Rarely Likable

No, you can't have my stuff.

I've decided to commemorate Rarely Likable's third anniversary by taking a month off from it. There'll be a linkbucket later on today, and that's it until 6/1.

I started this blog to keep words about reading and writing in front of my face. I live in a community better known for impending sprawl than literary scene, I have friends and family who mostly do things that don't involve imaginary people. There are times when it's great, but there are times when it really isn't. Rarely Likable has kept me accountable when it would have been easier just to stop. It's done that to the degree that I think I can put it down for a month, without worrying I'll never come back. 

Speaking of accountability, here are some of my plans for May:
1. Lots and lots of reading. Good god, I am behind on reading. I should take a break for that alone. I should take a break for the Million Writers Award Notable Short Stories of 2007 alone.
2. Organization, inventory, and rewrites.
3. Embracing the dark side.
4. Deciding between two projects that have been very much on my mind.

I hope I come back with some new perspective. At minimum, I'll post a poem in June. If I'm unlucky (lucky?), it'll be about American Idol.

Please feel free to monitor my eroding social skills via IM (gnomeloaf) email (gnomeloafATgmailDOTcom), or at any of the places listed to the top right. Also, be sure to check out any of the links to the middle right that you haven't already. I may have abominable taste in many things, but I like to think that the Internet is only sometimes one of them.

Until after we know what happens to the Oceanic Six,
Erin

One for the Road Linkbucket

Literary magazine editors on solicitation. This is one I marked to read later, came back, and the comments had gone wild, and there was commentary elsewhere. Also: litmag correspondence gone awry. Also: more litmags should do this.

I'm not sure what to say about this, but I'm sure someone else is.

Matt Bell on Sloane Crosley's essay collection, and writing about video games.

L.A. Times Festival of Books coverage.

Get well soon!

Max revisits the prizewinners.

John Baker on Death of a Murderer.

Why write short stories? Should writers be readers? (via)

Dan on Storyglossia #27, which is here. Dan also hosts Tara Yellen, who talks about writers and mentoring.

A compendium of obsolete skills. (via Waxy)

Near future lit tips and exercises from io9. Also: This sounds a lot like some books I've read.

How writers talk about writing.

If you follow litblogs, then at least one suspect comes immediately to mind. (via, who names some more!)

Free Month of World of Warcraft with Gnomeloaf Purchase

I read Tayari's post on Lexus commissioning fiction, and thought eww...until I clicked through and realized I have a old connection to one of the writers involved.

As there are definitely issues (many of which Tayari outlines very well, and I'll be watching all followups with interest), that discovery compelled me to think about the other side of the coin in a way that LOL INTERNET usually doesn't. One could argue, I suppose, that the Lexus thing is only different from soliciting for a theme issue of a literary magazine in how big the checks are. Or that artists have had wealthy patrons who compelled them to work under commission since the beginning of time. One could also argue that as a car company, Lexus is under less obligation to publish quality unknowns than, say, the New Yorker or any of the other highly regarded fiction venues who regularly do not do so. And of course there's the music-in-commercials analogy, which gets some discussion over at Jeff's.

That last one got me to thinking about marketing, which I'm sure went further than anything else in driving (ha!) the Lexus project. If you've ever sat in a marketing meeting where people are trying to decide how best to get other people with discretionary income to buy something that is not necessarily the least expensive option? And especially if you've ever been in the presence of people who might buy a Lexus? It's not that hard to imagine commissioned fiction of this sort, from writers of this sort, as a result. Such is having lived in Connecticut as a working stiff for 10+ years, I suppose.

At any rate...whether you get a bigass check from a luxury car company or not, marketability is interesting to think about from a fiction perspective. Would this story go better with Buddig ham? IKEA furniture? Pabst Blue Ribbon? A Volkswagen? Depends undergarments? This is true especially when you've got a stack of work on your desk that you're about to send out. Which reminds me, I need to find some paper clips...

Followup on weary commuters

This is the way the world works now. If someone is stupid enough to sit there yammering away on their cellphone on a busy morning rush hour train, they’re not capable of unlearning the behavioral patterns that generated the problem in the first place. The Clublife guy, about John Clifford. (The Village Voice also offers some details on Clifford's technique, which is just, well, ugh. A commenter who identifies himself as Clifford also appears.)

Two weeks of backbucket

Congratulations to you both! My litblog grinch heart grew three sizes today.
Various celebrities' best stories ever, and free speculative fiction online. (both via Metafilter)
Writing as rebellion. I grew up in similar socioeconomic circumstances, and I think there's some real truth to this. Also over at Ward Six: "Material" and material.
Mark Vonnegut on Kurt Vonnegut.
io9's SF high season calendar.
A review of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a hardcover that my seven year old will successfully talk me into buying for us her. She just DEVOURED the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, profiled here. (Via.)
It's not just the economy that's looking to the 1970s for inspiration.
Kafka's The Castle...video game.
Max's Pulitzer roundup.
Kevin Brockmeier will edit Best American Fantasy 3.
MFA Sux0r alerts: Low-res gone very wrong (via Bookfox) and David Leavitt on the dire state of fiction. (Via TEV.)
Callie discusses blogging/writing balance issues. Preach on!
Junot Diaz dystopia novel preview (scroll down). (via Maud)
James Hynes on J.G. Ballard.
And finally: Obsessive Video Montages. I recommend the Lost "WHAT?" compilation, which is somehow even funnier after reading this.