Rarely Likable

The Time I Spend Reading, I Could Be Doing Something Else Linkbucket

Usually I read a book and like it *after* someone's snapped up the film rights. Other way around this time.

Journals accepting work this summer, and journals that accept online submissions. This one does both!

Uh, wasn't Vonnegut something of a Luddite?

I'm not ready to proclaim myself an addict to NYC Prep, but I can back the sentiments of this post.

J. Robert Lennon, craft, Oulipo, YouTube.

Brain Harvest is hosting a microfiction contest, judged by Jeff VanderMeer.

I like Stanley Elkin, so I'm psyched about this.

What the George Lucas TV series *should* be.

Example: Having a day job can help your writing.

This New York Times game lets you try texting while driving.

Dzanc Best of the Web 2009 blog tour roundup at Matt's.

The Virgin Suicides Sweet 16. (via lots)

Really interesting/cool litmag, interview about it with some more details.

I really love how PANK magazine always makes the effort to do things right.

Commuting patterns in the Washington, DC area.

Happy birthday, Tai Shan! I used to watch you via Internet cam at work, when you were a baby. No thanks, I don't want any cake.

Howard's got an interesting idea.

Free whoopee cushion with purchase!

Gabriel Orgrease provides a summary of the garden gnome liberation movement.

How to get on The Sartorialist. And how to react to gaming news, sorted by platform.

Book marketing fail.

And finally...WASH ME

Last year's linkbucket

Just a reminder: If you enjoy Rarely Likable's linkbuckets, you should also watch the delicious page. I have strong suspicions that 2009 will bring more entries there than they will under this header.

A literary community that really looks like it's worth checking out. (via Perpetual Folly, which has also been selecting the best New Yorker stories of 2008. Start here, if you haven't read any of it yet.)

Another interesting new place to read about writing. (via lots!)

Blake Butler's year of submitting longer work to small presses, which links to Shane Jones' piece about same.

I've spent a hell of a lot of time in the last few months mulling over policies for you know what, and therefore Scott Garson's take on such matters was of particular interest.

Tayari Jones provides more helpful pointers before breakfast than most people will in a lifetime. This time around? Short fiction contests.

The Columbia MFA funding thing. I am really glad that discussion of issues like this has come so far in the last few years.

Matt lets it slip that Michael Kimball's life-on-a-postcard series will be used as contributor notes for the next issue of Keyhole. I was already set to stalk my mailbox...sheesh...

Are video games anything like novels? Looking at what I played in 2008 alone? Bioshock. Several Final Fantasy games. Fallout 3. The most recent WoW expansion. The World Ends With You. Guild Wars. Video games were instrumental in getting me back to writing fiction, when I'd quit a few years ago. Mini-resolution for this year: Writing something about that experience.

Snow day in Seattle!

Printing this out for the bulletin board...except that defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

I also like this book a lot.

And finally: Five worst Dalek cakes.

More like a link paper cup than a linkbucket.

Not a lot today because I've mostly been reading and (gasp) writing. I'll talk about that sometime soon.

Thanks to this post, I picked up a collection of Leonard Michaels' short stories and had some why the hell haven't I read these before??? moments. If you like Barthelme and Paley, you need to get this book immediately.

Joshua Henkin on a few things that I happen to like. I agree that that there are fetishistic things going on in all three examples. It doesn't bother me because I'm very obsessive ruminative, but I can see where that would translate into heavy-handed.

I've often wondered about the CLMP's online submissions manager. Vivian at upstreet explains its benefits from an editorial point of view.

And finally...I always feel like I annoy people when I send things in Facebook, so here goes: You're welcome to join a Facebook group that I started out of very serious concern. (Feel free to friend me if you haven't, by the way.)

Pondering summer's end linkbucket

The Quarterly Conversation has a new issue. Looking forward to diving in. Also in my online new issue TBR pile: Storyglossia.

Kelly Spitzer profiles Rusty Barnes. I really enjoy her series a lot. It's like a literary trunk show.

As a matter of fact, I'm using the Internet to procrastinate right now.

This feature breaks a personal rule I have...which means, of course, I love the idea. John Klima has the first installment.

Chad Simpson on flash fiction. (via)

I've always hated stuff like this, too. When I was younger, it totally set me up for an inferiority complex. Now it's about outside perception. Dan can get his crappy story in the New Yorker and you can't?

And finally...the song currently stuck in my head.

Better living through linkbucketry

Twitter, I has it. I mostly try to tell the truth about how much I slacked each day.

After all of the great guest posts? I am really looking forward to getting my hands on Dzanc's Best of the Web 2008.

Tod needs to tape his signings. I'd watch a TV show of this stuff.

Barrelhouse's new contest made me clap my hands with glee.

Tayari explains why she's been using pen and ink lately.

I'm one of those people who is fascinated by Dubai. If you are too, here you go.

A great story about a missing novel page, and its author offering to save the day.

And finally...this is one of those blog posts that I happened to read at exactly the right time. Thanks.

Why the Hell Not Linkbucket

While this writer type makes do with Project Runway, Abu Dhabi gets The Prince of Poets!

The Atlantic's summer fiction issue is pretty much entirely online.

The Alchemy of Stone = added to my wishlist thanks to this review and others.

Michelle does a reading, and tells a great story.

Gwenda on a well known Rochester expatriate.

Joan Silber interviewed at The Millions.

Clarion is doing teacher podcasts this year!

Neil Gaiman talks about the results of giving away digital copy of American Gods.

I don't think it's the woman thing so much as the attractive woman thing. Doesn't make it any less ridiculous, though...

Montana writers are learning how to connect with a new audience.

A (linky) reason to love Five Star Literary Stories.

While I understand the gist of All the Right Equipment Does Not A Good or Productive Writer Make blog posts, I'm tired of the anti-coffee shop ranting...and more than a little aware that I have yet to read it from a female writer who is a parent. I suspect there are some BIG reasons for that.

And finally...my own daughter, obviously much less of an activist, returns them to the counter and asks for a replacement.

Bucketly Yours

-- Some indication that my IM/flash fiction correlation is probably not stupendous.

-- Voting has begun for the Million Writers Award. Please note: Although it's not technically a civic duty, this voting is a lot more fun than waiting in a long line to give someone your driver's license, be told you're in the wrong line, get into another long line, fill in some bubbles, feed a piece of paper into a giant blue box, and be handed an I VOTED!!! sticker by someone who is never less than 70 years old (just an observation, not a complaint) and gives one to your kid, even though your kid didn't vote.

-- Books people recommended to The Doorman. It seems like Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell and Italo Calvino are ALWAYS on lists like these. Again...just an observation, not a complaint.

-- Mint infused simple syrup is REALLY good in Diet 7Up. But I think it also crosses off the "Diet" part. Just an...ah, forget it.

-- Once again: If George Saunders had a TV network, I'd never change the channel. Speaking of which, have you heard about Hurl? When I did, it made me think of Min and Jade watching TV in "Sea Oak". (Also, don't forget...Hell's Kitchen is on tonight, and there's no one I'm rooting for except Petrozza.)

-- Someone got on me for not pimping myself enough, so here goes: A story I wrote is on this list, and I am very flattered. I liked Wigleaf already -- reading it was how I got the good news. Here's Mark Sarvas' interview with editor Scott Garson last month.

-- Erika and Tayari talk about abandoning their first novels. I have a finished draft of a short novel that's about televangelism and downgraded saints and fighting family members and mail order brides and, ultimately, aluminum siding. Technically it's not dead, but it's definitely frozen in carbonite.

-- These documents include articles on workmen's compensation and workplace safety; appeals for the founding of a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked veterans; and letters arguing relentlessly for a salary adequate to his merit.

-- Posts on reading coming soon. This book and this book, for starters. Stay tuned.

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!)

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.

Answer: Post a linkbucket.

Working on something still. Hell's Kitchen premieres tonight. MY GOD, WHAT TO DO?????

Ed never disappoints on April 1.

Making up stories for your kids. My daughter and I have a long running series about a leprechaun and man, does that guy go to a lot of parties.

Predictable, but I'm not really complaining.

Fence does a Radiohead.

Gwenda offers an excellent Sweet Valley High roundup. I was a Dune and Vonnegut kinda teenager, but I got obsessed with the Wakefield twins during my bookstore selling days.

Speaking of obsessions, here's that Atlantic Britney thing.

Kelly Spitzer polls editors about the slush.

Got the January/February edition of Weird Tales the other day (believe me, the delay is a nonsurprise in my corner of the postal world). Haven't had time to look through it all, but I really dug Cat Rambo's "Events at Fort Plentitude." So much so that I went to the website and discovered, woohoo, there is other fiction to be had there. Go look!

And finally...today's featured videos on YouTube are uniformly excellent. Check them all out.