Trigger Warnings - Neil Gaiman

First line (of the Introduction): "There are things that upset us."

A good book is always fun to read--I can't imagine not experiencing that pleasure regularly. But even beyond those good books, there are select books that become precious gifts. The words tumble from the pages to envelop you in magic and a giddy joy, even if they are also intended to scare or challenge you. Reading feels like eating a rich dessert you're trying desperately to stretch as far as possible, savoring each and every morsel as if it's the first bite. Neil Gaiman's Trigger Warnings: Short Fictions and Disturbances is just such a book.

This collection of short stories may not all be new to many long-time Gaiman fans, but I'm in the midst of experiencing his work for the first time and the adventure is nothing short of exhilarating to me. As many of you know, my introduction to his work was courtesy of a friend's recommendation that I listen to The Graveyard Book on audio. I was immediately hooked, so when I was offered the opportunity to read Trigger Warnings, I couldn't resist it.

I spread the stories out over three sittings and during each, I regularly wanted to stop and read the words aloud to someone else--my pets are learning a lot about Neil Gaiman by the way--because it wasn't enough to hear them in my head, I wanted to hear them in actual sound waves as well. In the midst of a horror story there could be such elegant beauty. For example, in "Feminine Endings," the eerie story of a human statue, Gaiman writes, "In my country we smile in bursts, like the sun coming out and illuminating the fields and then retreating again behind the a cloud too soon. Smiles are valuable here, and rare." This creepy love story works exactly that way. The reader can't help but smile in bursts at the gorgeous turn of phrase, imagery, sound and then feel chills at the scary thread of the plot.

Chuckle-worthy humor finds its way into the most unusual places, making what could have been mundane explode with colorful laughter. Another horror short called "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" involves discussion between a small boy and his sister's new boyfriend, as told from the perspective of the elder. In the midst of talking about evil creatures like vampires and "Click-Clacks":

"'Coke is very bad for you,' said the boy. 'If you put a tooth in Coke, in the morning, it will be dissolved into nothing. That's how bad Coke is for you and why you must always clean your teeth, every night.'

I'd heard the Coke story as a boy, and had been told, as an adult, that it wasn't true, but was certain a lie which promoted dental hygiene was a good lie, and I let it pass."

Gaiman writes from male and female perspectives, first and third person perspectives. His characters are young and old, dead and alive. And regardless of the approach he takes, the dialogue is stunning, sharp and engaging. He breaks so-called "writing rules" like avoiding adverbs, using only "said" for dialogue and avoiding adverbs with "said." The result is vivid imagery and soul-grabbing stories:

"'Well,' he said, sagely, soberly, a small voice from the darkness beside me, 'once you're just bones and skin, they hang you up on a hook, and you rattle in the wind.'"
    --"Click-Clack the Rattlebag"

"'Then,' boomed Luthius Limn, decisively, 'we shall go through the wall.'"
    --"An Invocation of Incuriousity"

"'You are here to rescue yourself,' she corrected him. Her voice was almost a whisper, like the breeze that shook the dead blossoms."
    --"The Return of the Thin White Duke"

The poem selections bestrewn throughout the collection are almost hard to differentiate. Their physical composition (and sometimes meter) more than their content sets them apart. Imagery, story, and place abound in the poems as well as the shorts, one poem--"In Relig Odhráin"--even started out to be a short, but the meter worked its way in and the result is captivating. In his introduction, Gaiman refers to the poems as "bonuses." They are indeed.

While I loved reading each and every entry in this collection, and especially the Introduction--do NOT skip the introduction--among my favorites were three entries and each a favorite for different reasons.

"'And Weep, Like Alexander'" is a whimsical story of an uninventor.  I conjured Dr. Seuss as I giggled along to why we don't have jet-packs or flying cars or the Mockett Telepathic Translator. Then re-read and read aloud parts like,

"'It's all about unpicking probability threads from the fabric of creation. Which is a bit like unpicking a needle from a haystack. But they tend to be long and tangled, like spaghetti. So it's rather like having to unpick a strand of spaghetti from a haystack.'" 

And when the story ends with Obediah Polkinghorn envisioning his next uninvention, I couldn't help but start thinking about what I would want to uninvent.

"A Calendar of Tales" is made of up twelve tales, each named by the months of a year. January grabbed me immediately. While I'm a finicky science fiction reader, this short tale was everything I adore in the genre. The symbolism, the imagery, the energy of this story all made my heart speed up just a bit with enthusiasm and excitement.

Each month's tale has its own distinct flavor and color. There are pirates and ducks and the most wonderful igloo of books. There's science fiction and fantasy and adventure. It's kind of like the Hershey's Miniatures package of candy: whatever you want, it's in there. My heart fluttered as I read, "And then I crawled out, and I lay on my back on the ice and stared up at the unexpected colors of the shimmering Northern Lights, and listened to the cracks and snaps of the distant ice as an iceberg of fairy tales calved from a glacier of books on mythology."

Finally, the story that stood out to me above all others was "The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury."  This emotionally-charged tribute to the author, as well as literature in general, is brilliantly constructed to uncork a passion and exuberance in the reader, much the way a charismatic leader does in his/her followers. I silently--and then vocally--punched the words, accelerated pace, I orated the energy that pulsed from the words:

"He wrote a story about Poe, to stop Poe being forgotten, about a future where they burn books and they forget them, and in the story we are on Mars although we might as well be in Waukegan or Los Angeles, as critics, as those who would repress or forget books, as those who would take the words, all the words, dictionaries and radios full of words, as those people are walked through a house and murdered, one by one, by orangutan, by pit and pendulum, for the love of God, Montressor..."

And as the story calmly came to an end, I could think of nothing else but the fact that I would be honored, nay humbled, to be charged with remembering Neil Gaiman.

Trigger Warnings is a keeper collection. These are stories that can and should be explored and enjoyed over and over. They should be silently contemplated, read aloud and read to others. They should be coveted and shared. And they should above all be remembered.

I have often envied people discovering an author's work for the first time--the bliss that comes with reading their words and having them all be brand new. This time I'm the one experiencing that wonder and elation and I'm savoring every... single... morsel.

Trigger Warnings: Short Fictions and Disturbances is available from William Morrow tomorrow in hardcover (ISBN: 9780062330260). There is also an unabridged audio (ISBN: 9780062373687), narrated by Gaiman, from Harper Audio--I'm definitely going to seek this one out.

Wait for Signs - Craig Johnson

Wait for Signs is a collection of Craig Johnson's 12 Longmire short stories. And I want back and forth about the first line to share in this review, so I decided you're getting 3 first lines: the acknowledgements, the introduction (written by Lou Diamond Phillips) and the first story, so here you go.

First line (Acknowledgements): "After I was fortunate enough to win the Cowboys & Indians Tony Hillerman Award with 'Old Indian Trick,' the first story in this collection and the first short story I had ever written, I got the bright idea that I'd send it to the folks who subscribed to my newsletter as a free gift for the holidays."

First line (Introduction): "Tightrope."

First line (First Story--"Old Indian Trick"): "It's hard to argue with an old Indian or his tricks."

I picked up this little book with the intention of skimming through it to remind myself of these stories I've read before and read-read the couple that were new to me. But when I sat down and started the skimming part, I said, "oh, I'll just re-read this one because it was so fun." Well, I re-read them all because they are ALL so much fun. And with them came the realization that this is a book that I'll re-read many times because the stories don't lose anything on the second, third, fourth....reads. In fact, they seem to become richer.

As mentioned in the first line of the acknowledgements, the stories kick of with "Old Indian Trick," featuring Walt and Lonnie Little Bird. This story has a mystery element to it, but they don't all. What they all contain is some wisdom of humanity, some insight into the characters we love in the series, and of course, a lot of humor.

"The Ministerial Aid," the book's second story continues to leave me a bit teary-eyed when I read it, needing to go out and do something extra kind for someone. I always feel like this is the story that reminds each of us we're capable of performing miracles--regardless of our faith or lack thereof--we have that power. There are plenty of chuckles in this one, but even more food for thought.

"The Slick-Tongued Devil" follows up "The Ministerial Aid" and they have much of the same effect. Johnson, confined to the limited length of a short story, still manages to bring the Wyoming setting to life in these yarns: "A few granules of snowy sleet had swept across the ridges along the Bighorn Mountains and collected in the low spots and windward sides of the European blue sage, and on one of the escaped structural limbs of the sweat lodge, a great horned owl sat with his back to me."

If you haven't read the series yet, these stories are so enjoyable and heart-warming.  If you have read the series, you get some background we don't read about in the novels. These two stories bring us a bit closer to Walt and the relationship he had with his wife, Martha.

The fourth story "Fire Bird" features one of my series favorites, Lucien Connally, while "Unbalanced" introduces a nameless young woman who never appears in the novels. Both stories remind us a little about the value of family...and friends.

The sixth and seventh stories, "Several Stations" and "High Holidays," show our fearless sheriff dealing with motorists in his kindly--and intuitive--manners. We see the beauty of Johnson's language at work with descriptions like, "The highway patrol had closed the interstate and the driver of the big eighteen-wheeler had negotiated the off-ramp but had only gotten as far as the first turn on the Durant county road before he slid off and slowly rolled the truck over like an apatosaurus looking to make a giant snow angel."

"Toys for Tots" is still probably my all-time favorite of the Longmire short stories. The relationship between Walt and Cady plays out; Walt's extra-large sized compassion is front and center; and Johnson is in top form with the humor. The stories often contain little trivia facts, much like the ones Walt can rattle off in odd situations, and this one provides a little background on the Toys for Tots organization.

"Divorce Horse" takes readers to Memorial Day and a missing sorrel while Walt and Cady play out a friendly, gender-based wager. Johnson's gift for creating vivid images comes alive as he describes an Indian relay race: "The men were painted and so were their mounts. One of the beauties of the sport was the pageantry--some of the riders were in full warbonnets, some in shaman headdresses, the riders and their ponies resplendent in team colors, the designs reflecting the lines, spots, handprints, and lightning bolts recorded in the old Indian ledger drawings."

While Henry Standing Bear appears in several stories, he is prominently featured in "Thankstaking." This story is so rich in meaning, it probably requires several readings to truly grasp it all. The implications of the past, the possibilities of the future and the importance of the present all converge on relationships in this tale of cultures.

"Messenger" came out last year as an ebook story centered around a port-a-john and an owl. With Walt, Vic, Henry and a group of bears, you know you're in for a wild ride.  Vic's wit is in high form--when the trio comes across a ranger sitting on top of a port-a-john with a family of bears rustling around it, she asks the ranger, "Hey, Chuck, what were you doing, looking for a Porta Potty that was just right?" And the madcap adventure contained in this story's 30 pages is one you can only fathom in Absaroka County. And contrasting the humorous element is the respect of Indian lore.

The book concludes on a new story, "Petunia, Bandit Queen of the Bighorns." Santiago Saizarbitoria features prominently in this story of a renegade sheep. The presence of Saizarbitoria opens up the opportunity for Walt to share some factoids about the Basque, to which Santiago wants to know, "'Do you really sit around and memorize that stuff?'"

This beautiful little book is a gem. The pages inside are priceless stories of love, relationships, humanity and nature. They are stories to read again and again--especially when you need your faith in people renewed or if you just need a good laugh. I can see this collection as a great introduction to the series for new-comers, and devout fans will definitely want this jewel of the Bighorns for their libraries. As for me, I'm going to make it a yearly holiday tradition to revisit the stories. Re-reading them brought me a warm, fuzzy feeling, which is always a plus in the cold NE Ohio winters.

It's extremely rare for me to suggest to people, "you should definitely sign up for this author's newsletter." But I do that regularly with Craig Johnson. The reason? Each newsletter includes a little anecdote with Craig's wisdom and humor. It's like a smidgeon story and a ray of sunshine in my email box. And then of course, there's the annual Christmas short story. So I encourage you to check out his website, and on the Contact tab, you'll find directions for how to receive his updates...his Post-its!

Wait for Signs is available today in hardcover (ISBN: 978-0525427919)--it's a small book, like Spirit of Steamboat (which comes out in paperback this week, too, by the way), so it would make a nice stocking stuffer if you want to share the Longmire love this holiday season. But for all my fellow audiobook fans who know how AMAZING George Guidall is at narrating this series, there's an audiobook version as well from Recorded Books! I really can't wait to hear him read these stories. Regardless of your preferred format, I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I did, whether it's your first time reading them or your fourth, fifth, sixth....

Country Hardball - Steve Weddle

First line (of the first story): "'What happened to your face?'"

Country Hardball is a wonderful collection of short stories all revolving around the same small Arkansas town. While the stories link together like puzzle pieces of the town, each story is its own gem, sparkling in its depiction of the characters and events. 

Weddle's illumination of how single events touch everyone in a small town becomes brighter and brighter as each story makes its contribution to the whole. The links between the stories create a feeling of walking down the town's main street, looking in different windows, those windows where the light is on for us. But more than seeing into homes, we see into lives, into hearts.

Alternating the perspective of the stories, Weddle brings out the flavor of the small southern town with language, dialect, biases, and other atmospheric elements. His descriptions can be at turns heart-wrenching:

"The wounded you hold, chest tight in a flatbed truck under a starpricked sky to a safe house in Rosas. Handing over a child filled with horror, handing over an eternal burden. The family unable to move on. To grieve. A wound that never heals. A corpse you can never bury. Handing them back a fragment. The ones left charred, falling apart like last night's firewood. The light behind their eyes burned into graying ash as the smoke fades away." (Smoke Fades Away)

vivid:

"...showing how one life intertwines with another. House of cards. Dominos. However you want to look at it. One thing tied up into the next, pull a thread and it all falls apart...All pieces to the same puzzle, only I ain't got the front of the box to see what the picture looks like." (Country Hardball)

and even quite funny:

"Budwiser cans, stomped and squashed, spread around the yard like some drunk midgets had been playing a hopscotch game last night before the storm." (On Account)

In "Good Times Gone"  we see the town busy-body, Mrs. Richardson, who knows everything about everyone going back years and years. And the book's title story, "Country Hardball" has the local store owner who knows what the town folk buy when they come in to shop. The anonymity of big cities is no where to be found.

Simultaneously, Weddle illustrates the universality of people--their emotions, relationships and trials. No matter where you're from, we all share common links. From a man struggling to find reason amidst the irrational in "The Ravine" to a special, young boy dealing with the concept of death in "The Thing With Feathers," to a family trying to overcome obstacles to help make their son's dreams come true in "All Star."

Impressively, Weddle puts a fresh twist on the sports analogy in "Country Hardball" when he casually compares pitching to a police investigation.

A strong theme that permeates the stories is war and its effects on people. There are characters who served and saw horrors, some who served and came back different people and others who lost loved ones. But there's also the war that they live through each and every day in their small town--fighting to keep their heads above water, keep their families safe and survive the tragedies that do occur. It comes out most distinctly in "How Many Holes":

"He knew he should say something to her, something about Staci. Something about how the best thing they could do would be to get away from that life, those people. His family. Even the family he'd lost. You leave behind the living and the dead. You just do."

Country Hardball is complex, thought-provoking, and dark. Those who are especially sensitive to profanity may want to steer clear, but Weddle does an exceptional job of using that language to develop his characters, not just throwing it in for the sake of profanity.  The whole collection embodies an authenticity that will have readers convinced they're in the deep south. Take a break to look up and you'll wonder where the heck those purple hull peas are.

Country Hardball is available in hardcover (ISBN: 9781440570803) and trade paperback (ISBN: 9781440570810) from Tyrus Books.

The Messenger - Craig Johnson

First line: "It was one of those late summer days that sometimes showed up in early October after a killing frost--warm, dry, and hazy; Indian summer."

"The Messenger" is Craig Johnson's newest short story. A little snack for Walt Longmire fans to enjoy while they wait for the June release of A Serpent's Tooth. Craig describes these shorts as the "connecting tissue" between the novels. He says they are "little stories that aren't so much of a mystery but are more revealing of character."

The cells that make up the "Messenger" tissue are Walt, Vic and Henry. They've been on a fishing trip and are headed home when an SOS is issued over Walt's police radio from a game warden atop a...yes, porta-potty, or what the park literature calls "a self-contained, free-standing restroom facility." A woman is trying to use the "facility" when something attacks her. She runs from the small building only to find bears waiting outside. She and the warden scramble to escape to his truck, but are cornered by the bears; their only option is to scale the porta potty and evade the bears on its roof.

When Walt, Vic and Henry arrive, Henry coaxes the bears away with the fish they caught on their trip, but the mystery of what is IN the port-potty remains unsolved. Meanwhile the septic service workers are on their way to pump out the john for the season. With a set-up like this, you know that mayhem ensues like only Craig Johnson can create.

One of the joys I look forward to each year is picking up the newest Walt Longmire for a visit with my favorite folks in Absoroka County. So when a little slice is offered up to tide me over until the full novel arrives, I snatch the chance. While the slice is only about 20 pages of story, it's a delightful 20 pages: a great end to a day or a relaxing way to spend a lunch hour. You know those times when a little story is just perfect?

Johnson's humor, his love of the land, the rich characters; they're all present. An element of Walt's character that has been growing stronger with each book is his sense of family, and Johnson examines that a bit further in this tale as well.

With the presence of Henry, Johnson offers up a new element of Native culture; readers can't escape without a little knowledge thrown in for good measure. Fear not, it's fascinating and enlightening.

As a disclosure, I will not promise that you won't finish the story with an ear worm or that you won't be chomping at the bit to lay your hands on A Serpent's Tooth. For that latter issue, the story offers a small consolation: the first chapter to A Serpent's Tooth. Just remember, if you read it right away, you still have to wait until June for the full novel.

"The Messenger" will be available for ebook download at Amazon, B&N and iTunes this Tuesday and a part of the proceeds from story will go to the Teton Raptor Center in Wyoming. A Serpent's Tooth slithers into bookstores this June, and in May, you can get the Stay Calm, Have Courage and Wait for Signs collection of stories ("The Messenger" is not included in this collection). You can read more about the collection on Craig's website.

Now go forth and enjoy the tales from a master storyteller!

Kinsey and Me - Sue Grafton

First line: (From the first short story "Between the Sheets") "I squinted at the woman sitting across the desk from me."

KINSEY AND ME is a collection of short fiction with a few additional non-fiction/commentary articles from Sue Grafton. The first section of the book is comprised of Kinsey Millhone short stories. These have a very Sherlock Holmesian style to them. A mystery is presented and Kinsey does some investigating and begins to formulate an idea of "whodunnit." Then she reveals the culprit and the clues that led to her conclusion.

In "Between the Sheets" a woman finds her lover dead in her young daughters bed, shot to death. (The young daughter is off with her father for visitation, don't worry, nothing hinky on that front!) Instead of going to the police, the woman visits Kinsey. When Kinsey returns to the scene of the crime, the body is gone along with the evidence. She has to figure out not only whodunnit but who-movedit and where.

"Long Gone" is the second Kinsey short and in this case, Kinsey is hired to find out what happened to a man's wife. He's home with their young boys and there's no sign of the wife. When Kinsey visits her place of employment, she learns the wife made off with about $500,000 from her company. So Kinsey sets out to find exactly where the mother/wife is.

"The Parker Shotgun" finds Kinsey investigating the death of a reformed-drug-dealing-soon-to-father. The man's wife feels the cops have written the homicide off as a drug deal gone wrong and she wants his name cleared before their baby is born. He was killed with an expensive shotgun that had been given to him as a payment for drugs, and the gun is now nowhere to be found.

The fourth short featuring Kinsey is called "Non Sung Smoke." A young woman comes to Kinsey for help finding a guy she hooked up with the night before. Kinsey quickly finds the man, informs the young woman and the next day the man is on the front page of the newspaper. Dead.

A book club features into "Falling Off the Roof." When a man hires Kinsey to find out the truth about his brother's "accidental death" (he fell off the roof of his house), Kinsey winds up invited to the dead man's wife's book club, hoping to find the answer to more than the mystery in the book they are reading.

Shirese "Sis" Dunaway hires Kinsey in "A Poison That Leaves No Trace." Sis has just discovered that her estranged sister died. No one informed her that the sister was sick, and Sis thinks there's something fishy going on with her niece and the death of her sister.

"Full Circle" starts off with Kinsey witnessing a significant car accident that results in the death of a young girl. The girl's mother wants Kinsey to investigate after it's discovered that the girl died of a gunshot wound.

"A Little Missionary Work" was my favorite of the Kinsey shorts. She's hired by a famous actress when her actor husband is kidnapped. The kidnapping bears a striking resemblance to another recent kidnapping that ended in a man's murder.

The "Kinsey" section of the book ends with the short story "The Lying Game." While doing surveillance on a couple of brothers who were recently released from a murder charge on a technicality, Kinsey is discovered. To get herself out of the mess, she has to play the "lying game."

The Kinsey shorts echo other mystery plots that have played out through the ages. The content is not especially unique or special, but Kinsey fans will likely find this a satisfying fix while they wait for the next full-length adventure with the 32-year-old, female private investigator. (Kinsey impresses her age on the reader in each short. I found this rather amusing.)

The real gem of this book, however, comes in the end. First the Kinsey shorts are followed by a wonderful commentary from Grafton called "An Eye for an I: Justice, Morality, the Nature of the Hard-boiled Private Investigator,  and All that Existential Stuff." She discusses the evolution of the PI in crime fiction. This short piece is a must-read for all crime fiction fans.

The finale of the book is a series of short stories featuring an autobiographical character named Kit Blue. In an introduction to the section, Grafton says, "Kinsey Millhone is the person I might have been had I not married young and had children." She goes on to say, "If Kinsey Millhone is my alter ego, Kit Blue is simply a younger version of me." The stories featuring Kit are a glimpse of the life Grafton experienced growing up with alcoholic parents. This section of the book is raw, real and revealing. Sue Grafton swallows two jiggers of courage and lets the world in on her personal experience. You can't help but be moved.

KINSEY AND ME is available today in hardcover (ISBN: 9780399163838) from Putnam. There is also an unabridged audiobook version (ISBN: 9781611761573) from Penguin Audio narrated by Judy Kaye.

SCAR TISSUE - Marcus Sakey

We're going to play like we're in college and start the weekend early. Didn't you all do that? Thursday was the unofficial night at the bar?  Well, when I told Marcus we were going to celebrate him at the blog, he said, "all right! Close all the schools and open the bars." I originally told him "Marcus week," but this is actually going to be more of a Marcus week-end. I think he'd approve. We can celebrate a little grander since we won't have to be at work on Saturday or Sunday.

Anyway, the reason that we're celebrating is two-fold. First I got my act together and interviewed this phenomenal writer and second he put his short stories together in an e-book anthology. Usually I talk about audiobooks on Thursday, and next week I will be back to audiobooks, but this week I'm going to talk about Marcus e-book. More on that in a couple paragraphs. First I want to do a little introduction.

Most of you know I'm a fan of Marcus Sakey's crime novels. You can see my rave reviews of THE BLADE ITSELF, GOOD PEOPLE, and THE AMATEURS for more on those. And incidentally, THE AMATEURS was just nominated for Best Novel in the 2010 Crimespree Awards. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Marcus, allow me.  Marcus is originally from Michigan but resides presently in Chicago with his wife g.g. Before turning to crime writing, Marcus studied the craft in his position in advertising. He recently completed a climb of Mt. Rainier, so when he says he loves traveling, "especially if there's a chance of hurting myself" you know that's true. He also claims to be a great cook, but since I've not experienced it, I can't speak to that personally. I have had the opportunity to meet Marcus on several occasions and hear different panels he's spoken on, and I can say personally that he's an exceptionally rare kind of person. He's genuine and kind and funny. He's also one of the most intelligent people I know. Obviously, I highly admire this man and am very excited to dedicate the next few days to him and his writing here on the blog. I won't say too much more about Marcus now since we'll have a couple of days of interview, but what I am going to do today is review his short story anthology SCAR TISSUE.

(Revert back to more formal mode)

Sakey explains at the beginning of SCAR TISSUE that he's been asked to write short stories on different occasions but they don't end up having a very long life, as opposed to the novels. So, he put this anthology together, not to make money but rather to breathe life back into these stories that he really likes and is proud of.

There are seven individual stories, plus some bonus material from his novels PLUS a sneak peak of the new novel that isn't due out until next summer.

I don't real a lot of short fiction and it isn't because I don't like it. I'm just not very good about making time for it. Reading this collection reminded me how powerful a short story can be. Sakey takes grand themes and idea and compresses them into several pages, so every sentence, every word matters. What's more, Sakey is a master at finding not just the right words but extraordinary words. His images are vivid and sometimes heart-wrenching:

"Everyone talks about how a kid changes you. How there's this whole sense of wonder, like, I don't know, like you woke up and could see colors that hadn't been there yesterday. Everything is still the way it was, bit it all looks different." (The Days When You Were Anything Else)

"I need a different sort of confession booth. So instead of a kneeling pad, I have a ladder-back chair with a broken slat. Instead of a choir, I've got Etta and Billie and Dinah keeping me company, the radio turned to blues, the only station I get. There's still a screen separating me from my confessor, but this one shows the keystrokes as I type." (No One)

In each story Sakey creates rich, distinct characters. They aren't characters every reader would instinctively know and understand, but through their creation, every reader can connect with them. In "The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away" Sakey takes a unique twist and writes in second person. The character is a young male serving in the military; can't get much different from me than that. However, his second person point of view and lines like

"But walking around the Stryker that will be yours, the one you share will share with ten other men, the one in which you will serve your country, it doesn't matter. You run your hands gently along the armor."

pulled me right into the role of young male in the military. I could feel what Nick felt and identify with Nick. And at the conclusion of that story, it took me a minute to recover; I had to step back out of that character after I had been pulled so firmly into it. But when I stepped out, Nick kept a little piece of my heart. It doesn't surprise me in the least that the International Thriller Writers named it one of the best short stories of 2009 and that it was nominated for a 2010 Macavity award.

In addition to giving the readers images and concepts they can relate to, Sakey also offers up new ways to look at ideas. One of the most intense images for me came from "The Days When You Were Anything Else":

"She turned to take the locket from the bedside table. Dangled it from her right hand and used her left to open it. Inside were two pieces of tan paper, cut to ovals and glued in place. Us. On the left, her thumbprint; on the right, mine. Whorls and spirals marked in black ink, two one-of-a-kind."

That image alone is intense, but the intensity is ramped up when the reader knows that the narrator is a thief. Fingerprints are the identifier that can imprison him. And these do imprison him, just in a utopia as opposed to a hell hole.

Every reader brings personal experiences to their reading interpretations. I found my personal experiences adding to my enjoyment of "Cobalt," which Sakey wrote as a reaction to his personal experiences running a web and graphic design shop.

Each of the seven entries in this anthology is a strong representation of Sakey's talent. Their uniqueness makes each story a fresh experience. Sometimes I laughed, sometimes my heart ached, sometimes anger possessed me; isn't that what great story telling is? Evoking emotion? Even now, days after finishing the last story, I find myself day dreaming of monkeys or a Ford Bronco or a bridge, and I'll always remember a locket with fingerprints tucked safely inside.

If you've experienced Marcus Sakey's work before, you will definitely want to get a copy of this anthology. If you haven't experienced his work yet, this is a great opportunity to be introduced to it. As I mentioned, it's available as an ebook either through Amazon for the Kindle or at Smashwords for anyone else. You can buy the whole anthology ($2.99) or buy the stories individually ($.99/ea). And if you hold tight for our interview, you may just find yourself a special surprise as well.

And before I wrap up this post, I neglected to mention a project that Hilary Davidson was encouraging folks to participate in earlier this summer. She was encouraging it for a month, but I think it's something we can all be thinking about anytime, and that's sharing your opinions with others on what you read. I don't consciously think to talk about it because I simply do it every day. And not everyone needs to have a blog, but when you really enjoy someone's work, first and foremost the author's enjoy knowing. Let them know! And there are all kinds of ways you can share your thoughts with others as well. Leave a little review at Amazon - it doesn't have to be anything long or elaborate. Goodreads and The Library Thing are other places you can share your book thoughts with others. Tell people about it at work or family gatherings or where ever. We have so many hidden gems, like Marcus Sakey. In an age when publishing can be fickle, the way to ensure we keep our gems is to show them off! So, I say to you, GO FORTH AND TALK GOOD BOOKS! And make sure you come back tomorrow to hang out with Marcus and me, while we talks book!

Happy Reading!  
 






Technorati Tags: Marcus Sakey, review, short stories

A MUST Read!

Ok all my crime fiction buffs out there. I have a short story that you absolutely have to check out. My friend Naomi wrote it and I am so incredibly proud of her. She titled it "The Winter of My Discontent." It's posted over at A Twist of Noir. And I was riveted by it. Her word choice creates an incredible setting. I felt some Daniel Woodrell, some William Faulkner, some James Lee Burke. I really recommend you check it out! I do believe she has the makings of the next big thing! :)

Congratulations Naomi! I'm so proud of you!