O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!
— Miranda, “The Tempest,” by William Shakespeare
All posts by Eric Robert Nolan
My beard has a name, and it is Grendel.
Seriously, it’s huge. I think it might soon require it’s own social security number.
I’m starting to think it might rival the face-manes of pals John Kerr and Pete Harrison. I’ll post pics when I can.
In other news, I am trying to pen a poem about a raven. Someone gave me a funny look and told me that it’d been done … apparently there’s ANOTHER poem about a raven by a well known poet?
I’ve got submissions in to a few online publishers, for flash fiction and poetry — I’ll let you know if anything is accepted.
I wrote a zombie long story that actually DOES have a main character based on me, which is a first. His name is Steve, and he’s inquisitive and physically quick. Also penned my first (and predictably dark) time-travel tale, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.
And I’m hard at work behind the scenes on a major project as well. I hope everyone is having a terrific holiday season!!!
Looking for a magazine to which to submit a mythology poem.
It’s an allegory to Homer’s “Odyssey.”
Wish me luck. I don’t know what my chances are … these things are so hit or myth.
Merry Christmas to all my friends!!
I hope that yours is joyous, peaceful, warm and fun. 🙂
Stephen King’s “Mr. Mercedes”
Stephen King’s “Mr. Mercedes” is a terrific thriller that will be sure to please his fans. It’s the story of very unlikely heroes and friends pursuing an at-large, highly intelligent and remorseless spree killer/serial killer.
It is occasioanlly slow. We spend way too much time getting to know Hodges, for example, before his character becomes either likable or even plot-relevant. But this is forgivable for such a great book. I loved the characters and found certain scenes touching. And the character development for the eponymous Mr. Mercedes is consistently disturbing.
And for horror fans … Jeez, does this book deliver. It’s a frightening story, to say the least. One part, involving a certain mixup (I can’t say more without spoilers), is positively horrifying, even by Stephen King standards.
My pal Steve Miller told me that this is the start of a trilogy — I can’t wait for the next installment.
Meet me under Debbie’s Blue Umbrella.
“To take arms against a sea of troubles …”
To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
The Oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s Contumely,
The pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,
The insolence of Office, and the Spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare Bodkin? Who would these Fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered Country, from whose bourn
No Traveler returns, Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.
Thus Conscience does make Cowards of us all,
And thus the Native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o’er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action. Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia. Nymph, in all thy Orisons
Be thou all my sins remembered.
— Shakespeare, “Hamlet”
A veritable flood of ideas for short stories —
— characters, motivations, voices, plot connections. Their lives touch or intersect when an overarching mystery threatens them all. I can hardly write fast enough to get it all down.
And yet … I can’t manage a single word of poetry. Assonance, aliteration, metaphor … I reach and it’s just not there, which has never really happened before.
The human brain is a strange thing.
Anyway, alums … with the above, I am starting what I hope will be a set of five closely connected short stories — Mary Washington College will be in the backstories of many characters (i.e., college students on holiday break).
Publication Notice: Dead Snakes features “Busy Scissors” Haiku
Editor Stephen Jarrell Williams at Dead Snakes was kind enough to feature a haiku I wrote today. Enjoy “Busy Scissors.”
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/12/eric-robert-nolan-poem.html
Thank you, Stephen! 🙂
A quick review of “Iron Man 3” (2013)
I love all the “Iron Man” movies, and I was never even a fan of the comic book character. They’re the smartest movie franchise Marvel’s got going, with more plot, story and characters, all combined with the action and special effects for a great comic book movie. (They’re only real competitor in these areas would be Spider-Man 2.) This was just great – I’d give it a 9 out of 10..
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 