Additions to Pages

Donna Downey’s Inspiration Wednesday

Inspired by my discovery of a new literary blog, I’ve decided to update our pages again. This was on the schedule for Sunday with Zin (since Zin is more creative about these posts) but something else came up – something we’re both very excited about – so I’ll just present the information, leaving Sunday for… well, you’ll see.

Two great flashes have been added to the Online Fiction Sampler page:

“Your Hindenburg” by Gabrielle Hovendon, from Smokelong #39: a woman goes looking for destruction and finds more destruction than she ever dreamed was possible. The last sentence drifted over me for days, slowly sinking in.

“Things I Wish You Heard” by Patricia McNair, from the Press 53 53-word Story contest, December 13 – 18, 2012.

And we have a new literary website for the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page:

Great Writers Steal, by Ken Nichols: Literary analysis targeted for writers in practical terms.

Still More Additions to Pages!

Little Free Library

Hello I am Zin and here are more additions to our Pages! A lot of new stuff lately!

One is not new, but someone (ahem) forgot to add it a long time ago! So I will add it now!

New on Cool Sites for Readers and Writers:

Bookshelf Porn: “A photoblog created to allow people to indulge their love of books, libraries, bookstores and bookcases by showcasing the best bookshelf photos from around the world.” Hundreds of pictures culled from tumblrs, facebook, websites, all about books, bookshelves, libraries, with links to the original source!

Tin House has a blog with daily entries! They run the Plotto contest sometimes, but also they do Flash Friday (some of the Online Fiction Sampler comes from this), The Art of the Sentence, and other features! This is not really new but somehow it was overlooked so it is now on the list.

New Flash on the Online Fiction Sampler –

“Finding Spells” by Lavinia Spalding – Flash from the Tin House blog Flash Friday (see?), 12/7/12. A matter of looking.

“Call Me Your Unbroken” by Chuck Augello – from Smokelong #38. Maybe a dream, maybe not.

“Fear of Something Happening” by Nick Harmon – from Smokelong #38. Apocalypse not happening quick enough for you?

“Your Gedanken Collection” by Kenton Yee – from Hobart, 12/6/12. What was Einstein thinking?

“Benediction” by Sharon McGill – from Smokelong #35, March 2012. You work with what you have.

Sunday with Zin: More New Stuff for Readers and Writers

The Man of Letters or Pierrot’s Alphabet (1794)

New listings on the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page:

Give a Hand to Wild Life

Brain Pickings: “A human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are.” They review books, collections, and have interviews about literature, art, design, all sorts of things! All the art in this post comes from materials (books, magazines, collections, exhibits) they have featured just in the past month! It is curated by Maria Popova. I discovered this site when I did the List of Lists of Rules for Writers post!

Bloom: “A literary site devoted to highlighting, profiling, reviewing, and interviewing authors whose first major work was published when they were age 40 or older…. If someone is labeled a ‘late bloomer,’ the question Bloom poses is, ‘Late’ according to whom?” Sonya Chung, founding editor. Since we are old farts around here we like this!

The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories

Summerbooks: a monthly literary podcast by Natalie Sypolt and Renee Nicholson. They did an episode about What the Zhang Boys Know! They are new this year!

Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading: “One story a week, each chosen by today’s best authors or editors.
Recommended Reading is released on a four week curation cycle: beginning with a story chosen by Electric Literature, followed by an excerpt from an indie press, then an author recommendation, and finally a selection from a magazine’s archive. Each issue includes an editor’s note written by that week’s partner, introducing you to the work and their mission.” Halimah Marcus and Benjamin Samuel, Editors; Andy Hunter, Publisher. It is free! And the stories are good!

Enjoy!

And an announcement that is upsetting me:

Duotrope is going paid! I am very sad and kind of angry! Now, Duotrope is a very good service and I can imagine it takes time and effort to run and I do not blame the Duotropers for wanting to earn something for their trouble, and it is easily worth the fee, especially to new writers who need help figuring out where to look and those who submit a lot (we have contributed over the years, we even contributed after we stopped submitting work! Because we still used it occasionally to see what the stats for a market were like). The new fee will be $5 a month or $50 a year, and that is reasonable, but it will knock some people out of Duotrope, and that is sad! By the way if you have been using the submissions tracker you must export it before Jan.1 or you will lose access to it unless you pay the fee! We are debating whether to leave the listing with a note that it is now a paid service, or take it down since all the other links on the Cool Sites page are free! I suppose this was inevitable but I am sad this day is here!

Sunday with Zin: New Stuff!

“Begin” (detail), Susan Webster/Stuart Kestenbaum

Hello I am Zin and I get to do this installment of Additions to Pages! It is a little different from the older ones, but it is the season for changes and I thought it could use some perking up!

First, here are three flash fiction stories we have added to the Online Fiction Sampler page:

Revived by Eugenio Volpe: grief takes many forms. From Smokelong, 7/9/2012

Instructions for Growing Men by Margaret Patton Chapman: I am sad the (still anonymous) editors at killauthor have now stopped publishing new material, but I am glad they included this in their June 10, 2012 Issue 19!

Amy in Twenty Chapters by Nick Sansone: from Bartleby Snopes. Exactly what it says!

These last two stories were recommended by Seth Fischer in his Rumpus column Here Are Some Stories Seth Likes – another good reason to subscribe to The Rumpus!

And one new blog is added to the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page:

Boston Writers Review: Our blogger-friend Stanley Dankoski does a great job showcasing the efforts and goings-on of Boston-area emerging writers.

Enjoy!

Additions to Pages

Time to update the pages again.

New on Cool Sites for Writers and Readers:

Bibliobuffet.com, edited by Lauren Roberts. This monthly all-things-book emag includes a variety of departments. Some of my favorite recent columns:

The Personality of Books by Gilian Polack: more about fonts (and you know how much I love fonts);
Found in Translation? by Lev Raphael: one author’s experience of translation;
Bedtime Stories: The Little Books of Cesar Aira by Nicki Leone: a reader’s experience
The More Things Change by Katherine Hauswirth: reconsidering Jane Austen’s Emma;
Papyrus Trail by my long-time Zoetrope Virtual Studios buddy Elizabeth Creith: a humorous look at how it might have been.

Sign up for their monthly email newsletter to receive notices of new issues.

For some reason I’ve never included The Rumpus on this page, which is strange since I live for Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee. But Sugar’s hit the big time, and I’m correcting my oversight now.

I’ve also decided to add The New Yorker Page-Turner blog (which used to be either Book Bench or This Week In Books, I never really understood it) because, even though I hate the name, I finally subscribed to it and it’s worth it.

New on Online Fiction etc. To Read and Love:

Updating this page was more problematic – in a pleasant way. I decided a long time ago that I would only list an author once; otherwise it would turn into a catalog of individual writers, rather than a sampler. My problem? I have two wonderful stories by Jonathan Safran Foer (discovered through Paul Debrasky’s terrific blog I Just Read About That). And I have six – SIX – stories to choose from by Paul Griner, whose “Open Season” captivated me a few months ago.

So, decisions decisions: I will list them all here, and only include two on the permanent page. It’s quite possible I’ll swap them around at some point.

Neither of the Foer pieces are traditional narratives, but they both are wonderful:

A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease: This is the one that will go on the page. Because it requires unusual typographic characters that apparently didn’t make it through various online versions and archiving, letters were substituted for snowflakes, silences, and a few other things. I recommend also checking it out in its Googlebooks form of the story in Best American Non-Required Reading which shows the intended typography. Either way, it’s a magnificent story with broad reach.
About the Typefaces Not Used in This Edition appeared in the UK Guardian in 2002, right after he won their First Book Award for Everything is Illuminated.

The Paul Griner stories range from very short flashes to full-length short stories; in roughly that order:

I Place Myself Unreservedly At Your Service from Dogzplot, September 2010. I think this observation of how we really regard illegal immigration will go on the page.
The Hand I Clasp Is Made of Dreams – elimae October 2010.
Sixty Three Heads – Pindeldyboz, July 6, 2008
Balloon Rides, Ten Dollars – Juked, July 2008.
Newbie Was Here – Fall 2009 Narrative (login is required, but registration is free and painless. And worth it).
Northwood – Zoetrope All-Story, Summer1999.

And I’m adding a flash from the April 30, 2012 Smokelong as well:

Dedication by Stephen Graham Jones.

Something for everyone in that list – enjoy!

Additions to “Cool Sites for Writers and Readers” page

I’m adding four new entries to the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page:

Goodreads: Book reviews by individual readers. Zin just recently started taking Goodreads seriously (an account was set up a while ago but pretty much ignored until last month). All of Zin’s reviews point to blog entries here, which is backwards to the way they want you to do it, but that’s Zin for ya. This may be a phase, but it’s a site that should be on the page.

If you’re not subscribing to The Millions online feed, oh, you should be. Not just for standard literati fare such as:
essays (The Slacker in Modern Fiction: The Flâneur Goes to the Mall by Elizabeth Minkel);
interviews (Lethal Language: Ben Marcus Urges Writers to March on the Enemy by Adam Boretz);
reviews (Speaking of Anne Frank…, of Nathan Englander’s new story collection, by Yevgeniya Traps);
etc. (The Beautiful Afterlife of Dead Books by Kyo Maclear and Innocent and Abroad: Mark Twain and the Art of Travel Writing by Nathan Deuel);

but they also come up with some of the wackiest fun stuff around. Which is why I’m also adding, as amusing diversions (because we all need another time sink):

Least Helpful: Daily Dispatches from the Internet’s Worst Reviewers. Use caution when reading this website while drinking any beverages; you will need a new keyboard. Most of the reviews are from Goodreads or Amazon. For example:
The Invisible Man: “I kept wondering when he’d become invisible. disappointing.” (sic)
Veggie Tales: The site sums up one rambling review complaining about perceived Christian and “pro-meat” viewpoints (the Veggies, it seems, eat meat) as: “Rated PG-13 (for unrealistic dietary choices of talking religious vegetables)”
Audio Jammer (product review): “This tiny thing does the job… I know my neighbors had had a listening device the past year because the couple no longer talk, watch t.v. or play their music, it as if they have dedicated their life into mines….” (sic)
Please, let me never show up on this site.

and

Witless Innuendo: a tumblr of “those end-of-review warnings from The New York Times’ film critics.” I never before noticed how recognizable these are. Such as:
“Murder, torture, naked women – the usual” (for 88 Minutes)
“Much Martian blood (blue and otherwise) is spilled” (for John Carter).

More later.

Addition to “Cool Sites for Writers and Readers” Page

I’ve added another blog to the Cool Sites Page:

I Just Read About That by Paul Debrasky is an extremely diverse blog (which just received a Versatile Blogger award) covering music, literature, and other forms of artistic expression.

Paul is a librarian, and his meticulous indexing tells me he must be very good at it. He covers a wide range of literary styles and subjects, from Roberto Bolano and David Foster Wallace to graphic novels and children’s literature, music from Tom Waits to Radiohead to all manner of recordings from around the world. As well as people, art, television, and just about everything but the kitchen sink (though I wouldn’t be surprised to find a post about kitchen sinks in there somewhere). Versatile isn’t the word for it – encyclopedic is more like it. He’s been at it since 2007, though it seems he kicked into high gear in mid-2009, so there’s an impressive archive. I’ve been running into this blog over and over while researching McSweeney’s and New Yorker stories from the prize anthologies; I thought I’d added it to my list long ago, but it seems not (I think I had it confused with “I Read A Short Story Today.”)

He recently posted he wasn’t sure what he’d be reading and I made a jumble of suggestions, which, to my surprise and delight, he acted on. It’s so nice to say, “Hey, you’ve got to read this” and have someone else say, “Ok, here’s what I thought.” He also has a fondness for Project Runway (even though, like me, he has no interest in fashion – we just like to watch people create) and admits to fast-forwarding through ANTM (which I, too, find far less enjoyable since Tyra decided she was going to be Oprah II). His wife Sarah blogs as well, and I’m just beginning to look at what’s there – books, photography, food (maybe a potential Top Chef convert?), and creative use of fabrics.

If you like music, reading, or pretty much anything, take a look.

New Additions to “Online Fiction, Etc. To Read And Love” page

I’ve added four more wonderful online stories to this page – enjoy!

Flash –

Watson, Douglas – - “Life on the Moon” – from Tin House blog’s Flash Fiction Fridays. A new version of “the grass is always greener.”

Iskandrian, Kristen – - “Phonics” – from Tin House blog’s Flash Fiction Fridays, 10/21/11. Perhaps the roots of a very specific brand of hate.

Hempel, Amy – - “The Orphan Lamb” – from Harper’s, September 2010 (found on Page 11, lower left). A jaw-dropping micro about what love is all about.

Short Story –

Beams, Clare – “We Show What We Have Learned” from Hayden’s Ferry Review #46, Spring/Summer 2010. Zin encountered this in The Best American Non-Required Reading 2011,” and fortunately it’s available online. A teacher falls apart – literally – and imparts an important and unforgettable lesson.

Additions to Pages

I’ve made an addition to the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page:

Slush Pile Hell: The slush pile reader doesn’t have an easy life, either, judging by the queries this anonymous literary agent has received. A hilarious diversion, next time you get a rejection letter.

I’m also changing some entries in the Online Fiction Etc. to Read and Love page. I want to keep only one entry per author, and sometimes they come out with new stories I just can’t bear to let pass unlauded. Eventually I’m going to have to give up the one-per-author idea, but for now, in the Flash section:

Rolli – I’m swapping in “Were I The Leaves, I’d Be Dead” from Word Riot, September 2011, in place of his “The Man With The Ridiculously Huge Coupon” from Smokelong, March 2011.

Randall Brown – I’m swapping in “Instead Of The Glass” from Smokelong, June 2011, in place of his “When It Counts” from elimae, September 2008.

New Additions to “Cool Sites for Writers and Readers” page, and “Online Fiction etc. to Read and Love” page

We haven’t updated the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page – or, for that matter, the Online Fiction etc. to Read and Love page – all summer, so it’s time to catch up.

New in Online Fiction etc. to Read and Love:
Poetry – “Prepositions” by Elizabeth Savage, from Prime Number Magazine 11.2
(There’s so much great reading out there, and I had several pieces all listed out…. Then I deleted the list… oops)

New in Cool Sites for Writers and Readers:

Shelf Awareness – A site (and twice-weekly free newsletter on request) about books and the book industry, in two flavors: for readers, and for book trade professionals. Includes reviews of new releases in all categories, and articles on everything book-related. Founded by publishing industry veterans John Mutter and Jenn Risko.

McKenna’s Way – [Sorry, this site no longer exists] articles by McKenna Donovan and guests on various aspects of writing, from grammar and craft to motivation and finances.

Reading the Short Story - Retired literature teacher Charles May shares his views of various aspects of short stories old and new.

One Story at a Time – Starting Sept. 22, 2011, Katharine Weber will be leading this two-week message board discussion of a single story at The Book Balloon. The first story will be “Everything that Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor.

Short Story Slore – Reviews of short stories, collections, and novels, as well as occasional challenges and assorted literary information.

Rejection Wiki: A wiki site recording literary rejections to help in determining whether you have a standard, tiered or personalized rejection.

May Additions to Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page, part 2

I have added the following to the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page:

The Mookse and the Gripes – by Trevor Berrett. Reviews of books and some short stories, with forums for The New Yorker fiction and major fiction awards. Recent books reviewed include The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obrecht, Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, My New American Life by Francine Prose. There’s an active community commenting on posts.

Ann Graham: Short Stories All the Time – Bookmarks, blogs, labels, posts, news feed, and bookshelf all about short stories.

Kul: That Sounds Cool – by Aaron Riccio. NY Theatre and book reviews with some short stories. A strong NYC point of view. I’ve enjoyed his comments on recent The New Yorker fiction very much.

The Gender Genie – another goofy Parlor Game. Enter a block of text (over 500 words recommended) and the Genie will tell you if the author is male or female. Pure silliness, but fun. Zin entered some work and was pronounced male half the time, and female half the time, which amuses us both.

That’s it for May. It’s getting crowded on that page – I may have to find a way to categorize them and split them up so they’re easier to find. But we’ll see how many more sites I run across in upcoming months.

Additions to Online Fiction Etc. to Read And Love page

I’ve added one short story and three flashes to the Online Fiction Etc. To Read and Love page:

Short Story:
Amber Sparks – - “You Will Be the Living Equation” in zine-scene.com Issue 2, with bonus interview. Story originally published in Annalemma.

Flashes:
Cezarija Abartis – - “Lovers” in Wigleaf, May 2011.

L.E. Butler – - “Pitch” – - Neon #26, May 2011

Darby Lawson – - “Phone” – - The Collagist, Issue #9, April 2010

Enjoy!

New Addition To Cool Sites for Writers and Readers Page

For now, one new addition to Cool Sites for Writers and Readers:

Fiction Writer’s Review: “an online literary journal by, for, and about emerging writers.” Reviews, essays, interviews, blog. A wonderful site. The Founding Editor is Anne Stameshkin; the Editor is Jeremiah Chamberlin, and the Managing Editor is Lee Thomas. There’s a long list of other editors and contributors.

Recent reviews:
You Know When The Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon by Beth Garland
Dzanc Duo: Aaron Burch and Matt Bell by V. Jo Hsu
Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman by Andrea Nolan
A Young Man’s Guide To Late Capitalism by Peter Mountford by Tyler McMahon

Recent essays:
Looking Backward: Third-Generation Fiction Writers and the Holocaust by Erika Dreifus.
In Other Words (the bilingual writer) by Giota Tachtara.
Four Days In Galle (the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka) by Preeta Samarasan
An Education in Book Reviews by Stacey D’erasmo.
Owl Criticism by Charles Baxter.
Where Are We Going Next? A Conversation About Creative Writing Pedagogy by Cathy Day, Anna Leahy & Stephanie Vanderslice

Recent interviews:
On Mystery and Drafting: An Interview with Robert Boswell by Michael Hinken
Woman to Woman: An Interview with Mary Gaitskill by Emily McLaughlin
A Finely Focused Lens: An Interview with Josh Weil by Mary Westbrook
A Parisian Reliquary: An Interview with Elena Mauli Shapiro by Steven Wingate

Because this is such an extraordinary site and I’ve included so much information, it needs its own post. I’ll be adding a few more sites in the next few days.

New Additions to Cool Sites for Writers and Readers and Online Fiction etc. to Read and Love pages

We have added these sites to the Cool Sites for Writers and Readers page:

Too Many Books, Too Little Time by Jeanie Fritzsche. Comments on a wide variety of stories and books – recent entries include Blood Meridian and Mildred Pierce.
Allison’s Book Bag – reviews of books for young people (from very very young to young adult), plus author interviews and other features.
The Review Review – founded by Becky Tuch. A review of literary magazines and interviews with editors and writers about the submission process – what an idea! The wonderful article “What Editors Want” by Lynne Barrett was recommended to my writing workshop; the whole site is terrific.

We have added this story to the Online Fiction etc. To Read and Love page:

The Year Our Children Left by Tetman Callis; from Neon Magazine.

New Entries to “Cool Sites for Writers and Readers”

[Zin Kenter] Hello, I am Zin! I have added three new entries to my “Cool Sites for Writers and Readers” page! I learned about all three on Zoetrope, the online writing workshop I have been using for the past year.

First is “Over the Transom” which is a blog of tips about submitting work to publishers (stories to journals, novel manuscripts to publishers). It just started last week so there are only a few posts. If you are a writer, especially if you are new to submitting for publication, this is a funny, entertaining place! So far I have not read anything that is astonishing, but these are things I would not have known about if I did not hang out on Zoetrope where people talk about these things a lot. The person who told me about this site says it is from the editor of Camera Obscura (which is a pretty good journal, relatively new, they have published some very good stories), but there is nothing on the site that says so, and nothing on the Camera Obscura site that says so either, so I am not sure. But it is nice anyway.

Second is the site TJ Forester keeps. TJ is a writer on Zoetrope, he has a book just out called Miracles, Inc. which is about a televangelist now on Death Row looking back at how he got there. Now, I do not know TJ very well, but he seems like a very nice guy. And he is going to hike the Appalachian Trail starting in a few days, from Georgia to New York, and blog about it! I think that is very cool! But the very coolest thing is that he is going to hike all the way to New York and get on the Stephen Colbert show! I am not sure how he thinks this will work, and he does not seem sure, but he is going to try and he would like some company on his walk, so follow his blog and see how he does! I think this is sort of like getting Betty White on Saturday Night Live, except TJ is not famous, he is just a guy and it is such a cool idea that I want to support him any way I can! And all he has asked for – not money, not even to buy his book (though I am sure he would love that and it is on my list) is for people from Zoetrope to link to his blog, so I can do that for him!

Several weeks ago I added a site, “The Coward’s Journey” and I forgot to post the addition here so I will tell you about it now. It is by Vanessa Gebbie, a British author (she is also on Zoetrope where I heard about this) and she is tracing the publication of her book, The Coward’s Tale from acceptance by Bloomsbury to release. She has so far talked about the contract, editing, and the creation of the cover, and it is very interesting to watch this process, which I will probably never see first hand!

Thank you!