That would be great to exchange chapters/ideas. I am still outlining but I have a chunk of the current novel in the form of a poem entitled "CBGBs and the Way Back Machine" that just got rejected by Literal Latte'. You could reach me at armstrong8613@gmail.com. I think I have everthing set up properly this time to take on such a daunting project. I currently have no friends outside of work, no girlfriend, no particular standing in the community, a 1TB external hard drive and Motorhead's "Overkill" playing on Spotify. In other words, I am all set. hahahaha
 
Pikini Death Ray said:

Hi Glen,

Hunger is a great read eh! Hamsen's (character's) madness is palpable and the whole novel has a feverish intensity. I haven't read any of his others yet but Pan and Wonderland are on my reading list.

I am actually working on an autobiographical novel myself at the moment. I don't have a lot of experience but fortunately I don't have to worry to much about the plot as it all has happened it's just planning the chapters and what to include and what not to. Although it does read like a novel so developing a narrative style and being consistent are important. I have found the I can loosely plan chapters with a pen and paper so I have a rough idea and then I just start typing. All of the chapters I have written have taken several re-writes and lots of editing but I have found that through this I am starting to develop consistency.

I have found the most important thing is to plan days where I can write and start early in the morning. These are usually the days when I get most done but it is also important to keep re-reading it when you get a spare moment so as you almost know it all off-pat. That way you can spot bad/lazy dialogue and make corrections. For me I have found that you have to be a little obsessed with the finer details but also keep one eye on the bigger picture and to just enjoy the process too. I know there is probably nothing groundbreaking here but I would be happy to exchange writing and ideas. I could send you some chapters to read and vice versa if you like?

Anyway good luck with your writing.

Cheers

PDR

Hi Glen,

Hunger is a great read eh! Hamsen's (character's) madness is palpable and the whole novel has a feverish intensity. I haven't read any of his others yet but Pan and Wonderland are on my reading list.

I am actually working on an autobiographical novel myself at the moment. I don't have a lot of experience but fortunately I don't have to worry to much about the plot as it all has happened it's just planning the chapters and what to include and what not to. Although it does read like a novel so developing a narrative style and being consistent are important. I have found the I can loosely plan chapters with a pen and paper so I have a rough idea and then I just start typing. All of the chapters I have written have taken several re-writes and lots of editing but I have found that through this I am starting to develop consistency.

I have found the most important thing is to plan days where I can write and start early in the morning. These are usually the days when I get most done but it is also important to keep re-reading it when you get a spare moment so as you almost know it all off-pat. That way you can spot bad/lazy dialogue and make corrections. For me I have found that you have to be a little obsessed with the finer details but also keep one eye on the bigger picture and to just enjoy the process too. I know there is probably nothing groundbreaking here but I would be happy to exchange writing and ideas. I could send you some chapters to read and vice versa if you like?

Anyway good luck with your writing.

Cheers

PDR

I have Hunger. I read it in the later 90s (?). Fabulous book. I should reread this, since it's been at least a decade. Such a great read.

Reading Niccolo Machiavelli's the Prince currently. Though this is a forced read for school, I'm really enjoying it. It's an honest brutal analyzation of the workings of politics.

Pikini Death Ray mentioned that the Hamsun title was a great influence on Charles Bukowski so I had to go read it. Though you can get it for free on amazon as an e-book, I got the 6 e-book Hamsun deal instead for $2.99. At least dead white males often come cheap!

A few pages into Hunger you may think you are reading a Bukowski novel, except that it was written in 1890 by Norwegian Knut Hamsun. It involves the trials and travails of a starving young writer who is reduced to sucking on wood shavings to alleviate his hunger pangs. The novel realistically describes the fever and delirium symptoms that accompany severe starvation. Although there is a mysterious woman in black, the novel is mostly introspective. There are no horse and buggy chases here. However, many consider Hunger to be the dawn of the modern psychological novel so it is well worth reading.

. . .

I am working on a novel myself with the aid of a book called 90 Days to Your Novel by Sarah Domet. At first I was skeptical that the title sounded too much like "20 days to rock hard abs" or something but the author emphasizes how Faulkner wrote As I lay Dying in six weeks. By outlining your manuscript before putting anything to paper you save a lot of time and confusion. I had a rudimentary outline but this reference book stresses creating scenes that stand alone as well as part of the whole. And the 90 days creates a first draft. I won't dither about the plot but there is a CBGB based setting in the novel. With my wretched schedule I may have to stretch the exercises out to more than 90 days. Anyway, I have never published anything longer than short pieces, so this is the proverbial Matterhorn.

Is there anyone out there who has published a novel or is working on one? Do you have any work habits to recommend or any good novel writing reference books?

  May I recommend "Telstar" , The Joe Meek biopic ? It's out on DVD ,now ,in the states , very well acted and directed ...The thin line between genius and madness cuts like a rusty blade through pudding (Pudding is soft in America.). Screaming Lord Sutch , Gene Vincent , The Outlaws and Ritchie Blackmore(Seen separately , it appears. This is one fast moving picture.) are all accounted for , though all too briefly. The movie deals , not surprisingly , more with The Tornados , and Meek's affair with his peroxided protege , Heinz ( I don't even remember if I ever read  that was true.), who later decides "Hey , I don't arf fancy birds ! What am I doing with this geezer?". Original recordings on the soundtrack , too.

I did not know Harlan Ellison went so far back. William S. Burroughs' Junkie was 1953 so I guess Ellison was pretty young when writing for the men's mags. I enjoyed Ellison's Deathbird Stories (1975) and the ending to the film A Boy and His Dog (based upon an Ellison short story then novella apparently) is one of the most sardonic in the history of film.

Sun Ra's great......

Makes me think of Blackboard Jungle :):):)


KICKS BOOKS PRESENTS HARLAN ELLISON!

Kicks Books NYC prepares for fireworks with its publication of the controversial collection PULLING A TRAIN, the explosive first volume of twisted early street fiction from noted scribe HARLAN ELLISON. 

Known worldwide for his landmark speculative fiction, Cleveland-born ELLISON initially rumbled onto the newsstands hell-bent for leather-- jackets, that is, and zipguns, and shivs, and brass knuckles, and all the accoutrements necessary for basic teen gang violence circa 1957. 

Inspired as a teenager in seeing a familiar placement of consonants in the byline of author Hal Ellson's novel DUKE, young Ellison began pecking out his own gritty tales about street kids, the forgotten flotsam of society. 

With a taste for printers ink, he would soon be selling stories with a vengeance to crime digests like Guilty, Trapped, Terror, and Web Detective Stories,  and men's magazines including Rogue, Caper, and Knave. Sometimes he used his given name, but most often, he traveled incognito onto the newsstands, passing as Ellis Hart, Derry Tiger, Cordwainer Bird, Lee Archer, and many more.  

A paperback collection of his street-wise crime tales saw proper issue in 1959 as THE DEADLY STREETS, as did his groundbreaking first novel RUMBLE, written from first person experience when Ellison (using his nom de guerre, Cheech Beldone) passed initiations into a pack of under-age Red Hook pagans on the Brooklyn waterfront. 

Also in 1959, a brown-paper wrapper collection of his men's magazine stories turned up unannounced (and under the counter) as the paperback SEX GANG,  the title of its novella-length lead story. The set of eleven stories was credited to "Paul Merchant", and went unclaimed by Ellison for decades.

Over the years, all of Ellison's books have enjoyed reissue, over and over again, and numerous collections of his short fiction have continued to see print. His adult-audience material, however, has remained unavailable-- until today.

For the uninitiated, we recommend consumption in very small doses. A damp towel and bed rest may be necessary. 

For the lively set, prepare to blast into orbit with blade-wielding ferocity as Ellison takes you into a cobblestone wilderness fraught with hate and violence, a street level cosmos where shadowy creatures are hard, and blunt, and malicious, and where hope hangs a shingle that reads, "GET LOST".

In the realm of 1950's juvenile delinquent fiction, it was Ellison who dragged the unnamed genre from the gentle hands of the social workers into a filthy basement, where he worked it over, with great satisfaction, into an alternate universe of hate and pain. Ellison is the king of JD fiction. Of this, there can be no debate.

PULLING A TRAIN by Harlan Ellison (KB4) Kicks Books, NYC. 176 pages. Publication date: May 27, 2012 $14.95 ISBN 978-09659777-5-3 Order NOW!


Yeah, I dug those too. It's crazy what they ask in tech specs these days to play games on a PC. Also, the stylistic change was kinda weird to me as well, I liked the roughed up detective type look they gave him in 1 + 2. But hey, squint that beard away, take that tank top and grimy street dirt and all the things that go up in flames and get bruised... tata: DIE HARD vibe ;) (...Oops, I said "Take That").

My computer is rather rubbish for gaming so I can't comment on any thing new, but the first 2 of the Max Payne franchise were a couple of my favorite games. They didn't have a Die Hard feel to them at all but, Max didn't look like Bruce Willis in them either.

I'm not a big Rockstar games fan, but they seem to have done right with this one! Looks like your bad ass action flic to go ;) Kinda like DIE HARD mangled thru ESCAPE FROM L.A. maybe? Out for PS3 and XBOX + PC here's a website: www.rockstargames.com/maxpayne3/

Thanks man! :)

Sweet! "Feather Bed" frame and vented drum brakes. Yes!!! Love it!

-don

Hey those Ducatis are real deal!!! I like 'em a lot, old ones and even today's bikes too!

I'm a Norton man myself... got a 650SS -67. Kinda cafe-racer.

Ride On!

Best Regards,

Kekka

I'm a confessed Ducati nut. Been riding for over 45 years. Used to do the track, now at age 65 I limit myself to the street. Back, two lane, mountain roads that curve and dip. Blood flowing. Exhaust bellowing. Woohoo!

-don

Just updated this with some new & weird releases that should be of interest to HIDEOUT readers. Enjoy!

And Thanks Stevel for your input!

Looks rad!! Classical shooter fun!

I liked the mobile version of RAGE: It was a three level rail shooter, first person kind of thing. Was it worth the dollars? Not sure but it satisfied my craving for the game before it came out on the consoles.

Have you heard of REPUBLIQUE? I know, both those look kinda like elaborate stuff, rather than quick fun, but hey...

Just bompin this one up, for all the newer people around here that could not get a hold of this thang.

Ok -- found another one -- this one: glam trash rock and roll legend Alice Cooper at his restaurant. Looks like Anthony B. using his show as an excuse to meet Rock LEGENDS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98IyNF1VqDY

Cool -- man, watching this made me hungry... and wanting to listen to Billion Dollar Babies!

m

Here's a good one...Hunger by Knut Hamsen (one of Bukowski's favourite authors). Well I though it was good anyway. Cheers.

Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to malign anyone's favorite book/author. I just enjoy finding perceived patterns then writing about them. I don't get a lot of time to write these days so this is a nice outlet. I'll see if I can find another book to crow about in a while and post the results.

I love Bukowski's books, I think his misogyny is often tongue in cheek and the person he hates the most is always himself. I didn't get on with Miller though I found Tropic of Cancer incredibly hard to read and just plain boring.

Glenn Armstrong said:

 

South of No North is the best collection of Bukowski short stories! I have a Black Sparrow Press edition. Black Sparrrow also used to publish authors such as John Fante and so on. I may attempt to read Henry Miller again but found him a bit misogynistic. Kerouac leans in this direction slightly sometimes but I give him a pass because the whole mother complex thing that he had probably tempers it a bit. Don't think Bukowski was a misogynist despite what some of his critics said. He was more of an equal-opportunity apartment court Casanova in my estimation.  Any opinions on this thematic riff? 
Allerleirauh said:

South of No North - Charles Bukowski

Under the Roofs of Paris- Henry Miller

In Watermelon Sugar- Richard Brautigan

Push -Sapphire

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Are what come to mind first.  Not including children's books and comics.

South of No North is the best collection of Bukowski short stories! I have a Black Sparrow Press edition. Black Sparrrow also used to publish authors such as John Fante and so on. I may attempt to read Henry Miller again but found him a bit misogynistic. Kerouac leans in this direction slightly sometimes but I give him a pass because the whole mother complex thing that he had probably tempers it a bit. Don't think Bukowski was a misogynist despite what some of his critics said. He was more of an equal-opportunity apartment court Casanova in my estimation.  Any opinions on this thematic riff? 
Allerleirauh said:

South of No North - Charles Bukowski

Under the Roofs of Paris- Henry Miller

In Watermelon Sugar- Richard Brautigan

Push -Sapphire

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Are what come to mind first.  Not including children's books and comics.

Kopper, I agree that Harley Davidson and Gone in Sixty were bad, but worst movie bad? I never saw the Gone sequel, but could it have been nearly as bad as any of the Fast and Furious flicks? Or either of those pieces of crap called Crank and Crank 2? I can sit through just about anything (I'm married, I sit through a LOT of shit) but those bad action movies that think the action is so damned good that any retarded story will carry it. Lynch films I like.