Geoff Herbach's Blog, page 6

The Winds of Change: No Omelets.

There are things I can't do: I can't eat too many omelets, because I have high cholesterol, which I just found out this week, which I find hard to believe, because I've never eaten a lot of omelets.  Up until now, I thought that's how you got high cholesterol.  Omelets.  Apparently not.  Because I eat [...]

A Sad Little Love Letter on Dear Teen Me

I really like this site, dearteenme.com.  They post YA authors' letters to their teenaged selves. I've got one up today that I really like, based on true events, the best I recall them. It is here. Filed under: Writing, Young Adult

George Saunders in Mankato

Tomorrow is a really big day.  George Saunders, great story and essay writer, is doing The Good Thunder Reading Series. (Look at the list of authors from this year! Chaon, Henley, Komunyakaa, Reif Larsen, whoa — I've eaten Chinese Food with lots of people I like to read.)  George Saunders is visiting my department.  I'll [...]

36 questions to ask about your characters

As I sit here in my kitchen on a very hard wooden bench writing (struggling to write) the sequel to Stupid Fast, I'm reminded of how helpful seemingly mechanical exercises can be to the creative act. Every time I write a story, I get stuck.  Every time I write, I lose hold of characters and [...]

AWP

I'm on my way to DC for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference.  This conference is a giant clusternut of writerly fear and loathing.  There, outside the center, will stand 2000 MFA students, mostly wearing dorky glasses, many smoking to hide behind smoke, mostly staring at other MFA students who are [...]

Weeping Sconnie

Here I sit before a painted depiction of the North Wisconsin Woods.  I am weepy, because the Packers have won the Super Bowl. Filed under: Football, Happy

Junior Library Guild

My book, Stupid Fast, which comes out in a few months, is a Junior Library Guild selection.  JLG is a hugely great organization.  I'm very lucky, definitely.  Still, I'm not sure what the selection means for the book.  This little pyramid graphic on their website leads me to think it's pretty good news. I can't [...]

Brain Injury?

Martin Amis, who I like a lot as an author, suggested last week that he would only write lit for kids if he had a brain injury.  This brain injury would keep him from writing to his true capacity, and so, as a dumber version of himself, he might consider writing for dumb kids (that's [...]

Stupid Fast Book Trailer

I'm just going to make my own book trailer.  Over and Over.  This one is not great.  Maybe the next one will be great.  This one is not.  So, there it is. Filed under: Lack of concentration, Stupid Fast, Writing, Young Adult Tagged: Bad, Book Trailer, Stupid Fast

Writers should not telecommute: Hallway

To keep students from dying in the cold, Minnesota State, Mankato has a system of halls and skyways connecting most of the campus buildings.  I really love these halls.  They're a little like high school halls, except longer, and the vast majority of students who walk them are living on their own and are in [...]