Ramblings of Jeff Somers, author
Jeff Somers (www.jeffreysomers.com) was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and regrets nothing. He is the author of Lifers, the Avery Cates series published by Orbit Books, Chum from Tyrus Books, and We Are Not Good People from Pocket Books. He sold his first novel at age 16 to a tiny publisher in California which quickly went out of business and has spent the last two decades assuring potential publishers that this was a coincidence. Jeff publishes a zine called The Inner Swine and has also published a few dozen short stories; his story “Sift, Almost Invisible, Through” appeared in the anthology Crimes by Moonlight, published by Berkley Hardcover and edited by Charlaine Harris. His guitar playing is a plague upon his household and his lovely wife The Duchess is convinced he would wither and die if left to his own devices.
Here we are again: Another week, another question from readers of this blog. This time, Shayral asks me to commit Cool Suicide and admit that I once played Role Playing Games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lIv9i0G1U0
Well, I don’t think any of you thought I was cool in the first place, so I guess no harm done.
Hola, a quick note: I’ll be reading in public as part of the Tandem Reading Series at The Cell Theater in New York, on Sunday, October 10th, 2010:
http://www.thecelltheatre.org/sunday-sept-12-2010-6pm-tandem-reading-series/
I’ll post again as the date draws closer with more details. I’ll be reading from The Terminal State, and I’m promised there will be cheap wine for all!
Friends, sometimes my readers astonish me. Which is what happened last week when Stoif astonished me by sending me this:
I mean, holy crow. Can’t wait to see the finished product!
The date on the video is 8-25-10 because I thought it would take longer to get it up there. Oh well. You can’t be competent more than 60% of the time, that’s my experience. This time around, I answer Jon Gawne’s question about action figures for the Avery Cates series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN5cUyBQKWY
BEST. AJA. EVER.
NOTE: This little essay discusses the 2009 film Exam, and contains spoilers pretty much from the first sentence. If you imagine you might someday watch this film and fear spoilers, read no further.
Exam is a small little movie I’d describe as Sci Fi, though it’s main thrust is mindfuck/thriller territory. It’s one of a few recent SF films (another that pops to mind being Cube) which combines low budgets made to look slick by the simple expedient of setting the entire movie in one room, more or less, and the plot engine of several disparate people who must work together despite mistrust and paranoia to surmount the plot obstacle. They’re also usually extremely high-concept, with tight little premises that appeal to me. I love a story that turns on one simple but potentially brilliant device.
When I was a kid in grammar school, we were once given a test (this might have been 3rd or 4th grade, I forget). We were told to read all of the instructions before beginning the test. There were about 50 instructions/questions on the page, starting with “Write your name on top of this sheet” or something similar. If you read all the way to the bottom, the last instruction said “Do not perform any of the instructions before this one”. In other words, the whole point of the test was to teach us that good drones in society always pay very close attention to instructions — the kids who started working immediately and didn’t read all the way through failed, where those of us who read everything and smugly put our pencils down passed.
To this day, I’m not sure if passing was a good thing. Am I smart, or just exceptionally well-trained by my societal masters?
Ah, another week, another question from our readers. This one comes from Patty Blount:
Wasn’t that entertaining? Don’t you want to buy books now? Of course you do!
It’s fantastic to see reviews of your books pop up years after they’ve published. Here’s a smattering of reviews that have popped up on the Intarwebs recently, just in case someone is inexplicably reading my blog but dithering on whether or not to buy my novels (inexplicable because of the mind control subliminals I use, naturally. HOW ARE YOU RESISTING THEM? I’ll have to unleash the winged monkeys on you instead).
So what are you waiting for? Oh, right: Someone to give the books to you, or someone to sell you one for a penny on eBay. Bastards!
Why not? I have nothing interesting to say today, so why not post some more of my lameTASTIC! guitar songs, and taunt the universe with my special brand of Cool[TM]?
While I’m no Eddie Van Halen or Les Paul, my guitar playing is a testament to the value of teaching: IF you could hear where I started a few years ago, you would be equally amazed at my progress.
Song270: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song270.mp3
Song271: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song271.mp3
Song272: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song272.mp3
Song277: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song277.mp3
Song283: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song283.mp3
Song288: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song288.mp3
Song289: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song289.mp3
Song290: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song290.mp3
Song292: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song292.mp3
Song294: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song294.mp3
Song_dirty_rap: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song_dirty_rap.mp3
Song296: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song296.mp3
Song297: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song297.mp3
Song298: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song298.mp3
Song300: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song300.mp3
Song301: http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/song301.mp3
The usual disclaimer: 1. I admit these are not great music; 2. I claim copyright anyway, so there; 3. No, I cannot do anything about the general quality of the mix, as I am incompetent.
Hola! Another video episode in my ongoing experiment, Ask Jeff Anything. This time, the question invites me to discuss my cats for two minutes. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
