Book Review: Two Western Classics by Elmore Leonard

Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3: Valdez is Coming & Hombre by Elmore Leonard
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A pair of novellas courtesy of Leonard, a master of action and the sage of terse economical prose. Back in the day, these tightly-crafted tales were both made into films.

Race, revenge, and romance propel "Valdez," the story of an upright sheriff seeking justice for the wife of a slain man. However, the cruel gunrunner most responsible for the death is uninterested in pleas for compensation from Roberto "Bob" Valdez. The gunrunner's vicious rebuff unleashes a series of violent events that terminates in a showdown with reputations and lives at stake. The narrative is made more complex by racial status and an unsolved murder. Crisp and fast-moving.

"Hombre" is but one of many names carried by John Russell, a Mexican boy stolen by Apaches, rescued and schooled by whites, who returns for a time to live among the Indians on a reservation. During a stage coach journey, Russell is shunned as an outcast by his fellow passengers. But when all lives are menaced by a gang of ruthless outlaws, Russell's warrior skills and knowledge of the desert make him the leader of the passengers, a group roiled by greed and conflicting loyalties. In this taut little saga, Leonard questions the emptiness of racial prejudice as well the tricky nature of who to help and when.

Two well-written compact stories for those catching up on their reading in uncertain times.

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Book Review: Irreal Fiction Focuses on Dreams

The Irreal Reader: Fiction & Essays from The Cafe Irreal by G.S. Evans
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An anthology of short stories most strange, but that's the nature of irreal. Irreal is defined as "works of fiction in which physical reality reflects psychological reality in a manner that imitates the reality of a dream." Hence, the reader samples fragments both deeply personal and very international in their use of generally recognized symbols.

In these pages you'll encounter a doctor skilled at diagnosing love, the happenings in a town that caught a Minotaur, and a young man who receives a new father courtesy of the CIA.

I missed a great deal of the symbolism. But taken for what they are, the tales are overall intriguing. My main critque was the large number of essays in the back defining irreal, separating it from surreal, allegory or magical realism. While well-written and concise, the essays occupied around a third of the book. Like the literary style they explain, less is definitely more.

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Flash Fiction Hacks

Writing a Story in a Thousand Words or Less

I've got three such tales in the works right now. This two-minute video proved helpful in focusing in on what's important in a tiny tale. 

Melissa R.

The Power of a Single Positive Word

"Concentrated Humanity"

Viennese psychiatrist Viktor Frankl lost his family in the Nazi concentration camps. Later, he wrote a powerful book on his own experiences in Auschwitz and other hellish locales. Entitled Man's Search For Meaning, Frankl theorized that "the desire for meaning is more fundamental to the human experience even than the desire for pleasure or power."

If you're battling the pandemic blues, or shut-in with others who are down in the dumps, here is a six- minute clip with suggestions that could change your day for the better. 

Noetic Films

Story Du Jour #11

All Story Du Jour tales are available online and free! A small presentation in these trying times.

Speculative Fiction

The Colored Lens

"The Memory Jar" - by George Lockett

5,227 words

A married woman discovers that giving someone a piece of your mind can have devastating consequences. 

Here's a sample of the writing:

"That night, Anna slipped out of bed and back into David’s office. She took the jar from its cubbyhole and padded up to the linen closet. If she stooped her head, she could just squeeze herself into the space beneath the bottom shelf. The closet was wholesomely warm, like being enfolded in a thick blanket. She pulled the door to, leaving a crack large enough to admit a shaft of moonlight, then held up the jar and watched the shapes inside.

The movement was faster now, almost eager, the darkest patches of oily blackness pressing up against the glass and spreading like ink before receding into the grey depths. The motion repeated. It reminded her of an octopus she’d once seen in an aquarium. It would climb the glass, then throw itself off the top and drift down the tank. It did this over and over. They could be playful creatures, the staff had said, but it seemed restless to her. Trapped."

More fiction fun soon. How's that?

Kurt Vonnegut's Short Story Hacks

Seven Reader-Centric Thoughts from a Pro

These have been around awhile, but they're always worth reviewing. Curt, witty and to the point.

h/t: GerryJustice

Happy Easter and Virtual Mass

You're Experiencing Technical Difficulties

My wife and I sat down before the computer for virtual mass via Facebook. The camera setting was too slow and the images pixellated, but we're not picky. About 2/3s of the way through, we lost the feed. Facebook uploaded an earlier mass. I slide forward to the interruption point and we finished the ceremony with a different priest.

So that's how the exercise of faith rolls in pandemic times. Hope all are well and safe.

Palmerdale Methodist Church