Sad
He had an excellent innings, but still sad. The elderly Glaswegian pedestrian Alasdair Gray has passed away.
Author: davidstevens
I prefer to prevent rats come in.
BORN FREE
I am neither Oklahoman nor pagan, but the folks at Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly have graciously awarded me first place in the fiction section of their Spooky Samhain contest, for my horror story, Born Free (click on the link to read it for free. Free Born Free. Sigh.). Born Free is set in a little universe […]
Resilience (1)
Is resilience a virtue? I certainly think so. Its a characteristic, its positive, and it is something I greatly admire. I admired it on a comic book level as a young fellow watching Lethal Weapon – Mel Gibson not simply succumbing to a torturer, and then Mel Gibson racing on foot to chase a car. […]
Nell Zink (and James Ellroy (and Jared Diamond))
“I try to work with allusions and a sort of knowingness”, says Zink, … . [who] … trusts her readers to pick up the clues in her writing because she read a lot of science fiction as a child. “In science fiction it is often the case that you read for about an hour without […]
Your therapeutic moment for today
And there’s nothing I can do. Major Tom has achieved an acceptance that may always be beyond ground “control”. But of course, from their position, they are unable to experience the blueness of planet earth, despite the apparent power under their “control”. ‘Can you hear me, Major Tom?’ More than that, Major Tom listens to […]
Review – “Lincoln in the Bardo”
Yes, it is very important that I review a novel that has been reviewed only a gazillion times already, and that won the Booker Prize, and that is already several years old. Never say I don’t have my thumb on the carotid artery of the zeitgeist, dear Reader! Plus, as you know, I don’t do […]
VASTARIEN
I am very pleased that my story, “Grooming my grandfather”, will be appearing in VASTARIEN: A Literary Journal. More details when they are available. (Insert smiley face here.) VASTARIEN: A source of critical study and creative response to the corpus of Thomas Ligotti as well as associated authors and ideas
Man on the moon
Unlike every other boy my age (hmm…), I loved space, spent my few cents pocket money on space picture books that pre-dated the lunar landing, and thought I’d be on Mars by 1980, in the distant future of Gerry Anderson’s UFO, when everyone would wear wigs and silver miniskirts and have unisex bathrooms. I still […]
Just how virtuous is patience?
I don’t think that I am a didactic writer. I like me some themes. I enjoy politics. Literature is great when it engages with the world. But if I want to read a pamphlet or a manifesto, I have a drawer full, I don’t need to read stories to get an opinion. I like story […]
Golly gosh …
My cheeks are a hot crimson red with embarrassment at the very kind glowing praise of the editors at Fleas on the Dog in their introduction to my story, KAIJU! Will my social anxiety, coyness and modesty prevent me from reproducing their words? We’ll have to wait until the next paragraph to find out … […]
Nobody is looking 