A thrilling new-to-me writer

I know quite a bit of time has slipped by since I last posted, when I promised to give my take on the book THINGS HAVE ONLY GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE, AND OTHER MISFORTUNES, by Eric LaRocca.

Part of that has been just plain old procrastination, a particular skill I have spent years developing. The other part is that I've been a little unsure how to describe this work.

First, it's not a novel, but a collection – a novella, a longish short story, then a small short story. I enjoyed this particular aspect of the book, or collection, simply because it's so rare today. In the modern book world, at least among the big boys of the traditional publishing world (and the wanna-be big boys), it's uncommon to see a book published that doesn't hit the prescribed word length for a novel. That length is different in the different genres – horror is generally around 80,000 words, I believe – but long gone are the days when a novella, or a novella with a couple of short stories, were regular finds at a book store.

So I was immediately drawn to this one as a simple nod to my younger days, when I would pick up these types of books at stores or library sales.

Now for the content.

Wow.

The first tale, the novella “Things Have Only Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,” is one of the most exciting macabre stories I've ready in years! (And I never, ever do exclamation points – at the paper where I'm editor, I've always told my writers they are allowed one exclamation point a year, and even then they better be ready to justify it when I ask).

There is a Six Sense-level ending to this one.

The story is engaging, set back in the early days of the internet when folks could communicate with one another through rudimentary chat services. That's what's going on here, when two women meet by chance in the virtual world. One of them, a needy and lonely individual named Agnes, has resorted to selling a family heirloom, an apple peeler, to raise some much-needed money to pay her bills.

She comes across Zoe, a woman of means who is interested in the peeler. She appears to be a kind-hearted soul, going so far as to tell Agnes to keep the peeler – which has great sentimental value to Agnes -- while at the same time extending financial support to Agnes. From there grows a tangled, increasingly perverse relationship that eventually ends with...well, I won't spoil the work, because this is absolutely stunning at the end. Like the aforementioned Six Sense movie, the final line just stopped me in my tracks. It's the kind of ending I didn't see coming yet when it happened in the instant I finished reading, I could see every clue, every marker pointing to how this was going to play out – things that I should have picked up earlier.

I didn't, and that's because LaRocca does an exceptional job of story telling, building characters and weaving their lives together in a way that draws the reader in, yet doesn't give away too much. This one story made the entire book worth it.

The second tale, “The Enchantment,” is centered on a couple grieving the loss of their son, at some point in the not-too-distant future when science has supposedly proven, beyond any doubt, there is no after-life: Whatever we get here on earth is the whole ball of wax.

As part of their grieving process, the couple takes a position on a resort island as caretakers during the off season. Not long after everyone else packs up and leaves, a stranger – a young man not much older than their late son – shows up, and their life is thrown into turmoil. Soon enough, they begin to learn that science may not be right, and the afterlife may not be all they had hoped.

For me, this story was a study in story-telling. It was an extremely well written tale, an engaging story with building conflict that kept me turning the pages. For my money, the ending left me a little flat, but that was just me – most reviews I've read rave about this one as much as first story.

The third tale, “You'll Find It's Like That All Over,” was a fun little examination of the dangers of being too polite just for the sake of being polite (or maybe just for the sake of appearances), and the dangers of getting caught up in an escalating series of bets by the protagonist, known simply as Mr. Fowler. He finds what appears to be the fragment of a bone in his yard, which leads him to his neighbor's house, Mr. Perlzig. The neighbor turns out to be a master manipulator, who leads Mr. Fowler down a path of increasingly lucrative, but dangerous, bets. I won't tell you how this ends, but I will say there is a guillotine put to use before the story concludes.

All in all, this was an enjoyable book. The second and third tales were good reads, but that first one was fantastic. As if you couldn't already figure this one out, I would recommend you grab a copy of this and get to reading!

Ten days a vegan

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about switching to a whole food,plant-based diet – more easily written as a vegan diet. There is a difference, however. While both eschew (I feel so smart using that word!) any animal products, vegans can quiet easily eat a lot of processed junk food without violating the idea of being a vegan.

A whole food plant-based diet? That's one which primarily stays away from processed food. There's a lot of cooking, using seasonings and spices, fresh ingredients, not to mention a lot of salads and fruit.

Big change from a guy who can polish off a dozen tacos, or down a whole pizza, not to mention being able to pack away a couple of pounds of hot wings (or more) in a single sitting.

When I mentioned here I'd be doing this, I promised some updates, so here it is.

Week one was a disaster. Monday and Tuesday were great, but then we had some things going on at work, top guy from our regional production department in town, so my boss decided that would be a good day to buy lunch for the three of us while we met.

Lunch came from The Loaded Goat – yes, if you're an Andy Griffith fan, you know that phrase. The Loaded Goat has the best hamburgers around – big, thick, juicy, with the most incredible taste. (The restaurant also made the best catfish sandwich I've ever eaten, but that was a few years ago. I don't believe that's on their menu now).

I resisted going for a burger, or even a chicken sandwich, instead opting for a Beyond Burger. I don't know what they did, but man, that was the best Beyond Burger I've ever eaten. Whoever is cooking at The Loaded Goat has it going on.

But, the burger came on a slightly greasy bun, with a big mound of fries, and before all was said and done, I knew I'd messed up.

Still, I tried to stay on the straight and narrow the rest of the day and night, but the next day was even worse. Along with another meeting, we had some training with my newsroom staff, and my boss decided to get pizza for everyone. I appreciated the fact that one of the pizzas was spinach and mushroom, but still it had plenty of cheese and what I'm sure was a fat-filled, wholly unhealthy crust, and that was the final straw. I blew the rest of the week.

But the following Monday, ten days ago as I publish this blog, I made another run at it. Ten days later, I can say I've had no animal products, and I've eaten loads of salads, fruit, and some amazing food my wife and I have cooked from various plant-based recipes. The food is so good I almost don't miss meat or cheese at all.

After the first week, I'd dropped 13.6 pounds as well.

As I mentioned in that first blog, I've been down this road before, many times, so there's not a lot to get excited about just yet. But I'm definitely going the right direction with my eating, and I'm hitting the gym pretty regularly, too, so all is good in the land of veganism for now.

For my next blog, I'll go back to reviewing one of my recent reads – THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE, AND OTHER TALES by Eric LaRocca. I'll leave this little tidbit – this book blew me away more than anything I've read in a long time.

More later.