Warmed and Bound - Book Club September '11

Well, I have Calibre. I convert stuff as a last resort if I can't buy it somewhere else. So, yeah - I can buy it from amazon and convert it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason Axel is lovely.

Plus his name is fuckin' Axel.

hey, do you know how i can break up the pages/chapters so they match up with the text size on my kobo?? please, understand, i got it for fifty bucks. i didnt realize it had like no selection at the time....

I really don't know anything about getting all technical with the converting.

Midnight Souls by Christopher J Dwyer

This story had a pretty original idea. It flew by. Before I knew it it was over. And it kind of ended the way I was rooting for it to end (though when I say "rooting" I hint at a happy ending - it wasn't).

Christopher has a dark style of writing. It flows nicely and is pretty poetic. Some of his metaphors seemed like too much and didn't work for me. But that's a small complaint because I really did enjoy this story a lot.

I actually started When October Falls a while ago at work. I was really digging it. But then I something happened (I don't remember what) and I had to stop reading it and then I honestly forgot all about it.

I need to pick that one back up again.

Warmed and Bound is turning my "to read" pile into a mountain!

The Tree of Life by Edward J Rathke

Eddy has managed to take a story that would be grand scale - World News - and made it very personal and internal. It chaos, riots, some kind of attack outside the window. But all the conversations revolve about Jenny and her two lovers.

It's kind of like what M. Knight did with Signs. It's the story of aliens attacking Earth. But really it's the story about how you would handle it.

The Killer by Brian Evenson

For some reason this story felt a lot like Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat. The tone, matter of fact descriptions, I don't know. But I really liked it.

The whole time I was thinking Santon was the killer. Oh wait, Alma was the killer. No, he's just crazy and having a hard time with reality and fantasy blending. Who the hell knows?

Brian has 10 or so books out there. I was a little surprised by that seeing as I've never heard of him. I'll have to check out some of his other stuff.

Along with Tremblay's story, this was one of my favorites by a writer that I hadn't previously read anything by.

I found it fascinating. These paranoid kinds of delusion are some of the most entertaining crises to see a character dragged through. I've not come across many short stories that do it so well. Novels sure, A Scanner Darkly for example, or for something more recent - Stay God by Korpon. Short stories though? If I had to guess I'd say it generally goes better in longer works because pulling a character apart with paranoia is easier if you've had time to build that character up a bit first. Just a theory.

But Evenson kicks ass with this short. Hooked me in right away. I was thinking the whole way through, "This character is just nuts. Isn't he? Is he? Yeah, he is. But is he really?"

And again, like with Tremblay, I have a new name on my 'to-buy' list. It seems he’s a established author, anyone got any recommendations for a novel of his to pick up?

I ordered Tremblay's first novel. Amazon had it for $5.

I'm also adding Evenson to my "To-Read" list.

He also does work under the name BK Evenson. A couple Aliens graphic novels and a couple Halo books, I think. Something else, too, but I can't think of it right now.

I actually put The Open Curtain in my wishlist already. lol

I paused at Wavering Knife, but I wanted to try a novel.

Headshot by Gordon Highland

Hey Gordon, modesty must be your best quality. You said you didn't want to follow Nik. I'm sure there are a lot of authors that were intimidated by following you.

The problem with this collection is - every time I finish a story, I think, "Now this is my favorite story." And then I get to the next one... Before I start another story I flip through the ones before and they're all screaming at me, "No you liked me more, you liked me more!"

But back to Gordon's story. His story was all over the place. I didn't know what to think or where this was all going. Nik was right. You just got to sit back and ride this one out.

Great story. Good writing. Just a lot of fun.

Major Inversions might just have moved up a little on this never ending to-read pile.

Inside Out by Sean P Ferguson

Another thing that is surprising about this whole collection is how original everything is. I don't think I've really seen any recycled stories. No new takes on the same thing. It's all pretty new and diverse.

As for Sean's story. This is what society has become. This is horror for our age. The most realistic horror story in the collection so far. We are a society that makes people famous for nothing.

Look at Casey Anthony. She can't go to the mall without the gossip mags printing it. What happened with her and her daughter (whether she was guilty or not) was a tragedy. Now she needs to be forgotten about. She's not a star. And I don't care what flavor she buys at Starbucks.

Sean captures that thought process nicely in this story. He shows how it can twist your life around. Make you into something that you're not. He shows how things can get out of control. And then it has a great ending.

Laws of Virulence by Jeremy Robert Johnson

Jeremy's story was another one that I was stoked to read. I haven't read any of his stuff since we had a Book Club discussion for Angel Dust Apocalypse a long time ago. I loved that book. And Jeremy is just a cool guy.

So yeah, it was like kind of like that feeling when a new Chuck book comes out or whenever Ellis decides to finally release a new one. You recognize the style and instantly get sucked in.

The whole time I was reading this I was thinking - this guy is crazy and he just murdered his family. But Jeremy didn't take any cheap ways out. It wasn't just a dream. And he managed to kill his family by trying to save them.

So, yeah, I've added another book to my wishlist... Extinction Journals (actually it was in there, but it has slowly moved to the back and I moved it to the front).

Kudos to Gordon and JRJ for contributing the two least conventional stories in the book. Both the script in the first part of Headshot and the odd transcript form that Jeremy used worked really well.

I always enjoy seeing people use an odd format to tell a story. Also these two provided a nice change of pace to the book.

Good fun.

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I dialed back my usual prose style and went for something a little more plotty this time. The idea was to write about a controlling person losing control of a situation, so the scripted section is both a literal and meta/thematic manifestation of that. Going nonlinear with the timeline makes you reprocess the previous happenings at the end. And then the girl being a special-effects artist I thought might also add an element of doubt, but I didn't take that aspect quite as far as I maybe could've.

The Killer
A True Story
Based on the Book

I dug Evenson's piece as well. Great comparison to Tremblay. I agree with that.

The smooth matter-of-fact delivery sells it so (seemingly) effortlessly. And again in this piece like in so many others (Gordon, looking at you) the velvet noir humor is at its best.

There is a bit of tongue-in-cheek flavoring that he teases the reader with, then flips it, like Martin alluded to, see-sawing our belief.

The end leaves us wondering if she kills him or not, leaving the story to continue perpetually in our minds. I am still wondering.

I loved the 'genuflect' thing but was somewhat disappointed to discover that it didn't really go anywhere. Still I genuflect to Evenson's accomplishments. His work is always entertaining and insightful.

Words, when they brush up against people, swell and split and branch. They become unmanageable.

Bruised Flesh by Craig Wallwork

What I took from this story is this: Sometimes you can get so caught up trying to reach your goals that you forget what your goals were (or why you were trying to reach them).

I was just joking yesterday with my brother that my dad is so lazy he doesn't know how to bond with us. He says to us, "Hey I just say that there is this show on TV that you might enjoy." That is him trying to bond because he won't do anything else besides watch TV and go to work.

So, sometimes the intentions are there, but the father just might not know how to do it right.

This was a really well written story. When I saw the long paragraphs, I groaned. But it ended up sucking me in.

i have to say that ALL THE ACID IN THE WORLD is now probably my favorite short story, like ever. just fucking awesome.

Blame it on the Eschers.

Yes, another great and highly original story that accomplishes alot in just a few pages.

I liked the narrator in Sean's piece, the innocent teen seduced by his best friend's mother (awkward and desired simultaneously). Shit, how many teen boys fantasize about just such an encounter? I said fantasize. The real thing can have devastating implications. Not only do you run the certain risk of losing your best friend, but psychologically an early teen male is hardly prepared for so much female. I think Sean made this point well.

I assumed that the best friend killed his mother after what he witnessed? The story didn't go into those details too much and didn't need to, another reason it was so strong.

Drawing connections, Sean's piece reminded me a bit of Axel's...in that we are kind of living in this entertainment circus where the worse shit is, the more entertaining it is.

Hurtpleasure, Schadenfreude, whatever you wanna call it, it is what sells presently. We like to see how fucked up other peoples lives can be. Why? So we can say "I am glad that is not me," or "See, there are other people just as fucked up as I am, or worse."

But ultimately the Inside Out protag knows what he is doing is wrong:

Please, forgive my sins.

but is too fucked up from the trauma to do anything about it. It numbs the pain. Celebrity and Fortune, that is.

there were some incredible bright spots in that novel, though

Bad, Bad, Bad Bad Men by Craig Davidson

I love Craig Davidson's writing. The Fighter is up there as one of my favorite books. But I actually liked his writing before I even read that. I read a story of his a long time ago in a magazine (I want to say Esquire, but I'm probably wrong) about him taking steroids as research for a book he was writing. The article was so well written I said - I need to buy this fucking book.

Anyway, this story was great. I think it was the longest one so far. It felt, content wise, like it was much longer, but it flew by as if it was much shorter. Does that make sense? I mean, I instantly felt like I've known the characters for a while. And the story had a lot packed into it. But it flew by. I didn't feel like I read as many pages as I did.

When it started getting to the snake parts (which I think is a great example of "Hiding the Gun"), I couldn't help but thinking of this song (which is based on an old parable):

The Snake
On her way to work one morning
Down the path along side the lake
A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
"Poor thing," she cried, "I'll take you in and I'll take care of you"
"Take me in tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake

She wrapped him all cozy in a comforter of silk
And laid him by her fireside with some honey and some milk
She hurried home from work that night and soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she'd taken to had bee revived
"Take me in, tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake

She clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried
"But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died"
She stroked his pretty skin again and kissed and held him tight
Instead of saying thanks, the snake gave her a vicious bite
"Take me in, tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake
"I saved you," cried the woman
"And you've bitten me, but why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
"Take me in, tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake

Three Theories on the Murder of John Wily by J David Osborne

This story was pretty fun. The way it was written kinda reminded me of how some movies are shot. Wasn't Tomcats shot that way? Where 3 or 4 people are telling the same story?

Any way, it was written as if it was purely throwing facts out there. I mean, it had that tone. But then there would be a line hidden that was just ridiculous or funny or whatever that broke everything up. I think that could have gone bad, but it was just the right balance to not make it goofy.

The funeral guest went back inside the house, dead set on finishing the moonshine in the bathtub.

My only gripe is that we never find out what happens. But to be fair, the title only promised us three theories.

The Road Lester Took by Stephen Graham Jones

I can't believe this one hasn't really gotten mentioned. SGJ is a favorite around here. I'm sure people bought this collection just to read a new story by him and Clevenger.

I think I said the same thing about Davidson's story, but yeah, this story packs in a lot. I feel as if I read a novella. It was long for the book, but read really fast, yet packed a shit load of story into it. I obviously don't know how to put that into words right because I had the same problem doing it with Davidson's story.

It's frustrating when you see somebody that is basically good. But they keep getting caught up in bad decisions. Like, if it was just one decision that they made different, or one that turned out different, they wouldn't be a bad person. They would actually be a good person.

I feel like this story kind of toes that line a little. It was all because of Johnny. That guy ruined everything for Lester.

This story reminded me why I love reading Stephen Graham Jones. It also reminded me that I'm about due to buy another one of his books. It's been a while since I've read one.

If you have a Kindle, hit up Seven Spanish Angels, his most recent. There is the phenomenal The Ones That Got Away, a particularly awesome short story collection. He does have several novels forthcoming.

The Bird is Gone and The Fast Red Road were the next ones I wanted to read by him.

I do want to read Seven Spanish Angels, but I don't have a kindle...

My German Daughter by Nic Young

I found this story incredibly sad. After you finish the last line, go back and read the first paragraph (the one in italics). It hurts so much more.

I think that this was the shortest story so far. Which means that the things that aren't said probably say more than what's on the page. The blank spaces hold just as much weight as the words.

I wanted to do a little research on this before I posted anything, because I wasn't really sure how I felt about it. I came up on Jay's page where he interviewed a few of the guys. Nic said in that interview that this story was true. Not sure how true, or in what way, or if he was the narrator, but yeah, that makes it even more...

What Was There Inside the Child by Blake Butler

I'm not even going to pretend that I got this story at all. It didn't make much sense to me.

I will say that he made some pretty interesting word connections. I feel like he was telling a story and I just wasn't getting it.

But, I've never been one for "stream-of-conscious" writing. I understand it as an exercise, but not as an art.

Seed by Gayle Towell

OK, now this is for sure the shortest story I've read in the book so far. If you take away the title, it would be a page long.

But in that short time, she conveys the emotions of loss. Of confusion.

And really pulls you into the despair that she is feeling.

I sure hope that this wasn't a true story too.

I loved Gayle's story. Total heartbreaker.

Yeah I wish I could say more about it, but it was only a page long and it kind of left me speechless.

edit - I never thought of comparing a fetus to a gummy bear though. And after seeing Gayle do it, it felt oddly appropriate (looks wise). But then it also gives you that disgusting image that inevitably comes next and it horrified me.

I am very amused by this typo.

Got my contributor's copy in the mail the other day and haven't started reading it yet. It took a while for me to get my hands on it because it had trouble finding me.

Beautiful story. Crushing story. Takes a special tale indeed to be both of these things.

If this is fiction then it's a fantastic example of what flash-fiction can do. A common complaint about flash is that it just makes you want more over and over again. That ideas that could flesh a proper short story are being wasted on a lower word count. This shows that doesn't have to be the case.

If it isn't fiction then most of the above still applies, but the added angle of being heartbreaking. Damn, Gayle must have a spine of steel to write it if it's memoir. Must have hurt, because it stung me as a reader and I've never been near a situaton like that.

Wasn't sold on this one. I was excited to get to it as what I have read by SGJ has been good and he gets immense amounts of praise round these parts. (Have to admit , I've been sleeping on his stuff for a while, I'm more familiar with Clevenger and Baer's work. I've read All The Beautiful Sinners and then a bunch of short stories)

But this just didn't grab me. Well written, but didn't have that special something that many of the stories in this book have. Not gonna let it put me off reading more of his stuff though, I know he's written plenty that I am likely to enjoy and I have The Fast Red Road on my shelf at the moment. Will get to that soon.

There is No Year by "Black" Butler is one of my favorite books that I've read this year.

You're a fan of that stream-of-conscious type writing?

Hey faithful readers, I'm sure I already asked this, but please, please, please, when you finish the book, take some time to review it at Amazon, or B&N, or both if you can. Be honest with your rating, because honesty goes a long way, at least with me, plus too many five star ratings looks mighty suspicious. We would all appreciate the ratings though, and a thoughtful review if you can spare the time. I promise you we will all repay the favor when one of you supercool people have something that needs promoting/reviewing. Thanks, and I'm so glad you all are enjoying the collection.

They Take You by Kyle Minor

The idea of Cults and Religious Communities have always fascinated me. I've read a few articles and watched a few documentaries. I just don't understand how someone can brainwash so many people and then get them to live cut off from everybody else.

But, what if that was all you've known? What if you were born into it? You would take it all for granted and you would have a very different outlook on it compared to somebody like me (who is looking on in horror).

Kyle did that with this story. I really think that this one can be expanded into something much longer. It would make a great novella or even novel. It still worked as a short story though. I liked it.

I liked how he portrayed the hidden emotions. You have to act a certain way or get punished. Just because you're smiling doesn't mean you're happy.

And Bob, I'll try to review it when I'm done for sure.

Kyle's story struck a chord with me as well. He's a great writer who is probably just hitting his stride, so we can only expect to see better and better things from him.

I'm a fan of the kind of writing that appears in There is No Year. It's the third book I've read by him and I wasn't crazy about the first two. I haven't read his story (or any story) in this anthology yet, although I published a really great story of his a while back in my journal, Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens.

This story was the biggest surprise for me. I managed to see Kyle do a reading recently and was mesmerized. The man has pure talent and I cannot wait to seek out his collection and his novel, whenever that gets finished. Too, he is rather amusing when drunk.

Kyle's story was a former Spinetingler nominee, and was published at least once, maybe twice, elsewhere before.

The Redemption of Garvey Flint by Vincent Louis Carrella

This story didn't feel as "contemporary" as the other stories to me. It felt almost like something Cormac McCarthy could have written. It was almost an exercise in unpacking.

This was less story and more telling until we get almost to the end.

When Charles hits Garvey I was surprised. I thought this was going to be a straight-forward story of Garvey coming home and having his brother fix everything. The end. But it was a little more than that.

This is another story that I feel could be made into something much longer. In fact, I think it would be great as something much longer.

Blood Atonement DeLeon DeMicoli

I found this story incredibly bleak and sad. I mean, I started rooting for the man when everybody in the story was shitty. I shouldn't have rooted for anybody. I guess in a story full of bad people, you end up picking the least bad person and sympathizing for them.

This story was told in an almost detached way. The whole thing was just so matter-of-fact and straight forward. Up until the very end it was just - here's what happened. Here are the facts.

It really wasn't what I was expecting at all.