Dark was the night, cold was the ground

Metafilter has a fascinating post on "Dark Was The Night--Cold Was The Ground" by Blind Willie Johnson and its connections to ancient hymns, the gospels and an Italian movie.

Great ideas that never were: Dungeons & Dragons on TV

BoingBoing explores the concept of a celebrity D&D TV show. This seems like such a natural (as long as the players can avoid becoming embroiled in rule arguments). Apparently, Will Wheaton and members of the Upright Citizen's Brigade (one of the funniest sketch shows ever!) came up with this concept a while back and even presented a pilot to Comedy Central. Wheaton says it was terrific, but the channel didn't pick it up. I want to see this!

Liberal comedian sues blogger

I just want to help MNSpeak drum up some support after Garrison Keillor sent him a cease & desist letter for a T-shirt that says "Prairie Ho Companion." As the blogger rightfully points out, the T-shirt is parody and Keillor has no legal grounds to sue him. However, Keillor could bring it to court and make the blogger spend mucho dollars trying to defend himself. Eventually, Keillor would lose, but the blogger would be left with huge lawyer bills. Welcome to American justice. Keillor should get over himself. (Link found at Bookslut.) There's also a discussion of the case at Metafilter.

Jeffrey Ford, "The Girl in the Glass"

Jeffrey Ford's new novel, "The Girl in the Glass," is a story of a Mexican boy, Diego, growing up as an apprentice con artist on Long Island in the 1930s. Diego later becomes a writer. It's a great story filled with wonderful characters, many of them "freaks" from Coney Island: a dog boy, a strong man, a rubber woman and a knife thrower. It also has wonderful period details, including one about racism on the Island that will later propel the plot.
I love Ford's stories and novels and this one is no exception. Yet, I find this one harder to fall in love with than earlier novels like "The Physiognomy" and "The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque." Part of this, I think, is because the second half of the book seems to click into a mystery plot and follows it through to the climax. It even includes a sneering villain who spells out his plans to Diego.
But the pleasures of this novel far exceed any of my reservations about the plot. Besides the characters, the early chapters about the seances and the first explorations of the mystery behind the girl in the glass are beautiful, funny and exciting.
Here are some reviews of "The Girl in the Glass": John Clute, Cheryl Morgan and The New York Times.
In other Jeffrey Ford news, he's posted a review of Anna Tambour's "Spotted Lilly" at his livejournal. Ford is really good at recommending great fiction. Check out his column "The Virtual Anthology" at Fantastic Metropolis. I'm thankful that he talked about Akutagawa's "Hell Screen," which is a great story. Pick it up if you can find it.

The process of writing a novel

Justine Larbalestier answers a reader's question about how long it take to write a novel. The answer is interesting for those of us curious about how writers perform their craft. It also helps that she's funny. Worth checking out.
In a similar vein, Elizabeth Bear posts about How to become a mid-list writer.

Checking out the LibraryThings

I'm trying out this new Internet device called LibraryThing. It allows you to catalog your library and show what other people have as well. One of the "widgets" they offer is what you see to the right, a list of my most recently added books. I wish they gave you a way to show which book you're currently reading. (Right now it's "The Girl in the Glass.") But, right now it just shows what you've most recently added. So you may see that sidebar change quite a bit as I play with the service and add the many books sitting around my house.
At any time, feel free to comment on what I've got up there. I'd be interest to hear what you have to say.
While I'm thinking of books, be sure to check out Jeffrey Ford's latest post about Kelly Link's "Magic for Beginners."

Book on Japan

I don't know all that much about this, but being a Japan-o-phile (Nippon-phile?), the book Kuhaku & other accounts from Japan from Chin Music Press looks fascinating. And the book itself looks beautiful. I'm going to have to buy this soon. Apparently, they are working on a similar book about New Orleans. (Link found via Bookslut.)

Nowhere Man coming out on DVD

Finally Nowhere Man is coming out on DVD. Most of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. "Nowhere Man" was one of UPN's first shows. It lasted only one season, scheduled right before the abysmal "Star Trek: Voyager."
The show was a combination of "The Prisoner" and "The Fugitive" combined with the fear of identity theft. As the show begins, photographer Thomas Veil is happy with his wife and job. Then he's kidnapped. He escapes only to find that no one remembers him and on paper he officially doesn't exist. All he has to go on is a set of photos that the people who kidnapped him want. So from week to week, Veil travels the country trying to find out who did this to him, without being caught by those same people.
Watching the show on DVD will be frustrating for two reasons:
1. There won't be anymore episodes.
2. It ended on a wild cliff hanger.
Still, I can't wait to get it and see it again. There were some really great surreal episodes in there. There will also be commentaries and deleted scenes on the DVDs, so hopefully some answers will be revealed.

George Saunders on writing and compassion

Over at Maud Newton's blog there's an interview with George Saunders. It's a fascinating talk that focuses on how Saunders goes about his writing as well as the need for compassion in writing.

I think we can make this desire to be compassionate and tender more practical. It seems to me that if a writer 1) pays attention and 2) tries to keep the mind free of preconceptions about what he wants the story to be about (or wants a character to do, etc.) — then he will automatically move towards a story which is richer, more full-hearted, etc. In this model, compassion just means keeping yourself open to the possibilities of the story, which, in turn, means keeping oneself open to the possibilities of the world — what’s actually there, rather than what you want to be there.

Between this and Saunders's story CommComm in a recent New Yorker, I'm getting really interested in his fiction. He apparently has a novel coming out called The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil. But I'll probably start with one of his short story collections.

Jeffrey Ford posts a story

Jeffrey Ford is posting his story "Giant Land" at 14theditch, but he's only leaving it up until Wednesday. So go read it now, and then buy JPPN #2 at Project Pulp. It's got the Ford story and quite a few others that are worth your time.

New Orleans

I haven't been posting much this week and that's directly related to the tragedy going on in New Orleans. I really don't have much to add about the sinking of a great American city and figure it's best to keep my mouth shut while blogs like BoingBoing, Kathryn Cramer, Whatever and many others do great work about the disaster. I only would like to add my plea to the many voices asking you to donate to the Red Cross or whatever organization you think will be able to help the people affected by this tragedy.

Stephen Bissette blogs

Wow, this is great news, comics great Stephen Bissette has a blog, called Myrant. So far he has written about teaching comics, 24-hour comics, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, dinosaurs and a new book he has coming out called "S.R. Bissette's Blur," which is a collection of columns about movies.

Welcome to Myrant, the Bissette blog. It'll be anything goes, day to day, but out of this will emerge a chronology of my current adventures -- as a writer, as a cartoonist, as a teacher. As of September, I will starting a new adventure, teaching at James Sturm and Michelle Ollie's amazing new Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.

Check it out.

On being a copy editor

Lucy Snyder talks about what it's like to be a copy editor and what you have to do.

Newspapers often have a hard time retaining copy editors, which doesn't surprise me given my own experience. The pay was practically nil, you got little appreciation from the other staff when you did your job properly, but if you messed up and overlooked something, you got your butt chewed out.

Welcome to my life. Actually, it's not so bad and I usually thrive on deadline pressure. Give me too much time and I waste it. Still, any 9 to 5 jobs open and I'm listening.

Brothers Grimm

Gwenda Bond calls Brothers Grimm a "terror of mediocrity." That's too bad, I disagree. I thought it was fun and exciting and filled with interesting turns on Grimm fairy tales. It also had the single creepiest scene having to do with the gingerbread man I've ever seen.
In her defense, the movie did have a near-Hollywood ending and was nowhere near the brilliance of Terry Gilliam's best films (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys), but that in no way means this was a bad film. I had a great time.
The movie gets a rotten rating of 38 percent at Rotten Tomatoes. So more than a few people agree with Ms. Bond. Although, I might note that most of the bad reviews still say nice things about the movie. For instance, here's Roger Ebert:

Terry Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm" is a work of limitless invention, but it is invention without pattern, chasing itself around the screen without finding a plot. Watching it is a little exhausting. If the images in the movie had been put to the service of a story we could care about, he might have had something. But the movie seems like a style in search of a purpose.

My recommendation is go see it for yourself. But maybe read a few reviews first to decide if it's your type of film.

Fatness in fiction

Interesting post at Emerald City about using fatness as shorthand for evil in stories. Being a person of somewhat larger than average size (how's that for a euphemism), this concerns me a little when I read a story.
As Cheryl Morgan points out, fatness used to be an easy way to show a character was rich and a boil on society. Today, such a rich person -- say, Paris Hilton -- would most likely be rail thin and carved to "perfection" with plastic surgery.
I couldn't name any recent fiction that featured a main character who was both overweight and heroic in some manner. (I don't mean the traditional sense of daring-do hero, I just mean a character who tries to do the honest, right things.) I'm sure there's some out there, just not many.
Why hasn't this idea changed?

Personal news

There is only one piece of news that I care about right now -- I'm getting married! I proposed to my girlfriend on Saturday and she said yes. I'm a very lucky and happy man. We're planning a November wedding next year.

Finishing Touches by Thomas Tessier

Thomas Tessier has a short column about horror and why he wrote "Finishing Touches," his new book from Leisure, but a book originally released in 1986. Nick Mamatas has reviewed the book. Here's how he sums it up:

At $6.99, and including as a back-up feature the novella "Father Panic's Opera Macabre", Finishing Touches deserves a place atop your commode in the bathroom, if not exactly on the shelf of the best books of the year.

Bookgasm likes it with some reservations:

Tessier’s TOUCHES is a disturbing work and not a predictable one. It will keep you reading, even if the third act is quite anticlimactic and the ending an illogical jumble. The first-person narrative is unremarkable, but that just makes the twists all the more shocking. And the man clearly knows how to write a sex scene, as demonstrated every few pages.

Editor Ellen Datlow has "Finishing Touches" on her Scary Books List (a list, she points out, which needs to be updated.)

Rambles also reviewed "Father Panic's Opera Macabre" in its original incarnation (it is included in the Leisure version of "Finishing Touches.)

Father Panic's Opera Macabre is my first exposure to Tessier's writing and, based on the strength of his build-up and the dramatic execution of his prose, I'm sure I'd like to see more. But Opera Macabre, unfortunately, rushes to the final page and skips whole chapters in the process.

I've only read Tessier's novel "Fogheart" and feel about it the way Mamatas does about "Finishing Touches," it's a good novel, but probably not a great one.

Go read

There's good fiction out there on the Web:

M Rickert's new story Anyway is up at the always reliable SciFiction. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's getting rave reviews and I've enjoyed her many stories in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. But don't take my word for it, read what Matt Cheney has to say about her story Cold Fires. You can also read an interview with M. Rickert at Ideomancer.

Also online is "The Language of Moths" by Christopher Barzak. It's a touching story about growing up, autism and talking with insects. (Found via Jeff Ford's blog.) I read the story when it first appeared in Realms of Fantasy magazine, which doesn't get enough acknowledgement for the good work it does. Realms was where I first read authors like Tim Pratt and Jay Lake. Also, Gahan Wilson's column introduced me to many of my favorite writers, including Jeff Vandermeer.

Novelini

Jonathan Strahan has answered my question: What is a novelini?

Apparently some guy, Adam Engel, has decided to create 20-page novels and call 'em 'novelini'. I love it. It sounds like a cool new marketing term for 'short story', and I hereby dub it so.

Here is an Adam Engel novelini, Man in the Black Suit. And here is Adam Engel's Web site, where he spells it novilini.

Jeffrey Ford blogging

Jeffrey Ford now has a blog called 14theditch on LiveJournal. It already has great stuff on it like a short story What's Sure to Come and his thoughts about Rudyard Kipling. I can't wait to read "The Girl in the Glass," but "The Sunlight Dialogues" seems to be taking up my whole life.