I'm Still Here

I haven't updated this blog in well over a year. In fact, I forgot about it completely for a while. I am still writing fiction though, so maybe I will try this again. The reason I am making this post is because I was thinking that I needed another outlet, another place to write. Then, lightbulb (!), I remembered this blog on which I had spent less time than it takes to make a bowl of cereal.

So, no promises, but my intention is to post writing-related things here on a regular basis and maybe some excerpts or a short piece every now and then as well. Currently I am working on a story with the working title "The Vault of Adorn". It is a science-fantasy story. For the first time since I started writing, I wrote the story's ending first. Soon after that I wrote the very beginning. Hopefully the middle will come next and as easily as the rest.

OK. Back to the "Vault". Until next time (hopefully NOT in December of 2015).

Started a new story...

For those who don't know me, I am a husband, father, amateur proctologist, and I am a writer.  Many of those who do know me might not be aware of my writing.  I have never had anything published* and I have never even submitted any of my stuff to see if there is any interest.  I have been writing for about eight years now, and I finally feel like I am good enough to give it a shot.
   
 Anyway, I started a short story today with the working title "Cloistre".  It's new territory for me, in a way.  I usually write fantasy and horror.  This one is sf, although not hard sf.  I suppose it is more along the lines of Jack Vance's sf, or Gene Wolfe's sf.  The only real science I am using is maybe anthropology.

I am going to keep a record of my submissions here, as well as any news on that front.  I might even post a short piece or three, if the mood strikes me.  Hell, I guess reviews of stuff that really moves me will pop up here, too.  Mostly books, but also music, movies, cockfights, etc.

Well, I'm off to write some more, then crash.  Have fun and save the battered plants.


* In 6th grade, I wrote a humorous poem about Jim and Tammy Faye Baker just after Jim was sentenced to hard time.  My poem mentioned this in addition to: Jerry Faldwell, PTL's ripoff shemes, Mrs. Baker's incessant stream of tears and her amazing mascara, as well as other fascinating highlights of the Bakers' misery and the fall of the PTL empire.  The poem was printed in the local newspaper.  Mrs. Cook, my 6th grade teacher, an absolutely wonderful lady and the best teacher bar none I ever had, submitted the piece on my behalf.  Mrs. Cook is also responsible for encouraging me to write. If you're out there Mrs.Cook, I haven't forgotten everything you did for me.  Thank you so much.

Shadows of the New Sun

I had a great review typed up.  I was only about fifty words away from finishing it.  Then something terrible happened.  Only, I don't really know what.  The simplest explanation is that my computer pulled a dick move and erased everything I had written.  What an  inconsiderate asshole.  Bad computer!  Bad!

Anyway, there is no way in hell I am re-typing the review.  To try and replicate its perfection is futile.  Trust me.  Futile.

So, in place of the epic piece of bliss that was my review, I give you this epic piece of, um, this thing:

Shadows of the New Sun is, overall, really good.  If you are a diehard Wolfe fan, it is a necessity.  If you're a casual Wolfe fan (do such creatures exist?) you will enjoy the stories even if you miss the Wolfe references and inside jokes.  The rest of us won't make fun of you behind your back.  Well, maybe just a little.  If you have a) Never heard of Wolfe, or b) Heard of Wolfe but never read him, then I suggest you repair this appalling deficiency immediately by reading, oh, I don't know, The Fifth Head of Cerberus or The Shadow of the Torturer or even Peace.  After reading either one or all of said books, you may join the rest of us at the cool table.  And then go buy Shadows of the New Sun.

I got my copy from Audible since I had a credit left over (read: free).  I know, I know, listening isn't reading, it's for old people, WHATEVER.  Cut me some slack.  Eleven bucks is a fortune this week.  Anyhow, for those of you who are considering buying the audiobook, the reader (there are two, a man and a woman--I have only heard the man so far) is good.  I became paranoid concerning Audible's readers when I bought two ABs back-to-back that were absolute crimes against humanity.  The readers were crap.  Worse than crap-- they were doodie.   These books were, so you can avoid them, Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, and Zelazny's The Guns of Avalon.  Now don't get it mixed-up.  The books themselves are awesome, the writing is gnarly, totally bodacious-- it is the readers who are heinous.

So, all this just to say, from what I have heard, this collection is a worthy tribute to Wolfe.  Just as Songs of the Dying Earth was to Vance.  Although, had I been the editor of that project, I would have expanded the criteria to include SF and fantasy and mystery, as Vance wrote those, too.  Anyway, happy reading (or listening for you fossils) and till next time...

My new blog

This is my first blog, and I hope to use it to post book reviews and other thoughts on whatever it is I'm reading at the time.  Probably a lot of other things as well.  We'll see.   Stay tuned.