Friday 19 December 2008

Christmas Break

Going to put the writing to one side for a couple of weeks to enjoy the festive season! I'm already eating and drinking far too much, and there's still a good 5 or 6 days left to go... Still, hoping to catch up on some new books and films that I haven't got round to watching yet. Almost finished Andrew Humphrey's Other Voices (Elastic Press). I can't say I 'enjoy' Humphrey's stories - they're bleaker than bleak and at times pretty unsavoury - but there's a lot to admire in terms of the writing and characterisation and dialogue. His characters are lost, soulless, bitter individuals who have lost their way in life, and as such their outlook on the world is skewed and tilted and, well, wrong! There is no denying the power of stories such as 'Other Voices', 'Butter Wouldn't Melt' and 'Dogfight'; these (and others) get under your skin and linger in your head for a long time afterwards.

Just finished Conrad Williams' The Scalding Rooms - a novella published by P.S Publishing. Loved Williams' writing - at times it was gorgeous and just stunning. If you haven't read it yet, I wholly recommend it. At its heart it's a story of one man trying to do right for his family in a hostile, post-apocalyptic world crawling with monsters such as The Mowers, the Mouthwideners, The Tar Babies, etc. Good stuff!

Now mid-way through Allyson Bird's Bull Running For Girls, which I'm enjoying muchly.

Caught No Man's Land: The Rise of the Reeker last night. Not too sure why I decided to watch this (probably because Cable had it on special offer for 99p!). Not bad, but nothing to get excited about. The Reeker was a pretty good villain, and the acting was good for this sort of fare, but I found myself losing interest about three quarters of the way through. I'll give it ** out of ***** Still, made it to the end, which (predictably) sets itself up for another - third - installment in the 'Reeker' franchise...

Still really want to see The Dark Knight! I was disappointed to miss it at the cinemas, but will try and pick it up on DVD soon...

Writing wise? Well, New Year's resolution is to finish another collection by the end of the year, and write and type up Goatshead. Lots of ideas at the moment! But first - Christmas! And booze! Booze! Booze!

1 comment:

Dan Edwards said...

Conrad Knight socks...