Year's Best Fantasy. Not!

I’ve been reading (slowly) a collection called The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 9, edited by Arthur W. Saha. This was published in 1983 by Daw Books and I have to say that I’m disappointed with nearly every story in the anthology. In the first place, none of them seem to have much fantasy in them, at least not the kind I like to read. There’s a story about a guy who wakes up “in” the book Moby Dick (which won a Nebula, btw), a deal with the devil tale, and a tale about a modern guy who inherits a castle in Ireland and has to use voodoo to keep it.

That last story is “Square and Above Board,” by R. A. Lafferty and the editor introduces it with “…depend on the unique and puckish talent of R. A. Lafferty, himself of the Irish, to spin a tale that is anything but ominous.” That says it all, if you read “ominous” like I do to be “spirited,” “energetic,” “powerful.”

The problem with these stories has nothing to do with the writing, which is uniformly polished and professional. It has to do with subject matter. The writers here are, it seems to me, desperately striving for either literary merit or to provide a lighthearted distraction that doesn’t trouble anyone too much, that is for a feeling that is “anything but ominous.”

But I don’t read fantasy to avoid being “troubled.” I don’t read it simply for a light chuckle with my after dinner sherry. I read it for power, for emotion, for something damn well ominous.

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In writing news, I’ve sold a zombie western tale to the Bits of the Dead anthology, and my silly fantasy tale, “Mirthgar,” was published in Strange Worlds of Lunacy, which is out now, in print, and also as a much cheaper download. I just got my contributor copies and haven’t had time to read the other tales yet. Looks pretty good, though. Another of my humorous fantasy stories has just been published in Flashing Swords: Special Edition Summer 2008, but I don’t think it’s available for general purchase yet. The story is “Worms in the Earth: Barbarian’s Bane.” I’ve posted about both these tales before so forgive me if this sounds redundant.

*****
I’d also like to call everyone’s attention to Ello’s blog post on The Lolita Effect. This is an important work on how the media, and our entire culture, sexualizes girls at younger and younger ages. Ello will have the author, Dr. Gigi Durham, as a guest on her blog on Wednesday and she’ll be answering questions. Although I didn’t have a daughter, I see the kind of harm this pervasive influence is having on young women and I hope you’ll stop by for a moment to lend Ello and Dr. Durham your support.

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One Good Book

I just finished reading John Lennon and the Mercy St. Café by the blogosphere’s own William Hammett, who is better known here as Billy. Although I was never a huge Beatles fan, this is an incredibly fun book. If you are a Beatles fan you’ll likely enjoy it even more. John Lennon comes back from the dead and at first only a woman named Amy can see him. From the moment she does a wild surreal ride begins involving time travel, the Great Depression, Woody Guthrie, a road trip from New York City to California and back, folk and blues music, and lots of inside information about Lennon and his times. Highly recommended.

Here’s a few more thoughts about the need for characters to show consistency in mood and behavior over time. These developed from the comments section on my last post. First, it appears that characters in fiction actually need to show greater consistency than in real life. A real human can go from depression to laughter and we have to deal with it, but when a fictional character does this it “feels” unreal. It’s like with dialogue, where showing actual dialogue on the page reads awkwardly and what you have to do instead is create the illusion of reality.

Another thing is that it’s virtually impossible for an author to remain completely consistent in mood and tone across any work that is written in segments, as all novels must be. The cure for that is in the rewriting/revision process, when you can consider the work in much larger segments and polish any of the rough welds where the material was put together.

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Characters: Consistency over Time

A combination of my writing group’s meeting last night and the book I’m currently reading got me started thinking about how writers convey consistency, or inconsistency, in their characters across the time period of their stories. I’m particularly irritated by the inconsistency in characters’ emotional states in the book I’m reading now, which title and author I’m not revealing to protect the guilty.

There are several places in this book where a character is in deep despair on one page and is laughing and joking on the next. And there is no indication of any serious passing of time. In another scene, a main character loses a wife, who he didn’t love but who he did respect. After his wife’s burial the guy goes from anger at himself for not being able to feel more emotions about her passing to a giddy, laugh filled, guiltless sexual act with a woman who he has always loved on the same damn page. Since this character seemed to be presented as a very duty-bound individual (that’s why the marriage to the woman he didn’t love), it just seemed so inconsistent for him to at least not experience some feelings of guilt. And the guy was presented as a hero but lost his credibility as such for me with this one scene.

The whole book has some serious problems, though, and after another irritating scene I’m just scanning the remainder of the book. In the scene in question, the villain has a huge army, far in excess of the army of the good guys. She also has a tremendously powerful bomb, which the hero manages to deactivate. The villain’s army immediately breaks and runs. Say what? That just makes no sense whatsoever. According to the build up of the book the villain’s army has conquered almost the entire land and has executed almost everyone who opposes them other than the small group they now face. They did this all without the bomb. So now that the bomb is gone they all turn to cowards? The villain is still alive, still has all her powers, and her army just melts away?

This relates to my writing group because last night we were talking about how it can be difficult to have a break between days of writing and then try to get back into a work in progress. I mentioned that, for me, the hardest part was not picking up the plot or action, but picking up the “mood” of the characters and the scenes. This is how the poor book I’m reading now reads, as if the author wrote one scene in one mood and another in a different mood and just didn’t bother to try and make the work read consistently.

The most frustrating part of this for me? The weak book I’m reading is part of a trilogy, from a genre not unlike those of my Taleran books, but this was published by a major press and has also been picked up by a book club. I hope you'll excuse my whine but I happen to think my books are a lot better.

What the Characters are Saying

I'm spending most of the day helping Lana with an art show today so here's a quick post. I should get back to some writing stuff early next week.

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What the Characters in Gramlich’s books are saying about him and his work.

Cold in the Light:

“A wild, rollicking ride. I’m still not sure I got out alive.” --Truman Maclang, Deerhaven Deputy Sheriff.

“A celebration of terror. Much enjoyed.” --Kargen, Villain.

“I thought my part could have been bigger.” -- Tip Baldridge, teenager.


Swords of Talera

“Ruenn Maclang is not bad. For a human. But that Gramlich guy who is claiming he wrote a book about Talera is an absolute kook.” --Jask, High-council of the Klar.

“Gramlich, I’ve seen Ruenn Maclang. I know Ruenn Maclang. Believe me, Gramlich, you’re no Ruenn Maclang.” – Rannon, love interest and swordswoman.


Wings Over Talera

“No comment!” –Vohanna, evil incarnate

“I tell you I’m in there. I’m in there.” --Chalathar, once and future god.


Witch of Talera

“Gramlich is misunderstood. He tried to publish this series as a memoir but the publisher wanted him to call it fiction and he accidentally listened. He never imagined so many twos of people would read it and by that time it was too late to let everyone know that it was really true.” --Ahrethane, Gramlich’s secret admirer.

“I told you no *&$#@#%* comment.” Vohanna, still evil.
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Why I won’t be reading James Frey’s Latest

Many of you know that James Frey, the fellow who parlayed a fake memoir into fame and wealth, has a new book out. It's ranked at 33 on Amazon as of this morning, but I won’t be buying or reading it, even though Frey admits up front this time that it’s fiction. (Of course, once he gained fame under false pretenses he didn’t need to lie to sell another book.)

I won’t be buying this new one, or his older ones, or any that he might write in the future. And I’ll tell you why. It’s not because I know him to be a bad writer, although the sample of his new book that I found on Amazon was written, deliberately perhaps, in an illiterate style. (Here’s a sample sentence: “As he grew up he didn’t fit in with any of the other Cuban boys in his neighborhood they idolized boxers and baseball players he couldn’t have cared less”). It’s not that I feel any personal animosity against the fellow. No, the reason is because I have a limited book buying budget, and I’m just not going to put a penny in the pocket of someone who—-in my opinion—-has shown a lack of respect for readers and other writers across the board. This would be true even if his story was magnificent, which, from the sample, it certainly is not.

There are too many other talented writers with great stories who have labored long and honorably in the world of publishing only to receive pittances for their efforts, or even to be passed over time and time again for the celebrity author or the latest big thing (scandal). And there are plenty of already famous writers who have earned every accolade they’ve garnered. These are writers who have always told us the truth, who have never deliberately compromised their morals. Every nickel that I spend on books will go to such writers. Every penny.

Honor and integrity are not dead words, not outmoded concepts. I will support those who understand this.

Cowboy and Lady

Seems like quite a few folks have been posting plays lately so here is my entry. I call it: How a Cowboy Picks up a Lady: A Play.

Cowboy: *Strides up to a lovely gal a sittin’ at the bar sipping a Michelob. He hesitates when he sees the fancy beer she is drinking but finds her just too beayootiful in her white and black cowgirl skirt and her red satiny shirt with the shiny diamond shaped mother-of-pearl buttons. He decides to try his best line:*

“Why yo is jes as hot as a ten dollar pistol sittin’ there, Baby. What say we blow this gin joint and do us a little moonlit two steppin?”

Lady: *Is taken aback at his manly appearance and the very large hat he wears, but is impressed with his courtly manners. And with the spurs a jingling on his bootheels.*

“I would love to, “ she coos, eyelashes all a twitter.

Cowboy: *Sweeps her off her white booted feet, and carries her out to his ‘pick up,’ tucking her into the passenger seat where the smell of cedar from his tree odor thingie is brisk and cool as a mint julep in July. Climbs up the steps into the other side and starts the truck up with a roar.*

"LET'S TAKE A RIDE OUT TO WHERE THEY WATCH THE SUBMARINE RACES," he shouts over the booming growl of the big diesel engine on his Dodge RAM pickemup.

Lady: “Cedar. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” *Smiles purdy*

Cowboy: *Kicks the big V-16 in low gear and goes a squalling out of the parking lot on to the black top, crushing discarded beer cans and furrin imports alike. Hits cruising speed about 85 and sets back against the cushioned captain's seat, dropping a big hairy hand to the lady’s dainty lil knee under her cowgirl skirt.*

Lady: *Drops her own dainty lil hand to just above his knee, then scootches closer, purring.*

Cowboy: *Swallows his chaw. gulps, recovers.*

"Why lordy be, missy, I sure am a glad you ain't skittish as some of these here city gals one meets at them there disco places. Last lil gal I gave a ride too done plastered my poor achin head with wimin's libber rights nonsense." *Peers at her.* "You ain't no wimin's libber is ya?"

Lady: *Peers back.* "Not at the moment, no."

Cowboy: *Licks his lips, quickly pushes in a tape that plays Hank Williams cause he knows how sexy wimin gets to feelin’ alistenin to old Hank sing. He slides his arm across the back of the seat and lets his hand touch the length of her big hairdo, lightly tangling his fingers through her hair-sprayed, steel-link tresses.*

“Now you jes lean on back against the naughahyde seats, lil lady and let ole Charlie Bob do the drivin’”

Lady: “Yo’re the man, Lover.”

Cowboy: *He listens to purring, both of the engine and the lady, and he knows he has done it just right.*

“Gonna get lucky tonight, ole cuss,” he murmurs softly to himself. “Gonna get lucky tonight.”

NOTE: No cowboys or ladies were harmed in the making of this play.

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings

I just finished a very good book by S. M. Stirling called In the Courts of the Crimson Kings. This is actually a newly released Sword and Planet book which basically reprises ERB's A Princess of Mars, although greatly updated for modern audiences. I really liked this a lot. The characters were very well developed and the Martian civilization was brought to life in great detail, all the way down to a consistent presentation of the Martian language. I was quite sad to see this one end, and that doesn't happen these days too much.

In writing news, here's the "What Has Gone Before" section of my new Taleran book. So far I'm only about 2,000 words into the work but I'm beginning to feel it again. And that is fun. However, if you haven't read the previous books and plan to you should not read the section below. So therefore:

SPOILER ALERT

WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE

Ruenn Maclang was born and grew to manhood on Earth. On the planet of Talera, he was reborn a swordsman, and a leader of warriors. Through three volumes, Ruenn fought his way, Swords of Talera, Wings Over Talera, and Witch of Talera. He began as a man lost and alone on an alien world of death and beauty, but he found his path. He found friends who fought with him, and for him, and he found a woman to love. That woman was Rannon, a Princess who became a Queen of the island kingdom of Nyshphal after her father was murdered.

Ruenn and Rannon married in a bloody throne room after a desperate battle and narrow victory against the sorceress Vohanna and her allies, allies that included both Rannon’s brother, and Ruenn’s. But though the Witch herself was defeated, the Witch’s war is not yet over. Rannon’s air-fleet lies devastated; her army is nearly bled white. Nyshphal’s remaining enemies are gathered in fire and steel. Amid the chaos appears a new threat, an apparition from the past that warns of the future—honor and love can be corrupted by hate.

And now, Ghosts of Talera.

Quirks

I’ve been tagged for the Six Quirks about me meme by Lisa over at Eudaemonia. I’ve given away quite a few of my weirdities before, including my lack of a sense of smell, but let’s see if I can find a few more to post.

First the Rules:
Link the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules in your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 bloggers by linking them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they've been tagged.

So here are mine, all related to music.

1. There are literally some songs that I dislike so much that I can’t stand listening to them and will instantly punch the button on the radio to change to anything else, including a commercial or white noise. These include “Rock the Casbah,” “Take a Walk on the Wild Side,” and anything by the Police or Sting.

2. Lana teases me a lot for liking “one” song by Michael Jackson, and that song is “Dirty Diana.” I’m sorry, but it rocks. And I’m going to go listen to it now.

3. Most of the time I actually pay no attention to lyrics in music. Lyrics can ruin a song for me but can never save a song that doesn’t have good music. For example, I like the music to “Tube Steak Boogie” by Z. Z. Top but won’t listen to it because the lyrics irritate me so much. I’m the same way with “The Boys are Back in Town.” There is no song that I’ll listen to just for the lyrics. But there are some good tunes that actually seem to be enhanced by good lyrics, such as “Ava Adore” by the Smashing Pumpkins.

4. Related to number 3 above, I buy a fair amount of music by bands that don’t sing in English. These included Warlock and Loudness in the old days, and Rammstein today. I especially like the lyrics better when they’re in German. German is the right language for heavy metal.

5. The right music will literally cause horripilation across my scalp and down my neck. The first song to ever do this to me was “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James and The Shondells, when I was about 13. One that still does is “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zepplin. “Simple Man” and “Saturday Night Special” by Lynyrd Skynyrd also do it.

6. Black Sabbath is the father/founder band of heavy metal because they were the first band to be all metal all the time. There is no arguing this point, and the original Sabbath lineup is still the greatest rock band of all time.

7. Bonus: The song that best combines incredible music and incredible lyrics is “Bullet the Blue Sky” by U2. The lyrics make up the best poem in rock music. (However, I sure do like the Sepultura version.)

I’m breaking the rules by not tagging anyone.

Ghosts of Talera?

Now that grades are in my mind has finally been able to turn toward writing, but I’m largely in the pre-writing phase at the moment. I’ve pretty much committed myself to writing a new Taleran book and so for the last couple of days I’ve been running over scenarios and plans and titles in my mind. Thinking back to the original trilogy of books there is one obvious setup for a second trilogy. I won’t give it away here, though. And there are a few items from the first trilogy left over that have to be dealt with. I have the opening for the new book laid out and already know the basics of what I want to work toward. But, for me, titles are important and I’ve been mulling this one over a lot. I don’t know if I’ll actually write a second trilogy, and any book I do will be a complete story in and of itself, but I would like to have the basic titles for a possible trilogy laid out now because the titles help me organize my plotting.

I had originally thought that I’d call book four Warlord of Talera but thinking about the possible sequence of stories I might tell I’ve decided that would be appropriate for a possible end book in a trilogy. Right now I’m thinking, Ghosts of Talera, Gods of Talera and Warlord of Talera . I’m thinking “Ghosts” because there will be an apparent one, if not a real one, in the new book. Another name I’d considered for this book is Assassin of Talera because it will involve one of those as well. For some reason, though, “Assassin” doesn’t light my fire and “Ghosts” seems more evocative. Mostly I’m thinking aloud here, but, as always, feel free to share your opinions.

In other news, we were at our local Flatwoods preserve today and the Pitcher Plants are out in full force. We also saw a Barred Owl, which was a wonderful experience. I’m sure Lana will post a pic of it on her blog soon.

Comic Books

I was in the comic book store the other day, my first time in probably twelve years, to order Femme Noir by Christopher Mills. While there I checked out some of the other offerings and bought a few. I was never a big comic book fan. As a teenager I read some, but probably never had more than 100 or so, and these were mostly Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and one or two war comics like Sgt. Rock and Ghost Tank. I also had a horror western one called Jonah Hex.

Later, when I first joined the Robert E. Howard group, REHupa, I bought a number of the Howard related comics like Conan and Kull. That was in the early 90s but that phase didn’t last long. Having been weaned on books, I always found reading comics rather irritating, frankly. You’d settle down for a read, and be done almost instantly. Five minutes tops for most comics. I quickly found the only way to enjoy them was to collect 5 to 10 issues and then read them all at one sitting.

This time I bought a few of the new Dark Horse Conan comics, and read them back to back, and a couple of “graphic novels,” which are essentially longer comics that give you a bit more of a satisfying read. For one of the very few times in my life I bought something primarily for its cover. It seems that there are a variety of Frank Frazetta comics coming out and I’ve always enjoyed Frazetta’s art work, particularly the stuff he did for the Karl Edward Wagner Kane paperbacks and the Death Dealer paperbacks. I picked up a comic with one of his “Kane” covers called Dark Kingdom, part 1. The story did not involve Kane, however, but a character named Red Morden. The tale itself was very typical but the art was nice.

I did, however, find a nice surprise in the store, a Jonah Hex: Origins graphic novel. This really took me back and I enjoyed it quite a bit since there was a meaty story to the work. How about you? Any comic book dinks out there? Have comics been at all an influence on your writing? I would generally say that they haven’t influenced my own work at all, most likely because of my limited exposure to them during my formative years.

Hangin' with Chris

Just a reminder that I'll be hanging out mostly on Christine Eldin's blog today. She's having her Author's Week this week and I'm first writer up. You can win a copy of Swords of Talera with no strings attached. I'll even remove the tracking device.

I do give my last final today and will also have plenty of grading to do so I won't be making it around to many other blogs for a visit today, but tomorrow I should be able to get myself onto my regular summer schedule.

Sunday Updates, and a book I Gave Up On

I gave another final yesterday. Yes, on Saturday, and got those grades turned in last night. One more test to go, on Monday, and I'll be done. I did get a nice thank you card from a student for a letter of recommendation I did for her, so certainly not all students are rude and inconsiderate.

I finished the book Bloodstone by David Gemmell and found it just as good as the others in the "Stones of Power" series. However, I gave up on a book I'd started, and that is a rare event. The book was The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived and I was actually looking forward to it with some relish. It was subtitled "How Characters of Fiction, Myth, Legends, Television, and Movies have shaped our Society, Changed our Behavior, and Set the Course of History. It featured such characters as Icarus, Santa Claus, Dick Tracy, Peter Pan, Kirk and Spock, Tarzan etc.

The book was well written and others might enjoy it so don't let my stopping overly influence you, but here is where my problem came in. Typically, the authors would start to discuss a character, Hercules for example, and would give some accurate background on where the character originated and some of the legends surrounding the character. Then they would try to funny the entry up with some modern jokes, generally political ones. First, I didn't find any of the jokes funny. I mean every joke about Bush that can be made has pretty much been made, and who wants these jokes in a book that will surely last longer than Bush's time in office. I won't want to be reminded of Bush in years to come.

Second, in some cases they apparently extended the joke into making up some fiction of their own, and at times I actually had difficulty telling where the "true" story of the character left off and the modern authors' "made-up" stuff began. For me, this destroyed the usefulness of the book as a reference source. And so I put it down.

I "treated" myself to a movie last night after finishing my latest exam. My choice was "30 Days of Night," a vampire flick. I was very disappointed. The idea was great, a city in far north Alaska which experiences a month without the sun is isolated and attacked by vampires. The ending also had the germs of a very good idea in it, but the delivery on both ideas was very weak and completely unconvincing, particularly the ending.

Well, now I'm off to make my blogging rounds. See ya soon.

Good Recent Reads

Despite my last post about learning from bad books, I’ve been reading good books lately. I just finished two worth mentioning. The first is Texas Wind by James Reasoner. This book was originally published by Manor Books in 1980 but that tiny publisher faded rapidly into obscurity. It was reissued in 2004 by PointBlank, an imprint of Wildside. I picked this up because I know the author personally, but when I started it I could hardly put it down. It’s short, 142 pages, and a wonderful read with a very modern series of twists and turns. It’s definitely from the hard-boiled genre, but the hero detective, Cody, is no stereotype. He doesn’t booze it up and he collects books and western art of the likes of Frederic Remington. He’s a bit softer edged than the average hard-boiled detective but he’s one tough fellow and I’d love to see him in more adventures. Only the fact that it was published by such a small press originally must have kept this from becoming a series.

A while back I read Dust Devils, also by James Reasoner. It’s a similar noir thriller with even more twists that was written in 2007 and also published by PointBlank. It’s also very good and I highly recommend it, but I think I liked Texas Wind a bit better. And in an odd bit of synchronicity, Travis Erwin posted about the real Texas “wind” on the same day as I finished the book.


The second good book I read recently, finishing it on Wednesday, was The Last Guardian by David Gemmell. This is fourth in a series called “The Stones of Power,” and so you might want to start with the first one, which is called Ghost King. This is actually a pretty far ranging series, though, so you could easily start with book 3, Wolf in Shadow, which is the first to feature the character of Jon Shannow, a kind of futuristic gunfighter who reminds me a fair amount of Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane. Shannow is a tormented character, a man of God and of violence who fights to rid evil from the land after the “Fall,” an event that destroyed Earth’s current civilization. I like the Shannow character quite a bit and am currently reading the fifth book in the series, Bloodstone, which also features Shannow.

One point of interest, in these books the “Stones of Power” are stones called Sipstrassi and they are in some ways similar to the Milkstones from my Taleran series. They are also capable of opening gates between worlds, for example, and of working magic. They are generally much more powerful than my milkstones, however. Although the Taleran series was published in book form well after the first “Stones of Power” book came out, Swords of Talera was written quite a bit earlier and the milkstones are a completely independent construction, not related at all to or influenced by the Sipstrassi stones. I didn’t discover or read the first “Stones of Power” book until the late 1990s while “Swords” was written in 1986. It’s weird, though, that two independent constructions could show such interesting similarities.

In wild, student-request news, I received an email from a student who missed the first week and a half of class, then missed two of three in-class chances to get extra credit, and missed close to half the total classes in a course where class participation is counted, telling me how surprised she was that she got a “B” when she was expecting an “A.” Since she blew off the first week and a half she missed a test and I had to literally force her to write me an explanation as to why she missed before I’d give her a make-up. She finally admitted in writing that she had no reason. She just hadn’t come. But she’s surprised she didn’t get an “A.” Sadly enough, I’m not surprised by her surprise.

What I Learned from Bad Writers

Even as a kid I loved telling stories, to myself if not to others. But I first thought of becoming a writer in my late teens (17, 18) and of telling stories on paper for others to read.

Two things persuaded me to try my hand at the author thing. On the positive side, I wanted to tell stories to enthrall others the way I had been enthralled by Louis L’Amour, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and John D. MacDonald. On the less positive side, I figured I could do better, or at least put more effort into it, than some of the writers I was reading. I won’t mention any names, but I was finding books that just didn’t move me. The prose was leaden, the pace stagnant, the characters indistinguishable from the stiffness of new jeans.

In most cases, it appeared that the writers I didn’t like were writing far too fast. They weren’t taking the time and giving the care to their work that being a craftsman required. To me, this became, and remains, the definition of a hack. In later years, however, I realized that I had learned quite a bit from the hacks, mostly, I hope, about the things a writer should not do.

I learned that well-written prose strikes the ear like music, not like the sound of a bell that has lost its clapper. I learned that good characters can’t become chess pieces to be shoved around willy-nilly. I learned that description is boring unless it fires the imagination or sets a mood. I learned that good writing takes time and effort and there is no substitute for either. And while I have not always achieved these things, I have always tried.

How about you? Have you learned anything from bad writers? Or do you think that reading bad prose leads to writing it? What’s your take?

A Piece of the Action

The slaughter at the desk is over. For the moment. Slowly, the academic warrior lowers his mighty pen while around him pools of red (ink) lie drying beneath the harsh light. He sighs, stretching cramped muscles, and rubs bloodshot eyes. Before him rests the carnage of the battle, student papers marked and scarred. In his small black book he records the roll call of the grades.

For a moment, a wan smile flickers across his worn visage. He thinks of victory, of peace returned to this war-torn land. But in the distance he knows that more foes gather. He knows that there will be only a brief hiatus before the fighting resumes. And this time the enemy will bring their full power to bear on his pitiful defenses. More finals are coming. And this time his strength is less. This time his reserves are exhausted. He broods upon the rising battle.

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And Announcing: The following comes from Christine Eldin, who is going to be having a week's worth of fun for writers and readers on her blog coming up soon. As you can see from the schedule, I'll be involved, as will many other fine writers. Check it out if you get a chance.

Begin Quote:
Dear authors, writers, anonymous editors, and agent hotties,

I would like to invite you to Author's Week for a week of contests and fun and free books! Author's Week will be held on my blog from May 3 through May 9:

Festivities will kick off on Saturday May 3 with an Oldies but Goodies Contest. I will have funny questions about the following authors who have supported my promotions in the past (cool prizes also!!)

Elaine Alexander DEATH AT DEACON POND
Mary Cunningham CURSE OF THE BAYOU
Evil Editor NOVEL DEVIATIONS
Edna Cabcabin Moran THE SLEEPING GIANT
John Elder Robison LOOK ME IN THE EYE
Patricia Wood LOTTERY

May 5 - May 9 will feature the following authors giving away books and making appearances on my blog. Come chat, make jokes, win prizes!!!

Monday, May 5: Charles Allen Gramlich “Swords of Talera”
Tuesday, May 6: Holly Kennedy "The Silver Compass"
Wednesday, May 7: Daniel Tomasulo "Confessions of a Former Child"
Thursday, May 8: Sandra Cormier "The Space Between"
Friday, May 9: Stacia Kane "Personal Demons"

**If you are able to mention my Author's Week on your blog sometime between now and May 2, please send me an email. I will put your name in a hat and pick a random winner who will receive a nice gift from Dubai.**
End Quote:

Trapped in a Zombie Nightmare

It’s getting close to semester’s end here. And close to graduation. Some seniors are starting to panic; everyone is a little tense, including faculty members who hate this time of year when some students try to make up in a week for a semester of laziness. I had a sudden vision today of being trapped in a zombie movie, but instead of zombies stumbling around after “brains, brains,” it was students scrambling after “grades, grades.” Such students are a lot faster than the typical zombie, too. And they know how to use telephones and email.

I always have to remind myself that most students do what they need to do. Most haven’t waited until the last minute, or they got their shit together anyway. I’ve got many good students. For my Comparative Psych class this year I had students keep journals of observations on the animals they saw. Almost everyone did a good job, and I think some even had fun. Unfortunately, it’s often the problem students who make the biggest impression. And their crazy expectations!

One student handed in their journal this morning, two days late, and by 1:00 had already come to see if I had graded it. Seems you wouldn't want to harass the teacher over a grade for something that you missed the deadline on and are hoping they’ll be kind enough to look at anyway. Another of our 280 or so majors emailed me to see if I had a copy of their “FEP.” That was it, the whole email. It took a couple of exchanges before I learned that they'd sent an FEP page with their resume for a recommendation letter.

Of course, students don’t realize how many other students a teacher will work with. I’ve done at least 30 letters of recommendation in the past two months. I’m not likely to remember every sheet of paper sent to me, especially since I’d done this recommendation in early March. Honestly, though, I see faculty members do the same thing on occasion. I get emails assuming that I'll remember off the top of my head something about a faculty study submitted to my Review Committee months before, as if I’ve only had the one instead of the thirty I average a month.

Well, this post has rambled nowhere, but that’s partly because I’ve been grading, and meeting with committees, and writing letters, and grading, and responding to tearful phone calls, and grading like a banshee, and sleep is only a misty, half remembered dream. Makes me pretty close to a zombie myself. And, yeah, tomorrow I get a truckload of new papers to grade. I likely won’t post again until the weekend, and then won’t post at all the first three days of next week when the grading actually intensifies. I’ll try to get around to some blogs each day—-as a needed break—-but won’t be regular for a bit.

See you on the other side. Unless I get dragged down and eaten. Of course, I might see you anyway in that case. I might show up on your doorstep moaning for "grades, grades." Just shoot me in the head if I do. Don't make me suffer.

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Filler Words

I heard about a study this morning conducted in England that says that about 10 percent of all the words we say each day are meaningless filler, such as "you know," "like," "uhmn," etc. I suspect from listening to my students talk that it might be more than that here in the States.

I began to wonder if writers do this less than other folks, in speech that is, and as I'm mentally going through my list of writers I know I'm leaning toward thinking that we do do less of this. If so, and I have no proof, I'd guess it would have to do with language discipline. We train ourselves as writers to be careful with words, to use the right word in the right place, and to "cut the fat," or the filler. It seems possible that this kind of discipline could spill over into our spoken language.

On the other hand, speech is a much lazier form of communication than writing, and we writers can certainly be lazy. Maybe when we're not "on task" but just yammering we are just as filler prone as anyone else.

What say the masses? As writers, are we less filler, greater taste? Or are we just like anyone else? Or is there a job/career that lends itself to less filler in speech? To more filler? I wonder.

Fantasy Heroes: Sword and Planet

The Sword and Planet hero lies somewhere between the extremes of Sword and Sorcery and High Fantasy. The archetype is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars. The character of Ruenn MacLang from my Taleran books is meant to fall into this general category. Here are the characteristics of this type of hero as I see them.

1. They are bigger than life but not to the extreme of the Sword and Sorcery hero. They are fast and strong but not typically described as being as big or muscular as the Sword and Sorcery hero.

2. They also have an indomitable will to survive and can tolerate great pain and fight through serious wounds.

3. They typically do not face much sorcery. Their enemies are primarily physical enemies, although not always human.

4. They do not like violence and generally crave peace, but they are very good at violence when it is forced upon them.

5. They are much more likely than the Sword and Sorcery hero to enjoy philosophical debates and activities.

6. They are comfortable alone but are not loners. They usually make some good friends and they always have a love interest, who is usually a princess or noble of some type. They are immensely loyal to their friends and families.

7. Far from being an anti-hero, the Sword and Planet hero is always honorable and would typically be considered a gentleman.

8. The goal of the Sword and Planet hero generally lies between the extremes of Sword and Sorcery and High Fantasy. They are never out to enrich themselves, but they also are not as likely to be involved in saving the world. Instead, they must save their families, their loved ones, their home cities and home lands.

Note: In addition to John Carter of Mars, there is Dray Prescot of Kregen, a creation of Kenneth Bulmer, and such characters as Jandar of Callisto by Lin Carter and Harry Thorne of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline.
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BTW, Miladysa has a very nice review of Swords of Talera on her blog. I very much appreciate her kind words. It's always such a pleasure to know that someone enjoyed my work.

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Fantasy Heroes: High Fantasy

JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the prototypical High Fantasy series, but it’s much harder to describe the “archetypal” hero in this type of fantasy than in Sword and Sorcery. The main reason is that there is more likely to be a group of heroes in this kind of fiction, rather than one, and the heroes are much more varied. I do believe there are some general commonalities, however. These are:

1. The heroes in High Fantasy are closer to real people than in Sword and Sorcery. They often don't have any great strength or unusual fighting abilities. In fact, they often start the story out as rather weak. But they get stronger and they develop skills as they go. Frodo from Tolkien's trilogy is an example here. Stretching the point a bit, so is Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars series.

2. The hero of High Fantasy is seldom a loner. Almost always he or she has companions, and often the companions have some particular skills that the hero needs to help him succeed in his quest. The companions also have weaknesses as well, and the hero must know these and take them into account.

3. High Fantasy heroes are almost always honorable. They are good, upstanding citizens who are trying to cope in tough circumstances. As a correlate of this, many of these heroes would have been happy to stay at home and are forced into adventure by the circumstances of their world. (In Sword and Sorcery the hero wants the adventure.)

4. High Fantasy heroes generally undergo much more character development than do those in Sword and Sorcery. They change more over the course of the story, and this is typically illustrated by their growth in strength and maturity. The Sword and Sorcery hero begins the story already at the full tide of his/her strength. Contrary to what many people think, I don’t believe this reflects an immaturity on the part of the writer of Sword and Sorcery. Rather, I think it reflects that fact that Sword and Sorcery is typically “episodic” while High Fantasy is “epic.” Of course in an epic you have more room to develop characters.

5. High Fantasy heroes also have a goal, but it can be more properly termed a "quest." It is something that is both personal and universal. They are not seeking to enrich themselves but to save the world. This also reflects the more epic scale of this type of story.

So what should I add to this list?
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Fantasy Heroes: Sword and Sorcery

I thought I might run a short series of posts on the nature of fantasy heroes. My comments will necessarily be rather broad and there may be plenty of exceptions to these rules, but this is my general reading on the subject. Feel free to throw in your two cents, or a buck 0 five if you're a mind to. I begin with Sword and Sorcery.

Conan is the archetypal Sword and Sorcery hero, though in many ways the character Kane from Karl Edward Wagner's books is the most original and powerful of these heroes. The traits of the Sword and Sorcery hero are:

1. They are bigger than life. Almost all physical features are described to the extreme. They are faster, stronger, and more dangerous than real life people. This doesn't mean, though, that they are supernatural or have special powers of any kind. They are like a human who has been honed and honed and honed as a weapon.

2. They have an indomitable will to survive. They can stand immense amounts of pain. They will not give up, even though they may on occasion feel fear or dread. Most of them particularly dislike sorcery. Karl Wagner's Kane is an exception to this; he is a sorcerer.

3. They are quick to resort to violence. They are very good at it and have no qualms about using it.

4. They are quick witted but generally not given to philosophical debate and considerations. Karl Wagner's Kane is, again, an exception. Robert E. Howard's Conan is an exception more often than most casual readers think.

5. They like action and can get bored easily, though they are also capable of predator-like patience when the situation demands it. They usually delight in pleasures of the flesh, such as drink and sex.

6. They are usually loners.

7. They are usually wanderers.

8. They are often at least on the edge of being amoral. They may often be, or have been, criminals, but they do have their own ethics and their own sense of loyalty. Almost all of them are immensely loyal to their friends.

9. They usually have some type of goal to accomplish in a story, but oftentimes that goal is very personal. They want wealth, or revenge, or maybe just some excitement. Power for power's sake seldom interests them, though. Once more, Karl Wagner's Kane is an exception.

Note: In addition to Conan and Kane, other Sword and Sorcery heroes include Druss the Slayer by David Gemmell, Thongor by Lin Carter, and Gath of Baal by James Silke. A particularly notable sword and sorcery hero is Imaro, created by Charles Saunders, which is, as far as I know, the only black hero in this genre. Most of these heroes are male, but a notable exception is Raven, who appeared in a fantasy series by Richard Kirk (whose real name is Robert Holdstock).

A Podcast and a Pub

I received a very nice, and I thought very accurate, review of “Swords of Talera” in a podcast from Dial P for Pulp. The mastermind behind “Dial P” is David Drage, who lives in Aberdeen, Scotland with his wife and son. David is a Pulp fan and advocate with a particular interest in Robert E. Howard. We made contact on one of the online Robert E. Howard fan groups. David really seems to know the genre well, and respect it, and he acknowledged both the traditional qualities of “Swords” and the strengths of how those qualities were portrayed. If you’re interested, the podcast is on “Show # 5,” but if you want the direct link it’s here. It will take a little while to load, or at least it did on my computer. The “Swords” review is about a quarter of the way along the podcast. But there looks like a lot of interesting stuff on the site.

In other news, Strange Worlds of Lunacy has just been released, which contains my story, “Mirthgar.” This is a big collection, with over 50 humorous stories. I haven’t even gotten my contributor copy yet so I haven’t read any of the other stories, although I know a number of the authors. It looks like a good collection. The cover is above. I posted a piece from my story before, but here’s another taste. Remember that a “pale,” which is basically a horrible, lingering fog, has fallen upon the fabled land of Mirthgar.

“Ill omens abounded. A question mark was found crop-circled into a farmer’s lotus field in Mirthdale, while in Mirthhedge an albino Irish setter was born to a pair of bluetick coon hounds. In the very halls of the Queen’s palace, the infamous ghost of King Hornrey the First was seen to slip on an ectoplasmic banana peel and do the splits with an expression of considerable pain. The habitual hilarity had already fled from the people of Mirthgar, and now hope joined hilarity in exile.”

And, BTW, I recieved the following award from Anna-Lys. I really appreciate it since it's something I hope to do in my blog. Thank you!

The Wheels of Science

One of the points I'm going to make in my current nonfiction project is that science is self-correcting, although the process is not necessarily fast. Consider the story of the Martian canals. Initially, it appears that an Italian astronomer named Giovanni Schiaparelli observed channels on the Martian surface in 1877 that he referred to as “canali,” which was translated into English as “canals.”

An amateur American astronomer named Percival Lowell became fascinated with the topic and had an observatory built in Arizona through which he studied and mapped Mars. Lowell published a book in 1903 that included detailed maps of Mars, including an elaborate canal system. Lowell suggested that the “canals” were irrigation waterways used by the Martians to bring water from the poles down to the rest of the planet.

The public’s imagination was captured, and two writers who were strongly influenced by the story of the canals were Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury. There was, however, intense disagreement among scientists as to whether the canals existed at all, and, if so, what that existence meant. Some astronomers claimed to see them; others did not. Some thought that they were natural features or mere optical illusions, while others believed them to be genuine evidence of intelligent life on Mars. It wasn’t until humans sent the Mariner probes to Mars that we discovered that the “canals” appeared to be nothing more than optical illusions aided by wishful thinking among some observers.

The scientific story of the Martian canals finally ended in 1971 when Mariner 9 obtained close range photographs of the Martian surface and showed no canals. From 1877 to 1971 is almost 100 years in which the possible existence of canals on Mars remained ambiguous. But in the end, the evidence triumphed. An error was corrected. This is the way science works.
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The Illuminata, and Other Illuminating Things

Well, the newest Illuminata is out and the relaxed schedule seems to have pumped up the content. I’m talking 26 pages of material about SF, Fantasy, and Horror literature. There’s pieces for writers on “Names in Fiction,” on “Suspension of Disbelief,” and on “Information Overload.” The last one is my “Writer’s Block” column entry and is a large scale expansion on a post I did here on the issues of front loading and back loading of informational material in stories. If you don’t already get the newsletter sent to you, and it’s free, you can download the issue from the link above. Go to the bottom of the page there and select Volume 6, Issue 6.

As an additional note, another of our blog friends is responsible for the piece on “Suspension of Disbelief.” This is a fine essay by our own Rachel, and she also has a book review in the issue. So support her and download a copy.

Finally, I want to thank Bernita for her most wonderful review of Swords of Talera on her blog. Bernita has such a wonderful way with words herself that it was really an honor to have her compliment my prose. And I really appreciated her comment on: "One of the reasons I am fond of sword 'n sorcery is the assertion, without apology, of a certain idealism, of nobility, of qualities such as honour, loyalty, valour and duty." I feel the same way and I'm glad that came through in the book. I'd also like to thank all those who made great comments in response to her post.
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The Winnas!

*A Drumroll begins slowly and builds toward a crescendo. Charles, in a gold tuxedo complete with gloves, bow tie, top hat, and cane, strides onto the dawn stage. He lifts his hand for quiet and immediately the drum whispers to silence.*

“The Envelope Please,” Charles intones.

*The Lovely Lana, in a matching gold evening gown and delicate silk stockings, slinks onto the stage in six inch stiletto heels, holding a silver and copper tray upon which rests one snowy white envelope.*

*Pausing for a long moment to enjoy the view, Charles is reminded of the contest by a soft clearing of the Lovely Lana’s throat.*

“Oh, yes. The…uhm…contest,” he says.

*He takes the envelope, borrows one of Lana’s heels to slit the top, and then pours into his hand a micro-thin piece of ivory parchment. The drum roll resumes.*

“From a field of twenty-six nominees, the winners are. In the category of, ‘lucky enough to be drawn from a hat by Lana’s own hand.’ In no particular order. Bernita Harris and Shauna Roberts.

*The Drum Roll reaches its crescendo and falls silent while thunderous applause breaks from the packed house.*

“Congratulations to the winners,” Charles says when the wild applause has finally settled down. “Please, Bernita and Shauna, send me your choice of prizes and your address and I’ll get your book in the mail to you post haste. Contact me at: kainja@hotmail.com. If you need to refresh your memory of the possible prizes, the contest link is here.

*Charles watches Lana slink off the stage and follows post haste himself, twirling his bow tie while fire pots explode behind him and send glittering sparkles high into the air.*

*The rest is history.*

File Under Weird

I heard this on the radio this morning, and the disk jockey, who is normally reliable, swore it was true. A 54 year old man needed a heart transplant and got one from a 33 year old man who had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. After about a year, the transplant fellow was feeling so grateful for his new lease on life that he contacted the suicide's widow to tell her how much the heart had meant for him. The two became friends and after a while began dating and eventually married. All went well for a few more years until the man began to get very depressed. He then killed himself by shooting himself in the head.

Think it's bad because your relationship history involves repeated breakups? Hey, it could be worse. How would you like to be this woman?

In other news, my contest is over. I had almost 30 entries and will do the drawing tonight or tomorrow and announce the winners here. Everybody who posted a title, unless they specifically stated otherwise, will be entered in the contest. There were some great titles, and a few that are already on my list of favorites, like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Repent Harlequin, said the Tick Tock Man." Congratulations to all who entered.

A Few Updates

Just a couple more days to enter my contest if you're of a mind to. The deadline is midnight Sunday, April 6. I'll do the drawing sometime next week and announce the two winners here.

I didn't make it around to blogs yesterday. I spent the whole day, from 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night at am OHRP conference. OHRP stands for Office for Human Research Protections. This is one of the major government agencies that overseas human research in the United States to make sure that it meets ethical standards. How did I end up at such a conference, you may ask. It's because, at Xavier University where I teach, I'm also chairperson of the IRB (Internal Review Board), which is often known as the Human Subjects Committee. We are sort of the OHRP of Xavier and oversee all the human research there.

Although I generally don't care a lot for conferences where you spend your day sitting, sitting, sitting, taking notes, there was a fair amount of interesting stuff at this one. And it was stuff I needed to know and my committee needs to know. Plus, I had to present on problems and solutions to the difficulties that IRBs at small universities experience. The presentation went well, despite the fact that I'd been rather dreading it.

Anyway, I'm back today, just in time to get notice that "Love in the Time of Cybersex" has been rejected once again. And this could be the ultimate indignity. The story was rejected from a magazine that was publishing an "all rejects" issue, all stories that had been rejected before by other magazines. Ouch! Well, it was actually outside their word count so I can console myself with that as the reason for the rejection. I'm not giving up on this tale, though. Each rejection makes me believe in it more. (Talk about irrational thinking!)

PS: If you haven't had a chance to read and vote for my wife's (Lana) hilarious drinking story yet, time is running out. You need to vote today, and she's in a neck n neck race for the championship. The link is HERE. Check it out!

And now, off to visit blogs and comment on the comments made on my recent post.

Sheer Creation

Writing is the closest we humans can get to experiencing an act that we usually associate with God. That is, sheer creation. It is certainly the most enjoyable part of writing for me, and is one reason why I’m particularly drawn to fantasy. No genre allows, nay demands, so much creation.

You may create characters and events in historical fiction, but the world itself is precisely successful to the degree that it evokes a world that really existed. You don’t “create” 1870 London, for example. You recreate it. You don’t, in horror, create the haunted malls and the lonely highways as much as you “adapt” them from actual experiences you yourself have had. In science fiction, the sun is the real sun, Mars is the real Mars. Of course, there is creation all through any type of fiction, but with real-world based fiction there are limits, for example, to what can you do with plants and animals.

I don’t mean to imply that there are no limits in fantasy. The fantasy world has to make sense and has to evoke a sense of realism, but the limits are broader. I’m reminded of what Morpheus said to Neo in The Matrix. It was something like: “Some of these rules can be bent. Others can be broken.” Well, you can bend and break more rules in fantasy than in any other genre, and that sheer imaginative act feels so powerful. At least to me.

I remember how much absolute joy I felt in writing Swords of Talera, and a lot of it was the first creation of the world itself. Even before I started writing “Swords,” I started creating the world, and I kept all that information in what I called, perhaps a bit melodramatically, my Taleran Encyclopedia. I’ll end this post with a few entries from that file.

Kahurra: a plant that may produce a kind of natural steroid. It is used by gladiators and often by assassins. It increases strength and aggressiveness but sometimes creates violent, uncontrollable rages.

Tris: Also called candle-bugs. Small, light giving insects. They live in many underground places, such as sewers. They are smaller than a lightning bug but their light is pretty much constant, only occasionally dimming or brightening slightly. They are also flightless and move in large masses. They give off a turquoise light.

Moons: Talera has four large moons. They do not wax or wane but always present their full face and the same face to the planet’s surface. They are, in order of appearance:

1. Nimeru – The smallest. It’s name means “The Dreamer.” It rises at dusk. It has a delicate blue color. In some cultures, Nimeru is the goddess of love, and in others the god or goddess of poetry.

2. Sieona – A little larger, and turquoise in color. It’s name means “The Storm Queen,” and many legends are told about its power to evoke storms. It rises at what would be about 10:00 on Earth.

3. Tisiminna – Golden in color, and larger still. The name means “The Beauty.” There are two smaller orbs that circle Tisiminna and these are sometimes called the “lovers” or the “courtiers.” There are whole story cycles about the relationship between the “beauty” and her “courtiers.” It rises at midnight.

4. Rath – The largest of the four moons, and red in color. Like Mars, it is often associated with war and battle and is called “The Warrior.” It rises at about 2:00 earth time.

Man, I love creating moons. How about you, what kind of creation do you love?
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PS, don't forget that there are still a few more days, until April 6, to enter my contest
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April Again

One day before
Gray sky turns April
The weight is already here
Gathered like flood waters
Black behind my eyes

Memories press down
Like tombstones
Like leaves piled by wind
In a hollow

How many miles
From here to there
How many years
And no bridges between

Within lies the dust
Of faded roses
A cracked smile
A whisper of prayer

Eyes of fair blue
Smokey with the past
Still he waits
A ghost in rosary

I cannot reach
No hand can grasp
But yet I wave
Once more in passing
April again

Bits and Pieces

You see them occasionally in your home town. They are always passing through. They are young men with long hair and blue jean jackets, and the look of the ascetic on their faces. They are derelicts clutching a paper bag, who make humped shadows in alleyways. They are young girls with flushed cheeks and too bright smiles, and women who seem always to be watching you. They may even be you. You can recognize them. In one way they are the same. They all have fangs in their eyes.

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On the first day of the month of Harps he had not returned. And on the second the wind blew black with dust. I stood on the walls of Kaleri, my eyes red from seeing, and waited to watch him ride in gray out of the wind shadows. But he did not. On the third day I went out after him.

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"High IQ," he said, "but the patient shows paranoid delusions of grandeur with ideas of reference."

"Ahhh," I said, as if I agreed.

"Attributable to Oedipal disturbances in childhood and complicated, I think, by an organic syndrome induced by narcotics abuse around the onset of puberty. The client also appears to exhibit concomitant antisocial characteristics and it may prove difficult to establish rapport."

"Yes. I fear you are right," I said, and turned him gently from the mirror.

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I suppose no man can forget what he now is when he speaks of what he once was. He can only hope to remember what were, for many of us, happier times, softer days, when moments without hardness were like leaves on the trees.

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A Review

Travis Erwin has posted a very nice review of Swords of Talera over on his blog, and I much appreciate it. I didn't even have to pay him. Travis is working on a manuscript called Plundered Booty, which many of us are hoping to see published soon.

For other comments, I just have to say what a gorgeous place the area around our Abita Springs home is. The Azaleas are blooming everywhere. Most are a gorgeous dark pink, but there are quite a few different shades, including a wonderful red. There is purple wisteria in the trees, several varieties of white flowers, and some lovely yellow flowers in the woods whose name escapes me right now. It's Carolina something or other. Add to that a lot of wildflowers in the ditches, the crimson clover bordering many of the roads, and the budding maples and dogwoods and you have a world clad in festival clothes.

Life is pretty good.

Biopunk: A referral post

Today I'm just going to refer you to something that I found very interesting. It's a post by William Jones about Biopunk. Biopunk appears to be a particular type of post-apocalyptic fiction, in which the apocalypse is brought on by some kind of biological pandemic. I suggested in my comments to William's post that The Stand by Stephen King might be an early example of this relatively unknown genre.

I also suggested that post-apocalyptic fiction in general arises out of the fact that humans, alone of all the species on earth, know absolutely from early on that we will die, and because we also have a strong suspicion that our civilization itself and the whole human race will eventually die as well. In fact, I think this is a driving force behind much of what humans do, but that probably needs to be expanded in a longer post.

Books Read, and BabelCon

The Contest is still running, but I thought it time for another post. I probably won’t post a lot this coming week since we have more job candidates in and I have tests. I really enjoyed most of my week off, although I was pretty sick from last Sunday through Tuesday. I got a lot of reading done and plenty of sleep, though, and a fair amount of writing. I managed to visit blogs every day. Here’s what I read:

The Narrows by Michael Connelly. This is the first book I’ve read by him. It featured a recurring character named Harry Bosch, who is a private detective in this story and who stumbles upon the key to a serial killer case. The book is a sequel to a book called The Poet, the “Poet” being the serial killer. I liked the book and will read others of his. However, he did one thing that bothered me, although I got used to it over time. Part of the book is told in first person by Bosch, but parts are told in third person and feature the character Rachel Walling, an FBI agent who has dealt with the Poet before. Although the book was enjoyable, I was disconcerted by the switching from first to third person.

Then I got on a western kick and read He Rode Alone by Steve Frazee and Gunsmoke by Wade Hamilton. Both were enjoyable. I also started Three Rode South by Jake Foster, but only made it 8 pages before abandoning it. The lesson, don’t make your first 8 pages consist primarily of an info dump of background information. There was even the dreaded “as you know” type dump. That happened on page 2.

Continuing with the western theme, I’ve started All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. Beautifully written, but it took me 25 pages to figure out what the hell was happening. McCarthy doesn’t make it easy on you. I’m around 100 pages now and it’s going pretty well, although I wish he’d stop being a "literary writer" long eough to use quotation marks around his dialogue. There’s no sense in it. Still, the prose itself makes the read worth some effort.

In other news, I’ll be a guest at this year’s Babel Con, in Baton Rouge. They’ve talked me into doing three presentations, which I’ve listed below. Join us if you can.

Alien Evolution II
Most of the Aliens that stalk popular science fiction films and TV are based on earth-like forms, especially reptiles and mammals. True aliens would be quite different, although there are some earth forms that might make good models for filmmakers and writers to follow. Come join a presentation and discussion about what is wrong, and right, about the way creative artists currently feature aliens, and about how an understanding of actual evolution could help us develop better extraterrestrials.

Blessed With Nightmares - Using Dreams to Enhance Creativity
Besides being fun for us all, dreams and nightmares contain both imagery and meaning that can help creative artists and writers ignite their imaginations. But first you have to remember them. This presentation will talk about the biological and psychological basis of dreams and dream disorders, suggest some ways for people to improve their recall of dreams, and also discuss where the meaning comes from in dreams.

Beyond Fear - The Psychology of Terror
Some people like scary stories while others hate them. Why the differences? And for those who like scary stuff, what is the attraction? This presentation will discuss a trilogy of dark emotions: Fear, Horror, and Terror. How are they similar, and different? And what are the biological and psychological forces that underlie them? Finally, how can these emotions be used to help writers and other creative artists strengthen their work?

Pay it Forward Contest

OK, quite a while back I won Sarai’s “Pay It Forward” contest and now I need to run my own. Like Angie, who also won, I’m going to do it a bit different.

The Rules:

Comment to this post between now and April 6 and include the following information: the words “Contest Entry,” and your favorite “title” of a book, story, or poem. That's all! My favorite title, for example, is, “I have No Mouth, and I must Scream.”

After the deadline, I’ll put everyone’s name into a hat and draw two winners, and will announce them on this blog. Winners pay it forward by running some variation of this contest on their own blogs.

The Prizes:
Each winner can select one of the following:

1. Support New Writers -- Pick a writer whose book was first published in either 2007or 2008. Either mass market or trade paperback. And I’ll send it to you. $20 dollar limit please.

2. Try Something from Me -- Pick one of my novels, and I’ll send it to you. That would be Cold in the Light, Swords of Talera, Wings Over Talera, or Witch of Talera. Cold in the Light is a horror thriller. The others consist of a fantasy trilogy, so if you haven’t read any of them you might want to start with “Swords.”

3. Try Something Sallis – Pick anything by James Sallis under $20 bucks and I’ll send it to you. His books are listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I will purchase the book from Barnes & Noble unless it is unavailable there.

4. Pick something under $20 bucks from the following writers and I’ll send it to you. Wayne Allen Sallee, C. S. Harris (or Candice Proctor), Farrah Rochon, Laura Joh Rowland, Sidney Williams, O’Neil De Noux, James Reasoner, David Lanoue, Bret Funk, Rexanne Becnel, Del Stone Jr. If you’re wondering how I generated this list, well I know a lot of writers so I had to limit the list somehow, and these are all folks I’ve met face to face and have had a beer, or other type of beverage, with. They’re all fine writers, as well as my friends.

"A City Equal to My Desire"

A City Equal to My Desire is a collection of stories harking back to James Sallis’s early days as a writer of speculative fiction and SF, although all were produced after 1998. The book's front and back cover blurbs suggest that the collection is primarily crime and mystery fiction, which is where James is best known today, but only about a third of the stories are actually crime tales. The rest are speculative fiction and include pieces published in Asimov’s, Fantasy and SF, and Talebones.

In keeping with the marketing, the first two stories in the collection actually are crime fiction. They include “Ukulele and the World’s Pain,” which I thought was the weakest tale in the collection, and the excellent “Drive,” which Sallis later expanded into a novella of the same name that I believe is one of the best noir thrillers ever written.

For me, however, the true gems in the collection are the speculative stories, especially “Roofs and Forgiveness in the Early Dawn,” about an unusual alien invasion, “Pitt’s World,” which tells the story of a survivor of a spaceship crash, and “Telling Lives,” about a writer who has discovered a niche for himself in writing biographies of everyday people. Another great story is "Day’s Heat,” which features an unusually close set of triplets and ties with “Roofs and Forgiveness…” for my personal favorites.

Wonderful characters and character interactions are Sallis's strengths, but we also find lovely language and beautiful imagery. Be aware, however, that these are literary quality stories and the endings may not be as clear cut as some genre readers would prefer. Since I love Sallis's creativity and verve, I don't mind the lack of neat and tidy endings. His characters are alive and his tales stir both the emotions and the imagination. I highly recommend them.

Last Post on Creationism

This will be my last post on Creationism for a while. I hope I didn't bore everyone too much but it was fresh in my mind from the project I'm working on. Below, I give you the most open minded approach yet mentioned.

Theistic Evolutionists: That there is no necessity for conflict between science and religion is shown by the existence of theistic evolutionists. These people are creationists, and evolutionists. They believe that God set the universe in motion but that He works through natural processes that were encoded into the universe at the beginning. Natural selection and other evolutionary processes are examples. The majority of professional scientists in the United States who are believers in God would fall into this category.

However, there are subtypes even here. Many theistic evolutionists believe that God can and does occasionally intervene in the natural affairs of the world. This would allow for miracles, although they would be rare events. However, some theistic evolutionists are also “Deists.” Deists place great store on the ability to “reason” and do not believe that God intervenes in his creation. The universe was set to run in a particular way and God leaves it alone to do so. Thus, Deists would be unlikely to pray for God to directly intervene in their lives, as in to cure some illness, while non-Deist theistic evolutionists (say that three times fast) might well do so.

Surprisingly to some, theistic evolution, although not of the Deist subtype, is actually the officially sanctioned view of the Catholic Church and many mainstream Protestant religions, as well as of many Jewish people. With this viewpoint, there is no conflict between science and religion because no line is drawn in the sand. Churches reserve spiritual matters for themselves and leave physical explanations of the world to science. Science as it exists now simply cannot adequately investigate supernatural phenomena because they are—-by definition—-outside of nature. At the same time, science, with its slow but ultimately self-correcting approach, is the only method thus devised by human beings to uncover ultimate physical truths.

Another Form of Creationism

Here's another type of creationism that I thought I'd share with you from my research.

Gap Creationists: There is much more variability among adherents of this group than among young-earth creationists. Many members of this group accept that science has proven the earth to be very old, but they still generally want to interpret the Bible literally. The result is the concept of the “gap.” Essentially, gap believers think there has been both a creation and a “recreation,” and that the period between these two is not recorded in the Bible and could be very long. Humans appeared only in the “recreation.” There is debate about exactly when the “gap” occurs in the Bible, but it is definitely before the “fall of man,” meaning when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden. Gap creationism is one type of “old-earth” creationism.

Creationism Versus

This may seem like a rather weird post but I'm working on a non-fiction book about the conflict between evolutionists and creationists, and I've been doing a lot of reading lately on the creationist positions. (There are more than one.) Last night I was working on a section on Young-Earth creationists and I thought I'd post it here.

Why you ask? Two reasons. 1) I think it's pretty interesting that folks can hold the Young-Earth view despite the evidence against it. 2) I do not want to give a false or misleadingly negative description of anyone's views. So, if you happen to know anything about this issue, please let me know if you feel I've misrepresented anything in my description of the Young-Earth viewpoint. I want to get it right.

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The term “Creationist” is often used to designate people who believe that God created the universe, the Earth, and human beings in pretty much the form that these things exist in now. Creationists are often depicted as accepting the Bible literally, not only as a guide to how humans should live, but as an actual history of the universe and its life forms. These commonly held beliefs about creationists are incredible oversimplifications. I want to talk here about some of the different viewpoints within the creationist camp.

Adherents of the young-earth view most closely resemble the stereotype that people at large have of creationists in general. Although there is variability even here, most young-earth creationists accept a literal interpretation of the Bible’s Book of Genesis for the creation of earth. They believe that God took six literal days to do the work, and that the earth is only about 6,000 years old. This date is arrived at by counting the generations listed in the Bible. They also tend to support the Biblical report of an earth-wide flood, which is thought to have happened about 4,000years ago.

One of the most outspoken proponents of young-earth creationism is Duane Gish, an American who is trained as a biochemist, although his work for the past few decades has been outside the laboratory and in the creationist arena. Gish, who is also considered to be a fundamentalist Baptist, denies that evolution meets the criteria for a scientific theory, and urges the teaching of “Creation Science” in the classroom. This would include teaching the “young” age of the earth, and that most “fossils” are the remnants of animals killed in Noah’s flood. He is currently affiliated with the Institute for Creation Research.

Much To Do

Really feeling pretty swamped today so only a brief post. I may not be making the rounds of everyone's blog for a day or two as well. We have job candidates interviewing this week, as well as many other things to deal with.

The picture is the cover to an anthology that should be coming out in April. I have a humorous fantasy story in it called "Mirthgar." I'll be posting more about it as the publication time arrives. Also, The Illuminata will be publishing it's first issue on its new bimonthly schedule within a few days. I'll announce it when it happens but I'll have a piece in there on Front and Back loading of information in stories. I'm pretty sure that Bret, the editor, is still looking for reviewers for the newsletter so if you like reading and reviewing SF, Fantasy, and horror, you might check it out.

Have a great day.

Flashback Corner

I thought I hated poetry when I was a kid. It wasn't until I discovered Poe and Dylan Thomas in college that I came to understand how powerful the medium could be. I never wrote what I thought of as poetry in high school, but I did write song lyrics, mostly for the band Crash, which I sang with, or sometimes just for myself. Only two full sets of lyrics survive from that period of my life. Below are the words to a song called "She's a Killer," which I eventually sold as a poem.

SHE'S A KILLER

Everywhere I look in the darkness, I see her watching me
Faded scarlet on her lips, dry chalk in her face
Eyes of need that beg into mine
A kiss so sharp it pricks like wine
Only wish I'd seen in time

She's a killer

Beneath the moonlight, her hands reach out to capture me
Ivory thorns in her hair, dark wind at her back
Open those lips and the room goes cold
What she offers? A body unsouled
All the deaths that were foretold

She's a killer

In the pearl of dawn, the dreams she gives come to life
Gleaming tears in her eyes leave fangs in my mind
Screaming to white, I await being taken
Heart twisted shut and breath so shaken
By all the memories her teeth awaken

I'm a killer

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Today, poetry is a big part of my life. I love reading it and writing it, and it is a very big influence on my prose style. How about you? Do we have any poetryophiles out there? Do you have a favorite poem? Or do you hate poetry? Do you have miles to go before you'll cross the road to read a poem? The poets want to know. They're keeping a list. ;)

Information Overload

Curious about exactly what an info dump is? Well, here's one from page 18 of the hardback edition of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown:

“The new entrance to the Paris Louvre had become almost as famous as the museum itself. The controversial neomodern glass pyramid designed by Chinese-born American architect I. M. Pei still evoked scorn from traditionalists who felt it destroyed the dignity of the Renaissance courtyard. Goethe had described architecture as frozen music, and Pei’s critics described this pyramid as fingernails on a chalkboard. Progressive admirers, though, hailed Pei’s seventy-one-foot-tall transparent pyramid as a dazzling synergy of ancient structure and modern method--a symbolic link between the old and new…”

Many writers, including myself, dislike info dumps. They smack of laziness, and most of the time the information works better when it's integrated into the storyline and doesn’t call attention to itself. However, many readers don’t seem to mind info dumps. In fact, some readers seem to enjoy the chance to learn tidbits they didn’t know before, even if it interrupts the flow of a story or is irrelevant to a story.

As a reader myself, if the information is interesting I hardly notice an info dump, but when they are boring I quickly start to squirm. I like learning stuff, but I'm not reading a novel primarily to be educated. (I read nonfiction for that.) I want to be entertained first and foremost. I didn’t feel that the passage from Brown was a good one. There’s a lot of information but I frankly didn’t find much of it interesting, and it really slowed the story's pace. Plus, it had nothing to do with the plot and never showed up again. Other than the fact that the main character will go through the entrance to the Louvre to get into the museum where things will happen, none of this information has anything to do with the story.

So how do you feel about "info dumps?" As a writer? As a reader?

More Poul Anderson

I suppose most have heard that Gary Gygax died. He was co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve never played the game, and haven’t read anything by Gygax, but I know he had a big following and was a big popularizer of fantasy. Thus I raise a toast to him.

As for my post today, it’s more on Poul Anderson (1926-2001). I don’t want to bore folks but I wanted to mention some of his other books that I really enjoyed. I’m not discussing his Dominic Flandry series, which is exclusively SF, but I did very much enjoy that series. If you want to know more about it specifically, check here

The Broken Sword is probably the best book Anderson ever wrote. It’s a mixture of High Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery. The High Fantasy part comes because of its setting in the magic land of Faerie, and the fact that most of the major characters are elves and trolls. However, there is also a lot of the good bloody action that usually characterizes Sword & Sorcery more. The Broken Sword is the story of Skafloc, a human child stolen and raised by elves, and of Valgard, the half-elf/half-troll who replaces Skafloc as a changeling. It also involves Skafloc's sister, who unknowingly falls in love with Skafloc. It evokes the "otherworldliness" of Fairie very well, and there are some strong battle scenes. The prose is just beautiful. It shows some similarities to the work of both Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, but I suspect most of the similarities occur because all three writers drew on similar source material from Norse and British myths.

Hrolf Kraki's Saga: Despite the name, only a small part of this book is about Hrolf Kraki, and he only gets the name Kraki toward the end. This is a good book, though, quite similar stylistically to ¬The Broken Sword¬. It even includes another incest twist. "Kraki's Saga" is much more ambitious, however, which is good in some ways and not so good in others. I would classify it as Sword and Sorcery because it focuses primarily on human heroes, though there are various half-breeds and some other supernatural entities to be found here. The Broken Sword¬ is simpler and more emotionally touching. But Anderson really does not write bad books and I liked this one quite a bit, too. When Anderson describes the northern world he is just fantastic. There is also has a powerful and well-done climactic battle, a trademark of Anderson’s work.

Fantasy is an excellent collection of Anderson's short fiction, with a non-fiction essay or two thrown in as bonus. Among the strongest stories are "A Logical Conclusion," which is interplanetary adventure (read Sword & Planet) at its best, "Superstition," which is about a future governed by "scientific" magic and is one of the more memorable tales I've read, and "Interloper," about someone surprising who saves Earth. The last story is also notable in that it has a character named "Kane" in it. The book also contains the excellent, and somewhat famous, essay "On Thud and Blunder," which is a succinct lesson that any would-be fantasy writer ought to read. There is also Anderson's contribution to the "Longbore the Inexhaustible" genre of humorous fantasy. That story is called "The Barbarian," and features one "Cronkheit." I found it considerable funnier than most such tales, but still not that good in comparison to his serious work. This collection is apparently hard to find. My copy is Tor 1981.

The Queen of Air and Darkness collects more of Anderson’s stories. It is superb, and the title story is one of my all time favorite Anderson tales and has made my short list of the best all time SF/Fantasy stories ever. It is only partially an SF story, and far more fantasy, and is tremendous both in style and in content/plot. Of the other five stories in the book, only "The Faun" seems rather slight, though I did enjoy it. The rest of the stories are good, but not nearly as powerful as the title tale.

Two other good fantasy works by Anderson are The High Crusade, which is a humorous look at 14th century humans getting loose in the universe with a captured spaceship, and Three Hearts and Three Lions, which follows a modern (1950s) earthman who is cast onto a parallel Earth where fantasy and magic are real. I liked both books, but the latter is by far the better.

Poul Anderson Recalled

One of my favorite authors is much forgotten these days, so I thought I might take a few posts to refresh people’s memories. This is Poul Anderson (1926-2001). Anderson wrote both fantasy and SF with ease, although I personally prefer his fantasy. One of his fantasy series has been on my mind of late. This is his Last Viking trilogy, consisting of The Golden Horn, The Road of the Seahorse, and The Sign of the Raven, all published in 1980 by Zebra books.

These books tell the story of Harald Sigurdharson, better known as Harald Hardrede, who is sometimes called "the real-life Conan." The books are based on as true a history as Anderson could put together from many sources, and though he admitted taking some liberties, he believed that the books were very close to a true picture of Hardrede and his times. The books often do read more as history than fiction.

Hardrede certainly makes a good historical model for Conan. He was born from the blood of Kings, which is different than Conan. And he was never a thief, as Conan was. But he was definitely a reaver and a man of great mirths and melancholies. He was a lover of drink, and of many women--he took two to wife--and he was, quite probably, the greatest warrior of his age. It is said that he was seven feet tall and that he fought with an axe. And even in his fifties he was powerful in battle and always in the forefront. None could top him.

In his youth, Hardrede was much traveled and was quick with languages. Near the age of 15, but already as tall as most men, Harald fought in a battle in which his King and the King's army was cut to pieces. He was one of the few that lived (sounds like Conan), and afterward he traveled to Russia where he lead men in battle for the first time. From there he went to Constantinople where he served the empire and became chief of the Varangian Guard, which was made up of fair-haired northern warriors. He made a name for himself and earned much wealth, which he put to good use in later years when he returned to the north and made himself King of Norway.

Hardrede wanted to be King and yet he chafed at the restraints this placed on him. He was ambitious. He dreamed of a northern empire that no one could break, and he wanted a place for his sons to rule after him. And yet, he also dreamed simply of exploring, of seeing Vinland, or of finding out what lay north of his lands, over the curve of the world. He even took ships into the arctic, though ice turned him back in the only major defeat he ever suffered. Save for his last.

Harald Hardrede died trying to conquer England. He fell at the battle of Stamford Bridge, warring against overwhelming odds, and this was chronicled in the trilogy’s third volume. Anderson did a great job “showing” this battle, making you feel the sweat and the exhaustion, making you smell the blood and hear the shock of shields on shields and axes against flesh.

I remember when I finished the battle scene, I put the book down and just sat quietly for a long time. Hardrede's standard was a raven banner called Landwaster, and it seemed that I could hear the snap of it in the wind behind my head. Though there was no wind in the modern office where I sat.

I tell myself, as an enlightened 21st century man, that war is a nasty and evil thing. That there is no good way to die. I know how desperately I would pray that my son be spared such pain. My rational mind knows that glory is a fleeting thing and not worth its price in pillaged lands and fatherless children, or in trampled fields and dead kine. But sometimes there is a thing in my soul that doesn't quite believe it. I don't like that in myself. But I can't deny it.

I close my eyes and think of frost glittering on spears, of streaming light flashing from helmets and mail and the broad hilts of swords. I think of warhorses, of steam bleeding from their nostrils and their eyes wild. I think of the tramping boots of warriors, and the shock of battle lines coming together beneath black and red banners. I can see the axes, their edges turned copper with gore, and the sleeting drench of arrows. I can hear the whisper of steel, like tearing silk, and the white din of weapons and armor and hate.

And God help me, I think of Harald Hardrede and say: "There was a man."

Quick Notes n Updates

It's a beautiful day here so I'm probably going to get out and do some walking, but I thought I might mention a couple of quick things.

Unified SciFi Forums is no more. I was the horror moderator for several years at the site and met some good folks and made some good friends. Visits there had been declining for some time and when they ended up with a software problem that would be costly to fix they decided to shut down. I've taken them off my links. I'll miss 'em, but nothing hangs around forever.

The March issue of Niteblade is out, with a poem by me called "Recompense Reprise." I believe you can click on the link below the cover and get to a page where you can read some of the material for free, including my piece. This is a great magazine, though, something like 133 pages of material, so if you like Fantasy, Horror and SF check it out.

I'm thinking about a post I want to do on "Front Loading" versus "Back Loading." In a novel one can spread the needed "explanations" of plot across the entire book, but in short stories this material often clusters at the beginning or the end. For example, the story I'm working on right now has more back loading than front, and want to give this pattern a bit more thought.

In the meantime, I hope it's gorgeous where you are. If so, get out and breathe.