Craig Davidson

Saturday, February 25th

Oscar Madness!

Hi All,

Well, it's that time of the year again. The Oscars. And while I haven't seen enough movies this year to be truly in the grips of Oscar Madness, I can certainly say I'm in the grips of Oscar Mania. I don't have a full blown Oscar hard-on, like I did in years past, but certainly I am mildly aroused. I'm not giving birth to an Oscar BABY, as was the case in years past, though you might say...I've run out of comparisons. Perhaps right in time, too.

Anyway, my copy of Entertainment Weekly arrived today (funny story there: I was searching around the Entertainment Weekly site and, in order to access some areas, you need to fill in a form with your address, etc. So I did this and, some weeks later, the magazines started showing up in my mailbox. I never ordered them, so far as I know. I treated it as a gift; an administrational error in my favor. So the mags arrived week after week and then, out of the blue, a bill for them. Well of course I ignored it, seeing as I didn't think I'd ever ordered them and I have a habit of ignoring bills that show up in my mailbox, and parking tickets on my windshield, much to my detriment. Anyway, the bills keep coming and coming and in the end I figure the magazine's pretty good, I don't want the Entertainment Weekly goons to show up on my doorstep to crowbar my kneecaps, and it's only 20 bucks, so I sent a check.)...so the magazine arrives with all the Oscar categories and I thought I'd make my annual picks. You're welcome to disagree, if you like, but fair warning: even if my picks lose, they SHOULD have won. I'm never wrong, you see.

So, on we go with the picks...
Craig Davidson on 02.25.06 @ 05:52 PM EST [more..]

Tuesday, February 21st

2 New Reviews

Hi all,

Two reviews; one from US-based Bloomsbury review; another by the Guardian UK.

BLOOMSBURY REVIEW:

RUST AND BONE
Stories
Norton, $23.95, cloth
By: Steve Woodward

The American release of this collection of stories by Canadian Craig Davidson sears the senses on contact: the amount of blood an injured limbs strewn about is enough to make one physically ill. It never feels gratuitous, though---the emotional payoff is always deep enough to satisfy. Davidson has whittled his prose down to bare expression, eschewing pronouns and articles for a clean, spare feel, suited to the calculated violence of the stories. Bareknuckle boxing matches, illegal dog fights and amputee support groups fill the landscape, through which wander the characters. All of the main characters seemed bruised or broken in some way---severed limbs, fractured hands---and their emotional status is no better. Still, he manages to deal with substantial issues such as infertility, loss, and addiction in a way that indicates a latent sensitivity underlying the sheen of brutality.

The supple movement of protagonists in Davidson's hands is impressive; their emotions are shown largely through their actions, which are impulsive, bizarre, and ultimately human. Though initially far different than your average person, these characters work their way into you---nowhere near the heart, but somewhere in the abdomen, uncomfortable and close to your organs. Some of the stories overlap a bit, lending continuity to the book. An unknown repo man guilty of swiping a prosthetic limb turns up as the main character who has his own set of problems to deal with. These types of shifts are at time believable, though occassionally the characters would have been better left alone than reprising their roles as minor characters.

Though his prose is at times terse and tight-lipped, Davidson fascinates us with succinct details about boxing and the settings in which it takes place. The grime of a condemned warehouse or the humid melange of smells on a Thialand street literally swarm from the page and the working knowledge of the 27 bones in a human hand becomes the key to understading the plight of a boxer. Through such careful outlining of seemingly unimportant details the small moments of these stories expand infinitely, allowing the narrator to flit between present and past in a suspended glass of time. Similarly, any surface evaluation of the turbid swarm of action in these stories misses the meaning that hangs just below consciousness, always out of reach of the characters' grasps. Controlled pacing leads to gleaming bits of hope and insight, which ultimately point to the greatest revelation of all: Davidson isn't as tough as he wants us to think. Like his character Herbert in "The Apprentice's Guide to Modern Magic," we want to believe, and Davidson makes it impossible not to.

GUARDIAN UK REVIEW:

Rust and Bone, by Craig Davidson (Picador, £10.99)

Stark oppositions often pack the punch in these gritty tales about American (?!) tough guys on the ropes. Every time the young boxer of the title story smashes an opponent's face he remembers hacking at a frozen lake to rescue his little nephew: now he fights both to pay the brain-damaged boy's medical expenses and to punish himself. In "A Mean Utility", an advertising executive describes in filmic detail the vicious dog-fights he enjoys with his wife - yet neither sees an irony in the fact that their other shared obsession is to conceive a child. In "Friction", sex-addict Sam bunks off his therapy sessions for orgies, while images of the wife and daughter he has lost float through his mind. Davidson eventually tires of being Hemingway. In "On Sleepless Roads" he sends up one of his own characters, the infertile dog-fighter, now divorced and trying to remake Tales of the Riverbank in a friend's backyard. More successful is the longest yarn, which relates a conjurer's disappearance during his own trick. This salty collection more than whets the appetite for Davidson's novel, The Pit [ed note: THE FIGHTER], due next year.

I'm happy with these reviews, except for the fact the I've NEVER, EVER tired of being Hemingway! I even dress up like him in the confort of my own apartment and pretend I'm drinking absinthe at a bullfight in Pamplona. In fact, I'm doing it right....NOW.

Salt-ily yours, Craig.

Craig Davidson on 02.21.06 @ 11:31 PM EST [link]

Saturday, February 18th

Back in the Land of the Living!

Hi All,

Well, I was never NOT in the land of the living, but the blog, for some reason, was. I was told that Gremlins infiltrated the Penguin books computer room and chewed through all the wires, or a malevolent wizard cast a spell over the Penguin books website, or something like that. Or perhaps I was given a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo to explain the blog being down and the only way I was able to understand it was to put it in the terms above. Malevolent wizards make more sense to me than cyberspace.

So, sorry to those of you who emailed me asking where the blog went---and thanks to the folks at Penguin for getting it up and running again.

I have a website. My buddy Brett Savory, web-guru extraordinaire (and also, I'm told, a malevolent wizard) put it together for me, and you can check it out at:

www.craigdavidson.net

I think this link will work, but of course I've really no clue. I think it's a pretty cool looking site, and all interested parties can see what I'm up to, where to buy my books, the address where they can ship incriminating evidence they want me to dispose of (but no bodies, please), etc, etc.

Soooooo...well, the blog's up but I don't have much to say. Well, I got my novel back from my editor at Penguin---we've decided to call it THE FIGHTER, so that's the final title, no more flip-flopping---and she's gone through it with a big red pen (actually, a pencil so as to spare my feelings) and I think her edits are great and I'm working away on them as we speak. I told my foreign editors I'd be set in about a month, so I've set myself a deadline. Also work continues on THE INTERVENTIONIST, which I'm quite enjoying writing. I've introduced a sex-addicted radio talk show host in the Anne Coulter mode, and she's a lot of fun to write.

Craig Davidson on 02.18.06 @ 04:28 PM EST [more..]

Friday, February 10th

Mini Update

A few things of note have happened lately, and I shall endeavor to update you on them.

Firstly, RUST AND BONE is now out in the UK. It "dropped" last week, with Picador; the 6th of February, I believe. The cover is more or less the same as the US cover, although it's been slightly tweaked; everything runs on a slight slant, and the quotes are different---Clive Barker's is most prominent. I provide a link to the amazon UK webpage; I know, I know, it says AWAITING FRONT COVER, but I've gotten my contributor's copies and I assure you, there IS a cover (though, to be honest, what's shown on amazon UK would be a pretty ballsy cover design. Maybe too ballsy). My thanks to the good folks at Picador for everything.

Also, Picador is doing this really cool thing called "Picador Shots." These are short, small, pocket-sized books that will retail for one British pound; they'll have one or two short stories by lots of different writers, and you'll be able to pick them up in pubs and magazine shop(pe)s and convenience stores and at curry stands and in the tube station and in the bogs at Picadilly Circus or wherever fine literature is sold in England. Writers like Bret Easton Ellis, Tim Winton, James Salter, Matthew Kneale, Alan Hollinghurst, Jackie Kay, Shalom Auslander, and li'l ole me. I think it's a great idea to drum up a little interest in the short story form, and needless to say I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

(I've edited this because the amazon links---as so often in the case with ANY of the links I post---didn't work. If you're interested in either the collection or the Picador shots, just head ot amazon.uk and punch my name into the search engine).

What else? Oh, I've been selected to be part of the judging panel for the 12th annual ChiZine story contest. For anyone who does not know, ChiZine (Chiaroscuro) is a great online fiction and poetry website run by the esteemable Brett Savory. Fiction and poetry with a dark slant. I've published there more than once, I think it's a great site, and am happy to be part of the judging panel. The other judges are:

Ellen Datlow
Tim Lebbon
Brian Hodge
William Smith
Neil Gaiman

Ellen's a legendary editor in horror/sci-fi/fantasy circles; Smith is another fine editor, most recently of the internet site TRUNK STORIES; Hodge and Lebbon are wonderful writers (I was particualrly influenced by Hodge's work, and loved his book WILD HORSES), and Neil Gaiman is perhaps best known for his graphic novel cycle, THE SANDMAN. He also wrote AMERICAN GODS and its followup, ANANSI BOYS. Also kids' books, like CORALINE and WOLVES IN THE WALLS. Anyway, he's pretty much a legend. A very interesting judging panel, and I'm excited, and more than a little daunted, to be a part of it.

What else? Oh, yes, I've given my first-ever "blurb." It's for Brett Savory's novel, THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED, which you can order here:

http://www.necropublications.com

It's a great novel, I had a blast reading it, and I was happy to give my endorsement for whatever it's worth. The quote is:

"If you gave me 10 words to describe Brett Savory's writing style, I'd only need 5: Like A House On Fire. Saddle up with Stu, PigBoy, Gus, Apple, and an 11-foot HellRat named Tom China for a rockin', rollin' and--lord forgive me--HELLacious road trip through the underworld. It's a wild and wonderful ride."

I've also been reading Jeremy Robert Johnson's collection, ANGEL DUST APOCALYPSE. Wonderful stuff as well. I'm reading it purely for pleasure; with quotes already from the likes of Chuck Palahniuk, Jeremy doesn't need my help (neither does Brett for that matter, with great endorsements from Douglas Winter, Michael Marshall Smith, and others).

Also, I recieved a galley of Russell Wangersky collection, THE HOUR OF BAD DECISIONS. Russell's a Newfounland-based writer I met while at the Banff Writer's Centre. On top of being a great guy, he's a fabulous writer; I was reading his collection in the library the other day and I was put in the mind of David Adams Richards. Such great writing. I haven't finished it yet, and haven't come up with the words I find suitable to describe it, but you can pre-order it here, and I suggest you do:

http://www.coteaubooks.com

Okay, that's it!

All best, Craig.

Craig Davidson on 02.10.06 @ 05:54 PM EST [link]

Tuesday, February 7th

AWP Conference

Hi All,

Next month I’m heading down to a conference in Texas—the Association of Writers and Publishers. It’s the result of a chance meeting with a friend of mine from school, who I ran into on the streets of New York last spring when I was down for the Book Expo. Bizarre that we should meet, but it’s great because now I get to head down to Te-has and hang out with three old pals, including my old roommate Tony—or as we called him, Mighty Ton-Ton. Fellow Star Wars nerds will remember Ton-Tons as those horse-kangaroo creatures; Luke Skywalker cut one of their bellies open and slept inside it in The Empire Strikes Back. Our house was never cold enough that I considered cutting Tony’s belly open and sleeping in it, but he’s such an obliging sort I’m sure he’d have let me.

Tony: You want to sleep inside my belly?

Me: This house is pretty chilly, in case you haven’t noticed.

Tony: I know, but...gosh, cut my belly open? That’s asking quite a lot.

Me: Are you my buddy or not?

Tony: Well, of course, you know that.

Me: I don’t know where you come from, but where I come from buddies let buddies slit their bellies open and sleep inside!

Tony: Oh, okay. Please take your boots off, though.

Anyway, it will be great to see ole Ton-Ton again, and Charmaine (Char-Char Binks) and Katrine (she never had a Star Wars-related nickname, that I can recall). I didn’t have a Star Wars nickname, either; mine was Suitcase Murphy—a character from that movie, The Sting. I might publish my next book under that name.

The thing is, it looks as though I’ll be writing some sort of essay for a panel I’m sitting on: “Are we there yet? Arriving at the end in postmodern short stories.”

Blast! Double blast!
Craig Davidson on 02.07.06 @ 09:39 PM EST [more..]

Wednesday, February 1st

Mini Update

A few things that have happened lately, all writing related.

First, I am out of the running in the Journey Prize. Apparently the judges don't really dig stories about alcoholic nursing home workers with snuff film fetishes. Go figure. But the good news is that Barb Romanik, a great writer and former UNB alum, is still in the running. I urge all my fellow UNB alums to center all your good karmic energies upon her, so she can vanquish her competitors! Actually, that's not fair to the other two finalists, both of whom I suspect are good folk. But still---gooooooo Barb!

FINALISTS:

1.Krista Bridge (Toronto, ON)

For “A Matter of Firsts”

Published in Descant (Toronto, ON)

2. Barbara Romanik (Edmonton, AB)

For “Seven Ways into Chandigarh”

Published by The Malahat Review (Victoria, BC)

3. Matt Shaw (Toronto, ON)

For “Matchbook for a Mother’s Hair”

Published by Exile: The Literary Quarterly (Toronto, ON)

Secondly, I was very pleased to see some recent developments on the pseudonym front. The other day the editor for Cemetery Dance, horror's premier mag (to my thinking) got in touch to say he'd be taking my story DEAD MONEY for a future issue. This is only really of note because the story also won a writing award at my old university, and it tickles me that the academic faculty gave the award to a story that now goes on to see publication in a gaudy horror mag. Up yours, literati! No, that's not very nice; I liked the faculty, but it does give me some odd pleasure. A tingle, if you will.

Thirdly, my film agent is no longer James Frey's agent. I imagine she was too busy fielding offers for RUST AND BONE to deal with Frey's shenanigans anymore. I imagine the phone call went something like this:

AGENT: Frey? K to the E here. Listen, I gotta let you go, baby.

JAMES: Ah, jeez.

AGENT: Hey, that's the way the ole cookie crumbles babe. I got this hot young talent, Davidson, and I'm riding his ass to the top!

JAMES: Ah, jeez.

AGENT: Yep, that's right---a student filmmaker offered me seven bucks in rolled pennies and a bag of microwave popcorn for his whole collection. I took it, as it was the best offer I'd heard. Well, it was actually a coupon REDEEMABLE for a bag of microwave popcorn. Still, I snapped it up. And it's only the tip of the iceburg. The TIP, I tell you!

JAMES: Ah...ah, jeez. You know the other day I got into a fight with three neo-nazis...

AGENT: Stop it, James. Stop lying.

JAMES: ...and it was like, I really decked 'em and laid 'em out good...

AGENT: Please, just...just stop.

JAMES: ... and then I like, sprouted wings, celestial angelic wings, and rose through the clouds in a pillar of warm beatific light...

AGENT: Listen, I gotta let you go, baby. Bonne journee and all that. Catch you on the flipside!

Actually, I cannot say with any certainty that's how the conversation went; I'm sure it was handled much more compassionately, and my name was never mentioned. Still, I stand behind the essential truth of the story.

All best, Craig.

Craig Davidson on 02.01.06 @ 01:50 PM EST [link]