if you haven't gotten around to browsing the contents of the latest issue of DIAGRAM, you probably should. it's an all fiction issue, made up of the finalists of their $5 innovative fiction contest. there's some pretty incredible stuff.
the winner of the contest fuses found photography with q&a into a pretty stunning result: Holly Tavel's ON THE MYSTERIOUS APPEARANCE OF PHILO S. IN OTHER PEOPLE'S PHOTOGRAPHS
i also really got big kicks out of and am kind of amazed by Christopher Higgs's MOTHER: A DECONSTRUCTION WITH CRITICAL APPARATUS. it makes use of david markson's influence in a way outside of mere replication. very cool.
i haven't read everything in the issue yet but if it's anything like these two, damn. really, the stuff they have up here is heads above a lot of print journals. who said online text was just secondhand?
i had a piece accepted by them back in january that hasn't been posted yet. hopefully it'll be in the next issue.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Part of the World
read Robert Lopez's 'Part of the World' last week in a couple hours straight. another book i just couldn't put down. the voice had me from the very first page. i love books where nothing much happens and it is just the way it is told to you that keeps you reading. they are rare, but robert has completed killed it in this one. everyone should go to the calamari press website and pick this up immediately.
yet another in the list of books i've read recently that i need to write reviews for. falling behind in that category. i've been finding it hard also to keep working on the novel i've been trucking on for the past 6 months or so. there's a whole subplot that needs a facelift and i can't quite bring myself to pick it up. so i'll wait for that motivation. in the meantime i've been having a blast working on a series of shorts set before/during/after some form of apocalypse event. i can foresee them eventually running together and becoming a larger text but right now i just like working on each alone and finding tiny threads that interweave.
i can't seem to bring myself to write stories longer than 2000 words. its either less than 2000 or greater than 60,000. i don't have much that fall in between. i think that comes from the fact that i have trouble reading short fiction of a longer length, because i like, once i really get into something, for it to keep going and wrap me up. usually when reading pieces that are 4000-7000 words i'm just getting amped up by the time it ends. of course there are a billion exceptions to that trend, but i'm just a lot more picky about it.
plus it seems just a lot easier to place shorter pieces in publications. if something takes up a lot of space, it better earn it. maybe i'm lazy. maybe i have ADD. i dunno.
reminded today of how great brian evenson's story 'The Intricacies of Post-Shooting Etiquette' is. i think that's the story i've been trying to write since i started.
yet another in the list of books i've read recently that i need to write reviews for. falling behind in that category. i've been finding it hard also to keep working on the novel i've been trucking on for the past 6 months or so. there's a whole subplot that needs a facelift and i can't quite bring myself to pick it up. so i'll wait for that motivation. in the meantime i've been having a blast working on a series of shorts set before/during/after some form of apocalypse event. i can foresee them eventually running together and becoming a larger text but right now i just like working on each alone and finding tiny threads that interweave.
i can't seem to bring myself to write stories longer than 2000 words. its either less than 2000 or greater than 60,000. i don't have much that fall in between. i think that comes from the fact that i have trouble reading short fiction of a longer length, because i like, once i really get into something, for it to keep going and wrap me up. usually when reading pieces that are 4000-7000 words i'm just getting amped up by the time it ends. of course there are a billion exceptions to that trend, but i'm just a lot more picky about it.
plus it seems just a lot easier to place shorter pieces in publications. if something takes up a lot of space, it better earn it. maybe i'm lazy. maybe i have ADD. i dunno.
reminded today of how great brian evenson's story 'The Intricacies of Post-Shooting Etiquette' is. i think that's the story i've been trying to write since i started.
Friday, July 6, 2007
ZEROVILLE
so i just finished reading a proof of Steve Erickson's new novel ZEROVILLE.
it is fucking phenomenal. i read it pretty much straight through without moving (which i haven't done with a book in a long while). i will have a review of it on bookslut next month but let me just say:
if you are a Steve Erickson fan, like i am, get ready to read his best book since AMNESIASCOPE.
if you are not a Steve Erickson fan, get ready to be one.
it is fucking phenomenal. i read it pretty much straight through without moving (which i haven't done with a book in a long while). i will have a review of it on bookslut next month but let me just say:
if you are a Steve Erickson fan, like i am, get ready to read his best book since AMNESIASCOPE.
if you are not a Steve Erickson fan, get ready to be one.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
monday night lit #6
i got contributor copies of the 6th issue of Monday Night Lit. it's a nice little independent mag and has work from pal Mike Young whose 'The Peaches are Cheap' I read immediately---dude can work the flash piece like nobody's business. you'll want to get a hand on this thing based on his page-and-a-half alone.
also in the mail today i got proofs of Jim Shepard's new collection 'Like You'd Understand, Anyway' and Steve Erickson's 'Zeroville'. two of my favorite writers. i can hardly decide which one i want to read first. i am excited to be excited about reading again.
i went on a submissions bender last week. sent out a slew of short stuff i had let sit for a long time. starting to get responses back to some of the stuff i sent out in the last slew i mailed. black warrior review took one of my lists as a nonfiction piece for this fall. very excited about that. and some nice new stuff forthcoming ;)
also in the mail today i got proofs of Jim Shepard's new collection 'Like You'd Understand, Anyway' and Steve Erickson's 'Zeroville'. two of my favorite writers. i can hardly decide which one i want to read first. i am excited to be excited about reading again.
i went on a submissions bender last week. sent out a slew of short stuff i had let sit for a long time. starting to get responses back to some of the stuff i sent out in the last slew i mailed. black warrior review took one of my lists as a nonfiction piece for this fall. very excited about that. and some nice new stuff forthcoming ;)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
400 words
i have a very short nonfiction piece @ 400 words today.
it is nonfiction because it's true, right?
finished re-editing THE PUPILS OF AN INFLATED GIRAFFE. it was funny to rework on something i finished 3-4 years ago and haven't looked at since. almost like doing play-doh with someone else's work. i was happily surprised with things i'd forgotten about it. several parts needed work and it was fun to apply new brain to old brain output. i quite like what it is now. i am happy.
about to began new draft of INVISIBLE ERRORS. or maybe i'll chill on that and work on short stuff. very short stuff.
i got gary lutz's new book PARTIAL LIST OF PEOPLE TO BLEACH today in the mail. excitement.
it is nonfiction because it's true, right?
finished re-editing THE PUPILS OF AN INFLATED GIRAFFE. it was funny to rework on something i finished 3-4 years ago and haven't looked at since. almost like doing play-doh with someone else's work. i was happily surprised with things i'd forgotten about it. several parts needed work and it was fun to apply new brain to old brain output. i quite like what it is now. i am happy.
about to began new draft of INVISIBLE ERRORS. or maybe i'll chill on that and work on short stuff. very short stuff.
i got gary lutz's new book PARTIAL LIST OF PEOPLE TO BLEACH today in the mail. excitement.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
cormac on oprah
did anyone else see oprah's 'exclusive' interview with cormac mccarthy?
did it remind anyone else of the chris farley show?
you think when you finally get a 'reclusive author' to open up on one of the biggest shows on television that you might be able to ask more provocative questions than a whole segment about punctuation.
"so, like, you don't use much puncutation and stuff. why?"
i liked how oprah kept putting her hand on her face in deep thought whenever cormac did. and how she just seemed so wowed by every word that fell out of his mouth even when he was just kind of rambling.
maybe next someone could set up paris hilton to go interview thomas pynchon.
actually... that'd be pretty awesome.
nevermind.
on another note, if you've never read mccarthy's SUTTREE (which is probably the book of his that i hear people talking about the least, even though it is by far, to me, the most incredible) you should get on it.
did it remind anyone else of the chris farley show?
you think when you finally get a 'reclusive author' to open up on one of the biggest shows on television that you might be able to ask more provocative questions than a whole segment about punctuation.
"so, like, you don't use much puncutation and stuff. why?"
i liked how oprah kept putting her hand on her face in deep thought whenever cormac did. and how she just seemed so wowed by every word that fell out of his mouth even when he was just kind of rambling.
maybe next someone could set up paris hilton to go interview thomas pynchon.
actually... that'd be pretty awesome.
nevermind.
on another note, if you've never read mccarthy's SUTTREE (which is probably the book of his that i hear people talking about the least, even though it is by far, to me, the most incredible) you should get on it.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
links
i interviewed Nick Antosca for Word Riot
i reviewed Miranda Mellis's THE REVISIONIST for Bookslut
and Steven Gillis's GIRAFFES for Bookslut
the title for the ms i've been trying pick a title for i think i've settled with INVISIBLE ERRORS for the moment. that sounds pretty okay, at least right now.
i am halfway finished editing THE PUPILS OF AN INFLATED GIRAFFE.
slash and burn?
i reviewed Miranda Mellis's THE REVISIONIST for Bookslut
and Steven Gillis's GIRAFFES for Bookslut
the title for the ms i've been trying pick a title for i think i've settled with INVISIBLE ERRORS for the moment. that sounds pretty okay, at least right now.
i am halfway finished editing THE PUPILS OF AN INFLATED GIRAFFE.
slash and burn?
Friday, June 15, 2007
reading
I haven't read a book in a month.
That is strange for me because usually i read 4-5 books per month, but i just havent been able to find the time/will/want/nerve/head to sit down and pay attention.
The only thing i've been able to take in any of is Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar, which I read a long time ago. It is phrased in little splurts and is unlike anything else i've read. even that though i can't quite keep at for long. i don't know where my brain is.
i like this line from that book: "He crossed the bridge without stepping on that board Margaret always steps on and couldn't miss if the bridge were seven miles wide."
i've had the same 10 books sitting on my 'read next' pile for about 3 months:
BEFORE YOU SHE WAS A PIT BULL by Elizabeth Ellen, CURSED FROM BIRTH by William S Burroughs Jr., AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RED by Anne Carson, VARIETIES OF DISTURBANCE by Lydia Davis, the new issue of DISLOCATE.
i also have been waiting to reread THE HUNDRED BROTHERS by Donald Antrim and THE DOCTOR IS SICK by Anthony Burgess
i've been in the middle of David Markson's THE LAST NOVEL for about 2 months also. usually i read his books in a day.
i want to read but i can't do it.
i haven't made it through a movie in the last 5-8 times i've rented movies.
i dont know where my head is
ive been finding it hard to pay attention when writing
i'm trying to editing two manuscripts at once and i can only do it in short bursts.
i've been running a lot. i weigh less now than i have at any time in my life as an adult. less than right after i lost 80 pounds between 10th and 11th grade from basically not eating.
where are my appetites
where is a lot
last night i went to the clermont lounge and saw middle aged strippers with pot bellies and i smiled more than i have in a while
wax/wane is a funny process
writing/reading is sometimes from hell
That is strange for me because usually i read 4-5 books per month, but i just havent been able to find the time/will/want/nerve/head to sit down and pay attention.
The only thing i've been able to take in any of is Richard Brautigan's In Watermelon Sugar, which I read a long time ago. It is phrased in little splurts and is unlike anything else i've read. even that though i can't quite keep at for long. i don't know where my brain is.
i like this line from that book: "He crossed the bridge without stepping on that board Margaret always steps on and couldn't miss if the bridge were seven miles wide."
i've had the same 10 books sitting on my 'read next' pile for about 3 months:
BEFORE YOU SHE WAS A PIT BULL by Elizabeth Ellen, CURSED FROM BIRTH by William S Burroughs Jr., AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RED by Anne Carson, VARIETIES OF DISTURBANCE by Lydia Davis, the new issue of DISLOCATE.
i also have been waiting to reread THE HUNDRED BROTHERS by Donald Antrim and THE DOCTOR IS SICK by Anthony Burgess
i've been in the middle of David Markson's THE LAST NOVEL for about 2 months also. usually i read his books in a day.
i want to read but i can't do it.
i haven't made it through a movie in the last 5-8 times i've rented movies.
i dont know where my head is
ive been finding it hard to pay attention when writing
i'm trying to editing two manuscripts at once and i can only do it in short bursts.
i've been running a lot. i weigh less now than i have at any time in my life as an adult. less than right after i lost 80 pounds between 10th and 11th grade from basically not eating.
where are my appetites
where is a lot
last night i went to the clermont lounge and saw middle aged strippers with pot bellies and i smiled more than i have in a while
wax/wane is a funny process
writing/reading is sometimes from hell
Saturday, June 9, 2007
i will become a mexican
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
actual work
editing is tedious. i finished a draft of my novel and i've been putting off starting on the next draft for 10 days now. i have been working every day for the past 6 months and it feels very strange not to work but i can't bring myself to start. i will start today.
i will start today.
i can't think of a decent title for the book either. i have a list of titles but i'm not sure i like any of them. i'm not sure what i like.
i dont know about those.
submitting work to magazines is hard work. its a second job to support a job that pays in nice feelings.
i got a job writing reviews of local businesses for yelp.com in atlanta. my reviews are at blakeb.yelp.com. that's been pretty nice. temporary for now, though it may renew after 2 months. i hope it renews. i like the job.
i also have a possible paying freelance gig writing short profiles of strange peoples for a new online magazine backed by a porn company. that should be also fun.
moving is a bitch. maybe that's why i haven't been editing. i've been so busy moving.
i am going to edit now, goddamnit.
i will start today.
i can't think of a decent title for the book either. i have a list of titles but i'm not sure i like any of them. i'm not sure what i like.
PEDOPHILE
NEW TONGUES FOR THE NEW HEAD
RUIN
THE SUM OF ALL FUTURE LIGHT
TOMORROW IS ALSO NOT YOUR BIRTHDAY
INVISIBLE CHOIRS
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GOODNIGHT
i dont know about those.
submitting work to magazines is hard work. its a second job to support a job that pays in nice feelings.
i got a job writing reviews of local businesses for yelp.com in atlanta. my reviews are at blakeb.yelp.com. that's been pretty nice. temporary for now, though it may renew after 2 months. i hope it renews. i like the job.
i also have a possible paying freelance gig writing short profiles of strange peoples for a new online magazine backed by a porn company. that should be also fun.
moving is a bitch. maybe that's why i haven't been editing. i've been so busy moving.
i am going to edit now, goddamnit.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
The Sentence
i have a story called 'The Sentence' that is one sentence long in the new issue of Alice Blue Review
i think the original draft of this story was about 2 years ago. i played with it a smidge between now and then. it is rather DFW-ian in voice, a thing that used to come out of me a lot more than it does now.
the whole issue is awesome and worth a hearty read.
in other news today i think i finished a first full draft of the novel i've been working on. i have a lot to do in revision, but it feels good to reach that point. still need a better title. yarf.
i think the original draft of this story was about 2 years ago. i played with it a smidge between now and then. it is rather DFW-ian in voice, a thing that used to come out of me a lot more than it does now.
the whole issue is awesome and worth a hearty read.
in other news today i think i finished a first full draft of the novel i've been working on. i have a lot to do in revision, but it feels good to reach that point. still need a better title. yarf.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
buyin shit
all of the following things came to me in the mail today. ..
i guess that means it's been a good day. i have a lot to digest. and i'm supposed to be writing.
fudge.
according to statcounter.com, somebody found this blog the other day when they googled the phrase: "how often should i shit each day"
my life is goin right
i guess that means it's been a good day. i have a lot to digest. and i'm supposed to be writing.
fudge.
according to statcounter.com, somebody found this blog the other day when they googled the phrase: "how often should i shit each day"
my life is goin right
Monday, May 14, 2007
net porn titties pamela anderson paris hilton sex tape
the following is a list of firefox browser cookies found on the narrator's computer in my novel-in-progress:
i think i wrote this list in like 2 minutes. if you have any other good pornography cookies you would like to suggest, please do, and perhaps i will include them in the manuscript at your permission.
i am hoping that somehow this list will up the traffic on this blog to a tasty extent.
right now i am calling the novel 'the sum of all future light' but i'm not sure it will stick. if i really wanna sell it i should call it 'pedophile.' i think.
i just finished reading miranda mellis's 'the revisionist' for the third time. it is fantastic. i will have a review of it in the next bookslut.
okay.
www.badbassbitcheswithbigassboners.com
www.superspecialpleasuretreasures.com
www.smellmefromamileaway.com
www.squirters.net
www.immaculate======)~.com
www.whoareyoukiddingletsboink.com
www.dongvillage.com
www.nodildosonlylove.com
www.hindquarters4life.co.uk
www.yumexclamationmarkpoon.com
www.hairyisheavenandiveseengod.com
www.cootergenius.com
www.husbandwho.com
www.ibirthchowder.com
www.penile-vertebrate.com
www.legalschmegal.com
www.isthataharddickinyourpantsorareyouboringmetodeath.com
i think i wrote this list in like 2 minutes. if you have any other good pornography cookies you would like to suggest, please do, and perhaps i will include them in the manuscript at your permission.
i am hoping that somehow this list will up the traffic on this blog to a tasty extent.
right now i am calling the novel 'the sum of all future light' but i'm not sure it will stick. if i really wanna sell it i should call it 'pedophile.' i think.
i just finished reading miranda mellis's 'the revisionist' for the third time. it is fantastic. i will have a review of it in the next bookslut.
okay.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
links and shit and shitting
today i have a review of TAO LIN's EEEEE EEE EEEE at Bookslut
and an interview with Melville House's DENNIS LOY JOHNSON at Econoculture
i like reviewing and interviewing. it is a good way to make friends. i don't have any literary friends in atlanta. i don't know anyone who reads books in atlanta. i know a few people who buy books but i don't ever talk to them about reading.
i'm reading Robert Coover's GHOST TOWN right now. i bought it for $6 used because i like other things by robert coover and the back of the book said it was like him writing like cormac mccarthy on hallucinogenic drugs. i don't think it actually said that, but that's what it made me think it was saying. the book is pretty good. if i wrote this book and tried to sell it i would be told it was 'too bizarre'.
the first novel i wrote was originally called 'The Pupils of an Inflated Giraffe'. actually, it was the second novel i wrote, but the first that i could actually imagine trying to sell. i got an agent with the book, Rupert Heath, who i think is a very smart agent, and who isn't only looking for something marketable, but for good art also. i respect his opinion. rupert suggested i change the titled of the book to 'The Human Lottery' because the book was partly about a man who is employed as a human lottery ball. rupert shopped the book to 15 or so major houses. the basic response was: 'i really like this writing. i think it is smart and imaginative. however, it's a bit too fantastical for a first book from an unknown author. i'd like to see something less out-there from this writer.'
since
then i've been trying to write a novel that is less 'out there'. i begin with a premise that is based in real life, but somehow i always end up going way out. there is a tendency in me to turn everything to fucked. to write unsympathetic characters and have fucked things happen to them. to have the fantastical be as much as a part of the storyline as real things.
i wrote a third novel called 'YES I AM AWARE THAT I'M IN HELL' that was fucked and bizarre and about a divorcee who takes his son (who hates him) to disney world in the desperate hope of getting a job there.
that book did not quite work for me and was too bizarre again.
i am trying now, again, to write a novel that is less fantastical and less bizarre, and somehow i've ended up writing about a man accused of pedophilia.
i am going to continue writing books and have them eat the memory of my hard drive until there is no room left.
and an interview with Melville House's DENNIS LOY JOHNSON at Econoculture
i like reviewing and interviewing. it is a good way to make friends. i don't have any literary friends in atlanta. i don't know anyone who reads books in atlanta. i know a few people who buy books but i don't ever talk to them about reading.
i'm reading Robert Coover's GHOST TOWN right now. i bought it for $6 used because i like other things by robert coover and the back of the book said it was like him writing like cormac mccarthy on hallucinogenic drugs. i don't think it actually said that, but that's what it made me think it was saying. the book is pretty good. if i wrote this book and tried to sell it i would be told it was 'too bizarre'.
the first novel i wrote was originally called 'The Pupils of an Inflated Giraffe'. actually, it was the second novel i wrote, but the first that i could actually imagine trying to sell. i got an agent with the book, Rupert Heath, who i think is a very smart agent, and who isn't only looking for something marketable, but for good art also. i respect his opinion. rupert suggested i change the titled of the book to 'The Human Lottery' because the book was partly about a man who is employed as a human lottery ball. rupert shopped the book to 15 or so major houses. the basic response was: 'i really like this writing. i think it is smart and imaginative. however, it's a bit too fantastical for a first book from an unknown author. i'd like to see something less out-there from this writer.'
since
then i've been trying to write a novel that is less 'out there'. i begin with a premise that is based in real life, but somehow i always end up going way out. there is a tendency in me to turn everything to fucked. to write unsympathetic characters and have fucked things happen to them. to have the fantastical be as much as a part of the storyline as real things.
i wrote a third novel called 'YES I AM AWARE THAT I'M IN HELL' that was fucked and bizarre and about a divorcee who takes his son (who hates him) to disney world in the desperate hope of getting a job there.
that book did not quite work for me and was too bizarre again.
i am trying now, again, to write a novel that is less fantastical and less bizarre, and somehow i've ended up writing about a man accused of pedophilia.
i am going to continue writing books and have them eat the memory of my hard drive until there is no room left.
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