Happy Birthday PZB
Just throwing out birthday props to Poppy Z Brite ( docbrite ), one of the coolest authors working today. I have enormous respect for her, she had the cahones to do a complete 180 during what is probably the midpoint of her career, utterly changing her writing style and her artistic priorities. Growing up I was addicted to her gothy-gayish teen angsty horror dirges Lost Souls and Drawing Blood; I read them about 5 times each. They were filled with all of this vivid description of corpse rot and Deliverance-style southern creepiness, and lots of hot dude-on-dude sexiness that really got that Ball of Confusion bouncing for me in those pre-bi days. But the dialouge was maybe a little bit silly, the transpiring events were really not that involving and there was a lot of goth-culture name dropping (Bauhaus on the radio, characters compared physically to Edward Scissorhands, etc.) Which isn't to say these books were badly written, not at all-- their strengths far outweigh the details that I label as weaknesses.
But this makes Poppy's newer work that much awesome-er. In Liquor and Prime, we're reading fully-developed characters existing in an extensively-researched and realistic world, dealing with plausible yet still fiction-worthy situations that really grab your interest. The dreamy-gothy stuff has pretty much been abandoned for what could pass for an insider's testimony of the New Orleans resturaunt business. The dialogue in these two books is much more breezy and sing-songy than her earlier work, it really feels like you're listening in on a real conversation. Best of all these books truly make you want to live in New Orleans, despite every New Orleanian's warning to the contrary.
Anyway, Happy BDay PZB, keep up the good work and enjoy.
PS> Yes, I am totally compensating my late entry in LJ Land by writing 4 entries before 3 PM on Day 2.