Robert B Parker RIP

Robert B Parker passed away on Monday. He made a huge impact on the crime scene in the '70s and published over 60 novels, most famously the Spenser series. His work was tough, funny, intelligent and romantic. From all accounts so was he.

One of my favourite writers. I'm sorry that he's gone.

2009 reading

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff but here's a rough list of what I read last year. Probably would've helped if I hadn't waited until halfway through the year to start listing my reading. And if I hadn't then lost the list.

* = not finished by the end of 2009
** = reread
*** = not quite a reread but heavy skimming of books that have been read previously

Novels:
GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD -- Michael Chabon*
THE MASTER SNIPER -- Stephen Hunter
THE CODE OF THE WOOSTERS -- PG Wodehouse
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE -- James M Cain
THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY? -- Horace McCoy
SOME OF YOUR BLOOD -- Theodore Sturgeon
TAMING A SEAHORSE -- Robert B Parker
THE DRIVE-IN: THE BUS TOUR -- Joe R Lansdale
THE LOVERS -- John Connolly
ALTERED CARBON -- Richard Morgan
ECHO BURNING -- Lee Child
THE ROAD -- Cormac McCarthy
THE TURNAROUND -- George Pelecanos
THE GATES -- John Connolly
TOMATO RED -- Daniel Woodrell
MARATHON MAN -- William Goldman
STARSHIP TROOPERS -- Robert Heinlein*
BATMAN BEGINS -- Dennis O'Neil*
THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT -- Robert B Parker***
GOD SAVE THE CHILD -- Robert B Parker***
MORTAL STAKES -- Robert B Parker***
PROMISED LAND -- Robert B Parker***

Collections:
VERY GOOD, JEEVES! -- PG Wodehouse
E PLURIBUS UNICORN -- Theodore Sturgeon*
WAKING NIGHTMARES -- Ramsey Campbell*
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S -- Truman Capote*
EARTHMAN GO HOME -- Harlan Ellison*
DARK VISONS -- Stephen King, Dan Simmons, George RR Martin*
NIGHT VISIONS 3 -- Ramsey Campbell, Lisa Tuttle, Clive Barker*

Short stories:
A bunch of Thomas Ligotti stories
Desperate Hours -- Jonathan Marshall
Guy Walks into a Bar ... -- Lee Child
The Sticky Wicket -- James Herriot
The Ant and the Grasshopper -- W Somerset Maugham
The Man From Glasgow -- W Somerset Maugham
The Pitch -- Dennis Etchison
The Accountant -- Robert Sheckley
Miss Marple Tells a Story -- Agatha Christie
The Last Seance -- Agatha Christie
The Snail-Watcher -- Patricia Highsmith
The Day of Reckoning -- Patricia Highsmith
The Baby Spoon -- Patricia Highsmith
A Curious Suicide -- Patricia Highsmith
A Rose for Emily -- William Faulkner
The Man Who Didn't Ask Why -- CS Forester
Examination Day -- Henry Slesar
The Seed from the Sepulchre -- Clark Ashton Smith
Home Away from Home -- Robert Bloch
You've Got to Have Brains -- Robert Bloch
The Mannikin -- Robert Bloch
The Graveyard Rats -- Henry Kuttner
The Wonderful story of Henry Sugar -- Roald Dahl
The Willows -- Algernon Blackwood
Oh Whistle and I'll Come to you my Lad -- MR James
Lost Hearts -- MR James
Canon Alberic's Scrap-book -- MR James
The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral -- MR James
Number 13 -- MR James
The Girls in Their Summer Dresses -- Irwin Shaw
The Heart of a Goof -- PG Wodehouse
High Stakes -- PG Wodehouse
Buried Treasure -- PG Wodehouse
The Letter of the Law -- PG Wodehouse
The Monster -- Joe Haldeman
Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds -- Dan Simmons
A Way Home -- Theodore Sturgeon
Talent -- Theodore Sturgeon
The Man Born Blind -- CS Lewis
Forms of Things Unknown -- CS Lewis
Apples -- Ramsey Campbell
The Open Window -- Saki
Denton's Death -- Martin Amis
Activity Time -- Monica Dickens
Eyes -- Charles L Grant

Scriptbooks:
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: ONCE MORE WITH FEELING -- Joss Whedon
DR WHO: THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG -- Robert Holmes*

Non-Fiction:
CREATORS ON THE FANTASTIC FOUR -- Tom Defalco
WILL STORR vs THE SUPERNATURAL -- Will Storr*
A PATH WITH HEART -- Jack Kornfield*
ZANSHIN -- Vince Morris**
THE ELEMENTS OF ZEN -- David Scott and Tony Doubleday
AT HELL'S GATE -- Claude Anshin Thomas
BUDDHISM WITHOUT BELIEFS -- Stephen Batchelor
HARDCORE ZEN -- Brad Warner
SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP -- Brad Warner
ZEN WRAPPED IN KARMA DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE -- Brad Warner
THE COMICS JOURNAL LIBRARY 6: THE WRITERS -- Tom Spurgeon**
MEDITATIONS ON VIOLENCE -- Rory Miller
LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF VIOLENCE -- Lawrence A Kane and Kris Wilder*
WORKING WITH WARRIORS -- Dennis Martin*
IMPOSSIBLE TERRITORIES: AN UNOFFICIAL COMPANION TO THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN BLACK DOSSIER -- Jess Nevins
GRANT MORRISON: THE EARLY YEARS -- Timothy Callahan*
TARANTINO -- Jim Smith
NORMAN ROCKWELL -- Kara Ann Marling
THE PRE-RAPHAELITES -- Christopher Wood*
WONDER WOMAN: THE COMPLETE HISTORY -- Les Daniels*
ZEN FOR BEGINNERS -- Judith Blackstone and Zoran Josipovic
THE ESSENTIAL BATMAN ENCYCLOPEDIA -- Robert Greenberger*
THE NAKED ARTIST -- Bryan Talbot*

Poetry:
The Charge of the Light Brigade -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Lady of Shallot -- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening -- Robert Frost
Fire and Ice -- Robert Frost**
To Lucasta, On Going to the Wars -- Richard Lovelace
The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock -- TS Eliot
Macavity: The Mystery Cat -- TS Eliot
The Second Coming -- WB Yeats
Dolor -- Theodore Roethke
The Tiger -- William Blake**
The Sick Rose -- William Blake**
A Poison Tree -- William Blake
On Art and Artists -- William Blake
The Clod and the Pebble -- William Blake
A Tragedy -- E Nesbit
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time -- Robert Herrick
How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear -- Edward Lear
Jenny Kiss'd Me -- Leigh Hunt
The Lazy Writer -- Bert Leston Taylor
La Belle Dame sans Merci -- John Keats
I Tracked a Dead Man Down a Trench -- Walter Lyon
The Raven -- Edgar Allen Poe**

Comics:
JLA: NEW WORLD ORDER -- Grant Morrison**
JLA: AMERICAN DREAMS -- Grant Morrison**
JLA: ROCK OF AGES -- Grant Morrison**
JLA: STRENGTH IN NUMBERS -- Grant Morrison**
JLA: JUSTIC FOR ALL -- Grant Morrison**
JLA: WORLD WAR III -- Grant Morrison**
JLA: EARTH 2 -- Grant Morrison**
JLA/WILDCATS -- Grant Morrison**
JLA: YEAR ONE -- Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn**
JUSTICE LEAGUE: A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE -- Mark Waid and Fabian Nicezia
FANTASTIC FOUR: IMAGINAUTS -- Mark Waid
FANTASTIC FOUR: UNTHINKABLE -- Mark Waid
FANTASTIC FOUR: AUTHORIATIVE ACTION -- Mark Waid**
FANTASTIC FOUR: DISASSEMBLED -- Mark Waid**
FANTASTIC FOUR: RISING STORM -- Mark Waid**
DAN DARE -- Garth Ennis
THE UNCANNY X-MEN: BEYOND THE FURTHEST STAR -- Chris Claremont
STREETS OF GLORY -- Garth Ennis
FALLEN ANGEL -- Peter David
THE QUESTION: ZEN AND VIOLENCE -- Dennis O'Neil
THE QUESTION: POISONED GROUND -- Dennis O'Neil
THE QUESTION: EPITAPH FOR A HERO -- Dennis O'Neil
THE QUESTION: WELCOME TO OZ -- Dennis O'Neil
THE QUESTION: RIDDLES -- Dennis O'Neil
THE NEW FRONTIER -- Darwyn Cooke
ANIMAL MAN -- Grant Morrison**
ANIMAL MAN: ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES -- Grant Morrison**
ANIMAL MAN: DEUS EX MACHINA -- Grant Morrison**
BATTLEFIELDS -- Garth Ennis
WAR STORIES -- Garth Ennis**
SCARLET IN GASLIGHT -- Mike Powell
THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS -- Frank Miller**
BLAZING COMBAT -- Archie Goodwin and various artists
RUNAWAYS: DEADEND KIDS -- Joss Whedon
SPYBOY: -- Peter David
BATMAN BEGINS -- Scott Beatty
EDUARDO RISSO'S TALES OF TERROR -- Carlo Trillos
CRIMINAL: LAWLESS -- Ed Brubaker**
MURDER ME DEAD -- David Lapham
TWO GUNS -- Steven Grant
Y- THE LAST MAN: WHYS AND WHEREFORES: Brian K Vaughan
CAPTAIN AMERICA: OPERATION REBIRTH -- Mark Waid
CAPTAIN AMERICA: PROTECT AND SERVE -- Mark Waid
CAPTAIN AMERICA/ CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY -- as many of the non-collected Mark Waid issues as I could find.
IRREDEEMABLE -- Mark Waid
FIGHT TO THE DEATH: BATTLE OF GUADALCANAL -- Larry Hama
SIN CITY: BOOZE, BROADS AND BULLETS -- Frank Miller**
DARK BLUE -- Warren Ellis**
CONAN AND THE SONGS OF THE DEAD -- Joe R Lansdale
ALLSTAR SUPERMAN VOL 2 -- Grant Morrison
THE FLASH: THE RETURN OF BARRY ALLEN -- Mark Waid
THE FLASH: TERMINAL VELOCITY -- Mark Waid
THE FLASH: RACE AGAINST TIME -- Mark Waid
THE LIFE STORY OF THE FLASH -- Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn**
GREEN LANTERN/SUPERMAN: LEGEND OF THE GREEN FLAME -- Neil Gaiman**
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: TIME OF YOUR LIFE -- Joss Whedon, Jeph Loeb
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: PREDATORS AND PREY -- Jane Espenson, Steven S. DeKnight and Drew Z. Greenberg
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: DEATH AND DATING -- Mark Waid, Dan Slott, Roger Stern
THE LONE RANGER -- Brett Matthews
HITMAN -- Garth Ennis***
THE COMPLETE NEW STATESMEN -- John Smith
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WAR AND REMEMBRANCE -- Roger Stern

TV or not TV

"We Have Books About TV" -- Sign outside Springfield Library, The Simpsons

Televison gets a bad rep for encouraging illiteracy and turning anyone who watches a programme for more than thirty seconds into a braindead, dribbling moron but I'm not sure that's entirely deserved. Yeah, there's lot of rubbish programmes that people watch when they could be reading but there's lots of TV adaptations of books and also lots of TV programmes that get novelised.

Personally a lot of my early reading came from finding out about books and characters from TV. Paddington Bear, Just William, Swallows and Amazons, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Who and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Not to mention Jackonary which led to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Wind in the Willows and The Otterbury Incident (written by a future Poet Laureate no less). While you could argue the literary merit of some of these stories they helped develop my love of reading.

Even as an adult I find myself sampling authors due to the influence of TV adaptations. Books such as Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels, P.G. Wodehouse, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Even the Simon Nye novel which he later developed into his hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly (fortunately when he adapted it for TV he decided it might be an idea to include some jokes.)

And it's not just me. One of my friends happily admits that he's not a big reader but thanks to TV he's had a crack at C.S. Forester's Hornblower novels, Jeff Lindsay's Dexter novels and P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster stories.

Now I appreciate it's not just the influence of television that brought me to read some of these books. Stacy Keach's Mike Hammer isn't really a factor in me wanting to try Mickey Spillane and I don't remember Spenser: For Hire well enough for it to sway me one way or another when it comes to reading Robert B Parker. And I'll admit that even when I thoroughly enjoy a TV adaptation it won't necessarily spur me on to read the source material. At least not straight away. Decades passed between my seeing Joan Hickson portraying Miss Marple and my deciding that perhaps I should give the books a go. And although I tried a P.G. Wodehouse novel at the time of Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster it took many years and several nudges from various quarters (including repeats of the TV series) to remind me that it was high time to read some more of his stuff.

Sometimes the TV connection can be quite unexpected. A while back Garth Ennis mentioned that he enjoyed the novels of Derek Robinson, an author with whom I was totally unfamiliar. Recently I stumbled upon one of Mr Robinson's books only to discover it was the basis for a TV series I saw as a child.

UK TV has a long history of adapting books to screen and otherwise appropriating literary characters. Rumpole of the Bailey, The Darling Buds of May, Bodies, Tales of the Unexpected, A Bit of a Do. Crime novels seem to be particularly popular TV fodder -- Wire in the Blood, A Touch of Frost, Dalziel and Pascoe, Inspector Morse, Sharman, Jemima Shore Investigates, An Unsuitable Job For A Woman. Not to mention period dramas. British TV does like to dress up actors in frockcoats and breeches and actresses in bonnets and corsets. Although to be fair quite a few of these programmes seem equally keen to get the actors and actresses out of these costumes at the earliest opportunity.

Judging by the imports we get over here US TV isn't quite so keen on adapting books but in the last few years there seems to have been an upswing -- Homicide: Life on the Street, True Blood, The Wire, Generation Kill, Dexter and FlashForward.

So it's not all bad news as far as TV is concerned. It can actually inspire people to read more than just those annoying messages that flash up on the screen to tell you what the next programme will be, totally ruining the ending of the programme that you're currently watching. Occasionally, just occasionally, television can inspire viewers to seek out the wonders of literature.

Now excuse me, I'm off to watch I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

Fifteen Minutes of Game

Little exercise in timewasting that I stole from Michael Kelly. List 15 books that will always stick with you. But they have to be the first 15 books you think of in 15 minutes. Cue much cursing when you only start thinking of really impressive books after 16 minutes.

Anyway, here's my list:

Black Light -- Stephen Hunter
Axiomatic -- Greg Egan
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams
The Drive-in -- Joe R Lansdale
The Unquiet -- John Connolly
The Hound of the Baskervilles -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Wind in the Willows -- Kenneth Grahame
Dune -- Frank Herbert
Dirty White Boys -- Stephen Hunter
Mucho Mojo -- Joe R Lansdale
L.A. Confidential -- James Ellroy
Mortal Stakes -- Robert B Parker
Dr Who and the Planet of the Spiders -- Terrance Dicks
Biggles Hits the Trail -- Captain W.E. Johns
The History of the Runestaff -- Michael Moorcock

The Reflecting Eye

A while back I was one of a bunch of authors asked to write some quick comments on their favourite novellas. My choice was 'The Reflecting Eye' by John Connolly. See the final feature at http://ttapress.com/611/their-favourite-novellas/0/5/

My bit's tucked away right at the bottom but I'm sure that's because they listed the contributors in alphabetical order and not just because no one's ever heard of me.

Robert B Parker

I'm currently mildly addicted to Robert B Parker novels.

Parker's best known for his Spenser novels. The tough but sensitive private eye solves crimes with the help of his psychiatrist girlfriend Susan and his hitman pal, Hawk.

Then there's the Sunny Randall series about a female PI. In amongst bodyguarding duties and solving murders Sunny's trying to cope with her recent divorce. This isn't helped by the fact that her ex-husband has connections with the local crime syndicate. Or by the fact that she still loves him.

And there's the Jesse Stone books with a divorced, alcoholic L.A. detective trying to build a new life for himself as a small town police chief.

All the books contain sparse, no nonsense prose and reams of witty dialogue. Action scenes are fairly minimal in the books I've read, although it's mandatory for the middleaged Spenser to have at least one scene per book where he uses his boxing skills to prove he can beat up men half his age. To balance up Spenser's machismo there's lots of literary references, most of which I'm too stupid to get.

Parker seems to have a lot of time for psychotherapy, with both Sunny and Jesse regularly seeing shrinks to help cope with their respective divorces. Spenser meanwhile has lengthy discussions with Susan which she fills with psychobabble. This emphasis on the characters analysing their feelings openly and honestly pretty much kills any subtext but Parker peppers the books with oneliners to compensate.

Therapy sessions aside it's nice that Sunny and Jesse have personal problems, it gives the stories an edge lacking in the latest Spenser novels. The saintly Spenser seems to have pretty much resolved all his emotional problems in previous novels (which I haven't read) so now he and Susan have a blissful loving relationship. Which is all well and good but it can get a bit boring. And after their umpteenth proclamation of love and endless reminders of how attractive they are and how great their sex life is and how they are both strong, resourceful people with careers which they find completely rewarding they can come across as a little smug.

And then there's the feeling that the plots are pretty formulaic. Parker had written over 50 novels and it must be getting hard to keep coming up with new ideas. He does his best though. Even though the various 'tecs always solves their cases they don't always manage to bring the criminals to justice.

Anyway, the books are good fun. I think it's going to be a while before the novelty wears off.

Illusions of Style

One thing I neglected to mention when moaning about book length is font size. Generally speaking old books seem to contain smaller typeface which obviously helps contribute to their shorter page count. Although there are exceptions to this. A year or two back I read a David Baldacci novel which was over 600 pages long and had a typeface so small you'd have trouble reading it with an electron microscope. I had a headache by the time I finished reading that bastard.

Another important factor when it comes to long books is writing style. Some long books seem shorter as they have a breezier style. I recently read John Connolly's The Unquiet and found it a joy to read, much easier to digest than his previous novel in the Charlie Parker series. Although admittedly I wasn't in the best of moods when I read The Black Angel which might go some way as to explaining why I didn't enjoy it as much. But anyway Connolly claims that although a lot of people found TU the quicker read it is actually the same length as TBA. (My copy of TU seems to be shorter but that may be due to the difference in page size between paperbacks and hardbacks.) Connolly says that he took a different approach to writing the two novels as TBA was an epic novel full of metaphysical conceits and a sprawling plot that spanned the decades plus two continents whereas TU was a much more intimate affair. Therefore TBA just feels longer.

Coincidentally I recently read an old interview with Lee Child and he said that for his first novel The Killing Floor he deliberately avoided using long sentences as he didn't want to do anything to alienate his readers. He was trying to sell the novel before his redundancy money ran out and he didn't want to do anything to jeopardise his chances. Once he sold the first novel his style seems slightly less clipped but based on the novels I've read he's still making sure that you don't need a degree in English Literature to understand his prose.

And legend has it that James Ellroy created his staccato pseudo-beatnik style after the manuscript for one of his novels was too long and his agent advised him to cut out all the unnecessary words. This allowed him to cram tons of plot into a single book.

Of course if had been a Fanatasy novel his agent would have told him not to change a single word. They'd just cut the book into three sections and sell it as a trilogy.

The Long And The Short Of It

I think one of the reasons I got pissed off with some of the books I've been reading for the last couple of years is that they seem so bloody long. As I've been sorting through my bookshelves recently I've noticed that a lot of my old books are only about 250 pages long. Nowadays it's hard to find anything under 350.

Not that I used to seek out short books, it's just that most of the writers I liked tended to write shorter novels. Which did me a favour because when I did read a long book I didn't feel any pressure to get it finished quickly in order to make time for all the other massive tomes I needed to read. The way I do now.

Now I know you're thinking, "Hang on, 350 pages isn't long!" And you're right, it isn't. But when the shortest books I can readily find are all 100 pages longer than what I used to read it soon starts to mount up. Especially as all the books that used to be 350 pages are now around 500 pages.

It used to be that if I didn't like a book I didn't mind so much because I hadn't wasted much time on it but now I'm ploughing through 500 odd pages in the hope that the story will turn out to be halfway decent. (Okay, I should be able to tell if the story's any good well before I finish the 500 pages but unless the story is truly awful I like to give the author the benefit of the doubt.) Whereas when I waded through Crime and Punishment as a teenager only to decide that Russian literature wasn't really my thing I didn't feel too bad, I still had lots of other novels that I could zip through.

I miss being able to do that. I miss being able to read a Michael Moorcock trilogy in a weekend. (Admittedly, that 's probably longer than it took him to write it.) Because then I had plenty of time left to tackle the longer stuff. And also because I like to reread stuff. Back in the day I read Dune three times; if I was going to attempt a book of similar size now I'd have to check my diary to see if I had time to read it even once.

I don't mind if a book is long because it needs to be but a lot of them feel padded. Even with authors I like such as Stephen Hunter and Lee Child I'm often left thinking that their longer books don't really need to be edging towards 600 pages.

I'm guessing a lot of this is due to the publishers. They think that the punters want long books. And seeing as the rare 250 page book that does get published these days go for the same price as a 500 pager then yes, the public probably do want longer books if only to feel that they're getting their money's worth. Because it won't occur to the publishers to charge less money for a book unless it's part of a promotional offer.

So a lot of modern books put me off with their length. Most of the cutting edge SF writers I hear about produce books the size of housebricks. The same with Fantasy (and then it's usually the first instalment of a bloody trilogy.) I think Horror might not be so bad, although to be honest I don't read a lot of Horror novels. Of course back in the Eighties and Nineties Horror novels were bloody massive in order to emulate Stephen King. There was an old Jonathan Carroll interview where he said he'd been interested in writing a full-blown Horror novel until his publisher told him it would have to be at least 600 pages. Carroll decided to stick with his usual Dark Fantasy stuff.

Anyway, I'd better stop now as I've just realised that this post is about three times longer than I intended it to be. Oh, the irony ...

Sod it

I'm fed up reading stories I don't enjoy.

Time was I enjoyed nearly everything I read. Oh, there'd be the occasional misstep where a book would catch my eye and then fail to deliver upon its promise but for the most part my reading experiences were happy ones. But for quite a while I've found more and more books are leaving me dissatisfied. And I think I know why.

More people are recommending books to me than ever before.

As a child discovering a new author was often a happy accident. Stories on Jackonary would catch my interest, a film I enjoyed would be novelized, or I might spy a book in the local library and closer inspection would lead me to believe that I would enjoy reading it. And of course people would recommend books to me.

But these recommendations were reasonably scarce, tending to come from only one or two trusted sources, friends who shared similar tastes to my own. Nowadays I'm constantly assailed by people badgering me to read their favourite authors. And it's not just people I actually talk to, it's the people on message boards and websites and newsletters and magazines and all the other stuff that I never used to bother with as a child. All of them saying, "You must read this new book!"

This would be a lot easier to ignore if it wasn't for the fact that I'm a writer. As a reader I can just read whatever I want to read and to hell with what anyone else thinks. But as a writer I'm supposed to have a solid background in all kinds of fiction. I'm supposed to be wellversed in the classics, to have a thorough knowledge of the history of the various genres that I write in as well as keeping up to date with all the current developments in those same genres. Plus, I'm supposed to read outside these genres in order to prevent myself merely recycling the cliches of the kinds of fiction that I write.

So when people tell me about an author who is a literary genius or whose work had a profound effect on a particular genre or who is currently redefining a genre I add that author's name to the list of stuff I'm supposed to be reading. Which means I'm relying on other people's recommendations on what I should read instead of my own judgement. Hence my reading so much stuff that I don't actually enjoy.

Now as a writer I'm not supposed to actually enjoy everything I read, the reading is supposed to be part of my work. But -- and I don't know if I'm alone in this -- I find that the more stuff I read that I don't enjoy then the less I actually write. The dreariness of the work I'm reading permnates my entire being and robs me of any desire to write any stories of my own. Now you can say this is just my excuse for being a lazy bastard, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong, but it is true that the less I enjoy the stories I'm reading then the harder I find the writing process.

Therefore I am currently saying the hell with it and am concentrating on reading stories that I think I will like and not what other people tell me I should like.

So there.

Masquerade reviews

Found a couple of reviews for my story, Masquerade, which appeared in Midnight Street #8.

One at Whispers of Wickedness at http://www.ookami.co.uk/html/midnight_street__8.html and one at zone-sf.com.

Both reviews contain mild spoilers so I'll just give you the edited highlights (i.e. the bits where they say how brilliant I am.) Whispers says the story "is very readable and imaginative." And Zone-sf says it is "one of the highlights of the issue ... Highly original, and very well crafted."

If you don't mind spoilers then click on the links above for the full reviews. You can also read about the other stories in that issue. Although I can't for the life of me think of a reason why anyone would want to read about other authors when they can read about me ...

Barry Eisler

Currently reading One Last Kill by Barry Eisler. It's the fourth in his series about John Rain, a Japanese-American assassin.

Rain cuts a lonely, isolated figure. He has been killing ever since he served in Vietnam as a teenager. By now he has developed a professional stoicism to his profession; distancing himself from the emotional ramifications of killing; filling his world with security measures in case anyone tries to come after him; cutting himself off from anything -- friends, family, lovers -- that might make him an easier target. He is calm, implacable, trusting no one.

But as the novels progress events conspire to awaken his emotions, to stir his conscience, to revive his trust in friends. These are traits that he can do without, that can get him killed. The rediscovery of his soul could just cost him his life.

Eisler himself served with the CIA for three years so he writes authoritavely about espionage matters. He also lived in Japan which lends atmosphere to the many scenes set in Tokyo. On top of that he's a black belt in judo and currently trains in Brazilian ju-jitsu.

Eisler says there will only be six John Rain novels which suggests he has a definite conclusion planned for the series. I'm not sure whether he will finally allow Rain to retire or if he'll leave him trapped in a world of death, violence and paranoia.

But it'll be fun to find out.

The horror! The horror!

People's perceptions of different types of fiction is funny.

A couple of years ago I was flying home from WHC with a bunch of fellow writers. We were all winding down after the convention, just relaxing on the plane, all reading different books.

Despite the book in my hand the little old lady sitting next to me started chatting away. She discovered that my friends and I were writers and she wittered on about how her granddaughter wanted to become a writer and could we offer any advice? As my friends were stitting in the opposite aisle they managed to escape her interrogation (the only time they showed any interest was when she asked if she might have read any of our work at which point there was a flurry of business cards in her direction). But as I was sitting next to her I had no escape.

As she carried on asking my help on how to launch a glittering literary career (yeah, 'cos I'm the person to ask about that) she noticed a twentysomething man sitting a couple of seats ahead of us. He wore a black shirt emblazoned with an image of the Devil surrounded by the flames of Hell. The woman's eyes narrowed. "Ooo, he looks like one of those creepy people who likes horror. Those people are just weird."

I thought about telling her which convention I had just attended but I didn't want to encourage further conversation. I just wanted to get back to my novel.

As I tried to find my place in the novel I pondered how some people are so intolerant of something so simple as people reading books that they themselves don't enjoy.

Just then one of my friends noticed that I was the only one out of our little group who wasn't reading a horror novel. He gestured towards my book. "Is that sword & sorcery?"

I nodded.

Chuckling, he shook his head. "You sad bastard."

Hell is the Absence of God

Towards the end of last year I read Hell is the Absence of God, a novella by Ted Chiang. Billed as SF but to me it felt more like dark fantasy or horror. Anyway, angels and miracles abound on Earth, proving the existence of God. But proving He exists isn't the same as discerning His plans for the world. A small group of people who have been touched by tragedies and miracles attempt to discover why God has shaped their lives in the manner that He has chosen.

It reads a little like a synopsis for a longer story but the plot is compelling enough to keep things interesting. A chilling meditation on the nature of faith.

Terrance Dicks

One of the cheap DVDs I picked up over Xmas was Dr Who and the Horror of Fang Rock. I remember being absolutely terrified of the monster in this story when I saw it as a kid. I was pretty sure I wouldn't have the same reaction to it now but my curiosity got the better of me. So I bought the DVD, stuck it in the player and waited to have the bejeesus scared out of me.

Of course the monster turned out to as scary as a little kitten. A cute fluffy little kitten. A cute fluffy little kitten staring up at you lovingly with its big wide eyes.

In my defence when I first saw the story I would have only been four. I know kids who are older than that who are scared of Father Christmas for God's sake.

Anyway, the DVD wasn't a complete loss. The story wasn't actually that bad although funnily enough I couldn't help thinking that it would've been better if it had been played as a straight horror story without the Dr Who touches. (And with a decent monster.)

The DVD also had a feature on the story's writer, Terrance Dicks. Most of my memories of Dr Who come from reading his novelizations of the stories. In book form the dodgy acting and shoddy SFX of the TV programme disappear and you're left with tight plots, sharp dialogue, scary monsters and cosmic chills. I used to love them.

And that led me to read the other children's novels Dicks wrote. His Star Quest trilogy of SF novels. His Baker Street Irregulars series about a gang of crime solving kids. His horror novels including Cry Vampire! (Pretty much the only horror I read as a kid.)

He was a huge influence on my writing as a kid. Without him I might not be the writer I am today.

So now you know who to blame.

Try This

Just nicked this from Gary's blog:

1.Grab the nearest book.

2.Open the book to page 123.

3.Find the fifth sentence.

4.Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

5.Don't you dare dig for that 'cool' or 'intellectual' book in your closet! I know what you are thinking! Just pick up whatever is closest.

So I get this from John Connolly's 'The Black Angel':

Junkies were unpredictable, and just the look of them could put the johns off. But this one, she had something, ain't nobody could deny that. She was just on the verge. The drugs had taken some of the fat off her, leaving her with a body that was just about perfect and a face that gave her the look of one of those Ethiopian bitches, the ones that the modelling agencies liked on account of their features didn't look so Negro, what with their slim noses and their coffee complexions.

Book Meme

Following on from Matt Cardin's Book Meme post on his blog I'm going to answer the 10 point questionaire. Bear in mind that these aren't definitive answers, I've merely done my best to reply with the first books that popped into my head.

1. One book that changed my life. Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson.

2. One book I've read more than once. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

3. One book I'd want on a desert island. Dune by Frank Herbert.

4. One book that made me laugh. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

5. One book that made me cry. Hmm, tough one. I don't cry over books. The only time I can remember it happening was with a comic called A Moment of Silence which told (mainly) wordless stories of 9/11.

6. One book I wish had been written. The exploits of Stephen Hunter's action hero Earl Swagger in the US Marine Corps prior to WWII. You never know, Hunter may yet write this.

7. One book I wish had never been written. Okay, I'm changing this to 'One book I wish I'd never read' 'cos there may well be other people out there who loved it. Anyway, Dixie Chicken by Frank Ronan.

8. One book I'm currently reading. I'm browsing various books for story research. I'll pick the Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions 'cos it's right next to my computer.

9. One book I've been meaning to read. The Face of Twilight by Mark Samuels. (Sorry, Mark!)

10. One book I'd like to write. A SF/Fantasy/Horror/Noir/War/Comedy/Romance/Western/Musical/Philosophical/Theological/Sociological/Surreal/Realist masterpiece. But I'll probably just hack something out like I ususally do.

Now let's see if Quentin, Gary, Chris and Elizabeth want to rise to this challenge. Plus anyone else who wants to join in.

Who Da Man?

Just for a laugh I thought I'd compare my three current fave literary action heroes.

From the pen of Stephen Hunter comes Earl Swagger. A WWII marine sergeant and State Highway Trooper.

Also from Hunter comes Earl's son, Bob Lee Swagger. A USMC sniper during 'Nam.

And from Lee Child comes Jack Reacher. A former major in the military police who spent the first thirty odd years of his life overseas and is now just drifting around America, trying to get a feel for what is supposed to be his home country.

I'll admit this isn't a fair test as I've read all the Swagger books but only three of the Reacher books (so far). Plus, I'm going from memory so I may forget things that could effect the final scores. But like I said, it's only for a laugh.

Anyway, here we go:

Investigative skills

Reacher is an ex-investigator for the MPs. And a bloody good one. So top marks. 5

Bob did some work for the CIA during 'Nam and some investigating of his own when he became enmeshed in various conspiracy theories in the '90s. So not his main area of expertise but he shows some flair for it. 4

Earl never had any real investigative training and his adventures tend not to call for it much anyway. 3

Unarmed combat

Earl is a near-pro level boxer with lightning fast hands. Plus he's had some training in judo and (I think) ju-jitsu. Plus whatever else WWII-era marines got taught (some of the Fairbairn and Applegate stuff maybe?) So it doesn't matter if you fight sport style or street style, either way he'll kick your arse. 5

Reacher is 6 foot five and 220 pounds of bone and muscle. Plus he's been trained to fight dirty. Might even manage to beat Earl if he gets in a solid suckerpunch at the start of the fight. 4

Bob doesn't tend to have so many fistfights as the other two (not that I can remember anyway) but he can still hold his own. When a burly FBI agent with a black belt in judo tries to handcuff him Bob effortlessly reverses the hold and flips the Fed on his back. Probably can fight as well as Reacher but without the Arnie-esque physique to back it up. 3

Close Quarter Combat

Earl won the Medal of Honor for taking on a bunch of Japanese troops in CBQ. Plus he's a crack shot and lightning fast draw with a Colt .45. He's damn handy with a Tommygun too.5

Bob took on a truck and two cars full of battle-hardened mercenaries armed with automatic weapons. Bob's only weapons -- a rifle and a pistol. His only back-up -- a civilian who'd never been in a firefight before. The mercenaries didn't stand a chance. Plus Bob took on VC troops in 'Nam. 4

Reacher seems to have much softer opposition. Usually dumb henchmen with only their boss having any real guts or combat skills. 3

Marksmanship

Bob took on an entire platoon of NVA troops that was marching on an undefended special forces camp. With only his spotter, Donny Fen, as back-up Bob spent 72 hours playing hide and seek, picking off officers and NCOs. By the time he finished he had halted the NVAs' advance and killed over 30 of their number. "Cocksucker can shoot a little." 5

Reacher is the only non-marine to win the USMC sniper trophy. But so far I've not seen him shoot sniper style in all-out combat conditions. 4

Earl is a great shot but didn't receive sniper training until late in his career and then it was just a crash course. 3


Pulling power

A tie here. Earl was a bit of a hellraiser in his younger days but then settled down after he got married. Women continue to throw themselves at him but he remains practically oblivious to it. It takes something very special to make him even think of straying. Meanwhile Reacher gets more women but he's actively pursuing them. But with his mixture of toughness and sensitivity (not to mention his bulging muscles) he'd probably get them even if he ignored them. 5

Bob spent over a decade as a recluse so that seriously cut down on the amount of women he could've had. And as soon as he stopped being a recluse he got married. Still, he had a previous marriage plus some unspecified conquests from his younger days. And while he might not get the ladies throwing themselves at him quite as much as Earl did they still send him admiring glances. They'd probably send him more than that but there's an air of danger about Bob -- as a former sniper people tend to view him as a stone cold killer rather than as a war hero as they do with Earl. This probably means that women prefer to lust after him from afar rather than actually get involved with him. 4

Final score

So it's a tie with Earl and Reacher both finishing with 21 points and Bob with 20.

Of course this isn't definitive. On another day I might've rated the heroes differently.

More Books!

Attended Mark Samuels's book launch for The Face of Twilight last night. Mark got all embarrassed when he was forced into giving a reading. Especially when, halfway through the reading, he realised that he had inadvertently started one of the rudest scenes in the book.

And Katy got all upset that she couldn't have any of the free booze that was on offer as she had a driving lesson booked for early the following morning.

As for me I wandered round a couple of comics shops before the launch and ended up spending virtually all the money I had on me. The first shop had a sale on, so I bought a load of stuff. Then just as I was about to leave I spotted more sale items tucked away in the corner of the shop. So I went onto the next shop expecting merely to windowshop only to discover they had a sale on too. And then Mark's book launch took place in the Fantasy Centre and they had a book on comic book artists that I had read as a teenager but hadn't seen since so obviously I had to buy that too. By the time I left the shop I needed a skip to carry all the books I'd bought.

For anyone who's interested (both of you) the items I purchased were:

Xenozoic Tales Volume 1 & 2
Eyes of Light: Fantasy Drawings of Frank Brunner
Jack Staff Volume 1 & 2
Legend of Grimjack Volume 3
Dynamic Anatomy
Liberty Meadows Volume 4
Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators, Father of the Adventure Strip
Masters of Comic Book Art
Civil War: Opening Shot sketchbook (Although that was a promotional freebie so it doesn't really count.)

So loads of reading for me with all these new books that I shall love and treasure for years to come.

Oh yeah, and I bought Mark's book too :-)

Too Many Books!

My backlog of books to be read is growing steadily larger. Here's a brief rundown of some of the more pressing titles.

There's a pile of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels about an ex-Military Policeman who keeps finding himself in the middle of guns, murder and intrigue. The first novel Killing Floor was great but I still haven't had a chance to read the rest of the series yet. Despite this I keep buying the latest books in the series whenever I see them on sale. I have no willpower.

John Connolly's latest private eye with supernatural overtones novel The Black Angel also sits upon the shelf waiting to be read.

Then there's a pile of Dennis Lehane's Kenzie and Genarro private eye series. And the Raymond Chandler novels. And the Dashiel Hammett short stories.

I want to reread Stephen Hunter's Dirty White Boys as it's a brilliant thriller with great characterization. Plus it's the first thing I ever read by him so it holds a special place in my heart.

I've not read any science fiction for ages so there's a stack of books by Nick Sagan, Neal Asher, Alistair Reynolds and others. Not to mention a Philip K Dick short story collection that's the size of a housebrick. And Amazon couldn't find me a copy of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers so I need to get a copy from a bricks and mortar bookstore.

T.E.D. Klein's The Ceremonies also needs to be started as I really enjoyed his Dark Gods collection of novellas. And I recently picked up a copy of Fritz Leiber's The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich. Which reminds me I've still got a bunch of Leiber short stories to work my way through. And I still haven't read any of the classic Lovecraft stuff such as 'The Call of Cthulhu'.

On the Fantasy front I want to reread some of Jonathan Carroll's earlier novels. Plus I should really read the more recent ones that are sitting gathering dust. I'd also like to reread Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels about a wisecracking sword and sorcery assassin.

And there's a whole bunch of books on mysticism and spirituality by authors such as Ken Wilber, Jeff Meyerhoff, Huston Smith, R. A. Gilbert, Stephen Batchelor, Robert Forman, Gary Lachman, Nevill Drury, Eckhart Tolle, Clifford A Pickover and Christian deQuincey.

And last but not least Mark Samuels's new novel The Face of Twilight has just been released by PS Publishing so that's getting added to the list as well. Damn you, Mark!