Harry Connolly's Blog, page 165

Reviews, Part 20

New reviews of my work:

1) I try not to duplicate info on my blog and Twitter, and I don't usually post links to Amazon.com reviews, but I'm making an exception for Charlaine Harris: "Ray Lilly is one of the most interesting characters I've read lately, and Harry Connolly's vision is amazing. I can hardly wait for the next one."

Score!

2) I didn't see this when it came out, but Game of Cages got a terrific review from Booklist: "Ray's voice continues to be charming despite his rough edges, and the plot more than taut enough to keep the pages turning at a breakneck pace; and there is definitely some fascinating history hidden beneath the surface of the world Connolly is spinning, and it's thoroughly entertaining." (no link, because I copy-and-pasted it from Amazon.com)

3) Jeremiah loved Game of Cages: "Wow… Way down the rabbit hole with the series after reading this book. Love it."

4) An unnamed reviewer at Daily Ebook Reviews not so much. "Overall, I'd say the story felt like it was constantly firing away on two cylinders instead of four. Given how much I enjoyed Child of Fire, I know Connolly can do better than that."

5) Chris Valin at Wax Tadpole liked Game of Cages: "Where the sequel surpasses the first book is in the fleshing out of both the main character and the world in which he lives."

6) Game designer Rob Donoghue also liked Game of Cages: "… it rockets forward, once again underscoring how scary you can make something without ichor by illustrating it's impact more than the thing itself."

7) David Hines didn't like Game of Cages as much as Child of Fire, but he still liked it: "It's still a really solid horror action/thriller, and if it's not as conceptually exciting as its predecessor it does a good bit to compensate in the thrills department." He also didn't like the title. Me, I love "Game of Cages" as a title more than any of the others I've come up with so far. Child of Fire and Circle of Enemies are okay, but I lurve GoC so much I can remember where I was when I thought of it.

Bitten by Books

On Monday the 18th, I will have an article on Bitten By Books as part of their new "Authors Speak Out" series. At least, I think I do. I sent the essay, but haven't heard back whether it's acceptable or not. Yes, I'm a pessimist. It's how I survive.

However! If any other UF writers out there want to take part, you should contact the good folks over there. It's a pretty active community. C.E. Murphy is currently talking about whitewashed covers. Check it out (and maybe win some free books).

Book trailer

The casting call for it is online now.

If you're an actor in the L.A. area, check it out.

Randomness for 10/12

1) Random House UK will publish novelizations of new and old Hammer Films. A fine idea, if you ask me.

2) My wife and I saw this guy's art on the First Thursday Art Walk. Beautiful and fun.

3) Keep it classy, Europe! Mom discovers her missing daughter has been found dead on live TV, while standing in her killer's dining room.

4) A firefighter speaks out about the firefighters who let a house in TN burn down because the owner hadn't paid their fees.

5) Look at yourself. Now look at Grover. Back to yourself. Now back to Grover. Video.

6) Me, I just mailed mine.

7) 14 Inflatable Buildings. Maybe it reveals a flaw in my personality, but the urge to puncture the wedding chapel and have it deflate on the whole wedding party would be intense. Via Martha Wells.

Tossing story seeds

Here are some story ideas I'll never write. I'm putting them here because the act of giving them away will ensure they don't bug me all the damn time.

1) Ma Kent, anti-vax crusader: School nurse discovers that a local anti-vaccination activist is actually trying to hide the fact that her child is a Kryptonian-style alien w/ alien physiology and maybe unbreakable skin. I see this one as a horror story, where the mom seems crazy and over-protective at first, but the protag suddenly realizes the mom is trying to protect everyone else from her kid.

2) Smaug, jewel thief. A tough female police detective investigating a string of puzzling jewel thefts realizes that the thief is actually a dragon in human form, and it's trying to rebuild its treasure pile. A paranormal romance/procedural, maybe along the lines of Out Of Sight, with Clooney as the dragon.

3) Urban fantasy/courtroom thriller: This is an idea that seems so obvious that I'm sure it's been done, but I can't find evidence of it. A courtroom thriller set in a world with standard UF creatures. How will the law change to accomodate the undead? Will non-humans be granted human rights? Alternately, the fantastical elements might be secret–the lawyer for the opposing side might realize that the guy he's suing is a vampire, or a member of the faerie court, and how do you win against someone who can hypnotize/glamour your witnesses?

4) Serial Resurrectionist: A man who can bring the dead back to life resurrects suicides. I have no idea how to pull this one off without being completely ridiculous and awful, but I keep thinking about it.

5) The haunted lair: Set in a superhero universe, a mastermind-type supervillain brings in a squad of exorcists to put to rest the ghost of a minor superhero/sidekick the villain killed there. The hero doesn't know he's dead, and has been interrupting the villain's work with bombastic speeches and sudden attacks. Of course, once the exorcists' job is done, they have only the villain's word that they'll be set free.

I like this one. I could write it. I just don't have the time.

6) Peter Parkour, the Spectacular Spider-man. Spider-man agrees to make a parkour video, the sales of which will benefit his favorite charity (isn't Aunt May working for a shelter right now?) but his jumping around leads him to stumble onto a villain's hideout, maybe The Vulture. There's a big fight–caught on video–and SM seems about to lose, but the videographer convinces the villain to pose in better light for the camera and he does, giving Spider-man a chance to clear his head and win the fight.

Too bad I don't have the rights to this character.

7) God hates killers. Vampires exist, and holy symbols make them burn and scar. But then, holy symbols burn everyone who's guilty of murder, because God has decided to give the vampire treatment to every killer in the world, living or dead. Homicide detectives routinely spritz suspects with holy water and war vets need to carry a special ID card so TSA personnel don't brand them every time they try to reenter the country.

And yet, a murder has been committed, and the only possible suspect (she's even confessed!) can drink holy water like iced tea and handle every crucifix in the precinct house. How can this be?

Meh. It's an interesting story idea, but too theological for me.

Chapter 4 of A Glimpse of Darkness

Kelly Meding's section of A Glimpse of Darkness just went live. Check it out and vote for what happens next!

Things that are awesome

Spent much of last night shooting a video with my son. Not actually finished, but damn did we have a good time.

My wife and son have gone out without me. Think of it as...

My wife and son have gone out without me. Think of it as a date. They're going to a concert and will maybe get a dessert afterwards.

Meanwhile I'm left at home. I've already scrubbed the pots and pans, loaded and run the dishwasher, then vacuumed. Now I'm going to put on some Tom Waits, fire up the writing computer, and revise that essay to acceptability. First, though, I'll perform the ritual that will summon my guardian angel, Mac Freedomiel.

Woo!

Randomness for 10/8

1) Chicken McNuggets are made of this pink goop. Oh, lame-ass standup comics of yesteryear, the truth is so much worse than you imagined! By god, industrial food is repulsive.

2) "If you do this in an email, I hate you."

3) Ten greatest all-nude fight scenes in comics. So… yeah, it's funny and dopey and juvenile, but it's funny. Also, the comments are hilarious.

4) I was pretty stupid when I was younger, but never this stupid. Video.

5) SF Signal has done a "mind meld" about the idea of a Star Wars reboot, and most of the writers say "No," "NO!" and "Don't bother." Of course, I planned out a Star Wars: A New Hope reboot last year.

6) "First with my son, and now with my new love, I was learning that conspiracy

and dominance are not the only ways to be close to someone." This essay/memoir/confessional is a few years old (ancient in internet time) but still powerful as hell. Carver is a terrific writer.

7) Sucking air through clenched teeth alert: Woman mistakenly uses super glue instead of eye drops. Note to self: move all butcher knives out of the prop knife drawer.

"I'm not an author. I'm a writer."

Heh. I finished up the latest section of A Key, An Egg… yesterday morning. It was a really difficult section, too, in which a home invasion completely destroys the protagonist's house, and dangerously ups the stakes.

Now I get to start the whole book over from page one. After a healthy dose of outlining, of course. Fun!

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Ta-Nahisi Coates said that obesity is the third rail of the blogosphere, and damn if he isn't right. He links to a rather tame and unimpressive post about the BMI which had to have comments closed because people went nuts.

Because… yeah. As a culture we're raising awareness about sexual pleasure and, even if we aren't 100% sane (or ever likely to be) we're tossing the issues of privacy, preference, et al back and forth.

Not so with the pleasure that comes from eating. People are still weird about their food. Anyone who talks about vegetarianism knows that. People have strange compulsions regarding their food, and they hate to let other people examine them closely.

Coates also says, in the comments, that his legs hurt constantly when he was 295. Damn. I weigh about that and have the same problem…

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Last, I want to take note of this essay by Richard Kadrey about his new Sandman Slim novel.

Let me start by saying these books sound very good. They sound like they would fall right into my reading sweet spot: Fantasy elements in a book inspired by the best crime and detective fiction of the previous century. Wait a minute! Is this my book? ::checks Amazon.com sales ranking:: Nope! His numbers are too good.

My point is, that if I weren't trying to write something utterly different from my usual stuff, I'd be all over this guy's books like ugly on an ape. Then I read this:

It all comes down to this: I'm not an artist. I know artists. I have friends who are artists and I'm not one of them. Mickey Spillane said it best, "I'm not an author. I'm a writer. That's all I am." Occasionally I wonder if I even write novels. I write long shaggy dog stories. Messy, kind of odd and noisy. I love the graceful sloppiness of early punk and the garage rock you find on Lenny Kaye's Nuggets record series. I feel like my books and stories are similar to the way Iggy Pop describes The Stooges music, "It's dumb. But it's smart dumb." My books are basically Raw Power with commas.

Hmph! I'm guessing Iggy Pop isn't a musician, then, because he doesn't play music.

I've gotta spray this grafitti again: If you're writing fiction, you are an artist. I don't want to get into a debate about where to draw the line through art/not art. Fiction isn't an edge case. Fiction is art.

Now, it may be bad art. It may be utterly conventional art. It may be an ass-kissing hand-jobbing desperate-to-please whore in a Mary Sue mask, but it's still art.

Art isn't a term of praise. It's not a label we reserve for those things that "terrify" us but never "seduce" us. It's not a superlative. If you make something that exists mainly for the purpose of evoking an emotional reponse from people–in other words, if you've written a story, you've made art.[1]

[1] What say you, Wikipedia? "Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings."

That makes a lot of people uncomfortable. I know; I used to be one of them. Also, I used to get as obnoxious about it as: "Yes, I wonder about the nature of our existence, but I don't get all Tolstoy about it."

So I understand the urge to try to avoid being an artist. Who wants to be compared to Tolstoy? Who wants their readers to think the books we write are good for them? Does McDonald's go around telling customers that their burgers are high in fiber?

Hell no. McDonald's wants to sell their burgers; they only talk about the taste and talk about nutrition as a side issue. Eat this tasty burger! Read this exciting thriller! Don't worry, I'm not like those high-minded guys your school teachers forced on you. I'm fun!

It doesn't work, and it damages the art you make.

Call it low art if you want. Or pop art. Hell, call it "art-tertainment." I don't care. But don't try to tell me it's not art.

And buy that dude's book, because it sounds awesome.

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Jeez, I'm really ranty these last two weeks, eh?

Let me make up for that with this: you can win a free copy of GAME OF CAGES (plus other awesome books) by entering this Suvudu contest.

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Anyway, I won't be around to respond to comments for a while. I'm in training today and tomorrow. Pity me!