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Mar31
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Here at The Publishing Spot, we won't judge you by your books. You can read whatever you want--from pulp fiction to deconstructed literary fiction to comic books--and we won't make fun of you.
I will alert you to situations where somebody might be judging your bookshelf. Jeff Bercovici (one of my favorite writing-world reporters right now) reminded me of a couple New York Times articles that you must read. Don't let your next literary date sneak attack in the bookshelf battles. Save the college-epiphany books for the first-year anniversary: "Judy Heiblum, a literary agent at Sterling Lord Literistic, shudders at the memory of some attempted date-talk about Robert Pirsig’s 1974 cult classic 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,' beloved of searching young men. 'When a guy tells me it changed his life, I wish he’d saved us both the embarrassment,' Heiblum said, adding that 'life-changing experiences' are a 'tedious conversational topic at best.'" I won't judge, and neither will our special guest journalist Jeff Gordinier (check out our interview about interviewing). What's more, if you are looking for some free entertainment this evening, he's reading at the Tribecca Barnes and Noble at 7 p.m.--feel free to discuss any pop culture book you want with his fans.
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Mar31
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"To pick up a magazine story about [Generation X] in those years was to know, before even skimming it, that you were about to dunk your Doc Martens into a stagnant pond of clichés. Take the words below, hire a...
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Mar28
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Happy Friday, kids. In honor of this upcoming weekend without blog posts, dayjobs or Google Reader reading, I have three ways to shake up our writing over the next two days.First of all, following Darby M. Dixon III's one-sentence post...
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Mar27
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I spend about an hour every day pacing around the streets of New York, playing my favorite songs over and over on my headphones. Life is not a musical, but I do absolutely everything possible to fool my writing brain...
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So let's say, hypothetically, you followed journalist Christopher Hitchens' advice and quit your dayjob. Now what?Most freelancers don't like to talk about it, but you can write for money--for advertising, corporate copy or advertising-magazines that have informative articles mixed with...
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Mar26
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What happens to a writer's brain in a cubicle? That's the question Joshua Ferris answers in his National Book Award nominated novel, Then We Came to the End. Over the course of that wonderful book, he plays with narration, dayjob...
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Mar25
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I've been pining for more vacations and holidays lately, so I decided to invent one. Happy Writers Who Make Music Day!First, we will celebrate Peacock's Penny Arcade, a rock band staffed by writers, aspiring writers and a couple regular musicians...
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Mar24
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"I've been doing a lot of two things lately -- 1) thinking about how I should be writing, and 2) writing, but not as much as I should."That's Five Easy Questions graduate and dayjob writing expert Jeffrey Yamaguchi on his...
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Mar21
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Sometimes I ask myself why I pay high rents and fight crowded subways to live in New York City. But then I end up on a cruise ship in Red Hook, and I remember exactly why I'm here. Yesterday I...
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Mar20
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Today, to honor the soldiers and journalists who have fallen in Iraq, I think every writer should read Reuters' tough, heartbreaking look back at the Iraq War. It's a grim picture of a conflict that started five years ago today--showing...
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Mar19
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Yesterday, journalist Christopher Hitchens told us to quit our dayjobs. Today, writing guru Erika Dreifus is teaching us how to find freelance work once we strike out on our own.Besides having a great website (which linked to us today--hello...
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Mar18
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I know, I know. The posting has been pretty light around here lately. Lots and lots of juggling between projects. But I'm lucky enough to have a job where I can work on freelance projects as well. To that end,...
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Mar17
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Happy Saint Patrick's Day!Today is also my lovely parents' anniversary, so this date always had a warm and fuzzy place in my heart. Congratulations, mom and dad!This year, I wish the rest of my readers plenty of luck and plenty...
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So you want to be a writer? Can you shoot, edit, report, and then write? You're going to have to do all these things to survive in the Incredible Shrinking Newsroom. According to this article in Wired magazine, two journalism...
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Mar14
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Someday, I hope, web videos about writers will be as common as webpages. For my part, I've made writing videos about Felicia Sullivan, Smith Magazine, and Janice Erlbaum. Next week, I'll have a video featuring Christopher Hitchens. No joke. As...
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Have you written about the war?Earlier this week I joined in Ed Champion's five-part roundtable about Nicholson Baker's new book, Human Smoke. The non-fiction work collects little scraps from historical documents, memoirs, and letters, stitching them together into a new...
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Mar13
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How do your characters move?I know it sounds silly, because we usually leave these discussions to comic books, thrillers, and fight scenes in movies. But think about it. How would hero look if he dashed across a busy street? How...
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Mar12
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Looking for readers? It's hard to support yourself as a writer, and the Internet is swamping the world with content. How do you find fans in an over-populated literary universe? Recently web guru Kevin Kelly proposed a new model for achieving...
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How's that for a headline? If I had a fool-proof answer for that question, I would not be a freelancer anymore. I would be a wealthy man living on an island somewhere, visited by streams of publishing disciples.That said, novelist...
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Mar11
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We've covered a lot of of politics lately. It's time to get back to our bread and butter--reading. If you want to be a writer, then you need to read and read, and then read some more. Without further ado,...
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Mar10
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For better or for worse, I've been obsessed with war writing the last few weeks. I interviewed soldier and memoirist Jason Christopher Hartley last week, and I recently participated in Ed Champion's roundtable discussion of Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke.This nonfiction...
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Mar 7
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"'Awesome' was a word we used a lot in Iraq. How to use 'Awesome': If someone says, 'Dude, it's your turn again to do shit-burning detail,' you say: 'Awesome.' 'Holy shit, those idiots in Delta company shot at second platoon,'...
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Mar 6
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“I refuse to call this a war. World War II was a war. This is a fight. And a dirty one at that. The way I see it, our enemy simply wants to kill as many Americans as possible, thereby...
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Mar 5
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"If I were cool, I’d join the friggin’ Ranger Battallion and start talking shit about how I’m gonna try out for Delta or SEAL team six. In real life I’m a geek. I’ve never read Black Hawk Down. I miss...
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What kind of web video are Internet-based book junkies like you and me looking for?Book blogger Chad W. Post had this prophecy: "Lots of people will watch this and think—hell, it’s not that hard to put together an internet show...
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Mar 4
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Book bloggers are tearing their hair out about Love and Consequences, a memoir about growing up in street gangs that was COMPLETELY FABRICATED by Margaret B. Jones. The Amazon page for the recently debunked book alone contains enough crazy quotes...
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"Alpha team takes the first room, then Bravo team—the team I led—takes the second. Once the first room is clear, my team enters the building and lines up against the wall next to the door of the room we are...
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Mar 3
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"But hey, who cares! We have fun in my blog! If you want news about Iraq, congratulations, you've come to the wrong fucking place! If you are distrustful of the media and want to know exactly what's going on in...
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We seem to be having another Monday. I don't even remember having a weekend. Nevertheless, the Internets carry on. Here are a few of the highlights marching across my screen today.Titlepage.tv launched today, bringing a star-studded literary conversation to the...
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