David Scott Moyer's Blog, page 4

We'll Always Have Bradbury

We'll Always Have Paris: Stories by Ray Bradbury

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In his introduction to this collection, Bradbury says, "I haven't thought about any of these stories ... I get an idea, fall in love with it, and try not to think too much about it. I then write: I let the story pour forth onto the paper as soon as possible."

I wonder how much editing and rewriting he did, if any. Did these stories spring forth from his head fully formed like Athena from Zeus? They are so fresh, clean, and uncomplicated that I think they may have.

I know the feeling of a story just coming. It can feel as if another universe has cracked open a door connected to my hands, which mindlessly type out places and events which up until the moment of their placement on the page did not exist but are nonetheless tangible, as solid as memories of things I have never experienced but believe.

I am not nearly as good as Bradbury, and may never be, having begun so late in life. I do a lot of editing and reworking as I write. I go back and fix the wording or embellish descriptions and clarify characters, but the story almost never changes. It comes to me bit by bit, inexorably, out of my conscious control.

This was a great book. I liked some stories better than others, but they were all satisfying. Any author would be proud to be able to produce a collection of this consistency and beauty.



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Gil Scott-Heron

The Last Holiday: A Memoir by Gil Scott-Heron

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An intimate self portrait of a man whose music I have loved for years.



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People are funny

So I have a Wordpress Blog. (davidscottmoyer.wordpress.com) if you're curious. I occasionally post comments on the blog posts of other writers here. The other day I posted a comment to John Scalzi's. In my comment, I made a tongue in cheek statement about my book not selling much. It isn't, maybe because I don't work hard enough to promote it, or maybe because there are a ton of books out there. I am #994,377 in the Kindle store! So this random guy saw my comment and went to my Wordpress blog (I always forget that when I post on Scalzi's blog, it is from my Wordpress account for some reason. Anyway, this guy went there, ostensibly because he wanted to offer to pay for a Netflix subscription so I could watch Scalzi's episodes of Love Death & Robots. Nice, right? The thing is, I don't have any contact info on my Wordpress blog. I had fun with my About page and copied and pasted the definition and etymology of the word "about" to it. Most people have been amused. This guy was so annoyed that he wrote this:

B** D**
May 16, 2021 at 8:36 pm
Man, I saw your comment on Scalzi’s blog about not being able to afford more that a single streaming service because your book isn’t selling (whatever that means) and I felt sorry for you, so I was going to offer to pitch in a few bucks for you to afford Netflix along with your Amazon (the Expanse) subscription. That is until I clicked on your “About” link and saw all that weird, pretentious nonsense you posted about the history of the word “About” instead of just saying, “Here’s who I am and here’s how to get ahold of me,” you know, “About ME!” So no, I’m no longer interested in offering financial assistance. Hope you enjoy your trip to Mexico while your book sales languish here in the States. Weird.

I suppose I could be offended, but why? The guy's intentions were good, at least until something unexpected popped up in front of him. That rattled him, so he took it out on me. Of course I responded, because I like a good snark as much as the next person:

David Scott Moyer
May 17, 2021 at 3:06 am
Thanks for thinking of me. Glad you appreciate my sense of humor. If you really wanted to know about me, you could check out my Goodreads bio, my website, or, I dont know, you could read some of this blog. If you actually wanted to help me financially, you could have bought my book, which is also likely full of pretentious nonsense, although it wasn’t copy/pasted from a dictionary website like my About page. Have a wonderful day!

For the record, 3:06 AM is not the time here, it is the time where my VPN is.

Anyway, I do appreciate that he wanted to give me the cost of a Netflix subscription, but I don't really need it. Yes, I am retired on a budget, but I also only have time for one subscription service. Until the Expanse is over, that will be Amazon. Then I can switch to Netflix and watch Scalzi's work, including Old Man's War when it comes out.

Awestruck

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I hope I live long enough for my writing to rest in the same building as that of this woman, much less on the same shelf. What a magnificent, unique talent. Any one who knows me knows that I cry easily, but rarely do the tears flow as they did when I read the last words of this book. I usually have a tough time pinpointing exactly the source of my tears. Some certainly spring from my own love for New York, still alive almost 38 years since I left and 30 since the last time I walked her streets. Then of course there is the bond shared by the protagonists, disparate souls brought together by an inexorable force, in love with each other despite their incompatibility. I had a group of friends like this in my youth, which still holds together by ever more tenuous threads. Some of my tears are probably longing for that. Then there is the raw power and beauty of Jemisin's wordcraft. If she can't make you feel, you have no soul.



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Bag Man

Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House by Rachel Maddow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was 14 when Spiro Agnew resigned, half way through my freshman year of high school. I was probably more politically aware than most kids my age, due to a very politically active family. I still learned from this book.

Rachel Maddow has, true to form, stitched together all the disparate pieces of this sordid affair to form a revealing tapestry that imparts a depth of understanding not only of the events themselves, but of their consequences down the years to the current day.

This is an easy, engaging, and important read.



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A fairly spoiler-free review of Barkskins

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In the end, I'm giving this three stars. It is important for people to understand the impact we have had on the biome of Earth. In the very end, the book touches on that. What almost kept me from finishing was the interminable focus on the dry minutiae of the lives of Charles Duquet's progeny and descendents. This is one of those books where I breathed a sigh of relief when I finished, rather than one of satisfaction.

Now 2/3 finished. The characters still don't pull me in. I am horrified at the manner and frequency of many of their deaths, but the delivery of the events feels flat to me, the emotion of the survivors doesn't resonate. Having read other reviews, I notice that many people claim that the forest itself is a main character. If only Proulx had really made that a reality. Richer descriptions of the ecosystem and its struggle against the encroaching disease that was European loggers would have been very powerful.

So I'm about halfway through this, and I have to say it's a bit of a slog. I generally enjoy historical fiction, especially the multigenerational kind. This book just isn't grabbing me, and I'm 325 pages in! Were it not highly recommended by a friend, I'd probably have set it aside by now. While I do like the description of the "New" World and the logging industry which transformed it, The characters don't engage me. I can't put my finger on why, but they don't. The jumps in time feel arbitrary too, as if the author simply writes a little story about one time period and then jumps to the next, with only superficial continuity. Maybe the next 400 pages will change my mind. We shall see.



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Protuberance

Sometimes when I tell people I have written a book, they read it. This is especially likely when I tell them they can read for free on Kindle Unlimited and I still get paid. This happened with a guy I met at the coworking space where I am working on Ocean. He read 26 pages, and then motioned me over, saying he had a criticism. OK, I can take criticism, especially on a first book that I know isn't perfect. So I looked at his tablet. He pointed to the word he had highlighted; "protuberance".

"I don't know that word," he said. "You really shouldn't use words that people have to look up."

Seriously? Protuberance? How can anyone be middle aged, call themselves a reader, and not recognize protuberance? And if they for some reason don't know it, they are using a device with a built in dictionary!

I think the guy wanted me to write my entire book using one syllable words.

Sorry Bud.

(He didn't read any more after that afternoon, and I haven't seen him.)

Hiatus

I am beginning the last of four days away from Ocean. Naturally, I have read a lot. I just finished The Dali Lama's Cat, a delightful look into the life of, you guessed it, the Dali Lama's cat. I imagine it will introduce many cat lovers to the elementals of Buddhism. Before that, I polished off Peter Kuper's sketchbook journal of two years spent in Oaxaca during and after the 2006 uprising. It was an interesting, thoughtful presentation. I also read Roman Blood, by Steven Saylor. It is your basic murder mystery/detective novel set in ancient Rome. It was OK, if formulaic. Unlike The Skull Mantra, by Eliot Pattison, which delved deeply into and relied on the culture and history of Tibet and the Chinese invasion/occupation, Roman Blood was only superficially dependent on its setting. Next up, Barkskins, by Annie Proulx.

Ocean

This sequel to Atmosphere has been a challenge, but it is moving along. After settling in to my new home in Oaxaca, I read through the 20 chapters completed thus far, editing, enhancing, and correcting continuity errors. The latter have been more of an issue with this book, as I am bouncing back and forth between two storylines. The plot of Ocean, as with that of Atmosphere, is unfolding for me as I write, with only a dim idea in the recesses of my brain as to its ultimate destination. I imagine that writing with an entire plot outlined, or a tried and true formula, would be far easier in some ways, but I like my process, and the reader won't get cookie cutter novels from me this way.

Say Wha..?

Because I am reading Caste: The Origins Of Our Discontent, by Isabel Wilkerson (which each and every human should read), Goodreads recommends Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch #1). Huh???