Jonathan L. Howard's Blog, page 20

My tweets

Fri, 12:48 : RT @hierath77: Colin Harvey Memorial Anthology - latest contents list and news! http://t.co/Ngj9D54d via @wordpressdotcom Fri, 12:50 : PLEASE read the previous RT. The anthology is full of hot, fresh new fiction, and it's for a very good cause. Fri, 13:15 : RT @sixthformpoet: THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: How good would Usain Bolt be if he wasn't so cruelly plagued by self-doubt? Fri, 13:58 : RT @reelmolesworth: old custardian borris JOHNSON demand 2 hours games a day for all boys chiz. not his favuored evvent "horrizontal jog ... Fri, 16:18 : When the guy who hawks Fleshlights unfollows you, it's time to take stock of your life. Fri, 17:49 : "Re-Animator: The Musical"? Why was I not told of this?

My tweets

Thu, 12:33 : RT @reddeviljp: Well I never: Virgin Medical Director Graham Henderson is married to Tory Health Minister Ann Milton. Well, well. Thu, 13:51 : RT @DalekThay: That is STRANGE. When I SPEAK into a DESK FAN, I sound like ALAN RICKMAN. Thu, 14:11 : RT @xHelloSarahx: Take that normal, well adjusted dolls houses... http://t.co/fhk2steQ The House of Many Tiny Books. Thu, 14:20 : RT @gerryhayes: Writers: This isn’t about you. But, actually it really, really is. Brilliantly put. http://t.co/yuQyCfsk Thu, 14:48 : The @BFI are releasing four BBC productions of M.R. James stories on DVD. #ManlySquee Thu, 19:43 : RT @KatWithSword: I love this post from @sarahreesbrenna on how Nancy Drew was created. Strong smart women rock. http://t.co/JCO2yTql

My tweets

Wed, 19:30 : As you know, I hate blowing my own trumpet. Thus, there is no chance I shall advertise this review: http://t.co/4cQxtVMY Thu, 11:00 : RT @Louiestowell: Having some feminist rage and I have a plea for you, twitter. Please buy books with girls in for your sons/nephews/gra ... Thu, 11:02 : I absolutely didn't RT that because my forthcoming book has a girl as the protagonist. As if I'd promote "Katya's World" (out in Nov) thus. Thu, 11:23 : Copy of @forteantimes just turned up. M.R. James on the cover. If anybody needs me, I shall be in the east wing study, perusin'.

My tweets

Tue, 14:45 : Sorry to be heavy, but somebody in the house keeps making the acute angles obtuse, and it's just not cool, okay? #RoommateCthulhu Tue, 19:05 : SOMEBODY had all the eldritch. AND the rugose. Again. #RoommateCthulhu Tue, 19:09 : Slightly drunk, slightly maudlin. Singing along to "Cowtown" by TMBG, because "Cowtown" improves everything. Tue, 19:21 : Oh, dear. Followed somebody under the impression I knew him, but I don't. Too embarrassed to unfollow. Time for black coffee already. Wed, 10:56 : RT @sitcomgeek: If you're missing some cynicism & bile during the Olympics, top up with Harlan Ellison clip on not being paid: http: ... Wed, 11:11 : RT @batrachianlips: Inter-party twitter intern bitchery. Armando Iannucci must be absolutely wetting himself with delight. http://t.co/l ...

My tweets

Mon, 13:01 : Welcome to Aus Zealand -- http://t.co/NOk5yoVU Mon, 16:18 : @timmaughan You're welcome. http://t.co/TayakLdX Tue, 10:40 : RT @stephen_ebert: A fox! A fox on my bloody tube. http://t.co/VEJkoANC Tue, 10:58 : If you ever needed a reason to run screaming from the environs of #BristolCon '12, you have it now. I've just bought my membership.

My tweets

Sun, 12:03 : Ah, thunder and lightning. I love thunder and lightning. Always have. Sun, 12:10 : RT @strangechem: Have you entered this competition to win a copy of Katya's World? http://t.co/CkAHwgh1 :-) Sun, 12:45 : RT @aliettedb: Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe http://t.co/ewhBe8b9 via @guardian Sun, 13:57 : RT @Judge_Burke: @AMICUS_horror A treat for all fans of the lovely Dalek saucer, they must have conquered France upside down! http://t.c ... Mon, 08:55 : RT @paleofuture: He died excited that we were still trying. RT @mslopatto: I'm so sorry Ray Bradbury wasn't alive to see this. Mon, 08:56 : RT @BIS_spaceflight: The British Interplanetary Society congratulates NASA and JPL on the successful landing of Mars rover Curiosity htt ... Mon, 10:09 : I thought such a complex deployment was sure to fail. I have never been so pleased to be proved wrong. Brilliant work, @NASA #Curiosity Mon, 10:37 : RT @MarkMorris10: First photo just received from Curiosity on Mars: http://t.co/xEyqrakg Mon, 10:48 : RT @brooligan: Even as #Curiosity was beginning its descent, Disney were making plans to write it off. Mon, 10:58 : RT @Glinner: Oh, wow, this is funny. Irish commentary from the olympic sailing. https://t.co/KtV3bc1W (via @ThatNobleGoat) Mon, 11:24 : RT @SamSykesSwears: Every Brit I know just said the word "Mensch." I find it unnerving.

My tweets

Sat, 17:35 : RT @reelmolesworth: geting impatient when do the poosticks LASER ARCHERY mornington crezent & AEROBALL events comence? #olympics Sat, 20:56 : As my contribution to informed #Olympics debate, I think Jessica Ennis looks a bit like Maggie Q. You're welcome. Sat, 21:35 : Had a bit of a funny turn. Not 100% sure, but I think I might be experiencing pride in my country. Is this how Americans feel? #Olympics Sat, 21:40 : RT @MrMichaelShaw: Dear Daily Mail. You're not allowed to join the Jessica Ennis celebrations - you don't believe her family exists http ... Sun, 09:54 : This is very good company to be amongst. My thanks to the panel. http://t.co/7bWf1yBs ( via @molly_the_tanz )

My tweets

Fri, 12:58 : Ray Bradbury http://t.co/aGxtLgBa Fri, 22:27 : Just watched "Heavy Metal" for the first time since I saw it in the cinema in '81. Fri, 22:28 : Hard to imagine a major studio getting behind something so barkingly mad these days. #HeavyMetal

Ray Bradbury

It's almost a month now since we heard the sad news that Ray Bradbury had died. I wrote the following at the time, but couldn't bring myself to post it. Time has lent a little perspective and I feel okay about doing so now. 


Before that, however, I would like to say that I was disappointed in the days after the announcement by how many people took cheap shots at how reactionary he had become in his dotage, as if that was all that mattered and that his whole life and all his works had simply been in preparation for a few years of being a grumpy old git. To these small people I say, "Fie upon you." Also, "Fuck you." Gittishness in advanced years is hardly extraordinary, and says far more about those that harped on about it to the exclusion of his work than it does about Bradbury. I'm not apologising for the man, but, really, what vile little back-biting creatures there are out there. 

Now I've taken that opportunity to vent my bile, here's what I wrote at the time:
__________________________________________________
Perhaps I'm not in the right frame of mind to be writing this. It's less than an hour since I heard that Ray Bradbury had died, and I know  I'm more upset about it than perhaps I should be. I never met him, we never shared a pint, he isn't family. But, he was always there. Almost my whole life, he has always been there. 

When my first book was published, my editor told me that she knew Bradbury's agent; would I like a copy sent to him? Yes, I most certainly did. Would I like to include a covering letter? Yes, that would be nice. So I wrote one that said how much of an influence he had been, right from reading "The Foghorn" as a child, then The Illustrated Man in a library copy.

My sister had borrowed it and it was due back the next day, but she wouldn't have a chance to drop it off herself. I agreed to do so. I flicked through it that evening and discovered it was a collection of short stories connected by a wrapper story. I hadn't seen that done before and was intrigued. I read a little of it out of interest. Then a little more, and then I couldn't stop. It was in the adult collection, and my tickets only let me take out books from the children's section so I couldn't take it out myself; if I was going to read it, I had to read it all before the morning. I did, past midnight. I'd never read anything like it before. "The Foghorn" hadn't got its claws into me because I was of an age where a story with a monster had better show the bloody monster up close and in centre stage. "The Foghorn" didn't, and I had dismissed it on purely that shallow basis. By the time of reading The Illustrated Man a year or so later, however, my reading needs had become a little more sophisticated and little less obvious, and I sank deep into Bradbury's famously lush prose and the dark paths of his imagination. 

I began to borrow my mother's library tickets on a regular basis. I needed to read more of this stuff. The October Country, The Golden Apples of the Sun, Dandelion Wine, The Silver Locusts. And, as these were the glorious days when you could buy a brand spanking paperback for 25p (which wasn't very much even then) I bought them, as well. My book shelf filled with these titles and others -- The Small Assassin, The Halloween Tree, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes. I stayed up late to watch the film versions of The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451 and was disappointed the latter didn't feature the novel's mechanical hound with its hypodermic fangs filled with a lethal doses of morphine. 

I told him all this (although not the bit about the hound), trying to sound like a sensible mature fellow author and not a frothing fanboy, and failing miserably in that endeavour. 

He wrote back. He told me that he regretted that his eyesight was very bad and that he had to have things read to him these days, but he'd listened to a good chunk and had liked it a lot. 

Necromancer hasn't had many bad reviews, I'm relieved to say, but when one comes up I just think, "Well, Ray Bradbury liked it," and then the bad review doesn't sting quite so badly.

Yes, I am very aware that he may just have said he did to be polite. Shut up. 

Grief is, in essence, usually selfish, I think. I don't mean that in a pejorative way. Somebody has gone and is never coming back, and you feel that absence keenly. It hits you in your "self," and to that extent, it is selfish. We are built of our experiences, and a death can seem to turn the foundations of the never-ending now to sand. He was old, and unwell, and may well have been ready to say goodbye to the world. It will be a while yet before I can say goodbye to him.

My tweets

Thu, 12:04 : RT @iburrell: Daily Mail says the mighty Wiggo is a "quintessential Londoner". Born Belgium, lives Lancs, trains Manchester, supports Li ... Thu, 17:41 : RT @frabjousdave: Less than three days to get in on this groovy Kickstarter: http://t.co/Y847nVqo Thu, 17:42 : Re: That Kickstarter. I've got a fable in "The Lion & the Aardvark," but don't let that discourage you from supporting the project. Thu, 20:50 : RT @HelenWalters: "let us know what you think in the comments!" Every time I wrote that at the end of stories, a little bit of my soul d ... Thu, 21:40 : Swearing at and threatening a small moth, because moths respond to verbal intimidation. Thu, 21:50 : Hazel O'Connor's "Eighth Day" and the theme to "Happy Days" have mashed up in my head. It's not a lovely synthesis. Thu, 21:58 : It's not just an earworm. It's a gene-spliced, Franken-earworm. It keeps running around my head and it really is getting quite unpleasant. Thu, 22:05 : I think I killed the earworm. Polysic's cover of "Mecha-Mania Boy" played BLOODY LOUD seems to have done the job. Thu, 22:13 : How long does it take to recharge a Kindle, anyway? This one's been plugged in so long I fear it's uploaded the National Grid. Thu, 22:14 : RT @xmorpheus: @JonathanLHoward oh fabulous - Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk and said "behold what I have done..." trump trump tru ... Thu, 22:20 : RT @Mike_FTW: Attn journalists: Please for the love of all that is holy get Mitt Romney to say “Pussy Riot”. DJs need the sample. Fri, 11:02 : @AgentsGoneWild Well, I don't know what you're following me for; I'd never grass @stubbleagent up. Not without a small bribe, anyway.