Check. This. Out. Garden of Fiends is an anthology of addiction-themed horror stories from some of the genre’s best and most promising writers (only slightly marred by including a story of mine). It’s out in ten days but there’s a discount offer available for pre-orders (or so the publisher tells me). Authors in the anthology […]
Tag: Writing
Toni Morrison on Finding Time to Write
I saw the following on Toni Morrison’s Facebook page. She’s explaining where she finds time to write. “Very, very early in the morning, before they got up. I’m not very good at night. I don’t generate much. But I’m a very early riser, so I did that, and I did it on weekends. In the […]
The Best Writing of the Week – Tender is the Night
Do you ever read books simply for the prose? In an attempt to improve my writing I do this a fair bit and am now reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. It was there I came across the following description that, as it happens, is also the best written thing I’ve read all […]
Windowsill Cowboy – Short Story
Here’s a short story I wrote in about 15 minutes at a drink-and-write event that Willona Sloan held at last year’s Reykjavik Literature Festival. This is what 7 years of writing practice gets you. Enjoy. Windowsill Cowboy Thomas sat on his favorite windowsill in the living room and looked out at the sun set over the […]
10 Stories Richard Thomas is Soooo Tired of Reading
Richard Thomas is starting a new magazine. It’s ambitious. The current state of publishing, for those of you who may not be in the trenches daily, is that most magazines pay about 1 cent per word for short stories. The good ones pay 5 to 6. Gamut, the magazine Richard Thomas is kicking up funds […]
The Best First Sentence of the Year?
I’m reading Undertow Publication’s excellent anthology Year’s Best Weird Fiction Volume Two. It was there I encountered the following sentence, the first in the story Loving Armageddon by Amanda C. Davis: She presses her cheek to the center of his chest, listening to the beat of his hand-grenade heart. Now. Here’s why I think this is awesome. There’s […]
It´s Official: When We Were Animals is Sublime.
When the moon was out, you could be aware of all the pieces of night—you could see all the things you didn’t see during the day, all the subtle little fragments that the world uses to join its wholes. When you read on your Kindle, you can higlight passages you like. You know this, right? […]
The Importance of Setting Goals as Writers
Sometimes I feel like my writing career is moving somewhat slower than it should. Do you ever feel that way? I’ve been reading Jeff VanderMeer’s Booklife, and in it he talks about the importance of setting goals as a writer. Establishing goals is one of the most important tasks you can ever undertake for your […]
11 Quotes on Fiction and Writing | George Saunders
You know those times when you read something fantastic and afterwards you are in a bit of a daze? That just happened to me, as I finished George Saunders short story collection, Tenth of December. It was named one of the best books of the year by a few places you may recognize: People • […]
In Which I Humbly Answer Aspiring Writers
You know when you get interesting and unexpected email, the kind that’s both flattering and humbling at the same time? Yeah, that happened to me this week when I found the following email in my inbox on Wednesday morning: hello my name is … and i’m here with my best friend … and we’ve been inspired […]
