Sunday, July 6, 2008

We Heart 4 Things & Novella

This week at WE HEART 4 THINGS there is a nice 'online literature' profile put together by the massive Shane Jones, featuring IM interviews with me, Brian Foley, Kathryn Regina, and Zachary Schomburg. It is a lot of fun, and I am happy be in the company of these brilliant brilliants. It is a fun read.

There is also short work from each author. Mine, MASSIVE ORGASM, has some raunch, and is one of my excerpts from the much longer work alternatingly written with Justin Dobbs. It is called TWIN MOTHER and I think will be released in the fall by Happy Cobra Books.

Also, mega mouth congrats to Shane Jones's wonderful ms LIGHT BOXES getting picked up by Publishing Genius for release next year. I am happy and excited for Shane.

I really like this short thing by Martin Cozza @ Pindeldyboz.

I think I am almost done with a novella I've been messing with for a while, another one, that I was going to call HOW MANY FLOORS DOES THE NIGHTMARE HAVE?, though I think I don't like that name anymore, its OK, I am having trouble naming it for some reason, I don't even know who publishes novellas or what the hell I'm going to do with it when its done, the way it is spaced makes it long, maybe it's almost a novel? Maybe when I revise it will grow longer. I want the word 'soft' to be in the title.

Really though, who publishes novellas? I like the concept, though I can't remember reading any recently, except Diane Williams's one in IT WAS LIKE MY TRYING TO HAVE A TENDER-HEARTED NATURE, which was published with a ton of other stories along with it, I don't know, maybe, I don't know.

I have a reading in Birmingham later this month:

18 comments:

The Man Who Couldn't Blog said...

yes. the fall i think.

jingle babies.

Brian Foley said...

I <3 mail too. Its an unrivaled feeling receiving a package.. That should have been my #1.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

jingle babies!

mail is god some

Darby said...

Some glossies publish 'novellas' like A Public Space. Stephen King has a 70 page story in the newest McSweeneys that I think qualifies. I think it's easier to publish a straight genre or sci fi novella than a novella that's actually worth reading. Like I hear all the time that some novella won a Hugo.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

APS did one? I don't remember seeing it. Hmm. Maybe i can get ol Steve to send something to McSwy's 4 me.

DOGZPLOT said...

stefan kiesbye had a really great novella, next door lived a girl, published a few years back, from LOFI i think.

Darby said...

I've never read APS, actually, I just always kept in mind that they consider submissions with no apparent word-limit.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

thank you dogzplot, yes they are having a novella contest again this year apparently, though the guidelines aren't up. good call.

caketrain is too, good deals, that's a start, there must be more though?

Bradley Sands said...

Re: the bit about you in WE HEART 4 THINGS, funny how there's such a massive difference between the sentence, "Blake Butler is shit," and "Blake Butler is the shit." Wonder if a word got dropped there.

Two of the bizarro lit publishers do a lot of novellas: Afterbirth Books and Eraserhead Press. This is another reason why I've been embracing the form lately. Thinks subs are closed for Afterbirth though. And I'm not sure if your work would be right for Eraserhead. Guess it's worth a shot though. There's an online interview thing for people to do on their website: http://www.eraserheadpress.com

BLAKE BUTLER said...

nope, 'the' was not omitted

thanks bradley, i looked at the eraserhead interview, interesting

jereme said...

the last novella i remember reading was steven king's the mist when I was like 12.

That was a long time ago.

I like the original NIGHTMARE name.

Lily Hoang said...

Colette Phair's novella Nightmare in Silicon co-won the Chiasmus Press Un-Doing the Novel Contest a couple years ago. They're interested in novellas for the contest this go round.

To be entirely self-promoting... they're pretty cool. Check them out.

Also, I know Agni published a novella by Michael Mejia in one of their recent (past two years?) issues.

Bradley Sands said...

I forgot about this thing: http://www.bookworks.org.uk/asp/home3.asp

Looking for between 30 and 50 k.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

nice thank you lily

damn the deadline at bookworks just ended, thanks though bradley

mike jauchen said...

That Mejia novella in Agni...greatness...some amazing paragraphs describing dead tuna.

The King's English is an online place that publishes novellas. Check it out.

Anonymous said...

Akashic seems pretty receptive to novellas - their imprint Hotel St. George Press, too.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

akashic is always closed to unsolicited aren't they?

hotel st george, i tried to find sub info on their site, the site is so cryptic i think i couldnt make it

good suggestions though thank you

Anonymous said...

http://www.hotelstgeorgepress.com/library/submissions/