Blowing stuff up around here
Remember all those daily coded posts — Once More, With Feeling; Progress Report; Another Page; Grab Bag; The Word?
Yeah, all that stuff is history. Not that I won't post about music, or my progress on a given project, or a book I like, or anything at all, or the weekly short story. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. (In the case of the short story, absolutely I will. And my apologies for missing last week. A family medical emergency came up.)
The point is, the categories felt too constraining, and I'm in a mood to knock down walls. More accurately, I'm in a mood to knock down walls, drive over them with a steamroller, collect the microscopic pieces and shoot them into orbit on a rocket. Even more accurately: I'm in a mood.
You might have heard that I have a new book coming out, a short-story collection called Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure. Short stories don't sell. Literary agents don't want them. Publishers, by and large, don't want them. (Except, curiously, for Press 53 and Graywolf Press, and both of those publishers do better with short stories than just about anybody.) But what the hell, you know? I just spent a year writing nothing but short stories, and I sure as hell have no intention of putting them in a box. So: Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure. You can get a really good deal on it right now, and if you liked my two novels, you'll probably like this stuff. If you haven't read any of my books, this is a good first thing to try. And if you didn't like my two novels, what are you doing here?
A friend of mine just spent the past weekend live-blogging, via Facebook and Twitter, the Pacific Northwest Writers Association convention, and this post in particular caught my eye:
Author/WWU prof Kathryn Trueblood: "I started out trying to sell my short-story collection, but couldn't. Every agent said, 'But I'd love to see your novel.'"
My response, via Facebook:
Oh, boy, do I know how this goes. It's what set off my Obstinate-o-Meter. No, it's not a novel in short stories. No, they're not all linked. No, they're not all in the same setting. Yes, there's an assortment of styles. Its title? "Fuck You."
I was only joking about the title. Again: It's Quantum Physics and the Art of Departure. Whether you like it or not.
