Thomas Pluck's Blog, page 28

What Are You Reading for Banned Book Week?

It’s the American Library Association’s annual Banned Book Week, where they focus on frequently challenged and banned books. Everything from Walter the Farting Dog to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been challenged, when our fellow citizens are so concerned about our well-being that they elect themselves would-be censor, to “protect young minds” from stories they find offensive. The latest lists of frequently challenged books can be found here. I’ve always been a fan of forbidden fruit. As a teenager, when I heard that reading The Communist Manifesto got you on a watch list, I checked it out of the library. (Are you listening, NSA?) I found it about as boring as Atlas Shrugged, but I read it because a bunch of self-appointed thought police said I shouldn’t. And I still read books for the same reason; often they aren’t very good, but they are certainly refreshing after the piles of pap we’re delivered as our recommended daily allowance of circuses to go with our bread.

This week I’m going to dust off my old copy of The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. I need a change, and a religious book is definitely outside my usual comfort zone. I saw the movie on Ash Wednesday, the year it came out. I don’t find the idea that Jesus Christ was a man terribly strange (I am a humanist) but I will read the spiritual side of the book with an open mind.

What are you reading for banned book week?

Tagged: Banned Book Week, Censorship, Religion

Crime Fiction Friday: JUNKYARD DOG

My Denny the Dent story, “Junkyard Dog” is featured for Crime Fiction Friday at MysteryPeople this week:

Crime Fiction Friday: JUNKYARD DOG by Thomas Pluck

Thanks to Scott Montgomery and crew for choosing me. This one’s a favorite of mine. A new Denny story is in the works as we speak.

You can get all 5 Denny stories in Denny the Dent: 5 Tales of Street Justice.

Tagged: Crime Fiction Friday, Denny the Dent, MysteryPeople

In Memoriam

I was working in Manhattan that day. Well, I would have been, if I hadn’t been late. I worked near 53rd & 3rd, immortalized in the Ramones song about a male hustler, from their debut album. So far away from the horror. I grew up with the Towers in my skyline; we lived on a hill where they poked through the trees, across the river. My heart still clenches thinking about that day.

I memorialized it in my work in progress:

I joined up on my eighteenth birthday, after the planes hit and Manhattan smoldered like a blindfolded man’s cigarette at an execution.

That’s what the city looked like for a month or two after the attack. Riding the DeCamp bus in on the Lincoln tunnel loop, I saw it, breathed it, every day. We all did. They replayed the strikes on TV so often I can see them between blinks, even now. I think many of us suffered trauma that day. Some more than others of course, but enough that the country as a whole is very different than it was the day before. What I like to remember is how we came together afterward, before the fear settled in. Everyone gave blood, everyone chipped in. I lost my job shortly after, right before the holidays, because my employer was headquartered in Israel and their stock plummeted. Now they’re doing great, they got into surveillance. I’m glad I moved on. My grandmother broke her arm that year, the first stumble down the spiral before she passed on a few years later. I’d just returned from living in the Midwest, and everything felt like an omen. It was a rough couple of years for us all. My friend Johnny, who joined the Marines as a reservist the day he turned eighteen—inspiring Scotty, the character in my WiP, above—was eager to go to Afghanistan and fight the Taliban, but Iraq? Not so much. We’re still recovering from that misadventure. Many fought bravely there, but for what? It looks like we’re returning a third time. Then again, if you follow history, we’ve been mucking with the Middle East for a lot longer than that. What’s the answer? I’m not sure. But I think our move toward US oil and renewable energy is good first step to staying out of the nation-building (and destroying) business.

We’ve neglected the homefront for a decade, our roads and bridges are collapsing, our people overworked and underpaid (wages stagnant, profits soaring). We’ve barely rebuilt what the terrorists destroyed. I hope in the next decade we’ll focus more on that.

I like this old photo, I’m chubby and innocent and hopeful, having just graduated from Rutgers. My friend Tim is in the background, my friend Jim took the photo. It’s 1995, the Internet boom (and bust) was just up the road. And so was 9/11.

 

 

 

Tagged: 9/11, New York City, Photos

Reading at the KGB Bar October 3rd

On October 3rd, join me with Rob Brunet, Terrence McCauley, Hilary Davidson, Tracey Landau, and A.C. Frieden at KGB Bar in NYC for a night of crime fiction!

KGB Bar is at 85 East 4th Street. They serve fine libations.

Tagged: KGB Bar, Readings

My Interview with Fiona McVie

Fiona McVie of AuthorsInterviews asked me a few questions. I should’ve taken the Fifth, but I unwisely spoke without the presence of my counsel.

Tagged: Interviews

The Uranium Bacon Podcast

Guess who got plugged on The Uranium Bacon podcast?

The two anonymous internet heroes discuss their horror of the world and their love of beer. Now, when you listen to some podcasts, you might think “these guys aren’t rocket scientists.” You may think that when listening to Uranium Bacon, but you’d be wrong. One of them IS a rocket scientist! The other is not.

They talk about Blade of Dishonor during their latest show. Then they go over the latest Darwin Award nominees, and argue over whether Kardashians are people. It’s a fun listen. Previous shows include my favorite, one where they celebrate the exploits of Andre the Giant.

Uranium Bacon Podcast is available at I’m Ashamed Of This.

 

A Lesson from Ellison on Writer and Reader Entitlement

All a writer has is time and a portion of talent. Answering queries from readers eats away at the former, thus disallowing full use of the latter. I continue to beseech my readers not to burden me with this sort of personal need, but every day I receive a dozen items that demand my response. Yours is one of them. My wife advises me that you are a HERC member, and thus are deserving of attention, but I cannot conceal my annoyance at having to depart from deadline work to satisfy your curiosity. Please don’t do this to me again.

Harlan Ellison, in a letter to me, 1989.

With the “readers, do not use me as Google” fight that Chelsea Cain is going through, let me bring back the time I used Harlan Ellison as the library, and was rightly scolded for it.
I haven’t read the entire flood of responses to Ms. Cain’s plea to not be asked the order of her books again and again. She might’ve used a different tone, or simply ignored the questions (though that might be even more rude, don’t you think?) I left one response, when someone said that readers “paid her salary.” My response was, “Our taxes also pay a cop’s salary, but you wouldn’t ask a cop to shine your shoes.” And I’ll stand by that. I love Martin Scorsese’s movies, but I don’t expect him to answer my questions about what order they’re in. Her website lists the books by the date they were published. isn’t that enough? It may have been smarter to link to that on her FB page and pin it to the top, but even that might have been taken the wrong way.

I love the fact that on social media, I can converse with writers I have never met, but I do not feel entitled to a response. It seems like the writers further along in their careers have more time to chat- I talk with Joyce Carol Oates about her cats, Lawrence Block about New York. Those starting out (like myself) tend to be ebullient and thrilled to have fans to talk to; however, those in the middle, on their fifth or so book, seem to be the ones most burdened by their work, as writing has become a career dependent upon deadlines.

Have some empathy for them- writing may not be physically demanding, but I’ll tell you, it is mentally and emotionally draining for many. Answering questions on social media can be a joy, or it can be another full time job that is *not required* for a career to flourish. Many writers ignore it completely and seem to do just fine.

If you enjoyed a book, the writer did her job already. The rest is gravy. If she answers some questions or chats, that’s great. The same goes for writers- if a reader read your work, her job is done. It would be awesome if she told her friends, or he posted a review, but you’re not entitled to it, or “owed” anything, and asking your “minions” to be your Google, Consumer Reports, and so on is rather demeaning, in my opinion. Social media does serve a purpose as a search engine of a sort, but don’t abuse it.

There are cocky writers out there, and demanding readers who expect “fan service” (even Shakespeare brought back Falstaff for that one fan who sported a crown and could have him flayed alive if she wanted) but in the end no one is served by either.
Be excellent to each other. We can’t exist without the other, but we can be online pen pals without anyone expecting smoochprints on their tuchis. Can’t we?

The letter from Harlan Ellison was showcased at Letters of Note.

For writers and readers: http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/

 

Crime Novel Night – 9/30

Join me, Rob Brunet, and Tracey Landau on September 30th at [words] bookstore in Maplewood, NJ. We’ll be reading from our crime fiction novels, mugging random passersby, and teaching children how to pickpocket.

179 Maplewood Avenue, Maplewood, NJ 07040

973-763-9500

Begins at 7:30pm.

 

 

Tagged: Rob Brunet, Tracey Landau, Words Bookstore

Noir at the Bar NYC – 8/31

I’m hosting, it’s Labor Day weekend… if you’re in town come drink to crime with us!

Join us for a night of crime!

FEATURING THE WORD TANG CLAN!

Russel D. “Killa Kilt” McLean

Hilary “Once Made Pol Pot Cry” Davidson

Scott “The Brooklyn Assassin” Adlerberg

Laura K. “The K Is For KUT YO ASS” Curtis

Dave “Ghostface Jersey” White

Alison “The Mandible” Glasgow

Josh “Bazooka” Bazell

Rob W. “Stab You Inna” Hart

Clare “Two Times” Toohey

Gregg “O.G.G.” Rossi

“Firecracker” in Hardboiled #47

Find my short story “Firecracker” in Hardboiled #47, with stories by Pearce Hansen, Gary Lovisi, and many more.

You can order a copy or subscribe to this old school magazine here.

I’m proud to be part of it, it’s always fun to read the hard-hitting tales within.