Questions, Questions and Tony Black.

Next Tuesday, 27th November, Tony Black will be appearing at my local library in Dunbar (7:30 - 9:00 pm).

I feel very honoured to have been asked by Tony to host part of the event as an interviewer and hope that I can add some flavour to the evening. 

The guy's got a rich back list to dig in to and he's putting things out on a regular basis. 

He works on Pulp Pusher and keeps us entertained with his posting.  He has the Di Brennan series, the Gus Durie series, Doug Michie has made a recent appearance in The Storm Without and there's the Blasted Heath release RIP Robbie Silva.

It's a large surface to scratch.

I do have ideas of what to ask and I know that Tony's charm and knowledge will make the evening really lively and informative for any who attend.

Thing is, I want to do a good job for the guy.  With that in mind, I wonder if you have any particular questions that you think I should ask.  Maybe about characters or writing style.  I wouldn't be seeking the kind of obvious things that folk ask after a reading, but something that's very specific or might be revealing of something of interest to the writer interested in developing their craft.

You might also leave a few ideas of what not to ask.  Maybe you know something that's better left uncovered or maybe you've presented many events yourself and have your own pet-hates.

Either way, I'd be delighted to hear from you in the comments and will pick any good ones to use on Tuesday.

Many thanks for your help.

One Man's Opinion: LIGHT by M JOHN HARRISON

Light (US) is a little different from my usual read, but it came to me highly recommended by a trusted friend and so I went for it.

Essentially, it’s the science-fiction aspect of the book that is my uncharted territory, not that I needed to have worried.  M John Harrison has produced a work that is highly engaging throughout and suffuses high drama and tension into an intricate plot that is populated by tremendous characters.

The story is told in three strands which occasionally overlap and eventually come together.

There’s Michael Kearney, a scientist on the verge of a breakthrough of immense proportions.  He’s an Oxbridge graduate who’s a bit of a loafer and who relies upon his partner to do most of the research in the messy lab.  He’s obsessed by a creature called the Shrander which appears to be chasing him.  He also has a rather interesting relationship with women – mostly he kills them as a sacrifice to keep him safe, but he never quite manages to get round to ditching his ex-wife.  There’s a wonderful moment when, after a few days in bed together, Kearney decides he need to work and says goodbye to that ex-wife.  “I knew you’d go out again,” she tells him.  In that phrase I think you get to see some of the author’s talent.  It encapsulates so much about their relationship and her character (and indeed that moment that many lovers may experience when they’ve wrapped themselves in a perfectly safe bubble for a while).  Lovely and heartbreaking and apparently simply crafted.

The next strand of the story follows a burned-out space pilot who is addicted to spending time in ‘The Tanks’.  When inside the tank, the world is one of imagination and dreams.  It’s full of an amniotic fluid that bathes the subject and keeps them alive.  When the money in the machine runs out, the subject is prepared for release with tranquilisers and hormones to help with the withdrawal as reality kicks back in.  Ed Chianese loves the tanks.  Unfortunately, not everyone loves Ed.  He’s being chased by the imposing, frightening and heartless Cray sisters who are prepared to pretty much anything to get the guy.  Ed’s only chance is to fight them and run and from the point of his flight, his world becomes an exciting and eventful place to be.

The third aspect of the story is about a human who has been through a process of becoming a space-craft.  She’s part consciousness, part machine.  She’s on a mission to get her existence sorted out.  Unbeknown to her, the man she turns to for help (Uncle Zip) ends up setting her up so that he can follow her and reach his own goal and this is an engrossing journey in itself.

I need to admit that some of the aspects of the imagination had me bamboozled – the nature of travel, the K-Tract, the morphing and genetic interference and such.  Luckily, though, I don’t think that spoiled my enjoyment at all.

There are bizarre sex scenes, there's crazy fashion, there's shape-shifing and there's a gentle sense of parody from time-to-time.

The plot is driven by the needs and desires of the characters.  The settings are wonderfully described.  The questions posed are challenging and fun to consider and the image of the future seems to be neither welcoming of frightening, more just the way things turn out.

Well worth the investment of time and money this one.  Check it out.  It's just been brought out on kindle, too.

One Man's Opinion: ANIMAL KINGDOM

You have a pretty good idea of where you are within the first minutes of Animal Kingdom.

The credits appear over images of an armed robbery and the story opens with a young man sitting next to an unconscious lady.  Deal Or No Deal’s on the box and it looks like a normal day in a boring life.  Normal, that is, until the paramedics turn up and set to work on the woman who had OD’d on heroine.

The young man is Joshua Cody.  He calls his estranged grandmother to ask for help with the funeral arrangements and ends up moving in with her. 

Joshua’s mother kept him away from his extended family in the hope that he wouldn’t get mixed up in their crime syndicate of robbery and drug pushing.  Now that he’s in the arms of his Grandmother, Smurf, things don’t look good.

Smurf is a matriarchal lune.  She has 4 crazy sons, 3 living at home and the craziest of them all, Pope, who’s in hiding. For the set-up, think Cody Jarrett in White Heat, here; it’s unlikely that the choice of name for the Animal Kingdom family is purely accidental.

The Cody family is in trouble because the lawless drug enforcers in police uniform are watching their every move in a bid to find Pope.

The film is stark.  It’s often static and claustrophobic.  The characters are brutally real and easy to get to know.  There are no bells and whistles to distract from the story’s tension and uncomfortable quality.  The performances are superb and the whole piece fits together like apple, sugar and pastry.  Pope would have fitted well in to Blue Velvet and the main character Josh is played in a deadpan way that suggests the actor James Frecheville is going places (if he hasn’t already).

There’s no doubt that this is one to watch.

I’d also like to appeal to fans of Australian cinema to point me in the direction of more similar movies should there be many of them around.

Mr Suit

MR SUIT (US) is as ugly or as beautiful as a pug, depending on your feelings on the breed.

He's a hard man and he's top of the pile.  He also likes to appear at his best and has a wonderful taste in clothing.

Since the accidental shooting of one of his men, ARCHIE, he's been paying for restpite care and for hospital bills that continually prick at his conscience - Archie's been a victim of Locked-In Syndrome ever since.

When Archie's wife, LIZA, approaches Mr Suit to ask for an act of kindness that will release Archie from the prison that is his body, it seems like a win-win situation.

As with many things real and imagined, it's a tangled web they end up weaving. 

If you come and negotiate the web you'll find out about bluff and double-bluff, hidden treasure, a modern-day Billy the Kid, the slowest getaway in the history of crime, a little about Kentish Town noir and about how messed up a family can really be.

It's a romp, a farce and a crime piece all wrapped into one novella.

I'd recommend it to the house.

Good Grief

It’s two weeks since my mum died.

As you can probably imagine, life’s gone in to a tailspin of sorts.  With things moving up and down and round and round at such a rate of change, it’s been very difficult to get any sense of perspective at all.

The first week was all about my immediate family.  Looking after Dad and trying to keep the arrangements on track.  It all led up to the funeral and the sense of relief that it brought in ways I was surprised by.

Week two has been very different. 

I’m in the house alone during the day, feeling a little insecure about the world outside of my doors and the people who live there.  I’m experiencing an odd kind of exhaustion that means I need to go to bed when the need arises.  Not that I’m sleeping all day – I just can’t.

One of the things that’s helped has been writing-related activities.  I’ve managed to fill the emptiness that I feel, at least until the children come home from school, with creativity.

THE SHADOWS OF DEATH (US) was my first reflexive move. 

Hard to say why I needed to put it out there as a collection.

First of all, I had a story (the opener) which I felt needed to be read.  I’m very proud of it and the way it should impact upon a reader.  It’s a tale from the concentration camps of Poland that caused quite some movement within me when I penned it.

Next, I took a photograph on a visit to the church where Mum’s funeral took place.  There are some examples of stained glass that had been smashed and refitted at the time of the reformation.  Using it as a cover for something was a strong push.

The final thing, I think, was a need to make a marker for myself to remember this time.  For many years I wrote poems to capture moments; they acted like photos do for others.  I felt a collection would give me a constant reminder of the pain, which suits me well.

Other than the opening stories, there are a couple of other strong pieces ; I say that with reasonable confidence as they’ve appeared in some mighty collections. 

There are also a couple of oddities.  One about guilt, one about a couple of American police in 1970, one inspired by Godot and another about a shopping receipt.  I have no idea of their value to anyone else, but at this time they’ve offered me a great service.

I hope it works, though I don’t really mind if it doesn’t. 

There may be purists out there who feel only the best should ever go out.  For now I’ll turn a deaf ear to them as I’m not listening to anything by my heart. 

I’ve also completed a first draft of a novella I began before the summer.  I had 6000 words already and have finished it by adding another 5000 or so.  I’ve been lucky to have feedback on it from my steady pals at Crimeficwriters and I’m ready to redraft.

I’d like to thank all those friends in the writing world who’ve offered support and condolences and I hope I can repay in kind some day.

I’d also like to thank writing for being such an ever-present entity in my life.

Till soon.

One Man's Opinion: THE FIRST CUT by JOHN KENYON

 

John Kenyon is a classy writer.

In ‘The First Cut’ (US), he offers a collection of stories that is a pleasure to read.

One of the features of his work is the ability to plant a seed in a reader’s mind and then chop down the plant as soon as it appears so that another seed can take its place.  There were times when I thought I had outsmarted the author and knew where a piece was going, only to find that it was Mr Kenyon who had the upper hand every time.  This kind of loop-the-loop is a lot of fun to be part of.

Another feature is his ability to create a story in an unusual setting – there are lots of tangents from the ordinary here to enjoy.

This collection might also offer a number of tips to the reader, should they ever find themselves in a tight spot, a kind of self-help book for the criminal:

how to bury a body the right way.

how to deliver the perfect Christmas gift to your child when you’re short of cash.

how to ease your conscience after a hit.

why a little-white lie might serve better than a full confession.

how to keep out subliminal messages and maintain self-control.

My favourite in the collection is the opener, a story about a hit-man who has grown to resent Quentin Tarantino movies and who becomes linked in with organ-donation in a rather macabre fashion.

Recommended.

 

I'd also like to point you in the direction of Grimm Tales, published by Untreed Reads.  It's a really great anthology that John put together through his site 'TIRBD'.  There's a foreward in there from Ken Bruen, who sells it far better than I might.  Check it out.

When The Protectors Need Protecting

I hope you caught Thomas Pluck’s excellent piece on how he put together ‘Protectors – Stories To Benefit Protect' yesterday.  It demonstrates the hard work and commitment of the editor and I take my hat off to him for what he’s achieved.

I wanted to support the collection by writing about why I wrote the story – Patti Abbott has opened the doors to her blog with her ever-flowing generosity – and I’d have sent her something had I not just done the very thing for Both Barrels.

Instead of taking up Patti’s space, I thought I’d write it here at home instead.

My story in ‘Protectors’ is called ‘Baby’s In Blue’ and in many ways it came very differently to others I’ve written.  In some ways, I needed protecting from my own creation as I put it together as I felt extremely uncomfortable as I worked.

The starting point is something that really happened, much as I wish it hadn’t.

Several years ago now, a young woman collected a severely-disabled girl from her family to give them respite care.  At some point in the evening, the carer wrapped up the child in a blanket and left her outside in her wheelchair and then went into a party.

It must have been one hell of a party, too.

When the taxi turned up to take the child to school the next day, she wasn’t there.  She was found where she’d been left the night before almost dead after sitting through temperatures that dipped below zero. 

That such things can happen beggars belief.

I guess I wondered just how good something would have to be to make someone forget that kind of responsibility.  The lure of alcohol or drugs and the distractions of love and sex can be mighty powerful, I suppose, but I couldn’t find it in me to sympathise at any level.

That forged the ending of ‘Baby’s In Blue’.  I wanted to use the situation, but in a different way.

To fuse things together and to create the necessary baby of the title, I got to thinking about fertility clinics.  The money people spend to conceive a child.  Surely there must be loads of folk out there doing it in unorthodox ways in order to overcome the problems on the cheap.

Take a lesbian couple.  How about they just get a mate to sleep with them.  No strings.  What man could resist a threesome if his own wife was actually asking him to help out?  Certainly not the character I created.

And then I imagined what it might be like for such a man to see his son being brought up by a couple of women.  Wouldn’t he think about adding a little male influence on the child in the interest of balance?

Which is where I was.

I use the words ‘character I created’ back there quite deliberately.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t claim responsibility – it’s as if they’re already formed in some way when they arrive.

This time, however, I was manipulating the people in the story like a puppeteer.

There was a major consequence to this.  As I was the one pulling the strings, I was also the one leading the situation to its terrible conclusion.  Instead of playing God, I was playing the devil.

For one of the few times in my experience as a writer, I felt damaged by the ideas and the acts of the story.  There was a burden to it.  A dark mass to be carried on the inside.   It was a rough and unpleasant thing to go through and I could only let go of the negative thoughts when the last full-stop was put in place.  In some ways an explanation mark might have felt safer, or putting the laptop behind bars.

I think it holds a great darkness in spite of some of the humour and the attempted lightness of tone.

When I sent it to TP, I was really worried that he’d never speak to me again once he saw what I’d done (for that’s how it felt – like I’d done it).

TP, gracious as ever, accepted the story and even embraced it as part of the collection.  That made me proud I can tell you.

There was also another feeling about the story.  If I’d felt such a revulsion during the process, did it mean that it was something special?  A work not even from my top drawer but from some secret cupboard somewhere?

I’m yet to read it again, so I’m not sure.  When I do, I won’t be the best judge anyway.

Should you get there, and I recommend that you at least buy the book (it’s to help the vulnerable, after all), maybe you’ll check it out and let me know.

Thanks again, TP, for all your hard work and dedication.  I shan’t be forgetting it any time soon.