Mark Rigney's Blog - Posts Tagged "mark-rigney"
The Arrival of Check-Out Time
Hello Book Lovers,
A very short entry this time, since I mostly want to mention that my novel, CHECK-OUT TIME, has indeed been released, and for those of you who won copies via my Goodreads giveaway, rest assured that your books will wend their way in your direction shortly. The shipment I'll be working from arrives with me on or before Oct. 15th; I'll have your copies in the mail next day.
For those who didn't win in the giveaway, don't despair: the book, as a new release, is deeply discounted just about everywhere, except Siberia. In Siberia, nothing is discounted.
And as for despair, don't despair. Despair is just generally unattractive and never does well at parties.
Finally, the first (non-Goodreads) review has appeared, and it is GLOWING. Here's the link:
http://www.blackgate.com/2014/10/04/r...
No, I didn't write it. (Kind of wish I had...)
'Til next time.
Happy reading!
Onward.
A very short entry this time, since I mostly want to mention that my novel, CHECK-OUT TIME, has indeed been released, and for those of you who won copies via my Goodreads giveaway, rest assured that your books will wend their way in your direction shortly. The shipment I'll be working from arrives with me on or before Oct. 15th; I'll have your copies in the mail next day.
For those who didn't win in the giveaway, don't despair: the book, as a new release, is deeply discounted just about everywhere, except Siberia. In Siberia, nothing is discounted.
And as for despair, don't despair. Despair is just generally unattractive and never does well at parties.
Finally, the first (non-Goodreads) review has appeared, and it is GLOWING. Here's the link:
http://www.blackgate.com/2014/10/04/r...
No, I didn't write it. (Kind of wish I had...)
'Til next time.
Happy reading!
Onward.
Horror-ific Prose for Halloween and Beyond
First, for those wondering about my first Goodreads giveaway of Check-Out Time, your copies are in the mail. Media mail, to be precise, so be patient––but they should arrive with you shortly, shortly, shortly. Enjoy! (And if you do, please consider posting a review; this site, and others, are highly interactive.)
Also, Ginger Nuts Of Horror just posted a nice long interview with me, which you can find here:
http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/5/p...
Now then. Today's topic...
These past few days, as I drive around town, I’ve been entertaining myself with the audio book of John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I must say I was delighted to discover that le Carré had named one of his central characters Control.
Up until about the age of forty-five (and no, I’m not yet fifty), I was frightened of so many things that it was difficult, at times, to keep track. Monsters under the bed. Darkness. Tentacles. Other people’s opinion. The Wicked Witch Of the West. Deep water.
Now that I’m older and wiser and frightened of nothing, I look back and try to find commonalities. Perhaps, I tell myself, my fiction all springs from some discrete source, a point of origin that, if I could but pinpoint it, would reveal everything I’d ever want to know about both myself and what to write next.
So far, my best answer is “control.”
It’s a broad umbrella, that’s sure, the proverbial Big Tent, if I may borrow a political term. If one is afraid of losing control, then everything but everything comes replete with a barge-load of requisite terror.
My Renner & Quist tales bear out the hypothesis. My semi-dynamic duo begin each adventure by unwittingly surrendering control, or, as in Sleeping Bear especially, having it wrenched bodily away from them. Chaos ensues, and chaos, as any frightened soul can tell you, is profoundly terrifying.
Check-Out Time, the newest of my Renner & Quist tales, forces both my heroes into territory well beyond their usual stomping grounds. First, they wind up in a different city. Second, they have to cope with an entire building that’s long-demolished but semi-sentient. That kind of breakdown in reality signals clearly that just about anything can happen.
What could be more alarming than the idea that anything can happen?
Explicitly or implicitly, the past masters of horror have all understood that rules provide security, and that security tends to obviate drama in favor of comfort’s cozy, fireside slippers. How to add spice, drama, terror? Pull the rug out. Ship the mariners off to Cthulhu’s private island; plunge the exploring teens into a haunted house that really is haunted.
As I work on crafting the next Renner & Quist title, issues of control will be constantly on my mind––simmering, as it were. And if my characters find their feet before stories’ end, then I’ll know I’ve done it wrong. To push them to the brink, and to bring readers with them, the last thing I’ll want to do is to put Renner & Quist entirely, comfortably, in any given driver’s seat.
Finally, come visit my website, where you can find a snippet of this latest Renner & Quist, plus related links and excerpted (glowing) reviews.
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Chec...
Back to work now.
Onward.
Also, Ginger Nuts Of Horror just posted a nice long interview with me, which you can find here:
http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/5/p...
Now then. Today's topic...
These past few days, as I drive around town, I’ve been entertaining myself with the audio book of John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I must say I was delighted to discover that le Carré had named one of his central characters Control.
Up until about the age of forty-five (and no, I’m not yet fifty), I was frightened of so many things that it was difficult, at times, to keep track. Monsters under the bed. Darkness. Tentacles. Other people’s opinion. The Wicked Witch Of the West. Deep water.
Now that I’m older and wiser and frightened of nothing, I look back and try to find commonalities. Perhaps, I tell myself, my fiction all springs from some discrete source, a point of origin that, if I could but pinpoint it, would reveal everything I’d ever want to know about both myself and what to write next.
So far, my best answer is “control.”
It’s a broad umbrella, that’s sure, the proverbial Big Tent, if I may borrow a political term. If one is afraid of losing control, then everything but everything comes replete with a barge-load of requisite terror.
My Renner & Quist tales bear out the hypothesis. My semi-dynamic duo begin each adventure by unwittingly surrendering control, or, as in Sleeping Bear especially, having it wrenched bodily away from them. Chaos ensues, and chaos, as any frightened soul can tell you, is profoundly terrifying.
Check-Out Time, the newest of my Renner & Quist tales, forces both my heroes into territory well beyond their usual stomping grounds. First, they wind up in a different city. Second, they have to cope with an entire building that’s long-demolished but semi-sentient. That kind of breakdown in reality signals clearly that just about anything can happen.
What could be more alarming than the idea that anything can happen?
Explicitly or implicitly, the past masters of horror have all understood that rules provide security, and that security tends to obviate drama in favor of comfort’s cozy, fireside slippers. How to add spice, drama, terror? Pull the rug out. Ship the mariners off to Cthulhu’s private island; plunge the exploring teens into a haunted house that really is haunted.
As I work on crafting the next Renner & Quist title, issues of control will be constantly on my mind––simmering, as it were. And if my characters find their feet before stories’ end, then I’ll know I’ve done it wrong. To push them to the brink, and to bring readers with them, the last thing I’ll want to do is to put Renner & Quist entirely, comfortably, in any given driver’s seat.
Finally, come visit my website, where you can find a snippet of this latest Renner & Quist, plus related links and excerpted (glowing) reviews.
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Chec...
Back to work now.
Onward.
Writing, Reading, Life
May. Is there no end to the writing projects?
I’ve turned in my latest draft of The Copyist to my agent, and our mutual expectation is that he’ll shortly be shopping it to publishers. Very exciting; my first historical! At least in novel form. I’ve done historicals as short fiction and as plays. Rewarding. Difficult. Research required.
Meanwhile, the next Renner & Quist novel is slated for a Sept. 1 release. Bonesy! I'm very pleased with the (gruesome, a bit) cover. Having just read over the copy-edited manuscript, I got to see the book with fresh eyes (I hadn’t looked at it since late fall, 2014), and I was pleasantly surprised to find a complex and emotional storyline that I really enjoyed. I can’t wait to share it with you.
If you haven’t yet delved into Check-Out Time, the prequel to Bonesy, here’s one excellent source (the publisher):
https://www.samhainpublishing.com/boo...
Now I’m working over the latest revision of a play, The Shout, set to debut at Indianapolis’ Indy Fringe Fest in August of this year. If you’re in striking distance of Indy, come see! The schedule isn’t posted yet, but here’s a link to the festival itself:
http://indyfringe.org/indyfringe-thea...
In reading, I’m working through John Crowley’s The Solitudes. He’s a favorite, but so far, sixty pages in, I’m lost and baffled––but in what I suppose might be called “a good way.” His writing is so fine, so observant, so precise, so playful, that I cannot help but follow along. Based on my experience with his masterpiece, Little, Big, I know he’ll take me on a terrific journey. All I have to do is keep turning the pages.
Via audio book, I’m 80% of the way through The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I’ve used author Mark Haddon’s terrific short story, “The Gun,” to teach my creative writing students back at Harlaxton (College), and when I heard that Incident had been adapted for the stage, I knew that eventually I’d get around to reading that, as well. The unreliable narrator is, in a neat sleight of hand, supremely reliable. So far, however, I prefer “The Gun,” which is, in my view, a perfect exemplar of the coming-of-age story.
Two unwritten short stories are calling (nay, hollering) my name, plus a new play. However, the yard and garden, now that it’s dance-around-the-Maypole season, call even more loudly.
Stop by again soon! Giveaways of both Check-Out Time and Bonesy are in the offing.
Onward.
I’ve turned in my latest draft of The Copyist to my agent, and our mutual expectation is that he’ll shortly be shopping it to publishers. Very exciting; my first historical! At least in novel form. I’ve done historicals as short fiction and as plays. Rewarding. Difficult. Research required.
Meanwhile, the next Renner & Quist novel is slated for a Sept. 1 release. Bonesy! I'm very pleased with the (gruesome, a bit) cover. Having just read over the copy-edited manuscript, I got to see the book with fresh eyes (I hadn’t looked at it since late fall, 2014), and I was pleasantly surprised to find a complex and emotional storyline that I really enjoyed. I can’t wait to share it with you.
If you haven’t yet delved into Check-Out Time, the prequel to Bonesy, here’s one excellent source (the publisher):
https://www.samhainpublishing.com/boo...
Now I’m working over the latest revision of a play, The Shout, set to debut at Indianapolis’ Indy Fringe Fest in August of this year. If you’re in striking distance of Indy, come see! The schedule isn’t posted yet, but here’s a link to the festival itself:
http://indyfringe.org/indyfringe-thea...
In reading, I’m working through John Crowley’s The Solitudes. He’s a favorite, but so far, sixty pages in, I’m lost and baffled––but in what I suppose might be called “a good way.” His writing is so fine, so observant, so precise, so playful, that I cannot help but follow along. Based on my experience with his masterpiece, Little, Big, I know he’ll take me on a terrific journey. All I have to do is keep turning the pages.
Via audio book, I’m 80% of the way through The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I’ve used author Mark Haddon’s terrific short story, “The Gun,” to teach my creative writing students back at Harlaxton (College), and when I heard that Incident had been adapted for the stage, I knew that eventually I’d get around to reading that, as well. The unreliable narrator is, in a neat sleight of hand, supremely reliable. So far, however, I prefer “The Gun,” which is, in my view, a perfect exemplar of the coming-of-age story.
Two unwritten short stories are calling (nay, hollering) my name, plus a new play. However, the yard and garden, now that it’s dance-around-the-Maypole season, call even more loudly.
Stop by again soon! Giveaways of both Check-Out Time and Bonesy are in the offing.
Onward.
Bones On the Run!
Hello Readers,
Bonesy, my latest novel, has arrived as of September 1, and as of today, Sept. 23, the two giveaways I just ran are concluded, and the winners' books are in the mail. Bonesy has received very positive (even ecstatic) reviews from Horror Maiden, Black Gate, and the Low Budget Book Review.
If you haven't yet caught up with Renner & Quist, here's a link to my author page at Samhain Publishing:
https://www.samhainpublishing.com/aut...
I might also suggest reading (free!) the short story that started it all, and one that is no longer much of a risk since it now channels rather than anticipates the new direction of our nation as regards gender and marriage. Check it out, and you'll see what I mean. It's called "A Perfect Wedded Bliss" and you can find it at my website:
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Perf...
If you wish, for whatever reason, to know more about me as a writer and all around gadfly, a brand new and extensive interview has been posted over at YouAreEntitledToMyOpinion:
http://youareentitledtomyopinioninter...
Frankly, it was a fun interview all 'round. My thanks to site owner Scott Lefebvre for including me.
For reviews (positive!) and a good many links to my various writing projects, please visit my webpage:
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Home...
There. That's the news from my particular writer's garret.
Now to add another two thousand words to my latest project, a brand-new novel...and one not even remotely in the ballpark of horror. Let's hope I'm as multi-talented as I think I am, eh?
: )
Onward!
Bonesy, my latest novel, has arrived as of September 1, and as of today, Sept. 23, the two giveaways I just ran are concluded, and the winners' books are in the mail. Bonesy has received very positive (even ecstatic) reviews from Horror Maiden, Black Gate, and the Low Budget Book Review.
If you haven't yet caught up with Renner & Quist, here's a link to my author page at Samhain Publishing:
https://www.samhainpublishing.com/aut...
I might also suggest reading (free!) the short story that started it all, and one that is no longer much of a risk since it now channels rather than anticipates the new direction of our nation as regards gender and marriage. Check it out, and you'll see what I mean. It's called "A Perfect Wedded Bliss" and you can find it at my website:
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Perf...
If you wish, for whatever reason, to know more about me as a writer and all around gadfly, a brand new and extensive interview has been posted over at YouAreEntitledToMyOpinion:
http://youareentitledtomyopinioninter...
Frankly, it was a fun interview all 'round. My thanks to site owner Scott Lefebvre for including me.
For reviews (positive!) and a good many links to my various writing projects, please visit my webpage:
http://www.markrigney.net/Rigney/Home...
There. That's the news from my particular writer's garret.
Now to add another two thousand words to my latest project, a brand-new novel...and one not even remotely in the ballpark of horror. Let's hope I'm as multi-talented as I think I am, eh?
: )
Onward!
