Writing-life

I’m in the middle of a big revision on my second Jack Palms novel, This Is Life.  I’m at a point where I can see the end of the revision and the trees all around me. Yet I have no idea if what I’m working on is junk or good. My instincts point toward junk, but that seems more about me than about the book. The one thing I know now is that my instincts and current confused feelings about what the book looks like as a whole (particularly in terms of quality) are not to be trusted.

That’s the truth. I’m in a place where I’ve lost the forest for the trees, which I’m constantly pruning, and I cannot see the whole. Sure, I have specific doubts that might need addressing later on, but that seems normal. What can I do? Continue on in the manner that I have been. No other options. Besides, Young Junius, my next novel-to-be-revised, awaits.

Did I mention that the pre-sale date for the YJ special edition is now Cinco de Harwood--May 5th 2010?? It is.

PS: if you're in the Bay Area, I'll be spreaking at the California Writers Club on Sunday Feb, 21 at 2:00 at the Oakland Public Library. Flyer Attached. Hope to see you there!

Call In Line 206-350-4998Click here to Listen!

I'm back in the Hot Tub today waxing nostalgic about the fact that the decade is ending and that Y2K was ten years ago. I talk about the A Long Way from Disney Kindle rush that went on this week, some of the milestones it reached and my holidays. I also unveil a new Kindle Promo: The Contest!

The Contest works like this:There are two giveaways--on Wednesday 1/9 and Weds 1/16.

Each week there will be two winners, who'll have the choice of three prizes:

1) signed Breakneck Books copy of JWU—the first printing! A collector’s item.

2) Original marked manuscript pages of JP2 or a short story by me.

Or 3) A consult on a short story or chapter of a novel you’re writing/working on.

To play: blog about the Disney Kindle release and chart rush to help spread the word. If you don’t have a blog, the equivalent of a blog post is deemed adding the info as a facebook or twitter status update for two days out of a given week. Be sure to put this link to Amazon into your post.

Doable? I think so! Fun? Yes!!

Complete audio and Merriest of Holiday Wishes!

More info on the release is here!

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Super Kwanza, and let's have a dynamite New Year's Eve! In the process can right now is a Kindle experiment with A Long Way from Disney. Here's what it is:

Publishing Experiment 1: If we know anything for sure about publishing right now, it’s that it is changing. Authors, I believe, must become the scientists running experiments with new technology, new publicity strategies, marketing, you name it. There’s just too much money involved for the big (and some small) presses to carry out the kind of testing and idea-trying that needs to be done. That leaves us independent authors to try things out on our own.

stanRegistration is now open for my Winter term (1/11-3/19) online creative writing class. You can get more info and register here now.

The Essential Art: Making Movies in Your Reader's Mind

Fiction and nonfiction are at their best when the sense of reading falls away, when we find ourselves immersed in the book’s action, as if we were watching a movie, our heart tied to the narrator’s struggle, swooning with vertigo from the top of a tall building or wincing from a cutting remark. Such writing seems effortless, but is in fact a learnable—and essential— skill. Such will be our focus: to find the balance of description, imagery, and exciting prose that not only pulls in readers, but also forces them to co-create the story, interacting and engaging with the text.

As we develop these skills, we will also spend a few weeks focusing on the publishing landscape and the business side of getting published. Using a few simple tools and easy-to-follow steps (including how to create a recording of yourself reading your work), students will work on growing their online author presence and attracting readers.

So, we're on the Bukowksi track this week after the post below. I've been thinking about his poem featured there and now I'm offering an audio track of him reading one of his most depressing and downtrodden poems you can imagine. Trust me, he's got some WAY brighter poems. "Bluebird" especially. 

And yet, this is the track that our boy DOOM (the original all caps) chose to title his latest album AND put on the attached track. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.

And we'll continue the conversation started below: Bukowski--blow hard animal or actual inspiration? Or both? Enjoy.

Whoa! Matter of fact, here's a Youtube with Big B's reading of "Bluebird" in audio.

I used to have this Bukowksi poem up on the wall by my desk. Lately I've been thinking about it as I push myself back into the JP2 revisions. I'm not sure how I feel about the poem anymore, but it's always stuck with me. Either because it's bullshit bravado or because I believe in it. What do you think?

air and light and time and space
 
"–you know, I’ve either had a family, a job,
something has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I’m going to have
a place and the time to
create."
 
no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment,
flood and fire.
 
baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.
 
© Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press
 

This little homie right here is D.W. Lichtenberg and, though I love the guy, I've got to say it: "I can't believe I lost to him!" But the facts is the facts and I got way out-ironied and out-wandered here at Literary Death Match on Friday night. Check out this video [click here to watch] to see my reading.

If you want the full rundown of the night, check out Evan Karp's awesome write-up at the SF Examiner.com. You can find more videos, all the readings, opinions, thoughts, how LDM works, Musical Chairs, and a rundown! Here's a direct link to the judges responses: Judges on Harwood. Good for a lotta laughs!

Thanks to Todd Zuniga, Opium Magazine, the Elbo Room and a great audience for helping this event rock!

So what's up--what's up? I'm about to get into an interview with my good friend Cornelia Read where she's going to tell you about an awesome Mystery Writing Intensive Workshop here in the Berkeley on the weekend of Nov. 21 and 22. Check out more info here: http://www.berkeleymysteryworkshop.com/Home.html Boo Yah! Just like that.

Now here I am sitting down with Cornelia to talk it all out:

Q&A for Berkeley Mystery Writing Intensive

Q: So, tell me a little bit about this workshop. Who’s going to be on the faculty?

A: First and foremost, the inimitably sublime author Seth Harwood, of course—he of the podcasting brilliance and downright-goddamn-genius prose. Young Mr. Harwood will be joined by a select tribe of the Bay Area’s finest crime writers, including Juliet Blackwell, Tony Broadbent, Sophie Littlefield, and Tim Maleeny.

Q: And you, right?

A: And me, though I wouldn’t feel comfortable describing myself qualitatively as a writer. I mainly just type and hope for the best.

Q: You the bomb, girl! Straight up! You’re also flying two folks out from New York to present.

Direct Link to Episode 26 of Young Junius!!

Yes, it's here, ladies and gentlemen! It is. And I'm here and we're counting down. Did I think April would come? I knew it would. Am I insane that we're this close to the release date? More of less. What do you think of that? Are you tired of hearing me talk about it?

Guess I covered that in last week's podcast. 

You guys are still awesome. The tour dates keep popping, I'm writing and on the way to finishing Young Junius, the Friends Contest is popping and locking and wrapping up with two big winners AND...

Our Netflix movie of the week is Purple Noon (1960), a French version of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Matt Damon has nothing on this! sneaker 09

We have two times the promo love to give out this week: Cian MacMahon (young podcaster extraordinairre) shows up to tell us about his new World of Warcraft podcast. AND, John Mierau knocks it out of the park with his Serving Worlds podcast story. Plus, CrimeWAV gets nasty with Al Guthrie! 

PLUS, what's up? If and when you see me on the reading tour, you know I'll be wearing these kicks! It's the Official Footwear (Reading Sneaker) of the 2009 Jack Wakes Up Tour!! Dig the *herringbone* as I rock it! (Thanks to Aldo for clarifying that design!)

This is where things stand (podcast): Tuesday was exactly seven weeks to the release of JACK WAKES UP. Seems like it’s really getting close, doesn’t it? At the same time, I feel like I’ve been talking this up all year (school-year) and turning your ears blue with my excitement about it all. Truth is, the excitement isn’t fake. You can tell that. At the same time, I think it’s safe to say I’ve talked it out to the point where I’m even tired of saying it, a bit. What happened here this week was that I slowed down. I’ve kept up the teaching schedule, but knowing that April, May and June… now planning things into July… things are going to be tough. Fast and furious like no Diesel’s business.

So this has been my week to stop and look around, Ferris Bueller style. You know, if you don’t do it once in a while you don’t ever appreciate life? That whole rap. But it’s true: this book release, tour, readings, notoriety of having Random House behind me, it’s all about to get real, people. Real real. And there’s nothing like that. It’s a goal I’ve worked a long, long time for and in the past few years you’ve seen me work at it really hard. You’ve supported me with encouragement and your fanship (it’s a word, now!) and those things have meant so much. I really would’ve never been able to work this hard without them. Totally true. Sure, a writer works at the desk in solitude and relative obscurity, but knowing you guys were out there, fans, listeners, readers, it made all the difference in me wanting to get to the desk every morning to crank out the day’s pages. It’s a process and a part of my life that I LOVE, and in many ways you guys have given it to me, just as I’ve given the products of it to you. We’re mutually beneficial, symbiotic even. ;-)

In any case, I’ve been writing all over and teaching out there about how good it’s been for me and my career to find you. I found you by podcasting and that’s the word I’m preaching in these classes but the goal of it was audience building, and even I had no idea how powerful that achievement would be. You guys have sustained me so much more than just being something to feature on an agent query letter. You’ve been the big, strong brassiere that lifts my Bette Midler man-boob wings every day and gets me to be as excited as you guys hear I am every week when I drop an episode.

True. All true. (But I don’t have man-boobs, thank gawd! – Ask Sigler about what it’s like to have those.)