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April 11, 2012

Intoxicated Reality by Richard Godwin

Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Richard Godwin’s most recent novel, Mr. Glamour, but today I’m pleased to welcome Richard for a little reflection on the concept of intoxicated reality and creativity.

There have been many debates about art, where it comes from, what rules govern it, and at the end of the day maybe no one knows.

Friedrich Nietzsche posited the theory that it stems from a basis tension between the old Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus, Apollo representing law and Dionysus chaos.

In his first seminal work ‘The Birth of Tragedy’ he wrote:

…we have considered the Apollonian and its opposite, the Dionysian, as artistic energies which burst forth from nature herself …first in the world of dreams, whose completeness is not dependent upon the intellectual attitude or the artistic culture of any single being; and then as intoxicated reality…

This idea of intoxicated reality runs like an undercurrent through all the theories of creativity.

Rimbaud used it for his poetry.

Keats wrote of imagination that it was Like Adam’s dream, ‘he awoke and found it true’.

There is a central issue of control.

What are you evoking?

During the 1960’s and 1970’s in the US a number of works were performed which transgressed the traditional boundaries of Western genre in the arts. →

April 10, 2012

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

People out in these parts can take hold of religion like it’s a drug, and they don’t want to give it up once they’ve got hold of it. – Sheriff Clem Barefield

Nine-year-old Jess Hall is caught between two worlds, those of childhood wonder and adult responsibility. Growing up in a small, rural town in the foothills of western North Carolina he and his older brother, Christopher, play in the streams and woods, getting up to the sort of mischief you’d expect of typical young country boys.

Except Christopher isn’t typical. He’s autistic, and his total lack of verbal communication has led to him being given the nickname Stump. Despite Jess being the younger brother, he’s fiercely protective of Stump and feels it’s his responsibility to make sure Stump’s path through life is as smooth as possible.

When things go horribly wrong during an attempted “healing” of Stump by Pastor Carson Chambiliss at the local evangelical church, life changes irrevocably for both boys and nothing about their small town will ever be the same again.

The events of Wiley Cash’s spectacular debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, are relayed through the perspectives of three different narrators, Jess being one of them. Weaving back and forth in time, Cash also adds the world–weary voices of longtime Sheriff Clem Barefield and town/church elder Adelaide Lyle to help flesh out his Southern Gothic tale of religion gone wrong and the destructive power of secrets. →

April 09, 2012

Gods and Fathers by James LePore

“You’re a tough guy, Matt, a stoic, but you’ve got a lot of friends.” – Jade Lee

Manhattan prosecutor Matt DeMarco is going to need every ounce of his toughness and every one of his friends to get through the nightmare he finds himself plunged into in Gods and Fathers, the latest thriller from author James LePore.

The failure of his marriage sixteen years ago bothers Matt, but what really kills him is the wedge that was driven between him and his now twenty-two-year-old son, Michael, when Matt’s ex-wife married an extremely wealthy Syrian businessman who showered Michael with anything his heart desired.

Reduced to seeing Michael on the odd weekend here and there, Matt finds his son to be both a stranger and a disappointment. But when Michael is arrested for the rape and murder of his girlfriend, Matt’s fatherly instincts kick into high gear. His son may be a disagreeable, spoiled punk, but he’s no rapist or murderer. Matt’s sure of it, and will stop at nothing to prove it.

When people close to the case, both investigators and witnesses, start getting killed Matt realizes there are forces at work that go far beyond his son’s arrest, forces that are as determined to remain in the shadows as Matt is to drag them into the light. Now Matt’s racing to uncover the truth and exonerate his son while trying to stay one step ahead – and out of the crosshairs – of an alphabet soup of government agencies including the NYPD, FBI, CIA, UN, and SMI (Syrian Military Intelligence). →

April 09, 2012

‘I didn’t set out to create an evil preacher…’ by Wiley Cash

I’m very pleased to welcome Wiley Cash to the blog today. Wiley’s debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, has been getting tremendous advance reviews, and Wiley was kind enough to take time out of his schedule for an interview during this hectic run-up to the book’s official launch on April 17th (William Morrow).

Wiley Cash First, thank you for taking the time to do this interview. I imagine you’re stretched pretty thin with the book about to launch. It’s a question I’m sure you’re going to get sick of answering, but since this is your debut could you give people a little background about yourself? You know, the standard “How did you come to be a writer?” question.

I started out writing doomy, self-centered, “no one understands me” poetry when I was in junior high school. I’ve talked to a lot of writers who started out this way; you listen to a couple of albums by The Doors and suddenly you understand the secrets of the literary universe. I, unfortunately, was sadly mistaken in my understanding of those secrets. I went to college and majored in creative writing so I could work on my poetry, but as soon as I got to college I realized that I was a terrible poet. I still enjoyed writing, so I decided to try my hand at fiction. I wrote my first short story during my sophomore year, and it was actually published. I thought, Man, this writing thing is a piece of cake! I was wrong. I didn’t have another story published for almost ten years, but I kept writing and I kept trying to improve. →

April 03, 2012

Spinetingler Magazine 2012 David Thompson Community Leader Award Nominations

Over this past weekend Spinetingler Magazine announced its nominees for the 2012 David Thompson Community Leader Award and I was once again humbled and honored to find myself amongst such a wonderful group of nominees. Even though I have already tweeted and posted on Facebook about the nomination, as I did last year I wanted to do a formal post here in order to pay tribute to the man the award is named after.

David Thompson, who tragically passed away in 2010, was a bookseller and publisher whose passion for crime fiction knew no bounds, nor did his tireless advocating of crime fiction books and authors. You can learn more about David by visiting Sarah Weinman’s blog, where she compiled a deservedly lengthy list of the tributes that poured out from every corner of the crime fiction community in David’s honor upon his passing. It is truly an honor to be nominated for an award which bears David’s name.

Spinetingler is also giving awards in numerous other categories, including: Best Novel: New Voice, Best Novel: Rising Star, Best Novel: Legend, Best Short Story Collection, Best Anthology, Best Crime Comic/Graphic Novel, Best Cover, Best Short Story on the Web, Best Crime Publisher, Best Zine, and The Fireball Award for Best Opening Line.

Voting in all the award categories is open and runs April 1st through April 30th.

April 02, 2012

Brambleman by Jonathan Grant

“I’m not from around here, and I’ve been places you’ll never want to go. Unless you’re even stupider than you look.”
– Trouble

Charlie Sherman’s been accused of worse things than being stupid. His wife, in fact, kicked him out of the house for being a failure as both a writer and father, though that porn he inadvertently set as the desktop on his computer certainly didn’t help matters.

While at a diner trying to figure out exactly what his next step is Charlie meets a mysterious stranger known only as ‘Trouble.’ Despite that ominous moniker, Trouble actually hooks Charlie up with a job finishing the massive, jumbled manuscript a recently deceased local professor never quite completed.

As a bonus, Charlie can also live in the basement of the professor’s widow’s house while working on the project. Life may have handed Charlie lemons, but he’s found a way to make lemonade. Yeah, if only it was that easy.

First there’s the matter of the manuscript’s topic, the horrific events of 1912 in which the whites of Forsyth County, Georgia engaged in intimidation, arson, and lynching to drive the black population from their homes. Much of the resulting “vacant” property was subsequently seized by white families, one parcel of which is now worth nearly $20 million dollars in the highly upscale – and lily white – Forsyth. When in the course of working on the book Charlie discovers the rightful heir to that property things get seriously complicated, with Charlie put in the position of either walking away or opening an enormous can of worms.

There’s also the highly disturbing fact the contract Charlie signed regarding the book project seems to be changing on its own; he doesn’t remember there originally being a clause in there about the project being a success or he would forfeit his life, and he’s damn sure he signed in ink, not blood. What has Charlie gotten himself into? →

March 28, 2012

Pulp Modern 2 by Alec Cizak, Editor

The first edition of Pulp Modern was an extremely pleasant surprise, populated with an array of short stories by both authors I knew as well as introducing me to a few new treasures to pursue, like David James Keaton.

The followup lives up to its predecessor, with editor Alec Cizak once again assembling a quality assortment of stories from established authors and relative newcomers alike that span crime, fantasy, and the Old West. As always, there were a few that particularly stood out for me.

I don’t think there’s an author currently working in crime fiction/noir who more consistently forces readers to go to uncomfortable places as does Matthew C. Funk, and “Breed Out the Bad” is no exception. The matter-of-fact way in which Funk tells the story of a young man done wrong’s Biblical solution to ridding his small town of the ‘evil’ represented by the Tarwater family, starting with the sisters, is as deeply disturbing as it gets.

“The Aerialist” by Stephen Eoannou is a wonderfully understated tale of love, betrayal, and revenge. It turns out Spence and Blind Charlie share more in common than an affinity for placing bets at the OTB, and as the two journey across town to watch an aerialist attempt to walk between the two Statue of Liberty replicas atop the Liberty Building one of them will also discover the aerialist isn’t the only person making a perilous journey and poised for a disastrous fall. →

March 27, 2012

Abide With Me by Ian Ayris

We weren’t never bad kids, we just didn’t have nothing to hold on to, that’s all. – John Sissons

John Sissons is a working class kid growing up in London’s East End during the mid 1970s. His family doesn’t have a lot, but they do have tremendous love for each other and an undying passion for football (that’s soccer for the American crowd).

Kenny Montgomery is the strange kid who lives across the street. Overweight, socially awkward, and uncommunicative to the point one could mistake him for mute, it seems to be Kenny’s lot in life to be the butt of jokes and target of bullies.

Turns out Kenny’s abuse doesn’t end when he gets home from school. As John learns firsthand one frightening afternoon when he stops in for tea, both Kenny and his mum are the victims of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Kenny’s alcoholic father.

A good kid at heart, John takes Kenny under his wing and the two form an unlikely friendship, one that grows for several years until their lives are irrevocably changed by two outbursts of violence.

The first finds all the pain Kenny has suffered and repressed throughout his life erupting in spectacular fashion, while the second results when John, now a dropout, and some friends plan a holdup that goes decidedly sideways. The fallout from those events sends John and Kenny down separate paths in life for the better part of a decade. When they’re finally reunited they discover that the more things change, the more they stay the same. →

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