Rarely Likable

Linkbucket, with headers for your reading convenience

Fangirl Entry:
What Joshua Ferris has been up to lately. I'm one of those people who liked Then We Came to the End a lot (out in paperback now, by the way), so I'm psyched to have this on radar.

Litblog Meme Entry:
In the ongoing debate over the death of the short story, Stephen King forgot about the Internet. (While I'm thinking of it, don't forget to check out the rest of the current issue of The Quarterly Conversation.)

MFA Sux0r Entry:
Heather Christie on the writing workshop rant in the current issue of Poets and Writers. (It's too bad she couldn't hear Richard Jackson at AWP -- he's interesting.) As for me, I read the piece and thought to myself  "How many articles like this has P&W published in the last couple of years?" I'd rather read about what teachers are actually DOING that challenges the age-old workshop model. If Dan Barden thinks he's in the minority by being a former MFA student who nurses a grudge, he's quite mistaken. Geesh, where do you think the tagline for this blog comes from?

News of the Week Entry:
"I suggest she plan to write about her family's next Thanksgiving dinner in Sherman Oaks. Now that would be revealing." James Hynes on the Love and Consequences fabrication story. My sister and I agreed if that either of us pulled something like this? We would totally rat on each other.

Obligatory io9.com Entry:
20 Science Fiction Novels that Will Change Your Life. I've read two of them, so clearly I have some catching up to do. I was a little surprised that my #1 pick was not on the list, but after blurting out my fondness for it a few times? Not THAT surprised.

Read This for It Is Awesome Entry:
In attempting to refute my assertion from an earlier post, Kim totally reinforces it. And again. Ha!

Gaming Entries:
This article is sort of HAY LOOK THERE ARE ECONOMIES WITHOUT REAL MONEY OMG LOL in its timeliness and accuracy. I'm posting it here only because I wish someone would write an article about gamer genderbending that didn't pick a single gender.

From a writing perspective, "video game" has outgrown being a pejorative.

Random Entries that Probably Say More About My State of Mind than Anything:
Challenging spelling words for seven year olds.
Something Awful's Comedy Goldmine takes on famous writers as children.
Cookin with Coolio makes caprese salad.
A Dilbert cartoon that summarizes my life (and does not take place in a cube farm).

Center column linkbucket

Cormac McCarthy took his kid to the Oscars. And Ed agrees with most of my digital coffee klatch re: Diablo Cody.

Iain Banks, only child.

The first chapter of current fiction force Beautiful Children, and Charles Bock interview.

An example of a writer I like, but never remember that I like when someone asks "What writers do you like?"

"The best day jobs involve contact and exposure rather than immersion and responsibility."

Video games as an art form. Mentions the badly named BioShock, as it should.

Why I can't draw.

After I order this and read it, I have a feeling I'm going to want to lend it out -- but will also be obnoxious about getting it back.

I wish Kim would write a memoir.

I TOLD you Coraline will be awesome.

Bucketing here for a change

Tvtropes.org is a fun wiki to browse. Not just TV in here, either -- also literature, film, and comics, among other categories. (I didn't know that one of my nephew's favorite series of books had its origins 84 years ago.) (via)

Gwenda's roundup of that Dave Itzkoff "Where's the dignity?" nonsense. I don't consider myself a YA expert by any stretch of the imagination, and even I feel sorry for him.

Junot Diaz in the WSJ. (via) Russell Banks in the Post Star. (via)

Writers in movies over at The Millions. I would add Stranger than Fiction to the list, but only the scene where Emma Thompson meets her main character in the flesh. Her reaction is dead on.

Possibly the last linkbucket of '07.

I love video games, of course, but I suck at them. Guitar Hero is no exception -- when I move from three buttons to four, it's shameful. Nevertheless, anyone who has played for any length of time has some understanding as to how this happens. (Here's the song.)

Howard and the VQR on the latest version of the Angry Letter, You Can't Possibly Be Giving My Manuscript the Attention It Deserves in Such a Short Period of Time. Working on a literary magazine is like working in retail -- everyone should have to do it at least once, so that in the future they might think twice. Of all the stuff I've sent out and gotten back, I've been tempted to write an Angry Letter exactly once...and I ended up, you guessed it, playing a video game instead.

Yes, I know, linking Gawker is worse than being a litblogger who admits to playing video games, occasionally watching Nickelodeon voluntarily, and having more than one hoodie combined. But this post touches on a lot of the questions/concerns/whatever that crossed my mind when I first saw the Juno trailer. You can read the script here, by the way.

Dave Housley on "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline." As it happens, I was at the inspiration for CivilWarLand over Thanksgiving. The gift shop was arming themselves for the Yuletide onslaught.

Have a writer on your Christmas list? Tayari's shopping tips. I agree with her thoughts on pens, but there are two categories where I love outright giving: handmade, and floaty.

Yet again, Gordon over at After the MFA makes me nod vigorously. I get so depressed when I read academic writing, read fiction by the same author, and have a really hard time telling the difference between the two. It seems to happen less in the business/corporate sphere, but perhaps that's just my perch of observation.

Edited to add...have your child's artwork professionally critiqued! Be sure to look at the example. (And I can't be that unwashed if I got the joke before reading the About page...)

Shopping countdown linkbucket

The 100 Year Letter Challenge should be taken up by more writers, I agree.

You have been faithfully checking out The Millions' A Year in Reading, right?

George Saunders interview Bill Clinton. (via Condalmo)

Someone who hasn't read the books told me this a couple of weeks ago. I told that person that I had, in fact, read the books. The subject changed very quickly. (Still haven't seen the movie.)

My favorite novel this year? Here's a hint.

Bonfire of the Vanities, 20 years later. (via Ed)

New Stephen King, you've read the beginning if you picked up Tin House a while back.

A question I didn't answer at The MFA Blog because it would have taken me all day.

Research rabbit hole: Garden variety identity theft.

Process pron: Xiaolu Guo wrote A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers in English, while learning English.

Just Before I Take the Kid to Brownies Minilinkbucket

This is not a drill: The LBC has spoken.

An Admiral's Feast with Stewart O'Nan. Additional trivia about the Red Lobster that inspired the book: I once listened to a boss argue over a duplicate credit card charge with said restaurant for what seemed like an entire afternoon. (via)

Lots of interesting people making recommendations over at the Millions. Emerging Writers Network, too. I have my pick of the year in mind, and I'm hanging onto it for a little bit longer -- even though it will surprise absolutely no one.

Kim does her thing,  where she tells you what she's learned from something in such a way that you get to learn from it, too.

And finally...congratulations to Gwenda, because that's a great feeling.

There Have Been A Lot of Linkbuckets Lately Linkbucket

“Now which piece a shit are we going to talk about today?” Abby Frucht remembers Elkin, workshop teacher.

The NYT 100 crosspollinated with the PW150, divided by Omnivoracious.

Best ofs may be silly, but this discussion has manga!

Grilled cheese sounds good for lunch.

This David Mitchell interview is being described as bizarre around litblogtown. I read it and thought: This is softcore process porn. What's so bizarre about that? That, of course, got me to thinking about analogies, the Paris Review interviews being goatse, and so on.

Arden I: The World of William Shakespeare is now available as a Neverwinter Nights module. I don't have a copy of NWN (yes, amazingly). If you do, have a look and let me know what you think.

Is your work metal enough?

Upcoming in future posts...discussion of this parallelquel novel and hopefully, the concept of vegetable writers.

Interim linkbucket

Joan Silber on Grace Paley, failure, and endurance.
The Bookworms Carnival is doing short stories this month.
Chris Adrian's short story "Promise Breaker." (via Maud) After reading this I really, really need to track down The Children's Hospital. Info and preview here.
Ander Monson's Christmas picks.
NYT 100. Guardian 75.
And finally...a tv show I suspect will cause a stir. (via Fatshionista)

Procrastination linkbucket

Jeff Parker reading Ovenman.
20 intentionally funny videos. (via Ed)
EWN rocks the Motor City.
Having read a bit of Yannick Murphy lately, this review piqued my interest.
James Hynes on Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy and Extras, which I have and haven't read yet, in that order. While I'm thinking of it...when is Hynes' next book coming out? (via the nicely renovated Gwenda)
The fad for flash fiction.
Fear of autoflushing toilets. Absolutely true.  My daughter overcame her fear of escalators first.
How manga conquered America (in honor of reading my first tankobon!)
Sneak peek at the dead & the gone.

Keep on trucking, NaNofolk. I'm counting on you.

Slightly indexed linkbucket

Novels and novelists:
Nutmeglit. I read about Stewart O'Nan's latest book and thought I wonder if he based it on the Red Lobster in Torrington. Gold star for me! Also: don't yawn at his readings.
Callie does her report thing about Junot Diaz doing his reading thing.
It's also National No Writing Month, of course.
Gwenda continues to trademark "process porn" with Elizabeth Knox.
Six novelist interviews and good advice on character building.

Short stories:
BASS + New Yorker = list of online reading.
Jeff VanderMeer's Conversations with the Bookless: Rachel Swirsky, Nathan Ballingrud, Paul Jessup.
Larry Dark says they are alive and well, provides lots of links. Also, MFAs don't suck.
Lots on Roy Kesey, including one of my favorite stories of his. (And plenty out there about Dzanc.)
Max on Pastoralia.
I wish all anthologies in online bookstores provided a table of contents. I have no idea where that responsibility lies -- I'm guessing a little with the publisher, a little with the bookseller. But as one of the 216 people in this country who regularly flip through short story anthologies at the bookstore? I will wager that at least 200 of the other ones also look at the table of contents, rather than relying solely on the back of the book. That said, it was a very nice surprise to buy a copy of Best American Fantasy and discover that one of my favorite stories from 2006 is in it.

Craft and other writerly issues:
Quit your job and write your book.   Or, don't!
Why to support the WGA strike, even if you'll miss The Office, and how it affects more people than you think.
On (not) giving up.
Lots and lots of books for writers.
Rejection slip postscript...still interesting when you didn't submit (though in this particular case, I did think about it).

My research rabbit hole:
Guppy syndrome.
In defense of the mall.
Speculations about Ymir, aka Gliese 581c.

Video games:
I haven't played WoW since early July. Hellgate London, mentioned here, is by no means a replacement, but I'm enjoying the hell out of it.