“You have picked a difficult subject for a biography.” – Robert Silverberg
Love him or hate him, Harlan Ellison was one of the most prolific and awarded writers of all time and influenced many who came after him, myself included. To quote one of Harlan’s closest friends, writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence), “Harlan is the guy who made me want to become a writer.” Same here, Mr. Olson.
I found A Lit Fuse to be a wonderful companion piece to much of what I’d already known about Harlan from interviews, articles, his Sci-Fi Buzz segments, YouTube videos, and Erik Nelson’s excellent documentary, Dreams with Sharp Teeth.
There were events and experiences in Harlan’s life that author Nat Segaloff glosses over and for which details can be found elsewhere (such as in the aforementioned sources). Then there are other aspects that are more thoroughly explored in Harlan’s personal and professional lives such as the making of A Boy and His Dog, his experiences on the 1980s Twilight Zone series, writing the screenplay for I, Robot based on Isaac Asimov’s novels, the Dangerous Visions anthologies, his disastrous marriages before Susan, and the illnesses that slowed him down later in life.
If Harlan Ellison is a difficult subject for a biography, that might be partly due to his reputation as a quarrelsome and cantankerous firebrand, but it’s also because Harlan’s life was replete with so many amazing experiences that it’s nigh impossible to encapsulate all of them into anything shorter than a tome or a multi-volume series. Nevertheless, Segaloff does an admirable job of presenting the human being behind the legend.
I started this book with the hope of finding more insight into how trauma affects the mind and body and I was not disappointed. Decades after growing up with violent—and often sadistic—physical and emotional abuse, I continue to struggle with bouts of depression and anxiety. We all know that the mind and body are inextricably connected, but The Body Keeps the Score taught me precisely how trauma affects mental and physical health at a deeper level. It opened my eyes to new treatments for overcoming toxic stress and trauma-based fears that are far beyond psychiatry’s “assembly line” practice of doling out pills to every patient.
Using a combination of neuroscience, empathy, and compassion, Bessel van der Kolk presents methods for becoming attuned to our minds and bodies through such methods as EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), neurofeedback, mindfulness, use of language (speech and writing), honing our self-regulation and emotional intelligence, and enhancing our social connections. Further, van der Kolk’s voice and writing style are captivating, turning what could otherwise have been a dry, stultifying academic textbook into an engaging and enlightening read.
For their second genre anthology, the amazing folks at Oddity Prodigy bring together 20 remarkable tales of witches, wizards, fairies, gods, trolls, werewolves, vampires, and many other fantastical creatures who roam the city streets both the day and night. Some are cruel and malevolent, others benign and helpful. As urban fantasy anthologies go, this one is a treasure.
Mix together a heaping cup of crime drama, a pinch of paranormal, a motley assortment of monsters, and a dash of creepy comedy and you get Toxic Candy, a thoroughly enjoyable and diverse collection of quick, fun stories from veteran suspense writer Weldon Burge. A few of my favorites include:
“The Old Man on the Porch” – An elderly man sits on his porch day and night, never moving, never speaking to his only neighbors across the street. Perhaps he’s not even human.
“Melvin and the Haunted Mansion” – Is a creepy ticket attendant of the Haunted Mansion ride in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware still hanging around four decades later, or is his ghost lurking among the mechanical monsters?
“To See the Elephant” – During the Civil War, a mysterious creature roams the battlefields, never straying far from the wounded and dying. No one knows what it is, until a Confederate doctor witnesses its horrifying manifestation.
“Vindictive” – A hitman finds himself haunted by the ghost of one of his recent targets, wreaking havoc with his next two assignments and putting him in hot water with his boss.
What happens when the illegal drug you’re taking splits your personality? That’s exactly what happens to Bob Arctor, a dealer addicted to Substance D, street name “Death.”
Fred is a narcotics officer assigned to monitor’s Bob’s activities. Only one problem. Bob and Fred are the same guy. Arctor’s situation becomes even more complex when the police set up holographic surveillance equipment in his house where he lives with two other junkies, Barris and Luckman.
Meanwhile, Arctor continues to buy Substance D from a young woman named Donna Hawthorne in hopes of getting to her supplier, but instead, falls in love with her. Eventually, Arctor’s addiction destroys his brain and lands him in a rehab center engaging its own nefarious activities.
While not my favorite Philip K. Dick novel (that’s a tie between Ubik and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said), he does a phenomenal job of portraying the brutal reality of drug addiction and its devastating effects on the mind and body. Dick’s invention of the “scramble suit” is a clever plot device that allows Fred to go unrecognized among this fellow officers and eventually, to Barris who attempts to betray Arctor to the police in Fred’s presence. Buckle up for a wild ride.