May 2012
13 posts
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“My father waved, and although my mother returned the gesture, I was certain it...”
– from Memorial Day
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“My job is to have empathy and curiosity for things that I’ve never done.”
– Richard Ford, on writing
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Memorial Day: An Excerpt and Interview
I worked on my novella, Memorial Day, for almost a year. I’m so grateful to those close to me who read the piece as I struggled to make each word count, including all the editors who were kind enough to give me feedback and help my revisions.
The novella, though standalone, also serves as the Prologue of my novel-in-progress (tentatively entitled Let’s Remember Only That), which only...
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“When I crossed Washington Street, the wind from New Jersey refreshed me. I saw...”
– from the novella, “Somehow There Was More Here,” published by Found Press
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“I imagined the two of them, these sisters, as girls…playing on the same...”
– from Memorial Day, excerpted at Blue Fifth Review
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In having a conversation this week regarding my...
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Monday Chat, over at Fictionaut, with Susan Tepper →
Over at Fictionaut’s Monday Chat, Susan Tepper was lovely enough to ask me some questions about my writing, my novella Memorial Day, and my novel-in-progress.
Thanks so much, for reading and your support.
Susan Tepper: What made you choose Montauk on Long Island as the beach setting for your story “from Memorial Day”? You could have picked from many places, why Montauk?
Danny Goodman:...
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April 2012
15 posts
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Icebergs: from 'Desperate Characters' by Paula Fox
“…He’s always going out there to see her. He says she’s a realist. I think he means it as a complaint. Maybe it’s the way he says it, with that confiding grin of his.”
“Maybe he loves her.”
“Love? I don’t know about that. In fact, that’s where his heartlessness really shows up. He wants to win. No matter what he says, I think she...
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“A sentence can offer a moment of quiet, it can crackle with energy or it can...”
– Very much enjoying Constance Hale’s series for The New York Times, “Writing Lessons” (thanks to writer Brian Morgan for drawing my attention to it!)
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from "Memorial Day" →
The opening to my novella, Memorial Day, is up right now at Fictionaut. Give it a read, if you’re so inclined, and let me know your thoughts.
The novella (currently seeking a home) serves as the prologue to my novel-in-progress, which features the same narrator and protagonist, Roddy, nearly three years after the events of Memorial Day.
Thanks as always for your readership and support.
...
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“…who will swim to safety
& who will be pulled under by sharks.”
– Nick Flynn, “Cartoon Physics, Part 1”
(I adore this poem, and am strongly considering this as an epigraph to my novel-in-progress.)
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Linked: The Nathan Stories
Here is the fourth set of showcased linked stories: The Nathan Stories. I hope you enjoy.
√ Superman Comes to Dinner (in Ducts)
√ Riverbed (in Connotation Press)
For other showcased series of linked stories, see below:
√ The Ben Stories
√ The Andre Stories
√ The Charlie Stories
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The soundtrack to Book One of my...
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from the novella, "Somehow There Was More Here"
Three in the morning. I knew because the numbers on my clock shined brighter than the streetlights, those beacons keeping the city awake. I barely slept. It didn’t matter how hushed things were, how still; in fact, the quiet seemed to worsen my restlessness. I’d been sleeping on a twin-sized bed for a while now, but I still wasn’t used to it. A few nights back, I rolled right off and ended up with...
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Robert Caro’s Painstaking Writing Process →
I am in love with everything here.
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Bookseller
He suggests my purchase is a metaphor. His cracked smile reveals years of tobaccoed abuse, and for some reason I find this magnetic. I ask what he means, and he points to the cover. I shake my head. It’s only a book, I assure him, just pages. They should add up to something, he says, hold weight. I pay with cash. He hands me the paperback, and I nod. He is right, about the weight.
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Come visit me on Pinterest! →
I’m rocking two boards right now, showcasing my publications as well as the books I wish I’d written. Come say hi!
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from the short story, "We're Grownups, After All"
“He wrote me a letter a few months back,” Dennis said. His voiced cracked. “We didn’t know each other very well. Spent most of his life with his mother on Long Island.”
“Like his father,” Maggie said. She smiled, and it pulled Dennis in.
“He told me about this girl he loved,” Dennis said. “She’s it, he kept writing. Then he lost her. I think that was everything for him.”
“Did you visit him?”...
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Icebergs: from "Why I Write, From Both Sides Now"...
“Irregularity is the only pattern I know, so I must trust it. Nothing good may happen on the page today, but eventually I’ll get there. Stories await. There is a persistent curiosity that cannot be ignored. Before long I will heed the imperative and the unknown, the driving force that sends me to my knees, peeling dark scraps off the floor. I will cradle the film like a broken ghost in one...
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The storySouth Million Writers Award: Reader... →
I’m not always great at self-promotion, but the storySouth Million Writers Award is pretty fantastic, so I thought I’d toss up a quick link.
If you loved any of my stories published online during 2011, please consider nominating one for the storySouth Million Writers Award. Thank you so much, as always, for your continued support and generosity.
Here’s a quick list of potential...
March 2012
17 posts
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Icebergs: from "Razor Wire" by Robb Todd
“A train echoes off sleeping brick apartment buildings, the shadows of fire escapes frozen against the walls, the rails rattle, and sparks float to the asphalt like electric snow. The train screeches to a stop. Sliding doors swish open, a bell, swish close. Nobody gets on or off. Nobody else is awake in the world.”
Robb Todd, “Razor Wire,” from the collection Steal Me For...
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"Is it a Novel, Yet?" →
This is a piece of nonfiction I wrote almost two years ago. It’s funny how the emotions, the raw energy of writing and failure and the never-ending passion to do both, changes little over time. I’m happier now, so much more so than when writing this piece, but I still desperately want it, everything, to be good, either way.
The whiskey coated my gums like molasses. I sucked in air...
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New Interview Posted! →
Over in the Interviews section, I’ve posted a new interview: Five Questions with Danny Goodman, from Found Press regarding my novella “Somehow There Was More Here.” Check it out!
BJI: Your story feels very much like a ‘New York City’ story – that is, it wouldn’t feel quite the same if it was set anywhere else. Why do you suppose that is? Was this something you consciously tried...
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“That picture of Maddie is still around. The scratch in the lens fractured her...”
– from the short story, “Based on True Events,” published by Mixer
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“Now, we were just old enough to drive each other to madness.”
– from the short story, “If You Waited Here, You Would See Almost Everything”
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“Karen took the note inside, closing the door slowly and with care. She slid the...”
– from the short story, “This Is How You Will Die”
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FIZZ Fiction Series at KGB Bar: I'm guest-hosting! →
This Thursday, March 22 at KGB Bar, I have the pleasure of guest-hosting the FIZZ Fiction Series reading event for Susan Tepper, who is a delight. I’m pretty damn excited. This is going to kick ass, with a killer group of readers (including fwriction : review contributor J.E. Reich!). Come say hi!
Here’s some info on the readers:
Chris Belden’s novel “Carry-on” was published in...
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“Pretend, he said, that you’re in a museum, that everything here is priceless.”
– “Cloisters,” published by Mixer Publishing and a finalist for the Flatmancrooked Fiction Prize
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An excerpt from the short story, "Sometimes When I...
“I thought there’d be music of some kind, rhythmic and sad, when I walked into the house that day, a pivotal moment in the low budget, poorly-lit indie film of my life. The camera would dolly with me walking into the house, looking oblivious and euphoric. Perhaps I smell something perfumed in the living room; I might lean down to pet Charlie before realizing that he’s no longer there. The...
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“I write because words are worth the attention.
[Don] DeLillo once said:...”
– Nick Ripatrazone, “Why I Write, A Timeline”
A wonderful piece on writing, from Stymie Magazine’s “Why I Write” series
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Childing, or Writinghood
I haven’t thought for some time about where my writing first began, when that spark ignited, but today for some reason, I cannot shake it. After looking over my latest notes, scratches in a notebook gifted to me by my mother, I remembered writing as a child, scribbling in a tattered black and white composition book. Pictures almost always accompanied the words. My father, every once in a...
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We have our first winner!
Over at my Facebook author page, I’m having a special giveaway simply for “Liking” and/or sharing my page. We’ve reached our first milestone, thus our first prize to be awarded:
Congratulations to Anna March, who will receive a copy of Mixer Publishing’s first anthology, of Love & Death, which includes my short stories “Cloisters” and “Based on...
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An excerpt from the short story, "Union Square,"...
Jack had always called her a Manhattan girl, but she was never sure exactly what that entailed. She knew, though, he meant it derisively. She thought of that as she walked up and down the aisle of mothering books and had the urge to call him. He wouldn’t answer, she knew. There was little to say between them. Their marriage had ended with very few words. You’re so young, her mother would say....
February 2012
34 posts
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“I write horrible first drafts full of lousy sentences that run on and on and...”
– from Hippocampus Magazine’s interview with author and Brevity editor Dinty W. Moore
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“I finished the first quarter of the [Found Press] collection. I really liked...”
– from Kelvin Kong, on reading FPQ 2011: The Complete Collection (which you could win just by Liking my Facebook author page) and my novella, “Somehow There Was More Here.”
(Danny does happy dance, eats slice of pizza in celebration)
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“We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of...”
– Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Case of Identity”
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The "Essay," or Some Other Word Metamorphosed by... →
Some of my thoughts on the nonfiction debate, over at the fwriction blog:
Though I haven’t chimed in regarding John D’Agata’s “nonfiction” versus “essay” debate, raised in the new book, The Lifespan of a Fact, I have to now let off a little steam.
This excerpt, from Gideon Lewis-Kraus’ piece in The New York Times Magazine, “The Fact-Checker Versus The Fabulist”, struck a chord…