Craig Terlson's Blog, page 9
July 1, 2013
Ethical Aspects - the Cover
Presenting... the cover. I have been very excited to show off the cover for my new collection. I worked with a wonderful designer friend who was very (very) patient with a picky writer (who also happens to be a designer).
I wanted someone else to design this cover, as opposed to the ones I've done myself in the past. The reason being, that I am sometimes too close to the work to see it from a new reader's perspective. I was interested in seeing how another designer would interpret the stories,...
June 24, 2013
A trailer for a book?
If you have been on youtube lately (okay, that's a given), then you may have seen a lot of trailers for big movies, small movies, indy movies, even recut classic movies (check out Stephen King's recut of The Shining to make it play as a romantic comedy.) Another fairly recent phenom is the book trailer. Now, I know what you're thinking, trailers are film, and books are print (in pages or electronic) - does that even make sense?
Truthfully, not really. But I have seen a few of them that i reall...
June 19, 2013
Collections and such
Reading a lot of s.s. collections lately (writer hispter short hand for short stories) and loving them even more than usual. The general reading public, as in my neighbour, says the short story is coming back. Did it ever go away? And it isn't just him, trickle down literary theorey – much more interesting than Reaganomics - suggests that people are going, hey, these stories are shorter than novels! And damn, they're pretty good.
That last statement is not supposed to be a jibe - as us hipster...
June 9, 2013
The Days are Numbered
Another excerpt from a story from the upcoming Ethical Aspects of Animal Husbandry.
I admit to having a fascination with obsessive characters - or maybe that should be obsession. In this story, Judd, sees a certain number (with some biblical, ominous overtones) a few too many times.
This was published a few years back by Cezanne's Carrot (a very funky literary journal).
The Days are Numbered
Tell me this: who needs six tubes of lip balm? A half a dozen cans of tuna, yeah, on sale, okay—and buying...
June 8, 2013
The Ethical List
I have just now compiled the final list of stories for Ethical Apsects of Animal Husbandry.
14 tales in total (something I like about the word "tales", especially for this group of stories.)
It's a combination of longer stories, shorter ones, and a few flashes thrown in for good measure. Some of been published, some have never seen the light of day – all have a touch of the comic, with a measure of darkness. True, my humour can lean toward the dark. I've also included Samurai Bluegrass (publis...
June 3, 2013
The De-organization of Bob
Another story excerpt from the upcoming collection. This one, well, it's weird, funny, and dark - wait, I think I might have said that for the others ones as well.
A story situated in an Office-like environment (as in, the TV show - though, this was written before that became popular). Two co-workers decided to make a wager that one of them can make our hero, Bob, the nicest most bestest worker in the whole joint, basically go apeshit.
Did I mention, it was a bit dark?
Look for Ethical Aspects o...
May 27, 2013
We're Here for You
In about a month, give or take, I will be releasing my short story collection, Ethical Aspects of Animal Husbandry. Leading up to that time, I am going to post some opening excerpts from the stories.
This story was published a few years back (have to look that up), and gives a window into the life of a returns clerk. Reading it again, I can see the George Saunders' influence - which is kind of funny, as I had not read him yet. Damn Saunders was influencing me from the future.
We're Here for You...
May 24, 2013
Surprise promo - Correction Line
Well, the way it worked -
I was unaware that Correction Line was still in the KDP program (kindle direct publishing) - checking around on my amazon site, I noticed that it was still in it, for two more days. I had not expected to put the novel up for free again, but figured the last two days of the program, what the heck.
Not really a mistake on my part (though, I thought I had not renewed) - but you, faithful reader, win.
Pick it up for free, today and tomorrow.
And if you do, I'd...
May 22, 2013
Ethical Aspects of Animal Husbandry
Lest you think I am moving my work into some sort of biological anthropological studies - the title of this post is the name of my new story collection.
The full title is:
Ethical Aspects of Animal Husbandry and Other Tales of General Weirdness
Whew.
This collection contains my darker, quirkier, black humour filled stories (wait, isn't that all my work? Well, not quite).
Here on the blog I will be posting excerpts of some of the stories, leading up to the release date in early summer.
This is the b...
April 19, 2013
George Saunders. Time Mag. Uh-huh.
Named on the most influencial on Time magazine's top 100 list for 2013.
Nothing to add.
Obviously influencing a lot more people than me.
