For five dollars, you get brews, authors, and enough sweets to choke a donkey. I would get there early if I were you. The fun begins this Saturday at 8. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Year: 2009
Elyssa East and the mysteries of Dogtown
I’m eager to read the newly released book by nonfiction writer Elyssa East (enthusiastically reviewed by Joyce Carol Oates.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Free podcasts, new books
If you’re not aware of the Writer’s Block, it is a highly addictive SF-based lit website that includes broadcasts of authors reading their own works. Here is Stephen Elliott reading part of his new one, The Adderall Diaries http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
How to write a great novel
I found this thoroughly enjoyable WSJ article on the Koreanish blog. I got a big kick out of this, considering that a small portion of the first draft of my first book consisted of emails that I sent to myself over and over again while writing at a workstation that forced me to stand up. For some reason, there were no chairs in the workstation; I think someone stole them. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Fighting back against vandals who can’t spell
Some dummy put an ugly tag on one of my favorite local murals last night. Under cloak of darkness, the person wrote “Kil All Human” on the corner of the mural. This surprised me. Since our local murals are beautiful examples of ‘street art,’ why would anyone want to wreck that? Anyhow, when I saw this, I borrowed a cloth from a passerby and removed the ugly tag, which (thank goodness) was written in chalk, not paint. Gotcha! http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Free pile of junky, waterlogged books
My free book luck has run out. Near my apartment, someone left a disgusting pile of waterlogged books with suspicious stains all over them. I was afraid to throw them in the trash (that’s bad karma) so I put them in front of someone else’s apartment instead. I think one of the books was Jonathan Livingston Seagull. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Cheap thrills for book lovers, part XXXV: Helene Wecker, Holly Payne, Megan Kelly and Jim Provenzano
Get there early on December 5 if you want to kick back in one of the comfy barber chairs. (Yes, this reading series takes place in an actual barbershop. Not kidding.) http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Thanks for the free books!
Someone left a free stash of really good, mint-condition books right outside my apartment, and the strange thing is, they were books I was planning to read anyhow: Haruki Murakami, After The Quake, James Baldwin, Another Country, Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho. Aside from this, they left me a really nice journal and a couple of promising DVD’s. I guess they fled town in a hurry. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Staunchly refusing to sell dumb products on my blog
The following people or companies have approached me, asking me to advertise their silly and/or reprehensible products on my blog: 1. A company that sells smelly foot ointment (a lotion for people with very smelly feet)2. A company that sells inserts for footwear3. A major car company4. Someone claiming to represent tobacco interests 5. A company that sells lotions for people with cracking and smelly feet. 6. A company that wants to pay me an honorarium to give positive reviews for their silly, disreputable-sounding products. My answer to all of these companies is a loud and resounding “NO!” And please, no more queries from people selling foot-related products of any kind. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Winners of the National Book Award
Congratulations to SF’s own TJ Stiles for winning the nonfiction prize. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default