Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 746
June 10, 2009
Twenty-car pile-up of ideas in my head
I’m not sure how or when I’ll use this in a story, but I am fascinated by the idea of slugging, a term used to describe a unique form of commuting found in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Pittsburg and sometimes referred to as "Instant Carpooling" or "Casual Carpooling". It is the practice of forming ad hoc, informal, temporary carpools for purposes of commuting, essentially a variation of ride-share commuting and hitchhiking.
“The system of slugging is quite simple. A car needing additional
June 9, 2009
A word by any other name is not a word
The English language acquired its one millionth word today.
Sort of.
According to the Global Language Monitor, a website that uses a math formula to estimate how often words are created, the word Web 2.0 was added at 5:22 AM ET, making it the one millionth word in the English language.
Need I point out that Web 2.0 isn’t an actual word but a phrase used to describe the social nature of the current iteration of the Internet?
Or that the “word” Web 2.0 is about four years old? Why has
June 8, 2009
Popularity contest
Who is the most famous fictional character of all-time?
Tough question, and I guess it depends upon what genres are included in the decision-making process and whether or not you extend the search beyond the traditional confines of the Western world.
Ignoring these considerations, candidates that come to mind for me include Dracula, Snoopy, Romeo and/or Juliet, Odysseus, Harry Potter and James Bond.
The author of the article offers a list of candidates delineated by cen
June 6, 2009
New use for SOMETHING MISSING. I think.
Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what people are thinking.
June 4, 2009
A teacher forever
Last night my fifth grade students performed Julius Caesar, using an abbreviated but otherwise unaltered version of Shakespeare’s original script. I’ve been teaching Shakespeare to my second, third and now fifth graders for the last ten years, and there is nothing more rewarding than watching my kids perform on stage and work as a team backstage in order to make the production happen without a hitch. By the time we actually perform for an audience, the kids are well versed in the story, the char
June 2, 2009
Loving librarians
Thanks to my blessed Google alerts, I discovered some librarians chatting favorably about SOMETHING MISSING.
I can’t express how simultaneously surreal and rewarding it is to find strangers online discussing a story that you made up in your head.
June 1, 2009
Another review!
And a great one, too. This one from the June 1 issue of Kirkus Reviews, a “respected, authoritative pre-publication review source within the literary and film industries,” according to Wikipedia.
I’m new to the business, so I rely on Wikipedia a lot.
Matthew Dicks, SOMETHING MISSING
Dicks combines the neurotic atmosphere of a Woody Allen film with the light touch of Lawrence Block’s Bernie Rhodenbarr’s novels (The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart, 1995, etc.) in a unique debut.
The fant
May 28, 2009
Solving problems
My wife recently described my writing process like this:
You approach writing like you approach life, as a problem solver. You create complex and elaborate problems for your characters, and then, after you’ve gotten them into trouble, you find ways to solve their problems. I think this is why you enjoy writing so much. You like to solve problems. In real life and in your fiction.
I’ve never thought of writing in this way, but I think she’s right. This is why outlining a novel seems so bizarre
May 26, 2009
Second review!
The second review of SOMETHING MISSING was forwarded to me today, a starred review (the highest praise a book can receive in this publication) in the June 1st issue of Booklist Magazine.
Even more positive than the first!
BOOKLIST
Issue: June 1, 2009
Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) is about a young, autistic amateur sleuth. Monk is a popular television series about a detective with an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This debut novel introduces us
May 25, 2009
First review
My first review came out today in Publisher’s Weekly. Though it contains some criticism which I will attempt to process over the coming days (is the book really rambling and repetitive?), the review is quite positive and very exciting.
Something Missing Matthew Dicks. Broadway, $14 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-7679-3088-8
An expert thief unexpectedly finds himself aiding his victims in Dicks's charming if rambling debut. During his hours off, barista Martin Railsback burgles the houses of folks he
