F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Writers

The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession, by Joe Ponepinto

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The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession (© Joe Ponepinto)
The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession (© Joe Ponepinto)

The cover of Joe Ponepinto’s collection of dark tales, The Face Maker and Other Stories of Obsession, not only grabbed me by the throat, but continues to throttle me every time I look to it.

Much like his stories.

The picture is a shot of a collection of WWI facial reconstruction casts and masks, created by sculptor, Anna Coleman Ladd. These masks were needed, because plastic surgery had yet come into its own. WWI relied heavily on trench warfare, so, with only the head and shoulders available as a target, it would seem to me, this was a great cause of concern for those who survived their many times traumatic injuries. Our face is our calling card, our identity. What we look at every day in the mirror, and what others look to. How we present ourselves to the world, and to have it so hideously mangled and destroyed can be more traumatic than the injury itself.  I always maintain that there is a person “built” for every type of work out there, and in this case, it causes me to well up with emotion that there were people out there who dedicated themselves to helping these damaged soldiers who returned from trench warfare in any way that they could (and still do, sadly, in today’s conflicts, as war continues to ravage our Humanity). What would you do to help someone in your circle of influence? How much would you give up for another? Our first story, “The Face Maker,” drives home this point.

But, all of Mr. Ponepinto’s stories similarly drive home their points, like shafts of steel beneath fingernails. He ventures into the darker circles of human behavior to visit upon his “Host of Unluckies” the logical conclusion to their actions. In all of them are varying degrees of obsession. Several of them might make you uncomfortable, uneasy, cause you to squirm (maybe hit a little too close to home?), but they are meant to do that. If he—or any of us—wrote about the mundane and the dull, where would be the fun in that? We need conflict…struggle. Good against Evil. No one wants to read about watching water boil…unless there’s a body in it…and that’s what these stories present. People writhing in the boiling water of their actions. There’s always plenty of time to turn off that pot before reaching 212 degrees. Plenty of time to ponder whether or not to plunge our—or another’s—hand into that water. Why is it some of us choose to do the unthinkable, the heinous? Who knows, but that many do, give Joe Ponepinto more than enough grist for his mill. I’m not going to go into each and every story…I leave that for you to discover on your own, but my favorite is definitely “The Face Maker” (though “Excerpts from the Diary of the Last Roman Emperor” was the most fascinating to me to read…). It hit me with the raw emotion of those in need…and one man’s journey to fill that need. Yes, I welled up reading it. I hate to see evil done to anyone…but to have another dedicate their life to helping those touched by evil, is truly a redemptive thing.

I also like Mr. Ponepinto’s end notes. They helped “cap” what I’d read; was a nice closure.

I love Mr. Ponepinto’s writing, the artful skill of it. I love his choice of words. How he wields them. These are not the darkest stories out there, but, like looking to roadkill, perhaps, I couldn’t look away because of the delivery of his writing. Powerful, meaty…this is what “keepin’ it real” is all about when you truck within the darker circles of human behavior. I pray none of you go there for real. You might very well end up in Mr. Ponepinto’s next tale….

Shifting Gears

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Clutched? Shift!
Clutched? Shift! (Photo: RambergMediaImages.com)

Grind me a pound, will ya?

I feel…like a huge weight has been lifted from me.

Yesterday, I had a long talk with my agent about this SF-y action/adventure I’d been working on the past year, because the editor who came to me with the proposition (a first) turned it down—and (perhaps) rightly so.

Science fiction is really not my thing. I’ve written only one science fiction-y manuscript (actually a conspiracy theory with elements of science fiction…), and it’s a stand-alone, based in part on my early life, which I wrapped around aliens, government conspiracies, and gave new meaning to the term “extended family.”

NOTE: no, I have had no (zero-zilch-nada-nichts) personal extraterrestrial alien interaction at all.

That I know of.

Okay, back to this rejection thing. As much as the editor loved the ENERGY of my writing, the plot, he did not.

And I’m okay with that. I had issues with it, too.

But I tried, the past year, in doing something different, something outside “my box”…and I realized it’s simply not my thing. With an exception to follow, science fiction is not for me [to write]. I love writing about normal people experiencing weird shit. It’s that simple. Hey, it’s not like that stuff’s sold, either (though am considering other options)…but it’s what I love penning (penciling? keying?). In fact, I even try to be a little literary about it, my stories, whether or not I succeed still remains to be seen…but I try. Exception still to follow….

Not going to get into all the gory details—there really aren’t any—the whole series idea simply didn’t work, that’s all. We didn’t see eye-to-eye. That’s okay. And this whole time I worked on the project I felt…well…I felt conflicted…working on it (11 months on the thing as a whole, 8 months on the first draft). I just don’t do science fiction. And I don’t really do action/adventure, per se, though elements do surface in my material (but, at the same time—here’s the exception—I really do want to write an X-Files-like story…someday…so I might resurrect elements of this work later…). I do supernatural and paranormal. Everyday people. Mashing the two together. Somehow…I have to make that work better—correction, make that more salable. Or go indie publishing, which I’m still really considering for a couple works of mine. And, like my agent and I talked, it’s best I figured this out now, rather than forcing myself to continue plodding along at something I don’t really like doing or get stuck in some other project with less of an escape, if that be possible. It’s good to try new things every so often, even if they don’t pan out, because you always learn from everything you do. I truly believe that nothing in life is wasted, even if you can’t figure out what’s happening at the time or the why behind it….

But, he loved my energy!

I can bring a piece of paper alive, and I appreciate that from this editor-who’s-been-around. We get so few compliments on our work, so it was nice to receive this one.

My agent and I talked about other possibilities, I threw a couple ideas out—one of which I was working on directly before this project—and she liked them. Actually kinda liked the one I’d already started (120 pages in). And this one could even become a series—don’t know if I’ll go there, but I’m certainly going to put some thought toward it. But over the night and this early morning I also thought about maybe again looking into the Amazon CreateSpace route for one manuscript in particular, my supernatural whydunnit murder mystery. Stay tuned for possible developments.

But, oh, do I feel so much better! I appreciate all the help a handful of writer friends lent in creating this project, but it just didn’t feel right to me. Sometimes, I feel like I’m already in overdrive and am running out of gears…but I always have to go back to why I write in the first place (downshifting…). For the enjoyment, the imagination, the creativity. I’ve been doing this since I was six. I hope to keep doing it.

So, sure, I’ll grind a pound for ya—or ten. Want some cheese with that?

Shifting….