In The Mood For A Quickie Tonight?

Come see me and others read tonight at the Innertown Pub in Wicker Park. Details below. Hope to see you out there!

Tuesday, June 10 at 7:30, get your behind to the Innertown Pub for a night of QUICKIES!

featuring:

Meg Barboza
Dave Snyder
Jac Jemc
Amanda VerMeulen
Ben Tanzer
Nick Ostdick

QUICKIES!
Tuesday
June 10
7:30pm
Innertown Pub
1935 W Thomas
Chicago

50 Word Story Segment, Part 4

Today we bring you a new installment of our lauded 50 Word Story Segment. This time it’s Jason Jordan, author of the collection Powering The Devil’s Circus and current MFA student at Chatham College in Pittsburgh. Read on. Get to know him–it’ll be well worth it.
—
Semicolon

Semicolon is pissed off; he thinks that people don’t use him enough. He knows Colon can fix this, so he calls him to make a deal.

Semicolon says to Colon: “Listen, I want you to kill Period for me.”

Colon says: “Sure. Tell you what, I’ll even do it for free.”

—

Q: Where did this story come from? Describe its genesis?

Usually, when it comes to writing fiction, a line or a premise will come to me out of nowhere, and then I’ll sit on it for a few days or weeks until I’m actually motivated enough to hammer out the whole story in a night or two. I’m very undisciplined as far as my writing habits are concerned, which is fine with me. Anyhow, the line “Semicolon is pissed off” has been swirling around in my head the past several days, and I was thinking of writing a story in which all the characters are punctuation marks, so this was the perfect opportunity to do so! Obviously a lot of attention was paid to the punctuation and structure of this short piece. I may develop it further from here, but I’m not sure yet.

Q: Who are you? What makes you so amazingly cool that we just had to interview you?

My bio pretty much covers the who I am bit. Still, to elaborate, I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but was raised in New Albany, Indiana, all my life. I’m now living in Pittsburgh, which recently lost the Stanley Cup to the Motor City, I might add. “Amazingly cool”? Heh heh. I try to treat other people as best as I can, especially my family and friends, but perhaps that’s my recent viewing of The Godfather trilogy talking. I try to be modest, simply put.

Q: What are you working on right now? Can you tell us? Stories? Poems? Novels? One of those tiny ships in a bottle?

I haven’t been working on too much of my own stuff lately due to the move, but I will say that I’ve been consistently working on decomP. As you probably know, you can always find something to do when you run a literary magazine. My novel’s already written, but I need to go back and revise the whole thing before my thesis meetings start this fall. Plus, I’d like to get a couple more stories written before the summer’s over. Easier said than done!

Q: Think fast: favorite short story or novel at the moment? Of all time?

Tough questions! My favorite book at the moment is Ray Vukcevich’s “Meet Me in the Moon Room.” Of all time would be Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” but I also absolutely love Al Burian’s “Burn Collector,” which contains issues 1-9. Great stuff all around.

Q: If you could start a band full of writers, of literary greats and contemporary stars, who would be in your band and what instrument would they be on (four or five members only, otherwise the van gets too crowded and smelly)?

Even if I could start a band full of writers, I would not. I’d only start one with musicians first and foremost.

Q: What’s on the horizon for you? What’s next—i.e., publications, events/readings, etc.

Right now I’m concentrating on decomP. Also, I’m trying to place my last few stories before I send out any new(er) ones. I’ve got a few pieces coming out soon, though: “History Repeats Repeats Itself; or, History Repeats Repeats Itself” in Beeswax Magazine #5, “in the garden of Death” in American Trees #1, and “Operations” in &c magazine #1. I hope you’ll check them out, and hopefully there’ll be more to come! Thanks, Nick!

Visit Jason’s blog at here and check out the lit-mag he edits here

NewCity’s Lit 50 2008/Come See Me!

New City’s Lit 50 was just released this past week. Some of the usual customers on the list this time around, but also some new faces and surprises this year too. Check it out. Always good to know who’s rockin’ the books in Chicago.

Come hear me read at a newish and exciting Chicago reading series entitled Quickies, where each writer has five minutes to tell a complete story. Sounds fab, doesn’t it? It is. It should be a good time. I don’t know who else is on the bill aside from Ben Tanzer, which is also fab, isn’t it? Details below.

Tuesday, June 10th
7:30 PM
Innertown Pub
1935 W. Thomas
Chicago, IL
21+

In About One Week…

Come hear me read at a newish and exciting Chicago reading series entitled Quickies, where each writer has five minutes to tell a complete story. Sounds fab, doesn’t it? It is. It should be a good time. I don’t know who else is on the bill aside from Ben Tanzer, which is also fab, isn’t it? Details below.

Tuesday, June 10th
7:30 PM
Innertown Pub
1935 W. Thomas
Chicago, IL
21+

 

Some Things of Note

1. Today is fellow author and good friend Ben Tanzer’sbirthday. We won’t say how old he is, but we will say he looks damn skippy for his age. We will also say that we’re very stoked for his forthcoming novel Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine, his second, from Orange Alert Press this fall. Hooray!

2. Jason Jordan, resident badass in Pittsburgh, has a new story up at Hobart, a great publication that many writers I know have long sought. Congrats, Jason, hell of a story.

3. There’s quite a brew ha-ha going on over at Goodreadsright now surrounding one irate and irrational reviewer and the lovely Elizabeth Crane and her newest collection You Must Be This Happy To Enter. Brought to you buy the Internet, a conduit for ignorant people to communicate. We are not knocking Miss Crane here, in fact we’re taking her side. The book is awesome, one her finest, IMO, to use Internet speak. Read it. Prove me wrong. Click the link and see for yourself the ridiculousness going on over there.

What A Time We Had

Wow. T’is been a long gap between entries, huh? Haven’t I told you on more than once occasion that this kind of lag wouldn’t happen? Sounds like something I’d say…

Anyway, there is much to report.

First on the list is Pilcrow, that fabulous lit fest I’m sure you’ve heard all about from reading blog by such esteemed writers as Ben Tanzer, Lizzy Crane, Jackie Corely, and so on. I managed to meet up with all these people and more at Pilcrow. I sat on two panels, one moderated by Jonathan Messinger. I got to meet James Stegal of So New Media fame and Kevin Sampsell of his own and Future Tense Books fame. Also got to reconnect with the wonderful Tim Hall, and Orange Alert’s Jason Berhends, whose new imprint/press Orange Alert Press, I’m proud and happy to say, will be publishing Ben Tanzer’s second novel Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine. A fan-fucking-tastic title, right? I thought so. I am quite excited for Tanzer’s follow up to 2007’s smash hit Lucky Man. I’m sure you all are stoked too.

Both of the panels I sat on were informative and lively, and I want to give a shout out to my fellow panelists–you know who you are–for humoring my most likely banal responses. I also want to give A HUGE SHOUT to Amy Guth for putting this whole thing together. Amy, you rock it, without a doubt.

The second is I have two readings in June:

1. Quickies, a new series here in Chicago where readers get five minutes to tell an entire story, asked me to be a part of their June installment. I was very honored. Also on the bill is the aforementioned Mr. Tanzer. It should be a great time. Thanks to host Mary Hamilton for the invite.

2. The Fixx Reading Series, hosted by the venerable Ms. Guth, asked me to join them on June 26th for their once-a-month series. Again, I don’t know who is on the bill with me, but this series has always packed the house with a powerful lineup of readers. Quite stoked, to be sure.

3. Who’s going to Printer’s Row this year? I will not be able to make it, I don’t think, so please let me know how it is…

4. Links to those mentioned in this blog post:

 Jackie Corley’s blog. Buy her forthcoming collection The Suburban Swindle from So New Media. She also edits Word Riot too.

Ben Tanzer

So New Media

What To Wear During An Orange Alert

Amy Guth

Grab On To Me Tightly As If I Knew The Way…

is the name of a novel I picked up while at SSML in East Lansing. I love long titles. I am excited to read this.

Notable Story

Just been informed that my story ‘The Sleeping Shags,’ which was nominated for a StorySouth Million Writer’s Award, has been chosen as a Notable Story for the 2007 StorySouth Award. They pared the list down from literally hundreds of stories to double digits now. It is quite an honor. Being nominated was fantastic. I’ll keep you all updated.

To Report…

On Saturday friends and great writers gathered at The Book Cellar in Chicago’s Lincoln Square for what might be the last RAGAD reading for sometime. All came to celebrate the release of Ben Tanzer’s story, “What We Thought We Knew,” but folks were treated to much more. Having said this many times over the weekend, but still not tiring of it, I have to proclaim that among the many fine readings we’ve had over the last three years, this was one of the finest.

Jason Jordan arrived the day before via Pittsburgh–GO BACK TO OHIO! (inside joke). We ate and drank the night before and then he stormed The Book Cellar stage Saturday night with a story about a man’s encounter with death. A fine story, dry humor that went over with the packed house quite nicely. Thanks for coming out, man–we hope to see you back this way again soon.

Amy Guth, who’s heading up Pilcrow Lit Fest in Chicago in May, and who I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time, read a excerpt from her new novel. Gritty and fun, I can’t wait until the release of it. A nicer, more pleasant person to talk and drink with I cannot recall. Jordan, Guth, her fiance Justin, and myself all hit the town afterwards. I was given a hexagon made from straws that was supposed to have powers in picking up women. I didn’t try it, but Amy did get slugged in the arm in that same attempt by a drunken passerby–ah, nothing like Ricochets in Lincoln Square. Thanks for reading, Amy, you rock it!

Jill Summers is always great. Always. Her new website is kick-ass as well, and she’s got a story called ‘Larry’ on the first What to Wear During An Orange Alert Mixtape which will be coming out in RAGAD this summer. A fucking awesome story. Thanks, Jill, t’was sensational.

And last but never least, Ben Tanzer. Ben fucking Tanzer, a great reader and writer, an even better pod-caster and friend. Ben read a hilarious story about his past with drinking, the highs and sharp lows. Whole bookstore was laughing, each person. It was that good. Ben’s new novel, as it was announced, Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine, will be published by Orange Alert Books. No release date yet, but we’re so stoked for Ben. Congrats, man, you deserve it–we hope to get a shout out in the acknowledgements…:) 

Thanks to everyone who came out Saturday night. Many new faces there, but some ones I knew well and was happy to see: Spencer Dew, Jason Berhends, Tim Hall, and others. Thanks for making this last reading so extraordinary. I have you all, the readers and writers, to be indebted to.

Links:
Jason Jordan’s blog
Amy Guth’s blog
Jill Summers’ website
Ben Tanzer’s blog
What To Wear During An Orange Alert
RAGAD

TOMORROW NIGHT!

It is finally upon us!

Saturday, April 25th
The Book Cellar
4736 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL
7 PM
FREE

Boozing: stories about alcohol, a party to release RAGAD #6, which features the a story called ‘What We Thought We Knew’ by Chicago writer Ben Tanzer. Featuring readings by Tanzer, Amy Guth (Three Fallen Women), Jill Summers, and Pittsburgh writer Jason Jordan. Editor Nick Ostdick will read and host. Much fun for all.

Also, the incomparable Amy Guth interviewed me on her blog. Click it to read. Thanks Amy, and I hope to see all of you out there tomorrow night.