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hmm…short fiction rejection #3

August 23, 2007 in writing | 1 comment

this is starting to look like a bad idea.

i know i have to track my rejections regardless, but seeing my percentage of acceptance go from a happy 50% to a sad and quickly falling 25% within a week is a bit depressing. and posting the depressing news for mass (or mini-mass) consumption is equally frustrating. but i’m going to stick to it (i think).

so officially, i got a rejection today from The Paris Review (a tough nut to crack). the piece was I Wanna Be A Flower. i thought it might be a bit freshman for them, i’ll try sending them something more seasoned later this year. in the meantime i need to revise both Flower and Adele and see if i can find other homes for them.

official count: 1 for 4.

damages…back on track.

August 22, 2007 in damages | Permalink

a solid episode last night. blissfully absent of the annoying whiny Katie character (sans about 10 minutes – which was all that was tolerable). nice little chunks of information are immerging and i’m interested. we got some much needed relationship stuff between Ellen and David and some great development for both Tom and the Tom and Patty relationship. i could have done without the ridiculous scene at the restaurant with Tom and his wife and his friend and friend’s girlfriend. in my experience real adults rarely behave that way in an upscale restaurant, regardless of how much they’ve had to drink or what they are celebrating. it was a bit absurd. otherwise a strong episode.

if you are trying to catch up or have decided to start watching the show (surely based on my brilliant coverage), they are showing a marathon on Labor Day weekend – September 3rd, starting @ 3pm on FX, the marathon will be followed by a new episode the following night at the regular time – Tuesday, September 4th @ 10pm (there is no new episode next week).

short fiction rejection #2

August 22, 2007 in short fiction submissions, writing | 4 comments

i’ve decided to track my short fiction rejections (and acceptances – should i be so lucky). i just got a rejection today 🙁 so i guess it’s time to start tracking.

i had previously submitted two pieces total in my life. last year i submitted two and got one rejection (from Swink) and one acceptance, from Pearl. my piece “I Hate The French” will be published in Pearl #38 (winter 2008).

this year i submitted 4 more and i just got my rejection today for The Threepenny Review. the piece is titled, “Adele, The Unremarkable”. it is a bit of a departure piece for me, so it is disappointing (rejections always are i suppose) but i still have several pieces (3?) out there, so i can’t be too sad yet. besides, my novel is out there in the world as well, and i’m sending all my energy to that one right now, no energy left to worry about the poor short fiction bits…

so here’s the official rejection count: 1 for 3

here’s a link to Pearl Magazine: http://pearlmag.com/

the apocalypse is not always interesting…

August 22, 2007 in book reviews, zombies | 2 comments

this is the hardest book review i’ve had to write yet.

#25. The Apocalypse Reader. Edited by Justin Taylor. Short Fiction Collection.

i desperately wanted to like this book, both because it is a collection of great writers both seasoned and relatively new, giving their original takes on the apocalypse, which is interesting in and of itself, and just because i adore good short fiction. there are 34 stories in total by 35 different authors, all dealing in their own ways with “the apocalypse” and if i have complained before about an uneven collection, then boy was i complaining before i even knew what to complain about it. this is the most uneven collection i have ever read, some of it just awesome and mind blowing and hilarious and some of it so dull and underwhelming that a few times i gave up and didn’t complete a story (unheard of for me – i always trudge through!). however, i want more collections, i want to support both the short story form and the vision of what this collection is about. so i’m torn about this review.

i suppose the real truth of it is: 2 stars for the half of it i didn’t like and 4 stars for the half of it i did like? hmm…split the difference and give it 3 stars? jeez. i hate this. 3 seems too high. maybe i have to admit that my expectations were too high? is that part of the problem here?

pieces by the following artists were awesome: Jared Hohl, Matthew Derby, Shelley Jackson, Adam Nemett, Brian Evenson, Robert Bradley, Josip Novakovich, Allison Whittenberg, Justin Taylor, Kelly Link, Neil Gaiman, Tao Lin, Elliot David, Colette Phair, Michael Moorcock, Jeff Goldberg, Jocye Carole Oates. I desperately want to add Dennis Cooper to this list with The Ash Gray Proclamation, and he had me for the first 15 pages, but i couldn’t hold on for the last 10 or so, it just got too ridiculous, which was perhaps the point, but somewhere my enjoyment was lost.

the piece by Jeff Goldberg, These Zombies Are Not A Metaphor, was my favorite as it was hilarious and inventive and just utterly enjoyable. second runners up include An Accounting by Brian Evenson, The Last Man by Adam Nemett, and Fraise, Menthe. Et Poivre 1978 by Jared Hohl.

the ones i didn’t mention were either passable or borderline unreadable and i’m sad to say that this included several VERY famous writers and even some that whether famous or not, i’ve been a fan of, for quite some time. very disappointing.

the problem i suppose with any review, be it movie, book, or album, is that so much of it is based on personal tastes. i’ve always tried to make it known that my reviews are very personal, which means that it is just one girl’s silly opinion and it may not work for everyone. but at the same time, with this book, i couldn’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone, which is the mark of a genuinely good book, right? jeez. a simple book review shouldn’t be so difficult…

Okay, 3.0 stars – with the stipulation that there are many 4 star pieces in there, but that for me, there are also a lot of 1 and 2 star pieces, so read at your own risk. if anyone has read this book, i would welcome comments about which stories worked for them, particularly if you have an argument as to why a story i didn’t list was a favorite of yours.

robots, robots, robots…!

August 21, 2007 in robots, sexbots | Permalink

okay, this is not quite robots, and is maybe the opposite of “sexbots” it is a promo for the Bionic Woman airing in September. i do not recommend clicking on this link to take the test at work, unless you are all alone or work only with deaf people. there is a really really really loud mini-movie of a car crash (which you can skip) when you first click on the link (which caused all my co-workers to immediately perk up and in some cases even run over to my desk – yes – it’s that loud) but even the test itself, which is kind of fun, needs volume.

also, if you want a high score i suggest an environment unlike work, where you can focus, not that it is overtly difficult, but with the volume low and phones ringing, maybe not the best environment. also, you should be working anyway, not taking fake tests online, right?

i also don’t recommend watching the actual show when it airs whether you participate in this fun little interactive test or not. i’ve decided to watch one episode, because i so desperately would like the show to be good (like Heroes) but judging from the promo commercial i saw recently, i will want to gouge out my own eyes with the closest possible implement after watching five minutes of it (and that is even if there is no technology to give me bionic eyes).

http://www.bat-test.com/

enjoy!

ps – i stole the link to the bionics test from Pop Candy, a great little site that does a fantastic job of keeping me informed on all things pop, with very little effort on my part. although Whitney did not warn me about the volume issues – for shame!

http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/

did someone say sexbot?

August 20, 2007 in misogynistic bullshit, sexbots | 4 comments

last week i posted a tiny little bit about sexbots in my semi-feminist rage about the surgical bra. and that very same week i was confronted by this super stupid Heineken commerical in which a sexbot (okay, technically we can only be sure she’s a fembot, but she sure as hell looks and acts like a sexbot to me) which actually becomes a mini-keg of Heineken.

here is the problem in a nutshell. i have a sense of humor. a good one even. and Heineken has some really great, really funny, sometimes a bit insulting commercials out there, but COME ON! are you kidding me? really?! we’ve come so far that we don’t need women to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, hell, we don’t even need women, we just need a sexbot that can turn into a keg! or maybe the idea is that the woman is barefoot and pregnant and in the kitchen making your dinner (sight unseen – as she should be), while the sexbot comes out to do a little dance and turn into a keg to satisfy your urges, and then, get this, then she turns into THREE sexbots, to satisfy your other urges. what a fucking piece of shit commericial.

i know i’m taking this too seriously, but some days (like days that you spend reading about a surgical bra that can be painfully implanted in women’s chests so that we will look more like men fantasize we should look, instead of the way the universe intended) i just can’t take one more ridiculous misogynistic piece of bullshit. an extra benefit to this stupid commericial? i like to drink Heineken and i’m going to have to not do that for a bit 🙁

here’s the link to the commerical:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y_ro3-V_HdM

and to offset that commercial i’m going to send you to a good site, called Feministe, which has been inspring of late and which generally deals with much more important and interesting feminist issues that what i’ve been grumbling about over here. check it out:

http://feministe.powweb.com/blog/

this post below in particular is great – for any blogger (okay a leaning to the left blogger) to read, but if you’re not leaning to the left a bit then i’m not really sure what you’re doing here anyway…

http://feministe.powweb.com/blog/archives/2007/08/19/dear-michael-skube/

comic of the week…and an update

August 20, 2007 in comics, savannah college of art and design | 3 comments

so this weekend Manhattan was insanely beautiful, which meant that i spent less time than usual indoors being the hermit that i am (and also less time being productive), it is hard to regret how i spent my weekend, but i have to admit i’m having a hell of a time getting my cartooning gears going. everything i have sketched thus far is much less suited to a weekly comic strip and more to a graphic novel or comic book (well, bad ones). i have also remembered that as terrible an artist as i am, i am an even worse inker. so yea! anyway, i am sticking to my guns about doing this, but it will likely not show up until sometime in September. the good news is i’ve been thinking about my life in terms of a strip and a surprising amount of slightly interesting stuff has happened, certainly enough to fill a couple panels a week (it’s also become obvious that my boyfriend will play a huge role, perhaps because he is a continued source of humor and occasional aggrivation in my daily life). anyway, until such time as i can get mine up and running i thought i’d feature a new artist and a strip or two of theirs (and a link to their sites) each week.

featured for this week is Drew Weing. a really talented artist i went to school with at the Savannah College of Art & Design, although we didn’t know each other, you can see he is supremely talented. please check out his site if you get the opportunity.

http://www.drewweing.com./

they were too large and were getting cut off by my blog format, so you need to click to view…

let’s talk flight of the conchords

August 20, 2007 in Uncategorized | Permalink

this show is just awesome. i was worried that breaking into songs/mini-music videos would get old, it is a bit gimmicky and even though it is great fun and the lyrics are laugh out loud funny i was concerned it would wear thin very quickly, what i didn’t count on was the fact that the show would get consistently better throughout the season, thus supporting the songs/videos. i just love these characters and their hilarious dry deliveries, bret and jemaine are loveable beyond reason, and to steal some thoughts from New York Magazine’s vulture blog (see below for a link to their original story on the show back in May 2007) “the show is a welcome relief from the crippling smugness that has overtaken Entourage”. i couldn’t have said it better myself, which i guess is why i didn’t.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/05/hbos_flight_of_the_conchords_k.html

st. lucy’s home for girls raised by wolves

August 20, 2007 in book reviews | Permalink

so i didn’t even have to come up with a creative title for this post, because the above is the title of the short fiction collection i just finished, and it’s pretty much creative enough to stand on it’s own.

#24. St Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised By Wolves. Short Fiction Collection by Karen Russel. 4 stars

this was a completely creative and enjoyable read. so off the charts creative, and experimental in its own way, but at the same time completely involving. a few of these pieces have been published elsewhere including a piece that i had already read in The New Yorker (Accident Brief, Occurrence #00/422).

this was a really even collection, so much so that i found it difficult to pick stories that were stronger than others, i’d say they were all about equally strong. perhaps the best was the title story of the collection, but all strong. the only fault i find with the collection at all is that the endings seemed a bit abrupt. not that there was anything overly wrong with them, but that they seemed kind of arbitrary. also while i felt that most of them started very strongly, i didn’t feel they came around quite as powerfully. otherwise a really strong collection, and since Ms. Russell is only like a ridiculous 25 yeas old, i suspect we’ll be hearing (reading?) a lot from her in the future.

as a sidenote: she’s yet another Columbia MFA grad, making me even more wistful that i too was attending…

#23 superbad

August 19, 2007 in book reviews, mcsweeney's | Permalink

if you came to this post, thinking it was going to be about the movie, sorry, but thanks for visiting!

this is a book review (#23 for the year) of Superbad by Ben Greenman, Short Fiction Collection.

i wasn’t sure about this book early on as it is pretty experimental, but i ended up really enjoying it, a few stories at the end in particular sold me, but i’ll admit that i did languish a bit in the middle.

before i read Superbad (and after reading Tao Lin’s Eeeee Eeee Eee) i had pretty much decided to stay away from experimental fiction and short fiction, but after reading Superbad i think i’m going to keep reading it (and i plan to pick up Tao Lin’s short fiction collection Bed, which i’ve heard a lot about, despite the fact that i didn’t fall in love with his novel the previously mentioned Eeeee Eeee Eee). i had felt kind of uninspired lately by experimental work because it seemed too, well maybe too intellectual, and with not enough soul. but i’ve changed my mind and i think it’s good to have them both out there doing their thing and it’s good for me to read both kinds.

i have to admit that the fiction i end up loving is a bit more traditional. even within Superbad, with a few exceptions, it was the more traditional pieces that i enjoyed. i think in short fiction (and probably in regular fiction too) i’m just looking for something to move me these days, something where i can connect with the characters and simply be moved to feel, and in experimental fiction i think that rarely happens if only because that is not necessarily the primary goal.

the standouts for me in Superbad were: Snapshot, In Shuvalolv’s Library, and most especially What 100 People, Real and Fake, Believe about Dolores. that last piece was quite frankly a brilliant piece of experimental short fiction and is probably the reason for my conversion to continue reading in this way. it was exactly as the title describes and i was shocked to see what an effective way it was of knitting together a story, i had such a clear picture of what Dolores and the circumstances in her life may have been, and it left most of it wildly open to the imagination, similar to the way a choose your own adventure allows you to participate (but much much better). i was really truly wowed by this piece, and it was the last piece in Superbad, which was a powerful way to end (note to self: end all short fiction collections on a super high note).

i also really enjoyed Notes On Revising Last Night’s Dream, which was laugh out loud hilarious and Stuck On Red: My Hopes And Dreams Detailed.

there are also these “musicals” or rather “fragments of musicals” which are all funny (5 in total) and are a running theme in the book, which is in itself quite funny, but for me they just weren’t strong enough to knit the overall book together. they seemed a bit gimmicky and as such, lost their charm after maybe the second one. it was not enough to derail the book though, there was enough beautiful strong writing, funny bits, and finely crafted stories to earn this 4 stars.

Superbad by Ben Greenman. Short Fiction Collection. 4 stars.

sidenotes: Ben Greenman has a pretty interesting blog (as well as a couple other books), check it out:

http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/bloggers/ben-greenman/

also, i got Superbad from my beloved McSweeney’s, there is a link for them on the home page.