Jack Campbell Jr.

Author: jack

  • Craft Book Review: Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction by Benjamin Percy

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    “Q: What’s the key to suspense? A: I’ll tell you later.” Thrill Me by Benjamin Percy My first exposure to Benjamin Percy came through Iowa State University. I wasn’t a student of his. I left Ames a few years prior to his arrival. I kept up with the English department news and saw an article…

  • Book Review: Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    “When the whole world hurts, you bite it, don’t you?” Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones has been a favorite of mine for quite some time, and his latest novel, The Only Good Indians is no exception. If you are familiar with Jones, you probably know his writing as alternating moments of beauty and brutality.…

  • Confessions of a Hereditary Tinkerer

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    They say that my Grandpa Dale won’t be around much longer. Hospice has been called, and he’s ready to go home to my Grandma, who passed on 21 years ago. As I’ve worked to process that, I’ve been thinking about his influence upon my life, searching for the parts of me that may have come…

  • On Memorial Day…

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    I once wrote a poem titled “Crow, Why Do You Cry.” It appeared in Illumen magazine a few years ago. The original title had been “Memorial Day,” and the crow kawed to bring attention to the graveyard, to ancestors and loved ones who are forgotten on all but a single day in the year. The poem…

  • ConQuest Kansas City is Next Weekend!

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    As usual, I will be at ConQuest Kansas City on Memorial Weekend for the local science fiction and fantasy convention. I will be on a number of panels with other fantastic authors. Here is my schedule: Friday: 5:00 Jurassic Park and Dinosaurs 5.0 Description: “Twenty-five years ago, an island full of dinosaurs tore up the…

  • On Stephen Hawking and the Rise of the Geek

    —

    by

    jack
    in ,

    This morning, I woke to the news that Stephen Hawking had died. These days, celebrity deaths are nothing new. We are in a post-cult of personality age, when a surge of media options and advanced marketing abilities created a mass of celebrity. As time has gone by, those people have aged, and it is only…

  • Decisions…decisions…

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    Oh, it has been a minute, hasn’t it? Stephen King talks about “Constant Readers.” I have to admit that I have been a “Sporadic Blogger.” Many things have happened. I completed a post-baccalaureate program in writing at the University of California at Berkeley. I had a lot of fun, but I still wanted more. I decided…

  • The Next Step at The Confabulator Cafe

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    Some of you may know that I have spent the last year and a half taking writing classes through the University of California at Berkeley. I didn’t write horror in those classes, at least for the most part. The final story that I wrote during the program was titled “The Next Step.” You can read…

  • A Shadow in the Dark: Cornell Woolrich in the 40’s

    —

    by

    jack
    in

    Some people know that I have spent the last year or so taking online writing classes through the University of California at Berkeley. This semester, I took a Mystery Fiction class. As part of that class, we were required to work on a larger project. I decided to develop a website dedicated to Cornell Woolrich,…

  • My Schedule for ConQuest Kansas City 2017

    —

    by

    jack
    in ,

    Have I been horrible about posting lately or what? For that I apologize, but we are coming up on one of my favorite times of the year, ConQuest in Kansas City (and my birthday). ConQuest is a long-running science fiction and fantasy convention. As usual, I will be taking part in several panels, which I…