Category Archives: Books/Literature

Books/Literature, Music

Reelin’ In The Years…

Fascinating book review/overview of one Donald Fagen, of the band Steely Dan, whose memoir Eminent Hipsters was released:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/books/2013/10/donald_fagen_s-eminent_hipsters_reviewed.html

Author Seth Stevenson goes beyond simply reviewing the memoir to talking about being a fan of a now aging musical artist…and the feelings entailed in this as well as the artist’s interactions with his fans.

Though I’m no fan of Steely Dan and their music (there may have been a time long ago when I could tolerate -perhaps even appreciate- their music, but the seemingly constant overplaying of Steely Dan hits on the radio have long ago burned me out of any desire to hear any of those songs ever again), I nonetheless am fascinated with the article.

I’ve long been fascinated with the way fans view their favorite artists and the levels of “hero worship” sometimes given.  I realize I’m not making any huge, earth-shattering revelations when I say this, but the artists we admire are people just like us.  More talented, certainly.  Perhaps more outgoing.  Perhaps more driven.

But human nonetheless.

I love the music of Jim Morrison and The Doors.  However, almost everything I’ve read about Jim Morrison the person makes me cringe.  I do note, however, that a large part of the mystique built around Mr. Morrison’s life revolve around his -let’s put it kindly- indulgences and therefore its hard to judge him unless you were there and saw it yourself.  Sinner or saint, Jim Morrison was a very talented musician, and in the end that’s all that matters to me.

So with his review of Mr. Fagan’s memoir, Mr. Stevenson, who clearly loves the works of Fagan and Steely Dan, relates his difficulty in realizing his idol is…human.  And aging.  He notes his discomfort in reading Mr. Fagan’s journal entries at the end of the book, which state the following:

In the final chapter of his new quasi-memoir, Eminent Hipsters, Fagen reprints the personal journal he kept while on that Dukes of September tour. It paints a less electric portrait of his night at the Beacon, concluding with a harrumph: “Hometown gigs are a drag.” Fagen was still reeling from the suicide of his wife’s son, about a week before. He was cranky onstage, thrown off his game by all the “friends, relatives, doctors, etc.” dotting the crowd. Much of the rest of his tour diary is consumed with complaints about health problems, travel snafus, and the spotty acoustics in the venues. Some representative lines:

 “Ah, waking up in Tulsa on a midsummer morning with a wicked sinus headache.”

“I guess some Snapple leaked onto my MacBook Pro keyboard so that now some keys are sticky and make a disturbing sucking noise.”

“I’m hoping that Richard can get someone to do a CAT scan of my kidney. It still hurts.”

I’m amused by Mr. Stevenson’s passage and the notes he reprints because though they may surprise and (perhaps) depress Mr. Stevenson, these entries are probably representative of exactly the type of things that go through many artist’s minds.  Creating works of art is…work.  Performing in front of crowds, while fun for the crowds, is also work.  Nowadays many musical concerts are carefully planned and choreographed and therefore feature precious little spontaneous actions on the part of the performers.  If this is the case and the artist performs them many, many, many times in their current concert tour, the artist must at some point view the concert as something done on “auto-pilot”.

You hit your notes and you sing your songs and when it is over you get off the stage and on with your life.

So it isn’t surprising the artist may view a particular show through the prism of things that went wrong…both within the show and outside the show (sinus headaches, sticky MacBook keyboards).  And if the show went smoothly, then the artist did what s/he set out to do and its on to the next show.

Bumps in the road are inevitably more memorable than smooth sailing.

Books/Literature

Bookstores in the age of e-readers

Interesting article by Harry McCracken for Time Magazine regarding Green Apple Books, a San Francisco bookstore, and how it is introducing -and dealing- with e-readers in their stores:

http://techland.time.com/2013/08/12/how-one-local-bookstore-is-dealing-with-the-e-book-revolution/

It is my sincerest hope that bookstores will continue to survive in some form or another into the future.  The logical side of me, however, feels that because of the various advantages tablets and e-readers have over brick and mortar stores, bookstores will either a) fade away entirely or b) morph into something more devoted to “nostalgia” or “collectible” material -and e-readers- than printed “new” works…which it seems Green Apple Books is indeed doing.

On the one hand, this is a very sad sign of the times.  As much as I like carrying around a virtual library in my tablet (same as carrying my entire music collection in an iPod), finding new books and authors has always been best for me while walking through a bookstore’s new books section and looking over the wares.  This is something that Amazon, as good a company as it is in getting product into people’s hands, hasn’t quite been able to successfully accomplish.  At least to me.

So, on the other hand, there may be a glimmer of optimism to be had for the continued success (if not sterling success) of a Green Apple Books.  Perhaps one day a store like this one will open in my area…

Books/Literature, Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Jaws alternative titles

Fascinating article, found on Huffington Post, regarding the many (many!) alternate titles considered by author Peter Benchley for the novel that eventually became known as…Jaws:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/05/jaws-alternative-title_n_3703627.html

It got me thinking about my own novels and alternate titles I considered for them.

The Dark Fringe, my first major work, was originally entitled The Fringe (I came up with the title when I first started writing the story, way back in 1984-85 or thereabouts and a good twenty years before the TV show first appeared).  When it came time to print the story in 1996 or so, it was suggested by my publisher that I change the title to make it more “dramatic”.  So, I converted The Fringe into The Dark Fringe and to this day I believe J. J. Abrams and company at the very least were aware of my book (I say this for several reasons, the greatest of which is the season two episode Brown Betty.  While the plot of my book and the episode are quite different, the peculiars and visuals in Brown Betty sure look an awful lot like what I presented in my graphic novel). DarkFringe

My next big work was started shortly after I finished the early drafts of The Dark Fringe, circa 1985-86 and was entitled The Abyss.  In 1989, James Cameron’s The Abyss was release to theaters and my book’s title was deep sixed only to be resurrected years later as The Last Flight of the Argus.

As for my other books, they were originally titled as you see ’em today, so no stories there!

Books/Literature

Two sentence horror stories…

Yet another bit from i09.com:

http://io9.com/two-sentence-horror-stories-are-actually-pretty-chillin-923728355

I loved the one about the kid and the “monster” under the bed.

Some of the comment writers to that article have referenced Fredric Brown’s classic short story Knock, with its short-short story opening, as a classic example of a very short horror story.  Knock opens with this:

The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…

Interesting to note, at least according to Wikipedia that this famous opening line was itself apparently cribbed from the following, originally written by Thomas Bailey Aldrich:

Imagine all human beings swept off the face of the earth, excepting one man. Imagine this man in some vast city, New York or London. Imagine him on the third or fourth day of his solitude sitting in a house and hearing a ring at the door-bell! (Ponkapog Papers, 1904)

Chilling stuff.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights…a 7/19/13 update

I’m done with the third draft of the latest Corrosive Knights novel (I’m going to keep the actual title secret a little while longer).  The book, as it stands now, runs a little under 104,000 words, making it one of my longer novels.

It also features what I believe is my most complex plot, if only in terms of settings and characters.  There are a lot of characters running around this book and we bounce around many different (and hopefully very intriguing) settings.  The book features a “wrap up” of the first major Corrosive Knights story line which began in Mechanic and continued through The Last Flight of the Argus, Chameleon, and Nox.

Corrosive MACNThe big question:  How long before this novel is ready?

The draft I just finished ironed out many of the novel’s plot “kinks”, story threads that weren’t fully developed or were too clunky or just plain didn’t work as originally written.  There is at least one section of the book that still needs a little work in that respect, but otherwise I should be transitioning from fixing the novel’s story -usually a very thought and time intensive exercise- to focusing more exclusively on grammatical issues, which is more often than not a far easier thing to do and one which takes far less time to revise.

I estimate it will take at least two if not three more drafts before I begin to feel comfortable enough with the idea of releasing it, which means at least two if not three more months before everything’s ready.

As it is, I’m very excited with the work.  For those who wondered how exactly the first three novels in this series form a larger whole, you’ll get your answers with this novel.

I can’t wait to get ‘er done.

Books/Literature

J. K. Rowling and the Power of Brand…

Interesting article by Lev Grossman for Time magazine concerning the recent revelation that mega-popular Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling secretly published a novel under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith last year and the implications of this revelation…

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/07/16/the-name-game-j-k-rowling-and-the-power-of-brand/

I’ve long realized -and it seems only obvious- that once you become a recognized “name” in the literary field, you automatically sell far more books than if you’re a newcomer and/or nobody.  True, sometimes a book by an unknown author seems to appear out of no where and become incredibly popular -this could be said of Ms. Rowling’s initial entry into the Harry Potter series- but once you’re established, your books sell.

But when you’re not…

I’ve read in other articles that Ms. Rowling’s pseudonymous novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, sold something in the order of 1500 copies worldwide before the revelation of her involvement in the book.  Naturally, post-revelation the book is a hot seller and as of yesterday was #1 on Amazon sales for novels.  When it was initially released, the book was apparently well received by critics, yet despite that the novel fell into the black hole of public indifference many, many novels good and bad fall on a daily basis.

The fact that the novel is now a big seller further emphasizes the obvious…once you’re a well known author audiences tend to be interested and receptive to your works.  I noted a couple of days ago the passing and my admiration of the works of Richard Matheson (you can read about that here).  Toward the end of the blog article I mentioned his novel Hunted Past Reason.  The only (ahem) reason I bought the novel was because I saw it in a bookstore in the “new arrivals” section and noted it was written by Mr. Matheson.  Simply seeing his name on the book made me reach out for it.  I read the description of the book on the dust jacket and wasn’t all that impressed.

But it was a new novel by Richard Matheson!

I had to give it a try.

In the end, the book proved a BIG disappointment, perhaps the absolute worst thing I’ve ever read by Mr. Matheson.  If the novel had been written by Joe Blow, I probably wouldn’t have given the book a second glance.

The moral of the story is that if you’re an author and hope to have any success, you have to try your best to create a buzz (any buzz) regarding your book.  Otherwise, expect mediocre to terrible sale figures.

C’est la vie.

Books/Literature, Movies, TV

Richard Matheson, RIP

1 Comment

Found out a bit belatedly of the death of one of the 20th Century’s most influential authors, at least to me, Richard Matheson.  He was the rare author whose works spread out form “mere” novels and short stories to include screenplays and many, many famous episodes of classic TV shows, including The Twilight Zone.

Richard Corliss of Time Magazine offers a great essay about the works and influence of Mr. Matheson over his career:

http://entertainment.time.com/2013/06/28/richard-matheson-1926-2013-the-wizard-of-what-if/

For me, the ultimate Richard Matheson story was/is Duel.  There’s something about the idea of facing off against a mysterious -and homicidal!- truck driver that intrigued and terrified me.  The first movie I ever recall seeing was Duel, which was also director Steven Spielberg’s first big hit and an obvious template for what would become his first MEGAhit, Jaws.

But even taking Duel out of the equation, there are plenty of other memorable movies and concepts he created which are buried deep in my psyche.  The novel I Am Legend (and, more specifically, the Charlton Heston starring second movie version of the same, Omega Man).

There was also the very chilling Trilogy of Terror and that doll…

And let’s not forget the classic Twilight Zone episode Nightmare at 20,000 Feet!

I could go on, mentioning such classics as Kolchach: The Night Stalker or Legend of Hell House or The Incredible Shrinking Man…but suffice it to say, for the most part I’ve been delighted by Mr. Matheson’s work over the years.  Given the volume of said work, there were bound to be some disappointments and, sadly, my most recent experience with Mr. Matherson’s writing was the novel Hunted Past Reason.

Do yourself a favor and, if you haven’t already, check out the stuff I’ve mentioned above.  But avoid that last novel.

Books/Literature, General

Orson Scott Card…again

A while back (you can read it here) I noted the controversy regarding sci-fi author Orson Scott Card and his views on homosexuality.  I’m not a big fan of Mr. Card’s works, though I have read what is arguably his most famous novel, Ender’s Game, which will soon be released to theaters as a major motion picture.

I noted in the previous column that the controversy surrounding Mr. Card may wind up hurting the film’s box office prospects, and it would appear that Mr. Card is himself worried about the very same thing and has tried to address the main controversy regarding his previous comments:

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/09/orson_scott_card_gay_marriage_issue_has_become_moot/

In many ways, I feel for Mr. Card even as I can’t find sufficient sympathy to excuse his previous comments.  I feel for Mr. Card because he’s a victim of his own verbal venom in an age when such comments are easily accessible via the internet and difficult, if not impossible, to expunge.  It is possible, for example, that over the years Mr. Card’s opinions have changed and he’s softened his stance toward homosexuality and homosexual marriage.  I’m not saying this has happened, mind you, only that it’s possible.  Unfortunately for Mr. Card, those previous comments he made will remain available for anyone to see and read and will always follow him, even after his passing.

More recently, Hugh Howley, the author of the hit “self-published” sci-fi novel Wool got himself into some similar trouble when he posted a blog entry verbally lashing a woman he met at World Con (http://www.dailydot.com/culture/hugh-howey-the-bitch-from-worldcon-rant/).  Unlike Mr. Card, whose anti-homosexual comments can be found over the years, Mr. Howley appeared to realize rather quickly that his rant was inappropriate and offered an apology (http://www.hughhowey.com/to-those-whom-ive-offended/) and opened himself up to interviews where he further elaborated on the blog post and offered explanations as well as apologies (http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/CultureShock/archives/2013/04/19/hugh-howey-explains-why-he-removed-controversial-blog-post)

I suppose the point is this: Think about what you’re saying, whether it be to someone else or something you yourself post online.  It’s common sense.  On the other hand, perhaps it is also a good thing to look inside yourself and evaluate your own feelings and philosophies.  After all, if you’re a public figure (or even a casual facebook user) and are “smart enough” to not make any controversial public rants, yet have such strong feelings, perhaps you should consider, and re-consider, them.

In the long run it might make you a better person.

Books/Literature, Comic Books/Graphic Novels, Computers/Electronics, Movies, Music, TV

Is the Internet worth it?

Fascinating article by Andrew Leonard for Salon.com regarding something that has been on my mind often of late:  Despite all the great stuff it offers, what of the negatives regarding the Internet?  Is all the good worth all the bad, both potential and realized?

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/05/creative_destruction_government_snooping_is_the_internet_worth_it/

Mr. Leonard’s focus is mostly on governmental “snooping” and journalism but it also can relate to the general impact of the Internet on everything, including loss of privacy both unintended and unrealized.  For example, I recall in the earlier, wildly popular days of Facebook that some clever thieves realized that some posters on that social media website would over share their day to day activities, to the point where they posted information about upcoming vacations, including where they were going, when they were going, and for how long.

Which meant these clever thieves now knew when a poster’s home was potentially unguarded and empty and for what specific period of time, making it a perfect target for theft.

Revelations about the Government’s internet snooping should be alarming to most people, but there are other economic factors that I’ve were influenced by the rise of the internet.  I’ve mentioned before how certain “mom and pop” type stores simply cannot compete with full service internet “stores” like Amazon.com and how even some bigger retail chains, including bookstores and electronic stores, now are in danger of closing their doors because of the increasing ease of purchase and seemingly unlimited stock available online.

But there exists yet another big threat created by the internet, one that personally scares me for different reasons:  The possibility of creative destruction.  If you think about entertainment, you think about a few things: Music, movies, television, books/novels, comic books, etc.  All of these creative endeavors are now victims to pirate websites.

Looking for the latest album by artist X?  Download it for free…sometimes before the album is officially released!  Looking forward to seeing movie X?  Same thing.  Novels?  Comic books?  Television shows?  Ditto, ditto, and ditto.

Where will this piracy of creative ideas eventually lead?  If you’re a struggling artist, there’s precious little money to be made in your works.  Whatever little bit you can scrape together is helpful and may allow you to hone your craft and allow you to make better and better product…provided you can indeed pay your bills.  But what if your current work(s) find their way to pirate websites and whatever meager amount of money you might have earned on your current, best works takes a hit because of illegal downloads?

And what of established artists?  Will movie/music companies become more and more fearful of signing off on a big budget item if the worry about how much they’ll lose on the illegal downloads of said item?  Is it possible some companies will simply give up on funding films/TV shows/music albums entirely?  And where will that leave many of us, audiences hungry for new entertainment?

As Mr. Leonard put it in his article:

…we are increasingly sensing that we have no idea where this techno-roller coaster is ultimately headed. There’s a sense that things are out of control. Our growing uneasiness doesn’t jibe well with all the hype about how the world is being made a better place by a proliferation of smartphone apps.

Books/Literature, Movies, Music

Don’t wait for inspiration…

A few days back I posted an entry regarding Mason Currey’s fascinating articles published on Slate regarding creative people and their rituals (in that case, his column was about procrastination).  In this, his last entry regarding creativity, he focuses on what is perhaps one of the more important things a creative individual should do:  Work.

Or, as he put it, don’t wait for inspiration to hit you:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/features/2013/daily_rituals/john_updike_william_faulkner_chuck_close_they_didn_t_wait_for_inspiration.html

I enjoyed this particular column so much I had to add my two cents, which essentially amounted to repeating what was written above!  For those curious:

Don’t wait for inspiration may well be the best advice to any creative individual. There have been many a day I absolutely DID NOT want to sit before my computer and get to work…yet did so anyway. The temptation not to do work, as Gershwin so aptly put it, is indeed a great one. But if one day you want to have the unique pleasure of looking back at what you accomplished in your creative life and be rewarded with the sight of a bookshelf carrying your books or an art gallery featuring your works, etc. etc., then you have to put in the effort. Inspiration does indeed come to me when I keep working, regardless of my mood.