Art Edwards-Layin' Down the Law

The Tub

2012-01-30T06:25:00.000-08:00

You don't have to be a genius to look at the Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie Kickstarter campaign and realize that things are getting a little itchy.

With about $2,200 gathered to date (big thanks for all your donations), we still need $12,500-ish in the next week or we get nothing.

It's clearly time to break out The Tub.

"What's The Tub?" you ask?

Well, The Tub is where, in 1998, when Kel and I were packing up our lives in Phoenix and moving to San Francisco, I stored all of my Refreshments collectibles. The Tub is about four feet long, blue, and it probably holds the best collection of Refreshments memorabilia the world knows.

It's Mecca for Refreshments collectors.

As you might imagine, I don't spend a lot of time digging through The Tub. It's sat in storage for most of its life, where no one bothers it. Still, there was one time in recent memory when I dug deep into The Tub. It was in 2003, and I was in the process of publishing my first novel, Stuck Outside of Phoenix. Kel and I had just moved to Ashland, Oregon, and I was having trouble scraping together enough money to publish and promote my novel. So, I got into The Tub, found twenty-eight items I felt I could part with, and sold them on Ebay. This gave me the necessary funds to bring Stuck the book to life. The Tub saved the day.

So, here we are in 2012, and once again I'm trying to help bring Stuck to life, albeit in a completely different way, and the funds are not yet there to make it happen. Sounds like a job for The Tub.

At this link, you will find eleven Ebay events, all for Refreshments-related items, up for auction or straight sale. This is some very unique stuff, including Wheelie promotional posters from 1994, the gig poster from the SXSW show when the Refreshments secured their record deal with Mercury Records, a handmade Refreshments belt buckle from a set of four given to each band member in 1996, and lots lots more. I bet even the largest Refreshments collectors will find something they didn't know existed.

And here's the great news. Every penny I make (minus fees and shipping) from the sale of these items will go to the Kickstarter campaign for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie! Yes, you can buy at will and know that your money is going to help put this thing over the top.

So, if you're into Refreshments memorabilia--and I know some of you are--bid like the wind, and let's make it happen!

Thanks for all you do.

Art

Why Crowdsourcing Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie is so Important

2012-01-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

Something I touched on in my last blog that really needs to be hammered home is the necessity of crowdsourcing Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie.

In the eighties and nineties, bands often made their own LPs. It usually meant setting money aside from every gig, but having a record of your own was worth it. I've been in bands that put away twenty percent of all gig money until enough was saved to make a record. The Refreshments made a indie record in 1994 called Wheelie, recording it late at night at the Saltmine recording studio in Mesa. Wheelie cost about $1,000 to make. I was very proud of it then, and I still am.

When I became a novelist in 1997, I brought the DIY attitude of rock music with me. I never had a problem with the idea of self-publishing my work, but I had writer friends who couldn't fathom the idea. I thought they were crazy, and in 2003 I self-published my first novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix. At the time, print-on-demand publishing was revolutionizing the game, making it more affordable for authors to do it themselves. I self-published the first editon of Stuck for $450.

$1,000, $450. No small chunks of change but, thankfully, attainable.

Now let's talk about the movie producer. By contrast, movies are almost always very expensive to make. Most of the ones we watch cost millions. Still, there are many examples of great movies that were made for comparatively little. Swingers was made for a quarter of a million. The Blair Witch Project was made for something like $50,000. The all-time winner is Clerks, which was made for $7,500. Even at these less expensive levels, producers need lots of money to get a movie made, or at least a lot more than writers and musicians.

So, where does a movie producer get the dough? He could try to get it funded by a big studio, like the ones that bring us summer blockbusters. As you might guess, the odds are largely against this working out. Moreover, you can bet a big studio is going to have its hand in every creative decision: the script, the actors, the locations, the accompanying music. Nico Holthaus, the producer of Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, told me that major studios read scripts while referring to a checklist of twenty-two attributes. If your script doesn't have at least seventeen of those attributes, then the studio won't make the movie. (Ever wonder why so many movies are so similar? There you go.) I don't know what those attributes are, but you can guess, can't you? Car chase, sex scene, happy ending, it doesn't take a genius.

When I wrote the novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix, and the script for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, my goal was to write about a kid struggling to get out of his hometown, with the early nineties Tempe music scene as a backdrop. I wasn't focused on car chases or sex scenes or happy endings. (That doesn't mean they aren't in the book, or won't be in the movie.) I was focused on fulfilling my vision, bringing forward this character and this world in a clear, resonate way.

It's fair to assume major studios would have no interest my script. Moreover, I'm not sure I'd want them messing with it. Can you imagine some movie exec demanding we take out a Dead Hot Workshop song during a scene and replace it with a Hootie and the Blowfish song? Did you just have a heart attack? So did I. The instant you sign these people on, it's not your movie anymore. They bought it from you. The folks working on Stuck want to make these decisions themselves because that way the movie will reflect the visions of the movie makers, not some shareholder somewhere who only cares about return on investment.

So, big studios are out. What other options are there to raise funds? Crowdsourcing!

If you step forward with a donation to Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie's Kickstarter campaign, you can help fulfill this vision. With your contribution, and hundreds of other folks doing the same, we can make a great movie about the Tempe music scene in the early nineties. Luckily, we don't need anywhere near a million bucks to get it done--not even close--but we do need a substantial sum. (It's an amount somewhere between Clerks and The Blair Witch Project.) Nico and I know the world of the struggling musician in Tempe in the nineties, and with your help--and the help and talents of hundreds of others--we can create something everyone can be proud of. You think this movie would ever get made if it were up to major studios? And how good could it be? They don't know this world. They're not us.

So please give to the Kickstarter campaign, and share the link at your blog, Facebook page, and anywhere else you think interested people might happen upon it. All the folks involved want to make a great movie, and with your help, we can.

Donate now.

Thanks for all you do.

Art

The Call-Up

2012-01-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

I'm old, which means I wonder about kids these days.

I actually don't wonder so much about kids as much as I do about musician kids.

I remember myself as a teenager in Moline, Illinois in the 1980s, sitting on a stool in our basement, playing the bass lick during the solo section of Rush's “Tom Sawyer.” You know the lick.

Dee-do-de-do-de-do, Dee-do-de-do-de-do.

I quit trying to play it with the record because there was no way I'd ever play it as fast as Rush's bass player, Geddy Lee, so I played it by myself over and over again, stumbling through the fingering, driving everyone in my house crazy.

I loved this song, and this music--Moving Pictures is one of my all-time favorite albums--but I liked other things about Rush too. I liked that they had this gangly bass player with a big schnoz who walked around the stage like he owned it, playing these impossibly complicated bass lines, some of which I could never imagine replicating. (“Tom Sawyer” was maybe in my league. “YYZ”? Forget it.) I liked that the band was from Canada. (Any foreign clime was exotic to me, even Canada.) I liked that the trio's image was carefully cultivated to make this Midwestern corn husk fantasize about one day being just like them: smart, amazing at my instrument, strutting around the stage like the Prince of Sudan. As a teenager, I was also a kind of gangly bass player with a big schnoz. Who was to say it couldn't happen?

After I moved to Arizona in 1990, these two worlds―the world of normal me and the world of big time rock--collided. I'd moved to the area because I had a friend who'd moved to Phoenix the year before who would let me share his room if I split the rent. I didn't know much about Phoenix, but I knew it had 2.5 million people, and a college with 40,000 students in nearby Tempe. There must be some kind of music scene there, where I could play original music in a band while finishing my degree.

My hunch was right. There were rock clubs in Tempe like Long Wong's on Mill, and the Sun Club, and Chuy's, where local bands played and acted like rock stars as much as the scene would let them. Most of these bands could draw enough to cover their beer tabs, and a few were genuinely popular, like the Gin Blossoms, who could fill any of these clubs on any night of the week. People actually danced when the Gins played--like, guys with girls dancing; not some random chaos where people hold their hands in the air and jump up and down. The tunes were great, the beer flowing, the sexual energy palpable. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

Cue collision.

The Gods of the Major Labels descended upon our little town the same year I arrived, and the Gin Blossoms inked a record deal with A&M Records, the first band out of our scene to get signed. A&M Records was the real deal. The Police had been on A&M. Styx. Squeeze. Tempe was being smiled upon, and suddenly, almost overnight, there was a conceivable path from my everyday life as a twenty-year-old musician to the national music scene. I could seriously entertain visions of becoming some facsimile of Geddy Lee. I'd never really felt that way before the Gins got signed.

And these feelings were validated to an even greater extent in 1991 when bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam broke through to the mainstream from their own sleepy musical enclave of Seattle. There was something happening in the zeitgeist, something started by bands like REM and Hüsker Dü a decade earlier and now carried forward into grunge, something that would allow folks like us to occupy the top of the musical charts. There was no reason why the band you saw on Friday night at your local club couldn't be the band you saw the next year on MTV.

I used to call this phenomena “The Golden Ticket”--you're just a normal schmo walking around town and then, suddenly, you're ordained--but now I find that metaphor inaccurate. A Golden Ticket, á la Willy Wonka, implies too much dumb luck: you buy a chocolate bar, and you either get a ticket or you don't. There's always been plenty of luck involved in landing a major label record deal, but luck wasn't the word that came to mind when bands started getting signed out of Tempe. It was more a reward for talent and work, like the call-up of a hot hitter from AAA to the major leagues. It was your soul and work ethic giving you a shot at your dreams. In those early years of the Tempe scene, 1990-1993, the only two bands to get signed were the Gin Blossoms and Dead Hot Workshop. They were also my two favorite bands.

The Gins subsequent success nationally over the next few years greased the Tempe skids even more, and in 1995 my band the Refreshments signed with Mercury Records. Mercury was the label of Kiss, John Mellencamp, and not so long ago, a Canadian trio called Rush. My band would make two albums for the same label that had released Moving Pictures fifteen years earlier.

Dee-do-de-do-de-do.

At the time in Tempe, there was a lot of talk of the Refreshments becoming the next Gin Blossoms, and our achievements along those lines are noteworthy. We had a hit single in 1996 called “Banditos.” We played “Banditos” live on the all-new Late Night with Conan O'Brien. We wrote and recorded the theme song for the Fox television series King of the Hill. There's plenty to brag about, but the success of my band isn't really what I think of when I think of the Tempe music scene. That all happened post-Blossoms, which was a different game. When I think of the scene, I think of those early years of hanging out--inside and outside--Long Wong's, watching the Gin Blossoms and Dead Hot, wondering how to get into a band as good as those two. I loved this time so much so that, when I set aside music in 1998 to write my first novel, I decided to focus on these early years. That novel, published in 2003, is Stuck Outside of Phoenix.

Flash forward to 2008. I'm at home watching Mill Avenue Inc., a documentary about the gentrification of the Mill Avenue area of Tempe, where much of the fun happened back in the day. Nico Holthaus, the director of Mill Ave. Inc., had contacted me about a year earlier to interview me for the film, and I was watching it for the first time. In 2003, Long Wong's--because of economic pressures placed on it by the systematic gentrification of the area--had been forced out of business, and as the last of the great Tempe clubs to go under, it represented the final nail in the coffin of what had been our music scene. This gentrification happened so quickly and seamlessly it was a little scary. All our shared history, gone. Many griped about this, but it was Nico who got film rolling, organized everything, focused the message. The result was a film that was entertaining, informative, empowering. A brief phone interview with me appears toward the end, and I'm proud to have had anything to do with it.

The message of that documentary--that gentrification doesn't have to happen; we let it happen--is an important one, but what I enjoyed most about Mill Ave. Inc. were the glimpses into the scene back in the day. Nico compiled film and photos of my cohorts and heroes, like the Gins lead singer Robin Wilson working at a record store in 1989 and gushing about his band's soon-to-be-released local album; and Sara Cina, manager of Long Wong's, shedding a tear as she talks about the last days of the club. It felt great to be connected with Tempe again. The clubs were gone, many of the bands broken up, but Mill Ave. Inc.--in a visual, visceral way--kept the scene alive. I learned from it that film had the power to put us right back there in a way nothing else can.

I emailed Nico in 2010 with the idea of making a movie version of Stuck Outside of Phoenix. I didn't know him well--we'd met face-to-face exactly once--and I had no idea how he'd react. I knew we were both Uncle Tupelo fans from Illinois who'd moved to Arizona in the early nineties and fallen in love with the Tempe scene. I got a reply from Nico in a matter of minutes, nothing but “YEEHAW” written in bold caps. I knew I had him.

I wrote the screenplay for the movie in 2011, focusing on bringing back that palpable sense of a music scene on the brink of discovery. Nico is producing the film, and he has a director and film editor and many of the other necessities lined up. He could start rolling as soon as next month.

So, back to kids these days, and me being old.

When a teenage musician of today sits in his room and plays along with his equivalent of “Tom Sawyer,” what is he thinking about? More to the point, what is he dreaming about? Is he dreaming that someday he might play in a band and maybe that band will get signed? Is he dreaming that someday he might get tapped on the shoulder by some person from a record label, who will be smiling ear to ear? I don't think so. I don't think kids see bands on major labels in 2012 and think, “Wouldn't that be cool.” And if they do, they probably shouldn't, because the landscape of the music business has changed so drastically since I played in the Refreshments, winning the game for them is an entirely different enterprise. They need to embrace DIY and make a name for themselves in their communities and on the Internet. As an artistically viable force, major labels don't have much to offer them anymore.

And hey, that's exactly as it should be. The Internet and digital technology have taken the game out of big corporations' hands and given it to each and every one of us. You can make and distribute a record, set up a rock tour, film a video--everything the Refreshments thought we needed a record deal for--in your bedroom. It's the fruition of everything Ian MacKaye and Mike Watt ever dreamed of. You control your destiny, not shareholders. In 2012, making sure shareholders have someone to mess with is Justin Bieber's job. You're making art. So do it yourself, jam econo, and show us old folks how we should've been doing it all along.

But even though things are better now, that doesn't mean we didn't give something up. Yes, we lost something when we screwed The Man. I think the main thing we lost was the dream of The Call-Up, the sense that our talents, if we work hard, could lead to someone important tapping us on the shoulder and saying, “Boy, have we got a deal for you.” It's how it happened for Elvis and the Beatles and Kiss and Led Zeppelin and Van Halen and U2 and Nirvana and Green Day. Look at that list. Rage against the machine all you want, but it's kind of hard to hate the system entirely that brought all of them to most of us.

Nico and I have talked at length about Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, and more than anything else we want the film to emphasize the sense back then you could be a normal schmo in a band, in a scene, and that scene could get hot, and bands could get signed, and you could wind up on MTV with your face next to Jimi Hendrix's and Bono's and Kurt Cobain's.

Unfortunately, movie-making is a little different from running a rock band out of your bedroom. Many of the same kinds of DIY tools apply, and many don't. For one, movie-making involves a lot more people, and those people need to get (very nominally) paid. In other words, if Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie is going to happen, funds need to be raised.

Luckily, the 21st Century has its own mechanism for these kind of things called Kickstarter. Click on this link to learn more about Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, and please consider donating to its Kickstarter campaign. And don't forget to take a look at the very unique incentives for donating. As I learned when watching Mill Ave. Inc., film can bring back memories like nothing else. It's called movie magic. Thank goodness there's still some magic out there.

I'm going to be writing more about this project over the next week or three at this blog, and I have a few surprises in store, especially if you're a Refreshments fan. Please keep tabs on me here every Monday as I unveil more events in the name of this effort. For now, give to the Kickstarter campaign, and thanks for all you do.

Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie Kickstarter Campaign!!!

2012-01-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

And here's the 21st Century way of funding a film! It's called Kickstarter, and it allows folks like you to donate money to a great movie project like, for example, Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie! Think of it as PBS fundraising for movie producers.

So, why should you give? Great question. First of all, check out the incentives, which are on the right-hand side of the page. There's some very unique stuff there, and they can be yours if you donate.

Second, you'd be helping insure that Stuck the Movie gets it shot. Everyone wants it to happen, and everyone on board is willing to work as hard as possible to make it happen, but there are some things that can't be accomplished with blood, sweat and tears. Some things require money.

Third, you'll be part of Tempe music and rock pic history! What's not to love about that?

Thanks for all you do.

Kickstarter Campaign

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie Trailer!!!

2012-01-06T08:31:00.000-08:00

Big news.

Here's the trailer for Stuck Outside of Phoenix the Movie, produced by Nico Holthaus and put together with the help of myriad other folks.

If you haven't, check out the SOOP Movie Website, and please like the SOOP Movie Facebook Fan Page.

There's going to be lots more to say about this over the next month or two, so keep your eyes peeled every Monday morning here for the latest. There will be more info on the movie itself, and opportunities to be more involved. This is kind of my big 2012 thing, so I'll be keeping you apprised.

2011-10-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

I know you've all been waiting to hear more about my wardrobe. Here's your chance!

Read about my predilection for J. Crew Pants and my reluctant acceptance of my Eddie Bauer long-sleeved T-shirt at TNB.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Dana Spiotta Review, plus Steve Almond Trailer

2011-10-03T04:46:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try (no promises) to make my posts here a little more substantial during the last quarter of the year.

There's a steady stream of rock fiction coming from big publishing these days, and you can bet I have an opinion on all of it. First up is my review of Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta at elimae.

Also, Steve Almond has a new collection of short stories coming out called God Bless America. I've already read and reviewed it. I could tell you how much I love it, but let's wait for the review to come out. Until then, take a gander at the book's trailer, which is as funny as any you'll see.

I'll let you know when my review of the book is up.

Thanks, folks.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

The Wanderers

2011-09-26T01:32:00.000-07:00

This movie freaked me out as a kid. It kind of freaks me out now.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Your Art Edwards Semi-Annual Update

2011-09-19T01:17:00.000-07:00

Hello,

The last six months have brought much goodness for me, so let's hit it.

First and foremost, my third novel Badge, which I completed at the beginning of the year, was a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Assocation's Literary Contest for 2011. There were over 1,000 entries in twelve different categories, and my category, Mainstream, was the most popular. It was an honor to be in the final eight. Hopefully this means some agent or publisher will get off her duff and take this novel on. I'm still actively beating the industry over the head with it. As always, I hope to have more to report soon.

Also, the movie version of my first novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix is underway! Director, Producer, Mr. Everything Nico Holthaus is starting preproduction in Phoenix this month with principle photography (whatever that is) scheduled to begin November 2nd. Look for the thing to be in the can by April 2012, when there will be much rejoicing. Keep your eyes peeled here for the occasional update on the movie and more (or when there's no news, a random video of the week).

In celebration of the commencement of the filming of Stuck, two things have happened: 1) Stuck Outside of Phoenix the book-book is again in stock at my website! For a mere $5 plus shipping, you can have a signed copy delivered to your door. Also, Stuck the ebook versions at both Amazon and Smashwords have been reduced to 99 cents! I must be out of my mind to offer these prices, which of course I am, so there you go!

Finally, real-life paper versions of both Ghost Notes and Stuck Outside of Phoenix are now for sale at a real-life bookstore here in Portland! Yes, if you're one of those archaic folks who prefers to buy books during an actual trip to a bookstore (me), you can get mine at Broadway Books in NE, the best little bookstore in town. Give them a try!

I've had many pieces published since my last communicado, among them a piece at The Writer about my struggles with the memoir form; a short, fun piece about falling out of love with a song at Girls with Insurance; and many TNB posts. Also, there now exists an interview with me at TNB by the inimitable Gloria Harrison! We talk Badge, the Refreshments and of course, senior discount food joints. Take a gander, lest you go unentertained today.

That's it. As always, keep apprised of all thing me at my website, my blog, my Facebook page, or any of the thirty of forty other places I do my best to update on the web. Drop me a line if we haven't touched base in a while.

Have a fab fall, folks!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

No Talking, Just Head

2011-09-12T01:44:00.000-07:00

The only band from the 80s they'll care about in 100 years.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Badge's Favorite Band

2011-09-05T01:10:00.000-07:00

A taste for those of you waiting for my third novel, Badge.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Garbage

2011-08-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

In case anyone was wondering where Betty (Pippy) came from.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Primus

2011-08-22T01:42:00.000-07:00

Forgive the Facebook overlap, but this is just too good to lose track of.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Tom Sawyer

2011-08-15T01:18:00.000-07:00

Go, thunder broom.

And Mini-Moog.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Miss Universe Reactions

2011-08-08T01:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, people still care about this stuff.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

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Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

"Bobby...Cindy."

2011-08-01T01:47:00.000-07:00

What on earth did I see in this show?

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

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X

2011-07-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

Learn in the interview segment how their band name was misspelled early on.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

My Latest at The Writer Magazine

2011-07-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

It's an essay about the struggles of realistic novelists in a memoir-dominated market.

The Writer Article.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Last Abba Video, I Swear

2011-07-11T05:54:00.000-07:00

This might be my favorite. The ladies know they've got a number one hit, and they're clearly loving every minute of it.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Innovative Hedge Trimming

2011-07-04T01:35:00.000-07:00

I'm just glad someone can get this excited about hedge trimming.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Steve Almond

2011-06-27T01:13:00.000-07:00

For anyone who thinks contemporary literature is boring or irrelevant.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Grand Funk Railroad

2011-06-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

Great bass line, great drummer, great performance.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

More on Badge and the PNWA Literary Contest

2011-06-13T01:59:00.000-07:00

A few stats on PNWA's 2011 Literary Contest, in which my newest unpublished novel Badge is a finalist in in the Mainstream category.

There were more than 1000 entries in 12 different categories, the most entries they've ever had.

Mainstream was by far the most popular category.

So, more reasons to be proud. Here's a link to the list of finalists.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download for just $4.99.

Or try Ghost Notes the 99 cent Ebook.

Badge is Recognized

2011-06-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

This just in.

My unpublished third novel Badge has been named a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers' Association Literary Contest for 2011 in the Mainstream category. I'm one of eight finalists. Winners are announced at the PNWA Writers' Conference in early August. I will not be attending the conference, but I'm told that's not a factor in who wins. This is some nice validation after years of hard work on Badge. I promise to post the results here, and anywhere else fine hype is disseminated.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

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Kurt Vonnegut and the Short Story

2011-05-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

So nice to have to have his ideas, and his voice, for all time.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Crazy Drummer

2011-05-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

It's the routine, but it's the fact that he's stuck in this band too.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Kitty Likes his Nicotine

2011-05-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

Take the ciggy at your own risk.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Don't you dare Forget Fastway

2011-05-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Another Heartbreakingly Lovely Song by Gene Burnett

2011-05-02T01:50:00.000-07:00

Just great lyrics.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Jesus Don't Want me for a Sunbeam

2011-04-25T01:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Rabbit is Rich

2011-04-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

"The great thing about the dead. They make space."

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Get Ghost Notes as an ebook for 99 Cents!

2011-04-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

I just published a piece at the Nervous Breakdown dealing with, among other things, my feelings about Amanda Hocking's success via ebook. (In short, yee haw!) Come join the fun.

And speaking of Amanda Hocking, Ghost Notes, my award-winning second novel, is now available for 99 cents as an ebook! You can read it on your ebook reading device, or as a .pdf on your computer. And for you Kindle-philes, I've reduced the Kindle version of Ghost Notes as low as it can go, which is $2.99, which makes it the same price as the Kindle version of Stuck Outside of Phoenix. If you've ever been the least bit curious about my work, now is the time to jump aboard. I can't promise these deals will last forever.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

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Don't Change

2011-04-04T01:53:00.000-07:00

Rock stars doing their rock star-y thing.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Fighting Pose

2011-03-28T01:09:00.000-07:00

Once you start posting cat videos, there's no going back, but I promise to post only the best ones. For example...

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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ABBA Japan TV

2011-03-21T01:55:00.000-07:00

The deeper you dig, the weirder it gets.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Stuck Outside of Phoenix, the Movie and more for 2011

2011-03-14T01:54:00.000-07:00

Here's my 2011 newsletter, which just went out to my email list this past weekend.

So much going on in my neck o' the woods in 2011.

First, I've finished my third novel, which is called Badge, which you can read the blurb of here. Badge is out at a few places right now, and I hope to have some good news for you soon. (Where would we be without hope of good news soon?)

Second, I just finished the screenplay adaptation of my first novel Stuck Outside of Phoenix, which will be made into a feature film by Nico Holthaus. Nico is best known for directing the movies Mill Avenue Inc., Beneath the Beauty and the very recent DVD project with Krist Novoselic, Ralph Nader, and other world leaders in Direct Democracy. I've always liked and sympathized with Nico's films, which is why I approached him in 2010 with the idea of Stuck the Movie. Nico can be trusted with Stuck because he lived and breathed the Tempe music scene in the early 1990s, which is where and when the story takes place, and because he can talk Dungeons & Dragons until the cows come home, which has nothing to do with the project but, you know, is kind of cool. When will the movie be ready for you? Let's let Nico do his thing, but know it's being shot this spring, and know it will kick booty. Think Singles but better.

Also, to celebrate the coming film, I've reduced the price of the ebook version of Stuck Outside of Phoenix to $2.99. That's right. For less than the cost of a trip to Starbucks you can be read and enjoy the hell out of Stuck on your fav ebook reading device, or on your computer! Get a head start on the movie. Try it here.

Third, the latest incarnation of my Rock and Roll Writing Course at the Basement Writing Workshop is set to launch! March 28th is the start date. If you follow the publishing industry at all, you'll recognize a lot more noise coming from the rock lit camp these days. (And here's to Jennifer Egan for winning the National Book Critics Circle Award this past week for her rock novel A Visit from the Goon Squad, which beat out Jonathan Franzen's Freedom for the honor). Do you want to be part of the rock lit revolution? Well, it can only happen if you write well, and that's what this class is all about. Click here to sign up.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Totally Insane Butter Making

2011-03-06T21:35:00.000-08:00

Something tells me that butter isn't the only totally insane product of this farm.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten Thousand Maniacs "Like the Weather"

2011-02-26T07:13:00.000-08:00

Betty Draper as brunette lead singer.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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More than a Feeling

2011-02-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

I always imagine this song as the theme song of the movie version of a novel that I have yet to write.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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ABBA: The Movie

2011-02-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

So I watched ABBA: The Movie last night.

Anyone who follows my Facebook page knows my fondness for the 70s Swedish mega-sensation. I was at just the right age when ABBA started coming on the radio, and as a kid I combed Target's music section for anything by them. I came home with Gold, a greatest hits collection, and a little later Super Trouper, which really solidified their presence at the top of the American radio play heap. Spending a Friday night watching this movie sounded like a good time to me.

If you've seen similar rock-themed movies from the 70s (Kiss Meets the Phantom, Rock 'n' Roll High School), you'll have some idea how stilted the plot of this movie is. A radio DJ follows ABBA around on their Australian tour, trying to get that "exclusive up-close interview" with the band his boss is demanding from him. In many unfortunate twists of fate, he can't get the interview, leading to various attempts at subterfuge and run-ins with the tour manager. It's a completely lame storyline, even by rock movie standards, and the narrative portions of the movie are tolerated only to get to the nuggets of ABBA's live shows, which were recorded in places like Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide in 1976.

These live segments evoked so much for me. They reminded me how great some of ABBA's music is. I'd all but forgotten about "Fernando," which, like all great but forgotten music, hit me more powerfully for having forgotten it. The live segments also reminded me of a time when watching band members perform could produce mystique. I wanted to know more about the individual members. What were their relationships like? Is Agetha a prima donna? Is Frida the jealous type? Having been in a few bands myself, I'd become jaded about this kind of gossip, expecting I knew the ins and outs. This inter-married, intermingling foursome re-opened mysteries I'd long ago thought solved.

The live segments also made me miss the days when everyone and their brother couldn't participate in the music industry. I've said on countless occasions that our current music climate is much better than the one from ABBA's day, when megalomaniacs or, worse, corporations controlled which artists got heard. Thank goodness these interests no longer dominate music. You can record whatever you want, sell it on iTunes, and if people buy it, you've succeeded in the music business.

Still, that doesn't mean we haven't given up something, and that something is the sense that when listening to music we're participating in something larger than ourselves. In the movie, I watched the kids in the audience at the concerts, and I recognized myself as a seven year old, and a little bit of myself of today. We all love ABBA in the same way, and that makes us feel less alone.

And loving ABBA doesn't make me greedy to keep the band to myself, the way I would later feel about bands like the Replacements. It's pure, and better in its way. If people halfway around the world loved ABBA--or U2, or Metallica--people halfway around the world couldn't be that bad. As much as I love the Shins, I don't get the impression the world is singing along to "New Slang" with me.

That's what we've lost with the downfall of the music business, that sense that we're enjoying music en masse. Maybe someday music will be vital again at that level. Until then, we have our favorite hip-pocket bands, and our memories.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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So Fast, So Numb

2011-02-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

I'm always blown away by REM's take on live videos.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Badge Query Letter

2011-01-29T07:28:00.000-08:00

Badge

A Novel by Art Edwards

Badge Wilson, aging rock guitarist, has drunk and screwed his way out of his best chances at life. For three years he's managed to stay off the booze and, not coincidentally, out of the music business. But in 2000, flat broke and fearing passionless days ahead, he accepts work in Los Angeles with a new artist, young punk diva Betty. The gig features great pay, professional studios and Badge's last best chance to rock at the top of the heap, if only he can keep his mind on the music and away from the bars, back alleys and backstage temptations that greet him at every turn.

At the same time, the music business is undergoing monumental change, with bands turning to the internet to reach their fan bases and record companies making criminals of their customers. With a lead singer looking for more from her guitar player than memorable solos, a ten-year-old son curious about his dad's new world, and an ex-wife who misses nothing, Badge navigates both home and rock life with values accrued in a bygone era, and toward a future as murky as a used shot glass.

My second novel, Ghost Notes, released on my own imprint in 2008, won the 2009 PODBRAM Award for best work of contemporary fiction. My work has appeared in The Writer and Writers' Journal, and online at The Rumpus and writersdojo.org. I am also a contributing writer at The Nervous Breakdown. In the 1990s, I was co-founder, co-songwriter and bass player with the Refreshments, a band that sold over 400,000 units worldwide, had a hit single (“Banditos”), and wrote and recorded the theme song for the Fox television series King of the Hill. I live with my wife, artist Raquel Edwards, in Portland, Oregon.

Badge is complete at 100,000 words, and while solidly within the commercial/literary realm, it also occupies the burgeoning subgenre of rock lit, which has seen successful titles in the past year by Jennifer Egan, Patti Smith, Nick Hornby and Steve Almond.

Agent Search Week Three

2011-01-22T06:49:00.000-08:00

This week brought another query rejection and some good news.

Remember Agent 6? The one I sent to last week? I got a rejection from her. Form. I was hoping for something personal, telling me if my query is working or not, but no such luck. I'm guessing my novel just isn't right for her list, and that can generate form rejections no matter how good your query is. Anyway, onward.

The good news is from Agent 4. This agent was a referral in 2006 who nicely rejected Ghost Notes and encouraged me in the direction Badge goes. She said Badge isn't a good fit for her, but she wanted the first 25 pages to present to her agency, which has clients who explore some of the same topics I do. Hopefully, this means there are agents there who would be interested in my work. This is great news. All I can ask from this process is to get in front of the people who seem a good fit, and I'll take my chances with my novel. There are definitely people at this agency who seem a good fit.

So, hope.

Also, I've researched six new agents, each of whom represents writers like me. I'm gearing up for querying these six in early Feb. The only question is whether I stick with my query.

I said early on that if I got two requests for the manuscript out of the first five agents I'd stick with the query, but both of my requests came from referrals, and I don't know what carried the weight: the query or the referral. Still, if I get one more request for pages (there are still two agents I haven't heard from) I'm going to say the query is okay and be done with it. If I don't...I think I'm still inclined to say my query is okay, but I reserve the right to change my mind.

So, as of week three:

Number of Agents Queried-6

Number of MS Requests-2

Number of Rejected MSs-1

Number of Rejected Queries-2

Number of Unanswered Queries-2

This search is more fun when things go right.

See you next week.

Art

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Agent Search Week Two

2011-01-17T02:04:00.000-08:00

First of all, did everyone see my latest post on TNB? No? Check it out!

For the time being, I'm focusing this blog on my agent search for my third novel, which is called Badge, which I just finished.

Week Two brought a low point, a few new ideas, and a new query submission.

The low point came when Agent 1, a referral, read and turned down my full manuscript. He had some very nice things to say about it, but he believed he couldn’t successfully sell a rock novel in this "VERY difficult market for fiction (dominated primarily by women’s bookclub reads)."

This sucks of course, but it's also the kind of reaction I expect to get here and there. Rock fiction is not the genre for anyone expecting to start a bidding war. I've always believed that rock lit's time is in the future, and that my work will have a place in it once we get there. Badge needs an agent who has that same vision.

The good news is that Agent 1 not only liked my book but offered me three recommendations for other agents. At some point, I'd planned to comb the appropriate places for agents who might fit the bill, and these three names were good jumping-off points. I've since combed the web and found at least four more agents who would be appropriate.

So there's hope.

One other thing this week: I sent a query to an altogether new and different agent: Agent 6. This agent has never read my work, but she offered me some guidance during my search for an agent for Ghost Notes, and I felt she might--if not request Badge--at least give me some feedback on my query. I love my query, but I need some validation from an agent or three if it's going out to any more folks.

So, to this point:

Number of Agents Queried-6

Number of Requests for MS-1

Number of Rejected Queries-1

Number of Rejected MSs-1

Number of Unanswered Queries-4

Onward,

Art

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Agent Search for Novel 3 Begins/Follow my Progress

2011-01-10T02:58:00.000-08:00

Here's my news to start 2011:

My third novel is in the can. Like all of my novels, it took forever to finish (4 1/2 years), and it's bigger and better than the one before it.

One thing: I've changed its title from Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era to Badge, which is the protagonist's first name. More on the actual novel as the weeks progress because this week I want to focus on my agent search.

If you've followed this blog from its beginnings five years ago, you know that my agent searches haven't gone so well. I'll give you the short version:

In 2003, I queried 25 agents with my debut novel, Stuck Outside of Phoenix. Something like four agents request part or all of the manuscript. Some had some very nice things to say about it, but ultimately all said no. This search lasted about three months.

In 2006-2007, I queried 111 agents with my second novel, Ghost Notes. Something like six agents request part or all of the manuscript. Several had very nice things to say, but ultimately all said no. This search lasted about a year.

Still, I'm loony enough to get excited about these searches. My new novel is fab, and much good stuff has happened recently in the world of rock lit to make me think I have a chance this time. The successes of books by Steve Almond, Jennifer Egan, Patti Smith and Nick Hornby, along with the success of movies like Crazy Heart, have me believing that the tide has turned just enough. Crazier things have happened.

So, I started my agent search this past week, and I'm going to use this blog to keep you apprised of my progress. This week, I queried five agents. These were all agents for whom I had referrals, or who have liked my work in the past. A quick run-down:

Agent 1: Referral from one of the agent's clients.

Agent 2: Nicely rejected Ghost Notes and asked that I send my next novel.

Agent 3: Junior agent who flipped for GN but didn't know who he'd sell it to.

Agent 4: Referral who nicely rejected GN and encouraged me in the direction the new novel goes.

Agent 5: Nicely rejected Stuck Outside of Phoenix and seems the perfect agent for my new novel.

I started sending query letters on Monday, and I've already heard back from two agents. Agent 1 requested the manuscript (yay!), and Agent 2 sent a form rejection.

So, my progress so far: five agents queried, one MS request, one form rejection. Not bad for week one.

By the way, I have no grand plan for this search. I'm going to see how agents respond and act accordingly. Right now, I'd like some good feedback from agents on my query letter, which is oh-so-important. If the query doesn't wow, they'll never read the manuscript. If the rest of these agents reject my query, I'll have to rewrite it before it goes out to any more agents.

That's it for this week. I hope to have more good news for you next.

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 1-Tie-Double Rainbow Guy and Antoine Dodson

2010-12-27T04:46:00.000-08:00

I proclaim Antoine Dodson and Double Rainbow Guy my two rock and roll heroes of 2010. Thank you both for keeping it alive.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 2-"Double Dream Hands"

2010-12-20T02:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the Rumpus for pointing me in this wonderful direction.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 3-Rachel Bloom, "Fuck me, Ray Bradbury"

2010-12-13T01:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks for sharing, Rachel Bloom.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 4-Go Gos "Head over Heels" Live 1984

2010-12-06T04:27:00.000-08:00

Take one megalomaniac, two certifiable hams, a mother of two from San Bernardino, and a drummer not afraid to launch a drumstick at any of them, and you got crazy mad rock and roll.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 5-Pomplamoose, "Another Day"

2010-11-29T04:13:00.000-08:00

We have ten or twenty years of these types of bands ahead of us, and that's fine with me.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Art's Rock and Roll Writing Course Re-Ups for Winter 2011! Plus X-Mas Deals on Ghost Notes/Songs from Memory!

2010-11-22T04:32:00.000-08:00

I'm finishing up the first semester of my rock and roll writing course at the Basement Writing Workshop, and I can't tell you how much fun it's been. What great projects my students have, and they're all getting better because they took this course.

It's great to be part of the rock lit revolution as it's happening.

"What rock lit revolution?" you ask.

Keith Richards's memoir Life just came out, for which Richards (and his co-writer) received a seven million dollar advance.

The last year has seen rock lit titles by renowned writers like Nick Hornby, Jennifer Egan and Steve Almond, and each has sold well. Even Jonathan Franzen's 2010 mega-blockbuster Freedom features a major character who is a rock musician.

And Patti Smith just won the National Friggin' Book Award for her Memoir Just Kids.

Sound like something you'd like to be a part of? Well, you can't just show up with your axe and expect to play Madison Square Garden. You have to work on your craft, as all of these writers (or co-writers) did. Here's how to start. Sign up for the Winter session of my online rock and roll writing course.

For my class, you can write fiction or non-fiction; as long as it's rock lit, you will have a place at the table. The class is ten weeks long, and you'll get your rock-tinged work critiqued by me and the others in the class, helping you make it the best it can be. And this all happens online, so you can take the class from the comfort of your home. Sound good? Sign up for the Winter 2011 term and get a discount!

Speaking of rock lit, who would like to read (probably) the best example of rock lit ever to be self-published? You think I'm kidding? Check out the crazy good reviews my novel Ghost Notes has received from complete strangers this year:

The Self-Publishing Review

PODBRAM

The Boogle

And here's the best news. My ridiculous deal from last Christmas is back!

You can buy a copy of Ghost Notes, or its companion piece, my solo CD Songs from Memory, from my web site for just $5!

Nowhere on the web will you find these items cheaper. Every copy of Ghost Notes comes signed by the author (he's an ornery cuss, but I can sweet talk him), and all orders of $20 or over ship for free! Would you like to get out cheap with four friends or family members this holiday season? This is the way to do it, and they'll all praise you for turning them on to such a great, rockin', outside-the-box read. Come on over to my store and save big (this book is $15 at Amazon).

I must have lost my frickin' mind to make this offer last year, and I'm certifiably insane to repeat it this year. Come take advantage of my cerebral malaise.

There's big news ahead in my neck o' the woods for 2011. It will include shopping my third novel, which is tentatively titled Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era; writing the screenplay for Stuck Outside of Phoenix; and starting a memoir project (see, if you make it all the way to the bottom of my posts you get rewarded). Much more on each of these in 2011.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 6-Pavement "Gold Soundz"

2010-11-15T04:13:00.000-08:00

Why in the name of Jesus, Mary and Joseph did my band not make videos like this?

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 7-Judas Priest Live

2010-11-07T05:51:00.000-08:00

Will these stupid heavy metal gestures have a hold on me my whole life? God, I hope so.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 8-"Fucking Awesome"

2010-10-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

Some questions in life we'd die to know that answers to. Others we'd rather not know. Still others we demand not to know. I don't know what's going on in this video, and I please don't tell me.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 9-Gangsta Goes Down Dancing the Dougie

2010-10-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Why this guy drifts into the street to show off his Dougie moves I'll never know, but 100,000 or so YouTube viewers are glad he did.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Ten YouTube Videos I Can't Not Watch: Number 10-Abba, "Waterloo"

2010-10-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

Agnetha is on fire in this one.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Two Weeks Off

2010-10-10T06:27:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of taking two weeks off of writing my novel-in-progress Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era. I normally don't take time off of writing. Taking time off of writing makes me irritable, but it became necessary as a few obligations needed my attention between now and the 15th, chief among them the painting of our house. Coupling not writing with this sort of real work is the kind of thing that, shall we say, does not bring out the best in your humble blogger, and I've been--or at least felt like--a jerk for a week.

The good news is that most of the hard part of the paint job is done, so maybe it won't be so bad from here on out. I just hope the rain lets up enough so we can get it in. If not, it might not get finished until May, which would be worse.

So wish me luck, and hopefully I won't fall off a ladder.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Abba Experiment

2010-10-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

Watch and listen to the song below.

Now, try to quit singing it.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

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Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Two Things

2010-09-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

Busy week here in the land where the law laid down, so not much time for the blog.

Still, you should know that this is your last week to register for my rock and roll writing course at the Basement Writers' Workshop! Who wants to write the next The Commitments, or A Visit from the Goon Squad, or High Fidelity? Yeah, me too, and I can help you. Sign up. It's going to be fun and rewarding, and it starts next Monday!

Secondly, Kel is finished reading my novel aloud to me, and while I think I have some work to do for revision, it's not an overwhelming amount. What does that mean? It means this novel is going to be ready sooner than I thought. I can see sending out query letters to a few agents by Dec. 1. I didn't expect there was any real chance of getting to this point in 2010, but there it is.

So, woo hoo for me!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Infinite Jest

2010-09-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

As I dropped in my last blog, I just started Infinite Jest.

Why am I starting Infinite Jest when my favorite contemporary author, Jonathan Franzen, just released his first novel in nine years?

Lots of reasons.

For one, I managed to miss entirely this book on its release in early 1996. I was kind of busy at the time.

Back then, I don't think I would've had the grace to accept that this guy had so clearly trumped me, and everyone else. He was being crowned king of something I liked to delude myself into thinking I could be king of one day, and the best my character could muster for Infinite Jest on its publication was to ignore it, to focus on my band, to grumble, "Well, once I really get going..."

That was over 14 years ago, and if I've managed anything in that time, I hope I've managed to respect--even herald--a contemporary's work when he or she does something great.

The irony of the above statement is that Infinite Jest's author, David Foster Wallace, recently took his own life after a lifelong battle with depression. Having missed the moment, I'd like to pay his memory the respect of giving his magnum opus a shot. We aren't greeted by great works of fiction of this scale very often, and I'd like to experience how great it really is.

Alas, I am a slow reader, and I will surely be reading other books as I work my way through it. I don't expect to finish Infinite Jest in 2010, but you never know.

I'm on page 50 right now, and loving it. The effort expended to notch up the writing of each of these scenes, each of these characters, each of these sentences, is pretty amazing. Now I'm curious if Wallace can sustain that kind of writerly attention throughout the novel. He might have been possessed enough to do it.

As someone who's just about finished writing a novel that's not even half the length of Infinite Jest, I can appreciate the effort.

So, think of me plugging away at Infinite Jest, and probably enjoying it, and probably letting you know how good it is at some point.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Reading Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era Aloud

2010-09-13T04:43:00.000-07:00

I am going to reveal to you the secret to all of my writerly success.

I do everything a writer is suppose to do. I write daily. I edit what I write. I have my work critiqued by good beta readers.

I rewrite and revise.

I reconsider, and sometimes I start over.

While all of the above is important, it's only as important as this one final thing that each of my manuscripts has to go through before I can call it ready.

It has to be read aloud to me by my wife.

Nothing makes my book sing, or otherwise, like when I'm hearing it being read by Kel.

I can tell instantly what works and what doesn't.

I can tell what she likes and doesn't.

And just in case I miss it, she tells me what she likes and doesn't.

I can revise a manuscript 100 times, but it's not done until after this step. There's just something about the way it sounds coming from her that makes me know better than any other test whether the thing is ready or not.

My current novel-in-progress, Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era, is 545 pages.

We've read 139 pages aloud so far, with 406 to go. Kel's a trooper, but I can't help but feel guilty for making her read such a long book out loud. I'll try to make the next one shorter, but I can't promise.

I did just start Infinite Jest. Let's hope I don't get any crazy ideas.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Good Night to (this draft of) Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era

2010-09-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I finished and printed a draft of my current work-in-progress, my third novel Good Night to the Rock and Roll Era.

It's 545 pages, 124,000 words, longer than my first two novels combined.

With this draft in the can, I'm declaring this book almost finished.

What do I mean by that? Is it done or isn't it? Will you be able to get your hands on it soon?

Not really.

It means I think the major changes to the novel are done--the "who does what, when and what happens" are in place. I still have to fine-tune the manuscript, which means I have to make sure the characters act as much like themselves as possible at every moment, and the language sparkles throughout.

This will require another draft, but this draft will go quicker. Like, a few months.

Both of the last two drafts took eight months. That's while working on it four hours a day, five days a week. Sometimes six.

This stuff takes a long time.

It's been four years since I started this novel. I don't know how many drafts its been through. At least five. I always forget to count.

I will take a month off of it--I just need to forget about it for a while--but I will get back to it some time in October. Then I'll put in a few more months, write a query letter, and send the query letter out into the world, looking for a publisher.

All this by no later than March 1, 2011.

What happens then?

Someone buys the rights to it for a million bucks.

Okay, maybe a half-million.

(Come on. Let me dream.)

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Rock Lit Review: Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad

2010-08-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

You'll have to make one more jump to read my blog this week, which is a review of A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Rock Lit masterpiece? Click here to find out.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

The Ten Least Gracious Notes Penned Inside Graduation Thank-You Cards

2010-08-22T19:01:00.000-07:00

File this one under "For No Good Reason Whatsoever."

The Ten Least Gracious Notes Penned Inside Graduation Thank-You Cards

1) Thanks, I guess, for the $50. I expected more, frankly. Weren't you in the dotcom industry a while back?

2) I'm sorry I'm not in communication more frequently; I can't expect money from you every day.

3) Big Johnny at the Corner will be happy to exchange your $30 for some Sweet Oblivion later tonight.

4) Christ, you barely bothered. Why should I?

5) In the future, please try to refrain from sending a card spouting your religious dogma. That's the last thing I want to be thinking about right now, thank you very much.

6) I'll sleep better knowing that, after your contribution, I need only another $199,925 to make my med school dream come true.

7) Next time, could you send 20 singles? It's easier than asking the stripper for change.

8) Don't put yourself out too much, Unc. I'd hate for you to lose your club membership because you were too generous with your 10-spots.

9) Only four more contributions like yours and I'm a hundredaire!

10) After seeing the size of your gift, I now fully respect just how deep our family rift runs.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Life at the Top

2010-08-10T09:39:00.000-07:00

I heard an interesting story last week from a writer in response to my last post about indie presses.

This writer, call him Bill, said he knew of another writer who was out promoting her memoir. Her publishing company was demanding that she submit her finished novel immediately even though a) it wasn't finished and b) she was in the middle of promoting the memoir--another work published by them!

This is what I've always suspected about life at the top echelon of publishing. (Again, I don't pretend to know what goes on there.) At a certain point, a writer has an agent, an editor and a publishing house all waiting for this work that the writer claimed would be done at a certain time. Throw life into the mix, and any writer will find that those expected writing goals, under even less tense circumstances, get pushed back and back. I imagine writers are so excited to make it to the big leagues they overestimate their rate of productivity, and once they realize how far off they are, they start making concessions with the work. Submitting the thing will make her agent and her editor happy, and it will net her a check sooner. What's not to love?

This is probably not what unpublished or self-published writers want to hear, but succeeding in big publishing is no magic elixir to increasing your productivity, and it certainly isn't going to solve all of your problems. Quite likely, it will take away from your productivity and bring more problems. You will have more demands on your time, more pressure to succeed, less time for the rest of your life, and more of a need to get that check from the publisher as soon as possible. While getting a check from a publisher is great--I hope to get one someday--all of these circumstances may not add up to the best possible environment in which to write novels.

So, while being self-pubbed or un-pubbed has its drawbacks, it also has its advantages. You have all the time you need. Take advantage of it, and make doubly sure that novel is absolutely pristine before it goes out the door.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

What about Indie Presses?

2010-08-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

Despite the tumult in the publishing industry over the last decade or so, indie presses seem to be doing just fine. Maybe they've even gotten stronger.

Of course, there has always been "big" well-run indies like Dzanc Books, but I'm talking about the layers of indie presses underneath them, these places that, as debut and mid-list writers fall out of favor with big house publishers, are positioned to take on these "risks" and publish their works.

I'm thinking about books like Tinkers, which won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and Currency, which I bought last week at a reading. I've read Tinkers, am just starting Currency, and I'm struck by the difference between these books and the one or two big-house-published books I've read lately.

Maybe it's me, but I've noticed a distinct trend in big-house-published fiction over the past year, and even over the past decade. All of these books start out very strong, almost like a short story in a top-tier literary magazine, but then the quality diminishes after 10, or 25, or 50 pages, becoming, if not pedestrian, something less than fully realized.

I don't pretend to know what goes on at big publishing houses, or with these big authors, but I get the sense that there's a point where "good enough" becomes more important than "as good as it can be," "good enough" being good enough to sell to an editor, to publish, to sell to book sellers, to sell to the public. The idea for the book is strong, the opening chapter is strong. What more do you really need to sell a book?

For the most part, I haven't noticed this same tapering-off in quality when I read good indie-published books. They tend to deliver what they promise.

But wait a second. Aren't Random House, Penguin, and all the other biggies the arbiters of what is the best of the best in fiction? If we judge by major awards, the biggies have ruled my whole life. Are times a-changing?

This might explain some of it: Both of the indie books I mention above went through rounds and rounds of rejection, and years and years of revision, before finally finding a home. Their authors often wondered if their novels would ever see the light of day. In the case of Currency, its author, Zoe Zolbrod, stored the manuscript away after various publishing insiders couldn't find a taker for it. Each agent or editor pushed Zolbrod's book through a revision, and for whatever reason it never got published. It took Gina Frangello of Other Voices Books to contact Zolbrod, make her drag the thing out of the closet and give the novel another chance. Finally, the novel found its home with Frangello and Other Voices.

I'd bet Paul Harding, with Tinkers, has similar stories to tell.

And I think that's the difference. These authors really took the time--or had the time forced upon them--to make sure their novels were the best they could be. They took the time to submit, and get opinions, and reconsider, and rewrite, and revise, and put away, and do it all over again--all this after the thing was "done" to their eyes.

I once read this comment from an agent: "When a new author comes to me, I want to hear, 'I've worked on nothing but this book for a decade.'"

And, of course, this need to revise and reconsider over years and years isn't something only indie-published writers practice. That's about how long Jonathan Franzen took to write and publish The Corrections, a novel that, no matter what you think of it or him, delivers what it promises from page one. His new novel, Freedom, which comes out in the fall, also took about nine years from beginning to end.

I'm looking forward to that one.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Ebooks and your Local Indie

2010-07-31T08:18:00.001-07:00

I posted last week about what I called the Audio Book Revolution. In it, I suggest that audio books have a place, along with ebooks and everything else, in the conversation about the future of publishing.

They indeed do, but don't think I'm making a big deal about it. In fact, I don't ever want to make a big deal about any medium to translate written thought from one person to the next. I'm really not that passionate about it. The world needs strong, insightful, well-considered writing. And we shouldn't care too much if we get it from a paper book, an ebook, an audio book or a computer.

Because, when it comes right down to it, all reading devices are fetish items. They all exist to get the good stuff from the writer to you. That's their only purpose, and to give them powers they don't have is silly.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Shakespeare is Shakespeare no matter where you read it.

Having said that, there is one reading device I would miss should it ever disappear, and that is the book. You know, the one made with paper.

And, funny, it's not so much the paper book I'm concerned about, it's the bookstore.

And it's really it's not even so much bookstores as the independent bookstore.

I went to Powell's on Hawthorne this past week to hear Gina Frangello and Zoe Zolbrod read from their latest works. I browsed the stacks, bought two paperbacks, listened to the readings, met three writers. The trip really made my month.

And then it hit me when I got home: Nothing says Powell's--and indie bookstores in general--are going to be around forever.

Hard to imagine, but not impossible. Just look at what indie bookstores had to compete against ten years ago.

Big boxes (Borders, B&N)
Online Retailers (Amazon, etc.)
Mall-y type Chains (Waldenbooks, etc.)
That shelf at your local Goodwill where everything's a buck.

And now they have to compete against ebooks, a medium that does not require a bookstore to get the words to you at all.

Kind of scary, if you love independent bookstores.

So, support your local indie bookstore, if you want indie bookstores. I know I do.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

The Audio Book Revolution

2010-07-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

With all the ebook hype out there, I can't help but notice that few are writing about what I think of as the most exciting new medium for fiction. Yes, you guessed it. I'm talking about texting the contents of your novel from a rooftop while wearing a white suit.

No, not that (although I think there's potential there, too). I'm talking about audio books.

Few commercially-published novelists and non-fiction writers have audio book versions of their works. I feel very lucky to have stumbled into one myself.

I love that The Nervous Breakdown's new book publishing arm will give the audio book the dignity it deserves. That's forward-looking, in my opinion, which is what we've come to expect from The Nervous Breakdown.

If you've never tried an audio book, the beauty of them is as follows:

1) You don't actually have to "read" the book. You just sit there and it reads itself for you. The experience, for me, falls somewhere between reading a book and listening to a play of the book. Unbelievably cool if you've got a long journey ahead of you, especially a driving journey, when your eyes need to be occupied elsewhere.

2) Unlike ebooks, you have more latitude with where you can experience an audio book. Specifically, you don't have to be tied to a computer to listen to your book. If you follow this blog, you know how I feel about being tied to a computer (short answer: it's the biggest downside of ebooks). I usually listen audio books in my truck, but any CD player works, as do iPods.

3) Like ebooks, you can get an audio book right now. Yes, NOW. Many, if not most, audio books are available somewhere on the internet for download. There's no waiting for your CDs to arrive in the mail, no driving to the bookstore. My audio book is download-able at CDBaby for the excruciatingly low price of $4.99. Never tried an audio book before? This might be the cheapest one you'll find anywhere. Give it a shot, and make your next long car, train, or plane zip by.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Can You Teach (Rock and Roll) Writing?

2010-07-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Great question.

Yes, one can teach rock and roll writing, like I will in my all new, never-before-ventured online rock and roll writing course at the Basement Writing Workshop in October.

Here's how.

Let's say you want to write about your favorite band, Thin Lizzy. You write a personal essay about how their 1976 album Jailbreak changed your life. You submit it to workshop, wanting feedback.

So, what happens?

People will read it and probably love aspects of it. And probably there will be other things that don't quite work for them.

"Wait," you say. "People are going to judge my essay? What elitist horseshit. Who are they to judge my feelings about my favorite rock album?"

You see, that's just it. In any good writing course, people absolutely would not judge your feelings about your favorite rock album. They'd judge the rendering of your feelings about your favorite rock album. They'd critique your writing, not you.

There might be feelings expressed in your essay you could flesh out better, or arguments you could make more convincingly, or descriptions that could be more vivid.

This will be the case with most everyone's work. There will be something about everyone's writing that is remarkable, and something that doesn't quite come together. It will be our job to suggest ways to make it better.

Now, are these suggestions easy to take? If they are, you probably don't have much invested in your writing. But there will be comments that will have that ring of truth to them, that will make you take pause and wonder if your work could indeed be better. You can always choose to ignore any comments, or you can revise your work with the comments in mind. As the writer, it's your job to make those decisions.

Also, in case you were wondering, in my course it will not be my or anyone's job to try and convince you that Jailbreak isn't the greatest album in the world. That's not at all what we'll do. Any good writing class takes the work you bring to workshop and tries to make it better. I don't want you to write my ideas about Jailbreak--if I wanted that, I'd write my own essay--I want to read about your ideas of Jailbreak, because it will tell me as much about you as it will about Jailbreak.

So, that's how one teaches rock and roll writing. Take the renderings of your ideas about rock and roll and make them better. It's fun, and stimulating, and a great way to hone your writing skills.

And if you sign up now for the course, you get 15% off.

Rock and roll!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Rock and Roll Writing is...

2010-07-08T13:42:00.000-07:00

"What is rock and roll writing?"

This is the first question I received after my announcement that I'm teaching the all new, never-before-ventured online rock and roll writing course at the Basement Writing Workshop in October.

Good question.

Here are some fine examples of rock and roll writing:

Fiction like Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, or Roddy Doyle's The Commitments, or Tom Perrotta's The Wishbones.

Non-fiction like Chuck Klosterman's Fargo Rock City, or Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could be Your Life, or Steve Almond's Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life.

But it doesn't have to be like any of those.

It can be music reviews.

It can be a biography of your favorite band.

It can be a blogged top ten list of your favorite songs, updated by the moment, with elaborate explanation.

It can be short stories with Lemmy as the protagonist.

Maybe rock and roll writing is what people write who have guitars stored somewhere in their houses.

Go check to see if you have a guitar in one of your closets. Do you? Yes? Then at some point you will probably turn to rock and roll writing.

You might write about the first time you fell in love with music.

Or your first instrument and how much you loved it.

Or the first, most recent, or favorite rock concert you ever attended.

Or the first time you heard Lemmy.

If you were ever in a band, you will surely write about forming the band, or playing your first gig, or best gig, or worst gig.

You will surely write about the band that broke your heart.

If you were ever a solo artist, you may also write about your first solo gig, or best gig, or worst gig, or an obnoxious spectator at one of your gigs.

You'll write about your best song, or best album. Or worst.

It's inevitable. We have to write about our rock and roll lives because, no matter what we've done since, it's part of who we are. For many, it's a big part.

So what is rock and roll writing? It's what people like us write about when we write about who we are.

And that guitar in your closet, the one that barely makes it out these days? That's a big part of it.

And Lemmy's a big part of it too.

Or not.

Sign up now for my online rock and roll writing course at the Basement Writing Workshop and get 15% off.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

The Future of Rock Lit

2010-07-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

Rock lit fans have been blessed already this year with Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life, a book by Steve Almond that I rank with Fargo Rock City and Our Band Could be Your Life as one of the best rock non-fiction books in existence.

On a whim the other day, I went to Salon's book page and found out about the new Jennifer Egan novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, which features prominently a character who's a record producer and veteran of the SF punk rock scene of the 70s.

Now, I love, love, love rock non-fiction, but I get positively ga-ga over rock fiction. Egan's novel doesn't look like a contender for the ever-elusive Great American Rock Novel--her book, at first glance, doesn't rely heavily on a rock and roll setting--but I'd be tickled to be proven wrong. Look for an AVFTGS book review here sometime in the next month.

Then, of course, there's Nick Hornby's latest, Juliet, Naked. Much rock lit goodness there, no doubt. It's in my Powell's cart.

All of this rock lit attention from big publishing has me thinking crazy thoughts about a rock lit revolution...again. Way back in 2004, I published ten reviews of rock lit classics at my website. The pages are no longer available, but there's still a list I published at Amazon years ago of some of the greatest rock reads ever (along with, ahem, my own). Here's that list. I still stand by all of them.

It seems strange to me that more great reads don't exist in this genre. Think of all the people touched by rock music--who bought CDs, attended concerts, bought guitars--and you'd expect more great rock lit to follow. Many have tried, of course, but few have succeeded, and many great writers gave up after one--usually unprofitable--effort.

But I'm just foolish enough to think things can change.

People are finally tired, I think, of what corporate publishing deems worthy of high advances and massive push, and are ready to give something new a chance. Throw in a bunch of rock-happy indie writers--like those who blog regularly at places like The Nervous Breakdown--and I have to believe something is brewing. It might not be the next Chick Lit...but then again, who's to say it won't be? Great genres are carved by great writers, and if great writers are giving the subject serious attention, it won't be long before things change. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it inevitable.

I, for one, am doing my part to make rock lit the next big thing (or maybe the next next big thing). I'm teaching an online course called rock and roll writing at the brand new Basement Writing Workshop. My class is ten weeks long, and you'll get to submit plenty of your rock-tinged work for critique (fiction and non). We'll discuss the special challenges writing about music poses, and the special advantages of the same. Beyond that, there's sure to be plenty of frank discussion about who the greatest band in the world is. It promises to be fun, and stimulating, and fun.

Do you have what it takes to write the next rock lit masterpiece? There's only one way to find out.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

The End of the (Paper Books) World as we Know It?

2010-06-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, readers.

My morsel for this week? A bold prediction.

Here we are, three months after the big iPad launch, and I'd just like to put my cards on the table about ebooks and book-books and the future of the biz.

Here are my cards:

I bet real-life books aren't going anywhere.

That's right. I said that real paper books are here to stay, that ebooks, while certainly part of the industry, will never be the industry.

I know this cuts against the normal aura of unpredictability offered up at most publishing-related blogs. The usual spiel goes something like this:

"The iPad and the like will revolutionize publishing, and after so many years, who knows if paper books will even exist anymore?"

I know. They will.

How can I make such a bold declaration? What makes me think I know?

I have many reasons, but they really boil down to one. And that reason is this:

Real books aren't computers.

All the real book really needs to insure its continued existence is that it not start acting like a computer anytime soon. Many people who prefer real books (by some estimates 97% of the book-buying population) don't want to look at a computer for another stretch of time in their day. I look at a computer for (at least) eight hours a day, and one of the reasons I love reading books is that I'm not looking at something with a distinct computer-y essence.

In other words, digital will always be digital, with all the upside and downside that entails.

Think of bowling.

We can play bowling games on the computer, even to the point where one mimics the physical language of bowling in one's living room. But all of that can't replace getting into your car, driving to the bowling alley, renting some shoes, picking out a ball and giving it a go. It's a different experience--some might say better, but definitely different--with its own advantages and disadvantages.

As long as digital is digital (and I don't think there's any threat of digital not being digital any time soon), real books will always have a place in this world.

I will be taking next week off this blog, but get ready for a semi-big announcement (at least for me) in the early part of July.

Enjoy your summer. Second half of 2010, coming up.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

My Review of Steve Almond's Latest at TNB!

2010-06-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

Here it is!

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Steve Almond Interview

2010-06-05T12:12:00.000-07:00

This week's blog is at the Nervous Breakdown, and it's an interview with the great Steve Almond. Come by and learn which world-famous American novelist is also a closet Moogist.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Hey Jealousy

2010-05-29T06:59:00.001-07:00

Last week I wrote an essay for the The Nervous Breakdown that was pretty much about my envy of Steve Almond, someone whose work I like and respect, and who also seems to get my goat.

I believe this is a common trait of writers. We spend a great deal of time in our heads, dreaming up ideal worlds. Often, we dream of an ideal world that involves our success as writers, and there's nothing worse than someone coming along and playing a role in real life that you've concocted for yourself in your head.

Damn it, that was mine.

Well, there is an upside to envy, as a few have pointed out since my essay was published last week. Envy, they said, is a terrific motivator. It makes the writer redouble her efforts to squash the puss out of the interloper, and the only way to do that is to out-write him.

That asshole. Where's my word processing program?

So, there is something to be said for envy.

But I still think, in a different way, envy is detrimental to the support and fostering of good writing.

Let's say some guy like Steve Almond comes along in the year 2000 or so and writes a book of short stories called--oh, I don't know--My Life in Heavy Metal. Then another writer--let's say me--hears about this book, sees the cover, notices the publisher, reads the reviews, and is struck by a massive wave of envy for this book, this writer, this success. What would this writer--me, in this hypothetical case--do?

Well, I'd get to work--which is what I've been doing for the past decade or so--in an effort to show Mr. Perfect he's not so Mr. Perfect after all.

But what else would I do? Or more to the point, what else would I not do?

Well, I wouldn't buy his book, that's for sure.

And that's fine. This is America. No one has to support anything they don't want to support, and reading My Life in Heavy Metal at its release might have been counter-productive for me. Almond's prose might have been so blindingly good at the time it could have overwhelmed me, pushed me away from writing toward some other preoccupation, perhaps never to return. Skipping it might have been the exact right thing to do.

So, where does that leave us?

That leaves us with writers doing exemplary work and not selling as many books as they would otherwise because of the green-eyed monster.

Now, am I proposing we eradicate envy in the name of book sales? No. A more imposing windmill has never been chased, and I probably wouldn't want to get rid of it even if I could.

I am suggesting we become more aware of the role envy plays in our decisions to support or not support other writers, to read or not read others' works, and what the likely outcome of this envy is for the future of good writing. Because in the end, we want to support those who merit it. If for no other reason, it might be us someday.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

New Blog at the Nervous Breakdown

2010-05-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hey, I have a new blog up at the Nervous Breakdown. It's called, "Steve Almond, Hardbacks, and the Green-Eyed Monster." Let me know what you think.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, Journey.

I always wanted to lead off for Journey.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

The Nervous Breakdown/Print v. Online Periodicals

2010-05-17T06:19:00.000-07:00

I am now a contributing writer at The Nervous Breakdown, which is an online pub you should be reading. My first TNB post is up today, and it's called "Ten ways to get Thrown out of Wilco." I hope you dig it, and I hope you comment on it.

TNB is one of those sites I follow regularly. It sort of represents my 21st century way of reading periodicals. The latest edition is always there for me online. I sign on when I want, read what I want, and I don't have to worry about the paper version finding its way into the recycle bin when I'm done.

Literary magazines aside, I can't remember the last time I paid for the print version of a magazine or newspaper. I might flip through one at a bookstore, and every time I get my oil changed they force a USA Today on me. But pay for a copy of a magazine from the rack? Doesn't happen. Buy a newspaper from the corner kiosk? Nope. Subscribe to a commercial magazine, even an excellent one? Probably not.

This runs completely counter to my reading habits with book-length stuff, where I won't accept any sort of electronic intrusion. I only want to look at a screen for so many hours of the day. The computer can't have everything.

Also, when reading something book-length, I don't want distraction, which is so easy on a computer.

See what I mean?

But what about you? What do you choose to read: print versions of magazines and newspapers? Electronic versions? Some combination thereof?

poll by twiigs.com

Your Writing Style and your Blog Writing Style

2010-05-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

The New Yorker dishes on its own issues with its blog/web presence here. They wrestle with being the New Yorker and being in a world where the Internet is an important place to promote your wares. Namely, they're concerned about losing what it is that makes them great--"excellence, polish, depth"--while generating hits displaying pictures of people's pets dressed as literary characters.

(Poppy, as the Velveteen Rabbit, from the children’s classic of the same name by Margery Williams.)

Awww.

Leave it to the New Yorker to make me wonder about my approach to my writing versus my approach to my blog writing. Is there a difference?

Yes.

Way yes.

My fiction writing style is, I'd venture, more formal than my blog writing style, and it gets polished much more than the latter. My blog writing style is faster and looser, and it's where I'm more likely to shoot from the hip, as I did last week.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this separation. I'm of a generation that came up before the Web, and I think I value the printed word quite a bit more than the pixelated one. I love to screw around on the Web, but my real writing happens elsewhere.

The Web calls for a certain type of writing, namely the kind that keeps people from the easy distraction of the six billion other websites they have access to. I want you to stay and read, so I keep it light and fun. I'll even go cheap as necessary.

With book writing, I figure my audience has bothered to buy, or at least pick up, my book, which implies a certain amount of dedication from the get-go. I don't need to crush them with pyrotechnics. I expect them to give my prose a chance to work on them on a deeper level. That's the kind of writing I like to read, and that's the kind of attention I hope for from a reader.

But what say you? Do you draw a distinction between the way you write for the web and the way you compose your other work?

poll by twiigs.com

On what Device Would George Jetson Read?

2010-05-02T07:10:00.000-07:00

Michael Shatzkin has published a four-part blog in lieu of speaking at the London Book Fair last month. Of particular interest is Part II, where he goes into what our computer/book lives might be like in 2030. (Spoiler: they'll be pretty much the same.) Here's a taste:

"We’ll access [book] files through a multiplicity of devices, which by then will really just be screens of varying descriptions with online access. There will be big ones that hang on our walls for us to watch movies on and to put a Picasso in when we’re not watching a movie. There will be small ones, foldable ones, and ones that come in rolls where you can use whatever roll width suits your immediate purpose. With your password, you’ll be able to use my screen for your data, just as you can use my computer to get at your gmail account today. There will be screens you can write and underline on which will store your markings (to share or not, as you choose.)"

I thought about doing a poll on this issue: "In 20 years, which device do you expect you'll be reading on?" Then it hit me:

Who gives a shit?

Too often, the conversation in the digital age centers around whether we will read on an iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Nook, or some other gewgaw they haven't invented yet. But what about what we'll be reading, and how well we'll be reading? Is anyone reading Shakespeare on these devices?

Whenever I hear "iPad," "iPhone," "Kindle," "Nook," I think: fetish item. The commotion caused by these new devices is at best a publishing industry issue or, at worst, a techie issue, interesting for what it is, but in the end the ruckus only matters if the content transmitted by the device is worth our time.

Now, if any of these devices actually change the way we experience the work to the point that they help yield a greater understanding of it, then things get interesting. For example, we all know reading Shakespeare and going to see a Shakespeare play are two different experiences, engaging different parts of the brain. I'd bet most reader-types like both experiences. But what if we could read a passage from the play, then watch the passage in action, all on a device that makes such back-and-forth easy and intuitive and not too distracting? Would that be valuable? I think so.

If all that comes to fruition, I'd buy that device.

Until then, these things are bright, shiny distractions, giving us the same thing we already have with the paper version of the book, which was never really flawed in the first place.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.

Steve Almond Self-Pubs!!!

2010-04-26T04:39:00.000-07:00

Steve Almond, who once sneezed and the residual "At-choo" found its way into a mid-tier literary magazine, just self-published a short work on writing, and he goes into his reasoning for the decision here.

With John Edgar Wideman, that makes two established literary writers self-pubbing so far in 2010.

"So what?" you contend. "These writers are both well established players in the game. Of course they can self-publish. They already have a readership."

Very true, but ten years ago, few literary writers would consider self-publishing, at least publicly. The commercial publishing world had developed--for some good reasons, some others not so good--a bias against self-publishing. (There are these things called vanity publishers who charge the writer way too much for...Oh, you've heard this one.) And despite self-publishing's honorable lineage that includes names like Joyce and Austen and Twain, most literary writers were afraid of the contemporary stigma of self-publishing. They wouldn't dare dip their toes in that pool for fear of some catching some E. coli-type virus that might contaminate their entire literary careers.

Scary stuff, but in the late 1990s/early 2000s, with the advent of print-on-demand technology, all of a sudden there was a way to self-publish without dealing with vanity vermin, and without a huge up-front investment in books. And while there were still plenty of companies that charged too much for this new service, there were others that didn't. The world was developing a new way for a writer, at least financially and at least on the front end, to go it alone.

While writers of other genres started publicly experimenting with this new form of publishing, much doubt still persisted in literary circles. For many in this group, a deep mistrust of anything that cost a writer money ruled. How little money and how good the product were of no consequence. If it was self-published, it was evil. Nice and clean, black and white. (Oddly, the opposite of the nuance and complexity literary fiction is known for.)

So, a decade removed from the democratization of publishing, at least two literary writers--tired of the narrowing perspective of commercial publishing and craving a chance to design their own books--have publicly taken the self-publishing plunge. Minds can change after all. It just takes a while.

Will these literary writers make self-publishing any easier for those who don't bring a huge readership and a cadre of cred with them to their project? I don't know. I like to think it bring us closer to a day when every book will be judged by its ability to engage rather than by its method of publication.

Yours in laying down the law,

Art

Try Ghost Notes, the award-winning novel, in print form for just $5.

Try Ghost Notes the Audio Book as an unabridged digital download.

Or try Ghost Notes the Ebook.