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The Next Big Thing

So I was asked recently by writer David Dean (whose wonderful stories my husband Art and I first became acquainted with in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) to participate in The Next Big Thing. Which is basically a way to self-promote one’s book or other writing endeavors. So of course I said, “Sure,” because who doesn’t love a little self-promotion?

However, like David when he posted his blog, I find the idea of interviewing myself a little weird. So when answering these questions, I pretended that Daniel Craig was asking me. Because being interviewed by James Bond is way cooler than just me talking to myself in the mirror, right?

So you can imagine THAT when you read this “interview” below.

 

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:

What is your working title of your book (or story)?

My your eyes are very very blue. Oh sorry. Yes, my book. Well, it’s not a working title anymore, since it was published in October! It’s called Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons and you should read it. Right. Now.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

One day I thought of the title, “The Etiquette of Adultery” and thought that would be a cool title for a story. I wrote it down on a sticky note and tucked it in my wallet and carried it around with me for awhile before finally deciding what to do with it. After I wrote that piece, I started thinking about other “etiquette” stories I could write about subversive things. It was around that time that I was also searching for a way to pull together a collection. So it was kind of the perfect storm.

The book is a collection of 10 stories that are plays on the Emily Post-type etiquette guides that you’ll find in book stores. Only they are WAY MORE FUN than your boring wedding etiquette guides. Instead of weddings, you get elopements. Instead of dinner party etiquette, you get obesity. And so on, so forth.

What genre does your book fall under?

I don’t know. General fiction? Literary fiction? Short stories about crazy topics?

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Well, ha ha, Daniel. Funny you should ask. One of the stories in the collection is “The Etiquette of Homicide” and I would LOVE for you to play that role. Beyond that, I don’t really care. Where can we sign you up?

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

It is a collection of “the darker side of etiquette—the way people conduct themselves in situations that Emily Post would never write about. You know, like conducting international espionage.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It was published by Matter Press, a small independent press out of Philadelphia, and headed up by the wonderful Randall Brown.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I wrote the stories sporadically over a period of almost two years. I wrote the last story, “The Etiquette of Insomnia” just after my son was born. He inspired me when I was up feeding him at 3 a.m., we’ll say.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Tough question! I have a hard time comparing myself to other people. It’s like asking you who your favorite Bond girl is. Impossible, right? So I’m avoiding this. Let’s just say if you like odd, experimental-ish stories that are a bit funny, a bit sad, a bit playful and a bit crazy, you will probably like this book.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I actually have no idea where this book came from. I’m not particularly interested in etiquette, and I usually don’t write this experimentally. However, I had so much fun writing these stories that I just wanted to keep on going. I still think of other ideas that I could’ve included.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Haven’t you always wanted to know the best way to start a fire in an abandoned warehouse? Or how to masturbate in bed without waking up your wife? Or what to say at a dinner party with your parents and your married boyfriend? It’s ALL INSIDE, my friends.

Also, the wonderful cover image was designed by my dear friend Brandon Wicks, who was kind enough not to hang up on me when I called him about creating something in an obscene time limit. And agreed to work for bourbon. So I owe that eye-catching cover to him and to designer Lorrie Bennett. There is a special place in heaven waiting for these two.

And now I will pass the torch on to some very talented folks, who will be posting about their writing next week.

First up is Amber Sparks, who will be blogging about her newest collection, May We Shed These Human Bodies, which was just published in September by Curbside Splendor. Look for her on ambernoellesparks.com on Dec. 13.

Also, Bonnie ZoBell, whose fiction chapbook, THE WHACK-JOB GIRLS, is coming out by Monkey Puzzle Press, will chat about that collection on Dec. 14 on her blog West Coast Literary Doings.

And Clifford Garstang will blog at perpetualfolly.com on Dec. 11 about What the Zhang Boys Know, a novel-in-stories published by Press 53 earlier this year.

Last but certainly not least, we will hear from Ashley Inguanta about her collection The Way Home, which is coming out January 4th with Dancing Girl Press. She will be blogging on December 11 at ashleyinguanta.com.

Thanks once again to David Dean for being my “host.” Here’s his web site and blog, and you should buy his book here.

Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons is now available for preorder!

You can order a copy of my book Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons at Matter Press right now. Be sure to check out their other titles as well from Kathy Fish, Jeff Landon, Carol Guess and Karen Dietrich.

OR, you can snag a copy of the book at my book launch at One More Page Books in Arlington, Va., on October 27 at 5 p.m. (happy hour time, people). The first 50 people to buy a book at the book launch will receive a limited edition “The Etiquette of the Happy Hour” story, which I have yet to write! But I will! I promise! And even if not, there will be cake and alcohol. And a reading!

In other news, here’s a random list of really great stuff I’ve read/seen recently (linked where possible):

Like An Original Response” by Randall Brown, in American Short Fiction

The Stand by Stephen King

Headless” by Casey Hannan, in matchbook

The Eye” by Mike Meginnis, in The Nashville Review

The Forty-Four Stories about Our Forty-Four Presidents series edited by Amber Sparks, of which I have the John Tyler contribution. Especially check out Ben Loory’s story on James K. Polk.

And last but not least, Eddie Money’s Geico commercial.

Fall for the Book Starts This Week!

This week starts the annual Fall for the Book festival at George Mason University. Since my husband is the marketing director, I also am a Fall for the Book widow this week. Thankfully, my lovely mom is here to help out with Dash.

So, if you’re in the D.C. area, you should take a look at the web site and come to some of the events. I’ll be reading on Friday at 1:30 p.m. as part of the Washington Area Women Writers panel. Here are some of the other readings/panels I’m looking forward to:

Wednesday, Sept. 26

7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Shirlington Branch Library 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA
Kenn Budd, author of The Voluntourist: A Six-Country Tale of Love, Loss, Fatherhood, Fate, and Singing Bon Jovi in Bethlehem, reads from his book where he embarks on a quest to help others—from post-Katrina New Orleans to a special needs school in China, from climate change research in Ecuador to projects in Kenya, Costa Rica, and the West Bank.

Thursday, Sept. 27

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Sandy Spring Bank Tent George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA

Novelist Clifford Garstang and Short Story Writer Edward Belfar

3 p.m.

Mason Concert Hall

Three decades after the publication of The Color Purple, Alice Walker reflects on the novel’s lasting legacy and discusses her other writings and her social and political activism.

Friday, Sept. 28

5:30pm-7:00pm

Grand Tier III, Center for the Arts George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA

Neil Gaiman — whose works range from the cult DC Comics series Sandman to books including Coraline, Anansi Boys, and American Gods (Au Diable Vauvert) — accepts the 2012 Mason Award, presented to an author for making extraordinary contributions toward connecting literature with a wide reading public.

Saturday, Sept. 29

6 to 7:30 p.m.

Sherwood Center, Performance Hall B 3740 Old Lee Highway, Fairfax, VA 22030

Bestselling, award-winning mystery writer Laura Lippman debuts her latest novel, And When She Was Good, about a lobbyist and soccer mom who has a secret life in the world of high-price prostitution. Sponsored by the Fairfax Library Foundation.

Sunday, Sept. 30

6:30pm-8:00pm

Concert Hall, Center for the Arts George Mason University
Novelist Michael Chabon — whose works include the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, and most recently, Telegraph Avenue — accepts the 2012 Fairfax Prize for literary achievement.

Ahhhh!! I have a book coming out!!!

I’m very very excited to announce that my short story collection, Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons, will be published by Matter Press in October.

I think this is the perfect place for this book. Randall Brown, founder of Matter Press, has been a huge supporter of my writing for many years now. I first met him when I was the writer-in-residence at SmokeLong, and his comments and critiques of my stories were always so spot-on and thoughtful. I am continually amazed at the excellent work he publishes at the Journal of Compressed Creative Arts as well. I am honored that he wants to publish my first collection of stories, and so excited for the outcome.

The collection is a series of 10 etiquette stories, which you can read more about here. I want to thank Art Taylor, Brandon Wicks, Steve Himmer, Laura Ellen Scott, Ellen Parker, Mike Czyzniejewski, Matt Bell, Joe Killiany and Dave Housley for all their early support and/or for publishing some of these stories.

Yee Haw! I’ll update with more details as I get them.

Issue 36 of SmokeLong Quarterly is live!

Issue 36 of SmokeLong Quarterly went up late last night. It’s a great issue this time, with work by Mary Hamilton and Pamela Painter and Sam Martone and Christopher Allen and a ton of other folks.

The cover art is by Tuyen Tran, a fantastic artist from New York.

Don’t forget to read the author interviews (link at the end of every story.) They are often my favorite part of every issue because they give me insight into what makes our writers tick and what the heck they were thinking when they wrote their amazing stories.

Read Issue 36 now!

My Etiquette Collection is DONE–Now It Just Needs a Publisher…

I finally finished my manuscript of ‘etiquette’ stories. Tentative title: MODERN MANNERS FOR YOUR INNER DEMONS. I have ten of these babies now, and Matt Bell was kind enough to just publish “The Etiquette of Arson in The Collagist. You can check out some others here: “The Etiquette of Infertility” in FRiGG, “The Etiquette of Adultery” in Necessary Fiction and “The Etiquette of Homicide” (annotated!) in Barrelhouse.

I’m currently looking for a publisher for the collection. It’s a strange little book–on the larger side for a chapbook, but not quite long enough for a full-length short story collection. If anyone out there has any ideas or interest, please please let me know!

Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

My story “Dendrochronology,” which originally appeared in The Northville Review, won second place in Press 53’s 2011 Open Awards Series and will appear in the Open Awards anthology in October 2011.

My story “The Etiquette of Dementia,” originally published in The Mid-American Review, was a finalist in the short-short story category.

Thanks to Kevin Watson and all the folks at Press 53. Looking forward to the awards ceremony on October 22!

Contributing to Stripped anthology

The lovely Nicole Monaghan has accepted a story of mine for her enticing anthology, Stripped: A Collection of Anonymous Flash Fiction. The anthology will have the authors’ names and bios, but they won’t be matched up to the stories in the collection. So, yeah, I can’t tell you which story of mine was accepted. For more on the anthology and the thoughts behind it, visit Nicole’s blog.