Craig Lancaster's Blog, page 37
May 20, 2009
Book giveaway*
I have eight copies of Six-Hundred Hours of a Life with early versions of the cover that I’d like to place with loving homes.
Want one? Here’s what you do:
* Send me an e-mail at amindadrift at gmail dot com.
* Tell me what you’re reading now, so I can add to my own steadily growing reading list.
* That’s it.
I’ll reply with a PayPal request for the shipping and packaging costs ($4). I’m not seeking to make any money here; I just don’t want to spend any. (Cheap bastard, I know.)
If you enjoy the book
May 19, 2009
How ‘Herzog’ clears the fog
I saw this story on NPR this morning and stashed it away to read later, after I’d attended to my own literary chores.
When I circled back on it, the parallels made me smile.
In the piece, author Jeffrey Eugenides writes that his sure-fire cure for writer’s block is to open up Saul Bellow’s Herzog and read a random page or paragraph:
It always works. Right away I’m restored to full alertness and clarity. Style, in literature, has gone out of style. People think it’s just ornament. But it’s not: The
May 18, 2009
Grinding again
I took three days to go to Fairview, Montana, and see my sister-in-law graduate from high school. (Congratulations, Andi.) It amounted to three days of needed recharging of the creative batteries, some time for enjoying family and a slow pace.
On the 280-some-mile drive home yesterday, as my wife disappeared into her book and I sang along with the iPod — and God bless her for being OK with that — I had a bit of an epiphany about my current project and how to repair something that was lacking in i
May 16, 2009
KULR-8 appearance
Here’s the link to my 51 seconds of fame from yesterday …
Talking about Six-Hundred Hours of a Life on KULR-8.
May 14, 2009
Coming to a TV and a store near you
If you’re in the Billings area, be sure to check out my interview on KULR-8, tentatively scheduled for the 5 p.m. newscast tomorrow (Friday, May 15). It will highlight Six-Hundred Hours of a Life and the upcoming local-author blowout at the new Hastings store, 1603 Grand Ave. in Billings.
The event takes place over two Saturdays — May 16 and May 23 — running from 2 p.m. to about 5 each day. I’ll be at the latter session, along with my friend and supremely talented author Russell Rowland and other
May 13, 2009
The artist and the salesman
Today’s post piggybacks on yesterday’s about the often-frustrating process of querying agents.
First, though, I’d like to amplify something I tossed off far too casually. I wrote: “Rule No. 1 of this process should be to not take things personally.”
Had the words not been mine, that line would have pissed me right off. Because here’s the deal: It is personal. Creating a novel — finding the discipline to write every day, carefully choosing your words, battling through dead ends and plot turns and t
May 12, 2009
On agents and querying
Literary agent Nathan Bransford, whose blog is a wonderful resource for anyone trying to break into traditional publishing, does a nice thing by acknowledging how fickle some agents can be about queries:
Some of the more jaded writers among us have taken this as evidence that we agents delight in making the unpublished jump through hoops. Every new “don’t do this” blog post, in this view, becomes one more thing a poor author has to remember, and given the number of opinions out there, it’s imposs
May 11, 2009
The outlines of a story
My journalism training prepared me for many things when it comes to writing — adhering to deadlines, having the discipline to sit down and do it (the part where most people come up short) and the ability to be economical with words. But because I was never a long-form journalist — most newspaper stories I’ve written have been no longer than 1,000 words — it didn’t prepare me for a singular challenge of novel-length writing: covering 80,000-plus words and tying up all the loose ends as one goes.
May 10, 2009
‘Reading and writing are doing just fine’
There’s an interesting story over on the Publishers Weekly site about technology’s impact on the book industry.
To anyone in the newspaper industry — like me — the conclusions ought to sound awfully familiar:
The panel, moderated by the Times book editor, David Ullin, included former PW editor-in-chief, publishing consultant and author of So Many Books, So Little Time Sara Nelson; Richard Nash, former head of Soft Skull Press; Otis Chandler, founder of the Goodreads Web site; and Patrick Brown, Vr
May 9, 2009
Calendar update
The Billings Hastings store (1603 Grand Avenue) will celebrate the grand opening of its new store on Saturday, May 16, and Saturday, May 23, with readings and signings by local authors. I will be at the May 23 event.
The event runs from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Call Hastings at 406-259-2111 for more information.
For a look at my full calendar, please visit my main site.
