On my homepage, this week's updates include more chapters of DARC AGES and THE ARGUS PROJECT -- and the short horror story "Sleight of Hand", not previously published.
Choice quote from "Sleight of Hand":
----------------------------------------------
He lingers away precious seconds. He reaches for his face, scratches the stubble on his chin with the six fingers of his right hand, thinking: What good is a beard, anyway? It won't keep you warm, it grows too long, food gets into it...
His six fingers. He blinks, holds up both hands to his face, and counts the fingers. Six on the right, five on the left. He has five fingers on his left hand... and no sign of ever having had a sixth one there.
----------------------------------------------
Read the rest.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Homepage Update, June 24
Homepage update, June 24: new reading installments of these books...
- DARC AGES, Chapter 36
- THE ARGUS PROJECT, Chapter 19
So what are these novels "about", then?
Oh, that would be telling...
As a writer, I like to slip hidden messages into the reader's brain below the mind's radar...
As a reader of fiction, I like to be challenged, to experience an "expansion of my consciousness".
It is my humble hope that you'll be able to read these books as entertainment on the superficial level, while on the "subconscious" level your minds will be scrambled, stirred, shaken up, and come out renewed and enlarged.
- DARC AGES, Chapter 36
- THE ARGUS PROJECT, Chapter 19
So what are these novels "about", then?
Oh, that would be telling...
As a writer, I like to slip hidden messages into the reader's brain below the mind's radar...
As a reader of fiction, I like to be challenged, to experience an "expansion of my consciousness".
It is my humble hope that you'll be able to read these books as entertainment on the superficial level, while on the "subconscious" level your minds will be scrambled, stirred, shaken up, and come out renewed and enlarged.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Homepage Update, With Vampires
This week's meaty homepage update:
- Another chapter of the adventure novel DARC AGES;
- Another chapter of the space-opera novel THE ARGUS PROJECT;
- A new sample chapter of my unpublished vampire novel BLOOD & SWINE: A Comedy of Terrors.
Choice quote from BLOOD & SWINE, Chapter 8:
---------------------------------
Before his inner eye flickered vivid images from the nightmare, like a flashback:
A face partly obscured by moving bars of shadow, its glassy eyes flickering with reflected strobe lights, stared at Carl and its mouth slowly opened to reveal... not teeth, but angular things that did not belong in this world...
---------------------------------
Read the rest.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Artwork For MURKY DEPTHS Magazine
For no reason whatsoever... a piece of interior art I made for the British horror magazine MURKY DEPTHS:
See also: the Gallery on my homepage.
See also: the Gallery on my homepage.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Do Fiction Writers Have Moral Duties?
I ask you: Do fiction writers have moral duties?
1. Ah, but whose morals?
- A problem arises, in my view, when the most reactionary reader/critic/person demands that only his morals should be applied to literature. That is how we get absurd censorship cases where prissy people try to remove Shakespeare or Mark Twain from public libraries.
2. And duties to whom?
- To the person who actually reads the work? Or to every potential reader?
The second demand is sometimes made in the real world, but it is an absurd one. You cannot tailor every story to suit every 4-year-old reader who might come across it.
(Picture, if you can, a nightmare world where all the classics of literature have been rewritten for small children and that's all there is.)
People choose what to read. With choice comes the freedom not to read.
3. And shouldn't readers share the responsibility for how books are read and used?
Readers read, and they interpret the text (despite what fundamentalists will tell you, there is more than one way to read the meaning of a story)... so if writers are responsible for their words, then readers are responsible too.
I feel that I have some moral duties as a fiction writer. But I only have my conscience to guide me in this area.
My conscience tells me:
- Do not glorify evil
- Be honest
- Try to rise about primitive thinking and willful ignorance
- Avoid rigid dogma or fanaticism - people are more important than ideas
- Do not suck up to power
But you may think, why should writers worry about these things? Are stories really that much of a big deal?
Oh yes. The surest way -- perhaps the only way -- to get into a person's mind is to tell her a story. When writing was new, it frightened people: they saw its power to influence the minds of others, how it could move one person's thoughts into another person's head.
Since we take writing for granted now, we may have lost that insight.
A folk singer put the slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar. I might as well put a slogan on my PC or notepad: "This Machine Goes Straight Into Your Brain."
1. Ah, but whose morals?
- A problem arises, in my view, when the most reactionary reader/critic/person demands that only his morals should be applied to literature. That is how we get absurd censorship cases where prissy people try to remove Shakespeare or Mark Twain from public libraries.
2. And duties to whom?
- To the person who actually reads the work? Or to every potential reader?
The second demand is sometimes made in the real world, but it is an absurd one. You cannot tailor every story to suit every 4-year-old reader who might come across it.
(Picture, if you can, a nightmare world where all the classics of literature have been rewritten for small children and that's all there is.)
People choose what to read. With choice comes the freedom not to read.
3. And shouldn't readers share the responsibility for how books are read and used?
Readers read, and they interpret the text (despite what fundamentalists will tell you, there is more than one way to read the meaning of a story)... so if writers are responsible for their words, then readers are responsible too.
I feel that I have some moral duties as a fiction writer. But I only have my conscience to guide me in this area.
My conscience tells me:
- Do not glorify evil
- Be honest
- Try to rise about primitive thinking and willful ignorance
- Avoid rigid dogma or fanaticism - people are more important than ideas
- Do not suck up to power
But you may think, why should writers worry about these things? Are stories really that much of a big deal?
Oh yes. The surest way -- perhaps the only way -- to get into a person's mind is to tell her a story. When writing was new, it frightened people: they saw its power to influence the minds of others, how it could move one person's thoughts into another person's head.
Since we take writing for granted now, we may have lost that insight.
A folk singer put the slogan "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar. I might as well put a slogan on my PC or notepad: "This Machine Goes Straight Into Your Brain."
Friday, June 04, 2010
Homepage Update: Short Story "The Man Who Fell Out", And More
This week's homepage update:
- DARC AGES, Chapter 33
- THE ARGUS PROJECT, Chapter 17
-... and the story "The Man Who Fell Out", a "crime horror" mystery in the story cycle PRECINCT 20: DEAD STRANGE.
Quote from "The Man Who Fell Out":
---------------------------------------------
"We just found the remains of a dismembered corpse, sir," said police sergeant Bolland over the phone.
"Where?" Garris sipped the last of his mug of coffee, and chewed up his second Filet'O Fish.
"A large chunk of human skin floated ashore in Sanford Bay. Completely skinned, sir. I found it on my morning patrol. Excuse me..." Garris heard him choke, as if he were about to throw up. "It was a man, sir. And the skin is tattooed... looks like a gang tattoo, but not like any I've seen before."
Garris drew a breath. The gangs had more or less stayed out of the 20th precinct since the 1970s, but a spectacular murder like this could mean they were coming back.
"Don't mention the tattoo to the media, and deliver the remains to the lab as discreetly as possible."
"That's easy - I can roll up the skin and put it in a bag."
---------------------------------------------
Read the rest.
- DARC AGES, Chapter 33
- THE ARGUS PROJECT, Chapter 17
-... and the story "The Man Who Fell Out", a "crime horror" mystery in the story cycle PRECINCT 20: DEAD STRANGE.
Quote from "The Man Who Fell Out":
---------------------------------------------
"We just found the remains of a dismembered corpse, sir," said police sergeant Bolland over the phone.
"Where?" Garris sipped the last of his mug of coffee, and chewed up his second Filet'O Fish.
"A large chunk of human skin floated ashore in Sanford Bay. Completely skinned, sir. I found it on my morning patrol. Excuse me..." Garris heard him choke, as if he were about to throw up. "It was a man, sir. And the skin is tattooed... looks like a gang tattoo, but not like any I've seen before."
Garris drew a breath. The gangs had more or less stayed out of the 20th precinct since the 1970s, but a spectacular murder like this could mean they were coming back.
"Don't mention the tattoo to the media, and deliver the remains to the lab as discreetly as possible."
"That's easy - I can roll up the skin and put it in a bag."
---------------------------------------------
Read the rest.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Nurglon Proposes Sending "Hate Boat" Convoy To Palestine, Israel
POX News, June 04, 2010:
The resident Rage Party leader and Folksy Thing From Beyond, Nurglon (r) responded today to the aftermath of the "Ship To Gaza" shootings, in a statement to POX News:
Nurglon: I CONDEMN THE USE OF DEADLY FORCE AGAINST THE AID CONVOY -- THE FORCE WAS WAS NOT DEADLY ENOUGH! THERE WERE SURVIVORS! I WOULD HAVE USED A TACTICAL NUKE. BECAUSE, GOSH! I'M A MAVERICK!
POX News: Will the tragic incident lead to any sort of change in the current stalemate between Israel and the Palestinians?
N: GOLLY, NO! SO WHAT IS NEEDED IS ANOTHER AID CONVOY TO BOTH GAZA AND ISRAEL. A HATE BOAT! I WILL PERSONALLY GATHER THE RESOURCES TO SEND MORE HATE TO BOTH PARTIES, AND SEAL THEIR MANIFEST DESTINY. YOU BETCHA!
P: What do you mean by their "manifest destiny", Nurglon?
N: TO DIE IN A CAULDRON OF NUCLEAR FIRE WHICH WILL GROW, AND GROW, AND CONSUME THIS PITIFUL PLANET. AIN'T POLITICS, LIKE, FUN? GOSH!
Nurglon then interrupted the interview, and paraded before the media her/its latest offspring -- the adorable thing called H'Thffluh, which was born with the severe handicap of only having 50 eyes.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Henning Mankell - Armed & Dangerous!
REALITY TEST: Which reality do you live in? Find out with this simple test! Answers can be found below (no peeking!).
Does the above photograph depict
A) Henning Mankell, Swedish writer, holding a harmless disposable safety razor
or
B) Henning Mankell, international terrorist assassin, brandishing a loaded weapon with which he intended to kill/harm/intimidate defenseless IDF commandos
-----------------------------
ANSWERS:
If you chose A): You live in what is commonly referred to as "reality."
If you chose B): You have a great future in politics.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Henning Mankell, Where Are You?
The very successful Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell was on a boat trip the other day, when the boat was boarded by a very large group of armed men. And he has not been heard from since.
Henning Mankell, where are you? Are you all right?
UPDATE: He's been located and is returning to Sweden.
Henning Mankell, where are you? Are you all right?
UPDATE: He's been located and is returning to Sweden.
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