A Writer’s Notebook: Spoken word video

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”

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”

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”

A Writer’s Notebook: found message

No intro this week.  Just the story, and then, below, the exercise. The first things he did when he got home from work was shuck his coat and pull a beer from the fridge. It was cold and wet outside, the rain thin but icy, the kind that freezes in your hair and stabs downContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: found message”

A Writer’s Notebook: HerInteractive story

So, as I wrote a while ago, HerInteractive is sponsoring a story contest, and I decided to play along.  This isn’t a story I’d submit (for one thing, it isn’t finished; for another, I broke the rules), but here’s what I’ve done so far with the instructions for the contest. Isn’t it marvelous to beContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: HerInteractive story”