Rarely Likable

Minor Changes

Linkbucket entries are returning to the center column. The left hand column of this website will now feature poetry, fiction and other online literary work that I've enjoyed.

If you visit this site via an RSS reader and want to know what I like to read besides cereal boxes and Entertainment Weekly? You're not going to see it anymore unless you add this feed to your list: http://feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/rarelylikable?count=15

I made this decision because there are lots of literary magazines that don't offer RSS feeds. My previous  link-keeping system was biased strongly in favor of those that do. As much as I think that editorial attitudes should change, I've been missing out. I don't like missing out, particularly as a reader.

I should grandfather in entries from before today, but I'm not that ambitious. Instead, I look forward to filling up the column. It won't take long.

The Plan

One concept embedded in NaNoWriMo that I've always liked: It's only one month out of an entire life.

My goal is to spend more time this month writing and reading (online and offline) fiction, and less time writing and especially reading Internet stuff that isn't fiction.

Three exceptions to that last part: IMs, emails, and anything pertaining to The Northville Review.

All of that means minimal Twitter and Facebook reading and updates. It means very little Google Reader.

I'm always reluctant to contact people via IM and email because I'm worried it will be a nuisance. That's not the case with me, though. Ever. And honestly? I'm afraid November is going to get claustrophobic. 

Here goes.

Every Novel Has Its Paper Cut

Dear NaNoWriMo:

You've probably figured it out by now, let's make it official: I'm just not that into you this year.

We've had a long, storied relationship. Most of the time it didn't work out the way we would have liked, but it was still very much worth the effort. Over the years, you've given me plenty to think about. Even more important, you've given me specific and sometimes even attainable goals that (bonus!) made sense to the people around me.

But these days? I'm just not feeling it. I'm sure you've noticed I've been hanging out with short fiction lately. Short fiction's always been a very good friend, and lately our Blackjack Taco lunches have been exactly what I need to get through the day. Flash fiction usually shows up in time for a Choco Taco dessert, and that's been good too. I have a big fat notebook, and this November I'm going to fill it up completely with lots of different stuff. I'm excited, and I know I wouldn't try this without having met you first.

I'm sorry you overheard me say that you are getting a little too Claire's Boutique for my taste. Sometimes I say cruel things when I don't want to think about my own issues. I do that fairly often, actually. To be honest, you haven't changed much at all. And being less Claire's Boutique probably does this uncute writer no favors, but as every reality star who has to deny a suitor their token says? That's how it is sometimes.

You don't need me. You do just fine with writers who are completely faithful to you. I'd wish you a fantastic November, but you will have one anyway.

Caffeinatedly yours,

Erin

What if Linkbucket was in a relationship with Personal Blog?

"Too many online literary magazines seem to be unhappily waiting for the day when they can afford a print run, and ignoring most of the benefits of being a web publication in the meantime."

I drank a lot of tea this week. It's not even that cold outside. God, I love rooibos.

Top 10 Worst MFA Slogans.

Started using alpha hydroxy moisturizer again. My skin looks like a pencil eraser.

"That’s what’s both right and wrong with indie publishing. THE FUCKING PEOPLE."

Reading Brian Evenson's Fugue State. The first story is scary.

"Proposition Forty-Six," Sumanth Prabhaker.

Trying to turn the key in my car's ignition is like Luke Skywalker wearing the blast helmet and hitting the training remote with his light saber. When I stop trying to whack it with my hand and simply stretch out with my feelings? It works.

Roxane Gay on Chris Gaines.

I played a little Aion this week. Not much, though. I've been pretty busy.

"Tryouts," Jessie Carty.

I saw Where the Wild Things Are with my daughter last Sunday afternoon. The theater was packed with kids, parents, and apparently stranded hipsters. When a scene came along where Max built a fort in his room and lined up his stuffed animals as his loyal fort-dwelling friends, I knew my daughter would consider the movie a riveting documentary. The kids in front of us were her age, and they were bored out of their skulls. She and I both cried at the end. I had a pocketful of Kleenex at the ready. Movies and marching bands, no matter how bad, always make me cry. It's really embarrassing sometimes.

Sean Lovelace, whose nacho pictures in other posts always make me hungry, reviews a book that I liked very much.

My husband and I are sitting here talking about how old U2 looks.

Book Notes playlist for Daniel Nester's How to Be Inappropriate. Related: Oh, man.

I want to see The Box. And The Road, of course. We're gonna be seeing a whole lot of Pittsburgh next month. Why haven't I read anything about A Serious Man before now?

Avery 5 teasers!

I bought my Hallowe'en costume today. It's not that great. Maybe I'll put up a picture when the day arrives.

This got me to thinking...is there another book of our era that is as ripe for parody?

Know what else I played this week? The demo for Brutal Legend. Loved every minute of it -- idea is original, dialogue is hilarious, gameplay is good. I have no money for video games right now, though. I spent it all on indie lit and rooibos tea.

"Becoming a Writer," Junot Diaz. (via Gwenda)

This is on at the same time as Mad Men. Damn you, VH-1!

On strip malls.

Things I don't understand: Short sleeve coats and cardigans.

"Do I Really Love You," Ethel Rohan.

I'm planning on an Internet brownout in November. More on that later in the week.

Obligatory TMN link: Ushering in an era of universal authorship.

I usually hate January, but...

...I am really looking forward to Aaron Burch's HOW TO TAKE YOURSELF APART, HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF ANEW: notes and instructions from/for a father.

I hope the runners up* find good homes**, because I want to read them too.

*That said, I have read one of them. It has ABBA in it. God help us all.

**Hopefully in time for AWP, because buying stuff there is where I'm a Viking!

I Thought Stephen King Learned His Lesson from Co-Op City in The Dark Tower.

"Graduation Afternoon" is supposedly one of the best stories in Just after Sunset. Problem is, it's a story that's heavily reliant on geography...and the geography here is totally wrong.

(You can read what I've read here. Spoiler alert: I'm told the Google Books edition is missing two key pages of AWESOME.)

Those not familiar with Connecticut, like Stephen King apparently, should refer to my customized and bitchy Google Map.

View Graduation Afternoon = Shenanigans in a larger map

1. At one point, it is implied that the story takes place within the vicinity of New London. At another, it's implied that the story takes place near "Route 219". Connecticut may be the nation's second smallest state, but these two landmarks are not near each other...and Route 219 is nowhere near the all-important-to-the-story Long Island Sound. Different towns, different Stop and Shops, different school districts, different newspapers, different counties.

2. New London is absolutely not close enough to Manhattan to be seen from a patio, much less for office windows to be visible. I'm not sure it's visible from Westport, CT, which is a hell of a lot closer. I know it's sometimes visible from the Tappan Zee Bridge. The map above gives that point of reference.

3. While Janice can technically "go to State," no one would refer to it that way. If she means the University of Connecticut, that is simply UConn. If she is referring to a school in the Connecticut State University system, she would think of it by the popular abbreviation of its name. The only school in the system with a program in journalism is Southern Connecticut State University, which is referred to as "Southern." I could see that sounding a little off in a story about Connecticut, where very little is Southern, but changing Janice's aspirations to fit WestConn is small potatoes.

4. No matter where you live in Connecticut, even if it's Hartford or New Haven, New York City is "the city." Not "NYC." No, no, no.

Now I need to go read the rest of the story so that I can get Connecticut-apocalypicky on that, too.

Enough time to take a breath

I am really tapped out. There is just too much out there. I would go find a cave in the woods somewhere and draw on the walls, but The Northville Review adds to the pile tomorrow. The new issue has much that is good. We are also rolling out a new regular feature -- a feature to which, I might add, the initial response has been tremendous and humbling. And the rest of the online litmag awards season, TNR style, will be announced by Hallowe'en.

I wrote for years without really paying much attention to the online writing world. In many ways, the change has been wonderful. Sometimes, though, it's even lonelier. That wasn't something I expected, and it makes me uncomfortable to think about. Which, of course, means I need to think about it.

Some things you should look at, instead of reading this:

new issue of PANK

new issue of DOGZPLOT (and its flash fiction counterpart)

new issue of FRiGG

new issue of killauthor

new litmag, Sententia

new entries at VIPs on VSF

new issue of decomP

Wigleaf updates all the time!

There is so much more that I have neglected to mention. Not because I dislike it, and wish to be quietly polite. There is just so much more out there. How do you keep track of it all?

Linkbucketage

Interviews! Margaret Atwood. Joe Young. Jason Jordan. Michael Czyzniejewski. Victoria Lancelotta. Michael Chabon. Ron Carlson. PANK authors and literary journal editors.

New Northville: October 19th or so. Then a little more than a week after that, a special Poetry Haters issue. Don't worry, it'll all stay on the front page of the site. There'll also be a new department. I am very very excited about the new department. I am clapping my hands right now and everything.

Don't we all?

There's a place in hell for you, Maria Shriver. While I'm thinking of it...is anyone else startled by those Whiten Your Teeth with Lasers photos? As in, this is just CNN...why are they now offering free futuristic torture porn? Bad ratings?

I am really enjoying How to Be Inappropriate. Next up will likely be Fugue State.

If you think this is bad, try being a tall woman who isn't thin.

I wrote a story a few weeks ago that I hoped would be something longer because I liked the main character so much. But yesterday, I finally realized: Nope, it is what it is.

Analysis of multitrack masters of Beatles songs.

Since I've been asked a couple of times, current appointment TV: Mad Men (Getting a little concerned...hey Don, what happened to your car?), The Office (Also concerned, would be more concerned if Andy Bernard wasn't one of my favorites), Project Runway (Shirin and, uh, Logan), FlashForward (Dialogue bad, plot and cameos good. Also, Jack Davenport. SHUT UP.)

I wish I was here. I will be here, by the way.

Kristina Born's One Hour of Television looks really good.

I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I am, however, going to use November for something.

Mmm, I'm not sure it's so different for short story writers. Ravi, however, makes an excellent point about room for burial in work of that length.

My FTC compliance statement is on the "About" page of this blog. I do like the idea on Ed's blog very much, though.

Telecommuting: Still not cool in the film industry. (via the magnificent TMN)

Someday I'm going to go through all of my stories and flag the ones I wrote while taking antidepressants. I have a feeling it won't be a particularly illuminating experience.

Octolinkbucket

"My First Serial Killer," Julie Innis.

In praise of Pastoralia.

Enchanting interpretations of Light Boxes. (Also: Molly's novella looks terrific.)

On Magic: The Gathering, nostalgia, and form.

A trailer for a movie I want to see, and a George Saunders quote that resonates.

"White Devil," Jason Jordan.

Post-game commentary on the Millions' millennium list, focusing on "hybrid" novels.

"In my circle of friends, it's someone else entirely." -- Kurt Vonnegut.

I can very much relate to this.

Know who provides an entire website of writing tips? Peace Corps volunteers.

Ongoing tale of homeless Sims 3 characters will be ending soon.

"Little Plaid Ghost," Jeff Wood.

Jessie's story of quitting and starting again has me noticing a pattern amongst writers. Conclusion: There can be something immensely liberating to walking away from everything you associate with writing...and then, eventually, returning to the act itself on new terms.

How much of your life should writing take up?

Worth mentioning in context: I know of a tiny online literary magazine that had more unique visitors last month than the print run size of some fairly well-regarded paper literary magazines.

I totally would have gone to this.

This tale of NaNoWriMo makes me sad in its shark-jumpiness. I'll have a post up soon about how I intend to observe this coming November.

Don't get me started on Hungry Like the Wolf.

I've been thinking about Laura Ellen Scott's class, for whom this (excellent, you should read it) blog is intended. I think this is because I remember being 22 and knowing the fun was about to end and not realizing that applying for MFA programs wasn't the antidote and JUST TRYING SO HARD TO DO EVERYTHING RIGHT but not realizing that's not how it works in the Land of Grownups sometimes.

22 year old me would have either been scared to death or irritated by flash fiction, and never would have realized (clearly, I sucked at realizing then) the foundation for flash was already there.

Where? Music videos. They're self-contained works of art. And they're usually three or four minutes long.

Let's take a look at the Video Music Award winners from the year I was a senior in college -- 1992. It wasn't even a particularly good year for music videos, but there are some worth mentioning.

The video of the year was Van Halen's "Right Now." It's all about playing with form. There's no traditional plot -- the language and the visuals carry the day.

Another video that did well at the VMAs that year was the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge." No traditional plot here, either -- as the literal version points out.

Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" won Best Alternative Video. Video link here, because I couldn't find an embeddable version. Band plays...kids mosh...janitor dances...so what happens, exactly? And yet, it works. It's beautiful, in its own way and on its own terms. It's immediately recognizable, and it's memorable. You could do worse than to emulate it.

The only conventional plot-driven video in the VMA bunch that year was Guns N'Roses "November Rain." It won for Best Cinematography. It's over nine minutes long, which is flat out cheating. The only parts I ever remember are Slash's solo at about the four minute mark, and the wedding cake getting wiped out at 6:59. You never do find out what actually happened to Stephanie Seymour, which is the first thing someone would point out in workshop. The next comment would be "It ends with a little man getting rained on, and it's called November Rain? Really?"

1992 also gave us a video that, 17 years later, has emerged as a true classic. Flash fiction writers, take note: