Video Games are Real

Tag: other writers

  • Booked Podcast invites me to talk about Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters: Remix

    Booked Podcast invites me to talk about Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters: Remix

    The fine fellows at Booked Podcast, Robb Olson and Livius Nedin invited me over to discuss the reissue of Chuck Palahniuk’s Invisible Monsters. Here’s a bit from the episode description:

    Booked reviews Invisible Monsters REMIX by Chuck Palahniuk, with special guest host Caleb J. Ross. It’s more of a book discussion than a review this episode, since this is not technically a new-new book, and there’s a good chance that lots of people listening will have already read it. So we talked a bit about the book, Palahniuk, and (of course) felching. As you do when you talk about Invisible Monsters.

    Click here to listen to the latest Booked Podcast episode, featuring Caleb J. Ross.

  • Currently writing Phil Jourdan and Pablo D’Stair

    Currently writing Phil Jourdan and Pablo D’Stair

    I don’t speak enough to my readers. I’ve learned this recently. Much of the content on this blog speaks to other writers (which are generally readers, for sure), but I need to change my game a bit, I think. With that in mind, I want to start writing a bit more about my in-progress projects.

    Pablo D'Stair caught by my camera in Chicago, ILI know, I know, writing about work that isn’t finished comes across as a bit masturbatory. I’ve often been annoyed by such posts. My goal here isn’t to be annoying, though. Rather, I want to give those who are interested a peek into my projects. The primary goal is to get people excited about my work. The secondary goal is to keep my current projects top-of-mind for me so that I keep my fingers to the keyboard as much as possible. Simply put, I’ve been feeling a bit unproductive lately and am looking for a way to stay motivated while possibly at the same time helping keep readers informed.

    So what’s in the hopper now? A collaboration with Pablo D’Stair with the working title of The Bettor Stories. The concept: two people at a bar make a bet: each chooses a victim for the other with the goal to get the victim to commit suicide. Whoever’s victim kills him/herself first wins. We’re in the early stages (I’ve barely started writing) but you can expect some really cool layout effects and perhaps some deep explorations of the difference between suicide and murder. This will be the first fiction collaboration ever between Pablo and myself. Long overdue, if you ask me.

    The idea for the collaboration actually came to me a couple of weeks ago during a bar conversation between myself and author/intelligencio Phil Jourdan. He asked me, hypothetically, when I look back on my life 50 years from now how would I determine whether or not I’ve lived a “good” life. I responded, jokingly, that if I could get someone to commit suicide because of my writing, then I’d have lived a good life. That got my mind spinning. When I approached Pablo with a project idea based on my response, he was cool enough to play along.

    Check back often to stay up to date on my progress.

  • Wordless Book Reviews – Mark Dunn, Adam Johnson, Steven Levy, Richard Grossman (Video Blog Ep 015)

    Wordless Book Reviews – Mark Dunn, Adam Johnson, Steven Levy, Richard Grossman (Video Blog Ep 015)

    First off, please forgive the video quality here. I was trying a new recording method, which obviously didn’t work that well.

    Here is another Wordless Book Reviews episode. Here I review four books using only sound effects and facial expressions. The books: Ella Minnow Pea: a Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn, Emporium: Stories by Adam Johnson, In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy, and The Book of Lazarus by Richard Grossman.

    Click the image above to watch the video review
  • Wordless Book Reviews – Paul Tremblay, Chuck Palahniuk, Jose Saramago, Sam Harris (Video Blog Ep 014)

    Wordless Book Reviews – Paul Tremblay, Chuck Palahniuk, Jose Saramago, Sam Harris (Video Blog Ep 014)

    First off, please forgive the video quality here. I was trying a new recording method, which obviously didn’t work that well.

    With this episode, I’ve opted for brevity. Here I review four books using only sound effects and facial expressions. The books: The Little Sleep by Paul Tremblay, Damned by Chuck Palahniuk, Seeing by Jose Saramago, and The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris.

    Click the image above to watch the video book review
  • Part Four of Four Dialogues on Literature with Pablo D’Stair and Caleb J. Ross, live at the Sunday Observer

    Part Four of Four Dialogues on Literature with Pablo D’Stair and Caleb J. Ross, live at the Sunday Observer

    Part four of what may be the most interesting dialog I’ve ever had with another human being (I’ve had plenty of good ones with cats) is now live at the Sunday Observer. Pablo D’Stair and I talk all sorts of shop. Seriously, and I say this as objectively as one can when the subject of a piece, this thing is worth reading, all parts, one through four.

    Read part four, here.

    Then, be sure to read part one and part two and part three as well.

  • Part Three of Four Dialogues on Literature with Pablo D’Stair and Caleb J. Ross, live at the Sunday Observer

    Part Three of Four Dialogues on Literature with Pablo D’Stair and Caleb J. Ross, live at the Sunday Observer

    Part three of what may be the most interesting dialog I’ve ever had with another human being (I’ve had plenty of good ones with dogs) is now live at the Sunday Observer. Pablo D’Stair and I talk all sorts of shop. In his installment we compare publishing to marathon running (but not in that long haul, endurance cliche way that you might be thinking) and also what sort of accolades should be involved, if any, in publishing.

    Read part three, here.

    Then, be sure to read part one and part two as well.

  • Part Two of Four Dialogues on Literature with Pablo D’Stair and Caleb J. Ross, live at the Sunday Observer

    Part Two of Four Dialogues on Literature with Pablo D’Stair and Caleb J. Ross, live at the Sunday Observer

    Part two of what may be the most interesting dialog I’ve ever had with another human being (I’ve had plenty of good ones with dogs) is now live at the Sunday Observer. Pablo D’Stair and I talk all sorts of shop. In his installment we talk about a world without context, the reader as an audience, music, and more. Seriously, and I’m not just saying this because I’m involved, there is some damn good stuff going on here.

    Read part two, here.

    Then, be sure to read part one as well.