BIO

KIERAN SHEA’s fiction has appeared in dozens of venues including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Thuglit, Dogmatika, Word Riot, Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp, Crimefactory, and Needle: A Magazine of Noir ...as well as in some beefy-looking anthologies most of which will make you question the tether of his shiny, red balloon. To his self-deprecating astonishment he's also been nominated for the Story South’s Million Writers Award twice without sending the judges so much as a thank you note. He co-edited the satiric transgressive fiction collection D*CKED: DARK FICTION INSPIRED BY DICK CHENEY and his debut novel KOKO TAKES A HOLIDAY is out now from Titan Books. Kieran divides his time between 38°58′22.6″N- 76°30′4.17″W and 39.2775° N, 74.5750° W.

8/7/09

Mr. Happy Pants: FFBs

I'll admit it. There was a time maybe about fifteen years ago when I was sulking around, reveling in a wet sweater philosophy kick. Strange days for sure. Philosophy is the strongest meat there is, people, and to dabble in it is akin to the unlucky tourist taking the wrong turn down the wrong alley in the dark side of town. Philosophers. Brooding intellectuals who's life mission throughout history has been solely to torque the human mind. I was one such unlucky tourist. Down a dark alley one night I tripped and fell over the body of E.M. Cioran. His smile was a knife. Quickly I read everything by him. Mr. Happy Pants had such gleeful titles --The Trouble With Being Born, A Short History of Decay, Drawn and Quartered...show up at the party with one of those babies tucked into your jacket pocket and I'm telling you, the ladies will just peel off the walls and throw themselves at your feet.

Not.

Anyway, if you have a strong stomach... a good primer for E.M. Cioran and a terrific bathroom read is his masterpiece ON THE HEIGHTS OF DESPAIR, my Friday Forgotten Book. Short blasts of lyrical intensity, you are swept away into chaos and challenges of meaning that will rock you to your soul. Call it flash-philosophy. Essays with titles like "The Beauty of Flames", "Total Dissatisfaction", and "The Vanity of Compassion"...whew. Tasty, tasty, tasty. You've been warned.
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