Damascus in pictures

Check out this rad remix of Damascus, courtesy of Horn! Reviews. 

 

It originally appeared on the Rumpus. Huge thanks to Kevin for his amazing interpretation.

As the poet Pedro said in Napoleon Dynamite, I hope all your wildest dreams come true.

Happy new year,
Josh

"Beat-poet cool"

howdy, literati:

how are you on this lovely December day? it's clear skies in San Francisco, low 50s--one of the reasons i love this town so much... no seasons. 

i wanted to say thanks to the New York Times Book Review for their very generous write-up of Damascus:

"The author's jaunty voice [is] Beat-poet cool...Mohr nails the atmosphere of a San Francisco still breathing in the smoke that lingers from the days of Jim Jones and Dan White, a time when passionate ideologies and personal dysfunction intermingled and combusted."

happy holidays, everybody. i'm off to the Canadian tundra to scribble the days away and finish this weird fairy tale i'm working on.

until 2012,
Josh

PS: the fine folks over at All Sides recommend some yummy books. watch the vid of their discussion here.  they talk Damascus first. 

Brad Listi's Other People Podcast

There's this great guy, Brad Listi, who everyone should know about.  Not only is he the commander-in-chief over at The Nervous Breakdown, a great online culture magazine.  But he's a kickass author in his own right.  As if that doesn't keep him busy being awesome, he's started a new project called Other People, in which he chats with writers about their process and all kinds of odd byproducts thereof.  We just did one together.  It was a blast.



All Brad's podcasts are available on iTunes.

I've listened to previous ones with Ron Currie and Gina Frangello, and they're both fantastic.  And free.  And that's a winning combination.  Brad does a lot to support indie authors, so let's support him right back!

Happy early Thanksgiving, if you're into that sort of thing.  If you're not, I hope you spend the day doing something amazing that I don't even know about yet.

Josh

PS: Nice review of Damascus in this weekend's Wall Street Journal.
PPS: If you're in the Seattle area, I'm reading this Thurs, 11/17, with Johnny Evison at University Books; we'll all go out for drinks afterward.  I'd love to buy you a cocktail.
PPS: Here's a podcast of my reading from City Lights a couple weeks back.

New Damascus excerpt, UK love, SF Weekly

There's this cool mag over in the UK called Beat The Dust.  They just released their first ever issue that focuses on American writers that publish with indie presses--8 of us all told, including the talented Roxane Gay, Lindsay Hunter, among others.  There's also an excerpt from my forthcoming novel, Damascus, in the issue.  I'm crazy excited to share this book with all of you, and I hope you dig this little appetizer.  Why not pre-order your copy today?

Also, SF Weekly recommends 5 books by local writers for the fall, and they were nice enough to include Damascus.  Here's a pull from what they said:

A better understanding of our sweetly seedy city we could not ask for. Mohr wonders who might hang out in a Mission dive bar...as the Iraq war changes everything a world away and just outside.


Enjoy!!
Josh

PS: Did I tell you that I got engaged?

"Damascus" an Indie Next selection & a starred review in Publishers Weekly

Howdy:

How are you?  My summer classes are winding down, which means I can come up for air before the fall semester gets underway.  I had some incredibly smart students this summer, and I feel safe saying that the future of lit should be a-okay. 

We're about 2 months away from my next novel, "Damascus," coming out.  I'm thrilled to announce that it's been selected as one of Indiebound's Indie Next picks for October.  I wanted to thank them for including me.  Definitely check out their site for independent titles that might otherwise escape your radar.

Also Publishers Weekly gave "Damascus" a starred review in the current issue.  I'm so excited.  Here's a pull from their write-up:

"Rife with themes of humanity, passion, and determined resilience...this accomplished effort demonstrates Mohr’s rich, resonant prose, authentically rendered settings, and deft characterization."

Hope your summers have been spectacular and that you're scribbling lots of pretty words on the page,
Josh

PS: Wanna laugh your ass off?  Click here.

PPS: Why not pre-order Damascus now?  Then it will just miraculously show up in your mailbox one day...

Decomp talks Damascus, USF, Achiote Press

Why hello there, you literary lovelies:

How are you today?  It’s a gorgeous afternoon in San Francisco.  So pretty that I might even venture out of my apartment, though I doubt it.  But it does look inviting through the window.  I wanted to mention a couple cool things that have happened over the last week.

First, my next book, Damascus,  isn’t out for a couple more months, but some early reviews have started trickling in.  This one just came out in decomP.  Thanks to the gang over there.  I appreciate their thoughtful eyes.  From the review:

Mohr is a master, too, of the small tragedies that play out in this environ, the slippery slopes that lead one to slouch in mid-morning and drink the day away. He presents poignancies so sharp the cuts they leave won’t heal...

Also, there was a great profile published about the University of San Francisco’s MFA program that profiled my career along with some other alums.  I’m teaching some classes up there, too, and having a blast with all my smart students.

Last and certainly not least, I published a new short story in Achiote Press’ inaugural fiction anthology.  A bunch of great Bay Area writers also have pieces, including K.M. Soehnlein and Leota Higgins, who is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.  Seriously.  Why not order the anthology and see what goods we've sprinkled on the page?

Hope the summer is treating you with all kinds of yumminess,

Josh

PS: Friday the 8th is my birthday.  I'll be 35.  You should send me a note, telling me that I'm aging well.  Pretty please?

Brain candy and summer salutations

how's your summer going?  i'm teaching tons right now but having a blast doing so.  this batch of students has been consistently blowing my mind with all their pretty prose.  the future of lit is a-okay.

meanwhile, in insomniac fits, i've finished my final edits to Damascus, which will be published in October.  i am so excited to share this piece of art with all of you!!  i'm going to do a midwest and east coast tour, too, so hopefully those of you i've been corresponding with on email and facebook, we can finally belly up and have a drink together.  once i have the dates, i'll slap them up on the website.

i wanted to thank a couple people.  first, Jason over at Brain Candy Book Reviews and member of the National Book Critics Circle: he published a very thoughtful review of Termite Parade.  thanks, Jason!!

and also big thanks to the Literary Whore, who blogs out of Hollywood.  she had some kind words about my first novel, which made me smile for like eleven hours.  this was my fave line of hers:

Joshua Mohr’s plot and writing style and topic is like a breath of fresh air. To single out the very real aspects of depersonalization disorder is utterly original. I have classified this works as what the publishing industry is currently missing. Creativity, originality and guts.

hope everyone is happy and writing tons!!
Josh

NPR Interview

Good morning from rainy San Francisco.  I love these sorts of soggy days: a perfect excuse to stay inside and write all afternoon.  I'm not big on "going outdoors" or "doing stuff" so I don't even need a very compelling reason to hole up... but rain always means a pot of coffee, lots of Tom Waits, and (hopefully) a couple decent pages.

In case you missed the reading/interview that aired on NPR this weekend, here are the links should you want to gobble this stuff up:

Here's the reading part of the proceeds.  I think the kids call these podcasts.  So I'm going to call this a podcast.  But I might be using the word wrong.

And the Q & A.  Also maybe a podcast?

And finally a good ol' fashion review of Termite Parade courtesy of the interviewer, a wonderful gentleman named Rick Kleffel. He has a keen eye and an obvious enthusiasm for his job.  Thanks, Rick, for your dilligence and thoughtfulness.

Happy writing,
Josh

Antonia Crane on Termite Parade

I heart Antonia Crane.  If you don't know AC's writing, she's the real-deal.  I've heard her read live a few times now, and she always kills.

There's this cool website called Annotation Nation.  It's a place where literature dorks can be as literature-dorky as we want to be.  Recently, AC deconstructed "Termite Parade" and I love the way she read the book.

All of Mohr’s characters in Termite Parade are cowardly, guilty, irresponsible and obstinate, but they desperately want to be better boyfriends, better brothers and better people. They’re the stuck part of us that wants to change. They are what Sam Lipsyte meant in The Ask when he said our lovers are “our destroyers” because we give them our tender termite hearts and sometimes they drop us down the stairs.


As writers, we don't get to choose who reads our books or how closely they pay attention to the details, but I like to think that everybody reads as smartly as AC does.

Thanks, Antonia!

BlackBook's "Top Books" of 2010

Happy new year, all!  I hope you rang 2011 in with whatever panache your particular poisons allow.  I was a wild man, in bed well before midnight on NYE, head weighing 80 pounds with the flu.  That wouldn't have stopped me 5 years ago, but, well, it ain't 5 years ago...

As is the custom at the end of every year, varying publications, blogs, and whatnot put out their "Best Of The Year" lists.  Most are pretty boring/standard remixes of other lists, but BlackBook Magazine does it right, spicing it up with categories that we've never seen before.

Aren't you curious who wrote the "Best Book About Being Obsessed with a Mentally Retarded Person in a Way That isn’t Creepy"?

Or the "Best Book about How Shitty the Future is Going to Be"?

Make sure to check out the category that "Termite Parade" topped.

And try and make it into February before your New Year's resolutions get heaved out the window...

Happy writing,
Josh

PS: I just read Patrick deWitt's new novel, "The Sisters Brothers."  It won't be published until May, but keep your eyes out.  It's incredible.

PPS:The CCLaP had some nice things to say about "Some Things that Meant the World to Me."

PPS: The staff at Powells picks their top books of the year.

Rain Taxi: "the big burning heart on Mohr’s sleeve"

How's your holiday shopping going?  I'm actually done, which is a first.  Normally, I'm a do-the-whole-shebang on Christmas Eve kind of guy, so this plan ahead thing has me feeling a bit "adult."  I'll try to do something immensely stupid to compensate.

Rain Taxi recently weighed in on Termite Parade.  A pull from their pretty words:

Termite Parade flaunts the big burning heart on Mohr’s sleeve, wildly tossing it about to light the way in a relentless search for answers to the unanswerable... In the scope of Mohr’s unrestrained vision, Derek and Mired find the only redemption worth attaining is brutal, uncompromising, and never guaranteed. 

Happy holidays,
Josh

PS: This morning, I woke up at 3:45 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I went to write at an all-night diner in the Castro.  You should do this some time.  It's weird and sort of wonderful.  The sorrow was thick as the pancake stacks.  I would have kissed any one of them. 


PPS: I'm still at the diner now.

What happens at 3 a.m. stays at 3 a.m.

As a devout insomniac, any magazine that boasts of nocturnal tendencies is solid in my world. For those of you who don't read literary magazines (and you should read lit mags; they're where the most exciting writing is happening.), 3 a.m. features fiction, poetry, and criticism.  Check them out here. 

They just reviewed Termite Parade, and I wanted to thank them for their thoughtful read.  I love finding indie hubs where the heads really love literature.  There's so much concern (and rightly so) that the printed word is doomed, but I think it's just evolving.  The web has tons of pockets where those of us who cherish prose can find good material--like the Rumpus, the Nervous Breakdown, and so many others...  Make sure and add 3 a.m. to your queue.

"Mohr’s writing teems with energy. There is also an oddness, a quirkiness to Mohr’s imagination reminiscent of another great San Fran writer, the late Richard Brautigan." - 3 a.m. Mag

My review of James Franco in Sunday's NY Times

The wonderful people over at the New York Times Book Review asked me to weigh in on James Franco's first collection of stories, "Palo Alto." The whole review is here and will be in Sunday's print edition.  But a snippet for those of you who are into the whole snippet-thingie (and we seem to be a country of snippets, sound bytes, and tweets):

Too often, our comfort zones are our tombstones. We settle into numbing patterns and that’s that — wake me when it’s over. Not so in the frenetic world of James Franco, whose ambition over the past few years has manifested almost as performance art: he’s been affiliated with multiple M.F.A. programs, in fiction, poetry and filmmaking; he’s angling to add “Dr.” to his name, having recently become a Ph.D. aspirant at some shabby school called Yale. Oh, and in case your particular comfort zone is a cave: he’s a pretty successful actor, too.

Congratulations to Franco for the publication of his first book!

NY Times names Termite Parade an Editors' Choice

So this pic of Lucille Ball basically captures how wonderfully, gloriously shocked I was to learn that Termite Parade made this week's NYTBR Editors' Choice list.  In some twisted post-modern way, I kind of look like Lucille Ball.  Yikes...

It feels like some kind of coup, my sordid little book ending up in the NY Times.  Their review last week was amazing.  I'm so thankful.  The person who wrote it, Rebecca Barry, had a novel-in-stories come out a couple years back called "Later, at the Bar;" I haven't had the pleasure of meeting/speaking with her, but I'd like to buy her 924 cocktails.  And as she's now my new favorite person, I've ordered several copies of her book.  And you should too.  And then tell 10 friends to pick it up.  It can be like a chain-letter for us literature dorks.

Thanks Rebecca and thanks NY Times!  I'll wear my Lucille Ball shock all day...

Powells: "Mohr is a post-millennial Bukowski."

We should do our best to support independent bookstores, rather than the corporate hubs.  Powells is one of the most renowned.  It's a veritable church of books.  It's like Graceland (pic above), if you've been buried in novels your whole life.

For those of us that can't trek to Portland to buy books in person, their website is kick ass, stocked with any title you could want to get your hands on.  So shop there.  And they're good people.  And we should support good people.

They also review a newly released book every day.  They weighed in on Termite Parade over the weekend. Thanks, Powells.  Us indie kids gotta stick together!

From the review: "Written with as much heart as brawn, Termite Parade is a sucker punch to literary complacency, without a hint of authorial self-absorption. Mohr is a post-millennial Bukowski with a dash of Hubert Selby, Jr. thrown in for good measure, and with only two published novels under his belt, he is rapidly becoming one of my favorite American novelists."

SF Chronicle: Termite Parade is "similar to Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment.'"

I'm a pretty excitable cat.  Temperamental, moody diva?  Manic pain in the ass?  Yes, these are titles I'm familiar with, have heard once or twice over the years.  I'm man enough to admit that. 

So this weekend is making me crazy, in the best way.  I'm bouncing off the walls.  First, the San Francisco Chronicle reviewed Termite Parade today.  I'd like to thank the reviewer, Evan Karp, for giving the novel such a close read, taking the time to dig into the story's cracks.  Evan also runs a local reading series in SF called Quiet Lightning.  The next one is on August 2nd at the Rickshaw Stop.

Here's a pull from his text:

"The book is similar to Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment': the most crucial action serves as a portal to and wellspring for the various psychologies of its characters. But Mohr's storytelling is so absorbing that 'Termite Parade' does not read like an analytical rumination; if he is examining the very nature of these characters under a microscope, he at least lets the specimens speak for themselves."

Then on Sunday, The New York Times Book Review will weigh in with their thoughts. I've always struggled with insomnia, but waiting to hear/read my first NY Times review? I haven't slept more than 10 hours all week!  I'm a train-wreck... a bigger train-wreck (thanks, peanut gallery).  Please cross your fingers; I need all the help I can get. 

And finally, I just tattooed my publisher's, Two Dollar Radio's, logo on my arm.  You can see it in the pic above: hint, it's the only image that looks like a two dollar radio...

Termite Parade is "a more optimistic version of Chuck Palahniuk."

I moved into a new apartment a couple months back. It's great, so much bigger. There are rooms, people. I mean, real rooms. It has its own kitchen, for god's sake, not some galley type thing wedged in the corner of the living room with a sad mini-fridge and mini-stove that made mini-food and forced me to wonder whether I should've gotten an MBA.

I feel lucky to have found a better apartment for roughly the same price. And now I can stand up straight, rather than feeling like I'm working on the 7th and a half floor ala "Being John Malkovich."

I mention this because there are these small windows way up the bedroom walls, and these little guys don't have shades or blinds, and they make the room incredibly bright too early. I've been complaining about them for the last few weeks, but now I'm starting to see their benefit.  Jesus, may the glass indeed be half full?  This is undermining years of cynical whining...

Today, these meddling windows "forced" me to read Campus Circle's review of Termite Parade bright and early.  Here's an excerpt:

"The book reads like a lighter, (slightly) more optimistic version of Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club), and although the story is a veritable microscope of humanity at its worst (and maybe a glimpse of it near its best), it examines both our motives and the consequences of our actions in a very readable fashion."
-Campus Circle

Despite the reviewer's penchant for parentheses (she seems to really like them)  (I mean, really really like them), I'm going to start singing the praises of these small windows.  Maybe getting out of bed ain't so bad after all.

And the haiku winner is...

The haiku contest was a blast. Thanks to all who participated. It's crazy how many methods of communication were incorporated to send me these: blog comments to texts to tweets to email to facebook to goodreads to a strange voicemail (yikes). What, no one faxes anymore? If anyone snail-mailed theirs, sorry, but I'm going to pick a winner before the pony express rolls through.

Some honorable mentions:

The lovely Grace Krilanovich, whose first novel "The Orange Eats Creeps" comes out in September, wrote a great one. As did Kristin. Rebecca Stern wrote a solid sub about a hangover. My sister wrote a good one, too, though I disqualify her: there's no nepotism around these parts, kid.

The big winner is Michelle M. She gets points for being extra sweet, in a world that can use all the sweetness it can handle:

"I want to gnaw through

your tough shell like a termite

and live in your heart."

Congrats Michelle. Pop me your address and I'll send a signed book.

Speaking of, Termite isn't out for a week and a half, but the first reviews are beginning to trickle in. I wanted to mention one specifically because it's always nice to get love from the hometown publications. San Francisco Magazine had some really nice things to say. They also give their reviews letter grades, which I appreciate as a throwback. Nice to know I'm still not an A student...

"Termite Parade is a treat, an unlikely redemption story with a distinctly San Francisco flavor."

Huffington Post & A Common Pornography

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.

Nervous Breakdown for Christmas

The Nervous Breakdown published its best books of 2009, and "Some Things" made their list. Also, they selected good friend Steve Elliott's "The Adderall Diaries", so major congratulations to him. If you haven't read "AD" yet, it's a remarkable book. Its structure made my head spin.

I'll be trekking from San Francisco up to a lovely sensory deprivation chamber known as Canada for awhile to finish the next book, "Termite Parade", which will be in stores July 2010.

Happy holidays to everyone out there...