The main problem with it is that it begins as a fairly objective, fairly reasonable and very well-told history of South African history pre-World War II (which is back when the racism that would become Apartheid was not yet formalized).

That’s good — it’s going strong. The bad news is that it turns about halfway through into a hagiography of the poor. It’s also a hagiography of Mandela, which I feel like I’ve heard a thousand times. The real messy story feels like it’s avoided in favor of pouring out overwrought prose about how hard it was to be black during the Apartheid era. I’m already fairly clear that it blew pretty seriously. That’s why I’m reading a book on South Africa in the first place. Lapierre hits too hard on the same old messages of martyrdom, which makes this book not an effective history.

Don’t get me wrong…I don’t think “objective” makes a lot of sense when it comes to Apartheid, racism or Afrikaans-dominated South Africa. But I also don’t need to be beaten to death with overheated, overwrought, hand-wringing prose about the troubles of the poor. I read a LOT of books on Africa, and I see the kind of heartfelt, weepy prose engaged in here to be borderline condescending. It’s not intended that way, sure. But certainly many African writers express a deep-distaste for the hand-wringing of the West vis-a-vis Africa, and this book seems to be guilty of that. Lapierre is sort of the chief of it, having written a number of very good but very overwrought pieces of tragedy tourism (Five Past Midnight in Bhopal, for instance, and his magnum opus City of Joy). With Joy, he certainly did the right thing…spending part of the proceeds of the book to set up a foundation to help the poor of Calcutta — whom the book is about. I don’t fault his impulses, only his execution, in City of Joy as well as Rainbow in the Night. It’s not that he’s done anything wrong as that the way he does it, to some extent, dehumanizes rather than humanizes the poor of the developing world — at least to Lapierre’s Western audience.

I understand that Lapierre (and presumably his translator…not sure if this was written in English or French) are trying to communicate the agonies of being poor and black in South Africa — which are EXTREME today and were vastly more so during the Apartheid era. But I found the overdone prose in certain sections to be somewhat insulting in its obviousness.

That said, however, Lapierre’s heart is in the right place, and it’s the most accessible (and actually LEAST overwrought) thing I’ve read to-date on South Africa. The struggle the black South Africans, Mandela included, went through is amazing. I do wish there had been less hagiography and more, for instance, about the Zulu nationalist movement to the North, which opposed the African National Congress, and the criminal elements that flourished in the slums in the context of rampant soul-crushing poverty; it is in THOSE elements, it seems to me, that South Africa’s contemporary troubles have their origin.

We can attack the white Afrikaaner fascist racist murderers all we want. But as Michael Moorcock said, “All tyrants are pretty much the same, but there are many kinds of victims.” By spending the second half of this book making the racist demons as demonic as possible and the black South Africans saintly, I feel Lapierre has missed the real story in the ongoing triumph and tragedy of the struggle in post-colonial Africa overall, not just in South Africa. The result is an immensely readable book but one that’s a bit hard to take seriously as history, insofar as it concerns the Apartheid period itself (after World War II).

Speaking of which, why is this subtitled “The Tumultuous Birth of South Africa?” The author’s intention is to establish that the period from the landing of the first Dutch settlers on the Cape to the establishment of pluralist democracy is *ALL* the birth of South Africa…but out of context, it’s a little bewildering of a subtitle. It seems like it misleads the potential reader a bit.

The book still gets an honored place on my bookshelf, principally because I think it’s SO accessible that I hope it’ll be read by people who wouldn’t tackle a denser book or a more nuanced history about South Africa. The struggles the black South Africans and the Apartheid-opposing whites, Indians, those of mixed race etc. went through should be known to every person of conscience everywhere in the world.

Therefore, my nitpicks aside, if a zillion people read this book the world will be a much better place, and for that alone it gets some extra credit.

When all is said and done, it is an inspiring book and well worth reading.

So I never mentioned that my military-noir-anticorporate zombie apocalypse The Panama Laugh was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award, given by the Horror Writers of America.

This is the main award given for the genre of literary horror. It’s about the most amazing thing in the world, and the last damn thing I expected. I’m flattered to have been a finalist.

I even drove to Salt Lake City for the awards ceremony at the 2012 World Horror Convention. No, I didn’t win, but WTF? I’m just lovin’ the ride.

The award went to the more than worthy Allyson Bird, and congratulations to her! And thanks to everyone who voted for me (or voted for another book they liked more — which is fine, too.)

That title again is The Panama Laugh, and you can get it wherever better books are sold. Shitty ones, too.

Thanks again to everyone who’s read the book and liked it. The sequel is rattling around in my head, but no, it’s not sold yet. Meanwhile, back at the day job…

(This post first appeared on Tiny Nibbles – LINK NSFW)

Boston indie publisher Circlet Press has been publishing erotic science fiction and fantasy since the early 1990s. One of my very favorite books they ever published was Nymph, a little hardbound collection of linked erotic stories by Francesca Lia Block.

Cooked up in a gumbo pot from equal parts ultra-hotness and ultra-gothness, Nymph is an amazingly sexy exploration of a Southern California fantasyland in which a scorchingly erotic love affair with a lost mermaid can be a Venice Beach surfer’s 6 a.m. — before he even gets coffee. Packed with melancholy eroticism and urban loneliness, Nymph pirouettes across the sexual spectrum in unpredictable ways. It shows the full range of Block’s “sensual, dream-like” approach to fiction, but in Nymph, it’s soaked in explicitly romantic sexual description that can be as beautifully heartbreaking as it is erotic.

In case you’re missing my point: Nymph is one of my favorite erotic books ever. And it just came out in a new ebook edition, available at the Circlet Books website for just $4.99, in PDF, mobi and epub formats. Here’s how Circlet describes this brilliant collection:

As in her other works, Block weaves together themes of subtle magic, youthful hopes, modern urban decay, and deep emotion, told with lyrical storybook language.The stories in NYMPH bear all the hallmarks of classic Francesca Lia Block — punk-spirited characters who celebrate love, life, and art–with one important difference: this time the author carries her vision through the full range of emotion and erotic interaction that her mature audience appreciates.

An interconnected series of stories, NYMPH is a special journey through the lives and loves of characters like Plum, a Crayon-haired girl who has a gift: if she makes love with a person, that person will then meet their true love, or Tom, a burned out surfer whose luck changes when he is rescued by a mysterious, wheelchair-bound woman, or Sylvie, a chronically depressed poet who finds beauty in unexpected places. Block’s erotic explorations of these smoky, kaleidoscopic fables are anything but conventional; these are stories of love, loss, and life, about the healing power of sex and bonding.

[Link.]

When it came out a decade or so ago, this book raised more than a few eyebrows. That’s because Block is primarily known as the creator of the Weetzie Bat books, a six-book series for young adults.

Weetzie Bat is every bit as interesting as Nymph, and far more important in the history of sexuality, for completely different reasons. Despite its young adult audience, the Weetzie Bat series shamelessly portrayed sexual orientation, attraction and choice as mutable across a range of options. Its main character chooses to be a single mother, and invites her two gay best friends into a Beatles-fueled threesome so that the child will belong to all of them. With its celebratory pro-queer view, the Weetzie Bat series radicalized the sexual politics of adults writing young adult fiction, without including a single explicit sex scene or the faintest whisper of exploitation. Wrapped up in magic and sexuality and set in the dreamland known as “Shangri-L.A.,” the series revolutionized queer representation in young adult fiction, portraying a wonderfully wholesome exploration of alternative lifestyles, chosen families, and even true love.

Plus, it’s just a damned lot of fun to read. Unfortunately, Block’s prominence within young adult fiction meant that booksellers and libraries didn’t know what to do with Nymph, and in my opinion it’s never gotten the recognition it deserves. When it comes to urban erotic fantasy, Block’s Nymph is sui generis and, more importantly, mind-bendingly sexy.

It may be short, but it’s lingered longer in my consciousness than many a one-night stand. Like so many of Block’s erotic love affairs, the book’s brevity only makes that last kiss sweeter and saltier as you turn the final page. Because every kiss in this beautiful book is laced with Venice Beach salt spray…and tears.

This happened a week or two ago, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t been able to keep up with my blog posts. Anyway…My debut novel The Panama Laugh is on the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association! I’m not a “nominee” yet, and I’m definitely not a “finalist,” yet. But I’m very excited to be on the ballot.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled, and completely blown away — this was pretty unexpected. I’m greatly honored to be in such great company. It reminds me what a privilege it’s been to work with such incredible writers over the years. On the preliminary ballot are, among others, many people I’ve worked with. There’s my good friend Shade Rupe, to whose fantastic anthology Funeral Party II I contributed “Viva Las Vegas,” and with whom I collaborated on an (as yet unproduced) screenplay; there’s my fellow Night Bazaar blogger John Hornor Jacobs; there’s Maria Alexander, who wrote several wonderful articles for me when I was editing Eros Zine, the brilliant Brian Hodge, who contributed two completely incredible stories to my Noirotica series, Caitlin R. Kiernan, a contributor of wonderful pieces to several of my anthologies including Noirotica 2 and Brothers of the Night, Nancy Holder, who contributed a magnificent story to In the Shadow of the Gargoyle, one of the Ace Books anthologies I edited with Nancy Kilpatrick, plus such luminaries as Robert Dunbar, Jeff and Ann Vandermeer, Jonathan Maberry, Adam Troy Castro, Marti Noxon of Buffy fame, John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of Let The Right One In, and — GASP — Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Alan Moore, Peter Straub, Ellen Datlow…the list goes on. I’m absolutely amazed to have my name mentioned in the same breath as people like this.

In case you don’t know about the Bram Stoker Awards, here’s what Wikipedia says about them:

The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for “superior achievement” in horror writing. The awards have been presented annually since 1987, and the winners are selected by ballot of the Active members of the HWA. They are named after influential Irish horror writer Bram Stoker, author of the novel Dracula, among others.

[Link.]

Have I mentioned, by the way, that Stoker’s Dracula is one of my favorite novels of all time?

Here’s the complete preliminary ballot, from HWA’s site. (Again — just to remind everyone — I’m not a “nominee” or a “finalist” yet. I just made the preliminary ballot…which doesn’t take away from the honor.)

NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Lamberson, Greg — Cosmic Forces
Longfellow, Ki — Houdini Heart
Malfi, Ronald — Floating Staircase
O’Neill, Gene — Not Fade Away
Warner, Matthew — Blood Born
JURY:

Ballot Required
Conlon, Christopher — A Matrix Of Angels
Dunbar, Robert — Willy
McKinney, Joe — Flesh Eaters
Oliver, Reggie — The Dracula Papers, Book 1: The Scholar’s Tale
Thomas, Lee — The German

FIRST NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Bird, Allyson — Isis Unbound
Lee, Frazer — The Lamplighters
Reynolds, Graeme — High Moor
Talley, Brett J. — That Which Should Not Be
Wagner, Jeremy — The Armageddon Chord
JURY:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
Jacobs, John, Horner — Southern Gods
Roche, Thomas — The Panama Laugh

YA NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Faherty, J. G. — Ghosts of Coronado Bay, A Maya Blair Mystery
Holder, Nancy — The Screaming Season
Maberry, Jonathan — Dust & Decay
Matthews, Araminta Star — Blind Hunger
JURY:

Ballot Required
Blake, Kendare — Anna Dressed in Blood
Kraus, Daniel — Rotters
Ness, Patrick — A Monster Calls
Oppel, Kenneth — This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein
Roth, Veronica — Divergent

GRAPHIC NOVEL:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Hill, Joe — Locke & Key, Volume 4
Maberry, Jonathan — Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher
Maberry, Jonathan — Marvel Universe vs. Wolverine
Mignola, Mike and Golden, Christopher — The Plague Ships
O’Reilly, Sean; Nassise, Joe; Weick, Halston — Candice Crow
JURY:

Ballot Required
Brosgol, Vera — Anya’s Ghost
Fialkov, Joshua Hale — Echoes
Jensen, Jeff — Green River Killer
Moore, Alan — Neonomicon
Smith, John — Cradlegrave

LONG FICTION:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Breaux, Kevin James — Dark Water: Beaming Smile
Calvillo, Michael Louis — 7Brains
Little, John R. — Ursa Major
O’Neill, Gene — Rusting Chickens
Schwamberger, Ty — The Fields
JURY:

Ballot Required
Hodge, Brian — Roots and All
Kiernan, Caitlin — The Colliers’ Venus (1893)
Lindqvist, John Ajvide — The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer
Shearman, Robert — Alice Through A Plastic Sheet
Straub, Peter — The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine

SHORT FICTION:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Bailey, Michael — “It Tears Away” (The Shadow of the Unknown)
Lillie-Paetz, Ken — “Hypergraphia” (The Uninvited, Issue 1)
O’Neill, Gene — “Graffiti Sonata” (Dark Discoveries)
Palisano, John — “X is for Xyx” (M is for Monster)
Warren, Kaaron — “All You Can Do Is Breathe” (Blood and Other Cravings)
JURY:

Ballot Required
Ausubel, Ramona — “Atria” (The New Yorker Magazine, April 4, 2011)
Ballingrud, Nathan — “Sunbleached” (Teeth: Vampire Tales)
Castro, Adam Troy — “Her Husband’s Hands” (Lightspeed Magazine)
King, Stephen — “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” (The Atlantic Magazine, May 2011)
Saunders, George — “Home” (The New Yorker Magazine, June 13, 2011)

SCREENPLAY:

RECS:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
Ball, Alan — True Blood: Spellbound (Episode #44)
Goodman, Cory — Priest
Nolfi, George — The Adjustment Bureau
JURY:

Ballot Required
Gimple, Scott M. — The Walking Dead, episode 13: “Pretty Much Dead Already”
Gimple, Scott M. — The Walking Dead, episode 9: “Save the Last One”
Noxon, Marti — Fright Night
Ovrehahl, Andre and Havard S. Johansen — Troll Hunter
Sharzer, Jessica — American Horror Story, episode 12: “Afterbirth”

ANTHOLOGY:

RECS:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
Carbone, Tracy L. — NEHW Presents: Epitaphs
Hutton, Frank J. — Tattered Souls 2
Skipp, John — Demons: Encounters with the Devil and His Minions, Fallen Angels, and the Possessed
JURY:

Ballot Required
Dann, Jack and Nick Gevers — Ghosts By Gaslight
Datlow, Ellen — Blood And Other Cravings
Datlow, Ellen — Supernatural Noir
Datlow, Ellen and Terri Windling — Teeth
VanderMeer, Jeff and Ann — The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities

COLLECTION:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Burke, Chesya — Let’s Play White
Connolly, Lawrence C. — Voices: Tales of Horror
Gresh, Lois — Eldritch Evolutions
Haines, Paul — The Last Days of Kali Yuga
Morton, Lisa — Monsters of L.A.
Ochse, Weston — Multiplex Fandango
JURY:

Ballot Required
Fowler, Christopher — Red Gloves: The London Horrors
Kiernan, Caitlin R. — Two Worlds and In-Between
Llewellyn, Livia — Engines of Desire
Oates, Joyce Carol — The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares
Oliver, Reggie — Mrs. Midnight and Other Stories

NON-FICTION:

RECS:

No ballot required, the following works will proceed directly to the Final Ballot. Please note these works may not be described as Nominees until the Final Ballot is formally announced.
Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt — Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America’s Fright Night
Mamatas, Nick — Starve Better
Mogk, Matt — Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies
JURY:

Ballot Required
Crawford, Gary William, Jim Rockhill, and Brian J. Showers, Eds. — Reflections in a Glass Darkly
Rupe, Shade — Dark Stars Rising
Shultz, David E. and S.T. Joshi, Ed. — Letters to James F. Morton
Tibbetts, John C. — The Gothic Imagination
Wood, Rocky — Stephen King: A Literary Companion

POETRY:

RECS:

Ballot Required
Alexander, Maria — At Louche Ends: Poetry for the Decadent,the Damned & the Absinthe-Minded
Clark, G.O — Shroud of Night
Borski, Robert — Blood Wallah and Other Poems
Simon, Marge — The Mad Hattery
Ward, Kyla Lee — The Land of Bad Dreams
JURY:

Ballot Required
Addison, Linda — How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend
Boston, Bruce — Surrealities
Marshall, Helen — Skeleton Leaves
Schwader, Ann K. — Twisted in Dream
Simon, Marge — Unearthly Delights

Over at The Night Bazaar, I’ve posted my final column:

This is my final column for The Night Bazaar. The blog was conceived as a way to promote writers who had books coming out from Night Shade in 2011, and next year it’ll be promoting writers who have books coming out from Night Shade in 2012, so that puts me on the night train to the big adios, suckers.

Thanks to Courtney for getting this blog up and running — it’s been a blast. And it’s been a pleasure to blog with talents like Bradley, Kameron, John, Stina, Katy, and Martha, not to mention our brilliant parade of guest bloggers.

I haven’t got the foggiest idea what the new year will hold for me, writing-wise, since the novels I’m currently working on are not yet sold. I hope to work with Night Shade again, but not every book works for every publisher, and it really isn’t anything personal. So in the meantime, here’s where you can find me in the year to come.

Read the rest of this column at The Night Bazaar.

This week’s topic is  ”What was the year like for you as a writer.” Such a topic is dangerous for me. It encourages me to navel-gaze, something I’m far too good at. So, honoring the mood of the season, I’ll try to keep it moderately brief, and hopefully maudlin as hell.

2011 was the third year I’ve lived without a day job (though the first year, 2009, was a partial one). I like it. I’ve also loved my day jobs, but there’s something exceedingly “special” — in both its ironic and non-ironic senses — about being able to focus totally on reading and writing.

And when I say reading and writing, that’s what I mean. Reading is the side of the writing life that I never thought I’d like so much, and for me, it has to be a daily occurrence, or I lose a sense of what I’m here for.

Read the rest of this column at The Night Bazaar.

Genre Trends for 2012

I’m notoriously bad at staying on top of trends in any medium.

This is true of music, literature, art and design, technology, movies, TV…Sometimes I’m way ahead of the curve; sometimes I’m well behind it. I joined Friendster and Tribe before Facebook existed — but when I design a website, it looks like the 1996 has risen from the grave to wreak its bloody vengeance on the universe.

Regardless, you can consider yourself guaranteed that whatever’s trendy this year, I’ve either never heard of it or I’m annoyed by it. If I ever liked it, I’ve lost interest in it, and I disapprove of people who are now into it. It doesn’t matter what trend it is; if you’re into it now, I either have no interest in discussing it with you, or I think your a mope for liking it.

It’s nothing personal. I’m not trying to be “cool,” I’m just funny that way. So if you mention your cool proto-coalpunk corset or how you’re writing a Gothic pinot noir mystery, and I roll my eyes, you don’t have to worry that you’ve made a social faux pas. On the contrary, you’re in good company: people whose trendy obsessions I disapprove of; it’s a very large club.

Plus, you can rest easy knowing that whatever trendy topics you’re into right now, I’ll be into it five years from now, and I may have forgotten that I ever disapproved of it.

Then, you can feel free to pull the same shit on me.

Read the rest of this column at The Night Bazaar.

Via Polly Superstar.

There’s so much I find overwhelmingly creepy about these Rocky Horror Picture Show matryoshka dolls on Etsy.

Maybe it’s because in my RHPS matryoshka nightmares, Frank ‘N’ Furter, the biggest doll, could be seen here as sort of devouring the smaller dolls, Jonah-and-the-whale style — starting, disturbingly enough, with Riff Raff…who doesn’t even really seem like he’d be that into it.

Or maybe it’s because Janet has been made so small — which threatens to give the by-necessity-enormous Brad kind of a pedophile vibe. Which only makes me think that the size differential between Frank and Janet is even creepier, which is when I remember she also fucked Rocky — and that shit was actually her idea. And then, Frank fucked Rocky. And Frank did Brad. They’re all a whole lot smaller than Frank, and it’s creepy. Creepier than the whole thing was to begin with, even. Plus, Chubby Riff Raff really doesn’t work for me. And where the hell is Meat Loaf?

Or maybe it’s just because they’re, you know, creepy.

For $180, you can have your very own set, from bobobabushka. Or, if you’re tight on funds for your creepy matryoshka collection, “Convo me if you prefer the non-deluxe set, which is a smaller set of five without Brad and Janet.”

Incidentally, bobobabushka sells “nesting dolls with attitude,” including such delights as the cast of Absolutely Fabulous, and — believe it or not — the whole gang from Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic.

My favorites are Satan’s Schoolgirls, The Addams Family, and Spinal Tap.

The new edition has expanded chapters, a new story and a breathtaking new cover by Steve Diet Goedde. For a limited time, it’s being offered as part of Kindle Select, which means it can be borrowed by anyone subscribed to Amazon Prime. Violet covers a bit in her post about the matter here — this link, incidentally, is not safe for work.

Fetish sex is packed not only with great information to help couples explore their kinky fantasies, but also an assortment of hot stories by yours truly, illustrating some of the chapters. As Violet says about the book:

My book Fetish Sex began as an indiepub cult classic, and has now been completely updated, revised and expanded to include every kind of sexual fetish imaginable. This book defines and explains more real-life sexual fetishes than anyone has imagined to date. The book features explicit short erotic stories by Thomas Roche and a beautiful new cover by Steve Diet Goedde.

This meticulously researched and greatly increased second edition makes Fetish Sex the most comprehensive factual and practical book on sexual fetishes available.

Think you might have a fetish? This guide tells you if you do, or not. And if you do, this is where to learn how to make the most of it in safety, pleasure and answers questions about sharing fetishes.

The compendium also features erotica by novelist Thomas Roche, graphically illustrating sex with different fetishes. Resources include websites, fetish entertainment, etiquette, safety, books, communities, advice for non-fetishists that are in a relationship with a fetishist, and information on finding fetish-aware therapists. Fetish Sex is a guide for understanding, controlling and making the most of a fetish, whether alone or with a partner. Because the truth is, “normal” sex is exactly the kind of sex you enjoy.

Link to Violet’s blog (NSFW).

Buy on Amazon.