tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21280697993541849642024-03-05T05:17:26.454-08:00NEON GRISLYANDREW NOVAK | DARK FICTION, BOOK REVIEWS, ETC.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-81373532153210644092018-08-24T11:45:00.001-07:002018-08-24T11:46:49.815-07:00LOST FILMS Now Available<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwnz_2a6fpjwPJyS2ZjLephylsv6GaanNEa1vgIpuSaLx9KGLfqJxv7J86zr9gNFxrm8hJVsn8MEqcbfqyLM_nh5mgvvvq8vgmUTo6wBC38JglxIZ2zCrkG_ALVryRkVCfXXR48Ho86r0f/s1600/Lost+Films.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="724" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwnz_2a6fpjwPJyS2ZjLephylsv6GaanNEa1vgIpuSaLx9KGLfqJxv7J86zr9gNFxrm8hJVsn8MEqcbfqyLM_nh5mgvvvq8vgmUTo6wBC38JglxIZ2zCrkG_ALVryRkVCfXXR48Ho86r0f/s400/Lost+Films.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Order a copy of the <a href="http://www.darkmoondigest.com/this-is-not-a-test-lost-films-is-now-available/">LOST FILMS</a> horror anthology from <a href="https://perpetualpublishing.com/">Perpetual Motion Machine</a> to read my Simpsons-creepwave story "This Cosmic Atrocity." The collection includes stories by several amazing authors like Betty Rocksteady, Brian Evenson, Kelby Losack, and Gemma Files, as well as disturbing art by George Catronis and Luke Spooner.<br /><br />Here's a <a href="https://www.signalhorizon.com/single-post/2018/07/31/Horror-Anthology-Review-Lost-Films">review of LOST SIGNALS</a> at Signal Horizon containing praise for "This Cosmic Atrocity."<br /><br /><i><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">"<span style="color: #eeeeee;">The absolute standout of the collection, in my opinion, is 'This Cosmic Atrocity' by Andrew Novak. The title is heavy, but the story focuses on a lost episode of <span style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Simpsons</span>. Sounds a bit silly, right? Novak uses that silliness and the ubiquity of <span style="background-position: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Simpsons</span> in pop culture to secrete this truly frightening story right under your skin and past your defenses. Earlier I wrote that anthologies like this let authors swing for the fences and here Novak really does. I hesitate to divulge any more about this particular story for fear of spoiling its power..."</span></span></i></span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-50327423516101461082018-05-06T06:28:00.004-07:002018-05-06T06:28:58.739-07:00Noir at the Bar in Baltimore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxVkHR0W2gwGePVmmYgp9Z8hvvGax4JMs1gQ0A9aqdpjT8PfeZMltyXc4Im7Z6axIBB0EMFcs2DnQN8JsOICvUmwr_EKzBaHSp6Y651M3Ebj0tdfapUSrkCnVRsL55CQr6fmgEPN18hpK9/s1600/Noir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxVkHR0W2gwGePVmmYgp9Z8hvvGax4JMs1gQ0A9aqdpjT8PfeZMltyXc4Im7Z6axIBB0EMFcs2DnQN8JsOICvUmwr_EKzBaHSp6Y651M3Ebj0tdfapUSrkCnVRsL55CQr6fmgEPN18hpK9/s400/Noir.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">So I'll be reading tonight in Baltimore for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1744439488953120/">Noir at the Bar</a>. The author lineup is amazing, and there will be pizza. <br /><br />I feel like you're stretching for a reason not to go. </span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-40734151767519436412018-01-29T09:24:00.003-08:002018-01-29T09:24:49.711-08:00Five Michael Haneke Movies to Watch Before Seeing Happy End Live at CLASH <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio13TPyKr_oPcmPNrYcixbH1lfUII1IYmCIWs8cL5g9bYr04H2rVurnNW7p9gybMNxJq37R12VpRW6VT5bLuLaA9gCZiWyyCT7YS6PsioUId9bkUGUfvSk72iNeNkICG7DILrtOjNNhNcR/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-01-29+at+12.22.49+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="633" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio13TPyKr_oPcmPNrYcixbH1lfUII1IYmCIWs8cL5g9bYr04H2rVurnNW7p9gybMNxJq37R12VpRW6VT5bLuLaA9gCZiWyyCT7YS6PsioUId9bkUGUfvSk72iNeNkICG7DILrtOjNNhNcR/s400/Screen+Shot+2018-01-29+at+12.22.49+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">See some Michael Haneke films and feel even worse about the world. My <a href="https://yesclash.com/2018/01/22/5-michael-haneke-films-to-watch-before-seeing-happy-end/">recommendations</a> are up at <a href="https://yesclash.com/">CLASH</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-58097554417829871332017-12-30T07:26:00.002-08:002017-12-31T07:57:56.932-08:0011 Amazing Books From 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">2017 was mostly terrible, but as far as books go, it was actually pretty great. Here are eleven favorites among the ones I read this year. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I've listed eleven because I hate even numbers. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">NOTE: All of these books were released during 2017, with the exception of a few that were right on the line and published at the tail end of 2016. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>11. </b></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31160314-imagine-wanting-only-this"><i>Imagine Wanting Only This</i> by </a></b><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31160314-imagine-wanting-only-this">Kristen Radtke</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129;">
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</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-irMtuocLPKmFIo9BlMoUt7WQncAmEgHfuw2npxqgiYkRUne9a17q_ythnr7f9z0p-3uBr5IGVKF2Wlfo2o-x15CZdxeiC9lN5Xtj0WvMWeJwfvdnfFodJ7k5fPbtouYZfMipm4AC0U1-/s1600/Imagine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="311" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-irMtuocLPKmFIo9BlMoUt7WQncAmEgHfuw2npxqgiYkRUne9a17q_ythnr7f9z0p-3uBr5IGVKF2Wlfo2o-x15CZdxeiC9lN5Xtj0WvMWeJwfvdnfFodJ7k5fPbtouYZfMipm4AC0U1-/s400/Imagine.jpg" width="310" /></a></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The title and cover of this graphic novel immediately caught my attention. They signaled something melancholy and bleak. In <i>Imagine Wanting Only This</i>, Kristen Radtke takes readers on an autobiographical journey that starts with the death of a beloved uncle. From there she develops a strange fascination with ruins—ancient, contemporary, etc. Her obsession takes her from Gary, Indiana, to Iceland to Angkor Wat and several other interesting locations as she tries to process what it means to exist and die on this miserable-magical planet. While Radtke sometimes comes off as grotesquely privileged (jet-setting around the world to heal emotional wounds and quench intellectual curiosities), the author ultimately serves up a work that, in my opinion, well overpowers the issue with its emotional and conceptual content. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">10. </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><a href="http://dorothyproject.com/?book=the-complete-stories">The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by </a></span></i></span></b><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><a href="http://dorothyproject.com/?book=the-complete-stories">Leonora Carrington </a></span><span style="color: #1d2129;">
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS2wFrGX4SozGfMiMjJZXbVHpE8DriawkIJrBGcDKffxftsF43QnIg1uHL1IzcT7PPh-u9rk3MvdBUNOm7SR_Sxl-_Y3DsP_y9gFK23ub0pgYL67Dg2Xkh_5Fdg1cEPPAf_I1Gxedx73tq/s1600/Carrington.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="260" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS2wFrGX4SozGfMiMjJZXbVHpE8DriawkIJrBGcDKffxftsF43QnIg1uHL1IzcT7PPh-u9rk3MvdBUNOm7SR_Sxl-_Y3DsP_y9gFK23ub0pgYL67Dg2Xkh_5Fdg1cEPPAf_I1Gxedx73tq/s400/Carrington.jpg" width="315" /></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Known foremost as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/06/leonora-carrington-from-high-society-to-surrealism-in-praise-of-100-years-on">surrealist painter</a>, </span><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Leonora</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Carrington also authored many bizarre stories that long predated the unbridled weirdness of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUcPZ555Rj0">Tim and Eric</a> and the dark absurdity of <a href="https://freaktension.wordpress.com/">MP Johnson</a>. In 2017, t</span><span style="font-size: large;">he <a href="http://dorothyproject.com/">Dorothy Project</a> unveiled this amazing collection of Carrington's oft-overlooked fiction. The book opens with a story about a young girl convincing her hyena-friend (from the zoo, of course) to attend a debutante ball in her place. Hilarity and violence ensue. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Keep in mind: Carrington was writing these fantastic tales between the 1930s and 1980s. Totally mind-blowing.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">9. </span><a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo23193948.html"><i>Charges (The Supplicants)</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> by Elfriede Jelinek</span></a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQPrtkXeS1qOFrzvFAVDFZ36ODhI3R6ar43SATQSccO0KJQl8a7OI2ilOC12R6s2f3TBFoHMDf7xpHU2KHT0dNrhMLwVdqU3nws1zM8uZluS8MnzEx0ARm1BEKeDPIEABUWr7OpvMzQuh2/s1600/Charges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="748" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQPrtkXeS1qOFrzvFAVDFZ36ODhI3R6ar43SATQSccO0KJQl8a7OI2ilOC12R6s2f3TBFoHMDf7xpHU2KHT0dNrhMLwVdqU3nws1zM8uZluS8MnzEx0ARm1BEKeDPIEABUWr7OpvMzQuh2/s400/Charges.jpg" width="233" /></a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As a big fan of Jelinek's novel <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219879.The_Piano_Teacher">The Piano Teacher</a></i>, I was eager to read her latest work <i>Charges (The Supplicants),</i> a grim rumination on the lives of refugees fleeing to Europe. While the book is ultimately a work of fiction (well-researched and realistic as it may be), it is nothing short of heartrending. Jelinek relays experiences and perspectives of those fleeing some of the most extreme violence and poverty on the planet (only to be demonized, turned away, maimed, and even killed by societies across the European continent). What's also striking about this work is the ambitious narration, which is essentially a first-person "chorus" of refugee voices that alternate and cycle from one to the next without clear demarcation. Honestly, I've never read anything like it. For as challenging as the book's style can be, it's ultimately very interesting and, more importantly, effective. The book is artistically bold as it is empathetic. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">8. </span><a href="https://www.angryrobotbooks.com/shop/sf/the-rebellions-last-traitor/"><i>The Rebellion's Last Traitor</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> by Nik Korpon</span></a></b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizsMAxLD7tjbOK_qFLYNhCwmxS2aM3dXnX70Gzl8AzRLn-HZIBzXOma61K1ZoL4NtN7tCq5VUtgYKBPvRrKC_PO49ypVfaJcdt_dNnIkyOpOZKPCUC3FthOQpNJvDjFWaa5Ht7E99oTJHP/s1600/Rebellion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1118" data-original-width="740" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizsMAxLD7tjbOK_qFLYNhCwmxS2aM3dXnX70Gzl8AzRLn-HZIBzXOma61K1ZoL4NtN7tCq5VUtgYKBPvRrKC_PO49ypVfaJcdt_dNnIkyOpOZKPCUC3FthOQpNJvDjFWaa5Ht7E99oTJHP/s400/Rebellion.jpg" width="263" /></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is essential reading for the Trump Era. </span><i>The Rebellion's Last Traitor</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> is a story of tyranny, dystopian squalor, environmental degradation, and—ultimately—resistance. In the book's fictional reality, Korpon seamlessly blends science fiction with political intrigue, suspense, and compelling drama. His meticulous world-building pairs perfectly with his myriad imaginative and disturbing speculative concepts. I see people </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">on Amazon</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> comparing this novel to JG Ballard's works, which seems pretty apt in the best possible way. Not at all derivative, <i>just that good</i>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">7. </span><a href="https://www.dalkeyarchive.com/product/our-dead-world/"><i>Our Dead World</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> by Liliana Colanzi</span></a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGw4N6yUUTCGzGb2NRgRI_nbkdSXwNbgr1HEQs2D9Gd9UjJQZ782baQt-Z9XiVZF77amx5QUUynfeBfQAU9z929IDU7mpAgzXDaLdmIcxeXM2LR9g64YXh_W1RaKt30oCMOlzubdAJ2buO/s1600/Dead+World.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1143" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGw4N6yUUTCGzGb2NRgRI_nbkdSXwNbgr1HEQs2D9Gd9UjJQZ782baQt-Z9XiVZF77amx5QUUynfeBfQAU9z929IDU7mpAgzXDaLdmIcxeXM2LR9g64YXh_W1RaKt30oCMOlzubdAJ2buO/s400/Dead+World.jpg" width="285" /></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Our Dead World</i> is a stellar short-fiction collection from Bolivian journalist <a href="http://remezcla.com/lists/culture/contemporary-latin-american-authors/">Liliana Colanzi</a>. The stories are short as hell but pack some tremendous punches. Expect lots of grim weirdness and pessimistic drama (I mean, just look at the title). Colanzi takes readers all over, from a dismal near-future Mars colony, down to a run-of-the-mill movie theater (in which a young woman gives a potentially world-ending blowjob to her date). It's a unique and wild ride.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">6. </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nightly-Disease-Max-Booth-III-ebook/dp/B075LFCSG7"><i>The Nightly Disease</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> by Max Booth III</span></a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2698Kl8p1ts0cEo2-hgbTF0x8TRVBwifSNHTfusxhgwf-1oTGrxq9AgZmYP9zoHXaSsGy4cQqce5V9kKo8Ay53y_JBZsbfoUNSKhkVa27T-Ymb-9A5YGxJFRj5UJAmq0NlNhqMNNatlTU/s1600/Booth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="297" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2698Kl8p1ts0cEo2-hgbTF0x8TRVBwifSNHTfusxhgwf-1oTGrxq9AgZmYP9zoHXaSsGy4cQqce5V9kKo8Ay53y_JBZsbfoUNSKhkVa27T-Ymb-9A5YGxJFRj5UJAmq0NlNhqMNNatlTU/s400/Booth.jpg" width="250" /></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is magnum opus material from the contemporary master of transgressive horror. Per usual with Booth's writing, this novel offers loads of terror, irreverence, and scatological antics—all in roughly equal measure. The protagonist, Isaac, is a hotel night auditor and semi-public masturbator whose grinding worklife takes a turn for the surreal. Violence and a creepy "parliament of owls" become the new normal for the loathsome-lovable antihero as he deals with dirtbag hotel guests and navigates the possibility of romance with a homeless bulimic woman.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">5. </span><a href="http://2dcloud.tumblr.com/post/165970495263/staff-picks-a-tunnel-to-another-place-by-apolo"><i>A Tunnel to Another Place</i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> by Apolo Cacho</span></a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2E_QBBDNPhN-lVbp5M-3JGvbliyCIL4qb2FNTvuf-2SMfoEVk0csuaVrC2YSXLQxOm0ow96BIq2L35XDOgCdnD5xxg9W-jk0Y0JIuGjfrn1Ce6mVEptfeSlYRdd-jyBBLKa8HUs2CandG/s1600/Tunnel+to+Another+Place.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2E_QBBDNPhN-lVbp5M-3JGvbliyCIL4qb2FNTvuf-2SMfoEVk0csuaVrC2YSXLQxOm0ow96BIq2L35XDOgCdnD5xxg9W-jk0Y0JIuGjfrn1Ce6mVEptfeSlYRdd-jyBBLKa8HUs2CandG/s400/Tunnel+to+Another+Place.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Holy shit. What an amazing graphic...zine? Story? I picked this one up on a whim at a small press expo. I knew nothing of <a href="https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/aenx9b/apolo-cacho-sci-fi-comic-artist-monday-insta-illustrator">Apolo Cacho</a> or this zine before I shelled out ten dollars to own it. I just <i>really </i>liked the cover art, which struck me as uniquely hallucinatory and sinister. Story-wise, <i>A</i> <i>Tunnel to Another Place</i> is full of fleeting scenes of absurdist mayhem that play with topics like the drudgery of worklife, the horrors of modern capitalism, and humanoid cacti. All in all, <i>Tunnel to Another place</i> is a completely mind-bending and nightmarish experience. It's perfect for fans of Person 918, Gary J. Shipley, and Hieronymus Bosch.</span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. </span><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gravity-Michael-Kazepis/dp/0997251859">Gravity</a></i></b><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gravity-Michael-Kazepis/dp/0997251859"> by Michael Kazepis</a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj30zBCIzn-hVvG6qFNJ_O2WpPEFJkkeemjOy1YiM4wCjd_2MqA0PNsyrKtnp8TbowZOYyEgviIwltrBbok-bYeF0UOlPuKUCvbpHU8wvCR32-GYRkttwgfIqxcdO2EY6nC8FJaPFuTkgoI/s1600/Gravity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="313" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj30zBCIzn-hVvG6qFNJ_O2WpPEFJkkeemjOy1YiM4wCjd_2MqA0PNsyrKtnp8TbowZOYyEgviIwltrBbok-bYeF0UOlPuKUCvbpHU8wvCR32-GYRkttwgfIqxcdO2EY6nC8FJaPFuTkgoI/s400/Gravity.jpg" width="250" /></a></span></span><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.135px;"><i>Gravity </i>is exactly how a story collection should be done: slim and grim with slick cover art and sharp interior aesthetics. Most importantly, the writing is spare and brilliant. I enjoyed every story in the collection, but my favorite was an unnerving and surreal Giallo-crime piece titled "Minerva." The ultraviolent "A Song for Our Fathers" also struck a chord, especially for offering a fresh, minimalist take on the dystopian genre. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34557941-into-the-ocean"><i>Into the Ocean</i> by Stanton McCaffery</a></span></b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii2en2alIBNGKlKUB8cv9yFqBhdW4RXqWIqkv_QUtkHA5DD0LOMsq5ELibplpe5bLiDpIVUBYn-1-Wdz7_iB1wp2NTmwrDxqXa6NxKLke4PF6tcbu7ZERwkySxiiMPU6RXhtihsTa64Ff6/s1600/Ocean.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii2en2alIBNGKlKUB8cv9yFqBhdW4RXqWIqkv_QUtkHA5DD0LOMsq5ELibplpe5bLiDpIVUBYn-1-Wdz7_iB1wp2NTmwrDxqXa6NxKLke4PF6tcbu7ZERwkySxiiMPU6RXhtihsTa64Ff6/s400/Ocean.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></span><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Full disclosure: Stanton is my friend. Yeah, go call the cops. Really though, I wouldn't have included <i>Into the Ocean </i>on this list if it didn't deserve to be here. It's awesome. It's a Jersey-based story of down-and-out desperation and brutality. Lots of complex, troubled characters: a violent fixer seeking redemption, corrupt cops, junkies, emotionally-devastated families. Rock-solid social commentaries and insights too. <i>Into the Ocean </i>is bleak as hell, but packed with loads of heart and authenticity. I double-recommend it to fans of George V. Higgins novels and <i>The Wire</i>.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cartoons-Suicide-Forest-Leza-Cantoral/dp/194537344X"><i>Cartoons in the Suicide Forest </i>by Leza Cantoral</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIf46Kk_XMQAZ3LuJmoWXt_rBIXKmIbG2Mg5FBxrt81AVsIbiES6p64zHa8flxQZR9j5I0LgemjEzvHiJbQwZl7lypaUc_g2wRcxhubX21hjJ0Zb0WQVmbrO85wbBr3nogTL44V2RQAfxK/s1600/Cartoons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="333" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIf46Kk_XMQAZ3LuJmoWXt_rBIXKmIbG2Mg5FBxrt81AVsIbiES6p64zHa8flxQZR9j5I0LgemjEzvHiJbQwZl7lypaUc_g2wRcxhubX21hjJ0Zb0WQVmbrO85wbBr3nogTL44V2RQAfxK/s400/Cartoons.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This collection is completely unhinged. Somehow, it's at once emotionally devastating and wildly fun. Cantoral shreds genre lines, offering up deranged takes on classic fairy tales, beast-portions of speculative designer drugs, and lots of anal penetration. This book truly has something for everyone. And the writing is as lyrical as the stories are shocking and imaginative. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>1. <a href="http://hexusjournal.bigcartel.com/product/warewolff-gary-j-shipley"><i>Warewolff!</i> by Gary J. Shipley</a></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguW6kfEGRyGBXhObAYNBcdSPU3t0-kcQmgLx4rcmB_k10OGiy6qdOZnMH-ebJ-UtmNwBOH_HqVqjPtcpYknlOfVTWtkhl9sXFwa68GEm2rltaOHPBcwJNdLxUxmWN1z3RTYB5mk_9bgiA-/s1600/warewolff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="420" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguW6kfEGRyGBXhObAYNBcdSPU3t0-kcQmgLx4rcmB_k10OGiy6qdOZnMH-ebJ-UtmNwBOH_HqVqjPtcpYknlOfVTWtkhl9sXFwa68GEm2rltaOHPBcwJNdLxUxmWN1z3RTYB5mk_9bgiA-/s400/warewolff.jpg" width="286" /></a></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As always, Gary J. Shipley is taking big risks and rearranging the concept of literature at the molecular level. He never looks back while doing so—not even for a second. For as much as I appreciate most of Shipley's boundary-ripping work (especially <i>Dreams of Amputation</i>), <i>Warewolff! </i>marks an entirely new form of warped iconoclasm. Here's the core concept: Some unnamed terrible <i>thing</i> has befallen life on Earth (imagine a mysterious slow-motion atrocity of global proportions); <i>Warewolff! </i>is an archive-in-vignettes of the event's impact on the planet and its inhabitants. Shipley writes in the <span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">"<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Prologue/Prodrome" section of the book: "</span></span><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">It’s an attempt to see something while having access only to its effects." Dogs devouring each other whole. Pornstar worship. Mind-altering astral phenomena. Horrific and confounding violence. So horrific. So confounding. So violent. So unique and amazing. All of it. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-76708387202397844342017-12-08T06:33:00.000-08:002017-12-08T06:33:04.035-08:00The Great American Horror Film Is Trash Humpers at CLASH Media<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuXTIYSD78sdAJMPsHRRm0SXSYesMQkUYwi9JKBxzq-QUbx1JwYGqhhBpzGOZ3RsMFD6cf01e3gkeADXYroPJnG7fCWzeFSBaL7wJReIXNWjQjxl2YaFi7yo9zXo2kdRDs3PwubbkhsSBF/s1600/tracking-humpers.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="690" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuXTIYSD78sdAJMPsHRRm0SXSYesMQkUYwi9JKBxzq-QUbx1JwYGqhhBpzGOZ3RsMFD6cf01e3gkeADXYroPJnG7fCWzeFSBaL7wJReIXNWjQjxl2YaFi7yo9zXo2kdRDs3PwubbkhsSBF/s400/tracking-humpers.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://yesclash.com/2017/12/07/the-great-american-horror-film-is-trash-humpers/">I wrote about one of my favorite films</a> for <a href="https://yesclash.com/">CLASH Media</a>. Harmony Korine's <i>Trash Humpers</i> is a masterpiece. They don't make movies like this anymore. In fact, they never did. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-88492957366923779622017-12-03T08:57:00.001-08:002017-12-03T08:57:33.207-08:00Three Poems Live at Philosophical Idiot <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAehngUHtB3c8HZhUoU7-R3uPYNOj1IFXLDsWyMHKk6yevKMLQn2vGxu3NK8hOTp2NcLArUhP92pAbfQ07cteOKzRhlo0VnTH6o5YLpjA_pwQOVns0uKEJeeBLGajf042CxCEGMLF1EFZ/s1600/borges1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="302" data-original-width="454" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuAehngUHtB3c8HZhUoU7-R3uPYNOj1IFXLDsWyMHKk6yevKMLQn2vGxu3NK8hOTp2NcLArUhP92pAbfQ07cteOKzRhlo0VnTH6o5YLpjA_pwQOVns0uKEJeeBLGajf042CxCEGMLF1EFZ/s400/borges1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.philosophicalidiot.com/andrewnovakpoetry">Three of my poems</a> are live over at <i><a href="https://www.philosophicalidiot.com/poems">Philosophical Idiot</a> </i>(one of my favorite poetry sites). Please check them out. Please. I'm begging you.</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-66717147090483725452017-05-14T09:26:00.002-07:002017-05-14T09:27:09.343-07:00"Eyes Bright Dead" Live at FLULAND<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJypUj5Uc0s7L1va8E7OAk0cOLnRitHket5t_z3uMzsAkGrlIP_CzyeNE_tptu89YT8cIPb6fCIjYLxQABLYC5RWFpw7SnY5A_i-T9GN5GBj7ZdYBXnmc9OBxLLRs2zKGr4Tu-Da1O-0r/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-05-14+at+12.22.22+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMJypUj5Uc0s7L1va8E7OAk0cOLnRitHket5t_z3uMzsAkGrlIP_CzyeNE_tptu89YT8cIPb6fCIjYLxQABLYC5RWFpw7SnY5A_i-T9GN5GBj7ZdYBXnmc9OBxLLRs2zKGr4Tu-Da1O-0r/s640/Screen+Shot+2017-05-14+at+12.22.22+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />I couldn't be more excited to see my story <a href="http://www.fluland.com/2017/05/13/done-eyes-bright-dead-andrew-novak/">"Eyes Bright Dead"</a> live over at <a href="http://www.fluland.com/"><i>FLULAND</i></a>. It's one of the absolute best lit sites around. Seriously, check out <i>FLULAND</i> even if you don't read my story. <br /><br />But uhhhhhh please read my story.</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-57177153838975049642017-04-20T09:18:00.001-07:002017-04-20T09:19:57.769-07:00Highly Recommended: Into the Ocean by Stanton McCaffery <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6jd3YViJi91_SbnMhXcABIPyrqSwkgBoUw70Z78M98yKRIV38IaWQEIxgns-P6grrAu4G6WaJnETyOA-q6EOkpsRgYL7ZWJt8o09aTbrYhstX8d9DSdg1j72yZsh9aIlxrEzRSz2izrb/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-04-20+at+12.16.21+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6jd3YViJi91_SbnMhXcABIPyrqSwkgBoUw70Z78M98yKRIV38IaWQEIxgns-P6grrAu4G6WaJnETyOA-q6EOkpsRgYL7ZWJt8o09aTbrYhstX8d9DSdg1j72yZsh9aIlxrEzRSz2izrb/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-04-20+at+12.16.21+PM.png" width="212" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So here's a rad novel by my friend, Stanton McCaffery. I had the pleasure of reading an early draft. The published version is even better. Just finished it. Kicked my ass even harder than the first time around.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Into-Ocean-Stanton-McCaffery/dp/1945734108/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=stanton+mccaffery&qid=1489405398&ref_=mp_s_a_1_1_twi_pap_2&sr=8-1">Into the Ocean</a></i> is a Jersey-based story of down-and-out desperation and brutality. Lots of complex, troubled characters: a violent fixer seeking redemption, corrupt cops, junkies, emotionally-devastated families.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rock-solid commentaries and insights too.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Into the Ocean</i> is grim as hell, but packed with loads of heart and authenticity.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Check it out. You won't be sorry.</span></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-2225995260937963522017-01-27T08:01:00.003-08:002017-01-27T08:03:52.484-08:00"I Am Tigre de los Bravo" Live at Bizarro Central<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqTYxckhgDQExCUQNoaT7x9VZKWmQoFRyXqoUaDgtfIKDOZxjRwKt04g-ULOPDXto9lOrao9j2PxpWuju-BfEIksV-kCdw2ah7tUDdCv_lhfkYEhIbOYQ2gakzOJzjYMlVzUV2goS3a6Xn/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-01-27+at+10.52.48+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqTYxckhgDQExCUQNoaT7x9VZKWmQoFRyXqoUaDgtfIKDOZxjRwKt04g-ULOPDXto9lOrao9j2PxpWuju-BfEIksV-kCdw2ah7tUDdCv_lhfkYEhIbOYQ2gakzOJzjYMlVzUV2goS3a6Xn/s400/Screen+Shot+2017-01-27+at+10.52.48+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I'm thrilled to see my story <a href="https://bizarrocentral.com/2017/01/26/flash-fiction-friday-i-am-tigre-de-los-bravo/">"I Am Tigre de los Bravo"</a> live at one of my absolute favorite fiction sites, <i><a href="https://bizarrocentral.com/">Bizarro Central</a></i>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />Meet a dirtbag trickster hero for these sinister times...</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-85716588550074665242017-01-26T16:10:00.003-08:002017-12-02T10:23:01.644-08:00Dread City: 5 Works of Dystopian Fiction for This Miserable Human Moment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBdE9XruQtJzsI-jyGQPUBSl0kM_nt6CW8RUpul67Bl3-gJ0093vtgKn-xyeJ7tORx4IlvqLhX-GiYXALdZ2s7dv0MTQJY55xHjnMTdZVyfFlwSnPwwp3xG7cdM1omNEH2CxLp1hgWhUW9/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-01-26+at+6.14.24+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBdE9XruQtJzsI-jyGQPUBSl0kM_nt6CW8RUpul67Bl3-gJ0093vtgKn-xyeJ7tORx4IlvqLhX-GiYXALdZ2s7dv0MTQJY55xHjnMTdZVyfFlwSnPwwp3xG7cdM1omNEH2CxLp1hgWhUW9/s640/Screen+Shot+2017-01-26+at+6.14.24+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Everything is going to shit. <br /><br />Things were already terrible, but <i>Jesus H. Christ</i>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/trump-signs-order-border-wall-mexico-170125185244055.html">New border walls</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/business/media/journalists-arrested-trump-inauguration.html?_r=0">attacks on journalists</a>, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/01/25/trumps-muslim-immigration-executive-order-if-we-bombed-you-we-ban-you/">persecution of refugees</a>, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/12/post-election-spate-hate-crimes-worse-than-post-911-experts-say/93681294/">a growing neo-Nazi movement</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/24/politics/trump-keystone-xl-dakota-access-pipelines-executive-actions/">policies for full-on ecocide</a>.<br /><br />Less than a week into the Trump Years, and already we find our faces bloodied and disfigured under <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9402-if-you-want-a-picture-of-the-future-imagine-a">Orwell's metaphorical stamping jackboot</a>. <br /><br />Fascist-types are quick like that. This is probably just the tip of the iceberg.<br /><br />I'm not suggesting that anyone <i>embrace</i> this terrible moment, but some of you have made <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/george-orwells-1984-best-seller-heres-resonates-now/"><i>1984</i> a best-seller again</a>. Clearly, you've already got dystopia on the brain, so why not venture into some less-charted dystopian territories? Sure, it'll be grim and sobering, but it could also be useful at this time—maybe?<br /><br />So, uh, welcome to the fucken Terrordome...<br /><br /><b><br />1. <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11607.The_Running_Man">The Running Man</a></i> by Stephen King</b><br /><br />If you've seen the bullshit film adaptation, don't fret. The book is nothing like it. I promise.<br /><br />Originally one of the Bachman Books, <i>The Running Man</i> showcases some of Stephen King's most bleak and brutal writing.<br /><br />Meet protagonist Ben Richards. He's a poor city-dweller. He agrees to be hunted down like a dog by the entirety of the US police-state as part of a reality television program so he can get medicine for his dying baby daughter. And so his wife doesn't have to turn tricks anymore. <br /><br />Yeah.<br /><br />The story takes readers on a panoramic tour of a near-future dystopian US that may strike them as uncomfortably relevant. Strap in for the ending, it's a magnum-opus symphony of violence. King at his absolute best, in my opinion<br /><br /><br /><b>2. <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Signs-Preceding-World-Yuri-Herrera/dp/1908276428">Signs Preceding the End of the World</a></i> by Yuri Herrera</b><br /><br />Ah, the dystopian borderland. Violent racist ranchers, desolate terrain, and seedy underworld operatives make up Herrera's unique hellscape. The protagonist, a young woman named Makina, is thrown into a situation where she must navigate this deadly madness. <br /><br />Herrera's writing is both spare and rich. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Signs Preceding the End of the World</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> is haunting and politically potent. Certainly one of the best books I've read this year.<br /><br /><b><br />3. <i><a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/read-the-mesmerizing-first-chapter-of-jeff-vandermeers-1520682658">Annihilation</a></i> by Jeff VanderMeer </b><br /><br />If you haven't already read this one, I don't know if there's anything that can be done to help you.<br /><br />But seriously, it's an amazing book. VanderMeer brings readers on a journey across Area X, a natural landscape (seemingly in Florida) undergoing some really fucked up <a href="http://paradoxa.com/volumes/28/introduction">global weirding</a>. Iridescent spores and humanoid animals face off against the personnel of a shadowy government agency. It's something like <i>Roadside Picnic</i> meets Lovecraft. It's actually even better than that though. Really. <br /><br />Also, FYI, <i>Annihilation</i> is the first installment of an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Reach_Trilogy">entire trilogy</a>.<br /><br /><br /><b>4. <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5762055-zazen">Zazen</a></i> by Vanessa Vaselka</b><br /><br />Stark and raw, Vaselka's <i>Zazen </i>offers a unique take on the concept of dystopian literature. The industrial and cultural squalor of the novel seems entirely true to the present for the most part. The protagonist, Della, feels all too relatable. She works as a waitress despite being qualified and credentialed to work as a paleontologist. And the bomb-centric violence that pervades the story—well, it's often in the periphery, just out of view, or sometimes it is whispering in the background like a television turned to harsh static. The novel's characters are trapped a crumbling society, a tanking economy. It's Dread City, dystopian subtlety at its finest.<br /><br /><br />5. <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6260741-scorch-atlas">Scorch Atlas</a></i> by Blake Butler<br /><br />I always tell people that this book is the work of dystopian fiction to end all dystopian fiction. Its stories and vignettes are emotionally devastating and painfully raw. It's at once hopeless and brimming with humanity. <br /><br />The writing is without comparison. It's the rich narrative poetry of a world dying off, succumbing to an incomprehensible ecological sickness. It's the song of humanity as it languishes in toxic floodwaters, as it's devoured by insects and battered under the truncheons of a brutal police state.<br /><br />No joke: this book is not for the faint of heart. If you think you can handle it, here's one of my favorite slices from the collection, a story titled <a href="https://www.ohio.edu/nor/a/content/pdfs/butler.pdf">"The Disappeared."</a><br /><br />Don't say I didn't warn you. </span><br /><b><br /><br />Some Other Notably Awesome Works of Dystopian Fiction</b><br /><br /><i>The Wild Boys</i> by William S. Burroughs</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br />Moxyland</i> by Lauren Beukes</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Dreams of Amputation</i> by Gary J. Shipley</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><i>Age of Blight</i> by Kristine Ong Muslim</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />Novi Sad </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">by Jeff Jackson</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><i>Burning Chrome </i>by William Gibson<br /><i>Empire of the Senseless</i> by Kathy Acker<br /><i>Channel Zero </i>by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Your Cities, Your Tombs</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> by Jordan Krall</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />The Best Short Stories of JG Ballard</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-28218714392666306912016-10-21T16:24:00.000-07:002016-10-21T16:31:27.473-07:00"Morning Dark and Full of Stars" in Dark Moon Digest #25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nNFuZUdRpCnYInzimmgww3QU-ToDdvxtiI2zjh9Jl0XDMrJAoKcV_Xu7_D0FDK_HcaAHa1vblDNrrcG48FDf-U7QoD4GI1LT4JaIt4FY3O_YIvRqhyphenhyphenRm6IHIyCzrOjcl6z8A4iIGrYzW/s1600/DMD-25-ecover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nNFuZUdRpCnYInzimmgww3QU-ToDdvxtiI2zjh9Jl0XDMrJAoKcV_Xu7_D0FDK_HcaAHa1vblDNrrcG48FDf-U7QoD4GI1LT4JaIt4FY3O_YIvRqhyphenhyphenRm6IHIyCzrOjcl6z8A4iIGrYzW/s400/DMD-25-ecover.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />Hey hey, it's my short story "Morning Dark and Full of Stars" in the sixth anniversary issue of Dark Moon Digest.<br /><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://perpetualpublishing.com/2016/10/21/dark-moon-digest-25-now-available-to-give-to-unsuspecting-children-halloween-night/">Check it out and buy it here.</a><br /><br />This issue is brimming with amazing stories and columns, including one by <em><a data-mce-href="http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/" href="http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/">This Is Horror</a></em> host <a data-mce-href="http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/about/staff/michael-wilson/" href="http://www.thisishorror.co.uk/about/staff/michael-wilson/">Michael David Wilson</a>.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-86320863877655656612016-10-12T06:21:00.001-07:002016-10-12T09:08:00.460-07:00The Nightmare Surrealism We All Needed: An Interview With "First Day" Creator Person 918<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnx2-JQI8FmRbyLv4JXcCxZB4uc79wRmkAtmh1E3oze14TQqiA7EhRylbjDJxUIl8dsQx2em1faKVPLTTUqEov7q43eY0sKKZpIrJVhisrx3IdH6-fldLXWe-jTSMgexxVGt0R0PIZaX0/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-10-12+at+8.15.07+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxnx2-JQI8FmRbyLv4JXcCxZB4uc79wRmkAtmh1E3oze14TQqiA7EhRylbjDJxUIl8dsQx2em1faKVPLTTUqEov7q43eY0sKKZpIrJVhisrx3IdH6-fldLXWe-jTSMgexxVGt0R0PIZaX0/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-10-12+at+8.15.07+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">I take internet art seriously. I keep several desktop folders full
of memes and glitch art pieces. I group the works by different themes and topics. I try to revisit the ones that I've found most interesting. Really, though, I have too many to count or keep track of. Also, I'm a disorganized mess. Much more a hoarder than a collector, I guess. The sheer volume of quality art out there can be overwhelming.<br />
<br />Every so often, however, some truly </span></span><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">striking and memorable creative content emerges from the sea of weirdness that is the internet. I saw something like that a few days ago. It blew my world
open and actually made me rethink the potential of short-form storytelling.</span><br />
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Maybe you saw it too?<br />
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Forty-nine frames of captioned images posted to Facebook. CGI renderings of a
woman starting a new job. <br /><br />The title: "First Day."<br />
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A comic? An illustrated short story? <br />
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The narrative begins unassumingly enough but quickly unravels into a surreal nightmare that, for many, seems to hit too close to home.<br />
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If you haven't experienced "First Day" yet, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/918-525401130975608/photos/?tab=album&album_id=637672543081799">check it out immediately.</a><br />
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If you're already familiar with it, here's an interview with the author, Person 918. I reached out to Person 918 because I had to know
more about this amazing work of short fiction and, ultimately, if we could
expect more Earth-shattering genius along the lines of "First Day."</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiga5nQ0kVz-0XUvVv0oZQ71klUB8wpp36vM-KrWpwYPkYtzxuShyyK9pLPCZsP6GyrtXV2YVYQJbk7CP6sV47lYjlc8xsicSjrY5Hx2tLsBYjXVw_RfZD0aGoKTQ4NzHH5OmGfilmCI2ce/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-10-12+at+9.05.05+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiga5nQ0kVz-0XUvVv0oZQ71klUB8wpp36vM-KrWpwYPkYtzxuShyyK9pLPCZsP6GyrtXV2YVYQJbk7CP6sV47lYjlc8xsicSjrY5Hx2tLsBYjXVw_RfZD0aGoKTQ4NzHH5OmGfilmCI2ce/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-10-12+at+9.05.05+AM.png" width="266" /></span></a></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /><br /><br />
</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>So, what was the inspiration for “First Day”? Any particular
experiences or events? </i></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">One main
inspiration was browsing CGI porn on DeviantArt. There is something
deeply unsettling about CGI porn. As you scroll through it there's always
a sense that at any moment you're going to see something that you don't want to
see. So I wanted to capture that feeling without anything overtly
pornographic.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /><br /><span style="color: #666666; font-size: large;"><i>Nice. Mission accomplished, I'd say. You posted “First Day” on the 918 Facebook page on October 5<sup>th</sup>.
Was that the first time you’d shared this story? Also, what exactly is 918? </i></span></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I shared "First
Day" simultaneously on the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/918-525401130975608/" style="font-size: 14pt;">918 Facebook page</a><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, </span><a href="http://person918x.tumblr.com/" style="font-size: 14pt;">my Tumblr page</a><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, Imgur, and
r/comics on October 5th. That is the first time the story saw the light
of day. 918 is just my artist page, a place for me to share the stuff I
create on Facebook. I am the sole admin.</span><br /><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>Have you received much feedback on “First Day”? What has the
response been like?</i></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">I have received a
decent amount of feedback. Most has been very positive. A number of
people have praised the story as "dreamlike," which makes me very
happy because that is exactly what I was going for. A few people have
complained that they don't "get it", which I feel is kind of missing
the point. But like I said, the vast majority of feedback has been
positive. "First Day" has received far more attention than any other
artistic project of mine.<br /><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />
</b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #666666;"><i>So “First Day” invites readers in with these comically-mundane, yet
very real and relatable concerns about starting new jobs. From there, you
slowly—and pretty seamlessly—send readers down a rabbit hole of bizarre imagery
and surreal situations. To me, what's striking is that the story never stops
feeling relatable or relevant in regard to work/life, even as things get really
weird. Like you’ve tapped into these subliminally traumatizing aspects of work
that most people seem to recognize in the story and its images. The responses that I’ve
seen are almost all the same: <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The story
hits a nerve</span>. And I was surprised to see such comments coming from certain
people who I know aren't normally into surreal and weird art or storytelling.</i></span></span></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /><br /></span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.6667px;">I think that's accurate. I think that the majority of us have to work for a living and most of us have a very uneasy relationship with that set-up. Sacrificing a large portion of your life to a project that you don't particularly care about is very anxiety inducing. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.6667px;"></span></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><i>Right, right. It's obvious that even though "First Day" is ultimately very surreal, there's really something solid at the
core of the whole thing, like a life allegory or a commentary (I’m still
processing my own take). It's so short and strange, but it also feels so packed
with substance and meaning in this beautiful almost accessible way. </i></span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOwmQxkgOBeHnQTpNVRGc01OZi4Dd2dWjAQ6jXbjezQxw5kEZEQiQzkb-sHdP2mOLZrtdbDBxVxJ_2uxNFKjKmhVX1rUpjdW_93KKV2HuTw7gtAjAcRi7i3oyDW0EP2uvAy6huIkbpQ33/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-10-12+at+9.54.14+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUOwmQxkgOBeHnQTpNVRGc01OZi4Dd2dWjAQ6jXbjezQxw5kEZEQiQzkb-sHdP2mOLZrtdbDBxVxJ_2uxNFKjKmhVX1rUpjdW_93KKV2HuTw7gtAjAcRi7i3oyDW0EP2uvAy6huIkbpQ33/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-10-12+at+9.54.14+AM.png" width="265" /></a></i></span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: black;"><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">Our society frames work as a voluntary
decision, but for most of us the alternative is homelessness and starvation. It also raises some questions about who's running the system? What are
their goals? Is the whole thing a runaway machine beyond human control? When these issues are addressed in popular media, it's often to defuse them
with humor (as in "Dilbert," "Office Space," "The
Office," etc.) but I think there is always a truly disturbing existential
anxiety just under the surface.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black;"><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>What’s your process like when creating works like this?</i></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Once I come up with
the initial idea, I will create a vague story arc, break out the key
scenes in my head, and start staging and rendering the scenes in the order in
which they occur. I will periodically come across pacing or clarity
issues during the process that will force me to reevaluate the scenes, perhaps
adding or changing a panel here or there. The story faces certain
constraints throughout based on what I can manage to do with my limited
technology.</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>What about the art in particular? The specific images? How
intentionally were they created or selected?</i></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">I usually pick a
few specific images that I think will be particularly potent and then craft the
story around those images. As for where the ideas originate, I can't
really say, other than I know what I have technologically available to me.
For example, I know what models I can find online, I know how they can be
retextured, I know that I can make glass versions of objects, etc. I'm
trying to get the most I can out of the medium that I'm using.<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>What are your artisitic and literary influences? Are you
normally a fan of short fiction? Do you have any thoughts on how “First
Day” fits into formats like short story or flash fiction? </i></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">I am a bit of a fan
of short-form literature, but I think I have probably been more influenced by
film,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>television, and comics. David Lynch and</span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">Luis Buñuel were definitely
influences, as well as comic artists like Charles Burns and Jim Woodring. People have noted a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporwave">vaporwave </a>influence as well, and I am a fan of that music
genre, so that has likely played a factor. I can see a thematic connection
between "First Day" and something like <a href="https://internetclub.bandcamp.com/album/redefining-the-workplace">"Redefining theWorkplace" by Internet Club</a>, for example. I think that the format of
"First Day" is probably close to comics, though it is also sort of a
digital picture book.</span>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">I've also been influenced by a number of contemporary web artists like
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/xxpurehoneyxx/">Pure Honey</a> and online art magazines like <i><a href="https://news.feltzine.us/">Felt Zine</a></i>.</span><!--EndFragment--><span style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>Do you have plans for more stories like “First Day”?</i></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">I do hope to
continue to make these things, time and inspiration permitting.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />
<br />
</b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>Awesome. I can’t wait. Are there are any other projects you’d like
to discuss? The 918 page? The novel you’d mentioned to me? </i></span></b><b style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;">I do have a short
novel sitting around entitled <i>Ocean of Milk</i>. It is somewhat
similar in tone to "First Day," though of course the absence of
images will make a difference in how it's perceived by the reader. The
goal with "Ocean of Milk" was also to create a dreamlike state,
though I would say it's not quite as narratively disjointed as the visual
stories. I would like to release that to the public but I'm not sure what
the best way to do that is. </span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;">I also have an experimental electronic pop music project called
Timmy Sells His Soul that can be found on <a href="https://soundcloud.com/timmy-sells-his-soul">Soundcloud</a> and <a href="https://timmysellshissoul.bandcamp.com/">Bandcamp</a>.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-42463038284668242752016-09-20T15:10:00.000-07:002016-09-20T15:20:57.460-07:00"And He Will Not Wait Much Longer" and "La Jolla" in Robbed of Sleep, Volume 5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1BF3pjzH7yY-F39J6RsXsFiGckRzmw9mSl2TIZVrh0HY5owvL9113PbFrvOBicxpWrg9Y0Z0P9bgavCqNFyLsZeVyRGFGEelVFNZLSV2y-iaLBD9wx1t0mMBO4l8USgr0Qt_RKTEb6caQ/s1600/RoS5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1BF3pjzH7yY-F39J6RsXsFiGckRzmw9mSl2TIZVrh0HY5owvL9113PbFrvOBicxpWrg9Y0Z0P9bgavCqNFyLsZeVyRGFGEelVFNZLSV2y-iaLBD9wx1t0mMBO4l8USgr0Qt_RKTEb6caQ/s400/RoS5.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hey hey, my flash fiction stories "And He Will Not Wait Much Longer" and "La Jolla" are now available in <i>Robbed of Sleep, Volume 5</i>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Robbed-Sleep-Vol-Stories-Anthology-ebook/dp/B01LZIZ25S/#nav-subnav">which can be purchased in Kindle format here</a>. A mutant sea lion, a deranged electrical worker, a withering paranoiac—you're gonna love these stories. <br /><br />And just look at that cover art. <br /><br />This anthology series has featured the work of the amazing <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Robbed-Sleep-Stories-Stay-Up/dp/1500152358/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1474408336&sr=8-5&keywords=mercedes+yardley">Mercedes M. Yardley</a>, by the way, in case you're still skeptical.<br /><br />Oh, and the paperback version should be out sometime next week. Many hanks to <a href="http://www.troyblackford.com/">Troy Blackford</a> and the other authors of this issue—I'm stoked to be a part of it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />Now go buy it and get deeply unsettled.</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-62112931432906702802016-08-13T08:34:00.003-07:002016-08-13T08:36:36.404-07:00"We Got a Winner" by Stanton McCaffery at Out of the Gutter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="line-height: 19.32px;"><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Neon Grisly contributor Stanton McCaffery strikes again—check out his story <a href="http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/2016/08/we-got-winner.html">"We Got a Winner"</a> over at <i><a href="http://www.outofthegutteronline.com/">Out of the Gutter</a></i>!</span></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-14956497249475734722016-07-18T13:32:00.001-07:002016-07-19T17:47:22.115-07:00The Long Road to Writing Crime: An Interview With Charlie Stella<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Back in June, </i><a href="http://neongrisly.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-tour-of-northeast-with-bullets-review.html"><i>we posted a review of the book </i>Tommy Red<i> by Charlie Stella</i></a><i>. The review's author, Stanton McCaffery, later caught up with Stella at his home in New Jersey for a conversation about Stella's work and the crime genre. Below is a transcript of their meeting, courtesy of Stanton McCaffery.</i><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Long Road to Writing Crime: An Interview With Charlie Stella</span><br />by Stanton McCaffery</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> What made you want to write?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /><b>Charlie Stella: </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">I was a kid, I was a big day dreamer. I was a fuck up, pretty much. I would just sit and look at the clock and dream about anything but what I was supposed to be doing. At one point, I guess, I was in catholic school, and we had to write an essay on something for a contest about Jesus. I was one of three of the finalists for the thing and no one could believe I wrote the freakin’ thing because I was one of the fuck-ups in school. But I knew I wrote it and I thought "Okay, even though this is a bullshit story..." I knew I had a little bit of an inclination.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Then, in high school, one of my English teachers did a review of Camus’s <i>The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stranger</i> and the opening line to that—which was “Mother died today”—just stung me, and I thought "Holy shit, what a great opening line." And I didn’t know anything about books. The only books I read up until that time were Mickey Mantle books, Babe Ruth books, Willie Mays—bios on sports people. But that particular book kind of writing rung something in me that made me want to at least read.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Then I went to college to play football in North Dakota and ran in to the guy who really changed my life. I was still a fuck-up. I was playing football. My delusions of grandeur were gone. I knew I wasn’t going to the NFL. It was a small college. I wasn’t taking school seriously at all. I had almost failed out of school and I was sitting in this English class–you know one of those required English classes—and this guy Dave Gresham (one of his son’s just got published, an amazing family) reads the opening line to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Friends-Eddie-Coyle-Novel/dp/031242969X/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468872079&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=Friends+of+eddie+coylr">The Friends of EddieCoyle</a>:</i> “Jackie Brown at twenty-six, with no expression on his face, said that he could get some guns.”<br /><br /><br /><br />I was like <i>holy shit</i>. I knew people that talked like that. I could not believe that this was being taught in English class—that this was even available, because I was a moron—and that did it. He was the best teacher I ever had because we had to write a point-counterpoint for whatever editorial was in the <i>Newsweek</i>. I had absolutely no grammatical skill and I think he would always give me a B. I saw the next semester he was teaching creative writing, so now I’m making stories up. And he said to me, "You have raw talent." I think he was one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. He’s got the most incredible resume I’ve ever seen. And he told me, you got this thing, but you gotta learn how to spell and you gotta learn grammar, and he got me a little grammar book. But the key was to keep reading, and all of a sudden I was a reader. He taught Kurt Vonnegut. He was actually taught by Vonnegut. He went to the University of Iowa, the writers’ workshop. The two people that signed his thesis—this floors me now— were Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Yates. Richard Yates is my favorite novelist, but I didn’t know that until a few years ago. Back then I didn’t know who the fuck Richard Yates was. Richard Yates wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Revolutionary Road</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br />That got me started. And he took a short story of mine and he entered it into some writing award thing that I got nominated for. That was probably bullshit. He probably just had to press a button or something. But when I left North Dakota and got married we stayed in touch. I would send him things that I was writing. And he encouraged me to try the Scott Merrideth Literary Agency, which was the biggest scam in the world, but he said, "You’ve got nothing to lose. They’re making money." It was one of those readers’ fees things. "Give it a shot," he said. So I sent them something, and they told me it sucked. They told me what was wrong with it. A few years later I sent them something again and they take it and shop it for me. I actually read a newspaper article that said they took one out of every ten-thousand books and actually represented them. And I thought, "Who the fuck was I?" I thought I’d be a millionaire writer. And the name of the book was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Running With Cover. </i>My wife loves that book. Anyway, it got rejected ten times, but two of the rejections asked for more work and that, at the time, I couldn’t handle because here I am thinking "I’m gonna be the next John Grisham," and instead I’m Charlie the jerkoff. At that time I was a half-assed gangster. So that was the end of that. I didn’t write for like seven years.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Then I met my wife—and I’ve married four times—when we first met I tried to impress her and I wrote <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eddie's World. </i>I went to one of the two guys who asked for more work. This is, however, many years later. I’m lucky they were still alive. And one of them bought it, Carol and Graff. And that was it. Everything took off from there—took off in the sense that I keep getting published, not that I’m making money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> You said the professor had read the line and you said you knew people that talked like that. Is that why you chose crime?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /><b>Charlie Stella:</b><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Yeah, absolutely. I could write a crime novel in my sleep right now. That’s not saying that it’ll be good, but it just comes naturally for me. The thing that I left out in there was that I took a few play-writing courses and wrote a few plays. I found that I had a natural ability for dialogue. I had three plays produced off off broadway. That was my first love, theatre. What I found was—the last thing I did was at the 45<sup>th</sup> Street Theater—I had to depend on six or seven actors, and some of them couldn’t remember their lines. And there’s no money in play-writing either. I thought, "This is fucking crazy." Then I went back and discovered that with a novel I could be in total control, and that’s what really got me back into writing novels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b><br />Stanton McCaffery:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> The most recent book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tommy-Red-Charlie-Stella/dp/1933586966">Tommy Red</a>,</i> what was your process for writing that novel?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Charlie Stella:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> Tommy Red is character that was born out of a short story that I wrote for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Baltimore-Noir-Akashic-Laura-Lippman/dp/1888451963">Baltimore Noir</a>.</i> It was thing I did in 2006. Laura Lippman contacted me and asked if there was something I could put together, and I put it together pretty quick. And I just loved the pattern of his speaking—<i>"She say’s to me, she says."</i> I knew I was going to write a novel with Tommy "Red" Dalton as the central character, as the protagonist. I worked on it from 2006 to 2016—took me ten years because I would start and stop. I probably have twenty other novels completed, maybe garbage. I got serious before the MFA program and wrote it, overwrote it and then I did the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dogfella-Abandoned-Turned-Mobsters-Around--/dp/0738218073/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468869126&sr=1-1&keywords=dogfella">Dogfella</a> </i>book and had to do my thesis. So I went back to it in the last six months before I sold it. My friend told me it was too long. So I cleaned it up and got it published.<br /><br /><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b> </b>What were the influences behind the book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b><br />Charlie Stella:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> The first influence was, like I said, that he was a character in a short story and I liked the way he spoke.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">The second influence, he wasn’t a wise guy. I generally write about the lower echelons of the mob or the guys who are fighting the mob, people that wind up under the gun for some reason, like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Charlie-Opera-Stella-ebook/dp/B0044KMO3S/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468869184&sr=1-2&keywords=Charlie+Opera">Charlie Opera</a>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br />And I wanted to keep it current. The Eric Garner thing really pissed me off. I was getting in fights with people on Facebook. I thought, "No, this is bullshit." And I thought it was the time for me to get political in my life because I’ve got something I want to express. There’s gonna be some shit from now on that I want to express. I also used Mo’ne Davis—the black girl that was pitching in the little league world series—that kind of stuff. I wanted to bring it to a current day situation and express some things and that just made it easier. The whole idea of all that crap going on and dealing with dirty cops.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b> </b>Something that I got from the book was that it really depends on who has the authority–that there really are no good guys or bad guys. Was that intentional?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /><b>Charlie Stella:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> Everything that I write has that kind of thing going in it. There’s good guys that do bad things, bad guys that do good things. And bad guys that do bad things and good guys that do good things. That sort of thing is always intentional. When people are up against it they do what they’ve got to do.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">With the Eric Garner case, it kind of forms a backdrop. The characters have to deal with the traffic because of the protests. Was there a message that you were trying to get across with that or did you want to just tie it into the world?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b><br />Charlie Stella:</b><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">I think he spews about it a couple of times with his daughter, Tommy, about what the police can get away with when they say resisting arrest. When they grabbed him and put him down—if you watch the whole video—the kid that did it grabs his crotch, and he’s looking at the camera, and they know he’s dead. Maybe the people don’t, but the cops do because they already had the EMS there, and he’s laughing. And the thought that this is the kind of shit that they’re getting away with when the DA is working with them and you know there isn’t going to be an indictment. So when he spews about that, those were the messages that I was trying to get across. That’s how some people can come to thinking in terms of revolution or that crime can be justified because here is a government that has absolutely no problem being criminals—and not just enforcing it, they reinforce it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Readers are likely to be reminded of certain movies, and you even mention them—<i>Casino, Goodfellas. A</i>re movies an influence on your writing?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Charlie Stella:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> Movies do influence me—they influence me more than a book would. I think I mentioned the movie <i>The Drop </i>in another interview<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">. </i>It’s terrific. It’s just a well done movie. It’s Gandolfini’s last with Tom Hardy. What I like the most is just the give-and-take in the dialogue, the breaking balls. And there’s a real life person that I based Doc on in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tommy Red </i>who happens to be Irish, and I’m Italian, and when we sit here we just trade insults. And that line where Tommy Dalton says, “Fucking geniuses, they were aiming for India and wound up here,” that was from our conversation that he said to me. And I said back to him, “Potato famine? They lived on a fucking island. Nobody could put a line in the water and catch a fish?” So when I saw that in <i>The Drop</i>, at the bar, not the crime scenes, that’s how I start any book—just two guys talking. That’s how I started <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tommy Red, </i>just the two guys sitting on the Staten Island Ferry. It’s that conversation and it builds from there. I don’t outline. I just start a conversation and it builds from there. The book I’m working on now, somebody asked me how it ends, and I don’t know. I’ll get there and it may suck and I may have to rewrite it, but that’s what’s fun.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Working on your dialogue, do you listen to people’s conversations, to the way they speak?<br /><b><br /><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Charlie Stella:</b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> Sometimes. It’s what they’re talking about that will catch my ear. I’m the most oblivious writer on earth. You could ask me what the house across the street looks like, and I won’t know—and I’ve been living here six years. Certain things just go right by me. I’ll listen to someone’s conversation, and it’s <i>what</i> they’re talking about that I’m interested in. What are the current topics of the day? Like now I’m sure it’ll be the shooting in Orlando, the Brexit, the Democrats doing there sit-in. The average guy on the street don’t give a fuck about any of that. He’s worried about his boss that fired him.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">The other thing about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tommy Red,</i> about character development, in the short story in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Baltimore Noir, </i>he’s in training and he witnesses a hit. He’s with a wise guy from Philly who happens to live in Baltimore, and he’s part of a hit team, and the other guy does the hit and that’s kind of Tommy’s birth into the business. Afterward, something not in the short story but talked about in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tommy Red </i>is that, after the hit, he went away for six years.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Stanton McCaffery:</b><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Do you want to talk at all about what you have planned next?<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><b>Charlie Stella: </b></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">This next novel is a personal novel so I’m kind of keeping a lid on it. But I am working on another piece—a nonfiction piece, which is the most fascinating thing in the world. A friend of mine that I met through writing, <a href="https://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2004/09-17/marinick.html">Richard Marinick</a>, was with the state police in Massachusetts for two years and left—didn’t like it—and got involved in organized crime, the Irish mob. He wasn’t under Whitey Bulger, but he knew who Whitey Bulger was. Rick then started doing bank jobs and he became a coke addict, you know the whole bit. He ended up doing ten years for an armored car robbery in what was then, I think, Walpole. I’m not positive. A fucking nightmare though. While he was in there, Boston University did a prison program and he got a BA and a MFA. He gets out and he’s working on the Big Dig, the tunnel thing, and he writes one of the best books I’ve ever read, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Boyos-Richard-Marinick/dp/1932112421">Boyos</a>. </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I</span>t’s about the Irish Mob. He also wrote another book called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pound-Richard-Marinick/dp/1932112510/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2HNMRS5812ZJ58WQBSVF">In For a Pound</a></i>, that kind of got splashed because the publisher was a piece-of-shit degenerate gambler that left in the middle of the project and kind of left him hanging. But <i>Boyos</i> was on the Boston Globe best seller list for a number of months and they had to do three prints. Now Rick is one of the toughest guys you’ll ever meet in your life. I wouldn’t fight Rick with a gun to my head. He studied martial arts when he was younger. He does a like a thousand sit-ups a day. If you go to YouTube and watch <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Paddy-Whacked-Untold-American-Gangster/dp/0060590033">Paddy Whacked</a></i>, he’s in there.<br /><br /><br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">He wrote a memoir about his life and he asked me to look at it and read it. He sent it off, and it got rejected, so I said "Let me work with this. I think we can do something with this." So I’m not exactly rewriting it—just doing some minor edits and restructuring it because he did it in chronological order. He starts when he’s a kid and you have to bite the reader. That’s all interesting, but he was involved in an armored car robbery where somebody got killed. They want to hear that. Then when they find out you were a cop, well, <i>holy shit</i>. And then they say, </span><i style="font-family: georgia;">"What was his childhood like?"</i><span style="font-family: "georgia";"> And it’s a great story, and he deserves it.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia";">_________________________</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"><br /><span style="background-color: black; color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: normal;"><b>Charlie Stella </b>was born in Manhattan and brought up in Canarsie in Brooklyn. He attended public and catholic schools in Canarsie until going to Minot, North Dakota on a football scholarship. He was hooked as a reader/writer of modern crime fiction after Dave Gresham (his mentor and English teacher) read the opening lines from the George V. Higgins classic, <i>The Friends of Eddie Coyle. </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: normal;">He has worked as a paperboy, watermelon loader, soda-jerk, dishwasher, McDonalds cook, hallway buffer, porter, security guard, UPS laborer, sheetrock carrier, hallway buffer, porter and bouncer, as well as a union window cleaner on 50-story scaffolds. He was also a word processing operator/supervisor/manager, and a knockaround guy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Stanton McCaffery </b>was born and raised in central New Jersey, where he resides with his wife and son. He has degrees in history and political science and manages communications for a United Nations agency. He is currently working on his first novel. <a href="https://twitter.com/McCaffery_write">Find him on Twitter here.</a></span></span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-75911598320698975402016-07-01T07:59:00.003-07:002016-07-01T07:59:30.140-07:00"Out of Body Vacation" by Stanton McCaffery at Between Worlds Zine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI9R6cfOx__JXSYlZbug-KRq9_MPgqIh593gkxZN4h0jyVVKxurGfWFVpWU7s1_9uHnPR16RWHphUATbXYLM2NT8VNFvWSZCGqTwrAS5N74qTyopni2lYwS5-2fsnq8PnW03czglW7yLpe/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-07-01+at+10.55.49+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI9R6cfOx__JXSYlZbug-KRq9_MPgqIh593gkxZN4h0jyVVKxurGfWFVpWU7s1_9uHnPR16RWHphUATbXYLM2NT8VNFvWSZCGqTwrAS5N74qTyopni2lYwS5-2fsnq8PnW03czglW7yLpe/s400/Screen+Shot+2016-07-01+at+10.55.49+AM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br />Well well well, looks like <a href="http://www.betweenworldszine.com/"><i>Between Worlds</i></a> has published a story by Neon Grisly contributor <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StantonMccaffery/?fref=ts">Stanton McCaffery</a>. <br /><br />Well played, <i>Between Worlds</i>.<br /><br />Obviously, I'm a big fan of McCaffery. I'm also a fan of <i>Between Worlds</i> now.<br /><br />Read McCaffery's <a href="http://www.betweenworldszine.com/body-vacation-stanton-mccaffery/">"Out of body Vacation" here.</a><br /><br />Übercreepy stuff. <br /><br />You won't be sorry.</span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-70368902180724235792016-06-29T09:12:00.001-07:002016-06-29T12:54:42.147-07:00Great Feels and Sexual Astral Projections: A Review of Witch Hunt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6AO5cQAPsG57-i2Y5yzcflO9fpy7C9dlA5UrtSGiRLQUyMRzIpj7ukRztHIOd-2uXyw9idwvFo5ufg93da1X1bWK1B3SnTNaPmiE2zLu4Ziz5C-TbzQBxSQ1wBpHqJ3Qpr-dL4cOo69y/s1600/WitchHunt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV6AO5cQAPsG57-i2Y5yzcflO9fpy7C9dlA5UrtSGiRLQUyMRzIpj7ukRztHIOd-2uXyw9idwvFo5ufg93da1X1bWK1B3SnTNaPmiE2zLu4Ziz5C-TbzQBxSQ1wBpHqJ3Qpr-dL4cOo69y/s320/WitchHunt.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />I’m always reluctant to pay for poetry. When I do,
I usually go for authors I already know from narrative fiction.<br /><br />I had never read
anything from <a href="http://julietescoria.com/">Juliet Escoria</a> though. <br /><br />I bought her new poetry collection <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29546461-witch-hunt"><i>Witch Hunt</i> </a>because I’m a fan of the
book’s publisher <a href="https://lazyfascistpress.com/">Lazy Fascist</a>. I bought it because I liked the title.<br />
<br />Admittedly, I don’t know much about poetry, but I really enjoyed <i>Witch Hunt</i>. Juliet Escoria’s
writing is many things in this book: dark, humorous, bleak, sarcastic, lewd, satirical. <br /><br />The poems—divided into chapters—are a mix of free-verse and narrative style. Some are
more like stories (yes, complete with paragraphs and punctuation!), others defy all
conventions of structure and form. Escoria even fucks around with font-sizes
and poetic images (e.g. a scan of a gas station receipt), which is all really unusual and fun. <br /><br />And the titles of the poems are generally a good time in their own right. They
include: “CASUAL MISANDRY,” “TOP 10 GREATEST FEELS,” “HAIKUS FOR HORSE
HATERS,” and “ASTRAL PROJECT MY PUSSY” among many other notables.<br />
<br />
I found myself moving between moments of depressive introspection and laughter
while reading <i>Witch Hunt.</i> Escoria’s
poems come off as deeply personal for the most part, but she touches on many universal topics and themes: life regrets (or lack thereof);
awkward sex; strained relationships; meth; etc. <br /><br />Real People should have no
problem connecting with Escoria’s writing on some level. <br />
<br />So yeah, I definitely recommend <i>Witch Hunt</i>. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.6667px;">The book is a fantastic balance of dreadful angst and irreverent, biting humor. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /><br />I especially recommend it to fans of
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/So-Sad-Today-Personal-Essays/dp/1455562726/185-0743729-2439925?ie=UTF8&keywords=so%20sad%20today%20melissa&pebp=1436890915866&perid=1JNM7GP1VQKTDTAVAG9W&qid=1436890910&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1">Melissa Broder</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Glass-against-Brick-Parade-Whats-ebook/dp/B01DFQG1OY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467216571&sr=1-1&keywords=glass+head+against">Sam Pink</a>. I recommend it to people who don't normally buy poetry.<br /><br /><br /><br />
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<!--[endif]--></span><!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-10678210307134784902016-06-16T13:04:00.003-07:002016-06-16T13:05:51.136-07:00A Tour of the Northeast With Bullets: A Review of Tommy Red<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgwPf6MHahytC5Bp_QI7ZgghQ8-7prExWc1xUlzM50yUAqvH59BhF1zXwob0dFkgRbNBcLQT1DkOlNForeTMgh9bZb-BJB3RxmQQxUFU7OYFCikds2z4hRsOKbS52T7O1wI8eX8ZcsClY/s1600/Tommy+Red+-+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvgwPf6MHahytC5Bp_QI7ZgghQ8-7prExWc1xUlzM50yUAqvH59BhF1zXwob0dFkgRbNBcLQT1DkOlNForeTMgh9bZb-BJB3RxmQQxUFU7OYFCikds2z4hRsOKbS52T7O1wI8eX8ZcsClY/s400/Tommy+Red+-+Cover.jpg" width="258" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>A Guest Review by Stanton McCaffery</b></i><br /><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Tommy Red </i>by
Charlie Stella is an intense and gritty tale of aging mob bosses, crooked cops
and federal agents, and one hitman who's too good at his own job. It’s a lean book
and a lightning fast read with a plot that touches just about every zip code
between New Hampshire and Baltimore.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />What strikes you first about this book is the dialogue.
There’s really nothing quite like it. Aspiring writers should read this book
with a pen and a pad at hand and follow along closely. Accolades on the book’s
cover say reading the dialogue is like listening to a conversation. They’re not
lying. And as a native New Jerseyan and someone who commutes every day into
Manhattan I can tell you that yes, people do indeed talk like this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />The book kicks off when Tommy, who does in fact have red
hair, is contracted to gun down a gangster turned tattle-tail discovered in New
Hampshire. Through an old friend, Tommy’s paid to go to New Hampshire and make
the guy disappear. Unbeknownst to Tommy, the crime family who initially
organized the hit wants to tie up any loose ends linking them to the crime,
Tommy included. But remember when I said that the hitman’s too good at his own
job? Well here's where that comes into play. You’ll have to pick up the book
to find out where it goes from there. It’s worth it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />While the dialogue and the plot reel you in, the characters
are what make this a gem. Tommy in particular is well executed. He’s not the
kind of guy to give excuses for who he is, but woven throughout the book is a
backstory starting with the death of his father that makes us empathize with
him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />And here’s a warning about all the characters in this book: With the exception of Tommy’s daughter and one FBI agent who's still wet
behind the ears, these are not decent people. But, man, are they fun to watch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />Tommy Red </i>is
likely to remind readers of some great movies. I’m thinking maybe <i>The Godfather, </i>maybe <i>Casino</i>, which is actually mentioned, but
really <i>Goodfellas. </i>The first time I
saw that movie it scared the living shit out of me, how ruthless those guys
were. And just like Scorsese with that film, Stella doesn’t hold back on the
brutality. You can feel the punches, smell the vomit, and hear the gunshots,
except of course when the silencers are used. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">My verdict on this one: get it and read it twice.<br /><br /></span><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/StantonMccaffery/">Stanton McCaffery </a>was born and raised in central New Jersey, where he resides with his wife and son. He has degrees in history and political science and manages communications for a United Nations agency. He is currently working on his first novel. Find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/McCaffery_write">here</a>.</span></i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-14322890358098216002016-06-02T11:05:00.000-07:002016-06-02T11:45:22.432-07:00Hooray for the 80s: A Review of My Best Friend's Exorcism <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmpkRWdOK4JwSqbrws9whNGOLxs-3smgXjfo5EHoB48p8DOE2T8AM8eMUQ9oVHIlUuoo3HmEvyZ6gQ1sFb_ylR69tqxRj-EJgFCFQBU_1q-J2NEw-dAiA9RSYEXuOLkTKqkuWWQH6g9Pi5/s1600/My+Best+Friend%2527s+Exorcism+-+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmpkRWdOK4JwSqbrws9whNGOLxs-3smgXjfo5EHoB48p8DOE2T8AM8eMUQ9oVHIlUuoo3HmEvyZ6gQ1sFb_ylR69tqxRj-EJgFCFQBU_1q-J2NEw-dAiA9RSYEXuOLkTKqkuWWQH6g9Pi5/s400/My+Best+Friend%2527s+Exorcism+-+Cover.jpg" width="273" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A Guest Review by Stanton McCaffery</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.gradyhendrix.com/my-best-friends-exorcism/">My Best Friend’s
Exorcism</a></span></span></i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.gradyhendrix.com/my-best-friends-exorcism/"> by Grady Hendrix</a> is a fun and kind of campy ride through 1980s
insanity, touching on everything from mullets and hair crimpers to Phil Collins
and <i>E.T.</i> to the War on Drugs and religious paranoia. Hendrix pulls us in with
nostalgia and girlhood drama to tell us a story about the horrors of growing up
and the strength of friendship. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />Like Hendrix’s previous novel, <i><a href="http://www.gradyhendrix.com/#/new-page/">Horrorstör</a></i>, which was set up
to appear like an Ikea catalogue, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exorcism’s
</i>cover and design are similarly grabbing—they look like someone’s high
school yearbook, filled with cryptic messages, autographs, and inside jokes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />The book tells the story of Abby Rivers and her friendship
with Gretchen Lang, the friend referenced in the title that Abby does indeed
exorcize. Abby's from a working-class family, but is attending the snooty
Albemarle Academy on a scholarship. There’s a class divide throughout the books
that makes us empathize with and ultimately root for Abby.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />Of one of the many things this book does well, it captures
adolescent loneliness perfectly through Abby’s struggles and reminds readers that
for a kid nothing feels quite as bad as thinking you don’t have any friends.
Similarly, it reminds us of the power of young friendship. The first chapter
tells how Abby, an adult looking back on her adolescence, now has people she
casually refers to as friends, but that “she remembers when the word ‘friend’
could draw blood.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />In Amazon reviews Hendrix has won many deserving comparisons
to Stephen King for his use of the mundane to get at the horrific and
paranormal. It’s also worth mentioning how Hendrix, like King, disarms readers
and lures us in with likable characters, goofy nostalgia (though in the case
of King it’s for the 60s, not the 80s) and tight prose. Though <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exorcism</i> never quite goes for the
jugular in shattering the world of Albemarle Academy the way King has shattered
his worlds in, say, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carrie, </i>we still
see lives ruined and costs exacted on the protagonist and her friends. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br />And there’s nastiness here too. My favorite scene deals with a near-lethal dose of tapeworm eggs. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br />Exorcism</i>, while
certainly enjoyable for older readers, can also serve as an entry point into
horror for younger people growing out of the YA genre. The nostalgia and the
obscure 80s references are laid on a little thick at times (there’s even mention of
a shirtless Patrick Swayze in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Skatetown
USA </i>early on), and some are surely to go over younger readers' heads, but the
true strength of this book is in the characters and the relationships they have
with one another. The book’s
ending is particularly powerful in that regard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />My conclusion: Pick up this book and read it, whether you
remember the 80s or not.<br /><i><br /></i></span><i>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/StantonMccaffery/">Stanton McCaffery </a>was born and raised in
central New Jersey, where he resides with his wife and son. He has degrees in
history and political science and manages communications for a United Nations
agency. He is currently working
on his first novel. Find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/McCaffery_write">here</a>.</span></i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-74392863806870943432016-05-26T10:15:00.003-07:002016-05-26T10:21:07.533-07:00Yes, This: A Review of Ladybox Vol. 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3bQZc7ugSBhAZHZe_vV0jNgNB-qyj92N62HUT_vJ2IoLqukucY5200secTvKIBzoX38slIMw987dIRrPiufwSHvByh0r_OigBiH-xdrsj7_kkwuktUQOCmXJfVV8HCRBRPtD3nQweg7md/s1600/Ladybox2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3bQZc7ugSBhAZHZe_vV0jNgNB-qyj92N62HUT_vJ2IoLqukucY5200secTvKIBzoX38slIMw987dIRrPiufwSHvByh0r_OigBiH-xdrsj7_kkwuktUQOCmXJfVV8HCRBRPtD3nQweg7md/s400/Ladybox2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Okay, this isn’t really a review.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I just want to rave about <i><a href="http://ladyboxbooks.bigcartel.com/product/ladybox-vol-2">Ladybox Vol. 2</a>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Such a brilliant idea. <br /><br />A collection of seven literary zines and chapbooks. Seven different "badass authors." Fiction. Poetry. Biographical essays. Beautiful art and DIY aesthetics. Yep.<br /><br />And guess what—“<i>Ladybox</i> is not genre specific.” You’ll find everything from artful fantasy to sleazy realism among the pages of this collection.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Fuck yes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The writing, across the board, is superb. I particularly enjoyed Constance Ann Fitzgerald’s <i>Creeps </i>and <i>Interstellar Bruja </i>by Rios de la Luz. But it’s all really awesome. Trust me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And opening this collection felt like Christmas. The zines and chapbooks were mailed in a small, decorated box filled with stickers and patches. It was magical. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sadly, though, you can’t share in the magic anymore.<i> Ladybox Vol. 2</i> was a limited run. They’re gone now. But hey, let this be a lesson to you. When <a href="https://ladyboxbooks.com/">Ladybox Books</a> announces plans for <i>Ladybox Vol. 3 </i>don’t snooze or you’re gonna lose.<br /><br />Now, after experiencing the sheer awesomeness of <i>Ladybox Vol. 2</i>, I can't help but wonder: <i>Why isn't this more of a thing in the world of literature? </i>If my favorite authors and publishers put out zine-and-chapbook collections like this on the reg, I'd snatch them up left and right—I swear. I think others would too. Small press authors and publishers wouldn't have to work day jobs anymore. Maybe? Either way, the world needs more of this sort of thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here are the authors of <i>Ladybox Vol. 2</i>. You should check out their work, friendos.<br /></span><br />
<a href="http://ladyboxbooks.bigcartel.com/product/jigsaw-youth-tiffany-scandal"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Tiffany Scandal</span></a><br />
<a href="http://ladyboxbooks.bigcartel.com/product/the-pulse-between-dimensions-and-the-desert"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rios de la Luz</span></a><br />
<a href="http://ladyboxbooks.bigcartel.com/product/life-is-wonderful-people-are-terrific-meliza-banales"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Meliza Bañales</span></a><br />
<a href="http://emily-oneill.com/"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Emily O’Neill</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Bouzi-Jennifer-Robin/dp/0887391753">Jennifer Robin</a></span><br />
<a href="http://www.isobelohare.com/"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Isobel O’Hare</span></a><br />
<a href="https://atrainwreckwithwords.com/"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Constance Ann Fitzgerald</span></a><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-64499583994835795122016-05-09T13:23:00.001-07:002016-06-02T11:05:18.987-07:00A Fringe Culture Love Letter: A Review of Locust House <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWkRp_lViUuiNOwtCfSFwraSNhu2UpTmXG-9Y3KMGrMTJ0vn2prRPsa6g2Zq0UcsMESL_VbB0x0U-shNHOqUipLLMiryxIQ_NO3wKBnv9vWhbEC57tsSz4Uxq6IMpmMUK0qF2JbhgOLZV/s1600/LocustHouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWkRp_lViUuiNOwtCfSFwraSNhu2UpTmXG-9Y3KMGrMTJ0vn2prRPsa6g2Zq0UcsMESL_VbB0x0U-shNHOqUipLLMiryxIQ_NO3wKBnv9vWhbEC57tsSz4Uxq6IMpmMUK0qF2JbhgOLZV/s400/LocustHouse.jpg" width="286" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Locust is my favorite band, and I'm a fan of Adam Gnade’s music. So, yeah, buying <a href="http://threeoneg.com/archive/books/locust-house">Gnade's novella <i>Locust House </i></a>was a no-brainer for me. </span></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I didn’t really know what to expect though, as I’d never read any of Gnade’s fiction. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Well, turns out he's pretty damn good at this literature thing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Locust House</i> is a novella-length rumination on a time, a place, and a culture. It’s an impressionistic love letter to San Diego’s fringe music scene, circa 2002. It is beautiful, unsettling, and immersive.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Gnade presents readers with a handful of misfit characters who orbit San Diego's gritty noise-punk milieu and frequent the Locust House—a home-turned-concert venue, rented and operated by the members of The Locust during the early 2000s. Some of these characters know each other, some don’t. However, they’re all drawn to The Locust's extreme, envelope-pushing music. They are propelled by feelings of alienation, deep political convictions, existential angst, and shitty relationships. They desire something raw and extraordinary in a society brimming with flatlining culture and post-9/11 paranoia. These characters, I should mention, are all secondary to the sights, sounds, smells, and ephemeral feelings that are lyrically detailed in the novella. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Gnade deals heavily in fleeting moods, moments, and atmospheres—not so much in conventional <i>story</i>. Don’t start this book anticipating a plot. Don’t go in expecting traditional character development. The characters of <i>Locust House</i> are more <i>the means </i>than <i>the ends</i>. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And it's worth noting that Gnade’s focus on setting and rich sensory details flies right in the face of current literary conventions. For that reason, <i>Locust House</i> was a breath of fresh air. <br /><br />When done right, I love a good savory ramble. And Gnade pulls it off deftly. The world of <i>Locust House</i> is made entirely palpable for the reader—the frenetic music, the drugs, the dingy apartments, the steaming <i>elotes locos</i>. All of it.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now, as I mentioned above, I love The Locust. For me, it was certainly enjoyable to read Gnade's hard-edged, romantic prose about artists who blew my world open during my younger years—just as they seemingly did for the book’s author.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That said, I'm not sure how most readers would respond to <i>Locust House</i>. Without at least some level of interest in The Locust and early-2000s noise-punk, I don't know that there'd be as much resonance. <i>Locust House</i> is, even for a work of novella-length, a pretty slow and impressionistic burn. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, with that in mind, here are a few pre-reading recommendations for those who might not know anything of The Locust or Adam Gnade. Take ‘em or leave ‘em—I don't care.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>1) Listen to some choice tracks from The Locust and other bands that come up in the novella.</b> Lucky for you, I’ve put a list together so you don’t have to use your precious time scrounging around for this stuff.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Fret not over the size of the list—these songs are incredibly short. Many clock-in under a minute. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Okay, have at it, Otis. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is the best of the best. Well, a small sampling of it, at least.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx-tBHE66hI">“Nice Tranquil Thumb in Mouth”</a> - The Locust</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV4gNcgVfAA">“The Perils of Believing in Round Squares”</a> – The Locust</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNU9MYpnIQI">“Bring Your 65 Italian Carbine” </a> - The Locust</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpLmTAFk9LQ">“Live From the Russian Compund”</a> – The Locust</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTW2_AAQzbE">“The Half-Eaten Sausage Would Like to See You in His Office”</a> – The Locust</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKEecNl4AKU"><br /></a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKEecNl4AKU">“One Decent Leg/Immune System Overdrive”</a> – The Locust</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV_gEwvCQcM">“We Have Reached an Official Verdict: Nobody Gives a Shit”</a> – The Locust</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUpfznefpMo"><br /></a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUpfznefpMo">“Tower of Mammal”</a> – The Locust</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WD1WFfxRxQ">“Circle Jack” </a>– Melt Banana</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtTs2liTmI0">“Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold”</a> – Melt Banana</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEl0M3gTgOc">“TV in My Eye” </a>– Le Shok</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbq0JKt01is"><br /></a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbq0JKt01is">“Birth Control Blues”</a> – Arab on Radar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">2) <b>Listen to some of Adam Gnade’s music. </b>It’s not mandatory, but I think doing so will help you lock into the voice of <i>Locust House</i>. Gnade's got this beautiful spoken-word, neo-Beat delivery on his musical recordings. In <i>Locust House</i>, he seems to write in a way that conveys a similar feel, a similar rhythm. Having his voice in my head—the particular way he speaks—was definitely an asset to my experience with the book. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here are a few recommendations... </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1v0llUEWg0">"Run Hide Retreat Surrender" </a></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-YAy2lLQ10">"The Winter/Their Apartment"</a></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-91668683632644755632016-05-06T07:57:00.001-07:002016-06-02T11:05:26.885-07:00You're Gonna Carry That Weight: A Review of Tribulations <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDalHMoBVJQqROsnpCdXTKJtuR_MoBIDDOdte3-WiOLDRqDEdpI7KXQQ3twVVqCd09UKF1rztwu-Z8m_BXPcg4bGTF3Rh7jftyv_jt6sYUvI1sTMQ3Z5udy65xezJsALH_E10P94oBvDdQ/s1600/tribulations_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDalHMoBVJQqROsnpCdXTKJtuR_MoBIDDOdte3-WiOLDRqDEdpI7KXQQ3twVVqCd09UKF1rztwu-Z8m_BXPcg4bGTF3Rh7jftyv_jt6sYUvI1sTMQ3Z5udy65xezJsALH_E10P94oBvDdQ/s400/tribulations_cover.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Some people are calling this book a collection of
horror stories, and I’m not entirely sure why.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Okay, sure, <i>Tribulations</i> certainly serves up a
healthy portion of horror fiction. And most all of the stories are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">horrifying</i> on some level. But there’s just
so much going on here that is well beyond the horror genre. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So much.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Like neo-noir, dystopian, post-apocalypse, magic realism,
psychological thriller, cyberpunk, and literary fiction. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Let’s be clear about something: Genre-wise, <a href="http://www.crystallakepub.com/pr-for-tribulations-by-richard-thomas.php"><i>Tribulations</i> by Richard Thomas</a> is one of the most diverse short story collections around. And the stories, well—they’re all really fucking good.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My first exposure to Richard Thomas’s writing was his collection of shorts
titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Staring Into the Abyss</i>. I
loved it. Naturally, I bought Thomas’s other collection, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Herniated Roots</i>. Loved that one too. And now, having now read all
of Richard Thomas’s published short fiction, I can say that the man delivers a
consistent and unparalleled gift for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">classic
</i>short storytelling decked out in dark, glimmering contemporary themes and
aesthetics. And <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribulations</i> is now
the reigning champion of that fine tradition. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But what do I mean by<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> classic</i>? I’m
referring to the way Richard Thomas’s stories always present a heavy moral or
message—and I don’t mean political. I mean <i>universal.</i> I mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">human</i>. His stories will have you
contemplating missed romantic connections, loves lost, relationships with family and
friends. Thomas will have you second-guessing your marriage and then reaffirming your
commitment to it within the span of a few pages. He’ll have you questioning
your entire life’s trajectory. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Short stories used to do that, I think. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They used to challenge readers and force them to reflect on their lives, on the
world and their place in it. Well, now they do again—at least when it comes to Richard Thomas, and especially so among the pages of <i>Tribulations</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Think O. Henry with monsters and wasteland settings. Think Shirley Jackson with
strippers and ghosts. Think tasteful twists and several megatons of incendiary emotional
payload. Sadness, angst, anxiety, fear, lust, love, sentimentality—Thomas
covers all bases with raw authenticity and daring creativity. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here are some synopses of my favorites from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribulations</i>:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Vision Quest”</b> – A man’s desire to
reunite with his family revolves around deliberate high-speed freeway wrecks.
Yeah. Fans of J.G. Ballard’s Crash will love this one.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /><br /> “The Wastelands”</b> – Life on the fringes of a dystopian police-state sucks,
especially if you had to kill your wife and kids to spare them a fate worse
than death. So why not team up with a mutant-humanoid giant in a desperate
attempt to revive them?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />“Misty”</b> – A man falls in love with a
woman he thinks might be a stripper. Hilarity does not ensue.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />“The Handyman”</b> – Hey, it’s a cruel, cyberpunk
world and a man with a multi-purpose cybernetic arm has gotta do what he’s
gotta do to get by, amirite?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />“Divining”</b> – A hardscrabble, Tarot
card-reading construction worker falls headlong into a sordid romance.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />“Gandaberunda”</b> – A mythological
creature stalks the children of a small town.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />“Asking for Forgiveness”</b> – A humanoid
dog-child contemplates the controversial decisions of its human parents.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />“The Offering on the Hill”</b> – A tale of a man’s
mystical, desert-wasteland, post-apocalypse, desperate-horror-dread-quest to be
reunited with his family.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Richard Thomas’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribulations</i> is
slick neon city streets and deep primeval wilderness. It’s a loved one’s
caress and burning blood in your eyes. It’s blossoming hopes and deteriorating
relationships. It is the soft dance of fireflies and the snapping maw of a
rabid feral dog.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, time to re-up on the Xanax, friends, because the twenty-five stories of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribulations</i> all deliver on the titular promise. Big time. You’re
gonna feel the weight of the world as you read, and you're gonna love every second of it.</span><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-81108282275320683942016-04-18T07:20:00.001-07:002016-06-02T11:05:35.235-07:00Like an Electric Worm in Your Brain: A Review of Zero Saints <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_MTg3GUcdRe2xHvvZvnNZp1Kp2mNoc4tedoJg-ykVTJAp3xtFzFdIHqN59PSovsbJMSnwHdkMJ64z6N3YsEEKpbPxDWyfqiL0wAAf_m0Vulj6JbQKWtqg5PqJOMMWbAbv_0pjez6S0k1/s1600/ZeroSaints.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio_MTg3GUcdRe2xHvvZvnNZp1Kp2mNoc4tedoJg-ykVTJAp3xtFzFdIHqN59PSovsbJMSnwHdkMJ64z6N3YsEEKpbPxDWyfqiL0wAAf_m0Vulj6JbQKWtqg5PqJOMMWbAbv_0pjez6S0k1/s400/ZeroSaints.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This novel has everything you need. You knew it
just from looking at the cover. You knew it from the title.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Saints-Gabino-Iglesias/dp/1940885337"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zero Saints</i> by Gabino Iglesias</a> is one of
<i>those</i> books.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Complex characters? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Check. </i>Dark magic realism? <i>Check. </i>Scathing commentaries on border politics and contemporary society? <i>Check. </i>Fully bilingual brutality and grit like you’ve never ever seen before? <i>Check.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ladies and gentlemen, this is the genesis of “barrio noir,” and you’re gonna
want to get in on it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Like now.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zero Saints</i> is the story of Fernando,
a smalltime “enforcer and drug dealer” in Austin, Texas, who winds up eyeball-deep
in shit after some real-deal Mara Salvatrucha gangsters decide that he and his associate Nestor are an inconvenience to their own retail endeavors. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, Nestor is cut up and fed to…<i>something</i> by the gang’s sociopathic leader. Fernando is left reeling, stuck between a rock and a hard place. He's forced to continue his dealings to get by, risking a fate similar to that of his friend. (He’s also got the hots for a fairly straitlaced neighbor-lady, which further complicates things.) Good options are a luxury that Fernando cannot afford. So, with the help of an ancient death saint, a handful of seedy business associates, a few dark mystics, and some expert-level prescription pain-pill abuse, he attempts to overcome the odds and save himself from a most grisly demise at
the hands of the Salvatrucha.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Damn.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In addition to all this insanity, I really respect that Iglesias wasn’t afraid
to get overtly political at times with this story. His commentaries are as rock-solid as the
book’s narrative and gritty aesthetics. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Zero
Saints</i> is a full-fledged literary punch to the gut. It's a fist of beautiful words clad in filthy, rusted brass
knuckles.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In regard to the novel’s bilingual prose, some readers out there seem
concerned. I admit that I'm biased on this matter. I’m fluent in
both English and Spanish (I spent a few years doing activist journalism in
Mexico and Central America). That said, I don’t think the book will pose any major problems to all you English-only readers. If anything, you’ll pick up some
useful slang and profanity in Spanish. Just give it a shot, güey. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I loved <i>Zero Saints</i>. Not only can I say that it's the best book I’ve read this year, it’s also been added to my list of Favorite Things. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Seriously.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, whether Gabino Iglesias likes it or not, his novel now occupies a space in
my mind alongside <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6AXQeCE9Rw">Videodrome</a></i>, The Locust’s <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqpc56ccUM0">Plague Soundscapes</a></i>, <a href="http://wildsouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/flying-squirrel-2.jpg">northern flying squirrels</a>, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.artandantiquesmag.com/2016/03/hieronymus-bosch-paintings/">Hieronymous Bosch paintings</a>, and <a href="http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/spaceballs/images/c/c4/Pizza_the_Hutt.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131101150125">pizza</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And if you don’t like that, Gabino, well, you’re just gonna have to hunt me down,
saw me into pieces, and feed me to…<i>something</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, know that I too have a Russian friend.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yeah, okay, I don't.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here’s <a href="http://www.vol1brooklyn.com/2015/11/19/an-excerpt-from-gabino-iglesiass-zero-saints/">an excerpt from <i>Zero Saints</i></a> para ustedes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For real though, just go buy the fuckin’
book. <span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span>This shit’s gonna burrow into your brain like an <i>electric worm</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I promise.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-32481700136623580972016-04-07T11:17:00.000-07:002016-06-02T11:06:01.603-07:00Joke’s on You: A Review of Your Glass Head Against the Brick Parade of Now Whats <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8BnnQ46ntV-F440DlJBBbgok78RPoJQ0B8T5G8C51jwjqzvCao1EKQ41oSHSYjBQsAu3DQMr-judDHah_Yd3Fmh56-yv2XgtPiwV6SoBib6wP-ENQyLAu737a8uwnaH3BAelYlgkPrtJ/s1600/SamPink-GlassHead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8BnnQ46ntV-F440DlJBBbgok78RPoJQ0B8T5G8C51jwjqzvCao1EKQ41oSHSYjBQsAu3DQMr-judDHah_Yd3Fmh56-yv2XgtPiwV6SoBib6wP-ENQyLAu737a8uwnaH3BAelYlgkPrtJ/s400/SamPink-GlassHead.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I
almost didn’t buy this one because it's a work of poetry.<br /> </span></span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times new roman";">
See, I’m a huge fan of Sam Pink’s prose. His novels <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Person-Sam-Pink/dp/1936383187">Person</a></i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Hellos-Diet-Sam-Pink/dp/1936383764/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460051769&sr=1-1&keywords=No+hellos+diet">No Hellos Diet</a></i>
are among my all-time favorites. And his short stories, like “Two Things About
Living in Romeoville, Illinois” and “Ryan Francis,” are works of violent, depressive
genius. <br /><br />His poetry, however, has often left me disappointed. <br /><br />Don’t get me
wrong, when it’s good, it’s really fucking good. <a href="http://www.coconutpoetry.org/pink1.html">“Apartment”</a> and “I Always
Think, ‘If I Just Get a Good Amount of Sleep I’ll Be Fine'” come right to mind
as poetic high-water marks for Pink. That said, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Suicide-Notes-Sam-Pink/dp/1621051064/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460051840&sr=1-1&keywords=collected+suicide+notes">his book of collected poems</a> is
some 450 pages-long. As I look over my copy, I see that I’ve dog-eared maybe 15
of those pages. Much of it reads like a boring, melodramatic diary. </span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times new roman";"><br />Now, </span><span style="color: #292929; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="color: orange;"><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/sam-pink/your-glass-head-against-the-brick-parade-of-now-whats/paperback/product-22612133.html" style="font-style: italic;">Your Glass
Head Against The Brick Parade of Now Whats</a><i style="color: #292929;"> </i></span><span style="color: #cccccc;">is</span></span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times new roman";"> </span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times new roman";">perhaps</span></span></span><span style="color: #292929; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> something of a turning
point in Pink’s poetry. It’s 70 pages long, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">every single fucking word</i> is worth your time. <br />
<br />
I promise. <br />
<br />
Sam Pink describes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Your Glass Head</i> as
a single “beautiful nice poem,” which seems fitting enough, I guess. But I’d
add that it’s also a catalog of depressing aphorisms, grim metaphors for modern living, and bleak, fragmentary observations—all completely relevant to real
people in today’s world. It’ll strike a chord for sure. No narrative frills.
Just raw, unmitigated negativity, depression, and self-loathing. It's a perfect
distillation of Sam Pink’s oeuvre, calcified and sharpened to a glistening point for
slow insertion into one of the more membranous parts of your body.<br />
<br /><i>
Your Glass Head</i> is full of wisdom for today’s world.<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Every waking moment, forced forward by
invisible bayonets.”<br />
<br />
“Life like the only reality is waking up every couple of days for ten seconds
in the seat of a car that’s skidding off a snowy road.”</i><br />
<br />
Yet, it also has tragic absurdity and black humor.<br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Yearly Christmas card that reads, ‘Still
haven’t killed myself, Merry Christmas.'”<br />
<br />
“That thing where you go to shake someone’s hand but pull it away to slick back
your hair except instead of that you reach into your pants and pull out a gun
and shoot yourself.”</i><br />
<br />
And it even offers some righteous, anti-authoritarian anger as well. <br />
<br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Spitting at the firing squad.”</i><br />
<br />
Truly something for everyone. <br /><br />Well, everyone who has the courage to look into
the mirror each day and actively hate what they see. Everyone who has the strength to look at our world and acknowledge how utterly stupid and suffocating it is. If you're one of those people, this poem will sing a song to your soul. It is a masterwork of
depression and abject alienation. It is epic. It is Sam Pink's "Howl.<i>"</i><br />
<br />
But here’s the thing. Increasingly, when I read Sam Pink’s works, in spite of
his seething <i>self</i>-loathing, I can’t help but feel that the joke, ultimately, is on me—on his readers.<br />
<br />
See, Sam Pink is a reasonably successful and respected author. He’s published
several books that seem to resonate with people. He can sleep easy
knowing his ideas—and his life—have meant something to other human beings. If
you’re anything like me, you’re still struggling to publish your work. You're full of bad ideas. You’re
broke and on-track to be forgotten, immediately, upon the moment of your death.
You’ve had no significant impact on the lives of others, and you probably never
will. You are nothing. Sam Pink, though, is something. <br />
<br />
So the joke is on you, my friend. <br />
<br />
The joke is on me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Sam Pink is “Depresso-O the Magnificent,” and I love him for it. Go get
a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Your Glass Head Against
The Brick Parade of Now Whats. </i>Read it and contemplate what a directionless
mess your life is, you pathetic piece of shit.</span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
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<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17337299458650133824noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2128069799354184964.post-23041411404847539052016-03-22T08:52:00.000-07:002016-06-02T11:06:14.955-07:00Like Looking Into a Mirror: A Review of Marigold <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_npCINkFmIk0nBL5OK7j0nY-SXkKMZn3aYq89fG8deyn7KnCE7WcZo1iY1Cwmw_ktDUEJTuoV6xs1itxN39z-89MlxuA0kvdYg07KpcLYqUL4e_Fkaf6rwGlsOi8fRE21B9RJzLKKzh6f/s1600/MarigoldCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_npCINkFmIk0nBL5OK7j0nY-SXkKMZn3aYq89fG8deyn7KnCE7WcZo1iY1Cwmw_ktDUEJTuoV6xs1itxN39z-89MlxuA0kvdYg07KpcLYqUL4e_Fkaf6rwGlsOi8fRE21B9RJzLKKzh6f/s400/MarigoldCover.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "\22 times\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;">Hey, you’re a fairly decent person stuck working a shit job but doing your goddamndest to eke out a life worth living. However, you find, more often than not, that existence under modern capitalism feels suffocating, crushing. Other people are difficult to relate </span><span style="font-family: "\22 times\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;">to and</span><span style="font-family: "\22 times\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;"> largely incomprehensible. Your worklife ranges from denigrating to soul-rending. Bills pile up in spite of your spartan lifestyle. You take on a second job, maybe a third. You watch Seinfeld reruns with a homeless person. You routinely contemplate suicide. Well, </span><a href="http://kingshotpress.bigcartel.com/product/pre-order-we-are-all-we-ve-done-by-troy-james-weaver" style="font-family: times, 'times new roman', serif;"><i>Marigold</i> by Troy James Weaver</a><span style="font-family: "\22 times\22 " , "\22 times new roman\22 " , serif;"> is the novella for you. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">
<br />
It’s maybe more a mirror than a book, so brace yourself.<br />
<br />
<i>Marigold</i> is the story of a
“thirty-something floral salesman” struggling to cope with the sheer horror of
everyday life. For many, I’m sure, the story will be as relatable as it is
bleak. It is intensely uncomfortable, absurd, and beautiful. It is emotionally
devastating and full of existential dread. It is the absolute best of
contemporary literary fiction.<br />
<br />
<i>Marigold</i> is written as a series of
short vignettes that range from a few lines to a few pages. This makes the
novella an extremely easy read, despite the fragmentary nature of the narrative.
Troy James Weaver, more than any author I can think of, accurately captures the rhythm of
modern existence through his writing. Yet, at the same time, his prose tends to
communicate a dreary, dreamlike quality, which in the past has led reviewers
to compare his work (particularly, his novel <i><a href="http://www.brokenriverbooks.com/store/p22/VISIONS_by_Troy_James_Weaver.html">Visions</a>) </i>to
Harmony Korine’s films. I think the reference is warranted in regard to both <i>Visions</i> and <i>Marigold</i>. That said, for me, <i>Marigold</i>
called to mind more the writings of Charles Bukowski and Sam Pink (there’s even
a passing Bukowski reference early in the novella). But in my honest opinion,
Troy James Weaver brings a level of seriousness to the table that
neither Bukowski or Pink ever conveyed. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bukowski and
Pink. Troy James Weaver, though, just seems to be doing something a little more true-to-life, a little more visceral. <br />
<br />
If you’re a real person, you most certainly understand a few things. Our
society is shit. Our economy is a massive human meat grinder. <a href="http://lithub.com/the-novel-is-dead-celebrity-is-a-disease-and-more/">Most contemporary literary fiction is utterly insufferable</a>. <br />
<br />
Troy James Weaver’s <i>Marigold, </i>however,<i> </i>is
exactly what the world needs right now. It is a bittersweet antidote to all
that ails us in this miserable human moment. </span></span></span><br />
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