Two Reviews/One Announcement.

I'll get to my "big announcement" in a moment but let's start with the reviews I ran across. The first is of the 2011 anthology "Legends, Denim & Silver" which featured my stark monster hunter story "Finally, the Source." This is still my favorite review of anything I've had published mainly because the reviewer really gets me, man! The response was exactly what I was going for, which is a rare thing indeed:

 

Finally, The Source barely edges out the tales as my favorite in The Monster Hunters section, if only for its fantastic 'oh shit, did you just go there?!' ending. Wilson, a monster hunter, is recruited by the Nightmare Guild — his arch enemies if there ever were any — to take out the cause of all strife; for both monster and humans alike. After his eyes are opened to the trouble this new target has caused, he reluctantly takes on the task. While I suspected the ending before it came, I have to admit that it was still surprising that author Christopher Nadeau carried through with it. Sure it can be argued that his ending is open ended, but not so much that, yeah, that just happened.

Read the entire anthology review here.

The other review doesn't mention me or my story but it is by the prestigious Publisher's weekly of the anthology pictured below:

  

 

 

You can read that review here.

 

You may be wondering why I ran across these reviews, or maybe you're thinking, "This MF's ego is off the charts! He's just randomly Googling reviews of his older work and then posting about it. How sad. What a tiny, pathetic man." Any other time you'd be right but this time I am doing it for a good reason. This is where the announcement portion of our program comes into play.

 

*Cue the trumpets*

 

I have finally decided to compile a short story collection comprised of previously published works, work that was published but is no longer available, and previously unpublished work.  I even know which publisher I would like to send it to. So, shot in the dark, I know, but if there are any stories of mine you've read and feel deserve inclusion, feel free to let me know. I've already created a list but it's not written in stone.

 

IF HARLAN ELLISON ISN'T AN AUTHOR YOU ADMIRE, YOU'RE PROBABLY NOT MUCH OF A WRITER.

Despite the clickbaity tone of this post's title, I mean it. Although I guess I'll add the caveat that you don't actually have to see Ellison as a hero but you should at least admire him and his talent. I don't care if you thought he was an abrasive asshole and your delicate Middle American/Southern/Whereever-the-hell-else sensibilities were wounded. The man's brilliance shines through his behavior and his absence from this mortal coil is felt daily, especially by those of us who find the current crop of event TV series mostly banal and lifeless.

Ellison not only defended the written word with his every breath but he also stood up for the writer as a professional who deserved recognition and, damn right, to get paid. One of my favorite Ellison interactions involved him receiving a telephone call from a represenative of a film company that was working on a "Babylon 5" documentary. Ellison served as a consultant and wrote for the show. When the woman expressed shock that the world-famous author wanted to get paid for his time and advised him it would be good publicity, he exploded.

"Do you get a paycheck?" Ellison then asked. "Does your boss get a paycheck? Do you pay the telecine guy? Do you pay the cameraman? Do you pay the cutters? Do you pay the Teamsters when they schlep your stuff on the trucks? Would you go to the gas station and ask them to give you free gas? Would you go to the doctor and have them take out our spleen for nothing?" Quote source. 

Publicity. Sounds a lot like "exposure," which is the preferred word for not paying authors these days. Imagine having the utter cluelessness or arrogance to tell an award-winning science fiction author that. The pervasive devaluing of writers and our craft, especially in the U.S., is beyond dishgeartening. I think the only field that gets it worse is the teaching profession, which is indeed a profession and not a service industry job.

So, no. You don't have to like him. You don't have to like anybody. But if you're a writer, particualrly of any form of genre fiction and you don't admire him (the man stood up to that control freak Gene Roddenberry) then you're probably someone who should rethink their choice of vocation.

Because it is indeed a vocation, which is exactly what Ellison was reminding people of when he sat in that window (pictured above) and went to work every day until he was sarisfied with his output. Ellison could have taken the easier way out like so many so-called "writers" these days who basically operate sweatshops with starving writers doing all the work while they slap their names on the cover. He, unlike they, deserves your respect.




*Purchase the Grandmaster's book "Under Glass" here.