NaNoWriMo Week 3 at The Confabulator Cafe

As NaNoWriMo has escalated, so to has my Fall semester at grad school. A busy week studying didn’t leave much time for the novel. I talk about it in my latest post at The Confabulator Cafe.  Check it out.

http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2013/11/nanowrimo-week-3-ugh/

The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan (Book Review)

The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan (Book Review)

We are trying something new at The Confabulator Cafe, sharing reviews of books, films, and games. We’ve spent the last two years discussing various aspects of writing as they affect our own lives. Stop by and check out what we think about the writing of other artists.

This week, I review the horror novel The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan, the story of a writer, a found manuscript, ancient evils, and insanity.

http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2013/08/the-red-tree-by-caitlin-kiernan-book-review/

My Mistakes (Free Flash Fiction)

My Mistakes (Free Flash Fiction)

It’s a few hours late due to traveling, but I’ve got a brand new piece of flash fiction titled “My Mistakes” over at The Confabulator Cafe. One of our challenges was to write something outside of our normal genre. As such, this story is totally mainstream. Not a single violent death. Make sure to check it out. 

http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2013/08/my-mistakes-flash-fiction/

Quote Me on That

Quote Me on That

It wasn’t that long ago that I was sort of the quote guy. I used quotes at the beginning of every post, both here and on The Confabulator Cafe. This week, the Cafe asked me to write about quotes and whether or not I keep a log of interesting ones for inspiration. Considering how often I used them, you might be surprised about my true feelings for them.

Check out “Quote Me on That” at http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2013/07/quote-me-on-that/

“TAG” is up at The Confabulator Cafe

“TAG” is up at The Confabulator Cafe

My latest Confabulator Cafe story is available at http://www.confabulatorcafe.com/2013/07/tag-flash-fiction/

“TAG” is based on the prompt of creating a story around a series of letters. My story involves a series of Post-It notes and police reports, which are essentially letters themselves.

Honestly, writing this story wasn’t much fun for me. The format kept me from losing myself in the writing, because I had to tell the story as much through structure as words. I walked away feeling unsure about the story. I’ve thought about writing longer work in a letter format, which was so common in Victorian Gothic writing with such examples as DraculaThe Beetle, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but in this case, I challenged myself to keep all my prose Post-It-like.

Check it out at The Confabulator Cafe.

Thanks for reading.

Jack

The Closing of “My” Bookstore

As I write this, another bookstore is about to die. This, on its own, would be a tragedy in itself. For a booklover, the bookstore is almost as much a part of the experience as the book. From the rainbow of spines peppering the worn wooden shelves to the intoxicating odor of old paper, a bookstore is a special place.

But this isn’t just any bookstore, it is my bookstore, and that makes a world of difference. When I say it is my bookstore, I don’t mean I own it. Not in any literal sense, though I’ve probably spent a month’s rent inside. The store is owned by Half-Price Books, but for me and the regular customers, it was ours.

I know where to find everything, from the Clearance rack that is always my first stop and has been the location of assorted treasures, to the somewhat misplaced genre authors (Caitlin Kiernan and Richard Matheson can be found in Science Fiction and Fantasy, rather than horror). This place is the reason I could go six years without purchasing another book and probably not make it through my collection. They have fueled a sort of addiction, but have also given me the comfort that only a good bookstore can provide.

This story is nothing special. It happens all over the United States, probably every day. Amazon has proven to be the femme fatale mistress of the bookstore. While I love Amazon and my Kindle, it saddens me that physical bookstores are unable to compete.

Yesterday, all the regulars received a letter from Half-Price Bookstore thanking us for our patronage and reminding us of other locations: Olathe, Kansas City, and a new store in Independence, MO. The Lawrence location, they say, didn’t get enough traffic. Of course there are other bookstores. Others in town, others of the same chain in other cities. Unfortunately, 15% off coupons and other options can’t ease my melancholy mind. They aren’t my bookstore.

I’m sure I and the other customers will move on. It’s human nature. But in the meantime, I will miss the little treasures I have found, and the staff that was never anything but nice. Books are very personal things. I’ve found postcards from a trip to Yellowstone in a copy of Bird by Bird, an essay on Faulkner inside a copy of As I Lay Dying, and numerous inscriptions from anonymous loved ones within numerous books that were loved and then passed on.

Books are like people, in that they contain more than their outward appearance. Similarly, while the closing of a bookstore is sad on the surface, it is tragic for the staff who gave so much, but will now be looking for new jobs. I wish the best for all of them, and for all of the customers who will now go on a search for a new bookstore to call their own.

A View from a Park Bench

I’m still recovering a bit from ConQuest 44, but Sara and I already have tickets for next year’s ConQuest 45. You can get advance tickets a lot cheaper, as the price keeps going up over the course of the year. If you are planning on attending, why wait?  www.conquestkc.org

This week, over at The Confabulator Cafe, I shared my thoughts on choosing the point-of-view for a story. Check it out.

“A View from a Park Bench”

Questing with Friends

This weekend, my girlfriend and I are attending Conquest 44 in Kansas City. This is my second Conquest and my girlfriend’s third. It is an interesting convention for me, because the crowd is largely Fantasy and Science Fiction. Horror writers are sort of the unspoken minority, both on the panels and in the dealer room. However, there is a lot of crossover in genre fiction, and it is always exciting to meet new writers, see old friends and colleagues, and just generally relight the fire.

This year, I heard a couple of writers I hadn’t read yet. John Hornor Jacobs (Southern Gods) and Alan Ryker (Among Prey) were both new faces for me. I was impressed enough by Jacobs to pick up his two novels, Southern Gods and This Dark Earth in the dealer room. He shares a lot of my influences. Southern Gods is described as Lovecraftian Southern Gothic, so should be right up my alley.

Being a Fantasy writer, my girlfriend was especially excited about the author Guest of Honor Patrick Rothfuss. We were on our way to his autograph signing, when who should step on to the elevator with us, but Patrick Rothfuss himself. He saw that I was reading Benjamin Percy’s Red Moon and we struck up a bit of conversation about Percy on the elevator ride down. My girlfriend was a little bit starstruck, but seemed to get over it by the time they met again during the signing, when both expressed their love for Joss Whedon.

I love conventions, which is part of the reason I’ve making this one a part of my birthday weekend the last two years, and hopefully the foreseeable future. Jacobs said it best. The conventions really light a fire under you to work. For whatever reason, you go home itching to write. Whether it is competitiveness or reaffirmation of dreams, I always leaving with the itch to produce something great.

Part of it, I think, is the realization that while we are all essentially businesses in direct competition with each other, we are also in it together. The support and camaraderie of other writers will always be a part of this business. We are all after the same thing. While we compete with each other for publications, the irony is that we can go so much farther together than we can on our own.

“Victor’s Indifference” now available in the May 2013 print edition of The Rusty Nail

51M13YCRtlLThe May 2013 print edition of The Rusty Nail is now available. My flash fiction piece “Victor’s Indifference” appears inside. Pick up your copy at Amazon.com by clicking the link below.

The Rusty Nail, May 2013

The Brave New Publishing World and Updates

The Brave New Publishing World and Updates

After a short hiatus, The Confabulator Cafe has returned. Under the new format, each writer will be contributing something different than his colleagues. This week, I wrote about the literary gatekeepers and other aspects of the changing publishing world. Check it out at The Confabulator Cafe

Also, my short story “Hatched” has been picked up by Dark Eclipse and should be out in the very near future.

In addition, the Spring issue of Hungur should be out soon and will feature “Bloodline.”

I’ll be back with links to the publications as they are released.