The short story THY FATHER’S LIES will be posted this Friday. Below is the cover image I created.
Sneak Peek at a new Wattpad Cover
Imaginary Beefcake Interview
The local gay bar paper/rag/newsletter has a section called Coverboy, which features beefcake pictures of a DC dweller, accompanied by an interview. It’s very reminiscent of The Jet Beauty and Page Three girl spread, only gayer. I will never make into those pages. And I am well aware that questions are tongue-in-cheek, and really, superfluous. But in an alternate world, where short and stocky is considered hot these would be my answers.
Craig Gidney lives and writes in DC. When he’s not pounding out enthralling stories, you can find him hanging out with friends, sampling the city’s cuisine or being uncle to his adorable nephew and niece. His hobbies include visiting museums, watching cult films and, of course, reading.
What’s on your nightstand?
I don’t really have a proper nightstand. The thing that serves as a makeshift nightstand holds my alarm clock.
What’s in your nightstand drawer?
Manuscripts full of my failed works.
What are your television favorites?
Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, American Horror Story
What was your favorite cartoon when you were a kid?
Speedracer
Who’s your greatest influence?
LaWanda Page
What’s your greatest fear?
A future dystopia controlled by the Religious Right.
Pick three people, living or dead, who you think would make the most fascinating dinner guests imaginable.
Diamanda Galas ; James Baldwin; H.P. Lovecraft. Diamanda would sing an aria, while Baldwin read Lovecraft the riot act.
What would you serve?
Macrobiotics
How would you describe your dream guy?
Someone with the soul of a poet, the compassion of a saint, the humor of Emo Phillips. But I’ll take hot over that any day.
Who should star in a movie about your life?
Alfonso Riberio.
Who gets on your nerves?
Devotees of Ayn Rand.
If your home was burning, what’s the first thing you’d grab while leaving?
My cat. Though she wouldn’t appreciate it.
Who’s your favorite musical artist?
Right Said Fred.
What’s your favorite website?
Goatse.cx
What’s the most unusual place you’ve had sex?
In the catacombs beneath Paris. With a C.H.U.D.
What’s your favorite food to splurge with?
Anything with lots and lots of saffron.
What’s your favorite season?
Winter. It’s a season of death.
What kind of animal would you be?
A cassowary. They look like a cross between a turkey and a velocioraptor, and can eviscerate you with a single kick.
What kind of plant would you be?
A corpse flower.
What kind of car would you be?
A jalopy
State your life philosophy in 10 words or less.
Watch it, sucker.
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FICTION: Quench by Craig Laurance Gidney. TW-violence, homophobia. Inspired by a Throwing Muses song.
I wrote the story “Quench” after listening to a song by Throwing Muses, entitled “Vicky’s Box,” about twenty years ago. The story is about a lost young man and his sexual compulsions. It’s a kind of realistic horror story, and closely mirrors the sad story of the late Matthew Shepard.
You can read the story over at Wattpad.
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The Importance of Visibility: Patrick Ness at the National Book Festival
Last Saturday, I got to hear author Patrick Ness speak at the National Book Festival. I’ve read his Chaos Walking series, and am looking forward to his adult novel. He writes high concept fantasy and science fiction that deals with gender issues.
He was a charming speaker with a nice self-deprecating sense of humor. But the thing made me really like him was that he came out as a gay man in a nonchalant way. He alluded to his husband in an aside. I’m loving this way of being visible; the actors Zachary Quinto and Wentworth Miller went this route as well. Instead of a grand announcement, it’s just stated as a fact.
This is extremely important, especially for the audience he’s writing for. Gay youth are at risk for suicide in spite of increased acceptance. It also helps straight youth to have a happens-to-be-gay role model.
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BOOK REVIEW: City of Bones by Martha Wells. Proto-New Weird Fantasy
City of Bones by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An earlier entry in the Martha Wells oeuvre, City of Bones nicely balances her intricate, almost mystery-styled plots with her imaginative world-building. It’s admirable how the author manages a certain baroque richness to the prose, while maintaining a fairly action-packed, complex plot. The setting is a sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy world with a rigid caste system and strange rituals. Two outsiders stumble upon a mysterious artifact, and ultimately, a sinister world-threatening plan. The magic is magical and weird, and the suspense “pulse-pounding.” In a way, City of Bones fits into the New Weird aesthetic championed by China Mieville, in that it’s a little bit fantasy, a little bit horror, with a dash of science fiction and mystery thrown in for good measure. Fans of Mieville and Tanith Lee should check this book out.
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Imaginary Book Covers–Dreaming Darkness
I’ve been playing with a photo-editing software, coming up with book covers and titles for as yet unwritten tomes. I thought I’d share some.
First up, Dreaming Darkness.
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Childhood Heroes: Katherine Paterson & Susan Cooper at the National Book Festival
I had the opportunity to hear two of my favorite children’s book authors speak today at the National Book Festival. They were the rock stars of my childhood.
Katherine Paterson is mostly known for her excellent contemporary fiction for kids, notably Bridge to Terabithia and Jacob Have I Loved. But my favorites were her Japanese historical fiction. Both The Master Puppeter and Of Nightingales That Weep are meticulously researched adventures set in turbulent times, full of character and atmosphere.
The Grey King was the first Susan Cooper novel I read. It was maybe the first fantasy novel I’d read from cover to cover. It’s a dark tale, full of illness, madness and magic, with one of the most haunting endings I’ve ever read.
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Nina Simone/Zoe Coalrose
Fellow college alum Michael Dorfman pointed me to this fascinating 2010 article written by Joe Hagan about the mercurial Nina Simone. The article, entitled I Wish I Knew How To Be Free, uses Simone’s secret diary entries to cast light upon this talented but troubled woman.
Struggles with her identity, her marriage, her career and her sexuality are all revealed. It’s heart-breaking and illuminating.
Coalrose, one of my stories in my forthcoming collection is about a character loosely based on Simone. Zoe Coalrose is a kind of dark muse to the marginalized in magical realist/historical piece.
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NEW FICTION: His Medium by Craig Laurance Gidney. Inspired by a Kate Bush song
My story HIS MEDIUM is a piece of short horror fiction, influenced by a Kate Bush song, “Mother Stands For Comfort”.
Craig Laurance Gidney 
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