A video is a strange thing to include in a Writer’s Notebook, at least in the sense that I couldn’t have written this in my little brown notebook with the unlined paper. But the purpose of the online Notebook is simply to create, and I’ll use whatever medium works. So bear with me, and I’llContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Spoken word video”
Category Archives: fiction
A Writer’s Notebook: “Underground history”
Gah! I didn’t write a Writer’s Notebook entry last week! Actually, I realized this last Saturday, and I probably could have knocked out a quick exercise and backdated it and just hoped no one noticed that I’d skipped a week. But I gave myself a pass for three reasons: 1) the Writer’s Notebook entry fromContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: “Underground history””
New fiction by Lori Ann Bloomfield
Lori Ann Bloomfield, author of The Last River Child (which I’m dying to read) and the First Line blog (which I read all the time), has a new story in the latest issue of New Plains Review. If you can manage it, track down a copy of the story in print and help support theContinue reading “New fiction by Lori Ann Bloomfield”
A Writer’s Notebook: writers talk writing
Today I’m offering three conversations about writing I’ve had with three different writer friends. The exchanges are a bit long, so I’ve divided this post into pages to help organize things. Check out the “table of contents” to skip to the section you’re interested in (but really, you want to read the whole thing). WhyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: writers talk writing”
11-11 reading challenge
A friend of mine mentioned recently that he’d heard too late about the “10-10-10” challenge, in which readers committed to reading ten books a month for the first ten months of 2010. I heard about it too late, too — I heard about it through my friend, in fact — but I wouldn’t have participated.Continue reading “11-11 reading challenge”
New fiction from Ryan Werner
Ryan Werner’s online fiction project, Our Band Could Be Your Lit, is back in action with a beautiful new piece of flash fiction, “Back and to the Left,” based on Pearl Jam’s “Brain of J.” And it is one of the best stories I’ve read in a while. In his blog project, Ryan has vowedContinue reading “New fiction from Ryan Werner”
A Writer’s Notebook: a reading meme
Okay, this is perhaps cheating slightly, because a meme is hardly a writing exercise, right? Except that it is. I’ll explain more below, but for now, let’s call this a review of my influences. I should also preëmptively explain that this meme is made rather tricky because I have to qualify my answers: When itContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a reading meme”
Writing the year away: My year in words and numbers
This year has been the first full calendar year that I’ve spent focused exclusively on writing. I’ve actually been doing this since summer 2009, and though I’ll still be exclusively writing in spring 2011, I’m anxious to get back into the classroom (I miss students and the intellectual discourse of academia!). But in terms ofContinue reading “Writing the year away: My year in words and numbers”
The end is near: Darin’s Bradley’s “Noise”
My friend Darin Bradley has had a very, very good year. His debut novel, the apocalyptic Noise, has garnered a great deal of praise and recognition since its release early this fall, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. Now, at the end of the year, Noise is starting to turn upContinue reading “The end is near: Darin’s Bradley’s “Noise””
A Writer’s Notebook: a love story
The scenes below are from a story I’ve been working on for a long, long while. It’s on my computer in a folder labeled “TO FINISH THIS FALL.” Sadly, winter is just around the corner and the end of the year just a few weeks away, and I doubt I’ll find a satisfactory ending toContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a love story”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 