Twittering “Two Weirdoes”

I am very busy at the day job today, but on my breaks from work I’ll be twittering the entire text of “Two Weirdoes, a Shovel, and Lots of Open Land,” which I discussed on Making the Book the other day.

The Twitter version of “Two Weirdoes” starts here.

Read the full article here, and add your comments.

Making the Book #003: Two Weirdoes, a Shovel, and Lots of Open Land (Video)

Making the Book is a Web video series where I read and discuss my written work. Each week, I look back at how the stories I’ve published came to be and offer advice based on my experience as an adjunct English instructor and a lifelong writer. This week, I’m reading and discussing “Two Weirdoes, a Shovel, and Lots of Open Land,” a short story first published in The Bradford ReView and later collected in Those Little Bastads.

“Two Weirdoes” was written as a reaction to the pretentious workshop commentary provided by a particular subset of my Introduction to Fiction class at Bradford College (circa 1996). The message of the story was “let’s all stop taking ourselves so seriously,” and, while most of that class found little humor in the jokes being made at their expense, the story went on to find an audience with people who, while they didn’t necessarily understand every in-joke, found great humor in the absurdity of a thirsty suburbanite pow-wowing with two Beckett-quoting weirdoes in the middle of an open field. They may not have known that the inscription on the story’s gun was a nod to Joyce Carol Oates, but it turned out that not knowing that didn’t matter.

If you’ve read Those Little Bastads and would like to suggest which story I discuss next, .

Read the full article here, and add your comments.

Making the Book - One Week Hiatus

I’m taking a week off from Making the Book to catch up on some other work, and to get back on track with my current writing project. In the meantime, why not check out the first episode of “You’ve Got to Read This”, a video series I did for my old Website, The Intersection.

Read the full article here, and add your comments.

Making the Book #002: Revelation (Video)

Making the Book is a Web video series where I read and discuss my written work. Each week, I look back at how the stories I’ve published came to be and offer advice based on my experience as an adjunct English instructor and a lifelong writer. This week, I’m reading and discussing “Revelation,” a short story first published as “Christbearer” in The Bradford ReView and later collected under its current title in Those Little Bastads.

“Revelation” is a story about what happens when a Jesus Christ is cloned from a blood sample found on the Shroud of Turin. Originally told from the point of view of an angry young atheist, it has since been revised so that it is now seen through the eyes of a devout Christian woman. In this week’s episode of Making the Book, I talk a little about why our choice of point-of-view characters is so important.

If you’ve read Those Little Bastads and would like to suggest which story I discuss next, .

Read the full article here, and add your comments.

Making the Book #001: Sam (Video)

Making the Book is a Web video series where I’ll read and discuss my written work. I’ll look back at how the stories I’ve published came to be and offer advice based on my experience as an adjunct English instructor and a lifelong writer. This week, I’m reading and discussing “Sam,” a short story first published in The Bradford ReView and later collected in Those Little Bastads.

Here’s an excerpt:

Sam hated everybody. Everybody sucked. They were all assholes. He hated each and every person on the face of the planet, including the millions he’d never even met. He hated everyone except for the redheaded girl that sat in front of him in Lit class.

He loved her.

If you’ve read Those Little Bastads and would like to suggest which story I discuss next, .

Read the full article here, and add your comments.