Mark Rigney's Blog - Posts Tagged "blog-entry"
The Arrival of Check-Out Time
Hello Book Lovers,
A very short entry this time, since I mostly want to mention that my novel, CHECK-OUT TIME, has indeed been released, and for those of you who won copies via my Goodreads giveaway, rest assured that your books will wend their way in your direction shortly. The shipment I'll be working from arrives with me on or before Oct. 15th; I'll have your copies in the mail next day.
For those who didn't win in the giveaway, don't despair: the book, as a new release, is deeply discounted just about everywhere, except Siberia. In Siberia, nothing is discounted.
And as for despair, don't despair. Despair is just generally unattractive and never does well at parties.
Finally, the first (non-Goodreads) review has appeared, and it is GLOWING. Here's the link:
http://www.blackgate.com/2014/10/04/r...
No, I didn't write it. (Kind of wish I had...)
'Til next time.
Happy reading!
Onward.
A very short entry this time, since I mostly want to mention that my novel, CHECK-OUT TIME, has indeed been released, and for those of you who won copies via my Goodreads giveaway, rest assured that your books will wend their way in your direction shortly. The shipment I'll be working from arrives with me on or before Oct. 15th; I'll have your copies in the mail next day.
For those who didn't win in the giveaway, don't despair: the book, as a new release, is deeply discounted just about everywhere, except Siberia. In Siberia, nothing is discounted.
And as for despair, don't despair. Despair is just generally unattractive and never does well at parties.
Finally, the first (non-Goodreads) review has appeared, and it is GLOWING. Here's the link:
http://www.blackgate.com/2014/10/04/r...
No, I didn't write it. (Kind of wish I had...)
'Til next time.
Happy reading!
Onward.
Horror-ific Prose for Halloween and Beyond
First, for those wondering about my first Goodreads giveaway of Check-Out Time, your copies are in the mail. Media mail, to be precise, so be patient––but they should arrive with you shortly, shortly, shortly. Enjoy! (And if you do, please consider posting a review; this site, and others, are highly interactive.)
Also, Ginger Nuts Of Horror just posted a nice long interview with me, which you can find here:
http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/5/p...
Now then. Today's topic...
These past few days, as I drive around town, I’ve been entertaining myself with the audio book of John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I must say I was delighted to discover that le Carré had named one of his central characters Control.
Up until about the age of forty-five (and no, I’m not yet fifty), I was frightened of so many things that it was difficult, at times, to keep track. Monsters under the bed. Darkness. Tentacles. Other people’s opinion. The Wicked Witch Of the West. Deep water.
Now that I’m older and wiser and frightened of nothing, I look back and try to find commonalities. Perhaps, I tell myself, my fiction all springs from some discrete source, a point of origin that, if I could but pinpoint it, would reveal everything I’d ever want to know about both myself and what to write next.
So far, my best answer is “control.”
It’s a broad umbrella, that’s sure, the proverbial Big Tent, if I may borrow a political term. If one is afraid of losing control, then everything but everything comes replete with a barge-load of requisite terror.
My Renner & Quist tales bear out the hypothesis. My semi-dynamic duo begin each adventure by unwittingly surrendering control, or, as in Sleeping Bear especially, having it wrenched bodily away from them. Chaos ensues, and chaos, as any frightened soul can tell you, is profoundly terrifying.
Check-Out Time, the newest of my Renner & Quist tales, forces both my heroes into territory well beyond their usual stomping grounds. First, they wind up in a different city. Second, they have to cope with an entire building that’s long-demolished but semi-sentient. That kind of breakdown in reality signals clearly that just about anything can happen.
What could be more alarming than the idea that anything can happen?
Explicitly or implicitly, the past masters of horror have all understood that rules provide security, and that security tends to obviate drama in favor of comfort’s cozy, fireside slippers. How to add spice, drama, terror? Pull the rug out. Ship the mariners off to Cthulhu’s private island; plunge the exploring teens into a haunted house that really is haunted.
As I work on crafting the next Renner & Quist title, issues of control will be constantly on my mind––simmering, as it were. And if my characters find their feet before stories’ end, then I’ll know I’ve done it wrong. To push them to the brink, and to bring readers with them, the last thing I’ll want to do is to put Renner & Quist entirely, comfortably, in any given driver’s seat.
Finally, come visit my website, where you can find a snippet of this latest Renner & Quist, plus related links and excerpted (glowing) reviews.
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Chec...
Back to work now.
Onward.
Also, Ginger Nuts Of Horror just posted a nice long interview with me, which you can find here:
http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/5/p...
Now then. Today's topic...
These past few days, as I drive around town, I’ve been entertaining myself with the audio book of John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I must say I was delighted to discover that le Carré had named one of his central characters Control.
Up until about the age of forty-five (and no, I’m not yet fifty), I was frightened of so many things that it was difficult, at times, to keep track. Monsters under the bed. Darkness. Tentacles. Other people’s opinion. The Wicked Witch Of the West. Deep water.
Now that I’m older and wiser and frightened of nothing, I look back and try to find commonalities. Perhaps, I tell myself, my fiction all springs from some discrete source, a point of origin that, if I could but pinpoint it, would reveal everything I’d ever want to know about both myself and what to write next.
So far, my best answer is “control.”
It’s a broad umbrella, that’s sure, the proverbial Big Tent, if I may borrow a political term. If one is afraid of losing control, then everything but everything comes replete with a barge-load of requisite terror.
My Renner & Quist tales bear out the hypothesis. My semi-dynamic duo begin each adventure by unwittingly surrendering control, or, as in Sleeping Bear especially, having it wrenched bodily away from them. Chaos ensues, and chaos, as any frightened soul can tell you, is profoundly terrifying.
Check-Out Time, the newest of my Renner & Quist tales, forces both my heroes into territory well beyond their usual stomping grounds. First, they wind up in a different city. Second, they have to cope with an entire building that’s long-demolished but semi-sentient. That kind of breakdown in reality signals clearly that just about anything can happen.
What could be more alarming than the idea that anything can happen?
Explicitly or implicitly, the past masters of horror have all understood that rules provide security, and that security tends to obviate drama in favor of comfort’s cozy, fireside slippers. How to add spice, drama, terror? Pull the rug out. Ship the mariners off to Cthulhu’s private island; plunge the exploring teens into a haunted house that really is haunted.
As I work on crafting the next Renner & Quist title, issues of control will be constantly on my mind––simmering, as it were. And if my characters find their feet before stories’ end, then I’ll know I’ve done it wrong. To push them to the brink, and to bring readers with them, the last thing I’ll want to do is to put Renner & Quist entirely, comfortably, in any given driver’s seat.
Finally, come visit my website, where you can find a snippet of this latest Renner & Quist, plus related links and excerpted (glowing) reviews.
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Chec...
Back to work now.
Onward.
