Laird Barron's Blog, page 23

Watch This: Doug Bolden Talks Weird

Doug Bolden has initiated a video series examining weird literature. Episode 1 looks at “Proboscis,” a story of mine first published by the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction��in 2005.

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Published on March 01, 2015 17:47

On Writing: A Magnificent Seven

If you want to improve at writing, you must read and you must take apart what you read. I give you a list of seven remarkably talented contemporary authors. Read them, take their words apart, and you’ll be a better writer.

In no particular order:

1. Livia Llewellyn–revolutionizes erotic horror as Barker did in his heyday.��

2. Kelly Link–possibly the quintessential weird fiction author working. Of a measure with Jeff VanderMeer, Michael Cisco, and Brian Evenson.

3. Victor LaValle-you won’t encounter a more harmonious marriage of lit and horror.

4. John Langan–king of metahorror and living proof that paragraphs are overrated.

5. Glen Duncan–among the top prose stylists alive.��

6. Stephen Graham Jones–is his own genre at this point. Does werewolves better

than��Duncan.��

7. Sofia Samatar–reclaiming and revitalizing the fairytale and the legendary.��

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Published on February 28, 2015 07:15

Buffalo Bill’s

Happy birthday to William Frederick Cody, born today in 1846. And here is one of the greatest poems of all time by mr. e.e. cummings:

Buffalo Bill ‘s
defunct
��who used to
��ride a watersmooth-silver
��stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
�� Jesus
he was a handsome man
��and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

Photo via Wikipedia

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Published on February 25, 2015 21:57

Read This: Maze of Blood

Marly Youmans is a great writer. Her prose is immaculate. I haven’t read her latest, but a fictionalized account of Howard’s life done up Youmans style sounds good to me.��Here’s an early review of Maze of Blood.

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Published on February 25, 2015 07:21

Carrion Gods Playlist

Thanks to Mlle Ghoul for this neat playlist��inspired by “The Carrion Gods in their Heaven.”

image via Mlle Ghoul

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Published on February 25, 2015 06:13

Athena, Tough Cookie

Athena from two years ago. I found a malignant lump on her that morning. The lump presented over a forty-eight hour window. I was shaken up because she’d gone through this before and it seemed a losing battle at the time. The vet got it, though. Athena has been cancer free since.

Photos courtesy of Jessica M.

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Published on February 24, 2015 07:00

Read This: The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 7

Thank you to Ellen for taking “the worms crawl in,” for��Fearful Symmetries��and now the best horror of the year.

ToC for The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 7��Via Ellen Datlow

Table of Contents -The Best Horror of the Year Volume Seven:

The Atlas of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud

Winter Children by Angela Slatter

A Dweller in Amenty by Genevieve Valentine

Outside Heavenly by Rio Youers

Shay Corsham Worsted by Garth Nix

Allocthon by Livia Llewellyn

Chapter Six by Stephen Graham Jones

This is Not for You by Gemma Files

Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) by Caitl��n R. Kiernan

The Culvert by Dale Bailey

Past Reno by Brian Evenson

The Coat Off His Back by Keris McDonald

the worms crawl in, by Laird Barron

The Dog��s Home by Alison Littlewood

Tread Upon the Brittle Shell by Rhoads Brazos

Persistence of Vision by Orrin Grey

It Flows From the Mouth by Robert Shearman

Wingless Beasts by Lucy Taylor

Departures by Carole Johnstone

Ymir by John Langan

Plink by Kurt Dinan

Nigredo by Cody Goodfellow

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Published on February 23, 2015 09:22

Watch This: Find Him, Bind Him

The Decemberists once recorded an epic revenge ballad called, appropriately enough, The Mariner’s Revenge Song. That sweeping paean to murderous comeuppance is now illustrated graphic novel style. As Martha Stewart is known to utter while stropping her razor, “It’s a good thing.” Behold: