A bonus assortment of links, old and new stories/essays, plus some advice for writers
You can read a print copy of my story “Chance” (now the first chapter of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself) here. The story was originally published in Glimmer Train Stories in 2012 and reprinted in the journal Catamaran in 2018.
You can also find an interview about A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself, here. Plus some thoughts on writing about parenthood in an essay about the “Parent Plot” on LitHub.
The novel touches on questions of appropriation and you can watch my keynote on that topic at the Grub Street/Muse and The Marketplace conference here. (The talk references an essay, “True Stories,” by my wife, Lynne Raughley, from The Chicago Tribune, which gives her take on my appropriation; you can read it in its entirety here.)
Here’s a playlist to accompany The Art of Revision: The Last Word.
And here’s some very cool artworks – in a train-car no-less – inspired by The Fortunes.
Finally, some writing advice in the form of occasional essays given at writing conferences and festivals:
“Black Box,” an extract from my craft book The Art of Revision: The Last Word at Poets and Writers.
“A Survivor’s Guide to…Revision,” also from The Art of Revision: The Last Word at LitHub.
“Only Collect” on assembling and structuring a short story collection from Lit from Within edited by Kevin Haworth and Dinty Moore.
“Legend in my own Lunchtime” on historical fiction.
“Done” on how to know when you’re finished with a story from Because You Asked: A Book of Answers on the Art and Craft of the Writing Life edited by Katrina Roberts. (These ideas of “doneness” are expanded on in The Art of Revision: The Last Word).
And an interview about my writing habits (such as they are!)
(Oh, and for anyone looking for reading recommendations check out these lists:
from The Guardian:
My Top 10 Books about the Unknowable and My Top 10 Short Story Collections)
from The New York Times:
Novels About Abortion
and from LitHub:
Misery Loves Company: Writing about Writing