Andersen Prunty - Zerostrata

If you read, lets say, Bradley Sands, Carlton Mellick III, Gina Ranalli, Cameron Peirce and Anderson Prunty all at the same time, you will likely notice that there is no one way to write or define bizarro fiction. Resently, however, I realized that Prunty tends to be one my favorites of the Bizarro crowd. I think that, once a reader peels back the multiple levels of absurdity to Prunty's writing, he's working from some level of emotion or real actual humanity. In a strange way, Prunty's characters seem more human at a basic level than parody pastiche.

At least, that's how I felt after reading Zerostrata. It's a story about a guy named Hansel Nothing, who returns home after a long while. It's often referred to, throughout the story, that he previously was in hell. His mother is constantly popping pills with a cat attached to her head. His absentee father is a wannabe super hero, and his brother hardly leaves the basement. In the back of the yard, there's a tree house called "Zerostrata" -- and it comes with all the nostalgia that a childhood relic would bring with it. Along the way, Hansel meets Gretel Something (who runs through the neighborhood naked) and well, life begins to take on a new meaning. In its own special way, Zerostrata is a coming of age story. As stated earlier, once you peel back the silliness, Hansel is grappling with adulthood and what it means to be an adult. And, honestly, there's nothing bizarre about that.

Never Stops Being Alarming

... And my mother is back in the hospital again.

EDIT TO ADD: My father drove her up to Sloane last night because of coughing up blood. Now she's back home with a medication change.

EDIT TO ADD: Largely thought to be a ruptured capillary in her lungs, due to coughing. It was either that, or an infection hiding under one of her tumors. Doctors are juggling her medication...again.

Wayne Hixon -- Vampires in Devil Town

In a world where slutty vampires, paranormal romance, and Harlequin Nocturne (tm), have taken taken ownership of a lot of classic horror tropes, it's good to read Wayne Hixon and Vampires in Devil Town from Grindhouse Press. This novel returns some edginess to the concept of "vampire," and reinvents the term in an extremely fresh way.

Note: I got it for $0.99 on Kindle.

Karen Koehler -- Ouroboros

Ourboros is a tight novella that has its foot in Asian folklore in one moment, and American hitman-noir at the other. A mysterious hitman named "O" remains at the center. He's cruelly effective, partly because he's a host to a dragon-god. Of course, as noir typically goes, "O" takes on a job that turns out a little more than what it seems. However, while that aspect of the plot construction has been done before, it's a staple of the genre. Koehler excels at making it her own, which makes Ouroboros quite a unique read.

Juxtapositions

My brother has all of the artistic ability in my family, which makes me jealous. I wish I could draw. However, I have been trying to teach myself how to design book covers. Because of SEO and content mills, finding a good tutorial online is a little hard. (Sometimes, it's like finding good articles about writing: a lot of "you can do it!" fuzzy-wuzzy feel-good bullshit, but nothing telling you the actual nuts and bolts).

So, I have been relying on my training as in poetry to guide me. That may sound like fuzzy-wuzzy feel-good bullshit, but there's an actual point there. People who have extensive training in how to write contemporary prose are fo

cused more on writing sentences and paragraphs. People who have extensive training with poetry tend to think in terms of constructing resonant, striking and original concrete imagery. Two things often used in writing poetry are juxtapostion and parataxis. Simply, putting two images together and letting each other resonate off of each other. This is often seen in the "real" prosody and construction of haiku and other asian forms. So, with that in mind... here was a crack at a chapbook cover that will likely not be used. The idea was something that could go through a photocopier and be used for a side stapled pamphlet.

How To Spend A Day Not Working

Woke early. Went to my mother's. (I'm not going to get into how stressful that can be). Had no internet connection (which is okay ... as I'm there to care for my mom, not to ignore in the name of earning money). Set up my computer in the living room as my wife made lentil soup. Tried to start writing a new novella about mysterious severed body parts showing up the Jersey shore. Couldn't concentrate, because, after all, I'm not there to write, per se. Called it quits and watched this with my mom and wife (it's actualy good!):

Will I ever stop abusing parenthetical marks? (No!)

Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You

Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You is brilliant satire. Bradley Sands takes aim at the artificial construct of "masculinity" as perpetuated by the entertainment industry and does not relent. This novella is a rare piece of absurdity that remains funny on every page and in every paragraph.