"A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson..."
---Kirkus
Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and finalist for the Crawford Award. Title short story listed for the 2000 O. Henry award.
I’ll be at Readercon this weekend–if you are as well, say hello.
Here is the one panel I’ll be on…really looking forward to this one, noon on Friday.
“In Search of Lost Time: History and Memory in Historical and Speculative Fiction. Alan DeNiro, David Anthony Durham (L), Lila Garrott, Andrea Hairston, Howard Waldrop. [...]
Tue, July 6 2010 » Fiction » No Comments
My computer has been in the shop for, like, about a month because of a virus. I haven’t really had a backup computer suitable for blogging. UNTIL NOW.
OK, so it’s time to blog about the sorcery of social media.
This essay by Jim Grote adroitly puts together a case for Simone Weil’s theory of “social [...]
Mon, June 21 2010 » Fiction, Polis, Religion/Logos » No Comments
Hey folks, if you happen to be from St. Louis and reading this, I’ll be reading there tomorrow at 7pm with some other folks as part of the Exploding Swan reading series. It will be at a farm. In the city. Precisely, Slow Rocket Farm on 1944 Cherokee St. So I do hope you can [...]
Fri, May 21 2010 » Total Oblivion » No Comments
The dandelion is a noble flower, mimicking the tooth of a lion. It is not its fault that there are far too many of them, populating my lawn in their multitudes.
A commonality doesn’t have to destroy beauty.
It’s also a shame that on de-weeding chemicals, on the labels, blackberries are considered “weeds.”
Thu, May 13 2010 » Life Studies » 2 Comments
While gardening yesterday, I came across a vegetational oddity that was both grotesque and poignant. I was weeding the lower tier of our terraced garden, where our radiant tulips are in full apotheosis. However, near one of them, a suet feeder (i.e., a small rectangular cage) somehow had fallen into the garden thickets. Lost in [...]
Sun, April 18 2010 » Fiction, Life Studies, Poetry » 3 Comments
Sat, April 10 2010 » Poetry » No Comments
It’s important to remember that, in the modernist mode of being a writer, publishing is publishing and writing is writing. The “making public” of writing can happen at a later, compositional (and typographical) phase–type needs to be set in place. In this instance, writing is a direct conduit from thought, and publishing is one step [...]
Fri, April 2 2010 » Fiction » No Comments
(these poems are just drafts, but in some nether-space of feeling they are both complete and incomplete)
Absence and Dreams, Roots and Branches
Here’s a chalice.
I’m in Dixie.
Alchemy
is much scarier
than “alchemists”
say. It doesn’t
ever happen.
Electrical cords
happen.
A screen-saver
comes over
the eyes: clouds
mangy cover the
mountains. They
are so reasonable.
Thieves also
go on vacation,
but they don’t –
they just
don’t — see you
coming. And
giving. I’ve doused
the [...]
Sun, March 28 2010 » Poetry » No Comments
OK, hopefully this will help.
I found this snippet on a book panel re: SXSW that I thought was illuminating in regards to some of the attendant issues of authorship and culture that I’ve danced around in previous posts:
# An author is no longer an individual working in a room alone, but the leader of [...]
Mon, March 22 2010 » Fiction, Life Studies » 3 Comments
As noted on my Appearances page (quick, look above you), I’ll be reading w/ three other fabulous writers under the aegis of “The Ways We Come of Age”, 6:00 at the UVA Bookstore. I’ll be around all weekend in town, and at the Author’s Reception for the VA Festival of the Book, so feel free [...]
Thu, March 18 2010 » Total Oblivion » No Comments
Charlie Jane Anders has a very thoughtful essay at io9 entitled “Is ‘Science Fiction Humanism’ A Contradiction In Terms?”:
But is science fiction really humanist? Much of science fiction turns out to be about exploring our vast cosmos, and expanding our being. From this quest, one of two outcomes often arises: 1) We meet something greater [...]
Fri, March 12 2010 » Fiction, Polis » 2 Comments
Vulpine Orders
This verse is not about the spider marrying the deer.
That verse is to the left and then inside the chamber.
Nor is this verse about the Quizno’s burned down by
an evil story, which is still hovering in the smoke.
(The verse is hovering in the smoke.)
No verse about goose grease haunts this verse;
nothing comes easy. There [...]
Sat, March 6 2010 » Poetry » 2 Comments
None of this has changed. Actually I think it’s getting worse. Or I’m getting older, take your pick. RIP, DFW.
N.B.: I actually do think in many recent instances, social media (though it’s a wonderful thing, I use it all the time) has made this crank-turning worse. I don’t care much about the good writers who [...]
Fri, February 26 2010 » Fiction » 2 Comments
Fair reader,
Long have I been dormant on this matter, and indeed, I had harbored the secret hope that the transmissions of this nefarious document were a thing of the past. However, look at me, a fool! How could I conclude that the Palinomicon’s logorrheic THIRST could not be vanquished? For what is the span [...]
Sun, February 21 2010 » ?!?!?, Poetry » No Comments
So, just wanted to ask a few questions:
1. In nominating works for awards, is it ethical to do so with friends? In what instances?
2. Is it ethical to do so consciously, deliberately, and in a block?
3. Is it ethical to do so with members of your writing group?
4. Where is the dividing line between expressing [...]
Mon, February 15 2010 » ?!?!?, Fiction » 1 Comment
“To divorce fact from fantasy simply by labeling the one as ‘history’ or ‘medicine,’ and the other as ‘fiction’ is merely to create a new myth about ourselves. Life is inextricably linked with literature, and that is why there are no passports to a myth-free future.” –Gill Speak, “An Odd Kind of Melancholy: Reflections on [...]
Sun, February 14 2010 » Uncategorized » No Comments
(This is going to have a fair amount of spoilers, so if you have a Wii and are thinking of playing this game, at all, don’t read this. Just buy the game.)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is one of the most interesting games I’ve ever played. Now, this is also the first Silent Hill game I’ve [...]
Wed, February 10 2010 » Games » 1 Comment
It’s been a really busy month, so I thought I’d do some small-batch catch-up:
Total Oblivion got a great review from the LA Times.
I also partook in the Big Idea out in John Scalzi’s blogosphere, where I delved into some of the ideas of oblivion that informed the book. Very fun.
The novel also made the 2009 [...]
Tue, February 2 2010 » Fiction, Total Oblivion » No Comments
