I managed to get my flash fiction story "The Burned Card" out in a submission, as well as my rejected Dead Bait story to a new market. Other than that, not much on the writing front the last couple days. Ironically, I get less done when I have more free time.
Our county library has book sales every other month, and yesterday was this month's. I went down and found a nice little assortment of books. I got a nonfiction book--Beyond Roswell--for a friend who is into aliens and such. I might need to read it before I give it to him. I also picked up the Rising by Brian Keene. I've read it, but don't own any his novels. After reading four or five of his now, I still don't know if I like him or not. I was also thrilled to find the book Earthquake Weather by Tim Powers. It's the sequel to the book Last Call, which I'm reading right now, and is one of the best books I've read in a long time.
Found a book called From Atlantis to the Sphinx: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of the Ancient World. Thought it might be good for some ideas. And one of my favorite books I got, which I stumbled across on the way out, is an over-sized 1941 edition of Don Quixote with illustrations. It's in mint condition, not even tagged as belonging to the library. Can't wait till the boys will still through a book without pictures on every page.
Also found a short story collection called In Dreams, which is "a celebration of the 7-inch single in all-original SF and horror fiction." Should be interesting. I love music and fiction intertwined. Which reminds me, I heard a song on the radio yesterday by Duncan Shiek. I remember him as someone from the late 90's who had a song called "Barely Breathing" that I didn't particularly like. However, his new CD "Whisper House" which is due out tomorrow, is a collection of songs that are actually horror tales. He worked with a playwright to write all the words. The song I heard wasn't bad at all. I'm interested to see how the rest of the album sounds.
EDIT: Just did a quick wikipedia search on Mr. Shiek (because, you know, wikipedia is always right) and discovered that the "Whisper House" songs are from an on-line musical that is soon to come out. so I don't know if the tracks are a concept album, telling one story, or if they are a 10 individual horror stories. Guess I'll find out.
7 hours ago
11 comments:
Cool find on a library sale. That can make a weekend. Have a good week.
The only Keene I've read (besides an interview in Cemetery Dance) is a short story called Burying Betsy, which was pretty good.
Thanks, Jamie. It sure did make my weekend.
Jeremy, the novels of Keene's I've read have had very depressing endings. Also pretty open-ended. I don't mind that in a short story, but a novel that ends with the main character walking into a house where he'll either find his son or a zombie that used to be his son? We just spent the whole book trying to find the son. Come on. tell us how it ends. (to his credit, there was a sequel to that book that picked up right there. But the sequel didn't end any better.) Still, I find myself reading his stuff.
The Shiek album sounds interesting. I'll check it out at least.
"Burying Betsy" was all right. Spooky, but it didn't knock me out. I'm not sure if I like Keene, either.
aaron, I think the CD's a pretty cool idea. remains to be seen how it turns out, though.
I know some people that love Brian Keene. I guess he does zombies and other apocalypse scenarios well, as long as you're not hoping for any of the characters to live.
God bless library sales. Best money I spend every year.
Well Bobby, The Rising is what turned me on to Keene. City of the Dead practically turned me off. I've read all of his novels that have come out since then and let me tell you, he's a decent story-teller and has good ideas. He sucks at endings, for the most part. They are pessimistic and the thing that pisses me off most is the people on his forums that totally support ("There is no other way the book could end. This book was awesome, way to go Brian!") and shit like that.
His most recent novel to come out was Ghost Walk and it was terrible. The writing was bad, too. The writing in his other books wasn't that great to begin with but it read like something a high school freshmen would write.
I will say that Earthworm Gods is probably my favorite of his. Ghoul is good too but not great. But either way, I've been long done with that guy. He's midlist for a reason.
Josh--I agree, they are really awesome. I didn't buy much this time, though, because I'm waiting for the next one, because they'll have a half price day and a $5 bag day.
Will--You're th eone that turned me on to Brian keene. I think I even borrowed your copy of Ghoul, which was okay, but not a satisfying read. I think you're right, his writing isn't all that great. If Earthworm Gods is the same as the Conqueror Worms (I think it was issued under both titles) then that's my fave too. At least that one leaves a little hope--except he's doing an on-line sequel to it (you can read it on his website) and he's probaby destroying whatever hope there was to start with.
And yes, those usually are the only outscomes possible for his books, but he's still the one that set up those outcomes.
I find that I get less done when I have more time as well. I was on holidays for two weeks over the Christmas break and got hardly any writing one, but since being back at work have finished two short stories. I did have a very lazy weekend though.
Danielle, I think part of the problem is that with time off, we have a lot of other things to do, people to see and spend time with. It's hardly our fault, right?
I agree. It's definitely not our fault (says the procrastinator, clearing her throat).
Post a Comment