| Author | Message | ||
     Matthew_fell (Matthew_fell) Username: Matthew_fell Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.188.106 |
We're pleased to announce that Ash-Tree Press will shortly be issuing an eBook edition of Joel Lane's THE EARTH WIRE, originally published by Egerton Press in 1994 and out of print now for some time. Meanwhile, check out other Ash-Tree eBooks at www.ash-tree.bc.ca/eBooks.htm | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.211 |
A great book! Definitely needs more readership. So congratulations to all concerned. In the meantime, I'm now going to keep quiet about my views on ebooks! (Sighs of relief all round). | ||
| Jonathan (Jonathan) Username: Jonathan Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.143.178.131 |
'Tis very very good. All with e-readers should buy a copy. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I have the real thing and it's a blinding collection! I'd describe it more as subtly unsettling weird fiction, in the Walter de la Mare or Robert Aickman mould, than out and out horror. There's also an element of European or Latin American flavoured magic realism about Joel's stories. By that I mean a quality I have only ever encountered in those kind of tales before - by your Dino Buzzati or Julio Cortázar, say. From experience of this one book he is an exceptionally fine writer of the "less is so much more" school. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.183.126.98 |
I have the book too, and it's wonderful. I picked it up at WorldCon in Brighton last year from one of the dealers, and got Joel to sign it there. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.166.73 |
Fandabidozi! I already have the hard copy but I'll buy a copy of the ebook just for the hell of it! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Oh, irony, thy name is...erm, Joel?  On a serious note, this book was a key title in my education into the school of weird fiction. I bought the original Egerton Press edition all those years ago, and was utterly blown away. Joel's been one of my favourite writers in any genre since. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.150.135.246 |
From Blue to Black is the next book on my TBR pile. he is indeed a rather talented chap. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.13.177 |
Thanks for the kind comments, folks, and thanks to Chris (aka Matthew) for the announcement. Stevie, apart from Borges I had no experience of Latin American literature in my twenties (when the book was written), and still don't have very much. But European literature of various kinds was quite an influence, especially Hesse and Genet. On the whole, though, those early stories were more influenced by people I knew than by what I'd read. I was mixing (never mind what) with some wonderfully strange, bittersweet, disturbed, stained, ambivalent people. It wasn't an easy time but every week brought new inspiration. Now I spend my time mostly with reasonable people and things are so much easier and duller... Zed, I take your point, but it's about being able to respond positively to a changing world, not just holding onto an abstract position. Which, I recognise, is the point you've been making. It's about dialectics.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.156.210.82 |
it's about being able to respond positively to a changing world, not just holding onto an abstract position Aye, that's exactly it. Remember to take your insulin. (tee-hee) | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
But Borges is to Latin American weird fiction what Poe is to the English language, Joel. I urge you to explore more and come out with your muse refreshed. The sly political content of your stories and the understated rage, channeled into images of startling melancholy, would find its perfect bedfellow in the kind of fiction that only life under a brutal regime - as in Latin America or Eastern Europe under the Soviets - can inspire. I've read 'Steppenwolf' (at perhaps too young an age) and found it somewhat heavy-going but with passages of incredible transcendence that always had me intending to return to Hesse as an adult. Have you read any of Knut Hamsun? 'Hunger' (1890) is one of the most astonishing psychological horror novels I have ever read - it scarred me for a while (I felt the author was reading my thoughts as I read it) and I've collected every one of the man's books I could get my hands on since. Highly recommended! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.10.188 |
Stevie, I bypassed Hunger for some unaccountable reason, possibly because I'd read that Hitler praised it (hardly a good reason: I don't avoid dogs because Hitler liked them). I think Zed loves that book as well. I'll make it my business to track down a copy. If you're not familiar with Genet, try Funeral Rites. It's a painfully beautiful, tender, violent, desperate work. My whole sense of what writing could do changed when I read that, back in 1986. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Indeed, I read both Hunger and The Wanderer many years ago, when I doscovered that Hamsun's novels were a big influence on Charles Bukowski (my favourite writer). Excellent novels - very atmospheric and odd. Funnily enough, I picked up the recent Cannongate edition of Hunger a couple of months ago so that I could re-read the novel. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Where I found myself oddly traumatised but overwhelmingly impressed by 'Hunger', and its nightmarishly unrelenting quality, it would seem Adolf found himself inspired to "great things" by reading it - no doubt as a struggling young artist - which is a terrifying thought. Never have I read a more convincing or emotionally powerful or poetically surreal portrait of a descent into complete and utter madness - not even in Poe or Melville. The book is like a sledgehammer blow to the inner senses, imho. | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 216.232.188.106 |
Just a word to let everyone know that Joel's The Earth Wire is now available as an e-book from Ash-Tree Press. You can order it through Amazon (for Kindle), or in Kindle or ePub formats direct from Ash-Tree Press at www.ash-tree.bc.ca/eBooks.htm | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.38.217 |
Thanks to Ash-Tree Press for swift and dedicated work to make these stories available once more. First published in 1994, The Earth Wire has been out of print for nearly a decade. Now lots more people can tell me how much better my work used to be! | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.16.70 |
I know the feeling, Joel... | ||
| Steve Bacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.204.111.235 |
I managed to pick up a resonably-priced copy of the original book a few months ago. It's great to see it reaching a wider audience in this way. |