Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 64

This Podcast Will Change Your Life, Episode Eighty-Six - House of Artists, starring the Jeffrey Barken.

So many artists we are, so much house, quite podcast, and the Jeffrey Barken. Wonderbar. We are also MONOLOGGING, writing contests, Studs Lonigan, This Year in Jerusalem, connectivity, trains, collaboration, and on and on and on, so do hit it, it just might change your life.

And then there was the time we got to talk Lost in Space in The Believer. Yes, that Believer. And big thanks to the Brandon Hobson for making it so.

Massively big thanks in fact. Excerpt? Word.

BH: You approach issues of fatherhood in the book with humor by also managing to maintain an element of sadness, and you do this so well. Can you talk a little about this process of balancing the line between humor and sadness? Is fiction different from nonfiction?

BT: Those are kind words, and I’m thrilled you asked this. When I write fiction, I always try to balance humor and sadness, but some of those results are based on unconscious decisions. In attacking these essays, however, I consciously focused on looking to balance humor and sadness, whether sentence to sentence in a single essay, or from one essay to the next. Parenting is endlessly frustrating, and for me, filled at times with rage. Parents die. Children get sick. You get older and more scared of things. The world can feel so fucked and wrong. But you can’t just write about all of that. Who would want to read it? No one, so even as I am come off like a whiner nonpareil, I also sought to constantly remind myself that there is good in the world, children bring joy, with age comes wisdom, even with death you can laugh, and that you have to remember to embrace it, all of it, and write about it as well.

TWITNOMICON 2014. Hear it roar.

And so TWITCNOMICON 2014 it is. But what is it, you ask? Let us learn you:

Just follow all six of the writers below on Twitter (including TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer), and you can enter to win an insanely good set of 9 books, including:
A Chorus of Wolves by Alex KimmellThe Key to Everything by Alex KimmellLost in Space: A Father’s Journey There and Back Again by Ben TanzerDumb White Husbands vs. Zombies: The Zomnibus by Benjamin WallaceApocalypticon by Clayton SmithPants on Fire: A Collection of Lies by Clayton SmithBilly Purgatory: I Am the Devil Bird by Jesse James FreemanJoe Vampire by Steven LunaJoe Vampire: The Afterlife by Steven Luna That’s right. Nine books for zero dollars. What are you waiting for, you reader, you? Enter now, below, yes, awesome, you.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

"He put my tender heart in a blender and I loved it." Wherein we are Writer/Book Crush and You Can Make Him Like You, and most humbly love the Leesa Cross-Smith all the more for it.

We can say nothing, and we are nothing, but humbly appreciative, and in love for all the Leesa Cross-Smith has to to say about You Can Make Him Like You, how we write, all of it, and everything. Excerpt? Word.

"But srsly in “You Can Make Him Like You” the song…Craig Finn sings:if you get tired of yr boyfriend’s things, there’s always other boys, there’s always other boyfriends and that prettymuch sums up my high school heart. I LOVE THAT. Ben Tanzer is in his 40s and in this book I felt like I was getting his heart. His high school heart, his mid-thirties heart, his writer heart, his family heart, his husband heart, his father heart, his friend heart…all of those things. He put my tender heart in a blender and I loved it. You guys, he made me like him. That’s beautiful, that’s dope, that’s magical. And so, I crush, I do. I crush a lot. I crush hard."

Lost in Space is one-day only $4.95 Father's Day sale so please do buy share post Tweet love rejoice and wallow in all the possibilities contained therein thank you.

Here. And here. And here. And here too.

"Honesty, poignancy, and humor." Lost in Space. Le Salon Annex. Love. Much.

And appreciations to the Kristin Fouquet for making it so. Excerpt? Word.

"I am grateful Tanzer allowed this peek into his life as a son and as a father with all its fears, hopes, denials, and joys. I believe this book is one he will always be proud of and also a beautiful gift to his sons. Oh, and speaking of gifts, Father’s Day is next Sunday. Why not order a copy for all the great dads in your life?"

Indeed.

This Book Will Change Your Life - The Dark Cave Between My Ribs by the Loren Kleinman.

We read our horoscope this week, which is not something we do every week, which is neither here nor there, except that we are being self-conscious, which is self-absorbed, and not becoming, not remotely, especially when our intent is to talk The Dark Cave Between My Ribs by the Loren Kleinman. Than again, maybe that is the point. The horoscope read, "...in the coming days I suspect a great deal of beauty will explode into you. Why? I think it's because you're more receptive than usual to being delighted and enchanted. The triggers could be anything..." Anything. We rarely read poetry. And while we are drawn to pain, we tend to eschew, if not outright avoid, literature about Nazi atrocities, violence against women, terrorism, or the killing of children, for example, and maybe especially, the Beslan school hostage crisis, where so many children were murdered. Any and all of which may be a weakness of ours, blind spots in our ability to better understand the world. All of which is to say, Loren Kleinman writes poetry and her language is that of violence interwoven with longing and loss, memory, and the search for love. And it is beautiful, and aching, and a reminder that not only can we find, and make, beauty in the darkest places, but that without access to these dark places, how we can know what love, humanity, and justice even look like? It's a sad, twisty, and unnerving question, but Kleinman seeks to answer it, word after word, and page after page, and in doing so changed our lives, as she will yours.

Exquisite Duet 2013 Anthology we are. Quite fine company there is. And big thanks to the Meg Tuite for all of it.

So do hit it. Here. Here. And even here.

Wherein we are MONOLOGGING Summer Monologue Contest guest judge. And quite honored indeed.

So do hit it. Now. There you go. Thank you.

"Hyperawareness of the Times in Which We Live." Lost in Space. Goodreads. Quite delightful that. Totally.

Totally quite delightful that in fact. And most appreciated too. Excerpt plus? Word.

"Wit + Deep Insight + Brilliant, Fun, Fast Writing + Hyperawareness of the Times in Which We Live + Heart + Genuine Emotion = Fantastic Read."