Marc D. Goldfinger

Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon

Posted by Klaus

Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon, A Pocket Star Book published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc., New York, NY 10020 and Subterranean Press, PO Box 190106, Burton MI 48519 www.subterraneanpress.com

Zephyr, Alabama is a small town where Cory Mackenson grew up in the early 60’s. His father, Tom, was a milkman and sometimes Cory would ride with his dad early in the morning and help drop off the full bottles of milk and cream and pick up the empties to bring back to the dairy where the bottles would be washed and sterilized and readied to be filled again.

I remember those days myself because, at my house in North Arlington, New Jersey, we had an insulated box where the bottles would go when we finished the milk and then, in the morning, I would go out and get the fresh bottles of milk, sweating in the early morn, and bring them in the house. Those were the days before the big box supermarkets opened up, putting all the mom and pop grocery stores out of business.

The small dairies went down too because everyone bought their milk in those big box supermarkets with the angry lights where the people behind the cash registers would ring up our orders and take our money but they wouldn’t know our names. The world changed and a boy’s life isn’t the same now as it was when I was young.

Cory was out on an early morning run with his dad on a curve near Saxon’s Lake, the lake that was rumored to have no bottom, and as they went round the curve a brown car rolled across the road into the lake. The lights were off but they could see someone behind the wheel.

Cory’s dad, Tom, jumped out of the milk truck, dove into the Saxon’s Lake to save the guy and when he got to the car he looked in and the man’s face was all battered and bruised and he was handcuffed to the steering wheel. There was nothing he could do but he knew that vision would haunt him the rest of his life.

However, there were answers to be found and I dare not spoil the world you will enter when you travel to Zephyr. It becomes your town and your life. When Cory sees the look on his dad’s face as he comes out of the water, he knows that a major, life-changing event has taken place.

This book is one of the most wonderful stories I have ever read. Robert R. McCammon has that special touch with words—he brought me back in time and I felt that I was living this story. All the different issues that I remember from my childhood such as segregation, bullying, long exciting bicycle rides, events that took place in my place of worship and so much more were magically brought back to me as I read the adventures of Cory Mackenson in the small town where he grew up.

The mixture of events that take place touched me personally; the loss of a young friend; the mom and pop grocery store my father owned in Newark, New Jersey, where all the customers were Black (we used the word Negro back then) and the different lifestyles I encountered when I worked in my dad’s store.

In Boy’s Life, when school ended for the summer the warm lazy adventurous days ahead stretched infinitely into the future. Robert R. McCammon, the writer, actually made me feel like I was Cory and was re-living my childhood through his words. McCammon has written many books that insert the reader into his world. He’s truly a great writer.

Is Boy’s Life McCammon’s best book? Some say so because it is a book that many of us who are still alive can repeat our own young days and the summers that would never end.

There is so much I want to say about this wonderful book but I don’t want to spoil the story for you and reveal the life of the town of Zephyr, on one side of the river, and the magical Blacktown, on the other side of the river that cuts through the towns and divides them into two.

What’s in the river that scares the folks so much? The Lady, the matriarch of Blacktown is more than a century old and no one dares cross her unless they want to be haunted. Yet The Lady is also a healer and peacekeeper and plays a large part of the life of Cory Mackenson.

And no good mystery river could be complete without its resident water monster, which is fed raw meat by the folks of Blacktown every year on Good Friday.

This book was written over 20 years ago but it is still available in stores and various websites for a reasonable amount of money—both in hard cover and pocket book editions. I bought mine in the used book department of Harvard Book Store for only $3.50.

There are not many adventures that cost so little and mean so much. I highly recommend this book. If you read it you’ll be glad you did and you will certainly seek out other books by Robert J. McCammon. Such as McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series.

McCammon’s Matthew Corbett series is into it’s 6th book now and he hasn’t lost his touch even though he’s now close to my age. I have all six of those books and I’m waiting for the last two to bring closure to the riveting adventures of Matthew Corbett in the 17th century.

This is not a Matthew Corbett review, so I shall end by speaking of the magic of Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon and the fact that, of all the multiple tales within this book, Mr. McCammon is able to tie the knots of each one and I was left more than satisfied. I believe you will be overjoyed that you chose to read Boy’s Life.

The New Prohibition

Posted by Klaus

I’ve been reading articles in the Boston Globe about the massive increase in overdoses almost every day. Then I found myself reading an article about the giant influx of fentanyl with machines to convert it into pills identical to pharmaceuticals from China.  Everybody used to blame Mexico; everybody blames prescription pills that are diverted; everyone blames the people with the illness of addiction.

I find it very sad that Prohibition has reared its head again, this time in the form of opiates, not alcohol.  I also, as a retired Substance Use Disorder Counselor who spent 30 years addicted to heroin, see that this situation is not going to go away any time soon.  It seems to have an exponential growth over the years since I started using in 1962.  Yes, I’m 70 years old and lucky to be here.

The horror of people dying before their time is caused by the powerful illness of addiction, which was unfortunately criminalized by Harry Anslinger after Prohibition was repealed.  Anslinger inherited a powerful agency as Prohibition was overturned and decided to use that agency to criminalize drugs.  Since then many people have been hurt by the actions of powerful people with similar misguided notions.

The people who use drugs are not going away any time soon. As long as there is such a massive money making potential for people who sell the drugs–they are not going away either.  I’m not talking about the small time dealers who just sell the drugs to cover the cost of their own habits.  I’m talking about the Corporate Machine that sells drugs for profit.

And the poor neighborhoods to which people from the suburbs flock to in order to cop–well, we all know that story.  I lived it.

Addiction needs to be medically treated, not criminalized.  That means, yes I’m going to say the word, legalization with controls. That is a solution which will help those of our loved ones, sick with this illness, to stay alive.  In some places, like Northwest Canada, they actually have places where people can go and shoot up under medical supervision.  The operation is called InSite, which currently serves 600 people a day.

In Vancouver there is a place called Crosstown Clinic where people with Substance Use Disorder go, not only to shoot up under medical supervision, but purchase the narcotic in a pharmaceutically measured dose. Crosstown Clinic has approximately 110 participants in their program.

Programs like this exist in Britain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. It appears that the United States is behind the treatment curve when it comes to opiate addiction.  

Even during the Viet Nam era, heroin poured into the United States interred with the bodies of the brave men who gave their lives fighting a terrible war.  People of power were behind that operation because there was big money in it.  Some say the CIA was involved–but for me, that’s just hearsay.  Some powerful people were involved.

The use of these drugs has grown exponentially.  Instead of talking about the sorrow of it all, it is time for our compassion to change the laws and the way we react to addiction.  We need to take the big money out of selling drugs and control the purity of the drug by legalizing it.  When I go to a pharmacy, I know that what I’m getting is what it says on the prescription. It is the actual dose.  Not so, for drugs sold by the greedy mobs from Mexico, China, South America, and the United States; they don’t care if the dose is a little off.  But that tiny variation in the dose makes the difference between getting high and dying.

I don’t know what else to say.  I’m glad I survived to tell the tale.  I still have the illness but it is being treated by professionals trained in the field of addiction.  All addicts, even drug counselors who have the disease, need to have ongoing treatment.  I know.

I’m not only a drug counselor; I’m also a client.

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuval

Posted by Klaus

Sleeping Giants; by Sylvain Neuval; Published by Penguin Random House LLC, New York, N.Y. in 2016; A Series:The Themis Files; Book 1. www.randomhousebooks.com

Rose Franklin is riding her bicycle in her hometown in Deadwood, South Dakota when, as far as Rose is concerned, the world ends. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole; its walls are glowing and the firemen who came to save her are staring down into the hole.

What they see is a little girl at the bottom of a hole lying in a giant hand. The story begins 17 years later. The little girl is grown up now and she is known as Dr. Rose Franklin, an extremely bright physicist who is being interviewed for an unusual job by a powerful employer.

Before Sylvain Neuval started this book he built a giant alien robot in a tale specifically designed for his son. So the story began with two children and one very motivated adult with an extremely varied background. Much like the characters in Sleeping Giants.

The book was originally rejected several times, but Sylvain Neuval persevered. When he sent his manuscript to Kirkus for a review he received an ecstatic review. All of a sudden, he had an agent and Sony was optioning book one of The Themis Files for a movie.

This young novelist was born in Quebec, dropped out of high school and has worked an amazing number of jobs. One of them was in an ice cream shop in California, which endeared him to my heart because that was one of my many jobs. Sylvain sold furniture, went back to school and taught linguistics in India and has worked as a software engineer; is also a certified translator and received his PHD in Linguistics from the University of Chicago.

Well, that’s enough about him. I started reading Sleeping Giants and couldn’t put it down. I finished it in less than a day and a half and just sat there stunned by the ending—about which you couldn’t pay me to give you a clue. Let it be said that there are two more books coming; the next book will be called Waking Gods and is due out in 2017.

Sleeping Giants is set up as a series of interviews with the main characters by CIA type individuals who are privy to information that most people are not. One individual is CW3 Kara Resnick, United States Army, who is a top-notch helicopter pilot.

At the Coleman Army Airfield in Mannheim, Germany, an unknown interviewer talks to Kara about an incident that occurred when she and her co-pilot CW Mitchell were drifting over Syria to try and investigate suspected nuclear development sites. All of a sudden, they noticed light below them, which was unusual in itself because it was farmland.

Then all engines went full stop and for a moment all was peaceful and then they fell into what was once a field. What appears to have brought them down was another piece of the body that the original hand was a part. Secrecy was wrapped as tight as it could be and the piece was shipped back to an unknown giant chamber where the hand was resting.

I found myself reading interview after interview. Things developed and events took place that surprised me and pulled my interest into the story in such a way that I became part of the enterprise. I’m not going to reveal those events because I don’t want to throw spoilers at you.

This book is one of the most dynamic adventures I have ever read. Sylvain Neuvel is terrific and I can’t wait until Waking Gods is released. I always worry when I begin an exciting trilogy at my tender age of 70 because I want to be there when the next book comes out. At this time Sylvain Neuvel plans to complete The Themis Files in three books.

He has a beautiful website that goes with the book and I encourage anyone who has interest in the book to peruse it. It is www.themisfiles.com/ and you will enter the strange world of Sylvain Neuval.

There are people who compare this book to World War Z and The Martian. The only thing this book has in common with World War Z is the interview style. It’s so much better than World War Z—I couldn’t even finish that book. I loved The Martian, to tell the truth, but Sleeping Giants has a magic that goes beyond Mars. It really does. They have the book at Harvard Square Books, and you can get it on Amazon too but if you buy it on Amazon, go to Amazon UK and see if they still have it in stock—the European dust jacket is killer.

A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar

Posted by Klaus

A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar; published by Melville House Publishing, 46 John Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 & 8 Blackwood Mews, Islington, London N4 2BT—mphbooks.com face.com/mhpbooks @melvillehouse—

A Man Lies Dreaming is an amazing alternate history book written by Lavie Tidhar, the author of The Violent Century and Osama. He is a past winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award for Best novel. Lavie Tidhar grew up in a Kibbutz in Israel and in South Africa and currently lives in London.

In A Man Lies Dreaming, the man Wolf is a down and out private eye who was once the most powerful man in Germany. He was known for his dynamic speaking ability, whipping crowds into a frenzy while surrounded by his infamous Black Shirts.

His life has changed. Wolf works out of a shabby office in 1939 and still hates the Jews. It irks him that sometimes he has to work for them and wishes they had all remained in Germany, a country where most of the Jewish people are imprisoned and exterminated in concentration camps.

The story also involves a man named Shomer, a Jewish man who is in one of the German camps. He tells his story of horror where 9 to 12 people sleep on wooden pallets the guards call bunks, and line up at 4 a.m. every morning to wait two hours for the prisoner count. Then they are allowed to go to the latrine where another prisoner times them while they are relieving themselves.

The horror of the camps is illustrated in Shomer’s diary. Ironically Wolf keeps a diary too. In the beginning Wolf is hired by Isabella Rubenstein to find her missing sister by the name of Judith. Her father had arranged to have Judith smuggled out of Germany but something went wrong.

Back in those days it was not surprising for plans to fall apart. At first Wolf says that he does not work for Jews. But Isabella reminds him that now he has no choice in the matter, while she puts an envelope of money on his desk. Wolf takes the money and consummates the deal.

Wolf works out of an office in a desolate neighborhood filled with low-life crime. When he goes out the door of his building, whores solicit him constantly. He knows many of them are Jewish; he sees blue numbers on their arms.

Wolf constantly finds himself working for the very people he hated. Were it not for the Fall in Germany, he would still be in power. But now Germany is controlled by the communists, many of whom are Jewish. The world has changed for Wolf and his henchmen.

A Man Lies Dreaming is a book of a world inscribed by irony. While Wolf is violated by the people he hates, Shomer dreams of freedom in the camp.

In the middle of the night, Shomer wakes to relieve himself in the bucket, and as he does a little of the liquid seeps over the edge. Shomer knows it is his bad luck to have to dump the bucket; the man who fills it to the brim is the man who must empty it. He lifts the heavy bucket and takes it out of the dorm, the liquid splashing on his dirty bare feet. He dumps it and then brings it back in and crawls onto the bunk filled with other sleeping men. It takes a while before he sleeps; it will be time for roll call any minute.

Wolf, after being accused falsely of the murder of a whore, is released by one his old comrades who wishes to employ him. They remember the days when people hid when the name of the Wolf was mentioned. They called him “the Drummer” because of the way he pounded the podium as he spoke, his voice rising, spittle flying from his mouth, as he whipped the crowd to a frenzy.

Those days are past him now. He is nobody.

Lavie Tidhar creates an amazing world that could have been, but wasn’t. There are things taking place in this story that create a reality that is true even today. While it is a past that never took place, at the same time, it did take place in another form. Tidhar is a writer that commands the page and when you read his book, his world becomes yours.

I wish I could say more but I don’t want to spoil the story for you. This book is not for the faint of heart. Lavie Tidhar spins a tale of magic and shows the human condition for what it is. In a book that seems impossible, the dark fantasy becomes real.

Lavie Tidhar is a writer from Israel who won the World Fantasy Award in 2012 for his imaginative book called Osama, which is still available. His history bending writing is totally unique.

Rachel Rising by Terry Moore

Posted by Klaus

Rachel Rising by Terry Moore; Published by Abstract Studio, Box 271487, Houston, TX,77277

Imagine, if you can, digging yourself out of a grave in the ground, and not having any memory of how you wound up there or of who you really are.

Rachel Rising is an amazing tale, but I really did not realize it at first.  Let me clarify. We are talking about a graphic novel, drawn and written by Terry Moore.

You see, comics are so short and they come out every two months, so they can be difficult to follow.  Rachel Rising will be concluded with the 42nd issue, so there is a great deal of story to follow. It is complex, and I found myself, once I started buying trades 1—5, of which there will be 7 when the tale is complete, reading the story and flipping back through the pages because an event was occurring that triggered remembrances of something that happened much earlier. There are 6 individual comics in a trade.

I’m ashamed to admit that I started buying the single comics in the beginning and discontinued reading them at around issue 11.  However, if I had been able to conveniently flip back to earlier comics and reread certain sections, I would never have discontinued the series.

Rachel Rising is a wonderfully complex, detailed adventure that must be read in large chunks at a time.  I’m a writer and I remembered how wonderful were Strangers In Paradise and Echo, also by Terry Moore, so I decided to give Rachel Rising another chance.  When I bought and read the 5 trade paperbacks altogether, with total enjoyment, I was amazed. Terry Moore has outdone himself. The story is carefully plotted and drawn and Terry didn’t miss a trick.

The story takes place in a town called Manson, which has a history of conspiring against women of nature. Many were tortured and hung. But it is now present day, and the worm has turned, so to speak.

Rachel Rising is populated by a group of unique characters. There are the women who were hung and have come back, Rachel being one of them. Her friends are also unique.

Aunt Johnny is an undertaker and happily committed, in a lesbian relationship.

Then there is Doctor Siemen, who keeps company with his wife and claims she is agoraphobic. Actually, she doesn’t go out because she is quite dead.

The women of the past and present, and a killer little girl named Zoe, attempt to set things right in Manson. Justice must be done. This story has ghosts, dire wolves, a dog that becomes possessed with the spirit of Aunt Johnny, and an active mortuary. There is also a priest who, well, you’ll see.

Rachel Rises and hits the road, picked up by a Good Samaritan who is quite concerned about her state of being. She looks awful good for someone who spent 3 days in a shallow grave.

The first thing she does is go home and take a shower and then, at the sink she coughs up pieces of earth and notices a bruise around the front of her neck, like a rope necklace.

Then, shortly after a quick stop at the local car repair shop, Rachel drops in on at Aunt Johnny at the mortuary. At first Johnny doesn’t recognize Rachel.

Then Rachel gets Aunt Johnny to take a break and go with her to the gravesite. Aunt Johnny jumps into the grave and calls out Rachel’s name and Rachel says, “I’m here,” and finally Aunt Johnny recognizes her, in some sense of the word.

Then Rachel goes to a bar looking for her friend Jet, and has an encounter of the fourth kind with a woman who is going to be married soon, or so she thinks.

Rachel lays hands on her and sees her future and it is dark indeed. Rachel gives her and her husband to be some advice that makes the worms turn. All of this takes place within the first chapter of book one with much more than half of the book to go.

As I said, there will be 7 books in all, or 42 comics, if you choose to buy them that way. Comic #1 sells for about $100 now because of the popularity of the story, and the rumor that the story has been optioned for a television show.

But, by all means, read the comic books first. By the time you read this, all the later issue comics will be out and the latter ones you can pick up for a normal price. However, I recommend buying the trade paper backs which contain approximately 6 comics in each trade.

If you really like this story, and I think you will, there will be a special hardcover Black Edition that will be limited to 750 signed and numbered copies. It is due to come out in July, and if you pre-order, you will get a sketch with the book signature. I have Terry Moore’s hardcover book of the story called Echo which now sells on Ebay for $199. It originally cost $75. I’m not going to go into the story of Echo, but trade paperbacks are available also from Abstract Studios, on the Internet or your local comic shop. Echo is extremely well done.

Rachel has risen and she is not the only one come back to avenge the innocent women who were killed by the gentle folk of Manson. A great yarn which is illustrated and penned by Terry Moore. Terry’s a nice guy too. It is amazing what must be going on in his head. I wouldn’t want to go there by myself.

Fellside by M. R. Carey

Posted by Klaus

Fellside by M. R. Carey, published by Orbit, an Imprint of Hachette Book Group, www.orbitbooks.net, April, 2016

Fellside is a women’s prison. If you have ever been in a prison, you’ll know that ghosts roam the tiers and the smell of fear and old sweat socks drifts up your nostrils. I hope you have never experienced this but, in this book, M. R. Carey brings you into the prison and the minds of lost souls waiting for the date of release, which may be the date of death, whichever comes first.

Jess Moulson is convicted of murder. She doesn’t remember much, just a big fire that burnt her apartment and there was someone else who died in the fire. It was a ten year old child named Alex. Everyone, including Jess, thinks she started the fire in a heroin induced nod and insisting on pleading guilty was the only thing Jess could do. Her boyfriend, John Street, was the guy who turned her on to heroin. He had other secrets too.

 

Jess thought she deserved a death sentence and decided to administer it to herself through a hunger strike. For a while it looks like she will be successful and the prisoners cheer her on. Nobody likes a child killer. One of the leaders of a drug ring takes bets on her death.

But as the end draws near, Jess finds herself in what seems like a dream world where she meets Alex, the boy who died in the fire. Is he really a boy? He convinces Jess that his death was not her fault.

Fellside is a spook show where there are ghosts, drug deals, psycho-bullies and crooked guards. It appears that everyone is against Jess. In the middle of all this terror, Jess insists on maintaining her position of personal justice and responsibility.

In prison there are many junkies and for the junk to get in, pipelines of travel are necessary. When an act of violence destroys a vital link in the drug train only a doctor will do, especially if he has secrets to protect, as Dr. Salazar, nick-named Sally, one of the erstwhile good guys, has a secret that could cost him everything. Jess’s one protector in the prison is compromised.

But is the doctor Jess’s only protector? As Jess and Alex travel through the dreams of inmates at night, they learn about the secrets of the dreamers, and discover the truth about Alex, who is her tour guide to the dreamworld on the edge of death.

Jess carries out a one woman struggle against the bullies who run the prison and the drug runners who come up with a new scheme that involves Jess to bring drugs into the prison. Jess’s knowledge and her sense of responsibility and justice put her in the ring of danger and even the ghosts appear to be limited in power.

As the story unravels, Jess becomes seduced by the dream world and eventually this brings her to fight to uncover the true horror that has made Jess appear guilty. She fights to bring the truth into the light, even if it jeopardizes her own freedom.

Who is guilty? Who is innocent? The web of intrigue spins from dream to reality and brings them together in such a way that the spirit world retaliates against those who hurt the vulnerable and others fight to retain their sanity in a world that will never look the same again.

Fellside is a story that will keep you guessing as you walk the tiers and the work rooms of the prison of the same name. In prison, everyone is guilty—with the exception of the innocent. M. R. Carey, who first made his name writing comic books under the name Mike Carey, has created a world of steel and stone where, once you go in, you may never be free again. He has written many books under the name of Mike Carey.

M. R. Carey’s other book under this name is called The Girl With All The Gifts and this book, by the same publisher, is now being made into a movie that is in actual production. The Girl With All The Gifts is a dystopian tale about a young girl in a very special school with locked doors and cement walls. What is it about the children in this school that makes the adults shudder with fear, especially when the young girl named Melanie says in jest, “Don’t be afraid, I won’t bite!”
But back to Fellside, a different type of story in a different type of world. M. R. Carey is one talent, not only to be watched, but to be read. It’s a tough book to put down once you cross into the prison world of Jess Moulton and Alex, who is not what he seems to be.

It would be no surprise if Fellside was optioned for the big screen in the near future.

 

Fellside has just been released for the book buying public and is available, or will be very soon, on line or at The Harvard Bookstore, a great independent bookstore near the center of Harvard Square.

Trump or Drumpf, Whoever He Thought He Was

Posted by Klaus

America a country of immigrants with the exception of the Indians,
An indigenous race of color that a Trump with a red cock of hair
Would hate anyway; he would give them blankets filled with
Smallpox and deny it; if women complained Trump would accuse
The women of bleeding; Trump is an abortion of a man who would
Place women behind bars if they were seeking to get rid of a baby
Seeded by a rapist; Trump was also an immigrant
But he would never admit it; how long has his family been here
Financially raping the workers of America? Trump loves the words
‘you’re fired’ if he’s the one saying them; we the people of the American
north are firing Trump from the presidency which he will never attain,
which rhymes with stain because he would stain that office with his red
cock hair and red cock face and eyes glinting of hatred at all of those
people who hate him; and also the people that love him; Trump has no
respect for anyone; he only respects money, his business, which he started
with a small loan of one million dollars. I say that with sarcasm because
Trump never fooled me; I have always thought he was a red headed jerk
Whose lips only lied when they were moving; Trump was a man who
Made a mistake when he thought he could become the president;
Any woman would be able to tell you he will never succeed because
We the people of the United States of America have Fired Trump in the name
of every man woman and child who has ever immigrated to this Indian land.

The Fireman by Joe Hill

Posted by Klaus

The Fireman by Joe Hill—to be published by William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers—May, 2016

“Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.”

Once the fire starts it’s nothing but trouble. You can spell trouble D-E-A-T-H! It really does take a Fireman to put out a fire. It also takes a nurse, one with true compassion, not faked; the children see right through faked compassion, to ease them when they’re sick.

Harper Grayson was a nurse and she worked at a school. Worked, as in once did, while the schools were still open.

Then she worked at a hospital where she could do some good, not in the way most nurses do some good but, spit spot, on the double, a diagnosis of the situation. Keeps the Fireman safe, or is it safety first for the burning pain of an appendix inside inflammation but it hasn’t burst yet.

When the burning starts, it’s a good thing to have someone owe you a favour, someone who understands what a fire hose is for.

Then, in a hospital in New Hampshire, there was a Black person named Renee Gilmonton, one of the patients accustomed to be stared at, cause how many children growing up in New Hampshire saw anyone of colour? And if you run toward somebody bursting into flames, well, that was just crazy, no? But Renee was like coal anyway and fire wasn’t going to make her any darker, was it?

Renee had a book store before the dragon scale sparkled her neck, never made much money but they had hellava poetry slams there every week. She loved books and, with her, brought the book called The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Harper asked her why she brought such a short book about a tragedy just waiting to happen and Renee might have said, “Well you’re not going to want to start to read The Stand, the long version, when you might never get a chance to finish it. And we’re all on The Bridge right now anyway.” But that’s not precisely what she said, is it?

And while we’re talking about Renee, Black as coal, we could talk about the video of her, when she was reading to one of the children the child felt her get really warm and jumped away as Renee started to glow, grabbed her mint plant she came in with and started running for the exit. The video shows the whole thing while she was running out of the hospital, glowing, glowing, with eyes like death rays but the video didn’t show anything after she left the hospital and I’m not going to tell you what they found.

Harper’s not working at the hospital anymore and that doesn’t mean she’s one of the lucky ones but she could be; you can’t work at a place that blazed away, can you?

Joe Hill wrote this book, called The Fireman; that’s what I’m really talking about and when Joe writes his words take flight like musical notes with wings. It doesn’t matter if the edges of the wings are singed by flame, those words fly and they have a song of their own.

He’s special, that guy Joe Hillstrom King; that was his name once, and on his birth certificate that’s still his name. But he was a caterpillar then and he spun a cocoon and when the cocoon split open he was a bird that spoke words as beautiful as butterfly wings. Sometimes the words caught fire and that’s when the lucky reader; I say lucky reader because if you are reading one of his books or stories, you are a lucky reader alive in another world; the world that Joe Hill built—or burned, whichever you like, or maybe don’t like, but you’ll love it. This book, The Fireman is Joe’s longest book yet and that’s actually a good thing because it’s one of those books you never want to end. If you are a true reader, you know exactly what I mean.

Now Harper Grayson, in the shower, suddenly sees the Dragonscale on her body. Who wouldn’t forget to turn the shower off at a time like this? Her husband, Jakob, looks at her body and only thinks about himself. But didn’t he call her babygirl all the time? Ahh, relationships!

All that time in the hospital working, working, working, covered in Tyvek to keep out the Dragonscale, running for your life as the hospital burns, but now, pregnant and with the shower water running, her husband burns her with cold eyes. There are many people who opt out; that means suicide; that’s the nice way of saying it. Joe Hill can say it many ways; his words dance on the page and your eyes are kissed by the Dragonscale. By the way, have you examined your body yet?

Oh, but this is only a book; it’s not real. That’s the skill, the gift that Joe Hill has. He makes it real.

When you read The Fireman you will develop a relationship with Joe Hill that won’t exactly make you all warm and fuzzy, but you may burst into flame. It’s not always easy to find a Fireman when you need one.

Sometimes, in your relationships, things get strange. Like when Jakob finds out about Harper’s Dragonscale and begins to think. That’s when Harper finds out what kind of relationship she has always had with Jakob; things are not what they seem to be.

Then there are the Quarantine Patrol. There are always people who have dreamt of becoming dragon-slayers—and now they have their chance. But who are the real dragons; the people with the guns or the people with Dragonscale? And where is The Fireman when you need him?

Quite possibly in the back of the house, one would guess. And then there is Renee, running from the hospital but leaving not a trace. A crazed husband with a flapping bleeding cheek and a gun firing every which way but gun control is being able to hit your target. That’s not quite what is meant when people talk about gun control, is it?

Did you ever have a friend that turns up just when you need him? Well, The Fireman is like that; always rising just like the Phoenix. Sometimes you need a firebird to get you away from an abusive husband; any battered wife would tell you that’s true.

The book by the name of The Fireman keeps language aflame. There are a number of places to buy this wonderful book when it comes out and if you are lucky, you might get one signed by Joe Hill. Is this his best book yet? His dad, Stephen King, must be very proud. Joe’s dad is Shining! Joe Hill has given birth to a child that loves the flames. And there’s more books to come.

There was a game that they played at the King house where all the writers grew up together. There was a book on the table that had an ongoing story and the goal of every member of the family was to leave a cliffhanger that was extremely challenging for the next person to enter the kitchen. That may very well be where The Fireman came from. Ask Joe the next time he does a book reading and signing. You might be lucky and hear the truth. It’s in each of his books.

A Book Addiction

Posted by Klaus

Instead of writing a novel today I have decided to write to you. Sorry it took me so long to respond but I am basically out of sorts. The emotional windmill has taken me for quite a spin and I don’t know if it is wind-driven or driven by the demons in my mind.

Yes, I have finally gone insane. When I take off my sunglasses I give the impression of a vast emptiness, as if one was peering into a black hole in space, a dark star. Was that a reference to David Bowie? It might well be.

I feel like I fled town safely with everything intact but my mind. I am no longer looking over my shoulder; the ghosts of the past remain in the past but the ghosts of the stories in my head are closing in.

I guess that is what happens when one reaches the age of 70 and develops a full-blown book addiction. Have you ever known something but refused to acknowledge it at the same time? I guess some people call that denial. The heart is a many-tiered bastion of twist. Common sense is eliminated almost immediately upon the first beat and then it’s just blood and fire. Do you have any inkling of what I mean?

When I feel like using, dope that is, I buy a book instead to dispel the impulse. I have quite a collection, and they just keep getting better. I just finished reading Driven by Kelley Armstrong, about a pack of American werewolves. It’s a fantastic read.

Elena Michaels is the Alpha of the pack; her husband Clayton Danvers is the Beta, the enforcer of the pack rules. Katie and Logan are their children, about ten years old but already able to change at will into werewolves.

It’s a love story with bloodshed. But what romance doesn’t have a bit of bloodshed, even if it is emotional spilling? The pack rules the North American area. If a werewolf doesn’t belong to a pack, they call him a mutt. Most werewolves are males; there are very few female werewolves.

In Driven, Curtis Cain, who is from a clan of mutts, calls on the pack for help. Supernatural hunters, one of whom is a werewolf, are hunting the mutts, killing them and taking their pelts. Elena Michaels, as the Alpha of the pack, has to decide what is the right thing to do in the situation.

Even though the mutts are not too nice, and not too bright either, the pack can’t have people killing werewolves in their territory. Malcolm, a new pack member, was a big bad wolf for many years because he killed viscously indiscriminately, doesn’t think they should bother with them, after all, they are only mutts. But he has to learn, as a member of the pack, he has to follow orders or die. So the plot thickens and the hunt is on.

The author, Kelley Armstrong, is a prolific writer. Not on the level of Stephen King, but she has written many books about her world of werewolves and other supernatural beings.

Most of these books are put out by the Subterranean Press, which you can find on the Internet. I own five of the werewolf series and love every one of them. The books come in two different editions.

The classy edition is signed & numbered; signed by Kelley Armstrong and her artist Xaviere Daumarie, with beautiful pictures interspersed throughout. Then there is the regular trade edition, which is half the price but still beautiful.

Subterranean Press puts out many books by different authors. Some of my favorites are Robert McCammon, Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King, Gail Carriger, David J. Schow, another master of the macabre and Caitlin R Kiernan who is one of the darkest writers I read. It’s rumored that her book, The Drowning Girl, which was put out by Centipede Press, will be made into a movie soon.

Centipede Press is one of those special presses that create books that are wonders to behold. Their books are filled with gorgeous art and a ribbon to keep your place, and the majority of them are signed & numbered by the writers and the artists.

Then there are books published by regular presses. An interesting book I have just finished is called The Girl With All The Gifts, by M. R. Carey. This book is dystopian in nature; the world, as we know it, has ended.
A fungus has been let loose in the world. Over 95% of humanity has been infected. This is the story of those who have not been infected and how they treat those who have been infected, especially the children.

One special child is a girl named Melanie who, even though infected, acts as if she is not. How do the infected act? You’ll have to read it to find out. Let’s just say you wouldn’t want to get bitten by one.

This book is also in the process of being made into a movie. M. R. Carey, the writer, has just finished another novel called Fellside, which is the name of a prison where strange things take place. I won’t talk about that right now because, even though I have read it, Fellside won’t be released for a few months.

These books have saved me from a fate worse than death. Instead of scars from needle tracks I have a beautiful set of valuable books and a head full of stories. Books I can always sell if I choose to, but needle tracks—no resale value.

A book addiction is much healthier than being addicted to drugs, but an addiction just the same. Wouldn’t you agree?