My goal for this blog will be to discuss (mostly) short fiction of the adventurous sort: think sword and sorcery (e.g. Howard, Leiber, etc), swashbuckling (e.g. Sabatini), classic adventure (e.g. Haggard), while at the same time giving myself permission to write about whatever the hell else I want to discuss. My interests range from genre--science fiction and horror to dark fantasy--to so-called "classics" and "literary," so I might do a review of a Shakespeare play (if it has swords) followed by a Hemingway piece (if someone dies violently) then wash them both down with a weird tale from Karl Edward Wagner.
Why should you read my reviews? My hope, as far as making this blog worth your while, will be to discuss only stories that worked for me, to bust open their innards, draw out their DNA, and figure out why they worked. That means I won't be going negative, though I will be critical, asking questions regarding how an effect was achieved, how a voice articulated, or why the author included the scenes they did. My aim will be to understand, to learn from the masters.
So consider this a place to see story analysis in action with the hopes of becoming a better writer. That's my real purpose here: gaining mastery in my craft.
I can't at present promise a particular schedule for my posting. I work full time, own and manage real estate, and am working on a novel. A lot of my reading is not short fiction; most of it, actually. I read lit crit, history, novels, plays, with short fiction thrown in for leavening. I expect to retire by the end of 2023, so after that time my output should increase dramatically. To say I'm looking forward to that date would be an understatement heavy as a warhammer.
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