David Abrams's Blog, page 147

Trailer Park Tuesday: Fosse by Sam Wasson

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


Is the promotional video for Sam Wasson's new biography of choreographer Bob Fosse the best book trailer of the year?  As Fosse himself would likely say, "Screw that!   It's the best trailer of the decade, baby!"  To fully appreciate the nuances of this five-minute hilarious razzle-dazzle tour through Wasson's writing process, it's helpful to have a working know...

My First Time: John Clayton

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 John Clayton, author of The Cowboy Girl: The Life of Caroline Lockhart and the recently-released Stories from Montana's Enduring Frontier: Exploring an Untamed Legacy . His first book, Small Town Bound: Your Guide to Small-Town Living, was feat...

Sunday Sentence: Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter

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


Did these contemporary war stories lack the grandeur and arc of their predecessors?  Sadr City was not the Somme.  That was like comparing Mad Max to Madame Bovary.

Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter

Not Not-Writing

Last month, I stood in front of thirty high school English teachers at a restaurant in Bozeman, Montana, ready to deliver my prepared talk, "How to Tell a War Story."

Before I began, I held up my cell phone.  "You'll excuse me if I check my email one last time before I begin," I said.  "I'm waiting to hear whether or not the government shutdown is officially over."

I, along with the rest of the country, was holding my breath, shifting uncomfortably on a bed of pins and needles, as t...

Friday Freebie: Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter and The Great War by Joe Sacco

Congratulations to James Stolen, Brian Bedard, Ken Olsen and Jeff Fitzgerald--winners of last week's Friday Freebie: the Unbridled Books mega-giveaway.  Thanks again to Greg Michalson for providing the bounty of fiction!

This week's book giveaway is a special Veterans Day prize package. I'm giving away a copy of Eleven Days by Lea Carpenter and The Great War by Joe Sacco to one lucky reader.

Powerful and lean, Eleven Days is an astonishing first novel full of suspense that addresses our m...

Bookstore of the Month: Flyleaf Books

Flyleaf Books
752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919) 942-7373
Flyleaf Books on Facebook
Flyleaf Books on Twitter



When filling out the Bookstore of the Month questionnaire, staff members at Flyleaf Books wrote, "If it can be printed on paper, consider us interested."  I assume they're not just talking about money.

If the testimony of novelist Jill McCorkle in My Bookstore  by Ronald Rice is any indication, Flyleaf's love of the printed word runs bone-marrow deep:

Build i...

Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! I'm going Beyond the Margins

While the elves continue to toil away behind the scenes here at The Quivering Pen, industriously writing fresh content for the blog while I sleep (ha!), I thought I'd let you know about some things which have appeared in other places in recent days.  I interviewed Jennifer Spiegel, novelist and short story writer extraordinaire, for Mayday magazine--in an issue which also includes interviews with George Saunders and  Alexis M. Smith .  And over at Beyond the Margins , novelis...

Everything Old is New Again: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep
by Stephen King
Reviewed by Derek Harmening

“We never really end...I don’t know how that can be or what it means, I only know that it is.”

The words of Dan Torrance, once a boy outrunning his crazed father’s swinging roque mallet, now a man outrunning the demons he’s inherited.  And fitting words for Stephen King’s return to a world that’s haunted readers for more than thirty-five years.

I’m guessing more than a handful of Constant Readers—myself among them—were dubious about a...

Trailer Park Tuesday: Norman Mailer: A Double Life by J. Michael Lennon

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



This has been a season of big, juicy biographies of writers. We're getting the lowdown on Salinger and Roth , and now we get a 900-page exploration of Norman Mailer's life.  Thanks to J. Michael Lennon, we see the pugnacious pontificator in all his glory and warts.  The trailer is little more than clips from an interview with Lennon.  So if you don't like two min...

My First Time: Susan McCallum-Smith

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 Susan McCallum-Smith.  Her debut story collection, Slipping the Moorings , was published in early 2009 by Entasis Press.  James Srodes, writing in The Washington Times, called her “a tough and funny talent of the first order,” while Bob Sh...