Steven Gillis' Book Notes up at Largehearted Boy

Steven Gillis wrote an essay and compiled an interesting set list for his hot off the
press (available on September 21 in both hard and e-book forms) novel, The Consequence of Skating.  This is Steven's fourth novel and fifth work of fiction.

A tease from the essay:

The Consequence of Skating
is my homage to the slippery slope. The majority of the book was
written during the time my wife, Mary, was first diagnosed and then
subsequently went through chemo, surgery and radiation for breast
cancer. This was not a fun time for any of us - we have two
school-aged kids as well - and the writing of my novel provided me with
an anchor, gave me a place to hide and search for my sanity.

The novel revolves around Ludwig von
Mises’ ideas of Human Action, the reason we make decisions, how we are
always striving to improve our situation and cure a dissatisfaction.
At the center of the narrative is Mickey Greene, an actor who has seen
better days, has allowed a troubled affair and a sudden infatuation
with drugs to undo him. Over the course of the novel, Mick winds his
way through a course of actions which, if not designed to bring him
redemption, offer him a reboot, a way to get his life back on track,
even as the course he charts continues to unravel.

The rest of the essay gets a bit more into the book, Steven's
thoughts when gearing up for publication, and his reaction to anonymous
reviewers--it's all well worth your time and consideration.  Not to
mention he gives us a damn good set list of music to listen to while
reading the novel!

Source of Lit - The Lifted Brow 7 - Blake Butler

Another journal we'll be doing the editorial thought process interviews for is The Lifted Brow, issue number 7, with editor Ronnie Scott.  The Lifted Brow hails from Australia and this is the third issue I've picked up and they pack a ton of great writing into each issue (this issue is 276 pages long, but each most of the pages have two columns of writing apiece).

Blake Butler - excerpt
from Ricky's Anus



Okay, to be honest, I somehow missed the title page the first two or three
times I went through the journal, going right from this introductory piece to
the Editor's Notes page.  That said, I still knew this was Blake Butler's
writing and assume that I have it titled right, that it's an excerpt from the
novel he's been writing, Ricky's Anus.



I love the energy behind Blake's writing.  I willfully admit that I don't
always know what the hell is going on, and in some cases feel that I'm better
off that I don't, but there's always an energy that draws me in and there's no
difference this time around.  For example:

The bass trombone was really going now:  it blistered
in his soles, it made the calluses the food had thought would remain buried
underneath the outer lid forever come loose and open, rising up.  What
was it about Ricky that he could never rest, why were the days so short and
full of blather, why could Ricky not stand up now with the whole room seeming
rushed with golden light.

And this is really one of the least energetic passages in this excerpt. 



Ronnie Scott
- The
Lifted Brow

For me, the energy is the thing with Blake, so I'm really
happy that you pointed it out. I like his energy because although it's noisy
and even messy - there are some fuck-ups in this piece that he wanted to leave
intact - I tend not to lose the feeling that I'm trusting my time to an author
who is in control. With his writing, I feel palpably that paragraphs, for
example, are being used to shape something bigger and wilder than themselves.
Which is a pretty cool illusion. It seems like it would be easier to make a
paragraph read as though it's the thing that's being altered, whereas
here it feels more like a wilder thing is being conducted, approximated,
through the paragraph.



It usually feels sensible to discuss an author's control when there is a real
precision in the writing. It's not like Blake can't do precise writing, and not
as though he doesn't do so in this excerpt, but for me, his writing is more
interesting for the blunter things, like, yup, paragraphs. There's not really
anything cold going on here, just stuff you might not want to accidentally get
on your hand.

Source of Lit - NY Tyrant V.3. N.2. - Ken Sparling

Ken Sparling - What Can the World Do for Elrond?



At first this story baffled me with names and facts and ideas changing rapidly
throughout, but I ended up, after a couple of pages, just simply enjoying the
writing, the short sentences, the odd facts facing me from the page.  I'm
still not sure after having read it at least two times that I fully understand
what Sparling was trying to do with this short story, but I've enjoyed the
reading experience each time.



Where does plot fall into line when it comes to your editorial reading of a
submission? 



Giancarlo DiTrapano - NY Tyrant

Man, I don't even know what plot is anymore. People have got
my head so twisted by all the things they say that I just don't know. So, to
answer your question, plot doesn't matter to me in my editorial reading. A lot
of times I publish things because I just can't figure them out. And I don't
mean just "weird" things because I can usually see right through
those. I can see how the writer got from his original thought to the
"weird" writing that they sent me and that's just boring. Like if a
writer writes, "Allen had volcanos for eyes." I read that and can
tell that the writer isn't really talking about "Allen" but he's
talking about his mother who had blue eyes but who used to have a ceramic
statue of a volcano by her bed where she died. And that that is
where he got that line from. (That example is absurd, of course, but it's an
example.) When I can't tell how in the hell they got to that point, then I am
intrigued. Because I can tell that they are a little insane and that is always
charming. I have a soft spot for Sparling. I like to think of him as Ken
'Starling' because he's like a bird to me. He has these great bird eyes (I mean
that in the best possible way) and have you read Dad Says He Saw You at the
Mall? Wow. That is a great book. He just seems so full of love and good
intentions that it blows me away. I went down to KGB one night specifically to
meet Ken in person. I felt like I was going to meet Lou Reed or Bernini
or something, because I greatly admire him. I got there late and he was already
leaving. And because I am kind of a fool, instead of shaking his hand I gave
him a hug. I tend to overdo things. But he didn't seem to mind that much, I
don't think. He had to leave immediately and I was supposed to go to his
reading the next day. I stayed out late and had to spend the next day in bed
and missed the reading (overdoing things again). So that is a big regret of
mine. But back to the point: Plot doesn't really matter to me. I mean, sure it's
great if it's there, so if a reader who needs a plot picks it up can enjoy it.
But I have never thought, "But where is the plot in this?" Never.
Maybe that's wrong.

Source of Lit - NY tyrant V.3. N.2. - Luke Goebel

Luke Goebel - The Adventure of
Eagle Feather



Luke has a very interesting way of putting a sentence together, especially
early in this story, where he'll add something right at the very end that seems
as if it should have been found earlier in the sentence, yet for his writing it
works:

I found a feather the other day, yesterday.  It was
from a great Bald Eagle, Christ.  I had seen its nest at the top of a dead
tree up top.

These three sentences, this paragraph, are the first in the story and I think
it sets a tone that led to how I read the story.  They led to how I read
each sentence believing that there might be more coming after the standard
noun/verb combination at the beginning of each one. 



Did you find them having the same effect on you and your reading?  What
was it about Goebel's story that grabbed your attention that first time you
read it?



Giancarlo DiTrapano - NY Tyrant

That's an interesting point  It has me thinking
that in the first sentence that he could be addressing yesterday as if it were
a person, like, "Oh, hello Yesterday, I found a feather the other
day."  And that in the second sentence he might be using Bald
Eagle and Christ interchangeably (like he is obviously doing with
"the other day" and "yesterday" in the first line), which
is pretty cool if you like thinking of Christ as a pretty and rare bird that
eats mice and is also kind of evil-looking (I feel this). Can you see that? I
mean, probably obviously, he isn't doing that. But maybe he is. I'll have to
ask him. I have a bit of a closer relationship to this story than to the others
in this issue because I've seen it in many incarnations. I met Luke in this
weird seminar called "Dealing with Constipation" which I wound up in by a
couple of pure accidents, kind of stumbled into the wrong room, you might say.
He wasn't supposed to be there either. We hit it off and he actually helped put
this issue of the Tyrant together. What grabbed me about this story is the line
where he asks for some "room in his coffee" and how he wants enough to
"stick his head in there."  I died laughing at that and at other
points in the story. I don't know. I think a lot of things I have published in
the past have predetermined how people read what comes out next (this makes
sense, of course). But no one is expecting "funny" from me, when a
lot of times that may be all there really is to it. I found it funny. I did
find this story funny, but it isn't just funny. It's other things, bigger
things.  ("Hey Bigger Things, it's other things." Now I can't stop
thinking like that!) I think Eagle Feather is mostly
about the woman who was teaching the "Dealing with Constipation"
class (she appears in this story as the old man). I think Luke and her might
have had some romantic ties. So he wasn't there on accident, it turns out (and neither
was I, maybe). Sure, I have problems shitting sometimes but not often enough to
seek out a class (unless it was on "How to Shit On Your Keyboard with Your
Fingertips:
Your Fingertips Have Anuses" because I would take a class on that for
sure). But, all that aside, Luke is a charmer. You'll continue to see great
things from him.

Let the writing begin

Something is going on around here that rarely takes place--I'm writing fiction.

For the next four days I'll be setting some time aside from Dzanc, from the EWN, from my kids, etc. and trying my best to figure out how all you wonderful writers come up with ideas and actually create something worth somebody else's time.

It is beyond rare--the last time I sat down to do this was the Dzanc Write-a-Thon two years ago and that is the occasion this time around too.  Our prompt has just been sent out to this year's participants and so, off to it. 

If you'd be so kind to consider sponsoring my efforts this year--which gives you a) the satisfaction of helping out a great nonprofit publishing house and their/our efforts to setting up DWIRPs and continuing our annual Dzanc Prize, and b) the receipt in about two weeks of a special pdf of the work done by the participants this year--we have it all set up at www.dzancbooks.org/participants.html for you to simply click on my name and pay via Paypal.

Man, just look at that blank screen over in MS Word right now!