Lincoln was right about pleasing people.

Current reading includes Jay Lake's decadent fantasy Trial of Flowers; Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon; The Beatles by Bob Spitz; Cell by Stephen King; and many others.

Keep an eye out for Jay to become a Big Name Filthy Pro Real Soon Now; Tor's decided to make him a brand name, and he's got more than sufficent chops to handle that and many another venture without breaking a Mongolian Camel Fur sweat. Go Omaha Beach Party Picnic!

One of the most interesting, and useful, books I've read lately is one I picked up at Ed Bryant's suggestion at the recent MileHiCon in Denver, at the end of October. I found myself standing at a dealer's table beside Mr. Bryant and asked if his work might be found in any of the books in front of us. He pointed out Norman Partridge's collection, Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales, for which he'd written the introcution.

Turns out to be three books in one. It is, first, Partridge's first collection of feral, creepy, and scary stories. Secondly, it's a discussion of how he came to write each story, what it meant to him, and something the trouble he had in its creation.

It's the third aspect of the book that makes it a must-read for all writers who wonder about career moves, career building, and how to apply the big picture to everyday writing and marketing. Invaluable advice, offered in a blunt, experience-rooted tone. It's from Subterranean Press: http://shocklines.stores.yahoo.net/mrfoxandotfe.html

Enjoyed Manhunt by James Swanson, about chasing down John Wilkes Booth after he shot Lincoln. Fascinating details, a breathless hunt, and exciting action combine with serious historical analysis to make a book as compelling, in its way, as Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Oh, picked up Larson's new book, Thunderstruck, too, about the parallel developing of radio by Marconi and the hunt for the murderer Crippen that ended in a radio-coordinated cross-Atlantic race.

Enjoyed Will Storr's amusing, off-beat, and ultimately seriious book Will Storr Vs. The Supernatural. He's an investigative feature writer from London and he dives right into all manner of ghost hunting and other creepy goings-on, and he writes about it with aplomb, wit, and intelligence. Can't wait to see what he gets up to in his next book.

A Death in Belmont is A Perfect Storm's Sebastian Junger discussing the unsettling coincidence of having had Albert DeSalvo as a handyman in his home during the time of the Boston Strangler scare. His analysis adds doubt to DeSalvo's guilt, even as it shows how terror and corruption can combine to leave everyone ill-served by justice at any cost.

Robert Baer is ex CIA and his novel Blow The House Down examines parts of the Deniable Realm his nonfiction work See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism, and Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude wasn't able to touch. At least, not openly. Baer's work was the basis for the excellent George Clooney movie SYRIANA, incidentally.

Velocity by Dean Koontz goes by in one enjoyable blur; what a pro.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest is a wonderful novel of a narrator unreliable even to himself, and it became a fine movie, too. Recommended especially for the technique and control Priest uses to present what ultimately becomes quite a nasty twist.

Finished the third, final volume of Sinister Forces: A Grimoire of American Politics by Peter Levenda, in which the occult underpinnings of our high crimes and malfeasance government are revealed. Frightening and sobering stuff, very well documented; a worthy successor to his classic work Unholy Alliance, about Nazi Germany's occult roots and activities. You just wouldn't believe the links among certain things, such as what Nixon and Manson had in common. And those moving bishops; yikes.

Older musings:

Dimensions by Jacques Vallee is interesting. It's a paperback I picked up at a library's used book sale. By placing UFO reports into context with myths, legends, fairy tales, and other historical material, underlying patterns emerge pointing to the interesting possibility that these things have been with us always, and may in fact be other aspects of ourselves. If so, the notion of self is astoundingly inadequate.

Picked up Anansi's Boys by Neil Gaiman and have his collection, Fragile Things, on my Yuletide list.

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk is a follow-up to Fight Club and is as good or better. Too bad the movie, a script for which attracted the mixed likes of Trent Reznor of NIN, Jim Carrey, Kevin Spacey, Nicole Kidman, and Marilyn Manson, was shelved after 9/11 by the politically correct police. Too bad, the book's great and should make a hell of a good movie.

Jeff Long's The Descent is an interesting book on many levels. The writing combines the best of the likes of Tom Clancy, (there's a best?), John Varley, Michael Crichton, (the sane stuff), and Jon Krakauer, (Into Thin Air and so on). The story encompasses thriller, horror, science fiction, action-adventure, military, and even romance. The plot features people willingly going to hell and hellspawn unwillingly surfacing in a strange First Contact scenario that is, of course, ancient. Good book, if a touch ambitious. Then again, a little more ambition would liven up any of the genres Long tackles so enthusiastically.

The Final Solution by Michael Chabon is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche with a literary flair. It involves a foreign lad, his parrot, and the Holocaust, all sewn neatly together by a cranky old beekeeper who can't seem to resist chasing when the game's afoot.

The Lovelyl Bones by Alice Sebold, a fellow Pennsylvanian, is remarkable both as a first novel and simply as a story. This one elevates the mundane to magical levels as a dead girl tells how she was murdered, by whom, and what came of it, especially among her family members. Incredible accomplishment, largely through tone-perfect voice.

The Burial At Thebes by Seamus Heaney takes Sophocles's Antigone by the scruff of the neck and makes it into a clear, if Ulsterish, drama of our times. Ah, the choices one makes.

And then there was Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, a brief zinger of a novel about how to love, how to hate, and how to lose it all as a result. What a bitter delight. Most darkly ironic and controlled book I've read since the superb A Carnivore's Inquiry by Sabine Murray.

And you know what's lingered with me? To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway. It's not his best, but damn it's good, especially the first two thirds or three quarters. Wow, to write that well, that cynically, and that clearly, with the depth of a crater lake and the icy control of a glacier's slow creep into the valley. Check it out, and have fun trying to figure out how you would have finished it. (Hem did, but not in the best of ways, although you have to salute the noble experiment of its shape.)

Music lately for me has consisted of Queens of the Stone Age, a group that understands drone and contrast. Josh Homme, your dynamics are calling. Knock down drag out creative fun from guys who like horror. Try their new one, Lullabyes to Paralyze, or their bouncier, R, (as in rated R). I'm currently on the lookout for their earlier Songs for the Deaf.

My recent favorite is the superb American Idiot by Green Day. Incisive, angry, controlled, melodic, harsh, stark, and real, this music kicks what's going on these days in the balls like few ever have. The clarity of sound and lyrics combine to elevate this above pop-punk into permanence.

Picked up The Return of the Mantichore, ELP's box set. I'd wanted this retrospective to introduce my middle son Keelan to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer so he didn't think ELO was the only rock band with classical roots. Now if I could just find a retrospective box set of The Nice...

Also enjoying such diverse noise as Gorillaz, Jimmy Eat World, Theory of a Deadman, The Mars Volta, NIN, the new Robert Plant CD Mighty Rearranger, which is stylistically challenging and daring, a mix of Algerian and, what? Plant folk-rock, perhaps. Recommended. Also listening to U2 a bit, and, of all things, the Pearl Jam CD Benaroya Hall. It's a concert they gave on 22 October 2003 and is one of the best live recordings ever. It's a two disc set, priced as one, and features an incredible array of songs, mostly acoustic. Talk about revealing the skills and depths of a group, this is what Unplugged meant to be.

Haven't been painting much but we did attend both a showing of CASABLANCA on the big screen, with Humphrey's son Stephen Bogart in attendance and making remarks beforehand, and a lecture on Impressionism, followed by a docent tour of the Impressionism pieces held by the Joslyn Museum in Omaha.

Hallowe'en was a let down this year: Not a single trick-or-treater came. Coming on the heels of an enjoyable MileHiCon, Samhain lacked both the spiritual zing it usually holds for us, and the fun parts. Next year we'll have to crank up the spooky decorations and celebrations better to lure unsuspecting costumed innocents into our dark little street.

Rise up and take back your world, folks. It's the patriotic thing to do. Change the culture, it's the only way. Remember: Reality is an Inside Job.

View of Ventimiglia by Claude Monet is one of our favorite paintings, a lovely lake and mountainscape in lavenders and pinks and purples, all painted in light. My wife and I both saw the original when it toured through, and were stunned by it up close. What a marvel it is. You'll see a jpeg of it on my splashpage.

Don't forget to check out my blogspot, Kohi, Hai, for views on current events, writing, and anything else I feel like spouting off about.

Thanks for visiting my website. I hope it answers any questions you may have about me and my work, but if not, feel free to email me; it never hurts to ask, right? Oh, and rave reviews are always welcome.

I'm at stews9@cox.net.