Caleb J. Ross's Blog, page 90

Transubstantiate, the first novel from Richard Thomas, is now available

July will forever forward be known not as the month in which America celebrates its independence, but instead as the month that witnessed the release of Richard Thomas's debut novel, Transubstantiate.

This novel has been a long time coming, and I urge everyone to grab a copy as soon as possible. And as you do that, get involved with some of the discussion and live readings surrounding the novel, including a July 19 live Q&A at Bitten By Books (Time TBD), a July 18th reading at ...

Another Great Unexpected "Literary" Reference

Last night, a new episode of Futurama featured another novel reference.  "The Duh-Vinci Code" appropriately features a reference to Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. See the full clip here. The clip is actually quite funny, though isn't this turd of a book a bit of an easy target? Yes, the quotations in the post title around Literary are intentional. I can't bring myself to call The DaVinci Code literary at all. But, still any novel reference is a win for the good guys.

See my a

Mind effed: Jose Saramago fucks with the encyclopedia's self-esteem

The encyclopedia that father and daughter have just opened on the kitchen table was considered the best of its kind at the time of publication, whereas today its only use would be to find out about areas of knowledge no longer considered useful or which, at the time, were still only articulating their first, hesitant syllables. Placed in a line, one after another, the encyclopedias of today, yesterday, and the-day-before-the-day-before-yesterday represent successive images of...

Lessons from a nobody – writing has two anchors

I can't claim to be a master o' the written word, but I can pretend to be one. With that in mind, I am compelled to push forward any writing-related knowledge I may have in hopes that you too can promote a false sense of superiority.

Today's lesson: Writing has two ways to keep you grounded in your story, or "anchors," as I will call them.

The words you've already put down
The words you have yet to put down

The first anchor is touched upon in the brilliant book by...

Mind effed: Jose Saramago on Reading

The same method doesn't work for everyone, each person has to invent his or her own, whichever suits them best, some people spend their entire lives reading but never get beyond reading the words on the page, they don't understand that the words are merely stepping stones placed across a fast-flowing river, and the reason they're there is so that we can reach the farther shore, it's the other side that matters, Unless, Unless what, Unless those rivers don't have just two...

My Tom Waits inspired non-fiction piece is now live in the first issue of Cannoli Pie Magazine

Back in February during the AWP Conference in Denver, CO, I read a non-fiction piece called "The Author Who Gets Free Drinks: a (Hopefully) True Story." Fine man extraordinaire Stephen Krauska was in the audience. After the reading, I spoke with him for a bit, and got the (eventually proven true) impression that he's an all around damn nice guy. So nice in fact that for the first issue of his (and co-editor Claire Suellentrop's) Cannoli Pie Magazine he asked to print the AWP p...

The Velvet Podcast, Episode 006: Jennifer's Lost Overboard Body: Cinemuck Boogaloo

Episode #006 of The Velvet Podcast just went live a few hours ago. Gordon Highland, Jesse Lawrence, Logan Frost, and Stephen Graham Jones talk about:

Discussion of other mediums like film and television has always been an important aspect of The Velvet, because we find that our shared tastes in books translates well to art and entertainment in general. Inspired by one of our most popular forums, this episode features three Velvet staffers and author Stephen Graham Jones

The Fringe Detriments of Writing Fiction

In response to Mr. Highland's challenge to come up with a counter point to my list of the fringe benefits of writing, I offer to you, the fringe detriments of writing:

Not enough people worship me. Jesus had a whole pool of suckers to write for him. Am I comparing myself to Jesus? Yes. Which brings me to…An inflated ego brings nothing but misery. But on someone as awesome as me, misery looks damn good.Something can easily take years to write, but can...

Kansas City Reading Coves – my hammock

I bring you #3 of a hopefully long-lived series: Kansas City Reading Coves.

When I can, I like my reading retreats like my coves like my Republican nudists: free swinging and white .

Today's cove: my hammock – my house

Simply put, my hammock is the greatest reading cozerie since the 70′s invented bean bag chairs. I could sit here for hours, and often I do, reading, smoking cigars, drinking beer, and swinging only as much as the wind wants me to. The hammock is my heaven on...

Great Unexpected Literary References

When watching a rerun of the "Britney's New Look" episode of South Park a few nights ago, I caught an allusion to the famous short story, "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson (minute 16:36 in the clip here). Which makes me wonder, in what other unexpected places do literary references and allusions appear?

Staying in the South Park world, there is the "A Dickens Classic" episode, which is an overt retelling of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. More recently, The episode "The...