Whole Lotta Writing Going On

John Winkelman

Pre-Thanksgiving snowstorm

Brief update this week, on account of I have a very full plate.

No new book arrived this week, so here is a photo of the bird feeder outside my dining room window, before half again that much snow was added to the pile. It’s been a wacky couple of days here, weather-wise.

In reading news, I just finished Jim C. Hines’ Terminal Peace, and it is really good! A fine conclusion to a fun trilogy.

In writing news, I am fast approaching 50,000 words in my NaNoWriMo 2022 story Cacophonous. I expect to “win” before Thanksgiving, and possibly finish the draft by the beginning of December. And writing at this pace is turning my brain to mush.

Bottom of the Top #46

John Winkelman

The middle of November feels like the briefly-held breath before something exciting or unpleasant but not unexpected. Such are the holidays.

1977: Shaun Cassidy, “Hey Deanie”

All I remember of Shaun Cassidy from the 1970s is “The Doo Ron Ron” and The Hardy Boys. “Hey Deanie” is fun but not terribly memorable.

1982: Jeffrey Osborne, “On the Wings of Love”

I heard “On the Wings of Love” when it first came out, though seldom since then, as I didn’t recognize the song until the chorus. Then it all came back. I heard it on the school bus, in the milking parlor, and probably while in houses where people actually listened to music. It has had a well-deserved long life, and still gets play on classic rock stations.

1987: Levert, “Casanova”

Oh, that ever-present drum machine beat. They only place I would have encountered this video would have been MTV, and that probably late at night, considering the realities of MTV racial politics in the 1980s. “Casanova” is a hip song, and I am glad to have encountered it again, 35 years later.

1992: Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”

This song was so ubiquitous that I don’t remember a time when I had not heard this song. “I Will Always Love You” is so much a part of the pop landscape that it is inextricable, and therefore not associated with any specific memory, because it is associated with every memory.

1997: Timbaland & Magoo, “Up Jumps Da Boogie”

Heard this one for the first time when I put this post together. I like it.

Post-Election Exhaustion

John Winkelman

New books for the week of November 6, 2022

With the midterm elections mostly in the rearview mirror, barring a couple of races which were so close that they are going into runoff, or are still being counted, the world is returning to whatever passes for a state of normalcy. Donald Trump, along with all of his supporters, was once again proven to be a pathetic loser, and most of the neo-Nazi bootlicks who rode, or attempted to ride, his coattails into political office were rightfully kicked to the curb. There were the usual tears and accusations of rigged elections from the emasculated wingnut manbabies of the GOP/QANON/OANN/KKK/Fox News bloc (which is many different names for the same undifferentiated mass of jackboot fetishists), and there will inevitably be a backlash of new bills introduced which will attempt to limit voting rights to only conservative white Christian men who own property. Such are the goals of conservative white Christians in America.

Anyway. Enough about politics.

Only one new book arrived this week – Death in the Mouth the most of the recent spate of Kickstarter rewards. Friends, this book is gorgeous!

In reading news, I finished K.S. Villoso’s The Wolf of Oren-Yaro. It was great! When I am ready to start buying books again, I will pick up the sequel which, based on the excerpt published at the end of Wolf, should be excellent.

I just started Terminal Peace, the final volume of Jim C. Hines’ Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse trilogy. So far, it is every bit as good as the previous books in the series.

And on a whim, during breakfast this morning, I cracked open Duncan Hannah’s 20th Century Boy, which I can already see I will need to put down until after November, else I will be so consumed reading it that I will not have any time to write.

In writing news, I am at something over 25,000 words in my NaNoWriMo story Cacophonous. Things are going very well so far and I expect to hit 50,000 well before the end of the month.

Bottom of the Top #45

John Winkelman

The second week of November is a fugue of the end of fall and the beginning of winter, and all we really want to do is sleep.

1977: The Bay City Rollers, “The Way I Feel Tonight”

I don’t think I have heard “The Way I Feel Tonight” before today; at least, I have no memory or associated memories. It’s…okay.

1982: Eddie Rabbitt and Crystal Gayle, “You and I”

This is another of the many songs in this project where I have no specific memory of “You and I,” but it sounds kind of like so many other songs of its type and era that I may have, and the song has since become lost in the crowd. It is certainly not something I, as a disaffected 13-year-old, would have sought out.

1987: John Cougar Mellencamp, “Cherry Bomb”

Oh yeah, I have heard “Cherry Bomb” a lot. It was odd to hear nostalgic songs like this one while starting a new life, because despite my overall unhappiness living on the farm and attending school in that toxic little village, there were parts I couldn’t let go of, and songs like this one probably didn’t help. Of course the song, like all songs, is of its time, and the video of kids having fun before they (I gather, from the imagery in the video) head off to war, is a nice touch, as is the interracial couple slow-dancing, which was definitely controversial back in the 1980s.

1992: Guns ‘N’ Roses, “November Rain”

This is a repeat from earlier in the year, so please enjoy this live video from 1992, featuring Elton John.

1997: Mack 10, “Backyard Boogie”

Another repeat from earlier in the year.

NaNoWriMo is Serious Business

John Winkelman

Praying Mantis at Blandford Nature Center, taken October 21, 2022

For the tenth year in a row, I am attempting NaNoWriMo. So far things are going very well, in that I am several thousand words ahead of schedule, and the story I am writing is still interesting to me, which is very important when writing. If my work is boring to me it will probably be boring to everyone else.

No new reading material arrived in the past week, which is fine, as I still have over half a thousand unread books and journals to work through, and that takes time. Lots and lots of time. Therefore, please enjoy this photo of a gravid female praying mantis which I discovered on a walk around Blandford Nature Center on the afternoon of Friday, October 21.

Currently I am reading The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso. It’s really good! I should be finished in a couple of days, and then maybe on through a few more issues of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, or something.

In writing news, it is all Nano, all day. Or at least those parts of the day when I am not working or sleeping or hanging with my honey, or teaching or eating or attending to the cats.

IWSG, November 2022: NaNo Or No NaNo?

John Winkelman

At this point NaNoWriMo 2022 has been in full swing for a little over 24 hours. I am a couple of thousand words into my story for the year, and enjoying the process immensely. But that means that I have little time for a long, detailed blog post. That being said…

The Insecure Writer’s Support Group question for November 2022 is:

November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

This is my tenth year participating in NaNoWriMo, and I have loved the experience throughout, even in those years where I didn’t get to 50,000 words. I recommend that everyone try it at least once.

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October 2022 Reading List

John Winkelman

What I read in October 2022

This was the month I finally made it to the bottom of my stack of back issues of The Paris Review. It was a wondrous, wild ride full of some of the best writing I have experienced in my adult life, but I feel a sense of relief now that I am done.

This was also the month in which I passed 200 pieces of short prose read, which means 2022, for all its chaos and uncertainty, was a stellar year for reading.

Books and Journals

  1. The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  2. The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  3. The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  4. The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  5. The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.12]
  6. The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.13]
  7. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #31 [2022.10.15]
  8. Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #32 [2022.10.18]
  9. Lady Churchiill’s Rosebud Wristlet #33 [2022.10.22]
  10. Marissa Lingen, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  11. Jim Harrison, The Search for the Genuine [2022.10.28]
  12. Poetry #221.2 {2022.10.30}

Short Prose

  1. Yohanca Delgado, “The Little Widow from the Capital”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  2. Peyton Burgess, “A Supernatural Landscape of Love And Grief Not Unlike Your Own”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  3. Maxim Osipov (Boris Dralyuk, translator), “Sventa”, The Paris Review #236 [2022.10.01]
  4. Kenan Orhan, “The Beyoglu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.02]
  5. Joy Katz, “Tennis is the Opposite of Death: A Proof”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  6. Vladimir Nabokov (Tatyana Gershkovich, translator), “A Monologue”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  7. Adania Shibli (Nora Parr, translator), “Mathematics, under Which Is Love, Whose Bed Is Language”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  8. Christina Wood, “A Summer Party”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  9. Lydia Conklin, “Rainbow Rainbow”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.03]
  10. Camille Bordas, “The Lottery in Almeria”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  11. Anuk Arudpragasam, “So Many Different Worlds”, The Paris Review #237 [2022.10.04]
  12. McKenzie, “We All Fall Down”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.05]
  13. Annie Baker, “Infinite Life (excerpt)”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.05]
  14. Caleb Crain, “Walks”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  15. Lawrence Jackson, “Letter from Lafayette Square”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.06]
  16. Chetna Maroo, “Brothers and Sisters”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  17. Emmanuel Carrére, “Exhaling”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  18. Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, “This Then Is a Song, We Are Singing”, The Paris Review #238 [2022.10.07]
  19. Lakiesha Carr, “Tomorrows,” The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.07]
  20. Will Arbery, “from Corsicana“, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  21. Zach Williams, “Trial Run”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  22. Ishion Hutchinson, “Woman Sweeping”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.08]
  23. Kathran Scanlan, “Backsliders”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  24. Annie Ernaux (Alison L. Strayer, translator), “Diary, 1988”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  25. Paul Dalla Rosa, “I Feel It”, The Paris Review #239 [2022.10.09]
  26. Harriet Clark, “Descent”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  27. Esther Yi, “Moon”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  28. Rachel B. Glaser, “Ira & the Whale”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  29. Leonard Cohen, “Begin Again”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  30. Dan Bevacqua, “Riccardo”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  31. Robert Glück, “About Ed”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.10]
  32. Matthew Shen Goodman, “Lording”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.11]
  33. Darryl Pinckney, “For Snow Queens”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.11]
  34. Emma Cline, “Pleasant Glen”, The Paris Review #240 [2022.10.12]
  35. Nancy Lemann, “Diary of Remorse”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  36. Michelle de Kretser, “Winter Term”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  37. Sam Pink, “The Ceremony”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  38. Maya Binyam, “Do You Belong to Anybody?”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  39. Katherine Dunn, “The Education of Mrs. R.”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.12]
  40. Christian Kracht, “The Gold Coast”, The Paris Review #241 [2022.10.13]
  41. Jessy Randall, “You Don’t Even Have a Rabbit”, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #31 [2022.10.13]
  42. Goldie Goldbloom, “Never Eat Crow”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.13]
  43. Kathleen Jennings, “Skull and Hyssop”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.13]
  44. Owen King, “The Curator”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.15]
  45. Sarah Micklem, “The Necromancer of Lynka”, LCRW #31 [2022.10.15]
  46. Henry Wessells, “The Beast Unknown to Heraldry”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.16]
  47. Alyc Helms, “The Blood Carousel”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.16]
  48. Kodiak Julian, “Marrying the Sea”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  49. Joe M. McDermott, “Everything Is Haunted”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  50. Henry Lien, “The Shadow You Cast Is Me”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  51. Joanna Ruocco, “Auburn”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.17]
  52. Dylan Horrocks, “The Square of Mirrors”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  53. Nicole Kimberling, “Sleek Fat Albinos in Spring”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  54. Jade Sylvan, “Sun Circles”, LCRW #32 [2022.10.18]
  55. Carmen Maria Machado, “I Bury Myself”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  56. Christopher Brown, “Winter in the Feral City”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  57. Alena McNamara, “Starling Road”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  58. Giselle Leeb, “Ape Songs”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  59. Michelle Vider, “For Me, Seek the Sun”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.18]
  60. Deborah Walker, “Medea”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.20]
  61. D.K. McCutchen, “Jellyfish Dreaming”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.20]
  62. Sofia Samatar, “Request for an Extension on the Clarity“, LCRW #33 [2022.10.21]
  63. Nicole Kimberling, “Cook Like a Hobo”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  64. M. E. Garber, “Putting Down Roots”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  65. Eric Gregory, “The March Wind”, LCRW #33 [2022.10.22]
  66. Marissa Lingen, “Shrapnel From My Cousin’s Kaiju Battle: $229 Plus Shipping”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  67. Marissa Lingen, “Accountable Monsters”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  68. Marissa Lingen, “The River Horse Who Almost Ate Me, And His Lawyer”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  69. Marissa Lingen, “The Swarm of Giant Gnats I Sent After Kent, My Assistant Manager”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]
  70. Marissa Lingen, “After the Monster”, Monstrous Bonds [2022.10.25]

Bottom of the Top #44

John Winkelman

As we move into the last few Bottom of the Top posts, where I consider the songs which were at #40 on the Billboard charts during this week in various years, I have decided that one year was enough, and I will not be continuing these posts into 2023. It was fun, and a BIG nostalgia trip, but it isn’t the kind of project I want to continue indefinitely. I will still offer up occasional music posts, but they will be more centered around a single song, or artist, or topic, or memory.

1977: The Steve Miller Band, “Swingtown”

Oh yeah, this song. I probably heard it when it first came out, and on the radio first on contemporary, and then (and now) classical stations. That opening guitar riff. The opening “ooOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOoooo” hits me right in the nostalgias and I don’t recall a time when “Swingtown” was not part of my life. My strongest association is riding the bus, which means it was still on heavy rotation in the years that followed, as in 1977 I was a walk-three-blocks-to-school latchkey kid in our little town of Parma.

1982: Pat Benetar, “Shadows of the Night”

“Shadows of the Night” received a lot of radio play, and I heard it a lot while milking cows, Sunday mornings and afternoons. Also probably on the bus on the way to and from eights grade. However, being thirteen at the time, I was probably so wrapped up in hormone-fed angst that I didn’t pay a lot of attention. Plus at the time, for comfort, I spent a lot of time listening to the local country station and its rotation of about thirty songs.

1987: Michael Bolton, “That’s What Love Is All About”

I never really got into Michael Bolton. I acknowledge his talent, but there is something about his voice and general vibe, at least when it comes to easy-listening music, which grates on my nerves. Or maybe I just associate him with unsuccessful attempts at romance in my late teens. Yeah, that’s probably it.

1992: Bad Company, “How About That”

I first saw this video when putting together this post. I say that with confidence because I certainly would have remembered the dude in the armor. I have no specific memory of “How About That” but I probably heard it somewhere. I get some definite “If You Needed Somebody” vibes, but that’s probably just because Bad Company has such a distinct sound.

1997: H-Town, “They Like It Slow”

I’ve never heard “They Like It Slow” before but, well, I like it, and the video is a lot of fun.

November Nigh

John Winkelman

New Books for the Week of October 23, 2022

November is nigh. It is not quite here, but it looms, casting the shadow of NaNoWriMo backward in time from a couple of days in the future.

This was another excellent week for new arrivals at the Library of Winkelman Abbey.

The first three are publications from Lakeshore Literary, a new-ish local literary concern which grew, in a sense, out of the demise of Caffeinated Press. Owner Jason Gillikin has done a stellar job in launching this new company, and I was happy to support them by purchasing their anthology Surface Reflections, as well as issues one and two of The Lakeshore Review.

Next up is Cormac McCarthy‘s eagerly-anticipated new book, The Passenger, which I picked up from local wunderkind bookstore Books & Mortar.

Next up is the Fall 2022 edition of Peninsula Poets, from the Poetry Society of Michigan. This is probably the only subscription I will continue into the new year.

And next is a long awaited reward from a Kickstarter run by Neil Clarke at Clarkesworld Magazine: A Summer Beyond Your Reach, a collection of short fiction from Chinese author Xia Jia. This project has suffered some significant slings and arrows, including COVID, difficulties coordinating between persons in the USA and China, one of the principles of the project suffering some serious health problems, and ongoing supply chain disruptions. It was originally scheduled to be published in November of 2019, and given the events of the past few years it is a small miracle that the book made it to print at all. But it is here now, and it is absolutely beautiful, and everyone involved should be proud of the accomplishment.

In reading news, I took a break from periodicals to dive into some of the recent book acquisitions, including Marissa Lingen‘s collection of short stories Monstrous Bonds, and the new collection of Jim Harrison’s nonfiction, The Search for the Genuine. Now I’m back at the magazines again, with the recent issue of Poetry in front of me, and possibly one more issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet before the end of the month, which happens at, er, midnight tomorrow.

In writing news, I am about as ready as possible for NaNoWriMo, and counting the hours until November 1.

I had an interesting writer experience a couple of days ago. I was eating lunch at work and reading the new issue of  Poetry, when I read a line in Troy Osaki‘s poem “Despedida for the Last Despedida,” and a short story suddenly appeared in my head, set in the world I assembled for the previous two NaNoWriMo stories, fully plotted and partially written. Being at work, I didn’t have time to do more than write down a couple of evocative lines in my journal which will, hopefully, serve to keep the story in my memory long enough to put together a first draft.

This experience is a good reminder that while we should “read well”, as Karen Lord advised her audience at ConFusion 2015, we should also read broadly, as inspiration can come from anywhere, and ideas can be triggered by anything.

Bottom of the Top #43

John Winkelman

Late October means football games, cider, picking apples, sleet, Halloween, and angst. Sometimes all in the same day.

1977: The Carpenters, “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”

This is just a weird song, which I don’t think I have heard before. I had not heard it until putting together this post and, having heard it, I don’t like it.

1982: The Pointer Sisters, “I’m So Excited”

“I’m So Excited” was all over the radio in the early eighties, and it was strange to listen to it while down in the pit in the milking parlor, trying to coax milkers onto cows which had never been milked before, getting kicked and covered in manure as fun, happy songs like this one taunted us from our crappy little radio.

1987: Yes, “Love Will Find a Way”

I remember exactly when I first heard this song – fall semester of 1988, a year after Big Generator was released, and I picked up the cassette tape version at the urging of a young woman upon whom I was sweet at the time, several weeks into my sophomore year at GVSU. I like it, and I like Big Generator, though the previous studio album 90125 caused such a huge splash in my life that most other Yes songs kind of get drowned out.

1992: Technotronic Featuring Ya Kid K, “Move This”

I think I heard this one back in its day, but anything from the Pump Up the Jam album is almost completely drowned out in my memory by, well, “Pump Up the Jam.”

1997: Missy Elliott featuring Da Brat, “Sock It 2 Me”

I am pretty sure I have not heard “Sock It 2 Me” before now, and I certainly would have remembered the video, had I seen it before. It’s just weird and wonderful, and considering it came out in 1997, feels a little ahead of its time, in a nostalgic retro-futurism sort of way. Come to think of it, I wonder if Missy Elliott and company were the occupants of the interplanetary craft who The Carpenters were trying to contact back in 1977..?