“In America, only the successful writer is important. In France, all writers are important. In England, no writer is important. In Australia, you have to explain what a writer is.” — Geoffrey Cotterell
Month / May 2007
Ear Wigs
I go through periods where words—like strong-hookéd pop songs—get stuck, lodged you might say, in my head. Recently, it was ‘legerdemain,’ today it’s ‘vituperative.’ I had a dream about ‘vituperative’ last night. Someone, his face dream-shrouded now, was applying it to everything including me around his person: ‘You’re so vituperative.’ I didn’t know what it meant till just now, via Dictionary.com: “marked by harshly abusive criticism.” Based on that definition, I don’t believe you’d use ‘vituperative’ to describe a person. It seems applicable to media only: texts, criticism. I hope I’ve freed my mind of ‘vituperative.’
Does anyone else experience this?
[Cross posted at P.S.]
Saintly living
Our fearless leader has cast an intoxicating spell on me under which I am happy to be. However, one of the side effects disallows me to imbed YouTube videos herein.
Behold a YouTube that rocked my face off.
I watched it and sighed. Then I learned that Grant Bailie and John Sheppard were contributors to this “Bible” of contemporary fiction. Bailie was part of “Novel: A Living Installation at Flux Factory, Inc.” in New York in 2005. His first novel “Cloud 8” was a wonderful book wherein the reader steps into the afterlife to find it populated by people who look like Abe Lincoln. His flash fiction delights at every turn.
Erin likey Grant Bailie.
Ed talked to John Sheppard on Bat Segundo about his 2007 novel, “Small Town Punk.” Sheppard fascinated me from the first time I chatted with him and learned that his sister’s murder fueled his writing in part–much like my brother’s suicide had fueled mine.
Cool YouTube book trailer. Cool writers. Cool. Cool. Cool. Oh to walk among the gifted, copiously published, beautiful fiction writers, dreamed I. Oh, to be cool.
Black Arrow Press was still accepting submission for “Santi: Lives of Modern Saints,” so I sent mine along. When it got the thumbs up, I spontaneously combusted with joy. Here is the first paragraph from my story, “Skywriting with King Tut Down at the Little Egypt:”
The pyramid was my favorite thing. It was built out of concrete block, so it was steps all the way up and easy to climb. From the top, I’d look down at the Little Egypt all around and feel like I was floating above the earth. I could stay up there crouched on the rough steps forever, but someone always yelled at me to get down way too soon.
The anthology is scheduled to come out in December 2007. Dig the cover:
Stay tuned, boppers.
More link love:
Other contributors include Roy Kesey, Jon Konrath, and Timothy Gager. A complete list is available at the Black Arrow Press page.
The preceding post was brought to you by Smart Erin.
Kathleen and Me
A hilarious podcast as Michael Rice valiantly attempts to interview Kathleen Turner.
Someone invited me to this thing called “Good Reads.”
My profile is here.
I reviewed my own book, EEEEE EEE EEEE.
I reviewed almost every book I like.
They link to places like Amazon to buy books from.
You can go to other places though.
The cash is in your hands.
The choice is yours.
McNally Robinson ships any book anywhere in the world.
I will give you some advice now.
Some practical advice to actualize your liberal politics in concrete reality.
1. To get free books go to your pile of books, in your room, and pick up an Amy Tan book, in your hands, bring it to Barnes and Noble or Border’s, and exchange it for a book by an independent press.
2. If an author you like is reading at Barnes and Noble or Borders and you want to give them your book, that you wrote, go to the bookshelf in the store, take the book, in your hand, write a note in it, then bring it to the author who is reading who you like, and give it to him or her.
Barnes and Nobles in NYC, and probably in other places, don’t have tags in the books, but I think Borders has tags in some books. You can just flip through the book and find it though, and take it out, and put it on somewhere else.
Go to Good Reads and be my friend and read my reviews.
I reviewed Noah Cicero, Lorrie Moore, Joy Williams, Richard Yates, Lydia Davis, Matthew Rohrer, Jean Rhys, Ann Beattie, Todd Hasak-Lowy, Bobbie Ann Mason, Kobo Abe, Celia Farber, Peter Singer, Mary Robison, and some other people.