"A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson..."
---Kirkus
Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and finalist for the Crawford Award. Title short story listed for the 2000 O. Henry award.
(Mumpsimus is the central clearinghouse for Barzak Day info!) I first met Chris Barzak more than nine years ago (?!?) at Clarion. He’d brought with him the coolest books-all of these Arkham House short story collections-and he also raved about this writer who no one else had heard of named Kelly Link, who had only [...]
Tue, August 28 2007 » Fiction, Life Studies » No Comments
Gone for a week (not that I haven’t been gone, here, for a week). Be well, folks.
Fri, June 8 2007 » Life Studies » No Comments
Okay, I give in. TEN IMPRESSIONSTIC HIGHLIGHTS (in no particular order, with leaving out highlights as well) +Talking to Rick Bowes with his couple of encounters with Basquiat back in the day. +Every year, just like American Idol, a newcomer comes out of nowhere and seizes the crown of, uh, best karaoke newcomer. My nomination [...]
Wed, May 30 2007 » Fiction, Life Studies » 2 Comments
So very very tired today. Very! I started drifting off “only” once on the road yesterday, but thankfully Mr. Schwartz was driving with me and I’m sure would have prevented DOOM. (He thought I was making a very lazy lane change.) But the reason for that exhaustion was, of course, Wiscon and meant an excellent [...]
Tue, May 29 2007 » Fiction, Life Studies » 3 Comments
Is anyone bringing halfway-decent iPod speakers to Wiscon? I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin’. (Not karaoke related, btw.)
Wed, May 23 2007 » Life Studies » 2 Comments
Been battling bronchitis so I’ve been out of commission for a bit. On antibiotics, slowly healing, etc. So I should be in pretty good shape for Wiscon. Driving in Friday morning. I’m not on any panels; looking forward to reading with Dave, Haddayr, Lena, and Kristin (Sunday at 1). Also, if you go-and Kristin, who [...]
Wed, May 23 2007 » Life Studies » No Comments
Not that I would get these but the first and third are pretty fucking awesome.
Fri, May 4 2007 » ?!?!?, Life Studies » No Comments
Today is Kristin’s birthday. She got a free strawberry sundae from IHOP this morning. BUT THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING.
Thu, May 3 2007 » Life Studies » 1 Comment
Kristin just took these on her camera phone. And because I am Powerless To Resist posting them, here they are. P.S. Kristin swears these weren’t staged! Gambit is just 100% all natural goofball.
Mon, February 26 2007 » Life Studies » 1 Comment
Greetings from 2007! I kind of feel like a time traveler-it will take a month or so to really feel home in 2007. A good visit to Erie last week-some familial chaos, but on the whole good. Spent a wonderful New Year’s with Mr. Barzak & Co. where I forgot, until this moment, that we [...]
Fri, January 12 2007 » Life Studies, Meta/Logistics » No Comments
+Just exhausted during the last week. I suspect some of that has to do with the usual season-twilight at 4:30 is like a body-blow, and the curtains of darkness are going to keep getting darker for about a month. +We watched Oldboy and The Celebration/Festen on back-to-back days this weekend: both amazing movies, but a [...]
Mon, November 20 2006 » Fiction, Life Studies » 4 Comments
Last week was insanely busy-all to a good end. Great weekend with Gavin and Kelly at the Twin Cities Bookfest, which was its usual smashing success. Perhaps most importantly is Dave Schwartz’s insanely good news about Superpowers. Various cosmic balances are now in alignment. And, Dave, I know you already blew your advance money on [...]
Mon, October 16 2006 » ?!?!?, Life Studies » 3 Comments
3 years ago today, Kristin and I were married. It only seems like yesterday when, right before our outdoor ceremony was about to start, marijauana legalization protesters walked by on Summit Avenue in, uh, colorful costumery and flashed us peace signs. It was a remarkable day spent with friends and family, and it’s been an [...]
Wed, September 13 2006 » Life Studies » 9 Comments
Though I guess he’s technically not a puppy anymore? It’s almost about 1 year since Kristin and I got Gambit, and it’s been a pretty wild ride, with his post-Katrina feral-ness, his initial shyness (we actually had to pick him up to take him outside so he could do his business), the parasites in his [...]
Mon, September 11 2006 » Life Studies » 3 Comments
Had a great weekend one-two punch at the cabin/Duluth (and also the North Shore-1-2-3 punch?). Booksigning at Northern Lights-at which no books were signed for customers! But, I kinda expected that on a gorgeous Duluth day, and I signed about a dozen copies for the booksellers’ stock. Very cool store. Do check them out if [...]
Tue, August 22 2006 » Fiction, Life Studies » No Comments
Had a really wonderful birthday weekend with Kristin and some writerly friends and their families. Boats were ridden (ok, one boat). Leinies were consumed by the deck on the lake. Blackberries were picked. And most of all, good company. (Karen has provided a helpful map of the premises on her blog.) Besides the revisions of [...]
Mon, August 7 2006 » Games, Life Studies » No Comments
Off to the Wisconsin Thule for the weekend. Here’s a Phillip Pullman-inspired Weta prop. Of a polar bear. Telling you to be cool, stay in school! Or, er, maybe just “stay cool this weekend.”
Fri, August 4 2006 » Life Studies » 1 Comment
Late at night, hot as hell. Our air conditioned bedroom is our fortress, our rock, in that we believe. The rest of the world is kind of a haze in this heat. Reading Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory, and it’s disarming me. And giving life this extra tinge of…sadness? Concern, as he mentions in one of his [...]
Sun, July 30 2006 » Life Studies » 1 Comment
Started writing a longish con report. Saved about halfway through. Saved post nowhere to be found in my wordpress. noooooo! I was barely holding it together with the con report to begin with. So now I’ll have to regroup a bit. Suffice to say, it was a fantastic time, and I met, and re-met, some [...]
Thu, July 13 2006 » Fiction, Life Studies, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead » 1 Comment
+Is it really that strange? It is-that a little more than a week ago we were all karaokeing to Alice’s “Symphony of Destruction” or Elad’s “Take Me Out” or Meghan’s “Beautiful” or about another 90 songs which could have lasted, once we cut the queue off, pretty much till 3am. And it’s equally strange that [...]
Fri, June 2 2006 » Life Studies » 3 Comments
