Rarely Likable

I'm just saying

This made me laugh.  More specifically:

Same thing with Story Quarterly, a magazine I've been in maybe 12 times. Maybe it's what they call graduate fiction-workshop writing. It's dull. It's not deep. I wonder whether people write that way because it gets published.

Most "people" who come to this sort of conclusion generally do it before the 12th acceptance.

Yeah, there's someone I kinda hope reads this

Glancing through a mass email today, I was reminded...

Back when I was 23 or so, I interviewed for a job that would have been a lateral move into another department. I knew I was up against two other people. The hiring manager met with me on my lunch hour. We chatted pleasantly for a little while, and then something came up and she had to excuse herself.

It was about ten seconds after she left her desk that I noticed the top of her desk. On it was a ginormous, presentation-ready poster of the department hierarchy. Absolutely no squinting necessary. And in the slot for the position for which I was interviewing? The name of one of the other candidates.

To this day, I really wish that I'd called her on it when she returned to the office.

The lesson here? I really don't care if you think you're going to hurt my feelings. Just please, don't waste my time.

Nooooooooooooo

The Fortean Bureau can't close up shop! They never got a chance to reject my work!

Not quite a post

But I should mention it and I'm about to go out the door for a Polar Bear Festival, so: George Saunders will be the judge at this year's Boston Review short story contest.

Look, it's lit-related!

Emerging Writers Network (aka Dan Wickett) makes an awesome proposition -- subscribe to at least two literary magazines on their list, get one free.   Just need to decide which ones...

Sarah Waters' The Night Watch  reviewed. (via)

In the I Have To Write a Full-Length Post About This Someday Department: Why SFF is (or isn't) the new black in literary fiction.

The JT Leroy speculation thickens: "A lot of people believed they were supporting not only a good and innovative and adventurous voice, but that we were supporting a person." Unrelated but related, this could be an interesting development.

Woohoo!

Factsheet 5 is coming back!

And related, I got an email from my sister. Crafty little sister that she is, she sent me an old review:

Galleria: The Journal of Pre-mortgage Suburbia Vol 2 Issue 1 Summer '95

Erin and Co. do an excellent job exploring suburban/mall culture in all its glory. Kinda like a cross between *Beer Frame* and *Interesting*, with lots of discussions about the pleasures of suburban living.

This issue presents a comprehensive portrait of Rochester, New York. Chris told us about the overly zealous Henry who works at Freddy's drug store, Whitney described Rochester's exciting fashion, Mr. Cashaw spoke about his experiences at Wegmans, and they compiled a handy (one-page) tear-out reference guice to all that Rocherst has to offer. Thinkin' 'bout getting a job at Microsoft? Don't send your resume until you see what's on the menu. They printed the entire menu describing the surprisingly yummy foods available at the Redmond, Washington Microsoft campus. Tucked in the back is a two-page guide to some of the most unusual things found on the Internet.

Lots of short stories too, making it a complete package.

Anytime anyone mentions Galleria, on reflex I say "Yeah, that was fun, I miss doing a zine." It WAS fun, harassing people to write stuff, doing the (laughable) desktop publishing, swapping issues with other zine editors. Ten years ago, before the Internets was much beyond gopher://.

So, what's more suburban than a comeback?

GALLERIA, now The Journal of Suburban Ennui, rises again. It is a print zine only -- none of this Internet crap.  Email queries and/or submissions (articles, stories, cartoons, letters, miscellany) dealing with suburbia to galleria (at) houseofennui (dot) com. Payment consists of cool stuff I find around my house.  I expect it to be 5.5 x 8", maybe 40 pages. Not at all slick. I may have some old sample issues kicking around -- send me an address if you want to see a copy.

I'm going to shoot for a new issue publication date of September 12.  Pricing and subscription info to follow. God help us all.