Review Wrap: Paranormal Fiction

I consider it to be urban fantasy, but it's now been labeled paranormal fiction.  I'm not a fan of the moniker, but I'll go with it, because this sub-genre has ensnared me in its narcotic grip and I can't get enough of it.  Upcoming in the summer, we'll even have a week dedicated to the women of the genre (which that gender seems to dominate).

I was onboard with Anita Blake when Laurell K. Hamilton introduced her to the world.  I was even excited with Meredith Gentry (though, truth to tell, that interest waned two books in; it took eleven for my interest in Hamilton to completely vanish).  Laurell K. Hamilton was a pioneer in this movement (sort of), but there are thousands upon thousands in the genre now - some good, some not.  Charlaine Harris swapped her mystery novels for a Louisiana waitress known as Sookie Stackhouse.  It's fair to say that it was a good move.  Males in the genre - most notably Simon Green and Jim Butcher - took the same ideas and began to work different types of characters into the stories.

Here's the point: Urban Fantasy Mysteries (or Paranormal Fiction) are like zombie or vampire tales - they're not original.  It's what you do with the landscape, the characters, the protagonists that makes it all unique.  That's why I'm pretty picky with the books that fall into this genre. 

I recently had the privelege to read two new releases, and I'm happy to report, neither disappoints.

Marjorie M. Liu: Hunter Kiss Series

Marjorie Liu has a huge following with her Dirk and Steele series, of which I do not follow, so I have no way of attesting to their merit.  However, I became intrgued by Liu over the past couple of years.  I spotted some of her work in two different anthologies: Hotter Than Hell and Holidays Are Hell.  At the time I was a huge Kim Harrison fan (well, still am) and enjoyed short stories by Marjorie.  Then I noticed an X-Men novel penned by her.  I do not follow comic books (or their novels), but was remarkably surprised to see this.  Needless to say, I put Marjorie M. Liu on my radar screen.

Not wanting to jump on with the Dirk and Steele books already 9 books in, I eagerly awaited the release of Darkness Calls, the Hunter Kiss series.  A Wild Light is the latest in the series, and you should pre-order it now.

Looking at the cover, I know it's a little hard to take the book seriously.  Personally, I spotted the cover of the first book and thought: Really?  This could be really bad or really good.  Fortunately it was the latter.

If you're unfamiliar with the Hunter Kiss series, here's the skinny:  Maxine Kiss is your protagonist and she's one of the most unique protags out in the paranormal fiction genre.  She's a demon hunter - and before you utter "we've heard it", allow me to finish.  Maxine Kiss is covered, head-to-toe, with tattoos that protect her by day and come alive by night.  At night she's vulnerable, but the demons help her.  It sounds slightly off kilter, granted, but you'll have to trust me when I say, I really love these books.

A Wild Light is the latest chapter in the Maxine Kiss series (it's released July 27th, and can be preordered by clicking the link below).  In A Wild Light (Hunter Kiss, Book 3), Maxine Kiss is back doing what she does best - vanquishing evil and kicking ass.  In this one though, we get an interesting plot twist when Maxine wakes up from a bad dream (one of the many that plagues her nights) and finds her grandfather dead...with her holding the knife.  Oh, and there's the little case of amnesia that is preventing her from remembering Grant.

Even for all it has going for it, this is not the most original story you'll read.  The merits, though - Maxine Kiss herself, Marjorie Liu's writing ability, and the well-defined characters - make it feel fresh, complete with that new-book smell.  And make no mistake, Marjorie Liu is a damn fine writer.  "A Wild Light" is not the best of the Hunter Kiss series, thus far, but for some reason it is my favorite. 

What's good:  Just about everything.  The pacing is solid (except for one area that I'll mention below).  This is, in my opinion, the strongest book for Maxine.  She seems more real than in previous pieces, more defined.  The dialogue is pitch-perfect, an area that Liu excels at.  The emotions run high and don't venture too far into cheese, something that books in the genre end to encroach on.


Also, the climax is satisfying (which is more than a compliment coming from my mouth) and left me longing for more of the series.

What's bad:  I'm going to use the phrase "not-so-good" over bad.  The plot point of memory loss is one that I hate in a series.  All of sudden the characters that you know and love have to spend countless pages rehashing backstories.  This device stops the action in its tracks.  Fortunately Marjorie is a solid enough writer, whose writing sounds and reads like poetry, that this isn't as bad as it could be, but it stalls the action (unnecissarily).

I'm going all out and giving it a solid 4.5 out of 5.

Blood on the Moon: The Daywalker Chronicles by S. M. De Silva

Every once and a while I'm sent a book that I'm not uber-excited about.  Blood On The Moon: The Daywalker Chronicles Volume 1 was one of these.  I was unfamiliar with the publisher, the writer, and found myself staring at yet another vampire book.  (Who am I to judge, though?  My book "Naked Metamorphosis" was another Shakespeare retread, so I'll shut up now)  Still, committed as I am to read and recommend good books, I delved into this one and was pleasantly pleased that I did.

"Blood on the Moon" is another vamp novel in a sea of plenty of competitors.  It's nothing unique, but like Ms. Liu's latest, DeSilva takes her game up with strong writing and some new devices that keep it original.

The action starts the instant we're introduced to our protagonist - Alegria, a supernatural species consultant in Singapore.  She receives a parcel that contains a ring...and a severed finger.  Her sister's finger to be precise.  Upon examination of the package's origin, Algeria is determined to rescue her sis from the kidnappers in Sleet City. 

All this sounds well and good and makes for an Eh-Eh story.  The real superstar here is Sleet City.  Much like China Meiville's New Corbuzon (in Perdido Street Station) the city is the real gem here.  S.M. DeSilva illustrates a seedy locale that's plunged into dystopian debauchery.  Hollywood runs part of the game; Organized (or in many cases, disorganized) crime runs the rest.  Of course, weres and vampires have "come out of the closet" (a theme that needs to be improved upon in these books; it's becoming a little uoriginal) and  are now all the craze.  Still, cliched as it may seem, Sleet City is a pretty radical creation.

What's good:  The action and pacing are top notch.  S.M. DeSilva wastes no time applying foot to the pedal and accelerating.  The pacing doesn't let up.  It's kind of like S.M. DeSilva wants thisto be made into a movie, and wants those that read it to read it like a movie.  Well, mission accomplished (though, not without a cost...see below).

Also, the afforementioned Sleet City is a wonderous creation.

While not terribly original, the overall story offers some touches that we've not yet seen.  Rather than spilling the beans, these touches are best discovered for yourself.  And when you do, they're nice surprises.

What's bad:  The writing isn't bad, but the action comes fast and furious and because of that some other areas suffer.  The narrative, for example, suffers in some areas that are far more focused on action and less on character...or in a flip, too much on character when it's been action all around (does that make any sense, 'cause after re-reading the sentence I'm not sure it does).  However, the dialogue isn't bad, so my literary assessment may just be nitpicky.

The other thing (my only other complaint) is a handful of paragraphs that make up the Prologue.  It was out of place and pointless, as it's explained within Chapter One.  Still, a very minor detail that did not distract from an otherwise worthy book.

4 out of 5.
S.M. DeSilva is a new writer that I welcome to my bookshelf.  Currently, "Blood on the Moon" is available from Amazon at about a 30% discount!

The Spotlight: Zombie Haiku

We asked for them, and you sent them in!  Congrats to all who played along.  Wear your "Zombies are People Too" buttons and stickers with pride.  Special congratulations to Rebecca Waite, the winning entrant of the contest, who won the autographed S.G. Browne copy of "Breathers".  That was the worst part, by far.  It's always sad that only one can win.  But, you still get a little swag and you get to see your poems posted here.

I was remarkably surprised by the number of entries I received.  Who knew?  Over 100 haikus were sent in, and due to the constraints of the space I've got to work with, I'll have to post a few.  My apologies to everyone who does not see theirs here.  Let the hate email begin.

Zombie Pirates

Zombie Pirates Rule!

Forget about juicy brains,

Just eat the booty!

Zombies or Couch Potatoes?

aimless stare, moaning,

drooling as they eat, just like

me watching TV

Jesus

Zombie Messiah!

Hallelujah! For he hath

risen from the dead.

The Authors Speaks Rocks!

Zombie haiku and free shit!

Sign me up, please sir.

Running won't help you.

I can break down your doors... wait,

Is that a shotgun?

Sensations recede

Only hunger pains remain

Must eat brains…brains…brains

Slow, stiff and shuffling

Nothing works like it used to

My nose just fell off

Formaldehyde High

formaldehyde high

caressing my rotting brain

ain’t that just a blast!

Roaming endlessly

for the joy of terror that

we masses consume.

Drinking and driving

is dangerous, but a back seat

zombie is bit worse

zombie sharks bite.

powerful jaws always smile.

they fuck my shit up!

Zombie Hunger

love that breather meat

any way I can get it

brain stew, anyone?

I'll post more of these as the days go by.  I was quite impressed with the tremendous turn-out on these haiku.  Some, I'll confess, were painful.  But most were quite fun reads!  Kudos!  Pat yourself on the back and keep writing.

Obviously, this little promo was for our interview with author S.G. Browne, the bestselling author of "Breathers: A Zombies Lament". If you've read the book, you know why zombies and haiku go together so righteously.  If you've not read the book, you really are missing one of the best books of 2009.  Yes, it's not superbly original, but it's the execution of the piece that works.  You can also visit http://www.undeadanonymous.com/ for more on protagonist Andy's "life"style. 

Tomorrow we'll have reviews on two new books in the paranormal fiction arena, and Thursday we'll chat with S. G. Browne.  Too, we'll explore a new way to giveaway books.  I've received two emails that explained the James Morrow contest was too difficult.  So, let's tweak it a little, shall we? 

Win an autographed first edition of Morrow's "The Last Witchfinder".
In the interview with James Morrow, he talks about God giving Adam and Eve a daikaiju as a pet.  That's been taken, granted, and there's a giant monster in the book of Revelation (as well as numerous stories involving Jonah, Elijah, and others).  So, here's the challenge: Tell me what book of the Bible would have benefited from a Giant Monster (what type of monster and why).  Send it along with the subject line: MORROW RULES.  And send it in by 7/8/2010.

Until then, keep reading.

Godzilla Says You Can Go F*#k Yourself

There are many a brilliant minds in the writing ocean these days.  Garrett Cook (author of Archelon Ranch, Murderland II: Life During Wartime, Murderland Part I - H8, and the upcoming Jimmy Plush: Teddy Bear Detective) is a little bit of an afficianado when it comes to crap cinema.  Did I say crap?  I meant, one person's crap SyFy B-movie masterpiece is someone else's "Casablanca".  Garrett, when not writing twisted tales for your enjoyment, maintains the blog: http://www.dollarbinmassacre.blogspot.com/.  Dollar Bin Massacre, as you'll see is a veritable shrine to cinema whose merits have been overshadowed by their shortcomings.  Garrett Cook's a knowledgeable guy when it comes to B-grade cinema, and he'd like to drop a few thoughts on you regarding the brainchild of ToHo Pictures.


Godzilla Says You Can Go Fuck Yourselves: Divine Intervention in Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster
by Garrett Cook

In Ishiro Honda’s Gojira, Japan, a country that not along ago had suffered the burning agony of enduring two atomic bombs, becomes a modern day Job as their torments go from disaster and disease to facing the ire of a bonafide Leviathan. He comes out of the sea, a primal predator, a radioactive mutant and a vicious revenant repeating with bursts of atomic flame, the trauma that made it what it is. It’s epic, it’s terrible, it’s biblical in its scope. Because man has shown nature hatred, nature has been taught to hate like it has never hated before. Familiar ground in atomic monster movies. From the harrowing and beautiful experience that is Gojira, one would be tempted to think the candycoated kaiju smackdowns that followed it could never again make such a profound statement or cleave so close to a thematic core.

Godzilla fans will of course argue this is not the case. Many of them will bring up Godzilla vs. Hedorah, the psychedelic environmental parable as an example of how much heart and conscience the films have. Those that don’t take that angle will bring up Godzilla vs. Mothra as a warning against corporate greed. Me? I might start with Godzilla vs. Hedorah, but I’d be wrong in doing so. When it comes to giant monster movies talking about man’s relationship to nature and the divine in a profound and meaningful way, Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster is draconic head and draconic head and draconic head and shoulders ahead of most other kaiju classics.

The movie begins with an indictment against our skeptical mindset and tendency to ignore when either God or the environment are talking to us. The majority of mankind (with the exception of some weirdly open minded and New Agey scientists) proceeds to ignore a crippling heat wave in January, a weird magnetic anomaly and the warnings of someone that might just be a Martian prophetess. Other than these cool, New Agey scientists, mankind seems about ready for a celestial spanking and is likely to get it from not just Godzilla and Rodan, but interstellar space dragon King Ghidorah, Mr. Armageddon, a creature so badass that nobody cares that it makes the most annoying sound on Earth and is probably just about the most wobbly agent of destruction there is. When we first see King Ghidorah land, it is framed in the arch of a temple, angry, blasphemous, a walking antitrinity

Mothra is another face of the divine. In Godzilla vs. Mothra, Mothra died protecting mankind from Godzilla, yet left behind two eggs that hatched out two new larval Mothras that in spite of the loss of their mother, join together to fight Godzilla, to cool off nature’s wrath. While the titan Godzilla’s relationship with mankind is akin to that of Zeus or an Old Testament God, Mothra is the granola chomping hughappy Christ that Three Dog Night believes is waiting with s’mores on the road to Shamballah. Although in Godzilla vs. Mothra, Mothra’s cute but sort of creepy but sort of hot twin emissaries were kidnapped by unscrupulous corporate goons, in Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster, they have no qualms appearing on TV to tell a small child Mothra is still out there, on the island of love and forgiveness, which is a great place to be, a place with people you should be more like, but you don’t have to, because Mothra wants you to do your own thing and decide for yourself, even though Mothra saved you from Godzilla that time and would really like it if you stopped wrecking the planet and stuff…or don’t…just read this pamphlet and decide for yourself and come to the spaghetti dinner…but only if you want to. The twins also wanna tell people about a trip to Six Flags that’s mostly people from the congregation but anyone can go and it’s more about having fun and making friends than Mothra. Sadly, you cannot purchase a Mothrafish for your car. But, anyway, Godzilla = wrathful god, Mothra = Jesus/Horus/other loveable redeemer figure, Ghidorah = nondenominational Satanic Orochi thing and Rodan, the fourth party in all of this = totally stupid pterodactyl thing that just wants to antagonize Godzilla. Rodan must be a symbol of these mysterious ways world religion/Bono tells us deities work in.

When King Ghidorah comes, man is left to work with not just the monster that loves them, but also the monsters/gods that hate them. Which is interesting from a theological standpoint. Why should you have faith in a just God or a perfect universe when life shits on you? Why should we pick up our trash when hurricanes blow our house away? Why do bad things happen to good people? Godzilla doesn’t just stomp on greedy corporate types or people who design nuclear weapons. He doesn’t choose to only leave war mongers to suffer. Why shouldn’t we hate the Earth, God, Nature, Isis, Superman, The Spectre, giant monsters and the wizard Shazam? The conclusion to Ghidorah:The Three Headed Monster reveals to us why not.

So, the people of the Earth realize they need giant monster aid to stop King Ghidorah, because our tiny tanks and weird satellite dish cars that shoot lightning just won’t cut it. Of course, we go to the tiny twins and they decide to talk to Mothra, who will in turn talk to Godzilla and Rodan, which is very nice and bold of Mothra because Godzilla and Mothra don’t really get along and Rodan is a giant pterodactyl with a nasty sense of humor and mean case of ADD. Godzilla says no. Godzilla and Rodan want to fight. Mankind hasn’t been good to Godzilla, or the Earth or each other, so why should we not have to deal with the wrath of the three headed outsider? Mothra wants Godzilla and Rodan to help anyway, and the twins, still interpreting censure Godzilla for bad languages because, I speculate, what he says is the very title of this essay (minus the serious part that tells you what the essay is about of course.) This conversation is what makes me love this movie and its message, but what Mothra does next makes me love it much more.

The plucky little caterpillar goes against King Ghidorah alone and for a moment, we get to see a sad eyed Godzilla realizing his rival knows something about mankind and the world that he doesn’t and that maybe he should know and maybe for the next several movies when his robot twin or a cybernetic chicken with a buzzsaw chest or a lightning cockroach come around maybe he should do something about it. While Godzilla sees the evil to punish, Mothra sees the good to protect. And what happened then? Well, on Monster Island, they say Godzilla's Thermonuclear heart grew three sizes that day. So, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothta mop the floor with the Orochi Setite Lovecraftian Antichrist and we’re left with insights about how to live our lives that rival most religious texts. We must be loving, but vigilant, forgiving, but forceful and we must not be utter douchebags to each other, the Earth or princesses from weird countries we’ve never heard of that have martian prophecy powers. Amen.

 Garrett Cook is the author of Archelon Ranch, Murderland, and the upcoming Jimmy Plush.  He invites fans to visit his website: http://thegarrettcook.blogspot.com.  Also, he encourages people to read Archelon Ranch (especially if you're a foreigner) and review it.  He feels that a review from you loyal fans are far more beneficial than a review from one of his 817 endearing pseudonyms.  He also invites afforementioned fans to purchase him beer should their paths cross.















This marks the close of The Author's Speak: Giant Monster Week.  However, I'll leave you with a little tidbit.  This press release just came to me, and I figured I would share.  I've not read the book, not looked at it, or even placed it against my forehead (charging osmosis), so I've no way to endorse it.  It does tie-in with our themed week, though.

“MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN -- The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda” by Peter H. Brothers.
For the first time in America, a book has been published on Japan's foremost director of Fantasy Films. Known primarily for directing such classic Japanese monster movies as Rodan, Mothra, Attack of the Mushroom People and the original Godzilla, Honda has been a much-overlooked figure in mainstream international cinema.

MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN is the first book to cover in English print Honda’s life as well comprehensively evaluates all 25 of his fantasy films. It is also gives objective and critical analysis of Honda's filmmaking methods, themes and relationships with actors and technicians.

Making use of extensive interviews from Honda’s colleagues, as well as a wealth of original source material never before gathered into one volume (including unpublished essays), MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN is an affectionate tribute to arguably the most-prolific and influential director in the history of fantasy films.

MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN (ISBN No.: 978-1-4490-2771-1) is available online and at AuthorHouse.com at: http://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=65692

Join us next week when we have more fun than a Zombie at a Mensa meet-n-greet.  S.G. Browne, author of the national bestseller Breathers, joins us to chit chat the shambling undead.  We'll also spotlight those zombie haikus that you sent in!  Join us next week.

Until then, keep reading.

The Authors Speak: James Morrow

I've an enormous respect for James Morrow, and this particular interview was a little dream come true.  Amongst some of the books I've read, Towing Jehovah, remains one of the most enduring reads I've ever experienced.  It's certainly not Mr. Morrow's best work (I think that accolade goes to Blameless in Abaddon), but I feel it to be one complete experience.  I think that makes sense.

There's also an eeriness to Towing Jehovah (Harvest Book) now, as the oil spill continues in the Gulf of Mexico.

But that's the way Morrow's been - a quasi-Nostradamus that is on the cutting edge of the human factor (or lack thereof).  Whether it is post-theism (which in many respects our world has plunged) or 3-D technology, Morrow's been able to spin a yarn that touches the heart, the soul, and offers more than a few laughs.  He's one of the best writers writing today.

Some know him for his Godhead Trilogy, which is made up of Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abaddon, and The Eternal Footman.  Others know him from his Bible Tales: Only Begotten Daughter (Harvest Book) and Bible Stories for Adults.  Still, others are only recently discovering Morrow with his most recent books: The Last Witchfinder: A Novel (P.S.), The Philosopher's Apprentice: A Novel (P.S.), and Shambling Towards Hiroshima (which was recently nominated for this year's Nebula award).  Oh, if I could discover James Morrow for the first time again.

"Shambling Towards Hiroshima" may be my favorite of James Morrow's books.  I'm in love with this novella.  It reads as an homage to the Japanese Monster Gojira, 1940's cinematic horror monsters, and James Whale.  It really is a unique little piece of fiction that I've now read five times.  The concept seems too simple on the surface: In an attempt to thwart the Japanese, the US Military hires a veritable who's-who of Hollywood notables to film a horror flick that showcases a monster set on conquering Japan.  It may sound simplistic, but it's near perfect.  Along the way, Morrow's pitch-perfect 1940's Hollywood is a treat in and of itself, but the complexities of the book are what make it endearing.  You've got a protagonist, an actor, who's known for his "shambling" ability.  You've got the military backstory.  You've got a convention in Baltimore years later, where the actor wants to talk about his part in action, but cannot.  It's an amazing book.

James Morrow didn't win the Nebula this time around, but it appeared he had a speech ready:

“The day before Kathy and I boarded the train for Orlando, I received a letter from an attorney in Tokyo representing ToHo Productions. The company is claiming that, in writing Shambling Towards Hiroshima, I plagiarized some obscure ToHo character named Godzilla. The attorney insisted that all copies of the novella be immediately destroyed, and I must cease and desist from using the character in my fiction."

You can read more on his website: http://james-morrow.livejournal.com/

I was honored to get a chance to discuss giant monsters with James, as well as faith in fiction, advice to aspiring writers, and movies (a passion we share).  I've also got a very cool gift for a lucky Authors Speak fan at the end.  Read on.


Eric Mays: Jim, thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions. It seems that I’ve been talking to a few authors about daikaiju films (giant Japanese monsters) and how, with the abundance of horror and pulp out there, there doesn’t seem to be much of a market for daijaiku lit. You did it, though, with “Shambling Towards Hiroshima”. Why aren’t more dabbling in this genre?



James Morrow: The dearth of Daikaiju stories is indeed puzzling, since dragons enjoy such a venerable place in the literature of the fantastic, from BEOWULF to the NEIBELUNG saga to THE HOBBIT to countless Tolkien-influenced epics of recent vintage, some sophisticated, some sludge.


The mystery deepens when we realize that Godzilla is not merely a temporally displaced or artificially enlarged real-world animal of the sort found in the classic Anglophone SF movies: THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS, THE GIANT BEHEMOTH, THEM!, THE DEADLY MANTIS, EARTH VS. THE SPIDER, THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, THE BLACK SCORPION, GORGO, and so on. Godzilla is not essentially a dinosaur. He’s a mythic monster, a demonic being spawned by that dark god called the Bomb, with resonances that reach back to the deepest roots of both Eastern and Western folklore.


The dearth of Daikaiju fiction might be explained by noting that the Godzilla films, like their American counterparts, are at base visceral visual spectacles, an effect that’s extremely difficult to replicate in prose. I suspect that, as a literary sub-genre, an homage to Japanese movie monsters would be valuable to the degree that they offer postmodern commentary on the phenomenon. That’s what I tried to do in SHAMBLING TOWARDS HIROSHIMA, and that’s evidently what’s going on in the recent Australian anthology DAIKAIJU from Agog! Press, edited by Robert Hood and Robin Pen, though I haven’t seen the book yet.


http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/doku.php?id=daikaiju

EM: Do you have a favorite giant monster? Do you think there’s a classic piece of literature that would have been much improved by the addition of a fire-breathing iguana?




JM: As displayed on my parents’ crummy little low-def TV set in the late fifties, the periodic broadcasts of KING KONG on local Philadelphia television were pretty murky affairs. And yet the movie is so well made, its images so strikingly composed, that the film instantly resonated with my pre-adolescent sensibility. KING KONG will always be my primal giant monster experience.


I’m tempted to say that PRIDE AND PREJUDICE could sustain a monster or two, but pointless, one-joke, Jane Austen mash-ups are not my thing. One day I might insert a fire-breathing iguana in the opening chapters of Genesis. YHWH has given the monster to Adam and Eve as a pet, and when He threatens to expel them from Eden, they sic it on his Almighty ass.

EM: Many of your books deal with issues of Faith. Why is Faith such an undying theme?


JM: I would say my preoccupation is not so much with faith per se as with the abominable things that faith often inclines people to do. As a satirist, I’m bewildered by the seeming gullibility with which my fellow Homo sapiens embrace supernaturalist explanations of the universe’s inner workings – a rubric under which I would include Karl Marx’s notion of a transcendent, teleological force driving human history. Why aren’t people more curious about the manifestly non-divine, non-privileged origins of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Dialectical Materialism, and the rest? Shouldn’t the mutual incompatibility, internal contradictions, and bald-faced lies built into these systems tell us that they are nothing more than human contrivances?


I’d have to say, Eric, in recent years “faith” has become one of my least favorite words, right up there with “spirituality” and “patriotism.” It’s a knavish word, a scoundrel’s word. Whenever you hear the word “faith” in a sentence, brace yourself for a second-rate thought. (Of course, I would exempt the present conversation from that prophecy.)

EM: It’s no secret TOWING JEHOVAH is one of my favorite books. The idea presented is pretty amazing [God dies]. After all, by the Bible’s admission, we were made in His image. So, I’d wager that if we can die, so too can God. Did you catch any flack for dealing with this idea?


JM: On the whole, the people who would be offended by TOWING JEHOVAH on first principles – right-wing evangelicals, conservative chuckleheads, professional dissemblers like Ann Coulter – don’t read literary satire and couldn’t care less what secular novelists have been up to in recent decades. My fiction flies below the radar of the conventionally pious, which is probably just as well. If Benedict XVI took the trouble to condemn TOWING JEHOVAH, the resultant media attention would not make me a better writer, and it certainly wouldn’t make him a better Pope.


Many of the more sympathetic and sophisticated believers who’ve encountered my Godhead Trilogy – and I’m always pleased to discover that my readership includes churchgoers – wonder why I settled for such a literal-minded notion of the Deity. But as you point out, the Bible invites us to think of God as very much like ourselves in form, face, mind, and psyche, and vice-versa. It’s all there in Genesis. The irony, of course, is that the world is full of people who are far more thoughtful, forgiving, compassionate, and life-affirming than the Supreme Being of the Western religious tradition. I’ve never met you, Eric, but I strongly suspect you’re one of those people.


By the way, I definitely include the allegedly loving God of the Gospels in this indictment. I take great delight in the moment in Doug Wright’s extraordinary play, QUILLS, when the Marquis de Sade spits on a Bible while telling the Abbé, “This monstrous God of yours, He strung up his very own son like a side of veal – I shudder to think what he’d do to me.”


Whenever you come upon someone explaining why God had no choice but to slaughter Jesus – atoning for our collective sins and all that – listen very carefully. You will be hearing a rationale for evil.

EM: Have we plunged into a post-theistic world?

JM: I believe our world is post-theistic in the sense that these days almost everybody in the political-cultural sphere feels empowered to speak for God. There’s a palpable sense in which Sarah Palin, Pat Robertson, Benedict XVI, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and other such scoundrels are indulging in an essentially atheistic discourse. When you are privy to God’s opinions concerning any and all matters of consequence, you really have no personal need of Him – do you? – except as a bully to call upon whenever your own bullying fails. So He might as well not even exist, right?


But in another sense, of course, we are living through a plague of theism such as the world hasn’t seen since the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century. I shudder to imagine where it will lead. At least we have 9/11 to remind us that a belief in God guarantees nothing, and I mean nothing, desirable in the moral realm.

EM: Chris Moore and I were talking religion a little while back. He’s got a cut-and-paste system where religion is concerned. Do you subscribe to a certain religious belief system? What do you have Faith in?


JM: The word “religious” maps into my psyche only if we use the word in the loosest and most metaphorical manner imaginable. One might say that I experience “religious” feelings – that is, a rush of awe and appreciation – toward humankind’s great achievements in music, cinema, painting, literature, and natural science. Etymologically, “religious” points to the act of binding – and who doesn’t want to be fastened to the world and other people in a nourishing way? But to bind a person can also mean to shackle him, and too often that is what organized religion – that wild beast the Enlightenment so wisely sought to domesticate – has done to the human mind and spirit.


As I suggested earlier, I feel that the word “faith” has become almost useless in serious conversation, unless we’re talking about Sartre’s notion of “bad faith.” These days I prefer the concept of “fidelity.” I like to believe I am holding true to those things that make the world a better place: love, art, reason, doubt, curiosity.

EM: Many of your books deal with religion. Heck, you even wrote BIBLE STORIES FOR ADULTS. Do you have a favorite Bible story?


JM: My favorite part of the Bible is that astonishing poetic drama called the Book of Job, which I ultimately recast as BLAMELESS IN ABADDON. The subtext of Job is quite complex: the ways of God are not the ways of men – and yet, paradoxically, those who would rage against God from a dung heap are well within their rights to do so. Unlike the three primary comforters (and also the one who shows up late), and unlike today’s men and women of “faith,” Job calls God to account for His manifest indifference to human suffering. And while God is not happy to be placed in the dock – He’s not a very good listener, and His response to our hero’s anguish is woefully beside the point – He ultimately tells the comforters that blasphemers like Job traffic in truth, “the thing that is right,” as they do not.


It’s as if God is actually admitting that the problem of pain has no satisfactory answer within a context of conventional piety. So if you throw away the dopey framing story – that ridiculous fairy tale concerning the wager between Jehovah and the Satan, so obviously added by a redactor – you will find in the Book of Job the most potent indictment of the Supreme Being prior to Elie Wiesel’s THE TRIAL OF GOD.

EM: Not to delve too deeply into politics and religion (two subjects I’ve always been wary of approaching in a bar), but you’re one of the few people, it seems, that has actually read the Bible. I own six different copies of the “Good Book”. And, I’ve read your thoughts on Genesis, which you claim should be changed to “Genocide”. Care to make any comments on the linking of the world then and now?

JM: I suppose I should be grateful for the Bible. Were it not for Holy Writ, I’d be out of a job.

That said, I think we’d be better off if all the world’s Bibles turned to vanilla milkshakes tomorrow. Over the centuries, humans have devised all sorts of diabolical institutions – genocide, slavery, misogyny, child abuse, homophobia, heretic hunts, witch cleansings, anti-Semitism – and you’ll find each and every one of them endorsed in Scripture, and almost no unequivocal denunciations of these evils.


If it’s really the case that an omnipotent and omnibenevolent entity exists somewhere out there, I would have to conclude that the Bible is the “word of God” the way THE ILIAD is the autobiography of Cole Porter.


I don’t mean to pick on Judeo-Christian revelation only. From what I’ve read of the Koran and the Book of Mormon, we could easily get by without those books, too, but that is another day’s discussion.

EM: Another of my favorite Morrow novels is CITY OF TRUTH. I’ve heard people compare it to the Ricky Gervais movie THE INVENTION OF LYING. Both are their own entity, by far. However, INVENTION OF LYING didn’t work for me. I think because we all tend to lie and are an ethically-compromised world. CITY OF TRUTH worked back in 1994, when manners still existed. Wow, Jim, have we dropped that far into the abyss? Why is your novel – dealing with the “faith” of lying – so much more effective?

JM: I appreciate you appreciation for CITY OF TRUTH. Like you, I was not enamored of THE INVENTION OF LYING, which I found to be tedious and generally unfunny. And I share your bewilderment with Ricky Gervais’s assumption that, if humankind were translated into a universe of mandatory candor, the resultant zeitgeist would be puerile impoliteness.


For me the biggest flaw of THE INVENTION OF LYING is that we never learn how this technologically advanced but truth-obsessed society came into being. Our Western civilization is in large measure a product of the very lies – war, religion, alleged historical necessity – unknown in Ricky Gervais’s society, and yet the two worlds are totally isomorphic. That conceit simply makes no sense, and it prevents the film from being genuinely shocking or thought provoking. Gervais can be an amusing fellow, but this time around he didn’t do his extrapolative homework.


That said, I should come clean and admit that CITY OF TRUTH represents my second venture into the truth-telling dystopia known as Veritas – I first explored it in a short story, “Veritas,” published way back in 1987 in the SF anthology called SYNERGY. Only the second time around did I manage to fit an emotionally engaging situation into my cryptic city and its subterranean dopplegänger. So perhaps, if Rick Gervais were to revisit the world of THE INVENTION OF LYING, he might do something thematically resonant with it.

EM: Also, your book CONTINENT OF LIES deals with enhancing the entertainment experience. Um, that’s a little where we’re at today with 3-D technology in our homes, and things that are meant to drown us in “experience”. What kind of prophetical Kool-Aid did you drink? Are you kin to Nostradamus?

JM: Some people regard science fiction as rationalist divination, but that’s not where my heart lies. I prefer the argument that the most valuable sort of SF holds a mirror – often a funhouse mirror – up to the present, as opposed to predicting the future. That said, I haven’t done too badly as a prophet. Arthur C. Clarke once praised THE CONTINENT OF LIES for its prescience. And in TOWING JEHOVAH, I managed to anticipate, through rudimentary extrapolation, the current dreadful oil-spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

EM: You’ve won huge accolades, including the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award, but what is your biggest achievement?

JM: BLAMELESS IN ABADDON includes an homage to my tenth-grade World Literature teacher, James Giordano of Abington Senior High School, north of Philadelphia. Shortly after my induction into the Abington Hall of Fame, I sent the novel to “Mr. G” with an inscription celebrating my debt to him. I won’t go into the details, but evidently it greatly helped his mood to realize that his syllabus and his teaching style so profoundly shaped my sensibility. Saying “Thank you” in that way to such a generous and passionate mind was perhaps my greatest literary achievement.

EM: What is your guilty pleasure, Jim?

JM: Despite my being an atheist – or maybe because I’m an atheist – I’m a connoisseur of old Hollywood movies about Jesus, especially THE ROBE, DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS, BEN-HUR, KING OF KINGS, BARABBAS, and THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. As I like to say, “The teachings of Jesus are truly remarkable. Somebody should start a religion based on them.”

EM: Many aspiring, published, and soon-to-be published writers read this. Many authors say the same commonsensical things when offering advice: write everyday, read, marry rich. What one nugget would you offer to all the writers reading this?


JM: Don’t count on the publishing industry or the marketplace to vindicate your labors. Figure out how to make fiction writing its own reward. The vivid character, the graceful sentence, the successful epigram, the riveting moment, the astonishing plot turn: learn to value these things per se, not just because they might make you famous.

EM: One thing I have an unhealthy obsession with is researching famous last words. I’m just sick like that, I suppose. Did you know, for example, that John F. Kennedy said, upon arriving in Dallas: “If someone’s going to kill me, they’ll kill me.” And supposedly, Pancho Villa said: “Please don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.” That’s my favorite. As morbid as it is, what would you wish your immortal words to be?


JM: I hadn’t heard those lines before. My favorite is probably Oscar’s Wilde’s alleged last words. “Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.”


I’m not sure what I’ll say on my deathbed. Perhaps I’ll paraphrase Goethe and cry, “More art!” Or maybe I’ll be thinking of my contrarian oeuvre and proclaim, “If God exists, why didn’t He kill me sooner?” Or perhaps a variation, such as, “There must be easier ways to learn whether God has a sense of humor.”

EM: And finally, if there’s one thing you want readers to get out of your books what is it? For readers who have never cracked open a Morrow book, why do you want them to?


JM: Beware all persons who presume to speak for eternity. In the grand conflict between reason and revelation, revelation will almost always win, being answerable only to itself, but it will invariably be wrong. That is probably the übermessage of my fiction.

EM: Thanks, Mr. Morrow.

JM: You’re very welcome.

If this interview didn't, at least, spark a creative interest in Mr. Morrow's work, I'm not sure what will.  His books are masterpieces (each and every one).  I'd like to say more, but my rambling will do no justice to his works.  The best I can do is offer a complimentary taste (great, now I feel like a pusher).
 
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow.  How would you like a signed, first-edition hardcopy of this wonderous book?  It can be yours!  In this interview, James Morrow referenced a funny little thought about a daikaiju in the Garden of Eden, given to Adam and Eve as a pet.  Well, write a short poem or a short story using this as a theme.  Entries will be posted here on the Authors Speak and one will win.
 
RULES
No more than 1500 words;
Must be received by July 9, 2010;
Entrants must be a "fan" of the Authors Speak on facebook.com;
Email your entry to ericm@witty.com with the subject I LOVE MORROW

Until then, keep reading.

The Authors Speak: Jeff Burk (Giant Monster Edition)

There's a lot of things to say about Jeff Burk...and I reckon Jeff's heard them all.  On the surface, Jeff is someone that looks like a rebel-rousing outsider: purple dreaded mohawk, patchwork denim jacket, a punk rock attitude.  Never judge a book by its cover, though, right?  There is so much more to Jeff Burk.

Admittedly, I'm a Trival Pursuit hound.  I love it (and you may recall played it with Mary Roach).  There are music groups, writers, and other entertainers that I would love to play Trival Pursuit with.  The Bloodhound Gang.  Nathan Fillion.  Cheech Marin.  Mary Roach.  I'll add Jeff Burk to that list.  His pop culture knowledge is immense.  He capitalizes on geekdom in a way that I've never seen.

It's easy enough to make fun of fanboys.  That doesn't take much talent and plenty of people do it.  It does take talent to make fun of, embrace, and be a fanboy culture, all while composing a piece that is entertaining and both an homage to and a farce of the culture.  I'm not sure that makes any sense whatsoever.  It makes sense in my head, and I'm not revising it, because it is what I wanted to say about Jeff.  There's just not too many ways to compose that thought into coherency.

I, like so many other fans, discovered Jeff Burk with the release of Shatnerquake.  Shatnerquake was a book that could have failed miserably - a strong concept that most undoubtedly would have failed had it not been for the strong narrative.  I found the book hilarious, the references struck a chord with my inner geek, and the ending was satisfying.  At the time, I was not aware that Jeff had been doing Shatnerquake performances around the Pacific Northwest.  I was grateful I was able to see a Shatnerquake performance before it was retired.  It's an amazing performance, really, and every fanboy should get a chance to view it.  What makes the performance genius is that it's done on an uber-low budget scale, once again, paying homage to the low budgetness of the original Star Trek series and the films of Bruce Campbell (who factors into the narrative).

From there, I learned that Jeff Burk is the editor of The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, a job that requires copious amounts of reading, strong wits, and the ability to make a Quaterly Publication work.  He excels at this.  If you've not picked up a copy of the Magazine, please do so.

And, recently, his adoration for daikaiju just got picked up.  Remember those Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books from childhood?  Well, Jeff's written one, except this is a Choose-Your-Own-Mindfuck-Fest.  Super Giant Monster Time! (Choose Your Own Mind-Fuck Fest #3) was released on March 1st, and it's done marvelously well (as did his previous book).  Super Giant Monster Time, as you may have gathered, is a dedication to giant monsters, but pitting you - the reader - against them.  He claims there are 52 different endings in "Super Giant Monster Time" and that some of them are hidden.  Intriguing?  Absolutely.  Brilliant?  You betcha!  Let's see Stephen King concoct something like that, that will require you to revisit the book again, and again, and again, and again...

Eric Mays: Jeff, you've written "Super Giant Monster Time". Why giant monsters? It's a sub-genre that rarely gets huge attention.

Jeff Burk: Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved giant monsters. I have so many fond memories of watching Godzilla movies on TBS and TNT. Every Easter I would watch “Night of the Lepus” and every Thanksgiving was the double-feature of “King Kong” and “Son of Kong.”

There is something about the image of a huge creature towering over buildings that just catches my imagination. I can never get enough of books or movies with giant monsters, so I wanted to do my own contribution to the cannon.

EM: What piece of classic literature or classic cinema would be much improved by the addition of a giant monster?

JB: Basically – all. Giant monsters are one of those things that I think makes every story better.

It is really interesting to think of the number of classic works that already incorporate giant monster concepts. “Moby Dick” is basically a story about a man hunting a giant monster. Most of Lovecraft’s pieces incorporate what have become giant monster ideas. While giant monsters are considered a niche sub-genre, they are actually a part of the western genre framework.

EM: You've named some of your favorite giant monsters at your website, so I won't go into great detail here, but why does this sub-genre not garner the same interest as, say, vamps and zombies?

JB: I never understood why the sub-genre has always failed to become more popular. For some reason here, in the west, we seem unable to make a decent giant monster movie (see the US “Godzilla” and “Cloverfield” for proof).

I keep holding out hope that the US will produce a good giant monster movie one of these days. Eli Roth is supposedly working on one called “Endangered Species.” I think Roth can do a good one. Also, another company is giving at go at an American Godzilla for 2012. The first one kind of sucked, but I find it unlikely that they would make the same mistakes again.

Fingers crossed on both of those being in 3-D.

EM: Super Giant Monster Time is also a Choose Your Own Adventure book, right? How much more difficult is it to write this style? I mean, don't you have three or four outcomes happening with every scenario?

JB: It’s not really any more difficult than writing in a linear fashion, but it is incredibly different.

The book starts with the reader picking one of three characters to “play” and each character has two main storylines. Then there is also about fifty pages of “hidden storylines” that the reader has to find on their own. All together, there are 52 different endings the book.

I’ve always been a sucker for books that depict world-wide disasters from a variety of perspectives. I saw a great advantage to using CYOA format to try telling one of those stories.

Because “Super Giant Monster Time” is depicting an end of the world scenario, I basically had to come up with about 50 death scenes – which was pretty easy.

I spend much of my time fantasizing about creative ways the people around me could die (I watch too many horror movies), so for “Super Giant Monster Time” I just had to focus on my daydreams on giant monsters, aliens, and punk rockers.

EM: You also incorporate a level of punk to this tale. Punk and daikaiju, match made in heaven?

JB: I think so. Take those two, add Star Trek, bacon, and marijuana, and you have an average day in my head.

Prior to this you made a name for yourself with the bestselling "Shatnerquake". Are you pigeonholing yourself in geekdom?

I don’t know if I’m pigeonholing myself – if I am, I’m just fine with that. I write about the things that interest me and geek culture is my passion. I’m super nerdy and that comes out in my stories.

With some of my upcoming books, I’m moving a bit away from the nerd topics. I’ll be writing about issues like GLBT rights, drug law reform, and concerns surrounding factory farming. Rest assured though, since I’m writing them you can expect references to Star Trek, NES, and obscure gore films.

EM: Shatnerquake has done quite well. I know you got the Wil Wheaton blurb. Heard from the Shat?

JB: Not yet. To the best of my knowledge, the Shat is not aware of the book. I did recently get contacted by a fan that apparently sees Shatner regularly in LA and he said he was going to get Shatner to sign his copy of “Shatnerquake.”

On an amusing note, there is a copy of Shatnerquake out there signed by Bruce Campbell.

EM: Stupid question time: Who would win in a fight between Shatner and Godzilla? (Oh my God, why has this not been written?)

JB: Holy shit! I never thought of that!

I imagine it like “Godzilla vs. Hedorah,” but with more Go-Go dancing.

EM: You're tackling the next chapter in the "Shatnerquake" universe with Leonard Nimoy. Are we going to have an epic series including Nichelle Nicholapalypse and George Takcyclone?

JB:Haha, I assume you are referring to my April Fool’s Day prank. A fan had created a fake cover for “Tsunimoy” as a joke and I wrote up a fake back-cover summary.

I had also a download link for the book but the link actually led to a download of “Super Giant Monster Time!”

There will be a sequel to “Shatnerquake” sometime in the future. “Shatnerquest” will be the title. The book will be about the apocalypse happens and a group of Star Trek fans in Baltimore take it upon themselves to travel across the country to save William Shatner – because if they don’t, who will? Along the way they encounter a rival Star Trek Borg fan club that have been mutated by the apocalypse into zombies.

So the book will have the Borg running rampant across the US and I can promise a fifty-foot Shatner rampaging through downtown L.A.

EM: You had a Shatner performance that was "retired" at BizarroCon last year. Are you prepping a Leonard Nimoy performance? Will it include "Bilbo Baggins"? 

JB:Yeah, that Shatnerquake performance hasn’t really gone away. I’ve done it three times since BizarroCon. I think the only way it will go away is when I have a Shatnerquest performance.

Lately I’ve been doing a performance themed around “Super Giant Monster Time!” It’s set up like a game show, where I get volunteers from the audience who I dressed up in silly giant monster costumes. They then smash apart a cardboard city that I build for each show. It’s pretty awesome.

So far I’ve only done the performance twice. Once at the first Naked Lobster Cabaret, which is a bimonthly event in Portland featuring comedy, burlesque, and bizarro, hosted by local stand-up comedian Whitney Streed. The second time was at a May Day event at a hippie art warehouse called “Watershed” – I performed in-between a bunch of jam bands.

EM: Between tackling these two subjects, rocking the punk, and being immersed in bizarro, are you becoming a convention staple? Convention Messiah?

JB: I am starting to become rather recognizable around conventions. Surprisingly, a dreaded Mohawk and being covered with patches and studs stands out in a room with people dressed as their favorite RPG and video game characters.

I really love going to conventions and tabling for Eraserhead – I try to make it to as many as possible (roughly eight a year). I’m normally behind the table in the dealer’s room the entire time and it’s priceless seeing the reactions our books get. It’s great getting to opportunity to connect with readers and turn on more people to our unique brand of weirdness.

The people at conventions are wonderful. I love being in any environment where others are not afraid to let their freak flag fly.

EM: As if all of this wasn't enough, you are also the editor of "the Magazine of Bizarro Fiction", which is truly amazing. Moment of truth: if you could say one thing to all the people that send you submissions, what would it be?

JB:For some reason I am constantly getting stories about masturbation. Stories about people masturbating, people thinking about masturbating, people thinking about other people masturbating, etc…

Stop sending me stories about masturbation!

Don’t get me wrong – I love masturbation. But everybody sleeps, everybody eats, and everybody masturbates – it’s just not weird.

EM: Obligatory question - what's next on tap?

JB: So much! Here is the stuff that will (hopefully) coming out this year:
HomoBomb – A bomb who is attracted to other bombs when it is supposed to be attracted to people and buildings. This is my next book that should be out in the summer.

Pothead – about a world where people grow plants instead of body hair and one person who grows marijuana on their body. I stole this idea from J. W. Wargo. Hahahahaha.

Cripple Wolf (with Cameron Pierce) – a werewolf in a wheelchair loose on an airplane. “I’m sick of these motherfucking werewolves on this motherfucking plane!”

“The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction” is going great. Later this year horror superstar, John Skipp, will be guest-editing an issue. He’s putting out a mass market anthology themed around shape shifters (a sequel to his badass zombie antho from last year) and the issue of the mag he’s editing will include the stories that are too weird or extreme for the mass market.

I’m also working on a couple stories for anthologies and overseeing some releases for Shark vs. Badger (Eraserhead’s comic book imprint) and Deadite Press (Eraserhead’s horror imprint).

In my spare time I’m continuing my master plan of becoming a cult leader. Though I must say, these days I’m beginning to rethink my ambition – I believe I may be thinking too small. I starting to think I should be aiming for a nation state – or at least one of those supervillain islands with a volcano in the center.

Jeff Burk is talented in a variety of ways, and if you've not ventured into his world, please do.  It's a trippy ride through the twisted side of pop-culture.  Hey, even Lloyd Kaufman loves the kid.  Your best bet is to start with the phenomenon "Shatnerquake".  You know how it feels to be on the outside of an inside joke?  Yeah?  Well, you're on the outside of the Shatnerquake joke, so it's time to buckle up and get that bad boy.  (Just for readers in the state of Virginia, I've donated two copies of this title to the library system, so it's available through inter-library loan, should you be impoverished).


Tomorrow the Giant Monster extravaganza continues!  James Morrow, author of such bestsellers as "Towing Jehovah" and "The Eternal Footman", joins us and chats daikaiju.  His last book, "Shambling Towards Hiroshima" imagined a world that created Godzilla, and it was one of the Must Reads of last year. 

Until tomorrow, keep reading.

The Authors Speak (Monster Week Edition): Stephen Mark Rainey

Since 1985 Mark Rainey has been cranking out horror fiction, yet it still stuns me that when you mention his name people still ask, "Who?"  Seems there's a lot of that happening these days, and it's a damn shame, because it's costing people - good, avid readers - some good storytellers.  Mark is a good storyteller.

Most people will probably recognize the byline from the covers of "Dark Shadows" fiction.  The man's been applying himself to that, and I've got to say this: that's one fun gig.  Besides that, though, Stephen Mark Rainey has many dark fiction (let's go so far as to say Lovecraftian) titles to his name: High Seas Cthulu and Cthulu 2012, to name a few.

He's also got a strong online presence to his..well...name.  On his website - http://www.stephenmarkrainey.com/ - he offers fans free fiction, glimpses of his blogs (which vary in subject matter and are highly entertaining), and reviews.  Mark is the prime example of what a writer should do day in and day out: Write.

One of the neatest things about the guy, though, is his strong love for all things daikaiju.  This guy loves giant monsters as much as I do (and I can't get enough of them.  Seriously, put me in front of a television with a Godzilla Marathon and I'll build a fort out of bedsheets and you can write me off for a week, easily) and writes about them with such passion.  Cthulu, I suppose, would be the quintessential "giant monster", but there's a certain appeal to Japan's creations - cheese or not.  Many Godzilla fans out there will agree with Mark when he declares "All Monsters Attack" to be the worst of the Godzilla movies!  If you have a few moments in your day - and let's face it, you do - stroll over to Rainey's website and read review after review of daikaiju masterpieces!

Stephen Mark Rainey kicks off The Authors Speak: Giant Monster Week!  We had the chance to discuss the Dark Shadows stories he's writing, as well as trending in the horror genre (basically why Cthulu rocks and Twilight sucks), and we chat Godzilla.  Actually, once we began chatting daikaiju, that's where the conversation stayed.

Eric Mays: You seem to have done it all, sir! You've won awards for editing Deathrealm, you've written loads of short fiction as well as novels, you're a panelist favorite on the convention circuit, and you're a reviewer. Out of everything that you've got in your repertoire, what's the thing you love the most (and yes, I realize that it's hard to pinpoint one)?

Mark Rainey: Yes, it is hard to pinpoint, since it’s all part of the same package, more or less. I do miss Deathrealm in a lot of ways—mainly the actual physical composing of the issues, rather than reading slush, selecting and editing stories, etc. Building the issues from the ground up always appealed to my artistic side, which I don’t get to exercise much anymore, at least outside of the day job. That was my choice, of course, so I could focus more on my writing, but again, I did consider it part of the overall package. As for the writing, I’ve always had a fondness for short fiction, both reading it and writing it, and while I’ve enjoyed writing novels, the short form is probably my favorite.

EM: You've written several audio dramas set in the world of Dark Shadows, right? What is it about that world that enraptures you so?

MR: Yeah, as a youngster, I found Dark Shadows so deeply involving that it has stuck with me through the years like a powerful dream. The show’s setting—Collinsport, Maine—seemed so vivid, its people very real (well, at least those that weren’t of supernatural background—and maybe even some of them). I’ve particularly enjoyed the aspects of the show that were grounded in reality rather than sheer fantasy. They did that part extremely well, so when the supernatural elements came to the forefront, they struck me as very believable. Looking at the show now, I see it very differently, of course, yet so many of the elements that drew me in are still perfectly apparent: the charismatic characters, the brooding atmosphere, Robert Cobert’s incredibly eerie scoring. Despite all the gaffes and bloopers for which the series is so well known, when Dark Shadows hit on all cylinders, it surpassed anything else on TV—then and sometimes even now.

EM: It seems to me that, while loyal, the "Dark Shadows" fanbase is facing stiff (no pun intended) competition from fans of Sookie Stackhouse and fans of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series. There's something inherently more frightening about the world of "Dark Shadows". Why is that, Mark? And, do you think we'll ever return to the glory days of vamps?

MR: Well, I’m not sure there’s really any such thing as competition here; each of these properties is unique, and I don’t know how much overlap there is between fan bases. If anything, one might actually complement the other. As far as Dark Shadows goes, there just aren’t that many products vying for your hard-earned dollars. The audio dramas aren’t very expensive, and they seem to be doing quite well—certainly well enough for Big Finish to continue producing them and expanding the casts. Assuming the Burton/Depp Dark Shadows movie happens as planned, their names alone are going to propel it to prominence, at least for a time. That can’t help but have a positive impact on the franchise as a whole.

The popularity of vampires waxes and wanes but never vanishes, and there have been many high points over the past couple of decades. If by “glory days,” you mean the Dark Shadows period (1966–71)…well, it was a good one. Hammer was still producing entertaining Dracula flicks. Count Yorga and Blacula came round soon after, and they were screamingly fun in their ways. Dan Curtis produced The Night Stalker TV movie, which resulted in another movie and the now-revered TV series. But look at all the vampire waves we’ve ridden since then, propelled by Anne Rice, Fright Night, Coppola’s Dracula, Forever Knight, Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, to some extent Moonlight, and now Twilight and The Vampire Diaries (which I enjoy a lot; even if it’s more 90210 than Dark Shadows, some of the old DS influence is undeniable). I don’t think vampires will ever vanish altogether, since they earn people lots of money. Thus, I hardly think the glory days have passed.


As for Dark Shadows being the among the most frightening of these fictional worlds, well, in those days, young people relied far more on the power of imagination than having everything served up on a plate in graphic detail. Despite the fact that we now see the show’s special effects as hokey, back then, they stoked the youthful imagination. Dark Shadows did quite well, too, using the power of suggestion. If they couldn’t pull it off visually, they’d make you hear it. And even though the audience was largely young, they focused a lot on internalized horror—the fear of darkness, of loss of control, the suggestion that maybe your neighbor wasn’t quite what he appeared. That was powerful stuff in a somewhat more innocent day. Still is, when you think about it, but nowadays, those fears are usually addressed using far more graphic methods, which I think often serves to desensitize rather than provoke the mind.

EM: Switching gears, but keeping on movie monsters, if I may, you used to review daikaiju movies for AboutHorror.com. As a purveryor of the "giant monster", tell our readers why they should care about this special genre.

MR: No denying I’m a die-hard daikaiju freak. In fact, I’ve set up a portion of my Web site devoted to reviews of tokusatsu films. I’ve always loved the early Toho monster movies, such as the original Godzilla and Rodan, which portrayed the monsters as horrific forces of nature, meant to be taken seriously rather than as rubber-suited buffoons, which came about in later years. I tell you, when I was about ten, Godzilla, King of the Monsters aired on the afternoon movie, and the moment it ended, there was a big rumble, and the house started shaking. Scared the crap out of me, for I thought, surely, Godzilla was real and coming for a visit. Turns out it was an earth tremor, the first that had struck my hometown in over a hundred years. But that left one hell of an impression on me, and I still have a vivid recollection of the kind of fear that a real daikaiju would surely generate. Of course, I love all the old giant monster movies, even the silliest of them. There’s something special about special effects with miniatures; even if they are all too obviously miniatures, the craftsmanship that went into them, the sheer energy that went into demolishing them, all that is infinitely more engaging than most CGI effects.

EM: Who's the baddest of the Godzilla villains? Is there someone that you'd love to see Godzilla battle (anyone, any genre, any time)?

MR: King Ghidorah is certainly the most impressive of Godzilla’s foes. Of course, they’ve battled each other (along with other monsters) any number of times, but they’ve had some mighty good ones. Of course, there’s always been lots of clamor for Godzilla to battle Gamera, but for this, I admit, I really couldn’t care less.

EM: Why is there no daikaiju fiction? With the cult following it seems like a shoo-in. And, I'm sure there is somewhere, but it's not like it's sweeping the shelves. Have giant monsters gone the way of the dinosaurs? Let's be honest, the Toho creations aren't as scary to American audiences when they've got the torture that mascarades as horror.

MR: There actually is some daikaiju fiction out there, though primarily in the small press. Most notably, Rob Hood edited a series of volumes titled Daikaiju!, the first of which includes my story, “The Transformer of Worlds” (which is reprinted in my collection Other Gods from Dark Regions Press). Remember, beyond all else, giant monster movies are about spectacle. It’s far more impressive to watch a big beast trash a city than to read about it. The stories for most daikaiju films are fairly simple; they need to be, so that the story doesn’t overwhelm the spectacle. Not to say the story isn’t important; the best Japanese monster movies do feature engaging human dramas. But in the end, you can’t forget what it’s all about: a smashing good time.

EM: Okay, getting back on track...I could talk giant Japanese monsters all damn day! It's fair to say that you are and have been attached to the horror genre. What's happening within the genre today? I mean, I'm finding a lot of the stories recycled knock-offs, the scares flat, and the real suspense and fear replaced by copious amounts of sex and gore. Is this a good evolution or are we losing steam?

MR: For better or for worse, I can’t bring myself to read much contemporary horror fiction these days. I can scarcely think of an example that hasn’t disappointed me in recent years, so many of my bouts with literary horror are either revisiting old titles that I’m particularly fond of or hunting down something by the older masters I might not yet have read. The last “new” horror book I read was about yet another frakking psychokinetic kid. It was well-written enough, but premise-wise, it offered less than nothing new, nary a single surprise, and utterly forgettable characters. Before that, I yawned my way through a popular zombie novel. In some ways, it was a little more compelling, but—much to my surprise—quite poorly written. I read enough crap in Deathrealm’s slush pile, so I get very annoyed when something I’ve paid money for is no better than the slush.

EM: What do you think was the best decade for horror? Sorry for the left-fielder, but several people have debated this with me.

MR: Literary, cinematic, or both? Don’t know that I could pinpoint a decade, actually, but I do have a great fondness for late 19th- to early-to-mid 20th-century literary horror; Lovecraft, Bierce, Leiber, Bloch, Wellman, plenty of others. I enjoyed a lot of horror out of the 80s and 90s, but little of it stands out to me the way the “old” stuff does. To me, it’s more about individual authors than years or decades. Different times produce different high and low points, and I definitely find that work from the 60s and earlier stands out as more emotionally powerful. Now, cinematically, the 60s and early 70s were a goldmine. Drive-in movie theaters and weekend matinees provided a venue for cheap but effective horror movies that I loved back then and still do. Stuff like Equinox, the aforementioned Count Yorga, The Legend of Hillbilly John, The Legend of Boggy Creek, Frogs, Food of the Gods, The Creature From Black Lake, The Abominable Dr. Phibes… Hell, the endless strings of A.I.P., Hammer, Amicus, and UPA movies (many of which included Toho releases) were unbeatable. Horror and monster movies were more an “underground” thing in the days before big, elaborate budgets and special effects. Again, it goes back to stimulating the imagination as much as serving up blood on a platter. And when they did serve up the blood, it culd be quite novel.

EM: You're a favorite panelist on the convention circuit. Is that step one in your cult following? How did you build up such a following?


This is news to me. At one time, I made the rounds at most of the major genre conventions, and I was a frequent panelist, but nowadays, due to changes in my personal situation, I just don’t have it in the budget to get out to my old favorite cons. I still go to some of the local ones that don’t require a big expenditure or that reimburse me for expenses, but I really don’t see a bunch of groupies following me around from panel to panel. Or…might this be my faulty, aging eyesight? I’m on my third pair of bifocals, you know.

EM: You're on record, Mark, as one of the many writers who does not write full-time. In fact, your day job is producing workbooks for elementary school teachers, correct? I'm finding more and more writers who are dabbling in many different things and working to fund or support their writing endeavors. Is this a sign of the publishing apocalypse? Just curious for your take.

MR: Well, with the ongoing changes in the publishing world, I think it is going to get harder for writers to sustain themselves solely by writing. There’s so much free content out there, and it’s increasing daily. Anyone and everyone can publish themselves for little overhead. Building an audience is a whole different animal, of course; to make money, writers have to be savvy business people more today than ever before. And publishers are having to adapt faster than ever to changing technology and the resulting changes in their bottom lines. Half a century ago, a publisher could look down the road and not see dramatic shifts in his product, the way it would be produced, and the size and composition of his customer base. Conversely, no one really knows how things are going to play out over this next decade. Or the coming year or two. Naturally, there will be plenty of writers and publishers who will be able to thrive, but achieving success will be a matter of foreseeing and adapting to a previously unimagined host of variables.

EM: As someone, too, that's kind of got a connection to the educational world...why do you think Americans (especially youth) aren't reading as much as once they did?

MR: The question assumes that people aren’t reading as much, but it’s largely that the nature of reading is shifting radically. Let’s start at the bottom. Children are actually being taught to read earlier and earlier. But it’s all about meeting testing requirements—memorization, rather than learning. This trend starts at preschool now and goes right up to senior high. Critical thinking is taught less and less. Again, it’s all about the tests. Teacher after teacher who has been in the system for many years tells me that creativity is no longer a part of the classroom. It’s all about those damned standards, and while no one will argue that standards need to be altogether abandoned, every teacher I know feels that high-quality teaching and learning has about gone out the window. Not to mention that 50 percent of the teacher’s job is to babysit—except that they can’t discipline the little bastards whose mission in life is to make sure everyone else is as stupid as they are. To be able to read, and read well, you must be educated. To enjoy reading, you have to be educated and imaginative, and if your imagination has been stifled in favor of memorization, you’re not very likely to pick up a book for fun. Too, the language of texting has become so normalized that it’s harder and harder for young people to absorb the rules of reading and writing; it’s very easy for them to embrace something that caters to their short attention spans rather than forcing them to devote the time and energy it takes to move beyond little word bytes.


Too, in addition to the ever-present distraction of movies and television, throw into the equation all the easily accessible, totally immersive 3-D media competing with reading material. Nothing wrong with that—in fact, I think some of it is fantastic—but it does occupy a niche for youngsters that at one time belonged to reading. A happy medium is a good thing, and I know that many individuals are able to find it. But I think that’s also getting harder to do as gaming becomes still more and more immersive.

Now, conversely, a lot of youngsters who have active imaginations are getting into reading, particularly when they find engaging material—such as Twilight or Harry Potter. I mean, look at these particular phenomena. When I was a kid, nothing could match the sheer scale of these book sales. Whether I personally care for them is irrelevant; I’m all for just about any literary property that captures and holds kids’ attention and inspires them to delve deeper into literature. Perhaps most of these kids don’t, but there will always be some that do. I hope their numbers are greater than I think they are.

EM: I've got to ask, who would win in a fight between Godzilla and Team "Twilight"?

MR: Roar, dude. Just roar.

EM: Thanks, Mark!

Seriously, if you've never read Stephen Mark Rainey, please do so.  Like several writers, Mark's churning out entertaining tales for your pleasure - and they're good (otherwise I'd not recommend them).  I'll start you off with one you can add to your Amazon cart: The Nightmare Frontier, for Kindle.  A good, swift read for the hot summer season.
 
Tomorrow The Authors Speak: Giant Monster Week continues.  The one and only, Jeff Burk, will join us to discuss his latest book, Super Giant Monster Time: A Choose Your Own Mindfuck Adventure story.  Jeff's the author of the phenom hit, "Shatnerquake", and the editor of The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction.  Besides that, he's a veritable pop-culture sponge, soaking up everything and anything.  We'll chat Star Trek, Punk Rock, and Giant Monsters.  You won't want to miss it.  Trust.
 
Until then, keep reading.