29 September 2010

"God give us the blood to keep going"

I've had a bit of trouble getting a handle on my current work-in-progress.  It had such a promising start, judging from the critiques the first two acts have received.  But I struggled with the third act, so I took some time away from it to write other things.

This story's for a closed anthology, and it's due in about a month.  Time to get cracking again!  So after doing another round of hack-and-slash copyedits, I decided the piece needed a soundtrack.  So I picked some songs to mirror the sort of mood evoked from the picture above, and a couple of songs for different characters' motivations.

Take a listen:
  • Chicago, "Prologue, August 29, 1968"
  • --, "Someday (August 29, 1968)
  • --, "While the City Sleeps"
  • --, "State of the Union"
  • --, "Dialogue (Pt. 1 & 2)"
  • --, "All the Years"
  • Depeche Mode, "Walking in My Shoes"
  • Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, "Battle of the Species"
  • Manic Street Preachers, "If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next"
  • Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens, "I'll Take the Long Road"
  • Sons of Champlin, "Light Up the Candles"
Yes, I know there are a lot of Chicago songs on here, but at least it's their cool '70s and/or Robert Lamm-written stuff.

19 September 2010

"Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours"

My story "The C-Word" has been accepted for the upcoming anthology Cthulhurotica from Dagan Books!


Look for it December 15, 2010!

17 September 2010

"Come have one little warm death with me tonight"

Check out this incredibly awesome book trailer for the upcoming anthology Rigor Amortis, with my story "Sublimation," coming out in October from Absolute XPress

11 September 2010

"I'm on fire/ On the playground, love"

Last Tuesday, I attended the first of this year's Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at one of the local colleges, featuring author Jeffrey Eugenides.  He read an excerpt from his as-yet-untitled latest novel, which appeared in the June 7th New Yorker under the title "Extreme Solitude." If you've had a college love affair of any kind, there's a lot that's familiar about the story.

08 September 2010

"All the little kids growing up in the skids are goin' 'Cleveland rocks! Cleveland Rocks!'"

Over the holiday weekend, I made a long overdue trip to see my family who live a mere 20 minutes down I-90 from the front door to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Of course I've always been fond of my hometown.  Make all the jokes you want about it, but at least we're not Detroit.

Aside from ten years of stuff my folks have accumulated since I left, not a lot is different.  For instance, my old bedroom.  Some of the things tacked to the walls have been there for... Christ... 15 to 20 years.