Drawing rave blurbs from Richard Ford, Anthony Sofford, and George Pelecanos, Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime, and Men by Scott Wolvern straddles the line between the best of mystery/noir writing and literary fiction. Publishers Weekly conjured up the ubiquitous Hemingway reference for Wolven’s spare, unadorned prose and his boxing characters; but he’s also been [...]
Archive | July, 2005
Writerisms to Avoid
Posted on 16 July 2005.
You all don’t need this, but its here, just to say we told you so. Writerisms: overused and misused language. In more direct words: find ‘em, root ‘em out, and look at your prose without the underbrush. am, is, are, was, were, being, be, been ‚Ķ combined with “by” or with “by ‚Ķ someone” implied [...]
Posted in General, Rants, Writing & Submitting Tips0 Comments
Some Art School/Workshop Teacher Should’ve Put a Stop to this Nonsense Long Ago
Posted on 15 July 2005.
In 1994, musician Todd Snider skewered the grunge rock movement with his satire Talkin’ Seattle Grunge Rock Blues. The song made fun of the whole alternative scene where all you had to do was buy a flannel shirt, let the hair dangle down in your eyes, and act depressed and you’d make a million dollars. [...]
Posted in General0 Comments
Hilarious Headline
Posted on 15 July 2005.
I have to admit that I’m still learning the snarky-jokey-witty turn of a phrase that characterizes most blogs. I try to play it straight until my inner comedian just can’t be restrained. But although I don’t do the jokey thing all that well, here is an AMAZINGLY hilarious title. First, lemme tell you about the [...]
Posted in News0 Comments
Review: 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published…
Posted on 15 July 2005.
Readers of Slushpile know how much I enjoyed Pat Walsh’s 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might, but I also reviewed it for PopMatters. Check out the full book review here. My one criticism is that damned title. Geez, I get carpal tunnel every time I [...]
Posted in Book Reviews0 Comments
Guy Better Get His Birkenstocks Ready
Posted on 14 July 2005.
AJ Jacobs signed a deal with editor Geoff Kloske at Simon & Schuster for a book called The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Obey the Bible as Literally as Possible. Sloan Harris at ICM was the agent involved in the deal, reported to be worth between a quarter of a million [...]
Posted in News0 Comments
Where to Turn?
Posted on 14 July 2005.
Most how-to-publish books are garbage. I’ve mentioned one or two that I like but the vast majority of them provide nothing more in-depth than “target the publishers you submit your work to… don’t submit your horror gorefest about alien foot fungus to Harlequin Romances” and so-called advice like that. I’ve got a shelf full of [...]
Posted in Essays, Interviews0 Comments
Congrats to Slushpile Favorites
Posted on 14 July 2005.
I’m happy to say that Publishers Lunch is reporting a deal that involves two of our very favorite people. Will Christopher Baer, author of Kiss Me, Judas and others sold three new books of “existential violence and intensity” to one of our favorite editors, Jason Wood at MacAdam/Cage. Too often, I look at the news [...]
Posted in News0 Comments
BoD: No Country for Old Men
Posted on 13 July 2005.
We’ve talked about Cormac McCarthy’s new novel No Country for Old Men before on Slushpile. But in honor of our interview with McCarthy’s editor Gary Fisketjon, we’re making it our Book of the Day. Amazon states that July 19 is the official release date of McCarthy’s new one, but I’d suggest you go ahead and [...]
Posted in Book of the Day0 Comments
Unfortunate Timing
Posted on 13 July 2005.
There is a Reuters report about a frightening coincidence between fiction and reality in London. We all know that publishers plan their book releases months and months in advance, so now Random House imprint Chatto & Windus in England is scrambling to turn off an advertising campaign they spent months planning. Incendiary by Chris Cleave [...]
Posted in News2 Comments
Interview: Gary Fisketjon, Editor
Posted on 13 July 2005.
I must admit a little bit of hero worship here. Years ago, when I first started trying to build a writing career, I heard the old bit of advice to look at my favorite authors and find who their editors and agents are. I don’t remember where I read that adage or if someone told [...]
Posted in Interviews, Slushpile Exclusive3 Comments
Writing Teacher Signs Big Book Deal
Posted on 13 July 2005.
According to Publishers Lunch Hollywood writing teacher John Truby signed a six-figure deal with Faber & Faber to publishe his Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. Truby has worked with numerous Hollywood writers over the years, including the people behind such movies as Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, Scream, and [...]
Posted in News0 Comments
Walsh to Appear at Clean Well Lighted Place
Posted on 12 July 2005.
Readers of Slushpile undoubtedly know my affinity for Pat Walsh’s 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might. We’ve mentioned it several times in these pages and there are a couple of book reviews I’ve seeded around the internet that hopefully will spring up soon. But today, [...]
Posted in News0 Comments
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