Tim Powers - Short Fiction

[littlemissattitude]

If you all want to read some short fiction by Tim Powers, look for A Soul in a Bottle, published by Subterranean Press in 2006.

It is a shortish story (runs 83 pages of fairly large print), published in hardback with seven lovely full-page illustrations by J. K. Potter. It's a ghost story which takes place in Hollywood. If you like Powers' work, or if you like ghost stories, you probably won't be able to put it down. I read it in one sitting, in maybe an hour.

Funny story about the book...It has three typos. Well, not typos, exactly, but in three places not the exact word that Powers intended to be used. I didn't realize that when I first read it, maybe a year or year and a half ago, out of the library.

However, when I was at LosCon last Thanksgiving weekend I happened on a limited edition copy of the book, which I bought so that I could have Powers sign it. Which he did. What was funny was that after he signed the title page, he asked if I would like him to correct the typos. Which he then proceeded to do, turning to three different pages, crossing out a word on each page and writing the correction in the margin in each case. It was so cool.

I had big reservations about going ahead and going to LosCon, as my mother's health had deteriorated significantly in the couple of weeks before the con (and in fact she passed away the following weekend). But, everyone from friends to the people at the board and care facility which was taking care of my mother urged me to go ahead and go, that I'd been under a lot of stress and it would be good for me. And so I went, and now I'm glad I did because I have this cool book with corrections in the author's hand and this neat story to go with it.

But, the main thing is...this is a very, very good story and if you like Tim Powers' work at all you should seek it out and read it.

What of his short fiction have you read and liked?

[Connavar]

I havent read his short fiction but i think i saw a short story collection of his in the site theworksoftimpowers.com i was interested in.

Only read his novels so far.

[Omphalos]

Powers is a pretty cool guy. Im actually headed to his old stomping grounds, CSU Fullerton, to do some research in the Frank Herbert Special Collection there in a few weeks.

I have a really nice copy of Where they are Hid, and a chapbook of The Bible Repairman. Both are good stories. There are lots of other special edition Powers things out there. He seems to sell his back catalog over and over and over again.

[clovis-man]

Sorry to hear about your mother. Went through the same thing a couple of years ago.

I think typos are getting to be more common because nobody uses proofreaders anymore, just spellcheck. So you get some pretty weird syntax on occasion.

[littlemissattitude]

Thanks for that, C-M. It has been difficult, but I'm slowly beginning to adjust. I've got a great support system, so that helps a lot.

I'm sure you're correct about the lack of proofreaders and the unfortunate use of spellcheck and grammar checks. The typos in question in the Powers story are all, as I recall, unusual or archaic usages which had been replaced with more modern spellings.

By the way, there is a copy of this story in the Sunnyside branch library - or anyway, that's where I first found it.

[clovis-man]

Originally Posted by littlemissattitude

By the way, there is a copy of this story in the Sunnyside branch library - or anyway, that's where I first found it.

Hey. I'll be there tomorrow morning for my Friends of the Library duty. May have to check it out.

[GOLLUM]

I've got his short story collection Strange Itineraries. I've found Powers is as competent in the short story form and he is with novels, which is not something that can be said across the board.

[Connavar]

A Time to Cast Away Stones what happened to this novella i wonder ?http://www.theworksoftimpowers.com/2...t-away-stones/