Jim Cherry's Blog, page 5
July 24, 2018
New Review for The Captured Dead
Every once in a while I'm caught off-guard by a very complimentary review, I'm glad people like what I write it's also a humbling experience. We all try to write something that affects others and when you succeed in that it's somewhat awesome in the realization. Without further ado here's the review!
Exhilarating!
Fascinating read! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've found something I love in all of Jim Cherry's works but it's never the same aspect of any given story that hooks me. In fact, I don't know that I can always put a finger on what it is in each piece exactly that makes me love it. Which makes me actively seek out more reads like this... which isn't always easy. I discovered this writer via his book "The Last Stage". I really enjoyed that and as with most writers who turn my crank I seek out their other works. I've enjoyed Jim Cherry's books for years and this short story somehow eluded me for a while despite being made aware of it years ago. Once I started it I had to finish it. I was filled with regret upon finish it. Regret that I hadn't read it sooner... and I was even a little sad that it ended because I really liked the imagery Cherry's words painted upon the blank canvas that was my mind as I began to read. I'm tempted to unveil certain details of this story in this review to support some of my statements but I am not a fan of spoilers myself. Suffice to say, if you are on the fence about whether or not to read this, I say the time to hesitate is through. It's well worth your time (it's a quick yet satisfying read) and it's certainly worth the modest price this fine author is asking. One of the reasons I love his work is that it's clear he writes these fantastic visions for the love of it, he's not motivated by money or fame or anything like that. Great art is born from people who love to create for the sake of creating. I believe Cherry falls into such a category. This story is a work of art. You are effortlessly swept away into another world, one that you could never experience in reality and perhaps you'd never want to become a reality. It wasn't the first piece of his I have read by a long shot but I think would be a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with the author. Again, not MY first but it definitely won't be my last either. That is, unless Jim Cherry decides to stop putting out these addictive reads.
The Captured Dead is available from Amazon and KOBO (& their supported devices!), and is only .99!
Exhilarating!
Fascinating read! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've found something I love in all of Jim Cherry's works but it's never the same aspect of any given story that hooks me. In fact, I don't know that I can always put a finger on what it is in each piece exactly that makes me love it. Which makes me actively seek out more reads like this... which isn't always easy. I discovered this writer via his book "The Last Stage". I really enjoyed that and as with most writers who turn my crank I seek out their other works. I've enjoyed Jim Cherry's books for years and this short story somehow eluded me for a while despite being made aware of it years ago. Once I started it I had to finish it. I was filled with regret upon finish it. Regret that I hadn't read it sooner... and I was even a little sad that it ended because I really liked the imagery Cherry's words painted upon the blank canvas that was my mind as I began to read. I'm tempted to unveil certain details of this story in this review to support some of my statements but I am not a fan of spoilers myself. Suffice to say, if you are on the fence about whether or not to read this, I say the time to hesitate is through. It's well worth your time (it's a quick yet satisfying read) and it's certainly worth the modest price this fine author is asking. One of the reasons I love his work is that it's clear he writes these fantastic visions for the love of it, he's not motivated by money or fame or anything like that. Great art is born from people who love to create for the sake of creating. I believe Cherry falls into such a category. This story is a work of art. You are effortlessly swept away into another world, one that you could never experience in reality and perhaps you'd never want to become a reality. It wasn't the first piece of his I have read by a long shot but I think would be a great place to start if you are unfamiliar with the author. Again, not MY first but it definitely won't be my last either. That is, unless Jim Cherry decides to stop putting out these addictive reads.
The Captured Dead is available from Amazon and KOBO (& their supported devices!), and is only .99!
July 3, 2018
Interview Tonight! July 3
Today (July 3) is the 47th anniversary of Jim Morrison's death and tonight I'll be interviewed by Wendy Windham interview tonight tune in at 7pm(EST) on iWoody Radio We'll talk abt conspiracy theories surrounding Jim Morrison's death, Doors music & my books, it's going to be a great show!
June 29, 2018
A Tribute to Harlan Ellison
Legendary writer Harlan Ellison died yesterday (June 28, 2018). He was one of my literary heroes here's a tribute: Harlan Ellison & Me:
Well, ok I never knew Harlan Ellison and I never met him, but when you’ve read enough of a writer you feel like you know them. Ellison was a major influence on my writing and he died today (June 28, 2018) at age 84.
I first discovered Ellison when I was 19 when I read Dangerous Visions, one of the most famous and influential anthologies in not only science-fiction but in literature as well. I read Visions about eight years after it was originally published, but I knew its reputation, cutting edge stories by mostly unknown writers whose stories couldn’t be published in traditional markets because of their controversial content, the writers dangerous visions. I read it while I was working my way through school on a graveyard shift. I’d finish my work and had a couple hours of reading and the stories were a turn on but so were the introductions. A paragraph or two of Ellison’s insight into the writer, how he got the story, or something about the story itself make a compelling supplement to the story, so much so that it drove me to go on a Harlan Ellison reading spree. I moved on to Shatterday. Again, Ellison had introductions to his stories that included something about how the story came to him. In those introductions the fledgling writer in me learned how to find stories, how to use my own life as grist for stories. It was a revelation. I moved on to other books (short-stories, Ellison’s chosen form of which he was a master) Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-up Generation, Strange Wine, Sex Ain’t Nothing but Love Misspelled, The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, all great titles with great stories. Some of Ellison’s stories are classics of literature such as Jefty is Five, Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, A Boy and His Dog. Then I hit The Glass Teat, although in a pre-Amazon world it took me forever to find a copy of the then out of print book. The Glass Teat was a compilation of articles Ellison wrote for the L.A. Free Press from 1968 to 1971 and were critiques of television programs of the times as well as the medium itself. By the time of my reading in the early 80’s colleges had incorporated The Glass Teat into their curriculums.
Before I was a Harlan Ellison fan I was a Star Trek fan and I knew Ellison had written the Star Trek episode City on the Edge of Forever which is generally acknowledged as the best episode of that series. Except he didn’t write it, he thought Dorothy Fontana and probably Gene Roddenbury himself had a hand in changing the story enough that Ellison protested to the union and had his name taken off and the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird was credited as writer of the episode (Ellison’s name has since been put back in the credits). When City on the Edge of Forever won the Writers Guild Award in 1968 it was discovered Ellison submitted his original script.
Ellison was one of the “angry young men of literature” from the 50’s. Writers that heralded a new wave in writing whose philosophy was that writing was art with something to say, that art was important, that writers could be artists with messages and stand up for what they believed in. This was a validation of ideas that I had but perhaps until then hadn’t found any role models for. This is how Harlan Ellison influenced me. My admiration of Ellison is only a small part of the whole that Ellison was he marched in Selma with Martin Luther King Jr, he wrote in almost every genre imaginable, he wrote for television, his screenplays influenced a new generation (James Cameron with The Terminator). He was friends with other legends like Ray Bradbury, and Issac Asimov. He also influenced and mentored many writers. Octavia Butler was a student of Ellison’s and Neal Gaiman also acknowledges Ellison’s influence. Thank you Harlan for all the stories that you gave us that will be told by future generations.
If you'd like to read this at Medium I posted there with a picture and video of Ellison
Well, ok I never knew Harlan Ellison and I never met him, but when you’ve read enough of a writer you feel like you know them. Ellison was a major influence on my writing and he died today (June 28, 2018) at age 84.
I first discovered Ellison when I was 19 when I read Dangerous Visions, one of the most famous and influential anthologies in not only science-fiction but in literature as well. I read Visions about eight years after it was originally published, but I knew its reputation, cutting edge stories by mostly unknown writers whose stories couldn’t be published in traditional markets because of their controversial content, the writers dangerous visions. I read it while I was working my way through school on a graveyard shift. I’d finish my work and had a couple hours of reading and the stories were a turn on but so were the introductions. A paragraph or two of Ellison’s insight into the writer, how he got the story, or something about the story itself make a compelling supplement to the story, so much so that it drove me to go on a Harlan Ellison reading spree. I moved on to Shatterday. Again, Ellison had introductions to his stories that included something about how the story came to him. In those introductions the fledgling writer in me learned how to find stories, how to use my own life as grist for stories. It was a revelation. I moved on to other books (short-stories, Ellison’s chosen form of which he was a master) Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-up Generation, Strange Wine, Sex Ain’t Nothing but Love Misspelled, The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World, all great titles with great stories. Some of Ellison’s stories are classics of literature such as Jefty is Five, Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, A Boy and His Dog. Then I hit The Glass Teat, although in a pre-Amazon world it took me forever to find a copy of the then out of print book. The Glass Teat was a compilation of articles Ellison wrote for the L.A. Free Press from 1968 to 1971 and were critiques of television programs of the times as well as the medium itself. By the time of my reading in the early 80’s colleges had incorporated The Glass Teat into their curriculums.
Before I was a Harlan Ellison fan I was a Star Trek fan and I knew Ellison had written the Star Trek episode City on the Edge of Forever which is generally acknowledged as the best episode of that series. Except he didn’t write it, he thought Dorothy Fontana and probably Gene Roddenbury himself had a hand in changing the story enough that Ellison protested to the union and had his name taken off and the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird was credited as writer of the episode (Ellison’s name has since been put back in the credits). When City on the Edge of Forever won the Writers Guild Award in 1968 it was discovered Ellison submitted his original script.
Ellison was one of the “angry young men of literature” from the 50’s. Writers that heralded a new wave in writing whose philosophy was that writing was art with something to say, that art was important, that writers could be artists with messages and stand up for what they believed in. This was a validation of ideas that I had but perhaps until then hadn’t found any role models for. This is how Harlan Ellison influenced me. My admiration of Ellison is only a small part of the whole that Ellison was he marched in Selma with Martin Luther King Jr, he wrote in almost every genre imaginable, he wrote for television, his screenplays influenced a new generation (James Cameron with The Terminator). He was friends with other legends like Ray Bradbury, and Issac Asimov. He also influenced and mentored many writers. Octavia Butler was a student of Ellison’s and Neal Gaiman also acknowledges Ellison’s influence. Thank you Harlan for all the stories that you gave us that will be told by future generations.
If you'd like to read this at Medium I posted there with a picture and video of Ellison
April 25, 2018
The Seas Have No Stars
Cool title, right? The Seas Have No Stars is my newest short stories, and I think one of my best. It's what happens when a fishing boat comes upon an alien spaceship visiting dolphins. I hope you enjoy it! The Seas Have No Stars
Gonna update this!!!! My story The Third Day made a $100 on Medium (it was only up for 4 days! WOW!) Thank you to all those who read it! Thank you! If you haven't read it I hope you'll give it a read, I think you'll enjoy it! I think it's very good!
Gonna update this!!!! My story The Third Day made a $100 on Medium (it was only up for 4 days! WOW!) Thank you to all those who read it! Thank you! If you haven't read it I hope you'll give it a read, I think you'll enjoy it! I think it's very good!
April 23, 2018
Why Keanu Reeves Hates Me
Now that that sensational title has grabbed you, well, not entirely sensational there is a story behind it, a night I spent as an extra on the Keanu Reeves movie "Chain Reaction." It's a tongue in cheek rendering of that experience which you can read at Why Keanu Reeves Hates Me: but probably doesn't know it
If you're looking for something a little more literary I also published the short story version of my famously (is it infamously yet?) in progress novel The Third Day as kind of a little experiment with it I added music videos to it act as an ad-hoc soundtrack. Give it a try let me know how you like it!
NEWLY PUBLISHED! When Will the 21st Century Become the Future I Used to Read About?
Jim
If you're looking for something a little more literary I also published the short story version of my famously (is it infamously yet?) in progress novel The Third Day as kind of a little experiment with it I added music videos to it act as an ad-hoc soundtrack. Give it a try let me know how you like it!
NEWLY PUBLISHED! When Will the 21st Century Become the Future I Used to Read About?
Jim
April 19, 2018
NEW! Captured Dead Rvw/website
Buenos evening everybody!
Some cool things happening I thought I'd turn you on to. It seems things in the literary world go slow until they speed up!
Let's start with the easiest thing. A new jymsbooks website. It has a great layout (looks good on your phone!), info and pics about my books, a bio, and a blog, it's all at: https://jymwrite.wixsite.com/jymsbooks
New Captured Dead Review
My short story "The Captured Dead" has a new review that's pretty cool, instead of telling you about it I'll just post it:
"Great book, fantastic story! The author has combined a knowledge of Sherman, shamans, and ghosts into a fascinating read that you can finish in an hour — and you’ll want to start it all over again once you have. The writing is super — his descriptions of the people and surroundings, from wagon trains and wartime atrocities to ghostly dusty hazes, and are such that you can clearly envision the picture in your mind while reading. The characters are well-developed, particularly that of Sherman, from his physical description to what’s going on in his head. This story grabs at the get-go and never lets go before the very last ominous sentence." Karen H.
I hope you won't forget to tell your friends!
Jim
Some cool things happening I thought I'd turn you on to. It seems things in the literary world go slow until they speed up!
Let's start with the easiest thing. A new jymsbooks website. It has a great layout (looks good on your phone!), info and pics about my books, a bio, and a blog, it's all at: https://jymwrite.wixsite.com/jymsbooks
New Captured Dead Review
My short story "The Captured Dead" has a new review that's pretty cool, instead of telling you about it I'll just post it:
"Great book, fantastic story! The author has combined a knowledge of Sherman, shamans, and ghosts into a fascinating read that you can finish in an hour — and you’ll want to start it all over again once you have. The writing is super — his descriptions of the people and surroundings, from wagon trains and wartime atrocities to ghostly dusty hazes, and are such that you can clearly envision the picture in your mind while reading. The characters are well-developed, particularly that of Sherman, from his physical description to what’s going on in his head. This story grabs at the get-go and never lets go before the very last ominous sentence." Karen H.
I hope you won't forget to tell your friends!
Jim
April 12, 2018
Medium Success
Hello Everyone!
I noticed that I haven't posted in a while and want to correct that. What have I been doing? Writing a lot of articles on Medium, I'm sure you've seen the previous posts about writing there. Some of the articles I've posted have become popular and I want to share those with you because, well, some are interesting, and about 3 of them are currently being featured on the Medium homepage.
The first is a short story that I actually wrote a long time ago but I pulled it out because I wanted to use it as a reference for another article. When I read it I thought it was a pretty good little story and it has fallen out even my view. It's titled Elvis and is a tongue-in-cheek alternate history that puts forth the idea that if Elvis had never become famous his life wouldn't have changed that much.
While I have published my fiction on Medium, the site encourages all types of writing and I've published a few non-fiction articles. One that seems to have caught on is from a series I've started called "On Writing" (when writers aren't writing they write about writing) and the article that has caught on is On Writing: Niche Writing Also, another good article from that is From Real Life to Fiction coming soon: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Learning!
One last I want to point out is another short story. Again, this is pulled from the Jim Cherry Archive, again I thought it a nice article that hasn't seen the light of day in a while, it's called The 1000th Chimpanzee it has a cute picture of chimpanzee on it!
You can also search around Medium for other articles!
Keep on!
Jim
I noticed that I haven't posted in a while and want to correct that. What have I been doing? Writing a lot of articles on Medium, I'm sure you've seen the previous posts about writing there. Some of the articles I've posted have become popular and I want to share those with you because, well, some are interesting, and about 3 of them are currently being featured on the Medium homepage.
The first is a short story that I actually wrote a long time ago but I pulled it out because I wanted to use it as a reference for another article. When I read it I thought it was a pretty good little story and it has fallen out even my view. It's titled Elvis and is a tongue-in-cheek alternate history that puts forth the idea that if Elvis had never become famous his life wouldn't have changed that much.
While I have published my fiction on Medium, the site encourages all types of writing and I've published a few non-fiction articles. One that seems to have caught on is from a series I've started called "On Writing" (when writers aren't writing they write about writing) and the article that has caught on is On Writing: Niche Writing Also, another good article from that is From Real Life to Fiction coming soon: Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Learning!
One last I want to point out is another short story. Again, this is pulled from the Jim Cherry Archive, again I thought it a nice article that hasn't seen the light of day in a while, it's called The 1000th Chimpanzee it has a cute picture of chimpanzee on it!
You can also search around Medium for other articles!
Keep on!
Jim
March 15, 2018
The Captured Dead captures 4 Star Review
The Captured Dead
has captured a new 4 star review! Here it is:
"A short story set in the open desert of the old west. A military man faces phantoms sent to him seemingly out of the land itself, their presence enigmatic and troubling. Against the backdrop of violent skirmishes, he attempts to grapple with how real these apparitions are, and just what that might mean.
Enjoyable short with an evocative setting and an emphasis on the psychological aspect of hauntings."
A big THANK YOU to Rebecca Gransden for the review!
"The Captured Dead" is an e-book available on Kindle or Kobo
has captured a new 4 star review! Here it is:"A short story set in the open desert of the old west. A military man faces phantoms sent to him seemingly out of the land itself, their presence enigmatic and troubling. Against the backdrop of violent skirmishes, he attempts to grapple with how real these apparitions are, and just what that might mean.
Enjoyable short with an evocative setting and an emphasis on the psychological aspect of hauntings."
A big THANK YOU to Rebecca Gransden for the review!
"The Captured Dead" is an e-book available on Kindle or Kobo
March 9, 2018
The Beats Influence on Jim Morrison
Here's an article I think turned out all right and people seem to be enjoying.
"Kerouac On Record" was released this past Thursday and I was going through the table of contents (or TOC for you writers out there) and didn't see anything about The Beats and The Doors so I thought I'd through my 2 cents in.
Some bands wear their Beat influences on their sleeves. Steely Dan is a reference from a William Burroughs book “Naked Lunch” and their song lyrics continued to be influenced by literature. At first glance The Doors don’t seem to be Beat influenced and while The Doors were heavily influenced by literature, they practically released a reading list when they became a national band, they were also obviously influenced by film (Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek were UCLA film students when they met), but theatre was an influence, as well as Blues music. If you delve past surface appearances you will find The Doors, especially Jim Morrison were influenced by The Beats (most of this essay focuses on Jim Morrison because he was The Doors chief lyricist and the most widely read in literature of The Doors).
The first thing The Beats gave Morrison is the most important and overlooked influence, they gave Jim Morrison a reading list. Kerouac’s “On The Road” provides a who’s who of cutting edge writers ranging from William Blake, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Rimbaud. The most influential in Morrison’s development as a writer with a desire to be a poet was French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud. Morrison was influenced by Rimbaud’s “A Season in Hell” as well as “Illuminations.” Also important to Morrison was Rimbaud’s biography. Rimbaud is famous for his quote that poetry should be “a systematic disorganization of the senses.” Rimbaud’s poetic career was also a very quick and shambolic tear through the ranks of French poetry of the time. Rimbaud stopped writing at age seventeen and left for Africa to make his fortune as a gun-runner. It’s from this that Morrison developed the romantic idea of writing some memorable poetry and then “split for Africa.” Other writers suggested by The Beats were Nietzsche, Celine, Baudelaire, William Blake, Hart Crane, Weldon Kees whose ideas and Morrison’s paraphrasings of which you can later find in Morrison’s philosophy, Doors lyrics, and poetry.
The rest of the article is at The Beats Influence on Jim Morrison
"Kerouac On Record" was released this past Thursday and I was going through the table of contents (or TOC for you writers out there) and didn't see anything about The Beats and The Doors so I thought I'd through my 2 cents in.Some bands wear their Beat influences on their sleeves. Steely Dan is a reference from a William Burroughs book “Naked Lunch” and their song lyrics continued to be influenced by literature. At first glance The Doors don’t seem to be Beat influenced and while The Doors were heavily influenced by literature, they practically released a reading list when they became a national band, they were also obviously influenced by film (Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek were UCLA film students when they met), but theatre was an influence, as well as Blues music. If you delve past surface appearances you will find The Doors, especially Jim Morrison were influenced by The Beats (most of this essay focuses on Jim Morrison because he was The Doors chief lyricist and the most widely read in literature of The Doors).
The first thing The Beats gave Morrison is the most important and overlooked influence, they gave Jim Morrison a reading list. Kerouac’s “On The Road” provides a who’s who of cutting edge writers ranging from William Blake, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Arthur Rimbaud. The most influential in Morrison’s development as a writer with a desire to be a poet was French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud. Morrison was influenced by Rimbaud’s “A Season in Hell” as well as “Illuminations.” Also important to Morrison was Rimbaud’s biography. Rimbaud is famous for his quote that poetry should be “a systematic disorganization of the senses.” Rimbaud’s poetic career was also a very quick and shambolic tear through the ranks of French poetry of the time. Rimbaud stopped writing at age seventeen and left for Africa to make his fortune as a gun-runner. It’s from this that Morrison developed the romantic idea of writing some memorable poetry and then “split for Africa.” Other writers suggested by The Beats were Nietzsche, Celine, Baudelaire, William Blake, Hart Crane, Weldon Kees whose ideas and Morrison’s paraphrasings of which you can later find in Morrison’s philosophy, Doors lyrics, and poetry.
The rest of the article is at The Beats Influence on Jim Morrison
February 23, 2018
The Last Stage on Self-e
Hi Everybody!
I know it seems like you're hearing from me a lot all of a sudden so you maybe thinking "does Jim have a lot of time on his hands?" The answer maybe "YES!" but a lot of cool things going on too!
The IL library system has "The Last Stage" up and you can access it and read it for free! Here's the link The Last Stage on Self-e You can read at your leisure and if you feel moved by the writing there's a link to purchase the book too! I hope you dig it!
I know it seems like you're hearing from me a lot all of a sudden so you maybe thinking "does Jim have a lot of time on his hands?" The answer maybe "YES!" but a lot of cool things going on too!
The IL library system has "The Last Stage" up and you can access it and read it for free! Here's the link The Last Stage on Self-e You can read at your leisure and if you feel moved by the writing there's a link to purchase the book too! I hope you dig it!
