Warmed and Bound - Book Club September '11

Gary, stick around. It's going to be a while before I get to your story. I'm on page 51. Your story is page 365. But I'll get to them all, I swear!

Some of these stories I find that while they are fantastically written I don't understand the plot and require multiple readthroughs...

valmont, i think some of the best fiction does this, makes you take a second look, Matt is really becoming a voice i enjoy and this story was more gritty than i expected from him, really dug it - plus Mantodea is such a great word

Jay I know exactly what you are talking about. And while it works in short story form, sometimes when people do that in novella or longer it can be a challenge to get through.

Are we talking about over-surreal elements in stories here?

Because if so then I'm a total fence sitter. Goes both ways for me depending on a lot of things. The mood I am in will influence it.

Trying to think of a couple of examples of places where it really works. The Orange Eats Creeps - what the hell was that? It was fookin nonsense. Yet at the same time it was totally gripping and I really enjoyed it. Another good author for this is Jeff Noon. Discovered this guy last year and have read four of his books since. All of them have been head-fucks (the short story border on daft) but were very interesting. Philip K Dick was a master at it.

But I'm not in the right mood then I can't get into it. It loses it's impact. I find it's better to read something else and come back later in these cases. I thnk you have to be prepared to get more absorbed than usual.

Bringing this all back toward W&B - some of the writers in this book are really good at it. Richard (wickercat) does it very well in a lot of his short stories. (Say Yes To Pleasure included) I find the style of his stories to be kind of distant, and I actually mean that in a good way. It's a sort of 'numb-from-too-many-painkillers' distance or something like that. Weird style. Anyway my point is, sometimes I have to read his shorts a few times to get my head round them but I'm always glad that I made the effort.

Take Amanda Gowin's story for instance.

I mean I haven't finished the collection yet, but that was a superbly written story. I was reading it and floored by her metaphors, she did a great one about tree leaves which was fantastic. But just the names and everything just lead me to lose track.

As Richard said, reading something more than once is never a bad thing. Like a layered film, often literature can be better more times round (So much more to it than the plot.) But with some of them I feel like I should be getting them when I'm not. Maybe I was just hungover when reading it.

Nonetheless, some great fiction in there. I'm fighting hard to not read certain people's stories first as I'm sure that Pela put a great deal of work in just choosing the order of them. Really enjoyed Bradley's one.

thanks for the kind words jay - if it helps i had to read ATBS by SGJ twice before i could even get through it, and now i've read it four times and it just gets better every time

the only downside is if it's SO elusive that the reader gives up - great reference on Orange, that was a TOUGH ONE to get through, but like Burroughs Naked Lunch, i'm glad i made it through, same with some of Erickson, because the beauty and the moments of transcendental culmination are so worth it - enlightenment and epiphany, those "out of body" experiences are rare, but so exciting

As one of the authors in the anthology, I find it hard to pick favorites, but stories that really struck me were Amanda's, Gayle Towell's, Pela's, Sean Fergusons, Anthony David Jacques, Gavin Pate's, and of course the usual suspects, Caleb, Ricahrd Thomas, Evenson, Davidson. Matt Bell's story surprised the hell out of me, which I think is the general consensus. I must say that I really, really liked Stephen Graham Jones story a whole hell of a lot. Anything by Chris Deal usually crushes me to the point of never wanting to write again while being inspired to never give up, a very strange feeling indeed.

The only way I could recommend reading this particular anthology would be in order, simply because Pela spent a lot of time arranging and rearranging the stories due to style and content, though I guess any way you choose to read it is fine.

Hey Bob.

Cool to see you posting here. As of a few weeks ago I'd never seen any of your stuff. Between Practise and the story you had posted at Dirty Noir I'm thinking I like your style.

Thank you for the kind words. Glad you enjoyed the stories.

cool discussion. so glad you guys are liking it so far. It's fascinating to read the feedback on these stories.

On reading in order, if you're into handpicking what you read at a sitting, absolutely that works too, since each piece holds its own, but every story was placed to set up the book's last line (Deal's). And to do it in a way that answers the questions asked in the first story (Axel's). The idea was to impart, in the end, many of the feelings of having finished a good novel.

The thread of related material or themes that runs through it was more a matter of instinct than anything (which is scarier for me, from a critical perspective). I had to decide what thing spoke loudest in each story--its humor, its existential aspect, its loss, etc.--before deciding where that fit into the larger evolution of things.

I think it's a very Velvet-esque form of genre mating, to dismiss the exterior of the work in favor of the inside or unseen qualities. the end result has a chance to take on a life of its own. which may or may not have happened in W&B.

Haven't even hit the big boys yet, but what follows are my thoughts, so far: Axel Taiari is and will always be a favorite of mine, and this story of his, it's reminiscent of things he's done in the past but different, fresh. Only he could have written that story. Amanda Gowin will be a huge name. Caleb Ross makes me not want to write any more. Pela Via can gut a man from across the country with but a few words. Sean Ferguson is my secret crush. Bob Pastorella is so money. Craig Wallwork makes my blood run cold at the level of skill he uses to place his words. Gordon Highland is just damn good. JR Harlon, well, I will share a drink with him if it's the last thing I do. Gavin Pate needs to publish another damn book. Nik Korpon, damn son, you are bloody brilliant in the way you've disassembled and built anew noir. Gayle Towell has it. Rob Parker should Kilgore Trout this motherfucker up. And so much more. Based on these stories I've read, it's such an honor to be included among these pieces of beauty. Think I might break into this read a little more tonight.

Yes. Some stories are difficult at first. Finding the rhythm. The author's intentions. A little like putting a puzzle together. I will agree that they often require extra energy and attention, but the rewards are very often worth the extra effort.

I jumped on buying this during the Barnes n Noble debacle and ended up buying it from Amazon, but it sat while I finished a couple other books first. So far I have made it to Brian Evensons story, which is like just the tip of the iceberg with this book. I have really been digging these stories. I've seen alot of people say that there is no bad story in the bunch, and so far i have to agree. A couple highlights for me are
Axel Taiari's Death Juggler, I absolutely loved A light to Starve by and was excited to read this story
Gavin Pate's All the Acid in the World, this story resonated with me, probably because of my history with a certain hallucinogenic
Bradley Sand's Soccer moms and Pro Wrestler Dads, this guy got me hooked on bizarro
Nik Korpon's This will all end well, Nik is a master story-teller, Stay God was one of my favortite books i read this year
Edward J Rathke's The tree of Life, he really touched on alot of feelings here
Yeah, so I'm loving this collection, I really wish I had more time to read right now but I'm squeezing them in where I can

All The Acid In The World by Gavin Pate

This story dissolves into the acid trip.

It's starts out so innocent. And straight forward. Before you know it, you feel as lost as the characters in the story. I got sucked in. I'm not going to lie and say I totally understood the whole story. I felt the end left a ton up to interpretation. I'll be reading this one again also.

I've dealt with that world before though. And Gavin wrote it really well.

I agree. Gavin really conveyed the sensation of the acid trip through crafty language. He also captured the drug's potential ability to melt lives.

At the same time he employed humor to balance out the seriousness of someone losing their mind from overdropping.

Squirrels, microdots, medication

And I thought the impact of this line was ingenious:

Somewhere there are parents in an argument about who their children are.

That said it all. Tragic.

I have yet to read Warmed and Bound, but it's definitely on my to read list. I have read some of the featured authors short stories on Rotten Leaves and Pulp Metal Magazine and thought they were awesome stuff.

"Carl" by Brandon Tietz
http://www.rottenleaves.com/post/6874336313/carl-by-brandon-tietz
"My First Kiss at the Public Execution" by Edward J. Rathke
http://www.rottenleaves.com/post/7975831755/my-first-kiss-at-the-public-...
"The Liberation of Edward Kellor" by Anthony David Jacques
http://pulpmetalmagazine.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/the-liberation-of-edwa...

Crazy Love by Cameron Pierce

So far out of all the stories I've read, this one was the weirdest. Cameron is definitely in the bizzaro genre.

This story feels almost like something your 6 year old nephew would tell you. It's a lot of quick pacing. "And then this happened." But that's not a bad thing. I really enjoyed it. This story was a fun little ride.

It's also got this overwhelming sense of being lonely. Of just wanting to find someone and have someone there for you, even if it's a pterodactyl.

I read this story before bed last night. I'm pretty sure that wasn't a good idea because I had some weird ass dreams. But still I liked it. Fun, quick read.

Chance the Dick by Paul G Tremblay

I think what is surprising me the most about this collection so far is that it's not totally dark. I mean, the subject matter is pretty dark at times. But the writing isn't dark. It's not overly heavy. It's not - The Road (which is good because it's done right).

Paul's written a story that screams noir. But it's also pretty weird. The Client has lost her fingers and somebody else's fingers have been put on her hand instead. She goes to Chance to figure it all out.

Paul has injected himself into the story, which I think works here. It was pretty funny having his internal argument in the middle of the page like that.

I've added The Little Sleep (I think it's Paul's first book) to my wishlist. If it's written in the same style, I think it'll be pretty entertaining.

I liked his novel, but LOVED his collection In the Mean Time. THAT's an awesome collection. I reviewed it at TNB if you want the details:

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rthomas/2011/01/itmt_tremblay/

I loved this story. It's one that has really stuck in my mind. Not only is it incredibly funny, but it also reveals so damn many things about human nature. Primarily our inability to be content with the way things are. So much so that we will risk it all for a chance at happiness, even if it means becoming fodder for your one-nightstand's cretaceous fledglings.

Yet:

Funnier than a hovering laundry load of shit-stained sheets.

I liked the risks Paul took with this piece. Like I mentioned earlier, he has taken (if this is the right term for it) a somewhat deconstructivist approach to storytelling.

Essentially he tells the reader that what the reader is reading is a story he is in the process of writing eventhough he acknowledges and embraces this impossibility with a nice bit of narrative humor:

It can't be now:the writer
because I'll have written this before you read it. A minor detail.

Turning storytelling inside out.

Again I have to bring up the use of humor. How funny would it be if a client showed up to a Dick's office seeking services only to discover that she was wearing his digits? And he was wearing hers? Mystery is solved yet remains unsolved.

Also, Pela seems to have grouped together a nice trifecta of humor with Pierce, Tremblay and Sands. Not that there aren't shades of humor before and after, just that these three in a row really roll out the humor. The pivotal transition at the end of Bradley's piece (his self realization) nicely foreshadows things to come: darker laughter?

In my opinion, if it's not done right, it totally shakes you out of the dream and makes it hard to be involved in the story. But if done right, it can be really cool. It's sort of like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Ferris will look right at the camera and tell the audience something.

It seems to work really well in this story. When that was the 2nd section, I worried that it was going to ruin the story. But I ended up really liking that aspect.

Soccer Moms and Pro Wrestler Dads by Bradley Sands

As I hinted to earlier, one of my fears with this collection was we were going to have 30 similar sounding stories/voices. So far I haven't read even one that was what I was expecting.

I've been pushing Bradley on people ever since I read Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You. I loved that book. It was one of the most entertaining reads I've had in a long time.

So Bradley was one of the people I was really looking forward to reading in this collection. I knew, if anything, he was going to entertain me. And he didn't disappoint.

Like Rico Slade, the story seems light and humorous. Until you realize what's really going on. And that he's got a little bit darker message that the humor is lightening up.

Great story. I really need to get on buying more of Bradley's work. I've loved everything I've read by him. And he's a really cool guy.

LOVED this story. So funny, but it has that underlying darkness. I think there is a podcast of him reading this story. Let me see if I can find that link.

FOUND IT:

http://www.welcometothevelvet.com/podcast/2010/04/episode-010-live-%E2%8...

Take Arms Against a Sea by Mark Jaskowski

This story was more along the lines of what I was expecting from this collection - which isn't a bad thing at all. I was excited for Warmed and Bound for a reason.

This story felt a little like Baer's Sometimes Rachel.

Fast past. Tight writing. Dirty. Just a solid story.

I think that this could easily be expanded into something larger.

Anybody know if Mark's got anything in the works? This is the first I've even heard of him. I definitely want to read more of his stuff.

Chance the Dick by Paul G Tremblay

I think what is surprising me the most about this collection so far is that it's not totally dark. I mean, the subject matter is pretty dark at times. But the writing isn't dark. It's not overly heavy. It's not - The Road (which is good because it's done right).

Paul's written a story that screams noir. But it's also pretty weird. The Client has lost her fingers and somebody else's fingers have been put on her hand instead. She goes to Chance to figure it all out.

Paul has injected himself into the story, which I think works here. It was pretty funny having his internal argument in the middle of the page like that.

I've added The Little Sleep (I think it's Paul's first book) to my wishlist. If it's written in the same style, I think it'll be pretty entertaining.

Loved this one. Definitely in my top 5. I've not read either of Tremblay's books so had no idea what to expect either.

I like how on the one hand its a pulp-noir style story, but on the other it's so much else going on. The odd, almost cyberpunk, vibe that came with the swapping of the fingers was interesting enough, combo that with the broken-fourth-wall style narration and we're onto a real winner. A very clever piece of work.

And a brave effort - could have so easily come across as pretentious and self centred but it didn't. It's a nice little experiment that uses the short story form a little differently. I wondered if this was always written this way, or if maybe this started out as a more 'regular' noir story that he decided needed a bit of a twist?

Anyway, Tremblay gets a place on my to-buy list after this.

I agree with everything you say here. And, no joke, I wondered the same things.

Of course. Edited. Duh, Tremblay it is.

I'm always doing that - especially when I've come across a bunch of new names in a short time. You gotta kick me in the ass when I'm being dumb.

Also,

This was another of my favourites. Like you, Pete, I found the genius that is Bradley's writing after reading Rico Slade. I'll be the first to admit I'm not a big bizarro reader, to date I've read maybe four or five books in the genre tops.

Rico was a bit of a eye-opener. This stuff can actually be good? Awesome!

So, on a full 180 spin, Bradleys story in W&B ended up being one of those I was looking forward to the most. Didn't disappoint. Right from the start, the whole "anarchy rules, pee-wee soccer rules" part, it was good stuff. Bradley has a killer habit of making truthful and 'ordinary' statements sound bizarre and humorous. I'd be terrified of writing that way, in constant fear of it falling on its face and just not being very funny. Seems Mr Sands has no such problem. TV Snorted My Brain is going to be great.

Also, weird point maybe, but with the presentation of the book, and knowing the subjects that a lot of the authors in this anthology write about, was any one else glad to get to a story that they knew they were able to take light heartedly? After all there’s some quite heavy stuff in some of the other stories.

Hey all-

Kind of late to the conversation, but I thought I'd chime in with Paul's story. I teach The Little Sleep in two of my classes, so I was stoked to have his story to proof for the final copy. He was saying that Chance the Dick was sort of test-driving the opening scene of TLS, and they ended up working together really well as a self-reflexive, deconstructing short. I haven't read them yet, but HARLEQUIN AND THE TRAIN and CITY PIER: ABOVE AND BELOW delve further into that metafiction aspect, while keeping the dark vibe.

Too, it's not often that I laugh aloud when reading, but Bradley's story almost had me crying. If you've never seen him read, you're missing out.

Forgot:

Mark Jaskowski said he'd send me something at Dirty Noir, so if not, I'll cut his ankles. He should publish more, though.

This is a great discussion you guys are having, by the way.

Who are you? Korpon? If so, I think you story is the next story in the book. So I should be reading that some time today and posting my thoughts.

edit - never mind. I looked you up in the Writer's Workshop.

And just finished it.

This Will All End Well by Nik Korpon

Nik won me over ever since I read his novella Old Ghosts. Then I read his story in Speed Loader and loved it too. So I've had his novel Stay God sitting on my "to read" pile forever now. I've wanted to get to it, but I always have to read something else.

So Nik's story was one of the stories I was really looking forward to in this collection. And he sure didn't disappoint.

If you've read any of his stuff before, you'll recognize the style. It's dark and dirty. Basically, it's what Matt talks about when he says "Dirty Noir."

This story is highly recommended if you're going to skip around in the book. (After this one, read Bradley's story) Now I really want to get around to Stay God more than ever.

Nik is awesome. It's a good story, and Stay God is even better, so you'll definitely want to rearrange your book queue.

Even if Major Inversions is the book above it?

I'm also looking forward to TV Snorted My Brain.

ahem. Strike that. I would not want to have to follow his, so please, yes, as you were. haha

Hey Gordon, I flipped over to your story just to see how far I am from it. It starts as a script (or in script format). Is that a nod to Stephen Graham Jones' Demon Theory? Or should I hold on to that question until after I read it?

Yep, that's me. Thanks for the kind words, the both of yehs.

Gordon's story is fantastic. Don't ask questions, just fall into it, say 'Hey, wait,' then read it again.

Listen to Korpon, he knows of what he speaks. Too, Major Inversions is a hell of a good read.

I'm stoked that all you authors that are in the book are checking in. It's mighty cool of you.

But you might want to introduce yourselves for people that might not know you.

enjoi is Chris Deal

wickerkat = Richard Thomas
nikronomican = Nik Korpon
enjoi = Chris Deal
furleyguy = Gordon Highland

the rest (Pela Via, Bob Pastorella, Brandon Tietz, etc.) are self explanatory. good point though, Pete, those that aren't around here a lot these days should maybe tell us who you are, just to be safe.

I will do this after everybody goes Anarchy.

Bradley's story fucking rules in more ways than one. Excellent voice in this pissed off teen. I have two of these p.o.t's, so I am familiar with teen anarchy-angst. Beautiful.

Particularly the reveal. That underneath all of the bitterness and anger there is a confused kid just expressing himself the only way he knows how...so he doesn't actually go anarchy.

My kids loved this one too, and they are hella tough to fool. This borders on cutting edge YA. The shit youngsters want to read. Well, youngsters and old men like me too.

Korpon has a new novella coming out shortly from OW Press, called By the Nails of the Warpriest. It's like Axel Taiari and Nik has a weird love child.

That sounds interesting.

Actually, we kinda did, but thanks for spoiling the surprise and making it weird now.

Wish I could remember the login info for my old account, but oh well. Hi.

Just to get the self-centered rubbish out of the way: thanks so much for all the kind words regarding Death Juggler, folks. There's a special kind of fear in knowing you're warming up the stage/audience before the rest of the cast and heavy-hitters make their grand entrance.

For the handful of you who wondered if I had anything else available: I got about fifteen short stories out there for free, most of them are listed on www.axeltaiari.com - though not all. I've lost some over the years, purposely hid some, and some of the magazines have unfortunately faded away. Some of them (Scavenging, The Fighter) share Death Juggler's world. And there's one out in the wild featuring Asher's brother, and you'll have to dig deep through the interweb to find it - I'd rather let curious souls puzzle out by themselves why this unnamed story is so very close to Death Juggler in its content and plot.

Best thing I can offer if you want something longer is the aforementioned A Light To Starve By, assuming you don't mind a digital format and 99 cents. Just under 30 pages. To hell with glittery vampires.

You're such a sweetheart. Let's cuddle.

As for the anthology itself, man, where do I start? Some of the highlights:

I don't care if this is considered circle-jerking, but I've yet to be disappointed by the usual suspects : Nik Korpon, Caleb J. Ross, Richard Thomas, Chris Deal. Their novels/collections/short stories are stunning, and their work in Warmed And Bound did not disappoint.

I'm really just discovering Gordon Highland's work, and I blasted through Major Inversions not three days ago, over a year since he personally handed me a copy. It was fucking amazing.

Pela Via's prose delivers the kind of gut-punches that make me want to quit writing and go work in a cubicle for the rest of my life. The heartbreak unleashed by some of those stories (Touch, of course, especially) is too heavy for me to deal with, makes me reach for the nearest pack of smokes.

Amanda Gowin. My god. Her story moved me in a very subconscious way, the same way I can't explain some of Amy Hempel's stories and yet I still find myself bawling my eyes out by the end.

I'm writing this in a hurry, so I'll have to stop now and write another post later. I could keep this list going for ages. I have a tough time finding even a stinker in the bunch, which is without a doubt because of Pela Via's ruthless yet gentle editing.

So yeah - more namedropping later. In the meantime, two "fun" things:

-Once you get past the foreword/intro, the anthology starts with a bang. A literal one. That was fun to do, even if no one notices.

-Once you've read the entire anthology, I strongly suggest re-reading Erickson's foreword. In such a small amount of words, he absolutely nails everything he says about the anthology, including, but not limited to, Clevenger's flawless and crucial sentence.

EDIT: Nik Korpon's By the Nails of the Warpriest is the best novella I've read in my entire life. There, I've said it. Bitch did cramp my style just a little, but it's okay. There's a very hush-hush project coming up where I get to unleash some serious Korpon-styled noir.

erickson is the man - great to see you here again, Axel, you know i'm a big fan, bro, LOVE The Fighter, i can still picture scenes from that story

people, pick up anything Axel does, he and Nik are some serious neo-noir ass kicking bastards, dark brothers i'm happy to call family

Guys, seriously, get yourself a copy of Axel's story . When it comes to Horror fiction, especially Vampires, I'm overly and viciously critical. I am also overly and viciously certain that Axel may have written one of the best Vampire stories ever. Check it out.

Is there another place to get that story? I have a nook.

Kindle only - unfortunately. Since it's a reprint, I really wanted to limit the whole self-publishing angle, and only went with Amazon. One day I might decide to with Smashwords and therefore spread it to other e-bookstores - but that's highly unlikely.

If you don't have an iPad/Kindle, really there are two possibilities:

A ) Technical: since I made the story DRM free, you can buy it from Amazon and then use something like Calibre ( http://calibre-ebook.com/ ) to convert it to the Nook's format. Plenty of guides on how to do this online - but it's not for the faint of heart, and I wouldn't recommend it because I don't want you to spend a dollar on something you can't enjoy.

B ) The Kindle app is also available for OSX and Windows and a lot of devices ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/kcp ). Since the story is just under thirty pages, I usually recommend people just download the Kindle app for their platform and read it on that. I would never advertise reading on a computer monitor, but I gotta say, Amazon did a fantastic job with their app, including a really nice "dark" mode with white text on black background, really easy on the eye.

Anyway, I really really don't want to hijack this thread with too much talk of a non-Warmed And Bound story, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to send a PM, or reach out on Twitter/FB/G+. I'll gladly help and/or chat

A Light... is definitely worth reading, just to add. Fantastically written story.