Category: Writing

  • Politics at Tin House

    Tin House is putting together another interesting issue for this coming fall.  If you’ve got stories involving political trends, you might try them out there: Fall, 2008, the Tin House Political Issue We are now reading for forward-looking political writing. Emphasis on forward-thinking, projections of trends and counter trends (no utopias or dystopias). With nonfiction,…

  • Where I’m Writing From

    Greg Van Eekhout is always posting pictures from cafes where he writes, and I always like looking at his blog to see what sort of place the cafe is today, and what sorts of mugs or cups they use to serve coffee. I know, mundane, and yet it fascinates me. Maybe because I don’t write…

  • Double vision

    I’m in the midst of some final revisions to my next novel, so at the moment I’m sort of seeing double:  the snowy, cold Midwestern winter outside my window, and then something else like this inside. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08P9xADTDPA] Here’s a less musical and more touristy depiction of Obon. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99ctsybcJVY]

  • Ever wonder what happens at Spec-fic Conventions?

    Read the witty and insightful and sober essay, I Like Writing But Hate Being a Writer, by Richard Bowes.

  • Ungood Morning

    Spring semester started here yesterday. It’s funny that Spring semester begins in winter. Gives an odd feel to the whole thing when I look out the window and see that it’s snowing. I didn’t consciously do any New Year’s resolutions this year, but unconsciously I see that I did. One of them was to get…

  • Literary Homemaking

    Being a writer, I own lots of books.  I’m sure there are probably some writers who don’t feel compelled to own walls and walls of books, and perhaps there are even some writers who have slowed down in their reading habits at some point in their life (though I would personally see that as having…

  • Totally excellent

    I came across this video via the blog “I Will Shout Youngstown” this afternoon, and thought it was really representative of the spirit that’s been taking over Youngstown in the past couple of years, and that community spirit seems to be growing more and more over time now. To be completely honest, it feels strange…

  • Yatterings Interview

    An interview I recently did with Iain over at Yatterings has been posted today. He asked some really cool questions about the novel, process, interstitiality, influences, and short stories. Hope it’s interesting if you pop over there and read. Hope you have a good Sunday. I’m all about taking it easy today and pretending like…

  • The Truest, Realest Gifts

    Something terrible happened in a community near to my little town twenty-two years ago. A twelve year old was murdered in a horrible, senseless way. He was biking to a Boy Scout meeting through a shortcut in the woods, was taken by two men who had been watching him, and was tortured to death. I…

  • The Big Idea

    John Scalzi asked me to be the guinea pig for a new feature called “The Big Idea” on his  Ficlets blog, where an author writes a little essay about a central idea that their book came to be centered around or which influenced the writing of the book.  My big idea essay is now up…