The Holocaust Engine

The Holocaust Engine by David Rike and Stephen Patrick

Month: September 2020 (Page 3 of 3)

What we’re reading

September 4, 2020 /

From Stephen Patrick:

blur book stack books bookshelves
a romantic setting in the bathroom
adult blur books close up

One of the best things about working with a writing partner is how we compliment each other to make us and our stories better.

Our individual reading tastes are hard to describe, but we both have a unique discipline beneath the madness. Below is a small snippet of what we are reading as The Holocaust Engine prepares to launch. Please share your own in the comments. We’d love to see where you are casting your gaze these days.

DAVID:

Every year I have a reading list with categories: classic, course study topic, recent sci fi, new author, etc.)  I just finished this year’s classic, Joyce’s Ulysses, hated it.  All high brow mainstream fiction is self-serving but Ulysses just seemed to hold its readers in contempt..After that I read Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three — which was a fantastic palate cleanser.

STEPHEN:

I love the art of discovery in reading. Each year, I split my targets among science non-fiction, history/biographical, top 10 contemporary fiction, classic fiction and “literary” classics. My stack is currently anchored by the Norton Anthology of English Literature (the 3k page powerhouse we hated in school), which gets me from Blake to Kipling to Conrad to Achebe. It sits next to my palate cleanser: Fritz Lieber’s “Our Lady of Darkness”. “The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova and “The Great Influenza” by John Barry complete the stack and keep the lights on deep into the night.

Why Key West?

September 3, 2020 /

A brief look into the setting of The Holocaust Engine:

For David, “The Holocaust Engine” started as a dream/nightmare.  In my dream it was an island off of the coast of California, but I haven’t been to California in ages.  The storyline needed an area that could be easily cut off due to its geography and we already had a trip planned to Florida.

For Stephen, Key West is a stewpot of the weird, the strange, the eccentric and more than a few thing that defy explanation or even language. Equally important is the chance to turn a veritable “Paradise on Earth” into a living Hell.

What about you? What do you think of Key West as a setting? Any personal stories to share? Who knows, your favorite spot may find its way into the series.

Where to start?

September 2, 2020 /

As we move toward the release of The Holocaust Engine and our own first lines, it seems fitting to drop a few of our favorite fiction first lines.

Add yours in the comments section

  • It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 
  •  A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
  • All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five 
  • He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. —Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
  •  It was a pleasure to burn. —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
  • In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 
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