Guest Blogging is Sexy

Don’t believe me? Check here: http://www.chipmacgregor.com/

Guest Blogging

Feel free to check out my guest blog at Chip MacGregor’s site: http://chipmacgregor.typepad.com/.

After Googling Chip’s name for an appropriate descriptor, I came up with “the Simon Cowell of the Christian publishing world.” Thank you, Jennifer Schuchmann. 😉

In all kindness, he’s wicked smart, he knows the Christian publishing business, and for some reason, he allowed me to post my ramblings on his blog. Maybe he’s just too excited about the Colts playing in the Super Bowl this Sunday to care about the real world!

Denis Johnson’s “Emergency”

Okay, first, I am in love with Tobias Wolff’s reading voice: http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/05/11/090511on_audio_wolff

As for “Emergency”…

I appreciate the language in it, i.e. “the road we were lost on cut straight through the middle of the world,” “the tang of evergreens stabbing us,” “the only light visible was a streak of sunset flickering below the hem of the clouds.” And they continue. I love the beautiful word choices. I love the big ideas combined with the minute details. I wish I could write like that.

I also appreciate the story–I am reminded of Kerouac’s The Road and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. A never-ending journey and an overt concern for bunnies. I love lines like this: “The bunnies weren’t a problem yet, or they had already been a problem and were already forgotten.” Apparently, I have a fascination with writer’s messing with my sense of time. Or I did have a problem with that, but I don’t now. Or, I am going to have a problem with it, but I don’t yet. =)

But… really… must we have the use of drugs? I find a bit of magic removed from stories when writers rely on the use of a good trip. Maybe it’s that I listened to the stories my dad told about his clients (he’s a substance abuse counselor), or maybe it’s my Baptist upbringing. Either way, I think magic is so much more fun when there is no explanation, or when the explanation is new, different–not drugs. On the other hand, Wolff thinks that because the story is so tightly written that it is different from a normal “tripping” story. I can see that, but I would question the necessity of the drugs.

In other news, my sister is going to save lives. She is in nursing school. 😉

If you don’t do anything else this Christmas…

Buy this book:

http://shop.notesandgracenotes.com/.

First, because Allan Shapiro is an amazing author. Second, because I am an amazing editor. And, I am not cocky at all.

Just saying.

Writing Contest

Umm… clearly, you should submit here. Clearly.

http://shop.notesandgracenotes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=11.

Also Read… (Compliments of Emerging Writers Network)

Because I am in love with Dan Wickett, I have been stalking his site for a while. I also read the following recommendations and you should, too!:

Brady Udall “A Story”

Matt Bell “An Index of How Our Family was Killed”

Elizabeth Ellen “Samuel L. Jackson is Not a Good Name for a Rabbit”

The Duct Tape Brother by Daniel Torday

So, I have been checking out the short stories on Emerging Writer’s Network because Dan Wickett is featuring short stories. I just finished reading “The Duct Tape Brother” by Daniel Torday and found myself LOLing at his sheer awesome creativity. In short, a boy decides he wants to create a duct tape brother, so he does. They, of course, participate in several brotherly antics, until one day the duct tape brother gets bitten by a beagle and starts to unravel. The plot thickens, as they say, at this point, and the duct tape brother goes through several periods of sickness, including a hospital stay and some surgeries. All the while, the non-duct tape brother and non-duct tape brother’s parents remain vigilent. Essesntially, the story is structured similarly to any short story about a child who might have a fatal illness–same consequences, same thoughts/questions/emotions. The only difference is that said child is made of duct tape.

Oh, and he likes to pick his nose.

And just because of that… you should go read “The Duct Tape Brother”, compliments of Daniel Torday.

P.S. The link to his FB page is here: http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Torday/553411463, though I have no idea whether or not he is the FB friendly type or not. So, add at your own risk.

William Gay

Right now I am reading “Wreck on the Highway”. Just finished “I Hate to See that Evening Sun Go Down”. After this, I need to read something more… female.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned my hatred of baseball…

… on my blog yet. Just to cover all of the bases.

(LOL’s at own baseball pun. Back to work on grading student papers.)

Reading Alice Munro. And Brandon Tice. Can you say, way awesomer than baseball?

Prayer

… is something I do a lot.

One of my biggies (besides randomly coming into a heck of a lot of chash so I can pay off my school bill) is that all of my friends/family will come to Denver.

Well… in the light of this being AWP week in Chicago, I figured I would do a huge shout out to my prayer answerer in that next year… 2010… AWP is comin’ to Denver.

I am so excited! This makes me want to hug people. A lot. Eeek!