I haven’t read Amelia Gray prior to this book and I was wondering Why Not and honestly I could draw only one conclusion: I was a fool but not for long as I have discovered her writing and she is beyond excellence. AM/PM takes you to areas and places you can’t imagine. I had a tough time writing this review, because this book is not an easy read as well. It is challenging and it stretches your mind and imagination, so for one: Be prepared.

This book looks like flash fiction, and that’s a shame because I think it may turn off some people who would enjoy this book. Rather it’s just a bunch of short kind of interconnected little episodes from a recurring group of peoples’ lives. From the banal to the outright absurd; to I guess what would be harsh rules for cats followed by a cats argument for why they should have ownership over something they have made warm with their body and cozy with their claws.

AM/PM is a collection of 120 micro stories, all only about 100-200 words. Many may dismiss such short stories, but truly, these quick reads had more heart than a lot of other short stories I’ve read. Each story in AM/PM is a study in excellent sentences. Gray chooses her words carefully, and the result is sentences that hit you in three places all at once, sentences that can be funny, sad, and absurd. I read most of these stories at least twice, sometimes three times. These aren’t vague, self-indulgent stories written by some trend-watching wannabe. They are real, and they pack a punch.

Certain characters have their own stories while also mingling with characters from other stories, which lends the book a neat interweaving thread. We get glimpses into the most private aspects of other people’s lives, their secret loves, joys, and desperation.

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“Have you ever had a recurring nightmare?”
“Yes” He paused.
“And then I wake up and remember that it’s real”

I’ve been reading a lot of mystery novels lately but still I was caught off guard by this book. Being published as a YA paranormal I didn’t expect to get a thriller mystery novel but it is a good thing since I enjoy reading thrillers lately. The Restorer offers a lot, it has crime, secret society, graveyard histories, forbidden romance, energy-sucking ghosts and an interesting heroine who works to repair graveyards. With all that I am hooked with this book from page one to end.

Amelia Gray is a graveyard restorer. She spend most of her time in graveyards ever since she was a kid. Graveyards become her playground as her father works in the cemetery near their house.  It was during some time with her father that she discovered that she has the ability to see ghosts which her father call as the others. She also found out that her father has the same ability. She was taught by her father to never acknowledge the ghosts for once she do they will slowly seep the life out of her.

“Because what the dead want more than anything is to be a part of our world again. They are like parasites, drawn to your energy, feeding off our warmth. If they know you can see them, they’ll cling to you like blight. You’ll never be rid of them. And your life will never again be your own.”

Her father also gave her some rules to follow in order to survive.

The Rules:

• Never acknowledge the dead.
• Don’t look at them.
• Don’t speak to them.
• Don’t let them sense your fear, even when they touch you.
• Never stray too far from hallowed ground.
• Keep your distance from those who are haunted. If they seek you out, turn away from them for they constitute a terrible threat and cannot be trusted.
• Never, ever tempt fate.

Amelia lives with all these rules all her life, keeping her world isolated from the living and the dead. She puts her own guard to keep her safe which also makes her alone. But when dead bodies were found in a graveyard she was restoring, the rules are put to the test. Because of her knowledge in graveyards she was recruited on the murder mystery as a consultant. Her connection to the spirit world gives her clues to solve the mystery but it also puts her right in the path of the serial killer. Together with a haunted detective, Amelia must use her knowledge of graveyards and her otherworldly abilities to try to track down the murderer.

I really enjoyed the storyline, the graveyard restorer subject was really fascinating. Amelia Gray is an interesting character and her unusual occupation gives a lot of eerie feel & chilling theme in the story. Amelia is known as the Graveyard Queen, she is clearly hunted (literally and figuratively), her struggle to survive the living and the dead world is beautifully written. She’s strong but she also carry too much baggage  with her and it’s hard not to care and sympathy for her. The other character, Delvin also got an interesting background. He is a tortured and broken man who goes through life without really living it. He is also hunted by two ghost who were slowly leeching his energy away.

The author has the gift of creating atmosphere, her lyrical writing makes this book more engaging. The descriptions she used were vivid, she easily crafted a clear visual settings and understanding for characters. The way she describes things like when ghosts are near Amelia, staring her & touching her is just so real and creepy. It will gives you  the feeling of what it would be like to be haunted. The old cemetery, the Charleston and even the smells of flowers almost came to live with the writing. She created a world that will have you believe in ghosts even before you are done reading. The graveyards history with all the underlying meaning of tombstones symbols and epitaph is also intriguing. I love how it was all explained in detail which gives additional knowledge to readers. The secret society and its beliefs is also interesting. It adds depth to the story. One of the interesting idea they offer is this:

“When someone died, a door opened that would allow an observer a glimpse into the other side. The slower the death, the longer the door would stay open, so that one might even be able to pass through and come back out.”

I also loved the multi-layered mystery behind the plot. With all the different personalities and background of the characters involved you will suspect almost everyone. Each of them is shadowed and full of secrets that you questioned all their motives. The multiple sub plots allow for more deception. Just when you think you might know who the murderer is, something turns up and you find yourself wrong.  The mystery will surely keep you guessing and keep turning the pages. The way the events tied up in a twisted maze of complexity is brilliant as the author shows the past, the present and the connections that bond to all the events.

The book ends beautifully as the killer was discovered. Though there are things that still left unsolved and secrets left untold it isn’t discomforting. The book can stand on its own and has lot of rooms for more stories to tell.

The Restorer is a gothic mystery novel that offers a haunting rich tale of ghost and murder. It is a brilliant mystery which simply proves that it is possible to tell a gruesome story without labouring over the gory details. This is definitely a haunting good read!

In any case, I have part of a letter done.  I don’t like writing them and that’s why it took me a month to start it.  My head starts spinning when I get to the part where I have to “interest the reader” and describe what I do.  I think of what I do as being serious fiction, but my stories often have something magical/supernatural/strange happen.  (I’m not even sure which word to use because as far as I can tell the “serious fiction” world and its denizens do not take kindly to supernatural strangeness.  From what I can tell, they relegate anything by unknown writers that isn’t straight-up realistic to the world of unicorns and ghosty stories.

Because I don’t write ghost stories or have unicorns flying around my characters’ heads, I try to avoid being placed in that company.  It’s not that I think unicrons are bad.  But a lot of so-called fantasy writers do seem a little cheesy.  The covers to their books and their websites look like the covers of Dungeon & Dragons books or Led Zeppelin albums, which looked like a lot like the covers to D&D books.  It’s just not my thing.  I like characters–normal people in the present.  That’s who I write about.  Now, if I have one of those normal people–let’s say a white man–dream that he is a Mexican woman who is having an affair with a day-laborer he’s recently hired and if that dream then blends into reality because he finds out that he is actually part of said Mexican woman’s dream, well that’s when things get sticky for me as a writer.  Because what would you call that?  I heard one author who I like say that her stuff skirts up close to bat-sh*t craziness, but I’m not sure any agent is going to appreciate that term to describe my aesthetic.

Over the last week, I’ve  found myself using words I’m not sure I understand because I’m not sure anyone else who uses them does.  I used to say Magical Realism was what I wrote, but I once had a teacher who was Latina tell me that with my last name, the term would turn people off.  Magical Realism is ok for Gabriel Garcia Marquez not for g. martinez cabrera.  Fair enough.  I don’t really want to go head to head with a master writer the first time at bat even if the label kind of fit.  At least I thought it did until my wife, in her brilliance, came up with a distinction that makes sense.  With someone like Marquez, you might have something odd/surreal happen, but then no one seems to react to it.  Whereas in my stuff, there’s usually one crazy thing that happens in an otherwise “realistic” world and that is what causes the plot to go forward.  I like my wife’s distinction, but then again, she’s brilliant.

OK, so I’m not a Magical Realist.  She said I might be a practiotioner of the Real Marvelous School.  Check out Alejo Carpentier if you want to know what she means.  Problem is that my wife is brilliant, she has a Ph. D. in Spanish Lit, so she knows Carpentier’ work.  That label only applies to him, and if you don’t know him, and English-language readers probably don’t, the label is kind of useless.  What is Borges?  Anyone have a title for him?  How about Calvino?  I’m not saying I’m a genius like those writers, but what are they?  Fabulists?  I hear that term get pushed around.  I like the sound of it.  But then again it sounds kind of heavyhanded, and am I being arrogant to take it up?  Hello, world, I AM A FABULIST!!!  I am a fabulous FABULIST!!  If I were to use that term, I think I’d need a sound system so that my voice could take on some echo and reverb like God or Charlton Heston.   Amelia Gray, one of the authors I have reached out to about query letters, said she writes “quirky fiction,” which I like.  I am quirky, and I like quirky, though on later reflection, that’s more of a description than a category.  It also kind of sounds like a euphemism for cute but not cute enough.  As in that cute guy you know who likes sitting out in the rain without a hat or umbrella as he reads fantasy stories with no unicorns or ghosts–he’s quirky.  He might be cute, but do you want to seriously get to know him?  Probably not.

So who am I as a writer?  I realize writing this that my real problem is an old one and has little to with writing.  It’s personal.  I like to be things to all people.  I like to be liked.  If you go out in the world, and you declare something about yourself, you put yourself in a box, and then people can reject you because they don’t like that box.  This makes me crazy.  The truth is that just like with friends, the people who end up sticking around do so regardless of the box you put in front of them.  A lot of people, maybe most people, will walk away and leave you unopened, but you only need a few people to stick around and get to know what’s inside.  In this case, I guess I only really need one agent or one publisher.  Still, I’m uneasy.

I guess in the end, I am a story teller.  Simple enough.  A little serious, a lot bat-sh*t crazy, and hopefully a good bit fabulous.

On the writing news, I have finally put the finishing touches on my collection, “Real Magic Doesn’t Sell”.  I believe the stories are strong, but they live somewhere between literary and genre fiction.  That is to say, they deal with character but also have a strong element of plot and surreal twists.  Think Six Feet Under meets Twilight Zone.  One writer who I have discovered recently who I like very much is Amelia Gray.  Her collection, Museum of the Weird, is just that.  Her stories tend to be shorter than mine, but they take you in new places without making you feel like you are out in space on your own.  It’s exciting to see other writers working off the beaten path.  Hopefully, my collection can join in the fun–cross fingers.

Title: The Restorer
Author: Amanda Stevens
Genre: Paranormal Mystery with Strong Romantic Elements
Publisher: Mira
Release Date: April 26, 2011
List Price: $14.95
Source: NetGalley

Blurb: Amelia Gray has lived her life by the rules passed on by her father about the seeing of ghosts. Some rules weren’t made to be broken.

Why I chose this title: I heard about it in the Library Journal 2011 Spring Announcements Webcast and it appealed to my enjoyment of mystery, romance and paranormal

Review: Atmospheric and moody, this story perfectly evokes the idea of Southern Gothic. This is the first of a planned series, called The Graveyard Queen. Amelia Gray is a cemetery restorer and a trained archaeologist. The details about her profession woven throughout the story made me regret not taking the class on the topic when I was in college (my undergrad degree is in Anthropology). Me regretting not taking a class is a rare occurrence, so it is to the author’s credit that I do. Stevens weaves a world caught in the between space of twilight, both in the real world and the spirit world. Tensions ratchet up when Gray is compelled to break the rules her father laid out when he realized she could also see ghosts. The change is precipitated by her meeting a Charleston police detective, John Devlin. He is one of the haunted, which her father forbade contact with. The investigation of murders within the confines of the cemetery she is restoring makes her ignoring him impossible, even if the compulsion to discover more about the attraction between them wasn’t so strong. The main story is a page turner by itself, but the secondary stories of Devlin’s ghosts, a murdered police detective and Amelia’s parents’ relationship and histories will make readers gnash their teeth until the next book in the series releases in August. Recommended for fans of the atmosphere of Berendt’s “In the Garden of Good and Evil” and Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey series. Recommended to libraries with diverse mystery collections and patrons who enjoy mysteries with strong romantic elements.

Final thought: The promising start of a series for fans of mystery and romance.

So, I’m running this advanced fiction workshop and it’s all like woah. One thing I like to do in a classroom setting like this is meet individually with every student after they workshop. I remember very vividly going to see Tom Bailey and Gary Fincke in undergrad and how reassuring and empowering it was to know that writers I really respected were taking my work seriously (not that the students necessarily respect me in the same way I outright worshiped Tom and Gary). In my conferences, I always bring a marked up copy of their manuscript along with a one page note with strengths and prescription. But there’s also, usually, a note at the end with some writers and journals to read, and maybe even a few places to begin submitting to. At AWP, Amy Hempel said one of her favorite parts of running a workshop is putting an emerging writer with a published one, giving a young writer the book they absolutely have to read right this second. It’s one of my favorite parts of the job too, and I’ve kept track of what I’ve recommended so far.

Keep in mind, we read a lot of stuff in class. So I rarely touch on writers we’ve discussed ad nauseam like George Saunders or Lorrie Moore or Gary Shteyngart or Amelia Gray. Also, it’s only halfway through the semester. So there’s still a lot of time. Basically, what I’m trying to convey here, is this isn’t a list of the best writers for undergrads. It’s merely the group that this particular class needed to read at this particular moment. When there’s something lacking in student work that is absolutely nailed in a story collection or novel, students need to see that–in fact, there are a few writers on here I respect without actually enjoying their work. So, without further hand-wringing, here’s what I’ve recommended so far this semester.

Writers

Andre Dubus (5)
Ray Carver (4)
Wells Tower (4)
Alissa Nutting (2)
xTx (2)
Bobbie Ann Mason (2)
Emma Straub (2)
Sean Ennis (2)
Stewart O’ Nan (2)
Adam Levin
Michael Chabon
Trey Ellis
Tobias Wolff
Matt Bell
Don Lee
Ethel Rohan
Tina May Hall
Jayne Anne Phillips
Bret Easton Ellis
Jay McInerney
Douglas Coupland
Martin Amis
Cormac McCarthy
Joshua Ferris
A.M. Homes
Rick Moody
Jonathan Lethem
James Alan McPherson
Joyce Carol Oates
Deborah Eisenberg
Cathy Day
Richard Russo
Blake Butler
Miranda July
Aleksandar Hemon
Shane Jones
Jeanette Winterson
Philip Roth
Deborah Willis
ZZ Packer

Journals

The Fourth River (4)
Flatmancrooked (4)
FRiGG (2)
PANK (2)
Bluestem Magazine (2)
Weave (2)
The Emprise Review (2)
Metazen (2)
Hot Metal Bridge
Annalemma
Barrelhouse
Dark Sky
Fairy Tale Review
The Good Men Project
Wigleaf
elimae

Comics

Fables

Poor Gabriel. Dude’s all up in his party galoshes and doesn’t even realize he’s not the Master of Ceremonies–he’s the clown. Poor little corn syrup of a man. And holy fucking rising action! Longest rising action in the megaverse. Dude’s heart goes to the guillotine in SLOOOWWWWWW motion. It rises, rises…then chop! But there’s a missed opportunity. Here we have the mondo holiday feast:

A fat brown goose lay at one end of the table and at the other end, on a bed of creased paper strewn with sprigs of parsley, lay a great ham, stripped of its outer skin and peppered over with crust crumbs, a neat paper frill round its shin and beside this was a round of spiced beef. Between these rival ends ran parallel lines of side-dishes: two little minsters of jelly, red and yellow; a shallow dish full of blocks of blancmange and red jam, a large green leaf-shaped dish with a stalk-shaped handle, on which lay bunches of purple raisins and peeled almonds, a companion dish on which lay a solid rectangle of Smyrna figs…

Blah, blah, blah. When the piece should have read:

A fat brown goose lay at one end of the table and at the other end, on a bed of creased paper strewn with sprigs of parsley, lay a big-ass pile of nachos, striped with a Wisconsin pepper jack/sharp cheddar blend, and garnished with refried black beans, Renfroe’s Salsa, and slivers of pickled Yatsafusa pepper, a neat paper frill round its shin and beside this was a round of spiced beef. Between these rival ends ran parallel lines of side-dishes…

Waaa, waaa, but nachos were invented in 1943, as we all know. So WTF? Joyce can go from forced realist epiphany to stream-of consciousness flow to Finnegans Wake, a book that is either full of shit or multi-level madness/brilliant punnage and word lollygag. Hello. A man who can write Ulysses can easily introduce nachos 25 years before they are invented. It’s called creative writing.

[Solemnly he came forward and mounted the Formica. He faced about and blessed gravely thrice the tower, the surrounding country and the awaking mountains. Then, catching sight of Stephen Velveeta, he bent towards him and made rapid crosses in the air, gurgling in his throat and shaking his head. Stephen Velveeta, displeased and sleepy, leaned his arms on the top of the staircase and looked coldly at the shaking gurgling face that blessed him, equine in its length, and at the light untonsured hair, grained and hued like corn tortilla. Oh, fuck, it's snowing again outside! Are you kidding? Blar me.]

2. On “Patience” by Tyler Gobble (over at decomP)

An interesting meditation, this poem. We certainly all know patience. How many of us wish our ovens would pre-heat more quickly? That our lettuce would grow up through the snow? That a statue of a yellow beam of iron (modern art?) at the university would sink into the ground and then into dust (as it must eventually)? And that young lady over there, the one with cheekbones like a crop-duster, what day will she hand me a five dollar bill or at least ask me for two beers on the roof of her basement? But this line:

The dog sits waiting with the treat on its nose while its owner stuffs himself with Ding-Dongs and Cheetos.

There is really no reason to mention Cheetos here, Tyler. A cheese-flavored cornmeal snack, here, in this poem? No, no, no. And question: why does Cheetos suddenly replace the interpunct? For decades, it was Chee-tos. Then now Cheetos? Who does that? Imagine if we all went around replacing our interpuncts? It’s chaos.

What the fuck? Sara screamed. Where is your interpunct?

I threw it away, Tom said. Mother said she could smell it in my room, so I…I threw it away.

Sara gave him a look like maybe he was chicken broth. Well, she said. Then we’re done.

Etc, etc. Fuck Cheetos, uh, Cheet-os, uh Fake-os with milk. Dog biscuits with neon below deck orange stains. Blar me. Or:

The dog sits waiting with the treat on its nose while its owner stuffs himself with Ding-Dongs and Nachos.

Same syllabic glow. Better food.

[I just saw Tyler last week at a restaurant. Did he eat nachos? He did not. Did I eat nachos. Yes, I did.]

3. Mary Jones, “One of us Wanted it More.” (elimae)

Kids going all wild, all clutch and grippy. Then:

“What can I give you that would make you be good?”

“It would have to be big.”

I didn’t have money for big.

Might I suggest something BIG for not very big money? Like:

[Kids, this little gnome has been all around the world! And now he's here! Can you kids name the capital of Djibouti? It's Djibouti! Ha, ha, don't you know the world is diabolical and we're all headed down the same swirling drain? So eat nachos--they are true to you.]

or

[Kids, your dad's friend and I are going to take a "nap." Here's a silver dollar. Here is a copy of printed instructions on how to make nachos. Follow each step, carefully. Now go down to the gas station and get some chips and cheese and a can of salsa and maybe a Fosters Oil Can for mom. ]

or

[Oh, you're one of those kids? Need hand-crafted toys, huh? Your dad drives a Subaru, right? Here, here's your damn hand-crafted nachos. No owls were killed for their blubber in the making of this shampoo, etc etc. Go play. Hurry up! The earth is catching on fire!!]

4. This next text could not be better. It’s what we call an outlier.

Would you like to be a best selling author? Huh? I mean what are you doing? Would you like to be Brett Easton Ellis? Make some paper? Do some blow off the ass of a parrot? Have your books protested? Wear those wool-collar coats that sort of look cool and affected and maybe then cool again, if the air is right, like if your breath is roiling. Drive a big house? Get all meta and use your name in your own books? (Now that is clever!) Meet Charlie Sheen in a bathroom? Hunt down any poet who uses the word corn silk? Get laid, though you are neither gay or straight? The answer is yes here, the answer is yes. So how do you do it? Really? You’re asking me this, really.

Me yawning me flipping slowly though a copy of Lunar Park [or any other Easton Ellis book] me slightly annoyed…I give you a look, I say, “Here, read this, page 41:”

The three of us, out in the hallway, were suddenly approached by a very tall and sexy cat holding a tray of nachos.

or later:

“Terby’s mad,” Sarah whined again.

“Well, calm him down,” I said, glancing around. “Bring him up some nachos.”

5. For many backyards I’ve read the poetry of Trey Jordan Harris. It calms me. Often my stomach will think of fullness or richness, or both. He has a poet’s touch for image, for float, he can make the world drift and often it does drift and so I feel OK.

Example here (elimae)

Trey writes poems about marriage. I pretty much dislike literature about marriage, but his poems are often an exception.

Three here:

But this Diagram piece is too much. He’s keeps his idyll, his reflection he glows so well, that captured moment. But might I make one small edit? I feel it will charge the poem and turn this very good aspirin of yole into a mighty, mighty cop a couple of sea-born cleavage blasters!

THINGS MARRIED PEOPLE DO

Plant the flowers eat
them for dinner. Cut
the lawn gather the clippings

eat them all for dinner.
Buy the house own
the house. Look at the
lilacs the hand-shaped

lilacs. Ask if they are supposed
to be shaped like hands
and eat them for dinner.

Turn the ceiling fan on
low slow your breathing
or metabolism. Later we will go
to the fair and everything will
be still

until we eat nachos.

9 THUNKS I GLOW

9. I glow this essay and I don’t care how old it is. So, if you comment, that is old, I’m going to say, I know. French kissing is old, as is water. The earth is old, the earth is really just bunch of dirt and dust, and it’s old, yet still we enjoy the earth at times except for those times we do not enjoy the earth.

9. I glow hats made of corn that you can actually fill with salsa.

9. I glow the words of Sarah Levine. Read this flash at Smokelong. It will take you as long to read this story as it will to smoke a cigarette–thus the term, and title of the magazine, Smokelong.

Did you read the flash? It is conceptual. An idea is presented and carried along–possibly here, it’s liberal guilt (admitting it while satirizing it) and it builds, see the structure there, and then turn. If you are going to write flash, please understand the turn. You don’t have to use it, but know it. It comes right after the climax, here:

I jumped onto the kitchen chair and said, “Have you lost your mind? Are you threatening me over a fucking cheese slicer?”

Turns can be wonderful. They can make the entire flash. Here look at this Eggers turn. Yes, yes, it is Eggers but relax. He’s not going to come slap you in the Converse. It’s just his words. Read the whole thing, please. Then check that last line:

THE BOUNTY
In her kitchen, she saw many things she would like to eat. On the counter, there was a bunch of new bananas, yellow as a Van Gogh chair, and two apples, pristine. The cabinet was open and she saw a box of crackers, a new box of cereal, a tube of curved chips. She felt overwhelmed, seeing all of the food there, that it was all hers. And there was more in the refrigerator! There were juices, half a melon, a dozen bagels, salmon, a steak, yogurt in a dozen colors. It would take her a week to eat all of this food. She does not deserve this, she thought. It really isn’t fair, she thought. You’re correct, God said, and then struck dead 65,000 Malaysians.

Levine drives the turn like the sea drives a salt-plank. Glow. And wonder what they’re going to use that cheese for? Huh, huh? Don’t make me knock your ass out.

9. “The Serious Writer and Her Pussy” by Meg Pokrass.

As a serious writer, in mid-life, she must master speaking the word “pussy” with confidence and authority. She practices doing so out loud for her next book store reading. The serious writer is starting a book tour to promote her new novel which is bursting with ‘pussy’.

Indeed. And I’ve been reading Damn Sure Right. And you should, too. Meg Pokrass brings the flash. She eats away my shins, my underwear, and my taxidermy. She’ll eat yours too. Buy the book, freak-os!

I am beginning to notice my favorite flash writers are female. Elizabeth Ellen, Kim Chinquee, Amelia Gray, Nicolle Elizabeth, Kathy Fish, Lydia Davis, Diane Williams, Lindsay Hunter….I could go on. And on. Might be just me. Might be women are better at writing flash? Don’t know, but I’ll keep thinking on it.

[BTW, every time I type the words Amelia Gray I misspell some aspect of her name. I bet she has dealt with this her entire life.]

9. I like to write about Velveeta:

Velveeta Thuds on the Roof

In the dark. It shimmers in its wobble. Nothing between them but the cooling itch of shingle. It likes any angle or gravity suck. To embrace sway. It wants to push against itself—much like we. (Yesterday, sober, I dropped a wine glass of Cheetos and laughed at my own sudden blood. Under sink/in trunk of car/beneath futon—I have no hand towels.) On the back of its neck, thoughts gleam. It boasts its mind is a butterfly ashtray. As for doubt or nocturnal chills of the head, it claims to know very little. Yet it corrects me: shooting stars are not stars, you ask for shotgun slugs never bullets, to fall over is indeed a form of exercise. Oh, the type to wear an orange shirt. To perch above my Sunday sweating back and say cryptic, unhelpful words like, “If you are really going to dig that hole, dig two.” Or maybe: “Look at you, whipjack! Gargling coins again.” Packages arrive. Days of rain like fingernail taps. It sees me on my knees, vomiting in the tall, wet grass and says, “You are an empty tomato shack.” I think its mind is an ashtray full of butterflies. (Ah, so drunk now. Just to carry my head like a damn fiddler. A marble spinning round the rim of shattered glass, waxy hot pepper bits, charred People magazine—I mean to say the kitchen sink. What is a tomato shack?) A meteor claws the fleshy sky. In the dark. Velveeta thuds off the roof.

9. Funny words at PANK. Thank you, Jospeh Cassarra.You made me spill my coffee. I spilt my coffee. Spilt is not a word. You made me spill my coffee. You made me move.

9. Jason Ockert won the Dzanc Books Short Story collection contest.

Woot, woot. Here is an interview with the man.

Here is a story so you can bite his knuckles.

Good glow, Jason. Looking forward to the read.

9. Justin Bieber eating nachos.

Whoa, whoa. Hold up. OK. Did you see that? I could care less if this kid’s career is chomped by a murder of dead crows, but he does one thing correctly: HE MAKES HIS OWN SERVING of nachos.

9. My publisher and I have been working hard this week on the cover of my upcoming book, Fog Gorgeous Stag. The process has been glow. I enjoy the process. It’s a give/take/idea thing. It is indeed creative energy. I hope you will like the cover. I do. I will not give you hints about the cover. OK, I will give you one hint about the cover: yellow.

S

Yesterday, I broke Laura’s Valentine’s Day curse thanks to a lot of planning and a little luck. Last year and the years before that, I didn’t take it very seriously. I wanted to give Laura the Valentine’s Day she always wanted. I also knew what it was like to disappoint someone on Valentine’s Day.

One Valentine’s Day, my ex-wife called in sick to clean my apartment, make dinner and dessert while I was at work. She left 35 balloons around my apartment, each with a message about our relationship (we were together 35 months at the time), even gave me TV on the Radio tickets. I only sent her an e-card because I was broke and at the time, saving for the engagement ring but I know I should have done better.

Looking back through my Live Journal this weekend, I realize how much of an emotard I was and still am to some degree. I’ve learned a lot from my poor choices and mistakes in relationships. I’ve gotten really good at burning bridges but not mending them with people worth mending them with. One day, I’ll forget the matches.

I’ve received three personal, positive rejections for WWLLOGWL so far. They give me a lot of hope that someone will give this MS a home and whoever take it will not only have my gratitude, but my sexy ass will want to rock your face in your respective city on tour.

“We Will Celebrate Our Failures”, the title story to the short story collection I’m working on, is up at Used Furniture Review, which you should read here. I love that it comes right after an interview with Amelia Gray, one of my current talent crushes. Everyone who has read her work probably understands where I’m coming from and probably has the same kind of crush.

The event, which is called AWP and known by its host city (ie: AWP Chicago, AWP Denver, or, this year, AWP DC- kind of like ‘The Real World’), seems to have a perpetual identity crisis, as it is not sure if it wants to be an academic conference, an arts festival, or the literary equivalent of a Comic-con (I looked it up, it’s not ComiCon, although it ought to be). AWP has panels, receptions, parties, off-site readings and events, and, most importantly, an overwhelmingly large bookfair/MFA program trade show with well over 600 booths and tables.

There are two good things that happen at AWP: 1 You meet people, especially internet friends that you can now actually know; 2) You get books. I bought and/or traded for probably 20 different books and journals at a total cost of around 100 dollars. Since returning home, I’ve begun to work my way through them. So far I’ve read Michael Stewart’s ‘The Hieroglyphics’ (freshly released by Mud Luscious Press, who I was doing some book-selling for at AWP and who are putting out exciting exciting stuff), Joanna Ruocco’s ‘The Mothering Coven’ (strange, small book of witches, their favorite foods, a birthday, and their very charming neighbor), and Andrew Zornoza’s ‘Where I Stay’ (text and images that grew on me slowly and then stuck- the kind of book that might haunt). Am currently reading Maggie Nelson’s ‘Bluets’ (a book about an obsessional romantic love of the color blue, sort of, in numbered text blocks that could be called prose poems or fragments- need to read more but already know I like it). Amelia Gray’s ‘Museum of the Weird’ is on the nightstand and ready. And there are more and more, but that’s another post.

The upshot of this reading is that it confirms that there’s a lot of good, language-thinking, thinking-thinking prose happening right now. It’s maybe fiction, often something else. ‘The Hieroglyphics’ is based upon a book of completely inaccurate translations of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Both that book and ‘The Mothering Coven’ borrow from older texts, weave in source material without direct citation ala Kathy Acker (the key difference is that both Ruocco and Stewart make note of their sources in notes, they just don’t directly cite passages). Zornoza’s text might be fiction, prose poems, documentary, (or as suggested in the dedication) lies. What’s exciting is that this is the now of prose, genre-transgressive, hybrid, better described than classified.

To close, I want to leave a longish passage from ‘Bluets.’ It was chosen at random from the part of the book I’ve already read. It isn’t fiction, it isn’t quite critical or essay writing either. The passage almost reads like an excerpt from an article in Cabinet, but it comes immediately after several more personal and stranger passages. The effect is almost collage-like, shades of blue, images in relation to blue, with the numeration of the segments providing the only obvious marker of forward progression. In any case, I think it’s pretty great.

23. Goethe wrote Theory of Colors in a period of his life described by one critic as “a long interval, marked by nothing of distinguished note.” Goethe himself describes the period as one in which “a quiet, collected state of mind was out of the question.” Goethe is not alone in turning to color at a particularly fraught moment. Think of filmmaker Derek Jarman, who wrote his book Chroma as he was going blind and dying of AIDS, a death he also forecast on film as disappearing into a “blue screen.” Or of Wittgenstein , who wrote his Remarks on Color during the last eighteen months of his life, while dying of stomach cancer. He knew he was dying; he could have chosen to work on any philosophical problem under the sun. He chose to write about color. About color and pain. Much of this writing is urgent, opaque, and uncharacteristically boring. “That which I am writing about so tediously, may be obvious to someone whose mind is less decrepit,” he wrote.

But what does this shocking development mean for you? It means that if you’re reading this, you should probably submit. Length’s 1000-4000 words. But wait, you ask, what type of work does Corium publish? Below you’ll find a list of some really notable Corium stories. That isn’t to say that they’re not all notable (which they are), but linking to every piece Corium has ever published seems a tad counter-productive. So here are the ones I love the most. Keep in mind, I’m not a big poetry dude. So this is pretty heavy toward the fiction side.

“Sisters” – Amelia Gray and Lindsay Hunter

“All the Imaginary People are Better at Life” – Amber Sparks

“Retention” – Ravi Mangla

“One More Beneath the Exit Sign” – Stephen Elliott

“Mirrorball” – Carrie Murphy

“Girl, Luminous” – Donna Vitucci

“Eating Heart” – Cami Park

“Bonnie Parker Visits Her Final Getaway” – Sean Lovelace

“Given the Chance” – Alec Niedenthal

“Choo and Rumble” – Kim Chinquee

“Demoiselle” – Uche Ogbuji

“Des Moines Gymnopédie” – Scott Garson

“Shiny” – Andrea Kneeland

“Still They Hear What They Want To Hear” – Kathy Fish

“Inner Geographies” – Roxane Gay

“The Gone Children They Said Tell Us a Story” – J.A. Tyler

“All Our Canoes Are Safely Ashore” – B.J. Hollars

“An Intervention” – Matthew Salesses

“Two Earthquakes” – Nicolle Elizabeth

“Something More Interesting” – Tara Laskowski

“Drive” – Curtis Smith

“Regional Keystone” – Erin Fitzgerald

“Hands to Work” – Steve Himmer

Holy fucking shit, you say. That’s a lot of badass work by so many badass writers. I sure wish I could experience the unadulterated awesomeness of Corium in person! Well guess motherfucking what! You will have the chance in little under a month at AWP 2011!

Come party with me, Lauren, our wonderful poetry editor Heather Fowler, and of course, the good folks from Prick of the Spindle and SmokeLong Quarterly (edited by fellow Susquehanna alum Tara Laskowski). And look at those readers! Steve Almond! Michael Czyzniejewski! It’s going to be better than 10 Super Bowls.

This is my fall semester intermediate workshop class. I showed up the last day and they were not only dressed like me, but they’d brought in a Spider-Man cake and noisemakers. To be sure, it was one of  the most touching and humbling moments of my life. I’m not exactly sure why the students responded so positively to the class and to me (I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that they all really got along and the level of criticism was really advanced), but I hope that it has something to do with how I tried to take them seriously as writers, that when they came into my class they weren’t student writers, they were just writers. (Much of my pedagogy comes from this video of Tom Bailey minus all the crying) A lot of them came into the class complaining about how previous workshops focused on inane guidelines (one student said he’d come from a workshop where students had to fit so many imperative, declarative and exclamatory sentences into stories), and I think they responded to how difficult I made the class. I ran it more like a graduate workshop and tried to focus on publishing and literary journals. We looked at PANK, The Collagist, Flatmancrooked, just an absolute ton, and the first student publication (of what I really think will be a lot) will go live on Metazen late this month.

Despite the difficulty (I’d go on about why I think this class is a lot of work, but I’ve included the syllabus below), 15 of 19 students signed up for my advanced fiction workshop in the spring which is the next step up in the program. I honestly couldn’t be happier (although, it poses some syllabus problems because I can’t use any of the same stories from this semester), and have taken this as a mandate to push them further, to expect more from them, to transform them into writing workhorses who believe in perspiration over inspiration and the daily writing schedule. So, with all that in mind, below is the first draft of my new syallbus. Please let me know what you think and feel free to share your own. Have you ever taught a workshop? What have your experiences been like if so? If not, do you want to, do you plan to? Why?

Required Materials

3X33: Short Fiction by 33 Writers edited by Mark Winegardner

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore

Welcome to Advanced Fiction Workshop

In this course, you’re going to write and read a lot. This is not going to be easy because becoming a writer isn’t easy. There will be no easy A’s, and no easy weeks. Writing is a constant struggle, and this course will reflect that truth. However, and I can guarantee you this, if you’re serious about the craft of fiction, if you’re willing to put in the work, you will be a better writer at the end of the course compared to the first day.

Each student will put up 15-20 pages of literary fiction for workshop twice during the semester. You can write a traditional short story, multiple flash fiction pieces, or a novel chapter, but remember, you have to demonstrate the fundamental principles of literary fiction in all of your workshop pieces. That means you shouldn’t hand in a novel chapter that is less than a page. I want to see structure, character, development. I want nuance and complexity. I don’t want filler pieces meant to get you closer to the page requirement.

Substantial revisions will be required. Substantial revision does not mean fixing grammar. Substantial revision usually means a complete rewrite and perhaps multiple rewrites. Students must also post 500-100 word critiques for every student story we workshop. Similarly, you will read a large amount of stories from 3X33 and a few handouts. Students will post 500-1000 word critiques for every assigned story we read. In addition to those critiques, you will write two 1200 word papers in which you do a craft analysis of the novels Super Sad True Love Story and A Gate at the Stairs.

Reading so much literary fiction will allow you to build a library of published stories in your heads. Students are expected to use their knowledge of writers like ZZ Packer, Richard Yates or Lorrie Moore to comment about peer work up for discussion. Students will make parallels and use the published work to inform their critiques of peer work. The majority of the course will be spent workshopping. The goal of the course is for you to not only become a better writer, but to become an active literary citizen who can participate in the ongoing dialogue concerning fiction.

Workshop

You will be prepared for every workshop class by doing the following:

1.)    Write comments in the margins of stories up for discussion. You MUST use the comments feature in Microsoft Word. All comments will be transparent to the entire class. I want you to upload your marked up versions of workshopped stories to Blackboard. Failure to do so will negatively impact your grade.

2.)    Write a 500-1000 word critique for each peer written story we read this semester. You must critique the story based on its own intentions. For example, if the writer is attempting to write in the realist mode of Ray Carver, do not suggest a woman who gives birth to a newborn baby every night ala Amelia Gray just because you don’t like realism. On the flip side, do not knock a postmodern story because you prefer realism. Judge the story the writer wrote, not the one you want to write. Try and help them see how they could better serve their material and unique world vision. In your responses, first describe what you think the writer is attempting to do and what the story is about. Then discuss the piece’s strengths. Finish with prescription, a section where you point out very specific things that still need work within the story. Go beyond grammar. Character, plot, prose, all the building blocks of fiction are on the table. You must use the description, strength, prescription model.

3.) Post your critique and margin comments to Blackboard by 8PM the night before workshop. All critiques will be visible to all members of the class, and I encourage you to read what your peers are saying about every story. Name your thread on Blackboard after your favorite line of the story in question. If you don’t turn in these materials BY 8PM, you will lose points.

Example of a good critique:

[There's a critique I wrote here in graduate school, but I'm removing it from the blog because I never told the person whose story I culled from. If interested, look in the Crow Room.]

Notes About Workshop

When you are being workshopped, it is very important that you are quiet, take notes, and do not respond to anything verbally. To reiterate, you are not allowed to talk when being workshopped unless I specifically ask you something, and that will be very rare. You are not there to defend your story. Your story must stand on its own.

Please proofread your work. If a story is excessively sloppy, I will not workshop it. Do not depend on your classmates to fix your grammar.

Distribution of Manuscripts

Stories are due from every student at specific points in the semester. Upload them to Blackboard on the due date by 9AM. If your story is late, your grade for that story will drop by an entire letter. If you are more than a day late, you will get an F, no exceptions. You are responsible for printing out your peers’ stories for discussion on workshop days.

Blackboard Reading Posts

On most weeks, you will be required to read at least one outside short story. On these weeks, you must post a 500-1000 word critical response to said story on Blackboard under the appropriately titled forum. Posts must be uploaded by 8PM the day before we discuss the story. If your post is late, you will take an F on the critical response in question. During the first two weeks in which we will be discussing two professional short stories a classroom session, you are required to write three 250-500 word responses each class session, one for each story we read (the exception being Super Sad True Love Story when Paper 1 will be due). Post your responses on the appropriate Discussion Board forum. There’s a forum designated by name for every professional story.

Let me be very clear on this. This is not a forum for you to explain whether or not you like the piece in question. I don’t care. What I’m looking for is a craft analysis. These stories are published. They’re not up for workshop. What can you learn from them? If you simply talk about why you love or hate a specific story, you will take an F on the critical response in question.

Papers

Two papers will be due in this course, one for Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shytengart and one for A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore. They will be due on Blackboard the night before class at 8PM like our reading critiques. The goal in these papers will be to do a craft analysis and pick out a few pieces in the work in question that specifically helpful to your development as a writer. Do not analyze these novels in a vacuum. Feel free to tie in your own work or other books you have read.

Fiction Pods

After everyone has been workshopped once, I will break you up into Fiction Pods of four and five in which you will read each other’s revisions and then run mini-workshops. I will explain more about Fiction Pods when we reach that point in the semester. Keep in mind, you will be required to meet with your Fiction Pods for 90 minutes outside of class on two separate occasions during the semester. You will also have to e-mail me where and when you met and a very brief summary of the meeting.

Attendance

I want to be as clear as I can on this. If you miss class four times, you will fail. There will be no make up assignments. Don’t come back to class. The ONLY excuse I will accept is a doctor’s excuse. I am not going to make any exceptions on this front.

If you are unprepared for discussion or workshop, I cannot give you credit for attendance that day.

Grading

This is what you have to do if you want an A in this course. You have to put up two thoughtful workshop pieces. Then you have to take the time to substantially revise them. You have to be engaged in classroom discussions and add something relevant every class. You must do all the Blackboard posts and turn them in on time. You do all these things, you get an A. You slack off, turn stuff in late or short, doze off in class, and you’re not getting an A.

Here’s the grading breakdown. 70% of your final grade will come down to your final portfolio, i.e. all of your revised work at the end of the semester. The other 30% comes from Blackboard posts and participation. Please note: participation is mandatory. If you are not contributing to every single workshop, you are not going to get a good grade. This is a workshop course. The same goes for Blackboard. If you consistently fail to turn in work on time, you’re not going to get a good grade.

Final Portfolios

On the final day of class, you will be expected to turn in two revisions of your workshop pieces. Late portfolios WILL NOT be accepted.

Conferences

After your workshop, please schedule a conference with me during my office hours. Revisions will be due at the end of the semester, but you can turn them in at any point. Conferences are mandatory!

Outside Events

Students are only required to attend one event outside of class. On April 7th, writer Lydia Davis will read in the Frick Fine Arts Building at 8PM. You are required to attend and write a short, 500 word craft analysis of her reading. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY. If you cannot attend, you must go to a make up reading that I will assign.

Academic Integrity

Cheating/plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students suspected of violating the University of Pittsburgh Policy on Academic Integrity, noted below from the February 1974, Senate Committee on Tenure and Academic Freedom reported to the Senate Council, will be required to participate in the outlined procedural process as initiated by the instructor. A minimum sanction of a zero score for the quiz or exam will be imposed.

Plagiarism, as defined by the University of Pittsburgh’s Academic Integrity code, is when a student:

Presents as one’s own, for academic evaluation, the ideas, representations, or words of another person or persons without customary and proper acknowledgment of sources.

Submits the work of another person in a manner which represents the work to be one’s own.

Knowingly permits one’s work to be submitted by another person without the faculty member’s authorization.

Special Assistance

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890 or (412) 383-7355(TTY), as early as possible in the term.  DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.

Course Sequence

Week One

Thurs January 6

Syllabus

Introductions

Amelia Gray “Babies” and “Dinner”

Week Two

Tues January 11

Raymond Carver “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” 3X33

Tobias Wolff “The Liar” Blackboard

Dave Eggers “After I Was Thrown in the River but Before I Drowned” Blackboard

Thurs January 13

Antonya Nelson “Naked Ladies” 3X33

James Alan McPherson “Why I Like Country Music” Blackboard

Donald Barthelme “Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning” 3X33

Week Three

Tues January 18

Gary Shytengart Super Sad True Love Story

STORIES DUE

Thurs January 20

Workshop 1

Workshop 2

Week Four

Tues January 25

Workshop 3

Workshop 4

Thurs January 27

Workshop 5

Jonathan Lethem “Super Goat Man” Blackboard

Week Five

Tues February 1

Workshop 6

Workshop 7

Thurs February 3 – Guest Workshop w/Travis Straub

Workshop 8

Workshop 9

Week Six

Tues February 8

Workshop 10

Workshop 11

Thurs February 10

Workshop 12

Andre Dubus “The Fat Girl” Blackboard

Week Seven

Tues February 15

Workshop 13

Workshop 14

Thurs February 17

Workshop 15

Matt Bell “His Last Great Gift” Blackboard

Week Eight

Tues February 22

Workshop 16

Workshop 17

Thurs February 24

Workshop 18

Richard Yates “The Best of Everything” 3X33

Week Nine

Tues March 1

Workshop 19

Workshop 20

Thurs March 3

Workshop 21

Workshop 22 (IF NEEDED)

A.M. Homes “The Former First Lady and the Football Hero” Blackboard

SUNDAY REVISIONS DUE

Week Ten

Spring Break

Week Eleven

Tues March 15

Lorrie Moore A Gate at the Stairs

New Stories Due

Thurs March 17

Workshop 1

Workshop 2

Week Twelve

Tues March 22

Workshop 3

Workshop 4

Thurs March 24

Workshop 5

Workshop 6

Week Thirteen

Tues March 29

Workshop 7

Workshop 8

Thurs March 31

Workshop 9

Workshop 10 (IF NEEDED)

ZZ Packer “Dayward” Blackboard

Week Fourteen

Tues April 4

Workshop 11

Workshop 12

Thurs April 7

Workshop 13

Workshop 14 (IF NEEDED)

George Saunders “Sea Oak” 3X33

Week Fifteen

Tues April 12

Workshop 15

Workshop 16

Thurs April 14

Workshop 17

Workshop 18

Week Sixteen

Tues April 19

Workshop 19

Workshop 20

Thurs April 21

Workshop 21

Workshop 22

Posted by Tobias Carroll

Three stories, all quite good, presented for your perusal from venues around the web. It wasn’t until I looked down at the complete post that I realized some thematic resonance among the titles.

Eric Howerton’s “Ghost Clothes” (at Night Train).

We started wearing ghosts for clothes in January. After everything that had happened it seemed fitting to start the new year wrapped in the dead. So we wore ghosts for scarves.

Amelia Gray’s “Vigil” (at Spork)

With one intake of air it seemed like he was about to turn towards her but he continued to not do that while she ate one nugget and another, first eating them warm and plain and then dipping them into the honey mustard sauce she had chosen, resting the adorned nugget on her tongue, sweet-salt, then dipping two at a time and putting them both into her mouth, the nuggets crushing together, their fried skin softened hours before, when he first moved his jaw like he was going to say a word but said nothing instead.

Mary Hamilton’s “I’ve got your ghosts right here.” (at The Collagist)

And the drunk boy leans his forearm on the jukebox, rests his head on his fist and types the numbers for his favorite song. Disc 7, song 16. Mustang Sally, he howls. The bar groans. The patrons of the bar, the seams of the floorboards, the pipes behind the walls.

Hosted by Target, the event was organized to showcase the vast opportunities that P.S. ARTS Express Yourself is able to provide to thousands of students in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley.
Many California public schools have no arts programs at all – no painting, drawing, acting, singing or dancing. For 18 years, P.S. ARTS has been working to restore arts education to these schools, serving those schools most in need first. Since their founding, they have positively impacted the lives of tens of thousands of children attending.

Some celebrities that came our to support the cause were:

• Soleil Moon Frye with daughters Poet and Jagger
• Camryn Manheim with son Milo
• Mark Fuerstein with kids Lila and Frisco
• Joely Fisher with daughter Olivia Luna Fisher-Duddy
• Lisa Rinna with daughters Delilah Belle and Amelia Gray
• Molly Ringwald with husband Panio Gianopoulos, daughter Mathilda Ereni and twins, Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos 
• Julie Bowen and one of her twins

AND we got our first look at Michelle Stafford’s daughter Natalia Scout Lee Stafford!

Related Articles:

• Brad and Angelina Relax at The Park With The Kids
• Padma Lakshmi and Krishna Stroll in NYC
• Celebrity Kids Celebrate Halloween!
• Celebs and Their Kiddos Dress Up To Benefit The Children Affected by AIDS Foundation

In addition to doing book reviews at The Nervous Breakdown, I’ll also be doing interviews. My first is with one of my favorite authors, Amelia Gray. I hate to even limit her by calling her a small press darling (in the vein of Parker Posey, indie film darling) as she is a voice to be reckoned with, and I’m sure the small presses will only hold on to her for as long as they can, until the bigger presses come calling. Harper Perennial, are you paying attention?

Instead of doing the standard interview, asking about her latest projects and what her process is, I went over her first two books, AM/PM (Featherproof) and Museum of the Weird (FC2), reminisced about the times I’ve seen her read live at various AWPs and other outings, and generally prompted her with whatever authors, presses, and eccentricities I could think of.

Visit her at her site, or Five Things (her reading series in Austin), or hell, just Google her. She’s everywhere. Be sure to catch her live, it’s always worth it.

So, go check out the review up at The Nervous Breakdown, pick up copies of AM/PM and Museum of the Weird, and track her at Twitter and her blog. She’s one of the most compelling voices out there right now – hilarious, disturbing, emotional, surreal, heartbreaking, grounded, alluring and smart.

I’m going to be doing some book reviews for The Nervous Breakdown, and I’m really stoked about that. I’m going to be focusing on small presses and the genre/lit benders. I’m also thrilled to be working with Shya Scanlon, a really talented author I first heard of with his online serial Forecast 42, which will be out by Flatmancrooked as Forecast later this year. We have similar tastes and I know we’ll get some much needed attention to some gifted authors, presses and journals.

My first review is now live for the fantastic dark collection of shorts The Physics of Imaginary Objects by Tina May Hall, winner of the 2010 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Her novella included in this book “All the Day’s Sad Stories” was the winner of the 2008 Caketrain Chapbook Competition, selected by Brian Evenson.

What’s next after this you ask?

Next will be an interview with Amelia Gray, up soon, 101 Prompts covering her career, books, and various eccentricities. After that: Avian Gospels by Adam Novy (Hobart: Short Flight/Long Drive), then Daddy’s (Featherproof) by Lindsay Hunter, followed by The Wilding (Graywolf) by Benjamin Percy then probably this great new press, Dark Sky Books and Cut Through the Bone by Ethel Rohan. So keep your eyes and ears open.

There’s so much great fiction out there.

* by Amelia Gray

At the base of the subway stairs, she stabbed him in the stomach with a bone-handled knife she had brought for the occasion. “You are exactly like Barry Bonds,” he said, reaching for the rail and sliding his hand down the wall.

“Stop saying that.”

The floor smelled like warm meat. He looked at the blood in his hand and thought about how he had touched the wall and floor before the wound. “Lunch went so well,” he said.

“You’re a liar and you never loved me.”

“Barry Bonds said, ‘Those boos motivate me to make something happen.’ Barry Bonds said, ‘I’m not afraid to be lonely at the top.’”

“This is why you got stabbed. Everything is funny.”

“I’m going into septic shock.”

“You are not.”

“I feel like Jon Lieber after Bonds smacked number 713 off the third deck. I want to lie down.”

“You’re fine.”

She seemed confused so he showed her his hand. The pain was heady but already subsiding. He had a vision of what a bacterial culture of the subway floor might look like, blooms of e. coli like the flowers she had bought with his money.

*

Amelia Gray is the author of AM/PM (Featherproof Books) and Museum of the Weird (FC2).

*

Micrograffiti is a project edited by Stacey Swann. The writers were asked to respond with fiction to Ben Walters’ photographs of the South London graffiti tunnel. Click here to read more >>

There was a period of time as a little girl when I had the crazed compulsion to cut off the hair of all my Barbies into mangled, uneven bobs. There was something about this process, the build-up, the quick, decisive cut of the hair, the awkward and strangely beautiful way the dolls looked more human and interesting to me after I was done. Amelia Gray’s AM/PM is like that swift, enraged, inspiring cut, but into literature. She cuts off the excess, she leaves her characters at their most vulnerable, strangely mangled but all the more beautiful in the truth of their damage and longing.

At the start of AM/PM, I worried. I wondered, “How is she going to pull this off?” A collection of 120 stories following 23 characters? She must be mad. By the end of this book, I was pleased to discover just how mad Amelia Gray really is. Somehow, miraculously, she leaves us with 120 stories that cause you to stop and admire the vast whiteness of the page. How can so much happen in so few words? Why can’t I stop reading?

In each of these stories, you end up somewhere you wouldn’t have imagined by the end, often in only a few sentences. Gray moves from the general to the highly personal like a trained acrobat, jumping from story to story effortlessly and beautifully. After reading AM/PM, you can’t help but be reminded of how often the little things, the seemingly meaningless details of everyday life, are often what resonate with us the most, that they’re what make up the fabric of all our memories and desires.

“Olivia dreams that her body becomes pliable enough that she can stretch very thin and cover most of the rooms of the house. Her body is so thin that the bones are clearly visible, and the veins stretch, and the blood has more distance to travel and as a result, the edges of her body are very cold. Reginald opens the front door, removes his shoes, and takes only one step before recoiling in the horror at the chilly mass that is Olivia’s body, stretched and waiting. In her dreams, she controls every aspect of her life.

Are you growing mistrustful of others? Do you suspect your wife does not actually have cancer? Is every trip to the mailbox an exercise in loathing and remorse? Are your coworkers having trouble finding anything interesting to say when they talk about you behind your back? Do you deeply despise people who possess many of the same opinions and motives as your own?

They were in love! Carla wore her hair up and Andrew saw everything as a sign. They spent an entire afternoon sitting side by side in a coffee shop, taking more meaning than necessary from the world around them. A man wearing boxing gloves walked down the sidewalk in front of them and they took that to mean they would be together forever.”

I could go on. Honestly, I could quote the whole damn book. I never thought an author could successfully personify loneliness through a John Mayer Concert Tee, but somehow Amelia Gray does it and it’s hilarious and heartbreaking. Reading each of these stories is like opening a can of tuna only to find a hunk of gold: strange, alarming, and curiously funny. I can’t wait for the release of her next book, Museum of the Weird, this upcoming September by Fiction Collective 2.

In the meantime, you can purchase a copy of AM/PM at Featherproof Books or at Amazon. You can also keep up with Amelia by following her blog.

It also just so happens that Amelia Gray and other talented authors from Featherproof Books (Chicago) and Hobart (Champaign-Urbana) are reading this week on the West Coast! Here are the remaining dates:

San Francisco:
Tuesday, August 3rd 9pm
The High Emission Book Tour
with Aaron Burch, Amelia Gray, Lindsay Hunter and Reynard Seifert
Amnesia Bar
853 Valencia St. FREE!

San Francisco:
Wednesday, August 4th 7:30pm
Random Hookup: Corium + Hobart
with Aaron Burch, Lauren Becker, Amelia Gray, Andrea Kneeland, Greg Gerke, and Adam Novy
The Knockout
3223 Mission at Valencia St FREE!

Sacramento:
Thursday, August 5
Burch & Gray with Flatmancrooked PubQuiz
with Aaron Burch and Amelia Gray
Pangaea Cafe, 7pm FREE!

Tucson:
Wednesday, August 11
Powhaus Productions Presents Lit!
Rialto Theatre, 7pm
with Spork Press
318 E. Congress St. $3

I will be at the San Francisco shows, so be sure to come out and have a drink with me. Hope to see you there!

Have you donated to the tour? These great writers are rolling up and down the west coast in the next few weeks. Dates after the break.

San Diego:
Saturday, July 31 8pm – 11pm
Vermin on the Mount
with Aaron Burch, Lisa Fugard, Amelia Gray, Jess Jollett, Lindsay Hunter, Enriqu Limón, Adam Novy & Andy Roe
Sushi Performance & Visual Arts
390 Eleventh Ave FREE!

Los Angeles:
Sunday, August 1st 9-11pm
Vermin on the Mount Six-Year Anniversary
with Jillian Lauren, Aaron Burch, Amelia Gray, Lindsay Hunter & Adam Novy
The Mountain Bar
473 Gin Ling Way FREE!

San Francisco:
Tuesday, August 3rd 9pm
The High Emission Book Tour
with Aaron Burch, Amelia Gray, Lindsay Hunter and Reynard Seifert
Amnesia Bar
853 Valencia St. FREE!

San Francisco:
Wednesday, August 4th 7:30pm
Random Hookup: Corium + Hobart
with Aaron Burch, Lauren Becker, Amelia Gray, Andrea Kneeland, Greg Gerke, and Adam Novy
The Knockout
3223 Mission at Valencia St FREE!

Sacramento:
Thursday, August 5
Burch & Gray with Flatmancrooked PubQuiz
with Aaron Burch and Amelia Gray
Pangaea Cafe, 7pm FREE!

Tucson:
Wednesday, August 11
Powhaus Productions Presents Lit!
Rialto Theatre, 7pm
with Spork Press
318 E. Congress St. $3