Wandering Through the Nonsense Lavalle, Victor (2010). Big Machine. New York: Spiegel & Grau (366 pp.). At least a meandering river will reach the sea. This tale just meanders, as the cover art suggests. The first-person narrator, Ricky Rice, is a … Continue reading
Mild Angst in the Suburbs Barthelme, Frederick (1990). Natural Selection. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint. White, employed, middle-class, American, suburban guy is annoyed at popular culture. His wife and kid become exasperated with his constant complaining – about TV, magazines, people at work, … Continue reading
Writing is lonely but exhilarating, a fair balance. What isn’t balanced is the defeat-to-victory ratio. Literally hundreds of rejections are the norm, a steady stream of them. Victories? What are those? A writer must believe in the delusion of self-efficacy … Continue reading
I’ve been sending out my android story for the past month. It’s a short novel (73K words) about a man who discovers he is an android, and what he does about that. The story is told from his point of … Continue reading
But Do They Have Sex? Dunn, Katherine. (1983/2002). Geek Love. New York: Vintage (348 pp). You have to give this novel credit for sheer originality. The main characters are a U.S. family of performers in a traveling carnival, in the … Continue reading
Lots of Nothing, Nicely Packaged Offill, Jenny (2014). Dept. of Speculation. New York: Vintage (177 pp.) The first 100 pages are almost entirely devoid of content, making this a 77 page “novel.” What chutzpah and what a great marketing job … Continue reading
Introduction by Bill: Cathy and I met at the Iowa Summer Writers’ Workshop in 2013. Everyone in the seminar read each others’ novel manuscripts and provided feedback, and we cheered each other on. Recently I learned that Cathy published her book … Continue reading
Literary agents may not be aware of this trend yet. Androids (human-like robots), are everywhere. Recent android movies include AI, I Robot, Ex Machina, Age of Ultron, Chappie, and let’s not forget the whole Terminator series, topped up with … Continue reading
Cold Case and True Crime I’ll be congealing out of writerly fog for the next Arizona Mystery Writers’ meeting in three weeks. We’ll have a police crime scene investigator tell us about a cold case he recently solved. In 1987 … Continue reading
“The first draft of anything is shit.” – Ernest Hemingway When I complete a first draft, I know I have created something out of nothing, no trivial achievement. I never throw first drafts away. I’m generally not too worried about … Continue reading