Tim Weed's Blog, page 12

New interview up at Fiction Writers Review

[image error]Really enjoyed this wide-ranging conversation with the perceptive Art Hutchinson at Fiction Writers Review. We discussed, among other things, extreme sports, the supernatural, foreign and historical settings, pushing the boundaries of conscious perception, and why the inner landscape is something fiction can do better than any other art. Read the whole interview here!

Two new reviews: A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING

Honored to notice the release of two new reviews of A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing. I found these particularly gratifying because they zero in on two specific stories in the collection:

Seven Days takes a unique approach in a piece called “Page 32: Short Takes on Five Books by Vermont Authors,” excerpting a quote from page 32 of each book and using that as a jumping-off point for a brief review. For A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing, the quote lands in the middle of one of my favorites, “Tower Eight,” a story in which, according to reviewer Sadie Williams:

[image error]“Weed delves into adolescent friendship and the idea of being an outsider with great care for his characters. The tale begins and ends with one character musing on the reality of the other. The surreal ploy is subtle enough to bring the story into the realm of good literature, making the reader question perceptions of reality . . . Weed’s prose is weightless, and weighty, all at once.”

Matthew Sirois at Necessary Fiction, weighing in with what is without doubt the most academic and “literary” perspective on the collection so far, focuses on a story that hasn’t otherwise received much mention:

[image error]“Perhaps the greatest story in Field Guide is “The Money Pill,” whose white, American narrator operates a tourism business in Cuba, not long before its official opening to US visitors . . . “The Money Pill” feels like essential literature—for its self-awareness, its bold impeachment of globalism, and its sultry, sticky atmosphere of arousal and shame.”

Sirois doesn’t pull punches in his criticism either, which I find for the most part fair— though he does take a few ideologically reflexive shots at poor dead Hemingway, whose contributions to world literature are manifold and who was, despite his many flaws, a vigorously anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian figure who was not afraid speak truth to power even at great risk to his career. Nevertheless, Sirois ends the review on a generously effusive note:

“But if we malign Hemingway and his progeny—a bloodline to which A Field Guide to Murder and Fly Fishing could be said to belong—it’s because the archetypes of power from his day have remained in power all along. Tim Weed is a writer who knows how to interrogate those archetypes, smash them open, see what they bleed—and, if necessary, take them fishing.”

My sincere humility and gratitude goes out to the authors of both these reviews.

Order the collection from IndieBound, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble — or request it at your favorite local bookstore. (ISBN# 978-0997452877)

LitHub piece on historical fiction featuring WILL POOLE’S ISLAND

[image error]Take a look at Crystal King’s recent article at Literary Hub regarding the relevance of historical fiction to contemporary society. Crystal, the author of Feast of Sorrow, a gripping new novel on ancient Rome, makes some excellent points about the ways in which the visceral experience of history that comes from reading novels based in the past can inform our understanding of the present. The article also presents the perspectives of ten contemporary historical novelists in whose company I’m quite honored to be included, including Jenna Blum, Anjali Mitter Duva, Margaret George, Heather Webb, and Marjan Kamali. Our current political leaders would do well to read this one!

“Historical Fiction is More Important than Ever: 10 Writers Weigh In.”

A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING excerpted at MidCurrent

[image error]Pleased to note that one of my favorite stories in the collection has been excerpted at MidCurrent. In “Keepers,” an amateur sportsman vacationing on an Atlantic resort island leaves his young family behind to go fly-fishing at the edge of the ocean and has occasion to regret it. Read the story here.

Even better, order the complete collection from IndieBound, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble — or request it at your favorite local bookstore! (ISBN# 978-0997452877)

Two new articles on the writing craft

[image error]“As a species, we’re ruled and dominated by our over-developed hominid imaginations. Setting is what propels us into the dream of story, because its lucidity — its sensory concreteness — activates our imaginations on a subconscious level, irresistibly, without our knowledge or permission.” — from “Research Notes: A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing,” an illustrated meditation on place and the writing process at Necessary Fiction 

“We read novels and stories for distraction, for entertainment, yet the best fiction also gives us something life itself cannot: direct exposure to the internal life of another human being. It is this unique backstage access that makes good fiction more immersive and emotionally gripping than any other narrative medium.” — from “What Are Writers For? A Fiction Writer’s Perspective,” at GrubWrites.

 

Vermont Public Radio Interview

[image error]“What I was trying to do was first of all just to tell a good story.”

Really enjoyed my recent conversation with Vermont Public Radio’s Mitch Wertlieb! We discussed writing, fly fishing, avalanches, the Grateful Dead, and other topics related to my newly released short fiction collection, A Field Guide to Murder & Fly Fishing.

[image error] Here’s a link to the podcast and transcript of the interview. Have a listen if you’re curious: the whole thing is just under seven minutes long. And here’s a link to the collection, which can be purchased at Amazon, B & N, or by request from your favorite local bookstore!

New Reviews: A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING

[image error]Two new reviews out. One from the distinguished Charles Butterfield writing in our great local newspaper the Brattleboro Reformer, and the other from the national Small Press Book Review. Very happy about both of these!

[image error]“Weed begins with the assumption that his readers are ready and able to see that the world is not as it seems. Things happen we cannot anticipate, and men change in surprising ways. Some of Weed’s stories verge on magical realism . . But most of these tales reside in the world of the senses. No ghosts, fantastical creatures or extra-planetary aliens move these stories. But visions, dreams and hallucinations do. Humans and their sometimes mysterious natures are all it takes for Weed to spin fiction of the first order.” Charles Butterfield, Brattleboro Reformer (full review here.)

“As readers, we have been given passports into Tim Weed’s fictional worlds . . . We cannot alter the fates of those we have joined but, if we give them a chance, they could alter ours.” Small Press Book Review (full review here)

This page has updated links to all reviews of A FIELD GUIDE TO MURDER & FLY FISHING.

New Profile up at The Commons

[image error]A nice profile of yours truly is up at The Commons, a first-rate independent newspaper covering my home territory of Windham County, Vermont. You might be tempted to call it a “puff piece,” but the author, Richard Henke, asked some good questions and the article is almost entirely accurate. I’m definitely not complaining! Give it a read if you’re interested.

 

Eight Novels to Prepare You for the End of Civilization at Talking Writing

[image error]Yet another new article up, this one at Talking Writing. Here’s a quick excerpt:

Novels act like beacons in stormy weather. Even when they promise an escape from the daily onslaught, novels light a path forward in ways nonfiction can’t. They allow readers to live out life’s worst-case scenarios from within the safety of their own imaginations so that when something terrible actually happens—a personal tragedy, a natural catastrophe, a deadly plague—it’s not a complete surprise. As a reader, I’m an easy mark for dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction, and I’m often struck by the unique way such novels deliver not only practical strategies for surviving the unthinkable but emotional strategies, too—which ultimately may be more important. It’s hard to overstate the solace good fiction can provide even in the darkest of times.

So, if you’re stocking the shelves of your survival shelter, don’t forget to throw in a few gripping novels. Here are eight that strike me as especially pertinent right now.

Read the full article here!

Hemingway’s Ghost in Havana at The Millions

[image error]New essay up up at The Millions, in which I trace Hemingway’s 30 year love affair with Havana and try to get to the bottom of what his lingering influence says about both the writer and the city. Read the whole thing here. A brief excerpt:

In Havana, Ernest Hemingway’s restless ghost lingers more palpably than in any of the other places in the world that can legitimately claim him: Paris, Madrid, Sun Valley, Key West. Havana was his principal home for more than three decades, and its physical aspect has changed very little since he left it, for the last time, in the spring of 1960.

I’ve been traveling to the city with some regularity since 1999, when I directed one of the first officially sanctioned programs for U.S. students in Cuba since the triumph of Fidel Castro’s 1959 Revolution. As an aspiring novelist, I’ve long been interested in Hemingway’s work, but I had no idea how prominently Havana figured in the author’s life — nor how prominently the author figured in the city’s defining iconography — until I began spending time there.