Justin Howe's Blog, page 56

2011 Writing Review

Writing-wise I'm pretty happy with this year. Here are the highlights:

- My Lovecraftian, sex tourism gone awry story, "Go Home Stranger", was published in the anthology Bewere the Night.

- Space Squid reprinted my story "Your Mother" in their Best of Space Squid anthology.

- Shimmer Magazine interviewed me in their Five Authors, Five Questions series. That was cool.

- I sold my Joe Mitchel meets Fritz Leiber story, "Shadows Under Hexmouth Street", to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. So I should have at ...

Happy New Year

Have a happy New Year everyone.

My resolution for 2012 is to sweep the floor more often.

(And, yes, I'm not much of a Tom Waits fan. I pretty much like three of his songs and this one is two of them.)

One Week From Now…

I'll be aboard an airplane cooped up in economy class making my way to Boston. To my surprise packing hasn't started yet. When I think about packing it's mostly trying to think of what books I want to read on the airplane. My clothes… eh…

Last week I taught some camps. It went well. Next week I will teach some more camps then Saturday will arrive and I'll give my wife a kiss, board a bus, then a plane, then another plane, and another plane. At some point I'll be in Osaka at another San...

The Glamour

I picked this up during a book-buying binge last summer. The only other book I'd read by Christopher Priest was The Prestige. I enjoyed that enough to give this a try.

The Glamour is a suspense novel that borders on the fantastic about a love triangle between people with the ability to make themselves invisible. It reminded me some of Patricia Highsmith's Those Who Walk Away and some of Fritz Leiber's The Sinful Ones. Nothing much happens for the first 100 pages, but I found myself swept...

What I Want For Christmas

If I had the power to produce exactly what I want for next Christmas, I would have all the kings and emperors resign and allow the people to govern themselves.

I would have all the nobility crop their titles and give their lands back to the people. I would have the Pope throw away his tiara, take off his sacred vestments, and admit that he is not acting for God — is not infallible — but is just an ordinary Italian. I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and clergymen...

In the Sights

Assorted Reactions to the Death of Kim Jong-Il

Me: Finally, we'll have something to talk about in my conversation class.

My conversation class student: I hear the son is worse than the father.

Coworkers at lunch: Not saying much, but hearing his name and South Korea's president Lee Mynug-Bak's name thrown around. But certainly there's no panic in the lunchroom.

My Coteacher after I told her: No way! Where did you hear this? (the BBC – CNN had yet to mention it on their international headlines.)

Some students: Who cares!?! We want to play...

Meanwhile…

Kim Jong-Il has died. I made the joke on Facebook that the Atlas Obscura will have to update their list of Communist mummies soon. More seriously though… wow. I have no idea what this means or what will happen next.

This event has the potential to bury the previous two crises I've witnessed in the sand. Or not, because when it comes to North Korea I think we're looking at a heavily armed and militarized inkblot. Who knows what's happening inside it. I'm sure some people do — but the truth...

One Book Four Covers

Here's an assortment of covers from the book I recently finished. I get a kick out of seeing how each would have shaped my expectations.

I read the second one from the left. It's not a bad cover. Somewhat classy. The first one brings to mind a 1950s young adult novel — not a bad thing and I like the artwork. The third one looks like an off-market, but probably decent D&D supplement (maybe a Harn module). And the last one is kind of all over the place like the artist proposed three covers and t...

Do the Pulps Still Matter?

I love the tradition but hate our adherence to them.

I love that authors have been working with the fantastic for so long that there are literally hundreds of years of material from around the world to get lost in. I love that every week I can potentially encounter a new author's work. But I hate our desire to delineate genres and name epochs.

I hate tradition. I hate the collector scum, mylar bagging bull shit. ("Well, blah blah, American SF really starts with Hugo Gernsback.") I'd rather no o...