Literary Blog: Book Reviews, Writing Tips & More

Review: 'The Biology of Luck' by Jacob M. Appel

3/8/2014

Reviewed by C.A. LaRue

Rarely do you contemplate the various elements of design that are involved in bringing you light. Neither does a casual reader like to look too closely at the bones of a pleasurable read. Yet, The Biology of Luck, the latest novel from the ever-prolific Jacob M. Appel, practically begs for such examination.

It is not by accident that you will find yourself coming back to its pages again and again like some well-thumbed guidebook. The novel does, in fact, have the feel of a guidebook with its full-color map of “Larry’s NYC” and its rich descriptions of that city, but it is so much more than the “postmodern love story” or “re-imagined Odyssey” that it has been labeled.

Yes, on the surface it is a journey and a doomed romance of fugly meets hot-mess on a bike, but under that sheen is a darkness that skirts the depths of our neurotic obsessions. Even minor characters, such as the Armenian florist and the lovable, scholarly Ziggy, are deliciously, delightfully nuts.

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Review: 'Thanks and Sorry and Good Luck: Rejection Letters from the Eyeshot Outbox' by Lee Klein

3/4/2014

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Reviewed by John Gardner

Thanks and Sorry and Good Luck by Lee Klein

Because the Internet is a place filled with infinite wonders both adorable and grotesque, I will give you the 140 character Twitter review first: This book is immensely entertaining, informative, and at times laugh out loud funny. You should get a copy, especially if you are a writer. Are you sold? Good! Here you go. You are now free to cruise the majestic Information Superhighway in search of cat videos and weird pornography. However, if you need a little more information, read on.

Thanks and Sorry and Good Luck is a collection of rejection letters written by Lee Klein to the various writers submitting to his web-zine over the last ten years. Klein edits Eyeshot.net, and somehow he has managed to do so without ever resorting to the form rejection letter. (For the uninitiated, some literary magazines and publishers receive thousands of submissions during their reading periods. I have trouble responding to my family without monotonously repeating the same six sentences, so I can imagine why it’s easier for most editors to prepackage something polite and send it to 90% of the writers whose work won’t fit.)

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Review: 'This is Between Us' by Kevin Sampsell

3/4/2014

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Reviewed by Anna Stusser

This is Between Us by Kevin Sampsell is an articulate and deliciously written novel which maps a relationship over the span of five years. Sampsell’s narrator addresses every tiny adorable anecdote with “you” as if the whole book is one long love letter. This creates an intimate relationship between reader and story; I felt included in all of the action, mishaps and triumphs.

The book dissects several misconceptions regarding long-term relationships. Myth number 1: When you have kids, you can no longer go out and have fun. Throughout the novel, the narrator goes out to bars with and without his partner without sacrificing time with his children. His son, Vince, and his stepdaughter, Maxine, go on tons of adventures with the narrator: bike rides, visits to the pumpkin patch … they even play robots with a ridiculous amount of tin foil. The kids are never seen as ‘burdens’ or obstacles that prevent the narrator and his partner from having a good time. The narrator’s children invite intimacy rather than standing in its way.

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Guest Blog Post | Nicole Hannel: "Tips for Querying an Agent"

3/1/2014

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For those who are working on a manuscript to send out to literary agencies, and those sitting with a completed work, wondering “What now?”—here are some tips about seeking representation. But first, something to note as you embark on the journey: Agents love great work, they love working with authors to see a manuscript through to publication, and they are rooting for you to succeed. They are not mean on principle. They are not rejection-happy. They’re generally nice people, and when you’re lucky enough to find the right agent, rest assured that they will do everything they can to promote your work and encourage you in your writing goals. With that, here are some do’s and don’ts:

Do:

1. Be specific. Send your work to a person, not a Whom. Within an agency, there are multiple agents who represent different stuff. Be intentional! Decide which agent you want to contact, and then address your query to them.

2. Research the agency and the agent you are querying. If you have written a script for a marvelous werewolf erotica film, but the agent you’ve contacted only represents picture books, you will be rejected. I promise, you will. Usually an agent’s preferences will be listed on their agency website or personal blog. Do your homework, and you’ll find that agent who lives for werewolf erotica.

3. Edit. Work and re-work your query letter, and read through your manuscript for the 101st time. Most agencies will request a small portion of your book along with your query, so make it as coherent and grammar-tastic as possible.

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From the Editor: How to Interpret Rejection

2/26/2014

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Like you, I submit my work to literary publications and like you I’ve received my fair share of rejection notes. The first time I sent a short story out, as an undergrad, it was a story that I was very close to and when it was rejected I felt like I was being rejected. If I knew then what I know now I would have lifted my chin, set my jaw and sent it somewhere else. Instead, I received my first form rejection letter and I was left with an unfamiliar emptiness. All of the hope that I’d been harboring after dropping my manuscript in the mail was swept away and what was left was disappointment and self-doubt.

Over the years I’ve learned to separate the work of writing fiction from the work of placing it with a journal. This is difficult for writers because the two acts are different beasts. Writing requires sensitivity and a willingness to explore difficult emotional truths. Coping with rejection demands emotional fortitude, resiliency – perhaps even stoicism. But the truth is that if you’re putting yourself into each one of your stories, essays or poems (as you should) it doesn’t matter how many times you read the words “good luck placing this elsewhere” … rejection stings.

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Luisa A. Igloria's poem "The Loss and Recovery of Wings" (Issue Two) Selected for 2013 Best of the Net Anthology

1/23/2014

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Congratulations to ARDOR's Issue Two Featured Poet Luisa A. Igloria! Her poem "The Loss and Recovery of Wings" (Issue 2, pg. 26) has been selected by A.E. Stallings for inclusion in the 2013 Best of the Net Anthology. It will be reprinted along with nineteen other poems and showcased for the next year on the Best of the Net website. It was our first year nominating work ... we're thrilled that Luisa's terrific poem was selected.

You can read "The Loss and Recovery of Wings" online via our Featured Work page.

READ: The Loss and Recovery of Wings by Luisa A. Igloria

READ: Our interview with Luisa A. Igloria

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Review: 'The Right-hand Shore' by Christopher Tilghman

1/2/2014

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Reviewed by Joe Kovacs

The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman

Mason is about as innocuous a surname as one can imagine. It’s not Usher or Compson which, drawn from the world of literature, call to mind cursed families where madness, cruelty, scandal and a fallible family bloodline result in dysfunction and destruction. But in the powerful yet tragic novel, The Right-hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman, it is the Mason family which has resided for hundreds of years on an estate on Maryland’s Eastern Shore that collapses time and again beneath the weight of history, slavery and race relations, and the foibles of human ambition.

I met the author a few months ago at the James River Writers Conference in Richmond where he was honored as a finalist for the Library of Virginia’s annual literary award in fiction. Over lunch, we fell into conversation about Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Mason’s Retreat—the infamous estate in Tilghman’s novel—is loosely based on his own family home. As a resident of Chevy Chase, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC, I have many times driven eastward down arrow-straight Route 50 to and through Annapolis, over the Bay Bridge and to the coast to spend long, relaxing weekends. Following my conversation with Tilghman, I reviewed a map of the Eastern Shore and noticed a Tilghman Creek branching off the Chester River. Still at the Richmond event, I did what any honorable writer’s conference attendee would do to support the community and purchased a book from an attending author. My decision, of course, was Tilghman’s The Right-Hand Shore.

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Results for ARDOR's 2013 Flash Fiction Contest

12/5/2013

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We were overwhelmed with terrific submissions to our inaugural flash fiction contest and we are grateful to everyone who submitted high quality short stories and helped to make this year's contest a success. We're excited to share several of the top entries (including the winning story and the runner up!) in Issue Four, coming next month.

Each of the writers listed below offered beautiful stories, deftly weaving economical, meaningful narratives in under 1,000 words. Some of these pieces featured high-octane prose that seized me by the shirtfront while others offered gorgeous, meticulously wrought imagery that earned a wistful smile. I was most impressed that so many writers created multifaceted, necessary stories and relationships in ... well, a flash! Those who submit work to this contest should know that your characters and their stories have lingered and I've found myself returning to the distilled moments you've offered, invested deeply in what you've revealed and in what might lie ahead. Thank you - I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to read your work.

But you're here for the results and I won't make you wait any longer. Here is a short list of the finest flash fiction submissions we received:

Winner

Home to Laughter, a short story written by Douglas Campbell of Point Marion, Pennsylvania, was named the winner of ARDOR's 2013 Flash Fiction Contest. Douglas will receive $200 and his story will appear in the January issue of ARDOR Literary Magazine.

Runner Up

The Bomber's Doctor, a short story written by Michelle Richards of Middleton, Wisconsin, was named the runner up in ARDOR's 2013 Flash Fiction Contest. Michelle will receive $50 and her story will appear in the January issue of ARDOR Literary Magazine.

Finalists

How Not to Do What I Did by Jennifer Chardon
The Woman Next Door by Laurie Doyle
Coffee Bean by Robert Foreman
Last Dance by David Frey
Caught in a Crosswind by Bob Thurber
The Start of the War by Siamak Vossoughi
Blemishes by Peter Witte

- Joe Hessert, Editor of ARDOR

Honorable Mention

Esebese by Scott Chiddister
I Found it Hard, It’s Hard to Find by Sean Hooks
Ghosts by Tom Howard
The Ornithological Significance of Light Deprivation by Rich Ives
Purpose of the Comma by Megan Kirby
Counsel by Al Kratz
One in the Pocket by Travis Morrow
Entering the Fray by Jeanette Quick
Scene in a Stuffy Yellow Kitchen by
Christopher Quinn
The Calendar by Catherine Rees
Undertow by Andrew Sottile
Empty Words by Margaret Wilson

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Guest Blog Post | Angela Palm: "Writers and Writing Centers: Building a Literary Community"

10/7/2013

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Outdoor Meeting Space at the Renegade Writers' Collective of Burlington, VT

Writing centers unaffiliated with academia are popping up all over the country. Many of these centers model themselves after the long-standing successes of Boston’s Grub Street, The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Philadelphia’s Kelly Writers House, and The Center for Fiction in New York City. Typically, writing centers offer quality craft classes taught by established writers and seasoned professors, a writing series featuring a mix of readings given by well-known and emerging writers, and a variety of manuscript services, enrichment opportunities such as writing retreats, access to reference libraries, and more. Recently at the 2013 AWP conference in Boston and at the Bread Loaf Writing Conference 2013 in Ripton, Vermont, special panels were presented to people either involved in the management of a writing center or interested in starting a writing center in their city. Both presentations were so well attended that people were forced to listen from the hallway.

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Guest Blog Post | Nicholas Lepre: "Five Ways to Keep a Writing Group Together"

9/30/2013

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For years, whenever I tried to start a writing group, it would evaporate after one meeting. Was it my writing? My personality? My bizarre insistence that all members have monosyllabic names?

In 2011, at the conclusion of a ten-week fiction workshop, I overheard some classmates discussing the possibility of starting a group. I am proud to say that this group is still going strong today thanks to a few guidelines.

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