Overlord’s Pick: Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig asked me to buy his book. So I did.
He asked very nicely on Twitter. He pointed out that it was a collection of his short stories and that it was available on Kindle for $.99 for a short time. He pointed out he would shoot a kitten if I did not.
Okay…he didn’t say that last bit, but if his writing style is any indication, he was probably doing it anyway for fun. This is a compliment, believe it or not. Chuck Wendig’s style is so brash, so in-your-face, so ball-busting that I have no doubt that he eats buffalo-style kitten wings while he’s drinking himself into a stupor.
Again, to be clear: this is praise. I first discovered Wendig when Jay Lake linked to his Penmonkey’s Paean. This is a manfiesto about the craft of writing that contains such gems as:
These words march in the order I choose. They are my little bitches, cobbled together of letters and made to carry heavy notions and lofty ideas and character motivations and bad-ass non-stop mad ninja action. In this way they are like ants, carrying more than they should rightfully be able to carry.
They can even be forced into sentences that no one has ever written before. “Betty Scarpetti can take pictures with her robotic hoo-hah, and those pictures will steal your dreams and sell them to goblins working the Secret Carnival down in the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly.” See? Nobody has ever written that before. Every word journey is a Journey West. I am Lewis, and I am Clark. I am not the Donner Party.
These are good words. They made me smile, and they resonated. I took them to heart, reblogged the link, and promptly forgot the man existed. I am a fickle audience.
About two weeks ago, someone retweeted Wendig’s plaintive cry. “Buy my book! It is cheap right now!” Being cheap myself, I thought, “Isn’t that the clever fellow who made me smile? I liked his style. I shall purchase this book and make it my own.”
I’m glad that I did. Wendig’s writing is a bit like watching Harlan Ellison on a three-day-bender possess Neil Gaiman. There are fantastic things, horrible things, beautiful things that happen that sing with myth but suckerpunch you when you’re not looking. Not one of the short stories in Irregular Creatures was predictable. Not one of them was stale. They are living, hungry beings, and in the best tradition short story crafting, leave you wanting more at the end.
A brief sample of what you can find in Irregular Creatures:
DOG-MAN AND CAT-BIRD (A FLYING CAT STORY)
Joe’s got job woes and family problems, and it’s made all the more complicated by a cat who dies on his porch one night – or, so Joe believes. The cat is not only dead, but it appears to be some kind of improbable mutant: a cat with wings. The cat initially appears to complicate Joe’s life as he hides it from his family, but he soon learns that more may be at stake than he realized. Little does he know, a battle for good and evil, between Heaven and Hell, is about to be fought in his garage.
A RADIOACTIVE MONKEY
That bartender you really like, well, she just whipped up a potent cocktail called a “Radioactive Monkey.” Would you drink it? (Hint: you shouldn’t.)
PRODUCT PLACEMENT
Imagine one morning you wake up and you discover that the world is now home to products you don’t recognize but everyone else does. Flix candy bars? Jack Kenny whiskey? Burrito Hut? Donnie’s never heard of these brands, but those around him say such products are beloved and have been here for years. Donnie’s quest to discover the truth – and prove he’s not nuts – reveals a marketing and advertising scheme not of this dimension.
THE AUCTION
Benjamin’s father shows his son the secret behind his job: he is a buyer and seller of very forbidden things, magical things, objects of a fantastical purview. He takes his son to “The Auction,” a place where anything can be bought and sold: mythological creatures, insane machines, haunted and horrific artifacts. Benjamin is lead astray by a religious man with pious words but sinister intent. When Benjamin encounters a sickly mermaid on the auction block, can the boy step in and avert disaster?
BEWARE OF OWNER
A short story of how father teaches son: Dad teaches the boy that you don’t need to beware of a dog, but you damn well better beware of owner.
To sum up: Chuck Wendig is an author to watch. We have him under surveillance, and look forward to reading his novel, Double Down, when it arrives in November 2011.
About Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig is a novelist, a screenwriter, and a freelance penmonkey. He’s written too much. He should probably stop. Give him a wide berth, as he might be drunk and untrustworthy. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with a wonderful wife and two very stupid dogs. He is represented by Stacia Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency.
You can find his site at: http://terribleminds.com
Oh wow, I very much need to buy and read this. Thank you so much for the link!