"The real novelist, the one with an instinct for what he is about, knows that he cannot approach the infinite directly,
that he must penetrate the natural human world as it is." - Flannery O'Connor
People often ask me how I get so much writing done with a four year old and a two year old.
Now you know.
Oh, and my daughter is locked in her room for her safety. SAFETY. It has nothing to do with meeting my daily word count. Nothing at ALL.
Tim Deal and Shroud Magazine are THRILLED to announce the launch of a new column in Shroud Magazine from one of the indisputable new MASTERS of the genre: Bram Stoker-winning BRIAN KEENE, author of THE RISING, CASTAWAYS, GHOSTWALK, and several other wildly successful novels and short story collections. Beginning with Issue #7 in July, Keene will be penning an original article for the readers of SHROUD in every issue!
In Brian Keene's SEMINAL SCREAMS, he will examine a classic horror novel that everyone, be they writer or fan, should read at least once in their lives.
Brian Keene joins other talented voices of the Genre to write regularly for Shroud, including Steve Vernon, Michael Knost, Norman Rubenstein, Kevin Lucia (that's me), D.L. Snell, I.E. Lester, and more!
There are now no excuses for not subscribing:
http://www.shroudmagazine.com/shroud-magazine-us-subscription-volume-2.html
Garage sales were a staple of my childhood. I grew up in a solidly middle-class family, but it's safe to say both my parents were probably raised lower-middle class - maybe even poor, at times, though still happy, healthy, and safe - and my grandfather was a teen during the depression. Because of this, my father has always been on the look-out for ways to save.
He certainly wasn't a cheapskate. He just wasn't afraid of bargains. Thus, Saturday afternoon quests for summer garage sales were commonplace. My dad was always looking for hard to find tools, mom liked to refurnish and restore old furniture, and my sister and I weren't apt to turn our noses down at cheap games, books, (in my case, comic books also), and we went through this whole board game phase, too. I mean, I'm pretty sure we owned every board game known to man, even "Pac Man, the Board Game".
I kid you not.
Anyway, this persisted as we got older, and because my wife Abby grew up in a very similar home, she's a "garage saler", too. We've come across quite a few things: cheap, rickety furniture for that first apartment, later some very nice baby clothes for both Madison and Zach, toys, books, my first, (and still current) sets of tools...you name it. Plus, some of these places have community garage sales so big:
They have hot dog vendors at them. Seriously.
However, very odd things are to be found at garage sales. From today's excursion, I offer you just a taste...
First, you can't have a garage sale without beat-up VHS tapes of old 80's comedies about naughty high school boys who suddenly get telekinetic powers. I wonder if, somewhere, Scott Baio watches "Zapped", over and over - in between old episodes of "Diagnosis, Murder" - curled in a fetal ball, crying? I mean, RIAA VIDEO AWARD WINNER? That's gotta be hard to shake.
Originally $90 dollars. Worn for an hour. Now $25. Priceless. "Make it so, Ensign Yoda."
I'm pretty sure this is a grill. Even so, I kept hearing this angry, metallic voice ringing in my head: "Exterminate!"
Cousins, maybe?
This next one is pretty self-explanatory...
"Want a balloon, Georgie? They float, Georgie. We ALL float down here."
Ahem.
And really, where else could you get a Sears Craftsman Butt Hinge?
This next, of course, is the coup de grace...
No, this wasn't signed by Doug Flutie. That actually would be cool. No, this, as far as I could tell, was straight from our local Giant Market, and worse yet...someone had already opened it, and eaten the whole box. I mean - what's a box of "Flutie Flakes"...without the Flutie Flakes themselves?
Anyway....treasures await. Happy garage sale hunting!
Had a good time last night with Greg Hall of the blogradio show, The Funky Werepig. Multiple topics were discussed: the proper hunting method of gophers, the wonders of bundt cake, and - most importantly - the early success and hopeful future of Shroud Publishing (my first publisher, btw). Had an awesome time with Tim Deal, they broke me in gently, which is good....because August will be my month on The Funky Werepig. I'm looking forward to...it with trembling anticipation.
Be afraid. Oh, yes. Be afraid.
Anyway, until it's my turn to be roasted, give a listen.
Won't you please take Hiram Grange home with you? He's tired, pissy, has fought too many monsters today, and just wants to find a place to rest, kick up his feet, enjoy a nice pipe stuffed to the brim with Opium and Presbyterian tobacco, and toast a little absinthe on the side. If you're extra special nice, he might even bring his collection of limited edition Jodie Foster DVDs. Maybe.
Or, if you're not interested in Hiram's charming company, perhaps you'd like to sample excerpts from his upcoming novella series, (transcribed by five equally charming fellows who've been very faithful to his dictations...mostly), or would also be interested in fiction by Kim Paffenrof, Michael West, Nate Southard, and more. Below - the blurb for Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, written by none other than myself. Hiram told me it all - over a nice roast duck....
Hiram Grange doesn't believe in fate; he makes his own destiny. It's a good thing, too, because Queen Mab of Faerie has foreseen the world's destruction, and it's all his fault. He must choose: save an innocent girl or the universe? It's just another day on the job for Hiram Grange.
God. I LOVE to read, just as much as writing, honestly. It's funny how that often gets lost in the shuffle of pursuing a writing career, especially when doing the book reviewing gig. That's sad, in some ways, because isn't this how the whole thing started? I read a book in 8th grade that was just awesome, and relevant - in an 8th grade sort of way - but it felt unfinished, like it needed a sequel. I wanted to know how the story ended, so I thought I should write the ending in my own sequel. That was the start of my writing career, but it was born directly from my love of reading.
How much I forget that; how I wish I could go back to those days.
I think it's important for writers not to lose that magic feeling they get when engrossed by a great book, and - even as we all try to carve out time to write in our busy lives - not to let our writing time overshadow our reading time. I don't know how many new/struggling writers say they "don't have time to read", and to me, that's sad. That's how we recharge our writing batteries, right? By soaking up and internalizing good writing.
However, I think it's just as important for writers to read "guilt free" as well, and read what THEY find appealing. During a lunch conversation at this past year's Borderlands Press Writers Bootcamp, I lingered on the edge of a conversation, (which I do often, because I suffer from acute foot-in-mouth disease), about contemporary writers and authors and books: and I was a little dismayed that at a conference about writing fiction, full of attendees who should adore fiction, the conversation centered mainly on critical analysis of craft...and not the love of a good story or book (which, of course, is all relative).
Any second year Creative Writing student will repeat the mantra of their instructors that "to write well, we must also read well". That's a slippery slope that writers should tred carefully, I think. When do we cross the line from writer-hopefuls who've fallen in love with storytelling, to hungry "up-and-comers" who dissect every piece of literature for faults we want to avoid? Granted, you can never account for taste, but still...
For example. I've read Twilight. Was it the best thing I've ever read? Hardly. Sterling craft? Not so much. Let me tell you a secret, though...
I liked it. Really, I did. Apparently, thousands of pre-teen and teenage girls feel the same (A former student described it as "literary crack for teenage girls", and she wasn't far off).
So Meyer's not Hemmingway, Carver, or Bradbury. So Stephen King thinks she can't write at all?
So what?
I was amazed - and silent - at a conversation that picked apart everyone from Brian Keene to Neil Gaiman, simply because Neil uses "too many adverbs". Okay, word economy is really important, and adverbs aren't always your friend...but when did the usage of an adverb ascend to the same level as an illicit drug?
Anyway, I wave my hand at all that and say: whatever. Read what you want, what you love. Issac Asimov was the first writer I remember falling in love with. Discovered him in high school, devoured his Robot, Empire, and Foundation novels, marveled at how he connected them all. I've come to love Bradbury in these later years, and most recently re-discovered Fahrenhet 451, which I kid you not, is the most important book EVAH. I'd go on, but there are too many to list.
Read. For fun. Pleasure. Entertainment, education, and yes, writers - read to help grow your craft. But, like anything else, if you don't read simply for the pure joy of reading...what's the point?
Well, if it ever comes about, we can always blame Michelle Pendergrass for the title, though I doubt we'll actually call it that. Plus, it won't be that much like MoCon mostly because:
A. There's no way you can copy the awesomeness that is MoCon.
B. We'd probably do something a bit more generic, looking at fiction and writing in general.
It's largely an unformed idea at the moment. We had the begginnings of something this year with our first annual Arts Retreat at our church, which welcomed visiting speaker and artist David Taylor. I was invited to read "Way Station" from Coach's Midnight Diner, (left), to talk about my writing habits and writing horror.
It was a good time. Right about the time Dave Taylor showed us a slideshow of necessary artistic influences and listed Shaun of the Dead as one of them, I suspected he was my kind of guy, and when he compared the plot of the standard (bad) Christian novel to the plot of a porn movie...I was sold.
How does THAT go, exactly? Bad Christian fiction = porn? Sorry. You'll have to attend the conference - if we have one - to find out.
Anyway, the arts director and I have been talking for awhile about doing something along the lines of a writing convention, because there's not much in this area for writers, with the exception of the great work our poet laureate Andre Guruianu has done with The Broome Review and the workshops they've held in the last two years (We'd certainly invite them to participate, too).
I don't want to run a conference on "how to write Christian fiction", though. I want a conference focused on the art of writing, Christian/faith fiction being only a small segment. I've been very fortunate to encounter writers of all kinds, across the faith/nonfaith/mainstream spectrum, and I'd love to bring them together to talking about writing - as an art form, as a business, as a life pursuit, as a discipline, if only because when I started out I didn't have access to this kind of information and floundered for quite some time.
Tamara Murphy (UCCC Creative Arts Director) and I still need to hammer out the details, but what I'm imagining is a conference for the public at large and anyone interested in writing in general, both fiction and nonfiction. We'd have panels, workshops, readings, and even suggested readings: suggested fiction and nonfiction.
I'd like the focus to be "On Moral Fiction/Writing". Renowned author John Gardner wrote a critical work of the same name, and though controversy still swirls as to whether or not he wrote it as a cruel prank, (most of his own fiction contradicts his critical essays, being mostly postmodern), the idea has resonance with me.
As a writer and a reader, I'm not so much interested in creating or enjoying fiction with an evangelical thrust aimed at pushing ideals or beliefs, I'm more interested in fiction that has substance: that there's not only good old fashioned "suspension of disbelief" and flight of fancy fun, but that there's something solid to take away, something that benefits humanity as a whole. In other words, in addition to the entertainment factor: what's the message? What's the point, even?
Anyway. Some thoughts. KevCon. Doesn't really sound as good as MoCon, but we'll see. As long as Michelle comes and makes her Shrimp Etouffee. Heck, I'd call it PenderCon, just for that.
An introduction to the scandalous and scurrilous Hiram Grange, reluctant hero against the unseen terrors of the earth! Novella excerpts from the upcoming Hiram Grange series, featuring authors Richard Wright, Kevin Lucia, Scott Christian Carr, Robert Davies, and Jake Burrows, fiction from Kim Paffenroth, Michael West, John Bruni, Norman A. Rubin, an interview with Ronald Damien Malfi, columns from Michael Knost, Steve Vernon, Norman Rubenstein, and DL Snell, the Webley revolver, and real life confluences!
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"Kevin Lucia holds up my already high opinion of his work with another Serling-inspired morality play on exactly what being a class-A asshole can get you in “A Willing Donor”." - horrornews.net.