Part of my 11-11 reading list includes literary journals and magazines, and because I want to support them as much as I can (I rely on them for publications, after all!), I’ve decided to try to read at least one full issue of a different magazine each month. But it’s fairly difficult to do thatContinue reading “11-11: Literary magazine review (Annalemma)”
Category Archives: fiction
New publication(s)
Some publications news: I have two new stories in the March issue of Red Fez, “Still Alive” and “Dream with Enough Conviction.” You might recognize “Dream with Enough Conviction”: an earlier draft of it appeared here about ten months ago, as a Writer’s Notebook entry on music and fiction. And you might recognize Red Fez,Continue reading “New publication(s)”
A Writer’s Notebook: Description (from high school!)
This is a bit embarrassing, but what the hell — the essence of exercises is to attempt to write, and sometimes the results can be ugly. Besides, I have the defense that I wrote this almost twenty years ago, when I was just some high school kid who didn’t know anything about anything. I awokeContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Description (from high school!)”
New fiction from Lori Ann Bloomfield
Lori Ann Bloomfield, of First Line blog fame and author of The Last River Child, has a new short story available online. Check out “Thank You Elvis” (that’s right — Elvis!) in the current issue of Lies with Occasional Truths magazine.
A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (revision)
This is a partial revision of the “found story” I began in last week’s notebook. And below that, I’ll write a bit about the revision process. No one was going to believe her, but the dog would not stop barking. That was how Margot put it, a metaphor she’d adopted like a slogan, the dogContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (revision)”
New fiction from Ryan Werner
Rock star and writer and guy-I-refer-to-a-lot-because-we-swap-ideas-on-writing-all-the-time Ryan Werner has a new story up at Jersey Devil Press. In the same vein as Ryan’s music-based flash fiction over at Our Band Could Be Your Lit, this story, “Carbon,” is based on a rock song, this time Bruce Springsteen‘s “Adam Raised a Cain.” It’s really cool. GoContinue reading “New fiction from Ryan Werner”
A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (rough draft)
This is going to be a two-part exercise: this week, I present a rough draft, and next week I will share a revision. This rough draft won’t make a lot of sense at first, but I’ll explain what’s going on below. No one was going to believe her, but the dog would not stop barking.Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: First-line found story (rough draft)”
New publication
Good news! It’s taken a while to get it online, but the new issue (Vol. VI) of Ampersand Review‘s online edition is out now, and it contains my story “Horror Vacui.” Check it out. Actually, check out all of Ampersand — the review and the press — because they’re some of the coolest literary-minded peopleContinue reading “New publication”
A Writer’s Notebook: Poetry-to-prose revision
For this exercise, I’m taking an old poem (which I don’t much like) and turning it into a piece of flash fiction (which I like only slightly better). After that: why I did it. A Long Distant Line I am reminded of my dad’s woolen Boy Scout blanket, fuzz balling across it like mold, layingContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Poetry-to-prose revision”
11-11: Aussie fiction review (Tim Winton)
I recently finished the first Aussie novel I’ve ever read, Tim Winton‘s Breath. Though it works within a frame of a middle-aged paramedic recalling his life, it’s mostly a Bildungsroman centered on extreme surfing in the `70s. Lots of hip, daring people chasing down hip, daring dreams as a means of self-discovery. But it’s farContinue reading “11-11: Aussie fiction review (Tim Winton)”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 