Skip to main content

God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut

It's hard to believe that we've been able to manage five years on this Earth without the wit, wisdom, and moral compass of Kurt Vonnegut.

The man influenced me more than most have. Reading his work is like visiting an old friend, his writing is warm and inviting, sharp, funny, and any of a hundred other positive adjectives.

When I learned of his death, five years ago today, I felt as though I lost a friend. The idea that I'd never read another biting essay by the man, or another new book, was not an easy one to come to terms to.

Over the years I've written a number of stories and essays that I felt were directly inspired by Vonnegut and I published them in a book called "God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut." In it, I gave background material about my personal and one-sided artistic relationship with Vonnegut and how he influenced me over the years.

To commemorate Vonnegut on the fifth anniversary of his passing, I want to give some copies of the book away in a way that honors the man in some small, probably insignificant way.

In order to win one of the three copies I'm giving away (though that number might go up depending on how much response this gets) all you need to do is hit up your twitter account and tweet about what Vonnegut's influence was on you and tag it with #GodBlessYouMrVonnegut.

If you don't have a twitter, hit me up here on facebook and tell me how Vonnegut inspired or shaped you.

If you're not on facebook OR twitter, leave a comment below.

Comments

short story lover said…
Vonnegut is one great author. He inspired many
3:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Salt Lake Comic Con 2017 Schedule

It's time for another year of Salt Lake Comic Con and another hectic schedule for me. But! that doesn't mean it's not a helluva lot of fun. I hope you're able to join me at any of these panels. Especially if you like Star Wars. And please, please, please come to my signing and visit. Get some books signed. I'd love that enormously. Here is my Thursday schedule: Everything here is a highlight. That first panel about behind the scenes of the prequels is with Pablo Hidalgo and I'll be asking him questions about what it was like to be there on set for most of the prequels. Then I'll be asking questions of Michael Biehn, who I've been a fan of since I was a little kid. Aliens and Terminator were favorites. If you want to ask him a question, please hit me up on Twitter with it. I will ask it at the panel. And you don't want to miss Fauxthentic History's Infinity Gauntlet live episode. It's going to be soooo good. Here is Friday: ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Missed Opportunities of Days Gone By

“Hello?” I said into the phone, accepting the call from a number I didn’t recognize. “Hey,” the feminine voice on the other replied, as though I should know the sound of her voice. At a loss, I said, “Can I help you?” “It’s Brooke.” Her name stopped me. It couldn’t possibly be her. We hadn’t spoken in years, a decade perhaps. “Brooke?” “Yeah, Brooke Baker. This is Mark, right?” Jesus Christ. It was her. “Yeah, it is Mark. Brooke. Wow. How are you? It’s been a long time since… well… since anything.” “I know.” “So, how are you doing?” “Okay, I suppose…” Her voice belied her words, though. Something was up. “I… It’s just been so long and I guess I wanted to hear your voice.” “I don’t think I had a number for you. Ever. I offered a couple of times, but…” “I was a brat back then.” And that’s how a random phone call turned into a two-and-a-half hour catch-up session. We spoke of everything under the sun: people we still knew, how different we were, h...
14 comments
Read more

Anatomy of a Scene: The Third Man

It's time again to break down a classic scene. One that's well-written and, in my view, a fine example of excellent craft. I've done some of these articles from books (like The End of the Affair   and Starship Troopers ) and other movies (like Citizen Kane , City Lights , Raiders of the Lost Ark , and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ), but now it's time to take a look at a scene from The Third Man . It blends the best of Orson Welles (as he's in the film and drives this scene) and Graham Greene, who wrote this particular screenplay. Before we get to the scene, we need some context. The Third Man is a tale of the black market in Vienna, just after World War II. It's about a cheap, dime-store Western novelist named Holly Martins (played by Joseph Cotton) and his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles.) Lime offered Martins a job in Vienna, so Martins leaves America and arrives, only to find that Harry Lime is dead. Penniless, without a friend or reason to be...
Post a Comment
Read more