Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Fiction Guides by Emma Coates
I'm not all that big a fan of "rules" for writers, perhaps because there are far too many self-help howtos for writers filled with a lot of useless, thoughtless "rules". But when I write I have a few personal rules I follow, and I'm always delighted to find some rules from other writers that are […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Writing
Another Piece of Another Award
It's so gratifying to be a part of an award-winning anthology. Riding the Rails, edited by Jerry L. Wheeler, has just won a 2012 Gaybie award from TLA for "Best Erotic Fiction Book" (nominations by TLA staff, voting by public; winners listed here). My story was called "One Night on the Twentieth Century", and I […]
In: All, Personal Notebook, Writing
Was That "Passive"?
In his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926, so not so terribly modern but still rather fun), Henry Fowler famously described the attitudes of people in regard to the split infinitive in English: The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those […]
In: All, Splenetics, Writing
Oddly Popular
The other day I was looking at some statistics for this blog, and I decided to look at the blog postings that were the most frequently arrived at. Largely, this comes about through search engines and sometimes very loosely related search strings. I'm not sure I could ever have predicted beforehand that these five pieces […]
In: All, The Art of Conversation, Writing
The Inscrutable Muses
Last week I finished a story, known right now as "The Café Françoise". It is set in Nazi-occupied Paris during the second world war and involved a dangerous liaison between a French Resistance operative called Jean-Pierre Renard, and a Gestapo officer whose name was Klaus Nördlingen. When I was looking for a name for the […]
In: All, Personal Notebook, Writing
Literary Statistics
Tonight, for a project that I'll describe later, I put together an inventory of my fiction writing, i.e., those stories and things authored by Jay Neal, my pen-name for fiction. I found things to interest me; your mileage will undoubtedly vary. One thing : I'll refer to "stories", but it's a bit difficult to say […]
In: All, Personal Notebook, Writing
"The Third Man" and Artistic Inevitability
Recently I watched, not for the first time, the film "The Third Man", directed by Carol Reed and starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton. It's an extraordinary film and one of the few that seems to stand up to my repeated viewing. This time I thought to watch it because I wanted to study some […]
In: All, Music & Art, Reflections, Writing
"Lay" vs. "Lie"
When it comes to the inscrutably arbitrary intricacies of the English language (any major variant), I am quite pleased with myself that I somehow managed to memorize the differences between the verb spelled "lay" versus the verb spelled "lie" many years ago. However, my dirty little secret is that I am hopeless at any sort […]
In: All, Naming Things, Writing
Tiny Stories
The “shortest horror story ever written” is usually attributed to Frederic Brown: The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door. Ron Smith shortened this further by changing knock to lock. [from Greg Ross, "Short-Shorts", Futility Closet, 16 September 2010.] Smith's change certainly shortened Brown's original, but […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Writing
Chandler on Speed Limits
A few nights ago Isaac and I had a treat and watched the film "Double Indemnity" again–our second time, although Isaac claims not to remember the first. I remembered liking it but I'd forgotten just how good I thought it was. You'll recall that this is Billy Wilder's trend-setting film noir, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred […]
In: All, Music & Art, Such Language!, Writing
Stories Old & New
Some of my stories have been published lately and I thought I'd mention them. Two of them are reprints; one has not been previously published. Let's start with Bi Guys: The Deliciousness of His Sex, R. Jackson, editor, just published by Lethe Press. In 2004 I wrote the story "Duck Tails […]
In: All, Personal Notebook, Writing
Philip Pullman, Happily Offensive
It seems that Philip Pullman has written a new book published with the title The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. In this short video, recorded at an event at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford on 28 March 2010, he responds to a man in the audience who says that, as a christian he finds […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Writing
Lammy Finalists for 2010
The finalists for this year's Lambda Literary Foundation awards ("Lammys"), the 22nd annual event, were announced recently; winners will be announced on 27 May. I am delighted to report that I am again nominated for about 7% of a Lammy. My memoir, "Tom Selleck's Mustache" (written under my usual nom de plume, Jay Neal), is […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Personal Notebook, Writing
Don't "Build to a Crescendo"
While I'm feeling a little peevish about things publishable, I want to talk for a moment to all those authors who want to be dramatic and write that something "built to a crescendo" — and those editors who edit them. Don't write it. Ask your musician friends first what this musical term means. The "crescendo" […]
In: All, Feeling Peevish, Writing
The Cubby House & "A Bedtime Story"
In February I was happy to report ("The Cubby House & 'A Returning Appetite' ") on a presentation in The Cubby House (their Facebook profile) podcast of an excellent reading of my earliest published story "A Returning Appetite" (by Jay Neal, my nom de porn). Well, I have more happiness to report. The cubs from […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Writing
The Cubby House & "A Returning Appetite"
I"m very excited. Jay Neal, my fiction-writing alter-ego, has had his first radio-drama experience–sort of–and it's pretty cool. Near the beginning of the year I got an email from a new friend named Jack, who had the following to say: I am one of the creators from the podcast "The Cubby House". The Cubby House […]
Who Knows Your Car Best?
Here are two tips from a list of ten to help us get along with our cars better: 2) Learn your service schedule. The people who built your car know it best. 8) Listen for any strange sounds or vibrations. You know your vehicle better than anyone. [Trevor Traina, "Easy Ways to Get More from […]
In: All, Feeling Peevish, Writing
On Reading Wood's How Fiction Works
I recently read How Fiction Works, by James Wood (Ferrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008, 265 pages). It was a surprisingly rewarding book to have read, so I wanted to tell you about it and quote a few passages. Like, I suspect, many writers of fiction do, I occasionally succumb to reading yet another book about […]
"Waking Up Bear"
A couple of days ago in the mail I got my two contributors' copies of the new anthology Bears, edited by Richard Labonté (Cleis Press, August 2008). Before you order your copy I'll remind you that this anthology is a collection of gay erotica, and the subject is bearish men, about whom I like to […]
In: All, Personal Notebook, Writing
Remembering a Story
A week ago I finished a short story, the first fiction I'd written since my father died late last December. The story is called "The Last Night at Nan's Han-N-Egger". Oddly, for me at least, there are no gay men in the story (so far as we know) and there is no sex. There is […]