Inspired by Grayson Morris’s own version of this blog post, I decided to answer the same basic question here. What are seven interesting facts about my life that most of you probably don’t know? Doubtless hers and others’ are vastly more interesting (she and her boyfriend got to meet David Gilmour, and her boyfriend even shook his hand!), but anyway. So, seven things you (probably) don’t know about me:
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I had an amazing weekend. Spent Friday night in Chicago, and stayed for most of the day Saturday. Ashleigh and I boarded the train at noon, arrived early evening to check into the hotel, and ate a lovely dinner at Chili’s on the corner of N. State St. I had the Crispy Chicken Crispers, with a side of BBQ sauce; Ashleigh had the chicken fajitas. Followed up dinner with a trip to an independent bookstore called After-Words, about two blocks from the hotel. Picked up three paperbacks: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, The October Country by Ray Bradbury, and Angry Candy by Harlan Ellison.
Spent the night at the Vic Theater, where former Soundgarden/Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell performed an acoustic “Songbook Tour” show. Banjo-wielding bluesman William Elliott Whitmore opened the show, and just blew my mind. Never heard of the guy before this weekend, but damn he was a good showman. His “fuck the man, fuck the police” attitude is infectious, and his playing/singing is even better. Cornell’s performance was phenomenal, his years of experience in the music world made evident in the sheer effortlessness of his acoustic playing and trademark howling vocals. He’s also just an all-around cool guy. I loved how relaxed he was onstage; he looks truly at home in a chair with an acoustic and a microphone. The highlight of the concert, by far, was his cover of the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” which he performed flawlessly.
The morning after began, as all great vacation days do, with a complimentary breakfast buffet. Then we checked out, took the taxi to the Art Institute, where we saw classic works like Seurat’s famous Sunday Afternoon…, as made famous by John Hughes’ classic 80s film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, along with an impressive number of Van Gogh’s works. His self-portrait was far more stunning in person, mostly because of the boldness — the visible thickness — of his brushstrokes.
From there we trekked down Michigan Avenue, dropped by the Disney Store — “No TRON merchandise here, sorry.” — and then ended up at Water Tower Place, where we ate lunch at the strange but delicious FoodLife. Picked up a copy of the fantastic comedy Black Dynamite for five bucks at Best Buy, which made the whole trip worthwhile. Took a taxi to Navy Pier for some more sightseeing and lakeside relaxation.
Finished Cormac McCarthy’s The Road on the train ride back to town, although I’m not sure yet just what I have to say about it. Was an enjoyable read, but it’s going to take some time to reflect on it. A lot going on there, perhaps most importantly in the form of symbols, metaphors, and other slippery tokens of that nature. Most importantly, I think, McCarthy’s making a statement about humanity’s relationship to God — but it’s going to require some unpacking before I have anything intelligent to say on the matter.
Am now reading Hunter S. Thompson’s zany gonzo memoir Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, which is both beautifully written and alarming in its implications about Thompson’s life. The man clearly lived longer than one would’ve expected, having read this book back in the 70s when it was published. It’s great, though, and entertaining as hell. A nice change of pace, although I find myself hungering for some good horror/fantasy/SF. The summer holds much to look forward to: the Ellison collection, The October Country, American Gods, King’s It, Dandelion Wine…
But for now, I leave you with a video from Friday night’s show (which I did not take) — Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”:
I didn’t get into Clarion. No explanation was given, other than the obvious: they receive hundreds of applications every year, and mine simply didn’t meet their specific needs. I’m okay with this, although I was feeling the sting yesterday. I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t disappointed.
Got my first personal rejection from Strange Horizons, which is one of my favorite fiction markets. After 72 days of waiting, I committed the greatest folly to ever plague the emerging writer: I got my goddamn hopes up.
And then, right on cue, at the pinnacle of my story-selling fantasy, the email came. Sorry, no thanks.
It pointed out a few overlooked flaws in my premise, reasons why my characters’ relationships with one another weren’t entirely believable, but it also complimented me on the worldbuilding. So my ideas are enough to give an editor pause, perhaps, but they need developed further.
So I plan to work on that. Practice, practice, practice.
My intuition, and the feedback I’ve gotten here and there, tells me that my initial drafting process is my greatest strength. I can produce decent words, and create a somewhat unified piece of literature. My weaknesses are what take place before, and then after, the dreaded first draft. Worldbuilding, plotting, character development, and revision; some of the most difficult things about the craft of fiction, so really not much of a surprise.
So “In the Arms of Lachiga” is out to the next market. And will surely go on to the next after that. It may end up getting absorbed entirely into the planned eventual novel, if its current form isn’t strong enough as-is. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I’ve got some exciting ideas for my Q2 Writers of the Future story — just need to actually draft them out. My time is growing truly precious, and I feel myself creeping toward a nervous breakdown of my own quiet design. Hopefully the anxiety will get expunged in the heat of writing.
Hopefully.
Finished Gary A. Braunbeck’s To Each Their Darkness. What a beautiful fucking book.
Can’t even imagine where I’d begin with a real review; not sure I’ve got the nerve to try and criticize the man’s writing. His voice is strong and literary, his all-too-true tales as powerful as a shotgun blast to the chest. I’ve got insane respect for the man, and I’ll be seeking out more of his works.
You could say the book lacks focus, or organization, but damned if it isn’t a great read. It had me enthralled for hours and hours at a time. His history overshadowed whatever darkness I have to call my own ten-, maybe a hundred-fold. And his intermittent manifesto chapters on storytelling resonated deeply with me. His beliefs regarding both the potential value and present state of genre fiction spoke volumes of familiarity, and I think anyone planning to write speculative fiction would do right to follow his lead.
To finish on a lighter note, I saw The Adjustment Bureau and Battle: Los Angeles.
As a huge Philip K. Dick fan, who has somehow neglected to read the short story “Adjustment Team” so far, I was impressed by the choices made by the director regarding the nature of reality and of the adjustment officers themselves. Dick wasn’t a scientist; he was a philosopher of the metaphysical. Whatever its faults (there are some), the film got that much right, and as a Dickian acolyte I applaud it for that.
Battle: Los Angeles is basically the same alien invasion plot we’ve seen come out of Hollywood a hundred times, except this time they basically got it almost right. Aaron Eckhart, Transformers 2‘s Ramone Rodriguez, Ne-Yo, Michelle Rodriguez, and Gran Torino‘s Cory Hardrict make up a cast of U.S. Marines that for the most part behave intelligently and make believable strategic decisions. The design of the aliens was surprisingly original, but the technology of both their weaponry and spacecraft raised some suspicion. I kept thinking, Did human beings build this shit? Sure looks like it. Are those bullets? Rockets? Flying football stadiums? And while the aliens didn’t look remotely humanoid, they were bipedal, and moved like human infantry. Otherwise, I thought they looked cool as hell.
But overall, the movie is tense in all the right places, the action is necessary and believable, and the script is mature and intelligent in its portrayal of an event that’s rarely handled that way. It isn’t some heavyhanded metaphor for one specific human problem (you could make an argument for terrorism, but the creatures aren’t waging some mindless crusade a la George W. Bush — I mean, er, Al Qaeda); the creatures have a legitimate, scientifically sound reason for locating and seizing Earth. If you can overlook the difficulty of extraterrestrials with fairly crude technology finding Earth, and then getting here, I pretty much bought it. And it’s entertaining as hell. Lacked a certain sense of revelation — which is part of the appeal of science fiction, I think — but maybe that’s a way to leave open the possibility (but please, oh please, don’t!) of a sequel.
I love comic books, but I don’t ever seem to indulge in them as often as I’d like. Films were my first love, and then novels. Short fiction and comics came much later — recently, even — when the urges to become a better writer and artist struck me hard in my second year of college.
Yesterday I finished Jeph Loeb’s Batman: The Long Halloween, and it has rekindled my love of graphic novels. Months ago, I read The Killing Joke, Cacophony, Batman R.I.P., and several others. Then I bought The Watchman and V for Vendetta — already two of my all-time favorite films — and, for some damn reason, never read them.
So I’m finally getting to that. Halfway through Gary A. Braunbeck’s To Each Their Darkness, which is a phenomenal horror fiction manifesto/memoir; expect a review very soon. Working slowly through Chuck Palahniuk’s bizarre but fascinating Haunted (which he calls a novel, but which is more like a chapbook of poems and short stories that are all interconnected), and enjoying it.
The artwork by Tim Sale was one of the big highlights for me. The Long Halloween is reminiscent of darker stuff, like The Killing Joke or Watchmen, but with a very distinctive style that I really appreciate as an artist. The level of detail, line quality, and draftsmanship is friggin’ stunning. Joker’s teeth, and Two-Face’s acid burn scars, are pretty frightening.
The color work is pretty recognizable as being typical of the mid-90s process, and adds beauty to Sale’s already-great drawings.
As for the story, it’s clear that the book — no secret, from what I’m told — was a huge influence on the Christopher Nolan films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Both Carmine “The Roman” Falcone and Salvatore “The Boss” Maroni are key players in the Gotham City underworld of organized crime and corruption; each of these guys were instrumental figures in the plots of both of Nolan’s movies.
Harvey Dent’s campaign against the mob and subsequent tragic fall into villainy as the murderous Two-Face is also a key plot point for the graphic novel — one that is well played out, and reminiscent of both Joel Schumacher’s infamous Batman Forever and The Dark Knight. In light of this focus, the Joker plays a far less important role in the comic, but is nevertheless present throughout the story, along with Mad Hatter, Riddler, Solomon Grundy, Catwoman, and Poison Ivy.
The great mystery driving the plot is that of the so-called “Holiday Killer,” a shooter who begins hunting down members of the Falcone crime family starting with Halloween and continuing on with a significant murder taking place on each big holiday of the calender year.
The revealing of evidence, suspicions, and character motivations have the reader guessing right along with Batman the whole time, and even by the end only the reader is fully aware of the Holiday Killer’s true identity. One of the best endings I’ve ever seen in a comic book, and perhaps the best story in the entire Batman mythos.
If someone asked me to recommend them one comic book/graphic novel from the ones I’ve read, I would recommend they read The Long Halloween. Expect more comic book-related geekouts in the near future.
The lack of blog activity might indicate that I’m not doing much lately, but I can assure you that’s not the case at all. I’ve been damn busy with school, and it hasn’t been doing any favors for my writing career. I’ve been reading a lot of essays on writing online, taking — of course – a writing class, a drawing class, and a photography class, and taking an occasional dip into William Gibson’s Count Zero or Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary.
Thankfully, just because I’m not doing much blogging doesn’t mean I’m not writing and making art. Expect some scans/photos of my current art project — a series of portraits and human skull studies — soon. Will also post a couple of my surrealist photoshop projects (if they’re any good).
I’m currently working on two fiction projects, with one soon to come:
An untitled collaboration with Weird Tales/Brain Harvest author Ben Godby, more details on which will be revealed later.
And a transgessive/cyberpunk story set in my Lachiga continuity, involving the narrator of the as-yet-unreleased main story in the universe. Will serve as the inciting incident of the planned eventual Lachiga (untitled, partially outlined) novel. An experiment in style and first-person narrative based on the writing of Chuck Palahniuk, a writer who’s been a huge inspiration to my work.
No new sales. Expecting an avalanche of form rejections any day now.
A preview of the cover art for Made You Flinch, which will mark my fiction debut, has been released, and I’m very pleased with it. Sort of a Lovecraft-mythos-meets-death-metal-imagery piece. Will post it later.
I just may decide to take over for Anton Corbijn when he retires…
In all seriousness though, I had a blast taking these:
Rock and roll music is a big part of my life, and a huge influence on my writing. Check out the rest of these photos on my Facebook albums, if you like. Google A Hill to Die Upon or Parlours to hear some fantastic songwriting and phenomenal music.
Apparently this is a trend among SF readers/bloggers at present, so I felt obliged to weigh in with my own thoughts. Some of the works will inevitably be from prior to 2010, since I’m young, new to the writing game, and playing big-time catch-up.
Favorite novel reads from 2010:
The rest of the novels I read over the past year, if memory serves, were far older: Ender’s Game, Fahrenheit 451, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, etc.
Favorite short fiction reads from 2010:
I can tell by looking at this list that it is greatly lacking, but I’m tired and feel that it represents at least most of the memorable reads I experienced over the past year. I read a great deal of old novels, old short story collections (Richard Matheson’s short fiction was a particularly delicious treat), and nonfiction, as well.
Looking forward to really expanding my horizons in 2011. I want to read or reread some of the all-time great novels, explore new genres, and discover new authors. I still have a lot of homework to do.
Although I’ve read at least one work by most of the classic masters, there are plenty of speculative fiction writers I’ve yet to sample. For example, I’ve got some real treats awaiting my eyes in the wonderful Kindle: Neil Gaiman, Iain M. Banks, John Scalzi, and others. Currently enjoying the well-paced, worldbuilding-rich Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.
Have a fantastic New Year, everyone!
My folks were kind enough to give me a Kindle this Christmas — something I asked for because, let’s face it, I’ll use the damn thing all the time. Figured I’d give my initial thoughts on the gizmo here for those who are curious, as I was not long ago, about whether or not the Amazon Kindle — or e-readers in general, for that matter — are worth all the hype.
For $120.00 worth of Amazon gift cards, I’ve purchased 40 items. Some of these were free, others cost as much as $12.99. Just depends on what sort of book you’re getting, and how old it is.
For free, I downloaded the following works:
That’s a hell of a lot of reading, and I didn’t pay a cent for any of it. With the 3G Kindle, data transfer is completely free.
For about $120.00, I got the following books:
It’s pretty obvious, then, that buying books in digital format saves you a substantial bit of cash. Tides from the New Worlds (albeit a signed, hardcover edition) cost me $40 in physical format; $2.99 for Kindle. Under the Dome, a mammoth hardback for which I paid close to $40 when it was first released, cost only $9.99 for Kindle.
So what about reading on the device? That’s what’s most important, right?
It’s wonderful. Totally awesome, seamless experience. The newsprint-style, un-backlit screen is extremely easy on the eyes, and reacts nicely to the natural or unnatural lighting that’s shone onto it. A nice experience in contrast to the harshness of reading online via laptop, or on something as luminous as the iPad (which looks to be a pretty neat device, just not for reading specifically). It reads with equal comfort with either lamplight or the built-in light of the leather jacket (worth the $50 price tag, in my opinion, if you read a lot). The default size of the onscreen text seems perfect, and the font is a nice, neutral serif that I enjoy.
The first work I’ve begun reading is Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker, which is a phenomenal book so far. Great characterization, plotting, action — phenomenal worldbuilding, writing, etc.
I’m on Chapter 10 at the moment, and each chapter (or several) has gone by in a single sitting, with instantaneous “page-turns” and no pesky loss of pages, glancing at page numbers, etc. I find myself getting lost in the reading experience with far greater ease than with clunky hardcover books, and the comfort level is especially great for in bed after lights-out (if you have the lighted jacket).
Overall, I couldn’t imagine being more pleased with the device. I find I’m reading several times throughout each day, enjoying the prose with a new level of enthusiasm. While I’ll probably still buy the occasional hardcover from my favorite authors — Joe Hill, Tobias Buckell, and so forth — I’ll no doubt be buying nearly all of my books in digital format henceforth. The reading experience on Kindle is simply too good, too immersive.
Pre-writing, outline stage, et cetera, is proceeding quite wonderfully on my 1st-Quarter 2011 Writers of the Future entry. I’m very excited about the worldbuilding in this one, and I think that the story has the potential to rise above the more typical SF works I’ve sent in the past. It has a voice, an atmosphere, and a potentially unique idea to explore. Not sure exactly how unique, but I’m really looking forward to drafting it. In two days, the semester will be over and I’ll have a month to just write and enjoy life — and redirect my attention toward a few somewhat neglected relationships. I have some great people in my life, but I often feel a pang of guilt for how little time I actually manage to spend with them.
On a brighter note, I received a signed, personalized hardcover copy of Jay Lake’s amazing new short story collection, The Sky That Wraps in the mail this morning. Mr. Lake is a writer whom I greatly admire, and I was very pleased to win the book in his recent caption contest poll. Wishing him well in this difficult time.
I’ve received notice that several of my unpublished works are currently being held for consideration at various places. I won’t bother getting my hopes up, but things are starting to look fairly promising. I’ve received an equal number of rejections, as well, of course — but at least I’m finally breaking past the round-one slush level at some of the journals and e-zines. A couple of my stories are also being held for potential inclusion in a couple anthologies, as well. No word yet regarding the release dates of Made You Flinch, Vol. I, Fearology 2, or Rockets, Swords, and Rainbows. Hopefully some news is coming soon.
The most exciting bit of updatery: I’m sending in my application for Clarion 2011 tomorrow. I have two stressful English finals to study for tonight, so that will taking up all my time this evening, but tomorrow I’m looking toward the future — to the horizon. A lot of my literary heroes emerged from Clarion armed with the skills that got them to where they are today, and the more I read of their experiences there, the more I believe that it’s where I want to be. This summer, or the next. I’ll likely apply to Clarion UCSD as long as I can afford to, but either this year or the next would be the optimal timeframe — when I’m still insanely driven and psychologically malleable. At this point in my life, I’m more eager to learn than I can possibly contain, and also very open to criticism — particularly from folks with names like John Scalzi and Nina Kiriki Hoffman. Bring on the criticism! But, of course, I have to get accepted before I go getting too excited. I was hesitant to even announce my application, but then again who could possibly contain such enthusiasm? I’ve never wanted anything more in my life, to be quite honest. Since I was eleven years old, I’ve known I wanted to be a writer.
So, we’ll see how that goes. Stay tuned.
Check out the trailer for Sucker Punch. It looks very delicious indeed — all the bizarre dreampunk goodness of DiCaprio’s Inception and Shutter Island, all the badassery of The Watchmen (directed by Zack Snyder, the genius behind this forthcoming film), and a level of fun akin to that of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
The first draft of “Touching from a Distance,” my latest jaunt into the realm of cyberpunk — and gay romance — is coming along better than expected. As a straight man, who isn’t in the military and has never been in space or centuries into the future, I think I’m managing to weave a fairly believable SF-nal yarn. It will soon be shipped off to the brilliant Bill Tucker at Library of Horror/Science Fiction Press for consideration in a future anthology, tentatively titled Rockets, Swords, and Rainbows.
Speaking of Bill Tucker, I’ve now signed two contracts — for both “Night of the Widow” and “The Darkling Door.” With any luck, Made You Flinch: Stories to Unnerve, Disturb, and Freak You Out, Vol. I will be released sometime before Christmas. With a hell of a lot of luck, Fearology 2 might be granted the same good fortune. Would definitely make for an exciting holiday season. And I wouldn’t have to put a damn bit of thought into gift selection for friends and loved ones – autographed anthologies for everyone!
Homework and an awful sore throat/chest cold have infringed upon my reading time, as well as slowed my writing productivity, but I’m pretty happy with the quality of prose I’ve been churning out despite my illness. I’m definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas break; time off from school feels long overdue. I’m really not a school person. I get good grades with minimal effort, sure, but I absolutely hate the out-of-class obligations. If all I had to do was show up for class every day, with no preparatory reading or essay-writing required, I’d stay enrolled forever.
