the quest

Tomorrow we learn whether we have successfully acquired the land next to our cabin in WV, which would give us a total of about 4.5+ acres. So that's one thing.

The other thing is that someone has expressed enough interest in my WV novel that I have definitely mounted a re-write to increase the suspense. But harder than that is writing the full length summary. I don't know how this effort will pan out in terms of representation and publication, but I do know my new draft will be the lean, dark animal I always intended it to be. Wish me luck.

I've shared the details of the process with a few people, and I'm grateful for all the offers of help. I'll need readers soon, but right now I'm getting help from Jeanette Winterson's The Passion and three or four powerful Lucinda Williams' tracks.

oh, and

my novel board was posted at Paul Toth's super neat Hit and Run Magazine yesterday. timing's a little sad, as I have set the project aside to do a re-write of Unattended, my West Virgina novel.

You knew it would come to this

Just when we were getting along--

The NEA just came out with one of their doom and gloom reports about reading habits, only this time they assert that poetry readership is on the decline while fiction readership is on the rise. NEA reports are like the DOW—too narrow to be meaningful, but we still respond to them anyway.

So this is a good time for me to skim the report. Research, research, research. Going to Molly’s facebook, ah! there it is. Oh thank god, not the report itself, but a journalist’s summary. Skim, skim, skim—holy crap! Dan Gioia acknowledged online readership as a factor in fiction’s increased popularity?

Okay, so here’s my thing. Poetry has lost my readership because it stopped doing things that no other form could do—it let go of word tension and retreated into sense, which is the equivalent of “selling out” in fiction. In the mean time, new fiction reclaimed the narcissistic moment (otherwise known as ‘lyric’) and did something a lot more satisfying with it. I’m not sure what, but I think it has something to do with humility and fearless sloppiness.

139 words kicked my ass today

. . . more about that if things develop. sorry to be cryptic, but it looks like I may suspend work on the Louisiana book to mount a re-write of the West Virginia book. that's if things go well. I'm not afraid of re-writes; I take editorial direction very well, and I work quickly under those circumstances.

so. marriage. in your partnership, do you have a permanently designated broken glass picker-upper? or are you like us, where the glass breaker stands in shock (usually barefoot) over the glass they've just broken, while the person who did not break the glass rushes in to take care of the mess?

Listen, speak

My friend reports that his 14 month old daughter is “recovering her words.” She did a little word-work at 8 months, but then stopped. There’s a neat video of her mimicking the yowling of their deaf cat (not mine to share). I have no idea what this all means, but the information forms a set.

Noo Journal, edited by Mike Young and Ryan Call, are doing an irresistible fund drive. I liked the vid poem Mike did for Barry Graham so much that I donated (surprise Dean!). There’s a line in the Barry poem about a broken shot glass in the kitchen sink, which really hits me—I let a shot glass slip into the sink where it got stuck, invisibly, until I tried to get rid of some greasy water via the disposer. So then the shot glass was invisible and greasy. We tried tongs and a Leatherman before smashing the glass with a hammer and screwdriver and picking out the pieces by hand. You use the right shot glasses, the shards are thick and easy to manage, the way you imagine Fred Flinstone’s shot glasses must be.

Think I'll try to friend Mike. I gave him money.

Get over the new facebook design, check this out

Storysouth, all shiny and new. I'm glad to see this. They seemed to be fading away there for a while . . .

Good luck to the new team!

no problem

From the classifieds of the March/April 2009 AWP Chronicle: "Great Western Fiction is seeking submissions of Western fiction set in the American Old West before 1914. . . No language. No Sex."

Not everyone misses Al Swearengen.

The ad is more complete than this, with a promise of fuller guidelines at the website, but it looks like this venture has already folded. They offered $50 for short stories, $500 for novels.

vaction ending

It has grown cold and dark at the beach, which means I feel most like myself and can write instead of do healthy stuff like bike and kayak. I think I figured out how to finish my novel (I know I've said that before). we will dine on snacks and alcohol tonight, must empty the fridge.

art taylor's interview with me is quoted at the fictionaut blog(I'm at the end of the post). I also got a mention at Steve Himmer's curious blog. Both things are super neato.

lumpy dog

blocking our driveway, creeping out our guests

post has nothing to do with writing, except that I'm fixing to do some

Morning 2 of our spring break trip to Ocracoke, NC, a place that is not ready for tourists, especially in this economy. Plus the weather is threatening to go all pear shaped. But the cottage we’ve rented is glorious and weird—lovely view of marsh and wildlife from the front porch, kayak launch on the canal, and a tiny cemetery in the back yard. They don’t put that kinda thing in the brochure, but it is typical Ocracoke. Thanks to Jen, who stayed over Saturday night and took us on a wind whipped jeep ride to South Point at night, which was awesome and moon-scapey. There’s a tumory big dog across the way, and he walks like every one of his legs have been broken in the past. I think I love him. I’ll try to get a pic.

eh, what do I know?

After the AIW/Mason Fiction Seminar last Sunday, Art Taylor interviewed me about some of the stuff I had to say about net publishing and the evolution of short fiction. It was fun.

Flash Panel-Conversations and Connections

So I have been asked to join the flash panel for the Conversations and Connections
conference, which should come as a huge disappointment to my students who are planning to attend. As Laurie Anderson said, "You already paid for this."

The panel will include David Erlewine, Joe Young, and Molly Gaudry (who has rejected my stuff a couple times, so really looking forward to meeting her!)

The storySouth 2009 Million Writers Award for Fiction

It's that time of year again, deadline March 31 to get your nominations in.

I have some thinking to do . . .

after 5 minutes of thinking, and if I had to nom now, I'd go with Scott Wrobel again--"The Absence or Addition of Fish"

Debrief: AIW/Mason Fiction Writing Seminar, Feb 28

The program was offered in an unusual (for me) format: a day long series of talks and panel discussions with no overlapping sessions. The continuity of audience allowed for a certain continuity of discussion, which was special. Though there were a few students in attendance, most of the participants were non- or post- academics, very like the participants I encountered when I attended the New York Summer Writers Institute at Skidmore a couple of years back: serious folks who love reading and writing but who don’t always have a stable writing community

I was committed to 10 minutes duty, so I can’t explain why I gave over my whole Saturday to this thing, but I’m glad I did. Art Taylor has posted his “highlights,” so here are mine:

9:07 am: Jeffrey Deaver presents a charming speech where he very clearly negates the necessity of the panel that follows him by offering a succinct consideration of literary and commercial fiction and neatly dispenses with the mythical opposition between the two.

9:30am. Deaver goes into the audience to gently heckle the next panel “Literary Snobs and Commercial Sellouts,” an anecdote filled discussion featuring Alan Cheuse (as “The Snob”) taking jabs from commercial writers John Gilstrap, Donna Andrews, and James Grady. No real blood here, and one thing all the writers agree on: TAKE DA MONEY. About half way through I become agitated. Aren’t we really just giving in to unimaginative marketing labels that don’t really mean anything to a real reader, let alone artist? And why do I have to run all over the bookstore to put together my Walter Mosely collection? I happen to be sitting next to a former student I know has a particular interest in writing rape/bondage fiction. What would the panel have to say about that genre?

10:45am. “Novelists who write reviews” —Nandini Lal, Sudlip Bose, Art Taylor, Louis Bayard. Far and away the smartest, most cohesive panel, plus Art is a riot as he tries to explain the difficulties that arise when he befriends an author he has reviewed. Wish Tara had been there to see him fumble-recover, Daryl Monroe-style. We all turn on him. He prevails. Big fun.

1:30—“New Media and Publishing Creative Writing”—Reb Livingston, Mark Athitakis, Bernadette Geyer, and ME. Moderator Reb does a brill intro, covering issues of commodification and new publishing models, which leaves the panelists free to get right to our issues. Mark and Bernadette talk about the publishing industry and emerging promotional tools. All of my prepped material is about the “workshop story” stagnation of the 80s/90s and how new publishing has re-ignited evolution in the form, but I know from being here all day that the crowd is mainly interested in novel writing, so I feel I need to come up with something new—my first instruction to the crowd is “Write down these names so you can google them when you get home: Shane Jones and Nick Antosca.” Reb nods emphatically, and adds “And Blake Butler.” (I could kick myself for forgetting Blake, but I haven’t followed his writing as closely as Nick’s and Shane’s.) I told the folks that these are writers with novel pubs whose publishing activities illustrate what new careers in writing can look like. The Audience. Took. Notes. I had to repeat and spell names.

3pm—Second novels—William Miller, Andrew W. M. Beierle, Katharine Davis, Dallas Hudgens, and Alex MacLennan. This panel turned out to be surprisingly Relevant To My Interests. Two of the panelists didn’t publish their first novels until they were over 50. Still two others no longer use an agent. Much frank discussion of agents, editing, etc, and while I already knew a lot of what they had to say, I didn’t necessarily know that I knew what I knew. Talked a little to Katharine Davis after—she is my new hero. Did you know that the author has to write those “book discussion questions” you see in trade paperbacks?

super super good to read

this (so far, I'm on page 16 and totally hooked) and this. I started chipping away at this
and it seems quite good, but I don't do JRL in pieces--typically I need to dedicate a continuous 36 hours to consume a Lansdale book, snarling at any man or animal who tries to distract me.

A Fat Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras! Well, it’s only Tuesday and my week is officially memorable: Just got a story accepted by the fantastic Northville Review. Friday I get my picture taken because it appears that I have ‘served’ for 15 years at Mason (I’m a Lifer, probably). And Saturday I’m on a new media panel for a fiction writing seminar, with 10 minutes to talk about the evolving aesthetics/identity of short fiction, publishing, and teaching writing.

At least that’s what I said I’d talk about, but lately I’ve been thinking about online journals and the re-emergence of Editorship. As a veteran of a major MFA program, I have complicated feelings about personality-driven writing & lit situations, but far and away my favorite journals are ones that require the selection genius and idiosyncrasy of their founders.

the retractions are coming every few minutes now

okay, so I posted some snarky-butt things about the AWP conference and Zoetrope workshops on this blog, but now I'm writing to confirm that they are probably awesome. and I don't mean that in an eye rolling yeah-mom-that's-a-pretty-big-ball-of-twine kind of way. Clearly this year's AWP in Chicago was as sacred as it was profane, and I'm totally jealous of everyone who went. As for "Zoe" (people call it that, I'm not really so comfy yet), I've spent the last 36 hours obsessively reading flash drafts posted there, and it has been very exciting so far.

making bad choices

I joined flipping zoetrope. I feel sad before I have even started. Maybe it isn't as bad as I fear--

Local writing thingies, coming up

must be the season, but there are a number of small one-day events coming up. I'm paneling at this first event Feb 28, co-sponsored by GMU and American Independent Writers, and David Erlewine is paneling at the second--Conversations and Connections, April 11.

Fiction Writing Seminar Saturday, February 28, 2009
George Mason University, Johnson Center, Campus Cinema

8:00 a.m. Registration opens and continental breakfast available
8:45 a.m. Opening Remarks: William Miller, GMU and John Curry, AIW
9:00-9:15 a.m. Plenary speech-Jeffery Deaver
9:15-10:30 a.m. Literary Fiction versus Genre Fiction
Moderator John Gilstrap
Panel: Donna Andrews, Alan Cheuse, James Grady
10:45-12:00 p.m. Novelists who write Reviews and Criticism
Moderator Nandini Lal
Panel: Louis Bayard, Sudlip Bose, Art Taylor
1:00-1:30 p.m. Keynote speech--Marita Golden
1:30-2:45 p.m. New Media and Publishing Creative Writing
Moderator Reb Livingston
Panel: Mark Athitakis, Bernadette Geyer, Laura Ellen Scott
3:00-4:15 p.m. Second Novels
Moderator: TBA
Panel: Katharine Davis, Dallas Hudgens, Alex MacLennan

Registration info

Conversations and Connections, April 11 (most panelists TBA)
To be held at the Johns Hopkins University Advanced Writing Program campus in downtown Washington, DC.

8:30 Registration
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Session One
Writing Your Novel: Start to Finish
Money for Writers: Where it is and how to get it (Panel: Catherine Leila Emery, Gwydion Suilebhan, Dan Brady)
Creative Nonfiction: Where are the boundaries? Do they exist? (Panel: Kim Kupperman, Paul Maliszewski, Dustin Beall Smith, Kinda Underhill)
Craft Lecture: Sentence Power (by Ed Perlman)
10:30 Session Two
Poetry panel
The Digital Literary Landscape
Contest panel
Craft Lecture: Fighting Writer’s Block with Play and Experimental Prompts (by Matt Kirkpatrick)
12:15 Lunch and Speed Dating
2:00 Featured Speaker: Amy Hempel
3:30 Session Three
Agent panel
Flash Fiction
Voice in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry
Craft Lecture: Writing Sex Scenes (by Zachary Benivides)

Registration info

AWP-- a great place to hook up?

I'm sad I didn't go to the AWP conf. I'm glad I didn't too. I've never been, a fact made slightly awkward given that I teach fiction writing at the institution that houses AWP. By the time that AWP entered my consciousness (as event and body), I was solidly married, and even though we were hanging out with unmarried writers, there was a slow-train-leaving-the-station kinda thing pervading our social interactions, with Dean and I on the train, settling into our sleeper car, while our friends were piling into rusted Chevy Citations, chanting 'road trip! road trip!'

I guess what I'm saying is, AWP, like libertarianism, always seemed like a young man's game to me, with the conference providing an apparently wonderful opportunity to exchange powerful feeling, and my sense is that the conference produces more in the way of civil unions than artistic enrichment. Which is terrific, really. You don't want bachelor writers just out there in the population. Pair them up. Heck, triple them up.

All this is a load of BS, though. My real thing is that I dislike readings. I'm not crazy about people, either.

PS--I'm reading AWP round-ups now, and it looks like I'm full of it.