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Congrats for hitting one year of Popcorn Fiction!!
I love your site and hope you stick with it for many more years.
'Outsider' is another great story; it made my day.
Keep 'em coming.
Jill
DH: Thanks Jill…I'll stick with it as long as I keep receiving great original genre fiction. I still have quite a stash…and I'll open up the site for general submissions again in the Fall…
Thanks for the story ["Outsider."] An excellent way to start a Monday morning…
Charles
DH: A Starbucks latte and a little popcorn fiction is a recipe for a great start to your week. (Please Note: Starbucks in no way endorses the content of this site, bla, bla, bla.)
This new story ["Outsider"] is awesome—one of my favorites. Congratulations on your one year anniversary! I can't wait to see what the next year brings : )
Brianna
DH: One of my favorites too. Michael Gilvary just joined the staff of the new show Breakout Kings, so look for more of his style on your small box in the Fall.
"Outsider" is by far one of the most profound contemporary stories I've read. The author has remarkable vision to see beyond the denial that might well swamp our great nation. The choice of metaphors couldn't've been better. All I have to say, besides enjoying the story, it's about time that concerns about liberty begin filtering into mainstream popular culture. Thanks for your tenacity that is making PF better all the time. I don't just know it's Monday when a new story arrives. I know it's Monday and a new story will arrive.
Ron
DH: I'm glad it struck a chord with you, Ron. And thanks for being such a loyal and thoughtful reader. It's amazingly gratifying to get letters like yours.
Happy anniversary! The new stories are often one of the highlights of my work week. Thank you! Great job!
Scott
DH: I'm so glad to hear it, Scott. I'm happy to add to the collective work procrastination of America.
Oh, how I hate to be negative.
Michael Gilvary's latest story "Outsider" suffers from a simple case of "Some ideas are better than others."
Oh, how I hate to compare.
On the one hand, "Unconditional" is about a family faced with a terrible reality that threatens to impossibly complicate their lives, unless they can act smart and fast enough to get through it. It's the kind of premise that effortlessly fills itself with exciting possibilities.
On the other hand, "Outsider" is about, well…not enough of anything. It created a world, but the story of the world that we hear is not interesting enough on its own. I wanted to be invested in the characters' stories, but nothing that the characters did seemed to have enough gravity. It seems to me that the story framework was there, but the plot to carry you through it was not. Unlike "Unconditional," which is so interesting because there is constant immediacy to the plot and what the characters choose to do, "Outsider" has a plot that is much less clear, doesn't go as far, and is therefore not as involving. "Outsider" may have been intended to be a big idea, but it needed to evoke equally big feelings to really work, and, in my opinion, it wasn't equipped to do that.
I would have actually been very interested to see an escape story in the same setting, because it would've provided the plot immediacy, given an opportunity to show more about the Stewards (whose world and way of living I found very interesting because it is very foreign and threatening), it still could have retained all of its philosophical flavor, and it could've given the Man From Outside's death and Chloe's revelation a much more powerful effect.
It is painfully obvious that Michael Gilvary is a writer of the highest quality, but great writers needs great ideas in order to produce great stories. It is a simple truth; one needs light in order to shine, and the brighter, the better.
Zack
DH: Zack, thanks so much for the thoughtful criticism. No need to be apologetic…that Gilvary's story inspired you enough to turn it over in your mind, to analyze it, to engage with it, is exactly why we publish these things. I'm sorry for not getting Gilvary's response for you…I've been in Michigan since early May working on this movie,The Double, that Brandt is directing…and I just haven't been able to get organized enough to get the author's responses to some of these fantastic letters. I can barely get a new story out each week. I will say that "Outsider" worked for me in just the right way…I was engaged in the story, I was following it through Chloe's eyes, I thought I knew where it was going, and WHAM! Gilvary smacked me in the face, just like he did with "Unconditional." And he did it so effortlessly, I had to read that ending a couple of times to make sure I absorbed it correctly. And that was just the story on the surface…the deeper symbolism of citizens knowingly giving up their freedoms in exchange for an artificial sense of security packed a wallop for me. In fact, the citizens of the atrium are complicit in their own imprisonment. But that's the beauty of literature (did I just say "literature?"), readers can parse different meanings from these stories with each new read.
In "Outsider," Michael Gilvary seems to have accomplished the impossible. In the space of a short story, he paints a portrait of an entire world, complete with a tumultuous past, an uncertain present, and a frightening future. As I read, I felt like I do when looking at a John Lennon sketch—I'm always amazed at how just a few well-placed lines can tell a tale, and leave you with an image that lingers long after the page is gone.
Thanks for the great read!
Heidi
DH: Thanks for the great letter. Mondays just aren't the same without hearing from Heidi. I suspect you were raised with the "if you can't say something nice…" principle. When we go awhile without hearing from you, I always think…"I guess she didn't care for that one."
DH: Great to hear from so many readers this past week. If I didn't get to your letter, I apologize. I hope everyone has a great week…I was asked for some book recommendations lately, and besides Go, Mutants of course, I thoroughly enjoyed Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes and Finding Chandra by Higham and Horwitz. And what's that you say? You've never read my books The Silver Bear and Columbus? What the hell are you waiting for?