Only when writers are willing to raise their expectations of small presses will the truly awful small presses die away.
Posts By Caleb J. Ross
Caleb began writing his sophomore year of undergrad study when, tired of the formal art education then being taught, he abandoned the pursuit in the middle of a compositional drawing class. Major-less and fearful of losing his financial aid, he signed up to seek a degree in English Literature for no other reason than his lengthy history with the language. Coincidentally, this decision not only introduced him to writing but to reading as well. Prior this transition he had read three books. One of which he understood.
Recycling is good. Drinking the beer out of bottles in order to necessitate the recycling is better.
Fair warning: this is probably the dumbest thing I've ever done on this channel. And I've done a lot of dumb stuff. But you've been warned. Therefore, I'm free to dumb it up all the way to eleven. I posted an initial thoughts video of S. a couple weeks ago. Now I'm back with my full review. But this one is different. See, I already reviewed the book on the November 27th episode of the Booked. Podcast. And rather than rehash my thoughts on my YouTube channel, I figure I would do what a truly lazy person would do and hire some sock puppets to re-enact parts of the Booked. Podcast conversation. Mentioned: Booked Podcast S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
Wow, that blog post title has not one, but two extraneous periods. Last night I sat with Robb Olson and Livius Nedin of the Booked. Podcast to chat a bit about the new book S., masterminded by J.J Abrams and written by Doug Dorst. The novel is incredible unique, so rather than rehash the entire discussion I''ll rehash my final thoughts and encourage you to listen to the entire podcast episode. An extremely unique book, both in form and execution, which forces the reader to re-imagine the very act of reading not just once, but on every page. This brilliance carries with it the potential for mental exhaustion which might deter many readers looking for something more accessible and casual. It’s not an easy book, especially if you’re a completionist who would feel obligated to follow every narrative thread, to investigate every reference, to explore the book the way an…
I took to Facebook to ask my hordes of fan what problem I should solve with my video today. The world-wide problem of horrible book recommendations from non-writers came up. Of course, this is an issue of immense import, so I jumped on it.
I don't generally make a video about a book before I've finished reading the book. But in the case of S by J.J Abrams and Doug Dorst I felt compelled to offer a few thoughts and reactions because not since Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves have I been so taken by a new way of storytelling.
My story, "Three Days Ahead," has been published in the recently released issue 8 of Thuglit. I've been reading Thuglit fairly consistently since Nik Korpon's entry (issue 2, I believe), and have come to really like it for it's straight-forward, no nonsense approach to crime fiction. That being said, I don't actually write straight-forward, no nonsense crime fiction. Actually, I've never really considered myself a crime fiction writer at all. Many (maybe most) of my stories do contain crime elements, but as actual crime writers will probably attest, crime alone does not a crime story make. But I had an opportunity. I originally wrote a similarly themed story that ended up being a bit of a mess. So, during a rewrite of that story I ended up with "Three Days Ahead," which by comparison to the early version is much more focused, much more emotional, and a lot less flashy-for-the-sake-of-flashy.…