A collection of short stories where the humour runs dark and the slipstream bubbles up.
...imagine if Raymond Carver called up George Saunders and Joe Lansdale, and they all went drinking with Neil Gaiman.
“… it's clear that Terlson is way ahead of the curve in terms of crafting an engaging premise that reaches for elevated territory and reinvents enduring archetypes of action and suspense.” J. Schoenfelder
"Sometimes brutal, often demanding and always complex, this novel will repay the reader who likes their assumptions challenged and is happy to walk away from a book with minor questions unanswered but the big ones definitely dealt with! It’s likely to satisfy those who enjoy Hammet and/or Philip K Dick and who like their fiction very noir indeed." Kay Sexton
"I love a novel that you can't put down, and this is one of them." L. Cihlar
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 at 07:49AM 
Another in my series of where I write. Just to clear up any confusion, the actual writing, tapping on a keyboard, is done in a much less exciting place.
And if you don't think that barren stretch of land shown above is exciting, well then you might need to read more Guy Vanderhaeghe or Richard Ford.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007 at 11:31AM 
This is a photo from the weekend - I traveled to my home town.
It's a good shot of the sort of setting that has inspired many of my stories. I write about other places, but when I first imagine my characters in a setting it is very much like the one above.
Thursday, August 30, 2007 at 03:36PM 
There's a guy I know who is a helluva writer. He has mentioned me in his blog more than once, but I don't mention him near enough.
His name is Mark Heath and he writes in one of the most challenging forms I know of: the comic strip.
As I transitioned my career from drawing pictures about stories to writing stories that hopefully evoke pictures, I landed on this art form. I learned a lot about writing in my own attempts at a comic strip. In fact, it was the comic strip that made me realize I wanted to write in the first place.
Writing a strip is incredibly demanding, not just in the day to day act of creation but in the enormous scope. The comic strip writer creates a universe for his characters, then reveals to the reader their desires, their worries, their loves, pet peeves and everything in between. As well, readers expect the strip to be funny and are an angry lot when it's not.
The kicker is you might have barely 25 words to do this in, - oh, and YOU HAVE TO DRAW THE DAMN THING!!!
Short stories and novels seem a cakewalk compared to this. I sometimes wonder if John Updike thought this as he moved from comics into novels and short stories. I know he still speaks quite highly about cartoonists - and he should.
So on the day of his birthday (okay, one day late), my hat goes off to my good friend Mr. Heath for his inspirational work. It's really quite amazing what you do with some ink squibbles and a bunch of amphibians.
Check out Spot the Frog daily
Also Spot the Frog Collections are available at Amazon and wherever fine books are sold.
I happen to know that the intro to his new collection was written by someone I know (me).
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 01:22PM 
For some odd reason (probably to do with house renovations), I didn't read many books this summer. I always have a stack that I am meaning to get to - books I have picked up, some new, some classics, that I NEED to read.
Anyway, I am finally really attacking the stack. For one reason, I love where great books take me, and how they truly enrich my life... much more than watching another episode of the Daily Show (though, I'll still do that too).
First up on the stack is Kent Haruf's book, Plainsong (nominated for the 1999 National Book Award). Quite a while back someone said my writing is similar to this book. Last night I opened it up and with barely a hiccup I ripped through a hundred pages. It is not your typical page turner, but it is the sort of atmospheric, character driven story that I love - even more so if the landscape is sparse and the skies are big. It is one of the reasons that Ford's Rock Springs is my favorite collection of short stories.
Haruf writes plain (!), straightforward sentences. And it's the sort of book where not much seems to be happening, but so much is. It is the sort of book that inspires me to get off my butt and dig into some new writing of my own - which is the main reason I am attacking the stack.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 12:26PM 
Seriously, where does this time go? It seems, as always, I have a few too many irons in the fire – but no matter, I just need to get down to smelting, or whatever it is that blacksmiths do.
In the shout category another tale of my mine found a home at the audio mag Bound Off. No word on when it will "air" but I am excited that one of their staff will be reading and recording the piece. I here certain rhythms in my head when I write and it will be interesting to see how those translate for another reader.
The story is called "Rain Day" and I gave a preview of it a few posts back.
After a summer of festivals and road trips, bathroom renovations, and days too hot to think, I am edging back into the world of writing, drawing and hopefully a lot more reading. For some reason, this summer I got very little read. I am toiling through what I call remedial Harry Potter reading (I am only on book 5 - and it is damn long). I finished Joe Lansdale's latest and loved it, though not as much as some. Besides that there have been lots of starts to books, abandoned for a movie on AMC, or a mojito on the porch with my lovely.
But no matter, the sun is setting on summer and September approaches. For me this is actually exciting, September is always the start of things for me. Time to start the new novel, time to send off the manuscript for the collection, time to write some more stories - but still time for a few more mojitos on the porch.
Salud.