Malcolm R. Campbell's Blog, page 115

Review: ‘The Starless Sea’ by Erin Morganstern

This novel is a breathtaking display of exuberant lyrical prose, wondrously detailed imagery, and elaborate plotting. Interlocking tales and snippets of tales comprise this brilliant celebration of storytellers and how the times and places and characters of their art become woven, often covertly, into readers’ lives.

[image error]The purported protagonist, Vermont college student Zachary Ezra Rawlins, checks out a book called Sweet Sorrows from the library and finds within it a story from his childhood. At first, he can’t believe it, but then as he tries to find out where the book originated and how it was catalogued by the library, he discovers over time that he can’t truly believe anything.

Rawlins initially discovers that simply having the book has placed his life in danger. He’s not sure why. In fact, he may never be sure. As it turns out, there are doors everywhere that lead to an immense and seemingly infinite realm of books stored in ever-shifting below-ground castles and caverns.

One is reminded of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere tale about a hidden-away realm beneath the streets of London where the culture is quite different from everything at street level. In Morganstern’s unique world, which comes with its own mythologies and origin stories, the culture is not only different from the “real life” we know, but changes constantly like the play of moonlight on the surface of the sea.

Stories are not content to confine themselves to their original plots. Instead, they update and morph themselves not only into other stories but into the reality of the inhabitants and structures of the underground world itself. In one respect it’s chaos, but everything is tied together as though the stories themselves got together and made sure their changes meshed perfectly with the changes in other stories like the gears in a perfectly designed machine.

The stories, in fact, are all there is. They are not only the motive power and intelligence behind the underground library on the shore of the Starless Sea but impact the direction of the science and technology world that innocently exists outside the doors leading into the depths.

In defense of readers who enjoyed The Night Circus and were disappointed with The Starless Sea, Morgenstern’s new novel strays dangerously close to being a work of experimental fiction rather than a true fantasy. The plot isn’t linear and may not even exist cohesively from one chapter to the next. The ending–which works perfectly within the confines of the novel–will anger those who read through some 500 pages hoping for a resolution.

I’m content simply to experience the world Morgenstern has created in The Starless Sea and the immeasurable beauty of her storytelling.

–Malcolm

 

 

 

Affirming tomorrow

I’ve been going ’round and ’round with a few people on Facebook who believe New Year’s Eve marks the beginning of a new decade. I say it doesn’t. They say it does. But, no matter.

Whatever is being marked by New Year’s Eve can be marked with a symbolic step toward your hopes for 2020.

[image error]My symbolic step was to open a doc file containing the first two chapters of a novel I’ve been blocked on for the better part of the year. My symbolic step was writing a new beginning. Now, my mind sees the book as underway again rather than stalled.

I still don’t know whether my radiation and hormone treatments got rid of the cancer. Tests near the end of January may give me a clue. But using a Cancer Navigators program called iThrive, I’ve taken steps to improve my diet, my supplements, and other things that should have a positive effect on my health.

Perhaps most of us are in this boat at the end of a calendar year with plans for the texture and ambience of the following year. Affirmations work best when we take symbolic steps to jump-start them. Those who want to quit smoking, throw out their last cigarette. Those who want to quit drinking “too much,” throw away the last inch in a bottle of booze. There are a hundred ways, perhaps a million ways, to add power to the affirmations we’re making for tomorrow.

They need not be earthshaking because small steps can lead to large results. Whatever your hopes are for 2020, I hope you realize them.

—Malcolm

New Year’s Eve Book Giveaway

My e-book short story Waking Plain will be free on Kindle December 31 through January 4th.

[image error]This is a twisted fairy tale, written because I like to turn things around and see what they look like in reverse. In this case, Waking Plain is the reverse of “Sleeping Beauty.” A prince is enchanted by a wrathful fairie and will sleep until a queen or princess kisses him.

However, he’s so plain, nobody wants to do that even though they would presumably have access to the riches of the castle.

Hope you like it.

—Malcolm

To all who come here

I appreciate it. Your presence has made 2019 a better year and it needed to be better.

[image error] Wikipedia Photo

Those of us who tell stories–in books, at parties, around the dinner table, or even in blogs like this one–hope that some of the stories will connect with some of those who have come to the storyteller’s place.

Even the storyteller knows not the ending of a story when s/he begins telling it, just as now I am typing this line with no idea what line will follow it.

Is it luck? No, I don’t think so because one thing has become clear over time; stories know where they are going and just need somebody there to serve as a channel to allow them out into the world.

You have your stories, too, even if you don’t put them in books or blogs. Maybe they’re about your life or maybe they come unbidden from your dreams and your imagination. To all who hear and read your stories, the stories and the listeners/readers are gifts.

From the universe perhaps or from your heart and soul.

—Malcolm

An Indie Alternative to Amazon?

The past few years have been rocky for Chris Doeblin, owner and cofounder of Book Culture, four beloved independent bookstores in New York City. “Before Amazon we had a viable company. I made a decent living in New York City. We bought an apartment,” he says. “Twenty-five years later I’m on the verge of bankruptcy. Our stores can go out of business any minute.”

Source: An Indie Alternative to Amazon? | Poets & Writers

The website is already up, perhaps as a teaser or a priming-the-pump-before-launch kind of thing at https://comingsoon.bookshop.org/signup

I hope these folks can make their plan work because Amazon, while it has provided a service to indie authors who can’t get their books into bricks and mortar stores, has become a big problem: a monopoly.

I link my books to other online sites as often as possible, but I think people just read the books’ descriptions and then go buy them at Amazon. (I do appreciate the people who buy them.)  But we need alternatives in addition to Powell’s, B&N.com, and even IndieBound.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed about this venture.

—Malcolm

 

According to some insane professor, New Year’s resolutions are due December 31

Fortunately, I’m only auditing the course. That means I don’t have to do the assignments or take the tests. It also means I don’t get any CEUs, much less college credit, for taking the course. I don’t mind because, really, I don’t need the grief or the deadlines.

The course is called “Fixing Your Life for Fun and Profit.”

[image error]All of us are shunted through the course because it’s part of our general education requirements. Compared to grad school where grades lower than As and Bs don’t count, you can skate through the GE courses with a C average.

According to the syllabus, the criterion objectives include: (a) the student will learn how to write affirmations that speak of a better life than s/he had at the beginning of the course, and (b) how to write New Year’s resolutions that, while powerless, impress all who hear them.

Do you see the flaw in the course?

Resolutions and other affirmations don’t accomplish diddly squat unless those who write them or say them or proclaim actually want to change. So there it is. If they wanted to change, they would have done it already–no need to write it down as an action step.

Since I like pulling people’s chains, I usually say that my New Year’s resolutions include “Killing fewer people than last year” and “Fighting the urge to throw fools under the bus.” If I say this in “real life,” there’s a lot of silence in the room. If I say this online, I get a lot of laughing smiley faces like the whole thing’s a joke.

Do you notice that when people post heartfelt resolutions on Facebook and in their blogs that they do so with an expectation of praise? You know, like they’ve already accomplished something? Studies show that most New Year’s resolutions are broken or forgotten before February.

Of course they are because they’re all for show and/or for a passing grade in the smoke-and-mirrors “Fixing Your Life for Fun and Profit” course. It’s all snake oil and very expensive. Like patent medicine, it cures everything from gout to malice to bad breath.

Every once in awhile, placebos cure people. Perhaps January 1 is your day, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

—Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of the satirical mystery “Special Investigative Reporter.”

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A writer’s concern: what if the FEDs look at my browsing history

[image error]As a writer, I hear other writers talking about the browsing history on their computers. Sites about murder, poison, making bombs, laundering money, you know, stuff that doesn’t look good after the FEDs kick open the front door to your house, announce that you have a right to remain silent while hoping you don’t, and then run off with your computer.

Let’s say your arrested for a crime of which you’re innocent but your browsing history includes sites about how to murder your spouse without getting caught. When the trial comes, the D.A. asks you to explain these searches and you say you were doing research for a book. When asked to produce the manuscript, you can’t since you haven’t started writing it yet.

If you watch the series “Bull” on TV about a company that specializes in jury selection and find people like that to defend you, you might have a prayer. Otherwise, it’s going to be a life sentence without any chance of parole. Or, at the very least, if I ever run for President, my opponents will ask why I spent 10000 hours on murder for fun and profit sites.

Since I believe in Murphy’s Law, I think of this when I head out to incriminating sites. “Yep, the NSA/CIA/FBI are probably monitoring this site,” I think. Frankly, I think authors ought to be given a “Get out of Jail Free” card to cover innocent research that makes them look guilty.

I’ve been doing more research into the KKK, supplementing what I did before writing the three books in my Florida Folk Magic Series. Every time I access a KKK site, I think I hear some FBI Special Agent saying, “Ah, Malcolm again, Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch.” What if the Southern Poverty Law Center finds out; will I be labelled as a Hate Site? That won’t be good for book sales.

If you’re not a writer, you have no idea of the risks we take to bring you true-to-life, accurate, and frightening stories about evil people. We’re walking in harm’s way to give you a good story. So, when we get rounded up in a sting operation at the library, we hope you’ll be there with bail money.

When I was in high school, I hid “questionable” novels under the mattress so my folks wouldn’t find them. I never told them what movies I was going to see because I didn’t want to get in trouble. But they didn’t have today’s technology. They didn’t know how to hack into the GPS system and/or live-feed traffic cams to see where I was. But, apparently, the FEDs know where I am 24/7. There ought to be a law against that but when people complain, they’re told, “If you have nothing to hide, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Everyone has something to hide, but especially writers.

—Malcolm

 

 

 

 

December 25, 2019

If you’re celebrating today, I hope the day has been good to you and that all of your truest wishes are coming true.

[image error] Yes, the phones work when hooked up to each other. With original parts, I can’t use them on our landline.

My truest wish is spending time with my wife. The two of us in front of the tree unwrapping gifts while on cat slept through it and the other played in the used wrapping paper.

Taking it easy by watching a movie (“Downton Abbey”); it was fun and a nice continuation of the series.

My brother Barry and his wife Mary brought back goodies from their trip to Scotland that made for some cool gifts. Scotch, of course. A book of Scots folklore, An Inveraray Castle Christmas tree ornament. Tee shirts. I kept expecting a can of Haggis, but fortunately no.

From Lesa, some great gifts, including three books I especially wanted to read. Santa brought us a sampler of raw honey and a sample of sea salts from around the world. And more!

I hope you have had, are continuing to have, a great holiday.

–Malcolm

Season’s Greetings

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Happy holidays to all of you no matter how you celebrate.

Assuming family haven’t been banned from your house and/or vice versa, I hope you have the time and energy to experience the wisdom, knowledge, humor, and support of family and friends and to find renewal in their love and care.

My Celtic ancestry brings me strong feelings for Yule and its traditions. My upbringing brings me similar feelings for Christmas (both the commercial and religious versions.) Your background may lead you elsewhere and that’s as it should be as long as it provides growth and a strong connexion with the cosmic.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of western movies and TV shows such as “Little House on the Prairie” in which kids would save their pennies all year to by mama a new scarf and dad a new hat. Those kids were pleased if they got one gift wrapped in butcher paper from the general store.

I wish the season could more like that where family around a tree and then around a dinner table was far more valuable than $100000000000 worth of gifts. The trouble is, the commercialization is so strongly brainwashed into our psyches that if the resist, those who know us think we’re being cheap and uncaring. So, we keep playing the game even though we wish we weren’t.

My wife and I spent so many years celebrating Christmas at my folks’ house or her folks’ house, that we began opening gifts to each other on Christmas Eve. We still do this even though our folks are long gone. It’s a special time for us and we like it. The day is quiet, nearly asleep, and so there we sit in front of our tree with our cats and a few gifts and a lot of light. Hard to beat that.

–Malcolm

 

 

 

 

Florida Water Isn’t Water from Florida

Florida Water is an American version of Eau de Cologne, or Cologne Water. It has the same citrus basis as Cologne Water, but shifts the emphasis to sweet orange (rather than the lemon and neroli of the original Cologne Water), and adds spicy notes including lavender and clove. The name refers to the fabled Fountain of Youth, which was said to be located in Florida, as well as the “flowery” nature of the scent. – Wikipedia

The original version of this so-called unisex cologne was created by Lanman & Kemp Barclay in 1808, and the trademark is held by its successor company Murray & Lanman. Its scent–as I see it–is less intense than the popular Hoyt’s Cologne.

[image error]I have no idea whether or not anyone actually uses either Florida Water or Hoyt’s as colognes. I suppose so.  I became aware of these colognes while researching my Florida Hold Magic Series since both products are used in hoodoo spells.

According to Catherine Yronwode’s handy Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic, Florida Water has been used as an offering to the dead and has other magic uses when Used in combination with various herbs.

She notes on her Lucky Mojo site that, “Both Florida Water and Kananga Water are widely used in rituals of home protection and spiritual cleaning, to scent bowls of water set out for the spirits of the dead, as a basis for making an ink-dyed scrying water, and for other ritual and cosmetic purposes among people of African-diaspora descent in the United States and the Caribbean. A third 19th century commercial perfume with a long history of magical associations is Hoyt’s Cologne, which is used among African-American hoodoo practitioners to draw gambling luck.”

You can make your own by combing vodka, aromatic greens, florals, citus, and spice. You can find the recipe here. For a list of spiritual uses of Florida Water, check this site.

Uses and recipes vary and since a writer rather than a conjurer, I’m not making any personal recommendations.

—Malcolm