Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Concept: Guerrilla Lit reading a week from tomorrow (your last chance to hear me read in New York).
I will be reading at this month's installment of the Guerrilla Lit series. Barring sudden and inexplicable fame, this is the last time I'll be reading in New York, inasmuch as I'm moving to Chicago two days later. The reading is:
7:30 PM Wednesday, 11/28
170 Ave. A (@ 11th St.)
Bar on A
The reading will also feature Erik Rhey, Dani Grammerstorf, and Bernie Kravitz. I know these kids, so seriously, it's going to be a *killer* evening. Bar on A has a *sweet* happy hour to boot, which I will employ to warm up for the event.
I will be reading from either:
A) The Silurians - A short story starring an alcholic middle-aged New York economist mother trapped 400 million years back in time with a motley crew including a politically idealistic college prof and her woe-is-me ex-husband.
B) Beowulf - A hyper!weird novel I'm drafting that, for all its bizarreness, has already managed to inspire a feature film with Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie, not to mention a 1000-year Olde English poem.
If people show a strong preference for A or B, I'll follow their wise suggestions.
Otherwise, I'll maybe make up my own mind, or maybe leave it to the whims of the crowd.
Labels: CONCEPT, Reading, Writing
1 comments.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Concept: NaNoWriMo
My profile.
My 2007 novel? Beowulf. There will be plenty of cheating and shenanigans this time through.
4 comments.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Concept: Where Is That Deep End Of Which You Speak?
I've been having dizzy spells lately.
I hadn't had one in years and then about a month ago, at a reading, during an almost claustrophobically erotic piece by a friend of mine, I suddenly saw stars and felt like I would pass out. I remember being worried that I would collapse and people would think it was in response to the very visceral imagery.
A few days ago, I had another spell, and now I'm having a third.
It sucks, and slightly concerns me.
I've been writing some friends copious emails talking about a wide range of subjects including: academia, literary theory, art, society, blah blah blah. It all comes down to the fact that, while there are a number of outstanding projects, I've spent the last several years developing a battery I can fall back upon. A novel (Hungry Rats), short stories (including The Silurians), and plays (including Canaryville Blues). I'm still working onthese, but part of this battery is that I can work on such writing for a few hours a week and continue to submit it while dividing the rest of my attention between two projects in which I'm investing the greatest hopes for my career. They aren't strangers. They are Urbantasm, a novel I drafted when I was seventeen and eighteen, and the Gothic Funk Nation.
I'm getting ready to swim in these deep waters again, and I'm looking for some advice as I do so. Next week I will write about Urbantasm and follow up with Gothic Funk.
I will be very interested to hear what you think.
Labels: CONCEPT, gothic funk, Urbantasm, Writing
2 comments.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Concept: Dirty Magazine Published.
As I mentioned before, "Nogood Boyo" wrote a dirty limerick that was slated to be published in the Dick Pig Review.
Well, the magazine has been published and you can read it here. While NSFW, it is nevertheless the most aesthetically pleasing and challenging dirty literary magazine you'll ever read. Seriously. I'm impressed. This isn't just smut; it's smut infused with the potent tea-bag of Artistic Vision. The illustrations are quite disturbing and beautiful.
Labels: CONCEPT, Poetry, Writing
2 comments.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Concept: Schizophrenia?
So I've mentioned off and on that I'm working on The Encyclopedia of Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders at work, and am also developing an outline for a novella Notes For Students (and/or) White Swan. (I decided that combining the two titles might mitigate their negatives in an interesting/funny way). Well, the two subjects have become intertwined. So this is the part where I ask if anyone has had personal experience, or experience in the family with 1) schizophrenia or 2) any other psychotic disorder. If you don't want to reply in the comments you can send me an email or contact me here.
Labels: CONCEPT, science, Writing
0 comments.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Concept: The Voluntary Maniac Says, "I'm Having An UberEgo Moment"
Just think. In a couple years when I'm mind-defyingly successful and famous, you'll all be able to say you knew me back in the DIY days. I don't think I really need to sleep anymore. It wastes hours every day.
0 comments.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Body: Draught. (Mysteries of Udolpho)
A servant now appeared with Annette, and conducted Emily to her chamber, which was in a remote part of the castle, and at the very end of the corridor, from whence the suite of apartments opened, through which they had been wandering. The lonely aspect of her room made Emily unwilling that Annette should leave her immediately, and the dampness of it chilled her with more than fear. She begged Caterina, the servant of the castle, to bring some wood and light a fire.
"Aye, lady, it's many a year since a fire was lighted here," said Caterina.
"You need not tell us that, good woman," said Annette; "every room in the castle feels like a well. I wonder how you contrive to live here; for my part, I wish myself at Venice again."
The lonely aspect of her room made Emily unwilling that Annette should leave her immediately, and the dampness of it chilled her with more than fear. The lonely aspect of her room made Emily unwilling that Annette should leave her immediately, and the dampness of it chilled her with more than fear.
"You need not tell us that, good woman," said Annette; "every room in the castle feels like a well. I wonder how you contrive to live here; for my part, I wish myself at Venice again."
Emily waved her hand for Caterina to fetch the wood.
"You need not tell us that, good woman," said Annette; "every room in the castle feels like a well. I wonder how you contrive to live here; for my part, I wish myself at Venice again."
The lonely aspect of her room made Emily unwilling that Annette should leave her immediately, and the dampness of it chilled her with more than fear. She begged Caterina, the servant of the castle, to bring some wood and light a fire.
"You need not tell us that, good woman," said Annette; "every room in the castle feels like a well. I wonder how you contrive to live here; for my part, I wish myself at Venice again."
Emily waved her hand for Caterina to fetch the wood. The lonely aspect of her room made Emily unwilling that Annette should leave her immediately, and the dampness of it chilled her with more than fear. The lonely aspect of her room made Emily unwilling that Annette should leave her immediately, and the dampness of it chilled her with more than fear. Emily waved her hand for Caterina to fetch the wood. Emily waved her hand for Caterina to fetch the wood.
Labels: BODY, gothic funk, Writing
1 comments.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Concept: Earshot Reading this Friday.
I will be reading from Hungry Rats at this Friday's debut of Earshot's 2007-2008 series.
I will also be selling (for $3) a limited number of The Hungry Rats EP, featuring readings of Part 1, Chapters 1 and 2, and music by Elisabeth Blair, Mr. Automatic, and Nova Moturba.
It's going to be sweet.
Here's the info:
Earshot @ The Lucky Cat
September 14 // 8 PM
245 Grand Street (b/w Driggs & Roebling)
Nearby Train Stops: L (Bedford Ave), G (Metropolitan/Grand), J/M/Z (Marcy Ave)
$5 + one free drink
Also reading: Aaron Fagan, Allison Shaloum, Filip Marinovic, Sandra Hurtes
September 14 // 8 PM
245 Grand Street (b/w Driggs & Roebling)
Nearby Train Stops: L (Bedford Ave), G (Metropolitan/Grand), J/M/Z (Marcy Ave)
$5 + one free drink
Also reading: Aaron Fagan, Allison Shaloum, Filip Marinovic, Sandra Hurtes
Labels: CONCEPT, Reading, Writing
1 comments.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Concept: Limericks: I Plead the Fifth.
Imagine a writer, unnoticed, unrecognized, pushing thirty without a major publishing credit, but who knows that his offhands pack more finesse than most others' spit-shined epigrams. He sees a dirty limerick contest (a redundancy) with the prize of a T-Shirt, a chance to post on a lit-porn weblog, and publication in a burlesque ezine. He's pretty sure that he can win this contest and double the number of publications on his resume. Of course he enters! Of course he wins! I would never do such a thing, but you better believe that if I did, I wouldn't admit it here.
The prosodic term "limerick" only dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, and may have referred to the frequent use of that Irish town in examples from the time. The poems themselves date from considerably earlier, classically following the metrical form (often with enjambments and other variations):
/uu/uu/(A)
/uu/uu/(A)
/uu/(B)
/uu/(B)
/uu/uu/(A)
John Newberry may have provided the single best-known example for a childrens book in the 1770s:
Hickory Dickory Dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one.
The mouse ran down.
Hickory Dickory Dock.
A more recent example that I enjoy is the Beastie Boys song, The Negotiation Limerick File:
We're giving you soul power.
I like it sweet and sour.
When it comes to rhymes
and beat designs,
I'm at the control tower.
Of course, this kind of poetry has always flourished off the written page better than on, and part of the reason has to do with the typical subject matter. I can only guess why the form is so persistantly used for sexual innuendo. The pseudosynchopated cadence and emphatic rhyming is probably involved: limericks are insidiously catchy and easily memorized. Because they are easily memorized, they are perhaps ideal for an illiterate and religious peasantry composing poems they wouldn't necessarily want committed to posterity. For better or worse, everyone from George Bernard Shaw to Gershon Legman has stipulated that a limerick is, by definition, naughty:
A well-endowed seamstress named Robin,
Caught her nipple down under the bobbin.
She tugged and she jerked,
But still nothing worked.
Now she has one boob with no knob in!
To her boyfriend, a girl from New Trier,
Who was living in France for a year,
Sent a photo, quite lewd,
Of herself in the nude.
On the crotch she wrote, "Wish you were here!"
To Dublin, that town on the Liffey,
To Janet, Jim wrote: "I've a stiffy.
I'll just have a shag
In this wee padded bag.
Be there soon. I'll come in a jiffy."
These are all, incidentally, anonymous.
There literally thousands of these at here.
Anyway, here's Nogood Boyo's victorious blog post, and here's the winning limerick. (Yes, it's a dirty limerick). It will be published in the next issue of the Dick Pig Review.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one.
The mouse ran down.
Hickory Dickory Dock.
I like it sweet and sour.
When it comes to rhymes
and beat designs,
I'm at the control tower.
Caught her nipple down under the bobbin.
She tugged and she jerked,
But still nothing worked.
Now she has one boob with no knob in!
Who was living in France for a year,
Sent a photo, quite lewd,
Of herself in the nude.
On the crotch she wrote, "Wish you were here!"
To Janet, Jim wrote: "I've a stiffy.
I'll just have a shag
In this wee padded bag.
Be there soon. I'll come in a jiffy."
Labels: CONCEPT, Poetry, Writing
3 comments.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Concept: Proposed: Notes for Students.
PROJECT NAME: Notes for Students
GROUP: Third Family.
FORMAT: Prose Novel.
STRUCTURE: Cups, Part I, Part II, Part III, Platter
ANTECEDENTS: William Burroughs (writer), Italo Calvino (writer), Anne Carson (writer), Cicero (writer), The Cure (band), Depeche Mode (band), Ladytron (band), Orbital (band), Smashing Pumpkins (band), Underworld (band).
CONCEPT: Still largely undefined as of 8/7/2007.
The novel is presented as a series of guides and advice columns recommending methods of study, exploration, experimentation, seduction, and abduction. As case studies, it follows a collection of students (of wide-ranging ages) through their first semester of enrollment at various schools in the neighborhood of West Wickersburg in an anonymous big city.
This project will attempt to address three abstract objectives.
First, to embody as completely as possible the themes and strategies of the Gothic Funk aesthetic. This is specifically a "practice round" for the next revision of Urbantasm.
Second, to push myself toward a greater prosodic experimentation than I've attempted before.
Third, to evoke the essence and appeal of the (inherently?) solipsistic student's life.
SCHEDULE: Draft during 9-10/2007.
Labels: CONCEPT, prose, Writing
0 comments.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Diary: Submission Rejection #2.
I received Submission Rejection #1 in 1999, so it's been a long time since I've been through this process. Within the next few months, I'll probably accumulate a large number of rejections and, one hopes, a few acceptances. That's the way it works. But I consider this moment, more than anything else, to mark my formal entry into professional writing:
Dear Mr. Coyne,
Thanks for submitting "The Fifth" to XXXXXXXXXX. With regret, I must inform you that we've decided not to purchase this work. I'm afraid the volume of submissions has made it impossible for us to comment on most rejections. Nevertheless, best of luck with this story and with all your writing.
Yours,
XXXXX XXXXX
Editor, XXXXXXXXXX
Thanks for submitting "The Fifth" to XXXXXXXXXX. With regret, I must inform you that we've decided not to purchase this work. I'm afraid the volume of submissions has made it impossible for us to comment on most rejections. Nevertheless, best of luck with this story and with all your writing.
Yours,
XXXXX XXXXX
Editor, XXXXXXXXXX
0 comments.
