Nick Mamatas at Dark Fluidity

Nick Mamatas is the featured author at Dark Fluidity right now, with a new story, "Quiet Types, Loners Mostly...", an interview, and reviews of two of his books.

"Quiet Types, Loners Mostly..." is worth taking time with, worth reading more than once, worth nominating for awards. It accomplishes a tremendous amount in few words: philosophical speculations which suggest a frightening world beyond the words, while simultaneously reflecting our own world and, worst of all, our own most detestable desires. It is a disarming story as well as a disquieting one.

The interview by d.g.k. goldberg is also worth reading. Here's a bit to whet your appetite (there's much more in the actual interview):
He dislikes it when writers, "Stack the deck against positions they disagree with, write Hollywood movies-in-text, play to the social fears of whites (especially white women), write about whatever they did a few days ago, with the climax being the decision to write the story I've just nearly finished reading, treat blue collar characters like mindless fucks, lists of brand names during shopping excursions, characters named Ariel, Zoe, Rhiannon, Dirk, Stryker, Dark, Black, Alana, Logan or any other name a fifteen year-old might name himself or herself.

"I also dislike all-white cities. That includes a city that's all white except for One Crazy Homeless Person. I also dislike male characters who say 'I'm a guy!' Not that such a comment is false, it's just too much shorthand."
There are reviews of Nick's recent Move Under Ground (Kerouac meets Lovecraft) and his Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella Northern Gothic. I haven't read either, but I've read most of his excellent collection of essays and stories, 3000 Miles Per Hour in Every Direction at Once and am half-way through an anthology he edited, The Urban Bizarre (I hope to write about the book as a whole soon), so I feel confident in recommending anything Nick has written or edited. I also recommend his recent comments on "the horror industry", Stephen King, and everything else.

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