|
a writer's journal
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Galley proof pages for my short story collection, Things Kept,
Things Left Behind, came a few days early. I've spent the last
three days with them. Except for adding a rare missing comma or space
between words or correcting a grammar bobble, the pages are pristine. The
people at University of Iowa Press and the freelance copy editor did a
great job. This is the first time I've read the collection straight
through, read every word of every story in sequence. Is it immodest to say
that I'm pleased with it? I truly am.
What surprised me most was that the two or three stories that I worried
about most seem to hold up very well. The collection, as a whole, seems a
bit darker than I'd thought, though, showing less humor and fewer glimmers
of hope than I'd thought were there. At the same time, there seems to be a
cumulative effect, a depth to the collection, a resonance of darker tones
that makes several stories in the book work even better than they do as
stand-alones.
The Iowa Press people also sent the cover design. There's an art term for
paintings, etc. that seem to extend outside the frame. At the moment that
term escapes me. But the cover of TK,TLB has a bit of that, a worn,
stained look to some cover elements. The casual book browser will look
twice to see what's there. I like it. And now the new website layout can
go forward. Look for a format change here in coming weeks.
Back to the top
Sunday, April 9, 2006
Last Thursday I drove over to Bowling Green, KY, for the 2006 Kentucky
Writers Conference. Novelist
Kirby Gann gave a
session on "The Role of the Editor." Gann is the fiction editor for
Sarabande Books. He's actively involved in both the acquisition and the
editing of short fiction collections for the imprint. He went through the
process from manuscript arriving to it becoming a book. At one point, Gann
mentioned the relative sales success of his two novels. The second sold
considerably, and he ascribed much of the difference to the internet. I'm
unclear whether he means his website, which is well done, or if there are
other aspects of his internet presence that may have made the difference.
I've e-mailed the question to him, hoping he'll shed more light on that.
I'd hoped to attend a session by Keith Runyon of the Louisville
Courier-Journal, the topic "Getting Your Book Reviewed." Unfortunately,
Runyon cancelled, and there was no replacement speaker. I sat in on
sessions by poet Kathleen Driskell and biographer Allana Nash, primarily
to see how they ran things, to steal some approaches. Next April I'm
scheduled to do a mini-workshop on writing competitions and awards, how to
improve your chances...something along those lines. So I went to school on
Gann, Driskell and Nash.
On Friday and Saturday I attended the Harriette Simpson Arnow Conference
in Somerset. Several people I know from the Hindman Appalachian Writers
Workshop were there, along with
Bob Sloan
and Frank X. Walker.
The keynote address was delivered by Sena Jeter Naslund. I got to meet her afterward. Her new book about
Marie Antoinette will be published in October, and she graciously remarked
that maybe we'd be reading together sometime later this year. Just the
suggestion was wonderfully validating.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Publication of "First Husband, First Wife" by
Five
Points has slipped to their September issue. While I'm eager to see it
in print, the change should work well, since TK,TLB's publication
date is October 1. The same story will appear in a 'best of' anthology,
Tartts 2, in October, all of which will help get notice for the short
story collection.
"The Accomplished Son" has found a home at
The Potomac Review. It's slated to see print in the fall, too,
great timing for the book. I like the idea of this particular story
landing close to Washington, D.C. Like it a lot.
Work on the novel is slow but steady. Everything about it feels quite
fragile still. So I can't/won't say much about it, not until it's got
better bones and is sturdy enough to stand alone.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Several things are almost happening...but not quite yet. An anthology
taking a story, a gig as judge for a short fiction award, another story
from TK,TLB placed in a literary journal, all things seemingly imminent.
One event is almost certain: galleys are coming in three weeks, and
they'll merit some serious attention.
I'll be reading on April 22,
Kentucky Writer's Day, at Penn's Store in Gravel Switch, KY., along
with House Writers Steve Lyon and Barbara Fischer, plus another dozen
writers, give or take. Should be a fun day, a chance to try reading
something new in public. Here's hoping the weather cooperates. I hear it
was brutal last year.
The novel continues to accumulate pages at a frustratingly slow pace, this
not for lack of effort. But it is giving way grudgingly. Pages do
accumulate.
Back to the top
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Author
Jill McCorkle sent along a great cover quote this week for TK,TLB. Not only is she a wonderful writer. She is also an enormously
generous human being. Did I mention that I'm a huge fan?
In the current issue of Poets
and Writers Magazine, Merrill Feitell writes about "Writing Lessons at
826NYC," what she learned from conducting that second-graders'
Storytelling and Bookmaking Workshop, lessons about fearlessness when
faced with a blank page, about the exuberant rush or creativity and the
instinctive storytelling sense that is already evident in a group of
excited seven-year-olds. They write and illustrate a story in two hours.
They don't evaluate every idea, instead working from instinct. There is no
writers block, no "choking" from thinking too much. In the end, Feitell
says she wishes she could tap into more of what she witnessed in that
classroom in her own writing--"how to create an environment where there's
no time for second-guessing, where the archetypes of storytelling are
given room to surface, where I can recognize the stories I'd like to tell
and tell them with joy and without hesitation." I'd like some of that,
too.
Monday, February 27, 2006
Good news arrived today in one of my S.A.S.E! R.T. Smith editor at
Shenandoah, The Washington and Lee University Review, is taking my
latest story, "Nothing Like an Ocean." No indication yet of which issue it
will appear in. It's a wonderful literary magazine, though, and I'll be
quite proud to see my work in its pages, whenever it may be.
Work on the novel has been the halting kind so far. Not sure why, but I'm
having trouble submerging myself in the writing and the story. I'm
sticking with it, keeping the laptop powered up, the file open, keeping
faith that it (and I?) will catch fire again. Maybe this afternoon, I'm
thinking. Or maybe tomorrow.
Back to the top
Friday, February 17, 2006
Back at work on the novel again, determined to make it work. Now that the
copy-edited manuscript for Things Kept, Things Left Behind
is out of my hands and cover blurbs seem to be set, it's time to get back
to a focus on writing.
Why is a novel so different from a short story? William Trevor is quoted
as saying that short fiction is "the art of the glimpse; it deals in
echoes and reverberations; craftily it withholds information. Novels tell
all. Short stories tell as little as they dare." The authors of
Making Literature Matter, An Anthology for Readers and Writers,
compare short fiction to poetry, in that both rely on compression. The
novel, on the other hand, is characterized by its expansiveness. I take
that to refer not only to description but also to plot, to range of
characters, and to time. A short story may reflect a character's life, but
the story's essence is delivered in an instant. (Jill McCorkle's marvelous
"Intervention," for example.) The novel spreads itself over many
hours and days of reading, often many years of story time. It ebbs and
flows in gradual ways. Its effect on the reader is cumulative.
Which is to say that some of the skills one develops writing short stories
don't necessarily translate to writing novels. I have a bit of relearning
to do.
Saturday, February 4, 2006
An idea arrived about a way to tie short stories together in a collection
that would give the story grouping a sense of wholeness and completeness,
make it seem less of a hodgepodge, much as story-linking does. But it's
not that. Started the first such story, the first of what will likely be
ten. The plan is to work on them during lulls in writing the novel.
I'm hearing more radio with spoken word programming and podcasts of
written work. How I wish I read well and had a good voice for spoken word
stuff. It seems that it's becoming a bigger part of writing and presenting
your work, and those who do it well have a decided advantage. At Sewanee
last summer and at the Hindman Workshop, so many writers read so well.
It's something I need to work on. I'll never be good at it, but with work,
maybe not too inept.
Back to the top
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
So I did get back to writing on the novel...for maybe two hours. It is so
very hard to split time between writing and the business stuff. I'm hoping
to get the business stuff off my plate for a while.
The title for the collection will be: Things Kept, Things Left
Behind.
After some discussion, we came to that. It's a mouth full (and maybe a
cover full). Still, it seems to fit thematically. The copyeditor has the
manuscript and has started making her blue marks. She says I'll have it
here by Valentines Day. The editor and I have decided who we'll ask for
cover quotes and that process is underway. And I'm lining up possible
reviewers, listing places for review copies to be sent, etc. Lots of nitty
detail work going on here and in Iowa. And all of it eats up time. Not
that I'm complaining, mind you. I'm not complaining one bit.
At some point in the spring, this journal and website will get a new look,
a real improvement artistically and functionally. I did this one myself, a
reasonably good amateur's effort. The new one, which will integrate
information about TK,TLB, will be a Gin Petty design. We're waiting until
I've got a book cover design to finalize the website and pick matching
colors. So if you show up sometime this spring and think you've made a
wrong cyber-turn, know that it's likely you didn't.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
It's been a hectic week with e-mails back and forth with the publisher
about title of the book, who they want for cover quotes, cover art ideas,
acknowledgments, biographical bits and a brief answer to "What's this book
about?" for the marketing people. I didn't get any new writing done, and
I'm really itching to get back to the novel now. Today. Definitely.
Back to the top
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Last Friday the director of the
University of Iowa Press phoned to tell me
that I'd won the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award, that they would be
publishing my short story collection in fall of this year. Final round was
judged by George Saunders. I can't imagine a better situation, a better
place for my book to land. They've been publishing winners of the
competition since the late 1960's, and the press keeps books in print for
decades. Today I finally received written confirmation. I'm completely
thrilled and enormously grateful to the many people who've been helpful
and supportive of my writing.
Back to
the top |
Journal Archives
What's new on this site?
- Blogs
Mary Akers
Sherry Chandler
Alexander
Chee
Myfanwy Collins
Katrina Denza
Xujun Eberlein
Pia Z.
Ehrhardt
Anne Elliott
Seth Fleisher
Jamie Ford
Gina Frangello
Clifford Garstang
Bunny Goodjohn
Susan
Henderson
Laila Lalami (Moorishgirl)
Jason McDonald
Maud Newton
Mary E. Preece
Jordan Rosenfeld
Kay Sexton
Felicia Sullivan
Wayne Yang
- Writers Websites
Richard Bausch
Robert Olen Butler
Ron Currie, Jr.
Greg Downs
Pamela Erens
Kirby Gann
Silas House
Jill McCorkle
Andrew Porter
Roxana
Robinson
Gwyn Hyman
Rubio
George Saunders
Bob Sloan
Lee Smith
Frank X. Walker
Tim Wendel
Crystal Wilkinson
- Of Interest
Backstory
Emerging Writers Network
Five Star Literary Stories
Ginosko
Literary Journal
Lit Blog Co-Op
NYT Best Seller List
Poets & Writers
Sarabande Books
University of Iowa Press
Writers Digest |
