12 July '08

Summer Speed

This is turning out to be the summer of badminton. I'm ridiculously competitive when it comes to badminton, which doesn't result in any sort of ego gratification. As my friend and sometimes-business mentor Harvey Bravman says: "You can't really say you kicked the shit out of someone on the badminton court."

It hasn't all been lawn sports, of course. I'm working on a writing column and my forever-bounced around essay The Not-So-Lonesome Highway has finally found a home. The online journal Eclectica picked it up, and I'm pleased. Eclectica has been around since 1996, which is a millenium in interweb years. They put out a quality journal with little fanfare, and that achievement alone deserves your business. So check them out, whether you want to read my essay or not.

What else...some viewer mail:

Hello Micah:

I was confused when I read your Italian interview and you mentioned your next book is a blend of giallo, spaghetti western, and samurai. First of all, this seems like a complete departure from Gods. Second, what the hell are you doing writing giallo?

-F.M.

That interview suffers from some translation problems. First, I didn't say Jack the Bastard is giallo. I said JTB contains some giallo elements, which, looking back, was a naive description. Fun, but naive.

The spaghetti western/samurai bit was all true, and you're right. It is a complete departure from my first novel. Changing genres is something I've struggled with for years--as long as we writers hide behind the label of "literary" we should be free to introduce whatever genre elements we like. Should is the key word. It doesn't always work that way, and the challenge of the writer is removing as many should's as possible. Expectations do funny things to writers, least of all fomenting bitterness.