Cliff Burns's Blog
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May.21.2013
Well.
Take a look at the cover adorning my new short story collection Exceptions & Deceptions.
(Click on image to view larger version)
Let's see Random House or St. Martin's come up with anything nearly as beautiful and evocative.
Thanks to artist Joslyn Cain for allowing us to use her original...
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May.18.2013
I've told the story a number of times, usually to close friends or fellow authors, but I decided I'd put it down on paper to share with everyone.
My first professional submission. And it was a doozie.
Y'see, I was twelve years old and there was this program on CBC Television called "Pencil Box" and...
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May.08.2013
Well, it was inevitable.
I don't have many heroes but Ray Harryhausen was definitely one of them. I grew up on his films and never got over the impact they had on my young, impressionable mind.
I was saddened but unsurprised to learn of his passing--my first thought was that he and his old pal Ray...
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Apr.23.2013
I read a fascinating article on the CBC News page today, its author Patrick Brown.
Brown is an old hand in the Far East; he's even fluent in Mandarin Chinese. While the West may regard China's economic ascension with green-eyed envy, that ancient land has had to pay a steep price for its rapid...
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Apr.20.2013
Finally got around to posting a new tale, "The 1001st Night", on my Scribd page.
It's been awhile since I've added a story to the site and that's negligent of me. In the time I've been on Scribd, my tales and excerpts have drawn over 15,000 "reads", and for a guy weened in the small press...
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Apr.07.2013
Hard, these days, to maintain the illusion that finishing my new short story collection is important or critical or matters in the slightest.
Not after hearing the terrible news about Iain Banks' inoperable bladder cancer.
Banks is a marvel, possessing one of the most enormous and densely...
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Mar.08.2013
...I'd be the first human being to plant his boot on the red sands of Mars.
I idolized Neil Armstrong as a child, dreamed of joining the space program, exploring strange, new worlds with Captain Kirk and his Vulcan first officer...
Okay, so I had trouble discriminating between reality and fantasy....
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Mar.05.2013
Stripped down...mimimalist...austere...spare...
Words that have been employed by folks to describe my writing "style". Sometimes, I've used them myself, as I struggle to sum up my artistic aesthetic or approach to literature (or whatever the hell you want to call it).
I confess: description bores...
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Feb.19.2013
There's a certain aroma or, more properly, miasma surroundimg most regional writing, a stink of amateurism that is immediately apparent when you open a volume of the stuff; what comes wafting out is so unpleasant, it can induce gagging.
The province I call home features a particularly noxious...
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Jan.29.2013
I have pretty much cut away all of the negative influences in my personal circle. The kind of people who drag you down with their constant pissing and moaning about the sorry state of their lives.
Certain ones--family members are the worst--really get my goat. These despicable creatures are so self...
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Jan.23.2013
Often when I'm immersed in a book I'll think to myself: "This author clearly has nothing but contempt for his/her readers..."
Why else would they permit sloppy syntax, obvious word choices and tuneless scribbling to be released under their name? Writers who aren't willing to work hard to make...
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Jan.14.2013
About a year or so ago, my approach to writing started changing. I stopped being so obsessed with getting every single syllable exactly right. It occurred to me that while God, the Almighty Creator of the Possible, Impossible and Everything In Between, might be inviolate and perfect, I was not.
I...
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Dec.22.2012
Twas the Night
The rain finally falls on Christmas Eve and everyone stands at the window, holding strong drinks and smiling, not saying much, just watching. The streets get slick and shiny. Puddles form. Drinks are refreshed, cheeks flushed. The winking tree is reflected, refracted in the wet...
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Dec.18.2012
Yes, indeed, my Muse has been a regular Kris Kringle this year, gifting me with a new "Zinnea And Nightstalk" story, just in time for Christmas.
I get letters and communications from folks quite regularly, asking me when I'm going to write another adventure involving my daring duo of supernatural...
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Dec.11.2012
I get a little bit sentimental this time of the year.
Normally, I have the reputation for being a cynical, vicious brute with an over-developed sense of the ridiculous and surreal.
But when Christmas comes around, some of my rougher edges are buffed off and casting an eye back over the year, I find...
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Cliff Burns is a literary pioneer, going independent two decades before it became fashionable. For Burns, it was never about the money; it’s always been about artistic integrity and connecting with his audience.”
—Robert Runte, Canadian critic and academic
About Cliff
I've been a professional author for more than 25 years and an independent publisher since 1990, when my first book, Sex & Other Acts of the Imagination, was released through an imprint my wife and I created. That little publishing concern, which...
Connections
Causes Cliff Burns Supports
The Stephen Lewis Foundation, Community Radio
Cliff’s Favorite Books
Ah, now this is a tough one. "Favorite" books or "best" books? Because that's two entirely different things... Still, here are a few of the ones that have...