Notes from my Bubble (1)

[greygirlbeast]

My thanks to everyone who braved the storm on Saturday night to attend the Brown reading. Special thanks to Barry Dejasu, Bob Geake, and the rest of bookstore's staff, for inviting me and organizing the event (and thanks to Barry for the wonderful Charles Fort omnibus edition!). I read portions of chapters Six and Seven of The Red Tree. There are two or three photos, below, behind the cut.

Also, my thanks to everyone who bid in the most recent round of eBay auctions.

Saturday night, after the reading, readingthedark treated me and Spooky to a very fine Indian dinner on Thayer Street. Outside, the rain was coming down in buckets. Walking to the car, my feet got soaked. Geoffrey accompanied us back to the house, and we stayed up until about 3:30 a.m., talking about anything and everything: Lovecraft, Crowley, music, witchcraft, the impending environmental collapse, misanthropy, writing and writers, chess, our misspent youths, the publishing industry, David Lynch, peculiar cats, and whether pigs have wings. It was a very fine evening, and it made me wish I had people over more often.

Yesterday was sunny and not-quite-cold, and Spooky and I were determined to get out and enjoy the autumn foliage, as it's falling fast. We made it down to her parent's place in Saunderstown, and got eggs, and picked apples for pies. I also picked up three ticks, but found them before the little bastards had a chance to bite. Spooky's mom gleefully incinerated them. Her dad's heading to Venezuela next month. But before stopping by the farm, we stopped in Wakefield, and admired the leaves, and a brilliant sun dog, from the bridge over over the Saugatucket River. The water was stained a dark black from tannin, and was very still and high. Indeed, it was so still, there was not a trace of current, and I suspect the dam's spillways might have been backed up.

Before Wakefield, we stopped at a deserted, decrepit house on Old North Road. The property is for sale, but the house itself, which must be at least a century old, is beyond saving. A man named Robert Mulholland lived there until a year or two ago, and apparently, all of his belongings were left in the house. Since then, the weather and vandals have not been kind to the place. We didn't risk the sagging roof and exposed nails to venture inside. We found a wonderful piece of pottery, and a china tea cup, and carried those away with us. That enormous slumping house, lost in a chest-high sea of brown ragweed, seemed to radiate (or at least focus) a sort of despair and desolation. Being there, and seeing the cast-off remnants of someone's life, abandoned like that and left to rot, the effect was ultimately more sad than creepy. That place, and all those decaying possessions, were once important to someone.

On the way back to Providence through Slocum, we saw the most spectacular sunset. It was almost a perfect day, and I get so few of those.

We took over a hundred photographs, and I'll be posting selections from them during the next few days.

---

I was pleased to get a very flattering mention in "Jonathan Maberry’s Big, Scary Blog," in his article "Still Scary After All These Years," which is a sort of compound interview with Del Howison, Joe Lansdale, Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Golden, Deborah LeBlanc, Scott Nicholson, Ellen Datlow, Ray Garton, David Wellington, and Joe Nassise. When asked, "Who is writing good horror today?." Joe replied:

Caitlín Kiernan – A phenomenal writer who doesn’t get the public recognition she deserves for her work, Kiernan is a deft hand at creating worlds in which the supernatural is alive and well and hungry. She’s the type of writer that can make me doubt myself and throw up my hands in despair at ever being so good. Her Darcy Flammarion stories, featuring an albino teenager who speaks to angels and slays monsters lurking in human guise, are crafted extremely well and her novel length works, particularly her latest, The Red Tree, are fabulous. She’s a writer who cares about every word that goes on the page, it seems.

To which I can only reply, how can a writer not care about every single word that goes on the page? Regardless, as I said, I'm flattered, even if I prefer not to be considered a "horror writer."

---

Here are the photos from the reading Saturday night:





It was a very bright room.



Even when you blow this cover up to GIGANTIC proportions, I'm still not very fond of it.



All photographs Copyright © 2009 by Kathryn Pollnac and Caitlín R. Kiernan.

Comments

[theninth.livejournal.com]

I don't think of you as a horror writer. I think of you more as a storyteller. Reading what you write is more like having someone tell me a story rather than me just reading one.

[thimbleofrain.livejournal.com]

It’s nice to hear you sounding like this.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

...a deserted, decrepit house on Old North Road...

And your paragraph there did a commendable job of conveying the desertion, and the falling, and the sadness layered on the place. Thank you for writing that.

**

I hope no one asked if you were trying to dress like Constance-from-the-cover.

**

Thought of camping there 'til Sarah Vowell arrived?

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Well, camping at Stark Auditorium, not at the bookstore. Though a bookstore may be an interesting place to sleep...

[sovay]

I am glad it was a fine evening. I am sorry to have missed the reading; we were pumpkin-wrangling. There will be pictures.

We found a wonderful piece of pottery, and a china tea cup, and carried those away with us.

Those words sound like a sepia photograph.

[humglum.livejournal.com]

Those words sound like a sepia photograph.

It's funny you say that, as I took a good number of photos there with the camera set to "sepia".

[sovay]

It's funny you say that, as I took a good number of photos there with the camera set to "sepia".

Post?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

It's coming.

[scarletboi.livejournal.com]

I miss hearing you read.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I miss hearing you read.

I just miss you and Kat and JP, period.

[scarletboi.livejournal.com]

We have to find a way to make our paths cross again. We miss you two terribly.

Great minds!

[jadakath.livejournal.com]

OMG - you are on a poster with SARAH VOWELL !!! :-)
Geeky worlds collide...

[thimbleofrain.livejournal.com]

And the idea that you can tell how much an author “cared” about a work they’ve created from reading that work is an interesting one. I think that when people read stories that seem well-crafted to them, they believe that the author cared deeply about them.

I have always cared, and deeply, and I have written my share of poor prose. So heart alone isn't enough.

Does heart matter at all, ultimately?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I have always cared, and deeply, and I have written my share of poor prose. So heart alone isn't enough.

Sadly, no, it's not.

I do think "heart" matters, though defining "heart" might be a bit tricky. I think it's a quality that falls into necessary, but not sufficient.

[thimbleofrain.livejournal.com]

I do agree that writers must care about each and every word in order to produce their finest work (although I do think there is such a thing as caring too much). But do you believe that caring can actually be felt in the writing itself? It doesn’t matter to me if it can be defined. Is it there at all? I would like to believe that it is—probably because I believe my own writing would have a lot of it—and that it adds value. But I’m kind of a romantic.

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

A man named Robert Mulholland lived there until a year or two ago, and apparently, all of his belongings were left in the house.

This makes me think of The Red Tree, except for the house's decrepitude. I think it's the remaining belongings that sparked the connection.

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing.

[tinkbell.livejournal.com]

David Lynch made it to Brown once, to promote transcendental meditation. He has an interesting voice and a particular way of saying "bliss" that I remember when looking at the Buddhist Lite Yogi teabags.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Glad you made it. Only, next time, you actually have to talk to me.

[tinkbell.livejournal.com]

I spend too much time in school these days, so at least I didn't take notes.

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I guess we semi-met, talking to Kathryn. It was a pleasure.

[tinkbell.livejournal.com]

oh yes, hello!

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

Geoffrey accompanied us back to the house, and we stayed up until about 3:30 a.m., talking about anything and everything: Lovecraft, Crowley, music, witchcraft, the impending environmental collapse, misanthropy, writing and writers, chess, our misspent youths, the publishing industry, David Lynch, peculiar cats, and whether pigs have wings. It was a very fine evening, and it made me wish I had people over more often.

Thank you for making a list of what we talked about, I had too much fun to notice or remember what I was prattling about. It was a delight to see both of you.

I think I left a metal clipboard behind, so we'll have a chance to actually use the chessboard eventually...

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I think I left a metal clipboard behind, so we'll have a chance to actually use the chessboard eventually...

Yes, you did. It's safe. It was all a plot, of course, to lure you back.

[possumqueen.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! Barry is my convention-going room mate! I dragged him to ReaderCon this summer past and that's where he first met you. -smiles- Hope all went well. (I was in Washington, DC, for the Marine Corps Marathon, otherwise I would have been there.)