For those of you a tad bit depressed by Paul Auster's rather dour assessment of writing as a profession that matters ("In other words, art is useless, at least when compared, say, to the work of a plumber, or a doctor, or a railroad engineer. But is uselessness a bad thing? Does a lack of practical purpose mean that books and paintings and string quartets are simply a waste of our time?"), I point your toward Terri Windling's definition of "Necessary Stories" in general, and Charles de Lint in particular: "The right stories, read at the right time, can be as vital as shelter or food. They can help us to escape calamity, and heal us in its aftermath."
I love her, and am a shameless and hopeless de Lint fan.
(And the whole new issue of Green Man Review is dedicated to de Lint's work - check it out)
Susan Townsend reveals the ramifications of taking Type 2 diabetes far too casually all her life to the Scotsman - she is now basically blind. It's clearly a very sad situation, as she admits to being a great reader all of her life. But how she got this way is a bit of a mystery to me. She explains at one point, "But, in many respects, I've only myself to blame. I used to keep my blood sugar deliberately high so that when I was working in the rehearsal room, say, on one of my plays, I didn't disturb anyone at quiet moments by unwrapping a Mars bar if I felt I was about to slip into a coma." That's just not at all how it needs to go with Type 2 (or even Type 1 for that matter), and I can't help but think she had a lot of bad medical advice along the way. Diabetes will kick your ass if you let it, you just have to follow the rules and never let it get that out of control in the first place.
As reported by Endicott Studio (and lots of other places), Joe Hill won a World Fantasy Award for "Voluntary Committal". I have the chapbook (totally sold out) from Subterranean Press (I couldn't resist the description) and then got a copy of his book 20th Century Ghosts to review at Bookslut. Hill is just fantastic - really and truly - and I felt that way long before I knew about his famous father. I look forward to his new book, Heart-Shaped Box, which is due out in Feb from William Morrow but doesn't seem to be listed anywhere with a cover picture. (Scroll down on Joe's site to see it.)
