Sunday Shorts with the Sheriff - That's Mr. Lovecraft to you.

Sheriff Tom was so happy to take part in this, that we're letting him make this his weekly thing. We'd actually like to rename it, Sunday Shorts with the Sheriff. So here's our lawman with his pick for the week.

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Hi, everyone. Being the sheriff of a small New England town that has...a history, it's only natural that I have some interest in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. I mean, when things around Stansbury get bad, I can at least look to Lovecraft's work and say, well, at least it's not as bad as all that. This week, I want to share the story, "Nyarlathotep" with you.

Lovecraft mainly wrote of people who discovered the world was doomed to succumb to dark, insane gods. If you have never read a Lovecraft tale, it is hard to relate to you the power of his language. His vocabulary and tone make Poe seem like Jane Austen.

This particular story is a treasure trove of dark descriptions. Just about every line is pregnant with dread. I am particularly fond of the line: “A sickened, sensitive shadow writhing in hands that are not hands, and whirled blindly past ghastly midnights of rotting creation, corpses of dead worlds with sores that were cities, charnel winds that brush the pallid stars and make them flicker low.” It is poetic, evocative and deeply disturbing both in the context of the story and, simply, in the image it creates.

Writing horror is a tricky business because you really have to think about what you intend your story to do. Do you want your readers losing sleep to nightmares? Do you want to create disgust or shock? I think Lovecraft wanted his prose to disturb his readers. He wanted to create vivid landscapes of a nightmarish pseudo-reality and mindscapes of psychosis born of the knowledge that nightmares are the pale reflection of the really horrible things that exist and have been discovered. This story is effective because it is relentless horror. It smothers the reader with so much vivid dark detail that by the time you reach the end you are breathless and, yes, disturbed.

Something About Bridges - Sunday Shorts

So here in Stansbury, we like a good short story as much as the next person. As a matter of fact, Sheriff Tom has written a number of them and he keeps submitting them to The New Yorker and The Atlantic and "important" magazines like that and he always gets rejected and everyone keeps telling him that the stories are really good, but just not quite right for the Algonquin set. But we did ask the sheriff to contribute something about a story he likes for Sunday Shorts, which can be found both here at Goodreads or here, which is a cool blog from another northern town. 

So here's Sheriff Tom with one of his recommendations...

Neil Gaiman - Troll Bridge

Neil Gaiman writes excellent fantasy tales. He knows the tropes and he works well in the genre. Because I write a lot of bridge centered stories, this one stuck out to me simply on title. But I really love all the stories in this book...and most of Gaiman's work. As an illustrator, I wish I could draw the stuff he writes. That would be incredible.

Anyway...

There are two aspects of this story that work nicely. The first is the way Gaiman seamlessly introduces a very basic fantasy character, the troll under the bridge, into the very real, ordinary life of his narrator. There is never a moment where the narrator wonders how the troll exists in his world. He simply accepts the troll and the troll’s demand of his life as he would a criminal who had stopped him to take his wallet. The magic of the creature and his “attack” is not shocking for the reader because it is not shocking to the narrator. I have never read magical realism that integrated traditional fantasy until this story. The magic is natural and of nature in the way that defines magical realism.

The second aspect of the story that was very successful was the melancholy of the narrator’s life. It is sad while not pathetic. It would have been very easy for Gaiman to create pathos. But it is simply sad. As the character’s life progresses, the missed opportunities and poor choices play nicely against the fall of the natural world to modernization. The simple fact that the narrator would rather be the troll under a graffiti-scrawled, condom strewn bridge than to continue in his own sad life, or, as he states at the end, any sad modern life, speaks volumes to the decay that modern life has imposed upon living. 

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

So I'll be leaving the friendly confines of Stansbury this weekend and venturing out to Los Angeles to meet and greet the public with my good friends at Red Frog Publishing in booth #739. I'll have many copies of Spring and Summer on hand to sign and I'll be signing and selling them for a festival price of just $6. Also, I've lowered the e-book price of Summer to just $0.99 for this weekend, so even if you can't make it to L.A., you can still take advantage of this wonderful event and enjoy a really great book.

I really do hope to see you there!

Stansbury's First Featured Author: Desiree Finkbeiner

While Stansbury is not always the friendliest of towns to visitors, we do love it when authors come to visit. Today, we are proud to feature Desiree Finkbeiner and her novel, Ethos: Morning Star (Book #1 in the Ethos series). 


When in town, she met up with Shelley, who always loves a good book, and Shelley asked Desiree if she could give us a preview of her book? What's the plot? What inspired her to write this kind of story?

Desiree was kind enough to respond:

In short, it’s written in first person, from the heroine’s perspective. She’s a normal college girl until she has an accident that warrants a trip to the hospital. Her injuries heal quickly and her lab results are off the charts. It’s a mystery as to why bizarre happenings are overshadowing her, until Kalen, the hero, enters the picture.

He reveals to her an ancient prophecy that transcends time and the planes of existence, challenging her take on reality, and Brianna is thrust into a race for her life. With the balance of their worlds at stake, Kalen takes Brianna to his world, where he can better protect her… unanswered questions would be addressed by the council that resides in the mountain cities of Ethos, so they take up their journey.

During their trek to the mountains, they undergo a series of trials, and find themselves facing the ultimate choice. Throughout their perilous adventure, they are tempted by forbidden love, knowing they can never be together, but it’s that same temptation that leads them to find their greatest strengths.

It’s a story about integrity, duty, agency and self mastery. I wanted to write something that would teach a moral, inspired by an apparent lack in action by the people of today. People everywhere seem complacent, and the liberty of those same people is on the brink of destruction. My series is a call to action; to act or be acted upon. It’s about choice, the very thing that makes us superior beings… and the same element that can ultimately lead to destruction, if not exercised wisely.

Shelley was pretty excited to read the book, and cancelled her plans with Gil because Gil had nothing really planned for her except to tell her that she should make plans with other people sometimes because he really wasn't all that much interested in doing much of anything. So Shelley went home to find out more and order a copy. 


Finding the trailer was easy enough...



Shelley also discovered the following information and posted it on the bulletin board inside Charlie's where people in the Stansbury like to share things with one another:

Buy Ethos: Morningstar on Amazon 

Desiree's Amazon Author page

Desiree's website

Desiree's Facebook Fanpage

Desiree's G+ 

Desiree's twitter

Shelley originally bought the Kindle for Jenny Kennisaw as a Halloween present (Shelley always gave her friends Halloween gifts because it was her favorite holiday and rather than give children candy, she gave everyone presents. She gave out candy on Christmas.) But Jenny told her that she had no interest in fiction and gave her the Kindle back as a Christmas gift. Shelley accepted it gratefully and quickly found out how much she loved it. She especially loved it because Stansbury did not have a book store and she hated to drive and hated waiting for things to be delivered to her. 

She quickly discovered Desiree's book and downloaded it and promised herself that she would send the author a lovely note and, post a review once she had finished reading it (because she liked the idea that she could contribute to the collective conversation about the book...and it was polite).

Lakebridge:Summer now on Sale!!!!

How excited are you that I have the second book in my series for you to read?

So excited that you want to watch a trailer, right?


Now go and read it!!!

The Famous Sideways Flying Chou-Chou Bird

Known for it's peculiar method of flying sideways, the Arizona Chou-Chou bird (above) is rarely seen, but prized for its ability to not only fly sideways, but to track down the even rarer Fructasa Bird (below), which is known for flying diagonally.

While some people are convinced there is no such thing as a sideways flying bird, they need only see the Chou-Chou in flight to know they need to keep their minds open to what their parents tell them.

Update on Summer

I've just completed chapter 6, which puts me at about 42,200 words thus far. The chapters here are shorter than in Spring which is partially the result of the different "flavor" of the book. It is less memory driven than its predecessor and more "immediate". There are many things afoot in Stansbury. I can't wait to see how it all ends!