Title – Claws
Genre – Horror
Time period - Again, probably from the 1980s.
Details – I seem to remember it had something to do with either cats or crabs. I originally thought this might be "Night of the Claw" by Jay Ramsey, but after getting that book I don't think so.

3. Title - Smuggler’s Island
Genre – young adult, I'm pretty sure
Time Period – probably from the 1970s or earlier. This is 'not' the Avi book by that name from much later.

4. Title - My Gift to You
Genre - Poetry
Time Period - Some time before the late 1980s. At least that's when I read it.

5. Title - Listen to the Worm
Genre - Poetry
Time Period - Also some time before the late 1980s.

6. Title - The Sun is Up
Genre - Poetry
Time Period - Also some time before the late 1980s.

7. Title - Panther
Genre - Young adult probably
Time Period - Almost certainly the 1970s or earlier


8. Title - The Secret Staircase
Genre - Young adult or children's book
Time Period - Probably from before the early 1980s. This may be one I read to my son.

9. Title - Mystery of the Red Skull
Genre - probably young adult
Time Period - before the 1980s, probably in the early 1970s.

Well, there are more but that's probably enough for this post.
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Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes

Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes is out. If you’re wondering why I’m telling you this, it's because 1) I like zombies a lot, and 2) I have a poem in it. The poem is called “Forever,” and is only one of 90+ poetic visions of zombies. Here’s the basic blurb about the collection from the publisher:

“The dead rise. The world dies. Mankind falls and enters Death's halls. Over 90 poems of carnage, hopelessness and despair mixed with oodles of the living dead await you. Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes will not only melt your brain . . . it'll tear out your jugular!

If zombie poetry is your thing, the collection is already available at Amazon and Other Sites

There’s even an ebook edition available for the kindle.

By the way, I forgot to mention in my excitement over Write With Fire that the most recent Illuminata is also out. There’s a very interesting article on “Reading is Dead; Long Live the Literate!” There’s also a bunch of reviews, and I’ve got an article in there called “Reading Books On Writing." This is a new piece, which isn't in Write With Fire and hasn't appeared on this blog before. The issue is Volume 7, Issue 3, July 09 here.

PS: This Just In: X-Dell has some kind words to say about my writing over on his blog. I much appreciate it, so naturally I had to post a link to it. I used to be rather shame'ful' about promoting myself. That wasn't working very well for me.

If you get a chance while over at X-Dell's site, check out the Golden Ganesh widget at top right and listen to the episodes of this ensemble audio story. Very pulpy with some neat twists and turns. Highly recommended.
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First Impressions

One thing I worry about as a writer is first impressions. And I'm not talking about the impression one makes when you first meet someone physically. I'm talking about when a reader is exposed to that first story or book by an author. That first impression is absolutely critical if that reader is to pick up more of the author's works. Here's a couple of examples of the potential problems from my experience as a reader rather than a writer.

1: I'd been hearing for a while about a publisher called Hard Case Crime. Almost everyone I knew who'd read a book from that publisher raved about it. The covers were appropriately pulpish and cool, and I decided I wanted in on this. So, one day in a book store I picked up The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, which was apparently the initial book in the Hard Case Crime list. What better place to start than with book 1 of a line? Plus, I liked a lot of stuff by King. Unfortunately, this one sucked big time. Although it was mercifully short, I still barely finished it.

And here's where first impressions play a role. Despite the fact that I've been told over and over that King's book was not indicative of the Hard Case Crime list, and that the other books really, really are good, I've not picked up a single one. Intellectually, I'm sure I probably would like some of the other Hard Case novels. But, there are a lot of books to spend my money on. And when it comes time to shell out that money, I have, so far, been unable to persuade myself to take a chance on another Hard Case book instead of a book that feels like it has more promise.

2. Years ago I read Samarkand by Graham Diamond. When I bought it, it seemed like a book that was right down my alley. An exotic setting. A city under siege. Swords and sorcery. But I didn't care much for it (although it was considerably better than The Coyote Kid). Diamond has at least half a dozen more fantasy novels with equally tantalizing settings. I picked up one at a book sale years ago for 50 cents but I haven't read it and probably never will read another Diamond book. When I look at my to-be-read pile, there's just too many books above the Diamond one that promise more.

These are the kinds of first impressions I worry about. What if someone reads one book by me, or even a story by me, and doesn't like it. Will they ever give me another chance? Should they give me another chance?

What about you? Have you had any of these kinds of experiences? Let me hear some of your first impression stories.
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Implosion, and Other Tales of My Days

I’ve done exactly zero writing in the past three days. That’s not like me but I just have not been able to get going. Each time I sit down at the computer I end up either fiddling with my books or just playing the video game Age of Empires. It’s not the fact that Lana needs the occasional hand. She’s a model patient, and is recovering, although she still feels pretty miserable. The slowdown is inside me.

Of course, I could make excuses. My legs have been bothering me pretty badly and yesterday I spent a fair amount of time on the phone with our internet provider, and with issues dealing with my son trying to get back into school this fall. Turns out his health records were misplaced after Katrina and the school needed evidence of his immunizations. We finally got that straightened out but it took a bit.

The problem is really a lack of focus on my part. The summer is winding down here and within 10 days I’ll be back at work. I’ll have to get started on syllabi sooner than that. Although I like my job, transitions are hard for me. I’m going to try to get going today, though. Wish me luck.

One interesting thing came out of fiddling with my books, though. I was looking through an old book of SF stories called Santana Morning and Other Stories by Mike Dolan. It was published from Powell Sci-Fi in 1970. Interestingly, it contains a story called “The Fog,” which I reread, and I had to arch an eyebrow at the strong similarities with Stephen King’s later novella “The Mist.” King’s story is much better and more detailed, and the two stories certainly aren’t identical, but there are enough similarities to make me wonder whether King read “The Fog” once upon a time and it stayed with him to influence him when he wrote “The Mist.” I'm absolutely not saying that King might have plagiarized this story. It's more the basic idea that is similar. The writing and wording and style are all quite different. It could have been an influence on King, nothing more.

In publishing news, our Writing in Psychology: A Guidebook is out as of yesterday. This is a textbook I wrote with a couple of other faculty members at Xavier: Elliott Hammer, and Y Du Bois Irvin (who is the granddaughter of W. E. B. Du Bois). This is a book specifically designed to help students in writing formal term papers and research reports. We use it in our psychology department writing classes at Xavier and I have hopes some other schools might adopt it. It’s strictly nonfiction, and unless you’re taking a course in psychology or writing papers in a field where APA style is used it’s probably not going to be useful to anyone here. It’s not a general writing guide like Write With Fire. I’m pretty happy with it, though. The cover is here if you want to take a look at the details. The cover is also below:


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Lana

Well, Lana had surgery this morning but she came through with flying colors. She's been sleeping all day and I'm sure she'll be very sore and not feeling too well when she wakes up. She has to spend the night in the hospital but I'll bring her home in the morning. It will be weird sleeping at home without her tonight. Please keep her in your thoughts.

I doubt I'll be doing much posting for the next day or two, btw.

In the meantime, though, I started and finished Blade #23: Empire of Blood, while Lana was in surgery (almost 3 hours) and recovery (longer). It's a pretty quick read. Starts out a bit slow but has some rousing action at the end. I found out that Roland Green wrote it. I must confess to not having been a fan of Green's, but this story may make me reconsider giving some of his other work a read.

Lana and I also watched The Watchmen the other night and both of us thought it was really good. I didn't think it was as good as the graphic novel, which is by far the best graphic novel I've ever read, but the movie was decent and stayed pretty close to the book without using the subplot.

Keep the shiny sides up.
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One Thing I Miss About the Old Days

Most book lovers I know have at least some rather obscure writers they read, and obscure works they’d like to own. There’s no doubt that the internet has made it easier to scratch that itch. And except for the hit to one’s pocketbook that’s a good thing. In most ways.

Using the internet in the past few years has led to a substantial increase in book buying for me. A lot of those books have been just the kind of obscure works in SF and fantasy that I so love. A lot of them have been books that I read when I was a kid and have wanted to own and reread ever since. And, I’ve also been able to discover series that I had never heard of but which were right down my alley. I’ve found a lot of good reading via the net. These are good things

But… (You knew a “but” was coming didn’t you?), there’s one thing I miss about the old book hunting days. To channel for a moment my inner nerd, I remember the thrill of finding an unknown used bookstore and going in to browse the shelves for the first time. I had a list of books I wanted, although I didn’t generally have to carry the list with me. I knew in my head what I was looking for. I’d scan along the rows of colorful spines, checking for an obscure Robert E. Howard book here, searching out an Alan Burt Akers volume there. And OH the excitement when I found something I’d wanted but didn’t have. I generally didn’t ‘kiss’ the covers. Not physically anyway. But it was like finding a gold nugget in a pan of dross.

I still remember with absolute clarity one of my favorite moments in personal book hunting history. In high school I’d borrowed a book from my brother-in-law called Meat on the Hoof, about college football at the University of Texas. The book stayed with me, and when I was in my early thirties I began searching for it in used bookstores everywhere I went. Although I remembered the title and the cover, I had no idea who had written it. But I wanted that book. I even called my brother-in-law but he no longer had the copy. I couldn’t find it anywhere else either.

Then, one day, my ex-wife and I were shopping for furniture. No matter where I’ve ever gone, I’ve paid attention to the books that were in that place. So on this day I stopped to glance at a set of books being used as ‘props’ with furniture. And there lay Meat on the Hoof. I immediately took it up to the salesman and asked to buy it. He had no idea of a price for it. They sold furniture. So he just laughed and told me I could have it. I know exactly where it is on my shelves right now. And I remember almost every detail of that ‘find.”

Would it have been the same if I’d been able to search it out on the net? I know from other experiences of finding books via the net that it would not have been. Oh, I still get a sense of excitement and pleasure, but it’s like having a glass or two of wine with dinner as opposed to the buzz of those first couple of pitchers of beer on a lazy afternoon in a darkened bar when you’ve got Friday night ahead of you.

Sometimes I miss the old days. How about you?
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Hint Fiction, and Other Items

I learned of an interesting anthology opportunity over on Women of Mystery for what is called “Hint Fiction.” The definition, as given on Robert Swartwood’s blog, is: “hint fiction (n) : a story of 25 words or less that suggests a larger, more complex story.” Mr. Swartwood coined the term.

In 2010, it appears that W. W. Norton will publish an anthology of hint fiction and they are currently looking for submissions. You can find out all about it over on Robert Swartwood’s page.

I decided to send a few items in. I went back through various stories or novels that I’ve started but not continued and culled out what I thought were the most interesting openings. Then I added a dash of editing to get them down to the 25 word limit and try to make them fit the hint fiction concept. Below are some of the ones that didn’t make the cut for me to submit.

Hint Fictions?

The boy looked up to see dust approaching the ferry. Within the dust was a horse, on the horse a rider, all turned to gray.

During the day she cried. Long and hard by herself. And outside the grey wind blew chilled and lonely. She had so much to give.

Swiftly, along dirt roads and through fields of yellow grain, the dry leaves and dust fled, running from the evening storm that stalked behind them.

He stood in the hiss of the rain and the lyre winds, eyes smoky dark like burnt glass. His lips moved with prayers.

On the first day of the month of Harps, he had not returned. And on the second the wind blew black with dust.

You see them occasionally in your home town. They are always passing through. The fangs in their eyes give them away.

Predators seldom stalk predators. But when it happens…

REVISED - 8-2-09:

Also, three more of my blog colleagues have posted very nice things about Write With Fire and have even spoken highly of me. And I didn’t even pay them. If you get a chance check out:

1. Travis’s Tuesday, July 28th post over at his blog.

2. C. S. Harris’s commentary on her blog.

3. Greg Schwartz, who I had made a note to myself to add to this list and then somehow let his post slip my mind, also commented on the book and offers some other interesting info over on his blog.

Of course, Lana has been her usual supportive self, and has some good news of her own to share at her blog.

Thanks Trav and Candy and Lana. And thanks Greg. Sorry I missed that link first time around. And thanks to everyone who has already mentioned the book. Much appreciated.
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Positive Day

Well, the Negatonians among us often seem to have 364 days a year to themselves, so why not one day for the Positonians. Welcome to Positive Day, which is the brain child of Jennifer’s Diva Daughter over on Dust Bunny Hostage.

I’ve been thinking a lot these past few years of all the positive things that have happened in my life. Here are just a few:

I was lucky enough to be born on a farm to parents who loved me and showed by example the rewards of hard work extended over time. You don’t get there in a day.

I was lucky enough to get a good education by people who cared about teaching and who weren’t afraid to question without closing their minds to any potential answer.

I was lucky that I discovered reading early because books have become a major pillar of my adult life.

I was lucky enough to get a job that suited me in a place that I wanted, and to be able to keep that job despite plenty of turmoil and obstacles.

I was lucky enough for the world to conspire to present me with a son named Joshua at the exact time I was most ready to love him. Even if I didn’t realize it was that time.

I was lucky to find at least a few other people who like to hear the kinds of stories I like to tell.

I was lucky enough to find Lana at a time when I was close to going insane and traveling to a place where I might not have come back from.

I am lucky today to have love and be able to give love.

And let’s don’t forget. I’m lucky enough to have today off!
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Alien Versus Predator Versus The Thing

Traditionally, Hollywood hasn’t done a very good job of creating believable aliens. Much as I like the original Star Trek, for example, its aliens were far too human, not only physically but psychologically as well. Of course, budget and special effects limitations created restraints on the physical features of the Vulcans and Klingons, but a better job could have been done on the psychology.

Since the eighties, though, a few better aliens have been created. Off the top of my head, here are my top three, in reverse order from least to most realistic.

3. The Thing. (John Carpenter’s version.) I really like this alien. It’s just downright cool. And physically and psychologically it is about as far from human as you can get. But, unfortunately, I have to think it’s pretty unrealistic. Plenty of one celled organisms grow by absorbing other cells, and the “Thing” is supposed to be like a collection of cells. Mimicry is also very common in nature and the Thing is an extreme example of that. However, knowing how complex the human brain is, and how complex the cell structures are in a human, I can’t imagine an organism that could assimilate so perfectly in such a short period of time and be absolutely believable as the person it assimilated. It’s still cool, though.

2. The Predator works pretty well because of the care taken in developing the creature’s physiology and society. Especially nice is the fact that they see heat signatures. The suggestion is that they evolved under a hotter sun than humans. It also suggests a reptilian background, since a number of reptiles have this capability. The Predator is still incredibly humanoid, however. And though their society is interesting, it is based pretty clearly on some savage human societies, particularly head hunter and warrior societies. When we see a bit of one of their cities in Alien VS Predator it seems clearly to reflect a Grecian architecture. Over the course of the series the Predator has gotten more and more human. And that’s unfortunate.

1. The Alien (Ripley’s alien, that is), is the best alien yet. Clearly, a lot of effort was spent developing its elaborate life cycle, which is not unlike that of some earth insects. Aliens have both insect and reptile characteristics, which makes sense since nature wouldn’t typically build something on another world that was an exact match for, say, a mammal. One interesting thing is that the Alien’s eggs are soft shelled rather than hard. On earth, this is an amphibian or early reptile characteristic. I can’t decide whether the fact that the alien embryos incorporate some of the DNA from the host species is a good characteristic or not. It’s certainly very different from what parasites on earth do, although it is characteristic of some types of viruses. The main problem with this DNA thievery is that the alien species would normally cease to exist as a unique species pretty quickly. To maintain a species one must maintain the genome.

The acidic blood is a problem, however. Although quite a few insects make internal toxins and even release these into the atmosphere, the alien’s blood is just too corrosive. Eating so rapidly through the kind of metal used to make spaceships would be quite a feat for a biologically developed corrosive. There is a possible explanation, however, and it comes from the earth species known as the Bombardier Beetle. This beetle shoots a spray of a noxious chemicals from its abdomen when disturbed. However, it actually stores two non-reactive chemicals separately in its body, which are combined only ‘outside’ the body after being sprayed into the air from abdominal ducts. Only then do they become reactive. Still, I have a hard time buying the alien’s acidic blood because it is not released from any glands but clearly seems to be circulating in the organism’s system. Highly unlikely.

Finally, with the Alien, I always had a hard time with the growth rate of the creature in the first movie. It’s small when we first see it, but within a few days seems to have grown much larger than a human being. Growth rates can be high for some insects, and even for fish and birds, but nutrients are needed. You only get out what you put in. They could have justified this somewhat if they’d given an indication that the Alien was feeding on something within the ship. Still, all in all, the Alien puts most other Hollywood conceived aliens to shame.

What do you think?
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Write With Fire, Part Duex

Thanks so much to everyone for the overwhelming support for Write With Fire. I really appreciate everyone putting the word out. I’ve been doing a lot of publicizing for it on my own. (I think it’s easier to write the darn things.) So far, there’ll be a write up in my home town newspaper, The Charleston Express, in Charleston, Arkansas. It’s nice to know an editor. In this case he’s my brother Paul David!

I’m working on setting up a talk and signing at the Causeway branch of the St. Tammany Library on September 19. I’ve contacted the library folks about it and we have that date tentatively set. I’ll let folks know for sure. It’s nice to know someone who works in the local library. In this case it’s my wife Lana Gramlich! (See it is who you know.) :)

I also will be guest blogging over at Novel Spaces on September 18. I’ll get more information out about what I’m going to blog about as the date moves closer. I’ll just say it’ll be about ‘writing.’ But you knew that.

Finally, I’ve made a connection with Kathy Spiess over at Tale of Two Sisters Bookstore, in Covington, Louisiana, only a few miles from my home. They had their grand opening his past Saturday and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours there. Very nice folks. It’s good to have a privately owned bookstore in the area again. They may be able to make some of my books available in the local community. That would be nice. I have to send Kathy some stuff about my work. That’s on my to-do list for today.

By the way, the book is also available on Barnes & Noble for those who prefer to shop there rather than Amazon.

In the meantime, I’m gonna post some links below to other folks who have posted or blogged about Write With Fire. And If I missed anyone I’m sorry.

Mark, over at the The Walking Man put up such a nice post about me that it took me a moment to realize I was the actual guy he was talking about. You can check out the post, but stay for Mark’s poetry.

I’d also like to thank Pattie Abbott for her kind words about the book. How she found time with all she’s doing, I don’t know.

And Steve Malley posted on it. Steve, I want to read some more graphic novels from you, dude.

James Reasoner over at Rough Edges posted about it. James has forgotten more than I’ve learned about writing. I’d love to see a bio published on James.

Sarai posted about the book. Even though I’m sure she’s very busy right now after her promotion. Congrats!

Natasha Fondren had kind things to say. And much appreciated.

Laughingwolf was actually the first to do a post, I believe. Much appreciated.

Even Wil Harrison has put up a link for the book on his sidebar. It fits right in with some of his weirder “pics of the day” kind of stuff. Thanks, Wil.

I'm adding another link for Rick, who has put up a link for the book. Read his post about the "Dragons of Creativity," as well. Eerie stuff with a lot of substance beneath the wicked prose.
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Write With Fire

The fried chicken is in the bucket. Now I can talk about it. 2009 marks my 20th year as a writer. During that time I haven’t gotten famous. During that time I haven’t made enough money to quit my day job. But then, none of the working writers I know are famous. And most of them either have a day job or are married to someone who does. What I have been lucky enough to do for those twenty years, though, is weather the changing seasons that have swept over publishing and still sell pretty much everything I’ve written: vampire stories, sword & sorcery, sword & planet, adventure, westerns, children’s tales, humor, and nonfiction of a wide variety. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pretty. [Especially the splatterpunk stuff ;)]. But it got done.

Over twenty years I’ve done a lot of thinking about writing, about what works and doesn’t work, about what it takes to give a substantial portion of your life over to this rather strange habit. Almost from the beginning I’ve also written articles about writing. I think best on paper, and those articles have helped me crystallize my own thoughts on the craft. Now all those articles are gathered together in Write With Fire: Thoughts on the Craft of Writing, which has just been published. I’m extremely happy about it. And rather proud, I suppose too.

The book is 248 pages, and divided into three parts. The first part is mainly about the practical mechanics of writing. How do you shepherd ideas through the writing and editing process and into the final form needed for publication? It talks more about fiction than nonfiction but a lot of the articles are really about communicating with your writing, which applies to any genre. The second part deals more with theory and philosophy in writing. What kind of characteristics are common to writers? What makes and breaks a “page-turner?” The last and much shorter section consists of articles that are more personal to my life as a writer, such as my experiences after Hurricane Katrina.

Many of the articles have been published before, often in out of the way magazines, but all of them have been updated and expanded for the book. And there is quite a lot of stuff here that has never been seen before by most of those who know about my writing, including ideas I’ve developed in teaching classes in writing and giving presentations on the craft. I’ve posted the cover on the blog, and the Amazon link is Write With Fire.



I haven’t even gotten my copies yet but will blog about it when I do. In the meantime, I’d really appreciate it if my writer friends in the blogosphere would mention the book around so the word gets out. I’ll thank you for it.
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Report on Babel Con

To the Left: Cylons Versus Stargate SG1
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I’m back from Babel Con, although I’m pretty tired and not back in normal blogging mode yet. We had a good time, though for reasons unclear to the staff, attendance was way down this year, from around 400 to some 140 in initial counts. They changed location, for one. And, of course, there is the economic downturn. They had a lot of great programming, but not as many celebrity guests. Who knows.

The panels I sat on were well attended, although not as much as last year. I sat on panels on pulp fiction, dreams and nightmares, and science versus the occult. I also did a reading, which had a whole six people at it. That was substantially better than another writer’s reading I attended on Saturday, which had two adults there, counting me, and a four year old and a six month old who spent most of the time interrupting and disrupting the writer’s attempts to read and interact with her audience.

I can’t really take much credit for the attendance, though. They had to change the time of the reading a couple of times and three of the people who came included the main con organizer, Andrew Myers, and two folks whose arms he probably twisted to get ‘em there. Two other folks were teenagers who hadn’t heard about the time change and thought they’d be showing movies in the room. Finally, though, there was Stephan, a bud of mine who I know actually likes my work.

Hey, though, I read a couple of my short stories and even the movie buffs appeared to be caught up in the tales. At least they didn’t leave once they found out it was me instead of movies on show, and both came up after and picked up some of the printed copies of stories that I usually take a long to readings to give out to folks. Being young, I’m sure they had no money. I sold just two books, one to Stephan and one to Andrew.

If you just figure the money I made from selling those two books, the con was a financial failure for me. But I didn’t really expect to make any money when I went. I don’t do much in the social arena in fandom so it’s good to see and interact with folks who like some of the same stuff I do. Plus, there’s quite a few folks that I see only once a year, at the con. We always talk about getting together more often but it doesn’t seem to happen.

And on Saturday at the opening ceremonies I was incredibly flattered and honored to be given the inaugural Bob May Award by the Babel Con organization. This is an award to be given each year to someone who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping the con. I certainly don’t think I deserved it but I sure do appreciate it.

For those of you who don’t know, Bob May’s main claim to fame in SF circles is that he played the robot in the TV series Lost in Space. Bob died just recently, but he had been a guest at Babel Con since its inception and was a very sweet and friendly fellow with lots of hilarious stories about Hollywood. I was really saddened not to have Bob’s smile and wit around this year. It’s an honor to have his award.


To the Right, Stephan and Eileen
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To the Left, My Xavier Colleague, Dr. Gena Valentine, does psychoanalysis on Anakin Skywalker.

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Books and Babel Con

Many of you know that I'm active on Goodreads. It's a place to record and review the books you read, and to make contact with other readers, and some writers. I'm enjoying it and am still in the process of uploading information on my books. A Goodreads member commented to me the other day that I "read a lot of books." Here was my basic response.

"Well, I'm fifty years old and I've been a compulsive reader since I was a kid. Not only have I read compulsively but since my mid-teens I've kept records on everything I've read. I'm well over 3000 now and counting. Yes, I am that big of a nerd."

A couple of things about that: First, I didn't mention that I actually own at least 90 percent of everything I've listed as having read. Second, I'm finding as I'm updating Goodreads that I actually have missed recording quite a few books that I've read over the years. I wasn't as thorough as I thought I was. Third, when I first started reading recording books I only wrote down the titles, not the authors, which has often made it difficult to find the books from my past. I continually make new discoveries about books on my list. I enjoy that. And yes, once more, I am that big of a nerd.

In other happenings, this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday is Babel Con. I will be there every day, so 1) if you're in the area stop by, and 2) after today I won't be posting or visiting blogs until at least Monday. That day might be a recovery day. I trust you'll all survive.

I'm sitting on panels on Pulp fiction, Dreams and Nightmares, Science and the Occult, and will be doing a reading at 11:00 on Sunday. It should be a hoot!

Take care all.
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The Cave Inside Us All

Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) , the creator of Conan the Cimmerian, of Solomon Kane, and Kull of Valusia, wrote of having been born out of his time. “…I am infinitely thankful that I am no younger,” he wrote. “I could wish to be older, much older.” He spoke in his letters of how he’d just missed the frontier days. Had he lived his thirty years a mere thirty years before, he would have been in the middle of the final settlement of the American frontier. Sixty or ninety years before and he would have been a pioneer.

Yet, he was a pioneer in his way. He was certainly the first in his home town of Cross Plains, Texas to make his living writing fiction. He was one of the first in the entire state. But I don’t think he ever saw that life as being as fulfilling as wresting his livelihood directly from untamed nature would have been. He wanted to have been born a barbarian, and not because he held an idealized view of the Noble Savage. He found civilization too filled with parasites to enjoy it. That is, the kind of people we see around us now who brought the current economic downturn upon us due to their own greed.

Howard is one of my favorite writers, and recently we’ve had the publication by Del Rey of two collected volumes of his work that really showcase Bob at his best: The Best of Robert E. Howard, Volumes 1 and 2, subtitled “Crimson Shadows” and “Grim Lands.” I recently finished these, mostly rereading stories that I’d read once upon a time.

At the same time as I was reading the Howard collections, I’ve also been reading The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eiseley (1907-1977). Eiseley was a very different fellow than Howard in many ways, being an academic and educator. But Eiseley was an anthropologist, a man with an absolute passion and fascination for the past, which comes through in all his writing. And in that way he and Howard were much the same. Howard loved the study of history, mostly the written history of humankind. Eiseley was more interested in the earliest human world, before there was any history as we know it. He was interested in that time when humans were becoming separated from the animal world in which we evolved. Though, judging from Howard’s first professional sale, a story about cavemen called “Spear and Fang,” maybe they weren’t so different in that way either.

Just this morning I finished a short essay by Eiseley that made me think of Howard. Loren wrote of being attracted to items that are useless in today’s world, a large club-like bolt, a broken shard of blue glass that he spent time shaping into a kind of spear point. But they might mean the difference between life and death if you lived in a more primitive world. Eiseley too seemed born out of his time. Maybe he was even born out of his species; he wrote so intimately of the natural world.

What is it about some people that they live in this world but dream of others? Neither Eiseley nor Howard held idealized views of the wondrous past. They knew that life in the savage world is often nasty, brutish, and short. But something in that world attracted them, invoked them perhaps. Could it be that they both understood, better than most of us, the true nature of humankind? We are all old souls under our clothes.
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Halfway Point

Well, yesterday I had sushi for lunch, buffalo wings for supper, and finished the 135th page of “Razored Land,” my WIP in progress. This also closes out Part 1 of the book, marking essentially the halfway point, although it’s not absolutely clear yet whether Part 2 will be as long, longer, or shorter. I’m tying up loose ends on Part 1 today but may take tomorrow off. After that, I’ll go back and do a fairly close read through on Part 1 before I rev up for Part 2. The final product will be longer than it is now. I already know some places where I need to add detail and foreshadowing.

In other writing related news, I’m scheduled to be interviewed this morning for the Covington Times Picayune, a local newspaper. Lana is responsible for setting that up. What a sweetheart she is. Later this month I’ll be a guest at Babel Con in Baton Rouge. So far I’m on panels about Pulp fiction and Dreams and Nightmares. And I have a reading scheduled. If anyone is going to be in the area July 17-19, drop in for a visit. I’ve had so much fun the past two years, and this year is planned to be bigger than ever. I assure you that I’m not going to be the biggest name there. There’ll be people you actually recognize. Thank goodness for that.

I may also be able to announce something that I’m really happy about soon. But I try never to count my chickens before they’re fried and in a bucket.
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Jack Stocker

A friend of mine by the name of Jack Stocker has died. He passed away this morning after having a massive stroke on Monday. He was 85, and long retired from teaching chemistry at the University of New Orleans.

Jack was not the kind of friend I saw every week, or even every year, but he was far more than an acquaintance. I met him at an SF/Fantasy con and that’s usually where I saw him. He often had a used book table at the local cons and would sit on a panel or two. I was on a few panels with him, and bought a lot of books from him. In the early days I got about half my Burroughs and Howard collection from him. Many of those were outright gifts. Jack loved to share with others his passion for good reads.

Jack also sold my books for me at the cons where we both were guests, and I often helped him pack up his books after the festivities were over. That stopped after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, because Jack lost his house and every one of his 20,000 plus volumes to the storm. Another man than Jack might have despaired after that, but Jack didn't let it beat him down. Although I know it hurt him.

Jack was instrumental in helping get me invited as a guest to my first con. He was a fan’s fan. Even in his 80s he was as eager as a little kid to talk about books, and his knowledge of SF/Fantasy was encyclopedic. I had many fun discussions with him over the year, and though I didn’t always agree with him there’s no one whose opinion on SF/Fantasy that I respect more.

Jack, you are missed, my friend.
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There’s No Pleasing Me

Sometimes I guess there’s no pleasing me. Back earlier in the year I posted about gratuitous violence and singled out the Edge Western Series for criticism. I also criticized the main character of the series, Edge himself, as a unrepentant sociopath. That post was “How Much Violence is Too Much?”.

Now let it be known, I do think the author, George G. Gilman (Terry Harknet), is a decent writer. The stories had a strong narrative drive and there were some pretty funny moments of black humor. But in general, I was just bothered by the unnecessary violence, and I found out later that at least some of this violence was included at the behest of the publisher and was not Gilman’s idea.

So then a friend told me that Gilman had written some later books in the series, long after the original run of the books had come to a close, that featured an older and less violent Edge. He pointed me to a website where I could download six of these as ebooks. I did so, and just finished the first one, called The Quiet Gun, on my Kindle. The verdict is: “I didn’t really like it.”

That’s where the title of my post comes from. I wanted Edge less violent and less sociopathic! Well, I got that in spades, and more. By age fifty, it appears that Edge has turned from a complete sociopath to a generally mild mannered fellow bent at all costs on staying on the right side of the law. He doesn’t even wear his gun anymore—he carries it in a carpetbag—and he’s dressed more like a “dude” than a gunslinger. He was trying to buy a wagon to get into the freight business, and didn’t even like to ride a horse anymore. In the first part of the book, he walked everywhere. It definitely felt like an alternate universe Edge. In fact, if I’d met the character in this book for the first time I would have thought he was something of a wimp.

As the book continued, Edge toughened up again and began to show flashes of the old Edge. He never, however, returned to the complete disregard for human life and decency that he’d shown in the early books of the original series. By the end, he’d become something of a gunslinger again but with apparent respect for the law and with some internal integrity. That was more in line with the kind of character I was looking for, but I was still reeling from the early story of the “meek shall inherit the earth” Edge. I guess there’s no pleasing me.

If you’d like to download the ebooks of the Older Edge series, the link is here.

And for a different view from someone who really liked the Edge series, the writer R. J. Dent, here’s another link.

As with anything, don’t just blindly accept my opinion on these books. If you’re curious, follow-up yourself. Your reading experience may vary!
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Friday's Forgotten Books: Five-Yard Fuller

For quite a few years I’d been keeping an eye open for a book called Five-Yard Fuller, which I probably last read when I was around 10. I finally found a copy through Amazon’s associates program and ordered it. As soon as I opened it up and saw the interior illustration of a tall young man in overalls running through a crowd of football players with the ball over his head, the memories came flooding back. I just had to reread it.

Five-Yard Fuller was written by Bob Wells. It features a young man named Clarence Fuller who decides he wants to play football for the Knights, a professional football team very much down on its luck. In fact, their rather hapless abilities reminded me a lot of the New Orleans Saints in their heyday of mediocrity. Fuller has never played organized football, only sandlot ball, but he tells the coach of the Knights that it looks pretty easy. You just “take that little ball in your hand and move it down to where them two posts are standing.”

The coach decides to teach Fuller a lesson and lets him try it. The result is that Fuller scores a touchdown by running over the entire defensive unit. And thus a star is born.

I first discovered Five-Yard Fuller in my local small town library. I don’t know exactly what year I read it but it was published in 1964. To my amazement, and some slight irritation, I found there were actually some sequels to this book. I sure would have liked to have read those too back in the day. One was called Five-Yard Fuller and the Unlikely Knights. Another was Five-Yard Fuller’s Mighty Model T, and yet another was Five-Yard Fuller and the NY Gnats, which, from what I’ve been able to glean on the net is actually about Fuller playing baseball. All were published in the sixties.

I had not realized, until I reread the book, that the Adam Sandler movie The Waterboy was apparently based pretty closely on the Wells book, although the book is much, much better. There are just too many similarities to be a coincidence, although I never heard of any acknowledgement from the movie folks that this was the case. Maybe Wells should have gotten some of the $160 million that movie was supposed to have earned. I don’t know if Wells is still living but my guess is not. I couldn’t find out much about the author on the net. The problem seems to be that there are too many folks named Bob or Robert Wells who have been authors. If anyone knows anything about this Bob Wells I’d appreciate you letting me know.

This is definitely a young adult/kid’s book. It’s probably not the cup of tea of many of you out there, but it sure did bring back some pleasant memories.
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In the Beginning

Beginnings are exciting. Moving to a new home. Launching a new career. The first weeks or months of a new relationship. (In many ways, my relationship with Lana still seems new after years of togetherness.) There is promise, hope, and some uncertainty in beginnings. I even like the beginning of a meal at a new restaurant, or the first sip of a strange new brew. It could be that something wonderful is in store.

For readers and writers, the beginning of a story, whether one they are reading or writing, has the same promise, hope, and uncertainty. I love openings. I love to read good ones and I strive to write them. It’s not easy.

To me, the single best opening sentence of any book I’ve read is from Fred Saberhagen’s First Book of Swords. “In what felt to him like the first cold morning of the world, he groped for fire.” Perhaps inevitably, the rest of the book did not quite live up to that promise.

Two great openings that did live up to the promise are from Joe Lansdale’s The Nightrunners, and from Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, a masterpiece of suspense.

Here’s Lansdale: “Midnight. Black as the heart of Satan. They came rolling out of the darkness in a black ’66 Chevy; eating up Highway 59 North like so much juicy, grey taffy.”

Here’s Straub: “Because he thought that he would have problems taking the child over the border into Canada, he drove south, skirting the cities whenever they came and taking the anonymous freeways which were like a separate country, as travel was itself like a separate country.”

These openings captivated me; I had had to read more. But I’ll tell you one opening that shut me down immediately. It was to Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire “’’I see-‘ said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room towards the window.” I put this book down immediately and have never read any of Rice's vampire/witch books. It just seemed so completely lame.

There are those who will accuse me of liking purple prose, but I don’t. I like intensity. I like emotion. I like to be dragged in by the power of the prose. I like to be made uncomfortable. The Rice book opened with a complete lack of threat. We seem to be sitting in a comfortable chair, perhaps having a cognac and a cigar. That’s nice on a cold winter night, but it’s not what I want to invest my reading time in. It’s not what I want to invest my writing time in.

Here's the opening to the first short story I sold, called “Still Life With Skulls.”

“There were eyes in the canvas that I had never drawn, desert eyes of bronze, sulfur eyes like cicatrixes, and river eyes of green--eyes full of dark wings and teeth. There were round mouths open to the night air, and sanguine tongues whose dance burned with holy words. And in the chiaroscuro wastelands of the unfilled canvas there were ruins whose outlines I could not yet trace. I knew only that they held a bitter rapture and smelled faintly of ashes.”

This is the beginning to the second vampire tale I sold, called “A Cold of Snow and Ghosts:”

“He ran northward across the frozen tundra, with the pure light of the Aurora streaming above him in broad arcs that sparked green and red with ionization. His flying feet seemed barely to skim the ground, leaving behind prints in the snow that were as delicate as fallen petals, and as ephemeral. Over his shoulder hung a caribou stag with its throat wrapped in a necklace of frozen black blood. He hoped that he would be in time.”

What about you? How important are beginnings for you? Whether in reading, writing, or anywhere else? What are some of your favorite openings?
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Taken

I finally got around to watching Taken tonight and I really enjoyed it. I’d call it the feel good movie of the year. The story is about a father whose daughter is kidnapped by slavers in France and who then hunts the kidnappers down and kills them. Liam Neeson plays the father and the old man can ‘do’ some action moves. For a while, Lana and I were having bad luck with our movie picks, but the last couple, Taken and Gran Torino, have been pretty good.

The scary thing is, of course, that such evils do happen and too often are allowed to happen by the corruption in our governments and police forces. I see in Greater New Orleans the police setting up speed traps to catch working people on their way to and from their jobs, and to ticket those who aren’t wearing their seat belts. I see them arresting taggers and throwing them into jail where they can clutter up the courts rather than just giving them fines. I see them setting up stings to arrest prostitutes and Johns rather than getting the pimps and organized crime figures who run the prostitutes. The police are gung ho on the small time criminals. Generally they seem to leave the big ones alone, and almost certainly it is because someone’s palm is getting greased.

A week ago we had two interesting police related events that happened only a day apart. It was announced one day that many thousands of dollars had gone missing from the evidence lockers of the NOPD; the very next day we heard how the police department needed a big increase in funding in order to keep our streets safe from criminals. Maybe they should just check their evidence lockers for the criminals. They could cut crime a lot faster and wouldn’t need any additional funding. Hell, they wouldn’t even need cars. The crime is happening right on their own premises.

Of course, there are plenty of good police officers. But where are the priorities of those who are assigning those officers to duty? The person without the seat belt is likely to hurt themselves before they hurt anyone else. The taggers should be fined if they deface public property, but do we need to clog up the courts with such cases? Set the fines, make ‘em steep if you want, but put the focus of the court and law systems on the big time criminals who fester like ticks on the body of the country.

Seems to me, we’re all being “taken.”
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Snakes and the Wild West

Despite the brutal heat here in southern Louisiana in June, I’ve been getting out occasionally in the late evening for short walks. And it appears from my walks that our local snake population is doing quite well. Almost every evening I’ve been out, I’ve seen a small snake on the road. I don’t believe they are the same snake, although they look close enough alike to be kin. I’ve seen them in at least three fairly widespread locations. I finally took the camera with me and snapped a few pics. They all look like the one featured here.

The most disconcerting thing about these wee ones is that they look a bit like copperheads to me, although I’ve not gotten down at eye level with them in an attempt to verify that. Even a small snake can cause a man to dance a jig when you nearly step on one. And snakes hardly ever invite you to pull up a patch of ground and visit. They just don’t seem all that friendly a creature.

In other news, I got my copy of The Tarnished Star, by Jack Martin (aka Gary Dobbs), and finished it in a couple of days. It’s really good. Fast paced, and well written in a straightforward, no nonsense style. The characters are clearly defined and you know who to root for. There’s the sheriff, a true upholder of the law, and his fiancé, who is actually a school teacher. There’s a local big rancher who runs roughshod over his opposition. He isn’t completely a villain, but he hasn’t done a good job of raising his spoiled son and therein lies the rub.

There’s considerable action in the book but not a lot of gore. I’ve been thinking lately of the “sub-genres” of western fiction. I’d certainly include The Tarnished Star as a “traditional” western. Think Louis L’Amour and James Reasoner. This is in opposition to the “spaghetti” western, such as the books by Joe Millard featuring the Eastwood character “blonde,” the “hyper-violent” western such as the Edge series by George Gilman, or the “adult” westerns such as the Trailsman or the Longarm series.

All in all, a very promising debut novel from our blogosphere friend.
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Father's Day, Sushi, and Talera

G., over at Cedar’s Mountain has a review of the second Talera Novel, Wings Over Talera. He is apparently an extremely discerning fellow, seeing as how he liked the book quite a lot. Thanks for the kind words, G.

My son came out Saturday for Father’s Day since he had to work a double shift on Sunday. We had a great time. We went to my favorite sushi place. We had our first official beer together while out to eat. After that we did some target shooting with my air pistol, watched Pale Rider, and then he helped me set up my DVD with surround sound. He also bought me the five disk collected works of White Zombie, which to me was better stuff than the material that Rob Zombie has produced separately since. Good kid!

I’ve been on a real sushi kick lately. I had it twice last week on Monday, then Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Love the stuff. Maybe part of it is the variety of the meal. There are many different flavors to a typical sushi meal. I’m a big fan of tuna in all its varieties, especially tuna tataki and pepper tuna. I’ll probably go again tomorrow.
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There's Rules, and There's Rules

My post today was triggered by something I read over at Writtenwyrd’s blog. Particularly, she posted Lawrence Watt-Evan's “Laws of Fantasy.” Thanks, Writtenwyrd.

Although I agree in principle with most of these rules, I do have a pedantic bone to pick here and there. Here’s my response to the rules:

1. Watt-Evans' First Law of Fantasy: Stories are about people.

-- I’m afraid this isn’t always true. Nor should it be. Personally, I generally prefer stories about people. But fantasy can also be a literature of ideas, in which the people are secondary. I think this happens more in SF than fantasy, but I can see it in fantasy. And, what of those writers who truly try to imagine an “alien” people. Certainly, most races in Fantasy are thinly veiled humans with pointed ears etc., but does that have to be? Mr. Watt-Evans may, of course, be defining people broadly, and that would dispense with most of my objection.

2. Watt-Evans' Second Law of Fantasy: People are never wholly good or wholly evil, and therefore characters should never be wholly good or wholly evil.

-- Here we have a problem with logic. Mr. Watt-Evans is absolutely correct in saying that real life people aren’t wholly good or wholly evil. The second part of his law doesn’t necessarily follow, however. The problem is that, by his own statement, these laws deal with “fantasy.” That means we’re already outside the realm of “real life.” Magic doesn’t work in the real world. So, if we are not allowing “unreal” characters then how can we allow unreal magic? One of the great powers of fantasy, of fiction in general, is that it allows us to contemplate and experience that which isn’t real. There is not only room in fantasy for unreal characters such as those who are wholly evil or wholly good, but one could argue that there is a demand at times for exactly that kind of character.

3. Watt-Evans' Third Law of Fantasy: The basic human motivations are universal.

-- I agree completely with this one. It does not necessarily follow, however, that all human characters in fantasy should have only real life human motivations. See my commentary under #2.

4. Watt-Evans' Fourth Law of Fantasy: Everything other than the basic human motivations will vary, depending on the cultural setting.

-- I agree. Culture is very powerful and most fantasy writers (including myself) struggle in developing realistic seeming cultures and properly predicting what the humans in those cultures will do.

5. Watt-Evans' Fifth Law of Fantasy: Magic, like everything else, has rules.

-- Again, I generally agree. Personally, I much prefer stories in which magic has clearly defined rules (although they don’t have to agree with the normal physical laws of our universe), and has a cost attached to using it. I’ve actually seen a literary writer deliberately break this rule for effect, however, and though I didn’t like it, I could accept it as an experiment. This is pretty much an exception, though, and doesn’t disprove for me the validity of this fifth law.

6. Watt-Evans' Sixth Law of Fantasy: If a story can be written without a fantasy element, then don't bother with the fantasy element.

-- I agree that fantasy elements should not just be thrown in. They should be integral to the story. However, doesn’t most “magical realism” violate the sixth principle? Many of the magical realism stories I’ve read could have been told without the fantasy elements. But they would have lost something, something I couldn’t necessarily define.
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More Ultimate Wisdom

Are you ready for this? Tell me what you think. The writing book that I’m very slowly making my way through just gave me another gem.

The writer’s running coach wanted to be a writer himself. Her advice: “Terry, you know everything about writing because you know running. If you go deeply in one thing, you know everything else. Just apply what you know about running to writing.”

Now, I wonder why she didn’t put this advice on page 1. I wouldn’t have had to read further. I’ve gone quite deep in eating, so I must know everything there is to know about writing as well. Whew, that’s a relief. No more study for me!

I’ve actually been able to translate some of the things that this author has said into common, everyday language. But this one I can’t even make the wildest guess at.

And while you're contemplating your navel and today's wisdom, here's the opening of the western story I just finished yesterday. It's called "Showdown at Wild Briar."

“You Josh Allen Boone?”

Leaning back in his chair in the Bucket Of Blood saloon, a man looked up from under the brim of a battered Stetson. His gray eyes studied the speaker, noted the briar-scarred chaps, the faded red bandana at the neck, worn smooth and soft with many washings, and the sun-worn face under a sweat-stained hat. The gun was worn high on the right hip. Except for the boots, which were hand-tooled and expensive, the outfit shouted cow puncher, but didn’t provide a name.

"Who's asking?"
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Brew Tour and Buzz Time

Well, sorry I didn’t get around to anyone’s blogs yesterday, and only to a few today. My writing discipline mostly fell apart on Saturday after drinking all day. Lana and I took a tour of the Abita Springs Brewery with some friends and all that free beer was too much for me to say no too. And after scoring a good buzz there, I knew I might as well tie one on because the writing day was shot anyway. Sunday I was recovering but was just too lazy to do any writing. I also had a moment to realize that I’d let quite a few school related things pile up, so Monday and this morning had to be catch up time. Even in the summer, the IRB committee that I’m on can generate labor. I did go to my Borders writing group Monday night and it was fun, especially since my friend Elora was back with us after a few weeks off for health reasons. It was good to see her.

Some Odds and Ends:

Lana and I watched Gran Torino Sunday and it was a pretty good movie. The ending surprised me and wasn’t quite the expected Clint Eastwood finale.
I’m reading two short story western collections, The Fatal Frontier and Best of the West II.

Fatal Frontier has been a bit hit and miss for me so far, although I’m not very far into it. There’s a great story early on by Marcia Muller called “The Time of the Wolves,” but unfortunately I’d already read it and it isn’t the kind you’d likely forget. There’s also a very fine story by our own James Reasoner called “Hacendado,” which I hadn’t read before. There’s also just a really, really weak story by John Jakes called “The Woman at Apache Wells.” This one started out to be one type of story, changed to another type of story, and ended as a third type. It contradicted itself throughout, and the main character and the ‘woman’ of the title were totally unbelievable. The tale might have been included for marketing reasons since Jakes’ name was listed first and prominently on the cover.

In regards to the other collection, all I can say is: “James Warner Bellah, where have you been all my life? Man this dude can write. I don’t remember ever reading anything by him before. Apparently he wrote mostly short stories, although quite a few of his tales were turned into movies by John Ford, including “Fort Apache,” and “She wore a Yellow Ribbon,” and “Rio Grande.” Bellah wrote mostly stories about the Cavalry fighting Indians it appears, and man he slams you down on the saddle with the column and you smell the leather and feel the hot wind. I’m gonna try to find out more about this guy.

That’s it for now. I should be back on track with visiting blogs tomorrow.
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Two Projects at Once

I admire those who can work on multiple fiction projects at the same time. I’ve discovered, once again, that it’s virtually impossible for me. I’d been rolling pretty well on the novel, Razored Land, and then, while reading some great Louis L’Amour western short stories, a sweet idea occurred to me for a western short. I thought: well, do both at once. I thought I’d work on Razored Land in my home office during the afternoon and early evening, then in late evening work on the laptop in the living room on the western, which is currently entitled Showdown at Wild Briar. The first day went well, 3 pages on Razored and almost 4 on Showdown. For day 2, I managed 1 and a half pages on Razored and 4 on Showdown. Day 3 (today), about 2 pages on Showdown and maybe 3 sentences on Razored.

It’s not the writing time that’s the problem. It’s the thinking time. The first couple of days weren’t bad because I’d already done quite a bit of thinking ahead on Razored Land and was working from that material. But as soon as the western idea occurred to me I began spending almost all my thinking time fiddling with it. The result, as soon as I dipped out the water (thoughts) already present for Razored Land, that project came to a screeching halt. I’ve decided my best bet now is to spend the next two days smashing the western home to a finish, then getting back fully into Razored Land and not letting myself be distracted further.

Guess I’m a one-project kind of guy.

In other news, did any of you watch a TV series when it was on called Invasion? It’s about a hurricane hitting Florida, followed by what appears to be an invasion of the body snatchers type of story. I never heard of it before but they were running “Invasion Week” this week, with back to back episodes every night, and I actually got hooked on it. Unfortunately, only one season was filmed and it ended with a big cliffhanger. I would have liked to see more. Anyone see this thing?
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Four Play My Way

Randy tagged me. Thank goodness because I wanted to play. It looks kind of fun. So here goes.
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Four Movies You Can See Over and Over

Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan
Once Upon a Time in the West
John Carpenter’s: The Thing
Alien

Four Places You Have Lived

Arkansas
Arkansas
Louisiana
Louisiana
Or, Farm, Fayetteville, AR, Metairie, LA, Abita Springs, LA.

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch (Now this is hard since I hate most TV)

Star Trek (original)
Nip/Tuck
Gunsmoke (Used to watch it)
Andy Griffith (Used to watch it)

Four Places You Have Been on a Vacation

Cross Plains, Texas
Disneyworld or Disneyland, whichever is in Florida.
Universal Studios
Silver Dollar City

Four of your favorite foods

Chicken (in all its infinite goodness and diversity)
Pork Chops
Steak
Turkey
(Is my carnivorous nature showing through?)


Four Websites You Visit Daily
Everyone on my Google Reader who Post every day. You know who you are.


Four Places You Would Rather Be

(This one is also hard. I love my house and yard and deck and Lana is here right now. But:)
Motorcycle riding
Trey Yuen Chinese Restaurant
A book signing for my NY Times Bestseller
The last one involves Lana


Four Things You Hope to Do Before You Die

See the Mayan ruins (almost got there this year but for the flu)
See my grandchild (but not quite yet)
See Meteor Crater, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon
Write a dozen more books, read at least 5,000 more


Four Novels You Wish You Were Reading for the First Time

To Tame a Land, by Louis L’Amour
The Swords of Night and Day, by David Gemmell
The Hour of the Dragon, by Robert E. Howard
Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke

Tag Four People You Believe Will Respond

I don’t do tagging actually.
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More Advice Gone WTF?

“Before you enter the writing each day, you may want to take a long drink of water or a walk around the block. Do something to let you sink into yourself, so you may write from that quiet place of equanimity and truth. You are safe, go ahead. Stay simple.”
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This is another quote from that writing book I’m reading, but I just have to ask, what the hell does it mean? Again, it sounds kind of nice. But do you understand it? Even if you do, I rather doubt you understand it in the same way I do. I take walks often, which allows me to think about the story I’m working on, but I’ve yet to sink into myself with a drink of water. Frankly, I don’t really know what “sink into” myself means. I’m guessing it is intended to suggest something like mediation. I meditate, or daydream at least, quite often but it’s a very different mindset for me than I experience while actually writing.

And where exactly is that “quiet place of equanimity and truth?” And why should I want to be “safe” while I write? I always think the best writing comes when I’m feeling unsafe, feeling the same kind of emotional intensity that my characters are feeling. “Safe” writing sounds like boring writing to me.

I get the feeling that this whole passage is meant to convey a very simple idea: In order to write you need to “focus.” Is that how you read it?
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Long Haired Country Boy

If you don't like the way I'm livin',
You just leave this long-haired country boy alone.
--Charlie Daniels

“Mommy, why does that man have long hair?”

I overheard this from a little girl, probably about four, as I walked through the library the other day. I didn’t hear her mom’s response but I thought the girl’s comment was pretty cute. I get this kind of thing a lot and in almost all cases it’s just hilarious. When my son was playing little league there was a kid on his team who had a little sister about that age. She used to stare and stare at me, but would hide behind her mom if I smiled at her. Finally, her mom explained to me one day why she stared. “She calls you: ‘Jesus at the park.’” That’s one of my favorite stories about my long hair.

Another favorite is when I went for the first time to set up my electricity service in Abita Springs. After paying, I stopped in the restroom right around the corner in the office, but the two ladies behind the counter thought I’d left. I came out of the bathroom only to hear one lady exclaim to the other about how “ridiculous” my hair length was. At that moment I passed in front of the counter and waved to them as I headed out the door. The look on their faces was…to steal a phrase…priceless. I chuckled about that one for days.

Last week, having lunch at a local sushi establishment, I became aware of a woman staring at me from across the tables. I kind of watched her from the corner of my eye as she leaned forward and whispered something to her friend while continuing to look in my direction. Instantly, the friend spun around and looked right at me. Laughing under my breath, I made eye contact with her, and she immediately blushed and began looking past me at the wall behind me as if that was the reason she was looking my way. Her friend should have told her, “no, no, no don’t turn around.”

Occasionally, though, I find comments on my hair irritating. About ten years ago, when I was chair of the Psych department, we were meeting our new freshmen students. I actually had quite a bit shorter hair then but I was shaking hands with one of the parents when he just bluntly made a gesture at my hair and said: “What kind of statement are you trying to make here?” Here was a guy who was dressed in a silk suit, with carefully matched tie and diamond tie pin, with a gold watch on his wrist, and he’s asking me about “my” statement? I wanted to say, “you’re a ween,” but instead I said: “I didn’t realize I was making a statement. I just like long hair.”

That’s the thing, really, my hair is not a statement about anything. At least not anymore. I originally grew it long for two reasons. First, for all of my childhood life my father cut my hair himself and never let it get more than a quarter inch long even though I begged him to. When I became a teenager, after he died, I let my hair grow. This was, at least in part, a rebellion, I’m sure, but the rebellious phase faded out back when my hair was barely shoulder length. Another reason I let my hair grow was because that was the style back in the seventies, and because I was in a band. But by the time I was 20 I had long hair for only one reason. I liked it. The fact that it seemed to irritate some people to no end was just gravy.

My mom has always seemed to believe the hair was a rebellion, and at least one of my “sister’s in law” seemed to make it her goal in life for years to get me to cut my hair. She told me once something along the lines of “You’d be a really good looking man if you got your hair cut.” I just laughed and told her, “well, I’m not trying to attract you.”

The strangest thing about it all is that I just can’t for the life of me imagine why anyone cares? What is it about long hair on men that seems to “threaten” some people? Why is it worthy of a stare or a snide comment? Seems to me there are a lot more interesting things to observe about people than their hair.
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Harry Potter

Well, I’ve finished the entire seven book Harry Potter series now. I’m sorry that it’s over. I have to give J. K. Rowling high marks, both for the individual books and for the overall arc of the series. In fact, I’ve never been so caught up in a series that I read them all one after another after another. The last two, particularly, put the reader through an emotional roller coaster, and as a reader I appreciate every minute of such an experience. Even three days after closing the cover on the last volume, I still feel that sense of loss that comes with being finished with a beloved book. And although I normally leap right into a new book after one is done, I waited a day before starting something different (a Star Trek book if you must know.) A day is a lifetime for me where reading is concerned.

I’m not going to give details of the books here because I don’t want to reveal any spoilers. The books are too good for that. But I will tell you my overall impression of the story arc. The first two volumes, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets are indeed books for young, young adults. They’re good, but they only hint at the more mature development that picks up with volume 3, Prisoner of Azkaban. After that, for me, it was a straight run to the finish, with each book capable of standing on its own but also laying the ground work for the next. At first I thought book five, The Order of the Phoenix, marked a fall off. I didn’t much like Harry at the start of that one, but in retrospect I think Rowling simply turned him into a true teenager in that book and handled that task deftly. I was also pleased to see that Rowling’s action scenes substantially picked up, although these are definitely character books and not truly action driven.

It’s hard to say which book was my favorite because in this case I really think you have to judge the whole series together. And as a series it is outstanding. However, for me, the last two books, where the overall story is coming to its climax, stand out in my mind. I wish I still had them left to read.

Thank you, Ms. Rowling! Not that you need it, but you have another fan.
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Good Advice Gone Bad

Ever hear a piece of advice that sounds great at first hearing but starts to look pretty lame when you begin to dissect it? I found just such a piece of advice in Wild Mind, a book on writing that I’m reading along with my Harry Potter fix. The advice was essentially, find a line you like, then just add the next line, and the next. “Don’t think further ahead than the next line. Don’t think back. Just build that story.” And: “Place those sentences down, as if you were laying bricks. Keep each one true.”

Man that sounds good. Or does it? As I began to think about it, two problems with these statements quickly occurred to me. First, if you build a piece line by line you’re not building a story. A story goes somewhere. It has a destination, even if that destination is rather vague and different for different readers. I’ve started stories the way this author suggests, and I think it can work to find a beginning, but unless I soon begin to think ahead, and back, and sideways, the piece ends up nowhere and either gets stuck in my “writing pieces” file or gets reworked from the beginning with more thought given to it.

Second, although the bricklaying metaphor works perfectly for the suggestion the author makes, I don’t think it works as a metaphor for how stories and novels really get written. Many successful writers I know work from outlines; a much better metaphor, then, might be a blueprint. And if you just lay one brick after another after another you’re going to end up with a wall, not a building. I don’t write with an extensive outline, but that means I constantly have to stop writing and start thinking. At some point you just can’t proceed until you know at least partly what has happened before and what is going to happen next. At least I find it to be so.

Turns out, the author of Wild Minds seems to have gotten this advice from Raymond Carver, and this was an epiphany of sorts for me. That’s why I can’t stand Carver’s stories. They begin in a random place, meander about for a bit while repeating themselves, and then end up nowhere. They’re walls of bricks, with no windows or interiors. They’re not really stories.

Whew! Now I can rest easier.
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