the scowl

Up now at Vol.1: some thoughts on Mary Hamilton’s chapbook We know what we are, its ties to NBC’s late-eighties comedy lineup, and its relationship to the coverage of inspirational sports movies.

I reviewed The Orange Eats Creeps, Grace Krilanovich’s surreal novel of vampires, ESP, and punk rock,  for Vol.1. You can read said review here; here’s a bit of it:
It’s possible that Krilanovich’s gangs of pill-popping, train-jumping, Pacific Northwestern vampires are vampiric in metaphor only. It’s never clear, but that lack of clarity is …

For what it’s worth, I’m doing a bit more blogging these days over at Vol.1. Some recent posts there include:

Two takes on crime fiction, via Tony O’Neill’s Sick City and a Charlie Huston essay;
Thoughts on Pioneer One;
Signs of Alan Moore’s influence on the Mike Carey/Peter Gross series The Unwritten (spurred on in part by this …

Inspired by a glowing Rick Moody review in The Believer, I recently picked up Charlie Smith’s novel Three Delays. “[I]t makes the entire shelf of novels from the last generation superfluous,” says Moody? Sure, I’m in.

Right about now, I’m about two-thirds of the way through the novel. (So…two delays, then?) I have to say, I’m …

This isn’t a post about starting a small press. Though I have to say, between Jackie Corley’s two posts so far on the subject and the announcement of Publishing Genius’s Awesome Machine imprint, it’s something that’s been running through my mind more than usual lately. In lieu of having, say, a book I’d like to …

At Flavorwire, I have a piece up on what my editor there has dubbed “Performance-enhanced books.” In practical terms, that involves capsule reviews of five titles:

Joseph Mattson’s Empty the Sun
Josh Farrar’s Rules to Rock By
James Kaelan’s We’re Getting On
Eric Davidson’s We Never Learn
Sara Jaffe and Mia Clarke’s The Art of Touring

And here’s a bit of …

Via their Twitter feed, Fictionaut recently linked this Jim Hanas post arguing against the slush pile.
I’m not sure that I agree with it.  I think Hanas is a little too optimistic about editors seeking out and finding good work, if good work can theoretically be found anywhere. Though given that Fictionaut provides exactly …

1. Of note: Astrophil Press is currently using Kickstarter to raise money for a larger print run of their repress of Brian Evenson’s collection Contagion. More information can be found here.
2. Also of note: Michael Kimball’s How Much of Us There Was will be reissued by Tyrant Books in the fall.

Chatted with Ben Greenman right about here. His new collection What He’s Poised To Do is quite good, and served as the starting point for much of the discussion. Also covered: revisions, editions, and “Street Fighting Man.” Here’s one section:
Everything should be subverted if possible. That’s how you know you have an idea, and …

As discussed last week, I have contributed to Word Riot’s Published for a Day, along with folks like Shya Scanlon, Jackie Corley, J.A. Tyler, and Paula Bomer.
For those who are curious, this link will be active until midnight today. More information on the novel in question can be found here.

Longtime readers of this blog — or, hell, of my Twitter presence — may also note that I’ve been talking about a novella or short novel in progress. (Which is as good a time as any to volley out a link to the Emerging Writers Network’s Novella Month.) Later than expected last night, I finished …