This has been a heavy writing week for me, and it’s about to get heavier: in addition to final novel revisions, synopses, queries, and excerpt submissions — which have taken up the bulk of my week — I am today beginning work on a collaborative piece a friend of mine solicited me for. So I’mContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a dream (Retro #4)”
Monthly Archives: June 2012
Photo blog 87
Yet another entry in my “abandoned dolls” series, this time a two-fer: The arms and legs were for sale, $3 each, at Collage, a Portland crafts store where our upstairs neighbor works (hi, Sonya!). When our neighbor spotted me waxing enthusiastic over the body parts, she pointed out how some of the limbs seemed to be burned,Continue reading “Photo blog 87”
New publication
So, today, my story “The Voice You Throw, the Blow You Catch” got published at Fiction Circus. I’ve been really psyched about this one for a while now, gang, because I love the magazine and I’m pretty damned proud of the story. What makes this publication so exceptionally cool, though, is that Fiction Circus goesContinue reading “New publication”
A Writer’s Notebook: Kevin Sampsell and Chloe Caldwell’s nonfiction workshop
So, as I promised yesterday, here are (some of) my notes from Kevin Sampsell and Chloe Caldwell‘s excellent nonfiction workshop at Crow Arts Manor today. I’ll include a couple of quick headings in the notes so you know what you’re reading, but I’ll write more about some of the things we talked about afterward. For now,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Kevin Sampsell and Chloe Caldwell’s nonfiction workshop”
A Writer’s Notebook: on hold till Saturday (for awesomeness)
I’m putting the Writer’s Notebook on hold until tomorrow, because tomorrow, I’m attending a killer personal essay workshop here in Portland, led by the inimitable Kevin Sampsell (of Future Tense Books) and Chloe Caldwell (of Legs Get Led Astray). So tomorrow, I’ll post whatever I get up to in the workshop. Stay tuned! The workshop, byContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: on hold till Saturday (for awesomeness)”
Research tip #7: Check the map
So, I’ve finished a wholesale revision and final(ish) edit on my Civil War novel, the first draft of which started me on my whole “Researching for fiction” series a couple of years ago. And in the process of working over that text, I came across another aspect of research I’ve long been aware of butContinue reading “Research tip #7: Check the map”
Photo blog 86
Not that everyone’s really all that curious, but you know that love story from my grandmother that I used as last week’s Writer’s Notebook? Well, this is what those two looked like early in their marriage (I don’t have a precise date, but this is sometime in the `50s): I asked my Grandma about thisContinue reading “Photo blog 86”
A Writer’s Notebook: more of Beth Locke’s “A Louisiana Girl”
This is more of my grandmother’s story. The year is 1945. My grandmother, Beth Locke, has just turned 20, and she works at the nearby Navy base, where troops are returning from the war. (I think you see where this is headed….) Along about this time, my social life was at a complete standstill. I hadContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: more of Beth Locke’s “A Louisiana Girl””
The novella is the Bigfoot of fiction
It’s both funny and somehow appropriate that it’s taking many of us until the middle of June to realize that June now celebrates the middle child of fiction: the novella. National Novella Month is something Dan Wickett (oh he of the grand and holy Dzanc Books) got started a couple of years ago, and I loveContinue reading “The novella is the Bigfoot of fiction”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 