This post first appeared, in a slightly different form, in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP which you can subscribe to in the sidebar of this blog.
This weekend I reached my goal of reading 50 books by authors of color, and/or authors in translation, in 2016. Last year, my goal was to read 50 books by women. I thought I would be a better writer and broaden my thinking in general if I took it on. I'd like to think it helped. It's funny, I decided to spend two years listening to other people besides white guys speaking English and perhaps the timing couldn't have been better.
My October offering in my secret book club is Fuminori Nakamura's THE KINGDOM. Nakamura writes inky-black Tokyo noir that is not for all tastes, to say the least, but this tale of a woman working for rival crime gangs who tries to pit them against each other YOJIMBO-style is his most accessible novel to date that I've read; still full of creepy-crawliness.
I confirmed last night that on Wednesday, December 14, I will be screening a movie I wrote, and doing a Q&A, at the Chicago Horror Society (title TBA, but I hope it's SEX MACHINE, or JURASSIC PREY). I was there in July supporting my pal Henrique Couto's screening of BABYSITTER MASSACRE (on a night off from the Blue Whiskey Film Festival) and got to meet a lot of the people involved which led to this very nice invite. I had a memorable night there, in a rowdy crowd of Chicagoans baying for blood and cheering every on-screen murder, a scene which may have been misinterpreted by those outside the horror community's friendly embrace.
Excited about this, and more info to come.
This weekend I reached my goal of reading 50 books by authors of color, and/or authors in translation, in 2016. Last year, my goal was to read 50 books by women. I thought I would be a better writer and broaden my thinking in general if I took it on. I'd like to think it helped. It's funny, I decided to spend two years listening to other people besides white guys speaking English and perhaps the timing couldn't have been better.
My October offering in my secret book club is Fuminori Nakamura's THE KINGDOM. Nakamura writes inky-black Tokyo noir that is not for all tastes, to say the least, but this tale of a woman working for rival crime gangs who tries to pit them against each other YOJIMBO-style is his most accessible novel to date that I've read; still full of creepy-crawliness.
I confirmed last night that on Wednesday, December 14, I will be screening a movie I wrote, and doing a Q&A, at the Chicago Horror Society (title TBA, but I hope it's SEX MACHINE, or JURASSIC PREY). I was there in July supporting my pal Henrique Couto's screening of BABYSITTER MASSACRE (on a night off from the Blue Whiskey Film Festival) and got to meet a lot of the people involved which led to this very nice invite. I had a memorable night there, in a rowdy crowd of Chicagoans baying for blood and cheering every on-screen murder, a scene which may have been misinterpreted by those outside the horror community's friendly embrace.
Excited about this, and more info to come.
