Daniel Morris's Blog, page 10
March 5, 2009
Focus On Flesh
I love these old paperbacks. In Focus On Flesh, a “photographer of nude women” named Dave Robertson presumably photographs said nude women while also solving crimes and getting laid. I can’t verify all these details, as I’ve haven’t actually read Focus on Flesh, but I can verify that the book cover promises all of these things and that the book cover is, in and of itself, awesome. Actually, the tagline on the back “Lechery Ran Riot,” is the inspiration for a newspaper headline that appears in Th
February 16, 2009
Rain
In honor of the current Los Angeles downpour, here's a quick passage from The Canal (and a gratuitous Prince album cover):
The water sloshed in its channel, the waves slapping against the bulkhead walls. Splotches of caustic foam bobbled on the surface. Not far upriver lay the bridge, frosted in streetlight. And there... He saw it, -- something in the canal, heading fast towards the bridge. It was too dark to see clearly, all he could make out was something tallowy, rounded like a hump. It didn’t
February 6, 2009
January 21, 2009
Rocket: The Illustrations: Part 2
"Look over there," said Bonnie, pointing to a chair and shining her flashlight.
"That's my missing chair," said Chaka. "Somebody stole it from me."
The astronauts marveled at their luck -- say what you would, it really was a fine chair. They took turns sitting.
"One day in a time far distant," said Chaka, staring into the past, "so and so years ago, somewhere between the red sector of space and the Polio nebula, my chair was stolen. This, then, is my chair."
The girls appreciated it anew, as if they
"That's my missing chair," said Chaka. "Somebody stole it from me."
The astronauts marveled at their luck -- say what you would, it really was a fine chair. They took turns sitting.
"One day in a time far distant," said Chaka, staring into the past, "so and so years ago, somewhere between the red sector of space and the Polio nebula, my chair was stolen. This, then, is my chair."
The girls appreciated it anew, as if they
January 8, 2009
Rocket: The Illustrations: Part 1
Back when I was briefly photocopying copies of Rocket, the book actually had two illustrations that were drawn by David Colman, an amazing artist and good friend of mine. The artwork didn’t make it into the current version of Rocket, primarily because I was too lazy to figure out how to make that happen. I like the idea of illustrations though, and I wouldn’t mind including some in a future book. One of the drawings is below, along with the accompanying cryptic caption. I’ll post the other drawi
December 29, 2008
The Gowanus Canal Doesn't Just Give You Gonorrhea...It Cures It Too
Wow...this is may be slightly outdated, but it's news to me: apparently the Gowanus Canal (the inspiration for The Canal) is so polluted that, in some bizarre paradox, it actually harbors microbes with potentially life saving properties. Yeah, I think my head just exploded. Or as the blog Gowanus Lounge puts it -- Holy Crap: "Gowanus Canal May Be Source of New Antibiotics". Here's a quote from a Newswise story dated July 29, 2008, from a biology professor researching the canal's microbes:
“Despi
December 11, 2008
Jump In! ...To Excitement!
"A wavelet flopped into her mouth. The taste was undeniable. It was decay, it was void matter, it was hate, it was everything, it was evil, and it was hopeless, so, so hopeless. Zombie flatulence, botulism meringue, liver spot gelato. The flavor of body swamp, diaper dingle, amputee stub, and victimless crime. Of toilet tang, typhus, gangrene, spudge, and of prayers very much denied, of prayers sent back to sender with “Fuck you!,” scrawled on the label. The taste clung hard. Her eyes stung with
November 24, 2008
The Canal: It's For Real
The Canal was inspired by a real place -- the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York. At the time that I was living in Brooklyn, the Gowanus had improved somewhat from it’s earlier and more neglected days, but a lot of the details pertaining to the canal in the book did at one time apply to the actual Gowanus. The canal reeking in the summer: I did not make that up. Nor the sewage or the industrial pollution. The flushing tunnel I mention also exists, and the book takes place in the decade previous
November 14, 2008
The Canal: The Synopsis
The Canal is finally getting close to completion. Here's the back cover synopsis...
IT'S DISGUSTING
Cloaked in cancer. Dripping slime. It could be a monster...
Or something much, much worse.
For Detective Joe Lombardi, when a gruesome murder is discovered the first place he turns to for answers is the nearby canal. Besides the mysterious shapes that swim beneath the water’s surface and the odd fevers that plague the surrounding neighborhood, the canal has a reputation for ruining people’s lives -- J
November 1, 2008
The Canal: Coming Soon
I’ve been revising and reediting my novel The Canal, and I’m happy to say it will be available soon -- within a month, maybe two at the most (fingers crossed). I’ll be putting up a synopsis soon, but in the mean time, here’s a brief, random passage:
Alan walked to the cashier’s lair, an outhouse of bulletproof glass. He felt so unlike himself. So distracted. For instance, there was the thing with his legs. All day, Alan had been finding himself absorbed by the sight of his own legs. He wouldn’t j
