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Earl Carlson

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first registered 26.03.09

last online 18 days ago

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about me

I was born by the light of a kerosene lamp in a small logging community in northern Minnesota, just fifty miles up a dirt road from the nearest public library. During the school year, I had access to a number of books judged suitable for students, and a drug store in the next town carried paperback novels -- usually twenty five cents a copy. So I had access to Treasure Island and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, even The Grapes of Wrath. And I had a subscription to Boys' Life (to which, at the age of twelve, I submitted my first story, handwritten on lined paper). But I didn't discover Dostoevsky, Henry James, H. L. Mencken and Aldous Huxley until I was in the army.

After many missteps and misadventures -- I spent the summer and fall of 1960 as a hobo-in-training -- I settled in the Twin Cities. Over the years, I beat the living hell out of several secondhand typewriters, none of which seemed to be capable of completing an error-free page, and it wasn't until I bought my first computer, in 1988, that I was able to concentrate on writing rather than typing.

For a time, I produced a humorous newsletter for an organization called the Society of Dirty Old Men, which we hoped would make us all filthy rich selling tee-shirts and souvenirs to college students. Following the demise of that brave new venture, I turned to writing short stories, and I have managed to accumulate a truly impressive collection of rejection slips. In fact, I believe I have spent more on postage than I will ever receive in payment.

I finished my first novel, "World Enough and Time," last year, and I have posted the first draft of another, tentatively titled "In This Crisis". (I have pretty much decided to change the title to "Flotsam and Jetsam.")

I'm still waiting for a response from Boys' Life.

favourite books

American Energies; Essays on Fiction by Sven Birkertz
The True Believer by Eric Hoffer
Art by Clive Bell
The Prince by Machiavelli
Madam Bovary
Lord of the Flies
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Breakfast at Tiffany's
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
The Brothers Karamozov
Crime and Punishment
The Possessed
Don Quixote
Anna Karenina
Moby Dick
The Grapes of Wrath
Cannery Row
The Turn of the Screw
From Here to Eternity
Catcher in the Rye
Adventures in the Skin Trade (unfinished) by Dylan Thomas
Catch 22
Slaughter House Five
Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
The Portable Voltaire
The Collected Works of Saki
The Rubaiyat by Kayyam as translated by FitzGerald
Outline of History by H. G. Wells
Any collection of Thurber stories
The Stray Lamb by Thorne Smith
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by Saroyan
Not Dying by Saroyan
God's Little Acre
Down and Out in London and Paris by Orwell
1984
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Tales of Good and Evil by Nikolai Gogol
Dead Souls (though he destroyed most of his manuscript)
Chita, a Story of Last Isle by Lafcadio Hearne
The Vintage Mencken
The Complete Stories of Dorothy Parker
How could I forget To Kill a Mockingbird?

my websites

http://www.earlcarlson.com    

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my books

In This Crisis

Earl Carlson

Flood waters are rising in Hallelujah, Idaho. But, the community knows exactly how to deal with it. Just keep believing the water level is receding.


Mollly Herkimer’s husband isn't really the moon; he’s invisible. Cecil Grundy knows what he knows, and that’s all there is to that. His wife loves children, just not the monsters in her fifth grade class. Defrocked mess sergeant, Mayor Mitby Sather aspires to higher office – governor or senator or something . Obediah Twine married into the family business, The Church of the Flowing Blood of Christ, and appointed himself Bishop. He’d rather be Pope. Chief of Police, Charlie Swope has been incapacitated – .45 caliber slugs tend to do that to a person – leaving Constable/Jailor Hjalmar Haggedorn in charge. Mrs. Molly Herkimer just can’t remember when or how she became a widow, and she’s okay with that; she just wants to get out of town with her cache of silver. Saint Birdie Twine has visions while astride a child’s saddle and pumping the treadle of her sewing machine. Miss Sympathy Jones is still a virgin – a situation she hopes soon to rectify. And Onie and Marrilee Mattson just can’t get a break.

Meanwhile, the Nimi’ipuu up in the hills wait for the spirit of the lake to rid the valley of devils.

 

World Enough and Time

Earl Carlson

Haskel Yngren and Jennifer Jessup, along with Jennifer's long dead parents, travel sideways through time experiencing other realities that diverge from their own.


If, on the coldest night of an uncommonly cold Minnesota winter, you should meet a person in a busy intersection wearing only shoes and stockings and sporting a large brass spittoon pulled down over his head, and if you should recognize him as your own sweet self, we will forgive your momentary confusion.

You may require some time even to phrase the question, "How can this be?" With no easy answer you may believe you are dreaming, but if you pinch yourself and do not waken you must seek other answers.

Hallucinations, if you are not mad, and visions, if you are not religious, are insufficient and unsatisfying explanations. You may consider the possibility that you have been transported to a parallel universe. But we cannot expect you to guess the truth: that there are more diensions of time and space than you have faculty to comprehend and that, to effect this rendezvous, you have traveled sideways through time.

 

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latest

LisaToohey wrote 73 days ago

Hey! Some time ago left a comment on my book Nickolas. I just wanted....

Brian Bandell wrote 116 days ago

Hi Earl, You previously commented on my novel Mute. I recently pos....

Software wrote 168 days ago

Hello Earl, Hope you are well. Maybe you would like to try out my....

Maevesleibhin wrote 173 days ago

Dear Earl, If you're like me, you're tickled pink that Zane's wonder....

Mark Cain wrote 182 days ago

Earl, Please, I beg you. Don't kill that damn mockingbird. I re....

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my comments

latest

I wrote 281 days ago
I wrote 281 days ago
I wrote 295 days ago

Well, thank you for your comments, and I do get your point. Actually, the sci-fi element doesn't become really apparent until chapter five, although there is definitely something strange developing in chapter four. view book

I wrote 296 days ago

Well, thank you for your comments, and I do get your point. Actually, the sci-fi element doesn't become really apparent until chapter five, although there is definitely something strange developing in chapter four. view book

I wrote 296 days ago

Just a belated thank you note. I'm usually not so ill-mannered. I do appreciate your comments. view book

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