Sometimes I wonder about the point of writing stories when there are so many, and mine are unlikely to be remembered a few years from now, and much less likely to stand any test of time. That sort of thinking leads to madness. However, we can take heart in the fact that crime stories matter, for good and bad.
Lately, mostly for bad. The big wake-up call was when the idiot President blathered plot points from Sicario: Day of the Soldado as reality in his useless crusade to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, a technology that didn't work thousands of years ago when China tried it against actual invaders. Every scrap of cloth found along the border became a "jihadi prayer rug" to scare the ignorant, when his drug-war scares stop working. Migrants don't bring drugs. Semi truck trailers do. To quote Don Winslow, one crosses into the U.S. from Tijuana legally every 15 seconds. I used to work for a shipping terminal, and one of our vendors was a security firm that you can thank for the red light cameras that scan every license plate so the police state can run your license and pull you over with probable cause, fund local town coffers, and search our car for drugs or cash to seize so they can throw a big barbecue this year. That company also made gamma ray scanners to check trains, shipping containers, and trucks for people, drugs, and explosives.
Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. The sheer volume of cargo moving back and forth over our borders is too massive to scan completely. If you've watched Breaking Bad you have an idea how difficult it is to find contraband. But Sicario 2, written by Taylor Sheridan, thought it would be a wicked cool story to suggest terrorists were coming over the toughest border crossing into the U.S. instead of using their visa from our "ally" and Trump family friend Saudi Arabia to simply fly in. Now, who cares what some badly researched movie uses as a plot point?
Well, it matters when the President is watching. Now thousands think it's truth. Never mind that toddlers with unsecured handguns have killed more Americans than terrorists have after 9/11, toddlers with guns don't sell books. Scary foreigners do. But hey, you gotta pay the rent, so go for the easy villain.
Just like we embraced the myth of the "superpredator" and gave every D.A. who liked locking up young black men a book deal, after 9/11 we gobbled up thriller fiction where swarthy foreigners with accents were coming to kill the white womens. My personal favorite predates 9/11, when Dan Brown created a Middle-Eastern assassin with a rape fetish for Angels & Demons. I'm not sure if this character also dined exclusively on live puppies, but I wouldn't doubt it. That superpredator myth exploded with books like Slow Motion Riot, which undid all the humanity given to kids lured into gang life in books like Clockers.
Needless to say, lazy writers have always used mental illness, child abuse, drug use, and foster parenting to justify why their villain likes to eat puppies. Make sure they are poor and lust after the middle class protagonist's perfect home, to seal the deal. (And only working class men hit their kids or their wives, because they wear stained "wifebeater" shirts)
So remember, if a suburban white kid uses drugs or falls in "with a bad element," make sure it's the kid who got into their school on a scholarship from a working class background. As I write this, I overheard a story about a young white boy from an affluent family who supplements his allowance by selling Juul weed vape pens. He must have gotten them from his friend on the basketball team who's there on a scholarship, right? He can't be leveraging his privilege to be overlooked, like the total non-genius Ted Bundy did.
This isn't to say that crime is not often driven by desperation, or that the less affluent are saints and salt of the earth, that's another stereotype we were fed by stories.
So when you come up with that great plot twist where OMG the killer is trans or was in foster care as a child so they are angry and want to kill Sweet Polly Purebred, single white lawyer, maybe don't.
How does this tripe get published? Publishing is largely white and homogeneous, sheltered summer camp kids all growed up and easily fooled. There are exceptions who prove the rule, of course, and there are plenty of good people in the business, just like there are great cops and honorable mechanics.
If you don't believe me, read this scathing "profile" of Daniel Mallory, con man extraordinaire, who bluffed his way into an executive editorial position, and got his employer to bid seven figures for The Woman in the Window--yes, Mallory is "A.J. Finn sounds like Gillian Flynn LOL"--which seems to have been copied, not kidding, from a '90s suspense film called.... COPYCAT. I mean, brass clanging balls on this guy, but how did he get that far? Yes, he leveraged his privilege to get everything he wanted, used Tom Ripley as a model, and was the grandson of a media executive at RKO General, but have these people never smelled bullshit?
The story begs belief. I mean, we've all known a fraud or two, people who get a newsworthy chronic disease whenever they need to defend against their feckless behavior, but Mallory was particularly egregious and knew exactly how to fool people of his class. Say you have a doctorate from Oxford and talk in a faux British accent because you spent six months in London (oi, I knew one of these types, and it's not Madonna). And of course he must have an ironclad contract of some sort because he's from money, and won't have to give back a dime like the last thriller plagiarist, Q.R. Markham, aka bookseller Quentin Rowan, who used the cut & paste method to get himself a three book deal. I saw "Markham" at a book signing with two actual writers. He was a smug asshole who seriously looked like a grinning kid showing us his peepee. He made it obvious he was pulling one over, but no one noticed until after publication. He even put "mark" in his pen name!
And then there's Lee Israel, the subject of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, who forged correspondence between famous writers to pay her rent. At least she did it for the money, but there's something to be said about a community that smug con artists love to target. As the old bear joke goes, "You don't come here for the hunting, do you?"
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Angel Colon on HELL CHOSE ME
Angel Colon is back at Do Some Damage today to talk about his new book, his first novel. It's the one with the pig on the cover, Hell Chose Me. I'm as eager as anyone to find out what that pig is all about, but in the meantime, here's what Angel wrote below to pique our interest in the book.
I can’t say that for form, though. In my heart, short fiction is the best fiction.
So why in the hell did I decide to start writing novels?
There’s a shorter answer, but it’s worth exploring at length (in the spirit of this piece).
I’ve never believed the novel to be a “natural” form of storytelling. Looking back on our history—before we were as literate as we are now—storytelling was often a group activity and often vocal. Humans spent thousands of years telling each other short stories. Sometimes these were serialized and sometimes they weren’t, but we consumed them in perfect bursts—perfect little experiences that frightened, titillated, and engaged us. Not to say that the invention of the printing press and the increase in general literacy was a bad thing, but I do think it’s worth pointing out that technological advancement led to consumption of media in longer formats.
Anyway, how perfect is a short story? To get a full resolution within moments—to see truth spoken to power in poetic, beautiful ways that we often can’t match or properly express in lengthier formats. We see that beauty in the works of so many we call legends: Poe, Wolff, Saunders, Kafka, Marquez, Ballard, Le Guin, Christie etc., etc.
So, if this is my favorite form of writing (4 novellas and a short story collection stand as proof), then why bother with the novel? Why try my hand at what’s effectively more of a marketing apparatus—a means of conveyance whose worth is derived by the number of physical pages its words inhabit?
Well, because there’s beauty there too, it’s just a matter of learning and I’ll admit that I was terrified of learning to craft my work that way.
It’s that difference between making a chair versus making an entire sofa. There’s worth and merit to both but while one may seem easier (it isn’t), the other does require more time and patience (not always).
That patience part, that was tough. Short stories, at least for me, have been easy in the sense that I can get a first draft out with speed. Revisions can be where I falter and take longer to really get the pieces in the right place.
Novels? Oh boy, that was a different beast. That feeling I got with short stories would dissipate every few thousand words and I found myself wondering if I was writing pointless pages that were incapable of being salvaged and made bright by even the most vigorous of revisions.
When I finished my first draft of a novel that shall never know anything but the dark of the desk drawer to my right as I type this, well, it felt like a huge deal. There was still the idea that I had to revise (a lot) but that first hurdle was overcome—the mental block was shoved a few inches out of the way.
That led to the next try which became Hell Chose Me.
Coming off another novel, I was ready for the challenge and I was also more informed in how my preferences could lend themselves to the endeavor. I taught myself to treat the project like a sequence of shorts while trying my best not to evoke that feeling on the reader’s end. This is a lot easier said than done since treating the project as piecemeal is a little dangerous—and stalled several ideas that remain unfinished.
This was part of a bigger lesson, too. I began to realize that my preferences weren’t making the experience more or less of a challenge, it was merely the story speaking to me. The real challenge was my ignorance of the book/short/whatever we’ll call it speaking to me and letting me know where and when the hard stops are located.
The first novel and Hell Chose Me were content to be lengthy examinations of what could easily have been a shorter work. The shorter works were content to be just that: shorter pieces with different intentions.
Again, all of this should be obvious, but there are plenty of experiences one can have as a creative that make you want to smack your forehead and groan at its apparentness.
Hell Chose Me has been a five-year journey with as many dips and turns as the narrative. I’ve rewritten it multiple times, changed entire concepts and subplots, or added/removed characters. I’ve hated it, loved it, and given up on it. I revealed a little too much about myself and discovered things that I didn’t know were in my head. I learned how to write a first draft with purpose thanks to Hell Chose Me.
In short; this book changed me, and I hope readers can take something out of the experience.
Keep up him on Twitter via @GoshDarnMyLife.
Oh, I actually do know what that pig on the cover is all about. But if you don't know and want to find out, you can read what Angel wrote about it recently on Elizabeth A. White's terrific blog: The Pig Story
You can pick up Hell Chose Me here.
Stretching Them Legs
by Angel Colon
I don’t think I can say with complete certainty that there is a specific genre of fiction I enjoy most. Are there some genres that resonate with me less? Certainly, but none that I would say are “the best”.
I can’t say that for form, though. In my heart, short fiction is the best fiction.
So why in the hell did I decide to start writing novels?
There’s a shorter answer, but it’s worth exploring at length (in the spirit of this piece).
I’ve never believed the novel to be a “natural” form of storytelling. Looking back on our history—before we were as literate as we are now—storytelling was often a group activity and often vocal. Humans spent thousands of years telling each other short stories. Sometimes these were serialized and sometimes they weren’t, but we consumed them in perfect bursts—perfect little experiences that frightened, titillated, and engaged us. Not to say that the invention of the printing press and the increase in general literacy was a bad thing, but I do think it’s worth pointing out that technological advancement led to consumption of media in longer formats.
Anyway, how perfect is a short story? To get a full resolution within moments—to see truth spoken to power in poetic, beautiful ways that we often can’t match or properly express in lengthier formats. We see that beauty in the works of so many we call legends: Poe, Wolff, Saunders, Kafka, Marquez, Ballard, Le Guin, Christie etc., etc.
So, if this is my favorite form of writing (4 novellas and a short story collection stand as proof), then why bother with the novel? Why try my hand at what’s effectively more of a marketing apparatus—a means of conveyance whose worth is derived by the number of physical pages its words inhabit?
Well, because there’s beauty there too, it’s just a matter of learning and I’ll admit that I was terrified of learning to craft my work that way.
It’s that difference between making a chair versus making an entire sofa. There’s worth and merit to both but while one may seem easier (it isn’t), the other does require more time and patience (not always).
That patience part, that was tough. Short stories, at least for me, have been easy in the sense that I can get a first draft out with speed. Revisions can be where I falter and take longer to really get the pieces in the right place.
Novels? Oh boy, that was a different beast. That feeling I got with short stories would dissipate every few thousand words and I found myself wondering if I was writing pointless pages that were incapable of being salvaged and made bright by even the most vigorous of revisions.
When I finished my first draft of a novel that shall never know anything but the dark of the desk drawer to my right as I type this, well, it felt like a huge deal. There was still the idea that I had to revise (a lot) but that first hurdle was overcome—the mental block was shoved a few inches out of the way.
That led to the next try which became Hell Chose Me.
Coming off another novel, I was ready for the challenge and I was also more informed in how my preferences could lend themselves to the endeavor. I taught myself to treat the project like a sequence of shorts while trying my best not to evoke that feeling on the reader’s end. This is a lot easier said than done since treating the project as piecemeal is a little dangerous—and stalled several ideas that remain unfinished.
This was part of a bigger lesson, too. I began to realize that my preferences weren’t making the experience more or less of a challenge, it was merely the story speaking to me. The real challenge was my ignorance of the book/short/whatever we’ll call it speaking to me and letting me know where and when the hard stops are located.
The first novel and Hell Chose Me were content to be lengthy examinations of what could easily have been a shorter work. The shorter works were content to be just that: shorter pieces with different intentions.
Again, all of this should be obvious, but there are plenty of experiences one can have as a creative that make you want to smack your forehead and groan at its apparentness.
Hell Chose Me has been a five-year journey with as many dips and turns as the narrative. I’ve rewritten it multiple times, changed entire concepts and subplots, or added/removed characters. I’ve hated it, loved it, and given up on it. I revealed a little too much about myself and discovered things that I didn’t know were in my head. I learned how to write a first draft with purpose thanks to Hell Chose Me.
In short; this book changed me, and I hope readers can take something out of the experience.
***
Angel Luis Colón is the Derringer and Anthony Award shortlisted author of Hell Chose Me, The Blacky Jaguar novella series, The Fantine Park novella series, and dozens of short stories that have appeared in web and print publications like Thuglit, Literary Orphans, and Great Jones Street. He also hosts the podcast, the bastard title.Keep up him on Twitter via @GoshDarnMyLife.
Oh, I actually do know what that pig on the cover is all about. But if you don't know and want to find out, you can read what Angel wrote about it recently on Elizabeth A. White's terrific blog: The Pig Story
You can pick up Hell Chose Me here.
Monday, February 4, 2019
Shorted!
A look at a few great anthologies.
Looking for fast, sharp action of the dark and fictional kind? Find below a compilation of titles recently or soon to be published.
A Time for Violence: Stories with an Edge by Max Collins (Author), Joe Lansdale (Author), Richard Chizmar (Author), John Russo (Author), Richard Matheson (Author), Bev Vincent (Author), Stewart O’Nan (Author), Paul D. Brazil (Author) Craig Douglas (Illustrator), Andy Rausch (Editor), Chris Roy (Editor).
This anthology is an ode to the great anthologies of yesteryear. Stories by a variety of talents, packaged neatly and often connected by a singular theme. Coming soon, May 1, 2019.
Culprits: The Heist was Only the Beginning by Brett Battles (Author), Jessica Kaye (Author), Joe Clifford (Author), Manuel Ramos (Author), Zoë Sharp (Author), Gar Anthony Haywood (Author), David Corbett (Author), Richard Brewer (Editor), Gary Phillips (Editor).
A hard-bitten crew of professional thieves pull off the score of their lives, coming away with seven million in cash. Like any heist there are some unforeseen complications, and unfortunately, they don’t get away without a few bodies dropping. Despite this, they get away with the swag. But that’s when the real trouble begins. In this unique anthology, we follow each member of the crew of culprits as they go their separate ways after the heist, and watch as this perfect score ends up a perfect nightmare. February 27, 2018.
Deadlines: A Tribute to William Wallace edited by Chris Rhatigan and Ron Earl Phillips. In 2017 we lost William E. Wallace who was a writer, a fan, and a friend to all who loved the crime fiction genre. All proceeds will benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, whom, like William, speak for the underdog and uphold freedom of speech.
Featuring: Preston Lang (Author), Jen Conley (Author), Joe Clifford (Author), Will Viharo (Author), Paul D. Brazil (Author), Patricia Abbott (Author), Rob Pierce (Author), Sean Craven (Author), Eric Beetner (Author), Sarah M. Chen (Author), Nick Kolakowski (Author), S.W. Lauden (Author), Scott Adlerberg (Author), Gary Phillips (Author), Renee Asher Pickup (Author), Eryk Pruitt (Author), Todd Morr (Author), Travis Richardson (Author), Anonymous-9 (Author), Sean Lynch (Author), Alec Cizak (Author), Greg Barth (Author), C. Mack Lewis (Author). September 28, 2018.
Death Toll 3: End Game by Matt Hilton, Douglas Stewart, Alex Shaw (Author), Charlie Flowers (Author), Stephen Edger (Author), Paul D Brazil (Author), Dominic Adler (Author), Paul Grzegorzek (Author), Jamie Mason (Author), JH Bográn (Author), Liam Saville (Author) and Harlan Wolff (Author).
This anthology is an uncompromising, page-turning crime thriller that brings together crime writers based in eight different countries spanning five continents. This is the best short thriller fiction from today’s best crime writers. January 31, 2019.
Dirty Boulevard: Crime Fiction Inspired by the songs of Lou Reed by Jonathan Ashley (Author), Rusty Barnes (Author), Reed Farrel Coleman (Author), Alison Gaylin (Author), Lee Matthew Goldberg (Author), Cate Holahan (Author), Gabino Iglesias (Author), David James Keaton (Author), Erin Keaton (Author), Ross E. Lockhart (Author), Tony McMillen (Author), Richard Neer (Author), Chris Orlet (Author), J. David Osborne (Author), Rob Pierce (Author), Eryk Pruitt (Author) and Patrick Wensink (Author). David James Keaton (Editor).
Inspired by the outcasts, outlaws, and other outré inhabitants of rock legend Lou Reed's songbook, Dirty Boulevard traffics in crime fiction that's sometimes velvety and sometimes vicious, but always, absolutely, rock & roll. Inside, you'll find stories from the fire escapes to the underground, stories filled with metal machine music, stories for gender-bending, rule-breaking, mind-blasting midnight revelries and drunken, dangerous, dark nights of the heart. September 13, 2018.
Murder A-Go-Go’s edited by Holly West Holly West (Author), Lori Rader-Day (Author), Hilary Davidson (Author), Susanna Calkins (Author), Thomas Pluck (Author), Lisa Brackmann (Author), Nadine Nettmann (Author), Diane Vallere (Author), Eric Beetner (Author).
Inspired by punk but not yoked to it, the Go-Go’s broke important musical ground by combining cheeky lyrics, clever hooks, and catchy melodies, perfectly capturing what it feels like to be young and female in the process. But beyond the Go-Go’s effervescent sound and cheerful pop stylings, a darkness underlies many of their lyrics and melodies, hinting at the heartache and frustration inherent in growing up. In other words, plenty to inspire murder and mayhem. Net proceeds from Murder-a-Go-Go’s benefit Planned Parenthood, a crucial provider of women’s affordable reproductive healthcare.
Skin & Bones by Patricia Abbott (Author), Charles Ardai (Author), Lawrence Block (Author), Joe Clifford (Author), Angel Luis Colón (Author), Bill Crider (Author), Glenn Gray (Author), Tim Hall (Author), Rob Hart (Author) , Tess Makovesky (Author), Terrence McCauley (Author), Marietta Miles (Author), Richie Narvaez (Author), Stuart Neville(Author), Thomas Pluck (Author), Ryan Sayles (Author), S.A. Solomon (Author), Jason Starr (Author), Liam Sweeny (Author), Dave Zeltserman (Author), and Dana C. Kabel (Editor).
From a host of bestselling and award-winning authors come the stories from the darkest corners of their imaginations featuring one of the most abhorrent acts of mankind; cannibalism! Throughout history, human beings have feasted on human flesh. Whether it was to survive starvation or to horrify their enemies or to satisfy their own deranged urges, people have eaten other people for centuries.
Strangers in a Strange Land: Immigrant Stories by Walter Koenig (Author), Linda Rodriguez (Author), Patricia Abbott (Author), Teresa Roman (Author), R.C. Barnes (Author), James B. Nicola (Author), Eric Beetner (Author), Katherine Tomlinson (Author), Heath Lowrance (Author), Kimmy Dee (Author), Mark Rogers (Author), Sheikha A. (Author), Mark Hauer (Author), Berkeley Hunt (Author), Manuel Royal (Author), Kathleen Alcalá (Author), Christine Mathewson (Author), Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw (Author), Zoe Chang (Author), and James L’Etoile (Author), Chris Rhatigan (Editor) and Katherine Tomlinson (Editor).
From searing poetry drawn from a Native American perspective to essays chronicling the marginalization of LGBT people, to the crime fiction of new Americans and writers whose ancestors were brought to the country in bondage, Strangers in a Strange Land examines the intersection of hope and despair that defines the immigrant experience. January 25, 2019.
The Night of the Flood by E.A. Aymar (Author), Rob Brunet (Author), Sarah M. Chen (Author), Angel Luis Colón (Author), Hilary Davidson (Author), Mark Edwards (Author), Gwen Florio (Author), Elizabeth Heiter (Author), J.J. Hensley (Author), Jennifer Hillier (Author), Shannon Kirk (Author), Jenny Milchman (Author), Alan Orloff (Author), and Wendy Tyson (Author). E.A. Aymar (Editor) and Sarah M. Chen (Editor).
Fourteen of today’s most exciting crime writers will take you to the fictional town of Everton. Whether it’s a store owner grimly protecting his property from looters, an opportunistic servant who sees her time to strike, or two misguided youths taking their anger out against any available victim, The Night of the Flood is an intricate and intimate examination of the moment when chaos is released—in both society and the human spirit.
Unloaded Volume 2: More Crime Writers Writing Without Guns by E.A. Aymar (Author), Kris Calvin (Author), Andrew Case (Author), Steve Cavanagh (Author), Bill Crider (Author), Chris Holm (Author), Michael Kardos (Author), David James Keaton (Author), Dana King (Author), Nick Kolakowski (Author), Jon McGoran (Author), Laura McHugh (Author), Lori Rader-Day (Author), John Rector (Author), Scott Loring Sanders (Author), Alex Segura (Author), Terry Shames (Author), Josh Stallings (Author), Jay Stringer (Author), James R. Tuck (Author), Dave White (Author), Lili Wright (Author), and James W. Ziskin (Author) and Eric Beetner (Editor).
The top priority in these stories is to entertain with thrilling action and suspense that readers know and love about a crime story. To do so without guns leads to some creative leaps from writers who spin tales of simians on the loose, androids with buried secrets, punk rock shows and tattoo shops.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)