I’m Getting Ready to Write a New Novel But Not Actually Writing It Yet—Here’s Why

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My writing’s been in this weird state of transition for a long time now.  That’s because, for the first time in nine years, I’m not actively working on some sort of novel.

Instead I worked on querying MFA Thesis Novel to publishers for ten months, and in between queries worked on some shorter pieces in various states of completion.  Having time to focus on these other projects has been great, but I’m realizing how badly I miss having a bigger, more involved project to work on, and how much I want to get back into the creative process of working on a novel.

But, as I wrote about in my post a few weeks back, I’m having trouble starting.

That’s partly because this novel idea is particularly ambitious—it’s like nothing I’ve ever written, and writing it the way I’m imagining it is going to take every bit of my writing skill, in addition to a lot of skills I’ve yet to get a handle on.
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Holy Shit, I Signed a For-Serious Novel Contract!!!!!!!!111

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Hell yeah I did.

As of three weeks ago, MFA Thesis Novel, my satire about a grad school writing program, is officially signed and scheduled for publication with Vine Leaves Press in April 2022.  That means that my goal of publishing an actual novel is finally going to become a reality.

MFA Thesis Novel is about a twentysomething writer named Flip Montcalm (who’s definitely not based on me) who enters a grad school writing program (that definitely isn’t based on the one I went to at the University of Nebraska) in the barrens of the Midwest.  However, no one around him seems to like his novel, and in an world of fierce competition, Flip has to figure out how to write something that’s both meaningful and that people will actually like.  It’s a novel about fitting in, starting out as a writer, and the desolate working conditions that thousands of underpaid grad students face every year, along with what it’s like to be a lonely young artist in a strange place.

Plus there’s jokes.  And cursing (fuck yeah!).  And lots of pop culture references. Continue reading »

The TRAM (a.k.a. that Magazine I Work on in Japan) is Back!

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Last year I stepped up to co-edit a cool indie zine called the TRAM (a.k.a. Toyama’s Random-Ass Magazine) here in Toyama, and our latest issue went live a few days ago.  In addition to covering local places around Toyama (restaurants, tourist spots, etc.) we publish writing and art, cool articles about Japanese culture, and whatever random stuff we can.  The latest issue features a Japanese rock music column, an essay about the suppression of dialects in rural Japan, and three pages of paintings by local artists.

If you’re interested in Japan or just want to check out one of my many side projects, you can read the issue online here.

I also write a regular column for the TRAM called Let’s Talk About Japan Books! where I share cool books by Japanese writers and books about Japan in general.  The latest one is about one of my personal favorites, Kobo’s Abe’s 1962 novel The Woman in the Dunes, Continue reading »

I Signed a Book Contract…That Got Cancelled Due to COVID-19

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In the words of every SNL host ever: What a week it’s been.

This week I was planning on posting some really Good News…that’s since turned into Bad News.

The Good News is that two months ago I got an email from one the small presses I’d sent MFA Thesis Novel (my novel about grad school life) to.  The email said they enjoyed my book and wanted to publish it.  The email was really short, so at first I wasn’t sure if I’d understood it correctly—but when I realized they were serious, I fell into a state of cautious ecstasy for the next few days.  The email came in the middle of some other life shit I was dealing with that month, so the uncertainty of those first few emails added a lot of extra stress to an already difficult time.

Eventually the press sent me a publishing contract, Continue reading »

I Edited (Another) Writing Anthology!

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So here’s another cool project I was involved in.

As some of you may remember, last year I spearheaded and edited an anthology of short stories, essays, and poems for the Concord branch of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project in my home state.  After we decided as a group to assemble a writing collection, I asked people for submissions, worked with the individual writers to polish their work, and assembled the manuscript, which Gary Devore finalized and reformatted for eReaders and paperback copies.

The anthology was fun and super-rewarding to work on, and the group was so happy with how it came out that we decided to do another one. Continue reading »

New Erochikan Zine Available! Plus Thoughts on Satire and Putting Out Your Own Work

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Combatting Life’s Challenges Through Learned Helplnessness: A User’s Guide is the third zine I’ve put together for the Erochikan collection, and it’s now available in my webstore.  This 18 page guide shows readers the many advantages to giving up on your aspirations and finding complacency with your current, mediocre life.  It’s illustrated with a selection of superficially appealing stock photos to help you visualize the surface-level happiness that awaits you!

For those of you not in the know, the Erochikan Zine project is something I started a few years ago for the now on-hiatus Art Swaps.  I had fun making them and people really liked them, so when I opened my webstore I printed some more copies and started selling them along with my Eikaiwa Bums chapbook, where they got even more positive responses.  (BTW, thanks to everyone who bought copies, either online, or at my reading back in August—you’re all awesome.)

The name Erochikan comes from the ero in erotic and the Japanese word chikan, a pervert who gropes women on crowded subways.  The fictitious company Continue reading »

Recap: I Gave a Book Talk and It Went Super Well!

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I just flew back to Japan, and boy are my arms tired *drum fill*

For those of you just joining me, last Sunday I gave a presentation and reading at MainStreet BookEnds, the independent bookstore in my hometown of Warner, New Hampshire, about what it’s like to live and work in Japan.  The owner had agreed to stock my Japan chapbook, Eikaiwa Bums, back in March, and offered to let me do a reading when I was back in the States.  I’d planned to come back for a three-week August vacation anyway, so doing a reading while I was back seemed like a great idea.

In the interest of showing you how the sausage was made, here’s a rundown of the entire event from start to finish: Continue reading »

Summer Progress Report – How Am I Doing?

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It’s been…a busy few weeks, which, as I talked about last month, was entirely my own fault for taking on too much.

I’m realizing that more than anything else, my tendency to say “Yes” to things (sometimes with an exclamation point attached) is really having an adverse effect on my productivity, because not only does having more things to do quantitatively reduce my amount of free time, it also pulls me in multiple directions, giving me more things to juggle and making me exponentially more stressed.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make this problem better, and though the solution definitely involves taking on less things, making this happen Continue reading »

Life Update: I’m Swamped With Work and Things Are Crazy

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All right, gang—this is going to be quick, because as the title implies, it has to be.

I’ve had a lot going on spread across multiple fronts the past few weeks—Day Job work, creative work, daily life maintenance, and just about everything else you can think of.  On top of all that I had some friends visiting from the States last month, and while it was all kinds of awesome to see them again and take a sweet trip, taking two weeks off from creative work hit me hard.

To give you a better idea of what I’m dealing with this month, here’s a snapshot of the most pressing items: Continue reading »

Eikaiwa Bums is in a Brick and Mortar Bookstore!!!!

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The pictures don’t lie—that’s my chapbook short story, Eikaiwa Bums, on the shelf with the other authors at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, New Hampshire.  The shelf price is a mere $3.00, with proceeds supporting both the author and a super-cool independent bookstore that’s been a staple of my hometown for over twenty years.

Here’s the coolest part—on Sunday, August 18th I’ll be at BookEnds giving an in-person reading and talking about what it’s really like to live and work in Japan.  The reading is totally FREE and will also be a good chance to catch up with me while I’m back in the States for summer break.  Watch for more updates closer to August…

It honestly feels pretty incredible to have something I wrote for sale in an actual bookstore and to have earned a place (albeit a very small one) among the writing community in my home state.  More than that, though, Continue reading »

I Edited a Writing Anthology!!!

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So this one’s pretty cool.

Last spring I put together and edited Concord Writers Night Out 2018: An Anthology of Writers and Writing in association with the New Hampshire Writers’ Project.  It’s a collection of short stories, novel excerpts, poems, and essays from writers around the area with an introduction and a short story by yours truly. (My piece is called “Rejection,” a fictional rejection letter to a REALLY bad writer).  I handled the editing and the bulk of the organizing while fellow writers Gary Devore and Kevin Barrett formatted the e-pub and distribution ends.

It was a pretty rad project to work on, and I’m happy to say that it’s finally out.  After much discussion we decided to make the electronic versions available FREE to literally anyone who wants one, so if you want to check it out you can download the PDF from the NHWP website or get the e-pub for Kindles and tablets directly from the publisher or the iTunes store. Continue reading »