Shake Away These Constant Days

Ryan Werner, who is great at titles, has a new book coming out from the press I work for, Jersey Devil Press, who are great at being awesome. Shake Away These Constant Days officially releases one month from today, on September 25, so for the next 30 days, Ryan and JDP are doing some thingsContinue reading “Shake Away These Constant Days”

Meanwhile, as I sit here writing… (plus, Photo blog 89, sort of)

Some observations from the past several days: I just finished a story. When I started it, half of me wanted it to be a piece of flash fiction, and the other half wanted it to be a novella. The first draft wound up being 5,200 words. I met myself in the middle. Having this blog,Continue reading “Meanwhile, as I sit here writing… (plus, Photo blog 89, sort of)”

A Writer’s Notebook: a dream (Retro #4)

This has been a heavy writing week for me, and it’s about to get heavier: in addition to final novel revisions, synopses, queries, and excerpt submissions — which have taken up the bulk of my week — I am today beginning work on a collaborative piece a friend of mine solicited me for. So I’mContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: a dream (Retro #4)”

A Writer’s Notebook: Kevin Sampsell and Chloe Caldwell’s nonfiction workshop

So, as I promised yesterday, here are (some of) my notes from Kevin Sampsell and Chloe Caldwell‘s excellent nonfiction workshop at Crow Arts Manor today. I’ll include a couple of quick headings in the notes so you know what you’re reading, but I’ll write more about some of the things we talked about afterward. For now,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Kevin Sampsell and Chloe Caldwell’s nonfiction workshop”

A Writer’s Notebook: on hold till Saturday (for awesomeness)

I’m putting the Writer’s Notebook on hold until tomorrow, because tomorrow, I’m attending a killer personal essay workshop here in Portland, led by the inimitable Kevin Sampsell (of Future Tense Books) and Chloe Caldwell (of Legs Get Led Astray). So tomorrow, I’ll post whatever I get up to in the workshop. Stay tuned! The workshop, byContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: on hold till Saturday (for awesomeness)”

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”

“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.””

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”

“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.””