The last several weeks have not been pretty, to say the least. It seems every other day a new scandal breaks about some bastard in the creative world who is verbally, emotionally, sexually and/or physically abusing women (some of them very young women, i.e., children)—be it out in the open, behind closed doors, or while hiding behind twitter handles or anonymous screen names. I could list them all here and link them and on and on but my god there are just so many all of the sudden, so I’ll let you Google names like Kirk Nesset, Stephen Tulley Dierks, Ed Champion, and self-described “horrible person” Tao Lin, and any other piece of “alt-lit” trash who is exposed by the time I finish writing this sentence. My two cents are as follows…
Read moreToo Much? I Say Not Enough!
My copy of Too Much: Tales of Excess finally arrived, and it’s gorgeous! This collection of poems, short stories, and confessionals explore the various tales of excess by such writers as Puma Perl, Jeremiah Walton, John Saunders, Meg Tuite, Ryder Collins, Ron Kolm, and a couple dozen others. The collection (published by Unknown Press and edited by Chuck Howe) also includes my own semi-autobiographical short story, “The Rube,” about a drunken misadventure in a third-world nation. You can find copies at Amazon.com.
Read moreTop 10 Favorite Books From My Childhood
A while back a bunch of people started posting lists on Facebook about the top books that stayed with them — everything from children’s classics to modern literary juggernauts. It got me thinking about the books that I loved as a kid, the ones that really meant something to me. So here are the Top 10 books that shaped my childhood and early reading habits, in no particular order. Although there are plenty of others, these are the books I get most nostalgic about when I think of my elementary and middle-school libraries.
Read moreWriting on the Rails: Survival Tips for Traveling Authors
I write on trains. A lot. It's not always pretty (shabby interiors, crying kids, cell-phone talkers) but when you get a quiet car, a seat to yourself, and a gorgeous view, you can have a lot of fun. I discuss my tips for making the most of your railway adventures while still trying to work on that novel of yours over at the Writer's Digest website. Take a look, and good luck writing the next time you hop trains cross-country!
Dear Editor, Dear Writer, Please Stop!
The bad apples are out there in every field and occupation, and the publishing world has plenty of those wormy, half-trodden, utility apples lying about the orchard. The vast majority of editors and writers have amazing, productive, inspiring relationships, or at least working acquaintanceships, or at the VERY least they don’t hate one another, but sometimes those wormy bad apples come calling from both sides of the publishing lines.
I don’t intend for this to be a gripe session, not at all, but I do want to hold up some apples to the light and examine them with the hope that it makes the writing world a happier place to be. And it’s important to remember that these are cautionary tales, not the norm—so with that in mind, here are some things that bad-apple editors and writers should both stop doing immediately to make this publishing life a little easier on the rest of us.
Read moreReadings Past and Yet to Come
I don’t read my work in public often (never got comfortable with it) and I recently tried to rectify that by reading at a cool little open mic where author Bud Smith revealed an excerpt from his upcoming novel, F-250. The reading took place at a bar in the Bronx called An Beal Bocht (Gaelic for “The Poor Mouth”) and it was the first time I read in front of a crowd in, what…two, three years? Something like that, so it was a fun personal challenge to shake off the rust and get up there. I was more nervous than I’d like to admit, and like every other reading I’ve ever done, I needed 6-7 beers in order to not shake like a set of wind-up chattering teeth up in front of the mic. I read two older pieces from around 2009; one, “Norway,” is about strippers named after European nations and how swimming naked in the moonlight is often the best way to put them in the past; and the second, “Darkness Within the Dark,” comes from one of my many bouts with Taoism, an on-again/off-again passion of mine. Both poems are also found in my collection Dealing With the Devil in the Middle of the Road. Thankfully it went well and I got some encouraging feedback. I'm grateful for host Erin Lynn for putting the open mic together each month, and I definitely plan to attend again. If you’re in the NYC area on August 13 around 7:30, you should swing by An Beal Bocht and listen in.
I’m also doing a reading on Saturday, October 4 at Jimmy’s No. 23 (in the back room, plenty of seating) where I’ll be featured along with a number of other authors from the Too Much anthology, which is due out this summer. The cover here looks amazing, doesn’t it? I’ll have more details about that reading soon, but I’ll probably read from my piece in the anthology, which is full of stories of alcoholic, sexual, and narcotic excess. Pretty apt topic considering I'll likely need a double dose of liquid courage to read in front of a crowd that large. Anyway, I hope you can make it!
*** Update: I may be doing a reading in the southern New Jersey / Philadelphia area in December as well to promote a new book of mine. Details TBA. ***
Work to a Calm #7 - Two Poems
Two of my poems, "Flood" and "Nothing and You," now appear in Issue 7 of Work to a Calm, a striking little literary journal that is carving a nice home for itself online. If you haven't heard of it, please do check it out; it will be worth your while. Editor Nastia Lenkova has a keen eye for quality work, and I'm not just saying that because I've had a few of my own pieces in there over the years. If you like what you see there, consider my New & Selected collection of poetry, Dealing With the Devil in the Middle of the Road. The poems of mine that now appear in Work to a Calm were written during the same period as this book, and I still have signed copies available. You can also find links to purchase the book online in the Books section above. Thanks to Nastia for selecting my work, and thanks to you for reading!
My Summer Reading List, 2014
The start of summer officially came and went, long after summer weather actually arrived, and this means I’m well overdue for an evaluation of what I plan to read during the upcoming months of blazing sunlight, a lazy half-attempt to go to the beach, short breaks in the shade during kayaking trips, and lots of walking around looking for the Mr. Softee truck in Manhattan. This list is far from definitive, but these are the ones waiting at the top of the stack. So here you go, my summer reading list for 2014. What are your suggestions?
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