For the book that became The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, I kept a kind of running diary of the writing of it, The Camopede Files. Was fun. It made me kind of look at my process in a new way, a helpful way. So, when I started Mapping the Interior, I figured I’d try […]
Back when The Fast Red Road wasn’t called that—this is late 1997, early 1998—the way I intended to write it was as a series of long answering machine messages left in this one guy’s trailer while he’s off gallivanting around with a carnival or something (he’s got pet jackals—this is the kind cool stuff you
Years back, somewhere around 1997, I’d guess, I asked Janet Burroway, my dissertation director, for her advice on embarking on this whole writing thing. Janet’s answer was pretty much exactly this, from King—don’t wall yourself off from your family in order to write. Rather, write in the middle of them all. [ original page/image is
Whilst Lady Gaga did her thing at the superbowl, I was hanging out here with Lovecraft eZine:
This may turn out to be the absolute coolest thing I see all year. Not just these four in a single conversation, these four all talking WHEN they’re talking.
and it’s shaped like a book, one I’d never have guessed could be real. Thanks so much to Billy J. Stratton and all the contributors. Honored. Amazing. So cool. Clickable here. And here it is in BookWorks, down in Albuquerque (thanks to Amanda Sutton for the snap): And — it’s like a gnome, photobombing, yes? —
Looks like this is the second Stanley Hotel post I’ve done here (the first). This time it’s for teaching, though. Also? Every single place I go on CU campus—bulletin boards, monitors, displays—I’m looking back at me: This is that click. And, for the media fun, here it is on the front page of Boulder’s Daily Camera,
Which is really probably my favorite thing in the world: a recipe-as-story, a ransom-note-as-story. glossary-as-story. Much etc—honestly, I want to compile them all into a big book of happiness. Anyway, this non-story story, it lines up quite well with Daniel Orozco’s “Officer’s Weep” story, from his Orientation collection (and . . . was it originally
This post is not endorsed by facebook. Nor twitter. Though it is because of twitter I’m writing it. Just noticed I’m up to about 7100 tweets. So I did what any rational dude would do: opened my calculator app, multiplied “7100” by a guessed-at average tweet-length of 120 characters. Where that gets me is: 852,000
For the thing I’m writing right now, I of course needed info. This is just for today and yesterday, too. Here’s the process: What’s a likely military-cargo plane out of the Middle East?  ➔ called my dad (retired USAF) Where’s John Wayne buried? ➔ asked Google How does a doctor get certified to perform surgery? ➔ facebook-mailed
Of flash fiction, anyway. Just stumbled on this—I forget who it was for (maybe Christopher Rosales, the editor? maybe myself-only?), but I know what it was for: States of Grace. The little pocket-sized book I still can hardly believe I was lucky enough to get published. Not e-, not even on Amazon, I don’t think.
Was just on a panel about villains at Denver ComicCon—actually, my second villains-panel there—and then, just now, I went all the long way down to Alamo Drafthouse to see Footloose on the big screen for the first time in thirty-two years, then listened to the Sir Patrick Stewart episode of The Nerdist on the way
Makes me half-nervous, making fun, as I know you see your own frailties best in others. But still—well, I don’t like coffee, or beer, or fine dining. But I’m sure I’m a poser in some way all the same: List of Things That Don’t Make You A Writer When I moved to Austin, I was
Y’all been hearing the same thing I have? That we’re kind of easing into a novella-friendly space? Like: http://io9.gizmodo.com/tor-com-explains-why-novellas-are-the-future-of-publish-1685440234 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/business/media/james-patterson-has-a-big-plan-for-small-books.html? And more and more, I’m sure. As for what constitutes a novella, a short novel, a novelette, a long story . . . who knows. I mean: editors know. There’s word-count thresholds. Granted, they maybe
Which is a slasher I wrote  . . . two years ago? I’d just reread The Virgin Suicides, and thought, Man, that was cool, sure—along with American Psycho, maybe the book of the nineties—but, wouldn’t it be cooler if that royal first-person delivery could be used to deliver something with a lot of people dying
Figured I’d archive the posters/banners each place makes, and slip the link in so’s they don’t get just completely lost. Will embed when embedding’s a thing, too: TIH 092: Stephen Graham Jones on Werewolves, Mongrels and Common Writing Mistakes Check out the “Show Notes” on that click, too. Most places? They don’t give you a
First among them would be Don’t adopt antiquated speech patterns and/or diction for your subject lines, unless you’re Cormac McCarthy. But even he (He) doesn’t use “ye”—which, correct me if I’m wrong, but nobody did, right? It was just a tyopgraphic/typesetting shortcut, which still  got a proper “the” when read off the page. Anyway, searching
I read this first at Isleta Casino in Albequerque. Not just randomly, mongst the slots, but for a keynote-thing. Why I wrote a commencement address for that, no idea. Then Jon Davis (there at Isleta) asked me to read it for his MFA students at IAIA (click around, there’s also a chapter of Mongrels out-loud, first-time
Because I kind of insist on assigning amazing stuff for my grad workshops, I of course assigned Jeremy Robert Johnson’s Skullcrack City (my original write-up here). It was dug by all. Here’s JRJ’s answers to the questions we crowd-sourced: —To start with the ending: Is this bleak or is it hopeful? Are they (that is,
Those are the three letters I’ve been tagging onto the end of each writing session since forever. Everybody do this? I can’t not do it. Just a way a laying claim to the blank page, like. Same way you leave your jacket on the seat in the theater, saying you’ll be right back, that this
Not a ‘new’ book . . . yet. Just a book I’m writing right now. May never even finish it, who knows. As for when I started—tab, tab, tab—it looks like: And, not really keeping this as journal of this book or anything. I have done that once, with “Where the Camopede Roam,” but that
I wrote Not for Nothing right on the heels of a second read of Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress. And that read was because the movie showed up on some ninety-nine cent shelf, to remind me, to impress me, to lure me. And I’ve been telling anybody who asked that that was probably right around 2006
