January 2012
10 posts
I was walking down Putnam Street the other morning and there was an orange Cambridge Public Works truck parked in the middle of the road. A guy in a reflective vest was using a shovel to scrape something dead off the road. Maybe an opossum? A house cat? Hard to tell. I slowed my walk and started doing the usual mental calculations about how I would perform if this was my job.
Surely you become...
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A list of graphic novel recommendations
I was emailing the other day with lestwesurrender about graphic novels I like. I mean I wouldn’t describe myself as a graphic novels sexpert or anything? But they are Things That Exist, so I have Opinions about them. Anyways if you ever wanted some recommendations of what to read here is what I told lestwe and what I now tell you.
1. Finder by Carla Speed McNeil
Finder is a self-published...
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Kickstarter, and Being Your Creative Word
Matt Haughey wrote some really good words about Kickstarter and I wanted to throw my thoughts in. Because in theory I love Kickstarter! So much! People need help in order to make stuff. If their project sounds interesting to you, you help them. They make stuff, people are happy, the world is a better place. The end.
In practice though, Kickstarter has been not something that I love at all. It...
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whathappened asked: I don't have a question, I'm just hear to suggest that you read something out loud to the internet, because STORYTIME. Okay but also: Tami Taylor from Friday Night Lights is apparently in some new horror show? But I can't watch her be anyone other than Tami Taylor. Do you have characters/actors about whom you feel the same?
poetrymidwest asked: Which is harder: writing the first draft or revising?
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2011
How I spent my life since this post from April.
KFan KFurious: Tokyo Draft
Not really sure what I’m doing with myself this year but Ready, Set-o,
December 2011
2 posts
Sexual Jungle Cat
I have a story up at Necessary Fiction. Kathy Fish asked me to send her something with the theme “WILD”. I sent her a story called David Hasselhoff’s Game of Sexual Jungle Cat. This is an edited/updated/reworked version of a story I originally posted on another blog.
Anyways happy holidays.
Leslie's Advent Calendars
meghanagain:
This morning I unwrapped my chintzy Trader Joe’s advent calendar, located the 1, and carefully pulled back the tiny cardboard door. Inside was a sliver of candy, chocolate in persuasion, stamped with some sort of festive adornment. An angel? A flower? Hard to say. This is the first advent calendar I have ever purchased for myself. Growing up there was always one on the mantel and my...
November 2011
3 posts
3 tags
from "I Love a Broad Margin to My Life" by Maxine...
…
The Metropolitan Police, the men, stood in one-line formation. The women, we, the demonstrators, drew one another close. We were a bouquet knot of pink roses. How can it be that all the cops are men, and all for Peace women? I can’t live in such a world. I don’t want to keep living out the myth that men fight and women mother. We regressed—the junior high dance....
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Uladag Gazoz
Dear Josh:
If you ever read this some day you will probably be like “Dang what is all that language on that soda can up there in that picture!!! Well Josh it is Turkish language! This is a soda from Turkey but I’ll be really honest with you I got it at a Turkish restaurant here in These United.
I know you have your thing about staying locked up in our old office at all times and...
October 2011
10 posts
needsmoresalt asked: Does writing get easier? How does writing get easier? How can it be so hard to make sentences and paragraphs, even when you know what they should be? Even when you know for sure that someone is going to publish them on the internet? Even when you're trying all the tricks -- write early, write late, write by hand, pretend it's just an email to your friend? Because I'm about 72 hours...
whatafoolbelieves asked: What are some books that have influenced/inspired you?
distorte asked: Which defunct website would you magically raise from the dead if you could?
devilhumper asked: Would you choose another season of Freaks and Geeks, or Firefly?
devilhumper asked: Is tenderness really where it's at?
murmurandshout asked: What is your favorite book you've read this year and why?
meghanagain asked: I know you and Ro watch a lot of television together. How do you decide what to watch? How are your tastes similar and how are they different, and how have they evolved over time? Do you feel like you watch something differently when you are watching it together?
I am at home today, being sick, and also reading stories out loud to myself because they sound better that way. But if you have any questions I might be happy to answer them, especially if they are about TV or books, but really about anything.
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September 2011
3 posts
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Writing Prompt: The Choire Sicha Method
I recently had a new idea for writing prompts that I’ve been enjoying. I’ve been using this to warm up on mornings when I’m not quite awake but need to get actual work done.
1. Collect your shit, gather your materials, put your headphones on, whatever.
2. Take the first sentence of one of Choire’s pieces on the Awl and cut & paste it into your text file/Word...
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August 2011
2 posts
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Got in an argument with an 8 year old the other day. He was saying time travel was totally impossible. I was like WHAT. We were driving. This was me, staring straight ahead, 10-and-2-ing it, shouting into the windshield. He was in the backseat, stuffed between my kids. He says Yes it’s totally impossible, no way it could ever happen, something about there’s no way to speed up our...
June 2011
3 posts
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Necessary Fiction Writer In Residence
I didn’t blab it up here but I was the Writer In Residence at Necessary Fiction this past month. This is a thing where each month a different writer takes the wheel and does whatever they want with the site. I decided I wanted to interview writers with day jobs - people working hard to balance the stuff they need to do with the stuff they want to do, and trying to balance expectations in a...
May 2011
5 posts
Early strands of the literary web →
Inspired by my interview with Joshie, Steve Himmer remembers the first stories he read on the internet.
I’m sure if I dig through my Pinboard I can find a bunch, but without looking, there are two stories I recall from the early internet days that I really loved and that made me want to be involved in this thing, whatever it was.
1. She Hates My Futon by Craig Mitchell. Still unfinished,...
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Stuff like this is why the internet is currently better than it has ever ever ever been.
How the Dead Live →
I’ve got a thing in The Morning News today. It’s about being a commuter, and some weird shit that happened in junior high.
Shout-out to Crans & the team at TMN, who totally banged this into shape.
April 2011
8 posts
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Let's All Find Awesome Jobs
ericellenberg:
Alright, look. If you’re looking for a job, you need this. You need it. Give Kevin money on his website, download this book, and then laugh, nod approvingly, and take notes. Genuine, honest advice on the job search and application process.
Okay? Have you bought it yet? Please. Come on. It’s great.
And Kevin: thanks. Your book has turned a very real pain in the ass into a very...
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awpoops asked: I meant to send this earlier, but I forgot. Sorry. Let's All Find Awesome Jobs is great. I recently used it to try and find a better job. I would read parts of it before interviews, and it would not only relax me, but provide good ideas about what to say and how to act. I didn't find an awesome job, but I found a good job. For this, I am grateful. Good luck to anyone else who's...
Collections on my Kindle so far
kavalierandclay:
Neil Gaiman Kevin Fanning David Foster Wallace Rian Johnson Jeffrey Eugenides
Sounds about right.
\m/ \m/
For a second I got excited that Rian Johnson wrote stories as well. I would read them.
People I Am Currently Proud Of
Steve Himmer Steve’s book, The Bee-Loud Glade, is out today.. I was blessed enough to get to read the manuscript before it found a home, and totally loved it. Definitely cop that. Meghanagain The last time I was in NY I was all “What are you working on?” and she was all “I have this idea, it’s like this,” and I was all “YES! THAT SOUNDS GOOD!” and...
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snickr:
If you or a frienD need a physical copy of Let’s All Find Awesome Jobs, Jennifer Love Hewitt Times Infinity, or How I Learned To Love You From So Far Away, that can happen. Prices are slightly lowered, but that does not change my afFection or attitude towards these books. If print is not your thing, they and everything else I’ve ever dOne are available as ebooks or PDFs. It’s such an...
March 2011
11 posts
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Takeaways From the Past Year
This weekend I finished the first draft of my N!O!V!E!L! This chart shows what the past year has been like:
The writing averages out to about 1000 words/week. As I understand it, this is the amount any serious writer accomplishes each day. And not only that, but it took me one year to accomplish what thousands of people manage in the month of November. (And not only THAT, but if you start...
Goodreads | Kevin Fanning (Cambridge, MA)'s review... →
So I read this mystery that’s a ghost-written marketing tie-in to a show about a guy who writes mysteries. And I wrote an 800-word review of it, and I still don’t think I even came close to describing all the weird shit I found happening inside the book. I compare it to Ulysses, if that helps frame things.