Yesterday, on my Facebook page, I revealed that my eight-year-old niece had taken my books to school because her class is discussing what and why authors write. She thought it would be cool to share with her classmates that her uncle is a published author, even though, as my sister put it, my fiction isContinue reading “The “rules” of reading: Neil Gaiman, Hagridden, and age appropriateness”
Category Archives: writing
Ellen Urbani celebrates Landfall at Powell’s, and a bunch of Portland writers hug each other
Last night, I attended the Portland celebration of Ellen Urbani‘s new novel, Landfall, at the Powell’s downtown. Ellen has been getting a lot of much-deserved positive attention for this beautiful, important novel (full disclosure: I blurbed it, but only because I loved it so much), so I knew the turnout would be big, and whenContinue reading “Ellen Urbani celebrates Landfall at Powell’s, and a bunch of Portland writers hug each other”
Hagridden at one year: the reading copy
While I was preparing to read from Hagridden on the novel’s first birthday this past August 19, my wife was thinking about my reading copy of Hagridden, worn and fringed with multicolored note tabs, and she suggested I share that copy of the novel with you. Which I thought was a wonderful idea! So here is myContinue reading “Hagridden at one year: the reading copy”
Hagridden’s birthday and the Burning River West Coast Tour
A few days ago, Hagridden turned 1 year old. It’s walking around and eating solid food and everything. (More tomorrow on Hagridden at one year old!) To celebrate, I took the novel on the road, joining Hagridden‘s older, smaller half-sibling, Box Cutters, and my sunnyoutside pressmate Christopher Bowen on his Burning River Prose and PoetryContinue reading “Hagridden’s birthday and the Burning River West Coast Tour”
Miscellaneous storytelling
A couple of years ago, while undertaking a heavy revision of Hagridden, I used the funds from my Oregon Literary Fellowship to take a research trip to the Louisiana bayou. While I was there, I also spent some time with my family down there, and my uncle Brad, who had recently been clearing out hisContinue reading “Miscellaneous storytelling”
Sewanee books!
Today, my book haul from Sewanee Writers’ Conference arrived by mail, and I immediately stacked them for a photo so I could share with y’all the fantastic books I’m looking forward to reading the remainder of this year. I’ve listed them below in the order they’re in on the stack, with asterisks next to members ofContinue reading “Sewanee books!”
The Jersey Devil does 69
Oh, come on. It’s Jersey Devil Press‘s sixty-ninth issue. You know I had to go with that title on this post. Oddly, we don’t actually have any particularly sexy stories in this issue, unless you count a certain farmer’s weird obsession with his chickens. Instead, we have eeriness and death in the form of cross-dimensional travel,Continue reading “The Jersey Devil does 69”
Sewanee quotes
There was so much genius floating around at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference that, even after I’d limbered up and gotten into a handwriting-workout routine, I still couldn’t write things down fast enough. (Seriously, the Alice McDermott craft lecture blew away the whole conference — several people remarked that it felt like getting a whole MFA in oneContinue reading “Sewanee quotes”
Sewanee memories
I have so many wonderful, wonderful memories of my nearly two weeks up “on The Mountain” at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. If I were a more disciplined memoirist, I could get a whole book out of those twelve days. But here, I have time only for these too-brief blog posts, so I’ll save my amazing workshop groupContinue reading “Sewanee memories”
Out of office: Sewanee 2015 and a new novel excerpt
So, I’m packing up and preparing for my trip to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. It’s an odd feeling, a bit of nerves and a bit of excitement, like going away for summer camp. Which, in many ways, I suppose this is: it’s camp for writers, where instead of crafts we have workshops and instead of smores we have alcoholContinue reading “Out of office: Sewanee 2015 and a new novel excerpt”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 