Michael Swanwick's Blog, page 181

Ghoulies and Home

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 21)So we are opening a passage elsewhere."

(Continued tomorrow.)


And my commentary . . .   It only makes sense that our monsters have time-space powers far superior to anything we can imagine.  They can pop out of closets in locked homes at will, after all.

You can read all of the story to date here.

And I'm home  . . .  
I came back from vacation with a specimen box (above) filled with exemplars of what I did on my belated summer vacation.  I collected beach glass, pebbles, driftbricks, a flicker's wing, the castoffs of the ocean.  And memories, you ask?  Did I collect memories?
Well, no.  It wasn't that kind of vacation.  In Yekaterinburg and Newfoundland I collected memories.  This past week I rested.
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Ghoulies and Endings

. From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 20)   Soon you will be extinct.

(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . .   Remember the first paragraph?  The lingering summer weather?  The field that crunched underfoot?  It's not necessary that the reader catch any of that.  But the logic of the story demands this underpinning.

You can read all of the story to date here.

And my vacation is over  . . .  Today I go home.   For a week I've been eating seafood:  Clams, oysters, scallops, shrimp, lobster, cod (two ways), and pastrami-cured salmon.  And when I reach Roxborough, I'm going to stop in the Super Fresh to buy the biggest, REDDEST steak I can find.Thus do luxuries arouse our desires for what they are not.
Above:  .Sunset.*

Ghoulies and the End of My Vacation

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 19)   "Your kind has ruined this world.

(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . .   Yeah, there's a subtext here.  You almost can't avoid subtext in stories with monsters.  And horror naturally tends toward the moralistic.  But it's only in-your-face obvious when you slow down the reading process as I have here.

You can read all of the story to date here.

And I'm still on vacation . . .  Today's my last day of vacation.  There hasn't been a lot of not-doing that I haven't not-done.  I've lazed, lolled, and loafed.  I've snoozed, napped, slept in, and occasionally rested my eyes.  And I haven't written down a fraction of the story ideas that course through my head.Monday I get back to work.  But I'll think bout that tomorrow.

Above: A flicker's wing, found on the beach.  Nature's like that.  Those who have a problem with violence and death should stay in the city.*

.From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . ....

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 18)   Maybe that was what had drawn this creature to him.

(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . .  
So I've said it.  We are our own monsters.

You can read all of the story to date here.

And I'm still on vacation . . .
  Which means that I have nothing to say.  Other than:  Hey, man, check out that monarch butterfly above.   A certain number of whom have lingered after the great migration.Today the fall migration was dominated by sharp-shinned hawks.
Above: A monarch.

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. From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . ...

. From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 17)   Everything that kids loved even though they knew they shouldn't.


(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . . 

And there it is, my definition of monsters:  Everything that people feared even though they know better.  Everything that kids loved even though they knew they shouldn't.  You may feel free to find fault with it if and even throw rocks in its direction if you wish.  But I'm pleased with it.

You can read all of the story to date here.


And I'm still on vacation . . .
 
There are only so many ways to do nothing:  walks along the beach, wandering through antique shops, naps, jigsaw puzzles, light verse, wine . . .  But to be mastered, they must be done intensely and often.  So I am putting my all into them.


Above: Reflections of dock pylons on water .

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.From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . ....

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 16)   Everything that people feared even though they knew better.


(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . . 

Here it is, the first half of my definition of monsters.  Read the second half tomorrow and then tell me you can do better.  Keeping in mind that when we call the likes of Hitler a monster, we're speaking metaphorically.  

You can read all of the story to date here.


And I'm still on vacation . . .

So I only wrote one story today, "A Letter from the Ocean to the Land."  Now I have to find a good crab shell to write it on and a suitable small glass case to hold the shell.

Above:  Driftwire.

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Ghoulies and Floating Islands

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 15)   Kenny had spent the afternoon drawing monsters in his math workbook:  vampires, ghouls, giant spiders, frankensteins, werewolves..  


(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . .

As mentioned yesterday, Kenny is an imaginative kid.  Here it's suggested -- just suggested -- that he may have unintentionally called the eyeless man to him.  Summoned him up, as it were, from the depths of the human mind.

You can read all of the story to date here.


And this morning . . .

I went to the ocean and, looking through binoculars, saw a mirage:  An island on the horizon which seemed to float above the water.  It was wooded and there were white-walled buildings to one side of it, but there was definitely a line of clear sky between it and the sea.

I'm going to set a story on that island someday.  Maybe even a mainstream story.

Above:  The ghost of a leaf. 
 
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Ghoulies and Ospreys

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 14)   Kenny didn't have to ask who he meant.  


(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . .

A quiet sentence today.  In flash fiction, you can't spend a lot of time establishing character.  But it should be obvious by now that Kenny is an imaginative kid.   Whether he's bookish or rowdy and outdoorsy (I was both) is mostly up to the reader. 

You can read all of the story to date here.


And this morning . . .

I walked a half-block to the beach, where I saw three ospreys in the air over the ocean.  They're beautiful flyers.  I saw one wheel, dive, strike the water, and rise up with a glint of silver in its talons.

It took long decades of what largely looked like futile efforts -- protecting areas the ospreys did not deign to return to, building nest platforms they ignored -- to bring the ospreys back from the brink of extinction in New Jersey.  But today I saw three at once.  Later, I saw a pod of dolphins at play.  When I first started coming to the Shore three decades ago, you only rarely saw dolphins.  Now they're a commonplace.

So to all the people who did the work . . . thank you.  

Above:  Agardh's Red Weed, I believe. 
 
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From Ghoulies . . .

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 13)  
"We are leaving, boy, all of us,” the pale man said.  


(Continued tomorrow.)
 

And my commentary . . .

I bet you didn't see that one coming.   Stories are a mysterious invention.  If you go over them one sentence at a time -- as I have, often -- you discover that they make sudden leaps and unexpected twists, one after the other.  Provided that they're at all well made, of course.

You can read all of the story to date here.


And as always . . .

I'm on the road again!  So my blogging may be a touch sparser for usual for the next week.  But don't worry -- "From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties..." will continue to be serialized, one sentence per day.  I guarantee.


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From Ghoulies and Sir Plus . . .

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From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggitie Beasties . . .

(Part 12)

 He tried to pull away, but those bony fingers held him like shackles. 


(Continued tomorrow.)

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We have achieved menace -- now it's a Halloween story!   You can read all of the story to date here.


And speaking of my office . . .

Thanks to Rina Weisman, who both found and acted as my agent in the acquisition of it, I have now have a bust of the immortal Sir Plus in my office!  You have no idea how this fact fills me with joy.

Also visible in this picture are the framed original typescript for "From Ghoulies and Ghosties, Long-Leggetie Beasties . . .," a lantern filled with keys,  the book press where I keep my correspondence with Aubrey Darger, four dilophosaur legs (from a Robert Walters poster), and a couple of unfinished writing projects.


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