Ozmentality

On Friday, August 21 author Frederic S. Durbin posted an interview with me on his weblog. You can read it here: http://fredericsdurbin.wordpress.com/ . It mostly concerns writing flash fiction, with additional observations on the writing life in general.

Check out some of Durbin's other posts while you're there: I can virtually guarantee you'll be enthralled. His own musings on life as a writer of fantasy fiction are insightful, encouraging, and often profound. His evocations of life as a boy in rural Illinois in the 1970s are every bit as fine as Bradbury's own reminiscences of growing up in that neck of the woods in the early part of the last century. You'll find observations about Tolkien, beautiful passages of nature writing (here is a man whose native love of trees and the rural countryside are equal to Tolkien's own), and lots of discoveries of the fantastic in ordinary surroundings. I  never miss one of his posts. (Incidentally, if you look in the archives of this weblog, you'll find an interview of Durbin I posted back on May 14, 2008.)

Also, you can skip on over to the online news magazine The Examiner to read a feature article by Michael Tresca on my serial Knight Terrors: The (Mis)Adventures of Smoke the Dragon here: http://www.examiner.com/x-6911-RPG-Examiner~y2009m8d16-Knight-Terrors-The-MisAdventures-of-Smoke-the-Dragon . Tresca is one of the leading reviewers on Amazon as well as being The Examiner's resident RPG expert. He is a spot-on reviewer, and if you've ever found one of his reviews helpful, please give him a vote over on Amazon.

"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" has placed in the top ten in the 2008 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll, in the category Fantasy/Science-Fiction Short Story. The image above is my virtual plaque. Thanks to all who voted! The story can be read here:  http://www.cyberwizardproductions.com/AbandonedTowers/fantasy/smoke.html

So, from your earliest memories, which book got you hooked on sci-fi, fantasy, or horror?