House Call #6

And a Reading Suggestion

The Book is Drinking Margaritas at the Mall

It’s published by Amygdala Press, authored by Jordan Sullivan. It’s a collection of loosely linked short stories similar to Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son and Nami Mun’s Miles from Nowhere. Part funny, part sad, and a rolling train wreck written in an innocent, well… From the story Cooking Crank with Uncle Fester:

I didn’t just want to be a meth cook.

I had real ambition.

I wanted to be a meth chef.

Check it out. Don’t sit around waiting for Stephen Spielberg to make this book into a movie. That’s going to be a long wait.

This week’s House Call

Strikes me as what Raymond Carver would write if Carver wrote Sci-Fi. The story is Ghosts in the Ice Machine by our own Matt Andersen. Matt and I have been consulting back-and-forth all week, even on Christmas day! It’s a very smart story that could use more of an emotional hook, so we brainstormed ways to bring in more heart. Check out Ghosts in the Ice Machine, here.

Not to generalize too much, but I find most writers to be either too intellectual or too emotional. As Matt and I discussed, the trick is to use both kinds of authority — brains and heart — to overwhelm your reader with something beyond both… ideally something metaphysical. If your story doesn’t achieve some woo-woo, it’s a rocket still on the launch pad.

As always, I’ll choose my next House Call from the links posted Here, and from the folks who participate most and show Matt some support and useful feedback. Intelligent praise is a challenge. It forces you to single out exactly why you enjoyed something. For now, if you have a piece of writing to offer up for a future House Call, please post the link Here so I can find all the candidates in a single place.

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What was the best gift you got over the holidays??