picture me rollin'

is the title of my recently finished first novel, and… it’s done. whew. that was a lot of work. seriously. 75% of the book was written in a flurry since July, which would explain the lack of posts here, the crazed look in my eye and the fact that i no longer have any friends. [...]

how to (not) to snag a literary agent

Thought I’d link to this great post on Awkward. Lots of humor there, but lots of truth as well.

What LAME writers say

what they say: “This is the manuscript that I workshopped”

what they mean: “I went to a place up in the mountains and had other people tell me how to write my book.”

what they say: “Wow. What a quirky novel.”

what they mean: This is a book written by someone middle aged and middle classed that doesn’t [...]

books about books

I’m reading Nelson Algren’s “Notes from a Sea Diary: Hemingway all the way,” and came across this brilliant nugget in the story entitled, “July 14th Raft of a Summer Night.” Algren was wailing away at editors, publishers and critics regarding so many classic books being out of print, yet so many of those same classic’s [...]

something has to happen

Something always has to happen. In the story. It has to be real and convincing, like the sun rising or a gust of wind that picks up down the street and drags dead stiff leaves and animates plastic liquor store [...]

MFA-like: (from the Citrak unabridged dictionary)

a MFA-like piece of writing can contain any one of the following:

  • unusual wordiness, usually in describing something not very important.
  • distinctive liberties in language with the express purpose of completely turning off any readership besides other MFA [...]

Self-Published Titles Skyrocket

according to PW Daily.

Not sure if this is a good thing or what. While i certainly don’t side with the traditional Publisher-Author model, my reasons for it are mostly financial. The authors simply don’t get a big enough cut for their work. [...]

new Air in the Paragraph Line out today

You’ve been waiting like what, two freaking years for this? Well, AITPL #13 is out [...]

quiet lightning call for subs

Quiet Lightning is a monthly submission-based reading series here in the City. QL’s next reading is on January 25th and they’re now taking submissions for it. [...]

that’s how it works

I keep on waiting for it to happen. For inspiration to hit. I walk around during the day and think how great it’s going to be when I make [...]