One of my favorite books. Thom, we miss you. (born January 26, 1945 - died Oct. 14, 2016) Thank you for continuing to inspire every new generation of short story writers.
For more praise about my missing friend, see this feature. To be honest, the dude never took a bad picture.
Thank you -- I bought the ebook. Will read it. What's your favorite story?
I’m reading it right now and am three stories in. Break on Through. Wow. I love the part where he is completely alone setting the mine after all of his fellow Rangers have been shot down and then how it leaves the heightened tension on pause by cutting over to this intricate flashback of his days with his grandmother working at the grocery store. It’s such a perfect way of keeping me on the edge of my seat as a reader while also building authority through such detailing of his past. So many of these little details he puts in about the store and their relationship make it so believable. And then Jones cuts back to his character in the jungle running for his life, and then he later brings it back to the crackers and has his grandmother’s voice comes back through in conversation as he’s eating his rations. I love how he subtly sprinkles that in, so briefly, to contrast a memory of comfort in safety with a moment of comfort in peril. I can only hope some day I can get to that level in my own writing.