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Realistic Absurdity in a Compelling Read A Halloween Terrifying Ten Library Book Review: <u>It Come One, Come All: Why Publishing is Drowning in Submissions Good Hard Rock Books A Note on Co-Authors Something for Nothing: The Cash Grab of a Shitty Book
 
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Realistic Absurdity in a Compelling Read

In My Date with Neanderthal Woman by David Galef, there’s an intriguing amount of absurdity and fantasy that remains rooted in reality. Winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Competition, the book plants outlandish situations into normal, mundane circumstances to which we can all relate. [Disclosure: Galef sat on my thesis committee in graduate [...]

A Halloween Terrifying Ten Library

A Halloween Terrifying Ten Library

[Editor's Note: In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, I turned to novelist and horror aficionado Stephen Graham Jones to make some recommendations on ten frightening books. He's a prolific writer whose All the Beautiful Sinners was recently re-released as an e-book by Dzanc Books. So stock up on some Jones and also check out [...]

McKagan Book

Book Review: It’s So Easy by Duff McKagan

When the house lights go down and the crowd jumps to its feet and the spotlight operators squint through the dry ice, seeking musicians on the stage, the bass player is often the last rocker they highlight. Singers and guitarists generally get most of the attention. So perhaps it’s fitting that Duff McKagan released It’s [...]

Drowning

Come One, Come All: Why Publishing is Drowning in Submissions

Everyone involved with writing and publishing complains about the volume of submissions. Aspiring authors lament the astronomical numbers of competing submissions. Agents and editors constantly talk about how they’re inundated with proposals. And certainly every aspiring author has inwardly groaned every time Aunt Mildred talks about how she wants to write a book and how [...]

Guitarist Les Paul resized

Good Hard Rock Books

In recent days, we examined the trend towards everyone with a Marshall amp stack releasing a book of some form. And, unfortunately, many of those books haven’t been very fulfilling. So I wanted to close the discussion by mentioning some hard rock and heavy metal books that are interesting and different and worth a read. [...]

man and type

A Note on Co-Authors

During this weeklong examination of the hard rock and heavy metal memoir trend, it’s impossible to ignore the role of the co-author in these projects. Sometimes the co-authors (or ghostwriters if you prefer that title) can bring a level of literary high art to the proceedings. Other times, co-authors are reduced to mere typists by [...]

Vince Neil Book Logo

Something for Nothing: The Cash Grab of a Shitty Book

I’ve seen Motley Crue nine times in the last five years. I’ve purchased plane tickets in order to travel to Crue performances. My love of the band is so well-known that people often come to me with motleyish questions. “On that first reunion tour in 2005, I could see how Vince Neil might have been [...]

cal

Countdown to Calipari Book?

03 April 2012

One of my favorite pastimes is guessing which celebrities and public figures are going to be next in the publishing queue. Maybe some day, I can get Vegas to start setting odds on my little parlor gam. So this morning, I’m wondering how long it will be for University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari [...]

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119112432

Realistic Absurdity in a Compelling Read

02 April 2012

In My Date with Neanderthal Woman by David Galef, there’s an intriguing amount of absurdity and fantasy that remains rooted in reality. Winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Competition, the book plants outlandish situations into normal, mundane circumstances to which we can all relate. [Disclosure: Galef sat on my thesis committee in graduate [...]

Read the full story

Posted in Book Reviews, Featured Stories0 Comments

credit-card-lies

Lies, Damned Lies, And Publishing

19 March 2012

Scott and I have been discussing the Mike Daisey fiasco and something stuck out for me during his This American Life interview and, more important, in the reactions by various tech visionaries at various online outlets. “He’s a liar,” they said. “He’s a fraud.” “Me made us care about something that wasn’t true.” While I [...]

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A Halloween Terrifying Ten Library

A Halloween Terrifying Ten Library

27 October 2011

[Editor's Note: In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, I turned to novelist and horror aficionado Stephen Graham Jones to make some recommendations on ten frightening books. He's a prolific writer whose All the Beautiful Sinners was recently re-released as an e-book by Dzanc Books. So stock up on some Jones and also check out [...]

Read the full story

Posted in Featured Stories, General1 Comment

Dennis Lehane

Lehane to Helm Imprint at HarperCollins

11 October 2011

Late yesterday, numerous sources reported that Dennis Lehane will lead a new imprint at HarperCollins. The bestselling mystery writer said that he hoped to help “worthy writers” get more attention to their work. Very few other details (such as the first book’s release date, the number of books published each year) have been released at [...]

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Sweetness Book Cover

If Only We Made the Money They Think We Make

07 October 2011

The sports world has been brewing with furor over bestselling author Jeff Pearlman’s new book Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton. Enraged by an excerpt in Sports Illustrated that painted the legendary Chicago Bears running back as beset with addictions, infidelities, and affairs, the sports nation rose up in ire against Pearlman. Most of [...]

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McKagan Book

Book Review: It’s So Easy by Duff McKagan

05 October 2011

When the house lights go down and the crowd jumps to its feet and the spotlight operators squint through the dry ice, seeking musicians on the stage, the bass player is often the last rocker they highlight. Singers and guitarists generally get most of the attention. So perhaps it’s fitting that Duff McKagan released It’s [...]

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Posted in Book Reviews, Featured Stories, Hard Rock Literature1 Comment

Amanda Knox

Amanda Knox Released, Can Book Deals Be Far Behind?

03 October 2011

With the news that Amanda Knox has been released from Italian prison, you just have to wonder how long it’s going to take before the book deals start flooding in. There are already Candace Dempsey’s Murder in Italy: The Shocking Slaying of a British Student, the Accused American Girl, and anInternational Scandal which was released [...]

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Anonymous Goes to Amazon Publishing

Anonymous Goes to Amazon Publishing

30 September 2011

Recently, we noted the news that Anonymous was shopping a book. The loop on that particular thread has now been closed with a completed sale. According to Publishers Marketplace, the book was sold to Julia Cheiffetz at Amazon Publishing. The deal entry explains that the book is “the story of the ordinary people who became [...]

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HollyMadison

Fake Boobs, Insurance, and Girl Next Door Books

30 September 2011

Reality television star and former Hugh Hefner consort Holly Madison is getting a tremendous amount of attention for the fact that she insured her breasts for $1 million. Which, to my mind, is kind of like Rebecca Black insuring her Auto-Tuned voice. Both are synthetic, manufactured, and more the product of other people’s skill than [...]

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Jim Harrison

Jim Harrison and Admitting Ignorance

28 September 2011

In the October issue of Outside, Tom Bissell recounts his conversation with Jim Harrison in “The Last Lion.” Bissell is the author of Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, and The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of [...]

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System Error

Errors with Categories

27 September 2011

As we work out the kinks in our new theme here at Slushpile.net, we’ve noticed that there is an error in that the category links are not pulling all the entries. For example, if you click on the Interviews link on the right, it only displays five results when, in fact, we’ve posted dozens and [...]

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Crimescene Blood

Household Cleaning Tips from Chuck Palahniuk

26 September 2011

It’s not every day that you turn to a novel for household cleaning tips. Maybe you look at a periodical like Good Housekeeping or you flip through a nonfiction reference book. But then again, it’s not every day that your home turns into a crime scene. Luckily, crime is a rarity in the exclusive confines [...]

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bloggers-bootcamp-book-cover

Announcing John Biggs’ Bloggers Boot Camp Course

24 September 2011

Our benefactor, John Biggs, is pleased to announce our first web course featuring one-on-one time with him online during the run of the program. It’s a 12-week writing course with a focus on blogging and it should take you 20 minutes or so a day to go through the sections, videos, exercises and discussions.

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