"Happy Sunday!" said the Tickock Man

With the family out of town, it's quiet and kind of boring around here, but I am getting some good writing done. I'm in the honeymoon phase with a new story...if it goes anywhere, I'll share details later.

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Watched Dreams with Sharp Teeth last night, a documentary on Unca Harlan Ellison. Crazy old bastard...sadly, my first introduction to Harlan was not his writing, but his very public, very nasty dustup with Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade a few years back. If you weren't in that gossip loop, the upshot is that onstage at the Foolscap awards ceremony, Harlan was being Harlan and accused Gabe of being a high school dropout, at which point Gabe, being Gabe, asked Harlan if he was the guy who wrote the Star Wars books. At that point, friendly banter turned to threats, and each camp's ferocious, drooling internet packs joined the fight. It was kind of fun to watch, but a sad misunderstanding--mostly, I think, because Ellison and the singular being that is Gabe/Tycho are really different generations of the same inspired, rebellious spirit (I won't say Maverick, John McCain ruined that word for me).

Anyway, the movie showed that Ellison is, indeed, a crazy man. But, it also showed very clearly that he is probably a really great guy, and a self-tortured psyche to boot. Interesting movie, lots of footage of Neil Gaiman who, apparently, has been friends with Ellison before Gaiman was even a working fiction writer. The movie does have a few good tidbits for writers, but mostly it's an homage.

I am about halfway through reading his Strange Wine collection. Great writing, very poetic, a very careful and conscientious selection of words and sentence structure. On a personal note, I find I relate to Harlan on a few levels, which is endearing and disturbing.

He also has a really, really cool house.

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I was cruising and found a reference to this story called "Candle Cove". It's a short story told in the form of a chatroom discussion. I found it on a different site with no reference to the fact that it was fiction and not just a blog discussion, so the intended creepy effect in the story definitely worked on me. The author is, apparently, Kris Straub (relation? not sure).

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It always makes me happy when one of my online friends gets something big released. Today the big news is the release of Catherine J Gardner's chapbook The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon. Order one today, it's only $6 including shipping...it's been said many times, but that is the best damn title I've heard in a long time.

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And now, Unca Harlan plays us out.

Link Stew: More Harlanator, and POD

Slashdot has picked up the recent rantings of one Harlan Ellison (specifically, his recent tirade against the Star Trek franchise); and, as usual, the Slashdot comments relating to author's intellectual IP range from inane to insightful, and every whistle stop in between.

As could be expected, it's a heated debate between those who think all information wants to be free (both kinds of free), and those who don't think writers should have to stand on street corners dancing for their dinner. Also, a lot people alternately mocking and adulating Ellison.

Oh, Slashdot...

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Lit agent Janet Reid on listing a prior POD on your novel query: 

"my first book was published by AuthorHouse/iUniverse"

My reaction to that sentence in a query letter is not what you hope it will be when you write it. You hope it implies "experienced author with pub credit who has a sales record."

What I infer from it is "book that sold fewer than 200 copies and means author can't be listed as a debut novelist."

Compelling argument against listing POD on your resume, unless you can add some sizable numbers to the tagline. I didn't realize referring to an author as debut was a good thing.

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Reading update: can't decide between starting an urban horror antho from Shocklines, Grapes of Wrath, or No Country for Old Men to read next. Probably Steinbeck.

Writing update: haven't gotten a whole lot done since Saturday...I did get ejected from Pindeldeyboz, because apparently I can't friggin' count, and I was almost double their max word count. Duh. Actually not a big deal, I must have been really tired when I subbed that night, because I didn't notice that it was FTL. In my defense, I think it was the night my hillbilly neighbor was being cuffed and stuffed by the police in the middle of the street, and I was a bit distracted.