Undiscovered Brilliance, Cont`d…

Second up on my list of Undiscovered Brilliance is  an American author named Richard Daybell (who doesn’t actually fit into this category since he’s been published many times over). You find him here because, known or not, he’s one of my new favourites. And I’ll tell you why:

I have four ‘All time favourite authors: Kurt Vonnegut (god rest his marvelously talented soul), Tom Robbins (even though he doesn’t like the same mayonaise as me–and takes far too long to get his books to me), Christopher Moore (a man whose books I will read again and again, just for the sheer enjoyment of the revisit), Chuck Palahniuk (because he stretches the boundaries of convention and comes up a winner every time).

What I see in Richard Daybell’s writing is a melding of sorts; his writing is a wonderful mixture of all the things I want in a book. He has charismatic characters, wonderfully descriptive (and sometimes zany) metaphors, and binds it all together with a mixture of excellent dialogue and primo plotting. Like most avid readers, I can spot a good story just by noting an author’s use of (or lack of) the perfect word for the perfect line. Not every phrase needs to sing, but in some writers it just comes naturally. Within Richard’s work, every word has meaning, every line builds a memorable and easily pictured image. Scratch what I said about ‘good story’; his are great.

Richard’s short stories and short humor have appeared in regional, national and international commercial publications including American Way and Hemispheres (the inflight magazines for American Airlines and United Airlines), The New York Times, Buffalo Spree, Salt Lake City Magazine, and Tampa Tribune Fiction Quarterly as well as such literary magazines as Rosebud and Dandelion. Not too shabby of a resume…not too shabby at all.

Okay, so let’s call Richard Daybell “Discovered Brilliance” that I’ll speak of anyway. It is my Blog afterall.

Richard Daybell’s Shorter Fiction:
Many of these are in a short story collection titled  ‘Calypso – Story Songs of the Caribbean‘. Of these stories, two-thirds have been previously published (as indicated above), and a second novel, ‘Terry and the Pirate‘, is nearing completion.
The longer one:
‘Calypso‘, a half-century Caribbean tradition of story in song, treats even the most serious of subjects with a warm humor. I asked Richard to tell me about some of these shorter works and this is what he had to say:

For me, it [Calypso] provides the unifying framework for a short story collection set in that most idyllic of places. There, a simple, unhurried attitude prevails, one that is frequently juxtaposed with the more frenzied pace of the tourists who annually invade the islands. It is these attitudes and these encounters that fuel the stories.
In ‘Stone Cold Dead in de Market‘, a naked body sits in the sunny marketplace while five American tourists sweat out the consequences on a balcony above (first appeared in American Way, the inflight magazine for American Airlines).
‘All Day, All Night, Marianne‘ tells of a young man who, with the help of his not-too-literary friend, hopes to woo his true love in the classic manner before a fat lady sings (also American Way).
In ‘Mama Eu Quero‘, a young woman is plucked from the American Midwest and whisked into a wild and wicked Oz called Havana during the early days of the Cuban Revolution (Dandelion).

Other stories tell of buried treasure, kidnapping, sea monsters, parrot lust and the dangers of breaking Christmas tradition. Ten of the fifteen stories have been previously published.

Here’s a snippet from ‘Voodoo Love Song‘ (and Richard picked one of my favourite selections from near the beginning here) Within these passages, I see a hint of other great writers, both Floridians (my blog, my word), the skillfully disturbing Tim Dorsey, and the ever hilarious Carl Hiassen:

“Ah, you’re not just an ordinary duck, you’re a member of the happiness squad, here to lift my spirits.”
“No,” answered the duck. “I thought you might have a cigarette.”
“That’s an interesting deduction.”
“Well, do you?”
“Yes.”
“May I have one?” the duck asked, sitting next to him on the bench.
“Certainly. I’ve never seen a duck smoke before. Rabbits maybe, hedgehogs maybe, but never a duck. Some people might find that a bit weird.”
“I think most people would agree that what’s really weird is someone talking to a duck.”
“You could be right,” said Paul, extending a cigarette pack. “Be my guest. I’m wide-eyed with anticipation, uh … is it Daisy?”
“Huey,” said the duck, taking a cigarette. “Or maybe Louie. No, it’s definitely Huey. Will you take my head off, please?”

Paul reached over to take hold of the duck’s head but the duck jumpedup and said “Whoa, not now. It’s the evil chipmunk. Gotta go.”

The duck waddled off at full throttle as the chipmunk came running past Paul. The chipmunk quickly caught the duck by the back of its jacket, but the duck wheeled around and delivered a right cross to the chipmunk’s smiling face. The chipmunk fell to the ground and the duck disappeared into the crowd. Paul stared at the ground, hoping the chipmunk would quietly go away, and that he would not be pulled into the middle of an interspecies squabble.

As you can see, Richard is a master of character interaction. It was this passage, and all that followed, that made me a fan of his words, his humour, and his very distinct style.In the future, I hope to be able to sit back in my big comfy chair and read ‘Voodoo Love Song‘–as well as all of his many works that will follow–in either hardback or paperback.

This concludes the second installment of ‘Undiscovered Brilliance’. There are many, many more though.

Soon I’ll be speaking of (and to) the following authors (and more authors that I’ve momentarily forgotten to list here–unless, of course, they want nothing to do with me):

Steve Jensen

Frank Duffy

William Holt

Courtney Johnson

Rebecca Hamilton

Leah Petersen

Jane Alexander

Jared Conway

Violet Wells

Alexander Riley

And many, many more.