Happy 2010! I've meandered back to San Francisco after some time up in Canada, a few weeks clacking away at the new novel, "Termite Parade." And it's done! And I think I like it! But more importantly, it's done! (Though I never really think books are ever done. But now my editor doesn't have to sneak into my apartment and steal the book away before it's due date... that's a perk because burglars scare me.)I've recently developed a theory about revision that borrows its ethos from hillbillies in the NRA, who blather about prying guns from their cold, dead hands.
Well, I thankfully don't know much about rednecks and guns... but for books--especially revising books--I think "prying from our cold, dead hands" is a fantastic attitude. As writers, we need to revise and revise and revise until our agents and editors pry it from our (hopefully-not-dead) hands. We need to work as hard as we can for as long as we can, doing our best to write a compelling narrative.
(Awkward transition... yikes... this is not cohesive... Jesus... what are you doing... aren't you an author?)
I wanted to mention Kevin Sampsell, mastermind of Future Tense Books, who is an incredible writer. His story collection "Creamy Bullets" blew my mind, and his memoir "A Common Pornography" hits stores next week.
Kevin recently ran a piece at the Huffington Post , discussing his favorite 2009 titles from the small presses, and had the following to say about "Some Things":
"This bizarre story of a guy named Rhonda is like a weird Kafka-Murakami-Bukowski smoothie with a lot of chunky bits."
Read what else he has to say about Rhonda and the other titles he picked here.
