David Abrams's Blog, page 153

Happy Birthday, Fobbit: Notes and Snapshots From a Year in the Life of My Plucky Little Book

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Fobbit 's publication.  I'd intended to celebrate the occasion by writing a blog post, but duties at the Day Job (aka the Paycheck Job) kept me whizzing along at 95 mph and all I had time for was this Tweet:


David Abrams ‏@ImDavidAbrams16hToday, my plucky little book, FOBBIT, is 1 yr old. Which is, like, 22 in Author Years. I'm definitely not the same guy I was Sept 4, 2012.
It's true, so much water has gone under the bridge since Publicatio...

Suicide and Sacrifice: An Interview with Nan Cuba

Interview by Dale Neal

I first met Nan Cuba in the late 1980s in sultry Swannanoa, N.C., where we both were trying to figure out how to write fiction in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.  Nan had a soft Texas drawl and a ready laugh.  Our workshop colleagues would discover Nan was really made of rawhide and cussedness, when it came to her drive to see a novel through.

This year, she published her debut novel Body and Soul  (Engine Books), a book that has only...

Trailer Park Tuesday: The Humans by Matt Haig

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




"Don't worry about your abilities.  You have the ability to love.  That is enough."  That's just one of 97 pearls of wisdom found in the chapter called "Advice for a Human" in Matt Haig's newest novel, The Humans .  Some of the pieces of advice are pithy, some are full of pathos (and a little bathos), but they all taken on a extra layer of meaning when you...

Sunday Sentence: Mathew Brady: Portraits of a Nation by Robert Wilson

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


All photographs imply the presence of a human viewer, of course--the person who points the camera.  But more explicitly, perhaps, than had yet been done in this medium, Brady introduced what might be called first-person photography, an assertion that a photograph is not just the doings of a sunbeam, an objective rendering of a scene, but a view created, in effect, by an individual c...

Bookstore of the Month: Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 661-1515 or Toll-Free at (800) 542-READ
Harvard Book Store on Facebook
Harvard Book Store on Twitter

In 1932, a young man borrowed $300 from his parents to open a small shop selling used and bargain general interest books at 19 Boylston Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  In 2009, that same bookstore (now under different ownership) launched its so-called "Green Delivery Service" which, in partnership with Metro Pedal Power...

Soup and Salad: Craig Lancaster Hits 100K, Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy,"The Grinning Fish" by Peter Benchley, A Naked Singularity Takes a PEN Prize, The "Discoverability Problem," 10 Forgotten Classics You Need to Discover, 50 of the Best Books Yo

On today's menu:

1.  Novelist and short-story writer Craig Lancaster is celebrating a milestone: the 100,000th sale of his books.  Though that kind of number has all the weight of an eyelash for someone like E. L. James, it's a really, really, really big deal for writers like Craig Lancaster and 99.3% of his fellow pen-pushers.  Lord knows I couldn't see the 100,000th sold of copy of Fobbit even if I had a pair of binoculars.  So, way to go, Craig!  If you'd like to he...

Soup and Salad: Craig Lancaster Hits 100K, Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy,"The Grinning Fish" by Peter Benchley, A Naked Singularity Takes a PEN Prize, The "Discoverability Problem," 10 Forgotten Classics You Need to Discover, 50 of the Best Books Yo

On today's menu:

1.  Novelist and short-story writer Craig Lancaster is celebrating a milestone: the 100,000th sale of his books.  Though that kind of number has all the weight of an eyelash for someone like E. L. James, it's a really, really, really big deal for writers like Craig Lancaster and 99.3% of his fellow pen-pushers.  Lord knows I couldn't see the 100,000th sold of copy of Fobbit even if I had a pair of binoculars.  So, way to go, Craig!  If you'd like to he...

Soup and Salad: Craig Lancaster Hits 100K, Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy,"The Grinning Fish" by Peter Benchley, A Naked Singularity Takes a PEN Prize, The "Discoverability Problem," 10 Forgotten Classics You Need to Discover, 50 of the Best Books Yo

On today's menu:

1.  Novelist and short-story writer Craig Lancaster is celebrating a milestone: the 100,000th sale of his books.  Though that kind of number has all the weight of an eyelash for someone like E. L. James, it's a really, really, really big deal for writers like Craig Lancaster and 99.3% of his fellow pen-pushers.  Lord knows I couldn't see the 100,000th sold of copy of Fobbit even if I had a pair of binoculars.  So, way to go, Craig!  If you'd like to he...

Soup and Salad: Craig Lancaster Hits 100K, Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy,"The Grinning Fish" by Peter Benchley, A Naked Singularity Takes a PEN Prize, The "Discoverability Problem," 10 Forgotten Classics You Need to Discover, 50 of the Best Books Yo

On today's menu:

1.  Novelist and short-story writer Craig Lancaster is celebrating a milestone: the 100,000th sale of his books.  Though that kind of number has all the weight of an eyelash for someone like E. L. James, it's a really, really, really big deal for writers like Craig Lancaster and 99.3% of his fellow pen-pushers.  Lord knows I couldn't see the 100,000th sold of copy of Fobbit even if I had a pair of binoculars.  So, way to go, Craig!  If you'd like to he...

Soup and Salad: Craig Lancaster Hits 100K, Wiley Cash's This Dark Road to Mercy,"The Grinning Fish" by Peter Benchley, A Naked Singularity Takes a PEN Prize, The "Discoverability Problem," 10 Forgotten Classics You Need to Discover, 50 of the Best Books Yo

On today's menu:

1.  Novelist and short-story writer Craig Lancaster is celebrating a milestone: the 100,000th sale of his books.  Though that kind of number has all the weight of an eyelash for someone like E. L. James, it's a really, really, really big deal for writers like Craig Lancaster and 99.3% of his fellow pen-pushers.  Lord knows I couldn't see the 100,000th sold of copy of Fobbit even if I had a pair of binoculars.  So, way to go, Craig!  If you'd like to he...