Welcome to the journal of writer Daniel Powell. Movies, books, and the occasional discussion of life and family...
6.28.2011
The Timucuan Portal
6.27.2011
Book Review: Best New Zombie Tales, Vol. 1
6.24.2011
These Strange Worlds: Fourteen Dark Tales
Supernatural narratives represent an important component of our storytelling heritage.
These stories—including fairy tales, urban legends, penny dreadfuls and modern pulps, among many others—leave a resonant echo throughout popular culture. In These Strange Worlds, Daniel Powell’s first collection of dark short fiction, these influences collide in fourteen startling and entertaining stories.
The lone survivor of a worldwide flu epidemic grows strangely attached to her parasitic partner…
A malevolent London rental has a voracious appetite for rock stars, and it’s building one hell of a band…
A wealthy oil trader is offered a glimpse into another dimension, but is the cost more than he can possibly bear?
From Satanic salesmen to zombie Ponzi schemes; from murdering murals to alien invasions, and other curious encounters along the way, These Strange Worlds takes readers on fourteen excursions into the realm of the uncanny. A mixture of new and previously published short stories, Powell’s first collection embodies the spectrum of imaginative possibility that is the hallmark of compelling speculative fiction.
Available for purchase in the following formats:
Friday Roundup...
6.15.2011
The Kindle Reading Experience
6.13.2011
Kind Words on These Strange Worlds
6.10.2011
My Daughter the Naturalist
6.09.2011
Exceptional Fiction
6.08.2011
The Great Balancing Act
6.04.2011
Survival
Famine and disease have drastically compounded the misery of a warming planet.
With many billions scrambling after the Earth’s depleted resources, a multinational agency known as The Authority has instituted a population-control policy known simply as Labor.
In an effort to stem the tides of procreation and instill a measure of gender equality in the birthing process, men must survive a deadly twenty-four-hour gauntlet of chaos and destruction in order to earn the privilege to become fathers.
The Authority regulates every aspect of the birthing process, from ensuring that male subjects abstain from alcohol and prescription drugs to delivering each man a quota of sleepless nights.
Such is the case for Bryan Norton, whose wife’s due date has just fallen into testing range. Very soon, they will experience the joy of the birth of their son.
Norton has endured the year-long process of qualifying for Labor. He has sacrificed his health and comfort for the chance to become a father.
But the greatest test still lies ahead, and the chances are slim that he’ll ever hold his son in his arms.
Daniel Powell’s new dystopic novelette “Survival” poses an enduring human question: How far would you go to be with your family?
Drawing upon influences as diverse as Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” and Stephen King’s The Running Man, “Survival” is a chilling narrative on the nature of parenthood in turbulent times.
6.03.2011
The Vagaries of Capitalization
How should one treat capitalization for titles in the case of replacing proper nouns.
In accordance with the excellent handbook Rules for Writers, Sixth Edition, I always follow the rule as it adheres to family members and high-ranking officials. The text indicates we should capitalize in any instance other than possessive relationships.
For example:
I enjoyed my afternoon at the beach with my dad and mom.
February Reviews: Gray Mountain, John Grisham
I enjoy John Grisham's books very much and I usually knock out a couple per year. I have read three so far in 2024, and his writing is...
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One of the serendipitous outcomes of the 2020 stay-at-home orders (depending on your movie-going habits, of course) was a flood of excellent...
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It doesn't get much more depressing than this story . Many years ago (like three or four) it would have been unheard of for kids this yo...
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I enjoy John Grisham's books very much and I usually knock out a couple per year. I have read three so far in 2024, and his writing is...