Author Archives: ogresan

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About ogresan

Richard Parks' stories have have appeared in Asimov's SF, Realms of Fantasy, Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales, and numerous anthologies, including several Year's Bests. His first story collection, THE OGRE'S WIFE, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. He is the author of the Yamada Monogatari series from Prime Books.

As the Old Year Comes to Its End…We Skip Ahead

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Don’t panic. I’m not going to list New Year’s Resolution angst or get all nostalgic and maudlin about 2011. The year was…interesting. Not great, not terrible, just interesting. I got some work done, tried some new things, and in so doing realized I’d actually broken last year’s New Year’s Resolution, which is and was the only resolution I ever make–to keep doing what I’m doing as long as I can. All that means is staying in the game. I know very talented writers who have packed it in, and I resolve not to be one of them. Writing-wise, I kept on track, but technically my flirtation with DIY publishing violates the “keep doing what I’ve been doing” part of the resolution. So I’ll make the same resolution this year, with the understanding that “keep doing what I’m doing” has new components, and I always hope that “getting better” is in that process somewhere.

Enough about that. The “skipping ahead” part comes now. To 2013, to be more exact. Sean Wallace at Prime Books and I had agreed to do the first ever Lord Yamada story collection, and 2013 is the year. I don’t even have a title yet, but the bulk of the Table of Contents looks like this:

  • “Fox Tails”                                                      9100
  • “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge”                   13800
  • “A Touch of Hell”                                          9500
  • “Hot Water”                                                    6000
  • “The River of Three Crossings”                      6500
  • “The Bride Doll”                                             8100
  • “The Mansion of Bones”                                7100
  • “Lady of the Ghost Willow”                          8700
  • “Sanji’s Demon”                                              11,300
  • “The Ghost of Shinoda Forest”                        6,000
  • “The Tiger’s Turn”                                            8,900
  • “The Sorrow of Rain”                                        3,700

That number to the right is the word count. Just over half of the Yamada stories are novelettes, so 12 stories adds up to over 98000 words, a pretty respectible size. “The Bride Doll” was sold to an anthology that has yet to appear, and will probably wind up being published first in the collection. “The Sorrow of Rain” was the last story in the sequence and I was going to try it on Realms of Fantasy, but since that’s no longer an option I’ll note it here if it appears anywhere else beforehand. There will be at least one story original to the volume and available nowhere else. I’ll post more here once plans and schedule are more solid.

The quick evolution of the character should be really evident when the stories are read in sequence. “Fox Tails” was the very first, and I’d pictured Yamada as a sort of Heian Noire private eye, which wasn’t completely wrong, but when he reappears in “Moon Viewing at Shijo Bridge” it’s clear that he’s going in his own direction. After that I just went along, which I think was the right choice.

The Yamada novel will also probably appear in 2013, that’s To Break the Demon Gate, and that will be from PS Publishing, so 2013 might be a pretty busy year. 2012? I have no idea what’s shaking there. I guess we’ll find out as it happens.

Muse and Writer Dialogues #4

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FADE IN

 A room that passes for an office. There are bookshelves on one wall, a motley assortment of carvings, signed storyboards, and framed magazine covers on the free wall space. On the far wall is a medieval-style heraldic wall display of a cockatrice and a banner in bad Latin “Pullus non Est.”  Horizontal files sit beneath the window , and on top of those a free-standing rack holding Japanese swords. The computer desk is on the wall nearest the door, facing away from the window. Beside that is a printer on a stand. It’s a bit dusty.

Enter the Muse. Her appearance keeps morphing from a classical Greek goddess to something resembling a biker chick with long black hair, silver nostril ring and tats covering both arms. She has a sword in one hand and a crossbow in the other, and appears to be “Vogueing.” The Writer is sitting at his desk, looking thoroughly confused.

WRITER: What are you doing?

MUSE: My job.

WRITER: Which is?

MUSE: To inspire you, of course. I am a personified ideal of the act of inspiration. How am I doing?

WRITER: Depends. If  you’re trying to get my attention, it’s working. I just can’t figure out what it’s all for. So I’ll repeat—what are you doing?

MUSE: Posing for the eventual book cover. Most of those show an armed hottie in a ¾ turn rear view. How’s this? Continue reading →

Deck the Truck with “Hello Kitty!”

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Among the more obvious loot (argyle socks (traditional), an umbrella with the handle of a katana, rc helicopter), my wife got me a “Hello Kitty” steering wheel cover for my truck. The really funny thing was, she got me this one to replace the one that had worn out. My wife has an odd sense of humor, and she got me the first one as a joke, and was a little surprised when I called her bluff and used it. So in Mississippi, the heart of the redneck belt, I had the only light truck in the state with a pink “Hello Kitty” steering wheel cover. I used it until the thing fell to shreds.

And nobody ever said a darn thing about it.

So now I have a new one, which I plan to display proudly until it in turn falls to tatters, or the truck does. Even money on that one.

So happy holidays, everyone! May your days be full of joy and delightful incongruity.

Not a Review – Of a Book I Will Not Name

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 I used to review books. That is to say, I used to do it regularly. Back when SF Age of late lamented memory was still around, I even got paid for doing them. As a kid who grew up as a voracious reader that’s the sort of gig you wonder who you have to bribe or murder to get. I mean, paid to read books? Does it get any better than that? Yet by the time SF Age was coming to the end of its run, I was pretty much burned out on the whole idea. Not because I was forced to read books I wasn’t interested in. The esteemed editor, Scott Edelman, would always ask first and if the book didn’t interest me, I didn’t have to take the assignment. I can only think of one such case when I actually did turn one down, but it was always an option, and the books usually had something going for them that piqued my interest. I read a lot of good books in that time.

No, I burned out because the job eventually got too hard. Seriously. Continue reading →

What’s the Worst That Could Happen?

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When you’re trying to get into the head of a character, there are some easy questions to ask that might help. Questions such as: “What do they want?” “Why?” “What’s preventing them from getting it?” “What will happen if they do get it?”

Good, basic, and often useful, but to my mind the question that yields the most bang for your pluck is simply “What are they afraid of?” I admit that this is standard operating procedure if you’re talking about suspense/horror, but that’s too limiting. Even a comedy works best when fear is in the mix, and I submit that no writer really understands their characters if they don’t know what gives them the night sweats. Continue reading →