tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-298690722024-03-19T13:29:51.336+10:00The KemblogNews relating to Brisbane writer Gary Kemble.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.comBlogger670125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-41624610336022246522015-09-20T00:24:00.001+10:002015-09-20T00:24:03.602+10:00I've moved!You can find my latest news at <a href="http://garykemble.com/">garykemble.com</a><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-31218783212904748692015-07-03T23:58:00.001+10:002015-07-04T00:07:54.080+10:00Skin Deep: ebook available worldwide<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1435677628782_149383" style="background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6umU1lg83LJQNp1ZHcSL4xwp0uBkLhyXN3R0vH6QDpcXzwVLTx5vbcp6CgYhH-NbAUz8dwMR6lXxXeoQnQfru7mC-S0AX32fLQ77ZnhOREy_MK2RW7mvgii6CtvCDnFWh0Ik/s1600/skindeeptattoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6umU1lg83LJQNp1ZHcSL4xwp0uBkLhyXN3R0vH6QDpcXzwVLTx5vbcp6CgYhH-NbAUz8dwMR6lXxXeoQnQfru7mC-S0AX32fLQ77ZnhOREy_MK2RW7mvgii6CtvCDnFWh0Ik/s200/skindeeptattoo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
A few friends who don't live in Australia have asked where they can get a copy of Skin Deep. At the moment it's available in print in Australia, and ebook globally.</div>
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<b>Kobo:</b> <a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/skin-deep-91" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1435677628782_149388" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/skin-deep-91</a></div>
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<span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1435677628782_149381" style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>Apple’s iBookstore:</b> </span><a href="https://itun.es/au/nb0j8.l" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://itun.es/au/nb0j8.l</a></div>
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<b>Amazon.com.au:</b> <a href="http://www.amazon.com.au/Skin-Deep-Harry-Hendrick-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZZ2DLWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435882674&sr=8-1&keywords=skin+deep+gary+kemble" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1435677628782_149375" rel="nofollow" style="background: transparent; color: #196ad4; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com.au/Skin-Deep-Harry-Hendrick-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZZ2DLWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435882674&sr=8-1&keywords=skin+deep+gary+kemble</a> </div>
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<b>Amazon.com: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Deep-Harry-Hendrick-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZZ2DLWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435931495&sr=8-1&keywords=skin+deep+gary+kemble">http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Deep-Harry-Hendrick-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZZ2DLWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435931495&sr=8-1&keywords=skin+deep+gary+kemble</a></div>
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<b>Amazon.co.uk:</b> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skin-Deep-Harry-Hendrick-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZZ2DLWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435931495&sr=8-1&keywords=skin+deep+gary+kemble">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skin-Deep-Harry-Hendrick-Book-ebook/dp/B00ZZ2DLWW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435931495&sr=8-1&keywords=skin+deep+gary+kemble</a></div>
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If you pick it up as an ebook and you enjoy it, it would be awesome if you could leave a short review. Good ratings will help Skin Deep rise higher in searches etc.</div>
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Of course, if you are in Australia and you buy the paper version, a review on <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25356542-skin-deep?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr">Goodreads</a> (or anywhere really!) would be fantastic.</div>
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Thank you! </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-91545645137688831602015-06-30T20:55:00.004+10:002015-06-30T20:55:33.660+10:00Skin Deep giveaway<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJQ33B26j4gzRYTJaynkEwaKuEO0Hu_cCNThf7Mc_iVCICf3bE2MNzZ1PkP7veH7ttTaRSFxaaYrPlLk6_A6BxMBth78wLk6zGVi_h5FqM62m20uV_4SChsuL6omBTBIrP_M/s1600/Skin-Deep-Cover-262x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxJQ33B26j4gzRYTJaynkEwaKuEO0Hu_cCNThf7Mc_iVCICf3bE2MNzZ1PkP7veH7ttTaRSFxaaYrPlLk6_A6BxMBth78wLk6zGVi_h5FqM62m20uV_4SChsuL6omBTBIrP_M/s320/Skin-Deep-Cover-262x400.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
<a href="http://bookloverbookreviews.com/2015/06/interview-book-giveaway-gary-kemble-author-of-skin-deep.html">The lovely folk over at Booklover Book Reviews are giving away two copies of my debut novel Skin Deep. Head on over for your chance to win.</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-12047512746896306422014-01-19T21:13:00.003+10:002014-01-19T21:13:58.059+10:00PauseApologies for the absence. You're more likely to find me these days on <a href="https://twitter.com/garykemble">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/gary.kemble">Facebook</a>. Thanks!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-28644965709039266732013-04-22T20:55:00.000+10:002013-04-22T20:55:07.994+10:00TOC: Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2ovIHb9O5GYEPgTfMHYvnXIfz4IQsqaNWj8x-KGyHLdtF9gX5mb3lbeNnaMfnj28yRhVG9y3IVbBa064ZnxSJZ5UwT0K3mpKHQ6ejKduBtaI6jgDqU3ckl4P1kEECu9iyDA/s1600/years-best-fantasy-and-horror-v3-slide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2ovIHb9O5GYEPgTfMHYvnXIfz4IQsqaNWj8x-KGyHLdtF9gX5mb3lbeNnaMfnj28yRhVG9y3IVbBa064ZnxSJZ5UwT0K3mpKHQ6ejKduBtaI6jgDqU3ckl4P1kEECu9iyDA/s1600/years-best-fantasy-and-horror-v3-slide.jpg" /></a></div>
I'm pleased to announce that my short story 'Saturday Night at the Milkbar' has been chosen for the Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror.<br />
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The anthology is scheduled for release in July 2013. You can pre-order your copy at <a href="http://www.indiebooksonline.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=year%27s+best+2012">Indie Books Online</a>.<br />
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A big thank you to editors Talie Helene and Liz Grzyb and Russell B Farr, the man behind <a href="http://ticonderogapublications.com/">Ticonderoga Publications</a>.<br />
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Full TOC:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Joanne Anderton, “Tied To The Waste”, Tales Of Talisman </li>
<li>R.J.Astruc, “The Cook of Pearl House, A Malay Sailor by the Name of Maurice”, Dark Edifice 2 </li>
<li>Lee Battersby, “Comfort Ghost”, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 56 </li>
<li>Alan Baxter, “Tiny Lives”, Daily Science Fiction </li>
<li>Jenny Blackford, “A Moveable Feast”, Bloodstones </li>
<li>Eddy Burger, “The Witch's Wardrobe”, Dark Edifice 3 </li>
<li>Isobelle Carmody, “The Stone Witch”, Under My Hat </li>
<li>Jay Caselberg, “Beautiful”, The Washington Pastime </li>
<li>Stephen Dedman, “The Fall”, Exotic Gothic 4, Postscripts </li>
<li>Felicity Dowker, “To Wish On A Clockwork Heart”, Bread And Circuses </li>
<li>Terry Dowling, “Nightside Eye”, Cemetary Dance </li>
<li>Tom Dullemond, “Population Management”, Danse Macabre </li>
<li>Thoraiya Dyer, “Sleeping Beauty”, Epilogue </li>
<li>Will Elliot, “Hungry Man”, The Apex Book Of World SF </li>
<li>Jason Fischer, “Pigroot Flat”, Midnight Echo 8 </li>
<li>Dirk Flinthart, “The Bull In Winter”, Bloodstones </li>
<li>Lisa L. Hannett, “Sweet Subtleties”, Clarkesworld </li>
<li>Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter, “Bella Beaufort Goes To War”, Midnight And Moonshine </li>
<li>Narrelle Harris, “Stalemate”, Showtime </li>
<li>Kathleen Jennings, “Kindling”, Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear </li>
<li>Gary Kemble, “Saturday Night at the Milkbar”, Midnight Echo 7 </li>
<li>Margo Lanagan, “Crow And Caper, Caper And Crow”, Under My Hat </li>
<li>Martin Livings, “You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet”, Living With The Dead </li>
<li>Penelope Love, “A Small Bad Thing”, Bloodstones </li>
<li>Andrew J. McKiernan, “Torch Song”, From Stage Door Shadows </li>
<li>Karen Maric, “Anvil Of The Sun”, Aurealis </li>
<li>Faith Mudge, “Oracle's Tower”, To Spin A Darker Stair </li>
<li>Nicole Murphy, “The Black Star Killer”, Damnation And Dames </li>
<li>Jason Nahrung, “The Last Boat To Eden”, Surviving The End </li>
<li>Tansy Rayner Roberts, “What Books Survive”, Epilogue </li>
<li>Angela Slatter, “Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, This Is Horror Webzine </li>
<li>Anna Tambour, “The Dog Who Wished He'd Never Heard Of Lovecraft”, Lovecraft Zine </li>
<li>Kyla Ward, “The Loquacious Cadaver”, The Lion And The Aardvark: Aesop's Modern Fables </li>
<li>Kaaron Warren, “River Of Memory”, Zombies Vs. Robots</li>
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-74181403292692651562013-02-26T21:11:00.001+10:002013-02-26T21:11:15.847+10:00Midnight and Moonshine, by Lisa L Hannett and Angela Slatter<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Midnight-and-moonshine-web" height="450" src="http://getfile8.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2013-02-26/JsBivwAfhdxllGhjwxEdCgxvpcaovoHJfujIeJGnJphIeGmAEAlbfrhtpgrl/midnight-and-moonshine-web.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="300" /> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://www.indiebooksonline.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=122">Midnight and Moonshine</a> is a beautiful book. There is beautiful writing on every single page of this book. Don't believe me?</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>The woman is so pale she hurts the eyes, shining with the same sheen as ancient ice. Her hair is long and silver-white, and her face ... For the briefest of instants, her face is thin and fine, translucent as the porcelain bowls Bjarni often obtains in the East. Blue highlights accentuate her high cheekbones and in place of eyebrows are long white feathers. Her irises swirl, now snow, now mercury. Then she settles. Her features firm, fill out, become almost human, but not quite, set apart by the perfection of her beauty.</em> - p 23</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Blue Dove extends her free hand, inch by inch, as though Magnus is a wolf keen to bite. Instead, he kisses her palm. The gesture seems to open a valve inside her, releasing all the fight. She sinks to the floor and unleashes a flurry of words.</em> - p 67</p> <p> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>The boy gulps, but straightens up. He is no tattertale. Lovers' trysts, illegitimate births, premature deaths -- he hears these and other mysteries whispered and grunted and moaned at night as he scours the chimney flues running from the cellars all the way up to the palace's top floors. Come morning, they are written in blood on the bed sheets Falki carries to the laundry. And though he reads them well, he never says a word.</em> - p 124</p> <p> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Their infant skin remained white, she'd say, because of all the months they'd been swaddled in cobwebs. Spider poison flowed in their veins, not blood. Beetles rolled dung in their heads -- there wasn't half a brain between them. It was the only explanation, when beautiful girls behaved so vilely.</em> - p 143</p> <p> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Delphine trace the strong line of the boy's jaw, trawl her fingers down his neck and place her palm flat on his chest, damping a print on his cotton shirt. Shivering him with her touch. She draw so close, the shrink-head talisman she always wear looped on a long cornhusk rope around her waist, the one she whisper to when she think no-one's looking, jab into his hip. The boy smell the oil in her white dreads. The cool peppermint musk on her unique dress, a collection of handkerchiefs knotted and plaited around her old-young form, thin fabric covering the round bits of her, the full womanly bits, the firm</em>. - p 193</p> <p> </p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>When the spell leaves her Bella feels exhilarated and empty, as if a part of her soul has darkened in payment for this wicked wish, for this vengeance</em>. - p 250</p> <p> </p> <p>But it's not all just beautiful writing. It's story too. Oh yes. If you love beautiful writing and powerful storytelling, you should buy <a href="http://www.indiebooksonline.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=122">Midnight and Moonshine</a>.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/midnight-and-moonshine-by-lisa-l-hannett-and">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-6695781792645490522013-01-12T20:11:00.001+10:002013-01-12T20:11:51.847+10:00Photos featured on Hipstography<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>As some of you may know, as well as writing I also dabble in art and photography.</p> <p>Some of my photos have been featured on Hipstography - a new website for fans of the Hipstamatic app.</p> <p>You can view them on <a href="http://hipstography.com/en/combos-2/combo-60-gary-kemble-2.html#">Hipstography</a>.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/photos-featured-on-hipstography">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-88480894659004224732012-11-18T20:34:00.001+10:002012-11-18T20:34:03.074+10:00Can anyone recommend any good books/movies about hacking?<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>It's been a long time between blog posts. Things have been pretty crazy on the home front and work has been busy too.</p> <p>I've currently got two manuscripts 'out there' - Skin Deep is one of them - and I've finally committed to what will most likely be my next novel-length project.</p> <p>I don't want to say too much about it at this point, but one of the characters is a hacker.</p> <p>So I'm doing lots of reading at the moment. I've checked out Suelette Dreyfus's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_(Suelette_Dreyfus_book)">Underground</a>, which was a really interesting read on hacking in the 80s and 90s.</p> <p>I've also read <a href="http://fserror.com/">Fatal System Error</a> (Joseph Menn), which is a pretty good look at current day hacking and its connection to organised crime.</p> <p>And I'm currently reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Worm-First-Digital-World-ebook/dp/B005IGBHU8">Worm</a> (Mark Bowden), which uses the Conficker worm to take a look at hacking and the vulnerability of the internet.</p> <p>I've also read <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Kingpin.html?id=SStemNQZV80C&redir_esc=y">Kingpin</a> (Kevin Poulsen), about Max 'Vision' Butler's audacious takeover of an online criminal network.</p> <p>I'm also checking out some episodes of Patrick Gray's <a href="http://risky.biz/">Risky Business</a> podcast - which are very interesting, even if I only understand about half of what they're talking about. :)</p> <p>If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment or hit me up on <a href="http://twitter.com/garykemble">Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/gary.kemble">Facebook</a>.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/can-anyone-recommend-any-good-booksmovies-abo">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-4371587808147197152012-06-07T19:54:00.001+10:002012-06-07T19:59:57.854+10:00The Cantrell Murder<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">One: The Body</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;">Murder is never pretty, whether it’s splashed across the front page of the LA Times or lying stark, exposed in the lights of an LAPD squad car.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> The hem of the dame’s skirt was up, her splayed pins clad in cheap nylons. Blood splattered her name tag, but not so much that I couldn’t read her name. Gladys. Her face was mostly bloody pulp. I sighed. Another ghost to visit me at the witching hour, when not even the strongest eel juice could silence the demons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> A freight train rumbled along the back of the deserted lot, lighting up the crime scene before trundling into Los Nietos station.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;">“What say you, officer?” I said, rising from my haunches to where the air didn’t reek so much of blood and piss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;">Officer Petrovski emerged from the gloom; knife-edge creases and shiny buttons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Looks like she took a pounding, sir.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Uh huh.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> A puff of wind kicked dust across her mauve uniform. A sheet of old newspaper crackled across the abandoned lot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “She worked at Pete’s Diner?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Yeah, just across the way.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> He gestured into town.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Looks like she put up a fight though,” I said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Sir?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I pointed to the scrap of chrome. A piece of someone’s boiler; a shiv in Gladys’s final desperate fight for life. It was stained with gore, black in the yellow light.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> There was a trail of blood, leading out of the abandoned lot, away from the railroad station and into town. So I did what any good detective would. I followed it.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Two: Jimmy the Croaker</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;">After a couple of blocks the trail dried up, in this end of town trails of blood usually ended up in one place. James Crow, MD, the sign on the door read.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Jimmy. Long time, no see,” I said, leaning in the doorway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> He looked up from a tray of stained instruments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Not long enough, Virgil.” He spat my name like a shot of formaldehyde.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Crow was a former Army medic. Not a proper croaker but near enough if you couldn’t afford a vet and didn’t want the heat that came with taking your slug wound or shiv hole to a real doc.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> On the wall next to the faded certificate from the New Jersey Correspondence College was a newspaper clipping of our boys raising the flag at Iwo Jima. If you let him, Jimmy would tell you he was there.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “How’s the leg keeping?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> He peered over his glasses. “What the fuck do you care?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> He was right. I didn’t. It was just my way of reminding him I knew his limp was the result of a big fat “Aloha!” from a pissed, Hawaiian pro skirt, and not a wad of white-hot Jap shrapnel. LA was forgiving in many ways, but not of shitheels who lied about being wounded in the line of duty for the good ol’ red, white and blue.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Busy night?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No busier than any other Saturday in this shithole.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Any stabbings?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Jimmy shrugged. “Maybe.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Any stabbings between midnight, one?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Jimmy carried the stainless steel tray over to the sink and dumped it in. A tang of disinfectant touched my nose before the creaking overhead fan carried it away. He shrugged.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “C’mon Jimmy. Don’t be a bunny.” I pulled out my billfold and offered a sawbuck. “For the war fund.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Jimmy took the money. “Yeah, as a matter a’ fact there was. Greaser. Scrawny. Chambray shirt. Cowboy boots. Bleeding like a stuck pig.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “This stuck pig have a name?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Jimmy sneered. “Yeah. John Q Citizen. Same as all the rest.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Three: The Mexican</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">I ambled into the interview room, pausing for a moment to drink in the scene. Ruperto Simental – the stuck pig – sat slumped in the steel chair, bracelets holding his flippers behind his back, under the watchful gaze of Officer Miller. The Mexican was sweating, greasy hair cascading over his eyes. He looked up, eyes widening, but I shushed him with the fat manila folder I held in one mitt.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “It must be Christmas, Simental, it must be fucking Christmas,” I said.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Simental shook his head back and forth, like a dog trying to shake off fleas.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No, no, nooooo,” he said.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I opened the folder and peered down at the report inside. “Close your head. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Let me get this straight. We’ve got witnesses who place you jawing with Mrs Gladys Cantrell outside Pete’s Diner at 11pm. We’ve got a body, not far from there – the coroner puts death at about midnight, maybe one...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No... but...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu,” I said, quieting him down. “You’ll have plenty of time for chinning when Officer Miller here is taking down your confession. We’ve got a piece of bloodstained chrome at the crime scene, and, uh, how is the injury there?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I climbed up from my chair and pressed the sole of my shoe against his side. He groaned. Officer Miller looked away.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No, you’ve got it all wrong,” Simental said.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Wait, I haven’t even got to the best bit yet. The Arizona PD pick you up in Nogales on a vag charge, then spy the APB. Why’d you feel the need to take a bunk?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “You’ve got it all wrong, senor! The Klan, they see me Saturday night with Gladys, she was my sweetheart...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Break it up!”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “I love her, Senor Smith. The Klan, they pick me up on side of road, stab me, say if I don’ wan’ worse, to get out of town...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Please - the Klan? This isn’t Mississippi, Simental. What happened? She knock you back? You take her for a drive and try and take things too far?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> The Mexican shook his head. Sweat dripped onto the metal tabletop.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Yeah, that’s what happened. She knocked you back and you bopped her.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I scattered crime scene photos across the desk.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Yes, you piece of shit. You cracked her head like a walnut and left her for dead.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No. When I left her, she fine. I love her. I’m telling you the truth, Senor.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Well let me tell you some truth, Simental. We’ve got opportunity, we’ve got motive...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No, I love her...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “And she didn’t love you back. Motive and opportunity. So unless you can get some of your Klansman to give you an alibi, you’re gonna be dancing in the big house before the year is out.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No, senor. I would never hurt her.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Think about it. Let Officer Miller here know when you’re ready to talk sense.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Four: The Brothers</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">Morning sunlight pooled in the kitchen of the Cantrell home, making me feel a little heady. I waved my fedora, sending dust motes cascading through the air. Dale Cantrell sat across the table, staring at his steepled fingers, chewing on his lip. Behind him, leaning awkwardly against the counter, was his older brother Cecil. Both of them looked like college boys in their button down shirts and crew cuts, but Dale said he was going to join the Army once he came of age. Cecil worked at the local grocery store.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “It looks fairly straightforward. We’ve got opportunity, we’ve got enough motive for a jury. I know it’s not much comfort, boys, but there it is.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Dale pursed his lips. “I told her. I told her time and again that piece of shit was dangerous. Fucking greaser. They should build a fucking wall along the border, keep those fuckin’ bean-eaters at bay.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I waited; sometimes it’s best just to listen, but the boy choked back the rest of the diatribe.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Just so’s I can dot the I’s and cross the T’s, what were you boys doing Saturday night?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Cecil opened his mouth but Dale spoke over the top of him. “Usual. Playin’ cards. Bumpin’ gums.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Oh yeah? I’m a bit of a shark myself. What were you playing?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Poker,” Dale said, at the same time as Cecil said, “Rummy.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Dale shot his brother a look that could have stopped a goat’s heart. “Poker,” he said again, “then Rummy.” He jerked his head back over his shoulder. “Don’t worry about the boob.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Cecil reached across his body to pick up his cup of java. He stared into the cup before taking a slurp.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Uh huh. Well anyway, we might get you down the clubhouse tomorrow, if you’re up to it. Got some paperwork you’ll need to sign, and we’ll get you to formally identify Simental.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Both of us?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Yeah. Both of you. The Cap will bust my nuts if I don’t nail this guy. You know, procedure.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Five: Break and Enter</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">I love the new flatties, fresh from the academy. Boys like Officer Petrovski, with their shiny buttons and spotless uniforms, nightsticks that have only seen the soft touch of a polishing cloth and haven’t yet got up close and personal with some goon’s ugly mug. I love ‘em like the sons I never had, but they don’t understand that sometimes you have to break the law to make the law work.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> A couple of things were bugging me and I had to have a snoop around the Cantrell place, even if just to set my mind at ease. The Mexican’s goofy Klan story, Dale’s rant about wetbacks, and the card game gaffe – the whole thing felt hinky. When you’ve been a shamus as long as I have, you learn to trust your gut.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Around the back I found a window open. I checked left and right before sliding it open and climbing in.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Dale’s room was a mess. For someone thinking of joining the Army, he didn’t have much self-discipline. Mommy Dearest had only been dead just over a week, and already the room was strewn with dirty clothes, half-eaten meals (if you can call ‘baked beans a la can’ a meal) and books. Amongst the mess, a single book caught my eye. White cover, black text. The Clansman, the title read, by Thomas Dixon. Jesus, Mary and Joseph.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I checked the wardrobe in the corner, pushing the clothes back and forth. I didn’t really expect to find a pointy hat but it always pays to cover your bases. And there it was, hanging up between a leather jacket and a pair of navy blue gabardines. Like I said, it pays to follow your hunches.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> My mind went into overdrive. If Dale was out stabbing the Mexican Saturday night with the rest of the good ol’ boys, then the Mexican was telling the truth. And if Dale was lying, it made me wonder what his brother was hiding.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I went to the Cantrell’s phone to line up a backdated search warrant.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Six: The Interrogation</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">I had Cecil all to myself, while Dean was in the next interview room digesting the delicious irony of being charged with attempted murder and also providing his favourite greaser with an alibi. The kid sat across from me, one leg jiggling up and down. I reached down and touched the brown paper evidence bag by my right dog. This collar was going to be duck soup.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “So, you care to tell me what you were really up to Saturday night?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> He stared down at the desk. “Playin’ cards.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Oh yeah, that’s right. Poker wasn’t it? Or was it Rummy.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> He chewed his lip.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “At the moment, Cecil, we got you as accessory to attempted murder. Maybe you were even there. You got your own hood, or is someone lending you one?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Cecil kept mum, staring at the table.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “You’re a real daisy, Cecil. The boys in the Big House are gonna love you.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> His eyes darted up.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Know what the first thing they’re gonna to do you is? Knock your teeth out.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">His brow creased.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Yeah, Dale said you were a little jingle-brained. I’ll let you figure it out. Put it this way – inside of a month you’ll be beggin’ to do the dance.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I let that sink in a while then cleared my throat and continued.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Jakeloo, here’s what I figure. You and Dale got your heads together on this one. You both hated this Simental guy, but not for the same reasons. Racism isn’t your style, is it Cecil.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Cecil shook his head.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No matter. You drove down to Pete’s diner, about the time your ma was due to knock off. Dale and his Klan friends took the car, followed Simental after he said buonas noches to Mrs Cantrell.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Your job was just to keep ma busy, make sure she didn’t follow Simental, right? You were just meant to walk her home, under some pretense that you were out and about on the town.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “But something went wrong, didn’t it? You told her about Simental, what your brother had planned for her. But why? You were angry.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Cecil was now shaking his head back and forth, furiously.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “There’s something your brother doesn’t know about you, isn’t there? A dark secret.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Yes. You were jealous, weren’t you?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Yes, you sick piece of shit. You found out mother had been eating a man-size serve of chorizo and you threw an ing-bing.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “NO!”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I reached down and picked up the evidence bag, tipped the contents onto the table.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Some stuff I found in your little hidey-hole, Cecil.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Laddered nylons, stained panties, and photos – well-thumbed photos – of dear old mom. Cecil had a severe case of Oedipus.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Nothing like a son’s love for his mother, hey Cecil?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “No, you can’t prove it. Yeah, Dale might’ve been out hassling the bean-eater, but you can’t put me at the scene of the crime.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I launched myself across the table and grabbed his upper arms. He cried out in pain.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Wrong, dipshit!”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I dug my fingers into his left arm, remembering the awkward way he reached for his mug of joe. I felt blood squelching under the bandage. Cecil cried out in pain.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Still sore huh? Well, that bit of chrome looked as if it had been lying in that abandoned lot for a while.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Cecil looked up, eyes blazing out of a pale face. “She deserved it! The roundheel...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Cecil Cantrell, I’m charging you with the murder...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “...the cheap dime WHORE...”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “...of Gladys Cantrell.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> I let him go and wiped my flippers on my pants.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Officer. Take him away.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> The uniform moved in and grabbed Cecil around the neck, dragging him out of the interview room.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “The dirty chipper deserved it, copper. I just wanted her to love me.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> “Don’t we all, Cecil. Don’t we all.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier New;">Seven: Epilogue</span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">When I got home that night, Gladys Cantrell was waiting for me, like all the other ghosts. Dressed in her bloodstained uniform and cheap nylons, head a blackened mess. She smiled as I pulled a glass out of the cupboard and poured myself a stiff hooker of whiskey.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"> Like I said, murder is never pretty. Some are just more ugly than others.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">THE END</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%; margin-right: 16.55pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New;">(I wrote this story as part of an 'audition' to be a writer on the LA Noire video game. I didn't get the gig, obviously!)</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 10px;">
<a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/the-cantrell-murder">garykemble's posterous</a> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-20988514429407007872012-06-05T21:31:00.001+10:002012-06-05T21:35:48.670+10:002012 snapshot interview<div class="posterous_autopost">
The snapshot project is insane. Started by Ben Peek back in <a href="http://benpeek.livejournal.com/312495.html">2005</a>, every 2-3 years a hardy band of speculative fiction bloggers get together and interview about a gazillion specfic writers and editors, effectively taking the pulse of the scene.<br />
I'm honoured to be included. Kathryn Linge interviewed me in <a href="http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/11604.html">2007</a>, <a href="http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/98824.html">2010</a> and <a href="http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/138540.html">she's done it again</a>.<br />
Make sure you read (or at least scroll) to the end so you can see the rest of the interviews.<br />
<div style="font-size: 10px;">
<a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/2012-snapshot-interview">garykemble's posterous</a> </div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-9594053610485890472012-06-05T21:10:00.001+10:002012-06-05T21:10:47.921+10:00Fortunate lives<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Fortunate_lives" height="500" src="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-06-05/pudEqgyAyrHAxgDhHHgFEFhaiGmbbGncwiBwpBkCdmCwgaCpvpAflbzyiaIq/fortunate_lives.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="375" /> </div> Frankie cracked the fortune cookie and pulled out the slip of paper. As he read the message, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. <p /><em>Kiss her </em><p />It wasn't the message, it was the context. He'd been kicking himself all the way home, thinking that's just what he should've done. Kissed her.<br /> <br />He had met Zadie four years ago, when he started working at the bank. Short black hair, geeky glasses that always sat slightly crooked, the barest sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her nose. But they were both seeing other people then, and by the time they were single again they were friends. They bitched about customers and colleagues, crashed at each other's places when they were drunk, offered consolation and red wine when relationships turned sour. And now she was moving away, down to the central coast. Ditching the rat race, she said. Why risk what they had? But still... <p />Kiss her.<p />He'd missed the perfect opportunity. After the movie she invited him in for dinner. They cooked pasta together, for Christ's sake. A glass of red, just enough to take the edge off. Time evaporated as they talked and he never wanted to stop gazing at her crooked smile and deep brown eyes. <p />When she walked him to his car the moon was sitting, silver and bloated, on the suburban horizon. <p />Their breath turned to mist. <p />"Well, I'd better get going," he said. <p />"Yeah." <p />But he didn't go anywhere. They were standing almost close enough to touch. Zadie smiled. That was the moment. <p />Frankie cursed, and turned the fortune over in his hands. It must have been a joke cookie, if there was such a thing, because the back hadn't been printed with the requisite warning about not eating the fortune. <p />And where had it come from? The table was bare – no half-empty plastic containers to suggest that his housemate, Mia, had had Chinese food. <p />"If only you'd been here five hours ago," he said. <p />#<p />Over the following weeks, Frankie watched Zadie slip away.<p />She found an affordable place just down the road from the beach. He'd lost count of the number of times she had made him promise to visit. <p />That moment, standing in the moonlight, didn't repeat itself. Zadie was so busy preparing for the move Frankie only saw her at work. He often thought about telling her how he felt but it never seemed like the right time and then, suddenly, Z-day had arrived. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and pulled a t-shirt on, doing his best to ignore the butterflies flitting around in his stomach.<br /> <br />Zadie had asked him to help her pack, but in reality there wouldn't be much to do. Just yesterday she'd told him that what little was left in the house would easily fit in her car. Max, her cat, was staying with her aunt and uncle until she'd settled in. <p />Frankie walked down the hallway into the dining room, then stopped. <p />On the edge of the table, sitting amongst old newspapers, Mia's dinner dishes (or were they breakfast dishes – she kept such odd hours it was hard to tell), and unpaid bills was a fortune cookie. Frankie's heart lurched. He'd been thinking a lot about fortune cookies since the <em>Kiss her</em> night. He kept the message in his wallet, as a constant reminder to seize the day. <p />With tingling fingertips he picked the cookie up and snapped it open. <p />He pulled the fortune out. <p /><em>Don't let her go</em> <p />He blinked and read it again, reality bursting through the fantasy. He was so stupid. He stormed into Mia's room, where she was curled up under the doona. <p />"Hey. Hey!" <p />She blinked up at him. <p />"Hey Frank," she said. Her voice sounded rough and for a moment he felt sorry for her. Pub work. It couldn't be much fun. Then she sat up and he caught a glimpse of the guy in bed next to her. Shit, another one.<p />Frankie wasn't a prude but she was going off the rails. Guys Mia met at the pub, she didn't know them from a bar of soap. He was worried she was going to get hurt – physically and emotionally. And, let's face it, a part of him was worried for himself, worried one of them might decide to take the DVD player with them when they snuck out in the morning. <p />"What the hell is this?" <p />Mia took the scrap of paper out of his hand. The guy groaned and rolled over. She shrugged. <p />"Looks like one of those message thingies out of a Chinese cracker." <p />"Where did you get it?" <p />"What?"<br /> <br />"The fortune cookie. Where did you get it?"<p />Now she was fully awake. "I didn't. I haven't had a fortune cookie for years." <p />He watched her for a moment but she wasn't lying. Mia was lazy, inconsiderate, but never cruel. <p />"Sorry. I'm just a bit worked up." <p />"Zadie's leaving today, isn't she?" <p />Frankie nodded, then turned, worried Mia might see the tears stinging his eyes. <p />Zadie's empty house looked alien to him. Bare walls and floors – movie posters and Persian rugs in transit. The lounge room looked so big now without Zadie's ridiculously overstuffed, unbelievably comfortable sofa taking up half the room. <p />"This is it then," she said. <p />"Yeah. Got everything?" <p />She was holding a carry-on bag in one hand and her keys in the other. <p />Don't let her go. <p />He was going to let her leave. There was no question of trying to stop her. That sort of thing only happened in movies. <p />He walked her down the front steps to her car and he couldn't believe he'd come so close to kissing her on this same spot, barely a month ago. <p />In the harsh midday sun it seemed impossible she could ever want him. <p />"I'll call you when I get down there," she said. <p />He nodded. He couldn't speak. It felt as though there was a golf ball stuck in his throat. She put the bag down and hugged him. She felt so warm. Her hair tickled his face. He could smell her perfume. <p />When she pulled away, her cheeks were wet. She climbed into her car and he walked around and shut the door for her. She started the engine. <p />"Don't go," he said. <p />"What?" A half-smile touched her lips. <p />"Don't go. Please." <p />"Frank. I have to go. All my stuff's down there. I've quit my job. I can't not go." <p />"Zadie, I love you." <p />"I'm sorry. I really am," Zadie said. She put the car into gear. Through a prism of tears, he watched her drive off. <p />There was no fortune cookie waiting for Frankie when he got home. <p />Zadie called him that night and apologised. She didn't offer to come back, and he didn't ask her to.<p />"I'm sorry," he said. "I got a bit emotional. It's just, we've been friends for so long. I didn't want to lose you. I'm an idiot." <p />The line went quiet. The conversation stalled. <p />Patricia took over Zadie's teller. She was nice enough. She put up photos of her three grown kids and grey-haired husband. She smelt of talcum powder and peaches. <p />Days turned into weeks. From time to time Frankie took the messages out of his wallet and stared at them, just to convince himself he hadn't imagined it all. <p />Emails replaced phone calls from Zadie. He was waiting for the one that started: "Something really exciting has happened. I've met someone!" <p />He almost wished for it. It would allow him to end this ridiculous charade and move on. <p />#<p />Frankie scratched his chest through his pyjama shirt with one hand and slopped milk onto his cereal with the other. He carried the bowl out to the dining room table, which was clear for once except for a plate dusted with crumbs and a fortune cookie. <p />He stared at it, not even daring to breathe. His mind conjured up a thousand fortunes, all of them involving Zadie, most of them involving the smell of sunscreen and salty air, the shock of cool sea water, an embrace. <p />Frankie set the bowl down and picked up the cookie, praying to a God he only believed in when he wanted something. He snapped it open and retrieved the message. <p /><em>Ride to work </em><p />A snort of laughter burst through his lips, followed by hysterical giggling and then a fit of crying as he realised what a pathetic state he'd been reduced to. <p />"Ride to work? Ride to work! Why the fuck not?" <p />He strode outside and pulled his bike out of the shed. It was covered in cobwebs and the tyres were flat. He'd forsaken the bike for the train almost a year ago. He dragged it into the lounge room and set to work, muttering to himself. <p />Behind him a door creaked and Mia emerged, peering at him from the perpetual darkness of her bedroom. She took in his dusty pyjamas, greasy hands, crazy smile. <p />"What are you doing?" <p />"I'm going to ride to work today!" When she didn't respond, he winked and tapped the side of his nose. "A cookie told me to!" <p />Frankie was dripping with sweat and panting for breath by the time he reached the top of the hill. He was so exhausted he barely registered the crowd gathered there, backs turned to him.<br /> <br />Ahead, the road curved and the city spread out before him. He looked up and squeezed the brakes, sending a shudder through the back wheel. <p />A pall of smoke hung over the high-rise buildings. At first he thought it was a fire, a building on fire. He dropped his feet to the bitumen. A car slowed to a crawl behind him. Half a dozen people stood on the footpath, staring at the skyline. One woman had a hand raised to her eyes to block the morning sun. <p />A man repeated the same thing over and over again: "Terrorists. The bastards got us. Terrorists. Those bastards." <p />From a nearby house a woman emerged wrapped in a dressing gown, eyes gleaming, talking as though she'd known them all their lives. <p />"The train station. Sixty dead." <p />The guy in the car behind Frankie piped up. <p />"Radio's sayin' seventy." <p />Frankie didn't get to work that day. No-one did, not if they worked in the city. Instead he rode home and sat glued to the television, watching the death toll climb. Train carriages ripped apart like they were made of aluminium foil. Just like Mumbai and Madrid, the TV said. Even Mia got up to watch it, wrapped in her doona. <p />In the back of his mind, he wondered why Zadie hadn't phoned him. <p />She must've heard about it. These days everyone was connected, all the time. <p />This is it, he thought, angry and ashamed of himself, It's really over between us. Wallowing in self-pity while the ambos hefted charred corpses into body bags. One of those bodies should have been his. <p />Someone knocked at the front door. Frankie got up on shaky legs, eyes still glued to the box. They were showing CCTV footage of the blast.<br /> <br />People were just getting off the train when – bam! – the screen went white. <p />He smelt familiar perfume and turned to see Zadie standing in the doorway, sunglasses on, sweaty hair pinned back with bobby pins. <p />"I came as soon as I heard," Zadie said. <p />She crossed the threshold and wrapped her arms around his waist. <p />She was hot, her face wet against his shirt. <p />"But it's a three-hour drive," Frankie said, instantly regretting it. <p />Zadie didn't mind. <p />"Promise you'll never leave me," she said. "And I'll do the same for you."<p />#<p />The plane banked and Frankie risked a quick glimpse out the oval window. New York City scarred the horizon. The 747 hit a pocket of empty air and dropped twenty metres, prompting gasps followed by nervous laughter. Frankie's hand clamped down on Zadie's. She winced. <p />"Sorry," he said. <p />Zadie looked away from the window. "It's okay, honey. We're almost there." <p />"Yeah. I know. I'm going to kiss the stinking tarmac when we touch down." <p />"Well if it's good enough for the Pope..." <p />The plane plummeted again and his hand jerked, crushing Zadie's fingers. <p />"Sorry." <p />Frankie had never realised he was scared of flying. It was his first time on a plane. He'd been so hyped when he heard Zadie's parents were sending them to New York for their honeymoon he hadn't even wondered how he would handle the journey. <p />The take-off had been the worst part. He couldn't imagine the thing getting off the ground. All that steel, luggage, people. It just wasn't natural. The great hulk lumbered down the runway, engines screaming, cabin shaking, before finally lifting off. It was okay once they hit cruising altitude. And then they ran into the turbulence. <p />He glanced out the window, along the wing. One of the flaps was down. It was streaked with rust. His eyes fixed on it, waiting for it to move, to show some sign of operation. <p />His ears popped. They were descending. He couldn't even see the skyscrapers now. Frankie tried to think of nice things. The day Zadie moved in, when Mia actually washed up and baked them a cake. Their wedding day, at Zadie's parents' farm, when Zadie's dog Bozo led the bridal party down the hill towards him, pink ribbon tied around her neck. But everything was tinted with fear. <p />"Do you think that's supposed to be like that?" he said. <p />"What?" <p />"That flap." He reached over her and pointed. <p />"Yeah." <p />Terra firma loomed, blurred by velocity. <p />The flap shuddered. The plane plunged, engines shrieking. Oil streaked into the air. Zadie gasped. <p />"It's coming away."<p />Frankie saw the flap disappear, fatigue cracks slicing through the wing. The cabin filled with screams. Then an ear-shattering explosion, and everything went black. <p />#<p />Darkness. Hospital sheets. Pain. When he opened his eyes he wondered what Zadie's parents were doing in New York. They looked terrible.<br /> <br />"They said it was quite miraculous," her dad said. "Not many survived." <p />Frankie's leg throbbed; blood pulsed in his ears. <p />"You'll come to the funeral, won't you?" <p />From the day Frankie woke, the darkness never really lifted. Everything was tinged with bitterness and regret. When he was ready to go home Zadie's parents offered to drive him but he said he wanted to do it by himself. <p />Frankie expected the house to be a pigsty, but the place wasn't too bad. It even looked as though someone had mowed the lawn. Frankie had been a little disappointed Mia hadn't visited him in hospital, but this was a welcome trade-off. He limped through the front door and laid his day pack by the dining room table, his eyes scanning the surface but finding only newspapers and a dirty cereal bowl. <p />"Mia?" <p />She ran out of her bedroom and embraced him. He staggered backwards, a flare of pain shooting through his bad leg. <p />"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she said. <p />At first Frankie thought Mia had registered his gasp, but then realised she wasn't talking about that. He felt awkward. Why did people always feel the need to apologise? It wasn't her fault. He told her so, but she shook her head against his chest. He felt her tears soak into his t-shirt. <p />"Yeah, it is," she said. <p />Mia pulled away from him and walked towards her bedroom. <p />He followed her on numb legs. His mouth dried out and his hands quivered. <p />She opened a small wooden box and rummaged amongst lipsticks and faux pearls, then pulled out a slip of paper. <p />"No," Frankie said. <p />She offered it to him. "This guy I brought home must have found it on the table when I was in the shower. It was the day before you left. I didn't know..." <p />"No." <p />"...how could I have known?"<p />He took the fortune with numb fingers. His breath came in short, sharp gasps and black spots danced across his field of vision. His injured leg throbbed. <p />Frankie stood there, reading the fortune over and over again. <p /><em>Don't get on that plane </em><p />He backed out of the room, frightened of what he might do to her if he stayed there. Thankfully, she didn't follow him. <p />"Jesus Christ." <p />Frankie screamed and punched the wall, screaming again as a shockwave of pain blasted up his arm. The air seemed too close, too thick.<br /> <br />His peripheral vision dimmed. He felt as though he was peering down a long, dark tunnel. He leant over the kitchen table. Blinked away the darkness. Then he saw it. A fortune cookie. Choking back tears he crushed the cookie in his good hand, letting the crumbs drop to the floor. He stared at the fortune. <p />It was a phone number, with a regional code. Frankie stared at it for a few moments, considering his options. <p />"Fuck it," he said. He carried it to the phone and dialled the number. <p />After four rings, someone answered. <p />#<p />The man's directions took Frankie west, where new housing subdivisions gave way to yellowing farmland. At the end of a pockmarked single-lane road he turned onto a dirt track that led to a three-storey pale green barn, the sort farm machinery is kept in, with a battered 1974 Corolla parked out front. <p />Frankie got out, stretched his bad leg and tasted the dusty air. Nothing seemed real any more. He felt as though he was watching himself on a movie screen. <p />Frankie limped through the open barn door. His eyes adjusted to the gloom. Oil stains on the concrete floor from farm equipment long since gone. Empty fortune cookie boxes, and the odd fortune cookie, crushed into the cement. <p />When he saw the machine he wondered how he could have missed it. Its bulk pushed to the ceiling of the barn, three storeys up, a mass of stainless steel pipes, scaffolding, and pieces of machinery like nothing Frankie had ever seen before. Plumes of frosty air drifted down from several places, and electricity occasionally arced, lighting the contraption from deep within. Every second he stared at it he noticed more details: electrical cables, red valve wheels and symbols warning of hazardous waste, radioactive material, and others Frankie had never seen before.<p />"Hello," a voice said. Frankie spun on his heels. <p />A man approached, hand outstretched. A crazy head of pitch black hair, eyes gleaming from behind wire-framed glasses. He was wearing a pair of dusty black pants and a short-sleeved plaid shirt with pens in the pocket. His grip was firm and dry. <p />"Lucian Barnes. I'm sorry about your wife," he said. <p />Frankie, stunned, glanced over Barnes's shoulder and saw the barn wall opposite the machine was covered from floor to ceiling in cork boards, and the cork boards were mostly filled with scraps of paper. Fortunes. A ladder was propped to one side. <p />"I don't know why it's fortune cookies. Maybe they're easy to send," Barnes said. <p />Below the board, a card table topped with an ancient Olivetti electric typewriter, and several unopened boxes of fortune cookies. <p />"Or maybe it's a psychological thing. You know, your mind is already prepared to think about the future, snapping open a fortune cookie..." <p />"What's going on?" <p />"I get messages. They helped me build that thing," he said, gesturing at the machine. <p />"I had some idea, of course, that such a method of transportation was possible. But I got stuck with the mathematics. Then I received my first message." <p />Frankie followed Barnes to the left-hand-side of the corkboard. In the bottom corner were a collection of fortunes with strings of numbers and equations on them. <p />"So now I send messages. I pass them on. Sometimes I send myself messages." <p />"Yourself?" <p />"Not me exactly. Other versions of me." <p />Barnes picked a ream of paper off the desk. He opened the ream as if it was a book, then pulled out a single piece of paper. <p />"It's like this. This bit of paper. This is everything, our whole universe. Everything, everytime. Past, present future." <p />"Uh huh." <p />"Only... there's this," he said, and placed the sheet back in the ream. <p />"All these other universes, and they don't line up properly. Our present in their future. Or past." <p />"Multiverse theory." <p />Barnes nodded at the machine. "That thing creates a hole." <p />"And you send cookies?"<p />Barnes nodded. <p />Frankie opened his wallet. He had kept all the messages. He had thought about throwing them out, but couldn't bear to do it. Now he laid them out on the table. <p /><em>Kiss her </em><p /><em>Don't let her go </em><p /><em>Ride to work </em><p /><em>Don't get on that plane </em><p />Frankie sat down at the typewriter. <p />"Can I change my past?" he said. <p />"I don't think so. The thing is, if you changed your past, you wouldn't be here, so obviously you couldn't have succeeded." <p />"I haven't sent the message yet." <p />Barnes shrugged. <p />"Or, if you could, you wouldn't know about it. If you change your past, you change your future. I think it's more likely that you can change the future in another reality. Make things better for another version of you." <p />Frankie thought of Zadie's body, what was left of it, lying in a morgue waiting to be buried. <p />"I can live with that." <p />Frankie typed the message and cut it out. Barnes used tweezers to pull a genuine message out of a cookie and put in the substitute. <p />"When do you want me to send it?" <p />"In place of the first one - Kiss her." <p />Together they walked over to the machine. On their far side of the shed was a small desk with a laptop set up on it. Frankie stood behind Barnes as he tapped at the keyboard, but didn't recognise any of the programs he was using. <p />"You have to understand," Barnes said, "it's taken me twenty years to get this far. Assembling the knowledge necessary to figure out what the messages I receive mean, and where and when I'm meant to forward them to. You're the first person who's visited me. I don't even know if any of the other messages have changed anything, in this dimension or any other. It's not exactly a precise science." <p />Barnes offered a lopsided grin. <p />"I understand. Like I said, I can live with it." <p />"Do you want to put it in?" <p />Frankie tipped his head back and stared at the machine. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. All of a sudden he wasn't sure he wanted to do it. Then he thought about going home, driving back to the city at dusk. He couldn't face that. <p />"What do I do?" <p />Barnes gestured at a ladder in the middle of the machine, fixed to scaffolding with duct tape. <p />"There's a receptacle at the top of the ladder," he said. <p />Frankie grabbed hold of the ladder and immediately felt vibrations buzzing through his body. Hairs all over his body stood on end and his fillings ached. He felt slightly nauseous. He counted twelve steps and stared into the machine's belly, blinking a couple of times to clear his vision. There was a small hole, just big enough for the fortune cookie. He reached out, icy air chilling his skin, dropped it in. The cookie dropped out of sight and the machine thrummed harder. <p />Frankie climbed down six rungs and then jumped, unable to bear the vibrating sensation any longer. He landed, favouring his good leg, then shook his hands and stomped his feet a few times. <p />Barnes tapped away on the keyboard. He turned. <p />"Are you sure you want to do this?" <p />Frankie nodded. Barnes hit the enter key. The vibrations bumped up a couple of notches, and a low drone filled the air. Frankie swallowed hard to try and clear his ears but it did no good. The world swam around him. The machine, the shed, even Barnes seemed to fade in and out at random. He saw himself, a thousand versions of himself, different clothes, different haircuts, wandering around the shed, then the bare paddock, climbing out of his car, a different car, a motorbike. His heart thumped hard when he saw Zadie climb out of the passenger seat, summer dress barely covering her tanned legs. Then she was gone, the shed was gone, the paddock was gone, everything was gone.<p />#<p />Frankie cracked the fortune cookie and pulled out the slip of paper. He read the message and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. <p /><em>Kick Mia out </em><p />It wasn't the message, it was the context. He'd been thinking this very thought for weeks. The house was constantly trashed, Mia always woke him up when she got home from work, and just lately she'd really lost the plot, bringing guys home from the pub all the time, cranking the stereo until the sun crept over the horizon. <p />It's not that she was a bad person, it's just if he was going to make a go of it with Zadie... <p />The thought caught him by surprise. <p />Make a go of it with Zadie. He liked the sound of that. <p />Frankie grinned, then forced his expression into something more sober. He strode towards Mia's room. <p />"Mia, we need to talk."<p />(First published in <em>Borderlands</em> magazine - issue 9, 2007)</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/fortunate-lives">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-56073604686378012902012-05-29T20:24:00.001+10:002012-05-29T20:24:46.716+10:00Rage Against the Night hard copy now available<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Rageagainstthenight" height="500" src="http://getfile5.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2012-05-29/xjooAhkuoiksqCmbbvkEEfgyjydkfCGErxrjEzEzgaykHhfFFHqtAmqnpemk/rageagainstthenight.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="333" /> </div> </p> <p>Good news for those of you who wanted to check out Rage Against the Night but don't have an ebook reader - you can now pick up a hard copy.</p> <p>Rage Against the Night features stories by Stephen King, Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen M Irwin and more (including me).</p> <p>Profits benefit award-winning writer and HWA President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Wood">Rocky Wood</a>, who is battling motor neurone disease.</p> <p>You can pick up a copy from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Against-Night-Shane-Jiraiya-Cummings/dp/0980567750/">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rage-against-the-night-shane-jiraiya-cummings/1108178635?ean=9780980567755">B&N</a> and <a href="http://www.mystgalaxy.com/book/9780980567755">Mysterious Galaxy</a>. You can, of course, still grab a copy of the ebook, for $3.99 from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006P18LM2/">Amazon</a> and <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/116718">Smashwords</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/rage-against-the-night-hard-copy-now-availabl">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-60551682897277173772012-04-16T20:14:00.001+10:002012-04-16T20:17:41.836+10:00Sneak peek: 'Saturday Night at the Milk Bar'<div class="posterous_autopost">
Here's a <a href="http://midnightechomagazine.com/2012/04/02/a-sneak-peak-inside-issue-7-saturday-night-at-the-milk-bar-by-gary-kemble/">sneak peek</a> of my story 'Saturday Night at the Milk Bar', which appears in Midnight Echo 7: the taboo issue.<br />
The edition features stories by Graham Masterton, Andrew J McKiernan, Lee Battersby, G N Braun and more.<br />
You can pre-order a limited edition print copy for $10 (+$2.50 postage) in Australia and $20 for overseas buyers (postage included).<br />
More info here: <a href="http://midnightechomagazine.com/news/">http://midnightechomagazine.com/news/</a><br />
<br />
<div style="font-size: 10px;">
<a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/sneak-peek-saturday-night-at-the-milk-bar">garykemble's posterous</a> </div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-42483325634571193882012-01-05T20:01:00.001+10:002012-01-05T20:01:47.641+10:00First day in the new ABC building<div class='posterous_autopost'><p> <object height="300" width="400"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157628726777579%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157628726777579%2F&set_id=72157628726777579&jump_to=" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=109615" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="300" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157628726777579%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157628726777579%2F&set_id=72157628726777579&jump_to=" width="400"></embed> </object> </p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/first-day-in-the-new-abc-building">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-3049543080411195122012-01-02T19:28:00.001+10:002012-01-02T19:28:47.449+10:00How I got my Netgear WN3000RP working<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>I'm sharing this on my blog because I had a bit of trouble getting my Netgear WN3000RP WiFi Network Extender working. So if you're having problems, read on.</p> <p>I bought the WN3000RP just before Christmas. I followed the instructions on the box. It all seemed to be going well until I got to the final step, which should have completed the connection. But the forth light wouldn't light up, and when I clicked 'continue' I got an error message saying the extender couldn't connect to the existing wifi network.</p> <p>Despite this, I could connect to the extender, and the extender was communicating with the router. But it was a local connection only, nothing going out onto the internet. Which didn't make sense. Tried a few times. From a PC, Mac and the Xbox. No good.</p> <p>Googled. Found people who were so frustrated they just gave up. Found some quite complicated solutions on the Netgear forums, but nothing that seemed to match my specific problem.</p> <p>Put it on hold and had another go after Christmas. And got it working! Not sure exactly what the problem was, but I can tell you what I did differently this time around.</p> <ol> <li>Factory reset. There's a hole for a paperclip in the side. I read on a couple of forums that people got it working after doing a factory reset. Didn't really seem to make sense but I decided to give it a go anyway.</li> <li>Did the initial set-up from a PC. I think the first time around, I tried with the Mac. Don't know if this made a difference. But I went through the instructions again and got the fourth light on, which was progress.</li> <li>'Diagnose'. It still wasn't connecting through to the internet. So I went into the network settings thing in Windows and I clicked on the 'diagnose' button. Windows gave me a few options. The first one I tried was something like 'automatically assign an IP address'. I tried this but it didn't work.</li> <li>'Turn off router'. The second thing it suggested was turning the router off for 10 seconds then back on. Again, it's one of those things that I was dubious off, but decided to give it a go.</li> <li>After that, I tried the 'assign IP address' thing again, and it worked.</li> </ol> <p>After getting it up and running, it works on the Mac, PC and Xbox. It's been working solidly for a few days now, although I have to admit I haven't had the guts to turn off the extender, in case it resets or something. :)</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/how-i-got-my-netgear-wn3000rp-working">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-71661643938953855562012-01-01T19:21:00.001+10:002012-01-01T19:21:33.472+10:00Skin Deep: the storify<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>My grant year is officially over, as at midnight last night.</p> <p>As you may have noticed, throughout the year I was tweeting about Skin Deep, as well as blogging, keeping track of my research, taking photos etc.</p> <p>I've pulled it all together in this Storify.</p> <p>Take a look here: <a href="http://storify.com/garykemble/grant-year-writing-skin-deep">http://storify.com/garykemble/grant-year-writing-skin-deep</a></p> <p>(I haven't embedded it because I don't like the way it keeps expanding on the home page).</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/skin-deep-the-storify">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-35729929416752582252011-12-24T09:28:00.001+10:002011-12-24T09:28:24.378+10:00Last-minute gift idea! Rage Against the Night charity anthology<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile6.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-23/HHBldAzDChsjwsyvFsdjAayugaabwiAhBBvuHHFhJzlwCgpmpxjqeobJjvkm/rageagainstthenight.jpeg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Rageagainstthenight" height="750" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-12-23/HHBldAzDChsjwsyvFsdjAayugaabwiAhBBvuHHFhJzlwCgpmpxjqeobJjvkm/rageagainstthenight.jpeg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> </p> <p>Merry Christmas everyone. If you've forgotten the horror-lover in your life, grab them a copy of the Rage Against the Night anthology. All proceeds go to current Horror Writers Association president Rocky Wood, who is battling motor neurone disease.</p> <p>Featuring Stephen King, Peter Straub and more. (I also managed to sneak a story in there!)</p> <p>Here's the official spiel:</p> <p class="yiv1995110924MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;">Under the onslaught of supernatural evil, the acts of good people can seem insignificant, but a courageous few stand apart. These brave men and women stand up to the darkness, stare it right in the eye, and give it the finger. These are the stories of those who rage against the night, stories of triumph, sacrifice, and bravery in the face of overwhelming evil.</p> <p>Here's where you get it:</p> <p>Amazon (Kindle): <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006P18LM2/">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006P18LM2/</a><br />Smashwords (multi-format ebook): <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/116718">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/116718</a></p> <p>Please support this book. I'm honoured to be a part of it, and Rocky really needs a helping hand.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/last-minute-gift-idea-rage-against-the-night">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-77850865497161449032011-12-11T19:28:00.001+10:002011-12-11T19:28:18.036+10:00Grant year, week 49: tidying up loose ends<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>Of all my 'grant year' goals, the one that I've probably failed at most is the weekly blog!</p> <p>I can live with that.</p> <p>I don't actually have too much to report, but I feared that with Christmas almost upon us, I'd need to get a blog post in or else leave it all hanging with my last post, which was 'beginning to polish the second draft'.</p> <p>Here's where I'm at: I finished polishing the second draft. The book is now out with readers. I've even had some feedback. But I haven't looked at it in depth -- what I'd like to do is wait until it's all in and then take a couple of days off work (annual leave -- all the grant money is gone!) read through the comments and figure out what I need to do for the third (and hopefully final) draft.</p> <p>I haven't been idle in the meantime. Well, not totally idle. I've written an article for Writing Queensland (the magazine of the <a href="http://www.qwc.asn.au">Queensland Writers Centre</a>) about my grant year. This will appear early next year.</p> <p>I've also started working on a Storify of my grant year, which pulls together all my tweets, blog posts and photos from the year. It's a work in progress.<a href="http://storify.com/garykemble/grant-year-writing-skin-deep"> If you like you can check it out here</a>.</p> <p>This is also part of the process for my acquittal. It's not part of the formal process, but it's part of getting my head around what I'm going to write in my acquittal. And I'd really like to do a good job with my acquittal because, as I've said before (and will say over and over again) I'm extremely grateful to the Australia Council for investing in my project.</p> <p> </p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/grant-year-week-49-tidying-up-loose-ends">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-44381554246689302502011-11-12T10:14:00.001+10:002011-11-12T10:14:46.314+10:00Capturing the 11/11/11 moment<div class='posterous_autopost'><div class="posterous_bookmarklet_entry"> <script src="http://storify.com/garykemble/11-11-11.js"></script> <div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://storify.com/garykemble/11-11-11">storify.com</a></div> <p></p></div> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/capturing-the-111111-moment">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-36634872421809165612011-11-06T19:19:00.000+10:002011-11-06T19:19:52.152+10:00Grant year, week 44: back to work<div class='posterous_autopost'><p> I've just started polishing the second draft, I'll probably end up changing enough to call it a third draft. :)</p> <p>The break has been longer than intended, for a range of mostly boring reasons. But looking on the bright side, the extended break will give me a bit more perspective. Just 20 pages in, I've already noticed this. I thought the first 50 pages were pretty solid, but already I've found quite a few typos and clumsy language.</p> <p>Which brings me to my next point. I don't know what it's like for other writers trying to 'break through' but I find I vacillate between frenzied terror brought on by the fear that I'm missing opportunities ALL THE TIME and lethargy/apathy, thinking that there's no way I'm going to 'make it'.</p> <p>Somewhere is the sweet spot, where I get my best work done and manage to not make irrational decisions that may damage my real opportunities.</p> <p>I've been thinking about submitting Skin Deep to the Pac Mac Manuscript Monday, but I want to make sure I send them something that represents the best writing I'm capable. At the back of my mind is the frenzied terror guy, screaming that they could close subs AT ANY MINUTE... but I'm trying not to listen to him. If I send them something crap, it will do more harm than good, right?</p> <p>However, at the other end of the scale is the guy that's telling me there's no point subbing anything, anytime -- because I suck. So, at some point, you have to make the decision that it's as good as it's going to get, and then send it out. Because if you don't send it out, they can't say 'yes'!</p> <p>I'm still fairly happy with what I've achieved this year. The schedule has slipped a bit. But I'm still hoping to have something halfway decent in the hands of my beta readers in time for Christmas holidays.</p> <p> </p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/grant-year-week-44-back-to-work">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-69448411057380243822011-10-28T10:13:00.001+10:002011-10-28T10:13:43.470+10:00Storify: Brisbane Zombie Walk 2011<div class='posterous_autopost'><script src="http://storify.com/abcnews/brisbane-zombie-walk-2011.js"></script> <p><a href="http://storify.com/abcnews/brisbane-zombie-walk-2011">View the story "Brisbane Zombie Walk 2011" on Storify</a>]</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/storify-brisbane-zombie-walk-2011">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-80918444290857045702011-10-23T20:29:00.001+10:002011-10-23T20:29:53.476+10:00Brisbane Zombie Walk 2011<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>I actually wasn't intending to go this year, because every year I try to go, something happens and then I can't go.</p> <p>But of course, I didn't plan to go, so I found myself not only free this afternoon, but also in the Valley.</p> <p>Here's some photos...</p> <p> </p> <p> <object height="300" width="400"> <param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157627832448811%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157627832448811%2F&set_id=72157627832448811&jump_to=" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=107931" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=107931" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" height="300" flashvars="offsite=true&lang=en-us&page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157627832448811%2Fshow%2F&page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fgarykemble%2Fsets%2F72157627832448811%2F&set_id=72157627832448811&jump_to=" width="400"></embed> </object> </p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/brisbane-zombie-walk-2011">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-61553315599158635292011-10-18T19:38:00.001+10:002011-10-18T19:38:40.685+10:00Macabre: out now on ebook<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-18/pIyuCfdoGjytcefaEuyBeIhtnGyqgGBEApIpBszjcrwoBxJeDnrDyiaGgqEw/macabre.jpeg.scaled1000.jpg"><img alt="Macabre" height="750" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-10-18/pIyuCfdoGjytcefaEuyBeIhtnGyqgGBEApIpBszjcrwoBxJeDnrDyiaGgqEw/macabre.jpeg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> Just in time for Halloween, the award-winning Macabre is out now in ebook format!</p> <p>Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears features a whopping 205,000 words of Aussie horror -- the classics (Henry Lawson, Marcus Clarke), the modern masters (Terry Dowling, Kaaron Warren), and some of the nicest people I know (Stephen M Irwin, Shane Jiraiya Cummings and the rest of you... you know who you are!).</p> <p>Oh, and if that's not enough for you, my short story about the dark heart of journalism 'Feast or Famine' is in there too.</p> <p>When I first held Macabre in my hot little hands at WorldCon last year, I remember thinking, 'This is awesome. This is massive. What's the shipping cost going to be on this thing?' So it's awesome that it's now being offered as an ebook, so that this weighty tome can be offered without the weight.</p> <p>It's currently available at <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/89862">Smashwords</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Macabre-Journey-through-Australias-ebook/dp/B005NWMJ8Q">Amazon</a>, and will be available elsewhere before Halloween.</p> <p>And, if you still decide you want the brick, I'm told POD versions will be coming soon.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/macabre-out-now-on-ebook">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-53514040553704056282011-10-16T19:56:00.001+10:002011-10-16T19:56:19.681+10:00Grant year, week 41: 1st rejection<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>Well, I didn't get into the Hachette MS Development program. They had 260 applications, and from those chose 10 to take part.</p> <p>I have to admit, it knocked me around for an hour or so. But I've bounced back well. I think in part because of this article by Tobias Buckell, where he talks about <a href="http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2011/08/25/writers-and-pellets/">'milestones' and 'goals'</a>.</p> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote"> <p>Milestones are things you’d like to have happen to you. Selling a story. Selling a novel. Getting nominated for an award. Winning an award.</p> <p>Goals are things you can actually achieve. Finishing writing a story. Writing a certain number of words. Writing a certain kind of story.</p> </blockquote> <p>And...</p> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote"> <p>Early on in my career I hit upon a method of focusing and rewarding only the activities that I could control. I knew I wanted to sell a story, but that it was a random pellet. So I focused on writing and submitting stories. No one could stop me from that. I celebrated every 100 rejections (with champagne and nice food and a little mini-celebration) I got as proof that I was laying down the right actions toward hopefully getting a story sold.</p> </blockquote> <p>So, even though the rejection was initially painful, I'm still on track to reach my goal -- to have a polished MS by the end of the year.</p> <p>Where do I go from here?</p> <p>At the moment I'm in the process of printing out the second draft to send back to the editor and also to an early beta reader.</p> <p>After that, I need to polish, and then send to a couple of other beta readers.</p> <p>Then a further run-through of the MS to incorporate feedback.</p> <p>And then I just have to sell the damn thing!</p> <p>The other thing that's helped me keep my chin up is attending the <a href="http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/brisbane/">Emerging Writers Festival</a> yesterday.</p> <p>I got to catch up with writer/editor friends, and the festival itself resulted in some interesting ideas/opportunities.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/grant-year-week-41-1st-rejection">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29869072.post-18291407249600248132011-10-12T19:56:00.001+10:002011-10-12T19:56:28.532+10:00The process of writing — Speakeasy<div class='posterous_autopost'><div class="posterous_bookmarklet_entry"> <blockquote class="posterous_long_quote"><p>I used to be very much seat of the pants but I generally like to have an idea of how the story ends these days.</p> <p>I had too many experiences where I had 2/3 of a story but couldn’t finish it. And for novels—I definitely plan. Even though pretty much everything ends up changing.</p> <p>I think you’ve got to have a plan, but be flexible.</p> <p>That’s how it is for me, anyway!</p></blockquote> <div class="posterous_quote_citation">via <a href="http://blog.awmonline.com.au/2011/10/12/gary-kemble-the-process-of-writing/">blog.awmonline.com.au</a></div> <p></p></div> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://garykemble.posterous.com/the-process-of-writing-speakeasy">garykemble's posterous</a> </p> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07596418524709677442noreply@blogger.com0