David Abrams's Blog, page 186

Trailer Park Tuesday: Four New Messages by Joshua Cohen

Welcome to Trailer Park Tuesday , a showcase of new book trailers and, in a few cases, previews of book-related movies.  Unless their last name is Grisham or King, authors will probably never see their trailers on the big screen at the local cineplex.  And that's a shame because a lot of hard work goes into producing these short marriages between book and video.  So, if you like what you see, please spread the word and help these videos go viral.





Gritty, haunting, unrelenting--ju...

My First Time: Maryanne O'Hara

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 Maryanne O'Hara, author of the new novel Cascade  (which is the current Friday Freebie-- enter today for your chance at winning a copy).  Kim Edwards (author of  The Memory Keeper’s Daughter) has this to say about the book: “Compe...

Fobbit Tour, Stop 1: Fact and Fiction in Missoula, Montana

I could think of no finer bookstore to host the first public reading of Fobbit than Fact and Fiction in downtown Missoula, Montana.  Bookstore owner Barbara Theroux is an enthusiastic champion of all books, but especially those by Big Sky Country authors.  She rolled out a carpet as red as the cover of Fobbit for me last night—which coincided with Missoula’s festive First Friday event, along with the weekend-long Brewfest. 
At 5:30, I read a short selection from Fobbit, introduc...

Friday Freebie: Cascade by Maryanne O'Hara

Congratulations to Mari Kathryn Gavin, winner of last week's Friday Freebie contest, the four books which shared Fobbit's release date (September 4): Love Slave by Jennifer Spiegel, Hemingway's Girl by Erika Robuck, The Three-Day Affair by Michael Kardos, and On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder.  Mari certainly has some quality reading time ahead of her.

This week's giveaway is Cascade , the new novel by Maryanne O'Hara from Viking which Caroline Leav...

Fobbit is officially launched

I was late to my own party.  A series of last-minute mini-emergencies at the Day Job kept me at the office long past the time I'd planned to leave and head to Uptown Butte for the book launch party at Quarry Brewing .  That, coupled with the text I got from my wife ("Where r u? People are already here!") and the detour to pick up the hot wings at McKenzie River Pizza Co. , put me in a vise-grip of panic, complete with dry mouth and constricted veins.

But then I took a deep breath and t...

Scorched-Earth Stories: Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins

Battleborn
by Claire Vaye Watkins
Riverhead
Guest review by Kim Anderson

The scorched earth fury of Claire Vaye Watkins’ new collection of short stories, Battleborn , leaves this reader gasping for air.  In a good way.

From the epigraph (Stephen Crane’s “In the desert/I saw a creature, naked, bestial,/Who, squatting upon the ground,/Held his heart in his hands,/And ate of it…”) all the way to the final story “Graceland,” we are in a blast furnace: the American desert west, blazing sun, l...

A Publication Day Thank You Card

A book is written in solitude, but when publication day arrives, you realize it is carried on the shoulders of others running and cheering in the streets all the way to the bookstore.

Today marks a day I never thought would arrive.  I thought I'd die an unpublished novelist and my wife would engrave "He tried hard, but...." on my headstone.

And yet, here we are.  September 4, 2012.  The official birth of Fobbit , a novel seven years in the making.

This is my Academy Award mome...

My First Time: David Abrams & Peter Blackstock

Normally, I reserve this My First Time space for guest blogs from other writers.  Today, on the eve of Fobbit ’s publication, I thought I’d step in and tell you about one of my first times.  I’m joined today by my editor at Grove/Atlantic, Peter Blackstock.


My First Book Editor
On December 10, 2010, I fired off an email to my agent, Nat Sobel, with typical first-novelist bravura and an obstinate blindness to the faults which weighed down my writing:

     Nat,
    ...

Writer at Work

When I was growing up in Mississippi, in the 1940s and '50s, my father worked as a traveling salesman. And you might say we--my family--lived in a world dominated by work. My father had gained his job during the heart of the Depression, in 1935, and kept it until his dying day, in 1960. It was a source of considerable pride to him--not to mention relief, and the sponsor of most of our family's material well-being--that he had one job through the Depression, the World War, and all of the 1950s...

Soup and Salad: What Not To Say To a Writer, David Foster Wallace Symposium, Book Sculptures, 50 Coolest Book Covers, Best Baby Gift for a Writer, Joseph Heller's Desk, What Writers Can Learn From Charlie Sheen, A Conversation With Ben Fountain and Alan H

A word of explanation about today's menu: Yes, many of these links direct you to articles which appeared as long ago as April of this year (which is like a decade in Internet years!).  The reason is a simple and pitiful one: my email inbox has spiraled out of control this year and, despite all my best efforts to tame it and weed it on a daily basis, it has overgrown until it resembles something like electronic kudzu.  I've been saving newsletters and book-related links of inter...