Common versus Poetical Language

I love poetical language in prose. My favorite books not only tell a decent story, but they tell it in heightened prose, either sheer and lovely or powerful and evocative. There is a music to the best prose.

“The old man has been ravened from within. That blind and greedy stare of his, that caved-in look, and the mouth working, reveal who now inhabits him, who now stares out. I nod to Death in passing, aware of the sound of my own feet upon my path. The ancient is lost in a shadow world, and gives no sign.” (Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard)

Most of the time when I write, I strive for the same thing. I not only want to tell the story, I want the prose to sing as the tale goes along. However, I just finished a story where I made no particular effort to get the prose to sing. There’s relatively little description. I minimized metaphors and similes. There’s a lot of dialogue. And I found out something:

Constructing poetical prose takes an immense amount of time and work. At least for me. On the days when I worked on this latest story, the word count expanded dramatically above my usual average. And the writing was just…easier. It made me think of another writer whose work I have greatly admired:

Ray Bradbury was a big influence on my writing, particularly, I think, on my desire to write poetically. Bradbury’s early stuff is just so incredibly beautiful that I am often left in awe. Some of the stuff he wrote in much later years doesn’t have the same zing and zest to me. I wonder if he noticed too that it takes a lot of effort to create poetry in prose. Did he finally get tired of the effort? Or did he just decide that a change in tone was due?

I don’t think my discovery is going to revolutionize my own writing. At least not yet. But I will be paying close attention to how this current story gets received by readers. Do readers really care about beautiful prose? Do some of them actually find it distracting? I know story is king, but shouldn’t the king be adorned?  Or is it better for the king to have no clothes?

What say you?

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Miscellaneous Adventures

Been pretty busy this week. We had mid-terms due. Here are a few things that happened.

1.  I had an amazingly beautiful dream on Wednesday. Lana and I had gone to a mountainous nature preserve where we saw five snow leopards crossing a creek. As night fell and I looked up at the sky I realized we weren't on earth. The stars were huge and absolutely myriad, and they did not all appear white but were gorgeous in brilliant shades of yellow, red, green and blue. Then, as I scanned the sky, I found a vast planet glowing a sullen red in one portion of the sky. The planet's seas appeared black, and there was a ring around the planet that was clearly an artificial construct. I could see space stations in orbit around the planet and understood that many of them were docks or construction sites for spaceships. I sure wish I could paint these images.

2. Lana and I watched the new Godzilla movie on Thursday night. We both thought it sucked, although I think Lana liked the depiction of Godzilla a fair amount. She certainly cheered when he used his lightning breath.  The movie definitely seemed to hark back to the original Japanese movies. However, all the plot lines involving humans in the movie turned upon them being absolutely stupid. I found myself unable to root for any of the human characters because of this stupidity. For example, why in hell would you arm a nuclear weapon while still in the city if you intend to take it out to sea to detonate it?

3. I found in my last year's reading that I didn't peruse many graphic novels so I've ordered a few from Amazon that should be in soon. I will report on them here.

4. And, delightfully, Randy Johnson has reviewed "The Adventures of an Arkansawyer" over on his "Not the Baseball Pitcher" blog. Thanks to Randy! I hope you will check it out.
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Lives

I was driving home from a writing conference, meandering my way through mist-cloaked mountains. There was other traffic on the highway, but not much. The road was wet. It was daylight but I couldn’t see the sun for the fog.

To my left the mountains fell away into a tree-choked gorge. On the right they rose and rose, majestic, covered with primeval forest. I came around a curve and was surprised and depressed to see a long, wide clearing running like a scar through the woods. Timber cutters had been at work here. The bare clay shown through, brownish-red and churned to mud.

The boles of sawn trees lay stacked along the scar. I gaped in astonishment at how huge they were. I thought of redwoods, which I’ve never seen in reality, but these seemed even bigger. Again, an impression of the primeval swept over me. It would not have seemed amiss to glimpse the towering forms of dinosaurs moving along the highway, or the sweeping leathery wings of pterodactyls stirring the mist-shrouded sky.

Then I saw a truck laden down with cut timber. These trees were even bigger. They dwarfed the truck that carried them. And something clicked inside my head. “This isn’t real,” I told myself. “I’m dreaming.”

Not long ago, I had determined a way to tell if I were dreaming or not. It didn’t involve pinching myself, which doesn’t work. No, what I do if I think I’m dreaming is jump up and see if I can touch the ceiling of the room I’m in. If I touch it, then I’m dreaming. I’ve used this successfully before but here I was in a car. I brushed the roof above my head with my fingers but that told me nothing.

While trying to come up with some other test, I realized I’d already proven the dream quality to myself anyway. While I’d been focused on trying to figure out how to know if I was dreaming, the car had gone on driving “itself” along the highway without running off the road. That would be nice in real life, but it proved to me here that I was in a dream.

Typically, when I find myself going lucid, I immediately start to fly. I love flying and know I don’t have a lot of time to do so in a dream. This time, though, I wanted to see this incredible forest better and simply projected myself out of the car onto a path through the trees. The mist was heavy and damp. I felt a chill. I didn’t care.

The trees loomed far, far over my head, their tops lost in white. The path wound between them and I moved along it, encased in an amber silence that was profound. At one point I saw a pale shape watching me from among the trees. In the real world it would have just been a billow of mist, but I knew here that it was a friendly spirit. I felt very strongly that it was my father. The dream dissolved a moment later and I had no chance to speak to him. I’ve done so in other dreams.

Someone told me not long ago that they hated to waste time sleeping. I never begrudge the time myself. Not only do my physical pains and worries disappear when I sleep, but I get to visit new landscapes and sometimes whole new worlds. I get to feel that oneness with the universe that I seldom feel while awake.

No, I don’t begrudge sleeping. It is then that I live other lives.

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A Year of Reading

Today is my birthday. Fifty-six now. Hard to believe. I still feel mentally about eighteen, but when I try to get up out of a chair my true age comes calling. I count my reading year from birthday to birthday. For the past couple of years I've done a post about it on this day, or soon after. Here's another.

My book consumption was down this year. I managed 72 books, which broke a 7 year streak of reading over 100 a year. This is actually my lowest average since 2000-2001, where I read 71 books. I also break my list down by genre. Westerns won this year, with 16 total. That's the most in this genre I've read since 1997-1998. Nonfiction and SF were next with 12 each. That's up for NF and down for SF from last year.

I have done more writing this year than last so that accounts for some of the decreased reading time and decreased reads, but I think more of the downturn is due to a decrease in certain genres. Three genres dipped pretty low this year, poetry, graphic novels, and YA fiction. All three of these are relatively short works compared to some others, meaning that they require less reading time. In contrast, NF works are generally slower reads. Overall, this is probably what added up to fewer total books.

I don't feel compelled to read 100 books a year, although I like to. The only real disappointment was that my average book consumption per year actually dropped a little this year, from 80.15 per year (since age 6) to 79.98. I don't actually have clear yearly records going back past 1987-1988, when I started keeping records like I'm doing now. But I have been keeping a general list of books I've read since my early teen years. I'm sure there are plenty of books that I forgot to write down in those years, when I wasn't quite so obsessive about it. And I probably have missed a number of books I read in the years before I hit my teens. So, the overall averages are just approximations, although I'm convinced they are fairly close.

In other news, I just sent out my third author Newsletter. Most of you who visit here regularly are certainly on the list to get it. But if you didn't and are interested in getting a copy, you can email me or message me on facebook and give me your email address. I send out no more than two a year so it won't clutter your inbox. My email is kainja at hotmail dot com.

Enjoy your day!
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The Adventures of an Arkansawyer

Well, another book goes up on Amazon. This one is called The Adventures of an Arkansawyer. Right now it is print only. It contains two sections. The first one is familiar to some of you. It’s “Days of Beer,” albeit expanded a bit with some fresh memories.” The second section, which is about twice as long, is called “The Adventurers of an Arkansawyer.” Both sections are memoirs.

I always intended to do a print version of “Days,” but it wasn’t long enough on its own.  Back in the spring I decided to a write a companion section with humorous memories from my experiences growing up in Arkansas. I worked on it over the summer and into early fall, until it finally threatened to become overwhelming. I finally subdivided it into two sections, 1) memories from childhood up through graduate school in Arkansas, and 2) memories from the years after I left Arkansas for Louisiana. That latter piece will be called “Tales of an Arkansaw Traveler,” though it is a long way from being finished.

This is the first of my own books that I’ve self published through CreateSpace. I did the Inklings anthology late last year, but that had many other writers in it. Why print only? Well, I figured the biggest interest for my memoir pieces would be around my hometown, but Days of Beer didn’t sell that well there, and I wondered if it was because it was ebook only. So, this time I decided to go print only—at least initially—to see if that would have any effect.

As for doing a later ebook version, I’ve got a question for the blogosphere. Since Days of Beer is already an ebook, I’m wondering whether I should e-publish The Adventures of an Arkansawyer in its complete form, or publish only the section with the new memories. What do you think?  Got to give it some thought.

As always, thanks to my honey for a great cover image. If you want to check out the book itself, here’s the link to Amazon. 

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CONtraflow Report

I don't attend many SF conventions just because most take place in the fall and spring, when I'm in school. It's hard to get away. Fortunately, CONtraflow is local and I've been going for the past four years. I hope to continue that streak.

CONtraflow is a three day Con. I got there around 4:00 on Friday and was there till about 10:00. All I really had to do was go to the Meet the Guests party and eat a little cake afterward. I mostly visited with old friends, some writers/guests and many of the staff folks who volunteer and keep it all running and smooth. This year, Greg Benford was the Guest of Honor. I've read quite a few of his books, although not too many of his most recent.

Saturday I only had one panel, at 9:00 that night. It was about horror fiction. I sat on it with Kurt Amacker, another local writer who leans more toward the comic/graphic side of the equation. We really focused on Science fiction horror, like Alien, The Thing, etc, rather than on supernatural horror, like The Exorcist. I also listened in on some other cool panels during the day, though, one on science and faith, which was helpful to me given that I've been long working on a book on that topic. Another interesting panel was on Queer Science Fiction. That is quite a broad term and encompasses far more than "gay." Great to hear viewpoints I've never heard before. I also got to see a short fan made film from the group "Star Trek Continues." It was a take-off from the Mirror Universe episode of the original Trek series and was just excellent. The passion of the actors really showed through. I loved it.

Sunday I had two panels, a morning one on "What's next in Supernatural Literature," and an evening one on "Pulp Writers."  We had a freewheeling discussion in the morning one on all kinds of trends in the supernatural genres but couldn't arrive at a clear consensus other than most of the "creatures" we see now are likely to continue to exist in literature at various levels, either rising temporarily or falling equally temporarily.

The evening Pulp Writer panel was fun. We had four folks, up from two last year. But two of the four were the same folks from last year and they'd enjoyed it then. We, of course talked about Howard, Burroughs, Lovecraft, Smith etc. I suggested that the closest thing to modern pulp was the Hollywood blockbuster, although it often only adapts the surface aspects of pulp.

After that I went to the dealer's room and found, as I expected, lots of books on sale. I picked up a number that I didn't have, including some more in the Dumarest of Terra series by E. C. Tubb, and several William Tenn novels that I didn't have. There weren't any 'notable' finds but buying books always brings a grin to my face.

As for blogging, I missed visiting blogs over the weekend since I was only home long enough to sleep. I'm now behind on a number of things and give two tests this week so I may not be visiting blogs for a few more days. After that I will resume as normal. I do see that the blogosphere didn't really miss a beat while I was gone so I'm sure that will continue for a bit longer before my absence is noted and everything just shuts down! :)

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CONtraflow Con, 2014

This weekend I will be a guest at CONtraflow Con in Greater New Orleans. I've attended for several years now and always have a great time. Good to see old friends and make new ones. Below is my schedule, although it won't be quite accurate, as I'll explain: I can't be at the 2:00 Friday thing because I'll still be in classes. I've emailed about that, but I was late getting that email to them so I haven't heard back if it will be cancelled or moved. Completely my fault. The time has gotten away from me this year. I know that most of you aren't anywhere around here but if you are then this Con is a fairly low key one with lots of friendly faces and fun panels.

Friday, 10/3

The Truths of Self Publishing, 2pm, Panel Room 2

Opening Ceremonies/Meet the Guest Party, 4:30pm, Panel Room 1

Contraflow Cocktail Party, 9pm, Hospitality Suite

Saturday,10/4 Science Fiction Horror, 9pm, Panel Room 2

Sunday, 10/5
What Comes Next in Supernatural Fiction, 10am, Panel Room 3

The Pulp Writers, 2pm, Panel Room 5

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Western Reviews

Been reading a lot of westerns lately. Here are some capsule reviews.

Outlaw Ranger, by James Reasoner:

G. W. Braddock is a man of principles, a Texas Ranger striving to live up to the legacy of his father and to his own beliefs. He's made his home with the Rangers, but when political enemies go after the troop and force cuts in manpower, Braddock finds himself let go and adrift. He may not wear the Ranger badge legally anymore, but morally he's still a ranger and there's plenty of work to do along the frontier. Very fine story with a lot of action and some contemplative moments. Braddock struggles not only against outlaws and murderers, but against the memory of a father who had a complicated story of his own. I've never been let down yet by a James Reasoner story

 Day of the Dollar, by Ty Johnston:

This is a western screenplay. Very much of a spaghetti western type of setting and plot. It was fast moving, with more description than you typically see in screenplays. I liked that. Fun characters and a fun setting. Made me feel like I was watching a lost Man with No Name western.

One Against a Gun Horde, by Richard Prosch:

This is a collection of short western tales from Richard Prosch. The collection as a whole is very strong. My favorite was the last piece, "Police Escort." These stories are also rather unique in the western field by not being shoot-em-ups. The stories hinge primarily on character, with a healthy dose of humor.

Seven out of Hell (Edge #8), by George G. Gilman:

Another Edge book with a lot of flashbacks to incidents in the Civil War. I tend to like these. Not much of an ending on the main story. More a series of anecdotes and I guess set up for the next in the series. Still, not bad reading.

Last Chance Canyon, by James Reasoner:

What an excellent story. I loved this one. It combined my love of westerns with horror and I found it a compelling read. Highly recommended!

By the Gun, by Richard Matheson:

A collection of six longish short western stories from Richard Matheson. He proves adept at this genre, as he was with other genres. There's a bit of sameness in several of the tales, which keeps it from earning 5 stars from me. I might suggest reading one, then giving yourself a break before reading another. Good stories, though.

Doc Holliday, by Matt Braun

This is the first Matt Braun book I've read but I already ordered two more. I liked it a lot. Of course, I've always been rather interested in the character of Doc Holliday. Although I don't know the specific history, I'm pretty sure Braun took a lot of liberties with Holliday's life. That's OK. I didn't read it as a biography. The character was well drawn and there was quite a few interesting developments. I did think the book was probably a little longer than it needed to be and sections of it were pretty similar to other sections. Yet, it certainly kept me reading. It actually ends before Deadwood and the shoot out at the OK corral. I thought that would mean a sequel but apparently there is none.

King Colt, by Luke Short:

Pretty good. I didn't find it a real page turner but it kept me interested throughout. The basic plot is that a good guy has to turn outlaw temporarily to prove who the real criminal is.

  

Redemption Hunters, by James Reasoner:

This is the second in the "Redemption" series by James Reasoner. We return to the town of Redemption, Kansas, where a former Texas cowboy named Bill Harvey has become Sheriff. This time Harvey faces off against outlaws and a group of Pawnee who have jumped the reservation. The town is caught in the middle. Good solid storytelling.

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What I’ve Been Working On

I haven’t talked much about writing here lately, but I have been doing some. For fiction, I’ve had some problems finishing things. I’ve started close to a dozen stories, a western featuring a hero with a burned face called “The Scarred One,” another story about my heroic fantasy character Krieg, called “Where All the Souls are Hollow,” an urban fantasy piece, a sort of schlock horror piece called “HogZ,” and the list goes on.

I still have a number of pieces in various stages of completion from last year, three western tales featuring a character named Lane Gabriel, a YA fantasy tale featuring fox kits called “Farhaven,” and a prequel of sorts to “Under the Ember Star.” I like all of them but haven’t touched any of them in months now.

The Krieg piece will be finished but it’ll probably be a couple more weeks. I’ve had a very busy time at school with the research committee that I chair. The rest of the pieces? I don’t know. I’ll see how I feel when the Krieg story is done.

However, I did make very good progress this summer on another project, which is completed. Quite a few folks seemed to enjoy my humorous memoir, “Days of Beer,” and I wanted to do a print version of it. However, it just wasn’t long enough so I figured I would add some more memoir stuff about growing up in the south. Once I got started, a whole lot of stuff started coming back to me and I ended up writing another forty + thousand words of material about wacky adventures I’ve had. The vast majority of this had no relationship to beer drinking, although I did add a few items to the original Days of Beer material.

I decided to call the collection “Adventures of an Arkansawyer,” and I’m now going through the proofing process on it. It will include the Days of Beer stuff but add that extra forty thousand words. Initially it will appear in print form only, but I will do an ebook version of it down the line.

The reason for starting out in print is because of what happened with Days of Beer as an ebook only publication. I had hoped the book would attract more attention around my home town of Charleston, Arkansas but it really didn’t. A few people did read and enjoy it and let me know, but for the most part it went nowhere. I know a lot of folks in that area aren’t yet into reading electronic materials so I want to see if the print book does better there. Anyway, I’ll announce further information about this work as it becomes available. 

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Two Poems

I wrote the following poem a few weeks ago now, but lest anyone be concerned, it does not reflect my current feelings. It was me on my commute harking back to a much earlier time in my life. I imagine most people go through phases like this. They just don’t write about them.

THE EMPTY

I see a pinprick of sun,

red on clouds to the east.

All else is gray.

Sky.

Water.

Road.

My empty heart.

I am a wave passing through.

Leaving a moment’s ripple,

that soon dies away.

No trail behind me where I went.

No path ahead where I go.

The world is a hollow place

and I have left no mark.

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Even when I’m feeling good I don’t tend to write upbeat poetry. I guess I’m just a moody SOB. But in an effort to be more positive, I have constructed the following ditty. I do hope you enjoy.

THE LITTLE BIRD

Saw a little bird hop hopping all around

Eating the seed I’d spread on the ground

He hopped to the left and hopped to the right

He hopped all day; it was quite a sight

You could see his hopping was all for fun

As he bopped around in the glorious sun

The day passed sweetly and evening fell

Then came cat, without his bell

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Sleep Paralysis Event

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon typically associated with dream sleep. Normally, one is paralyzed during dream sleep to keep you from acting out your dreams. It's highly adaptive given that responding to dream imagery as if it were real could be fatal. The paralysis is supposed to be perfectly coordinated with the dreams. When one wakes up from a dream, the paralysis should end at the same time.

In sleep paralysis, the paralysis persists after the dream has ended. This usually lasts no more than 30 seconds to a minute, although sometimes it can last considerably longer and be extremely frightening to those who experience it. I've had sleep paralysis attacks but never any that lasted more than ten to fifteen seconds. Until last night.

Sleep paralysis generally takes two forms. In the first, and more common form, the individual awakens completely and the eyes open, but the body remains paralyzed from the neck down. The person has no residual dreaming experiences but is wide awake. In the second form of the phenomenon, the person wakes up and becomes aware of their paralysis, but there remain some dream elements involved with the experience. In such cases the eyes often remain closed.

I had the second kind of experience last night. I woke up from a dream and knew that I was awake. But when I went to move I found I could not. I immediately recognized it as a sleep paralysis event so I didn't panic. At first I just tried to "force" myself to move. Then a new twist entered my experience. I seemed to hurl myself into a completely black space. It felt infinite and totally empty. It was definitely discomforting.

I've learned in the past that straining to move seldom works, so I relaxed my body, which has generally worked for me before. Unfortunately, it didn't this time. And by now this paralysis event had continued well past the longest one I'd ever had before. I resumed straining, trying to force my legs to press outward and my arms to lift. It 'felt' as if I were turning around and around in the black space but I could tell intellectually that I wasn't actually moving. I felt a little snick of fear then because this was going on much longer than ever before, and the totally black space felt very unpleasant. I stopped straining to move again and just started saying over and over to myself: "It'll pass. It'll pass."

A moment later it did and I sat up in bed, breathing rather rapidly. I soon returned to sleep and had no further issues, but it still feels a bit weird to me this morning. A bit unsettling, I should say. But grist for the mill.

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25 Song Personal History

I picked up this meme over at Broken Bullhorn. It's supposed to be a snapshot of your personal history with music, I think. I just did it quick, trying to remember songs at various points in my life that were important to me.

1. Crimson and Clover – Tommy James and the Shondelles

2. Beer Drinkers and Hellraisers – Z. Z. Top

3. Last Child -- Aerosmith

4.  Head East – Never Been Any Reason

5.  Roundabout – Yes

6. White Room – Cream

7. Slow Ride – Foghat

8. Lazy -- Deep Purple

9. Bad Company – Bad Company

10. Stairway to Heaven – Led Zepplin

11. Mississippi Queen -- Mountain

12. Carry on my Wayward Son – Kansas

13. The Black Widow – Alice Cooper

14. Snowblind – Black Sabbath

15. Sympathy for the Devil – Rolling Stones

16. All along the watchtower – Jimi Hendrix

17. Ace of Spades – Motorhead

18. Shout at the Devil – Motley Crue

19. Leper Messiah – Metallica

20. Peace Sells – Megadeth

21. Celtic Frost – Procreation of the Wicked

22. Deaf Forever – Motorhead

23. Bummer – Monster Magnet

24. Down with the Sickness – Disturbed

15. Funeral Bell -- Black Label society

Spawn of Dyscrasia

Spawn of Dyscrasia, by S.E. Lindberg, IGNIS Publishing LLC, Dyscrasia Fiction ™  235 pages. Front cover by Ken Kelly.

Well, I’m impressed. This is an entertaining fantasy novel that—I would argue—rises to the level of art. I judge that in a couple of ways. First, the actual prose here is simply lovely. It has the kind of poetry and descriptiveness to it that I constantly seek for but seldom find. Note: by lovely I don’t mean that it is sweet and bucolic. Quite the reverse. There are plenty of gore-rich scenes, enough to do a horror novel proud. But the language is so vivid and rich that you can just revel in it. At least, I did.

Second, the thing that really raises this book to the level of art is the fact that the author creates an almost entirely alien world, with many surrealistic elements, and yet never lets the imaginative veil of the story slip. There’s never a moment when you see through the strangeness of the created world to catch a glimpse of the mundane world behind it. This is the equivalent of an actor maintaining a character they are playing even outside the world of a particular film. But, a book typically takes a lot longer to write than an actor would spend living inside a character for a movie. Maintaining the illusion in a novel is hard enough even when the story is much more realistic than the fantasy world Lindberg has created here. I can imagine that doing so took a tremendous amount of focus and attention during the actual writing process. That in itself suggests an artist at work.

The world itself is endlessly fascinating and—in my experience—unique. Although there are beings in the world that resemble insects, and reptiles, and birds, none of them is quite what they seem. You can’t simple file one of the creatures under the label “ant,” or “dragon,” for example, and then feel you’ve captured its essence. They may resemble such beings, but they are not such beings. They are something different, although completely consistent within themselves throughout the story.

Although I enjoyed the book immensely, there is a caveat for the reader that I also want to mention. I would suggest that this book is not one that readers can “toss off casually.” In other words, it demands concentration and focus.  Because the author never makes a slip in world building, it means that if you try to read it with half a mind you’ll probably miss something important. I can pick up the typical thriller or western, for example, skip a page here and there, or let it lay for a week and then pick it up again, without any problem. I quickly found that I couldn’t do this with Spawn of Dyscrasia. I needed to immerse myself in the work in order to truly appreciate it.

All in all, I rate this book very highly. I read it in paperback form and am glad I did because I really like this cover as well and will be happy to see it on my shelves. (The cover is by Ken Kelly, who will be no stranger to readers of fantasy.) There is also a Kindle version of the book, though. The paperback is available from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and will run you a little less than $14.00 bucks at either site. The Kindle version is $4.99. There is currently no Nook version.

This is actually the second book of Dyscrasia fiction, by the way. The first is called Lords of Dyscrasia. I’ve not read that one and didn’t feel like I needed to in order to understand what was happening here. A third book is planned and it looks like it will be more closely linked to Spawn than Spawn was to Lords. I’ll be starting Lords of Dyscrasia soon, and will be looking forward to the new book.

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Review of Metallica: This Monster Lives

Metallica: This Monster Lives, the inside story of Some Kind of Monster, the documentary movie. Written by Joe Berlinger (the filmmaker) and Greg Milner.

I gave this three and a half stars. This is about the making of the Metallica documentary called Some Kind of Monster. The primary filmmaker, Joe Berlinger, wrote the book, with help from someone named Greg Milner. I’d never heard of either of them but then I never pay much attention to moviemakers. I've seen the movie, though, and thought it was pretty good. This gives a lot more detail and gives information that couldn't be fitted into a movie.  Here's what I liked best, 1) the stuff about Metallica and the extra details that the movie didn't show, 2) the reasons why some material that was filmed didn't make it into the movie, 3) the way in which the material was often presented out of chronological order in order to show the "essence" of the story rather than an absolute straight ahead telling, and 4) the reactions of Metallica to the movie.

Other than the fact that I don’t really buy the “essence” comment, I liked all this material. Showing material out of chronological order is manipulating the material to tell a story in a certain way and to make certain points arrived at by the filmmakers. I understand why it’s done, for dramatic effect. Although Berlinger seems to feel strongly about the “essence” of the story concept, he admits that this is a selection process, and since they filmed thousands of hours and had to cut it down to movie length you can imagine that making such choices was pretty tough.

What I didn't care as much for: a lot of information given by Joe Berlinger about his previous documentaries and how much he grew as a person while making this one. I'm in no way, shape, or form a movie buff, or even interested in the whole field of film. This material might prove much more interesting to someone who is. It was well written and flowed with the other material for the most part. I just didn’t really care. My sole interest was in the band.

The one film-related thing I did find interesting was that Berlinger is the guy who handled the filming of Blair Witch 2, which was critically lambasted but which was actually far superior to the original Blair Witch movie. That movie was a completely faked documentary, or mockumentary. In other words, Blair Witch 1 was one of the silliest moments in film history. Berlinger talked about how he didn’t like the concept of the mockumentary and I absolutely agree with him and this upped my respect for him considerably. He also talked about how the failure of Blair Witch 2 triggered a long period of depression for him and made him think his career was over. I could sympathize with him here for sure.

All in all, I liked the book quite a lot. It was perhaps a little long, and I might have liked more selected pieces of dialogue from the band, but it was worth my time.
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Storm Belgium Review

I'm afraid I didn't care much for this one. As the first in a series of WWII books told from the German point of view, it sounded interesting. The back cover blurb described it as "devastatingly accurate," and began with the phrase, "The invasion of Belgium has begun.”

I don't know about the devastatingly accurate part. It sounded accurate to me but I'm not an expert on this particular history. I've discovered that Gunther Lutz was probably Charles Whiting, who wrote many nonfiction books about WWII. I’ve read a few of those and generally rated them pretty highly. Thus, I can believe the accuracy statement.

However, the fictional story here was just flat out boring. It certainly didn't start with the invasion of Belgium. The book is only 186 pages long but we spent the first 125 pages following the paratroopers (Jagers) through training. There's one exciting scene during the training period, but that was it. There’s also a sex scene, which was OK and probably done to provide some “gritty” realism.

After the attack on Belgium actually began, around page 125, it concluded again after about twenty-five pages. The rest of the book was aftermath. The fighting itself was OK, though nothing to write home about. But by the time I got to it I didn't really care. Most of the characters also did not seem very realistic to me, although I liked the two main characters.

I’m sorry to say that I was very disappointed and won't be reading any more in this series. Whiting also wrote fictional WWII novels under other pseudonyms, including Leo Kessler, but I’m wary of trying any of them. I may continue to read his nonfiction but I doubt I’ll be looking at any of his fiction. At least not right away.

Here’s a quote from the section after the battle in Belgium began, and after the Jager's glider has crashed in the water. Note that it’s all one sentence.

“However, this mood of optimism was balanced by the continuing menace of the haphazard machine gun fire as the Belgian fortress troops continued to rake the mass of wreckage caught in the wing supports and control wires the shattered glider brought with it, besides turning their attention to two bodies that were now floating face down in the centre of the canal, drifting slowly away with the current at the centre of the channel, and pinkly suffusing the water as they did so.”

I’ll leave you with that. Not exactly compelling action.  

The All Consuming

I've known people who have told me that they possess a "stillness" of mind. They say they can sit and just "be," without a constant yammering and clamoring from their own thoughts. I'm not such a person, though I envy those who are.

Thoughts surge constantly through my head. They careen this way and that. They roil in eddies and rush in cataracts over tumbling rocks. Many of them are anxious thoughts, worried thoughts. This is one reason I used to drink. Alcohol would shut at least some of the thoughts down.

Don't get me wrong. I like thinking. I just wish many times that I could keep my thoughts on task, that I could wield them like a hammer instead of having them act more like a spill of thumbtacks.

There are times when my thoughts do flow the way I want them. It happens if I'm reading a really good book, or watching a really good movie. I've noticed in the last few years that it happens when I get involved in playing a video game. My mind starts making dozens of decisions a minute but they are all focused, all flowing in the same direction.

It also happens when I'm writing. At least sometimes. I've come to realize that when I say, at the end of the day, "the writing went well," it's because I achieved that flow. My focus had narrowed, had become sharpened onto one primary topic, the creation of a scene. This state of flow is very pleasant to me. The worries go away. The focus becomes purely on the now, the moment of creation or involvement. I call it, "The All Consuming."

I've also realized lately that this has always been a thing with me. There's a story in my Micro Weird collection actually called "Thought Flow." It almost perfectly illustrates my point. And it was one of the first ten stories I ever wrote.

How about you? Do you possess stillness of mind, or do your thoughts run more like mine? And what do you think of "The All Consuming?" Do you experience it? Do you like it?
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New Friends in the House, and School

Just to note, I start back to school tomorrow. So at least for a while I won't be visiting blogs quite as regularly as I have during the summer. That's not what I want to talk about, though. I want to talk about books. Here goes:

New Friends in the House:

I mentioned the wonderful Mystery Cove Book Shop that we found on our Maine trip. Let me tell you what I picked up there. I would have bought a lot more if we’d not had luggage constraints. But they do have a webpage so I will probably order more through that.

First up, I got The Rat Bastards #4: Meat Grinder-Hill. They didn’t have #1 or I’d have gotten that one. This series was published by Jove Books in the 1980s and there were sixteen total books. They were written under the name John Mackie, whose real name is Len Levinson. Levinson talks about these books on his blog, and the whole series has been rereleased as ebooks. I’d heard about this series for a long time but had never actually seen a print copy. I was glad to pick this one up and look forward to reading it.

Second, I got Renegade #14: Harvest of Death. The blurb on the front reads, “Captain Gringo cuts a hot path of love and fury through a jungle in hell!”  How could I resist? This was a series of western novels written by Lou Cameron under the name Ramsay Thorne. There appear to be 36 volumes in the series. Again, I’d heard of this series for years but never seen a print copy of one. They only had #14 so that’s the one I got. I’ve read quite a lot of Cameron under his own name.

 Third, I picked up Nazi Paratrooper: Storm Belgium. This is the first in a series by Gunther Lutz. I’d never heard of this series before, but apparently there are at least five books in the series, and they tell the story of WWII from the German perspective. I couldn’t find anything on Lutz himself or on this series. The one I have is published by Sphere Books. I’m pretty curious about this but so far nothing informative has turned up. (Note: I've actually started reading this one and it is pretty weak.)

Fourth, I got Phantom Regiments, a collection of ghost war stories. The stories were selected by Robert Adams and there’s a great cover by Ken Kelley. Baen did quite a few of this kind of collection and I’ve generally enjoyed them. I see this one has quite a few negative reviews so I’ll have to see what my take is on it.

I do love talkin' 'bout books!

Quest for Books: Part Two

 After the disappointment at the bookstore that had closed 20 minutes before we got there, we drove into the town of Ellsworth, Maine to look for Lana’s photography stuff. After visiting Radio Shack, we found that the only place we could get what she needed was Wal-Mart. Though not our favorite shopping spot, we seemed to have little choice in the matter. I also felt a surge of hope because I knew that in my part of the world Wal-Mart carried books. Perhaps I could get my fix of fiction there.

Wal-Mart was open. They even had books. They had romance novels, YA novels, and a handful of westerns and thrillers. They had about three SF works. I don’t generally read romance novels, although if it had been all that was available I certainly would have bought some. Most of the YA, westerns, and SF they had were ones I’d already read or ones I had at home to be read. I finally found an Alien tie-in book called Sea of Sorrows by James A. Moore. I quickly plucked that one up, although I don’t typically read a lot of media tie-in books other than Star Trek: TOS.

Between the book on Maine ghosts and the Alien book, I was temporarily fortified. However, I was still a bit worried because I was tearing through the Maine book very quickly. I could soon run out of fiction again. On Saturday, we went to a town called Bar Harbor, which from what I’ve heard was the basis for the fictional town of Collinsport, Maine, from the TV series Dark Shadows. We ostensibly went to Bar Harbor for a whale watching tour. That was mainly for Lana. I wanted to go because I’d been told by a waiter at a restaurant where we’d eaten that Bar Harbor had the biggest bookstore around. I was still asking about bookstores everywhere we went.

However, said waiter was apparently a better waiter than he was a judge of bookstores. We found the store of well repute. It had a few long rows of books and a lot of other stuff I had no interest in. Most of the actual books appeared to be by Stephen King, all of which I had read. The SF section was tiny and mostly consisted of “Game of Thrones.” I found a book called Fun with Kirk and Spock that I bought. I also bought a Jonathan Kellerman novel I hadn’t read. There wasn’t much else, and I finished the short, joke-style Star Trek book within fifteen minutes of getting home.

On Sunday, we went nowhere near anything resembling a bookstore. But on Monday, our last full day in Maine, we saw a sign for a used bookstore as we left Acadia National Park. Four miles down a side road took us to a delightful little place called the Mystery Cove Book Shop, which lies between Bar Harbor and Ellsworth. All my book withdrawal anxiety disappeared and I felt completely at home. I quickly found old friends on the shelves, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance, David Gemmell, Robert Adams. But I also found new friends as well. I could have bought half the store but limited myself to four paperbacks because that was about all we could add to our luggage without having to buy a new suitcase. They do ship books, though, so I may end up ordering more from their website.

For my next post, I’ll tell you what I got at Mystery Cove. But for now, just know that I made it three days with only two books to read. I know now that I can face anything.

I just hope I don’t have to.

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Quest for Books: Part One

While on our recent “hiatus” from social media, Lana and I went to Maine. We stayed at a house kindly lent to us by some blog friends of Lana’s. We had a great time and I’ll post more about that journey later. Today I want to talk about my addiction—to reading. And about the problems it caused me on this trip.

I used to travel with a suitcase of clothes and a briefcase of books. I’d take ten or twelve different paperbacks so I’d have a choice in reading material. I no longer do this because I have a Kindle loaded with hundreds of volumes. As we headed to the airport Thursday, I took only the Kindle and the one paper book I was reading, Three Blind Mice by Ed McBain. I finished the McBain on the flight so, after arriving at our vacation home that evening, I pulled out my electronic library and turned it on. Nothing happened.

 I had just charged the battery so I didn’t think that was the problem. Still, I dutifully hooked up the charger. Again, nothing happened. Not even the indicator light came on. I tried a reset. That didn’t work. I hopped on the net with my laptop to research solutions. None of them worked. I initiated a chat with Amazon support but they couldn’t help either. My Kindle, which I’ve had since February 27, 2009, was dead. I was without reading material.

I began to shake, and even though I’d been reading only a few hours before I felt immediate withdrawal pangs. Just the thought that I couldn’t read if I wanted to was enough to undermine my equilibrium. Despite this, I somehow managed to sleep.

Lana and I were up early Friday and hit the shore to explore and take pictures. On the way back we passed through the town of Winter Harbor and stopped at a 5 and 10 store. They had some nonfiction stuff, mostly birding books and local geographies. I certainly read a lot of nonfiction but my “addiction” is to fiction, to “stories.” Fiction is my heroin. Nonfiction is more like methadone. I did find a book on the ghosts of Maine, which I bought. I also asked every place we went if there were a local bookstore. The checkout lady at the IGA told us there was. It was only two blocks away and was called Serendipity. Serendipity indeed! 

Within minutes we arrived in the parking lot of Serendipity. I could see a book display in the window as we walked up and my withdrawal pangs began to dissipate. Then we came to the front door, which was locked, and found a sign that read: “Closed Friday through Monday.” We were in town precisely from Friday through Monday.

I did not panic, though. On the way in from the airport on Thursday afternoon we’d seen a used bookstore along US Highway 1. It was a long drive but we needed to go into a bigger town to find Lana some photography stuff anyway. So, we headed out. I parked almost in front of the door of the bookstore and immediately noticed two things. First, the big plate glass windows were chock full of books and I could already see numerous titles that I wanted to read. My fingers and eyes began to itch with the need. But there was a second thing to notice. This door too had a sign. It read: “Closed at Three Today.” Our car clock read 3:20. No fiction for me.

To Be Continued:

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Hiatus

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to be taking about a week off the blog and generally off the internet. I’ll be checking email periodically but otherwise won’t be around. Nothing bad has happened. Just got a few things to do. I trust everyone will be well. Maybe when I get back I'll be reenergized a bit. 

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