“People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.” - Harlan Ellison
I’ve really been into three particular authors recently, Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Harlan Ellison. I’ve gotten so into them that I’ve created checklists of each author’s work. I’m ticking things off as I add them to my collection and as I read them. I’ve also rearranged my bookshelves and grouped their books close together. Not only have I rearranged my physical bookshelves, I’ve also added author “shelves” for these authors to my Goodreads page.
Neil Gaiman
I first discovered Neil Gaiman when I was in university. I read his Sandman comic around the time it was originally being published. I liked it but never finished reading it. After Sandman I didn’t read any of his work for quite a long time. I was always aware that he was writing short stories and novels over the years but I never got around to reading any of them.
I rediscovered Neil Gaiman right after I started this blog. His book Art Matters had just been released and I picked it up. I liked it enough that I sought out more of his advice on writing. I liked what he had to say. I found his advice simple, straightforward, and motivating. It was just the right kind of advice that I needed to hear. Things like the importance of finishing things. That you don’t have to get it right at the beginning. By finishing things you start to learn. You learn more from finishing a failure than by beginning something that is fantastic that is left unfinished.
He also uses examples from his work when giving advice. This intrigued me enough to seek out his fiction. So I read Coraline. I wasn’t expecting to like a dark fantasy children’s novella as much as I did. It was eerie and suspenseful and the main character was smart, resourceful and brave. Then I read The Graveyard Book. I never thought that a story of a young boy that lives in a graveyard and is raised by ghosts could be as moving as it was. I liked it even more than Coraline. Next was The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Neverwhere. So far The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere are my favorites. Most recently I’ve been reading his short stories and I’ve been enjoying them a lot. M is for Magic is a nice, quick overview of his short story work. I’ve just started the short story collection Smoke and Mirrors. He seems to have a genuine love for storytelling and it really comes through in his work.
Ray Bradbury
I first read Ray Bradbury in high school. I came across his work in the science fiction short story collections that I read from my high school library. I remember liking them a lot but didn’t read any further. When he passed away in 2012 I picked up a collection of his short stories but I didn’t read it. The years went by.
I also rediscovered Ray Bradbury right before I started this blog. I have mentioned before that I watched a video of a speech he gave at a writer’s symposium in 2001. In the speech he gives lots of advice for aspiring writers. His speech was one of the things that motivated me to write more and to start a blog. I still didn’t get back into reading his work though. Until a few months ago. I found a beat up copy of Bradbury’s R is for Rocket in a used bookstore recently. I picked it up and read it. Good stuff. I recognized some of the stories. I may have read this collection in high school. Next I read The October Country, a collection of science-fiction and horror stories and The Halloween Tree, a short novel about the origins of Halloween. I loved them both. I also read Zen and the Art of Writing. He mentions some of the advice from the book in his speech.
There’s something lyrical and poetic about his writing. I’ve added a few more Bradbury books to my shelf and I’m looking forward to reading them.
Harlan Ellison
I first discovered Harlan Ellison when I was in high school through his interviews, reviews, and essays in Starlog and Future Life magazines. I soon learned that he wrote my favorite Star Trek episode, “City on the Edge of Forever.” What’s on the screen may be different from his original script but his voice is still there. It’s not perfect but it’s a powerful episode. It doesn’t offer up easy answers to the problems the characters face and it doesn't end with the characters laughing and smiling on the bridge.
I can’t remember exactly when I started reading his fiction. I do remember buying his books at one of my favorite book stores in Atlanta, The Science Fiction and Mystery Bookshop. It moved twice but like a lot of bookstores it eventually went out of business. It’s been closed for years but man, I still miss that place. In any case, I bought a number of his books, both fiction and non-fiction.
I had all my Ellison books packed away and stored at my parents house for the longest time. I dug some of them out a few years ago and started reading his fiction again. I also started filling in the holes in my collection. Within the last year I’ve picked up a hardcover, a trade, and a number of books on Kindle. Just recently I found some more boxes of his books that I forgot that I had.
It turns out that I have way more Ellison hardcovers and paperbacks that I thought. At present I have nine hardcovers and twelve paperbacks. Some of them are signed. I thought I only had two signed books but it turns out that I have more. I haven’t seen these books in over twenty years. Finding them was like finding a time capsule filled with treasure.
It’s been driving me crazy that I can’t remember which convention I met Ellison and got my books signed at. I thought it was at a Dragon Con but I can’t find any documentation of him attending prior to 1992, which is when I moved to Japan. It’s also driving me crazy that I don’t have any photographs. I used to always take pictures at the conventions that I attended.
I just finished reading one of his early collections of short stories, Paingod and Other Delusions, and I finally read Dangerous Visions, which he edited. Ellison was not without controversy and I don’t like every single thing he has written. But there are so many gems. I still find his writing, especially his fiction to be raw, powerful, and moving.
In Summary
While I have some other favorite authors, and I’m always discovering someone else to read, I keep coming back to these three. They have some similarities but they’re not exactly alike. Bradbury and Gaiman seem the most similar, but Ellison is different. He can come across as louder, angrier, and more in your face. That’s just one side to his writing, especially his non-fiction. He can also demonstrate that lyrical, poetic poetic quality I find in Bradbury, and he also comes across as having a genuine love for telling stories that both Bradbury and Gaiman have.
They reached deep into themselves, put in the time to put words onto paper, and told stories that go beyond what’s just on the written page.
