Today's Horror Genre

In a post, reviewing a 1991 book called The Cipher, our friend Loren Eaton says he wishes more writers were pursuing the horror genre. “Oh, the genre lives on in cinemas, but it has largely vanished from book racks. I’ve wondered why for the longest time and actively looked for any authors that specialize in it…”

Loren had high hopes for The Cipher, but found it a bit thick and dismal. “I guess the crux of the matter is this: Horror should seem horrifying, but you need to feel that something worthwhile could be lost during the story for it to become so. Such a sense is completely absent in The Cipher. Things start out badly. They grow marginally worse by the end. In between is 350 pages of mostly senseless, self-inflicted suffering.”

In the comments, a few names and titles are kicked around.

For context on his perspective, Loren discusses all he learned about H.P. Lovecraft in 2013.

What Fiction Do Men Read?

One of our friends, Nick Harrison of Harvest House, asks on his Facebook wall:

“What can we all do to boost men’s fiction? What authors do the men you know read? What are their complaints about the state of men’s fiction (if they have any complaints)? I’d especially like to hear from male readers, but all who can offer some insight are welcome to respond.”

So what do you think? Don’t confine your answer to Christian books. What fiction do you or the men you know read? Answers from the original post include Dale Cramer, Athol Dickson, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, David Baldacci, Vince Flynn, John Hart, John Lescroart, and Lee Child. I mentioned names you’ve seen here, like Bertrand, N.D. Wilson, and Andrew Peterson.

BIG UPDATE in the comments below.

Content-free update

Just an update on my health situation. It’s a short one — I don’t know anything I didn’t know Tuesday.

I have an appointment to see my surgeon tomorrow. I assume I’ll learn something then.

They gave me pain killers, which help a fair amount. One odd side effect is the hiccups, and a diminishment of appetite.

I’ll keep you posted.

“So the disciples gorge themselves on honey dipped spam”

Here’s another curious poem.

“Jesus Feeds the 5000 Using Various Cutting Edge Recipes from 1950s Magazines”

“So the disciples gorge themselves on honey dipped spam

crowned with the many crowns of identical pineapple rings

as they jostle for spots on the picnic blanket, and the children…”

Read on

Idiot Psalms: New Poems by Scott Cairns

Poet Scott Cairns has written some revealing, thoughtful reflections as psalms to the Lord. Clearly, these poems are written for people who are not as awesome as we are. We have claimed our blessing and walk as strong as the Nephilim. We don’t grovel before the Lord, like the man in this poem:

“Idiot Psalm 1”

O God Belovéd if obliquely so,

dimly apprehended in the midst

of this, the fraught obscuring fog

of my insufficiently capacious ken,

Ostensible Lover of our kind—while

apparently aloof—allow

that I might glimpse once more

Your shadow in the land, avail

for me, a second time, the sense

of dire Presence in the pulsing

hollow near the heart.

Once more, O Lord, from Your Enormity incline

your Face to shine upon Your servant, shy

of immolation, if You will.

Bone dry

I don’t do personal blogging as much as I used to (no need to thank me; your look of dewy-eyed gratitude is thanks enough). But I got medical news today which you have a right to know, since it’ll probably affect my posting.

I saw an orthopedist, and they did an MRI (just like on TV!). Turns out I have a condition called “osteonecrosis.” In other words, some of my bone, specifically the balls of my hip joints, is dying. This is a condition most common in people who’ve abused steroids, of whom I am most decidedly not one. At least one hip replacement appears to be in my immediate future. I’ll be seeing a surgeon soon.

Prayers appreciated.

Dean Koontz on Self-Doubt, Story, and Abuse

Here are some questions Dean Koontz has answered in various forums:

You had an agent in your early years tell you that you’d never be a best-selling writer. Did that discourage you or make you more determined to succeed?

Koontz: I have more self-doubt than any writer I’ve ever known. That is one reason I revise every page to the point of absurdity! The positive aspect of self-doubt – if you can channel it into useful activity instead of being paralyzed by it – is that by the time you reach the end of a novel, you know precisely why you made every decision in the narrative, the multiple purposes of every metaphor and image. Having been your own hardest critic you still have dreams but not illusions. Consequently, thoughtless criticism or advice can’t long derail you. You become disappointed in an agent, in an editor, in a publisher, but never discouraged. If anyone in your publishing life were to argue against a particular book or a career aspiration for reasons you had not already pondered and rejected after careful analysis, if they dazzled you with brilliant new considerations, then you’d have to back off and revisit your decisions. But what I was told never dazzled me. For example, I was often advised, by different people, that my work would never gain a big audience because my vocabulary was too large.

Continue reading Dean Koontz on Self-Doubt, Story, and Abuse

‘Innocence,’ by Dean Koontz


By the time we heard the sirens, we were two blocks from the mall, in a cobbled backstreet as dark as a deer path in the woods under a half-moon. A sudden wind broomed the stillness of the night as the man I would eventually call Father hooked the disc of iron, lifted it, and set it aside. Piping across the hole where the iron had been, the wind played an oboe note, and I went down into that sound and into a world that I could never have imagined, where I would make a better life for myself.

One of the great problems in writing fiction – and I’ve written about this before – is the problem of the Good Character. Good characters in fiction, C. S. Lewis said somewhere (The Four Loves, I’m guessing offhand) “are the very devil.” They tend to be kind of dull, and they pale particularly in comparison to the villains. This is probably, I suspect, because most of us know evil better than we know good.

In his latest novel, Innocence, Dean Koontz approaches that problem in what I think is an entirely fresh way, and the result – in my opinion – is gloriously successful. Koontz just keeps getting better and better as a writer, both thematically and stylistically. He has his misfires, but when he succeeds the results are wondrous. And so it is with Innocence.

Addison Goodheart is a monster. All his life, anyone he has allowed to see his face has been overcome, not only with fear, but with hatred and a desire to do him harm. After his mother sent him out into the world alone, he found his way to an unnamed city, where a man he called Father gave him a home in the city’s tunnels, and taught him how to survive – because Father was another monster like Addison. After Father’s death, Addison survives alone until one night, wandering the city’s central library (which he knows how to enter secretly after hours) he sees a beautiful girl in Goth makeup being pursued by an attacker. After helping her escape, Addison makes the girl, Gwyneth, his friend, and they form an odd alliance. She suffers from a social phobia and won’t let him come near her, while he must keep his face covered. It works for them. She draws him into her struggle to save the life of a comatose little girl whom evil men are trying to kill. But, as they come to learn, that’s only a part of their challenge. Very big changes are coming about in the world, and Addison and Gwyneth are at the center of the greatest storm in history.

Innocence is, in my opinion, a masterpiece, one of Koontz’ best books. Right up there with the Odd Thomas stories. Beautiful, profound, moving, and (although not an explicitly Christian book) deeply informed by Christian truth. I give it my highest recommendation.

Malcolm Gladwell in Socrates in the City

I’m reading Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, now with plans to review it on your favorite lit-blog (by which I mean, this one). Here’s a great interview with Malcolm Gladwell by Eric Metaxas at an event Metaxas hosts regularly in New York City. I love this. Dick Cavett totally steals the scenes for the seconds he is in them, but the rest of the interview is great too.

Malcolm Gladwell: David and Goliath from Socrates in the City on Vimeo.