fiction

“Magical Thinking” Without Defining Writing Talent

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JohnGardner Art of Ficion Cover
Not the cover you usually see for this great book.

Over at The Millions Michael Bourne (the writer, not the center fielder) has an essay this week called “Magical Thinking: Talent and the Cult of Craft.” Lots of great comments and thinking come after his pretty thoughtful exploration of the question of success in the writing world: Talent? or Craft?

Bourne makes a good case against this statement in John Gardner’s book The Art of Fiction:

“[T]he truth is that though the ability to write well is partly a gift — like the ability to play basketball well or outguess the stock market — writing ability is mainly a product of good teaching supported by a deep-down love of writing.”

Maybe Bourne lays it on a little thick about the problem of writers leaning a bit too heavily on the idea of studying the mechanics of good writing and storytelling (especially in MFA and college creative writing programs). I didn’t really pay much attention to that side of the equation. The idea of “talent” just really struck me. There’s no question Continue reading →

Wind-Toads at Night: A Very Short Story

~ davidbiddle ~ 1 Comment
Source: Toad Pencil
Source: Toad Pencil

We had a huge cold front come in right around 9:00 last night. The temperature dropped fast from 52-degrees Fahrenheit to 20-degrees Fahrenheit, and by our 10:30 bedtime the wind was blowing hard. Our bedroom wall is northwest facing and somewhat unprotected, with no wind-block trees or shrubs or walls. The property backs onto a college campus with a good five acre field that lets the wind streak across unobstructed whenever weather spins out of the northwest. Our bedroom wall gets pummeled by roaring air, our windows rattle and shake like something is trying to get in.

So I awoke at 12:30 to howling gusts that had to be hitting 50-60 mph. I could not sleep for nearly an hour until Marla woke up too and began immediately to chat with me about the howling wind-toads. She could have been a scientist so matter-of-fact is she about the things she brings up out of sleep.

I said, “Wind toes?” She said, “No. Toads.”

I said, “Really? Toads flying on the wind?” She said, “Nope. Just wind-toads…half wind, half toad.”

I asked if that meant we would have toast in the morning.

She said “Nope. Toads! We’re going to have toads for breakfast but we’re going to have to get the wind part out of them first.” I pointed out it might be easier to get the toads to jump off the wind.

We left it at that and snuggled in the dark with the wind howling like wild toads deep in a forest. But as I drifted into sleep, knowing how much I loved her, I wondered if wind-toads even knew that human beings existed. Maybe they were just doing what they’re supposed to do and would feel bad if they understood that they were scaring a couple of middle aged people out of sleep on a lonely late winter Wednesday night.

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2013…(The Merman Turns Again): My Undercover Soundtrack

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DCBiddle HeadShot MedRez
New headshot. Woo Hoo!

I’ve got a guest post called “Sex, Drugs, Metaphysics, and Rock ‘n’ Roll” over at Roz Morris’s website My Memories of a Future Life. It’s a quick-read, but provides a tour of some of the recordings that influenced me as I worked directly on my novel Beyond the Will of God.

Roz runs a great shop and offers a feature setup weekly for authors to highlight their musical influences called “The Undercover Soundtrack.” You really ought to subscribe and check out some of the past features. Check out the link list at the beginning of each post. It’s a quick resource of all the links in a post that allows you to quickly follow each track the author refers to in their text. Also, one of the coolest things about Roz’s music site is the list of all the previous references you will find at the very bottom of the page. She’s posted so many great pieces on authors’ musical influences, if you just think of a musician or composer, you’ll likely find multiple links to their work in this massive database.

Roz is also the author of the “how to” book Nail Your Novel. It’s a fabulous resource if you’re struggling through writing a novel or if you know someone else who is (hint: give books by independently published authors for the holidays). I bought Nail Your Novel, first because I thought it was a manual on how to make love to an e-book, but also because the notes Continue reading →

Not the Marriage Plot: On Men Reading Novels in the 21st Century

~ davidbiddle ~ 5 Comments

Here’s what I think about at some point of every day:

What is going on in this world that would lead so many men far, far away from reading modern literary novels?

I’ve written here at this blog and in other places around the Internet about my overall concern for literary fiction. A helluva lot of intelligent people want nothing to do with it anymore. Before the Internet took hold (about 18 years ago), I thought that somehow it was just the little world I lived in here in Continue reading →

Here’s what I think about at some point of every day:

What is going on in this world that would lead so many men far, far away from reading modern literary novels?

I’ve written here at this blog and in other places around the Internet about my overall concern for literary fiction. A helluva lot of intelligent people want nothing to do with it anymore. Before the Internet took hold (about 18 years ago), I thought that somehow it was just the little world I lived in here in Continue reading →

A Click Away: Where the Good Stuff Is

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BeautifulMorningBlues in Philly
It’s morning in Philadelphia…

We go to people’s websites and blogs following a link from somewhere else. Usually we don’t so much read an article, post, or essay as we absorb it. I have to tell myself to slow down ten times a day when I’m visiting content online. “Slow down, dude. Pay attention. What else is there connected to this site? Read the article. Don’t just link away from it on the first promising reference. Relax!”

There’s interesting stuff at almost any blogger’s site. Certainly there’s a treasure trove of archived information and articles at all the online magazines and professional websites you go to daily. The good stuff is often just a click away. I was recently at one of my favorite author’s sites because I referred to his work in this blog post. Anthony Continue reading →

Read “Nirvana” – An Esquire short story by Adam Johnson

~ davidbiddle ~ 2 Comments

Rarely do I bump into a short story in a mainstream publication that knocks my socks off. The last time that happened was about twelve years ago when I read Anthony Doerr’s “The Hunter’s Wife” in The Atlantic (that was before they stupidly discontinued stories in each of their editions).

That said, “Nirvana,” by Adam Johnson, is in Esquire this month. Johnson’s novel, The Orphan Master’s Son won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. He is clearly an author who deserves every good reader’s attention.

It’s a very tender piece, but it’s so full of who we are at the moment: ghost musician gods, a wise President still dispensing his thoughts to the world although he’s dead, a cute,  quixotic drone; tangles of hair; a spider moment that is perfect; app coding; Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft — only just enough; the future; the past; encryption busting; an Indian boss with flare; and love — tender, desperate, sweet, awesome love (and a bit of sex).

“Yes, hearing the President whisper is creepy because he’s been dead now, what—three months? But even creepier is what happens when I close my eyes: I keep visualizing my wife killing herself. More like the ways she might try to kill herself, since she’s paralyzed from the shoulders down.”

What amazes me about this story is that it can, and should, be read by everyone. It is serious, intelligent fiction, but it’s also fun, interesting, humorous, and timely.

Most of you know you should read more short stories, but just don’t manage to find the time. This is something to spend the time on. I’m a slow reader. It’s hard for me to find the time, too, but I’m so glad I read “Nirvana.” It’s everything a modern short story should be and then some. Check it out. Click below (if you really can’t do the reading yourself, they’ve magically added an audio link with Mr. Johnson reading the piece himself).

Read “Nirvana” in Esquire

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Spilling Your Guts: Writing That Makes a Beautiful Mess

~ davidbiddle ~ 1 Comment

The author with his cocker spaniel, 1978.
The author with his cocker spaniel, 1978.

It took me at least a year of college to learn to live with my Midwestern sincerity. I went to a school on the West Coast full of super smart people. That was bad enough — being kind of average intelligence on a campus full of freaking geniuses. But on top of that a lot of my peers were from LA, The Bay Area, NYC and the Boston area. Each of those regions has its own version of cynical irony through which to approach life. I hadn’t learned cynical irony yet.

To say the least, then, I was a fish out of water in my freshman year. It was a hard year. A good high school friend committed suicide two weeks after I last saw him during Christmas break. My girl friend broke up with me because she was having a hard time with the concept of a long distance relationship. And I really felt out-gunned in class Continue reading →

Notes on the Heart of Darkness: Ex-Urban Wildernesses

~ davidbiddle ~ 1 Comment

Photo Credit: Photo Gallery from the Canada-Wide Science Fair

When someone speaks knowingly of a heart of darkness somewhere, understand that they don’t realize this heart is only an opening or an entrance into something that is hard to understand. Inside a real heart of darkness there are dimensions. We’re not just talking about a black smudge of mystery signifying the beginning of a cave. What is inside that cave matters far more than some mystical representation Continue reading →

PsyPress UK Literary Review: Beyond the Will of God

~ davidbiddle ~ 1 Comment

BWG ThumbnailMy psychedelic novel, Beyond the Will of God, was reviewed by the Psychedelic Press UK — a book review site that does exactly what you’d think it does. Here’s a snippet from the review:

“Very few novels come across the review desk of the Psychedelic Press UK. When they do, they tend to be independently published, steeped in the history and popular culture of psychedelics, and David Biddle’s first novel Beyond the Will of God is no exception. However, while a good deal tend to focus on the inner workings of a protagonist’s mind, Biddle’s offering involves a multiple narrative stream, which, like any good mystery, winds its way together for a dramatic, revelatory and thought-provoking conclusion.” <Snip>
 

Rob Dickins, PsyPress impressario, has to be the world’s #1 expert on all books psychedelic. The site is a treasure trove Continue reading →