erik smetana: writer, or something like that

Shoebox Train Wreck

2012-01-28T09:50:00.000-06:00

John Mantooth writes the best kind of creepy stories: atmospheric and character driven, he's an outstanding writer and one to keep an eye on. That said, he has a new collection hitting shelves in March and it's available for pre-order. Buy this book, love it, then tell your friends to pick up a copy -- you'll be hailed as a hero of good read recommendations. And if you're a writer, fair warning, you'll have a sinking feeling after flipping through this book as you realize just how good Mantooth is and how bad you wish you could pull something like Shoebox Train Wreck off.

Bad Writing the Movie

2012-01-27T09:37:00.001-06:00

After what I foisted on you yesterday, I present the following film trailer (which I may have posted here before), for a film that I really need to track down a copy of.

Free Fiction: Box

2012-01-26T08:41:00.000-06:00

This is, I think, the first story I ever managed to sell/get published from sometime back around 2004 or so, in the now defunct Web Mystery Magazine. It's crappy, cliched, and a closed room plot -- exactly the kind of story you disown after a few years a few publications, burying it at the bottom of a trunk (be it physical or virtual). Instead I foist it upon you (and tell myself that at least what I churn out today is a lot better than what I managed to get down on paper some eight years ago):

BOX

The only color in the room was from the grotesque splatter of bodily fluid, all too reminiscent of a Pollack painting, and a pool of coagulated blood that encompassed the body of the victim--the late homeowner. Aside from the new crimson décor, the crime scene was immaculate. Not even a minute amount of trace evidence could be found by the now haggard looking forensic investigation team.

They had scoured every nook of the eight by eight panic room that opened off of the master suite. A space constructed solely for the purpose of avoiding events like the one that took place this evening, it had been the key selling point for the current owner according to interviews with several of the neighbors. The gentleman living in the adjacent brownstone quipped, “Kinda odd when you think about how much of a recluse he was, I never saw him leave that place once he moved in, heard he was so excited when he saw that room for the first time, he went and offered cash for the place right there on the spot.”

“I was in there once during an open house, before Hodges’ bought it. That room creeped me out, it seemed more like something you might see in an asylum than somewhere I’d go to keep safe,” Added another.

However on this night, the blindingly white room with the ten inch steel door and padded walls only further complicated the details of an already mind-boggling homicide. Against the far wall laying in a crumpled mass was the body of Simon Hodges, the decedent, stripped to his under things. If not for the large shotgun wound in Hodges’ back and the remnants of his bodies reaction to death now resting in his boxer briefs, the pale figure could have blended in with the color of the room or the absence there of.

Missing from the scene were the assailant and their weapon of choice, a ten gauge shotgun used at very close range. The perpetrator of this crime had been in such tight proximity to Hodges that the blast of the weapon literally blew a hole, about the size of a cantaloupe in diameter, through the body. Aside from the murder scene, nothing else in the three-story home seemed out of place, nothing missing, nothing left behind.

* * *

“It just isn’t possible, no trace evidence at all?” Was the question that came from the lips of the lead detective.

A member of the forensic team stammered back, “I know. I know. In fifteen years, I have never run into such a clean crime scene. Never.”

The detective gave a shout into his radio. “What we got in the rest’a the house?”

The replies came in rapid succession, “Zilch.”

“Nothing here.”

“This is the cleanest damn house, like a freakin’ museum.”

The home of Simon Hodges’ was more like a shrine than a museum. Framed photos of a woman very senior to Hodges’, his mother as later discovered by a stack of laminated obituaries that were intricately catalogued on a shelf in what appeared to be a seldom used third floor office, adorned the walls of every room and dozens more rest propped against nearly every wall—waiting for their own place in the bizarre menagerie. From any given vantage point in the entire twenty-eight hundred square foot home, at least two photos of the woman were visible. Simon Hodges’ had an Oedipus complex, an insatiable fixation with his late mother.

“I think I have something.” Yelled a detective working the master suite for evidence.

“What is it?”

“A nail. It looks like a finishing nail.”

“A nail? The vic probably dropped it when he was hanging all those damned photos. Bag it just in case.”

By midnight, every floor had been gone over in excruciating detail. No sign of forced entry, no sign of struggle, not a single clue as to motive. A homicidal maniac was on the loose and without any evidence; there was no way of knowing if they may strike again.

* * *

Across town, a lone figure, sat on a weathered couch, probably acquired at Goodwill in a studio apartment--not much larger than the panic room where Simon Hodges’ body lay. The man on the couch sat there mumbling as the flicker of a small television sitting on the floor in the corner of the room served as the only means of luminescence in the entire dwelling. Next to him on the couch sat a grand portraiture of a woman, the woman in the countless photos Simon Hodges’ had hanged in his own home and at the man’s feet rested a shotgun that had been recently acquired at the In-N-Out Pawn and Loan, just down the block. The man sat there caressing the frame of the painting, like one might to the top of a dog’s head.

“Left me nothing. Well now I got something mother, I got something indeed.” Muttered the man as he began to look around the small room for a nail to hang his treasure upon.

END

Ruminating on the Topic

2012-01-25T08:28:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I raised some questions about this blog, but just as much about the notion of writing for the average avocational writer -- that person fortunate enough to place a piece here or there, the question was at its root: What's the point?

While I dwell on that question a bit for myself, I thought it might be worthwhile to share some other's thoughts on the topic, first up is Julia Patt, whose microfiction took home the grand prize in Stymie's first ever Trading Card Fiction contest. Here's her answer to what's the point, or rather, why she writes:

So, it all started with my childhood. I grew up rough on the streets of Baltimore. I survived only by my wits, and struggled through a difficult and often dangerous adolescence until I learned to find solace in the written word. I read David Foster Wallace and Gustave Flaubert and William Faulkner and they turned my cynical worldview completely upside down—or at least focused it to something purposeful. Art, I decided, was the answer.

Well, actually. That’s not my story.

Really, it all started in Naples, Italy, when my parents decided to immigrate to the United States in hopes of a better life. We settled in New York and began the near-insurmountable task of assimilating with American culture and finding work in an unfeeling city. We were often cold, often hungry, and at one point my siblings and I were placed in an orphanage because our parents could no longer afford to feed us. While there, I came under the tutelage of a young sister, who gave me contraband copies of Allen Ginsberg and J.D. Salinger.

Sorry. Not me again.

I’ve also never fled the tyranny of a totalitarian regime, explored the machinations of organized crime, or invaded a foreign country. I’m not a veteran or a political prisoner. I’m a vegetarian, but that’s hardly subversive nowadays, is it? I jaywalk more than I should. And I got a speeding ticket in Virginia once. It kind of sucked. I called my Mom. (Hi, Mom.)

And it gets worse. I wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider. Gamma rays didn’t hit me and turn me into an angry, green person. I‘ve never (to my knowledge) fallen into a vat of ambiguously radioactive material. The Empire’s troops didn’t kill my foster parents. And my escape pod didn’t crash on Earth after my planet was tragically destroyed. No one’s ever delivered the maxim, “With great power comes great responsibility” to me in a serious and sincere tone—or any kind of tone.

That’s the problem with contemporary writers. We have lousy origin stories. We’re students and baristas and telemarketers and IT professionals and teachers and communications assistants and media-marketing specialists. I mean, maybe one in a thousand of us is personally interesting. And I’m very suspicious of those people—when, exactly, did they find time do such exciting things? And why do they bother with something as silly as writing when they have fascinating lives to lead? It defies comprehension.

Or it would, if the daily mechanics of living had anything to do with why people write. Which they don’t. That’s the point—at least for me. I write, not because of the minutiae that make up my day and not because of my well-adjusted and suburban upbringing, but in spite of those things. I write to get at the good stuff, the stuff that moves me. What’s going on in the world, good and bad; what’s going on with people, collectively and individually and psychologically (and other adverbs); and what might happen with all of it. That’s interesting. Way more interesting than what I had for breakfast or the walk I took to the park. The good stuff, the stuff that makes you stay up all night reading because you have to know what happens next, who wins and who loses or who lives and who dies, because it’s a damn good story.

It’s the same impulse that keeps me up writing—and I think it’s born out of that love of reading, that love of story outside of our experiences than makes people write. Honestly, if you ever meet a writer who says he doesn’t like to read, that all he needs to write is his own life, do me a solid and slap him.

To read the rest of what Julia had to say on the topic, click here. And while I ruminate a bit more on the question of "what's the point/why I write?" I'll keep posting these mini-essays every so often from places like Stymie and elsewhere and maybe, just maybe we'll find an answer in all those words.

What the Blog?

2012-01-24T15:19:00.000-06:00

If you've stumbled across this here sight, we likely know each other in some form or fashion, maybe you entered a few words into a search engine and I tricked you into clicking through to this site which likely does not answer your question in any reliable way, possibly you clicked through from another site where one of the above referenced people I know (know sometimes having a loose definition) was kind enough to link to me. That all said, I don't post very frequently, I intend to, but like many endeavors it's one where my laziness or busyness with other things impedes upon my time to the degree in which I fail to post anything witty or informative or semi-literate here for you, the reader who somehow ended up here.

I'm not famous, I've yet to finish a book (writing one, not reading, I read books all the time), the few essays and short stories I manage to get published are few and far between, and on most other topics I don't have a ton to say (though, maybe I'd have more to say if any of the three criteria for one having a blog worth reading as outlined above were the opposite of current circumstances). So what's the purpose of this here space on the internet? I'm not going to shut it down, I take enough blog hiatuses as it is and most of the time with the infrequency of actual posts, most people might know the difference any way. Plus, I know that somehow should I release my domain out into the wild it will get snatched up and end up as some sort of spam site, maybe not, but that's what I tell myself every year when I fork over the ten bucks it costs to renew www.eriksmetana.com.

But I'm not a total online loafer, I've somehow managed to start and oversee a fairly successful online literary magazine (though, that is probably more a testament to surrounding myself with amazing editors than anything else). I'd offer to use this as a personal journal, but those times when I offer up personal insights, like this post, they tend to focus on why I'm not writing something. And that's not fun for you or me. So what to do? To blog or not to blog? Or not to do something else? Do I abandon other time-sucks in the hope it frees up minutes for more constructive activities? Do I say to hell with the notion of every completing a novel that I'd be willing to show anyone else with the ability to read the English language? Do I manage my time better -- scheduling time to screw around online, time to write, time to post here more than once a month or so? What to do? Or better yet, what's the point of a writer's blog for someone who is not a successful (again, loosely defined) writer (and may never be)? I'll let you know when I figure it out (or maybe I'll just inundate you with videos of cute puppies, people seem to like that).

The Innkeepers - A Film Review of Sorts

2012-01-19T08:40:00.000-06:00

I went into The Innkeepers with some expectations for a ghost story that would A) keep my interest, B) not include any beasties that were either sparkly or lusty, and C) hopefully live up to some of the hype I'd read about it.

Available on VOD (pre-theatrical and all that), The Innkeepers drops a heavy dose of creeptastic ambience on the viewer from the opening credits and builds from there. Once the flick starts proper, we're introduced to Luke and Claire -- our titular innkeepers who have the task of working the final weekend at The Yankee Pedlar, a very old hotel that for reasons I still can't put my finger on reminded of a New England version of the Outlook Hotel. Couple that with the fact that Claire and by association, Luke, are ready to embark on their next career step: hunters of ghosts, and you have the foundation for everything to follow including an appearance by Kelly McGillis as a washed up Hollywood starlet turned psychic, an odd old man set on visiting The Yankee Pedlar one last time before it shuts its doors along with a handful of others meant as much to take up space as they are to make the viewer wonder what's going to happen to whom.

The Innkeepers is divided up like a short story, into chapters and an epilogue that give it a relatable structure and again for reasons that escape me at the moment seemed to build on the style of the film's cinematography to give it the feel of an older film and set the tone for what is a subtle, atmospheric ghost story less reliant on shocks than it is on telling an interesting story from start to finish with characters you want to talk, yell, smack from the other side of the screen for all the reasons you watch a good horror flick in the first place.

And after the end credits roll, you'll be left sitting there looking at your TV pleased with what you've just watched, but if you're like me, with the nagging notion that writer/director Ti West may have just pulled a magnificent illusion on the audience as the story lends itself to different interpretations that could mean very different things depending on one's take of the events, leaving a sense of ambiguity that comes with the best weird tales despite presenting a very straight forward tale on the surface.

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-26T10:33:00.000-06:00

One of the questions posed during the recent Doctor Who "Best of Christmas" special was something along the lines of "Would you rather find X or a Tardis under your tree Christmas morning?" The question is fuzzy in my brain because I actually received my own bigger on the inside blue box -- with handy dandy sound effects at that.

On Plagiarism

2011-12-14T13:39:00.003-06:00

I have a day job, sometimes we use other sources to develop training programs or things of that nature and when we use them there is a reference somewhere in the documentation to indicate what we used and from where. I have a night job -- I teach English (and literature and some other things), I drill into my students the first night of class that plagiarism is an unforgivable sin. I use tools like Turnitin and Viper to make sure that their papers are on the up-and-up. In my world plagiarism is an ugly word and a dirty act.

So it was a shock to my system when I received an email today from an editor that published a short work of mine. The editor wanted to let me know -- they weren't placing any credence in the accusation -- that another writer had accused me of lifting their story from an online workshopping site I used to frequent along with a slew of other writers publishing short fiction today. The editor did what all good editors do and asked for verification/proof.

That said, this is the first time I've ever encountered anything like this. You read about these things, you see names like J.K. Rowling get tossed around as someone who wrote a story about a kid wizard a dozen years ago wants a cut of the Potter empire. And every time I see an article about something like this it amazes me, and the idea that someone would crawl out from under a rock somewhere and level such a thing at someone strikes me as ridiculous. But in the midst of my own personal moment of ridiculousness I wanted to know more about my accuser (someone who recently sent me a Facebook friend request at that). I logged into the workshop site I no longer frequent and pulled up their profile, they've been an active user of the site for a little more than six months, a period of time post-dating the acceptance of said story from the publishing journal. But that doesn't really matter, my day job has trained me to document, I have emails dating to previous years regarding the story and feedback solicitations along with more than a few prior rejection letters.

But none of that is really the point, the accusation has no merit so I'll give it the credence it deserves which is very little. The point is that things like this make me question the value of everyone being so connected. If it weren't for Facebook or Twitter or the workshop site involved in this melodrama, would this person even know who I am or seek out to level such an accusation?

I think anyone who attempts to be a contributing member of society will agree that despite the simple joy/fun that social networking websites provide they are at the end of the day a way to kill time (or for many of us, to waste it), sometimes to the detriment of other projects or in this case potentially to someone's credibility.

So then, in a world of flame wars, memes, internet vegetable patches and people with too much time and access on their hands, is it all worth it? Or do writers like Sallinger, Updike, King and so many others who value(d) their privacy have the right idea -- should those crafting stories being doing simply that instead of reaching out to the larger world, for better or worse?

NaNoSloGo

2011-11-16T17:18:00.001-06:00

But I have a great excuse...

I'm going to take a run at something over the next week or so, but 50,000 isn't looking too good.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 6

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

2,786 words -- a binge of letters and punctuation. I'm through chapter nine, working my way into chapter ten. That said, I'm not going to be around for the next couple of days because today is the BIG DAY, today we welcome our first offspring, a little girl whose cuteness will probably be like kryptonite to me.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 5

2011-11-06T09:45:00.000-06:00

2,037 words and out, things are going to start slowing up in the next couple of days...

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 4

2011-11-05T08:38:00.000-05:00

2,246 words. If I manage to keep this pace up for two more days I might actually still be at pace or even ahead when writing resumes say next Wednesday, maybe Thursday. To paraquote Christopher Walken, "I've got a fever, a fever for more cowbell." Though in this case, cowbell = wordcount.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 3

2011-11-04T07:34:00.000-05:00

2,314 words. I'm ahead, now to keep building count to make up for what will be two days with no words at best, maybe three.

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 2

2011-11-03T07:38:00.000-05:00

2,136 words. I almost managed to make up for yesterday's oh-so-short word count, I came within 200 words. That's like a cheeseburger without cheese -- tasty, but wrong. So, the skinny of it all is that I need to reach 1,867 words today to reach even (and knock out some extra words between now and the close of Sunday because next week brings the arrival of Baby Smetana).

NaNoWriMo 2011: Day 1

2011-11-02T07:22:00.000-05:00

998 words. A lot of them crap, but words none the less. That said, it's short of the daily goal -- the elusive 1,667 words per day -- the magic number that guarantees one hits the fifty-thousand mark. Which means I need to find an extra 669 words to add on top of today's goal. Wish me luck.

It's November 1st...

2011-11-01T11:09:00.000-05:00

Do you know where your novel is? Is it hidden in the back of a dresser drawer, buried in the back yard, taking up space in a fold somewhere around your medula oblongata? It is that time of year again when writers, would-be writers, and people hell-bent on wordsmithing no matter the cost (be it sleep, sanity, etc.) start typing words, building sentences, shaping sentences into paragraphs, stacking paragraphs into pages and so on, all in hopes of hitting that magic number: 50,000.

November is going to be crazy for me, we're trying to get Stymie's first series of trading card fictions out (we've hit a minor snag with the printers), and um, I'm going be a first-time dad in a few short days. Those things, mainly the last one, are going to eat up a lot of time. But being a new dad means I'm not going to be sleeping much, so maybe it's time I take another crack at NaNoWriMo. Maybe I'll sit down with my long gestating novel Brighter than Sunshine and build on it, or heck, even start anew (or just start something new). There's a part of me that wants to be able to look back on a finished novel years after the fact and say to my little girl, "I wrote this for you," and if I'm lucky I'll be able to turn to a dedication page and show her her name.

Or maybe I'm just crazy. Well, there's probably no maybe about that.

"Commute" at Moon Milk Review

2011-10-31T12:42:00.002-05:00

My strange little story "Commute" is in the latest edition of Moon Milk Review which went live a few short hours ago. The issue includes some great fiction, poetry, prosetry, and an interview with Matt Bell. Check it out!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T08:24:00.002-05:00

Buy This Book!

2011-10-28T15:56:00.001-05:00

Click the pic, something spooktacularly special is coming readers ways on Halloween and it's connected to Cullen Bunn's upcoming middle grader series Crooked Hills.

For Sale (at the Low, Low Price of Zero)

2011-10-24T09:20:00.000-05:00

This isn't so much a writerly post as it is an editorly one -- Stymie just released its Autumn & Winter 2011 issue. It's kind of awesome and there's a werewolf chilling out in a pair of tighty-whities on the cover. What more could you want out a free online literary journal, right? So if you have the time, take a few minutes and check out the new issue.

I'm a Lazy Sort of Friend

2011-10-21T16:17:00.001-05:00

The last year has been busy: the day job evolved, the teaching load increased, some awesome publication credits and associated opportunities, Stymie kept chugging along at a pace I'm not sure I can handle, and my wife and I are expecting our first child very soon. That said, all those things along with the other stuff eating up my days but not worth mentioning here kind of made me a lousy writer (or at least not a very productive one) and not such a great friend/workshop partner. I bailed on a trip to the World Horror Convention (see job evolution above) and the Midwest TYCA conference (see impending baby), I've been lackluster in the story feedback department, and I've just been all-in-all lazy about the things that didn't fit into one of those categories encompassed in the first sentence above (the lack of posts here over the last 6 months support this).

Another testament to said laziness (or at least distractedness) is the fact I missed the creation of four websites by some dear friends (or at least failed to make much mention of them). Deb Garwood has a new site detailing her adventures in the classroom and in writing, and Sarah Kuntz Jones has two sites live -- a personal Tumblr site and maybe more importantly the outstanding resource site Adjuncts Unite! And John Hornor Jacobs built what has to be one of the most bad-ass author websites known to mankind.

No promises -- I have a tendency to break those -- but I'm going to be better (and faster, stronger, friendlier, etc.), and if I'm not -- you (if you know me outside the confines of pixels and posts) have permission to hit me the next time you see me (not to hard though, I bruise easily).

Hyper Specialized Word Stuffs

2011-10-11T17:08:00.000-05:00

Erika Dreifus, author of Quiet Americans and a slew of other things, was kind enough to interview me for an article in the latest issue (November 2011) of The Writer magazine. The article, "Find a custom home at a niche journal," takes a look at Bellevue Literary Review; Gastronomica; J Journal; War, Literature and the Arts; as well as Stymie. The issue also features an interview with Walter Mosley and a look at some of the top names in the mystery genre. The Writer is available at most local book nooks, big boxes, and the like.

Speaking of Stymie -- a new issue will hit in the next 30 days and there are still a few sets of Trading Card Fiction available for those that haven't ordered a set yet (sets should ship in the next several weeks).

An Acceptance at Moon Milk Review

2011-06-07T13:46:00.000-05:00

My short story "Commute" has been accepted for publication at Moon Milk Review in a future issue (maybe Fall, possibly Winter). Details to follow.

It's Going To Be Quiet The Next Several Weeks

2011-05-07T22:17:00.000-05:00

No Words

2011-05-04T10:30:00.000-05:00

Zero. Nada. Zilch. That's the count for the last 24 hours. I blame the following, in no particular order:

- Hyperactive dogs
- Tiny humans
- Reality television
- Familial obligations
- The Colonel's secret recipe (and possibly The Pentaverate)

I've Been Too Busy To Blog

2011-05-03T14:15:00.000-05:00

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Excuses aside though, the word count stacks up like this:

Thursday to Friday: 350 words
Friday to Saturday: 1,248 words
Saturday to Sunday: 0 words
Monday to Tuesday: 107 words

That puts my total since last Monday at 2,482 words. That's almost like 2% of a novel or something!

Six-Hundred and Twenty-Seven

2011-04-28T09:23:00.000-05:00

Words! That is all. Now, back to the grind (with high hopes for this weekend).

Zero

2011-04-26T21:53:00.000-05:00

I could make excuses like: my grass needed cut (it was halfway up my shins and Tuesday was the first day not drenched in rain in a week), I had work type work to do, I had a migraine, etc. All true, but none a good excuse for my complete lack writing today -- I'll be better tomorrow. Or at least I'll try to be.

One-Hundred and Fifty

2011-04-25T19:42:00.001-05:00

Not that many words in the last 24 hours, but it's better than zero -- the word count grows!

An Exercise in Accountability

2011-04-22T08:47:00.001-05:00

I'm kind of lazy. Take that and add in a dash of "can't say no" and as you might imagine this causes some problems. To be blunt, it causes a lot of problems when it comes to writing. I get sidetracked, start multiple projects and end up accomplishing less. What I've found is that the things I do get done and out tend to be those pieces that I've been commissioned for, asked to do, basically situations in which someone else is depending on me to get my act together long enough to get my act together for a one-off hit-and-run. Writing a novel, unless you've already written and sold other novels, isn't that kind of process. So I flounder.

When I flounder, I tend to seek advice from people that I look to as examples of how to do what I'm trying to do. A gurus list if you will, I have lists for all kinds of things -- day job questions (actually, I have multiple lists in this area depending on the topic), teaching questions, and writing questions. The answer I got back when I asked what? How? Ugh! was a straight forward one that after spending three days this week at a leadership retreat was the sort of thing I needed to hear -- Get it done!

I took away some other things from it too, but that was the crux of the message: stop whining and start typing. And usually, that would get me going, I'd start writing and knock out 5, 7, 10 pages a day. Then I'd fizzle, I'd be like the dog from Up and get all "Squirrel?!?" I don't want to fizzle, I ~~want~~ need something resembling completion, so that's where I'm reaching out to anyone that reads this blog. I'm going to start posting daily writing updates, something simple along the lines of how much I've gotten down on paper (or pixel as the case may be) in the previous 24 hours starting this Monday. And if I don't post, I'm not opposed to anyone giving me a kick in the tail, calling me a slacker, etc. (and if you live nearby, feel free to find me and punch me in the shoulder or something for my lack of follow-through).

Excessive Exclamation Mark Warning

2011-04-21T15:22:00.001-05:00

The latest issue of The Missouri Review is out!!! It includes my thoughts on the modern vampire novel*!!! You should most definitely pick up a copy (or a dozen if the mood strikes you)!!! My name is on the cover and my piece closes out the issue!!! The issue's theme is PERIL and it (the spring '11 edition, not peril) is available at fine retailers (and probably some not so fine ones) of book related wares!!! And in case you're all "I don't care" about my blabbering, I assure you there are great words between the covers by a whole slew of writers far more talented than I!!!

*things that sparkle are not vampires, so any discussion of said sparkly things would be liking spitting in the face of something that might in turn eat you (or at the very least drain you dry).

Some Writing Music

2011-04-12T20:56:00.000-05:00

An Acceptance at Bluestem

2011-04-08T11:44:00.001-05:00

My short story "Cast Away" has been accepted for publication in the June 2011 edition of Bluestem Magazine. Details to follow.

Balls and Bases and Sticks and Such

2011-03-29T14:05:00.003-05:00

The new issue of Stymie is slated to go live in a couple of weeks and it is our first themed issue, and what better theme to start such things off with than baseball.

The spring/summer edition will include new fiction from Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Wilker, Claire Novak, the ESPN/Stymie Fiction Contest Finalists (Aaron Burch, Jon Morgan Davies, Nick Ripatrazone & Todd Zuniga) along with a Q&A by our outgoing rockstar nonfiction editor, Sara Lippmann, with an editor and author who is a rockstar in his own right, Chad Harbach. And that's not even the half of it.

Speaking of baseball, my predictions for the 2011 season along with recommendations for the tastiest cheeseburgers coast-to-coast will appear along side (though, I'm pretty sure I'm not fit to keep such company) predictions (and other words) from the likes of Stewart O'Nan, Jim Ruland, Jess Walter, Rick Moody, Andrew Ervin, Michael Czyzniejewski, Nick Mainieri, and Owen King in the latest edition of the always awesome Hobart Baseball Issue next month.

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

2011-03-17T21:20:00.000-05:00

"And if that was the case, Ryan thought, if it was our suffering that made us beautiful to God, and if that was why He allowed it to continue, then how dare He, how dare He, and why, why, why, why, why? He loved us, or so He said, but what did His love mean? What was it good for? It didn’t change anything, it didn’t improve anything, it only lingered in the distance, fluttering like a bird around the margins of their wretchedness."

-- from The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier

"In a Name" at Annalemma

2011-03-09T10:22:00.001-06:00

My story, a revised/rewritten/completely overhauled and back again piece that's been through the ringer more times than I'm capable of counting, "In a Name" is the featured work this week at the always wonderful Annalemma. Thanks to Christopher Heavener for his seemingly endless patience over the last year, that's right a full year, in helping turn this story into something to be proud of.

A Brief Musical Interlude

2011-03-02T12:36:00.002-06:00

And the Winner Is...

2011-02-18T12:45:00.001-06:00

"But me no buts, John. If an old coot who's pushing seventy form the wrong side can keep on his feet, so can you. I'd hum a marching song for you, but I'm afraid the guard over there would not be pleased. I'll give you another two minutes to rest, and then we'll have to move on."

-- from The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt by John Bellairs

Did You Read?

2011-02-18T10:03:00.004-06:00

I haven't caught an episode of Portlandia yet, but after seeing this clip (courtesy 'o Michael Nye) I'm going to have to. And in the spirit of honesty I once read the phone book. I was six. I'm not sure if this really true or a lie my family perpetuates to goad me about my reading habits. The thing is I remember watching a whole lot of Scooby-Doo and He-Man, I don't remember chilling out with the Yellow Pages. I think some people aren't getting a Christmas card this year. But, I digress. . .

Best Video Game Trailer Ever

2011-02-17T14:21:00.001-06:00

A Novel Cagematch (Finals)

2011-02-17T12:00:00.006-06:00

This is it, the final showdown, and unexpectedly (at least to me) we have a Johnny Dixon face off. So, in the first annual John Bellairs Novel Cagematch we know one thing for certain: Johnny is taking the prize! The question that remains is which Dixon novel is going to be declared champion? I have my personal favorite, what's yours?

That's right, it's The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt up against The Curse of the Blue Figurine!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Finals") or in the comments section of this post. Better luck next year to Anthony Monday, Lewis Barnavelt, Bacon and Prospero.

A Novel Cagematch (Semi-Finals, Match 2)

2011-02-16T12:00:00.001-06:00

In the second semi-final match-up, we have Johnny v. Lewis take eleventy-seven. There's a part of me that feels bad that good ole Anthony Monday got shut out (better luck next year kid). The winner goes to the finals, the loser goes home.

That's right, it's The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt up against The Mansion in the Mist!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Semi-Finals, Match 2") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Semi-Finals, Match 1)

2011-02-15T12:00:00.001-06:00

And we're down to four (an updated bracket is available HERE). In the first semi-final match-up Lewis Barnavelt throws down with perennial underdog (or at least it's felt that way) Johnny Dixon. The winner goes to the finals, the loser goes home (and gets to stew until next year).

That's right, it's The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring up against The Curse of the Blue Figurine!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Semi-Finals, Match 1") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 2, Match 4)

2011-02-14T12:00:00.001-06:00

It's the final match of the second round and we've got Lewis dancing with himself (or stabbing himself in the back as the case may be).

That's right, it's The Mansion in the Mist up against The Figure in the Shadows!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 2, Match 4") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 2, Match 3)

2011-02-13T12:00:00.002-06:00

Dang it, Johnny doesn't seem to stand a change against super powerful wizards, he got it handed to him by these same fellows in the first round.

That's right, it's The Curse of the Blue Figurine up against The Face in the Frost!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 2, Match 3") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 2, Match 2)

2011-02-12T12:00:00.002-06:00

Johnny Dixon up against the powerhouse that is Lewis Barnavelt. The world seems split into two groups, Dixon fans and Barnavelt fans, and in the end there can be only one!

That's right, it's The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt up against The House with a Clock in Its Walls!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 2, Match 2") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 2, Match 1)

2011-02-11T12:00:00.003-06:00

The first round was full of nail biters, but the results are in (and so is an updated bracket). And in the first match of the second round, ~~our~~ my (it appears that not everyone feels the same way about him as I do) beloved Johnny Dixon takes on Lewis Barnavelt.

That's right, it's The Eyes of the Killer Robot up against The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 2, Match 1") or in the comments section of this post.

How They Were Found: Mini-Review (Part 5)

2011-02-11T09:34:00.000-06:00

"Dredge," originally published in Hayden's Ferry Review (and selected as part of the Best American Mystery Stories 2010 anthology) is the high point -- if it's possible to pick only one -- of the collection. It serves as a culmination of sorts, with each of the stories preceding it building on their own core mysteries while providing a platform for the stories to follow. Each story growing more complex, intriguing and entertaining, every one playing with our expectations and then striking out at us in the closing paragraphs with revelation.

"Dredge" follows this pattern, and leaves us wanting without our being aware. We follow the narrator as he looks to find the solution to the puzzle of the drowned girl at the center of the story, and what we don't realize until we've read the last paragraph is that "Dredge" is as much his story as it hers. And with that realization comes an appreciation for what Bell has done, and a moment of befuddlement and wonder, as we wonder what he has in store for us next.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 1, Match 8)

2011-02-10T12:00:00.001-06:00

It's the final tussle of the first round with Johnny taking on Lewis in what may be the highlight of the round.

That's right, it's The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull up against The Figure in the Shadows!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 1, Match 8") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 1, Match 7)

2011-02-09T12:00:00.013-06:00

Johnny finally gets to face someone other than himself, unfortunately it's a couple of wizards.

That's right, it's The Secret of the Underground Room up against The Face in the Frost!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 1, Match 7") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 1, Match 6)

2011-02-08T12:00:00.003-06:00

Lewis and Anthony, you'd think these guys were archenemies or something.

That's right, it's The Mansion in the Mist up against The Dark Secret of Weatherend!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 1, Match 6") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 1, Match 5)

2011-02-07T12:00:00.001-06:00

Blast you random draw! It's my boy Johnny tangling with himself once again.

That's right, it's The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost up against The Curse of the Blue Figurine!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 1, Match 5") or in the comments section of this post.

What is This?

2011-02-07T10:33:00.001-06:00

The last few days have seen the Twitterverse and other corners of the internet all riled up over a list of "100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader" that was posted over at Bitch Media. Commenters did what commenters do: some praised the list, others were bummed that their favorites didn't make the cut, and of course there were those that called for the removal of certain titles because they might be, in the words of the site's writers "triggering."

The books were: Sisters Red, Living Dead Girl, and Tender Morsels.

I've read Sisters Red and Living Dead Girl (and now plan to pick up Tender Morsels); the site has the right to do what they want, it is their list to manage after all. But, they caved in without defending their original list or justifying the initial inclusion of these books (which certainly warranted spots on said list) or justifying (with any kind of sound logic) their removal.

The likes of Scott Westerfeld, Maureen Johnson, Diana Peterfreund, Jeff Vandermeer, A.S. King, and many other authors joined the fray and expressed their disbelief (and in some cases kindly asked that their titles included on the list be removed). The official response to these requests was a smidgen of doubt regarding the veracity of the authors and ultimately that the site will not be removing books from the list per author request. The unofficial response (based on their actions) was that they'd only be removing titles due to misinformed, off-target griping by readers (who may or may not have read the books they were calling out).

Is this censorship? A site following their own prerogative? Something else?

This topic elsewhere:
Brendan Halpin: "Making the List..."
Scott Westerfeld: "BitchFest"
Diana Peterfreund: "Feminist Reads..."
Holly Black: "Bitch Magazine"

A Novel Cagematch (Round 1, Match 4)

2011-02-06T12:00:00.003-06:00

Crikey, it's Johnny against Johnny again. This doesn't bode well for my personal favorite Bellairsian hero.

That's right, it's The Trolley to Yesterday up against The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 1, Match 4") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 1, Match 3)

2011-02-05T12:00:00.002-06:00

It's an Anthony and Lewis rematch...

That's right, it's The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb up against The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 1, Match 3") or in the comments section of this post.

A Novel Cagematch (Round 1, Match 2)

2011-02-04T12:00:00.001-06:00

Anthony Monday going toe-to-toe Lewis Barnavelt, things are starting to get exciting.

That's right, it's The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn up against The House with a Clock in Its Walls!

Make your vote either through email (contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject: "Round 1, Match 2") or in the comments section of this post.

The Rundown, Ran Down

2011-02-04T09:39:00.001-06:00

It's possible you may have noticed the little blue progress meter over to the right and down marking my forward movement on the novel hasn't been updated in about a month. That doesn't mean I haven't been working away though, as I mentioned a few weeks back I made some changes to the outline, tried to flesh out a few ideas that needed tweaked now (as opposed to tackling them during full-on revisions) otherwise I'd hit a roadblock that might mean no finished first draft. The outline was completed and I've been writing and in some spots doing the occasional bit of rewriting just to make things jibe.

This has also meant that there are a few chapters (maybe more than a few) that I'm not sure where they fit any longer. I still have the words, but I'm not sure if they'll be a part of the finished draft.

The progress meter has stalled, I'm somewhere between 15,000 and 35,000 words, depending on which ones you count. So for now, I'm kind of lost in the wilderness if you will, living off berries, edible grasses, and rainwater until I can find civilization (i.e. figure out where I really am in the greater mix of this thing). And hopefully. I'll have a real count in the next couple of weeks (with a secret self imposed deadline for the draft looming in the all too near future).

A Novel Cagefight

2011-02-03T15:02:00.001-06:00

I love a good tournament as much as the next person, despite not watching college basketball all season I faithfully fill out a bracket come March (and almost always select Duke or Missouri to take it). When the Tournament of Books rolls around, I pay attention and either take some delight in the fact I've read the contenders or some dismay when I haven't. As a kid, my older brother and I would stage regular video game tournaments in our basement, the result of which was often my getting punched in the shoulder or a thrown controller (my brother doesn't take losing kindly).

So what better way to kick off the new year than with a little bracketology? The tournament is going to be a slugfest of the best of the best, the best of John Bellairs. And in the first match of the first round (see full bracket HERE), our beloved Johnny Dixon takes on... Johnny Dixon (thank you random draw).

That's right, it's The Eyes of the Killer Robot up against The Chessmen of Doom!

While I can't wrap my head around the notion that anyone out there hasn't read every bit of Bellairs on this list, I'm sure it is a sad fact of life. That said, please check out Bellairsia for a full rundown of all things John Bellairs (including summaries, trivia and other awesome stuff). And while you're clicking, drop your vote in an email to contact AT eriksmetana.com, subject "Round 1, Match 1" (or just leave your pick in the comments of this post). New matches will post daily until we have a winner.

I Will Own This & You'll Probably Want To Too

2011-01-31T12:59:00.000-06:00

Music to Write By: "Father's Son"

2011-01-27T09:22:00.001-06:00

People Picking Pecks of Popular Parsimonious Pages

2011-01-26T10:40:00.000-06:00

I tell my students to keep their papers concise, efficient and to the point. I tell them to keep parsimony in mind. Some do, some don't, most learn a new word at the very least. But until recently, I didn't realize how important this same advice was for fiction. Be it popular fiction or something else, the books readers actually read have some things in common. They keep it uncluttered at the page level, with page after page written in a clear, cut to the gist manner that doesn't get lost in a flowery mess of prose building. Popular fiction doesn't have to be poorly written, and it usually isn't (or at least not any more so that what passes for literary fiction). So what's my point?

It's this -- pick up any well written genre book (there are poorly written ones just like in any other category, including literary fiction) and take a peek at what that author has done. The description is there, the characters are round and full and jumping from the page, the plot moves along and the book is entertaining. What's lacking in all likelihood is wasted space, authorial dilly-dallying, and overt filler for filler's sake. The books that the average reader reads, the ones that they're willing to step away from the computer, TV or game counsel for are the ones that don't try to make them feel anything but engaged (and wanting more). I've heard, though I have no real proof to its validity, that the average best-seller is written at a seventh grade reading level. Not that it's written for seventh graders, but written (and edited) in such a way that it is accessible. And making books accessible is important.

Over the last year or so (and in truth probably longer than that), there's been a debate of sorts amongst writers, academics and such. There are those that grouse about the prevalance and success of books like Twilight, or the fact that celebutantes are landing book deals when other more talented writers aren't getting them. I think that's the wrong way to look at it. Celebutantes churning out dribble sells for better or worse. Publishing is an industry that sustains itself on selling what it produces, so if books that aren't as well written or have a Hollywood factor to them bring in money, how is that bad for other aspiring authors? When publishers have more money, more well selling books, the hope (and likelihood) is that they'll be able to position themselves to take more chances on midlist and new authors. These books that get railed against have the potential to create more opportunity.

Economics aside, I'd rather look at these same books that get slammed as gateway books. As part of a larger writing and reading community, those of us that care about stories and getting them into the hands of readers should be happy that maybe for the first time in their lives someone is reading a book without being told to. What we should do is step up and try to encourage them to read more, expand their tastes, to explore other writers and maybe, if we're lucky they'll embrace reading. They'll read more titles. They'll tell their friends about what they've read. They'll engage with books in the same way books (and the people that care about such things) engaged them.

The Week That Was

2011-01-21T13:37:00.001-06:00

It's been one of those weeks where things were for lack of a better word, askew. Monday was a holiday, Wednesday I had some sort of plague and was holed up in my house, yesterday was a snow day with the university where I work closing shop (and paying us all the while). So needless to say, I had some extra time on my hands.

The Novel revision/tweaking I mentioned in the last post got underway. I worked my way through the brand new prologue and edited, changed, moved, and fixed (to fit the most recent plot outline) six chapters. I also stumbled across an additional 15 or so pages in the effort. I reinforced some things, expanded on a few others, did some cutting and tried to get it (or at least what I was working on at the moment) into something resembling a logical yet s****y first draft.

Something that when the heavy lifting of actual revision, post draft, happens won't make me want to find, battle and throat punch a unicorn or other similarly fantastical, yet probably evil creature (I'm looking at you garden gnomes).

The Broken, The Beaten and The Damned

2011-01-18T15:43:00.002-06:00

So the novel is resembling something that by all accounts is half finished, or at least I'm hovering somewhere around the 50% word count goal. This is awesome, outstanding, relieving, sweet to the power of amazing, and did I mention awesome?

What's not any of those positive adjectives is the fact that as I review the outline for the book and make some tweaks here and there for clarity's sake, I'm in a position where some revising (the sort that I would rather wait until the novel is completed to deal with) has become necessary.

See, if I don't deal with this handful of potential story killers now, I'm pretty sure they'll somehow manage to screw with the second half of the book as I write it and crush my soul in ways I can't imagine when I go about the real revision post draft. So no new words for the next week or so, just changed words, revised words and probably the omission of a few as well -- instead I'm fixing plot holes, continuity errors and things of that ilk.

"Morning Rush" in BLIP

2011-01-12T15:59:00.004-06:00

The January issue of Rick Barthelme's BLIP Magazine is live and ready for consumption, coincidentally it includes my short story "Morning Rush" -- a short piece about cars, online dating, what-ifs, and WTFs -- along with a slew of work by writers far more talented than I (including Rick Moody, which is sort of weird because this is the second time we've shared a table of contents), and guest edited by the incomparable Courtney Eldridge.

Wide Open(ings)

2011-01-11T08:50:00.000-06:00

Prologues, first chapters, introductions, etc. -- they all serve a greater purpose, namely how an author might choose to open their book. For the better part of the last year, as I've worked off and on on the novel I've had a very specific opening in mind (and on paper). It was the sort of opening, really the sort of information in general, that I didn't think would necessarily fit anywhere else in the book (or any subsequent titles that may follow). I stole a page out of the Nicole Krauss first novel handbook and had a prologue that at first felt set apart from the rest of the book, that is until the reader realizes it's not. It was part gamesmanship, part twist, part hook.

But then I started to think more about the novel and what I was hoping to accomplish with the story, and if I'm ever fortunate enough to do so with the trilogy of books that comprise a larger, grander story. When I thought it about it in big picture terms, the prologue didn't really serve the purpose I'd hoped. What it did was help me create story bookends that bring the reader full circle, a Chuck Cycle if you will (a writing device in which the story does not begin at the beginning but rather at a later point in the story before going back to the beginning and working its way to the starting points, see Invisible Monsters). And while that was great for this book, it didn't help me accomplish the larger narrative goal of linking each of the books that at this point exist only in my head, in outlines and synopses.

So, I changed the opening (or am in the process of changing it), I moved the old prologue elsewhere in the novel (and amazingly it will work out just fine there), and in the end (of this book and the two that I hope may someday follow) it all looks to fit together better than I could have ever imagined.

An Acceptance at TMR (I Think)

2011-01-04T10:51:00.006-06:00

Last summer I was presented with the fortunate opportunity to take a crack at something I'd never really attempted before, a long form multi-book review (or as TMR refers to them: Omnibus Reviews). Granted, I read a ridiculous amount of books (and book reviews for that matter), but just as I'm working on a novel (my first, not first attempt, but first that has anything resembling promise), I've been working on this review off and on for a good part of the last six or so months. I read the selection of books that I felt best fit what the journal indicated they were looking for, each book seemingly larger than the last and then I started writing. Several thousand words later I had a finished draft, then the waiting began.

Would the editors like it? Would they hate it? Would I be able to add The Missouri Review to my list of publications, or would I need to find a dark corner in which to hang my head after writing what was certainly a ridiculous, horrible piece of crap? Well, I'm happy to say that my submission has been looked upon kindly, I'm waiting on line edits and it appears that my review (details to come) will be appearing in the summer 2011 issue (granted I don't manage to screw this up between now and then).

Books Read (or Re-Read) - 2011

2011-01-01T15:08:00.000-06:00

A list of the books I had the pleasure of reading in 2011. Most of the publications, if not all, on this list are available online at the likes of IndieBound, Amazon, Powell's and Barnes & Noble (or if you live near where I do - Pudd'nhead Books, Subterranean Books, Big Sleep Books, Paperbacks Etc., Booksmarts, The Archive, The Book House or Left Bank Books). For those titles that may not be so easily available, a quick Google search should start you on the path to obtaining them for your own reading enjoyment.

A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness
A Tale Dark and Grimm, Adam Gidwitz
Bag of Bones, Stephen King
Boneshaker, Cherie Priest
The Convalescent, Jessica Anthony
Cryer's Cross, Lisa McMann
The Death Cure, James Dashner
Gone, Lisa McMann
Hack/Slash Omnibus, Multiple Authors
How to Predict the Weather, Aaron Burch
The Illiad, Homer
The Illumination, Kevin Brockmeier
The Incorruptibles (early draft), John Hornor Jacobs
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
The Kingdom of Ohio, Matt Flaming
The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan
The Maze Runner, James Dashner
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Please Ignore Vera Dietz, A.S. King
The Prince of Mist, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Radleys, Matt Haig
The Replacement, Brenna Yovanoff
Restoration, Guy Adams
The Samaritan, Fred Venturini
The Seagull Reader, ed. Joseph Kelly
The Scorch Trials, James Dashner
The Sherlockian, Graham Moore
The Sixth Gun, Volume One, Cullen Bunn
Southern Gods, John Hornor Jacobs
Stories for Nighttime and Some for Day, Ben Loory
Storming the Tulips, Hannie J. Voyles
Swamplandia, Karen Russell
The Tiger's Wife, Téa Obreht
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green and David Levithan
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
The World House, Guy Adams
Zombies vs. Unicorns, ed. Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier

Happy Christmas! Or New Year! Or Whatever!

2010-12-28T16:02:00.000-06:00

2010 is coming to a close and I find myself reading (and making notes) on a friend's novel -- Slip by John Mantooth -- and getting blown away page after page; working on my novel -- the novel; and recovering from all the food and reverie of this past weekend. It was a wonderful holiday and my stocking was full of goodies:

A digital voice recorder (to catch ideas and novel snippets while I'm driving or otherwise unable to write them down);
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore;
Zombies Vs. Unicorns edited by the incomparable duo of Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier;
A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd;
The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff;
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest;
and on the sort of but not really writing front: Season One of Sherlock (which if you didn't catch when it was on, definitely track down the DVD).

This will probably be my last blog post of the year, so happy holidays and I hope your 2011 is as good or better than your 2010.

The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story

2010-12-17T11:53:00.001-06:00

I'm done with the short story. We're over, kaput. It's not the short story, it's me. No, really.

The thing is, if I let myself write short stories I'll never finish the novel or anything longer. Ever. So for now, or at least until I have a finished draft of the novel, I'm swearing off the sweet goodness of short form fiction. And I'm keeping my expectations low, I hope to write a first draft that can be tightened, tweaked and revised enough to send out to agents. I pray that one of those agents will look at it kindly enough to sign me on as a client. From there, who knows other than I'll be busy working on the next book. I'd be ecstatic to actually sell the novel, but I don't necessarily have any kind of great confidence or pipedream that it is going to happen -- I really want it to, but publishing is a fickle world. My limited understanding of it is that you have to dive in with everything you've got and the mindset that you're probably going to be swimming in circles for a while (along with the occasional shark). And short stories aren't very good chum (I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but what the hell it stays).

The Novel

2010-12-16T13:00:00.000-06:00

To hold myself more accountable (see I Am Sloth), I've added a public widget thing over to the right tracking my word count on the novel. I'll update it at least once a week, maybe more often. The end goal is a completed draft of somewhere around 85,000 words give or take. As of today's count, I'm somewhere around 10% of the way there, with a bit of time off over the next few weeks to start stacking those words up into something more substantial.

I Am Sloth

2010-12-15T17:01:00.000-06:00

There are stories you write that just flow, every word coming ridiculously easy, and when you're finished it reads like a masterpiece. You are in love with that story and send it out into the world. The Novel is not one of those stories. It's long and challenges me every step of the way. Finding the right words is difficult, stringing them together into a story even more so. I've been struggling with the the novel for longer than I'd like to recount, and I realize it shouldn't be as hard as I'm making it.

Part of the issue is that I'm a lazy writer, a personal issue that I'm looking to break along with some non-literary ones at the moment. Another part is that I have the innate ability to over complicate an idea until it implodes a la the The Big Crunch. A simple premise quickly becomes convoluted and I run off into the woods, my hands in the air and screaming as if I'm being chased by a slasher film monster. I start to tell myself that I'm not ready to handle a story like this, that I don't have the chops, and I walk away for a few days (or weeks or months). I find other things to fill my time like: founding and running a literary journal, dwelling on the idea of pursuing another degree, taking on a ridiculously sized teaching load.

Laziness + Run-Away Mentality + Fear ≠ a completed novel

In fact, it doesn't equal much of anything other than me being unhappy about it and my falling into the same avoidance traps mentioned above. To make it worse, I see writers that I know (or know of) that I'd like to think I'm on par with skills wise publishing books, landing agents, doing the things I set out to do when I first started writing some six years ago, and the only real difference I can find between them and me is that they are finishers and until now I've just been a starter.

I need to be more finish, less start. No more short stories, no more essays or distractions. Less time wasting time and more spent writing. And as I strain to pull those words from my head and put them on paper, none of them coming easy, I'll know I'm doing the right thing.

Notes and Words and Harmony

2010-12-06T22:41:00.000-06:00

I write to white noise, a fan or something of that nature buzzing in the background, I don't write to music. Or at least not music with lyrics of any kind. Lyrics can be distracting, drawing me out of whatever I'm working on. I can't string words together when I have words being strung at me.

This is what I've told myself for the better part of the last six years, refusing to write to music. That's not to say that my writing isn't inspired by a good song now and then, I can point to one or two songs that directly influenced practically every story I've written to date. I have a running playlist for one of my novels-in-progress. Music is important to what I write.

So imagine my surprise (and moment of exhilaration) when instead of turning down the music for a lunchtime writing session today, I let it play, and I knocked out some 800+ words in under an hour. 800+ words that I'm excited about, a bit inspired by and relieved to get done (as they're part of a revision I've been avoiding for weeks). For the first time in months I felt like a writer again, not a teacher or word-pusher, but an actual wordsmith. I don't know if my old process had gotten stale or was just the wrong process for me and I didn't know it, but either way I feel like I'm onto something and can't wait for my next writing session.

And speaking of music, here's a little something that had me spinning words like a madman earlier...

How They Were Found: Mini-Review (Part 4)

2010-12-03T12:51:00.001-06:00

"Her Ennead," originally published in Storyglossia is the fourth story in How They Were Found. Concise, with words that cut at the reader, tearing away at them until they feel the anguish, pain and confusion, delight and despair of the anonymous Her/She of the story. "Her Ennead" shares with the stories preceding it in the collection a richness and depth of tone along with a character who walks the fine line between flawed and broken, but, sets out on its own with a raw emotion that is only hinted at in the first three pieces of the collection.

Simply, Bell manages to shade hurtful truths with dashes of disorientation, allowing the reader to embrace what Her/She is experiencing in a way that feels almost too close. Almost.

"Her Ennead" serves as a turning point in the collection, creating a more nuanced approach that leaves the reader aching for what's to come (and what's to happen to each new character they'll encounter through the rest of the book).

Trading Cards! Fiction! Feats of Strength!

2010-12-02T10:43:00.001-06:00

Okay, maybe not feats of strength, but most certainly a contest. A writing contest! Stymie just announced they're open to entries for their first annual Trading Card Fiction Contest. What's that mean? Basically, really brief fictions (100 words or less) that will fit on the back of a Trading Card. Awesome, right? All the details, including the entry fee ($5) are available via the Stymie website (look for a big box that says Trading Card Fiction Contest).

How They Were Found: Mini-Review (Part 3)

2010-11-24T09:22:00.002-06:00

“The Last Great Gift,” the third story in How They Were Found, is a parable of sorts, an examination of faith or lack thereof and what that means. Set in an earlier America, where the idea of religious freedom is a new and welcome gift, when spiritualism played hand-in-hand with Christianity, the reader is introduced to Reverend John Spear. Guided by spirits of leaders past, founding fathers, the men Jerry Bruckheimer likes to cash in on every other Christmas with a new edition of National Treasure, Spear sets about building a great machine, a new embodiment of God on Earth – the New Motor, one revealment at a time.

Bell pieces together a story that has one rooting for Spear, all the while knowing that things aren’t likely to work out as planned for him. An aching hope is instilled in your gut until you reach the point that it’s impossible to root for Spear and that the only thing left to do is root against him -- just like everyone else in the story -- as he loses sight of his original goal, as he loses the framework of what it means to be a man of faith. And when the final revealment is made, it isn’t unveiled to Spear but rather the reader as we bear witness to the inevitable, as we take part in Spear’s undoing.

Web Ninjas Go!

2010-11-23T15:17:00.000-06:00

In a bit of cross-posting goodness, I'm excited to announce that Stymie has just signed on two new additions to the editorial team. Margaret LaFleur and Shane Solar-Doherty will begin sharing the responsibilities of Social Media Editor(s) after the upcoming holiday. This is a huge step toward some larger goals for the journal, and these two web ninjas are the right mix of awesome and internet guru to tackle the job.

Acceptance at BLIP Magazine

2010-11-19T10:49:00.004-06:00

My short story "Morning Rush" has been accepted by Guest Editor Courtney Eldridge for publication in the January 2011 edition of BLIP Magazine (formerly published as MississippiReview.com). Details to follow.

How They Were Found: Mini-Review (Part 2)

2010-11-19T06:57:00.002-06:00

The second story in Matt Bell's How They Were Found, "The Receiving Tower" is equal parts lost hope, isolation and enigma. Set in a future Antarctica that feels both distant and proximal, immersed in 24 hour darkness, the only reprieve for the men stationed there waiting for radio signals being the meteorites littering the sky as a war rages on elsewhere (or so it seems) -- the words that come to mind when I think about this story include: heavy, grim, and loaded, it's the kind of story that sucks the air out of a reader's lungs. When reading "The Receiving Tower" its hard not to imagine Kevin Brockmeier behind the keyboard trying to write this story, cobbling together a piece saturated with delightful despair, enabling the reader to wallow in the misery and mystery of what's going on. Bell accomplishes something special with the story, and in the closing words creates an effect that leaves one feeling as alone and desperate as the hero of the story.

Moving Pictures

2010-11-18T11:02:00.002-06:00

Cullen Bunn writes things that are so awesome they have the potential to melt your face off, among those things are comic books -- including The Damned, a number of titles under the DC and Marvel banners, and his current series with illustrator Brian Hurtt: The Sixth Gun. John Hornor Jacobs also writes freaking amazing stuff (including his novel Southern Gods which was recently picked up by Night Shade Books), but he's just as adept at all things artistic (no, really, he's like a ninja when it comes to that stuff ). So imagine my glee when John put together a trailer for The Sixth Gun. Hint: temporary face melting might have occurred.

Holy Pixels Batman!

2010-11-12T12:38:00.001-06:00

The Stymie site redesign is done(ish)! The layout has been tweaked, the format changed and the content made more accesible. The hope is that with all the changes, a new Web Editor, and some other things we have in the works that site-exclusive fiction and nonfiction (as opposed to the work appearing in our bi-annual magazine) will start appearing by the new year. If you get a chance, click on through and check out the new digs and let us know what you think (and maybe even considering submitting something).

Southern Gods

2010-11-10T13:21:00.000-06:00

That's the title of a book by John Hornor Jacobs, a writer whose name has popped up here on more than one occasion. I'm mentioning it again because John just broke the news that his agent has sold the above referenced novel to Night Shade Books. Congratulations John, well deserved!

Be sure to check out John's site as I'm sure details (publication date, etc.) will be filling the pages there in the weeks and months to come.

Thirty Days

2010-11-04T15:48:00.000-05:00

The minds behind The Office of Letters and Light have looked at the annual effort in futility they've sanctioned, National Novel Writing Month, and decided to do something pretty damn awesome. Or, salt in the wound evil depending on how the respective writers wrap the month up -- all-star cover artists will be producing under the gun covers for 30 novels-in-progress over the next 30 days, with a new flap jacket going live every 24 hours.

A big thanks to Steven Seighman for drawing my attention to this.

It's November 2nd!

2010-11-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

So do the responsible thing (if you haven't already) by getting off your rump and heading down to your local polling place. The wunderkinds at Google have even provided a super nifty map to help you track down your voting location.

A Double Dose (You're a Wolf & Black Dirt)

2010-10-28T10:28:00.002-05:00

Three days until Halloween...

Terrible Things

2010-10-27T09:14:00.000-05:00

Four days until Halloween...

Music About Mummies

2010-10-26T10:16:00.000-05:00

Five days until Halloween...

How They Were Found: Mini-Review (Part 1)

2010-10-22T15:20:00.001-05:00

The opening tale of Matt Bell's How They Were Found, "The Cartographer's Girl" is perfect in its tone, preparing the reader for the stories to follow. A dizzying mix of tattered love, fogged reminiscence, and wrenching sadness for what was, is, or may/may not be, the story grips the reader from the earliest lines. Following a cartographer who's lost his compass -- his counterpoint -- his lover in a city of landmarks both real and imagined, the story is as much a mystery as it is an examination of heartbreak. Wandering the city in his own version of the Seven Bridges of Königsberg, stumbling over false hope and memories, it's hard not to empathize for the cartographer, to cheer him on even when you're left with the feeling he's plotting a course in all the wrong directions where North is South, right is wrong, and truth is fiction.

A Stymie Update

2010-10-20T11:43:00.001-05:00

The new issue, featuring (hopefully) the finalists of the ESPN/Stymie fiction contest along with a slew of other wonderful stories, poems and so forth is scheduled to hit the internet next month. In anticipation of the autumn/winter 2010 issue, here's a sneak peek at the cover:

The Wednesday Word: 10/6/2010

2010-10-06T09:19:00.001-05:00

The Best News You Are Likley To Hear All Day

2010-09-15T14:41:00.000-05:00

Brace yourself for something so awesome that after I've said you're going to be extremely ticked off due to the waiting factor that comes with such news. Kevin Wilson, author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, a collection that I've previously described elsewhere as:

"Maybe the most bad ass collection of short stories I read last year, if not the last several years. Seriously, anyone that hasn't read this book needs to, and then after you realize how much better of a writer Kevin is than you or anyone you know, get back to writing in a vain attempt to match his skills" has... wait for it... a novel coming out.

Next Summer. Sigh. But wait, Wilson has a cover teaser up at his website (which is both wonderful but also kind of salt in the woundish). Ack!

I'll be fine, you will too. It's not that long. There are other great books to read between now and then. It will all be okay. And if you need a Wilson fix, his story "Birds in the House" will be making an appearance in the upcoming issue of Stymie (just thought I'd throw that out there).

Radio Silence

2010-08-25T10:51:00.003-05:00

It's been a quiet couple of weeks on the site, not that I post all that frequently as it is, but at least this time I have a good reason. The start of the school year (cue ominous drum beat).

My professional life revolves around the academic year, my day job is in administration at a 4-year research university and by night I instruct in the ways of the written word (along with The Art of War, aka Business starting this semester) at two different institutions (neither of which are the place I spend my days). Teaching, preparing to teach, and eventually in the weeks to come grading (plus all my other super awesome responsibilities) will keep me quite busy as I attempt to tackle four courses in one semester for the first time.

The last couple of weeks have included refresher training, orientations, syllabi design, new text books and first-time class preparations. That all said, this might actually be my last semester teaching... At least for a little while. I'm in the application process to enter a PhD program with an early start this coming spring. I should know something more definitive by the end of this semester regarding what my plans are for the next.

To be honest, I'm a little torn about what the future holds in this respect. I love teaching, but, I also have to consider my career long term, and until a book deal comes my way (which means I need to finish the novel)*, my day job has to be a main focus -- which is where the PhD comes into play.

The degree would be in Education, which doesn't hinder my professional academic pursuits, but may actually prove quite beneficial to my professional administrative ones with an emphasis in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. I suspect that if I'm fortunate enough to get into the program my availability to teach will become limited at least in the short term, but my long term prospects will blow wide open. From there it becomes a matter of time management pairing the things I want to do with the things I need to do (and maybe even realizing they're one in the same).

*So that I have a legitimate shot at a full-time teaching position in creative writing, not so that I can be a rich and famous author. If and when I get a book published, I have few expectations beyond my becoming a mid-tier author at best, but a book (preferably more than one) looks awful shiny on a CV.

An Acceptance at Morpheus Tales

2010-08-16T10:16:00.000-05:00

My story "Ryu's Method" written under the shiny new "stories I don't want my students or family to stumble upon thanks to Google" nom de plume has been accepted at Morpheus Tales for publication in a future issue (TBD 2012).

The Latest in Jibba Jabba

2010-08-07T21:52:00.000-05:00

While Mr. T may not have time for such things, I lacking in both heavy gold chains and a sweet mohawk do. What's that mean?

It means I have a new back-and-forth, interview thing up over at Type AJ Negative where Jeff Brown asks me questions and I give answers. Check it out by way of point, click, wow! C'mon you know you want to.

The First Rule of Jane Austen's Fight Club...

2010-07-28T12:39:00.000-05:00

I love Chuck Palahniuk, I can appreciate Jane Austen (even more so since the inclusion of zombies and sea monsters into her work), and this was hilarious. So, the following, being a mish-mash of all these ideas is nothing short of awesome.

No News is Good News

2010-07-23T22:51:00.002-05:00

Or rather, no novel news isn't necessarily bad news.

This week has been a productive one despite not touching the novel -- an issue I hope to remedy over the weekend -- with a revision and submission of a story that's been lingering on my flash-drive for too long to The Lindenwood Review (the new journal being published by my MFA alma mater), the next round of revisions for "In a Name" which has been accepted at Annalemma were completed and sent to the amazing Chris Heavener for review, and the introduction and outline of a nonfiction project that I'm afraid to speak about until details become more definite (and hopefully don't fall through) were sent to the powers-that-be for consideration and feedback.

To top everything off, the submissions to the Stymie/ESPN short story contest have started showing up in the mailbox and I'm slowly working my way through all the great work looking for one to rise above the rest. Next up? A deep breath, some serious novel writing time and waiting on responses to this, that and the other.

A Loose Amalgamation of Writers

2010-07-20T07:44:00.000-05:00

That's the defacto moniker for my offline writing group -- comprised of Sarah Kuntz Jones, Fred Venturini, Deb Garwood, and yours truly -- or at least the one that's been attached to our super-new group blog (a la Snutch Labs). As we have publication news, decide to muse about the craft, or have something else to share that is both writerly and interesting (at least to us) we'll be sure to post it. Check it out here, leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Trip the Light Fantastic

2010-07-19T12:38:00.000-05:00

Consider this post as more of a nitpick than anything else.

It seems that there is an unrelenting and unfounded insistence in some circles -- be it readers or more regrettably writers (I'm using this term loosely for my purposes here) -- that try to pigeonhole the Fantasy genre as being solely comprised of wizards, orcs, dragons and fairies* stuck in some sort of medieval quest for this, that or the other. And while I'll readily agree that stories of this ilk generally fall into the larger Fantasy genre, I'd consider them as one of many sub-genres under the umbrella fantastic -- in their case: high fantasy. What's frustrating about this is that it appears (though I could be wrong) that many of the aforementioned readers (and writers) don't seem to realize that high fantasy is not the be-all-end-all, let alone the best that the genre has to offer.

I'm not sure if this is a result of self-selection, a reader finds a category of fiction they enjoy and don't explore what else lines the shelves at the local book nook or a matter of ignorance in not understanding a genre is comprised of sub-genres and even at times of sub-sub-genres or something else entirely.

That said, there are dozens upon dozens of writers working in the Fantasy genre that are either being ignored or overlooked in some form or fashion.

Kelly Link, Dexter Palmer, Kevin Wilson, The Grossmans (Austin and Lev), Aimee Bender and Jedediah Berry all write fiction that I think better exemplifies the genre better than the myopic (and stereotypical) view that seems to often be cast on it. I'm left wondering if writers like Link et al aren't quickly slapped with the Fantasy label because their work can be considered cross-genre, the idea that quality fiction is quality fiction and why bother with genre-izing something that has a better chance of finding readers in the generic fiction section, or if it's a conscious choice by their publishers to separate them from the often muddied (and misunderstood) category that Fantasy has become.

Thoughts? Comments? Writers you'd recommend?

*fairies (or faeries) are also an often integral facet of urban fantasy, which is a whole other sub-genre. One that understands the broad nature of Fantasy.

A New Dark Corner of the Internet

2010-07-15T10:03:00.000-05:00

One of my workshop/critique partners, Fred Venturini, recently signed with Blank Slate Press a St. Louis based independent publisher to drop his novel of reality television, transplants and creepy goodness The Samaritan onto the world. So when one has a book deal, what's the next logical step (at least for spreading the word of your writerly goings-on)? A blog of course.

With that in mind, get to clicking and check out the all-new www.fredventurini.com.

Acceptance at Gloom Cupboard

2010-07-12T09:01:00.002-05:00

My work of very brief fiction "Working Class Zero" has finally found a home after being accepted (and published) this morning (actually last Friday, but I've been offline the last few days) in the latest issue of Gloom Cupboard.

Released and Ready to Make You Squirm

2010-07-06T10:45:00.001-05:00

Today is release day for John Rector's The Cold Kiss, which is easily one of the best neo-noir books (and one of the best books in general), I've had the opportunity to read in the last five years. The basic plot* unfolds as such:

All Nate and Sara want is a new life in a new town, away from the crime and poverty of their past. So, after being approached at a roadside diner by a man offering $500 for a ride to Omaha, they wonder if their luck might be changing.

At first it seems like easy money, but within a few hours the man is dead.

Now, forced off the road by a blizzard and trapped in a run-down motel on the side of a deserted highway, Nate and Sara begin to uncover the man’s secrets. Who he was, how he died, and most importantly, why he was carrying two million dollars in his suitcase.

Before they know it, Nate and Sara are fighting for their lives, and in the end, each has to decide just how far they are willing to go to survive.

The Cold Kiss is an everyman psychological thriller that pits a young couple against moral corruption, greed, betrayal, and love. More simply, for two characters who may have used up all their chances, it’s the classic final trip down the dark tunnel that might lead to heaven, but drags them through hell. This is A Simple Plan meets The Getaway, with a pulse-pounding plot and a twist ending. John Rector is name that all thriller fans will come to know and love for years to come.

To put it more succinctly, go buy this book, you won't regret it (other than the fact it might keep you up at night, eyes glued to the pages). The Cold Kiss is available wherever great reads are sold -- Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon or your local independent bookseller.

* pilfered from the publisher.