“Stephen King wrote four books before Carrie was published, and that’s not uncommon. I’m not sentimental enough to say that years of being brusquely dismissed or apologetically rejected somehow improved me, but I can honestly say it was worth it. You have to believe good work will find a home.”

So, my latest (and probably best) piece, “How I Published My First Novel Against All Odds’ is now up at Thought Catalog.  I don’t remember writing that title, but I do remember an AWP panelist a few years ago saying something like, “There are a lot of books out there, so it takes a while for the cream to rise to the top.”  It’s not my place to say how creamy my novel is, but as someone who was fighting for a publication slot, I can say that the competition out there is pretty fierce.  Just the numbers alone….  But in my TC article, I describe what it’s like to wait while people are making decisions about your work.  Hopefully it’s more heartening than terrifying, but I do think that writers–especially aspiring novelists–deserve to know the truth.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xu4uz_phil-collins-against-all-odds_music

“Pittsburgh is changing. I don’t know if it’s for the better or for the worse. I once worked for the USW … as a camera-man for their secretly-funded protest of Chinese goods. I worked on top of West Mifflin’s great Slag Mountain … at the local Wal-Mart. I even worked in Homestead, but long after the mills there had been paved over.”

The intro to the Pittsburgh Anthology, written by the inimitable Eric Boyd, is now online!  It’s a great read, especially if you’re interested in Pittsburgh and want a new perspective on the city.  I’m thrilled to be representing The ‘Burgh in this anthology, and I’m definitely in fine company.  Can’t wait to sit down and read it!

Special thanks to Joel Coggins for designing this lovely poster.  Hope you can make it to this event!

Newsweek just published an article about Thought Catalog, the parent company of my publishing label, Thought Catalog Books.  It’s an interesting, thorough piece, definitely worth a read if you have time.  I actually got an invite to the party the article describes in its opening, but I couldn’t make it for some legit reason.  Some excerpts:

‘This is an insanely special occasion,’ [site contributor Mat] Devine gushed. ‘On February 1 of 2010, Thought Catalog had 200 visitors. On February 1, 2015, Thought Catalog had 1 million visitors.’ He introduced ‘the man of the hour,’ Thought Catalog founder Chris Lavergne, who gave a brief speech thanking everyone who’d contributed to the company over the years, and then introduced the musical duo ASTR, which performed as partygoers stood around munching cotton candy.”            

“Meanwhile, Thought Catalog’s books division has flourished, publishing eBooks by respected authors   like Prozac Nation writer Elizabeth Wurtzel and, next month, philosopher Simon Critchley.”

“[Rachel Kramer Bussel’s] essay collection, Sex and Cupcakes, was published with Thought Catalog Books in 2014.She likes that Thought Catalog is thriving. ‘Seems like they’ll be around for a long time, and I don’t always feel that way. I’ve written for a lot of sites that have closed within maybe a year or two.'”

I was initially skeptical about publishing with an independent press.  Since I was a teenager, I remember looking at big publishers’ logos and saying, “Someday…”  I don’t know: there was something very staid and stable about the way their books were presented.  The idea of being part of a tradition and adding to the great hall of American arts and letters really appealed to me.

After I finished graduate school, though, I jealously watched as my friends published gorgeous-looking books with independent presses who threw them lavish launch parties and drove from bookstore to bookstore, conference to conference, to promote their authors and connect with a local/national scene of passionate readers.  To me, that was far more impressive than what I’d seen from former classmates who published with bigger, stodgier houses: they didn’t seem to be getting much from companies that had extravagant budgets and seemingly endless staff. I don’t know where I’ll eventually end up: my academic career has certain checkpoints, and major publishing houses are still more respected by academia.  And, of course, there’s a question of scale and audience.

But I do want to say that, in an increasingly digital age, readers care more about the book itself than the company (or even the media format in which it’s presented).  Stories from smaller journals like Hobart are being featured in the Best American Short Stories anthologies, and Tinkers, published by a small press (Bellevue Literary Review), won the Pulitzer. Per the Newsweek article, Thought Catalog Books doesn’t make a huge profit, but I’ve had an enormously positive experience: Mink Choi edited my manuscript and her advice was as sound and practical as any of my MFA professors’.

My publishing company has been wonderful about promoting my debut novel.  The deeper I get into the process, the more I learn about how hard–and expensive–it is to get anyone to pay attention to a single novel among a sea of novels (not to mention other types of media).  Through the past year, I’ve been somewhat shocked at the amount of money and effort Mink has put into supporting my book.  It’s been great to see how many friends, colleagues, and complete strangers have offered congratulations and pre-ordered the book–that has truly meant the world to me.  But designing a beautiful cover, guiding the book through its actual production and design, managing the logistics to set up readings, sending out review copies, and creating a comprehensive marketing plan: in all honesty, that sustained, seemingly endless effort has been one of the most surprising and humbling aspects of publishing a book.

I won second place in North American Review’s Flash Fiction Twitter contest.  The tweet that won is:

I’m a little prouder of my first submission:

And I should also mention that Eric Boyd’s entry is pretty kick-ass.  Frame photo by Alexavich.

Well, #AWP15 is long over.  It feels like it was forever ago, but for various reasons, I haven’t had room to breathe or to write until now.  Here are some stray thoughts on the experience:

1. I’ve been to several AWPs recently (Seattle, Chicago, DC, NYC), and I’ve gotten pretty good at packing for them.  (It’s no small feat because you have to pack under duress and factor in books, weight, and spatial concerns).  But you know what I’m definitely packing next year for AWP16 in LA?  A scarf and a bag of oranges.  This is the third AWP where I’ve caught some kind of horrific flu-like plague.  I think it’s the exhaustion, the extreme changes in temperature, the partying, the crowds of crowds, and the flight home, when you’re breathing the recycled exhalations of 300 other travelers for hours on end.

The first time I got sick at AWP, it was on day one in Chicago, and I was doing work for Chatham U, so being sick was not an option.  So that night, I cranked up the hotel’s heat as high as it could go and put on every sweatshirt I brought.  I yanked a hoodie over top and turned it backwards so the hood covered my neck.  I looked like an idiot and sweated through two sweatshirts, but I was fine the next day.  The sweatshirt thing is actually an old Korean technique my Tae Kwon Do instructor in college taught me.  Well, not exactly.  I think “Sweat it out, Robert” was the way he explained it.  But I honestly can’t recommend sweating it out for anyone, since this technique has probably killed more people than it’s cured.

At any rate, I’m hoping that wearing a scarf everywhere at #AWP16 will help ward off sickness, especially due to the wild temperature fluctuations.  (In March, it will probably still be snowing in Pittsburgh.)  Maybe people will assume I’m a tiresome dandy and avoid me, thereby creating a germ-free bubble.  Time will tell.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll just throw oranges at anyone who coughs on me.

2. New AWP Regulations: “The titles of proposed panels cannot contain the following words: ‘hybrid,’ ‘thread,’ ‘analog,’ ‘hyper,’ ‘agency,’ ‘agent,’ or ‘morph.”  This regulation should winnow the number of accepted panels from 550 to about 100.  Furthermore, mimicking the wording of any Raymond Carver book is strictly prohibited.  We predict this regulation will cut the number of proposed panels to 5.

The only exception will be for panels announcing nonfiction scientific coverage.  For example, if your panel is about the discovery of an exotic extraterrestrial species, then “What We Talk About When We Talk About the Hybrid Morphing Thread-Worms of Europa, whose Existence has been Proven by Several Government Agencies and Recorded via Analog and Digital Media” is a perfectly acceptable title for a prospective panel at AWP.

3. As someone whose shoulder and back are still aching from the plane ride home from Seattle, I swore I wouldn’t buy any books or journals at the bookfair this year.  Rather, I’d make a list of books and journals I wanted and buy them later (kind of like shopping at Ikea, with the AWP Bookfair as my showroom).  Here’s a Vine I made for Pitt’s Writing Program showing how well that plan worked out.  

4. #AWP15 marked the first panel I’ve ever participated in.  It was titled “How Writing Programs Can Meaningfully Utilize Social Media in an Age of Branding, Oversaturation, and Decreasing Admissions.”

The description: this panel will discuss different ways that writing programs and journals can use social media to recruit, advocate, teach, and promote literary citizenship. We’ll discuss our experiences and best practices for established and emerging digital mediums (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). In an age of “branding,” oversaturation, and decreasing admissions, how can programs and editors use social media meaningfully? This panel will provide practical advice, as well as thoughts on the digital future.

My fellow panelists were

Robyn K. Coggins

Kinsley Stocum &

Terry L. Kennedy.

At first, I braced myself for low participation because the panel was at 9AM and AWP had booked two giant hotel conference rooms for us, thereby possibly magnifying the low attendance to a soul-crushing degree.  However, as someone later noted, “9AM is a pretty reasonable time for most normal people,” and a good number of those normal people showed up.

Honestly, the whole thing was a blur, with so many smart ideas being passed back and forth between the panelists, and then the crowd.

Robyn had smart, practical things to say, especially about scheduling and connecting with audiences.  Kinsley gave great advice about personal and professional realms, as well as what does and doesn’t work on different platforms.  And Terry helped bring everything together, especially with his generous, community-building approach and different internal/external ways to use Facebook.  After the conference, we kept the conversation going with some audience members, and I even got to meet a couple future students.  I was incredibly relieved afterwards, and I honestly couldn’t imagine it going any better.

More to come soon.  In the meantime, please enjoy these photos:

The first official review for my novel is in.

Kirkus Reviews calls Eighty Days of Sunlight a “moving and darkly comic debut novel.”

“Equal parts hilarity and heartbreak in an accomplished debut.”

You can read the whole review here.  Honestly, there was a long, 5-year period where I was pretty sure this novel would never be published.  It would go to the great Unread Novel Graveyard, the three people on my thesis committee the only people who would ever read it.  If Mink Choi hadn’t chosen it way back in the day, or continued to champion it for years, it never would have made it this far.  Thanks to everyone who’s supported this project through its six years of evolution, and a special thank you to the reviewer at Kirkus for this life-changing moment.  I’m feeling very blessed and lucky today.