David Abrams's Blog, page 141

Welcome to the Teeny-Tiny, Unlimited-Access Future of the Book: Marion Winik and Suzanne Antonetta Paola Chat About Shebooks

Small "boutique" publishers seem to be popping up everywhere these days (and by "these days," I mean something like, oh, the last 100 hundred years).  Scrappy, boisterous, and innovative, these companies scoff at the notion "books are dead" and plunge forward with a firm belief in literature's survival.  Though small presses come and go, the good ones hang on despite the odds (anyone else remember when Algonquin Books was a small press which specialized in Southern lit?).  I'm...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday, a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.



Bogie and Bacall.  Gable and Lombard.  Jay-Z and Beyonce.  And now...Franco and Shteyngart?  In this four-minute Super Funny Love Story, Gary Shteyngart and James Franco are a married couple clad in pink bathrobes who not only share the passion of "an erotic journey," they also share the livelihood of writing: Franco with his "50 Shades of Gary," and Shteyn...

My First Time: Rachel Cantor

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands. Today’s guest is Rachel Cantor, the author of  A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee's Guide to Saving the World (out this month from Melville House ). Jim Crace, author of Harvest , had this to say about the novel: “It’s as if Kurt Vonnegut and Italo...

Sunday Sentence: "ReMem" by Amy Brill

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I've read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


The room smells like burnt pudding.

"ReMem" by Amy Brill, One Story, Issue 184

The Top 10 Quivering Pen Posts of 2013

It was a year of change.  It was a year of distraction.  It was a year of heavy traffic.  It was a year of near-death.

Near-death?  Yes, unbeknownst to all but the most avid blog readers who have the Superman x-ray vision to see beneath the surface, there was a time when I considered closing down The Quivering Pen in order to devote more time to creative writing and, frankly, creative living.  I went through a period of malaise and burn-out in late summer and gave very...

Friday Freebie: How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti and Raw by Mark Haskell Smith

Congratulations to Nina Lehman, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: A True Novel by Minae Mizumura.

This week's book giveaway is a dynamic duo of two eyebrow-raising novels released in paperback in 2013.  (I'm clearing the shelves of some older books which have been sitting on deck for Friday Freebie for far too long--so, you're all the beneficiaries of my lassitude.)   How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti and Raw by Mark Haskell Smith are no-holds-barred, scathing novels about mo...

My First Time: Craig Lancaster

My First Time is a regular feature in which writers talk about virgin experiences in their writing and publishing careers, ranging from their first rejection to the moment of holding their first published book in their hands.  Today’s guest is Craig Lancaster is the author of the novels 600 Hours of Edward , The Summer Son and Edward Adrift  (one of The Quivering Pen's picks for Best Fiction of 2013 ).  He's also written the short-story collection Quantum Physics and the Art of De...

Sunday Sentence: "The Uninnocent" by Bradford Morrow

Simply put, the best sentence(s) I've read this past week, presented out of context and without commentary.


The evening star was up, a tiny eye of foil, winking.

"The Uninnocent" by Bradford Morrow
from The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries, edited by Otto Penzler

The Second-Best Hat in the Room, and Other Memories from the Tony Hillerman Writing Conference

Mystery novelist J.E.S. Hays recently returned from the annual Tony Hillerman Writing Conference and filed this report and photos for The Quivering Pen.  Hays lives in South Carolina in a little house filled with books and photographs.  When not off in her own little world, she can usually be found outside with a camera in one hand, or online supervising the Creative Writing categories of WikiAnswers. Her Devon Day and the Sweetwater Kid stories are available in an anthology, Down t...

Friday Freebie: A True Novel by Minae Mizumura

Congratulations to Brett Kruger, winner of last week's Friday Freebie: Best of Books by the Bed #1 and We Wanted to be Writers .

Are you a fan of Wuthering Heights?  Then this week's book giveaway will get your Brontë spidey-sense tingling.  Enter to win  A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, which was released in the U.S. in November by Other Press.  I have a handsome copy of the novel, which comes in two softcover volumes in a slipcase, to give away to one lucky re...