QE Results for March

No more hallucinogens 4 me

In January I wrote a blog post entitled Queer Eye, My Daughter, and I where I related some of the experience and pleasure I had binge-watching the two season of the show with my daughter over the holiday break, and in doing so basically laid out a self-improvement (or self assessment, at least) plan for the year.  The plan involves taking an honest inventory of where am in life with regards to five categories, as I see them, as exemplified by the men on the Netflix show Queer Eye.  And so, an honest assessment on my performance for March in the five QE categories:

KARAMO: "Culture, Confidence, Put yourself out there". I remain at 4.5 stars. I wrote 200 pages, displaying a little obsessive-compulsive grit by nailing the last eight of that number on March 31st late at night. For whatever reason, I've decided 200 page writing and a hundred miles running a month are the goals. As far as fiction goes, I worked on a new project, an old project, and a Generation Dead novella.

Business took me to Seattle for a week, and long hours and long travel made the attainment of those goals a challenge March is also a month filled with the birthdays of people I love, including myself (I turned a half century) and both of my children. Sadly, the bucket list concert I mentioned last month was postponed due to a band illness, but Kim and I still went to Boston for a day to celebrate our daughter's birthday with her, and we did an overnight in  Vermont to celebrate our son's birthday with him. It was Mardi Gras in Burlington, and so I took the photo above of a very entertaining joint performance of a band called Brass Balagan (who I swear played a Sun Ra song) and puppet theater group Big Nazo. I loved how interactive the performers with the audience, especially very small (and very fearless) children who wanted to dance with them 

Also, Break My Heart 1,000 Times/I Still See You came out in France:

Mémère and Pépère would have been proud

TAN: "Make an effort with your personal appearance". I remain a two. Wearing my new clothes outside the house and getting out more, generally, but as I write this I realize I'm wearing a t-shirt that is--no joke--twenty-seven years old, and was purchased to a fit me that was forty-five pounds heavier than the me of today.

It is really, really comfortable, though.

BOBBY: "Create and maintain a physical environment that promotes productivity, creativity and inner harmony". A 3, although we finally replaced the leaky shower head in the main bathroom and I somehow managed to repair a Bose speaker that had gone mysteriously silent. But March took me out of my home base physical environment a great deal, so it was hard to realize any actual improvements

ANTONI: "Make nutrition healthy and enjoyable, cook for others". I'll take back the half point I lost last month for a 2.5 as I did most of the meal prep this month, at least when I was home. I ate out a great deal this month--business trips and lots of birthday dinners--but still kept it pretty healthy. I'm still adhering to a slightly relaxed form of Austerity (see Secrets of Weight Loss, Revealed), which at this point might mean it is now a lifestyle habit as opposed to a time-bound change.

I also finally was able to have one of these, which has long been lauded to me by people who would known as one of the premier craft beers 

It hit me the same way as the hirsute guy on the can

After my battle with Oumuamua (detailed in this True Tale of Terror) I have cut back my drinking of alcohol to next to nothing, and so this beverage really did take the top of my head off as pictured on the can (and moments later I was watching the alien/robot invasion pictured above).

JONATHAN: "Take care of yourself physically" I'll remain at 3.5.  I ran 102 miles, which includes the three mile run I took to push myself over the top, a run taken while still under the effects of the beverage pictured above, which probably wasn't the smartest thing in the world. 

I'm fortunate to have been able to reach that mark, though, because I lost a whole week with some sort of chest/head cold (my massive head was fully clogged the day we were supposed to go to the bucket list show, so perhaps it was a blessing it was moved to September). I didn't run all week, and writing was a chore, but it could have been worse--last year around the same time, Oumuamua was making its way through my personal galaxy and I was wracked with such pain I could barely move. I did "take care of myself physically", though, because A. I did something I almost never do, which is take an actual sick day from work to rest and recover and B. I didn't try and run again until my cold symptoms moved out of my chest and became "neck-up", which according to Dr. Google (that quack) might actually be a very beneficial time to run because of antihistamines, etc. 

This puts me at a 15.5 overall for March, an odd month with a great deal of disruption, both positive and negative. A quick side note, Karamo was speaking at a theater near the restaurant where my daughter worked; she'd been hopeful that he'd dine there but no such luck. We have yet to watch season three.

I'm going to split my reading/watching/listening post for March into three posts as I somehow managed to do an impressive amount of each activity--probably because of the sicky week where I wasn't running or writing much and all the travel.

Speaking of reading, please consider purchasing one or several of my books at the link below. The fools at OMZ Press continue to offer the kindle edition of Generation Dead for $2.99, as though I didn't pour my very soul into that book.

Spend way too little for Generation Dead HERE

Thanks fer yer bizness!

Synchronicity

(This post is a both a present to myself and an early one for K., who shares with me certain beliefs Happy Birthdays!)

I wasn't certain what I wanted to do with my days off, though I knew I still wanted to take them even though we cancelled the overnight trip to Boston we booked months ago. Kim bought me exceptional seats for a bucket-list concert for my birthday, but the concert was postponed due to an illness in the band, and so I was left with a four-day weekend with no concrete plan. Earlier in the week I'd felt feverish and sick, so at the very least I could lounge around the house hydrating, writing, and maybe watch a movie or two. I'd been in bed by nine the last three nights after short spans of reading followed by some brief hunts on eBay. What better way to turn fifty?

Restlessness crept in, however, and I prefer my head to swelling with ideas instead of sinus pressure when I write, so I took a drive. First to the post office to initiate the process of renewing my passport--although I no longer have hair and a beard, I look younger in my new photo than in the one I took ten years and fifty pounds ago. Then to the bank and the dry cleaner; driving the short distance up a gray stretch of 395 I notice a very large owl sitting in one of the barren oak trees on a snow-covered slope rising up from the river a quarter mile from my exit. Afterwards I'll think it looked almost exactly like  Owl from the Disney Winnie-the-Pooh films, except with more spots, with the browns of his feathers more muted, and not smiling. Later still I'll realize it looked nothing at all like Owl from Winnie-the-Pooh but will remain convinced I actually saw it. After my errands, I drive south for an exit, get off the highway, and then return north in a big circle hoping to catch a second glimpse but no such luck. I head home, debating on going to the Book Barn to visit their Downtown location to check out the graphic novels, but decide against it because I was just there a week or so ago.

Whooo is that behind me?

(Photo by Linda Waters I never saw this owl)

I've been on a graphic novel kick lately, which probably has something to do with...turning fifty. The whole not-wanting-to-lose-touch-with-your-youth thing, the idea of wanting to stay in touch with that kid even though every last vestige of him has slid from the mirror even before I've picked up my razor. I don't imply that graphic novels or comic books are purely the providence of childhood or anything equally ignorant--if you are hoping for a rant against the newest Avengers trailer or Captain Marvel just move along--but from a personal perspective my love of comics came at a very early age, and I bought them all the way through high school and college, then quit for a few years when money was tight, and then used the birth of my kids as a great excuse to start buying them again, which we did until they lost interest in them. I never quit entirely, though, and there are times--the stressful times, the lost times, the times I feel like crap and want to stay in bed, where I want to read them even more. I finished reading the first volume of Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus when the sickness first started--talk about a gateway drug!

So I arrive home, play with the dogs, make some lunch, do the dishes, get the mail, play with the dogs some more. I decide I'll go downstairs and watch a movie, but before I do I check social media.

The very first thing in my feed is a tweet from the Book Barn (yes, I follow used book stores on Twitter. Other people follow Kardashians or Tucker Carlson. Sue me.) that says "We have a really nice lot of comics and graphic novels on the way Downtown"


What the hell, I think, and get in the car, and drive south. The weird thing is, I looked for three things on eBay the night before: the 2nd volume of Kirby's 4th World Omnibus, the 2nd volume of the Kamandi Omnibus, and the second Animal Man collection. None of those are exactly household names; comic book readers my age would be familiar with all of them, but I have no idea what the comic book readers who started in the nineties would know of them. So I was kind of surprised when I got to the Book Barn Downtown just as there were shelving the "nice lot" of graphic novels and the first thing I see on the table is the complete run of Animal Man graphic novels, beginning with the hardcover edition of the Animal Man Omnibus. I'd expected a bunch of X-Men and Batman stuff (and was not disappointed; see above) and probably some of the more well-known Marvel titles (again, see above) but not the primo HC  editions and off-beat titles (Xenozoic? Three volumes of the Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan Tomb of Dracula?,  so it was well-worth the trip.

So, synchronicity. Why was it I'd picked last night, after probably a decade of not thinking about Animal Man, to research Animal Man? And why is it that I put in "Make an Offer" bids on both the 4th World and Kamandi omnibuses last night (one shot down, one I'm still awaiting a reply on) but not on the much more affordable Animal Man volume two? Clearly, the universe wants me to read Animal Man (and The Uncanny Avengers, and that Fantastic Four stuff is that White Tiger oh yeah I heard the Human Torch flamed out), but why? Why did all of those tiny, butterfly wing-flap events occur in just that precise order to conspire to bring me to the Book Barn, part with some money, and depart with the above haul of books--books that had literally just been brought in, almost as though the universe had summoned them for me today, the ides of the ides of March, pie day, the fiftieth anniversary of my birth?

And why, upon returning home, do I see that a gift bag has been left on the front steps, a kind present from my mother-in-law, and that the gift bag contains four items...a card (with an owl on it), a bottle of wine, a gift certificate to a restaurant and a second gift certificate....
                                                        …..to the Book Barn?

Not so strange, you might say, if you are of a skeptical nature, as I usually am. It was a "nice lot" of graphic novels, after all, and the work of Grant Morrison is bound to show up somewhere in such a lot. His run on Animal Man was legendary (Brian Bolland covers!) and helped boost Vertigo's growing reputation and increasingly solid line; just because you've never seen it at the Book Barn doesn't mean there aren't thousands of copies sitting on the shelves of once passionate collectors in need of a serious downsizing. And the one thing you request from your mother-in-law for a gift is a Book Barn gift certificate. Although you protest otherwise, you are always checking social media, and so it was only a matter of time before you'd see some X tweet that eventually yielded a Y result. There's no magic here, there's no mystery. It's just some random stuff that happened on a Thursday you decided to keep as a vacation day even though the concert of a lifetime was cancelled. Turning fifty is just another day no matter how hard you try and inject some magic realism into the rather mundane proceedings. Sure, renewing the passport is a nice touch (the literal passport to adventure!), but dropping off the dry cleaning? For this you burned a precious vacation day?

Yes, for this. For this, and for the other pages I wrote earlier today, and those I will write tonight. And also for this large box of beautiful pictures and thrilling stories. I will end my "vacation day" with one of those books, propped up in bed, a glass of diet root beer on the nightstand beside me, and somehow I will feel not only a direct link with the eight year old boy who engaged in a similar way with different stories (albeit without the thick reading glasses I'll be peering through) and with the even older man who I will some day be who, if the universe continues to conspire, will still engage. in that way with even more stories. And in engaging, continue to create his own.

And in creating, will feel a direct link not only to those past, present, and future selves, but in all selves, in all things.

I can't wait.

Only $2.99 for kindle! Find it and my other stuff HERE

What I Watched, Heard, and Read in February

Nothing to do with today's post, but I love this portrait. It hangs in a restaurant in Boston.

A short but productive month writing, running, and reading. February has never been my favorite month and once again there was a family health scare (these tend to happen most often when I am away) but am thankful to report the scare is now in the rearview.

Flying High Again

WHAT I WATCHED:

1. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 1--This was something Kim heard about and suggested we watch; I was maybe fifteen minutes into the first episode before I fell completely in love with the show and nearly everything about it. I never realized how weak my film literacy was until I was able to visit the set of I Still See You, how much I just never noticed before when it came to the actual mechanics and construction of film and since that wonderful experience have found myself noticing all sorts of things I wouldn't have noticed prior--fabrics and textures of the wardrobe jump out at me watching Maisel as much as the wonderful soundtrack.

One of the things I appreciate the most about this show is that it manages to be dramatic and socially conscious while at the same time being very positive and winsome--it somehow combines the plucky/can-do/let's-put-on-a-show spirit of fifties sit-coms with adult humor, themes, and insight. Most of my favorite television is very, very dark and/or laden with death--The Wire, The Sopranos, Black Sails--even Mad Men contains a great deal of darkness, so to fall so utterly in love with the world of Maisel was a wonderful surprise, especially in February, the darkest month of all.

2. Straight-Jacket--Another nice February surprise was being able to catch this nutty old Joan Crawford movie--hosted by Svengoolie!--when I was on the road. I grew up on Channel 56's Creature Double Features and have written extensively of my MST3K love and have often been curious to see other movies "curated" by horror hosts, and eating a large pile of Chinese food while watching Svengoolie's goofy skits and trivia lessons was a delight I should treat myself to more often. Sadly, MeTV is not available in my neck of the woods.

With the exception of a few quarters of basketball watched with my son, that is the sum total of my television watching for the month...no wonder my film literacy is so weak!

WHAT I HEARD:
1. Encore--The Specials. Spectacular. Their first album with Terry Hall in something like twenty years; don't wait so long for the next!

Special Indeed

2. Feral Roots--Rival Sons
3. Good Old Broadway--Coleman Hawkins. My first Coleman Hawkins record. Love at first listen.
4. Complete Performances with the Lighthouse All-stars--Chet Baker & Miles Davis
5. SYR 8--Sonic Youth
6. Goodbye 20th Century SYR 4--Sonic Youth
7. Olive's Horn SYR 7--Kim Gordon
8. The Evening Redness in the West--Nim Vind. Great horrorpunk-ish artist
Items 3-8 were through eMusic and now I have all of the SYR releases because I'm a completist.
9-14. 6 Elvis Presley double discs from the Time-Life series. These are great, but the collection I acquired was missing the volume I really wanted, which was the Gospel one. Oh well.

WHAT I READ:
1. The End of the End of the Earth--Jonathan Franzen. Essays, many about birds. Includes his very short and very controversial "Rules for Writing" essay.
2. Once Upon a Time--Larkin, ed. Essentially a fantasy art book, not much reading involved.
3. Time & Overdrive--Vol 3 of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs by Mark Schultz. You'll notice a lot of art and comics in my Feb. reading. I read things like this all year, but just this very moment I might amp it up in February as a primitive form of self-care to endure that hated month.
4. The Authority--Warren Ellis. I'm a fan of Mr. Ellis's, and have bought many a book based on his newsletter recommendations. One will show up in March. I couldn't help but notice that The Authority's spaceship looks quite like my very own Oumuamua.
5. Amberstar--Bruce Jones. What a weird and fun book featuring mostly purple-palette-ed photos altered by arcane pre-Photoshop techniques to tell a science fictional story. Mr. Jones wrote many of my favorite comics, including the Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds series' from Pacific Comics and then Eclipse Comics. Those titles definitely put a few warps in my record.
6. The Braindead Megaphone--Charles Saunders
7. The Song is You--Megan Abbott A great noir, I didn't realize it until after I finished the book that she is set to be a Guest of Honor at NECon this year.

I judge books by covers. Both cover and content are great.

8. Doo Wop--"Cousin Brucie" Morrow
9. Futuropolis-- Robert Sheckley
10. I Am Providence--Nick Mamatas
11.Safe in Place--Brendan Halpin. A YA, one of the best novels I've read this year, full of heart, humor, and insight. I've enjoyed everything I've read of Mr. Halpin's work but this is one of my favorites. Brendan also offer services as a writing coach; check him and his bibliography out HERE
12. Brown's Requiem--James Ellroy. My Ellroy odyssey begins! I may save commentary until I'm complete with his oeuvre, at which point I'll write a separate post. Probably.
13. Clandestine--James Ellroy
14. World's End--Neil Gaiman and a host of brilliant artists. I'd read this one before--and owned it-- before buying this second copy at the Book Barn. Despite my vast library of books, comics, and music, I never accidently bought stuff I already owned until a few years ago. I am nearly half a century though, and should probably be kind to myself. And this one had a different cover! Anyway, I'm glad I reread it because it is great and beautiful and has one of my favorite ever panels from a lifetime of reading comics. And now I'm inspired to go back and reread the whole run of Sandman.
15. Hotels of North America--Rick Moody. I liked Moody and I liked this book a great deal, reading it as I did poolside at a Hampton Inn. A nice companion book to the Cheap Hotels book from LAST MONTH
16.Mister Miracle--Tom King and Mitch Gerads. Loved it. It inspired me to go read all of the Kirby Fourth World stuff, which shockingly I have only read a few random pieces of, and I'll probably revisit that run of Justice League where Scott Free was part of the roster.

17. Demons By Daylight--Ramsey Campbell. I've met Mr. Campbell a couple times although I doubt he would remember me (although he was in the audience during a panel I was on at Stokercon last year; somewhat intimidating to have one of the greats of horror literature present when I'm running my mouth!). He's written some of my favorite horror novels, among them The Grin of the Dark, The Hungry Moon, and Ancient Images. Many of the covers of his books were painted by my friend Jill Bauman, who I look forward to playing cards with every year. I find it fascinating that creators I admired when I was younger and before I began writing professionally have ended up friends and acquaintances. When they prove to be as wonderful in person as they do in print or on the canvas, as Jill certainly does, it is nothing short of remarkable. As is her work, which you can see HERE

And finally, if my content moves you in any way and you wish to support the creation of more of it (or if you just admire my exquisite taste), please check out my books HERE. The pretty covers of most are below:

One of these is not like the others

February QE Results

In January I wrote a blog post entitled Queer Eye, My Daughter, and I where I related some of the experience and pleasure I had binge-watching the two season of the show with my daughter over the holiday break, and in doing so basically laid out a self-improvement (or self assessment, at least) plan for the year.  The plan involves taking an honest inventory of where am in life with regards to five categories, as I see them, as exemplified by the men on the Netflix show Queer Eye.  And so, an honest assessment on my performance for February in the five QE categories:

KARAMO: "Culture, Confidence, Put yourself out there". I remain at 4.5 stars. I wrote 229.5 pages, which actually eclipses the January pb of 241.5 in terms of per day average pay count (3 fewer days). I worked on the new novel, a Generation Dead novella, and I completed a short story, an event which happens maybe once a year. I wrote three blog posts, read sixteen books, and saw two concerts (Corrosion of Conformity and Cheap Trick). Next month Kim and I have front row center seats for a bucket list concert in Boston, her gift to celebrate me turning a half a century old!

I had a solo trip to Tampa that was half business and half personal business, but managed to fit in some writing, running, and even a few laps in the hotel pool. Midway through the trip I had wonderful paella meal at the Columbia restaurant in Ybor City while watching the flamenco show, and prior to the show took a walk around where I took the photo above of the local theater.

Also, Break My Heart 1,000 Times/I Still See You came out in Poland:

Not my hand...I found this on Instagram

Readers in Poland are very supportive...I've been amazed at the beautifully designed photos I've seen on Instagram. Dziękuję!

TAN: "Make an effort with your personal appearance". Up from 1.5 to 2 as I have acquired more new clothes and am actually wearing them outside the house--Kim and I have had dinner out several times and I'm generally making more of an effort than I have in say the past decade.

BOBBY: "Create and maintain a physical environment that promotes productivity, creativity and inner harmony". A three, no real change here, although Kim and I have been working in front of the fireplace more which is a nice change of pace.

ANTONI: "Make nutrition healthy and enjoyable, cook for others". Maybe slipped from a 2.5 to a 2 as I haven't done any meal prep for Kim other than salads which I eat three nights a week. I'm still adhering to Austerity (see Secrets of Weight Loss, Revealed) but have relaxed enough to consume several pizzas and go out with Kim on several occasions without my usually level of intolerance and anti-fun diligence. 

JONATHAN: "Take care of yourself physically" I'll give myself a half point here to elevate to 3.5 as I ran 122 miles and have achieved my "target weight", although I now feel I could drop a few more without harm, especially as I've relaxed a few of the dietary restrictions that make life a little less fun.

This puts me at a 15 overall for February, gaining a half star in two categories while backsliding in another. I'm not sure who among the QE men would signify as the avatar for "take care of yourself mentally" (Karamo? Jonathan?) but for the record I'd have to say I'm pleased with my results for February, which traditionally is a month where I'm at war with the blue fog and not always winning.

Next up, I'll blog about the sixteen books I read, the film I watched, and the new music I listened to. 

Speaking of books and music, if you enjoy my blog and/or my young adult novels, you might enjoy my exclusive kindle novel Aural History. A mere $4.99, or free if you are a kindleunlimited patron.

Check Aural History out HERE

Does the Song Really Remain the Same?

Content With Content: Media Consumed in January

He Whoo Watches and Waits

Today marks the first of a new monthly add to my blog where I intend to let readers know what I've shaving into my eyes, ears, and brain. What I've read, watched, and listened to (just the new acquisitions; the full list of music would be absurd.) and maybe a little about what struck me in the experiences. I'm always interested in what other writers and creative folks are putting into their heads, and I thought a few paragraphs on what I've been absorbing might be interesting to anyone who has enjoyed one of my books or is considering reading one.

But first, some math:
There are 168 hours in a week

I sleep between 6-8 hours a day, so let's say I average 7 and so the 49 hours leaves up with 119 hours.

I am fortunate enough to have a job where I work M-F 8-5 with about 45 minutes of commuting each way. That's 10.5 hours total a day, or 52.5 a week. I often travel in the job, which could ramp this figure up to 60 or 70 hours or more, and in certain situations I have to give up weekend or holiday time, but I also have a fair amount of vacation time so let's stick with the 52.5. We're down to 66.5 hours.

I write at least 30 hours a week. 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday, and 2-ish each M-F. Blogging counts but other social media doesn't. 36.5 hours remain.

Since the start of the year, I've been hitting the home gym & with showers that's about 12 hours a week. 24.5 hours to go.

I try to read an hour a day at least. Sometimes I do more, so I'll say 10 hours a week.

14.5 left for the rest of life--laundry, shopping, the DMV, a date with my long-suffering wife. There's some variance; if I'm researching something for a book that goes into "writing"--my terms, my definitions. Here I remember the advice Jack Ketchum once gave to a writing class I was in: "Sometimes staring at the wall is writing!". Most of my allotted thirty, though, is actually pen to paper or fingers to keys.

I mention the reality not to evoke sympathy--I have a great life and I love what I do, if anything I would escalated the hours spent on most of the segments above--but to indicate many things in life like health, a measure of artistic success, a measure of financial security, do not come easy, and they come with a price tag of time and often money as well. I've lived an extremely privileged life, in many senses of the term, I also work my ass off to make up for my many shortcomings in the "talent" department. For writers, I don't know if the time writing and reading is optional, it certainly isn't for me.

I'll start with What I Watched, then, because it's the easiest for me. I love television and movies but as you can see from the above I've not a ton of time left over to go deep into the stacks of Blu-rays I have lying around waiting to be watched.

WHAT I WATCHED:
1. I Still See You--including all of the deleted scenes, the commentary with Scott Speer and Bella Thorne, and all of the stellar bonus features, especially the ones starring me.

Guess what you're getting for your birthday?

2. L.A. Confidential--Set me on my path to read all of Ellroy this year

3. Monuments Men

All three were watched with Kim (Date night! What a prince I am!)because to keep the schedule I outlined above, sometimes you have to multitask.

WHAT I HEARD:
1. Vice Squad Unreleased--Vice Squad
2. Saturnalia of the Accused--Argyle Goolsby (from Blitzkid)
3. The Mighty Rhythm Tribe--Buddy Miles
4. Land of Plenty--Bill MacKay and Ryley Walker

The four above were from eMusic; I've been a member for twelve years. At one time they had very weird and odd labels along with the back catalogues of just about everyone, but they have scaled back so their offerings are  a shadow of their once mighty warehouse of sounds. I might not make it to year thirteen.

5. A Decade of Dance Live--The Untouchables. Their album Wild Child was a turntable mainstay of my high school years and I was thrilled to learn this live set rom 1989 existed. From Discogs cuz it is out of print..
6. Catholic Boy--The Jim Carroll Band. Discogs again because also OOP. I have a dubbed cassette but no means to play it and just had the synaptic urge to listen--forgot how truly great it is.

Note this is a very short list compared to 2018, where I was listening to an average of 8 new albums a week in my capacity as a reviewer for the good folks at Metal Express Radio; I've a great deal more control over my listening now.

WHAT I READ:
1. Dream Makers--6 Fantasy Artists (art book with some text)
2. The Hidden Lives of Owls--Leigh Calvez
3. Ireland--in the Travelers Tales series
4. Like Brothers--The Duplass Brothers
5. Dr. Haggard's Disease--Patrick McGrath, one of my favorite authors who any fan of horror or weird fiction needs to check out. I'd read this one before.
6. The Electric State--Simon Stalenhag An illustrated coffee table science fiction novella, I enjoyed this one immensely and have added Stalenhag's other work (he does the gorgeous paintings as well) to my list.
7. Astounding--Alec Nevala-Lee A history/Bio of John W. Campbell, Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard and Isaac Asimov
8. Three Days To Never--Tim Powers. Might be my favorite Powers novel, which is interesting considering the breadth of his work.
9. Children of the Thunder--not my favorite Brunner, but I enjoyed it all the same. As much a horror story as science fiction
10. The Shores of Space--Richard Matheson. Genius book. If you want to write short stories, genre or not, you need to read Matheson.
11. The Atrocity Exhibition--J.G. Ballard. I love Ballard and this one alternately warped my mind and made me feel pretty dumb at times, but definitely was one I thought about for days after finishing it. This was the nice illustrated one with Ballard's annotations, put out by RE/SEARCH
12. Cheap Hotels--Daisanne Maclane Photos and text about cheap hotels around the world. Loved it.

Imay have stayed at this one

13. The Art of Bryan Talbot--Bryan Talbot, intro Neil Gaiman. Art and some text
14. Women--Frank Cho. All art
15. Zombie Spaceship Wasteland--Patton Oswalt. Humorous memoir mixed with comedic writings. Loved it' there were times reading it where I felt Patton and I may have lived parallel lives, especially in the chapter regarding his experiences working at a small movie theater. Speaking of theater, he's great on the new Mystery Science Theater 3000

Fifteen seems like a lot, but many of these were art with little text and all but the Brunner, Powers and Astounding are probably under three hundred pages. I think The Atrocity Exhibition took me the longest to get through but was one of the ones I thought about the most.

Thanks for taking the time to root through the junkheap of my mind looking for treasures. If you would like to pay the reader/writer bond forward, please consider taking one of my books home with you by clicking HERE and buying all you can afford. Such generous purchases will ensure I can keep reading and writing in February and the months to follow. Thank you!

My books

Passions Just Like Mine--Raymond Chandler

My love for the work of Raymond Chandler happened in the reverse of my usual progression in that I saw it dramatized on television before I read any of it. The item in the center is the DVD collection of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye starring Powers Boothe which ran on HBO from 1983-1986. I think the show was one of the first episodic series that ran there, long before HBO became the original programming juggernaut with shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Deadwood (which Boothe also starred in). There were only eleven episodes, but I must have caught the first one after school in 1983 (my prime television watching years were my early teens; hours and hours of MTV, HBO, The Movie Channel, and Creature Double Feature. Once I was in college I watched almost no television at all other than Carson's The Tonight Show with my mother when I was on break).

I was fourteen in 1983, and a heavily committed horror, science fiction, and fantasy fan and reader (and war and role playing game addict--you know, one of the cool kids), but I was instantly taken in by Boothe's deadpan delivery and tough guy demeanor, the snappy dialogue, the classy costuming and sets, and especially the opening theme song.  I think the one I like is "Marlowe's Theme" by Moe Koffman, but I'm not certain because there was a much inferior second opening theme song in the later episodes and that's the only credit I can find. I've never found a legitimate recording of it but you can catch it in YouTube clips if you don't want to spring for the DVDs.

Smoking is bad, kids. So's murder.

On my next trip to the Paperback Booksmith I was on a mission to find some of this Raymond Chandler guy's stuff, and I came home with the copy of Trouble Is My Business in the photo above and was hooked for life. Not only did the show (a couple of the episodes are kind of clunkers, but the majority are stellar) and that book open up the world of Raymond Chandler for me, it opened up a lifelong love of noir and detective fiction, especially series detective fiction. Over the years I'd read Ross MacDonald, John MacDonald, James Lee Burke, James Crumley, Robert Crais, Robert Parker, George Pelecanos, Walter Mosley, Stephen Greenleaf, Ed McBain, Elmore Leonard, Harlan Coben, Dashiell Hammett, and many others.

Just looking at that short list of authors I realize I've read at least two or three hundred crime and noir novels over the years. No wonder I have to write about my passions! I never leave my house to talk to anybody, whut with all the writin' an' readin' I been doin'!

Up next is James Ellroy as I mentioned HERE, and, having been sucker-punched by the mastery of The Song Is You by Megan Abbott last week I'm going to read all of her by the end of the year, too--anything to keep the neurons firing.

I already had a copy of The High Window, but as I may have mentioned elsewhere I'm fetishistic about covers and books in general and just look at this:

A confession: it was only a dollar at the Book Barn

That one and Trouble are my favorite covers of the ones above; my least favorite is the Eliot Gould/rubber chicken of The Long Goodbye, which is weird, because that might be my favorite book as far as the writing goes. I've seen the Gould movie and many of the other Marlowe movie adaptations, but Boothe is the guy I always see in my head when I'm reading the books (yes, Boothe and not Bogart, sorry). I also love the radio show starring Gerald Mohr, but I can somehow still see Boothe in my head when listening.

I loved the way the language in crime novels could be alternately playful and then stark and harrowing, sometimes within the same paragraph. As a reader with a burgeoning desire to write I also loved the concision and brevity in most crime fiction, an interesting stylistic counterpoint to the often florid and purple dark fantasy I'd been reading, not to mention the technical and pedantic prose in much of the science fiction I grew up on. I love the idea of being able to follow a character (or characters) through a novel every year and I don't even mind when the plots sometimes seem recycled if the character and the way they perceive and intersect with the world around them is unique. I don't commonly suffer from writer's block, but if I'm feeling like I'm swimming through mud and the work is starting to feel like something other than fun, my #1 recovery strategy is to take a break and read a couple series' detective novels--or Trouble Is My Business.

If anyone has any recommendations for other authors or series detectives I should check out, I welcome your comments. Anything set in Hollywood--especially 1930-1960--goes to the top of the stack.

QE 2: January Results, Writing, and the Owl

He Whoo Watches and Waits

In January I wrote a blog post entitled Queer Eye, My Daughter, and I that related some of the experience and pleasure I had binge-watching the two season of the show with my daughter over the holiday break, and in doing so basically laid out a self-improvement (or self assessment, at least) plan for the year. A year, by the way, that I will--Lord willing and the creek don't rise--celebrate a half century of haunting this earth. The plan involves taking an honest inventory of where am in life with regards to five categories, as I see them, as exemplified by the men on the Netflix show Queer Eye, known to fans as the Fab Five. There's a certain value in "reporting out", both in terms of the accountability doing so provides and in the added motivation to not look like a chump for poor performance, plus there might also be a little thrill of pride to be felt when one performs well, as I believe I did in January. And so, an honest assessment on in the five QE categories:

KARAMO: In my previous definition of what Karamo represents, I failed to mention that a key component is how cultured one is, how open to new experiences, and by extrapolation I would add how intellectually aggressive. These characteristics, coupled with taking responsibility, being self confident, and putting yourself out there make the Karamo scale of key importance in driving one's overall QE score (and as I mentioned in the previous post, could be the most limiting if one's initial score is high!) For January, I'm giving myself a four and half. I read fifteen books, and more importantly to myself, and I would guess to most people following this blog because they found it after reading one of my novels, I wrote two-hundred forty one and a half pages this month, which is a personal best since I've been tracking such things. That's 241.5, and it includes a bunch of chapters on a new YA novel which my agent seems enthused about. 241.5 pages would be enough pages for a short novel if it was all one project and all fiction, which it isn't, but as the duration and output of writing is the single biggest factor to my overall happiness, I'm very happy I was a writin' fiend in January. As "putting myself out there", what little I'm doing is all virtual, but five blog posts (included in my page count) and periodic social media posts (not included in my page count) is more than I usually do.

TAN: "Make an effort with your personal appearance". I gave myself a 1 when I started, I'm raising that to 1.5 for January because I bought some new clothes and a watch I really like. I might have given myself a two but I haven't actually worn the clothes, or left the house except for work, a couple dates with Kim, and my trip to the Book Barn. I'm writing this now in a fifteen year old pair of sweatpants and an even older XL Haunted Mansion t-shirt, which now looks like a billowing circus tent on me (more on that later),

I did wear the watch, though. I love it. I got it off eBay.

I know what time it is

BOBBY: "Create and maintain a physical environment that promotes productivity, creativity and inner harmony". I was a three last time and a three in January, although I received from my mother in law that wicked sweet owl in the photo at the top whoo now watches over me when I work, and the bottle next to him is "Phantasm", which a good friend gave me to celebrate the release of I Still See You. The wine was fantastic.

ANTONI: Make nutrition healthy and enjoyable, cook for others. I'll go from 2 to 2.5 here. My Austerity diet is a weird time for me (see Secrets of Weight Loss, Revealed) because I eat next to nothing, but I have cooked a great deal in January, mainly stir fries and exotically spiced roast vegetables.  But Kim ate some of the stuff that I made and I thought it was great, so half a point seems fair.

JONATHAN: I'm giving myself a full point here, going from a two to a three. "Take care of yourself physically"--I had a personal best in terms of miles run in a month at a little over 155 miles, which is insane. I'm one step away from the half century mark! Last week I started planking and weightlifting, too, which I usually don't do until I am below my target weight in the mistaken and thoroughly unscientific belief that I immediately start regaining the weight when I lift, as though the meager barbells I hoist will inflate my arms and chest muscles to epic proportions after a few straining sets.

I also bought some "product" for bald men, which is supposed to moisturize and "add luster" to my pointy head. We'll see. But I am pretty excited that I got some product--I haven't had any beyond deodorant, toothpaste, shaving cream, and cologne for a number of years. I miss shampoo.

So it was a great month, self-improvement and productivity-wise. Beginning of the year, twelve points out of a possible twenty-five; after one month I'm already up to fourteen and half points with improvement in four out of five categories, well on my way to be a fully-actualized human being.

Stay tuned for February, that hideous month where I, like Karen, typically must do battle with the dreaded Blue Fog. Which you know all about if you've read my book Passing Strange, the third novel in the Generation Dead series.

Karen's book, but her cover is Generation Dead's 

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