Circling at Well Told Tales

You can now listen to the podcast of my horror short story, Circling, over at Well Told Tales. You can leave a rating or comment if you so wish.

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

My Top 3 Reads of 2007

I read seventeen books in 2007, which is a pitiful tally any way you care to slice it. Yup, seventeen. One title every three. I wish it could have been more but working forty-two-and-a-half hours a week (and that’s before I even think about applying ass to chair) doesn’t leave me with much energy or opportunity to read. I miss those days, so infrequent now, when I could abandon everything and lose myself in a book for seven, eight, sometimes nine hours straight… (sigh)

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here are my top three favourite reads of 2007, none of which were published this year. Don’t read anything into that though since I only read three ‘current’ titles in '07.

In First Place:
Collected Stories Vol.1, Richard Matheson
-Fifty years on and most of these stories are still as fresh and powerful and relevant as the day they were written. Reading this was a humbling experience.

Second Place:
The Ambassador’s Son, Homer Hickam
-A superb storyteller. Nothing this guy has written has disappointed me. Nothing.

Third Place:
Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
-Staggeringly sharp prose. One incredible line, paragraph, and chapter after another.


If you haven't read any of these books or authors then I encourage you to head on over to your local library/bookstore/Amazon web site and look them up...

GUD Magazine #1, SF Diplomat Review, & some news...

GUD Magazine #1 has picked up a great review over at SF Diplomat. Here's what the reviewer Jonathan McCalmont had to say about my contribution:

“Unzipped” is a terrifying story. It is about a veteran of the war in Yugoslavia [actually, it's Iraq, Jonathan...] who is clearly consumed by psychological problems but is constantly attempting to keep his head above water. The story begins with his visiting a hooker for a bit of S&M, continues with his beating up his wife and ends with his thinking about flashing a bunch of teenaged boys in the hope that the police would drag him off and then beat the shit out of him in prison. It would be easy to write a story such as this and make it seem crass or sensationalist but Dines does an excellent job of getting across how conflicted and desperate for some kind of relief his protagonist is. This is memorable, powerful stuff.


And FINALLY some good news: after a long, long, long string of rejections...

Sunrise in Coat City will make its print debut in the forthcoming Best Of anthology from TQR. Unfortunately, I have no further details at this time.

And...

I've sold a second story (supernatural horror this time) to pulp fiction podcast site Well Told Tales, where I'm currently standing in the "Writer Spotlight." Drop by, hang out, listen to some stories, and leave a comment, if you like.

I'll be posting another blog with my round-up of 2007 very soon, so don't stray too far...