Here’s my new interview on The Creative Nonfiction podcast with Brendan O’Meara:
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“Failure as Fuel, Staying Hungry, and Wolf Naps” – PBH on the CNF Podcast
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When you have friends like this…
After my outlaw (what I call any former in-law) failed to meet up with me last night, he sent me the best email I’ve received this month. His nickname is “C-Murder,” thus his sign-off:
“I missed your call last night, after I failed to check my calendar during the day.
But that was before I got drunk in the back yard and passed out in the shed after dinner.
I hit my head on a stack of snow tires that don’t have any studs left. Except the one that lacerated my forehead.
I woke up somewhere in Creswell without pants. Bleeding profusely from above my left eye. Your voice mail came through sometime around 9pm.
I sat on the railroad tracks and cried.
I’m sorry.
I’m free tonight though. My house? So-and-so made plans to go out.
C Murder”
New Interview On Too Shattered, Failure, and What’s Next
This interview just came out today. I talk about my new novel Too Shattered For Mending, what a real writing process looks like, having no talent, hip-hop, and my next book – An American Afterlife:
Release Readings For Too Shattered
Book release week for my new novel Too Shattered For Mending (Knopf, Random House):
- Reading at Tsunami Books, Eugene, Oregon, September 13th, 7 PM.
- Visiting Rogers High School, Spokane, Washington, September 15th, all day.
- Reading at Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, Washington, September 15th, 7 PM.
Look for copies of the novel at your local independent bookstore, or order online by clicking one of these links:
Maybe I’m A Dirtbag?
I realized – last night – that I was going to see my mom (who’s here, visiting from Arizona), and that I smelled terrible and couldn’t remember the last time that I’d showered. Friday maybe? Or maybe it was Thursday? I know I paddled the river on Saturday, which is pretty much the same as showering…
Since that river bath, over the next five days, I’d climbed twice, biked six times, gone for a run, played soccer twice, and lifted weights four times. Plus there’s that whole Summer Sun Angle (Heat) = Sweat thing.
I’d also mowed the lawn, worked in the yard, gardened, and picked up dog poop in the sun three times.
For my mom, I took a shower.
A Few Good Book Recs
I was asked for a few book recs in an email yesterday, and I realized that I should probably share my response since I love it so much when people tell me about books they’ve enjoyed. Here’s what I wrote:
“This year, I loved The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (National Book Award), Claudia Rankine’s Citizen (National Book Critic’s Circle Award for Poetry – although it reads more like essays), James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird (National Book Award), Kevin Barry’s short story collection Dark Lies The Island, and Welch’s The Death Of Jim Loney (which felt eerily close to my current mental state with a brain injury).
Bryn Greenwood’s All The Ugly And Wonderful Things was DISTURBING but she wrote it beautifully.
Also, I’ve read ten of the Best American Short Stories collections.
Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow was hard but good as well.
In the last few years…I loved all three Patrick deWitt novels + Lean On Pete & The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin.”
Best Author’s Bio Ever
Recently, I’ve been reading as many of the Best American Short Stories anthologies as I can. With 20 stories by 20 different authors in each addition – edited by a different guest editor each year – they’re all excellent. I’m entertained while also learning from the various styles and techniques of these award winning authors.
I’m not reading the collections in any particular order, just reading whatever anthology I find next at my used bookstore or library. That’s how I came across the 1998 edition, guest-edited by Garrison Keiller. It includes incredible stories by Annie Proulx, Carol Anshaw, Akhil Sharma, and others, but it’s the authors’ bio sections that really caught my eye in this edition, because a short story writer named Poe Ballantine wrote the best author bio I’ve ever read.
Since it’s not available online, I’m going to retype his bio for you right here:
“I am forty-two. College dropout. Live in a motel room. I generally move every year, but I am tired of moving and I like this room so I think I will stay another year. I have had lots of odd jobs, mostly cooking. I worked at the radio antenna factory just across the tracks for a while, then sold a couple of stories, so I quit March 5, and if I live on $400 a month and this wisdom tooth coming in doesn’t knock the rest of my teeth sideways, I will be able to write until August.”
