Genre fiction
My fictional Guide Number 3 – a guide to a serial killer artist – is out now in The New Flesh.
This is quirky and different, even for me. I guess I’m experimenting with different ways of telling a story. There is a plot in there, but it’s a little hidden.
Thanks to Suzie B and III for taking this one. The New Flesh seems like a good home for it.
Just a quick sketch, but I’m sure this thing was tapping on my window last night. It was really tiny, say the height of a golf-tee. I think there was only one, but there may have been an army. (oh yeah, click on the picture for the full-size image, which is 8 times life-sized).
May was busy, June will be busier. I’ve got a few publications coming up in the next few weeks, yay. I’ll post on the day as they come out …
Mayan Moon surprised me, delivering much more punch and fluidity than I had expected. I bought it through Amazon, taking a chance, since the author had asked me about using some Venus Vulture music in his book trailer (full disclosure: he did use the music – see the trailer here [nb. not an affiliate link – I don’t get a kickback]).
The book took me by surprise for something from a small press. It can be a bit hit-and-miss with small press books: too often they’re vanity volumes written by friends and relatives (or the press-owner). Then again, big publishing house books can be a bit hit-and-miss too (even with name authors).
In Mayan Moon, the writing is compelling, the action fast and the set-pieces well orchestrated. My one quibble was that the phonetic spelling of some character’s accented dialogue was a little over-done and distracting.
The hero – Jordon – is something of a classic, damaged, anti-bureaucracy loner and he drives the action well. Told in three parts the novel cleverly blends contemporary thriller, with science-fiction and classic archaeology (read “Indiana Jones”) adventure. While characters are not guaranteed survival, the plot does stitch up neatly and in timely manner.
Actually, in terms of reading for writing, I like that structure – the three parts, each with a slightly different tone, but all interdependent, make for a surprising mix of genres. Each part is around 100 pages and that seems to be a length I can write easily while longer is sometimes a struggle. I might just try writing something like this, with distinct yet interrelated parts.
This is just a progress update, I guess. Marking is in full swing with the courier dropping off early papers to grade. I’m busy writing parts two and three (and four?) of a serial for a publisher who’s interested in seeing where the part one led (and now I’m surprised by how big it’s growing). I’m also drafting a few flash stories, and have some longer drafts I’m coming back to for revision.
Meanwhile I’ve just put a new flash (ie written fast with minimal revision) poem up on the Undead Poets Society – read it here: Silver Bullet Blues.
My poem New Shoes, Old Eyes was third equal in a local competition here, and has now been published twice – once in The Tribune, a community newspaper, and again in the Urban Care Poetry on Palmy booklet. It’s neat to have a placing and be published.
Occasionally an author loses control over formatting – usually not a big deal, and editors often have better ideas. Unfortunately in both printings of my poem the formatting has been changed and some of the impact of the poem is lost. Sometimes with poems the first line is also the title – as with Medusa Medusa, so there is a repetition. Other times the title is quite distinct – as with Carnival Cage. The latter is the case with New Shoes, Old Eyes – even if in the booklet the title is not bolded and seems to be the first line, it’s not meant that way – the rhythm is different and it would work better if, as with most of the other poems in the book, if it was in bold and separate.
In both printings the poem appears as a single stanza – without the stanza breaks. As Tim Keeton pointed out with Medusa Medusa, the breaks “make the lines more impactful”. With New Shoes, Old Eyes, those stanza breaks are part of the cadence/rhythm of the poem.
Anyway, enough griping. Here is the poem as I’d intended it to appear:
.
.
New Shoes, Old Eyes
Returning to your frigid grid
of fragile kerbs
and surly kids
where turbined hills
spill spun white glass
above the river’s
placid parks,
I stride straight streets
in crisp new shoes,
cross blocks of grass
and tarmac spurs
to find the clipped green
box now sculpted
trusted
rusted
numbered
and
circuited,
like the slick
stockcar track
by boys and girls
born since
I left.
.
.
Certainly it’s a poem about Palmerston North – aimed at the competition, and loaded with stuff familiar to locals.
I’ve put a “flash” (as in written really fast, minimal editing) poem – Medusa Medusa at the Undead Poets Society site. I couldn’t help riffing on the same ideas and cadence and have just “flashed” this one up too. I guess it’s kind of related to the UDPS one …
Sensual Medusa
would you accuse her
or bind her and braid her?
Could you mislay her
misplace her
disgrace
your well hidden
eyes,
mirrored, uncertain
uncoiling her lies
succumb to her treasure
between glistening lights
then
slice off her head
to put her to bed
These are both pretty loose and rough. Perhaps one day I’ll pull the pair apart and make something more worthy from the broken remains of both. So much writing to do …
Carrie Ryan‘s young adult novel The Forest of Hands and Teeth is perhaps one of the most extraordinary works I’ve read all year. This horror novel is remarkably literate and astonishingly well-paced. Somehow Ryan manages to balance an unusual setting and circumstance – an isolated village – with conflicted relationships – Mary, betrothed to Harry, loves Travis his brother while Cass, Mary’s best friend, betrothed to Travis is keen on Harry (sounds straightforward, but really it’s not and it really adds an enormous level of tension to the book). And, though it’s amazingly well done, it’s a zombie novel, even if the word “zombie” is never used in the text. Actually, the unconsecrated, as they are known, provide a somewhat evil backdrop to the controlling religious order which governs life in the village. Be prepared – the novel is harrowing and intense and a great character and relationship study.
Cool – in checking out Carrie Ryan’s details, I’ve discovered there is a sequel, and a third book coming. Ryan’s also got some stories in anthologies which seem to be set in the same milieu (okay, actually, I think I’d like to see some of her writing set outside that – she’s such a precise and crafty wordsmith that it would be good to see what she’d do with other stuff. Like vampires).
I have a few stories nearing completion, and one submitted today to a New Zealand print magazine. I am writing furiously at the moment, energised and enthusiastic. I have my YA novel draft ready on the desk to start working on, and looking forwards to the next tutoring deadline, just two weeks off.
Triple V Publishing 