February 2012
8 posts
“I never want to lose the judgment of a reader in the ego of a writer.”
– Zadie Smith, (link to come)
fwriction : review: Candy, by Marcus Speh →
fwrictionreview:
The fire-man cometh, the children cried and began to dance as their parents had danced and the parents of their parents before them. He’s coming, he’s coming, hizzah huzzah, they sang cheerfully. The moon-faced fat mayor smiled and his triplicate chin wobbled. His thick rose- colored hand lay on the head of a child, who wasn’t dancing but reading. “What’re you reading,” asked the...
3 tags
Breathing.
Sorry, I don’t mean for this to be strictly a reblogging account. I do the same thing on Twitter. Forget to inject myself into my accounts.
This week I received seven rejections, three of them personal, four standard. Today I sent those rejected stories back out into the world. I believe each of those stories will find a home before the end of the year. Gotta keep beating the drum.
I...
“As we awaken from sleep, our consciousness undergoes a radical transformation...”
– The science of waking up, from Antonio Damasio’s excellent Self Comes to Mind – an exploration of what makes us human. (via)
January 2012
21 posts
“It’s not slang that bothers me, as it does so many oldsters, nor is it even all...”
– Sarah Nicole Prickett, on language, style, and the fashionification of expression. (via millionsmillions)
“Enter (I hope) the long sentence: the collection of clauses that is so...”
–
Pico Iyer defends the long sentence in today’s LA Times. (via millionsmillions)
Here, here!
December 2011
19 posts
6 tags
Mad about the Short Story
2011 was supposed to be the year of the novel for me. I started a novel on January 15, swore to myself I would complete a first draft by December 30.
Well, here we are. How did I do?
I did not complete a first draft of the novel. I did, however, manage to write 175 pages of a novel, roughly half of what I intended. I also wrote 14 short stories, three of which were published, three of which I...
kaffeinkatmandu:
Lawn Clippings by Matthew J...
Louise: I grew up in a small village in Sussex... →
louise-louise:
I grew up in a small village in Sussex near the River Ouse.
Me and my brothers liked to climb along the bank on the river, to see how far we could get hanging on to tree roots and trying not to get wet.
I remember how my entire world was the village and the woods and the river. I remember as I started to see more of the world, my life seemed to get smaller. I remember when I...
1 tag
5 tags
A Year in Writing in Music, 2011
Whether it’s lighting a candle, wearing a robe, drinking a gallon of coffee, or driving to the ends of the earth for privacy, setting the mood for a writing session is essential for writers. Some prefer silence, or the crowded rumbling of cafe conversation; I prefer music. My criteria for writing music goes something along the lines of: familiar artists, mellow, beautiful, tonal pertaining...
4 tags
A Revelatory Year in Reading
My reading year will begin and end with the same author, Haruki Murakami (read Kafka on the Shore in January, started Norwegian Wood today). The Japanese super-author is second-to-none right now in surreal adventurism; his effortless prose style and mind-bending subject matter has influenced many of his fellow contemporaries (and me). With the release of his highly-anticipated 1Q84, he...
It's Okay, Robot: Ground Control →
thebeachatredpoint:
I used to watch each dandelion in the traffic island flower and go to seed, waiting to send the seeds sailing with a hard breath, or reduce them to flashes of yellow with a lighter. They say there’s a David Bowie inside each of us, just waiting to burst out, but how will I know? Even the swarms of bees seemed special the first time—afterwards I lay on my couch, feeling like a...
Is that blogging?: Urban Outfitters →
yelpingwithcormac:
Union Square - San Francisco, CA
Cormac M. | Author | Lost in the chaparral, NM
Three stars.
And they come there in great numbers shuffling into that mausoleum that was built for them like some monument to the slow death of their world and among those tokens and…
Yep.
November 2011
14 posts
