Ogden of course first appeared in The Walkaway as a really fun and nasty example of psychotic-Americanus and afterward, as a teenager, in some short stories, but The Adjustment shows us Wayne as an adult back from occupied Japan and spectacularly failing to re-enter civilian life. He is not one of us, he’s changing. He is going through a metamorphosis from mere assholishness to full-on psychotic, but he’s a little naïve. He doesn’t see it that way at all. Room has been left for a third novel – Wayne in Japan – that I really hope we get to see someday. In a word it would be - badass.
Wayne’s childhood exploits explored in stories like Sockdolager and The Crow Killers I’m assuming would be included in a book of shorts that Phillips is considering releasing electronically. As the walls fall between writer and reader and the middle men go looking for new gigs, I am beginning to feel the stirrings of excitement for the possibilities of the future and wistful nostalgia for what we almost had in print. Last week Anthony Neil Smith released an e-exclusive novel Choke on Your Lies that I’m wishing I had access to, especially after reading his fantastic shorts Minnesodom (Needle #3) and Granny Pussy (Damn Near Dead 2). Smith’s a writer I admire for packing the genre goods into really challenging pieces and while I hope he reaches a wider audience than print has afforded him and makes some decent money with the Choke, I’m disappointed that I can’t hold it in my hands… or read it.