A collection of short stories where the humour runs dark and the slipstream bubbles up.
...imagine if Raymond Carver called up George Saunders and Joe Lansdale, and they all went drinking with Neil Gaiman.
“… it's clear that Terlson is way ahead of the curve in terms of crafting an engaging premise that reaches for elevated territory and reinvents enduring archetypes of action and suspense.” J. Schoenfelder
"Sometimes brutal, often demanding and always complex, this novel will repay the reader who likes their assumptions challenged and is happy to walk away from a book with minor questions unanswered but the big ones definitely dealt with! It’s likely to satisfy those who enjoy Hammet and/or Philip K Dick and who like their fiction very noir indeed." Kay Sexton
"I love a novel that you can't put down, and this is one of them." L. Cihlar
Monday, January 14, 2008 at 11:21AM 
I read somewhere that Don DeLillo described himself not as a writer of books or stories, but as a writer of sentences. He crafted them one by one, building towards the ultimate goal, which in the case of Underworld was damn near 900 pages. That's a lot of sentences. Writing short, micro or flash fiction is a good way to understand this attention to detail and the crafting of work sentence by sentence.
Kelly Spitzer is running a contest calling forth the best sentence - not a micro-micro story - just a beautifully crafted sentence. The prize is one of my favorite literary mags, Hobart.
Check out the entries at Kelly's blog.
If D.D. entered, he'd be a lock.
Monday, January 7, 2008 at 07:56AM Well, I see that I am seven days into 2008 and haven't posted a thing this year. I am deep into three projects right now, which are making extra-curricular activities, like blogging, somewhat off the radar, on the back burner, out the back and in the dumpster.
I have a number of stories circulating, and some languishing in various states - hopefully when I get through this slog of work I will be able to finish a few and get back to work on the novel. I am not sure if I will ever be a true, "write every day" sort of writer. For me I like to immerse myself in the craft, working intensely for a number of days, or even weeks. Then when my other life and duties take over I need to set the writing aside to tend to matters at hand. A lot of craft books say that you need to wrtie something everyday, and I think there is some good logic behind that. Yes, there is something to be said about living your life and in a way, gathering stories. I think it was Stephen King that said life was a support system for art, NOT the other way around.
I always take solace in that.
Onward.
Monday, December 31, 2007 at 11:38AM I am actually thinking of story or novel resolutions rather than those sort of addiction challenging promises one makes this time of year. There are some things I would like to resolve, or finish in some form.
And on the eve of 2008 my mind drifts to goals for the year ahead. Except, I am not a goal oriented guy. I do have some fuzzy idea of where I'd like to be in my writing career in a year or two, and I knock away at some ideas I have about getting there. Is that a goal...hmmm...maybe.
My hope is to finish the first draft of my new novel (working title: Fall in One Day). As well as publish my story collection and write some more shorts. Nothing too lofty, but I'll check back next Dec. and see how I fared.
Here's hoping you all yell woofreakinhoo at midnight.
Have a one for me - okay, have a couple!
Friday, December 28, 2007 at 03:55PM Well as far as form rejections go, the editors at Story Quarterly are pretty damn nice. Even though I could guess a lot of entrants got the same email regarding their recent fiction contest, I still felt like they at least read the story, and hell, even considered it.
Story Quarterly and Narrative magazine are a couple of zines that are doing it right, raising the pedigree of online publishing, and offering actual decent pay for publication.
It was also great to know one of the finalists. Big Kudos out to Alicia Gifford for making the short list!
