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…
Too 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.
Top 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.
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.
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?