Four Short Walls #31 - Punctuation

I'm in the New York Times

So, I just made the New York Times.

Well, sort of. But it's still kind of cool.

NYT.com - Go here: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/literary-heirs/

On the left of the picture of literary mags are some wonderfully drawn cards of a girl with crazy hair (by the wonderfully talented Melinda Beck). These are some of the postcards from the lovely postcard literary magazine Abe's Penny. Now, if you were turn those cards over you would find a story I wrote to match those pictures. The New York Times calls these ten mags "really good reads." So that totally means me. Or so I'm claiming.

(Possibly they just loved Melinda's pictures: Shhhhhh)

Anyway, kind of neat. On the dark flip-side of the New York Times you'd be able to see the backs of a bunch of literary magazines and my story. On the dark side I'm probably a big star right now. People are probably bringing me free lunch baskets.

A Single Shot - Under the Microscope

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John Moon is out hunting in the woods (illegally poaching) and trails a wounded deer into a quarry. No escape. When he sees movement, he fires. And then the deer runs out of the trees. From the other direction.

He shoots the deer. But what else did he shoot? Into the trees, he finds a young woman. A dead woman, with his bullet inside her. And he also finds a campsite. And a pile of money. A lot of money.

Moon is down on his luck; poaching is the only reason he's getting by. And now he's poached something new: money. But the body won't stay hidden forever, and the police may come knocking. And the girl wasn't alone. Her friends want the money back, and they ain't the sort of men to take a loss lightly.

Now, that's a pretty damn good premise, and this is a pretty damn good book. Dark, gritty, well-written; the story and premise remind me a little of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. Perhaps not quite as good as that masterpiece, but it's interesting to note that A Single Shot was written first, and the line of influence might run from Jones to McCarthy on this occasion.

"Before the sun is up, John Moon has showered, drunk two cups of coffee, and changed into his blue jeans, sweatshirt, and Timberland hiking boots. He has eaten two pieces of toast, a bowl of cereal, and put out food for his wandering dog. Before leaving the trailer by the front door, he gets his 12-gauge shotgun and a handful of slugs from the gun cabinet off the kitchen."

You know the old saying: introduce a gun in act one, you know it has to go off...

Four Short Walls #30 - Dear Writer

The World, The World

Sometimes the world just knocks you down with its beauty and you can't find the words.

The Sour Lemon Score - Under the Microscope

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I'd been hearing about Richard Stark among crime afficionados for a while. It seemed like, among people in the know, that Richard Stark was thought of as maybe the best crime writer on the continent

Richard Stark, though, is just a pseudonym. The writer's actual name is Donald E. Westlake, a prolific writer in the genre best known for his humorous caper novels and for writing the screenplay for The Grifters. But he's a writer with many pseudonyms, and he's used those pseudonyms to allow him to explore different styles (and genres). And "Richard Stark," as the pseudonym might suggest, does not write humorous caper novels: he writes stark and hard crime novels. Short, sharp, and brutal is more the order, though there is always a dark humor to "Stark's" writing. If you want a bit of a feel for his work, Mel Gibson's Payback was a remake of a movie that was based on a Stark novel of the same name.

The Sour Lemon Score is crisply written, tight, and sharp, and yet somehow full of life - the dialogue, in particular, is full of character (and characters). The protagonist Parker, is an efficient and unrepentant criminal; not evil or cruel, but generally aware of his own self-interest and accepting of what that entails. Which makes him better than many of the other criminals haunting the societal underbelly, but not a man to cross. And in the Sour Lemon Score, one of the men on a score does just that. Which, needless to say, does not make Parker happy. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse - between two cats. And the mouse? A large pile of money. Money that Parker feels is his.

The Year of Reading Books I Already Own

My house looks like this:

 * not actual picture of house


One of the things about being a compulsive book buyer, and the former owner of a bookstore, is that I have built a rather wicked personal library. Having first dibs on any book that was ever brought into my store was, shall we say, rather nice.

This means my house is full of awesome books to read, across a wide variety of genres. Something for all occasions! And I keep buying more. It's possible I shall soon have to annex a small township to provide the proper space.

It also happens, though, that I probably have less time to read now than at any other time in my life. Or, at least, less time for leisure reading. As an editor, my day job is mostly words, words, words. Which is good. But balancing a more-than-full-time job with three (soon to be four) kids, two cats, and a lovely wife, and then squeezing in time for my own writing (and blog), leaves less time for personal reading (well, comparatively; I still, um, read a lot).

This has been percolating in my head for a while, and it's led me to a new goal for the year: I'm going to focus on reading the books I already own. First, because I own a huge array of amazing books that I want to read. Second, maybe I can save a little money. Third, I'm running out of book space. And fourth, I'll probably still buy books.

Just a lot less of them.

Cold turkey won't work (I'd die). There are still certain writers whose books I will buy immediately (I'm looking at you, C-Mac. And you, A-Patch.). For example, I came across a book at a used book store a couple weeks ago, and it was something that I was planning on ordering. And it was in great condition. And it was five dollars. SOLD.

But I also saw lots of other interesting books there. In times past, they might have joined my personal hoard/horde. But I resisted. The new immigration policy seems to be working (no electric border fence for me, though).

So: prudence! My old friend! Okay, my new casual acquaintance, who I will try to spend some quality time with and get to know better.

New policy: Read My Own Books.

Strange, strange, I know. But it's my plan. Occasional book purchases: okay. I mean, I like to support writers with my money, but it has to work on my end, too. Balance, balance, balance. Also, some Feng Shui, as I'm running out of house space.

And, if successful, maybe my house will look like this: