Reading and Writing
Fiction: Flood
The stretch of road was flooded, rain hammered down in unrelenting sheets. Others had pulled over, turned on hazards, defeated by the storm and seeking mercy.
He and his wife agreed to push forward. Slowly they drove, water climbing by inches outside, almost reaching the windows…
Then a sudden plummet – the deep blue covering their windshield, free fall in the pit of their stomachs, nosediving into unknown depths. They clutched hands and waited for the wet to break through.
Review: The Killing Season (2016)
This Kindle Single is a gripping account of a 1975 double murder in a Colorado town and the decades it took to finally bring the killer to justice. Alex French brings a formidable clarity, not only in the depths of the personal histories but in the breadth of possible leads explored, including several other local murders and the spectre of Ted Bundy. As a result, the ending feels satisfying and hard earned, but still melancholy for all the pain it encompassed.
Fiction: A Bad Taste
He woke up far from morning, mouth parched and soured, mind spinning from a still-fading nightmare, the fever dream’s anger and adrenaline leaving him queasy.
He stumbled to the bathroom and under the harsh fluorescent light spat into the sink, seeing blood mixed with saliva, deep red and splotchy. Clots circled the water. He felt his mouth for a loose tooth, gargled to clear the last of the rot.
Returning to bed, he hit the light and saw: what he spat out wasn’t his.
Review: No Pasaran! Volume 1 (2000)
Vittorio Giardino’s Max Friedman books were among my favorites during Catalan Communications’ heyday, so it’s odd I took so long to read this. Still, better late than never…
Giardino’s art is always beautiful, a realistic ligne claire that’s both grounding and dynamic. As for the story… it’s part one of three, and there’s a lot of set-up going on, both in history and intrigue. Still, the pace is brisk and volume 2 is poised to deliver fully the goods.
Trying out a new open source social media platform. Oh, the possibilities!
Specially made for my daughter’s class Halloween party: Cthulhu, octopus men, and robed followers prostrating themselves to the Eldritch One.
Illustration commissioned by Caltafer on Fiverr.