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”
Category Archives: reading
Zot!, heroism, love, and the bravest story in comics
I’ve been a fan of Scott McCloud’s books on writing comics — books on writing in general, really, because his insights into narrative purpose and narrative structure are fascinating — but for some reason it wasn’t until a few months ago that I finally picked up McCloud’s own graphic fiction, Zot! When I did, itContinue reading “Zot!, heroism, love, and the bravest story in comics”
Jersey Devil Press is going down the rabbit hole
But you’ll be lucky if it’s just rabbits you find down there. Seriously, this is a fairly dark issue, in some beautifully haunting ways. There are stories here that give me the chills, stories here that make me want to cry, and — lest you think we’ve lost our sense of humor — stories thatContinue reading “Jersey Devil Press is going down the rabbit hole”
‘Libraries raised me’
Jennifer Snoek-Brown (yes, the name looks familiar — I’m lucky enough to be married to her) has written such a beautiful tribute to Ray Bradbury today that I can’t think of anything to add. So I’ll just share her post with you: ‘Libraries raised me’.
“You’re into some kink.”
There’s a funny post from The Date Report making the rounds on Facebook today. It’s all about “What Your Bookshelf Says About You To A Date.” The piece is short and definitely intended as humor, but it’s kind of fun and not entirely untrue. Of course, tracking what my books say about me to aContinue reading ““You’re into some kink.””
“And the whole town’s waitin’ just to hear me yell”
Over at Jersey Devil Press, we have a whole mess of cool projects in the works. We’re working on a special Halloween-themed issue of the magazine, we have the special novella issue coming out later this summer, and we have not one but two books coming out later this year: Eirik Gumeny’s Exponential Apocalypse: Dead PresidentsContinue reading ““And the whole town’s waitin’ just to hear me yell””
134 Short Story Links in Honor of Short Story Month 2012
Gay Degani, over at Flash Fiction Chronicles, wanted to put together a list of 100 great flash fiction stories in honor of National Short Story Month in May. Instead of the 100 she was looking for, she got 134. I suggested three of the stories on the list, all really killer examples of the form.Continue reading “134 Short Story Links in Honor of Short Story Month 2012”
A Writer’s Notebook: literary retrospective
This week, another post based on a tutee’s assignment — this time for a high school student writing a final term paper. I’ll explain the assignment below (it’s an awesome one — this tutee of mine has a very cool high school English teacher!), but I ought to explain up front that I’m short-cutting myContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: literary retrospective”
“Teacher Sam”
In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be finishing some term-long or year-long tutoring jobs I’ve been working. Two of my students are high schoolers (one is graduating, and I’m proud to say I had a hand in her getting accepted to the University of Oregon, though my part was small). But one of myContinue reading ““Teacher Sam””
“I’m gonna write someday, when I have free time.”
Among my writer friends on Facebook, people are circulating this short humor piece from the Huffington Post called “S**t People Say to Writers,” after those at-first-hilarious-but-almost-immediately-inane “Shit people say” videos that were popular a few months ago. (Props to Huff Post for having the wisdom to avoid making this into a video.) The list is short, butContinue reading ““I’m gonna write someday, when I have free time.””
Samuel Snoek-Brown 