David Abrams's Blog, page 64

Front Porch Books: April 2016 edition

Front Porch Books is a monthly tally of books—mainly advance review copies (aka “uncorrected proofs” and “galleys”)—I’ve received from publishers, but also sprinkled with packages from Book Mooch, independent bookstores, Amazon and other sources. Because my dear friends, Mr. FedEx and Mrs. UPS, leave them with a doorbell-and-dash method of delivery, I call them my Front Porch Books. In this digital age, ARCs are also beamed to the doorstep of my Kindle via NetGalley and Edelweiss. Note: many...

My First Time: Dana Cann

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 Dana Cann, author of Ghosts of Bergen County , now available from Tin House Books. His short stories have appeared in The Sun, The Massachusetts Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Florida Review, Barrelhouse, and Blackbird, among other magazines and journ...

Sunday Sentence: They Could Live With Themselves by Jodi Paloni

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


Sunlight runs pink across post-winter grass as if to soothe afternoon into evening.

“Molly Sings the Blues”
from They Could Live With Themselves by Jodi Paloni

Friday Freebie: True Stories at the Smoky View by Jill McCroskey Coupe

Congratulations to Karin Lau, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Daredevils by Shawn Vestal.

This week’s book giveaway is True Stories at the Smoky View by Jill McCroskey Coupe. John Dufresne (author of No Regrets, Coyote) had this to say about the book: “True Stories at the Smoky View is a riveting literary mystery you won’t soon forget. Jill McCroskey Coupe handles this complex tale of troubled romance, broken families, redeeming friendship, and inexplicable evil with intelligenc...

My First Time: Jill McCroskey Coupe

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 Jill McCroskey Coupe, author of True Stories at the Smoky View , now out from She Writes Press. Library Journal has this to say about the novel: “With intricate story lines involving murder, library research, road trips, and Vrai’s and Jonathan’s quest fo...

Sunday Sentence: One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

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


Now he was going to find out if it was actually possible to get rich from owning a baseball team, and he was going to do it by staking nearly everything on the most brilliant, headstrong, undisciplined, lovable, thrillingly original, ornery son of a bitch that ever put on a baseball uniform.

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

Friday Freebie: Daredevils by Shawn Vestal

Congratulations to Rhonda Lomazow, Lori Benedetto, Michael Cooper, and Lisa Murray, the winners of last week’s Friday Freebie contest: Maisie at 8000 Feet by Frederick Reuss.

I’m thrilled to announce this week’s book giveaway is Daredevils by Shawn Vestal (author of Godforsaken Idaho ). On a personal note, I frickin’ loved this novel set in the American West in the 1970s. It’s about love, the longing to break free from the confines of family and religion, and the risky chances one takes to ear...

Tales of an AWP Virgin; or, How I Survived the Conference Without Gnawing Off My Own Hand

For the past six years I’ve attended the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference ...via my Twitter feed. I fall into that category of never-been-but-always-kinda-sorta-wanted-to-go. This year’s conference in Los Angeles, attended by more than 12,000 book-lovin’ souls, was no different: I kept up with the panels, the readings, the publishers’ booth displays, and the kissy-face author-drinking-with-fellow-author selfies while sitting at my desk in my Butte, Montana hom...

A Thin Line Between Horror and Schmaltz: Hollywood and the Holocaust by Henry Gonshak

Can the Holocaust and art co-exist?

That’s what Henry Gonshak sets out to learn in  Hollywood and the Holocaust . The film studies book, which came out last October puts more than two dozen movies under the critical microscope with a writing style that’s smart and (dare I say it?) fun.

Gonshak opens the book by asking “Can Hollywood get it right?” then proceeds to discuss, in depth, Hollywood’s various depictions of the last century’s darkest blot—everything from Charlie Chaplin’s timeless...

My First Time: Ellen Prentiss Campbell

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 Ellen Prentiss Campbell, author of Contents Under Pressure , a collection of stories, and the forthcoming novel The Bowl with Gold Seams . Her short fiction has been featured in numerous journals including The Massachusetts Review, The Fourth River, The Po...