Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Rules for Writing Fiction (ironically) five is my favorite, “Start as close to the end as possible.”

Last night when I pulled into the bowling alley parking lot great billowing clouds of steam poured from Ruby’s hood.
Not a good sign.
Tony went out to go look at her. In the fading light and with the last night of bowling about to begin he couldn’t tell what the matter was. After bowling I tried [...]

The Nuances of Copy. Ariel gets it dead right.

I’ve spent this morning chatting with Sister #2 about babysitting the kids tomorrow, publishing short fiction, tattoos, their upcoming trip to Memphis and Florida, and the bowling alley. That’s how sisters talk, flitting from one topic to the next with no transition at all.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but Sister #2 is a [...]

This one’s gonna hurt. I just checked and at least I don’t have a 9 a.m. meeting. Staying at Grumpy’s with the Usual Suspects always sounds like a really good idea when I’m there, but about the time I hit Burnsville on my drive home I start to curse their names. Fuck them all.
Of course, [...]

Rumor has it, according to the Man Without Ties message board, that one Mr. Paul Westerberg might be ponying up to the mic during his wife Laurie Lindeen’s appearance as part of 89.3 The Current’s Fakebook series hosted by Mary Lucia.
Lindeen will be performing with her former-band Zuzu’s Petals and talking about her new memoir [...]

As I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, toothbrush in hand, I started thinking about my 17-year-old self. Actually before that, I was thinking about Sister #2’s 17-year-old self.
Sister #2 used to be a punk-rock girl with a shaved head and skatepunk boyfriend. She generally eschewed anything ‘mainstream’ or with the air of sell-out [...]

Prince has been usurped by The Stones’ “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like it).” That is all.

Song currently stuck on repeat: If I Was Your Girlfriend, by Prince. The line “We don’t have to make love to have an orgasm” slays me every time.

Instead of actually reading the four short stories I need to read for class on Thursday, I decided it would be a good idea to add to the AV Club’s 26 Songs That are Just as Good as Short Stories that the Largehearted Boy pointed out today.
Before I begin I just want to say [...]

FFJ and I are preparing for the next episode of the Bookclub Bitches podcast. And by preparing, I mean reading the book Remainder and having a brief talk about it.
“Did you finish Remainder?” FFJ asked.
“Not yet,” I said. “But I am so in love with it.”
“Why do you love it?” she asked.
“Because it’s so original [...]

My heart stopped beating for about 45 seconds on Thursday night. It was scary as hell and totally the fault of the as yet unnicknamed funny red-haired guy.
Whenever we workshop a story, the Vodo makes us go around the circle and say something we liked about the story. The story we read for class [...]

I have Eurydice on shuffle, here’s what she’s served up so far this morning:
PYT, Michael Jacksons
Holland, 1945, Neutral Milk Hotel
Johnny’s Gonna Die, The ‘Mats
Sweet Child O’ Mine, GnR

“It’s not rock and roll unless your pants hurt,” Jimmy Webb of Trash and Vaudeville, some New York punk rock clothing store. I heard it in The New Yorker on my way to work this morning. Sadly, the whole story isn’t online.

It’s not the last night, but the melancholy is thicker then the cigarette smoke that hangs in the air like a cloudy blue curtain.
I am perched behind the bar like every Friday night from September to April for the past eight years. Smoochy from the Bowling Stones is sitting in the corner booth behind [...]