Take Your Time, Get It Right.

[NOIRTRASH]

I just read James M.Cain's first short story, PASTORALE. Mencken published it in AMERICAN MERCURY.

Its an OK tale with one flaw: The principal killer in the story confesses to the murder when he shoulda fucked himself from vanity. He was a thoroughly waste of humanity with no redeeming qualities. At the poolhall he was overcome with guilt and spilled the beans. Done right he shoulda run his mouth and said more than he should know. He was a braggart among other things. Instead he found Jesus.

I'm surprised Mencken didn't see it.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Just finished reading Cain's 1944 thriller, THE EMBEZZLER.

Its a solid 4 stars till the end when it crashes and burns into an implausible pile of dog shit. OMG its horrible.

Imagine your worst nightmare engulfing your life and world and then fate takes you away to Happy Ever After Land. Un fuggin real.

How could it happen! By 1944 Cain had several solid best sellers to his credit (none of them end well). I mean Hell was in session and abruptly went away.

Did Cain lose his mind? Or did the publisher squeal?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

A while back I bought a novel titled WHITE TRASH whatever, I thought I might learn something from it. Wrong. Maybe it was TRAILER TRASH whatever.

But I knew I wasn't in familiar territory when the mom cooked a wholesome nutritious breakfast for the family. I'm here to say that has never happened in the history of Earth.

Your from the factory white trash mom aint even home at breakfast, and if she was her idea of breakfast is a 99 cent plastic bottle of store brand Mountain Dew and a bag of store brand cookies.

So I dismissed the author as a poser. I'm an expert of white trash and ghetto bunny blacks domestic habits.

 

[SamScribble]

You know, quite a few otherwise-good stories crash and burn in the final three or four paragraphs. I suspect that the authors lose interest - but can't quite let go of the effort that they put in to the preceding two or three thousand words. Let go, boys and girls. Put it away for another day. Another year, even.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

You know, quite a few otherwise-good stories crash and burn in the final three or four paragraphs. I suspect that the authors lose interest - but can't quite let go of the effort that they put in to the preceding two or three thousand words. Let go, boys and girls. Put it away for another day. Another year, even.

I put one aside for 5 years before the right ending came, and the ending wasn't rocket science. It was simple and plausible and congruent with it all.