Author Archives: Samuel Snoek-Brown

Peter Thiel couldn’t pay me enough to quit education

Today I read a Slate article about how billionaire and college drop-out Peter Thiel wants to pay students $100,000 to drop out of college themselves. Supportive blogs and sites like GOOD claim he’s not asking kids to drop out but to “stop out” (whatever that means) because, as Thiel and like-minded moguls believe, education stiflesContinue reading “Peter Thiel couldn’t pay me enough to quit education”

A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo outline

This is perhaps a bit early — National Novel Writing Month is still two weeks away — but I’ve had this project (and vampires in general) on the brain lately, so I figured I might as well get started. (SPOILER ALERT: If anyone feels like following along with my progress on this book during NaNoWriMo, skipContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo outline”

15 Authors (and then some)

There’s a meme going around Facebook (and probably elsewhere) in which we are invited to name 15 influential authors in 15 minutes.  It reads like this: The Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who’ve influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen youContinue reading “15 Authors (and then some)”

Photo blog 25

    I didn’t take this photo–my mother did.  I’m actually in this photo–I’m Charlie Chaplin.  My brother, Jon Snoek, is the Ghostbuster (I made his ghost-trapping “backpack” for him), and my sister, Sara Snoek, is an angel.  I think the year was 1987, but don’t quote me on that. I decided to post itContinue reading “Photo blog 25”

Vonnegut at the blackboard

I was so glad to see Ampersand Review link to this article in Lapham’s Quarterly:  I had to profound good fortune to see Kurt Vonnegut give this same lecture at Trinity University in San Antonio back in, oh, 1995?  1996?  I forget the date, but I will never forget this lecture, in which Vonnegut explainsContinue reading “Vonnegut at the blackboard”

A Writer’s Notebook: Photo story

My wife turned our laptop around the other day and showed me this photo and said, “You should write about this.”  So, first, the photo, and then the writing.  And then, the exercise. People think I do this for money.  I put out a box and I don’t object when people drop money in it. Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Photo story”

A new story

As promised in the last Writer’s Notebook entry, I wrote a story for Ryan Werner’s Our Band Could Be Your Lit blog. I’ve been a fan of this project since before it began, back when it was still an exercise on my blog, but I’m awfully damn impressed with where Ryan is taking it. AndContinue reading “A new story”

A Writer’s Notebook: Our Band Could Be Your Lit

This week the writer’s notebook will get delayed.  That’s not because I’m not working, but because I’m working toward something.  I’ve agreed to write a guest-blog story for Our Band Could Be Your Lit, so I’m using this week’s Notebook to work on that.  But the story won’t get posted until Sunday (and probably won’tContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Our Band Could Be Your Lit”