“The Sugarplum Favor” — a Christmas story by Tad Williams
I hope you are enjoying the holiday, Festivus, Winterval, or whatever you consider this period of time. I am spending it mostly unplugged, an important thing I do not do often enough, but I had to plug back in to share this with you. I have been an avid fan of Tad Williams since discovering his Otherland saga, a science-fiction series I regularly recommend while never being able to adequately describe it. So when Deborah Beale, Tad’s co-conspirator and wife, tweeted about a new short story of his available for bloggers to post, I was absolutely thrilled to volunteer. And through the magic of the Internet, here it is. Tad Williams’ new short story collection, A Stark And Wormy Knight, is available now, worldwide, as an ebook, $4.99 (or equivalent) for...
Read MoreTiger-eyed and Tinytown.
I rediscovered this wonderful literary community online called Fictionaut, and posted an older bit of flash fiction called “Tiger-eyed”. An excerpt: The tiger-eye beads around her neck would wink at me like a nervous uncle sharing a secret with a child. They roll on her sternum like marbles. At night, on her nightstand, they whisper my secret to the patchouli-scented room. How long have they known? Also, the first draft of my short story “Tinytown” is 28% complete. The new word-counting widget in the sidebar told me! Because I am encouraged by statistics, I hope to make that 100% by the end of the year. I would like to say that I found these bits of writerly motivation from within, but it’s all the slush-pile reading. There’s...
Read MoreCall Heather Christle at (413) 570-3077
Call Heather Christle at (413) 570-3077 Poems read aloud over the phone, by the poet! Via HTML Giant: On the occasion of the release of her second book of poems, The Trees The Trees, which just came out from Octopus, and is indeed mazelike, Heather Christle has secured a phone number that you can call her at, through which she will read to you a poem. This begins today and will continue through July 14th. This is such a magnificent idea. I cannot wait to...
Read MoreEvidently there is a gushing river of verbal creativity in the normal human mind
Evidently there is a gushing river of verbal creativity in the normal human mind, from which both artistic invention and lying are drawn. We are born storytellers, spinning narrative out of our experience and imagination, straining against the leash that keeps us tethered to reality. This is a wonderful thing; it is what gives us our ability to conceive of alternative futures and different worlds. And it helps us to understand our own lives through the entertaining stories of others. But it can lead us into trouble, particularly when we try to persuade others that our inventions are real. Most of the time, as our stories bubble up to consciousness, we exercise our cerebral censors, controlling which stories we tell, and to whom. Yet people lie for all sorts of...
Read MoreAuthor and publisher Carmen Callil has withdrawn from the judging panel of the Man Booker International prize
Author and publisher Carmen Callil has withdrawn from the judging panel of the Man Booker International prize over its decision to honour Philip Roth with the £60,000 award. Dismissing the Pulitzer prize-winning author, Callil said that ‘he goes on and on and on about the same subject in almost every single book. It’s as though he’s sitting on your face and you can’t breathe’.Judge withdraws over Philip Roth’s Booker win | Books | guardian.co.uk
Read Moreanagrammed
This has been roiling around in my head, a moment years ago that I wish I had done differently. anagrammed fist wrapped around stem bubble spit laid on lip elbow crumpled menu you called me codependent while I anagrammed each step out the door tend cope end – Halsted M. Bernard
Read MoreThe MFA Octopus: Four Questions About Creative Writing
lareviewofbooks: Mark McGurl Frank Conroy © Bruce Davidson 1. Why do people hate creative writing programs so much? Well they don’t really, not everyone, or there wouldn’t be so many of them—hundreds. From modest beginnings in Iowa in the 1930’s, MFA programs have spread out across the land, coast to coast, sinking roots in the soil like an improbably invasive species of corn. Now, leaping the oceans, stalks have begun to sprout in countries all around the world, feeding the insatiable desire to be that mythical thing, a writer. Somebody must think they’re worth founding, funding, attending, teaching at. But partly in reaction to their very numerousness, which runs afoul of traditional ideas about the necessary exclusivity of literary...
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Poetry.com has closed Lulu shut it down last Thursday. Did you notice?
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