I’ve never hidden my love for the work of Brian Evenson. In fact, overly enthusiastic may be a good way to describe my infatuation. His stories are like none other, both in concept and execution. So, know that this review of Windeye, Evenson’s latest story collection, comes to you with a deep history of appreciation. You aren’t getting a first-time reader here. You are getting a fan’s true perspective. With that being said, WHAT A DAMN FINE BOOK!
As I get more and more into this YouTube channel thing, I’m starting to understand more about the YouTube community. One thing I’ve noticed is that when channels hit subscriber milestones (100 subscribers, 500 subscribers, etc.) they do something special as a way to say thank you. So, I’m going to do just that. I currently have 75 subscribers. Once I hit 100 subscribers I am going to give something away to one randomly chosen subscriber. What will that giveaway be? Not sure yet, but I promise it will be good and it will be made by my very own hands. I generally err on the side of handmade slipcases and a copy of one of my books, but who knows, maybe I’ll do more. Here's how it will work: You MUST be a subscriber to my YouTube channel. Once I hit 100 subscribers I'll make a video outlining the…
Hear the amazing, 100% true(ish) story of how I got my copy of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom signed by the author during an author reading in Kansas City on September 22, 2010. You’ll hear the first-hand account of my bravery in the face of an elderly security guard, the strength of punches needed to take babies down, and why I’m glad Franzen is an author rather than a professional investment broker.
I’ve realized during my few months of video-making, along with my previous couple of years making podcasts, that I tend to break apart my speech with ums, uhs, ers, ahhs, and every other sort of cerebral flatus out there. A desire to break away from so many speech errors is one of the reasons I picked up Michael Erard’s book Um: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean. My thinking was that if I could understand why I flub my words, then I could eventually eradicate those flubs. I’m likely beyond help, but at least this book did teach me that speech blunders are perhaps less something that needs to be cleaned away, and more something that we all need to approach differently. Speech errors aren’t, by themselves, errors at all. Instead, what’s important is measuring speech disfluency from a baseline. Think of reading ums and uhs as…