Caleb J. Ross's Blog, page 92
June 6, 2010
The Velvet Podcast, Episode 005: INTERVIEW with Matt Bell
Episode #005 of The Velvet Podcast is now live! 
In this interview episode I talk with Matt Bell, author of The Collectors (Caketrain Press), Wolf Parts and the forthcoming How They Were Found, both from Keyhole Press. Matt's short fiction has been published and anthologized just about everywhere and is forthcoming to Ninth Letter, the ML Press chapbook series, and Kill Author.
We talk about live-writing with an audience over at Everyday Genius, editing for The Collagist...
June 4, 2010
Signed Book Nerd
Most of you probably don't know this, but secretly, I am not the cunning stallion that I appear to be. Sure, I am a sexy reader, I can do the robot worm electric slide, and I dress in the finest clothes straight from snazzy street (Snazzy and 14th Avenue is where the local Salvation Army clothing depot is located; they always have the hippest fanny packs). But underneath all of this slathered-upon cool, I carry a potentially social-life threatening secret. I like signed...
June 2, 2010
Kansas City Reading Coves – Javanaut
My living room couch is nice. My bed is comfy and relaxing. But the outside world is a too-neglected source of reading coves. A book can be influenced by its context. In the same way a vacation is as much about the promise of temporary joblessness as it is about the destination environment, reading is as much about the book as it is about the break from the normal domestic setting.
With that, I bring you the first installment of a hopefully long-lived series: Kansas City
May 29, 2010
The Fringe Benefits of Writing Fiction
Writing fiction is not a rich man's game. Though some authors are able to attain and sustain luxury by writing novels, that club is quite exclusive. In fact, most of the authors whose books you see even in national bookstore chains (Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc.) have day jobs. Fiction is usually a supplement their better life decisions.
Did you know Jim Lehrer has published 17 novels? No, you didn't. John Lithgow, Alan Arkin, Jimmy Buffet, Wes Craven, and so many...
May 26, 2010
The Velvet Podcast, Episode 004: "Why can't I write," I write OR Inventing Trans Fat
Episode #004 of The Velvet Podcast just went live a few hours ago. Me, Rob Parker, and Mark Jaskowski talk about:
Most writers, whether hobbyists or professionals, would defend that writing is a compulsion. Yet despite this apparent need, writers find a lot a lot of ways to procrastinate (creating this podcast being one). In this episode, three Velvet members discuss why writing is so necessary, what keeps us from writing when we know we should, what keeps us writing...
The Master's Program as a Trade School
I've been accused of being a bit of a literary snob. Mostly by best-seller groupies who smell like trade paperbacks and poverty. Why don't you go save a few dimes at a used blog store, and leave the shiny new posts to those of us with taste!
/UNDESERVED SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT
My justification for being a literary snob (literob?) always has been that if a book is best-selling and intellectually easily accessible, then it likely isn't confronting dangerous (i.e., important) topics. ...
May 24, 2010
What brings you back?
Things need to change. I need to blog more. I need to have interesting things to say. Yes, that is the correct order for those last two items. Blogs, generally, are dumb. So many of them tend to be self-infatuated messes. The argument that this egotism is their exact purpose stands, true. So perhaps my contempt is like me at an orgy: so many people doing it must mean it's fun, but every time I try one, I leave with a bad taste in my mouth. Gross.
I read plenty of industry...
April 28, 2010
April 25, 2010
Caleb's SNIPPETS OF TOMORROW (04/25/10)
@ UnRonic, Stephen Krauska offers some truly amazing words about Charactered Pieces. There's so much more than I deserve in the full review, so I urge you to click over the UnRonic to read everything. But here's a snippet:
Between his spectacular characters, interesting stories, excellent metaphors all held together with great imagery and vivid description, Ross is a must read. He's young, fresh and down to earth enough to admittedly "steal" lyrics and write an...
