I found this article in the Wall Street Journal illuminating:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204886304574308530848197684.html
But it seems to be pointing the same direction as so much publishing news these days: alas, I'm out of step! I am definitely in the Episodic camp... just feels more like truth to me.
Where do y'all fall?
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Added by Brent Robison on November 2, 2009 at 1:06pm —
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This reviewer gave my work a really close read and has a lot of in-depth commentary, which feels good...
http://podpeep.blogspot.com/2009/09/free-book-friday-review-principles-of.html
This one succinctly captures so much of what's in the book. And it's local, which I like...…
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Added by Brent Robison on October 1, 2009 at 7:25am —
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Self Publishing Review, well-respected among indie authors, is a site whose mission is to raise the status of self-publishing in the eyes of the reading community, About my story collection,
The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility, editor Henry Baum says, "The writing throughout is incredibly well-crafted." Read the whole review here:
http://www.selfpublishi…
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Added by Brent Robison on September 19, 2009 at 5:04pm —
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The Woodstock Times says, "It's a great first book... the overall breadth of the characters engaged, and the types of experience worked through, show a true humanist's heart at work."
And I'm very pleased to share this review with James Lasdun, one of my writing heroes and a fellow Woodstock resident. Scroll down to "Storytellers."
http://ulsterpublishing.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&…
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Added by Brent Robison on August 27, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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I love the unanswerable questions. And I love to learn as much as my subgenius mind can handle about everything we humans have so far come to know in our pursuit of answers to the unanswerable. Parallel passions--science and metaphysics--gradually led me to glimpse a perfect interweaving of current knowledge and ancient wisdom. Quantum physics intertwined with Advaita Vedanta. Spacetime as a metaphor for Oneness. Superstrings pointing to Nonduality.
Meanwhile, I labored away at writing stories.…
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Added by Brent Robison on August 11, 2009 at 8:36pm —
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My new collection of linked short stories, The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility, is subtitled "A Web of Stories" because of the intricate network of invisible influences through which our lives are touched by strangers....
Available now at the Golden Notebook in…
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Added by Brent Robison on August 3, 2009 at 9:30pm —
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My journey toward publication of
The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility has been fraught with doubt. I've kept soldiering on anyway. But this past week I felt incredibly empowered by a new way to look at publishing. Here I quote writer/editor
Matthew Stadler:
"In English, publication includes the word ‘public’…publication is the creation of a public. Publication is a political strategy. It is not an att…
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Added by Brent Robison on July 12, 2009 at 5:39am —
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Feelin' great--my book gets ever closer to entering the world! Here's the cover, the skin of the baby... featuring string/pencil/wax drawings by
Wendy Drolma, with my design. The interior includes another dozen of Wen…
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Added by Brent Robison on July 5, 2009 at 9:42pm —
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Here is an essay that I revised a bit from my introduction to an anthology a few years ago. It gives a taste of my thoughts about the art of writing fiction....
Writing and the Mask
I am wearing a mask. Right now, as I write this. It is not a physical thing covering my face; ra…
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Added by Brent Robison on June 22, 2009 at 9:18am —
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This is the epigraph I've placed on page one of my story collection
The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility:
Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out inde…
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Added by Brent Robison on June 7, 2009 at 7:38pm —
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Do, don't, do, don't. For a year I've been afflicted with severe indecision: chase down a small press who'll publish my (clearly non-commercial) collection of stories, or join the Do-It-Yourself revolution and get my book out to the public all on my own. I respect artists like my wife who take their work to the marketplace as independent creator/entrepeneurs. But at the same time, I admit my ego-based (sometimes revoltingly desperate) desire to be validated by an editorial gatekeeper of even the…
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Added by Brent Robison on May 5, 2009 at 9:25pm —
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In honor of Earth Day, here's a short selection that says something about our cellular memories of a closer connection to the body of our Mother. This is an excerpt from my story "A Partial Catalog of Harold's Major and Minor Epiphanies," originally published in
Chronogram magazine. Its protagonist is a recurring character in the linked stories of my collection,
The Princ…
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Added by Brent Robison on April 22, 2009 at 6:15pm —
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[Just posted this also at
http://brentrobison.blogspot.com]
Too bad you can't just stick a fork in and know... know that your book, story, essay, poem, is done. I once read that when Jackson Pollock was asked, "How do you know when you're finished with a painting?" he replied, "How do you know when you're finished making love?"
Well... I wish it was that easy, Jackson.
Hmm, but maybe he is on to something....
I just finished my story collection,…
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Added by Brent Robison on April 11, 2009 at 11:03pm —
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As I write this near the fire in my cozy living room, sunshine is peeking in over my shoulder, while outside, snowflakes still swirl in frigid gusts--the tail end of a storm that closed schools and bumped my tax accountant appointment into April.
The forces that create weather stir their brew in vast cauldrons far above our heads, but science has rendered them visible and hardly mysterious any more. Far more mysterious are the workings of us humans, both
within individuals (our nearly in…
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Added by Brent Robison on March 2, 2009 at 4:07pm —
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So it appears that our Faux Spring has come to an end. I'm grateful for those few days of blessed relief from the brutal cold. Now, for a few more weeks, we return to Winter.
But I'm lucky. On President's Day I drive south, taking my wife Wendy and daughter Akanksha on our annual trek to New Orleans to sell Wendy's handcrafted leather masks at a street market in the French Quarter. No snowdrifts or icy roads there... and it always comes at just the right time, giving me the feeling that, yes, I…
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Added by Brent Robison on February 13, 2009 at 9:45pm —
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The collection of short stories that I've been shopping to publishers for over a year now is titled
The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibility, because the subtle thread that holds it together is the knowledge that we humans, following our unique storylines that feel so separate, are nevertheless all cells in one vast body, interconnected in all directions by visible and invisible lines of energy. Without that vision driving me, I doubt I ever would have finished the stories and assembled t…
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Added by Brent Robison on January 31, 2009 at 12:04am —
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I just re-read an article that I had decided on my first reading was very important for my writing, then promptly forgot about. "Ready-made rebellion: The empty tropes of transgressive fiction," by Jonathan Dee, appeared in
Harper's in April 2005 and can be found here:
http://harpers.org/archive/2005/04/0080507.
Be forewarned: if you're a fan of Neil Labute, A.M. Homes, Will Self, Chuck Palahniuk, or Dennis Cooper, they don't go un…
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Added by Brent Robison on January 7, 2009 at 8:00pm —
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"I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards.
We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying…
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Added by Brent Robison on December 18, 2008 at 11:29am —
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The bare trees are black lace against the mauve and coral and sudden gold of the sunrise. A distant tiny jet rises into the light. I’m driving fast, passing a gray Hyundai identical to mine, wondering if that’s me behind the wheel. WKZE blasts Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, “Please read the letter, I wrote it in my sleep, with help and consultation from the angels of the deep…” Specks of water dot my windshield and a full rainbow arcs across the west, hung on a gray cloud curtain. At my office,…
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Added by Brent Robison on December 4, 2008 at 12:32pm —
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Saturday I finished transforming a jumbled mountain of firewood into rough rows and columns in my woodshed. This monotonous activity, besides kicking several muscle groups into sudden loud protest, made me think about writing. Of course, many things make me think about writing. Like, m…
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Added by Brent Robison on December 2, 2008 at 12:33pm —
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