Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind

Sui generis, if you will

Thanks to Marshal Zeringue, you can now find out what books have Tuckerized me. Graham Powell is angling for similar honors:

Please kill me in your next book, story, whatever. Make me the sidekick, the fall guy, the villain, whoever you want. Shoot me, stab me, tickle me to death, I don’t care. Just make sure you spell my name right. Speaking of which, my full name is Edward Graham Powell, Jr. Be sure to use at least two of those elements. And let me know about it so I can gloat in this space.

But as the Rap Sheet's J. Kingston Pierce warns, "novelists can inflict more mischief upon people they know than merely killing them off in their fiction." Ain't that the truth...

Kate Atkinson at the LBC

Kate Atkinson, the marvellous author of the inaugural Litblog Co-Op pick CASE HISTORIES, will be stopping by the LBC site on Monday, August 29 to talk about the book the take your questions. Should be an interesting discussion, just in time for the fall pick, which will be chosen on September 15.

What they saw was what they got

So a number of folks have already asked me how last night's reading went. To be honest? Kind of a blur, which is odd considering my penchant for rigorous post-performance post-mortems ("it took three bars for me to be entirely comfortable." "I didn't hold that note long enough." "My shoulders and back REALLY REALLY hurt.") But I know I got a few laughs in appropriate places, and the ending applause seemed reasonably enthusiastic, so I can't complain.

And it was a great show all round, what with stories of heated love triangles at bible camp, traumatizing encounters with pillows (among other things) why it's not necessarily the best idea to cook a deer skull*, how Albert Camus relates to summer camp, and how a mother's idea of "special needs camp" differs very, very much from the reality of the situation.

Since I believe the protocol is to post the text of the reading, I shall do so after the jump.

*While the audience flinched and groaned, I thought this story was hilarious. But interning in a morgue will cure you of some things...

More reasons why secret blogging just doesn't work

There once was a girl named Helena. A young lass, a smart one, toiling day in and day out at a Major League Publishing House (think of the initials "R" and "H.") The problem is, her job was getting to her. Five years, and she wanted out. She sent out resumes, contacted recruiters, and everything seemed all hunky-dory.

Except for one thing: she set up a blog and bitched about her employers and co-workers, and sadly, our lovely heroine's fate took a decidedly more dramatic turn.

So why do I even know about this?

Well, start with a blind item. Add in a flurry of emailed guesses ("it isn't you, right?" "Nooooo....") and eventually, the the target was hit, and the answer revealed.

And that just makes this missive even more telling...

UPDATE: As expected, the blog's been taken down, though I'm sure the Wayback Machine has an archive kicking around somewhere...

Yet more on this litblogging thing

the Observer's Hepzibah Anderson wonders if bloggers can really make or break books. Or at least, does so for the benefit of the paper:

Exactly what sells books remains mysterious, but one tried-and-tested method is the word-of-mouth recommendation. The world's oldest marketing tool, it's slippery as the truth and impossible to fake. Or so we all thought. Lately, however, American publishers have wised up to the arrival of the so-called 'bloggerati', a network of cyber bookworms whose blogs are signed by the likes of Moorish Girl, Book Dwarf and Four-Eyed Bitch. These are not havens for kinky librarians but online reading journals - digital marginalia on books they've loved and loathed, supplemented by cut-and-paste montages of mainstream reviews. In tone, they offer the same abrasive mix of passion and gunslinging opinion that makes the political bloggers so refreshing.

Despite the book-group boom, reading remains a solitary pursuit and, like all things online, blogs offer a sense of community. In May, that community grew stronger with the birth of the Litblog Co-op, a virtual collective whose 22 American members will single out four new books a year, beginning with Kate Atkinson's Case Histories. Bloggers have been the making of titles like Sam Lipsyte's Home Land and, depending on how lucrative it proves, a Co-op endorsement could yet rival that of Oprah or Richard and Judy.

Um...what?? I mean, that would be nice, and I'm sure the entire LBC would love to wield that kind of power, but it's early days yet.

Also nice to see Charlie Williams quoted about ads and blogs not mixing terribly well.

This is what happens when too many criminal minds get together

Looking for crime reporting with a healthy dose of snark? Then check out Blottered, featuring an assortment of shady types casting their net over the murky world of criminals of every type. I'll be contributing on an occasional basis, so I suspect a lot of the absurd stuff I usually post here will now show up over there.

The Blog Anthology, Part Deux

Yes, it's that time again. The time when a whole host of writers take the same story germ and do as they please. Last time, Dave White & Bryon Quertermous recruited fourteen folks in all to take part. This edition, heretofore known as "Going Twice", almost doubled in size. 

Who's in? See the post directly below. The story germ? An item found, taken or involved in a police auction. The word count? 3000 words. Or at least, that's what it was for those who followed directions and didn't blow right past it...

I've no doubt many people chose a more direct approach to the idea. Me? I chose a different tack, which you can read here.

I originally wrote a huge long piece explaining how I got the idea for the story, but instead, I'll say this: Some of the characters are real, others are not. And although the main character fascinates me enough that I don't think the story's fully done by a long shot,  I'm really more of a Dave Tarras fan...

Blog Story Participants: The Second Time Around

As the stories roll in, the links will go live next to each participant's name:

Alina Adams: "Hitting the Fan"

Ray Banks: "Outbid"

Gwenda Bond: "Unflappable"

Aldo Calcagno: "What Happens in Vegas"

Bill Crider: "Raining Willie"

Paul Guyot: "Bobcat"

Jennifer Jordan: "The Secret Police Auction Executive Balls"

Rochelle Krich: "Why Peggy Didn't Get Married"

Christin Kuretich: "The End"

Pat Lambe: "Initiation"

Stuart MacBride: "Lot 346"

David J. Montgomery: "The Suitcase"

Bob Mueller: "The Sad Girl"

Scott Neumeyer: "Now You Can See"

Graham Powell: "The Leap"

Megan Powell: "Soft Soap"

Bryon Quertermous: "Schmuck with an Underwood"

John Rickards: "The Horror in the Sands"

Gerald So: "Every Man for Himself"

Duane Swierczynski: "Seeing God"

Robert Tinsley: "Familiars"

Steven Torres: "Viktor Petrenko, Have You No Mercy?"

Sarah Weinman: "A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden"

Dave White: "Deliver Us from Evil"

Dave Zeltserman: "The Canary"

News of the LBC

Please do check out the Litblog Co-Op site later today as Reagan Arthur, senior editor at Little Brown, will discuss her role in bringing Kate Atkinson's CASE HISTORIES to publication in the US. I'm certainly looking forward to what she has to say.

Your blog is so bad it killed the blogosphere

Maybe it's a slow day, or maybe I'm easily amused, but whatever the case, this collaboration between TMFTML and Lindsay Robertson will no doubt inspire many new variations. Some of my favorites:

Your blog is so stupid Rosie O’Donell made fun of it in free verse on her blog.

Your blog is so boring Nick Denton wants to pay you $1000 a month not to write.

Your blog is like a pedestrian walkway: no traffic.

Your blog is so self-indulgent Stephanie Klein sent you a box of tampons and a note that says, “Get over it.”

Your blog is so badly written it got you your own column at the New York Press.

Feel free to add your own suggestions in the backblogs.