2014 Reading List Monthly Update: February

Books Completed in February of 2014:

"Sparks-Tastic: Twenty-One Nights With Sparks in London" (Tosh Berman) 2-11-14
"Crime and Punishment" (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) 2-15-14
"Giovanni's Room" (James Baldwin) 2-16-14
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (J.K. Rowling) 2-28-13

2014 Reading List Total:

1. "Ulysses" (James Joyce) 1-17-14
2. "The Fall of the Towers" (Samuel R. Delany) 1-21-14
3. "The Weaklings (XL)" (Dennis Cooper) 1-22-14
4. "Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion" (William Blake) 1-26-14
5. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (J.K. Rowling) 1-29-14
6. "Sparks-Tastic: Twenty-One Nights With Sparks in London" (Tosh Berman) 2-11-14
7. "Crime and Punishment" (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) 2-15-14
8. "Giovanni's Room" (James Baldwin) 2-16-14
9. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (J.K. Rowling) 2-28-13

*= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

"Dune" (Frank Herbert)
"The Kreutzer Sonata" (Leo Tolstoy)

Long-delayed writing projects update

Hard to believe that it's been so long since my last update in terms of my writing projects. Maybe because I've just been too busy writing. Anyway, here goes.

 



A few days ago I finished writing my fantasy novel Metatron's Arch: A Ternion Emanation (also known as the Trinity book). It came out to a little over 1000 pages long. My plan is, over the next few months, to see if I can get any literary agents to look it over. It's written in a more mainstream style than my short stories, so hopefully it'll be more marketable. Certainly epic high fantasy is more "in" these days than Lovecraftian weird fiction (though I haven't abandoned the latter). I was careful to write this book in such a way so that, while I left a few loose threads in it in case I ever feel the itch to write a sequel, at the same time it works as a stand-alone novel. I'm trying to avoid finding myself in the same situation that George R.R. Martin is currently in, toiling away at a seemingly never-ending fantasy series with thousands of fan boys on his back, clamoring for him to hurry up and finish it. In other words, were my book to ever be published, I'd be sure that there would be no mention of a "Book One" anywhere on the cover.

Speaking of short stories, I also need to find a publisher for Autopsy of an Eldritch City: Ten Tales of Strange & Unproductive Thinking, my second collection. As of now, this book will be illustrated by my friend O.B. De Alessi: http://www.obdealessi.com/ This is the collection I finished last fall, which for some reason I forgot to mention on this blog. Its table of contents will include "The Cursed Quilts," "Tir-Na-Nog," "Iridophobia," "The Snow Globes of Patient O.T.," "The Yellow Notebook," "The Fire Sermon," "Dyad," "The Aphotic Zone," "The Demons in the Fresco," and "Planet Earth is Going to be Recycled."

My short story "The Withering Echo"  (the bonus story at the end of my 1st collection Grimoire) will be included in the upcoming anthology Mighty in Sorrow: a Tribute to David Tibet & Current 93, edited by Jordan Krall. This book is due to be published sometime this year. Here's the table of contents: http://griffinwords.com/2014/02/03/mighty-in-sorrow-table-of-contents/

and the cover:

 

 

In my last update (July of 2013), I mentioned how a remixed, rewritten version of my self-published 2006 novel Confusion was in the works. That project is now most likely abandoned.

 

So, for the future I'll be trying to get my fantasy novel and my second short story collection published. I have ideas for a few new stories that might be useable for a 3rd collection at some point in the future, and I might write those over the spring. For now I'm taking a break from novel writing, though this summer I hope to maybe start a new novel: perhaps the gay Tom Clancy book I'm always talking about.

 

I've also been writing some gay porn (erm, "erotica") as of recent, just for fun, and because it's nice to write non-horrific short stories. I might start up a separate blog for those, for the curious...

2014 Reading List Monthly Update: January

Books Completed in January of 2014:

"Ulysses" (James Joyce) 1-17-14
"The Fall of the Towers" (Samuel R. DElany) 1-21-14
"The Weaklings (XL)" (Dennis Cooper) 1-22-14
"Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion" (William Blake) 1-26-14
"Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" (J.K. Rowling) 1-29-14

2014 Reading List Total:

1. "Ulysses" (James Joyce) 1-17-14
2. "The Fall of the Towers" (Samuel R. DElany) 1-21-14
3. "The Weaklings (XL)" (Dennis Cooper) 1-22-14
4. "Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion" (William Blake) 1-26-14
5. "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" (J.K. Rowling) 1-29-14

*= book I have read at least once in the past

Currently Reading:

"Crime and Punishment" (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
"Wuthering Heights" (Emily Bronte)