Oh man... there went my beer.

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Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

TT, you're a wild and crazy guy. I'd like to party with you, pal.

Laurel, go easy on the beer or you might wind up with another strange accident. Send any and all beer to me and I will dispose of it in the proper manner. And stop juggling chainsaws while you're at it too.

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

I dug RAVENOUS. Hope you dig it too, Ttzuma.

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FLASH VIRUS: EPISODE ONE (always free)

FLASH VIRUS:EPISODE TWO ($1.99)

I did enjoy Ravenous Steve.

Ray's newest is called Slivers Of Bone and its a short story collection.

Tt

Tony, from your reaction, I think I will have to add Slivers of Bone to my must get list.

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

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Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

I've read a few more stories in this book. There is nothing in this edition that says when these stories where written or if they were published elsewhere. Going onto Amazon I saw a lot of them for sale for big bucks in what I am guessing is in chapbook form.

I can also guess that most of them were written when Ray had his problems as he described here to us a while back. I'll tell you what, the way Ray wrote these stories, I mean the style in which they were written, makes me very uncomfortable while I'm reading them. I'm not sure I would have liked to have known Ray back then. There is such a cold numbness in the stories I've read so far, I could almost picture the author sitting in a bathrobe in front of a word processor with a butt hanging out of his mouth, but his eyes would focused like a laser beam on the screen and they would set like hardened steel, and his hair would be sticking straight up.

This may sound weird, but I took a lot of what Ray was writing as dark humor, I'm wondering now if I was mistaken, if Ray's writing was just so intense I was looking for some kind of comic relief.

So far when I am reading this book it feels like ice cubes are pressed against the back of my spine. There is nothing really that supernatural that I've read so far, just real life people doing things that are really, really, bad...but his writing is so good, I feel mentally vacant while I'm reading the stories.

I could only imagine what would come of a collaboration between Tom Piccirrilli and Ray Garton. Maybe the best contempoary Noir novel ever released?

Tt

_________________
Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

_________________
Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

Getting back to the subject of the post, Ray Garton's 'Slivers Of Bone', I am about 2/3 the way through this book (it always takes me longer to read short story books than novels), but I wanted to mention that in this book, Ray has a story called Monsters which is about one man's battle with a 7th Day Adventist religous group that he has often talked about and never just mentioned in passing here.

If this story has autobiographic elements, then HOLY COW, after what Ray went through it's wonder he's even functioning normally now. Aside from the allegorical title and the ending of the story, its a pretty harrowing read knowing that this really happened. Man...they tortured and killed his dog!!! They slashed his tires and spread dog crap all around the inside of his car!! And it gets worse....

No wonder Ray is on a crusade!

Ttzuma

You sold me, Tt. I got a CD coupon for the weekend and ordered Slivers of Bone and Kealan Patrick Burke's The Number 121 To Pennsyvania.

And before you ask, I didn't receive my "stimulus" check. I made my last car payment last month and had a little extra this month. Next month, the extra starts stimulating a savings account.

Thad

_________________
"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

I've been eyeing up Slivers of Bone for a little while now but sadly I've also been eyeing my pocket book. I shall get to it eventually SOB

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You lick the hand that feeds you, And kiss the blade that cuts
I wanna fuck you in your god's hands when your praying bites the dust
Please Please Please

Reading: 11/22/63 by Stephen King
Playing: Many iOS Games

I read Slivers Of Bone this past weekend and I pretty much agree with Tt's review, except for "The Other Man" and "The Picture of Health." I didn't like them quite as much as he did. The thing that struck me with "411" was that it felt like a Hitchcock movie, especially the ending.

I'll also say this about the collection. Sometimes when I read a collection of stories (single author or anthology) I find myself kind of dragging my feet on reading some of the stories. I didn't do that here. These stories flew by, yet they stayed with me. I didn't read them and forget them. That is a very good thing.


Thad

Wow. Thank you so much for the kind words about SLIVERS OF BONE. Short stories always make me nervous. I tend to be kind of insecure about my short work. I'm not as confident as I am when writing a novel. As a write a story, after it's done, and even when I submit it, I seldom have a sense of whether or not it's any good. I never know until I hear from the people who read them. Some work, some don't. But because of my uncertainty in the short story form, I'm always *very* grateful whenever someone says they've enjoyed a story.

"Monsters" was based on my experience with the Seventh-day Adventists in Angwin, California. When I tell people what was done to me there, many of them don't believe me. So years ago -- in fact, not long after it actually happened -- I decided to to work it into fiction. I figured if they didn't believe the truth, maybe they would be moved by the fictionalized version. The deli in the story is real and still exists, although the original owners, who were good friends of mine, have passed away -- the deli is called Guigni's. I did not have a dog, so that part was made up. However, dog shit *was* put inside my car, my tires *were* slashed. It's been ages since I've looked at that story, so I'm not sure what else is in there that really happened, but in spite of the story's supernatural element, it's based on a real experience that completely shattered my life at the time and forever altered my feelings about religion in general, and, in particular, my feelings about the Seventh-day Adventist cult in which I was raised. That cult is FAR more dangerous than anyone who hasn't been targeted by them understands. It does damage that no one can see except for the victims of that damage, and even THEY can't see it until after the damage is done, and then it's too late. So far, the Adventists have given us two dangerous, child-raping cults -- the Branch Davidians (remember good ol' David Koresh?) and the currently thriving Strong City cult, where the leader, a former Seventh-day Adventist pastor, has declared himself the "new Christ" and is having sex with other men's wives (including his own son's) as well as children (which is pretty much the same thing Koresh did). Because of its teachings and beliefs, Adventism virtually PREPARES people for some nutbag to come along and say, "Hi, I'm the new Jesus and I want to fuck your wife and little girl," and THEY GO ALONG WITH IT. It's a petri dish for cults, a cult that CREATES cults.

Sorry ... didn't mean to get up on my soapbox again. Don't get me started ...

"Punishments", another Adventist story, was the second short story I ever sold. In the collection, my two personal favorites are "The Guy Down the Street" and "The Homeless Couple". "411" was a novella inspired by my wife Dawn's job -- she was a 411 operator for some time, and in the course of her work, she heard some very strange things, which she'd tell me about at the end of the day.

TT -- What you interpreted as dark humor was exactly that. I'm not the staring guy in the bathrobe you imagined, heh-heh. Although you can see now why, when people meet me, they often express surprise that I'm such a normal, friendly guy. They expect some kind of zombie, or a troll, or a slobbering, sweating pervert with one hand shoved down his pants. People who read my work before they meet me are always surprised by the person I am, and people who've known me for awhile before reading my work are always surprised that the person they knew could write that stuff.

Thanks again. I'm glad you enjoyed the stories.