Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 97

Books. Booze. Beauty. And Donnelly.

Here. Yo. Really. Or here. Totally.

Shameless, albeit much appreciated Ethel Rohan, yes, that Ethel Rohan, My Father's House Tweet hype. And big thanks to the Ethel Rohan for that.

@BenTanzer Loved MY FATHER'S HOUSE, thank you. Rich with nuance, pain, tenderness, grit, and plain and wonderful prose.
— ethelrohan (@ethelrohan) August 18, 2013

"Death is terrible: it gives everyone a chance to reduce your achievement to the silliest quotable thing you said." Teju Cole. From the Twitter.

Dang. R.I.P. Elmore Leonard.

"I try to leave out the parts readers skip." Elmore Leonard (1925-2013)

Librarians + Beastie Boys = Joy.

Hunter. Nutting. FSG Originals. Sweet.

Truth. Excerpt? Yes.

AN: Let’s get back to our writing, which is an embarrassment to our own parents. How do you cope? 

LH: It’s really hard, actually! I want so badly for them to be proud. When Daddy’s came out my mom called me to say she was very worried about me. My dad makes sure to tell everyone, even strangers, that I’m a writer but that they shouldn’t read my stuff, and I know he doesn’t mean to, but it hurts me deeply! I get it; it’s hard to read anything a family member writes, much less story after story dealing with sex, loneliness, bodily fluids. And you don’t want people thinking you were a terrible parent and that’s why your daughter writes what she writes. Happily, my mom read DON’T KISS ME and was able to see the forest for the trees. Many times she’s called to tell me how she finally gets it: I’m a writer, this is fiction. Aside from that I cope by never really bringing up my writing life with family members. They don’t ask, and I don’t tell. 

How have your parents reacted? Are they aware of the buzz around Tampa? 

AN: Similarly, the poor dears! They are very conservative. Like my father will leave the room if a bra commercial comes on television. I’m trying to keep them as sheltered from Tampa as possible. My mother didn’t know the title until she asked me last week. Luckily they’re not that tech savvy. I live in fear that they’ll one day decide to Google my name, but it hasn’t happened yet.
 

Sad. Johnson. Tribune. Sweet.

Truth. Excerpt? Yes.

"I thought of this funny story where the apocalypse kills all the humans and there is a sad robot who loved humans," he said. "I thought it was going to be hilarious. I wrote a 2,400-word story and it ended up being really sad. It wasn't funny at all."

"Do yourself a favor and put it on your 'must read' list." Orphans gets some Goodreads love. And likes it. A lot.

And big thanks to the Jason Donnelly for that. More here yo. Excerpt? Word.

"The best part of this book is that without a doubt, the book is about love. The love a man has for his wife, his child and the way he goes through his life tortured by the decisions he's made and what he must do to take care of his family and his future." 

James Tadd Adcox Matt Bell Molly Gaudry Roxane Gay Lily Hoang Matt Kirkpatrick Alissa Nutting Kathleen Rooney Ben Tanzer William Walsh. The Multifesto: a Henri D'Mescan Reader (The Remix Edition) is release.

Totally. Like today. So do hit that. It just might change your life.

This Book Will Change Your Life - Gripped by the Jason Donnelly.

Vacation. Read. Beach. Read. Masturbation. Read. Wait, what? To be clear, we are not commenting on our own onanistic activities per se, and who would be interested in those regardless? Don't answer that. But, we are alluding to Gripped by the Jason Donnelly, an homage of sorts to one man's masturbatory proclivities, though this is an element of the book that is clearly drawing too much attention in comparison to the Donnelly's efforts to detail a world where everyone and everything is interconnected by marketing and brand development. In some ways the protagonists decision to join "the program" is reminiscent of Stephen King's great short story "Quitters, Inc." Character seeks self-improvement he didn't know he wanted, character receives guidance, character risks punishment for not following the program. What's different however is how the story is updated for a new age. Donnelly's story isn't about a man finding a program, but a program finding him, because the program hears all, knows all, sees all. This is a world where no one has choices and the consequences of fighting this are less related to our desire to improve than our lack of desire to build brand, move brand, sell brand, and be branded. That it's parody makes it no less serious, it just makes the discomfort of recognizing all of this more bearable. We are all in it and of it, Donnelly tells us, and our choices are not our own, not what we buy, where we work, or who sleep with. Even when and how we choose to masturbate, a moment as generally solo, desperate, and isolated as any is not really something we have any true control over. Is this maddening? Maybe. But will Gripped change your life? Certainly. Now go read it, review it, tell your friends about it, and do not forget, not ever, that your personality is what's holding you back.