Just came across an interesting essay from June 2012 by Matt Cheney on Robert Aickman’s story “The Stains.” It’s once of my favorite Aickman stories. Cheney gets extra points for using the word ineffable.
Month: July 2013
Big Boys Reissue
There’s a great piece on the NPR website about a reissue of one of the Big Boys’ records (article + video interview with surviving founding members Tim Kerr and Chris Gates). From March. Which is when I meant to post something about. People often overlook the March-like quality of July.
I don’t know if there was anything on the radio. NPR does stand for National Public Radio, not website with video. But that’s okay. It’s not like I ever heard their music on the radio.
Available from Light in the Attic Records.
I’ve written about the Big Boys before. And maybe I will again.
Fanciful Flight
Some time ago (maybe April 2012, because that’s the date on the web page), Liz Hand posted a link to an article about a friend of hers at the Smithsonian who has made models based on pictures of fanciful flying machines.
Looking at the models gave me ideas…I wanted to try making some myself, and wanted to use them in fiction. I filed the article away for the future. And have since used one of the aircraft and its artist in “Untitled Western Novella.” The story is set on the gulf coast of Texas in 1888. One of the artists profiled in the Smithsonian article, Charles Dellschau, was a German-born butcher who ended up in Houston, TX; he created his art-and-tales about flying machines around the time of my story.
I’ve modified his life to fit the story: his exploits were supposed to have occurred a number of years earlier than 1888.
Another Dellschau sighting occurred last week. My friend Doug Lain, he of the intriguing-sounding forthcoming novel Billy Moon, posted a link to an article on a neat blog called Messy Nessy Chic. There’s also a new book about him.
Laconic Writer 