A very good story...

[scullars]

Plugging for a good friend and an excellent writer by the name of Gary Braunbeck. Read "Safe."

http://garybraunbeck.com/html/stor.html

[WhisperingBard]

Ripples continue.

A symphony does not cease.

And violence never really ends.

It took half my life to learn that.



Sharon, that's a powerful story your friend wrote. His words are moving. Thanks for putting the link up.

[scullars]

I'm glad you enjoyed Gary's story, WB. Be sure to check out his whole site. He is a wonderful, provocative writer whose "horror" leans more to the monsters within instead of without. He won a Bram Stoker's award last year for one of his short stories and another one has been nominated this year.

His book of essays, Fear in a Handful of Dust, was also nominated last year. This book, in addition to giving insightful analyses of some of the more popular horror movies as well as Stephen King, is also a candid memoir of his abusive childhood. He has some great rants on his site for those wanna be writers and horror afficianados, too.

Can you tell I'm a fan? :)

[Anaparenna]

Mr. Braunbeck needs no plug for me. I keep Installment #9 (http://www.garybraunbeck.com/html/2004_08_01_archive.html) (Otherwise remembered as "It. Ain't. Easy.") bookmarked for whenever I need a good kick in the pants.

[scullars]

Yes, Gary can tell it like it is. I think he told on me in one of his rants about misuse of the word "hiss" where there are no sibilant words. I had such a mistake in my novel, which he looked over. I was glad for the "beatdown" because he aims for writers to learn from their mistakes.

He shames me with his productivity; here is a man who has had two heart attacks, has suffered debilitating bouts of depression after losing both parents and a grandmother within months of each other and going through a divorce about the same time, has to work two jobs, suffers from some affliction of the nerves in his hand (which he's had two operations on), has had spinal problems stemming from a childhood affliction, not to mention the scars of an abused childhood, and yet he can finish off numerous stories and is always striving to reach his deadlines. And I can't seem to finish off one scene, let alone a whole novel (working on my third).

I truly admire him.