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About This Writing Stuff…

This week, the Kill Zone’s Kathryn Lilley warns us about zombies while Ron Vitale offers advice to forge lasting connections with readers. Anne R. Allen lists the telltale signs of a newbie novelist while Kristen Lamb challenges us to rise above the stigma of self-publishing.

Lately, there has been great concern and debate about the lack of equitable pay for writers. As Alison Flood reports, the problem is manifest in the UK as well.

All that and a little more. Enjoy!

Sorry, Grammar Nerds. The Singular ‘They’ Has Been Declared Word of the Year by Jeff Guo

10 Industry Predictions for 2016 by Tom Chalmers

Writing Note #1: Avoid Creating “Zombie” Characters by Kathryn Lilley

Building a Relationship with Readers by Ron Vitale via Veronica Sicoe

10 Things that Red-Flag a Newbie Novelist by Anne R. Allen

Episodic Storytelling is a Problem by Mooderino

Selling Books in the Digital Age-We ALL Have an Image Problem & Here’s What To Do by Kristen Lamb

Philip Pullman Resigns as Oxford Literary Patron over Lack of Pay for Authors and Professional Writers Set to Become an Endangered Species by Alison Flood

Author Newsletters: 6 Tips for Smart Strategies by Jami Gold

Book Review: Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison built his career on the short story format and as a result, became one of the most awarded living writers.  I have many of his collections in my library, which was why I recognized most of the material in this anthology.

Deathbird Stories consists of 19 tales, originally printed between 1960 and 1974, all loosely gathered here under the theme of modern gods.  While some of the stories, such as “Neon”, “Along the Scenic Route”, and “Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes” seem to miss that mark, many of the stories directly fit the theme or at least, contain supernatural elements.

Some of my favorites include (along with Harlan’s taglines for each):

The Whimper of Whipped Dogs – When the new god comes to the Big Apple, its Kyrie Eleison turns out to be a prayer Kitty Genovese simply couldn’t sing. But thirty-eight others knew the tune.

Along the Scenic Route – God, in the latest, chrome-plated, dual-carb, chopped & channeled, eight-hundred-horsepowered incarnation. God’s unspoken name is Vroooom!

On The Downhill Side – Posing the question: does the god of love use underarm deodorant, vaginal spray, and fluoride toothpaste?

Neon – Kurt Weill and Max Anderson wrote, “Maybe God’s gone away, forgetting His promise He made that day: and we’re lost out here in the stars.” And maybe He/She’s just waiting for the right signal to come back, whaddaya think?

Basilisk – Have you ever noticed: the most vocal superpatriots are the old men who send young men off to die? Well, it might just be that the heaviest reverential act when worshipping the god of war is to be the biggest mutherin traitor of them all. Check Spiro, I think he’s having a seizure.

Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes – The god of the slot machine: new religions, new souls, new limbos.

Paingod – If God is good, why does He send us pain and misery?

Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans – Reality has become fantasy; fantasy has become reality.  35mm constructs have more substance than your senior congressman, but Martha Nelson is real, no matter what you think. And the search for your soul in a soulless world requires special maps.

Deathbird Stories-Ellison

 

Book Review: Mr. Monk on the Road

After solving two San Francisco murders in typical Adrian Monk fashion, the detective decides to do something special for his agoraphobic brother, Ambrose, who has not left his house in over 30 years. After lacing his slice of birthday cake with sleeping pills, Adrian and his assistant, Natalie Teeger, carry Ambrose into an RV that Adrian had rented with the intention of taking Ambrose on a tour of California then out to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas–with Natalie as the designated driver, of course.

Understandably, Ambrose is at first furious over being abducted from his home, but begins to relax as the trip progresses. He marvels at the sights and sounds of the outside world. During their travels, the trio encounter two murders that naturally intrigue Adrian, but he is reluctantly dissuaded by Natalie from participating in their investigation. They are on vacation, after all. Along the way, they meet several interesting characters in various trailer parks and are nearly run off the road by an enraged tractor trailer driver.

It isn’t until they reach Vegas that Detective Monk has an epiphany and realizes that all of the events and people they’ve encountered have a deadly connection…

This story takes place after the end of the television series and the events of the final episode are summed up in the first chapter. If you have never seen the final episode, you may wonder what on Earth would inspire Adrian Monk, a man whose phobias are surpassed only by his brother’s, to take a sightseeing tour in an RV. Well, let’s just say that both Detective Monk and his brother has overcome some of their fears, have loosened up a little, and realized there is more to life than solving puzzles and disinfecting everything in sight–except for the RV’s bathroom and dinette table, of course.

monkHats off to Lee Goldberg for yet anothe marvelous Monk mystery. I’ve read about six of his Monk novels to date and have never been disappointed.